White House says Trump may issue executive order on police reform

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday that President Trump could take action on police reform through an executive order.

Speaking on Fox News, McEnany said Trump has been reviewing proposals on police reform and noted that his advisers met with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to discuss potential legislation on Tuesday.

“They had a very positive meeting with Sen. Scott,” McEnany said on “Fox & Friends.” “It was very productive, and we do believe that we will have proactive policy prescriptions, whether that means legislation or an executive order.”

McEnany said that “tremendous work” is being done on the issue but did not offer specifics on the measures under consideration at the White House.

Trump and Congress are facing pressure to reform law enforcement and root out racism in police departments amid nationwide protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis late last month.

House Democrats on Monday unveiled sweeping police reform legislation, and the next day Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tapped Scott to lead a working group of Republican senators to draft legislation to reform police.

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, chief of staff Mark Meadows and Ja’Ron Smith, deputy director of the Office of American Innovation, met with Scott on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon.

The Democrats’ legislation would ban chokeholds at the federal level, limit the “qualified immunity” doctrine that shields police officers from lawsuits, mandate the use of body cameras across the country and establish a national database that discloses names of officers with patterns of abuse, among other things.

McEnany on Monday and Wednesday told reporters that the immunity proposal was a “non-starter.” She told reporters at a press briefing later Wednesday that the White House expected to release proposals sometime in the “coming days,” without elaborating on what reforms the president might support. 

“The president has spent the last 10 days quietly and diligently working on proposals to address the issues that the protesters have raised across the country, legitimate issues,” McEnany told reporters. “That body of working, I’m told, is reaching its final edits and we hope to produce it to you in the coming days.”  

Trump has remained quiet on potential reforms, offering support for police and insisting on the need for “law and order” amid the protests, which have largely been peaceful but in some cases led to looting and other violence in cities including Washington, D.C.

Trump earlier this week met with law enforcement officials at the White House and is expected to participate in a roundtable Thursday in Dallas to discuss how to address economic, health and justice disparities in the country.