What did Donald Trump do today?

He accused his political opponents of doing what he's on tape trying to do to the 2020 elections.

Today, addressing a conservative political group, Trump said this about the Americans who conduct state elections, whom he believes are engaged in a conspiracy against him:

And you know what they do, they cheat. "How many votes do we need, how many votes?" That's why they take their time. "How many votes do we need? Okay, here they are." Honestly, it's terrible. We're a third-world country with elections.

Trump does know something about dragging out elections to determine a precise number of "votes we need." 

On January 2, 2021, Trump called Georgia's Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensberger and Ryan Germany, a lawyer representing that office. Raffensberger, as head of the state election process, had tabulated votes showing that Joe Biden had won the state by a margin of 2,473,633 votes to Trump's 2,461,854. The margin of 11,779 votes made it a close call, within a quarter of a percent of the total votes cast, but by then every vote had already been hand-recounted in accordance with state law, and all of Trump's legal appeals had been dismissed. 

During the call, which was recorded by a Raffensberger aide (transcript), Trump veered between bluster and desperate pleading. Most of it was a rehashing of absurd claims already rejected by state and federal courts. (Trump lost every election lawsuit filed on his behalf in Georgia, not counting those he voluntarily dropped for lack of evidence.)

For example, he promised Raffensberger that he would soon release alleged evidence of a "tremendous number" of fake votes cast for Biden, emphasizing the exact margin by which he trailed Biden.

Trump: Another tremendous number. We’re going to have an accurate number over the next two days with certified accountants. But an accurate number — and that’s people that went to vote and they were told they can’t vote because they’ve already been voted for. And it’s a very sad thing. They walked out complaining. But the number’s large. We’ll have it for you. But it’s much more than the number of 11,779 that’s — The current margin is only 11,779. Brad, I think you agree with that, right? That’s something I think everyone — at least that’s’ a number that everyone agrees on. 

He insisted that votes from a Biden-leaning precinct had been counted three times.

Trump: I’m telling you, “Where’s [name] ” was one of the hot items …[name] They knew her. “Where’s [name]?” So Brad, there can be no justification for that. And I you know, I give everybody the benefit of the doubt. But that was — And Brad, why did they put the votes in three times? You know, they put ‘em in three times.

Raffensperger: Mr. President, they did not put that. We did an audit of that and we proved conclusively that they were not scanned three times.

At several points, Trump demanded that Raffensberger change the vote totals because, he said, his rallies in the state had been better attended than Biden's.

Trump: We won very substantially in Georgia. You even see it by rally size, frankly. We’d be getting 25-30,000 people a rally and the competition would get less than 100 people. And it never made sense.

…And I could tell you by our rallies. I could tell you by the rally I’m having on Monday night, the place, they already have lines of people standing out front waiting. It’s just not possible to have lost Georgia. It's not possible.

He threatened Raffensberger and his office's attorney with criminal charges if they didn't do what he wanted:

Trump: And you are going to find that they are — which is totally illegal, it is more illegal for you than it is for them because, you know what they did and you’re not reporting it. That’s a criminal, that’s a criminal offense. And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. And that’s a big risk. 

And, finally, he told Raffensberger exactly what he expected him to do:

Trump: So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state. 

…So what are we going to do here folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.

Trump was impeached for this and other attempts to illegally overturn the results of the election, which Joe Biden won in the electoral college by 303-232, and in the popular vote by just over seven million votes. Trump was also criminally indicted in Georgia, and as the case was not brought to trial before he was elected in 2024, remains liable for prosecution there if and when he leaves office again.

Accusing other people of things he himself has done is a very, very common tactic for Trump. It's one he's used to try to distract attention away from impeachment-level scandals, like colluding with hostile foreign powers to interfere in elections, to trivial things like the embarrassing fiasco of his Reflection Pool renovations.

Why does this matter?

• This one doesn't really need any explanation.