The Washington Post has published this bombshell:
President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions.
The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”
Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s assertions, explaining that the president is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate.
Trump dismissed their arguments.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” he said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”
Raffensperger responded: “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”
Read the full transcript of the Trump-Raffensperger call
At another point, Trump said: “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 post contains audio of the phone call so go to the link.
Reaction from the Biden camp:
.@JoeBiden senior adviser Bob Bauer on President Trump : “We now have irrefutable proof of a president pressuring and threatening an official of his own party to get him to rescind a state's lawful, certified vote count and fabricate another in its place.” pic.twitter.com/VRF1yfuUBN
— Arlette Saenz (@ArletteSaenz) January 3, 2021
So Trump pressures Raffensperger to overturn the election results by basically doing what used to be called ballot box stuffing. And so Trump overshadows Richard Nixon as the biggest Presidential criminal in American history. And he makes James Buchanan look like FDR.
I'm no lawyer but the fact Trump asked Raffensperger to "recalculate" and deliver him just the exact number of votes he needs to win shows corrupt intent. I'm sure a prosecutor could do wonders with this. And is it unreasonable for the House to do a quick impeachment this week?
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 3, 2021
The line "I just want to find 11,780 votes" will go down in U.S. history beside "Russia, if you're listening" and "I'd like you to do us a favor, though" as a political and legal scandal the likes of which none of us have seen before or may ever see again. https://t.co/A9DP0ltAZa
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 3, 2021
Post reports lawyer Cleta Mitchell was on call and is part of Trump's efforts to overturn the election. Nearly all lawyers who come from high end firms have refused to be involved. Unlike Giuliani, Powell, others, Mitchell is a partner at upper tier law firm @FoleyandLardner.
— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) January 3, 2021
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell were both present when Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger to subvert the election — and did absolutely nothing.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) January 3, 2021
Paul Ryan: "It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans."
He ends: "Joe Biden's victory is entirely legitimate."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 3, 2021
The Trump tapes sound like a mob boss giving orders to a lieutenant. Trump tells the Georgia Secretary of State to “find” the exact number of votes he needs to flip the results. This sounds exactly like what we would catch our RICO defendants saying when we were up on a wire.
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) January 3, 2021
The next 16 days will be the most dangerous in our modern history. #Trump has barred transition access to military and security apparatus and, in his irrational rage, could try to do God knows what. I’m sure #Biden doesn’t want to further corner the animal, but he has no choice.
— howardfineman (@howardfineman) January 3, 2021
Saying you want a specific number of votes means you are not interested in rectifying fraud. You just want to win by pressuring someone to rig the result. Impeach again.
— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) January 3, 2021
Saying you want a specific number of votes means you are not interested in rectifying fraud. You just want to win by pressuring someone to rig the result. Impeach again.
— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) January 3, 2021
Hey @SenTedCruz and his gang:
You want to investigate election fraud? Start with this: https://t.co/u3K1ijtfCx
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 3, 2021
“It’s gonna be costly to you.” I’ve charged extortion in mob cases with similar language. https://t.co/wB0jV9Mkhl
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) January 3, 2021
Everyone who has a tape of Trump abusing his power should release it now
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) January 3, 2021
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.