For an hour, US President Trump plowed the Georgia state electorate on the phone. You should correct the election result in his favor. The recording of the conversation gives an insight into Trump’s attempts to avert his defeat.
Washington (dpa) – “Criminal”, “dangerous” and “abuse of power”: The efforts of incumbent US President Donald Trump to have his election defeat in the state of Georgia retrospectively aroused indignation among Democrats.
In a one-hour phone call, Trump had bluntly urged State Secretary Brad Raffensperger, who was responsible for the Georgia election – also a Republican – to “find” enough votes for him and to “recalculate” the result, as the Washington Post said on Sunday (local time) reported.
The newspaper published a complete recording of the conversation. Other US media later reported on the content of the conversation, citing the recordings they had made. Trump also wrote on Twitter about the phone call with Raffensperger and berated his party colleagues as “clueless”.
The Secretary of State said on Monday in an interview with the broadcaster ABC that Trump was clinging to long-disproved theories about alleged grievances in the Georgia election. The information quoted by Trump was “simply wrong,” said Raffensperger.
The elected Vice President Kamala Harris described Trump’s actions in the phone call on Saturday as a “brazen abuse of power” that reveals “the voice of desperation”. Trump and his Republicans had filed six lawsuits against the result in the state and were therefore unsuccessful, the Democrat said on Sunday during an election campaign in Georgia.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro wrote on Twitter that Trump was “blackmailing” election officials in order to steal a victory. His approach is “criminal and dangerous”. MP Bobby Scott said Trump’s “conduct is a dangerous threat to democracy and deserves a criminal investigation.” Even the Republican MP Adam Kinzinger called Trump’s behavior on Twitter “absolutely horrific”.
During the phone call, Trump warned Raffensperger that he was taking a “great risk” and that he might be guilty of a crime if he did not act against election fraud. Trump lost very narrowly in Georgia in the November 3rd election. The Democrat Joe Biden was ahead with about 12,000 votes. The results were recounted twice, but the final result changed only slightly – there was no evidence of major electoral fraud.
Trump complained in the conversation about the “wrong” result in Georgia. “I only want to find 11,780 votes (…) because we won the state,” he said, according to the recording. “We won the election and it is not fair to take the victory away from us,” said Trump. “I can’t have lost Georgia.” “Hundreds of thousands” of questionable votes were cast, the 74-year-old claimed. Many dead would have voted. Raffensperger replied that only two cases of voting on behalf of the deceased had been discovered throughout the state.
Raffensperger should check the results again, demanded Trump. There is “nothing wrong with declaring that everything has been recalculated. “But check it out with people who want to find answers,” demanded Trump. Raffensperger replied: “We believe our numbers are correct.” He also pointed out that the results stood up in court.
The Washington Post article stated that the “rambling and sometimes incoherent conversation” showed how “obsessed and desperate” the president was in the face of his electoral defeat. Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows also took part in the phone call.
In Georgia, extremely important runoff elections for two Senate seats will take place on Tuesday, the result of which could tip the majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives. Trump and Biden want to campaign personally in Georgia on Monday (local time).
Trump lost the election almost two months ago but continues to refuse to acknowledge Biden’s victory. His adversary is to be sworn in as the new president on January 20th. Biden secured 306 votes from the electorate, significantly more than the 270 votes needed to win. Georgia has 16 voters. Trump has also questioned the results in other states, including Pennsylvania with its 20 electorate. However, his lawsuits against the results were unsuccessful – even judges appointed by Trump rejected some lawsuits very clearly.
In the formal US election procedure, the certification of the results from the individual states in Congress is due on Wednesday (from 7:00 p.m. CET). Only then will it be official who has won the election. Republicans from the House of Representatives and the Senate have announced that they will appeal against the results of individual states during the procedure. The disruptive action can delay the confirmation of Biden’s election victory by a few hours, but has no prospect of actually changing anything in the election outcome.
At the constituent session of Congress on Sunday, Democrat Nancy Pelosi was re-elected Chairwoman of the House of Representatives. It remains number three in the state. Pelosi prevailed with a narrow majority of 216 votes against their Republican challenger Kevin McCarthy, who got 209 votes. For the past two years at the helm of the House of Parliament, Pelosi has been America’s most powerful woman politically, and often Trump’s most important opponent. In her new term of office, the 80-year-old should try to hold the democratic majority together, which has become scarcer, in order to support Biden.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210103-99-886783 / 7
Audio recording of the conversation according to the Washington Post, English
Trump’s tweet on the conversation with Raffensperger, English
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