Vanity Fair writer Chris Whipple defended his interview with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Tuesday after Wiles said his depiction of interviews with her and others in the Trump Cabinet was "disingenuously framed."
"When you hear words like out of context and omissions and framing, what that tells you right away is that you are absolutely - you have hit the target. They have nothing. They literally have not challenged a single assertion or fact in the piece," he told CNN.
Whipple published the interview on Tuesday, which was quickly criticized by Wiles and other members of the administration. Wiles described President Donald Trump as having an "alcoholic's personality" during the interview, which she said meant he didn't think there was anything he can't do.
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"And so to me, this reminds me of Ben Bradlee during the Watergate days, who talked about non-denial denial. This is a classic non-denial denial. They're not contesting any of the substance of the piece because they know it's true," Whipple said. "And every interview was recorded, everything is on tape. And so they know that they just can't go there."
In a statement on X on Tuesday, Wiles called the interview a "hit piece," and said "significant context was disregarded."
"The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history," she wrote. "Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team."
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She continued: "The truth is the Trump White House has already accomplished more in eleven months than any other President has accomplished in eight years and that is due to the unmatched leadership and vision of President Trump, for whom I have been honored to work for the better part of a decade."
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Wiles wrapped up her statement by asserting that "none of this will stop our relentless pursuit of Making America Great Again!"
The two-part Vanity Fair profile was based on months of exclusive, on-the-record conversations with Wiles, during which she was portrayed as unusually candid about the president and members of his Cabinet, given her reputation for running a tight ship.
Wiles described Vice President JD Vance's switch from viewing Trump as "Hitler" to becoming his running mate as "sort of political," and said that he's been "a conspiracy theorist for a decade."
Fox News' Marc Tamasco contributed to this report.
