Pres. Biden’s visit to GA on Thursday shows growing importance of state on national politics

ATLANTA — President Joe Biden is coming to Georgia to mark his 100th day in office and the visit may also mark Georgia’s growing importance in national politics.

Channel 2′s Richard Elliot met with then President-elect Joe Biden in December as he campaigned for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Both won their races for senate and solidified the Democrats’ hold on Congress.

Since then, the president has returned to Georgia on several occasions -- the latest just last month to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and to mark the spa shootings in Atlanta and Cherokee counties.

“It is thanks to Georgia voters that President Biden has been able to enact this agenda in Congress, and that’s why he’s coming here,” Ossoff told Elliot on Wednesday.

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Ossoff agrees that without Georgia voters, the president would not have been able to pass his key agenda items, including the massive infrastructure bill.

“The president’s coming to Georgia to thank Georgia voters for making it possible for our country to make so much progress at a moment of crisis,” Ossoff said. “Georgia is the center of attention and Georgia voters matter so much, and I think that President Biden’s pilgrimage to visit with President Carter reflects that.

“The elections in 2020 were very close. I think that Georgia is a competitive state and will be a competitive state moving forward,” said David Shafer, the chair of the Georgia Republican Party.

Shafer told Elliot that he believes Biden should apologize because of the effect the boycotts over the controversial new election law had on the state.

“Well, he ought to be here on an apology tour for the lies that he told about Georgia,” Shafer said. “He cost us over $100 million to Georgia small businesses and workers. Over $100 million from the boycott that he fomented against our state.”

Channel 2 Action News is still working to get all the details on the presidential visit to metro Atlanta on Thursday, but we do know that before he comes to Atlanta, Biden will make a stopover in Plains to visit former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalyn.

President Biden plans to visit Atlanta next week as the first 100 days of his presidency wraps up

Cox Media Group