Pressed on Friday about his failure to warn against former President Donald Trump's reelection, retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster sparred with MSNBC host Katy Tur and listed what he sees as missteps by the Biden administration.
McMaster served as national security adviser during the early days of the Trump administration and retired in 2018. “It's not my job to tell people how to vote,” McMaster told Tur, a position he stood by despite the MSNBC anchor pressing him to condemn the former president for describing the Biden administration as “incompetent” on foreign policy. (Related article: Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard endorses Trump)
“Katie, what does it mean to cancel the Canadian pipeline and approve Nord Stream 2? What does it mean to ease sanctions on Iran and transfer roughly $100 billion to Iranian coffers to escalate their proxy war?” McMaster asked Touré. “Given what's going on there, what does it mean to de-designate the Houthis or ease sanctions on the Maduro regime? I mean, we could go on and on about this. It didn't make sense to pull our ships out of the Black Sea, to show Putin a red line in Helsinki, to evacuate our embassy in Kiev, to give the green light to everything else, including sinking our…”
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At the start of the interview, McMaster refused to explicitly endorse or condemn either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris.
“What I'm trying to do in this book, which is probably impossible these days, is to rise above the acrimony of partisan politics and write about my experiences and allow all readers to make their own judgments about the presidential candidates,” McMaster said.
“This book is primarily about how, as part of the national security team, I helped this disruptive president implement a truly important, long overdue and, in retrospect, wise shift in American foreign policy,” McMaster continued.
The Biden administration has been criticized for not being tough enough on Iran, such as by releasing $6 billion in oil sales held by South Korea in exchange for the release of five Americans held in Iran. Biden also eased sanctions on Iran, allowing the country to export more oil and allowing Iraq to continue buying electricity from the country.
Tarr pressed McMaster further, asking him to explain why the author seemed “optimistic” about Trump returning to the White House, despite other former Trump administration officials endorsing Harris. (Related: “I would have told him to 'hang in there': National Guard commander frustrated with Walz's decision to retire before deploying)
“You know, we have to choose between Trump's mercurial personality and irresponsibility on the part of the Biden/Harris administration,” McMaster added.
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