Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah, who has repeatedly defended and propped up President Donald Trump’s efforts to intentionally mislead Americans, is finally willing to say that the President lied about claims of massive fraud in the Nov. 3 election and should “seriously consider” stepping down.
The comments come after an insurrection at the US Capitol incited by the President left 5 people dead, including a Capitol police officer.
Farah told CNN’s John Berman on Friday that she holds Trump responsible for inciting the mob that descended on the U.S. Capitol in an effort to disrupt Congress from reaffirming Biden’s win during a count of Electoral College votes.
“They allowed this myth, this lie to take a life of its own that the election might be overturned,” Farah said, appearing to take little responsibility herself as a former longtime aide at the helm of crafting White House communications on the matter.
Former WH communications director Alyssa Farah told CNN's John Berman on Friday that President Trump should "seriously consider" stepping down after he incited a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/7jvlybzgV0
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) January 8, 2021
As the violent episode unfolded on Wednesday, Farrah tweeted at Trump: “Condemn this now, @realDonaldTrump. You are the only one they will listen to. For our country!”
Although Farah has not been particularly loud about her opposition to Trump’s election gambit until Trump’s rhetoric reverberated in the loss of life at nation’s capital this week, she told Politico in a recent interview that her departure was due in part to being “advised by the campaign to stand down,” when she prepared to deliver a speech acknowledging that Trump had lost the election.
One person familiar with Farah’s decision appeared to counter that message, previously telling the Washington Post that the top communications official had initially planned to leave before the election.
Farah had resigned from the administration with just over a month remaining in Trump’s term, in a move that amounted to a tacit acknowledgment that Trump lost the election and that many within the administration were contemplating future jobs.
“Wednesday was really a boiling point showing that misleading the public has consequences,” Farah told Politico.
Yet Farah participated in the White House’s efforts to mislead the public, often defending the President’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and refusing to formally denounce as false the publication of what she later called a “poorly worded” news release that suggested ending the COVID-19 pandemic was among Trump’s chief accomplishments.
Following her one-on-one with Politico, Farah has made the rounds across news networks, gracing the likes of Fox News and CNN with a similar moral message after more than three years of rushing to Trump’s defense as he recycled false statements and painted an alternate reality where he could do no wrong.
