Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he was unsurprised by an op-ed slamming President Trump published in The New York Times by an anonymous administration official.
“I didn’t look at it as new news. I mean, anyone who’s had any dealings over there knows that this is the reality that we’re living in. So I think a lot’s been made out of nothing,” he said.
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Corker, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, added: “I think the biggest issue they’re going to have is figuring out who wouldn’t have written a letter like that.”
The op-ed blasted Trump as “amoral” and “anti-democratic” and detailed Trump staffers’ efforts to contain the president’s “misguided impulses.” The anonymous author was described by The New York Times as a “senior” Trump administration official.
“The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making,” the official wrote.
“Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.”
Trump bashed the op-ed, calling the staffer “gutless” and implying treason may have been committed. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called on the “coward” to resign.
A number of Trump officials have issued denials of writing the op-ed, and the White House is reportedly even considering using lie detector tests in an internal hunt for the author.