Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Ali Velshi 20170731

Breaking news, nbc news well, never mind. Thats alis velshis voice. Katy terr is actually going to stay with me for a little bit while we continue the breaking news out of the white house. Anthony scaramucci is out as White House Communications director after just ten days on the job. The news, katy brought us just a few minutes ago, came just a few days after scaramucci gave a profanty laced tirade of an interview to the new yorker in which he went after Reince Priebus and steve bannon. Were expecting President Trump to award the medal of honor to an army medic who served in the vietnam war in just a few minutes. This medic will become the fist person to seef the nations highest military honor from President Trump. Youre looking at pictures of that right now. Thats the crowd gathered for that. The reason this is important is because normally sometime in the two oclock hour or 1 30 you get the White House Daily briefing when thats supposed to happen. That has now been delayed to 3 45. Theres john kelly right there. Many of us are wondering why it had been delayed, and part of that may be because this news about Anthony Scaramucci is going to be discussed. So weve got a very, very busy hour for you, but lets start with nbcs peered alexander, who is in the White House Press Briefing Room where were going to get that briefing very shortly. Peter, this is news that has developed in the last ten minutes or so. Yeah. Thats right. I was upstairs behind me behind the closed doors on the west wing outside of what remains sean spicers office where we know some of the Communications Team is now gathered as they prepare to at release some sort of formal statement about Anthony Scaramuccis dpor tour. Its striking as we talk about what the headline should be for this white house which is the awarding to a medal of honor to a medic who fought nearly 350 years ago. Instead its in effect the selfish is actions in the eyes of many by Anthony Scaramucci where he was targeting Reince Priebus and steve bannon with that crude, that vulgar, that profane series of comments to the new yorker that ultimately required his being candidate. So he is out. That means we now wait after just ten days for yet another Communications Director. This is the beginning of a new tenure for the new chief of staff. The general, john kelly, retired fourstar general formerly the secretary of homeland security. Whats notable is the influence behind that, which of it came from the president s close egs advisers, including his daughter vagua trump, soninlaw Jared Kushner praised sources familiar with those private conversations they praised the professionalism of john kelly. They according to sources say they were prepared to follow his lead. Well, it appears that john kelly has in effect taken the lead here, trying to professional lies as best he can the west wing, which may be a good indication for those people that may be frustrated and fed up by the president s tweets and some of his public rifs looking for a more professional atmosphere here at the white house that he has been grant at least some significant authority to make some big changes already in this west wing. Apparently so. All right. Peter, stay with us. Were going to continue this discussion with you as it happens. Katy terr is with me. You just spoke to Anthony Scaramucci today. Yeah, i did. I spoke to him around i guess ten oclock this morning and i asked him was he going to work under and report to john kelly, and he said he was willing to do that. He would be happy to do that, that he, quote, would do anything for him, him being donald trump, because he loved him and he would do whatever he needed him to do in this role. And then he quickly dungd into that Cabinet Meeting and said he would talk to me a little bit later this arch. That being said, i mean, you know Anthony Scaramucci, i know him. I did certainly miss the entire last week of news because i was on vakds, but scaramucci is not somebody as lowkey as that conversation i just had with him suggested. Right. He said he was laying low, that he was trying to just keep it cool while the storm passed, essentially. Right. The storm meaning what was happening with him last week, specifically when he was talking to reason lizza of the new yorker where he went on a profanty laced tirade against the people that were inside the white house, Reince Priebus being one of them, steve bannon being another. I cant say on television what he said about steve bannon. He did call Reince Priebus a paranoid schizophrenicic,ible. And a par noi ak. A yeah word. Eelgts a character and thats part of the reason why drt and john kelly is not. John kelly is not. Its significant for john kelly to come in and for scaramucci to come out, even as quickly as scaramucci was within this white house. But scaramucci was somebody who would go on television and he would sound very much like donald trump in definiting donald trump, and thats what he appreciated about him. Thats what Donald Trumps children appreciated about him. They thought they were going to get a real fighter, somebody with attitude to come in and say, listen, this guy is doing a good job. They liked most of his appear ants. Its just that he went a little too far, a nice way of saying it, when he started talking so freely about what was going on internally within the white house. So the white house has just put out a press statement from the office of the press secretary that is Sarah Huckabee sanders, anthony senior scaramucci will be leaving his role as Communications Director. A clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best. Thats remarkable short, but very similar language to what sean spicer used when leaving. Stephanie, are you there . No, i dont have stephanie yet. I do need to talk to stephanie about how the deal that Anthony Scaramucci was making to sell his company, sky bridge capital, how this all rolls into this, because what we have is news that Anthony Scaramucci is trying or has negotiated some sort of a return to the exportimport bank, which is where he had been sort of in a Holding Pattern for a little while. Theres some important stuff here because Anthony Scaramucci has attempted to sell his business to a Company Called hna, which has a murky ownership structure, but some of it is tied to the chinese government. And that is running into some regulatory problems. And stephanie was saying that those in the white house were saying that Anthony Scaramucci could not serve in this white house unless he did not have a conflict of interest. So the fact had that he had not yet sold sky bridge was a conflict that was enduring. Remember, scaramucci was not sworn in. He had not been sworn in. He just had a hard pass to the white house instead of that temporary pass but last week when he was asked questions repeatedly in the White House Press conference does Anthony Scaramucci work in the white house and the answer was well, hes in the white house. To which some reporters said im in the white house but i dont work in the white house. We dont even know hes been there its been ten days since he took that podium and was named to that role and he said, hey, listen, im going to serve the president in any way i can. And he batted around with the press and said he was going to reset things and introduced Sarah Huckabee sanders as the new press secretary officially. But again, Anthony Scaramucci, the up official official Communications Director only in name only in that will role for ten days, thats got to set a record, ali. Ive got to say, i came into my job a little more softly. The first few days you lerp how the Computers Work and all that. We are going to go toe our white house crew shortly to get some reporting on what happened here, because the question is Anthony Scaramucci were not sure. If did he leave . Was he dismissed by john kelly . Lets get a few more people into this conversation. Roland martin is the host and managementing he had i for tore news one now on the tv one network. Shes an msnbc political analyst. Aaron blake is a senior political reporter for the washington post. And carol lee is Nbc News National Political reporter. Let me start with you, heidi. What are you hearing on this . It appears no matter how it went down is a sign of kellys empowerment. Let me just say for all the times you and i have sat on this show and said this is not normal, this amount of turn over in this white house is not normal. This today is normal. This is normal that after the performance that scaramucci gave last week, essentially turning the white house into kind of a fullon reality show, that he would be fired. So its probably a good sign that kelly at least for now, is empowered and he probably given what we know about when he took this job which is he didnt really want it, they offered it to him a couple of times. He probably had some conditions coming into this it and one of them were im going to make some of these decisions. Let me go to stephanie rule whoa is on the phone with us. So lets just walk through this. When Anthony Scaramucci was on the podium not this last week, last friday, he said i am not starting for a few weeks. I want to be conflict free. Sky bridge was not yet sold. Its still not. Hna, the chinese con grom rate had shown an interest, had a bin for this company for months. Reince priebus was one of the people who brought an issue up to the president months ago saying theres some hair on this deal. There are concerns, there are issues there, people saying a company like this could be interested at sky bridge, at this kind of price, because its to curry favors. Now, that is one of the reasons anthony sort of got blocked months ago. Anthony was then brought back in by the president. But the diesel still hadnt closed. In order for sky bridge to be sold, you have to get government approval from an agency known as sifous, which is run by the Treasury Department so Steve Mnuchin could influence it. But it was not done a deal. Its one of the reasons anthonys start date originally wasnt set until mid august. And when anthony first took the podium last friday he said well, im going to step down. Ill be quiet for a little while. And then suddenly he was off to the races here there and everywhere. Last week becoming more vocal, more present and the it deal is not done. I spoke to people in the white house on friday who said secretary kwael is not going to stand for anyone in the white house who is not confirmed, who has conflicts, who has got side deals. So that was still hanging over the balance. And whats tricky about selling sky bridge, its not like theres a back up bid. Hna was a bid without anyone beneath it. So was anthony selling a company because he wanted to get the preferential tax treatment . Most likely not. Anthony certainly want to work for the president. He was part of the transition, getting that great tax treatment, surely a bonus. But you simply cannot work in the white house if you own another company, especially one with international ties. And as it stands, he still owns the company. So when you take that compared to all the noise from last week, thats a tough sell for somebody like general kelly. And when i spoke to somebody in the white house on friday, they said its just not something youre going to see kelly stand for. So even if Anthony Scaramucci did the dirty work for a lot of globalist from the white house who didnt want reince there, who maybe dont want bannon there, hes not certainly there forever. And think about how it looks for ivanka. She is very focused on her pris teen brand was one of the people, she and President Trump two thursdays ago met with anthony for an hour and a half. And i had heard last week white house lawyers were spinning like tops saying what is he doing speaking on whaf of the white house . Hes not even cleared yet. Now youve got a new general literally in town and someone like ivanka, is she really going to hang her hat and her annualy renovated all white officials next to somebody who had a call look the one he did with a reporter last thursday . The stars just dont seem to align for anthony. All right. Stand by. For those who are just joining us, Anthony Scaramucci is out as White House Communications director. Ten days after being announced as the White House Communications director. In that Briefing Room right now as we await a 3 45 prels conference is Peter Alexander from our white house team. Peter, what have you got . Its a conversation worth raising another question that now comes to the forewhich is what happens to sean spicer, the former press secretary, formerly the Communications Director, who said he would be leaving this administration and his conversation with the president he said he didnt believe he didnt want to he said he didnt have the communications chopts to take over this job so sean spicer said he would stick around until the middle of august to try to help with that conversation. Now that scaramucci is out peter, unless youve got theme music, im just going to have to stop you for a second. That sounds very much like the theme music that accompanies the president of the United States, who is entering the room now for the medal of honor. Whatever peter had to say was actually particular particularly important. Were going to have to pause and remember for a moment that theres something a little more important than the politics were talking about and its the man who is receiving the medal of honor. We will stay on this story, but leelgts listen in. Let us gather in these sacred words, no one has greater love that this to lay down ones life for ones friends. Let us pray. Oh mighty god, we thank you for the gift of this day, of this time, and for all living, lives devoted in service to you and to our country. Our hearts are especially grateful today for the courage, honor and Extraordinary Service of specialist james mcclue win whose repeated acts of bravery conveyed to us a true understanding of the value of life. As his service demonstrates your faithfulness and unconditional love for all humanity, we ask you, lord, continue to inspire and guide others to their own acts of Selfless Service and grant us all now hearts eager to seek your will and all acts that serve to preserve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Amen. Thank you very much. Please, be seated. Thank you, chaplain herly. Secretary mnuchin, secretary mattis, secretary she will kin, senator stab now, congressman up ton and members of the armed forces, thank you for joining us as we award our nations highest military honor to specialist 5 james c. Mcclun. Today we pay tribute to a veteran who went above and beyond the call of duty to protect our come rads, our country and our freedom. Joining jim today is his wife sheer e, his brothers mike and tom, his sons, jamie and matt and many other members of his very large and beautiful family. Were also grat fied to be joined by eight previous medal of honor recipients. Now, jims name will stand forever alongside theirs in our history and in our hearts. I want to take a few minutes to tell you about jim and how he earned this place among legends. Jim was raised in bang or, michigan. His father built their house from scratch and worked 40 years at a piano factory. Jims dad taught him a simple but powerful lesson. Never do anything halfway. Always do your best. Jim took that help very much to heart. He played for four varsity sports in high school and three in college. In august of 1968 jim was drafted into the army. Within six months he was trained as a medic and arrived in vietnam. Right away jim poured all of himself into his duties, treating the sick and the wounded. Before long all his fellow soldiers called him doc. On may 13th, 1969, less than three months after he arrived, jim was one of 89 men in Charlie Company to embark on a mission to secure a transportation route near nen youn. As jim and his men jumped out of the helicopter, it quickly became clear that they were surrounded by enemy troops. Within minutes two chop were shot down and one of his men was badly wounded in the middle of an open field. Jim did not hesitate. He blazed through 100 meters of enemy fire to carry the wounded and the soldier to safety. But this was only the first of many hee roik deeds jim would perform over the next 24 hours. After tending to the first wounded soldier, jim joined a mission to advance toward the enemy and advance they did. Before long they were ambushed. Again he ran into danger to rescue his men. As he cared for two soldiers, shrapnel from a rocketpropelled grenade slashed open the back of jims body from head to foot. Yet that terrible wound didnt stop jim from pulling those two men to safety, nor did it stop him from answering the plea of another wounded comrade and carrying him to safety atop his own badly injured body. He was badly injured. And so it went, shot after shot, blast upon blast, as one of his cam rads recalled, whoever called medic could immediately count on mcclun. Hes a brave guy. As day turned to dusk, nearly all of those who could and really, really had to make it back, they were finally within in night defensive position, except for one soldier whose plea jim could not ignore. Again, doc did not hesitate. He crawled through a rice patti thick with steel rain, that means bullets all over the place. As soldiers watched him, they were sure that was the last time they would see doc. They thought that was the end of their friend jim. But after several minutes passed, jim emerged from the smoke and fire carrying yet another soldier. He immediately ban gauged and fixed and worked, but he got the wounds fixed and lifted the soldier to a medevac held cop terr. His lieutenant ordered jim to get into get in, he said. Get in. But jim refused. He said youre going to need me here. As jim now says, i would have rather died on the battlefield than know that men died because they did not have a medic. Over the next 24 hours jim fired at enemy solders, suffered a but wound to his arm and continued to race into gunfire to save more and more lives. And yet as night approached again, after nearly two days of no food, no water and no rest, jim volunteered to hold a blinking light in an open field to signal for a supply drop. He would not yield. He would not rest. He would not stop. And he would not flinch in the face of sure death and definite danger. Though he was thousands of miles from home, it was as if the strength and pride of our whole nation was beating inside of jims heart. Jim did what his father had taught him. He gave it his all and then he just kept giving. In those 48 hours jim rescued ten american soldiers and tended to countless others. He was one of 32 men who fought until the end. They held their ground against more than 2,000 enemy troops. Jim, i know i speak for every person here when i say that we are in awe of your actions and your bravery. But let me tell you one thing and one more story about jim. On the second day of that bloody fight jim found a few soldiers and a fellow soldier who had been shot badly in the stomach. He knew the soldier wouldnt make it if he flung him on the back, so he lifted him up and carried him in his arms. As jim was carrying the soldier, a thought flashed through his mind, although jim had always been very close to his father, he realized that it was not since he had been a young boy that he had told his dad those three very simple but beautiful words, i love you. In that moment jim offered up a prayer. He asked god, if you get me out of this hell on earth so i can tell my dad i love him, ill be the best coach and the best father you could ever ask for. As he prayed, a great peace came over him. And if it was gods will for him to live, hed keep his promise to god as soon as he had the chance. Jim made it out of that hell on earth. He made it. Here he is. And the first thing he did when he arrived back on american soil was to say those beautiful words, i love you, dad. I love you. Jim said those words over and over again for the next 22 years, until the last time he saw his father the night before his dad passed on. Today id venture to say his dad is the proudest father in heaven. Jim fought with all of the love and courage in his soul. He was prepared to lay down his life so his brothers in arms could live theirs. With us today are ten of the men who fought alongside jim and five of those he saved. To bill, randy, mike, joe, kent, robert, john, charles, michael, or he is tis, thank you for your service and your sacrifice. Stand up wherever you may be. Where are you . Where are you . [applause] thank you, fellas h. Thats great. For over two centuries our brave men and women in uniform have overcome tyranny, fascism, communionism and every threat to our freedom, every single threat theyve overcome. And weve overcome these threats because of titans like jim whose spirit could never be conquered. Thats what this award is and jims life represents so well. Americas unbreakable spirit. Its been 48 years since jims battle in vietnam. He is now a husband, a father, and a grandfather. Coached high school football, wrestling and baseball for 38 years, just like he said he would. And he brought together every member he could find of his beloved Charlie Company. To many people in this room specialist 5 mcclun has always been their friend jim. To others hes been coach. To those who bravely served with him in vietnam, hes still called their doc. To his parents scotty and margaret, both watching from heaven, elalways be their son. But today 32 million grateful american hearts, private mcclun carries one i am mortal title, and that title is hero. Special spis 5 mcclun, we honor you, we salute you, and with god as your witness, we thank you for what you did for all of us. Now i would like the military aide to come forward and read the citation. The president of the United States of america, authorized by act of congress, march 3rd, 1863 has awarded in the of congress has awarded to private first class james c. Mick clong, United States army for conspicuous gal lan i at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Private first class c mcclun distinguished himself by acts of gal lan tri and intrepid it at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty from may 13th through 15th, 1969, while serving as a combat medic with Charlie Company, third battalion, 21st infantry, 196th light infantry brigade. Ameasure i cal division. The company air assaulted into an area near tam kie and newian hill. On may 13th with complete disregard for his life, he ran 100 meters in an open field through heavy fire to rescue a cam rad too injured to move and carried him to safety. That same day second platoon was ordered to search the area near newian hill when the platoon was ambushed by a large north vaet that mees air force and sustained heavy casualties. With complete disregard for his life and personal safety, private first class mcclun led two americans into the safety of a trench while being wounded from shrapnel by a rocket propolled grenade. He had ignored a drkt order on four more occasions to extract wounded cam rads. He treated the injured, prmd the evacuation and though bleeding heavily from shrapnel wounds on his head and entire body, refused evacuation to safety in order to remain at the battle site with his fellow soldiers, who were heavily out numbered by the north vaet that mees army forces. On may 14th the platoon was again ordered to move out towards newian hill. Private first class mcclun was auto wounded a second time by small arms fire and splal nel from a rocket propolled grenade while rendering aid. In the final phases of the attack two companies from second north vaet that mees Army Division and an element from a vaet congress regiment does he as i understanded upon Charlie Companys position on three sides. He then with complete disregard for his life went into the cross fire numerous times throughout the battle to extract the Wounded Soldiers while also fighting the enemy. His relentless and courageous actions inspired and motivated his cam rads to fight for their survival. When supplies ran low, private first class mcclun volunteered top hold a blinking strobe light in an open area for a supply drop. He remained stead fast while bullets handed all around him and rocket propolled gren aides flew over his prone exposed body. During the morning darning darkness of may 15th he knocked out with a grenade, fought and enemy soldier alive through the night and organized the dead and wounded for evacuation at daylight. His timely and courageous actions were instrumental in saving the lives of his fellow soerlds. Private first class mcclean aus personal her roechl, professional competent and devotion to duties are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the ameasure i cal division and the United States army. [applause] bless us now, oh lord, as we depart our separate ways. May the memory of this occasion, may our participation here u night us all in compassion for service to all the members of our families, our military, our country. Strength us in faith and renew us in spirit, and send us forth with your peace. Amen. Jim, thank you. God bless you. God mess your family. God bless the United States of america. Thank you, jim. All right. There you have it. James mcclun walking out behind the president of the United States after having been awarded the medal of honor. We have much to talk about today, but i asked colonel jack jacobs to be here because egs a medal of honor recipient. Andy card is with me as well, and i have a big panel much folks to talk about whats been going on at that white house. What you just witnessed is about the calmest thing that has happened at the white house. But it is important. I want to do james mcclun what hes due here. This is a hero. He is an army medic. He had said at one point in an interview he was reflecting on the fact that so many least were lost, and this is really a celebration of those people who couldnt be here. Let me ask my control room if we can play that. Okay. Were going to have that. But he had said in an interview that veterans who see the kind of horror that he saw often ask themselves why did they have to die, the fellow soldiers and these guys lived to tell. Lets play what he said to an interviewer. Was i scared . Sure. I mean, im in a situation where i could die at any moment, but you had to keep your mind on what you were doing and evaluate the situation, how the wounds were, and then treat them and get them to safety as soon as possible. This is common when you hear from the very few people who get this medal that they were doing their job in the moment. And when they reflect on it, you saw his eyes filling up with tears. Hes thinking about well, everybody in combat will tell you the same thing, whether hes been decorated or not, and no matter what deck rags he receives. That everything he did was for his fellow soerlds, air men and marines. Theyre all in it together. That something had to be done. He had to do it because his perception was that nobody else could. So the idea that you learn love in combat is something of an irony, but its absolutely true. You learn to love your come rads and youll do anything for them because you know theyll do anything for you. Its a level of selflessness that in the reporting we spend our days focusing on here we forget exists daily around the world. Well, its environment in which you have to rely on one another otherwise youre all going down. Ill tell you a very quick story. Theres a buddy of mine who was in the marine corps up at kay son during the at the time offensive in 68. His marine squad squad was patrolling outside the wire. They got into a tremendous fire fight. One wounded, very badly wounded marine out in the middle of the fire zone, his 20yearold squad leader rushes out into the fire, collects his wounded marine, brings him back to safety and his mortalel wounded marine looks up at him and says i knew youd come for me. Wow. Its that kind of stuff that happens all the time every day in eye combat situation, and its why young people when they come out of the service have had so Many Authority and responsibility in difficult services that theyre obviously the best person for whatever job theyre going to apply for. No kidding. Corpora colonel, stand by. Anthony scaramucci, ten days after being announced as the White House Communications director is out. Kristen, youve got some new reporting on this. It is just another sturning shake up here within the white house. I spoke with a source familiar with the thinking inside the administration, and there was broad agreement that this was necessary to give the new chief of staff, general john kelly, a new start, a clean slate. The official white house statement effectively references that. But there is more to this story, ali, thats for sure. Ill take you back to last week and that interview that he did with the new yorker. He says he was off the record. Of course the reporter says that wasnt the case. But this profanty laced rant against Reince Priebus, the former Communications Director, who wound up leaving in the wake of that. And also against steve bannon. Words that are just so vulgar that we cant repeat them on television. Based on my conversations here, that really infewer rated, did you say givesed a lot of people here behind the scenes including ivanka trump and the first lady. There is say sense that he had built up some goodwill, that scaramucci was going to be the fresh start and then when that article was published it sort of erased all of that goodwill. In addition to that, think about what he was talking about. It didnt have to do with the president s agenda or Foreign Policy or health care or tax reform or any of that. Anthony scaramucci got into what i think for a lot of folks behind the scenes like a personal tit for tat with two of the president s most senior advisers. He sort of turned this administration into a Reality Tv Show in a way that we really hadnt seen. This is someone who like the president is brash, he likes the spotlight, and so i think thats part of what earned him the job in the first place. But there is some sense that it became too focused on him and then again that very controversial interview that he did with the new yorker was sort rft final straw. And general kelly felt as though he needed a fresh start as well. So the while this is another shake up, ali, it could actually be an indication that things are stabilizing here within the administration. Were going to hear from Sarah Huckabee sanders in just a few moments. Shes going to hold her daily press briefing. Shes going to get a lot of questions about this. Thanks very much. Well be watching that very closely. Andy card is here. Andy, ive seen you on tv a few times in the last few days, but ive been wanting to talk to you about this. And of course that was before all of this happened. Heidi is still with us i think with Roland Martin and aaron blake. And hady made the comment before this started that for all the days when things happen and we say this is abnormal, is she said this is normal. This is what a white house chief of staff should have been doing. When there was a change in chief of staff position, there should be an expectation that there will also be a change in personnel. That doesnt mean everyone, but it means that there is a righting of the ship. Theres a new leader in town who is very competent. He is a leader of men and his proven it, and im sitting next to a hero here. We just witness the a hero. General kelly knows what it means to be a hero. Yeah. And knows the job of a president. And just remember, anytime a veteran is put into the ground after they have lived their life or a soldier has sacrificed his life, there is a flag presented. And when that flag is presented to the family, it is presented on behalf of the president of the United States and a grateful nation. That is a noble calling that the president is living in the oval office. General kelly understands that, and i think hes going to bring the direction of the white house to the point that we can all go back to saying, the presidency is really important. And hes going to help that presidency live up to the expectations that we all have. Tell me why this is different, why john kelly is different from President Trump naming anyone else, you know, as the chief of staff. Well, there havent been that many generals that were named chief of staff, so its certainly not the norm, but there have been a few. And they generally did a very good job. And i dont mean any pun to say general and generally. General kelly i think is even more uniquely qualified because he served two great leaders, leon pan et at that and bob gates as secretary of defense. He was their right hand person. He also worked with congress. He helped congress understand the priorities of the defense department. So he knows the halls of congress. Members of congress respect him, the staff there respects him. He also respects authority. He respects chains of command. And he respects the need to understand the consequence of your decisions before you make the decisions. And thats discipline. And he knows that there are some decisions that are made that can be made too quickly that have on too many unintended consequences. And that ends up giving definition to the policy rather than the original intent. So i think discipline at the white house is something that general kelly understands, can bring to the job. I hope hes able to make the transition from a fourstar general where everybody is serving him and a cabinet member where people serve him. He is now a staff. Right. Hes a staff a chief of staff is somebodys staff. Hes a staff. But hes responsible for making sure the whole staff helps the president rather than fighting with each other. Let me go to Roland Martin who is the host and managing editor for news one now on the tv one network. Aaron blake as well. Roland, you got that look on your face that says youre not entirely convinced. Well, first of all, i will hope that with the arrival of general kelly you now have adults who are now running the country as poe posed to the children that we have witnessed over the last six months. And i would hope that general kelly is somehow can counsel the biggest child in the white house this president donald trump. Why am i saying that . You look at the comments he has made, you look at his vulgar language and how he has basically not acting president ial. You need someone who can say, look, respect this office. You are to act like the president. Scaramucci was ridiculous. The Communications Directors are not supposed to be the story, and he thought he was basically a mini me donald trump. And he needed to go because it was embarrassing what took place last week. And you would hope, again, for the country. It does not matter if you are republican or democrat, liberal or conservative. You are to respect the presidency. I would hope the president will learn from a general kelly as to how he should may have as president of the United States. Aaron blake, what are your thoughts on how this has all developed tht last hour or so. Well, i think its going to be really at the present timing for people to label this as some kind of a pivot, the fact that john kelly as kind of asserted him as more of a disciplinarian, now seems to have gotten rid of a particularly kind of loose gun character in the white house. I think its worth keeping this all in the context of what happened last week and the week before. There were seven days before when President Trump hired Anthony Scaramucci and then hired john kelly. Those are completely polar opposite hires. One was a kind of brash, you know, all over the place guy who we saw exactly what happened last week. And by the way, we saw when that was happening the president appeared to be very much on board with what scaramucci was doing. And then just a day or two later we see him higher kelly and apparently move in the direction of discipline. Weapon dont know if this is what hes going to be doing, if hes actually going to listen to kelly Going Forward from now on, but he seems to be kind of all over the map with his actions in the past couple weeks here. Heidi, so i guess aaron has well articulated the possibilities here, the range of possibilities that this is a pivot and suddenly this white house could start to work like a slightly better machine. But the white house has been in chaos, so most people could probably make it work a little better than its working right now. Whats your sense . Should we be thinking about this as a pivot in are we just being cockeyed opt miscellaneous or was this absolutely necessary because of the mess that scaramucci managed to make in ten days . I think we in the media should all learn from our own history in covering this president that we should not declare a pivot until we see a pattern. Aaron is right. This is one day and one decision. And while we know kelly is saying that he doesnt want to see this much mel oh drama in the white house, he wants less game of thrones, more structure. We also know from the reporting and from scaramuccis own words that the president himself enoi had that display of dysfunction on cnn between scaramucci in private. So what extent can keel rein in this president , andy, i heard you mention a lot of people about the structure of the white house and all the positive things that kelly can bring, but you didnt mention the president and i think that is the most important person that he needs to impose discipline on. Well see to what extent the president is receptive to that because kelly cant be there for every single call and judgment. He cant be at his bedside in the east room in the morning when hes sending off some of those most harmful tweets. Right. And its not, roland, like scaramucci was a hold over in the white house. It was President Trumps decision to bring scaramucci in. Yeah. He definitely count enanswered or stood by as scaramucci did what he did last week, which struck most people as strange, the profanty laced interview and the denials that it was on the record and all that kind of stuff. So to that degree, kelly may be able to manage lots of people, but does it matter that he manages anybody if he cant manage the president . And that is the most important thing. And so, again, you would hope that he is going to convey to President Trump that you need to act like the president. Because if you look at the wault journal he had i editorial, they said the problem wasnt Reince Priebus. The problem was President Trump. His actions, his behavior, his lack of leadership. You know, he has these rallies where he wants to be he wants people to love him and he soaks it all up, but he says nothing. He wasnt out there actually campaigning, working hard for health care. He isnt out there working hard when it comes to jobs. And so this is all about an actual agenda for this country. I made no bones how im not impressed with what this president has done, but again, we want to respect what the person there but he hasnt earned the respect. And so well see what happens, again, with kelly and i doubt very seriously if you were a retired general like kelly you want to be associated with madness. And so if the president continues, kelly might say, you know what . I dont need this. Right. So aaron, to that point, when you speak to people about general kelly, hes highly regarded. Hes unflappable. He is a military man. What kind of conversation led to him taking this job and to what what does john kelly know that the rest of us dont seem to know about the ability to get that white house in order . Because, again, weve started to use this terminology of a white house in chaos, buffett its all done on the president s watch. Right. I think that, you know, while this may not be the kind of pivot that people want it to be or think it might be, kelly is a unique leader when it comes to the president s campaigns, when it comes to his white house. Weve so far seen a lot of people who were yes men to some degree or another, yes men and men. Cory lewandowski didnt have a whole lot of experience. Let trump republic trump. Late in the campaign Kellyanne Conway was manager. Then Reince Priebus wasnt supposed to have a very heavy hand when it came to the actions within the white house. It is going to be really interesting to see what somebody who comes into this job with somewhat of a mandate, with more of a disciplinarian attitude is going to have. Apparently, he was promised many concessions when he took this job and he was very skeptical about it. So, you know, i for one am skeptical that the president is going to suddenly let this guy come in and totally run the shop, but we havent really seen anybody try to do that at this point. So well see how it goes. Heidi, Corey Lewandowski did give an interview and it was kind of interesting when he said, anybody who said hes going to change the president isnt going to be able to do so. Let trump be trump. Which is the exact words that scaramucci have used. People who have remained in Donald Trumps circle over time, they either believe that or thats the language you have to use. From what you know of general kelly, how does he reconcile that with his need for order and discipline and the chief of staff is staffer. I cant imagine like aaron said that kelly didnt come into this with a number of promises and preconditions that he would have wide latitude. So this will be a honeymoon trial period to see if kelly has that authority hes been promised. But i have to go back and point out that everything in last and last week is the perfect example that happened from the riffing at the boy scouts to the transgender policy that was seemingly announced on twitter without any consultation. That kelly can immediately over night have that kind of impact on donald trump where he doesnt have the spontaneous transgressions, the kind that have proven so harmful and that kelly can overrule him on the more harmful ones made, for example, the firing of james comey is going to take quite a while for us to see if that is actually the case. Lets go back to the white house. The im sorry, well go there in a moment. We were supposed to have a briefing at 3 45 with Sarah Huckabee sanders. We were wondering why it was set for 3 45. Thats substantially later than it normally is. Its normally at the end of the 1 00 or 2 00 eastern hour. It could have been it was because this story about scaramucci was developing. And you can see a live picture there. Reporters are getting ready to talk to their respective channels or networks about it. But no Sarah Huckabee sanders yet. This is now seven or eight minutes late. They have been working on getting their story together about what theyll do. Roland martin, if there is if this does signal some sort of a change and there are a lot of things that have happened in the last week in addition to the ones we have been talking about that would signal a need for the change in the white house, including the failure of the signature legislation that President Trump wanted to put forward and thats health care. With health care not Going Forward, it imperils tax reform because a lot of savings can be carried over. What should be what message should it be is sending out now . First and foremost, what chief of staff kelly has to do he has to repair the damage that President Trump has inflicted on the republicans. When you threaten the state of alaska, thats a problem. You have trump going after heller of nevada. Thats a problem. There are fractured relationships there. Again, Reince Priebus was very close with the House Speaker paul ryan and so kelly is going to have to really repair those relationships because if you have republicans right now who are in the house and senate saying, why in the world should i put my neck out for this guy if hes going to turn around and attack me and attack my state and literally threaten my job, and so he has to manage so many things now. Andy card can speak to this. When youre the chief of staff this is not just a solo job. Youre dealing with the rnc. Youre dealing with the house, the senate. Personal relationships. You have to repair the relationships with senator john mccain, senator lindsey graham. Deal with donors. Its a whole lot of stuff you have to do and the president frankly had ticked off a lot of republicans and we havent even gotten to the fact he has done nothing to reach out to democrats. So Kristen Welker at the white house, to rolands point of all the things that have to be done, how much of that falls into the hands of or is the responsibility of the white house chief of staff, somebody like john kelly . Hes not a political operative. So Reince Priebus was there because of relations or problems with relations with the republican party. That didnt serve the president all that well, but in the end it doesnt get better with john kelly. Hes not a political operative youre right about that, but hes a steadying force and he is a forceful power. So to take the first part of that, i think the president thinks he needs to right this ship before anything can get accomplish. Look, this discord has overshadowed his agenda and his officials ability to carry out the agenda, whether its health care or tax reform. They spend a lot of time dealing with these headlines. When you talk to officials here, they say look what wed like to be talking about are the issues that the president ran on instead of dealing with the headline or controversy of the day. So i think the president perceives that as a first part of this process. And in terms of kellys relationship with capitol hill, he has worked with capitol hill in the past and in various different capacities serving in different administrations but also in terms of the dhs secretary. He has been tough on the Administration Illegal immigration, tough on crime. Thats a sense hell bring that sensibility to trying to get the president s policies carried out. There may be a learning curve to some exent the. But i think the president who felt that Reince Priebus who had a Good Relationship with those on capitol hill wasnt able to get the ball over the line when it came to health care. We know that was the final straw. So the thinking is why not put a general in charge, why not put a military Service Member in charge, someone who understands the chain of command and how to be tough. But john kelly did Tell Congress to shut up and stop complaining if he doesnt like the way he does things at the dhs they should change the law. Maybe everybody likes the fact that everybody is direct and congress can say to kelly what they think. I think you hit the nail on the head there. I have no doubt that kelly will bring at least some semblance of order to the white house. Hes got high ethical standards. He may tamp down some of the competing power centers. Control the schedule more. Control access more to the president. But when it comes to dealing with congress and the delicate dance of persuasion that must take place, like roland said repairing those relationships with republicans. That is a that is out of his bailiwick in terms of his experience in the past. And there is so much work that needs to be done on that end after the stunning defeat of health care. So i think that the big question will be how does he deal with congress and with pushing through an agenda which now is increasingly facing this time crunch, ali, because you know how this calendar works around washington. They have not got much time left before we shift here into full 2018 staring down the barrel of the election mode and everybody heads for the hills and makes their own political calculuses about what they need to do and not much gets done here in washington legislatively. And theres a debt ceiling coming up. Theres stuff that has to happen. Kristen, when of the things that kelly and scaramucci had in common they have both spoken out very strongly against the leaks that come out of the white house. Scaramucci had made that or said he was going to make it his top priority, the basis on which he went after Reince Priebus. What where do we stand with this . Is this white house leakier than prior administrations or are they all kind of leaky . It is leakier than previous administrations, no doubt about that. However, having said that, i think theres an important caveat to that which is that a lot of the officials here are simply giving the press information they need to do their jobs. Understand the president s thinking better. For example, having said that, i think the leaks that kelly wants to crack down on are leaks of classified and sensitive information. He spoke to our chuck todd about that on meet the press. He said that it amounts to essentially treason to be leaking out that type of sensitive information. So i think that you will see general kelly really focused on that. Really trying to crack down on the leaks and remember, this is something that the president talked about in the context of the attorney general as well. Hes been taking aim at attorney general sessions for a number of weeks now for recusing himself in the russia probe. But just last week he said, look, what i want to see him do is get tougher on these leaks. My sense is that since this is going to be a new focus in the trump administration, whether from the chief of staff or the attorney general. Thanks very much, kristen, and to heidi and to Roland Martin. That does it for me. A busy afternoon. See you back here tomorrow at 1 1 00 a. M. With my buddy Stephanie Ruhle and then at 3 00 p. M. Find me on facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat. Deadline white house with Nicolle Wallace starts right now. Hi, everyone. Its 4 00. John kellys first day on the job as the new chief of staff has brought a power and display we have not witnessed. Anthony scaramucci was removed just six days after officially stepping into the role and four days after a profanity laced interview was published revealing a snake pit within the inner circle. We are awaiting the press briefing to get under way and then well bring it to you. In the interim im joined by the former Trump Campaign deputy Communications Director, mr. Brian lanza, who has been in touch with scaramucci since the news of his firing broke. How is he doing . Hes in a good mood. Hes excited why . Hes going back to his previous job. He thought hed be taking over that podium. Well, when you look what did you accomplish in the