Trump scrambles to find top national security aide
U.S. President Donald Trump, scrambling to find a new top security aide after firing
his first one and being spurned by another candidate, said on Friday he has four people
under consideration including acting national security adviser Keith Kellogg.
Trump ousted Michael Flynn on Monday in a controversy over the retired lieutenant general's
contacts with Russia.
Retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward on Thursday turned down the Republican president's offer
to replace Flynn.
"General Keith Kellogg, who I have known for a long time, is very much in play for NSA
- as are three others," Trump said on Twitter, without naming the other candidates.
Former CIA chief David Petraeus was previously identified as a candidate by a White House
official.
Former U.S. National Security Agency head Keith Alexander and former supreme allied
commander in Europe James Jones, who held the national security adviser post under former
Democratic President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2010, were also thought to be under consideration.
Both are retired generals.
Two others also thought to be in contention were former U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations John Bolton and Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, who holds a senior post with
the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who is currently chief of staff of the White House
National Security Council, accompanied Trump on a trip to South Carolina on Friday before
heading to Florida.
He stepped into the national security adviser role on an acting basis after Flynn's firing.
Trump may meet with candidates for the post during his weekend visit to Florida, a White
House official told reporters.
Petraeus held command posts in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and served as CIA director
under Obama.
He quit as CIA chief in 2012 and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified
materials relating to documents he had given his biographer, with whom he had an affair.
Harward, a senior executive at Lockheed Martin and former Navy SEAL, declined Trump's offer
in part because he wanted to bring in his own team, according to two sources familiar
with Harward's decision.
The White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, told Fox News on Friday that Harward's family
"didn't sign off" on him taking the job.
"That's all it is," Priebus said.
ACCESS TO THE PRESIDENT
Richard Haass, who held senior White House and State Department posts under Republican
presidents and now heads the Council on Foreign Relations, said on Twitter the new national
security advisor should insist on the right to choose staff members and have unlimited
access to the president.
Haass, who Trump considered for a job in his administration, also called for rescinding
a directive from the president that gave Trump's chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon,
a seat on the National Security Council, a move condemned by Democrats.
Trump's administration has been dealing with the fallout from Flynn's departure for much
of the week.
Flynn, a close adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign last year, was seen
by Moscow as a leading advocate of friendlier ties with Russia.
Trump said on Thursday he fired Flynn because he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about
conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States, before Trump took office,
about sanctions imposed by Obama's administration.
Trump has defended Flynn's actual contact with the ambassador, saying what he did "wasn't
wrong."
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Flynn told FBI agents last month that he had
not discussed sanctions with the ambassador.
Flynn's Jan. 24 interview with the FBI could expose him to charges, since lying to the
agency is a felony, but any decision to prosecute would lie with the Justice Department.
Senate confirms Trump's EPA pick as White House targets regulation
The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's pick to run the Environmental Protection
Agency on Friday over the objections of Democrats and environmentalists worried he will gut
the agency, as the administration readies executive orders to ease regulation on drillers
and miners.
Senators voted 52-46 to approve Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.
Senator John Barrasso, a Republican and the head of the chamber's environment committee,
said Pruitt would improve the EPA by reforming and modernizing it.
Only one Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, voted against Pruitt.
Two Democrats from energy-producing states, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp
of North Dakota, voted for his confirmation.
Pruitt was to be sworn in later on Friday afternoon.
The nomination of Pruitt, who sued the EPA more than a dozen times on behalf of his oil-producing
state and has doubted the science of climate change, sparked widespread concern in progressive
circles, and has upset many former and current agency employees.
Nearly 800 former EPA staff urged the Senate to reject him in a letter this week, saying
Pruitt had "shown no interest in enforcing environmental laws."
Earlier this month, about 30 current employees at an EPA regional office in Chicago joined
a protest against Pruitt held by green groups.
Trump is likely to issue executive orders as soon as next week to reshape the EPA, sources
said.
The Republican president has promised to kill former Democratic President Barack Obama's
Clean Power Plan, currently held up in the courts, that aims to slash carbon emissions
from coal and natural gas fired power plants.
Trump also wants to give states more authority over environmental issues by striking down
federal regulations on drilling technologies and getting rid of an Obama rule that sought
to clarify the EPA's jurisdiction over streams and rivers.
'OVERZEALOUS' AGENCY
Conservatives warmly welcomed Pruitt's confirmation.
"For far too long the EPA has acted in an overzealous manner, ignoring the separation
of powers, the role of states and the rights property owners," said Nick Loris, an economist
at the Heritage Foundation.
Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, however, said he was concerned that if the administration
does not enforce emissions cuts such as outlined in the Clean Power Plan, it would increase
U.S. pollution and harm the country's leadership in international efforts to curb climate change.
Opponents of Pruitt also protested his ties to the energy industry.
Republicans have the majority in the Senate, but Democrats spoke through Thursday night
and Friday morning on the Senate floor, trying to extend debate on Pruitt until later in
February when 3,000 emails between him and energy companies will likely be revealed by
a judge.
An Oklahoma judge ruled this week that Pruitt will have to turn over the emails between
his office and energy companies by Tuesday after a watchdog group, the Center for Media
and Democracy, sued for their release.
The judge will review the emails before releasing them.
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that Majority Leader Senator Mitch
McConnell had moved to "strap blinders" on his fellow Republicans by not waiting for
the release of Pruitt's emails.
Environmentalists decried the approval.
"If you don't believe in climate science, you don't belong at the EPA," said May Boeve,
the head of environmentalist group 350.org.
More anti-Trump rallies planned in U.S. cities
A second consecutive day of protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's month-old administration
will unfold on Friday in cities across the country, with activists urging Americans to
skip work and school in a show of dissent.
Strike4Democracy, one of the groups organizing what it calls the #F17 General Strike, said
more than 100 public protests were expected.
About 16,000 people responded to a Facebook page for a march at New York's Washington
Square Park on Friday.
"This is how we stop Trump and the entire corrupt political establishment before they
destroy us and the planet we call home," the F17 Facebook page said.
Protests also were planned in large and small cities across the country, including Chicago,
New Orleans and Mason City, Iowa.
Strike4Democracy urged Americans to stay away from work if possible and take part in a community
service.
It suggested people refrain from making purchases and instead donate their lunch money to a
worthy cause and contact congressional representatives about the strike.
Michelle Rodino-Colocino, an organizer for Strike4Democracy, told NBC News that after
the idea of a "general strike" was floated online, it took off on its own, with dozens
of organizers working independently to stage events.
The Strike4Democracy website said the protest was aimed at halting "the authoritarian assault
on our fundamental, constitutional rights" and the victimization of women, Muslims, immigrants
and others.
The planned actions follow the Day Without Immigrants nationwide protest on Thursday
against Trump's immigration policies.
Businesses shut their doors, students skipped class and thousands of demonstrators gathered
to highlight the importance of immigrants to the U.S. economy.
Trump, who took office last month, has signed an executive order temporarily banning entry
to the United States by travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and all refugees.
Federal appeals court judges have temporarily blocked the travel ban.
Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has faced a steady stream of protests and marches,
highlighted by a series of mass rallies that drew hundreds of thousands of people on
the day after he was sworn in.
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