WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Wednesday it asked 18 Trump administration appointees to resign from military academy boards, saying President Joe Biden would require such officials to be “aligned with the values of this administration.”
The 18 – six each on the Board of Visitors to the Air Force Academy, the Military Academy and the Naval Academy – were asked to resign, the White House said.
If they did not resign their positions, they were to be terminated at 6 p.m., the White House said.
Those asked to step down include Kellyanne Conway, White House counselor under Donald Trump, and Sean Spicer, a White House spokesperson under the former Republican president.
“I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified … to serve on these boards,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said in response to a question during a daily briefing.
“The president’s qualification requirements are not your party registration. They are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you’re aligned with the values of this administration.”
“I’m not resigning, but you should,” Conway wrote in a letter to Biden posted on Twitter.
Spicer, who serves on the Board of Visitors to the U.S. Naval Academy, said on his Newsmax show on Wednesday he would not step down. “I will not be submitting my resignation, and I will be joining a lawsuit to fight this,” Spicer said.
Trump’s former budget chief Russ Vought also said he would not quit. “No. It’s a three year term,” he said on Twitter.
The boards provide advice and recommendations to the U.S. president on matters including those related to morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs and academic methods of the academies, according to a 2020 notice in the Federal Register.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Jarrett Renshaw and Eric Beech; Writing by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
