ROME, Ga.—President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will both appear at rallies in Georgia on Saturday, March 9.
President Biden’s event will be in the Atlanta area, while President Trump’s “Get Out and Vote Rally” will be held in the small town of Rome, Georgia, about 70 miles to the northwest.
Georgia has been a contentious topic since the 2020 election when it was narrowly won by President Biden by a 49.5–49.2 percentage split.
President Trump questioned the integrity of the election results and reportedly implored Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to call a special legislative session to overturn the election results. Georgia is also the state where Rudy Giuliani was tried and ordered by a jury to pay two election workers $148 million for defaming them by spreading the story that they were engaged in mass voter fraud.
President Trump and 18 other defendants are accused of trying to overturn that election and face 13 charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. This effort is led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, but recent investigations into her alleged clandestine relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade could result in her disqualification from the case with no clear successor stepping up to take her place.
Still, Georgia’s election result was crucial to President Biden’s 2020 victory and sets the Peach State up to bear a swing state status this November, as well as stand as a spot of questionable voting integrity. On top of that, midterm elections saw Republicans fail to unseat both of Georgia’s Democratic Senators and lose five seats in the State House of Representatives, suggesting a slimming GOP majority.
Both President Biden and President Trump emerged from Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses as the clear choices of their respective parties, winning all but one of their respective contests.
Their remaining challengers, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Rep. Dean Williams (D-Minn.), both suspended their campaigns the following day. But while Mr. Williams immediately threw his support behind President Biden, Ms. Haley chose not to endorse President Trump.
President Biden also heads to Atlanta on the heels of his State of the Union address, in which he passionately shouted his partisan foreign policy plans to continue the war in Ukraine and utilize the military to set up a port in Gaza. He also shared his domestic plans like promising to raise taxes on the rich and corporations, restore Roe v. Wade as “the law of the land,” ban assault weapons, and use the federal government for equitable projects such as raising the minimum wage, backing mortgages, and eliminating student debt.
“America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, investing in all of America, in all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot and we leave no one behind,” he said.
It was described by President Trump as “may be the Angriest, Least Compassionate, and Worst State of the Union Speech ever made. It was an Embarrassment to our Country!”
“Whether the Fake News Media likes admitting it or not, there was tremendous misrepresentation and lies in that Speech, but the People of our Country get it, and they know that November 5th will be the Most Important Day in our Nation’s History,” President Trump said on Truth Social.
As of March 8, former President Trump is presumed to be the GOP nominee.
“I’m going to ask you to join me in uniting for the next eight months and committing everything you have to make sure that we keep the House, we win the Senate, and we take back the White House and reelect President Trump,” said Ms. McDaniel in her farewell speech.
President Trump’s “Get Out and Vote Rally” is set to begin at 5 p.m. ET, but the venue’s doors are expected to open as early as 1 p.m., and the surrounding streets will be closed to traffic starting at 9:30 a.m.
