Washington: President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday fired one of his transition team’s staff members, Michael G. Flynn, the son of Mr Trump’s choice for national security adviser, for using Twitter to spread a fake news story about Hillary Clinton that led to an armed confrontation in a pizza restaurant in Washington.
The uproar over Mr Flynn’s Twitter post cast a harsh spotlight on the views that he and his father, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, aired on social media throughout the presidential campaign. Both men have shared fake news stories alleging that Ms Clinton committed felonies, and have posted their own Twitter messages that at times have crossed into Islamophobia.
But their social media musings apparently attracted little attention from Mr Trump or his transition team before a North Carolina man fired a rifle Sunday inside Comet Ping Pong, which was the subject of false stories tying it and the Ms Clinton campaign to a child sex trafficking ring.
Hours after the episode, the younger Mr Flynn, 33, went on Twitter to say that until “Pizzagate” was proved false, it remained a story. On Tuesday morning, after the post had attracted national attention and it was reported that Mr Flynn had a transition team email address, Vice-President-elect Mike Pence denied that Mr Flynn had ever worked for the team, saying on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that he had “no involvement in the transition whatsoever.”
But later in the morning, Jason Miller, a transition spokesman, tacitly acknowledged that Mr Flynn had worked for the transition, saying in a conference call that Mr Flynn was now no longer involve. Mr Miller did not say what prompted the dismissal of Mr Flynn, but two other Trump transition officials said it was tied to his Twitter posting. The move may have cost the younger Mr Flynn an eventual post in the White House. Until Tuesday, he had planned to join his father on the staff of the National Security Council.
Fake news:
- Lots of people in ‘entertainment industry’ attacking me tonight. Gee I wonder why #Pizzagate
- The hit pieces are coming in. Fake news media will be up all night doing this!
- Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it’ll remain a story. The left seems to forget #PodestaEmails and the many ‘coincidences’ tied to it — Michael G. Flynn, Former transition staff member
