Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) says former President Donald Trump’s request to help “find” votes to overturn the 2020 presidential election results “was a threat.”
Raffensperger reflected on the phone conversation in his new book released Tuesday, “Integrity Counts,” as The Associated Press reports.
He wrote, “I felt then — and still believe today — that this was a threat,” adding, “Others obviously thought so, too, because some of Trump’s more radical followers have responded as if it was their duty to carry out this threat.”
The Hill noted Raffensperger included in the book a roughly 40-page transcript of the call.
He wrote in an annotation of the call, “This repeated request for votes showed me that President Trump really had no idea how elections work. The secretary of state’s office doesn’t allocate any votes.”
Raffensperger told the outlet, “At the time of the call in January, I didn’t know if he believed what he was saying. I didn’t know if he was trying to push a narrative, or was he just believing stuff that was fed to him?”
As a conservative, the Georgia secretary of state explained he is “disappointed like everyone else is. But the cold hard facts are that President Trump did come up short in the state of Georgia.”
On whether election fraud is systemic, Raffensperger argued, “Our elections are both fairer and more secure than they have been at any point in our history.”
The author stresses how important it is to choose officials carefully.
“If we don’t have people of the highest character run for elective office, we will continue to fight disinformation, misinformation and outright deception, and the end result will be an erosion of public trust,” Raffensperger said.
He continued, “We need the people who hold public office to continually strive for the noble causes in life with noble behavior.”
The Washington Post published audio of the call in January, as IJR previously reported.
Trump said during the conversation, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state.”
Raffensperger told Trump Georgia had to “stand by” their numbers and reassured him the numbers are “right.”
