In a stunning hour-long phone call on Saturday afternoon made public by The Washington Post, President Trump demanded Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes in order to overturn the results of the election after his decisive loss to President-Elect Joe Biden. The call raised legal questions from experts and is causing issues for the GOP in the Georgia runoffs, which are just two days away.
The phone call, first obtained by the Post and reported on by most major national news outlets, contained segments of which Trump blasted fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger for refusing to falsely say that he won the 2020 election and even threatened him with vague criminal consequences for not following through.
Raffensperger repeatedly rejected Trump’s assertions, explaining that the president was citing debunked conspiracy theories and that Joe Biden’s win in Georgia was fair and correct, but Trump dismissed these comments, calling Raffensperger, at different points in the call, a “big risk,” a “child,” and “either dishonest or incompetent.”
Trump said, “the people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated,” but Raffensperger responded by saying that the President’s data was wrong.
At another point, Trump said, “So look. All I want you to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” and that “You should want to have an accurate election. And you’re a Republican.” When Raffensperger explained that the election was, in fact, accurate, Trump said that Raffensperger was “off by hundreds of thousands of votes.”
He also took aim at Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Republican, who was not on the call, calling himself a “schmuck” for endorsing Kemp. Kemp has repeatedly rejected the president’s claims of voter fraud and certified the state’s election results, of which President-Elect Biden won by approximately 12,000 votes. At one point, he referred to Kemp as “George.”
At another point, Trump tried to shame Raffensperger by saying that Kemp’s opponent in the 2018 gubernatorial election, Democrat Stacey Abrams, was “laughing” about him and that “she’s going around saying, ‘These guys are dumber than a rock.'”
During the call, Trump threatened both Raffensperger and his counsel Ryan Germany, saying that if they don’t find the “destroyed” ballots in Fulton County. they would be subject to criminal liability and said that it would be “a big risk to you and Ryan, your lawyer.”
From the back-and-forth between Trump and his opponents, it is evident that a rift is forming in the Republican Party: the Trump loyalist faction is starting to split away from the traditional conservative wing (which includes people like Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah). Whether or not Trump will continue to have a strong grip on the GOP after his presidency remains to be seen, but with his continual gripes about Republicans who aren’t loyal to him and demanding that they be primaried by Trump loyalists, it could cause a headache to the GOP.
Legal experts said that by asking Raffensperger to “find” votes, Trump may be encouraging him to fabricate the results of the election in Georgia, which is a federal crime. Other professors said that the call is in a gray area, but was nevertheless inappropriate and should prompt moral outrage.
Among the large number of debunked conspiracy theories Trump cited to back his claim included making an assertion that he won Georgia by at least 500,000 votes, that thousands of dead and deceased people voted, that ballots in the heavily Democratic Atlanta area were scanned three times and all of them were for Biden, that thousands of people voted illegally in Georgia by coming from out-of-state, and more. Raffensperger rejected all of these assertions.
Trump even went on to say that Raffensperger’s refusal to falsely certify results for him would cause harm to Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler (both R-Ga.), who are facing tight bids to reelection in a runoff to be held on Tuesday. The outcome of the runoffs will determine control of the Senate.
It is interesting because in the general election, Trump received 49.24 percent of the vote, but Perdue, a less blatant Trump-ist, got 49.73 percent of the vote, a small but significant gap in a state this close. This meant that there were a percentage of Republicans who voted against Trump, but wanted traditional conservatives in Congress. However, there is also certainly a percentage of voters from the Trump base who may see the president’s attacks on the electoral system as a call to not vote, since their votes wouldn’t be counted anyway. With Perdue constantly being asked to show loyality (and Loeffler too, but she has clearly positioned herself as a female version of Trump), it could cause headaches across the aisle for the senators, as they cannot afford to lose even a bit of the vote.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) grasped the opportunity to call out this call in a tweet Sunday, suggesting to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that the president should be investigated. Cruz is among a dozen GOP senators who announced that they would support an objection to the certification of the electoral votes, which are due to be certified today.
Hey @SenTedCruz and his gang:
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 3, 2021
You want to investigate election fraud? Start with this: https://t.co/u3K1ijtfCx
The fact that a president who lost by almost seven million votes and quite decisively in the Electoral College is still refusing to concede 16 days until inauguration day and continuing to push baseless conspiracy theories about election-rigging is harmful to American democracy. Though democratic institutions will prevail, American democracy cannot live on if the losing party refuses to accept defeat, especially when it is made so clear that they lost decisively and fairly.
Check out the 2020 election coverage page for more.
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