In 2012 Romney described Russian Federation as the top geopolitical threat – a sharp contrast to Trump, who has exchanged compliments with President Vladimir Putin.
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Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is likely to be the next US Attorney General.
Although not a cabinet position, the national security advisor has a pivotal role in shaping military and foreign policy.
However, Mr Trump’s choice for attorney general could face obstacles in his confirmation hearing, even with Republicans in control of the senate.
Senator Chuck Schumer, who will be the chamber’s top Democrat come January, warned that Sessions could have a confirmation fight on his hands.
But that of Sessions as attorney general does, and he has baggage: Racially charged comments he made in the 1980s and which once cost him a chance for a job for life as a federal judge. “I am not insensitive to Blacks”.
Flynn has attracted some scrutiny in the past, calling the USA response to the rise of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, weak. He’s also the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
“They would certainly look at it carefully”, Sean Bigley, a security clearance lawyer and former government background investigator told CNN.
The Democratic Coalition Against Trump reported Trump national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Mary McCord, on Friday afternoon for possibly breaking the law by failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
The president-elect also putting his national security team together. But things did not go smoothly after President Obama put him in charge of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012. But his warmth toward Russian Federation has anxious some national security experts.
Since retiring, he has operated a consulting business with foreign clients and acknowledged making a television appearance previous year with Russian President Vladimir Putin that was aired by and paid for by Russia Today, the state-run television network.The occasion was a party to celebrate the network’s anniversary.
The firm has been under scrutiny for its relationship with Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin, who said he’s paid Flynn’s firm “tens of thousands” of dollars for lobbying, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing The Intercept.
The report said: “Having focused the overwhelming majority of its collection efforts and analytical brainpower on insurgent groups, the vast intelligence apparatus is unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which US and allied forces operate”. He’s said to be considering a range of officials with varying degrees of experience to lead the State Department and Pentagon. He accused the Obama administration in a New York Post op-ed in July of failing to design a coherent strategy for opposing the Islamic State group.
The two began mending fences after Trump’s victory when Romney called with congratulations. Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said they were still “working on” the meeting. Its highly politicized investigation into the 2012 attack on the United States consulate in the Libyan city, which left four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, dead, targeted Trump’s presidential rival Hillary Clinton.
Despite being a registered Democrat, Flynn gave a Republican National Convention speech filled with dubious assertions, including accusations that President Obama was hiding information about ISIS and Osama bin Laden.
But since Trump’s stunning victory last week, many in DC’s national security apparatus have realized the national security adviser gig is the only realistic place Flynn could end up in a Trump White House.
Bannon led the Breitbart website, which has been widely condemned as racist, sexist and anti-Semitic.
“We can not win playing on one side of the playing field, on the defensive end”, Flynn said.
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Lt. Gen. (ret.) Michael T. Flynn is President-elect Trump’s designated National Security Adviser, according to The New York Times and numerous other media, citing an unnamed top official on the Trump transition team.
