Our new national security adviser should start watching Fox News
Feb 21, 2017, 6:04 AM | Updated: 8:45 am
President Donald Trump has a new national security adviser.
“I’d just like to say what a privilege it is to be able to continue serving our nation,” Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster said after being appointed to the position.
McMaster is a member of the active military, which means President Trump will not only be his boss as president but his superior as commander in chief.
Lt. Gen. McMaster is considered one of the most successful battlefield commanders in Iraq. He took the job after two previous candidates backed out — apparently because the president wouldn’t give them a free hand to pick their own staff.
Related: After Flynn’s resignation, everyone is wondering how high this will go
“As an active duty general, McMaster still serves his commander-in-chief and is less able to make staffing demands,” CBS’s Margaret Brennan explained. “But McMaster is outspoken. His book ‘Dereliction of Duty’ criticizes Vietnam-era officers who failed to challenge President Johnson … and he critiqued President George W. Bush during the Iraq War.”
McMaster will serve a president who has had to reassure allies that despite his tone during the campaign and his public courtship of Vladimir Putin, he is still committed to NATO.
That’s one of one of the reasons Vice President Pence has been meeting with European leaders in Brussels.
But the now-famous presidential ad-lib at his Florida rally, implying refugees were behind some kind of attack in Sweden, didn’t help.
“You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden — Sweden!” Trump said.
But there was no incident related to refugees in Sweden, which left Prime Minister Stefan Löfven befuddled.
It turns out that President Trump was simply referring to a report he’d seen on Fox News linking immigration to crime rates in Sweden.
And my guess is that one of the first things General McMaster does as national security adviser is to add Fox News to his list of favorite television channels.