Morgan Ortagus is a Fox News contributor and counterterrorism expert who is expected to be named the next State Department spokeswoman, NBC News reports. A Fox News spokesperson confirmed that Morgan is no longer a contributor.
Ortagus, who has appeared on Fox News and Fox Business Network since 2016, will replace former State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, a former Fox News anchor. Nauert was later nominated by President Donald Trump to be the new United Nations ambassador but she withdrew herself from consideration.
Ortagus is a US Naval Reserve officer who previously served as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
She also worked as an intelligence analyst for the Treasury Department in the Obama administration and later was the department’s deputy US attache to Saudi Arabia.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Morgan Ortagus is a Fox News Contributor
Ortagus is best known as a contributor at Fox News, where she has regularly appeared since 2016.
According to her bio at security-focused nonprofit Concordia, where she serves as an advisor, Ortagus is also a US Naval Reserve officer.
She co-founded Global Opportunity (GO) Advisors with former Obama National Security Council official Samantha Vinograd, where Ortagus now serves as a managing director.
2. Ortagus Worked as a Treasury Department Intelligence Analyst
Moderator Morgan Ortagus speaks during the panel ‘Economu and Trade: Colombia in the Global Spotlight’
During Obama’s first term, Ortagus worked as an intelligence analyst at the Treasury Department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
As part of her role, she was responsible for helping to designate individual terrorists on the United Nations 1267 list.
She previously worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she spent time in Baghdad, Iraq during the early years of the war.
3. Ortagus Was Assigned to Saudi Arabia After Iraq
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In 2010, Ortagus was named the Deputy US Treasury Attache to Saudi Arabia.
According to her Concordia bio, she was responsible for working with the Saudi government to crack down on illegal finance.
Ortagus is a Johns Hopkins University Leadership Fellow and graduated with a dual Masters of Business Administration/Masters of Arts in Government from the university, where she earned an honors thesis for her research on counterinsurgency.
She is also the National Co-Chair for the Republican-leaning Maverick PAC and sits on numerous security-related nonprofit boards.
4. Ortagus is Expected to Replace Former Fox News Host-Turned-Spox Heather Nauert
Ortagus will replace another Fox News alum, former anchor Heather Nauert.
Nauert served as the State Department spokeswoman until President Trump nominated her to be the new United Nations ambassador after Nikki Haley stepped down.
Nauert ultimately withdrew herself from consideration.
“I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary Pompeo for the trust they placed in me for considering me for the position of US Ambassador to the United Nations. However, the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration. Serving in the Administration for the past two years has been one of the highest honors of my life and I will always be grateful to the President, the Secretary, and my colleagues at the State Department for their support,” she said in a statement.
Trump has since nominated Kelly Knight-Craft, the US ambassador to Canada and the wife of billionaire coal baron Joe Craft, who donated millions to Trump’s campaign and inauguration.
5. Ortagus is The Latest Fox News Hire By Trump White House
Ortagus and Nauert are just two of multiple hires the Trump administration has made directly from Fox News.
Trump previously hired former Fox News executive Bill Shine to be his communications director. Shine has since left for a role on Trump’s reelection campaign.
Other White House hires include former Fox News contributors John Bolton, Mercedes Schlapp, K.T. McFarland, Tony Sayegh, and, Anthony Scaramucci.
Trump’s New Zealand ambassador Scott Brown, German ambassador Richard Grenell, and Poland ambassador nominee Georgette Mosbacher are all former Fox News contributors as well.
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