ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump badgered & pleaded with Georgia’s election chief to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state, suggesting in a telephone call that the official “find” enough votes to hand Trump the victory.
The conversation Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost. The renewed intervention & the persistent and unfounded claims of fraud by the first president to lose reelection in almost 30 years come nearly 2 weeks before Trump leaves office & 2 days before twin runoffs in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate.
Trump confirmed in a tweet Sunday that he had spoken with Georgia’s secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, who tweeted that claims Trump made during the call were untrue.
Audio snippets of the conversation were posted online by The Washington Post. A recording of the call was later obtained by The Associated Press from a person who was on the call.
The president, who has refused to accept his loss to the Democratic president-elect, is heard telling Raffensperger at one point: “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.”
Wow. WaPo just released a recording showing President Trump attempting to blackmail Georgia's Secretary of State to overturn the election.
— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) January 3, 2021
Listen: pic.twitter.com/33SO6Tyx8u
Georgia certified election results showing that Biden won the state’s Nov. 3 election by 11,779 votes.
Trump has repeatedly attacked how Raffensperger ran Georgia’s elections, claiming without evidence that the state’s 16 electoral votes were wrongly given to Biden.
“He has no clue!” Trump tweeted of Raffensperger, saying the state official “was unwilling, or unable” to answer questions about a series of claims about ballot handling & voters that have been debunked or shot down by judges & election authorities.
Raffensperger’s Twitter response: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.”
Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump & his allies have been dismissed by judges, including 2 by the Supreme Court. #washingtonpost #impeachtrump #impeachthepresident #trumptapes #corruption #donaldtrump #totalitarianism #crook #trump #45 #presidenttrump #presidentialelection #threat #strongarm #intimidation #georgia #joebiden #presidentbiden #caughtontape #bradraffensperger #republicans #tedcruz #attackondemocracy #unprecedented #williambarr #mikepence #kamalaharris #extortion #electionfraud
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