NSC boss McMaster, who purged most of Trump's allies and anyone who told the truth about Islamic terrorism and the eavesdropping on Trump officials, may finally be forced out.
McMaster had protected Obama holdovers. He prevented any meaningful investigation of the Obama eavesdropping and unmasking of Trump officials. This would seem like the perfect time to replace him with someone motivated to expose Obama's abuses.
Except the guys pushing him out are prepping an establishment figure instead. Now media reports can be wrong, but the guy in line for McMaster's job is Stephen Biegun.
Biegun is a McCain ally
Let me first say that my role with the campaign is as an outside foreign policy advisor. I’m not formally on the campaign team. I’ve had the opportunity to work in and out of the government over the past 20 years, for the last 20, very closely with Senator John McCain, who’s been a fixture in virtually every debate of import in U.S. national security over that period.
...and tied to Condoleezza Rice. Some bios will mention that he advised Sarah Palin on foreign policy, but that was at the behest of the McCain campaign which wanted to get her up to speed on its terms.
Rice introduced Biegun to Mattis, recommending him for a position in the administration, according to a close associate of Rice. After Mattis met with Biegun at a think tank event he was convinced Biegun would be a good fit for the national security adviser role, the associate said.
In an interview on MSNBC Thursday, Rice called McMaster "one of the best generals of his generation."
"He’s doing a really fine job as national security adviser," she said. "I have no idea about his future in that job. I hope he stays, he’s really good."
Rice called Biegun "an outstanding person."
"He’s an expert in foreign policy and of course has spent time in the private sector and obviously he would be very, very good," she said. "But let's wait and see because H.R. McMaster is still in the job and he’s doing a really fine job."
This is a preliminary response. I'm not attacking Biegun, who may well be a good guy, but this feels like a holdover from the Bush era.
I have trouble believing that anyone who touted McCain's views on multilateral foreign policy belongs in the Trump White House. And Rice, who oversaw one of the most disastrous eras in our foreign policy (some of the blame for the Arab Spring goes to her), should be treated as a political pariah. Russia is likely to really hate the Biegun pick as it suggests a greater focus on Moscow. And his views on China and trade relations are likely to score some points with Trump. Those are important issues. But his positions on North Korea, Iran and Islamic terror are much less clear. More alarming still are the media reports that suggest McMaster is being forced out because he wanted to get tough on North Korea. I'm not investing too much credibility in those reports, but that would be a troubling development.
Biegun was with the Russia Investment Fund and the Moscow School of Political Studies, both means of trying to democratize Russia (they obviously failed). And once the media gets up to speed, that will be the key talking point. And as a Chairman of the National Association of Manufacturers WTO Action Group, he would be an asset in a trade struggle with China. But that's not really an NSC role.
The new NSC boss needs to...
1. Be on board with exposing the Obama Inc. abuses of national security to spy on his political opponents
2. Be on board with an aggressive strategy for North Korea, Iran, etc that reflects Trump's positions
Maybe Beigun is on board with those two things. But I'm not confident of that. And if he isn't on board with the first point, then the White House needs to stop blaming Sessions and ask itself if it really wants to expose the eavesdropping abuses or not.