Politics
Trump to Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes”
President Donald Trump spoke with the GA Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger and his attorney, Ryan Germany, and they discuss the results of the election in Georgia. President Trump suggests that there was election fraud and the others appear to disagree. Someone leaked the recorded phone call and Washington Post released a four minute cut of it to the public today.
Trump, at one point in the call, suggests he would like to find 11,780 votes, because that’s one more than what Biden won Georgia by (per the recording). Joe Biden won Georgia by 11,779, but President Trump claims “there’s no way I lost Georgia.”
They discuss the election results and if Dominion had moved any internal parts of the voting machines. Raffensperger and his attorney believe the election results were accurate and that Dominion hasn’t moved anything.
During the phone call, which lasted about an hour, the trio does not appear to agree on much about the election results, particularly in Georgia. Trump had even suggested that there might be some criminal activity going on with Raffensperger and his attorney, per a report on Slate:
“That’s a criminal offense,” he said. “And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer.” Throughout the call he appeals to Raffensperger as a Republican saying his refusal to do Trump’s bidding could end up hurting Republicans in the state in the crucial runoff election Tuesday that will decide which party controls the Senate. “You have a big election coming up and because of what you’ve done to the president—you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam,” Trump said. “Because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote.”
The big election is the Georgia runoff taking place on January 5, 2021. Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory is set to be certified on January 6, but Ted Cruz leads a panel of GOP Senators who plan to challenge it and demand an emergency audit of the results.
Last week Trump posted the following message regarding Raffensperger on Twitter, saying “I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the “ballots under table” scam, ballot destruction, out of state “voters”, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!”
However, in response, Raffensperger replied with the following message, “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.”
It’s possible that Raffensperger himself had released the recorded phone call to Washington Post in hopes to share his side of the story by providing the phone call as it was, as this message points in that direction, but does not fully confirm he himself had sent it in.
The Washington Post released this version of the Trump phone call which is only about four minutes of the hour. It’s worth noting that there may be some context missing to the conversation.
LISTEN here:
*** UPDATE ***
The Washington Post has now released the full one-hour conversation.
LISTEN here: