MIXED BAG: Flynn for NSA, Pompeo for CIA, Sessions for AG

The media’s narrative this week – that Donald Trump’s cabinet picks were chaotic and wild – was quickly silenced on Friday morning as Trump named major figures to three key positions: Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to Attorney General, General Mike Flynn to National Security Advisor, and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) for CIA Director.

It’s a mixed bag.

Pompeo is obviously a good pick. He graduated first in his class from West Point, graduated from Harvard Law School, and has a long record on the House Intelligence Committee. He takes radical Islam seriously, and he’s extraordinarily pro-Israel and anti-Iran deal. Civil libertarians are upset with Pompeo’s attempts to preserve the National Security Administration’s bulk metadata program, but that’s relatively uncontroversial among intelligence hawks.

Sessions is an excellent pick for Attorney General. He’s a stickler for law enforcement, a major advocate of more stringent border security, and an ardent opponent of lawlessness. He’s a diametric shift from the race-based anti-police world of Eric Holder’s and Loretta Lynch’s Justice Department. Police departments across the country will no longer have to fear trumped-up charges of systemic racism resulting in onerous federal oversight; localities and states will no longer have to face down persecution for attempting to enforce immigration law. Sessions is well-respected in the Senate, and it is unlikely that his confirmation would be stalled, despite media reports to the contrary.

That doesn’t mean the media left won’t attempt to destroy Trump over Sessions. Sessions’ nomination for a federal judgeship was withdrawn by President Reagan in 1986 over Democratic accusations of racism. In particular, the left is focusing on testimony given during Sessions’ confirmation hearings, in which a black assistant US attorney who worked for Sessions alleged that Sessions called him “boy” (Sessions denied it) and accused Sessions of joking that a white lawyer working with civil rights groups was a “traitor to his race.” The hearings also discussed Sessions joking about the Ku Klux Klan, “those bastards; I used to think they were OK, but they are pot smokers.” In both those latter situations, Sessions made the jokes in front of the black lawyer; even the lawyer accusing Sessions of racism acknowledged that Sessions was joking. Sessions’ response to the KKK joke: “Senator, my impression of the situation was that it was so ludicrous that anybody would think that it was supporting the Klan that he would not be offended by it.” There have been no allegations of racist conduct by Sessions in his official capacity.

The most controversial pick is General Flynn. Flynn has a stellar record with the Joint Chiefs of Staff; he obviously takes radical Islam extraordinarily seriously. He’s been a bombastic opponent of President Obama’s. By the same token, however, he has close ties with the Russians. RT, the official Russian propaganda outlet, says, “The former DIA chief has been criticized in US circles for refusing to take an anti-Russian stance.” Flynn appeared on RT in October and stated, “Russia and the United States working together and trying to work with the other partners that we all have in this region can come up with some other solutions.” He met with and took photos with Vladimir Putin at RT’s 10th anniversary party in Moscow. Flynn equated RT with MSNBC and CNN.

Flynn is also seen as warm toward the Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Even as Erdogan cracks down on dissent and looks to extend his rule to 2029, Flynn wrote, “the Obama administration is keeping Erdogan’s government at arm’s length.” He suggested that Erdogan opponent Fethullah Gulen be sent back to Turkey, presumably to be executed: “If he were in reality a moderate, he would not be in exile, nor would he excite the animus of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government.” Michael Rubin of American Enterprise Institute writes that Flynn is “making the mistake of hubris, giving into blackmail, and empowering the very radicalism which [he] seek[s] to fight.”

So, how will all of this play out? We’ll have to see when Trump fills his Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense positions. But for Trump, every day is Good Trump/Bad Trump.