Recordings reportedly show Trump pressuring Michigan canvassers to not certify 2020 vote: Detroit News
Former President Trump reportedly pushed Michigan canvassers to not certify the results of the 2020 during a phone call, according to recordings obtained by The Detroit News.
“We’ve got to fight for our country,” Trump said on the recordings, per the Detroit newspaper. “We can’t let these people take our country away from us.”
The call, with Republican Wayne County Canvassers Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, occurred on Nov. 17, 2020, according to The Detroit News. It also involved Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel.
“If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys,” McDaniel reportedly said on the recording, per the newspaper.
McDaniel said she stood by a letter she and Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox wrote that urged the Michigan Board of State Canvassers to conduct an audit before the election results were certified, according to The Detroit News.
“What I said publicly and repeatedly at the time, as referenced in my letter on Nov. 21, 2020, is that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit,” McDaniel said in a statement, the outlet reported.
Palmer and Hartmann were in a vehicle when they accepted the call from the former president. Other people came into the vehicle and could have heard the conversation, Palmer acknowledged.
The reported recordings mirror another instance in which Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger (R) in January 2021, asking him to “find” enough votes to overturn current President Biden’s win in the Peach State in the 2020 election.
In an emailed statement to The Hill, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said: “[a]ll of President Trump’s actions were taken in furtherance of his duty as President of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity, including investigating the rigged and stolen 2020 Presidential Election.”
“President Trump and the American people have the Constitutional right to free and fair elections,” Cheung said. “Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats are spinning their wheels in the face of devastating polling numbers and desperately leaking misleading information to interfere in the election.”