President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team is trashing President Trump after he reportedly told an elected Georgia Republican to “find” the votes he needed to overturn the state’s presidential race.
Bob Bauer, a senior adviser to Biden, ripped Trump over excerpts of a leaked telephone conversation between the president and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“We now have irrefutable proof of a president pressuring and threatening an official of his own party to get him to rescind a state’s lawful, certified vote count and fabricate another in its place. It captures the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy,” Bauer said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner.
During their conversation, Trump accused Raffensperger of being aware of election integrity issues with his Nov. 3 contest but refusing to act on them, according to audio obtained by the Washington Post.
“That’s a criminal offense, and you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk,” he said during their discussion, recordings of which were first released by the Washington Post.
Trump added, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”
After audits, recounts, and legal challenges, Georgia certified Biden’s almost 12,000-vote win in December, awarding the former vice president the state’s 16 electoral votes and helping him notch the 270 required for the White House. Congress will vote this week to approve the 2020 election’s results naming Biden the winner.
