Washington Post recording reveals Donald Trump pressuring Georgia election official to change results
- During the call, Trump alternately flattered, begged and threatened Brad Raffensperger with vague criminal consequences, it was reported
- ‘There’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated,’ Trump is heard saying
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[Audio]Washington Post recording reveals Trump pressuring Georgia official to change election result
US President Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s top election official to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in the southern state, according to excerpts of a recording of the hour-long call released by The Washington Post on Sunday.
The call on Saturday was the latest move in Trump’s two-month effort to claim that his loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden in the November 3 election was the result of widespread voter fraud, a claim that has been widely rejected by state and federal election officials as well as multiple courts.
Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, came as some of Trump’s allies in the US Congress said they plan to object to the formal certification on Wednesday of Biden’s victory. The former vice-president won by a margin of 306-232 in the state-by-state Electoral College, and by more than 7 million votes overall.
The Washington Post reported that during the call Trump alternately flattered, begged and threatened Raffensperger with vague criminal consequences in an attempt to undo his loss.
Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s assertions throughout, and told the president that he was relying on debunked conspiracy theories spread on social media about what was a fair and accurate election, according to the audio excerpts and the newspaper’s account.