President Trump has called Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker "a great guy," but the feeling apparently wasn't always mutual.
The Washington Post reviewed hundreds of interviews with Whitaker that were conducted before he was named as successor to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and found that during the 2016 election he called both Trump and Hillary Clinton "unlikable."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The report points out that Whitaker's criticism continued up until shortly before he joined the Justice Department. In September 2017, he said that Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville was "woefully inadequate" and that he needed to reject "white supremacists and alt-right groups."
With these past comments, Whitaker joins a long line of Trump officials who criticized him before joining his administration: White House counselor Kellyanne Conway once said Trump "built a lot of his business on the backs of the little guy," U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said he represented everything she "doesn't want in a president," and Energy Secretary Rick Perry said his "toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense" would destroy the Republican Party.
-
Prime minister shocks France with resignationSpeed Read French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu submitted his government’s resignation after less than a month in office
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to ChicagoSpeed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Political violence: The rise in leftist terrorismFeature A new study finds that, for the first time in decades, attacks by far-left extremists have surpassed far-right violence in the U.S.
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to Chicago
Speed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in OregonSpeed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denialSpeed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartelsspeed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feudSpeed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protestersSpeed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoffSpeed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies
