Mike Flynn, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, resigned Monday night amid questions over his meetings with Russian officials before Trump took office.
Flynn’s official resignation claims that he “inadvertently” briefed Vice President Mike Pence with “incomplete information” about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak—because he’d been under pressure ahead of the inauguration. “I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology,” he went on.
Flynn and Kislyak discussed dropping sanctions against Russia put in place by the Obama Administration as punishment for meddling in the US elections. Pence later told CBS, relying on a conversation with Flynn, that Flynn hadn’t discussed sanctions with Russia at all.
Late Monday afternoon, Flynn was reported to have apologized to Pence for misleading him. But the apology was clearly not enough.
Understanding that Flynn had steered the Vice President wrong, causing him to give false information to the media, the Trump Administration was in the difficult position of deciding whether their national security advisor or their Vice President was more valuable to the White House. After months of hammering Hillary Clinton during the campaign for her ineptitude with classified information, the new administration was also dealing with the awkwardness of having to admit that they had their own national security crisis just a month into their reign.
The Democrats will surely try to dig more deeply into the question of what Flynn actually said to Kislyak during their chats, and when he said it—and most importantly, when Trump first heard about those interactions.
Flynn’s resignation also won’t put to rest concerns over Trump’s inner circle. Flynn was an ally of White House strategist Steve Bannon, and his departure has implications for the power struggle reportedly taking place among Trump’s team.
It also adds to the picture of disorganization within the senior ranks, as senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told MSNBC Monday afternoon that Flynn had the “full confidence” of the President—the first full-throated statement of support the Administration had made in Flynn’s defense.
Retired Lt. Gen. Joseph Keith Kellogg Jr. will serve as acting National Security Adviser until a replacement is named. Gen. David Petraeus and Vice Adm. Robert Harward are considered top candidates for Flynn’s replacement. The highly decorated Petraeus, of course, has his own baggage. The four-star general was forced to step down as director of the CIA in 2012 after it emerged that he had had an affair with his biographer, and questions were asked about whether she had gotten wind of any classified information because of her close proximity to him.
