Several White House staffers who reportedly regularly share information about the Oval Office with Axios told the news outlet that they often try to impersonate one another when leaking to the press to avoid getting caught.
“To cover my tracks, I usually pay attention to other staffers’ idioms and use that in my background quotes. That throws the scent off me,” one current White House official told Axios.
Others reportedly said they’re motivated to leak information in order to settle personal vendettas and to “make sure there an accurate record of what’s really going on” in the President Trump administration. Another official told Axios that leaking is a form of self-perseveration in this White House, which he referred to as a “Mexican standoff.”
“You have to realize that working here is kind of like being in a never-ending ‘Mexican Standoff.’ Everyone has guns (leaks) pointed at each other and it’s only a matter of time before someone shoots. There’s rarely a peaceful conclusion so you might as well shoot first,” the source said.
Read the full Axios report here.
