“Those decisions are still in flux, but I can tell you what I’m advocating for miles and miles away from here,” Meadows said, referring to the White House complex in a pre-taped interview aired on Gray TVs “Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren ‘Sunday morning.
“Well, we think about it. It would be easiest from a security standpoint,” Trump said in an interview with Fox and Friends on Wednesday.
“We’re thinking of doing it out of the White House because there’s no movement. It’s easy, and I think it’s a wonderful setting and we think about it. It’s definitely one of the alternatives. It is the easiest alternative, I find it a wonderful alternative. “
A federal law, known as the Hatch Act, generally prohibits the use of government property and employees for political activities with a few exceptions. The president and vice president have been released, but some former officials have tried to curb political activity in the White House, for example by holding political events elsewhere than in the presidential residence.
By using the White House as a backdrop for a national television convention speech, Trump would take the risk of cutting government officials’ Hatch Act, experts say.
“This is a covert campaign act,” Kedric Payne, general counsel and former director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told CNN last week about Trump’s proposal. “He drove the line in the statements about Biden at events in the White House. This is off the line.”
Impressed by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday about the ethics of the president delivering his convention speech in the White House, Meadows stated that “the East Wing is certainly a good place to do it, if he chooses to do so. to do.”
“But listen, those decisions have not been made yet,” he continued. “I can tell you that when we see it, I do not expect an address from the oval office.”
CNN’s Chandelis Duster and Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.
.
