defense system. reporter: as for john kelly, he did reveal to reporters that his eyes were open in his words last september by the large number of staffers who were still working with interim security clearances here at the white house like rob porter. kelly admitted that was more people than he was comfortable with. jim acosta, cnn, the white house. all right, let s discuss this with my panel. cnn political commentator ben ferguson. cnn political commentator and democratic strategist maria cordona. good to see you both. the president likes chaos to a degree. does it seem the chaos or the turmoil, you know, is coming at a faster rate than the previous 13 months? the answer is no. we ve seen this line from the very begin during the transition when people were saying it s chaotic and everything else. look, this president doesn t do things in a traditional manner. for example, you look at the tariffs on steel. this is and aluminum.
ben it s just not unglued though. it s not working. you are but here s the problem, it s not working how so, taxes got lower. i ll tell you. it s not working globally. it s not working domestically. yes, the economy the economy disagrees. well, what i m about to say is not going to agree with that. the economy is humming along in spite of him. not because of him. the tax tax cuts had a huge impact on our economy. and thanks to president obama maria hang on. the problem moving forward is going into the midterm elections he is still a president with record low approval ratings. the congressional generic ballot has democrats up 15 points. he is losing support maria hang on good, you re going to win his own people, and therefore, that s why you have republicans that are desperately afraid of what they are facing in the midterm elections because majorities of americans still believe okay, let me jump in here real quick
trump does not know how to lead how about these staff shake-ups or what seems to be, you know, relations within the white house that apparently are frayed. whether it be measured by hope hicks who has, you know, offered her resignation or even john kelly trying to defend, you know, how he s making decision, the sequence of events, et cetera, ben. does any of that potentially rattle the president when you talk about people who he confides in or he counts on but then now there may be at least an absence in one and some instability in what could be, you know, the status of another? again, the answer is no. okay, actually, i m not going to give you an opportunity to answer. we ve got some breaking news. sorry, ben, maria. let me now go to this breaking news. we understand the white house is on lockdown after reports of shots fired near the north lawn. people on the white house grounds are sheltering in place.
house, but i don t want to really call him there because melania is there and i don t want to cause any kind of jealous si or anything like that because i m basically like first trump wife. i m first lady. okay. first lady melania trump firing back. calling it self-serving and noise. let s talk to political commentators ben ferguson and simone sanders. wow, maria. all right, now. this is a statement the first lady s communications director released and it reads, mrs. trump has made the white house a home for barren and the president. she loves living in washington, d.c. she loves being first lady of
i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. sexual harassment allegations against movie mogul harvey weinstein making some democrats uncomfortable. over the years he has donated a lot of money to democratic candidates. back with me now maria cordona and simone sanders. you say harvey weinstein deserves everything coming to him but it s laughable for republicans to criticize democrats since winestine hasn t been elected president. why is that? well, we were not the ones who a year ago elected a sex professed sexual grabber in chief. it was republicans who did that. if they re going to give back the millions of dollars that the