Priebus days have been numbered and they have been numbered to 1. You have general john kelly, the secretary of Homeland Security and will leave that post at dhs and will take on perhaps a more tumultuous job at the moment, chief of staff at the white house, trying to steer the white house in a way that the president wants. Obviously President Trump has been a proponent of pulling in generals and using former military men as key figures in his administration. Kelly is top on the list. The former commander of u. S. Southern command and then a secretary of Homeland Security who is not shied away from using blunt language in pursuing immigration policies that President Trump has wanted along the border. It will be interested to see what happens at dhs as they move forward, a major shakeup. Reince priebus, the former head of the rnc turned chief of staff has left and general john kelly will now be the new white house chief of staff. Goodness, bret. So much happening so quickly. Have you heard anything so far in washington in terms of remarks that the president made about priebus himself or his exit . No. Reince priebus was on the trip to long island where the president talked about ms13 and fighting the dangerous gang. He was on air force one as was Anthony Scaramucci, the Incoming Communications director. There was no talk, no comment. The white house was staying away from publicly commenting about any of that dustup. Privately you heard senior officials saying the president didnt have a problem with some of the salty language that was caught on the record by scaramucci in the new yorker piece. Taking aim at Reince Priebus. When you heard that, obviously it signals that perhaps priebus days were numbered. His term here has been obviously pretty up and down when you look at what the chief of staff is trying to do. But this, to Reince Priebus defense, is a tough presidency to steer and keep all the cats herded, if you will. Theres a lot of cooks in the donald trump kitchen. Now you will have a general at the helm who he try to straighten out the white house behind the scenes. Speaking of kat. Hi, bret. The president just tweeted out thanks Reince Priebus for his service. It doesnt seem to be every time a switch like this happens, people try to paint it as turmoil is. There more excitement or are people freaking out . Any time theres a chief of staff that doesnt make it a full year that is a big deal for a white house that is trying to get its sea legs under it and just lost a major legislative battle on capitol hill with the healthcare loss early this morning. So i dont think you can diminish the big news of this. The fact that youre going to have to find a department of Homeland Security secretary is another big challenge up against a legislative agenda that is already packed. Bret, we know that reince is out. But how was he out . A resignation or termination . Just guessing that we didnt hear anything from Reince Priebus himself and that he was on that air force one trip to long island, and that the first indication was a tweet from the president announcing the new chief of staff, i think this probably was the white house telling him that he was out. The first indication that we had is john kelly was taking over. How much is it going to be a challenge for the general, if at all, without the political experience . Just the leadership experience. His resume is great. Border patrol feels reinvigorated. We know what is happening around the country with sanctuary cities. Does he have a big adjustment . Yes. Look at the rollout of the effort to kind of crack down on, remember, the muslim nations that the nations on the list, that they wanted to do the First Executive order. When that happens, the way it was handled, john kelly was learning as he was going about washington. Hes very accomplished. He had to be on capitol hill many times testifying about the southern commander, the u. S. Southern command, head of the u. S. Southern command. Obviously now as department of Homeland Security. But hes not as far as we can tell had a lot of experience dealinged with all of the ways to get around this town. As you know, the james bakers, the leon panettas, the people that know where the skeletons are buried on capitol hill, sometimes they are in the best positions for the chief of staff positions. But what is most important is to have the trust of the president. That is what general kelly has clearly. This president really, really likes him. Thanks, bret baier. Well be back with you shortly. Lets now meet todays specialist. The managing partner for the Logan Circle Group and the democrats for trump and on the Advisory Board of donald j. Trump for president. He specializes in all things politics. Harlan hill is here. And hes been in iraq, afghanistan and gitmo and the author of the arena and special ideas in fidget spinning. Pete is here. Well get to that later. Ill start with this, pete. With the ouster now of Reince Priebus, this almost seems to be the end of anybody in dinner circle from the gop establishment. These are gop people going out and trump loyalists going in. Theyre sick of the leaks of the selfpromotion and selfpreservation of the agendas of others. They want people supportive of this president and what he needs to get done. If you cant close ranks, you keep beat the swamp and the fake news media. In this particular case, general kelly strikes me as a perfect pick. Hes loyal to the president , pursued the policy agenda this president wants and maintains low key and talks bluntly. Hes not trying to overshadow the president. If anybody can knock skulls and cut out the leaking, get in line, put the Country First and serve your president , its a general. Kat . I dont know if this is a larger issue of draining the swamp. President trump won as an anti establish meant candidate. I know your mom, eboni, voted for trump for that reason. Like you said, almost a complete flop. This is astonishing. It is. Heres my problem. Priebus was there in the formative months of the Trump White House. He was there for the period of time when the staff was filled out. If were going to drain the white house of the rnc gop establishment, people that were never trumpers throughout the campaign, it cannot stop with priebus. This needs to go further down. Im not going to name its inappropriate to name names. It is. Okay. But this is something that Anthony Scaramucci highlighted just a week ago saying this would be his priority, rooting out the leakers, rooting out people disloyal to the president and rooting out people more interested in their selfinterests than protecting the president. One of the reasons why Reince Priebus was there, he did an incredible job revitalizing the rnc buried in dead. And then next thing you know, you have a white house filled with republicans and the house and senate. We know about that record. But in terms of he was the first to get a hug on the stage on the night of the win. However, in the big picture, he was brought in because of his legislative relationships. With his relationships with paul ryan. What happened yesterday . At least for now, healthcare is dead. What was Reince Priebus supposed to do . Deliver healthcare. You think thats part of the reason . Yeah. When you win, everything is better. When you lose, someone takes the fall for it. In this case, its the gop senators that are unable to get out of their way. Its mitch mcconnell, paul ryan. Its one senator. John mccain ultimately. One vote that it came down to. Nothing happened. So this is more about the president sided with Anthony Scaramucci. Hes siding with the fighter. He wants fighter. He doesnt want apologizers or leakers. Think about how amazing this is with the story with scaramucci and the President Trump saying lets look at what hes saying, not the language. I dont necessarily have a problem with that the all. If theres the turmoil, it should be addressed. Its interested one day it happened, whether or not its true he was the leaker, everybody will be thinking that President Trump believes that he was. The president is putting everybody in notice that business as usual is over. If you dont start delivering on the make America Great again platform, that they all ran on, they were all the beneficiaries of in 2016, were going to clean house. Im serious about this. In 2010, all of these republicans were running for congress. They said give us the house and we will repeal obamacare. They said in 2014, give us the senate and well repeal obamacare. They said in 2016, give us the White House Well do it. The president said i have a pen in my hand. Send me a bill and ill sign it. Mitch mcconnell and the rest of the jokers on the hill cannot deliver despite they passed 60 something repeals of obamacare . Enough is enough. No excuses. Dont go on to recess. If you do, well have a real problem and well start firing these republicans in washington. I want you to develop a opinion on this. We need more passion with that. You asked for it. Im here. Were not going to washington d. C. We have kevin corke who is there in washington d. C. Who has more for us on these breaking as we speak news. General kelly now in as chief of staff. Kevin . Listen, eboni, im listening the read out. The president had a chance to speak with the pool. A bit of reporting. Reince priebus leaving the motorcade there in his own vehicle. Some people began to receive word that he was preplaced as chief of staff. Went up, tried to get quick shots with their cell phones. His vehicle peeled off after that point. Lets just share what the president told the pool. He said look, i want to congratulate john kelly. Hes done an incredible job. One of our real stars. The great stars. The border is down 78 under past administrations. Didnt go down. So basically in this conversation with the pool, the president is saying what he essentially said on twitter, which is here is a man that has gotten the job done in a position hes been placed. What can he do to elevate thiS White House, which think im being generous which has had a rocky start. Were several months in but things have not been smooth by any stretch of the imagination, in particular when you talk about the leaking problem. Will general kelly make a big difference . Thats the president s bet. If his performance at dhs is any indication, youd have to believe that he will run a fairly tight ship here at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. Eboni . You make reference to general kelly being successful around the signature issue of President Trumps presidency, immigration being down. What type of award you think we will see around people that have had positive results around the Trump Administration . My question is, next up, health care is dead as of yesterday. What do you think the president will do and who do you think will be in charge of that effort moving forward . Good questions. I think two things have to happen. First of all, they want to move forward on tax reform, this is a critical issue. Youve heard eric talk about this. If youre going to get a pelt here in year one, immigration, fine. The wall, you can still come up with funding for that. We saw that. You have to get something of substance done ahead of the midterm. Can general kelly in running this team get them on point, on focus for the president s agenda and get their messaging out there . I think by all accounts, Sarah Huckabee sanders has done yeomans work in their new capacity but theyll have to do more when they welcome general kelly to the white house. Its interesting is. There a message . It seems people dont know theyre not unified around one message. Does it matter who is in charge . Im going to be delicate as i put this to you. The gop for lack of a better description is essentially the hatfields and the mccoys. They may wear the same jersey, but these theres so many factions inside washington within the gop. It does make it difficult to sort of coalesce and get major items over the finish line. You saw the house getting its repeal effort. That was herculean, the task. It will not be easy 18 months as we look forward to the midterms. If nothing else, they know what their marching orders are now and they have a president willing to pull trigger on change if thats what it takes. Ive been telling my colleagues here, President Trump reminds me a bit of george steinbrenner. If youre a baseball fan from the 70s. You remember all the times that he fired billy martin and brought him back, this is the kind of leadership. Hes welling to make change for changes sake and sometimes has an impact. I hope he doesnt try to sign jesse barfield. Welldone. I have to ask you one more question. I know you said that was the last thing. Dont give me the silent treatment. I cant read much from the Anthony Scaramucci story because there is a lot of expletives. Its beyond salty. The other person that he called out is steve bannon. He talked about him in a different way looking to forward his own brand instead of the president s. Im wondering if bannon is next. What do you hear . I got to tell you, i was really hoping that i might when able to reach out maybe off the cuff make a little contact with the chief strategist. Havent been able to do it. He doesnt suffer foolishness lightly. He has the president s ear. How that will play out remains to be seen. If i was advising Anthony Scaramucci, pick your battles lightly. Sometimes you folk bear and thats not a good idea. Kevin corke, thanks so much. Well be back with you later in the hour. Well take this conversation around the table. Start with you, pete. I love you brought this up. Bannon was named heavily in that scaramucci rant that we know about i hes not the establishment. You think hes on ice . I dont think so. He floats well between factions. He does. He has a mind meld with the president. He stepped back from the spotlight. The president doesnt always appreciate that. One of the things that kevin corke highlighted is important. The amount of factions in the white house. Tell me what faction general kelly represents . Zero. Apolitical. The constitution, the country and the president of the united states. He will be that referee saying i dont care about your political games. We talk about maintaining classified information. No more of that. You will get prosecuted the way that Anthony Scaramucci has talked about. Hes not a maneuverer. Hes not looking for a job or tv show or this or that hes there to stir. You know about that. Thats not the culture of the military. And this general who is very straight shooting and led troops in combat. The president respects that. That will help reign in the faction fighting. Personally i was surprised to see President Trump who ran a nonpartisan campaign bring in these very gop establishment elite types like reince and like spicer. Now he got rid of them, you think well see the president govern from a less partisan way . Perhaps. Although i dont necessarily when people say gop these kays, i dont know what that means. Does that mean a Freedom Caucus members or one of the more moderates, which are really democrats and you think the leadership style can change and kelly do everything he can to get people together . Same time, congress is full of people with special interests and idealogical levels believe different things. You cant lead somebody to believing different things. Okay. Were going to bring back bret baier in washington d. C. Bret, i can only imagine what this is like in washington d. C. Are people shocked or in awe . Was this anticipated . I think there was an anticipation that it would happen over a number of days. Im getting messages from different sources. Some saying that kelly has a lot of d. C. Experience. He was a former marine legislative liaison, an aide to gates and panetta, testified as the commander of southern command. A battle hardened veteran as you just heard. Hes had three tours in iraq. His son, dodd, serving in afghanistan. He knows the military back and forth. He does know washington and how that works. The question is how he will work in thiS White House. And maybe, just maybe, Reince Priebus let me rewind. This week started monday with sean spacer leaving. Anthony scaramucci coming in. Hes not officially White House Communications director yesterday. Sean spicer leaves. We have a couple days where the attorney general is under fire. He stays in. Tells tucker he will stick in. Then you have the healthcare vote. You have north korea launching another ballistic missile. The Health Care Vote happens. Its a major loss. A loss for the inside game people. As you talked about, maybe this is the signal that theyre going to try to shake it up and do it a different way to try to drain the swamp. And one more breaking story and the tee time is gone. Bret baier will have to work. You need some free time. Absolutely. This is also good news for a guy you know well, h. R. Mcmaster. He and kelly get along very well. He evidently has been clashing with the president in a respectful way. With kelly, mcmaster and mattis, you have a mind meld of people that the president looks as equals and to make move in the right direction. If they were guys guys where the guy likes to be a guy. He went with the inside game. He lost. He wanted tax reform. He didnt. He went with what his advisers told him and now theyre out. This will be a brand new presidency starting today. Its possible. He has an inclination towards generals. The generals have done well. Theres a dustup between the secretary of state that seems like its being ironed out. The attorney g