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In call Leaked to media, Trump ‘pressures’ Georgia sec of state to re-examine election results

“We have won this election, in Georgia, based on all of this, and there’s nothing wrong with saying that, Brad …”

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Image Credit: Whitehouse/Flickr

Donald Trump has seemingly pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory there, saying in a leaked phone call there will be political and legal consequences for letting the presidency be stolen.

“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,” Trump appears to have said in a leaked Saturday call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “We won the election, and it’s not fair to take it away from us like this. And it’s going to be very costly in many ways.”

Excerpts of the call, which the president is yet to confirm or deny, were leaked to at least two media outlets, the Washington Post and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution – perhaps an indication of how fractured the relationship has become between President Trump and Georgia’s Republican leaders since Biden was declared winner of the November 3 election.

Trump has argued that Biden’s victory was fueled by hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes in Georgia and several other swing states. Last month, CNN cited an anonymous source saying that Trump had called Republican Governor Brian Kemp and urged him to order an audit of absentee ballot signatures.

“We have won this election, in Georgia, based on all of this, and there’s nothing wrong with saying that, Brad,” Trump apparently said in Saturday’s call, though the excerpt didn’t include his preceding rundown of allegedly fraudulent votes. “The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry, and there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you’ve recalculated,” he added.

“Mr. President, the challenge that you have is that the data you have is wrong,” Raffensperger replied.

Trump argued that a re-examination of the results should be done quickly because Georgia’s two Republican senators face a runoff election on January 5. If both lose, Democrats would gain control of the Senate, giving them majorities in both houses of Congress.

“The people of Georgia know this is a scam, and because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote,” Trump said. “And a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative because they hate what you did to the president, OK? They hate it, and they’re going to vote. You would be respected, really respected, if this thing could be straightened out before the election.”

Trump asserted that ballots have been destroyed in Georgia and voting machines have been removed to cover up evidence of fraud. Asked whether the machines or some of their components had been removed, Ryan Germany, general counsel for Raffensperger’s office, said no.

“You know what they did and you’re not reporting it,” Trump said. “That’s a criminal offense, and you can’t let that happen . . . . That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer.” He reiterated his claims of ballot shredding and machines being removed and added, “You are letting it happen. I’m notifying you that you’re letting it happen.”

Trump urged Raffensperger to re-examine the election results, “but re-examine it with people that want to find answers, not people who don’t want to find answers.” Just one group of votes that fraudulently went to Biden “wins us the election, by a lot,” he said.

“Mr. President, you have people who submit information, and we have our people who submit information, and then it comes before the court, and the court then has to make a determination,” Raffensperger said. “We have to stand by our numbers. We believe our numbers are right.”

Republican lawmakers are divided on whether to support Trump’s claims of election fraud when electoral votes come up for certification in Congress on January 6. At least 12 Senators, including a group led by Texas Republican Ted Cruz, have said they will raise objections to certification. But Republicans Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana joined in a bipartisan statement on Monday calling for Biden’s victory to be formalized. The certification battle has emerged as a loyalty test of sorts for Republicans, with lawmakers being pressured by Trump supporters to challenge the election results or face payback when they are up for re-election.

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Biden Wants To Give Separated Illegal Immigrants $450,000 Per Person

The average amount sought through the courts is roughly $3.4 million per family, according to the report.

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Image Credit: Phil Murphy/Flickr

The Biden administration is mulling a plan to offer immigrant families separated during the Trump administration $450,000 per person in compensation, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

The payments – part of an inter-agency solution to several lawsuits filed on behalf of separated parents and children claiming lasting psychological trauma could amount to nearly $1 million per family, though ‘the final numbers could shift,’ according to the report.

According to sources, most of the families crossing into the US from Mexico included one parent and one child. Depending on circumstances, many families could get smaller payouts.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents families in one of the lawsuits, has identified about 5,500 children separated at the border over the course of the Trump administration, citing figures provided to it by the government. The number of families eligible under the potential settlement is expected to be smaller, the people said, as government officials aren’t sure how many will come forward. Around 940 claims have so far been filed by the families, the people said. -WSJ

In total, the potential payout could reach $1 billion or more.

Throughout the Trump administration, thousands of children were separated from their parents (and coyotes paid to bring them into the country) after they had crossed illegally into the country from Mexico. The lawsuits allege some of the children suffered various ailments – including malnutrition, heat exhaustion, and were kept in freezing cold rooms with little medical attention. Some claim lasting mental health problems due to the trauma of being without their parents for several months.

The average amount sought through the courts is roughly $3.4 million per family, according to the report.

“President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied,” said ACLU deputy director, Lee Gelernt. “That remedy must include not only meaningful monetary compensation, but a pathway to remain in the country.”

Senate Republicans slammed the plan on Thursday afternoon following the WSJ‘s report.

“The Biden administration’s promises of citizenship and entitlement programs have already caused the worst border crisis in history—a huge cash reward will make it even worse,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR).

The discussions about the payouts have taken place over the past few months among a group of dozens of private lawyers representing the families and government lawyers. Some government lawyers have viewed the payouts as excessive for people who had violated the law by crossing the border, the people said. One government lawyer threatened to remove his name from the case out of disagreement with the potential settlement offer, the people said. -WSJ

“It is a complicated, complex piece of litigation” – trying to resolve hundreds of separate lawsuits at the same time, and “sometimes even more complex to try the cases” said Margo Schlanger, who ran the civil-rights office during the Obama administration at the Department of Homeland Security and now teaches at the University of Michigan law school.

What will the reparations crowd think of this?

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White House To America: ‘We’re Coming Door To Door…With Shots!’

Will CDC soon recommend a nation-wide re-count of Covid deaths?

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White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said at the daily press conference yesterday that President Biden’s strategy to get everyone a Covid shot – whether they want it or not – is to start going “door-to-door” to those not yet jabbed. So…they have a list? Also today: bomb-maker Raytheon goes “woke.” Capitol Hill Cops set up shop in California. Will CDC soon recommend a nation-wide re-count of Covid deaths?

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Half A Million Illegals Crossed Since Harris Named Border ‘Czar’

By the time June’s figures are reported in the coming days, the combined number is expected to be over half a million, more than the entire population of Miami, Florida or Cleveland, Ohio.

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According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures, around 500,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border since Kamala Harris was named border ‘czar’.

The Washington Free Beacon reported the findings, noting that only three months has passed since Harris took on the responsibility, and that the half a million figure is just those that have been apprehended.

The CBP says around 180,000 immigrants are being caught per month. In April agents arrested 178,854 illegal immigrants, the highest monthly figure for 21 years. That figure was then surpassed in May as agents apprehended 180,034 illegals.

By the time June’s figures are reported in the coming days, the combined number is expected to be over half a million, more than the entire population of Miami, Florida or Cleveland, Ohio.

Harris only bothered to visit the border when President Trump announced he was making a trip. Even then Harris visited El Paso, some 1000 miles away from where the crisis is taking place.

Previous to this, Harris lied and claimed she had been to the border, telling NBC’s Lester Holt “This whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.”

When Holt pushed back and said she had not, Harris snapped “I—and I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t—I don’t understand the point that you’re making,” then again laughed maniacally:

On Tuesday, Republican Senator Ron Johnson argued that Harris’ trip to El Paso was designed to distract the media and keep them away from the real crisis hit areas of the border.

“They took her to a point in the border where she wouldn’t see the crisis and so the press wouldn’t report on the crisis,” Johnson said.

The Senator added, “You just simply can’t understand what this administration is doing. We literally are apprehending now about 6,000 people per day. That’s I mean, that’s a large caravan every day being processed, some of them being returned, others are being dispersed. But this crisis is not going away. It’s just under everybody’s radar because the press isn’t covering it.”

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