U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani speaks at Save America Rally on the Ellipse near the White House in Washington on January 6, 2021. Yuri Gripas/AP
An hour before Congress was set to reconvene to certify the Electoral College results—as the Capitol was still recovering from a violent, pro-Trump mob—Rudy Giuliani was making phone calls.
In a voicemail that Giuliani intended for Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), the president’s lawyer urged Tuberville to “try to just slow it down” by objecting to electoral votes from “numerous states” in order to buy Trump’s team more time to try to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. Giuliani said that the president hoped to contest a whopping 10 states. But unfortunately for Giuliani, he called the wrong senator, and the audio was leaked to the Dispatch.
Here is the transcript:
Senator Tuberville? Or I should say Coach Tuberville. This is Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer. I’m calling you because I want to discuss with you how they’re trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you. And I know they’re reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow.
I know McConnell is doing everything he can to rush it, which is kind of a kick in the head because it’s one thing to oppose us, it’s another thing not to give us a fair opportunity to contest it. And he wants to try to get it down to only three states that we contest. But there are 10 states that we contest, not three. So if you could object to every state and, along with a congressman, get a hearing for every state, I know we would delay you a lot, but it would give us the opportunity to get the legislators who are very, very close to pulling their vote, particularly after what McConnell did today. It angered them, because they have written letters asking that you guys adjourn and send them back the questionable ones and they’ll fix them up.
So, this phone number, I’m available on all night, and it would be an honor to talk to you. Thank you.
This from the man who began the day at a Trump rally outside the White House by calling for “trial by combat.”
