Rest of washington, so therefore, all of the nuances on foreign policy, all the diplomatic protocol, all the hand holding you have to do sometimes with senatorsand people on capitol hill, all of that would be something that scaramucci just hasnt been steeped in for his entire career, and thats why i think you might be seeing some of the sort of anxious tone of that email that i just read you a few moments ago from some of those folks. Eamon, thanks we appreciate it i know we will be back to you. We dripped into power lunch. Our thanks to our friends for letting us do that mike, thanks for being here. See you soon guys, i will hand it off to you now. I know you will continue to follow what is a developing story for the rest of this day we are leaving it on screen so you can see heres whats on the menu. More of that bombshell, major shakeup at the white house nbc reports press Secretary Sean Spicer is reportedly out he quit. Wall street veteran Anthony Scaramucci expected to be named White House Communications director the fallout straight ahead secret protectionism the u. S. Has rejected an historic historically high number of foreign deals lately is chinas buying spree at risk under this Trump Administration . They say a home is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Well, that price tag just hit its highest level in history power lunch starts right now welcome to power lunch. Im Tyler Mathison the major averages in the red, the dow and s p 500 on track for their biggest daily losses in two weeks. Nasdaq on track to break a tensession winning streak still, the s p and nasdaq are both positive for the week, by the way. One of the biggest drags of course, we were talking about it all day, general electric, the stock falling to its lowest level since october 2015 on the back of its latest earnings reports. Whats working on this down day . Capital one is etrade and moodys, the biggest winners right now. Melissa . We begin this hour in washington, d. C. That major shakeup at the white house. Sean spicer resigning as White House Press secretary. A press briefing set for the next hour. Eamon javers has more on this breaking story reporter the question at the top of that press briefing at the top of 2 00 p. M. Here in washington, d. C. Is going to be is sean spicers departure from this white house the end of it or are we witnessing the beginning of a larger purge of Trump Administration staffers. There are a number of staffers inside this administration who are very close to sean spicer. We will see if anybody else departs throughout the course of this afternoon we are waiting for Sarah Huckabee sanders, deputy press secretary, who with sean spicers departure would presumably be in line for the number one slot, most visible slot in the press office here at the white house to brief reporters. That we are told will be on camera which is rare recently, and we are expecting we will get some answers to what exactly Anthony Scaramuccis job at this white house will be. We are told that it is Communications Director. That is traditionally an offcamera job that oversees the press secretary and the overall press operation in order to Keep Communications flowing from the white house to the wider world about what the white houses message and agenda is. It is a sophisticated nuanced position but does involve the basic brass tacks of answering reporters questions and knowing the Washington Press corps i want to give you an email i just got from a source close to the White House Press operation, that is the current and perhaps outgoing press operation, who emailed me moments ago and said this is a joke trump wanted scaramucci on television as a surrogate for the white house and wanted to give him more of a formal title. There was simply no understanding by the president that the Communications Director title comes with lots of responsibilities, not just going on television. So some real criticism here by people close to this White House Press shop who are saying the president simply has misunderstood whats happening here, theres confusion as to why sean spicer had to resign, why he is being forced out and what Anthony Scaramuccis role is going to be we expect within the next hour to get some answers to some of those questions, but as of now, its all more or less up in the air. So dramatic afternoon here at the white house. In terms of within the white house, what fissures are forming with President Trump deciding to go with scaramucci and spicer deciding to resign spicer was very closely aligned to Reince Priebus, correct reporter sure. Absolutely you know the old expression, when you go into a job you have somebody who is your advocate in that job i think the advocate for scaramucci would have been donald trump himself this is somebody who has known scaramucci for a long time scaramucci is bright, very successful in business, very aggressive and very loyal to donald trump all of those are qualities that would appeal to the president , especially a president who is looking to make a change here and get into a more successful mode who feels like his administrations been taking a lot of incoming fire that he feels is undeserved. I think you look at sort of trump and scaramucci on one side of the ledger, then on the other side of the ledger in terms of the power equation inside this white house, i think you would have to put bannon and priebus, the president ial adviser, steve bannon and Reince Priebus, chief of staff, along with sean spicer, who has just been recently ousted as people who would have been uncomfortable, concerned or flat out opposed to this move by the president but when you are Anthony Scaramucci and you have the president advocating for you, thats a winner in any white house. Where does the family fall on this where is ivanka, where is Jared Kushner on this . I assume they were consulted i assume they favored it reporter i would imagine that is correct. I would imagine that scaramucci has relationships there. I cant tell you for certain at this hour. I can tell you that laura trump has been here in the white house today, i spotted her in the west wing omarosa has been making the rounds i asked her whats going on. She gave me the lips zipped symbol and moved on, wouldnt answer any questions i can tell you david bossie, former Trump Campaign official, has been brought back in he was here at the white house earlier today. He wouldnt tell me his views of whats going on, either. Lot of tight lips here at the white house this afternoon as everybody tries to figure out what the new lay of the political land is. Thanks very much, eamon lets get more reaction to the big news out of the white house with another guy who is very connected, michael leallen of axios. His daily email always filled with lots and lots of stuff. Mike, what do you know well, this was high drama in the west wing. The president being rolling his top adviser. At 4 30 p. M. Yesterday, Anthony Scaramucci, mucc as hes known to so many viewers and his friends, he went into the white house, into the oval office, it was him, the president and ivanka trump, and he talked about what he would do as Communications Director and the president liked what he heard. The president liked him as a fighter on tv. He loved that scaramucci would go on as kind of a brawler as your viewers know from having seen him so many times hes comfortable on the tube and the president really liked that. He was saying to other people in the room why isnt that guy on my staff thenyou have this twist where after cnn retracted a story linking scaramucci to the russia investigation and resulting in the resignation of three cnn journalists, around the west wing that was like a holiday they loved that. So that only raised scaramuccis standing in the president s mind then 10 00 a. M. Today, you have bannon, priebus, sean, in the oval office objecting to this, trying to stop or delay this, thinking that scaramucci would just be on tv, when as eamon was just pointing out its usually a different job. The president saying no, this is my west wing, i want this person, im going to do it on my terms, the way i want. Thats why seans departure was described to us as a source close to him as the last straw sean spicer carried so much water for this white house, put up with so much, saying this is the limit. You answered the question i was about to interrupt you with. Scaramucci has been trying to get a job in this administration for a very very long time. I saw him just before the inauguration he thought he was moving into the white house within days and it didnt happen it was priebus and bannon, who did not want him there this was finally the move that overcame all those hurdles coming from them, correct . Yes, exactly right. This is a house of cards moment. Right after that climactic meeting in the oval office, there was word for word almost verbatim reporting of what just happened, sean spicer went out and met with the whole press and Communications Team, about 40 people, Reince Priebus, Anthony Scaramucci at his side they introduced scaramucci and he said, sean spicer said a lot of you are hearing the news, i want you to hear it directly from us. Sean spicer praised scaramucci, said hes a fighter, can do a great job. Everyone applauded scaramucci but then spicer said, according to this remarkable reporting by Jonathan Swan of axios, spicer said i want you all to be the first to hear that i told the president that im going to step down but that im going to be very involved in the transition to make sure anthony can be very successful sean said he wanted to give him a clean slate and then everyone in the room applauded spicer so lets rewind just a little bit. Its your understanding that mr. Priebus and mr. Bannon opposed this exactly they opposed it and they had opposed bringing him into the white house at earlier times as well, according to many reports, correct no. Thats exactly right last night when axios learned this was going to happen, and people in the west wing were telling us theres going to be an effort to stop this, derail it, to tell the president this isnt going to work, and we know that around there, President Trump gets his way he was intent on doing this. It was as certain to happen as but who is likely to be the press secretary . Or will it be anthony . Who isthe person who will be dealing day to day with the press, whether doing the briefings or not yeah. We dont know the answer to that i can tell you that the spicer decision probably took them somewhat off guard, because one of the reasons that he was still on the job is that they hadnt found someone else he would be the first to tell you, its been reported spicer was helping to look for his successor. The president would love [ inaudible ], it was sort of his first choice they havent been able to find that person. As eamon suggested at the top, Sarah Huckabee sanders, who the president liked doing that job, she will be the acting and perhaps the replacement. But thats part of this drama, that theres no one lined up this all happened so quickly the scaramucci decision taking so many of the top advisers by surprise its not just that they were against it its that it was sprung on them late last night when reporters started to ask them about it what are the Ripple Effects within the white house from this move on the part of President Trump . Nbc newss katy tur and Stephanie Ruehl are saying sources told them that bannon told mu credicc over my dead bol he get the job thats pretty clear in terms of where they stand on this yet hes gotten the job. Yes, thats right so we were asking on cnbc yesterday, would the attorney general be able to say can Reince Priebus stay after this i think he will because i dont think theres someone to move into that job either the job insecurity these people have, there are not the usual line of people at the door to take these jobs. Heres a twist that will interest your viewers. If you are a corporation, if you are a government thats under investigation, especially under criminal investigation like this Robert Mueller probe thats going on, you usually want to keep people close. You want to keep people on the inside thats another reason the shakeup that kept it look like Charlie Brown and the football, kept looking like it was going to happen based on the president s comments and questions to the many people he consults by telephone. One of the reasons that shakeup hasnt happened is keeping it inside these people are now all witnesses to what happened this is another reason that spicer suddenly on the outside is going to cause some heartburn and why i can see them trying to keep others inside steve bannon, who the president really think he will be forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement or anything like that . Will he be able to talk all he likes . Spicer i think the president had people in the Campaign Sign them i believe in the government they were not going to be able to sean as a speaker, as a writer, will suddenly be popular thats why people wondered so long why is he taking what hes taking every day why is it that bannon doesnt like scaramucci . Is it his nationalist position he dont like bankers . Mucc ran a hedge fund, fund of funds, or is it he talks about putting a forehandle on taxing the rich does he think this plays against what the president was supposed to be about . They are both Goldman Sachs alumni, interestingly. No, thats right. Thats right i dont know the roots of it often these things are personal. There may well be a mix of the personal and the issues. I can tell you that in a specific case what steve bannon was saying today, he was basing it on the job, that Anthony Scaramucci doesnt know congress, doesnt know the mechanics and logistics of media, that the president liked him on tv, he likes that hes a tough tv presence. But can he do all these other functions of the job with the title Communications Director. That was part of sean spicers objection, according to a source close to him source close to spicer who told me this was the last straw for spicer, said that basically sean was going to wind up doing a lot of the duties of the Communications Director. Hes sort of wearing both of the hats now since the last Communications Director left a few weeks ago, that sean would be serving as press secretary in this weird situation where he either cant or wont frequently go on camera then he would be the quasiCommunications Director taking responsibilities for that, so whatever the sort of personal or illogical background to this, youre right, theres a ton of history among all these people, whatever that is, they were saying this particular role is what they were hanging the hat on that he wasnt qualified for this specific job. I think that they introduced him and the way your viewers know is a selfmade person, hes very successful it was reported he sold his firm for around 100 million, hes one of the more comfortable people to go into this west wing and after seeing him on cable news all these mornings and evenings, now that hes, besides the president , the face of the west wing and it speaks to the president s file, the way he rolled his top advisers to bring him in and the fact he wants that pugilistic presence he wants that tough fighter, scrapper presence on tv. Thats when the president likes. We know how much tv he watches, including cnbc he saw it, he said i want that and he got it. Yep thanks so much for the insiders look there happy weekend to you all. You know, Anthony Scaramucci was brought into the cnbc fold when he bought a bunch of Hedge Fund Assets from citigroup in 2010 to form Skybridge Capital he was actually a phonein on the fast money Halftime Report within power lunch. That was the first time or one of the very first times he had ever appeared on cnbc, when he made that deal i remember that phone call very clearly because i thought for a guy whose first interview this was, he was the ultimate salesman thats exactly what he is today. Very polished performer mike allen raised an interesting point. This is a complicated job. Hes never done anything like this how ready is he to take on all the complexities of it i have no doubt he can perform in front of a camera brilliantly and that he is just the kind of guy that trump wants not only because hes a fighter and battler, but because hes cut from the same successful businessman cloth that trump is and oh, by the way, hes a bloody goo glookidlooking guo they have similar styles for sure hes run a business. I know being White House Communications director is very very different than running a fund of funds. But you do have to manage people you do have to delegate. You have to sell you have to, i mean, hes going to what was it, the conference, quite successful and enduring property he built from basically nothing. Several of us, not i, have participated in it over the years. Yeah, theres no doubt hes a builder and a very good communicator i