National security aide Sebastian Gorka praised and thanked the Trump administration for sticking by him amid criticism of ties to a controversial group in Hungary, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Gorka told the outlet at its New York conference claims that he and his fellow White House colleagues Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller harbor antisemitic views are politically motivated.
"I'd like to thank everybody who has stood by me in this administration for the past few weeks," he told the conference, characterizing the White House as a "well-oiled machine," the Post reported.
Gorka also said he's "spent my life fighting against totalitarian ideologies, and so has my father," Gorka said.
"For me, jihadis are linked to fascists because they are totalitarians – and that is why I am proud to work for this administration," he said.
Gorka has been the subject of investigative reports by the Jewish American newspaper, Forward, about his alleged associations with Vitézi Rend, a neo-Nazi group, and his defense of the Hungarian Guard, a militia serving the nation's far-right Jobbik Party.
He said there has not been "one sentence that is antisemitic or anti-Israel" documented, Gorka told the Post.
At the conference, Gorka related stories of his father helping Jewish neighbors throughout WWII, adding that the Trump administration hopes to stigmatize the flag of Islamic State to that of "the Swastika of the Nazi Third Reich," the Post reported.
President Donald Trump "understands the threat, and he will obliterate it," Gorka said of radical Islam militants, the Post reported. "We will lead, and with our friends we will destroy our enemies."
Gorka also dismissed speculation he was leaving the West Wing as "very fake news."