According to reports, President Donald Trump allegedly tried to implore Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes to reverse the fortunes of the election results. Following his defeat to President-elect Biden.
Trump to Raffensperger (via @washingtonpost):
"You know what they did and you're not reporting it. That's a criminal- that's a criminal offense… that's a big risk."
"I'm notifying you that you're letting it happen."
"I just want to find 11,780 votes." pic.twitter.com/a3j4k0LJEa
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) January 3, 2021
Per the Washington Post, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, lawyer Cleta Mitchell were present during the call. In addition, several other Republican allies of Trump’s.
Trump to Raffensperger (via @washingtonpost):
"You know what they did and you're not reporting it. That's a criminal- that's a criminal offense… that's a big risk."
"I'm notifying you that you're letting it happen."
"I just want to find 11,780 votes." pic.twitter.com/a3j4k0LJEa
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) January 3, 2021
Since the November election which announced Biden as President-elect, Trump has allegedly sought to tilt the results by trying to push state legislatures to appoint a pro-Trump slate of electors, according to reports. Additionally, promoting legal efforts that have fallen short.
In addition, he has also sought to press top Republican officials in states like Georgia and Arizona to disregard the outcomes of elections in their states. Essentially alleging widespread fraud.
Trump: "You should want to have an accurate election. And you're a Republican."
Raffensperger: "We do have an accurate election."
Trump: "No, no you don't. No, no you don't. You don't have it. You don't have– Not even close."
via @washingtonpost pic.twitter.com/tdYevkkjHU
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) January 3, 2021
Surreal to hear Trump personally fact-checked on his election fraud conspiracies in real time by election officials (via @washingtonpost): pic.twitter.com/pnyR9aa627
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) January 3, 2021
It has been reported that a number of congressional Republicans will challenge the results on Wednesday. Although, it’s not expected to overturn Biden’s win.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated,” Trump said in one excerpt of the call.
“Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong,” said Raffensperger in response.
Raffensperger’s office has stated that the state of Georgia has conducted multiple recounts and audits of the vote since November. Recently, a signature match audit in Cobb County found “no fraudulent absentee ballots.”
However, Trump is still in disbelief of the results.
“There’s no way I lost Georgia,” Trump stated. “There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.”
The president cited his widely-attended rallies as one reason why he does not believe he could’ve lost the election. However, he failed to put together that his large crowds were a result of his repeated defiance of state and local guidelines surrounding Covid-19.
“I think it’s pretty clear that we won. We won very substantially Georgia. You even see it by rally size … We’ve been getting 25,000, 30,000 people to a rally, and the competition would get less than 100 people and it never made sense.”
It has also been reported that later Sunday, Trump called elections in swing states “UNCONSTITUTIONAL!”
