this brings the total death in the country linked to e cigarettes to be six. we'll watch for this update in houston. we'll have news on it as soon as it happens. >> and we have breaking news right now as well. this has just couple from the president's twitter feed. "i informed john bolton last night that his services are no longer needed. i disagreed with his suggestions as with others in the administration and it's a two-part tweet. i have to click. go to the next one. forgive me. i'm reading this real time. the therefore -- >> i asked for his resignation which was given to me this morning. i thank john for his service. i will be naming a new national security adviser next week. >> national security adviser john bolton is out. a couple of things have developed this week. you know, you see the president alluding to it, but not specifically saying, but we do know that that secret meeting with taliban leadership was called off this week. as the president points out, there's been a number of times when they disagreed on things. john bolton, his national security adviser, out. we get that announcement from the president's twitter. more on this next hour. we have the press secretary, hogan gidley joining me. no doubt we'll be talking about this. ryan kilmeade is on the couch. i want to ask you, on "fox and friends" you interviewed the president not long ago. is this a surprise in terms of how they did not agree as the president tweeted out? >> right. last thursday on radio, we had him on the show. we talked to him for 30 minutes. and -- >> the president or john bolton? >> the president. he indicated that he's got his hawks. he's got his doves. it's up to me to get all sides. he appreciated that. john bolton i know was very aggressive on venezuela, very much when he was a contributor here was against talking the kim jong-un. but he understood the president and could appreciate other ideas. i think that he probably was against talking to the taliban. my sense is -- >> he who? >> john bolton would have been talking about the taliban. but he's not shy. i think within ten days he will be out here talking. >> there's another time, too, of course, it's difficult to figure out where the white house and the administration secretaries and officials are in their conversations because we're not privy to everything. by the time we hear about something, it's moved on. so one curiosity point had to do with the second summit with kim jong-un. do we know where they were and -- you know what i'm talking about. >> this is what john bolton told me directly. he said, it was the proudest i ever was of the president when he walked away from the deal. the deal was not going where we thought it would be. that's it. pack up. we're done. he said i could have been prouder of him at that moment. >> we also have with us on the couch, johanna joining us. let me get your reaction to this and especially -- i'm sorry. forgive me. we're going to -- we have john roberts at the white house right now i believe reacting to the breaking news and running out to a microphone. thank you. we appreciate that. what strikes me here is the wording. i informed john bolton that his services are no longer needed at the white house. that's rough. >> it is. that's not surprising the president did that. what is surprising is that john bolton was listed in the media schedule today as giving a briefing with mike pompeo and steve mnuchin this afternoon. what i can tell you, because i've been talking to folks at the white house about this or the administration on an off-the-record basis. john bolton was quickly falling to disfavor amongst very significant players at the white house because of his disagreement with the president over having the taliban at camp david and the overall peace plan for camp david. sources familiar with the conversations that bolton had with the president about this said he did not agree with bringing the taliban to camp david. didn't think that was a good idea. also wanted to see u.s. forces drawn down to 8,600 and stabilized there, but not go beyond that. we also know that bolton has been at odds with the president on occasion over north korea. certainly bolton is a hawk on iran. he and the president were pretty much aligned on that front. there were certain areas where bolton had run afoul of the president in a way that the president eventually became tired of and decided that his services were no longer required. again, this has been building over several months but in recent days that this thing has taken on a terrific amount of momentum. the way the people inside the white house who were in very high positions knew that he was on his way out soon. a little surprised it happened this quickly. >> quick question, john. so the president, you know, he likes having people around him that disagree and disagree vigorously. john bolton has been very outspoken since the time he was here. he has always spoken his mind very firmly. what changed now and when you say there's -- other than him being against the taliban coming, he's been for and against a lot of things in the past. you say there's significant people in the white house now that were really unhappy with him. look who? can you give us a hint? >> no. they're all off-the-report conversations. let's just say at the high up levels at the white house. perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back is this idea that bolton was opposed to what was going on potentially at camp david with the taliban. people were letting it be known that he was add odds with that. the administration was putting on this face of unity surrounding this idea of going to camp david. we heard from secretary pompeo and the vice president that they were in alignment with the president on decisions that he was making about the taliban even though we know that pompeo was driving this idea of the peace plan. the vice president, the national security adviser bolton and the cia were all very skeptical about this idea. they know what happened before 9-11 when the taliban was in control. i think the fact that people were coming out, to say that bolton disagreed with the president might have been the straw that broke the camel's back there. again, this is something building over time. to some degree, the president appreciated bolton's contrary positions, certainly his forcefulness, his hawkishness at a number of issues. i don't think you can peg it to any one thing. i think the turning point is what happened the last couple days with camp david and taliban. >> john, are there any candidates to see who might replace him? >> there's always candidates. none that have really been talked about openly in recent months. even though, you know, bolton appeared to be falling out of his favor. we didn't know he would be replaced this soon. we'll dig around. this announcement just came out and see who is topping the list. certainly the president has a number of candidates. he does for every job out there. >> all right. no doubt this will continue to unfold for the rest of the hour here on "outnumbered." next, as we have part of the press team hogan giddy joining me atop the next hour. john roberts, thanks very much. let's come to the couch now. first time with us, johanna is here. she worked with president obama in the white house during both terms. eager to get your perspective on this. you have been there when big decisions are made like this. >> yeah. the timing is questionable. i mean, if you look -- >> why? >> september is always a really busy national security month. you have the u.n. general assembly meeting going on. it's the eve of 9-11. to make this decision that quickly, there must be something significant behind it. if not, you're throwing a lot of things in to the air right before your meeting with all the world leaders at -- >> he just did. >> you did. >> you have that on the horizon no matter what you do. we're having international conversations because of the border, national security issues there and trade. it's like a conveyor belt. i want to ask you about style and substance here. we know it's the president's style to say i will sit down with anybody. some people, we talked about this a lot, see that as a difference and refreshing. sometimes the president will say you have to back away from a deal that is not right. typically he gets credit for that. if that played a role and may have with regard to taliban leadership and calling off the camp david meeting, what does that tell you about the style and substance behind the scene? >> it was obviously right the call off the meeting. if you want to have a deal with the taliban, there needs to be parameters of what we're willing to take and allow have happen in afghanistan. that's what president trump did. the timing of this looks like it has to do with the disagreement among president trump's foreign policy team on the meeting itself, right? even john roberts alluded to this. there's been a lot of reporting on the divide in president trump's foreign policy team over that meeting. not just among the team but between secretary pompeo, john bolton and an increasing divide between those two. >> i want to lean in a little bit. the point is, it's the president's style to say i'll meet with anybody. what they seem to be saying, but you can't meet with these people and it's 9-11. not just them. we had other congressional members say it as well. >> brian and i were on with former secretary of state condoleezza rice. she said she's open to president trump wanting to sit down and have this emphasis on diplomacy. she said that's a positive things. she said the meetings have to be thoughtful and there was a lack of that with this particular idea of sitting down with the taliban. >> i want to raise another possibility here. you said the u.n. security council would have this u.n. meeting at the end of the month. there was the possibility of maybe some meeting with iran. i was searching through the tweets because i know therefore the minister loves to tweet at ambassador bolton. has -- they have had promises with each other. here you have the president, he was tempted to have that meeting in paris. go ahead. >> let's get in with this. john bolton just tweeted. i offered to resign last night and president trump said let's talk about it tomorrow. let me read that again. that is john bolton, former national security adviser for president trump, 21 second or so ago tweeted, i offered to resign last night and president trump said let's talk about it tomorrow. he put the president's words in quotes. brian? >> he's getting on the record. he did not mind being characterized as a hawk. he did not mind and felt it was inaccurate when he stood where he did being tough on iran, being pretty much against -- showing any weakness with north korea. i think melissa, you bring up an interesting point. this meeting could be taking place and john bolton could be against it. in the aftermath, things wept in his direction. they dent have the meeting with the taliban. in a way, you think john bolton would be in a positive light with the president. >> unless disagreeing about iran. >> look, the president said they disagreed on many things and he talked about the fact that that played a role in this. so it may not have been a one-off situation where it was only this. we don't know. neither one of them is talking specifically. we're going on john bolton's reporting and his sources. i mean, it could be any number of things. we talked about iran, north korea. there's been some things. i want to come back to you, johanna. >> yeah, the important thing is he should get someone with a lot of experience in there quickly. this is not a time to be messing around with, you know, a learning curve ahead of the most international meeting hosted here in new york. i think you're absolutely right. what secretary rice said, is there normally preconditions set up. you know, it's different than in business when you can walk away. there's a globe and there's that many countries and you can't just walk away from the table and just not talk to people because they're still going to exist. so i think he's going to really quickly need to find someone with experience to come in. >> how important, is it, johanna, with your past experience, nato, the g-7, how important is it that a administration be seen from outside the united states as one that is knowing what the white house is doing? is it that good people disagree and move on? >> is the president the only person that the president can't talk to? that's is troubling. >> would you say mike pompeo has earned that trust? it's clear they're on the same page and they work with each other? >> i think you're right. >> the secretary of state -- >> yes. >> in case people are just joining us at 12:15 p.m., the president has just fired his national security adviser. his tweet, "i informed john bolton that his services are no longer needed at the white house. i disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions." there's the list. it's strong and long. "as did others in the administration and i asked john for his resignation which was given to me this morning. i thank john for his service. i will be naming a new national security adviser." and then of course we heard from the just-fired john bolton saying that no, it didn't play out that way. >> i offered to resign last night and president trump said let's talk about it tomorrow. >> john bolton just texted me. he said let's be clear. i resigned. he said do you mind if i say that while you were talking in he wrote yes. john bolton just said i resigned. >> so he answered yes, go ahead. >> yes. >> for all the obvious reasons. >> so john bolton has just answered the president's tweet by saying yes -- >> why are we doing this? i know why we're doing it. it's a talk show. breaking news. but why are they doing it? why are we seeing this play one against the other almost in terms of, you know what the narrative is? is it important or just that the president has moved on and he's go to hire -- >> if anyone leaves the position and you think, okay, you shake hands with the ceo and say thanks for my time here and you say i fired him, i said i want your resignation, you want to correct the record. i don't think there's any angst. i resigned. the president just tweeted out prior to that that i asked him for his resignation. you have a lot of experience that said it matters the way i end it. >> to the point you made, johanna, any time anybody steps understood one of these positions, it's never without the context with relationships around the world. i disagree with you. i think every point in history is fraught with challenges. just because unga is coming up later this month matters less to me than we just saw apprehensions at our southern border fall to 51,000, still a whopping number. 56%. many giving credit to the president's policy on the national security challenges there at our southern -- that just happened yesterday. >> it heightens the need for us to talk about competence in government. having the experience for different positions. because you do not -- >> you think there's a lack of options out there? >> you're drinking from a fire hose every day. there's fires around the world going on every day. you're right, this is not new. it is new how this president is surrounding himself with people with outside experience. may be business -- >> we want to bring in -- we have anchor of "special report" bret baier here. what is your initial reaction? are you surprise? >> not surprised. yes had been hearing whispers that john bolton is falling out of favor with the president and within the inner circle of the white house. he had been excluded from a few high profile meetings. the south koreans didn't want him talking about the north korean situation. the afghans parentally had some issues with him being in meetings. obviously he's a polarizing figure at times an around the world that's a perception. he makes his feelings clear and he's hawkish. he had notable push-back about the taliban negotiation and it was vocal. and to the point where i think once it came out, that may have been the nail in the coffin. but here it had been whispered for some time that he was falling out of favor. the question is where the president turns now. he says he will make an announcement next week. i expect it's going to be someone that has been in the circle before in a deputy position or something of a comfortable sense. >> any names? any ideas? >> there's a few but i don't want to say them. who knows? you get them out there and they might pull away. i think -- i'm hearing off the record a couple names. all people that have been in the administration previously. >> bret, it's harris. you know, thank you for joining us always at the ready like this. you say this came as less of a surprise to you because you been hearing the whispers for about a week. the american people, how do they see something like this? the president said, you know, he was going to be different. he's a business man. so none of us should be surprised. he fires people sometimes. this is how he does business. how do you think american voters -- now we have to look at everything through that prism. we're entering that election season. >> yeah. listen, i think that the american voter is concerned about their situation. they're concerned about the world and where we stand in the world. the president has joked about john bolton being so hawkish on the campaign trail. john wants to take us to war everywhere. he's joked about that. he can play off of that. i'm not sure that the average american going about their day is really into the process of the inner circle of the white house and national security adviser, but it's a huge job. it makes the trains run with the national security team. it will be important to see who is in there next. >> the president most recently talked act pulling out of afghanistan with or without a peace deal. we knew from the beginning when he ran that he wanted to end our situation there the way it is with as many troops as we have and pull away from that. i don't know how john bolton felt about that. i heard from military leadership says it matters how many you leave behind. the president isn't in the habit of saying when you're going to do things. do you know how john bolton felt about that issue? >> we have sources. john bolton reported last night that said that john bolton was very adamant that the taliban not go to camp david. that they really would be skeptical of any negotiations with the taliban. tracking the voices that you heard on capitol hill, liz cheney, lindsey graham that have a problem with this and he was very vocal about this. who knows whether that is the straw. >> for example, lindsey graham, they constantly get along, but lindsey graham could not be quiet about the fact that he was not for pulling out our troops and going to the taliban coming to camp david, but they're still friends. they still get along. he was joking about john bolton. there might have been something. so you have mcmaster that he replaced. he talked too much. he was in the president's face too much. you have michael flynn that was in court today. he was the first national security adviser. you wonder who with national experience that the president could trust to be there next to him that he would honor their advice. who might be a good candidate. that's not a position you want open for too long, right? >> right. and you're right to point out the trust issue that is key in this position. it not senate confirmed. it a position the president can name. it doesn't require votes. so you can name who you want to name. and i think that it will be someone who has the president's trust. as i said, probably someone who he has dealt with inside the administration on these issues before. >> bret, i want to introduce you to someone you may have met. joanna maska is here. she has a question for you. >> hi, joanna. >> hi, bret. in terms of catching up on all the conversations that he's had, you and i both know that right now is the time that you're planning for all of the diplomacy that unrolls at the u.n. meeting. how much do you think it's going to take for someone to catch up on all of those conversations? >> that's a great question. you're right. the u.n. general assembly is a big week. you know, one of the things that bolton was not a fan of is the prospect of the president speaking with the iranian president. you know, this president likes the outreach. he likes the interaction with kim jong-un and others. maybe that's also part of it. and the prospect of that meeting happening or possibly a sit-down is still on the table. i could imagine, i don't know this for a fact, but john bolton was very opposed to that. somebody can get up to speed very quickly. you have to be on track with what the president is thinking of where his head is on foreign affairs. >> that is the point that i made earlier, the idea that the u.n. meeting is coming up and iran is at the forefront. >> it's the 74th session of the u.n. general assembly. it's september 17-30. bret, the first day of high level general debate will be on september 24. that is not far off in distance. >> no, within two weeks. so a lot will be happening. think of all the world issues this president is dealing with. you're dealing with a situation in iran, north korea, venezuela, which we haven't talked about as much as we did weeks ago. the situation in syria has not improved. you have yemen and saudis and uae and what they're doing there. not to mention afghanistan and what the troop draw down is and what the world, who is supporting nato, will do if the u.s. draws down to a significant number there. so you have so many big issues that that week will be consequential at the u.n. >> bret baier, thank you so much. thanks for making yourself available to chat with us. we'll bring you any new information as we get it. meantime, voters in north carolina today as the special election in the ninth district is underway. after president trump held a raucous rally for republican dan bishop last night. whether this one congressional seat could help forecast the president's re-election chances next year. ♪ >> fox news alert. voters are heading to the polls in north carolina's ninth congressional district. republican dan bishop facing off against dan mccready that could serve as a 2020 presidential bellwether. president trump holding a rally last night urging voters to send a message to the america-hating left by voting for republican candidate dan bishop. the president slamming dan mccready on immigration and gun control. >> to protect your family, you must defeat open borders and you have a democrat names dan mccready and he wants open borders, he wants sanctuary cities.he's not going to protect your second amendment. >> recent polls have been neck and neck in the race and it's expected to come down to the wire. bishop is betting that his embrace of president trump will propel him to victory. >> i share your values. i'm not a shamed of your values. i'm going to defend your values in washington d.c. as this great fighter faces all those long odds, the socialist democrats, the fake media, the last thing he needs is for the ninth district to send him another nancy pelosi clone. >> mccready is hoping voters will refer a moderate democrat that is not afraid to work with the president. >> my hope is while he's here in addition to doing the rally, he will come and talk with people who are struggling with healthcare costs. if i have the honor of serving, i would like to work with the president on lowering prescription drug costs. >> we should note that district 9 is very red. president trump won it by 12 points and the seat has been held by republicans for more than half a century. brian, if republicans, there's no way to spin this. >> in a way. you can say the republicans are responsible for what went wrong the first time around and there's backlash there. most of the money was spent on supporting the marine. but they haven't lost that seat since the 60s, i guess. i know they'll say it's a bellwether if they lose. they're in a dead heat. it will last one day, a one-day story. you saw it. ambassador bolton is the story now. it was sharpie gate saturday. and guess who is coming to camp david and who is not coming. in this world, it's a one-day story. >> wow. i bet the republicans want to call you just in case. >> this is supposed to be a block. it's 12:30 and we're starting the a block. >> mccready likes to joke that his wife is pregnant with his current child and the baby is almost two. republicans can say that's a long time to run and raise money. so the fact that it's so tight right now means something. >> here's the thing. of course republicans want to win this special election because then they have to net 19 seats as opposed to 20 in 2020. this raise is no more determinative than the georgia 6 special election when karen handle won and then republicans got beat up pretty badly in these suburban areas where democrats beat republicans. so it's not indicative of what we saw in 2018. don't read much into this. because it doesn't always mean something. look at the 2020 races. the national environment is going to be more reflective. this is a special election. it's more candidate focused, more specific to this special election in this district as opposed to the national environment. >> what is being reported today is the excerpts out said of the suburban line next to that city. i'm curious what is changing potentially for republicans in those areas. because those are some of the areas that are being pointed to that might be weaker for trump support even going forward. >> what i'm interested in seeing -- if you watch every election, we have seen big transitional elections the past few election cycles. i remember in 2009, "time" magazine put out and said the republican party is in an endangered species. than 13 they won the 2010 elections. i wouldn't read to much of what we saw in 2018. what i'm interested in 2020, do the dynamics change when president trump is on the ballot again, especially in a lot of districts where democrats won in then donald trump districts in 2016 and do they end up becoming vulnerable with him on the ballot for 2020. >> didn't it change when barack obama was on the ticket? >> i think it actually shows that candidates matter. you know -- >> more so in the special elections. >> yeah, the duelling dans here. we have dan mccready, the democrat, who is a veteran, an iraq war veteran, a marine, a father of 4, a entrepreneur. someone that has done back to his community. he's now of our generation, raising these young kids. then you have a career politician in the republican dan. i was kind of surprised that president trump fully endorsed him last night because he doesn't necessarily fit the mold of president trump who was not a career politician. here's someone that has been a lawyer, a politician. not always so effective. he went after bathrooms thinking this is the biggest concern of our time. there could be nonconforming people in bathrooms. i think a lot of people of our generation are fed up with that debate and we want to see progress for our kids. so when you look at the democratic dan, you have some real competence there. >> it is the battle of dans. >> it is. duelling dans. >> all right. we have breaking news that we're working on this hour. of course, john roberts a line out of the white house now, some response. we will be right back. we'll get john roberts in front of the camera so we can get that done. he was outside the white house. stay with us. 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try dawn ultra. dawn is for more than just dishes. with 3x more grease cleaning power per drop, it tackles tough grease on a variety of surfaces. try dawn ultra. . >> let's go straight to john roberts right now. we've got the deputy press secretary coming up atop the hour on "outnumbered overtime." first now, first reaction from the white house. john? >> yeah, harris. it's coming out in dribs and drabs. the crux of it here, the president believes that john bolton's national security priorities didn't align with his. john bolton didn't believe that the president's national security philosophy aligned with his. it was an immovable force against an unrelenting object. it came to a point where they both said because john bolton texted me as he did brian and said that he offered to resign last night. the president said no, let's talk about it tomorrow. now the president is claiming he asked for bolton's resignation last night. we have contradiction there. but this was a lot of things. last night the two of them got involved an intense discussion. the topic was afghanistan, the peace deal, whether or not the taliban should have been invited to camp david. what might have at least been part of it if not prompted that discussion is the fact that people that are familiar with discussions that took place over the labor day weekend, when john bolton was with the vice president, mike pence in warsaw nor the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the -- sorry. anniversary of the beginning of world war ii. yes. i'm sorry. the beginning of world war ii. there was discussions about whether or not there should be a summit with the taliban at camp david. people familiar with that discussion said john bolton was very much opposed to that. he didn't think the taliban should be brought to camp david. he was also opposed to the peace deal that was being promoted under mike pompeo. the president was talking about an initial draw down of troops to 8,600 and see where we go beyond that. bolton thought it should be 8,600 and stop there. so there's a difference in philosophy over that. don't forget back after he started, there was the issue that bolton ran into where he said that he saw the libyan model as applying to north korea and denuclearization that kim jong-un read that he wanted john bolton dragged through the streets. so you know, that irked the president a bit. they seemed to recover from that. bolton went to the hanoi summit that too much was given away. the president came around to bolton's idea and sent kim jong-un home with no deal. he said he wanted it all or nothing. so there had been points of agreement, there had been points of disagreement. seems like national security philosophy and disagreement over afghanistan, the taliban coming to camp david and the peace deal that's been negotiated was at the center of this. >> i know we're doing a lot of reporting around it, but the white house officially responded to fox news with one line. the question was, you know, what is your reaction to this. simply put, many of bolton's policy priorities did not align with the president of the united states. so we have all of those -- >> and goes back to the beginning. >> we have the examples that you're giving but that's in line with what the president had tweeted out. one of the things i was asking about, john that i'm curious about, this go back and forth, this litigation of how it played out. one thing we know with this president, it's on to the next. what would that be? we're not hearing so far -- and i'm asking if your hearing because you're standing there of any of the possibilities to fill this position. >> here's one thing i will say. one person the president trusts with national security and global diploma my is mike pompeo. he will be here in a little less than 45 minutes for a briefing that was supposed to include john bolton. we understand they will be launch a big counter terrorism initiative on the eve of 9-11. let me go. i'll get back to you. >> yes. let you go. >> you have to do your job. >> his phone is ringing. >> someone else that we heard from, lindsey graham, a short time ago talking about ambassador bolton. let's listen to that. >> i like john bolton. he sees the world for what it is. i've always had a similar view of the threats that we face. but the personal relationship between the president and the national security adviser is important. >> all right. so that was lindsey graham right there talking about ambassador bolton. did you hear that? >> yeah. >> what did you think about that? >> that is typical lindsey graham. he was heartened that john bolton was hired. he thought he was more in line with what the president thought. mcmaster, john kelly, mattis would push back. the president felt constrained. the president tried to surround himself with people that he thought were more in agreement with him. that's when john bolton lapped -- landed in the spot. he replaces mcmaster that is at a hoover institute, former general in iraq and afghanistan. so i'm wondering if the next one is a military person and maybe if pompeo who helped pick the secretary defense, mark esper will be involved in this. >> and kelly kraft was just appointed to the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. today. so we're in a situation where you have all of these moving chess pieces and to me, this is unusual. it's not always the case that you don't have a u.s. ambassador to the u.n., that you're moving around different people. >> you're pointing that we do have -- >> we just literally confirmed her. >> she was being greeted at the white house today. she got confirmed a few weeks ago. >> if you know longer feel if you can serve the president's interests, you should resign. >> or if he tells you, which is what the president said he did. >> we've seen secretary mattis step down over a disagreement on afghanistan and syria as well. that what you should do. >> breaking news on "outnumbered" today as the president has let go of his national security adviser john bolton. there's been some go-back. i guess it was a group text to john roberts and brian kilmeade, our guest in the middle, from john bolton between him and the president today. you're watching it unfold as it happens. stay close. >> melissa: we are back with more breaking news right now. he will remember from our last episode, john roberts got a phone call when he was live on television. i we are going to bring him back. i believe, isn't that right? where is john roberts. there he is! john comey had breaking news for us? >> you know , this white house has been described as sort of a running serial. [laughs] if we are talking episodes, this is the latest one. give me two seconds, i want to get a time-stamp. 1158. okay, just got off the phone with a source familiar with john bolton's thinking who told me this idea that the president fired and last night, which the president said in his tweet which was put out at 1158 this morning -- okay. that he asked him for his resignation last night, this was put out at 11: 58 this morning. i'm told by a force to my source familiar with bolton's thinking that this is "flatly untrue." that he was never asked to deliver it resignation. bolton was still working this morning. in fact, he charity principals meeting on refugees, and was planning initially to be a part of his briefing that is going to occur at 1:30 this afternoon with steven mnuchin and the secretary of state mike pompeo. we understand it's going to be about counterterrorism. then, because he decided after sleeping on it, that there was no purpose in continuing to serve the president. no purpose and continuing to talk to the president, because they had such deep feels dumb iconic philosophical differences over national security, that he ended in his letter of resignation, and that's when the present treatede informed both on left side thate no longer needed. so we've got this contradiction now. we've got the president tweeting out that he asked for resignation, we have sources familiar with bolton thinking saying that he submitted the resignation, it was his decision to do it at 11:30 this morning. i'm told he and the president basically disagreed for the past 17 months. that they disagreed over afghanistan, and we are told there is a big discussion last night between the president and bolton over afghanistan. the peace deal, how to get american forces out, the fact about inviting the taliban to camp david. that it really became very intense. that's when bolton offered his resignation. but there were disagreements, i'm told, over iran, north korea, russia, venezuela. at some point, parting ways "becomes inevitable." i am told that nobody, except for the president and bolton, knew what was going on. again, i'm being told by sources familiar with bolton's thinking that it was bolton who decided, after sleeping on what happened last night here at the white house, that there was no reason to continue as the national security advisor, so he submitted his resignation letter to the president at 11:30 p.m. 28 minutes later, the president treated that he fired bolton. we report, you decide. harris? >> melissa: so when the president treats, "i ask him for his resignation last night," how does that sort out in your brain now? >> do you believe the president, or do you believe people who are familiar with john bolton's thinking? the white house insists that the president asked him to deliver his resignation this morning. john bolton himself said that there was no request to resignation, that he resigned by himself. and a source familiar with his thinking tells me he delivered a letter to the president's secretary at 11:30 this morning. >> brian: of this is not from john bolton, but a source closee to the situation. he will more likely play a prominent role in the selection of the next advisor. and that behind the scenes, a lot of people thought john bolton was going behind people's backs. the word was "sneaky." >> melissa: john roberts, i understand we have to let you go. >> you don't immediately. one other thing we should talk about, and brian reiterated, mike pompeo would likely be someone the present reaches out to. a couple of names being kicked around. mike pompeo's chief advisor, brian outcome as potentially replacement for john bolton. and a steve beacon, the point person on north korea, who bolton had strong disagreements with, is being talked about is another potential candidate. it's just gossip right now in the halls here in washington. but i think the president will lean a strong and recordations from secretary of state mike pompeo as to who should replace bolton. we will see. >> melissa: john roberts, thank you so much. we appreciate your time, and getting off the phone to come back with us. i want to remind viewers at home that in about 2 minutes, at the top of the next chair with harris faulkner, we are going to have hogan gidley, the white house deputy press secretary, will have a lot to say for the president's perspective on his side of what has happened here, and what will be coming next. in the few seconds we have left left -- >> brian: his influence is most likely going to grow. not only is he tied with the secretary of defense, he is tied with the president and most likely with the neck/ security national security advisor. the chance of running at that senate seat. why would you ever give up this much influence with the president of united states? >> lisa: as i mentioned earlier, there was also a lot of reports about disagreements between secretary pompeo and john bolton over the taliban meeting and other issues, as well. we heard john roberts mention secretary pompeo's name a few different times. >> johanna: whatever the spin is on why this happened, the truth is president trump us had five national security advisors into a half years. we had three, bush had to cope. >> brian: michael flynn, mcmaster, and bolton. >> johanna: he will have five. he's going to have four. so -- into a half years? okay, so four. in two and a half years. we had three in eight years. bush had to cope in eight years. clinton had to cope in eight years. >> melissa: we hear your point. thanks to all of you. a lot of breaking news. thanks to brian for joining us on the couch. let's send it over now to harris faulkner. >> harris: and we continue breaking news at this hour. president trump has asked for the national security advisor, john bolton, to leave the administration. the first live interview with the white house coming out now on "outnumbered overtime." i'm harris faulkner. a west wing change amid reports john bolton disagreed with the president's plans to hold talks with the taliban at camp david. president trump announced the big move with bolton on twitter. here is that tweet. "i informed john bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the white house. i disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the administration, and they an end therefore, i asked for his resignation, which was given this morning. i thank him for services. i will name a new national security advisor next