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Sebastian Gorka keeps getting jobs, despite alleged Nazi ties

But not, at least at Heritage, a parking spot.

Sebastian Gorka. CREDIT: AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Sebastian Gorka. CREDIT: AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Sebastian Gorka, a former national security adviser in the Trump White House with highly questionable credentials and alleged Nazi ties, keeps getting jobs.

Earlier this month, Gorka landed a gig with Fox News as a “national security strategist.” Then, on Tuesday afternoon, he updated his LinkedIn to include work at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, beginning in October of this year. Heritage, perhaps sensing a firestorm, quickly made it clear that Gorka wasn’t a full-time employee, but rather an independent contractor with the think tank.

Screenshot of Gorka's LinkedIn
Screenshot of Gorka's LinkedIn

“Dr. Gorka is an independent contractor,” a spokesperson for Heritage told the Washington Examiner, who first noticed Gorka’s updated LinkedIn page Tuesday. “He is solely responsible for the content of his speeches and other statements, and his views are not necessarily those of Heritage or any of its personnel.”

The spokesperson also told the Examiner that Gorka was contracted to give five foreign policy speeches to Heritage audiences, with the fourth scheduled in mid-December.

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The Examiner also asked whether Gorka gets a designated parking spot for his iconic mustang that bears the license plate “ART WAR.” Heritage said no.

Hiring Gorka to speak about foreign policy is a puzzling move for several reasons. For starters, Gorka’s credentials are highly questionable.

“Several experts interviewed by Politico puzzled over the gap between the numerous military academic credentials listed by Gorka  — a political science Ph.D. who unfailingly uses the title ‘Dr.’ — and their unfamiliarity with his work and views,” the news site reported back in February. 

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And in August, one of Gorka’s own professors, a retired professor of political science named Stephen Sloan, who spent much of his career at the University of Oklahoma, told CNN, “I would not call him an expert on terrorism.”

Gorka, Sloan said, “does a very good job being the bulldog, if you will, for the administration… but as an adviser, I have some discomfort.”

Credentials aside, contracting Gorka means Heritage might be contracting with a Nazi sympathizer.

In March, The Forward reported that Gorka was a sworn member of a group called Vitézi Rend, which was “under the direction of the Nazi Government of Germany” during World War II, according to the State Department.

Gorka denied having ever taken an oath of loyalty to the group, though he told Tablet Magazine that, since childhood, he has “occasionally worn [his] father’s medal and used the ‘v.’ initial to honor his struggle against totalitarianism.”

Despite his alleged Nazi ties, Gorka remained at the White House until August, where some of his most memorable contributions included saying people should stop criticizing white supremacists so much and that a mosque bombing might have been faked by liberals.

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When Gorka left the White House, he complained it was not Islamophobic enough. Gorka also maintains that he resigned from his role, but a White House official told a pool reporter at the time that Gorka “did not resign” but “no longer works at the White House.”

Nonetheless, thanks to Fox and the Heritage Foundation, everything is coming up Gorka.

ThinkProgress got Gorka’s voicemail twice when calling for comment Tuesday evening. The voice mailbox was full.