Mike Pence's homeland advisor was asked to 'spy' on Dr. Birx: 'I was to watch her'
On Monday, Mike Pence’s former homeland security advisor and lead staffer on the White House coronavirus task force, Olivia Troye, appeared on All In With Chris Hayes. Troye revealed that she was asked to spy on Dr. Deborah Birx, who was the coronavirus task force coordinator.
“I'm the person that actually was brought into a room at some point when she first started,” said Troye. “She was coming into a no-win situation and even more so than I think she even realized. And I was told that I was to watch her. That she was not to be trusted because she was a Matt Pottinger hire.” Pottinger was Donald Trump’s deputy national security advisor before resigning after the attack on the US Capitol.
Troye did not appreciate being asked to keep tabs on her colleague. She felt that the focus should be on stopping the pandemic, not taking part in political subterfuge.
Troye went on to say, “So here I am as a homeland adviser, saying, ‘You’re asking me to spy on this woman that I'm sharing an office with, who is on our team, when we know that this pandemic is about to be out of control.”
Dr. Birx appeared Sunday on Face the Nation in a rare interview, where she claimed President Trump publicized charts and graphs that she and her team did not create. And on Monday, Troye corroborated her story.
“I remember that day because Dr. Birx was really angry and she actually confronted me and said, ‘Do you know who created those graphs? Did you work on that?’ and I said, ‘Well, you know that there has been an effort to manipulate the data, to downplay this virus.”
Even though Dr. Birx was forced to work in a “no-win situation,” Troye was glad she finally had an opportunity to share her side of the story.
“I'm glad to see her finally be somewhat free in coming forward and speaking candidly. Do I wish that she would’ve been — honestly, I had hoped she would have been more blunt in her interview, but I also know that is not really her style. She doesn't speak publicly, she doesn’t talk to the media. That's just not who she is.”
All In With Chris Hayes airs weeknights at 8 p.m. on MSNBC.
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