In a wide-ranging interview on Sunday morning, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told host Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday” that the White House is “very close” to identifying the person or persons who leaked the president’s White House schedule to Axios last week.
“Someone within the White House spent three months collecting this information, which is really, really hard to do,” said Mulvaney. “And it also sheds light on the fact that many people who work for us weren’t hired [by] us.”
Mulvaney added Sunday morning on “Fox News Sunday” that as acting chief of staff, he receives “much more private schedules.”
He also hinted the culprit or culprits are likely “career staffers” — and he zeroed in on civil service protections that can hamstring new administrations.
He said his time working with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau showed him that it is “nearly impossible to fire a federal worker.”
When Wallace asked Mulvaney how close they were to finding out who leaked the memos, Mulvaney replied, “We’re hoping to have a resolution on that this week.”
Mulvaney also addressed the ongoing impasse over funding for President Trump’s proposed security wall on the southern border.
“This wall is going to get built with or without Congress,” said Mulvaney. “We’ll take as much money as [Congress] can give us and then we will go off and find the money someplace else, legally, in order to secure that southern barrier,” he added of the administration’s current attitude regarding the negotiations.- READ MORE