Trump has now appointed Steve Bannon to a seat on National Security Council and this appointment, according to Jake Tapper, has never been done before and has unsettled people on both sides of the aisle:
Trump gave Bannon, fmr. publisher of Breitbart, a seat on the Principals Committee of the National Security Council https://t.co/i3uKcKXsqK pic.twitter.com/P1WzsW6FSt
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) January 30, 2017
Because Bannon is in a purely political position, Tapper suggests it doesn’t make sense that Trump would assign him to the National Security Council, especially when the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Directory of National Intelligence are no longer on the committee.
Here is how Spicer responded to the criticisms of this earlier today:
Spicer: The idea that there has been "a change or a downgrade" of the National Security Council is "utter nonsense” https://t.co/IIAUxWSnHi
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 30, 2017