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This is cnn breaking news. >> all right, this breaking news now into the newsroom. cnn has learned that president-elect donald trump has indeed made a very big decision. hes selected rnc chair reince priebus as his chief of staff. cnns chief political correspondent dana bash is joining us on the phone. also with us, cnns chris frates joining us from washington. so first to you, dana. what more are you hearing about why reince priebus and what is the hope as chief of staff? >> reporter: hi, there...

The entire team played well together on this team and theyll work well together in an administration. i think its a huge signal of the intentions of president-elect trump to get things done. hes brought in someone who can get things done. and reince can cross a lot of boundaries in the republican party. i think hell be called by some people right now an establishment figure, whatever that word means. but reince came up through the grassroots as state party chairman. hes become very skilled at th...

Im assuming they hope is that they will work well together, as they did during the campaign. >> and former rnc chief of staff mike shields still with us. what do you believe the next very important appointment would be from president-elect trump now? we have two appointments. what would be third? >> oh, goodness. i mean, youve got a whole administration to fill out. youve got to have press secretaries, youve got to have cabinet officials, youve got to staff the rest of the white house. and reall...

Insider like a reince priebus to move things along. legislation is very complicated. the negotiations that happen, the back-room discussions, those are the kinds of things that reince priebus is going to be able to facilitate with his relationships because hes trusted. hes a known quantity. and he also, as you pointed out, fred, helped bridge that gap between the establishment here in washington and the donald trump campaign. he was in a really tough spot for a lot of this campaign as the head o...

Priebus? or do you think along the way hes demonstrated loyalty or advocacy of donald trump before the election might potentially lead to some sort of post or an invitation like this if, indeed, trump were to win? >> oh, you know, reince was doing this because he was chairman of the party. he was doing his other job because hes chairman of the party. you always want to win the election. you want to do everything you possibly can. look, reince is leaving the rnc as the most successful chairman in...

Establishment, whatever that is. >> yeah, thats a word that apparently no one can quite define. but yeah, i understand it. >> all those people over there who are not on the same side as donald trump. >> right. >> theyre saying, well, its all your fault. howd you let trump -- why didnt you get rid of him? >> yeah. well, look, being in the middle, you have to accept the fact that there is a thousand opinions. i mean, im so used to it that i dont even care. it doesnt bother me. >> youre not pulling...

On the clinton camp. oftentimes during that campaign, he had stepped out and stepped on something. what comes to mind is when hillary clinton testified at the fbi. you know, that was a huge story republicans jumped all over, but donald trump then made those comments about judge curiel, who is the judge on his trump university, saying that because he was of mexican heritage, he might not be the right judge for that case, and that totally blanketed the news coverage. and reince priebus was able in...

Principle, and he stuck to his principles. he sort of laid out exactly what he was going to do and never wavered from it. he said he was going to have fair debates, a fair process, and whoever got the delegates was going to be the nominee, and whoever that nominee was was going to work with the rnc and try to win the election. and he had critics from, i mean, some people thought he wasnt helping enough, some people thought he was helping too much. he stayed right down the middle. he did his job ...

To navigate for him and open up lines of communication. and i think reince priebus is going to do that. >> and donald trump said long ago that he was willing to bring in people who knew washington because he said, i know business, i really dont know politics. so this decision is evidence of that. former rnc chief of staff mike shields is also with us now. and mike, id love to hear your impressions on this decision, reince priebus as the chief of staff for donald trump. >> well, i think its a gre...

Maybe set his cabinet up, you know, relying not just on people who he knows very well -- reince priebus has become that person -- but also people who he knows will help him succeed. and you know, its certainly, according to our sources as we were reporting this out towards the end of last week, mr. trump was reluctant only in reince priebus because of the nature of his job, because he is the rnc chair, he had to publicly criticize donald trump, like when the "access hollywood" tape came out, as ...