Tipsheet

Despite Being Dumped on the Tarmac, Priebus Defends Trump to Hannity

In a post-resignation interview with Sean Hannity, Reince Priebus continued to show strong support for President Trump's agenda and called the Russia collusion story "a joke."

"The collusion story is a joke. I honestly don't believe there's a lot of people out there that actually believe that campaign people were sitting on telephones and having meetings and passing secret messages trying to figure out how to mess around with the election."

"It's ridiculous, but yet you look at headlines over the last six months, you would think that's the only think happening in the world."

Hannity asked for Priebus' comments on the week's drama with Anthony Scaramucci, but he declined.

"I'm not going to get into that subject. It's just getting in the mud, and I think the palace intrigue stuff is annoying and I think it's a distraction and it takes away from the President's agenda."

After submitting his resignation Thursday, Priebus traveled with Trump to an event on Long Island Friday. Trump announced the resignation on Twitter at the end of the business day Friday as Air Force One touched down at Andrews Air Force base. Priebus was immediately separated from the rest of the staff:

In a rain-soaked Washington, D.C., Priebus had initially gotten into a van with White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller and White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino on the tarmac, but shortly after, the two men left the van and left Priebus alone, according to a White House press pool report.

Despite this unceremonious end, Priebus told Hannity, "I'm Team Trump all the time" and expressed his confidence in and support of John Kelly as his replacement.