President-elect Donald Trump has offered retired Lt. Gen. Michael
Flynn the post of national security adviser, a transition official told
Fox News Thursday night.
The official said that Flynn had not yet officially accepted Trump's offer.
Flynn, who served as the director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) between 2012 and 2014, has advised Trump on
national security issues for months. As national security adviser, he
would work in the White House and have frequent access to the president.
The position does not require confirmation by the
Senate. Whoever holds it is typically shielded from congressional
requests to testify or produce documents.
GENERAL VS. GENERAL: POWELL, FLYNN FEUD OVER HACKED EMAIL SLAMS
After leaving the DIA, Flynn became a virulent critic
of the Obama administration and the Pentagon. He took issue with a wide
range of national security policies, including the administration's
approach to fighting ISIS and, more generally, its handling of global
affairs.
Flynn asserted that he had been forced out of the DIA
because he disagreed with the administration's approach to combating
extremism. His critics, however, claimed he had mismanaged the agency
and that his efforts to force change had met with internal resistance.
In recent public comments, including his fiery
address at July's Republican National Convention, Flynn has emphasized
his view that the threat posed by ISIS requires a more aggressive U.S.
military, as well as his belief that Washington should work more closely
with Moscow.
Flynn is also a champion of renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal, another foreign policy theme Trump pushed during the campaign.
But Flynn's warmth toward Russia has worried some
national security experts. Flynn traveled last year to Moscow, where he
joined Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials in a
celebration of the RT network, Russia's government-controlled
television channel. Flynn later explained that he had been paid for
taking part in the event, but brushed aside concerns that he was aiding a
Russian propaganda effort.
Flynn has also been outspoken in his alarms about the
dangers of Islamist groups, complaining on CNN in June that the U.S.
needs to "discredit" radical Islam, but that "we're not allowed to do
that right now." He blamed the Obama administration in a New York Post
op-ed in July for failing to design a coherent strategy for opposing
ISIS. And in August, he spoke at an event in Dallas for the
anti-Islamist group Act for America, saying that Islam "is a political
ideology" and that it "definitely hides behind being a religion."
Flynn's dark warnings about Islam have not extended
to the Islamist-leaning authoritarian Turkish government headed by
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In an op-ed for the Washington newspaper
The Hill just before the election, Flynn wrote that "our ally Turkey"
needs support and echoed Erdogan's warnings that a "shady" Turkish
leader now exiled in Pennsylvania should not be given safe harbor in the
U.S. Erdogan has called for the extradition of the exile, Fethullah
Gullen, but the Obama administration has made no move to comply.
Flynn's military experience might have made him seem
like a natural choice to lead the Pentagon. But without a waiver from
Congress, he is not eligible to be secretary of defense because federal
law says "a person may not be appointed as secretary of defense within
seven years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer."
Two sources told Fox News earlier this week that
Flynn's potential appointment is seen by Trump's team as a way to tap
into his national security expertise, without subjecting him to
intensive questioning.
During the campaign, Flynn was thought of as a
potential running mate for Trump. However, he appeared to fall out of
favor after implying that he was pro-choice in a television interview.
FLYNN CLARIFIES HIS ABORTION STANCE, SAYS HE'S 'PRO-LIFE'
Flynn told ABC's "This Week" in July that women "have
to make the decision [on abortion] because they are the ones that are
going to decide to bring up that child or not." The day after the
interview aired, he told Fox News that he was a "pro-life Democrat."
With his public and fervent support for Trump,
highlighted by his July convention appearance, Flynn challenged the
military's apolitical traditions. He was not alone in that role. John
Allen, a retired Marine general, spoke at the Democratic National
Convention as a Hillary Clinton supporter. Their former colleague,
retired Gen. Martin Dempsey, wrote in The Washington Post that Flynn and
Allen were wrong to have participated as they did.
"The military is not a political prize," Dempsey
wrote. "The American people should not wonder where their military
leaders draw the line between military advice and political preference."
Flynn would not be the first retired general to be
asked to serve as part of a president's national security team. Obama
appointed retired Army Gen. David Petraeus as CIA director in 2011.
Colin Powell, who had served as chairman of Joint
Chiefs of Staff at the pinnacle of his Army career, became secretary of
state during President George W. Bush's first term. He also served as
national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan from 1987 to 1989
while retaining his Army commission as a lieutenant general.
Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, a former commander
of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, served as Obama's first national
security adviser.