White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows attempted to brush aside the sharp criticism President Donald Trump’s sister directed the president’s way, insisting that retired federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry calling her brother a “cruel” liar with “no principles” is “just another day and another attack.”
In a series of secret recordings made over a period of two years, the president’s niece Mary Trump—who recently wrote a damning tell-all bestseller about the Trump family—captured her aunt lashing out at her younger brother for what she painted as horrific behavior.
“He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this,” Barry said at one point. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God. I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit!”
ADVERTISEMENT
“It’s the phoniness of it all. It’s the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel,” she continued.
During Sunday’s broadcast of ABC News’ This Week, anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Meadows whether he’d spoken directly to the president about the tapes.
Obviously, he’s been public with his response,” Meadows replied, referencing the White House’s Saturday night statement. “Just another day and another attack that we continue to see, George.”
Meadows went on to note that he hasn’t personally met Barry, adding that she didn’t attend the recent White House funeral of the president’s brother Robert. He also claimed that the person described in the 15 hours of tapes isn’t the same person that he’s had the “privilege of serving.”
As Meadows fawned over the president’s “very consistent” principled behavior, Stephanopoulos brought up Barry alleging that her brother had someone else take his SATs while he was in college.
“Why would his sister lie about it in what she thought was a private conversation?” Stephanopoulos wondered aloud. “Does the president have any evidence to back up his denial?”
Rather than address the accusation directly, Meadows continued to gush over the president while blasting Mary Trump for taping the conversations.
“I can tell you a number of other things that supposedly have been alleged, that the president doesn’t read much,” the chief of staff declared. “You may see it when he goes to Marine One, there’s a cardboard box that’s brought on Marine One. What’s in there are clippings each and every day. He reads probably more than anyone I know, which causes me to have to read more.”
“So listen, this is politics as usual by a niece that was written out of a will, that just has an ax to grind because she wants Joe Biden to be president,” Meadows concluded.
