Not long after, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) announced she would be voting to confirm Kavanaugh and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he’d be doing the same, guaranteeing a majority for confirmation. On October 6, 2018, the Senate voted 50–48 to confirm Justice Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, cementing a tremendous legacy for the president and a better future for America.
I congratulated Justice Kavanaugh in the East Wing as we did the walkthrough before the official White House reception, but during our conversation I was interrupted by Raj, who told me the president needed to see me in the residence. I walked upstairs and spent the afternoon working with the president on his speech. We were in the Treaty Room. It was dimly lit and had a massive Victorian table serving as the desk, which had previously been used as a cabinet meeting table under President Ulysses S. Grant. Many historic moments, including President William McKinley signing the peace treaty with Spain ending the Spanish–American War, had occurred in the Treaty Room. President Lincoln used the room as a pass-through to get from the Yellow Oval to the Lincoln Bedroom without being seen by anyone, and Eleanor Roosevelt held press conferences for female reporters there. A few aides recommended toning down the rhetoric and said the president should not issue an apology to Justice Kavanaugh for the way he was treated by the Democrats and many liberals in the media, but I agreed with the president and said to leave it in. The president made a joke, and I laughed and hit him with a handful of papers on the arm. Bill Shine said, “You just hit the president … you’re lucky Secret Service didn’t see that.” As we finished up, Brett and his family walked into the room. They took photos with the president and visited about the attacks they’d endured.
The president had decided to posthumously award Justice Antonin Scalia with the Medal of Freedom. He wanted to tell his widow, Maureen, his plan that evening. As we waited in the Blue Room of the East Wing, he asked me to walk with him to let her know. The two of us walked over to her and the president said, “I have some news for you.” President Trump told her that Justice Scalia, her late husband, would receive the Medal of Freedom. Maureen teared up as I held her hand.
Back in the room before the reception, I visited with attendees as we waited. I talked to Justice Neil Gorsuch and he joked, “Why didn’t I get a band at my reception?” I said, “With all due respect, sir, we couldn’t find the light switch in the White House bathroom at that point.”
Justice Clarence Thomas told me, “You’re my favorite, you never back down, but next time you go to The Red Hen let me come with you and I’ll set them straight.”
Bryan joined me at the reception. In the East Room, the president took the stage at 7:03 p.m. EDT:
Members of Congress, members of the cabinet, honored guests, and fellow Americans: It is my privilege to address you tonight from the East Room of the White House.
We are gathered together this evening for a truly momentous occasion. I have long been told that the most important decision a president can make is the appointment of a Supreme Court Justice. Well, in just a few moments, we will proudly swear in the newest member of the United States Supreme Court: Justice Brett Kavanaugh.…
On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure.
Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency, and due process.
In our country, a man or woman must always be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. And with that, I must state that you, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent.
Margaret and Liza, your father is a great man. He is a man of decency, character, kindness, and courage who has devoted his life to serving his fellow citizens. And now, from the bench of our nation’s highest court, your father will defend the eternal rights and freedoms of all Americans.
In the battle for the Supreme Court, the liberal mob had been defeated. We had prevailed. The mood at the White House was euphoric. That night our team went to the Trump International Hotel and celebrated one of the most consequential victories of the Trump presidency—a more conservative Supreme Court—a defining legacy that would endure long after our departure from the White House.
8
Witch Hunt
In the midst of the Kavanaugh confirmation fight, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team requested to interview me as part of their investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 election.
The Mueller investigation represented a dangerous threat to the Trump presidency and reelection. Mueller had nearly unlimited power and resources to come after the president and his team, as well as loyal allies in the media. But a year into his investigation, Mueller had still not turned up any evidence whatsoever of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Early in the investigation, the Democrats and the media were convinced they’d found their smoking gun: a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian woman during the campaign. Much like his dad, Don Jr. doesn’t take hits lying down. He fights back and does so aggressively. When others would have cowered, he leaned in. For a time Don Jr. became the face of the fight against Mueller’s team. His hard-charging personality and fearless pushback against his critics made him extremely popular with the president’s base and a star in the Republican Party.
While Don Jr. was under attack, I did a press briefing and defended him on behalf of the administration:
The only thing I see misleading is a year’s worth of stories that have been fueling a false narrative about Russia collusion.… You guys are focused on a meeting with Don Jr. of no consequence.… Bill Clinton was paid half a million dollars to give a speech to a Russian bank, and was personally thanked by Putin for it. Hillary Clinton allowed one-fifth of America’s uranium reserve to be sold to a Russian firm whose investors were Clinton Foundation donors, and the Clinton campaign chairman’s brother lobbied against sanctions on Russia’s largest bank and failed to report it.
The hypocrisy from Democrats and their liberal media allies was shameless. If anyone should have been investigated for ties too close to Russia, it was the Clintons, not President Trump or any member of his family.
Evidence soon emerged that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC paid for the fake Russia dossier used by the Obama administration to illegally spy on a Trump campaign official and then by FBI director Comey to launch the Russia witch hunt against President Trump. I briefed, and slammed the Hillary–DNC–Russia effort to spread disinformation about the president: “We’re seeing now that if there was any collusion with Russia it was between the DNC and the Clintons and certainly not our campaign.”
During this time, I had been experiencing a lot of trouble with my eyes, which were irritated and watering all the time. The White House medical team, which is second to none, had done an initial exam one day in the doctor’s office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the West Wing. They wanted to do more substantial tests and a full medical exam and scheduled a day for me to go to Walter Reed. The doctors wanted to rule out some pretty serious issues including a tumor putting pressure on the nerves behind my eyes or even cancer. To say I was stressed was an understatement. I didn’t want to make a big deal about it and told only a few people, including Chief of Staff John Kelly, who even in his gruff way was very comforting. Ivanka also came by to see how I was and left an encouraging note on my desk. Bryan went with me to Walter Reed and we spent the entire day getting tests done—an MRI of my brain, blood tests, and dozens of other checks. It was the most comprehensive medical exam I’d ever had. Bryan sat for hours anxiously waiting but never letting on and encouraging me in between each test they ran. By the end of the day they had ruled out some things but were concerned about several large lumps on my thyroid. The doctors did a biopsy on my neck to test for cancer, but said they
wouldn’t have results for a few days. The biopsy left a huge bruise on my neck, but Katie Price, who did my hair and makeup at the White House before my briefings and interviews, was masterful in concealing it so I didn’t have to share my fear that I might have cancer with the world.
After this intense and nerve-racking day at Walter Reed, Bryan and I left the hospital and went out for an early dinner at Salt and Pepper in the Palisades neighborhood of Northwest DC to decompress before returning home to our kids. Shortly after we sat down I looked up to see Robert Mueller and his wife walk in the front door. A soccer team who had just finished their game and the four of us were the only people dining in the restaurant. As if the day hadn’t been stressful enough—we were now stuck at a table next to the man in charge of the investigation to take down the president!
After three days of nervous anticipation, I received a call from the White House doctor letting me know I had gotten the all clear on thyroid cancer. The medical team determined there was some nerve damage primarily behind my right eye, and stress and bright lights had made it worse. Not the best news when intense stress and bright lights were a daily part of my job—but I was immensely relieved to be cancer free.
The Mueller investigation continued to roil Washington. It was a major distraction from the president’s agenda and deterred many good people from joining the administration. In one of Mueller’s first big moves, he indicted Russian nationals for meddling in the 2016 election. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein—who was responsible for overseeing the investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions voluntarily recused himself under pressure from the media—addressed reporters and said the indictment contained no allegation that any American was a knowing participant in Russia’s interference or that it altered the outcome of the election. Still, the witch hunt continued.
Meanwhile, unlike the Obama administration, the Trump administration had actually taken a hard line against Russia, which the media hardly ever reported because it didn’t fit their Trump-Russia collusion narrative. Since taking office President Trump had imposed crippling sanctions on Russia; closed Russian diplomatic properties in the United States and expelled Russian spies pretending to be diplomats; approved the sale of lethal arms to Ukraine to defend against Russian aggression; persuaded NATO allies to increase their military spending to deter Russia; isolated and sanctioned two of Russia’s worst proxies: Iran and Venezuela; made America the number one producer of oil and gas, lowering the cost of energy and hurting the Russian economy; and rebuilt our military so that neither Russia nor any other foreign adversary could challenge the United States.
Furthermore, as tensions escalated between the United States and Russia over human rights abuses in the Syrian civil war, President Trump actually enforced President Obama’s “red line.” In the White House Situation Room, military options to respond to a Syrian chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians were presented to the president. In the room with the president were Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Chief of Staff John Kelly, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joe Dunford, me, and a few others. At one point the president turned to me and asked for my thoughts. After I weighed in, he said “Huh. I figured you would have been more ruthless.”
President Trump did what Obama refused to do and on April 14, 2018, launched airstrikes against Syrian military targets, demonstrating once again the president’s willingness to stand up to Putin and his cronies like Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
None of this mattered to the Trump haters who had invested everything in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. Former FBI director James Comey was paid millions to write a book. When he launched his book tour, I held a press briefing to respond on behalf of the administration.
A reporter asked: “The president came out swinging today, calling James Comey a ‘liar,’ a ‘leaker,’ a ‘slimeball.’ Is he worried about what he’s saying?”
“Not at all. The American people see right through the blatant lies of a self-admitted leaker,” I said. “This is nothing more than a poorly executed PR stunt by Comey to desperately rehabilitate his tattered reputation and enrich his own bank account by peddling a book that belongs on the bargain bin of the fiction section.
“Instead of being remembered as a dedicated servant in the pursuit of justice like so many of his other colleagues at the FBI, Comey will be forever known as a disgraced partisan hack that broke his sacred trust with the President of the United States, the dedicated agents of the FBI, and the American people he vowed to faithfully serve. One of the president’s greatest achievements will go down as firing Director James Comey.” I called on the next reporter.
“Thanks, Sarah. The Justice Department Inspector General came out with his long-awaited report this afternoon on former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, saying that he improperly leaked information about the Clinton Foundation investigation to a reporter, and then lied to James Comey about it and, under oath, to two FBI investigators. Do you have a reaction to that? And does that, in your mind, validate the decision to fire McCabe?”
“I haven’t seen the full report, but sounds like two peas in a pod with McCabe and Comey. McCabe was fired in disgrace for misconduct and lying about it.…”
“Thank you, Sarah. You said that James Comey was a liar, that he’s a leaker, that he made false representations or claims. Other than what the president tweeted this morning about lying under oath to Senator Grassley, what exactly has he said that’s false or a lie?”
“Comey claimed reopening the Clinton investigation when he did was based on merit. Now he says it was based because of poll numbers.
“Comey claimed the president told him to stop investigating Flynn, after he previously testified that no one told him to stop investigations.
“He also—even the media has reported that officials have determined that Comey leaked four memos—at least four that we know about—with classified information. I think it’s very clear that Comey has a credibility problem.”
The other thing is clear, this is one of the few issues in Washington that both Democrats and Republicans agree on. He’s been criticized by the legal community for leaking sensitive information, and organizations promoting good government found Comey’s leaking grounds for firing.
Multiple Democrats, including some of the biggest leaders in the Democratic Party, have also attacked Comey. Minority Leader Pelosi said Comey was “maybe not in the right job.” Senator Schumer said he was “appalled by what Comey did” and “did not have confidence in him any longer.” Senator Bernie Sanders said Comey “acted in an outrageous way.” Clinton’s running mate, Senator Kaine, said Comey is “responsible for the lowest moment in the history of the FBI.” Even Congresswoman Maxine Waters said Comey has “no credibility.” The FBI should be independent and not led by a political hack. Comey’s higher loyalty is pretty clear that it’s only to himself. If you can get this group of people and others like Mark Meadows and a number of others to agree on something, I think that you’d have to be right.
“Sarah, what about the dossier, though? Sarah, what about the dossier?”
“The dossier is false opposition research that was funded by the Clinton campaign to attack the president. It was used illegally to justify spying on Americans. And I think that’s quite the problem.”
“Sarah, what about the content of the president’s attacks on Jim Comey, your attacks on Jim Comey? Isn’t all of that a bit unbecoming of the presidency of this White House to go after him in such a personal way like that?”
“I think it’s unbecoming for the person that is supposed to be the top law enforcement official in the United States, the person that is supposed to protect the people of this country, to lie and leak classified information, certainly to falsify documents … if anybody has created this problem, it’s Jim Comey and he should be the one held responsible.”
After my briefing the president called me into the Oval. He applauded as I walked in, telling the other aides in
the room to do the same. He said, “I loved it. You’re a f—— killer!” In the ultimate sign of his approval, the president told the valet to bring me a Coke. “When you’re on fire like today it’s a beautiful thing,” he said. Johnny DeStefano, the head of presidential personnel, joked “But, Mr. President, she did say ‘thanks, guys’ to close it out again.” At a briefing a few weeks before, the president had called me into the dining area off the Oval, where he was watching the Masters and going through personnel appointments with Johnny. There was a small pile of Starbursts wrappers on the table and he said, “Great job. You can have all the pink and reds you want, but I think you should quit ending the briefing by saying ‘Thanks, guys.’ I don’t like the word ‘guys.’ It may even be offensive to some women. Plus some days after they treat you so badly it’s way too friendly.” Without saying anything to Johnny, the president turned on the TV, played back my recorded briefing using his TIVO, and said, “S——… you’re right. Sarah, it was an 11 but now it’s only an 8.5,” and we all shared a laugh at the president’s impossible-to-meet expectations.
During the summer of 2018, I flew with President Trump as a member of the US delegation to Helsinki to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin. President Trump and President Putin had visited in person briefly a few times the year before—in Vietnam during the president’s first trip to Asia, and in Germany for the G20—but this was their first summit. July in Finland was hot, and the sun set at midnight. There was no air-conditioning in our hotel and we sweated as we prepared for the two world leaders to meet face to face.
Speaking for Myself Page 17
