Raffensperger: Fox News settlement ‘absolutely vindication’ of Georgia’s results that Biden won

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says the $787.5 million paid by Fox News to settle a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems over claims of misinformation about the 2020 election is “absolutely vindication” of his state’s ballot results.

Mr. Raffensperger stood his ground after coming under immense pressure from former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the election in Georgia, where President Biden won narrowly.

“It’s absolutely vindication,” Mr. Raffensperger told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I want every Georgian to understand that they have fair and honest elections.”

“Dominion Voting Systems are fair, accurate machines,” he said. “They record the votes. The people’s will was expressed in 2020.”

Mr. Raffensperger was on the receiving end of an infamous phone call in which Mr. Trump pleaded with him to “find” enough votes for him to win the state, after Mr. Biden was declared the winner.

“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Raffensperger. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”

In the hourlong phone call, Mr. Trump cited a “rumor” that voting machines in Georgia were moved and ballots were shredded, “based on my opinion.”

Mr. Raffensperger, however, refused to buy the argument, citing multiple vote counts showing the same thing: Mr. Biden won by less than 12,000 votes.

At the time, many Republicans predicted that Mr. Raffensperger’s willingness to buck Mr. Trump’s demands would amount to the kiss of death for his political career.

But Mr. Raffensperger defied the naysayers. He beat back a primary challenge from then-Rep. Jody Hice, who captured Mr. Trump’s endorsement after amplifying accusations of massive voter fraud.

Testifying last year before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Raffensperger said he and his family were targeted by radicalized Trump supporters, saying they sent sexualized text messages to his wife, and saying people broke into his daughter-in-law’s home as part of a pressure campaign to reverse Georgia’s vote count.

“My son has passed and she is a widow and has two kids and so we’rre very concerned about her safety also,” he said.