Lake County Gazette

Morgan Ortagus, a national security expert who worked for the US Department of State, was recently interviewed by the Lake County GOP. 

For part of her interview with Lake County Republicans, Ortagus focused on foreign policy under the Biden Administration. 

“Putin looked at Biden. He met with Biden. He knew his team because they were all the Obama team,” Ortagus said in a video posted to the Lake County GOP Facebook page. “These are the same people that were in charge whenever Putin invaded Crimea. And what consequences did Putin face from the Obama administration when he invaded Crimea? Does anybody remember that? Exactly, Because there weren't any. So he knew exactly who was dealing with. He knew what he could get away with. And the thing about the Ukrainian people know my impression and I had met with Zelensky and had been there. Does the country have corruption problems? Absolutely. Of course they do. It's not perfect."

Ortagus told Lake County Republicans' Central Committee Chairman Keith Brin that when she was in Lviv last May, she thought: "Okay, they'll fight to the last shot, man, woman and child. Like, they have the will. They have the tenacity to fight." 

"But the problem is, why are we even in this position in the first place?" She continued. "It's because the failure to deter and why, and again, I'm not saying this just to be political, because I am, you know, I've worked for President Obama in the first term as a career person. I am I'm in the reserves now. And if President Biden calls me up, I will go and faithfully serve my country. So I'm not saying it to be political. I'm saying it because we are in deep, deep danger, I think, of losing Taiwan. I think it could happen overnight while we are asleep. And so because of that, we have to understand why we failed. And I think it is incredibly dangerous to reelect a man who looks like he should be in a nursing home and his running mate, who, you know, speaks the weirdest gobbledygook on stage.” 

Ortagus said that under the Biden and Obama administrations the U.S.’s geopolitical power has been weakened. She claimed that Xi Jinping "has his sight on global dominance." Case in point, she said, are the churches in China.

“But they're not real churches because they have taken - and I'm Jewish but I still don't like this - a picture of Jesus Christ off the wall in the church. And they have put a picture of Xi Jinping on the wall,” Ortagus said. “The Bible that Christians read in China is a Bible that has been edited by the Chinese Communist Party. Even the Catholic Church made a deal with the devil in my mind. The Catholic Church let the Chinese Communist Party decide who gets to be a priest there and who doesn't. And they've been arresting Catholic bishops in Hong Kong and other places.” 

She thinks that the U.S. is also under threat.

“So the world that we have all inherited because of our parents and grandparents who fought in World War II to make sure that democracy and a rules-based world order existed, that is under direct assault now today from the Russians and from the Chinese," Ortagus said. "And we should be very, very clear-eyed about the threat. And I will tell you what worries me most is that teenagers in our country, well, they should be excited to sign up to fight and die for democracy are hearing that this is a racist nation that was founded on white supremacy. Instead of hearing this is what the Chinese Communist Party offers the world, and here's what America has offered them. Instead, they are being indoctrinated.” 

She also accused the Biden Administration of running afoul of the modern party’s principles in dealing with Iran.  

“Do you know the Democrats love to talk about equity and inclusion?” Ortagus said. “Guess who wasn't included at the table for the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)? Anybody with brown skin.” “So that means if you were an Arab, if you were an Israeli, if you were the one who were directly threatened by the Iranian regime, you had a bunch of white European Americans and Europeans sitting at the table. And I just have to say that because they pound this equity stuff on us and I'm like, Well, give me a break. There's nothing more imperialistic than a bunch of white Europeans and Americans sitting at a table patting the Gulf Arabs and patting the Israelis on the head, saying, we know what's best for your security. It's the height of American arrogance and foreign policy.” 

Ortagus was named a U.S. State Department Spokesperson in 2019. She previously worked in the Obama State Department where she was assigned to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the Deputy U.S. Treasury Attaché in 2010. She also served with the U.S. Treasury in Saudi Arabia’s banking sector, and as an intelligence analyst at the U.S. Treasury in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. In 2007 she started her career in government service in Baghdad, Iraq where she was a public affairs officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 

“In her private sector experience, Ms. Ortagus helped found EY’s Geostrategic Business Group and she was a Global Relationship Manager at Standard Chartered Bank in the Public Sector Group covering clients in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. She was also the co-founder and Managing Director of GO Advisors, and a national security contributor at Fox News,” her bio on the State Department’s website reads. “She earned an honors thesis at Johns Hopkins University for her research on counterinsurgency and graduated from Johns Hopkins in May 2013 with a dual Master of Business Administration/Master of Arts in Government. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Political Science, cum laude, from Florida Southern College.”

Ortagus runs the Killbox on SubStack, which she promises “will bring a collection of visions and unique stories that give a behind-the-scenes look at the threats to the United States and how we can fight back.”