Obama Team In Despair Over Flynn Pick
By Marc A. Thiessen On 11/23/16 at 12:43 PM
This article first appeared on the American Enterprise Institute site.
If you thought the handwringing among the cast of Hamilton over the impending Trump presidency was bad, it apparently does not compare to the growing despair among the Obama White House team.
What has them most upset? The elevation of Steve Bannon or Jeff Sessions?
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No, it turns out that the most “devastating blow” was the selection of a fellow Democrat, Lieutenant General Michael Fynn, as national security adviser.
The Associated Press reports:
As Obama hopped from capital to capital, news of the emerging Trump administration followed him, dominating news conferences and private meetings with leaders…. Each time Air Force One landed in another foreign capital, cellphones buzzed and White House officials’ faces fell as the latest news came in about Trump’s team-in-waiting....
The selections deflated the hopes in the White House that Trump, faced with the awesome duty of running the nation, might tone it down after the campaign.
Of all the Trump’s choices, White House officials said it was the selection of Flynn that felt like the most devastating blow, given the immense authority the national security adviser has over matters of war and peace.
By the time Obama arrived in Peru, the creeping sense of despair among his aides was palpable.
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