At a rally in Georgia, former President Donald Trump. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Trump attempted to press Georgian officials to reverse the 2020 election results.
Many of these officials and their families were subject to a torrential flood of death threats.
The Daily Beast reported that Trump laughed at the issue and even said that officials deserved the threats.
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The Daily Beast reported that Trump, then-President, made fun of Georgian election officials who were threatened with death during his attempt to reverse the 2020 election result.
Trump called Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State, on January 2, to try to alter the outcome of the election. He asked him to "find 11,780 voters" in order to defeat Joe Biden's win. Raffensperger had rejected the call and refused to comply with those demands.
Trump and his allies were also railing against election workers. Some officials were even subject to violent threats.
Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's voting system implement manager, appeared on television to ask for the end of "death threats and physical threats" on December 1, 2020.
Raffensperger claimed that his wife had been threatened with death in the wake of Raffensperger's January 2 phone call.
According to The Daily Beast Trump was briefed multiple times about the threats but was not moved and even laughed at them.
"There was one time that I heard Trump suggest that they might exaggerate the threats they were receiving. But he would make fun of them more often and say that they were bad people who were receiving what they deserved," a former official said to the outlet.
A second person close to Trump told The Daily Beast that Trump said that if officials want the threats to stop, they just have to grant his wish.
Trump also praised those who issued the threats and called them "my people", according to The Daily Beast.
Continue the story
Insider reached out to Trump representatives but they did not respond immediately.
The Daily Beast reported that among the death threats made to officials was a promise to make the Boston bombings "like child's play".
Reuters reported that Tricia Raffensperger, Raffensperger’s wife, received text messages in April that stated that Raffensperger and her family would be killed slowly and that they plan to kill Raffensperger and their family daily.
Trump and his campaign challenged the election results in multiple states. All of them failed. Trump and his allies maintain that the election was stolen.
Business Insider has the original article.
