Donald Trump’s team is having an awful time defending the president and his current outbursts. Most recently, Trump has been on a one-man crusade against the New York Times for a damaging op-ed that made him look terrible, causing the president to fly off the handle (for the one-millionth time this week) and call for an investigation into the media giant. Now, Trump’s inner circle is being forced to clean up the mess, and not even Fox News is being nice to them anymore.
White House Director of Strategic Communication Mercedes Schlapp probably thought she was in for an easy interview when she agreed to being interviewed by Fox host Harris Faulkner. But even Trump’s beloved conservative network is tired of his antics and is looking for answers now. This interview took a turn for the worst when Faulkner threw her off with a question about Trump calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate the NYT op-ed so he can find out which White House official was guilty of writing it. Commenting on the president’s prioritization of the op-ed investigation, Faulker said:
[Trump] said it is a ‘matter of national security.’ How is it a matter of national security to find out who wrote that op-ed?”
Schlapp was definitely not prepared for this. She could barely get the words out as she stuttered:
Well, it is very clear that this administration official is doing what he or she can to basically be deceitful, to ensure that they basically resist or obstruct what the president’s agenda is.
That is outright not only coward [sic] but dangerous.”
But Faulkner wasn’t satisfied. Nearly mocking the president for calling the op-ed a national security issue, she pressed on:
I want to double down on this because I really want to understand it. How does this hurt national security to have an op-ed person not be named?”
Schlapp was nearly losing it at this point, but she managed to say this:
Look, I can’t comment on any of the internal deliberations, or, or any part of a future investigation. What I can tell is what this anonymous source has done, is really just — it’s really unfortunate.”
Schlapp never really answered the question, and Faulkner got tired of being a real journalist and moved on quickly — but the damage was done. Trump’s own Communications Director totally failed to come up with a decent reason why Trump’s NYT investigation should be taken seriously.
You can watch the footage below to see Schlapp freak out:
Featured image via screen capture
