ATLANTA, Georgia — Embattled Sen. Kelly Loeffler traveled to Georgia with Vice President Mike Pence aboard Air Force Two on Friday and insisted she was still in the fight to hold her seat despite the fallout from controversial stock trades.
The White House has stayed out of the furor, and Trump has endorsed neither Loeffler nor her Republican challenger Rep. Doug Collins.
But any hint that the ride to Marietta marked a tacit endorsement was dispelled by officials and some careful choreography. When the vice president descended the steps onto the apron at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Collins was second in line to greet him, just after Gov. Brian Kemp.
And when Pence thanked the state’s congressional delegation during an event at the headquarters of Waffle House, he was careful to lavish each with praise.
He described Collins as “a standout in the House of Representatives and a great friend” before turning to Loeffler: “Thank you for your strong leadership in the U.S. Senate.”
And when the vice president traveled back to the air base, he rode with Collins, as if to balance up the optics. Loeffler did not travel back to Washington, and Collins did not get on the plane.
A senior administration official said the Air Force Two ride did not mean there were favorites. “It shouldn’t be seen that way,” said the official.
Even a day hearing from people at the front line of Georgia’s efforts to reopen businesses did not dispel the nearly $2 million in trades Loeffler made after receiving a closed briefing on the looming coronavirus crisis.
“I’m in a statistical tie for first,” she told reporters. “Georgians see what I’m doing. This is a political attack based on no facts. … We are running a very strong campaign. I have grassroots operations in all 159 counties. I’m very proud of my track record in the Senate.”
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Yet the political attacks have continued, not least from Collins, who sat a little more than a socially distanced 12 feet from her at the Waffle House event.
“Instead of working for the people of Georgia for the past five months in D.C., she seems to have been working for herself,” he told Politico a day earlier.
Loeffler said she was intent on making sure Georgia was heard in Washington.
“I think right now what Georgians want to see us doing is delivering results for the state,” she said. “That’s certainly what I’m doing. I’ve been in Washington the last three weeks making sure we’re listening to Georgia and taking those needs back to Washington — and getting back home on the weekends and doing it all over again.”
Loeffler is one of the richest people in the Senate. The New York Times revealed earlier this month that she received a $9 million golden parachute when she left her job at Intercontinental Exchange, the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, where her husband Jeffrey Sprecher is chief executive.
She has been under attack from the Left and the Right after it emerged that she sold millions of dollars in stocks starting in late January, days after being privately briefed by federal officials on the emerging coronavirus pandemic — trades she said were carried out by financial advisers authorized to buy and sell shares on her behalf. At the time, many administration officials were publicly bullish about the risk from coronavirus.
In the wake of the controversy, she converted her managed accounts into mutual funds and exchange-traded funds to head off future controversy.
But she remains locked in battle with Collins, making the Trump endorsement potentially a deciding factor in their race.
