Priebus days have been numbered and they have been numbered to 1. You have general john kelly, the secretary of Homeland Security and will leave that post at dhs and will take on perhaps a more tumultuous job at the moment, chief of staff at the white house, trying to steer the white house in a way that the president wants. Obviously President Trump has been a proponent of pulling in generals and using former military men as key figures in his administration. Kelly is top on the list. The former commander of u. S. Southern command and then a secretary of Homeland Security who is not shied away from using blunt language in pursuing immigration policies that President Trump has wanted along the border. It will be interested to see what happens at dhs as they move forward, a major shakeup. Reince priebus, the former head of the rnc turned chief of staff has left and general john kelly will now be the new white house chief of staff. Goodness, bret. So much happening so quickly. Have you heard anything so far in washington in terms of remarks that the president made about priebus himself or his exit . No. Reince priebus was on the trip to long island where the president talked about ms13 and fighting the dangerous gang. He was on air force one as was Anthony Scaramucci, the Incoming Communications director. There was no talk, no comment. The white house was staying away from publicly commenting about any of that dustup. Privately you heard senior officials saying the president didnt have a problem with some of the salty language that was caught on the record by scaramucci in the new yorker piece. Taking aim at Reince Priebus. When you heard that, obviously it signals that perhaps priebus days were numbered. His term here has been obviously pretty up and down when you look at what the chief of staff is trying to do. But this, to Reince Priebus defense, is a tough presidency to steer and keep all the cats herded, if you will. Theres a lot of cooks in the donald trump kitchen. Now you will have a general at the helm who he try to straighten out the white house behind the scenes. Speaking of kat. Hi, bret. The president just tweeted out thanks Reince Priebus for his service. It doesnt seem to be every time a switch like this happens, people try to paint it as turmoil is. There more excitement or are people freaking out . Any time theres a chief of staff that doesnt make it a full year that is a big deal for a white house that is trying to get its sea legs under it and just lost a major legislative battle on capitol hill with the healthcare loss early this morning. So i dont think you can diminish the big news of this. The fact that youre going to have to find a department of Homeland Security secretary is another big challenge up against a legislative agenda that is already packed. Bret, we know that reince is out. But how was he out . A resignation or termination . Just guessing that we didnt hear anything from Reince Priebus himself and that he was on that air force one trip to long island, and that the first indication was a tweet from the president announcing the new chief of staff, i think this probably was the white house telling him that he was out. The first indication that we had is john kelly was taking over. How much is it going to be a challenge for the general, if at all, without the political experience . Just the leadership experience. His resume is great. Border patrol feels reinvigorated. We know what is happening around the country with sanctuary cities. Does he have a big adjustment . Yes. Look at the rollout of the effort to kind of crack down on, remember, the muslim nations that the nations on the list, that they wanted to do the First Executive order. When that happens, the way it was handled, john kelly was learning as he was going about washington. Hes very accomplished. He had to be on capitol hill many times testifying about the southern commander, the u. S. Southern command, head of the u. S. Southern command. Obviously now as department of Homeland Security. But hes not as far as we can tell had a lot of experience dealinged with all of the ways to get around this town. As you know, the james bakers, the leon panettas, the people that know where the skeletons are buried on capitol hill, sometimes they are in the best positions for the chief of staff positions. But what is most important is to have the trust of the president. That is what general kelly has clearly. This president really, really likes him. Thanks, bret baier. Well be back with you shortly. Lets now meet todays specialist. The managing partner for the Logan Circle Group and the democrats for trump and on the Advisory Board of donald j. Trump for president. He specializes in all things politics. Harlan hill is here. And hes been in iraq, afghanistan and gitmo and the author of the arena and special ideas in fidget spinning. Pete is here. Well get to that later. Ill start with this, pete. With the ouster now of Reince Priebus, this almost seems to be the end of anybody in dinner circle from the gop establishment. These are gop people going out and trump loyalists going in. Theyre sick of the leaks of the selfpromotion and selfpreservation of the agendas of others. They want people supportive of this president and what he needs to get done. If you cant close ranks, you keep beat the swamp and the fake news media. In this particular case, general kelly strikes me as a perfect pick. Hes loyal to the president , pursued the policy agenda this president wants and maintains low key and talks bluntly. Hes not trying to overshadow the president. If anybody can knock skulls and cut out the leaking, get in line, put the Country First and serve your president , its a general. Kat . I dont know if this is a larger issue of draining the swamp. President trump won as an anti establish meant candidate. I know your mom, eboni, voted for trump for that reason. Like you said, almost a complete flop. This is astonishing. It is. Heres my problem. Priebus was there in the formative months of the Trump White House. He was there for the period of time when the staff was filled out. If were going to drain the white house of the rnc gop establishment, people that were never trumpers throughout the campaign, it cannot stop with priebus. This needs to go further down. Im not going to name its inappropriate to name names. It is. Okay. But this is something that Anthony Scaramucci highlighted just a week ago saying this would be his priority, rooting out the leakers, rooting out people disloyal to the president and rooting out people more interested in their selfinterests than protecting the president. One of the reasons why Reince Priebus was there, he did an incredible job revitalizing the rnc buried in dead. And then next thing you know, you have a white house filled with republicans and the house and senate. We know about that record. But in terms of he was the first to get a hug on the stage on the night of the win. However, in the big picture, he was brought in because of his legislative relationships. With his relationships with paul ryan. What happened yesterday . At least for now, healthcare is dead. What was Reince Priebus supposed to do . Deliver healthcare. You think thats part of the reason . Yeah. When you win, everything is better. When you lose, someone takes the fall for it. In this case, its the gop senators that are unable to get out of their way. Its mitch mcconnell, paul ryan. Its one senator. John mccain ultimately. One vote that it came down to. Nothing happened. So this is more about the president sided with Anthony Scaramucci. Hes siding with the fighter. He wants fighter. He doesnt want apologizers or leakers. Think about how amazing this is with the story with scaramucci and the President Trump saying lets look at what hes saying, not the language. I dont necessarily have a problem with that the all. If theres the turmoil, it should be addressed. Its interested one day it happened, whether or not its true he was the leaker, everybody will be thinking that President Trump believes that he was. The president is putting everybody in notice that business as usual is over. If you dont start delivering on the make America Great again platform, that they all ran on, they were all the beneficiaries of in 2016, were going to clean house. Im serious about this. In 2010, all of these republicans were running for congress. They said give us the house and we will repeal obamacare. They said in 2014, give us the senate and well repeal obamacare. They said in 2016, give us the White House Well do it. The president said i have a pen in my hand. Send me a bill and ill sign it. Mitch mcconnell and the rest of the jokers on the hill cannot deliver despite they passed 60 something repeals of obamacare . Enough is enough. No excuses. Dont go on to recess. If you do, well have a real problem and well start firing these republicans in washington. I want you to develop a opinion on this. We need more passion with that. You asked for it. Im here. Were not going to washington d. C. We have kevin corke who is there in washington d. C. Who has more for us on these breaking as we speak news. General kelly now in as chief of staff. Kevin . Listen, eboni, im listening the read out. The president had a chance to speak with the pool. A bit of reporting. Reince priebus leaving the motorcade there in his own vehicle. Some people began to receive word that he was preplaced as chief of staff. Went up, tried to get quick shots with their cell phones. His vehicle peeled off after that point. Lets just share what the president told the pool. He said look, i want to congratulate john kelly. Hes done an incredible job. One of our real stars. The great stars. The border is down 78 under past administrations. Didnt go down. So basically in this conversation with the pool, the president is saying what he essentially said on twitter, which is here is a man that has gotten the job done in a position hes been placed. What can he do to elevate thiS White House, which think im being generous which has had a rocky start. Were several months in but things have not been smooth by any stretch of the imagination, in particular when you talk about the leaking problem. Will general kelly make a big difference . Thats the president s bet. If his performance at dhs is any indication, youd have to believe that he will run a fairly tight ship here at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. Eboni . You make reference to general kelly being successful around the signature issue of President Trumps presidency, immigration being down. What type of award you think we will see around people that have had positive results around the Trump Administration . My question is, next up, health care is dead as of yesterday. What do you think the president will do and who do you think will be in charge of that effort moving forward . Good questions. I think two things have to happen. First of all, they want to move forward on tax reform, this is a critical issue. Youve heard eric talk about this. If youre going to get a pelt here in year one, immigration, fine. The wall, you can still come up with funding for that. We saw that. You have to get something of substance done ahead of the midterm. Can general kelly in running this team get them on point, on focus for the president s agenda and get their messaging out there . I think by all accounts, Sarah Huckabee sanders has done yeomans work in their new capacity but theyll have to do more when they welcome general kelly to the white house. Its interesting is. There a message . It seems people dont know theyre not unified around one message. Does it matter who is in charge . Im going to be delicate as i put this to you. The gop for lack of a better description is essentially the hatfields and the mccoys. They may wear the same jersey, but these theres so many factions inside washington within the gop. It does make it difficult to sort of coalesce and get major items over the finish line. You saw the house getting its repeal effort. That was herculean, the task. It will not be easy 18 months as we look forward to the midterms. If nothing else, they know what their marching orders are now and they have a president willing to pull trigger on change if thats what it takes. Ive been telling my colleagues here, President Trump reminds me a bit of george steinbrenner. If youre a baseball fan from the 70s. You remember all the times that he fired billy martin and brought him back, this is the kind of leadership. Hes welling to make change for changes sake and sometimes has an impact. I hope he doesnt try to sign jesse barfield. Welldone. I have to ask you one more question. I know you said that was the last thing. Dont give me the silent treatment. I cant read much from the Anthony Scaramucci story because there is a lot of expletives. Its beyond salty. The other person that he called out is steve bannon. He talked about him in a different way looking to forward his own brand instead of the president s. Im wondering if bannon is next. What do you hear . I got to tell you, i was really hoping that i might when able to reach out maybe off the cuff make a little contact with the chief strategist. Havent been able to do it. He doesnt suffer foolishness lightly. He has the president s ear. How that will play out remains to be seen. If i was advising Anthony Scaramucci, pick your battles lightly. Sometimes you folk bear and thats not a good idea. Kevin corke, thanks so much. Well be back with you later in the hour. Well take this conversation around the table. Start with you, pete. I love you brought this up. Bannon was named heavily in that scaramucci rant that we know about i hes not the establishment. You think hes on ice . I dont think so. He floats well between factions. He does. He has a mind meld with the president. He stepped back from the spotlight. The president doesnt always appreciate that. One of the things that kevin corke highlighted is important. The amount of factions in the white house. Tell me what faction general kelly represents . Zero. Apolitical. The constitution, the country and the president of the united states. He will be that referee saying i dont care about your political games. We talk about maintaining classified information. No more of that. You will get prosecuted the way that Anthony Scaramucci has talked about. Hes not a maneuverer. Hes not looking for a job or tv show or this or that hes there to stir. You know about that. Thats not the culture of the military. And this general who is very straight shooting and led troops in combat. The president respects that. That will help reign in the faction fighting. Personally i was surprised to see President Trump who ran a nonpartisan campaign bring in these very gop establishment elite types like reince and like spicer. Now he got rid of them, you think well see the president govern from a less partisan way . Perhaps. Although i dont necessarily when people say gop these kays, i dont know what that means. Does that mean a Freedom Caucus members or one of the more moderates, which are really democrats and you think the leadership style can change and kelly do everything he can to get people together . Same time, congress is full of people with special interests and idealogical levels believe different things. You cant lead somebody to believing different things. Okay. Were going to bring back bret baier in washington d. C. Bret, i can only imagine what this is like in washington d. C. Are people shocked or in awe . Was this anticipated . I think there was an anticipation that it would happen over a number of days. Im getting messages from different sources. Some saying that kelly has a lot of d. C. Experience. He was a former marine legislative liaison, an aide to gates and panetta, testified as the commander of southern command. A battle hardened veteran as you just heard. Hes had three tours in iraq. His son, dodd, serving in afghanistan. He knows the military back and forth. He does know washington and how that works. The question is how he will work in thiS White House. And maybe, just maybe, Reince Priebus let me rewind. This week started monday with sean spacer leaving. Anthony scaramucci coming in. Hes not officially White House Communications director yesterday. Sean spicer leaves. We have a couple days where the attorney general is under fire. He stays in. Tells tucker he will stick in. Then you have the healthcare vote. You have north korea launching another ballistic missile. The Health Care Vote happens. Its a major loss. A loss for the inside game people. As you talked about, maybe this is the signal that theyre going to try to shake it up and do it a different way to try to drain the swamp. And one more breaking story and the tee time is gone. Bret baier will have to work. You need some free time. Absolutely. This is also good news for a guy you know well, h. R. Mcmaster. He and kelly get along very well. He evidently has been clashing with the president in a respectful way. With kelly, mcmaster and mattis, you have a mind meld of people that the president looks as equals and to make move in the right direction. If they were guys guys where the guy likes to be a guy. He went with the inside game. He lost. He wanted tax reform. He didnt. He went with what his advisers told him and now theyre out. This will be a brand new presidency starting today. Its possible. He has an inclination towards generals. The generals have done well. Theres a dustup between the secretary of state that seems like its being ironed out. The attorney general is sticking in there. He was the first senator to endorse candidate donald trump. Clearly the generals are wellpositioned in this administration. It was always previous president s there was a bit of a red flag when you brought generals that close into the oval office. General eisenhower didnt want to do it at all. He worried about the image. This president respects the service and think its the military mind set. And you think Jeff Sessions is taking a sigh of relief . You think he will go easy on him now . The tweets have changed. He got out of a few tweet at least. Think about the week again. It has gone like this. We in the media have, you know, chased the light on the wall a number of days. These are big stories, big things that affect people because its your government at work and its changing before your eyes. Bret baier, thanks for bringing this to us from washington d. C. Well say goodbye to you and youll have more at 6 00. Harlan, lets go to you. You were one of the first. I remember this, one of the first democrats when bernie got out, you did not back Hillary Clinton. You went opposite direction and supported candidate trump. Lots of people like you. My mother is one of them. Because they like the leadership style, the business style, the apprentice style that says results equals if you dont have results, that equals termination. Is there something that plays in to that for you . Trump has a unique management style. Hes not afraid to fire someone if theyre not performing for the American People and for him. He really values loyalty. One of the most concerning trends that i found and people that have surrounded President Trump is that theyre all trying many of them are trying to change him. They want him to tweet less, refine his communications style. That really concerns me. Its often the same people that opposed him in the primary. President trump should be himself. The American People voted for this guy. They didnt vote for this like modified candidate that we got with Hillary Clinton. That was so overly tested and refined that nobody believed her or trusted them. People love his authenticity. Embrace the chaos. The voters elected someone to disrupt washington d. C. They didnt want business as usual. They didnt want the same guys, the same roles and the leaks and the way things are done. Its not worked and the republicans cant get out of their own way. They want Anthony Scaramucci, they want general kelly, they want donald trump, they want a fight and a fighter. So for these republicans that are running for the hills, never trump was with them, theyre showing themselves to be this spineless folks that they are unwilling to embrace the fact that fighting washington will be messy. Own it. Bring in a general to make it more effective. Seriously. I dont think theres many voters out there at all that voted for President Trump that say i dont like this. He didnt like what happened in the senate floor last night. Absolutely. You have callers from all over America Calling in to your radio show. Do you get feedback from trump voters that are confused or alarmed by what they see as a constant shakeup or is it what pete says, theyre empowered by this . 82 are still in his corner. The question is where is the other 18 and would that be there if he wasnt treating about transgender one men and homeless the next. Youre one of the few that says unleash donald trump. Ill say this. Theyre very protective of President Trump. He has more Approval Rating than people think he has. Number 1, i think you see the beginning and its going to get people aggravated, the beginning of the end of the traditional like the Republican Party and donald trump. I would not be surprised over the next couple days if he picks up the phone and talks to joe manchin, john tester, not necessarily chuck schumer. He wants to win. He doesnt care about the party. His party has been up and down with him. Hes opinion chasing the unicorn. Their whole campaign premise is on resisting President Trump. Were going to bring in kevin corke again. He says hes got more information on Reince Priebus. I just got this from my colleague at the white house. Fox news can confirm that Reince Priebus secretly resigned yesterday. So while most of the world learned by way of twitter as did the rest of us pretty much, we can now confirmed that Reince Priebus submitted his resignation yesterday before that announcement came out today. That would seem to back the previous assertion by Anthony Scaramucci who seemed to suggest in that now infamous and profanity laced interview that Reince Priebus was about to resign. Fox news can confirm that the white house says that this is a source now that Reince Priebus secretly resigned yesterday. The rest of us are learning about it today. I can tell you this is two white house sources telling us. This has been confirmed by fox. Elaine duke. I want to bring this up. The new acting dhs secretary would be elaine duke. In case you have not heard her name before, she was a deputy and she has a long and distinguished career in government service, some three decades were told. That would be elaine duke temporarily. Guys . Kevin corke, this is fascinating. I asked bret baier and bret answered it in a way that people would think. When President Trump tweets out that hes replaced priebus, thats a termination. It looked like were finding out that before the healthcare vote, probably there was actually a resignation from Reince Priebus. Goodness. I would have been surprised to hear that priebus found out with all of us from the tweet. I dont know what to think anymore. A lot of times, kevin, you have to wonder, too, if reince didnt know he was out and scaramucci was in. By all reports, he wanted scaramucci out. He had a little hangup with the sale of sky bridge. Reince said withdraw it. Dont embarrass the president. Withdraw. Scaramucci stayed on the outside, worked his way back in when he saw vulnerability on the inside. The minute spicer left, you knew that Reince Priebus was probably behind him. I agree with you on that. Keep this in mind, Anthony Scaramucci made it plane in the announcement that he would be joining the white house staff, that he would be reporting directly to the president. Do you remember that . Basically now youre talking about two big guns in the Office Operating on parallel tracks. Typically youd have a top down structure, right . Everybody reporting to the chief of staff. Not so in that announcement by Anthony Scaramucci. That to me was a clear indication that there was a separation. These two men were obviously not going to follow one another and when you pointed out, when we saw that sean spicer was leaving his post as press secretary in protest maybe, maybe not, i dont have the full scoop from sean, but he told the white house, listen, you guys can have a fresh start with sarah and now with anthony and now he moved on and that was a clear indication that in fact Reince Priebus days may have been numbered. I should point this out, too. If you think about where reince was coming in from the rnc, hes the guy that pushed this campaign all the way over the top. But you may remember it was back in october of 2016 after the infamous tape came out, apparently Reince Priebus suggested to the president he should hang up his spurs, get out. Walk away. I dont think he ever forgot i know he didnt forget it. Im not sure if he for gave him for that. Anthony scaramucci was about the biggest fan of the president either. Great point. Let me ask you this, kevin. Let me say what i heard. There was a lot of Political Capital spent by sean spicer and Reince Priebus around really preventing scaramucci to get in thiS White House any which way possible. So certainly when trump announced on monday that scaramucci is in fact coming in like you said in an equal parallel strong leadership position, i mean, clearly spending a clear message of defeat to Reince Priebus. Maybe that leading to the resignation. And i think thats a good way to look at it, too, especially when you consider thiS White House has done what it can do to advance the president s agenda. But he lacks discipline. Usually theyre trying to clean up or chase his tweets and or messaging. That never helped sean spicer. So you bring in this new player who has a parallel track to the very top, an open direct line in fact to the president , i think the writing was clearly on the wall. I dont think we should read too much into the idea that Reince Priebus didnt do what he could do in his position. He worked very hard for this president. He did succeed. I will never forget election night, the president in fact brought reince over and he said, you know, you did it. I think he had an appreciate for what he accomplished. As you pointed out, it may have been you, eboni or someone else there, when the healthcare vote goes down, you look for people that may walk the plank. Im not saying thats all it was but it might be a consideration to keep in mind. Were going to come back to you in a little bit. First, heres President Trump just moments ago making comments on the former now former white house chief of the staff, Reince Priebus. Wrens is a good man. Did an incredible job. Respected by everybody. A great, great american. Reince priebus a good man. Thank you very much. Thats a great clip there. I think he means it. I dont think anyone should have to dance on the grave of Reince Priebus at this point. He put in a lot of work and a lot of republicans he helped turn the corner for a lot of republicans that werent on board. He backed them at important moments. Its interesting to note about the only thing that hasnt leaked in thiS White House so far is his resignation for 24 hours. Now great point. Could be a little bit a piece of evidence. I see what you did there. I know that brian brought this up. But one of the criticisms that i often heard from my democratic friends of president obama, he was president obama not caring himself with the wellbeing of the Democratic Party, which is why we saw their governorships and state houses decrease. I would think that President Trump is concerned with President Trumps agenda and not overly concerning himself with the wellbeing of the gop. Perhaps thats some of the disconnect there. I think so. Bus his future is at stake to theirs. Imagine if democrats get a majority in the house in 2018. Theyre going to impeachment hearings. Im not saying it will happen. Thats where a lot would want to go and grass roots would try to leave them. You have to maintain the majorities in getting the agenda done. The democrats are more divided. Bernie sanders has the bulk of them to the left. Senator schumers is more to the middle. Good luck fighting that out. Absolutely. What we witnessed in the last few years is the wholesale destruction of the Democratic Party. Theres just 17 democratic governorers in this country. Theres 33 republican governors. The republicans control the house, the senate, 2 3s of the state legislatures in this country. The white house. The Democratic Party cant pay their bills. Theyre in debt. Its really remarkable that the media focuses so much on this drama that they create around the white house and meanwhile, you have a Major American Political Party that is irrelevant in terms of governing in this country. Thats the Democratic Party. Its remarkable. Theres been drama. Its not the media. Were months into this administration. How dare you. Yeah. Not you. Thats why he has a swivel chair. Yeah. I agree. Obviously the dems are in disarray. What is the legislation they came out with . A better deal . Even the messaging is like come on like somebody what that have come up in terms of messaging even predating Hillary Clinton is so bad. Theyre saying trying to appeal to everyone. In the process, theyre saying nothing. Can i share with you what Lindsey Graham tweeted out. That Reince Priebus has been a great friend. Terrific job with the rnc. He says secretary kelly is one of the strongest leaders i have ever known. He installed loyalty and arent for those that served under him. Homeland security, hes been very effective and communicating a coherent message and has admiration from both said of the aisle. That might make this leadership different. This is probably going to be about President Trumps policy agenda instead of just the best interests of the party as an independent. That makes me happy. Lets go to you, pete. Next up will be tax reform and that the intention is to do that without bipartisan buyin. But do you think now with secretary kelly, now going to be chief of staff, it might look different . Maybe. Im not buying the fact that the democrats will work with this president , not with how invested they are of resisting him. Theyre running nothing on antitrump and the grassroots respond to that. If republicans cant do tax reform, republicans cant cut taxes and simplify the tax code, then they stand for literally nothing. I dont know why they dont understand their political fortunes are tied to thiS White House, whether they like it or not. This guy wants to cut taxes, wanted to repeal obamacare, deal with the border. These are republican ideas and a republican agenda. You have to have the courage and willingness to set aside whatever uncomfortablety you have and do what youre going to do and youll get reelected. Well, Anthony Scaramucci has his sights set on the obama holdovers remaining at the white house. One of the things were going to do next, im bringing all the Communications People to the white house to sit down with them to have a uniform message and strategy so we can curb leaks on their side. We both know theres political holdovers from the Obama Administration that want to put a hurt on the Trump Administration, so we have to move quickly there as well. Theres certainly these trust issues in the white house. Seems little bit. Does make it hard to do your job if you dont know who is leaking. One thing that came out with scaramucci, he says out of all the people that have talked to him, hes never said a word bad about President Trump. What he also talked about in this sober rant, which seemed if he was off key, but he was passionate, Anthony Scaramucci, because i was with him that night, he was calm and direct and saying ill bring out a lie detector test. We cant get anywhere without loyalty. If you get one guy, one person cheating, the message is my job is not worth it. Hes for real. Thats the message at the border and could be the message on the west wing. Id love to watch that. All taking lie detector tests. Yeah. Great t. Have great tv. Weve heard the word loyalty a lot. And theres intentionality. Kevin corke was right. One more time. Intentionality. Thats a 5 word. And im a law student. And it was as recent as october, the october surprised the access hollywood tape. And priebus said candidate trump, maybe you dont need to be our nominee. I dont think he forgot that. Maybe theres the intentionality with the leadership being that close to him. Maybe with less the question, this president can move forward. President trumps chief of staff was a never trumper. Paul ryan, the speaker of the house is a never trumper. These are people that do not believe in the president s agenda. They think that hes execute add hostile take over of the Republican Party and its not the Republican Party they want. You think theyre trying to root him out . No question. Paul ryan is loyal to the president as best he can. A wisconsin guy is different than an Upper West Side phillyian. They dont relate to each other. They dont hang out but they have the same agenda. I hope. But totally different views 0 the world. Think about when the house bill failed the first time. Paul ryan was like shucks, we tried so hard. Thanks, guys. Wisconsin people dont want that in a commanderinchief. Youre losers. You ran on repeal and replace and you couldnt repeal a skinny bill . You said you would repeal it. Do it. Thats the way that folks in minnesota and wisconsin actually feel about it. Were sick of the republicans that lose. Theyre nice and do power points and tax reform, white papers. Thats all crap if you cant get it passed. Hes the guy that will get it across. He he im talking about the senate. Yeah, he got it passed. Good to him. Its a scaramucci win, fight, dont give up versus oh, man, we tried so hard. Something to be said for what the heck is a skinny bill thing. Nobody really wanted it to become law. They really didnt. They needed Something Better than that. Right. I think youre making an incredible point. There is this different in temperament and tone and texture. While that is a superficial different, i dont think it is. Its powerful in the way that trump and scaramucci do business from the way that paul ryan and the elite republican type of leadership does business that it undermines what you think is an easy common political agenda. I think youre right. The president is tenacious. Hes not a quitter. Mark my words, this is not the end of healthcare. I believe that hes going to now with new leadership when does he pick it up . I dont know if theyre going to stop. Trey gowdy said we have to go back. Mark meadows said we have to go back. The Freedom Caucus is pretty loyal to the president. Four of them stood on fox and friends and said yes, im plugging my show. They said we called the president before we came out. Were going to try to rescue it. Its too bad that john mccain didnt believe that we were going to work on something in conference, which is surreal. He got a personal call from the president. He said well work this out in conference. And he still said no. He gave the country obamacare. I dont understand on a guy who ran on repeal. If you have ted cruz, mike lee, rand paul for a bill like that and then you cant be for it . Thats not maverick. Thats undermining your president and the opportunity to walk back. If you vote against that bill, youre voting for obamacare. Its plain and simple. All the cards on the table, you have everything that you need before you to finally full think this promise. Are you yelling at pete . I love pete. No, hes the best. So he should apologize. We dont apologize on this show. Were cool. Were unapologetic. Were going back to kevin corke in d. C. Any more updates that youre hearing in terms of reaction from this stunning news out of the white house . Stunning indeed. In the beltway, we like the intrigue game. Its not every day that you have a chief of staff not make it a full year on the job. That is certainly the case for those of you just joining us. Reince priebus, the white house chief of staff no more. Hes been replaced by john kelly. That news coming out of the white house. Fox news can confirm that priebus tendered his resignation yesterday. It was announced today by way of twitter. He did travel with the president in his trip to the empire state of new york today. We do expect to hear by way of statement from the white house here in just moments. Sarah Huckabee Sanders telling us that she will have a statement to pass our way here pretty quickly. Once we get that, ill share that with you. Meantime, were hearing from other lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum talking about Reince Priebus. Lindsey graham, he said that Reince Priebus should be very proud of his service, but if the past is any indication of the future, the president and the white house are in good hands with general kelly at the helm. That from Lindsey Graham. Were hearing from fin gomez here. He says that fox learned that general kelly will in fact begin his new position here as the chief of staff of the white house on monday. Im bummed. Ill be out of the office. I want to be here. I will call Human Resources for you. Tell mike emanuel be careful, kevin, what you wish for. Lets update one thing. Catherine herridge just straightened me out. In terms of general kelly not having experience as reportedly totally versed in ways of dc. He was with panetta at dod. Head of legislative affairs for marine corps a come dont comadant. And complete support about general kelly being in this role. Let me add this nugget. When you deal with a general staff officer, you know two things for certain. Theyre going to be organized and they will not have a shortage of opinions. Strong opinions. They know what they want to do. Im sure general kelly will assess strengths and weaknesses quickly. When he walks in monday, youll see a new white house team. I dont mean as in Clearing House or sweeping everyone out. Youll see a new tone a new tenor and that is certainly what the white house and the president is looking for. Thank, kevin. Appreciate it. Hate to say goodbye for good. Every time we do, you top back in. The biggest things facing the administration is a war you fought in afghanistan. What does that mean that general kelly is in chief of staff . General mattis has a plan. The president is very weary about continuing there. With him as chief of staff, does this mean anything . This continues to mean we have the best of the best in the white house. We have renewed attention there. What about advice . Probably the same advise when secretary kelly was at dhs as well. Hes respected there. I dont anticipate a massive policy change. The president doesnt want to get further bogged down in afghanistan. You mentioned deployments as well. He starts monday. Hes a general, a special skill that generals have is, you do rotations in war zones. You show up and youre in charge for a year. You have no previous information before you got there. He will show up in charge as the chief of staff. He knows how to build staffs and gather intelligence quickly to assess a battlefield and make decisions real time. Thats what hes walking into in the white house. A skill set you dont get elsewhere. Thats how this administration does things. You remember scaramucci was in and giving a press conference like hours later. Only get a little time to prepare. Thats true. One of the things that we know, harlan, that the president S White House has had is filling vacancies with brian reading from Catherine Herridge of the level of leadership that is going to now be in the chief of staff position. You think that will be assisted in terms of getting people in thiS White House effectively in their roles. Certainly. I expect it to be a priority. Isnt this the most trumpian thing that he could do, to pick a general to go to chief of staff . Has it been done before . I cant think of example. I dont know. So hes really reinventing what this role is within the white house. I think that its going to be less of a political role and more about managing the ship that is the white house and keeping that a really tight operation. Id be charged if these leaks continue. And your question was a brilliant one. I have to comment you. Just like we rehearsed. Good job. The first specialist ever to say i dont know, kat. You keep score. I do. Were going to bring back information. He has information from Huckabee Sanders. I do. I want to share this was off camera. I want to share for the folks at home from Sarah Huckabee sanders telling reporters in a very crowded press room right now, she says the president thankses Reince Priebus for his service. They accomplish add lot together. No question about that. She says that he was loyal in his service to the president. Thats a very interesting statement. Ill tell you more about that in just a moment. The president thanks him and his family. Theres now a little bit more i can share. Im getting this from my producer. Kelly, speaking of the general, has helped seal the border and reduced immigration by 70 . Hes respected by everybody and especially the people at dhs. The entire administration loved him. He will start monday morning and will be at the Cabinet Meeting monday following his swearing in. That just moments ago to reporters at the white house from Sarah Huckabee sanders. As i get more, i will pass it along. She said that Reince Priebus was loyal to the president. That may or may not be. That may be a preemptive strike to tamp down the suggestion that Reince Priebus was a leaker and otherwise was disloyal to this president or thiS White House team. Too late. Everybody was thinking it. Good job, kevin. Can i say one thing about Reince Priebus . He came in. He was raising money to get out of the debt that Michael Steele left the republicans. He was asking people for donations to pay off overdraft. That was so bad. Little by little, they regained it. They know what happened. Scott brown was the first victory. He deserves a lot of credit. Donald trump had no ground game. Jeb bush would have had a ground game. He had to make the rnc the ground game. He deserves a lot of credit when the rips started with your nemesis, paul ryan. He was the one that kept saying, listen, hes a good buy. The bully bush tape not his best moment. Good point. Really . Yeah. Everybody is doing it. Like we rehearsed. Good job, team. Heres what it comes down to. It was time for a change. Theres a season for everything. Reince was important for putting together this ground game that you described. The Democratic Party has fallen apart. Under reinces leadership, the Republican Party has dominated. He deserves credit for that. Brian, you mentioned afghanistan. What general kelly we never know what the next chapter will look like. Lick at north korea, iran, china. Last week. Missile launches and buzzing our ships. General kelly is a chief of staff and he understands these things and can lead the charge in how we respond to them. Cant be youre on notice. You cant be on notice forever. Something has to change. Action will need to be taken. Reporting general flynn. To have somebody like that could be are very ativdvantagea. And this is just happening. Some people will say this is a continuation of hysteria in the Trump White House and some of its negative. Thats the wrong take. You talk about if good work that Reince Priebus did around the gop. Its excellent. Where that came to where that is truly beneficial for donald trumpS White House agenda, i think maybe it ran its course. I think they need a legislative win. I dont know how much it will have to do with that. I dont think priebus could be helpful with that. I know what its like when eboni breaks up with me. What you were saying, kat, this is not about healthcare failing. Its about Reince Priebus out that helps the president. Im sure he thought about that. Ms13 gets traction. Good speech in brentwood. Healthcare fail. Now this is the number 1 story. Absolutely. That doesnt change the fact that when 2018 comes around, they need a legislative win. Im not sure that whoever the chief of staff is will make that much of a difference when you look at how much of a mess congress is right now. It is important. If the white house is leaking and undermining the president and people are working against him what does that have to do with not having a Healthcare Plan . It does. Nothing. The president has clearly articulated a frame work for a bill that he would sign. Talking about their inability to deliver that. The president came to capitol hill and didnt start exactly. Thats my point. The executive branch cant make that much of a different if congress is this kind of a mess. At least hes not going to be undermining the president. And mike pence did a lot of great work. He fell a vote short. For those that missed it, heres the president making comments about Reince Priebus, his former chief of staff. Reince is a good man. John kelly will do a fantastic job. General kelly has been a star, does an incredible job thus far, arented by everybody. A great, great american. Reince priebus a good man. Thank you very much. I was able to go to dinner, invited to dinner wednesday night and saw the president. He looked like the same as when he was hosting the apprentice. You might think this is chaos for us, but theres a reason why im not a billionaire. Theres a reason why i dont have International Properties and able to go to sleep at night and not carry a book or a wallet. Hes able to run his family, run his business and run the country. He feels good about the way things are going. Thats prior to this. Im not been shy of critiquing him on policy or things. But this is 1 of the things that people did vote for President Trump for. If youre in washington and you want to be lazy, keep your job, go to d. C. Thats been the narrative. Hes showing that wont work in his administration. Yeah. You can be fired at any time apparently. Doesnt matter whether or not someone was fired on monday. Its not like theres a one a week limit. And resign. You know. Youre right. Most people cant handle that type of environment. Who can . Military generals that have been in combat. Guys real estate moguls in the toughest city in the world. Everclear is my favorite band. The most offensive thing ive heard this show. Theres a song with a lyric that says i feel safe inside the violence. The trump understands it. When everybody else gets flustered, he wins. In this case, hes bringing someone else in that can be steady and calm when theres chaos. Everclear. Thats far more offensive than i heard scaramucci say in new york. We have a hint of the president feeling restless when he said i always said let obamacare implode. I always said i wanted to do tax reform first. He said i listened to others. I listened to you once. Not again. Yeah. Game on. I never would understand that. They wanted the money from it. But if they dont have a plan, its not going to work. I think they started that way not thinking it was going to work. They were trying to deliver on this splashy campaign promise. Repeal and replace. When it came down to brass tax and putting together legislation that would leave the inflated premiums and the stress that many people agree that obamacare and pre obamacare, a failed Healthcare System in general caused, that was just not feasible. Well, our failed speaker of the house what was that again. Ryan. In order to get tax reform done, we have to get healthcare reform done. He predicated that landmark piece of legislation on getting healthcare done. He told the president , i have the votes. My caucus is one. I can get this done. He did. After a lot of pain. It took quite some time. The problem is i give paul ryan the fact that he was finally able to hammer it through. The problem is that mitch needs to fall on his sword or come up with an alternative. Tax reform is predicated on getting healthcare reform done, we have to get it done now. Those failures from mitch mcconnell, which is a blatant failure and a short coming from paul ryan, its going to create trust issues between him and President Trump . It could. The trust issue is Susan Collins and lisamerkowski. They call themselves republicans but vote with the democrats. The chumminess with democrats is the inside baseball washington establish meant stuff that people reject that theyre sick of. So i dont know what the path is to get to 50 in the senate. They problem i try to do it one more time. I think they have to go at it again. Somebody has to be working on healthcare. Keep mnuchins door closed on tax reform. Let him keep working and introduce something that might be effective. Thats what wall street is waiting on. If that happens, all good stuff breaks loose. And this brings me to a really important point. The main stream media doesnt cover at all or the successes in the First Six Months of the president s administration. Hes cut over 22 billion in regulations in six months. 4 trillion of new american wealth create bad i the stock market. He got a Great Supreme Court justice. If he does nothing else but withdraws tpp, hes saved millions in the paris climate accord. Thank you. It was the republicans that campaigned on repeal and replace. They put the focus there. Thats why were focusing on it now. Are we going to commercials . No. Pay the bills, man. The whole hour. Keep the lights on. Oh, goodness. That is all the time that we have for today. Kat on the street was supposed be today but it will be monday. Thanks for filling in for eric. My pleasure. Give a shot out to eric. We said swamp seven times. Thanks for watching. Thanks for our specialist, harlan and pete. Follow us on twitter and facebook. Remember, 5 00 wont be the same. Stay right here with bret baier and special report up next. Reince is a good man. John kelly will do a fantastic job. General kelly has been the star. Hes done an incredible job thus far. Respected by everybody. A great, great american. Reince priebus, a good man. Thank you very much. Bret a wild week in washington ending with a west wing shakeup announced late this afternoon. The president speaking about his new chief of staff, Homeland Security retired general john kelly. The press secretary resigning and a new white house chief of staff chief of staff. Welcome to washington. I am bret baier. Just before