Richard Grenell: A bid for California Gov. former acting director of national intelligence to meet with Trump on Saturday

The topic will certainly come up when the former acting director of national intelligence and Trump ally meets with the former president in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, but the two men are expected to discuss a range of topics, he said. the source told CNN. Saturday.

CNN reported earlier that Newsom’s opponents, angry over the Democratic governor’s restrictions during the Covid – 19 pandemic, had by March 17 more than 1 million of the nearly 1.5 million signatures they needed to revoke to get the mood. However, the source warned that it was unclear at this stage whether proponents of revocation could collect enough signatures by that deadline in March.
Politico was the first to report on Grenell’s meeting with Trump.

Grenell spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday morning about the possibility of a run.

“In my three decades in American politics, I have never seen a better case for repeal than currently exists in California,” he said. “And of course, if a public official still does not keep his promises, and if you can not limit their term or recall in time, there is always another option: you can act against it yourself.”

According to the California Constitution, by March 17, the leaders of the repeal must submit 1,495,709 valid signatures, equivalent to 12% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election.

If they meet the threshold, it is unclear in what month a by-election will appear on California’s ballot, given the state’s complicated process of formally setting up the election.

State Democratic Lieutenant General Eleni Kounalakis told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Thursday that the recall effort against Newsom is likely to move forward.

Newsom was praised for its decision to lock down California early in the Covid-19 pandemic, an action attributed to the slowdown in the spread of the virus there. But the governor received great outrage for violating his own Covid-19 rules and attending a birthday party with a dozen other guests at an elite restaurant in Napa County in early November.

As the effects of the event slowed, coronavirus cases increased in California, eventually driving the West Coast state to the country’s best location for most Covid-19 cases and most deaths.

During Trump’s presidency, Grenell was the U.S. ambassador to Germany for more than two years, during which time he served as acting intelligence director for three short months in 2020. He left both roles in the spring of 2020, but remained an ally of the Republican president.

Critics saw Grenell as the least experienced and most open-minded political official to serve as DNI. His short term as chief of intelligence has been controversial over his oversight of two dismissals of top officials, a restructuring of various parts of the office and the declassification of Obama administration documents fueled by the ‘Obamagate’ conspiracy theory led by Trump and his allies.

CNN’s Maeve Reston, Cheri Mossburg, Alex Marquardt, Zachary Cohen and Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.

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