Josh Venable, the former chief of staff to Education Secretary Betsy Devos, has joined an anti-Trump group founded by former administration officials as an adviser.
Venable, who now serves as an adviser to the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform, was DeVos’ first chief of staff from the start of the Trump administration until his resignation in October 2018. Prior to his term as DeVos’ top aide, Venable worked for the Windquest Group, DeVos’ family investment office.
Additionally, Venable served as an adviser to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush where he worked on his 2016 presidential campaign as well as Bush’s education group, the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
The Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform was launched on Thursday by former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor and Elizabeth Neumann, another former senior Trump DHS official. Members of the anti-Trump group include current and former Trump administration officials, in addition to other Republican leaders who are breaking from President Trump in the November presidential election.
Anthony Scaramucci, whose term as White House communications director in 2017 lasted a mere 10 days, is among the 26 Republicans in the anti-Trump group.
According to Politico, Taylor claimed that a current senior Trump administration official is also in the group, but declined to disclose that person’s name.
“We are interested in promoting ideas. We are committed to founding principles,” Taylor said in a statement, according to Politico. “And we are eager to outline a more hopeful vision of America’s future.”
Olivia Troye — who served as Vice President Mike Pence’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser and his top staffer on the COVID-19 task force, before she left the administration last month — has joined the group as well.
On Thursday, Troye made headlines as she came out for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in a two-minute video from the anti-Trump group Republican Voters Against Trump. Troye recalled Trump seeing a silver lining to COVID: “I don’t have to shake hands with these disgusting people.” By Troye’s account, Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis shows that “he doesn’t actually care about anyone else but himself.”
Although Troye stated in the video that she’s a Republican, she said that she plans to vote for Biden “because I truly believe we are at a time of constitutional crisis.”
Correction: The post has been corrected to reflect that Troye herself didn’t claim Trump supporters are “disgusting.” She attributed that description to Trump. We regret the error.
