The incredibly strong and swift reaction to the viral #FireMcMaster hashtag is one certain indicator that conservatives were right to zero in on a very real and potential danger in the White House.
Why are Conservatives worried about Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster?
To get you up to speed on McMaster’s dirty deeds (skip to “The Progressive Establishment Blows a Gasket” below if you do not need a refresher):
President Trump’s Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, who succeeded retired United States Army Lieutenant Michael Flynn, blocked Ayaan Hirsi Ali from speaking to the National Security Council, fought to keep former UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s security clearance, and has been actively purging pro-Israel, anti-Iran Deal security professionals as reported at TrevorLoudon.com. The firing of Rich Higgins, Director for Strategic Planning for the White House National Security Council was the last straw for many, prompting respected conservatives such as Lee Stranahan, Frank Gaffney, Paul Nehlen, and Jamie Glazov (among many others) to voice their concerns publicly.
Rich Higgins had been pushing for the declassification of Presidential Study Directive 11.
Evidently, Susan Rice felt so comfortable with her relationship with Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster that she publicly advised him to “eliminate” Steve Bannon’s security advisory panel known as the “Strategic Initiatives Group.”
Not surprisingly, Bannon’s effort was squelched and the Strategic Initiatives Group is no longer.
Susan Rice got her way.
Hope you will be able to choose your team, have direct reporting and daily access to POTUS, and can eliminate Strategic Initiatives Group. https://t.co/QK6SE0KlY0
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) February 21, 2017
The Progressive Establishment Blows a Gasket
The establishment and the progressive media quickly sought to discredit the growing conservative anger over McMaster’s “purge,” as the New York Times put it on August 2.
A self-described “analysis” by the Digital Forensic Research Lab at Medium titled “#FireMcMaster, explained: How alt-right media and a handful of Twitter bots tried to get the United States National Security Advisor fired” attempts to make the case that drooling alt-righters blindly called for the firing of Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster because Infowars told them to, despite the fact that the New York Times, Vox, and The Atlantic, for example, all reported on McMaster’s purging on August 2.
Regardless, the Digital Forensic Research Lab breathlessly reports:
“On August 3, a handful of Twitter accounts launched a media campaign under the hashtag #FireMcMaster….The anti-McMaster campaign was initiated by large, alt-right media platforms — primarily Infowars and Breitbart, as well as alt-right Twitter activists including Paul Joseph Watson and Jack Posobiec, both of whom are associated with Prison Planet, another website operated by Alex Jones.”
The Digital Forensic Research Lab, of course, is not as bad as the New York Times, who went even further – claiming that “Russian interference” contributed to the rise of the #FireMcMaster hashtag.
#Hamilton68
Peter Baker of the New York Times writes:
“The #FireMcMaster hashtag was tweeted more than 50,000 times since Wednesday. Echoing the drumbeat were social media organs tied to the Russian government. According to the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan group created to focus attention on Russian interference in the West, the top hashtag among 600 Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations at one point on Thursday was #FireMcMaster.”
Astonishing.
But who are these “600 Twitter accounts”? What is the methodology used to determine that these specific Twitter accounts are “linked to Russian influence operations”? Why is it that the Alliance for Securing Democracy does not list these accounts?
The Russian propaganda exposer known as the “Hamilton 68 Dashboard” was released on August 2. It needs to be pointed out that Alliance for Securing Democracy fellow J.M. Berger, one of the individuals who developed the elusive tool used to harvest these “600 Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations” also developed a tool to expose “white nationalism” in 2013.
Note the disclaimer on Hamilton 68 at the Alliance for Securing Democracy website:
NOTE: This dashboard does not assert that websites and links appearing in monitoring are colluding with Russia to influence audiences. The Russia influence network promotes these websites and links because these stories suit Russia’s narratives and resulting influence objectives.
This methodology is about as vigorous as that used to produce Michael Mann’s ‘Hockey Stick’ graph or the Southern Poverty Law Center’s laughable claim that hate crimes have increased since President Trump was elected.
J.M. is not a fan of President Trump, but he can at least clarify his methodology, right?
Right?
I don’t see why this is so hard to understand. The dashboard and documentation repeatedly note that the network amplifies third parties.
— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) August 8, 2017
I mean, I can, and will continue to, explain this repeatedly, but I can’t force people to read the explanations and understand them.
— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) August 8, 2017
This same NYT article was tweeted out by Bill Kristol, a rabid anti-Trump partisan and Editor of the Weekly Standard.
Misleading headline. Conservatives admire McMaster. As the article says, it’s the “nationalists” who want him gone. https://t.co/xXPjDgojmr
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) August 5, 2017
Bill Kristol failed to mention that he sits on the board for the Alliance for Securing Democracy:
Other Alliance for Securing Democracy Advisory Board members include three individuals who served on the Obama Administration, and two who worked for Hillary Clinton.
Bill Kristol forgot to mention his role at the Alliance for Securing Democracy when he tweeted about this “interesting and important” research.
Interesting and important. https://t.co/yrodzi78FP
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) August 4, 2017
Bill Kristol has been a fan of McMaster for quite awhile:
I say this honestly and non-snarkily: I can’t imagine anyone better prepared for the challenges of being Trump’s NSA than H.R. McMaster.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) February 20, 2017
Kristol continued:
The success or failure of the Bannon/alt-right/Russian assault on McMaster will be a key moment for the Trump Administration–& the country.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) August 4, 2017
Russian propaganda is engaged in a fierce assault on McMaster, complementing Bannon’s efforts with the media and with Trump. A big moment.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) August 4, 2017
Is anyone who dares to question the motives of McMaster a slack jawed Russian propagandist? Indulge the author for answering that question with a question: Is every pussy-hat-wearing partisan who went to the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. a communist since the Women’s March was sponsored by Communist Party, USA?
Of course not.
Who Supports H.R. McMaster?
Anyone who remotely cares about national security should want to fire Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster based on his actions, as well as for who is propping him up.
National security adviser, H.R. McMaster has become the latest target for Trump’s trolls: https://t.co/EYZUOc4Nc9 pic.twitter.com/0yvnyI3wqC
— Media Matters (@mmfa) August 4, 2017
#CAIR Islamophobia Watch: Islamophobes, white supremacists launch campaign to oust H.R. McMaster after he fired… https://t.co/K80AQobiwR
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) August 3, 2017
The alt-right/alt-light attacks on McMaster are joined by former NSC aides slamming him to Daily Caller https://t.co/iSlgUbdGjt
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 4, 2017
Before you go….
From the well known alt-right Russian sympathizer Daniel Horowitz: https://t.co/P2fgjLPn1S @CR
— Renee Nal (@ReneeNal) August 9, 2017
Here is a must-read excerpt about McMaster by that Daniel Horowitz of the Conservative Review:
McMaster has fired all of the pro-Israel staff from the NSC: from Ezra Cohen-Watnik, (senior intelligence adviser) and Derek Harvey (the NSC’s Middle East adviser) to Rich Higgins (the director of strategic planning). He has brought in Obama’s people for the most important Middle East roles, including Kris Bauman, a Hamas apologists, as the lead advisor on “Palestine,” as he so proudly calls it.
He even worked hard to bring on Linda Weissgold, the woman who drafted the original Benghazi talking points, which fabricated the narrative about the Islam video spawning a spontaneous protest. Plus, Dina Habib-Powell has taken over the deputy role from K.T. McFarland. As Daniel Greenfield reminds us, this is a woman with an affinity for Muslim Brotherhood organizations who once bragged about the levels of immigration from the Middle East.
This is not just a Bush-style Republican opposed by the hardcore grassroots conservatives. McMaster is the “full Obama.” He is the lowest common denominator of the worst elements of the neo-cons and the Obama acolytes. He is obsessive about intervening in every Islamic civil war with no positive outcome or strategic interest for America, but at the same time he is pro-PLO and passionately supportive of the Iran deal.
Even more insidious, the Obama holdovers McMaster is retaining are suspected as the source of many leaks. Worse, he is now continuing to offer Susan Rice access to sensitive national security material while boxing out Trump loyalists!
As Jed Babbin reported in the American Spectator, four staffers who reported directly to Ben Rhodes have been protected by McMaster: Abigail Grace (Special Assistant), Fernando Cutz (NSC Director for South America), Andrea Hall (NSC Senior Director for WMD, Terrorism & Threat Reduction), and Merry Lin (Director for Global and Asia Economics).
The personnel problems explain why McMaster has been such an apologist for the Iran deal and has covered up Iran’s refusal to allow in weapons inspectors to critical sites. McMaster is looking at this crazily backwards: He is obsessed with intervening in Syria to take out Assad but is weak on the problem of Iran, which foments and causes the problems in Syria. McMaster has refused to publicize the 15 side agreements Obama made with Iran.
A final thought:
I’m really sick of the line that all McMaster criticism is coming from pro-Russia alt-right goons.
Hi. It isn’t. https://t.co/yltL3sc9Bi
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) August 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain/status/897192652294193152