A bit earlier this afternoon, Sen. Tim Kaine went on MSNBC to discuss this blockbuster, appalling story in the Washington Post.
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.”
According to Kaine – see video here or click on the image, below:
- “It’s shocking but not surprising from this man…he’s a spoiled rich kid because he’s making it about him…”
- “He’s talking about our democracy like it is a real estate deal. ‘Give me $11,000 more for this piece of property.’ This is not a negotiation, it’s an election that’s supposed to be secure and accurate.”
- “He’s encouraging people to come to Washington even to engage in unruly and violent behavior Wednesday, to try to back up his attempt to overthrow an election. It is very dangerous, and any of my Senate colleagues who have flirted with the idea of following this guy over the cliff, when they see this story today, they should look in the mirror and ask how they want to be remembered for the rest of their lives.”
- “This is fundamentally an effort to overthrow the government of the United States. That’s what he is attempting to do. He understands that he’s lost; that’s what this call shows, because he knows he’s got to find 11,780 votes…He’s trying to pressure this guy to add to his vote total.”
- “Georgia has recalculated the result four times since they called the race for Joe Biden…and they’ve all come up exactly the same…”
- “Donald Trump is trying to steal an election. That might be accepted in some third world dictatorship; that’s not what we do in the United States.”
- “That’s not what we do in the United States; we have a peaceful transfer of power that’s been unbroken since the Constitution was ratified in 1787.”
- “None of this is surprising from Donald Trump…what’s surprising is the enablers in the Senate…and what’s saddening is that Donald Trump has been able to bamboozle so many everyday Americans into thinking he’s their leader, when he laughs at them behind their back and he couldn’t care less about them.”
- Sen. Kaine says the 12 Republican Senators challenging the election results “know better,” but they are “afraid of Donald Trump; more importantly, they’re afraid of Donald Trump’s supporters, and their ambition is 10 times the size of their backbone and integrity…they want to keep in good graces of the Trump supporters, and so they’re willing to make an effort – that they know will be unsuccessful…to overthrow the government of the United States to try to make Trump and his supporters happy; they’re trying to appease a bully…You can gain the whole world and lose your soul, and that’s what these folks are about to do if they go along with this corrupt president on Wednesday.”
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