Exclusive: Trump urges state legislators to reject electoral votes, ‘You are the real power’
by Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets Columnist, January 3, 2020
President Trump, frustrated by the courts in his bid to overturn the election results, is urging legislatures in several key states to reconvene and reject the Electoral College votes that gave Joe Biden the win in their states.
In a private call late Saturday to legislators who believe that Trump was robbed of reelection by fraudulent voting organized by Democrats, the president said that they were the only path to stopping Biden’s election.
“You are the real power,” he said on the call, details of which were shared with Secrets.
“The most important people are you. You're more important than the courts. You're more important than anything because the courts keep referring to you, and you're the ones that are going to make the decision,” he said in a 14-minute call into a two-hour session organized by the group Got Freedom at the request of some 300 state legislators.
Several leaders of the #StopTheSteal movement were on the call, organized by Phill Kline who also heads the Amistad Project of the nonpartisan Thomas Moore Society. Others included Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who got Trump on the phone, law professor John Eastman, Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade czar who recently authored a report on the election, and John R. Lott Jr., a Justice Department official who also separately authored a new report suggesting some 300,000 “excess” ballots were counted, giving Biden his win.
While Trump talked, news broke of the plan by a dozen GOP senators to join a House move organized by Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama and Jim Jordan of Ohio to challenge the Electoral College results on Wednesday, seen by many as a Hail Mary play.
Trump expressed appreciation for the effort but clearly felt that the best chance to overturn the election was with the legislatures, several of which never had a chance to vote to confirm the electoral votes because they were not in session. Others, he said, were fed false results to approve.
“You know that we won the election, and you were also given false numbers to certify,” said the president.
Time is critical. States have just a few days before the state votes are certified on Jan. 6 in Congress.
“Your job, I believe, is to take action, action, action,” said Navarro. “The situation is dire.”
Giuliani said that legislators could take action quickly, and those on the call were urged to push their leaders into action. “We need you to put excessive pressure on your leadership where the real weakness and cowardice is mostly located,” he said.
Kline, Lott, and Navarro presented their reports on voter fraud, dead people voting, and ballot stuffing. They have focused on Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona.
“The integrity of our elections is far too important to treat cavalierly, and elected officials deserve to have all relevant information at their disposal as they consider whether to accept the reported results of the 2020 elections, especially in states where the process was influenced by private interests,” said Kline.
The leaders in those states, however, appear uninterested in revisiting the election results. Trump reiterated his belief that he won and that Democrats orchestrated a campaign, sparked by his surprise 2016 victory, to make sure he lost this year. “It's a scam, it’s rigged. It was a rigged election. They stole the election. We can't let them steal it,” he said.
“I went from leading by a lot to losing by a little,” he said of the election night vote county. “It is a disgrace that it can happen. Everyone knows it was a scam, it was a rigged election,” he added.
Trump also referenced the planned protests in Washington on Wednesday as Congress and Vice President Mike Pence join to certify the election.
“I don't think the country is going to take it,” said Trump, who has indicated he will run again in 2024.
In a shot at Biden, he added, “And I think it would be a horrible thing for this country if this happens with somebody that was in a basement, because his brainpower is shot, and it wasn't great before, but he's in a basement, and he ends up winning an election that everybody knows he lost.”
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