by Julie Gerstein
Business Insider
Jan 7, 2021, 11:34 PM
NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

Tommy Tuberville, the football coach turned senator who now seems to be the most popular wrong number in Washington. AP Photo/John Minchillo, File
It seems that nobody can get Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama on the first try.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani left a long, rambling, and rather revealing voicemail that was meant for Tuberville but instead was sent to a different, unnamed politician. The voicemail, which urged Tuberville to slow down the Electoral College vote certification as much as possible, was sent to The Dispatch and transcribed in full.
It seems President Donald Trump also attempted to reach Tuberville on the same day.
This time, the call reportedly went to Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who happened to be hunkering down near Tuberville in the Senate chamber of the US Capitol that was under siege by a pro-Trump mob.
Lee told the Deseret News of his strange call with the president.
"How's it going, Tommy?" he recalled the president asking.
Lee told Trump he wasn't Tommy.
"Well, who is this?" Trump asked.
"It's Mike Lee," the senator said.
"Oh, hi, Mike. I called Tommy."
Lee told the Deseret News he then handed his phone to Tuberville, who he said spoke with the president for about 10 minutes. In the midst of their phone call, Lee said, the police began evacuating lawmakers from the area.
Lee said he then asked Tuberville for his phone back.
"I don't want to interrupt your call with the president, but we're being evacuated and I need my phone," he recalled saying.
Lee told the Deseret News that, based on a conversation with Tuberville a bit later, he didn't think the president was aware the siege was happening during the call.
Tuberville was one of several Republican senators — including Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas — who voted to overturn election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Those efforts failed, and after Congress reconvened following the siege it certified Joe Biden as president-elect.
In December, Tuberville received praise from Trump after he said he would not rule out objecting to the election results during the Electoral College certification process.
Following the siege of the Capitol, Tuberville tweeted condemnation of the mob of Trump supporters.
"Yesterday was a sad day for our great country," he wrote. "I strongly condemn the violence and actions we saw from those who stormed the Capitol. It undermines the freedoms we enjoy as Americans, and it has no place in our democracy."
*****************************
Giuliani to Senator: ‘Try to Just Slow it Down’: The president’s lawyer tries to block the count of the Electoral College votes.
by Steve Hayes
The Dispatch
Jan 6, 2021
Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer and top adviser to President Donald Trump, is calling Republican lawmakers urging them to delay the electoral vote count by at least one day to allow the president and his team to present more evidence of alleged election fraud. Giuliani was making calls this evening, as late as an hour before Congress reconvened, in a desperate attempt to block the final count of Electoral College votes.
At approximately 7 p.m., Giuliani called newly sworn-in Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a staunch Trump ally, imploring him to stall the process. “I want to discuss with you how they're trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you,” Giuliani said in a voicemail. “And I know they're reconvening at 8 tonight, but it ... the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow. I know McConnell is doing everything he can to rush it, which is kind of a kick in the head because it's one thing to oppose us, it's another thing not to give us a fair opportunity to contest it.”
Giuliani tells Tuberville that McConnell wants to narrow the objections to just three states and explains that the Trump team wants to object to 10. “So if you could object to every state and, along with a congressman, get a hearing for every state, I know we would delay you a lot, but it would give us the opportunity to get the legislators who are very, very close to pulling their vote, particularly after what McConnell did today.”
The problem for Giuliani? He left his message on the voicemail of another senator, who shared it with The Dispatch.
It’s not clear whether Giuliani—who opens the call by referring to himself as “the president’s lawyer”—was directed to call Tuberville by President Trump. Requests for comment to Giuliani’s cell phone and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows went unanswered. One longtime Trump adviser still talking to top White House officials says Trump is in constant communication with Giuliani. Asked if such a call is something Trump would know about, he said: “Oh, yeah, 100 percent.”
Giuliani, speaking at the rally for Trump earlier today, urged Trump supporters to keep fighting, promising that more evidence would soon come to light. “Over the next 10 days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent and we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail.”
Here is the complete audio. The transcript of Giuliani’s voicemail follows below.
Senator Tuberville? Or I should say Coach Tuberville. This is Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer. I'm calling you because I want to discuss with you how they're trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you. And I know they're reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow.
I know McConnell is doing everything he can to rush it, which is kind of a kick in the head because it's one thing to oppose us, it's another thing not to give us a fair opportunity to contest it. And he wants to try to get it down to only three states that we contest. But there are 10 states that we contest, not three. So if you could object to every state and, along with a congressman, get a hearing for every state, I know we would delay you a lot, but it would give us the opportunity to get the legislators who are very, very close to pulling their vote, particularly after what McConnell did today. It angered them, because they have written letters asking that you guys adjourn and send them back the questionable ones and they'll fix them up.
So, this phone number, I'm available on all night, and it would be an honor to talk to you. Thank you.