The countdown to January 20 has accelerated, but Donald Trump continues to cling to power. Illusion of a sick mind, as diagnosed by many psychiatrists for years? Cynical attempt to rally his troops in the hope of a return? With less than three weeks of the inauguration of his successor, the American president redoubles his efforts to convince that he won, on November 3, 2020, an election that he largely lost – by 7 million votes and 74 seats to the electoral college.
And perhaps he believes it himself if we judge by the telephone conversation he had, Saturday, January 2, with the electoral official of the State of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, himself an elected Republican. “It’s impossible that we lost. It’s impossible. We won with hundreds of thousands of votes ”, he repeats, while the result – 11,779 votes in advance for Joe Biden – was the subject of two recounts, one of which was by hand, and the legal challenges were dismissed. The figures were certified on December 14, at the same time as in the rest of the country, and the new elected officials of the 117e Congress were sworn in – in a pageantry limited by the Covid-19 epidemic – on Sunday January 3.
The recording of the phone call was obtained by the Washington Post, who published it in full – while not disclosing the name of a person implicated by the president. The exchange is of the conversational level that earned Mr. Trump the winter 2019 impeachment proceedings. At the time, he was asking for a “Favor” to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky: information damaging to his adversary Joe Biden, in return for the release of military aid to Ukraine. This time he’s asking for votes, 11,780 ballots to be exact. One more than the difference between him and Joe Biden in Georgia. And, once again, he is half-town, half-threatening.
A “shameless abuse of power”
Donald Trump takes up the various accusations of fraud put forward by his supporters in Georgia, and of which he clearly knows the smallest details: the ballots “Destroyed” in Fulton County (Atlanta), voting machines “Moved hurriedly ” by Dominion Company, “5,000 dead” who voted, pro-Biden ballots scanned three times … “Mr. President, that was not the case, contradicts Mr. Raffensperger. We did an audit, and we demonstrated that these ballots were not scanned three times. ” Embarrassed, the Georgian elected representative lets say. When the complainant gives him the opportunity, he tries to correct it. “The number is two. Two deceased people voted. “ And no, Dominion hasn’t moved any equipment out of Fulton County. “But, did they remove the parts inside the machines and replace them with others?” “, resumes Trump, full of hope.
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