At least, this is according to a report from The Hill today: Mike Flynn does not believe he’s going to be fired, nor does he have any desire to resign from his position. This comes from an anonymous Trump administration official to CNN.
The official appeared to raise questions about Flynn’s future in the Trump administration, however.
“The knives are out,” the official said. “There’s a lot of unhappiness about this.”
The comments come after reports that Flynn talked about sanctions against Russia with the country’s ambassador before Trump was sworn in.
The report, which cites current and former U.S. officials, contradicts Flynn’s earlier comments that he never discussed the topic with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during a series of phone calls the month before Trump took office.
A spokesman for Flynn walked back that denial last week, saying that while Flynn “had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up,” according to The Washington Post.
Now, the accusations against Flynn are incredibly serious, and as Streiff mentioned earlier, it could be that Mike Pence himself is getting involved here. Flynn’s future may or may not be in trouble, however, depending on the reaction to Flynn.
See, Trump acts in the self-interest of popularity. The people who like him need to continue to like him, so if there is a weak link in the popularity chain, he’ll reforge the chain with something (or, in this case, someone) stronger. But… if it’s just media and Democrat outrage against Flynn, he’s going to keep him just to poke them in the eye.
I don’t think Trump is as serious about national and cyber-security as he’s let on, so I don’t see him taking Flynn’s possible transgressions seriously. To him, Flynn was cutting a deal with Russia, which is exactly the sort of action Trump wants his people to take in these kinds of affairs.
So, honestly, who really knows what Trump will do? Flynn, for his part, believes he is safe. The rumor mill is churning out this and that. We’ll just have to see what Trump’s temperament is on the day a decision is made.
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