House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday that she initially assumed Vice President Mike Pence penned the anonymous op-ed featured in the New York Times on Wednesday.
The anonymous opinion piece offers a scathing picture of the Trump White House and says many in the administration are working to reel in what they believe are Trump’s worst impulses. Speaking to reporters, Pelosi noted the denials that have since come out, among them Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
“It probably won’t take long for us to figure out who wrote it. Who has denied it? The vice president — that was my first thought,” Pelosi said to laughs. “Dan Coats, Pompeo. They’ve denied that they have written it.”
“I guess by process of elimination, it will come down to the butler,” Pelosi quipped. “They probably have the most knowledge of presidents in the White House.”
Pelosi used the chance to hit Republicans on Capitol Hill have “enabled much of the mayhem” to occur without repercussions.
“The president saying it’s ‘treason’ is … a manifestation of his instability,” Pelosi said.
Myriad high-ranking Trump administration officials have denied that they penned the piece, along with Pence, Pompeo and Coats. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson also denied having written the piece.
Responding to it on Wednesday, the president labeled the author of the piece “gutless” and called for the Times to reveal their source for “national security purposes.”
