subscribed to. al-jazeera english. president trump is accused of pressurising georgia officials to recalculate the vote just days ahead of a crucial runoff in the state. hello i'm barbara sarah this is our jazeera live from london also coming up. the. huge crowds gather in the iraqi capital baghdad to mark one year since the u.s. assassinated reign in general kassim sunni money india approves to vaccines for

emergency use the government says it aims to immunize 300000000 people by august. i robot broiled in south korea at the mountain town famous for its ice festival that has plenty of ice and though for us to. thank you for joining us we start the program with some breaking news out of the united states the washington post has released an audiotape of an extraordinary hour long phone call between president donald trump and the georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger in it president trump is heard allegedly pressurising him to recalculate the vote in his favor alan fischer joins us live now from atlanta georgia and alan it really does seem to be an extraordinary phone call between the u.s. president and the secretary of state for georgia which relates of course to the presidential

election even though the state is about to have another election now. it is perhaps the most remarkable piece of audio that's come out of the oval office of the white house since the nixon tapes in the 1970 s. 74 hours ago donald trump confirmed that he had. with the secretary of state in georgia on saturday and that many of the things he had raised that were denied that a secular state didn't know about brad rustenburg immediately responded saying that's not true mr president the truth will come out just a few hours later the washington post had obtained a copy of the hour long phone call between the 2 that what is interesting is that over the course of the hour donald trump tries to cajole and to billy the secretary of state and to recounting the votes and the election he makes a number of assertions that have either been disproved by the courts or are simply

conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact essentially what he was asking was that the election here in georgia be overturned that he bit cleared the one or he believes that would be important if it came to keeping the presidency of the united states as you will hear from the clip that we've obtained from the washington post it is a remarkable exchange and the secretary of state was not ready to back down so a lot of all i want to do is as i use one of my. 11780. which is one more than we have because we want to say alan yes we have the present they're appealing to ask to find the 11780 votes as we've been saying pretty extraordinary stuff how is all of this going to affect the senate race on tuesday in that state in

georgia. it won't affect it that much and people who are already going to vote for the democrats will vote for the democrats and courts who will vote for their pockets or vote for their. appearance in the state. more interesting we knew that when you is going to address a get out the rally rally in the northeast part of the state you would no doubt raise as mr freeman says there is. so much. you want georgia. and we. simply not. we not only putting 3000000 people have already cast their vote in the senate runoff races 5000000 people cast their vote in november so there is every possibility that one end person voting starts on tuesday will get close to that sort of number and in

polls that the race is incredibly tight but one poll came out on wednesday that was very interesting because it tends to skew. slightly in the lead but that was very surprising just by one point within the margin of error still very interesting and did of course raise here in georgia is incredibly important because if the democrats when both states that means there will be 50 republican senators democrat senators and this. i'm. after january the 20th and saw joe biden's administrate of legislative agenda. comes much more achievable with a majority in both houses so you can see why this and why not only is donald trump coming to the state on monday to get out the vote joe biden the will be doing the exact same thing on monday and in the next couple of hours come the harness will be

here for a rally so you can see why georgia has been. very very important but suddenly not quite as important as that phone call between the georgian. president just to reiterate what the washington post are reporting you want us if. i'm president the secretary of state to fly. to be able to reach. georgia donald trump the winner it is a remarkable piece of history that has just been revealed by the washington post alan fischer with the latest on that from atlanta in georgia for the moment alan thank you well it's going to share britons who joins us live now from washington d.c. i guess she had been listening to the audiotape that makes you think well that was on tape it makes you wonder how many other phone calls took place that perhaps on

a similar vein that weren't recorded so what do you think are likely to be the repercussions of that only a recording. we have no official reaction yet from anyone in congress but one would imagine that mitch mcconnell who's the senate majority leader who is already concerned about the 2 runoff races in georgia that allen is covering is perhaps a little bit leave a little more uneasy right right now i think it was very fortunate for the the 11 senators who announce on saturday that they too would be certain they would they too would be challenging the certification of the results of the presidential election on wednesday along with another republican senator it's rather fortunate that the senate had adjourned until wednesday and then this article came out because the make there perhaps could lay low and avoid the press i would imagine but having said that though the arguments that the republican senators are giving may induce them a little bit because they were rather he to be to be a little opaque and to be

a little careful in their wording in the sense is they're not themselves necessarily alleging fraud what they're saying is well if 39 percent of the american people think there's been fraud then that deserve some kind of hearing that deserve some sort of reflection on the senate floor or in congress on wednesday during the certification process so i would imagine that's how they would they would wiggle out and that's why they say look we should have a commission they say look let's have a commission and once and for all we'll look into all of these all these allegations in 10 days before the before the inauguration and we'll put it all to rest but what people are pointing out is or for a start they haven't introduced any legislation to form a commission before january the 6 so that's a complete nonstarter in the 1st place anyway purely as rhetoric at the moment in a statement which has no practical implications whatsoever in the way that they've presented it so it really is it does seem to be covering them themselves against the base so that's that's the key point there that they that they were i'm sure

will present their themselves as simply as agents of the american people and when you have 39 percent of the population believing one thing. that it's worth it worth hearing but they themselves don't necessarily believe this but clearly the words on that tape of very shocking but but i think as alan was suggesting to the opinions on these issues a pretty much baked in right now i don't think anyone will be surprised on either side and those who are shocked by it all trollish behavior will be even more shocked perhaps and those who support will probably say well great it's good to see you don't trump trying to defend democracy from what was a flawed a flawed election i mean we played out a bit of the audio a little earlier on in the program you've obviously listened to it you've been reading up on the report so what do you think the points that will prove most controversial are in those reports. well it's those phrases isn't it it's you know i want to find these votes or you know but the problem is and i think even in the article they already talked to legal experts i'm sure you'll have someone on soon

this is donald trump he says things rhetorically that it's not necessarily him demanding that they find one extra vote than than than that the joe biden joe biden won in the state this is just how donald trump speaks it's very difficult then necessarily to suggest that all trump was giving a direct order to to the secretary of state in georgia now and i would imagine that's that's the point that's where the tussle will be is you can read these statements either as clear cut find it you know really put it on it clearly he was putting the pressure on but but is there necessarily a direct order as i think one legal analyst said in the article i think you know morally you concede that there's a clearly in some sort of attempt to put the pressure on but but but when you when it comes to the law and what exactly is allowed and isn't allowed rhetorical e. or actually as a direct order i mean these can be gray areas when for that's what's going what will be litigated at least in the media in the immediate future hubert hansie with

the latest on that developing story from washington she had for the moment thank you. bill schneider is a professor of public policy at george mason university and he joins me now by skype from washington d.c. so mr schneider what's your reaction to these reports on this tape it's an outrage it's the president of the united states putting pressure on a public official to lie to cheat possibly to steal votes so that he can win the state of georgia which won't even give him enough votes to win the current the. only 16 electoral votes but it is still inappropriate public pressure on electric official it's an outrage because it's distain for democracy. we call it the stain that for a democracy what i mean what do you think of repercussions will be apart from a lot of people obviously being outraged by it as you why. it could very well spoil

any chances that donald trump would have been elected in the future people will see him as a questionis figure someone who's totally describe yourself by this desperate attempt to stay in office in a way it's interesting because there were since some articles written about how developers big real estate developer slick chop operate they do whatever it takes to get what they want that's what trump is doing he's doing whatever it takes to get him the victory that he thinks he won in the election in developers do that to get the permission to build elements of the bill buildings but this is something far more serious this is the mockers what did you make of the replies by the republican secretary of state for georgia broad reference program. he didn't take any guff from the president he said that mr president the bunch you're looking for the 11700 needy votes or not they are the votes in the state of georgia have been

counted and recounted 3 times the secretary of state is insisting that there was no error there are no missing votes there's nothing wrong with the several counts that were made of the votes in georgia he standing his ground and we know how divided the united states has been for years and how divisive this recent election has been do you think that this will change anyone's mind. i think it will make some trunk people i think some term supporters might get embarrassed by this they don't want to have anything to do with it may not want to have anything to do with president trump anymore because this is simply an outrageous and embarrassing episode most of his supporters will probably stick with him because they're not people who have a. deep investment in the workings democracy italy republican establishment will certainly see trump as a dangerous figure someone who's taking the party into an uncharted waters this is

a very dangerous thing to do in the establishment never supported us bill schneider professor of public policy at george mason university mr schneider a always good talking to you thank you for joining us. well this is obviously a potentially very big developing story let's speak to steve clemons he's the host about to say was the bottom line and the washington editor at large of the hill and he joins us from washington d.c. by skype a good to see you so how do you think the source rick lazio how do you think this audiotape affix the political dynamics right now and crucially seeing as you're obviously sort of it i've been following washington for a long time what stood out for you particularly in in the transcript and the tape. well look you know the drama yesterday was that 12 united states senators were going to contest the electoral college vote certifications that are to be read this

coming wednesday and basically overseen by vice president pence so 12 united states senators are going to we're going to point to those boxes and say that somehow something was amiss that somehow someone had cheated or was trying to steal this election well now with what donald trump is done on reporting tape apparently is he's caught red handed trying to force a republican secretary of state a republican governor to change the votes in their election so all of a sudden i think we don't know how this will go but the senators are in a much more tenuous fragile situation because the president has been caught red handed on tape trying to compel someone to cheat when they have been arguing that the cheaters were on the other side so this is just another fascinating twist in this political drama as we approach wednesday when the winner will be finally

finally finally announced but we had 12 senators who i'm sure are not happy at all about what donald trump just did because it makes it look like they are joining a guy who's trying to win this election by might makes right and not by the ethics and standards and norms of our democracy every one of the phrases that president trump kept on repeating again and again according to the call is there is no way that i lost the joy decile that seemed to be almost the argument that he was putting forward with the georgia secretary of state it would seem pretty surprising especially to people outside of the u.s. that even now months after the election he still doesn't seem to accept that he has by all accounts of course lost. the president has surrounded himself with yes men and yes women he has a genetic disposition that we learned from his niece never ever to concede never ever to give up never ever to admit fall and to cry foul on the other side of the

equation in this case the democrats and joe biden and i think what's what's really interesting here is that the president would not listen to even. senator mitch mcconnell who waited until that the electoral college had certified its votes did not is disk you know is abusing top g.o.p. senators and as i said the governor and secretary of state and even his own attorney general which has not come up very much in discussion among this protest by a certain number of republicans are turning gen william barker who has done just about everything in attorney general might do to shield and hide the president they work for from accusations and from potential charges said there was no evidence of any widespread fought fraud in this election so so don trump has just chosen to selectively disassociate himself from anything other than the fact that this was stolen but in america and the president 9 states apparently has been taught this

you know everyone can win and everyone can lose that's the nature of democracy and running in a race like this you know hillary clinton and al gore both won more votes in the united states than their contenders but they lost in the electoral college in this case joe biden won both the popular vote and he won the electoral college you know with a very large margin just as donald trump one in the last race but he seems to be absolutely unwilling to accept that reality and taking the nation in a direction none of us have ever experienced and we honestly don't know what's going to happen as you say that and then obviously over the. past 4 years and certainly since trump came on the scene we've seen a lot of controversial statements coming from him explosive moments if you will here we have the president asking a secretary of state of georgia to find the 11780 votes do you think that this is a turning point do you see this as something different to all the various

controversies that have happened before. i think it means that anyone who is a responsible stakeholder in the american electoral and political system can't listen to the words that he is i'm sure we're going to get the audio of this directly before long can't listen to those words and stand by what he is alleging and doing so it creates an incredible peril for those republicans or we may be at a point some observers have been saying you know david from my former colleague at the atlantic and others said maybe there are just a number of americans right now who no longer they're kind of tired of democracy they don't want to stand by their standards that mystique of what america is just doesn't appeal to a larger and larger number of americans i don't believe that to be true but that apparently is true for some but it can't be the case for those people who have run for higher office and there are a lot of senators there are

a lot of governors there are a lot of house members that swore an oath and they swore an oath today in fact many of these incoming house members and senators to date in the u.s. congress to the united states constitution not to donald trump and so they put themselves at jeopardy in real jeopardy because they're not the president they don't have the president's power that they can be impeached if they engage in a conspiracy against the democracy of the united states and i think it's very serious ground that they're treading on over the past few weeks so since the election and then of course you know that term contested the results but then the various legal avenues were pursued and they did lead anyway have you noticed that there was a shift among some at least from supporters in the media the mainstream media that in a way accepted and they may still support the republicans of course maybe even trump but accepted at the result of the election how do you think that this will just be as the vice if as things have been since the election what we did see is split because we saw i don't know how to frame this but the newsman covering elements of

fox news made to defend. it is shift in favor towards after the certification of. votes on december 14th they began calling joe biden president elect joe biden that was a big big shift some of the non newsmaking hosts began to show much be much more circumspect in how they did it and then of course we had a lawsuit from dominion election systems that came out basically threatening any news organization with potential libel if they didn't do that so we saw one american news network and also newsmax come out and make definitive statements that they recognize joe biden as the winner of the race that doesn't mean that we don't have a fraction or a fraction of journalists and hosts out there that continue to promulgated these notions that there was large scale fraud election by dead people

votes cross state votes by canadians votes by martians and i used the word martians quoting rudy giuliani so in that particular case and those conspiracy theories about doll trump actually winning this race but having it stolen from him continue to circulate around the president and he is chasing anyone who will make those those kinds of claims out loud but i think that you're right that there's been a split you can feel the air i mean i tweeted something this morning you can feel the air simultaneously coming out of the president's tires in the white house as he no longer controls all of the republican party he just lost a significant vote where his vote was overridden by joint chambers of the house and senate never happened in his presidency that's a sign of weakness but you also see mitch mcconnell in a weak state saying this was the most important vote of his career and yet he's lost 12 united states senators from his caucus so both of these titans in the

republican party are simon simultaneously weaker and weaker. and grier and angrier and it's we don't know how it's going to come out but both mitch mcconnell and donald trump are effectively at war with each other right now over the selection well it will be interesting to see what the white house says is a response to this audiotape by the washington post steve clemons host about the bottom line and washington editor at large of the hale always good to talk to you thank you great to be with you thank you. still to come on the program making and their money counted libya takes drastic action on its currency and not everyone is happy about. how i once again we got more very wet weather into central parts of the

mediterranean and plenty of snow was where you can see this massive storms just swirling away that is a rare of low pressure around the low will the winds travel in an attic like clockwise direction and so that's putting up warm moist air op into a good part of italy through into the balkans and not take a little further north is where that warmer air bumps into the cooler air that's where we're seeing some very heavy rain significant snowfall which will gradually make its way across greece into that western side of the a fair bit of rain the snow to be pushing into remaining a little quieter into central pass but without the possibility of snow when you've got these temperatures very close to freezing beilin one degree celsius 5 celsius there for london 3 degrees in paris are picking up that easterly wind never a pleasant direction particularly at this time of year in the cold swings all the way background across spain and portugal more of the same as we go on into choose day by the chews day we'll see more the way of rain the snow coming in across the northern half of at least pushing up into poland still to stop there into

a good process to keep making its way east was disturbed weather too across the northwest of africa with the possibility some heavy snow for much of morocco. egypt's strongman is ruling within a family and faced and the silence from his allies is deafening the u.s. was perfectly happy to trade off the march for sea for security while western leaders turning a blind eye when even their own citizens have fallen victim to his repression executions torture censorship is not acceptable and you won't hear such strong words from let's say berlin or paris or london and in cairo on al-jazeera. the on.

a comeback is a reminder of the top stories on our jazeera the washington post has released an audiotape of an extraordinary hour long phone call between president donald trump and the georgia secretary of state brad reference for where he is allegedly pressurising him to recalculate the vote in his favor al jazeera has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the recording. let's have a listen now to a longer excerpt of that extraordinary conversation between president trump and the georgia secretary of state the people of yours you're angry the people of the country are raving and there's nothing wrong with saying that you know. 2 2 that you've retaliated well mr president determines that you have is the data you have

is why you should want to have an accurate election and your republican. we believe we deserve it i. know i. know you don't have you don't have not even plus you got you're off by hundreds or thousands of you know what they did and you're not reporting it that's you know that's a criminal that's a criminal offense and you know you can't let that happen so all i want to do is this i just want to find. 11780 lugs which is one more that we have because we want to say well let's go back to steve clemons host of al jazeera is the bottom line people were listening to a slightly longer excerpt they're going to say the bits that really stood out for me are when trump is effectively accusing the secretary of state of georgia of

committing a criminal offense because he won't report on the regularities in the vote as strong sees it what do you think of that and what else that out for you. well it's very very interesting too and different to hear those words as opposed to read them on a computer screen so to hear those words to hear the present united states muscling raffensperger the secretary of state of georgia. is remarkable he's muscling him he's implicitly threatening him saying that there is a crime in an incipient crime that the the ingredients of a crime brewing if raffensperger doesn't in fact move a different direction so i find it an extraordinary moment and you know i think we're going to be debating for a very long time where where you know the ongoing questions about donald trump's administration did the president of the united states commit

a highly i say high crime and misdemeanor in what we just heard or was this just soft muscling is this what lyndon baines johnson would have done is his what other presidents do when they muscle forward and so there's no crime but certainly it makes you fit feel morally sick at your stomach so we're hearing in real time something that i can tell you most americans can't imagine their president no matter whether they're republican or democrat saying or hearing it it's going to be very hard for many republicans even those who have lined up behind him to stand by what he did today or yesterday i guess this tape is from yesterday yeah then steve obviously you follow washington politics american politics the very closely indeed that is the question mark in your mind that you know this is a conversation that we caught on tape that perhaps other similar conversations have taken place over the past few weeks that we simply don't have on tape. well that's we know that to be true look we have many many journalists many of my colleagues at

the hill but also throughout you know the political media have developed extraordinary sources often the president himself many times people talk about you know leaks from the white house and the anger from the white house over those leaks and you dig beneath it and you understand it's really the president calling around himself to many of us in the in the media and i think that that you know he wants to shape the direction he wants to be the one that the spotlight is on all the time he wants to be in control of the narrative that is going on out there i don't think that he thought he was going to be taped in such a conversation this reminds me of times like when barack obama or other people or you know steve. just other folks around president were recorded by journalists because they hadn't told it was off the record but this feels like one of those moments that he was was caught not knowing that his words were either off the record.