Trump pressure campaign on Georgia backfires with GOP
By Alexander Bolton - 01/04/21 07:02 PM EST
President Trump's extraordinary phone call with Georgia's secretary of state is roiling Washington and putting Republicans on the defensive as Democrats call for a criminal investigation of the president.
The political fallout of Trump’s hour-long call over the weekend, which was recorded and widely disseminated, is putting a damper on an insurgent Republican bid to challenge the results of electoral votes in several swing states.
The effort to muster Republican support for objecting to states’ electoral votes when Congress meets in a joint session Wednesday stalled after Trump’s tense communication with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger became public.
Arguments by Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and other Trump-allied GOP senators that the tally of electoral votes should be suspended so that states’ election results can be further reviewed now risks getting lumped in with Trump’s recorded effort to pressure Georgia’s top election official “to find 11,780 votes†in his favor.
“The president doing what he did makes it almost impossible for Cruz to thread that needle,†said Vin Weber, a Republican strategist.
more
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/532610-trump-pressure-campaign-on-georgia-backfires-with-gop