Smith criticizes Trump's decision to add Bannon to National Security Council

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee has called President Trump's move to add chief strategist Steve Bannon to the National Security Council an “unprecedented step to politicize” the council at the expense of security.

“This arrangement could hardly be more ominous for the U.S. national security decision-making process and the security of our friends and allies,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said in a statement Monday. “By placing a political operative at the table for all meetings, it concentrates power in the hands of Steve Bannon, an ultra-right-wing political strategist who wants to take national security policy in a direction that will undermine global security, strengthen our enemies and shred American values.”

Smith also took issue with the fact that Trump's Jan. 28 executive order “downgrades” the role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence.

“We should not be going down this road,” Smith said. “Congress will have no choice but to question the integrity of the NSC’s recommendations going forward.”

But in a press conference Monday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer defended Trump's decision to add Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, to the NSC and rejected the idea that the JCS chairman and DNI are being downgraded, calling it “utter nonsense.”

“What we're saying is nothing has changed,” Spicer said. “The director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs are by statute part of the NSC. Full stop.”

“They are at every NSC meeting and are welcome to attend the principals meetings as well,” he said, adding that certain homeland security issues may not be military issues, such a flu pandemic.

“It would not be in the best interest of the joint chief's valuable time to be at these meetings,” he said, noting that if the chairman wants to attend, he can.

The Jan. 28 memo states that the principals committee “shall continue to serve as the cabinet-level senior interagency forum for considering policy issues that affect the national security interests of the United States.” The memo added the chief strategist to the committee, while noting that the DNI and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “shall attend where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.”