Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday said that the Trump administration official who anonymously wrote a scathing op-ed in The New York Times about the president is “living in dishonesty” and should leave the White House.
But the Wisconsin Republican said he doesn’t think Congress has a role to play in investigating who penned the bombshell piece, which details efforts within the Trump administration to push back against the president’s impulses.
“The person who works in the administration serves at the pleasure of the president. It’s a person who obviously is living in dishonesty,” Ryan told reporters at his weekly news conference. “It doesn’t help the president. If you’re not interested in helping the president, you shouldn’t work for the president, as far as I’m concerned.”
{mosads}Some of Trump’s top allies on Capitol Hill have rushed to Trump’s defense following the publication of the op-ed on Wednesday afternoon.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is vying to replace Ryan when he retires next year, said on Fox News that the author was a “coward” and called on them to be exposed and fired.
And House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who also chairs an Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee, is considering whether hearings are necessary, according to USA Today.
The op-ed, written by a “senior administration official,” described coordinated efforts from staff to “thwart” Trump’s worst instincts, bashed the president’s “amorality” and praised the work of “unsung heroes” who push back against him from within the White House.
The explosive piece sent shockwaves through Washington and the rest of the country, and set off immediate speculation about who the author could be. Vice President Pence and a number of Cabinet officials have come forward to deny they were behind the op-ed.
When Ryan was pressed on whether he shares some of the concerns about the president voiced in the op-ed, he shifted his focus to some of the GOP’s successes under Trump.
“What I concern myself about are the results of government. And the results of government are good results,” Ryan said, ticking off a list of recent accomplishments.
“I know the president is very unconventional, and I know his tweeting and unconventional tactics bother people, but the results of government are good results,” he said.
“And we’re in a different branch of government,” he added. “This is our knitting, and that’s why we’re sticking with our knitting, because it is making a positive difference in people’s lives.”