the details in this story suggest that there were a lot of people there trying to get rid of chief of staff kelly. and this is kind of a second time around on the rumors that kelly is going. a couple of months ago there was speculation that trump was looking at new chiefs of staff. mick mulvaney, the budget director and also home of the consumer financial protection bureau. tom baric, a businessman and kevin mccarthy, although i don't think mccarthy would could -- do it. so this just suggests a white house in considerable turmoil and a lot of people seem to have it out for john kelly. >> donna, let me ask you to weigh in on this as well and to play devil's advocate. are we reading too much between the language that is used between the chief of staff and the president? these two men say they have a candid relationship. we certainly know they have their differences. but is this something that is common in politics to hear a chief of staff talk like this to the president? >> no. ordinarily the president's chief of staff is perhaps his most loyal confidant so it's really surprising. thanks to c

so whoever comes in as chief of staff isn't going to be a chief of staff in the traditional staff. t will be his own chief of staff. i mean, maybe he'll bring in some old friends, who knows. but, you know, the point is here that the president is going to run the show. nobody else is going to do that. that is the way it worked at the trump organization. and that is the way it's going to work at the white house. >> i want to get joey jackson into this conversation. earlier we spoke about the new lawsuit stormy daniels and her attorney have filed against the president for defamation. you don't think there's much of a lawsuit there, but did the president create this opportunity for all this publicity for stormy daniels and michael avanatti by posting that tweet, which said she was involved in a con job? >> wolf, he really did. and it's all about discipline or lack thereof. obviously, when you're a lawyer advising the president, i don't know whether it just falls on deaf ears or what have you, but you create issues whenever you speak. to gloria's point, the fact is is that the president

. >>> if it's monday, it's the chief of staff vs. the commander in chief. >>> good evening, i'm ste. it looks like what could be the beginning to the end of john kelly, the white house chief of staff. kelly has called the president multiple times, that he's cast himself as the savior of the country against the president and his erratic urges and he has eroded morale in the west wing, and he has told aides that women are more emotional than men. kelly criticized the president's knowledge on immigration, saying, quote, he doesn't even understand what daca is, he's an idiot, we've got to save him from himself. the president is aware of some, but not all of kelly's comments. and we should know that the president is pushing back on aspects of this reporting. we'll get to that in a moment. the biggest question is how long can kelly survive these kinds of revelations? you might remember that last year, a report emerged that rex tillerson referred to trump as a moron, it was after that that tillerson was fired through a tweet. we bring in msn

nbc out with a story that just posted about white house chief of staff embattled white house chief of staff john kelly. i'll read you the first graft. insulting the president's intelligence and casting himself as the savior of the country. according to eight current and former white house officials, the officials say kelly portrays himself to trump administration aides as the lone bulwark against catastrophe cushing the erratic urges of a president who has a questionable grasp on policy issues and the functions of government. he's referred to trump as an idiot multiple times to underscore his point according to four officials who say they have witnessed the comments. three separate people deny the account. let me read you a little more. current and former white house officials said kelly has at times made remarks that have rattled female staffers. kelly has told aides multiple times that women are more emotional than men, including at least once in front of the president four current and former officials said. during a fire storm in february over accusations of of domestic abuse then

a working rapport, and an ability for the president to empower the chief of staff, the chief of staff to understand the limits of that power and there have been past chiefs of staffs who maybe have gone a step too far, at least in the president's mind in that regard. so there's a lot of dynamics there. most importantly, the chief of staff has to manage the white house, chris, and the cabinet. as far as -- as far as baby-sitting, any chief of staff, as andy card put it, the care and feeding of the president, but a broad, serious responsibility, very, very serious. certainly not baby-sitting. i think any president might chafe a little bit, but in this case, i think it's far too much. >> i wonder if this is really more about, sort of the natural thing that happens? i'm sure there is push and pull between presidents and chiefs of staff i watch "the west wing" and was actually a reporter at the white house. >> i know you were. >> does this sound more to you like going rogue by a president, or what does it sound like to you in terms of the history of what you know of this office? >> first o

sean hannity, taking on a role in the white house dubbed by some staffers at the unofficial chief of staffining me to discuss all of this is jim messina, former white house deputy chief of staff under president obama and lonny chen, research fellow at the hoover institution. thanks to you both for being here. jim, start with you. is sean hannity basically the jim messina of the trump white house? >> seems like it. calling him the shadow chief of staff. the definition of shadow is darkness. the problem with operating in darkness is no one knows what's going on. talking today about the nikki haley controversy. had there been a white house policy process that never would have happened. a chief of staff who ran a process, understood what the decisions were and could go right into the cabinet saying this is what we'll do. the problem is when donald trump makes it up every night on the phone with his buddy the fox news anchor, you have a real problem in process. i remember the day that george bush left the white house. he said to me, the day before i became obama's deputy of staff. what really m

the president needs a strong chief of staff. >> this is not a strong chief of staff. >> i think he's still pretty strong inside the white house. he may not be as involved as i think he should be. that's up to the president and the chief of staff to decide on their own. it's not going to be external forces that say whether the chief of staff is up to doing the job. i hope the president respects how he does the job. this is where the chief of staff should stand up and say to dr. jackson, this is situation that you know more about than anybody else. if you're willing to go through the challenge, the president said we'll stand with you but you have to make that decision. >> bob costa, when i heard that answer from the president at the news conference that if there was a gentle push. i understand his affection for dr. jackson and so were the obamas and others who were telling us and kristen's reporting on all of this. that said, they certainly gave him way out of this and he's not taking it. >> he decided to not take it. he was on capitol hill when the president made those comments. he cam

the only thing worse than a white house with a flawed chief of staff is a white house with no chief of. i mean history shows jerry ford tried it and lasted a month, jimmy carter tried it. two and a half years later he realized his mistake. it was too late for carter. he was famous sly a guy who even made ivanka go through him. how did he get marginalized? >> he was the hope for the administration. he's stop the chaos in the white house. it jus didn't happen. i think general kelly is staying in right now because he feels it's a pay triotic duty, that somebody has to be there minding the entrance to the oval office. and he may be a survivor by staying quiet, but not challenging president trump. if trump gets into trouble with michael cohen or with the russia investigation, he may be the transitional figure for a president pence down the line, someone who can give our country a smoother continuity if trump implodes on us. so he's still a very important figure, but he's obviously kind of -- any day now if he quit you wouldn't be surprised. and then of course tonight we heard jeff sessions

and he was with his chief of staff. kelly was not with the president while all of this happened? >> it was not a good situation in the white house. we have known that for a while. but the reality is that the whole purpose of a chief of staff is to be able to work with the president to have a trusting relationship with the president. and to be able to at least provide some degree of discipline with regards to how that president presents his positions to the country. not being there in mar-a-lago and having a group of individuals visit mar-a-lago that look like the bar scene from star wars and then for him to start tweeting based on that kind of conversation is just, i think, another reflection of the chaos that this president engages in as president. >> you are talking about the bar scene in star wars, i wasn't going to quite putting it like that, but you have steven miller, sean hannity, the bright lights of fox news. don king who is really, i don't need to describe don king other than he stomped someone to death once. h

chief of staff fires back moments ago. this evening the chief of staff john kelly unleashing after a new report claiming he has reportedly called the president an idiot. kelly and the white house doubling down tonight. the dramatic prime time presentation. the israeli prime minister pulling back the curtain. what he says they prove about iran. >>> the showdown on the u.s. border with mexico. the caravan with 150 men, women and children arriving at the border. what happens now. . >>> we're tracking the severe storm threat. possible tornado and giant hail across steph states and the storms coming mid week. >>> the abc news exclusive. fighting back. ashley judd taking on harvey weinstein tonight. the proof she says he tried to destroy her career. the major movie she says he blocked her from getting. >>> the pictures coming in tonight. six people trapped under a falling tree at a high school ball field. we have news coming in on their condition. >> good evening. it's great to have you with us. we begin with chief of staff john

and then secondary, if the chief of staff to the president of the united states thinks the commander in chief is an idiot and is saying this openly, this is an -- one of these extraordinary moments, it doesn't sound all that fresh. i feel like we've heard this before. you know, and so you have two classes of people. you have the kool aid drinkers in the white house, and then the people who think they need the stay in the white house to protect the country from the president of the united states. that's kind of an untenable business model. >> let me go back to the author of all our discussion tonight, kristen. the knives out for him? >> oh, i think there certainly are some people here who believe that he isn't running the white house as smoothly as they would like to see. who believe that in some instances he has been undercutting the president. but remember, chris, this is a white house that has been sharply divided from the very beginning. so these sorts of divisions are not a surprise. and they're not new. i've been talking to sources, though, here within the administration. and bas

that i check privately with a number of people in a position to know -- there might not be a chief of staff. there might be a number of people who directly report to the president. because at the end of the day what we're seeing here is john kelly is chief of staff. he still does talk to the president more than any other person. he still does wield some influence but he's not really a traditional chief of staff. whether you replace him with someone or you don't, the president is always going to be the same way -- he is his own communications director and his own political strategist. he's also going to be his own chief of staff. >> ashley parker, great reporting, as always. >>> let's dig deeper into this with none other than chris whipple. he literally wrote the book "the gate keepers, how the white house chiefs of staff define every presidency." forgive me for my tongue-tiedness. donald trump, no chief of staff. how is that going to work? >> well, kelly -- it appears that kelly's wings have mentally been clipped, they've been lopped off. i'm reminded what bill clinton's chief,er once you'r

>> i worked for don reggen who was not an easy chief of staff. ch. i think a lot of people had hope that he would bring order and discipline. you have the most undisciplined person who ever occupied the oval office in office right now. i think trump wants to be his own chief of staff. i don't think anybody will be able to fill that role satisfactory for him. >> i wonder, you are also a leader. you know it is important to have people around you to tell you when you are messing up. i know i feel that way here at cnn in terms of having people around me telling me to cut it out. what advice would you give the president in terms of his chief of staff? >> i think general kelly has done an amazing job. he is a great patriot. he has years of military leadership experience. my husband is a military man himself serving 33 years in our armed forces. so i understand what he brought to the table and i think that president trump likes to have people who provide a descenting opinion. so i think having that around is good. i think he has done a great job. i think

call today. >>> president trump may be doing an end run around his chief of staff john kelly. sources telling cnn two of the president's new hires are reporting directly to trump. here to discuss the author of "the gate keepers, how the white house chiefs of staff define the presidency." douglas, the newly installed national security advisor john bolton and kudlow. and here's what cnn is reporting, both men are reporting directly to the president bypassing chief of staff john kelly. how unusual is that? >> it's very unusual, but donald trump really believes all this deep state idea that everyone is out to get him in the federal government. so you have a president who doesn't trust any of the bureaucrats and feels they're leakers and stooges and enemies surrounding him and lurking in the white house. hence the fresh meat like kudlow and bolton come in and he's going to try to establish a one-on-one relationship. i think general kelly, the fact it's been reiterated this week when comey got fired kelly was very sympathetic to comey probably has unnerved president trump some also.

the president doesn't really want a chief of staff, never has. n his own chief of staff, bottle washer, communications person. so, he's tolerating his current chief of staff just as he tolerated the last one. there will come a point where i think he will go and will not be replaced. i think that's the space the president ultimately wants to be in. he's still trying to get the cabinet the way he wants it, shaped the way he wants it he talks about kristen as if she's some foreign person. i didn't know she was a bush person. that's the only crop of people you have to pick from in this town because there were no trump people before you got here. >> that's for sure. >> that's his reality as much as he may not like it. >> well, it seems like, elizabeth, they are really two hard liners on immigration, particularly john kelly. he has been a pretty hard line voice. >> he was the head of southern command before he -- sometime before he came to the white house. he saw that was the military. pentagon, he was in charge of, and that included the southern border

the white house says shulkin resigned during a phone call with the chief of staff, john kelly, who was calling to tell him the president planned on removing him as the head of the department. but you talk to shulkin, he maintains he did not leave voluntarily and was instead fired in a tweet from the president. >> were you fired or did you resign? >> well, i came to washington with the commitment to make our system work better for veterans. that's the commitment i went to work every day. i continue to feel strongly about that. there was no reason why i would resign. >> so why don't you just say you were fired? >> well, i think that's the alternative to resignation. i received a phone call saying that the president wanted to make a change. that's certainly his prerogative to do that, and that's what happened. >> you received a phone call from chief of staff john kelly, who fired you? >> general kelly gave me a heads

you've been a white house chief of staff, obviously, before, do you think it's telling that kelly wase president while all of this happened? >> it's obviously not a good situation in the white house. you know, i think we've known that for awhile, but the reality is that the whole purpose of a chief of staff is to be able to work with the president, to have a trusting relationship with the president, and to be able to -- to at least provide some degree of discipline with regards to how that president presents his positions to the country. not being there in mar-a-lago and having a group of individuals visit mar-a-lago that looked like the bar scene from "star wars," and then, for him to start tweeting based on that kind of conversation is just, i think, another reflection of the chaos that this president engages in as president. >> yeah, i mean, you talk about the bar scene in "star wars" i wasn't going to put it like that, but you did have stephen miller, very hawkish member of the president's team, sean hannity, bill shine, i mean, sort of the, you know, the bright lights of fox news

a new report says the chief of staff urged the president to give pruitt the boot. while the fate of john kelly seems murkier and murkier. >> he does seem to be the incredible shrinking white house chief of staff. >>> hello, everyone, i'm alex witt at msnbc world headquarters in new york. happening right now, attorney michael avenatti says a, quote, major announcement could expose who reportedly threatened stormy daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with president trump. nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett has more on this for us from the white house. geoff, a good saturday to you. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: hey there, alex. it all has to do with stormy daniels, whose real name is stephanie clifford, who told "60 minutes" in that interview that a man approached her and her infant daughter 11 years ago in a las vegas parking lot around the time that she was trying to sell her story, her version of the alleged affair with donald trump, to a tabloid magazine. she says the guy approached her and said, "leave trump alone, forget the sto

that's the problem with not having a strong chief of staff. t's a problem not having a bunch of these senior positions filled. you go back and forth. you have policy by tweet and not a real process. and every other of the 44 presidents had real processes. you might not have liked them, but there were real processes. now with a chief of staff -- i agree, i think kelly has doonne better job than his predecessor, but he's not in charge. donald trump is in charge. if he takes this advice not to have a communications director or chief of staff, things will get worse, not better. and i didn't think that was possible. >> let's see what the president has to say when he sits down with his cabinet later this hour. let's see if he has anything to say about scott pruitt. thank you very much. appreciate it. >>> this morning, getting back to our lead story, the defense secretary is not ruling out military action in syria after those horrific reports of chemical attacks. the regime says the reports are false. the president, president obama is pointing the fin

the only thing worse than a white house with a flawed chief of staff is a white house with no chief of staff. and if, if the notion of trump unchained or unplugged is exactly, it's exactly the opposite of the lesson trump should have learned from the first year in the white house. which is, that he needs an empowered chief of staff to tell him what he doesn't want to hear and to help him govern. >> so -- why is the president holding back? why is he not fired kelly yet? >> well again, we know it's a fool's errand to try to predict exactly when donald trump will do anything. as we learned in his firing of reince priebus and his hiring of kelly in the first place. both of them learned about it by tweet. so it's hard to predict what trump is going to do. he may feel that he can keep kelly in place. simply ignore him and, and try to govern the way he ran the 26th floor of trump tower. but every previous president will tell him -- would tell him, that that's a prescription for disaster. >> all right. chris whipple author of "the gatekeepers." good to talk to you. >>> the prying eyes of rober

white house chiefs of staff tend to come and go. our last two or three first-term presidents, have had two or three chiefs of staff. there have been some reporting the president is thinking of going without a chief of staff. that's an old promise of freshmen congressmen who come from the business world. it never works. eric: david hawkins, got to go. i have to add there are denials about mr. kelly's status at the white house. but time will tell. arthel: a fire at trump tower in new york city leaving one man dead. what we are learning about the cause today. plus under pressure. the head of the epa under mounting calls to step down while getting the support of the president. where things stand with scott pruitt. >> the bottom line is it doesn't look good. i don't think he could get a room for $50 a night. your brain changes as you get older. denmark .. prevagen. the name to remember. this time, it's his turn. you have 4.3 minutes to yourself. this calls for a taste of cheesecake. philadelphia cheesecake cups. rich, creamy cheesecake wi

respect the horrible ordeal that the victim had endured and she didn't respect the rest of her staff by allowing her chiefe her chief of staff for three months after she learned of the allegations is completely unacceptable. >> you heard me read part of her letter where she said she can't rewrite the past but wants to help right the future. do you buy that? >> i know the congresswoman has been a champion on a lot of issues important to women and i know she wants to do better. i just believe this mistake is too egregious for her to get past and it's time to step aside. >> i read the entire letter and i know you did as well. never did i see an explanation as to why she kept this man on staff for three months after she found out about the abuse and number two, why she wrote a reference letter for him to get another job. >> right. i can't understand all of that either. i think at the very least it's a reasonable expectation that congresswoman esty should have suspended her chief of staff immediately. instead, we know that this situation was known to other members of her staff. and so when her staff found out

if that is the case the job of the chief of staff is different than any chief of the staff we have seenn repeat presidencies, partly because of the power -- this is our communication question -- partly of the power of the presidential tweeting that he does which helps sets agenda and policy and politics. >> we know that the president has long consulted these outside advisers, a friend from the business community, friends that he has made over the last 30 or 40 years. are there any of those kind of kitchen cabinet consultants who are suggesting that he keep a traditional structure after white house even for this nontraditional approach, this nontraditional president? >> i am impressed that one of the people he has been seen with at mar-a-lago is great boxing promotor don king so i'm sure if we have a national boxing policy he will be well-informed on that one. now, on a serious note, i don't know firsthand what the people are telling him but i do know what the president does each day and that is he somehow seems with all this chaotic staffing, seems to be confusing true substantive chang

a presidential pardon for "scooter" libby, the former chief of staff to dick cheney was convicted ofgrand jury back in 2000. during an investigation into who leaked the identity of a cia

i don't think we can make a call on whether or not this is a great chief of staff or terrible chief of staff but i think a lot of people around the president hope he'll be there a lot longer. >> it raises the question, too, if not general kelly, if he were to leave for some reason, beside general kelly, is there anyone else in the administration who the critics outside are looking for the calming stabilizing force, whatever you want to call him, that role that's been assigned to him in the court of public opinion, is there anyone else to do that? >> if they don't find that unicorn, i'm sure they'll find somebody else. there's always somebody else this administration manages to find somewhere in the corner of the universe who's willing to take on these jobs for the short time they're destined to have them. i think it's interesting the president approaches his presidency as if it were the most thrilling season of the apprentice. john bolton didn't qualify for secretary of state because of his disqualifying mustache because he didn't look the part. the new va secretary looks the part, he

publicly at least the president is standing behind his chief of staff as his epa chief remains under fire. nbc's jeff bennett has more from the white house. >> reporter: president trump ripping the latest report that he and his chief of staff john kelly are at a breaking point. tweeting, story on john kelly isn't true. just another hit job. blasting the washington post reporting on kelly's clashes, repeated threats to quit and fading white house influence. while the president publicly defends him -- >> i think general kelsey doing a great job. >> reporter: privately he's frustrated by kelly's attempts to bring order to a free wheeling west wing. mr. trump considered firing kelly last month and weighed essentially acting as his own chief of staff. three people familiar tell nbc news. >> you cannot run the white house the way you run the 26th floor of trump tower, and that's the lesson of the first year of this presidency. >> reporter: while kelly's future appears in question, epa chief scott pruitt seems safe for now. despite escalating ethics scandals over pricey travel and his 24/7 s

i think right now the tension is increasing more between the president and the chief of staff, and that might cause a problem when the chief doesn't want to stay on. >> this is a story in which it seems the president, you know, used again to attack journalism, the truth of the "washington post," its duty, its tenacity, all of that. but when you also have the backdrop of what appear to be real consternation within the white house, the president not getting along with people or being very critical of people. this can't bode well for this white house, for this president. >> i'm always reminded of what reince priebus, the former chief of staff, said to a historian of the office of the chief of staff after he left. of course, forgetting the exact quote but something like, it was 100 times worse than what you thought on the outside. this provides great detail in the frustrations of john kelly. it's tough getting those details out of the white house, and if you believe someone like reince priebus, it's even worse than we know on the outside. the bottom line, the way the white house is. he's in

chief of staff. view on the situation in syria and other pressing issues of the middle east that's it for this edition of sophie and co i will see you next. for a world cup twenty eight team coverage we've signed one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time but there was one more question and by the way who's going to be our coach. guys i know you are nervous he's a huge star and the huge amount of pressure you have to be the center of the football with you and do all the great the great the good you are the rock at the back nobody gets to you we need you to get let's go. alone. and i'm really happy to join the team for the two thousand and three in the world cup in russia meet the special one. needs to just read the review beyond the team's latest edition as we go. from foreign policy could be described as double speak the president doesn't have a defined policy approach and even goals are difficult to discern is this what the art of the deal means is transform policy making america great again the wo

and there were many -- there were three different deputy chiefs of staff. one of whom was a trump campaign advance man, very popular with trump and was praised by trump personally at a rally, in delaware. and these are -- you know, these are also people that served as early as for george w. bush. they've been in the epa all that time and helped with george bush's transition, bringing people in. and repeatedly, these three different folks that were deputy chiefs of staff. two people in a security detail were saying, something's wrong here. we are concerned about these requests for these expenditures. and each one of them then found themselves demoted, asked to be transferred or pushed out. and, you know, this is way before there was really any press coverage of it. >> jay michaelson, reading that litany of things that scott pruitt has allegedly done, it's like comedy, if it weren't actually real. it seems strange, given that scott pruitt has a mission at the epa that is very different from prior administrators of the epa. and that is largely to dismantle it.

so it would be hard -- we are seeing a new model of a chief of staff and john kelly for this point in history is kind of caught in this new structure that trump wants to place him, meaning one day he kind of wants a traditional chief of staff and one day he doesn't. >> jason johnson, last question to you. we had these town halls about gun violence yesterday. you and i have had occasion here over the last few weeks to talk about gun policy or heading into the mid-terms, you made a comment about the georgia governor's race. i know you want to clarify something you said a couple weeks ago. >> it is interesting. we were talking about whether or not the parkland kids' message about gun control is really going to resonate. i think it had. you look at georgia governor's race where stacy evans was attacked by one of her opponents was because she had a b-plus rating. i mistakenly said a-plus. the evans campaign was no, no! we have a "d." what's interesting is three years ago nobody would cared. the fact that you have red state democrats who are attacking each other over nra ratings is a reflec

are those indicators that the chief of staff. some say for the heat swearing at times, shows that he wants to give the president good advice. others say the. what we do know is there has been a ramped-up number of fights between the chief of staff and the president, where john kelly said he may be leaving, he may be quitting. a point of that was always to be expected to some degree. you have a president who is a measu mercurial businessman. you have a chief of staff who believes in rigor and discipline and wants it to be run in demand and order. >> is this gossip or is this meaningful? >> i would argue that the relationship between the president of the united states and the chief of staff, of course it's meaningful. it's how he runs the country. it's how policy is made. it it' >> john dosse yerks of ty of th "washington post." thank you very much. >>> president trump threatens more tariffs on china and stocks take a nose dive. is the u.s. and china on the verge of a trade war? and what would that mean for the american economy? are

team who perished in a school bus crash. >> high drama at the white house, syria, tension with chief of staffy daniels legal challenges and a looming trade war with china. >> late breaking details of a packed bus hitting an overpass on a busy new york freeway with multiple injuries. and ultimate fighter rhonda

which is also why the chief of staff is still his chief of staff. is sense in the west wing that john kelly's days are numbered that the president is sort of tired trying to box him in, tired of trying to control him and restrict his access to his advisers after hours, or people coming in through the oefds. and he started cutting the chief of staff out of a number of key decisions. >> who did he have wanting to replace kelly with? scott pruitt. >> attorney general. >> oh, attorney general. >> i think that pruitt himself and his team is sort of believed to be the source of a lot of those rumors. >> but i think the challenge right now, and i think you nailed it, the challenge he is surrounding with him is they're not only yes people, but they also know how to spin the media. >> these are all people he cease on television. >> exactly. he knows that he can go ahead and he knows what they're going to say and he knows how to spin the rest of the american public to his position. and that is really -- they should be a return to many folks. they're not going

general sullivan was chief of staff then. every service chief had the wrong personal chair at the national war college to sort of, main thing they wanted was in se p -- insert -- that was my assignment at the war college. initially, then i took over as department chairman, department of military strategy and operations there. >> how long were you in that role. >> department chairman i was there for two years. i was a year as army chair and two years as department chairman. great final assignment of a person with two hip replacements can have on the way out. my other thing that i got to do there was pursue what had been sort of something i tried to keep up on in my entire career, further study and teach the vietnam war. so i put together a course on the vietnam war which had not been taught at any of the service schools at any level until then. >> so by this time it is -- >> 1995, '93, '94 when i put the course together. >> 20 years, a generation removed from the vietnam war, so time to look back and reflect. >> right. >> and s

he largely froze out his own chief of staff. and he kind of did this on a whim.ay into a trade war. yes, we were kind of accustom to that with this being president trump's style, but you're talking about a potential trade war with really unpredictable consequences that's already rattled the market and eaton away at a lot of the gains that the president has bragged about for so many months. so the consequences of this are huge. it's arguably one of the biggest strategic decisions he's made as president and he did it almost on a whim. >> but it seems like treasury secretary steve mnuchin is being blamed in addition to president trump for the roll out of these tariffs. what kind of scrutiny is mnuchin facing now? >> mnuchin was involved with the treasury process and help the president come up with how to ar take late the retaliation. he did not share it with his colleagues. normally you have a policy process and have your chief of staff involved and economic team involved so you can understand what will unfold and explain what will unfold both to the markets but als

and in the end he is the chief of staff and he will threat about any type of restriction or will say you cannot see your daughter but that doesn't happen it is always fiction then you also talk about t5 conway with her job as campaign manager in the white house was only name only that there wasn't much substance but she was the number one leaker to the press. how was that because people iming contact with don't see it that way. >> and with providing those policies i have known her for a long time as well but when i interviewed her she started lashing out at the colleagues and she forgot she was on the record. they were obviously not true and then that he will be unfair. but also has said to me then makes disparaging remarks. but they call her the number one leaker in the white house and that needs to be confidential and for the white house to operate. >> talk about her pics. that she is the trump whisperer but there are friends of president trump who are asked to be set up with her inch -- and he refuses to do that. >> she is very likable and a big supporter of trump and beautifu

all right, chris, i've got to get to you about chief of staff john kelly. we have the report in "vanity fair" saying that white house officials and trump confidants are currently discussing the possibility of moving kelly to head the department of veterans affairs. if the president does not think kelly is valuable enough to keep as chief of staff, why not just let him go entirely? >> well, that would be a huge mistake on trump's part. i mean, he thinks somehow that being unplugged and not having a grown-up in the room or a chief of staff would somehow free him to govern whatever way he wants to. every president has found out the hard way that you cannot govern effectively without a white house chief. my own lunch is that kelly is not going anytime, soon. first, number one, would would want the job? number two, i believe he's a stubborn marine, he believes in honor and country. the tough part for donald trump is the honor part. everyone in the orbit of this president gets sucked in or tarnished or destroyed. >> so, you don't have a who. but do you have the pr

that he's tweeting positively about his chief of staff is remarkable. afternoon. >> successful chiefs of staff tended to have a strong relationship with the president personally or to have experience in politics and good relationships with capitol hill. john kelly became chief of staff people greeted him as an adult going to impose order, he didn't have either of those two qualities, he dill stews, some ways some of those things are getting worse like his relationship with the president. while he may have imposed some discipline in this process i'm not sure you can say he's been a successful chief of staff. >> brennan: what does that do to the rest of the cabinet and the administration, it's been pointed out that he was a cabinet member, rose to this position that that has in some ways instilled confidence in his fellow administration members, with dismissal hurt anyone else? >> but the bar is always so different in this administration. "washington post" story that about kelly that president trump condemned earlier today was saying that there was less fi

for this administration of a relationship, story of a relationship between a president and his chief of staff since the number of last year. the chief of staff has had a frayed relationship with the president. what's interesting about the story, this recent story, is that the relationship has had its moments. chief of staff kelly has threatened to quit, yet he hangs on. like so many people in the president's orbit, they find ways to hang around despite the frustrations. >> and one of the key issues that they both have to decide, or these the president has to decide, what to do about pruitt and the increasing number of stories about ethics problems at the epa. just day by day. not just the money spent on security, which they argue is necessary because of threats. but in addition, his lack of transparency about it, the travel to morocco, which really was a weekend in paris, and a short day in morocco, first class travel. all the whole story about the condo. >> those stories keep piling up, and chief of staff kelly, "the post" is told by various white house officials, has been urging president t

air force and he served as 15th chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. dr. margaret macmillan is a best selling author and professor of history at the university of toronto. dr. michael nyberg is best-selling author in the department of national security and strategy. that is at the u.s. army war college. so we are going to start it out and go to q&a in a little bit. first, we will have some brief opening comments from dr. naylor. matt: good morning. thank you for being here. after world war i was over there was a flurry of activity in the united states where memorials were built in small towns and large cities across the country. we do not know the exact count. maybe as many as 10,000. in kansas city, missouri there was a response that has shaped much of our work. in 1919, in a 10 day period, the city responded to this outpouring of expression by raising $2.5 million in 10 days. that is the equivalent today of $40 million. if fundraising were that easy today, we would be very pleased. that led to the building of a memorial that was opened by president calvin

the chief of staff of a powerful armed group in eastern libya has survived a bombing that targeted his convoy outside benghazi of the russet all of dorothy's motorcade was also struck by gunfire in the attack he's the leader of the armed forces of the renegade general. who's recuperating in a french hospital after a recent illness mahmud up to one hundred days live for us now in tripoli of motherhood how are you there and how significant is this. world julie this is some sort of an indication that operation dignity that is the military campaign led by a renegade general who for have to since three years ago is suffering use of dissent and division now this assassination attempt that targeted the chief of staff of operation dignity army general abdul razak another already. today in his convoy was targeted by a car bomb and he escaped a summation apparently according to security sources. but one civilian man was killed and another one died in that association attempt now their security forces a company today started shooting in the air to disperse the people who gathered at the place of

question, cnn, the associated press, "new york times," lots of media outlets reporting it seems that chief of staff john kelly's influence has been waning in the west wing, kelley threatening to quit multiple times during his tenure, it doesn't seem like a great relationship between the president and his chief of staff. >> i've been in the white house for five days, and john kelly has been -- i don't personally think this is a real story, that president tweeted about it and it didn't sound like he's pushing kelly out. kelly's been great to me. all i can tell you five days, i have to do five more days to beat anthony scaramucci's record on it. today's day five, i think i can do it. >> larry kudlow, thank you so much. >>> president trump this morning reacting to the horrific chemical attack in syria, blaming president putin, russia and iran for backing president assad, will the president pursue military action as he said a year ago. hey grandpa. hey, kid. really good to see you. you too. you tell grandma you were going fishing again? maybe. (vo) the best things in life keep going. that's why i got a

we've discussed we were talking to a lieutenant general benjamin down into the twenty's idea of chief of staff. view on the situation in syria and other pressing issues of the middle east that's it for this edition of. foreign policy could be described as double speak the president doesn't have a defined policy approach. or difficult to discern is this what the art of the deal is transform policy making america great again the world safer. elliston is getting international recognition with the help of israel at least in the world of zoos the middle fiddlesticks mission to do it looking like a million little pieces and my complicity is something i'm going to have to study hall maybe a bit. old john no doubt just over there should be only palestinians who gets the most help from its jerusalem counterparts i don't think it is of those who endure under the vision to know only because it is a. book and the earth is all of us not just the heart of this lady of the muslims do you have an image you can tedium of doesn't seem to do more commitments also don't put result. in washer buying gold. mine gol

she was aware that her chief-of-staff -- keep in mind in a congressional office, your chief-of-staff everything. this is somebody you don't know about. this guy said he was going to kill a staffer, punched her in the office and yet this wap still turned a blind eye to it, gave him pay good positive letter of recommendation and so what i want to hear from her, she should resign, absolutely, but i want to know the honest truth why she valued this man more than a staffer because that will be very instructive, it will be ugly, but in order to move past these things we need to figure out how she rationized that. >> she is, you know, right there with the whole me too, but not the people in her office. she -- it was an epic fail, a fail of leadership. she used the same system that now the women in congress, we know that 22 women senators got together and said, listen, leadership, do something about this. this process, the report sexual harassment shouldn't take so long but yet you have a representative who's a democrat holding up the same things and holding up her male staffer in a way that

where we're talking to general benjamin the twenty is idea of chief of staff. view on the situation in syria and other pressing issues of the middle east that's it for this edition of. foreign policy could be described as double speak the president doesn't have a defined policy approach. or difficult to discern is this what the art of the deal is transform policy making america great again. join me every thursday on the alex i'm i'm sure and i'll be speaking to the world of politics. i'm show business. the u.s. house intelligence committee reveals its final report into alleged russian meddling in the presidential election and finds no collusion between the trunk campaign and russia will be looking into other findings of this long awaited report. elsewhere three people have been confirmed killed almost a thousand others injured after fresh clashes have erupted in garza months according to the palestinian health ministry. key witness in the russian doping scandal fails to confirm several allegations during court testimony that says the careers of many russian athl

joining me now is anita mcbride, a former chief of staff to laura bush and an executive in residence hool of public affairs at american university. anita, you and i have talked for years. you were at that threshold of history with two very powerful women. you are chief of staff to one but you also knew barbara bush. your thoughts today? >> i feel so lucky and blessed and thank you, this network has done beautiful tribute to barbara bush all week and she deserves every bit of it. those i had the great privilege and honor to be close to the family and work for these two incredible women, it's a joy, privilege, great memory. a little bit of sadness but what a life and what a great example for particularly us young women working in the white house during those bush 41 years. >> harris: that something that doesn't really get talked about. when you talk about having strong women in the forefront, with everything this country has gone through the last couple years and continues to struggle with, this is a person we watched make big decisions and usher in a president as a son, making big deci

chief of staff talking about the middle east pressing issue stay with us. for a world cup twenty eight team coverage we've signed one of the greatest goalkeepers of all suck but there was one more question and by the way who's going to be our coach. you guys i know you are nervous he's a huge star and a huge amount of pressure come out you have to go meet the center of the beach hotel with you and do so with all the great british good you are the rock at the back nobody gets past you we need you to get the ball going let's go. alone. and i'm really happy to join the team for the two thousand and three in the world cup in russia meet the special one. needs to just take the radio p.r.t. teams latest edition to make up a bigger. look. this time is getting international recognition with the help of israel at least in the world of zoos and nimble fiddlesticks mission to do it looking like a million pieces and my complicity is going up on sunday all media and you. know john. the only palestinians who gets the most help from its jerusalem counterparts i don't think