ATLANTA (AP) – President Donald Trump pleaded and pleaded with Georgia election chief to reverse Joe Biden’s victory in the state, suggesting in a phone call that the official “finds” enough votes to give Trump victory.
Saturday’s talk was the final step in an unprecedented attempt by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election he lost. The renewed intervention and persistent and baseless allegations of fraud by the first president to lose his reelection in nearly 30 years come nearly two weeks before Trump leaves office and two days before two flights in Georgia that will determine Senate control .
Trump confirmed in a tweet on Sunday that he had spoken to Georgia Secretary of State, Republican Brad Raffensperger, the day before.
Audio clips of the conversation were posted online by The Washington Post. A recording of the conversation was later obtained by The Associated Press from a person on the conversation.
The president, who has refused to accept his loss to the elected democratic president, is at one point heard saying to Raffensperger, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, that’s one more than we have. Because we won the state. ”
Georgia declared election results showing that Biden won the November 3 election with 11,779 votes.
The White House referred questions to Trump’s reelection campaign, which on Sunday did not respond to an email request for comment. Raffensperger’s office did not respond to a text message asking for comment.
Trump has repeatedly attacked how Raffensperger organized the elections in Georgia, claiming without evidence that the state’s 16 electoral votes were falsely given to Biden.
“He has no idea!” Trump tweeted about Raffensperger, saying the state official was “unwilling or unable” to answer questions about a series of allegations about ballot handling and voters that have been debunked or shot by judges and election authorities.
Raffensperger’s Twitter response: “With respect, President Trump, what you are saying is not true. The truth will come out. “
There was no widespread election fraud, as a series of election officials across the country, as well as former Trump Attorney General William Barr, have confirmed. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, important states on the battlefield critical to Biden’s victory, have also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states. Nearly all of Trump’s and his allies’ legal challenges have been dismissed by judges, including two thrown by the Supreme Court, including three Trump-nominated justices.
The Senate rounds pitted Senator Kelly Loeffler against Democrat Raphael Warnock and Senator David Perdue against Democrat Jon Ossoff. With the Senate up for grabs, the candidates and outside groups supporting them have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the contests, inundating Georgia with television ads, mail, phone calls and attempts to knock on the door.
Loeffler said she had not decided whether to join Republican colleagues to challenge the legitimacy of Biden’s victory over Trump. The Democratic candidates whose victories on Tuesday would help clear roadblocks to the new administration’s agenda awaited a campaign visit by elected Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump has continued to attack the top Republicans in Georgia over his election loss in the state, raising fears that his words could cause some Republicans to stay away from the polls.
“I believe we will win Tuesday because of the grassroots momentum, the unprecedented kinetic energy in Georgia right now,” Ossoff told CNN’s “State of the Union.” He said, “Georgia feels like we are on the brink of a historic victory.”
When asked to side with the growing group of Senate Republicans who wanted to contest the electoral college count, Loeffler said she “ took a very close look at it and I was one of the first to say everything is on the table. ” She told Fox News Sunday that “I am fighting for this president because he fought for us. He is our president and we will continue to ensure that these are fair elections.”
Warnock, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, who continued to preach while campaigning for office, seemed to allude to the runoff in a Sunday delivered message. He told viewers who were watching from a distance because of the pandemic that they are “on the brink of victory” in their lives if they accept that God has already equipped them with the ability to overcome their adversaries.
“When God is with you, you can defeat giants,” said Warnock, who ended the early morning service by encouraging Georgians to vote on Tuesday. “It is so important that your voice is heard at this decisive moment in our country,” he said. “I wouldn’t be so presumptuous about telling you who to vote for.”
Loeffler was appointed to fill a vacancy when Republican Johnny Isakson resigned, and she will be in the Senate, win or lose this week, until the election is confirmed. Perdue’s seat will be temporarily vacant after the expiry of his term on Sunday at the end of six years.
Harris was supposed to be in Savannah on Sunday afternoon. Trump and Biden are planning last-minute personal efforts on Monday to mobilize voters after more than 3 million people vote early.
The president continues to create turbulence for Loeffler and Perdue by questioning Biden’s narrow-minded victory in Georgia and the reliability of the state’s electoral systems.
Trump also tweeted that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, also Republicans, “have done less than nothing. They are an embarrassment to the great people of Georgia! ”
Last week, the president called on Kemp to resign; the governor dismissed it as a “diversion”.
Despite the attacks, Loeffler said she believed voters would heed Trump’s expected plea to come out during his upcoming visit.
“He’s going to tell voters the same thing: you have to leave and vote Georgia, because this is too important,” Loeffler said.
Perdue, who is in quarantine after being exposed to an employee with the coronavirus and will not appear with Trump at Monday’s rally, said he would have joined the Senate election challenge had he been in Washington. “I encourage my colleagues to object. This is something the American people are asking for now, ”he told Fox News Channel’s“ Sunday Morning Futures ”.
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Superville reported from Washington.