‘I Can’t Imagine How Any Honestly-Normal Human Being Would Ever Say That Out Loud’: Ex-Pence Aide Olivia Troye Buries Trump in Scorching New Interview

Olivia Troye, formerly a top Homeland Security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, went into detail on Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus and why she turned against the president.

On Tuesday, Troye gave an interview to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and she recalled her time on the White House coronavirus task force by saying they knew early in the year that the pandemic was a serious concern. She reflected how “frightening” it was as she saw Trump downplay the virus and claim one day it will just “disappear.”

“I felt that in my heart, and in my entire being, I think American lives were continuing to be on the line,” Troye said. “[The task force] was really focused on public image, messaging, and it was really more about his personal agenda, than really the agenda that the task force had to have, which was how are we going to save Americans?”

Troye previously made news when she claimed she attended a meeting in the Situation Room, and Trump said the bright side of the pandemic was “‘I don’t like shaking hands with people. I don’t have to shake hands with these disgusting people.’” When Mitchell asked if Trump actually said that, Troye doubled down on her account with “absolutely.”

I was sitting to the right of him when he said it. He was like ‘when you’re a politician, you have to shake a lot of hands. You have to shake a lot of hands, and these people are disgusting. It’s gross. So maybe Covid is probably a good thing, right? I don’t have to shake hands. I don’t have to do that anymore.’

Troye added “I can’t imagine how any honestly-normal human being would ever say that out loud in the middle of a pandemic.” She also detailed the frustrations of scientists over Trump’s dismissal of public health advice.

Watch above, via NBC.

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