Of course, this completely ignores logic; because, if there was concern about the top man on the council, why also remove the #2 and #3 most important people on the council, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence? Which was done by the same order signed by Trump. And why appoint Flynn as DNS in the first place?
That's the problem with this Trump team. They don't think through their spin strategy, if they even have one. So often, their made-up explanation contradicts another part of whatever they're trying to spin. I guess that's how you create chaos -- get multiple things all spinning in different directions.
Trump doesn't realize that his base may love this kind of macho, crazy talk; but it just insults the intelligence of thinking people, to whom he looks like the superficial, unprincipled, impulsive, irrational fool that he is.
Here's how chaotic the inside workings are and why removing Bannon from this position is so important: It's been said by multiple sources that Trump didn't understand what he was doing when he signed the original directive that put Bannon on the Principles Committee of the NSC and removed from it the Chair of the Joint Chiefs and the Director of National Intelligence.
It effectively put Flynn and Bannon in charge and got rid of people that might know anything -- or have the right judgment in a crisis. So this reversal suggests that voices of reason and experience have finally penetrated Trump's thinking enough for him to put adults back in charge.
We're lucky that this got changed as it did now and not after an international crisis. Apparently Bannon was the mastermind behind the whole Nunes-and-the-midnight-run to see the selectively mined "evidence" to vindicate Trump's ridiculous claim about wiretapping.
Instead, it exposed the real reason Bannon insisted that his "mole" be left in the NSC so he could carry out this inside job for him. It was Bannon and Kushner who pleaded for this young staff member that McMaster had wanted to fire weeks ago before this stunt materialized. McMaster wanted to fire him because he was not qualified and because he didn't trust him. And he was right on target. Now McMasters was in a good position to say to Trump: "I tried to warn you."
The whole escapade now looks more like a Keystone Cops routine than something that should be happening inside the National Security archives of intelligence and in the serious investigations of a congressional intelligence committee.
Underneath all these details: What could possibly explain why a president of the United States would be on the opposing side to an investigation into whether a foreign, adversarial power had tried to interfere with and undermine the very foundation of our democracy?
It's not as though this was out of left field. Putin has been doing this all over Europe, and our intelligence agencies were united -- all 17 of them -- in agreeing that Russia had tried to interfere with our election.
What possible reason would a president have for not wanting to get to the bottom of whatever evidence was emerging?
I can think of only one plausible answer. Trump knows that it will ruin him personally and financially. Others will surely be involved and will likely be convicted. Trump's real concern is for himself -- and maybe for his family.
It's possible that, if Bannon gets exposed, Trump could decide to cut him loose (this NSC change could be the first step) and try to rehabilitate himself. It depends on how much evidence they have of Trump's knowing what he was involved in and whether he could play the innocent puppet. But Trump has had too much involvement with Russian oligarchs in business, long before he got in politics; and I'm reasonably sure his Russian connections did not just originate with others around him. He's known and worked with Manafort years ago on business matters.
It is a fascinating soap opera -- if we can only survive in this increasingly dangerous world long enough to find out.
Ralph
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