concern potted plant in the west wing lobby. so most of your, your meetings at the white house were with steve bannon or at least you were scheduled to meet with steve bannon, and then what would happen? >> no. i was scheduled the meet with -- i mean, i had a lot of meetings with steve, and steve was one of the pillars of this book, but i basically met with everybody. and everybody was under the impression that they were supposed to meet with me. [laughter] >> did -- where did they get this impression from? did it come from the president or did it, because you were talking to steve bannon, they figured, well, or we should probably talk -- >> it came from, i mean, i think it came from -- i mean, i was introduced around by various people, by hope hicks who was the, you know, i mean, the president's kind of personal pr person, you know, kellyanne conway, sean spicer. i mean, this was not a, it was not a mystery here. now, i think on one level nobody quite knew how this came about, and everybody looked a little puzzled by things, bu

it seems to be a breakdown in the west wing of the white house. >> regarding process in the west wing, this office of personnel security, which is kind of taking the latest round of white house blame for this, they have no investigatory power. as far as i know and remember, they're the folks that issue, stamp the pass when you arrive, and that's the office where you turn in your pass when your time has come. but there's no -- they have no field investigatory power, correct? >> that's a very good point. i don't understand what it means to say that they were reviewing it and then preparing it for adjudication. once this material arrived it would have gone immediately to the chief of staff's office, the deputy white house chief of staff for operations is the individual who received it, maybe concurrently with white house consell, subsequently in consultation with white house counsel, and decisions are made. so i don't know what it means when it was held up in that office. >> frank, how does it make you feel to watch the fbi director in his testimony today, and just as important, how do y

got there, anybody could get access to the west wing. there's a bunch of people were not inside the white house that are upset he is controlled in a way that made a much more productive. since the chief has come on, we're past the tax bill, the economy, isis has been to view to be a lot of good things. i think the president sees that the results because themselves. >>chris: let's talk about the underlying issue and that we will move on to your day job. you ran a congressional office, you know run a major governmental agency. what is your policy on dealing with allegations of domestic abuse against your staff? >> that we don't tolerate it at all. keep in mind, it's never come up. maybe i am fortunate with the people i surround myself with. fortunate the people i hire. it's never come up to me in business, never in my congressional staff and it's never come up to me as my position. >>chris: you don't tolerate it at all. what does that mean? >> you cannot have, you cannot put trust in people who would do that to their spouse of either gende

how would someone use that as leverage if you work in the west wing staff? >> well, i don't read a lot of spy novels, but it doesn't take a lot of imagination to say i know you have done something that is really terrible that would embarrass you if it was released, that could send you to jail, that could certainly cause you to lose your job, so you will give me certain information that i want. or you will influence a policy. you will stop sanctions from being implemented. we know that the russian sanctions that congress voted have not been implemented. why not? well, maybe the russians have some information and they're blackmailing someone to change the policies. so that's what i mean by it when i say it puts you subject to blackmail, it means the risk of your leaking information that should not never be seen by anybody outside of our own service is at risk. and i think that could have happened with rob porter who was subject to possible blackmail because of the information, which we know the fbi turned over to the white house. and this is nonsense that they

we've seen it down grade since john kelly came into the west wing. he isn't handling as many matters as he was tasked with. and as well as ivanka. he's told people privately that he feels ivanka is just playing government because she often blurs the line between being the first daughter and part of the white house. certainly a lot of frustration between these zple the president is very aware of the tension between jared kushner and john kelly based on my reporting. especially in light of him being down graded from top secret to just secret. but the read that did ultimately leave in it john kelly's hands. he said he would leave it up to him. during that press conference, he made it very clear that he thought jared was very important to the west wing and that he was very valuable. he was sending a message to john kelly but john kelly has laid down the law here. >> and we need underline, john kelly is not the one who decides the status. the fbi decides whether or not you get clearance level that you want. >> the fbi is giving information with the backgr

he's leaving the west wing. and you also have kushner struggling with general kelly, the chief of staff. these tensions about the scope of his role, all of it culminating today with this new clearance announcement. >> jeremy bash, if homeland or any number of broadcasts were doing this, they would establish a meeting in the situation room where they would have to pause and they would say i'm afraid to continue we'll have to and you to leave. in the real world, in a practical sense what does this mean jared kushner will no longer be able to see or hear or handle and who's the enforcer? >> he won't be able to read the president's daily brief and get access to intelligence about some of things in his portfolio like the israel palestinian peace process or relations with china. that information will have to be ripped out from under his desk. i've talked to officials current and former throughout the evening and none of us can remember a single west wing staffer who was able to remain in his or her job with merely a s

and he did that in the west wing.nd we would be relieved for a number of days after the president decided -- i feel it. let's do a press conference today. i'm going to the deal with these issues. and when he did, everything went away for a while. and he was good at that. personally, it's not my business anymore. but if i were him, if i was advising him, i would say do more media. because i think he's really good at it. >> more media? more tweets or less tweets? >> you know, look, i've been on both sides of this issue with the tweets and initially -- i'm a straight-laced guys. >> you and you are both mid-westerners. paul ryan. rob porter. >> don't tweet this. others chimed in, the first lady and the family. but at the end of the day, he goes through the whole campaign. he is listening to people saying don't tweet this, don't tweet that. he tweeted it, and he won. so i'm at a place now on the whole tweeting issue that i think more or less people like me were wrong and people like him were right. >> last question is abou

so, a lot of neophytes were given west wing jobs. that accounts for some of the backlog. but on these titles, don mcgahn, rob porter. rob porter's job as staff secretary, i don't need to remind you, is the human funnel into and out of the oval office to all branches of government. he sees, handles and hears everything. >> that's exactly right, brian. that's what's significant in terms of the numbers, obviously 130 being the highest number. the highest level of officials in this west wing not having this clearance -- now, what we know, there might be any number of issues which might result in somebody being given an interim clearance rather than being granted the full clearance. and that has everything to do with something that might make somebody subject to blackmail. you see a lot of foreign travel, high debts, previous issues of substance abuse, these can raise a red flag. it is significant we're talking about a long delay in terms of the officials there were red flags. as we saw in the case of rob porter, the fbi which is the one that does these investigations, these b

>>> west wing resignation.to president trump resigns after his two ex-wives accuse him of assault. the white house tries to stand by him. how long has the trump team known about these allegations? >>> compelled to talk. the top democrat on the house intelligence committee wants to force former trump campaign manager corey lewandowski and former chief strategist steve bannon to testify before the panel's russia probe y. are they refusing to talk? >>> and parade charade. the defense secretary says president trump's call for a military parade is about his affection for u.s. troops, but critics are unconvinced with one republican senator calling the "cheesy" and sign of weakness. is the parade more about the president's ego than it is about celebrating the armed forces? >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and ar

i'm just sitting in the west wing lobby hope took taught to all these folks. >> come on, map, really?> host: i just wanted someone to talk to me. i was like -- [laughter] injury this ises an porn thing. you go in there -- it would be in -- you get -- i don't know -- a 10:00 appointment and go in and then you would sit there, and you would sit there sometimes for hours, and sometimes hours and hours, and it was kind of humiliate, actually, and you had the feeling that people took -- regard me as kind of a pitiable creature. i'm not -- i'm not important enough for anyone to keep their appointment with me. erv always there is and having appointments and their people come out and i'm still just waiting there and the hours are passing. and i did feel humiliated. it was really -- but then it became this kind of thing that people -- it began to work. people would stop and they would try to take care of me. >> how do you -- >> one of the neediest cases. come back, talk to me, and the other thing -- this is an important thing. i basically didn't ask questions. so all reportsers, we ask questio

staff secretary rob porter is out of the west wing today. sources telling cnn that chief of staff has known for months of the domestic violence claims. >> porter was upset when told about it this week and ivanka trump was disturbed of the alleged abuse. his ex-wives accused him of the abuse during the background checks. one of the ex-wives spoke out. >> i'm not surprised that people who work with him in a professional capacity see him as a model of discretion and character. i believe he is. i think professionally he is intelligent and he is measured and he is certainly someone that i would trust in that profess n professional position and in his personal life he is abusive and angry. >> official says porter also misled west wing staff and kelly by accuses his ex-wives of trying to smear him. kelly was shocked by the allegations, but says i believe every individual deserves the right to defend their reputation. an ex-girlfriend of porter's contacted the white house counsel. >> she said she was concerned of the romantic relationship with porte

can you speak to whether that is a current practice for the large numbers of officials in the west wing and the white house complex who don't have permanent security clearances. are they limited? ms. sanders: i can't speak to whether they have permanent or interim security clearances and can't comment on the process. we are following the process that has been used by previous administrations. and we would rely on the law enforcement and intelligence communities to determine if that process needed to be changed. reporter: he suggested it should be changed. ms. sanders: they would make that determination and play a role in what that would look like. . reporter: the white house official said until tuesday night they didn't know the extent of the allegations. would the f.b.i. and personnel office be punished? sarah: that's something that will be well beyond my scope to determine, josh. reporter: they weren't told? everyone knew but no one in the senior staff found out? sarah: i haven't asked him about that specifically. matthew. reporter: sarah. raj the other day said last week the situatio

you better than anyone know this, you worked in the west wing. you are snow the title staff is a misleading title. we were reporting on hand because he was working on the state of the union speech. having worked with orrin hatch and rob portman was back channeling on policies like tax reform, before that health care. he's with the president on trips. he sits right there by the oval office. looks at everything coming in and out of the oval office. harvard guy, road scholar, son of a road scholar. somebody very involved in the policy making piece of the white house. when we talk about inner circle rob porter is in it. it is significant that he's leaving. it is significant we don't know about his security clearance. it is significant we don't know when he's leaving. the white house talks about a smooth transition. he could be in the west wing a little while longer. >> phil rucker, does the white house have a vetting problem? i held up one night, the form i had to fill in before i could go to work in the white house, before i could have access to a f

he is not the only one in the west wing who had not been granted full security clearance? >> reporter: the white house has declined to report a number on who is using a temporary path, but jarreed kushner, the president's own son-in-law, is among them. >> cecile yarks thank you. >>> we are following the major storm. just heading into the weekend, it's slamming chicago, detroit, and major travel hubs. nearly a foot of snow in chicago. one person was killed in a deadly highway pileup near flint, michigan. that system moving into the northeast tonight into the weekend and this evening, we are already watching another major storm right behind it. abc's alex perez in chicago tonight. >> reporter: tonight, danger on the highways. more than a dozen semis and more than three dozen vehicles in all involved in this chain-reaction crash on i-94 in kalamazoo county, michigan. one person killed in this accident near flint. police outside milwaukee posting this video, warning about driving too fast on slippery roads. in chicago, this group banding together to help a taxi driver stuck in

the highest level of officials within this west wing not having this clearance. now what we know is there might be any number of issues which might result in somebody being given an interim clearance rather than being granted the full clearance. that has everything to do with something that might make somebody subject to blackmail. you see a lot of foreign travel, high debts, previous issues of substance abuse, these are all things that could raise a red flag. i think it's significant that we're talking about such a long delay in terms of these officials that there were red flags. as we saw in the case of rob porter, the fbi which does the investigations, background checks that would ultimately lead to a recommendation about whether somebody should have a clearance, they completed their work by last summer. they made a recommendation, sent the report to the white house. this is what the white house is struggling to reconcile. they had in the past put the blame, perhaps explained away as an fbi issue in dealing with this backlog, we now know there were officials w

peter baker, your piece landed like a thud this weekend in the west wing, i'm told. talk about how they are processing what is to many of them i'm sure the grim reality that the mueller probe is contrary to the pledges made by ty cobb and john dowd, far from over? >> yeah, no, it doesn't look like it's over any time soon. and i think in the white house they take some solace from the fact that so far none of these indictments and none of these guilty pleas have specifically pointed a finger at the president or the campaign in and of itself. but they have to wonder where it's leading to. what is bob mueller building a case toward? and it looks like he's moving up the chain. well, the chain only goes so far, where it ultimately ends up nobody knows. in the process of course many who have been around the president now are facing enormous trouble. legal trouble, lawyer bills and so on. that doesn't sit well obviously with the president or his people as well. so, while they would tell you they're feeling calm because there is no implication of any wrongdoing so far, at lea

there are many others in the west wing who don't feel that way.s is a moment where john kelly grip on his position is most tenuous since he took the job. president trump has been calling to inform allies, those folks he calls every night sort of asking them their opinions on this scandal and how kelly has performed during it. and floating names about possible replacements. it should be said, the president does that a lot. he often evaluates senior aides with his staff usually to complain about them. this is a moment where there are people in the west wing who have been upset that how kelly changed things. he took away access to the oval office. he threw them out of the building. a lot of those people now have their knives out for the chief of staff where they are suggesting he handled this inappropriately and they feel perhaps he should be removed. >> gabe sherman saying white spread chatter trump is nearing a decision to name gary cohn as replacement. >> that would be a remarkable comeback. >> you're never out and never completely in. asawin, cnn

and sources telling abc news the president is furious with how both aides handled the west wing crisis. hicks, those sources say, helped write the administration's initial public statements defending porter. >> the president and chief of staff have had full confidence and trust in his abilities. and his performance. >> reporter: when the story first broke, kelly called porter a man of true integrity and honor. but tonight sources tell abc news that within the past 24 hours, kelly told the president he would be willing to resign. they say the president has spoken to confidantes about possibly replacing kelly including gauging businessman and longtime friend tom barrack's interest in the job. barrack said he's not interested. this as kelly does some damage control of his own. sending this letter to staffers saying the white house takes matters of domestic violence very seriously and in a meeting first thing this morning, "the washington post" says kelly told staffers to say he took action to remove porter within 40 minutes of learning about the ex-wives' allegations were credible. but po

the west wing continues to function, it fixs well i hear that i'm being considered in the media at least for replacing the chief of staff, you think that maybe someone would have mentioned it to me. no one talked to me. >> garrett: how badly do you want that job? >> i don't want that job. i love the jobs that i have now. more importantly chief of that have is doing really good job. most importantly the president thinks he's doing a great job. >> garrett: john kelly served the with the well? >> under the circumstance having someone -- >> garrett: he is a man of true integrity? >> to go want to believe and trust the people that are close to you and that you know. i think the problem here was with mr. porter not with the chief of staff. >> garrett: let's go to the budget y. is spending this money now and having deficits projected more than trillion dollars in a growing non-recessionary economy that is already jittered wall street for july week a good idea? >> it's r a very dangerous idea but the world we live in. here is what happened. we want money to defend the nation. we believe general

. >>> weird night in the west wing. let's play hardball. >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington tonight. the american presidency is grim and chaotic. "the new york times" is reporting the chief of staff is offering to resign. the communication chief is in danger, and the white house secretary is gone altogether. president trump publicly addressed the growing west wing scandal for the first time today defending the former aide who's been accused of two ex-wives of violent behavior. >> we certainly wish him well. it's obviously a tough time for him. he did a very good job when he was in the white house. and we hope he has a wonderful career, and hopefully he will have a great career ahead of him. but it was very sad when we heard about it, and certainly he's also very sad now. and as you probably know he said he's innocent. and i think you have to remember that. he said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent. so you'll have to talk to him about that, but we absolutely wish him well. he did a very good job

an official saying that porter misled everyone in the west wing. plus president trump approved the release of a democratic re

what we're seeing is the enemies john kelly made within the west wing suddenly had their moment. it there are a lot of people in there who are really upset at the access he's cut from the president, he took corey lewandowski's badge away, threw out omorosa, made powerful people like jared kushner and ivanka trump city thstay in thes and cut down the access people had to the president in the oval office at times to the president's chagrin. there are some people in there, the knives are out, they see this as a moment where kelly is vulnerable, they see this for the first time and this is for folks who don't necessarily oppose john kelly, even supporters in the office suddenly have had their faith shaken a little bit here by how he's handled this last week. that for a while there, they felt like he'd really sort of organized things and not that everything was going smoothly because they have an uncontrollable president at the top of the chain, but they felt like the process was working better, they were moving in the right direction at least most of the time, and i think for a lot o

to work within the west wing and the white house, there are a number of really big cheques that are done on these people. what this continuously shows is there seems to be skeletons in the cupboard of so many of these officials, these trump aids that are coming out quite a lot and what we are seeing from donald trump, he's tried to surround himself with people who are his close allies but their backgrounds are not necessarily checking out. they are going to the white house may eventually leave the white house very quickly. or is it also that some people can't hack the job? there are quite a few people doing two or threejobs. is it the pressures of the administration? is it the fact that people don't want to be associated with the white house? there are those other sites as well. working with the white house for a president is an enormous job but working for this president, it comes with the ramifications around it. that is one of the issues that happens here as well. if a lot of the stories are to be believed, the white house administration and the white house administration and the day—

so there's a reason there's a drama known as the west wing.re's always drama in the west wing. >> is it always like this? >> yes, that's what i'm coming back to. the first year that clinton white house was a complete chaos in george having to move along. my friend coming in to be the director. all white houses have this kind of drama. i think you do what is exactly right. if the president likes general kelly and he does and the vice president says he's staying, he's staying and as you said earlier in the first segment of the "today" show, this shall pass. they say how is is this tax cut doing. >> are you suggesting the drama we have seen in this trump white house is no different than drama in all past administrations? >> there are some very major dramas. i did not have sex with that woman. that's the all-time high for dra many. >> you always have periods of drama and periods of calm. the chief of staff only needs to satisfy one person. that's the president. >> you work for president clinton. he said it was way worse then than now. >> i can't a

especially within the west wing. they're doing what they want to do. they have made that perfectly clear that they don't really consider those things, you know, disqualifying for the son-in-law or for rob porter or anyone else. that's a separate issue. the fact that this domestic violence thing is different than sexual harassment really needs to be underlined. it is clear that the white house really didn't believe this was a huge potent issue and liability until they saw the photographs. president trump is very visual. he's obsessed with television. and he knew that those photographs were going to be repeated on air. and that changed his mind. axios is reporting that president trump thinks people who beat their wives are sick, even though he stuck up for rob porter and said nothing about the women on friday on coupamer >> it's not like the photograph had the president coming out and saying, hey, this is an issue. we have both pictures side by side. he did that with al franken. he said it's really sad when you look at that picture, i'm paraphrasing here

he had the greatest proximity to classified information of everyone in the west wing staff. is john kelly's job security is in question is no surprise. the fact the white house is careening from crisis to crisis with serious questions about their handling of classified information is a damning indictment that the competence and character of the individuals assembled at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. "the new york times" reporting, quote, aides to the president said they remained confused and upset over the handling of the accusations against rob porter, the staff secretary who stepped down. on sunday, legislative affairs director mark short made clear that the white house staff didn't even try to nail down the facts of the porter debacle before they fanned out for their sunday show appearances. >> it's a fair question, chuck. i don't know who knew what when. >> why don't you know? why does everyone in the white house speaking in the room, get with don mcgahn, white house communication director hope hicks and former staff secretary rob porter? sarah huckabee sanders today defendin

it is all over the control and the discipline in the west wing.hn kelly has talked privately about this to others in the west wing. he has sometimes not been thrilled about the son and daughter and vice versa here. but it does seem like things have come to more of a resolution here after the rob porter situation a couple weeks ago. that staff secretary resigning. they seem to have come to more of a working agreement here, and john kelly's job seems safe at this point. but it certainly has underscored that there are tensions in the west wing, and a lot of them seem to revolve around ivanka trump and jared kushner. >> jeff zeleny, thanks very much. back with the panel. should ivanka trump be representing the u.s. in south korea? >> well, i have news for all the people that gossip behind her back in the west wing. her father thinks she is more than qualified, and that's all that matters. she and her husband run the show. this might even be these reports about mcmaster and kelly -- particularly kelly, might be some chess where they're trying to make i

. >> i never felt of all of the things we went through in the west wing, i never felt the president was going to fire the special counsel. i only know what i dealt with and i can tell you i never felt there was some sort of collusion or obstruction situation going on in the west wing. >> just a reminder, priebus left the white house back in july. >>> a special agent with the fbi turning in his badge to protest what he believes is a bureau politicized by the republicans and trump administration. josh campbell writes fbi agents are doigged people who do not care about the political wins. to succeed, they need public backing. scorched partisan goals is threatening the support. this is raising doubts of the integrity of the fbi. >>> paul ryan deleting a weekend tweet touting the tax overhaul. some calling the leader out of touch with americans. a woman said she was surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week. she said that will cover her costco member for a year. that runs about $60 a year. after a severe backlash, ryan pulled the tweet. cnn requested a comment and we have not heard back. >> the

on the table tonight a west wing scandal, the departure of a central aide to the president with access to classified material, leaving in a storm of allegations of spousal abuse. also corey lewandowski, will he talk to the house intelligence committee and what happens if he doesn't? and the president wants a parade, and washington wants to know about the price tag. we begin, though, with that scandal. the sudden departure of rob porter, white house staff secretary. an alleged spousal abuser two times over. jim acosta has late details. what do we know about rob porter's resignation and how it came about? >> reporter: essentially, anderson, they were starting to work on this over the last 24 to 48 hours when this daily mail story broke. they knew they had to respond to this, and essentially what they've been saying up until really late today was that, you know, there were some thoughts that rob porter could weather this storm. and, you know, rob porter himself put out a statement saying that much of this is not true. of course he resigned earlier today, and the white house had to deal wi

he was a way to instill john kelly's west wing discipline. we're told that john kelly knew about this for months. rob porter today said it was part of a coordinated smear campaign. he said that as the white house was trying to explain and contain the fallout. few people stood closer to president trump. from the white house colon nad to the oval office. even a hand shake with the chinese president. the white house scrambled today to defend staff secretary rob police repo porter. as cnn learned some top officials knew about the abuse allegations for months. >> i can tell you that the president, chief of staff have had full confidence and trust in his abilities and his performance. >> reporter: porter was responsible for nearly every document that came into the president's hands. even some classified ones, despite not having a permanent security clearance. tonight, cnn has learned the fbi denied his security clearance last fall after reports of abuse were discovered during a background check. yet porter was still able to keep his post through a

>> all right, kristen welker outside the west wing tonight. thank you. >>> in what could be a tipping point in a growing corporate response to the florida school shooting, one of the country's biggest sporting goods retailers announced today it will stop selling assault-style rifles along with the sale of any guns to those under 21. dick's sporting goods essentially adopting self-imposed gun restrictions. our kate snow has more. >> reporter: after the horror in parkland, florida, dick's sporting goods ceo ed stack says they found out the alleged gunman bought a shotgun last november at one of their stores. though not a weapon used in the killings that day, enough was enough. >> we don't want to be part of the story any longer. >> reporter: the company is no longer selling assault-style rifles or high-capacity magazines. and will not sell any firearms to anyone under 21. >> it's a big decision to make as a corporation. why? >> when we looked at those kids, and we saw what -- the grief that they were going through and how these kids organized to

what you're seeing is he's lost the respect and the trust of a lot of that west wing staff.one of the reasons is because they believe he handled it poorly in general, but more specifically, then those he asked them to lie for him and has been misleading to the public and to them internally. it is an anonymous quote, no one would put their name on it, but the west wing staff feels that embolded them in going to the media and calling general kelly a liar. >> let's talk about not just john kelly be joe haguen and also don mcgahn. a lot of fingers pointing at those other two men. what does it say about this white house that if they were involved in this and allowed this to continue to happen, say they did, i'm not sure from the reporting so far, what does that say about the culture of the white house that they thought it would be okay to do that? >> this is a white house, you and i both saw during the campaign and it followed them into the white house, but a white house that basically flouts the rules, sometimes brazenly and only sort of corrects their story or corrects their mi

not that long ago, right here in the west wing, she tearfully thanked west wing staffers. she is a very beloved member of this administration. her office was right outside president trump's oval office. we can't emphasize enough how much of a trusted adviser she was to him. her actual departure date could still be weeks off, david, but this has been a very key role and a tough one for this white house to fill. hope hicks is now the fourth communications director to come and go. >> cecilia vega leading us off tonight. cecilia, thank you. >>> as you know, the other firestorm tonight, republicans reacting at this hour to what they saw from the president today at the white house. he was sitting with republicans and democrats on guns and school safety, saying he supports what many of the democrats support, universal background checks, among other things, pushed by the students and families in parkland, florida. but tonight, many in his own party are now livid. abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl. >> reporter: before the television cameras at the white house, the

fbi director, moments ago, contradicting the timeline on rob porter and we're now learning the west wingw about the spousal abuse allegations for nearly a year. white house is set to respond any moment. plus drama on the hill. a republican congressman wants his fellow lawmaker, also a groomsman in his wedding, deposed in his divorce proceedings. what the congressman's wife and colleague have to say about that next. sfx: muffled whistle text alert. i'm your phone, stuck down here between your seat and your console, playing a little hide-n-seek. cold... warmer... warmer... ah boiling. jackpot. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, you could be picking up these charges yourself. so get allstate, where agents help keep you protected from mayhem... ...like me. mayhem is everywhere. are you in good hands? he gets the best deal on the perfect hotel by using. tripadvisor! that's because tripadvisor lets you start your trip on the right foot... by comparing prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. saving you up to 30%! you'll be bathing in saving

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we have seen a lot of turmoil, a lot of people leaving the west wing. them in the last months. i don't expect major changes in the amount of turbulence in the west wing. obviously, she is someone who was well-known in the white house and her absence will be significantly felt. scarlet: you wonder, who is going to fill her role? she played a role similar to that of huma abedin with hillary clinton. i wonder, kellyanne conway seems to be someone who has stuck by the president's side. will her role be upgraded, do you think? in light of this departure? toluse: it's difficult to play the game of thrones within this west wing, knowing who is on top and who is responsible for which portfolios. we are likely to see the people who are remaining and the people who have been with the president for a long time, including kellyanne conway, continuing to expand their power in the issues that they cover. where so west wing many people don't have the authority to rein in the president or even put forward a coherent message, because there is so much chaos over the cour

donald trump needs a bigger bus, one that fits all of the west wing staffers that have been thrown under it in the last four days in the rob porters domestic abuse scandal. this is a white house incapable of getting its story straight and delivers credibility and consistency to the press. ironically those are functions of all the white house communications director who happens to be one of the key figures in what's becoming a circular firing squad of aides blaming different power centers. in one corner beleaguered white house chief of staff john kelly, "the washington post" reporting this afternoon under the headline, quote, kelly offers account of porter exit that some white house aides consider untrue. he, kelly, told the staff he took immediate and direct action, one of the officials said. adding that people actively expressing disbelief with one another and felt his latest account is not true. the white house counsel is getting his share of blame in reporting from the washington post and "the new york times" that fills in some of the time line in when the white house first knew of th

so, we are -- the west wing is worse than we thought. if this is the mature adult, god help us all. >> where were you yesterday when i aired omarosa and said, this is not -- i want to give you the last word and we've got much more on this coming up. but, phil rucker, what i found so astounding about this episode is -- and you cover the white house with the breadth and depth of sources i don't have. but this is an instance where my phone hasn't stopped ringing since tuesday. everyone wanting to call and offer their theories on who did what. this idea they are so eager to throw one another under the bus. >> yes. >> i hadn't until today had a lot of people calling and pointing fingers at hope hicks. they are very eager to lay the blame for this situation either at the feet of john kelly, a camp wanting to lay it at the feet of don mcgahn. today is the first day that my former colleague and friend joe hagen's name has been in the press as someone i acknowledge, and hope hicks. what do you think under girds the blame game going on? >> well, p

their positions in the west wing. they're two of the most high profiled people in the west wing. hope especially because she is such a trusted comfort dante of the president. this is the first time we're seeing them split on something. you see the president express sadness for rob porter, for his future career. i know the president was very upset with the way it has been handled in the white house, mainly focused on the way hope hicks has handled. this not only did she not consult the president when she drafted this initial statement, defending porter, but the president feels she's really allowed her relationship with him to cloud her judgment, which anyone can see why. so it is not clear that john kelly is that hope hicks will not be in the white house on monday, sitting at their desks, about it definitely shows a downward slide for both of them. john kelly has been on one in recent weeks, and hope hicks, this is first time we've seen this happen to her. >> this wasn't a trump scandal per se until today. he's mad at hope hicks for letting her judgment be clouded. why did trump g

everybody in the west wing is. the president is as well. i think the talk about the chief's departure is much ado about nothing. >> ryan noble is at the white house. what are you hearing? >> i think it's essentially an attempt to clear up what happened in the wake of these revelations of domestic violence accusations against a couple key white house aides. as you very artfully showed there, fred, they spread out armed with focal points to attempt to show the president responded to this in a speedy manner, that it was want out of the -- not out of the ordinary, that when revelations like this come up, they are handled delicately and quickly. but kellyanne conway's interview on "state of the union," she said sometimes due process is necessary when it comes to someone being accused of something like this, she went a bit further than the president himself was able to do as it went to rob porter and those who accused him of domestic violence. take a look at what she had to say. >> when the president is talking about due process, he's right in th