Into the close with the dow finishing at another brand new high. To hell with the torpedoes, full speed ahead. All major averages ending july let in green up 2 or higher for the month. Hi, everybody. What a day. Im david asman. Glad you could be here. Melissa glad you can join us, this is after the bell. On big market movers. What else were covering this very busy hour. Never a dull moment at the white house. Breaking news this afternoon, Controversial Communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, has been removed from his position after only 10 days on the job were expecting a White House Press briefing to begin at any moment. Well hear more how this came to pass. What role did general john kelly, the new white house chief of staff, play in all of this . More details on kellys first day in the office. Lets not forget there is a lot of chaos going on in venezuela with the countrys president , now assuming near absolute power. The white house is expected to respond to this as well. Were going to bring all of it to you live. David it is breaking right now. They just did respond to that. That information coming out in a moment. First back to the record day on wall street. The dow closing at brand new high for the fourth straight day. Oil is seeing best month of the year. Phil flynn watching action in commodities from the cme. We have to talk about gold as well. First, Nicole Petallides at New York Stock Exchange for more how the markets fared this month. The answer is spectacularly, right . Absolutely. Were seeing best month in a lot of months for the dow. Seeing all up air ross here across the board. Dow, nasdaq, zap have all been winners. I see Sarah Huckabee there. David i have to stop you in midsentence, nicole. So sorry. Here is sorry raw Huckabee Sanders for the white house. Discuss the administration response, maduro regime, recent antidemocratic actions in venezuela. They will make opening remarks. Take your questions on the topic at hand. As always your favorite time of day, i will come backp to take your questions. Thank you. Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thought it might be best to read the president s statement. Since President Trumps inauguration the Trump Administration has called on Venezuelas Maduro regime to respect venezuelas constitution, respect the role and authorities of the constitutionallyestablished national assembly, hold free and Fair Elections. Address the humanitarian needs of the venezuelan people. Release Political Prisoners and stop oppressing its great people. The reg boom has refused to heed this call, and its recent actions culminating in yesterdays outrageous seizure of absolute power through the sham election of the National Constituent assembly represent a very serious blow to democracy in our hemisphere. Maduro is not just a bad leader, he is now a dictator. The United States stands with the people of venezuela in the face of this oppression. We will work with our partners to hold accountable all of those responsible for the escalating violence and on going human rights violations. The president promised strong and swift actions if the regime went forward with imposing the National Constituent assembly on the venezuelan people and he will keep that promise. Secretary mnuchin. Thank you, general. Today the United States is broadening its effort to address the ongoing assault on venezuelas Democratic Institutions by the ma during he row regime. Maduro regime. Treasury offers of asset control, ofac, sanctioned the president of venezuela, Nicolas Maduro. As a result of todays sanctions, all assets of maduro subject to u. S. Jurisdiction are frozen. U. S. Persons are prohibited from dealing with him. As President Trump said earlier this month, the strong and courageous actions by the venezuelan people to stand for democracy, freedom, and the rule of law have been continually ignored by Nicolas Maduro who dreams of becoming a dictator. Yesterdays illegitimate elections confirm that maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the venezuelan people. The National Constituent assembly aspires illegitimately to usurp the constitutional role of democratically elected national assembly, rewrite the constitution, and impose an authoritarian regime on the people. As such, it represents rupture in venezuelas constitutional and democratic order. By sanctioning maduro the United States makes clear our opposition to the policies of his regime and the support for the people of venezuela who strife to return their country to a full you and prosperous democracy. As the countrys head of state maduro is directly responsible for venezuelas descent and for the destruction of democracy. Adding maduro to ofacs list of especially designated national reflects our commitment to not stand by idly as venezuela continues to crumble under the regimes a abuses. We hope that these sanctions will make all maduro regime officials reconsider how their actions have affected theyre country. These actions highlight the high cost and personal enablers of this regime could face in they continue their reckless and undemocrattic activities. Anyone who participates in this illegitimate anc could be exposed to future u. S. Sanctions for their role in undermining democratic process and institutions in venezuela. Well take a few questions. Thank you very much, mr. Secretary. If these sanctions dont work what would the next step be . General mcmaster, the next question to you, have we ruled out or anything on the table other than economic sanctions . Let me say, i said this generally, we very much believe that sanctions do work and we will continue to monitor the situation and consider additional sanctions. To general mcmaster . The president s prioritized his concern for the venezuelan people. So he is only considering those options which would benefit directly the venezuelan people. Mr. Secretary. Thank you very much. How many times has ofac sanction ad head of state before and does maduro have any assets in the u. S. . I cant comment on his assets and this will be the fourth head of state. Mr. Secretary . In the back. I have two questions. One about the sanctions and election yesterday. On elections do you elections an of the by maduro to consolidate power and in some state, that is their position and also Washington PostEditorial Board the venezuela january regime is in the direction after coup, moving in the direction of a coup. Does the American Government fear there is coup underway in venezuela. Next question on sanctions. What were seeing in venezuela is not a coup. What were seeing is brutal oppression of the venezuelan people. It is clear if you contrast turnout from opposition referendum to the very low numbers of the turnout during this farce associated with the constituent assembly, i think what you see true desires of the venezuelan people are. Can i go back . Yes. Thank you, sir. This is for either or both of you. How is this different from what happened in turkey when president erdogan also seized expanded powers in referendum that some considered to have questionable result . You know, President Trump congratulated president erdogan on that and he later came to the u. S. And his people beat protesters in front of his embassy. What is the difference . One difference, you see the end of the constitution of venezuela. This is happening obviously in accelerated pace in recent months in the maduro regime. This is a process that has taken two regimes to really restrict venezuelan democracy. By designating, designating maduro himself he joins very exclusive club including mr. Mogavi, Bashar Alassad and kim jongun in terms of brutal repression of his people and in this case the abrogation of the constitution with the, with the assembly, constituent assembly. Right here, yes. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Does the administration contemplating any action at the u. N. Security council in terms of multilateral sanctions against the maduro regime . Again i think as we said before, this president is not going to advertise what he is going to do in the future. So all options are on the table and we will consider everything. Any other allies of u. S. Considering punishing the maduro regime, general, can you please answer that. Im sorry, what was the question . Have you spoken to any other American Allies about the issue of punishing you have seen the president s statement. Well continue to work with our partners in the region. Many leaders taken very Important Role in this chemicals with trying to engage maduro to get him to moderate his behavior, to get him to protect rights of his people. As you know the organization of american states has tried very hard in this area as well. And so the president is committed to working with partners in the region on behalf of the venezuelan people. We had several countries last week join us in our previous sanctions. Yes, right here. What conversations, mr. Secretary, have you had, administration had, the president had with president maduro or senior level at venezuela . Do you expect the conversations to happen next 24, 48 hours. I think well not comment on that . Thank you, sir. You had said, pardon me, president promised strong and swift economic sanctions. This is not really economic. This is more individual. Will the president carry out strong and swift economic sanctions . Again, we had a series of sanctions last week. This is additional sanction today. We dont comment on future sanctions but we will continue to monitor the situation and determine what is appropriate. Right here . There was talk of maybe making changes in terms of our export of Light Crude Oil to venezuela or curbing imports from venezuela. Is that something that could hurt the venezuelan people . As with continue to monitor the situation monitor our options. We will not continue to hurt the people of venezuela but well monitor would sanctions against oil hurt i will not comment on that. I will monitor all of our options. Thank you, mr. Secretary. 16 years ago secretary powell signed an agreement in south america in which the u. S. Completely who would have indirect change of government throughout latin america and supported direct succession. This occurred in haiti when president aristad was overthrown. Are you still abiding by the agreement secretary powell signed ruling out any u. S. Support of a coup or an uprising against the maduro regime that brings in new leadership . Again, im just going to comment on, were focused on the democratic process and that is what were focused on right now. One more question, right here, one more question. Are there going to be sanctions on the minister of defense people linked to the military . Again as i have said, weve announced sanctions. We will continue to monitor the situation and consider everything in the future. Thank you, everybody, appreciate it. [shouting questions] you guys wasted all your questions on the sail one over and over. Just kidding. Tough crowd today. I know its a little late. Were used to doing the briefing. I have a few update before i get to your questions. I wanted to make sure you all were aware the first lady announced she will lead the United States delegation in more than 90 american athletes participating in the Invictus Games in toronto this september. There is no better representative of the United States than the first lady and he is very proud to have her lead the team to support these american athletes. The first lady is looking forward to her first Solo International trip. Her office is available to answer any questions you may have. As you know the Vice President is overseas on a threecountry visit to eastern europe. He spent the last few days in estonia attending meetings and speaking to multinational troops participating in the natoenhanced forward presence meggs where he recognized estonia as one of only five natomemberstates that meets its defense spending obligations. Earlier today the Vice President and second lady arrived in georgia where they attended a dinner hosted by the prime minister. As the Vice President continue its to strengthen our relationships with our friends and allies in europe during his travels here at home the departments of commerce and energy welcomed news of partnership between American Energy and government of ukraine. You ukraines stateowned Power Generation company will purchase american thermal coal ahead of upcoming winter season. That partnership will provide ukraine with secure, reliable, competitive alternative Energy Source helping to stablize Energy Supply historically been at the mercy of the countrys volatile neighbors. This announcement will boost our own economy, supporting jobs in the coal and Transportation Industries as the Trump Administration continues to move our country down the path of energy dominance, we hope to see more mutually beneficial partnerships like these in the future. Lastly, we all saw the ceremony that ended in the east room. Specialist 5 was in the six afterwards i think his heroic story bears repeating. 48 close harrowing hours fighting in vietnam voluntarily risked his life multiple times to help his comrades. Even after shrapnel from rocket propelled grenade slashed his body hand to foot, he helped his soldiers and carrying one to safety on his badly injured act. The president was honored to award him with the medal of honor today, officially adding his name to the list of american heroes who will stand forever in our history for their bravery and unbreakable spirit. With that i will take your questions. Sarah . Sarah, what happened . How long will you yell . Jim, go ahead. Is Anthony Scaramucci still in the administration . Does i have another role besides Communications Director . Can you talk a little bit about the circumstances of his departure this morning . Sure. He does not have a role at this time in the Trump Administration we put out a statement earlier announcing that. I dont have muchs to add. [inaudible] not at this time. Did general kelly ask him to leave or president ask him to leave . Did he volunteer his resignation . How did that come about . I will not get into the process ticktock. As weve said several times before, what matters most to it us is not who is employed in the white house but who is he employed in the rest of the country. Were focused on president s agenda growing the economy, creating jobs and that is what were going to do. That is well be focused on. John . Sarah, was it a chain of command issue . Scaramucci said he had a direct line of communication to the president. There has been some speculation that general kelly may try to tighten up the number of inputs that the president has. So was sitting about the chain of command or did it have anything to do with the interview scaramucci did last week . Look the president certainly felt that anthonys comments were inappropriate for a person in that position. And he didnt want to burden general kelly also with that line of succession. As i think we have 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. When you say he didnt want to burden him with the line of succession you mean chain of command . Yes, correct. Could clarify one point about this chain of command. Apparently jared kushner, ivanka trump look forward to following general kellys lead. When it comes to people with access to the president will that conduit be narrowed down . Will everything flow you through kelly or some things flow through the chief staffs office . President given full authority to general kelly. He will make the determinations. April. This Statement Released by the white house says mr. Scaramucci felt that it was best to give chief of staff john kelly a clean slate and ability to build his own team but you just said the president felt that his comments were inappropriate. I dont see those being mutually exclusive. I think anthony wants general kelly to be able to operate fully with clean slate, build his own team while at the same time the president felt his comment were inappropriate. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. Follow with the new hierarchy with general kelly. Tell us what it looks like in the administration . As we laid out, general kelly i think will bring new structure to the white house and discipline and strength and were all really excited to work with him. In terms of i will not draw a chart up here but well keep you guys posted. Will steve bannon, kellyanne, everyone reporting to him, going straight to the president with issues . Does every special assistant goes to general kelly first. I have been clear general kelly has the full authority to carry out business as he sees fit. John decker. Real quick one, real quick line regards sean spicer. Will he be in the administration in any way now that Anthony Scaramucci has announced he will be not be a part of Trump Administration. Im not aware of any changes that h