White House Insists Purge of Trump Military Academy Board Members Not Partisan or 'Personal'

Some members of the board, who received notices asking them to leave voluntarily and warning of forced resignations, have already accused the Biden administration of bringing politics into the typically apolitical body.

US President Joe Biden has every legal right to remove select people from the military academy advisory boards, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has stated in an interview with CNN. She at first insisted that the board's purge was "not personal" and that POTUS simply wants to appoint "a fresh layer of people" whose values are better aligned with those of the president, even though the board is traditionally considered to be non-political.

But after being pressed by the host, who recalled that normally appointees to the board serve their full three-year terms, Psaki admitted that part of the reason some of the members were "asked" to leave was their connection to former President Donald Trump.

"There are some people, of course, on these boards who have supported or stood by silently while their former boss supported an insurrection. That's not really okay with us", Jen Psaki said, referring to the 6 January Capitol riot and alleged, but the unproven role of then-President Donald Trump in it.

Joe Biden's administration sent letters to at least 11 members of the military academy advisory boards on 8 September, asking them to leave their posts voluntarily and suggesting they would be removed anyway even if they refuse to do so of their own volition.

The fact that many of Trump's allies and former officials, such as ex-National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Senior Counsellor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway, received these letters sparked accusations of a partisan purge taking place and criticism of the White House.

"This advisory board itself is remarkably nonpartisan. It's one of the last places in America where those things are kind of checked at the door", said Meaghan Mobbs, a West Point Board of Visitors member and one of the recipients of the letter from the Biden administration.