the president wanted a two year commitment from nick ayers, but nick ayers told the president that henly on commit to a few months citing his young children and his desire to move back to his home state of georgia at the end of the year. and the president was insist tainsistent and so we're being told that nick ayers is not expected to become the chief of staff any l longer. so of course this raises the question who will be the next chief of staff. and from what we've largely been told, most of the negotiations about replacing john kelly has focused on nick ayers and it would seem to be a given almost inside this administration that he was going to take the job. but now they do not have anyone on the short list and they are going to have to find someone in the next three weeks or so to take over for john kelly because president trump told reporters yesterday that john kelly is going to leave at the end of the year after a 16 or 17 month tenure into the job. so now it is really an open question of who it is that will take over as chief of staff. >> and quickly, barring an emergency for

nick ayers is out of the running for white house chief of staff. i will be departing at the end of the year. it was reported he was president trump's top choice to replace -- [ no audio ] -- trump wanted two-year commitment, at least that would get him through to the 2020 race. ayers would not agree tolkt tha. budget director mulvaney and robert lighthizer now being considered. >>> will president trump pardon his former campaign chairman paul manafort, saving him from more jail time? manafort will be sentenced in march for charges of conspiracy and obstruction after allegedly lying to prosecutors after cutting a plea deal. president trump said he will not take a pardon off the table for manafort and some see that as a beacon for those pledging loyalty to the president. manafort is a piece in a larger puzzle. so as the pieces begin to come together, is the administration or the gop prepared for the fallout of that? joining me is katie fang and andrew december derios, congressional reporter from "the daily beast." help us understand something. what co

nick ayers has been there. "the wall street journal" yesterday, in fact, published a story where they quoted president trump talking to a person familiar saying look if you need to get with me, don't call john, call nick, he's my guy. today president trump said there will probably be an interim chief of staff to be announced at a later date. nick ayers is at the top of the list. we'll have to see just who the president decides to bring into that key role because at this point, you have to imagine that white house is certainly focused on being a sure-footing heading tho into the president's re-election campaign and the onslaught of potential investigations and subpoenas coming from house democrats when control of the congress switches in january. that will be at the forefront of the activity and the forefront of thought of this new chief of staff coming to the white house. >> all right. jeff, please stay with us. we want to get more from you in a moment. joining me, jill colevin white house reporter for the asso

nick ayers said no to the job. the list of candidates looks like this. it keeps fluctuating. >> a source telling cnn that david bossie was working with the house during the clinton investigation. and one another candidate? mark meadows. he has expertise in how house oversight works. he said he hasn't spoken to the president about the job. >> it sounds if you were offered the job, you would say yes? >> well, you know, listen, there's a lot where you don't answer a question before it is asked. because it is an honor, i'm inclined to have a discussion with the president. >> here is cnn's kaitlan collins with more from the white house. >> reporter: dave and christine, president trump is very much scrambling to replace john kelly as chief of staff now his top contender, nick ayers, has bowed out of the running. he and president trump could not come to agreement on the timing. president trump wanted him to commit to two years. he said he has a desire to move back to his home state and wanted to do the job of a temporary basis. that is leaving president trump t

you mentioned in the lead-in that nick ayers has agreed to do this on an interim basis. the reason for that is he had long planned to go back to his home in georgia at the understand of the year due to him and his wife having a young family. they have 6-year-old triplets. the president wanted him to commit, this is what we're told by sources familiar, the president wanted him to commit to doing two years, to filling out the end of the term, but that nick ayers wasn't able to do that. yesterday you saw the president not naming ayers but saying who the replacement for kelly would be would do it on an interim basis. nick ayers has a well-earned reputation for being polarizing, figure being hard charging. there's stalk of staffers here at the white house who say they will not work for him. but if the president ultimately turns to someone else, then that list includes steve mnuchin, the current treasury secretary, robert lighthizer, or nick mulvaney who wears a number of hats. he's the budget director. we're waiting for the official announcement, but we do expect that nick ay

nick ayers. that was his choice. there wasn't a choice "b" as we've been reporting. despite his bluster on twitter, there are a number of people, perhaps ten people who want this job, they've had really hard time finding someone to take the position. as soon as a name enters the short list, that person usually scrambles off it. congressman meadows is someone who yesterday expressed some interest which makes him an outlier here. the president, though, has said today in that oval office spray that we saw with chuck and nancy that this would be something that he was in no rush to fill, it could be a matter of days or weeks and had kellyanne conway say today in that interview that chief john kelly could stay in the position until after the new year. >> phil rucker, you and your colleagues have had some incredible reporting on what really used to be the most important selection any president makes. his white house chief of staff. and you've got this great headline "there was no plan "b." take us insid

i don't know nick ayers.'m not saying he's a liar but people don't get offered the white house chief of staff job very often. he was the vice president's chief of staff. this is the center of the action. this is the red hot center of world politics, and world power, and he is going back to georgia after being the chief of staff to the less important guy? i'm not buying it. i think he wants out precisely for the reason you're outline chicago is he doesn't want to be anywhere near all of this as the storm descends on the west wing. >> this was a very politically astute decision for nick ayers. he's going back. everyone is thanking him on twitter. he's so great. everyone is saying we wish your family well. so he can go back to georgia and wait this out because he's watched this play out. he could become enemy number one of trump by the end of 18 months. john kelly is reportedly not really on speaking terms with president trump. so i think he's made this move in a calculated move. i'm sure there were family -- i

arthel: did you see controversy around nick ayers or controversial figure? >> so my colleagues have reported at axios that there are detractors of his within the administration and white house currently, not everyone loves him. he's been controversial in the past based he's young and done well financially, he's seen as ambitious, some people within republican circles that he's rubbed the wrong way, yes. arthel: currently working for the vice president and we haven't heard of any controversy have we, have you reported on that? >> no, as i was just saying, no drama, no drama coming out of there, little to no controversy, you're right, we have not seen in this administration. right, the question going forward is the reason why the chief of staff's position is important is how does the administration handle the onslaught of democratic subpoenas of the mueller administration, of the 2020 reelection campaign and things that the white house is going to have to deal with. clearly the president did not feel that kelly was the right person for this position heading fo

made when the president is speaking with his hand on his face. >> we're also learning more about nick ayersthe chief of staff to vice president mike pence. he's not going to be john kelly's replacement. it was first reported by the "wall street journal" that ayers and the president could not agree on a time frame. the president wanted a two-year commitment, but ayers would not commit to serving more than the first three months of next year. he tweeted he will leave the white house at the end of the year. the president also tweeted i'm in the process of interviewing some really great people for the position of white house chief of staff. fake news has been saying with certainty it was nick ayers, a spectacular person who will always be with our maga agenda. i will be making a decision soon. current candidates include mark meadows, white house budget director mick mulvaney, david bossy, steve mnuchin, matthew whittaker and new york yankees president randy levine. >> interesting. >> joining us from washington, white house reporter for politico gabby orr. good to see you. >> i think we're begin

and jared and ivanka were big supporters of nick ayers and the president prepared him to accept it. they had already begun talking about how they were going to roll it out and then ayers got cold feet. now the president is interviewing or talking to a number of candidates and a pretty discordant and wide-ranging search where it's really unclear at this point who it is going to be now. it could take several weeks, we're told. >> so what happened to the best of your knowledge? "vanity fair" made a good point that nick ayers was concerned beyond the legal issues, beyond the difficulty of working for this president, nick ayers made a lot of money, tens of millions of dollars as a political consultant before he entered this administration. his level of concern about scrutiny for those findings, was that a major factor? >> it was a factor for some in the white house. they had begun receiving questions from reporters. there was a chance there would be democratic oversight. they will say to his supporters he wanted to go back to georgia. he will be supporting the president from the outside i

they, in turn, backed nick ayers as a way to push kelly out, and succeeded. ayers is a controversial figure. notably, he is far more political than john kelly. and i think that's something that the president wants as he looks to 2020, but he is disliked by many in the white house. and i think those maybe are empty threats of those telling to the president but as a place filled with strong alliances, people pitted against each other are unlikely to change if he becomes chief of staff. >> in the context of this playing out -- we'll see if nick ayers gets the job. he's mike pence's chief of staff right now. his experience is in politics, not in policy or in government. as this plays out, paul ryan is leaving as speaker of the house. no reason to say anything. he puts out a statement, he was a force for order, clarity and good sense. is he departing what is often a thankless job but john kelly has my eternal gratitude. why? i took that as number one, thank you, john kelly but two, mr. president, he is an adult and shouldn't be treated this way. >> he is the guy th

what about -- so nick ayers, you and i were talking not too long ago about -- you had spoken with himelf. and you can tell me about that conversation, but 36-year-old, you know, maybe not that household name, but someone who has a pretty impressive resume, apparently wanted the job. and then has now turned it down. what do you know about that? >> well, my dish started to hear that it was overstated how badly trump actually wanted him in the job. i do know that he was offered the job in late june of this year. that is something that the president and nick ayers both deny to me during my oval office interview with trump in mid-october, but i believe that to be the case, nevertheless, regardless of what they said. he also said that there was no chaos in the white house, that john kelly would stay on through 2020. i think it's a very high pressure job, he has a young family, but i also just think that trump -- i had begun to hear that he was a bit frustrated that nick ayers was kind of putting himself out there as a likely front-runner, the likely choice, when that was not necessarily the

what happened in the interim is that trump and nick ayers had a number of conversations including one this weekend about what the terms of the job would look like. ayers told the president and kelly and pence that he really wanted carte blanche to fire people. he really wanted to be able to run the west wing exactly how he saw fit but only wanted to do it for a fixed amount of time. the president wasn't willing to agree with that. the president wanted someone who could stay through 2020 and really help with his re-election campaign and it's remarkable that a 36-year-old political operative would be given this opportunity and still not want it. i think that says a lot about sort of the mood in the white house right now. >> and, nancy, i'm sure some people just look at this job and consider it, as we said earlier, a subpoena magnet. >> it absolutely is. you know, reince priebus has had to hire a lawyer and has been interviewed by the mueller investigation. general john kelly has sat down with them. so many white house aides have had to hire lawyers, you know, on government salaries. the

waiting in the wings is nick ayers. he's chief of staff to mike pence. he has agreed to serve as acting chief of staff to president trump. the reason is ayers planned to go back to his home in georgia with his wife and 6-year-old triplets at the end of 2018. he told the president he cannot make this two-year commitment that trump has requested he make. because multiple officials tell us that nick ayers is a polarizing guy. he's a hard charging reputation and there are questions about a potential domino effect if trump ultimately names ayers to the role. inside the white house there's talk of numerous staffers who are threatening to quit if he becomes white house chief of staff which add to all of the other turmoil you talked about at the open of the show. >> there in lies the story. as we look forward to monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday is if he does make the official announcement, who will go with him. what does that mean for other cabinet members that this chief of staff has been working with and has been the rabbi for. thank you for the ver

seems like nick ayers will get it. there might be an interim person. >>chris: when you think is political. is part of it that we are headed toward 2020, a democratic congress.you need a politically savvy person in that job? >> i think you have to deal with the democrat controlled house of representatives and you couple that with the 2020 election. you need somebody who can bridge that gap and what the president's attention will be drawn towards. >>chris: chuck, given how president runs his shop. can anyone succeed as white house chief of staff? nick ayers was a very sharp political operative. he was - - he has his own credit. >> yes he does. he's thought to have maybe as part of being sharp elbows but he's a young man in a hurry. he's in his mid-30s and that always draws resentment from the more experienced types. the other people in the mix are jared kushner and the president's daughter ivanka. >>chris: when you say in the mix, they're not going to be chief of staff. >> know but they've been known to involve themselves. they had something to do with g

the new guy, nick ayers is 36 years old. he ran sonny perdue's georgia gubernatorial campaign in 2016. he was the chief strategist on pence's re-election campaign and executive director of the republican governors association. >> joining us is jeff bennett. okay. a stark contrast between the two. just based on that resume, nick ayers sounds more like a political strategist. >> reporter: yeah. you're right about that. it may seem like distant history but when john kelly joined the trump administration in 2017, he was welcomed as a moderating force to be the one to instill some discipline on this free-wheeling white house. he was the guy to rein in donald trump's worst impulses. of course, that never quite materialized in part because the conventional wisdom about john kelly has always been wrong. he was never a non partisan apolitical figure that people made him out to be and the tenure in the white house has been marked by conflict and controversy. so i'm told that the relationship between donald trump and john kelly has dei

the president's chief of staff. >> i'm just throwing it out there. >> one of the reasons he liked nick ayersked like i look when i was young. it wasn't based on his experience. he thought like ayers is a little ken doll that looked like donald. >> donald never looked like a ken doll. >> i think nick ayers looked at this. to be honest, it's part of the crazy. you can't control this. why would you walk out of the space where you're working with pence in the vice president's office, chief of staff there, where you can actually engage the principal and tell him what to do and may listen, to go into a space where there's not the case. whatever the next person coming in would be nothing more than a name in principle. figurehead. donald trump wants to from the very beginning to be his own chief of staff. just as he is his own communications director. yes, mr., you know, bill shine is there. bill shine is not a communications director. i mean, come on. so donald trump sets the message. donald trump will set the course of that west wing and the white house. and that's how he wants it. anyone who come

>> reporter: who will replace john kelly is an open question after mike pence's chief of staff, nick ayerst down because they couldn't agree on timing. trump wanted a two-year commitment, but ayers only wanted to run the west wing on a temporary basis. >> it might be on an interim basis. i'll be announcing that over the next day or two. >> reporter: trump, writing on twitter, he's in the process of interviewing some really great people and will make a decision soon. but denying he was close to making a deal with ayers. even though sources say they had already drafted a statement announcing his hiring before the negotiations fell apart. despite having no obvious candidate in mind, trump already has a to-do list for his next chief of staff. including shifting the west wing's priorities away from legislation and policy to politics. according to sources who added that the president wanted ayers to conduct a full review of west wing operations, including staffing. because he's growing increasingly anxious about his political future. telling aides, he needs all the help he can get before january

what nick ayers is doing to leave the campaign is very smart.went to the democrats in the midterms, and it's smart nick is doing this. as a republican woman myself, i was sad to see we're going from 23 republican women in the house to 13. >> we make up for them with democratic women. >> yeah, from 54 to 89, so i'm conceding there is a need on the campaign trail. >> maybe because women supported democratic women more, carrie. as we seed this shakeup in the white house, around the same time these investigations now are beginning to show more and more that there is some serious concerns here, how do we look at the fact that the president is changing chiefs of staff, we see that his inner circle has been really accused of real crimes by the federal authorities. and i might add, some of what comes out of these districts are people that this president appointed the new head of the southern district. how do we view all of this and the shakeup in the middle of all that we're facing as a country? >> i think we view what we just heard from nick ayers this

john kelly's replacement is likely to be one nick ayers. joel, katie and clint are back with me. me now is the assistant managing editor at fortune magazine. john kelly comes onto the scene and makes the decision he's going to manage down and not manage up. is that the fatal flaw? >> it might have been but i don't know if that would have worked. think about he was brought in as sort of this elder statesman, widely respected military officer to establish order in probably the most chaotic white house or perhaps management situation in the annals of management history possible, and it just didn't work. and he was so overt about his dissatisfaction. the palm in the face from "saturday night live" is hilarious, but that really says it all. i think it was fated from the start. i don't think there's any way it could have worked really. >> that's something we have told has driven john kelly through this, he took the job because of that. he was in the military for 30 plus years. how do you square that with what you've seen with the last year plus with john kelly? >> it's fascinating to w

trump's topic nick ayers turned down the chief of staff job.it so hard to fill this position? let's bring back john avalon and nia henderson. >> it's a terrible job. it is a terrible job, more so because of the president, because he's so undisciplined, he loves the chaos. oh, as well, his daughter and son-in-law work in the white house. so you've got to kind of manage those folks, you have to figure out if they're going around you. so, yeah, i mean, it is a rolling dumpster fire of an atmosphere for anyone to want to work there. not only that, you might have to have a lawyer on retainer because of the mueller investigation that's swirling around this white house. so, you know, all of these folks -- yesterday around this time people were pulling their names off the list, basically saying absolutely not, that was meadows, and now you have a sense they're trying to, you know, kind of at least acknowledge maybe this would be a good job, play nice with the president. still unlikely i think that a lot of those folks on the list actually want the job

nick ayers is kind of the only one left standing who would want that job and is trusted by the family do you know about ayers and why he would? we don't know he said yes. you know, the president -- reportedly he would likely be the one. but then why would nick want that job? >> i think nick is a very ambitious person. he's also built a rapport with mike pence that's led him to this point. he feels -- he's a loyal republican. he feels he can make a difference. he might be the most successful chief yet. we don't know. but it also depends on what his priorities are. he doesn't have a huge background in policy. that's a question some republicans are wondering if he wants to build some policy. win next year with a democratic house. does nick have that on the democratic side of the eyelaisl probably not. >> you have something to add? >> i think it's interesting to think back four months ago, the end of july, that is when kelly announced his entire senior staff the president asked him to stay on through 2020. and that he agreed to stay on through 2020. over the summer, it was one of these pe

the president's first kmois, nick ayers also declined the position saying he wants to move his family back to georgia. among the possible names mentioned as permanent replacements one time deputy campaign manager david boss se

. >> phil rucker, can i ask you about nick ayers. "the wall street journal report"ed that trump is telling his associates stop calling john kelly. all nick ayers. he's my guy. i heard he was instrumental in the advice. he and emmitt flood on the selection of mr. barr for attorney general. he's already a player in the inner circle. do they feel he's the horse they can ride to sort of calmer waters or is he someone who the lights are on him, that's a high-profile job in washington, d.c., one of the most powerful jobs in that city. is he someone they know where all the bodies are buried with him? >> it's unclear. nick ayers is the vice president's chief of staff. a hard-charging young political operative. the reason the president is interested in him in potentially being a replacement for john kelly, and this has been rumored for several months is nick ayers has a sharp political antenna. a campaign operative. this is a white house shifting quick three campaign foot with the 2020 re-election campaign going to be kicking off soon. you've

i think nick ayers is instead a qualified choice.ersonally, but i know a lot of friends in the political operative space, who speak highly of him. he's well regarded, and you need someone who has a great and clear political instinct. one thing we know about donald trump is that he lines to win. i think he is likely going to listen to someone like nick ayers, if he can help him navigate. noelle is shaking her head. >> i think he's right. nick is very well respected. it's not about nick. this is about trump. trump listens to trump. you know what? there's nothing wrong with that, but trying to find a good fit for chief of staff that the president is going to listen to i think is outrageous. >> the premise of my point is that nick ayers does understand politics. and what we know throughout his historic, trump likes to win. if that means listening to someone who will give him that advantage, i think he likely will. >>> last word to peter emerson. your thoughts on nick or anybody else. even the name jared kushner was once bandied about as

likes to be. >> sean, if you could add to that y do y that, why do you think trump is considering nick ayers on the job? >> we're seeing trump in his campaign and inner circle start to pivot more to 2020. you're seeing officials like the political director moving over to the campaign side and ayers is a departure from john kelly who came from outside government who was not experienced in campaigns and the ways of washington and working with congress. so this does appear to be another move toward the 2020 campaign and the president seems certainly preparing pretty early for that. the question is if ayers does end up taking this job, getting this job, how long will he stay in that position? if it's not more than a period of months, then who takes that job and how will that person align themselves with the president? how experienced will that person be when it comes to the campaign? because we're talking about, you know, in a matter of months the campaign really, really revving up on both sides of the democratic and the republican side. whoever ultimately takes this job is not just going to be

he announces john kelly is leaving, everyone looks to nick ayers and oh, no nick ayers doesn't want tocy. why would nick ayers not to wor for this president? he's been in the vp's office. >> he probably doesn't want a future of legal bills and all that entails. it doesn't mean that he would be involved in anything untoward as chief of staff, but certainly he's going to be -- need a lawyer to be questioned about what he's observing. that's just like a burden a 36-year-old would probably not want. >> and there are a lot of layers. part of it is like let's ask rex tillerson who wouldn't want this job. everyone who works for trump and departs gets that barrage. but he's an interesting proxy for the establishment of the republican party. listen, what he's seeing is what you're hearing from a lot of republicans who are not that closely associated with the white house. they don't like the trajectory of this thing. they're basically saying, i don't want to be that closely associated. >> why aren't we seeing more people like that? >> we just don't know their names at this point, there aren't th

>> juan: i think the reason nick ayers was up there is because jared and ivanka like nick ayers and theyhn kelly and apparently at some point the president wasn't even talking to kelly for the last few weeks. the president called on kelly, i guess was in june of 2017 and said hey, let's stop with all the fighting. let's clear this place out. let's make it work. so he was the general come to make the troops stand at attention but it didn't work. >> dana: who knows. i don't know all the ins and outs but i do think it's kind of strange, brian, that nick ayers had let his main basically be out there for a few months and he was possibly going to be the chief of staff and then the president offers it to him and he says i'm not going to do it. >> brian: everyone said great things about him. the president and mike pence, both glowing tweets. maybe he said listen, do you want to do this for two more years? seems to me that if mark meadows is as positive as he seems to be on the possibility, it seems to be his to lose. they obviously get along. my worry for mark meadows and for the president is th

the people who are turning it down, mnuchin, mulvaney, ayers, meadows, santorum. >> yeah, i think that they were definitely caught flat footed by nicke job. ayers was widely thought to be taking it. that obviously prevented them from doing other list building. i have no doubt that several people want it. that doesn't mean they're qualified and ultimately i think that's why it's a good thing meadows is not taking this job. i know he supports the president but that doesn't necessarily make you qualified to run the white house staff or to be the best person for this job. i think they are taking the right posture by taking their time. he doesn't have to have a chief of staff because in many ways, he's his own chief of staff and so i think the only thing worse than having three chiefs of staff out of the gate would be having four and if you make a hasty decision that turns out to be incorrect, that's what you're headed for, a quick cup of coffee and you're out. so take your time. make a good pick. make sure the person's qualified to do crisis management because that's where we're headed here. >> let's talk about how hard it's going to be

in the case of nick ayers, whom i don't know but has a terrific reputation.kids at home in georgia, i take that at face value. >> he's vice president's chief of staff. it's not like he's taking six days off. >> i do understand. it's a brutal job no matter what the administration is. some of the names that have been floated, mick mulvaney, steve mnuchin. i served with mick in the house. >> he has said he's not interested. not a lot of people are raising their hands for this yob. >> at least not publicly. in washington the story is if you want the job make sure you're not out there saying you want the job. >> fair enough. >> in fairness, having said all that, i'm not going to sugar coat it, the president -- it's a unique presidency. and if you want to be unpopular, ultimately, the way to do that with the president is to become the chief. >> unique presidency. i'm going to write that one down. >> politically correct. >> ryan, thank you for taking the time. >> thank you, jim. >>> breaking news out of the supreme court, important decision, one we've been watching

what sources say her dislike for nick ayers may have done to that relationship as well, had ayers acceptedr all, this is a first lady who says she isn't shy about telling the president who has his back and who does not. >> i give him my honest advice and honest opinions, and then he does what he wants to do. >> does he have people you wouldn't trust working for him? >> yes. >> what would you do? >> some people they don't work there any more. >> melania had a dustup with a member of trump's national security team, and after trying to influence her husband behind closed doors, that ricardel could be a bad apple, melania took matters into her own hands. it is the position of the office of the first lady that ricardel no longer deserves the honor of serving in this white house. a message even the president couldn't ignore. shortly thereafter, firing her from her white house job. melania's bruising statement unprecedented for a first lady. >> no one. and i've known for a long time no one influences donald trump more than melania trump. her predecessors wielded significant influence with their h

the first choice for the job, nick ayers. the curt curt -- the current chief of staff to mike pence. our colleague kaitlan collins reports that ayers and trump discussed the chief of staff replacing kelly. ayers discussed a temporary basis and the president wanted a two-year commitment from ayers. cnn has been told the president is considering four names to replace kelly. one may be mark meadows. a close ally of the president on capitol hill. cnn is told that the president is aimed to make the decision by the end of the year. dave and alison. >> sarah, thank you very much. >>> according to the special counsel robert mueller, paul manafort lied about five major issues after agreeing to cooperate. including the interactions with the man named konstantin kilimnik. mueller says kilimnik has ties to the russian internet which hacked during the 2016 campaign. we have fred pleitgen with more from moscow this morning. good morning. what more can you tell us about kilimnik? >> reporter: alison, he was an important figure to paul manafo

reince priebus at first and then nick ayers. now he's going with someone who he's more in line with. >> wait. wait. wait a second. wait a second. >> if i told -- >> if you said david bossie was being rumored as chief of staff for the white house, what would you have said? >> i would have said that's as likely as donald trump becoming president of the united states. are you crazy? he worked for dan burton, the chairman of the house oversight committee who famously shot a wat watermelon to recreate the suicide of vince foster. it was crazy town. dan burton got rid of david bossie. that's how crazy he was in those days. he was accused of altering transcripts that the committee released. these were fringe figures of fringe figures. and the idea that the white house chief of staff is going to someone that far from even the conservative mainstream, forget the mainstream mainstream, is just a sign of, you know, how donald trump is directing his presidency. >> i would just add, look at the candidates who have either expressed interest o

jeff, what happens with nick ayers? why is he not taking the job?reporter: understand that the two could not come to an agreement in terms of time frame. president trump wanted a two year commitment from nick. he wanted him to see out the rest of the first tim but nick had already planned his wife that their young family would go back to georgia at the end of the year. there was an understanding whether nick would have hiring and firing authority. you have to imagine in any other era, in any other administration, a job like this for a young ambitious guy like nick ayers would be a resume booster. many this case not so much. now he gets to go back to georgia, stack some cash working at the trump super pac and gets to avoid all the political bruises that would have come his way by being trump's chief of staff. well played nick ayers. the question is who wants to step into the fray? all day we have been doing reporting at the list of people you just showed. it's not clear who has emerged as the backup plan. as the president's second top pick. >> lookin

nick ayers cited his family when he turned down the job. other night came on this show and he was going to take it and here's what he said. >> my family situation really doesn't allow me to do that right now. i would, again, be honored to do it at some point in time, maybe, but at this point, it just doesn't fit for me and my family, and so, you know, i guess the answer right now would be no. >> well, we all love our families. that's great. i mean, my daughter's grown, but you know, i wouldn't take this job either because of my daughter. no, it's a terrible job, erin. i mean, you know, i wouldn't nominate steve for this job. i like steve too much to tell him that he should take the job. >> i appreciate that. >> right, steve? i mean, it is objectively a terrible job. john kelly was at that white house, he had a great reputation. his reputation is tarnished. he is a strong man who tried to say no. he did try to set limits. he failed, so you know, good luck to mick mulvaney. one last point on the, you know, working with the house, i don't know

because nick ayers, a young guy.stration, a 36-year-old gets a job offer like that, he jumps at it. you have mick mulvaney saying he likes where he is. you have to imagine the legal questions, the president's style of management, are turning people off. >> okay, so the legal stuff, in my opinion, i think the next chief of staff will probably have to convince the president to start ring fencing that. he's got very good legal counsel, a good idea where the facts are in the case, and i think they can protect the president. i think that will dial back some of the president's tweets on that. as it relates to the other stuff, i don't think there's any shortage of people that would come and serve the country. and work for the president. you know, so for me, he'll probably -- you know, i don't know what happened with nick ayers. i'm not sitting there at the table, but my guess is that the president was going to announce him or came close or thought about announcing him. something happened. he withdrew, so the president picke

word on the street as the reporting goes r nick ayers and who is he and who else might there be out there? >> so nick is the young ambitious, he's 36 years old. he's the current chief of staff to the vice president mike pence. he cut his teeth in georgia politics. he worked for governor sonny purdue's campaign and he's had a rise from there and because of that he's certainly earned a lot of critics some might say enemies in washington. that certainly goes along with the job here in washington but he's also viewed as a steady hand and i can tell you that he found a way to introduce and ingratiate himself to president trump by attending those regular lunches that the vice president and president tend to have and that over time president trump came to take a liking to him. so we'll have to see if donald trump settles on him as his next chief of staff. nick ayers is certainly more politically attuned than john kelly was and that matters particularly as the white house now shifts with an eye on president trump's re-election campaign and certainly they have to figure out a way to deal with the

arthel: you said nick ayers, should he -- if he accepts the job, that he has young children in georgiahe wants to spend time with his family. should he get the post, ayers will be able to handle that gate. steven nelson, white house reporter for the "washington examiner." thank you. eric: will chain a make progress with the u.s. >> we are making more progress than ever before. eric: will the negotiations being in jeopardy due to the arrest of a chinese company executive. and the jimmy hoffa trial, an admitted hitman said he shot jimmy hoffa in the back of the head it's part of our new fox nation special. >> jimmy hoffa is missing. >> jimmy hoffa is missing. >> this place went absolutely wild. we had people out with shovels digging looking for hoffa. >> the question is will the body ever be found. >> how many shots were fired at jimmy. >> two. he told me he killed jimmy hoffa and he gave directions to this house and described the layout. >> this is where he said hoffa was shot. >> i was allows -- >> it may have been a dead end. >> did you think hoffa was going to get killed? >> i felt i

we know that nick ayers is saying you deserve someone to serve for two years.w the president has been talking with confidents about mark meadows. >> neil: how serious is that? meadows is interested. he's made that clear. the president apparently is at least open to the idea. how real is that? >> it's the only one that axios has been able to confirm. mark meadows comments are positive. he said he's honored. it's not necessarily him saying that i want this job right now. >> neil: who are the other three? i know chris christie is among them. who else? >> there's not three that we've confirmed. others have reported steve mnuchin, robert lighthizer -- >> they have probably passed on it being more effective in the trade and treasury positions. >> folks are trying to scramble to see who the president will have as chief of staff next if john kelly is departing by the end of the year. that's less than 20 days away and the click is ticking. it goes to show us the president was really depending on nick ayers to be the chief of staff and now everybody is scrambling. >> nei

a senior white house official confirms 36-year-old nick ayers will take the position, he's served as ief of staff to vice president mike pence. >>> house republicans have released the transcript of friday's closed-door hearing with former fbi director james comey. >> and as nbc's justice correspondent pete williams explains, comey said he would have taken two key fbi agents off the hillary clinton e-mail investigation if he had known ey exchangedisparaging text messages disparaging president trump. >> reporter: james comey agreed to appear only if a transcript was reaiased. hehe knew of no move of the obama administration to spy on the trump campaign, something president trump claimed happened. amey said no one would dare ask me or anybody elthe fbi that because they know to reaction which would be not only no but hell no. asked about fbi agent peter rz stok and lawyer lisa page who worked on the investation of hillary clinton's e-mails and were later fired for exchanging anti-trump texts, comey said if he knew about that would not have had them playing any role in connection with th

on sunday night, this time yesterday, don, nick ayers was likely to be the guy.mself out in a big surprise. it doesn't play out the way trump wants. the narrative is this guy walked away from me. he doesn't like that. that makes him mad. he'll move on to the next person. and as he tweeted out last night, this is all part of the plan, it's fake news, i wanted nick ayers. remember, fake news for him means news i don't like. not actual fake news. >> or when people catch me in a lie. i just want to play -- this is the president back in march, by the way. let's play this. >> so many people want to come in. i have the choice of anybody. i could take any position in the white house and i'll have a choice of the ten top people having to do with that position. everybody wants to be there. >> now we know that's really not the case, is it? >> no. it's definitely not the case. and i think you have to ask why does nobody want to work in this white house. and the fact of the matter is it's an incredibly chaotic place. it's a place where the president doesn't really want to hav

if you see nick ayers take the job, you see a battleship taken away from governing to the task at hand, which is re-election. it makes a lot of sense to me. i think nick's success running the vice president's office made him attractive to the president. and i think he could have some success in this job if he's given the latitude to mesh the white house operation with the campaign operation and they could do what they have to do to have a successful re-election. >> i'm a political guy. it's not quite time. my honest advise to the trump white house would be you could get some things done in 2019. i would pick a hill veteran. donald trump is a pretty good campaigner. i think he could take care of that. clinton brought in a respected former congressman. we got some things done with that republican congress, which is the most important thing to getting re-elected. i look at hutchen sson. she's ambassador to nato. he could really get some things done. >> she does not have the masochism to go into that white house. that's a job where they, you know, chew you up and spit you out. it is a very

is angry and feels humiliated after he was turned down by the vice president's chief of staff, nick ayersit is possible but not clear if maria butina agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors or if she could advance the russia investigation, but there's no doubt that the legal pressure on the president and his inner circle is ratcheting higher as the gravity of robert mueller's newest revelations sinks in. >>> by cnn's count, contacts between russia and 16 close trump associates have now been exposed. this hour i will talk about that and more with senate judiciary member chris coons. our correspondents and analysts are standing by. let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. the president's plan to replace john kelly, his chief of staff, have now blown up in his face. >> reporter: they've blown up and he is furious about it, wolf. president trump stayed behind closed doors for much of the day, venting frustrations about the russia investigation and scrambling to find a new chief of staff after announcing john kelly will be leaving that post before he even settled in on

the leader was nick ayers serving as the vice president's chief of staff. they said ayers and the president could not agree on the position's terms. trump wanted him to commit for two years and ayers declined. kaitlyn is live at the white house. the president and nick ayers, their deal fell apart, but they have a task the president gave the man we thought would take the job before he said no, thank you. >> the president had given him instructions for what had he wanted it to look like. one thing thing and he wanted a thorough review of how it operates. president trump wants it to be more politically focused. come january when the newly empowered democrats have the power that they will force his secretaries to testify. they have controversial policy decisions and president trump wanted to make sure the west wing is ready for that and they are focused moving forward. that was one of the biggest complains is that he did not feel the retired general was shrewd enough to handle that. he didn't know what it would look like. nick ayers would not take the job since

it was expected that vice president mike pence's chief of staff nick ayers would fill the role. but we learned yesterday that ayers and the president couldn't agree on how long he would serve. he wants to spend time with his family and kelly set it to leave at the beginning of the year. there are four people on the president's short list including north carolina congressman mark meadows, nick mulvaney and acting attorney general matthew whitaker. a series of court filings from special counsel robert mueller linking president trump to campaign finance crimes has some democrats talking impeachment or even time behind bars for the president. errol barnett reports. >> he may be the first president in quite some time to face the prospect of jail time. >> adam schiff expected to chair the house against -- gins committee next year said president trump maybe guilty of felony crimes outlined in friday's sentencing memo of his former lawyer michael cohen. federal prosecutors said cohen paid off trump's alleged mistresses to influence the 2016 presidential election in coordination with and