building in dallas and how he may fit a new frightening pattern. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. welcome to the lead, i m jake tapper. we begin with breaking news. any moment president trump is going to be departing the white house and heading to his official re-election campaign launch in orlando, florida. but he will be leaving behind some upheaval here in washington. he announced his acting secretary of defense is pulling out of the senate confirmation of congress process and his final day at the pentagon will be friday. yet another example of the quite turbulent trump administration eclipsing what campaign advisers hoped to be a blemish-free day for trump. his combative divorce and his ex-wife kimberly was arrested and charged for assault that left shanahan with a black eye and bloody nose and the charges were dropped and shanahan was
accused of hitting her in the stoma stomach and he vehemently denies. it is unfortunate that a painful and deeply personal family situation from long ago is being drugged up and painted in an incomplete and therefore misleading way. shanahan s son called his father a source of stab ibt and his daughter said she never saw him raise a hand to his mother and you talked about the incident and another act of family violence in 2007 when his 17-year-old son beat his own mother. his now ex-wife. he wrote a defense of his son, quote, use of a baseball bat in self-defense will be used as imbalance of force but his mother harassed him for three hours before the incident. it is a statement that shanahan today disavows. needless to say this news is sending shock waves throughout the trump administration on capitol hill and beyond. cnn barbara starr is at the
pentagon. but let s start with kaitlan collins who is in orlando ahead of the president s rally. orlando a crucial swing part of a vital battleground state where supporters have been lined up for hours and even overnight for this evening s festivities. our friend shanahan is a good pan and he s done a great job. reporter: president trump announcing his pick to lead the pentagon will withdraw before even being formally nominated writing that patrick shanahan who has done a wonderful job, has decided not to go forward with his confirmation process to devote more time to his family. trump said he ll name army secretary mark esper as the new acting defense secretary. but declined to say whether that would become permanent. shanahan is the former boeing executive who had been running the defense department since james mattis resigned in protest in december but only in an acting capacity until trump announced last month he would
confirmed so i guess my guess is this is the appropriate course of action. but why did it reach this point mid-june when this could have been resolved six months ago. and i m told president trump on the way to marine one on the way to orlando just said he will most likely nominate army secretary mark esper to fill the role. who knows. phil, you ve been through the confirmation process. shanahan was confirmed by the senate as jeff pointed out to serve as deputy secretary of defense in 2017. would this not have come up then? a lot of media were chasing this story and it had popped up because there were police reports of both incidents. sure. but let s make sure we distinguish between what came up in the security process and prevent you politically from going through a nomination process on the hill. by the way, i with drew my nomination in 2009 and i had a top-secret clearance because i was going to be embarrassed by a senate committee. i said no, i m out. this is about a clearance
make things official. but the paperwork was never filed. raising eyebrows inside of the white house about why. i can t tell you how long the process is supposed to work. reporter: and now cnn learned the resignation came amid details of a contentious divorce including an allegation that he hit her during a dispute nine years ago, an allegation that shanahan has denied. his ex-wife was arrested and charged with assault and the charges were later dropped. in a statement today shanahan said he was resigned to protect his children. writing, i would welcome the opportunity to be secretary of defense but not at the expense of being a good father. the sudden withdrawal leaves the pentagon without a permanent leader amid escalating tensions with iran. president trump has said very clearly he doesn t want to go to war. reporter: the drama also coming as the president heads to orlando, florida, to launch his re-election bid in front of 20,000 people. we will make america great