kelly will replace reince priebus after days of speculation about his future. our correspondents and specialists, everyone is standing by to follow the breaking news. i quickly want to go over to our white house correspondent, sara murray, for the latest. sara, the president did what a lot of people expected him to do. he basically got rid of his chief of staff, reince priebus. >> that's right, wolf, and typical donald trump fashion, he broke the news on twitter. he said, i am pleased to inform you that i've just named general/secretary john f. kelly as white house chief of staff. he is a great american and a great leader. john has also done a spectacular job at homeland security. he's been a true star of my administration. wolf, we were hearing last night and this morning the concern around reince priebus is growing. there were some close to the president who really felt he was no longer an effective chief of staff, not only in executing the president's wishes but also keeping things running smoothly in the west wing and ensuring the president's priorities were moving forward on cap

. at one point he said reince priebus would resign soon and that he expected priebus to launch a campaign against him. what was your reaction when you saw that interview? >> no reaction because i'm not going to respond to it. i'm not going to get into the mud on those sorts of things. look, the president and i had an understanding. we have talked about this many times. and we ultimately decided that yesterday was a good day and that we would work together. and i think that general kelly is a great pick. i'm not going to get into the weeds on that. i support what the president did. and obviously i think it's a good thing for the white house. >> but why were you opposed to anthony scaramucci even getting a job in the white house? you saw how bitter he was, how angry he was at you in that interview? >> i'm not getting into that, wolf. look, it's over. i'm moving on. support the president, and i support john kelly and the president's agenda. so that's all you're going to get from me on that. i'm not going to get into the individual personal stuff. >> he was also very angry at steve b

force one. source close to reince priebus tells cnn that he privately resigned actually yesterday as his feud with the new communications director anthony scaramucci exploded. scaramucci publicly accusing reince priebus of leaking information and launching a profanity-laced rant against him, all apparently with the president's blessing. >>> also tonight, the president is thanking reince priebus for his service and hailing general kelly as a great leader and a star in his administration. i quickly want to go straight to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. >>> jeff, these are powerful dramatic moments in the trump presidency. >> reporter: no question, wolf. this is one of the biggest resets that we have seen so far in the first six-month tumultuous often administration of donald trump. but it came fast and furious today with the president sending out this information. there had been speculation growing that reince priebus, the outgoing now chief of staff, was on thin ice with the president, but that certainly was up for some debate. but earlier today when the president was in

in his white house chief of staff after a stunning take down of reince priebus by mr. trump's new communications director in an open power struggle that played out live right here on cnn apparently with the blessing of his boss. >>> new evidence that top pentagon officials were left out of the loop about the ban on transgender troops despite the claim that it was strictly a military decision. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. you're in the situation room. >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> breaking news this hour. three top gop senators best hope of getting health care through the senate dooming what is called skinny obamacare repeal legislation as senate heads into marathon night of voting. john mccain, lindsay game demanding assurances that the bill is only a vehicle to move into further negotiations and that the house won't pass the bill as is. attorney general jeff sessions speaking out about the president's relentless criticism of him calling it kind of hurtful in a new tv interview. sessions also talking to the the associated press

breaking news. chief of staff reince priebus is out as chief of staff. general john kelly is in. before we get into the details of how this all happened, let's just take a look at all the frankly bizarre things that have gone on this week. monday, jared kushner appeared before the senate intense committee admitting he had four meetings with russians. on the same day, the president gave a speech in front of thousands of cheering boy scouts, a speech the boy scouts later had to apologize for. in the same vein, the suffolk county police department distanced itself from a speech the president gave. back to the timeline, tuesday the president said that he was disappointed in attorney general jeff sessions for recusing himself for the russian investigation. the president followed that up bright and early wednesday, announcing on twitter that transgender people are banned from serving in the military. and yesterday, we heard more than we ever thought we would hear about white house dysfunction from the white house of anthony scaramucci, which brings us to today. reince priebus out. it turns ou

chaos. this is cnn tonight, i'm pamela brown in for done lemon. reince priebus is out, general john kelly is in. the president accepting the resignation of his chief-of-staff and learning that priebus resigned privately yesterday but the writing had been on the wall. president trump making the announcement, of course, on twitter and going on to say this. >> reince priebus was a good man, john kelly will do a fantastic job. >> and reince priebus tells our wolf blitzer that he's just fine with all of this. >> he intuitively determined that it was time to do something differently and i think he's right. >>> we have breaking news tonight on the russia investigation and the question that's been looming over this administration during a week of chaos and upheaval. president trump will sign the russian sanctions bill we've learned tonight. in a statement the white house said, president trump read early drafts of the bill and negotiated regarding critical elements of it. he has now reviewed the final version and based on its responsiveness to his negotiations, approves the bill and intends

kelly is leaving his post at secretary of homeland security to take over for reince priebus who resigned as chief of staff. that leaves kelly's old gig to feel and people are wondering if trump could elect jeff sessions to this post. now republican senator lindsey graham is acknowledging this possibility, already pushing back on the idea of sessions having a new role, tweeting this, quote, ag jeff sessions has a good ring to it, highly qualified, committed to the rule of law, tough on crime and fiercely independent. i have a team of reporters and analysts standing by. let's begin with cnn white house correspondent. first on kelly, he's coming in at a rather tumultuous time. we're getting word he was advising reince priebus. what more do you know about this? >> that's exactly right. a source tells cnn that john kelly had been giving reince priebus advice about his job as chief of staff since day one of the administration and had been helping him out, letting him know changes he should make. this source also tells us about john kelly's role as chief of staff. he is expected to mak

staff reince priebus steps down. trump named homeland security secretary and retired general jon kelly as his new right-hand man. priebus made the announcement just 24 hours after new communications director anthony scaramucci went on a vulgar rant against him accusing priebus of leaking information to the press, but priebus tells cnn this is not a sign of a rift in the west wing. it's rather a recess. >> the president has a right to hit a reset button. i think it's a good time to hit the reset button. i think he was right to hit the resut button. and i think it was something that i think the white house needs. i think it's healthy. >> will it be a reset for trump's agenda? this week was punctuated by senate republicans' failure to repeal and replace obamacare and today the president is tweeting major krcriticisms against gop lawmakers, a seeping misunderstanding about how the vote failed. more on that in a moment. but first let's talk more about this major staffing change within the executive branch. reince priebus is the sixth member of the trump administration to resign or be fired

called him an if'ing schizophrenic, reince priebus is out as chief of staff, general john kelly is in. before we get into the details of how this happened, let's look at frankly the bazar things this week. jared kushner appeared before the senate committee admitting he had four meetings with russians. on the same day the president gave a speech that boy scouts later had to apologize for. in the same vein the suffolk county police department distanced itself from a speech where he encouraged officers to be rougher with people they arrest. tuesday the president said on camera that he was disappointed in attorney general jeff sessions for recusing himself for the russian investigate. he followed that up announcing that transgender people are now banned from the military. something that military said the next day means nothing for now. and yesterday we heard more than we thought we would hear from the mouth of anthony skacaramuc. here's part of what he said about reince priebus in a phone call to cnn yesterday, insisting they were bros, not tight bros like he and the president are, but in

contacting the fbi and hashtaging reince priebus. we should have the financial information in politico, that is public record, we don't know if it was leaked, but the public nature of this white house infighting that is causing so many people to talk about washington. this is some of the very bizarre conversation between anthony scaramucci and chris cuomo moe. scaramucci said he just got off the phone with the president prior to this discussion. >> absolutely, completely and totally reprehensible and as you know from the expression, the fish thinks from the head down. what i can tell you two fish that don't think, okay? that's me and the president. i don't like the activity that's going on in the white house. i don't like what they are doing to my friend. i don't like what they are doing to the president of the united states. fellow colleagues in the west wing. if you want to talk about the chief of staff, we have had odds, we have had differences. when i said we were brothers from the podium, that's because we are -- some brothers are like cane and able. others can fight with each oth

kelly as homeland security secretary? he takes over for reince priebus who became a target of scaramucci. the man who calls himself the mooch. referred to priebus as a paranoid schizophrenic this week and now he's the sixth member of the trump administration to resign or be fired since february. amid this change, president trump began his day in a similar and familiar fashion as he does on many a weekend, many a day on twitter. he slammed the republicans for failing to pass health care reform and he complained about the russia investigation. our reporters are covering every angle of the white house shakeup. we begin with caitlyn collins live and diane gallagher in washington as well. so caitlyn, priebus was part of the fabric holding the republican establishment together. what is priebus now saying about his beloved gop now? >> yeah. he's out of the white house but he did not say anything critical of president trump or the white house when he spoke with cnn yesterday in his first interview since the news broke that he had resigned. now, as you know the new communications direc

reince priebus leaked the information about the dinner at the white house to you, because reince priebus was not invited. i want to read part of what scaramucci said to you. quote, reince is a blanking par annoyic. oh, bill shine is coming in, let me leak the blanking thing and see if i can blank block these people the way i blank block scaramucci for six months. didn't scaramucci say they were dear friends just last week at the press briefing? >> he did. he said there was no friction between them. they fight like brothers. but at the end of the day they're brothers. i think over the last week anthony scaramucci has become increasingly convinced that every negative story about him somehow reince priebus was behind. and when he got out of that dinner with trump and sean hannity from fox news, he saw either my tweet or other people asking him about the dinner. and i think he got a little angry, and sort of wanted to know who leaked that to me. and called me in the first part of the conversation that i had with him is who leaked it, who leaked it, him trying to get me to tell him that. and fran

staff shake-up in two weeks. white house chief of staff, reince priebus, announced he is stepping down. 24 hours after a new communications director, aptny scaramucci called him a paranoid schizophrenic. skuch also accused priebus of being the source of major media leaks, b. >> i think the president was right to hit the reset button. i think it was, it was something that i think the white house needs. i think it's healthy. priebus will be replaced by homeland secretary-general, john kely. punctuated this week by senate republicans' failure to repeal and replace obamacare. today the president is tweeting major criticisms against gop lawmakers, a seeming misunderstanding about how the vote failed, perhaps? more on that in a moment. first, let's talk more about this major staffing change within the executive branch. reince priebus is the sixth member of the trump administration to resign or be fired since february. i'm joined now by cnn white house reporter caitlyn colins live on the north lawn. we know that priebus has been accused of being the source of leaks from inside the white house

, picking up speed with reince priebus out. what does this latest change mean for the white house? >> good morning. well, this latest change could be an opportunity to right the ship. as we all know, the white house has been getting a lot of attention, most of it negative in the recent weeks over a perceived environment of chaos and instability within this white house. there has been infighting going on since the beginning that has emerged in public just very much in public in the last several days with that profanity laced tirade with scaramucci in the phone cal that he had earlier this week. so this could be an opportunity for general kelly to right the ship. we heard president trump refer to the general as a star. he said that repeatedly during his speech on long island yesterday. one of the big questions though here is what will the president allow in terms of kelly's power? will he be empowered to be the kind of gate keeper and controller of the goings on here in the white house that priebus was never allowed to be. a relatively unusual struck fur for a white house. and so th

lemon. reince priebus is out, general john kelly is in. the president accepting the resignation of his cnn learning priebus resigned privately yesterday, but the writingeen had b the wall for some time now. the president making the announcement, of course, on twit. >> and going on to say this -- >> reince priebus was a good man, john kelly will do a fantastic job. >> and reince priebus tells our wolf blitzer that he's just fine with all of this. >> he intuitively determined that it was time to do something differently and i think he's right. >>> we have breaking news tonight on the russia investigation and the question that's been looming over this administration during a week of chaos and upheaval. president trump will sign the russian sanctions bill we've learned tonight. in a statement the white house said president donald j. trump read early drafts of the bill and negotiated regarding critical elements of it. he has now reviewed the final version and based on its responsiveness to his negotiations, approves the bill and intends to sign it. the legislation which was sent to the whit

reince priebus, this is a very top-heavy white house, a lot of people, jared kushner, ivanka on trump, scaramucci and po steve bannon all report directly to the president. >> as the president predicts, general kelly will go doane's one of the greatest chiefs of staff ever. let's remind you who has also received similar over-the-top praise. >> i think of a great man and just want to introduce you for him a sec. we've kept it a surprise. senator jeff sessions. jeff sessions is a fansic man, one of the most highly respected, a man of integrity, principle and a man of total, ultimater resolve. ryan priebus, who i just spoke to, he's doing a tremendous job. it's not an easy job when you have 17 egos, and now i guess he's down to one, but reince is really a star. he is the hardest-working guy. >> reince, come up here. boy oh boy oh boy. >> perspective. with me is senior political analyst mark preston and gloria borger. great to have you both in new york. this quote stuck out to me. james baker, you can focus on the chief or on the "of staff." those who focus on the "of staff" have done pret

space in the potomac. he then did an impression of chief of staff reince priebus leaking about a dinner scaramucci was having. quote, let me leak the [ bleep ]ing thing and see if i can [ bleep ] block these people the way i [ bleep ] blocked scaramucci for six months. it might not be paranoia if they really are out to get you. he then went on to burn steve bannon. i'm not steve bannon, i'm not trying to suck my own bleep, i'm not trying to build my own brand off the bleeping strength of the president. i'm here to serve country. chief of staff for a communications director, great late night comiccomics, but is positive for anyone else? this does not seem to help the president's agenda, quite the contrary. his attacks on his own attorney general seems to say that this insult has hurt, to say nothing about the president's chief of staff to be able to twist arms on capitol hill. the spectacular failure of the health care legislation on top of that early this morning. this chaos breaks confidence in the ability of president trump. kim jong-un flexing his muscle with another missile t

president was considering this without his chief of staff reince priebus knowing or steve bannon, chief strategist realizing how close he was to this decision, without sean surpriser, the press secretary realizing the president essentially made up his mind. today president trump met with anthony scaramucci here at the white house. officially offered him the job. scaramucci accepted. we're told that after that, that is when sean spicer decided to tender his resignation essentially in protest. he was opposed to offering scaramucci this job. and point out the fact scaramucci doesn't necessarily have a lot of experience when it comes to the communication strategy side of things. we've seen him a lot on television defending the president but not in this strategic role. a bridge too far for sean spicer who decided to tender his resignation. we're told when reince priebus introduced him, the new communications director, that gracious while the introductions were made and while they see essentially handed off the yo h oversight of the press shop to anthony scaramucci. interesting moment

scaramucci seemed to publicly knife chief of staff reince priebus. >> that's right. you'll hear from him in his own words in just a moment, but the headline here is that he says if reince wants to explain he's not a leaker, let him do that. scaramucci was calling in to cnn to explain a very confusing statement he made on twitter last night. in light of -- which is a felony i will be contacting the fbi and justice department, #swamp. and he tagged chief of staff reince priebus. now, he appears to be blaming priebus for the leak of this information, which by the way appears to be totally public information on the public record. here's part of the conversation that ensued this morning between anthony scaramucci and our chris cuomo. this is right after, by the way, scaramucci says he got off the phone with the president. >> it's absolutely, completely and totally reprehensible. and as you know from the italian expression, the fish stinks from the head down. i can tell you two fish that don't stink, that's me and the president. i don't like the activity that's going on in the white house. i d

within the executive branch. reince priebus is the sixth member of the trump administration to resign or be fired since february. i'm joined now by cnn white house reporter kaitlan collins live on the floor. kaitlan, what more are we learning about priebus' relocation. >> reporter: the shortest serving chief of staff with the exception of chief of staffs who are interim that the u.s. has ever seen. and as we know reince priebus did his first interview with cnn last night with wolf blitzer. and during that interview he was asked by wolf what his greatest disappointment was during his time here in the west wing at the white house. let's listen to what reince had to say to that. >> what's your biggest disappointment? >> well, look, i mean, i wish health care would have passed, i don't think it's over yet. >> you don't have the votes. there's a majority the republicans have in the senate. >> they have to roll up their sleeves and keep coe working. they have to come up with another amendment. i think lindsey graham has another amendment. they have to work on lisa murkowski and see i

for a new chief of staff decided to keep reince priebus in part because they can't get the caliber they wanted to commit. three officials reached out to asking them toing the next press secretary and scaramucci not among them. three others said they weren't interested. same time those conversations were happening sean spicer was, the word out of the white house of the spicer wing, he would pick his successor. we have these competing factions in the trump white house again six months into -- >> was he comfortable moving out of that limelight? he had a six-month period sort of the center stage for briefings for better or worse but interested in doing sort of more strategic communications. that opportunity taken away. >> when you're in that job that is potentially in the line of fire job there is at the white house, because every time something in has gone wrong for the white house, they blame that on being a communications problem before they start to actually look and see if there a substantive issue, a legal issue, it's a communications problem. blame the front man. >> points in di

of staff. homeland security secretary john kelly is in, reince priebus is out. but priebus says this is the right move. >> i said, the president has a right to change the record. the president has a right to hit say reset button. i think it's a good time to hit the reset pbutton. i think he was right to hit the reset button. i think it's something that the white house needs. i think it's healthy. and i support him in it. >>> north korea fires yet another pistol, but pyongyang claims this one will be able to hit the u.s. mainland, striking cities like los angeles, denver, chicago, and possibly even new york and boston. >>> and the russia sanctions bill son its way to the president's desk. the white house says he will sign it but moscow is fighting back seizing two embassy facilities. first, though, president trump's purchasing pu purge of what he calls the washington swamp. let's goat to athena jones. do we know what the latest change means for the white house? >> as you mentioned, victor, one thing it means the so-called wing of the west wing seeing its power englished. two of its to

financial disclosure form. he then deleted the tweet which seemed to accuse chief of staff reince priebus of leaking. there's a lot of bad blood there. the situation needs to be cleared up and we're trying to get to the bottom of it. >> meanwhile, president trump continues his attacks on the head of the department of justice, attorney general jeff sessions. all this comes as the senate gets set to vote on its best shot to get a health care plan passed. so what is in the so-called skinny repeal that they're working on today? cnn has it all covered. let's begin with cnn senior washington correspondent joe johns. he is live at the white house. give us the latest, joe. >> reporter: alisyn, you know incoming communications director anthony scaramucci walked in the door making it clear that he was taking on illegal leaks, making them a priority. and then politico reported on the contents of his financial disclosure form. then scaramucci claimed he, too, was the victim of an illegal leak. it's just not clear right now whether it was illegal, even whether it was a leak because it could have been obt

priebus, reince priebus would resign soon, and that he expected priebus to launch a campaign against him. what was your reaction when you saw that interview? >> no reaction, because -- i'm not going to respond to it. i'm not going to get into the mud on those sorts of things. look, the president and i had an understanding. we've talked about this many times. and we ultimately decided that yesterday was a good day and we would work together. i think general kelly is a great pick. i'm not going to get into the weeds on this. i support what the president did, and obviously, i think it's a good thing for the white house. >> can you just clear up the other charge? it was a bitter charge that scaramucci levelled against you, that you're a leaker, and that you're really not that loyal to the president. you've got your own agenda. he makes a bitter accusation against you, specifically the leaking. are you the leaker in the white house? >> that's ridiculous, wolf. give me a break. i'm not going to get into his -- >> why not respond to him this. >> because i'm not going to. it doesn't honor the pr

discussing this. we were on -- >> a long time ago. >> anthony scaramucci's tweet about reince priebus. we were all astonished. that's not compared to what we learned from your article out today. this is out of control. >> yeah, i've never had the senior-most person for the white house call me up and conduct an interview like that. it was, you know -- and i apologize last night for not getting into the tdetails of th conversation on your show. i love you but i had to save it for my magazine today. >> so you're holding back on me. that's okay. >> a little bit. i had to do some additional reporting, i had to reach out so only to some of the people who were involved and do the due diligence, but, yeah, it was -- you know, at the end of the day, this is about president trump. a week ago what he did, he inserted h eed -- he basically a grenade into the west wing, an area that was already a war zone and added this new element, friction, that everyone knew about. >> is that scaramucci? >> the new mungs new communicat director, scaramucci, who had a tense relationship with the chief of stop. over

. >> yet another major shakeup in the white house. good morning. reince priebus is out. homeland security secretary is in but priebus says he's still on team trump. >> the president has the right to change directions. the president has a right to hit a reset button. i think it's time to hit the reset button and i think that it was an -- it was something that i think the white house needs. i think it's healthy, and i support him in it. >> plus, north korea fires another missile, but pyongyang claims this one will be able to hit the u.s. mainland striking cities like denver, chicago, possibly new york and boston. >> a and the sanctions bill is on the way to the desk. the white house says the president will sign it. moscow has ordered embassy staff cuts and first though, president trump's purge of what he calls the dc swamp. he's moving further away from the washington establishment. i want to bring in athena jones. what is the latest change mean for the white house? >> well, one thing it means is that the so-called washington establishment wing is seeing its power diminished pretty

can't believe they're saying that. >> one caveat to your point, though, one ally that reince priebus has cultivated and formed in the west wing is steve bannon. it's been rel reported they have a partnership and alliance. you wonder tonight if he's reading this maybe for the first time. when he comes in in the morning. what are the -- there's always a morning senior staff meeting. at least in my experience. what's that look like at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow? >> it's the top of the hour. i need to tell our viewers what's going on here. we're reporting breaking news here. this is something that was tweeted from the new white house communications director late tonight, raising a lot of eyebrows. he wrote, in light of the leak of my financial disclosure info, which is a felony, i will contacting the fbi, and the justice department. then he added, #swamp and reince priebus' twitter account. no response from reince priebus. no response from the white house. the justice department issued a statement earlier, not connected to this, but on leaks in general. justice department correspondent, evan, are yo

it is anything illegal that reince priebus did with respect to leaks of financial disclosure information. i'm flabbergasted at this whole thing. i've never seen a white house where someone even privately calls the fbi on someone but to tweet about it is astonishing. and remember last week anthony scaramucci was talking about how high and reince priebus were going to get along swell. and reporters were laughing about that because they had just been so at odds for the last six months. >> can you talk about that more. listen, i don't work ibd.c. and i know there's tension between the two because anthony scaramucci believes he should have gotten the position and blamed reince priebus for torpedeoing it. >> he was essentially offered a job, public liaison. it never went through and he blamed reince for blocking him at every turn. there was some talk he would become ambassador to the osc and before he became communications director, basically he tried to go directly to trump, around reince to figure out what was happening with his job. and he blamed reince for canceling three sched

it was just that good. and as we're talking so much about scaramucci and reince priebus, let me just air a little bit of your interview with him. this is before, i think, the president was even nominated. we're taking you back in time and then we'll talk on the other side. watch this. >> you have to accept the fact that there is a thousand opinions. i mean, so -- i'm so used to it that i don't even care. it doesn't bother me. >> you're not pulling out your hair. >> not -- no. i'm not. people assume, oh, you must be miserable, you got a horrible job. but i don't see it that way. i'm not -- that's what i'm saying. i'm not pouring bailey's in my cereal, sitting here trying to find the johnnie walker. this is fun. >> is it bailey's in his fruit loops now, jamie? >> i think it's bailey's, i think it's johnnie walker. >> sounds great. >> i don't think he's having fun is the bottom line. just to put this in some context. we're only six months in. >> right. >> this is not the first go round where reince priebus is out and there are all of these rumors that he's not long for this job, an

to suggest reince priebus had a hand in leaking his financial disclosures. >> this is deplorable behavior at the highest levels. >> i don't like these leaks. if we don't stop the leaks, i'm going to stop you. >> this certainly won't be easy. hardly anything in this process has been. >> the senate now barreling toward a dramatic final series of votes. >> the fact that we can't actually get a bill through the senate is an absolute disgrace. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "new day." it is thursday, july 27th, 6:00 here in new york. we're going to get to all of the big political stories today in a moment. first, we begin with breaking news for you. one person has been killed and at least seven hurt after this ride breaks at the ohio state fair, tossing passengers into the air and crashing to the ground. >> we've all seen rides like this. we keep freezing the video because some of it's disturbing. you just have to take a look at it to appreciate what this apparent malfunct

this hour with kate bolduan who will take calls from reince priebus starts right now. >>> anytime, anywhere, john. thank you, john. thank you, poppy. hello, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. president trump will have holy hell to pay if he fires his attorney. that from republican senator, lindsey graham. it comes as a white house brawl is breaking out in plain sight, giving the public a strange, front row seat of the disarray in the west wing. in a fascinating interview on cnn, anthony scaramucci is blaming reince priebus to state he is not a leaker. more on that in a moment. first, the warnings are growing louder from republicans on the fake future of jeff sessions. manu raju is live. you caught up with senator lindsey graham and he did not hold back. >> reporter: he did not, indeed, kate. several pieces of news in the hallways. one piece he's moving pretty aggressively to insulate the special counsel from president trump. he's drafting bipartisan legislation and plans to offer next week that would actually require a judicial review, if the president were to take steps to fire bob muel

here in the west wing among the president's top advisers from the chief of staff reince priebus to the new communications director anthony scaramucci. as all of that was going on here, this republican priority was absolutely collapsing on capitol hill. many questions being asked today, wolf. should the president have shown more leadership on this issue? should he -- have exerted more pressure on members? so as all of this is decided here there are new questions that will be, you know, seeing in the coming days's will there be more new faces here at the would us? many think it's time for a reboot. wolf? >> a lot more on that part of the story coming up as well. jeff zeleny at the white house, thanks very much. the drama of the health care vote left us with several memorable moments, including this one. watch this. >> when i was diagnosed with kidney cancer and facing my first surgery, i heard from so many of my colleagues, including so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who wrote me wonderful notes, sharing with me their own experience. with major illness in their

>>> hello again, everyone, and thanks for being with me. i'm fredricka whitfield. reince priebus out, general john kelly in. a whirlwind week for the white house end with a dramatic resignation from the president's chief of staff. priebus is the sixth member of the trump administration to resign or be fired since february. priebus tells cnn his resignation could bring a fresh start for the white house. >> the president has a right to hit a reset button. i think it's a good time to hit the reset button. i think he was right to hit the reset button. and i think that it was something that i think the white house needs. i think it's healthy. >> i'm joined by cnn white house reporter kaitlan collins, who is live for us on the north lawn of the white house. what more are you learning about the priebus resignation? >> reporter: we've learned a lot of details in the past 24 hours. the resignation has been long coming and rumored for months but it came to a fever pitch this week with the new communications director making pretty serious allegation against reince priebus saying he was leaking

leaked. it's a public document. and @reince45. oh, no. not accusing reince priebus of anything. at times they treat us like we're stupid. >> this morning on the interview he -- you know, made clear what was obvious. of course, talking about reince preeb u reince priebus. i'm told by him he is not responding to this. doesn't believe it's helpful. he's going to simply try and keep things on track. the most urgent matter is health care. i think in all of this, questions about loyalty and reince priebus has been pretty loyal to this president. we'll see how -- he's probably used up most of his nine lives. the reality, most of the people i talk to at the white house, close to the white house, who talk to the president believe that the president is essentially done with him. but we know he doesn't fire people, though. who knows how long he will linger there? but i do think that -- the -- something is -- this is more than just a new communications director. anthony scaramucci being in the west wing is a sign of a bigger change. i don't know if he'll end up chief of staff or not, but this

help health care get passed. we didn't see much of that. if you talk to allies of reince priebus, they will say, look, his agenda this week has not been to get involved with these internal fights, but to actually help pass health care, but it absolutely matters. when you have a white house where everyone is getting along relatively well, all swimming in the same or rowing in the same direction to try and advance a legislative goal, that's how legislation gets passed. when you have a white house -- already factionalized white house and you add an outside player who throws in another grenade in a civil war, it makes it hard to convince republicans up on the hill to support you. i think to overstate that, at the end of the day it's the president and his personal involvement in this and his understanding of dynamics up on the hill and not being a great asset, frankly, for mcconnell and the other republicans -- >> true. ryan, we have you u to think forgiving us a window into what's going on in the white house that many people wouldn't believe when we were suggesting it and reporting. but an

offensive. reince priebus, if you want to leak something he'll be asked to resign shortly. that was the nice part. reince is a bleeping paranoiac. then turned the wrath on the white house chief strategist steve bannon. i won't read the first part out loud. no way. there it is on the screen. the repulsive language used to describe a colleague paid by your tax dollars. went on to say i'm not trying to build my brand off the bleeping strength of the president. now those words are vulgar, offensive. maybe you like them, make you don't. the important part, it became public hours and hours ago and the president of the united states has been silent. we a assume anthony scaramucci still speaks for the president, because that is what he was hired to do this week, and the president has done nothing to suggest he disagrees here. the word "chaos" does nothing to convey the mood inside the trump white house. this week seems to make "game of thrones" seem like a tea party. sara murray, you cover the building every day. brought in with the president's blessing. says things i'm doing this with the pres

survivor the tribe had spoken. the white house chief of staff reince priebus was out. john kelly was in. and the questions of who can outspin and outlast just continue. priebus is just the latest in a string of departures to rock the administration. take a look at this. cnn learns that the president also sought opinions about whether to keep another figure still walking the halls of west wing. chief strategist steve bannon. and sources tell cnn that the president was convinced getting rid of the former bright bart might hurt him with the base so he stays. and jeff sessions, there will be holy hell to pay if he's pushed out. what could priebus's departure mean for those congressional republicans? >> well, you said it, ana, this is one less link between the rnc the establishment and the white house. not only with sean spicer leaving about a week ago and now priebus. the link between the rnc and the white house is greatly diminished. it comes as you said during the week where that the president is attacking members of his own party on twitter for the failure to repeal and replace ob

suggest white house chief of staff reince priebus had a hand in leaking his financial disclosures. now anthony scaramucci says he's going to the fbi. this bizarre episode began with a cryptic tweet from scaramucci. here it is -- "in light of the leak of my financial disclosure info. which is a felony, i will be contacting the fbi and justice department. #swamp." look at that. he tagged reince priebus. >> now the reference to priebus is not at all clear. but cnn contributors tweeted this, "in case there's ambiguity in his tweet, i can confirm scaramucci wants the fbi to investigate reince for leaking." all this coming after a political story that listed millions in earnings and salary from his stake in the company called sky bridge before he left to go to the export/import bank in june. not clear whether politico got the document by leak or public record. in an interview taped before all this happened, scaramucci said this -- >> i know i'm in the cesspool called washington or a swamp called washington. so it will be virtually impossible to get rid of every leak. but i think we can take

in a profanity laiden tirade he accused reince priebus of being the leaker, telling the new yorker that ryan priebus is an fing paranoid schizophrenic. that was the least foul and offensive thing he said in this conversation. he imagined pow reince priebus could have schemed against him. that sounds like war. and look at this photo released today. scaramucci and reince priebus on opposite sides of the oval office. let's look closely at their faces. that photo surely says 1,000 words. and then listen to this. >> now, if you want to talk about the chief of staff, we have had odds. we have had differences. when i said we were brothers from the podium that's because we're rough on each other. some brothers are like cain and able. others can fight with each other and get along. i don't know if this is repairable or not. that will be up to the president. >> up to daddy, i guess. remember, cain killed abel and lied about it. scaramucci threatened to kill all the leakers, later turning his attention to steve bannon. and this is the most disgusting thing he said. i'm not steve bannon. i'm n

ryan lizza, a cnn contributor, he says he believes kravchuk was -- believes reince priebus was behind the leaks which wasn't a leak because it was public record. sacramen saying, "reince is an expletive, paranoid, schizophrenic, a paranoic." >> lizza who originally protected his source said the communications director didn't ask for the conversation to be off the record or on backgrounds. the white house doing damage control while defending scaramucci who tweeted he sometimes uses colorful language. colorful. he'll refrain. he said, "i made a mistake in trusting a reporter. it won't happen again." it was the article called "anthony scaramucci called me to unload about white house leakers, reince priebus and steve bannon." he started by threatening to fire the entire white house communications staff. it escalated from there. >> a great beach read. >> don't let your kids read it. jeff zeleny at the white house. >> reporter: as the white house ends another tumultuous week here, an internal fight inside the west wing is brewing unlike anything we've seen in the first six months of the adm

long list of exits in just over six months and other high-profile departures include reince priebus, mike flynn as press secretary, mike duffy, james comey as fbi director, the white house now resembling the red wedding from "game of thrones." let's get to cnn's jeff zeleny at the white house. it's john kelly's first day on the job. he was sworn in this morning. this gifves us a little bit of insight of how kelly felt about scaramucci. >> reporter: it gives us a lot of insight. he didn't think he was the right fit for this new order he's going to try to impose on the west wing. but it also gives us a window into how much authority the president is going to give his new chief of staff. this is something that may not have happened, you know, a few weeks or even months ago. it's clear the president is giving john kelly, at least now in the opening days of the honeymoon phase, if you will, the full authority who goes in the oval office, who sees the president and the staffing decisions as well. this is something that is a key question here. the chief of staff among other things is the one who

an incredible job thus far, respected by everybody. a great, great american. reince priebus a good man.

statement now from house speaker paul ryan. he writes quote reince priebus has left it all out on the field for our party and our country. here's a guy from kenosha, wisconsin, who revitalized the republican national committee and became the white house chief of staff. he has served the president and the american people capably and passionately. he has achieved so much and he has done it all with class. i could not be more proud to call reince a dear friend.

trashing of his white house colleagues. instead one of his targets, reince priebus is out as chief of staff. replaced by homeland security secretary john kelly. what does this say about president trump's management style. >>> and the president is on a twitter tear, trying to make republicans and the filibuster rule, do they have to listen? or is he starting to lose his sway? it's called the goldwater rule, since 1973, it has prevented psychiatrists from diagnosing or commenting on public figures they haven't examined. but a group of doctors is saying that's infringing on their free speech. who's right? >>> and this week, the president tweeted that transgender people cannot serve in the armed forces. i'll talk to a former navy surgeon who routinely performs gender confirmation surgery and who herself is transgender. >>> but first, what a week of intrigue and drama behind the scenes at the white house. the latest being the ouster of the chief of staff, reince priebus. who would have thought that one week after sean spicer quit, he would look like a soothesayer. spicer refused to continu

president trump has confidence in his chief of staff reince priebus. his future is now being questioned after the new communications director anthony scaramucci seemed to suggest in a tweet that priebus is leaking information. and the attorney general jeff sessions now breaking his silence on the unrelenting criticism he's facing from president trump. in a series of interviews, sessions says the president's public shaming of him is, quote, kind of hurtful. but he also says he will serve as long as the president wants him. we're covering all of that, much more in this hour with our guests, including jim heinz from the house intelligence committee and our correspondents and specialists are also standing by. let's begin with the intensifying infighting among the trump team. our senior white house correspondent jeff zelny is working the story for us. the palace sbeeg is overshadowing any message the white house is trying to get out, update us. >> reporter: wolf, good afternoon. i mean, with a major health care debate looming with decisions on afghanistan and other national security challeng

new yorker where he went on that profanity-laced rant going after steve bannon and reince priebus. sarah huckabee sanders today did say kelly would be the person at the top here just underneath the president. all staff will report to him, but also scaramucci's comments may have had something to do with his departure. here's what she had to say. >> the president certainly felt that anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person in that position, and he didn't want to burden general kelly also with that line of succession. as i think we've made clear a few times over the course of the last couple of days to several of you individually, but general kelly has the full authority to operate within the white house and all staff will report to him. >> now, we should point out during the briefing that just wrapped up within the last hour, wolf, sarah huckabee sanders was asked how was it the president could be offended by that kind of inappropriate language coming from anthony scaramucci when he certainly has engaged in that himself? as a matter of fact, it was the president's language as a c

multiple factors that led to reince priebus' resignation this week. this has been a long rumored departure that we've been waiting on for months now. and it finally came to a fever pitch this week. but it's hard to see how the new communication director's allegations that he was leaking white house information to reporters was not a big factor in that. in fact, reince priebus was asked about this during his first interview with cnn last night after it was made known that he had resigned. listen to what he had to say to wolf blitzer. >> are you the leaker in the white house? >> that's ridiculous, wolf. come on. give me a break. i'm not going to get into his accusations. >> why not respond to them? >> because i'm not going to because it doesn't honor the president. i'm going to honor the president every day. i'm going to honor his agenda. and i'm going to honor our country. and i'm not going to get into all of this personal stuff. >> is there a leaking problem in the white house based on what you've seen? >> yeah. i think that general kelly should see if he can get to the bottom of it and fi

chaoticest west wing, that after reince priebus was pushed out. >> the president wants to go in a different direction, wants more discipline, more structure in there. >> it remains unclear how kelly's appointment will impact chain of command at the white house and if the former homeland security chief will exert any influence over the president's own behavior, including his use of twitter. >> you have to let trump be trump. anybody who thinks they're going to change donald trump doesn't know donald trump. >> the president remains at odds over repeated public attacks on attorney general jeff sessions. >> well, it's kind of hurtful, but the president of the united states is a strong leader. >> reporter: the two men are expected to come face-to-face today at the president's cabinet meeting. trump also turning to health care this weekend, blasting the senate's failed efforts to dismantle obamacare tweeting, unless the republican senators are total quitters, repeal and replace is not dead, despite the fact it would have had no impact on friday's defeat, the president also urging gop le