'Please leave the room': Donald Trump kicks out his Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney for coughing during Oval Office interview
President Donald Trump reportedly wanted his chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to get out of the Oval Office because he was coughing during an interview, according to footage of a sit-down.
The footage, which aired on ABC News this Sunday, shows the president in the middle of answering a question from 'This Week' anchor George Stephanopoulos about whether he would release his financial statement to the Senate. At that point, he was asked to do another take of his answer, CNN reported.
"No, at some point, I might, [turn it over]," Trump said. "It’s a fantastic financial statement — And let’s do that over, he’s coughing in the middle of my answer."
“I don’t like that, you know, I don’t like that,” Trump continued.
Stephanopoulos then clarified saying: "Your chief of staff." To which Trump responded with: "If you’re going to cough, please leave the room. You just can’t, you just can’t cough. Boy oh boy. Okay, do you want to do that a little differently…”
Pres. Trump says he “might” turn over his “financial statement” to Congress.
— ABC News (@ABC) June 17, 2019
“I hope they get it, because it’s a fantastic financial statement,” he tells @GStephanopoulos in the Oval Office. https://t.co/8q0FwFD9qt pic.twitter.com/fw1tIc0vxO
Trump then went back to his response saying that he'd like for people to see his financial statement "at some point." The president described the document as "phenomenal." It is not clear whether Mulvaney left the room.
When the anchor pointed out that it was up to Trump whether he wanted to release the document or not, to which the president retorted with: "No … It’s up to lawyers.”
The Republican, during the same interview, said that he would take information on his 2020 opponents from foreign governments and would not necessarily tell the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about it.
Trump, during the highly-publicized interview, also claimed that his predecessor President Obama "must have known about" the FBI's alleged efforts to ensure that he would not win the presidency in 2016. The president also denied ordering White House Counsel Don McGhan to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, according to reports.
