It took only three weeks for the Trump administration to experience its first scandal and senior-level resignation. Mike Flynn, the retired lieutenant general and a trusted national security aide to Donald Trump, resigned his post as national security advisor late Monday night. The administration announced shortly after news of Flynn’s resignation broke that retired lieutenant general Keith Kellogg would take over as acting national security advisor.
News outlets are reporting that the White House is considering Kellogg, retired general and former CIA director David Petraeus, and retired vice admiral Bob Harward as permanent replacements for Flynn. A source tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that Harward, who served as a deputy commander to Marine general and future Defense secretary James Mattis at Central Command, is the leading contender for the job. Harward has a background in intelligence and counterterrorism, with a post on the National Security Council staff during the George W. Bush administration and later at the National Counterterrorism Center.
How Flynn Fell
The trouble with Flynn began before Trump’s inauguration, after it was revealed the former Army officer had been in contact with the Russian ambassador to the United States via phone conversations and text messages. This may have been standard protocol for a senior national-security official in an incoming administration, but the calls were given closer scrutiny because of Flynn’s closeness to Russian president Vladimir Putin. A frequent guest on the Russian propaganda network RT, Flynn had been an advocate for warming U.S. relations with Putin’s government. And one late December call with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, came on the same day the outgoing Obama administration issued sanctions on the Russian government for its attempted interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The incoming vice president, Mike Pence, appeared a few days later on CBS’s Face the Nation and was asked whether Flynn had discussed those sanctions with Kislyak. “I talked to General Flynn about that conversation and actually was initiated on Christmas Day he had sent a text to the Russian ambassador to express not only Christmas wishes but sympathy for the loss of life in the airplane crash that took place. It was strictly coincidental that they had a conversation. They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia,” Pence told host John Dickerson.
But former and current NSC officials told the Washington Post last week that what Pence had said wasn’t true. Through a spokesman Flynn began backing off his claim that he did not discuss the sanctions with Kislyak. Flynn’s explanation, privately to the administration and then publicly to the press, was that he couldn’t remember if he had mentioned sanctions.
Once the Post article ran on February 9, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus had begun pushing internally for Flynn’s resignation. Priebus had a chief ally in the vice president. Pence was angry with Flynn for having misled him, and Flynn’s explanation of a bad memory was not convincing to administration officials. Their concerns were not over Flynn’s close ties with the Putin regime—it was the belief that Flynn had lied to Pence and other officials about the calls and was, at least initially, unrepentant about it.
There were signs that Trump would stand by Flynn, who traveled with the president to Mar-a-Lago last weekend. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway even told MSNBC on Monday afternoon that Trump had “full confidence” in Flynn. But it was following a meeting with Priebus that, an hour after Conway’s remarks, press secretary Sean Spicer was telling the media that Trump was “evaluating the situation” with Flynn. Just a few hours later, Flynn had submitted his resignation.
But Not Everyone Wanted Flynn Gone
Flynn’s misdirection was a problem for some in the administration, but others in Trump world see Flynn as a victim of the vindictive intelligence bureaucracy. According to this view, since his time heading up the Defense Intelligence Agency, Flynn has been a disruptive reformer hated by the politicized intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA.
As one adviser to Trump on national security put it, forcing out Flynn through leaks like those reported on in the Post gives the bureaucracy a model to sink any unwanted reformers—especially if the White House folds so easily. Again, in this way of thinking, Flynn’s ouster is the first step in turning the Trump administration toward more conventional national-security and intelligence policy.
A Rare Display of Unity in Trump’s Washington
Two of Trump’s Cabinet secretaries were confirmed by the Senate Monday night. The first, for Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, fell mostly on party lines, 53-47. Just one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted for Mnuchin. The new Treasury secretary was sworn in at the White House later that night.
Immediately after the Mnuchin vote, the Senate voted on David Shulkin to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. Currently the under secretary for health at the VA, Shulkin was unanimously confirmed, 100-0. It’s hard to imagine any other vote in Congress during the Trump era to get unanimous support—not even the naming of a post office.
Shulkin will be sworn in as VA secretary Tuesday afternoon.
More Puzder Problems?
But not all is so well in Cabinet confirmation land. I reported here on Monday that Andy Puzder, the fast-food CEO who Trump has nominated as Labor secretary, is causing consternation among some Republican senators. It turns out that four Republicans are now publicly expressing reservations about Puzder ahead of his confirmation hearing on Thursday. According to the Washington Post and CNN, those four are Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, and Tim Scott of South Carolina.
While Collins and Murkowski (who both voted against Education secretary Betsy DeVos) seem like harder no’s, both Isakson and Scott are couching their concerns in a desire to learn more from Puzder’s hearing. Still, their speaking out cuts against the confidence expressed by the White House and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell that Puzder will be confirmed. If every Democrat votes against him, Puzder will need two of those four Republicans to end up on his side—and no more Republicans to break away.
A ‘K Street Renegade’
The Wall Street Journal‘s Brody Mullins has the must-read piece of the week, about the rise and fall of a drug lobbyist with ties to the highest reaches of the Democratic party. Read all the way to the end, but here’s an excerpt:
Song of the Day
“Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” Tears for Fears
