PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — As America reacted to the announcement of a travel ban on 7 Muslim-majority nations over the weekend, President Donald Trump moved to reorganize the National Security Council by adding one of his top political advisors to the key panel.
Trump’s appointment of his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, to the NSC Principals Committee, while demoting the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has sparked alarm among former officials who call the move “unprecedented”.
“I have never been to a principals’ meeting where the views of the DNI and the views of the chairman are not relevant,” former deputy director and acting CIA chief Michael Morell told CBS This Morning. “Every principals’ meeting starts with an intelligence briefing by the DNI. And having somebody like Bannon in the room brings politics into a room where there should be no politics.”
Bannon, a former Navy surface warfare officer who worked in investment banking, as a Hollywood producer and most recently as CEO of Breitbart News, finds himself elevated to a status alongside the secretaries of state and defense, and over the president’s top military and intelligence advisers.
The role of the National Security Council is to advise the president on matters of national security and foreign policy.
Until now, positions on the council’s Principals Committee have been reserved for Cabinet secretaries and department heads with experience considered necessary to make decisions on high-level U.S. foreign and military policy. Although Bannon served in the military, he has little to no intelligence experience.
Former White House officials were shocked by news of Bannon’s appointment.
“The last place you want to put somebody who worries about politics is in a room where they’re talking about national security,” Leon E. Panetta, a former White House chief of staff, defense secretary and C.I.A. director in 2 Democratic administrations, told the New York Times.
“I’ve never seen that happen, and it shouldn’t happen. It’s not like he has broad experience in foreign policy and national security issues. He doesn’t. His primary role is to control or guide the president’s conscience based on his campaign promises. That’s not what the National Security Council is supposed to be about.”
Sen. John McCain told CBS News he is “worried” about the NSC, adding that Bannon’s appointment is “a radical departure from any National Security Council in history.”
On Monday, the White House noted that President Barack Obama’s top political advisor, David Axelrod, attended some NSC meetings, which is true. But unlike Bannon, Axelrod never served as a permanent member of the NSC. He also said he did not attend regular meetings of the Principals Committee or their deputies.
I never sat on NSC principals comm. I sat on sidelines as observer on some issues 2 gain an understanding of decisions. Bannon's new ground.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) January 29, 2017
In an op-ed published on CNN.com, Axelrod explained that he “did not speak or participate” when he witnessed NSC deliberations over U.S. war strategy with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Our access also came with limits,” he wrote. “We were barred from some of the most sensitive meetings on the Afghanistan-Pakistan policy review so as not to inhibit discussions.”
Axelrod said it is clear Bannon is already playing a role in national security and foreign policy “for which there is no precedent.”
“In elevating Bannon to sit with the Secretaries of Defense and State and other key national security figures on the NSC principals committee, President Trump has blazed new ground,” Axelrod said. “Bannon will exercise authority no political adviser has had before. He will be a full participant, not an observer, in national security deliberations.”
Some who have spoken out against Trump’s move say Bannon not only lacks the necessary intelligence experience for the job, but also appears to be ineligible to sit on the Principals Committee under federal law.
As author Fred Kaplan explained, Title 50 of the U.S. Code, Section 3021, which established the NSC mandates that it “shall be composed of”:
the President
the Vice President
the Secretary of State
the Secretary of Defense
the Secretary of Energy
the Secretaries and Under Secretaries of other executive departments and of the military departments, when appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to serve at his pleasure
“As the president’s chief political strategist, Bannon is not a secretary or undersecretary of any department,” Kaplan noted. “Nor, as a member of the White House staff, has he been confirmed by the Senate. So he is not eligible to serve on the NSC, and… he is doubly ineligible to sit on its Principals Committee.”
On Wednesday, Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy introduced a bill that would remove Bannon from the NSC and protect the council from partisan politics.
The legislation is aimed at ensuring “that the president is receiving counsel from national security experts without the dangerous influence of partisan politics.”
Bannon’s power play in Trump’s Oval Office
With Bannon on the Principals Committee, David Rothkopf, author of a history of the NSC, said it would “not [be] an overstatement to say we have a brewing crisis.”
In audio that has resurfaced from his radio show in March 2016, Bannon can be heard saying he believes the U.S. will be at war with China within the next few years.
“We’re going to war in the South China Sea in 5-10 years, aren’t we?” Bannon previously asked. “There’s no doubt about that.”
To read more about Bannon’s role in the White House, click here.
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