THE BIG STORY

Trump begged and threatened a Georgia official to change the election results during a phone call

According to audio obtained by the Washington Post, President Donald Trump berated and threatened Georgia's top election official to overturn the election results in his favor.

In the rambling hour-long call, released Sunday, the president cites disproven statistics and conspiracies while pressuring Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find” him enough votes to overturn the election.

At one point, the president even suggested that Raffensperger, a Republican, could face criminal charges if these nonexistent votes weren't found.

“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry, and there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated,” Trump says to Raffensperger and his office's general counsel, Ryan Germany.

“Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong,” Raffensperger tells Trump.

Some legal experts have described Trump’s call as “extortion” and “mob talk.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. John Bazemore / AP

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

A dozen Republican Senators that they’ll vote against certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College win

On Wednesday, the Senate will vote to certify the Electoral College results that confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s election win. It’s not typically a vote that generates a lot of news.

This time around, though, a group of Republican Senators say they will object to certifying the results. While their opposition will not change the election results, it will drag out the certification vote and likely further deepen partisan divisions.

Sen. Josh Hawley was first to declare his intentions to oppose last week. Now, a separate group of 11 senators, led by Sens. Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson, say they are demanding a 10-day audit of the results by an electoral commission.

Criticizing his fellow Republicans, Sen. Ben Sasse wrote, “Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base.” Both Hawley and Cruz are often considered possible 2024 presidential contenders.

SNAPSHOTS

Congress has overridden a Trump veto for the first time in his presidency. The defense spending bill passed with a veto-proof majority in both chambers of Congress, but Trump went ahead and vetoed it anyway.

Protesters and the family of Dolal Idd are demanding answers to his killing by Mineappolis officers. In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed by police last spring, protesters took to the streets for two nights in a row. Police say video shows Idd fired at officers first before Minneapolis police shot and killed the 23-year-old.

A hospital employee was arrested for intentionally spoiling more than 500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. A now-fired pharmacist of a suburban Milwaukee hospital was arrested and accused of intentionally removing 57 vials of the COVID-19 vaccine from a pharmacy refrigerator, resulting in the hospital throwing out more than 550 doses.

THE REACH OF INFLUENCE

How one company made it easier for an autocrat to crack down, then lobbied Trump — and won

Few have heard of Mer Security and Communications Systems. The Israeli company has clients all over the world — one of whom was former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila.

Kabila was an authoritarian ruler who had crushed peaceful protests and enriched himself at the expense of his own citizens. He relied on Mer for monitoring technology and intelligence training to help him spy on his own people.

But he needed another kind of work: Kabila needed Mer to convince the US government that his nation would soon have credible elections. Mer lobbied the Trump administration to endorse Congo's 2018 election results. And even though leaked voting data revealed fraud, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shocked veteran diplomats and directed the State Department to welcome the result.

A massive BuzzFeed News investigation, based on thousands of pages of documents and more than 100 interviews in the US, Congo, and Europe, provides a first-ever look inside Mer’s aggressive campaign to influence the Trump administration and serve Kabila’s interests.

THSNKS

Meet the musician turning random internet drama into TikTok bops

Let it be said here and now: Lubalin makes bops. They’re undeniable bangers in TikTok form, and you’ll want to replay them over and over again.

But the Montreal musician’s subject matter is… unique. He's rocketed to viral fame thanks to two TikToks he made in which he turned Facebook exchanges involving Baby Boomers into catchy tunes.

Lubalin sings his way through the screenshots of the arguments, and people are absolutely in love. People couldn't get over the hilarious exchange — and how much the song slapped. It's now been seen more than 17 million times.

Wishing you a hopeful start to your new year,

Elamin