A top White House aide on Sunday kept up the drumbeat against former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, calling his comments in a new book on President Donald Trump "grotesque."
"It's tragic and unfortunate that Steve would make these grotesque comments so out of touch with reality and obviously so vindictive," White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller said on CNN's "State of the Union."
During the contentious interview, Miller offered largely combative responses and focused on presenting Trump as a "political genius" before anchor Jake Tapper cut off the interview because of Miller's refusal to answer questions.
CNN has not independently confirmed all the assertions in "Fire and Fury" by author Michael Wolff, which portrays Trump allies questioning the President's mental fitness for office.
Trump on Saturdaytook to Twitter to defend his mental abilities, saying he is "like, really smart" and a "very stable genius."
The White House issued a statementWednesday attacking Bannon as excerpts of the book emerged with quotes attributed to him that denigrated the President and Donald Trump Jr. The book quotes Bannon as saying a 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer purportedly offering damaging information about Hillary Clinton was "treasonous."
Miller on Sunday echoed the language of the White House's statement to attack Bannon as well as CNN.
"(Bannon's) role has been greatly exaggerated, whereas the President hasn't gotten the due that he deserves for the movement that he put together to tap into the kinds of people whose life concerns don't get a lot of attention on CNN," Miller said.
Miller praised Trump extensively, saying the "reality" is that the President is a political genius and that Trump's Twitter missive declaring himself a "very stable genius" did not undermine the claim.
"The President's tweets absolutely reaffirm the plainspoken truth: A self-made billionaire revolutionized reality TV and tapped into something magical that's happening in the hearts of this country," Miller said.
Trump again slammed the book on Twitter Sunday morning and appeared to reference questions raised about the mental fitness of former President Ronald Reagan, who disclosed in 1994 that he had Alzheimer's disease.
"I've had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!" Trump wrote.
