Former President Donald Trump famously pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to overturn the state's presidential election result in a January 2021 phone call that lasted more than an hour.
At Thursday's hearing, Rep. Adam Schiff played clips of that recording in front of Raffensperger and Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling, pausing to ask them questions and fact-check the former president's false claims in real time.
He also led with some important context about what preceded the Jan. 2 call. The White House was persistent in trying to reach Raffensperger, with staffers including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows calling and texting his office 18 times to try to set up a call with the president.
Meadows himself visited a signature-auditing site in Georgia to meet with the chief investigator who was supervising the process there. Trump spoke on the phone with that investigator, Frances Watson, the following day, continuing to push false claims and telling her that "when the right answer comes out you'll be praised."
Notably, Trump had already been told repeatedly by top Justice Department officials that his claims about widespread voter fraud in Georgia — the claims he would go on to make in the 67-minute phone call with Raffensperger— were completely false. And Georgia had already investigated those claims, found none, and certified its election results.
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