Mulvaney says he was joking with Trump about calling the president a "terrible human being"

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, recently appointed interim chief of staff to President Donald Trump, told ABC this Sunday he and the president have "joked" about the now viral images of him dating back to 2016 in which he called Trump a "terrible human being".

Acknowledging that the video had "gone around", said Mulvaney, he and Trump

"Look, I think what's wrong with Washington, people spend a lot more time looking at what the people say instead of what they do, "said Mulvaney, adding that Trump" knows that I fought with him to fight for ordinary Americans over the past two years. "

" He I like to have and I like working for him, "continued Mulvaney.

During his 2016 reelection campaign the South Carolina congressman described Trump as a "terrible human being" who made "disgusting and indefensible" comments about women in audio who were inadvertently caught by "Access Hollywood". Band of 2005, published a month before the elections of 2016, Trump made a series of obscene comments about women, which he boasts of having seized the genitals.

At the time, Republicans all over the country had denounced their remarks.

"Yes, I support Donald Trump, I do it with as much enthusiasm as possible. [even though] I think it's a terrible human being," said Mulvaney in a debate against his Rival democratic. "But the choice on the other side is just as bad."

In a Facebook publication removed since that time, Mulvaney urged Trump for his comments on women dating back a decade.

"What he said in the soundtrack is disgusting and indefensible," he wrote. "I guess it's probably said even worse."

Mulvaney has been the head of Trump's budget since the beginning of his term. The tax hawk was then appointed Acting Chief of the Office of Consumer Finance Protection at the end of last year. Last week, Trump appointed him acting chief of staff.

"It's an old news," CAMO spokeswoman Meghan Burris said last week in response to Mulvaney's remarks in 2016. "These comments were made in 2016, so that he was a member of Congress and that he had not yet met the President. "Congressman Mulvaney continued to support the then-candidate Trump throughout the year. poll, and his support for President Trump has never faltered while he was at the service of the administration.he loves and respects the president and he likes to work for him. "

Allan Smith

Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.