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WASHINGTON (AP) – Georgia’s top election official said Monday (Jan. 4) that Republican President Donald Trump had pressured him to take an “inappropriate” call in which he pressured the state to reverse his election loss. presidential elections there.
In Saturday’s call, Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his electoral defeat in the southern state, according to a recording released by US media.
“I never thought it was appropriate to talk to the president, but he declined, I guess he made his staff push us. They wanted a call,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told the “Good Morning America” program on ABC.
Two Democratic members of Congress on Monday asked FBI Director Christopher Wray to investigate the call.
“We believe that Donald Trump was involved in the solicitation or conspiracy to commit a series of electoral crimes. We ask that you open an immediate criminal investigation into the president,” they said in a statement. The Justice Department did not comment on the request of Representatives Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice.
A state Democrat called for an investigation into whether Trump had violated Georgia’s election law in the convocation. Raffensperger and his office’s attorney general rejected Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the hour-long conversation.
“We took the call and we had a conversation. He talked most of the time, we listened most of the time,” Raffensperger said.
“But I want to make it clear that the data he has is just wrong. He said he had hundreds and hundreds of dead people who voted. We found two. That is an example of his wrong data.”
Trump has been claiming for two months, contrary to the evidence, that his loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud. Various state and federal reviews, as well as the courts, have rejected those claims as unfounded.
Biden won the Electoral College state by state 306-232 and won the popular vote by more than 7 million ballots.
The only Democrat on Georgia’s electoral board, David Worley, asked Raffensperger in a letter Sunday to investigate whether the president had violated state law prohibiting solicitation to commit voter fraud.
Raffensperger said the district attorney in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, could be the appropriate authority to carry out such an investigation. County District Attorney Fani Willis did not respond to a request for comment.
In another blow to Trump, staunch Conservative Sen. Tom Cotton refused to sign a risky campaign by nearly a dozen other Republicans in the US Senate this week to challenge Biden’s victory, warning that he was out of the power of Congress and that “would set unwise precedents.”
In a statement Sunday, Cotton said he would not join colleagues Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and others in challenging Republican Party leaders by objecting on January 6 when lawmakers meet to count votes in the Electoral College, a largely symbolic act of certification.
Cotton, Cruz and Hawley are among those considered possible 2024 presidential candidates. Trump, who has not admitted defeat, has also raised the idea of running again in 2024.
Thomas J Donohue, executive director of the US Chamber of Commerce, criticized the effort Monday, saying it “undermines our democracy and the rule of law and will only result in further division in our nation.”
Several moderate Republicans have also joined in the criticism from Cruz, Hawley and others for undermining voters’ opinion and planning to object, a move they say will fail to install Trump but will erode confidence in American democracy.
It was not immediately clear how the publication of Trump’s call with Raffensperger could affect the Republicans’ objection plan.
“This call was not helpful,” Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who is among those planning to oppose certification, told Fox News in an interview Monday.
US Representative Liz Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, on Monday criticized the call as “deeply troubling,” according to a report by the Congressional group.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy defended Trump’s call in an interview with Fox News. “The president believes that there are things that happened in Georgia that he wants to be held accountable for,” he said.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has publicly acknowledged Biden’s victory. US Vice President Mike Pence, who will oversee the January 6 proceedings, has said Republicans have the right to object.
Even if the Republicans in the Senate were successful in their objections, the campaign would fail in the United States House, which is controlled by the Democrats.
