absolutely, donald trump owns it. he is the head of the republican party. you are not going to pea able to divorce republicans from donald trump when this debbical happens. and i assure you that republicans and democrats are not going to let that happen even if republicans try to run away from it. it is going to be a huge issue in 2018 where already democrats are ahead several points on the congressional ballot because they see what a dumpster fire this president has been and most of them apologizing for him when all he s doing is putting america in danger, making americans less safe, making thae
of the president feeling constrained, isolated, angry. take a look at this. first of all, he s not isolated. it s a president who has managed his whole life for the 40 years that i ve known him, he s been successful at everything. but he manages by conflict. so, he brings in various points of view. he listens to them all, and then he curates a point of view based on differing ideas. nothing has changed. but what s made it better is general kelly is creating a different menu for him to curate. so, a lot of these issues that used to come to him improve two, the open door of the oval office has stopped. general kelly organizes an agenda. but i can tell you one thing. there s only one president, there s only one person who creates the agenda. it s interesting, caitlyn, because it sounds like there is they re sort of managing him,
talking, but it wasn t. it was the chief of staff, john kelly, who also said it s not his job to control the president, but maybe it should be. i want to get right to cnn s white house reporter caitlyn collins, political analyst kiersten powers and political commentator matt lewis. good evening to all of you. caitlyn, i m going to start with you. after the barrage of negative stories about the president and the chaotic administration, chief of staff john kelly, some of the american people don t typically hear from is pushing back. was today damage control? well, i think john kelly certainly had a lot to get off of his chest today, don. he s been in this west wing for three months and he s typically tried to stay out of the spotlight, but a white house official tells my colleague jeff bell am i tonight it was the president s idea or kelly to come out to the press briefing today and try to quiet these rumors about all this turmoil that s in the west wing. and i think he attempted to do
i think it s very effective, you know. when he goes out there and talks, i m calmed. i think the american people are calm. he s more presidential than the president. he definitely is. and he can take some of the things donald trump is saying and say them in a much more palatable, eloquent manner. i think we really need this man. you know, in the past i ve called for other people to leave the administration because they re just not going to fix it. donald trump is not going to change. but this is a guy we need. he s the man we want him on that wall. we need him on that wall. and my question if we start to call him president kelly then he s gone. fired. you just answered my question. so, how many times are we going to see top officials push back on reports that they aren t on the chopping block? that was weird, don. i thought it was it was funny, it was humorous when he
[ laughter ] i don t believe and i just talked to the president, i don t think i m being fired today. and i am not so frustrated in this job that i m thinking of leaving. unless things change, i m not quitting, i m not getting fired, and i don t think i ll fire anyone tomorrow. so, you see there, john kelly is saying that he s not leaving the white house after there are these rumors about that. he said he s going to stay by the president s side for now. but he did admit this is the hardest job he s ever had. matt, was kelly successful in painting a rozier picture despite the devastating pieces in the l.a. times, the new york times, the washington post, vanity fair, or how about cnn s reporting about the tensions with tillerson, senator corker, openly questioning the president s fitness for office? yeah, as i said before, you know, he is the chief of staff, not a magician. so, he can t work miracles, but