UPDATE 7:00 AM EDT VIA AP: In a story February 10, 2021, about an investigation into potential attempts to influence the 2020 election in Georgia, the Associated Press, based on information provided by an unidentified source, erroneously reported then-President Donald Trump pressed a lead Georgia elections investigator to “find the fraud” and said it would make the investigator a national hero. A recording of the call made public two months later revealed that Trump did not say either and instead said that if the investigator looked into Fulton County the investigator would “find things that are gonna be unbelievable.” Trump also told the investigator: “When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised.”
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Another shameful smear by the fake news media was exposed, undermining one of the pervasive story-lines during former president Donald Trump’s last days in office.
The Washington Post admitted in a correction that its anonymously sourced account of a conversation between Trump and election officials in Georgia was false after audio recordings disproved it.
The Post correction still did not reveal the source—largely believed to be someone in the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who also leaked a phone call in which Trump and his lawyers urged Raffensperger to investigate the many allegations of vote fraud that occurred in his state during the election.
But the paper acknowledged having “misquoted” Trump by falsely claiming he had asked an elections investigator to “find the fraid” and promising that she would be a “national hero.”
Trump released a statement in response to the Post correction, not only criticizing the sloppy journalistic effort but re-upping his initial calls for the corruption in certain Georgia counties to be closely scrutinized.
“While I appreciate the Washington Post’s correction, which immediately makes the Georgia Witch Hunt a non-story, the original story was a Hoax, right from the very beginning,” he said. “I would further appreciate a strong investigation into Fulton County, Georgia, and the Stacey Abrams political machine which, I believe, would totally change the course of the presidential election in Georgia.”
Fulton and several other Democrat-heavy counties surrounding Atlanta were especially slow counting their ballots on election night. After claiming a water-line had burst, they sent media and election watchers home for the night, only to commence pulling out briefcases of ballots when they thought nobody was looking.
Some election officials then appeared to run the same ballot through voting machines repeatedly.
Many other accusations emerged after the GOP-led legislature formed a special committee to hear the allegations—among them, an expert who said he had proof that voting sites were linked to an outside internet connection.
But irregularities notwithstanding, Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, refused to launch a full investigation.
Raffensperger insisted in his phone call with Trump that the state had recounted the ballots and that it was unable to locate evidence that would change the outcome.
Reports have now surfaced that Fulton and other counties have begun shredding the ballots, potentially violating the law.
“Fulton County has not been properly audited for vote or signature verification,” Trump said.
“They only looked at areas of the State where there most likely would be few problems, and even there they found large numbers of mistakes,” he continued. “We are seeking to find and reveal the large-scale election fraud which took place in Georgia. Many residents agree, and their anger caused them not to turn out and vote for two Republican Senators in the January election.”
Trump also used the statement to hammer Raffensperger for caving to Abrams—a failed gubernatorial candidate turned activist—and lawyers representing the national Democratic Party.
In order to avoid a lawsuit, Raffensperger and Kemp agreed to a raft of radical proposals from Abrams that undermined election integrity in a variety of ways.
Trump said that the unilateral decision to change election law without legislative approval was, itself, unconstitutional.
“The Consent Decree signed between Raffensperger and Stacey Abrams was not approved by the Georgia State Legislature, and therefore should be deemed invalid, and the election result changed,” he said. “Why the Governor and Raffensperger ever approved this Consent Decree is one of the great questions? We look forward to an answer.”
Georgia’s 16 electoral votes alone would not have been enough to put Trump over the top. He would have needed at least two other states of the six or so that were under close scrutiny for their allegations of fraud.
However, evidence continues to surface in many of them—including Wisconsin, where authorities recently launched a probe into the role Facebook officials played in interfering with the election; Nevada, where reports showed that the massive mail-in voting effort returned as “undeliverable” nearly three times the number of ballots that Biden won by in the county surrounding Las Vegas alone; and Arizona, where the state legislature recently won a court case allowing it to audit the votes in Maricopa County, surrounding Phoenix.
Trump’s statement likewise hammered the media for its role in actively promoting false information, which cast a pall upon the election and many other aspects of his presidency.
That included using the false reporting about the Georgia phone call to bolster a shaky case for Trump’s second impeachment.
The case for impeachment grows by the minute:
Exclusive – ‘Find the fraud’: Trump pressured a Georgia elections investigator in a separate call legal experts say could amount to obstruction @amyegardner https://t.co/ZloXeWLg87
— Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) January 9, 2021
Despite the outrageous implications of their actions in undermining the delicate system of constitutional checks and balances, and democratic institutions, members of the media faced no genuine accountability for their malpractice.
“You will notice that establishment media errors, omissions, mistakes, and outright lies always slant one way—against me and against Republicans,” Trump said.
“Meanwhile, stories that hurt Democrats or undermine their narratives are buried, ignored, or delayed until they can do the least harm—for example, after an election is over,” he added.
Trump cited the dishonest coverage of his response to the coronavirus as yet another example.
“Look no further than the negative coverage of the vaccine that preceded the election and the overdue celebration of the vaccine once the election had concluded,” he said.
“A strong democracy requires a fair and honest press,” he continued. “This latest media travesty underscores that legacy media outlets should be regarded as political entities—not journalistic enterprises. In any event, I thank the Washington Post for the correction.”
