seaside vacation. >> i couldn't help but think of our former president george w. h. bush who often celebrated his birthdays with a jump. >> his 80th. >> and 90th. >> thank you for joining us. >> "america's news hq" starts now. >> harris: a new week in washington begins with new leadership inside the west wing. general john kelly is now president trump's chief of staff. we've been reporting that today. i can report generals are not known for dealing with loose lips and disloyalty lightly. this will be interesting in terms of change. kelly was sworn in today. immediately got down to work with a full cabinet meeting. of course, a long side inside that room was attorney general jeff session whom president trump criticized repeatedly in recent weeks. john roberts joins me now. >> reporter: harris, the president hoping to reset operations in the west wing,

naming to the new chief of staff position, old chief of staff position, naming a new chief of staff, general john kelly, the former secretary of the department of homeland security. the president believes kelly is an emerging rock star in the administration and wants that level of expertise drive and discipline with him in the west wing. listen to what the president said earlier today. >> what he's done in terms of homeland security is record shattering. you look at the border. look at the tremendous results we've had. and you look at the spirit. and with a very controversial situation there's been very little controversy which is pretty amazing by itself. >> reporter: in the oval office following kelly's swearing in, in a cabinet meeting that occurred and on twitter, the president dismissing the notion that there's crisis in the west wing tweeting, highest stock market ever, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border securist,

supreme court no white house chaos. what remains to be seen is whether or not kelly can wrangle the various power senators that have established themselves here in the west wing. don't forget you've got the chief of staff office. and then you've got the white house legal counsel's office. you've got steve bannon, jared kushner and ivanka trump who have come to be known around the white house as javanka. whether or not all of the information will flow through general kelly to the president, or whether or not some of these people will still go around him. jared and ivanka have indicated they will follow kelly's lead. whether or not that means they will still have access to the president is another question. i imagine they probably will. >> harris: it's interesting, too, with the new director who came in last week, whether or not he'll continue to report directly to the president. remember his predecessor, i shouldn't say predecessor, but revis left because the chain of command was not something certain people were comfortable

with. we'll move on now to north korea. it's not lost on many of us that there is a general inside the white house. now, his role may be chief of staff, but messaging alongside a president when you're dealing with north korea doesn't hurt to have a general. >> reporter: two generals. not only general kelly but general h.r. mcmaster. the president this morning in that cabinet meeting acknowledging the increasing threat from north korea. particularly the latest intercontinental ballistic missile. the president's u.n. ambassador nikki haley over the weekend saying there's no use for another round of united nations security counsel sanctions that don't put pressure on the international community to come to the table and put pressure pyongyang. i asked the president what he can really do about north korea. here's his answer. >> we'll handle it. we'll be able to handle it. it will be handled. we handle everything.

thank you very much. >> reporter: not a lot of specifics there, as you can see. the president, in about 55 minutes time, will present the medal of honor to specialist james mcclowan from the vietnam war. he served as a combat medic. on one occasion he risked his life some nine times to save his comrades who were pinned down, despite the fact that he was already wounded by shrapnel and small arms fire. mcclowan was 23 at the time. he is 71 now. quite a gap of time, harris, between the time that he showed such haoe roarism and the time now that he's being recognized for it. but medal of honor, i'm sure, very much appreciated. our hats are off to him. >> harris: absolutely. congratulations to him. we're glad it's happening no matter when it happened. thanks, john. thanks for his service. joining me now is chris stirewalt. i was talking moments ago whether or not having yet a second general inside the white

house might be a game changer. your thoughts? >> it comes down to this. donald trump, who went to military school for high school has an obvious deep reverence to military commanders. he shows deference and respect to them that he does not show to most other people. as james mattis successful tenure to this point as the secretary of defense up to and including pushing back to the president suggests there may be a model here for kelly, that trump may give him the respect and loyalty that might set kelly up in a position to success. >> harris: how do you think just in terms of the leadership style that we'll see differences from this chief of staff? >> we know from lots of reporting that trump sought kelly over a period of weeks. that kelly was reluctant, and can you blame him, reluctant to

take a job right in the middle of the strike. trump had to woo him that this would be the right thing. kelly was able to extract from the president some promises. hey, look, i'll come do this, but i'm not going to take a chump fall like previs did. i'm not going to have everybody running around me. i have got to have command. i have to be the chief of staff. i'm not hail to the chief, but i have got to be the first among all of your subordinates in order for this to work. and if the president does that, if he honors a promise like that to kelly, it can work. if he doesn't. if anthony saramuchi is allowed to mooch and do his thing, and if his daughter and son-in-law are able to short circuit. what about kelly anne conway. what about these people? if he doesn't tell them to heel and do what kelly says, it won't work. >> harris: the things we've been

talking about out of the white house are all the leaks. that's where anthony drew a stark line. when it comes to national security, that's not necessarily a bad thing. it may be a little late, but it might be right on time if it works. i said at the beginning of this broadcast i was raised as a military dependent. i can tell you, generals don't suffer lightly. two things. loose lips and disloyalty. >> and there you have it. look, every white house in the west wing leaks. in fact, scaramuchi was trying to leak when he got caught saying all the things ab steve bannon and previs. it was an ill executed leak effort but that's what it was. that's how people get messaging out. by the way, leaking to favored reporters can be a good approach for an administration. there's a message you want to get out there, so you leak it out there. you float a trial balloon with this broadcast network. that's a normal part of it. what has to stop, what won't work, is when you're leaking

against each other and the kind of savage, savage. i have never seen a group of people in an administration who hate each other like these people. >> harris: i want to talk about your home state of west virginia. it is one of three areas where people are shoring up this president. you hear a lot of reporting about approval ratings, disapproval ratings. we took a deeper look in three particular polls that show where president trump is really headed. look at this. west virginia, north dakota, wyoming and they are way above net approval between disapproval and approval. how do you account for it? >> if donald trump doesn't have west virginia. west virginia, wyoming, oklahoma, those are the states he won by 30 points or so. they are bound to be with him. he can't take them for granted to a certain degree. they're with me. i know they're not going anywhere. they back me to the hilt, so let's do it again. the other numbers, dropping in

ohio, these are the states we need. >> harris: that call that a little below the line. there they are on the screen. this isn't by much, but you say this is something to watch. why? >> it's the bleed is happening. >> harris: why is it happening? >> combination of two things. number one, the agenda, there are bright points but overall there's a sense of decalmed agenda. that's why this tax cut package is so important if they want to get on the good foot. they need that to show people they can actually execute. also the russia stuff and the on going chaos and turmoil and scandal. it's too much. >> harris: like i said, it's not a huge gap. if he address some of those issues rather quickly, i have seen you address that. let's talk about the last session. states where he's losing traction, particularly in the west and southwest. and in the south. i know in arizona, healthcare is a huge deal because of the

premium hikes there, north of 100%. your thoughts on this one? >> enormous. remember, these are more traditional republican states. these are states where conservative values and these things matter. these are also states where people don't like when you do things like beat up jeff session because you're mad about the russia probe. they don't like it when anthony scaramuchi says the stuff he says. this stuff adds up. it's attitudal. but it adds up over time. people get tired of it. that's why kelly's success as chief of staff could mean so much to this administration. they've got to get it turned around so they quit losing support in these key areas. >> harris: the president saying, to the senate, you can't give up on obamacare. he still wants to tackle that. we know that at least in texas, arizona, all across the country that's a huge issue you can give up on. stire is always on fire. >> only with you, yes, ma'am. >> harris: this news. islamic state savages say they

did it. a car bomb went off outside the iraqi embassy then gun men tried to storm the building. conner powell is live with the news. conner? >> reporter: today's attack was unique in that it wasn't the afghan government that was being attacked but instead the iraqi embassy in kabul. iraqi officials said recently that they thought they might be a step closer to an attack by isis. that appears to be exactly what we saw today. it started with a suicide bomber outside the iraqi embassy and then three gun men stormed the area. the fight lasted for about four hours. two afghan security guards were killed and three afghan police officers were injured. the iraqi embassy is sort of a unique embassy. it's not in the main diplomatic area where the u.s. and british troops are. it's off on a market street tucked away. it is not a place where typically insurgents would launch an attack.

it does very much appear to be an isis retaliation for the mosul attack. also comes as the white house is beginning to look at a new plan for afghanistan. we hear from the white house that it is deeply divided over that new plan, possibly. the generals want to send an additional 4,000 troops in. the white house is skeptical. >> harris: we have a congressman who is going to join us. i am going to ask them about that very same thing. conner, thank you very much. president trump is dealing with several major foreign policy challenges as russia announces plans to kick out diplomatic personnel from their country. americans, go home, he says. meanwhile, mr. president, the president, also promising a tougher response to north korea as it continues advancing its missile program. congressman ryan matz will talk with me next. stay close. >> we have some interesting situations that we'll handle. north korea, middle east, lots of problems that we inherited

from previous administrations.

>> harris: a show of force from the united states military after north korea test launched its second intercontinental ballistic missile. we can now confirm it went farther than any other missile that they have fired. previously scheduled our military then tested the thad missile defense system over the weekend. we flew two b-1 bombers over the korean peninsula. we were set to do that anyway. the timing didn't hurt. the pentagon confirms to fox news that the latest icbm flew for 45 minutes. that's the longest in their history. let's bring in member of the house foreign affairs committee and a retired u.s. army staff sergeant. good tpo have your military

expertise on this, as well as the political side. thanks for being with us. first of all, where do you think we are with north korea that is maybe a different spot than we have been in history, or is this less significant than they want us to believe, this latest firing? >> it's very significant. they're a very serious threat. they pose themselves as a very serious threat. the technology they're developing, advancing their ballistic missile capabilities, that's incredibly serious, not just for the united states of america but for the entire region. i personally believe that we should be testing our thad defense system, that system you brought up, to full test. we should be showing them our missile defense works every single time that they're going to test a missile themselves. >> harris: what about the news today that they have the capability of reaching the united states or will in a very short order? what do you make of it? >> well, when you look at that capability to reach the united states, that's not just an ability to reach out and touch us. that's an ability to reach out and touch us in under an hour.

that's how fast an icbm moves from one side of the earth to another. that means they're not very far off of developing what's known as multiple independently targetable recovery vehicles. that's technology where they take one missile, one icbm and they'll put 10 to 20 warheads on the top of it and would attempt to send one to all different cities. it's a very serious threat. >> harris: wow. you're confirming more than just the suggestion they can do it. you're saying they're not far away from being able to really pinpoint it. this latest missile launch we are told the missile landed about 230 miles off the coast of japan, is that it pushed japan into the picture of maybe deeper than it has been. we know our president has been trying to turn to get china and japan to work together in all of this. your thoughts? >> well, japan has been speaking out in great length about their fear of north korea becoming this kind of threat. we need a lot more play from

china. they're the neighbor there. they need to be saying if they want to be a regional power, they need to act like one. they need to take control of the situation. they need to take the reigns of north korea and say, not in our backyard. >> harris: wow. okay. let's move on to russia saying it wants to expel 755 of our american diplomatic personnel. i want to draw the fine line if we can that they're not all diplomats. some are staff. about 352 are core diplomatic mission people. what does it mean that president putin would push our people out? >> well, obviously, there's a chess game going on here, where the u.s. is advancing, russia's advancing. we're making these moves back and forth. what russia needs to realize is that they are about a shadow of what the former soviet union was. at the time of the cold war the soviet union, they didn't want to participate in the global economy and the rest of the world was just fine. i can tell you this, the united states of america will be just

fine with russia in isolation if they keep playing these games. >> harris: is there an indication with putin doing this that we are hurting him with the sanctions? there's been criticism that u.s. sanctions, some already in place, don't really hurt them that badly. >> well, to say that badly is certainly not giving credit where it's due. we can always increase sanctions. i think we should be increasing these sanctions. it's something you will see our foreign affairs committees on both the house and the senate. you're going to see them taking a strong look at what's going on here and making adjustments to the administration on what needs to be done. >> harris: you said we need to stay strong on this point. your last word? >> without question. swre to stay strong on russia. they are posing themselves not just as an aggressor, but a very serious threat. they are dangerously close to being considered very much an enemy. >> harris: interesting. representative mast, thank you for being with us today. appreciate your time.

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>> harris: new details about the congressional i.t. staffer who worked for former dnc chair woman debbie wasserman schultz. he was arrested for trying to flee the country. he was reportedly liquidating assets even on the day of his arrest. ed henry joins us live from washington. ed, this is so shady, how is this happening? >> now we're learning about some real estate transactions that are also raising eyebrows. he was the i.t. guy for debbie

wasserman schultz. he had also gotten jobs on the house payroll for his wife, wife's brother, brother's wife. he was arrested on a charge of bank fraud. he's plead not guilty. republicans are wondering if there are more. juan had access to e-mails on the intelligence house and foreign affairs committee. an expert said it is tied to anti-islam bigotry. republicans want to know why did his wife flee the country in march with over $12,000 in cash? >> this guy had access to some significant information and his minions did. this is a major scandal in the house. i think there will be more than financial crimes. in the house of representatives, we have to investigate how our systems may have been compromised. that will require putting people in the chair. >> reporter: i mentioned the daily caller, has now uncovered a series of real estate transactions that his wife was involved in.

$600,000 for property in virginia. 200,000 in alexandria, virginia. four in all. expensive homes. even though they were making relatively modest amounts of money on the house payroll and what's particularly intriguing, one of the reals state transactions was closing on the day this i.t. guy was arrested by the fbi. >> harris: how does this go under the wire? this is somebody who has access to so much sensitive information. the cash is flowing like a baller. i mean, seriously. he is just rolling in the dough? so what is debbie wasserman schultz say about this? >> reporter: she is stressing she has not been accused of wrongdoing. it's odd that she kept him on her office payroll after february when the other staffers had been basically let go because of this investigation, allegations they had been stealing equipment. there's also talk that they

smashed some hard drives with hammers. interesting because remember democrats demanding all the information on russian hacking. when the capitol police seized some of the computers involved here, debbie wasserman schultz all but threatened the chief of the capitol police. >> i don't understand how that's possible. members, equipment, members equipment, it is not under my understanding the capitol police are not able to confiscate members equipment when the member is not under investigation. it is their equipment. it's supposed to be returned. i think you're violating the rules when you conduct business that way. there will be consequences. >> reporter: you can hear her saying there will be consequences. all of this leaving andrew mccarthy to ask a national review, did the swindling staffers compromise members of congress? does blackmail explain why they were able to go unscathed for so long? did iwan send american secrets along with those hundreds of thousands of american dollars

back to pakistan? these are questions that republicans are demanding answers on? >> harris: dws throwing down a threat there, it sounds like. >> to the police, no less. >> harris: capitol hill is turning its attention to tax reform as republicans announcing plans for new legislation. also senate majority leader mitch mcconnell supports a bipartisan approach to repairing obamacare. our political panel can't wait to get on this one. >> i haven given up on health care reform yet. and secondly, i know that we can deliver on tax form.

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it's like rodeos on top of rollercoasters. get your favorites on top of your favorites. only at applebee's. >> harris: tax reform is moving up on the gop agenda after the healthcare bill failed. the white house, along with senate and house republicans have released a joint statement on plans to introduce new tax legislation this fall. chief congressional correspondent mike e manuel is live for us on capitol hill. mike, this has to go differently and better than healthcare reform. democrats would be disingenuous if they don't want to help out the middle class. >> reporter: that will be the case. it will be different than healthcare reform. they must get it done. for one, they say everyone understands the issue of taxes and, therefore, is easier to explain. >> in tax form, i don't care who you are, too costly. too many special breaks. we know our businesses aren't

competing. the white house and house senate are unified on this approach and the key principle. >> reporter: some have suggested lawmakers should stay here in august and hammer out tax reform. chairman brady makes the case that lawmakers need to go home to have a give and take of ideas with their constituents. >> harris: i'm sure they will be hering a lot. democrats say they have ideas that are pivotal to tax. what are they? >> reporter: democrats are saying essentially republicans should do a post mortem about what went wrong with health care reform and make sure they don't do that again. >> if they do the same thing, campaign one way and then propose legislation another way in favor of the wealthy powerful few, they'll fail on tax reform. they'll fail on infrastructure. instead on those issues, work with us in a bipartisan way.

we can do things on both those things for issues. >> reporter: democrats want to see that the table on tax reform and infrastructure. the problem is republicans and democrats are so far apart on so many issues these days. harris. >> harris: mike, thank you very much. let's bring in my political panel for more on the simon rosenberg. the messenger for your party is a little disingenuous to talk about really understanding needs when hillary clinton didn't really bring it for you. >> well, it's not disingenuous. just a challenge that's in front of us. i think senator schumer said democrats are anxious to work on reforming the tack code and making it simpler and moving ahead on infrastructure if we still want to do that. i think where there's going to be lesson enthusiasm is making

big tax cuts which would drive the deficits up again. >> harris: go for it, mercedes. >> i think what i'm hearing on the hill is that there's more of an appetite coming from the democrats to be constructive and work with republicans on tax reform. this is something that there. their goal is try to save and try to reserve the obamacare legacy which they were successfully able to do. for tax reform there's a lot roff pressure being placed on republicans right now that they need to have a touchdown. they need to make sure that they have a home run here. because of the fact that they were not able to produce or have a successful situation with healthcare. so, this is the opportunity for republicans, something they mostly agree on is take on tax reform. the question will be, will they

do it in a big huge way as president trump once said or is it going to be being more piece meal do you go with corporate tax reduction, something that's easy to get people on board. >> harris: but will it ultimately create jobs which is where we should be bipartisan. friday we saw huge numbers on wall street. wall street, if you look at what it's saying, it still might be believing that these policies are coming forth. representative kevin brady was on fox earlier today on america's news room. he put it solidly how out front tax reform needs to be right now. watch. >> what happened last week, the house, the white house and senate come together unifying on principles on tax reform, creating that urgency. we need to deliver this year. finally having the president solidly behind this approach. much different than healthcare. >> harris: interesting.

health care still the issue but didn't get that win out front as mercedes said. simon? >> they have one big step they have to do before tax reform. they have to get their budget done. paul ryan has struggled getting budgets passed. last year's budget, the 2017 budget, was eight months late. i think that's the latest it's been in the last 50 years. we don't even have a budget resolution for this budget that's supposed to be finished in a few weeks. it was due on april 15th by law. paul ryan is 3 1/2 months late on that. republicans have an opportunity to gain the public's trust by getting their appropriations bills done, get the fiscal year budget resolution done by the legal date september 30th. they're -- if we go into next year on the current budget, it's going to undermind their ability to tpas tax reform. they got to stay focused on that. >> how optimistic are you? >> i am very optimistic on the tax reform passing tax reform. i'll tell you why.

the white house is very much coordinating with the senate and the house. they've really been working on this plan for a long time. this is a comfort zone for the president, for secretary mnuchin, gary cohen at the white house. these are individuals who understand what needs to be done to boost our economy, to ensure we have more jobs and more investment in america. i do believe you're going to find that common ground quicker. also third party groups like america action net work spending $5 million pushing out a tkpaeu campaign. you're seeing more of a unified voice in pushing forward on the tax reform. >> harris: there are a lot of people who want to see a big win. this is breaking news. on "the new york times" and nbc right now are reporting that president trump has removed anthony scaramuchi as his communication director. we are working to confirm that.

i hear you laughing. earlier, mercedes, we were talking on a topic we have been. general john kelly coming over from the department of homeland security. he would want to have control of his staff. we don't know if this has anything to do to play with anthony scaramuchi. we know he made it very clear last week he would report only to the president. >> well, harris, it's very clear that john kelly's coming in with a very new style of leadership. i think it's very important for john kelly to make sure he puts people that he feels comfortable working with. where president trump is going to respect one of his colleagues, someone who is closer to his age, someone who he doesn't view as a staffer, but someone who he refers to as a senior staffer. john kelly will have to be the one to make this call.

he will make some significant changes in that west wing and across the board. >> harris: having the history that we do, simon, recently of just the last 14 or 15 days or so, one thing that anthony scaramucci did that was very positive for this president was to lay down the law about how leaks from the white house will not be tolerated. to lay down the law that he loves this president and that this president needs shoring up and people to have his back. >> yeah. look, i don't know that secretary kelly or now chief of staff kelly will be able to bring, get rid of the chaos the way trump operates. but one thing he can do is fight very hard to restore the dignity of the office itself. i think scaramucci's comments last week, which were arguably the most disgusting things ever said on the record by any spokes person of any white house in the modern era of american policy. they were offensive. my teenage kids read the language that he used and asked me about it at dinner the other

night. i think secretary kelly has an incredible opportunity to help donald trump become a dignified, thoughtful leader, which is what i think everyone in both parties wants that, right? i think we're all a little disappointed with the way he's conducted himself. hopefully that's one of the things we'll see. i think scaramucci's departure is a step in the right direction. >> harris: having worked with president bush, i'm curious to pick your brain on how things go inside of the white house when a new person comes in, especially as powerful and important a pentagon as general kelly has taken. >> during my time we didn't have this many personnel changes. i will say that one thing that secretary andy carden who was our chief of staff at the time, taught us is that it's all about humility. it is about the fact that you are serving the american people and this president. and if you get too out of hand or too colorful or feel that you are too important, then there's no room for you in that white

house. i think that is the right approach in managing the west wing. i think it is to remind everyone who is working that it is an honor, a privilege. but at the same time, it is not about you. it should never be about you. it is ab the american people and the work that you need to get done. so i think that's gonna be -- i really think that's where john kelly is going to go. i think that is his style of leadership. he needs to make those personnel changes. we saw this during president reagan's time when we had the chief of staff, one of the chiefs of staff basically ask everyone to resign from some of the top positions in the west wing. i don't think kelly's going to have to go to that point. there's a lot of talented people in the west wing. there nieced to definitely be a shift to help make sure the president is being well served. >> harris: one of the criticisms, simon, and you'll see this. i'm asking you to wear your bipartisan hat. sometimes you kind of lose the presence of your party if you

bring in too many of your friends. and actually you could mack that very criticism of president obama. he brought in a lot of friends from chicago in the very beginning. does now general john kelly kind of right the ship with having that voice of the party back in the white house? you talk about a man who can possibly be bipartisan, it would be a general perhaps. >> listen, he's clearly a very accomplished person. this is being cast as sort of a restart, which i think the president needs. the very low approval ratings. it's been a bumpy ride for him. one danger, one thing that i'm most dangerous about or i would be most nervous about if i were a republican is that virtually everybody in a position of authority in the white house is new to politics. general kelly has to create a blend of people who know their way around congress, as well as have that outside kind of vibe that's so important to trump. i think that if he doesn't do that, i still think this could

end up being a very bumpy ride. >> harris: you talk about that first win, pher samercedes. this president has accomplished things. certain things have not been as big as healthcare, not been as big as we could see on the horizon, tax reform. is now kind of the right time to change some of your messengers? you see sarah huckabee sanders moving up into the role sean spicer vacated. we don't know what may come next to anthony saramucci. >> i think sarah huckabee sanders is doing an excellent job as press secretary. i think anthony scaramucci had a big scare last week. that tainted him. he was going to go in there and be the tough guy and crack down

on leaks. that's obviously something that's incredibly important. you keep hearing drip drip drip. these stories coming out from if white house. the soap opera. the palace intrigue. that should not be the focus of this president. that is why it's been so incredibly frustrating. every day you hear a leak coming out. some of these individuals, whether it be in the west wing or not, they're the ones talking to reporters on a daily basis. there's no discipline. i think that becomes incredibly frustrating for a president who is trying to focus on the critical agenda items. that's why i think there has been a need for a fundamental shift in the leadership in this case with the chief of staff, bringing in someone new to basically help gear the ship stpht right direction. >> harris: you know, part of the challenge for this president though has been getting out his message. now you've seen a couple of communications directors leave in stacatto fashion. you had dubke.

now scaramucci. we want to go to our john roberts. simon, mercedes, thank you very much. john roberts, you're outside the white house, obviously. what have you been able to learn? >> reporter: this comes as a surprise to a lot of people. anthony scaramucci was only recently installed at the behest of president trump and over the protestation of steve bannon. we saw what happened last week between the friction between anthony scaramucci and previs. now scaramucci. now they have confirmed that john kelly, who is the new incoming chief of staff requested to kind of clear the decks and scaramucci looks like is now going to go back to the

ebbing port/import bank where he was working before. he was also in line to be the ambassador to the organization for economic cooperation and development in paris. we don't know if that nomination will now go ahead. but we do know he's going back to the export/import bank. we do not know, does this mean sean spicer is going to stay? the whole hierarchy of the communications shop at the white house, harris, was changing. sean spicer was going to be elevated to position of deputy chief of staff overseeing both the press secretary and the communications director. when scaramucci came in a week ago thursday, or a week ago friday for that meeting, he told the president he did not want to report to sean spicer and sean spicer saw this as being an untenable situation where he didn't want to be the under ling in the communication shop after

being with the president so long that he tendered his resignation to clear the deck so the president could bring in his own team. but now that john kelly has come in, we have yet another clearing of the deck. so anthony scaramucci, whose tenure lasted about ten days, is out as communications director, going back to the export/import bank. we will check to see if he will be in line for the nomination and whether or not sean spicer will depart the white house, as was planned for probably about the 15th of august. i talked to him earlier today. he was coordinating the departu departure. all of that may have changed. i'll tell you, i was outside his office and he was behind the desk on the computer as the rest of the staff were gathered around him. so his position here at the white house still very prominent. it's likely he wouldn't continue to be press secretary.

sarah huckabee sanders has been named the press secretary. spicer could well stay on as the communications director and the position he held before scaramucci. it's very, shall we say, fluid situation, harris, here at the white house, as we're trying to figure out what all these moves might mean in the short term or long term. >> harris: absolutely. a fluid situation. lot of questions linger, john, and we don't have hard answers, i would imagine. you just laid out for who could be coming and going, filling that question of who takes the post of communications director? this would have been the second person to have that job in just a couple months. all the way back to the inauguration. you've had kind of a sharing of that position. there have been some different configurations with the job communications director that is so important. pretty singular in terms of its messaging, that person would be meeting on a regular basis with the president and there wouldn't have been the kinds of mixups

we've seen. what are you hearing in terms of the morale since anthony scaramucci got there? we've heard conflicting reports about what he meant when he was clearing out the leaker. is he firing them? is he outing them on twitter? >> reporter: it all depends on how much power you think the communications director has in the white house. the power base tends to run from the president to the vice president to the chief of staff to some of the senior staff, to the legal counsel. communications director typically somewhere down that pecking order. when scaramucci came in, i likened him to one of the figures you saw back in the 1920s and early '30s. wear a nice suit and carry the tommy gun. not so much to be trifled with. someone who was going to stake out his territory. i don't know exactly how far he was going to go to rooting out leakers and firing staff. there was one person who was working in the lower press office, one of the deputies, who

did resign after scaramucci came in. now all bets are off. kelly obviously is coming in here with his own idea of chain of command. even jared kushner and ivanka trump said at the end of last week or over the weekend is more accurate, that they were looking forward to, quote, following his leadership. it may be kelly said to the president, if you want me to be chief of staff, we're going to have to establish the firm chain of command where things flow from you to me to everybody el. we can't have all these parallel lines of access going between some of the other positions in the president. the position of chief of staff is to be the gate keeper for access to the president. >> harris: absolutely. from the calendar. sure. that was some of the reporting that had been done on previs that he didn't even have a real good handle on the daily call lender from this president in

terms of communication. i'm going to bring in our political panel. john is right there where the news is flowing. if possible, we'll go back. simon and mercedes are going to come back and comment. it's cooking along now as this begins to take shape. confirmation coming that anthony scaramucci is out. what caused this, in your estimation, within your party, pher samercede mercedes? >> the article from last week was particularly the main reason. also that he would have direct access to the president. i agree with john about the access situation. john kelly needs to take control of this west wing. and the first thing it starts with, it is about access to the president. it's going to have to start with john kelly. it's his opportunity to make significant changes to that white house though i guess harris, we're just going to have to see. >> harris: anybody wow kwrould like to see step into these

roles? you know the president. you worked with him at cpac and other capacities. you know communications have been frustrating for him at times. some on his staff said, i haven't talked to the president about this particular issue. then they come out and there are two veins of information. >> it's always important to recognize what the communications job is. it's not being on television all the time. it is about coordinating strategic messaging. it's about working with different departments within the white house to make sure everyone is on the same page. that there are talking points that work. making sure you have a very effective surrogate. you go out once in awhile. you are not on television all the time. that's why you a press secretary in place. >> harris: simon, that would be news to anthony scaramucci. you had a man and this person who had the coms director job who wassen sure when he was on and off the record with a reporter. >> i want to go on record endorsing mercedes for this job.

she has five kids. i think she would be a great addition. >> harris: as long as you and harris can raise the five children. >> harris: what did you just volunteer me for? >> listen, if i were the president, i would use this time. he's not vacation coming up. to quietly stay out of the media. don't do any press. just build his team. he's got to make decisions on who the core 10 to 15 people around him will be. he's got appointments he has to make in secondary positions in many agencies and departments. get the government staffed up, build his team. he's got a quarterback, if you want to use that, as a strong and able chief of staff. he's got to right the ship and get the team in place for him to execute his agenda and to minimize the chaos that we've been witnessing almost on a daily basis. >> harris: i don't want the audience to lose sight. simon rosenburg is a former clinton campaign adviser giving good solid advice to the other

side an even nominating potentially a republican. last word from you pher saydys? >> this will be what we want to be seeing. let's just hone in on building a solid team in the west wing. it is about making sure that president trump has the right people in place. his political capital will continue to dwindle as time goes on. that is why it's critical for him to make sure he has the right team in place. >> harris: to you both, again, thank you for staying with me through the better part of this hour, through breaking news letting anthony scaramucci go as communications director. let's bring in chris stirewalt back. this is what we'll do. chris, is this the right move? >> if this takes, we may look back on this week or ten days. donald trump ultimately is a successful president, we may look back on this week or two and say this was the moment that the comeback started. as is often the case in life and

in politics and in any organization, you have to hurt enough. the hurt has to be bad enough that you become willing to make a change. the change we see is absolutely that we see discipline emerging out of the fog of chaos and mercurial staff changes and all of this silliness that has dominated much of the administration to this point. we suddenly see order start to perhaps emerge here. this is a big move and a move to the good it looks like for the president. >> harris: do you know what my dad used to say when he came home from vietnam. you know when the general walks on deck whether he is former, president. he's always got that in his mind and heart. he devours chaos and he leaves a path of order. we don't know that that's necessarily been the generator in all of this, but it is a fact that a general has stepped on deck with yet a second one

inside the white house. >> and with a president giving him authority. it was untenable to have anthony scaramucci stay in the white house and let alone stay in the white house and not report to the chief of staff. it's pretty simple. this is not a job that only anthony scaramucci to do. this is a job mercedes schlapp could do. scaramucci wasn't so essential that he democrated goods who didn't want to go through the chain of command, didn't want to report to the chief of staff, that he was necessary. so the president let his guy make his first move. that will send a message across the west wing that this guy is for real. kelly is the chief of staff. >> harris: saw the democrats feasting off what seemed to be reality television playing out with the administration's mouth piece, if you will, in anthony scaramucci. it was odd that a coms director that you wouldn't normally see

be out there so much. we thought is this how the president is going to right the ship. what does this tell us to have so much out there and then you've also got a president tweeting. where do you think we need to be at this point? >> you and i are exactly where we need to be which is together on television. where this administration needs to go, whatever policy provisions are important to them. whatever they want to achieve. whether matters to them, whether it's taxes or obamacare, it begins from discipline. it begins from order, from a clear message. now whether the president can be brought in to discipline and communication strategy and not stepping on his own lines, that remains to be seen. at the very least, not having a minitrump in scaramucci running around throwing grenades, upsetting the apple cart and all this wild stuff. not having that is a good place to start. >> harris: just to remind us

where we were in the last few day. anthony scaramucci. watch. >> you're either gonna work inside the culture the way the president wants it or you're going to be on pennsylvania avenue selling post cards to tourists. >> harris: chris, before i let you go, your final thought on a day in which the big news is the general moves in from homeland security, takes over white house staff and anthony scaramucci is out. >> president has extraordinary opportunities to succeed. but he also has extraordinary threats to his success. that includes the russia investigation. that includes disharmony among republicans in congress. that includes a lot of inexperienced staff. and his own limitations. putting somebody like kelly in charge was a good first step. secondly giving him the authority to govern. >> harris: we have a lot on our plate as a nation. at the center of it all, the white house in washington, d.c. president trump making a big move to take out of place his

communication director after only about ten or so days on the job. healthcare reform, tax reform. we're all over it. here's sh pe. >> shepard: it's noon at the west coast. we just learned that anthony scaramucci of colorful language fame is out as the president's communications director. details how it went down coming. earlier today, the president insisted there's no chaos in the white house as he swore in his new chief of staff. can general kelly bring military style order to the west wing? seems he took down scaramucci. there's other obstacles. we'll go through those and the strategy. one of general kelly's first tests, dealing with north korea. defense analysts say that kim jong-un could reach east coast cities with his missiles. president trump