'We'll Take Care of That': Trump's Audio Reveals Attempt to Influence US Vote in Michigan

Former US President Donald Trump pushed local officials not to certify 2020 election results in the Midwestern state of Michigan, according to audio recordings cited in a news report. This comes as Trump is running for president in 2024 and is the frontrunner for the Republican party despite multiple charges against him.

In phone call recordings revealed by The Detroit News outlet, the 77-year-old reportedly pressured two local officials not to sign the certification of vote results in their county. In Trump’s defence, his campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said that Trump’s actions were part of his duty to “ensure election integrity, including investigating the rigged and stolen 2020 presidential election.”

‘Fight for our country’

Trump allegedly told the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers that “we’ve got to fight for our country” and that “we can’t let these people take our country away from us.” The phone call came two weeks after the November 3 election, in which Trump lost Michigan state. Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, a Michigan native who was also on the call, at one point told the two officials: “If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys.” Trump agreed, adding, “We’ll take care of that.”

As many as 18 percent of the northern state’s population lives in Wayne County and approximately 878,000 votes were cast there in the 2020 election, according to The Detroit News. Trump is to go on trial in Washington in March on federal charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the November 2020 election. He faces similar charges in a separate case in the southern state of Georgia, where he pressured state secretary Brad Raffensperger in a taped call to “find” 11,780 votes that would reverse his defeat to Biden in the state.

In the Michigan call, Trump told the two Republican members of the county board, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, that they would look “terrible” if they certified the election results — especially because they had initially voted against them before later voting to approve the results. McDaniel said in a statement to The Detroit News that “What I said publicly and repeatedly at the time… is that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit.”

(With agency inputs)