‘Is That Even Legal?’: GOP Senators Wary of Prospect Floated by Trump of Convention Speech on White House Lawn
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The idea of President Donald Trump potentially giving his RNC convention speech on the White House lawn is even making some Republican senators a little wary.
The feeling was perhaps summed up most succinctly by Senate Majority Whip John Thune, who asked, “Is that even legal?”
SEN. JOHN THUNE on trumps plan to give his convention speech on the White House lawn: “Is that even legal?” (Asked by @mkraju). He said he thinks it’s problematic.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) August 5, 2020
Thune: “Is that even legal? I assume that’s not something that you could do. I assume there’s some Hatch Act issues or something there. I don’t know the answer to that."
Thune added: "I think anything you do on federal property would seem to be problematic." https://t.co/jk916KC6qK
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 5, 2020
And Thune wasn’t the only one. Senator John Cornyn called it “problematic” and Senator Ron Johnson said it’s “probably not allowed.”
“I would have to have somebody show me where it says he can do that. I would think on government property, that would be problematic,” Cornyn tells reporters of Trump possibly giving nomination speech from WH grounds
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) August 5, 2020
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson said President Trump is “probably not allowed” to hold his convention speech at the WH.
As he entered the lunch, he told me that Trump “probably shouldn’t do it.”— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 5, 2020
Today @POTUS floated the idea of delivering convention speech from the White House.
Heading into GOP luncheon, Senators were asked abt it… @SenatorRounds : The question is can you do this at the White House? @SenRickScott : I don't know why he's doing it
— Brie Jackson (@PositivelyBrie) August 5, 2020
From the pool. GOP Utah Sen Romney on Trump potentially giving convention speech from the WH: I don't know whether that's technically legal or not. But it's got to be somewhere.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) August 5, 2020
Fox News’ Neil Cavuto asked Senator Rand Paul Wednesday afternoon about the idea. Paul said, “I haven’t really thought it through. There are restrictions on what the White House do, whether it can be used for political purposes or not. I’m not sure what the exact rules are… I think the optics of it would be better to do somewhere else.”
