Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia, repeatedly declined to comment when she was quoted in a Fox News interview on Sunday as questioning whether she had overturned the congressional decision to oust President Donald Trump from the National Ignore Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), support.
Loeffler, along with GOP senator David Perdue, is in the middle of a tense run-off campaign in Georgia that will determine whether Republicans or Democrats closely control the Senate in the 117th Congress. The election is being held on January 5, with polls showing that the twin Senate races are very close, and none of the candidates have a clear advantage.
Trump campaigned for Loeffler and Perdue, but no senator attended the Friday vote to ignore Trump’s 23 veto of the NDAA. Perdue’s absence was expected because he was in quarantine with his wife due to a possible exposure to COVID-19.
During an interview with Fox News Sunday presented by anchor Bret Baier, Loeffler avoided answering when confronted about her personal view of the NDAA and Trump’s veto. Loeffler and Perdue both voted in favor of the NDAA when it passed in broad December with broad dual support.
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“Why did you not decide in the Senate on the veto?” Baier asked Loeffler, noting that many analysts believe Trump has put her in a difficult position. Pointing out the president’s base is considered important for her to defeat Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock.
“Now, look, I’ve been with the president 100 percent of the time. He puts America first. He fought for us men and women in the army, ‘the senator replied, but she did not answer Baier’s question. She then turned her campaign in Georgia and criticized the Democrats and Warnock.
“The campaign is important, and you say how important the January 5 election is, but obviously Georgia is a big defense state. The current and former army is here. Defense industry here. How would you have voted if you had voted in the veto? dominate? ”asks Baier.
Loeffler noted that she voted to support the original legislation, but did not say how she would vote on the override. ‘I do not know. “I was here in Georgia and worked across the state,” she said.
Baier pushed the question again. “Okay, but you would have maintained the president’s veto over the NDAA?”
Loeffler again did not answer the question. “Look, what is at stake here is our army and our freedoms. That is what is currently at stake,” she said.
“I will not do that, but it is not a yes or no, whether you will maintain the veto or not,” Baier concluded.
“That’s right,” Loeffler replied.
Newsweek reached out to a press representative for Loeffler for further comment, but did not immediately respond.
Trump has long threatened to veto the NDAA, despite the fact that the legislation is supported by a significant two-party majority of lawmakers. The president was opposed to the legislation – which would keep the military funded and increase troops – in part because it contained a provision ordering the Pentagon to rename military bases named after the Confederate military figures.
The Confederacy was a failed rebellion against the US in the 1860s that sought to tear the US apart through the civil war to preserve slavery in the South. Allied leaders were traitors, and many lawmakers and ordinary Americans questioned why the U.S. military had bases named after some of them.
Trump also wanted lawmakers to include a measure to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which uses technology enterprises as legal protection. Although a number of Democrats and Republicans criticized Article 230, lawmakers were largely uninterested in addressing the unrelated issue in addition to military spending.
The dominance of Trump’s veto was expected, as the NDAA passed with veto-resistant dual majorities. Although some GOP lawmakers have chosen not to vote to replace the president’s veto, the attempt to do so passed the House and Senate last week, meaning the legislation was approved despite Trump’s attempt to to derail it.