Day 1,445: Trump to Georgia secretary of state: ‘find 11,780 votes’ for me
Desperation mixed with threats to form the latest treasonous activity by Donald Trump on Saturday, as revealed in a tape leaked to the Washington Post.
Speaking with Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, Trump implored him to find that there were voting irregularities or risk criminal exposure.
During their conversation, Trump issued a vague threat to both Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s general counsel, suggesting that if they don’t find that thousands of ballots in Fulton County have been illegally destroyed to block investigators — an allegation for which there is no evidence — they would be subject to criminal liability.
But the sound bite that’s sure to ring the loudest from the one-hour call is Trump’s demand that Raffensperger “find 11,780 votes,” or enough for him to win by one.
At another point, Trump said: “So look. 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.”
He later added: “So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”
Trump is threatening an elected official to overturn election results and magically “find” enough votes so that he can win. The alterative, according to Trump, is that the elected official may find himself behind bars.
That’s as autocratic as it gets.
Donald Trump lost. Joe Biden won. The election is over. States have certified the results. Congress will do the same in three days.
But Trump’s humiliation and delusion requires him to do whatever is necessary to avoid that reality. The vast majority of the Republican party — who tout themselves as constitutionalists and believers of all things democracy — have remained remarkably silent or actually going along with the attempted coup.
Trump’s latest attempt at meddling triggers his own potential criminal liability. But he’s just living moment-to-moment, unconcerned about the ramifications of his flagrant conduct.
1,445 days in, 17 to go
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