Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) contradicted President Donald Trump Monday, saying that in fact “there’s been a fair amount of chaos and instability in the White House, and dysfunction.”
Earlier Monday, Trump proclaimed “No WH chaos!” in a tweet.
“Well, it’s been pretty obvious to most of us that there’s been a fair amount of chaos and instability in the White House, and dysfunction,” Dent told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, before referring to the recently dismissed White House chief of staff. “And I’m not blaming Reince Priebus for that, I don’t think he ever stood a chance in the job because he was never fully empowered by the President.”
“But with Gen. Kelly, who’s an extraordinarily good person, and well-qualified for this job — I hope that Gen. Kelly is fully empowered to do what must be done to bring the type of focus and discipline and stability to the White House,” Dent continued, referring to Priebus’s successor. “And I hope the President grants him that authority and then respects that authority.”
Later, Dent said that Trump’s bombastic rhetoric in recent speeches and elsewhere — “whether they’re tweets or inappropriate statements coming from the President” — had been a severe distraction for legislators.
“That just completely distracts us, and frankly it’s exhausting, Andrea. At times, we spend a good part of our day talking about those issues, rather than the issues we want to talk about,” he said.
He added later that “most Americans and certainly most Republicans want to see this President and this administration succeed, but there are times where we wish it get out of its own way.
“As I said earlier, too much time and energy has been spent — they’re too focused on all this internecine warfare, this infighting, the factional warfare within the White House. This seems to be all encompassing and has really distracted us from dealing with these very tough issues,” he added. “We need a fully focused, disciplined and engaged President to help advance a legislative agenda that will benefit the American people, particularly on tax reform and infrastructure.”
