“I just want to find 11,780 votes.” In a call with Georgia Secretary of State Rafinspegg, the current U.S. President Trump said.
According to the Washington Post, on January 2nd local time, Trump personally called Rafinspegg to ask him to find enough votes to overturn the state’s election results.
However, this move was rejected by Rafinspegg. Trump immediately threatened Raffenspeg that if he did not do so, the latter would face potential criminal proceedings and take “great risks”.
During the call, Trump also mentioned the Georgia Senate runoff election, saying that “if Raffenspeg does not act before January 5, the political fate of two Republican senators in the state will be endangered.”
Trump pressures Georgia Secretary of State to seek 11,780 votes
According to the recording of the call obtained by The Washington Post, at about 3 p.m. local time on January 2, Trump and Raffenspegg made an hour-long call, which was also attended by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Ryan Degerman, general adviser in Raffenspegg’s office, and several lawyers. .
During the call, Trump constantly changed his attitude, one pointing Rafenspegger and trying to “ply” him to take action.
However, Rafinspegg and Ryan have been disproving Trump’s claims and trying to explain that the election in Georgia is fair and accurate.
“The people of Georgia are very angry, and the people of this country are angry.
There is nothing wrong with recalculating it,” Trump said. Raffenspegg responded, “President Trump, the challenge you are facing is that the data you have is wrong at present.”
Trump stressed, “We should have an honest election. You are a Republican.
I won this election by hundreds of thousands of votes, I will never lose Georgia, I just want to find 11,780 votes because we really won here.” Raffenspegg said frankly, “We don’t think you won.”
Trump also threatened Rafinspegg and Ryan, implying that they would face criminal proceedings if they did not find the illegally damaged ballot.” You know, it’s a criminal offense, and you can’t let this happen, and it’s a huge risk for you and Ryan.” Trump said.
Trump stelling election disinformation and some conspiracy theories to support his position during the call, including thousands of “dead votes,” and several fake ballots scanned by Atlanta election staff, according to The Washington Post, the Washington Post noted that Trang Pu had no evidence that he won the Georgia election with a margin of hundreds of thousands of votes.
The runoff election of Georgia senator is approaching, and Trump threatens again.
During the call, Trump also referred to the Georgia Senate runoff on January 5 and said that if Rafinspegg does not act quickly, the political fate of two Republican senators in the state would be endangered.
Trump said, “You’re about to have an important election, but because of what you do to the president, all the people of Georgia will know that it is a scam. Many people will not go out to vote, and many Republicans will vote against it because they hate what you do to the president.
But if you can fix the issue before the January 5 election, you will be respected.”
According to people familiar with the matter, Trump will visit Georgia and hold a rally on January 4 local time to support the state’s Republican senators, but Trump is likely to express his dissatisfaction with Rafinspegg at the rally.
According to the BBC, there are 100 seats in the Senate, and each state produces two senators regardless of its population. At present, the Democrats have 48 seats in the Senate, and the Republicans have 50 seats.
The remaining two re-election seats are from Georgia. The Republican candidates are David Perdue and Kelly Loveler, and the Democratic candidates are Jon Osoff and Rafael Warnock.
If the Republican candidate gets at least one seat, he will continue to maintain the majority position; but if both seats belong to the Democratic Party, each party has 50 seats.
Under federal law, the vice president has decisive power at this time, which means that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will cast a key vote for the Democratic Party.
In addition to legislative matters, the Senate is also responsible for approving treaties signed by the federal government, the appointment of executive and judicial positions nominated by the president, etc.
If the Republican Party can maintain its Senate majority status, it will have the opportunity to influence the cabinet nominees of the new government.
But if Democrats become the majority party in the Senate, there will be a situation in which both houses of Congress and the White House are controlled by Democrats, which is very conducive to Democrats in advancing policies.
Trump’s phone call may cause legal problems.
Trump’s request to find a “specified number” of votes and the potential threat he poses to Rafinspegg are likely to raise legal issues, according to the US political news website politico.
“President Trump threatened these officials with vague ‘criminal consequences’ and encouraged them to look for additional votes, and the president himself could also bear significant criminal risks,” said Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Anthony Chris, a law professor at Georgia State University, explained that “anyone who requests, demands, orders, or otherwise encourages a person to commit election fraud under Georgia law commits election fraud.”
Chris stressed that “President Trump did not hesitate to ask the Secretary of State to ‘find the vote’.
If you read this law carefully and look at President Trump’s request, you must see that he has violated the law.”
Analysts point out that the reason why Trump called Rafinspeg may be related to the results of congressional certification.
On January 20th local time, Biden will be officially sworn in, before which there is the last “official procedure” – on January 6 local time, the U.S. Congress will certify the results of the Electoral College’s vote.
According to CNN, on January 2 local time, 11 Republicans and elected legislators promised to vote against the Electoral College when Congress confirmed President-elect Biden’s victory.
They also suggested that the Election Commission conduct an emergency audit of the election results in “disputed states”, which is also considered Trump. The last hope of “turning the tables”.
However, CNN also pointed out that Biden won 306:232 in the Electoral College vote, which was officially confirmed by Congress as “unstoppable”.
Even if Trump finally won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes, it is not enough to “turn the tables”, and the 11-members’ campaign against the Electoral College vote has zero chance of changing the election results, and at most, it can only delay the confirmation of Congress.
