Page 12 - General Mcmaster News Today

Byron york of the washington examiner, susan page of usa today and jonathan swan of axuous. i think its fair to say while the timing may be a bit of a surprise, the fact that mcmaster was going to be out sooner rather than later, the surprise at the timing of it. jonathan, youve been covering this, as to whether mcmaster was going to be out, your thoughts? >> i tell you, this has shocked people inside the building. again, its the timing of it. there was an assumption at some point he was going t...

Team as a contributor, because i do know the president was considering him when he first came in in december during the transition, in december of 2016, and one of the concerns was he was very aggressive, a neoconservative in the sense of wanting to confront the countries and the president wanting to avoid international entanglements. >> byron: i think you could talk about one policy in particular in the sense that mcmaster was a guy who told the president he couldnt do stuff particularly concer...

Aggressive on the korean peninsula, a bit of a warmonger, not happy with his tactics. but h.r. mcmaster was quite differential to mattis. they clashed a lot but he was deferential. john bolton will not be deferential. i had a conversation last week with one of mcmasters allies who was frustrated with the way mattis treated him and this person in the frustration said you know what, i hope they appoint john bolton. sitting at the opposite of mattis, it will be very dynamic. john bolton will not ta...

After he had misled the vice president about his meetings with the russian ambassador. interestingly enough, in that same meeting, he was talking about mcmasters eventual successor, john bolton, and we want to alert you to not change your channel here, because at the top of the hour, martha mccallum is going to have an exclusive interview with john bolton, the new national security advisor to the president. i must say, folks, im a little jealous of that booking, as much as i want to talk to all ...

Pompeo, and a new national security advisor in john bolton. we need to remember mcmaster was brought in after the precipitous and sudden firing after three weeks of michael flynn as national security advisor. first your thoughts on mcmaster, what he did and what he did wrong. >>susan: as you said, he wasnt a good fit with the president. remember, bolton wasnt a good fit either. bolton went in and met with the president and did not immediately click with him either. theres a reason this is shocki...

Establishment that you cant do this or you must do that, he is less willing to do that, and he is replacing some key figures with folks who either agree with him or are willing to express agreement with him, and i think that goes to the questions of things like will he testify before the special council, whos going to give him advice on iran, is it okay to go ahead and put tariffs on chinese goods, even though some republicans think thats a very bad idea. >> chris: you were talking during the br...

Thrown out of his position at the national security council the way that rex tillerson had been -- sort of tweeted out at the state department. they are concerned that senior-level people in the national security establishment will not take jobs with the trump administration because they dont like the way that they see that rex tillerson was treated and others. whats interesting about h.r. mcmaster is that he really made his name in the army and in the military back during the surge, during the ...

Instead, in this announcement were hearing well retire this summer from the military. your thoughts about all of that. >> jennifer: its interesting, chris. ive been having conversations for weeks now with people in the chain of command here in the pentagon about whether h.r. mcmaster was planning to come back either to the pentagon or to an army post, and there was some talk, but there was never any formal requests to find him a new job, either in the army or in the military, and so it was clear...

>> h.r. mcmaster will become the national security advisor. hes a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience. ive watched and read over the last twro da -- two days. he is highly respected by everybody in the military, and were very honored to have him. he also is known for a long time -- i know john bolton, were going to be asking to work with us in a somewhat different capacity. jon is a really terrific guy. weve had a few meetings with him, knows a lot, and has a good, a good number o...

And, again, h.r. mcmaster never really gelled with this president. never became as toxic as with rex tillerson as the secretary of state but he was seen as a dead man walking inside the white house. >> chris: i want to talk more about this but general mcmaster has issued a statement in independence -- response to the president of the united states. after years of service, i am requesting retirement from the army this summer. it has been my greatest privilege to serve alongside extraordinary serv...