McFarland Out at NSC - by Josh Marshall
By JOSH MARSHALL Published APRIL 9, 2017, 11:11 AM EDT
Here's notable news this morning. K.T. McFarland, a key Flynn holdover at the NSC and a comically unqualified Fox News National Security 'analyst', has been fired as the number two person at the National Security Council. This is more house-cleaning by National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. (Initials and Irish surnames? No, no idea. Maybe there's a Times trend piece.)
McFarland's career was typified by conspiracy theories and resume-puffing. She was a research assistant to Henry Kissinger in the early 70s and had a minor speechwriting position in the Reagan Pentagon. Since then she's been in private life, dabbled in politics and been on the Fox News nutball gravy train.
As I noted in November, in one characteristic moment, while she was running against Hillary Clinton for Senate in 2006 (actually making a failed bid for the GOP nomination to run against her), she claimed that Clinton was so worried about her candidacy that she'd sent secret helicopters to surveil her house in the Hamptons as well her apartment in Manhattan. McFarland will apparently be pensioned off as the Ambassador to Singapore.
Heretofore, Trump had reportedly resisted dismissing McFarland. That appears to have changed along with so much else that did over the last week. By all accounts, McMaster is a competent and highly respected general officer. He's systematically removing the mix of crazies and opportunists installed by Michael Flynn. It is far better to have someone like him in charge of things than someone like Michael Flynn or K.T. McFarland. But that doesn't mean we should be rosy-eyed or uncritical of him either.
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