Rep. Pete King said Friday that former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus "kept his game face the whole time" aboard Air Force One before President Donald Trump tweeted that he would be replaced by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.
"I give Reince Priebus credit," the New York Republican told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. "He certainly kept his game face the whole time.
"He didn't show anything," King added. "He was very friendly and composed and calm all the way up and all the way back."
King was on the Washington-to-New York round trip with Trump, Priebus, Kelly and White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci for the president's speech on Long Island on law enforcement's success against the MS-13 street gang.
Scaramucci, whom Trump named to his post last week, slammed Priebus in a profane tirade in The New Yorker Wednesday.
Preibus, 45, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, told CNN that he resigned on Thursday and that Trump accepted it.
King called Scaramucci's interview "the 800-pound gorilla in the room that nobody was talking about.
"We were talking about everything else."
He said that everyone on the flight was preparing for the MS-13 speech, to be held at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood, N.Y.
"I was going to introduce the president," King told Blitzer. "Anthony was working on what he was doing. Reince was on the phone quite a bit."
He said that "there wasn't any interaction" between Priebus and Scaramucci.
"There wasn't any hostility. Reince was at the table, Anthony was sort of near the end — on the other side — and there was nothing. No hostility.
"There was no hugging and kissing, but everything seemed fine.
"If you didn't know something was going on, you wouldn't have sensed anything.
"I give Reince credit," King told Blitzer. "He didn't tip his hand at all, on the way up or back down."
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