Late-night hosts obliterate Trump over phone call about ‘finding votes’ in Georgia: ‘Republicans are trying to destroy democracy’

Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel react to audio of outgoing US president attempting to pressure Georgia election officials to ‘find’ votes

The hosts of late-night TV in the US have torn into Donald Trump over his latest attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential win.  

On Sunday 3 January, theWashington Post released audio of a call between Trump and several Georgia officials, during which he asked them to “find 11,780 votes” in order to overturn Biden’s win in the state.  

“I want to thank you very much. Hello Georgia. By the way, there's no way we lost Georgia, there's no way. That was a rigged election,” Trump said at the beginning of the call.

He went on to repeat debunked claims of fraud in the election, which he lost by seven million votes.

Seth Meyers observed that Republicans appeared to have started off the new year “by making it clear that they’re actively trying to destroy democracy”.  

Calling out senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley as well as Trump, he condemned the attempts to delegitimise Biden’s win.  

“They’re not standing up for election integrity or trying to restore faith in our democracy, they’re petty henchmen with a hair-brained scheme to steal an election hatched by a deranged wanna be tyrant who talks like a mafia boss with a head injury,” Meyers said.

Jimmy Kimmel, meanwhile, said he listened to the call with the same relish as if it was “a surprise Taylor Swift album”.  

“If you haven’t listened to it, listen to it, it’s pathetic,” he said.  

Jimmy Fallon quipped that Trump seemed to make the same New Year’s Resolution every time: “To find new ways to get impeached.”

Stephen Colbert went one further and turned the phone call into a musical, riffing on Stevie Wonder’s song “I Just Called to Say I Love You”.