"Where is the president? He’s got to move."
Those are words a National Security Advisor (NSA) never wants to hear.
Unfortunately, I heard them more than once during my term as NSA. In those instances, we are quickly hustled out of the Oval Office to a rendezvous with the First Family and top presidential aides and taken somewhere safe. It all occurred in a matter of minutes.
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I served as President Trump’s last National Security Advisor in his first term and was honored to have done that and been his Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs for two years before my two years in the corner office of the West Wing. Being with President Trump in the Situation Room for the mission to kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi or the first meeting of the Covid task force after the outbreak from China are memorable, history-making moments.
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If I had ever had to advise him from the bunker in the East Wing, I wouldn’t be able to write about that still. For many reasons the travels of presidents between secure, undisclosed locations is classified. In fact, the worst part of the East Wing case is its public airing. Until the unfortunate decision of U.S. Senior District Court Judge Dick Leon to order construction halted, most of the public and world thought the project was about a long-needed ballroom.
Now, because of litigation which ought never to have passed the "standing" requirement for reasons Judge Neomi Rao laid out in her dissent from the 2-1 decision of a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold Leon’s partial injunction against construction.
I cannot read District Judge Leon’s mind, but the filings from the Department of Justice ought to have persuaded him and the Appeals Court that this is an urgent matter of national security. What will be below the ballroom is best left undisclosed. The Pentagon and the Secret Service will go to great lengths to shield from satellites and conventional spyware that will be on the roof of the ballroom.
But it should go without saying that the White House is much more than the Executive Mansion. It is the Commander-in-Chief’s principal command center as well as his home. It is also a target for every terrorist and lunatic in the world and the state sponsors of such would-be assassins.
The Constitution's grant to the President of the power of Commander-in-Chief implies many other powers, but basic among them is the headquarters from which to operate and the security arrangements to protect it. In this era of extremely advanced surveillance equipment, the entire White House complex has to be hardened against prying eyes. It must be made defensible against all manner of attacks. And should the worst-case scenario develop, it must have rooms from which continuity of government will be assured.
We are in the age of hypersonic missiles. Did any level of review by the court pause to consider the threat matrix at the center of which the Oval Office must be found? Was expert testimony collected on how long it would take to get the president and Vice President to the famed "secure undisclosed location?"
As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the justices of the Supreme Court should be taking judicial notice of the world as it is. 25 years ago, then Vice President Cheney was rushed from his West Wing office to where, exactly? The White House Mess? The Red Room? The Vice President was taken to an undisclosed location in the compound that I’m still not at liberty to discuss.
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The Supreme Court has many excellent reasons to deny the plaintiff standing. The Department of Justice has laid them out.
But the beating heart of this case is the beating heart of this president and all future presidents. There won’t be time some day to chopper away on Marine One. The President down the road is going to have to shelter in place. What a tragedy for this country if efforts to secure our most sensitive building are hampered by architectural enthusiasts and judges with expansive views and long experience on the judicial doctrine of "standing" and de minimis views and experience on often the need to instantly move the president, vice president, families and closest aides to secure locations.
The injunction should be stayed indefinitely. And soon.
