Jody Hice (R-GA) after Rep. Hice told him that he had just made a statement "regarding a recall on Raffensperger. If this is something Potus wants to know and help push. . . ."[246]
All of that led to the remarkable January 2nd call between President Trump and his advisors on one side, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his advisors on the other. By January 2nd, the President had tried to speak by phone with Raffensperger at least 18 times.247 Raffensperger, for his part, had avoided talking to the President because of ongoing litigation with the President's Campaign.[248] Despite Raffensperger's reluctance, the two spoke, with their respective lawyers on the line. During the call, President Trump went through his litany of false election-fraud claims and then asked Raffensperger to deliver him a second term by "finding" just enough votes to ensure victory. The President said, "I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the State."[249] He reiterated it several different ways: "fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. You know, we have that in spades already. Or we can keep going, but that's not fair to the voters of Georgia because they're going to see what happened."[250]
