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The White House and Congressional officials have indicated that the White House’s confusing response to Democrats’ impeachment inquiry has been fuelled by a fierce West Wing battle between 2 of Donald Trump’s top advisers and the outcome of the messy conflict could be on full display this week. The acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has endorsed aides not to comply with the inquiry and blocked any cooperation with congressional Democrats. The top political aides at the Office of Management and Budget have fallen in line with his defiant stance. Mulvaney’s office blames White House counsel Pat Cipollone for not doing more to stop other government officials from participating in the impeachment inquiry. It includes a number of State Department officials, diplomats, and an aide to vice president Mike Pence because they have given sworn testimony to Congress.

Moreover, Cipollone has steamed that Mulvaney has only made matters worse with his 17 October news conference. He publicly acknowledged a quid pro quo, essentially confirming Democrats’ counterattack in front of television cameras and reporters. Cipollone didn’t need Mulvaney to hold the news conference. It was a message passed along to the acting chief of staff’s office. An aide for Mulvaney said that a team of White House lawyers prepared him for the news conference and never said he should not do it. Point to be noted that Mulvaney and Cipollone don’t have broad experience navigating a White House through such a restless period.

But, their actions have participated in the White House’s increasingly weak response to the impeachment inquiry. The Capitol Hill aides said that White House moved slowly to hire staff in order to work on the impeachment issue. It was a concern expressed to the White House by multiple Republican senators. A Republican strategist and a top aide to former House speaker John Boehner, Michael Steel said, “This will be the toughest political fight this White House has faced. They need to be sure they are entirely focused and all their fire is pointed outward, not at each other”. Mulvaney sought to join a separation-of-powers lawsuit filed against Trump and the House leadership by a one-time deputy to former national security adviser John Bolton.