President Trump asked Michael Flynn to resign as national security advisor, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Tuesday.
“We got to a point, not based on a legal issue, but based on a trust issue, where the level of trust between the president and General Flynn had eroded to the point where he thought he had to make a change,” Spicer told reporters at a daily press briefing.
The White House announced late Monday that Flynn was resigning because of inconsistent statements he made to Vice President Pence regarding phone calls he had with Russia’s ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, in late December.
Flynn reportedly discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia but denied doing so in conversations with Pence.
It was unclear at the time of the announcement whether Flynn resigned on his own accord or whether Trump made the move. Some White House sources told news outlets that Flynn offered to resign and that Trump wanted to keep him on.
But Spicer denied that was the case.
“The president was very concerned that General Flynn had misled the Vice President and others. He was also very concerned in light of sensitive subjects dealt with by that position of national security advisor like China, North Korea and the Middle East that the president must have complete and unwavering trust for the person in that position,” he said.
“The evolving and eroding level of trust as the result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led the president to ask for General Flynn’s resignation.”
“The evolving and and eroding level of trust” led Pres. Trump to ask for Flynn’s resignation, Spicer says https://t.co/T5uqoA85rO pic.twitter.com/7jFYSBbOFK
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 14, 2017