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US President Donald Trump annoyed and begged Georgia’s election chief to reverse Joe Biden’s victory in the state, suggesting in a phone call that the official would “find” enough votes to hand Trump victory.
Saturday’s conversation was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election he lost.
The renewed intervention and persistent and baseless claims of fraud by the first president to lose reelection in nearly 30 years come nearly two weeks before Trump leaves office and two days before the two rounds in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate .
Trump confirmed in a tweet Sunday that he had spoken with Georgia’s Secretary of State, Republican Brad Raffensperger, who tweeted that the claims Trump made during the call were false.
The Washington Post posted audio snippets of the conversation online. The Associated Press subsequently obtained a recording of the call from a person who was on the call.
Respectfully, President Trump: What you say is not true. The truth will come out https://t.co/ViYjTSeRcC
– GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) January 3, 2021
The president, who has refused to accept his defeat to the Democratic president-elect, is heard saying to Raffensperger at one point: “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. “
Georgia certified the election results showing that Biden won the November 3 state election by 11,779 votes.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the way Raffensperger ran the Georgia election, claiming without evidence that the state’s 16 electoral votes were wrongly awarded to Biden.
“You have no idea!” Trump tweeted about Raffensperger, saying the state official was “unwilling or unable” to answer questions about a number of claims about ballot and voter handling that have been discredited or rejected by judges and election officials.
Raffensperger responded on Twitter: “Respectfully, President Trump: what you are saying is not true. The truth will come out. “
There was no widespread fraud in the election, which was confirmed by multiple election officials across the country, as well as former Trump attorney general William Barr.
Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battlefield states crucial to Biden’s victory, have also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states.
Almost all legal challenges by Trump and his allies have been dismissed by justices, including two dismissed by the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices.
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