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The phone call will be recorded in the history books:
Donald Trump called the election official in the state of Georgia and asked him to change the outcome of the election. SRF correspondent Isabelle Jacobi talks about a United States president who answers the phone mob-style.
SRF News: What exactly did Donald Trump ask for?
Isabelle Jacobi: You asked election official Brad Raffensperger to find enough invalid votes to win the Georgia election. Trump says he wants nothing more than exactly one more vote than is necessary for the majority, and that is not a problem, because the result in Georgia is wrong, there has been massive electoral fraud.
Raffensperger is also a Republican. How did you react to these demands?
He denied all the allegations and said that the president simply had false information. You can say anything on social media. It goes like this: In dozens of court cases in different states, these theories have failed gloriously. It turned out to be irrelevant rumors over and over again, even in Georgia. There, the votes were officially counted three times, once by hand. There was no evidence of significant electoral fraud. Election Supervisor Raffensperger relies on this. Trump did not accept these facts.
Has Trump threatened Raffensperger with consequences if he does not comply with these demands?
Vague. He said his constituents in Georgia were angry and Raffensperger was at risk if he insisted on Joe Biden’s victory. When you consider that Raffensperger and his family receive death threats and are under strict security protection, you can hardly understand it as a threat – mob-style, so to speak.
Republicans critical of Trump are venturing more into the media shortly before the change of power in Washington.
Are Trump’s statements criminally relevant? Can you be held responsible for them?
The jurists speak of a possible “incitement to electoral fraud”, but admit that it would have to be shown that Trump acted deliberately. That is hard. Because Trump could argue in good faith. When the call was made, several of the president’s lawyers who did not intervene were also present. That could also take Trump to the field.
What was the political trigger for this phone call in the United States?
On the democratic side there is outrage, possible Vice President Kamala Harris spoke of an act of desperation and a blatant abuse of power. The situation is more complex for Republicans: They are divided into a camp that is loyal to Trump and a camp that sees an attack on democracy in the phone call. Republicans critical of Trump are venturing into the media shortly before the change of power in Washington.
Georgia will vote for Senate representatives in a runoff Tuesday. The important election is about the majority in the Senate. Can the phone call influence the choice?
Anything can affect an election where profit margins are as low as Georgia. Biden won the conservative southern state by 0.2 percentage points. The phone call was definitely not leaked from Trump’s team. Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue, who are defending their seats against Democratic rivals, have yet to comment. It cannot be in your interest that the President of Georgia is pressuring elected Republicans like this.
The interview was conducted by Simone Hulliger.