Michigan leaders reject Trump effort to subvert Biden’s election win.

WASHINGTON — President Trump sought to leverage the power of the Oval Office on Friday in an extraordinary attempt to block Presidentelect Joe Biden’s victory, but his pleas to Michigan lawmakers to overturn the will of their constituents appeared to have left them unswayed.

Trump summoned a delegation of Republican lawmakers from Michigan, including state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield, in an apparent extension of his efforts to persuade judges and officials in the state to set aside Biden’s 154,000vote margin of victory and grant him the state’s electors.

Trump’s efforts extended to other battleground states that Biden carried as well, amounting to an unprecedented attempt by a sitting president to maintain his grasp on power, or in failure, to delegitimize his opponent’s victory in the eyes of his army of supporters.

In a joint statement after the meeting, Shirkey and Chatfield said allegations of fraud should be investigated, but indicated they were unmoved by Trump’s claims thus far.

“We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election,” they said.

Trump’s roughly hourlong meeting came days after he personally called two local canvassing board officials who had refused to certify the results in Wayne County, Michigan’s most populous county and one that overwhelmingly favored Biden. The two GOP officials eventually agreed to certify the results. But following Trump’s call, they said they had second thoughts.

Some Trump allies have expressed hope that state lawmakers could intervene in selecting Republican electors, as the president and his attorneys have pushed baseless allegations of fraud that have been rejected in courtrooms across the country. It was with that in mind that Trump invited the Michigan lawmakers.

Rick Hasen, an election law expert who has been meticulously chronicling the 2020 race, wrote on his blog that there would be rioting if an effort was made to set aside the vote in Michigan, calling it tantamount to an attempted coup.

Trump’s play for Michigan was among a series of lastditch tactics in battleground states that his team is using to challenge his defeat. There have been multiple lawsuits that have failed so far to reverse any votes.

In Georgia, where a hand audit found Biden had still won, Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday that a court order made it so he had to certify the results. But he suggested Trump demand a recount and wanted answers to the alleged “irregularities.”