Kamala Harris blasts Donald Trump’s call with Georgia official as ‘bold abuse of power’

Kamala Harris was rallying in Savannah in support of democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossof for the Senate runoff

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Sunday lambasted President Donald Trump for allegedly pressuring Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” him enough votes to overturn his electoral defeat. 

Harris described the taped call released by Washington Post, in which Trump is purportedly being heard asking Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” a “voice of desperation.”   

"Have ya'll heard about that recorded conversation?” asked Ms Harris, as she took the stage at a drive-thru rally in Savannah, Georgia, while campaigning for the democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossof in the Senate runoff.

“Well it was, yes, certainly, the voice of desperation, most certainly that, and it was a bald, bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States," she said.  

Trump, in an hour-long harangue, could be heard telling Mr Raffensperger that “there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”

The incoming vice president-elect returned to the Peach State to rally in support of Democratic challengers who are involved in tight races with Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler for the state’s vacant senate seats.

Ms Harris also slammed the Republicans and Trump for their unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and filing lawsuits seeking to overturn the election results. 

"And then look at the most recent history, which is that after you elected, you turned Georgia blue, you elected Joe Biden president of the United States, you elected the first black woman in the history of our country to be the vice president of the United States, and they have the gall to suggest you didn't know what you were doing, you must have gone about it in a way that was illegitimate," she said.

Ms Harris also castigated Mr Trump for calling the runoff in Georgia, “illegal and invalid.” 

“The current President of the United States called the senate race in Georgia, this senate race in Georgia…illegal and invalid. He called it ‘illegal and invalid’ suggesting that the people of Georgia are trying to commit a crime,” she said. 

The runoff election scheduled for 5 January will decide control of the US Senate, with Republicans maintaining power if they hold just one of the seats.

Currently Republicans hold 50 seats in the Senate and Democrats hold 46. The two independents who caucus with the Democrats bring them up to 48. 

To secure a majority, Democrats must win both the seats which would then allow Ms Harris to break the tie after she is sworn in on 20 January.