News broke Thursday that Trump administration National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster is about to be pushed out the door. Multiple sources have named a likely replacement, Stephen E. Biegun, currently the Vice President of International Governmental Affairs for Ford Motor Company. In Biegun’s official biography, “Russia” appears seven times.
For an administration daily accused by its citizens of collusion with Russia, for an administration under investigation by a special counsel for possible collusion with Russia, for an administration that daily is bombarded with news stories about the Russia probe – including several indictments in the case – it is astonishing it would ever consider anyone with any ties to Russia for anything, much less for a position that is the commander-in-chief’s top advisor on national security and intelligence.
Not only is the Russia aspect problematic, but Biegun’s ties to Senator Mitch McConnell are also disturbing. McConnell is single-handedly the person most responsible for blocking news that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election from being released to the American voters prior to the November election. Upon learning of the extent of Russia’s interference in the election, President Barack Obama asked the Senate Majority Leader to support a joint statement to the American people notifying them of Russia’s malevolent acts of war. Senator McConnell not only refused to sign on, but told the president that any release of the information to the American public would be framed as a partisan attack against the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
Yahoo News’ Garance Franke-Ruta was among the first to point out Biegun’s Russia connection:
She also notes Biegun’s ties to a far right wing group, the American Conservative Union. The ACU is the organization that holds the annual right wing extremist annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) which was in the news over the last week.