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Trump Mocks Democrats After Election Losses

‘Obstruction Doesn't Work,’ president says after Republican wins in Georgia, South Carolina

Supporters of Democrat Jon Ossoff get the news Tuesday night at his campaign headquarters that the Georgia 6th District special election is called for his GOP rival Karen Handel. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Supporters of Democrat Jon Ossoff get the news Tuesday night at his campaign headquarters that the Georgia 6th District special election is called for his GOP rival Karen Handel. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Democrats should learn from their latest two House race defeats and work with Republicans to pass health care and tax overhaul legislation, a celebratory President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.

Republicans were victorious Tuesday in special elections in Georgia and South Carolina, with voters sending Karen Handel and Ralph Norman to the House of Representatives. By doing so, Georgians and South Carolinians handed Trump personal victories — and the president responded by declaring himself undefeated in congressional races since taking office.

The Georgia 6th District race was awash in outside cash, and became the most-expensive House race in U.S. history. Pundits labeled it a harbinger for the 2018 midterms, arguing a win by 30-year-old Democrat Jon Ossoff could signal a “blue wave” next November. Such prognostications, however, were proven false by 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Trump rose Wednesday morning and called on Democrats to learn from their latest losses by reaching across the aisle to work with him and Republicans. “Democrats would do much better as a party if they got together with Republicans on Healthcare,Tax Cuts,Security,” the president tweeted.

In recent weeks, the president in public remarks often has labeled congressional Democrats as “obstructionists.” He was back at it Wednesday, telling the opposition party that “Obstruction doesn’t work!”

The president turned to his preferred method of communicating with his supporters, Twitter, on Tuesday night as the South Carolina and Georgia races were called for Norman and Handel.

Just before midnight, Trump took a victory lap, invoking his campaign slogan in a tweet that declared “those that want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN are 5 and O!” The president made a veiled reference to the millions of dollars Democrats poured into Ossoff’s campaign, adding that “All the Fake News, all the money spent = 0” for the party.

The Tuesday special elections once again showed how Republican voters typically “come home,” as some political observers put it. For Trump, his perfect record in congressional races come amid his presidency’s rocky start that includes a federal probe of his campaign’s possible ties to Russian officials, a reported obstruction of justice investigation focused on him, two congressional investigations, and no signature legislative accomplishment.

But the Democrats found out that, once again, GOP voters in the South would rather send a Republican to Washington to help even an embattled president of their party than vote for a Democrat.

Just before 11 p.m., he tweeted congratulations to Handel and Norman.

Trump even gave a shout out to Fox News, the network he reportedly watches most often. His frequent mentions of the network are a break from past presidents, who rarely singled out specific networks for positive coverage.

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