A senior Trump administration official used the White House briefing room to announce that he had dismissed a senior aide to Vice President Mike Pence before she filmed an election ad last week calling out failures in the coronavirus response.
“I fired her,” said Keith Kellogg, a retired general who advises Pence, referring to Olivia Troye.
His intervention sparked an extraordinary war of words as she accused White House officials of lying, bringing fresh life to her allegations last week that President Trump showed “disregard for human life.”
She has taped an interview with NBC that is due to be broadcast on Tuesday.
White House officials have gone to great lengths to portray Troye as a disgruntled former employee who did not raise any concerns when she worked for Pence on the coronavirus response.
Kellogg appeared with press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and took the podium after she finished taking questions from reporters.
He said Troye was responsible for coordinating meetings.
“And when the performance level dropped off, I went to the vice president of the United States and recommended she leave,” he said. “I’m the one that escorted her off the compound.”
He said her subsequent remarks had upset members on the task force working to save lives.
“And I heard the comments made about the people we have lost,” he said. “Do not think for a minute that that has not bothered us. It does.”
He did not take questions after delivering his remarks.
I received this as a gift from Gen Kellogg & as you can see I appreciated it! This gift is not the action of someone who did what Kellogg claims he did. pic.twitter.com/N920c1OOml
— Olivia of Troye (@OliviaTroye) September 22, 2020
Troye took to Twitter to defend herself and said she had not been fired.
“Sad that Gen. Kellogg is telling a bald faced lie,” she wrote. “I resigned on my own accord & was asked to stay. He never escorted me out.”
Last week, she filmed a video for Republican Voters Against Trump in which she said she would be voting for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. She said Trump’s “biggest concern” during the outbreak was how it would affect his reelection campaign.
