Presidential historian Chris Whipple says White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles “totally abdicated” her duty to check President Donald Trump before he banned three news organizations from the White House.
“The whole thing is just idiotic and counterproductive,” Whipple told CNN News Central on Monday. “And I think it’s more evidence that the inmate in chief is running the asylum.”
“No competent White House chief of staff would have allowed this to happen,” he added.
Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico after close aide Natalie Harp showed him coverage of recent legal and political setbacks, including a Politico graph that reportedly infuriated him, CNN reported.
“Apparently, Susie Wiles was out of town,” Whipple said. “Or maybe she was in town and simply abdicating her responsibility.”
Whipple is not a distant critic. He interviewed Wiles 11 times on the record for a two-part Vanity Fair profile last December, a piece Trumpworld branded a “hit piece” and that Whipple defended by insisting “everything is on tape.” He said Wiles spent that time casting herself as a rare truth-teller in Trump’s orbit.
“Susie Wiles spent 10 months telling me that she was someone who was going to tell the president hard truths, and frankly just totally abdicated that responsibility,” he said.
The ban prompted the five major television networks to suspend coverage of presidential events requiring a shared camera pool. CNN, MS NOW and Politico also sued the administration in federal court.
Whipple predicted the retaliation would backfire.
“Trump is going to miss the attention,” he concluded. “This is a guy for whom television cameras are oxygen.”
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