Joe.My.God. LGBT News
This story would have dominated Twitter yesterday were it not for the airport protests. Politico reports:
John McCain is harshly criticizing the elevation of White House strategist Stephen Bannon to President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, calling the move “radical” because it minimizes the role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff.
“I am worried about the National Security Council. Who are the members of it and who are the permanent members? The appointment of Mr. Bannon is something which is a radical departure from any National Security Council in history,” McCain said on “Face the Nation” on CBS on Sunday morning.
As the Senate Armed Services chairman, McCain said that it’s concerning that Trump has centralized power around Bannon, a former executive at Breitbart who is crediting with developing Trump’s form of populist and combative politics. The Arizona Republican said the most important decision-maker on the National Security Council, Gen. Joseph Dunford, is now being shut out of critical meetings.
More from Business Insider:
The executive measure established Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon as a regular attendee, whereas the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence will be allowed to participate only “where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.”
“This is unusual,” John Bellinger, an adjunct senior fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations and former legal adviser to the National Security Council, wrote on Saturday.
“In the Bush administration, Karl Rove would not attend NSC meetings,” Bellinger said. “According to former Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, President Bush did not want to appear, especially to the military, to insert domestic politics into national security decision-making.” With his permanent seat at the NSC meetings, Bannon has been elevated above the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, who was not offered an open invitation.
The hashtag #StopPresidentBannon was trending last night.