ATLANTA — Donald Trump’s son threatened to “tank” the 2021 Georgia U.S. Senate runoffs if the state Republican Party did not back Trump’s claims of widespread fraud in the presidential election, according to congressional testimony released Friday.
Donald Trump Jr. met with GOP Chairman David Shafer and others two days after the November 2020 election, when votes were still being tallied and it was unclear whether the senior Trump or Democrat Joe Biden would win the state. But then-President Trump was already claiming the election was stolen, and Republicans were torn between focusing on Trump’s complaints or on the two runoff elections that would determine which party controlled the U.S. Senate.
Trump Jr. made it clear where their loyalties should lie, Robert Sinners, a former Trump campaign official, told congressional investigators last June. Although he did not attend the meeting, Sinners said he was told afterward that Trump Jr. said “that if you do not support my dad 100%, we are going to tank your Senate races,” according to Sinners’ interview transcript.
