Im told that no, its not petraeus, i dont know if general kellogg is in. At this point i dont know. I want to give you more information, though. I just heard from another source in the administration that potus hung in there but he resigned. And that it was due to this flood of information that i was just talking about. Donald trump aside from on the apprentice, does really not like to fire people. And this message from a source in the administration to me that potus hung in there but he resigned leads me to believe that the president did not want to kind of abandon general flynn who was also so loyal to him during the campaign. I mean, youll recall flynn spoke at the convention which a lot of people in the agency were kind of agast at, and he was at trumps side throughout the campaign. And so i think the president felt a certain degree of loyalty to him and but in the end i think the information and this source just called it a flood of information to me, you know, finally was what kind of broke the dam. I also just, as were talking, just got a text from another source gloria, can you stand by, i just need to reset, its the top of the hour. Ill get right back to you. Hold on, one second. Top of the hour, Michael Flynn has resigned tonight. This is cnn tonight im don lemon, thank you so much for joining us this evening. The Justice Department had also warned that flynn was potentially vulnerable to blackmail by the russians, we have i want to get right to our senior Diplomatic CorrespondentMichelle Kosinski is here. I believe we have Alice Stewart who is standing by, who is also getting information from our sources within the administration. Gloria borger is helping to break this news for us. General flynn resigned tonight. There was a flood of information coming in, and the president i was told by one source is very loyal to the people who have been loyal to him, and youll recall that flynn was very loyal to him. And that i was told it was this flood of information that was coming in, that in the end the dam burst, and the president had no choice. Gloria i hate to interrupt you, you know how much i love you, i have to get to jim acosta, he has some breaking news on this. Stand by gloria. Jim, what do you have for us . Yeah, don, i wanted to read you, we just obtained the Resignation Letter from the retired general Michael Flynn, the former National Security adviser to President Trump. We dont have time to put this on screen. Ill read it to you. In the course of my duties as the incoming National Security adviser i held numerous phone calls with foreign counterparts, to facilitate a smooth transition and begin to build the necessary relationships between the president , his advisers and foreign leaders. Such calls are standards practice, because of the fast pace of events, i inadvertently briefed the Vice President elect and others with incomplete information. I sincerely apologize to the president and Vice President , they have accepted my apology. Throughout my over 30 years of Honorable Military Service and my tenure as a National Security adviser, i have performed with the utmost integrity and honesty to serve the United States. I am tendering my resignation, honored to have served my nation in a distinguished way. Ive extremely honored to have served President Trump who in just three weeks has restructured i wish to thank President Trump for his personal loyalty, the friendship of those who i worked without throughout the hard fought campaign, and during the early days of his presidency, i know what the strong leadership of donald j. Trump and mike pence and the team they are assembling, this team will go down as one of the greatest president s in american history. They will make America Great again. That is a pretty stunning development, were in week four of this new administration. And right now the president of the United States does not have a permanent National Security adviser, he has an acting National Security adviser, from what we understand, its general kellogg, according to sources that we are talking to tonight. Hes someone who worked with the trump transition team, was a National Security adviser during the trump transition process, and so this is a stunning development. We were hearing just yesterday that mike flynn had no intention to resign, and was not expecting to be fired today, but obviously the days events have caught up with him, the weight of this scandal was enough to force him out of this very important position in the Trump Administration. What were hearing from sources at this point, there are some names coming up as a potential replacement for Michael Flynn, one of them is the retired general David Petraeus, that is a name youre going to be hearing about a lot in the coming days, don. Im glad you answered the question, because i asked gloria, and she mentioned it might be general kellogg, she was not sure. The acting National Security adviser now as far as you know is general kellogg . Thats right. From what we understand, the acting National Security adviser is going to be retired general Keith Kellogg. From what we know, from covering this campaign was an adviser to then candidate trump and served in that capacity during the transition hes also well respected, one of those officials who had been talked about for National Security adviser. It did not receive that position. However, at this point he probably is very well positioned to take on that position permanently. There are going to be questions raised about David Petraeus donald trump talks a very positively about David Petraeus during the campaign, and said he received a raw deal and so forth, and punished too much, you will recall he had given classified secrets to his girlfriend several years back, he plead guilty to that. And the question is going to be raised obviously if his name is thrown into the mix, how could he go after Hillary Clinton for her email activity and handling of classified information. How can you go after Hillary Clinton on that, if youre going to bring in David Petraeus . That is going to be a part of this conversation in the coming days, at this point they havent settled on a permanent National Security adviser, they have an acting one, and my suspicion is, youre going to see candidates circling through the white house in the coming days as they try to sort this out, don. Stand by, dont go anywhere. Michael flynn has resigned, that was according to two sources, now according to him as well, jim acosta just read his Resignation Letter live on cnn. Gloria borger has also been following this. This makes him the shortest Senior Adviser in history. He was on the job for less than a month. Yes, i think he had multiple problems that just were burgeoning. And when it was discovered that he had not told the Vice President the truth about what he had talked to the russians about, i think that became a huge problem internally for him. There was not a lot of good will for him in the white house, there was a sense that over the last couple weeks that his office was not run well. And that there were numerous problems over there. And i think that in the end, the source said to me, the president hung in there, but in the end, there was too much information coming in. What i can tell you, and just to echo what jim said is that temporarily at least, retired Army Lieutenant general Keith Kellogg who is now chief of staff and executive secretary of the nfc is in charge. But the question is, does he have the job or will there be other people coming in . Petraeus is coming in tomorrow. I had one source say to me that petraeus may be making a run for it, but this source also said he does have a lot of baggage, and thats the baggage that jim acosta was just talking about, about his own history of sharing classified information, which could be a real problem for donald trump since he used that repeatedly in the campaign against Hillary Clinton in regard to her emails. I think kellogg is someone regarded as solid. Apparently he has a Good Relationship with k. T. Mcfarlane who is the number two over there. I do think this is the white house that now needs to decide who the National Security adviser is going to be. National security adviser Michael Flynn, general Michael Flynn has resigned. Jim acosta reading the Resignation Letter on television. Gloria borger breaking the news for us. Three possible replacements for Michael Flynn, Keith Kellogg will be the interim National Security adviser. Hes now the nsc chief of staff currently. And a Senior Administration official also telling jim acosta our sarah murray and Gloria Borger that kellogg it says that kellogg, retired general David Petraeus and bob harwood, the folks who are under consideration. Gloria, do i have that correct . Yes, i you know, i look, we dont know who the next National Security adviser is going to be, we know who it is acting now, we know petraeus is coming in tomorrow, there have been other names, and i think the white house needs to conduct a search thats complete here, given whats transpired over the last three weeks, and so as long as they can keep it running, they need to come up with they need to come up with somebody that the president has confidence in. They may not be looking for controversy with petraeus, petraeus is very well regarded except for that problem. And i think there are other names that have come up, so i think were going to have to wait and see on that. Okay, gloria, stand by. Jim acosta stand by. I want to get to David Axelrod now, for to get his reaction to this breaking news. David axelrod, whats your reaction to flynns resignation . Well, he was in an untenable position, don, and the administration was in an untenable position, anyone who saw the interview with Steven Miller, the white house aid yesterday on the sunday shows in which he was asked about this and refused to answer. You could hear the sound of a branch being sawed off, and the fact that the president who always seems willing to comment on almost anything has been so receip reticent to comment on this. And the story that broke tonight, the administration had been advised that he had had these conversations, and had been advised that he had misled the Vice President made it absolutely impossible for him to continue, and we should point out that flynns always been a controversial figure within the trump orbit, theres been a lot of talk in washington that general mattis and others had misgivings that there were establishment figures who had questions about him, and there were stories that surfaced apart from all of this as to the disarray within the National Security council under his leadership that harkined back to his tenure during the obama administration. In which he got bad marks for management and was asked to leave. There were many many reasons for him to reach this point today. The question is, in the reporting that was done tonight, that was released tonight by several news organizations. It wasnt just these conversations that were noted, but the fact that u. S. Intelligence reports during the president ial campaign showed that the Russian Ambassador was in touch with flynn, and when you twin that up with the conclusion of the intelligence agency, that the russians were working to undermine Hillary Clinton and help donald trump, you can see where this is not necessarily going to die with general flynns resignation, im sure that democrats on capitol hill are going to be wanting to drill down on this issue, and theyre going to ask the question that was made famous many years ago, by our colleague in the period when our colleague Carl Bernstein and bob woodward were doing their great reporting, what did the president know and when did he know it . Did he know that general flynn had made these calls . And if he did if he did, david, what stand by, before you do that i want to say, weve gotten the official word from the white house that the president is going to name Joseph Kellogg as the acting National Security adviser until he picks a Permanent National squurt adviser. What if the president what the president knew and when he knew it, that is a big question, what if he did know, david . Well, obviously thats a whole different problem for the administration because the implications of that would be very grave. And im not suggesting that he did. Its just a question. But that would be that would raise this to a level of crisis. This is something that i think they hope will be tamped down this whole controversy by the resignation of general flynn, this question is going its going to be raised. Part of the reason its going to be raised is that when those sanctions were imposed by the obama administration, the russians took a very unusual position which was not to react. Completely out of character with Vladimir Putin, and there was a a great deal of discussion as to why they would take such a position. And so the question become did general flynn inform the president of his or the president elect of his discussions with kisliak about the sanctions . Can i ask you something, david. Not an allegation, but its a question that will be asked. There was concern during the transition about this one administration, one president at a time. And this certainly is evidence of why that should happen. Why we usually abide by that. There was a great deal of discussion then and president elect was very eager to get off and running, and was active on a number of fronts. But on the issue on issues of National Security and Foreign Policy this has always been the tradition, and for good reason, you dont want to send mixed signals to other countries, particularly in adversarial positions. If one president imposes sanctions while another president is signaling that, just hang on, relief is coming. It obviates the ability of the president who is in office to do what he thinks is right and what he was elected to do. And in this case, it was particularly sensitive, because the thing for which the russians were being sanctioned was for interfering in the american election, and interfering in a way that advantaged the president elect. That made this a particularly sensitive issue. And again, i think its there are elements of this that will continue to be explored and continue to be controversial moving forward, notwithstanding the resignation of general flynn. David axelrod, our cnn senior political commentator joining us now with the breaking news. I want you to stand by. As you see on your screen, Michael Flynn has resigned, tendered his resignation to the president of the United States just a little bit earlier. Cnn reporting the breaking news. Moments ago. Also want to discuss now with our mark preston. And also Michelle Kosinski and nia mallika Henderson Joining me now as well. So much has changed since we last spoke, when we were trying to figure out what was going on. If Michael Flynn still had the confidence of the president , and now this, it appears that he may have had the confidence of the president , but he didnt think he could carry on himself, mark preston. No doubt. And look, he did the honorable thing in many ways by falling on the sword and resigning, and not being fired. This is going to be a terrible story for the Trump Administration. It really depends on how quickly they can get someone else into the role. You do not need senate confirmation, the president can pick the person, and the person goes in. Thats why flynn who has been very controversial was able to move into that position easily. As Gloria Borger is reporting, David Petraeus is going to be at the white house tomorrow. Hes no stranger to