Sebastian Gorka, former deputy assistant on counterterrorism for the Trump administration, has left Fox News for a permanent position at Sinclair Broadcasting.
Bowing out
Gorka joined Fox News in November 2017, after a 7-month stint in the White House. He was a regular contributor on Sean Hannity’s top-ranked political opinion show and served as a national security strategist for the conservative outlet.
“I decided not to renew my contract since I have a new nationally syndicated radio show and a position with Sinclair TV which obviated a new arrangement with FNC,” Gorka told The Hollywood Reporter in an email.
The 48-year-old, who holds triple citizenship in Britain, Hungary and the U.S., has an established relationship with Sinclair, where he recently produced a multi-part series regarding the dangers of socialism. Gorka also launched a syndicated radio talk show program called America First in November.
“I’m very excited to be one of Sinclair’s national contributors,” Gorka told The Hill in an email. “Fox News and Fox Business Network have both been very good to me before I joined the Trump Administration and after I left the White House.
“I am especially grateful to Sean Hannity,” he continues. “My new nationally syndicated radio show with Salem Radio and position with Sinclair will allow me to go deeper on the key issues of the Trump era.”
Anti-socialist firebrand
Gorka’s decision to leave Fox News came after a dramatic appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference this past weekend, where he slammed the socialist takeover of the Democrat Party.
“They want to take your pickup truck, they want to rebuild your home, they want to take away your hamburgers,” Gorka told attendees in a fiery speech.
“This is what Stalin dreamt about but never achieved. You are on the front lines of the war against communism coming back to America under the guise of democratic socialism,” he said.
Steeped in controversy
Gorka’s brief stint with the White House was immersed in controversy after left-wing groups accused him of being a Nazi sympathizer because of his affiliation with the Hungarian Vitezi Rend, an organization “under the direction of the Nazi Government of Germany” during World War II. However, as The Tablet senior writer Liel Leibovitz explained, “Vitezi Rend was not a Nazi organization,” but a “military honor society” which included “a fair cross-section” of “military lifers, far-right nationalists, left-wing nationalists, Nazi enthusiasts, and others of all stripes” — including members who were later honored by Israel for protecting Jews.
On his way out of the White House in August 2017, The Federalist published segments of a resignation letter from Gorka where he complained “the individuals who most embodied and represented the policies that will ‘Make America Great Again,’ have been internally countered, systematically removed, or undermined in recent months.” Gorka accused establishment “forces that do not support the MAGA promises” of being “ascendant within the White House” following the hiring of Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Fortunately, Gorka departed Fox News on much more amicable terms. A spokesman for the network confirmed the contributor’s departure and described the parting of ways as mutual.
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