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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 9, 2018 3A
Trump: Kelly to leave at year’s end
BY ZEKE MILLER AND JILL COLVIN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Donald Trump said Saturday that
chief of staff John Kelly will leave
his job by year’s end amid
an expected West Wing
reshuffling reflecting a
focus on the 2020 re-elec
tion campaign and the
challenge of governing
with Democrats reclaim
ing control of the House.
Nick Ayers, Vice Presi
dent Mike Pence’s chief
of staff, is Trump’s top
choice to replace Kelly,
and the two have held discussions
for months about the job, a White
House official said. An announce
ment was expected in the coming
days, the president told report
ers as he left the White House for
the Army-Navy football game in
Philadelphia.
Kelly had been credited with
imposing order on a chaotic West
Wing after his arrival in June 2017
from his post as homeland security
secretary. But his iron first also
alienated some longtime Trump
allies, and he grew increasingly
isolated, with an increasingly
diminished role.
Known through the
West Wing as “the chief”
or “the general,” the
retired Marine Corps four-
star general was tapped
by Trump via tweet in
July 2017 from his perch
atop the Homeland Secu
rity Department to try to
normalize a White House
riven by infighting and
competing power bases.
“John Kelly will leaving — I
don’t know if I can say retiring —
but he’s a great guy,” Trump said.
“John Kelly will be leaving at the
end of the year. We’ll be announc
ing who will be taking John’s place
— it might be on an interim basis.
I’ll be announcing that over the
next day or two, but John will be
leaving at the end of the year.... I
appreciate his service very much.”
Kelly had early successes,
including ending an open-door
Oval Office policy that had been
compared to New York’s Grand
Central Station and instituting a
more rigorous policy process to
try to prevent staffers from going
directly to Trump.
But those efforts also miffed the
president and some of his most
influential outside allies, who had
grown accustomed to unimpeded
access. Kelly’s handling of domes
tic violence accusations against
the former White House staff
secretary also caused consterna
tion, especially among lower-level
White House staffers, who believed
Kelly had lied to them about when
he found out about the allegations.
Lauding Kelly, House Speaker
Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the coun
try was “better for his duty at the
White House.” He called Kelly “a
force for order, clarity and good
sense.”
Trump and Ayers were work
ing out terms under which Ayers
would fill the role and the time
commitment he would make, the
White House official said. Trump
wants his next chief of staff to
agree to hold the job through the
2020 election. Ayers, who has
young triplets, had long planned
to leave the administration at the
end of the year, but he has agreed
to serve in an interim basis through
the spring of 2019.
The official spoke on the condi
tion of anonymity to discuss sensi
tive personnel matters.
Word of Kelly’s impending
departure comes a day after
Trump named his picks for attor
ney general and ambassador to
the United Nations, and two senior
aides shifted from the White House
to Trump’s campaign.
In any administration, the role
of White House chief of staff is split
between the responsibilities of
supervising the White House and
managing the man sitting in the
Oval Office. Striking that balance
in the turbulent times of Trump
has bedeviled both Kelly and his
predecessor, Reince Priebus.
White House aides say Trump
has developed confidence in
Ayers, in part by watching the
effectiveness of Pence’s largely
independent political operation.
Ayers also earned the backing of
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner,
the president’s daughter and son-
in-law and senior advisers, for tak
ing on the new role, White House
officials said.
The Georgia native’s meteoric
rise in GOP politics included a
successful stint at the Republican
Governors Association, time as
campaign manager for former
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s
failed White House bid and consul
tant work for dozens of high-profile
Republicans, including Pence.
Ayers, 36, would be the young
est chief of staff since 34-year-old
Hamilton Jordan served under
Jimmy Carter. Kelly is 68.
Kelly
Riots in Paris escalate as frustrations boil over
Month-long protests broaden into rebellion against high taxes, living standards, President Macron
BY ELAINE GANLEY
AND JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press
The rumble of armored
police trucks and the hiss of
tear gas filled central Paris
on Saturday, as French riot
police fought to contain thou
sands of yellow-vested pro
testers venting
their anger
against the
government in
a movement
that has grown
more violent
by the week.
A ring of
steel sur
rounded the
president’s
Elysee Palace
— a key desti
nation for the
protesters — as
police stationed trucks and
reinforced metal barriers
throughout the neighborhood.
Stores along the elegant
Champs-Elysees Avenue and
the posh Avenue Montaigne
boarded up their windows as
if bracing for a hurricane but
the storm struck anyway Sat
urday, this time at the height
of the holiday shopping sea
son. Protesters ripped off the
plywood protecting the win
dows and threw flares and
other projectiles. French riot
police repeatedly repelled
them with tear gas and water
cannon.
Saturday’s yellow vest
crowd was overwhelmingly
male, a mix of those bring
ing their financial grievances
to Paris — the center of
France’s government, econ
omy and culture — along
with groups of experienced
vandals who tore steadily
through some of the city’s
wealthiest neighborhoods,
smashing and burning.
Police and protesters also
clashed in other French cit
ies, notably Marseille, Tou
louse and Bordeaux, and in
neighboring Belgium. Some
protesters took aim at the
French border with Italy, cre
ating a huge traffic backup
near the town of Ventimiglia.
The French government’s
plan was to prevent a repeat
of the Dec. 2 rioting that dam
aged the Arc de Triomphe,
devastated central Paris and
tarnished the country’s global
image. It did not succeed,
even though it was better
prepared.
Although Saturday’s pro
test in the French capital
started out quietly, tear gas
choked the Champs-Elysees
Avenue by early evening.
Interior Minister Chris-
tophe Castaner said that 135
people had been injured
and 974 taken
into custody
amid pro
tests around
the nation.
Paris police
headquarters
counted 71
injuries in the
capital, seven
of them police
officers.
An esti
mated 125,000
people demon
strated around
France while 10,000 took
their anger to the streets of
Paris, double the number in
the capital last week, the inte
rior minister said. Toughen
ing security tactics, French
authorities deployed 8,000
security officers in the capi
tal alone, among the 89,000
who fanned out around the
country.
A Starbucks near the
Champs-Elysees was
smashed wide open and peo
ple were seen stepping over
broken glass and serving
themselves beverages. The
window of a nearby bank was
smashed in with a wrought-
iron decoration used to encir
cle city tree trunks.
All of the city’s top tourist
attractions — including the
Eiffel Tower and the Louvre
museum — shut down for the
day, fearing the kind of dam
age that hit the Arc de Triom
phe a week ago. Christmas
markets and soccer matches
were cancelled. Subway sta
tions in the city center closed
and the U.S. embassy warned
citizens to avoid all protest
areas.
Yet in a sign of the finan
cial disconnect that infuri
ates many of the protesters,
a few blocks from the famed
boulevard, people were sit
ting in Paris cafes, drinking
cocktails and chatting.
Amid the melee, Presi
dent Emmanuel Macron
remained invisible and silent,
as he has for the four weeks
of a movement that started
An estimated
125,000 people
demonstrated
around France
while 10,000
took their
anger to the
streets of Paris.
Gotha Wanda Gaiety
11.18.1953 ■ 11.10.2018
We would express our appreciation to
everyone for their love, support, flowers,
food, and most of all, everyone's prayers
in this time of need. We hold each and
everyone close to our hearts. Please
continue to pray for the family.
A special THANK YOU to the paramedics
of Hall county that responded to our call.
5fie Qjotey Comity,
as a protest against a gas tax
hike and metamorphosed
into a rebellion against high
taxes and eroding living
standards.
The mayor of the city
of Saint-Etienne, a town in
southeast France hit by vio
lence Saturday, castigated
Macron for failing to speak
out, saying it “feeds the
resentment.”
“This silence becomes
contempt for the nation,”
the mayor, Gael Perdriau,
of the opposition conserva
tive party, said on BFMTV.
“He has a direct responsibil
ity in what is happening. He
can’t remain closed up in the
Elysee.”
RAFAEL YAGHOBZADEH I Associated Press
Demonstrators walk through tear gas during clashes Saturday, Dec. 8, in Paris.
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