filled, and that is now the dhs leader. melissa: blake, is that real about rex tillerson? that would be so distressing? . liz: new achieve of staff announced by the president, president donald trump. i am please to inform you that i have named general kelly as a white house chief of staff. john has also done a spectacular job at homeland security. he's been a true star in my administration. let's bring in conservative author radio host mark steyn joins me now. wow bombshell on friday night. >> yeah. bombshell news but not unexpected. reince priebus as former head of the rnc, he was basically there to smooth the connection between the president and a republican party in congress. because reince priebus knows

all the republican mainstream guys. and the one thing that has failed in the last six months i think is the connection between the republican establishment and the president. so if reince priebus can't do that, there's no. liz: let's take it to blake burman in dc, saying he wants a general in this operation. go ahead, blake. >> well, not necessarily in this operation. liz: he said he wanted a general, we have heard, in the white house. but go ahead. >> right. so, yeah, he's had this admiration, as we know, as he talked about for a while his upbringing as a child and all the way to this day of how he loves the generals, he refers to them as my generals at certain points. look, e macwe knew that this was coming at some point. the relationship here with the new dynamic of anthony scaramucci and reince priebus was unsustainable. scaramucci himself with the interview that he gave to or the conversation that he had with ryan linda of the

new yorker the other night basically said let's leave it up to happen to see how all of this plays out. on this day, at least, it appeared that scaramucci was still part of the white house apparatus as he was on the plane, on air force one to the president's event in new york. that plane has now the president on his way back here to the white house. and with that, comes this tweet that the president says he has made a decision. what we don't know is whether or not he fired reince priebus. we don't know at this point whether or not reince priebus just decided to heck with it and resigned. either way, there is a new white house chief of staff, a new dynamic here. and with it also a new hole to fill. liz: we're looking at a live shot of the president at andrews joint base there just exiting air force one. has private floated we're seeing names including dena peril, who is deputy national security adviser, chief economic adviser gary cohn and campaign adviser. but kelly, blake, this is a

bombshell on friday night. what else are you hearing? >> well, yeah, gary cohn was the name that had been floated. gary cohn is also a name that gets floated to be the next head of the federal reserve. the president, you know, they talked possibly about kohn in that spot, though, also hasn't said one way or another what he may or may not do. but you're right. john kelly, this kind of came, his name, at least, out of nowhere. but now he is the new right hand, the new top aid here at the white house next to president trump. liz: thank you, blake burman. let's take you back to mark steyn. john kelly is a star. he came -- he enlisted in the marines in 1970, grew up in brighton, boston. he ran the operations in the iraq theater during the height of tensions there in 2008. the president has full faith in john kelly, given his

performance in border security. >> yeah. he has actually had a pretty good six months at homeland security, which is more than you can say for reince priebus. and i think the idea of appointing priebus had been to kind of make trump a house-trained republican president. to move him closer to the kind of jeb bush, lindsey graham territory. and it didn't work. and i think one of the lessons of the scaramucci remarkable scaramucci thing with the new yorker is that trump is going to stand on or for as a uniquely trumpian kind of president. you can't make him a mainstream -- you can't make him george w. bush, you can't make him jarrold ford, you can't make him a mainstream republican president. he's going to rise or fall on whether he succeeds as a trumpian president. liz: john kelly has a 45 microphone year career. he has the distinction of being the longest-serving general in the military. this after multiple headlines and, of course, all the media

talk shows are saying this is a white house in chaos. there is civil war that is breaking out in the white house. will the general fix this problems? >> well, the general supposed to be able to instill discipline. i mean, the idea that you could have an army filled with foals like anthony scaramucci, and it would run with military discipline is i think a little farfetched. but i think what is actually necessary here is for kelly to actually not so much deal with the scaramuccis, but deal with the lack of cooperation that trump is getting from republican leadership like mitch mcconnell and paul ryan. liz: yeah, that's a good point. i mean, the way it was playing out in the white house it's as if scaramucci and reince priebus are putting kick me signs on each other's back, and they wanted to repeal and replace each other. and, you know, the issue with scaramucci just going ahead and calling the new yorker magazine, that would not be off the record. there was no indication,

according to the new yorker. it was the whole time on the record. will general kelly just stop all of that behavior and can he get answer to leaks? because that's been plaguing the white house. >> well, the leaks are a plague. and maybe he can get it. it is an unusual interview, the scaramucci interview. and then when you look at republican business as usual, which is what happened with john mccain at 2:30 in the senate. we know republican business as usual does not work for conservative voters or for the business. when republicans win there in office, nothing gets done. so kelly's thing is not just to stop the leaks but actually ensure that all of the chaos, the focus on policy doesn't -- i enjoy strictly for entertainment value all the -- it's not exactly lincoln's team of rivals.

it's like lincoln's team of grade school playground rivals. but i enjoy that in a low grade back-stabbing way. but only as a bonus to effective policy movement, and that's the real issue. liz: so that is the dc swamp. that's what trump is despiting. the dc swamp inside the white house, that behavior. and now just breaking more news. president trump just tweeting out saying i would like to thank reince priebus for his dedication and service to the country. we accomplished a lot together, and i am proud of reince priebus. reince priebus did help the rnc apparatus to get trump elected; right? >> yeah. back when there were 17 candidates and most people thought trump was a joke and that he would detonate, self detonate before iowa and new hampshire. reince priebus, whatever you feel about him, actually took him seriously as a candidate and as the primary sees him proceeded, reince priebus

actually at a time when a lot of republican establishment figures, including paul ryan up to, you know, ten days before the election was saying we can go with this guy. reince priebus was saying this is going to be our candidate. and when all else is said and done about washington that everyone's actually luring him into the ground, sealing the casket, and burying right now. but at a time when everyone was saying no. no. no. we can still drag jeb across the finish line, we can still drag marco across the finish line. he was the most important republican establishment figure to get the message that this guy, trump, is going to win, and we have to figure out a way to work with him. liz: mark, here's the thing. will general kelly -- some people have said the president justs needs some adult supervision with his tweets. now, people understand that the president has a direct connection and the american people, his backers out there, his voters love it. they love the transparency,

they love that he's fighting tooth and nail for them. some have found that the tweets come at untune moments, and they're indelicately phrased. so will general kelly be able to go tow to tow and say back off on that one? >> well, i don't think so because i get the feeling that the tweets essentially go out and moderate. but i would say this: there's, like, three groups of people. there's people who love trump's personality as reflected in those tweets. there's a big chunk of the country that just loathes his personality. but the most important one is the one that delivered victory. and that is those people who felt that it didn't matter that trump was not the perfect vessel but that he was the only vessel for things they cared about likening mass illegal immigration and all of that kind of stuff. so people will forgive the tweets that they don't mind trump's personality, as long as they also get those trump policies. . liz: let's get to charlie

gasparino in the newsroom. charlie, a bombshell on a friday. john kelly in as chief of staff replacing reince priebus, general john kelly coming over from homeland security. charlie. >> yeah. not surprising if you watch fox business. we reported earlier on cavuto today that my sources were telling me priebus was out. i would not know who would replace him. there was some speculation that anthony scaramucci, our former colleague who's white house communication director, you know, was the de facto chief of staff in recent days and trump was leaning on him to do stuff. that was speculation. i found that hard to believe that he would actually walk in as chief of staff as communications director and particularly after all the history that we've been talking about recently. but this is a good choice. this guy is a real deal. listen, reince priebus is an excellent political bureaucrat. there's no doubt about that. general kelly brings a whole other level. he brings military bureaucracy

to the white house, and that may be exactly what a dysfunctional white house needs. but here's the thing. i don't care whether it's reince priebus or general kelly. if the president doesn't empower the chief of staff, we will keep -- it will be the same thing. and here's why. if you look at the trump white house, the management structure, it's a very linearly management structure. chief of staffs generally are the gatekeepers. he's got to empower kelly to make this work. liz: charlie, hang on a second. will anthony scaramucci report to the president or will he report to general kelly? >> that is a great question. i don't know, and that is the crux of this. if you have freelancers like anthony scaramucci, like steve bannon, jared kushner, you name it. ivanka. if they're all out there playing their own game not being a team player, that does not empower the chief of staff to get a dysfunctional white house in order. that is a problem.

and, again, i don't care if it's reince priebus or if it's general kelly or if it's god. you don't empower the chief of staff, you will have a dysfunctional white house as we have right now. you cannot have anthony scaramucci going off note like this. calling up reporters, demanding. liz: that's a good point charlie makes. >> but let me make this one point. think about how much effort was expended on trying to figure out who leaked out a stupid dinner meeting at the white house. that's insane. i mean, anthony should have been focused on how to crafting a message that gets -- helps get the president's agenda of health care, immigration, the wall, you name it. . liz: charlie is friends with scaramucci, and in that what charlie's saying is that the message got lost, and we have now debates about why is

scaramucci saying that he can bring in the fbi and the justice department to track leakers? i mean, those sound like protocol even bringing that up. so will kelly say it off, everybody. get the trump white house back on agenda. >> yeah. what he has to do is make it necessary for scaramucci to make calls like that. liz: how do you do that? >> dinner with sean hannity is in the scheme of things is not the most important. no disrespect to sean. but when you're having every little itsy-bitsy thing like that. and at the same time, you're having really important stuff leaked, you can't actually run a government this vast with this level of leakage. you can't get anything done because then it all just becomes a blizzard of lies and nothing gets done. liz: yeah, it becomes a white blizzard of white noise, and you're not hearing the trump message. i want to bring charlie back

in a message. but, mark, something symbolic happened last night. there was a symbolic vote on what the democrats say they're going to run on to take back the house away from trump next year. it's medicare single pair. watch this. ford democrats and independents said, no, we don't want it. 43 democrats said we're going to stay present in the vote. that is big news. they're backing off with bernie sanders and elizabeth warren is going to get them the house. >> the whole thing about obamacare is basically to government allies obamacare, but use a dead husk of pseudoprivate insurance was to move the ball in favor -- in other words, the only way to fix obamacare is single pair. that's what the democrats bet in 2008 and so far from mitch mcconnell's complete fiasco that he has made of things. the democrats bet of 2008 looks pretty good. liz: you know, charlie, we have the house now going on a

five-week recess. come on. charlie, it seems like with the john kelly appointment, again, breaking news. now chief of staff reince priebus is out. the president is going back to his wheelhouse. its border security, its illegal immigration and the president on long island, yes, applauding the crack down of ms13, that deadly gang that machetes people to death. it seems like he's going back to his wheelhouse. what do you think? >> i don't know. this could be, like, a policy change, you know, that we're moving away from health care and taxes. that's very possible. but just in terms of his agenda and getting it through. i'll say this once again, and i want to make a point about leaks. every white house leaks. the problem is when the obama white house leaks, when the clinton white house was leaking, when the george bush white house was leaking, the minor leaks like who had dinner with whom, no one cared about that. no one went nuts. no one said they were going to stick the fbi after the leakers. that's -- you know, there's

wheat and then there's substance that's leaked. you don't want national security stuff leaked, i get that. that's a crime. and as a journalist, i wouldn't want to publish something of an american soldier or spy. i get that. but these sort of insignificant leaks that people go nuts over really shows a degree of intempence that i can't describe here. so getting back to kelly, he needs to be empowered where he basically puts all of the children in the room and say listen to me. here's the way it goes. and you only do that if the president empowers you to do that. liz: uncle? >> i don't know. he has a very linearly -- remember the first thing anthony scaramucci said when he got the job? i report to the president. >> no. that was absolutely the case, and that's what scaramucci prizes. but the critical point here,

which i think may be of interest to voters, you're saying this indicates the switch back to wall, back to border issues, back to immigration. the republican party wanted him to be a conventional republican president. the people who made trump president actually don't want their children stuck in cheap service jobs that are going to be relevant by automation, and they don't want mass unskilled immigration. that would actually be a good and effective pivot for trump right now. . liz: and, mark, you know, to charlie's point. the leaks have had big national security implications after the manchester bombing. teresa may made a televised statement saying we're not going to share intelligence with u.s. intelligence because you guys are leaking and threatening our terror probe to catch this guy. >> that's right. and that's part of the five thing that united states is in with britain and new zealand australia.

they're not happy with fbi and intelligence agencies leaking serious information that is not just about sean has nottity. when you've got the fbi general counsel leaking for political purposes, i have a real problem. and when you have -- you shouldn't have 17 intelligence agencies. that's at least 8.5 too many. and when you do, and they're leaking essentially for domestic political purposes, that's deeply destabilizing for american alliances. liz: let's take this back to charlie. charlie, we know lynn of the washington post and numerous reporters have said that obama was the worst when it came to going after reporters who were getting leaked information. remember the president threatened with subpoenas. that's right. james rosen, both of them and also associated press, you know, getting phone records. and then we have obama saying you know what? i'm just going to spread intelligence to mark's point

to these 17, you know, intelligence agencies. when the -- he was criticized for not doing enough to stop the russia medaling. what's important here is again and again, charlie, you've covered it. how is trump battling the swamp? and john kelly help him battle the swamp. >> here's what i would say. i don't agree with obama going after our colleagues or any journalist for that -- the stuff that he did. but remember what that fell under. that did not fall under the rubric of incidental dinners and who in the white house press office might get the axe tomorrow. that fell under the rubric of national security. so i would say if you're going to go after anybody, that's the sort of stuff you go at. the problem with the trump white house is that it's -- these are insignificant -- it's -- they're fighting battles over nothing at times. and it takes away, i believe, from their central focus, which should be pushing for health care, border security, pushing for health care

reform, border security, tax cuts, making sure that the new generation doesn't have to, you know, worry about, you know, making minimum wage for the rest of their lives. i get -- that's what this sort of petty nonsense that scaramucci was involved with really showed us. the trump administration is distracted with pettiness. liz: yeah, that's true. >> and one other point i'm going to make. the reason why -- and that's different than what happened in obama. it's much different, and it's actually scary. now the question is will kelly stop the pettiness? and he will only stop if the president empowers him to stop it. liz: empowers him. >> well, there's only room for one trump, so it's one thing if trump who is who he is, and he gave his famous rosie o'donnell first debate. and that's fine for trump. but you can't have dr. evil and a bunch of minimes as a bunch of whimsical in their obsessions.

and that's the problem here. you have one trump figure and everyone below him has to behave like a subordinate anything of that nature. they can't be mini-trumps settling scores via twitter or interviews. liz: okay. let's take a listen to the president applauding and praising general john kelly earlier today. trump: i want to congratulate john kelly who has done a incredible job of secretary of homeland security. one of our real stars. truly, one of our stars. john kelly is one of our great stars. liz: let's bring in former trump campaign michigan co-chair. leyna, the news is breaking. we all found out through the president's twitter feed, which we've been talking about, leyna. what do you think of this bombshell that general john kelly is now chief of staff and reince priebus is out? >> i think it's very important for us to support the president and the decisions that he makes with those

people surrounding him at his senior staff. i think really it emphasis promises made and promises kept that he will be very strict when it comes to immigration issues. and we -- people serve at the pleasure of the president. we have to support him in this decisions. . liz: so, you know, reince priebus is thought to be with the republican establishment, close with paul ryan, at odds with steve bannon at points. do you think this will calm the waters at the white house? it seems to be in chaos and disarray. >> i would -- don't perceive it to be in chaos and disarray at all. in fact, i think that's the public perception or that might be certain media perceptions. but, in fact, this is an administration based on a leader who is trying to build our organization after not having decades of political structure in place. with that said, reince is a tremendous man, a tremendous leader. he has had a incredible career and incredible career ahead of him and a wonderful family that the priebus family. with that said, i'm really pleased that the president is moving forward.

he's going to be taking a strict stance on immigration as he has right from the beginning. we're seeing crimes and illegal issues at the border, the u.s. mexico border going down by 60%. just by saying the president saying i'm going to take a tough stance on immigration. this is very good news for the american people. liz: this is the biggest shakeup to date, mark. and what we have now is a general basically spearheading the agenda for the trump white house. that's what reince was in charge of. >> right. and it arises from who trump is, though. he didn't -- you know, if you take any george w. bush, bill clinton, they come into people who had been with them when they first ran for governor 20 years earlier. and trump had no equivalent group by that. i would actually like to see cory lewandowski back in the trump inner circle. liz: accused of rough housing. >> yeah. i know all of that. and that's fair enough. but the fact is that he and trump see eye to eye.

you can't move trump in and then put him with a bunch of people who just have generic political careers. he has very specific needs. and i think the interesting thing about john kelly is that trump moved him into this position because he saw what he did at homeland security. and what he did at homeland security was he -- from day one, he started enforcing trump's issues. so trump doesn't have to worry about a lot of stuff whether this guy's onboard with the message. he has proved that the last six months. liz: you know, we have senator lindsey gram basically thanking reince priebus and applauding the appointment of john kelly. we have now politicians weighing in, charlie. where do you think the weekend talk shows take this? the weekend talk shows are going to be going full bore, it seems, on this appointment of a general in the white house. how do you think that's going to shake out? >> well, i hope the people stick with the facts. that's in my greatest concern going forward as a surrogate for the president and the

administration. is that the media can take information and spin it and skew it and interpret it. and, unfortunately, perception becomes reality for people. i say we focus on the facts. the people serve at the pleasure of the president. ryan has a tremendous career ahead of him, and i wish kelly the best luck in his new role liz: it's rare we've seen a generalist chief of staff. i think it was eisenhower. the question is was the governor wrong footed from the get-go? they needed more state-of-the-art communication staff. i'm not basically downplaying the success of these individual careers at the communications team. but it didn't seem to gel and coalesce around the trump messages. they always seem to be fighting with reporters. >> yeah. and they're always having to explain trivia. and that's what happens and some of them do a good job of it. but they're there at 2:00 every afternoon having to

explain trivia, and i think there's a lot to be said for actually having somebody there who says this is today's message. this is what we talk about. and, yes, we've got a slight centric president who may be talking about something else at 3:47 in the morning. but pay no attention to that. the rest of you, this is our message, this is what we're talking about today, and you stick to it. liz: we've got madison -- did i presumption of innocenc pronounce your name? >> you did it perfect. liz: a bombshell, we have general kelly chief of staff, we have seen possibly that this move might be coming on a friday night. we heard it might happen earlier today. it seems like the president's pulling back. he is an outsider away from the republican establishment reince priebus is out. what are your thoughts? >> you know, part of the reason he was elected is because he was an outsider. at the same time he respected the establishment in hopes that we would be able to work together. part of bringing reince priebus in i think was hoping he would be able to help

president trump navigate the legislative waters. that didn't really work so well. and so i'm actually a little disappointed this didn't happen earlier. i'm very happy to see john kelly coming in. i think reince did a good job. but there's a lot of disconnect there because he's very different in terms of how he runs things and scaramucci, someone like president trump. liz: let's bring in washington times contributor eric schiffer and basically, eric, what are your thoughts about this bombshell news general kelly now chief of staff replacing reince priebus. he's out. >> i think it is likely a good thing, liz. because i think what it can do is actually bring needed discipline to this white house. i mean, i think trump works well with military leaders and certainly it's a structured system that he'll bring. he's an adult, he's mature, he's experienced. he had to get rid of priebus. there was just too much that was dropping. there were too many areas in which he wasn't executing, and

there's clearly a system of leaks that was happening that needed some type of lock down. and who knows. it could have been priebus that was doing a lot of these leaks. scaramucci brought in to be the henchman, to wipe him out. there's no question about that. and i think it could prove to be a good move. liz: to eric's point, mark. it seemed the white house communications machine with the leaks, whoever was doing it, i'm not saying it was reince priebus. whoever'sleaking. it could be obama officials. the same ol' dc swamp of gotcha politics where the american voter has had it. they are done with it. they don't want that anymore. and we have the democrats celebrating the failure of obamacare reform. they've so romanticized obamacare. you're going to pour the foundation of obamacare, which is taxpayer's money into the super welfare state; right? and the american people see that. they don't want it. >> no. and from day one, the

swamp, so-called, determined to kill this presidency in its cradle. and what's interesting about it is who actually was trying to throttle it? we know the entire democrat party basically wants to impeach the president for this phony, bologna russia nonsense. half the republican party in congress wants his presidency to fail. he had a third problem in his house he had all of these so-called leakers who were actually leaking against the president. that doesn't leave many people. you've got the democrat party, half the congressional republican party, and people sitting in your own office working to throttle your presidency from day one. you can't continue like that. liz: let's bring in trump great america pact, joining us now via phone. your reaction to the bombshell news that general john kelly comes over from homeland

security to replace are reince priebus. >> i think he's a suburb choice. a four star general in the marine core. he's done a fabulous job as homeland security. i think the president needed after a terrible week, needed to straighten this place out a little bit. i promise you no one will be reporting directly to the president. the staff will report directly to him. liz: wait, stay with me on that because that's been the debate here. we don't know who will -- whether or not scaramucci, for example, will report directly to the president. you're saying that the president will empower general john kelly to take control of his agenda and the white house as chief of staff. >> i don't know that's from the president. but kelly is going to be a fundamental chief of staff. he's going to be -- he's used to commanding control. everyone else reports to him. he'll straighten this out very, very quickly. the whole homeland security administration what have you, he's done a suburb job of running homeland security,

which is almost impossible mission to do, and he's taken it to order. so i think it's a great choice. i'm sorry for reince, i think he was a good, good guy who got a little overpowered by the conflictive forces. i think you have order real quickly in this white house, and i think definitely need this time and movement. liz: general kelly, the longest serving general in the military. you point out about reince priebus. we are hearing from fox news from white house sources that -- this is more breaking news. that he resigned secretly yesterday. what are your thoughts about that. >> i would not be surprised after all the stuff that went on. you know, my sense he served this as he can. i think he was probably frustrated with the loss of the health care. he played a key roll in trying to make all of that happen on the house side was very influential. i would not be surprised if he

was not given something in this administration beyond what he already has. in the private sector. but he's a very experienced guy, and my guess is he made a lot of friends in his tenure in washington and will continue to serve as he can. i think the key thing here, though, is this will stop the bleeding that was going on. this is one of the worst i've seen it the presidency, and i think this will sort of turn the corner and give us an opportunity to move the ball forward. liz: it's interesting. there's an irony here. reince priebus brought the establishment and mark steyn was pointing this out earlier. brought the establishment to help the president win the election in a field of 17 and levitated the president higher into the white house. but now president trump as an outsider doing away, splitting himself away from the establishment and basically reince priebus leaving. so true outsider kind of now coming back to the outsider roots it feels like in the white house. what are your thoughts? >> well, my -- again, there

are two four star generals in the marine core. you now have two others who have gained four stars by being the commanders of these big regions, which means when kelly was picked, they were picked over every other three star general and not just the marine core but everything else. they are guys who walk on water. they are extraordinary talent and kel auto he is an extraordinary man and extraordinary leader who tragic lost his own son in afghanistan. but he's kind of a no nonsense guy. i think to a certain extent this white house definitely needs direction, and i think he'll give it. i think he'll stand up to trump. i think trump is comfortable around generals. i think -- and, again, not in any way, shape, or form dumping on priebus because i have great affection for him. but i think the general is the one guy who can go in there and straighten it out. liz: and let's bring back blake burman in dc.

has more on priebus. blake. >> hi, there. according to the reporting of my colleague here at the white house, gomez, a producer for fox news. reince priebus submitted his resignation, according to a couple white house sources. submitted his resignation yesterday. okay thursday. the tweet came out from president trump at 4:45 in the afternoon. the timing is all of this is incredibly interesting when you think reince priebus was onboard air force one and went to new york with president trump today, was at that event and flew back on air force one, was in the motorcade now on its way back to the white house we've got bad weather here in washington. the president had a heads up on this and top folks at the upper echelon had a heads up on this as early as yesterday. not sure if this was morning, afternoon, or night or so forth. but this is something that has clearly been in the works here at the white house for roughly

24 hours or so, and that's why you have the dual announcement from president trump on this day that not only is reince priebus out at the white house chief of staff, but also that he's named an immediate replacement, that being the former head of the department of homeland security general kelly. liz: good stuff, blake burman. thank you so much. we're going to come back to you and stick with you. again, we're in breaking news mode. let's recap for the viewers. reince priebus is out as chief of staff. general john kel auto he is now chief of staff. let's get back to mark and madison here. you know, steve hilton has host of a show on fox news. he has said that it's dangerous to go off the rails with your message because of the dc swamp. and the dc media gotcha politics; right? and he's saying something so -- and you've talked about this, madison. he used the word decadent of the media not talking about policy issues that affect americans. it is so easy for politicians

as well to play that game. >> yeah. everybody's into this palace intrigue. and we should remember that actually most people have not heard of mitch mcconnell. personally, i had never heard of mitch mcconnell. i don't think that's a reasonable thing. but they do care about health care. they do care about immigration. and the fact of the matter is get -- turning it into a soap opera -- and these people are more soap opera than most washington, but that's not the object of the administration. the object of the administration is to facilitate the advance of trump policies. liz: you know, we have to think of this looking forward, thinking ahead. the next senate confirmation of the next head of homeland security, you can expect it will be brutal. you probably going to -- he's probably going to be put on the hot seat right there, as

they usually are. notably brutal because of the issues around the white house. what do you think? >> i definitely think they're going to be put on the hot seat. it's brutal over the last six months. but we want to keep in mind that congress knows who they work for. and as with many other issues, we've seen they began to put their interest ahead of the american people. it's unacceptable. they're there to serve the american, not themselves. liz: is ed rollins still with us? ed? >> yes. i'm still with you. liz: homeland security. who do you think will be the replacement of john kelly there? do you have any thoughts? >> i don't have any thoughts. it certainly can be kelly's deputy. certainly, kelly will have a big impact on who it will be. and my sense is obviously he straightened the place out pretty effectively, and it's one of the places functioning very, very well. i just think he adds -- and i don't mean to say old capacity because obviously, priebus is an adult. but i think he adds a

different command. and, again, i'm a big military guy. if you get to be a four star general in the marine core, you walk on water. you straighten things out, you have plans, you have relationships across the government. he's had extraordinary relationship on the hill and many congressman said good things about him. and i think to a certain extent, it's a turning point in the administration that has been kind of disarray, partly because the president managerial style. but my sense is that he will bring a real order to it and have the ability to do that. where priebus had kind of a gang of rivals in there in there. there will be no rivals to kelly in that kelly will be the chief of staff and making it all happen. liz: you know, mark, we have to bring up jeff sessions and russia and how general kelly will deal with that. what are your thoughts? >> well, i think the jeff sessions thing has been sad because i think jeff sessions is actually ideologically on

the president's side, and actually advancing the president's agenda in both the justice department and homeland security were dysfunctional departments during recent years. so i think it's a shame that he fell out with jeff sessions. but the russia investigation is a complete crock. there is nothing there, and it's actually can grossly offensive in a free society to give a man unlimited powers and then set him loose with a bunch of hillary donors to go in search of a crime. and that's even before we know there's a real crime with debbie wasserman schultz's it guy arrested at dulles airport as he's trying to flee the country. the fact of the matter is that special prosecutor should not have been appointed. the fact he was appointed through a leak from within the fbi by the director of the fbi to a newspaper. this is the worst kind of banana republic stuff. and the president would be

within his rights to just say this is nonsense, and i want it to stop. liz: quickly, jeff sessions saying he had to step aside because he's the campaign adviser and doj rules say it's a conflict of interest. you know, he did have that meeting with the ambassador to russia. i just wonder what your thoughts are and how general kelly's going to handle that whole issue because the president clearly driven to distraction knocked off message with the russia probe. >> right. i think the president still needs to make the decision is he going to keep jeff sessions on as attorney general? >> karl rove and the like will say that will engulf the white house for six months and ruin his agenda. >> right. if he keeps him on, i think what kelly needs to do is refocus the message on things that jeff sessions has done as attorney definitely. going after sanctuary cities, going after ms13, these happen throughout the administration. and if we can try to refocus that message, i think that would be successful. liz: let's take a look at the white house. we are awaiting a statement, live shot there. the white house you're looking at it right now.

we are awaiting a statement from the white house on the appointment of general john kelly. unclear whether or not -- moments away we're waiting for that statement it's moments away. it's unclear whether at this point we will hear the president's choice for the replacement of general john kelly at the department of homeland security. usually, we -- takes some days for that to come forth. ed rollins, you know, general john kelly now having to do one-on-one more closely, rather, in the quarters of the white house with the president. a president driven to distraction by the russian probe, which is really bearing down on him. go ahead, ed. >> in spite of the comments made earlier, the russia probe is not going away and sessions' situation is not going away. the senators serve with sessions made it very, very clear that if you want to fire jeff sessions, it's certainly your prerogative, but chairman of the judiciary committee

said i'm not going to put another attorney general up there. i have 100 judgeships that i have to basically have hearings on, other appointment -- so my sense is that the sessions situation is still the same. the russian thing is still the same. and if you want to basically create more chaos, you basically get rid of -- you've got to let that thing run its course whether it's right or wrong or what have you. but because kelly's going into the chief of staff does not make those problems disappear and does not make health care all of a sudden appear on the agenda. he has the ability to go in and straighten out the white house and make it function more effectively. but the rest of the stuff is all front and center. ashley: you know, eric, to ed roll in's point. the senate leadership to the republicans are putting up a wall protecting jeff sessions. of their saying what you know? white house hands off jeff sessions. what are your thoughts? >> i'm glad they are, liz. i think it's the right thing to do. sessions did the right thing as it relates to the law. and the senators are supporting the law and we

can't manipulate that and try to play politics. i think trump consistent what ed said would really damage himself. in fact, in fact, potentially hurt himself in a terminal fashion as it relates to his capacity if he were to get rid of sessions and do a move like that. and in essence mueller, which is why he would do that. so i think it's nice to see senators stand up for law and the rule of law and support sessions who did the right thing. liz: i know mark steyn wants to take you on, but we've got news about the leadership structure now of homeland security as, again, breaking news. general john kel auto he is replacing chief of staff reince priebus. reince priebus did turn in his resignation yesterday secretly according to fox news.

now, the new active homeland security is a woman. h >> yeah. the homeland security department should not have been created. i'm happy to say i opposed it at the time president bush first came up with it. it got off track in recent years. everyone thought it was to do with 9/11 and jihaddists and a couple of years ago it was raiding boston strip clubs selling knock off red socks t-shirts. it has been an unfocus department and john kelly is not going to give up the progress he has made the last six months, and this is his choice to replace him, at least temporary. liz: let's get to blake burman standing live with more information possibly on elane duke. >> well, elane duke is the acting director over at dhs. but what i can tell you is

that sarah huckabee sanders just spoke with reporters outside of her office seconds ago, and she said that general kelly will be starting officially here in his new role as the white house chief of staff on monday. so this gives a little bit of time here, a couple of days for him to at least transition into this role and for the white house to sort of figure things out and kind of shift the key players in and out. but we are expecting according to the white house for john kel auto he to start in his role as the white house chief of staff on monday. we are also expecting an official statement of some sort here from the white house momentarily to kind of spell as much out as possible. liz: thank you, blake burman. terrific reporting. we're hoping you stay on standby for us. we're in breaking news mode. again, general john kelly is the new chief of staff under president trump. announcing that via his twitter account. reince is out starting

yesterday. let's go back to ed rollins. does this seem this is going to stabilize the situation at the white house, ed rollins? oh, ed is out. you know what? let's take it to madison. more stability. >> i think absolutely. because like i said before, part of the issue is that they're on different pages. we have an establishment, and then we have a nonestablishment. and that's donald trump's people that are in the white house. i think there's a lot of butting heads when we're having two people or many people on both of these sides with different agendas and different ways of getting things done. so i think a lot of his people are very much on the same page as the president as well as many other people working in the white house. and i think, you know, general kelly's going to do an amazing job of bringing order, bringing all of these people together and really getting things done. liz: mark, you wanted to take on eric before. go ahead. >> well, -- i mean, just to go back to madison's point. we all think we can say these things. but in the end, the fascinating about trump is we don't know. i think it was ed or charlie saying, oh, he gets on with generals. well, he gets on with some generals and there's

other generals he thinks are losers and he doesn't want to have anything to do with them. he gets on with scaramucci, who is the kind of guy that not a lot of people might get on with. we don't -- i think one of the fascinating things about trump is that it's actually all but impossible to generalize about whether something is going to work or it doesn't work. he could do something that seems absolutely crazy like appointing scaramucci, and it might be a disaster, or it might be. liz: you don't like the employment of scaramucci? >> no. no. you appoint a communications director who doesn't know that you're meant to say this is off the record before you say this is off the record. because it would be unreasonable to expect the white house communications director to have the expertise in this field as the press secretary of the ladies aids society in maine. it would be absurd to expect that. so we don't know -- so it's a crazy move that might work. loys john kelly is the same

move that mike worked. but the fascinating thing about trump is that it's all juggling, and we don't know in the end. and we talk with authority and no disrespect to any of you. we all talk with authority. but this is such a crazy unprecedented president, we might all be wrong or we might all be right. liz: that's a good point. blake, you have more information for us. blake. >> yes, hi, liz. we now have a quote here from the white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders. here's what she told reporters. i mentioned that moments ago. she said quote general kelly has helped seal the border and raws illegal immigration by 70%. he is respected by everyone, especially people in dhs. the entire administration loves him. he he will start monday morning. there will also be a cabinet meeting monday following his swearing in. so you will start to see some of the argument being made here by the white house, which is respected by its peers. and the illegal immigration argument at the border that this white house has been trying to push out for a while

talking about how border crossings have reduced. point to that as part of his short success here already as the head of dhs. he will start monday. and then potentially here, liz, some sort of a reset, i guess, if you want to even call it at that as you will have this cabinet meeting with the president and his new chief of taff. liz: you know, blake, with that reset to your point, is there a chance that you're hearing whether or not the cabinet meeting on monday will be live on television? they brought cameras in the past into the cabinet meetings. >> yeah. they have done stuff like that, at least in terms of sprays as we call them where they'll bring it in for 30 seconds or maybe a few minutes where the president wants to speak or not. it is entirely up to him. no word on whether or not. just unfolding as we're putting pieces together. we got to this point and what might happen in the next couple of days. liz: let's back to leyna. you've been with the trump campaign. you helped it out i think the great state of michigan. it seems, you know, you've

seen the president come in as an outsider. let's get back to this idea that, you know, reince priebus is -- in paul ryan's district. he came up with -- he's close with paul ryan. paul ryan an establishment figure. now looks like the biggest shakeup to date in the white house with the general coming in. what are your thoughts there? >> i think it's great news. and i think that at the end of the day all of these people serve at the pleasure of the president and the president needs to surround himself with those people that are going to support america first policies and help him get his agenda through. i have tremendous amount of respect for reince and his work, and i think he has an incredibly bright future. i think kelly is the perfect match for what the president needs to do in the coming weeks and months, particularly when's comes to unapologietic stances. and i know the people in michigan who continue to support president trump and his actions like this will continue to bring that support to bear. liz: good point, leyna. you

know, getting back to scaramucci, he compared his fight with priebus to cane and able. cane killed able. >> right. liz: you don't have to freelance, you don't have to ad-lib, you're going to get back on message; right? >> i would hope so. but in the end, scaramucci, who was all but threatening to kill people himself, personally in that interview. i don't think he's the kind of guy you can change. and the trick, really, when you're chief of staff is to identify what people are good at and ensure they just do that. so that they're kind of whimsical goofy sides do not get to roam free. and to go back to what you're asking about whether the cabinet meeting would be televised. one of the signs that this is a serious thing as if they were to photograph the first 15 seconds of it and then the president were to say scram. and then to have a very business-like meeting at which

he explains to everybody what's going to happen now that john kelly is in charge. liz: okay. so we have obamacare repeal and replace collapsing. tax reform or tax cuts, we don't know when they're going to come. coming back to the wheelhouse of general john kelly, madison. just a rockstar, according to to happen with border security. we have the midterms coming up, the democrats as mark has blasted their lame tag line a better deal. it doesn't have the ring of jfk's new frontier or great society. this should be like shooting fish in a barrel right now for the republicans. there are 23 democrat senators up for reelection. 10 in districts that trump won. >> right. and let's look at the special elections i think are a great example. and we had georgia six where they poured in almost $30 million. yeah, he gained some percentage points, but the democrats still couldn't win. so i think a lot of what trump ran on is going to resonate in 2018. and i don't see how they won't gain seats in 2018. but it's all going to come

down to whether they get onboard with the president's agenda and actually get these things done. liz: is eric still with us? >> yeah. liz: eric, you know, the house is going on a five-week recess. the obamacare reform and replace collapsing. does the president still have time to get his agenda done? >> well, i think so. absolutely. look, i would love to see him do tax reform. i think there's many other things that he could do. there's still a possibility they could do something on health care. i don't think it's completely done. but it was disappointing to see. but i'm hoping for tax reform. and certainly the market believes that he's going to get something done. otherwise, liz, we see it. you see the indicators. you see this market, which is largely driven because of what they expect in terms of policy from the trump administration. and you're not seeing the impact. so i'm bullish still in terms of -- liz: yeah, we should talk about. it a great point you make, eric, because we have record stock market, record highs,

and record low volatility. i mean, valuations aren't so out of what can be that tax cuts in there. they're even cheaper than the dot-com era; right? >> yeah. absolutely. and i think that a big underlying force of all of this is policy. there is an expectation, and there's been since you've seen trump get into office. this escalating in the market and the investment can there's no question that policy was going to happen, and i think that they obviously by definition in terms of looking at where the market is today still believe it. and i think that they're hoping to see it happen, and we'll see, look, the moment the market starts to get a hit, that's a really good indicator that they don't believe anymore. but we're not seeing that, and i think for good reason. i think tax reform is still alive. i think there are many other things that are still alive. they can still cut a deal with the democrats. i've said on this show that health care at the end of the day wouldn't pass.

but most likely, they'll come together with democrats and find some new ground. liz: quickly. i know we have breaking news from blake burman. you make a good point. we don't have a sam rayburn or "tip" o'neill. these guys are veterans. but that's what it feels like in congress to try to get them to tow the line in congress. eric, stay there for a second. i'm going to head back down to dc. blake has breaking news. >> hi, liz, and i keep tell you about this conversation that sarah huckabee sanders had with reporters. and we're getting a little bit more on this. she said the conversation between president trump and reince priebus about all of this began about two weeks ago. so this had apparently been in the works here between president trump and between reince priebus for quite some time. we know according to the reporting of my colleague sarah and gomez that reince priebus had submitted his resignation yesterday. it was very obviously kept in secret until the president

sent out the tweet at 4:45, 4:50 this afternoon. i can tell you here at the white house a few days ago, i was speaking with a source close to the president who said to me that if health care reform doesn't pass, that you are likely to see some sort of major shakeup here. and i bring that up because now that we're learning that the discussions here started toxic ago, that -- that parallels with the timing of how health care reform, at least on the senate side was on incredibly shaky ground. so now we know that the president has been thinking about this for quite some time, and this does not date back to anthony scaramucci, the white house communications director and those colorful comments that he made about reince priebus and potential leaking. this, liz, according to sarah huckabee sanders in the works for some two weeks or so. liz: blake burman for that. that reince priebus forsaken two weeks that this wasn't coming. >> yeah. and i think it goes back to the fact that trump did something very decent after winning the election in november.

he rewarded reince priebus for being the first republican establishment figure to figure out that he could work with trump and take trump to victory. and if you recall guys like paul ryan -- paul ryan stiffened the president after the disclosure of that leaking of that video a month before the election or whatever it was. so trump did something very decent, and he awarded reince priebus for what priebus had done for trump. but reince priebus and the president i think it's likely reach the conclusion that this is simply not the right job for him. and that as much as trump very decently wanted to award priebus, reince priebus was not good in this job. liz: that's an important point you're making because the trump campaign, they had a skeleton staff. and run was going to run as an independent and reince priebus said don't do that. stay in the republican family; right? >> yeah. and i met trump at

his rally in berm ton, virginia a couple of weeks before iowa. and what was fascinating to me is he was the most lightly political candidate. at that point lindsey graham who was .0002% in the polls and marvin who was .000002% in the polls actually had a hugent rodge. trump just had cory lewandowski and a couple of other people around him. he was very likely staffed, and he was essentially running as an independent, and i think he was grateful to reince peoples saying this guy's toxicity. liz: i'm going to go around the table and get thoughts. recapping, sorry. by the way, house speaker paul ryan just weighing in on the breaking news that priebus is out and john kelly is the new chief of staff for president trump. here's paul ryan so reince priebus. quote he left it all out on

the field. he's very proud of his dear friend. congratulates kelly and looks forward to working with him on the agenda. go ahead. >> americans across the country felt forgotten, and they're ready to see results, and i hope that this move will bring them forward to seeing results that we're waiting fo f. liz: eric whereby what do you think? where does the market go on monday? >> i think the market stays about the same, liz. i think a lot of this is bacon in terms of able to get their agenda across. liz: mark, quickly. your final thoughts. >> yeah. i think this is a restart. liz: reince priebus is out.

general john kelly is the new chief of staff. "making money" is expect. we are live right here. have a good weekend. reporter: you are watching "making money." we have breaking news. minutes ago president trump announcing the major white house shakeup. general john kelly replaces reince priebus as chief of staff. >> general kelly has been a star, done an incredible job, respected by everybody. reince priebus a good man. thank you very much. reporter: two white house sources