Rig rigors of the position and he would be forced to do two jobs. Hoan spicer has the pressure of any press secretary dealing with a flood of controversy from inauguration turnout to the russia investigation. A live look right now of the white house. In there is the White House PressBriefing Room. We know nbc is planning to have a special report any minute as we await the first oncamera update in weeks from sarah onhand sanders. When it starts, well bring that rifica. Another step for the future king. Ss transit along the peninsula. Be th leaders were on hand to break ground today on the new caltra caltrain electification project. Peieob, this is a big day for sayiran. Hwayeporter it is for commuters that commute to the silicon valley. Isc Trump Administration held up e ndreds of millions of dollars and tding but it did eventually come through. N joid speak with congresswoman ey cie speier who held this ndintrification project. It will help many people not have to go on the roads and c vest st highway 101. Nhis project is just under 2 holion and will take a few womas to complete. When complete, the Southwest Corridor all the way to san jose will be electrified. Caltrans runs a diesel locomotive over 40 years old. Anyone who does this commute knows they can be packed, sometimes standing room only. 65,000 ride the caltrans train daily. With the new electric train, caltrain will increase service up to six trains at peak hour in each direction. The new cars will still top out at 79 miles an hour but will also be quieter and less polluting. This project is expected to create 9600 jobs nationwide. Governor brown wishes the rest of the country would follow californias lead and invest in this kind of infrastructure. Right now under the washington leadership and the chaos in congress, america is not building anything. Thats very dangerous for our position in the world, and hopefully the sign of this small segment will be a welcome step forward to get america moving again. There will be a train every 15 minutes. Youre never going to have to look at another schedule. Youre going to get there faster. Its going to be less co2 in the air, less noise. I would just get a ride to bart to not have to ride caltrain. Bart is decreasing, there are less people going on bart and i think more are relying on caltrain. So having that sooner than later will be great. Reporter as i mentioned this project comes in at just under 2 billion. A third of that comes from the federal government, but it almost didnt happen as the secretary of transportation earlier this year initially refused to sign off on that funding over gop objections this project was relying on highspeed rail funds that they opposed. The first train is supposed to se iin 2020 to 2021. Well, developing now, we are learning that the man who was stabbed overnight in san jose is an employee of the mercury news. Redbe say he was stabbed 13 times by a woman and police are n to asearching for that woman. It happened around 2 20 this on t g on red bird drive near almadan expressway. The victim was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive. Me ice say the victim and the attacker know each other but they dont know how or what led vo e stabbing. The victim is an employee but theyre not releasing his name, this say, because the suspect is still at large. Right now we are still waiting for the cause of the house fire in berkeley, waiting to find out the cause as this fire broke out at a house on h us street about 4 30 this morningment pretty inten morning. Pretty intense, as you can tell from the video. Bay areapread fast, causing firefighters to call for help. Righit is a warm weekend on tap n toparts of the bay area approaching triple digits in some places. Tosive look right now at downtown san jose, so sunny and ot e. Lets turn over to vianey arana. Hi, vianey. Hi there. This is probably the coolest well be and heading into the weekend, this will be the best day to be outside because its not going to be too hot out there, at least to the coast and the bay area as well. 74 for the south bay, 68 in the peninsula. As of now, we are starting to see some of that fog roll in to San Francisco. 62 degrees at San Francisco, the fighteay has seen cloudy skies all morning long at 65 degrees. But it looks like San Francisco is going to stay in those upper 60s for the most part. By 1 00, 65 degrees. By 3 00 is when were expecting to hit our high for today which should be about 67 degrees overall in San Francisco. Were not expecting a lot of cloud cover heading into the afternoon which means its going to clear the path for a lot of sunshine, and of course some nice, comfortable weather to enjoy the outdoors. Another spot that will definitely be a lot different than San Francisco is going to be concord because this is one of the hottest spots for today. Concord, antioch area expect to see 90s today. Well get hotter for the weekend and ill have that in a few minutes. Muni light rail riders may face a scramble of sorts next month because underground ervice will not be available irom porter. The ce is live for us. Nee, those changes start tomorrow. No morning. H reporter good morning, sam y kris. If youre using the muni rail he nebetween porter and ssatgomery, it will be closed. Define a poster explaining that en more detail, but lets break t lonexactly how folks will be affected. Rhere is going to be no muni thrvice every weekend through august 20th if youre traveling be aven west portal and montgomery. If youre traveling monday to friday, the service will be os sed from 9 30 a. M. To 1 30 a. M. Nering this time, muni will be s tting state of the art vehicles that will be used later this year. I did get a chance to speak to muni riders this morning to see exactly how theyll work around the changes next month. Im definitely going to use like any type of uber or lyft service, and the f train down there will just take a little bit longer. Its going to change the month. I probably wont go downtown as frequently, if at all. Reporter take you back out here live. You see muni riders waiting for that bus, and i want to point out in the meantime, bus samvices will be offered at the stations affected and there will lso be a Train Service outside of muni metro. Were live in San Francisco, pete suratos, nbc bay area news. Stomp if you were planning on 270 this weekend, be aware there is a charge wildfire burning heght near it. 5thhe fire, though, not strecting the roads leading into osemite but creating a lot of concerns in the area. The fire scorched nearly 75,000 acres, 58 homes and 60 other structures destroyed. Trt c bay areas tom jensen reports, the fire burning in mariposa is right now only 50 contained. Hes out there on the fire lines atying to track down new now been on. Hopefully well talk to him a little bit later in this newscast. Firefighters are now being called to the detweiler fire. Mplee going to cover them as battlis their journey. Also this morning, new york on y to washington in less than musk utes . Thats the hyperloop. Were going to hype it up. Well have more information on where this stands with elon musk and his plans for keeping east coast commuters moving up and down the coast in two minutes. Heading to yosemite this weekend beaware there s a large wildlife burning near it tom jensen is with firefighters along the front lines of the detweiler fire burning right near yosemite. As you make your weekend plans, you may not want to cancel that reservation. The park is open as the fire fight continues. Heres tom jensen. Reporter more than half of the active firefighters in the state are on this fire right now, nearly 3800 of them. The objective right now is to bulldoze and handcut lines on the front of this fire as it moves north. Calfire thinks its only burned another 3,000 acres or so since yesterday morning. Calfire tells us that its improved but it can be seen up to a mile away. Poulter and green hill are not out of danger at this moment, especially with high grass and weeds throughout the area. Thats the challenge when the fire is so intense. It will put a cloud over it that can shoot embers for over a mile away from the main fire. With the dry grass we have this year, embers are igniting more fires. Reporter they had very effective results on the front end of the fire yesterday. A dc10 bomber pounded the ridge line with tens of thousands of retardant all day long. More than 80 bulldozers worked right along firefighters. It is socked in with some smoke this morning so its difficult to see where its burning right now. And now the winds have already started kicking up this morning, so we know firefighters are once again going to be busy all day long. In poulterville, tom jensen, nbc bay area news. Well, the markets were pretty pumped up all week long. All three major indexes hit highs this week. Now a bit of a pullback as we head into the weekend as the dow and the nasdaq and the s p 500 have all dipped. The biggest losses on the dow right now, General Electric leading the way. Its down about 100 points. Samsung is expected to unveil its newest phone next month. The company has sent out invites for an event on august 23rd to launch the galaxy note 8. That phone is expected to have a 6. 3 screen, rear dual cameras. It might also have a small battery with problems the company has had with overheating. Sears is going to team up with amazon. Sears is going to sell its full line of kenmore appliances on amazon. This marks the First Time Ever appliances are sold outside of a sears store. Its closing some 200 stores by the end of this year. Sears has been struggling with debt and also slumping sales. You may want to check your kids toys, especially your baby toys after a massive recall of 14,000 items you might use to give your kids comfort. The recall involves the winkle teething and activity toys. The plastic can become brittle and break into small pieces which we know can be a choking hazard to infants. Manhattan toy Company Received reports of the toys breaking but no injuries so far. They were sold on manhattantoy. Com between may of 2015 and september of 2016, so check the bottom of the box. Commuting from new york city to washington, d. C. , normally it would take six or seven hours to drive that. Elon musk has approval to build a hyperloop from washington, d. C. To new york. Sdp the only problem is he didnt inform the states governors, so where did that approval come from . Heres tom costello. Reporter for a quick ride into the future, jump on board the hyperloop i at 750 miles per hour. The whole concept is the brainchild of entrepreneur elon musk whose Boring Company just finished digging a tunnel through los angeles. Hyperloops could someday move cars through high speeds on underground sleds. Hes run a test at 120 miles an hour and discussed building loops in los angeles, even along the east coast. D. C. To new york hyperloop, i think you probably want to go underground the entire way because its a high density area. Reporter but on thursday musk casually treated, just approved verbal governor approval for the Boring Company to build an underground new york to d. C. Hyperloop in 20 minutes. From whom . The Transportation Department said it had no idea. Congress cant agree to pave the roads, certainly not amtrak. The white house . Well, says a white house spokesman, they have talked to elon musk, and we believe our greatest solutions have often come from the ingentlemingenuite private sector. Not exactly a signed contract. Still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval, but im optimistic that will occur rapidly. But heres whats cool. The hyperloop concept is much closer to reality after a successful test in nevada. Using magnetic levitation to hit speeds of 70 miles an hour. The next goal, 250 miles an hour. He says 30 minutes from l. A. To San Francisco. But government approval . That should be palatial. That red tape could be a challenge for him. He cant even hit full speed because of all the track limitations, so maybe going underground will avoid the hassles aboveground. It will be very interesting to see how this moves forward. I think this is a bucket of hassle. Issues with your forecast involves a little heat this weekend, vianey. Thats about it. Other than that, ichk we think all good with the weekend forecast. I think people will enjoy it and i think today will be one of the better days of the weekend only because it wont be as hot today as it will be this weekend. Walnut creek looking beautiful using our underground camera. Current temps across the area still fairly comfortable. We are seeing 70s in san jose, 74 degrees livermore, 75 concord. We are gradually warming up announcer this is an nbc news special report. Heres craig melton. Reporter a good day to you in new york. We have a busy news days in our nations capitol. In just a moment well take you to the press Briefing Room in the white house where today a major shakeup has happened. Press Secretary Sean Spicer abruptly resigned from his position after reports that President Trump has signed longtime reporter Anthony Scaramucci. Sean spicer tweeted out, its been an honor and privilege to serve donald trump and this amazing country. Ill continue my service from my house. Sarah Huckabee Sanders live on a camera briefing, something thats become clesing increasin in the white house. This will be the second oncamera briefing in 20 days. Hall hall l hallie, through how this happened. Reporter we know well see Sarah Huckabee sande erers on t podium behind me. Her boss is stepping down in august. In a new interview with the associated press, spicer said he wanted to give the incoming press secretary scaramucci a clean slate. Scaramucci was loyal to the president in the past. He was a big face for him in the campaign, appearing all the time on Public Television as a surrogate for the president. He will now take a role inside the white house. Let me bring you behind the scenes and some reporting how this all went down. This was not not an uncontroversial decision, although according to our sources, it was a decision made entirely by the president himself. We had been told all morning long that the chief of staff Reince Priebus was not happy about this, was pushing back on this. But in the last hour he told a spokesperson that he wasnt trying to block scaramucci, just trying to slow down the process a little bit and is 100 on board with this now. We know spicer is finishing his tenure incredibly short lived. That first briefing coming out defending the president s unfounded claims on the inauguration side. Weve seen him defend the president s remarks on russian interference in the election. Weve seen him defend the president s unfounded comments on, for example, millions of people voting illegally, something of which there is no evidence. Apparently this was the final straw for sean spicer. We expect to see, again, sarah Huckabee Sanders any second to give us more information about how this all went down and what is next. Because remember, craig, this now opens up a slot for a new press secretary, and well see who the administration brings on board for that, the administration thats seen not just its press secretary, but its former fbi director, its Deputy National security adviser as well and one of the deputy chiefs of staff as well. Hallie jackson inside that Briefing Room where sarah Huckabee Sanders will take questions from reporters any moment now. Peter alexander is standing by for us on the north lawn. Peter, do we know approximate sean spicer is leaving the white house on good terms . Reporter we know hes doing his best to sing the praises of Anthony Scaramucci who will replace him here in the white house despite his very hhement opposition to that position. Here is sarah Huckabee Sanders. Lets listen in. The president will welcome several living survivors of the attack on the u. S. S. Arizona at pearl harbor and their families. Other events this week has focused mainly on the products and goods bearing that highly esteemed made in america label. But truly the prized things coming out of our country has been the brave men and women who risk their lives for the freedom of america and our allies around the globe. In just a few minutes the president will sign an executive order to ensure that the greatest men and women in the world will have the ships, supplies and everything they need to the time ahead. This marks the First Time Since president eisenhower that an american president has invested personally in the United StatesDefense Industrial base. President trump is committed to securing the supply chain and robust work force 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. This bill reflects the president s strong commitment to ensuring that project continues. Also on the hill, 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 hosted 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. Im 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. I now 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 to much and we are being given credit for so little. The good news is the people get it even if the media doesnt. 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 very much. 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 you cant hear me . Im sorry. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is going to be the press secretary, so you can congratulate her after the session. You still cant hear me . No sound . Okay. Better now . Im going to start over. You guys heard me in the front, though, right . What did i say, john . Sarah is going to be the press secretary, right . So congratulations to you, sarah. And so i want to make a couple 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 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 want 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 rub each other wrong once in a while, which is typical for brothers. A lot of you have brothers, so you get that. But hes a dear friend. He brought me into the approximately system. He brought me into National Political network. He introduced me to governor walker. Weve spent many times together socially. A lot of people are not aware of this, but after the Romney Campaign, i invited reince into sky bridge. I think it reflects poorly on reince that he didnt take my offer to come in and be my chief operating officer. I say that in jest, obviously. What i want you guys to know, 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 think 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 were doing and how well some of you think were doing, and were going to work hard to close that spread. Ill take some questions. Number one, what we have seen in the administration so far is the president being his own messenger very frequently, and as you know that causes some struggles for the communication staff. How do you expect to get this white house back on track . I think the white house is on track and i think were doing a good job. We have a whole list of things and i didnt want to come out here with our list of accomplishments and start an advertising infomercial right now, i just wanted to talk about Personnel Movement and how were thinking about things. 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. 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. When 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. The people i grew up with, they so identify with the president and they love him. If you can speak a little bit about youre a business guy. How do you plan on solving any conflicts of interest, what the president said when you were here, what the conversations were like. I dont think its fair to the president to go into the exact conversations because i want to keep those 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. I have a lot of family members that served in the american military. Unfortunately, my generation, i was born in 1964, i did not serve. I filled out the form for the selective service. I did not serve. Look at my Life Experience here in the country. Its an honor to be here. Your business accomplishments . I have worked with the office of governmental ethics to take care of all of my business c conflicts. Im starting in a few weeks so i can be totally clean. When youre bringing american businesspeople into the administration and had some level of success in the society, they have to unencumber themselves. Its just a very interesting thing 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. John . Anthony, youve been watching this white house from somewhat outside. Im sure you have your own perspective on what youre seeing. Not quite as candid as you, though. Not that outside. Whats 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 this 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. Im an incrementalist. Most entrepreneurs will find incrementalists saying things overdramatic and unfair. They start the day and go through the process. The navy s. E. A. L. S will tell you if you want to eat an elephant, you have to eat it one bite at a time, and sarah and i are going to 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 . Listen, im a business person, 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 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. His attitude is, if anthony is 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, 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 we have a little bit of friction inside the white house as a result of that, its okay, we can live with that. Im a business person. Im used to dealing with friction. Was it disappointing you did not land a post here from the getgo . Again, i would say as an entrepreneur, you have to be a tuchld accustomed to setbacks. I wrote by book about it. Im very honest about mistakes that i made and setbacks that ive had. So was i disappointed . Yes. I said that candidly that i was disappoint disappointed, but i love the president and im very, very loyal to the president , and i love the mission 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 , i grew up in the middle class so there is 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. I feel that struggle and have empathy for that struggle and i want to be here to help make things better for the American People. Im going to try to get to everybody. Sean told the vp and others that the president needed a clean slate. How does that comport with a white house thats heading in the right direction . Secondly, how badly does the president need a win in health ca care . Here is one problem the way society is working. Right now we are micromanaging the new cycle. I predict the president will get a win in Health Care Just because ive seen him in operation in the last two years. The president has a really good karma and the world turns back to him. Hes genuinely a wonderful human being and i think if members of congress get to know him better and get comfortable with him, theyre going to let him lead them to the right things for the American People. I think well get the health care done. I also think well get tax reform done. And bhaewhatever else is on the president s agenda, were going to work astutely to make that happen. Will you commit now to holding regular camera briefings . I need a lot of hair and makeup, john. Maybe. Im up here today because it was the first day we made a mutual decision that made sense for me to come up here and try to answer as many questions as possible. And the answer is we may. I have to talk to the president about that. I lick consuke consulting with president before i make decisions like that. Go ahead, john. 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 he was a hack . He brings it up every 15 seconds. One of the biggest mistakes 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 100th for saying that. That was three minutes of my life. Hes never forgotten it, and youve never forgotten it, but i hope someday, mr. President , youll forget it. Next question. Theres been a question about credibility, some things that have been said in this loom. L let me ask you what i asked sean spicer on his first day. Is it your commitment, to the best of your ability, to give Accurate Information and the truth . 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 that thats the kind of person i am. Were going to do the best we can. Go ahead. 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 vovl involved in the thing. There was a lot of speculation among the press about the timing, so on and so forth. So what im here to tell you is that were a team. Can you tell us how the job was offered . Some of this stuff, its unnecessary to go into that granular detail because then its almost like the book the circle where youre wearing a Police Camera on you when youre having conversations. I dont think thats fair to the president. But heres what i will tell you. Im a team player. Ive played team sports my whole life at least as a kid, and i believe you have to subordinate yourself to the greater good of the team. If teammates dont have disagreements about certain things, then theyre not going to get the championship. You have to get together and mix it up a little from time to time. I dont have a 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 the president. Im here to serve every day. Are you limited to local televised briefings and having a transparent relationship with the press . Obviously im permitted to being transparent because im standing here, but i 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. Sarah, go ahead. Two questions. We obviously know the president has been feeling under siege with the Russian Investigation and justice on the hill. Do you feel like hes been exposed, that he didnt adequately have people coming to his defense . Is that part of the reason we have you here today . I dont think so. One of the things im doing today is i have my white House Counsel briefing before i have my press briefing, so i want to limit my remarks to the Russia Administration and things like that. Heres what i say about the president. Hes the most committed 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 and hes swishing great putts. This is a very competitive person. Obviously there is a lot of incoming coming into the white house, but the president is a winner. And were going to do a lot of winning. One other question in terms of the relationship that the press operation has had. They made a habit of saying they dont like fake news, calling errors that were then corrected. Is that the kind of relationship you want with the media . How do you envision your relationship . I want to speak for myself right now because its my first day on the job, i have 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 guys said something about me that was totally unfair and untrue. Youve retracted and issued me an apology and i accepted the apology immediately. For me ive never been a journalist but i have played a journalist on television. I used to host wall street week for fox business, so i have empathy for journalists. I like the fake news and if there is some media bias out there, do you want me to be as candid as i can be with you guys . There feels like a little media vice. We want to turn that around and get the message to the president out there for the American People. Welcome. The president is known to be his own best spokesperson, his own best messenger. That was clearly a challenge sean had at the podium. How do you plan to mitigate that for myself and everyone else . I thought sean did a very, very good job. Hes an articulate person. Hes had 30 years in communications. I would imagine there are people here that are going to be super excited when he lands in the job that he really deserves. Hell be an effective communicator no matter where he goes. Standing here at the podium, i believe everybody has their own individual personality. I do believe the best messenger, the best media person, the most savvy person in the white house is the president of the United States. I frankly hope to learn from him as well as from sarah and other people. As far as your relationship with the president , how long has it lasted, how far back does it go . He probably wont remember this, but the first time i met the president , i was 31. Michael facatelli was a close personal friend of mine. We were at sachs goldman. He introduced me to him. I would say we got closer during the Romney Campaign where we did a couple fundraisers in his magnificent apartment. 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 in this job and try to serve him as best i can. Do you suspect there will be other changes . The things i can talk about specifically is the veep heads are staying. I know both of them. I go back a long ways with them. I think theyre two phenomenal people. As it relates to other people in the comm shop, i have to get to know them. Sean was great earlier where he spoke to them on my behalf. Reince was gracious. I spoke to them as well. I have to get to know the people, they have to get to know me. Hopefully theyll like me and theyll want to stay. Well see what happens. Were going to make it a very fun place to work. Are you going to matalk abou more issues at this podium . Thats a good question, but i have to get back to you on that because i want more general direction by the president. Im going to do everything i can to get to everyone in this room. Are you planning to have a press conference with us in the near future . Ill talk to him, but absolutely. I mean, the president is phenomenal with the press 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 60 of the money and we had onethird the personnel. We won the presidency because of donald j. Trump. He is an unbelievable politician, and so of course at some point he will make sure that happens. I dont know what point that will be because i havent talked to him. Im going to do my very best to get to everybody. Let me just go in a way with some order. Here first. Anthony, you seem like a very savvy person, and you said the white house is a difficult place. How are you going to handle a couple things . When did i say that . In the beginning. Let me explain that, let me be specific. Its a difficult place because heres what happens, okay . 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 fishbowl. Thats what i miean by a difficult place. I dont mean a difficult place as far as the people. I think youll find there is a lot of palace intrigue thats getting reported about. That does create 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. How are you going to handle when a crises 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 . Those two questions. Listen, i took Trial Advocacy in law school, a little name dropping if you dont mind, so im not going to answer that and the first thing they teach you in Trial Advocacy is not to answer a hypothetical. I love the president. The president is a very effective communicator. Hell use social media. If i get this wrong, i know im going to hear it from him, but i think hes got 113 million or 114 million. I know hes picking up about 2,000 followers a day, god bless him. To me i think its been a very effective use of reaching the public directly. I welcome him continuing to do that, but i think its very, very important for him to express his identity, because what i have found when i traveled around the country, people love him. His message is different than what you put out the night before. Thats a hypothetical so its totally unfair for me to answer that. How can i answer that . I dont know what the tweet is. Its unfair. A lot of these briefings have been off camera. If he wants to get this message out, wouldnt he believe on camera would be beneficial . He hasnt expressed that to me so i cant answer that question honestly. How much will the day to Day Conference be Going Forward . As much as as he wants to be. Im certainly going to do my be ve best to communicate with him what i think the most effective strategy will be getting his message out to the global community. He did give me the orders today that im in charge and i report directly to him, and im going to do my very 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 . So im going to let reince answer that. I have no problem working for reince. I can only speak about my management style, okay . 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. Hes the chief of staff, and so it would be foolish of me not to communicate with him, not to relay to him every single thing that im doing. Do you stand by some of the factual claims that were made by this administration, 3 million illegal votes cast . Do you endorse all of those factors . Its a little bit of an unfair question because im not up to speed on all of that. 3 Million People voted illegally. Okay, so if the president says it, okay, let me do more research. My guess is there is 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 or isnt true. It turns out its closer to the truth than you think. Let me do more homework on that and ill get back to you. Im feeling the hook here of wanting to answer. Let me get the blake first. Congrats on the new job. Are you really congratulating me on the new job . Yes. 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 under the president. The president loves sarah. He thinks 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. I think shell be phenomenal as press director. As for me, i think youll find in my background and career, i have a lot of communications experience. I spent a lot of time on television, i spent a lot of time shaping my message for my old predecessor firm, so time will tell. But heres what ill tell you about myself, there is a lot of things i dont know so im going to lean on sarah and other people to be the best i can possibly be. One last question right here. Two questions. Because of your legal background and the fact that you mentioned the white House Counsel, can you explain what role as someone trained in the law you plan to display in communications interactive with the president s legal team on the investigation . And secondly, can i add on . Most analysts who have ever worked at White House Communications have, in the media or historians, have said when a president says he has communication 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 we 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. The first question was what again . Youre going to interact with the president s legal team. Thats a good question. Im close, personal friends with jay sekulow. I have a relationship with john dowd and im going to work with john mcgann and other people to make sure were handling ourselves in the most appropriate way possible. Thats the most i can say about that. So then the followon was Communications Problems versus policy and political problems and the way you see that in the context of this president. Well, long ago 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 control the messaging. 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. Ill take one more. Thank you very much. Youve talked several times about your relationship with Reince Priebus and some of the communication stuff. Can you talk about your relationship with steve bannon . I expect he had strong objections about you taking this job as well. Ive been on the record. Ive been interviewed by steven, i think hes one of the strongest people i know. I think he was instrumental in helping us win the election. He has a strong personality, i have a strong personality, but we really didnt overlap at goldman sachs. We both worked there at a period of time. Ive been at goldman for 21, 22 years, but there were two great things about that culture. The first thing was you sub ord subordinated yourself as a team no matter what. A great line is some people grow, some people swell. For me i want to keep my head in the game, i want to keep low, and i have a huge amount of respect for him. 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. These polls are moving targets, and we all know from fitz, ive taken plenty of fitz courses, and these polls can be wrong. People said we were going to lose and we ended up winning, so what i say about polls is they are a borometric pressure reading for today. I think people really love the president , and when you look at individual statebystate polls, you can see the guy is doing really well. Its indicating to me personally that the president is really well loved. There seems to be a disconnection in terms of some of the things going on, and we want to connect that, sarah and i, to the best of our capability, so people feel great about what hes doing. I feel great about what hes doing. Maybe you dont, i dont know you, but i want the American People in general to feel great about what hes doing. As long as she says i can keep going, ill keep going. Thank you, anthony. There were reports about general mcmaster having disagreements on policy over russia. Can you say that there will be no other resignations or exits from the white house staff. Again, another hypothetical. I honestly cannot answer that one way or the other, although i have an enormous respect for general mcmaster. Im not going to answer because i dont know. You said you were going to work with the legal team in messaging as it relates to russia. 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. Id like to ask you, though, is the strategy that seems to be coming from this white house in going off Robert Muellers credibility the right one . Again, thats sort of in that zip code of, like, the legal team and not really in sarah or my zip code, so i just want to stay away from the question. Its about messaging. Its actually very complicated and i dont want to bore everyone with the legal details, but i think its important on my first day standing up here that i not answer that question. I just think there are legalities there that i dont want to touch. Ill take this question first and then ill take you, i promise. You say the president is a great communicator. How important is the relationship between the president and the press . Do you think how hes going to change and how much trust he has 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. Im a super optimistic guy, and i think the president will have a phenomenal relationship with the press. Well get there together. Last question. Larry speaks who once stood up there 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 of what your job is . Larry 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 of our relationship . I dont know. Were in a different world. I have enormous respect for press secretary speaks, but when he was standing at this podium, it was a very different world. Each one of us right now has a sound studio, a recording studio, a Television Studio right in the palm of our hands. We could stage things and its going to be read certain ways. But i know sarah and i are going to be working on reaching as many people as we can for todays era. Maybe he was accurate in the 1980s, but sarah and i will think of something cute to say once we start working together. Ill take one more. The president tweeted that it impossib its impossible for the Communications Team to know whats in his head every single moment. How are you going to communicate to this president every moment . How have you let him know the need of what hes thinking and how it relates to policy . 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. I think its super important for us to let him express his personality. Its been a very successful Life Experience for President Trump to be President Trump, so lets let him do that, and let me just finish, and lets see where the chips fall. Then when something happens that you dont like or you like, hell talk to me or sarah. Do you plan to meet with him every day and do you have oval Office Privileges . Not every day do i hold Office Privileges. Im not one of these people that need to have unnecessary face time with the president , okay . But i do have oval Office Privileges f thats what youre talking about, and i do have the opportunity to meet with him because im going to be his comms director. He told me he was going to put me in charge of this so i want to make sure im