they're fired, they're fired. i'm the chief of the staff. i don't care whether scaramucci has a problem with steve bannon tooting his own horn, or whatever he said about self-promotion. number two, you have to get off twitter, period. you're done. your twittering days are done. twitter goes through me or staff. and number three, you got to stop attacking a decorated combat marine named robert mueller. i don't believe a man like john kelly who lost his son in the marine corps is going to go for these attacks on robert mueller. >> shortly after the word came in that priebus is out, he spoke with cnn in his first interview with wolf blitzer. look the at what he said. >> why did you resign? i understand you told the president you wanted to resign. he accepted it yesterday. why? were there a series of issues or is there one thing that came up and you decided i no longer can do this?

>> no. look, i think the president wanted to go a different direction. i support him in that. and like i said a couple weeks ago, i said the president has a right to change directions. the president has a right to hit a reset button. i think it's a good time to hit the reset button. i think he was right to hit the reset button, and i think it was something that i think the white house needs. i think it's healthy. and i support him in it. >> was he not happy with the direction you were setting? >> no, but look, i think bringing fresh people is a good thing. so, look, he has the best political instincts. he's -- hang on a second. he knows, i think, intuitively when things need to change. i've seen it on the wild ride with the president that i loved being a part of, but he

intuitively determined it was time to do something differently. and i think he's right. >> but it's only been six months, not very long when you say he wanted to do things differently, tell us precisely what he said to you, why he wants to do things differently and why you concluded that didn't include you. >> look, i'm not going to get into that personal stuff. the president is a professional, and i'm a professional, and professional people don't discuss private conversations in public. >> when was the first idea you had that your time as the white house chief of staff was over? >> i'm not going to get into that. i have a very close relationship with the president. i'm going to continue to have a close relationship with the president, and out of respect for him, i'm not going to get into our own private conversations. but i'll put it at this. i think change is good. he wanted to go a different direction. i support him in that. and i look forward to working with general kelly over the next couple of weeks. >> what was the impact of the

new white house communications director, scaramucci. you saw the article in the new yorker magazine. he called you awful things. he said your days were numbered. he said you were about to leave. at one point he said priebus, reince priebus would resign soon, and that he expected priebus to launch a campaign against him. what was your reaction when you saw that interview? >> no reaction, because -- i'm not going to respond to it. i'm not going to get into the mud on those sorts of things. look, the president and i had an understanding. we've talked about this many times. and we ultimately decided that yesterday was a good day and we would work together. i think general kelly is a great pick. i'm not going to get into the weeds on this. i support what the president did, and obviously, i think it's a good thing for the white house. >> can you just clear up the other charge? it was a bitter charge that scaramucci levelled against you,

that you're a leaker, and that you're really not that loyal to the president. you've got your own agenda. he makes a bitter accusation against you, specifically the leaking. are you the leaker in the white house? >> that's ridiculous, wolf. give me a break. i'm not going to get into his -- >> why not respond to him this. >> because i'm not going to. it doesn't honor the president. i'm going to honor the president every day. i'm going to honor his agenda and honor our country. and i'm not going to get into all of this personal stuff. so -- >> is there a leaking problem in the white house based on what you've seen? >> yeah, i think general kelly should see if he can figure it out. but obviously unnamed sources are something that's been problematic, and i wish him well, and i'm going to try to help him. obviously that's going to be on his plate. i hope he can get to the bottom of it. >> because scaramucci is suggesting the fbi should get involved in that investigation. you agree with him on that? >> i'm not going to respond to

that. this is about the president. i answered your questions. i support his decision to hire john kelly, and i'm looking forward to the future. >> zeleny and sara murray at r at the white house. priebus clearly has his version of events saying the president wants to go in a different direction. how much of that is in sync with what you're hearing from your sources and others? >> reporter: the broad outlines are largely the same, at least to the point where priebus said he gave his resignation, and the president seaccepted it. priebus wanted to stay in this job for a year. and he wanted to try and get things back on track. the agenda back on track to try to unite the republican party. he had a goal and a vision of trying to do that under this president, but the reality here is that the president over the last week, perhaps longer, sent signals that he did not want reince priebus around.

so for the chief of staff, reince priebus to say there was -- he submitted his resignation privately last evening and it was accepted. that's not how other white house officials are describing it. reince started the morning out thinking he could weather the storm here, and thinking that anthony scaramucci's vulgar language would actually do him in and he could outlast this. that didn't happen, obviously. look, at the end of the day, i think reince priebus knew he would not be a chief of staff for the whole four years of this presidency. the first term, but he hoped he would be it for a little bit longer. anderson, right before that interview we're told he had another meeting with the president inside the oval office. a one on one meeting. so it looks like they still had some discussing to do. for someone who said he resigned last night, it still seemed to be pretty fresh and raw and surprising to many people here at the white house.

>> the people you spoke to at the white house, what do they say about why reince priebus didn't succeed? >> i think first and foremost is that the president lost confidence in him and saw him as weak. he did not see him as a strong leader. he did not see him as someone who was in his mold, if you will, and i think that if you talk to people on the priebus side, and other white house chiefs of staff who he has talked to and they offered advice, this is a difficult president to be the chief of staff to. he talks to so many people late at night. he's up at all hours, watching television, he's tweeting. that's not a normal thing for a president. i think at the end of the day, one of the reasons he didn't succeed is because reince priebus was more of a traditional model. he was more of a mainstream establishment model, if you will. he didn't end up gelling with the president, and for the last several weeks, maybe even months, the president viewed him as staff, not chief at all. >> all right.

jeff, thanks. let's get more from sara murray. priebus is saying he resigned yesterday. he also made a public appearance with the president today. was that always the plan? >> reporter: well, that was one of the bizarre things about this story, if you resigned as chief of staff yesterday, why would you then get on air force one and accompany the president and be photographed getting on air force one and joining him, and we actually were told that originally reince priebus was not planning on going on this trip today. and then as there were questions brewing about what his future would be as chief of staff, whether he was on the way out the door, his allies jumped to his defense and said look, of course reince priebus isn't going anywhere. in fact, he's even going to be accompanying the president on his trip to new york. that's an indication they're still doing work and priebus is safe in his job. obviously, that was not the case. the first indication from the president we got that priebus was officially out was when he was headed back to washington

d.c. the president sent a number of tweets. eventually he and reince priebus got in separate cars and priebus separated from the motorcade. and they med up for another meeting behind closed doors? >> it's unusual they traveled together. often chiefs of staff if the president is going overseas, he would often stay at home to continue try to move forward the president's agenda. clearly for priebus, he felt it was important to try to be in the room as much as possible with the president. >> it is unusual for a chief of staff to travel that often, but it was not unusual for this president's inner circle. one of the things that jeff mentioned is this is a president who talks to a lot of people. he gets a lot of opinions. when we say that, away don't just mean he gets a lot of opinions from his staffers and friends, but he gets a lot of opinions from the bus boys at the restaurants he's dining at, from the waiters. he'll ask anyone a opinion about

anything. in many cases that shapes his decision making process of major decisions. that's part of the reason that so many staffers stuck so close to this president. they wanted to know who he was talking to and who was shaping his world view, and as we've seen for a white house where there is so much back biting, they wanted to make sure they were protecting their own identities, their own turf within this white house. in speaking to previous chiefs of staff and people who studied the way a white house would normally operate, they said it was chief to see them together at many times for long stretches when he could have been more productive back here in the west wing. >> appreciate the update. with me now, our panel. phillip, what do you make of -- not just this week, but the last couple of hours? >> i mean, that's always the time. it's fascinating to watch the fact that the senate failed to

pass a critical measure, something that donald trump expressed repeatedly he wanted to see passed, twisted arms. apparently had his secretary of the interior call the senator from alaska and try to threaten her. that bill failed, and then we see the next day one of the last links to the republican establishment left in the white house is on his way out. we had the vice president on the floor last night. it sort of -- it's going to be fascinating to watch how a guy who sort of took over the republican party, got the nomination, ended up in the white house, and now is pushing the republican party away, thinks he's going to be successful working with congress despite having basically no ties to anyone there and no experience in doing it. >> scott, does that concern you? >> i think you wouultimately th president has to feel comfortable with him. he didn't feel comfortable with the communications apparatus. he's moved on it. you hope once you get comfortable with the people around you, you start to refocus

on the things that matter. the quarter two economic growth numbers came out, 2.6% economic growth. we talked about staff infighting and a failed health care bill. next week, i want to see people show up and say what are we going to do to improve the presidency. that's where i want to see them go. and being comfortable with your staff is a way to hopefully get there. >> the reason why they're not talking about that today, because the white house communications director whose job it is to come up with the communications strategy and make sure that information gets out there is too busy going off on rants, ranting about reince priebus and leaks, and all this going on. this has got to stop. i understand that for trump supporters and a lot of us, we want to see the country do well. we want to see the agenda as a republican, things we stand for being moved forward in congress,

but you can't do it when you have captain chaos in the white house sitting back, watching things go on with his chief of staff that would be the president trump, like it's the hunger games. hopefully now that he's brought in a general, a marine general where discipline and honor and integrity are tenets of how marines conduct themselves, that he will be allowed to perform his duties as the chief of staff and reign this in. it's not good for the country, the white house, and this level of dysfunction is no one's fault but the president. >> that's the problem. clearly a lot of us understand general kelly is extremely well respected, and he's got a lot of fans everywhere on both sides of the aisle. he's not a miracle worker. and in order for the white house to become a well-oiled streamlined machine that focuses on the messages you would like to see focussed on and other republicans as well, you would have to change trump at his core. you would have to make sure that he doesn't tweet.

so is general kelly going to wrap up his hands so he can't tweet? that's not going to happen. if that doesn't change, none of this will. >> he's a general. and if you're a general, a four-star general, nobody is higher than you than the president of the united states of america. you're used to giving orders in a rigid environment and also used to taking orders. he got up through the chain of command by listening to his commanders. this is one of the things that's been reviewed positively about his behavior in the department of homeland security. he's been very stoic about implementing -- >> and to point out, the numbers of people crossing over has dropped dramatically since trump took office. >> so he's been effective in his post. he respects the commander in chief. and he doesn't come from an environment that is used to bucking the boss or challenging

the boss in any way. which will suit trump well. isn't the same set of political skill sets honed over a lifetime that may be necessary for the west wing. and the other point is i think he probably comes into this assuming a set of -- a chain of command, and what he's going to have to figure out quickly is there are no chains of command. he's going to have to figure out how ivanka and jared kushner don't go around him and do their own thing. he's going to have to set up processes, and the president doesn't like them. >> and there's no loyalty. he's used to the military where you give an order and it's carried out. that's not the way this works. >> that was part of what doomed reince priebus from the beginning. there was no chain of command. the chief of staff position was basically ceremonial for reince this. he was e masklated from the beginning because of ivanka and jared kushner and kellyanne conway, because of steve bannon.

it was like chief of staff by committee. you can't run a white house like that. >> and don't you actually need somebody, though, that does have the ability to buck the boss, as you say? i mean, here is somebody who is the chief of staff of a president of the united states who has zero discipline. if you have a chief of staff who's going to be afraid to sit down with him and say mr. president, you cannot do this, this is bad for you, this is bad for the country, then, again, none of this is going to change. >> is that one of the jobs of the chief of staff? >> the job of the chief of staff is to run the white house in a way that most efficiently implements the president's agenda. here's what i know about marines. in addition to kicking the you know of what our enemies, they find ways to solve problems. the president has an agenda off track. we saw that with the health care bill this week, but the wisconsin jobs issue and the economic growth and the border crossings we just brought up, there are things going right. >> nobody is talking about it?

>> the problem to be solved is how do we get the white house rowing in the same direction so that people know about that and we grow what's in that canoe? that's what a marine is going to do. i have confidence in kelly. he has credibility. >> he's on twitter all the time. that's the problem. >> don't you believe that it's really the president who often steps on his own message? i mean, we're starting out a week as -- >> american hero week. >> and that's not -- >> a general as a chief of staff. that was it. >> we all understand the president sometimes tweets things that aren't on the message of the day. i get it. but that doesn't change the fact that the white house and the entirety of the federal government apparatus is powerful. if you can harness it, you can communicate and tell people, here are the good things happening and here's how we're achieving the things we said we would do. look at this week. jobs. going after gangs. these are core things trump ran

on. >> but the other things. >> nobody is talking about it. >> right, because the other things that went on this week, jared kushner testified in front of -- >> and did fine. >> yes because of russia. and then you had scaramucci and his antics. the transgender ban which he did on his own on twitter. >> right. this is trump going on and doing things. maybe they need to hire you to be communications director. you know what you're doing, and you're doing a better job than scaramucci is. >> i think ultimately a president of the united states who feels uncomfortable with the apparatus around him is proned to lashing out about it. if they're more comfortable, we may see more discipline. >> that's the point. the president of the united states has to have confidence in his right hand or the people around him. this is where general kelly comes in with the possibility of having more influence. he is respected by the president. >> we need a break. we'll continue the conversation next. also hear from the former clinton chief of staff. also still to come, less than 24

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but they say...if you love something set it free. see you around, giulia [music playing] across the country, we walk. carrying flowers that signify why we want to end alzheimer's disease. but what if, one day, there was a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor? what if there were millions of them? join us for the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's. register today at alz.org/walk. >> priens priebus is out. john kelly is the new white house chief of staff replacing priebus. joining me on the phone is leanne panetta. i spoke to him early.

>> you know secretary kelly well. what do you make of this news? >> well, you know, if john kelly who is a tough marine and somebody who strongly believes in discipline and a strong chain of command and has little tolerance for chaos, if they're willing to allow general kelly to establish greater order in the way the white house operates, then i think it could be a good thing not only for the white house but for the country. >> given that the president's family, so many people, apparently anthony scaramucci, report directly to the president can go into the oval office and have the president's ear in unique ways, i imagine establishing at least a traditional kind of chief of staff position and organization is difficult even for somebody

like general kelly. >> well, obviously that's going to be a first challenge that faces general kelly going into the white house is whether he is going to the chief of staff, or whether he's going to be one of several power centers within the white house which i think is a prescription for the kind of chaos that we've seen over these last six months. so i'm a believer that if you're going to be a chief of staff, you have to be a strong chief of staff. there can only be one chief of staff, and other people on the staff, frankly, have to report through you as chief of staff. i hope that if john kelly is going to be successful in the white house, the only way he can be successful is by establishing that kind of chain of command. >> david gergen just a little bit ago tweeted the best chiefs of staff j and you named you and jim baker, were not only good organizers but masters at

politics. do you need to have a master at politics? it goes beyond organization? >> well, obviously, having a good sense of politics in dealing particularly with capitol hill because as chief of staff in many ways, you have to speak on behalf of the president. people will call you to ask you on issues and taking steps on behalf of the president. so you do have to have that side of you. john kelly did work with the congress when he was my military aide. he's familiar with the congress. i think that kind of political experience is something that john is going to have to develop as part of his role as chiefs of staff. >> back in 2016 as a candidate donald trump said priebus that he knows better than to lecture me,ed aing, quote, we're not dealing with a five star army general. does a chief of staff have to be able to at the very least steer

him? clearly this president is kind of running his own -- he's steering the ship rightly or wrongly. does the chief of staff have to be able to say to the president, what you're going is not right? >> i think it is very important in any white house to be able to have someone like a chief of staff able to look the president in the eye and tell him when he's wrong, and tell him when he's going to make a mistake. if you don't have that kind of trusting relationship where you can speak honestly to the president, then, frankly, the president is not going to have the benefit of the kind of support system that he needs in order to be able to have a strong white house. that's going to be one of the first challenges, i think, facing john kelly, who i know

will not hesitate to tell people the truth. the real test is going to be whether he can develop that kind of relationship with donald trump. >> secretary panetta, i appreciate your time. thanks. >> you bet. back with the panel now. phillip r what's so fascinate, it's going to be fascinating to watch what happens. you cannot have more different people than general john kelly, president trump, and a lot of the folks on his -- on the inner staff of the white house, and to see how these two worlds sort of collide is going to be fascinating. >> it is. yeah. i mean, the real question is going to be can general kelly get the staff to be like the sorts of people he's used to working with, or are they so spoiled by six months of trumpiness that he's not going to be able to get them to stay on the same page? i think it's true that trump will be responsive to him. we've seen several times over the course of the campaign, he's responsive to a new person. it doesn't always stick. we'll see. the real question is can kelly actually get the troops in line

to use a very apt metaphor, and i don't know. >> general hurtling who knows general kelly well, said that he'll, quote, melt anthony scaramucci with his eyes in meetings. i mean, just seeing that combination will be interesting. >> and, in fact, i had a conversation with another general friend of mine well respected that knows kelly. and he said that if scaramucci tried that crap on him, he would punch him in the mouth. >> i think that the glimmer of hope here is we know how trump loves his generals. we know how trump loves strong men. and i don't think that priebus ever fit that mold. i don't think he ever really respected priebus. i think during the campaign when he tried to get him to drop out aft access hollywood tape, that stuck with trump -- >> if the chief of staff previously told you to drop out of the race. >> exactly.

but let's go back to the core of what a lot of people believe. it doesn't matter how great the people are around you. if the president does not change his own behavior or core values, nothing will change. and i agree, the fish rots from the head, and the head is still donald trump. >> but this white house has brought -- you have rex tillerson over at state department. obviously from the corporate world, highly respected. you have general mattis. you have mack cacmaster. but rex tillerson, it's jared kushner supposedly in charge of middle east peace. it's not sure that rex tillerson has been able to hire who he wants? >> he hasn't. that's been an area of frustration tillerson has expressed. it's been reported that tillerson is unhappy, and that he may not make it to the end of the year because of things like

this, because of the evolving trump doctrine. you don't though where he stands on foreign policy because he cannot get the people he needs in the state department. the vacancies going on right now and for schedule c political appointees across the cabinet is insane. that level of vacancy is ridiculous. the judges, the u.s. attorneys, there are a lot of things the government is not functioning well. and the cabinet secretaries aren't happy. >> internally staffing, i agree. and if he can streamline and make a more efficient the process by which they staff the government, i think the cabinet secretaries will more help in their agencies could do more. the first external political problem, we'll see how he navigates politics when they do the transgender ban. the pentagon is not ready to move on it without clear guidance. when mattis comes back, that's not just a military issue they have to deal with. it's an external political

problem. maybe he's the right person to navigate that for the president. >> we're getting word on the fate of a bill that congress passed imposing new sanctions on russia over the interference in the election. jeff is at the white house with the latest on that. jeff? >> reporter: anderson, the white house just released a statement a few moments ago saying the president will sign that russian sanctions bill. this is coming at about 9:30 on a friday evening here in the east. something the white house was not necessarily eager to do because effectively this bill ties the hands of the president. even though the white house had been discussing he's going to review it. he might consider vetoing it, the reality is this is one of the first pieces of major bipartisan legislation. it passed this week in the senate 98-2. it passed in the house 419-3. that's unheard of in this time of divided washington. the president accepted the political reality here. said he would sign this bill. it does tie his hands and weaken his hands in terms of russian

sanctions. if he wants to change any of this, congress has to give it its blessing here. but the president obviously knowing he cannot override the veto. tonight he'll sign the bill. >> it's a big change from a lot of talk about russia during the campaign. coming up, we'll talk about the other news out of washington. the vote that tanked the obama health care repeal plan. what's next for the gop and the repeal plan? "how to win at business." step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. the stage is yours.

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to the other big news tonight. how do republicans move forward on health care reform after the so-called skinny repeal was tanked by a few of their own over night. that's senator john mccain in the circle about to cast a deciding vote with a hands down j thumbs down to the senate clerk. mitch mcconnell is standing there with his arms crossed. quite a moment. is there any way for republicans to move forward, or how do republicans move forward on this? >> health care has to be addressed. regardless of whether republicans do it alone. the insurance markets need to be stabilized. chuck schumer starts --

>> but, he says that's what he's always said, which is not what he's always said. he's talking about repeal and replace. >> there's a look at the cassidy collins bill, or let the states opt into obama care that want it. and let states opt out that don't want to have it. it doesn't feel -- today felt like a funeral on capitol hill. nobody can look straight. they -- >> not among the democrats. >> i'm sorry. i am a republican. a republican who rallied for reform of the affordable care acts along the lines, where there were many ideas. it was a funeral. i don't know if lazarus is coming back from the dead. >> after how many years of running on this, and all these republicans running on this, it's incredible. >> yeah. it sucks the momentum out of -- look, the republicans have been on offense since trump won. the democrats tried to get the

momentum back in the special elections and they failed every single time. they've been seeking a moment to regain the political momentum in washington. they got it. the republicans have to now get up and move on something. is it tax reform? is it a creative idea to restart health care? they have to think about what are we selling in 2018? if it's not going to be that we fixed health care, is it going to be the economy, jobs, safety and security? if it fits in these buckets, they have to get on offense. i feel like the democrats are feeling emboldened. and republicans need to take it away. >> democrats felt relieved, and i will quote schumer, because this was not a win for democrats. it was actually something great that happened for the country. it saved millions of americans from losing their health care. what republicans need to do now is to take schumer up on his offer to work with them on actually fixing the obama care bill which is what the majority of americans want.

what was so interesting about mccain is that -- and he was one of the heros that helped topple this horrible bill. that when he went over there, his thumbs down was actually a middle finger up to donald trump, and i saw the bubble, the thought bubble saying, hero enough for you now, donald? i mean, that was a beautiful moment. >> well, with all due respect to my democrat friend, marie, here, this is not good for anyone. it's not good for america. >> that's right. >> it's not good for the middle class and families that are worrying about their health care. their insurance premiums going up. where you have a 30 % of counties that will have only one insurer. >> wait. >> major companies are -- health insurance companies are pulling out. >> so should republicans work with democrats on this to shore up -- >> okay. >> wait. >> talk. >> one at a time. >> the individual mandate. >> okay. one at a time. >> phillip. >> let me intervene here. that's not what this bill did.

this is important. donald trump came out -- you're defending the bill. >> let him finish. >> donald trump said we need to sell what this bill does. there was no bill. the bill came out two hours before the vote. all that bill tried to do was get something which the house probably would have passed. here's the thing. seven years of trying to put together a bill. >> this bill wasn't it either. >> to answer the question, what needs to happen is they need to figure out a solution to the problem. this bill was not a sincere attempt at a solution. >> it wasn't. if you let me fin issue, i was getting to that. republicans put forth something they didn't believe in in the skinny bill. whoever came up with that should be fired. they tried to rebrand it the freedom bill. that didn't work. that wasn't the solution. now that it's completely defunked, they have to start over. a lot of republicans will say the democrats didn't do that. they huddled together in back rooms and pushed through obama

care, but they did that and republicans -- they started planting the seeds to the credit of the democrats in 2006. they stacked the cbo with people that would give them the numbers they wanted so when it was time for the cbo so score the obama care stuff, they got what they wanted. >> for all the talk about democrats wanting to work together, chuck schumer said the door is open, but he had preconditions for stepping through the door. democrat are not going to let go of this and just suddenly work with republicans. >> why should they? >> as long as it's not repealed. that was his condition. that they would not work with republicans if it was going to be a complete repeal. and then starting over. why? because, again, the majority of americans agree that the obama care law should be fixed, should be made better. not completely destroyed. because right now this bill is the most popular health care

legislation -- >> as a political matter, though, and i hear -- >> no one has given them one. >> i heard chris saying this today. we had this argument in 2016, and one candidate ran on fix it, and one candidate ran on repeal it. and it wasn't just the president. it was the majority of the u.s. senate and the house, and state legislative chambers and governors across the country, and republicans won at every level. and so if a majority of americans believe that, why didn't it manifest itself politically? i don't think they do believe it. i think the republicans who reelected this government are going to be normally frustrated when they realize their party doesn't fulfill the promise. >> they control the house and senate. if they come up with a solution, mitch mcconnell could reintroduce a bill tomorrow. i want to address that last point. first of all, not to be this guy, but nationally hillary clinton got more votes if you're going to make that point.

once people saw donald trump win the election, they got worried about their health care, and the favorable of the health care spiked. >> you think people only worried about health care after the results? you don't think people thought about it when they cast their ballots? >> i don't think that. of course -- >> some? >> what i'm saying is people after they saw that obama care could be lost, that's when they started to rally to obamacare. >> i give voters more credit than that. >> and the majority of voters chose the democratic agenda on health care over the republican one. >> because the republicans didn't do -- they have not done a good job of explaining why the obamacare system is going to collapse and how. they're too busy infighting? >> this idea of just letting it fail, which the president is talking about, what does that look like? >> it's ugly. >> it's ugly and painful. but this bill is still branded to the democrats. the democrats now have some

owness on them to come to the table. and donald trump is going to continue to say obamacare is failing. and showing examples of obamacare failing. >> and helping push it. >> yeah. here's the problem with that. insurance companies ceos are the ones saying that it's because of trump and the administration injecting instability and indecision. the reason why they are not just getting out of the counties but the reason why some of the premiums are going up, because there is this indecision and in -- they are saying it. >> that's because they don't want to lose the federal government subsidies. that's why. >> in addition to that, when you take away the money to be able to tell people to sign up for obama care -- >> you mean forcing them on something they don't want. >> when you take away money for insurers to be able to offer -- >> taxpayer money, subsidizing health insurance? >> yes. >> that is what has made --

>> the whois -- >> nobody can hear you when you talk over each other. for you, okay, insurance markets, there's failing in some places, there's only one option for people. what does failing look like? do you want republicans to let this fail? >> no. this was the worst possible case scenario as a republican watching this. i was on capitol hill for seven years during the majority of the time that obamacare was being crafted and then watching it being implemented and the gnashing of teeth over what was to come and the prognostications about how it would collapse on itself. that's what we're seeing. the fact that the republicans were not able to coalesce around just basic things with getting rid of the individual mandate. finding an affordable way. ronald reagan said no one should be without health care because of finances. that was a ronald reagan thing. you're telling me republicans couldn't figure out a way to work together to come up with a plan to do this?

it's frustrating we're at that point. >> here's what failure looks like to the average family. you're sitting here with a supposed insurance policy. my premiums have gone up every year. my deductibles have gone up to the point where it doesn't feel like i have insurance at haall. to the average family, it's happening and is going to continue to happen. whether we fix health care today or tomorrow, the circumstances aren't changing. it has to be fixed sometime in the future. >> i want to get everyone's take on something else. the president did a speech in front of a lot of police officers in long ieland. he seemed to encourage officers not to worry about using excessive force. that's not playing well with the local police deputy. that's ahead.

before the president announced his new chief-of-staff he delivered a speech on long island new york about his administration to crack down on violent gangs. the president seemed to offer some advice on how to treat suspects. >> and when you see these towns and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a patty wagon you just seen them throw in, rough, i said please

don't be too nice. like when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand -- like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody, don't hit their head. i said you can take the hand away, okay? >> it didn't go over well with the brass from the police agency and the crowd who posted these tweets, quote, the county police department has strict rules and procedures relating to the handling of prisoners and violations are treated extremely seriously. as a department we do not and will not tolerate roughing up prisoners. back now with the panel. it was interesting because you didn't see it in that clip, in a number of instances the police officers behind the president were applauding what were either political statements or statements that were later disavowed by the authorities? >> i think there are a lot of people paying very close eye to how donald trump is reacting to the military and law enforcement. people who are concerned about

his relationship there and the way he addresses them or speaks to them that's a concerning scene to see police officers, the thing -- that comment obviously stands on its own. when he said the thing about obamacare and how he was going to repeal obamacare and the police officers were clapping behind him, that was unusual. that's not the sort of thing you see and it echoed back to last week when he was commissioning an aircraft carrier and he encouraged the people in the audience to lobby their senators and congressman on the health care bill. these are not normal things for a president to do and i think it's strike a lot of critics of donald trump in a bad way. >> the international association of chiefs of police issued a statement tonight that said in part, law enforcement officers are trained to treat all individuals whether they're complain ain't suspect or defendant with dignity and respect. >> given the environment we're in in this country where a police officers the good ones are under attack because of what some incidents that have happened and the dynamics between police and communities, the discussion has been going on

for a couple of years since ferguson really set that off, this is so disrespectful to the men and women who go out there every day and conduct themselves with character, integrity and dignity and take their job very seriously. so if the president of the united states encouraging them to basically engage in police brutality. that is just -- it's un-american. it's very dictatorial, something you see in places like venezuela where you have these dictators that rough people up. that's not america. and i was sad to see those officers, i think maybe they were caught up in the moment and stuff but they should not have been clapping there. that's not a good representation and given donald trump's history on this issue of -- at rallies rough up protesters and things, this is really awful. i think this would get more attention if there hadn't been other things going on. he should apologize to the men and women who do their job well and don't do that stuff.

>> i think it's true, most police officers supported donald trump over hillary clinton. there's no question they personally support the president. the tension between police and the citizenry that exists is one of the most worrisome civil problems we have and the police feel like right now in their interactions that go wrong they will guilty until they're proven innocent. however, we as conservatives have to be very worried about a government that would feel like it's fine to rough people up that aren't yet convicted of anything. >> that's right. >> when it's you being put into the -- it's one thing to say somebody's committed, when you are actually, you know, the one being put in the police car, rightly or wrongly, and -- >> but here's already prejudging them. >> you're right. it is completely appalling because what he essentially did was endorse police brutality. but this is par for the course for this president.

for someone that endorses violence and does so at rally. someone who calls himself the law enforcement president and who talks about -- this is great, how great our police officers are and that they need to be protected and all of that, which is absolutely true, but he has never, ever talked about the other side of the equation, which are the people who are roughed up by police and that's why you see these kinds of conversations will never move toward helping donald trump in communities of color where people have felt abused by police in thinking that this is a president who has their back. >> and just -- communities of color and what we need to worry about, he was there to highlight the existence of criminal gangs and what he was actually doing is he was highlighting the existence of a criminal gang that is south american, el salvadorion that absolutely has victimized -- started in the united states but has spread

through the incarceration system and most of the victims of these crimes are affinity crimes. they're individuals from other countries, sometimes there are citizens of the country, sometimes they're not, of course americans citizens get caught up and every violent criminal who is here should be deported but there is a political move here to highlight people who aren't -- people who aren't white, minorities and to feed part of this really white nationalist, political support of donald trump. and if this overstates what the real problem is, we have violent crimes and criminal gangs here in the united states as well full of white people, this really wasn't a law and order speech in that sense, this was really had a political undertone. >> it's interesting the president's use of the term law and order, i think in many communities, particularly communities of color wonder law for who? what is the exact order?

>> and this is a guy who came in favor of stop and frisk people. this rally was intended to tie immigrants to crime, that's why this thing existed. he singled out this particular gang. he repeatedly inflated numbers. there were x number of people that committed these crimes, however there were 4,000 people that moved from suffolk county and he implied, he directly tied 150,000 kids that came from central america to people that murdered people. he told these really grotesque tails of people being cut up with knives. that rhetoric to me was much more disconcerting -- >> can i just talk about -- not to minimize the brutality that ms 13 is. i worked on immigration reform. i worked on national security and border security when i was on the hill and i can tell you that these gangs are brutal and these things do happen and there was a problem in suffolk county going on, the tough law

enforcement is helping to root out and it happens all along the border, awful stories, so that is real. >> no one is arguing that. >> some people are, but he unfortunately inflates things, makes things up -- >> it's even worse. >> but it's even worse than that in just inflating it and making it look like people of color are all criminals. i know a lot of people from these communities. cnn did a reported to that came out that talked about how donald trump's focus and his administration's focus on trying to root out these awful horrendous gangs has actually had the opposite impact, because now undocumented immigrants given his immigration stance in general, undocumented immigrants who are brutally attacked by these gangs are not going to the police. so this is where his policies have absolutely -- have had a pernicious effect on a lot of the communities of color, who from the beginning of donald trump's campaign have felt

targeted by this president, do not feel that this president has their back and he has done nothing from the moment he stepped into the oval office except make that feeling worse. >> we should point out, his use of the bully pulpit and you can emphasize pulley or not has contributed to a dramatic reduction in the number of people crossing over illegally. i mean not even through any direct policy but just early on. >> that's right. >> people believing this is not the time to try to enter the united states. >> that should be a good thing. we should not be encouraging illegal immigration. >> i'm saying that's something the white house could be trumpeting no pun intended but could be speaking about a lot more. >> i read this week that republicans are thinking of making a push into going after mayors' offices in big cities. this law and order issue was a core driver of trump in 2016. if republicans do end up going for these mayor races this issue right now in a lot of cities it could be the vehicle. >> we got to leave it there. thanks everybody for watching 360. i hope you have a great weekend.

"cnn tonight" starts right now. another bomb shell from the white house caps off a week of chaos. this is cnn tonight, i'm pamela brown in for done lemon. reince priebus is out, general john kelly is in. the president accepting the resignation of his chief-of-staff and learning that priebus resigned privately yesterday but the writing had been on the wall. president trump making the announcement, of course, on twitter and going on to say this. >> reince priebus was a good man, john kelly will do a fantastic job. >> and reince priebus tells our wolf blitzer that he's just fine with all of this. >> he intuitively determined that it was time to do something differently and i think he's right. we hav