White House allies and top aides to President Trump struggled Thursday morning to pinpoint the “gutless” culprit behind a New York Times op-ed by an unnamed senior administration official, who claimed to belong to a shadow operation inside the executive branch that has worked to protect the U.S. from its “erratic” leader.
Denials rapidly poured in from Cabinet officials who sought to clear their own names while speculating about the op-ed’s author. It had to be a “disgruntled, deceptive, bad actor,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo surmised in a statement, hours after Trump accused the anonymous writer of treason. At press time, eight other Cabinet members had issued their own denials, not including Vice President Mike Pence, who said the writer “should be ashamed,” and first lady Melania Trump, who called the act “cowardly.”
