as dick cheney put it to me when he was jerry ford's-- a terrific chief staff for jerry ford-- he saidan't have a tough thing you have to tell the president and have eight or nine guys sitting around saying, "it's your turn to tell him." you have to have one person to do it. we do not have a chief of staff as we speak in the white house who can tell the president no. >> . >> rose: is there anybody in the white house who can tell the president no? >> i sometimes wonder if donald trump could find the civilian equivalent of jim mattis, who evidently has the gravitas to change the president's mind-- >> or tell him no. >> on torture, for example-- >> general mcmaster. >> he needs to find somebody like that because history is littered with the wreckage of presidencies that tried to govern this way-- including jerry ford's. >> back to your first question, what makes a good chief of staff. i completely agree with john. the role of the chief of staff is going to vary from president to president. and vary drastically. it would be hard to imagine two presidents more unlike in the delegation depar

al hague lasted a little over a month as jerry ford's white house chief of staff.he fact that apparently kelly has not met any conditions for taking this job, that really suggests to me that he has no idea that this job has to be completely restructured. >> what kind of conditions -- what kind of conditions would you think he should have asked for then? >> well, it's critical that the white house chief be empowered as first among equals in the white house. he's got to be in charge of executing the president's agenda. he's also got to be the gatekeeper. that means that scaramucci cannot come and go and report directly to donald trump. that way lies disaster. it's never been the case in the white house where the communications director had unfettered access except perhaps in some cautionary cases. jerry ford had a setup very much like donald trump's where senior advisors came and went without a chain of command. he called it the spokes of the wheel with the president at the center. well, it was a disaster. >> so john kelly doesn't have the political experience. yes,

it was dick cheney who put it to me when he was jerry ford's, a terrific chief of staff for gerry fordid you can't have a tough thing you have to tell the president and have six or eight guys who say, it's your turn, it's your turn. there has to be one person. and we do not have a chief of staff as we speak who can tell the president no. charlie: is there anybody who can tell the president no? >> you know, i sometimes wonder if donald trump could find the civilian equivalent of jim mattis who evidently has the gravitas to change the president's mind on torture, for example. and tell him no. he needs to find somebody like that. because history is littered with the wreckage of presidencies that tried to govern this way, including gerry ford's. >> back to your first question, who makes a good chief of staff, i completely agree with john. the role of the chief of staff is going to vary from president to president and vary drastically. it would be hard to imagine two presidents more unlike in the delegation department than president reagan and president carter. president carter, like presid

when nixon left office, his body, jerry ford, actually gave , jerry ford, actually gave him control over these tapes. he could incinerate them if you wanted to. when congress heard about this, they said it was outrageous. he had to resign. so they pass a law saying that the national archives would take control. .ixon did not like that so he hired a whole fleet of lawyers to fight that decision until the day he died. 1994. when he starts this movie, he only has 3% of the audiotapes and 15% of the papers have been declassified. this is 20 years after next the left office. so i will show you now why nixon did that. i would have done the same thing. and why the way, did you know henry kissinger was a movie critic? [laughter] >> take a look. the l.a. times let him review oliver stone's movie, it is like jim garrison -- jim harrison reviewing jfk. pass of the study referendum. everybody responds to it, including abrams. they all said this is hopeless. this is a stalemate. yet, nixon still expands the war, way beyond what johnson was doing, and he starts carpet bombing cambodia and invades both

it may be the clarity like jerry ford, which is an utter disaster, maybe clarity like bill clinton, clear house and the senate in '94, it became one of the best presidencies ever. the clarity will come. right now it's a classic time for everyone going after everyone and trying to find out where they fit in this administration. >> all right. arthur laffer, jeanne sahadi, thank you both. we appreciate it. >>> all right. well, new meaning to life's a beach? new jersey governor chris christie caught on camera, lounging in the sand, right after he closed the state's beaches to the public because of budget troubles. you've got to hear the answer when we come back. family's hectic home: its raised 1 dare devil, 2 dynamic diy duos, and an entrepreneur named sharon. its witnessed 31 crashes, 4 food fights, and the flood of '09. it's your paradise perfected with behr premium plus low odor paint. the best you can buy starting under $25. unbelievable quality. unbeatable prices. right now get incredible savings on behr's top-rated paints and stains. only at the home depot. anyone can get you ready, ho

. >> jerry ford said the reason he pardoned mix pardoned nixon in part is because he believed it wouldpossible to get a fair jury to try him. the idea is not without precedent regard trump. if trump is removed from office and isn't tried, convicted and in prison he will spend the rest of his life doing what nixon didn't do. nixon shut up and came back trying to revive himself. donald the attack the legitimacy of the u.s. government. >> i'm not sure he will obey the court. we have seen it with the nepotism thing, right down his direction. look what he did to his predecessor, accusing him of being an illegal immigrant. he is ruthless with this stuff if it benefits him. i think it helped to get elected president. >> of course it did. >> thank you. as i mentioned, the president has a pattern of ruthlessly getting rid of anyone creating a problem for him. fired his campaign chairman after the new york times reported manafort's dealings with a political party from ukraine. jared kushner delivered news at a breakfast party. m manafort rejected stepping down. glancing at his watch, we are putt

he was a michigan reporter, knew jerry ford when he had been in the house and of course as vice presidentso he was a very close member of the ford initial team as that presidency took shape. so that was a big shakeup. we've had other shakeups in the past. alexander haig and the national security advisor both leaving within a year of the new president reagan. but this is pretty unprecedented. first of all, you've got 28 days in and the national security advisor leaving with mike flynn. you've got an administration under fire, under investigation from multiple congressional committees and a special counsel. now you've got the press spokesman leaving, a new communications director who's never before worked in washington but clearly reflects what the president wants, which is an aggressive, really aggressive stance and outreach for the president's desires. and you've got a president who really has his own sense of his communication strategy ignoring legal advice from all quarters and communications advice and going on twitter and sitdown with "the new york times" going after mueller and of co

jerry ford tried the trump approach in effect. he had advisers coming and going. nobody empowered at first. he called it the spokes of the wheel with the president at the center. it was a disaster. >> so doesn't that percolate to being kind of a dog-eat-dog mentality? is that what donald trump has in the white house? >> that's what he seems to enjoy. the only way to fix it, and again, this could be mission impossible for kelly. if i were kelly, the first thing i'd do if he hasn't done it already is pick up the phone and call james a. baker iii who was ronald reagan's quintessential white house chief and ask for advice. the first thing baker is going to tell him if he hasn't already is congratulations, you've got the worst blanking job in washington. it's even tougher here because he's got to deal with scaramucci, a loose cannon, rolling around the deck firing shots everywhere. he's got to deal with jared kushner and ivanka, he's got to deal with bannon. baker was able to do that by forming strategic alliances in the reagan white house. i don't know if kelly is a j

the reason was jerry ford had a white house structure -- one of the reasons, had a white house structure just like trump's. nobody was empowered. everybody came and went from the oval willy nilly. he called it the spokes of the wheel with the president in the center. it was a disaster. it's very much like donald trump's model of governance. >> so you don't think john kelly and making this switch will make the difference? >> the fact that kelly -- you know, so far at least there's no indication that he has asked for or made conditions that would show that he understands the nature of the job. he's got to be the guy who is in charge of executing the agenda. people need to report to him through him to the president. if scaramucci is going directly to trump and reporting directly to trump, that way lies disaster. >> all right. chris whipple, thanks for the insight. great to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> let's bring in our panel now, political analyst and with us historian professor of princeton university julian zalazar, ta tara -- terrell, do you think there's something to this idea

. >> and we should have more jerry fords coming in our future. >> and liz, you did get the feeling that the white house was viewing this as a reset from a very rough week, you saw what happened in the shake-up yesterday. and now, the white house is sort of looking to this. there is no greater presidential image than landing marine one on an aircraft carrier. >> boy, that's the truth and you know, as we look ahead, there's big changes in the white house communications team, part of that reset. sean spicer will be leaving the administration, when anthony scaramucci takes the reins next month. and garrett kenny jones us on the heels of a breaking news day yesterday, really, a breaking news week. >> every week it seems in the current administration. it's no secret, the president had issues with the communications team going back to the inauguration and as press secretary, sean spicer has been the face of much of that displeasure. anthony scaramucci was heavily involved in communications and a pierce defender of the president. he has a reputation as a fighter, which is something we're told t

republican healthcare bill and that means it's leaving the party short of the required votes to move ford. jerry moran and brown said they will knut not support the repeal and repraise bill. mcconnell conceded defeat. he said it will not be successful. abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl talked about what's next. >> reporter: what they are doing, what this bill will be will be to repeal it over three years. so the actual repeal would not happen for three years. what you'll hear republicans say is that they will have time to come up with an alternative to pass in the interim so that had this all goes away there will be something to replace it with. this is of course no guarantee tee on what that would be. >> president trump tweeted out this morning we were let down by all of the democrats and a few republicans as i've always said, let obamacare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. stay tuned. >>> we have a big change on the vegetation fire burning in saratoga. now, last night we were told by fire officials that this was 75% contained. this morning they updat

jerry tohurst. he resigned from the gerald r. ford white house after 30 some days. that was in protest. this was similar. it was in protest for the pardoning of richard nixon. there was a tragedy of jim brady 69 days after he was shot and grievously wounded when he was press secretary to ronald reagan. during the assassination attempt on reagan. other short tenures were not at the beginning of administrations, they were simply press secretaries who came in at the tail end of administrations to fill out lame duck presidencies. michael steele, thank you so much for joining us today. >>> and ned price joins me now. ned price worked not only for the cia and at the nsc, but he was a spokesman for the national security counscil in the obama white house. you know the pressure of dealing with breaking news at the white house. usually in your field it was on foreign policy terms. but seeing a press secretary quit in protest this early in a new administration is pretty dramatic. >> well, it's remarkable. but let's put it in context. this was a press secretary who literally from day one was asked

commissioning of the uss gerald railroad ford in norfolk, virginia we'll get to the president as soon as he's ready to speak. but first, this week, california governor jerrye change deal that a few years ago would have been unthinkable. the democratic governor was successful in attracting the support of seven republican members of the assembly. was the road paved by brown's predecessor? arnold schwarzenegger. yesterday on capitol hill i sat down with the governator. >> we've been talking about the problem of gridlock and yet, something complex with regard to climate change just got down in your native state, speak to that. >> we were very fortunate in our state it doesn't mat fer you're a republican governor, democratic governor, the policies continue on. this consistency in california. that's why so many people like to invest in california, especially when it comes to green technology and renewables and all the stuff, it's a green economy in california, is booming because people see consistency. so all the environmental laws that i have for instance pushed and if it is ab-32, to reduce greenhouse gases, 25% by the year 2020. or if it is the cap and trade