« They won’t cover policy, they cover personnel. They won’t cover principle, they cover palace intrigue… »
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, took to Fox News Thursday night to debunk speculation that national security adviser H. R. McMaster would be fired, and she bashed media reports on the Trump White House in the process.
“The president makes the personnel decisions and announcements in this White House, Sean,” Conway told Sean Hannity. “He was elected, after all. His name was on the ballot.”
Conway went on to slam the media for its “rampant speculation” surrounding personnel changes in the Trump administration. After Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s ouster, many media outlets have reported rumors of a slew of other top White House staff who have supposedly lost favor with the president.
“They won’t cover policy, they cover personnel. They won’t cover principle, they cover palace intrigue and they keep on recycling rumors and stories constantly that have no basis in fact and I think they figure ‘Hey, if a stopped clock is at least right twice a day, eventually I’ll get this right,’” said Conway.
But Conway stopped short of explicitly denying the reports of McMaster’s imminent departure, opting instead to stress her faith in Trump’s decision-making capability.
“This president has every right to put the team around him that he thinks aligns with his vision, his values,” she said. “But he is the one who controls the timing, the tone, and content of all substantive and personnel decisions and I respect that enormously.”
Conway also denied critics who’ve called out chaos in the Trump White House, arguing that the president’s latest personnel decisions reflect “streamlining” and “sophistication” in the administration.
She even thought it pertinent to stress that Trump has plenty of “joy on the job,” pushing back on claims that he’s often angry and belligerent.
Despite Conway’s effort to set the record straight, there doesn’t seem to be much of a chance that the rumors and drama coming out of the Oval Office will be quelled.
But press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders went a step further Thursday, stating in a tweet that there would be no changes at the National Security Council and that McMaster has “a good working relationship” with the president:
Just spoke to @POTUS and Gen. H. R. McMaster – contrary to reports they have a good working relationship and there are no changes at the NSC.
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) March 16,2018
As other rumors of staff shakeups loom, it’ll just be a matter of time before we find out who’s really on the outs at the White House.
