Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster said on Sunday that President Donald Trump running again for the White House in 2024 “would be terribly divisive.”
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” McMaster lamented that so many in the country feel “disenfranchised” and don’t trust democratic principles and institutions.
“I don't support anybody. Any individual. But I think it would be terribly divisive for our country for him to run again,” he said of Trump.
“What we need to do is analyze what the heck happened? … We've been talking about the president's responsibility but it didn't start there. This loss of confidence and large portions of the population that feel disenfranchised and lack confidence in our democratic principles and institutions — how did that happen?
“We need to look at education and civics education and a sense of our history and who we are,” he added, noting there also need to be scrutiny of the media.
“Why is it that people who lean one direction politically watch one cable news station and some who lean in another watch [CNN] or another [station],” he asked. “Why do people go to the media and believe these conspiracy theories? What is the role social media plays pitting us against each other? We have a lot of work to do.”
McMaster also said efforts to overturn the presidential election harmed America’s reputation around the world.
“Our reputation is harmed,” he said. “There are celebrations across the world among authoritarian regimes and feel as if they're emboldened and justified.
“What I would say to Americans is hey, we ought to be confident,” he added, arguing “we were stress-tested in the worst possible way with the President of the United States actively undermining our confidence in our democratic process. We will come out of this. We all have a role, I think, in convening our fellow Americans for meaningful, respectful discussions of the challenges we face and how we can work together to overcome them.”
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