*By Carlo Versano*
It's the guessing game upending Washington: who is the "senior official" who authored the [unsigned op-ed] (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html) published Wednesday in The New York Times and claims to be "part of the resistance inside the Trump administration"?
Whoever it was should come out of the shadows and resign, Marc Lotter, former press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence, said Thursday in an interview on Cheddar.
Lotter, who also served as a special assistant to Trump during the president's first months in office, said that he questioned what "senior official" even means.
"There's so many issues of credibility with this," he said. "I don't take too much from it."
The essay caused shock waves in political and journalistic circles when it hit the Times' website. By Wednesday evening, social media was ablaze with theories about who was behind such a jarring public critique of a sitting president ー who also happens to be the writer's boss.
In the piece, the author said there is a cohort of senior advisers in the West Wing and the Cabinet who have actively worked to circumvent the president's "misguided impulses." Trump, as a leader, is "impetuous, adversarial, petty, and ineffective."
"If you're going to have these kinds of disagreements then you should not be in that position," Lotter said.
According to the former adviser, Trump's unorthodox management style makes many uncomfortable.
But as Lotter explained, "He wants to hear both sides of each story," which sometimes causes friction among the ranks.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement in response to the op-ed, saying: "This coward should do the right thing and resign.”
The essay was published days after excerpts from renowned journalist Bob Woodward's new tell-all book about Trump began to circulate. That book also chronicles a chaotic West Wing, full of advisers who have tried to thwart the president without his knowledge.
Trump reacted angrily verbally and on Twitter late Wednesday. He called the essay ["gutless"(]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037485664433070080), wondered aloud whether the Times should unveil the source for ["National Security purposes"](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037485664433070080), and tweeted, simply, ["TREASON?"] (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037464177269514240)
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/marc-lotter-shares-his-remarks-on-ny-times-op-ed).
Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are central to whether Judge Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, all three reacted with indignation to Pres. Trump's mocking of Prof. Christine Blasey Ford, who's accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
The FBI's investigation into Prof. Christine Blasey Ford's allegations against Brett Kavanaugh is likely to be wrapping up soon. As we await those findings, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who serves on the judiciary committee, said the judge's anger at the accusations may be understandable, but his making a direct, partisan attack against Democrats is "not what we expect from our federal judges."
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
The FBI's investigation into Prof. Christine Blasey Ford's allegations against Brett Kavanaugh is likely to be wrapping up soon. Senate Republicans have demanded a report, but the FBI continues to broaden its investigation, specifically to a party that was marked in one of Kavanaugh's calendars.
Dipayan Ghosh, fellow at the Shorenstein Center and a former adviser to both Facebook and the Obama White House, said that big tech has been ignoring "the little guy" for a long time and putting tech users and their privacy at risk.
On Tuesday, Amazon announced that it will be raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour. The news comes after months of criticism and even proposed legislation spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). The "Stop BEZOS" Act introduced in the Senate in September would require corporations like Amazon to contribute to the cost of social services for its employees. Khanna was sponsoring a version in the House. He said he commends Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and believes this move will propel other corporations in the same direction.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney was seated behind Prof. Christine Blasey Ford during her Senate testimony last week. The lawmaker, who was seen crying as Ford spoke, said, "It's so sad to me that this is still happening in America...and that in some ways we haven't made that much progress since Ms. Hill testified 26 years ago."
Canada and the U.S. inked a new trade deal late Sunday evening after months of contentious tariff talks between the two allies. Lauren Gardner, reporter for POLITICO Pro Canada, said the trade agreement will benefit dairy farmers and automakers in the U.S.
California became the first state to mandate that publicly held corporations include women on the board. Some people believe that this will prioritize diversity over merit while others, like Asa Regner, deputy executive director for UN Women, say it's a first step toward gender parity in corporate America.
