CBS News’ “60 Minutes” has learned that the call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2 was not President Trump’s first attempt to influence the state’s election results. Sources explain in “60 Minutes” that last month the same president called one of the investigators from Georgia’s secretary of state.
A person informed of the call said Trump told the investigator they would be a “national hero” if they found evidence of fraud. But the investigator had found no evidence and days later Raffensperger would reject Trump himself. The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment from the CBS News White House unit.
“60 Minutes” will air Sunday on CBS.
CBS News got audio of the January 2 phone call. According to the audio of the call, the president told Raffensperger, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we have won the state.” The Washington Post first reported on the content of the call and released the audio. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows also participated in the discussion.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry,” Mr. Trump can be heard on the audio recording. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, hey, you’ve recalculated.”
Raffensperger, a Republican, backed down on Mr. Trump’s suggestion and told him that “the data you have is incorrect.” He also repeatedly told Mr. Trump that the election results were accurate and rejected the president’s unfounded claims. Trump lost the presidential race in Georgia against President-elect Joe Biden by 11,779 votes. Congress counted the votes of the Electoral College and reaffirmed Mr. Biden’s victory early Thursday.