Sebastian Gorka confirms exit from Fox News, after a wild CPAC speech where he compared AOC to Stalin and said she wants to ban hamburgers

REUTERS/Mary F. Calvert

Sebastian Gorka.

• Former White House national security aide Sebastian Gorka said Sunday he had left Fox News, where he was a frequent guest.
• He said he was leaving to focus on a nationally syndicated radio show and his role as a contributor at Sinclair TV.  
• In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, Gorka claimed that Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are plotting to ban hamburgers and pick-up trucks. 
• In furious emails Gorka lambasted journalists seeking comment on the departure, accusing one of being in a "drug-induced haze."

Former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka announced his departure as a Fox News contributor Sunday, capping a week in where he made a fiery speech to the conservative Conservative Political Action Conference accusing Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of wanting to ban hamburgers.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday night, Gorka said he was leaving Fox News, where he was a regular contributor on Sean Hannity's show, to focus on new media roles.

"I decided not to renew my contract since I have a new nationally syndicated radio show and a position with Sinclair TV which obviated a new arrangement with FNC [Fox News Corporation]," he told the outlet in an email.

Gorka served as a deputy adviser on national security in the Trump administration, before departing the role in August 2017.

He took up the job as a national security strategist with Fox News in November that year, according to his LinkedIn profile, returning to the network where he had been a frequent guest before Trump's election victory.

He has worked as a nationally syndicated radio host "on the front-lines of the Culture War" with the Salem Media Group since January, and as a national contributor with Sinclair TV since February, according to the profile.

Fox News confirmed the move to media monitoring website Mediaite on Sunday, and Gorka reportedly responded to a request for comment from the site with a furious email, accusing the reporter of being in a "drug induced haze."

Gorka did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from Business Insider. 

Fox News also did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on Gorka's departure.

Gorka appeared on Saturday on Jeanine Pirro's Fox News show where he praised Trump's two-hour long CPAC speech, and last week as a guest panelist on Hannity's show, where he attacked "socialists" as the biggest threat to America.

Citing multiple Fox News sources, the Daily Beast reported in August that Gorka had been banned as a contributor on the network's hard news shows. 

In the statement Sunday, Gorka said that he would continue to appear on Hannity's prime time slot and other programmes on the network "as a free agent" and "as my new schedule permits."

Gorka on Thursday sought to burnish his credentials as a hardline conservative in an address to the CPAC conference in Maryland with a bizarre attack on US "socialists" like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

"They want to take your pick-up truck, they want to rebuild your home, they want to take away your hamburgers," Gorka told attendees.

"This is what Stalin dreamt about but never achieved. You are on the frontlines of the war against communism coming back to America under the guise of democratic socialism."

Gorka was a Breitbart and Fox News contributor before his White House appointment, and defended Trump in a series of combative TV interviews during his tenure in the role. 

But experts questioned his academic credentials, and he left soon after John Kelly took the role of chief of staff following the ousting of his key ally, populist firebrand Steve Bannon.