Kris Kobach to meet with Trump on Sunday; Jerry Moran will remain in Senate
Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state whose hardline immigration stance has caught the attention of Donald Trump, will meet with the president-elect Sunday.
The two men will meet in Bedminster, N.J., where Trump is spending the weekend, transition spokesman Jason Miller said Saturday. Trump has been meeting with a variety of people since the election, to interview for jobs and to seek advice.
“I can confirm that he’s meeting with Trump. I do not have information about which position,” said Desiree Taliaferro, Kobach’s spokeswoman.
Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said on Saturday, meanwhile, that Trump had not offered him the job of agriculture secretary and that he planned to stay in the Senate.
A Capitol Hill newspaper had reported on Friday that Trump’s transition team reached out to Moran, but on Saturday Moran sent a written statement to McClatchy saying he had not been offered the position.
Two other Kansas politicians’ names also have come up as possible picks for agriculture secretary. Gov. Sam Brownback is rumored to be on the shortlist, and Rep. Tim Huelskamp has said he would be interested in the job.
Clay Barker, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, said one of Trump’s campaign advisers told him Friday that “a decision about Kobach would be imminent.”
Barker said he does not know what specific role Kobach could be up for, but he expects it will be related to immigration, the issue on which Kobach advised Trump throughout the campaign.
A senior Trump adviser said he expected Kobach to be “seriously considered for an important position,” without elaborating on which position.
Kobach, already a member of Trump’s transition team, advised Trump on immigration policy, one of the Republican’s top priorities, throughout the campaign and added Trump’s promise to build a wall along the Southern border of the U.S. to the Republican Party’s national platform. He had been talked about as a possible attorney general, but that speculation ended Friday when Trump nominated Sen. Jeff Sessions for the job.
This week, Kobach told Fox News that the Trump administration will likely move to deport illegal immigrants upon arrest instead of the current policy of deporting those who have been convicted. He also told Reuters that Trump’s advisers were considering whether to create a national registry of immigrants and visitors from Muslim countries.
This story was originally published November 19, 2016 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Kris Kobach to meet with Trump on Sunday; Jerry Moran will remain in Senate."