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US President Donald Trump lobbied an election official to overturn the results of the Georgia presidential election in a last-ditch attempt to invalidate Joe Biden’s election victory.
Excerpts from Saturday’s hour-long conversation, first reported by the Washington Post, reveal that Trump asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find” 11,780 votes.
“There is no way Georgia lost,” Trump can be heard saying. “There is no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.”
In fact, Biden won the state by 12,000 votes.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry,” Trump said, according to an excellent post online by the Post. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”
“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.
With less than three weeks remaining in his presidency, Trump is stepping up his efforts to invalidate the results of the November elections ahead of a key week in Washington.
On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence will preside over a joint session of Congress during which the election results will be certified. But in an extraordinary development, several high-ranking Republicans have said they will reject the results of the multi-state elections won by Biden.
At least 12 of the 50 Republican members and senators-elect of the Senate, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley of Missouri, announced that they will challenge the certification process, prompting applause from Trump on Twitter. More than 100 of the Republican members of the House of Representatives can also challenge the result.
While congressional math makes his efforts highly unlikely to succeed (enough Republicans have indicated they will vote to uphold Biden’s victory), the move indicates the power Trump continues to wield over his party even as his presidency reaches its end.
Wednesday’s joint session of Congress, chaired by the vice president, is often a matter of procedure, but the Republicans’ decision to undermine the outcome will generate hours of bitter debate. It also puts Vice President Mike Pence in an awkward position. While he is constitutionally required to announce the results, he has said he supports his colleagues’ efforts to “raise objections” on January 6.
McConnell Challenge
The decision to block the certification of the result also presents a challenge to the authority of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky senator has already said that Biden won the election and encouraged his group to accept the result when it comes to a vote on Wednesday.
The issue also threatens to divide the Republican Party. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney criticized his colleagues for questioning the results. “The heinous ploy to turn voters away may increase the political ambition of some, but it dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic,” he said. “I would never have imagined seeing these things in the largest democracy in the world. Has ambition at the beginning so eclipsed?
Trump has encouraged supporters to travel to Washington on Wednesday for a “Stop the Steal” protest to demonstrate against the election results, prompting fears of unrest in the capital.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi was set to be reelected as Speaker of the House on Sunday when the new Congress convened, despite presiding over a very small Democratic majority.
Both Trump and Biden will travel to Georgia on Monday to campaign before Tuesday’s Senate runoff, which will determine which party controls the Senate.
You can find the audio from the Washington Post post here
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