Lewandowski: White House lacks 'top political operative' ahead of 2018 elections
— -- Two former top campaign aides to President Trump still working outside of the White House, David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski, shared their candid assessment of the ups and downs of the Trump presidency thus far on the “Powerhouse Politics” podcast with ABC News' Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and Political Director Rick Klein.
Both Bossie and Lewandowski were rumored to be taking positions in the White House following the firing of former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, but did not end up taking positions.
Bossie and Lewandowski, out with a new book on the campaign, “Let Trump be Trump” said they wrote the book to pull back the curtain on the historic campaign.
“The reason we wanted to write the book is because we want the American people to understand what it was really like on the campaign and what Donald Trump’s vision was, what he saw and what he executed,” Lewandowski said.
Bossie had praise for how current White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly has managed the staff and the job after Priebus’ departure.
“The president loves to get lots of information from lots of people he loves that. The general has taken a different tack, and he has buttoned up the building and the management style. I think the president has taken to it and I think that they’re working as a great team it seems,” Bossie said.
Lewandowski said that Kelly has “brought order from chaos” but said the White House still lacks a top political mind to make key decisions.
“What I don’t see, and this is not pejorative to anybody in the building, I don’t see the Karl Rove, the David Axelrod, that top political operative who is helping craft the political decisions going into what will be a very competitive 2018 cycle for members of the House and Senate,” Lewandowski said, “I think you might see some changes coming in that regard.”
When asked if President Trump ever lies, Lewandowski deflected his answer back on their 2016 presidential foe, Hillary Clinton, claiming that former top aides of hers had lied to the FBI.
“Look, I don’t know. My kids lie. Here’s what I tell everybody: If you tell the truth, you’ll be better off,” Lewandowski said. “But, look, I think that’s a very difficult question because if we want to talk about lying we need to talk about the severity of the lies, and those lies include Hillary Clinton to the FBI and Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin to the FBI.”
When former FBI Director Comey testified in July 2016 in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, he was asked if Clinton lied to the FBI, to which he responded, “I have no basis for concluding that she was untruthful with us.”
The two also had plenty to say about what it was like to work for Donald Trump on the campaign trail, and the stamina the candidate showed and asked of his staff.
"He never complained about how many times we asked him to do things or sign things or take pictures, he just did it," Lewandowski said, "He asks the staff to be as good as him, he doesn't ask us to be better, he says be as good as me. Work as hard as I do."
When asked about one of the most pivotal moments of the campaign, the second debate, Bossie defended the decision by the campaign to try and seat women who have accused President Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct in the family section of the audience.
“We wanted to change the conversation, we wanted to remind the American people that Bill Clinton was an abuser of women while he was in the White House,” Bossie said, “It was a calculation for us to try and get in the Clinton camp’s head, and really I think it worked.”
