Trump Blindsided His Own White House, Congressional Republicans With FBI Nominee
Donald Trump announced his nomination of Christopher Wray to be the next FBI Director on Twitter Wednesday morning.
Trump’s decision to use Twitter and not an official White House channel clearly raised eyebrows around Washington but now we are learning that many felt blindsided by Trump’s morning tweet.
According to multiple press reports, Trump’s Twitter announcement left many members of his own senior White House staff blindsided.
The Daily Beast notes that Trump’s “top communications staff, and much of his senior White House team, did not know the president was going to make the official announcement.”
The announcement on Twitter wasn’t accompanied by a formal statement or fact sheet which is usually distributed to the press with such nominations.
The incident is just the latest example of Donald Trump undermining his own White House staff and putting his communications team in an impossible position.
But it wasn’t just Trump’s own staff that was blindsided by Trump’s tweet. Members of Congress were also surprised by the announcement.
A not happy Senate judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley tells @kasie that he learned of the new FBI nominee from Trump’s tweet.
— Dafna Linzer (@DafnaLinzer) June 7, 2017
“Sens. Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein, respectively the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, learned of Wray’s expected nomination through Twitter. So too did House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer,” The Daily Beast notes.
Donald Trump’s nominee Christopher Wray served as Chris Christie’s attorney in the Bridgeagate scandal
5 hours and 6 minutes after Trump tweets his nomination of Wray as FBI Director, the W.H. releases a statement on the intent to nominate. pic.twitter.com/eha5zvwwkB
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 7, 2017
