Robert Gates: 'Big Mistake' to Push Key Intelligence, Military Leaders Out of Security Council Meetings by Ali Dukakis, ABC News
Former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Robert Gates called it "a big mistake" by President Trump to downgrade the status of the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the National Security Council, limiting which council meetings the two leaders can attend.
Trump made the change to the National Security Council in an executive memorandum Saturday that also gave the president's controversial senior adviser and chief strategist Stephen Bannon a seat at the council's Principals Committee meetings.
“My biggest concern is there are actually, under the law, two statutory advisers to the National Security Council, and that's the director of [national] intelligence, or the DNI, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff," Gates told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz on “This Week.” "They both bring a perspective and judgment and experience … that every president -- whether they like it or not -- finds useful.”
According to Saturday’s memo outlining the changes, both leaders will now only attend NSC Principals Committee meetings "where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed."
“Pushing them out of the National Security Council [Principals] meetings except when their specific issues are at stake is a big mistake,” said Gates, who served as Defense Secretary for both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
As for Bannon, Trump’s controversial adviser and the former publisher of Breitbart News, Gates said that adding people to National Security Council meetings “never really bothers me.” …