that's all the time we have for tonight. thanks very much for watching "360." i'll see you again tomorrow night at 8:00. a special edition of "the lead" with jake tapper starts now. have a good night. so how did the first day of the white house's american dream week go? "the lead" starts right now. president trump says there is no chaos in his white house, right before more chaos erupts. anthony scaramucci is out before he even started officially as white house communications director. so what in the blanking blank happened? also breaking, "the washington post" with a potential bombshell. was donald trump jr.'s initial misleading response to his meeting with the russians actually trump sr.'s response? plus -- a lead exclusive. white house officials pumped by an e-mail prankster. do the silly e-mails expose a much bigger security risk that could potentially impact you?

good evening, everyone. welcome to this special edition of "the lead." i'm jake tapper. we begin tonight with breaking news in the politics lead. and just like that, poof, he was gone. anthony scaramucci doing his best kaiser sose impression before he could begin. a weekend change after walking into the west wing. scaramucci was asked today moments after general john kelly was sworn in as white house chief of staff. officially scaramucci offered to resign. but sources tell cnn that general kelly wanted him out and scaramucci was escorted out of the white house. the retired marine general thought scaramucci undisciplined and without credibility after his profanity-laced tirade about since fired chief of staff reince priebus and steve bannon to the "new yorker" magazine on thursday. today this is what the white house had to say about why he was ousted.

>> the president certainly felt that anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person in that position. and he didn't want to burden general kelly also with that line of succession as i think we've made clear a few times. >> so president trump thought that some vulgar comments were inappropriate. >> grab him by the [ bleep ]. do anything. >> this evening, a senior administration official told me that even before general kelly made his move this morning, president trump had soured on scaramucci. the president loved him as a fighter in the first few des of his tenure, i'm told. but the president came to dislike how the son of long island in the president's view portrayed their relationship as closer than it was. the president didn't like how scaramucci loved the limelight, i'm told. after the new yorker imbroglio,

the president was fielding calls all weekend recommending scaramucci do the fandango out the door. the president was happy when general kelly told him what he wanted to do because that's what the president wanted to do too. one of our favorite office games, there a tweet for that? is there something in the at real donald trump twitter archives criticize as rival for something the president just did? and yes we have a winner from february 2016. quote wow is ted cruz very disloyal to his very capable director of communication. he used him as a scapegoat, fired like a dog. ted panicked. scaramucci firmly holds the record for shortest tenure with a kardashian like marriage. but it's not the first high profile exit from the white house. it took a few days before the rupert murdoch owned "new york post" which on friday had depicted the trump white house as the show "survivor."

they were forced to update its cover with two more now voted off the island, reince and mooch. the trump tribe has spoken. jim, showing scaramucci the door was high on to do list for general john kelly as the newly minted chief of staff. >> that's right. it's getting lonely on this island over here at the white house. anthony scaramucci, ten days after he blew a kiss to reporters was essentially given the big kiss off by this white house, all part of another staff shake-up over here, something that has become a regular occurrence at this white house. but this time orchestrated by the new chief of staff john kelly, who apparently was brought in to bring in some order to a very disorderly white house. >> we just swore in general kelly. he will do a spectacular job, i have no doubt. >> reporter: a white house in chaos once again found itself spinning its way out of another round of staff turmoil just hours after a president trump welcomed his new chief of staff, retired general john kelly to the white house, his recently

hired and embattled communications director anthony scaramucci suddenly was out the door. >> general kelly has the full authority to operate within the white house, and all staff will report to him. >> i love the president. >> reporter: it was just 11 days ago when the man nicknamed the mooch pledged to improve white house messaging and praised outgoing press secretary sean spicer and then chief of staff reince priebus. >> as it relates to shawn sean, it speaks volumes of him as a team player. his attitude is anthony is coming in. let me clear the slate for anthony. and i appreciate that about sean and i love him for it. but i don't have any friction with sean. i don't have any friction with reince. >> the following week he went to war with priebus. >> savaging the then chief of staff in a profanity laced to the new yorker. >> as you know from the italian expression, the fish stinks from the head down. two fish that don't stink, okay, and that's me and the president. >> reporter: despite the president's own history of using questionable language, the white

house said mr. trump was bothered by scaramucci's comments. >> the president certainly felt that anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person in that position. and he didn't want to burden general kelly also with that line of succession. >> reporter: the white house said in a statement mr. scaramucci felt it was best to give chief of staff john kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. but sources told cnn new chief of staff john kelly had lost confidence in scaramucci. it was an immediate sign that kelly is aiming to bring order to a white house that has been rocked by near constant staff turmoil. the president had praised kelly as a miracle worker in his previous job with homeland security. >> you look at the border and the results we've had, and you look at the spirit. and with a very controversial situation, there has been very little controversy, which is pretty amazing by itself. so i want to congratulate you on having done a fantastic job, general. and we look forward to if it's

possible an even better job as chief of staff. >> reporter: but earlier in the day, the president took to twitter to insist all is well, out thing the nation's stock market and unemployment rate before insist nothing white house chaos, a message echoed by press secretary sarah huckabee sanders. >> if you want to see chaos, come to my white house with three preschoolers. this doesn't hold a canned toll that. >> rival factions still in place, even with scaramucci gone, there are sharp elbows thrown by steve bannon, counselor kellyanne conway, even the president's family, all competing for president's attention. don or ivanka trump hailed kelly as a true american hero. and the president's cabinet turned boardroom, kelly was able to observe another source of white house tension, the damaged relationship with attorney general jeff sessions who has gone from being trashed publicly to mr. trump last week to sitting across the room from him silently today. and the president apparently had more problems with anthony scaramucci than just his comments to the new yorker, jake. i'm hearing the same thing

you're hearing. i talked to a source close to this president earlier today who said that the president simply did not like anthony scaramucci getting more publicly than he was getting. jake? >> only one primary. jim acosta, thank you so much. >> you bet. >> sticking with our politics lead, i'm joined now by my panel. we have with us mary katharine ham, author of "end of discussion" freshly out in paper book. jennifer palmieri under president obama. she also worked on the clinton campaign. joshua green of blockberg business week, author of another great book, "devil's bargain" about the trump-bannon relationship. and we also have with us the source of all this problem, ryan lizza, the washington correspondent at the new yorker who interviewed anthony scaramucci, and that was i'm told the tipping point. let us remind our viewers of what mr. scaramucci told mr. lizza. quote, i'm not steve bannon. i'm not trying to suck my own [ bleep ]. i'm not trying to build my own brand off the [ bleep ]ing strength of the president.

i'm here to serve the country. he called reince priebus a [ bleep ]ing paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoid. did you think this would result in anthony scaramucci being shown the door or did you think he was going to be able the get away with it, i guess? >> you know, when people asked me that after the column came out, he said he'll either get fired or promoted. you just never know with trump. and it seemed like he was on the promotion track when reince priebus, his arch-enemy was summarily dismissed. but like you reported, jake, i had also heard something very similar before i published that piece. i did actually have an understanding that he was on a little bit of thin ice with trump and was one of the reasons he was pushing back so strongly to me not to publish. so there was -- it was already before the piece came out a bit

of friction between scaramucci and the president. but, you know, sort of complicated set of moving pieces here, right? scaramucci wanted reince priebus out. bannon wanted scaramucci out. kelly comes in and pushes him out. so i think one of the things that's not being noted today as much is steve bannon right now is in a very interesting position where he has sort of gotten what he wanted, sort of the survivor at the top of that cast of characters in the west wing. >> and let's turn to our resident expert on bannonology, joshua green. it is remarkable that steve bannon -- i mean scaramucci came in very clearly gunning for priebus and gunning for bannon. >> exactly. >> priebus is gone. bannon is still standing, scaramucci gone. he is a a much more effective infighter than scaramucci anticipated. >> i think that's right. i think in this case he didn't

actually have to do a whole lot besides hold his tongue and keep quiet. i don't know any reporters that managed to get bannon on the phone. he is smart enough to step back, recognize that scaramucci is blowing himself up and setting a land speed record for political self- self-emmollation. >> the white house itself could learn a few things from that message. >> it could. >> i'm going support anthony scaramucci, okay. he comes in. he is passionate about the president. >> right. >> he loves the president. >> right. >> he says he is going to improve relationships with the press. he does. he actually does improve relationships with the press. and, you know, yes, he cursed. and yes, his elbows were sharp. is that really something that you wouldn't think would be acceptable in a trump white house? >> i will say something in support of him as well in terms of this white house. i thought he was a more sincere representation of donald trump than sean spicer was or mike

dubke was. if you want a communications director to communicate what the president values and represent his personality, i thought scaramucci was very effective at that. and i thought he could actually be an effective street fighter for trump, and trump is going to need that as you go -- as mueller day by day closer to whatever his final report is going to say. so it is remarkable, though, the one person who always survives is steve bannon. he has been in this world for almost a year now, which is a record in and of itself. >> for a nonrelative. >> for a nonrelative, came in the late center, and we were very dismayed about the clinton campaign. got the president relatively disciplined for the last two months of the campaign. and i think while everyone has been focused on russia and rightly so and on health care, and rightly so, bannon and his team have been diagnose a lot of damage when it comes to immigration, when it is getting ready to deport dreamers and

that guy survives. >> i think he has learned to pick his battles aly little better than he did at the beginning of the administration where he tried to be in every meeting and enact the trump agenda at once. after he was sort of cast out there in march and april, he learned that to survive you need to fall back a little bit. maybe get embarrassed by a scaramucci coming in, not be on the cover of "time" magazine, not be on the cover of a book. he seems to have learned his lesson. >> let me just ask you, there is this notion that president trump only values loyalty to him, and there actually is no loyalty two ways obviously other than to his children. and you look at that tweet that he, the president sent out in our daily gym of is there a tweet for it, and there was. president trump faulting ted cruz for getting rid of his communications director so quickly after an event. i can't even recall what it was. it certainly is nothing like what scaramucci did. but i mean, is he a disloyal man, president trump? >> i think trump sees different rules for himself than he sees for everyone else.

i think we've seen that throughout all of this. i wrote a column maybe a year and a half with the grizzly man metaphor. look, you can go camping -- it was about the gop aligning with trump and trying to make this work. look, you can go camping with a grizzly bear for a while. you can even think you understand the grizzly bear and that he likes you. eventually that grizzly bear is going the maul you. and that is what we continue to see. and he remains the guy who is the grizzly bear at the top of this organization. and he is volatile. and he decides what he decides any given day. and the question is there a guy who can go up against the grizzly bear and is, for instance, general john kelly that guy? >> is he the leo decapri of "the revenant." helping to draft his son's initial misestimate about the meeting with the russian attorney that story next. stay with us. but now it's our turn to take control with stelara®

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welcome back to our special edition of "the lead." my conversation with governor christie is coming up. first, the "washington post" breaking the story tonight, reporting that president trump himself personally dictated the initial misleading statement about his eldest son's meeting with a russian lawyer. the statement reportedly was worked out on air force one on the flight home from the g20 summit in germany. you'll recall revelation after revelation. at first donald trump jr. said he had only discussed russian adoptions with the lawyer, and that the trump tower meeting was insignificant. later, his own e-mails showed he accepted the meeting because he expected dirt on hillary clinton from the russian government. joining me now, tom, from your reporting, senior advisers wanted to take on a different strategy to don jr.'s meeting. >> that's right.

senior advisers to white house advisers and advisers to the president's inner circle recommended in the early going what they described to us as a more fulsome disclosure of what that meeting was like. in other words, it wasn't just be described initially as a meeting about adoption of russian children in the united states. it would in fact be more of a disclosure of what that meeting was actually about. early on, our reporting shows that advisers to the president and the president's inner circle recommended because there were documents, these e-mails that you just spoke about were coming out, that it made much more sense to be transparent, to be forthcoming. because later on, if you issue a misleading statement, it could come back to hurt you. >> but the president overruled? >> that's what we're reporting tonight. we have from multiple sources that it was the president who in effect overruled the recommendations from these group of advisers and from his inner

circle. and what don trump jr.'s lawyer has told us is initially they were inclined toward this more fulsome statement, and that ultimately, he declined to confirm, in fact told us he had no evidence that the president was the one who dictated this statement. but he said it was group worked out by what he called a communal group of lawyers and communications advisers. >> interesting. now white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders repeatedly responded to questions on the meeting. take a listen. >> has president trump had any communication with his son donald trump jr. over the last several days? and was he involved in helping donald trump jr. craft his statement over the weekend on air force one as was reported in "the new york times"? >> i'm not sure about specific communications and the nature of those conversations. i know that they've spoken at least some point over the last few days. but beyond that i don't have any other further details. >> response? >> not that i'm aware of. i don't know the answer that, phil. >> so is that true?

>> i'm telling you i'm not sure. i don't know the answer. vial to check and let you know. >> president trump lawyer's jay sekulow went further, and he denied that president trump had anything to do with that initial misleading statement from don trump jr. take a listen. >> i wasn't involved in the statement drafting at all, nor was the president. i'm assuming that was between mr. donald trump jr., between don jr. and his lawyer. i'm sure his lawyer was involved. that's how you do it. >> but that's him saying that the president was not involved. now this evening, sekulow says this about your reporting, quote, apart from being of no consequence, the characterizations are a misinfirefightered, inaccurate and nonpertinent. your response. >> so jake, we of course reported that response, what you may not know is that we actually sent multiple detailed questions to mr. sekulow asking him to respond in some detail. and instead what we got is the rather broad denial. i understand others at the white house on the white house team

may already have described our story as fake news. we have multiple sources and are confident in our reporting. >> it's interesting when they don't specifically say what their issue is with the story. they just say it's inaccurate and we're not talking about it anymore. great scoop. congratulations. >> thank you. >> let's go back to our panel. jen palmieri. >> denial, denial, denial. >> as somebody who has issued statements, apart of being no consequence, the characterizations are inaccurate and not pertinent. >> that is not saying that the report is not true that in no way says the president didn't dictate the statement. that just said there are things in the story that aren't true, and we don't think this story matters. that's not saying that donald trump didn't actually dictate the statement. and it makes sense to me that trump would be the person who dictated the statement, because it was a very -- it was a transparently stupid thing to do. so the only person who would have the means of overruling everyone else is the president

himself. >> because lawyers wouldn't be that stupid. >> because lawyers wouldn't be that stupid. because everybody would understand "the times" isn't telling you everything that they have. you have to assume that they actually have the e-mails. you've got to play few step ahead and assume that "the times" is going to come back to you and have all this information. so it's a very dangerous thing to do. it makes sense the only person who had the standing to do that is president trump himself. >> mary katharine, the thing about the russia thing, the controversy, the scandal, whatever you want to call it, they're sure acting guilty. i don't know if there is any there there. we'll see what the fbi and mueller and the senate and house committees come up with. >> clearly the right thing to do would have been to be up-front about this. it's a shame they were overruled. this also points to an inability of the president to sort of let the lawyers deal with this, particularly because his children are involved, and he is probably emotional and protective of them. and also to keep staffers

protected. keep either the principle, the president protected or staffers protected from the legal implications of this by keeping them out of the rooms where this happens. if that keeps happening, they will get themselves in trouble even if there is no there there. >> josh? >> i think this partly stems from the way donald trump has dealt with the media in the past. if you're talking about a real estate deal to "the new york post," if you're talking about some divorce mistress scandal to the daily news, you can say no, you can lie, you can obfuscate, you can mislead without any real severe political or legal consequence. i'm not sure that donald trump and the people around him in his family inner circle understand the difference. if they did. that would get out ahead of the story and not light it up like this has happened. >> and ryan, let me bring you in. the thing is we keep being told president trump is 71. he is not going to change. and this is from people around him who are trying to tell people stop trying to change him. but by letting him do things like this, they are allowing him to hurt himself.

>> yeah, i mean, i think it raises two questions about the way this white house is set up. one is the staffing issues that we've been talking about all day, all week, and just the chaotic nature of the place where trump is frankly a micromanager. he has been the chief of staff, right? people thought jimmy carter was a micromanager. trump is -- he reaches down and has his hand in every minor issue at that white house. and he doesn't have a staff that understands the legal consequences of something like this. he is probably being investigated for obstruction of justice,s a the very least mueller is looking at that, right? how could he have staff around him and lawyers around him who would allow him to get involved in crafting a statement, especially one that contradicts what his son was doing. so that's just sort of jaw-dropping and another example of the staff being unable to control him the way you might control a normal president. the other thing, though, just the fact that he has his children so involved.

now donald jr. is not involved in the administration, but was involved in the campaign. that obviously creates a certain incentive to want to be deeply involved and deeply protective of his kids. and it's why people don't bring their children into the white house, because you can't treat them like normal staffers. it's why you don't bring them into the politics the way that he has. because you might make a mistake like this. maybe he was trying to protect them. i saw jeff toobin, your other legal analyst tonight saying this could be a piece of evidence, if you're looking at an obstruction of justice case, this is something that a prosecutor might look at and say wait a second, what's going on here. >> everyone, thank you so much. great panel. really appreciate it. coming up, the internet prankster who pretended to be jared kushner and reince priebus and other members of the president's circle and got actual officials at the white house to believe him. he's got the e-mails to prove it, next. plus, governor chris christie joining us with his insights to all the shake-up at

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welcome back to "the lead." sticking with politics and a story that we're breaking for you tonight right now. hook, line and sinker. a self-described e-mail prankster in the uk fooled a number of senior white house officials into thinking that he was other white house officials, including an episode where the prankster convinced the white house official tasked with cybersecurity, homeland security adviser tom bossert that he was jared kushner and he received his e-mail address unsolicited. he shared some of the e-mails for us. tom, we're arranging a bit of a soiree towards the end of august. the fake jared kushner wrote to bossert's official white house e-mail. it would great if you can make it. i promise food at least

comparable to that which we ate in iraq. the real tom bossert wrote back thanks, jared. with a promise like, that i can't refuse. if you need it my personal e-mail is and then he gave his personal e-mail address. white house officials acknowledged to cnn that the incidents happened and said they were taking the matter seriously. quote we take all cyber-related issues very seriously and are looking into these incidents further. sarah huckabee sanders told cnn this evening. cyberexperts consulted by cnn say the incidents are illustrative of how vulnerable americans, even those in the highest reaches of power, the trump white house, remain to the potential threat of what is called spear phishing. that's the process through which officials are duped by hackers and expose government computers and systems to various cyberthreats you. might remember happening to hillary clinton campaign chair john podesta. nobody clicked any links making them or their computers vulnerable. and the prankster is motived by mischief.

the prankster told cnn try and keep it on the humorous side of things. i'm not looking for the keys to the vault. the severity should not be overstated, but spear fischers often begin the process by possibly posing as a friend or associate before asking them take further action. another exchange appears to have played a role in the exchange between anthony scaramucci and reince priebus. masquerading as priebus, the prankster e-mailed the official e-mail account. quote, at no stage have you acted in a way that is even remotely classy. general kelly will do a fine job. i'll even admit he will do a better job than me, but the way that transition has come back has been diabolical and hurtful. i don't expect a reply. the very real anthony scaramucci wrote we know what you did. we all did. but rest assured a man would

apologize. fake priebus wrote back, i can't believe your questioning my ethic. have i nothing to apologize for. again, the actual scaramucci responded. read shakespeare, particularly "othello." you are right there. my family is fine and will thrive. i know what you did. no more replies from me. the very real scaramucci australia hoodwinked by the same prankster pretending to be ambassador russia designate jon huntsman. whose heads should roll first the bogus huntsman asked on friday before the priebus termination was announced. maybe i can help things along somewhat. responded the very real scaramucci, beth of them, an apparent reference to priebus and steve bannon. huntsman was also tricked with a prankster pretending to be eric trump, the president's son. eric trump was similarly hoodwinked though eric realized it and said he was notifying the authorities. neither would comment on the

record. the prankster has previously fooled major bank ceos from goldman sachs and citigroup. he has long been a supporter of president trump and governor chris christie will join us with his take on the white house shake-up next. and here is a look at tomorrow's new york daily news cover. "adios mooch-chacho. we'll be right back. day 13. if only this were as easy as saving $600 when you switch to progressive. winds stirring. too treacherous for a selfie. [ camera shutter clicks ] sure, i've taken discounts to new heights with safe driver and paperless billing. but the prize at the top is worth every last breath.

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my abwill i have pain andating made daibloating today?ing game. even way out here? my doctor recommended ibgard to manage my ibs. take control. ask your doctor about nonprescription ibgard. general kelly has the full authority to operate within the white house, and all staff will report to him. >> you said earlier all staff

will report to the new chief of staff. does that include jared kushner? does that include steve bannon? everyone reports to kelly? >> that includes everybody at the white house. >> that was white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders earlier today outlining the white house chain of command, now that the new chief of staff, retired general john kelly has been sworn in and anthony scaramucci has left his post. but might that new flow chart be easier said than done? will the president's son-in-law and chief campaign now white house strategist really relegate themselves to talking to kelly instead of to the president? will they take what is essentially a demotion? new jersey governor chris christie, a friend and confidante of the president told cnn about the scaramucci ousting. quote, the actions taken today by the president and general kelly will professionalize the operation in a way that will serve the president and the nation very well. i spoke with governor christie a short while ago about the white house tumult. so you're confident that general kelly can turn things around? >> well, listen, i think if the

president appropriately empowers him and the general is working hard at it, i think he can. he certainly has the experience to do it. he has run large organizations and brought discipline to them. so i think he does. but, again, this is a team effort. and, you know, this was the first show i came on very early in february and said that i thought there were problems with the way the president was being served by staff. and i was very candid with you about that. i'm hopeful now. i think that general kelly has the background and the experience to be able to do it well. but everybody's got to work as a team, and they all got to understand that they're working to try to make the country better. and the country will get better through a better term presidency. >> so one of the big issues has been there really has v been like three chiefs of staff. in addition to reince priebus and general kelly, there is the steve bannon chief of staff and the jared kushner chief of staff with the ivanka ancillary chief of staff there. and people who worked in the white house said that's very confusing. it makes it difficult to get

things done. you said as long as kelly has the tools he need, or whatever the term you used, i assume as long as everybody reports to kelly instead of there being this spread out power structure? >> well, that's what i have suggested from the beginning, what we suggested in our additional transition report. and that's why i said at the time, if you remember, jake, that it was the structure that was the biggest problem, not the people. having a structure where three people are in charge means no one is in charge. i heard the president loud and clear. he said general kelly is in charge. so if that in fact is the case and the president enforces that with the rest of the people that general kelly is in charge, he has a much better chance of success. >> so you fault the structure. the "wall street journal" editorial board has a different take. they wrote after general kelly was selected and reince priebus was deposed, quote, the shuffling of the staff furniture won't matter unless mr. trump accepts that the white house problem isn't mr. priebus, it's him. that's from can conservative "wall street journal" editorial

page. do you agree that president trump and how disciplined he has been or not been is part of the problem? >> i think that's part of who he is. i think if you're the chief of staff, you need to understand the style of the principle, the approach of the principle. and you have to make a structure that works for that. what i said before was the three-person structure doesn't work. and that's not just an aside. that's the key to it. now you have one person, the president said who is in charge from the staff perspective. and i think the big key for general kelly is not only to have that empowerment from the president, which he now seems to have, but also jim baker said it very well. he said this to me during the transition when i interviewed him. and he said it again recently. the chief of staff has to remember to be staff and not chief. so you have to work with your staff. you have to make them comfortable and let everybody know we're rowing in the same direction and rowing for president of the united states. he is the person who was elected. you got the work for him. >> just to be clear, you're saying this will work potentially if bannon and jared

report to kelly? >> everyone must report to the chief of staff, including the president of the united states. >> because that's not how it works. and we still don't know if that's how it's going to work. >> i read a comment this morning. the president said general kelly has full authority. now i read that comment, jake, to mean that everyone has to report to the chief of staff. i think that's what should have happened from the beginning. i think that would have helped reince priebus to have been more successful in that job than it turned out he was. and i said all along i thought reince was a bit of a victim of the structure that got set up. in the end, what people have to be focused on in the white house is how to best make the president most effective. and you can't change your principle except around the edges. he is now 70 years old. he has had enormous south success. >> 71. >>71 now? okay. i'm trying to help you, mr. president. the fact is what we need to have is a structure and an attitude in the white house that says we

are here not for ourselves, we're here for the country and this president. >> but when he does things like announces the transgender ban on the military, which would remove 4,000 currently serving service members and members of the reserves which "the new york times" reports when general mattis found out about it, he was appalled. when he does that seemingly impulsively, announcing it on twitter, no apparent coordination with the people that would implement this, very little idea of how this would be implemented, are there really going to be 4,000 members of the military kicked out of the military, doesn't that undermine his agenda? >> well, i think what happened there, jake, i don't have inside information on this. but my sense from having worked with the president for a long time and having known him for 15 years, my guess is there was some significant disagreement inside the administration about this policy. and it tells you again about the structure and the problem with the structure. so the president i think

probably heard enough of this cushion discuss. he had made his decision and he wasn't going to go through the process again. he was going to announce it and work on the back end to make sure the process put it into place. that's his style. we've seen that over and over again. >> it's chaotic, though, empirically, it's chaotic. >> again, i think it is a result of in part, in large part the structure that existed in the white house. if you have a chief of staff who is in charge and the president trusts that chief of staff, and he is fully empowered, then all this stuff will go through the chief of staff. i think that part of it was the president wasn't appropriately briefed beforehand, before he became president about the diffuse structure being a real problem. so now we're going to see, though. that's been my theory, as you know since february. so now we're going to see if i'm right. >> the attorney general, jeff sssions, has been having an unpleasant time i think it's fair. >> it's fair to say.

>> with the president publicly shaming him, humiliating him for the decision he made to recuse himself, a decision that i believe you have said was the right decision, have you not? >> well, i don't know. i don't think i've ever commented on that publicly. >> well do, thi, do you think ie right decision? >> i think it depends on why he recused himself. if he recused himself because he gave confusing and inconsistent answers at his hearing regarding his contact with russia and russian officials, that then to be in charge of the russia investigation is problematic for him. but if it was because of association with the campaign, well, he could have recused himself and told the president-elect and everybody right then that that was the reason to recuse. i don't believe that was a reason to recuse. lots of people have been involved in campaigns at some level and then gone on to serve as attorney general. we've seen that in many instances. certainly attorney holder was very involved in the obama

campaign and became attorney general. didn't recuse himself from anything. >> there were no investigations into the obama 2008 campaign. >> but jake, this investigation goes well beyond just the campaign. >> sure. >> i don't think there was a need for him to recuse himself based upon his association with the campaign. now, if he believed that once he gave answers that at best were confusing regarding his interaction with russia, at that point i think, you know, it was much more defensible to recuse. but i want to be clear about what i think needed to be done here. i don't think he needed to recuse over his involvement in the campaign. but i do think that once he gave misleading or confusing answers about russia, that that became more of a problem. >> what do you think about the way president trump has been treating him, really, it seems like berating him until he quits, although he has not quit. >> it wouldn't be my style and hasn't been my style as an executive. if i have a problem with a member of my cabinet or my senior staff, i call them in and tell them. if i think they need to go, i

fire them. now, the president has a different approach with general sessions. and we're going to see whether that approach works or it doesn't work, depending on what the president's real end is here. and i don't know that. i haven't talked to him about this. but i will tell you, jake, is that in the end, i understand the president's upset about the fact that he appointed an attorney general -- and even if there was going to be a special counsel, that his attorney general should manage that special counsel's investigation. because special counsel is not independent of the attorney general. they report to the attorney general. and to not have an attorney general who can oversee that, i understand why the president would be frustrated by that. but it's a situation we're in. >> we're going to take a quick break. stick around. we've got a lot more to talk about. >> sure. coming up next, the white house's opioid commission which the governor is leading, and we'll get his side of the story of getting in the face of that heckling chicago cubs fan. stay with us. disease. you're a life of unpredictable symptoms. crohn's, you've tried to own us.

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crisis in this country which is controlled by an anti-drug commission. earlier today, i asked the governor about the finings and what more needs to be done about this crises. >> what we found jake, is 142 americans are dying every day of drug overdose, every day. which means we have a 9-11 scale loss every three weeks in america. the first thing we send the president is you must declare a emergency. and to get on top of it because we have a crises. every three weeks -- >> that's staggering. >> than the number of people that died on 9-11. >> mostly from opioids? >> 3.75 of opioids.

four out of every five new heroin addicts in the country today starting on prescription opioids. this problem, jake, is not starting on the street corners it's starting in the doctor's offices and hospitals. we prescribe enough opioids in this country in 2015 to have every dull in america fully medicated for three weeks. it's out of control. one of recommendations we're making is increased education for our doctors at medical and dental school and mandatory continuing education if you want the dea license to write these prescriptions. we need to have that across the country. >> the big pharmaceutical firms need to be penalized if their pushing these too much. the doctors who overprescribe need to be punished. >> doctor's need to be punished

for overprescribing. there's a lot of responsibility to go around here. we think the president and coming has tools available to them to work in the states to be able to lessen this crises. we have a long way to go, we hope the president declares a public health emergency in this country which will allow us to be aggressive about this problem. >> you've worked with law enforcement do you share the concerns of police chief and organizations that president trump was too flippant when he spoke about the -- >> i don't think that's what the president believes. i think when he starts to riff, a little as i call it, he's having fun. because he's from the same area as he is i can tell when the president is being sarcastic and flippant and i think he's getting use to how people will take that from him as president of the united states versus real estate developer.

i don't think the president believes that. but i think he make jokes and is sarcastic and i think he's still getting used to how that's going to be received when you're president. >> speaking of certain north eastern style, you had concern with a cubs' fan yesterday, let's take a quick look. >> what i say to you? want to act like the big shot. >> that's the tail end of the exchange obviously. what happened and do you ever think twice about thing like that? >> no. listen jake, when somebody swears at you publicly and says some awful thing with a lot of children sitting around and my son sitting with me, i took it the first time he said it and yelled it about 15 yards and said some lousy stuff. and i came back after having

ignored him for the first time and he went in for seconds. well, when you go in for seconds, if you give it you're going to get it back and i think that was a very mellow reaction from a new jersey governor to just say you're a real big shot. you know, and most of these folks they think they can say everything they want. public officials are public servants but not meant to be public punching bags. i'm at a ball game with my son enjoying a game. i don't think it's the right for anybody to stand up and swear at you and curse you out. i've gone through this before on boardwalks and other places and i always have the same response. i'll ignore it when it first happens but when you persist you'll get a reaction. >> thank you for being here and thank you for the update on the opioid crisis. before we say good night there was an award moving -- under president trump.

mcclueman's story goes back to late 1960s with the young army vet risked his life nine times to safety lives of his fellow soldier. >> it has been 50 years since the action that -- but for the former army medic and the men he saved in battle. between may 13 and 15th, 1969 mcclue want's team was attacked 39 times. both platoons were ambushed, and there were heavy casualties. >> second day, we lose our only other medic we got and that's dan shay and i got him in, got his body and now i'm the only medic. >> then 23-year-old mcclue wynn a specialist was left to care for his company all by himself. according to the army he repeatedly ran in braving enemy

fire to pull in for safety and returning for more without heads tags. >> and i can literally hear and see the bullets skipping off the grun. >> bush through his she rap nell wounds to save the lives of others. when he was given an order to evacuate for safety he refused to leave his team. the morning of may 18th, he helicopter his company once more by fighting back. he's credited with saving the lives of ten men in vietnam. as the nation shows its gratitude, he says he's thankful to the army for building his character. >> before today, mr. mcclue wynn one several other medals. we send him our gratitude today.

that's it for this special prime. i'm jake tapper. have a great night. see you tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern. hello and welcome our viewers in the united states and around the states. i'm eye sasse say. >> i'm john vause. thank you for being with us. >> we begin "the washington post". the paper sites mumble unname