Two years ago incoming White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney trashed Donald Trump as a “terrible human being” and made clear he was not a role model for his sons.
Video of Mulvaney making the remark, which surfaced on Friday just hours after Trump named him to fill the post, shows Mulvaney at a public forum days before the election.
Then a Republican Congressman, Mulvaney was running for re-election to South Carolina’s 5th District when he and his Democrat challenger made their last-minute appeals to voters at the forum.
Mulvaney said he did not support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and then added:
“Do I like Donald Trump? No,” Mulvaney tells the audience. “Is he a role model for my sons? Absolutely not. Yes, I’m supporting Donald Trump, I’m doing so as enthusiastically as I can given the fact that I think he’s a terrible human being.”
Mulvaney is far from the first person in the administration to openly criticize Trump before signing on for a job in his administration, but he is certainly one of the most high-ranking.
During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Trump opponent Rick Perry called the future president’s campaign a “cancer on conservatism.”
Perry now serves as President Trump’s Secretary of Energy.
Before Kellyanne Conway became Trump’s 2016 campaign manager during the homestretch of the race, Conway had publicly criticized candidate Trump for refusing to release his tax returns and for his “vulgar” rhetoric.
Conway currently serves as one of Trump’s most ardent defenders and as his White House counselor, while her husband remains a leading Trump critic.
Even if Mulvaney had never uttered a critical word about Trump, the chances he would last long in a chief of staff post would have likely been slim regardless.
Mulvaney replaces outgoing Chief of Staff John Kelly.