'It's a dark place': Trump's call a window into a President consumed
Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump had been trying for weeks to get Georgia's secretary of state on the phone.
Aghast at the thought he lost a state Republicans have held for decades, and desperate to reverse the result, the President insisted to his advisers he could persuade the state's top election official to validate his false claims of voter fraud -- if only he could speak with him directly.
So, for more than a month, operators at the White House tried reaching Brad Raffensperger. Eighteen attempted calls came into his Atlanta office from the White House switchboard in the weeks after the November 3 election.
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Ghost town
Despite Trump's efforts to stay in power, the West Wing is becoming more like a ghost town. Several senior staffers have departed in recent days and more are expected to do so soon as officials line up their next jobs. The few senior staff who are left have sought to distance themselves from Trump's efforts out of fear of possible legal exposure.
Some senior aides, including Hope Hicks, are spending less time at the White House than previously. And Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, was headed to Saudi Arabia early this week for a ceremony marking the end of the Gulf crisis involving Qatar rather than remaining in Washington.
"No one wants to be around anymore," one official said. "It's a dark place." ...........(more)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/donald-trump-georgia-call-mindset/index.html