Find me that votes pal – Trump pressures Georgia official to ‘recalculate’ election results in leaked call
President Donald Trump begged and berated Georgia’s top election official to overturn the Nov. 3 election results in his favour, citing disproven statistics and conspiracy theories in a rambling phone call Saturday, an explosive audio released by the Washington Post has revealed.
In the recording, Trump even threatened Brad Raffensperger with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state could not “find” these nonexistent votes, warning at one point that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”
During the hour-long phone call, Trump pressured and flattered Raffensperger to “find” him enough votes to overturn the election.
Raffensperger is heard replying that Georgia’s results were correct.
President-elect Joe Biden won Georgia along with other so-called swing states, winning 306 electoral college votes to Trump’s 232.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes,”
‘Nothing wrong with saying, Um, you’ve recalculated’
Trump’s desperate phone call — which some legal experts described as “extortion” and “mob talk” — comes as a dozen Republic lawmakers, citing election irregularities, have said they will object to certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College win on Jan. 6.
Trump has stubbornly refused to accept his election loss, engaging in largely futile legal efforts and endorsing his Republican allies’ baseless attempts to undermine the electoral process.
On Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff tweeted that the VP “welcomes” the GOP senators’ efforts to contest the election results, adding that he “shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election.”
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry, and there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated,” Trump said on the call with Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel, Ryan Germany, according to the audio excerpts.
“So look. 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.”
“Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong,” Raffensperger said.
“You know what they did and you’re not reporting it. That’s a criminal offence. You can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer.”
He told Raffensperger he should re-examine the result in the state.
“You can re-examine it, but re-examine it with people who want to find answers, not people who don’t want to find answers.”
“Mr. President, you have people who submit information and we have our people that submit information and then it comes before the court and the court has to make a determination,” Raffensperger replied.
“We have to stand by our numbers, we believe our numbers are right.”
Then on to Twitter
On Sunday, before the Post released the recording, Trump tweeted that Raffensperger had not given details of the fraud the president alleges.
He said Georgia’s secretary of state was “unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters,’ dead voters, and more. He has no clue!”
“Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.”
‘Most remarkable audio since Nixon tapes’
Read the full transcript of the Trump-Raffensperger call
Trump’s close allies were in on Saturday’s call, including his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell, Al Jazeera reported.
Raffensperger’s general counsel Ryan Germany was also on the call, according to The Washington Post.
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Atlanta, Georgia, called the recording “perhaps the most remarkable piece of audio that has come out of the Oval Office of the White House since the Nixon tapes in the 70s.”
Trump said he plans to talk about the ‘election fraud’ on Monday, when he is scheduled to lead a senate election-eve rally in Dalton.
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