Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that if a member of the administration cannot help implement a president’s decision even though he or she disagrees with it, then it is a good thing they resign.
Vance’s comments came after his remarks in Auburn Hills, Michigan, when a reporter asked about Joe Kent’s resignation as director of the National Counterterrorism Center:
It’s one thing to have a disagreement of opinion. I know the president very well. He welcomes differences of opinion. He likes it when people express their views about what should happen. He listens to everybody. It’s one of the great things I like about him is that whether you’re the gardener at Mar-a-Lago or whether you’re the secretary of the State, the president cares about what you think about an issue. He recognizes that everybody has smarts and everybody has wisdom. That said, whatever your view is, when the president of the United States makes a decision, it’s your job to help make that decision as effective and successful as possible.
Vance went on to say that when an official cannot fully implement the administration’s decisions, then it is a positive thing when he or she resigns.
“And so the president said this yesterday, if you are on the team and you can’t help implement the decisions of his administration — he has the right to make those decisions — then it’s a good thing for you to resign. And I think that’s exactly right,” Vance said.
“It’s fine to disagree, but once the president makes a decision, it’s up to everybody who serves in his administration to make it as successful as possible,” he added. “That’s how I do my job, and I think that’s how everybody in the administration should do their job, too.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was also asked on Wednesday about Kent’s decision, which became public when he shared the resignation letter he had given to Trump. Kent claimed that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States.
Leavitt said the threat was backed up by intelligence.
“It’s backed by intelligence. It’s backed by the fact that Iran was building ballistic missiles at a rapid rate to build a shield of immunity so they could build a nuclear bomb,” Leavitt said.
“And it’s backed by the fact that the president of the United States made the decision to attack Iran before they could attack American troops and our assets and bases in the region,” she added.
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