After providing the Washington Post with a bombshell recording of Donald Trump attempting to pressure him into changing election results, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sat down for an interview with Good Morning America on Monday where he explained how the potentially illegal call happened and why the president has no idea what’s he talking about.
While fielding questions from George Stephanopoulos, Raffensperger revealed that he had been trying to avoid a phone conversation with Trump. “I never believed it was appropriate to speak to the president,” Raffensperger said referencing Trump’s lawsuit against the state of Georgia. However, after facing pressure from White House staff, Raffensperger agreed to a call where he did his best to let Trump know that his election claims had no basis reality. Via NBC News:
“We took the call, and we had a conversation. He did most of the talking, we did most of the listening,” Raffensperger said. “But I did want to make my points that the data that he has is just plain wrong.”
“For the last two months, we’ve been fighting the rumor whack-a-mole,” Raffensperger added. “And it was pretty obvious very early on that we debunked every one of those theories that have been out there, but that President Trump continues to believe them.”
Despite being on the receiving end of Trump’s conspiracy theory and his illegal request to “find the votes,” Raffensperger told GMA that he felt no pressure to give into the president’s demand. “Everything we’ve done for the last 12 months follows the constitution of the state of Georgia, follows the United States Constitution, follows state law.” As for whether Trump will face charges for attempting to alter the results of a federal election, Raffensperger said that the Fulton County district attorney “wants to look at” the case. “Maybe that’s the appropriate venue for it to go,” he added.
And according to CNN’s Jim Acosta, Trump and his team tried calling Raffensperger at least 18 times before he took the call, which reminded some of a classic, cringe-y scene from Swingers.
This reminds me of the cringey scene in Swingers where Mikey keeps calling and leaving a message on the answering machine of the girl he met at the bar https://t.co/PtdJebNZj5
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) January 4, 2021
SCOOP: I have uncovered the 18 voicemails Donald Trump left for the Secretary of State of Georgia. Full video threaded below. pic.twitter.com/Ec02QvPEVx
— J-L Cauvin (@JLCauvin) January 4, 2021
Jan. 20th can’t get here soon enough for a lot of people.
(Via Good Morning America)