The Pentagon’s new uniformed, on-camera briefer will defend Trump administration policy, but will steer clear of politics, according to a uniformed Pentagon spokesman, who says he does the same thing every day.
“I talk about transgender policy, I talk about South Asia policy, and he’ll do the same,” said Col. Rob Manning, the director of press operations for the Pentagon, who holds semi-regular, off-camera briefings for reporters who are in the building.
At Monday’s briefing Manning announced that Marine Maj. Gen. Burke Whitman would become the on-camera spokesman for the Defense Department, a position that has been effectively vacant since chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White stopped briefing in May.
White has been under investigation by the Pentagon’s internal watchdog over complaints from some former staff members about her management style, but says she stopped briefing because of her busy travel schedule with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Whitman’s selection was first reported by the Washington Examiner last week.
Manning confirmed the general, who is in the Marine reserves, will be under active-duty orders and briefing in uniform, sometimes alone and sometimes with other Pentagon officials.
The last uniformed Pentagon spokesman to serve as primary solo briefer was Rear Adm. John Kirby, who was forced out by Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Carter believed a civilian, not a military officer, ought to be the one to defend Obama administration policy.
Kirby retired, hung up his uniform, and became the State Department spokesman, briefing as a civilian.
But Manning said Mattis has no such reservations about a fellow Marine being the face and voice of the Pentagon.
“First of all, I think you should draw the distinction between policy and politics. And so absolutely, I mean he is, he’s apolitical, but he will brief on department policy,” Manning said. “He’s apolitical, so we’ll maintain that line.”
Retired Marine Col. David Lapan, a former Pentagon and Homeland Security spokesman disagrees. He has argued it shouldn’t be a uniformed military officer who explains administration policy to reporters. It puts the officer in the awkward position of either getting into partisan politics or not being any help, he said.
“Are you going to end up having the Pentagon spokesperson referring everything back to the White House?” Lapan said in an interview last week.
