National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said Saturday that special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation — which led his predecessor, Michael Flynn, to plead guilty to lying to the FBI on Friday — has not affected his agency's mission nor troubled U.S. allies.
"I see no evidence of the investigation in any way impeding the important work that we are doing," McMaster told Fox News host Bret Baier at the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
"What we are endeavoring to do is to regain our strategic focus," he said. "We have established a very strong foundation, foundation of strategy clearly articulated objectives for the national security challenges we are facing."
Flynn, whom President Donald Trump fired in February over concerns about his disclosures of his Russian contacts to Vice President Mike Pence, entered the guilty plea Friday as part of the Mueller probe.
He is cooperating with special counsel investigators and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
McMaster told Baier that his national security operation was focused on a wide range of global threats, particularly countering Russia's "destabilizing behavior" in Syria, Catalonia — even Mexico before its elections next July.
"It wouldn't be in anybody's interest to have a large-scale conflict with Russia," McMaster said, adding also that "what we need to do is find areas of cooperation with Russia, so Russian policies are focused."
He responded "I don't think so" when asked whether the Mueller probe affected American allies. "We are in close contact."
"There's tremendous confidence," he added. "I think there's more confidence in the United States, frankly.
"There's a sense that we're engaging in areas that we had disengaged."
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