President Donald Trump is said to have warned Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) not to rally other Republican officials against a Texas lawsuit seeking to challenge the state’s election results, according to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution late Wednesday.
Trump’s plea to the attorney general on Tuesday, came after Carr’s office had called a the lawsuit which ultimately aims to block the use of election results favoring President-elect Joe Biden in four battleground states “constitutionally, legally and factually wrong.”
According to the Journal-Constitution, Trump had also called Georgia Sens. David Perdue (R) and Kelly Loeffler (R) and complained about Carr’s opposition to the lawsuit. Two Republican officials told the Journal-Constitution that the President had been “furious” in his call with Loeffler over the attorney general’s defiance.
The senators issued a joint statement later on Tuesday saying they “fully support” the Texas lawsuit to reject election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which Trump lost in last month’s election.
The desperate and absurd effort comes as all 50 states and the District of Columbia have now certified election results. The lawsuit, now backed by the Trump campaign, has also garnered the support of 17 other Republican state attorneys general.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) — once an ally who Trump has now said he is “ashamed” to have endorsed — and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) re-certified election results in their state on Monday after a third tally that showed Biden won the state by roughly 12,000 votes.
Some Democrats have suggested the recent request filed for the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Texas lawsuit is part of a broader effort by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) to curry favor for a pardon from Trump before he leaves office as Paxton faces FBI scrutiny for allegations that he abused his office to benefit a wealthy donor.
Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs issued a statement Tuesday calling the election fraud claims in the Texas lawsuit “false and irresponsible.”
“Texas alleges that there are 80,000 forged signatures on absentee ballots in Georgia, but they don’t bring forward a single person who this happened to. That’s because it didn’t happen,” she said.
