Leon Panetta: Omarosa's taped firing breached Situation Room security

[DonViejo]

By CARLA MARINUCCI 08/15/2018 12:02 AM EDT

MONTEREY, Calif. — Former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta on Tuesday sharply criticized the Trump administration over the news that John Kelly, the current chief of staff, was taped in the Situation Room, saying that the episode with former presidential aide Omarosa Manigault Newman represented a “breach of security” unprecedented in its nature.

“This is just another example that traditional respect for the rules that used to govern in the White House are just not there anymore,’’ said Panetta, who served as chief of staff and director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration, as well as CIA director and defense secretary in the Obama administration. “It’s not surprising to note that, like a number of other things in this administration, this is kind of unheard of,” added Panetta, who spoke to POLITICO in the offices of the Panetta Institute, which he directs on the campus of California State University, Monterey.

Panetta was also sharply critical of President Donald Trump’s tweet earlier in the day in response to the taping revelations by Manigault Newman, a former top aide whom the president called “wacky” and a “dog.” Panetta said it only magnified what represents an increasingly serious foreign policy concern for the administration.

“When a president now openly tweets the kinds of words he’s been using, not only does it bring down respect for the office of the presidency,’’ Panetta said, “it sends a signal to the world that we have a president who is not trustworthy in terms of what he says and what he does … because you just don’t know what he’s going to say next.”

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/15/omarosa-panetta-security-white-house-777600

[UTUSN]

1. Disculpatory: Choosing it as venue for a routine personnel matter in the first place, besides:

* ITEM: Locking the employee inside.

* ITEM: Designated boss in charge not keeping special security policies in place and reviewed. Somebody mocked me on this, saying that I expected KELLY to act as a lowly Security supervisor - well, every boss is ultimately responsible for whatever.

[Achilleaze]

3. Ba da boom ba da bing. The republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief & Minions (R)

totally VIOLATE security all the time.

[UTUSN]

5. That's the crux!1 Whatever the Mob Boss wants regardless of Security policies

[tavernier]

2. Trump talks like he was raised in a slum by drug addicts.

Panetta is correct that his behavior diminishes the office. But of course we knew that it would from day one. We just didn’t know how many shits he would take on the White House carpet. Bad dog.

[marble falls]

4. And whose fault is it she successfully pulled it off?

[FakeNoose]

6. Isn't John Kelly the one who's at fault?

Kelly took Omarosa into the Situation Room, probably because he was firing her and he thought she would get out of control. But he made a crucial mistake by not asking her to surrender her cellphone before they entered the room. So she recorded the entire meeting and walked out with it. I don't see how this is her fault, she was protecting her own interests.

It was probably her first and only time in the Situation Room anyway. Everyone in the White House thought Omarosa was a major PIA and they apparently underestimated her.