INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2017 Trump loses pick for top security advisor WASHINGTON: ’s reported pick for national security advisor turned down the job just hours after the pres- ident defended the ousted , saying he “wasn’t wrong” for dealing with Russia. Retired Navy Admiral Robert Harward’s rejection of the key post late Thursday leaves Trump without a replacement for Flynn, the first high profile casualty of the US leader’s tenure, and it added to a percep- tion of disarray in his administration. Harward told CNN he bowed out because of family and financial commitments, but several US media outlets reported that he was unhappy because he had no guarantees that the National Security Council-and not Trump’s political advisors- would be in charge of policy. Members of the council current- ly include Steve Bannon, Trump’s controversial far-right for- mer campaign manager. One Harward friend told CNN that he didn’t want the job because of chaos at the White House. Flynn, a close advisor on Trump’s 2016 campaign, resigned after it was revealed that he held telephone conversations during the election race with Russia’s ambassador in Washington about US sanctions. Flynn was no stranger to controversy. His past included a paid appearance at a 2015 dinner sitting next to President Vladimir Putin and sugges- tions that Russia’s seizure of Crimea and its support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad were acceptable. Russia was the hot topic of a lengthy and often rambling press conference given by Trump on Thursday. The president insisted neither he nor his campaign team had contacts with Russian officials in the run-up to last year’s US election, contradicting an explosive report which he dis- missed as “fake news.” Trump instead accused members of US WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump points to a member of the media as he takes questions during a intelligence agencies of breaking the law by leaking informa- news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington. —AP tion about the calls. Asked whether he or anyone on his staff had engaged in contacts with Russia prior to the election, Trump proclaimed: “No, nobody that I know of.” “I have noth- Trump, in unprecedented fashion ing to do with Russia,” Trump said. “The whole Russia thing is a ruse.” for a president, rips press It’s all fake news It was a full-throated denunciation of a bombshell New Trump calls White House a fine-tuned machine York Times report which said intercepted calls and phone records show Trump aides were in repeated contact with Russian intelligence officials well before the US election. “It’s WASHINGTON: The leaks are real. But him credit. Over and over, he accused the peace when he took office to say “to be all fake news,” Trump insisted. He stressed that the Times sto- the news about them is fake. The White political press of being dishonest and honest, I inherited a mess, a mess, at ry centered instead on inappropriate action by US intelligence House is a fine-tuned machine. Russia is a suggested that any negative coverage of home and abroad, a mess.” agencies, and he stepped up earlier attacks vowing to catch ruse. For its stunning moments and his administration was “fake news.” He He mostly blamed the media for his “low-life leakers” of potentially classified information that led memorable one-liners, Donald Trump’s unloaded a torrent of grievances while woes, rebuffing suggestions that he was to Flynn’s ouster. first solo news conference as president positioning himself as the stand-in for undermining confidence in the press or “Those are criminal leaks” by people angry about Democrat has no rivals in recent memory. For all the the everyman, who, he declared, hates threatening the First Amendment by try- Hillary Clinton’s loss, Trump told reporters. “The people that trappings of the White House and tradi- and distrusts reporters as much as he ing to convince the nation that “the press gave out the information to the press should be ashamed of tions of the forum, his performance was does. “The press - the public doesn’t honestly is out of control.” “The press has themselves.” The Washington Post meanwhile reported that one of a swaggering, blustery campaign- believe you people anymore. Now, become so dishonest that if we don’t talk Flynn denied to FBI agents that he had discussed US sanctions er, armed with grievances and primed to maybe I had something to do with that. I about it, we are doing a tremendous dis- on Russia with Moscow’s ambassador. If Flynn did discuss the unload on his favorite targets. don’t know. But they don’t believe you,” service to the American people,” he said. sanctions, as Trump appears to believe, then the retired gen- In nearly an hour and a half at the Trump charged. “Tremendous disservice.” Never before eral could be looking at prison time because lying to the FBI is podium, Trump bullied reporters, dis- “But you’ve got to be at least a little bit has a president stood in the White House a felony, though the president defended him. —AFP missed facts and then cracked a few fair, and that’s why the public sees it. They and so publicly maligned the press or caustic jokes - a combination that once see it. They see it’s not fair. You take a look attacked reporters by name, according to made the candidate irresistible cable TV at some of your shows and you see the presidential historians. Not even Richard fodder. Now in office, he went even fur- bias and the hatred.” The hastily called Nixon in the days of Watergate. ther, blaming the media for all but sink- news conference was not on the White “It was bizarre theater,” said Douglas ing his not-yet-launched attempt to House’s original schedule for Thursday, Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice “make a deal” with Moscow. That mat- and some of Trump’s own aides were sur- University. “He turned a presidential ters, Trump said in one of his many prised when the president let slip at a press conference into a reality TV show in improvisational asides, because he’d morning meeting that he would hold the which he can be the star and browbeat been briefed and “I can tell you ... nuclear event in the East Room just hours later. anyone who objects to him with the holocaust would be like no other.” This power of his office.” But for Trump, it con- was his and his aides’ attempt to get the Bizarre theater tinued a defining theme and amplified boss his groove back. The performance was vintage Trump, his chief strategist Stephen Bannon’s Trump used the event to try to claw his a throwback to the messy, zinger-filled decree that the media are “the opposi- young administration back from the brink news conferences he held during the ear- tion party.” after a defeat in court and the forced res- ly stages of his campaign. And, when Trump had put claims of press preju- ignation of his top national security advis- combined with a rally slated for Saturday dice at the center of his campaign in an er. He taunted reporters and waved away in Florida, it appeared to be the start of a unprecedented way and earlier this their attempts to fact-check him in real one-two punch meant to re-energize a month falsely accused the media of refus- time. He (incorrectly) touted his Electoral president whose White House in recent ing to cover terrorist attacks across the College total and repeatedly blasted his days has been buffeted by crisis and par- world. Though Thursday’s news confer- November opponent - somehow men- alyzed by dysfunction. ence was a messy, fact-challenged affair, tioning Hillary Clinton more than anyone Yet it was a far cry from the “buck it may well have been cheered by Trump else in his defense of his administration’s stops here” mantra popularized by Harry supporters across the country who had early days. He bragged that his White Truman and other presidents who packed arenas last year to jeer reporters House is “a fine-tuned machine” and believed that the ultimate responsibility and chant “tell the truth” at the press pen. claimed “there has never been a presiden- for any White House struggles lay with An -GfK poll taken on the cy that has done so much in such a short the president himself. Trump was eager eve of the election revealed that 87 per- WASHINGTON: This undated US Navy photo shows period of time.” to assign blame elsewhere, ignoring the cent of Trump’s supporters saw the media Ret. Navy Admiral Robert Harward. —AFP If only the news media would give nation’s healthy economy and relative as biased against him. —AP