earlier this evening i spoke with mercedes schlapp, white house director of strategic communications, and began by asking if mr. trump is hearing the criticism, even from his own party. >> well, absthutely. i meanpresident, as you mentioned before, he hates seeing the separation of families and even though the o separatifamilies is only for a very brief period of time, but the realithere, one of the reasons why president trump is in congress speaking tese house members is coming up with a permanent solution, coming up with a fix to. this only congress can fix this issue that we're dealing with in terms ofin ensthat we're able to secure the border, that we're able to keep families together. because right now, judy, we only ve two options. the two options are when adlts oss the border illegally, they will be prosecuted. the second option is the prosecution, the second option is releasing these family units into the u.s. interior, which in essence equates to open borders. so we want that third option. we want the option that congress is going to come and fix this, and ensure that they're

preview this meeting and more is the white house senior adviser for strategic communications mercedes schlapp. good evening. >> great to be here. >> all right. mercedes, the president had a great week and in fact i just kind of outlined a lot of it. but i think that the thing that is, you know, the most interesting i would say at this point -- although saving your money and good economy is really important to all of us -- is the supreme court. the president now has an opportunity to put another person on the supreme court. it's not even two years and he is going to have his second person on the supreme court. i understand he is meeting with potential candidates this weekend in bedminster. is that what is happening? >> well, the president is working quickly to see if we can fill this vacancy. obviously he has several folks in mind. he actually has, as you know, put out the list of the 25 qualified candidates. you know, president trump has been incredibly transparent in this process. in the same time, he has also met with senators, talking with them, getting their input in terms of the supreme

she was let go because of a divide in the staff with mercedes schlapp, another communications officerbecause she said mercedes was leaking information. trump is sick of leaks. he wants it to stop. there is an internal debate about how to pare down the communications department. there are fewer staffers in these meetings, so fewer people can talk to repoisers about what oing on. jane: how credible is the department? you have got sarah sanders having to defend herself against allegations she is lying, and in return she says reporten't telling the truth. david: it doesn't have much credibility, and that is the problem. white house reporters devote a lot of time sitting in the briefing room, but if you talk to them, they know that much of what comes out of there are. or untrue, and president trump can undermine it with a tweet or statement hours later. we saw how sean spicer struggled to maintain credibility. sarah sanders has fared a little bit better because she has been less antagonistic, but i don't ink it has been much better. some people think her days are numbered. i just think tha

next, mercedes schlapp. you don't have the votes for either of them. >>> and late last night a fight between -- well, not exactly a fistfight, but it was an altercation between mark meadows and speaker ryan on the floor of the house. that's a divided party, isn't it? will paul ryan address that today? he holds his weekly news conference in 20 minutes. we we may get some fireworks. >>> and this hour as well president trump meets with his cabinet. if there's any headlines on those videotapes, you'll see it. it's a live, action-packed, well, 50 minutes we've got left. that's all we've got. [laughter] but the third hour is rolling along nicely, thank you. ♪ ♪ we have got a problem. a few problems actually. we've got aging roadways, aging power grids, ...aging everything. we also have the age-old problem of bias in the workplace. really... never heard of it. the question is... who's going to fix all of this? an actor? probably not. but you know who can solve it? business. because solving big problems is what busi

brutal confrontation in the war on leaks going on between the white house communications director mercedes schlapp and kelly sadler. i'm curious on your take on all of this and what it says about the working environment within the trump white house. >> i can't speak to the working environment because i haven't been there in a while. i don't know mercedes well. i met her once at one of the conventions, i think the republican convention. i do know kelly sadler very well. i have an enormous amount of respect for her. she obviously made a mistake with those comments. if you are in a small group of people working very hard together, somebody makes a comment like that that is inappropriate, to run out to a reporter and to do it anonymously, which is what they typically do in washington, all of this sort of back stabbing nonsense, i thought it was very up fair to the fellow teammates. whoever the leaker was in my mind did something terrible. now, having said that, okay, kelly did something that she offered an apology to meghan mccain for. but this is the nonsense that's going on, alex. we have these verb

mercedes schlapp. white house senior communications advisor. she joining us from the north lawn. morning. >> good morning. steve: so for the many people who watching right now. they have heard these heart wrenching stories about children who are separated from their parents when they try to come in the country illegally. what would you like people to know about that. we are looking to washington for answers and it doesn't look like anything is happening. >> i know you played hillary clinton's piece in the beginning. in 2014 in cnn interview she basically said quote just because your child gets across the border doesn't mean your child gets to stay. she pushed for border security. and now all of a sudden these democrats want to use this issue of immigration as a emotional, divisive political play as they are entering into the midterm elections which is incredibly irresponsible. president trump since last year has been proposing real immigration reform that will close the legal loopholes that will end these family separations that would ensure we secure our border. there is two mes

mercedes schlapp thank you for your time. nice to see you. >> eric: fox news alert.n on a controversial election issue. the justice resolving the partisan redistricting cases. but they side step a broader issue. doug mckelway is live with the latest. >> the supreme court decided to take a pass on limit of the partisan gerrymandering but the legislature that took the form of two decisions. justice dismissed the separate lawsuit from the wisconsin voters. in wisconsin they filed suit complaining that the legislature withdrew the congressional district with an eye tody -- to diminish the votes in the legislature and in so doing they had infringed the rights. but chief justice john roberts wrote the plaintiff seeking relief in federal court must demonstrate he has standing to do so. he wrote they never follow up with the requisite proof. we vacate the judgment and remand it back to lower court for thether proceedings. in maryland it was the state republicans that challenged the sixth congressional district formed by the democratic legislature in the state and claimed tha

: she told the president the biggest leak ner the white house is the head of communications, mercedes schlapp still there and not been accused of anything. so at the end of the day if you want to clean up the leakers -- people know who they have and they need to get them out of lohy is the president so reluctant? >> i have no idea. but he pays a price for it every day. lou: it's a shame. let's turn, if we may, to the midterms and the primaries. we've got eig races tonight to be settled. >> big day today, alabama, california,ssippi, new jersey, new mexico and south dakota, two races that will havr republicans running to take on tester, trump's number one target, montana, my pac endorsed mark rosendale as most of the conservatives have. it's a conservative race. and in california where the democrats have had seven or eight targets but they're kind of handicapped because of so many democrats running, they have a jungle primary, whi means the top two go. there's three or four seats they may have had a shot at but may not get anybody in the final, may get two republicans in the finals. t the end o

adviser, and mess sed des -- mercedes schlapp. >> if you are goo it go talk about there are allegationserent people in different lawsuits who said bill shine knew what was going on with rog roger ailes, the president doesn't care about that. he doesn't believe the women, he doesn't think they are telling the truth, that is a nonissue for him. in terms of what this hire means, it just means you basically have fox news running out of the white house. bill shine was forced out in the midst of what was happening in terms of accusations of women. second to that, he is beloved at fox news. suzanne scott now head of fox news was his second. senior executives, senior producers, all worked for bill shine. >> and what was his purpose there? >> he was in charge of the entertainment division and then there was another person who was a senior vice president. sean hannity is his best friend in the world. all of the entertainment division. that said, he was roger's number two. he effectively was everybody's boss. fox news is? step with the white house, but now you have somebody who helped build fox ne

mercedes schlapp, white house communications visor will respond.ou're watching "varney & company." ♪ a bachelor. and that's how he intended to keep it. then he met the love of his life. who came with a three foot, two inch bonus. for this new stepdad, it's promising to care for his daughter as if she's his own. every way we look out for those we love is an act of mutuality. we can help with the financial ones. learn more or find an advisor at massmutual.com stuart: now something just a little different. we'll show you some of the tape which president trump made for kim jong-un. showed it to him at the summit. this is how our president appealed to the north koreans. roll tape. >> in the light of hope can burn bright. ♪ what if a people that share a common and rich heritage can find a common future? their story is well-known but what will be their sequel? ♪ destiny pictures presents, a story of opportunity. a new story, a new beginning. one of peace. two men, two leaders, one destiny. stuart: how about that? remember president trump is tv guy. he liv

fueled largely by an internal dispute with white house director of strategic communications mercedes schlapp. there are reports that sadler blamed schlapp for leaking her mment to theress while both women were standing before the president. as "the new york times" describes tonight, tensions between the two had reached a point where ms. sadler and ms. schlapp were ubl b the same room together. that's a problem. back with us tonight, two of our longtime contributors. eli stokols, who we are so happy to say is now a white house reporter for "the los angeles times." and anita kumar, who remains white house correspondent for mcclatchy newspapers. welcome, gang. eli, what does this episode either reveal or reaffirm to you about the operations of the trump white house? >> well, that reporting is right, that this is not about what she said, and it's never been about what she said. from the moment that comment was reported, the white house response was the problem is leaking. it's leaking, and we need to clean that up. now you have this internal personnespe, and it's led to kelly sadler being let go

it seems likeng to the g, apparently she of the white house because she got into a fight with mercedes schlappher in the oval office and said she's a leaker. what does this tell us about what matters most in the administration? >> there seems to be some real chaos as far as the management of the staff and these stories have continued really from day one of this administration. you compare it to the prior administration, you never heard about these antics and animosity leaking out all of the time. it seems to be a daily occurrence. the other thing it tells you, though, is that they may be trying to find their way to some rational compromise whe, you know, clearly this person doesn't belong in the white house, clearly this person shouldn't be in high level discussions where the kind of cruelty that she displayed would be deployed in decision making. people have to make a living and if she wants to be a public servant, there's got to be some where where she might be able to the publ perhaps they will find their way to some rational place, get her out of that building and into a place where she ca

>> she fought with mercedes schlapp at the resolute desk with a handful of people. i believe it was reported by axios. she turned and fingered her superior, her boss, as the worst leaker in west wing. i won't be surprised if she shows up athe 2020 campaign, which is where you want to go if they still want to retain you as an employee in the trump administration. buff you have to get out of the circle of heat. i don't know where she's going. but it is certainly made clear that it was not about what she said about john mccain. >> not fired for what she said about john mccain. no public apology from her. no public apology from the white house at all even close. great to have you with us. >> for the second straight day, white house reporters tried to get sarah sanders to correct her false statement that president trump was not involved in dictating the statement about his son's meeting with russians. listen to this. >> was your statement accurate or inaccurate? >> again, i know you want to get me into a back and forth with you on this conversation. >> not a back and for

here is mercedes schlapp who is part of the communications office. what she said in 2016 about president trump going to meet with -- sorry, president obama going to meet with castro. obama shakes hands with dictator raul castro, next shakes hands with kim jong-un she suggested and yesterday, she said feeling great. obama failed in his diplomacy in dealing with cuba. gave it all to raul and expected nothing in return. president trump is the real deal maker and is successful moving north korea in the right direction with maximum pressure campaign and working towards denuclearization. >> this really -- that sounds like a propaganda arm, absolutely. when you're basically saying our guys can do everything, but the other guys to everything wrong. >> all right. bill, brian, thank you very much for explaining all of this to us today. >>> we're following a lot of news let's get right to it. >> he is absolutely committed to get airtight verification on this. >> this is the most anemic and very little substance on anything. >> i support stopping the exercises.

concerned about the situation at the border while the white house is not backing down this morning, mercedes schlapp, the communications adviser to the president, continue today say that it was the democrats fault and they were looking to congress to find a fix. republicans are looking for a way out. there are several proposals being put forward on the hill that would deal with this family separation issue alone and separate from other immigration priorities that the white house says they want congress to deal with. meanwhile, president trump plans to meet with house republicans later today where he's undoubtedly going to get a lot of questions about this very issue, though, it remains unclear what exactly president trump can support. is he willing to support a stand alone bill that would deal with family separations or will he insist that he also get other priorities like his border wall and other changes to the legal and illegal immigration system in the united states? lots of questions here for this white house as we go forward. >> absolutely. abby phillip, thank you for that this morning. we're

he heard from a source who saw her in the oval office upon arrival with kellyanne conway and mercedes schlapp and she was still wearing the jacket, having a discussion. >> kirsten, i mean, it's crisis management 101 to not distract from your core mission. i mean, if you're on a journey of care, a visit to show you care, to wear a giant sign that says "i don't care," it's -- i literally thought it was a joke. i thought someone had put that up on twitter and sort of doctored it or photoshopped it. >> right. but i think this is their core message, that they don't care. that she would go down there and do this tells us everything that we need to know. she's officially the marie antoinette of this administration. she should just say let them eat cake. that is literally the message she is sending, that she just don't care about what's happening there. it was -- i was in washington this morning. nobody's wearing jackets, first of all. second of all, this is a woman who spends a lot of time very carefully picking out what she's going to wear. she's very fashionable. this was not an accident. this was

sean spicer, chairman bob goodlatte, mercedes schlapp from the white house. big monday morning. flags to honor our veterans. they were slapped with a violation of town laws, for quote, excessive flags. the company fought back by displaying even more flags, totaling about 700 flags on their front lawn. now town officials have now changed their minds. here is more the realty employee who helped place those flags, john crandall, the ceof the company, stacy alcorn. we thank you for being with us. >> thank you. ainsley: how did you fl when the town manager said, you know what i have a change of heart, i let you keep your flags? >> i was thankful. i felt like they should have done that the five minutes after they even got word we have been served with a notice but in the end we got what we felt was right, which is that we could keep our flags out. ainsley: john, why did you put the flags out in the first place? you were one of the ones sticking them down on the ground? >> well it is basically, the memorial day weekend we start, flag put them out. it was because of our veterans and all