in some ways, he s sort of on that ship as well. sailing away. sailing away, possibly. what do you make of how powerful bannon is now in the wake of what happened in alabama? you know, in general, i think bannon s power has been overstated. he joined the trump campaign after it was well off the ground and after trump had gained a lot of popularity. and though he positions himself as the tribunal of trumpism, i think we have seen over the past several months that he really has distinguished himself and distanced himself from the president in a lot of ways. and i wonder whether voters will begin to pick up on this one. he s criticized the president for being soft on china. he s endorsed candidates who are different from the president. and he spent a lot of his time
i think with respect to h1bs and other visa, it s part of the greater immigration reform efforts through executive order and working with congress. but you ve already seen a lot of action on immigration. whether it s that or the spousal visas or other type of visas, there s a need to look at all of these programs. you will see both through executive action and comprehensive legislative measures a way to address immigration as a whole and the visa program. since we re doing two, i have two for you. on the nsc reorganization, with regards to the president s chief strategist on the nsc, wasn t something that existed in president obama s tenure. what does that speak about mr. bannon s role within the white house and the policy structure? david axelrod walked in and out of nsc meetings quite frequently, by his own account and several of your accounts.
you don t make the policy. this is reflective of how powerful bannon is in the trump white house and how much control he has over the process. but also, remember, in a new administration you have turf wars. because this administration where the vice president has an enormous amount of sway, mike pence is very influential. you have something we ve not seen before, the chairman of one of the two major national parties, serving as white house chief of staff in reince priebus. nothing to say kellyanne conway. this may be bannon establishing turf boundaries, i m a pretty big deal. he also made it clear, sean spicer did, nobody is being downgraded, he kept using that word. chris starwall, thank you, standing by during the whole press briefing, appreciate it. mr. trump is in on the defense today after heavy criticism of the executive order on refugees, and other foreign travelers. our political panel weighs in on the temporary travel ban and