White House asks for resignations of Trump-appointed military academy board members, they said ‘no’
On Wednesday, September 8, the Biden Administration’s HR office sent a letter to 18 military academy board members appointed during the waning days of the Trump administration requesting their immediate resignations. Those 18 appointees included several high-profile, controversial, and avid supporters from Trump’s inner circle, including “former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway (Air Force Academy), press secretary Sean Spicer (Naval Academy), national security adviser H.R. McMaster (Military Academy) and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought (Naval Academy,) according to The Associated Press.
According to the letter sent out by Cathy Russell, Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, the Trump appointees had until 6 p.m. yesterday (September 8) to tender their resignations or else be terminated.
Surprisingly, most of the board members we know about just said “no,” and that they would not be resigning.
MSN shared former director of the White House budget office, Russ Vought’s response when he tweeted, “No. It’s a three year term.” Vought’s Tweet also displayed the actual letter sent to him from Russell.
Not to be outdone, former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also refused the opportunity to resign her post from the Air Force Academy advisory board, saying that the request from the White House was, “petty and political, if not personal,” as shared by NBC News. Conway took things a step further by including a jab at the current U.S. President when she tweeted, “President Biden, I’m not resigning, but you should.”
Military academies, including the U.S. Military Academy, the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy, have nonpartisan advisory panels made up of presidential and congressional appointees who serve three-year terms. The boards give the schools nonbinding advice about matters like curriculum and student resources. ~ NBC News
Sean Spicer, former Trump White House Communications Director, best known as a purveyor of “alternative facts” during his stint at the White House prior to his resignation, is now a host on TV’s conservative news station Newsmax. Spicer took the news of his impending termination directly to the Newsmax airwaves.
Also yesterday, Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, shed some light on the terminations when she said that the move was made to “ensure you have nominees and people serving on these boards who are qualified to serve on them and who are aligned with your values.”
Psaki went on to say that “I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified or not political to serve on these boards. But the president’s qualification requirements are not your party registration. They are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you’re aligned with the values of this administration.”
Ace News Today is going out on a limb and making the educated guess that none of the Trump administration’s presidentially appointed board members tendered their resignations, and that they have all now been summarily terminated.
For more on the story, see the video accompanying this article.
(Cover photo, Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway, Image credit: Sean Spicer Twitter)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
