President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly added Frank Gaffney—a former Reagan official and Islamophobic conspiracy theorist—to his transition team to weigh in on national security issues.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes Gaffney as “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes” and the think tank he heads, the Center for Security Policy (CSP), as “a conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece for the growing anti-Muslim movement in the United States.”
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on the Gaffney’s involvement Tuesday, though the Trump campaign indicated he is not playing such a role. “Either way,” The Intercept‘s Jon Schwarz writes, “this is an extremely bad sign.”