The Georgia secretary of state who defied Donald Trump’s command to “find” enough votes to help reverse his decisive election defeat in the state last year believes that the then-president’s demands were a personal threat. In his new book, Integrity Counts, Brad Raffensperger includes a 40-page transcript of the infamous Trump call where he ordered the secretary of state to “give [him] a break” and gift him 11,000 more votes. Raffensperger writes that he believes Trump was threatening him, stating: “I felt then—and still believe today—that this was a threat... Others obviously thought so, too, because some of Trump’s more radical followers have responded as if it was their duty to carry out this threat.” The state official recounts that death threats were texted to his wife, and a man named Ron Raffensperger was harassed by Trump supporters who wrongly believed he was Raffensperger’s brother. Trump’s office hasn’t commented on Raffensperger’s book, which was released Tuesday.
