Former President Donald Trump reportedly pressured two Michigan election officials to not certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to a new report published Wednesday.
The report by The Detroit News states that Trump was recorded on Nov. 17th, 2020 calling and pressuring two Wayne County canvassers, both Republican, to not approve certification of the county’s election results.
Moreover, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel overheard Trump’s calls with canvassers Monica Palmer and William Hartmann.
BREAKING:
Donald Trump personally pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to sign the certification of the 2020 election, according to recordings reviewed by The Detroit News and revealed publicly for the first time. https://t.co/pvaR0O06jO
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 21, 2023
“During the Nov. 17, 2020, call, Trump specifically told the Republican canvassers they’d look ‘terrible’ if they signed the certification,” according to The News.
“We’ve got to fight for our country. We can’t let these people take our country away from us,” Trump said to the two.
“If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys,” McDaniel added.
Trump also said Republicans had been “cheated on this election” and “everybody knows Detroit is crooked as hell.”
McDaniel then warned that if the two certified the election without an audit first occurring, nobody would ever “never know what happened in Detroit.”
“How can anybody sign something when you have more votes than people?” Trump then said.
Hours after the call, Trump reportedly posted to social media that there were more votes than people in Wayne County.
“The two harassed patriot canvassers refuse to sign the papers,” he added.
According to The News, the claim about more votes than people was false.
“There were only out-of-balance precincts in Detroit where there were mismatches between the number of ballots counted and the number of voters tracked. The absentee ballot poll books at 70% of Detroit’s 134 absentee counting boards were initially found to be out of balance without explanation, an outcome that was not unusual for the largest city in Michigan,” The News argued.
Palmer and Hartmann subsequently left a canvassers meeting that night without certifying the results of the election.
ALERT: Wayne County Board of Canvassers deadlocked 2-2 on certifying election results, split along party lines.
Dem member blasts Republicans for “allowing politics” to block certifcation: “There is no reason under the sun for us not to certify this election…irresponsible”
— Niraj Warikoo (@nwarikoo) November 17, 2020
However, the next day they tried to reverse their vote, this time claiming in legal affidavits that they’d been pressured by Trump to not certify.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung has defended the president’s actions by saying they “were taken in furtherance of his duty as president of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity, including investigating the rigged and stolen 2020 presidential election.”
“President Trump and the American people have the constitutional right to free and fair elections,” he added in a statement to The Detroit News.
McDaniel has similarly argued to the paper that she’d done nothing wrong.
“What I said publicly and repeatedly at the time, as referenced in my letter on Nov. 21, 2020, is that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit,” she said in a statement.
However, former Wayne County Board of Canvassers member Jonathan Kinloch disagrees sharply.
“It’s just shocking that the president of the United States was at the most minute level trying to stop the election process from happening,” he told The News.
Plus, “Michigan law required county canvassers across the state to prepare a statement of the votes in their counties and advance the findings to the Secretary of State’s office,” The News noted.
The paper reportedly obtained recordings of the call from someone else who’d been present and recorded it.
“Palmer acknowledged … that she and Hartmann took the call from Trump in a vehicle and that other people entered the vehicle and could have heard the conversation. She said she could not, however, identify who entered the vehicle or might have heard the conversation,” The News noted.
In fairness to Trump and McDaniel, Palmer has changed her story over time.
“Palmer previously said she left the Nov. 17, 2020, Wayne County Board of Canvassers meeting prior to physically signing the certification. As she was leaving, Trump called out of a ‘genuine concern for my safety,’ Palmer told reporters three years ago,” The News noted.
Also, back then she reportedly claimed Trump had said the following during the call: “Thank you for your service. I’m glad you’re safe. Have a good night.”
Yet in the days after the call, both Palmer and Hartmann (who died in 2021 from COVID) tried desperately to reverse their non-vote and claimed they’d suffered from “intense bullying and coercion” and received bad legal advice.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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