Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Sebastian Gorka Chickens Out On ‘Man-To-Man’ Meeting With Twitter Critic

Sebastian Gorka, the controversial far right wing White House aide with ties to Hungarian anti-Semitic groups, has bailed on a “man-to-man” meeting with a critic whom he called to threaten after the analyst mocked his credentials using the hashtag #faketerrorismexpert.

Gorka, an aide to President Trump, called Michael E. Smith II last week to berate the noted Republican terrorism expert about his series of Tweets noting Gorka’s near-total lack of qualifications for a high-level national security role.

Little did Gorka know that Smith was recording the bullying call, in which Gorka threatened to sic “White House counsel” on Smith for his criticism on social media.

Gorka, a trusted lieutenant of Trump supremo Steve Bannon who espouses , also challenged Smith to meet him face-to-face in Washington D.C., an invitation that Smith quickly accepted.

But apparently Gorka thought better of the prospect of actually having a meeting of the minds with someone who disagrees with him. He later told Smith the meeting was off.

The Forward revealed that Gorka, who has worn a medal issued by Hungary’s World War II Nazi collaborator regime, spent years working with far right wing figures in Hungary, including many with noxious anti-Semitic stands.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.