Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates: Big Mistake for Trump to Exclude Members of National Securi

[TomCADem]

Source: NBC News

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday it was a "big mistake" for President Donald Trump to exclude the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence from National Security Council meetings.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Gates weighed in on a memorandum signed by Trump Friday that reorganized the National Security Council, elevating White House Strategist Steve Bannon as a member but declaring that the DNI and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs "shall attend where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed."

* * *

"My biggest concern is there are actually, under the law, only two statutory advisers to the National Security Council and that's the Director of Central Intelligence, or the DNI, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I think pushing them out of the National Security Council meetings, except when their specific issues are at stake, is a big mistake," he said. "I think that they both bring a perspective and judgment and experience to bear that every president, whether they like it or not, finds useful."

Trump has had a fraught relationship with the intelligence community, accusing them of leaking information to the media about the president's intelligence briefings in "one last shot at me," tweeting at one point, "are we living in Nazi Germany?"


Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/former-defense-secretary-robert-gates-big-mistake-trump-remove-members-n713781

[FailureToCommunicate]

1. Wasn't Trump promising to take some time off (from ruining the country)?

He is WAY beyond nuts... to remove those two and ADD Steve Bannon!

[Zorro]

2. Well duhhhh....

It appears that everyone but Trump and his bootlickers have a firm grasp on the obvious.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Flynn can't work with anyone except maybe Bannon. Especially anyone reality-based.

Unfortunately for Flynn, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence value facts and respect reality.

Unfortunately for us, tRump has stroked Flynn's personality problem by making it a big problem for the country.

[tenorly]

4. But Bob, Trump wants a fact-free discussion.

He must have noticed that's hard to do with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence in the room.

[Sancho]

5. I doesn't matter who is in the room with the madman...

we need to get rid of Trump...

[Auggie]

6. No mistake -- it's a planned cabal. With no oversight, this administration can do whatever it wants

I guaren-fucking-tee behind every decision will be a discussion on how to profit from it. And you can't do that with a General and a spy in the room.

THERE IS NO BETTER TIME TO DISCUSS AND IMPLEMENT PRO-CORPORATE POLICY THAN DURING A DISASTER.

[mn9driver]

7. Remove JCS and DNI, add religiously insane white nationalist.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Liberalagogo]

8. Excellent.

[erronis]

9. +1. Excellent. All we need is Rove, Rumsfeld, and Machiavelli.

Or if you're one of those poor people who identify with xianity; Satan, Judas, Luther, the Pope, the Jews, the Arabs, the non-fundamentalists, the fundamentalist, the sinners or those that didn't tithe enough, blacks, whites, browns, feminists, gays, your lust, my lust, our lust.

However power rests in those hands. Stubby or linked or grabbing some pussy. As long as you can force someone else to do your bidding, you're happy. For a few minutes.

[Liberalagogo]

12. The point was

who is really behind this entire mess.

[triron]

10. Trump/Bannon did it for self preservation

due to eventual possible fallout from Russian hacking investigation.
Complicit in treason

[roamer65]

11. Excluding the DoD and IC from the NSC is a mistake Dump may not live to regret.