Rep. Mark Meadows, a Trump ally and Tea Party conservative lawmaker from North Carolina, tells Politico Playbook: "We're evaluating options on how to get to the truth of what happened here, mainly in the interest of protecting national security," adding, "[W]e've had congressional Democrats reach out to our office about this as well."
"While we may disagree politically, what many of us do agree is that efforts within the White House to anonymously sabotage a duly elected president is an act of cowardice," Meadows said Thursday. The representative declined to specify the names of other Republicans or Democrats who were interested in conducting an investigation.
On Wednesday, an anonymous "senior Trump administration official" published an op-ed in the New York Times declaring open resistance to Trump and his agenda. "I am part of the Resistance inside the Trump administration," the article's headline reads.
"There is a quiet resistance within the administration," the op-ed states. One gem declares: "Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of [Trump's] agenda."
The op-ed trashed Trump for lacking first principles, amorality and possessing "anti-democratic" impulses. The article predictably enraged Trump. "TREASON?" the president tweeted shortly after it was published.
A slew of administration officials have denied authoring the pro-resistance op-ed, including Vice President Mike Pence, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to name a few. Of course, if the op-ed's author was willing to attach their identity to the piece, the person would not have requested anonymity from the Times in the first place.
Two anonymous administration officials told Axios on Thursday "a lot of us [were] wishing we'd been the writer, I suspect… I hope [Trump] knows — maybe he does?— that there are dozens and dozens of us" working in opposition to the president.
