His Comms Director and he told me hes putting me in charge of this and i want to make sure im linked to him and syncopated and ill meet with him but i dont want to waste his time and sit in the oval office unnecessarily. Thank you thank you, anthony. Hanks, guys. Thank you obviously i would have been happy to stay up here all day and continue to exhaust all of your questions, but, one, i figure i probably should answer a couple today and also the president has an event here shortly so i want to try to work through as many as i can with that im actually going to start with jeff mason since i believe it is maybe your last day and my first, so with that, jeff, take it away thanks. Can you talk to us a little bit about how this was how this will a this change will affect the press office, and can you speak a little bit for sean how hes feeling and how he took this news and how he made the decision to resign. You know, im not geronioing speak for sean in detail i can say that he understood that the president wanted to bring in and add new people to the team, and sean felt like it would be best for that team to be able to start with a totally clean slate, and i think i want to echo what anthony says i think it speaks volumes to who he is to be willing to do that and allow anthony to come in with a brand new starting place, and i think, you know, hes served the president loyally and admirably. Hes going to continue to stay on for the next several weeks through the transition, and im sure hell be happy to answer some of those questions directly. Sarah first of all, congratulations. Thank you. Onthe job can you clarify where the president stands on the issue of pardons. Is he considering pardons for figures in the russia investigation and does the president believe that he has the power to pardon itself look, id refer you to the comments that have already been made by the outside counsel in terms of their actions the president maintains pardon powers like any president would, but there are no announcements or planned announcements on that front whatsoever. Does he believe he has the power to pardon himself . I dont have anything to add besides what the outside counsel has said. In the New York Times he raised questions about Robert Mueller. Does he endorse his legal teams efforts to undermine Robert Muellers credibility . Again, the president has absolutely nothing to do with any of the allegations that are being made i think hes maintained that, and he wants them to complete their process as quickly as possible so that we can move on from the ridiculousness of all things russia and rush fever. But to the question that i asked. Does he endorse his legal teams efforts to undermine the credibility of the special counsel . Im not aware of those details and and thats something you would have to ask his Legal Team Im not part of that process. On health care, what does the president want the senate to vote on next week . As mark short stated earlier this week and weve repeated many times before, the president s preference is to repeal and replace obamacare, and we havent been shy or quiet about that, and those intentions have certainly not changed john how much armtwisting is going on visavis the Health Care Bill in the Vice President had a lot of conservative groups over today those conservative groups announced that they will actually be scoring votes next week on the motion to proceed which i believe is unprecedented. I dont think anyone here has made a secret that this is a big priority and that congress should do what they have been talking about for the last seven years. Its time for them to get in there and repeal and replace obamacare and these groups recognize that their constituency that support the groups that they hav certainly recognize that, and they are supporting the mission of their organizations and pushing and putting pressure on members to get the job done. Nothing beyond in a. Just about the organizational structure now that anthony is coming in. The press secretary, the comm secretary used to be pretty much coequal reporting to the chief of staff will it remain that way, because there wassome move towards making the Communications Director sort of a deputy chief of staff and then the press secretary and the comm director would report to that person so do you still report to reince or do you report to him i think that anthony said it better than i can in this capacity is we plan to Work Together as a team and certainly our goal is to Work Together to promote the president s agenda and to do that not just with the two of us, but the entire press comms office as well as the white house staff. Do you report to him or do you report to reince we all serve at the pleasure of the president. My question is for you. Number one, when you talk about there were comments made by Senior Administration official this morning on television talking about the motivations of people who are part of bob muellers special counsel investigation. Do donations to a Political Party if its not the president s party, does the president believe that disqualifies people . I dont know that were putting out a litmus test. Questions regarding that i would direct you to the outside counsel thats running that part of the process. Does the president have confidence in his National Security adviser i have no reason to believe otherwise. The president clearly doesnt want doesnt want special counsel to look into his finances is there anything the white house can do to stop this . The president doesnt want to move beyond the scope and outside of its mission, and the president has been very clear as have his accountants and team that he has no financial dealings with russia and so i think weve been extremely clear on that. Blake . Last time when it became apparent in the house, the first goround on the Health Care Bill there, that it was going to fail, it was pulled at the last minute, within the last hour or two. When you look at both the repeal and replace potential and the repeal only potential, the numbers suggest that they dont have the votes and its set up to fail. Why the does the white house believe this time around that a vote should proceed . Again, were continuing to be focused on repealing and replacing obamacare, and were not going to stop until we can continue to move that forward and get that done. Not only have we wanted to commit to that, but frankly a lot of the members of the senate and the house have not only committed and campaigned on that and its time for them to step up and get that the done. Should a vote take place on some sort of a bill one way or another . I dont think you can repeal or replace obamacare without a vote so i think it would be a pretty necessary part of the process. John. Thank you, sarah. I just want to get something straight earlier in the week you indicated the white house was not opposed to outright repeal and then based on your remarks today and mark shorts two days ago, you seem to favor repeal and replace. Does that mean youre against the outright repeal billthat congressman biggs has introduced. Not against, but as mark said earlier this week our preference is to repeal and replace two questions for you can you take us through the process of how the president decided to hire this new Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci and moving forward what will his role be in terms of objectivesthat the presiden wants him to meet . As anthony said, hes known the president a long time. Hes been a loyal supporter of the president s, and anthony is somebody who has come from nothing and built an incredible i think several incredible companies, and hes one of the most successful smart people that the president could put on his team, and the president recognized that and wanted him to be a part of this process i think very early on. He was very strong advocate throughout the transition, and this has just been part of the process to bring him inside the white house. Just to follow up on rob mueller. Does President Trump have confidence that Robert Mueller will conduct a fair investigation . You know, at this point i dont have any reason to see otherwise but ive not had a chance to ask the president and i would want clarity from the president before i comment. Starting january 20th this administration has cycled through has seen departures of the deputy chief of staff, Communications Director, press direct and what does that say about sort of the efforts to staff up this administration at the start . What has the president learned about his team, about himself as president , and can you explain sort of that very high turnover rate that weve seen over the last six months. You would have to ask the president what hes learned in that process, and i can tell you though i think what weve all learned in that process is working together and working to accomplish the things that the American People would like the president to do is our focus its what we come here every day to do. Were a lot less focused on the who but the what and were going to continue to do that every single day. You dont see it as chaotic turnover no, i dont if you want to see chaos come to my house early in the morning when the three kids are running around this is nothing. News this week concerning the attorney general and the resignation of mr. Spicer could have the effect of alienating or demoralizing the trump loyalists, both in and out of the administration. Well, i think that trump loyalists particularly within the administration and certainly across the country are energized by the accomplishments of the president in the First Six Months stock market is at a high, jobs are growing, regulations are coming off the country is becoming more secure the border is becoming more secure immigration is down. I think we have a lot of things to celebrate, a lot of things to be excited about, and i think our morale is pretty high. Take one last steve. First of all, congratulations. Thank you. Wondering as you approach this new role with excitement, with trepidation, with apprehension, and if you could reflect on these last six months on what youve learned about how it is to speak for the president. Is it a tough job . Have you found it easy i think its probably one certainly professionally one of the greatest honors that anybody person could have to work in any capacity within this building and to get to do that up here in such a public way and speak on behalf of the president is absolutely an honor and something i will cherish and hope to do my very, very best every single day and be as open, honest and transparent with you all as humanly possible and will always work to operate at the highest level and certainly with the most amount of integrity as you can, and with that i think thats a great place to end today, and the president will be having an event here shortly thanks so much, guys. With that Sarah Huckabee sanders now officially the new press secretary at the white house with the resignation announced today of sean spicer and the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci as the new director of communications for the white house. We welcome you to closing bell here at the New York Stock Exchange im Bill Griffeth with kelly evans, and i will admit. Anthony scaramucci is no stranger to cnbc viewers hes a former fast money trade, among other roles he had on air here. It is a bit surreal to see him as the new director of communications at the white house. He seemed to be relishing the role. He did, thats for sure lets talk about the impact of his appointment as the new Comms Director at the white house. A former Democratic Senate aide joins us from pittsburgh and terry haines joins us from d. C terry, what do you think anthony talked about what he referred to as, and i forget the word he used, but theres a disconnect between how they view the president at the white house and how the press views the president. How do you close that gap . Well, first of all, thanks very much for having me on i appreciate it. In one sense no one should be surprised by this. This is a president who in his campaign went through this went through the campaign with three different sets of Campaign Senior officials so it shouldnt be a surprise that hes trying to change somebody out early on. To your point, bill, i think theres certainly a disconnect and thats putting it mildly between how the president , the white house and trump loyalists view whats going on in the administration and how the press does mr. Scaramucci has a big job in front of him in doing that, and i expect him to do it with a combination of the smoothness that you saw there but at the same time i think a new combativeness. Well, he did call it a disconnect he also called it an arbitrage. That was the word he used we have that bite lets take a quick lesson. I think theres been at times a disconnect between how we see the president and how much we love the president and the way you view the president and we want to get that message out there, and to use a wall street express. There might be an arbitrage spread between how well we are doing and how well you think were doing and were going to work hard to close that spread. You said with him at Comms Director you have a message that knows how to make business friendly arguments, and he seemed pretty effective in his new role at least today. Are you confident that hell be able to kind of marshall this whole endeavor and what changes do you think it will imply well, first, again, thanks for having me on the first thing. He has two jobs, right the first is to restore the relationship with the press corps, and as you saw today he has a very natural easy way of going about him. He went seamlessly from his childhood, at let execs ploits to Teddy Roosevelt to dodging a question on russia a number of times. I think he has a Comfort Level in a press room and ability to present himself. Thats something that has been lacking and hell do that. But make no mistake, tyler. The president is in charge and several times anthony said i dont want to answer that until ive consulted with the president , for example, when asked if he could commit to oncamera press briefings every day as has been the tradition until the last six months or so, he said i cant commit to that until i speak with the president , so as charming and as forceful as anthony can be, we know who is in charge at the white house, dont we . And i dont think theres ever going to be any doubt, but i will also say the second point and i think whats also really struck me about his appointment is that, you know, in the last six months were talking about a Business Community thats used to seeing things on a quarterly basis and we had ear two quarters in and its been an underperformance, i think, and what my expectations are is hes brought in to focus not just the press but also the the white house itself on some of the biggest things, bringing in the Business Community and making sure folks dont leave and folks like jamie dimon are saying its almost embarrassing to be an american abroad. His job is to say, look, were going to show some ws, and i really think that were going to see the next little bit here, as health care goes through, but well see debt ceiling were going to see tax reform and i think were going to see financial regulations be pumped up in priority for this white house in the very, very near future so tyler is already talking about quarters next the white house will be issuing Forward Guidance and, you know, talking about dollar headwinds. Lets bring in ieamon javers he was at the white house. Reporter i was sort of marveling on the difference between the first days of sean spicer and Anthony Scaramucci. Sean spicer came in in the wake of the inauguration and his first moment in the White House Briefing room at the podium was lecturing the press about their coverage of the inaugural crowd size, holding up graphics, showing that the president s crowd was in fact bigger than obamas crowd. That moment ofintense confrontation and frustration with the press, and today you see Anthony Scaramucci coming in saying repeatedly im going to get to everybody, want to answer every question and calling on every single outlet no matter the president has teed off on that particular outlet or not. This has been an administration very much at war with the press and the press that covers it on a daytoday basis Anthony Scaramucci coming in to lower the temperature. A much more friendly demeanor on the surface from this white house. Well see whether that means any changes behind the scenes in terms of access or commitments to oncamera briefings and all the other things that the press corps loves to talk about, but right out of the gate Anthony Scaramucci really presenting a much more open and friendly face to the press corps and to the country at large, and the second audience there was donald trump hisself. Anthony scaramucci knows that donald trump is watching these press briefings. He turned to the cameras and spoke directly to the president on several occasions thats something that sean spicer never seemed to really warm to, that sense that donald trump was watching seemed to annoy or bother sean spicer in a way that it doesnt annoy or bother Anthony Scaramucci, at least not yet, guys. Well, as we now, anthony has a Good Relationship with donald trump, the kind that sean spicer never had. He talked about donald trump busting his chops a number of times on comments that scaramucci