September 07, 2018 08:20 AM UTC

Who Did It?

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE (FRIDAY): Officials at the White House are reportedly looking at 12 potential authors of the Op-Ed.

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The anonymous Op-Ed published by the New York Times on Wednesday afternoon — you know, the one that absolutely demolishes President Trump — has people buzzing about the identity of the author (“who wrote the op ed” is a top suggested search on Google). We know the person responsible is a “senior official in the Trump administration,” as described by the Times…and that’s about all we know.

The list of suspects is immense and hard to narrow down, so we took to the Internet tubes to find the names being mentioned most often. Our sources include Chris Cillizza of CNN; Taylor Telford of the Washington Post; Andrew Prokop at Vox.com; and even the betting site OddsShark (which listed Vice President Mike Pence — who purportedly likes the word “lodestar” — as the early favorite on Wednesday).

Here is that list, which is by no means exhaustive:

1. Don McGahn, White House counsel
2. Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence
3. Kellyanne Conway, White House adviser/counselor
4. John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff
5. Kirstjen Nielsen, head of the Department of Homeland Security
6. Jeff Sessions, Attorney General
7. James Mattis, Secretary of Defense
8. Fiona Hill, White House Russia expert
9. Mike Pence, Vice President
10. Nikki Haley, Ambassador to the United Nations
11. Jared Kushner, “first son-in-law”
12. Ivanka Trump, “first daughter”
13. Melania Trump, First Lady
14. Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary
15. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary
16. Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State
17. Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education
18. Stephen Miller, Senior White House adviser
19. Gina Haspel, CIA Director
20. Wilbur Ross, Commerce Secretary

Many of these “suspects” have already publicly denied writing the Op-Ed, but we wouldn’t assume that anyone would cop to being the author already. Among oddsmakers, the names generally getting top billing are Pence, Coats, Mattis, Haley, Kelly, McGahn, Conway, and “Javanka” (Kushner/Ivanka).

So, who did it? You tell us. Cast your vote in our poll after the jump…

 

Who wrote the already-infamous anonymous Op-Ed in the New York Times? Pick from our list or suggest other suspects in the comments section below.