At Jan. 6 hearing, GOP state election officials detail pushback to Trump's pressure

The committee played audio clips of the now-infamous phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, in which Trump told Raffensperger he needed to "find" 11,780 votes in Georgia -- just one vote over the margin by which he trailed President-elect Joe Biden -- so he could be declared the winner of an election that three separate counts in the state confirmed he lost.

The call lasted 67 minutes and appeared to follow a cycle of Trump offering false election conspiracies and Raffensperger calmly explaining to him that each one was not accurate. At one point, Trump suggested to Raffensperger that his inaction could mean he was criminally liable.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., leading Tuesday's hearing, also said that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows reached out to Raffensperger 18 times to set up the call with Trump.

The committee aired audio from a call in which Trump tried to convince Frances Watson, the Georgia secretary of state's lead elections investigator, to reverse his loss.

"You know, you have the most important job in the country right now," Trump told her as he continued to falsely claim victory in the Peach State -- which he lost to Joe Biden by some 11,000 votes.

"When the right answer comes out, you'll be praised," Trump said to Watson.

Gabe Sterling, the chief oversight officer of Georgia's election, said trying to combat misinformation spread by Trump and his team was "kind of like a shovel trying to empty out the ocean," adding that he even argued with his own family members over the 'big lie.'

With Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., asking the Georgia election officials about threats made against them, Sterling said the "straw that broke the camel's back" for him was a message to a Dominion contractor which said, "You committed treason -- May God have mercy on your soul," accompanied with a "slowly twisting GIF of a noose," he said.

"I lost my temper, but it seemed necessary at the time because it was just getting worse," Sterling said.

The committee went on to play a video of him from December 2020 in which he pleaded with Trump to "stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence."

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was the first to testify after a short recess and was immediately asked by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to address the false allegations of widespread voter fraud Trump and his allies pushed in the battleground state.

"Our election went remarkably smooth," Raffensperger said. "President Biden carried the state of Georgia by approximately 12,000 votes," he reminded.

Raffensperger, a Republican who supported Trump's re-election bid, recounted how three separate audits in the state confirmed President Joe Biden as the winner.

"Three counts -- all remarkably close -- which show that President Trump did come up short," he said.