Shocking News: Confirming That National Security Advisor Mike Walsh Is Out

We begin with breaking news. Sources are confirming that National Security Advisor Mike Walsh is out, as well as his deputy, Alex Wong. Additional names are likely to come, we’re told, and we expect to hear from the president on this soon. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce is also with me and coming up.

First, though, let’s get the news of what’s coming together right now. Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin is at the Pentagon. Jennifer. Well, Harris, this is really stunning news coming out of the White House. It’s been confirmed by our own Jackie Heinrich, White House correspondent, that Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, and his deputy, Alex Wong, have been pushed out of that position by the president.

This comes just after the 100-day mark. You’ll remember during the first Trump administration, of course, Mike Flynn was the shortest-serving national security adviser. He lasted 24 days. This is obviously coming in the wake of what has become known as Signalgate, where shortly after, shortly before the U.S. launched its campaign, military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, Mike Waltz, as national security adviser.

Mistakenly added the Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal chat in which his Defense Secretary as well as other national security, the head of the CIA and others, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, were on a very sensitive talk on this insecure platform that’s not used for government conversations typically.

That led to an embarrassing incident with Defense Secretary Hegseth sharing what are largely believed to be classified details of that Houthi operation about the timings of airstrikes, the timings and what kind of military platforms were going to be used. And so what we have seen, we’ve seen a vacuum created here surrounding Defense Secretary Hegseth.

He’s fired five close associates in the wake of that signal gate, as well as because of leak investigations here at the Pentagon. Some of those positions remain empty. And then National Security Advisor Mike Walsh, you’ll remember, Harris, Laura Loomer, who is a conservative activist, went in to see the president and had a list of people on the National Security Council that Mike Waltz then had to turn around and fire.

So there has been incredible instability at the top of the national security team for the president. And Jackie Heinrich is reporting that there could be more shoes to drop. In fact, we just heard from Tim Kaine, A Democratic senator who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. If we have that isolated, it would be interesting to hear from him right now. All right. I don’t know if we have that. We want to give Tim a chance to check up.

Maybe you can give us a primer on it. This is just breaking right now from Democrat Senator Tim Kaine. Jennifer. What he said was that, in fact, he believes that more shoes could drop, suggesting that there are more firings to come.He quoted Senator John McCain and talked about legs falling off a centipede. I think that was the quote.

National Security Advisor Mike Walsh is out

But he also earlier had spoken to our producers on the Hill, and he had expressed extreme concern about a late-night tweet by Defense Secretary Hegseth in which he threatened Iran with potential military action if they don’t control the Houthis. And Senator Kaine, again, a key member of the Armed Services Committee, said, we don’t need another war in the Middle East.

Something that I think many would agree in which the president, of course, campaigned on. So there’s a lot of turmoil right now. Again, a great deal of vacuum at the top of the national security advising chain as a result of the removal of Mike Waltz, who had been seen as a loyalist to President Trump for many years. These are some of his closest advisors that have been pushed out. Absolutely. Jennifer, I don’t mean to scoot away, but I need to.

Tammy Bruce with the State Department is with us right now. Jennifer, great reporting. Thank you. Tammy Bruce, State Department spokesperson. So first of all, just kind of top line this for us. I mean, Jennifer has given us the news from the State Department perspective. Tammy. Well, Here’s what I can tell you when it comes to national security for the country, the nature of the president, who’s involved in making determinations about this nation’s trajectory, of course, economically when it comes to security.

And what we’ve seen and what we know from President Trump is he’s been very clear that his commitment is to diplomacy around the world. He is clearly an active and engaged president. That, I think, is an understatement. This is a man who comes from business where His vision and his understanding of what needs to occur is the guiding hand of everything that happens in this government.

And, of course, he is hands-on, literally, when it comes to making things happen, when it comes to the implementation of policies, etc., at every department, every day, whether it’s the State Department or the Department of Defense, or, of course, when it comes to who he chooses to advise him.

So I’m not going to get ahead of what the president may or may not say later today. This is a White House framework. But what I do know is that the talent bench in this country and for this government is deep and that, of course, this also is every day we see in this hundredth day anniversary week, if you will, that the president is engaged in every aspect of the country and the choices he makes moving forward.

It's been confirmed by our own Jackie Heinrich

Will be, as usual, excellent and will be in the best interest of the American people. You know, the president didn’t get as much credit as he should have, Secretary. That mission was done well. It was completed well. And I think it’s worth stating that, that through all of this, this is a leadership move now that’s happening.

But the actual mission that President Trump wanted worked out very well. Your last quick thought. We’ll move forward. Yeah, I think that’s it. When we’re looking at the choices that are made when it comes to whether it’s the Houthis, the nature of diplomacy with Iran, which of course always continues, bringing people to the table regarding Ukraine and Russia, the situation in Gaza, the critical minerals deal, which is actually a much broader deal with Ukraine, with money and resources that will be reinvested into Ukraine and its rebuilding after this horrible carnage that has unfolded over three years.

So you’ve got major successes economically and otherwise as inflation goes down. It is a historic first 100 days. It has been aggressive. It’s been exciting. And America is want to change by electing President Trump. And we’re seeing the benefits of his vision on every single framework. And it’s been a success. It will continue to be a success. Secretary, let’s move forward now. around the world. it’s a terrorist state. it’s a terrorist state. it’s a terrorist state. Some 47 straight days of hitting that enemy.

A nuclear watchdog group released a new report amid talks, U.S. talks with Iran, and it warns the Trump administration about Iran’s deceptive and very effective negotiating tactics. Warning to Trump negotiators about deceptive Iranian version of the art of the deal. It adds Iranian regime gimmicks mean they are offering Trump nothing more than what was presented to Obama. I hear your reaction to this.

I can’t wait for you to drill down for us. Well, look, President Trump has made it very clear when this began and certainly we saw it in his first term. He doesn’t put up with bunk, but he also knows and he said this to Iran earlier that if they didn’t come to the table if they weren’t going to do the right thing, it would be very bad for them. Now, people can use their imagination, but I think also the Iranians understand what very bad can be.

Obviously, they can’t consult with General Soleimani at this point, because President Trump makes decisions about what’s best for the people of the United States. In this case, as we’ve seen from day one to the 100th day, the 101st day, is that he wants diplomacy to work. He understands who he’s dealing with. He is not just the best diplomat in the world, but he also is the best dealmaker. He knows who’s in that room.

He knows that the Iranians are on their heels. He knows what’s at stake for the Iranian people, for the people of the Middle East, for the people of the world. And he is going to make decisions first for what’s best for the American people. And that then consequently is better for everyone else on the planet. So Donald Trump is not someone who gets fooled.

And he is someone who knows what he wants when he goes into that room. He’s made it clear that he is going to get what he wants. And that is why the American people put him back in that office. It’s interesting. You bet our enemy knows it, too, because this isn’t his first go around. I think so. Second term. All right.

That’s right. The U.S. and Ukraine have inked a historic deal. And it happened yesterday. A long awaited agreement, which really could have happened when Zelensky was in the United States not too long ago. But he didn’t want to do it then. But anyway, the agreement gives the U.S. access to rare earth minerals, oil and gas from Ukraine. And it also creates a reconstruction fund to give the U.S. financial and material support for the aid that it has provided.

The landmark deal also changes the dynamic of the two countries’ relationship. Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure now amount to attacks on American interests. This is a game changer.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio celebrated the news, calling it a milestone in our shared prosperity an important step in ending this war secretary bruce this is the next chapter and trump is writing it well you’ve given me a little bit of a promotion i’m the spokesperson for the department um happily representing of course the secretary of state i’m so sorry it’s not going to give me nightmares it’ll be good thank you look this is this is one of the most exciting things harris and you’re right they were meant to sign this deal when President Zelensky was in the Oval Office.

That day this deal was supposed to have been signed. It’s good and it shows you that President Trump has patience and he is willing to go back even when someone makes a huge mistake. But the exciting part of this, as I mentioned briefly a little bit ago, is that the profits, the 50% of the profits that come from this deal will be reinvested back into Ukraine and reconstruction projects, economic projects. So it’s about minerals, it’s about oil, et cetera, as you’ve mentioned. So it’s much broader than just a mineral deal.

It is a reinvestment fund that has been created so that you can get things rebuilt quickly with funds that are from that region and developed from that country to make the difference. Because once this is over and President Trump and his envoys will make that happen, there’s been a lot of damage and economic damage, physical damage.

And our commitment is to help with that, but also to be present in making sure that the rest of the world knows that America is present in that region now as well.Spokesperson from the State Department, we know that Iran and Russia have been put on notice now. We’ll cover all of it. So glad you were here for the breaking news as well.