In the meantime here following this breaking news, I'm joined in studio by Ambassador John Negroponte.

During the George W. Bush administration, he served as U.S. envoy to the United Nations, to Iraq,

and then as the first director of national intelligence. He's now vice chairman of McClarty Associates.

That's an international consulting company. Ambassador, welcome back to the NewsHour.

Good to see you here.

Let's just begin with your reaction to this shakeup.

Does any of this surprise you?

You know, honestly, with President Trump, no, I don't think so.

And we went through it in his first administration.

And so I kind of expected something like this to happen sometime.

In what particular form I didn't know.

Well, to move Mike Walts from National Security Advisor to UN Ambassador,

help us understand the layout here.

Do we see that as a demotion?

Is it an ouster?

How do you view it?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's, even though it's a very interesting and very important job,

I enjoyed doing it myself a great deal, and there have been some notable people occupying that position,

including Adlai Stevenson and Henry Cabot Lodge and all. I think in this context,

it's a bit of a consolation prize.

And why do you think, I mean, after the Signalgate controversy,

did it feel to you like there had to be some kind of accountability within the White House?

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