Sane person turns down job at White House
Donald Trump’s White House has been slow to staff up--for instance, out of 696 “key positions requiring Senate confirmation” being tracked by the Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service, 13 have been confirmed, and 21 more nominated, as of February 16. Team Trump maintains that obstruction by Senate Democrats is behind the delays, but even non-Senate confirmable positions are vacant--for instance, Sean Spicer is doing double duty as Press Secretary and Communications Director, which are normally two separate jobs.
Speculation has been widespread that when the administration asks a traditionally-qualified and non-fringe figure to take a job with them, that person suddenly discovers a pressing need to spend more time with his or her family. But that’s only been speculation--until now.
Trump tapped Robert Harward (profiled here by Vox) to replace Michael Flynn as National Security Adviser. The Vox article (written before he was publicly offered the job) paints him as a reasonable and qualified choice--conservative, but experienced both in the military and in policy, and well-regarded by his colleagues.
He said no. One version of the story, which is bad enough, is that Harward clashed with Trump over staffing choices, including Flynn’s deputy, who Trump had said would stay on, but Harward refused to work with ( via Slate). CNN adds further gory details,
A friend of Harward's said he was reluctant to take the job because the White House seems so chaotic. Harward called the offer a "shit sandwich," the friend said.
Harward’s official statement--also quoted by CNN--is, no shit, that he would like to spend more time with his family:
Since retiring, I have the opportunity to address financial and family issues that would have been challenging in this position," Harward said in a statement. "Like all service members understand, and live, this job requires 24 hours a day, 7 days a week focus and commitment to do it right. I currently could not make that commitment.
According to the Slate article, Trump may still be trying to get Harward on board. This is a bit of a change, because in other cases where someone has said in public that they aren’t taking a job in the Trump administration, the administration goes “Good! I never wanted to go to the prom with you in the first place!”