President Trump’s new chief of staff did not think highly of the president before the 2016 election.
Mick Mulvaney, who was named Trump’s chief of staff Friday, called the president “a terrible human being” less than a week before voters sent Trump to the White House.
“We have perhaps two of the most flawed human beings running for president in the history of the country,” Mulvaney said at a debate against his then-challenger for his congressional seat representing South Carolina, Fran Pearson.
“Yes, I am supporting Donald Trump, but I’m doing so despite the fact that I think he’s a terrible human being,” he said, according to a report in The State newspaper.
Mulvaney, who was first elected to Congress in 2010, beat Pearson in 2016 but left his seat the next year to join the administration as director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The Daily Beast published video of the debate remark Friday.
Mulvaney is replacing John Kelly in the position on a temporary basis.
