Oklahoman: Rick Dearborn A ‘Good ol’ Oklahoma Boy in the White House
Rick Dearborn is a ‘good ol’ boy from Oklahoma’ in the White House
by Justin Wingerter, The Oklahoman
One morning in the early months of President Donald Trump’s presidency, chief of staff Reince Priebus stood before a meeting at the West Wing. Gripping two news articles in his hand, he motioned toward chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.
“Hey, Steve, it says here I want to stab you in the back,” Priebus said.
Bannon, holding two news articles of his own, responded in kind.
“Hey, Reince, it says here I want to club you like a baby seal,” he said.
Seated between them and laughing heartily was a self-described “good ol’ boy from Oklahoma,” a fast-talking politico whose stream-of-consciousness spiels still harbor a slight Sooner State twang.
Three decades in Washington have not cost deputy White House chief of staff Rick Dearborn his folksiness. “Heck” and “doggoned” pepper his sentences. His mother is still “Momma.” The White House budget director is “ol’ Mick Mulvaney.”