Trump lobbied Georgia governor to help overturn election in appeal

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Trump asked Kemp to call a special session and convince state lawmakers to select their own voters who would support him, according to the source. He also asked the Republican governor to order a verification of the signatures of the postal votes.

Kemp explained that he did not have the authority to order such an audit and denied the request for a special session, the source said.

The White House declined to comment on the call, which was first reported by The Washington Post.
The president appeared to refer to the call in a tweet on Saturday that attacked Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and called for a signature audit of absent vote envelopes in the state, while making false or misleading statements about the potential process. The governor, in response, tweeted that he had already “publicly called a signature audit three times” – which led Trump to double down on his request for Kemp to call a special session of the state legislature.

Kemp spokesman Cody Hall confirmed the governor spoke to the president but, when asked about the conversation, only said Trump offered his condolences on the death of Harrison Deal, a young member of the Loeffler campaign staff.

Trump’s call for Kemp, his latest attempt to interfere with the 2020 election results, came hours before the president’s visit to the state to rally in support of Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler before the second round of Senate elections in January. CNN previously reported that the president publicly pressured Kemp and Raffensperger, both Republicans, to overturn the state’s election results – demands they rejected.

Hall told CNN earlier this week – after a separate push by Trump to intervene in the state’s electoral process – that “Georgian law prohibits the governor from interfering in the election.”

“The Secretary of State, who is an elected constitutional official, exercises control over elections which cannot be overturned by executive order,” Hall said in a statement at the time. “As the Governor has repeatedly said, he will continue to follow the law and encourage the Secretary of State to take reasonable steps – including sample signature checks – to restore confidence and resolve the serious issues that were raised. “

Despite punches from their party leader, Georgia’s GOP election officials pushed back against allegations of Trump’s fraud in the state.

Biden won Georgia by more than 12,000 votes, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the Peach State in nearly three decades. Kemp certified the results of Biden’s victory on Nov. 20, following a statewide audit, which included a manual tally of the nearly 5 million votes cast in the election.
All eyes on Georgia ahead of Trump rally and Senate debate
Trump had recently criticized Kemp, who is one of his supporters, as a “jerk” and a “crazy job” in another phone call. And earlier this week, the president publicly criticized the governor in an interview with Fox News, saying he was “ashamed” for endorsing Kemp.

The governor is not planning to attend Trump’s rally in Valdosta, Georgia on Saturday night due to the sudden death of a close family friend, Hall told CNN.

At the rally in Georgia, the president spent the majority of the first part of his remarks falsely claiming he won the election, shooting Kemp, and saying the Senate second round would be rigged.

As CNN previously reported, Republicans feared Trump could lower turnout among his base in the state’s decisive runoff if he continued to denounce Georgia’s electoral system and attack Kemp – exactly. what Trump did at the rally.

The president has also gone through a litany of issues he envisions with a Democratic-controlled Senate, including consolidating the Supreme Court, ending filibustering, abolishing Second Amendment rights and making Washington, DC and other places, states to get more Democratic votes. in Congress.

Trump said winning the two Senate seats in Georgia was the “last line of defense to save America,” a tacit acknowledgment that he lost the presidential election.

This story was updated with additional developments on Saturday.

CNN’s Ryan Nobles and Jason Hoffman contributed to this report.

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