Another week, another controversial appointment to President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming White House. And like the appointments that came before him, Ret. Lieutenant General Mike Flynn is getting some not-so-welcoming political ads from Hillary Clinton’s allies.
Trump recently named Flynn to be the White House national security advisor. Flynn is a long-time Trump surrogate, and while a controversial figure in his own right, has a reputation in Washington for being a skilled, yet combative intelligence officer with a three-decade career in military intelligence – until that career was cut short when he was forced out as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014.
But Trump opponents aren’t as alarmed of Flynn’s hard-headed style as much as they are on his incendiary comments and views on Russia and the Muslim world.
The ad opens with an interesting line of attack – a clip of MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski criticizing Flynn’s alleged ties to Turkey and the country’s “controversial president Erdogan.” Then Brzezinski criticized an op-ed penned by Flynn for The Hill, titled, “Our Ally Turkey Is in Crisis and Needs Our Support.”
The ad frames Flynn’s support of – and alleged lobbying on behalf of – Turkey as a negative, semi-shady, clandestine friendship. And while American-Turkish relations are certainly strained at the moment, there isn’t a lot of speculation that the U.S. is ready to declare Turkey an enemy – after all the American military trusts the country enough to station nuclear weapons there. That makes attacking Flynn for supporting an ally country perplexing, to put it mildly.
The ad moves on with another line of attack against Flynn that sounds strikingly similar to criticism of Trump on the campaign trail. “He’s got kind of crisscrossing ties with Russia,” Brzezinski continues. “Some people call this a nightmare.”
After briefly mentioning Flynn’s ouster from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the ad moves on to Flynn’s Twitter troubles, where he has been accused of retweeting anti-Semitic tweets and helping to spread fake news – again, much like Trump.
The ad ends with the assertion, “Michael Flynn will only make our country less safe.”
Flynn joins RNC chairman Reince Priebus, Sen. Jeff Sessions and Rep. Mike Pompeo on Trump’s cabinet, which is still in the early stages of development. Together, the people appointed by Trump so far have multiple decades of experience in Washington among them.
Trump recently named Flynn to be the White House national security advisor. Flynn is a long-time Trump surrogate, and while a controversial figure in his own right, has a reputation in Washington for being a skilled, yet combative intelligence officer with a three-decade career in military intelligence – until that career was cut short when he was forced out as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014.
But Trump opponents aren’t as alarmed of Flynn’s hard-headed style as much as they are on his incendiary comments and views on Russia and the Muslim world.
Clinton Allies Call Mike Flynn ‘An Islamophobic Lobbyist with Kremlin Ties’
Pro-Clinton PAC, Correct the Record’s new ad aimed at Flynn is made entirely with clips from news reports and daytime talk shows.The ad opens with an interesting line of attack – a clip of MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski criticizing Flynn’s alleged ties to Turkey and the country’s “controversial president Erdogan.” Then Brzezinski criticized an op-ed penned by Flynn for The Hill, titled, “Our Ally Turkey Is in Crisis and Needs Our Support.”
The ad frames Flynn’s support of – and alleged lobbying on behalf of – Turkey as a negative, semi-shady, clandestine friendship. And while American-Turkish relations are certainly strained at the moment, there isn’t a lot of speculation that the U.S. is ready to declare Turkey an enemy – after all the American military trusts the country enough to station nuclear weapons there. That makes attacking Flynn for supporting an ally country perplexing, to put it mildly.
The ad moves on with another line of attack against Flynn that sounds strikingly similar to criticism of Trump on the campaign trail. “He’s got kind of crisscrossing ties with Russia,” Brzezinski continues. “Some people call this a nightmare.”
After briefly mentioning Flynn’s ouster from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the ad moves on to Flynn’s Twitter troubles, where he has been accused of retweeting anti-Semitic tweets and helping to spread fake news – again, much like Trump.
The ad ends with the assertion, “Michael Flynn will only make our country less safe.”
The Swamp Slowly Fills Back Up
Flynn is just the latest in a growing list of long-time Washington insiders and Wall Street executives who seem to be filling Trump’s new administration – with the exception of Breitbart’s Steve Bannon, who is by no means a Washington insider (but brings plenty of controversial baggage to Trump’s incoming administration nonetheless).Flynn joins RNC chairman Reince Priebus, Sen. Jeff Sessions and Rep. Mike Pompeo on Trump’s cabinet, which is still in the early stages of development. Together, the people appointed by Trump so far have multiple decades of experience in Washington among them.