The Joe Biden Administration on Wednesday called for the resignation of 18 board members who advise the United States military academies, 11 of them appointed by former President Donald Trump. Among the officials who will have to leave their positions are former adviser and friend of the Republican, Kellyanne Conway, and the first spokesman for the Trump Administration, Sean Spicer. Conway has accused the president of wanting to do without them to draw attention away from the chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan or the increase in cases of coronavirus: “I am not going to resign, but you should,” he wrote in a letter.
More information
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, explained this afternoon that Biden’s goal is to make sure that there are “qualified people” on the military boards to serve on them and that they are “aligned” with the values of the military. leader. “I will let others assess whether they believe Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified,” the spokeswoman said, “but the president’s qualification requirements are not his party registration,” she added. The letter in which the advisers were asked to resign states that if they do not do so before 6:00 p.m. local time, they will be fired.
Spicer has said, as has Conway, that he will not resign and will take legal action. “On the first day of his term, Biden said he would be the president of all Americans. He asked me where that message was, “said the exporter, who has the category of naval commander.
Trump appointed Spicer to the naval academy advisory council, as did Russell Vought, who was his deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Conway, who served as his campaign manager in 2016 and advised him until near the end of his term, he placed her on the air force advisory board. “His decision is disappointing, but understandable given the need to get out of a news cycle that has him mired in multiple self-inflicted crises and plummeting poll numbers,” Conway posted.
Each advisory board of the military academies is made up of members of Congress and persons appointed by the president. Those appointed by Barack Obama retained their post during the Trump administration. They were not fired, but served alongside Trump appointees. This combination of perspective, experience and beliefs allowed for diversity, a value that the Democratic Party seeks to uphold above all else, ”said Meaghan Mobbs, a West Point academy advisor, who was also asked to resign.
Advisory boards are dedicated to overseeing “morale and discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods and other issues” of military academies, according to the air force. Each board meets several times a year and its members offer non-binding advice and independent recommendations to the president to the military academies.
Subscribe here to the newsletter from EL PAÍS América and receive all the informative keys of the current situation of the region