After meeting with Donald Trump at the White House, several Michigan GOP lawmakers were seen at the Trump Hotel in D.C. on Friday night and Saturday morning.
According to Bridge Michigan reporter Jonathan Oosting, “Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, state Rep. Jim Lilly hit up the Trump Hotel bar last night after their White House visit.”
From a DC source: Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, state Rep. Jim Lilly hit up the Trump Hotel bar last night after their White House visit. I don’t know if they stayed at the hotel. pic.twitter.com/YtoDtlTNWe
— Jonathan Oosting (@jonathanoosting) November 21, 2020
Other Michigan GOP lawmakers were seen leaving Trump’s hotel on Saturday morning, where they dodged reporters and quickly left the scene.
I spotted Michigan GOP legislators Mike Shirkey & Dan Lauwers leaving Trump Hotel this morning w/ staff, the morning after their meeting with Trump @ White House. They did not respond to my questions shouted from behind a security barrier and left in a black SUV for airport pic.twitter.com/UF2sPLSlQG
— Melissa Nann Burke (@nannburke) November 21, 2020
Michigan Sens. Aric Nesbitt and Tom Barrett also left the hotel on foot and returned but did not respond to my questions about their meeting with Trump or whether Michigan’s election should be certified.
— Melissa Nann Burke (@nannburke) November 21, 2020
Who paid for this lavish visit to Trump’s hotel?
While the initial news coming out of the Friday meeting between Donald Trump and these Michigan lawmakers was optimistic for the future of democracy, the later imagery of these same lawmakers enjoying a night at the president’s DC hotel is troubling.
It also raises questions about whether the president himself sought to wine and dine these GOP lawmakers at a time when Trump is pressuring them to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Michigan.
The American people deserve to have confidence that when they vote in a free and fair election, the president of the United States won’t attempt to stage a coup to remain in power.
Nothing about the images from Trump’s Hotel in D.C. is likely to make anybody feel confident about the health of American democracy.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
