Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The revolution will be supervised.

In my day, never was longer.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Republicans do not pay their debts.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Infrastructure week. at last.

We still have time to mess this up!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / This Is Madness: Trump On Tape With GA SOS ETA: Full Hour Published

This Is Madness: Trump On Tape With GA SOS ETA: Full Hour Published

by | 347 Comments

This post is in: , ,

ETA: Here’s the full hour:

I think this deserves its own post.  h/t Jim, Foolish Literalist

ETA: Here’s the audio if you can’t access WaPo

It is a WaPo link, but I’m assuming it will be available elsewhere soon.

It’s going to be a long, looong two weeks. Buckle up!

 

ETA: It took me a while to access the story (for some reason my subscription wasn’t working)

President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions.

The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”

Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s assertions, explaining that the president is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate.

 

Reader Interactions

347Comments

  2. 2.

    Brachiator

    “Trump did most of the talking… calling Raffensperger a “child” and “either dishonest or incompetent”— and twice calling himself a “schmuck” for endorsing Kemp”

    Same old Trump. Some GOP officeholders don’t seem to realize that they don’t have to take Trump’s calls anymore.

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    Amy Gardner in the WaPost.  Her first paragraphs.  Kudos to her.

    President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions.

    The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”

    Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s assertions, explaining that the president is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate.

  5. 5.

    MattF

    And, as I wrote below, one can assume Trump is calling R Senators and haranguing them similarly. Difference is that if you’re a Senator, you’re apparently not allowed to say ‘NO’, even if it means political suicide.

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom ·3m
    This entire conversation is an impeachable offense and instead Republicans, especially in the Sedition Caucus, will go to the wall to defend it.

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    More WaPost:

    “The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” he said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”

    Raffensperger responded: “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”

    At another point, 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 rambling and at times incoherent conversation offered a remarkable glimpse of how consumed and desperate the president remains about his loss, unwilling or unable to let the matter go and still believing he can reverse the results in enough battleground states to remain in office.

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Surely this is criminal. Impeachable. I thought long ago that Trump could never shock me, but I am horrified by this.

    And, while the four minutes is incriminating enough, I hope the full hour leaks out soon. How can Raffensperger remain a member of the Republicans party after this?

  13. 13.

    Elizabelle

    Collusion!

    Several of [Trump’s] allies were on the line as he spoke, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a prominent GOP lawyer whose involvement with Trump’s efforts had not been previously known.

  14. 14.

    Parfigliano

    I love how in this country whatever a person with money does is in a murkie gray area when if Joe Nobody did the same thing prosecutors have no trouble decieding the act is criminal

  15. 15.

    Zzyzx

    The good news is that a lot of people are indeed turned off by this which is why he lost. The bad news is that some 30% of the country will automatically believe this and it’s hard to build a society when that large of a population refuses to accept that they could be outnumbered.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost:

    During their conversation, Trump issued a vague threat to both Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s legal counsel, suggesting that if they don’t find that thousands of ballots in Fulton County have been illegally destroyed to block investigators — an allegation for which there is no evidence — they would be subject to criminal liability.

  17. 17.

    Mike in NC

    Dear Speaker Pelosi: please impeach Putin’s stooge once again before the Secret Service dumps his shit on the sidewalk outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost:

    Trump also told Raffensperger that failure to act by Tuesday would jeopardize the political fortunes of David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, Georgia’s two Republican senators whose fate in that day’s runoff elections will determine control of the U.S. Senate.

    Trump said he plans to talk about the fraud on Monday, when he is scheduled to lead an election eve rally in Dalton, Ga. — a message that could further muddle the efforts of Republicans to get their voters out.

  20. 20.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    Several of [Trump’s] allies were on the line as he spoke, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a prominent GOP lawyer whose involvement with Trump’s efforts had not been previously known.

    Does Mitchell have a brother named Cletus?

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost:

    [Trump] also took aim at Kemp’s 2018 opponent, Democrat Stacey Abrams, trying to shame Raffensperger with the idea that his refusal to embrace fraud has helped her and Democrats generally. “Stacey Abrams is laughing about you,” he said. “She’s going around saying, ‘These guys are dumber than a rock.’ What she’s done to this party is unbelievable, I tell you.”

    The secretary of state repeatedly sought to push back, saying at one point, “Mr. President, the problem you have with social media, that — people can say anything.”

    “Oh this isn’t social media,” Trump retorted. “This is Trump media. It’s not social media. It’s really not. It’s not social media. I don’t care about social media. I couldn’t care less.”

  23. 23.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Parfigliano: The seditious Senators who vote not to accept the election result are all lone wolves, not indicative of any problem in the Republican party as a whole.

    The Proud Boys are all lone wolves too. Not part of any kind of seditious organization.

  25. 25.

    debbie

    Jesus. I checked Rob Portman’s Twitter feed to see what the weasel was up to. He’s pimping that bipartisan commission. Conservatvies have flooded his feed, congratulating and agreeing with him even though people are pointing out the votes have already been verified multiple times and verified.

    Sorry, but I don’t see this disappearing after the 6th. Even with that fucking tape.

  26. 26.

    Lavocat

    This is treasonous and outrageously criminal.

    Prosecute this motherfucker ON DAY FUCKING ONE!

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    Toward the end of WaPost story:  LOL.  Raffensperger ended the conversation.

    It was clear from the call that Trump has surrounded himself with aides who have fed his false perceptions that the election was stolen. When he claimed that more than 5,000 ballots were cast in Georgia in the name of dead people, Raffensperger responded forcefully: “The actual number was two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted.”

    But later, Meadows said, “I can promise you there are more than that.”

    Another Trump lawyer on the call, Kurt Hilbert, accused Raffensperger’s office of refusing to turn over data to assess evidence of fraud, and also claimed awareness of at least 24,000 illegally cast ballots that would flip the result to Trump.

    “It stands to reason that if the information is not forthcoming, there’s something to hide,” Hilbert said. “That’s the problem that we have.”

    Reached by phone Sunday, Hilbert declined to comment.

    …. Yet Trump also recognized that he was failing to persuade Raffensperger or Germany of anything, saying toward the end, “I know this phone call is going nowhere.”

    But he continued to make his case in repetitive fashion, until finally, after more than an hour, Raffensperger put an end to the conversation: “Thank you, President Trump, for your time.”

    Alice Crites contributed to this report.

    Updated January 3, 2021

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    @debbie: 

    Sorry, but I don’t see this disappearing after the 6th. Even with that fucking tape.

    It may not disappear, but it won’t go anywhere, either. People who are angry and want to hang onto to fantasies and conspiracy theories will continue to do so.

    Trump will continue to blow gas until he is out of the White House forever.

  30. 30.

    The Moar You Know

    Kind of makes you wonder what was in the redacted portions of the Ukraine call.

    @Baud: I’m not wondering at all.

  31. 31.

    pat

    I don’t get it.  As far as I know, there are not enough votes in Georgia to overturn the electoral college.

    WTF?

    When do the men in white coats barge into the Oval Office with the straitjacket?

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    If comment does not come out of moderation:

    Raffensperger finally brought the telecon to an end.  Trump was just rambling and repeating himself.

    Raffensperger:   “Thank you, President Trump, for your time.”

    And:  the WaPost reports Trump’s claims show he’s surrounded by aides who are feeding him this crap, but isn’t it the rightwing media environment too?

    At this point, even the NY Post has told Trump to give it up.

    Nowhere in the Post, but what we have to remember is behind Trump’s desperation:

    Once his ass is out of the Oval, Trump is in a world of legal trouble.  He is looking at a lifetime of litigation, and maybe even prison.

    I tire of people telling us Trump is going to get away with everything.  Clearly, he does not believe that.

    And it would be morally wrong not to prosecute.  Why leave the bar so low for the next autocrat?

  34. 34.

    Felanius Kootea

    The thing is that he eventually starts to believe his own B.S. Constructs his own demented reality with the backing of people like Meadows. Is it worth impeaching him again just so it’s clear he can’t run in 2024?

  38. 38.

    The Moar You Know

    This is an attempt to overthrow a lawfully elected government of the United States of America.

    I don’t even know what else to say.  There it is.

  39. 39.

    RaflW

    Props to the source. Leaking this today should inflict maximum damage on Cruz, Hawley and the other 10 senate cretins.

  41. 41.

    boatboy_srq

    @Elizabelle: I think “whose involvement with Trump’s efforts had not been previously known” is going to be a phrase we will be seeing quite a lot in the coming months.

  42. 42.

    natem

    Seriously, though, the Both Sideserism of this whole fucking era is going to be a sight to behold

  48. 48.

    J.

    Can you imagine if ANY Democrat did that what the Republicans would do? (That’s a rhetorical question. We all know what they would do. They would impeach him immediately and call for him to be jailed.)

    January 20th can’t come soon enough. Though Trump will still be awful and tens of millions of Americans will still adore him. Ick.

  49. 49.

    Jinchi

    @Brachiator: Some GOP officeholders don’t seem to realize that they don’t have to take Trump’s calls anymore.

    If they hadn’t taken the call, we’d never have heard the tape. Now they’ve publicized evidence of Trump shaking down Republican officials.

    I am curious what Trump has said on the phone with Republicans in the other swing states and in Congress, though. Clearly some are happy to do his bidding.

  50. 50.

    RaflW

    @SiubhanDuinne: I just hope Raffensperger has excellent, round the clock security. Because the wingnuts will – without evidence – blame him for leaking this. And there are murderously deranged people out there (as Michigan’s governor can attest).

  51. 51.

    Brachiator

    @Felanius Kootea:

    The thing is that he eventually starts to believe his own B.S. Constructs his own demented reality with the backing of people like Meadows.

    Sad thing is that Trump has always been pathetic and demented.

  52. 52.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Elizabelle:

    threatened him with vague criminal consequences

    Sorry, I need specific criminal consequences.  Too lazy to be specific.

    ETA

    at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”

    Nice vague something you got here.  Be a shame if something vaguely happened to it.

  54. 54.

    zhena gogolia

    Trump’s contempt for democracy is laid bare. Once again. On tape.Pressuring an election official to “find” the votes so he can win is potentially criminal,And another flagrant abuse of power by a corrupt man who would be a despot, if we allowed him.We will not. https://t.co/YH7VtLJn3x— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 3, 2021

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle: You are freed, and I cleaned up the extraneous junk at the bottom.  You get lots of extra crap when you copy from the Washington Post, even if you just highlight a few paragraphs.

  56. 56.

    germy

    “Because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative, because they hate what you did to the president. Okay? They hate it. And they’re going to vote.” https://t.co/devfoQWJeW
    — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 3, 2021

    They will vote negative.

    And really only a minor point here but for all the effort by some aides to suggest Trump shut the door on Powell, he never has. And he never has stopped believing in some of her Dominion conspiracy theories. https://t.co/Y1fuji4FU1
    — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 3, 2021

    Sidney Powell really got inside his head. Or vice versa.

  57. 57.

    zhena gogolia

    Agreeing with Kristol again, my Gawd.

    As a matter of political hygiene and constitutional precedent, the House Judiciary Committee should at least draft articles of impeachment based on this call, even if there's not time for the House to adopt them.https://t.co/L0us4YjoPQ— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) January 3, 2021

  58. 58.

    Jinchi

    @germy: “ask yourself if Trump is less or more likely to tell people not to vote when he goes to his GA rally tomorrow “

    Convince Trump that Perdue and Loeffler are laughing at him and it’s all over.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    @germy:   It’s all horserace with Maggie FTF Maggie Haberman, isn’t it?

    NY Times does not have a story up yet on web, at least not on quick survey of its frontpage.

  60. 60.

    MattF

    Note that @msnbc has posted a tweet saying that they have the tape. Whoever is doing this is going all the way.

  62. 62.

    Kent

    Anyone here realize that here were only Republicans on each end of this phone call.  Republican principals and their “trusted” aids.  No one else.  This wasn’t some sort of bipartisan thing, this was 100% internal GOP.

    Yet the Washington Post seems to have immediately landed a perfect audio copy.  Almost as it happened.

    There are lots and lots of folks who are really done with Trump I suspect.

  63. 63.

    patrick II

    @Elizabelle:

    Trump’s threat of criminal liability is probably why Barr left.  He was not going to go after election officials or even be used as a threat.

  65. 65.

    patrick II

    I’m curious as to who leaked the tape.  My first take would be Brad Raffensperger or someone in his office who didn’t appreciate being threatened with criminal liability.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    @MazeDancer:   WaPost put it up on Youtube!  Good for them.

    In the early ’70s, less than this brought congressional Republicans to the White House to say “it’s time to step down.”

  67. 67.

    RaflW

    @Parfigliano: One of the things I’ve noticed: Apparently Martha Stewart wasn’t rich enough, because she went to jail for things about which Sen. Kelly Loeffler has gotten a complete pass.

  68. 68.

    sphouch

    @pat: I suspect the objective is not to undo the election results simply with GA, but to use the pressure campaign (assuming that he would be able to convince Raffensberger to falsly claim a contrary election result) as “proof” that the election was fraudulent in one of the swing states, and therefore the other swing states are similarly tainted and the “real” results need to be announced.  Priming for a snowball effect.
    If the president* can get one state to change their position, then they have more ammunition to attack the others, or to justify not vacating office.

  69. 69.

    The Moar You Know

    gopCan you imagine if ANY Democrat did that what the Republicans would do?

    @J.: They wouldn’t have time.  Dems would jail that person themselves.  Instantly.  The Democratic party seems to understand, most of it anyway, what the term “existential threat” means.   That the Republicans refuse to touch this guy because they think it will hurt their re-election prospects (it will not and McConnell understands that) is incomprehensible.  If they don’t take him out now he’s going to sit on the sidelines and take his best shots at the GOP until the day he dies.

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    @boatboy_srq:   Flush them all out.  We are safer knowing.

    @RaflW:   Also reminds Democratic voters that they need to come out in such huge numbers that their votes cannot be miscounted.

  73. 73.

    Brachiator

    @Jinchi:

    Some GOP officeholders don’t seem to realize that they don’t have to take Trump’s calls anymore.

    If they hadn’t taken the call, we’d never have heard the tape. Now they’ve publicized evidence of Trump shaking down Republican officials.

    Fair point.

    Trump and his enablers are increasingly reckless. They don’t care anymore.

  75. 75.

    Elizabelle

    Maybe Raffensperger and staff released this tape to help protect his fellow Secretaries of State in other swing states?

  76. 76.

    patrick II

    @sphouch:

    We have put this behind us, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court only allowed the Biden electors by a 4-3 margin.  Three Republican judge traitors.  That would have been two of the three states needed.  This was a close thing.

  82. 82.

    Matt

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Republicans, especially in the Sedition Caucus, will go to the wall to defend it.

    That’ll be handy, save all the logistical hassles of getting them _to_ the wall before putting them up against it.

  84. 84.

    sphouch

    @patrick II: Very good point, and one that, as soon as you mentioned it, came roaring back.  What gets me is that I can’t figure out why Trump is the hill these guys are willing to sacrifice the Republic for.
    I wish I could remember the quote or who said it all those years ago, but the Trump administration seems to be the personification of the adage that Democrats run for office because they want to do things to help the people while Republicans run for office because they wants power.

  86. 86.

    Elizabelle

    @germy:   He is. He suspects his life as he knows it is over once he’s shorn of the protections of the Oval Office.

    Prison.  It could happen.

  87. 87.

    Brachiator

    @MattF:

    Note that @msnbc has posted a tweet saying that they have the tape. Whoever is doing this is going all the way.

    I almost wonder if Fox News has a copy.

    CNN has the story with a link to the audio.

    The UK Guardian has the story.

  88. 88.

    Cheryl Rofer

    We should see the ads against Perdue and Loeffler any minute now

    [clip from Trump tape]

    Perdue and Loeffler support this gangster.

    Vote for Ossoff and Warnock, honest men.

     

    I’m not very good at that, but you get the idea.

  89. 89.

    Almost Retired

    Seems like a lot of trouble to flip a state that won’t change the electoral result, but I suspect losing reliably-red Georgia and Arizona really, really gets under his thin, blotchy, drooping skin.

  92. 92.

    mrmoshpotato

    @pat: Heave ho his orange mobster ass out of our House.

    “And fuck off to Moscow to cry to your Daddy Vladdy!’

  95. 95.

    different-church-lady

    The bounds of “normal” keep getting pushed back, foot by foot. Every time they get pushed, a few more people think it’s acceptable. Trump has lost the election, but he’s still fighting the war to install evil into minds of more and more and more Americans. Comparisons to Nazi Germany are NOT exaggerations.

  96. 96.

    boatboy_srq

    @sphouch: I suspect a lot of the urgency now stems from Reichwing chagrin that in 2008 Shrub did nothing like this and thus allowed That Blah Person™ to move into the WH.

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    And all this is happening while more than a Pearl Harbor or 9/11 of Americans are dying, every single day, of a pandemic.

  98. 98.

    patrick II

    @Elizabelle:

    Prison, it could happen

    The ironic thing is the more he does things like this to avoid prison, the more likely is that he won’t be able to.

  99. 99.

    boatboy_srq

    @Baud: If you commit a crime, you’re in trouble. If you commit ALL the crimes, it’s the judicial system that’s in trouble.

    /s

  100. 100.

    germy

    At one point in the call, Trump alleged that votes were scanned three times.

    “You know, they put ‘em in three times,” Trump said, to which Raffensperger said the president’s claim was untrue.

    “We did an audit of that and we proved conclusively that they were not scanned three times,” he said.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-begs-georgia-secretary-state-overturn-election-results-remarkable-hourlong-n1252692?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

  101. 101.

    Spanky

    Welp, ianal and all that, but I would hope this shows incontrovertible proof that Trump broke GA state laws. Now where’s the GA grand jury to draw up charges?

  102. 102.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @sphouch:

    If the president* can get one state to change their position, then they have more ammunition to attack the others, or to justify not vacating office.

    Unless Congress certifies him the winner of the Electoral College vote on Wednesday, the office leaves him at noon of the 20th.

  106. 106.

    Elizabelle

    @different-church-lady:   No.  Not exaggerations at all.

    Joseph Goebbels (Naza propaganda minister) would be rubbing his hands in glee at all the damage we can do now with social media and instantaneous communication of lie upon lie upon lie.

    Flood the zone with bullshit.

  108. 108.

    Brachiator

    Meanwhile, the 117th House has been sworn in, and they are now voting for Speaker of the House.

  111. 111.

    boatboy_srq

    @Elizabelle: They’re consoling themselves that most of the deaths are Dems. (Which somehow makes it OK, because only MAGAts are patriotic Muricans. Or something.)

    Except it’s unlikely even that is true now.

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:

    Trump is insanely popular among the GOP base politically insane.

    It’s a fever that has to break. We are not safe with this.

  120. 120.

    germy

    Joe Gillis: I didn’t know you were planning a comeback.
    Norma Desmond: I hate that word. It’s a return, a return to the millions of people who have never forgiven me for deserting the screen.

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    @boatboy_srq:   COVID is killing GOP politicians.

    Ben Chafin, state senator from southwest Virginia.  He broke with his party and voted for Medicaid expansion, rest his soul.

    (He replaced the Democratic cretin who agreed to vote against Medicaid expansion under McAuliffe in exchange for a job for himself and judicial post for his daughter.  Didn’t fly, and the next senator — a Republican — actually voted as his constituents needed.)

  123. 123.

    Amir Khalid

    @pat:

    Trump is so terrified for his future that he’s not thinking straight. He’s been like this since the media called it for Biden two months ago: having his lawyers go to states where he was behind by thousands of votes, and challenge mere dozens or hundreds of ballots.

    But the jig is up, and now the coppers are banging on the door.

  128. 128.

    Elizabelle

    The Associated Press.  Lead in to a longer story, with a lot about how this might play out in the Georgia races for Senate.  Nice of Trump to give them breaking news from Georgia.

    ATLANTA (AP) — 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.

    The conversation 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. The renewed intervention and the persistent and unfounded claims of fraud by the first president to lose reelection in almost 30 years come nearly two weeks before Trump leaves office and two days before twin runoffs in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate.

    Trump confirmed in a tweet Sunday that he had spoken with Georgia’s secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, who tweeted that claims Trump made during the call were untrue.

    Audio snippets of the conversation were posted online by The Washington Post. A recording of the call was later obtained by The Associated Press from a person who was on the call.

    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.”

    Georgia certified election results showing that Biden won the state’s Nov. 3 election by 11,779 votes.

  129. 129.

    debbie

    Too little, too late, Liz:

    NEWS –> I've obtained the memo House GOP Conference Chair @Liz_Cheney sent to her colleagues re: Jan 6th electoral objections. She says proposed actions by some Republicans would set an "exceptionally dangerous precedent," calling the commission idea "even more problematic." pic.twitter.com/qy0cTySNqP— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 3, 2021

  130. 130.

    patrick II

    @Keith P.:

    I read the other day that Trump is furious with Jared for screwing up the coronavirus response among other things.  As if Trump had no part in inappropriately promoting him to chief of everything.  I hope he stays furious — it would not be beyond Trump’s vindictive nature to not pardon Jared.  Ivanka may have to have a few words with her dad.

  131. 131.

    germy

    donald was reading that number, 11,780, from a note.

    Someone wrote that down for him for his call.

    Find out who.

    — Lincoln’s Bible (@LincolnsBible) January 3, 2021

  132. 132.

    MattF

    @Amir Khalid: ‘Thinking straight’ is not an element of Trump’s behavioral repertoire. Trump is what he is and is not changing. I’d focus on the guilty fools (including Senators) surrounding him, who feed him what he wants to hear.

  133. 133.

    Elizabelle

    CNN has an enormous headline up on their website now.
    Report: Trump asks GA officials to ‘find’ votes to tilt election

  138. 138.

    RSA

    @Elizabelle:

    “It stands to reason that if the information is not forthcoming, there’s something to hide,” Hilbert said. “That’s the problem that we have.”

    Funny thing—that’s what we said about Trump’s tax returns… and the minutes of Trump’s meetings with Russian government officials… and Trump’s Ukraine phone call transcript…

    THIS ELECTION WAS PERFECT.

  139. 139.

    rikyrah

    does anyone else think that he's so confused that he lost because he tried to rig the election and failed?and that Joe and Kamala probably won by a lot more than 7 million votes?like…if dude hired anyone competent, he probably could've cheated a win? https://t.co/xU0d9mOWiD— Florida Chris (@chrislongview) January 3, 2021

  140. 140.

    Jinchi

    @Brachiator: Remember when Governor Ducey’s phone started ringing “Hail to the Chief” as he certified the election in Arizona. It would’ve been even funnier if he had simply accepted the call, put it on speaker phone and let Trump rant for the audience.

    But in any case, Republicans know they don’t have to take his calls. Governor Kemp has reportedly been dodging for a while now.

  141. 141.

    germy

    As you talk about The Tape, remember that Raffensperger and a slew of other GA officials are getting death threats on top of this.— Dr. emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 3, 2021

  144. 144.

    germy

    This caught my attention:

    Trump says: “Under law, you’re not allowed to give faulty election results.”

    As Trump: tries to induce and procure Georgia election officials to give faulty election results.

    Induce and procure = crimes under 18 USC 2.pic.twitter.com/6SBdxCfyh3

    — Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) January 3, 2021

    Trump has (in 2011, his spawn in 2016) in the past gotten away with campaign finance crimes by claiming he's too stupid to know this is a crime.

    But he was citing law while committing the crime here. https://t.co/SG1w8EHeRD

    — Dr. emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 3, 2021

  146. 146.

    Spanky

    Hakeem Jeffries has nominated Nancy SMASH for Speaker. No further updates WaPo as to other nominations on the D side.

  147. 147.

    Elizabelle

    I am wondering if this tape was also released to warn (fellow) Republicans they’d better climb their way down the limb and closer to the tree.  “Be careful of supporting Trump on this.”

  153. 153.

    Lapassionara

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yes, thank FSM, Trump’s term ends automatically at noon on .Jan. 20, per the Constitution. It cannot be extended unless he is certified to be the winner of the election. He can hang around the WH all he wants. He will no longer have the power of the office.

    My thought is that Trump has likely called other Secretaries of State and/or Governors, asking much the same thing. He is a mob boss. That has worked for him in the past, and he figures it will keep working for him.

  154. 154.

    Mary G

    This is blowing up. If this tape pisses you off — and you want to help defend our democracy — please consider donating to our campaign.https://t.co/5kcBnulfON— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) January 3, 2021

    It worked on me. I keep saying I’m not going to donate any more, then I do.

  155. 155.

    Amir Khalid

    @MattF:

    That’s true, I guess: his normal thought isn’t straight to begin with. But this state of blind panic is quite likely new to him.

  156. 156.

    FelonyGovt

    I find the fact that this call was taped and leaked in its entirety almost more interesting than the content of the call– which we all suspected was happening.

  157. 157.

    boatboy_srq

    @patrick II: Yes. It’s Jared’s COVID response. And Mnuchin’s economic meltdown. And Pompeo’s trade failures. And Barr’s inability to detain and prosecute Those People™. Never, ever Lord Dampnut’s own fault.

  158. 158.

    Jeffro

    I swear to god, the House should have impeached this dumb motherfucker for every last little thing that merited it, and tried him over and over again in the Senate.

    They should still do it, even now.  Stand up loudly for the rule of law!  And for the love of dog, don’t even think about seating those sedition-loving GOP scumbags in the House.

  159. 159.

    The Dangerman

    This is crazy shit. Certifiable. For those that think he won’t do something unthinkable (Iran, Martial Law, divorcing his wife to
    marry his daughter), everything is in play (sorry Jared).

  164. 164.

    Mary G

    @Jeffro: That’s what I think. Throw Adam Schiff in a room and have him write the Articles of Impeachment and vote on them on Day 1.

    Raffensperger is very impressive. I couldn’t take five minutes of that, much less an hour.

     ETA:

    Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out https://t.co/ViYjTSeRcC— GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) January 3, 2021

    Twitter put the “he’s lying” label on Twitler in red instead of blue; I guess that means “completely out of touch with reality.”

  165. 165.

    FelonyGovt

    @debbie: Shades of Rosemary Woods! Don’t know, I’ve only heard excerpts so far, but I thought I read that WaPo has the whole thing.

  167. 167.

    Jim Appleton

    @The Moar You Know: 

    The Rs do know an existential threat.

    IDJT is the future of their party.

    With his loss, their party is over.

    They’re all scared shitless and many likely quietly panicking.

    His closest advisers are in it for the brass ring of actually pulling off autocracy.

  168. 168.

    Old Man Shadow

    I know it’s a joke at this point, but if President Hillary Clinton did this, the GOP would already be calling for her execution.

  169. 169.

    NotMax

    Trump did most of the talking… calling Raffensperger a “child” and “either dishonest or incompetent”

    More projection than at four score and seven multiplexes.

  171. 171.

    JPL

    @FelonyGovt: As soon as they solve some technical issues, they will release the entire tape.    I guess trump went back and forth from saying something complimentary to threatening the SOS.

  173. 173.

    Baud

    Congressional leaders unveil rules governing Electoral College count

    ….

    The rules of Congress’ Jan. 6 session governing the counting of Electoral College votes will remain identical to those used for decades, under a proposal set to be introduced Sunday by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

  178. 178.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    Those industrial-size cans marked “Worms” must be stacked up to the ceiling and overflowing McConnell’s offices by now.

    //

  179. 179.

    Jay

    The let's-blow-the-system-up-to-keep-Trump-in-power crowd has piled up an astonishing collection of losses.

    And they're shattering speed records for losing cases. Losing like this normally takes weeks, maybe months. They pulled it off it in a day. https://t.co/ksIvXUsS7N— Brad Heath (@bradheath) January 3, 2021

  183. 183.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    @Elizabelle:

    “It stands to reason that if the information is not forthcoming, there’s something to hide,” Hilbert said. “That’s the problem that we have.”

    No-one can find any evidence to support my claims, therefore the information must be hidden, therefore the other side has something to hide, therefore my claims must be correct,

  190. 190.

    Elizabelle

    @debbie:   Whoa.

    It’s very close to Biden’s inauguration, but I wonder if Trump might be pressured to resign.  He is a threat to national security.  (Always has been, but this is proof of his criminal nature.)

    Cannot have anyone that desperate, facing indictment and even prison once out of office, as Commander in Chief.

    This behavior would get anyone else fired and escorted out by security the same hour.  Generals, CEOs.  But the President gets to skate on stuff like this.  This is wrong.

  193. 193.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Spanky: Hakeem Jeffries’ nomination speech is probably worth checking out. On You Tube, I guess. His nomination of Speaker Pelosi two years ago was an awesome speech. He had her grinning by the end. Jeffries is quite an orator when the occasion fits.

  194. 194.

    Jay

    @debbie:

    in many places in the US, any dipshit, with or with out a law degree, can be elected or appointed to judgeship.

    it’s not a merit based system.

  196. 196.

    MattF

    @Elizabelle: I don’t think Trump has absorbed the fact that he isn’t going to be President after noon on Jan. 20. That’s sort of a subtext for his threats on the tape.

  197. 197.

    zhena gogolia

    Seven House Republicans say it’s unconstitutional to reject a state’s electors, breaking w/ colleagues.Kelly ArmstrongKen BuckMike GallagherNancy MaceThomas MassieTom McClintockChip Roy“We must count the electoral votes submitted by the states.”https://t.co/iCHf1Mkf7I— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 3, 2021

  198. 198.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Mary G:

    Raffensperger is very impressive.

    That’s your opinion. I can’t get past his using “data” as a singular noun.

  199. 199.

    zhena gogolia

    @zhena gogolia:
    Funny little paragraph in there:

    From a purely partisan perspective, Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years. They have therefore depended on the electoral college for nearly all presidential victories in the last generation. If we perpetuate the notion that Congress may disregard certified electoral votes—based solely on its own assessment that one or more states mishandled the presidential election—we will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024.

  200. 200.

    Elizabelle

    @MattF:   I think he’s desperate because he knows he is indicted and perp walked once his ass is out of the Oval Office.

    But now to listen to the full call, or as much as I can take.

  202. 202.

    Steve in the ATL

    @BroD: he’s not.  He’s already mentioned getting back to voter suppression when the dust settles on this election.

  203. 203.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @zhena gogolia:

    Agreeing with Kristol again, my Gawd.

    As a matter of political hygiene and constitutional precedent, the House Judiciary Committee should at least draft articles of impeachment based on this call, even if there’s not time for the House to adopt them

    Hear, hear and hear it again. I’m an arch-pragmatist, but this is the least they should do, and may well be the most they can do. I don’t know.

  204. 204.

    Elizabelle

    @MattF:

    This audio has been edited to remove the name of an individual about whom the president makes unsubstantiated allegations.

    Only one?

  208. 208.

    Quinerly

    Meanwhile, Lin Wood is on Twitter posting a pic of CJ Roberts and Obama shaking hands saying the truth will be exposed about BOTH men’s adopted children.

  209. 209.

    jonas

    @debbie: Pretty much. He did it with the Woodward tapes. Couldn’t say it *wasn’t* him, but also said it was fake. Or something. It’s what happens when you only have two brain cells to rub together, but even they aren’t quite making contact.

  213. 213.

    Elizabelle

    @Quinerly:  That man might have an involuntary hold in his future.

    Usually would be news, but now it’s just a side show to the rest of the circus.

  215. 215.

    Martin

    I’m doing the most 2021 thing I can think of. Watching the Ratatouille musical while reading about Trump crimes that could only have been sourced by a member of his own party, while eating home delivery fast food.

  216. 216.

    Geminid

    @zhena gogolia: interesting that Nancy Mace came out against the election challenge. She just beat Democratic freshman Congressman Joe Cunningham in the South Carolina 1st District. Cunningham succeeded Mark Sanford, who had been knocked out in the 2018 primary by some tea party lady. Mace will certainly face a primary challenge from the right in 2022.

  217. 217.

    Elizabelle

    Still nothing on main Fox News site.  Still “Nervous Nancy.”

    NY Post has a story up, but it’s buried in their “news section”; not highlighted on their digital front page.

  219. 219.

    Frankensteinbeck

    For everyone saying this is illegal, I doubt it.  All the threats sound like warnings of real dangers if you assume that Trump believes the bullshit he’s saying.  Similarly, the demand to ‘find’ votes in context is part of a large list of cheats that would show there were legitimate uncounted Trump votes, if he believes the bullshit he’s saying.  Normally this is exactly the kind of cover your ass language mob bosses are famous for, but in Trump’s case we have every reason to think he truly does believe his own bullshit conspiracy theories.

    @sphouch:

    What gets me is that I can’t figure out why Trump is the hill these guys are willing to sacrifice the Republic for.

    They have always been willing to sacrifice the Republic.  Denying the legitimacy of Democratic voters, contesting elections where Democrats won, and openly saying that voter suppression is important because it stops Democrats from winning is a Republican tradition.  Trump is only making this public, nation-wide front page news in a way no one has seen before.

  222. 222.

    Barbara

    @Quinerly: Right. And no doubt we are going to be told that the two of them have been engaged in a secret sexual relationship with each other that started during the Bush administration. I hate these people. I hate that I am forced to spend mental energy on them.

  223. 223.

    zhena gogolia

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I usually agree with you, but here I must differ. He does not believe the bullshit. He is a mob boss. Michael Cohen described exactly this behavior.

  225. 225.

    dmsilev

    I go off the grid for three fucking hours and this happens. Now how the hell am I going to get any work done?

  226. 226.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid:

    Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur · 32m
    Seven House Republicans say it’s unconstitutional to reject a state’s electors, breaking w/ colleagues. Kelly Armstrong ,Ken Buck, Mike Gallagher, Nancy Mace, Thomas Massie ,Tom McClintock ,Chip Roy. “We must count the electoral votes submitted by the states.”

    most of these are just names to me, but I thought Ken Buck is pretty much Louie Goehmert without the Gabby Hayes persona. Massie I think is to the right of McConnell (?), and McClintock… I have a vague sense he thinks it’s 1895.

  229. 229.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Did you read the interesting little paragraph in their statement that I quoted at #201? It’s so blatant that they KNOW they can never win the popular vote again unless they change their ways.

  231. 231.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: McClintock is from my old stomping grounds in eastern Ventura county(just west of LA county) and his political career dead ended down here and he went to NorCal to continue his political career(again my apologies to NorCal for having to live with this carpetbagger).

  232. 232.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Justin Gray @JustinGrayWSB 32m
    After SOS attorney says he legally can’t provide certain data President Trump says: “I don’t want to know how. you guys can do it very confidentially. you guys sign a confidentiality agreement. That’s ok. I don’t need to know names.”

    I’m sure you’ll wanna take care of this in an honorable way. You come from an honorable family. Speaking of your family, how’s your wife? I heard she just bought a new car, a blue BMW. Nice car. Very safe. Very safe for driving your kids to school. They still go to St Alphonse’s ?

  234. 234.

    Jay

    Shhh… this is Rep. Porter’s staff sneaking onto her account because today is her birthday! We hope you’ll join us in celebrating virtually by replying with your favorite Rep. Porter moment. We couldn’t agree on one, so here’s a recap of her 1st term ⬇️pic.twitter.com/bf8erzt4Jb— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) January 3, 2021

  235. 235.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @zhena gogolia:

    He does not believe the bullshit.

    I know they’re only so-so reliable, but all the candid reports coming out of the white house say he’s spending hours talking and listening to the most whacked-out conspiracy theorists, constantly asks everyone else around him if those theories are true, and gets pissed at anyone who denies it and shuns them from then on.  He’s a narcissist in meltdown.  They convince himself of the most bizarre shit, because what absolutely must be true in his brain is that he won, and won big.  This is the guy who wasn’t just pressuring Ukraine for dirt on Hunter Biden.  He was pressuring Ukraine for a nonexistent server containing thirty thousand emails that prove Trump was framed about colluding with Russia.  By his own experience he knew those emails could not exist, but his actions show he believed they did, because it’s not possible for him to be anything but the victim.

    Michael Cohen described exactly this behavior.

    Oh, sure.  He’s following a pattern of habit.  This is how he talks.  But this time he believes it.  Hell, he may have convinced himself that whatever bullshit he’s pushing is true many times previously.  He’s nuts.  He’s just more nuts than ever before right now because he’s desperate and his world is collapsing.

  240. 240.

    Elizabelle

    Metrics!  From Trump’s first comment on the call:

    So we’ve spent a lot of time on this and if we could just go over some of the numbers, I think it’s pretty clear that we won. We won very substantially in Georgia. You even see it by rally size, frankly. We’d be getting 25-30,000 people a rally and the competition would get less than 100 people. And it never made sense.

  242. 242.

    Quinerly

    @Elizabelle: I dug deeper in the thread and now need to take a shower. Re thread… There are no pictures of Michelle pregnant and Joan Rivers said something and now she is dead or in hiding therefore the Obama children were kidnapped in Haiti by Jeffrey Epstein who is alive and will come forward and expose John Roberts, Stephen Breyer, and Obama. All this must be true because Lin Wood is a defamation atty and no one is denying it… Not even Joan Rivers.

  243. 243.

    Rebecca

    @Elizabelle: I agree, but I have a sneaky suspicion that he will just leave after Pence and Congress do their thing and he sees that nothing changes.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he and the fam left in the middle of the night , never to return.  In fact I’m crossing my fingers.

  244. 244.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Aside from Mace, I think most of the Republicans on the list are veteran Congressmen. I don’t think the Republican House caucus has had leadership elections yet. They could be bloody. Gaetz and company were already gunning for Liz Cheney before these Presidential election issues blew up. Cheney is the third ranking member of the caucus leadership.

    Gallagher is from Wisconsin. Hew Hewitt often has Gallagher on his radio show, where they talk about their dream of a really big Navy.

  245. 245.

    Elizabelle

    Broken water mains.  Trunks.  Suitcases.  Dead people.  Thousands of Trump supporters showing up to vote — but someone had already voted in their name.

    What’s interesting is the very exact numbers Trump cites.  Where did he get those?

  246. 246.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Gin & Tonic: Raffensperger has already endorsed voter suppression for future elections.

    He’s just defending his own job here. It’s not impressive at all – he’s simultaneously saying HE didn’t screw up, and trying to avoid potential liability if he went along with this.

  249. 249.

    Kent

    @Steve in the ATL:@BroD: he’s not.  He’s already mentioned getting back to voter suppression when the dust settles on this election.

    Exactly.  He’s an old-fashioned Republican.  He believes in stealing elections using the old tried and true LEGAL methods of voter suppression that they honed to perfection after 100 years of Jim Crow.

    Trump just fucked up by being so incompetent that the election wasn’t close enough to steal through ordinary voter suppression.  That’s on Trump, not the Georgia SOS.

  251. 251.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Rebecca:

    I have a sneaky suspicion that he will just leave after Pence and Congress do their thing and he sees that nothing changes.

    Very, very tough to predict.  I expected him to go pretty crazy, but even for a narcissist Trump has gone shockingly down the rabbit hole of believing he won.  Usually they’re willing to stop at ‘You cheated and now I will stomp off in a huff and keep saying you never could have won fairly.’  Trump is pushing the line that he’s not leaving so hard, he might believe it.  My best guess right now is that he’ll schedule an event to conflict with the inauguration, then not come back.  That’s just a guess.  Other than ‘try every single thing he can think of to overturn the election’, there are too many conflicting emotional forces and too much time for him to change his mind repeatedly for good predictions.

  252. 252.

    Kent

    @MisterForkbeard:

    @Gin & Tonic: Raffensperger has already endorsed voter suppression for future elections.

    He’s just defending his own job here. It’s not impressive at all – he’s simultaneously saying HE didn’t screw up, and trying to avoid potential liability if he went along with this.

    I would imagine that Raffensperger could be vulnerable for a whole long list of Federal charges under a Biden DOJ if he went along with any of this. He isn’t stupid.

  253. 253.

    Elizabelle

    And Trump continues:

    “In Pennsylvania, they had well over 200,000 more votes than they had people voting. And uh that doesn’t play too well, and the legislature there is, which is Republican, is extremely activist and angry. I mean, there were other things also that were almost as bad as that. But, uh, they had as an example, in Michigan, a tremendous number of dead people that voted. I think it was I think, Mark, it was 18,000. Some unbelievably high number, much higher than yours, you were in the 4-5,000 category.

    And that was checked out laboriously by going through, by going through the obituary columns in the newspapers.”

  256. 256.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: I wonder if he’s regretting vacuuming up half his campaign funds into his personal accounts/shell companies?

    Cheap ’til the end, our Donnie!

  257. 257.

    Quinerly

    @Barbara: seems Wood and his followers are back on the vile tale that Michelle is really Mike… (And Joan Rivers knew it and died knowing it.. Or is in hiding because she knows… This Joan Rivers stuff is all new to me)

    Lin Wood needs to be disbarred.

  259. 259.

    Elizabelle

    Mark Meadows:

    ” …  there are allegations where we believe that not every vote or fair vote and legal vote was counted and that’s at odds with the representation from the secretary of state’s office.

    What I’m hopeful for is there some way that we can we can find some kind of agreement to look at this a little bit more fully. You know the president mentioned Fulton County.

    But in some of these areas where there seems to be a difference of where the facts seem to lead, and so Mr. Secretary, I was hopeful that, you know, in the spirit of cooperation and compromise is there something that we can at least have a discussion to look at some of these allegations to find a path forward that’s less litigious?

  260. 260.

    Brachiator

    Nancy Pelosi is Speaker again

    Pelosi got 216 votes. Kevin McCarthy got 209. One vote each for Tammy Duckworth and Hakeem Jeffries

  261. 261.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle: too funny – I was just talking with my college-age daughter about this!  (She’s totally into politics and media studies)

    me: “Just go to Fox News dot com on any given day and check their top five stories…BUT ESPECIALLY on days when bad news breaks for the GOP and/or trumpov!  NOTHING!!  They never carry anything about it!”

    teenage sigh: “I know, Dad…you’ve told me a million times…”

  266. 266.

    Elizabelle

    Trump:  my rallies!  And don’t go by your votes.  Go by my “calculated and certified votes.”  And SMH about the votes being dropped in overnight.  Like, the big cities’ votes, which always take time to count.

    Trump: Because, what’s the difference between winning the election by two votes and winning it by half a million votes. I think I probably did win it by half a million. You know, one of the things that happened Brad, is we have other people coming in now from Alabama and from South Carolina and from other states, and they’re saying it’s impossible for you to have lost Georgia. We won. You know in Alabama, we set a record, got the highest vote ever. In Georgia, we set a record with a massive amount of votes. And they say it’s not possible to have lost Georgia.

    And I could tell you by our rallies. I could tell you by the rally I’m having on Monday night, the place, they already have lines of people standing out front waiting. It’s just not possible to have lost Georgia. It’s not possible. When I heard it was close I said there’s no way. But they dropped a lot of votes in there late at night. You know that, Brad. And that’s what we are working on very, very stringently. But regardless of those votes, with all of it being said, we lost by essentially 11,000 votes and we have many more votes already calculated and certified, too.

  267. 267.

    Jeffro

    @MattF: Some significant* portion of the GOP will desert trumpov once evidence of this goes far and wide.  I think Romney, Ryan, and others know that the Republican Party as it stands cannot last…it probably can’t turn around and support the plutocrats’ agenda by 2024, but it certainly can’t go on as it is.

    I mean, it’s about to turn into the trumpov dictatorship/grift-o-rama.  Anyone with half a brain sees this.

  269. 269.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    I mean, it’s about to turn into the trumpov dictatorship/grift-o-rama. Anyone with half a brain sees this.

    Trump supporters and enablers don’t have half a brain.

  270. 270.

    Geoduck

    @Elizabelle: Heh. The one mention of the Shiatgibbon on the main Fox page is a quote from him saying the COVID thing is fine, while noting 350,000 people have died.

    Heh in very black-humored sort of way, of course.

  271. 271.

    The Moar You Know

    McClintock is from my old stomping grounds in eastern Ventura county(just west of LA county) and his political career dead ended down here and he went to NorCal to continue his political career(again my apologies to NorCal for having to live with this carpetbagger).

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:  And that motherfucker will sign on to anything, the more insane the better. That he’s not willing to sign on for this craziness is quite telling.

  273. 273.

    Elizabelle

    Raffensperger: Well Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong. We talked to the congressmen and they were surprised.

    But they — I guess there was a person Mr. Braynard who came to these meetings and presented data and he said that there was dead people, I believe it was upward of 5,000. The actual number were two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted. So that’s wrong.

  274. 274.

    Brachiator

    @Brachiator:

    Nancy Pelosi is Speaker again

    Pelosi got 216 votes. Kevin McCarthy got 209. One vote each for Tammy Duckworth and Hakeem Jeffries

    Also, too, vote right out in the open, for all to see.

    That’s how democracy works.

     

  275. 275.

    Elizabelle

    Trump threatened Raff that he was going to release a tape.  Sounds like about ballot-stuffing.

    Trump:  I mean, look. Brad. We have a new tape that we’re going to release. It’s devastating. And by the way, that one event, that one event is much more than the 11,000 votes that we’re talking about. It’s uh, you know. That one event was a disaster. And it’s just, you know, but it was, it was something, it can’t be disputed. And again we have a version that you haven’t seen but it’s magnified. It’s magnified and you can see everything. For some reason they put it in three times, each ballot, and I don’t know why. I don’t know why three times. Why not five times, right? Go ahead.

    Raffensperger: You’re talking about the State Farm video. And I think it’s extremely unfortunate that Rudy Giuliani or his people, they sliced and diced that video and took it out of context. The next day we brought in WSB-TV and we let them show, see the full run of tape and what you’ll see, the events that transpired are nowhere near what was projected by, you know —

  277. 277.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro:

    Dave Weigel @daveweigel· 1h
    Unexpected statement from Paul Ryan: “It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans.

    ETA: I wonder if Hawley hears ice cracking…

  278. 278.

    Punchy

    These are the actions of a man who simply has no intention of leaving the office (spare me the “he has to!  Constitution argle-bargle”).  This, and worsening stuff, is likely what caused Barr to jump ship.  I fear this is going to get much, MUCH more “holy shit!” in the next 2 days, and after Jan 6th when options are gone, straight-up Bomb Somebody crazy.

  279. 279.

    SFAW

    @RaflW:

    Trump could shoot a Secretary of State on Main Street, and Republicans won’t care.

    He’s already murdered, or aided-and-abetted in the deaths of 250K-plus people (so far), and they’re OK with that. Why would they care about one more?

  280. 280.

    The Moar You Know

    I have a narcissist mother.  And I am wondering if the people who set up our nuclear launch systems made it possible to target the United States.

    I’m not wondering this idly.  I hope somebody thought that through.

  281. 281.

    Zinsky

    This is how an abusive husband talks to his battered wife.   Trump is clearly a soulless, amoral sociopath who can relentlessly badger and berate a person for nearly an hour and not feel the slightest remorse or regret for his towering tsunami of lies that spill out of his sickening, diseased piehole.   It is going to be so valuable to future historians and abnormal psychologists, to study this sick deviant’s rhetorical patterns and devices.   House Democrats should file new impeachment charges Monday morning just because they fucking can!

  282. 282.

    Brachiator

    @Punchy:

    These are the actions of a man who simply has no intention of leaving the office (spare me the “he has to! Constitution argle-bargle”).

    Trump will go nuts on January 6, because this will mark the formal end to his presidency.

    The office of the president leaves him formally on January 20. Ain’t a damn thing he can do to stop it.

    He can play “count the vote” games, but he is already gone.

    Even if he doesn’t know it yet.

  284. 284.

    SFAW

    @Elizabelle:

    Mark Meadows:

    ” …  there are allegations where we believe that not every vote or fair vote and legal vote was counted and that’s at odds with the representation from the secretary of state’s office.

    He’s probably right, except it’s probably Dem voters who were undercounted. Curious how Trump lost by so much, but Dem candidates lost every “close” race.

    Not being completely serious, but I wish the fucking media would spend time — ANY time — asking Partei of Traitors about that, rather than doing a MAGAt Habs horse-race thing.

  286. 286.

    mrmoshpotato

    Don’t know how the dots connect here, but Karoli isn’t one for throwing out wild accusations.

    Cleta Mitchell. I knew it. That means Ginni Thomas and all the other suspects are at the heart of this. Time for some serious investigation and disbarment. https://t.co/9oZMKMiPlv— Karoli ?? (@Karoli) January 3, 2021

  289. 289.

    Elizabelle

    Trump tells attorney Germany that he has a nice last name.

    Before that, an exchange wherein Trump asserts that military ballots that came in 100% for Trump were changed to 100% Biden.  Discussion of votes from overseas.

    Germany: I don’t know about that, I do know that we have when military ballots come in, it’s not just military, it’s also military and overseas citizens. The military part of that does generally go Republican. The overseas citizen part of it generally goes very Democrat. This was a mix of ‘em.

    Trump: No, but this was. That’s OK. But I got like 78 percent of the military. These ballots were all for … They didn’t tell me overseas. Could be overseas too, but I get votes overseas too, Ryan, in all fairness. No they came in, a large batch came in and it was, quote, 100 percent for Biden. And that is criminal. You know, that’s criminal. OK. That’s another criminal, that’s another of the many criminal events, many criminal events here.

  290. 290.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @RaflW:

    Agreed. There are several Georgia officials who have received death threats, not just to them but to their families. I hope every one of them has sufficient security. This goes miles beyond free speech.

  292. 292.

    Elizabelle

    Trump, pleading I guess:

    So what are we going to do here folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. You know, we have that in spades already. Or we can keep it going but that’s not fair to the voters of Georgia because they’re going to see what happened and they’re going to see what happened.

  294. 294.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    Trump: No, but this was. That’s OK. But I got like 78 percent of the military. These ballots were all for … They didn’t tell me overseas.

    Trump is a pathetic, loser fool. “They didn’t tell me overseas.”

    Pathetic.

  295. 295.

    trollhattan

    Guess this will be chalked up by Trump supporters as the day he really took it to the Libs and Antifa Inc.™

    He’s certainly demonstrated the president* has no risk from behaving as a seditious autocrat. I can’t wait to see what the next Republican president does with that knowledge.

  297. 297.

    Elizabelle

    Meadows tries to bulldoze his way through:

    Meadows: Mr. President. This is Mark. It sounds like we’ve got different sides agreeing that we can look at these areas ands I assume that we can do that within the next 24 to 48 hours to go ahead and get that reconciled so that we can look at the two claims and making sure that we get the access to the secretary of state’s data to either validate or invalidate the claims that have been made. Is that correct?

    Germany: No, that’s not what I said. I’m happy to have our lawyers sit down with Kurt and the lawyers on that side and explain to my him, here’s, based on what we’ve looked at so far, here’s how we know this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong.

    Meadows: So what you’re saying, Ryan, let me let me make sure … so what you’re saying is you really don’t want to give access to the data. You just want to make another case on why the lawsuit is wrong?

    Germany: I don’t think we can give access to data that’s protected by law. But we can sit down with them and say —

    Trump: But you’re allowed to have a phony election? You’re allowed to have a phony election right?

  299. 299.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I think we’re at the “you have to take me back – if I can’t have you, nobody can because I’m better for you than anybody else” stage of the narcissistic abuser endgame (the one where he’s standing on his car hood with a boom box while throwing rocks fastball style at the windows of your mother’s  house).

  300. 300.

    Scout211

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Thanks. He is just awful.

    But the statement that he signed on to today was a strong statement.  Maybe he feels okay about standing up for the constitution and states’ rights because he will likely be re-elected until the day he dies.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/03/congress-rules-electoral-college-count-454023

    A group of seven House Republicans — including Freedom Caucus members such as Ken Buck (Colo.) and Chip Roy (Texas) as well as Rep.-elect Nancy Mace (S.C.) and libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — put out a rare and lengthy statement Sunday afternoon opposing the effort to challenge election. The statement was also signed by Reps. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.).
    They argue that the constitution makes clear that states — not Congress — are responsible for selecting electors, though they said they “are outraged at the significant abuses in our election system.”
    “We must respect the states’ authority here,” the lawmakers wrote in their statement, obtained by POLITICO. “Though doing so may frustrate our immediate political objectives, we have sworn an oath to promote the Constitution above our policy goals. We must count the electoral votes submitted by the states.”

  301. 301.

    Mousebumples

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Gallagher is my R rep. Rumors that he may be running for senate in 2 years if Johnson doesn’t run for reelection in Wisconsin. Or maybe a primary challenge since he’s clearly setting himself up as taking the opposite tack.

  303. 303.

    Elizabelle

    It’s really a pathetic call, by a pathetic excuse for a POTUS.

    The subtext is so much counting the right votes and only the right votes (ie. white people and Trump supporters.)

    Trump exaggerates even what his fabulist team tells him.  That Cleta Mitchell woman mentions almost 5,000 votes in some category that were miscounted; Trump says he thought it was more like twenty [thousand].

  304. 304.

    WaterGirl

    @BroD: You mean the guy who has already announced his intent to make it harder for people to vote, and who already moved to have a bunch of people thrown off the voter rolls?

    This guy is a solid republican who backs the idea that it should be harder for people to vote in Georgia, particularly the wrong people.

  305. 305.

    SFAW

    @Elizabelle:

    Trump exaggerates even what his fabulist team tells him.

    Or he makes up a number (a/k/a “pulls a number out of his obese ass”), fixates on it, and throws that around in conversations like this.

    I know, I know … po-TAY-toe, to-MAH-to

  307. 307.

    JML

    It’s unbelievable. Trumpism has driven our standards so low that vote-suppressing scumbag like Raffensperger is going to be getting praised as a hero for not overtly committing mass voter fraud.

    I didn’t commit any felonies today, can I have my parade now? I’d also like an ample trust fund to go with it, because I promise not to utterly destroy democracy tomorrow, either.

  308. 308.

    Brachiator

    Trump is supposed to attend a rally in Georgia tomorrow, right?

    Sad to think that idiots will still cheer him on.

    However, he may make the rally all about him. It will be shambolic and pathetic.

  309. 309.

    SFAW

    @BroD:

    Can I just say that this Raffensperger guy seems like a stone solid American dude?

    You can say it, but you would be wrong. He and Kemp are racist vote-suppression mavens/cheaters, who just happened to do the right thing this one time.

  310. 310.

    SFAW

    @JML:

    I didn’t commit any felonies today, can I have my parade now?

    It all depends on which felonies you didn’t commit.

  311. 311.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Elizabelle:

    During my earlier wingnut-curious incarnation in the early double-naughts, I met Cleta (CPAC 2002), Woman couldn’t win a duel of wits with a sack of hair back then – doubt she’s changed.

  312. 312.

    Elizabelle

    Trump is really steamed that Stacey Abrams got some voter protection measures put in for this election. He keeps trying to call it a “consent decree.”

    Trump: Fulton County. Look. Stacey, in my opinion, Stacey is as dishonest as they come. She has outplayed you … at everything. She got you to sign a totally unconstitutional agreement, which is a disastrous agreement. You can’t check signatures. I can’t imagine you’re allowed to do harvesting, I guess, in that agreement. That agreement is a disaster for this country. But she got you somehow to sign that thing and she has outsmarted you at every step.

    And I hate to imagine what’s going to happen on Monday or Tuesday, but it’s very scary to people. You know, when the ballots flow in out of nowhere. It’s very scary to people. That consent decree is a disaster. It’s a disaster. A very good lawyer who examined it said they’ve never seen anything like it.

    Raffensperger: Harvesting is still illegal in the state of Georgia. And that settlement agreement did not change that one iota.

    Trump: It’s not a settlement agreement, it’s a consent decree. It even says consent decree on it, doesn’t it? It uses the term consent decree. It doesn’t say settlement agree. It’s a consent decree. It’s a disaster.

    Raffensperger: It’s a settlement agreement.

    Trump: What’s written on top of it?

    Raffensperger: Ryan?

    Germany: I don’t have it in front of me, but it was not entered by the court, it’s not a court order.

    Trump: But Ryan, it’s called a consent decree, is that right? On the paper. Is that right?

    Germany: I don’t. I don’t. I don’t believe so, but I don’t have it in front of me.

    Trump: OK, whatever, it’s a disaster. It’s a disaster. Look. Here’s the problem. We can go through signature verification and we’ll find hundreds of thousands of signatures, if you let us do it. And the only way you can do it, as you know, is to go to the past. But you didn’t do that in Cobb County. You just looked at one page compared to another. The only way you can do a signature verification is go from the one that signed it on November whatever. Recently. And compare it to two years ago, four years ago, six years ago, you know, or even one. And you’ll find that you have many different signatures. But in Fulton, where they dumped ballots, you will find that you have many that aren’t even signed and you have many that are forgeries.

    OK, you know that. You know that. You have no doubt about that. And you will find you will be at 11,779 within minutes, because Fulton County is totally corrupt and so is she totally corrupt.

    And they’re going around playing you and laughing at you behind your back, Brad, whether you know it or not, they’re laughing at you and you’ve taken a state that’s a Republican state, and you’ve made it almost impossible for a Republican to win because of cheating, because they cheated like nobody’s ever cheated before. And I don’t care how long it takes me, you know, we’re going to have other states coming forward — pretty good.

  313. 313.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G:

    Balloon Juice for Fair Fight

    Goal Thermometer

    Jon Ossoff, Georgia Senate Runoff! YES, this includes the 2018 race.

    Goal Thermometer

    Raphael Warnock, Georgia Senate Runoff!

    Goal Thermometer

    America Votes – Georgia

    Goal Thermometer

  316. 316.

    Death Panel Truck

    @Martin: There’s no reason not to do both of those things. Future historians can refer to him as “Twice-impeached President Donald Trump.” Impeach now* and prosecute state-level crimes after January 20. Works for me.

    *No, there isn’t     time for a Senate trial, but we didn’t get one last time, either.

  317. 317.

    Elizabelle

    And there you have it, with Trump’s taunt of Raffensperger.  Just substitute “voting” for “cheating.”

    And they’re going around playing you and laughing at you behind your back, Brad, whether you know it or not, they’re laughing at you and you’ve taken a state that’s a Republican state, and you’ve made it almost impossible for a Republican to win because of cheating, because they cheated like nobody’s ever cheated before.

  319. 319.

    zhena gogolia

    @Scout211:

    They’re afraid that we can pull this on them for their next glorious EC “victory.” See the paragraph quoted above at #201.

  321. 321.

    Yutsano

    @Brachiator:

    However, he may will make the rally all about him. It will be shambolic and pathetic.

    I mean, we know better by now. Especially after the call leak.

  322. 322.

    Geminid

    @Elizabelle: Some of the folks at last month’s trump rally in Valdosta Georgia were like Dead Heads. They drove 500 miles or more to to catch their 15th rally. Sounds like they are showing up in Dalton.

  323. 323.

    Subsole

    @Almost Retired: Nah. The math is getting worse and worse for the GOP. They have to claw some states back. They just lost after winning FL and OH. That is…bad for their prospects. Especially if we keep picking off states, like GA, AZ or SC.

    Trump is lazy. The GOP is lazy. They think Georgia is the lightest lift, so they focused there. Also, they know the GAGOP is just fine stealing elections (witness Kemp). So they focused there.

  324. 324.

    Barbara

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I appreciate that some Republicans are pushing back against this obvious seditious effort to overthrow the results of the election, but Paul Ryan is just another person who only sought to use his influence to protect democracy after he gave most of it away by not running again.  His bravery and integrity comes with a big asterisk because he waited stick his neck out until the consequences to himself personally would be minimal.

    I feel the same way about Toomey and Flake.

  325. 325.

    Mike in NC

    @Geminid:  People at Trump rallies fall into three categories: (1) ones who were paid to attend and got free t-shirts, (2) local true believers, and (3) idiot groupies who’ve driven hundreds of miles and have seen him 20 times or more.

  329. 329.

    boatboy_srq

    @Geminid: Seems that the likelihood of interstate participation is far more on the MAGAt side than on the Dem side, just from that one observation.

  334. 334.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Trump sounds like a man pleading for his life.

    No, he sounds like a pathetic loser who can’t stand to lose. It’s a weird ego thing.

    He has done this before in some of his losing bankruptcy cases, but never something on so big a public platform.

    He does not want to be seen as a loser.

    The people around him are either plugged into his delusion or are beyond the pale in their cynicism.

    They clearly believe that they have nothing to lose by backing him to the end.

  335. 335.

    Another Scott

    This story leads the BBC News reporting on the TV right now.

    Kudos to WaPo. Amazingly fast – I’m still flabbergasted that the call was YESTERDAY.

    We can surmise that if it were leaked instead to FTFNYT it would have come out around March 1, 2022.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  339. 339.

    Geminid

    RIP Gerry Marsden: “So ferry, cross the Mersey…”     And Chad Stuart of Chad&Jeremy passed away December 20. “And when the rain, drifts against my windowpane, I’ll think of Summer days again, and dream of you.”

  344. 344.

    Another Scott

    @Frankensteinbeck: Dunno.

    I don't think Trump "believes" things, in the same way you or I might. He simply doesn't think truth matters. He says things he imagines will help him, and rejects things he thinks won't help him. There is no reality outside of his self-interest. https://t.co/lgrVYCnJW8

    — Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) January 3, 2021

    I think she’s right.

    Also too:

    He added that “Later, when the cameras were off, he said, ‘Billy, look, you just tell them and they believe it. That’s it: you just tell them and they believe. They just do.”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  345. 345.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:

    He is an old narcissist. He knows no other way to think, if he ever did, which is unlikely. But his narcissism is overwhelming, in every direction and in every way. I believe he is also into dementia, possibly early but it sure looks noticeable. He gets confused, he gets angry when it doesn’t go his way, and sure the narcissism can account for a lot of that, but the lucidity issue isn’t narcissism. Look at where he was 4 yrs ago and look today. Yes things aren’t going his way, no question, but it’s his response, how he handles it, or doesn’t actually. He’s over weight, out of shape, often has a difficult time with basic coordination, that isn’t consistent. These are not good signs, from a person that wasn’t in any way good not all that long ago, but now is far worse.

  346. 346.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    January 3, 2021 at 2:35 pm

    Trump sounds like a man pleading for his life.

    Trump IS a man pleading for his life. He knows on some level that if he isn’t the next president, he’s going to spend the rest of his life, may that be a long life, in prison.

  347. 347.

    J R in WV

    @Felanius Kootea:

    Is it worth impeaching him again just so it’s clear he can’t run in 2024?

    Yes. Being impeached and convicted would also kill off his pension. I don’t know about his Secret Service detail…

Comments are closed.