On Saturday, Michael Flynn was at Donald Trump’s side when news of a North Korean missile launch came in. In fact, he helped the president by holding up a camera phone to shine a light on sensitive documents while the president discussed the matter for the entertainment of nearby diners. Not only does this action show breathtaking disregard for national security, why is Flynn still there in the first place?
As of Monday, February 13, Michael Flynn is still President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser.
Flynn remains in this position even though the Washington Post revealed on February 9 that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with a Russian diplomat prior to Trump’s inauguration — something Flynn, other administration officials, and even Vice President Mike Pence have all personally denied.
Of course, there has been reassuring words from an authoritative source.
Well, if the Kremlin says it, then it must be true. Just like how the Kremlin says it did no hacking of the US election and has no forces in Ukraine. But oddly enough, not everyone buys into everything the Kremlin says.
Privately, some administration officials said that Flynn’s position has weakened and support for him has eroded largely because of a belief that he was disingenuous about Russia and therefore could not be fully trusted going forward.
Michael Flynn could not be trusted before. But the magnitude of his deceit is gradually becoming more clear to more people.
It’s long been obvious to everyone that Flynn is a pompous, self-righteous jackass who is willing to murder the truth for a chance at revenge on the Obama administration. It was less clear that to get that chance, he was willing to romance the “T” word.
Four days in from finding that the National Security Adviser was communicating with Russia and either not paying enough attention to remember what he said, or outright lying to other officials—including Mike Pence—about those exchanges, the status of Flynn remains a mystery.
“The knives are out for Flynn,” said one administration official who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly.
The knives may be out, but Trump remains silent and Flynn remains at his elbow.
The biggest, most frequently repeated issue in the entire Trump campaign was his contention that Hillary Clinton wasn’t careful enough with classified information. But three weeks in, the regime is turning security into a joke.
It’s not just that Flynn is wandering around, shooting off unknown information in the direction of the Kremlin. Not just that Trump is holding important meetings in a public space with no effort to limit who can hear or what electronic devices are in the area.
Earlier in the week, Trump had been criticized for leaving intelligence documents vulnerable to people without security clearance. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) noticed that the president kept the key in a secured bag while hosting people in the Oval Office — making it that much easier for an unauthorized person to unlock the bag and peruse the contents. There’s no indication that anyone saw anything confidential, but this, Heinrich suggested, was “Classified 101.”
It’s clear that Donald Trump actually has less than no concern over national security. The outrage over anything Clinton did was strictly for campaign purposes.
But still … why hold on to Flynn?
Well, perhaps it’s because Flynn isn’t the only one with connections to Russia. Trump has two options. He can keep Flynn on the inside, in which case attacks focus on the NSA’s obvious leaks. Or he can throw Flynn out, in which case everyone—including Flynn—might begin to talk about other conversations between the Trump regime and the Kremlin.
So while many inside the beltway feel that Flynn may be leaving soon,
While Flynn may have no plans to leave the White House, many inside the Trump administration are concerned with the fact that the national security adviser could have misled senior members of the White House, including Vice President Mike Pence, who went on national television and denied that Flynn spoke about sanctions with Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to Washington.
He’s unlikely to leave without some incentives that give him a reason to follow Trump’s famous NDAs.