(liquid being poured from a bottle)
(glass being clinked)
- [Narrator] That's Nick Ayers.
Vice President Mike Pence's Chief of Staff,
former Executive Director of the
Republican Governors Association,
and according to Omarosa, the author of the New York
Times anonymous op-ed claiming to be the resistance
inside the Trump administration.
- [Reporter] Who do you think wrote the op-ed?
- I think it's somebody out of Pence's office,
and I suspect it might be Nick Ayers.
- [Narrator] Ayers was born in 1982 in Cobb County, Georgia
to parents who voted for Bill Clinton and Ross Perot.
Growing up, Ayers, in his own words, was
"high on" Bill Clinton and Georgia's Democratic governor
Zell Miller.
In high school, Ayers said he was the trustworthy member
in his group of friends who ran on "the edge of the line".
He was the guy who would "organize huge drinking parties,"
but act as the designated driver.
"I would say, look, we have to be careful here.
"We can't let people find out."
By 2000, when Ayers enrolled in Kennesaw State University,
his Democratic roots had worn off.
He spent most of his time chairing the university's
College Republicans.
In 2001, he organized a
rally in Athens, Georgia where he met
then gubernatorial candidate
and now secretary of agriculture, Sonny Perdue.
After befriending him, Ayers, a 19-year-old freshman,
left Kennesaw State University for the campaign trail.
Ayers served as Perdue's body man
during his longshot run for governor of Georgia,
which he ended up winning in 2002,
becoming the state's first Republican governor since 1872.
When Ayers was 22, Perdue tapped him
to lead his re-election effort as campaign manager.
But things got weird
when Perdue also tapped Ayers to become part of his family.
When Perdue found out Ayers was dating a girl
from the coastal elite state of New York, he said,
"You're crazy, you've got to date a Southern girl."
So Perdue set Ayers up with his second cousin.
Ayers was hesitant at first,
but "she was kind of persistent,"
so they married in 2005.
Ayers voluntarily told the Washington Post
that he was so consumed with his workload
that he and his wife, Jamie,
"didn't really have sex" for the first three years
of their marriage.
- 2006 was an awful year.
- [Narrator] It was no doubt a stressful time for Ayers
and things weren't about to get easier.
In 2006, as Perdue's campaign manager,
less than two weeks before the election,
Ayers was pulled over for drinking and driving.
An officer reportedly caught him weaving in and out of lanes
doing 50mph in a 35mph zone.
- [Narrator] Ayers admitted to drinking
"a strong jack and Coke"
but didn't see anything wrong with that.
- [Narrator] Then, in a last ditch effort,
Ayers tried convincing the officer
that he should be out arresting people that aren't him.
- [Narrator] But
unfortunately for the self diagnosed "chucklehead,"
the officer deemed drinking and driving dangerous
and decided not to let him off the hook.
Ayers refused to take a breathalyzer,
which automatically results in an arrest in Georgia.
Six months later, after Perdue won his re-election,
the charges against Ayers were reduced to reckless driving.
In 2006, Perdue was appointed
chairman of the Republican Governors Association,
where he brought his old pal
and newly minted family member on for the ride.
Ayers became the executive director of the association,
he was the youngest ever to lead it
and he was able to wrangle "six and seven-figure donations
from some of the biggest donors on the right,"
the New York Times notes.
Before Ayers arrived,
the budget for the '05-'06 election cycle was $43 million.
At the end of 2010, the budget was almost three times that.
In 2011, he decided to pack up in a strange move.
Instead of working in the heart of a campaign,
he left the RGA for a media company.
He accepted a partnership at an ad-buying firm
called Target Enterprises.
Target worked on behalf of campaigns,
buying ad time through the campaign budget
and keeping a fee.
Target worked as the media buyer
on most of the campaigns Ayers worked on
since he joined the firm in 2011.
CNN notes, "The arrangement
"allowed Ayers to earn a consultant's salary
"while also influencing campaign spending
"in a way that benefited him financially,
"a practice that is not illegal but has raised consternation
"among fellow consultants."
But just a few weeks into his time at Target,
Ayers was on the move again.
He announced in an email he had a calling
"to utilize the talents God has given him"
by working in the 2012 presidential campaign
of Tim Pawlenty, the guy who once said "based on results,
"I'm the most pro-life candidate" and.
- Sheriffs in the law enforcement community in Minnesota
were opposed to legalizing marijuana in Minnesota.
And I opposed it as well.
- [Narrator] In the email,
Ayers explained how excited he was
to join Pawlenty's campaign,
"Over the past six months,
"I have prayed deeply about my purpose in life
"and how to best utilize the talents God has given me.
"I wanted my decision to be wholly about
"how best to serve Him, not what
"was most politically or financially expedient
"for my family and me."
The higher purpose
God reportedly called Ayers to was a losing campaign.
After just three months,
Pawlenty's campaign ended before the primaries even began.
- Look, I'm working for a candidate who has never been
chosen to win any election he's ever been in, in his life.
- [Narrator] The campaign racked up
nearly a half million dollars in debt
and Nick Ayers was deemed,
"the most hated campaign operative in America"
by the Tucker Carlson-founded conservative site,
The Daily Caller.
It was around this time the drunk driving video surfaced.
But in 2015, after hitting rock bottom,
Ayers, depending on how you look at it, was on the rise.
He was hired to work on
Mike Pence's gubernatorial re-election campaign
as a general consultant.
A source close to Pence told HuffPost that,
"Ayers is very religious and Mike liked that about him."
Everyone seemingly liked Ayers
except for Pence's campaign pollster and
former standup comedian, Kellyanne Conway.
- A new survey's out,
it's not ours but I wish it were,
cause a new survey says that 70% of men
think about sex all of the time.
The other 30% are lying.
- [Narrator] CNN notes that Ayers,
according to three people familiar with the campaign,
was critical of Conway's polling and wanted her fired.
It's unclear if he had any notes on her standup set.
Two years later, when the White House was considering Ayers
for Pence's chief of staff,
Conway reportedly tried to block Ayers from getting the gig.
According to two sources,
Kellyanne "erupted" at Steve Bannon, who supported the hire.
Conway was no match for Bannon
and the closest allies in Trump's orbit: his family.
Ivanka and Jared Kushner both
reportedly advocated for Ayers to join the White House.
So he did.
Ayers was hired in June of 2017.
Then-Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci
explained his hiring.
"Nick's there to protect the Vice-President
"because the Vice-President
"can't believe what the (bleep) is going on."
Ayers emerged as a top contender for chief of staff.
He and the President reportedly seriously discussed the job,
but when the President offered him the gig,
Ayers didn't want it.
He tweeted from his account
where a picture of a Ford F150 is his cover photo,
"Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @VP, and my great colleagues
"for the honor to serve our Nation at The White House.
"I will be departing at the end of the year
"but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause.
"#Georgia".
According to a CNN report,
Trump was "super pissed" Ayers didn't take the role.
Ayers will reportedly, instead,
head up a pro-Trump super PAC for the 2020 campaign.
At one point, Ayers reportedly was gearing up
to position Pence for a presidential run in 2020.
An administration official told Vanity Fair,
"Everybody knows Nick Ayers is not loyal to the President."
Maybe Omarosa's right.
- I signed up with a very serious person
who I believe can unite the party and win.
And that's what I'm going to be focused on,
not giving advice to whether or not
the Don should run.
I will tell you this, it will probably help our ratings,
our debate ratings if you'll do it.
- Alright, well Nick Ayers, I--
- [Male Newscaster] Well, that's one way of putting it.