Washington Post has released an hour-long audio of a conversation between President Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, where Trump allegedly attempts to pressure him into “find 11,780 votes” so that he could claim Trump won the election in the state.

According to The Washington Post, Trump “alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims.”

The publication released the full one-hour long audio of the conversation, that has caused quite the stir in political circles across the country:

Interestingly, the release of what has now been dubbed the #TrumpTapes comes within hours of this exchange between Raffensperger and Trump on Twitter:

The timing of the revelation is also significant given the recent announcement by as many as 11 Republican senators and senators-elect that they will vote against the counting of electoral votes that certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. The eleven law-makers, namely, Ted Cruz (TX), Ron Johnson (WI), James Lankford (OK), Steve Daines (MT), John Kennedy (LA), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Mike Braun (IN), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Roger Marshall (KS), Bill Hagerty (TN) and Tommy Tuberville (AL), have not only objected to an electoral college certification, but also demanded and emergency audit.

In a joint statement, Senators Cruz, Johnson, Lankford, Daines, Kennedy, Blackburn, Braun, Senators-Elect Lummis, Marshall, Hagerty, Tuberville, said, “The election of 2020, like the election of 2016, was hard fought and, in many swing states, narrowly decided. The 2020 election, however, featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities.” They added, “Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed. By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes.”

Their demand is that, “Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed.” They added, “Accordingly, we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed.”

The entire statement may be read here. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi was re-elected as Speaker of the House, beating Kevin McCarthy by a narrow margin. The 117th Congress has the largest number of women in history in the House of Representatives. Newly elected women law-makers include Oung Kim (CA), Cori Bush (MO), Nikema Williams (GA), Maria Elvira Salazar (FL), Teresa Leger Fernandez among others, in a house that will see unprecedented number of women of color.

* Feature image: White House photo in Public Domain.