Security picks under scrutiny
President-elect Donald Trump yesterday met with Mitt Romney, one of his most vocal Republican Party critics now considered a long-shot choice for secretary of state, after naming three polarising conservatives to fill key national security and judicial posts.
Anti-immigration Senator Jeff Sessions, one of Trump's earliest supporters during the campaign, was nominated Friday to be attorney general, signaling Trump is prepared to take his hard line on illegal immigration into the White House.
To lead the CIA, Trump tapped hawkish Congressman Mike Pompeo, a strident opponent of the Iran nuclear deal and a sharp critic of Trump's campaign rival Hillary Clinton during hearings into the 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya.
The incoming commander-in-chief also appointed retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn, a top military counsel to the 70-year-old Republican billionaire-turned-world-leader, as his national security advisor.
In New York, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was booed at a performance of award-winning Broadway musical "Hamilton," whose cast made an unusual on-stage plea for the Trump administration to "uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us."
Trump yesterday claimed Pence was "harassed" by the "very rude" cast of the group. America's next president demanded an apology from the cast over the public appeal at the end of a performance of the hit musical.
While his picks suggest he is adhering to conservative positions, Trump made efforts to send reassuring signals about stability and continuity regarding America's place in the world.
The three choices come as the president-elect works to fill key positions in his administration, which will take over from Democratic President Barack Obama on January 20.
The picks could heighten concerns abroad that the Trump administration might carry out campaign promises of banning Muslims from entering the United States or imposing more severe restrictions on migrants from countries or regions with high levels of militant Islamist activity, such as Iraq and Syria.
Sessions and Pompeo seem likely to be confirmed by the Senate despite heavy resistance from Democrats. Republicans will control a majority, with at least 51 seats in the 100-seat chamber, when Congress reconvenes in January. Flynn's post does not need Senate confirmation.
Deeper controversy surrounds Trump's national security adviser Flynn, 57, who is set to play an influential role in shaping policy for a president with no experience in government or diplomacy, including how to contend with an increasingly aggressive Russia.
Flynn raised eyebrows when he traveled to Moscow and dined alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.
And he has refused to rule out enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding, which have been described as torture and which Trump repeatedly condoned while campaigning.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Trump was considering retired General David Petraeus, who resigned as CIA chief in 2012 after an extra-marital affair was revealed, for the post of defense secretary.
The appointments came a day after the president-elect met with a foreign leader for the first time: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who said he could have "great confidence" in Trump as a US leader. Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said he had a "good talk" with Trump by telephone, telling AFP in Brussels he was "absolutely confident" that the incoming president remains committed to the transatlantic alliance.
Romney -- the moderate, failed 2012 presidential candidate -- would be a long-shot choice for secretary of state, alongside former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Romney had described Trump as a "fraud," rebuking the tycoon for proposals such as banning the entry of all foreign Muslims.
US ATTORNEY GENERAL: JEFF SESSIONS
One of the earliest Republican lawmakers to support Trump's White House candidacy, Sessions opposes any path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and was an enthusiastic backer of Trump's campaign promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Sessions, 69, is serving his fourth term in the chamber, where he is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee with oversight of federal courts, immigration, crime and terrorism. He was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 when a Senate panel failed to advance his nomination amid allegations he had made racially-charged remarks, which he denied.
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: MICHAEL FLYNN
Flynn, 57, was an early supporter of Trump and serves as vice chairman on his transition team. A former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), he began his US Army career in 1981 and served deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Flynn was fired from DIA in 2014, a move he has attributed to his outspoken views about fighting Islamist militancy. He has described Islam as a "cancer" and a "political ideology", and in February tweeted that "fear of Muslims is rational." Flynn has said the United States should work more with Russia on global security issues.
CIA DIRECTOR: MIKE POMPEO
Pompeo, 52, is a third-term congressman from Kansas who serves on the US House Select Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA, National Security Agency (NSA) and cyber security. Pompeo has called for a revival and expansion of a now-defunct domestic spying program to include "financial and lifestyle information" as well as phone records. He is also a strident opponent of the Iran nuclear deal and a sharp critic of Hillary Clinton during hearings into the 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya. Pompeo has been critical of former Edward Snowden who leaked National Security Agency information.
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