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Mulvaney’s departure means at least five high-profile administration officials have resigned since the Trump supporters breached the Capitol building Wednesday afternoon — a riot that resulted in four deaths and lawmakers being forced to shelter in place as both chambers of Congress went into lockdown.
The other officials who have stepped down include the first lady’s chief of staff Stephanie Grisham, deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, White House social secretary Rickie Niceta, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews and deputy assistant secretary of Commerce John Costello.
National security adviser Robert O’Brien and White House deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell are also considering resigning. Numerous lawmakers have expressed new support for impeachment proceedings aimed at ensuring Trump does not serve out the remaining two weeks of his term and is ineligible to hold federal office in the future.
Mulvaney said he had not “talked to the president enough in the last eight months” to personally determine whether Trump was still fit for office. “I don’t have an insight as to what’s going on in his mind. Certainly, I do talk to my friends who are in there,” he said, adding that reported deliberations about the 25th Amendment are “not at all surprising.”
“Let’s back into it, okay? You don’t get to where you got to yesterday with something that’s normal. Okay? That’s not normal activity for any citizen, let alone a president of the United States,” Mulvaney said. “So it’s not surprising that you’re hearing that discussion this morning.”
Many administration officials “are wondering, ‘If I do resign today, who’s going to take my place, and will it make it better or will it make it worse?’” Mulvaney said, adding: “There’s soul-searching going on at a bunch of different levels. It does not surprise me at all that the 25th Amendment is being discussed.”
Prior to his remarks Thursday, Mulvaney — who served as the president’s top aide from January 2019 through March 2020 — had predicted a peaceful transfer of power, memorably authoring a Wall Street Journal op-ed after the November election maintaining that “Trump will concede gracefully.”
On Thursday morning, he acknowledged that forecast had been incorrect. “No one likes to be wrong. You especially don’t like to be wrong on something of that level of import,” he said.
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