Richard Grenell: Weighing offer to California governor, former acting director of national intelligence to meet Trump on Saturday

CNN previously reported that Newsom’s opponents, irritated by the Democratic governor’s restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, gathered more than 1 million of the nearly 1.5 million signatures they need by March 17 to get a revocation vote. . The source, however, warned that it is not clear at this point whether the proponents of the recall would be able to collect enough signatures by the March deadline.

Politico was the first to report Grenell’s meeting with Trump.

“In my three decades in American politics, I have never seen a better case for a recall than now in California,” he said. “And, of course, if a civil servant still doesn’t keep his promises and if you can’t limit your term or revoke it in time, there is always another option: you can run against it yourself.”

Under the California Constitution, recall leaders are expected to deliver 1,495,709 signatures valid through March 17, equivalent to 12% of the votes cast in the last governor election.

If they reach that limit, it is unclear what month the revocation election will appear on the California ballot, due to the state’s complex multi-step process to formally define the election.

Democratic Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis told Kate Bolduan of CNN on Thursday that the recall effort against Newsom must continue.

As the consequences of this event persisted, coronavirus cases in California increased, taking the West Coast state to the top of the country with the most Covid-19 cases and the most deaths.

Critics considered Grenell the least experienced and most openly political official to serve as a DNI. His brief stint as head of intelligence was controversial for his oversight of two layoffs of senior career officials, a restructuring of various parts of the office and declassification of Obama administration documents that fueled the “Obamagate” conspiracy theory amplified by Trump and his allies .