Sen. Kevin Cramer said Monday that President Trump was going over basic math and wasn’t pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find a way to overturn election results in a Saturday phone call.
“I frankly don’t find the offense that a lot of people see in it,” the North Dakota Republican said on CNBC. “When you listen to all 62 minutes, he was going through some pretty basic math. He believes, of course, that there was fraud [on] several fronts.”
“Five thousand dead people voting — his claims, not mine — some people voting twice, people voting illegally and all that math adds up to much more than the margin that he lost by,” Mr. Cramer continued. “I didn’t get a sense that he was pressuring anybody, but rather stating facts and talking about the math he needs to make up if he was to overturn this election.”
In the hourlong phone call on Saturday, Mr. Trump pressed Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find” the precise number of votes the president would need to overtake President-elect Joseph R. Biden in the state.
Mr. Cramer also said members of Congress don’t have the constitutional authority to overturn the election results.
“I come from a red, small state — I don’t want to have our votes overturned by other members of Congress from other places,” he said. “I don’t see in the Constitution where we actually have that authority, quite honestly, and I read it again this morning to be sure.”
Mr. Cramer said there needs to be some sort of commission on election integrity to look at reforms moving forward.
The president has berated Senate Republicans who aren’t joining their colleagues to object to counting the Electoral College votes Wednesday.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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