Transcript: Highlights of Trump’s Call With the Georgia
Secretary of State
Background
: In a leaked telephone conversation, President Trump pressured
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of Georgia, a fellow Republican and the state’s
top elections official, on Jan. 2 to overturn the election results in his state, reciting
debunked claims of election fraud.
You can listen to excerpts from the recording, which was obtained by The New York
Times, in
this seven-minute audio clip
, and follow along in the transcript below. You
can find the full transcript and recording
here
.
Directions:
As you listen, highlight, underline or take notes about what you notice
and wonder about the conversation. Which lines stand out to you? What questions do
you have? If you’re in a classroom context, share at least one thing you noticed and
one thing you wondered with the class or a partner. Then, read
the featured article
.
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Excerpt #1
TRUMP: We have, we have, we have won this election in Georgia based on all of this.
And there’s, there’s nothing wrong with saying that, Brad. You know, I mean, having
the, having a correct — the people of Georgia are angry and these numbers are going to
be repeated on Monday night, along with others that we’re going to have by that time,
which are much more substantial even. And the people of Georgia are angry, the
people of the country are angry. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you
know, um, that you’ve recalculated. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you
know, um, that you’ve recalculated because the 2,236 and absentee ballots, I mean,
they’re all exact numbers that were, were done by accounting firms, law firms, etc. And
even if you cut ’em in half, cut ’em in half and cut ’em in half again, it’s more votes
than we need.
RAFFENSPERGER: Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you
have is wrong. We, we talked to the congressmen, and they were surprised. But they —
I guess, there’s a person named Mr. Brainard that came to these meetings and
presented data and he said that there was dead people, I believe it was upward of