Changes

{{Quotebox|[P]roximity is everything when you’re operating at the White House. The person that’s closest to the president has greater influence than even a cabinet member, who may be located elsewhere in a department...Staff people tried to read, 'what is it that the president wants?' And then try, through the back door, [to] influence the direction of policy. What that does is, it undermines the very process...}}

{{Quotebox|[P]roximity is everything when you’re operating at the White House. The person that’s closest to the president has greater influence than even a cabinet member, who may be located elsewhere in a department...Staff people tried to read, 'what is it that the president wants?' And then try, through the back door, [to] influence the direction of policy. What that does is, it undermines the very process...}}

Def. Sec. [[Chuck Hagel]] reiterated;

Def. Sec. [[Chuck Hagel]] reiterated;

{{Quotebox|[[Susan E. Rice|Ambassador Rice]] would often start with, ‘This is what the president wants.’ ... that’s not the way our National Security Advisor should start a meeting with the National Security Council... there were a lot of reasons those meetings kind of descended into kind of nonsense.<br>

{{Quotebox|[[Susan E. Rice|Ambassador Rice]] would often start with, ‘This is what the president wants.’ ... that’s not the way our National Security Advisor should start a meeting with the National Security Council... there were a lot of reasons those meetings kind of descended into nonsense.<br>

...[He] has a staff around him that is very inexperienced. I don’t think there’s one [[veteran]] on his senior staff at the White House. I don’t believe there’s one [[business]]person. I don’t believe there’s one person who has ever been elected to anything or ever run anything.<br>

...[He] has a staff around him that is very inexperienced. I don’t think there’s one [[veteran]] on his senior staff at the White House. I don’t believe there’s one [[business]]person. I don’t believe there’s one person who has ever been elected to anything or ever run anything.<br>