K. T. McFarland facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
K. T. McFarland
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| 28th United States Deputy National Security Advisor | |
| In office January 20, 2017 – May 19, 2017 |
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| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Avril Haines |
| Succeeded by | Ricky L. Waddell |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Kathleen M. Troia
July 22, 1951 Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Alan McFarland |
| Children | 3, including Fiona |
| Education | George Washington University (BA) St Anne's College, Oxford (BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Kathleen Troia McFarland (born Kathleen M. Troia; July 22, 1951) is an American political commentator, civil servant, author, and former political candidate.
McFarland began her political career in the 1970s as a night-shift typist and assistant press liaison for National Security Council staff. In the 1980s, during the Reagan administration, she worked in the Department of Defense as a speechwriter and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. In 2006, she ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in New York.
McFarland served as Deputy National Security Advisor under Michael Flynn in 2017 during the Donald Trump administration. She was asked to step down by Flynn's successor, H. R. McMaster, in April 2017, and was then nominated by Trump to the post of U.S. Ambassador to Singapore. McFarland removed her name from consideration for the ambassadorship in February 2018 due to concerns about her answers to questions related to links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies.
McFarland frequently appears on Fox News and has written three books.
Contents
Early life and education
Kathleen Troia was born on July 22, 1951, in Madison, Wisconsin, where she grew up as the oldest of four siblings. Her father was a train dispatcher for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad.
She later said that her father had persistent rage issues and that she was beaten at least twice a month between the age of 2 and 12. "I had one of the most difficult childhoods imaginable. I was beaten up, I was whipped with a belt, I was kicked, I was shoved, and my father took a gun to us on a couple of occasions at a very young age". She said she avoided further beatings by staying away from home as much as possible and leaving home at the age of 18. In 2006, her father emphatically denied any such behavior; in response, she stood by her statements but requested "privacy for a family that I love and forgave many years ago". She later said that Disney heroines helped her overcome obstacles and inspired her to believe that women could achieve whatever they wanted.
Troia graduated from Madison West High School in 1969.
Troia studied at the Elliott School of International Affairs of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In 1970 she worked part-time at the Nixon White House for Henry Kissinger's National Security Council staff. She was on the nighttime typing pool, which meant that she typed the President's Daily Brief. Intrigued by U.S. foreign policy and Nixon's 1972 China visit, Troia majored in Chinese studies, and graduated from George Washington in 1973.
Career
Early career
Troia continued to work in the White House as a research assistant during the Ford administration, and at times assisted or filled in for the NSC press liaison. She is sometimes considered a Kissinger protégée. In December 1975, an Associated Press story quoted the 24-year Troia extolling Secretary of State Kissinger in keeping the world's image of the United States strong during the Nixon impeachment.
Troia returned to Washington, D.C., in 1981 following the election of Ronald Reagan as president and the new Republican majority in the U.S. Senate and became a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee staff, working for chair John Tower. There, she worked on the preparation of committee briefings and talking points.
Reagan administration
During the Reagan administration, when she was known informally as Kathy Troia, Troia started working as a speechwriter for U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger in March 1982. Specifically, she worked on his "Six Tests for the Use of U.S. Military Power" speech, sometimes considered a forerunner of the Powell Doctrine.
In December 1983, Troia was promoted to Principal Deputy to Michael I. Birch, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. She later served as Pentagon spokesperson, with newspaper articles from that time describing her as a "senior Pentagon spokeswoman". She was reportedly under consideration for the Assistant Secretary position. She stayed in this position until approximately November 1984.
Career hiatus
Troia married Alan Roberts McFarland in 1985. After getting married, Troia was known as K.T. McFarland. Beginning in 1985, K.T. McFarland was a stay-at-home mother.
2006 U.S. Senate campaign
In 2006, K.T. McFarland ran in the Republican primary in the United States Senate election in New York for a seat held by Democrat Hillary Clinton. She was a late entrant who was recruited once the candidacy of the leading Republican, Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, imploded.
In the September 12 Republican primary, McFarland was defeated by Spencer, 61% to 39%, amid historically low turnout. Spencer went on to lose to Clinton in the general election.
Political commentator
In 2010, McFarland regularly appeared on Fox News as a commentator, wrote a weekly column on FoxNews.com, and hosted an online talk show called Defcon 3, a reference to DEFCON, the United States' defense readiness scale. She also appeared regularly on Fox News Radio, ABC Radio, WMAL, and WVOX.
In this role, McFarland was highly critical of President Obama's approach to combating terrorism, saying he failed to acknowledge the threat that "global Islamist jihad" posed to "Western Civilization". After the ISIL beheading incidents in 2014, she said Obama had "stuck his head in the sand" and said it was a "dereliction of duty" for Obama to play "a lot of golf".
On the U.S. diplomatic cables leak, McFarland called Julian Assange a terrorist, called WikiLeaks "a terrorist organization", and called for the death penalty for Chelsea Manning (whom she referred to as Bradley Manning) if the soldier was found guilty of making the leaks. On waterboarding, she said, "It's not torture, but even if it is torture, it's worth doing".
As a commentator, McFarland often expressed doubts about globalism and the value of U.S. interventions abroad. She disagreed with the 2011 military intervention in Libya, applauded the United Kingdom's Brexit vote to withdraw from the European Union, asserted that Iran should either be bombed or should be allowed to attain nuclear capability, and dismissed putative Saudi support for the Iranian nuclear agreement based on a negative view of the honesty and integrity of Arabs.
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In 2013, McFarland wrote that Vladimir Putin deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for his actions during the Syrian Civil War. In 2014, following the annexation of Crimea, she tweeted, "Putin seizes countries, Obama threatens maybe to kick Russia out of the G-8 club. Bet Putin's sorry now! Winners write history, not whiners."
Other work
McFarland is the author of three books, Our Time is Now: Reclaiming an America We Can Believe In, Our Time is Now: Tough Love Diplomacy, Commonsense Economy, and the Second Great American Century, and Revolution: Trump, Washington and "We the People".
McFarland was a board member of The Jamestown Foundation from June 2008 until her appointment as Deputy National Security Advisor in 2017. She also served as a distinguished advisor to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. McFarland is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Trump administration
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Deputy National Security Advisor
On November 25, 2016, the Washington Post reported that McFarland had been selected as President-elect Donald Trump's Deputy National Security Advisor, a position that does not require Senate confirmation. McFarland's former boss, Henry Kissinger, praised the selection. Retired general Michael T. Flynn, who had been selected as President Trump's national security adviser, had ties to McFarland and tweeted a welcome to her. Former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman also praised McFarland for being "one of our country's most experienced, informed and wise foreign policy and national security experts".
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On April 9, 2017, it was reported that McFarland had been asked to step down from her position after less than three months in the role but that she had been offered a position as the U.S. Ambassador to Singapore.
Ambassadorial nomination and Special Counsel investigation
After Ricky L. Waddell was nominated to succeed McFarland as Deputy National Security Advisor on May 10, 2017, McFarland was officially announced as Trump's nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Singapore on May 19, 2017. On June 15, 2017, McFarland was formally nominated by the White House. Her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took place on July 20, 2017. During the hearing, McFarland stated that she believed Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections. On September 19, McFarland's confirmation was approved by the committee and was sent on to the full Senate, but as of the end of November, her nomination had not been scheduled for a vote in the full Senate.
On December 1, Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation named McFarland as one of the people involved with Michael Flynn, her former supervisor, and Jared Kushner in developments leading up to Flynn's guilty plea for lying to the FBI. In particular, the investigation found that Kushner and McFarland had briefed Flynn on what to say about U S. sanctions against Russia. The next day, an email McFarland wrote during the transition surfaced; it read: "If there is a tit-for-tat escalation Trump will have difficulty improving relations with Russia, which has just thrown U.S.A. election to him." After talking to Kislyak, Flynn informed McFarland of the contents of the conversation; McFarland, in turn, passed on the information to one of her colleagues.
In response to these revelations, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking members Mark Warner and Dianne Feinstein suggested that McFarland testify before Congress, Sen. Cory Booker questioned whether McFarland had been fully forthcoming in her previous testimony, and Committee Chair Bob Corker pronounced her nomination "frozen". By December 5, committee Democrats had placed a formal Senate hold on her nomination.
At the end of 2017, the U.S. Senate sent McFarland's nomination back to the White House rather than tabling it until 2018, along with other pending nominations. On January 10, 2018, the administration renominated McFarland. On February 2, 2018, McFarland withdrew her nomination due to concerns about her answers to questions related to links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies.
In September 2018, it became known that McFarland had indeed walked back her story to the special prosecutor. The FBI accepted McFarland's contention that she had not intentionally misstated facts.
Awards and honors
In 1985, McFarland received the Department of Defense's highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Civilian Service Award.
Personal life
Troia married Alan Roberts McFarland on January 12, 1985, at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. After getting married, Troia was known as K.T. McFarland. Alan McFarland worked as a general partner in Lazard Frères and went on to become a well-known investment banker. The couple had three children together, and K.T. McFarland became a stepmother to her husband's two children from his first marriage. Her oldest daughter, Fiona McFarland, attended the United States Naval Academy.
