US President Donald Trump on Saturday held a rally in Valdosta, Georgia, and insisted that he won the November 3 presidential election.
“We got 74 million+ and they’re trying to convince us that we lost. We didn’t lose!” he said in the rally for Republican senators Kelly Lynn Loeffler and David Perdue, who are both facing runoff races early next month.
“We didn’t lose. You’re gonna see that,” he added.
“This election was rigged, and we can’t let that happen to two of the most respectable people in Washington. We can’t let that happen again,” said Trump.
“If I lost, I’d be a very gracious loser. If I lost, I would say I lost, and I’d go to Florida and I’d take it easy and I’d go around and I’d say I did a good job,” he stressed.
“Hopefully our legislatures and the United States Supreme Court will step forward and save our country.”
Before the rally, Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and asked him to call a special session of the state Legislature in an effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's narrow victory in the state, Kemp's office confirmed to NBC News.
Trump also asked Kemp, a Republican, to order an audit of absentee ballot signatures, according to the report.
In a statement issued to NBC News, Kemp's office said that Georgia law prohibits the governor from interfering in elections. That power rests with the secretary of state, who is an elected officer of the state.
"As the Governor has said repeatedly, he will continue to follow the law and encourage the Secretary of State to take reasonable steps — including a sample audit of signatures — to restore trust and address serious issues that have been raised," the statement read in part.
Kemp tweeted after the phone call and wrote that he publicly called for a signature audit three times in an effort to "restore confidence in our election process and to ensure that only legal votes are counted in Georgia."
Trump tweeted in response, “But you never got the signature verification! Your people are refusing to do what you ask. What are they hiding? At least immediately ask for a Special Session of the Legislature. That you can easily, and immediately, do.”
During the rally, when the crowd chanted “Stop the Steal!” Trump replied, “Your Governor could stop it if he knew what the hell he was doing.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state on November 20, after a manual recount of nearly 5 million ballots cast in Georgia showed Biden won the state, validating initial results.
Trump's campaign, which maintains that there was widespread voter fraud in the November 3 election, has filed a petition for a new recount in Georgia.
Earlier this week, Gabriel Sterling, a top elections official in Georgia, blasted Trump and Georgia's senators following threats and intimidation targeting the state's elections workers.
"Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We're investigating, there's always a possibility, I get it, you have the right to go through the courts," Sterling said.
He then added, "What you don't have the ability to do — and you need to step up and say this — is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt. Someone is going to get shot. Someone is going to get killed. And it's not right."