Three days before 74-year-old President Donald Trump plans to make his case of election fraud before a joint session of Congress Jan. 6, the Washington Post gets a Jan. 2 conversation between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperer. Listening to the heavily edited recording, it appears that Trump pressures Raffensperger to find 11,780 more votes to win the Georgia primary. Raffensperger denied that the president pressured him to find extra votes, only that he wondered if there remained any voters from him leftover from the Nov. 3 election. Raffesperger was asked before Jan. 2 whether he had every spoken before to Trump about the Nov. 3 results. “I never believe it was appropriate to speak to the president,” Raffensperger said, not saying whether he had spoken with Trump after the Nov. 3 election. Raffensperger said he didn’t want to speak with the president.
Raffensperger admitted to taking the call Saturday, Jan. 2, even though the state was in litigation with the White House over the Nov. 3 election. “We took the call and we had a conversation. He did most of the talking, we did most of listening,” Raffesperger said. “But I did want to make my point that the data he has is just plain wrong,” referring to the president’s allegations that felons, dead people, teenagers or unregistered voters cast ballots in the Nov. 3 election. Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling disputed claims that anything irregular went on in Georgia’s Nov. 3 election. Sterling said he found two cases of dead people voting and 74 votes from possible felons, all 76 claims remain under investigation. Whatever the irregularities, Sterling sees nothing that would change the outcome of the Georgia vote, having President-elect Joe Biden winning by 12,000 votes.
Trump’s phone call with Raffensberger irked Democrats and their friends in the press, claiming Trump violated federal election law trying to intervene in a national election. While Democrats and the press claim that Raffensperger was pressured by Trump to find or manufacture more votes, there’s noting other that the president questioning whether or not 11,780 more votes existed. Trump’s lawyers had claimed that software on Dominion computerized voting systems were tampered with to change votes from Trump to Biden. Sterling, who manages Georgia’s voting systems, said no parts were changed, no were any ballots altered in any way. Trump can’t believe after leading Georgia’s election on Nov. 3, the tables turned by Nov. 4, handing the race to Biden. Georgia election officials could find nothing unusual or any changes to voting equipment which impacted the Nov. 3 vote.
When it comes to Trump’s Jan. 2 conversation with Raffensperger, it’s easily explained by the president questioning whether or not there were any votes left in his camp. Democrats and the press immediately jumped to the conclusion that the president was seeking Raffensperger to change votes for his benefit. “Again all of this is easily provably false and yet the president persists and by doing so undermines Georgians faith in the election system, especially Republican Georgians in this case, which is important because we have a big election coming up,” Sterling said Nov. 3, 2020 before the Georgia vote. Raffensperger said his office confirmed that the White House made 18 attempts to speak with his office since the Nov. 3 election. How Raffensperger’s call was leaked to ABC News is anyone’s guess. Raffensberger wanted to preserve the privacy because of ongoing White House litigation.
When it comes to leaking the call, it’s designed to impact the Jan. 5 Georgia primary, where Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue battle to preserve their seats against challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Putting out negative publicity against Trump trying to influence the Jan. 5 primary tries to help tilt the runoff election to the Democrat challengers. Trump claims in the Jan. 2 phone call Raffensperger couldn’t answer basic questions, claiming he was “unwilling and unable” to answer his questions. Raffensperger told Trump “the truth would come out.” Raffensperger and Sterling maintain that nothing happened in Georgia that would change the results, with Biden winning by 12,000 votes. Asked today by ABC’s George Stepahanopoulos whether Trump pressured him to change the Georgia vote, Raffensperger said, “no,” denying Trump tried to get him to change any votes.
Since the story of the leaked phone call broke yesterday, Democrats and the media have accused Trump of committing a felony. “No, I, we have to follow the process, follow the law. Everything we’ve done for the last 12 months follow the constitution of the State of Georgia, follow the United States Constitution, follows state law,” Raffensperger said. Reminiscent of Trump’s July 25, 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on which Trump was impeached, Democrats and the media want to blow Trump’s call with Raffensperger out of all proportions. Two House Democrats, backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, asked FBI Director Christopher Wray to waste more FBI time on another political fiasco. Raffesnsperger said there was no pressure from Trump to change any votes, only a question whether there were any leftover votes.
