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Birx, Fauci and the other professionals in the room watched all the nonsense without comment. To their credit, they pretty much kept straight faces, although I imagine they thought they were surrounded by lunatics. In my mind I kept saying, “This is not a reality TV show. We cannot address the nation with a bunch of mumbo jumbo just so he looks presidential. That’s not how this works.” This was some serious @#$%&, and all they were thinking about was TV and image and optics. But regrettably, I kept those thoughts in in my head.

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It was a total [fustercluck] from start to finish because Ivanka and her crew wanted her father to be on TV. And of course the speech that night contained a number of misstatements and sloppy wording — some caused by the president stumbling over a few phrases — that sowed confusion about such things as which countries would be affected by the new travel restrictions and if international trade would be banned. News outlets all over the world picked up on the discrepancies in the speech. People from various federal agencies started to call and ask us how to explain or clean up some of the things that had been said. Once again a line of reporters formed outside my office. Of course, it was our problem, not Jared’s or Ivanka’s or Hope’s. No, they were in the dining room off of the Oval Office, Trump’s usual hangout, congratulating themselves and telling the president how awesome he was.

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deckeda
Every single one of them has to wish they said “no” instead of “yes,” despite the endless opportunities to do so.