Donald Trump has accused Georgia election officials of a “criminal offence” for not reporting what Democrats did during the November election.
This was just one of several astonishing comments made in a one-hour phone call between Trump and these officials, who are Republicans.
The tape was obtained by the Washington Post, which posted excerpts on YouTube.
In another comment, Trump declared that he just wants to find 11,780 votes in Georgia after the count was completed.
He also engaged in this exchange with Brad Raffensperger, who’s Georgia’s secretary of state:
Trump: “You should want to have an accurate election. And you’re a Republican.”
Raffensperger: “We believe that we do have an accurate election.”
Trump: “No, no you don’t. No, no, you don’t. You don’t have. You don’t have. Not even close. You got, you’re off by hundreds of thousands of votes.”
Video of Audio: Trump berates Ga. secretary of state, urges him to ‘find’ votes
Senior Joe Biden adviser Bob Bauer accused Trump of “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”.
“It captures the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy,” Bauer declared.
On January 5, Georgia voters will elect two senators, which could give the Democrats a majority in the upper house for the first time in six years.
Then on January 6, Congress is scheduled to certify the Biden-Harris team’s victory.
However, 11 Republican senators plan to object to the Electoral College vote, which will delay the process in an initiative being led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Up to 140 Republican members of the House of Representatives may also file objections.
The Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives and four Republican senators have pledge to endorse the Electoral College results, ensuring Biden’s victory.
Meanwhile, the former Republican speaker of the house, Paul Ryan, has condemned efforts to challenge Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic,” Ryan said in a statement. “It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans.
“The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy.”
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