Trump adviser vows unity over security during transition

25/11/2024 6:09

        Top national security
        advisers to President-elect Donald Trump and outgoing President
        Joe Biden are working "hand in glove" to pose a united front
        against U.S. adversaries during the presidential transition,
        Trump adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday.
        
        Waltz, a Republican congressman tapped by Trump to serve as
        his national security adviser after taking office Jan. 20, said
        he is in discussions with his Biden administration counterpart,
        Jake Sullivan, as the United States confronts an escalating war
        in Ukraine and ongoing hostilities in the Middle East.
        
        "For our adversaries out there that think this is a time of
        opportunity, that they can play one administration off the
        other, they're wrong," Waltz, a Trump loyalist and former Army
        Green Beret, told "Fox News Sunday."
        
        "We are hand in glove," Waltz added. "We are one team with
        the United States in this transition."
        Trump could face a rocky Senate confirmation process for other
        top national security picks viewed as inexperienced or otherwise
        flawed, including Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic
        congresswoman who has been chosen as intelligence chief, and
        Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host nominated to head the
        Defense Department.
        Gabbard has implied that Russian President Vladimir Putin had
        valid grounds for invading Ukraine and stirred controversy by
        meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the midst of his
        bloody crackdown on dissidents in 2017. Hegseth, a military
        veteran, has been accused of sexual assault, though no criminal
        charges were filed, and Hegseth has said the encounter was
        consensual.
        Trump's initial choice for U.S. attorney general, Matt Gaetz,
        withdrew from consideration last week in the face of Senate
        opposition over allegations of illicit drug use and sex
        trafficking.
        
        Despite lawmaker concerns about Trump nominees, Senator John
        Barrasso told "Fox News Sunday" in a separate interview that
        Republicans are aiming to confirm most of Trump's cabinet picks
        quickly so that they would be in place soon after he takes
        office on Jan. 20.
        
        "It's critical for us in the Senate to make sure that on day
        one, President Trump has confirmed his national security team,"
        said Barrasso, who will serve as No. 2 Republican when his party
        takes control of the chamber in January.
        Waltz said the incoming Trump administration is prepared to work
        with European NATO allies and others to end what he called an
        escalating conflict in Ukraine, where Russian forces have begun
        using a new intermediate-range ballistic missile.
        
        "It is just an absolute meat grinder of people and personnel
        on that front. It is more like World War One trench warfare,"
        Waltz said, emphasizing the need to begin negotiations.
        
        "What we need to be discussing is who's at that table,
        whether it's an agreement, an armistice, how to get both sides
        to the table, and then what's the framework of a deal," Waltz
        said. "That's what we'll be working with this administration
        until January and then beyond."