Michigan Republican who balked at certifying election results says Trump called her

A GOP member of the canvassing board in Wayne County, Mich., said President Trump called her earlier this week after she and another Republican on the board initially refused to certify election results showing President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election.

Monica Palmer confirmed to The Washington Post that Trump called her on Tuesday night after she and William Hartmann balked at approving the election results. The two eventually relented and certified the results, but on Wednesday both Palmer and Hartmann sought to rescind their certification.

Palmer, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Hill, told the Post that Trump called “to make sure I was safe.”

“His concern was about my safety and that was really touching. He is a really busy guy and to have his concern about my safety was appreciated,” she told the news outlet.

Palmer denied that she felt pressured by Trump to reverse course after agreeing to certify the vote. She indicated the two discussed the results in different states, but “we really didn’t discuss the details of the certification.”

Wayne County, a Democratic stronghold, is home to Detroit and voted overwhelmingly for Biden. The Trump campaign on Thursday morning withdrew its lawsuit in the state, saying that it achieved its goal of delaying certification in Wayne County.

But Michigan officials have said that Palmer and Hartmann voted to certify the results on Tuesday night and they will not be able to rescind that approval.

Hartmann did not respond to a request for comment about whether he’d spoken to Trump.

Still, Trump’s intervention is the latest red flag in his attempts to undo the results of an election that he lost to Biden. He has spent the two weeks since Election Day sowing doubt about the reliability of the vote, attacking election workers and insisting that he won states that he did not win.

The president’s scattershot legal approach appears aimed more at undermining confidence in the election than actually changing the results. Biden’s lead in Michigan is more than 140,000 votes, and the Democrat leads in Pennsylvania by roughly 80,000 votes.