‘People Are Just Depressed’: Trump-Putin Presser Crushes WH Morale  

WASHINGTON, D.C. - APRIL 22, 2018:  An American flag flies over the south facade of the White House in Washington, D.C. Additional security fences and barriers were added along the south perimeter to prevent people from jumping the fence and entering the restricted White House grounds. The Secret Service tightened the security on the south side in 2017 by closing access to the entire fence line on the South Lawn. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, D.C. - APRIL 22, 2018: An American flag flies over the south facade of the White House in Washington, D.C. Additional security fences and barriers were added along the south perimeter to prevent people f... WASHINGTON, D.C. - APRIL 22, 2018: An American flag flies over the south facade of the White House in Washington, D.C. Additional security fences and barriers were added along the south perimeter to prevent people from jumping the fence and entering the restricted White House grounds. The Secret Service tightened the security on the south side in 2017 by closing access to the entire fence line on the South Lawn. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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White House staffers who initially planned to leave their jobs after the midterm elections are considering getting out sooner because of President Donald Trump’s performance during a press conference with Vladimir Putin Monday, and his fumbled attempts to clean up his remarks ever since.

According to Politico, morale hasn’t been this low in the White House since Trump blamed “both sides” for violence following the attack of counter-protesters at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last year.

“People are just depressed,” a Republican close to the White House told Politico. “Nobody wants to take on the public heat of resigning right now, but there are a bunch of people who were thinking maybe they’d leave after the midterms who are very seriously starting to consider accelerating their timetable.”

While staffers may reportedly be eying the exits over Trump’s discombobulated messaging on Russian interference in the 2016 election, senior officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton don’t plan to resign because his comments won’t have any concrete impact on policy, Politico reported.

While in Helsinki this week, Trump stood beside Putin and publicly supported the Kremlin chief’s denial of meddling in U.S. elections in 2016, despite declarations to the contrary from his own intelligence agency. Trump made a rare retraction on Tuesday, at the behest of top officials like Vice President Mike Pence and Chief of Staff John Kelly, and told reporters that he misspoke during the presser.

Then, on Wednesday, he appeared to break with his intelligence community’s assessment that Russia is still actively targeting the U.S., but press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cleaned up that mess for him, telling reporters that Trump’s “no” was an indication that he didn’t want to take any more press questions, not that he didn’t think the U.S. was under attack.

Read Politico’s full piece here.    

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Notable Replies

  1. If the womp fits, womp it.

  2. ANonymous Sources faKE NEws Just makes UP anonymous sources TO make Trump LOOK bad. EVERYONE at THE WHITE hOUSE IS the happiest they’ve ever been. EVER. A friend whom I caNT NAME told me. hE DOESN’T WANT TO STEAl trumPS THUNDER.

  3. World’s tiniest violin. And, they shouldn’t feel “depressed.” They should feel CULPABLE.

  4. Well - now you know how the majority of the country feels. Seriously, though, it’s too late, baby, it’s too late.

    On your resumé, just omit time you worked in the White House. When the interviewer asks about it, say you were in prison.

  5. The White House staff is depressed, the American people with a few exceptions are depressed, and the only happy man in the country is PuPPet and his offshore friend is happy also.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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