Former Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus shed some light on his short stint in the White House as President Trump’s chief of staff—and the administration may not be happy with what he said.
Despite Trump repeatedly rejected suggestions of chaos at the White House, Priebus said it’s even worse than what’s been reported.
“Take everything you’ve heard and multiply it by 50,” Priebus said in an excerpt from the book, “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.”
He also said that on more than one occasion he had to convince Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stay on the job.
As Priebus told it: “Don McGahn came in my office pretty hot, red, out of breath, and said, ‘We’ve got a problem.’ I responded, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘Well, we just got a special counsel, and (Attorney General Jeff) Sessions just resigned.’ I said, ‘What!? What the hell are you talking about?’?”
Priebus said he dashed out to the White House parking lot to coax Sessions back into the White House.
Priebus continued: “I said, ‘You cannot resign. It’s not possible. We are going to talk about this right now.’ So I dragged him back up to my office from the car. (Vice President Mike) Pence and (presidential adviser Steve) Bannon came in, and we started talking to him to the point where he decided that he would not resign right then and he would instead think about it.”
Whipple writes that Sessions did later deliver a resignation letter to the Oval Office, but Priebus persuaded Trump to give it back. (AP)
Additionally, Priebus revealed he failed to rein in President Trump’s social media usage, explaining staff would write several tweets each day for him to choose from but ultimately no one was successful in “[cooling] down the Twitter habit.”
But despite the chaos and drama from his time in the administration, Priebus, who has kept in touch with the president, said in the book, “I still love the guy.”