Leak: Wisconsin GOP's strategy to 'fan the flames' of Trump election lies

A newly released audio recording reveals Donald Trump's campaign team in Wisconsin scheming to promote the defeated president's election fraud lies.

The Nov. 5, 2020, recording from a strategy session shows political operatives, centering around Wisconsin campaign head Andrew Iverson, praising Democratic turnout efforts in the state's largest counties and even joking about their their efforts to engage Black voters, reported the Associated Press.

“Here’s the deal: Comms is going to continue to fan the flame and get the word out about Democrats trying to steal this election. We’ll do whatever they need," Iverson says on the recording. "Just be on standby if there’s any stunts we need to pull."

A former campaign official and Republican operative who was at the meeting provided the recording the AP, and that person said they came forward because Trump was running a third campaign for the White House, and a spokesperson for that campaign declined to address the contents of the recording.

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“The 2024 campaign is focused on competing in every state and winning in a dominating fashion," said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung. "That is why President Trump is leading by wide margins in poll after poll.”

Iverson, who is now Midwest regional director for the Republican National Committee, deferred questions about the meeting to that organization, whose spokesperson Keith Schipper declined comment because he hadn't heard the recording.

Joe Biden defeated Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin in 2020, which numerous investigations and lawsuits have upheld, and none of the participants in the recorded meeting claim the former president had won the election there but instead make plans for packing up campaign offices and writing final reports on their work, and Iverson at one point concedes the margin of defeat.

“At the end of the day, this operation received more votes than any other Republican in Wisconsin history,” Iverson says in the recording. “Say what you want, our operation turned out Republican or DJT supporters. Democrats have got 20,000 more than us, out of Dane County and other shenanigans in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Dane. There’s a lot that people can learn from this campaign.”

At another point, the operatives laugh when discussing whether they need “more Black voices for Trump" and mocked their own efforts to engage with Black voters.

“We ever talk to Black people before?" Iverson says, as other participants laugh. "I don’t think so."