White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday called on the unnamed senior Trump administration official who wrote a blistering anonymous opinion piece in the New York Times to resign.
“The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States,” Sanders wrote in a statement. “He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign.”
[Related: 7 points on the anonymous New York Times ‘resistance’ op-ed]
The mystery writer behind the op-ed published Wednesday afternoon describes how they and other administration staffers work “diligently” to frustrate parts of Trump’s agenda because they believe their first duty is to the country rather than the White House.
“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the op-ed states. “We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”
But Sanders later Wednesday argued that almost 62 million people voted for Trump in 2016, not “a gutless, anonymous source to the failing New York Times.”
Sanders also demanded an apology from the newspaper, which the president often criticizes as being an example of “fake news” when he is unhappy with its reporting.
“We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the paper chose to publish this pathetic, reckless, and selfish op-ed,” she added. “This is a new low for the so-called ‘paper of record,’ and it should issue an apology, just as it did after the election for its disastrous coverage of the Trump campaign.”
