Don to Ga. GOPer: ‘Find’ me votes, or else
Tells Ga. chief: ‘Find’ votes to flip loss, or it’s a ‘big risk’
In a jaw-dropping and potentially criminal weekend phone call, President Trump reportedly urged Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to reverse his election defeat there.
Trump told Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to somehow dig up 11,780 votes that would show he won, according to The Washington Post, which obtained a recording of the hourlong Saturday call.
Raffensperger reportedly stood his ground, pointing out that Trump was relying on disproven conspiracy theories about President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” Trump said, his voice rising. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”
“Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong,” Raffensperger replied, according to the Post.
The outrageous call, in which Trump also asked the secretary of state to deploy investigators, is the latest effort from the president to overturn the will of the voters and stay in office another four years.
Trump flattered, begged and threatened Raffensperger, according to the Post, saying the secretary of state was taking “a big risk.”
The lame-duck president may be the one at risk of violating the law. Doctoring an election is illegal, the Post noted.
Before the bombshell report was published, Trump tweeted that he’d spoken with Raffensperger.
“He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions” about unfounded allegations of fraud, the president raged.
The mini-missive drew a cordial comeback from Georgia’s secretary of state.
“Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true,” Raffensperger tweeted. “The truth will come out.”
The unprecedented assault on the electoral process has come in spite of certifications of results from across the country, confirmed by recently departed Attorney General William Barr. The Supreme Court, which has three Trump-nominated justices, swiftly rejected a high-profile challenge to ballots in battleground states.
However, 11 Senate Republicans said over the weekend they wouldn’t accept Electoral College results decisively placing Biden in the White House. Congress is set to vote to certify the outcome on Wednesday, a formality that typically draws little notice.
The cadre went on the defensive Sunday, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) urging his critics to “calm down.”
“We need to tone down the rhetoric. This is already a volatile situation. It’s like a tinderbox and throwing lit matches into it,” he said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Cruz also moaned that Democrats are “urging that I should be arrested and tried for sedition and treason,” without providing any examples.
Cruz’s cohorts include Sens. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Steve Daines (Mont.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), John Kennedy (La.) and James Lankford (Okla.), along with Sens.-elect Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), according to Politico.
Johnson said Sunday that the group would form a bipartisan commission to probe fraud allegations — even though the Trump campaign’s effort to prove such claims in court have been met with humiliating defeat.
“We are not acting to thwart the democratic process — we are acting to protect it,” Johnson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”