Overnight Defense: Speculation mounts over Tillerson’s future | Pentagon reverses course on banning cluster bombs | Panel approves controversial defense pick | 400 Marines leaving Syria

THE TOPLINE: Multiple news outlets reported Thursday the White House had hatched a plan to oust Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, potentially replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

The swap could come in the next several weeks, The New York Times reported, citing senior administration officials. Still, the Times added that it is not clear whether Trump has approved the plan, which was reportedly devised by chief of staff John Kelly.

 

The White House rejected the reports, but press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the daily media briefing refused to say whether Trump has confidence in Tillerson.

“When the president loses confidence in someone, they will no longer serve in the capacity that they’re in,” Sanders said.

Read about that here.

 

White House chief of staff John Kelly also called the State Department on Thursday to shoot down the media reports such a plan had been developed to remove Tillerson, according to agency spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

“He kind of brushed this off today; he’s heard these kinds of stories before,” Nauert said of Tillerson. “He’s just going on about his business.”

 Read about her remarks here.

 

Defense Secretary James Mattis, meanwhile, also brushed aside the reports, telling reporters “there’s nothing to it.”

Read about his comments here.

 

Tillerson for his part is still planning to travel to Europe next week to meet with key NATO allies.

Tillerson will travel to Brussels, Vienna and Paris, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Tillerson will meet with the European Union’s chief diplomat, Federica Mogherini, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during the trip to Brussels. He will also take part in NATO’s foreign ministers meeting.

Mogherini traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this month to defend the Iran nuclear deal, which was negotiated between the U.S., Iran and international powers. President Trump last month chose to decertify the accord, which provided Tehran with sanctions relief in exchange for curbs to its nuclear program.

Read more about the planned trip here.

 

PENTAGON CALLS OFF PLANS TO BAN USE OF CLUSTER BOMBS: The Pentagon has indefinitely postposed a planned 2019 ban on using certain cluster bombs that are widely viewed as a hazard to civilians.

The weapons contain bomblets that scatter widely and can detonate months or years later. 

“The Department of Defense has determined that cluster munitions remain a vital military capability in the tougher warfighting environment ahead of us, while still a relatively safe one,” Pentagon spokesman Tom Crossen said in a statement Thursday.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty began in 2008, prohibits the use, transfer and stockpile of the weapon. More than 100 countries have signed on to the treaty, but the United States has not.

Read more about the Pentagon’s decision here

 

SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES PENTAGON NOMINEE DESPITE CONCERNS: The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday moved forward a top Defense Department nominee, despite questions earlier this month about potential conflicts of interest with his prior employer. 

The committee voted to send to the full Senate Lockheed Martin International senior vice president John Rood, who’s on track to be the next undersecretary of Defense for policy, as well as Randall Schriver, to be the assistant secretary for Asian-Pacific affairs. 

Rood drew the ire of committee members at his nomination hearing on Nov. 16 when he would not confirm to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that he would not seek a waiver that would allow him to participate in matters involving Lockheed in his new role.

When pressed by Warren on whether he would commit not to seek such a waiver, Rood would not rule it out.

Read the rest here.

 

400 MARINES LEAVING SYRIA: More than 400 artillery Marines are leaving Syria after helping local forces retake the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) one-time de facto capital of Raqqa, the U.S.-led coalition said Thursday.

“With the city liberated and ISIS on the run, the unit has been ordered home. Its replacements have been called off,” the coalition said in a news release.

The 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment arrived in Syria in Sept. 15 during the battle for the Syrian city, replacing a previous unit.

The U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces retook Raqqa in October after a four-month battle for the city against ISIS.

Coalition officers hailed the Marines’ withdrawal as a sign of progress in the fight against the terrorist group.

The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel has the rest here.

 

ERIK PRINCE TESTIFIES BEFORE HOUSE INTEL: Erik Prince, the military contractor and Trump donor who attended a secret meeting in the Seychelles in January with a Kremlin-tied businessman, interviewed with the House Intelligence Committee for just over three hours on Thursday.

The interview was held behind closed doors, but a transcript is expected to be publicly released within the next three days — possibly as soon as Friday.

Prince has acknowledged that he traveled to the Seychelles and that he met with a Russian government official while there — but he denies that he was acting on behalf of the Trump presidency.

Walking out of the Capitol alone, Prince characterized the interview as a waste of his time. He demanded that Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, apologize for “wasting all of our time, for wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on a meaningless fishing expedition.”

Lawmakers largely declined to comment on the substance of Prince’s testimony, citing the upcoming transcript — but Democrats hinted heavily that whatever it contained has raised more questions for them.

The Hill’s Katie Bo Williams has more here.

 

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ICYMI:

— The Hill: DOJ: American caught fighting for ISIS has been read his rights, but not given an attorney

— The Hill: Niger approves use of armed US drones

— The Hill: State Dept feared violent protests at US embassies after Trump tweets: report

— The Hill: Haley: ‘North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed’ if war breaks out

— The Hill: US, China held rare security meeting after North Korea launch: report

— The Hill: Opinion: Trump appears to be talking himself into war with North Korea

— The Hill: Opinion: Trump’s bigoted retweets are a national security threat

— The Hill: Opinion: Egyptian mosque attack could signal new wave of terror in the region

 

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