It’s a little funny. No, it’s a lot funny. I feel a little bad for acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney for being sort of told off by President Trump, but the man has certain protocols. During an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton political operative, Trump told Mulvaney to remove himself from the Oval Office because he was coughing too much. I’m not kidding. Granted, the interview was mostly fixated on Trump’s remarks about receiving possible dirt on your political opponent during an election, which the Left had a meltdown over, but this is a more light-hearted aspect of this interview (via McClatchy DC):
Uh oh @MickMulvaneyOMB . Text from former Trump campaign staffer to @JaxAlemany : "I was told by multiple people when I came aboard to never cough or sneeze while in the presence of Trump. He thinks it’s a sign of weakness and lack of control. Nobody ever recovers.”
— Paige W. Cunningham (@pw_cunningham) June 17, 2019
As White House budget chief in 2017, he couldn’t help sell his former congressional GOP colleagues on an Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill. This month, as acting White House chief of staff, he’s struggling to help land a spending deal with congressional leaders to avoid a future government shutdown.
Last week, however, Mulvaney endured a unique professional bump in the road: A dressing-down by his boss, the President of the United States, captured on video.
[…]
Let’s do that over, he’s coughing in the middle of my answer,” said Trump, who then paused to glare in the direction of the offender, who Stephanopoulos identified as “your chief of staff.”
“I don’t like that, you know, I don’t like that,” Trump said.
“If you’re going to cough, please leave the room,” the president continued…
Reportedly, and let me emphasize reportedly, the president does not like it when you cough or sneeze in front of him. He takes it as a sign of weakness. Or it screws with the audio with one of the most recognizable news anchors in the country on one of the top news networks in the country. Yes, they’re biased. Yes, they’re liberal. But millions tune into CBS, ABC, and NBC every night for the news. It has to be good. We all know that aspect with the president. You can have someone coughing in the background.