Politics

Trump Meeting With Michigan Lawmakers In Bid To Overturn State’s Election Results

President Donald Trump is meeting with several of Michigan’s top state lawmakers Friday in a bid to overturn the state’s election results.

The meeting comes after Trump’s legal team withdrew its federal lawsuit challenging the state’s results and after Trump called two Republican election officials in Wayne County who sought to rescind their votes confirming its results.

The delegation traveling to the White House includes about 12 people, according to NBC News. Michigan Republican leaders, including House Speaker Lee Chatfield and Senate Leader Mike Shirkey, were seen traveling to Washington D.C. Friday morning as well.

Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey arriving in DC this morning, invited to meet with Pres Trump about challenging Biden’s win in Michigan. pic.twitter.com/w9GkERijUe

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) November 20, 2020

Even if Trump asks the group to somehow change Michigan’s results to an extent that would declare him the winner, it is unclear how any change would occur, legal experts say.

“Michigan law does not include a provision for the Legislature to directly select electors or to award electors to anyone other than the person who received the most votes,” a spokeswoman for Shirkey said this week, according to local outlet Bridge Michigan.

Both Shirkey and Chatfield have also said that they do not plan on changing the state’s long-held rules.

“The candidate who wins the most votes will win Michigan’s electoral votes, just like it has always been. Nothing about that process will change in 2020,” Chatfield told the Michigan outlet last week.

Still, the pair’s White House visit drew criticism from Michigan Democrats. Rep. Rashida Tlaib called the visit an attempt by Trump to make the two “kiss his ring and steal the election,” and Rep. Andy Levin said that anyone involved in the meeting “has left democracy and the Constitution behind.”

Trump’s legal team has alleged widespread fraud in Michigan, and has focused in on Detroit. On Friday, however, it was reported that the team’s allegations of voter fraud in Michigan was actually based off voter data from Minnesota.