WATCH: Levitt says Trump was ‘simply kidding’ about overturning election

Asked about a comment President Donald Trump made earlier this week about canceling the US midterm elections, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said he was “talking disingenuously.”

Watch Levitt’s remarks in the video player above.

“The president was simply joking,” Leavitt said. He added: “He was saying, ‘We’re doing a great job, we’re doing everything the American people thought about, and maybe we should keep working.'”

Leavitt also said at Thursday’s press conference that “only” Trump can say what might prompt him to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.

Read more: Trump threatens to use the Insurrection Act to quell protests in Minneapolis

Leavitt described the law as a “tool at the president’s disposal” that had been used “sparingly” by Trump’s predecessors.

Earlier Thursday, Trump threatened to invoke the law and deploy troops to quell ongoing protests against federal officers who were sent to Minneapolis to enforce his administration’s sweeping anti-immigration crackdown.

The threat came a day after a man was shot and wounded by an immigration officer who was attacked with a shovel and broom.

This shooting heightened the fear and anger that had spread throughout the city since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot Renee Judd in the head.

Democrats who “held state and local law enforcement hostage” and told them not to cooperate with federal authorities were “unhinged in their hatred of President Trump,” Leavitt said.