US President Donald Trump has been recorded in a conversation with the state secretary of Georgia (GA) on 2nd January. In the conversation, the President was trying to persuade Brad Raffensperger to flip the state towards him. Joe Biden won in GA along with other swing states and earned a total of 306 electoral votes. Trump currently stands at 232. Final approval of the certified election results will be on 6th January and Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the new President of the United States on 20th January.
Biden is leading in GA with 2,473,633 votes while Trump’s Republican Party is at 2,461,854. Trump needed 11,780 votes in order to overturn the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. Unable to accept electoral defeat, Trump has been making false claims about corrupt elections.
Donald Trump In One Hour Long Phone Call about Georgia Results
The excerpts from the call obtained by The Washington Post suggested that Donald Trump asked for the missing votes i.e. 11,780. He constantly insisted that he was the real winner and Joe Biden’s victory was corrupted. He even threatened the officials with legal consequences if they did not act on his wish.
Trump also spoke to Raffensperger’s lawyer and said that he heard rumors about ballots being shredded and voting machinery being removed from Fulton County in GA. The lawyer denied that such a thing had ever happened.
The officials kept denying doubtful arguments of Trump and maintained that GA had fair election results. Ever since the US election results came out, Trump has been alleging mass fraud without proof. US courts have rejected around 60 claims and challenges to Biden win. There have been many recounts and legal appeals on the request of Republicans but all 50 states have certified their results.
Why Does Georgia Election Result Matter?
All American eyes are on the southern swing state of GA where US Senate will decide its future next week. According to electoral rules of the state, a candidate requires 50% of the votes to win but nobody did that in November elections. Joe Biden managed to gain 49.5% of the votes and Trump had 49.3%.
GA voters are due to vote again on 5th January in order to elect two senators. This is the main reason why the GA election is so important and why Trump wants to win here. The upper Chamber of US Congress (Senate) is dominated by the Republican Party since 2014. If Joe Biden wins, Democrats would have extra two seats in the Senate. It will also give them effective control as each party will have 50 senators.
Currently, Democrats have 46 seats in the Senate with 2 other independents; Bernie Sanders and Angus King, who caucus with the Democrats. The result could determine the power balance in the upper house of the Congress. Biden’s party has already controlled the majority of lower house (Representatives) with 222 Democrats. In case of 50-50 tie in the Senate, vice president-elect, Kamala Harris will decide the final vote.
Supporters of Donald Trump have been putting forward the idea of involving even the military in order to assure Trump’s victory. Or, or at least leave a mess for Biden.
Desperate Times – Desperate Measures
The white house has not commented on the audio leak. It was a very blunt abuse of power which also raises concern for the congressmen. Anyone can be corruptible and susceptible to a lucrative offer. Unlike, the officials in the call, some other members can still be empathic to Trump if he manages to convince them somehow. Of course, it would be a dangerous mistake.
Many have wondered if Trump contacted someone else other than GA secretary of state. It could be worth investigating for the sake of protecting American democracy. As per popular opinion, Donald Trump has been trying to project his inner dictator in a freedom-loving country.
There is no evidence of Trump’s claim about electoral fraud. GA has re-counted multiple times and found no gaps. The president appears to utilize all tools he can access to assert his fading dominance in US politics. Sometimes it’s the rant on twitter and this time there was some scolding, begging, and threatening to win the election by whichever way.
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