Segments from the Washington Post's acquired recording, in which ...
Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to "find" enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions.
Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking "a big risk."
Trump did most of the talking on the call. He was angry and impatient, calling Raffensperger a "child" and "either dishonest or incompetent" for not believing there was widespread ballot fraud in Atlanta.
Trump’s conversation with Raffensperger put him in legally questionable territory, legal experts said. By exhorting the secretary of state to "find" votes … Trump appears to be encouraging him to doctor the election outcome in Georgia.
Let's be clearer than "legal experts," who are prone to muddying up even the clearest of criminal instances. When veritable mountains of one's criminal deportment, allusions to one's criminal objectives and one's black-and-white record of past criminal acts — as specified in the Mueller report — come visiting once again, then prosecutors should start digging — and fucking prosecuting.
This unearthly scofflaw of a U.S. president has made a monkey out of the rule of law for years, with impunity. And now he's extorting state election officials to dummy vote tallies and steal an election, thereby attempting to sabotage the very constitutional and democratic foundations of this nation.
Ford pardoned Nixon, probably wisely, so that the country would look forward and move along to healthier thoughts. In that reasonable vein, initially I opposed the notion of federal prosecutors going hammer and tongs after the seedy lowlife of a criminal scumbag we now have in the White House. I retract that judgment. I now hope prosecutors will dog this still-sitting gangster of a POTUS into federal prison, where he can rot among his likeminded bangers.
Otherwise, future political bangers will take Trump's forgiven precedent as a green light for yet more gangsterism.