The Washington Post has received a recording of a phone conversation that occurred Saturday between President Trump and Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State. During the hour-long call, he urged Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in Georgia.
At times during the call, Trump would berate Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act, and then threatened him with vague criminal consequences if Raffensperger would refuse to take action.
Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s accusations of election fraud in Georgia. They assured him that President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate. Raffensperger responded to the president saying,
Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.
Trump said,
So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.
The White House, the Trump campaign, and Trump’s Chief of staff did not respond to a comment request. Raffensperger’s office declined to comment.
