January 4 (IndiaToday) – Democrat Nancy Pelosi was reelected Sunday as speaker of the US House of representatives. Pelosi, who has led her party in the House since 2003, received 216 votes to 209 for California Republican Kevin McCarthy.
The speaker’s election a little over two weeks before Joe Biden is slated to be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. While Democrats managed to retain control of the House, it is still unclear which party will hold the US Senate awaiting the Senate runoff elections in Georgia.
On Sunday, outgoing US President Donald Trump faced yet another embarrassment after an audio recording of his conversation with Georgia’s election chief Brad Raffensperger surfaced online. During the conversation, Trump can be heard telling Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find” votes.
Certified election results from the state of Georgia put Biden in the lead with 11,779 votes.
Hours after details of the conversation surfaced online, Donald Trump claimed in a tweet that Brad Raffensperger was “unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more”.
Donald Trump can be heard telling Brad Raffensperger, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”
Despite threats that he and his general counsel could face a “big risk” if they refuse to comply, Raffensperger can be heard telling Trump, “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”