they're trying to say and white house sources have been telling me this was all about acosta. it was completely his idea. but essentially, the president said yes, i agree with you, you should resign. and this is really the president trying to put space between him and jeffrey epstein. but of course, as tom said, there are these new charges about epstein witness tampering. there are probably going to be more charges coming. and president trump was a very close friend of epstein. with acosta out, this is something that president trump is going to continue to be asked about. >> john, that seems to be the key here. the president, if you accept their version of events here, and acosta got the idea himself, called up the president and i want to resign, the president could have said no, you don't need to, i refuse the resignation. at the very least he didn't put up much of a fight. politically there was no tenable way to go forward with acosta in that position? >> it would have been stupid for him to argue that acosta should stay, like the obviously clean break is a way to distance