Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger was the most prominent witness at Tuesday’s January 6 committee session. The notoriety of a man who would otherwise be a state official of evident competence but no national profile owes to then-president Donald Trump’s now-infamous phone call with him on January 2, 2021. Leading the committee’s presentation, Representative Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) expectedly made hay with this conversation, stressing Trump’s aggressive pleas that Raffensperger find him 11,780 votes — the amount that would give Trump just enough to overcome Biden’s slim lead in the Peach State, where about 5 million people voted.
As Rich Lowry observed at the time, Trump’s appearance on this call and his conduct as it ensued were appalling. For an hour the president alternatively tried beguiling, bullying, and pressing the bonds of party loyalty on the state official, eventually intimating that the admirably immovable Raffensperger might have legal as well as political exposure for failing to act on the supposed truth of Trump’s claims. It should go without saying (but no longer does) that an American president should never exploit the majesty of his office for personal political gain by browbeating a top state elected officer — meaning, an officer who does not answer to the federal government, let alone the president.
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