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CNN Special Reports
CNN Special Report, "Trumping Democracy: An American Coup." Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired November 08, 2021 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:24]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The following is a CNN Special Report.
TEXT: A CNN SPECIAL REPORT.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - JANUARY 6, 2021 U.S. CAPITOL HILL RIOT)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER (voice-over): The violence of the Capitol, on January 6, 2021, was just the most visible part, of Donald Trump's attempt, to hold on to power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - JANUARY 6, 2021 U.S. CAPITOL HILL RIOT)
(PROTESTERS CHANT "FREEDOM!")
(PROTESTERS CHANT "USA!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Tonight, we talk to those, who witnessed the whole plot unfurl, and tried to stop it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - JANUARY 6, 2021 U.S. CAPITOL HILL RIOT)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): The lies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This election was stolen from you, from me, and from the country. REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): If you ask how many Republican Congressmen believed Donald Trump was re-elected, I'd say maybe a couple. But 60 percent of our base does.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Conspiracy theories.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER TRUMP PERSONAL LAWYER: That could have been Mickey Mouse.
REP. ANTHONY GONZALEZ (R-OH): I'm watching, like this is the craziest thing I've ever seen. And then people just bought it whole cloth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Lawsuits.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL SCHMIDT, (R) CITY COMMISSIONER OF PHILADELPHIA: They tried to not have your votes counted. They did not want your vote to count.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Potentially illegal pressure campaigns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: I just want to find 11,780 votes.
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, (R) GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: What he was asking for wasn't supported by the facts, wasn't supported by the Constitution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Extraordinary scheming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): Let's talk about the Eastman memo.
REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): Just breathtaking that you would have laid out such a clear game plan that so clearly violated the Constitution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): And all too many, in the Republican Party.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: You believe this was a free and fair election? (END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): And MAGA Media, who followed along.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Unverifiable dumps of votes.
D. TRUMP: We will never give up. We will never concede.
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS CHANTING "STOP THE STEAL!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): And it all might have worked, if not for a few people, in key places, notably among them, brave Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GONZALEZ: In the moments of truth, you need the right people, to pass the most difficult tests. We had just enough people on January 6 pass the test.
MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Pursuant to the Constitution, and the laws of the United States.
TAPPER (on camera): Do you think Donald Trump attempted to stage a coup?
GEOFF DUNCAN, (R) LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, GEORGIA: I don't know what you could call it, other than a coup.
BILL GATES, VICE CHAIR, MARICOPA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: I have real concerns about the future of this democracy.
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS CHANTING "HANG MIKE PENCE!")
CHENEY: I'm deeply afraid for our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Tonight, a CNN Special Report, TRUMPING DEMOCRACY: AN AMERICAN COUP.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - JANUARY 6, 2021 U.S. CAPITOL HILL RIOT)
D. TRUMP: You'll never take back our country with weakness.
(VIDEO - JANUARY 6, 2021 U.S. CAPITOL HILL RIOT)
D. TRUMP: You have to show strength.
(END VIDEO CLIP) GONZALEZ: January 6 was the line that can't be crossed. January 6 was an unconstitutional attempt, led by the President of the United States, to overturn an American election, and reinstall, himself, in power, illegitimately.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS CHANTING "FREEDOM!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GONZALEZ: That's fallen nation territory. That's third-world country territory. My family left Cuba, to avoid that fate. I will not let it happen here.
TAPPER (voice-over): That's Republican congressman, Anthony Gonzalez, of Ohio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GONZALEZ: I rise today in support of the Cuban people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Grandson of an immigrant, he has a quintessentially American success story.
A talented wide receiver, who played three years, for Ohio State, five more, in the NFL, and when injury sidelined him, he got a business degree from Stanford, all this, before age 34, when Gonzalez felt called to run for Congress.
GONZALEZ: I got into this because, look, my family came here from Cuba. My father's family came here from Cuba.
We come from a country that has fallen. We come from a failed nation. And we've seen what happens, when the rule of law is dismantled, when a straw man is allowed to take hold, and democratic norms cease to exist.
TAPPER (voice-over): And now, the conservative Republican has a warning, for all of us, about what Trump and his minions, tried to do, when they tried to steal the election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - JANUARY 6, 2021 U.S. CAPITOL HILL RIOT)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GONZALEZ: This country's been through a lot. We fought through it. And we've persevered.
As much as I despise almost every policy of the Biden Administration, the country can survive around a bad policy. The country can't survive torching the Constitution. That's the one thing the country can't survive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: It's going to be fraud all over the place.
A rigged election, there's going to be fraud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Donald Trump's plan, to undermine American democracy, began months, before the voting started.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: What's he going to do with these ballots? Where are they going?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): With a return to lies, he had been telling, for years.
[23:05:03]
In 2012, he tweeted, quote, "More reports of voting machines switching Romney votes to Obama. Pay close attention to the machines, don't let your vote be stolen."
TEXT: NOT TRUE.
TAPPER (voice-over): Not true.
In 2016, quote, "Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa. He stole it."
TEXT: NOT TRUE.
TAPPER (voice-over): Not true.
And this, after he won the Electoral College, hence the presidency, in 2016.
Quote, "I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."
TEXT: NOT TRUE.
TAPPER (voice-over): Also not true.
BEN GINSBERG, REPUBLICAN ELECTION LAWYER: President Trump started a commission to look for that in 2017. They could find nothing. They disbanded, before they could even file a report.
TAPPER (voice-over): In 2020, mail-in ballots, which were going to be more prevalent, because of the Pandemic, became a perfect new foil, for Trump's old claim.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: Voting by mail is wrought with fraud and abuse.
When you do all mail-in voting ballots, you're asking for fraud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Alyssa Farah was the White House Communications Director, for then-President Trump, from April through December 2020.
ALYSSA FARAH, FORMER WH COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR TRUMP: We actually had to pull together a meeting, in the Oval, to remind him that many of our voters, particularly senior citizens, were going to vote by mail, and that we were deterring people, from turning out, and from voting, in the way that they would.
TAPPER (voice-over): All this got the attention of Congresswoman Liz Cheney, a rock-ribbed conservative, and daughter of former Vice President, Dick Cheney. At the time, she was number three, in House Republican leadership, the Conference Chair.
CHENEY: It concerned me because we wanted people to be able to vote, as Republicans. I wasn't concerned about it, from a constitutional perspective at all. Those concerns clearly came later on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: There are going to be millions of missing ballots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Cheney's constitutional concerns came about five weeks, before Election Day.
TAPPER (on camera): Then-President Trump was asked, if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Win, lose or draw, in this election, will you commit here, today, for a peaceful transferal of power, after the election?
D. TRUMP: Well we're going to have to see what happens. You know that I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): You tweeted a response to that.
You wrote, "The peaceful transfer of power is enshrined in our Constitution and fundamental to the survival of our Republic. America's leaders swear an oath to the Constitution. We will uphold that oath."
That suggests to me that you were worried.
CHENEY: I was. It is such a basic fundamental thing. Every president really is responsible, for safeguarding the peaceful transfer of power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: Well we're going to see what happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: And so, for President Trump, not to be willing to make that commitment was stunning.
TAPPER (voice-over): That was September 2020, when Donald Trump also stunned, Republican Al Schmidt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHMIDT: We either need to get them on board, or move the polling place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Schmidt is one of three City Commissioners, in Philadelphia. His job is to oversee the City's elections.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: There was a big problem. In Philadelphia, they went into watch. They were called poll watchers. They were thrown out. They weren't allowed to watch. You know why? Because bad things happen, in Philadelphia, bad things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): So, you're watching the debate, and President Trump says "Bad things happen in Philadelphia," what goes through your mind?
SCHMIDT: I think I said out loud, "I see what you're doing."
We had the sitting President, trying to discredit the results, coming from the City of Philadelphia, before a single vote was cast, in the city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: Watch those ballots.
(TRUMP CAMPAIGN AUDIENCE RESPONDS WITH "YES!")
D. TRUMP: I don't like it.
Thousands of ballots, all over the country, are being reported. Some thrown in garbage cans with my name on them. So, did you see today? There was a big mishap with the ballots, another one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Not only was Trump spreading distrust of the electoral process.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: Did you see they found 50,000 ballots, in like a river?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): He was doing it in States, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, where the margins were expected to be tight, and the wait for results, was expected to be unusually long.
CHRIS STIREWALT, FORMER POLITICS EDITOR, FOX NEWS: In most of America, there is a big traditional skew, between early votes and Election Day votes.
The Republicans usually win Election Day. And the Democrats usually win early voting and absentee voting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STIREWALT: We've got all, this vote flowing in, in Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Chris Stirewalt was part of Fox News 2020 Decision Desk.
STIREWALT: Question is, do Republicans do well enough, on Election Day, to offset it?
TAPPER (voice-over): In 2020, the divide was expected to be more pronounced than usual, because Trump had been telling Republicans, not to trust mail-in ballots. This set the stage, for what experts predicted would prompt misleading early vote counts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: There may be what some folks call a Red Mirage, so that Trump's numbers may be highest, on Election Night, and then there's a long tail, called the Blue Wave, as more votes, absentees, come in that in the last couple of decades have come in overwhelmingly Democrat.
[23:10:09]
The big caveat is we've never had early voting like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): We all knew that some States were going to show him up, and then it was going to get closer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE DENT, (R) FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Trump could be doing reasonably well, on Election Night, only to watch this thing shift, over the coming days, toward the Democrats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): Did he not know that?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES: No, he had been told that repeatedly, and he didn't care.
He had decided, before the summer, frankly, when it was clear that the Pandemic was going to change, the way, by-mail voting worked, in a number of States, and expanded, he started laying the groundwork, for "This can't be trusted."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: This is not right. What they're doing is not right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Everyone, who followed the elections closely, knew about this. But then?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST AND SENIOR COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: Some breaking news we got to talk about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Right before the actual Election Day, a convenient alternative explanation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BANNON: This project or the system called "Hammer."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): A false conspiracy theory, popped up, in right- wing media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIEUTENANT GENERAL THOMAS MCINERNEY, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE (RETIRED): It's going to look good for President Trump, but they're going to change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): There would be many, many more conspiracy theories, in the days ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM WITH BLITZER: Voters are in the final hours, of making a monumental decision, for this country.
TAPPER: Wolf, we're keeping an eye on voting underway, across the country, especially in those key battleground states.
BLITZER: CNN projects that President Trump will win the State of Florida, a big win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HABERMAN: Former President Trump was in his residence. He had people coming up and down.
But there were staffers, aides, friends, hangers-on, all sorts of people, in the East Room, munching on mini burgers, and celebrating what they believed, once the State of Florida, was called for Trump, was going to be a repeat of 2016.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: A big win for President Trump, in Florida.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HABERMAN: Trump was in a decent mood, until Fox called Arizona, for Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: The Fox News Decision Desk is calling Arizona for Joe Biden. That is a big get for the Biden campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HABERMAN: He believed what he was being told by some advisors, after he won Florida, which was, "This is looking good for us. This is looking just like 2016. These States that were supposed to go for Biden are going for you."
And then, we got to the Arizona call, and it all fell apart.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It's a significant victory, for Joe Biden. As I say, the first flip of the night, in the presidential race.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): The Fox News Decision Desk made that call hours before the Associated Press, and days before the major news networks. STIREWALT: People were sending me what people were saying on social media. And it was this sort of psychotic murderous rage about us. And we don't do anything. We're just the weatherman. I'm just telling you where the storm is going. I don't make the weather.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STIREWALT: The votes are out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): He started calling talent, at Fox, and urging them to retract?
FARAH: Right, as though it was the call that made that true, not the votes that were cast.
HABERMAN: He had made up his mind, weeks before that he was going to go to the podium, if Election Night showed, he was losing, and he was going to say, he won. And that's exactly what he did.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: This is a fraud on the American public.
(AUDIENCE RESPONDS WITH "YES!")
D. TRUMP: This is an embarrassment to our country.
(AUDIENCE RESPONDS WITH "YES!")
D. TRUMP: We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.
(AUDIENCE CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
D. TRUMP: We did win this election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): And then, he said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any ballots at 4 o'clock in the morning, and add them to the list, OK?
(AUDIENCE CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): But nobody was voting. They were just counting. The focus, at this point, was mostly on mail-in ballots. In 2020, more Democrats voted this way, than Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) D. TRUMP: We were winning everything. And, all of a sudden, it was just called off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): What an ideal time to stop the counting, if you're a Republican president, who wants to hold on to Office, no matter what the voters actually want.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: I've been saying this from the day I heard they were going to send out tens of millions of ballots, I said exactly this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:17:39]
GATES: I love this country. I love this democracy. And it makes me very sad to see what many, in my party, are doing.
TAPPER (voice-over): Bill Gates is a conservative Republican, who worked on voter integrity issues, for the Arizona Republican Party, for years.
GATES: I'm one of these kind of Alex P. Keaton kids from the 80s. I mean, I've been a Republican my whole life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vice Chair Gates.
GATES: Thank you so much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Nowadays, he's the Vice Chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, the Governing Board, for the County, which is Arizona's most populous.
Among the Board's responsibilities? Running elections.
GATES: This election was run well. There was no fraud involved in this. No corruption. Why do I feel confident about that? Because this has been the most scrutinized election we've ever run.
My job was to make sure that there wasn't anything improper or fraudulent that was going on.
TAPPER (on camera): You weren't discounting anything?
GATES: No. My job is to investigate what was being brought to me. And so, I followed up on those, with our elections officials.
TAPPER (on camera): And?
GATES: And -- and there was nothing to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Ken (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, sir.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): For Gates, and his colleagues, the madness began, in the hours, after the polls closed?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: As far as I'm concerned, we already have won it.
(AUDIENCE RESPONDS WITH "YES!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Before the tally was finished.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS PROTESTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Supporters, who believed then-President Trump, when he said he won Arizona, began flocking to the counting site.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS CHANTING "USA!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GATES: It was a circus. I mean, it really was Lollapalooza, for the alt-right.
And they were outside, of the Election Center, which is I mean, really off the beaten path.
TAPPER (voice-over): Across the United States, local election officials were scrambling, to get a record number, of mail-in ballots counted. Among them, in Philadelphia, was Al Schmidt, one of three City Commissioners, and the only Republican. He ran for Office, promising to protect election integrity.
SCHMIDT: One of the things that I was involved in, as part of the Republican Party, in the City, and Republican Party, in the State, was election integrity. Since coming into Office, in 2012, I've referred more than two dozen cases, for investigation, to city, state and federal law enforcement. [23:20:04]
Our election operations were centered in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, in Center City, Philadelphia. And there was one TV on, that I happen to be walking past.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHMIDT: And the President saying, "Why are they still counting? We already got the results."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: We're winning Pennsylvania by a tremendous amount of votes.
(AUDIENCE CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): And I want to be very clear about what then- President Trump was calling for. He wanted millions of Americans, to be disenfranchised.
SCHMIDT: Which is completely at odds with democracy, it was pretty upsetting to see that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Let's get a key race alert, in some of the battleground States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHMIDT: When half of your voters, in our case, 325,000 voters, vote by mail, it takes days, to count all those ballots, because you can't even begin processing the envelopes that came in, until 7 o'clock, on Election morning.
TAPPER (on camera): Because that's the law that the Republicans made?
SCHMIDT: That is the law the Republicans made and refuse to change.
TAPPER (voice-over): And this is a key point, especially in Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE CORMAN, (R) PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA SENATE: This is the most significant modernization of our elections code in decades.
(END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER (voice-over): Expanded vote-by-mail legislation had been
passed, before the Pandemic, in 2019, by the Republican Legislature. These were Republican rules.
STIREWALT: The refusal, to count those mail votes, early, and be prepared, really hurt the country.
And if you can't get the ballots counted accurately, efficiently, expeditiously, you create this space, for Trump, and his squad, and these goons, to go out there, and plant lies, to try to steal this election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID NORMAN BOSSIE, AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTIVIST: We're going to prove to the American people that Arizona is Trump country.
(AUDIENCE RESPONDS WITH "YES!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): It was happening most notably in swing States. In Arizona, there was Sharpiegate. The Trump campaign falsely alleged Sharpie markers on the ballots made them unreadable by the counting machines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS CHANTING "USA!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GATES: That was sort of the beginning of this. Let's start.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS PROTESTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GATES: And throw, you know, chum out in the water, for folks that want to try and overturn this election.
TAPPER (voice-over): In Georgia, a big lie that spread on the internet was that this legal case of ballots was actually a secret suitcase, of false Biden votes, being added to the count.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw four suitcases come out from underneath the table.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Something the Republican Lieutenant Governor, Geoff Duncan, and his colleagues, looked into, and found completely without merit.
DUNCAN: It was cut and spliced. To take the time to watch it from beginning to end, there's a very sequence pattern that can be explained all the way through there. And those weren't suitcases. Those were actually pre-approved cases already used all over the State.
TAPPER (voice-over): In Philadelphia, Trump did better, than he had, in 2016, better than Romney in 2012 or McCain in 2008.
He was losing Pennsylvania, because he did so much worse, in the Philadelphia suburbs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS CHANTING "COUNT EVERY VOTE!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Nonetheless, because Trump decided discrediting big cities was going to be one of his false political attacks, in Philadelphia, Trump's lawyers, falsely claimed, Republican observers had been barred, from the counting rooms.
TAPPER (on camera): One of the attorneys, for Trump, asks a judge, Judge Diamond, for an emergency order, to stop the counting. And they're claiming that they had no people in the room. That's what they had been claiming outside the courtroom.
But inside the courtroom, this Trump lawyer concedes that there were a, quote, "Nonzero number," of their own observers in the room. And essentially, the case is laughed out of court.
SCHMIDT: Short of that lawyer, lying to the judge, and committing perjury, clearly went as far as he could. We had Republican observers there, every minute of every day that we were operating, and counting votes, right in front of us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC TRUMP, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION, SON OF FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP: This is rampant corruption.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Despite this barrage, from Trump and his allies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CHALIAN, VICE PRESIDENT AND CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We will await more vote, to come into Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): That counting ended quite momentously, the Saturday after the election. TAPPER (on camera): Ultimately, the final decision of this very long election week came down to Philly. And after Philly was decided, and announced?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: CNN projects, Joseph R. Biden, Jr. is elected the 46th President of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): Joe Biden declared victory. What was that like?
SCHMIDT: To have our voters' votes, result in the election being called, was an incredible thing to watch.
While all that is happening, we're also aware that Rudy Giuliani is coming to Philadelphia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: Wow! What a beautiful day! Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHMIDT: Going to the Four Seasons Landscaping place to say that our voters' vote shouldn't be counted.
[23:25:06]
TAPPER (on camera): I was about to bring up Four Seasons Total Landscaping because?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: In Philadelphia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): It was?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: They keep the votes of dead people secret.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): The most.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: Very suspect method of voting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): Degrading. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: There was no security, zero.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): Pathetic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: People of this country have no assurance at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): Preposterous.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: That those ballots were actually cast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): Farcical moment, in my view, of this post-Election Day challenge of this all.
SCHMIDT: And appropriate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: They would have to have been almost unanimously cast for Joe Biden in order to catch up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): They obviously did not mean to have this, at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, in an industrial area, right across the street from a crematorium, and next to a sex shop!
TAPPER (voice-over): And it was the day Trump got the news he did not want to hear.
HABERMAN: He was told by two of his top political advisors that basically it was over. And he listened. And he decided that he wanted to keep fighting.
TAPPER (voice-over): So?
HABERMAN: Trump decided he wanted to put Giuliani in charge. And that's exactly what he did. Giuliani was willing to do what he wanted.
TAPPER (voice-over): And that is what led to this now infamous press conference, mid-November, featuring Rudy Giuliani, and another lawyer named Sidney Powell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SIDNEY POWELL, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN LAWYER: The Dominion Voting Systems were created, in Venezuela, at the direction of Hugo Chavez, to make sure he never lost an election.
GIULIANI: The only thing left is the vote. That could have been the same person 30 times.
POWELL: One of its most characteristic features is its ability to flip votes.
GIULIANI: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Ben Ginsberg, the preeminent Republican Party election attorney, who has battled with Democrats, on many recounts, and recalls, was watching.
GINSBERG: When I first heard that press conference, I said, "Oh, my God, can that really be true?" Because, if there was nothing there, they wouldn't just be making it up. And then they went through the entire press conference. And I sort of remember, looking out the window, and saying, "They just made all that up."
TAPPER (voice-over): They did! This campaign memo, from six days, before the press conference, first reported by "The New York Times," says "Dominion has no company ties to Venezuela."
Dominion, and one of its former employees, would later sue Giuliani and Powell, for more than $1 billion.
A court document, filed by Powell's lawyers, said, quote, "No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact." Someone should tell that to the Republican National Committee, because they still have Powell's lies, in its social media feed.
In a deposition for another related case, Giuliani said he got his information about a former Dominion employee, having Antifa ties, from social media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: Those social media posts get all one to me -- sort of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Social media postings?
GIULIANI: Or something else. I think it was Facebook.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): He also admitted that he did not have the time, he said, to investigate the claims himself.
Alyssa Farah was the White House Communications Director, when all these lies were being fed, to then-President Trump.
TAPPER (on camera): You're saying that in November, there seemed to be a tacit acknowledgment by the President that he lost. But then something changed.
FARAH: Yes. So, something did change. And I think this was when the -- the more conspiracy theorist individuals, started getting access to the President, the Sidney Powells, the Mike Lindells, Michael Flynns, and even Steve Bannon was in his ear. And it did take a turn. I think he believes it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: This election was a fraud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FARAH: The former president believes that he won the election. And that's scary.
And the other thing, though, that your viewers need to know is the people around the president, the sane ones, know that he did not win. And they're lying to you, and they're lying to him, when they suggest that the election was stolen.
TAPPER (voice-over): There were more than 60 lawsuits, filed by the Trump campaign, or its supporters. They only prevailed in one case, from Pennsylvania. But the number of ballots affected was too small to change the results, from the State.
GINSBERG: None of the claims he made were found meritorious, by any court, in any way that would have reversed the results of the election.
TAPPER (voice-over): Georgia faced more than a dozen of these suits.
RAFFENSPERGER: Many of these lawsuits were just wanted to throw out the results, and then have the General Assembly, pick their own set of electors.
TAPPER (voice-over): Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's Republican Secretary of State, a conservative Republican, who supported Trump, and has fought with Democrats, on election issues, ordered a statewide hand count.
That hand count confirmed there was no widespread fraud involved with the machine count.
RAFFENSPERGER: No, we never saw enough fraud that would have ever turned the results of the election.
[23:30:02]
We have about 250 investigations going on. But if you look at it, it's onesie, twosies, a couple people here, a couple persons there, doing something. But it never added up to 12,000 votes. TAPPER (voice-over): Still, then-President Trump hate-tweeted about him. And both Raffensperger, and his wife, were threatened.
RAFFENSPERGER: People started threatening her, sending her sexualized text, you know, those kind of intimidations.
TAPPER (voice-over): Bill Gates got threats too.
So did Commissioner Al Schmidt, who testified about them in Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHMIDT: "Tell the truth, or your three kids will be fatally shot," included, our address, included my children's names, included a picture of our home. "Cops can't help you. Heads on spikes, treasonous Schmidts."
DUNCAN: We've not had any sort of credible incidents raised to our level yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: There was an interesting timeline that started to happen. A pattern is probably a better way to put it. So, I would go on TV. I would speak the truth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: If there's an issue out there, we want to make sure we understand it, investigate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: And within minutes, he would send a tweet out that would say something derogatory or inflammatory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: His latest target is the Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan.
Quote, "Georgia Lieutenant Governor, Geoff Duncan Georgia, is a RINO Never Trumper. Too dumb or corrupt to recognize massive evidence of fraud in Georgia and should be replaced."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: And then, within minutes, after that, either me, or my wife, would start to get threats, which show up on our phone.
I mean, like blood-curdling threats, from just the most awful-sounding individuals, in deep meaning that we know things about you and your family that they intentionally were trying to scare us and intimidate us. It was all to try to get us to sit down and be quiet.
TAPPER (voice-over): Then-President Trump wanted some Republicans to sit down. Others, he invited to Washington.
TAPPER (on camera): He starts bringing in state legislators from Pennsylvania.
HABERMAN: Yes.
TAPPER (on camera): Party leaders from Michigan.
HABERMAN: He starts having them come to the White House, yes, to visit with him. And again, this is part of the sales job that he thinks he's doing.
He's telling them that really he won, and that they ought to consider that, and that they ought to consider how they submit electors, and how they go ahead, in certifying the election, in their States. But none of them went along with it, at the end of the day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROWD CHANTS "DONALD TRUMP IS NOT WELCOME HERE!")
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Joe Biden ahead now by 61,000 votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): In Michigan, despite losing to Joe Biden, by more than 154,000 votes, Trump waged a fierce fight, to keep the results from being certified.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(PROTESTERS CHANT "STOP THE COUNT!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): It might have worked, if one of the two Republicans, on the State Canvassing board, had not resisted intense pressure, and voted with the Democrats, to certify.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON VAN LANGEVELDE, GOP VICE CHAIR, MICHIGAN BOARD OF STATE CANVASSERS: We must not attempt to exercise power we simply don't have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): After that act of courage, State Republicans replaced him, on the Board.
It was all part of a presidential push, for legislators, to disenfranchise their own constituents, based on lies. There was no credible evidence of widespread fraud.
Perhaps, the President's most shocking push was in Georgia. TAPPER (on camera): So then-President Trump asked Governor Kemp, to call a Special Session, of the Legislature, so the legislators could appoint their own electors, instead of the ones for Biden that the voters had picked?
DUNCAN: You play that out, and you disenfranchise 2.5 million people's votes, in a state, I don't care if they're Ds, or Rs, we would have had riding in every street, in every community, it would have been an absolute attack on democracy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - JANUARY 6, 2021 U.S. CAPITOL HILL RIOT)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): A version of that, of course, came later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO - JANUARY 6, 2021 U.S. CAPITOL HILL RIOT)
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS CHANTING "FIGHT FOR TRUMP!")
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS CHANTING "FREEDOM!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:37:56]
TAPPER (voice-over): As court losses piled up, and Inauguration Day crept closer, Trump hoped that U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, with the might of the Department of Justice, behind him, would back him, and add credence to his fraudulent claims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS ANCHOR: Where is the DOJ and the FBI in all of this Mr. President?
D. TRUMP: Missing in action.
BARTIROMO: Is the DOJ investigating?
D. TRUMP: Missing in action, can't tell you where they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Barr was investigating.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Bill Barr issued a memo that told prosecutors around the country that they could take overt steps to look into allegations of fraud. It is something that the Department traditionally didn't do, until the
votes were certified. It was absolutely seen, as putting pressure, on prosecutors, around the country, to at least say publicly, or have signs that they were investigating voter fraud.
Bill Barr was looking for it. And the truth was that it just wasn't there. And he eventually came to realize that.
TAPPER (voice-over): In an interview with the Associated Press, Barr publicly contradicted Trump's baseless assertions, saying, quote, "To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election."
PEREZ: The President is furious. He calls Barr over, to meet with him, and the two of them get into a shouting match.
HABERMAN: Barr told Trump they had looked into these things that Trump was asking about, and there was nothing there. And Trump got very agitated. And Barr just kept saying "This is not real, sir."
And, at one point, Barr described Giuliani, and his ilk, as "Clowns." And Trump sort of listened and said "Maybe," but he wouldn't get off of it.
TAPPER (voice-over): It was not just characters, like Rudy Giuliani, peddling the false claims. There were others stepping into aid with the dirty work of trying to subvert the election.
PEREZ: Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General, big supporter of Donald Trump, brings a lawsuit, arguing that the ballots, from four States, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia, should be thrown out, because those States had not followed their own laws, in allowing mail-in balloting, and in the way that they had carried out their elections. He was arguing that millions of ballots should be thrown out.
[23:40:11]
TAPPER (voice-over): The legal filing was so constitutionally unhinged, and substantively bereft, the Texas Solicitor General refused to allow His name, on the suit. The suit cited a litany of convoluted, and speculative allegations, and some downright lies.
SCHMIDT: It said that Philadelphia's vote shouldn't be counted, because it used Dominion voting machines. Philadelphia doesn't use Dominion voting machines, like basic facts like that, it was completely absurd, to read.
TAPPER (voice-over): Another absurdity? The lawsuit cited a statistical analysis that claimed the probability of Biden winning those four States quote, "Given President Trump's early lead in those States, as of 3 A.M., on November 4 2020, is less than one in a quadrillion."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAYLEIGH MCENANY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT TRUMP: For the vote to swing by as much as it did, the probability of that, in one State, is one in one quadrillion. That's one, comma, 15 zeros. To happen in all four, it's one, comma, 15 zeros to the fourth power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): It was nonsense, a lie. The analysis completely ignored, what everyone, including the Trump campaign, knew, because of vote-by-mail. And when States counted early ballots, some States were going to show an early lead for Trump that would not hold.
Despite the mendacity of the lawsuit, 17 other Republican state attorneys general signed a legal brief, backing it. An overwhelming number of House Republicans were drawn into that effort as well.
At Trump's request, Congressman Mike Johnson, of Louisiana, circulated an email to his Republican colleagues, asking them to sign on, to the brief, supporting Paxton's lawsuit.
CHENEY: As the amicus brief was being prepared, I was urging my colleague, who was preparing the brief, not to do it.
GONZALEZ: I didn't sign it, because I thought it was just wrong, frankly. And that's when I started getting some phone calls, from people going, "Hey, wait a minute. You know, aren't you got to fight this thing? Aren't you? This election was stolen."
TAPPER (voice-over): In the end, 126 House Republicans signed their names to it.
Adam Kinzinger, a Republican congressman, from Illinois, did not.
TAPPER (on camera): How many people that signed on to it, do you think actually believed the nonsense in it?
KINZINGER: If I had to guess, I'd say five to 10.
CHENEY: I think there was a sense, among those who did sign it, at least some of them was sort of, "Well, we're just going to do this to placate President Trump." And I thought that was "Not doing our duty."
Kevin McCarthy told me directly that he wasn't going to sign it. I said, "Good. This is not a brief that we ought to be associated with." And then a few hours later, he signed it.
KINZINGER: The brief went out without Kevin McCarthy's name, and then the next day claiming that he was inadvertently left off, and he signed on to it. That was bad.
He initially didn't want to sign it, and then realized what the pressure was. And what you see there are people that sign on to something they don't believe, to avoid political pressure. It's leaders that are afraid of their base, and not leading their base.
TAPPER (voice-over): The Supreme Court declined to even hear the suit.
TAPPER (on camera): A majority of House Republicans, like two-thirds of them, literally saying, "I don't want any of the votes from Pennsylvania, I don't want any of them to count," based on this lie, I mean, I'll just say, for me, personally, as a Pennsylvanian, they were trying to disenfranchise my mom and dad, based on lies.
SCHMIDT: I don't know how everyone doesn't take that personally. They tried to not have your votes counted. They did not want your vote to count, based on nothing whatsoever. That is so mind-bending, and so difficult to comprehend.
KINZINGER: So, what's going to happen, next presidential election? How many people are going to sign some brief that says "Overthrow this to the Supreme Court," that becomes the bottom-line standard, that happens every time in D.C. And a lot of those standards were broken in this season. And I'm worried we'll never get them back.
TAPPER (voice-over): Up next, Donald Trump's phone call, to the top election official, in Georgia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: I just want to find 11,780 votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): Was he telling him to break the law?
DUNCAN: It certainly felt like it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:48:05]
TAPPER (on camera): Before the 2020 election, you were perceived as a rising star, in the Republican Party, in Georgia. But now, you're not running for reelection. So what happened?
DUNCAN: Yes, it's funny. And, talking about rising star, I don't know if I would agree with that. But one of the biggest knocks against me, when I was running for lieutenant governor, was that I was too conservative, to actually be a statewide candidate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: Hey, Georgia, it's Geoff Duncan, again, conservative candidate for lieutenant governor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): In 2018, in the increasingly Purple state of Georgia, Geoff Duncan ran as a long-shot, on his conservative values.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): Please raise your right hand and place your left hand on your Bible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): And he won.
TAPPER (on camera): So, no one actually can question your conservative bona fide. There's no issue when it comes to social issues, or economic issues, or foreign policy, or there's no way in which you're squishy or a liberal?
DUNCAN: Yes, I'm a conservative, because I believe in the principles of it, not because, it gets me elected in Georgia. I'm wired to be a conservative. I was raised that way. I think our family's conservative. The businesses that I run are conservative. That's just who I am.
TAPPER (voice-over): But in 2020, after Duncan pushed back, against the wave of false claims?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: It's certainly disheartening, to watch folks, willing to kind of put their character and their morals out there, just so that they can they can spread a half truth or a lie, in the efforts to maybe flip an election.
(VIDEO - TRUMP SUPPORTERS CHANTING "WE WANT TRUMP!")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Duncan found himself, on the receiving end, of Republican fury, just like Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, whose office was flooded with calls from voters, urging him to change the results of the election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to talk to Brad Raffensperger. I want to talk to this piece of (BLEEP) for not (BLEEP) doing the right thing. This election was (BLEEP) stolen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: We could feel the angst, and the hate, building in the air, over nothing, over a mirage, over a shiny object, to deflect from the fact that Donald Trump had lost the election fair and squarely.
[23:50:03]
TAPPER (on camera): You could have very easily kept your mouth shut, not said anything, gone along. Was all of this worth it, putting it all, on the line, for the truth?
DUNCAN: The answer is absolutely it was worth it.
TAPPER (voice-over): The Lieutenant Governor found himself amongst the few, willing to speak the truth, but he was not alone.
Disgusted by threats, his election workers, were getting, from misled Trump supporters, fellow Georgia Republican, Gabe Sterling, also became a vocal critic, of the public lies.
GABRIEL STERLING, (R) CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: I remember, we had this -- our Warehouse Manager, at our Center for Elections, was taking the trash out. These are young guys, who've been working with us, for a few years.
And all these people swarm around him with, you know, their cameras going go, "You're going to the prison! You're going to prison."
He's just a warehouse guy! I mean, nobody should have to go through that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STERLING: Good afternoon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): On December 1, 2020, Sterling gave a blistering warning, directed at the most powerful man in the world.
DUNCAN: Two minutes before he was going to go up there, one of my friends called and said, "Gabe's about ready to go have a press conference. And you might want to watch."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STERLING: Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language.
This is elections. This is the backbone of democracy. And all of you, who have not said a damn word, are complicit in this. Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone's going to get hurt. Someone's going to get shot. Someone's going to get killed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: Felt like me, saying those words. He said everything I wanted to say. It was heartfelt.
STERLING: This is the backbone of elections, this -- this, stuff getting done. And, at that level, it did eat me, and I thought I'm doing something that's vitally important. I just want all Americans, registering their vote, is counted.
TAPPER (voice-over): Despite Sterling's pleas, to tone down the rhetoric, President Trump continued his pressure campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: Your governor could stop it very easily, if he knew what the hell he was doing, he could stop it very easily. (END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Just days later, he publicly excoriated Georgia Republicans, such as Governor Brian Kemp, for not helping him, overturn the election, something Kemp could not legally do, and had no grounds to do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: So far, we haven't been able to find the people, with the courage, to do the right thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: In here, he was calling us in to question only because we wouldn't lie, in front of a national audience, for Donald Trump.
TAPPER (voice-over): And Trump leaned on the State's Chief Elections Investigator.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: The people of Georgia are so angry at what happened to me. They know I won, won by hundreds of thousands of votes. It wasn't close. Whatever you can do Frances it would be a, it's a great thing. It's an important thing for the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: The surprising part to me was how granular of a level Donald Trump was actually personally engaged in trying to overturn the election in Georgia.
Certainly, we started hearing about phone calls, he was making. And, of course, we all heard the unfortunate 60-plus minute call with Brad Raffensperger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: They are shredding ballots in my opinion. You had out-of- state voters. They voted in Georgia, but they were from out of state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DUNCAN: That was just a complete disaster and embarrassment to anybody that cares about democracy.
TAPPER (voice-over): After repeating a litany of false allegations, Trump said he was quote, notifying Georgia's Secretary of State, Raffensperger, that in his view, the Secretary was breaking the law, by ignoring his false conspiracy theories.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: You're not reporting it. That's a, you know, that's a criminal, that's a criminal offense. And, and you know, you can't let that happen. That's, that's a big risk to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (on camera): Did you feel like he was threatening you?
RAFFENSPERGER: I think you could take that as a form of pressure.
TAPPER (on camera): Of everything he said to you, on that call, what sticks with you the most?
RAFFENSPERGER: Well, he continually circled back on "Well, all I need is."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: I just want to find 11,780 votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAFFENSPERGER: He wanted us to go out, and somehow find additional votes. We had all the ballots. There were no more ballots that we could add. And all those have been tabulated time and time again.
TAPPER (on camera): Was he telling him to break the law?
DUNCAN: It certainly felt like it. It's absolutely embarrassing, as an American, to hear a U.S. President, having that type of conversation.
There's just no setting where that call is appropriate.
RAFFENSPERGER: What he was asking for wasn't something that was supported by State law, wasn't supported by the facts, wasn't supported by the Constitution.
TAPPER (voice-over): That phone call is now key evidence in an ongoing investigation, by prosecutors, in Georgia, who are looking into whether Donald Trump broke the law, in his efforts, to overturn the election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, good morning, Brad.
RAFFENSPERGER: Good morning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): But Raffensperger's steadfastness to the law, notwithstanding, Trump was not even close to done, in his efforts to overturn the election.
[23:55:05]
Ahead, a memo that could have destroyed democracy.
GINSBERG: It is a blueprint for how to ignore the vote of the people. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER (voice-over): In the weeks, following the election, the word from those, closest to Donald Trump, was that he would eventually accept reality.
HABERMAN: There were people around Trump, Jared Kushner, Mark Meadows, in particular, who were telling, senior Republicans in Congress that he will, Trump will, concede. He was going to get there, and he was going to accept it.
And it's not clear how much of that was just wishcasting.
TAPPER (voice-over): Most Republicans in Congress spent those first few weeks, telling reporters that Trump had every right to pursue legal remedies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): All the President's saying--
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): But the cases then failed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To commit fraud in the--
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): Over and over, the Trump team had no credible evidence of significant fraud. But most Republicans would not acknowledge reality, not wanting to poke the bear.
That's partly because there were Georgia Senate run-off elections, on January 5 that they needed Trump to help them win.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: Kelly fights for me, David fights for me, that, I can tell you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER (voice-over): And partly because they had giant spending bills they needed him to sign.
Then?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Breaking news, Biden has now received a majority of electoral votes needed to win--
(END VIDEO CLIP)
