In 2014, Michael Flynn abruptly announced that he was retiring from the Army ahead of schedule. It was the polite way of saying that he was canned for doing a miserable job at the DIA. From there, Flynn embarked on a career as an unregistered foreign agent, traveling the world to complain about the Obama administration and picking up paychecks despite warnings from the Defense Department.
None of this kept the Trump campaign from latching onto Flynn. Trump proudly pointed to Michael Flynn as his top military adviser and considered him for vice president.
NBC News confirmed that the three-star general is being vetted by the Trump campaign. He is the first non-politician known to be under consideration by Trump and would put national security at the forefront of the real estate mogul's campaign.
While Flynn didn’t get the VP nod, he got a prominent role at the GOP convention, where he led the “Lock her up” chorus and attacked Obama as a “weak, spineless president.” After the election, Trump installed Michael Flynn as national security adviser, leapfrogging him over the people who had ushered him out the door.
So who is to blame for the fact that Michael Flynn was given the keys to America’s highest office of intelligence after he’d pocketed hundreds of thousands from foreign governments and sipped champagne with Putin?
Reporter: Are you satisfied with the vetting that was done of General Flynn by the transition team before he came on board as the national security advisor?
Spicer: So, that’s a great question and I appreciate you bringing it up…. General Flynn was a career military officer who maintained a high level clearance throughout his career in the military. His clearance was last reissued by the Obama administration in 2016 with full knowledge of his activities that occurred in 2015, as you point out. So, the issue is he was issued a security clearance under the Obama administration in the spring of 2016 … all of that clearance was made by the Obama administration.
Welcome to the new “unmasking.” There’s no screw-up, disaster, or just plain crime for which the Trump regime won’t cook up a reason to blame Obama.
What level of clearance the Obama administration gave Flynn in 2016 isn’t clear. It’s also not clear if Flynn’s overseas activities were known at the time—Flynn doesn’t appear to have provided that information.
What is clear is that Flynn should have been vetted by the transition team and should have had to reapply for security clearance before assuming the role as NSA. If he didn’t, then the Trump team messed up, as someone at the Defense Department may well have claimed. If he did, but didn’t report his payments, then Flynn lied in order to obtain security. Either way, it’s beside the point.
The question was “Are you satisfied with the vetting that was done of General Flynn by the transition team before he came on board as the national security advisor?” That’s a selection that was all Trump, no Obama. In fact, as NBC reported, Trump even vetted Flynn for vice president.
Sounds like it was some extreme vetting. Extremely lax.