McMaster disagrees that Gorka is a ‘good person to advise on national security’
Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster said he does not believe Sebastian Gorka, whom President-elect Trump recently named as the deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism in his upcoming administration, is “a good person to advise on national security.”
CBS News’s Margaret Brennan posed the question to him on Sunday’s “Face the Nation.”
“No, no, he’s not, Margaret. But … you know, I think that … the president, others who are working with him, will probably determine that pretty quickly, soon after he gets into that job,” McMaster said of Gorka.
In a Friday statement, Trump said “Dr. Gorka has been a tireless advocate for the America First Agenda and the MAGA Movement, serving previously as Strategist to the President in the first Trump Administration” for nine years.
Past Trump administration roles Gorka has held include serving on a national security advisory board and advising Trump on counterterrorism.
Politico has reported comments and views of Gorka on Islam have resulted in controversy, and that his academic credentials have also been questioned.
McMaster also told Brennan that there are “some people in the Republican Party these days” that just “tend to parrot … Vladimir Putin’s talking points.”
“I don’t know if it’s because they’re drawn to him and they see him as a kind of a defender of Western civilization, just the shirtless guy on horseback, but they’ve gotta disabuse themselves of this, you know, strange affection for Vladimir Putin,” he continued of the .
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), selected by Trump to be his director of national intelligence, has in the past shared content implying the U.S. was involved in making bioweapons in Ukraine, perpetuating a Russian narrative.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump transition team and the Republican National Committee for comment.
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