Ohio Senator Rob Portman On President Trump, The White House Staff, Andy Puzder And More

[Valin]

Hugh Hewitt Show:

Hugh Hewitt

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

 

Audio

 

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HH: Part of the problem in our environment now is you have this peanut gallery of former President Obama staffers, Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor, you’ve got Ben Rhodes, who oversaw the Iran deal and misled everyone and didn’t respond to the genocide in Aleppo. Now you’ve got Dan Shapiro criticizing, the former ambassador to Israel, criticizing President Trump for sitting down with Netanyahu. Is this appropriate in the first month of a presidency to have the peanut gallery of the old president throwing stones? And do you think the former president is urging them on?

 

RP: Well, I hope he’s not. I look at the last time we had a tradition, it was President George W. Bush and his team, and you didn’t see any of this. I mean, that there may have been individual instances, you know, over the next year or so where you had people speaking up, but you know Steve Hadley, you know, Condi Rice, you know the people who were involved there, and I think their kind of character, Colin Powell, George W. Bush himself, who insisted on not criticizing his successor, just as his father had not criticized President Clinton. And I think that’s the better role if you’re a patriot.

 

HH: Yeah, Vice President Cheney waited a long time. He eventually became the leading critic, but he waited a long time. And former President Bush had us back on the last Wednesday of his presidency, a half dozen talk show hosts, to urge us to go easy on the new guy. I’m just amazed at these staffers, and this sort of, I guess they consider themselves the opposition bench, but it’s self-appointed and not helpful. Let me turn to the White House. You’re a veteran of the White House staff at OMB and USTR as well as Congress and Senate. I think it would be a disaster. The alt right’s kind of after Reince Priebus right now. I think he’s doing a terrific job. I think it would be a disaster if the President lost confidence in him. What do you think, Rob Portman?

 

RP: Yeah, and look, I was involved in the first Bush White House as the director of legislative affairs, and kind of saw some of those interactions in the White House. It’s an intense place. Let’s face it. You’ve been there. You were in the Counsel’s office. So was I. You were in the Reagan years. I was in the Bush years. I think Reince offers two things. One is some stability and continuity right now, and let’s face it, we need it. We’ve got to get onto The Fourth Way, all the issue, I’ve got your book at my bedside.

 

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