President Donald Trump’s controversial phone conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday was the 19th time he had tried to call him in the two months since the presidential election, a source told NBC News on Monday.
However, the hour-long conversation on Saturday was the first time the two had spoken directly.
“I never believed it was appropriate to speak to the president,” Raffensperger said, according to Politico. “But he pushed out — I guess he had his staff push us. They wanted to call.”
A source told NBC that officials in Raffensperger’s office recorded the call and he made clear that he did not want it released unless Trump lashed out at Georgia officials or misrepresented the substance of the conversation.
The source also said that the Georgia secretary of state’s office requested that their general counsel be included in the phone conversation, but it was not set up for the purpose of settling any pending litigation, as alleged by the Georgia Republican State Party chairman.
Raffensperger said his office was “in a litigation mode with the president’s team against the state of Georgia. And whenever you say anything, then you do have to have your advisers there. They have to have their advisers there, with lawyers,” according to Politico
Raffensperger stressed that “I just preferred not to talk to someone when we’re in litigation.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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