Who authored New York Times 'resistance' column? 'Not me,' says Mike Pompeo

Sep 6 (AZINS) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday he was not the author of an anonymous column published in the New York Times by a senior Trump administration official in who described efforts to thwart parts of President Donald Trump's agenda.

"It's not mine," Pompeo said during a trip to New Delhi, India.

Pompeo, who previously served as Trump's CIA director, also slammed the Times for publishing the piece.

"If it's accurate ... they should not well have chosen to take a disgruntled, deceptive, bad actor's word for anything and put it in their newspaper," Pompeo told reporters.

In the column, the anonymous official asserted that many senior officials in Trump's administration have been working from within to frustrate parts of his agenda to protect the country from his worst impulses.

In the piece, the official described "early whispers" among members of Trump's Cabinet to take steps to remove him as president, but added they decided against it to avoid a constitutional crisis.

The official wrote that the root of the problem was that Trump is amoral and not moored to any discernible principles that guide his decision-making.

"It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room," the author wrote.

Asked about the column during a White House event, Trump called it a "gutless editorial," bashed the New York Times as "failing," and ticked off economic achievements that he said were proof of his leadership.

Staring into the cameras, he said: "Nobody is going to come close to beating me in 2020 because of what we've done."

The Republican president later fired off a one-word message on Twitter: "TREASON?"

In another tweet, he said: "If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!"