Trump prods Ga. official to defy voters
Sen. Durbin demands criminal probe; Carl Bernstein calls it ‘worse than Watergate’
President Trump faces charges of criminal conduct after trying to coerce the Georgia secretary of state to overturn the election results from Nov. 3. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
President Trump was recorded Saturday in a phone conversation with Georgia’s secretary of state trying to pressure the official to overturn the state’s certified result from the Nov. 3 election and to “find” the votes that would make him the victor.
The Washington Post and the Associated Press both released transcripts and the actual recording on Sunday. According to the AP, it was taped and passed along by “a person on the call.”
The AP minced no words, reporting: “The phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost. The president, who has refused to accept his loss to Democratic President-elect Biden, repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results.”
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said. “Because we won the state.”
According to the AP, “Georgia counted its votes three times before certifying Biden’s win by a 11,779 margin,” and it quoted Raffensperger as saying: “President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. We don’t agree that you have won.”
Over the course of the hourlong phone call, Trump not only repeatedly asked for the vote count to be altered, at one point saying, “Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break,” but he also threatened to charge the Republican Raffensperger with “a criminal offense,” adding, “That’s a big risk to you.”
That prompted U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin to make his own criminal charges against the president. “This disgraceful effort to intimidate an elected official into deliberately changing and misrepresenting the legally confirmed vote totals in his state strikes at the heart of our democracy and merits nothing less than a criminal investigation,” Durbin tweeted Sunday. “The president is unhinged and dangerous. Those who encourage and support his conduct, including my Senate colleagues, are putting the orderly and peaceful transition of power in our nation at risk.”
About a dozen Senate Republicans, led by Ted Cruz of Texas, are threatening to try to overturn the 306-232 vote by the Electoral College naming Joe Biden the next president when it comes before the body for official confirmation on Wednesday. That tactic is given little chance of success, especially after Trump’s bald attempt to coerce the Georgia secretary of state to basically do the same over the weekend.
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon made that point Sunday on Twitter. Calling Trump’s actions “absolutely appalling,” the House Republican added, “To every member of Congress considering objecting to the election results, you cannot — in light of this — do so with a clean conscience.”
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, set to take office as vice president alongside President-elect Biden on Jan. 20, called Trump’s attempt to intimidate Raffensperger a “baldfaced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States,” and Bob Bauer, a leading lawyer on the Biden campaign, said the recording “captures the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy.”
Journalist Carl Bernstein, co-author of “All the President’s Men” along with Bob Woodward, told CNN over the weekend, “This was something far worse than occurred in Watergate,” adding, “This is the ultimate smoking-gun tape. It is the tape with the evidence of what this president is willing to do to undermine the electoral system and illegally, improperly, and immorally try to instigate a coup.”