Ex-top White House coronavirus aide claims Donald Trump said 'maybe this COVID is a good thing, I don't have to shake hands with these disgusting people' as she endorses Biden - but president claims 'I don't know her'
The White House is trashing a former top homeland security aide to Vice President Mike Pence after she said President Donald Trump once suggested that COVID-19 might be a good thing because it would stop him from having to shake hands with 'disgusting people.'
Olivia Troye is the latest former member of the Trump administration to speak out against him and urge voters to deny him a second term – and also the latest to be branded 'disgruntled' by a White House that has become accustomed to taking fire from former insiders.
Troye served on the White House coronavirus task force, which Pence heads.
'I have no idea who she is, she doesn’t know me,' President Donald Trump said when asked about her while departing the White House for a campaign rally.
'I just heard about that, I don't know her. She worked for the vice president,' Trump said. 'I have no idea who she is,' Trump continued. 'I never met her, to the best of my knowledge,' he added.
Trump said Troye was 'let go,' and also says she wrote a 'beautiful letter,' a term has has used for his exchange of gushing letters with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, despite not knowing her.
An official White House photograph showed them together in the Roosevelt Room on March 11 meeting healthcare executives.
Other White House officials claimed she was 'disgruntled,' after the lifelong Republican came out to endorse Democrat Joe Biden for president.
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.
'Never knew her.' Olivia Troye was in the Roosevelt Room with Donald Trump and Mike Pence on March 11, as the president and parts of his coronavirus taskforce - of which she was a member - met healthcare executives
Olivia Troye, a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence, said in a video put out by Republicans Against Trump that 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'
'I have no idea who she is, she doesn’t know me,' President Donald Trump said when asked about Troye Thursday
Here Olivia Troye (left) is photographed with Vice President Mike Pence (right) on board Air Force Two
Troye, Pence's former homeland security adviser, says in a new video released Thursday by the group Republican Voters Against Trump that working for Trump was 'terrifying' and that he was more concerned about his reelection chances than about protecting the nation from the virus. She also said it was 'awful.'
'The truth is he doesn't actually care about anyone else but himself,' she says.
Troye alleges that, during one task force meeting that she attended, the president told the room that, ''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.'
Troye described herself as a lifelong 'John McCain Republican.'
'I have been a Republican for my entire life. I am a McCain Republican,' she said.
'I am a Bush Republican and I am voting for Joe Biden because I truly believe we are at a time of constitutional crisis. At this point, it is country over party.'
Olivia Troye's video message, asking Americans to vote for Democrat Joe Biden, included photos of her with coronavirus taskforce members and other high-ranking government officials
Troye, a lifelong Republican, said she plans to vote for Trump´s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, in November.
The White House adamantly denied the exchange had happened, with White House spokesperson Judd Deere saying 'her assertions have no basis in reality and are flat out inaccurate.'
He further dismissed Troye as 'disgruntled' and said she generally watched task force meetings from an overflow staff room and was never in private meetings with the president.
'Ms. Troye is a former detailee and a career Department of Homeland Security staff member, who is disgruntled that her detail was cut short because she was no longer capable of keeping up with her day-to-day duties,' added Keith Kellogg, Pence's national security adviser, who said Troye reported to him and never once expressed concern about the administration's response.
Trump himself told journalist Bob Woodward in recorded interviews that he intentionally downplayed the virus in public comments even though he was fully aware of the danger it posed.
He is also a self-described germaphobe and denounced the practice of shaking hands before he ran for office.
Republican Voters Against Trump is one of several groups trying to convince Republicans and others who once supported the president that they should vote for Biden.
'Never before have so many high-ranking staffers of an incumbent president opposed his reelection and endorsed his opponent,' said Sarah Longwell, the strategic director of Republican Voters Against Trump, in a statement.
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