With georgia secretary of state hunting for 11,000 votes he didnt receive directing him to fabricate votes that continue exist. Threatening the republican secretary of state if he didnt comply. Its replete with trumps hall marks, bullying, pressuring, lies, misinformation but important to point out right upfront trump sounds exactly the same when he users his five words made to prove he doesnt have dementia as he does potentially committing criminal voter fraud, incoherent and clueless but at this point not point to. For reasons ever understanding what the gop has ushered in by standing by trump were going to play some of that extraordinary tape from Donald Trumps call with georgia secretary of state yesterday. First recorded on and published by the Washington Post and later obtained by nbc news. Listen. So look all i want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because own the state and flipping the state is a great testament to our country. The people of georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry. And theres nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that youve recalculated because the 2236 in absentee ballots, i mean they are all exact numbers that were done by accounting firms, law firms, et cetera. And even if you cut them in half, cut them in half and cut them in half again its more votes than we need. Well, mr. President , the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong. It doesnt pass the smell test because we hear theyre shredding thousands and thousands of ballots and now what they are saying oh, were cleaning up the office. You know. Well, mr. President , the problem with social media oh, this isnt social media. This is trump media. Its not social media. Its really not. Its not social media. I dont care about social media. I couldnt care less. Social media is big tech. Big tech is on your side. You know. I dont even know why you have a side because you should want to have an accurate election and youre a republican. We believe we do have an accurate election. That really happened. And what you just heard was just a small portion of an astonishing one hour and two minute exchange. Washington post describes the totality of the conversation this way. Quote the rambling and at times incoherent conversation offered a remarkable glimpse of how consumed and desperate the president remains about his loss. Unwilling or unable to let the matter go. And still asserting he can reverse the results in enough battleground states to remain in office. Trumps Pressure Campaign on raffensperger is the latest example of his attempt to subvert the outcome of the november 3rd election. Pressured george Governor Brian Kemp in a call to try to replace that states electors and asked the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of represents reverse his loss. For anyone out there wondering just how bad trumps conduct is, well so bad that former Vice President dick cheney and ien other former secretaries of defense, in fact every living person who has ever overseen the pentagon has penned an oped an warned against any military action. Why 0 would they do that . Why do they have to do that . Well, maybe because 12 republican senators have taken up positions hostile to the american democracy. 12 republican senators came out this weekend in opposition to what is supposed to be a formality, certification of the Electoral College vote. Our friend tom nichols calls them a sedi the the iorc sedetion caucus. An election whose results came before judges appointed by democrats and republicans. An election result that has been investigated, counted, recounted and verified by every Single Person and every single entity that has looked at it. The president s abuse of power and the caucus that continues to green light his dangerous assault on american democracy is where we start today. Washington post National Investigative reporter and msnbc contributor and joining us an degr Andrea Weisman and john holland is back. I want to start with you and i want to congratulate you and your colleagues on this extraordinary scoop. Just take me through just tell me what its like when you get your hands on Something Like this which, for me, ive been covering donald trump for five years since he descended the escalator and landed on the top of the field of 17 republicans but i never heard him like this. Did you guys know what you had and what did you think of what was on that tape . What did you think it was . Well, i described it yesterday when i first heard about it as trump equivalent to the 18 missing minutes in Nixon White House those tapes. Thats how serious this is, and youre summary and lead in really captures how dramatic it is. Hats off to my colleague amy gardner who has been toiling like a good beat reporter or beat cop for months in georgia and other place, went after source and got this exclusive material. I want to stress something. Everybody on this panel and, you among all of us know this best. Everyone has seen and heard the president say things that have this ring of a mafioso threatening, cajoling, threatening, youll be investigating, youre a republican, you should do what i said. All of this language using the strong arm tactic and weve all seen these events unfold. Jim comey being demanded loyalty. Rod rosenstein told to shut down the russia probe. John kelly being told to give Jerry Kushner a clearing despite his ability to keep the nations secrets. We know these things have happened but hearing them on tape 24 hours, less than 24 hours after they happened, its chilling. It really is chilling and andrew and i always follow everything you tweet but i pull you up by name to follow the legal story pinpoint seems to have put in motion really Big Questions about whether theres even more pressure now in an incoming Justice Department to investigate crimes and there might be some pressure on the state of georgia. Can you take us through what those crimes are and where the exposure lies for the president. Does anyone else on that call have the same exposure . Sure. So in term of the litany that carol laid out and i would add to that the ukraine call which led to impeachment which is remarkably similar the difference now is one of timing. His presidency is about to be over and youre exactly right that theres now a really different level of pressure on the new administration as to what its going to do. In other words will it be okay for the president to do what happened here the precedent of not being accountable. There are federal and state laws that make it a crime to tamper improperly with an election, and those all come down to the intent of the actor. So, you know, if the president were acting where he genuinely believed that there were people who voted for biden who should not legally have been counted, if he had those facts or good faith belief then that would be a valid defense both under federal and state law, but i could give you a mini summation just from that hour tape leaving aside his motive and all of the other crime evidence, all of the other actions that carol laid out that make it clear that theres sufficient evidence to at the very least open an investigation. Remember right now the decision is not should he be charged, its should there be an investigation. And at this point its conducive to democracy to have a president who is not held to account. That really is the situation that changes where we are now than where weve been for four years where weve seen the president engaging exact same conduct, but now theres something we can do about it. Well, let me just push you a little further because andy mccabe lost his job. Jim comey lost his job. All your former colleagues and a lot of instances your friends for thinking that there was cause to investigate this president. And here we are. I mean it sort of leaves all the people whose reputations we s l bit obliterated. When i first read jim comeys book and he described the president as like a mob boss and i prosecuted mob bosses i thought oh, at the time jim thats hyperbole, how can you say that and i didnt take it seriously and then living through these past four years everything that carol laid out, to me i think jim got it exactly right. I mean it is chilling to hear on the tape the president say to a sitting secretary of state of georgia that, you know, essentially criminal things can happen to you and also this is going be bad for your career and, remember, youre a republican. All sorts of things if he was actually had a good faith belief here you would never need to threaten any of that. You basically just go to reason and lay out the actual facts. But we know from 60 lawsuits that have all been dismissed there are no facts to do what the president wanted. To give the weed of the legal issue, i was very interested in what trumps lawyers were doing on the call because that could have been a potential defense for trump. Gee, if i was saying something improper then i thought my lawyers could step in but the theres such a huge disconnect between what his lawyers are asking for and what trump is asking for. His lawyers were repeatedly saying we just want access evidence to. Youre telling us you did all of this. We just want to double check. Thats not what the president asked for. The president says no, no thats not what we need, actually cuts off his lawyers and says i want actually you to fine just 11 votes that will put me over the top. Hes not dhoioing this as a procedural issue. His lawyers could be quite damning witnesses against him and similarly i would think a good investigation would look to the department of justice to see what kind of pressure the president putin on the department to do exactly what he was trying to do here in this phone call. You know, john holland, i have a million questions for you too. First, i feel like you and i have covered so much of this trump story together and take a stab at answering why this one makes me more mad than all the rest. This trump story, i sat and listened to the whole call and i had to start it over three or four times. He sounds the same, like something is wrong with him. We know there is. But i wonder youve interviewed him multiple times. What did you think when you heard the tape and speak about the secretary of state of georgia. It seems this tape will be around a lot longer than anybody will care about Donald Trumps presidency. Yeah. Happy new year. Happy new year. I got to say, i think what a way to start. I think its true that the tape has you got to listen to it first of all. Reading the transcript doesnt do it. Got to listen to the full hour as hard as it is because you get a picture of trump thats very consistent as carol said that ma if i an don thing and we heard it virus tapes of trump. Heres a guy who has been undone by tape in a way like no other president has been undone. We see and heard more words out of trump, weve seen trump more than any other president in a one term president ever in history so were very familiar with certain aspects it. I do think theres a different quality to this. Part of it gets to what made it hard for you to listen to. Theres a bunch of d words that come to mind. Theres the desparation in his voice. Theres the derangement and delusion. He clearly has come to believe more than he did months ago back in middle of november. Hes come to believe more reporting suggests that he actually believe these conspiracy theories because its not a political ploy. He believes the craziyest of the conspiracy theories. The derangement, the delusion, the detachment from reality, the thing he said a second ago, he sounds damaged. He sounds like a damaged person and theres something deeply unnerving and upsetting about hearing a president of the United States in these file days when all of us are counting the minutes that we hope we can escape safely with the country in tact by january 20th the level of damage thats on display. You think to yourself what wouldnt this guy do and thats part of why this whole thing is so unnerving. Last thing ill say and you mentioned this in your open and this is not to forgive him or create excuses for him but how dumb could you be, right . Brad raffensberger has been on television twice saying i voted for the president but we got our election right. Weve done audits and were standing by our results. Im not going bend, im not going break. Donald trump made 18 phone calls to get him on phone. When he finally gets him he does call not apparently thinking for a moment he might be taped. After all the previous instances in which trump is taped, access hollywood, all these other things that cause trump damage he says it all anyway and spills it all out and raffensberger says i wont put this out unless he lies about me. The stupidity on display that he thought this was narcotic. This was the guy who he thought he could get to do him a favor and find him 11,000 notes to steal election. How much of a moron is this dude. If you put it together in one package how could you not be between youre inured to donald trump, how can you not be just like man that guy was president for four years . Let me push on this open door. So that guy now has 12 republican senators taking up his cause. I mean wednesday will be a debacle because that guy who i agree with the way you just described, these 12 people, ted crews, ron johnson, james lankford, john kennedy, roger marshal, cynthia loomis, josh haul l hawley, mike braun are going to stand against the american democracy, against the 60 judges, against the history that caroline talked about, they will defend the coup attempt. Explain that. They are going to defend the coup attempt even after hearing this tape. They are not just going defend the coup attempt they are still going defend this coup attempt and stay tuned for it and wear this thing for the rest of their lives this, vote that they are going to have to take or multiple votes they have to take. They are begging to take. They are going to wear this for the rest of their lives even after hearing this tape and seeing the corruption on display, they are still going to do it. I got to say, i said this to you the other day i think maybe not on air but im grateful for josh hawley because i think it is good for the country to see, to get these people on record. Were at that place right now where knowing who is on Team Democracy and who is on team coup. Who is on team subversion are of democracy. We need to know this. The youre a republican of if i stripe or anyone else to have these people to have to go on the record and declare themselves in a recorded vote in United States senate and in house, have to live with that for the rest of their lives having decided that their personal political ambitions are more important the home than the foundations of the democratic experiment that weve been part of now for all of these years, without interruption, i think its good for us to know who they are and i think if i were a republican who was part of what is now clearly going be a vicious bloody and definitive in the end transformative civil war for the party, whether youre on the mitt romney side, on the pat toomey side or on the side with these clowns and dangerous clowns, these coup abettors i think its good for republicans, if youre a republican who wants to try to reform the party if thats possible at this point its good for to you know where the dividing line is and who is on which side. Thats where we are right now. Its a fundamental threat to everything in some ways that having the clarity that this vote will bring is a valuable thing even though its entirely upsetting, disturbing and profoundly demoralizing as i know all people on this shore, some people who believe in democracy and institutions that held this country together since its founding. All right. Ill make everyone in my control room cringe. I have a stack of stories i want you to get on. Ill ask you all to stick around. Gabriel terminology went to the microphone several weeks back and said these lies will lead to violence somebody will get shot. He responded today and fact checked pointbypoint all of trumps lies and disinformation from that call. Well play that. Were waiting for biden to speak in georgia. Hes there stomping for the Democratic Candidates there. Well take that live when that starts. Were also as we said its election eve both parties bring out their heavy hitters in this final sprint for tomorrows runoff. Nothing much at stake except control of the u. S. Senate. Well also continue our live coverage of trumps latest perfect phone call sure to play a big part in that race. Also bidens remarks as they start. Plus more on that remarkable oped weve only briefly mentioned so far from all the living defense secretaries this country has ever had, democratic and republican and certainly republican and democratics in any use of military will cross into dangerous territory. Well be right back after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. Break. Dont go anywhere. Man whats my safelite story . I spend a lot of time in my truck. Its my livelihood. Rock music man so im not taking any chances when something happens to it. So when my windshield cracked. My friend recommended safelite autoglass. They came right to me, with Expert Service where i needed it. Rock music man thats service i can trust. No matter what im hauling. Right, girl . Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. To give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you dont. [grunting noise] ill take that. Woohoo 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. Ensure max protein. With nutrients to support immune health. But before we sign i gotta ask. Sure, anything. We searched you online and maybe you can explain this . I cant believe that garbage is still coming in. That is so false frustrated with your Online Search results . Call reputation defender today to join tens of thousands whove improved their online reputation. Get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender. Com or call 18778668555. Happened in that phone call was an attack on democracy . Ill leave other people to make a decision on that. I personally found it to be something not normal, out of place, and nobody i know who would be president would do Something Like that to a secretary of state. That was the man we just told you about georgia Elections OfficialGabriel Sterling reacting today to that extraordinary phone call weve been discussi