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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 they've 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 shanahan will be leaving the defense department and the current deputy is also in an acting position...

Go through the full confirmation through the -- to become the next defense secretary. the president is saying he's a wonderful person. he's 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. shanahan's 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 president wishing him well and saying overall, his departure will not complicate things. no indicati...

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. that's where we are right now on our understanding of the situation. but on the broader national security stage, here's the situation. he's the acting secretary of defense. he is scheduled to travel to nato in the coming days for a defense minister y. he is scheduled to travel to ...

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. that's 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, president trump never really wanted patrick shanahan as his first choice for this job. he went back a...

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 isn't 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. never easy. especially in 2019. nbc courtney kube. kelsey, jeff, stick around. when we come back b...