Department of Defense Spokeswoman Under Fire for Criticism of Trump

PORTSMOUTH, ENGLAND - JUNE 05: President of the United States, Donald Trump reads from the
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Kyle Morris

Department of Defense spokeswoman Elissa Smith, a career official, is facing scrutiny after it was revealed that several of her tweets and retweets suggest a political bias that does not support President Donald Trump’s agenda.

After Smith’s tweets from her personal account were brought to light by Republican strategist Arthur Schwartz on Tuesday, several of them vanished from the platform.

Screenshots provided on Schwartz’s personal Twitter account showed that Smith does not agree with the family separation policy at the southern border. In one instance, Smith retweeted a tweet from former National Security Agency Director Gen. Michael Hayden, which likened the administration’s family separation policy to that of Adolf Hitler’s Germany.

Hayden’s tweet, which was shared by Smith, reads, “Other governments have separated mothers and children” and included a photo of Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz concentration camp.

A November 8, 2016 tweet from Smith suggested that she did not vote for Trump in the 2016 election and instead voted for his Democrat challenger, Hillary Clinton.

Smith wrote, “Standing in line to vote before the polls are open. #YourVoteMatters #ImWithHer.”

Other tweets shared by Smith revealed that she supports Trump critics Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, and implied that President Trump does not “know the first thing about government.”

Smith praised Scarborough and Brzezinski in late 2017 as she wrote on Twitter, “Preach @morningmika and @JoeNBC, preach.”

In addition to her praise for Scarborough in 2017, Smith also retweeted a tweet from Scarborough in 2018 that criticized the Trump administration for its handling of the family separation policy at the border regarding children who were three months old.

“Let’s repeat that. Babies seized by Trump’s Centralized State that are Three. Months. Old,” Scarborough wrote. “Evangelicals, please speak up.”

A tweet from Washington Post columnist Max Boot, that was quoted and reshared by Smith, stated, “Maybe the American people in their wisdom should try electing someone who knows the first thing about government. Just a thought.”

In opposition to Trump, Smith quoted Boot’s tweet and said, “Amen @MaxBoot.”

Boot, a Never Trump activist, has repeatedly called for the impeachment of President Trump, whom he considers to be a “scoundrel.” Boot also insisted earlier this year that Trump’s “impeachment would be mentioned in the first line of his obituary.”

After a tweet from Smith revealed that she mocked Trump in 2016 for “sniffing” while speaking into the microphone, Schwartz questioned Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman on Smith’s behavior.

“You’re OK with a @DeptofDefense employee mocking the president on twitter,” Schwartz asked Hoffman. You couldn’t find a more appropriate spokesperson for the DoD?”

Smith also retweeted a post from former Central Intelligence Agency operations officer and failed 2016 presidential candidate Evan McMullin that suggested that President Trump and his family are “corrupt.”

“It’s a shame to see the RNC serve as the legal defense fund for a corrupt family administration,” McMullin wrote in the 2017 tweet, which was later echoed by Smith.

In early 2017, while defending intelligence agents who break the law to leak classified information, McMullin, a regular critic of the president, insisted President Trump “presents a threat to the country.”

Breitbart News reached out to Pentagon officials for comment on the social media policy as it relates to spokespeople for the Department of Defense, but no immediate response was given.

Follow Kyle on Twitter @RealKyleMorris and Facebook.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.