Gutless. Cowardly. Amateur. Laughable.
Those were the words of choice as senior officials stepped forward one by one on Thursday to denounce the author of an anonymous op-ed claiming there is a ‘resistance’ within the Trump administration — and to make sure the president knew they didn’t write it.
(The Washington Post, September 6, 2018)
Sadly, these (27-and-counting) senior officials — with their Shaggy “It Wasn’t Me” denials — had already sacrificed their professional integrity and personal dignity at the altar of Trump. This is why they couldn’t care less if not just the Post but he himself were using those words of choice to describe them.
Meanwhile, Trump took to the podium at a campaign rally last night and promptly proved that he is every bit the clueless and feckless president the op-ed portrays.
Because, in addition to his usual word salad of self-aggrandizing boasts and self-pitying complaints, he called on the Times to out Anonymous in the interest of national security. Yet nobody – neither the baying supporters in the audience nor the graying publishers at the Times – took his call seriously … or literally.
4:10 p.m.
Who is Anonymous?
Everyone in Washington is playing this parlor game, and I’ve never been a spoilsport.
My guess is White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. Here’s why:
- It’s an open secret that she has been the most prolific leaker in Trump’s inner circle since days on the campaign trail.
- It’s also an open secret that she truly believes everything delineated in the op-ed.
- Perhaps most crucially, her notoriously mischievous, anti-Trump husband, George Conway, probably convinced her that writing it was necessary not only to have a professional and social life in Washington after Trump, but also to preserve their marriage.
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Anonymous op-ed…