The Fake News War on McMaster

Ever since John Kelly was tapped as White House chief of staff, right-wing news outlets have been publishing articles making harsh allegations about Donald Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster.

Among the allegations: that McMaster is undermining President Trump’s agenda, that he is “deeply hostile” to Israel, that he effectively gave a “White House pardon” to Susan Rice, and that he is ridding the National Security Council of Michael Flynn hires while keeping in place “holdovers” from the Obama administration. Allies of White House strategist Steve Bannon, several administration sources have told me, likely pushed these allegations, which often stretched the truth, misunderstood or misinterpreted facts, or were just incomplete. But the war on McMaster through the sympathetic right-wing press didn’t end with Bannon’s exit from the White House.

One such story, published September 12 at PJMedia.com, is particularly fantastic. The author, David Steinberg, cites multiple administration and outside sources who claim McMaster “yell[ed] at Israeli officials” during a meeting last month at the White House after one of those officials supposedly raised objections to the participation of a Muslim administration official. But it looks as if nearly all of the story’s claims are wrong or unsubstantiated.

Here’s the crux of Steinberg’s story, which he claims occurred during a meeting at the White House during the week of August 27 (emphases in original):

Hezbollah has been a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997. However, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster reportedly brought NSC Senior Director on Counter-Terrorism Mustafa Javed Ali to the White House meeting with Israel. Ali, a McMaster appointee, is described by a senior administration source as being "opposed to Hezbollah’s designation as a terrorist organization."