Trump tape sparks political uproar
‘Find’ me votes, he tells state politician
Sunday’s release by US media of a stunning audio tape in which President Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn his election defeat there has sent shockwaves across Washington.
The tape, plus a push by scores of Republican lawmakers to later this week challenge Joe Biden’s electoral win, a pair of runoff elections in Georgia to decide control of the US Senate and expected pro-Trump protests in Washington are combining to set the stage for a fiery few days in American politics.
Lawmakers got back to work on Sunday on Capitol Hill, where Democrat Nancy Pelosi was narrowly reelected as speaker of the House of Representatives, but the real political fireworks are still to come.
Following the release of the recording, Democrats and a few Republicans heaped scorn on the outgoing president, who fired off a tweetstorm of unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the Nov 3 election.
The taped conversation between Mr Trump and fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, first obtained by The Washington Post, includes vague threats by Mr Trump that Mr Raffensperger and another official could face “a big risk” if they failed to take moves towards overturning Mr Biden’s victory.
“There’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated” the vote tally, Mr Trump is heard saying on the tape. “You’re off by hundreds of thousands of votes.”
Mr Raffensperger is heard responding: “Well, Mr President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”
Mr Biden won the long Republicanleaning state by fewer than 12,000 votes, a narrow margin but one that has remained unchanged through a series of recounts and audits.
“The current margin is only 11,779. Brad, I think you agree with that, right?” Mr Trump says. “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes.”
Making the call even more surprising is the fact that even a hypothetical reversal in Georgia, which has 16 Electoral College votes, would not overturn the general election victory by Mr Biden, who won by a margin of 306 to 232.
Ahead of the release of the audio, Mr Trump tweeted about the call, saying that Mr Raffensperger “was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more”.
Mr Raffensperger replied: “Respectfully, President Trump, what you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.”
After the release, the White House declined to comment.
However, Democrats reacted furiously. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris slammed it as “the voice of desperation” and a “bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the President of the United States”.
One moderate Republican, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, tweeted: “This is absolutely appalling. To every member of Congress considering objecting to the election results, you cannot — in light of this — do so with a clean conscience.”
It was unclear what impact the tape’s release might have on today’s twin runoff elections in Georgia, which will decide who controls the US Senate.
Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing off against Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively. Victory by Mr Ossoff and Mr Warnock would give the Democrats a major boost — Senate seats would be split 50-50 but incoming Vice President Harris would wield a tie-breaking vote. Democrats already control the House.
“This is going to be a very tough battle but it is absolutely within the realm of possibility that the Democrats can win,” said influential Democrat Stacey Abrams.