White House chief of staff Reince Priebus responded Sunday to a question about internal conflict in President Donald Trump’s administration by heaping praise on his working relationship with chief strategist Steve Bannon.
“If there’s a problem there, those people will have big issues,” Priebus told Chuck Todd on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” responding to a question about leakers within the White House.
He denied reports of internal discord in Trump’s administration.
“The truth is, is that we don’t have problems in the West Wing. I mean, you read about all these stories of I don’t get along with Bannon, and this one says — actually, we’ve really gelled as a team, and we get along great, and we’re working well together,” Priebus said.
“The amount of drama and spin that you read about mostly in the Washington daily gossip rags is unbelievable stuff and it just isn’t true and you read it every day and you wonder what alternative universe they’re reporting on, because it just isn’t true,” he added.
Reports of discord within the White House are overblown, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus says. #MTP Full intvw: https://t.co/mN7URpkitO pic.twitter.com/FgM1a82N3j
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 19, 2017
President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that his administration is “the exact opposite” of chaotic.
“This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine, despite the fact that I can’t get my cabinet approved,” he said.
On Monday, Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn set a record for shortest tenure in the role by resigning after just 24 days.
Flynn stepped down after reports revealed that he spoke about sanctions in a call with Russia’s ambassador to the United States before Trump was sworn in. This contradicted members of Trump’s administration, including Pence, who previously denied that Flynn and the Russian ambassador discussed sanctions.
Priebus denied reports of an adversarial relationship between himself and Bannon in a joint interview with New York Magazine earlier in February where the two joked about giving each other back rubs and falling asleep on the phone.
“We actually like and care about each other a lot,” Priebus said in the interview.
“It’s all phony-baloney garbage that doesn’t exist.”