Now theyre free. An American Woman, her husband and kids released five years after militants captured them. Theres a problem bringing them home. Also firefighters pouring into california from neighboring states trying to help control the wild fires that have done so many damage. Its heart breaking, its crushing. This looks like another planet. When you see these homes that have been reduced to rubble. Now strong winds an intense heat as firefighters attempt to save lives and peoples homes. Recently they brought in a powerful new weapon. Lets get to it. Good thursday afternoon. John kelly made a surprise appearance at that White House Briefing this afternoon taking the podium for the First Time Since beening chief of staff. He responded to reports that he may be on way out. Im not quitting today. I dont believe and i just talked to the president i dont think im being fired today. And im not so frustrated in this job that im thinking of leaving. General kelly did get laughs from reporters today telling him he will only consider quitting if something changes. Kelly was asked about whether hes upset over the president s tweets. He said its not his job to control the president. Its funny. I read in the paper you know, you write it that i was ive been a failure at controlling the president or a failure at controlling his tweeting and all that i was not sent in or i was not brought to this job to control anything but the flow of information to our president so that he can make the best decisions. Shepard kelly denied reports that he restricts people from going to see the president. The chief White House Correspondent john roberts is there for us. Hi, john. Good afternoon. Ive known john kelly since the iraq war since 2003 when he was one of the marine commanders there. Ive always known that he tells it look it is. Weve had a couple of offtherecord sessions with him. I always found him to be frank and he was again today, particularly pushing back against this notion that was carried in several reports that he was frustrated to the point and that his relationship with the president had deteriorated to the point that he was not too long for the job. He said hes not so frustrated that hes about to quit. That prompted me to ask him, are you frustrated at all . Are you frustrated . No, im not frustrated. This is really hard work. Running the United States of america. I dont run it. But im working for someone who is dedicated to serving the country. I dont mean any criticism to mr. Trumps predecessors, but theres a lot of things that were in my view kicked down the road that came have come home to roost right now that have to be dealt with. One of the things that kelly believes is while everybody wants to see the president , not everybody should get to see the president. He said everybody that needs to see the president will see the president , but not everybody that wants to see the president will see him. Hes trying to narrow down the flow of information with the president so that when he gets a briefing on something, its a concentrated set of opinions that the president gets to hear so hes not hearing part of the problem that many white house officials was going on in the early part of this administration is that so many people were coming in to see the president , walking down the hall, walking in the oval office that he was getting too many inputs. Kelly has been trying to limit them so the president gets the best information in order to make a decision. One of the things that kelly did say hes frustrated about, when he looks at News Coverage in the morning and sees things that arent accurate. He believes theres a lot of misrepresentation in the media from many circles and he cautioned many of the media to get better sources here at the white house, shep. Shepard john, mr. Kelly talked about healthcare after President Trump signed an executive order to begin sweeping changes to the Affordable Care act or obamacare. The president said the order will make cheaper Healthcare Plans more available to americans. He calling it obamacare relief. He said it should have been done a long time ago. Competition will be staggering. Insurance companies will be fighting to get every Single Person signed up. You will be hopefully negotiating, negotiating, negotiating and youll get such low prices for such great care. Shepard the president said hes using the power of the pen after republicans in congress failed to deliver on changing the healthcare law. Although President Trump says he still wants congress to repeal and replace obamacare. For now, the president says his executive order will open up the sale of health plans across state lines. Supporters say that could boost competition and drive down premiums. The measure gives people more access to plans that dont cover essential Health Benefits under obamacare including maternity and newborn care, prescription drugs and addiction and Mental Health treatment. Of course, some critics argue sick people could see major increases in their premiums. Since the new white house plans could drop Healthy People away from obamacare insurance markets. Democratic leaders today blasted the president s executive order. In a statement Chuck Schumer said having failed to repeal the law in congress, the president is sabotaging the system using a wrecking ball to singlehandedly rip apart our healthcare system. He later added this order couldnt be further from the great Healthcare Plan that the. Promised. It will send costs soaring for Older Americans and those with preexisting conditions and add chaos to the markets. Back to john roberts. He said he wanted a change and hes making it. This is after he was sandbagged twice by the president. The president thought he had the repeal in hand to have it snatched away. Hes using the pen to make changes. This directs the Treasury Department and the department of health and Human Services to come up with new ideas to allow Small Companies to band together with other companies that are in similar businesses to create these healthcare associations which would allow them to use the pool power of numbers to get healthcare at a cheaper costs. One of the things the president will get access to is these shortterm health plans. These are the ones that are not governed by the obamacare standards for minimum care, which is what really has provoked all of the democratic response. The president says bottom line, he wants more people, more access to lower cost healthcare. Heres what he said earlier. To increase competition, increase choice and increase access to lowerpriced, high quality healthcare options. They will have so many options. This will cost the United States government virtually nothing. People will have great, great healthcare. When i say people, i mean by the millions and millions. Theres no question that the president is frustrated by the lack of action in congress on the repeal of obamacare, particularly since the last seven years and the last three elections many republicans have won office on the promise to repeal obamacare and replace it with somebody else. The chief of staff john kelly was asked at the briefing this afternoon if the president is frustrated with Mitch Mcconnell over the fact that healthcare repealed in the senate. Listen to what kelly said. Congress is an its designed to be an extremely complicated, slowmoving part of our government. 100 members of congress that look to their states, have their own political baggage to deal with. Theyre not always reliable on every vote to vote the way that the president and Mitch Mcconnell wants to vote. Kentucky senator rand paul that was a novote on the latest repeal and replace measures was firmly behind the president on this idea of expanding healthcare and giving more people an opportunity to buy healthcare across state lines. When asked by Harris Faulkner if he would still sign on to the senate bill that is likely to come out next year, he said hes still against the notion of what was before the senate before, which is likely what is to come back up again in january and february unless theres substantial changes. Shep . Shepard news from the future, john. Tomorrow the president is set to announce a new strategy in iran. What do we know . Lets look into the future. We understand from talking to sources that the president will not recertify the iran deal. Every 90 days, it comes up for recertification. The president has done that twice. Tomorrow we expect hes not going to recertify it, which begins a process to kick everything over to congress to decide what to do. The president will outline a broad set of principles for which he would like to see the congress do in terms of being very tough on iran to get it to a, make sure they reign in their Nuclear Program and roll it back and b, reign in their bad behavior in terms of destabilizing activities that have been taking across the middle east. Shepard the president nominate ago new Homeland Security secretary to replace john kelly. Yes. Its kirstjen nielsen. John kelly brought her over from dhs when he came over. She was the chief of staff over there she was also in the Bush Administration on the Homeland Security council. A person wellknown around washington, wellversed in Homeland Security and the president believes she will be an excellent secretary of Homeland Security should she be confirmed by the senate in doesnt look like its in question. An interesting note, shep, she would be the first previous staffer at the department of Homeland Security to ever be elevated secretary. She would become the sixth secretary of Homeland Security, shep. Shepard overdue said the president. Should have happened before. Now it has. Thanks, john roberts. More on john kellys a comments. Thats still ahead as the news rolls on on a thursday afternoon. Your brain changes as you get older. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Shepard a special White House Briefing today. Ken thomas with the associated press. Thanks for being here. Thanks, shep. Shepard john kelly coming in after a lot of talk in the media about john kelly. What do we know in the back . It was a fascinating look into john kellys world view. He has spoken privately reporter but we have not till today see him speak at length with us. I thought it was interesting from the getgo he wasnt quitting or expecting to get fired. He seemed to be interested in addressing some of the rumors about his future. Shepard there have been a lot of talk that he might be leaving soon. A lot of wellplaced people seems to think he would be leaving by the first of the year. He gave off this air of confidence and competence and sticktoitiveness that i feel like was probably reassuring for the audience of one. I thought so, too. You have to think of the context in which he came out. He brought weight to the whole issue of puerto rico. He was able to push back against the notion that the president s not committed to helping puerto rico recover for the long haul. He addressed that issue. You know, he addressed the relationship with Mitch Mcconnell and bob corker. So the fact that he had not spoken at length before and could come in and handle these questions i think helped the white house today. Shepard a lot of reporters have known him for quite some time, john roberts talking about going back to the iraq war. Hes always been a friendly guy with reporters though never ever seeking the spotlight. Thats right. Hes always expressed a support for what reporters do. He believes in getting out the right information, the most accurate information. I think perhaps this was part of that process, to try to, you know, push back against what he sees as inaccurate reports to some extent. Also to maybe offer himself as a bridge to the media, someone that can answer some questions. Shepard really was interesting to hear. Before we go, theres a battle for the narrative going on in the healthcare changes that are coming. Our job is to cut through those battles. Is it your understanding as it is mine that if youre a little older and you have a preexisting condition, your costs are about to go up in a serious way . Thats the concern, that because there hasnt been any serious fixes to the Obamacare Program that older people could see their premiums go up higher. I thought the political element was interesting today. I thought on one hand the president by signing this executive order was trying to send a message to supporters that hes not going to give up on trying to repeal and replace obamacare that hes committed to returning to the issue in the months ahead. I also thought it was interesting that he had rand paul with him. This idea of community association, Health Associations is something that the senator really believes in. As your viewers know, hes been a no vote, a holdout on the healthcare process. So i think this is the president trying to play the long game and perhaps in the months ahead convince someone like rand paul to support him on some type of attempt to repeal and replace. Shepard for a president that likes a huge deal, getting rand paul on Something Like that would be a huge deal. Ken thomas from the associated press. Thanks so much. Enjoy your work. Thanks. Shepard heart break for the search of hundreds of misses in the western wild fires. The 69yearold was on the phone with her daughter when the line went dead. Her last words that her home was filling with flames and she was trapped. Fire destroys home after home after home and theres huge concerns now. The Weather Forecast is terrible. R we take a girls trip. Remember nashville . Both kimchi bbq amazing honkytonk i cant believe you got us tickets i did. I didnt pay for anything. sigh you never do. Send me what i owe. Ive got it. I mean, you did find money to buy those boots. alert beep are you serious . Is that why you dont like them . Those boots could make a unicorn cry. Yeah tears of joy. groan pay back a friend day is october 17th. Get the bank of america mobile banking app today. Shepard the wild fire continues in california. Emergency teams Warning Deadly wild fires scorching wine country in california could get worse. High winds and dry air fan the flames. Fire Officials Say strong gusts could push together some of the largest fires and create an enormous inferno. The fires have destroyed an area larger than the city of austin, texas. Officials calling it one of the worst in california history. They say so far more than two dozen people are dead with hundreds more still missing. The governor of california says 8,000 firefighters are now battling the blazes with more help pouring in from neighboring states. Cal fire workers are using this air tanker, the largest of its kind, the boeing 747 can drop 20,000 gallons of flame retardant. Some people are heading back home and finding nothing left but foundations. We have drone video showing the scope of the devastation now in santa rosa. You see entire neighborhoods are gone. Authorities have asked people not to put up drones because theyre hindering fire retardant efforts. Theres nothing left here to save. One man says a spot where his home used to stand looks like an atom bomb went off. Images in our slide show. Its hard to watch this. This woman in the coffee park says she found her wedding ring in a pile of ashes. Here is an image of a couple of teenagers. Theyre pouring water into a bowl of goldfish. They found the goldfish in a destroyed home in santa rosa. With all the death around, wanted to save something. Heres the sky line of san francisco. This is from this morning. You can see smoke from the wild fires leaving a thick haze behind. The Fox Business Networks robert gray is live in napa valley. Robert . Thats right, shepard. One of the things people are worried about are the winds. Theyre whipping up now in our faces. Theres embers over there. We put them out and they have restarted. This was a permanent home here where actually across the street from the silverado resort where they had a pga tour event last weekend. I just got off the phone with Mark Williams with the pga tour. He was staying there sunday evening. He was a wakened about 9 30, 10 00 p. M. And described an orderly but chaotic evening. He was driving to the airport, looking in the mirror and seeing the flames on the hills, the embers floating through the air. You can see the flames came down to hill here. Folks had two to five minutes to gather themselves and get out. The cars are burned out. What is really interesting to see is how the flames can come here, but the home next door looks like it was untouched. Shepard . Shepard robert, we hear that the communication difficulties may be the reason for this very high number of people reported as missing what do you know there . Yeah, that seems to be part of the issue. We can attest for ourselves with the cell phone conversation just with mark there. We had to call him back three different times. The phones dropping out. Having a difficult time getting in touch with people. We know in times of crisis, people that rely on cell phones, certainly can come back to haunt you. Theyre trying to track down people. You can keep in mind that people can put in more than one missing persons notification for the same person. So theyre sorting through this and trying to figure everything out. We