Vicepresident and they have accepted my apology. Throughout my over 33 years of Honorable Military Service and my tenure as the National Security advisor, i have always performed my duties with the utmost of integrity and hahn at this so those i have served to include the president of the United States. I am tendering my resignation, honored to have served our nation and the American People in such a distinguished way, unquote. Retired army general keith kellogg, a top policy advisor for trumps president ial campaign has been appointed as actling National Security advisor the white house said in a stam. Nbc news has confirmed with the Senior Administration official that the list of permanent replacements for the National Security advisor are general keith kellogg, general david petraeus, and vice admiral robert harward. Sts a Stunning Development from hours earlier when white house counselor Kellyanne Conway told msnbc that President Trump had complete confidence in general flynn. General flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president. By saying he enjoys the full confidence of the president are you saying youre satisfied he did not have those conversations, he did not mislead the vicepresident . Those are two different questions you asked me and ill repeat the answer. Does he have the full confidence of the president , yes, he does. Then you asked me what does he talk about with people when i wasnt on the phone. The only way to answer that is to tell you what he said which is that he cant recall. Were joined now on the phone by nbc White House CorrespondentKristen Welker. Thank you for staying up late with us. A couple questions i think are begged here by the news tonight and ill start with where we ended in that clip, Kellyanne Conway. Misinformed, out of the loop, or did she misinform us . Well, i think the developments were so fast moving and they were agonizing, joy, according to our Andrea Mitchell. This was a tough decision. Remember, mike flynn was one of President Trumps initial supporters and one of the people who he looked to first when he started looking to a National Security advisor. And, so, i have been talking to my sources throughout the night who say that he didnt want to get to this point, but ultimately the pressure just became too great. Not necessarily because they thought that Michael Flynn was compromised by the russians, but more so because the information that was piling up against him just became too much of a distraction. And, so, i think thats part of why you had these different messages coming out of the white house throughout the day. Just to reset the stage, we started our day with a press conference between the president and the Prime Minister of canada when reporters tried to shout questions to the president about whether or not he still had confidence in his National Security advisor. He ignored those questions. He ignored them again late tonight when he swore in his new treasury secretary steve mnuchin, when the vicepresident did. So, ultimately i think this was a decision he was mulling, that mike flynn was mulling. I am told that the two did speak this evening. The white house not giving a whole lot of details about what was said, but again, joy, this was one of his first supporters really out on the campaign trail and now as you point out, the person who will be the acting National Security advisor, general keith kellogg, of that list that you just read im told the front runner of that list is vice admiral bob harward. He is someone who served under general james mattis. And general Jim Cramer Mattis is someone the president has a high regard for for quite sometime. He is a former navy seal. He is one to watch as the president makes this tough decision moving forward. Just to put this into a broader context, joy, in term of how big of a shake up this is for this white house, remember, hes dealing with a number of National Security crises really. Everything from recent provocations with iran to that recent missile test by north korea, which he commented on to some extent today. So, this comes i think at a tough time. And the fact that he is losing this key position certainly significant. But, joy, as you point out, there are still a lot of questions. Given that, nbc news has confirmed that the acting a. G. Informed the Trump White House late last month when she thought Michael Flynn was potentially subject to blackmail. The question becomes why now, why did the white house wait to long to make this decision. Well ask sean spicer. Hell have his daily briefing. That should be an interesting daily briefing. I want to go back to a point you made, kristen. The decision was agonizing not because of the ties to russia. That strikes me as odd because of what you just said, that the acting attorney general reportedly informed the white house that other people such as dni, then dni James Clapper informed the white house that there was a potential that Michael Flynn was compromised. I want to go back really quickly with you because in the Resignation Letter written by Michael Flynn, he makes the point he inadvertently briefed the Vice President elect and others. He never says he misinformed the president of the United States. My question is, did the president of the United States know that Michael Flynn was having conversations with the Russian Ambassador about easing sanctions . Because i think thats the key question here, what did the president know and when did he know it. I think youre absolutely right about that. Thats a question that the white house hasnt yet answered. But there is a sense that he misled the vicepresident and there by, other top officials as well and the vicepresident spoke out on his behalf, sean spicer spoke out on his behalf and dispute that had initial reporting that he had spoken to the Russian Ambassador and then, of course, ultimately that statement turned out not to be accurate. So, i think that the time line is incredibly important. Not only in term of when the president learned about the revelations youre talking about, joy, but also what conversations went on within the white house given that the acting attorney general who was, by the way, we should by the president for not upholding his travel ban. But after that information was relayed to the white house, was it brought to the attention of the president and how many other top officials around him were made aware of that. And those are some of the questions that were trying to drill down on that right now there arent clear answers. Yep. There are still some mixed messaging going on at this hour as they try to deal with this fall out. Kristen welker, nbc White House Correspondent, appreciate it. Thanks, joy. Uh. Joining us on the phone is ken delaney nbc reporter. Ken, i want to stay on that point because the question of what the president knew about what his soontobe at that point National Security advisor was going 0 discuss with the Russian Ambassador is really important because donald trump has never had a problem contradicting his own aides, contradicting his own advisors when they Say Something with which he disagrees. You never, to my knowledge, had donald trump contradict, you know, what Michael Flynn did regarding talking with the Russian Ambassador. Do you have any reporting that donald trump was displeased that Michael Flynn talked about easing sanctions . No, joy, we dont. And i think youre hitting on a key question here. Theres two. One is did donald trump know, did he have consultations with his National Security advisor during the time flynn was speaking to the russian envoy about these sanctions . And then secondly, once the a. G. , acting attorney general sally yates went to the Trump Administration and said, hey, we have these concerns that he could be blackmailed because hes told a different story to the vicepresident. Why didnt president feel compelled to correct the record at that time . That was a couple weeks ago as far as we know. So, these are some open questions i think are going to be pursued with vigor over the next couple of days here. And, ken, the other issue is that Michael Flynn, who we know has been looked at in term of his relationship to the russians, and this going back even during the campaign. This is somebody who was on the payroll of r. T. Which is the government propaganda arm Cable Vision Network in russia. The fact that he was at that dinner, now infamous dinner sitting at Vladimir Putins table and participating in that standing ovation. Didnt donald trump have to pull some strings to make sure he could get a security clearance at all to be National Security advisor . And i ask that to say, isnt the real story here Donald Trumps own ties to russia, his own proclivities because hes the one who moved mountains to get Michael Flynn in as nsa . Well, that is certainly a story line that we have been pursuing at nbc news and the media has been pursuing because, you know, as everybody knows, donald trump has not found it in his heart to say a negative word about Vladimir Putin during the campaign or since hes been president , despite a lot of trying by journalists. And its a puzzle and its a mystery. And, you know, i think mike flynn, you know, had a world view about this and i think its somewhat explicable. He decided that radical islam and islamic extremists was more of uh danger to the United States than the russian adversary armed with nuclear weapons. Thats not a view thats widely held in the Foreign Policy community, but it is a view mike flynn holds and other members of the Trump Administration holds and he was willing to broach, you know, some kind of agreement with russia over cooperating on Counter Terrorism and against isis. A lot of experts dont see much hope in having any great effect. That was his idea. And, you know, he found himself at that dinner at r. T. , sitting next to Vladimir Putin and he later was asked about it and said that was one of the reasons he went, to try to forge a new relationship with russia. But there are just a host of questions about that. I mean, in the Intelligence Report about the russian hacking into the election, u. S. Intelligence community branded r. T. As an arm of russian propaganda. But when flynn was asked about r. T. He equate it had to msnbc and cnn. Yeah. Just a lot of questions about his judgment. Absolutely. And, you know, we do have reporting out tonight that donald trump talked with shinzo abe, the Prime Minister of japan about improving relation with russia. So, he himself has made those kind of comments as well. Do you get the sense from your reporting that the National Security establishment where a lot of these leaks seem to be coming from is finished here with these kinds of revelations, or do you see this as an ongoing effort to root out what they see as a dangerous element that they simply cannot trust within the administration . Well, nbc news and other organizations have reported that there is an ongoing Counter Intelligence inquiry and there certainly is senate and House Intelligence Committee investigations into the russian hacking and influence operation, also looking at whether members of the Trump Campaign had improper contacts with russia. So, this is certainly a subject that is going to be pursued for months to come. Absolutely. Ken delaney, National Security reporter, thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. Joining us now is former republican congressman david jolly from florida. It is notable speaking with democratic sources of my own tonight, democrats dont seem to be in a mood to take their foot off the gas after this resignation. Whats been conspicuous is the silence of republicans. We have not had any republicans, even notable folks like john mccain and Lindsey Graham who are known to be opposed to this idea of approaching with russia join the call with democrats, like adam schiff, for flynns resignation. Now that hes gone will we see johnny come latelies now that hes stepped away . Sure. I think the hesitation is this is a National Security moment, right. This rises a bit above politics and it poses several questions for us as americans, for republicans, for democrats. You know, first, look, is this President Trumps first president ial moment . We have been waiting for him to kind of take leadership, take reigns, bring some stability. Was this his decision . It must have been, or was it bannons or was it pences . This had to go to the top, right . Is this a president ial moment for trump that he moves now into a greater chief executive role . Secondly do you see any evidence that donald trump had anything to do with this . The reporting were get forgive nbc news is the white house wanted very much to hang onto Michael Flynn, not for nothing, but donald trump shares Michael Flynns affinity for russia. Theres been no reporting that ive seen that they have any, you know, any daylight between them on this issue. Do you have any information that says that donald trump is the one who pushed Michael Flynn because of a disagreement with what he did . Because i dont see that reporting. No, but flynn was hand picked and i doubt that anybody other than the president himself could give the green light to let flynn go. The second question, though, is what did trump know and when did he know it which has been asked before. Look, the call happened in december. Theres been a transcript. He was warned flynn might be compromised in january. How slow was he on making the Decision Making . Third question is whos next to go . Look, one of the thing we learned tonight is Kellyanne Conway is clearly not as in the loop as she proffered to be when just hours ago she said that the president had full confidence in flynn. So, theres a lot of questions that journalists are going to dig into and frankly theres a lot more to this story. We finally had our first republican come out and express happiness that this has happened. Bill flores of texas has tweeted out, glad Michael Flynn is gone from white house, we need more sanction on russia, not fewer. You know, there wasnt, as i said, a lot of, you know, sort of courage against partisan ship before this happened. Sure. But would you be surprised if now republicans feel constrained to actually investigate this white house and to look more fully into the potential that there are more people in the white house that have affinities at least or ties to russia . Sure, heres the opportunity for the white house and frankly for President Trump himself. For the first 30 days of this administration, we have seen the white house Political Team, flynn, conway, priebus, bannon, those that he has surrounded himself in the oval office with. But he i mean members of congress. I actually mean members of congress because congress has been theyve been the one who have one silent. They are supposed to be the check and balance on this white house. So far youre right. Weve heard some talk about not being happen which his move toward russia but there hasnt been a single republican for Michael Flynn to step down. It was only democrats. Right. And to that point, if trump pivots and says i have cabinet secretaries, i have mattis, i have tillerson, lets let them take the lead, then i think it gives Congress Room to continue to support this president. But if he fails to do so, at some Point Congress