Donald Trump pressured two election officials not to certify the 2020 vote totals in a key Michigan county, according to a recording of a post-election phone call published in a new report by The Detroit News.
The former president's 2024 election campaign neither confirmed nor denied the recording's legitimacy. In a statement, he insisted that all of Trump's actions following his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden were to uphold his oath of office and ensure a fair election.
Trump has repeatedly repeated falsehoods about the 2020 election as he runs for the White House again. In a litany of federal, state and foreign investigations into voter fraud, no evidence has emerged that could have changed the outcome of the election.
The Nov. 17, 2020 call included then-President Trump, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, and Wayne County election officials Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, both Republicans, The Detroit News reported. Trump told the two canvassers that they would look “terrible” if they certified the results after they initially opposed the certification, the newspaper said.
The newspaper said the recordings were made by a person who was present during the phone call with Palmer and Hartmann.
The report comes as Trump seeks the 2024 Republican nomination while grappling with multiple criminal charges, including a federal case and a Georgia case related to his efforts to overturn Biden's victory. Biden won Michigan, with Wayne County, which includes Detroit, providing an abundance of Democratic votes. As such, it was one of the key points Trump focused on in the weeks following Election Day in 2020.
“We have to fight for our country,” Trump said in the recordings, according to The News. “We cannot allow these people to take our land away from us.”
National GOP Chairwoman McDaniel, a Michigan native, reportedly said during the call, “If you can go home tonight, don't sign it,” adding, “We'll get you lawyers.” Trump is said to have reiterated that point and assured local officials: “We will take care of it.”
Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, said in a statement Friday that Trump's actions were taken “in fulfillment of his duty as president of the United States to diligently uphold the law and ensure the integrity of the election.”
“President Trump and the American people have the constitutional right to free and fair elections,” Cheung said.
“We have to fight for our country,” Trump said in the recordings, according to The News. “We cannot allow these people to take our land away from us.”
The Republican National Committee's communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McDaniel on Friday.
The reported call in Michigan is said to have taken place about six weeks before another call from Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. That conversation is among the key points in Trump's indictment in Fulton County, which accuses the former president of an extortion plot to overturn Biden's narrow victory in Georgia.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump told Raffensperger in that call. “Because we won the state.” Georgia counted its votes three times before certifying Biden’s victory by a margin of 11,779 votes.
A recording of Trump is also controversial in a Florida-based federal case that accuses the former president of mishandling classified information after he left the White House. In this case, prosecutors allege that in a July 2021 interview, Trump showed people working on a book about his former chief of staff Mark Meadows classified information about a Pentagon attack plan on an unspecified foreign country.
“These are the papers,” Trump says in a moment that suggests he is in possession of a secret Pentagon document. “It was made by the military, given to me.”
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