On the heels of yet another announcement that a senior White House staffer will resign, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that the Trump administration was “a very functioning place of business.”
National Economic Adviser Gary Cohn on Tuesday joined White House Communications Director Hope Hicks in announcing his departure. Hicks announced that she would resign on Feb. 28. White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter left the Trump administration last month after his ex-wives made public allegations of domestic violence against him, though the FBI had told the White House about them months earlier.
“So far this year, six top White House staffers have resigned and the President says there are more names are to come,” a reporter asked Sanders at a press briefing Wednesday. “Why are so many people leaving this administration?”
Sanders said the Trump administration had had an “historic first year” and that it would “continue to do great things.”
“This is an intense place, as is every White House, and it’s not abnormal that you would have people come and go,” she added.
“It is actually abnormal,” the reporter countered. “No administration in recent history has had this much turnover.”
“I said it’s not abnormal to have turnover,” Sanders said, without addressing the reporter’s point.
“If this is not the definition of chaotic, how would you describe what’s happening in these recent weeks?” the reporter asked.
“If it was, then I don’t think we would be able to accomplish everything that we’ve done,” the press secretary replied. “The economy is stronger than it’s been in ages. ISIS is on the run. The re-making of the judiciary. Jobs are coming in at record numbers.”
“There are historic things that have taken place in the first year, sounds like a very functioning place of business to me,” she concluded.
