Georgia electoral authorities said Monday that outgoing President Donald Trump is "undermining" faith in the state's electoral system just ahead of Tuesday's key elections, in which fewer people could vote due to "misinformation. "released by the president.
Two days after Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" thousands of votes in his favor in the state during an extraordinary phone call whose contents were leaked to the press, that state official's office directed harsh criticism of the president.
"It seemed to me (the call) something that was not normal, out of place. No one that I know who could be president would do something like that to a secretary of state," said Gabriel Sterling, in charge of the implementation of Georgia's voting system within from Raffensperger's office.
[They criticize the plan of some Republicans to object to the result of the Electoral College]
Sterling refuted Trump's accusations about alleged electoral fraud in Georgia, a key state that the outgoing president lost by 11,779 votes in the November 2020 elections and where there have already been three counts to corroborate the election result.
Biden aide says Trump's call to Georgia is proof of his attack on democracy
Jan. 4, 202100: 30
"It is easily demonstrable that all of these (accusations) are false, but the president persists in it. And in doing so, he undermines the faith of Georgians in the electoral system, especially that of the Republicans, in this case. And that is important, because we have an important election tomorrow, "Sterling stressed.
In an interview Monday, Raffensperger told
The Associated Press
that he is confident in the outcome of the state's general election, despite a legal challenge to the Electoral College from some Republicans in Congress.
"If you support a challenge to Georgia voters, you are wrong, completely wrong," Raffensperger said.
Members of Congress will have to make a decision about the other states, he added, “but in Georgia we did well.
I am not happy with the result, as a Republican, but it is the correct result according to the numbers that we saw issued.
When asked if he felt the president was pressuring him to do something illegal, Raffensperger said:
"I think he was looking for any kind of advantage he could get
, and I don't see how he's going to get it."
Trump may be subject to criminal investigation
The president faces a possible investigation into the scandalous phone call and his pressure on an official to manipulate the results of an election.
The renewed attempt by Trump to reverse his defeat has not only aroused the rejection of Democrats and Republicans, who described it as an "undemocratic" act, but also immediately generated requests for justice and the FBI to
intervene and analyze whether the president broke the law
.
Trump has repeated, without evidence, allegations of alleged widespread election fraud, refusing to acknowledge his defeat.
AP /.
Raffensperger said Monday in an interview on ABC that his office is unlikely to launch an investigation, as requested by a Democratic member of the Georgia Board of Elections, because it would raise a possible "conflict of interest."
However, he indicated that it would be appropriate for the district attorney to do so.
The elected district attorney of Fulton County in Georgia, Fani Willis, has already anticipated that if the case reaches her office, she
will enforce the law "without fear or favoritism
.
"
"Anyone who commits a serious violation of Georgia law in my jurisdiction will be held accountable for that," he said in a statement.
Democratic Representatives Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice also sent
a letter to FBI Director
Christopher Wray, asking for an immediate investigation.
"We believe that Donald Trump was involved in a series of electoral crimes, soliciting or conspiring to commit them," the letter said.
A call full of "conspiracy theories"
In the audio of Trump's call, obtained by our sister network NBC News, the president can be heard railing against Georgia's election officials,
repeating a series of false and unsubstantiated allegations
of voter fraud, still in total disbelief of his defeat to him. Democrat Joe Biden.
"There's no way he's lost in Georgia," Trump told Raffensperger, who is also a Republican, in the call made on Saturday but surfaced Sunday.
[More Republican senators announce obstacles in Congress to the certification of Biden's victory]
The Electoral College has already certified that Biden won the election, after conducting multiple recounts and audits since November, and the Democrat will take office in January, once certified by Congress.
Paul Ryan calls Trump's plan to reverse the election result "undemocratic"
Jan. 4, 202100: 31
However,
Trump asked the secretary to "find" the votes
he needs to turn the outcome in his favor.
“All I want to do is this.
I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, "he said.
The data that Trump has is
simply "incorrect"
was Raffensperger's response during the call and subsequent statements on Twitter and the media.
The official explained on Monday that the problem is that
the president "continues to believe" in conspiracy theories
and false information.
He mentioned, for example, the unsubstantiated accusation that hundreds of people who died in Georgia voted.
"We found two cases," clarified the Secretary of State in statements to ABC.
Trump referred in his call to unsubstantiated rumors such as ballots scanned three times, votes destroyed in Fulton County and voters who do not live in Georgia.
Raffensperger and his office's general counsel, Ryan Germany, also present on the call,
rejected each of these points
: they have already been proven to be false.
An "undemocratic" act: Democrats and Republicans react
The conversation was released this Sunday when The Washington Post newspaper initially published some fragments, and the reaction from both sides of the political spectrum was immediate.
Democratic leaders called it an "assault on democracy."
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said it was a clear sign
of Trump's
“audacious abuse of power”
.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, called for impeachment, while Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, a criminal investigation.
Members of the Republican Party were not far behind.
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan called the attempts to question the election results as the "most undemocratic and anti-conservative act" imaginable.
Ten former US defense secretaries have also signed a letter in which they end the presidential election process and ask not to question the results.
The president vaguely warned in the call about a possible "criminal offense" if the results were not reviewed, although
the one who could end up being investigated by the Justice is himself
.
Legal experts indicate that Trump may have violated Georgia state laws against requesting an act of election fraud and extortion by trying to pressure Raffensperger, according to a report by The New York Times.
"The people of Georgia are angry. The people of the country are angry," Trump said on the call.
"And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've recalculated," he added.
Raffensperger indicated in his interview with ABC that he did not feel pressured.
However, when asked if it was the first such conversation, he acknowledged that he
never thought it appropriate to talk to the president about
the election
results
.
Trump has repeatedly tried to overturn his defeat, unsuccessfully, either by pressuring state legislatures to name voters lists in his favor or by promoting more than 50 lawsuits alleging fraud, without presenting any concrete evidence to the respect.
[Despite Republican legal actions and Trump complaints, there is no evidence of widespread fraud]
At a rally in Georgia last month, the president commented, "I've probably worked harder in the last three weeks than I ever have in my life. Doing this."
With information from NBC News, The New York Times, ABC News and Politico.
