TRUMP ADMINISTRATION - Staffers Raised Eyebrows

"What White House staffers said that’s raising eyebrows" PBS NewsHour 5/11/2018

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SUMMARY:  For the Trump administration, it's been a week of big news abroad, from Iran to North Korea.  But on Friday, there was a new swirl of questions around statements from inside the White House.  Yamiche Alcindor reports.

TRUMP WHITE HOUSE - Where is the Focus?

"Is the focus on his staff keeping President Trump from making policy?" PBS NewsHour 2/13/2017

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SUMMARY:  In recent weeks, several members of President Trump's administration have come under scrutiny for potentially not measuring up in their new roles.  Judy Woodruff sits down with NPR's Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report to discuss the latest on Michael Flynn, if the President likes keeping his staff on edge and whether the focus on personnel is obstructing policy progress.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Just over three weeks into the Trump administration, and, as you heard earlier, reports aren't going away of disarray inside the White House.

For more, we turn to our Politics Monday team, Tamara Keith of NPR and Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report.

Thank you both for being here.

So, Tam and Amy, we did talk earlier about what is happening to General Flynn, the President himself weighing in.

So, Tam, you were at the White House this afternoon.  What is the latest on that?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio:  Yes.

So I was at the White House waiting to hopefully talk to Sean Spicer, the press secretary, when the President walked by an area where there were about a dozen, maybe 10 reporters waiting to see Spicer.  The President shows up.  And reporters asked the President, do you have confidence in General Flynn?  What is General Flynn's status?

And he said, “Oh, there's a statement coming.”

Then someone else shouted, how about Reince Priebus, the chief of staff?  Do you have confidence in Reince Priebus?

And he says (President):  “Reince is doing great.  Reince is doing great.”

So there is a real contrast there between saying, oh, there is a statement coming, a statement that says that the President is evaluating the situation, and saying that the chief of staff is doing great.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  A contrast between what he says about General Flynn and what he says about Reince Priebus.

TAMARA KEITH:  Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  But also, Amy, a contrast about what they are saying just an hour after Kellyanne Conway, the President's counselor, said that the President had full confidence in General Flynn.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report:  Although, Judy, you know this.  That is a classic line that folks in Washington use, like they use the, he's taking time off to spend time with his family.

So, they use — they throw that line out there.  It's really not very definitive.  But, look, the issue with Flynn is as much about the frustration within the White House about the fact that he made at least two very high-ranking members of that administration, the vice President and the chief of staff, look like they lied.

They gave information out on television that wasn't truthful.  And it came directly from Michael Flynn.  That seems like the bigger question here than whether or not we can talk about a specific law being broken about the fact that he talked to the Russians before he was officially in his position.

OPINION - Brooks and Marcus 11/18/2016

"Brooks and Marcus on why Trump's appointments make sense" PBS NewsHour 11/18/2016

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SUMMARY:  As Donald Trump announces his choices for prominent roles in his upcoming administration, patterns are emerging.  New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus join Judy Woodruff to analyze the newest appointments and the governing philosophy they represent, consider Trump's potential conflicts of interest and share remembrances of beloved colleague Gwen Ifill.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  And now to the analysis of Brooks and Marcus.  That's New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus.  Mark Shields is away.

And happy Friday to both of you.

So, President-elect Trump, David, making these three big announcements today in the national security arena, after we heard who a couple of people are going to be around him in the White House.  What do we make of these choices, starting with the ones today?

DAVID BROOKS, New York Times:  Well, if you thought Donald Trump was going to be swallowed up by the conventional Republican Party or by Washington, you were wrong.

He's governing, it seems, exactly as he campaigned.  And the people he selected are very much in the spirit of the campaign, sometimes explicitly referencing the policies he took on the campaign.

So, I would say:

• A) (aka First) They are going to be very different.  We're going to have a very different administration from a normal Republican administration, let alone a Democratic administration.

• Second, I have to say, they have good resumes.  Pompeo, Flynn, they are — it's not like they're just out of the wilderness.  These are people who have been around power and who probably are not going to be automatically incompetent at their jobs.

• The third thing to that we say is, they have Donald Trump's charm, which is to say they are extremely sharp-elbowed individuals, to a person.  And it's like he's taken all the hard bosses or bad bosses in the world, and so far, he is bringing them all together.

And so, if they work as a team, maybe they will be a very tough team, but they could work on each other.  And it could be hard to hire people under them, because these are people famous for being really hard on those around them.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Ruth, what do you make of these national security picks?

RUTH MARCUS, Washington Post:  Disturbing on General Flynn, and less disturbing on Congressman Pompeo.

I think it's really important for us to understand Donald Trump is the president-elect, and he is really entitled to — he has got the prerogative to pick people who will implement his policies and who have his confidence.

But I think — I don't look at it just as the national security team.  I look at it as a whole, and I'm very worried that he is picking people — he talked on election night about the need to bind the wounds of division.  I think he's picking a series of people who are potentially pouring salt into the wounds of division and who are reinforcing some of his worst tendencies, rather than buttressing him and surrounding himself with people who bring to the table both personality and capabilities that he may be lacking in.

And so I would — the three that most concern me are General Flynn, Senator Sessions, and Steve Bannon at his right hand in the White House.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Who comes from Breitbart News.

RUTH MARCUS:  Indeed.

#NOTMYPRESIDENT - Trump's Whitehouse Administration

"What Bannon and Priebus mean for the Trump administration" PBS NewsHour 11/15/2016

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SUMMARY:  President-elect Donald Trump has announced two key White House positions: RNC chairman Reince Priebus as chief of staff and the controversial appointment of Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News, as chief strategist and senior counselor.  Joshua Green of Bloomberg Businessweek and Mark Leibovich of the New York Times Magazine join John Yang to discuss the picks.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Just this past weekend, president-elect Trump announced his picks for two key posts in the White House.  RNC Chairman Reince Priebus will serve as White House chief of staff.  And Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News, will serve as Mr.  Trump's chief strategist and senior counselor.

Our John Yang has more.

JOHN YANG (NewsHour):  For more on these two men tapped to advise the president, we're joined by Mark Leibovich, chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, and Joshua Green, senior national correspondent for Bloomberg Businessweek.

Josh, Mark, thanks for joining us.

Josh, let me start with you.

You profiled Steve Bannon more than a year ago, before a lot of people realized who he was.  That's the employment that's gaining a lot of controversy.  Just this afternoon, Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, took to the Senate floor and criticized Bannon in pretty harsh terms.

SEN.  HARRY REID, Minority Leader:  If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do is rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon.  Rescind it.  Don't do it.

Think about this.  Don't do it.  As long as a champion of racial division is a step away from the Oval Office, it will be impossible to take Trump's efforts to heal the nation seriously.

JOHN YANG:  Josh, who is Steve Bannon, and why is he attracting all this criticism?

JOSHUA GREEN, Bloomberg Businessweek:  Well, Bannon is an odd and interesting character.

He's a former Goldman Sachs banker who sort of became radicalized into the Tea Party movement and eventually wound up as the publisher of Breitbart News, which is the hard-right populist Web site that was an early champion of Trump's.

I think the reason he's so controversial is that Breitbart publishes a lot of things that are vaguely racist, anti-Semitic, far, far outside the bounds of what would ordinarily be considered acceptable in U.S. politics.

And so I think there's quite a bit of shock at the fact that he's been elevated to a senior position in the Trump White House.

JOHN YANG:  You talk about Breitbart News.  We have got some headlines that we can show to give people an idea of what Breitbart News is:

• “Bill Kristol, Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew.”
• “Gabby Giffords, The Gun Control Movement's Human Shield.”
• “The Solution to Online Harassment Is Simple: Women Should Log Off.”

How much of Breitbart is Steve Bannon, and how much of Steve Bannon is Breitbart?

JOSHUA GREEN:  Well, Bannon doesn't write often, and I don't think he writes the headlines, but he's sort of the pirate captain and the guy ultimately responsible for what's published there.

And if you know Bannon and if you read Breitbart News, essentially, what they do is they set out to shock and scandalize and upset people by targeting both political establishments.  In Internet language, they're essentially a trolling operation.

And ordinarily these people exist on the fringes of journalism and on the fringes of politics.  And what's so unusual here is that Bannon has now been brought into the West Wing of the White House.