Outgoing White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on Friday slammed the "dishonest" media, saying that reports on alleged Russian collusion were "a joke" and that such "fake news" coverage keeps President Donald Trump popular outside Washington.
"It's ridiculous," Priebus, 45, whom Trump replaced with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, told Sean Hannity on Fox News.
"But, yet, if you look at headlines over the last six months, you would think that that's the only thing happening in the world.
"Here's the good thing," he continued. "When you go out to the Midwest, the president's very popular.
"The problem with Washington is you live in a little tiny bubble – and this bubble is very, very different than the rest of the country.
"And, then, you read all this stuff and you start thinking, 'What in the world is going on?'"
Trump announced Kelly's appointment on Twitter after speaking in New York about the administration's efforts to stop the violent MS-13 street gang.
Kelly, 67, a four-star Marine general, takes over on Monday. He was nominated as DHS secretary in January.
Priebus praised the appointment, telling Hannity that he would spend two weeks working with Kelly on the transition.
He also was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN.
Priebus said that he tendered his resignation privately to President Trump on Thursday and that he accepted it.
"He is a good friend," Priebus said of Trump. "But this is about not friendship.
"This is about making sure that everything's being run at the direction of the president.
"Gen. Kelly is a good man. We've gotten to know each other very well."
As with Blitzer, Priebus declined to comment on White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci's profane tirade slamming him and chief strategist Steve Bannon in The New Yorker on Wednesday.
"It's getting in the mud," he told Hannity. "The palace intrigue stuff is annoying – and I think it's a distraction.
"It takes away from the president's agenda.
"He's doing a great job," Priebus added. "I'm feeling good about the fact that he's making a change that makes him comfortable with moving forward."
Priebus expressed disappointment that Republican senators could not pass legislation to repeal basic elements of Obamacare, but refused to count the effort out.
"In the end, you've got to have 50 votes," he told Hannity. "You can have a majority, but if you don't have a governing majority, then you don't have a majority."
He said Arizona Sen. John McCain, who cast the decisive vote killing the bare-bones repeal bill early Friday, could be won over — as well as Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who also opposed it.
"I don't think it's over though," Priebus said. "I would not say that repealing and replacing Obamacare before September is off the table."
In addition, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee ripped Democrats for the "minuscule amount of cooperation" they have given President Trump.
"We have hundreds of nominees sitting in clearance or in Senate committees right now," Priebus said. "Senate rules are complicated.
"But I'm hoping that some of these folks in the Senate come to their senses and see that they're hurting the country by not just blocking the president, but doing it in a way that that is obnoxious.
"It injures the United States of America.
"They're injuring the country that they're elected to serve.
"I get that you want to have a robust debate," he added. "Have the debate, but don't do it at the expense of the country."
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