Former Pence aide says she's voting for Biden

Former Pence aide says she's voting for Biden

A former White House aide who helped coordinate the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic sharply criticized President Donald Trump in a video released on Thursday and said she planned to vote for Democrat Joe Biden.

Gloria Tso reports.

A former White House aide to Vice President Mike Pence announced she is planning to vote for Democrat Joe Biden in a video released Thursday (September 17).

Olivia Troye is a lifelong Republican, and served as a top organizer for the White House Coronavirus Task Force that Pence leads before she left the administration.

In a video released by the group Republican Voters Against Trump, Troye sharply criticized the president for downplaying the virus in its early stages, saying that the administration knew around mid-February that COVID-19 would become a big pandemic in the United States.

Troye further claims in the video that quote "the president didn't want to hear that because his biggest concern was that we were in an election year and how was this going to affect what he considered to be his record of success." Trump told reporters outside the White House Thursday that he did not know Troye, claiming she was terminated and had written quote "the most beautiful going away letter." "I have no idea who she is.

She doesn't know me.

It's just another person that leaves.

And whether it's CNN or Washington Post, they say negative things.

We have a letter from her, I was just told, that is absolutely the most beautiful going away letter.

She was terminated.

They didn't want her.

Meanwhile, Pence described Troye's words to reporters as those of a disgruntled employee who was playing politics during an election year.

And White House spokesman Judd Deere said her remarks were not true, claiming quote "outside of generally watching the White House Coronavirus Taskforce from the overflow staff room, this disgruntled former detailee was never in private meetings with the president and her assertions have no basis in reality and are flat out inaccurate." Biden has also sharply criticized Trump's handling of the pandemic, which has caused more than 195,000 U.S. deaths, and promised to institute a national plan to fight it if elected in November.