Michael Walz. ABC News/Getty.
President Donald Trump has announced that his National Security Advisor will be replaced. ABC News. Walz has now been nominated as the ambassador to the United Nations, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been tapped to temporarily take the NSA role. Walz was responsible for the so-called "Signalgate" incident, where he accidently invited The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg to a meeting discussing strikes on Yemen. Walz was still defended by the Administration for that incident but it's possible there were other factors for his change in role. Walz will face Senate confirmation for the UN position.
My Comment:
It's very unclear if this is a result of the stupid signalgate faux controversy. I never thought that Walz was a good fit for the Trump administration given the fact that he is both a warhawk and a neocon, in an administration that has little use for either of them. It's very possible that is a bigger reason for this move than anything Walz did in terms of the Signal leak.
I do think it's funny that the media firestorm over the Signal leak was entirely focused on Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, when he had nothing to do with it whatsoever. Hegseth was just in the chat, it was Walz that made the mistake of sending the invite to Goldberg. The media didn't care, they just wanted Hegseth out, mostly because he wasn't a neocon warhawk like Walz is, but partially because he's not one of them in terms of his life experience. This has obviously backfired on him as now one of the guys they liked and who would have pushed for new wars is out on the street.
The problem is that he is going to have to face Senate confirmation hearings and that is going to be a mess. It's means that this stupid Signal story is going to continue to be a thing much longer than it ever should have been. Nobody outside of the beltway cares about this story at all, but now we are going to be forced to have more media coverage about this story for as long as it takes to confirm or not confirm Walz.
Will Walz even be confirmed as UN ambassador? I am guessing he will be on party lines. The Democrats won't vote for him because they want Signalgate to be a thing, but I don't really see a reason for Republicans to not vote for him. UN ambassador is kind of a do nothing job but it's one that isn't going to cause any problems for anyone. And there will be enough warhawks in the Senate to vote for him.
Should Walz have been fired for this? I don't think so. Reassigning him to a new post seems like the right thing to do here. Having him as UN ambassador means he won't be invited to any new discussions but also lets him contribute. And, after he is confirmed or not, the Signalgate story will be well and truly dead. The Democrats will have to find some new way to try and take down Pete Hegseth and I don't see that they will be able to do so.
As for the post of National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, will take the role for now. I have honestly been really pleased with Rubio to the point where I feel I almost owe him an apology. The man was a neocon when he ran in 2016, but his views have either evolved or he is at least following orders despite any reservations. He will be a good fit for the role until someone can be found to replace him.
No comments:
Post a Comment