Biden flees East Coast as Georgia votes in critical Senate runoff election
President Biden did not appear with Sen. Ralph Warnock, D-Ga., in his race against Republican challenger Herschel Walker
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden hopped on long flight to Arizona Tuesday as Georgia was hosting a Senate runoff election that will determine whether the Senate remains in a 50-50 split, or whether Democrats hold 51 seats.
The president did not make a single appearance with Sen. Ralph Warnock, D-Ga., over the last month as he fends off a challenge from Republican nominee Herschel Walker. As Georgians went to the polls to vote Tuesday, Biden opted for a tour of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plant in Phoenix to tout the $52 billion CHIPS Act he signed in August, which provided tens of billions of dollars in new federal funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden will be in Arizona as Georgians cast their vote in the runoff election for U.S. Senate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
When asked last week why he has not appeared with Warnock in Georgia, Biden noted that he fundraised for the senator at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee event in Boston.
"I'm going to Georgia today to help Sen. War – not to Georgia – I'm going to help Sen. Warnock by doing a major fundraiser up in Boston," the president said Friday.
Democrats have a 50-49 majority in the Senate pending the Georgia election, and while Biden has not appeared with Warnock, former President Obama has campaigned with him. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted on Monday that the midterm election showed that voters support Biden and his agenda.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"They want us to continue to fight for their freedoms," she said Monday. "They want us to continue to fight for democracy. And, you know, that red wave never happened."
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President Biden will visit a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plant in Arizona Tuesday as Georgia votes in a runoff Senate election. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Biden has yet to visit the border as president and will not do so in his Tuesday trip to Phoenix, which is less than 100 miles away from the Mexican border. The president said Tuesday prior to his flight that there are "more important things going on" than the border, where there is a record number of encounters with migrants this year.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jean-Pierre said the president is focused on bipartisan issues like the CHIPS Act and said Republicans who visit the border are "doing political stunts."
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President Biden's Arizona trip will not include a visit to the southwestern U.S. border. (Jaob King/Pool Photo via AP)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We're asking for Republican officials to come and work with us and let's have a bipartisan agreement on immigration, instead of doing political stunts, instead of doing what they're doing: going to the border, not actually coming up with any real ideas about that," Jean-Pierre said Monday.