Steve Bannon out of National Security Council role
Top White House adviser Steve Bannon’s position has been removed from the National Security Council’s Principals Committee, a group of the president’s top national security officials that considers policy issues affecting national security, according to a White House memo published in the Federal Register Tuesday.
The new White House memo that lists the members of the Principals Committee excludes Bannon’s position:
The PC shall have as its regular attendees the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Chief of Staff to the President, the Director of National Intelligence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Advisor, the Homeland Security Advisor, and the Representative of the United States to the United Nations. The Counsel to the President, the Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget may attend all PC meetings.
Bloomberg first reported Bannon’s removal from the Principals Committee. He had been added to the group by an earlier executive order in a move that prompted criticism because Bannon’s role in the White House is in the political realm, not in national security.
The new composition of the National Security Council group reflects the decisions made by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who was cleared by the president to staff the NSC as he pleased. The original staffing was determined by Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser. Tuesday’s memo also adds a few people who were not listed in the original memo -- DNI Dan Coats and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford are now on the Principals Committee. Their exclusion as regular members of the committee had been widely criticized, although the White House said that the the two were welcome to participate in any principals meeting they wanted to join.
A senior Trump adminstration official tells CBS News’ Jacqueline Alemany that Bannon only attended one NSC meeting.
Here’s how the Jan. 28 memo read -- this is the one that added Bannon -- “Assistant to the President and Chief Strategist” -- to the Principals Committee:
The PC shall have as its regular attendees the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, the Assistant to the President and Chief Strategist, the National Security Advisor, and the Homeland Security Advisor.
Other additions to the Principals Committee include U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
CBS News’ Steve Chaggaris and Arden Farhi contributed to this report