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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt"><b>From:</b> William Winters, Courage Campaign <info@couragecampaign.org><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, February 23, 2017 4:17 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Ann Rennacker<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Sign the petition: Bannon off the National Security Council</font>
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<div><span style="display:none; font-size:0px; color:#fff; line-height:0px; max-height:0px; max-width:0px; overflow:hidden">Unvetted and unconfirmed.</span>
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<p>Dear Ann,</p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Stephen Bannon, the white nationalist who has become one of Donald Trump’s top advisors, has effectively appointed himself to the National Security Council (NSC), the country’s highest national security body.<span style="font-size:8px">(1)</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Even military and national security experts find this alarming.<span style="font-size:8px">(2)</span>
</span><strong>Bannon has no national security experience, but he does have an extreme ideological agenda</strong><span style="font-weight:400"> -- and national security should be driven by facts, not ideology or politics.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">It’s becoming clear: </span><strong>Donald Trump may be the President of the United States, but Bannon is really running the show at the White House</strong><span style="font-weight:400">. Bannon’s power grab is unprecedented,
dangerous, and must be stopped.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">There’s bipartisan concern over Bannon’s self-appointment to the National Security Council, and, in an effort to block it, two bills have been introduced to give Congress the power to approve National Security Council appointees.
There’s real momentum -- </span><strong>now is the time to rein in Bannon before he puts the safety and integrity of the American people at further risk.</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://act.couragecampaign.org/sign/bannon_nsc/?source=org_em_p_bannon_nsc&t=1&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU">Tell Congress to stop Steve Bannon’s appointment to the National Security Council!</a></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The executive order elevating Bannon -- a political hack with no national security experience -- to the National Security Council also downgrades the roles traditionally played by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the
nation’s top military body, and the director of national intelligence.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">This is a big deal. These roles have been so prominent on the NSC because their judgments are based on facts, not calculations of political or electoral gain. But for Bannon, every move he makes is based on pushing forward his
agenda.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">And that’s scary, because Bannon’s agenda has historically involved elevating the voices of white supremacist and nationalist movements in the United States and abroad.<span style="font-size:8px">(3)</span> His publications
have trashed women, people of color, and LGBTQ folks.<span style="font-size:8px">(4)</span> And a close examination of his beliefs indicates a cartoonishly bleak view of the world steeped in wild conspiracy theories -- including a morbid obsession with the
idea that World War III is about to happen.<span style="font-size:8px">(5)</span> Bannon shouldn’t have the power to help start it.</span></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://act.couragecampaign.org/sign/bannon_nsc/?source=org_em_p_bannon_nsc&t=2&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU">Tell Congress to stop Steve Bannon’s appointment to the National Security Council!</a></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">To make matters worse, news reports indicate that when Trump signed the executive order changing the structure of the National Security Council to include Bannon, he didn’t even realize what he was signing.<span style="font-size:8px">(6)</span>
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">It’s no wonder that both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have expressed deep concerns about Bannon’s appointment. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates called it a “big mistake,” Senator John McCain called it a “radical
departure,” and retired Admiral Michael Mullen -- who served on the NSC under Presidents Bush and Obama -- is calling for Bannon’s removal from the council altogether.<span style="font-size:8px">(7)</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Two separate bills have been introduced that would bring appointments to the National Security Council under Congressional oversight. In the current climate -- with the last National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, resigning
under a cloud of suspicion and lingering questions about Trump’s aides’ relationship with the Russian government -- there’s a real chance for bipartisan agreement about reining in Bannon’s power grab.<br>
</span><br>
<strong><a href="http://act.couragecampaign.org/sign/bannon_nsc/?source=org_em_p_bannon_nsc&t=3&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU">Tell Congress to stop Steve Bannon’s appointment to the National Security Council!</a></strong></p>
<p>Yours in the fight,</p>
<p>William, along with Annie, Brenna, Caitlin, Eddie, Emma, Kelsey, Lindsay, Raquel, Scottie, and Tim (the Courage team)</p>
<p><span style="font-size:8px">Footnotes: <br>
1. <a href="https://couragecampaign.actionkit.com/go/4634?t=4&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU">
<span style="font-weight:400">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/us/politics/trump-white-house-aides-strategy.html?_r=0</span></a><br>
2. <a href="https://couragecampaign.actionkit.com/go/4635?t=5&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU">
<span style="font-weight:400">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/opinion/i-was-on-the-national-security-council-bannon-doesnt-belong-there.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur</span></a><br>
3. <a href="http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/4636?t=6&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU"><span style="font-weight:400">http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/stephen-bannon-donald-trump-alt-right-breitbart-news</span></a><br>
4. <a href="https://couragecampaign.actionkit.com/go/4637?t=7&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU"><span style="font-weight:400">https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/us/politics/stephen-bannon-breitbart-words.html</span></a><br>
5. <a href="https://couragecampaign.actionkit.com/go/4638?t=8&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU">
<span style="font-weight:400">https://www.thenation.com/article/steve-bannon-wants-to-start-world-war-iii/</span></a><span style="font-weight:400">,</span><span style="font-weight:400"><br>
</span><a href="http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/4639?t=9&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU"><span style="font-weight:400">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/steve-bannon-apocalypse-third-world-war-coming-white-house-donald-trump-historian-claim-film-david-a7570631.html</span></a><span style="font-weight:400">,</span><span style="font-weight:400"><br>
</span><a href="http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/4640?t=10&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU"><span style="font-weight:400">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/steve-bannon-apocalypse_us_5898f02ee4b040613138a951</span></a><span style="font-weight:400">, &
</span><span style="font-weight:400"><br>
</span><a href="http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/4641?t=11&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU"><span style="font-weight:400">http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/31/bannon-odds-islam-china-decades-us-foreign-policy-doctrine/97292068/</span></a><br>
6. <a href="http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/4642?t=12&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU">
<span style="font-weight:400">http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-not-fully-briefed-executive-action-steve-bannon-national-security-council-2017-2</span></a><span style="font-weight:400"> & see reference 1</span><br>
7. <a href="http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/4643?t=13&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU">
<span style="font-weight:400">http://www.businessinsider.com/mullen-trump-steve-bannon-nsc-2017-2</span></a><span style="font-weight:400"> &</span><span style="font-weight:400"><br>
</span><a href="http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/4644?t=14&akid=3859.596066.Zt5LXU"><span style="font-weight:400">http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-steve-bannon-national-security-council-2017-1</span></a></span></p>
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