If you know anything at all about Donald Trump and his associates, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to you: The Associated Press has obtained recordings of Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign that reveal staffers laughing and joking about whether they should have engaged with Black voters in Wisconsin, Newsweek reports.

The newly released recordings describe how Republican political operatives were laughing about a comment from Andrew Iverson, who was the head of Trump’s campaign in Wisconsin and they continued laughing about whether they needed “more Black voices” for Trump.

Newsweek hasn’t been able to verify the details of the audio and has contacted Trump and the Republican National Committee for comment.

“We ever talk to Black people before? I don’t think so,” Iverson allegedly said, spurring more laughter from others taking part in a meeting on November 5, two days after Election Day in 2020.

These recently revealed claims about Wisconsin Republicans laughing about engaging with Black voters comprised part of a report by The Associated Press report highlighting how even though they already knew that Joe Biden had won the 2020 election, they still wanted to “fan the flame” that the Democrats rigged the election.

Iverson’s comments are central to the audio, and the recordings make clear that the operatives were going to do whatever it took to propel Trump’s false election fraud claims.

Biden beat Trump quite solidly (by 20,000 votes) in Wisconsin and was declared the winner on November 4. Trump narrowly claimed victory in the state in November 2016.

“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,” said Iverson, who’s now Midwest Regional Director for the Republican National Committee. “Just be on standby if there’s any stunts we need to pull.”

Iverson had plenty of praise even after acknowledging Trump’s margin of defeat in Wisconsin and lauded the GOP’s efforts in the key state even in the midst of the “fan the flames” comments about non-existent voter fraud.

“At the end of the day, this operation received more votes than any other Republican in Wisconsin history,” he said.

“Say what you want, our operation turned out Republican or DJT [Donald J. Trump] 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.”

A former campaign official and Republican operative revealed the recording to The Associated Press. That person said they decided to hand over the recording of the November 5, 2020 meeting now that Trump has launched a new presidential campaign.

Trump campaign spokesperson Peter Cheung discussing the audio recordings in a statement told The Associated Press: “The 2024 campaign is focused on competing in every state and winning in a dominating fashion. That is why President Trump is leading by wide margins in poll after poll.”

Yeah, well that’s a nice dream, but an ABC-Washington Post poll released earlier this week shows that voters aren’t thrilled about a Biden-Trump rematch, The Hill reports. Increasing numbers of Democrats and Republicans are saying they want to see newer faces. Some 58 percent of Democrats say they would like to nominate someone other than Biden, while 49 percent of Republican voters want to see someone other than Trump be nominated.

But if Trump’s crew dropped the ball in Wisconsin, that turned out to be a good thing because Black Wisconsinites emerged as a crucial voting block, turning out in droves and easily ensuring Biden’s victory. I’m sure most Black people found Trump’s obvious racism offensive and since he and his campaign staff largely ignored Black voters in Wisconsin, it helped cost him the election.

We can all be glad for that.