Georgia Election Result: Threatening Phone Call From Trump

reOnald Trump complained, threatened, lied: on Sunday the “Washington Post” published a recording of a phone call in which the loser did everything he could to persuade government officials to rig the elections. Georgia’s Secretary of the Interior Brad Raffensperger could not be persuaded to postpone the outcome of the election for the outgoing president.

Threats and lies can be heard in the conversation, which could also be legally problematic for Trump. It is not yet known exactly how the newspaper obtained the recording; What is certain is that the conversation took place on January 2, long after the states certified the results of the November 3 vote and the electorate Joe Biden as the 46th president. have chosen.

Trump explicitly asked Raffensperger in the conversation to help him “find” the missing votes in Georgia. In the hour-long conversation, Trump claimed that he had won the election. He mentions a 400,000 vote lead nationally, which he and his team have likely added from various conspiracy fantasies that have been individually disproved by electoral authorities and the courts. “It was not fair” to “take away the victory,” complained Trump; “by no means” was it conceivable that he had lost the state of Georgia. Biden had beaten Trump there in the November 3 election by 11,779 votes. Two accounts confirmed the result.

In the conversation that has now been made public, Trump urged Raffensperger to announce another “test” and this time to produce the desired track: “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” he said. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and the President’s General Counsel also attended the meeting.

Major Senate Runoff Elections in Georgia

Trump tried at times with threats: He claimed that Georgia voters, who were loyal to him, were angry with his government because they were not doing anything about the alleged “electoral fraud.” That will mean they would stay home in the Senate runoff on January 5. The vote determines the majority in the chamber: If the two Republican senators are re-elected, the party may block many future initiatives of the new President Biden.

Raffensperger is taking a “great risk” if he does not re-examine the presidential election because the minister has “let the fraud happen,” Trump said. He also tried to refer to political struggles within Georgia. Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams laughs at Republicans. Abrams has campaigned against voter obstruction in the state for years. He must have been a “Schmock” himself when he supported Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in his election, Trump complained.

Georgia’s interior minister insisted throughout the conversation that his state authorities were operating correctly. “We believe our numbers are correct,” he said. Trump claimed that the ballot papers had been destroyed and the voting machines rigged; Raffensperger’s legal advisor, Ryan Germany, expressly rejected this to the incumbent president.

Trump and his supporters have not presented any evidence to back up their claims in recent weeks. Courts repeatedly contradicted his allegations of voter fraud in Georgia and other states: Trump’s attorneys have ruled more than three dozen corresponding lawsuits. His Justice Department and numerous Republican electoral authorities and governors also opposed the conspiracy fantasies.

Possible legal consequences

Many observers suspect that the loser of the election had conversations similar to those of Raffensperger with officials in other states. Only Trump’s most loyal supporters have the illusion that these actions could be successful and could have legal consequences for him. Trump may have violated several laws by attempting to reverse a democratic election through threats. In particular, his demand to “find” a specific number of votes points in this direction for lawyers. Georgia has a law against incitement to vote rigging.

Democrats accuse Trump of abuse of power and attack on democracy. The chairman of the House legal committee, Jerrold Nadler, said that according to the “New York Times”, Trump could have committed a crime; opened a corresponding investigation.

New York MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the chamber should quickly initiate a new impeachment trial against Trump to clearly sanction him for “attacking our own elections.” Individual Republicans also criticized the incumbent president that night. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican Congressman from Illinois, called Trump’s actions “despicable.”

Symbolic action in Congress

On Wednesday, Congress will certify the election result in a joint session chaired by Vice President Mike Pence. Normally it would be a pure formality that barely attracts the public’s attention. But at least twelve senators want to officially question the result and call hearings. They are led by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. According to the magazine “Politico”, more than a hundred Republican representatives could join the House of Representatives. Your protest cannot reverse the outcome of the election. But the call to sanction the electorate for attacking the democratic process is growing stronger in Washington.