There weren’t actually 47 attorneys general at the meeting -- it turns out the press office had counted three Democrats who were conspicuously absent. And of the attorney generals who did show up, more than a dozen declined to appear in a group photograph with the president.
Three Democrats, listed on the White House document, snubbed the meeting with Trump altogether: Illinois’ Lisa Madigan, who said she was boycotting the event to protest the president’s civil rights policies and Cabinet appointments; New York’s Eric Schneiderman, who had left Washington the night before; and Kentucky’s Andrew Beshear, who was helping his father, the former governor, back in Lexington prepare the Democratic response to Trump’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the head-count mix up for the meeting, which was scheduled to coincide with the National Association of Attorneys General winter meetings in Washington. The precise number in attendance wasn’t the only problem: the White House also got widely ridiculed on Twitter for identifying Talauega Ale as the attorney general of “American Sonoma” instead of American Samoa.
“Attorney General Schneiderman did not attend yesterday's meeting with President Trump - and we have no idea why the White House said he did,” Schneiderman spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick said in a statement to POLITICO. “Talk about fake news.”
