DeVos' former top aide joins anti-Trump group
September 17, 2020
Josh Venable, the former chief of staff to Education Secretary Betsy Devos, has joined another former Trump administration official's group opposing the president.
Venable is lending his name as an adviser to the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform, a group former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor launched on Thursday of current and former Trump administration officials and other Republican leaders who want to see President Donald Trump defeated in November.
Taylor, who was chief of staff at DHS, and Elizabeth Neumann, another former senior Trump DHS official, started the group, which includes 26 Republicans, including Anthony Scaramucci, who served briefly as White House communications director. A current senior administration official is also part of the group, but Taylor declined to share that person's name.
Olivia Troye joined the group too, after serving as special adviser to Vice President Mike Pence for homeland security, as well as career roles at the Department of Energy and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the Bush and Trump administrations.
Venable did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did an Education Department spokesperson.
“We are interested in promoting ideas. We are committed to founding principles. And we are eager to outline a more hopeful vision of America’s future,” Taylor said in a statement.
Venable served as DeVos’ first chief of staff from the beginning of the Trump administration until he resigned in October 2018. He previously worked at the Windquest Group, DeVos’ family investment office, and was an adviser to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Venable worked on Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign and for Bush’s education group, the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Venable’s rebuke of Trump comes as the president’s reelection campaign pitches school choice as a major second-term priority.
Source: https://www.politico.com/
