Mick Mulvaney, President Trump\u2019s pick to be acting White House chief of staff, made the comment in a debate, and offered similar remarks in a post on his campaign Facebook page.<\/b>
\nMick Mulvaney, President Trump\u2019s pick to be acting White House chief of staff, described Mr. Trump in 2016 as a \u201cterrible human being\u201d who had said \u201cdisgusting and indefensible\u201d things about women on the infamous \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d recording.
Mr. Mulvaney, a former Republican congressman, made the comments in a debate with his Democratic challenger in South Carolina, and offered similar remarks in a post on his campaign Facebook page. The post was deleted shortly before he was chosen by Mr. Trump as the director of the Office of Management and Budget at the beginning of his term.
On Friday, Mr. Trump abruptly named Mr. Mulvaney as acting chief of staff a few hours after Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, dropped out of the running. An administration official told reporters that Mr. Trump and Mr. Mulvaney, who have become golfing partners, get along.
But the surfacing of a video from the 2016 campaign debate, first reported by The Daily Beast, may present a complication.
\u201cDo I like Donald Trump? No,\u201d Mr. Mulvaney said in the video. He added that Mr. Trump was not a role model for his children, but that he was better than his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
\u201cWe have perhaps two of the most flawed human beings running for president in the history of the country,\u201d Mr. Mulvaney said. \u201cSo I have to step back and look and say, \u2018O. K., what do you all, the majority of the folks who vote for me, want me to do?\u2019 In order to accomplish that, I have to support Donald Trump, and he has to win.\u201d
He said he was supporting Mr. Trump \u201cas enthusiastically as I can, given the fact that I think he\u2019s a terrible human being. But the choice on the other side is just as bad.\u201d
A spokeswoman for Mr. Mulvaney at the Office of Management and Budget said the remarks were \u201cold news\u201d and had been made before he had met Mr. Trump.
Mr. Mulvaney supported \u201cthen-candidate Trump throughout the election, and his support for President Trump has never wavered while serving within the administration,\u201d the spokeswoman, Meghan Burris, said in a statement. \u201cHe both likes and respects the president, and he likes working for him. More importantly, Director Mulvaney believes in the president \u2014 because he is working every day to lift up millions of Americans and stands up for our great country.\u201d
Mr. Mulvaney is not the only Trump appointee with a history of viewing him poorly. Nikki R. Haley, who recently announced her resignation as the United Nations ambassador, was critical of Mr. Trump during the primary campaign in 2016. And some appointees have disparaged the president while in the administration. Rex W. Tillerson, the former secretary of state, was reported to have called Mr. Trump a \u201cmoron.\u201d The president returned the favor last week by calling Mr. Tillerson \u201cdumb as a rock.\u201d
In a Facebook post, from Oct. 11,2016, Mr. Mulvaney said he had been canvassing his district in the days after The Washington Post first reported the \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d recording, in which Mr. Trump bragged about sexual assault.
\u201cI think one thing we\u2019ve learned about Donald Trump during this campaign is that he is not a very good person,\u201d Mr. Mulvaney wrote. \u201cWhat he said in the audiotape is disgusting and indefensible. My guess is that he has probably said even worse \u2014 and that the Clinton campaign has a lot more material to dump before this election is over.\u201d
He went on: \u201cI\u2019ve decided that I don\u2019t particularly like Donald Trump as a person. But I am still voting for him. And I am still asking other people to do the same. And there is one simple reason for that: Hillary Clinton.\u201d
In criticizing Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Mulvaney said that she was \u201cjust as \u2018deplorable\u2019 as she makes Trump out to be.\u201d
\u201cShe has peddled influence to make herself rich,\u201d he said, explaining his thinking. \u201cThat sort of behavior alone used to disqualify people from office \u2014 much more so than vulgar language and vile attitudes toward women. But she has gone beyond that: She\u2019s lied to Congress and to the American public. She has broken the law.\u201d
While in Congress, Mr. Mulvaney was one of the most conservative and outspoken members of the House Republican caucus. His Facebook page included periodic online town halls with constituents on a range of topics.
In one series of posts, Mr. Mulvaney questioned the need for funding research into the Zika virus, a growing crisis at the time that left newborns with severe brain malformations.
\u201cNo one has written me yet, though, to ask what might be the best question: Do we really need government-funded research at all?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n