Former colleagues said on Wednesday that Ms. Nielsen was well qualified.
“She’s a total homeland security expert — absolutely has no learning curve,” said Michael Allen, who worked with Ms. Nielsen during the Bush administration. “She’s an experienced manager, she’s an implementer, she knows how to get under the hood and figure out what needs to be connected to what.”
Added Frances Townsend, her boss at the White House during the Bush administration: “She is tough as nails, competent and has rightly earned the president’s respect.”
Mr. Kelly and Ms. Nielsen arrived at the White House after a tumultuous period that led to the departure of Reince Priebus, Mr. Trump’s first chief of staff, and Sean Spicer, his original press secretary. Mr. Kelly, who spends much of his time managing the president and working to defuse brewing confrontations between Mr. Trump and senior advisers, has leaned on Ms. Nielsen to manage and impose discipline on the rest of the White House staff.
It is not clear who will play that role after she leaves, and her departure will leave a hole at the White House as Mr. Trump faces an array of challenges, including confronting the threat from North Korea, addressing ruptures with his cabinet and crucial Republican lawmakers and trying to push a large tax cut through Congress.
Ms. Nielsen’s experience at the Homeland Security department began after the Sept. 11 attacks, when she joined the newly formed Transportation Security Administration, housed within the department. She also served on Mr. Bush’s homeland security council, devising a national response plan for domestic incidents and helping to compile a report on lessons from the bungled federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
As a private-sector consultant, she helped government entities and private companies devise preparedness plans to guard against cyberattacks.
Tom Ridge, who served under Mr. Bush as the nation’s first homeland security secretary, called Ms. Nielsen “extremely well versed in the all-hazard threats challenging the security and resilience of our homeland.”
“Most importantly, in this hyper-political environment, Kirstjen is not a self-promoter,” Mr. Ridge said in a statement. “She is a patriot and takes a mission-focused approach to her work.”
Some Democrats, however, expressed reservations about Ms. Nielsen’s extensive résumé, and her closeness to the president and his chief of staff.
“I am very concerned about her past work in the Bush administration during its botched response to Hurricane Katrina and am fearful that D.H.S. — as well as this president — has not learned all the lessons from that tragedy given what we are seeing unravel in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, referring to the federal response to hurricane damage on those islands, which has been widely criticized.
“It is extremely important that the D.H.S. secretary stay above the partisan fray,” Mr. Thompson added, “and not allow the position be a political pawn of the White House.”
Continue reading the main story Source: http://ift.tt/2ygZXZ3
0 comments:
Post a Comment