A few minutes ago Trump weighed in for the first time on Flynn’s resignation. Here’s what he tweeted:
The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2017
Mark Levin suggested the same last night, that the leaks were far more dubious than the allegations aimed at Flynn.
Also, the Weekly Standard has an interesting tidbit about Flynn’s resignation. After writing about the December call and how Pence went on CBS’s Face the Nation with false information, they write this:
Once the Post article ran on February 9, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus had begun pushing internally for Flynn’s resignation. Priebus had a chief ally in the vice president. Pence was angry with Flynn for having misled him, and Flynn’s explanation of a bad memory was not convincing to administration officials. Their concerns were not over Flynn’s close ties with the Putin regime—it was the belief that Flynn had lied to Pence and other officials about the calls and was, at least initially, unrepentant about it.
There were signs that Trump would stand by Flynn, who traveled with the president to Mar-a-Lago last weekend. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway even told MSNBC on Monday afternoon that Trump had “full confidence” in Flynn. But it was following a meeting with Priebus that, an hour after Conway’s remarks, press secretary Sean Spicer was telling the media that Trump was “evaluating the situation” with Flynn. Just a few hours later, Flynn had submitted his resignation.
It looks like it wasn’t just the media and the left pushing for Flynn’s exit, at least after the Post interview revealing that Pence had false information.
But despite all of this, I think Trump is right about the leaks. The question is will he be able to stop them?