Media, Democrats and Neocons All Eager to Humiliate Bannon

White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon was removed from the National Security Council on Wednesday, according to regulatory papers filed by the Trump administration.

But it was not a demotion. It also was not a firing.

“Susan Rice operationalized the NSC during the last administration. Gen. McMaster has NSC back to its proper function.”

Bannon is still President Trump’s top political adviser, holding essentially the same position that Republican Karl Rove and Democrat David Axelrod had under Presidents Bush and Obama, respectively.

Bannon also retains his very-high security clearance.

So why the change? A top White House official told LifeZette that Bannon’s removal from the council was not entirely unexpected.

The new national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, was given authority to shape the council. In fact, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told a press briefing on February 21 that “the president has made clear to [McMaster] he’s got full authority to structure the national security team the way he wants.”

But when Bannon finally took leave on Wednesday — and after it was first reported by Bloomberg — it was treated as a shock by the media and the Left. And they reveled in this one small perceived victory.

“In Reversal, Trump Banishes Bannon from National Security Council,” read a headline at Foreign Policy.

“Bannon Outflanked,” read the top headline at the Huffington Post. Of course, the Huffington Post didn’t stop there.

“Despite his white-nationalist ties and support for Islamophobic policies, Bannon remains hugely influential,” read a story by reporter Akbar Shahid Ahmed for The Huffington Post.

The New York Times reported that “the shift was orchestrated by Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster,” the new national security adviser. McMaster had replaced Michael Flynn, who resigned on February 13 after it was reported he misled Vice President Mike Pence about a call with the Russian ambassador in late December.

The Times also reported that Bannon threatened to quit, as he has become increasingly embattled. “Bannon’s camp” pushed back on that charge, according to the Times.

The Wall Street Journal wrote McMaster’s new memo makes the director of the Central Intelligence Agency a permanent member of the “principals committee,” and restores the chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence as permanent members after they were initially downgraded from that status.

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The Journal included Bannon’s statement that he was happy with the work McMaster had done to change the council after it was headed for years by Democrat Susan E. Rice, President Obama’s former national security adviser and someone seen as a highly partisan operative.

Rice is now under scrutiny — for now, the unofficial kind — for unmasking the identities of Americans in reports on foreign subjects who were under surveillance. Americans are supposed to be protected from arbitrary or politically motivated appearances in intelligence reports if their names or conversations are caught incidentally.

On Wednesday, Bannon suggested Rice used the NSC for purposes other than security.

“Susan Rice operationalized the NSC during the last administration,” said Bannon said in a statement. “I was put on to ensure that it was de-operationalized. Gen. McMaster has NSC back to its proper function.”

Yet to the media and the Left, Rice’s partisanship was OK — as it was Democratic policy she worked on.

The tell is how Washington and the media reacted to Bannon’s appointment. It rocked Washington. Democrats complained the White House’s political director did not belong on the National Security Council.

But President Obama allowed his political chief, David Axelrod, to attend some NSC meetings.

Not all the people celebrating were members of the media or the traditional Left. The old GOP establishment clinked glasses. Karl Rove told the Times it was wrong for Bannon to be on the council.

Another gloating establishment type was President George W. Bush’s former director of national intelligence, Michael Hayden, who has become a regular note of anti-Trump discord within the GOP.

On Wednesday, Hayden led the former GOP establishment in coming out in full force to celebrate the perceived diminishing of Bannon.

“What we’ve done is swung back to normal,” said Hayden. “I would think it was a political commissar . . . [Bannon’s appointment to NSC] might have a chilling effect.”

So it was a glorious day for anti-Trump factions. Their bogeyman was vanquished in one small way.

Or was he? Like the horror movie villain who never dies, Bannon’s perceived demotion is likely greatly exaggerated.

“Is it a ‘shakeup [or] demotion’ if Bannon didn’t even attend NSC meetings and can still go?” asked veteran journalist Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner.