for coming in. good to be with you. you were never a big fan of john bolton so are you happy the president got rid of him? well i am until we find out who comes next because the story of the administration is from bad to worse but he was always a poor fit for national security adviser, someone who ideally has the jum and temperament to bring people together, to be an honest broker for the president, to allow the president to hear conflicting points of view and help the president along to a decision. in pompeo s statement that the president is entitled to someone he values and trusts, he was basically saying the president didn t value or trust bolton. ironically, though, on a couple of key issues, this failed idea for a summit at camp david and the colossal failures with north korea, boltan was right, that kind of unprepared high-stakes summitry that reality tv diplomacy won t work with north korea and it didn t work with the taliban and it hasn t worked
trump administration are never very ceremonious. we ve seen president trump fire members of his national security team, former secretary of state rex tillerson via tweet before. so this is not necessarily shocking news. but instead of john bolton showing up there in the briefing room alongside the other members of trump s cabinet, it was secretary of state mike pompeo defending president trump s decision to fire john bolton saying that the president is entitled to have the team that he chooses. jamie, the boltan was growing increasingly reluctant as you point out to go on television and defend some of the president s policies. what more are you learning about the tension between the two men. gist as one example, a group from congress had gone up this year to discuss and try to convince president trump not to withdraw from syria. the president stepped out of the
standing outside of the west wing just hours before he was scheduled to join secretary of state mike pompeo and treasury secretary steve mnuchin to answer questions from reporters, bol boltan was suddenly gone with his former administration rivals all smiles. i m never surprised. the president is entitled to the staff he wants at any moment. this is a taf person who works directly for the president of the united states and he should have people he trusts and values and whose efforts and judgments benefit him in delivering american foreign policy. reporter: the white house insists he was fired but the president announcing in a tweet i informed john bolton last night that his services are no longer need needed at the white house and i disagreed strongly with his suggestions and therefore i asked for his resignation given to me this morning. i thank john very much for his service. i ll name a new national security adviser next week. but bolton tweeted that is not true. claiming i
informants so close to enemmys such as, say, vladimir putin. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. and we start in the politics lead. the president firing his national security adviser john bolton. the two have a long, well-documented history of disagreeing on matters up to today when the two had different takes on how bolton ended up on the wrong side of the white house fence. the president tweeting in part, quote, i informed john bolton last night that his sfrss are no longer needed at the white house. i disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions. according to john bolton s tweet which came 12 minutes later, quote, i offered to resign last night and president trump said let s talk about it tomorrow. the news came just before a white house briefing that boltan was scheduled to attend. secretary of state mike pompeo and steve mnuchin who both reportedly clashed with bolton behind the scenes were notably all smiles at this briefing.
firing of the national security adviser. our national security reporter kylie atwood is joining us and our correspondent jamie gangel is with us. and the white house suspected boltan was responsible for leaks particularly when he strongly disagreed with the president, what are you learning? we are learning today that the straw that broke the camel s back here was national security adviser john bolton disagreeing with the president s decision to invite the taliban here to the u.s., to u.s. soil to camp david to have meetings. national security adviser john bolton didn t think it was a good idea and voiced his disagreement. reporters then found out about that disagreement and we have reported on it. but that s not the only policy issue that president trump disagreed with bolton on. there also north korea. bolton thought the trump administration should be more muscular in approach and not sit down with the north korean officials. iran, similar thing. bolton thought a strike against