BANNON RESPONDS TO WND ON RUMOR OF RESIGNATION

Media reporting Trump’s chief strategist clashing with Kushner

ART MOORE
WND.com

Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon (Photo: Twitter)

Asked by WND if it’s true he is threatening to quit, chief White House strategist Steve Bannon responded with two words.

“Total lie.”

Bannon was asked specifically to respond to a report by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough that he has told his colleagues, “If my talents aren’t needed here, I can take them somewhere else.”

Politico reported Bannon was threatening to resign over a clash with President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has taken on an increasingly significant role in the White House. Politico said Bannon is concerned that Kushner is trying to undermine Trump’s populist approach.

On Wednesday, establishment media reported Bannon was “booted” from the National Security Council, casting it in headlines as a demotion, while the White House insisted it was simply a matter of Bannon no longer being on a list of regular attendees of NSC “principals committee” meetings.

The White House said Bannon rarely, if ever, attended those meetings and he still may attend them, if he wishes. And he still has his security clearance.

“Susan Rice operationalized the NSC during the last administration. I was put on to ensure that it was de-operationalized,” Bannon said in a statement Wednesday to the Wall Street Journal.

Bannon originally served on the committee as a check against Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn before Flynn resigned as national security adviser, a top White House official told NBC News. However, Bannon only attended one meeting and believed he was no longer needed in that role after the selection of H.R. McMaster as national security adviser.

McMaster was given authority to reorganize the committee when he joined the White House, according to NBC.

A senior White House official told NBC there is no power struggle. The official said the White House was bringing back more of a George W. Bush-era-type NSC. The council will be more streamlined and the decision-making more deliberative, the official said.

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http://www.wnd.com/2017/04/bannon-responds-to-wnd-on-rumors-of-resignation/