White House goes on attack against former adviser to VP Mike Pence

The White House is going on the attack against a former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence who served on the White House coronavirus task force.

"Olivia Troye worked for me. I fired her. The reason I fired her was her performance had started to drop," said Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, National Security Adviser to Vice President Mike Pence.

"She was responsible for coordinating meetings, bringing people together. And when the performance level dropped off, I went to the Vice President of the United States and recommended she leave. I'm the one that escorted her off of the compound."

Troye is the latest former member of the Trump administration to speak out against him and urge voters to deny him a second term. She joins a growing list that includes Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Troye alleges that, during one task force meeting she attended, the president said: “Maybe this COVID thing is a good thing. I don’t like shaking hands with people. I don’t have to shake hands with these disgusting people.”

“Those disgusting people are the same people that he claims to care about. These are the people still going to his rallies today who have complete faith in who he is,” she says, insisting, “If the president had taken this virus seriously, or if he had actually made an effort to tell how serious it was, he would have slowed the virus spread, he would have saved lives."

Asked about Troye as he left the White House late Thursday for a campaign rally in Wisconsin, Trump said he had no idea who Troye is.

"What she has said. I have never heard," said Kellogg.

"That's never happened. I've been through every single meeting of the task force. Been with the president and the vice president through every meeting. What bothers me about what Olivia said is by insinuation, the disparagement of the task force, the vice president and the President of the United States."

A lifelong Republican, Troye said she plans to vote for Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, in November.