NATION/WORLD
Saturday, August 19, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 11A
Trump ousts Bannon, his influential, divisive strategist
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— Steve Bannon, the
blunt-spoken and divisive
strategist who rose from
Donald Trump’s conser-
vative campaign to a top
White House post, was
pushed out by the president
Friday, capping a turbulent
seven months marked by
the departure of much of
Trump’s original senior staff.
The former leader of
conservative
Breitbart
News and a favorite in the
farther-right portions of the
Republican Party, Bannon
had pushed Trump to follow
through on some of his
most contentious campaign
promises including his travel
ban for some foreigners and
his decision to pull out of
the Paris climate change
agreement. He returned to
Breitbart News as executive
chairman and chaired the
Friday evening editorial
meeting, the news site
announced.
Barely more than a
half-year in, Trump now
has forced out his hardline
national security adviser,
his chief of staff, his press
secretary (whose last day
will be Aug. 31) and two
communications directors
— in addition to the FBI
director he inherited from
Barack Obama.
Bannon’s departure is
especially significant since
he was viewed by many as
Trump’s connection to his
base of most-committed
voters and the protector of
the disruptive, conservative
agenda that propelled the
celebrity businessman to the
White House.
“It’s a tough pill to
swallow if Steve is gone
because you have a Repub-
lican West Wing that’s
filled with generals and
Democrats,” said former
campaign strategist Sam
Nunberg, shortly before the
news of Bannon’s departure
broke. “It would feel like the
twilight zone.”
From Breitbart, there
was a dramatic one-word
warning.
“#WAR,” tweeted Joel
B. Pollak, a senior editor at
large at the news site.
Indeed, Bannon’s nation-
alistic, outsider conservatism
served as a guiding force for
Trump’s rise to office. He
injected a dark populism
into the campaign and sharp-
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File
In this April 29 file photo, Steve Bannon, chief White
House strategist to President Donald Trump is seen in
Harrisburg, Pa.
ened its attacks on Democrat
Hillary Clinton, encouraging
Trump’s instinct to fight
and counter-punch at every
turn. When the release of a
2005 tape, in which Trump
can be heard boasting about
groping women, threatened
to capsize the Republi-
can’s campaign, Bannon
attempted to turn the tables
by gathering a group of
women who accused Bill
Clinton of sexual assault and
trying to ambush the Demo-
cratic nominee at a general
election debate.
Without him, Trump’s
agenda is left in the hands
of more moderate advisers,
including his son-in-law, his
daughter and his economic
adviser whom Bannon has
slammed as “globalist.”
But Bannon was also
accused by many of his
critics of leaking to reporters
in a bid for self-promotion,
and egging on Trump’s most
damaging impulses.
Trump
spokeswoman
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
said Bannon and Chief
of Staff John Kelly, only
recently installed himself,
had agreed that Friday
would be Bannon’s last day.
“We are grateful for his
service and wish him the
best,” she said in the only
statement from the White
House.
A combative and unorth-
odox Republican, Bannon
was a contentious presence
in a White House divided by
warring staff loyalties. He
repeatedly clashed with other
top advisers, most notably
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared
Kushner. His puppet-master
image also drew the ire of
the president, who at times
bristled at the perception that
Bannon was the mastermind
of his winning campaign
and the force behind White
House policies.
One person close to
Bannon said he had offered
his resignation to Trump
on Aug. 7. It was to go
into effect a week later, the
one-year anniversary of
when he officially joined
Trump’s
presidential
campaign. But the depar-
ture was delayed after the
violence in Charlottesville,
Virginia, said the person,
who spoke only on condi-
tion of anonymity to discuss
private conversations.
In fact, Bannon has been
on shaky ground for weeks,
and his job appeared in jeop-
ardy when Kelly announced
that he’d be embarking on
a personnel review of West
Wing staff.
Though Bannon had
adopted a lower profile
in recent weeks, he again
became
a
flashpoint
following criticism from
the right of national security
adviser H.R. McMaster,
which some blamed on him,
and Trump’s refusal to blame
white nationalists for the
violence in Charlottesville,
Virginia.
Earlier this week, The
American Prospect posted
an interview in which he
contradicted Trump by
saying there was no mili-
tary solution to the threat
posed by North Korea and
its nuclear ambitions. Just
last week, Trump pledged
to answer North Korean
aggression with “fire and
fury.”
BRIEFLY
Trump studying options
for new approach to
Afghan war
WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Donald Trump is
“studying and considering his
options” for a new approach to
Afghanistan and the broader South
Asia region, the White House said
Friday after the president huddled
with his top national security aides
at Camp David.
White House press secretary
Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued
a brief statement saying Trump
had been briefed extensively on a
new strategy to “protect America’s
interests” in the region. She did not
specifically mention Afghanistan.
“The president is studying and
considering his options and will
make an announcement to the
American people, to our allies and
partners, and to the world at the
appropriate time,” she said.
The administration has
struggled for months to formulate
a new approach to the war. But
stepping up the fight in a way that
advances peace prospects may be
even more difficult, in part because
the Taliban has been gaining
ground and shown no interest in
peace negotiations.
Trump met at the presidential
retreat in nearby Maryland with
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson,
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, top
intelligence agency officials and
other top military and diplomatic
aides. Mattis said earlier this
week the administration was
“very close” to finalizing a new
approach.
Citing Trump remarks,
entire president’s arts
council quits
Actor Kal Penn, artist Chuck
Close and the entire membership
of the President’s Committee on
the Arts and the Humanities have
announced their resignation. A
letter dated Friday, and signed
by 16 of 17 committee members,
cited the “false equivalence”
of President Donald Trump’s
comments about last weekend’s
“Unite the Right” gathering in
Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump
has blamed “many sides” for
the demonstrations that left an
anti-racism activist dead.
The White House said Trump
had already decided against
renewing the advisory committee
for budgetary reasons.
“Ignoring your hateful rhetoric
would have made us complicit
in your words and actions,”
the letter reads. “Supremacy,
discrimination, and vitriol are not
American values. Your values are
not American values. We must
be better than this. We are better
than this. If this is not clear to you,
then we call on you to resign your
office, too.”
Spanish plan for
carnage started with
botched explosion
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) —
A cell of at least nine extremists
meticulously plotted to combine
vehicles and explosives in a direct
hit on tourists, and managed to
carry off most of their deadly
plan, killing 14 people, authorities
said Friday. Police in Spain and
France pressed a manhunt for any
remaining members of the group,
which Islamic State claimed as its
own.
Only flawed bomb construction
avoided a more devastating attack,
authorities said after taking a
closer look at a blast Wednesday
evening in the town of Alcanar that
was first written off as a household
gas explosion. At least one person
was killed and several injured in
the home where police said the
deadly plan took shape.
Eighteen hours later, a rented
van veered into Barcelona’s
crowded Las Ramblas promenade,
swerving along the walkway
Thursday and killing 13 people.
A surveillance video from
inside a museum, which captured
images of the van, showed it
speeding down the promenade,
barely missing a person with a
stroller while others scattered.
Armed with an ax, knives and
false explosives belts, attackers
then drove a second vehicle to
LARSON: Was elected as OEA president in April
Continued from 1A
Such inclusion may seem
at odds with an association
that most closely aligns with
Democratic candidates and
ballot measures. Larson sees
the shift as following the
mission of the association
to do what is best for the
students in public education.
As the son of school-
teachers in Montana, Larson
grew up in a culture that
values union ideals. His first
stint as union representative
came early in his career when
he volunteered as a building
representative
for
the
Morrow County Education
Association. He later served
as president for the associa-
tion for four years.
During his involvement
in OEA, he has served as
bargaining chair, president
of the Hermiston Association
of Teachers, the National
Education Association Board
director, NEA PAC captain,
on resolution committees for
NEA and OEA, and on the
OEA Executive Committee.
He was elected as OEA
president in April and started
his four-year term July 10.
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —
California is tightening the strictest
rules in the nation on a pesticide
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California tightens
rules on popular
pesticide for farmers
that is popular with farmers over
new health concerns, officials said
Friday.
Farmers use chlorpyrifos to kill
pests that attack a wide variety of
crops like grapes, almonds and
cotton grown in California, the
nation’s agricultural leader, as well
as across the country.
State officials are taking steps
to put it on a list of chemicals
known to be harmful to humans
and to also increase the distance
from schools and homes in which
farmers can apply.
The moves run contrary
to a decision by Scott Pruitt,
the administrator of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency,
to end his agency’s effort to
ban the pesticide sold by Dow
Chemical after federal scientists
concluded it can interfere with the
brain development of fetuses and
infants.
Pruitt told Congress in June
his decision was based on
“meaningful data and meaningful
science.”
Pruitt’s staff has thus far
declined to provide details of what
information Pruitt reviewed before
making his decision.
California officials say that
researchers are learning more
about how the pesticide harms the
developing brains of unborn babies
and young children. Farmers apply
it to 60 different crops, and it is
most heavily used in San Joaquin
Valley farming communities
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the boardwalk in the resort town
of Cambrils early Friday, fatally
injuring one person. Five of those
attackers were shot to death,
among them 17-year-old Moussa
Oukabir, according to a Spanish
police union official, confirming
Spanish news reports.
Oukabir’s name was first on
a document listing four suspects
sought in the attacks, said the
official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity to discuss the
investigation.
The Barcelona-based La
Vanguardia newspaper, Spanish
national broadcaster RTVE and
other outlets cited police sources
as saying he was the driver of the
van in Barcelona.
The arrest order was issued
throughout Spain and into France,
according to the Spanish official
and a French police official,
who also spoke on condition
of anonymity to discuss the
document. They did not say what
became of the other three men
listed, who ranged in age from 18
to 24. All had roots in Morocco;
only Moussa Oukabir was born in
Spain, according to the document.
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