ATLANTA (AP) – President Donald Trump insinuated and asked Georgia’s election chief to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state, suggesting in a phone call that the official “find” enough votes to deliver victory to Trump.
Saturday’s conversation was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by an incumbent president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election he lost. The renewed intervention and persistent and unfounded allegations of fraud by the first president who lost re-election in nearly 30 years come nearly two weeks before Trump leaves office and two days before the two Georgia bids that will determine Senate control .
Trump confirmed Sunday in a tweet that he had spoken with Georgia Secretary of State Republican Brad Raffensperger the day before.
Audio excerpts from the conversation were published online by The Washington Post. Later, The Associated Press obtained a recording of the call from a person who was on the call.
The president, who has refused to accept his loss to the Democratic president-elect, is heard to say to Raffensperger at one point, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more of the Because we have won the state. ”
Georgia certified the election results which showed that Biden won the state election on November 3 by 11,779 votes.
The White House referred questions to Trump’s re-election campaign, which did not respond Sunday to a request for email comments. Raffensperger’s office did not respond to any text messages seeking comments.
Trump has repeatedly attacked how Raffensperger ran the Georgia election, claiming without proof that the state’s 16 electoral votes were wrongly given to Biden.
“You have no idea!” Trump tweeted about Raffensperger, saying the state official “did not want or could not” answer questions about a series of claims about the handling of ballots and voters that have been denied or dismissed by judges and election authorities.
Raffensperger’s Twitter response: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you say is not true. The truth will come out. “
There has been no widespread election fraud, which has been confirmed by several election officials across the country, as well as former Trump Attorney General William Barr. The Republican governors of Arizona and Georgia, key states on the battlefield crucial to Biden’s victory, have also confirmed the integrity of the election in their states. Nearly all of the legal challenges Trump and his allies have been dismissed by the judges, including two thrown by the Supreme Court, which includes three judges nominated for Trump.
Senate runoffs pit Sen. Kelly Loeffler against Democrat Raphael Warnock and Sen. David Perdue against Democrat Jon Ossoff. With the Senate within reach, candidates and outside groups supporting them have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on contests, flooding Georgia with TV ads, email, phone calls and call efforts.
Loeffler said he had not decided whether to join Republican colleagues to challenge the legitimacy of Biden’s victory over Trump. Democratic candidates who win on Tuesday would help remove obstacles to the new administration’s agenda awaited the campaign visit of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
Trump has persisted in attacking Georgia’s top Republicans over his electoral loss to the state, and he feared his words could push some Republicans away from the polls.
“I think we will win on Tuesday because of the momentum of the base, the energy of the unprecedented movement in Georgia right now,” Ossoff told CNN’s “State of the Union”. He said he “feels like Georgia is on the cusp of a historic victory.”
Loeffler, when asked about his position alongside the growing group of Senate Republicans seeking to challenge the Electoral College count, said he was “looking at it very closely, and I was one of the first to say that everything is on the table “. She told Fox News Sunday that “I am fighting for this president because he has fought for us. He is our president and we will make sure we are a fair election.”
Warnock, the senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, who has continued to preach while campaigning for the office, seemed to allude to the runoff in a message delivered Sunday. He told viewers who watched remotely because of the pandemic that they are “on the verge of victory” in their lives if they accept that God has already endowed them with the ability to overcome their adversaries.
“When God is with you, you can defeat giants,” said Warnock, who ended the morning service by encouraging Georgians to vote Tuesday. “It is so important that your voice is heard at this crucial time in our country,” he said. “It wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to tell you who you’re voting for.”
Loeffler was appointed to fill a vacancy when Republican Johnny Isakson resigned her seat, and she will be in the Senate, winning or losing this coming week, until the election is certified. Perdue’s seat will be temporarily vacant after his term expires on Sunday after six years.
Harris was scheduled to be in Savannah on Sunday afternoon. Trump and Biden are planning last-minute efforts to mobilize voters on Monday after more than 3 million people voted earlier.
The president continues to create turmoil for Loeffler and Perdue by questioning Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia and the reliability of the state’s electoral systems.
Trump also tweeted that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Republican Lt. Geoff Duncan, also Republicans, “have done less than anything. They’re a disgrace to the great people of Georgia!”
Last week, the president asked Kemp to resign; the governor dismissed it as a “distraction.”
Despite the attacks, Loeffler said he believed voters would heed Trump’s expected plea during his next visit that they should get.
“It’s going to tell voters the same thing: you have to go out and vote Georgia, because that’s too important,” Loeffler said.
Perdue, who is in quarantine after being exposed to a staff member with the coronavirus and will not appear with Trump at Monday’s rally, said he would have joined the Senate election challenge if he had been in Washington. . “I am encouraging my teammates to oppose. That’s something the American people are demanding right now, “he told Fox News Channel on Sunday Morning Futures.
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Superville reported from Washington.