Secretary of state Marco Rubio will take on additional responsibilities as the next national security adviser, becoming the first person since Henry Kissinger to serve in both roles simultaneously, but a White House veteran cast doubt on his ability to do both jobs effectively.
Rubio's position in Donald Trump's administration expanded after the president said he would nominate his first national security adviser, Mike Waltz, to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but longtime national security official Brett McGurk told "CNN News Central" that the jobs were too demanding in the current era for one individual to perform those duties.
"The job of national security adviser is like the most important job in Washington," said McGurk, who has served in senior national security positions under presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump and Joe Biden. "There's a reason there's a corner office in the West Wing, just down the hall from the Oval Office. It is where every national security issue basically comes from the Situation Room all around the world into the White House. It is totally different than a secretary of state job."
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"Rubio really cannot do both these jobs," he added. "So right now, unless Rubio decides to delegate to his deputy Chris Landau at state, we really don't have a national security advisor. This is a full-time, and the issues pile up."
McGurk rattled off a list of some of the top national security issues currently facing the U.S., and he said the president needed to choose someone to grapple with those problems on a full-time basis.
"The Yemen bombing campaign, which, of course, was we all saw the internal debate in that Signal chat where 50 days into that military campaign, where is that heading?" McGurk said. "Who's coordinating the sanctions elements, the political outcome we're trying to seek? That is very complex. Iran negotiations, we're now about a month into Iran negotiations. If those negotiations fail, and it's actually right now very stalled, the Iranians had a very sharp statement today rejecting Trump, Trump's threats of new sanctions that came out yesterday on the back end of those talks. If they fail, is a potential military strike against Iran, which we have to be preparing for that outcome. You, of course, have the Ukraine-Russia negotiations, which are also stalled, and, of course, you have the Gaza crisis. You have hostages still in Gaza, and those talks have been stalled. Plus, the global economic situation."
"This is what makes national security adviser job so different than secretary of state," he added. "International economic affairs come into that office... That is why it is so critical, and I would really, I hope you have someone full time in that job very, very soon."
McGurk pointed out that all those issues were publicly known, but he estimated that 60 percent of the problems the national security council was grappling with probably haven't come into public view at this point.
"It's an important job," he said. "You need somebody there full time. It's a job that you have to be in the White House in the Situation Room almost full time, and right now it seems to be pretty vacant."
Host Kate Bolduan agreed, saying that Trump's preferred management style left the U.S. exposed to national security threats.
"I think people under-appreciate that just because how it seems that especially president Trump can just move pieces around on the chessboard in terms of his cabinet, as we saw in the first term, and the way you put it is really important," Bolduan said, "just showing this is a very serious role and a very serious moment to have effectively a vacancy there, and not many people would know it. But you do better than anybody."
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