Trump's Georgia Call Is Impeachable and an Abuse of Power, Democrats Say

President Donald Trump urged Georgia election officials to “find” thousands of votes and recalculate the election result to flip the state to him -- an extraordinary effort to strong-arm fellow Republicans as he tries to dispute Joe Biden’s election win.

In a 62-minute call on Saturday, Trump oscillated from flattery to threats as he pressed officials, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to take action in his favor just days before Congress is scheduled to certify the election results.

The president’s voice -- and that of his chief of staff, Mark Meadows -- was heard in an audio recording of the call that was obtained by Bloomberg News. Excerpts of the call were published earlier Sunday by the Washington Post.

Trump unleashed a series of complaints, attacks and unfounded theories, and the Georgia officials responded by saying they have no evidence of widespread fraud and that they stand by the election results, already subject to two recounts.

“We believe that we do have an accurate election,” Raffensperger said.

Two of Trump’s lawyers also spoke on the call -- Cleta Mitchell and Kurt Hilbert. Trump and Mitchell were at odds at times. At one point, Trump claimed a group of 18,000 ballots that Mitchell was referring to were counted three times. “I don’t know about that,” Mitchell said, undercutting Trump’s claim. “I do,” Trump replied.

At another moment, Trump was asking about ballots cast by overseas voters, and talked over Mitchell when she interjected. “I’m not asking you, Cleta, honestly. I’m asking Brad,” Trump said.

Trump directed his sharpest attacks, though, at Raffensperger, as well as GOP Governor Brian Kemp, in the waning minutes of the call. He said he’d been a “schmuck” for endorsing Kemp in his 2018 race against Stacey Abrams, who helped Democrats organize in the state during 2020.

“She has outplayed you,” Trump said. “She’s outsmarted you at every step and I hate to imagine what’s going to happen on Monday or Tuesday.”

Trump then appeared to lose hope. “I know this phone call’s going nowhere,” Trump said. Raffensperger ultimately ended the conversation, thanking Trump for his time.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was among those who slammed Trump’s actions. “It was certainly the voice of desperation,” she said of the call while campaigning in Georgia. “It was a bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States.”

Representative Dan Kildee, a Democrat from Michigan, said the call would provoke an impeachment inquiry if Trump had more than a few weeks left in office. But Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said if it were up to her, even with Trump departing this month, articles of impeachment would be “on the floor, quite quickly.”

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a watchdog group, called the call another impeachable offense by Trump.

“The president of the United States has been caught on tape trying to rig a presidential election,” Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a written statement.

“This is a low point in American history and unquestionably impeachable conduct. It is incontrovertible and devastating.”

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