Good morning, Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.
But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)
National Security Adviser to Exit White House by the End of the Month
White House National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster may be leaving his post at the end of the month, according to a White House official, CNN reports.
The administration official said that the general is not likely to return to the military and will most likely just retire as a three-star general.
According to CNN, two sources said that McMaster has talked with leadership at Hoover Institute about a position there upon his exit from the White House, but another source said that no deal had been finalized.
Michael Anton, National Security Council spokesman, dismissed the reports of McMaster’s exit, telling CNN, “I was just with President Trump and H.R. McMaster in the Oval Office. President Trump said that the NBC News story is ‘fake news,’ and told McMaster that he is doing a great job.”
White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah commented on the matter, saying, “We frequently face rumor and innuendo about senior administration officials. There are no personnel announcements at this time.”
According to CNN, rumor regarding McMasters’ departure has been circulating for months as there has been tension with President Trump for months due to clashing on policy matters. A senior Republican source told CNN that Trump had privately expressed frustration with McMasters due to differences in “personality and style.”
McMasters allegedly stayed in his position due to the optics of appointing a third National Security Adviser in less a year, after the first National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned amid controversy over his contact with Russian officials shortly after taking the post, CNN reports.
Sen. Marco Rubio Outlines How He Plans to End Gun Violence
In a speech billed as “plan,” Sen. Marco Rubio outlined on Thursday what actions he plans to take to combat gun violence, ABC News reports.
At 11:25 a.m. will be on the Senate floor to outline my plan to prevent what happened in #Parkland from happening anywhere else, ever again.This could have & should have been prevented.I am focused on changes that fix those shortcomings in our current law $ policies.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 1, 2018
Rubio, however, didn’t introduce any new legislation. Instead, the senator only outlined a list of existing and hypothetical bills that he would support, and urged his fellow senators to do the same, ABC News reports.
He said that he plans to support bills written by his colleagues, including the FIX NICS bill, which would strengthen the background check system and the Stop School Violence Act, which would increase security and training at schools and create school threat assessment and crisis intervention teams.
“Ultimately, there are things that we can do that have widespread bipartisan support that we can act on that we can pass that will actually make a difference. These are impactful things,” Rubio remarked.
Rubio said that he plans to introduce bills that establish gun violence restraining orders, propose changes to the Promise program to prioritize reporting dangerous to students and prosecute individuals who try to buy guns when they are prohibited from buying them, ABC News reports.
Given that the Parkland shooting was on February 14, Rubio was questioned about why he hadn’t introduced any of these measures yet. An aide, according to ABC News, said that Rubio had been spending the last two weeks with investigators, law enforcement, students and teachers and did not want to rush into filing or signing onto any legislation. His office also did not give a timeframe on when the senator plans to introduce these measures.
Rubio, however, did participate in a meeting on gun violence with President Trump and members of both parties in the House and Senate on Wednesday and said that the main causes that resulted in the Parkland shooting was the fact that multiple institutions knew about the shooter being a potential threat but were not communicating with one another, ABC News reports. He argued that the Stop School Violence Act would help to strengthen communication between schools and law enforcement.
Barack Obama’s Photographer is Throwing Shade at President Trump Again
Barack Obama’s photographer, Pete Souza, has been known to criticize President Trump quite a bit on his Instagram account, particularly when Trump is in the news regarding something negative, Popsugar reports.
So, when Trump ended up in the news when he said that he would have run into the school if he were at the Parkland shooting, Souza took to Instagram to take a dig at Trump.
The former White House photographer shared a picture of Obama running up a flight of stairs, and paired it with quite a biting caption regarding Trump’s physical fitness.
“Back in the day when our President could run,” Souza captioned the picture.
Ouch! What a burn!
Souza is definitely the master of shade, and it looks like Trump will need some ice for this burn.
What to look out for…
The Oscars are this Sunday!