Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin 20170721

In part, thats the Communications Directors job and the political directors job and the chief of staffs job. Six months in, what do we hear constantly . Everybody is refitting themselves, retasking, panicking inside the white house because the president s mad at them. If you conduct an administration where your priority is every day to make sure the president still likes you, youre not going to get to the business of health care. You think health cares complicated for republicans . Watch tax reform. Every second were having this conversation, were closer to 2018. If the president s had a hard time getting anything big done in the first year in office, try getting it done in a Midterm Election year. Is Anthony Scaramucci going to be the next person the president gets mad at is the big question. I think its important to underscore something that you just said, that this is completely like nothing we have ever seen before and anita is right that Anthony Scaramucci has none of the experience in doing the job of a Traditional Communications director, but as a good friend of his pointed out to me a short while ago, he doesnt need those skills when the president is the guy hes working for who will change that with a tweet or with a whim or with anything that weve seen over the past six months, that they, in a way, have a little bit more selfawareness of the guy that theyre dealing with in the oval office. Right or wrong, its just the way he is. He aint going to change. One of the other things thats interesting is that this is not the first spokesperson of the white house in the last 24 hours to resign. The spokesman for President Trumps legal team, mark rollo, he has already stepped down, and if you read the politico piece about why he stepped down, its pretty vicious in terms of what he thought about how dysfunctional it was within the white house. At some point, and ill bring anita back on this because i know she has strong feelings. At some point, its not a Communications Problem. Right. Its the Communications Problem of this president , right . I mean, hes the common denominator here and we know he likes to tweet. And he also promised that he would bring people around him, sort of the best people in the business, and there is always the thinking, at least from republicans, that those people could corral the president and really bring out the best in this president and whatever his worst instincts were, they could kind of curb those and you see, i think, with Anthony Scaramucci, its not clear that hes going to be able to do that. Its not even clear that thats what this white house, this president wants him to do. He seems to be doubling down on trumpism in many ways, and i think there also is this concern, youve got Sarah Huckabee sanders right now who is in that deputy press secretary, no indication that she wants the press secretary job. Are they going to be able to fill that slot. Thats one of the problems. People dont want to necessarily go into this white house. They offered a lot of these jobs to other people. They havent wanted to take them. Take these jobs because of this chaos that the president likes, that he feeds into as well. A source just texted me and said, dont be surprised if you see scaramucci at this appear at this briefing today. So we may actually be able to hear from him. Well see. As a in his first job as a spokesman of sorts for the president and see what the president really likes about him. We should also point out, and again, i understand that President Trump does things differently. Normally, new press secretaries spend weeks, if not months, preparing for standing behind that podium. What you say could have an effect on the markets. It could have an effect on literally on lives, on war and peace. And so just because somebodys a killer on tv, on a fox Business News hit, doesnt mean, okay, hes fine, hes ready for the job. John. I want to make the point this is a huge personnel shakeup at the white house and the world has come to know sean spicer as the spokesman for the president from day one t debate over crowd size to ask the president about fundamental questions like did russia interfere in our elections. It has been a dysfunctional relationship for the news media and between the president and the media for some time. Took sean spicer a lot longer than some of his friends recommended and advised him but he came to the conclusion, the president has lost confidence in me. What do you do if youre Jeff Sessions today. This is about the trump management style. The trump presidency. The chief of staff and the chief strategist were overruled on this one. That happens. That happens sometimes. That doesnt necessarily mean you cant serve the president because you disagreed on one big thing. You would hope there are big debates in every white house about big things but if youre the attorney general and the president just made clear to the New York Times that i wouldnt have given you the job, you have the shakeup at the white house. Theres a culture here where people in the Trump White House walk on egg shells and think every day, i need to make sure the president is happy with me. Thats a hard way to run a government. Take a listen to Anthony Scaramucci on cnn in just the past month. It appears from the outside, at least for right now, is that they are going to redesign the Communications Strategy and theyll probably maybe sean will go to another role inside the white house, put somebody else behind the podium. Do you think thats likely, that theyll move him. I dont know. I mean, ive read some of the press speculation, some of the people that ive talked to inside the white house are saying that theyre exploring a couple of different ideas. This is one of the things that i do like about the president. You know, hes an entrepreneur, and hell experiment and do different things. I think hes very loyal to sean. I think sean is a very hardworking guy. Hes got great communication experience, and he may be the Communications Director or maybe even an assistant to, you know, Reince Priebus or Something Like that. Hard to really know from the outside, to be candid, but what i do like is that theyre going to try to experiment and i think maybe thats why theyre off camera for a short period of time. Joining us right now tis jasn miller, former adviser for the trump campaign. Whats your take on all this . From the outside, it looks pretty dysfunctional. I dont think so at all, jake. Keep in mind the Communications Director spot has been open for a while here and so anthony was coming in to fill it. I think sean took a look at the situation and said, you know what, im going to give anthony to opportunity to build this out but i will take a moment here to say that i am disappointed that sean is leaving. I think in a lot of ways, sean has been one of the rocks thats been helping to hold this administration together on the messaging side. Sean is someone whos been doing this for 20 years. Hes a very professional, very sharp operator, someone who definitely knows what hes doing. Hes an absolute first class professional. Im disappointed to see him go. Im glad hes going to be staying around through august to help with the transition period. And you know, the good thing for sean, im sure hes going to be able to sleep in this weekend and making a lot more money in whatever he goes and does next. Lets bring in rick wilson, a longtime republican strategist and he has been critical of President Trump. Rick, you were laughing during that little the remarks by jason miller. Theres absolutely no one on this planet who can, with a straight face, say that the White House Communications shop is working well, and the chaos and the dissension and all the things that led sean to finally pull the ejection handle here have been with us from the beginning, and they really comes down to one thing. Its that donald trump doesnt have a Communications Staff that he will listen to. He doesnt have a chief of staff he will listen to. No matter who whether Anthony Scaramuccis good or bad on tv, as you said, if hes good on a fox business hit, its different from being able to discipline the president in enormously consequential matters, things that are of national consequence, life and death, National Security, the markets, the economy where a guy with an itchy twitter finger sense of selfregard that is so broad. Like he didnt inform any of his other Communications Team that they were having the New York Times in to give an interview that turns out to have blown up his administration, opened up a whole bunch of new areas of investigation. Its really quite stunning that anybody can defend Trumps White House when its trumps the communications the core of the communications difficulties here and he always will be. Hes not going to change. Jason . So, heres where i think Anthony Scaramucci is going to do well is he has a very good sense of the president s style. He was with us in the campaign, with us in the transition. He understands how the president approaches these matters. He understands the policy. Hes been active on tv. I mean, weve seen some of his interviews with cnn anchor chris cuomo, the epic 15, 20, 30minute sitdowns where they go flu a through and get in depth into policy. Scaramucci is a very smart guy and i think hes another additional voice that will be able to come into the white house and shape and mold the messaging structure of how theyre going to get the president s message out and i think thats one of the things we need to keep in mind here is ultimately this is President Trumps white house. Hes the one whos going to dictate the direction that this is going to go and everyone there works for him to help try to implement his message. Rick . But reinforcing all of Donald Trumps impulsive, almost child like urges to be the center of attention every day and to say whatever comes out of his mind at that moment, like political tourettes is not something that is going to help this white house become more credible and more viable at communicating an agenda because it is still going to end up being donald trump talking about whatever his impulse is and the voices in his head drive him to talk about that day and i think scaramucci is a bit of a yes man. Hes a bit of a family friend and so trump is going to expect him to be rah, rah boss, lets go have fun and do what you want. Believe me, id love to eat Fried Chicken every day but id be 400 pounds if i do. You cant give into your impulses every day and i think Anthony Scaramucci will do that. Let me bring in Brian Stelter right now. He has new report at this eventful day at the white house. Its only 2 00 p. M. , jake. I was saying last hour, this is the latest sign of dysfunction to have a press secretary resign after only six months. Normally, press secretaries last a couple of years. I have a senior white house source saying, no, this is a sign the president is actually trying to eliminate the dysfunction. This source is saying, and take this for what its ort, spin from the west wing saying that scaramucci will bring great energy, new perspective, he likes the press and the press likes him. Hopefully this will take the temperature down a notch. I think thats very interesting because scaramuccis a happy warrior on tv. As you were saying, jake, hes a fighter on television. He likes defending the president on tv. But well see if scaramucci can actually take the temperature down and maybe improve relations between the president and the press. Sara murray is in the Briefing Room right now as we await the oncamera, were told, white house briefing, the first oncamera briefing in quite some time. Sara, what about the theory that a senior white house official or Administration Official just told Brian Stelter that maybe scaramucci will be a cure for the dysfunction and is not its not fair to see him his coming in as an example of it. Well i think thats easy to say before he takes the job. Remember, a lot of people said that about sean spicer as he was coming into the white house. That he had a lot of Good Relationships with members of the press, he worked as a spokesperson for the rnc for a long time, and that he would also make the relationship a little bit less toxic. It is true that Anthony Scaramucci has great relationships with different television network, with different media reporters, all basically across the board, but i think what we saw with spicer is its a lot harder once you get in the job. Its a lot harder once you show up at the podium and well see what the confines of this job look like for scaramucci. The white house has made clear that they dont necessarily view these roles in a traditional sense and we may see scaramucci on television a lot defending the president. We may see him doing strategy. Its possible well get more details on that from Sarah Huckabee sanders when she comes out to brief or even from Anthony Scaramucci himself. I think they are trying to sort of send a sense of calm from the white house today, even though its clearly anything but calm here. But i mean, just the fact that Reince Priebus is putting out statements saying that hes happy about this scaramucci hire, the fact that sean spicer got on the phone with dana and said hes just making way for scaramucci to sort of be able to build his own team, does say that everyone kind of wants to hold hands and sing kumbaya, at least for optics. Obviously thats not what has been going on behind the scenes. You dont resign in protest if everythings going fine, jake. Former Communications Director for the obama white house, its easier for somebody like scaramucci whos kind of a who has been a voluntary talking head, a voluntary spokesperson to go out on his own terms when its good for him, easier than it is day in, day out going to that podium, sitting in that office, for instance, today, were it not for the spicer resignation, the top story would be that President Trump has told aides, according to reporting in the New York Times and Washington Post that hes interested in knowing what his pardoning powers are when it comes to pardoning his family or advisers or even himself that people in the white house are trying to dig up incriminating information about investigators with special counsel bob muellers office. And on and on. Those kind of day in, day out difficult questions to answer, thats going to be less fun than Anthony Scaramucci choosing when he wants to go on tv to make his point and defend the president. Jake, theres no doubt that its very different inside than outside. One of the things about being outside a white house is that its always easy to sit there and say, they should have done this, they should have done that, why arent they doing this. Its very different once youre inside the west wing and youre the person whos responsible for trying to make sure things run smoothly. And that the white house is presenting a coherent message to the public in the face of so many things that you cant control happening every day. I want to agree with sara on a point that she made because i think its very important. Sean spicer went into this job with a lot of friends in the Washington Press corps and with a very good reputation and i think after leaving this job, hell be able to rekinld a lot of those friendships and a lot of that reputation again. But at the end of the day, youre only as good in these jobs as the president you serve and the amount of trust that he gives you to be honest with him, to give your best, blunt advice, to actually go out there, design a strategy, and implement it, and so part of this part of what Anthony Scaramucci is probably going to learn is that its a lot easier to be a friend on the outside than to be staff on the inside. Gloria borger, anita dunn just expressing what a lot of us have said for a long time, that before he joined the trump team, sean spicer had a very respected reputation in washington, d. C. , good relations with people, good relations with reporters. And im not sure that he leaves the position he has with that reputation or with those relations. Look, hes presided over a huge credibility gap that this white house has. Between the press and that podium. And as a result, a large part of the American Public, i think. And sean, in his previous incarnation, was somebody that we have all covered and we didnt feel that way. But from his first day on the job when he had to come out and he spoke about the crowd size, that became a problem for him and it didnt get any better. And so the question that i have is, as a journalist, is this credibility problem going to get any better now, or is scaramucci there to channel donald trump in every way, shape, and form. Because when that happens, then the credibility gap kind of, you know, can really increase, and i think there are lots of journalists who cover the white house every day, im not one of them, but there are lots of jumperis journalists who cover the white house every day who want a more responsive white house to their questions, and they want to be able to believe what is coming from that podium, and there have been many times that they dont. And i think that is something that needs to get resolved. That echos up on capitol hill as well. Those Senior Republicans are mad at this white house, frustrated with this white house, pick your term for it, and if Anthony Scaramuccis job is to keep the president happy and that means saying what the president wants you to say, not shrugging with the president tweets that barack obama is wiretapping me, it might keep the president happy but what about the governing challenge. Thats the question on capitol hill where they werent happy with everything sean spicer said but they could communicate to and with him about these things. So lets have an open mind about this and see what Anthony Scaramucci does, a, in his own work and b in the people he brings in for the people in this structure but he should know this happens after months of the white house going through this. I know two people who were reached out to by the highest level of the white house and asked if they were interested in the press secretarys job, told they could be part of shaping if new Communications Team. Both of them said, no, thank you, sir, because they didnt want any part of this chaos but Anthony Scaramuccis not the first choice or at least not the only choice in the continued part of the shakeup which gets you back to the big question. Is this a reset, a new approach or is Anthony Scaramucci the latest person who in a week or two we will hear the president s mad at. Jason, i guess the big question is, if you listen to the panel here, will it serve Anthony Scaramucci and the country and the president better if Anthony Scaramucci is somebody who is able to say, President Trump, i am not going to go out there and argue that your crowd was bigger than president obamas because it was not. I am not going to go out there and defend this false charge that youve made, pick, x, y, z, because its not true. And that will not help you. Or is he going to do what sean spicer did . Dont you agree that thats a big question, jason . Well, jake, i love the two options that you gave me there. Look, heres what i know about Anthony Scaramucci. Because theyre factbased options. Its because Anthony Scaramucci is no shrinking violet. He will go and offer his opinions to the president. Sometimes hes going to sometimes the president will agree with him. Sometimes he wont. But anthony knows whos the president of the United States and who he works for and going back to the commentary about scaramucci just going out on the good days. Look, i worked with anthony day in and day out on the Campaign Just like i did with sean and we had a lot of tough days on our campaign, our winning campaign, i would remind folks and both of those men went out and fought hard every single time. Neither one of them shied away from the tough days or the brutal news cycles that we had and anthonys not going to shy away. Look, anthony very much, weve seen this from watching cnn, where he sits down and will have very substantive, in depth, policyoriented conversations with hosts on this network where he can actually sit down and dive into those things and really have a unique way of communicating the president s message, and look, hes going to have his own style. I dont think its really theres a way to compare when you go from, say, one person who might be a press secretary and another person whos a Communications Director. We still havent heard from the white house what the exact structure is going to be, if theres going to be a promotion of Sarah Huckabee sanders or if theyre going toods Something Else for the actual press secretary role but the one thing i know is that the approximate president goi the president is going to listen to Anthony Scaramucci and anthony is not going to be shy about offering up his opinion. Thats why they have him. Rick . I come back to this again, jake. Donald trumps impulsive nature and his short attention span, you know, he wont listen to his attorneys when they tell him to stop tweeting. He wont listen to Communications Staff when they tell him to stop obsessing about fake news. He wont listen to his legislative side guys who tell him, please stay on message about health care or whatever other issue were talking about. This is the white house that is also at the whim of donald trump. And Anthony Scaramucci may be a familiar tribal figure to them, they may know him from the campaign, he may be a made guy on the campaign but he is still going to face the difficulty of having to chase the rabbit that is donald trump, whos running from idea to idea to idea every day, and i dont think anyone has demonstrate that had they can go in the oval office and make donald trump a better president. Hes not very good at being president , and it stems from his own internal character flaws, and i dont think anybody can really manage that. And scaramucci, like he could be a pit bull all day on tv, but when trump when the guy walks out of the room, weve heard this from many, many people, they Say Something to donald trump, they walk out of the room and he does the exact opposite. His attorneys say, dont tweet about this. They leave, he tweets. I dont think this guy is going to have a magical ability to change donald trump. I wouldnt describe anthony as a pit bull. Anthony is a very effective communicator. He understands the way that President Trump talks and communicates with the voters and the citizens of this country. He understands the president s message and what this goal of as we try to make America Great again. He is bought in and he understands what this administration is all about. And so i think for since he understands it so well, hes going to be joining, i think, a lot of good folks who are already on board in this communications shop, and going back to what sara was saying a couple moments ago, there are a lot of good pieces already in place in this communications shop, and anthony is going to be adding to that. I think hes somebody whos easy to get along with. Weve seen positive comments from Kelleyanne Conway and Reince Priebus. Hes going to integrate very seamlessly with the rest of the team and its going to be a great addition. I got to interrupt. Im sorry. Heres Sarah Huckabee sanders. Slow news day . Quiet crowd. Good afternoon. To mark the last day of made in america week this afternoon the president will welcome several living survivors of the attack on the uss arizona at pearl harbor and their families. Other events this week have focused on products and goods bearing that made in america label but truly the most prized thing to have come out of our country have been approximathe and women who have risked their lives protecting the freedom of americans and our allies around the globe. The president signed an executive order that will ensure the men and women of the greatest military in the world have the ships, aircraft, vehicles, and other supplies they will need to keep us safe in the years ahead. This order commissions the first ever whole government assessment of americas Defense Industrial base, marking the First Time Since president eisenhower that an american president is an investing personal attention into the health of the United States Defense Industrial base. President trump is committed to maintaining the secure supply chains and robust workforce that will support our nations heroes for decades to come. Next week, well be highlighting american heroes like the world war ii veterans, the First Responders who keep our Community Safe every day and the boys and girls who will grow up to be the next generation of american leaders. While im on the topic of the men and women who protect us, i also wanted to note that the president commended the house yesterday for voting to reauthorize the department of Homeland Security for the first time. The Homeland Security authorization act also authorizes u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the first time. Secretary kelly has already made tremendous progress in fulfilling the president s promise to end illegal immigration and fully enforce the laws of the United States. And this bill reflects the president s strong commitment to ensuring that progress continues. Also on the hill, of course, Senate Republicans this week continue to work toward our shared goal of saving the American People from the disaster of obamacare. Earlier this afternoon, Vice President pence and secretary of health and Human Services dr. Tom price hosts representatives from several grassroots organizations, calling on the senate to take action on health care legislation. As the president has said, inaction is simply not an option. These groups want lawmakers to know that their members want them to follow through on their promise to the American People. Finally, id like to read a statement from the president on the resignation of press secretary sean spicer. I am grateful for seans work on behalf of my administration and the American People. I wish him continued success as he moves on to pursue new opportunities. Just look at his Great Television ratings. Sean will continue to serve the administration through august, and the president has also appointed Anthony Scaramucci as Communications Director and i have a statement on anthonys appointment as well. Anthony is a person i have Great Respect for, and he will be an important addition to this administration. Hes been a great supporter and will now help implement key aspects of our agenda while leading the Communications Team. We have accomplished so much and we are being given credit for so little. The good news is the people get it even if the media doesnt, and id like to bring anthony up to say a few words and take a few questions. As always, ill be back after that to answer any followup questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. So, im going to be very brief. Im going to make my remarks informal and then ill take questions from everybody. First off, id like to announce, formally, that Sarah Huckabee sanders is going to be the press cant hear me . Im sorry. Better . Sarah Huckabee Sanders is going to be the press secretary. And so you can congratulate her after the session. You still cant hear me . No sound . Okay. Better . Better now . Better now . Im going to start over. You guys heard me in the front, though, right . Whatd i say, job . Sarahs going to be the press secretary. So congratulations to you, sarah. And so i want to make a couple of statements. The first thing i want to say is i want to thank, personally, sean spicer, not only on behalf of myself, the president , the administration, but sean is a true american patriot. Hes a military serviceman. Hes got a great family. And hes done an amazing job. This is obviously a difficult situation to be in. And i applaud his efforts here and i love the guy and i wish him well. And i hope he goes on to make a tremendous amount of money. As it relates to me, in this position, im going to spend a couple of weeks getting to know the people here, and im going to be as coordinated as i can with the people inside the west wing. Theres been some speculation in the press about me and reince, so i just wants to talk about that very quickly. Reince and i have been personal friends for six years. We are a little bit like brothers where we rough each other up once in a while, which is totally normal for brothers. Theres a lot of people in here that have brothers so you get that. But hes a dear friend. He brought me into the political system. He brought me into the Republican National committee network, he introduced me to governor walker. Weve spent many times together socially. A lot of people are not aware about this, but after the Romney Campaign, i invited reince in to sky bridge. I think it reflects poorly on reince that he didnt take my offer to come in and be our chief operating officer. But i say that in jest, obviously. And so what i want you guys to know is that he was my first call this morning. I met with him before we sat in the oval office. And we are committed, as true professionals, to the team and the process of getting the administrations message out. I think thats going to be one of the big goals for us. I said during the transition, and ill say it up here, i think theres been, at times, a disconnect between the way we see the president and how much we love the president and the way some of you perhaps see the president. I certainly see the American People probably see the president the way i do, but we want to get that message out there and to use a wall street expression, there might be an arbitrage spread between how well we are doing and how well some of you guys think were doing and were going to work hard to close that spread. So im done. Ill take questions. Im going to get to as many people as i can. What we have seen from this administration so far is the president being his own messenger very frequently and that has caused some struggles for the Communications Staff. How do you expect to get this white house back on track . Well, im going to take a slight issue with the question because i think the white house is on track and were actually, i think, doing a really good job. I actually do think from because we have a whole list of things and i didnt want to come out here with our list of accomplishments and start a whole advertisement infomercial right now. I wanted to talk about Personnel Movement and how were thinking about things. But i think were doing an amazing job. The president himself is always going to be the president. I was in the oval office with him earlier today, and we were talking about letting him be himself, letting him express his full identity. I think hes got some of the best political instincts in the world and perhaps in history if you think about it, he started his political ascent two years and two months ago, and hes done a phenomenal job for the American People. And the people i grew up with, they so identify with the president and they love him and so were going to get that message out. My second question for you too. Im going to get to everybody. Dont worry. If you can speak a little bit about how you plan to obviously youre a business guy, a wall street guy, walk us through any conflicts of interest, how this offer was made to you, what the conversations been like. I dont think its fair to the president for me to go into the exact conversation because i want to keep those conversations between me and him private but we talked a little bit about the white house. We talked a little bit about our personal relationship and then when he extended the offer to me, i said i would do it because i want to serve the president. You know, one of the things i have a lot of family members that served in the american military. Unfortunately my generation, born in 1964, i did not serve. I filled out the selective service. Its one of the regrets from my life so this is an opportunity for me to serve the country. I love the president. I obviously love the country. Look at my Life Experience here in the country. And so its an honor to be here. Its an honor to stand here. Any conflicts . In terms of my personal business conflicts . I have worked with the office of governmental ethics to take care of all of my business conflicts. My start date is going to be in a couple of weeks so thats a 100 totally cleansed and clean. I mean, i dont see an issue wit. The office of government ethics doesnt see an issue, nor does the white House Counsel. But heres one thing i want to say about this, though. When youre bringing American Business people into the administration and theyve had some level of success in the society, they have to unencumber themselves. Its a very interesting thing and its somewhat ironic. You want to go serve the country so the first thing you have to do is take on this mega opportunity cost by getting rid of all your assets, but im willing to do that because i love the country. Anthony, youve bret baieen g this white house from somewhat outside and im sure you have your own perspective on what youve seen. Not quite as tan as you though. Not quite outside. What is the first thing youre going to change to try to right this ship and put it on a course . Again, i take issue with that. I think the ship is going to go the ship is going in the right direction. I think weve got to just radio signal the direction very, very clearly. I like the team. Let me rephrase that. I love the team. And so im an incrementalist. Most entrepreneurs you will find are incrementalists, to Say Something overly bold or overly dramatic is unfair. What good entrepreneurs do is they start the day and they go through the process. The navy s. E. A. L. S will tell you that if you want to eat an eegant, you got to do it one bite at a time and sarah and i will do that together. Anthony, did you have any hesitation taking this job knowing it might cause some friction and that it might lead to sean leaving, which is whats going to happen and the two are at least somewhat coincidental. And did you have any hesitation about how you would relate to the rest of the white house staff if you came in under those circumstances. Okay, well, listen, you know, remember, im a business person, and so what happens in business a lot of the times is you have some rotation in personnel as youre making changes and you have lifestyle choices that people are also making. I would love to have sean here. Sean decided that he thought it would be better to go and for me, as it relates to sean, it speaks volumes to who he is as a human being, who he is as a team player, so his attitude is, if anthonys coming in, let me clear the slate for anthony and i do appreciate that about sean and i love him for it. But i dont have any friction with sean. I dont have any friction with reince. This is the white house of the United States of america and were serving the president. I want to make sure that our cultural template is that we put the president s agenda first, which is perfect for the American People, and we serve his interests, and so if we have a little bit of friction inside the white house as a result of that, its okay. We can all live with that. Im a business person. Im used to dealing with friction. You were a significant player during the transition. Was it disappointing that you did not land a post here from the getgo. Again, i would say as an entrepreneur, you have to be accustomed to setbacks. Ive had a series of setbacks in my life, which ive written about. I wrote a bestselling book, and if you dont believe me, you can come into my basement and ill show you every copy. And so im very honest about mistakes that ive made and setbacks that ive had, and so was i disappointed . Yes, i said that candidly that i was disappointed but i love the president and im very, very loyal to the president and i love the mission that the president has. Since the early days of the campaign, when i went to these rallies and i saw the love that the people had for the president and a lot of and i grew up in the middle class and so theres a struggle out there. The president saw that before i did. I wish i could tell you i saw it before him, but he taught it to me, and i feel that struggle and i have empathy for that struggle and i want to be here to help make things better for the American People. So ill take the hits. Anthony ill try to get to everybody. Sean told the a. P. And others that the president needed a clean slate. How does that comport with a white house thats heading in the right direction and secondly, how badly does the president need a win on health care in order to make progress. So heres the one problem with the way our societys working right now we are micromanaging the seconds of the news cycle. I predict that the president will get a win in health care. Thats my honest prediction, just because ive seen him in operation over the last 20plus years. The president has really good karma, okay . And the world turns back to him. Hes genuinely a wonderful human being and i think as the members of congress get to know him better and get comfortable with him, theyre going let him lead them to the right things for the American People so i think were going get the health care done. I also think were going to get tax reform done and whatever else is on the president s agenda, were going to work very, very hard to make it happen. I see the cameras are back. Will you commit now to holding regular oncamera briefings . If she supplies hair and makeup, i will consider it. But i need a lot of hair and makeup, john. I dont know. Maybe. This is the press secretary. Im up here today only because i think its the first day we made a mutual decision that it would make sense for me to come up here and answer as many questions as possible. But the answer is we may. I have to talk to the president about it. I like consulting with the president before i make decisions like that. And i know youve been one of the president s strongest supporters for a while now. But does he know what you said about him back in 2015 when you said he was a hack politician. He brings it up every 15 seconds, one of the biggest mistakes that i made because i was an unexperienced person in the world of politics. I was supporting another candidate. I should have never said that about him so mr. President , if youre listening, i personally apologize for the 50th time for saying that. Heres the wonderful thing about the news socimedia. That was three minutes of my life but i hope that some day well forget it. Theres been a question about credibility, some things that have been said in this room. Let me ask you a variation of what i asked sean spicer in his first day. Is it your commitment to the best of your ability to give accurate information, the truth from the podium. I mean, i sort of feel like i dont even have to answer that question. I hope you can feel that from me, just from my body language, thats the kind of person i am. Im going to do the best i can. Im going to get to everybody. Anthony, you mentioned your relationship with reince. Was he involved in offering you this position . Was he consulted by the president ahead of time . Yes. He was consulted. He was involved in the thing. Theres a lot of speculation in the press about the timing and so on and so forth, and so what im here to tell you is that were a team. Now, if you can you walk us through how the job is offered. Some of this stuff, its unnecessary to go into that granular detail because its almost like the book, the circle, where where youre wearing a Police Camera on you when youre having conversations. I dont think thats fair to the president. But heres what i would tell you. Im a team player. Ive played team sports my whole life, at least as a kid. And i believe that you have to subordinate yourself to the greater good of the team, and if teammates dont have disagreements about certain things, then theyre not going to get to the championship. Youve got to get together and, you know, mix it up a little bit from time to time. I have no problem mixing it up with these guys. I love these guys. I respect these guys. Is it perfect every single day . Tell me whose life is perfect every single day but heres the commitment im making to you and to the american skpeem to the president , that im here to serve him and im here to serve the people inside the west wing. Are you committed, then, to regular televised briefings and having a transparent relationship with the press . Again, i obviously am committed to being transparent because im standing here but id like to talk that over with the president and we have a new press secretary. Id like to talk it over with her. And then well get back to you on that. But listen, im standing right here. Im going to try to answer every question. Two quick questions. The first one, obviously we know the president has been feeling under seeiege with the russia investigation, both the department of justice but also on the hill. Do you feel like he was feeling exposed, he didnt have people adequately coming to his defense . Is that part of the reason that we are we have you here today . I dont think so. So, one of the things that im doing today is i sort of didnt have my white House Counsel briefing before im having the press briefing so i want to limit my remarks related to the russia situation and things like that. But heres what i tell you about the president. Hes the most competitive person ive ever met. Ive seen this guy throw a dead spiral through a tire. Ive seen him at Madison Square garden with a topcoat on, standing in the key and hitting foul shots and swishing them. He sinks threefoot putts. I dont see this as a guy whos ever under siege. This is a very, very competitive person. Obviously theres a lot of incoming that comes into the white house. But the president s a winner. And what were going to do is were going to do a lot of winning. One other question. In terms of the relationship that this press operation has had with news outlets, theyve made a habit of calling news outlets they dont like fake news, calling stories they dont like fake news, calling errors that were corrected, using that as an excuse to call it fake news. Is that the kind of relationship you want with news outlets . I want to speak for myself right now because its my first day on the job, i got to get familiar with everybody, get direction from the president but i had a personal incident with your news organization, and i thought i handled it well. You know, you guys said something about me that was totally unfair and untrue. You retracted it and issued me an apology and i accepted the apology immediately so for me, ive never been a journalist but i have played a journalist on television. I used to host wall street week and so i have empathy journalists in terms of sometimes theyre going to get stories wrong but i dont like the fake news and if you said to me that theres some media bias out there, you want me to be as candid as i would like to be with you guys, there feels like theres a little bit of media bias so what we hope we can do is deescalate that and turn that around and let the message from the president get out there to the American People. Anthony how you doing, maggie. Welcome. The president is known to see himself as his own best spokesperson, his own best messenger. That was clearly a challenge that sean had at this podium. How do you plan on navigating that differently than anybody else . Heres what i would say. Again, i thought sean did a very, very good job. Hes a very articulate person. Hes had 30 years in communications. I would imagine that there are people here that are going to be super excited when he lands in a job that he really likes and hell be a very effective communicator for wherever he goes. As it relates to standing at the podium, i think everybody has their own individual personality. I do believe that the best messenger or the best media person, the most savvy person in the white house is the president of the United States. And im frankly hoping to learn from him as well as learn from sarah and other people here. How would you characterize your relationship with the president . How long has it lasted . So hes probably not going to remember this but the first time i met the president and he was a name brand even back in the day, i was 31, michael facetelli is a close personal friend of mine, we were at goldmansachs together. I met him a few more times. The president of the yankees introduced me to him a few times and then i would say that we got closer during the Romney Campaign where we did a couple of fundraisers at his magnificent apartment. And so i think listen, i dont think i would be standing here if i didnt have a Good Relationship with the president. I love the president. And i think a lot of you guys know in the media ive been very, very loyal to him and im going to do the best i can with my heart and soul on this job and try to serve him the best way that i can. One last question. Do you plan on changes beyond this . Are there going to be other changes. There was some speculation. The things i can talk about specifically is dan and hope hicks are staying. I know there was speculation about that. I just spoke to both of them. I love the two of them. I go back a long ways with them. I think theyre two phenomenal people. As it relates to the other people in the com shop, ive got to get to know them. Sean was incredibly gracious a few hours ago where we sat in his office and he spoke to them on my behalf. Reince was incredibly gracious. I spoke to them as well. I got to get to know the people. They got to get to know me. Hopefully theyll like me and theyll want to stay and well what happens but were going to make it very a very fun place to work. Are you going to a more discussion about the National Security issues at this podium . Thats a really good question but i think its inappropriate for me to answer that question right now so i have to get unfortunately i have to get back to you on that because i got to get some direction from general mcmaster and the president. Im going to go this way. Im going to do everything i can to get to every person in the room. Would you encourage President Trump to have a press conference with us in the near future . Ill talk to him, absolutely. I mean, listen, the president s phenomenal with the press, okay, and hes a great communicator. He won this election i used to know the math a lot better when i was in the campaign and during the transition, but i think we spent, like, i dont know, 60 of the money and we had onethird the personnel. We won the presidency because of druf donald j. Trump. Hes an unbelievable politician. I dont know at what point thats going to be because i have to talk to him. Anthony, back here. Blake, im going to get to everybody. Im going to do my very best to get to everybody. Let me go in a way thats some order. Let me go here first. You seem like a very savvy person and you said that the white house is a difficult place. How are you going to handle a couple things . When did i say that . At the beginning. No, i said its a let me explain that. Let me be specific. Its a difficult place because heres what happens. Its a little cramped in there. Youve got a lot of reporters from International News agencies, and its a difficult place because youre trying to get a job done but youre sitting inside of a fish bowl and so thats what i mean by its a difficult place. I dont mean its a difficult place to work in terms of the people. I think what youd find is that theres a lot less palace intrigue than is getting reported about. And so, but that does create some tension and anxiety and im going to work alongside my peers here to reduce that tension and anxiety because we all genuinely like each other. My question. How are you going to handle when a crisis or a big thing comes up and you put a very sophisticated message out at night, and the president , in the morning, tweets something very different. And are you willing to say youve made a mistake . So, two questions there. Well, listen, i took Trial Advocacy at harvard law school. Little name dropping there if you dont mind. And so im not going to answer that because thats a hypothetical and the first thing they teach you in Trial Advocacy is not to answer a hypothetical. But heres what i will tell you. I love the president. And the president is a very, very effective communicator, and hell use social media. I think hes got if i get this wrong, i know im going to hear it from him. 113 million or 114 million. I know hes picking up about 300,000 followers a day, god bless him, so to me, i think its been very effective use of reaching the American Public directly, and so listen, i welcome him continuing to do that. I think its very, very important for him to express his identity because what i have found when i travel around the country, people love him. Im going to try to get to everybody. What if his message is different than what you put out the night before. Thats a hypothetical so its totally unfair of me to even answer that. I dont know what the tweet is. I dont know what happened. Thats unfair. You learn that early in law school, not to answer that question. Has the president expressed any frustration to you at all that a lot of these briefings have been off camera and since he wants to get his message out, wouldnt he believe that putting them on camera would be beneficial. He hasnt expressed that to me so i cant answer that question. How involved in the daytoday operations of the press department will he be going forward. As much or as little as he wants to be. Hes the president of the United States. Im here to serve him. Im going to do my guest best to communicate what i think is the most effective strategy to get his message out to the American People and the global community. It will be as much as or as little as he wants to be. He did give me the orders today that im in charge and i report directly to him and im going to do my best to serve him as much or as little as he wants. Your relationship with the chief of staff. Is he your boss . Or do you report directly to the president . Okay, so, im going to let reince answer that. I have no problem working for reince. I can only speak about my management style. I have been on wall street for 29 years. Nobody has ever worked for me. People work with me. I believe in a lot of collaboration. I think if you do that, its very, very empowering for people. I have no problem working for reince. The president said i report to him directly. But listen, you guys are going to be very, very surprised about the relationship that i have with reince and the closeness that were going to have in terms of working to serve the president. And so hes the chief of staff. And so it would be foolish of me not to communicate with him, not to reelay to him every single thing that im doing. Anthony, do you stand by some of the factual claims that have been contested, made by this administration, 3 million illegal votes cast. Do you endorse all of those statements . So, its a little bit of an unfair question because im not up to speed on all of that. The president said 3 Million People voted illegally. Okay. So do you stand by that or not . If the president says it, let me do more research on it. My guess is that theres probably some level of truth to that. I think what we have found sometimes, the president says stuff, some of you guys in the media think its not true, and it turns out its closer to the truth than people think so let me do more homework on that and ill get back to you. Ais im feeling the hook here. Is it okay to answer a few more questions . Let me get to blake first. Congrats on the new job. Question for you. Are you really congratulating me . Its a new job. Congrats. Youve gone through your past, law school, business, finance, but youve never held a Communications Type role. What would you say to your critics who say hes never done anything like this and this is the white house . Secondly, if you can just lay out kind of why you wanted the job and thirdly, before you go, why you chose immediately right off the bat sarah to be the press secretary. I want to start with sarah first. The president loves sarah. He thinks that shes doing a phenomenal job. I agree with him. I think Reince Priebus and other members of the staff agree. And im super proud to work with her and i think shes going to be phenomenal as a press secretary. As it relates to me, i think that you will find in my background and career, i have a lot of Communications Experience and i spent a lot of time on television. I spent a lot of time shaping the message for my old firm, my predecessor firm, and so time will tell. But heres somethingly te i will you about myself. Theres a lot of stuff i dont know. Im going to lean on people like sarah and other people to help me be the best that i can possibly be. Im going to take one more question. Im getting the hook. Two questions. Because of your legal background and the fact that you mentioned the white House Counsel, can you explain to us what role as someone whos been trained in the law you plan to play in communications, interacting with the president s legal team, dealing with the russia investigation. And then secondly, can i add on, most analysts who have ever looked at White House Communications have, in academia or historians has said that when a president says he has Communications Problems, what he has is usually policy and political problems. Youre arguing that were not understanding in the United States how much the president should be appreciated and how much you love him. But can you describe to us how much you think that it goes beyond that concept and that the president has political and policy problems. Okay. So, lets start with the first question. Just repeat the first question. It was what again . So, legal, youre going to interact with the president s legal team in what way. Thats a good question. Im close personal friends with jay. I have a relationship with john dowd and im going to work with him and other people to make shoo sure were on message and handling ourselves in the most appropriate way possible. Thats the best i can say about that. So ive not met todd. I dont know todd. So then, the followup was, Communications Problems versus policy and political problems and the way you see that in the context of this presidency. Well, long ago, you know, Teddy Roosevelt said that the presidency is a bully pulpit and that the president has a great gift in that hes able to control the news cycle and able to control the messaging, and so i think if we get super coordinated around here with the president , and we go back to what he did, some of the great successes that he had in the campaign, and the transition, and even in the presidency, frankly, is delivering that message directly to the American People so to me, i think the policies are fantastic. I think hes done a phenomenal job. I think sarah read something that i totally believe is that hes doing a phenomenal job and we just need to get it out there a little bit more aggressively and were going to try to do that. I got to go. Should i take another one . I can take one more. Right there. Thank you very much. Youve talked several times about your relationship with Reince Priebus and hope hicks and some of the rest of the Communications Staff. Can you talk about your relationship with steve bannon . Hes said to have strong objections about you taking this job as well and then i have one other thing. All right, so im on the record. Ive been interviewed about steve. I think hes one of the smartest people that i know. I think he was instrumental in helping us win the election. Hes got a strong personality. I have a strong personality. We didnt really overlap at Goldman Sachs but we both worked there and there was something great about that culture back in yesteryear, maybe its true today, although ive been out for 21, 22 years but there were two great things about that culture. The first thing was that you subordinated yourself to the team even if you had disagreements and the second i think was that John Weinberg once said, some people grow, other people swell and its a great line to think about yourself so for me, i want to keep my head in the game, keep my ego low and work with steve bannon as best i can. And then the other thing was sarah says i can keep going. You said that the ship you said that you dont need to right the ship, that you guys are doing great work. But the president has a 38. 8 Approval Rating in his second quarter. Thats historically low. What are you going to do to change that . To better communicate with the American People. Thats actually a really good question. And so these polls are moving targets, and we all know from statistics, which ive taken plenty of statistics courses, that sometimes the polls can be wrong. Thats an average. Thats gallups average. But we were using averages during the campaign and people said we were going to lose and we ended up winning so what i would say about polls is that theyre a barometric pressure but the American People are playing a long game and when you look at the individual state by state polls, you can see the guys doing phenomenally well. Its indicating to me that the president is really well loved. There seems to be a disconnect in terms of some of the things that are going on and we want to connect that, sarah and i, so people feel great about what hes doing. I feel great about what hes doing and maybe youre not going to feel great. I dont know you. But i want the American People in general to feel great about what hes doing. She says i can teep going, ill keep going. Thank you, anthony. There have been reports about general mcmaster having disagreements on policy over russia. Can you say that there will be no other highprofile resignations or exits from the white house staff . So again, another hypothetical. I honestly cannot answer that one way or the other, although i have an enormous amount of respect for general mcmaster. I just dont know the situation. Im not going to answer because i dont know. You said youre going to work with the legal team and messaging as it relates to russia. Where have they no, i specifically said that i havent been briefed yet by the white House Counsel about what is appropriate to talk about from this podium. So therefore, i dont want to take any questions related to russia. Okay. So, well, id like to ask you, though, if is the strategy that seems to be coming from this white house now in going after Robert Muellers credibility the right one . Okay, so, i, again, thats sort of in that zip code of, like, the legal team. And not really in sarah or my zip code so i want to stay away from the question. It is a messaging question. Its actually very complicated. And i dont want to bore all the people here with the legal details related to it but i think its important for me on my first day standing up here that i dont go in that direction so im not going to answer the question, not because im not trying to be forthcoming. I just think theres legalities there that i dont want to touch. My question is really im going to take this question first and then ill take you. Thank you very much, sir. Communications these are the last two questions. Communications is the key eand president is a great communicator. How important is relations between the president and the press and do you think how hes going to change and how much he has faith and trust in the White House Press and what is the future . Im a super optimistic guy. Im too short to see the glass anything other than half full so im a super optimistic guy and i think the president is going to have a phenomenal relationship with the press. Well get there together. Take this last question. My question is in your zip code. Ry larry speaks said, dont tell us how to stage the news, we wont tell you how to report the news. Do you think thats an accurate reflection after of what your job is . Dont tell us how to stage the news, we wont tell you how to report the news. Do you think thats an accurate reflection of our relationship . I dont know. Were in a different world. I have an enormous amount of respect for press secretary speaks but when he was standing at this podium, it was a very, very different world. Each one of us right now has a sound studio, recording studio, a movie studio, a Television Studio right in the palm of our hands and so we can stage things and its going to be read certain ways, may not be read other ways but i know what sarah and i are going to work on is reaching as many people as we possibly can for todays era so maybe he was accurate in the 1980s, but sarah and i will think of something cute to say once we start working together. One more, anthony. Yeah. The president tweeted that its impossible for his Communications Team to know whats in his head at every moment. How are you going to make sure youre on the same page as this president. What have you said to him about the need to know what hes thinking and where he stands as its relates to policy . Listen, i know im not going to speak on behalf of the president. I just feel like i have a close relationship with him. Sarah has a close relationship with him. And i think its super important for us to let him express his personality. It has been a very successful Life Experience for President Trump to be President Trump. And so lets let him do that and let me just finish. And you know, lets see where the chips fall. And then when something happens that you dont like or you like, youll talk to me or sarah and well address it. Do you plan to meet with him every day and do you have oval Office Privileges . Do i plan to meet with him every day and do i have oval Office Privileges . Listen, i dont want to i dont want to im not one of these people that need to have unnecessary face time with the president but i do have oval Office Privileges if thats what youre talking about and i do have the opportunity to meet with him because im going to be his coms director and he told