Grenell joins RNC as senior adviser focused on LGBT voter outreach

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Ric Grenell on Gen. Mattis' criticism of Trump, appropriate role for US intel community

Former Acting DNI Ric Grenell joins Tucker Carlson for first TV interview since leaving the Trump administration.

EXCLUSIVE: Former acting Director of National Intelligence Ambassador Richard Grenell has joined the Republican National Committee as a senior adviser focused on political outreach, specifically to LGBT voters, Fox News has learned.

An RNC official told Fox News that Grenell recently joined the GOP, after serving as the first openly gay U.S. Cabinet official in history.

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"As America's first openly-gay cabinet member, I can confidently say that President Trump has done more for gay and lesbian Americans than any other president, and it is not even close," Grenell said in a statement to Fox News.

Grenell went on to slam Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, saying that during his "four decades in Washington, he consistently fought against marriage equality and even threatened to cut funding for schools who taught acceptance of homosexuality."

"From President Trump's global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality to becoming the first president to support gay marriage on his first day in office, he has been a champion for our community and I am thrilled to be part of the fight to re-elect him for four more years," Grenell said.

Grenell served as U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020, as the presidential envoy for Kosovo-Serbia Negotiations, and as acting director of National Intelligence in 2020, where he declassified a slew of documents related to the Russia investigation.

Prior to joining the Trump administration, Grenell was a spokesman at the United Nations, and in 2012, briefly served as national security and foreign affairs spokesman for then-candidate Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. He was the first openly gay spokesman for a Republican presidential candidate.

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Grenell, this week, was featured in a new ad for the Log Cabin Republicans, which claimed Trump "made history for #LGBT Americans."

Meanwhile, Grenell’s addition to the RNC comes after the party marked Pride Month in June by highlighting Trump’s speech at the United Nations calling on dozens of countries to decriminalize homosexuality, and “historic” LGBT appointments, like Grenell’s.

Earlier this week, Grenell participated in a Team Trump bus tour in Nevada. Grenell also tweeted this week, in response to Goodyear's equity policy, "Would @goodyear allow employees to wear this hat?"

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