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<\/p>\nUS President Donald Trump’s choice for National Security Adviser has turned down the job offer.<\/p>\n
Retired Vice-Admiral Robert Harward was widely tipped for the post after Mr Trump fired Michael Flynn on Monday.<\/p>\n
A White House official said Mr Harward cited family and financial commitments, but US media said the sticking point was he wanted to bring in his own team.<\/p>\n
Mr Flynn had misled US Vice-President Mike Pence over his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the US.<\/p>\n
The latest setback emerged hours after Mr Trump robustly denied media reports of White House disarray, insisting his administration was running like a “fine-tuned machine”.<\/p>\n
Mr Harward told the Associated Press the Trump administration was “very accommodating to my needs, both professionally and personally”.<\/p>\n
“It’s purely a personal issue,” added the 60-year-old former Navy Seal who is currently based in Abu Dhabi as an executive for US defence contractor Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n
Asked about reports that he had asked to bring in his own staff at the National Security Council, Mr Harward said: “I think that’s for the president to address.”<\/p>\n
Mr Flynn, a retired army lieutenant-general, was ousted amid claims that before he was even appointed as national security adviser he had discussed sanctions with a Russian envoy.<\/p>\n
This would have potentially breached a law banning private citizens from engaging in diplomacy.<\/p>\n
Mr Flynn initially denied having discussed sanctions with Sergei Kislyak, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington.<\/p>\n
But on Monday, Mr Trump asked for his resignation following revelations that Mr Flynn had misled the vice-president about his conversations with the diplomat.<\/p>\n
Leading Republicans have called for an investigation into intelligence leaksthat led to Mr Flynn’s resignation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two other contenders – retired General David Petraeus and acting national security adviser Keith Kellogg – have also been tipped to take on the job.<\/p>\n
Mr Kellogg, a retired three-star general, was named acting national security advisor after Mr Flynn stepped down.<\/p>\n
The 72-year-old had a long career in the US Army, serving in Vietnam and Iraq, before retiring in 2003 and becoming a security consultant for software giant Oracle Corp.<\/p>\n
Mr Petraeus, a celebrated former four-star general, retired as CIA director in 2012 after it emerged he had given top-secret material to his biographer, with whom he was also having an extramarital affair.<\/p>\n
He is still serving two years’ probation after his conviction for mishandling classified information, and would need to notify his parole officer if he wished to move to Washington DC.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump’s choice for National Security Adviser has turned down the job offer. Retired Vice-Admiral Robert Harward was widely tipped for the post after Mr Trump fired Michael Flynn on Monday. A White House official said Mr Harward cited family and financial commitments, but US media said the sticking point was he wanted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[2745,4164,2747],"yoast_head":"\n