White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that a meeting scheduled between President Trump and top Republican lawmakers from Michigan was “not an advocacy meeting,” calling the confab expected on Friday afternoon a “routine” gathering with lawmakers.
“There will be no one from the campaign there,” she said of the visit.
A staffer for Michigan state House Speaker Lee Chatfield confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the Republican lawmaker would attend the White House meeting, which is set to begin at 4 p.m. The event is also expected to include state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and Jason Wentworth, who will succeed Chatfield as speaker.
Trump and his legal advisers are contesting the results of the presidential election in several battleground states, including Michigan. There has been speculation that the Trump campaign wants to convince state legislatures to appoint electors if popular vote counts favoring President-elect Joe Biden are not certified.
The current vote tally in Michigan shows Biden ahead by more than 150,000 ballots.
“Everyone should remember the central role of state legislatures in picking a president,” Trump ally Newt Gingrich, a former Republican speaker of the House, tweeted on Saturday. “The Legislature, not the Secretary of State, Governor or court.”
Asked whether Trump would concede the race once the current lawsuits and their appeals had concluded, McEnany cited the electoral vote.
“There’s an entire constitutional process of electors casting their ballots,” McEnany said.
She also denied that the White House had instructed officials to refrain from cooperating with Biden’s transition team. It is up to the General Services Administration to determine when to ‘ascertain’ the next president, she said.
McEnany ended the briefing by calling a CNN reporter, who asked the press secretary to take more questions, an “activist.”
WATCH Kayleigh McEnany get SAVAGE on CNN’s Kaitlan Collins: “I don’t call on activists.” pic.twitter.com/PdotunS5iy
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) November 20, 2020
McEnany last briefed reporters at the White House in early October, before she tested positive for the coronavirus.
