President Donald Trump Asked Georgia Official to "Find" Over 11,000 Votes in His Favour, According to Taped Phone Call

The US Presidential elections have been contentious and the latest evidence shows that US President Donald Trump tried to bend the votes in his favor. A taped phone call between Trump and Georgia's GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is casting more aspersion against the president.

The transcript of the call, obtained by CNN, shows that Trump decided to tell his party members that they won in Georgia, even though that isn't the case. "I think it's pretty clear that we won. We won very substantially in Georgia. You even see it by rally size, frankly. We'd be getting 25-30,000 people a rally and the competition would get less than 100 people. And it never made sense," he said.

He claimed that signatures were "forged" in Fulton County in the state, and a "real check of the signatures" was necessary. "We're going to have an accurate number over the next two days with certified accountants. But an accurate number but it's in the 50s of thousands— and that's people that went to vote and they were told they can't vote because they've already been voted for. And it's a very sad thing. They walked out complaining. But the number's large. We'll have it for you. But it's much more than the number of 11,779 that's — The current margin is only 11,779. Brad, I think you agree with that, right? That's something I think everyone — at least that's' a number that everyone agrees on," he added. 

The president then told Raffensperger, "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." This comment from the president is being seen as an abuse of power and could lead to legal issues, as per CNN.

The US President didn't accept his defeat in the election in Georgia and insisted that fake votes were cast there. "...They are shredding ballots, in my opinion, based on what I've heard. And they are removing machinery and they're moving it as fast as they can, both of which are criminal finds. And you can't let it happen and you are letting it happen," he told Ryan Germany, the general counsel to Georgia’s secretary of state.

Trump provided no evidence for his claims, one of which was that identities of dead people have been used to vote. "There is a universe of people who have the same name and same birth year and died," the president's lawyer Cleta Mitchell told Raffensperger during the call, as per BBC.

The US President also cast doubt on the election workers referencing a video that shows officials returning to their counting areas and a container with ballots being pulled out from under a table. The election officials have previously responded saying that it is normal practice, and no fraud took place there.

An official investigation found that "the entire security footage revealed there were no mystery ballots that were brought in from an unknown location and hidden under tables as has been reported by some."

Other claims by the commander-in-chief included that out-of-state voters cast their ballots in Georgia, which was refuted by Germany. "Everyone we've been through are people that lived in Georgia, moved to a different state but then moved back to Georgia legitimately," he said.

Raffensperger said that "in Georgia, we did get it right. I’m not happy with the result, as a Republican, but it is the right result based on the numbers that we saw cast," as per The Associated Press. President-elect Joe Biden won in Georgia by an 11,779-vote margin. He will be sworn-in on January 20, 2021.

References:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/03/politics/trump-brad-raffensperger-phone-call-transcript/index.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/donald-trump-georgia-election-joe-biden-congress/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55529230

https://apnews.com/article/trump-raffensperger-phone-call-georgia-d503c8b4e58f7cd648fbf9a746131ec9