President Donald Trump is receiving fierce criticism after an excerpt of a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was published by The Washington Post.
In the call, Trump is heard pressing Raffensperger on a series of allegations of widespread fraud in the election and asking election officials to “find” votes for him to overturn the state’s election results.
Trump tweeted about the call on Sunday and claimed, “[Raffensperger] was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!”
I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the “ballots under table” scam, ballot destruction, out of state “voters”, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2021
Politico reported that Raffensperger’s office decided to record the call because, “This is a man who has a history of reinventing history as it occurs.”
During an interview with reporter Brendan Keefe on Monday, Raffensperger said there was no agreement that the details of the call would be kept confidential.
He added that he “assumed” the call was about the presidential election.
Keefe asked if the public would have heard about the call if Trump had not tweeted about it.
“No,” Raffensperger said as he explained he believed the phone call would remain private. However, the next morning Trump made false claims about the call on Twitter.
He added, “If President Trump wouldn’t have tweeted out anything and would’ve stayed silent, we would’ve stayed silent as well.”
He continued, “And that would’ve just been a conversation between him and I. Man to man. And that would’ve been just fine with us. But he’s the one who had to put it out on Twitter. And so, if you’re going to put out stuff that we don’t believe is true, then we will respond in kind.”
Watch the video below:
The secret Trump/Raffensperger recording was released because of the president's false tweet about the Secretary of State. Listen to @GaSecofState tell us that there was no confidentiality stipulation & why any expectation of privacy on the call was shattered by @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/qvNgfjxIoa
— Brendan Keefe – Atlanta News First (@BrendanKeefe) January 4, 2021
In the audio of the call, Trump can be heard pressing Raffensperger a range of baseless allegations, including whether ballots were shredded or voting machines were tampered with.
Raffensperger quickly shot down the president’s allegations as he defended the integrity of the state’s election systems.
On Sunday, Raffensperger shared Trump’s tweet and said, “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true.”
Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out https://t.co/ViYjTSeRcC
— GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) January 3, 2021
“The truth will come out,” he added.
