Former Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer defiantly hit back at Joe Biden’s administration after receiving a letter trying to force him into resigning.
Spicer declared that he received a letter from the Biden administration informing him that he would be fired from the Naval Academy Board by 6 p.m. on Wednesday if he does not resign immediately.
In no uncertain terms, Spicer said he will not resign and announced he’s joining a lawsuit against the administration.
“All Trump appointees, including myself, have been kicked off the boards of the United States Naval Academy Air Force Academy in West Point in an unprecedented move by the Biden administration,” Spicer announced on his Newsmax show.
“I’m announcing tonight for the first time that I will not be submitting my resignation and I will be joining a lawsuit to fight this,” he added.
Biden also got a smackdown from Kellyanne Conway, a former advisor to Donald Trump, who also received the same letter.
The Biden administration informed 11 people that Donald Trump appointed to military service academy advisory boards that they need to resign or be dismissed and the reception was chilly.
The officials asked to resign include prominent former Trump officials like former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, former senior counselor to President Kellyanne Conway, and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster. They were appointed to the advisory boards of the Naval Academy, Air Force Academy and West Point respectively.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday afternoon confirmed the request had been made.
“The President’s objective is what any president’s objective is — to ensure you have nominees and people serving on these boards who are qualified to serve on them and who are aligned with your values. And so yes, that was an ask that was made,” she said.
“I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified, or not political, to serve on these boards, but the President’s qualification requirements are not your party registration, they are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you’re aligned with the values of this administration,” she added .
“President Biden, I’m not resigning, but you should,” she said in a tweet with a screenshot of a letter she sent to the Biden administration.
“Three former Directors of Presidential Personnel inform me that this request is a break from presidential norms. It certainly seems petty and political, if not personal. The result is that faithful and willing public servants will be discouraged or thwarted from service. Our service academies will risk being further politicized and polarized,” she said in the letter.
“Your decision is disappointing but understandable given the need to distract from a news cycle that has you mired in multiple self-inflicted crises and plummeting polls numbers, including a rise in new COVID cases, a dismal jobs report, inflation, record amounts of drugs coming across the southern border, and, of course, the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan that has left hundreds of Americans and thousands of Afghan allies stranded under Taliban rule,” she said.
In a statement of her own Meaghan Mobbs told CNN that she would not be resigning.
“Frankly, I find this whole act unconscionable and not all in the spirit by which this Administration promised to govern. President Biden ran on a supposed platform of unity but his actions speak directly to the contrary. Apparently, unity is only for those who conform,” she said. “When I joined the Board under the Trump Administration, there were holdovers from the Obama Administration. They were not terminated but instead served alongside Trump appointees. This mix of perspective, experience, and belief systems ensured there was diversity – a value the Democratic party purports to hold above all else.”
Today, all previously appointed Presidential appointees to the West Point Board of Visitors were asked to resign or be terminated by end of day. My response to that request is below: pic.twitter.com/k7u3cRkwyO
— Meaghan Mobbs (@mobbs_mentality) September 8, 2021
Gen. John Keane said he was “disappointed” with Biden’s decision.
“Very disappointed to see the Biden administration not honor a previous president’s appointment to the board of visitors, which has been the tradition for years,” he said.
