About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 2018)
4A Saturday, December 15, 2018 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com NATION/POLITICS Trump picks budget head Mulvaney for chief of staff BY JONATHAN LEMIRE, JILL COLVIN AND CATHERINE LUCEY Associated Press WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday picked budget director Mick Mulvaney to be his acting chief of staff, ending a chaotic search in which several top contenders took themselves out of contention for the job. “Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration,” Trump tweeted. “I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump added chief of staff John Kelly, “will be staying until the end of the year. He is a GREAT PATRIOT and I want to personally thank him for his service!” One White House official said there was no time limit on the appointment and Mulvaney would fill the role indefinitely, regardless of the “acting” title. Key to his selection: Mulvaney and the president get along and Trump has appreciated how the budget director briefs him, accord ing to the official. Additionally, Trump prized the former congress man’s knowledge of Capitol Hill and political instincts as the White House prepares for both a Dem- ocratic-controlled House and the president’s re-election campaign. Unlike with Kelly’s appoint ment, Mulvaney received the news before the president tweeted his announcement. Trump and Mulvaney met face to face Fri day afternoon and spoke by phone in the evening, according to a second White House official. Both officials spoke on condi tion of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the personnel matter on the record. Mulvaney, who will be Trump’s third chief of staff, will now take on his third job in the administra tion. He is head of the Office of Management and Budget, and for a time had simultaneously led the Consumer Financial Protec tion Bureau. Russell Vought, Mul- vaney’s deputy, is to take over at OMB. The first senior official disputed reports that Mulvaney wasn’t inter ested in the chief of staff job and said the president didn’t need to change Mulvaney’s mind, though the budget director had previously signaled disinterest. A person close to him had told reporters that Mul vaney had made clear in recent months that he would be more inter ested in taking over at the Treasury or Commerce Department. It was unclear why Mulvaney’s appointment was announced as temporary — but that decision was made by the president, the first official said. The source added that Kelly was happy with the choice of Mulvaney and plans to stay on through the end of the year to assist with the transition. A former Tea Party congressman, Mulvaney was among a faction on the hard right that pushed GOP leaders into a 2013 government shutdown confronta tion by insisting on lacing a must- pass spending bill with provisions designed to cripple President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. The appointment of the affable, fast-talking South Carolinian came just hours after another candidate for the post, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, took him self out of contention for the job. Christie cited family reasons in a statement saying that he was ask ing Trump to remove him from consideration. He had met with Trump on Thursday to discuss the job, according to a person famil iar with the meeting who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The president’s hunt for a new chief reverted to square one last weekend when Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, took himself out of the run ning and decided that he would instead leave the White House. Ayers, who had cited family concerns as a reason why he didn’t accept the post, tweeted Friday: “The right father of triplets got the job... Congratulations @MickMul- vaneyOMB!” Both men are, coinci dentally, fathers of triplets. Trump’s first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, served six months before leaving in July 2017. Trump tweeted his choice of Kelly to replace him before informing the retired four-star Marine general. For some months, Kelly had success streamlining the decision making process in the West Wing and curtailing access to the undis ciplined president. But Trump grew weary of the restrictions and Kelly’s influence waned as the two men frequently clashed. As the search dragged on after Ayers bowed out, the void was filled with Trump’s specialty: drama. British journalist Piers Morgan suggested he would be a good fit in an op-ed for “The Daily Mail,” while former major league slugger Jose Canseco tweeted his interest to Trump. Speculation has swirled around an array of Trump associ ates, prompting some to distance themselves from the job. When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited the White House this week, he insisted it was to see the Christmas decorations. The wild process was hardly a novelty for the Trump adminis tration, which has struggled with high staff turnover and attracting top talent, but it underscored the tumult of Trump’s Washington. In past administrations, chief of staff was a sought-after job, typically awarded after a careful process. Now, many view the job as a risky proposition, given Trump’s propen sity for disorder and his resistance to being managed. Author Chris Whipple, an expert on chiefs of staff, had called the search process “sad to watch.” “In his first two years, Trump devalued the position by failing to empower anyone to perform the job, and now he’s turned the search for a replacement into a reality show,” said Whipple, author of “The Gatekeepers,” a book on the subject. Mulvaney Tangerines Oranges Save your Selfie. Some Money! Auto Insurance Specialist • Easy Payments • Any Driver • Any Age NEW LOCATION! 2415 OLD CORNELIA HWY., GAINESVILLE Next to Rabbittown Cafe 770-450-4500 J&J denies it knew of asbestos in baby powder Associated Press NEW YORK - John son & Johnson on Friday forcefully denied a media report that it knew for decades about the exis tence of trace amounts of asbestos in its baby powder. The report by the Reuters news service sent the company’s shares into a tailspin, suffering their worst one-day sell-off in 16 years. Reuters cited docu ments released as part of a lawsuit by plaintiffs claiming that the product can be linked to ovarian cancer. The New Brunswick, New Jersey company has battled in court against such claims and on Fri day called the Reuters report “one-sided, false and inflammatory.” Johnson & Johnson’s stock fell $14.84, or 10 percent, to close Friday at $133, its most severe single-day decline since 2002. In the report, Reuters noted documents show consulting labs as early as 1957 and 1958 found asbestos in J&J talc. Further reports by the company and outside labs showed similar findings through the early 2000s, according to the Reuters story. In its statement Friday, Johnson & Johnson said “thousands of indepen dent tests by regulators and the world’s leading labs prove our baby pow der has never contained asbestos.” adviser. He said Flynn may be benefiting from Trump’s labeling of the special coun sel investigation as a “witch hunt” and “hoax.” “I think that’s part of a political campaign designed to discredit the special counsel, but some people do believe it,” Whitehouse said. As for what’s next for Flynn, those close to him said he has a number of options, including consulting or writing a book. Over the summer, a firm headed by lobbyists who recently rep resented the government of Qatar announced Flynn was coming to work there. Fly nn’s attorneys said he hadn’t joined Stonington Global. As of Thursday, its website still listed Flynn as joining it as director of global strategy. The company didn’t respond to requests for comment. BY MICHELLE R. SMITH AND JENNIFER MCDERMOTT Associated Press PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Days away from being sen tenced in the Russia probe, former national security adviser Michael Flynn is not exactly hiding his face in shame. People close to him tell The Asso ciated Press that as the possibility of prison looms, Flynn is relaxed and hopeful, eager F| Y nn to get through Tues day’s sentencing and move forward. He’ll be the first official in President Donald Trump’s administration to be sentenced in the case. Flynn has been having fun with his old high school gang, going out on the town to see an Elton John concert and watch the New England Patriots and Boston Celtics play, friends tell the AP. Ran dom people approach him in public with hugs, handshakes and requests for photos. His supporters plan to rally outside the courthouse the day of his sentencing, and a lucrative consulting gig could await him. The retired three-star gen eral pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about con versations he had with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States during Trump’s White House tran sition. In a filing this week, his lawyers highlighted Fly nn’s long and distinguished military service and exten sive cooperation with pros ecutors in asking that he be sentenced to probation and community service, rather than prison. The special counsel inves tigating whether Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign coordinated with Russia has said Flynn was so helpful that he was entitled to avoid time behind bars, even though sentencing guidelines recommend up to six months in prison. Despite the extensive cooperation, Flynn has not drawn any of the vitriol that Trump has hurled at those who have turned on him — most notably his former fixer Michael Cohen. The president on Thursday called Flynn a “great person.” Flynn has given 19 inter views to prosecutors, five of those before he pleaded guilty, according to his fil ing. His lawyers said he turned over thousands of documents, and the special counsel’s office has said that he has also aided a criminal investigation they haven’t yet revealed. While Flynn’s lawyers acknowledged he had made a “serious error in judgment” and “shown true contrition,” he has an extended group of supporters who believe he’s an American hero being unjustly prosecuted because of his association with Trump. Tuesday’s filing added fuel to that idea. His lawyers detailed his FBI interview, including that agents did not warn him in advance that it was a crime to lie to the FBI, and sug gested Flynn was discour aged from bringing a lawyer into the meeting. Prosecutors with the spe cial counsel’s office pushed back on Friday against the idea that anything was improper. They wrote in a filing that Flynn, a longtime intelligence officer, had been lying to administration officials and media about his contacts with the Russian ambassador for weeks before the FBI called, then vol untarily met with them. They said he should have known not to lie. Members of Flynn’s family and friends tweeted this week that he had been entrapped, set up or ambushed by the FBI. His son, Michael Flynn Jr., complained of a double standard with Democrat Hill ary Clinton because she had lawyers in her FBI interview. Trump on Thursday tweeted that the special counsel gave Flynn “a great deal because they were embarrassed by the way he was treated.” “They want to scare every body into making up stories that are not true by catch ing them in the smallest of misstatements. Sad!” Trump wrote. In the time since he left the White House just weeks after Trump’s inauguration, Flynn has moved back to Middle- town, Rhode Island, where he and his wife, Lori, grew up and where they have a deep social network. Thomas A. Heaney Jr., a retired Army colonel who has been friends with Flynn since they were 9 years old, said they have been out more than a dozen times in Rhode Island and elsewhere when Flynn has been recognized by people on the street. “Every single circum stance I’ve been witness to, people are in support of him, and they voice that opinion to him when they see him. And they are upset about the way he’s been treated. That’s the general theme each and every time,” Heaney told the AP. Flynn has remained mostly out of the public eye since his guilty plea, with occasional public appear ances in front of friendly audiences. The closest he’s gotten to commenting on his case was in a campaign appearance for an ultimately unsuccessful Republican congressional candidate in California earlier this year, telling the crowd he wasn’t there “to complain about who has done me wrong or how unfair I’ve been treated or how unfair the entire pro cess has been.” Several supporters who came together in a private group chat on Twitter plan to rally outside the federal courthouse when he is sen tenced, according to one of the organizers, Pasquale Scopelliti. Flynn wrote a foreword to Scopelliti’s self- published book, “America First: The MAGA Manifesto,” earlier this year. He said Flynn was not involved in the rally. Scopelliti said they hope to counteract Flynn detrac tors who they expect will be shouting “Lock him up!” — a reference to Flynn’s anti- Clinton “Lock her up!” chant during the 2016 Republican National Convention. “He is our hero, abso lutely,” Scopelliti said. The “hero” label puzzles U.S. Sen. 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