February 16, 2018
CAN'T INTERRUPT EXECUTIVE TIME:
White House left feeling rudderless as Trump hangs back in crisis: After failing to arrest and even extending the scandal over a senior aide's clearance status amid domestic abuse allegations, the president took a low-key approach on the Florida shootings. (NANCY COOK, 02/15/2018, Politico)
The White House was slow to respond to the Parkland school shooting in any expansive way in the first several hours, waiting until overnight to make any formal statements beyond telling reporters the president was "aware" and monitoring the situation.The hesitance followed a week in which the president did nothing to calm the furor surrounding the revelation that a former top aide was allowed to keep working in the West Wing and handling sensitive information without a full security clearance because of allegations of past domestic abuse. The scandal led to criticism about how it was handled by Trump's chief of staff John Kelly and cast doubt about his tenure.In both cases, the president seemed to hang back behind staff decisions rather than taking decisive action to look engaged and involved. The response underscored the extent to which this White House, which is eternally engulfed by dramas -- many of Trump's own making -- remains rudderless in a crisis and curiously flat-footed when true emergencies like the latest Florida shooting arise.
All of the success this past year has been a function of that rudderlessness. The last thing we need now is him trying to lead anything.
Posted by Orrin Judd at February 16, 2018 4:17 AM