LA Times reporter explains how Melania's public attack on Ricardel exposes the dysfunction inside the White House

Los Angeles Times reporter Eli Stokols may have been shocked but wasn't surprised by First Lady Melania Trump's very public demand that deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel get fired, telling MSNBC on Wednesday that it reflected a White House he described as "dysfunctional and backstabbing".

Asked by a gobsmacked Stephanie Ruhle why the First Lady would launch such a public attack on a relatively unknown official, Stokols exploded in frustration.

"It's hard to speculate. It's also hard to just ask that question why, why are these things happening, when it comes to this White House," replied Stokels. "They happen because there's no process, there's a lot of dysfunction, there's a lot of backstabbing. those are generally the reasons why we see things that we wouldn't see in better-functioning organizations, businesses, administrations."

Stokols added that the public attack wasn't this week's only example of infighting in the administration, pointing to several other leaks and storylines.

"Not only did this happen yesterday, it came as there were a lot of leaks about the president coming from wanting to replace Chief of Staff John Kelly," he said, adding that Interior Secretary Ryan Zine was the target of an ethics probe investigation as well. "There's a lot of problems inside the West Wing right now."

Watch the video below.