Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov criticized the lack of competent leadership shown by the White House amid its confusing, legally murky actions, saying the rollout of Donald Trump’s agenda has been “complete chaos” and “is not being managed in any sort of orderly fashion at all.”
On Wednesday’s broadcast of The Five, Tarlov reacted to the whiplash-inducing events over the last few days, which saw the administration earlier Wednesday ultimately reverse course by rescinding its order freezing federal grants. The about-face was spurred by immense backlash when it became clear that programs funding health care, schools and housing were paused and websites were down.On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily prevented the funding pause from continuing.
All the while, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s statements to reporters left lingering questions about what exactly has been happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Regarding the administration’s buyout offer to federal employees, Tarlov first said that it could very well end up working against the administration’s goals.
“What I am seeing…is this proposal is having the opposite reaction that they intended, at least in some cases,” she said, citing federal workers writing in Reddit communities that that the buyout offer has only made them more motivated to stick around.
After smirking co-host Jesse Watters said “great,” Tarlov addressed his comment.
“Acting as if everybody who has dedicated their life to public service is easily replaceable or not doing their job is a gross position and not reflective of reality at all, and they will learn that the hard way when they started pushing people out,” she said.
Turning to the funding freeze, it was Tarlov’s turn to be sarcastic, saying that it had been executed “so well.”
“Such a good first day [for] the press secretary,” Tarlov said, referring to Leavitt’s debut before reporters in the briefing room on Tuesday, an appearance which had CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale call her out for using a “classic spinmeister tactic” while refusing to answer a question.
“It is complete chaos. It is not being managed in any sort of orderly fashion at all. It is confusing even Republican senators who are getting their marching orders from the top,” Tarlov continued.
“Then they go out there and say what they are supposed to say like good little soldiers. Then they hear from all of their constituents that the portals are down, they don’t know what is going on with Head Start, Medicaid, et cetera,” she said. “Then they hear that the freeze has been frozen, they say that is a good thing, and I am sure they are about to get slapped on the wrist again when they step out of line.”
The Trump administration, however, denies any claims of backtracking. “No such thing took place,” a White House statement said Wednesday night.