Fox anchor accuses Georgia secretary of state of putting the country in jeopardy by sharing his call with Trump
Sandra Smith: “Don't you worry about the precedent that that sets?”
Published
Citation From the January 5, 2020, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom
SANDRA SMITH (ANCHOR): It would sound to the casual observer that you are getting very political in nature in what appears to be an attack on the president. I will ask you about that leaked phone call now that you had with the president that you have gone on the record with one of my colleagues saying that you thought it was important to leak that phone call. Others might say that was a phone call with the president of the United States. His team is pushing back saying that that was a confidential phone call. Why did you decide to leak that?
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE): Well, it wasn't a confidential conversation. It was a phone call that I didn't really know what the outline of the meeting was. There was no preset meeting lawyer to lawyer. But we did have our attorney on there since the Trump campaign has sued the governor of Georgia and also our office about the past election. And then he went on Twitter the next morning and divulged that we did have the conversation and stated what his positions were, and they weren't factually supported. I corrected him on the phone call on Saturday. And obviously he last night said the same pieces of disinformation and that's why we had a press conference yesterday. He has continued to say over a thousand dead people voted in Georgia. It was only two.
SMITH: Sir, you have said -- gone on the record saying that you believe that your numbers will be supported in the court of law. So why did you go to avenue of leaking a phone call with the president? I mean, don't you worry about the precedent that that sets?
RAFFENSPERGER: The president leaked that we had a phone call. And so when he did that, he made it -- wanted to make it public. He has 80 million Twitter followers, and I understand the power that he has behind him. We have 40,000. I get all that. But he's continued to be misled or continue doesn't want to believe the facts, and we have the facts on our side.
SMITH: But the question is why not let it play out in court? Why not let it play out in court? Why put into jeopardy, you know, our country by leaking a phone call of that nature and not just let your numbers and your facts play out in the court of law?
RAFFENSPERGER: I don't understand how truth would ever jeopardize the country. We're standing on the facts. We're standing on the truth. And so we have the numbers here. You want to come over here to our office, come on by. I have the numbers right in front and we've posted them yesterday as part of our press conference. And that will be part of our filings for the lawsuits.