CNN reported that 11 officials appointed by Donald Trump to military academy advisory boards have been told by the Biden administration to resign or be dismissed. In addition to Conway and Spicer, the officials include such blatant political appointees as John P. Coale, aka Mr. Greta Van Susteren, who happens to be Trump’s lawyer on his sure-to-fail lawsuit against big tech. Also, Heidi Stirrup, the Stephen Miller protegé who was banned from the DOJ after Trump sent her to spy on whether they were doing enough to help him overturn the election results.
Conway has lined up her alternate facts to play the victim – and exploit it for cheap partisan points. Without saying a word as to whether she’s qualified to be on the advisory board of the Air Force Academy in the first place, she accused Biden of politicizing and polarizing the military and claimed her dismissal was “petty and political.” While she was at it, she wrote, “I’m not resigning but you should.”
Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s OMB Director, has said flatly, “No. It’s a three year term.”
I’m sure the Biden administration can take steps to effectively freeze them out, such as cutting off email privileges.
There were some appointees with military experience who have been asked to step down: Fox News’ Gen. Jack Keane and Trump’s former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, e.g. But it’s pretty easy to understand why Biden would want them gone.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded to a question about the dismissals, saying, “I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified, or not political, to serve on these boards, but the president's qualification requirements are not your party registration, they are whether you're qualified to serve and whether you're aligned with the values of this administration."
Spicer is not handling the news well. He whined in a tweet that was retweeted by Coale, “Instead of focusing on the stranded Americans left in #Afghanistan, President Biden is trying to terminate the Trump appointees to the Naval Academy, West Point and Air Force Academy.”
Then he had a meltdown on Newsmax: “Don’t you dare ever minimize or question my service to this nation!” Spicer shouted.
Sean Spicer had a meltdown tonight after Jen Psaki suggested that both he and Kellyanne Conway might not be qualified to sit on Service Academy boards: “Don’t you dare ever minimize or question my service to this nation! You got it? pic.twitter.com/37nrZSLO4L
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 8, 2021
