As an explosiveNew York Timesop-edaboutPresident Donald Trumpdominates the headlines, senior officials in the White House are denying on the record that they have any connection to the piece, titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.”
In the essay, an anonymous author claiming to be a senior official within the Trump administration asserted that top White House officials are secretly working to “thwart” the president’s “misguided impulses” and “worst inclinations.” The author also blasted Trump’s “amorality” and “anti-democratic” actions, and accused the president of attacking conservative ideals including “free minds, free markets and free people.”
“Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back,” the author wrote.
As speculation around the author’s identity continues to build —with even the president unsure of how to respond to the essay— here are the members of the president’s cabinet who,according to NBC News, have said they did not write theTimesop-ed.
VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE:
Some have pointed to Pence’s affinity for the archaic word “lodestar”,which is used in the op-ed, as a clue that he’s the culprit. But the vice president’s office “definitively denies” that he was the author, and his communications director tweeted that “the Vice President puts his name on his Op-Eds.”
SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO:
Pompeo said, “It’s not mine” and chastisedThe Timesfor taking “a disgruntled deceptive bad actor’s word for anything and put it in their newspaper.”
DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DAN COATS:
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY KIRSTJEN NIELSEN:
“Secretary Nielsen is focused on leading the men and women of DHS and protecting the homeland – not writing anonymous and false opinion pieces for theNew York Times,” the agency’s press secretary, Tyler Q. Houlton, said in a statement.
DEFENSE SECRETARY JAMES MATTIS:
“It was not his op-ed,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said.
DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET MICK MULVANEY:
“No, Dir. Mulvaney is not the author,” a spokesperson for Mulvaney told NBC News.
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY BEN CARSON:
“The Secretary didn’t write the op-ed,” a spokesperson for Carson told NBC News.
TREASURY SECRETARY STEVE MNUCHIN:
“It is laughable to think this could come from the Secretary,” Tony Sayegh Jr., a spokesman for Mnuchin, tweeted.
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY ROBERT WILKIE:
“Neither Secretary Wilkie nor anyone else at VA wrote the op-ed,” an agency spokesperson told NBC News.
LABOR SECRETARY ALEX ACOSTA:
“The Secretary does not play these sophomoric Washington games. He is definitively not the author,” a department spokesperson told NBC News.
CIA DIRECTOR GINA HASPEL:
“No!” Haspel’s press secretary Tim Barrett said.
COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT KELLYANNE CONWAY:
“Of course not,” Conway told NBC News.
EPA ACTING ADMINISTRATOR ANDREW WHEELER:
“Acting Administrator Wheeler supports President Trump 100 percent and is honored to serve in his Cabinet. He also believes whoever wrote the op-ed should resign,” an EPA spokesperson told NBC News.
AGRICULTURE SECRETARY SONNY PERDUE:
“No, Secretary Perdue did not write the op-ed,” a department spokesperson told NBC News.
SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATOR LINDA MCMAHON:
“Administrator McMahon is not the author,” an agency spokesperson told NBC News.
ENERGY SECRETARY RICK PERRY:
“I am not the author of theNew York TimesOpEd, nor do I agree with its characterizations,” Perry tweeted.
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE WILBUR ROSS:
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WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL DON MCGAHN:
McGahn told reporters, “no,” when they asked if he was the author.
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY ELAINE CHAO
“For those who have inquired, this is to confirm that Secretary Chao is not the author of the op-ed,” a spokesperson told NBC News.
U.S. AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA JON HUNTSMAN
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY ALEX AZAR
“No, Secretary Azar did not write the op-ed,” an agency spokesperson told NBC News.
U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE ROBERT LIGHTHIZER
“I did not write it. It does not reflect my views at all, and it does not reflect the views of anyone I know in the Administration,” he said via a statement to NBC News.
source: people.com
