Opinion | Trump Wants to ‘Find’ Votes in Georgia

To the Editor:

Re “On Tape, Trump Pushes Georgia to ‘Find’ Votes” (front page, Jan. 4):

Is President Trump delusional and does he truly believe that he won the November election? Is he an autocratic leader attempting to stage a coup? Does he believe that the laws and the Constitution don’t apply to him, or does he not know what our laws and Constitution say?

Regardless of the explanation of his behavior, this president has gone beyond the pale in his call to the Georgia secretary of state to urge him to “find” more votes. Kudos to Brad Raffensperger for standing firm.

But what about the Republican lemmings who are ready to run off the edge of a cliff to follow their leader? Every one of them should be crying out against his reprehensible behavior and refusing to take part in the sideshow being planned in Congress on Wednesday when the electoral votes of the states are certified.

It is a sad time for our country that they are unlikely to turn back.

Dorothy Cantor
New York

To the Editor:

Put aside the blatant threats, patent coercion and unmitigated falsehoods rife in Donald Trump’s telephone rant to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger; the call was a criminal act, an outright solicitation of election fraud that must not go unpunished.

Instructing Mr. Raffensperger to “find” the exact number of votes needed by Mr. Trump to overcome the margin of victory by President-elect Joe Biden clearly constitutes criminal misconduct under state and federal law. Proof of the crime is established beyond a reasonable doubt by Mr. Trump in his own recorded voice.

After Mr. Trump leaves office he can no longer claim presidential immunity.

Gerald Harris
New York
The writer is a retired New York City criminal court judge.

To the Editor:

It is apparent from the high level of scholarship on the details of the alleged voter fraud in Georgia that the president has spent a great deal of time and energy learning and thinking about these matters. Unfortunately none of this time or energy has been spent governing our country.

Jacob Raab
Summit, N.J.

To the Editor:

Re “New Congress Opens With Republicans Bitterly Divided” (front page, Jan. 4):

I have never been more fearful about our country. The point is not that Republican efforts to overturn the election will not succeed, but that this is actually being attempted.

What if we had a House of Representatives, like the Senate, in Republican control? Could we be assured that Joe Biden, winner of the popular and electoral vote, would actually be sworn into office? Have we now reached the point where we no longer have a democracy, but rather a transactional governing system where the party in power exercises its will, regardless of the vote?

Were such efforts to succeed this would be the end of the United States as we know it.

Lawrence Singer
Evanston, Ill.
The writer is emeritus associate professor of law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

To the Editor:

I am a Republican. I always vote for Republican candidates because I believe that the Republican Party has the best understanding of how the American economy works and of how to make America and all of her citizens prosper.

But Donald Trump lost the election in 2020. Joe Biden won. Fair and square. Anyone who disputes that is an enemy to America and to American democracy. The senators and representatives who are trying to impede the approval of Joe Biden as our next president are traitors to America. They need to be voted out of office.

Kurt M. Wicks
Acton, Maine

To the Editor:

To anyone who hasn’t the time or the stomach to listen to the tawdry, contemptible recording of President Trump putting the screws to Georgia’s top elections official, here is the gist: “Mr. Raffensperger, I would like you to do us a favor, though …”

David D. Turner
Canadensis Pa.

To the Editor:

Listening to the recording of President Trump telling the Georgia secretary of state to “find” him 11,780 votes sounded like the tape of an organized crime wiretap.

Harry Nussdorf
Douglaston, Queens
The writer is a retired assistant district attorney.

To the Editor:

There is a way that Republican senators like Susan Collins and Mitt Romney who criticize their colleagues for crippling the integrity of American democracy by planning to object to the votes of the Electoral College can stop this dangerous act. Threaten their colleagues that if the objecting senators go through with it, they will not caucus with the Republican Party and hence hand control of the Senate to the Democrats!

Larry Feig
Newton, Mass.

To the Editor:

As I read about the growing number of Republican members of Congress planning to object to the Electoral College results and multiple state tallies, I am moved to wonder why those members who were elected or re-elected think they are allowed to serve in their positions and vote on the issue, as they clearly consider the 2020 election to be invalid.

Diane Wolter
Fargo, N.D.

To the Editor:

Unless President Trump concedes that he lost the election in 2020, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution will bar him from running in 2024. It begins: “No person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice.”

If he was elected in 2016 and 2020, as he claims, he can’t get elected a third time.

Solomon Mowshowitz
New York

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