By John Knefel:
Some of President-elect Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet nominees face Senate confirmation hearings this week, but one top adviser will not have to be approved by the Senate: Thomas Bossert, who will serve as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. Bossert will occupy a powerful position in the White House, though little is known about his current political positions. The few indications of his political leanings that are available are not reassuring; for example, Bossert retweeted an Islamophobic Twitter post in 2015 -- a choice that could potentially foreshadow the incoming administration's homeland security policies.
Unlike many top Trump aides, Bossert maintains a low public profile, but his previously unpublicized retweet raises concerns about his willingness to promote anti-Muslim rhetoric. In the hours following the Paris attack in November 2015, Bossert retweeted a post from former NSA official and conservative columnist John Schindler that read: "The liberalism I was raised in was not a societal death-wish. If you think political Islam is a plan for progress or diversity, get help." (Schindler has also, however, tweeted statements denouncing Trump's Muslim ban and praising Muslims who fight against ISIS.)
Robert McCraw from the Council on American-Islamic Relations said he found the tweet to be concerning, especially in the larger context of the people Trump is surrounding himself with. "Bossert's retweet is just another troubling example of the Trump administration's comfort in mainstreaming Islamophobic messages," he told me in a phone interview. "A number of the Trump administration's national security, homeland security and intelligence appointees and nominees express a deep fear and mistrust of Islam and Muslims."
The Full Story (January 15, 2017)
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