“This is just another example that traditional respect for the rules that used to govern in the White House are just not there anymore," the former defense secretary said. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Leon Panetta: Omarosa’s taped firing breached Situation Room security

MONTEREY, Calif. — Former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta on Tuesday sharply criticized the Trump administration over the news that John Kelly, the current chief of staff, was taped in the Situation Room, saying that the episode with former presidential aide Omarosa Manigault Newman represented a “breach of security” unprecedented in its nature.

“This is just another example that traditional respect for the rules that used to govern in the White House are just not there anymore,’’ said Panetta, who served as chief of staff and director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration, as well as CIA director and defense secretary in the Obama administration. “It’s not surprising to note that, like a number of other things in this administration, this is kind of unheard of,” added Panetta, who spoke to POLITICO in the offices of the Panetta Institute, which he directs on the campus of California State University, Monterey.


Panetta was also sharply critical of President Donald Trump’s tweet earlier in the day in response to the taping revelations by Manigault Newman, a former top aide whom the president called “wacky” and a “dog.” Panetta said it only magnified what represents an increasingly serious foreign policy concern for the administration.

“When a president now openly tweets the kinds of words he’s been using, not only does it bring down respect for the office of the presidency,’’ Panetta said, “it sends a signal to the world that we have a president who is not trustworthy in terms of what he says and what he does … because you just don’t know what he’s going to say next.”

Panetta was reacting to the news this week that Manigault Newman — the author of a new book, “Unhinged” — had released a tape of Kelly firing her in the Situation Room. She also insists she has tapes of other White House conversations with administration figures, including the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner.

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Given that “the Situation Room is an area that is devoted to focusing on national security issues,’’ where individuals are expected to check their cellphones — “a listening device” — at the door, Panetta said, he has been asking himself “why a chief of staff would bring a staff person there’’ to talk about personnel matters that included dismissal.

Panetta said he was convinced that Kelly went that route to prevent any other staffers from hearing — or seeing — the encounter with Manigault Newman, something that might well have occurred if he’d had the talk in his West Wing office.

“Unfortunately, he didn’t realize she was taping that conversation. … It is a breach of the security of the Situation Room to do that,’’ said Panetta, though he added that “I don’t know there are any direct consequences for doing that.’’

But he said it was evident that the White House must immediately institute tougher security to guard classified information, or else “put at risk our national security.”

“There’s an important lesson to be learned here,” he said.

Equally concerning, Panetta said, is what the incident reflects regarding the culture in the current White House.

Manigault Newman’s behavior reflects what he described as a pervasive “tweeting culture” fostered by Trump that is now manifested in insidious ways — “people are taking the example of the president and basically using that example in the way they behave and treat others in the White House,’’ he said.

For that reason, Panetta said, the ways people have normally communicated and treated one another — which at one time had “at least an aura of mutual respect’’ — have largely been jettisoned.

That has possible impacts on national security, he said. Those working in the White House may be “dealing with big issues, issues affecting the future of the country,’’ he said, and “you can’t worry about people that are suddenly going to record you in certain situations or are suddenly going to leak it out to the press.”

He warned: “You develop that kind of mentality, and it harms the ability of the White House staff, frankly, to do the work they’re supposed to do.”

But Panetta said that the increasingly caustic atmosphere in the White House had an impact far beyond the president’s residence.

“People have come to accept that Donald Trump is going to use language that nobody else uses … he’s going to use words like he used today,’’ he said. “For those of us that have a respect for the office of the presidency — no matter who is president — the basis of that respect is that most presidents behave like presidents and use words that respect the dignity of people.”

The White House did not respond a request for comment Tuesday night.