Trump Ridiculously Claims He Never Told Georgia Official to ‘Find 11,780 Votes’ So He Could Win State – Despite Being Caught on Tape

Former President Donald Trump lied many times during his return to CNN on Wednesday night in a town hall that marked his first appearance on the network in years.

One of the more demonstrably false claims was his denial that he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” him the number of votes necessary for him to win the state after he lost the 2020 election.

Trump began the town hall by again refusing to acknowledge he lost that contest, and even called those who accept the results “very stupid.” Later, moderator Kaitlan Collins asked Trump about a criminal investigation in Georgia into his post-election efforts to overturn the contest.

“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state,” Trump told Raffensperger in January 2021, before he left office.

Here is Trump’s exchange with Collins on Wednesday night:

COLLINS: [T]hey are investigating there, your efforts to overturn the election results in the state of Georgia.

TRUMP: I did nothing wrong. It was a perfect phone call.

COLLINS: Let me finish my question. At the center of that is that call that you had Secretary of State–

TRUMP: Perfect call.

COLLINS: –Brad Raffensperger. Given the fact there are indictments expected to come in that case this summer, is that a call you would make again today?

TRUMP: Yeah, I called questioning the election. I thought it was a rigged election. I thought it had a lot of problems. I had every–I guess he’s secretary of state. I called–listen to this. There were like seven lawyers on the call, many of them–we’re having a call, we’re having a normal call. Nobody said, “Oh, gee, he shouldn’t have said that.” If this call was bad, I questioned the election–

COLLINS: You asked him to find you votes.

TRUMP: I didn’t ask him to find anything.

COLLINS: We’ve heard the audiotape, Mr. President. There’s an audio of you asking him to find you 11,000-something votes.

TRUMP: I said you owe me votes because the election was rigged. That election was rigged. And if this call was bad, why didn’t him and his lawyers hang up? How dare you say that? This was a perfect phone call.

COLLINS: They were clearly concerned enough they recorded the call, and I should note that–

TRUMP: This was a call that was made to question the results of election and we have–and when we can’t make a call to question election results, then this country ought to just forget about it.

[Applause]

COLLINS: You weren’t just questioning the election results. You were asking them to find you votes. And I should note that there is no evidence of fraud. There is no rigged election in the state of Georgia.

Watch above via CNN.