>> good friend of the network. the fireworks, record finish for the dow. the s&p at 2472 to make it green for the week, would have to be at 2474. we're not there yet. there's the closing bell. david and melissa have much more to go with "after the bell." melissa: here we go. david: three in a row, you should have seen what was going on five seconds ago. melissa: nothing! >> very excited with the dow. another record. ending the day and the week in the green. neither can be said for the s&p and nasdaq fighting for gains in the final moments. happy friday, ooimd i'm david asman. melissa: you can tell it's friday. i'm melissa francis. this is "after the bell". here's what else we're covering for you during this incredibly busy hour. senate republicans failing overnight to pass any type of repeal on obamacare. what happens now? a look at the state of health care and the political fallout for those numb skulls. i shouldn't say that.

president trump telling law enforcement he has their back. speaking this afternoon how he plans to crack down on illegal criminal immigrants and the deadly ms-13 gang. what he's calling for now? and tensions in the west wing boiling over in a very public way. the new white house coms director inadvertently telling the world how he really feels about top white house staffer reince priebus and steve bannon. new developments and reaction to his colorful comments. david: we heard all the colorful comments when he worked here. the dow closing up about 33 points, 33.25 to a new record high. straight to nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange for today's big market movers. happy friday, nicole. >> reporter: happy friday, dow record. right? people are loving. that they like that for the 401(k)s and iras. the dow at 21,829.

a gain there. the s&p 5002472. missed it by a fraction of a point for a winning week. four weeks of gains for the s&p 500. and we're watching the nasdaq closely. that right now looking to the downside for the week. of course, amazon weighed and that was down 2.5% today after it missed numbers yesterday. starbucks, that was down nearly 10%. closing all the teavanas, overall big concerns there. they missed on numbers. down 9%. consumer stocks came under pressure and the tobacco stocks. the tobacco stocks under serious down arrows. you can see british american tobacco down 17%. altria down 10% because the fda is moving forward on trying to have less nicotine in the cigarettes, and that is because people, 90% of smokers dave and melissa, start before they are 18 years old. idea for the next generation to

not be addicted. david: if you can make it to 18 without smoking, you will never smoke. the averages are that. nicole, thank you very much. what about oil, melissa? melissa: best week of the year, now that you ask. ending up more than 8.5% for the week to $49.71 a barrel, that is the highest level in more than two months. gold climbing for the third week in a low logging in 1% to end at $1268.40. david: gold bugs are smiling. and another dow record, the tech sell-off weighs on the nasdaq and the s&p. bring in veronica dagher from the "wall street journal" and jack hough from "barron's". still less than 3% but 2.6%, more than double the last quarter. is this a blip or a long-term trend? >> we'll see, the numbers are good, they're not spectacular. you know the consumer is feeling stronger, they're spending more on things like

groceries and health care. business investment is also up again, not as great as last quarter but still good. so there's some good fundamentals happening there. however, we're not going to see blockbuster growth until we see real changes in regulation and tax reform. and who knows when that's going to happen? david: we're going to talk about taxes in a minute. what about tech sector, that was going to get hit. is that going to continue? >> going to continue to climb like it has been. the strong are getting stronger. david: really? >> what have we seen in a company like facebook. a half trillion dollar company. they grow the top line by 45%. it's crazy. the only entities that stop them is each other and battling each other for business or government with antitrust actions. david: buy on the dip and it's dipping, melissa. melissa: the future of obamacare surrounds health care as the senate rejects a skinny repeal of the law, but

president trump still feels optimistic. >> congress is actually opening up and really doing a job. they should have approved health care last night, but you can't have everything. boy, oh, boy, they've been working on that one for seven years. can you believe that? i said from the beginning let obamacare implode and then do it. i turned out to be right. let obamacare implode. melissa: fox news' mike emanuel is on capitol hill with the latest. oh, mike, i mean, come on. they did nothing, so annoying. all right, go ahead. >> reporter: melissa, good afternoon. the problem is senate republican leadership could only afford two no votes, maine's susan collins and alaska's lisa murkowski, no votes from the beginning. did not want to take up the health care reform effort. they stayed consistent last night and arizona senator john mccain sank the bill.

>> this is clearly a disappointing moment from skyrocketing costs to plummeting choices and collapsing markets, our constituents have suffered through an awful lot under obamacare. we thought they deserve better. >> there was incredible tension on the senate floor late night. you had vice president mike pence trying to convince mccain to support the bill. then other lawmakers tried to see if they could get murkowski to yes, the senate democratic leader paid tribute to those who said no. >> last night was an amazing moment, and the credit goes to a lot of people but at the top of the list are the three who showed amazing courage to resist the pressure and do what's good for the country. john mccain at the top of the list. >> reporter: republicans over in the house which actually passed the bill had a conference meeting this morning and reacted to the failure.

>> it's almost a spiritual feeling there. it's just -- people are getting really deep, and little bit of despair, but people broke into hope at the end. so i mean it's very discouraging, and a lot of people on the flight back home, it's about the country, right? >> reporter: the senate is not in session today. it will be back to the drawing board on health care reform sometime next week. melissa? melissa: mike, thank you. jack and veronica are back. what a useless group. i can't believe it. veronica, i can't even take it. >> more uncertainty for the consumer. the consumer is left wondering what to do. folks are trying to find new doctors and doctors may not accept them because they don't know what's going to happen to payments. insurers got a bit of a reprieve. the individual mandate is still intact but they don't know what the future is either. they want stabilization in the market in order for it to work but we don't know if that's

going to happen. so what's remaining is are we going to see republicans and democrats work together, find coalition potentially to get something done, because the fact is at this point, the eyes of the voters and we're going to be facing midterms next year, the eyes of the voters, both parties are responsible for this. melissa: you know, jack, the whole group gets together, the gnashing of teeth, the collection of television camsra, they sit there and whine and walk away not having fixed a damn thing. just so unbelievable to me. what do you think, jack? >> sounds like you're not yet tired of winning. trump promised we'd be tired of winning, i'm not seeing a lot of winning. melissa: you think this is his fault? those idiots do nothing and it's his fault. >> look, republicans control every branch of government. they don't have an idea how to move forward on health care. melissa: point to a democrat who has an idea. none of those useless people

has an idea in any of their heads, you can't point to any of them and say they are doing something right. >> ways they could deal with the shortcomings. melissa: they are, why aren't they doing it? >> what you have is a president who will be cheerleading for the tens of millions of people who have gotten health insurance for the first time to fate. they're not going to do anything to help, he wants to see it fail because he feels it will help him look better. melissa: all of the jokers could have gotten together and fix it and none of them want to or have the discipline, they are useless. that's my two cents. david: the house is movington tax reform, but will that failure that melissa was talking about, the obamacare repeal, make it harder to get tax cuts before the end of the year? our own maria bartiromo asked just that. take a listen. >> if we don't get the law, what we have decided is obamacare taxes stay on the books in law with obamacare so,

what we are going to do is cordon the taxes off to the side, make sure the health care taxes stay with obamacare and reform the rest of the tax code to keep our tax plan intact. david: veronica, we got to live with the obamacare taxes for a while longer, but according to what i heard from paul ryan, all other tax rates are coming down. corporate and individual, what do you think? >> i think that is a tough sell. we'll see what happens because how you go to build a coalition around this? again, republicans are not of the same mind. this is not one united party. we've got some people worried about the deficit. we've got other people going to be worried about you're doing too much for the rich. how are they going to come together? david: hold on for a second, jack, you were just talking about bipartisanshipism and how we need to have it again in terms of obamacare. we had a bipartisan report on tax cuts years ago. it was set up by president obama.

they say you had democrats and republicans, simpson-bowles was the name of the report. get rid of as many deductions as possible and then president obama ignored it. why not go back to that? >> the plan was to get money out of health care to pay for tax cuts. that hasn't happened. you'll be lucky if you get a skinny tax cut. you are definitely not getting tax reform. they go into crisis mode after the break. david: the top corporatevate 35%. the actual corporate rate is 28%. if they only go down 25%, it's not going to mean anything, not going to affect corporate taxes? >> that's what they're going do because that's what they can do with having it be revenue neutral. david: i hope you're wrong, melissa. melissa: moving to uber, the ride-sharing company eyeing general electric's jeff imult for the ceo.

veronica, i don't know about this one, good fit? >> this is a job, i don't know if anyone seems to want. this is a hot potato. they have regulation issues, fierce competition and across the board, who knows what's in store for the company as the future evolves, but this is a tough job to fill and also a weird situation in that same wsj article talks about how the former ceo is on selection committee for the next potential ceo. highly irregular. melissa: i guess, i don't know, jack, i look at flip side of this one. the company is ubiquitous, created technology that is everywhere. you think it would be easily ripped off. nobody else is doing it quite as well. transitioning from the entrepreneurial ceo, the guy who charted it and started it up to it being a good business. there are good things there. you want the job, jack? >> i don't think jeff immelt is good.

he didn't exactly bathe himself in the glory of ge. melissa: no. >> this is a software company. who do you get to run a software company? i guess i can't make comments about age here. isn't software for younger -- this is a guy who is entering into retirement. melissa: he's very charming. i don't know that he revved up ge. i like him, too. thank you. i'm still mad about health care, by the way, did you notice that? david: it came through. melissa: they are so useless. david: this is going to make you happy. making art great again. the drawing of the new york city skyline fetching big bucks at auction. you may recognize the signature at the bottom wait until you hear what it went for. melissa: how could a group of people achieve so little in washington? north korea launching another ballistic missile. we're getting word u.s. military response is being discussed. wow. former ambassador john bolton

weighs in, serious story. david: fight to repeal obamacare, no doubt facing scores of angry constituents. melissa: like me. david: california congressman jeff denham joining us for more and what happens now? >> i'm optimistic we can still get it done. the people are losing faith. we're going to stay. in i can tell you who is staying in. the president is staying in on this fight. he's going to deliver. when i started taking the chantix that urge just slowly diminished and it was a great and empowering feeling. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems,

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one that keeps you connected to what matters most. . david: republican senators recovering from yet another major loss. i don't know if they're recovering. last night, happened early this morning, actually, attempting to repeal parts of obamacare. this as the house is leaving for august recess, unable to move forward on health care without the senate. here now republican congressman

jeff denham from california. congressman, would you have voted for the skinny bill if it had come to you? >> you know, if i was in the other body, absolutely. i think it's important that we move the ball forward. the employer mandate. the individual mandate is something that should have been the easiest to pass over here. for months as you remember, the senate criticized the house for not doing its job. we got a bill done, it obviously needed improvements but really looking forward to seeing the senate pass something to conference the two bills together. david: both the house and the senate have their own leadership, and some people are blaming that leadership for not being able to corral the votes. mo brooks, one of your colleagues from congress, spoke about that with maria bartiromo earlier. let's play that tape. >> at this point, if i were mitch mcconnell, i would resign and let somebody else, see if they can provide the leadership that is necessary to address health care now, tax reform next, infrastructure next and on down the list.

but we cannot continue to have the kind of failures we've had in the united states senate. david: if that failure continues ocongressman, in tax cuts, it would be a disaster. shouldn't we clean house, change leadership before taxes come up for votes? >> i don't view this as a leadership issue. this is an issue that every member of the senate as well as the house need to be providing leadership of their own. david: that's not how it works, congressman. you know that very well. you need leader -- look, if you know anything about going back to the history of the congress or the senate, you see the strong leaders getting things done, you don't have to go back that far. as much as i oppose most of what harry reid was for and nancy pelosi was for, they got a solid group together to vote for what they wanted. >> sure, this was close, it didn't get across the finish line. i don't think you can just pass blame. david: you got to get it done.

>> i agree, i agree. but i also believe every individual has the ability to pull together coalitions just like the house, the problem solvers caucus. republicans and democrats working together on a new health care plan that we can pass on a bipartisan level. david: in the meantime, and you're going to hear from it when you go back to constituents. in the meantime, you've got things getting worse and worse not only in terms of insurance but doctors leaving various systems, all kinds of problems affecting your constituents right now because of the failure of the senate to act? >> absolutely. i couldn't agree more. looking forward to meeting with doctors and hospitals and patients to talk about a lot of the issues. but this is something that is not just a republican problem. the republicans need to solve. this is an american problem that both parties should engage on. one of my bills, we've got to address our access to health care as well. we have medicaid patients who

can't find a doctor, a lot of areas that have a huge doctor shortage. there's a lot we've got to work on together. this first piece, the individual mandate, there's a real difference between republicans and democrats. david: we are all forced to continue to pay into a system that doesn't work. that's dishonest! that's the sort of thing that a totalitarian governments force people to do, to pay into something that doesn't work. that's not democratic. >> i agree, and the affordable care act was based on a number of lies that have affected all of us. so we've got to fix it. the one piece of good news that came out of this. david: we need it, tell us. >> senator schumer recognizes the fact we have a broken system. if he can realize it's broken, maybe he can come to the table with ideas to help fix it. david: congressman, i hate to tell you, i live in closer proximity to senator schumer than you do in new york, and i got to tell you he's been fine with broken for a long time. i don't think there's much hope there. we'll take it.

happy friday to you. congressman jeff denham. good luck going home to the constituents. melissa: $29,000, that's how much a 2005 sketch by president trump auctioned off for. more than three times the opening bid. the black-and-white drawing depicts the new york city skyline with trump tower in the center. sketched it a year after the hit tv show "the apprentice" premiered. that was supposed to cheer me up. it wasn't work. david: it is a lot for one painting. failure on socialism on display in venezuela. a new warning for americans as opposition leaders are calling for nationwide protests against the government. plus president trump's pledge to restore law and order. how the commander in chief is planning to crack down on blood thirsty gangs. >> together we're going to restore safety to our streets

and peace to our communities, and we're going to destroy the vile criminal cartel ms-13 and many other gangs. we're both stuck in this cube farm and you're about to hit 'send all' on some embarrassing gas. hey, you bought gas-x®! unlike antacids, gas-x ® relieves pressure and bloating fast. huh, crisis averted.

. david: we just got this. lisa murkowski, one of the senators, one of the republican senators that voted against the health care bill last night, just released the following statement, i voted no on the health care proposal last night because both sides must do better and on process and substance. the affordable care act remains a flawed law. melissa: no kidding! >> committed to reforming, note the word reforming instead of repeal, reforming with a structure that works better for all americans. there it is. melissa: so useless. cracking down on gang violence, president trump in new york this afternoon. in a community particularly hit by illegal immigration and the violent gang known as ms-13. speaking with law enforcement officials earlier, connell

mcshane live on long island with the latest. connell? >> reporter: hey there, melissa. 17 murders in that area over the last year and a half. that's what president trump said ms-13 has been responsible for and says a crackdown on the violent gang which has roots in el salvador has already begun, but called for more to be done today in the federal level. more immigration agents. wants more immigration judges. he talked about the border wall being built, and to your point, it was a receptive crowd, of local law enforcement officials. police officers in the new york city suburbs. an area he's familiar with. >> one by one, we're liberating our american towns. can you believe i'm saying that? i'm talking about liberating our towns, just like a movie, they're liberating the town. like in the old wild west, right? we're liberating our towns. i never thought i'd be standing up here talking about liberating the towns on long

island. >> that is what he was talking about, though, most of the speech was a contrast, other than a quick comment about health care and how he couldn't believe he couldn't get anything passed last night. most of the speech built up as a contrast between his administration and the previous one and how they approach this particular issue. listen. >> i want to tell you all together right now, and the reason i came, this is the most important sentence to me. on behalf of the american people, i want to say thank you. thank you very much. you're saving american lives every day, and we have your back. believe me. we have your backs, 100%. not like the old days. not like the old days. [ applause ] >> reporter: that's the part of it you heard it there, melissa, the crowd, the police officers on hand reacting to that, not like the old days. a number of comments like that from the president, a quick in

and out trip to his native new york as quickly he was here, he left back to d.c. this is an issue he's quite comfortable talking about, immigration and violent crime. melissa: connell, thank you for that. david: well, the world is rattled as north korea launches another missile. an icbm, the rogue regime defying international pressure, taking a very significant step being able to send a nuclear weapon to our main land. coming up former ambassador to the u.n. john bolton here to respond. melissa: the failure to fix obamacare as members of the house are leaving for august recess. are you serious? what it means for the trump administration going forward next. how can they go home? they've done nothing. >> i never heard that phrase when the members of the house and senate ran successfully on repealing and replacing obamacare. i didn't hear them say limit the edges, cut and shave here and there, and i think this is why frankly the congress has

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. david: newly appointed white house communications director anthony scaramucci isn't taking his time warming up. right into the mix, bad-mouthing colleagues in the white house. blake burman live in d.c. with the fallout. blake, his main target of his bad-mouthing is reince priebus. any word whether he's going to stay or go? >> reporter: that's the pg way

of putting it, david. based on what was said the other day. reince priebus is still at the white house, though there hasn't been a defense from folks inside the building of reince priebus, as it stands this afternoon, he is indeed the chief of staff. he was aboard air force one along with anthony scaramucci today as the two were with the president for his event earlier this afternoon in new york, and going onto that plane, coming off it, reporters asked scaramucci about his comments, that he made in a phone call with a reporter from "new yorker" couple of nights ago which he absolutely trashed the white house chief of staff and scaramucci did not have any comments. the comments that scaramucci made the other night were as follows, and i quote here -- and then he had some more colorful words for the chief strategist steve bannon.

earlier today and speaking with stuart varney on the fox business network, the budget director mick mulvaney contented this is not a white house besieged with chaos. >> we just revealed yesterday, again, that this idea of a unified position on basic principles on taxes. that's not chaotic. yes, the media does pick up on that, that's fine. that's what they do for a living. we work here and we're making progress here. >> reporter: david as for priebus, remains to be seen how much longer he will remain part of the apparatus. keep in mind at the podium behind me, the press secretary sarah huckabee sanders was asked if the president has confidence in him. there was not a yes or no answer. david: when you can't make sense of a sentence because there are too many expletives.

you know there are too many expletives. >> reporter: exactly. david: thank you very much. melissa: here now on the battle inside the white house is brad blakeman, former president george w. bush senior staffer. i love the people so horrified by the language. did they remember bill clinton? i mean, i don't know. it seems like there were things going on there. the gasps and the i can't take it and it's asaging to me. >> hard to make america great again when people are hearing nothing but salacious banter inside the white house. it's not healthy to the president's agenda. it's not constructive. melissa: but wait, let me challenge you on that. >> sure. melissa: what he's saying, this is about upsetting the establishment. this is about not doing things the way they've always been done. in washington where everyone is nice to their face and stabbing each other behind the back, and

then they're not actually getting anything done. this is a totally different way to do business. >> i have to say i've served few presidents and most recently a member of george w. bush's senior staff, we were collegial. yeah meetings were contentious at times, but once a decision was made, that stayed within the room, and we went out to do the people's business. there was not this intrigue every day of drip, drip, drip of people not getting along, of importants and certainly not of the chief of staff. you can't have a working environment if this continues. what i had seen, no back stabbing. there was disagreements? absolutely, absolutely. melissa: maybe we are just new yorkers. switching to health care -- that's possible, too. the house is leaving washington for august recess as the senate fails to pass a bill repealing

parts of obamacare. brad, i don't know if you heard i'm a little frustrated about this one. >> i don't blame you. melissa: they all get together, walk around, the houses are meowing and nobody has done anything and they all leave. >> no one is going anywhere, should stay at their desk and do what they promised to do. they ran in 2016, universally, every republican ran on repeal and replace, not to fix or have a skinny bill, whatever that is, and get it done. the fact that they're not getting it done and saying let's move onto taxes and come back to health care. the american people don't have the luxury of coming back to health care. they're going to be hit in walk the a new rates for 2018, and guess what? what's going to happen? what's going to happen to people like me? the rates go up, i can assure you, united healthcare just pulled out of virginia. the american people need to demand this be done. if they don't, the republicans are probably not going to be in

the majority in either house or maybe both. melissa: you hit on it there, the rest of us don't have the luxury of ignoring enormous problems. when there is a giant leak in the roof, whatever it is, we don't have the luxury of ignoring the giant problem staring you in the face, and they get together, some of them are sanctimonious, i saved the world and they all leave and the whole thing is a mess and they've done nothing. do they not see that? >> well, if they don't see, it they're going to feel it in 2018. the american people are going to say, we gave you every bit of power we could possibly give you. we gave you the entire congress, the lower house and upper house, the white house and you claim you don't have enough majority to get things done? that's not going play in 2018. melissa: i need a cocktail. brad, thank you. david: doesn't hurt them at all, they still have their own insurance policies and everything, they get special deals inside the beltway. this story is related even though it is overseas. charlie gard, this is a

tragedy, the british baby, the poster child, the arguments against socialized medicine has died. his parents wanted him to live but the british health care system said he must die because of a rare genetic disease that they said would get much worse. the case got caught up in european courts and now tragically it is too late. charlie gard, rest in peace. for? (in unison) russ, leland, gary: yes. gary: i have a ford f-150. michael: i've always been a ford guy. potsch: then i have a real treat for you today. michael: awesome. potsch: i'm going to show you a next generation pickup. michael: let's do this. potsch: this new truck now has a cornerstep built right into the bumper. gary: super cool. potsch: the bed is made of high-strength steel, which is less susceptible to punctures than aluminum. jim: aluminum is great for a lot of things, but maybe not the bed of a truck. potsch: and best of all, this new truck is actually- gary: (all laughing) oh my... potsch: the current chevy silverado. gary: i'm speechless. gary: this puts my ford truck to shame. james: i'll tell you, i might be a chevy guy now. (laughing)

is everything ok?adt, i could hear crackling in the walls, and my mind went totally blank. all i remember saying was, "my boyfriend's beating me" and she took it from there. when a fire is going on, you're running around, you're not thinking clearly, so they called the fire department for us. and all of this occurred in four minutes or less. within five minutes.

i am absolutely grateful we all made it out safely. it's kind of one of those things you can't even... you cant even thank somebody. people you don't know actually care about you. to protect what you love, call 1-800-adt-cares . melissa: the combined bill imposing sanctions on iran, russia and north korea has called for the president to sign and approve or veto. we are following this very closely and keep you updated with any developments on that one. david? david: more details coming out about the north korean missile launch today. pentagon spokesman captain jeff davis saying, quote, the u.s. department of defense detected and tracked a single north

korea missile launch today. we assess that this missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile as had been expected, following the launch, top u.s. military officials reportedly discuss military response options with south korea's highest military official. joining us is former ambassador to the u.n. and fox news contributor, john bolton. i heard a three-star general say by the way, any response is unacceptable, and yet we have to do something, what do you recommend? >> well, whether it's a three-star general or not, anybody who says a military response is unacceptable says you have to get used to north korea with nuclear weapons that can kill american civilians. >> let me correct that. he didn't say it was unacceptable, he said it was not palatable. that didn't mean it was unacceptable. go ahead. i tell you what's not palatable to me is dead americans, and the fact is for 25 years we've pursued a strategy that's tried

to link diplomacy with pressure, sanctions and negotiations. and the mistake and belief we could change north korea's behavior. we have failed for 25 years, that's why we're in an unhappy place now. the diplomatic options are extremely limited. but an american president is unfortunately soon going to be faced with the question. if you see another icbm on a launch pad and don't know what's under the nose cone and don't know what direction it's going to be fired in, are you going to take the chance it's not aimed at america? that's the chance we take. david: if we have to decide between hitting that missile and the possibility that hawaii or even san francisco could be hit by a nuke from the north koreans, we got to get the missile. can we see enough from spy satellites about where the missiles are before they launch? >> well, i think we see a lot, but i don't think we can guarantee we see everything. this was a nighttime launch, of this missile, which is quite interesting. if they can put a missile out

on a launch pad, if it's fueled by solid fuel which doesn't take much preparation time, they could have it up before we focus on it. focusing on a submarine launch capability, which is more threatening. david: concerning considering the state of the submarines. will china be any help for us? we know the sanctions aren't working. are they any help at all or dismiss that? >> i don't know that they have been for 25 years, china doesn't want north korea with nuclear weapons. they have the capability to stop it from happening, they haven't done it. they don't think it's a threat. japan looking at the threat, forget the united states, they're not going to sit by and let it happen. we're approaching the crisis point, we never should have been at this point. the purpose of state craft is take incipient threats and make sure they aren't real. that is the reality for 25 years. david: ambassador, want to talk

to a situation closer to home. the chaos in venezuela, south of the border. the country's president meduro staging a rewrite of the constitution, showing support for the measure as low as 20%. it looks like the only way meduro can win this vote is by cheating which, of course, he's not averse to doing. what happens then, ambassador? >> i think he will win the chicago way. that's the most likely outcome. if he doesn't, he'll find some other way to perpetuate the chavez-maduro dictatorship. the opposition is in difficult shape. the united states imposed some sanctions, i think it's ridiculous to pretend the maduro regime has any legitimacy as a democratic government. we ought to be working with the opposition, taking their lead but giving any assistance we can to overthrow this government and try and get back to a representative government in venezuela.

just been a tragedy to watch this country tear itself apart because of chavez and maduro. david: some people say if we did, that that would be nation building. we got to say the opposition is very experienced at governing. they control the congress, that's why maduro wants to dissolve the congress. if we do help the opposition, might be more like what happened in eastern europe than what happened in iraq, right? >> i would call it good old-fashioned regime change. leave the nation building to the venezuelans. look, the situation is very difficult. but this is the capstone to the effort to put a democracy in place in venezuela, if maduro succeeds, the only way to bring it down will be through violence. this is the last chance to stop it. david: what a world this president has been left with, huh? all over the globe. it's even worse than after jimmy carter because jimmy carter only had one term. >> and by the way, as you know, in venezuela, the maduro regime

is advised and directed by cubans, courtesy of the castro brothers. david: absolutely. john bolton, thank you very much, appreciate it. melissa: getting to the source of the leaks. a new shocking report revealing that the top fbi lawyer may be under investigation. we've got details on that next. new information surfacing over congressman debbie wasserman schultz aide who was arrested after fleeing the country. what really went on with this one? jordan sekulow is weighing in, after the break. dearthere's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced. our senses awake. our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say...if you love something set it free.

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call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. . david: the news you've all been waiting for, apparently there's going to be a new chief of staff in the white house. not apparently. this comes from the source. donald trump,@real donald trump.

i am pleased to inform you i have named john f. kelly as white house chief of staff. he is a great american. john kelly will be moving over to the white housa chief of staff. very interesting development, and no word about reince priebus. one can only assume there can be one chief of staff at a time. melissa: what does that say to put a general in as chief of staff? here now is jordan sekulow, law and justice executive director. you want to react to the news we're just hearing? >> absolutely, this is likely a result of two things. one thing anthony scaramucci, a good friend of mine moving into the white house communications director role, and two, the failure of the health care bill, which people like reince priebus who worked hard on it with vice president pence were not able to get that over a major hurtle. the president was ready to make

a position change at chief of staff level, more like a general, to keep things in line there, with his schedule, with who he's meeting with, in a bit more serious way. a lot of this has to do with the leaks out of the white house and the -- just overall legislative failures that i think people like reince priebus have kind of got -- that was their purview, what they were working on and couldn't get things across the aisle. david: bring in another great american, our own charlie gasparino, who saw a lot of this coming. john kelly, i don't think people saw john kelly coming. he is a great american, no two ways about it, charlie. marine general. he lost a son during the conflict, i believe it was iraq or afghanistan. this guy is a serious guy in the white house. it's not like he's a political operative. >> yeah, and i just want to say this. we reported earlier today, reince was out. we were getting word from my source in washington it was a

matter of time. people thought it would be staved off because he was on the plane with trump today with anthony scaramucci, his internal nemesis, they thought how would he be fired after that? why would you humiliate him, put him on a plane with anthony, a guy who hates him and fire him? people thought it wouldn't be today. we're hearing all morning it was -- he was done. i will say this, this is a very serious guy in a different way that reince is. reince is a serious guy. ran the rnc. melissa: reince. >> reince, whatever. i get it. reince is a serious guy for politics. this guy is a serious guy in a different way. in a military way. and, you know, great american, we get that. it only matters who you have in that job if the person is empowered and if the guy at the top listens to you. now clearly reince was not empowered.

there -- he was the chief of staff in name only. there were many, many people reporting directly to donald trump, including scaramucci, nominally the head of communications would be reporting to the chief of staff. so we'll see how this -- it will be interesting to see if there is -- that goes along with this whether at the same time whether or not there is restructuring of the management. david: the equal amount of gravitas is rex tillerson, the secretary of state. there is no one that has the gravitas like john kelly. melissa: i wanted to ask you about the gossipy stuff on page 6 about scaramucci as well. >> yeah, here's the thing. i don't want it talk about the guy and marriage. marriages are inherently difficult. there but for the grace of god go i, and i think that's off limits to us. i will say this when it comes down to it, you can't have a white house that where you have ten chiefs of staff, chiefs of

staff. in the sense, anthony scaramucci has been freelancing as a chief of staff for the last couple of days since he was head of communications. this will only work if he empowers mr. kelly. melissa: let me read the second part of the tweet from the president. great leader, john has done a spectacular job at homeland security. a true star of my administration. is blake burman with us? maybe? yes? >> reporter: hi. melissa: hey, blake. so i mean putting a general in as your chief of staff, that seems about right with this group. you might need a general to straighten things out. >> reporter: the one point we heard donald trump say, he has high respect for generals, and now he institutes a former top member of the military who was the head of his department of homeland security now as his white house chief of staff. here's what i'll add to the

conversation briefly, melissa. speaking to a source not yesterday but two or three days ago, close to the president, a source close to the president. as all of the health care stuff is going on, and i asked well, what about reince? and this person had told me that if health care were to fail, there was probably a major shake-up coming. melissa: interesting. >> reporter: and now we have that shake-up, you had everything publicly out there about reince priebus, we don't need to go into the full screens. melissa: not again, i think we're good. >> reporter: exactly, and now this. friday afternoon, 4:45, via twitter from the president heading into the weekend saying he's got a new chief of staff, and what is left up in the air is the mechanics how all this went down? remember, reince priebus was on the plane, on air force one today. david: blake, let me interrupt because we're looking at a picture. you maybe can't see it on the screen. that is air force one at joint base andrews. is reince priebus still on the plane or not? >> reporter: great question.

we know that reince priebus was on the plane going there. is he on the plane coming back? that i am not entirely -- david: hopefully we'll be able to see. i said earlier that general kelly's son died in iraq, it was afghanistan. this was in 2010. he stepped on a land mine. he was a first lieutenant, robert kelly was his name. god bless his soul, he stepped on a land mine in afghanistan and died. this might give a hesitation on the part of a key adviser to the president to get involved in actions overseas that might be deadly to our troops, no? >> reporter: and you also have the reporting, widespread at this point, that, you know, rex tillerson might be having second doubts. there might be consternation as it relates to h.r. mcmaster. the president thinks highly of john kelly to bring him in as white house chief of staff. but that opens up another position, another high-profile position that needs to be

filled, and that is now the dhs leader. melissa: blake, is that real about rex tillerson? that would be so distressing? . liz: new achieve of staff announced by the president, president donald trump. i am please to inform you that i have named general kelly as a white house chief of staff. john has also done a spectacular job at homeland security. he's been a true star in my administration. let's bring in conservative author radio host mark steyn joins me now. wow bombshell on friday night. >> yeah. bombshell news but not unexpected. reince priebus as former head of the rnc, he was basically there to smooth the connection between the president and a republican party in congress.