Washington – In an hour-long phone call to Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, on Saturday, President Trump he pressured him and other officials to “find” enough votes in the state’s presidential election to make him the winner, according to the audio of the call obtained by CBS News.
During the call, which Mr. Trump revealed happened in a tweet The previous Sunday, the president told Raffensperger: “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” The Washington Post first reported the content of the call and published the audio. The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, also participated in the discussion.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry,” Trump can be heard saying on the audio recording. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you recalculated.”
Raffensperger, a Republican, countered Trump’s suggestion by telling him that “the data you have is wrong.” He also repeatedly told Trump that the election results were accurate and rejected the president’s baseless allegations.
Mr. Trump lost the presidential race in Georgia to the president-elect Joe Biden by 11,779 votes. Since the November election, votes cast in the state have been counted a total of three times, with the president-elect’s victory confirmed each time.
The president’s connection to Raffensperger marked a significant and impressive escalation in his attempts to reverse the outcome of the presidential election. In the weeks since November 3, Mr. Trump has mounted several campaigns in an effort to reverse the results, looking to the courts and then to state legislatures and now Congress to give him a second term.
But Mr. Trump bunch of lawsuits Tue largely was fired, and all states have certified their electoral results. In addition, presidential voters from the 50 states and the District of Columbia met on December 14 to vote, again reaffirming Biden’s victory.
Still, Trump refused to accept the election results, especially in Georgia, and repeatedly attacked Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp, also a Republican. Biden’s victory there marked the first time in nearly 30 years that a Democrat has won the state.
In addition to suggesting that Raffensperger “find” the votes to reverse his defeat in Georgia, he also repeated unfounded conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems, a company that provided software used in 28 states.
“Do you think it’s possible for them to destroy the banknotes in Fulton County? Because that’s the rumor. And also that Dominion took the machines. This Dominion is really moving fast to get rid of its machines. Do you know anything about Why is this illegal? “Trump asked Raffensperger and his general counsel Ryan Germany, who was also on the call.
Germany told the president, “No, Dominion has not removed any machines from Fulton County” and has repeatedly rejected Trump’s continuing claims that Dominion “moved the internal parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts.”
During the call, Trump called Raffensperger “child” and “dishonest or incompetent” for not believing that there was electoral fraud in Atlanta. The president called himself an “idiot” for endorsing Kemp and appeared to threaten Raffensperger and Germany over alleged fraud, although there is no evidence to support his claims that the ballots were illegally destroyed.
“You know what they did and you are not reporting it. This is a crime, it is a crime,” he said. “And you can’t let that happen. It’s a big risk for you and Ryan, your lawyer. And it’s a big risk.”
Mr Trump then claimed that the bills were being shredded and the machines removed.
“You can’t let it happen and you’re letting it happen,” he said, according to the audio. “I’m notifying you that you’re letting it happen.”
Trump said Raffensperger’s refusal to reverse the outcome of the presidential race will prevent Republicans from voting in two second-hand elections on Tuesday, the results of which will determine which party controls the Senate.
“You have a big election coming up and because of what you did to the president – you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam,” said Trump. “Because of what you did to the president, a lot of people are not going to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote against it, because they hate what you did to the president. OK? They hate it. And they are going to vote. And you would be respected, really respected, if that could be cleared up before the election. “
Mr. Trump referred to the call early Sunday in Twitter, saying he spoke with Raffensperger about Fulton County and the alleged electoral fraud in the state.
“He didn’t want or couldn’t answer questions like ‘ballots under the table; fraud, ballot destruction, out-of-state’ voters’, dead voters and more. He has no idea!” said the president.
In response to Mr. Trump’s tweet, Raffensperger said, “Respectfully, President Trump: What you are saying is not true. The truth will come out.”
Congress will meet in a joint session on Wednesday to discuss account and certify the results of the Electoral College. More than 100 members of the Republican Party House are expected to oppose the results of some states, and a group of nearly a dozen Republican senators also plan to challenge election results, unless a commission is appointed to audit the results.
Their objections, however, are highly unlikely to be successful, as both chambers must vote separately to support an objection. With Democrats in control of the House, lawmakers are almost guaranteed not to throw out Biden’s electoral votes.