Reince priebus is out as chief of staff, general john kelly is in. Before we get into the details of how this happened, lets 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 CountyPolice 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. Heres 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 a more biblical sense. As you know from the italian expression, the fish stinks from the head down. And i can tell you two fish that dont stink and thats me and the president. I dont like the activity in the white house, i dont like what theyre doing to my friend, to the president of the United States or their 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, thats because were rough on each other. Some brothers are looik cane and able. Cain actually killed able. Happy american heroes week. And the senate voted against the bill to repeal parts of obamacare. But first a short time ago Reince Priebus spoke with wolf blitzer. Why did you make that important decision to resign . Its something i always talked to the president about and ive always said to him and he always agreed with me. Anytime either one of us think that we need make a change or move in a different direction, lets just talk about it and get it done and so i think the president thought about that and we talked about it yesterday and i resigned and he accepted my resignation but this is about the president , its about moving his agenda forward. I think hes made a smart decision with general kelly and i think hes going to do a great job. But why did you resign . I understand you told the president you wanted to resign, he accepted your resignation yesterday but was there a series of issues . Was there one thing that came up and you said i no longer can do this . I think the president wanted to go a different direction. I support him in that. And like i said a couple weeks ago i said the president has a right to change directions. The president has a right to hit a reset button. I think its a good time to the reset button and i think it was something that i think the white house needs. I think its healthy and i support him in it. Was he not happy with the i think bringing fresh people is a good thing. So, look, he has the best political instincts. Hang on a second. He knows, i think intuitively when things need to change. Ive seen it now for a year 1 2 on this wild ride with the president that i love being a part of but he intuitively determined that it was time to do something differently. And i think hes right. But its only been six months, not very long. When you say he wanted to do things differently, tell us precisely why he wants to do things differently and why you concluded that didnt include you. The president is a professional. And im a professional. And professional people dont discuss private conversations in public. What was the impact the new White House Communications director . You saw the interview he granted the new yorker magazine. He called you some awful things, including a paranoid schizophrenic. He said your days were numbered, you were about to leave. He said at one point Reince Priebus would resign soon and that he expected priebus to launch a campaign against him. What was your reaction . No reaction. Im not going to respond to it. Im not going to get into the mud on those sorts of things. The president and i had an understanding. Weve talked about this many times. And we ultimately decided that yesterday was a good day and that we would Work Together and i think general kellys a good pick. I support what the president did. And obviously i think its 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 ininterview. Im not getting into that, wolf. Look, its over. Im moving on. I support the president and i support john kelly and the president s agenda. So tatsz hats all youre going get from me on that to. Im not going to get into the individual personal stuff. He was also very angry that white house chief strategist. I cant even lead to words he uttered about steve bannon but you think he could stay in the white house with scaramucci now . Thats going to be up to john kelly but i will say steves doing a great job. He is a brilliant guy who only cares about the president s agenda. He thinks about it 24 hours a day. Never quits. Hes a great asset to this president and so and a dear friend. My hats off to steve bannon. Can you clear up the other charge. It was a bitter charge that scaramucci levelled against you that youre a leaker and youre not that loyal to the president. Youve got your own agenda. He made bitter accusations against you, specifically the leaking. Are you the leaker in the white house . Thats ridiculous. Wolf, come on, give me a break. Why not respond . Because it it doesnt honor the president. Im going to honor the president every day. Im going to honor his agenda and im going to honor our country and im not going to get into all of this personal stuff. Priebus a short time ago. We have new details of what went on reporting from the white house on a very busy friday night. What are your sources saying about how everything went down . Was this really a mutual decision . I dont think Something Like this can be a mutual decision when were talking about the president replacing his chief of staff. He also said he gave the president his resignation yesterday but what we had been hearing is that the president and also people close to him have just been growing frustrated with Reince Priebus in the chief of staff role. They believed he was no longer serving the best interest of the president s but that he also wasnt being very effective in shepherding the president s agenda on capitol hill. He was convinced be people around him that he needed an Old Washington hand to guide him through the beginning of his administration. But 350people, including his ow family members came to believe hawaii really wasnt filling that role. It may have been a somewhat amicable split at the end. But certainly it was a decision by the president that he wanted to go a different direction and choose a general for that role. Priebus didnt want to address scaramuccis comments for obvious reasons. Do we know had you much scaramucci and not just his comments but stuff hes done since hes got there and his very arrival, how much that played into the departure . It seems it forced everyones hand in terms of the timing. We know general kellys name has been in the works for a while. It has really grown more heated in recent weeks and days. One of the things i think was telling about the things Anthony Scaramucci has said about Reince Priebus on our air for instance just yesterday, he said those comments were sanctioned by President Trump, that he spoke with the president before he went on cnn and essentially accuseds Reince Priebus of being a leaker and said the chief of staff could speak for himself. I think it forced these divisions into public. And remember scaramucci and priebus had their own fraught history. So as soon as he was brought on, people were waiting for the tensions to boil over. And maybe surprised it happened this quickly. Was there any indication that he had already resigned at that point . In fact throughout the day supporters and close allies of the chief of staff were saying theres nothing to these rumors. Theres nothing factual about this at all. Hes going to remain as chief of staff and theres a lot of reason to believe he thought that when the day went out. He had not informed any of his allies. He did not tell Speaker Paul Ryan that this was on the verge of happening. So there is a sense of the moment that this was revealed about 5 00 or so when the president announced this, then allies of Reince Priebus were telling us all day long something was happening. Ive talked to several officials who are skeptical of that version of events. They believe he was trying to hold on, they believe he was trying to remain in this position. He thought he could weather the storm but simply that was not to be and as they look back, they believe at least some of his allies believe scaramucci was brought in to be a hitman if you will. Its only been a week since Anthony Scaramuccis been here. So certainly a big change in seven days. And thats fascinating the idea he was brought in to be a hitman in your words. Reince priebus, from all the reporting, tried to stop angtsany scaramucci from getting a job in the white house. He was supposed to have a role much earlier on and that was some of the bad blood but the idea he was brought in to clear the decks, it sounds like there might be more firings to come. I think there may be in terms of people aligned with the rnc crowd. Thats the Republican National committee, staffers and others who he brought into the white house. Theres always been a wash washington and a new york divide. So i think you may see some other people leaving. But anderson, i was struck thinking back on all this. One of the reasons i think Reince Priebus had such a tough job because the chief of staffs office is in the west wing corner, not far from the oval office at all. Its intended to be within a 10 second walk to the oval office, to keep an eye on who goes in, to be the ultimate gate keeper. Reince priebus could not be the gate keeper because the president was talking to everyone on the phone. He had everyone elses ear. And at the end, anderson, for months im told, the president viewed the chief of staff as weak, someone he did not want to be in the same room with him at times. So it became untenable. In many respects its aremazingt lashed this long. Gloria. You know, ive been told that the president has been seriously considering whether he wants to keep steve bannon over at the white house, anderson. And that he has spoken one of the things that has saved steve bannon is that he spoke to conservatives who said to him dont do it. Dont get rid of steve bannon because its going to hurt you with your base and now we have a situation where both bannon and riens, who were in alliance. Bannon remains. And now the question remains about how scaramucci and bannon are going to make peace with each other. And how theyre going to deal with each other and whether theyll be able to work well together because rience and bannon ended up working well together. The president has been expressing unhappiness with steve bannon as well. We know his son in law, Jared Kushner has been expressing unhappiness but for now it seems bannon will remain. Reince priebus kept saying to wolf that the president wants to go in a different direction but couldnt describe what the different direction is. For all we know there is no new direction. Its simply a dissatisfaction with Reince Priebus. And its at odds with the notion that direction that they had been going for six months is a successful as riens or the president was trying to describe it. That line stuck out to me too, anderson. And this is why, at the you laid it out that beginning. And it was about exposing a white house that seems incapacitated. Totally dysfunctional. Not able to execute on an agenda because of all the various items you mentioned just in this week and what we saw with the change in the white house chief of staff, that may go some distance when john kelly gets in there to calm some of the waters underneath but this is all about the person in the oval office. He has proven himself to be impulsive. Taking tons of streams of information and talking to as many people as possible. That is going to be the biggest challenge for john kelly. Youre dealing with the very same person in the oval office who doesnt seem inclined to change his behavior. Anthony scaramucci said that fish stinks from the head and it became like three different fishes from three different heads. But to davids point, john kelly comes in, a marine, a good orcinizer. But is that enough in this white house where thE Organization is disorganization. Its intentionally all these kids of the president have and inlaws have the direct ear of the president. Its unlike any organization of any white house in recent history. Right. Well, look. As has been pointed out, this was a catastrophic week that capped off a turbulent six months and the problem is that the president is the author of a lot of that turbulence. Through his tweets, his statements. And you wonder how general kelly it seems like a culture clash because hes coming from the military, hes used to a hierarchy. Hes used to order and it makes sense after all of this chaos and frankly failure that they want to bring in someone who will bring some order to chaos but can he if the president doesnt cooperate . The president just this week as you pointed out, issued a significant order relative to the military on Transgender Service people and the military chiefs did not know about it. Is that going to stop under general kelly . Is he going to be aware of what the president is tweeting at 6 00 and 7 00 in the morning . Or more of the same . And how will he tolerate that . Second, will he have absolute control over the white house staff . Scaramucci said he didnt report to the chief of staff, that he reported only to the president. If thats the case, i think its going to be very uncomfortable for general kelly. No white house works i had a long standing relationship with barack obama before he became president of the United States. I had many conversations with him but there was never any doubt that when i was there in the two years, Rahm Emmanuel was the chief of staff and ultimately the authority in the white house. That is not the case here and without that, its very hard to bring order to chaos. Dachow do you see scaramucci role . Is it as a hitman as was talked about earlier to clear the decks . He fired another glinked to the rnc earlier. Is it basically now getting to be kind of a kabal of trump loyalists . Look, i think scaramucci understands what the president wants. The president wants a pug nations person out there whos slugging away for him and on the things he cares about. On things like leaks. And scaramucci picks that right up and he was slugging away and theres no indication that the president was unhappy about that. The president hasnt expressed himself at all on that, nor have his spokes people. It may be if he comes to believe scaramucci is a reliability, he will revamp his thinking and scaramucci will have problems but right now it seems to me he more than anybody has doped out what disturbs the president and hes decided to be the pug nations champion the president feels hes lacked. And also in this white house if people get people other than the president get too much attention, is that something the president doesnt like. Thats true but i think what we witnessed in the last 48 hours is you had two people at war with each other, theyve been at war for months but now they were both working in the white house. One of them went out and completely mowed down the other in public. And a day later the guy that got mowed down in public in pretty crude ways has been fired. So what less ones does that teach you about working for President Trump, about going public against your enemies, adopting a trumplike style . I think if youre Anthony Scaramucci youre feeling pretty good tonight. You just won the war without barely firing a shot. Rience is on the way out and you have the confidence that your job is secure and by the way its being reported that theres no change in his status. Hell continue to report to the president. So pretty good day for him. Theres a reason someone is called the chief of staff. Its borrowed from the military. Eisenhower instituted the sort of military style structure in the white house and most successful president s have had that strong chief of staff to channel all the information and to make decisions about staffing and as David Axelrod pointed out, he still reported to the chief of staff. He report tlooed through the chf staff and president s that have used this multipower center style of staffing usually get into trouble. Now, that probably puts too much blame on simple structural staffing issues. At the end of the day the dysfunction is about donald trump and his management style and personal style and color me skeptical. Im a little skeptical bringing in any single staffer can fix whats wrong over there. We dont know what the chain of command is going to be. But you have to assume that general kelly would have asked about it. And would have asked about who reports to whom because after all he is a general. And if weve learned anything about donald trump, weve learned he doesnt like people he considers to be weak. And he thought Reince Priebus is weak. One of the reasons hes been so angry at Jeff Sessions is that he recused himself. And he thought that recusal was weak. So hes looking at the general as a strong person and perhaps someone he regards as peer and somebody he might be able to go to f