Even the best plumber couldn’t stop the leaks from the most permeable White House in history. The Trump administration has been plagued since the beginning of its tenure with a such a steady flow of inside information that it’s a wonder that the Army Corps of Engineers hasn’t been called in to build a drainage channel.
Now the author of a new book about the Trump regime has revealed the identity of the White House’s top leaker, and it’s one of Trump’s longest-serving and closest senior aides.
Ronald Kessler, who wrote the new book “The Trump White House,” appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and spoke with Jake Tapper about his experience interviewing senior Oval Office officials.
He names Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway as the most notorious leaker and back-biter in the Trump administration, accusing her of spreading “mean and ugly” lies about former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus as part of her eventually successful plan to undercut him.
“While I was interviewing Kellyanne at the White House, she forgot that she was on the record,” Kessler told CNN”S Tapper. “She started lashing into Reince Priebus. She said the most mean, cutting and obviously untrue things about Reince, and I didn’t include them in the book because they were so unfair.”
“She also lit into Jared and Ivanka, saying that they leak against Steve Bannon,” he continued. “I know White House aides who have seen texts she has sent to other journalists, dissing her colleagues, leaking material.”
“So if you wonder why there are so many leaks out of the White House, one reason is, Kellyanne is the number one leaker,” he said.
Kessler also names Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner as being known for weaponizing strategic leaks to undercut their White House rivals. His description of the White House as a festering cauldron of petty jealousies and vindictive information warfare provides the perfect explanation for the unprecedentedly high turnover amongst the administration’s senior staff and the difficulty the president is having in recruiting qualified candidates to join his team.
You can watch a clip of Jake Tapper’s interview with Ronald Kessler on CNN’s State of the Union in the video below.
New book alleges Kellyanne Conway is the "number one leaker" in President Trump's White House https://t.co/pzsp6vNFBN pic.twitter.com/PuuRu7RMKd
— CNN (@CNN) April 1, 2018
