Trump’s White House won’t confirm William Barr will keep his job

President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman declined to say on Wednesday whether Trump still trusts Attorney General William Barr, a day after Barr said the Justice Department found no evidence that widespread electoral fraud had led to the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.

Barr’s statement seriously undermined baseless allegations by Trump and his campaign legal team that the Republican president was defrauded of his re-election through electoral fraud.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have had a different outcome in the election,” Barr told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.

This interview sparked immediate speculation that Trump would fire Barr, who until Tuesday was seen as a staunch supporter of the president.

At a press conference on Wednesday, a reporter asked White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, ” [Trump] still trust Attorney General Bill Barr? Does he still trust Bill Barr? “

McEnany did not directly answer this question.

“If we have any announcements regarding personnel, I’ll let you know,” she replied.

This response from Trump’s press secretaries in the past has sometimes been followed by the dismissal of the administration official being questioned.

McEnany said she had not spoken to the president about the attorney general’s statement, after a reporter asked if Trump was upset by Barr’s comments.

The press secretary said she was unsure whether Trump had spoken to the attorney general since the publication of the PA interview.

“I know the attorney general was here yesterday for a pre-planned meeting with the chief of staff [Mark Meadows] and they discussed a range of issues, but I don’t know if the president spoke to him directly, ”McEnany said.

The Barr-led Justice Department did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on McEnany’s remarks.

Trump falsely claimed he had beaten Democratic challenger Biden and promoted a number of unproven conspiracy theories while claiming that large-scale electoral fraud tipped the scales of votes in battlefield states in favor of Biden.

However, Bide is expected to win 306 votes in the Electoral College, 36 more than he needs to achieve victory in the presidential election. The Electoral College is due to meet and vote on December 14.

Legal and electoral experts say Trump has little if any hope of avoiding defeat through lawsuits, debriefing, or what would be a sweeping move by a handful of state legislatures to overturn the outcome of the popular vote in their respective states.

McEnany was asked on Wednesday if Trump still thought he had a chance for re-election, even after Biden’s victories in all battlefield states were certified that the president would need to win to get a second term. .

“The president said he believed all legal votes should be counted and all illegal votes should not be counted and that in fact the campaign is continuing this litigation,” McEnany replied.

“I can’t go into the details of this litigation here, but they still have active cases in Nevada and Wisconsin,” she said.

The Trump campaign and his allies have lost or withdrawn dozens of lawsuits in several states linked to the election, without invalidating the votes for Biden.

The Trump campaign has said it will ask the United States Supreme Court to hear an appeal in a badly lost Pennsylvania federal court case in which the campaign sought to invalidate millions of ballots in this state.

Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., On Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to overturn Pennsylvania’s certification of Biden’s victory in that state because this lawmaker challenges the legality of mail-in ballots.