A senior adviser on the White House coronavirus task force who left the White House in August says she plans to vote for Vice President Joe Biden in November due to President Donald Trump’s “flat out disregard for human life” during the pandemic. And, in a new ad for Republican Voters Against Trump, Olivia Troye, who worked for Homeland Security, says Trump said a saving grace of the pandemic would be that now he wouldn’t have to shake hands with these “disgusting people” (his supporters).
President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic showed a “flat out disregard for human life” because his “main concern was the economy and his reelection,” according to a senior adviser on the White House coronavirus task force who left the White House in August.
Olivia Troye, who worked as homeland security, counterterrorism and coronavirus adviser to Vice President Pence for two years, said that the administration’s response cost lives and that she will vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden this fall because of her experience in the Trump White House.
“The president’s rhetoric and his own attacks against people in his administration trying to do the work, as well as the promulgation of false narratives and incorrect information of the virus have made this ongoing response a failure,” she said in an interview.
Troye is the first Trump administration official who worked extensively on the coronavirus response to forcefully speak out against Trump and his handling of the pandemic. But she joins a growing number of former officials, including former national security adviser John Bolton and former defense secretary Jim Mattis, who have detailed their worries about what happened during their time in the administration while declaring that Trump is unfit to be president.
The amount of criticism Trump has faced from former aides is unprecedented in the modern presidency, and it could pose a political risk to his reelection campaign as some of the aides who have spoken out are pressuring other former colleagues to join them.
The White House dismissed Troye as a disgruntled former employee and downplayed her role on the task force, while disputing her characterization that the pandemic response has not gone well.
Trove is only the latest former member of the administration or connected with the administration to quit and strongly criticize Trump. There’s more turnover in the Trump administration than pancakes cooked at IHOP. It’s a seeming revolving door of “disgruntled” employees — and “gruntled” members who are there often have a short political shelf life.
Disgruntled former employees https://t.co/EQ6386eXVy
— David Frum (@davidfrum) September 17, 2020