that she should not continue in the job if he did not view her as effective. one person close to ms. nielsen said she is miserable in her job. after the times story was published, the homeland security secretary said in a statement she s not leaving her post and will continue to implement the president s security-focused agenda. here to talk about it, peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the new york times and an msnbc political analyst. jackie kaumz, white house editor. and matthew nussbaum, white house reporter for politico. peter, is this potentially a case of misdirected anger at congress, say, for not funding the signature program of the campaign? yeah, it s interesting. you heard him talk about this at the rally tonight. you ve heard him talk about this a lot in recent weeks, his frustration that congress hasn t come forward with more money for the wall and for other border security measures. his frustration that his own
mccain has opted pure class in tweeting back at kelly sadler. she says simply, may i remind you my husband has a family, seven children and five grandchildren. yet, jackie, here we are having this discussion. right. the end of class and civility. i m glad you showed the tape from fox of retired air force lieutenant general thomas mcinerney because there s been so much attention to kelly sadler, the young communications staffer at the white house, that i thought that man who was of an age and stature that he should really know better, i mean it was just a heinous slander that he said on the air, which has been found to be pants on fire false by fact checkers. and as for kelly sadler, i don t know her, and for all this talk of her that she should be fired, i m a little puzzled by that given that the tone is set by the man at the top. and you don t have to even go back to his campaign to comments that trump made against john mccain. it s almost become a staple of his appearances on the
nielsen drafted a resignation letter but has not submitted it and, quote, ms. nielsen viewed the president s rant as directed mostly at her, and she told associates after the meeting that she should not continue in the job if he did not view her as effective. one person close to ms. nielsen said she is miserable in her job. after the times story was published, the homeland security secretary said in a statement she s not leaving her post and will continue to implement the president s security-focused agenda. here to talk about it, peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the new york times and an msnbc political analyst. jackie kaumz, white house editor. and matthew nussbaum, white house reporter for politico. peter, is this potentially a case of misdirected anger at congress, say, for not funding the signature program of the campaign? yeah, it s interesting.
particularly in that cabinet meeting on wednesday. she s in charge of the department of homeland security, and as far as he s concerned, she hasn t been doing the job aggressively enough. jackie, your newspaper pays particular close attention to this issue, and it bears repeating that the construction was planned. it was a long rollout as opposed to any new border wall going up in southern california or anywhere else. well, it not only bears repeating, it s borne republishing a number of times. the paper is consistently coming out and saying, no, this is scheduled repair of a long existing fence at the border. and if i could, i agree completely with my former colleague peter there about the fact that none of this has really gotten under way yet. if i could put it in perspective, this week the president the white house has put forward $15 billion worth of rescissions as a sort of sign that it is fiscally conservative and get the deficits down, which is frankly a rounding error in
transpacific partnership. now he s against it. he spoke out against the muslim ban before he was the nominee. on the campaign trail, he defended it as extreme vetting. he is whatever donald trump wants him to be, and i think that s why so many people sort of see him as kind of phony because he and his staffers work so hard to make sure that they re seen as loyal to trump, and the rest of us see someone who doesn t seem to have a lot of beliefs beyond making sure donald trump feels good. jackie, one thing he is, is very adept at media. he was one of us. he started life as a radio talk show host. the george will takedown, how big an audience does that speak to within the party, do you think? well, george will is basically one of the never-trumpers, so they ve sort of been a voice in the wilderness. you know, i have to think that this really stung mike pence although you wouldn t have known it from the remarks he made at the rally in indiana tonight. what s striking to me about