Former Pentagon aide Guy Snodgrass cagily refused to deny or admit that he was the infamous Resistance White House figure “Anonymous” during a Fox News interview on Monday, shortly after he was fingered as the most likely candidate.
Snodgrass’ name began making the rounds on social media early on Monday when The New Republic’s David Kusnet—who once correctly guessed the anonymous author of Clinton tome Primary Colors—found there was a striking resemblance between the writing style of Anonymous’ A Warning, the author’s notorious 2018 op-ed and Snodgrass’ memoir.
Snodgrass, a former speechwriter and comms director for ex-Defense Secretary James Mattis, kept the speculation going with a cryptic tweet.
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The former Mattis staffer, who would be considered a one-time “senior official” of the Trump administration, appeared on Fox News Reporting on Monday afternoon to purportedly talk about the recent termination of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer. Fox News anchor Trace Gallagher, however, spent the majority of the interview peppering Snodgrass with questions about whether or not he was the senior Trump official working against the president from within the administration.
“If you look at the article, the author hits all the high points. He makes a very good case and the question is, are you Anonymous?” Gallagher initially asked.
“Great question,” Snodgrass replied. “I have a book out with my name on it called Holding the Line. I do appreciate that the New Republic said the writing was excellent across both books, that’s a great sales pitch. But I tell you what, if I was making an announcement like that, I’d do it right and come into the studio with you in New York City.”
The Fox anchor immediately noted that Sondgrass wasn’t issuing a denial but was instead just saying that this wasn’t the proper venue to make that statement.
Snodgrass, with a wry smile, claimed he only just heard about the allegation before insisting he was on to talk about national security since there’s a “lot to talk about there.”
“There was a lot of talk about there but there's also a lot to talk about here and I am curious because why not just deny it outright?” Gallagher pressed again. “You said you just heard about it on your way to the studio but you sent out the tweet today not really denying it, kind of saying ‘the swirl continues,’ what did you mean by that?”
The former Pentagon official, meanwhile, said this was just the “latest in a long series of D.C. parlor games” and that he only retweeted the story out because “it caught my eye and someone put it on my radar.” Gallagher, for his part, continued to probe, noting that Kusnet pointed to similar writing styles and vocabulary choices between the two books.
“I can’t remember using lodestar a single time so the analysis may be breaking down a little bit,” Snodgrass quipped, still not denying or admitting to anything.
Eventually, after Gallagher questioned him again on the topic and noted that the Fox interview became a great opportunity to sell his memoir, Snodgrass pushed back by stating the current news cycle surrounding the military dictated why he was initially scheduled to appear on-air.
The Fox host would make sure, though, to get one final word in before closing out the interview.
“Not saying one way or another, we just want to point out that Joe Klein back in 1992, when he was called on it, he denied it several times before finally coming out,” he concluded.
