President Donald Trump badgered and pleaded with Georgia’s election chief to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state, suggesting in a telephone call that the official “find” enough votes to hand Trump the victory. Trump confirmed in a tweet that he had spoken with Georgia’s Secretary of State, Republican Brad Raffensperger, a day earlier.
The president, who has refused to accept his loss to the Democratic president-elect, is heard telling Raffensperger at one point: “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” The conversation on Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost. Mr Biden, a Democrat, is due to be inaugurated as president on 20 January. President Donald Trump has refused to concede the 3 November election, repeatedly alleging fraud without providing any evidence. On Saturday he addressed state legislators in five states where he has been trying to overturn the result. Trump has repeatedly attacked how Raffensperger ran Georgia’s elections, claiming without evidence that the state’s 16 electoral votes were wrongly given to Biden.
