Former President Trump pushed Michigan canvassers to not certify the results of the 2020 election during a phone call, according to recordings obtained by The Detroit News.
“We’ve got to fight for our country,” Trump said on the recordings, per the Detroit newspaper. “We can’t let these people take our country away from us.”
The call, in which Trump reportedly pressured Republican Wayne County canvassers Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, occurred Nov. 17, 2020, the News reported. Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel is also on the recording.
“If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys,” McDaniel was recorded saying.
McDaniel said she stood by a letter she and Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox wrote that urged the Michigan Board of State Canvassers to conduct an audit prior to the election results being certified, the News reported.
“What I said publicly and repeatedly at the time, as referenced in my letter on Nov. 21, 2020, is that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit,” McDaniel said to the News in a statement.
Palmer and Hartmann were in a vehicle when they accepted the call from the then-president. Other people came into the vehicle and could have heard the conversation, Palmer acknowledged to the News.
The reported recordings mirror another instance in which Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) in January 2021, asking him to “find” enough votes to overturn President Biden’s win in the Peach State in the 2020 election.
In an emailed statement to The Hill, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said “[a]ll of President Trump’s actions were taken in furtherance of his duty as President of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity, including investigating the rigged and stolen 2020 Presidential Election.”
“President Trump and the American people have the Constitutional right to free and fair elections,” Cheung said. “Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats are spinning their wheels in the face of devastating polling numbers and desperately leaking misleading information to interfere in the election.”
Updated at 9:06 a.m. ET on Dec. 22.