WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — During a pivotal week that will mark the end of the 2020 election cycle—with the Georgia runoff election Tuesday and the electoral college vote count in joint Congress Wednesday—all eyes (and ears) are on President Donald Trump. In what some are calling Nixonian fashion, Trump can be heard on a recorded phone call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "recalculate" and "find" votes for him to win Georgia.
First released by The Washington Post, the hour-long recording features continued baseless election fraud claims by the President, to which Raffensperger rebuts.
“There’s no way I lost Georgia,” Trump said on the phone recording. “There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.”
“Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong,” Raffensperger responded.
Listen to the full recording here.
While she wasn't available for an interview, Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said in a statement to NEWS CENTER Maine, "It is too late to find votes."
"The election in Georgia — and in all the states — is over," Collins said. "The people have voted, the electors have voted, and the Congress will formally count the votes on January 6th. A new Congress was sworn in yesterday and a new President will be inaugurated on January 20th. It is too late to find votes."
Sunday night, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said in a series of tweets that Trump's efforts to pressure Raffensperger "would make Richard Nixon blush."
"Let's call this what it is: an overt, corrupt attempt to overturn the will of the voters," King continued. "We would rightly condemn this behavior if it occurred in another nation, and we should oppose it even more forcefully at home."
Similarly, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, tweeted that Trump's "intimidation of Georgia’s SoS + contempt for our free elections is a stain on the presidency that will not be easily erased."
In an interview with NEWS CENTER Maine on Monday, Pingree said "[Trump] sounds like a bully. He sounds like a mob boss kind of. I'm thinking 'come on this isn't right.' This is America. We need to settle this election."
Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Gold said he thinks the President's actions "are making him into a bit of paper tiger."
"He can call people, he can pressure them?" Golden said.
Two House Democrats on Monday wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking him to investigate phone conversation with Raffensperger.
Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif, and Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., wrote that they believe "Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes. We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the President."