Center for Security Policy Calls for H.R. McMaster’s Termination

The Center for Security Policy on Monday called for the firing of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster for “disloyal and subversive behavior.”

“If such misconduct is tolerated, Trump voters will have unknowingly elected President McMaster,” the Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney said in the statement.

The organization said McMaster was undermining President Trump’s policies on “virtually every important foreign and defense policy issue,” and they commented on his recent purge of staff members who support the president’s agenda while keeping “large numbers of Obama holdovers” at the National Security Council.

“No voter in this country – not one – elected H.R. McMaster to run U.S. foreign policy. Actually, the winner of the 2016 election was a man who opposed virtually every aspect of the McMaster agenda – and that of the president who made its architect a three-star general, Barack Obama,” Gaffney said.

“At every turn, the Army general has been insubordinate to his Commander-in-Chief. For example, he has openly opposed Mr. Trump on ‘radical Islamic terrorism,’ Syria, Qatar, Iran, Russia and the Muslim Brotherhood. Of late, McMaster has taken to purging Mr. Trump’s most loyal staff members,” he said.

McMaster last week fired Ezra Cohen-Watnik, the senior intelligence adviser at the NSC. The week before, he fired Derek Harvey, the NSC’s Middle East adviser. In July, he fired Rich Higgins, the director of strategic planning at the NSC.

All three men were brought on board by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and were fired because they were part of the “nationalist” camp that supported the president, versus McMaster’s “globalist” camp, according to a former White House official.

The statement also noted that McMaster had personally granted former National Security Adviser Susan Rice continued access to top secret information in April, despite the president’s concerns over Rice’s unmasking of Trump campaign and transition team members.

In light of the administration’s crackdown on leaks that compromise national security, McMaster’s office should “receive close scrutiny,” it said.

“Given Ms. Rice’s record of playing fast-and-loose with sensitive information for partisan political purposes, this action speaks volumes about Gen. McMaster’s poor judgment and loyalties – and affirms the necessity of his termination forthwith,” the statement said.