Republican Lawmakers Were Unwise to Meet with Trump, says UM Law Expert

We’re at an inflection point in GOP efforts to cast doubt on the clear results of the November election. On Monday, the Board of State Canvassers meets at 1 p.m. to certify the results of the election. But it’s unclear whether it will do so.

“It’s dangerous for a person who’s clean and wants to stay clean to take a meeting with someone who is willing to cross that line and ask you not to stay clean anymore.” – Richard Primus, University of Michigan Law School.

Late last week, top Republican state lawmakers including state House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) and state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) met with the president at the White House. It’s not clear exactly what they talked about, but it stands to reason that the subject of disregarding the will of voters and delivering the state’s Electoral College votes to Trump came up.

Listen: U of M constitutional law expert Richard Primus talks about the White House meeting and election aftermath

Guest

Richard Primus is a constitutional law professor and historian at the University of Michigan Law School. He wrote an op-ed before the White House meeting last week in Politico titled, “Why Michigan’s Top Legislators Should Cancel that Meeting with Trump.” He says Chatfield, Shirkey, and their colleagues may have handled the meeting well, based on the scarce information we have about the meeting that has come out since.

“It looks like they may have avoided the problem,” Primus tells host Stephen Henderson on Detroit Today. “They’ve taken the risk, but they may come out fine, to their credit.”

But Primus says it was still unwise to agree to the meeting in the first place.

“It’s dangerous for a person who’s clean and wants to stay clean to take a meeting with someone who is willing to cross that line and ask you not to stay clean anymore,” he says.

“It was always going to be the case that we had to land the plane of the Trump presidency, and that’s what we’re going through now.” – Richard Primus, University of Michigan Law School.

On the subject of broader Republican efforts to undermine the results of the November election, Primus says he’s confident the system will hold up and protect against the President’s attempts to stay in office.

“I think that the president’s efforts are failing and the system will work through this winter and Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20,” he says. “It was always going to be the case that we had to land the plane of the Trump presidency, and that’s what we’re going through now.”