donald trump and you can't be that voice after you've cut loose with that kind of language on all your fellow members of the staff, so, again, i think the real swiftness, the terrible swift sword that the general delivered i think is -- just sends an excellent message to the country. >> so let me -- i'm going to bring in bill grist and sara eisen as we turn 3:00 here on cnbc with this breaking news about the ouster of anthony scaramucci, the recently appointed director of communications for the white house. pat buchanan, john harwood said that maybe general kelly's biggest challenge is the president himself. do you agree with that, and if you do, how does general kelly manage up? >> well, i think that that's a job for the general himself. i don't think he's dealt with anyone quite like donald trump in the military, and the point

is if -- if the president of the united states continues to call in aides and instruct them or give them leave to go out and make comments and starts exciting inconsistent with what the policy is of the administration or changing it, i think that the general is going to have to do this he's going to have to tell the president, look, mr. president, if you're going to tweet, let us know beforehand and let us take a look at it, if you will, and also folks coming into your office, when they come out of your office, if you call them in, instruct them that they will have to come by me and inform me what's been said, and he's going to have to structure this thing. i don't know whether that's going to work, but i do know that those below the general, given what he did today, i think will have gotten the message, and i think he's certainly got the possibility of imposing a new sense of discipline and order on the staff below him but we're dealing with the president of the united states i mean, that's one that i don't have a solution to.

>> hey, pat, it's bill griffeth. i apologize if you've already talked about this, but we've been kind of busy for the last 15 minutes or so getting ready for this particular hour maybe you've already addressed this, but i have a question for you. knowing what you know about how washington at least used to work, are you surprised we haven't heard much of anything from the leadership in congress, the senate and the house, about all of this the last few weeks you know, the speaker, the majority leader and so forth what do you make of that >> no, i'm not really. here's -- you've got to realize where the congress s.look, they were stunned and surprised and upset to a degree by the fact that donald trump won, and what it said to them is that donald trump really has his finger on the pulse of the country better than we did. he beat all of our top figures, governors, senators and the rest, so he knows something we don't know secondly, donald trump does have a constituency out there, and

i've always argued that trump's constituency, he brings in real freshness, energy with the new nationalists and economic patriots and the anti-interventionists, and if you can marry that to the traditional republicans who go for strong supreme court justices like gorsuch, you've got the makings of a new majority, and the reason some of these republicans on the hill are hesitant, i mean, the political reason is quite simply that if they take on and go after the president, they may get cheers from the beltway press, like john mccain got, but when they go home they are also going to hear from a part of their constituency which is appalled that they are turning on the president, so i think this induces a sense of paralysis. >> he stole your constituency, pat. >> they are good folks but let me say one problem that the general is going to have is the general having served in the marine corps all that time is probably not deeply conversive

with all the major political, if you will, causes and factions and groups that are on the hill the way reince priebus would have known them, and he certainly needs to have folks in that senior staff meeting that are conversive with all these groups and elements, including, as i think john said, they were my folks. >> it's brian. i know we've got to get over to bill and sara, sorry there was a quick comment from the white house that anthony scaramucci decided it would be best to leave and let general kelly have a clean slate any chance that anthony scaramucci left on his own >> i think he could have gotten indication that that would be a good idea, and -- and it would be good that he be allowed to resign, but i think he probably walked in and knows what i was talking about on the weekend i was -- i wished i could be at the first senior staff meeting when the general looks down the table at the mooch >> well, it's -- it's quite a

term that you have to say, guys, that here is a guy who in six months time has apparently lost his company, he has lost his marriage, we find out over the weekend, as his wife is suing for divorce and now he's lost his job in the white house. >> should be an interesting press briefing in about 40 minutes time, guys. >> hey, guys, could i ask pat buchanan one more question >> sure, if you must. >> okay. pat, the question is what is the chance that as one republican told me the other day, that this new iteration of the trump white house is essentially going to go to war with the republican congress and fashion itself as kind of an independent force as you eventually did after a couple of runs for president as a republican >> the trouble with doing that is, look, you're 52 votes in the senate, and you need all of those folks if you're going to get through your programs, your tax cuts, your infrastructure and the rest of it, even if

you're going to have another run at health care, and so once you get in, even if you're an outsider like reagan was an outsider, had very few supporters i was with him in 5076, had almost nobody but paul laxall and once you get into the white house, and the idea, is and i know people -- you're bringing up nixon, is you pull together all the wings of the party and all the elements in the party because you need them all to go over the top, and if you go to war with your party, i mean, that's fine politically at certain times, but you can't be an outsider running against your party when you're in the oval office >> all right very good. pat buchanan, great to hear from you, and your insights with all the historical portions of that, thank you to the gang on "power lunch" as well we -- we're catching our breath with all that's gone on. >> i would note, bill, always look for market reaction from these types of things and while stocks are hovering at record highs. >> yes. >> the u.s. dollar has been the place where the political

uncertainty, the volatility has been playing out, and there was a move after this headline hit, the "new york times" with the dollar ticking lower and euro going up story of the month which we'll talk on final trading day and a lot has to do with the uncertainty surrounding the trump agenda and the political uncertainty. it's a relative bet in currencies not seeing it in stocks and there's the intraday chart to prove it. >> dollar going lower since the beginning of the year. hit that high late last year, index of 103, and it hasn't hit back in that time. >> as we'll reset here. >> let's do that with kayla tausche back at the white house. and let me just -- you probably don't know the answer, maybe you do, whether or not they have rescheduled the white house press briefing that was supposed to be at 3:45 eastern time what's going on with that, do you know >> reporter: we haven't heard, bill, one way or another whether that briefing is still scheduled as planned on camera with sarah sanders or whether the plans for

that has changed do i want to read for you one more time the statement we did just get a few minutes ago from the office of the press secretary. this is not coming directly from the president. this is coming from the press office it says anthony scaramucci will be leaving his role as white house communications director. mr. scaramucci felt it was best to give chief of staff john kell' clean slate and the ability to build his own team. we wish him all the best this is surprising news considering scaramucci had served in that job for not even two weeks time but perhaps not surprising considering the events that transpired over the last week and in particular that interview that was on the record for at least a large portion of it with a reporter from the "new yorker." for a communications director to hold a phone call that is on the record that contains the content that that interview did, much of it not safe to repeat on television, perhaps is one reason why members of the press profession and some of those here in the press office were concerned that perhaps he did not have the expertise required

for this job, and it appears that job kelly has shared that view and has requested for mr. scare mutual toe resign. >> kayla, on this theme of general kelly coming in and scaramucci a controversial ten days it and reince, always questions and rumors swirling that he would depart anyone else that we're looking at, that we're wondering about as he cleans house >> reporter: there's questions about how well general kelly and steve bannon will get along at this point bannon and reince priebus butted heads on more than one occasion, but bannon is said to have developed a relationship with jared kushner, the president's son-in-law somewhere along the way. it's unclear exactly who his alliance becomes at this point and whether general kelly will bristle at some of the nationalist-type policies that bannon has traditionally espoused or whether he'll be a more moderating an stabilizing force within the west wing as far as policy and legislation is concerned, this is not

necessarily kelly's wheelhouse, brings a wealth of geopolitical experience, a retire marine corps commander and general, four stars, so obviously commands a huge amount of respect, but in terms of actually working pieces of legislation through congress, that is still an open question here, and how he gets along with the legislative affairs team is key to watch as well. >> kayla, let you get bark to work, do some more reporting and let us know what you find out as we move along here the dow up 75 points, the loan gainer abeing mott major averages and puts it in record territory. joining us on the phone is a former white house communications director under bill clinton, don behr thanks for joining us. have you caught your breath yet? >> this all just happened, sure, you about i'm pressing just fine, things. >> you know how the white house

face let's gas it donald trump is -- he's run his own business he's in charge and i guess he is still figuring things out. >> unfortunately, he seems to be responding more to passion than to reason, and a lot -- in a lot of the decisions that he's been making look, scaramucci was never qualified to be white house communications director. the job description is not tonight court jester it's a very different role than the one he seems to have imagineled he was going to do or that president trump understands, and -- and this is a good move by general kelly, and i guess the president. the question will be, of course, what they are going to do to actually try to bring more discipline as well as creativity, collaboration into the communications process and message and what they are saying from this white house, but these issues, usually when you talk

about communications problem they are not communications problems alone they are substandin problem, who is leading the white house from the top down and what they are actually accomplishing and how they are executing on that that's been the problem for this white house from the start. >> don, are you saying the most that seems a little bit chaotic and volatile after ten days with the communications director, an effort to restore facility had you looking ahead more towards tax reform today which we've been talking about. >> two different questions a smart move scaramucci should never have been in the job to begin with and nothing in his background that qualified him for it and the way he behaved in the first week indicated that he was the wrong person for the role. so i think this is an indication that general kelly and in his new role as chief of staff

expects po sake some pretty amatterive steps and discipline and process no this white house for how they house the form that they have in inspire country are. the kwekd thing is go to have an inform that they will finish >> no agenda completely unthibl do that an i would say that that stem al lone indicates that we should be confidence about that. >> let's bank in sayral faguer, what you mick first fwlfrm and what happens now >> i think this was a strong move by general kelly. he asserted himself. you know, one of the things that i think is so important for a chief of staff to be successful is that you have to have hiring and firing authority and he made very clear today he has firing

authority, and i think, you know, anthony anthony scaramucci for all his strengths was probably the wrong person for that job, demonstrated that last week certainly, and -- and putting somebody in there who knows the press works can build bridges with the press and who can put out the president's message is really the direction this white house needs to go in. >> sara, sean spicer, reince priebus and now anthony scaramucci all in a matter of days what does that tell us about how the inside of the white house, the inner circle of president trump is functioning right now >> reporter: well, you know, certainly, you know, before friday it was imploding, and -- and, you know, based on the firings and dismissals you just mentioned, you know, we that playing out real time on the world stage. very problematic, certainly on

the global stable this new chief of staff has been in the job for one day and has had a strong day so far. i think one of the things about getting rid of anthony scaramucci is that it will send a message to the rest of the staff that there is a now-yard in the wet wing and at least as of today president trump is backing him up on that i think that's important i hope the president continues to do that moving forward. it's important to have a strong chief of staff that can set processes in place that the staff follows so day one general kelly gets very high marks. >> don, i know much is made with the departure of reince priebus, that that was the last link that donald trump had with the republican party in the white house. does it behoove him to choose another republican insider for that job, or what kind of person do you think he'll want to take as the new white house communications director? >> who he ought to take is not

just someone who knows how to talk to the press. what he needs, as i've said before on your air, is someone who is going to be able to bring a sense of strategy to how they use their communications operations and the opportunities presented there. that that person need to persuade the country, someone creative about their approaches that they use so they are using the president in the most effective ways and other voices that are possible. someone is bringing an integrated approach. people don't realize there are thousands of input that go into any kind of communications opportunity, especially from a white house, especially this one, across the entire administration as someone who needs to be coordinate, an honest broker across the world and then need to set agendas and not just on a one-off basis. he needs a real communications

central artery jiflt that can work with the president and also the entire administration, not necessarily a washington insider. >> so sara, you've worked for president george w. bush you've worked for candidate john mccain what is that message that you think needs to come out of the white house right now? >> i think the most important thing that this white house can do is get their tax policy rolled out and -- and really focus on that. there's nothing more important for a sitting president, particularly in his first year in office, than to get some legislative wins and to really implement his agenda for the country. they have yet to do that they have been all over the board. the hill is now running away from them as a result of what's happening in health care, and i don't know they with get this tax plan rolled out soon enough, strong enough is born by get

someone who can mash behind and stop following the hill. the president followed the hill and that happened on health care and that cannot happen on tax reform if that's going to be successful. >> the initiative seems to be coming from the white house along with congress a.m. leaders. they are already having join statements with secretary mnuchin of treasury who was actually supposed to speak at the white house press briefings about taxes. gary cohn has been working on this. >> that was ancient history. we'll see if anything comes out at 3:45 now, dawn, but what's the bottom line for the legislative calendar, and how much do we push it off is this a delay? how are investors supposed to take this? >> well, i mean, look, the time is racing ahead and they don't have that much time to really get this going they are that you canning about tax reform and beginning to talk about it seriously in many of the business groups in washington to try to have an impact on these issues, they are stepping up and hoping to get tax reform on the agenda and have it seriously considered

once congress is back in september. i still think there owes an tonight for this white house and the president to have a positive impact the entire white house has t discipline itself and get focused and more than anyone the president will have to do that. >> hey, don, we talked about what the republican leadership in congress should do. what about the democratic leader do they just stand back and watch, or is there a strategy that mitch mcconnell and others could be using -- not mitch mcconnell, that chuck schumer and others could be employing right now to take advantage of this time? >> you've seen democrats in the last week or two trying to come forward with a proactive aiming daff their own there's even a centrist group, the problem-solvers group in the house which is now bipartisan that's trying to come forward with some real solutions to health care. i think the democrats have the opportunity to point the way towards some real solutions on some of these key issues, and to

actually seize some of the leadership opportunities, though they don't have the majorities, they could take the leadership mantle in some respects from the republicans if they want to speak to the country not about constructive solutions to some of our issues. >> trying to push this forward, sara, but i was going ask you about general kelly in general as the chief -- as the chief of staff here and a lot of people are wondering what his experience, is but if he has had a campaign of command guy, remember, anthony scaramucci bragged numerous times about how he reports directly to the president. that is when reince priebus was chief of staff, but that seems to be a key sort of piece of this puzzle. >> it doesn't really work particularly to have many people reporting to the president the president shouldn't be involved in very many things that go through the white house surprisingly he should be left to be making the very big decisions, decisions on national security, decisions about what his policy is going to be and the

prioritization of his policies you know, who has what job and intergovernmental affairs or cabinet affairs more who has the title assistant to the president versus deputy, it all of these inner workings of a white house, my impression is way, way too involved in that a strong chief of staff will be managing the staff in addition to helping the president prioritize his day, and i think, know, based on what we saw today generally kelly understands that and certainly over the course of his career he understands that and is moving to implement those types of changes and about, you know, that strong leadership coupled with something for the staff to get behind focus on, prioritize and carry forward around the hill and country and tax reform which i do think is coming together for republicans and for the president, i think those two things have the ability to get this white house on track and get the events certainly of the past week and the past several months behind them and in the rear view

mirror. >> all right we'll ask you to stay there, if you will don baer thanks so much for your time on the known. >> thank you >> i presume we'll be talking again soon as news warrants. let's bring in trent duffy, himself former deputy press secretary to former president george w. bush first blush, what do you think of this development, and what will it do, do you think, with the relationship between the white house and the white house press corps to say the least which has been very rocky? >> well, i don't know that it was unexpected but i think it was probably the right move for a couple of reasons. one, whenever a spokesman becomes more of a story than the president himself it's a problem and mr. scaramucci had certainly done that within the past week he was doing things that certainly embarrassed this white house, and we're -- were not complementary to what the president is trying to do. president trump apparently does not like palace intrigue stories

and kremlinology what, we call it in washington, and ant nip scaramucci was all about those things and actually fueled them to a great degee, so i think this gives the white house the ability to clear the slate for mr. kelly, for general kelly to get some people in that he wants, to get some message discipline back in place and to get back whoey that need to do to focus on a legislative agenda not focused solely on the white house, palace intrigue and they need to get the eye on the prize and move forward and this gives them the ability to be do that. >> you mentioned general kelly has had a clean slate this comes just hours after he was sworn in as chief of staff it's been a volatile few days. what does that look like and tell but what kind of leadership he's going to provide and how different this is going to be under him versus priebus >> well, it's hard to say given this early moment that we're in. i think what we know and what we can read about him is that he is

a disciplinarian there's been some discussion that he doesn't have political skills i would strongly argue against that because when you're in the positions that he was in the in the pentagon and at dhs, you have to have political skills and the ability to work with a lot of different and strong egos and strong smart people in a productive manner, so i think he definitely has the skills to do the job and the people that we've in the past hour or how reflect that, and i think you'll see more of that good forwards bill just asked me how this would affect the relationship with the press corps the answer is we don't know yet. the answer it is who will get the top jobs and how it moves forward. it removes a huge distraction that was only serving to put the white house in reverse and on the defensive. that's not where you want to be. the president has the biggest megaphone and platform in

washington and it needs to be used to promote your agenda, and that's what i think john kelly and his team will start doing did, and i think today's action is a reflection of that. >> sarah, what's sarah sanders thinking right now, do you think? >> first of all, i think that she is a great team player she is somebody who is very adaptable. i've worked with her in the past on the presidential campaign, and i found her to be very smart, very loyal and somebody goes going to figure out how to navigate whatever is thrown her way. we've seen that already. my experience with sarah is that she's a stand-up person. i can't imagine watching anthony scaramucci's behavior over the last ten days, whether it's reflective of him as a whole and he was certainly going through a tough personal situation and lashing out. either way that's not the way she conducts herself and i can't

imagine that she was -- i had to believe that she was sitting at her desk by herself wondering what the heck, so -- >> or words to that effect, yes. >> words to that effect. the other thing, is look, if you think about every military leader that we've come to know in this country, all the members we know privately. the way anthony scaramucci conducted himself was the ann tut significance of that i can't remember general kelly being interested in even having a review period and clear hi he didn't. >> thank for joining us. >> you, bet. thing you. >> 'just wauflt joined us, and through it all the market continues on its course. dow up 85 points, strong all day and in record territory. the s&p is positive and the nasdaq is down and so is the russell 2000. >> which is sort of a mixed way

to end what is aer in very just strong month best month since february for the dow and s&p, best since january for the nasdaq brushing off some some of the internal controversial scandal and drama inside the white house snap shares are off the lows of the day. tracking this closely because we're following it after its ipo lockup expiration. we'll debate whether it's time to bite being down on the social media stock. >> and what's on your mind we want to hear from you reach out to the show via facebook, twitter, send us an e-mail whatever you want to talk about. we're back to business on "closing bell" after this. we, the entertainment-loving people, want an unlimited data plan that gives us more. we want more than just texting. more than just surfing and shopping. because sure, we want to use this to call the people we love-

- like our directors. but mostly, to get the entertainment we love. maaaaark ! ! ! switch to at&t for the only unlimited plan that gives you 60 channels of live television on any screen all for $70 a month.

your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. media stock. ness liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance.

welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm ylan mui in washington the treasury department has sanctioned the president of venezuela nicolas maduro using some aggressive and harsh language the treasury department called marudo a dictator who disregards the will of his people now this comes a day after venezuela had voted to establish a new national assembly to rewrite its constitution the treasury department warns anyone who participates in that process could be exposed to sanctions down the road. another excerpt in announcing

this decision. he said maduo has been long involved in abusing human rights and has been involved in systemic corruption. this was a statement made in consultation with the state department we'll bring you more when we have it. >> on any other day this might have played higher in our program but not today. welcome back we've got 29 minutes left in the trading session with a mixed day on wall street the dow up 87 points the s&p up a point and nasdaq down 18 as tech sdwri continues to struggle, and the russell is down as well our "closing bell" exchange, quincy crosby is back with us, the chief market strategist at prudential financial and sitting next to her is steven sarge gilfoy and rick santelli checks in from the cme in chicago folks, it's breathtaking. >> yes. >> yet another nussi day coming out of washington but the market taking it all in straight.

what do you make of that, quincy >> look, if the market were to tull back everything that bothered it, it would never be able to move higher, so the fact of the matter is this is actually good news for the market ultimately because it brings some clarity to washington, d.c. which will be a plus for the market. >> you're saying the removal of scaramucci >> well, just having someone in charge, someone in charge. >> general kelly. >> yeah, exactly, but the fact remains earnings have been good, and it's always very good when the market has something clear to focus on and that's the earnings season. that's been a strong earnings season the dollar has been weaker, and we're watching oil move above 50 and being able to close above 50 all of these are actually positives for the market, but fact is we're paying attention to technology. we're waiting for apple's numbers to see if it can resurrect technology in the leadership, but the fact remains the arket's focus has always been on where's the economy going and how are companies doing regardless of the

backdrop >> yeah. it's hard to sort of figure out the direct market implications of some of these political headlines, risk, but the dollar did tick lower on this news, that anthony scaramucci was out and we've seen that, seen that with the failed health care vote overnight heading into friday. >> i disagree. >> there is a political relative risk going on here. >> markets go up and markets go down it doesn't mean -- listen, what's going on in washington is a gaper's block, agreed. everybody around the water cooler wants to talk about it and everybody driving by the accident intersection wants to stare at it, but tdow jones industrials almost at a record high and before the headline was out i did three spots pointing to how it just keeps going lower and lower and lower. now, we never know who is going

to be right, but i want to know the other 160 days it went down, scare mitch wasn't in the story. listen, it's fascinating stuff >> the legislative agenda was being pushed up. >> none of it seems to matter. you know what, whether spicer is in, spicer is out, scaramucci in, scare mutually is out, i really don't think that anything i'm looking at up here would have been any different at all, in my upon all the same, okay, because this president isn't getting anything done but he's still on the expressway for better economic legislation and the poem that voted him are okay you're fired was his catch line so he's living up to his reputation >> okay. sarge, we're obviously tight on time you and i were talking earlier, and this was ancient history at this point, but we were looking ahead to august and your thoughts on that what -- does any of that change? what do you think happens as we move ahead after what has turned out to be the second best month of the year for the stock market so far

>> well, you know, we're all talking about the weak doll overwhelm the weak dollar is the one part of the president's agenda that has worked like a charm and that's why earnings are running at 11%, instead of 7% or 8%, growth year over year. probably the primary reason why you'll have a tailwind going into the third and fourth quarter and with a lot of the garbage renewed you can renew the hope for tax reform, from repatriation of funds which will push tech higher and push the small caps higher, because let's not forget they are up 5% this year when they really shouldn't be in a tough dollar environment, and when they are playing close to that 35% effective tax rate. >> thank you, folks, for your patience and waiting while all of this news was unfolding we'll talk to you later. 25 minutes left in the trading session here the dow, as someone ever said, getting close to 22,000 right now. started the month at 18. >> and we could hit another record on the close. financials, interestingly, are

the biggest outper formers today. the dow rallying nearly 11% so far this year if you're keeping tabs up next our retail investor roundtable members tell us reti biersey a sllelve in this market and which stocks they are actually buying when we come back. a used car,

the heat is being turned up in two geopolitical hot spots, north korea and venezuela, as we just heard our seema moldy has the latest details on both stories. seema? >> reporter: hi, sara, let's start with venezuela where authorities claim the referendum went in president maduro's favor and the big question is what those sanctions mean for venezuela and continue any more announcements could be in store while an outright ban on venezuelan oil seems unlikely. freezing the benefits of light crude to venezuela could be an option used. with capital reserves below $10 billion, analysts believe targeting its oil sector, its main revenue generator, would appropriate tate a default it currently has $5 billion in outstanding 2017 debt obligations. runaway inflation and a collapsing currency certainly not helping matters. but that's not the only foreign

policy concern for global investors. president trump reacting to north korea's missile test and the suggestion that it has capabilities of reaching the united states. >> we'll handle north korea. we'll be able to handle -- it will be -- it will be handled. we handle everything >> think tank eurasia says china will feel the most pressure in the coming weeks as trump will likely impose tougher sanctions on chinese entities that trade with north korea, so bill and sara, potentially more sanctions on the horizon >> all right seema, thank you let's talk more about this joining us is nbc news contributor and former u.s. ambassador to south korea christopher hill mr. ambassador, thanks for joining us >> a pleasure. >> officials in beijing said today that it's incumbent upon the united states not china to fix this with north korea. i'm going to sound naive, but when did it fall to the united states alone to try and deal

with whatever is going on in kim jong-un's mind >> whenever you talk to the chinese and try to outsource it to them they turn around and outsource it us. it speaks to the fact that our dialogue with china is not going in the right direction we need china on the right side, and i think the president's effort to communicate with china by tweet is not really working, and so i think the president needs to dial that back a bit. by the way, in that regard, i think having kelly as the chief of staff with scaramucci out will be a very, very good development, and i think it will help reinforce the sort of adults in the room, including mcmaster, so they are going to have to clear the decks, because this -- this issue is not going away >> well, that still leaves the big predicament about what to do about north korea. earlier the president when he was i think swearing in general kelly said we'll handle north korea. we'll be able to handle it it will be handled we handle everything how do they handle it? >> i guess someone told him to

use the word handle. i'm not sure what he means and i'm not sure that he knows what to mean. we have to deal with it. we can't walk away from this it's a potential nuclear weapon pointed at us, first time we've had one of those in a long time, so we are going to have to work closely with china on this, and we'll have to reassure our allies, south korea and japan and we may have to exploit the space between peace and war, cyber attacks, this sort of thing, but, i mean, this issue is a very serious issue, and i'm pleased that they are beginning to clear the decks in the white house and get ready for dealing with some really serious problems >> could shinzo abc be te be the mediator could he be the one to bring the china and united states together >> the only country north korea hates more than us is the japanese, so i don't think that's going to happen i think we do need to get in a better kind of pattern of cooperation with china

look, china is not going to solve this for us, but if we ever solve this problem, we're going to look back and we're going to see that china was on our side, and i think that's where we need to keep them, so the idea of kind of threatening them or, you know, these tweets, this not the way to deal with china. they resent it and don't like the approach, and i hope people will prevail on the president to knock this off >> ambassador chris hill, thank you. again, appreciate your thoughts today. >> thank you. once upon a time there was going to be a white house press briefing. >> we are expecting within a few moments. we haven't had an update. >> they were supposed to talk about tax reform secretary mnuchin was going to be there, but who knows what's going to happen now. >> looks like the team is getting in place. >> we'll wait to see who comes out and what they have to say. in meantime with 17 minutes left, the dow continues high, up 95 points right now at 21,927. >> could be the fifth record close in a row the last trading day of the

month and we'll find o wuthat main street investors are doing with their money the retail roundtable is coming up next. from happening in the first place. at cognizant, we're turning the industry known for processing claims into one focused on prevention with predictive analytics, helping them proactively protect the things that matter most. get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital.

it is the last day of the month and time to check in where main street investors are

putting their money in this market. >> yeah, we call it our retail investor roundtable. joining us is trevor gormley, the founder of the consulting group, millenial group and back with us is the manager of our lj lodging trust. i know you'll understand, we're very tight on time with all the breaking news. give it your best shot on your first answer here. trevor, i'm intrigued. you still like tesla where do we go from here what's the story that you're following, that you like >> well, so, model three numbers are expected to gross larger than north america's ford segment, so a lot of people are misunderstanding the opportunity within the next knife to seven years, that automotive industry will really be disrupted with technology with inside the car software improvements and hardware that can actually elongate the time period for this software capability i think tesla has some support around the 300 level, and it's probably going to dip down close to that pretty shortly within the next couple of week, i would assume, but obviously will the sentiment on the retail side and also on the institutional side,

a lot of questions about around it and a lot goes into the ai conversation and just to pick up the ibm position last week, and i think a lot of that segment is very underestimated from the retail in both institutional side. >> deman, give us some of your pick i noticeds you like some of the reits and broadly what is does it say about your overall enthusiasm level >> overall enthusiasm left for the reit market, there are apartments and condos and more communities going up in new york city, which means more residential reits are going up, and commercial is just following. right now the majority of reits are up above average and the dividend yields are very good, some around 10%, so i'm very enthusiastic about the reits, and they are safe, comfortable long-term investments. >> 10% is safe still >> 10% is safe for me. when some of them are down

around 3%, some -- some dividend yields are around 1%, 1.13%. 10% or 9% is deese don't me, yes. >> report. guys, thank you. hopefully we'll see you next month. trevor, demond. >> thank you >> good look with all the political noise. >> yes, thanks you so much. 11 minutes left, and we are waiting for a white house press briefing, getting a little guidance at this point as to when it may begin, but as soon as it does, you can be sure we'll be there for you the dow meantime up 93 points. >> there is a live shot, in fact, of the white house press room sarah huckabee sanders who just took over from her former boss sean spicer last week will hopefully explain what's going on the president tweet nod white house chaos. after ten days on the job at communications director we just learned anthony scare mutually is out we await the explanations, and wel inito u ves soon as it starts.

so you miss the big city? i don't miss much... definitely not the traffic. excuse me, doctor... the genomic data came in. thank you. you can do that kind of analysis? yeah, watson. i can quickly analyze millions of clinical and scientific reports to help you tailor treatment options for the patient's genomic profile. you can do that? even way out here? yes. even way out here. i enjoy the fresher things in life. even way out here?

fresh towels. fresh soaps. and of course, tripadvisor's freshest, lowest prices. so if you're anything like me... ...you'll want to check tripadvisor. we now instantly compare prices from over 200 booking sites... ...to find you the lowest price... ...on the hotel you want. go on, try something fresh. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices.

just a reminder. we're waiting for the white house press briefing, could get under way any minute and not getting any guidance supposed to start at 345, but it

doesn't feel yet like we're getting slows so we proceed at pace here, and look at snares of snap trading lower as the first round of the company's ipo lockup period comes to an end. today's expiration allows the sale of up to $200 million snap shares with more available for sale next month >> down 19% since its march ipo. is snap a buy or a sell for vfrtors? joining us in today's bull-bear debate sean, we'll start with you since you are here buying opportunity or not on this lockup expiration for twitter, facebook and linked in. it has proven to be so >> historically you've seen this has been the opportunity, and you've seen these 24% moves which the move to 13 was exactly that from 17 you've also seen everybody has been focused on this overhang now for the last three months since earnings we're now getting to the point where you can focus on the secular story which for us you have a huge catalyst coming in

the iphone 8 launch. you'll give evan segal a whole new fleet of tools and for us you have a big secular tailwind coming this is the obvious overhang it won't end today and a lot of stock is coming and the tailwind is there. >> aaron, you're our bear. what do you make of what sean is saying, and why are you bearish right now? >> yeah. we have the share overhang which it continue to be a near-term impact besides that, if you look at the fundamentals, clearly the growth is strong today. however, the snap has a relationship that they can age up which means they do well among the 12-year-old to 30-year-old group. beyond that they haven't shown that they can add a lot of users in a significant way to get to like a facebook which which think they need to start to do for the stock to move meaningfully higher. ad tech platforms, don't think we're hearing the pricing is actually coming down on the platform so that remains a near-term miss on the estimates and estimates could continue to

get cut in the near term here. >> and we'll get earnings next week and the user growth has been a disappointment in the last quarter is the this about the competition from instagram stories and why don't you seem worried about it >> i think there's certainly an argument to be made about that it i'm not worried about it because the real drivers here, the iphone 8 launch and the exclusive content have not been hit yet. advertisers will have to pay attention when they have exclusive olympics contempt. they have to pay attention to all these new rollouts, and in theory the ar kit from apple, this is a dream for evan spiegel. he'll been playing with this for a long time, and the rollout is not that far away. doesn't take a lot to go viral these days >> all right gentlemen, again, truncated segment because of the breaking news and we appreciate your thoughts on the snap and ipo lockout. we'll take a quick break >> look at la live shot of the white house press room where we're set to get a briefing. it should begin momentarily from

sarah huckabee sanders, the white house press secretary. of course, we'll take you to the bensig he n sn iooast gi rhterho"closing bell." [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide to help you better understand what medicare is all about and which aarp medicare supplement plan works best for you. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. there's a range of plans to choose from, too,

and they all travel with you anywhere in the country. join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. ♪ call today. remember, medicare supplement insurance helps cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. expenses that could really add up. these kinds of plans could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. you'll be able to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. and there are virtually no referrals needed. so don't wait. with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide. this easy-to-understand guide will answer some of your questions

and help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that's right for you. (slow jazz music) ♪ fly me to the moon ♪ and let me play (bell ring) 90 seconds left. a quick recap of not just the day but the month, this last trading day of the month and it's been a pretty good month,

pegslition for the dow for the last week or so objection especially because of boeing it's added more than 200 points to the dow, just because of boeing's rally in the last week or so and look how close we're getting to 22,000 now. what has not done as well is nasdaq, especially this last week and most especially because of amazon among the f.a.n.g. stocks, it's down on today the dxy, dollar index, peaked at the beginning of the year and has not looked back. could we breach 990 in the month of august? haven't been below that and wti getting comfortable suddenly, bob pins, at $50 a barrel. >> up nicely from $45 in the month. i think the key to august will be tech. we're up 4.5%. today wells fargo downgraded the big movers, the semiconductorsization it's plateauing, the semiconductors as they move to the upside look at this i think transports are

continuing to drop keep and eye on that the dow transport is down 4% this month with the industrials up 3%. >> a gain and record for the dow. s&p and nasdaq lower pandora earnings coming cup and a white house press briefing on this second hour of the "closing bell." >> and welcome to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen in today for kelly evans. bill will be back in just a moment let's take a look at how we're finishing up the day and the month on wall street as bill just mentioned, the dow going out with another record closing high, up .3% boeing again was the big winner, and that propelled the dow into yet more record territory. the s&p and the nasdaq both fell the nasdaq got hit by .3-4-% stocks just wrapped up their best month since back in

february the russell 2000 closing lower by a third of a percent as well. a white house press briefing is set to start any minute. we'll take it to you live as soon as it beginning, and this comes just after a major staff shake-up in washington just over an hour ago anthony scaramucci out as the white house communications director. we'll bring you the white house details on all of it coming up join today's panel, cnbc market commentator michael santoli, paul hickey of the spoke investment group and also weighing in here on the talk of the hour, we want to welcome in ken duberstein is with us, former chief of staff for president ronald reagan. ken, we'll start with you as we await the press secretary here coming after what was no longer a quiet day in washington after ten tumultuous days on the job the mooch is out how does she go about explaining this, and what does it say about general kell

>> it says that general kelly is already starting to take hold, that clearly he has a direction that people don't freelance. mooch made it clear when he announced himself that he was reporting directly to the president. it seems to me that one of the first requirements that general kelly made was that people report with him or through his knowledge so i think that this is a good first step for john kell deas a new white house chief of staff, and it certainly cleared the deck of somebody who to say the least was quite controversial. >> here comes sarah sanders right now. let's listen in. >> before we get started i'd like to bring up national security adviser general h.r. mcmaster and treasury secretary steve mnuchin to discuss the administration's response to the maduro's regime recent anti-democratic actions in venezuela.

they will each make opening remarks and take your questions on the topic at hand, and then as always your favorite time of day, i'll come back and take your questions thank you. >> hi, good afternoon, everyone. i thought it might be best to read the president's statement since president trump's inauguration, the trump administration has called on venezuela's maduro regime to respect venezuela's constitution, respect the role and authorities of the constitutionally established national assembly and hold free and fair elections, address the humanitarian needs of the venezuelan people. release political prisoners and stop oppressing its great people the regime has refused to heed this call, and its recent actions culminating in yesterday's outrageous seizure of absolute power through the sham election of the national

constituent assembly represent a very serious blow to democracy in our hemisphere. maduro is not just a bad leader, he is now a dictator the united states stands with the people of venezuela in the face of this oppression. we will work with our partners to hold accountable all of those responsible for the escalating violence and ongoing human rights violations. the president promised strong and swift actions if the regime went forward women posing the national constituent assembly on the venezuelan people, and he will keep that promise secretary mnuchin. >> thank you, general. today the united states is broadening its effort to address the ongoing assault on venezuela's democratic institutions by the maduro

regime treasury's office of foreign assets control, ofac, has sanctioned the president of venezuela, nicolas maduro moros. as a result of today's sanctions, all asset of maduro subject to u.s. jurisdiction are frozen, and u.s. persons are prohibited from dealing with him. as president trump said earlier this month, the strong and courageous actions by the venezuelan people to stand for democracy, freedom and the rule of law have been continually ignored by nicolas maduro who dreams of becoming a dictator. yesterday's illegitimate elections confirm that maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the venezuelan people. the national constituent assembly aspires illegitimately

to usurp the constitutional role of democratically elected national assembly, rewrite the constitution and impose an authoritarian regime on the people as such, it represents a rupture in venezuela's constitutional and democratic order by sanctioning maduro, the united states makes clear our opposition to the policies of his regime and the support for the people of venezuela who strive to return their country to a full and prosper out democracy. as the country's head of state, maduro is directly responsible for venezuela's descent and for the destruction of democracy adding maduro to ofac's list of specially designated national reflects our commitment to not stand by idly as venezuela continues to crumble under the regime's abuses.

we hope that these sanctions will make all maduro regime officials reconsider how their actions have affected their country. these actions highlight the high cost and personal enablers of this regime if they continue their reckless and undemocratic activities anyone who participates in this illegitimate anc could be exposed to future u.s. sanctions for the role in undermining democratic process and institutions in venezuela. now we'll take a few questions. >> yes, thank you very much, mr. secretary. if these sanctions don't work, what would the next step be, and i think general mcmaster a question to you, can we rule out, anything on the table other than economic sanctions? >> well, let me just say i, i just said this generally we very much believe that sanctions do work, and we will continue to monitor the

situation and consider additional sanctions >> and to general mcmaster. >> the president has prioritized his concern for the venezuelan people, and so he's only considering those options which would benefit directly to the venezuelan people. >> thank you very much >> thank you, sir. how many times have ofac sanctions been placed on the head of state before and does maduro have any assets in the u.s. >> i can't comment on his assets, and this will be the fourth head of state. >> mr. secretary, in the back. >> in the back you called -- >> yes. >> two questions one on the sanctions and another one about the election yesterday. and about the election, i want to know if you see the election obtained by nicolas maduro to consolidate power and also some say, especially the opposition and also "the washington post" editorial board say that the

venezuela regime is on the direction of a coup, is moving to the direction of a coup does the american government fear that there is a coup underway in venezuela and then the question i asked about >> what we're seeing in venezuela is not a coupe, we're seeing the brutal oppression of the venezuelan people. if you contrast the turnout from the opposition referendum to the low numbers of the turnout during this farce associated with the constituent assembly, i think you see what the true desires of the venezuelan people are. >> okay. can i -- i had -- yes. >> thank you, sir. >> actually this goes to either or both of you how is this different from what happened in turkey when president erdogan also seized expanded powers of a referendum that some considered to have a questionable result? you know, president trump congratulated president erdogan

on that, and, you know, he later came to the u.s. and his people beat protesters in front of his embassy. what's the difference? >> well, i mean, one difference is you see the end of the constitution in venezuela, and this is -- this is happening obviously at an accelerated pace in recent months in the maduro regime, but this is a process that has taken two regimes to really restrict venezuelan democracy, and by designating maduro himself, he joins a very exclusive club, including mmr mr. mugabe and bashar al assad and in this case the abrigation of the constitution with the assembly, constituent assembly. >> right here, yes. >> right here. >> is the administration contemplating any action at the u.n. security council in terms

of multi-lateral sanctions against the maduro regime? >> as we've said before, this president is not going to advertise what he's going to do in the future, so all options are on the table, and we will consider everything. >> allies of the u.s., in terms of punishing the maduro regime, general, can you please answer that >> i'm sorry, what was the question >> have you spoken to any other american allies about the issue of punishing --? >> you see in the president's statement we'll continue to work with our partners in the region, and there's many leaders who have taken a very important role in this connection trying to engage maduro to try to moderate his behavior and get him to protect the rights of his people as you know, the organization of american states has tried very hard in this area as well, and so -- so the president is committed to working with partners in the region on behalf of the venezuelan people. >> and we -- we had several countries last week join us in our sanctions. >> right here.

>> what conversations, second mnuchin, have you had or the president had had with president maduro or at the senior level and do you expect the conversations to happen over the next 24 to 48 hours? >> i think we're not going to contact on that. >> thank you, sir. you had said before -- pardon me, the president had promised strong and swift economic sanctions. this is not really economic. this is more individual. will the president carry out strong and swift economic sanctions? >> again, we had a series of sanctions last week. this is an additional sanction today. we don't comment on future sanctions, but we will continue to monitor the situation and determine what's appropriate. >> secretary mnuchin. >> right here. >> there was talk of maybe making changes in terms of our export of light crude oil to venezuela or curbing venezuelan oil imports. is that still on the table, or is that something that would be seen as hurting the venezuelan people >> let me just say as we continue to monitor the situation, we will continue to

review all of our options. our objective is not to do anything that hurts the people of venezuela, but let me just say we will continue to monitor all of our specific options. >> and would sanctions against oil hurt the venezuela people? >> i won't comment on that we'll monitor all of our options. >> thank you, mr. secretary. 16 years ago secretary powell signed an agreement in south america in which the u.s. completely ruled out support of coups that would have an indirect change of government throughout latin america and support a direct succession. this occurred in haiti when presidentariti president aristide was overthrown are you still abiding by the agreement secretary powell signed and ruling out any u.s. support of a coup or an uprising against a maduro regime that brings in new leadership >> again, i'm just going to comment on we are focused on the

democratic process, and that's what we're focused on right now. we'll take one more question right here one more question. >> are there going to be sanctions on the minister of defense or people linked to the military >> again, as i've said, we've announced sanctions. we will continue to monitor the situation and consider everything in the future thank you, everybody appreciate it. >> you guys wasted all your questions on the same one over and over just kidding, tough crowd today. i know it's a little late, and then we're used to doing the briefing, so i'll just have a few updates before i get to your questions. i wanted to make sure you are all aware that last week the first lady announced that she will lead the united states delegation in support of the more than 90 american athletes competing at the invictus games in toronto, canada, this september. as the president often says, there's no better representative for the united states than the first lady, and he's very proud

to have her leading the team that will support these american athletes the first lady is very much looking forward to her first solo international trip, and her office is available to answer any questions that you may have. as you know, the vice president is overseas on a three-country visit to eastern europe. he spent the last few days in estonian attending meetings and speaking to multi-national troops participating in nato-enhanced president's forward mission where he recognizes estonia as one of five nato member states that meets its defense spending obligations. earlier today the vice president and second lady arrived in georgia where they attended a dinner hosted by the prime minister, and as the vice president continues to strengthen our relationships with our friends and allies in europe during his travels, here at home the departments of commerce and energy welcomed news of a partnership between american energy and the government of ukraine. ukraine state-owned power generation company will purchase american thermal coal ahead of

the upcoming winter season this. partnership will provide ukraine with a secure, reliable and competitive reliable energy source helping to stabilize an energy supply which has historically been at the mercy of the country's volatile neighbors this announcement will also boost our own economy, supporting jobs in the coal and transportation industries as the trump administration continues to move our country down the new path of energy dominance, we hope to see more mutually beneficial partners like this in the future lastly, i know we all saw the ceremony that just ended in the east room and specialist five mcclue is in a.r.-wards but i think his heroics story bears repeating again. for 48 harrowing hours of close combat fighting in vietnam he voluntarily risked his life multiple times to protect his comrades even after shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade slashed open the back of his body from head to foot he continued to answer the pleas of his fellow soldiers even carrying one to safety on his own badly injured back

as one of his comrades recalled, the medic could count on him the president was honored to award him with the medal of honor today, officially adding his name to the list of american heros will will stand forever in our history for their bravery and unbreakable spirit with that i'll take your questions. >> sarah. >> sarah, sarah. >> what happened, sarah? what happened? >> this is kind of fun how long will you yell jim, go ahead. >> is anthony scaramucci still in the administration? does he have another role besides communications director and can you talk a little bit about the circumstances of his departure this morning >> does not have a role at this time in the trump administration and we put out a statement earlier announcing that, and i don't have much else to add. >> when you say -- did general kelly ask him to leave, or did the president ask him to leave did he volunteer his resignation or how did that come about >> i'm not going to get into the

process. tic -- tick tock, what maertsd most us to is not who is played in the white house but who is employed in the rest of the country and we're focused on the president's agenda of growing the economy and creating jobs and that's what we're going to do and be focused on >> john? >> was it a chain of command issue because scaramucci said that he had a direct line of communication to the president there's been some speculation that general kelly may try to tighten up the number of inputs that the president has so was it something about the chain of command, or did it have anything to do with the interview that scaramucci gave last week? >> look, the president certainly felt that anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person in that position, and he didn't want to burden general kelly also with that line of succession as i think we've made clear over the course of the last couple of days to several of you individually, but general

kelly has the full authority to operate within the white house and all staff will report to him. >> when you say didn't want to burden him with that line of succession, you mean the chain of command >> yeah, correct. >> and if you could clarify one point about this chain of command. apparently jared kushner, ivanka trump said they look forward to following general kelly's lead when it comes to the people who have access to the president, will that conduit be narrowed down now will everything flow through kelly, or will some things still flow around the chief of staff office >> the president has given full authority to general kelly and he'll make those determinations. >> april. >> sarah this, statement that you -- that was released by the white house says mr. scaramucci felt that it was best to give the chief of staff john kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team you just said the president felt that his comments were inappropriate. >> i don't see those as being mutually exclusive i think anthony wants general kelly to be able to operate

fully with a clean slate, build his own team while at the same time the president felt his comments were appropriate. those two things aren't mutually exclusive. >> and a follow-up, with the new hierarchy with general kelly, tell us what it looks like in this administration? >> you know, as we've laid out general kelly i think will bring a new structure to the white house and discipline and strength, and we're all really excited to work with him and in terms of it, i'm not going to draw out an org chart up here. >> steve bannon, kellyiane, everyone reports under him instead of going straight to the president to the president does every special assistant go to general kelly first >> i think i've been clear that general kelly has the full authority to carry out business as he sees fit. >> john decker. >> real quick, first, two for you, real quick one regards sean spicer will he be in the administration in any way now that anthony scaramucci has announced thatty had will not be a part of the trump administration >> i'm not air way of any changes that have been made on

that front. >> and then my second one is this ten days ago anthony scaramucci was introduced as the new white house communications director. ten days later he's out of a job. the president announced on twitter that there's no chaos at the white house. how would you describe what has happened over olt course of the past ten days? obviously you will agree with your boss, the president, there's no chaos, but how do you explain that not to be the case. >> >> i think it's pretty simple if you want to see kay yorks come to my house with pre-schoolers, this doesn't hold a candle to that. >> just to be clear, that's not an open invitation to come to my house. but if you -- if you guys want to schedule baby-sitting time, i'll be happy to work that out >> does the president regret hiring anthony scare mutual? >> i'm not going to get anything beyond what i've already said. >> you said you don't want to get into the process but you already d.the statement says that scaramucci felt, so you're basically laying this hon him.

you're saying it was his decision was it his decision? >> i think i've been pretty clear that the president felt it was inappropriate. both anthony and general kelly also i think came to a mutual agreement and we're moving forward to focus on the jobs outside of this building and not within it. >> mike? >> two questions one on this and then a different topic. just to clarify because i want to make sure i understand the word he, you said a minute ago he didn't want to burden general kelly also with that line of succession the he -- >> the president. >> that's the president. >> so you were saying that it's the president who is deciding that -- >> look, we all serve at the pleasure of the president, but i think that this was a mutually agreed conversation that took place between several people. >> stephen. >> oh, sorry, another topic. >> on russia andrussia sanctions. do you know whether the president has or intends to soon sign the russia sanctions bill, and why hasn't the president taken the opportunities he's had today, several public

opportunities, to say something in response to vladimir putin's retaliation with the 755 diplomats? >> you know, so, we put out a statement over the weekend stating the president's intent to sign, and we'll let you know when that takes place. >> about what happened today >> again, we'll let you know when that's going to happen and in terms of your second question, the follow-up -- >> why hasn't he taken the opportunity to say something forceful to president putin? i've talked to folks today who said it's kind of striking the silence from the president, you know, with -- with no sort of response out of his own mouth? he had a couple of opportunities to say something about it, and he didn't. >> right now we're reviewing our options and when we have something to say on it we'll let you know. >> not to beat a dead horse but to go back to april's question. >> why not, that's our favorite thing in here. >> you said all staff will report to the new chief of staff, does that include jared kushner and steve bannon, everyone reports to kell >> everybody at the white house. >> and i wanted to ask something

about tax reform will the administration support the version of tax overhaul that comes out of ways and means committee? >> we're working hand in glove, we put out a joint statement with the big six and will continue to work with them hand announce details as they come forward. >> thank you, sarah. when sean spicer resigned, it was for a clean slate. now that anthony scaramucci resigned, that's also for a clean slate. has the slate been totally cleaned at this point? should we expect any more staff shake-ups? everybody else in senior staff positions is planning to remain for this time? >> yes, they are. >> john. >> thank you, sarah. do you very brief questions. is there any chance you will just leave the job of communications director alone having had two people who held it leave rather abruptly in both cases? >> we'll let you know when we have any personnel announcements to make on that front. second question. >> the other thing i wanted to ask is when the president made his speech to the police officers on friday, almost

within minutes statements came from police chiefs across the country criticizing his remarks that seemed to endorse the use of force by police in certain arrests. was the president joking when he said this, or did he check his remarks out with the international association of police chiefs, or maybe the attorney general >> i believe he was making a joke at the time. >> trey? >> to be clear, because the statement says that anthony scare mutually is no longer with the administration was scaramucci fired by the president, or was he asked to resign >> again, i'm not going to get into anything beyond what i've already said on that. >> from the president's perspective, you said this was a back-and-forth conversation. can you take us through a little bit what the president is looking for in his communications shop and why he might make this decision to make a clean slate. >> i think that he wants to work with general kelly in the communications team that is intact right now and determine

what the best course forward is at this point. noah. >> on reports that attorney general sessions is being considered for homeland security chief, are they accurate how soon will that search be complete howessential is it for the white house to fill that in a quick manner >> there are no conversations about any cabinet members moving in any capacity, and the president has 100% confidence in all members of his cabinet. >> two questions for you one on the scaramucci issue. you said the president found his remarks inappropriate. obviously the president is not a stranger to salty language can you specify what he found inappropriate or disturbing? >> he found it inappropriate for a person in that position. >> to do what? >> i believe the comments that he made, he found those comments inappropriate. i'm not sure what's unclear. >> is it a betrayal sort of the rest of the staff? you talk about the messaging being important for the important here and obviously the head of the communications department is crucial to that effort so just trying to figure out what exactly went wrong when

scaramucci was here and this afternoon? >> again, i don't think it's complicated to understand that the president felt the comments were inprimpt i can't reappropr. i can't explain it any further or what's happened. >> on north korea, there's been discussion from outside analysts who are increasingly speculating about the possibility of a first strike is the that an option on the table for white house? >> as we've said many times before, the president is not going to broadcast any decisions but all options are on the table. >> sarah, peter. >> thank you, sarah. the president week before last signed an executive order on infrastructure does that mean that the president has no -- not no intention but is not going to prioritize working with congress on an infrastructure bill? is there any discussion at this point of moving forward on any sort of legislative plans for infrastructure, especially digital since he -- >> the president has been very

outspoken on the need for a massive overhaul to the country's infrastructure system and certainly still a priority, both legislative and non-any capacity that he has the ability to carry that out. >> matthew. >> thanks, sarah kind of big picture here we've seen the chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, handful of communications directors, press secretary and national security advicer aser haul leav the first six months in this administration can you tell us why there's been all the turbulence i know you don't like to get into the process and all those things together what's going on? >> we're continuing to focus on the president's agenda we'll have staff changes we let you know when they happen, but like i said earlier, what matters to us are not the jobs that are within this building but the ones outside of there. that's why the president has been so focused on growing jobs. we've -- over a million new jobs since he took of course, the lowest unemployment in the last 16 years, consumer confidence at an all-time high we're focuses on creating a

strong economy and groping jobs outside of this building, not focuses on the ones within we'll continue to do that. >> hon health care if i may. >> sure. >> nick mulvaney said the white house doesn't want any votes in the senate until they are voting on health care with john mccain out, pence out of the country, they don't appear likely to vote on health care and you guys are also pushing for the conformation of nominees is it the white house position they will accept the senate voting on non-health care things over the next few weeks and months >> we're continuing to push forward hope flip with the repeal and replacement of obamacare. we've never been shy about that, and we're going to continue to do that. >> alexis. >> the president's legislative affairs director was talking today at the museum about the president's tax reform ambitions, and i wanted to ask if you can elaborate on the president's hope to travel in august to begin to talk about tax cuts and tax reform and his interest in maybe getting some democratic senators interested

in supporting legislation. do you have any details that you can supply about where he might go and the message he wants to impart >> not at this time, but certainly i will make sure i keep you guys posted on the president's travel and schedule throughout august and, no, he does hope to have a large amount of support for tax reform. it's something that is vital to our economy and something certainly the administration is very focused on and has been and will continue working both with the house and senate as well as members of the administration. we're cutting it a little close on time. >> why was the president joking about police brutality, sir? >> sarah huckabee sanders in the white house press briefing today with a very large el nant in the room that was ignored for the first 20 minutes or so of the news conference but then, of course. >> most of the questions were focused on anthony scare mitch works fired whom did he resign? she didn't really give any specifics. >> right. >> she did say that the president did feel that his

comments to the "new yorker" were inappropriate in his role and that they wanted to give a clean slate to general kelly is something she reiterated from her statement. she said three times that the white house is focused on jobs outside the white house instead of inside the white house >> indeed, and if you're just joining us, we had a record day for the dow today, the industrial average closing out the month of july, up 60 points at 21,891. the other major averages were negative today let's get all of this with jimmy petrocukous, not just from anthony scaramucci and as much as we can know since we're not here. >> during the press conference there were published reports saying the new chief of staff fired scaramucci about 9:30 this afternoon. it matters who the

communications director is more importantly it matters, is this going to be the pivot to a more orderly less chaotic, even the president said it's not chaotic, a more orderly focused white house and a more orderly and focused donald trump if the that's -- if this is day one of that, that's far more important than the nate of anthony scare mutually >> and it comes up in the wall street research notes, whether there's reaction or not, in the dollar or not or stocks or not, clearly a subject of interest as we try to figure out what the agenda looks like. jimmy, sarah huckabee sanders, the press secretary, brushed off with a joke the idea that the white house was in chaos and come to my house and you'll see three pre-schoolers and that's what chaos looks like. is the white house more or less chaotic given this firing of anthony scaramucci or resignation of scaramucci ten days after he began? >> listen, it's clearly this is not a focused white house which is the very reason that they

decided to bring in john kelly that is proof that this -- that this white house was not on the right path we're sitting here at the beginning of august. they don't have health care. there's currently no tax plan. they are meeting ton and there is no plan, and this is also an administration that was promising people they were going to come out of the gate and stun us with the amount of legislation they were going to get passed so clearly something had to change, and if you're investing right now and you're wondering, gee, i -- are we ever going to get this tax plan, like an infrastructure plan, i think they -- i think that is mildly encouraging that apparently kelly has some authority to bring down the hammer. >> however, in the meantime though, two incredibly important geopolitical stories unfolding with north korea firing an icbm and now the situation in venezuela continuing to deteriorate and clearly at the beginning of the news conference they tried to deal with those, but, you know, again, the

elephant in the room was sucking up all the oxygen there. we've got to make some progress on those two important stories, i think you agree, obviously. >> you know with the spicer news and the scaramucci interview, people kept e-mailing and telling me what is going to happen with this administration if it actually faces a big crisis, whether it's a foreign policy crisis or a financial crisis like we saw in 2008 is this the kind of white house that has its act together enough that they can deal with, you know, with a real crisis, and i think people are concerned about that and that were concerned about that are going to feel better john kelly chief of staff now being shown that he can start herding the cats a little bit. >> all right let's bring in our kayla tausche who stepped out of the white house press briefing room and is outside the white house now. your impressions of what you saw

the last hour or so. >> reporter: bill, there was some surprise it was only 15 minutes of questions to sarah huckabee sanders of course, as you saw, the briefing opened with secretary mnuchin and mr. mcmaster, h.r. mcmaster, talking about these sanctions that are in place now on venezuela's head of state down there that took quite some time. of course, a very important issue, but then the white house press secretary sarah sanders was talking about scaramucci specifically and said that it was the comments in the "new yorker" that were inappropriate for someone in his position. take a listen to exactly how she answered the question about why the president felt that scaramucci could no longer do the job. >> the president certainly felt that anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person in that position, and he didn't want to burden general kelly

also with that line succession as i think we've made clear a few times over the course of the last couple of days to several of you individually you but general kelly has the full authority to operate within the white house and all staff will report to him. >> all staff will report to him. that is different than under reince priebus, the previous chief of staff certainly a step change that perhaps general kelly had requested in taking this job as for anthony scaramucci, sanders was asked whether he would be taking a different role in the administration because previously he had been serving as the chief strategy officer and senior vice president at the export import bank, so she was asked whether he would be returning to that role or perhaps taking another role as he had also been reported to be doing, and she said he does not have a role at this time, but that was not a statement that seemed to rule out him taking a job within the administration somewhere else in the future but remains to be seen whether in fact he'll do that and then responding to reports of potential chaos at the white house with so much personnel

turnover in the first six months of the administration, she laughed it off and said come to my house where i have three pre-schoolers, doesn't hold a candle toll what i have going on at home, speaking about what's going on at the white house, so certainly she had some levity at the briefing but some questions still to be answered about the departure of anthony scaramucci and exactly what's going on within the west wing right now. >> she did clarify the pre-schoolers statement and sailed don't actually come to my house. >> our kayla tausche at the white house after the briefing joining us with reaction on scaramucci's exit, jennifer palmieri, the former obama administration white house communications director. has the article here on politico jennifer, your reaction to the abrupt firing here of anthony scaramucci i don't know if we can call that a firing we didn't get that answered definitively and how far that goes to restoring some sort of sense of non-chaos to this white house so they can actually get back to the legislative agenda.

>> i'm not sure if you can call it a firing because i don't think he ever officially started. >> right. >> and -- in peloton position but as far as it goes, it's a positive sign for general kelly that he was given the authority to do this and that he -- and that all the white house staff are reporting to him and that's something that reince priebus didn't have. i was white house communications director under obama but i've worked for seven different chiefs of staff between clinton and obama, and it is important that the -- that the -- that the chief of staff, that all of the staff do report through him and even successful chief of staffs are not able to maintain the manner in which the president operates so to date every staff member in some way has been undermined by president trump so we'll just have to see if kelly can change the person he is. that seems like a difficult charge to do, but giving him this authority is, you know, i

would acknowledge it is something different, and it's something that a chief of staff definitely needs to have. >> would you want the job? >> oh, my god, no. >> the communications director job? >> i think that's a very, very harvard -- it's a very hard thing for someone to do because with this president who, you know, likes to live within his own set of facts, that the communications director's job and dealing with the press, it's -- that is where the rubber meets the road, right? that's where the reality and the facts that the press want to engage in come into conflict with the way president trump sees the world and what he wants the press to report on. >> all right. >> so it is -- it's not a place that -- a job that's really set up for success in this particular white house tough role. >> jennifer, thanks for coming in and for your comments former white house director of communications and, of course,

was director of communications for the hillary clinton campaign as well. >> jimmy pethokoukis, thanks so much >> flying high, that describes not only boeing's planes but boeing's stock up next a bull-bear debate. >> on the hottest stock on wall street. >> really, it's been driving the dow. it's been a tremendous run-up and somewhat a surprise winner t d sfath yr.ofheowo r isea we'll be right back. because, when you really, really want to be there, but you can't. at cognizant, we're helping today's leading media companies create more immersive ways to experience entertainment with new digital systems and technologies. get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital.

(upbeat dance music) (dance music abruptly stopping) (dance music starting then stopping) (upbeat dance music) (upbeat dance music) (bell ringing)

oh, by the way, pandora is out with earnings. julia boorstin, how did they do? >> well, pandora's shares are now trading up about 3.5%, making up for declines earlier in the day during the trading day the stock was down about 5.5%, and they are making up from the losses on quarterly results that beat expectations revenue coming in $9 million better than expected at $377 million, while the company reported an adjusted loss of 21 cents per share. that's three cents better than expect pedestrian, but the company subscribers, 4.6 million was half had a million lighter than projected and listener hours awere optimizing profitability and our ad supported business, and they say total listener hours were 5.22 billion for the quarter compared

to 5.66 billion for the same quarter in the year earlier. we will be listening carefully for the company's outlooks which will come on its earnings call at 5:00 p.m. eastern back over to you >> all right, julia. thank you. with the stock up almost 4% here in the after hours in the meantime speaking of hot stocks, boeing helping the dow soar to record highs earlier today. the stock has been up for seven straight sessions. it's responsible for 29% of the dow's entire gains so far this year. >> so is it time for investors to buy or sell boeing? you know we like to ask that question joining us is josh sullivan and john blank from zach's investment research. john, what do you think? >> bill, i'm a big-time bear on this stock t.$240 a share, $10 share earning, a 24 pe you've got the s&p 500 which is rich to begin with at 17.7

this stock is way out of control. most of it has come, as you already mentioned the last seven or eight days, if not the last year take this back a year, it's up 100% way too rich the earnings on consensus have been priced in fully i'm a seller i'm a seller, and i'm a shorter even i would take this thing down to 1180 before i'd get interested. >> before we get to josh, my, i wanted to ask you, it does feel like there's a confluencech events that are lining up for boeing it had good results at least on the profit side of things, orders look strong in inldia which is always pretty bullish the dollar weakens and weakens, a big beneficiary. >> there's exposure that boeing has, the overall aerospace and defense group has been strong, so all those things working together it did seem to take on the last few days a little bit of a feel of a buying panic. just because it's a blue chip performing very well and then the technicians, the chart folks say, look, this has great momentum so i do think you have to look for any one of those factors to maybe fall away and

recognize that there's really a lot going right for boeing and probably not all going to last, at least as this trajectory, right? >> josh, we've sort of teed it up for you clearly it has been a stellar performer this year, and accounted, as i mentioned earlier, more than 200 points for the dow just in the last week or so, but has it gone too far to fast? >> absolutely not. boeing is a cash flow story, and they are delivering on that. you know, you're looking at q2 was a watershed moment in cash flow increased guidance by 14% as they deliver on all the themes that they have been executing on, and what's driving that is the margin profile they are looking to get to mid-teens margins over the next couple of years. we're at -- boeing commercial aircraft was at 10% this quarter. the defense group was at 13% which was a record, but as we drive towards mid-teens this will generate even more cash flow and this is a cash flow story, so as boeing just executes on all of the themes,

next generation aircraft, cost control, they will continue to march the mar egyptian up and cash flow will continue to increase actually why we're most excited about the chart and what people chart us and people not in the weeds and not paying attention, boeing is standing up the services group actually stood it up july the 1st and this is the next leg for the company. this is boeing getting deeper into the services, and these are higher margin businesses this morning they started talking about an avionics sector they will start working more on software, so as far as growing that, right now it's about 14 bill crop. they are talking about growing that to 50 billion over the next five years a whole new leg to the story and every incremental sale there is actually at a higher margin, so we see a lot of room to run in e-cash flow which is what boeing is based on on the validation of why investors are rewarding it and even from a valuation perspective. look at honeywell and ge and all the mega caps, boeing goes higher so as the services group ramps up, we see plenty of

runway in boeing and fully support a $300 price target and potentially above that as they execute. >> historical valuation, it is elevated, but it sounds like it's a mix of execution in the cycle. >> definitely elevated i will agree that these aerospace, the industrial conglomerates group are a favorite, but that doesn't mean that -- that they haven't already accounted for a lot of the good news, so that's what you never really know. look, boeing is at 56% year to date i think that that probably represents people recognizing a lot that have margin story and a lot of the other things people are pretty sure will happen over the next couple of years. >> we immediate to go. before crowded out for obvious reasons. josh, john, thank you both would love to talk more about it, but we've got to move on at this point. >> did we introduce mike >> yeah. >> you're mike stoly >> i felt introduced. >> always great to have you with us. >> good upstaged by the press secretary, as all of us did. >> in case you haven't heard,

discovery communications winning the battle for scripps ned works to the tune of nearly $12 billion. will one giant network hoping to appeal to younger viewers be enough to combat cord-cutting, or will it put forth its own bundle directly to csuonmers that intriguing question as we explore it coming up swing. huh? don't you mean dad kind of ruined our hawaii fund? i thud go to the thothpital. there goes the airfair. i don't think health insurance will cover all... of that. buth my fathe! without that cash from - aflac! - we might have to choose between hawaii or your face. hawaii! what? haha...hawaii! you might have less coverage than you think. visit aflac.com and keep your lifestyle healthy. aflac!

will one giant network hoping to

the big merger of the day, discovery announcing it will be acquiring scripps network, va e valued around $11.9 billion. the ceo was on cnbc earlier today with comments on discovery's plans to incorporate this new programming. >> the question for us is do we take food and home and garden, and travel, all of this i.p., do

we take it on channels around the world? or do we sell it directly? >> joining us now to give his take on this merger, former discovery president and general manager, john ford john, nice to see you. thank you for joining us on this discussion >> thank you. >> what is the big overarching threat here for these two? and how does this deal position them to deal with it >> well, i actually think the big threat is off to the side right now and that's going to be the f.a.n.g. companies facebook, apple, netflix, google, all of their content plays. they're spending billions of dollars and a lot in unscripted that competes directly with discovery and the scripps companies and that's been a real, real problem here we have an opportunity, i think, with this merger, forsav. condolences to the people who are going to be laid off to the achieve $350 million in overhead cost savings they've projected condolences there. after that's done, i think one thing to do is to think about

doubling down on your investment in content ta david talked about taking content and channels all over the world. content is still king and people -- >> right. >> -- outside the cable sphere are investing aggressively in it boy, netflix is in the marketplace spending money like crazy. they've built up a big unscripted library you have to take that competition seriously and the only way to meet it is to double down >> but how do you deliver that content, then? you know, david -- i mean, the prevailing wisdom is they do this deal so they have enough leverage to deal with the skinny bundling that's going to be going on here so you have the leverage to deal with the cable companies so that they will include your channels in those skinny bundles but then david told our david faber that he can create his own skinny bundle and sell it for $10 a month or something like that. is that a likely possibility, does that make sense to you? >> i think it can make sense one of the things i would think about, though, is maybe they join with some of the a&e networks, history, lifetime, a&e

channel and others to form a larger group of non-sports networks that can create maybe a not so skinny bundle at a price point that makes sense and can be anywhere from $4.99, $15.99, depending what you have in there. the thing david is focus on, rightly so, trying to get away from the very, very high cost relatively low circulation sports networks. espn at 6 bucks an hour per subscriber, makes it coustly for those who don't use the service all the time i'm a big fan of espn. trying to find allies to go forward with him to create skinny bundles of content that will work with consumers they have to get out there and try different types of channels, differen different groups of channels and different price points to see what consumers want. >> john, you probably recognize the conventional wisdom the type of programming discovery and

scripps is not necessarily the kind of must have right now occasion type viewing. it's kind of backgroundviewing or check in whenever you like. does that make it a harder sell, you think, direct to the consumer and say pay me $5non-ss stuff? >> when you look, there's really a high degree of viewer engagement with these brands food has really high engagement. hd tv's audience is incredibly loyal. it's women 25 to 54. they watch a lot they come back frequently. and when they watch, they watch for a lot of times it's a very loyal audience similarly, discovery has brands, discovery channel focuses more on men men is a more fickle audience than women on average, other things equal things like shark week, "gold rush," "naked and afraid." very strong series that are mall n magnets to the 25 to 54, 18 to

24 audience, really are strong they have to make sure they continue to see that the importance of investing that content, don't strip in that area save everywhere else you can so you can build compelling content that people will watch >> all right john ford, thank you so much always good to see you. >> thank you. >> appreciate it >> thanks. >> we should note discovery was the worst performing constituent today down 9%. apple is out tomorrow with earnings after the bell. lucky me wel evw osrelt next

stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and. so that's the idea. what do you think? hate to play devil's advocate but... i kind of feel like it's a game changer. i wouldn't go that far. are you there? he's probably on mute. yeah... gary won't like it. why? because he's gary. (phone ringing) what? keep going! yeah... (laughs) (voice on phone) it's not millennial enough. there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you! so we're doing it. yes! start saying yes to your company's best ideas. let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open. your insurance on time. tap one little bumper,

and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance.

i don't know, we were having a pretty good conversation during commercial, going to do that instead of this let's do this, anyway. big earnings week tomorrow we get the results after the bell from apple then wednesday, brings us the numbers from aig and tesla. look at all the reports coming out. >> underarmour tomorrow. >> underarmour tomorrow. stocked up big today felt like there was short covering going on in general underarmour up about 5%. apple, of course -- >> the second best performer in the dow after boeing. >> absolutely. >> and for the year. so we'll see if it can keep it going. >> if there's a pause in iphone sales ahead of the next generation. >> i think everything, it's about the coming quarter or two, as opposed to what they're going

to report for the past one everywhere is puzzling over what does this upgrade cycle look like >> right. >> just because the install base is so huge is it going to be this mad rush? when are they going to deliver them >> a jobs report on friday. >> by the way -- gee, what a fun day this was let's do it again tomorrow, shall we we'll all be here tomorrow "fast money" begins right now. "fast money" starts now live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square, i'm melissa lee. traders on the desk, tim seymour, karen finerman, guy adami. tonight on "fast," it's been a rough week for tech and rich ross says it's about to get a lot worse. he'll explain what he's looking at. plus snapchat sinking to a new low as the shareholder lockup expires there's one thing that could save the stock from massive selling. we've got all those details. later, oil having its best month since april of 2016. the commodities, dennis garvin says the rally is just getting