White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Thursday that if people want to know who wrote the anonymous New York Times op-ed, they should call the paper’s opinion desk because they were “complicit in this deceitful act.”
“The media’s wild obsession with the identity of the anonymous coward is recklessly tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans who proudly serve our country and work for President Trump. Stop,” Sanders wrote in a statement. “If you want to know who this gutless loser is, call the opinion desk of the failing NYT at 212-556-1234, and ask them. They are the only ones complicit in this deceitful act. We stand united together and fully support our President Donald J. Trump.”
The Times published an anonymous op-ed Wednesday that described members of the Trump administration working “diligently” to stop the president’s “worst impulses” and move against parts of his agenda. The author claimed not to be working alone and that the group is acting because they believe their primary duty is to protect the country.
[More: Here are the Trump officials denying they wrote anonymous New York Times op-ed]
Trump is reportedly increasingly concerned about those around him in the White House. A number of events, like audio recordings and leaks from former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, have shaken the president’s confidence in his personnel.
Journalist Bob Woodward is set to release a book that paints the picture of a White House in perpetual turmoil, with top aides often finding themselves at odds with the president to the point that some, such as former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, offered their resignations.
The Woodward book has only worked to reinforce the president’s belief that there are leakers around him in the White House that are actively working to undermine his presidency.
A number of senior White House officials have pushed back against rumors that it was a top administration official that wrote the op-ed.
Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both denied on Thursday authoring the op-ed, claiming the author should be ashamed for writing it and that people should take too much credence in the words. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson all joined Pence and Pompeo in claiming they did not write the story.
The president himself responded to the op-ed hours later, questioning whether the unnamed staffer really exists.
“Does the so-called ‘Senior Administration Official’ really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once,” the president tweeted Wednesday.
