President Trump has found himself at the center of more public criticism, due to his Jan. 2 phone call to Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. In this controversially recorded phone call, President Trump tells Raffensperger to recalculate the votes in order for him to win the electoral votes of Georgia. He has remained adamant that Georgia should flip red and there is no chance that President-elect Joe Biden won. 

“So look. All I want to do is this,” President Trump said. “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”

This is not the first time that President Trump has attempted to reverse the presidential election results. In three key battleground states, President Trump attacked the basic institution that the American democracy was built upon. He invited Michigan Republican state leaders to the White House, pressured Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to replace his state’s electors, and requested the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to help him win in that state. 

“He was smart enough to get elected, he’s smart enough to try to figure out ways to try to undo the election, even if they’re not going to amount to anything,” Preet Bharara, former U.S. attorney, said. “And the fact that he is very specific about the number of votes that he needs… That’s a pretty powerful argument that he knows what he’s doing.”

Some say what President Trump has done should count as election fraud, which would then become a federal crime. However, it would be difficult to prove that he committed a crime because prosecutors would have to prove he intended to do what was said on that phone call. 

The other question that arises is whether or not President Trump’s privacy was invaded by the recording and releasing of this phone call. Just like celebrities in Hollywood, members of society who are more popular and have more influence generally don’t receive the same level of privacy as do normal citizens. However, it may not have been correct for President Trump’s phone call to have been recorded without his consent. 

Furthermore, while many Republicans like Ted Cruz have decided to stay quiet during this controversy, prominent Democrats had something to say about it. 

“Have y’all heard about that recorded conversation?” Kamala Harris asked while campaigning in Georgia for the Democratic Senate runoff candidates. “Well it was, yes, certainly, the voice of desperation, most certainly that, and it was a bald, bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the President of the United States.”

Hopefully this issue gets resolved before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. 

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