He might have ridden out news about his family's problems, which clearly was dredged up in the attempt to thwart his nomination. But even before this, Trump had been having second thoughts about the wisdom of putting someone with no military experience at the Pentagon's helm in this era.
By Adam Edelman
June 18, 2019 - 1:14 PM ET
NBC News
Patrick Shanahan, the acting secretary of defense who President Donald Trump said would be tapped to take over the job permanently, is stepping down and withdrawing from consideration for the Cabinet position, Trump said Tuesday.
“Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, who has done a wonderful job, has decided not to go forward with his confirmation process so that he can devote more time to his family,” Trump tweeted.
Secretary of the Army Mark Esper, a former Raytheon executive, will take Shanahan's place as acting defense secretary, Trump said.
The announcement came within minutes of a report published in The Washington Post that outlined a series of alleged domestic violence incidents within Shanahan's family.
In a statement, Shanahan confirmed he was withdrawing from consideration for the Cabinet post and was resigning from the Department of Defense altogether. He called it "unfortunate" that details from the Post story were “dredged up” and said that continuing with the confirmation process would harm his children.
"After having been confirmed for Deputy Secretary less than two years ago, it is unfortunate that a painful and deeply personal family situation from long ago is being dredged up and painted in an incomplete and therefore misleading way in the course of this process,” Shanahan said Tuesday. “I believe my continuing in the confirmation process would force my three children to relive a traumatic chapter in our family's life and reopen wounds we have worked years to heal.”
“Ultimately, their safety and well-being is my highest priority,” he said. “I would welcome the opportunity to be Secretary of Defense, but not at the expense of being a good father.
NBC News has not confirmed The Post’s report, which was based on two days of interviews with Shanahan, as well as court records and police records from Sarasota, Florida, and Seattle, Washington, as well as other information that had not been previously made public. NBC News has not reviewed any of the documents.
Shanahan spoke to The Post on Monday and Tuesday about domestic violence incidents, including the arrest of Shanahan’s wife in 2010 after she punched him in the face and, in a separate incident, the arrest of his son in November 2011 after hitting his mother with a baseball bat.
In the 2011 incident, Shanahan’s then-17-year-old son, William, brutally assaulted his mother, Shanahan’s ex-wife, leaving her unconscious in a pool of her own blood with a fractured skull and internal injuries, according to court and Sarasota police records obtained by The Post.
According to Sarasota police, William then “unplugged the landline phone cord depriving the victim and [the younger brother] the use of 911 to render aid.”
Weeks after the attack, The Post reported, Shanahan defended his son, writing a memo that said he had acted in “self-defense.”
Shanahan told The Post during his interviews this week that “bad things can happen to good families” and that “this is a tragedy, really.”
He also said he "was wrong to write" the memo defending his son and that he "never believed Will’s attack on his mother was an act of self-defense or justified."
“I don't believe violence is appropriate ever, and certainly never any justification for attacking someone with a baseball bat,” he told The Post.
Last week, NBC News reported that Trump was having second thoughts about Shanahan as his next secretary of defense and had recently asked several confidants about alternative candidates for the key Cabinet post.
The White House announced May 9 that Trump had decided to nominate Shanahan, who has served as acting defense secretary since January. But the White House never formally submitted Shanahan's nomination to the Senate.
While in Normandy, France, last week to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, Trump asked at least three people what they thought of Shanahan and if they had any suggestions for different candidates, four people familiar with the conversations told NBC News last week.
Those people said Esper was discussed as a possible replacement nominee should Trump change his mind about Shanahan.
Esper has served as Army Secretary since November 2017. He was previously a senior executive in government relations at the Raytheon Company and an executive at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center. He also worked as an executive as the Aerospace Industries Association and as national security adviser for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
NBC News reported last week that the FBI process for updating Shanahan's security clearance was not yet complete. Shanahan has had a security clearance as the acting secretary and the deputy defense secretary prior to that.
Shanahan had been serving as acting Pentagon chief since former Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned at the end of December over a string of policy differences with Trump.
[END REPORT]
*********
No comments:
Post a Comment