White House chief of staff John Kelly denied that President Donald Trump’s morning tweets make his job more difficult in a brief conversation with CNN Thursday morning.
WH chief of staff John Kelly has maintained he doesn’t read Trump tweets in real time. But on Capitol Hill today, CNN’s Kristin Wilson asked if today’s FISA whiplash tweets made things more difficult: “It’s not more difficult. It’s a juggling act,” he said.
— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) January 11, 2018
The comments follow an about face by the president on the issue of FISA warrants and a critical national security vote in the U.S. Congress. The Trump administration issued a late Wednesday statement endorsing renewal of FISA warrant authorities which was thrown into confusion after the president appeared to express disapproval of it in a Thursday morning tweet.
“House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.” This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018
The president then followed up with another tweet after widespread confusion amongst republican lawmakers saying he endorsed FISA’s continued authorities.
With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018
Kelly in the past has downplayed the impact of the president’s frequent tweets on his ability to do his job telling the LATimes in November 2017 “believe it or not, I do not follow the tweets,” adding that he also does not allow his staff to do so.
The White House chief of staff elaborated that “for our purposes, my purpose, is we make sure the president is briefed up on what he’s about to do.”
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