TUMULT HITS TRUMP TRANSITION TEAM
Christie loyalists lose influence in power struggle
WASHINGTON • U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, who clashed with leading Republicans throughout his campaign, faces tumult in his national security transition team and broad criticism over his views and choices.
Former Michigan congressman Mike Rogers, thought to be a leading candidate to run the CIA, was among those pushed out of the team over the past two days — a move that has added to the anxiety across the upper ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies.
The changes came as Trump met Tuesday with incoming vice-president-elect Mike Pence to discuss cabinet and White House personnel choices. Pence last week replaced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as head of Trump’s transition efforts, and Christie’s associates now find themselves losing influence.
Sources say there is a power struggle within the transition team, including an effort by Trump’s son-inlaw, Jared Kushner, to purge the ranks of loyalists to Christie.
Also Tuesday, Sen. John McCain, perhaps the most influential Republican on security matters, weighed in on Trump’s efforts to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying any efforts to “reset” relations with Russia were unacceptable.
McCain issued a statement blasting Putin as “a former KGB agent who has plunged his country into tyranny, murdered his political opponents, invaded his neighbours, threatened America’s allies and attempted to undermine America’s elections.”
A former U.S. official with ties to the Trump team described the ousters of Rogers and others as a “bloodletting of anybody that associated in any way on the transition with Christie,” and said the departures were engineered by Kushner and retired Lt.Gen. Michael Flynn.
Rogers was “fired” by Kushner, sources said, apparently in retaliation for Christie’s role as a U.S. prosecutor in sending Kushner’s father to prison in 2004 for tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign contributions.
Rogers’ departure adds to the list of positions for which the Trump team is struggling to find suitable candidates.
Now operating below Pence on the transition team, sources said, are advisers close to Sen. Jeff Sessions — a Trump associate known for his hard-line views on immigration — and former Breitbart News head Stephen Bannon. Bannon’s appointment as chief White House strategist was denounced by advocacy groups who accuse him of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynist views.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that Trump must retract the appointment, calling Bannon a “champion of white supremacy” whose hiring undermines Trump’s call for national unity.