Early on Wednesday, President Trump announced via Twitter that he was naming Robert C. O’Brien as his new national security advisor, a position fraught with the weight of crimes committed, bad decisions made, and wars started.
His initial advisor, Michael Flynn, is currently awaiting sentencing for his felony conviction for lying to federal authorities. Trump’s follow-up advisor, H.R. McMaster, was intended to be a guiding voice and “adult in the room,” but could not withstand the President’s tremendous ego.
Trump’s most recent national security advisor, John Bolton, is of course a war hawk from the Bush administration whose own geopolitical agenda at times clashed with Trump’s in ways that made the President look like he was somewhat less than in control of his foreign policy — a perception that Trump could not abide.
I am pleased to announce that I will name Robert C. O’Brien, currently serving as the very successful Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department, as our new National Security Advisor. I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2019
Now, if you read a word of the above, you know he’s pretty terrible at picking national security advisors. This seems unchanged.
Trump’s new pick, who also served in the Bush administration, told Larry King in an interview before Trump was inaugurated that he was happy that General Flynn, and not him, who would be Trump’s advisor, and in fact that he hadn’t even supported Trump during the presidential campaign — he was a Ted Cruz guy.
Notwithstanding the fact that O’Brien is yet another right-winger from an era we wish would end of “spreading democracy in the Middle East,” the fact that he supported Flynn even at the time of this interview — December 2016 — when everyone in the intelligence community already knew that Flynn was giving unauthorized speeches in foreign countries in violation of the Logan Act is enough to disqualify O’Brien from further involvement in government.
Seeing him say he never wanted the job is just icing on the cake. Watch:
Featured image via screen capture
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