Breaking Down The Short Short List to Replace John Kelly as Chief of Staff: Whitaker? Bossie? Levine??
With Nick Ayers bowing out of the opportunity to replace WH Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is departing at the end of this year, the question of who will be next to run the show is a Monday morning political obsession in D.C. Who could it be? Well there are a few names that have floated to the top of everyone’s lists.
They are, in no particular order:
– Steve Mnuchin, current Trump Treasury Secretary
– Mick Mulvaney, current Trump OMB Director
– Matt Whitaker, current Trump Acting Attorney General
– Rep. Mark Meadows, Chair of the House Freedom Caucus
– Randy Levine, President of the New York Yankees
– David Bossie, Former Trump Deputy Campaign Manager, President of Citizen’s United, co-author of new Trump book with…
– Corey Lewandowski, Former Trump Campaign Manager, Current Book Tour Haver, Ubiquitous Cable News Guy
Those are the names that came up since Sunday. Let’s analyze them.*
Among those singled out, sources tell me Steven Mnuchin and Mick Mulvaney have already passed on the job, and that Meadows has mostly passed. Mulvaney’s name is omni-present when there’s a Trump opening, but he’s probably staying where he is, Mnuchin wouldn’t touch the Chief of Staff job with a ten foot poor person, and Meadows would be trading down.
Lewandowski is on the list because I personally think that would be hilarious.
The two people being taken rather seriously as the finalists for the gig are, according to Fox News hosts and Twitter-alike, Bossie and Whitaker.
Look, David Bossie is well-liked in the administration and is currently pimping a praise book of Trump’s hymns, but a lot of D.C. insiders think Trump considers him a small fish in a big pond. In his own book, co-authored with Lewandowski, they dedicate ink to complaining about how John Kelly would routinely exclude them from the loop. Surely Trump knew Kelly was keeping them at arm’s length. But, never having got around that arm, they complain about it in a book? Classic small fish.
That leaves Whitaker. He’s under fire in the media as acting Attorney General because of how loyal and dedicated to Trump he presents himself. Whitaker wasn’t nominated for the permanent job, but he’s a Trump-man all the way. He’d likely leap at the job, and it would help Trump crush the rumors that no one wants the job.
I mean, Lewandowski and Bossie would crawl over each other to say yes also, but again, one is my own private campaign and the other Trump just doesn’t fancy that much.
So will it be Whitaker? Well, Brian Kilmeade and Bill Hemmer, two of Trump’s favorite talkers on his favorite channel, seem to think he’s on the shortest of lists. And Fox is about the best leading indicator of Trump behavior there is, short of actually knowing who is about to book a huge amount of rooms at one of his hotels. So yes, I’d say Whitaker has a pretty good shot here.
Still, if he can name Corey Lewandowski I’d consider it a personal favor. This has nothing to do with Vegas why are you even checking, close that browser tab this instant.
What? Oh, Randy Levine? Yeah. MSNBC floated his name Monday morning, as New York Times sportswriter Adam Zagoria pointed out in a tweet.
Yankees President Randy Levine being called a ‘wild card’ by @msnbc for White House Chief of Staff position pic.twitter.com/91gINLTPfY
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) December 10, 2018
I’mma go with “nah” on that.
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*WARNING: Totally scientific and bullet-proof analysis.
UPDATE: My “nah” was right, Charles Gasparino has confirmed.
SCOOP: @Yankees prez Randy Levine just told me "no one has asked me" about taking @POTUS chief of staff job and "Im very happy being president of the ny yankees" he was legitimately surprised by the speculation
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) December 10, 2018
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
