White House chaos, scandal? Nothing new
Even for unusually chaotic times, there’s been an unusual amount of chaos lately.
President Trump is threatening to attack Syria, and all but daring Russia to do something about it. He’s musing about firing Robert Mueller. The FBI just raided Trump’s lawyer’s office, looking into hush money paid to a pornographic movie actress. Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA was involved in its history of torture.
And that’s only the chaos from the past week.
To settle our collective agita, I spoke with a Californian who has dealt with plenty of crises in one form or another: Leon Panetta. He’s been secretary of defense, led the CIA and managed the budget for Bill Clinton’s administration, before he was asked to impose order on Clinton as his chief of staff. He spent 16 years as a Democratic congressman from the Monterey area, but he was no knee-jerk Democrat. In fact, he wasn’t even always a Democrat. Not only did Panetta vote for Richard Nixon over John Kennedy in 1960, he served in the Nixon administration in 1969-70.
On Thursday, the Commonwealth Club will honor Panetta and his wife, Sylvia, co-chair
and CEO of the Panetta Institute, for their lifetime of service at its annual Distinguished Citizens awards. On my “It’s All Political” podcast, he answered some “What would you do?” questions:
What should the U.S. do next in Syria?
“I do think it’s important that, having a drawn a line on the chemical weapons, that the United States cannot just sit back and allow that to happen without taking action,” Panetta said.
On the diplomatic side, the U.S. should unite with France and the United Kingdom to show a stronger front to Russia, Iran and Syria, he said. Combining military and diplomatic outreach is “what has been missing in this whole Syrian chaos that we’ve witnessed.”
And, Panetta acknowledged, former President Barack Obama helped make the mess there. Obama lost credibility when he warned Syria not to cross a “red line” on using chemical weapons — and then failed to act when it did.
“Presidents of the United States — the most important thing they have is their word,” Panetta said. When Obama didn’t respond, “unfortunately that sent a message not only to our allies but our adversaries that perhaps the United States would not stand by its word.”
What should White House Chief of Staff John Kelly do to corral Trump?
“John is doing the best he can. He’s a good man,” said Panetta, who worked with the Marine general when Panetta led the Pentagon. He has counseled Kelly about creating more discipline in the White House, both with Trump and the staff.
He had a similar job as Clinton’s chief of staff. He compared that era — rife with scandals real and imagined, meandering meetings, and an unfocused president — to a youth soccer game where everyone runs to the ball. But at least Clinton, save for his affair with an intern, saw the political value of a disciplined White House.
“The problem (for Kelly),” Panetta said, “is he’s got a principal who doesn’t want to abide by that kind of discipline . ... It’s almost an impossible task. I don’t know if John is going to be able to survive that job as a result.”
Should America be worried that Trump is filling his Cabinet with war hawks?
Panetta isn’t worried that new national security adviser John Bolton is “a notorious war hawk,” as Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, described him. What worries him is that Trump is hearing only one set of options.
He said the only people close to the president who believe in “traditional defense and foreign policy” are Kelly and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
“It really is important not to have just a bunch of yes men around the table,” Panetta said. Now, “those views are much more limited.”
“The biggest problem right now is that the president has come to the conclusion that he can operate pretty much on his own and that he really doesn’t have to listen to a lot of the advisers that presidents should listen to,” Panetta said.
Should Gina Haspel be the next director of the CIA, even though she was involved in its torture program during the Iraq War?
Sen. Dianne Feinstein told The Chronicle last week that she wasn’t sure confirming Haspel “is the right thing to do” given questions about Haspel’s involvement in the CIA’s torture program. Panetta disagreed.
“Gina did not support some of these enhanced techniques, yet at the time it was ruled as being legal,” Panetta said. “It was investigated and no one has been prosecuted as a result of those investigations by the Justice Department.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the GOP’s tax overhaul will create $1 trillion budget deficits for the next decade. What should we do?
“There is no way that growth can take care of what’s a trilliondollar annual deficit,” Panetta said, responding to Trump’s contention that taxes generated by economic growth will close the gap.
Trump’s team should do what he says he did as Clinton’s budget director: put everything on the table. That means cutting the military and domestic programs, including entitlement programs like Medicare. And it means raising taxes.
Panetta has budget-balancing cred: In 1992, the year Clinton was elected, the deficit was $292 billion. In his last full year in office, the government had a $236 billion surplus.
“Right now neither party, frankly, is very interested in making the tough decisions that have to be made,” Panetta said. “There’s no reason they can’t do it now — if they have the political courage.”
They aren’t the only ones who need political courage during chaotic times.