‘It’s not social media, it’s Trump Media’: 5 key points from Donald Trump’s phone call

US President Donald Trump on Sunday was recorded on call by Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, putting pressure on the state secretary and his legal counsel to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

The conversation was mainly between Donald Trump and Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, but Trump campaign individuals like Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and attorney Cleta Mitchell were also present, as was Ryan Germany, Raffensperger’s counsel.

Trump gave a glimpse of how his campaign is arriving at voter fraud numbers

One of Trump campaign’s associates who was part of the call told the state secretary that the campaign came to know dead people voted in the elections through newspaper obituaries. “We took the name, birth year, we have certain information available to us, we have asked your office for the records that you have. Same name and same birth year who have died. To make records available to us.”she said . “4,502 voters who voted but were not the voter registration list, dead people voted,” Trump added. Raffensperger resisted this claim, “The data you have is wrong. The actual number is 2,” he responded. Later, towards the end of the phone call Trump’s lawyer once again pushed for access to the state’s database but Raffensperger and his legal counsels refused to entertain their request, invoking that state data is protected by law.

The state secretary stood his ground against Trump, defended the election results

Raffensperger pushed back against Trump and insisted Biden’s win in Georgia was fair. Responding to Trump’s voter fraud numbers, he said: “Well, Mr President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.” Trump kept alluding to a video where an individual (whose name was bleeped out) was seen committing voter fraud. Raffensperger resisted his claims commenting “I think it is very unfortunate that Rudy Giuliani and his people sliced and diced the video”. His counsel also denied the Trump campaign access to the state’s data for cross-verification purposes, continuously insisting that all data is protected by law.

Trump said Raffensperger he might face a criminal investigation

Trump intimidated Raffensperger and his legal counsel by warning about a criminal investigation, the Associated Press reported. “You know what they did and you’re not reporting it,” Trump said. “You know, that’s a criminal offence. And you know, you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. That’s a big risk.” Trump also commented that even though Raffensperger is Republican his state did not have an accurate election, unfoundedly claiming the election was off by “hundreds of thousands of votes”, reported Reuters. Adding a moment later that he only needs enough votes to flip the state, “Flipping the state is a great testament to our country” he added. He also accused Georgia officials of certifying a faulty election. Towards the end of the phone call Trump could also be heard telling Raffensperger that the only people who like what he has done(defended the election results) are the ones who will never vote for him.

Donald Trump told Raffensperger his actions will lead to Republicans losing the Georgia runoff

Trump told Raffensperger that if he did not act by Tuesday he would be harming the chances of Georgia Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in this week’s runoff elections, which is set to determine whether the Democrats or the Republicans control the Senate, reported AFP. Referring to the runoffs in the call, Trump said, “It’s going to have a big impact on Tuesday if you guys don’t get it straightened out fast”. He further added that people hate the state’s government and secretary of state, both Republicans and they are not going to vote in Tuesday’s election, because of what has been done to their President.

‘It’s not social media it’s Trump Media’

Donald Trump and his legal team once again brought up the issue of shredding of ballots. When one of Raffensperger’s associates tried cautioning him against videos circulating on social media, reported Blomberg. Trump commented that he gets his information from Trump media not social media. “Mr. President the problem you have with social media, is that people can say anything they want”, said the associate, “No this isn’t social media, this is Trump media ‘’ Trump commented, adding that he “does not care about social media”.