In excerpts of the stunning one-hour phone call Saturday, Trump lambasted his fellow Republican for refusing to falsely say that he won the election in Georgia and repeatedly touted baseless claims of election fraud.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated,” Trump said in one excerpt of the call. Raffensperger responded, “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”
In another excerpt, Trump said, “So look. 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 White House, the Trump campaign and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Post. The White House declined to comment to CNN.
CNN has reached out to Raffensperger.
The Post also reported that Meadows, lawyer Cleta Mitchell and other Republican allies of the President were also on the call.
Trump tweeted Sunday that he spoke to Raffensperger on the phone in an attempt to convince him to look into unfounded conspiracy theories about the November election. According to Trump, Raffensperger refused to do so. Raffensperger responded to Trump later in a tweet: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.”
The call represents the latest extraordinary effort by Trump to change the results of the race he lost following weeks of legal and political efforts by the President, his legal team and Republican allies to overturn the free and fair election.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer seized on the call in a tweet Sunday afternoon, suggesting to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas that he and his GOP allies should investigate the President for his actions.
Cruz was among 11 Republican senators who announced Saturday they would support an objection to the Electoral College votes, if one is brought, and propose an election commission to conduct an “emergency 10-day audit” of the election returns in the “disputed states” — despite no credible evidence suggesting widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
CNN’s Ryan Nobles contributed to this report.
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