tapper or tweet the show at the lead cnn. we read them. i'm jake tapper. have a great night. we'll see you tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern. good evening. thanks for joining us. we keep them honest with another claim by the president of the united states and the white house it's hard to believe. hard to believe because it stands in stark contrast to what all of us can see with our own eyes. on this day on which anthony scar mewchy was escorted off white house property after being let go just 11 days after he starred, the president tweeted to take credit for the stock market and other things insisting there is "no white house chaos." no chaos whatsoever. nothing to see here, folks. that is the message that sara huckabee sanders continued to parrot this afternoon. >> the president announced on twitter that there's no chaos at

the white house. how would you describe what has happened over the course of the past ten days? obviously, you will agree with your boss, the president, there's mo chaos. but how do you explain that not to be the case? >> i think it's simp. i've said it before. if you want to see chaos come to my house with three preschoolers. this doesn't hold a candle to that. >> that was patent to be a charming deflection but it's a deflection if you only thing you can compare the white house to is a house full of preschoolers it's not a great comparison. granted every white house's staff changes, every president goes through a period of adjustment but not every president undercuts his own spokesman and hires a communications director with no experience who then threatens to fire everyone and calls the chief of staff an f'ing paranoid schizophrenic all of which he said to a reporter, then calls into cnn later, lies about what he said before, says he and the

president are best bros and the guy he just called fing paranoid schizophrenic are also bros. >> as you know from the italian expression, the fish stinks from the head down. i can tell you two fish that don't stink. that he me and president. i don't like the activity going on in the white house. i don't like what they're doing to my friend. i don't like what they're doing to the president of the united states or their fellow colleagues in the west wing. if you want to talk about the staff, we have had odds and differences. when i said we were brothers from the podium, that's because we're rough on each other. some brothers are like cain and abel. >> today's monday and as peter baker of "the new york times" turns out neither cane nor abal made it. sally yates fired, flynn forced to fired, sean spicer resigned in opposition to scaramucci's appointment. scaramucci resigned the same day

john kelley was sworn in. the president says none of that is chaotic. had 11 days, spicer is, priebus and scaramucci are out. that's quicker than "the apprentice." if you're inclined to take the president's word on twitter the chaos isn't twitter, you have to take his twitter word on everything. in february, 2016, ted cruz doesn't have the right temperament. i think at the meant tempment. look at the way he totally panicked in firing his director of come, communications. bad. from january of 2012, three chiefs of zaf in less than three years of being president. old trump tweets are like greeting cards, there's one for every occasion. another word for which is chaos. let's get more from jim acosta with new details on the end of the era of anthony scaramucci. jim, i'm not sure you can say 11 days is an era, but the idea there's no white house chaos, what the president tweeted but the events of the last couple

weeks seem to tell a different story. what is the mood in the white house tonight? >> as it turns out, the mooch might have been a bit too much, you could say. as for the president's tweet there's no chaos going on here at the white house, this white house is the picture of chaos. that is where things stand right now. to have a communications director supposed to be in charge of messaging for the administration out after only ten days on the job breaks some speed records never seen here in washington before for a position of that type. so clearly, this is a problem for this white house. that is why he was very eager to bring in john kelley, retired general as his new chief of staff. we were told time and again not only by sara huckabee sanders at the podium but confidentially through white house sources kelly intends to bring order to this disorderly situation inside the white house, first and foremost, people won't be able to walk into the west wing, we're told and just start talking to the president. they have to go through john kelley. that is a privilege that reince priebus did not have.

he could not keep the voices from coming to the white house and whispering in the president's ear from all directions and that under mined reince priebus. whether kelly can keep that kind of order and maintain that type of order, that is going to be a very tall ask even for a general that there are new details emerging how the scaramucci dismissal transpired. what do we know at this point? >> reporter: from what we understand, last week we were hearing from sources that the president was almost giving skew mewchy had attaboy. they were calling him it the mini mooch for president trump because of the way he was dressing down reince priebus, somebody the president had lost confidence in, lost patience with, but slowly but surely from what we understand from talking to sources the president viewed headlines about scaramucci as being very negative. not only were they overshadowing things going on at the white house but the president of the united states himself. from what we understand from

talking to sources, scaramucci talked to john kelley about this yesterday but it wasn't till after john kelley was sworn in over here at the white house that the news was given to scaramucci that he was out and that had he had to essentially leave immediately. this was an immediate termination of his job over here at the white house. when you talk to people close to him, they say he's going to show up at the export import bank tomorrow. but sara huckabee sanders says no, no, he is leaving the administration. we're hearing two different stories in terms of how out he is tonight. >> you know, for a president who also talks a lot about loyalty, this is an extraordinary development. scaramucci sod his company and thought he was going to get a job in the white house a long time ago, was held off. finally got this job. to be out after so long when last week, sara huckabee sanders was saying the president likes i can't even remember the exact

dpraz, basically seemed to praise zar mewchy for going after priebus in such a public way. >> reporter: that's right. that's why it will be such a huge test for john kelley. this is supposed to be somebody who will come in and put discipline into a system that has been very undisciplined but that is a very untrump-like scenario that john kelley is trying to bring to the white house. remember, you know this all too well, donald trump seems to revel in the sort of disorganized chaos having rival factions fighting against one another. he feels it results in better decision making on his part whereas much of the world just sees a white house in chaos and doesn't believe that to be the case at all. the other question is whether or not you know, so much of the problems that are generated by this white house are generated by the president's smartphone when he's tapping out these tweets that sort of send washington into a tail spin from time to time almost on a daily basis and so the question is for john kelley not only can he get

the white house under control and bring order to a very disorderly situation, can he get his hands on that phone. that might be another key to his future here as the chief of staff. >> jim acosta. thanks. joining me is ryan lizza, a reporter and once preferred preferred scaramucci phone call recipient. >> did this surprise you? >> it surprised me a little bit because i thought we had the answer to -- you know, when people were asking me what did you think would happen after that interview when it was published? is scaramucci going to be fired? i would say he's either going to be fired or promoted. you never know with donald trump. i thought we had the answer when priebus was forced out which seems like last month but it was only last week. i thought that that was trump saying i have no problem with what scaramucci said. and it's the chief of staff that needs to change and i want to keep him in this position. what obviously changed is that

john kelley knows a thing or two about how to be an effective chief of staff and it does not take a rocket scientist to know that if you want to be an effective chief of staff at the white house, you can't have super empowered freelance senior aides who report to the president and not to you running one of the most important offices in the white house, the communications office. so it shows that trump is giving john kelley enormous latitude. i think trump liked scaramucci. i think they 4 a real relationship. i bet this was not an easy decision for trump to do this, but for kelly, it's a pretty important sign that he was able to exercise control and it's a betrayal of scaramucci, you have to be honest. trump told him he could report to the president, the new guy comes in and says that's not good and he got rid of the old guy. >> it's going to be interestinging whether scaramucci stays in president

trump's orbit, whether officially or unofficially. the whole notion that it wasn't necessarily what he said but that he was getting so much attention as we know from the past, you know, when president trump said to comey you know, you're getting more famous or you're more famous than i am right now. >> yes. >> that was sort of not a good sign for the future of jim comey. >> i-reported this in a piece tonight at new yorker.com. even before i published my ar, had i it on very good authority that there was some tension between scaramucci and trump and he was on a little bit of thin ice even before that because of the last -- because of his first week even absent the comments to me he was pretty out there. so will a lot of moving parts in the last week, right? the first priority for trump was finding a new chief of staff. but i think he realized pretty quickly when he had the new chief of staff that the move he made with scaramucci didn't make

sense in the new order. and to answer that question, which is a good question, anderson, about whether he sticks around, you know, trump advisers have a history of even after they leave the official capacity, official working relationship of remaining loyal, working for trump, speaking on his behalf, going to bat for him. sometimes stirring the pot. think of people like sam nunberg and roger stone angkorry lewandowski. >> corey lewandowski. >> corey lewandowski and even scaramucci. remember, this guy, he was in a very strange position where he sold a pretty expensive company and then was denied the job. so he was really left out to hang for a while. and yet, was at least loy to trump through that whole period. you know? so it's funny an these former trump advisers tend 0 stick around and look for that second shot at serving trump. >> ryan, stay with us. want to bring gloria borger,

jeffrey lord, bakari sellers, david chalian. if this is not chaos in the west wing, what is? >> it is, it's chaos. >> i'm wondering if it may not feel like chaos for president trump. i think this is how he operates. he's used to it. i'm sure for everybody else around, he's like the eye of the hurricane. >> to general kelly it, probably felt like chaos. i'd like to have been privy to the conversation that the general had with the president before he decided to take this job because when you wear four stars on your shoulder, you're used to chain of command. and i think that kelly saw what scaramucci, let's put the vol garrett and all that aside. let's talk about what he said. he threatened to fire people and talked about a direct line to the president and i think that was pretty much untenable. i was told by a source today who spoke with the president that he believed scaramucci was grandstanding.

that was the word used to me. remember, trump called comey a show boat. he doesn't like that. he doesn't like that. this source said to me who spoke with the president with this president, you end up in the cheap seats in center field when that happens. and so i think that was one strike against him. and then kelly comes in and says look, this is untenable and we can't operate this way. and this source also said that kelly told him he had to go. >> david chalian, it could be multiple things are true. it's a situation where kelly didn't think scaramucci was right for the job and rez trump thought he was get too much attention. >> both things are probably true here. we know that the president while he may not have found the comments to ryan apartment new yorker completely outrageous, he may have actually thought they were accomplishing the goal of getting reince sort of needled out of there, we know that the president doesn't like it with the blow back. it's the blow back that he no longer thought was appropriate,

right? once he saw the way those comments were playing over the weekend, even if it wasn't a john kelley white house, it was very possible that the president did not like that scaramucci ended up with all this blowback that did not reflect well on the president. at the end of the day, if donald trump thought anthony scaramucci was doing good for his image right now, scaramucci would still be there even with wanting to give john kelley the latitude to set the discipline. scaramucci lost the confidence of the president. >> jeffrey, the whole thing about donald trump during the election was that he hires the best people and he knows how to run organizations and he's a great manager. i mean, is any of that really believable. >> i will clearly to his base, i guess it is. >> right. >> do the events of the last six months with all the people who have come and gone, do you still argue he's a great manager. >> anderson, i think these chaos stories, we've talked about this before. have i looked. all these stories about

everybody from obama back to reagan how their administration at some point is in chaos. >> do you know an administration in which the attorney general has been ridiculed and mocked by the president and criticized by president, not fired but still at the same time. >> they're different. >> sean spicer is gone, sally yates is gone, general flynn is gone. scaramucci is gone. >> i mean, every president is different. i mean donald trump is donald trump. this is why people put him there in the first place. and i can tell you. >> people put him there to be an a great manager and hire great people. >> yesterday i had a conversation with someone in pennsylvania at the summit dinner speaking of media and all this kind of think, i don't care about this stuff i care about north korea. this is a media fixation. for heaven's sake, move on. there are people out there in a serious situation with north korea, obamacare, et cetera, et cetera. >> it's a serious situation with north korea in which the president is tweeting about being critical of china in a

tweet. is that responsible? is that how foreign policy is done now? >> in the modern world, presidents will be tweeting. he's the first. he won't be the last. >> the question is -- well. >> i think what we're looking at and this is what jeb bush said, this is what hillary clinton and mitt romney said, all of the people donald trump dispatched of. they all questioned his temperament. we're seeing "the apprentice" with democracy at stake. he's treating priebus, sean spicer like they're gary busey or littejohn. we do have real life issues. we do have north korea. we do have to wonder what is china going to do in our efforts to help cure tail north korea getting a nuclear weapon. we have relife issues. looking at this white house, this is more than chaos. for me sometimes on twitter and social media, you get a good chuckle out of it. you see the irony in scaramucci talking big one day and 11 days later being fired. we see all these things. when you take a step back, it's

embarrassing to everyone who looks at us as a global leader. it lower our global standing. i think someone needs to and hopefully it's general kelly. i don't think it can be because this is the way trump operates. hopefully someone can reign him in. one of the things general kelly will not be able to do, he won't be able to control this out of control temperament that the 45th president has. no one has been able to do it. the only people who can talk to him are his family. general kelly is not that. godspeed. we need someone who can talk to him. >> maybe he can get the white house staff on one page. if he can do that they'll be less leak. there will be more organization, and i think the president will be a lot happier. >> jeffrey, don't you think a well oiled well run west wing something better prepared to deal with north korea or other changs? >> sure. t jack color, i don't know how many people here remember jack color, white house communications director for ronald reagan for one week and

out. >> efsz a nazi though. that's why he was out. >> he was 10 years old. >> i know you could point to up with or two people here or there. >> i'm just saying in terms of the larger reagan administration, that's not part of the legacy, right. >> but this is a lot of people who have been filtering through. like there's a revolving door we'll continue the discussion after the break. remind you what the white house said about scaramucci's profane phone calls last week versus today. and new reporting about john kelley's reaction to the firing of james comey. he was on comey's side apparently. details on that ahead. but why? you haven't noticed me in two years. i was in a coma. well, i still deserve appreciation. who was there for you when you had amnesia? you know i can't remember that. stop this madness. if it's appreciation you want you should both get snapshot from progressive. it rewards good drivers with big discounts on car insurance. it's a miracle. i can walk again.

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it's important to learn all you can... ...to help protect yourself from a stroke. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know™. >> more on the leaving of anthony scaramucci. new breaking news who was behind donald trump jr.'s evolving story about that meeting with a russian lawyer at trump tower. the "washington post" tonight is reporting when the story broke, the story about that meeting that donald trump jr. had with the russian attorney, the president's advisers talked about how trump junior should respond. the strategy was to be truthful so the account couldn't be criticized if and when the full details came out. according to the post, that plan changed changed because according to the post the president himself personally dictated the statement claiming the meeting was about the adoption of russian children. that statement turned out to be false. as e-mails released by trump junior showed released because the story was about to break,

the meeting was give the trump team damaging information about hillary clinton. this is pretty significant. the "new york times" had previously reported that trump advisers were meeting on their way back i believe it was on air force one, sort of put their heads together to craft a statement and that the president signed off about it. "the washington post" based on their source saying that the president himself dictated what the response was. and the response what was so inadequate about it was it had to be corrected in subsequent days. >> part of what prompted donald trump jr. to release the e-mails. he told three different versions of the story all because at initial response wasn't properly explaining everything that occurred in that meeting. it raised all these questions. the difference between signing off on something that's handed to you and something you dictated inserted yourself in and directed how this was going to be responded to, that seems to be a pretty significant difference. >> you put yourself in some

legal jeopardy by doing that because if you really knew what occurred and then you sign off on a statement that is incomplete at best, lawyers can start asking the question what were you trying to cover up. why were you -- why weren't you completely forth coming about this meeting. to allow the president to do that is a bad decision. >> ryan lizza, there's a quote in this "washington post" article from one of the president's advisers, doesn't say who saying, "this was unnecessary said one of the president's advisers who spoke on the condition of nopsity." now someone can claim he, meaning the president, he's the one attempting to mislead. somebody can argue the president is saying he doesn't want you to see the whole truth. in the days after all of this developed, there was i think reporting from "the new york times" i think basically saying that donald trump jr.'s attorneys or maybe it was pamela brown was reporting that donald

trump jr.'s attorneys had told her that they wanted initially they were ready, that donald trump jr. was ready to cop with a much more forthcoming statement in that initial statement but that is not what ended up happening. they didn't point the finger at the president or his advisers but that seems to be now the implication. >> yeah, i mean it seems like this is the same issue we've been discussing in the earlier part of the show is you have the staff at the white house that doesn't always actually have the president's interests in mind. in other words, any other white house the first thing that they would do in a situation like this if it came up is basically insulate the president from it, right in the in this white house, you have the president micromanaging the place literally dictating the statements and as gloria pointed out now perhaps opening himself up to legal jeopardy. a professional white house staff whether this is, you know, not ethically cubious or not and i don't think it is, would keep

the president out of any kind of legal jeopardy like that, but as we've seen the staff doesn't really, they're not able to be partly because trump doesn't want them to. again, he's running things the way he ran the trump organization which is you know, reaching down into whatever issue he wants and micromanaging it. up till this point, trump has basically been his own chief of staff. so i think that you know, the staff problems we're talking about are related to what's going on here. >> i mean, jeffrey it's one thing for donald trump as a civilian to use a fake name and call up gossip reporters pretending to be a spokesperson for donald trump. and giving stories about women he's dating and stuff and puffing him up. it's one thing for him to do that as a civilian. it's another thing as president of the united states to if this is true, according to president's adviser here po ho spoke to the "post" to actually

dictate a misleading statement for his son and their attorneys to give out. to ryan's point, shouldn't the president's people protect him from that? >> number one the president's people should protect the president, any president. the very fact this is being leaked by some anonymous adviser goes to general kelly's problem exactly. this is one of the things that has got to put a stop to. who knows whether this is accurate or not and who knows who is talking. certainly this is part of the problem. >> with all due respect to this whole conversation about leaking, we're talking about the people who are leaking the information but nobody criticizes the person from which that information was created. i mean, it's a comedy of airers. donald trump's legal team and staff is failing him. why on earth would you dictate a statement, not coordinate what you're going to dictate with your son's attorneys and your son so that you know when they put out the e-mails at heat of what they put out, matches your statement. >> we should point out donald

trump's legal team previously had denied that the president or his staff had anything to do with the initial statement by donald trump jr. they had said that it was donald trump jr. with his attorneys. >> and don't forget who was on this plane, anderson. jared kushner was on the plane. i haven't ca i believe was on the plane. so you know, this notion that the president dictated is interesting to me because it sounds like a group -- it sounds like a group effort. people huddling on the plane and figuring out what are we going to do with this problem. don't forget the president's lawyer who was his lawyer at the time it, mark kasowitz was not on this flight and he might have advised the president to stay away from this. >> it wasn't just on the plane according to the "post." the article starts out by saying on the sidelines at the group of 20 summit last month, president trump's advisers discussed how to respond to new revelations about this meeting. > they had the right instincts. bearing that reporting out had the right instincts which is let's put everything out so

nothing is contradicted. >> which is public reeses 101. >> exactly. public reeses 101 and they report that it was donald trump that completely flipped that on its head. i don't know ob -- >> it highlights general kelly's problem because you have all of these people, all of these proverbial cooks in the kitchen. it's hard to kind of make sure that your staff is in order when have you people like jared kushner or ivanka or whomever else able to circumvent that and get the president's ear. >> jared and ivanka won't be leaking to "the washington post" i assure. >> you what? really. >> something like this. >> i don't know for a fact. there's a lot of stories that suddenly always appear that jared and ivanka is trying to save the president from himself and i don't know of anybody else who would be leaking those other than usually when there's a story out, you can sort of see who does this story benefit and you kind of work backward who may have leaked. >> or who does the story trash.

if you're telling me you think ivanka and jared would be trashing their father and father-in-law respectively, i don't believe it. >> i have no idea. >> the leaking is -- the problem is not the leaking. the problem is the president of the united states. like it's all cool to get caught up in the leaking and no one should say this and that. that happens in every single white house. the problem is the behavior of senior leadership and the behavior of the president. if you're dictating a statement that you know is false, you have -- there are moral issues. >> if you want your doctor, you can keep your doctor. >> let me tell you i think it something, is that illegal? is that illegal? >> it's not true. it was used to pass major legislation. >> is that illegal? >> it's not true. that was a lie. a deliberate lie. >> you go back to this all the time. if you want your doctor you can keep your doctor. >> because it was a lie. >> in certain circumstances that beared out to have some valid. you know what we know to be false? the fact that this meeting that donald trump jr. has with paul

manafort and other senior leaders was not about russian adoption. the only manor truly believes that is donald trump. >> the special counsel is going to get to the bottom of it. now that this story's here. >> this idea that it was about adoption is something that donald trump, the president trump repeated later on at an open press conference as being and something else that sean spicer then reaped there's no indication. >> after the e-mail was already out. >> anything but a meeting about adoption. we'll have more on this breaking story from the "washington post" and others when we come back. to? it's an american favorite on top of an american favorite, alice. it's like labor day weekend on top of the fourth of july. hotdogs. get your favorites on top of your favorites. only at applebee's.

get your favorites on top of your favorites. that's why at comcast we're continuing to make4/7. our services more reliable than ever. like technology that can update itself. an advanced fiber-network infrustructure. new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. following the story that just broke tonight from the "washington post" saying that the president himself dictated donald trump jr.'s misleading statement about that meeting with the russian lawyer at trump tower. this was the initial statement that came out from donald trump jr. the "washington post" says the initial strategy from advisers from are the president's advisers was to tell the truth.

to be very forthcoming. instead, according to the "washington post," the president reportedly intervened and dictated the statement himself claiming the meeting was about russian adoption. back with the panel joining us on the phone is senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. just from a legal standpoint, is there anything that should concern the president about this story? >> absolutely. you know, it's been clear for some time that the mueller investigation is looking at the issue of obstruction of justice. and if in fact, the president put out an intentionally false story about his relationship with russia, you know, broadly defined in terms of his son's activity, that would be a piece of evidence that could support a charge of obstruction of justice. that alone is not enough to make

a case, but if you were to combine it with firing james comey and you know, the other parts of the investigation, it certainly would be a relevant piece of evidence. as i say, it's not enough on its own. it's certainly not a crime on its own but it is evidence that will be of great interest to robert mueller. >> i want to pursue that with you, jeff, more but right now on the phone is one of the reporters who broke the story, tom hamburger. we'll talk to you as soon as we're done tom. explain what you have learned, what the report says in the "washington post" tonight. >> anderson, what we learned is that the president played a deeper and more complete role than we had understood previously. in crafting the response that was issued. the initial response that was issued after "the new york times" reported on that june 9th meeting in trump tower where donald trump jr. basically organized a meeting that

included jared kushner and paul manafort and some others that we later learned had been set up at the request via e-mail of the someone connected possibly to the russian government. the first explanation you will recall was that the meeting was largely about adoption. an initial statement considered quite misleading and what we're reporting tonight in the boast is that that initial response was effectively dictated by the president over the objection or over warnings on some of his advisers >> which is remarkable because in your report, it says beacon the sidelines of the group of 20 summit in germany, the president's advise remembers wrestling with what kind of statement to draft and according to your reporting, they wanted to be pretty forth coming. > that's what we learned from talking with multiple people involved in the process. in the early going, there were suggestions from lawyers and

some others who were close to the president that a more what they describe as a more fullsome statement would be appropriate partly thinking because some had seen these documents the e-mails already and thinking that being transparent more transparent at the outset would avoid embarrassment later. >> would actually the correct decision to make, it would have voided the president's son having to reissue statements and release the e-mails once they were about to be released by "the new york times." so the president himself, do you know the scene of how it was? was it on air force one and to what extent when you say the president dictated the statement, how does that work? he literally word for word, had he somebody write down his as what the statement should be? >> the phrase dictate is one, that my colleagues phil rucker and ashleigh parker who as you know cover the white house full time have picked up from their

sources. what we understand is that this was really a decision led by the president and that the statement that was ultimately issued is one that he decided and is often his way as you know, he's not an e-mailer. he suggested the language in the statement that was ultimately used and ultimately released to "the new york times." and to a certain extent had to be walked back or amplified upon in the coming days. >> it's interesting, i mean it's not clear to me, the president's attorneys i believe had previously said that it was donald trump jr. and donald trump jr.'s attorneys who had been the ones crafting this statement that the president had nothing to do with it and that they denied the initial "new york times" story which said on air force one, this had been discussed among his advisers and the president had signed off on it. the idea that the president was more involved than that, that's something that runs counter to what the president's own attorneys have said. are there any -- did you get any

responses from the president's attorneys about the discrepancy between your reporting and their past statements? >> we did. we sent quite a lengthy list of long list of questions to jay sekulow who is one of the president's attorneys and is perhaps the most outspoken. he didn't answer our specific questions but did issue one statement sentence to us which reads, anderson, the president's attorney said apart from being of no consequence, the characterizations are misinformed, inaccurate and not pertinent. we went back and asked again for specifics but didn't receive anything, any guidance beyond that statement that i just read. >> it's also, i mean i guess the other question is when did the president at the time that the president was crafting the statement or dictating the statement, did he actually know what the real reason for the meeting was had he had a conversation with donald trump jr. had donald trump been forthcoming or did the president

know from way back you know, all donald trump has said that the president he never said anything to the president at that time or the candidate. he never told his father about this meeting or the purpose of this meeting or that he had learned according to the e-mail from goldstone that russia was backing his father's campaign. president donald trump was unaware of that according to donald trump jr. but it sounds like i guess the question is, did donald trump know about the meeting, the real reason for the meeting when he was helping craft the statement? >> so anderson, that's, of course, a key question and it's not one that we can answer with confidence as you point out, the president and donald trump jr. have indicated that the president was not fully informed. what our story tonight points out is that the question of how to respond to of this report that was coming in the "new york

times" last july was discussed on the sidelines of the g-20 by top presidential aides and advisers, and as you recall, jared kushner and his wife ivanka trump were at the g-20. so there were discussions how to respond on the sidelines and what we hear from our sources is that the initial discussion was -- was one of representeding openness and a full response knowing that these e-mails that there were documents in a sense that lurked in the background that would tell a more a potentially more troublesome story. the conversation then moves on to air force one as the president and his party depart from hamburg, jaerp, the site of the g-20 and the discussion continues and then everyone air force one a decision is made that a much more limited statement about this meeting will occur, one that discusses

it as really a brief and not consequential discussion about adoptions of russian children in the united states was issued. and that's issued in the afternoon that saturday. and our what we learned from our sources is that that statement was dictated from the president and the story, the statement itself goes to "the new york times" and then is published that afternoon while air force one is still in the air on the way back to andrews air force base. >> yeah. it's a fascinating and eye-opening report from the "washington post" right now. tom hamburger, i appreciate you being with us. up next, chief of staff john kelley and what he did when president trump fired then fbi director james comey. people would stare. psoriasis does that. it was tough getting out there on stage.

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we're learning is new information about now chief of staff's john kelley reaction when president trump fired james comey. pam, what have you learned. >> we've learned john kelley was so upset with the way president trump handleded the firing of james comey he actually called comey after he was terminated to say how angry he was according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the conversation between kelly and comey and at that time, this was this may as

you'll recall, kelly was secretary of hope land security and the sources say he was particularlyup set by the way comey was treated how it all went down by the fact that he learned he had been fired on the in us rather than being told or informed by the president. the call took place while comey was traveling back from weigh to los angeles. after learning the news, comey declined to come meant about the story. the white house did not comment either. >> i also understand general kelly was prepared to resign over it. >> we were told it was he contemplated. he was so angry that he considered or contemplated resigning from his position as secretary of hope land security in a showing of solidarity with comey. we're told comey responded telling him not to do anything and both sources we spoke with cautioned that it was unclear how seriously kelly really was about resigning as we know, that never happened. fast forward, now he's white house chief of staff.

for context here, the sources said that comey and kelly are not particularly close friends but they had a professional relationship and a deep mutual respect for each other. in this case, kelly was simply upset as one source put it disgusted about the way comey had been treated by the president, anderson. >> fascinating details pamela, thanks very much. joining me for more on the breaking "washington post" reporting is general michael hayden, former direct of the cia. first of all, your reaction to this report that general kelly was upset about the way that director comey was fired. >> yeah, i know john kelley. that sounds exactly how i would think john kelley would respond to this. now, i don't know any of the fine print. i'm learning about this the same way are you, anderson but it's very consistent with the character of the man that i know. >> the reporting from "the washington post" that was just breaking that president trump actually dictated john junior's

misleading statement on his meeting with russian lawyer, i'm wondering if true, this is "the washington post" reporting based on multiple sources, how daping is it for the president? it's certainly something special counsel bob mueller would be looking into. >> sure. a leave your legal experred to comment on that might mean to former director mueller's investigation. i was watching the breaking news and the thought occurred to knee when i was a military attache during the warsaw pact, people's republic of bulgaria, i got into a long discussion with one of my bulgarian counterparts. he was saying things that so frustrated me i actually said to him, what is truth to you? and he looked me right into the eye and said truth, truth is what serves the party. now, look i know we're imperfect. you know, sometimes we stray into gray areas. in our political system but i think most people like me,

anderson, think a statement like that, truth is whserves the par belongs to that system, not to our system. so the news you reported if true is very disturbing. >> i want to ask you about relations with russia. president trump expected to sign the sanctions bill approved by congress. hasn't yet. in retaliation, vaipt ordered the u.s. to cut 755 diplomatic staff in russia which is the most aggressive move since the code war. how significant is this? >> i think it's a big deal. it leads an awful lot of questions unanswered. number one, putin decides to go ahead and respond and by the way, that are response some sort of response should have already been baked in to the obama administration's decision to go with sanctions in the first place. and the congress's decision to go with sanctions. but i found it interesting that putin decided to move after congress had acted but before

trump had acted before the president had had signed the sanctions bill in a way perhaps not setting up a direct  confrontation between president putin and president trump. i found that a very interesting. >> that's interesting. in a way sort of giving what, some wiggle room? >> i think so. it allows him to -- look, if he waits till after president trump signed the bill, and by the way, anderson, let me give au interesting question here. what will president trump's signing statement look like when it comes to signing these sanctions? now, i think president putin deflecteded that question by going ahead and acing before that took place. let me give you one additional thought. i don't know within what strategic context this is all happening from the point of view you know what i would love to see is someone in authority, the president, the vice president, whomever from the white house, to simply say -- the

russian-american relationship will be governed by the following three, four, two, principles. i don't know what those are. >> which is kind of a frightening thought. the fact that you can't -- don't know what they are, is -- >> i look at the specific actions, anderson. i try to create them to come back to a common point. i don't have that yet. >> general hayden. appreciate you being on. thank you. up next, back to the fall of anthony scaramucci forced out after just 11 days in the west wing. a short tenure. he leaves us with memorable moments. show you those ahead and more in the breaking news we learned about president trump and the early statement from donald trump jr. are you done yet?

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days, shortest tenure for anyone in the role. in the west wing for 11 days. 11 very memorable days. here is randi kaye. >> navy s.e.a.l.s will tell you if you want to eat an elephant, you have to eat it one bite at a time. >> reporter: it was bizarre from the beginning with a hint of what was to come. >> there has been some speculation in the press about me and reince preibus. i want to talk about that quickly. >> reporter: from day one, anthony scaramucci addressing what was to become a very public battle between him and then white house chief of staff reince preibus. >> reince and i have been personal friends for six years. we are a little bit like brothers where we rough each other up once in a while which is totally normal for brothers. >> reporter: by the fourth day, scaramucci was making changes, allowing cameras back into the press briefings. announcing with this tweet. read simply. tv cameras are back on. then, things got, well, weird. after "the new yorker's" ryan liza broke the news last week

that scaramucci and others were dining at the white house with the president and first lady, the newly installed communications director unleashed a profanity-laced rant at lizza about key advisers. on reince preibus, reince is a blank, paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac. on strategist steve bannon, i'm not steve bannon. i'm not trying to suck my own blank. and insisted reince preibus was leaking white house information which preibus later denied to cnn. scaramucci telling lizza he had to go so he could start tweeting some blank to make this guy crazy, meaning reince preibus. the vulgar tirade made headlines everywhere. on thursday, scaramucci was trying to turn the page on cnn's "new day" telling ryan lizza he was just teasing him on the phone. i want to reset at zero. i spent 15 minutes on the phone

talking with the president of the united states who has given me his full support and his full blessing. >> scaramucci still trying to play tough with the leakers. >> as you know from the italian expression, the fish stinks from the head down. i can tell you two fish that don't stink. okay, me and the president. so if reince wants to explain he is not a leaker, let him do that. >> reporter: the very next day, friday, priebus was out of a job. it was also the day "the new york post" reported scaramucci's wife had recently filed for divorce. something her lawyer confirmed to "the new york times." scaramucci then kept a low profile over the weekend, seemingly unaware he was on the chopping block. on day 11, scaramucci showed up for work. he even attended this morning's swearing-in of the new chief of staff. the same chief of staff demanding his ouster. randi kaye, cnn, new york.

in a moment, the latest from the white house and how scaramucci's removal actually happened, who called it for it, and who told him about it and the breaking news from "the washington post." it is reporting the president himself, dictated donald trump's misleading statement about the meeting with the russian lawyer at trump tower. afi sure had a lot on my mind. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me?

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