Seven members of the White House’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council resigned from the panel on Monday, sending a letter to President Donald Trump telling him that his actions have undermined the country’s “moral infrastructure,” Roll Call reported.
The National Infrastructure Advisory Council is just the latest advisory panel to see defections in the wake of Trump’s failure to immediately condemn white nationalists following the violence earlier this month at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump said he disbanded the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative and the Strategic and Policy Forum after business leaders on both councils quit. Members of the advisory arts council also quit in protest of Trump’s nod to racists.
“In taking on this duty, we each took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” the resigning members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council wrote in the letter obtained by Roll Call. “Today, that oath compels us to resign. The moral infrastructure of our Nation is the foundation on which our physical infrastructure is built. The Administration’s actions undermine that foundation.”
The White House confirmed in a statement that a few members of the pre-existing, 27-person panel had resigned, but did not specify exactly how many had quit.
“We can confirm that a number of members of the NIAC who had been appointed under the previous administration have submitted their resignation,” a White House official said in a statement obtained by TPM. “The NIAC met today as planned with the majority of its members, who remain committed to the important work of protecting our Nation’s critical infrastructure.”
The National Infrastructure Advisory Council is a panel of experts who advise the President through the Department of Homeland Security on matters related to the security of the country’s critical infrastructure and information systems. In the letter obtained by Roll Call, the members who resigned said that the Trump administration has not focused on infrastructure security or listened to the panel’s advice.
The resigning members wrote that “our experience to date has not demonstrated that the Administration is adequately attentive to the pressing national security matters within the NIAC’s purview, or responsive to sound advice received from experts and advisors on these matters,” per Roll Call.
This post has been updated.
Well, did you give the advice in a picture book starring Little Donny Big-Hands? Show how Little Donny solves The Mystery of the Vulnerable National Electric Grid by using his not-at-all-abnormally-small hands to point at people who do things he tells them to do. Final scene must be Little Donny getting two scoops of ice cream while everyone else gets kicked off their health care plan.
Didn’t trump take a similar oath to protect and defend the constitution? I didn’t watch the inauguration as I was super busy watching some paint dry but someone should review that tape.
Seven of 27 represents a few more than several. Heck, it could be looked at as being nearly 25% by my calculation.
That was soooo seven months ago – Hair Furor only lives in the moment (unless he’s nursing one of his manifold grudges.)
He holds grudges against manifolds too?