Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Craig Melvin 20181207

Crazy day for this white house, and it could definitely get even wilder. The jitters in the stock market, the fears of a reelection recession. Thats just for starters. President trump left town this morning announcing a new attorney general and a new ambassador to the u. N. Multiple sources telling nbc news that his chief of staff john kelly may just have a few days left. Personnel changes, perhaps just a distraction from the biggest shoe to drop to date, bob mueller and federal prosecutors here in new york are expected to release more details about what the president s former Attorney Michael Cohen has revealed to them. Also, more details expected on how excampaign chairman Paul Manafort torpedoed his plea deal. President trump already venting ahead of the reports. He has tweeted five times today about bob mueller and about james comey, who is behind closed doors at this moment on capitol hill testifying. And if all of that were not enough, just last hour one of the former Trump Campaign aides to plead guilty left prison, george papadopoulos. Well get to all of that. Nbc News White House correspondent Geoff Bennett is in kansas city today to speak on a Justice Department crime initiative, President Trump expected there. Geoff, tell us whos out, who might be in . Reporter hello from kansas city. Lets start with whos out. As you he thinmentioned john ke President Trumps long suffering chief of staff has days left in the administration. Thats what multiple sources are telling us. Im told that the relationship between the two has devolved to the point where they are no longer on speaking terms, craig. President trump on the south lawn speaking to reporters didnt answer questions about that. He instead announced these two big personnel announcements. First, william barr the president s pick to serve as attorney general. Hes a wellknown republican d. C. Based lawyer. He wont need much in the way of on the job training as he served under george h. W. Bush. Heres what President Trump had to say within the last hour or so about mr. Barr. A terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man. I did not know him for until recently when i went through the process of looking at people, and he was my first choice from day one. Reporter heres the thing. Im told President Trump was in no real rush to replace Matt Whitaker but given all the questions about whitakers perceived conflicts of interest, the white house was under pressure from including some Senate Republicans to fast track this nomination. The president also announced Heather Nauert as his hipick to replace nikki haley. She has no Foreign Policy experience. She has no policy making experience. In fact, she had no government experience when she joined the Trump Administration in april 2017. She joined as a fox news commentator. Im told she has the support of secretary of state mike pompeo. Shes seen as a reliable and trusted voice within trump world. The question is will she get confirmed given her lack of experience, and if she is confirmed, will her position be downgraded from a cabinet level position it one that reports to the secretary of state. Those are all things we are tracking and watching for today, craig. Geoff bennett for us there in kansas city, missouri. Later in the broadcast well dig into what kellys imminent exit would mean for this white house. The new attorney general and the mueller memos. With me daniel goldman, msnbc legal analyst, former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, which will be a source of one of todays memos. Natasha bertrand also with me, msnbc contributor who covers the russia investigation for the atlantic and mark leeb witch, chief National Correspondent for the New York Times magazine. A big thanks for all of you being with me on a friday. Goldman, lets start with barr, the president s pick to be attorney general, considered widely to be a mainstream republican choice. However, he did write in an editorial early last year that trump was right to fire sally yates for not defending his executive order on immigration. The Washington Post found this quote from a bob woodward book, that he regularly considered firing lawrence walsh. Your general opinion of mr. Barr . I think he is far more in the mainstream conservative legal circles and well established as bona fide have been well established, not just because he was the attorney general for bush, but in his subsequent career. I think we need to take a lot of these comments with a little bit of a grain of salt because its very different to be a commentator on the outside and then go on the inside, and for example, with his comments about firing comey or the investigation, once he sees the evidence its a very different job that he has. Its a very different calculus that hes making, and i think that what is good about him, notwithstanding any policy disagreements people may have, is that he believes in the institution. He believes in the Justice Department. He blooefrs in telieves in the. In this day and age with trump that is essential to anyone taking that position. Natasha, how could he influence the Mueller Investigation . Well, it depends on whether or not he is advised to recuse himself from the mueller probe. Being appointed by the president could he definitely could have the final say on certain aspects of the Mueller Investigation. It seems like the probe is going full steam ahead at this point even with acting attorney general Matt Whitaker who is a critic of the probe at the helm. I dont think that an attorney general barr would do much to halt that. But of course hes also good friends with the Current White House counsel, which could be an interesting relationship. That could also, you know, maybe worry some people who already have concerns about the closeness between the white house and the Justice Department and how trump has kind of tried to weaponize the doj to go after his political enemies. I dont think barr would do that because as has been said he seems to be a mainstream republican. He is familiar with the ins and outs of the Justice Department, so it doesnt seem like he would be in a position to kind of make that inappropriate contact, but he is good friends with the white house counsel, so that is definitely a dynamic to watch in the coming months. Daniel, we were talking before the broadcast about these memos set to be released before 5 00 eastern, and you will likely learn more from the manafort memo than the cohen memo. Why is that . Cohens are due at 5 00. Manaforts are due at some point today. Cohens is similar to the sentencing memo we got tuesday from michael flynn, where its going to outline the criminal conduct that he committed but also his cooperation both with the special counsels office and with other offices including the Southern District. Anything thats ongoing is going to be redacted, so any investigation that hes helped with thats ongoing and since nobody has really been charged and we havent learned whether people are going to be charged or not, its almost everything that hes cooperated on, so i would expect a lot of that to be redacted. Paul manafort on the other hand is a submission to outline his lies that are the reason why the government says he breached his agreement. So if thats redacted, that means it relates to an ongoing investigation, which means the government believed that he lied about something that is ongoing, likely the russia investigation, and likely because he minimized his own involvement in that. If its not redacted, then of course well learn a lot more about what his lies are. I think with e wi we will lea more from the manafort brief than cohen. Mark, five tweets from the president on all of his favorite targets. Heres what mr. Brennan had to say. I dont know what we expect to see today based on that tweet. I think mr. Trump is seeing more and more of the walls closing in on him, which is why he is becoming increasingly desperate. Is that how you read it . Do you read it that same way that the president s tweeting the way that he is this morning because he is very worried . I would step back even farther and just sort of wondering whos even listening anymore. Yes, when the president tweets people take notice and pay attention, and they should. Look, he tweeted however many times this morning. Weve already moved on to many other things. Look, i would be much more interested to know what he and say, bill barr talked about in his job interview. Did he flat out ask bill barr if he would recuse himself from russia stuff. Would he protect the presidency or him personally the way he wished Jeff Sessions had. Look, hes in a tweet every day. I do think theres some diminishing rurndiminis diminishing returns here. You just wonder what the effect is after a while. If the president had asked mr. Barr any of those questions, would that constitute obstruction . I dont think it would constitute obstruction. I think that it would give very good reason for bill barr to recuse himself from the investigation. I think that its an unusual situation to have the president who is appointing this cabinet member to oversee an investigation into the president , so its on sort of heightened alert, and if there are any forays to put his own crony like Matt Whitaker or put someone who he knows will be favorable to him, thats going to ring alarm bells. Natasha, one of the things that struck me about the announcement this morning of barr, the timing of it. You would think that the white house would realize that if this is a confirmation hearing that happens next month, the mueller question is going to dominate the confirmation hearing. Why then would they choose to nominate barr now before the Mueller Report is out . Yeah, i mean, its a good question. Can we really ever determine the motivations of this white house. I think that something thats safe to say is they tend to put out big news like this when they want to distract from other things. Of course today is a really big day for the Mueller Investigation. They may be signaling here that the president is going to put someone new in in an effort to diverge attention away from all of the mueller filings that are going to be released today. I just want to go back to discussing a little bit what we could expect from the cohen and manafort memos. I do agree that the manafort memos could provide some more interesting information because theyre likely to be not as redacted, perhaps, as the cohen memos, but i think that looking at the cohen memos well get the first indication of how much hes been cooperating with the special counsel because so far weve only gotten cohens lawyers side of the story. Theyve kind of hyped up all of the cooperation cohens been doing over the last few months saying hes provided valuable details about trump and the campaign. We havent gotten any real word from mueller eas team about ho valuable they find that to be. He signed a plea agreement last week, but i think its going to be really, really interesting to see whether cohen has actually been providing as much valuable information as his lawyers say and whether or not thats enough to have him get a reduced sentence perhaps no prison time at all. Mark liebovich i enjoyed your column today about the juxtaposition between president bushs Funeral Services and the remembrances that went on throughout the course of the week and the general circus that has become washington, d. C. Yeah, i mean, its been quite a week. Theyre all quite a week in this washington iteration that were living through, but i do think that unlike say the john mccain sort of testimonials that happened in august or even the barbara bush passing that happened in april, this week no one really thought that the george bush tributes were anything more than just sort of a maybe just a Courtesy Call from the old normal. We knew within 24 hours we were going to be back to the same sort of chaos weve had before, this flurry of news and uncertainty. Just to bridge the two worlds bill barr is a veteran of the bush 41 administration, and the idea that he comes into this needing no on the job training is really, i think, inaccurate given that there is no training sufficient to go into this white house in particular. Don mcgahn didnt need any on the job training. This is a completely different animal. And again, i will be fascinated to hear bill barrs, you know, open testimony when he goes before the senate in his confirmati confirmation. Were going to learn what he thinks about all of this. What he promised the president , what the president asked him presumably, and presumably well know a lot more then. It would be, i think, probably unreasonable to assume that knowing what we know about this president he would not have asked mr. Barr for some guarantees one would think. Mr. Liebovich, always good to have you. You didnt mention your book. I want to be modest. This is a week of humility and modesty as the bushes attateach. But buy my book. Thanks, enjoy your weekend recession fears. As the markets slumping and many economists worry that a recession is imminent. Plus, election overtime, the growing calls for a new Congressional Election in North Carolina amid a huge Election Fraud scandal. And it doesnt matter, a Trump Golf Club employee tells nbc news that was the reaction she got when she told the president s company she was undocumented. Eastbound and down. Loaded up and truckin. Are we gonna do what they say cant be done . Weve got a long way to go and a short time to get there. Im eastbound, just watch ole bandit run. Whatever party youve got goin in the back, weve got the business up front. The full value of your new car . Youd be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. Im gonna regret that. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement, well replace the full value of your car. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Applebees bigger, bolder grill combos are back. 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This is staying connected with xfinity to make moving. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and twohour appointment windows. Click, call or visit a store today. Right now the dow is down more than 350 points, almost 350 points. This after the latest jobs report showed a slight slowdown with employers adding just about 155,000 jobs in november. Unemployment staying steady, five decade low right now, 3. 7 . All of this, though, of course following a stomach churning ride this week, tuesday the market plunged nearly 800 points. Wednesday the markets were closed. Just yesterday the dow lost more than 700 points before finally rebounding a bit. Cnbc contributor ron ensana joins me now. Lets start macro here. Whats fueling this weeks volatility, ron . Well, its a real shifting perception about whether or not the u. S. Economy is going to heat up next year. The labor market stay strong and the Federal Reserve keep raising Interest Rates or whether just the opposite is happening, the economy is going to weaken and move back towards trend growth of 2 or less and the Federal Reserve then becomes less likely to raise rates. Its almost a loselose for the stock market as far as higher rates would retard stock Market Growth and an acknowledgment that the economy is slowing down would create worries that corporate profits wont grow as quickly as anticipated. You add these uncertainties around u. S. china trade negotiations, the arrest of the cfo of huawei, china demanding the Immediate Release of that individual, and you really had for what was as you described it pretty much a roller coaster ride on wall street this week. Are the fundamentals of our economy sound . I i know its a big question, but. Yeah, they are in the sense that, look, were at almost full employment. The economy is growing at a reasonable clip. Recession is not imminent. There may be one on the horizon in the next 12 to 18 months if we continue to slow down from the current pace of growth. Its not like its going to happen tomorrow. Economies dont fall off a cliff like that unless theres some major shock. We dont see anything like that at the moment. Having said that a Slower Economy might be a little more healthy than what weve seen lately which is a more brisk pace of growth thats been pushing up wages to the extent the Federal Reserve wanted to raise rates more quickly. The economy is fine for now. The big question surrounds really the Global Economy slowing down, the trade war and how much that will affect the u. S. In 2019. Politicos nancy cook reporting that President Trumps advisers are worried this recent market volatility could signal that the economy is going to slow, maybe even tip into a recession in 2020, and the 2020 nightmare, a recession. Trump could be the first president since jimmy carter to run for reelection during a recession. How much do we think that the president s potential reelection prospects would hinge on where the economy stands . Ive been talking a little bit about this. Theres something called the president ial cycle on wall street where a lot of new president s take their economic pain up front and stimulate the economy toward the back end of their first term so the economy strengthens into november of election year. The president is effectively front loaded all the stimulus with the tax cut, with larger budget spending and creating deficits of over a trillion dollars going forward. He might be severely constrained in stimulating the economy if it slows down next year into 2020, which would then dim his reelection prospects. Its kind of the president ial cycle in reverse, and its not something we typically see, but they really have spent a lot of money upfront to stimulate an economy that was already running at a decent pace, and they did not save money for a rainy day. I think it is a big part of the political calculus. If this economy slows toward the end of next year and into 2020, it represents a problem for this president , particularly since those budget deficits are likely to top a trillion and it will be hard to spend more money to get out of recession. People used to talk about deficits and debt. And these are big. Were going to borrow a lot of money next year. While that has not pushed Interest Rates up because the economy appears to be slowing down, the dow is down nearly 400 points and rates have been falling of late, there is a decided worry in the Financial Markets that were going to slow down, then the fed becomes the only game in town. With shortterm Interest Rates at like 2. 5 , do they start cutting rates next year moving them back towards 1 or under 1 , which, again, is not the same type of ammunition theyve had in the past. Ron ensana, our man in the markets. Thank you, enjoy your weekend. The e. Coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce is still making people sick today. Nine more people have been sickened bringing the total now to 52. New jersey and california have the most cases with more cases being reported in 13 other states. Weve highlighted them on the map including connecticut, florida, illinois, louisiana, wisconsin. North of the border 27 more cases are under investigation according to the canadian government. The source of the outbreak is believed to be linked to romaine lettuce from northern and central california. No common grower has been identified. The cdc saying, quote, if the romaine lettuce is not labeled, do not buy, serve, sell, or eat it. Heres something that should make you smile on this friday, and perhaps also want to crack open a cold one. Kelloggs, the cereal people, theyre working with Seven Brothers brewery in the u. K. To create a beer called the throw away ipa. Corn flakes that dont make it into the box because theyre too big, too small, overcooked, those flakes are now being used to make the grain for the beers base. This is part of the companys effort to minimize food waste and part of the profit for each is going to be sold, its going to be donated to fair share, a charity that redistributes unused food to feed the homeless. There you go. Up for grabs in North Carolina, a growing investigation into a possible voter fraud scandal leads to calls for a new Congressional Election. George woke up in pain. But he has plans today. Hey dad. So he took aleve. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. Or more for rent every month, paying 1500 dollars newday usa could help you buy a home for what youre paying in rent. That means you could own instead of rent. 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A month after the midterms, we could have a second election in North Carolinas 9th district. The race between republican mark harris and democrat dan mccready remains uncalled, and it is under investigation today amid allegations of Election Fraud in the race. Just yesterday mccready withdrew his concession. Nbc news has retracted its call as well of that race for harris. Catie beck is live. Where do things stand in the investigation at this point into possible absentee ballot tampering . Reporter right now they are doing a deep dive investigation into these absentee ballots trying to figure out just how many were collected, just how many were tampered with, possibly thrown out. The state board of elections is trying to be as transparent as possible in that process. They are actually putting online for the public what they are collecting as they are collecting it, so folks can see these ballots for themselves, can see the signatures. This is a massive effort underway. This board has voted twice not to certify this race and to keep investigating because they feel they have so much evidence of fraud and possible tampering here. They want to make sure they get all the facts out. They are going to have a public hearing within two weeks so the public can weigh in on this. In the meantime, the democratic candidate yesterday withdrawing his concession and calling on his opponent to be honest about what he knew and when he knew it. Heres what he had to say. I didnt serve overseas in the marine corps to come back home and watch politicians and career criminals attack our democracy. Thats why today i withdraw my concession to mark harris whos remained completely silent. I call on mark harris to tell us exactly what he knew and when he knew it. We spoke to a voter here on the ground in Bladen County who says a woman knocked on her door in october asking for that absentee ballot. She trusted this woman was an official and without signing or sealing the ballot, she just handed it over. That is a story that now the elections board are collecting accounts like hers trying to figure out how many people had that happen to them. How much do we know about this republican consultant who worked for mark harris whos at the center of this investigation apparently . Reporter well, we know that political consultant is a convicted felon. He was convicted of fraud years ago. We also know this isnt the first time that hes been under the microscope, has been investigated for collecting absentee ballots improperly. We know that that could go back as far as 2010. So a lot of people are saying why wasnt there something done before this to try and stop this from happening again in 2018 . Were there red flags . Were there things that should have been addressed prior to now that would have prevented this consultant from going as far as he did . Catie beck for us there in Bladen County, North Carolina. Elise jordan is with me, former aide to the george w. Bush white house. Shes also an msnbc political analyst and Donna Edwards, former democratic congresswoman from Maryland Joins me on this friday. Just yesterday North Carolina Republican Leaders apparently shifting, saying that they would support a new election if alleged fraud is shown to have changed the race. They had previously called on the board of elections to quickly certify the results. Is that a signal to you that were headed toward a redo . I think that there has to be a redo in this election. I mean, the fact is that there are so many ballots in question. The processes and the procedures in question, that it really calls into question the entire election, and keep in mind that Robert Pittenger whos a current congressman who lost to harris had complained about this to the gop back in that primary race, and so this is not something thats new, and i think its really incumbent for us to be able to trust elections for harris not to be certified, not to be seated, and for there to be a new election. Elise, republicans passed that aggressive voter i. D. Law in 2013. I was down there for some of it. It made it easier among other things to obtain these mailin absentee ballots. They focus on the wrong problem in North Carolina . Well, i think that certainly this county and the disproportionate amount of absentee ballots that came in in the primary election, and then in the november election is something that should have been on the radar this go around. I think that donnas point is really the key point here that the incumbent republican congressman Robert Pittenger had complained, and he had said to the state party and to the National Party that something was awry and nothing was done because the focus was on defeating dan mccready. I want to ask you about Heather Nauert, the president s pick to replace nikki haley at the United Nations. This is what the president had to say about ms. Nauert a couple of hours ago. I think shes helped make it a much better position if you want to know the truth. I think its become maybe a more glamorous position than it was two years ago, maybe i wonder why, but it is. That was on october 9th, by the way. That was not from the south lawn this morning. Heres the thing with ms. Nauert, forget Foreign Policy experience because nikki haley didnt have a great deal of that. This is a woman that doesnt have any policy experience, no policy experience. Is she qualified to become the next ambassador to the United Nations . I think that an undue amount of scrutiny is on this particular ambassador appointment and the lack of experience when there are so many trump ambassador appointees and confirmed ambassadors who have just not simply been qualified. So no, she does not have the resume of someone like zalm zalme kalilzide who had been a National Security council staffer and a longtime Foreign Policy hand when he was appointed. She doesnt have the experience of john bolton when he was appointed, of samantha powers, so no, but weve seen par for the course with donald trump. He likes to appoint former fox news pundits and anchors, you know, craig, if you were at another network, you could be going to the u. N. , too, and also one other point about what donald trump said. He said that this position has become more glamorous. This has been the most plum diplomatic posting for a long time. You get that suite at the waldorf astoria, you are living high in new york. This has long been very glamorous and sought after. Ive enjoyed this conversation so much. Dont go anywhere, congresswoman dont go anywhere. I want to talk to you about Something Else on the other side. Undocumented and working for a future president. A woman tells nbc news she told the Trump Organization she did not have papers. Its answer . It doesnt matter. Also, sources say President Trumps chief of staff could be out in a matter of days. Were going to go behind the scenes in the white house to talk about why and a look at just who might replace him. Lets put down roots. Lets build something. Lets do the thing that you do. Lets do the thing that changes the shape of everything. That pushes us forward and keeps us going. Lets do the work. So shark invented duo clean. While deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look, and fearlessly devours piles. 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I liked working for him, but when i saw how he talked about us when he started his presidency i felt humiliated. She came into this country illegally from guatemala. How did you get the job without any documentation . I told them that i dont have papers. I dont speak english, and that i was an immigrant. They said, no, it doesnt matter. Sandra diaz says she worked at bedminster without legal documentation as well from 2010 to 2013. President trump has said husband Companies Never hired people who were undocumented. We didnt have one illegal immigrant on the job. Hes made immigration his corner stone issue threatening a possible Government Shutdown in two weeks if his border wall isnt funded, but these women say they werent the only undocumented workers at bedminster. The white house referred nbc news to the Trump Organization. In a statement a spokesperson said we have tens of thousands of employees across our properties and have very strict hiring practices. If any employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law they will be terminated immediately. These women came forward knowing theyre risking deportation. Kate snow, nbc news, new york. Elise jordan, Donna Edwards booth back with me now. The president tweeting this just last night, arizona together with our military and Border Patrol is bracing for a massive surge at a nonwalled area. We will not let them through. Weigh that tweet against the backdrop of thislated reporti l reporting. I think we need to really recognize how brave these women are for speaking out about President Trumps hypocrisy when it comes to immigration and putting women and men, employing them at his properties without proper documentation. The contrast of that language. These women are brave in contrast to a lot of members of congress who will not step up and acknowledge the president s hypocrisy. Donna, the New York Times reports that ms. Morales said the president s tone seemed to embolden others to make negative comments. The Housekeeping Supervisor frequently made remarks about the employees vulnerable legal status when critiquing their work, she said sometimes calling them stupid Illegal Immigrants with less intelligence than a dog. Ms. Morales later goes on to say she expects she will have to leave her job. What does it say to you, Donna Edwards about where we are as a country that this womans willing to become a target by speaking out . Well, this is the nasty underbelly of the problem we have around immigration, is that when workers come in seeking jobs, seeking to escape violence and they work, theyre taken advantage of. Theyre demeaned, theyre humiliated, and i think that, you know, hearing the words from these workers really broke my heart because it is a sign of what happens when you have a broken immigration system that allows employers to make money off the backs of these workers and humiliate them at the same time. And so, you know, the hypocrisy of the Trump Organization and of President Trump himself, i mean, you know, weve talked about that a lot, and its huge, but the fact is that unless we have comprehensive Immigration Reform that brings people out into the open and into the economy in a legitimate kind of way, this will continue to be exploited like these workers have been. Its a fascinating article, and kates conversation there as well. Well talk about it here, and there have been some other conversations had since the report came out initially, but politically, is this in any way, shape, or form, going to damage this president . This wont damage donald trump with his strongest supporters, just like the New York Times, their massive investigation about the Trump Organization and their tax practices did nothing to dent the president s popularity. This you know, anything that donald trump does that is seen as lining his wallet is seen as the broken system, well, he is just exploiting. Of course hes not going to pay taxes. Of course hes going to hire Illegal Immigrants if thats what he has to do to function. So we have seen that the base is very tolerant of donald trump. Elise jordan, always good to have your insight, congresswoman Donna Edwards in washington, thank you as well. Sources say President Trumps chief of staff could be gone in a matter of days. John kellys possible replacement and the story behind his exit right after this. Billions of mouths. Billions of problems. Dry mouth . Parched mouth . Cotton mouth . Theres a therabreath for you. Therabreath oral rinse and lozenges. 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Im joined now by nbcs National Political reporter carol lee and jonathan capehart, the Washington Post writer, and an msnbc contributor. Weve heard the rumors swirling about general kellys future for some time now. Things seemed to get more serious last month when you and your colleagues there in d. C. Reported that kelly was on his way out on november 13th because of clashes with the first lady and officials from the National Security council. Why is his departure now apparently imminent . Well, craig, as you mentioned, weve been playing this sort of is kelly in, is kelly out game for months now. After our reporting last month that the chief of staff had clashed with the first lady and the National Security adviser and others, you know, our sources were telling us that, look, hes probably not going to stay beyond the end of the year, and so this is not necessarily. Because we are getting close to the end of the year, and kelly is probably looking to announce the resignation and move on to other things, but this is all kind of coming at an Inflection Point in the administration. After the midterm elections, kelly, and it is natural for a president to change chiefs of staff, and however, this, kelly has been a different type of chief of staff in that he has largely been mired with controversy and officials in the west wing since he took the job in the last summer, and so now, our sources are saying that the president has, you know, his eyes on a leading contender for the job, nick ayers who is the Vice President chief of staff and kelly is likely to leave in the coming days. What do we know about nick ayers . He is Vice President pences chief of staff. Very young. In his 30s, and he has worked in republican politics for some time, and he is different from general kelly in the sense that he has the political antenna, and one of the things that critics of john kelly is that his background is such that he comes from the military and he is not a political type. And that is a contract with nick a ayers who would be coming in if he is indeed the president s pick at a time when President Trump is going to pivot to his Reelection Campaign and try to battle with the democrats in congress. Mr. Capehart when general kelly was picked, you penned this article for the Washington Post on july 31st, 2017. Now it is up to kelly, the former secretary of Homeland Security and retired marine corps generale to impose discipline on a building that is a raging dumpsterer fire for 192 days. And jonathan, how do you think that he did . Not well. Also in the piece, i said that his firing of Anthony Scaramucci would be the u high point of his tenure there, and i have been proven right. The chief of staff to President Trump is a thankless job as we have seen this entire time. He doesnt listen to the chief of staff, and he does not listen to many people as his twitter feed just shows, so if nick ayers, Vice President pences chief of staff gets the job, it is going to be interesting and kind of fun to see how successful he will be in using that political antenna that he has lauded for using that to help the president and whether the president will listen to him. And why would, jonathan, tease that announce ment there n the lawn for tomorrow instead of just coming right out and saying whatever it is that he had to say . Because it is in keeping with that reale ti Television Show cliffhanger aspect of the president , but also, we are all waiting on a few things to happen today from special counsel robert mueller, and so i think that what the president is doing between announcing a new a. G. Pick and a new u. N. Pick and this story coming out that carol lee has put out there about john kelly leaving and his teasing about something with the joint chiefs of staff, and maybe it is the chairman of the joint chiefs general dunford who could be replaced an all of these things are, i think efforts by the president to put more stouft the more stuff out there to try to distract us and the American People for what could come down from special counsel mueller as it are relates to Paul Manafort and michael cohen. Jonathan, you are not suggesting that this administration would try to flood the zone with distraction . I am not suggestioning it, craig. I am saying that is indeed the case. Carol, what do we know . Play along here for a second. What do we know about the joint chiefs position . Is that a position that is tenuous . Well, theres a time line for succession, and this is what the president was referring to, and he is also as he mentioned, he is going to be in the atmosphere where in a military atmosphere, he is going to army navy game, and he clearly wants to the tease this as something that he is going to announce there. However, i dont think that, you know, as far as the distractions go, the change of replacement and successment for the joint chiefs is going to be ricocheting across the country, and people are going to be waiting on the edge of their seats for this announcement. And didnt general kelly say that he would stick around until 2020 at the president s request . That is a great point, because the white house put out an announcement that there were a number of stories circulating out there about kelly is disagreements with the president , and that he called the president an idiot, and so there were some swirls that he was out, but then the president said that he would stay until 2020, and those working in the white house and others did not believe that would actually be the case. And if general kelly is gone here soon, jonathan, i will most miss the facial expressions at official events. That was always something to look forward to. Thank you, carol, for the weekend and mr. Capehart, enjoy the weekend as well, sir. We will be right back. Business loans for eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. The powerful backing of american express. Dont do business without it. The meeting of the executive finance committee is now in session. And. Adjourned. 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At comcast, its my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. My name is mike, im in Product Development at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Before we leave on this friday morning, a look at the markets. The dow has bounced back just a little bit, but still down more than 400 points. You will recall it has been quite the roller coaster week for the markets. At one point down 700 points, 800 yesterday. The jobs report came out today and unemployment is steady, but lots of concerns according to ron asauna lots of concerns about the president es positio on china and a looming trade war. That is going to wrap up this hour of msnbc live and Andrea Mitchell reportser starts right now. And right now on Andrea Mitchell reports the preemptive strike. The president is going to replace Matt Whitaker with a bush 41 a. G. If approved. This is even as president trush unleashes a twitter tirade against mr. Mueller. I think that he is seeing more and more walls closing in on him, and that is why he is increasingly desperate. And the president has chosen a former fox anchor to be the next ambassador to the United Nations. She is very talent and very smart and quick, and i believe that she is going to be be respect respected with by all. And dirty laundry and while he is talking tough about illegal immigration, the president s private club and home in new bedford, new jersey, is requiring