Ahead of President Donald Trump's visit to the Atlanta area on Wednesday, prominent Georgia Democrats have scheduled a news conference to "slam" what they call the president's "failed coronavirus response," the group announced in a press release.

For state Republican leaders, the visit offers an opportunity to showcase Trump before the GOP base as the November election approaches.

"Georgia is important on the national political scene to elect the next president," said state Rep. Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, who will be with Trump Wednesday. "This is the ninth trip he's [Trump's] made to Georgia and the sixth trip to Atlanta."

Trump will deliver remarks at the UPS hub in Hapeville just north of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. He will announce a policy to help fast-track infrastructure projects in Georgia, including building a trucks-only lane on I-75 between Atlanta and Macon.

"On the southside of Atlanta, particularly in Henry and Butts counties, we have a lot of logistic hubs and warehouse facilities scattered throughout the I-75 corridor that use a lot of truck traffic," said state Sen. Burt Jones, a member of both the state Senate Transportation and Appropriations committees. 

Jones, who will also join the president at the UPS facility, said Trump's recent executive order would help cut through some of the environmental red tape and allow the state to get the I-75 project and other infrastructure plans moving faster. 

However, state Sen. Nikema Williams, chair of the Georgia Democratic Party, said in a statement, "During the 2016 campaign, Trump assured voters that he would rebuild our nation's infrastructure, but that turned out to be yet another broken promise."

Rep. Tanner disputes that characterization stressing that Trump's visit is proof he has not lost focus on his promise.

"Infrastructure should be a non-partisan issue. We've made it a non-partisan issue in Georgia in all the work we've done with highways, bridges, and transit freight," said Tanner.

While the executive order is part of a series of initiatives by the White House to address the economic impacts of COVID-19, Democrats blast the move as another failure of the administration.

"In the midst of Trump's chaotic pandemic response, Black Americans are dying of the virus at twice the rate of white people," said Williams in a release announcing Wednesday's virtual news conference. Participants in the briefing include former gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams, and Savannah Mayor Van Johnson.

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