Trump expressed strong interest in joining Giuliani for the trip and directed aides to make plans for him to travel to Pennsylvania, multiple sources said. The trip, which would be his first outside of the Washington area since Election Day, was not listed on the public schedule released by the White House on Tuesday night, but is being handled internally as an unannounced movement.
The event is the latest attempt by Trump and his allies to undermine confidence in the 2020 election and attack the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election as president.
The Trump campaign and Pennsylvania Senate Republicans announced plans for the Gettysburg event, a meeting of the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee, on Tuesday — casting it as an effort to expose “irregularities” in the 2020 election. The meeting is being organized by the Pennsylvania state Senate GOP, which is holding it at a hotel — not at the state Capitol.
Asked for comment about the President’s plan to attend the event, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNN, “I’d refer you to tomorrow’s public schedule. I have no additional updates at this time.”
It is the first of three similar events the Trump campaign has scheduled in coordination with Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan. There’s no evidence that widespread voter fraud has taken place in any of those states despite frequent claims by Trump and his allies.
It’s not clear if Trump will speak at the hearing, which the his campaign said is also expected to include “testimony from witnesses who have filed affidavits attesting to 2020 election fraud.”
The location of Trump’s visit is striking. Gettysburg is the site of the most famous battle of the Civil War, in which the Union turned back a Confederate invasion of the North. The battle culminated in a failed charge by troops under the command of Confederate Gen. George Pickett that was repelled by US forces.
Coming just two days after the General Services Administration allowed the presidential transition to proceed, Trump’s visit signals once again that he does not intend to abandon his allegations about the election or concede the race to Biden.
One source cautioned that the plans for the trip could change because the White House is handling the trip as an unplanned “off the record” movement.
CNN’s Jim Acosta and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.