‘Trump’s call to top official voice of desperation’

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Update Time : Tuesday, January 5, 2021
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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and other top Democrats swiftly denounced remarks that President Donald Trump made during an extraordinary hour-long phone call with Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, in which the president pressures Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes that will overturn the results of the presidential election in the state in his favor, reports The Washington Post.

Bob Bauer, a senior adviser to President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team, said the conversation provides “irrefutable proof of a president pressuring and threatening an official of his own party to get him to rescind a state’s lawful, certified vote count and fabricate another in its place.”

The Washington Post obtained a recording of the call, in which the president repeatedly states that there is “no way I lost Georgia.” He makes threats about vague criminal consequences and tells the secretary of state that he’s taking a “big risk.”Bauer added: “It captures the whole disgraceful story about Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy.”

Speaking in Georgia on Sunday, Harris called Trump’s conversation a “baldfaced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States.””It was certainly the voice of desperation, most certainly that,” she said.Harris was there to campaign for Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock ahead of Senate runoff elections on Tuesday in the state.

During the call, Trump urged Georgia’s election officials to act quickly, and suggested that not doing so could endanger the political fate of Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both Georgia Republicans.”You would be respected, really respected, if this thing could be straightened out before the election,” Trump said during the call. “You have a big election coming up on Tuesday.”

The two Democratic Senate candidates were among those who quickly condemned Trump for the call.”When the president of the United States calls up Georgia’s election officials and tries to intimidate them to change the results of the election, to disenfranchise Georgia voters,” Ossoff said, speaking to supporters, “. . . that is a direct attack on our democracy.”

He added: “If David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler had one piece of steel in their spine, one piece of integrity, they would be out defending Georgia voters from that assault.”In a statement, Warnock called on Loeffler to “speak out against the unsubstantiated claims of fraud, to defend Georgia’s elections, and to put Georgia ahead of herself. She has not and never will.”

Trump was joined on the call by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, as well as longtime conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell and Georgia-based lawyer Kurt Hilbert. Ryan Germany, who is general counsel for Raffensperger’s office, and Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs were also on the call.