Why The Only Neocon To Get Close To Trump Administration Won’t Get In After All

Elliot Abrams

By Nathan Guttman February 13, 2017

Elliott Abrams, former deputy national security adviser in the Bush White House, was Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s top choice to serve as his deputy, but the appointment was nixed by President Trump, CNN reported.

According to the report, it was Abrams’s early criticism of Trump that cost him the nomination. After Trump clinched the Republican nomination, Abrams wrote in the Weekly Standard that “the party has nominated someone who cannot win and should not be president of the United States.”

Trump’s close advisers Jared Kushner and chief of staff Reince Priebus supported Abrams’s nomination for the post, but the president was not willing to overlook his early criticism.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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