Jared is with Trump. Ivanka is with Trump. Tillerson is with Trump. Creepy bodyguard guy is with Trump. Spicer is … enjoying knowing that everyone else got to meet the Pope but the one Catholic member of the entourage got sent out for gelato. Bannon is back home after seeing too many scary Muslims. Conway is chilling with the kids. And … that’s everyone. There’s no one else in the Trump White House. That’s definitely all his advisers and such. Definitely.
Oh, except for that other guy. What was his name?
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is nervous about what could be in store for him if the former FBI director reveals more details of his secret memos.
Chief of Staff is supposed to be the power position in the White House, but that was before Trump invented a whole stack of new positions that he could fill through definitely not nepotism. Honestly, at this hour, do you know what continent Reince Priebus is on? Do you think Donald Trump knows what planet Reince Priebus is on? Still, if Trump isn’t worried about Priebus, that doesn’t mean that Priebus is short of reasons to worry.
Three White House officials told The Daily Beast that Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has privately expressed worry about a possible Comey memo specifically involving one of their reported chats, and how it might play in the press and to investigators.
Priebus apparently nabbed phone calls to everyone he could find in an effort to do that old “would you tell the press that the FBI isn’t investigating Trump?” routine. This included soliciting then FBI director Comey along with Andrew McCabe to say to everyone they weren’t doing … what Comey was about to appear in front of a House committee to say they were doing.
It’s safe to assume that, once the call went through, Comey’s first question was “who are you again?” But at some point the FBI director likely put together at least a desk doodle recording Priebus’ attempts to get him to lie to the press. The idea that Comey might have jotted down this conversation is apparently having an adverse affect on the one guy still sitting in the darkened White House.
“Nervous laughter,” one official succinctly characterized Priebus’ demeanor in the midst of recent revelations. …
Along with the chaos and continued frustrations that came with attempting to manage the fallout, there was an immediate unease expressed by senior staffers, including Priebus, that more damning memos could be revealed in the coming weeks, if not days.
Nixon’s chief of staff was H. R. Haldeman. He was eventually convicted of charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice and got to spend 18 months working at a prison sewage treatment plant.
How did Haldeman get that sentence? He was the one who actually called the CIA to ask that they pressure the FBI to stop the investigation of Watergate. Afterward, Haldeman tried to secure a pardon-in-advance from Nixon. Nixon left him hanging.
So why is Priebus nervous? No reason. No reason at all.