Flynn Resigns After Push from Pence and Reince Over Russian Ambassador Talks

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.