Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of “criminal offense” if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation obtained by the AP.
The staggering conversation was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by an American president to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost, report Jeff Amy, Darlene Superville and Kate Brumback.
In the phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday, Trump, who has refused to accept his loss to president-elect Biden, repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results.
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said. “Because we won the state,” he falsely claims.
Georgia counted its votes three times before certifying Biden’s win by a 11,779 margin, Raffensperger noted: “President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. We don’t agree that you have won.”
SOURCE: Associated Press
