Reince Priebus On West Wing Turmoil

[Valin]

Hugh Hewitt Show

Hugh Hewitt

Mar 19, 2018

Audio

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HH: All right, now against that backdrop, there are all these reports of chaos, that’s the favorite word in the West Wing, and you stay in touch with your successor, John Kelly. You stay in touch with General McMaster. You stay in touch with the President. Is there chaos in the West Wing? And do we expect departures this week?

RP: Well, you know, here’s how I would put it. Number one, no, I don’t think it’s chaos. But what I think it is, is the President of the United States has a decision making process that is different than what the mainstream media’s used to. And so they view the concept of putting, you know, a guy like Gary Cohn and a guy like Wilber Ross, and a guy like Bob Lighthizer as the USTR, the trade representative, who have very, very different views on things such as trade. So what the President does is he puts divergent views together, sometimes people that don’t agree with each other on almost anything, puts them right in front of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and says okay, fellas, give me your best shot. And they come in with their A game, and they’re all total experts in the field, and so they’re not, you know, they didn’t just get in the West Wing, you know, out of nowhere. So they walk in, they argue it out, they fight it out. The media reports all along, though, on the fight. Today, this one doesn’t like this one. Today, someone yelled at someone else. Today, this one might be leaving because he’s mad. And so that is what is interpreted as chaos. But then the President makes a decision. And what I always try to remind people is forget about the process of the decision making, because the President likes learning from division. Forget about the process, but look at the decisions. And look at them, Hugh, and I know you talk about them every day, and you tweet about them every day. You look at the courts. You look at ISIS. You look at regulation. You look at the tax cuts. The decisions, if you’re a conservative or a Republican or maybe even someone close to the line or in the middle, on the decisions, you cannot possibly be happier. So I say forget about the process, look at the decisions. Sorry for the long answer.

 

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