With only 17 days left in his lame duck presidency, President Donald Trump made one last attempt to steal the election that was legally won by Joe Biden. A damning new audio recording of a phone call between Trump’s team and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was obtained by the Washington Post. The call features Trump demanding that Raffensperge invalidate the Georgia vote count and “find” enough votes to give him the win.
The audio of Trump demanding the Georgia secretary of state “find” enough votes so his loss to Biden can be overturned needs to be heard to be believed pic.twitter.com/jzjzwhcgDl
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 3, 2021
In the nearly hour-long call, Trump repeatedly pressures, threatens, and cajoles Raffensperger to overturn the election results, citing baseless claims and conspiracy theories. In the recording, Trump can be heard saying, “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.” Raffensperger spends the call calmly telling Trump that his claims have no evidence.
At one point, Trump blatantly asks Raffensperger to deny the will of the people, saying “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.” The conversation continued much in the same vein, with Trump repeating that he won Georgia while Raffensperger denied his claims. The men then took their argument onto to Twitter:
Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out https://t.co/ViYjTSeRcC
— GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) January 3, 2021
It should still be shocking that the President of the United States is pressuring state officials to lie about the vote. And it should be shocking that his baseless and dangerous claims are being championed by 12 republican senators, 140 house members, and Vice President Mike Pence.
It is corruption plain and simple, and a deliberate effort to sow distrust in the election and besmirch Biden’s nascent presidency. But is anyone really surprised that Trump’s political death rattle threatens democracy itself? Republicans would rather feed Trump’s tantrum than do anything to address the pandemic or the disastrous economy. Their attempts, which are baseless and won’t stop the inauguration, is all to appease some imaginary Trump supporter in future elections.
Make no mistake: what Trump did was an impeachable offense. But with less than 3 weeks remaining in his term, it’s highly unlikely he will face any repercussions while in office.
We’ve all been watching President Trump try to “find” votes and spread election conspiracy theories. But it’s still scary as hell to listen to the president of the United States demand election fraud in a nation that exports democracy around the world. https://t.co/StLoEQY8pf
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) January 3, 2021
The final days of Trump’s presidency have been like an advent calendar of lies, cronyism, and corruption. And the fact that republicans are indulging him is a stunning failure of country over party. But will the republican party see any sort of backlash for their reckless and craven actions in the future? We will have to wait and see how effective Trumpism is without Trump himself.
Hey @SenTedCruz and his gang:
You want to investigate election fraud? Start with this: https://t.co/u3K1ijtfCx
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 3, 2021
(via Washington Post, featured image: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
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