Marsha Blackburn: ‘Everyone’ Thinks Trump’s Call to Pressure Georgia Republicans Was Not ‘Helpful’

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said that President Donald Trump’s leaked call pressuring Georgia Republicans to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state was “not a helpful” one.

The hourlong call, leaked to, and published in full by the Washington Post, revealed Trump berating Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday and demanding he “find” enough votes to take the state from Biden.

Blackburn, one of the Republicans planning to vote to reject the Electoral College results of the 2020 election this week on the basis of Trump’s allegations of fraud, was asked on Fox & Friends Monday about the president’s phone call.

“One of the things, I think, that everyone has said is that this call was not a helpful call,” Blackburn said. Blackburn added that states are in charge of election integrity, not the federal government.

The (certainly futile) attempt by Blackburn and 10 other senators to reject the electors on Wednesday — and insist that an election commission to investigate voter fraud is formed — has split the Republican Party.

Sen. Tom Cotton and several other Republicans have voiced strong opposition to the move. “[O]bjecting to certified electoral votes won’t give him a second term,” the Arkansas Republican said in a statement.

“It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections,” said former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who now serves on the board of Fox News parent company Fox Corp.

This all comes days before tight Senate runoff elections in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate.