betsy, from that piece in the washington post what the personnel office is like in the white house. january, the folks in the office played a drinking game in the office called icing to celebrate the deputy director s 30th birthday where you walk up and give him a smirnoff ice that is four or five years old. not to be petty. i thought it was a new thing. we didn t play that when i was in college. it made me feel like an old person. it gives you a sense of what the operation is there. i guess i wonder as someone who reports on this white house, what is your general sense of what the level of competence is generally in that place? it s not great. part of the reason is trump has sent a message from the top down that the only thing that really matters is loyalty to donald trump. right, right. and competence is not necessarily part of that. we know from the early days of the transition, there were signs in the transition team office that said never trump equals no
these positions falls largely on something called the presidential personnel office. but according to the the post the obscure white house office responsible for recruiting and vetting thousands of political appointees has suffered from inexperience and a shortage of staff, hobbling the trump administration s efforts to place key to place qualified people in key posts across government, documents and interviews show. the article describes the office as something of a social hub where young staffers from throughout the administration stop by to hang out on couches and smoke electronic cigarettes. it describes a night in january when they played a drinking game in the office called icing to celebrate the deputy director s 30th birthday. icing outside of the world of hockey involves hiding a bottle of smirnoff ice, a flavored malt liquor as they describe it in the newspaper world, and demanding that the person who discovers it, in this case the
with the north korean leader. there s no ambassadortors south korea. he added a controversial question to the census. there s no census director. there are real consequences when you re not filling these jobs. one more piece of color, betsy, from that piece in the washington post what the personnel office is like in the white house. january, the folks in the office played a drinking game in the office called icing to celebrate the deputy director s 30th birthday where you walk up and give him a smirnoff ice that is four or five years old. not to be petty. i thought it was a new thing. we didn t play that when i was in college. it made me feel like an old person. it gives you a sense of what the operation is there. i guess i wonder as someone who reports on this white house, what is your general sense of what the level of competence is generally in that place? it s not great. part of the reason is trump has sent a message from the top down that the only thing that really matte
korea. he added a controversial question to the census. there s no census director. there are real consequences when you re not filling these jobs. one more piece of color, betsy, from that piece in the washington post what the personnel office is like in the white house. january, the folks in the office played a drinking game in the office called icing to celebrate the deputy director s 30th birthday where you walk up and give him a smirnoff ice that is four or five years old. not to be petty. i thought it was a new thing. we didn t play that when i was in college. it made me feel like an old person. it gives you a sense of what the operation is there. i guess i wonder as someone who reports on this white house, what is your general sense of what the level of competence is generally in that place? it s not great. part of the reason is trump has sent a message from the top down that the only thing that really matters is loyalty to donald trump. right, right. and competenc
manifested. we had to wear business if you went into the white house on the weekend, you didn t wear jeans and a sweater. i come into this building we re casually dressed, we were permitted to walk on the white house complex under george w. bush. there were disagreement was his policy administration. there is something that s been lost about what you said, the sacredness. steve, i want to read you something. i want to give you two facts and have you respond to them for us. let me read you one more chunk from the story because i think it will blow your mind this story triggered me today. made me crazy. then i want to tell you who retweeted it. someone i follow on twitter. so, ppo leader hosted happy hours in their offices that included beer, wine and snacks for dozens of ppo employees and white house liaisons federal agencies. white house officials confirmed in january they played a drinking game in the office called icing to celebrate the deputy director s 30th birthday. icing invo