President Trump’s memorandum adding his chief strategist Steve Bannon to the National Security Council did not dilute the roles played by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday.
“The idea … that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the DNI are being downgraded or removed is utter nonsense,” Spicer said. “They are at every NSC meeting and are welcome to attend the principals meeting as well.”
Spicer said the changes were meant only to allow the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff to skip meetings that fall “outside their scope,” such as a meeting about “pandemic flu.”
“We recognize that certain homeland security issues may not be military issues, and it would not be in the best interest of the Joint Chiefs’ valuable time to be at these meetings,” Spicer said. “They’re not required, but certainly welcome, to be in attendance.”
Trump’s memo, which he signed on Saturday, ruffled feathers among some national security experts who feared the administration was trying to weaken the influence of military leaders.
Susan Rice, former national security advisor in the Obama White House, called the move “stone cold crazy.” Republican Sen. John McCain also expressed concerns about the changes.
But Spicer argued the memo had been wrongly interpreted by journalists over the weekend.
“Just yesterday, we called several outlets who were severely misreporting this topic to better inform them about what this memo means,” he said.
“The suggestion that he would downgrade the important role that the chairman plays in matters of national security reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the tremendous respect that the president holds for both the chairman himself and the Joint Chiefs as a whole,” Spicer added.
Acknowledging criticism of the CIA’s absence from the NSC memo, Spicer noted that the intelligence agency had not been part of the council since the DNI position was created in 2005. However, Spicer said, Trump plans to add the CIA back into the fold given his relationship with CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
“Today, the president is announcing that he will amend the memo to add the CIA back into the NSC,” Spicer said.
The White House’s top spokesman held up copies of NSC-related memos from the George W. Bush administration in an attempt to highlight the similarities between language used in 2001 and the language Trump used on Saturday.
“This idea that there’s been a change or a downgrade is utter nonsense,” Spicer said.
“For those people who took the time to read it, they understand that,” he added. “The language could not be clearer.”
