Page 4 - Acting Position News Today

That he would be withdrawing. according to people familiar with the matter, the president was measured. he accepted the decision and then shortly thereafter he was on the phone with mr. es per, mark esper, the secretary of the army, offered him the job and esper accepted. now theyve got to figure out the logistics of this because there are a lot of legal matters on who has authorities to order strikes, these sorts of things. for esper to take over as acting secretary of defense, pretty shortly s...

Go through the full confirmation through the -- to become the next defense secretary. the president is saying hes a wonderful person. hes going to take time off for family matters and take some time to deal with that. i did not ask him to withdraw. there were allegations that came up in mr. shanahans past of the deal with family abuse and that sort of thing. it gets into the weeds here. a lot of people denying and confirming allegations. mr. shanahan had taken himself out of the process. the pre...

Situation where they might have to speak more publicly, where he might have to speak more publicly in a confirmation hearing about something that was intensely personal to his family. by all accounts, he was looking at all of this and deciding throughout today whether he wanted to put his children through that again. thats where we are right now on our understanding of the situation. but on the broader national security stage, heres the situation. hes the acting secretary of defense. he is sched...

Welcome back. president trump may be second guessing his choice of patrick shanahan for secretary of defense. according to nbc news, while in normandy last week, trump asked at least three people what they thought of shanahan and whether they had any suggestions for different candidates. thats according to four people familiar with the conversations. joining us now, national political reporter for nbc news, carol lee, with more. carol? >> good morning, mika. what we learned is that, you know, pr...

Republicans and people on the hill in general that i talk to that would like to have that job filled and not be an acting position. but it isnt helpful if the administration is trying to move that quickly and without controversy to have him involved in this. and to have to answer questions at any kind of hearing about the political involvement of the military because you can be certain now that this has happened that there will be questions about how he will address that. >> getting confirmed. n...

Memberships. wed like to see democrats follow suit. >> you mentioned steve king. the president, correct me if im wrong, has not condemned steve king. he was praising white supremacy. has the president come out publicly and said anything to criticize -- >> i have talked about that a number of times pip aoed refer you back to those comments where i used words like abhorrent and unacceptable. john? >> reporter: were getting word that the president plans to nominate patrick shanahan later this weeke...

Committees. house democrats are focused on allegations that there was an effort by the president to influence the cohen investigation by getting the u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york reassigned to the case. he had earlier recused himself. these issues came up during recent testimony. here is the acting attorney general matt whitaker from a few weeks ago. >> at no time has the white house asked for nor have i provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsels in...

>> i think its very interesting because the department of defense is one of the most critical functions of the u.s. government, and its really important not only from a stability factor from the messaging that it sends to foreign powers that we have a permanent a second in place as the secretary, as the actual confirmed secretary. to put mr. shanahan in an acting position probably goss an octobering not only to the department of defense but also to mr. shanahan. i would suggest the president rea...

Brazenly corrupt. there will have to be a look by the inspector general. three if he ever does take any action to block this probe, after being told, informally or formally, they asked for the opinion informally, told hes supposed to recuse and he didnt, hes going to have to face real questions of whether hes making a criminal act. >> frank figliuzzi, can you jump in and add on anything youd want to know about what sort of commitments or signals matt whitaker has sent before he ignores the advic...

Peoples names that were being dandy about, chris christie and david bossi, were actually in serious consideration. >> the president goes into the weekend with a little bit of news. that story, we are going to take it off the page. >> i... im not interested in staffing changes as much as i get, im supposed to be. people i wont mention, santorum, claiming they are out and not out. >> like loading their names? >> come on. >> mle? >> to point out for our viewers, the role of an acting position, ther...