‘YOU WILL FAIL’

Obama Staffers Say White House Press Secretary’s Claim They Left Hate Notes for Trump Is a Lie

A CNN reporter tweeted that White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told her incoming Trump aides were left notes saying “you will fail.”

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told a CNN reporter on Tuesday that departing Obama aides left notes stating “you will fail” in the offices of incoming Trump officials—a claim that was met with a fierce backlash from Obama administration figures. Abby D. Phillip, a CNN political correspondent, tweeted this morning that Grisham told her, “We came into the WH, I’ll tell you something. Every office was filled with Obama books and we had notes left behind that said ‘you will fail,’ ‘you aren’t going to make it.’” Phillip’s post did not say if Grisham had shown her photos or other evidence of the notes. Jon Wolfsthal, who was a special assistant to President Obama, swiftly and adamantly disputed the claim: “This is an outrageous lie. I know. I handed over the nuclear office at the NSC. Shameless and disgusting. @PressSec should be fired,” he tweeted. “This is another bald faced lie,” tweeted Susan Rice, Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser.