A top adviser to President Trump slapped down ex-White House aide Steve Bannon’s claim that GOP leaders are working against the populist president, saying this morning at a breakfast that the assertion is dead wrong.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have been ‘terrific allies,’ particularly when it comes to tax reform, the president’s legislative affairs director, Marc Short, told reporters during a Christian Science Monitor event.
‘I would disagree with Steve. I think that the leaders have been strong partners,’ Short stated.
A top adviser to President Trump slapped down ex-White House aide Steve Bannon’s claim that GOP leaders are working against the populist president, saying this morning at a breakfast that the assertion is dead wrong
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have been ‘terrific allies,’ the president’s legislative affairs director, Marc Short, told attendees of a Christian Science Monitor event
Bannon slammed Ryan and McConnell, pictured, by name in an already infamous 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday evening
Bannon slammed Ryan and McConnell by name in an already-infamous 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday evening on CBS.
The Republican establishment is trying to ‘nullify’ Trump’s election, he charged.
‘They do not want Donald Trump’s populist, economic nationalist agenda to be implemented. It’s very obvious,’ he claimed.
McConnell explicitly told Trump to stop talking about draining the swamp, Bannon revealed, calling it an ‘open secret’ on Capitol Hill that GOP leaders do not agree with the Trump doctrine.
Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave McConnell and Ryan a tepid endorsement.
‘The President wants to work with all members of Congress. Obviously that includes Republican leadership, as well as Democrats,’ she said. ‘I think you saw some of the President’s leadership last week when he helped strike a deal to make sure that we got the funding that was necessary.’
Pressed to say whether the White House would like to see new Republican leadership in Congress, Sanders said that ‘right now’ that is not the case.
‘Right now, the President is committed to working with the leadership we have and nothing beyond that, at this point,’ she said.
Short, a chief liaison to Congress, was effusive in his praise this morning for Ryan and McConnell. ‘I think that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have been terrific allies,’ he said
Short, a chief liaison to Congress, was more effusive in his praise this morning for Ryan and McConnell.
‘I think that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have been terrific allies in us with the tax reform package,’ he said. ‘I think they’ve been terrific allies, as I mentioned, on the regulatory front.’
Short told journalists, ‘I don’t know anybody who could have done that better than Mitch McConnell did.’
Disagreeing with Bannon outright, Short said the Republicans had been ‘strong partners’ in ‘helping us to advance our economic agenda.’
Earlier, in his remarks, Short had denied that there was a divide in the Republican Party that the president had instigated.
‘I don’t think that the president’s fomenting a schism within the party,’ Short declared. ‘I think that he’s been an asset in helping us to strengthen the party,’ he said.
Bannon made numerous claims in the 60 Minutes interview that the White House has had to swat down since it aired.
‘There is wide discrepancy in the Republican Party, as we know today, now that we’re in it,’ Bannon said in the interview, continuing his commentary on the establishment. ‘But I will tell you, leadership didn’t know it at the time. They didn’t know it ’til the very end.’
He also assessed that the president made the biggest political misstep, perhaps, in ‘modern political history’ when he fired former FBI Director James Comey.
‘We would not have the Mueller investigation. We would not have the Mueller investigation and the breadth that clearly Mr. Mueller is going for,’ he said, making reference to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday afternoon that Trump continues to believe that he made the correct decision when he fired Comey as she swatted down another Bannon claim
Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway told DailyMail.com and other reporters at the White House yesterday that ‘Steve speaks for himself’ after she was asked about Bannon’s Comey comments.
Later in the day, at her regular news conference, Sanders forcefully backed up the president.
‘I think that we’ve been pretty clear what our position is, and certainly, I think that it has been shown that in the days that followed that the president was right in firing Director Comey,’ she said.
The Trump spokeswoman argued that information that’s surfaced since Comey departed has only served to justify his dismissal.
‘Giving false testimony, leaking privileged information to journalists, he went outside of the chain of command, and politicized an investigation into a presidential candidate,’ she stated. ‘I think the president’s been very clear about his position on that front.’
The White House rebuffed Bannon for his claim that Dreamers, the illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, should self deport when their work permits run out.
‘The president has said that he’ll make further comment on DACA if Congress doesn’t act. He’s, he made his decision very clear last week, with his attorney general and Department of Homeland Security in the lead,’ Conway told DailyMail.com on Monday. ‘Congress has six months to act. They’ve had seven months this year, so we’re adding six, that’d be more than a year.’