President Donald Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, demanding he finds the votes required to win the state's elections. When the audio was made public, the president has been subject to severe criticism. Much to his relief, several conservative House Republicans have come forward to defend the president from the outcome of his phone call.
Raffensperger, who has described Trump's false claims that he won Georgia, "just plain wrong," was recently pressured by the president in a phone call to find votes supporting his claims. With many suggesting that Trump's action amounts to illegal vote tampering, Republicans are concerned that the call could weaken their attempts to win two Senate races in the state on Jan. 5.
After House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy downplayed Trump's demand, many Republicans came forward to his defense, with some even refusing to take issue with Trump's actions. Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer noted that he wasn't involved in the call, while Representative Paul Gosar, who supports his colleagues' attempt to overturn the election results, described Trump's call as a simple expression of frustration, CNN reported.
Ohio GOP Representative Jim Jordan compared the president's call to the impeachment fight, claiming the call was similar to Trump's call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where he demanded an investigation into the Bidens win. Noting that he got no concerns, Jordan accused the press and the Democrats of making a big issue of the call, just like they did with the call to Zelensky.
Jordan said the call would not have an impact on GOP support on Jan. 5. He said they have huge support, which continues to grow. Trump's call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, audio of which was first released by The Washington Post, comes before Republicans plan to object to President-elect Joe Biden's win when Congress convenes on Jan. 6 to count the Electoral College votes.
Raffensperger told reporters Monday that he did not know that the call was being recorded, noting that he spoke to Trump from his home. During the call, Raffensperger said the president claimed hundreds and hundreds of people were dead that voted, but they were able to find just two such cases.
Raffensperger went on to say that Trump has the wrong data. Georgia's voting systems implementation manager Gabriel Sterling said in a recently concluded news conference that the president's claims were false and criticized his call to Raffensperger, BBC reported.
Urging the residents to vote on Tuesday's election, Sterling said Trump is trying to undermine Georgians' trust in the state's election process. He assured that everybody's vote would be counted.