>> jon: i doubt it. thanks for joining us, america's news headquarters starts right now. >> breaking news anna fox at this hour, sarah sanders is step to take the lectern inside the white house press briefing room, this is the first on camera briefing since august the second, and there is a lot of ground to cover, we will go to the white house in just a momen moment. >> harris: also breaking and developing right now, police at the scene of an active shooter situation in a downtown charleston, south carolina, officers are surrounding an area near a restaurant, a gunman reportedly was there, we are live with the latest. >> a restaurant on king street, called virginia's, an african-american man in his 50s came out with a gun and said "there is a new sheriff in

town, some said he also said i am the new king of charleston, there are eyewitness reports that the man opened fire on another employee, and just moments ago, police confirmed that one person has been shot and taken to the hospital, his condition right now is unknown, police say at least one other person is being held inside the restaurant as a hostage, there may be more, there is no word on demands or if the police are in contact with the suspect, apparently they have struck up some kind of conversation and negotiates negotiations may be underway, some people stuck out by crawling on their stomachs, by most accounts, including the mayor of the charleston, it sounds like a disgruntled worker situation, but they are attracting this as and active shooter, businesses have been put on lockdown, and the business owners and any customers are being told to stay inside with the doors locked,

this is happening, if you don't know the area come on king street, which is very hot in charleston, it is the design and dining district, it is the upper part, which is close to the college of charleston, and it is only a few blocks away from the church where nine people were shot and killed in june of 2015, the right now we have confirmed that one person have been shot, his condition is unknown, at least one hostage being held inside virginia's restaurant, and at least one man is in there with a gun and police are trying to talk amount -- to stop any further bloodshed. harris. >> harris: well, you put it into such perspective, not only an active shooter situation, but the vicinity down from the incident in june 2015 where we lost those people to a vicious gunman, it has to be on peoples minds today, we will stay on it, thank you very much.

white house press secretary sarah sanders is set to take to the lectern just minutes for now. i am harris faulkner, this will be the first on camera briefing in nearly a month, the last one was august 2nd, this is president trump hitting twitter to lash out on the leaders, john roberts is live on at the white house lawn to set this up for us. it jon. >> harris: first briefing from sarah sanders in almost a month, certainly the president was out there and he talked a lot during his vacation, give us a lot to ask her about this afternoon. the president to our member on tuesday night in phoenix angrily said that he doesn't do twitter storms, but this morning, he unleashed a whirlwind of twitter criticism with mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader squarely in the cross hairs, tweeting "the only problem i have with mitch mcconnell is that after repeal and replace were seven years, he failed, that should never have happened. despite saying the only problem

i had with mitch mcconnell, the present seemed to take issue with some other things, regarding mitch mcconnell, and speaker of the house paul ryan as well, i tweeting "requested that they tie it into the popular va bill, which just passed for easy approval, they didn't do it, so now we have a big deal on that debt ceiling approval, it could have been so easy, now it is a mess. at town hall at the boeing plant just outside of washington, he said that he does in fact have a plan to raise the debt ceiling, he also said that he is on board with the president's agenda, but when asked how he can influence the president, ryan went back to the president's reaction to charlottesville, listen here. >> what i think needs to be said over and over again about repulsive bigotry and racism in this country and how we can never get to normal with this, we must always, every single time stand up and repudiated and

condemn it unequivocally every time because the day that we start getting numb to this is the day that they have gotten oxygen, they become normalized, and it is the day that we have a huge hit to our culture and our society. >> he is planning to meet with speaker ryan, said to go through the legislative agenda, he will also being meeting with mitch mcconnell, h may be the first time that the two leaders have spoken since the now infamous the august telephone call, which was described as a profane argument or tirade, the president i am told by white house senior administration officials, harris, will again when he meets with mitch mcconnell, ask them to take another shot at repeal and replace of obamacare, which is what set off the feud in the first place. harris. >> harris: and of course, this also has the backdrop which is fresh and new in the last few hours of both of those men, senator mcconnell and president trump getting on the record with how much they have a shared interest and will work together, jon, the white house

is releasing some new information today on the transgender man in the military, i know it was announced by the present, now we have more details. >> yeah, and just back on the trump relationship, that is a marriage that they can't afford to have end in divorce. we are expecting in the first week that congress is back at the white house, that they will telegraph to the pentagon, the policies and the parameters regarding transgender individuals in the military, here's what we understand that the policy will encompass, they will instruct the pentagon to stop admitting transgendered individuals into the military, consider the deployed ability of current to transgender individuals, and whether they should remain in the military, that is a particularly controversial aspect of this, stop spending on medical treatments and a surgery for those already in the surgery, and they will have six months to implemented, it is already being

met with opposition, a number of groups are fund-raising, you can expect that they will do whatever they can to try to have not turned back at least temporary the new policy on the transgender individuals in the military, but don't forget what president trump said about this in a series of tweets and statements earlier this year, "our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, so this i think is the beginning of a long argument. >> harris: writes, and no doubts that sarah sanders will be asked about this new information on the policies in the military today as well, jon, thank you very much, for more on all of this, let's bring and that the republican on the appropriations committee, good to see you, i thought about you a little bit yesterday, with all of the legislation that was puts in with the va, i know that she worked one-on-one with the president on this very issue, i want to talk with you today about the back and forth between

our leader and to the senate, if you will, for all of america right now, leading the republicans were in the majority, mitch mcconnell and the president of the united states, get your thoughts politically on how that is working. >> well, let me first preface that by saying i understand the frustration of the president, i think a lot of americans are very frustrated when he you hear that you have a chance to do it, and they can't get it done, so i understand completely the frustration over there in the senate, to be fair, we have the majority there but not necessarily the working majority in terms of it only takes two votes, if there are two folks that don't agree, then you can't get some things done, but that being said, it is important that we come to gather and in the white house, quite frankly, so that we can get things done for the american people, so i understand the frustration by the present, i have the same frustration, but i am hopeful that when we get back after this recess that we can roll her

sleeves up and get things done for the american people. >> harris: it is and just him, over repealing obamacare not being able to do that, how does this president to move forward and heal a divide within the republican party as it sits on the hill, is it effective to draw a line? >> no matter where you are in the world, relationships matter, it goes both ways, so it is important to work on those relationships that may be strange at the current moment, but at the same time, midterms are coming up in 2018, and there are a lot of democrats who are very vulnerable, and if he wants more of a functioning majority, i would be focused on turning those seats so that he can have a lot more folks who are on board with the agenda. >> harris: yeah, and he has alluded to wanting to do that,

with people like senator heller and saying look, if you don't get done what you need to get done, you might be out of a job, and he has said that he would like to put his own republicans and seats, let's talk about this new transgender ban in the military, and the details that have come out about this, representative taylor, is there anything that speaks to you, now we are learning how they are going to be implemented. >> well, there are a couple of things here, and i have been very public about this as well too, i think there are people in the military who have medically, physically, psychologically, if they are able to serve their country anyway, i think they should be able to do so, that's being said, to, deploy ability and readiness, we should err on that side, of course, so if there are folks who have a medical condition, for example, no matter what it is, if it prevents and precludes them from being able to deploy, before they come in, there are many people who are not able to serve

in the military, self we should lean on that side because the military is not a social experiment, it is therefore a reason, it has to be disciplined, it has to be lethal and ready to deploy at any time, but as i said, there are folks who are medically ready to go and they are serving the country now and in a great way, and i support that, so i am a little bit split, i haven't seen the exact details yet, i just saw the reporting, so i am interested to see how that goes down. >> harris: yeah, i think everyone is watching to see not only deploy ability, but then do we go back to a situation where it is don't ask, don't tell, will a change in that way? i am going to ask if you can say with us for the commercial break and we are going to come right back, we are watching an on camera white house press briefing minutes away, we will take you there as soon as press secretary sarah sanders begins, and then there is this. >> we are actually asking people to gather up supplies, to stay close to the house this weekend,

don't venture out in less you have to. don't drown. >> harris: we are tracking the path of hurricane harvey, we will be joined with an update. stay close. when they actually did start saving. this gap between when we should start saving and when we actually do is one of the reasons why too many of us aren't prepared for retirement. just start as early as you can. it's going to pay off in the future. if we all start saving a little more today, we'll all be better prepared tomorrow. prudential. bring your challenges. fitting into my skinny jeans ♪again? that's cool. feeling good in slim fit? that's cool. looking fabulous in my little black dress? that's cool. getting the body you want without surgery, needles, or downtime?

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>> harris: well, it has changed, and it is bigger, and it is now a hurricane harvey, and it could become the first to hit texas in nearly a decade, the national weather service says wins have increased to 80 miles per hour, texas, especially those along the gulf coast line are not taking the storm lightly. >> water and food and batteries and flashlights. >> stuff that doesn't need to be refrigerated too much, and just

in case the power goes out and whatnot. and i definitely recommend that people should go get the water before they actually do run out. >> i will may be come in later. >> harris: they are tracking the storm, this is really about respect, respect that rain amounts because it is fierce. >> yeah, we knew that this was going to be a big rain event, harris, and now we know it will also be a big hurricane event, there are two things really to watch, it is a very strong storm already, and the forecast of this is now getting much stronger, so tomorrow night the forecast right now is saying 125-mile-an-hour storm, that is the cap for a hurricane, we haven't seen anything like that along this coast for at least 47 years in this part of texas, there's a lot more people in the area now who haven't experienced anything like that, and so one thing that is incredibly strong

winds, the storm surge, but that is where we are going to see a lot of rain, one thing to note, the water here is really, really warm, and one thing we don't want is water that is warm and really deep, that gives it a lot of energy. hurricanes will pull up water from the lower levels of the ocean, and if the water is warm all the way down, that is what's will strengthen it, that is what we think we are going to see. >> harris: people are going to have to travel some distance, about 30 or 36 hours to get out of the way of this? >> that is why this is so important, ucl of this year, it is stock it doesn't have anywhere to go, it get locks in the area, heavy rainfall in this area from tomorrow afternoon, so some spots will be well over 2 feet of rain, with this, and not just a localized spot, we will see a very wide area, all

the way into wednesday, and we still have the storm hanging out here, it is going to be extreme, but not just in one spot, we will see a wide area, all the way back down south to corpus christi, may be up to twf places, it can't go anywhere, so a little bit inland, but you will have a lot of potential flooding as well. >> you really have to be prepared to be away from what you know. thank you very much. we are awaiting a white house press briefing right now, and when that begins, will bring it to you live. also, the islamic state has released a new propaganda video, featuring who they claim is a 10-year-old american boy, the details next. i had tonight- four weeks without the car. okay, yup. good night. with accident forgiveness your rates won't go up just because of an accident.

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>> harris: we are watching, and this is different, moments away for the first press briefing in nearly a month, he continues to go after leaders, the president it tweeted "i requested that mitch mcconnell and paul ryan tie the debt ceiling in a popular va bill which just passed for easy approval, they didn't do it, so we have a big deal with dems holding them up as usual, from approval, it could have been so easy, now a mess. my guest onset, new jersey congressman who serves on the house energy and congress committee, lets her with the back and forth really it is a power issue, you have leadershi leadership, both the house and senate, the president making the point, you could type to winning legislation and push things through, is he right?

>> i think he may have a point on that, harris, and that might have been the vehicle to make sure that we appropriately raise the debt ceiling, nobody likes to raise the debt ceiling, but we have to pay our bills in the united states, but we are going to have to do it in september, and i hope that the leadership and the president can work together, and i expect that they will. >> harris: so there has been pushed back about whether logistically that could have worked, but do you get the feeling that those in your party with this present certainly don't want to support him in some ways? i mean why is this happening? >> i think that we all want to work together and work on the major issues, and they include for example, making sure that the government is funded appropriately and making sure that we increase the debt ceiling, nobody likes to do that, but we have to pay our bills on time, as ronald reagan said, and then of course tax reform, it is important that we get to that major issue as quickly as possible. >> harris: so you shared with me that during your time away from congress this summer, your

break, that you held a town hall meeting, into the number one topic was still health care, the president has said that he would like for congress to do this. >> i am known as the problem solvers caucus, and it is a compromise. >> harris: does the president like it? >> we don't know yet, but i hope that he and the administration will look at it, and yes, i think that we should take a second bite at the apple, but we can do more than one thing at once, but i think that tax reform is very important. >> harris: just saying on health care for a minute, who among the democrats do you have that would come with you on this bipartisan problem solving legislation? >> it is a handful of moderate democrats, and those on the republican side, i am in that group that want to work with democrats. >> harris: do you have enough? >> we have 40 members, it is not a majority, but it is certainly a start. >> harris: all right, let's talk tax reform, because that

could be the victory that she could deliver to the nation, wall street seems to think that it could still happen, can it? democrats are saying no, warning, don't touch certain things in the tax code. >> i think that we have to reform the tax code, it might lead to 1.7 million new jobs, it's could make it take-home pay in this country increased on average 8.7%, and i hope that the democrats will come to the table, tax reform in 1985, 1986, very much bipartisan under ronald reagan's leadership, and i ask and requested that the democrats come to the table because the american people cry out for tax reform. >> harris: and it do you begin with just the corporate tax? >> i would like to see individual rates lowered as well, but certainly, the corporate rate has to be lowered, 35%, we should go higher to a territorial situation, you should be able to

bring those prophets home without paying of the differential rates. >> harris: you sound very optimistic, thank you for that positivity on a thursday and for coming and in person. get to see you. while, isis is releasing a new propaganda video, and it features a child that claims to be a 10-year-old american boy. the son of a u.s. soldier who is now living in ices control of syria. all of these are claims that fox news cannot independently verify, chief intelligence correspondent has been looking into this, catherine. >> these intelligence officials are examining this video, and they are also trying to confirm that it is in fact a 10-year-old boy in that video who traveled to syria, about two years ago with his mother, the father is described in the video as a veteran who was deployed to iraq, and that is also being looked at, it shows the boy inside a mosque and apparently learning how to use a sniper rifle, isis had used children and videos before, but this does appear to be the first time they

have showed a child planning to be an american citizen, they reviewed the video, they said that they terror group is attempting to generate fear and anxiety in the u.s., after last week the terror attack in barcelona, and they are still producing relatively sophisticated battlefield videos like this one. >> harris: this seems to be a shift, using an american child, if it turns out to be true, what is the big picture? >> with the battlefield losses and with his military campaign, the expectation for well over 18 months has been that isis fighters would flee to their home countries in europe, north africa, as well as the u.s. and canada, bringing with them battlefield training and ramping up the homeland security, the threat in this country, but the director of george washington university's program on extremism recently told fox that something different is happening.

>> in the attacks that we have seen over the last three years, only 18% of the perpetrators were foreign fighters, the vast majority of people had not gone to syria and iraq to fight, that's might change a bit over the next few months, some will make their way back, but i think that most will not for a variety of reason, they will be killed or arrested. so the bottom line is that's the propaganda matters because it is designed for people who are self radicalized in countries outside of iraq, syria, and libya, as a way to pour gasoline on the fire of the radical ideas, and these individuals cannot travel to syria, iraq, libya, so they become extremely frustrated, and they decide to act on in their home countries, so that is kind of the new face of that threat, and that is why the videos are important in that dialogue. >> harris: catherine, thank you very much, all right, let's take a look, the white house press briefing just moments away, the schedule is

just about a minute and a half from now, sarah sanders is about to face reporters, and you can bet they have a lot of questions after an interesting week of news, and a lot of speeches by president trump so far, and it is just thursday, plus bob menendez is facing trial for corruption, and the judge has ordered a shift in the balance of power on capitol hill, potentially, if he keeps this man and makes him stay over for the case they are looking into, we will talk about the battles on capitol hill, if menendez doesn't show up to vote on things. take a look.

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>> harris: well, this update from authorities on the ground in charleston, south carolina now include several hostages by a gunman, let's go right now and listen to the mayor in charleston given update. >> all right, guys, you may have heard that, what sounded like a shot. >> harris: all right, it did not last long, we are watching during the commercial break, he was joined by -- we understand -- a member of the police force, law enforcement down there, we didn't get to a complete name, it was very quick, two things happen, one of the report is said that he heard a loud noise, he describes from what we could hear as a shot, the authorities on the grounds that we are going to go quickly and check that out, they didn't comment on it in any sort of way, a swot is present, they

mentioned that, several hostages now, and they carry out negotiations with someone who has taken them hostage, that is the situation that has played out, we know of at least -- that this has been going on for well over an hour, this is a popular tourist area for shopping, gunshots fired there, and we wd gallagher covering the story a little bit earlier, there was one person who had been shot, and one person who had been taken hostage, now the situation has changed, and to the authorities on the ground, the mayor and the other gentlemen he was joined with, with the police department, kind of some wild audio right there, as someone heard something, but meanwhile, he said i don't have a working number to give you of hostages, so they are in the middle of negotiations, and we will follow the situation, as news pops more on it, they had just given a news conference about 45 minutes prior, so as they get more

information, we'll bring it to you, charleston, south carolina, an active shooter, hostages taken. and now let's go to a another fox news story that is developing right now. the u.s. navy is suspending the ocean search for the nine sailors still missing after a collision between the uss mccain and a cargo ship near singapore, but the navy workers will continue to search and five flooded compartments of that ship where they have found the remains of some, this comes as the navy has identified those missing crewmembers, who have not yet been recovered, jennifer griffith is live at the pentagon with more on that. >> harris, the search at sea was called off after 80 hours, the divers will continue searching out flooded compartments, or some remains have already been found, he spoke after his predecessor was fired. >> we have experienced tragic events, often it is a brutal reminder that what we do is

dangerous work in an unforgiving environment. we need need to hone the skilld constant vigilance. >> the cost in this case was extremely high, today, the navy released the names of all of those missing, they ranged in age from 20 to 39 years old, only one has been recovered so far, they were all inside of the compartments when the accident occurred, human error is suspected, and the navy is investigating a possible steering failure. >> harris: such a heartbreaking story, i want to talk a little bit about afghanistan, if we have learned anymore and, if you lean on the details he doesn't want to lean on it too much. >> 3900 more u.s. troops, general jon nicholson, the top commander in afghanistan the spoke this morning, and he revealed that some of those troops are already on their way,

most of them appear to be trainers, he had a tough warning for the taliban and said that any isis cells in afghanistan would be annihilated. >> this i would hope would give the encouragement to the afghan people about this new policy is different, it is condition based not time-based, and it is a peaceful reconciliation, that means there will be no terrorist attacks emanating from this region against the afghan people or against the united states and its allies. >> general nicholson added that afghanistan would need to crackdown on corruption among the military forces, they have already trained, he says that the u.s. plan will fail and already an angry reaction to the plan from afghanistan's neighbor. pakistani legislators issued angry statements taking issue with the idea that there are terrorist safe havens inside of pakistan. >> instead of adopting a peaceful position, pakistan

should give a job breaking response to this announcement. >> they match four hours after president trump speech to formulate a response, we expected to hear more from the white house when the briefing begins shortly. harris. >> harris: jennifer, thank you very much, and again, we are awaiting the briefing, we can expect some questions about trump's relationship with his own political party, specifically jeff flake and mitch mcconnell, guy benson is the political editor of townhall.com, democratic strategist, great to see both of you, let's starts and as we await this, i may have to cut right in and go to sarah sanders at the lectern at the white house, that may happen, but it's what is the deal with senator jeff flake? his approval ratings are way down, and so the president may be looking to say look, there is a guy who was already politically wounded, and he didn't help me out, this is what jeff flake had to say about needing a government shutdown in order to get the board are.

>> we don't need a government shutdown, that never ends well, we don't save money doing it, and with regard to border security, i think that the president and all of us share the same goal to get a secure border, that is the goal, not to just fulfill a campaign promise, the wall that it doesn't make sense in certain areas, certainly in certain areas, i would love to show the president those areas. >> harris: so, interesting, that is a complete pushback, and the president is not shy about pushing right back. >> what is interesting about flake is that he has been voting basically straight republican ticket, republican line in the senate during the trump presidency, he voted to confirm all of these judges, at every turn yes on health care to move that process forward, he will be a "yes," i am sure, on tax reform, so in terms of issues, he hasn't really crossed the president, where he has, it has been more criticism of trumps style and comments, and so it is

an unusual time in washington, with trump in as president, may be to republicans who are arguably in danger in 2018, coming under consistent and withering criticism from a president of their own party, and sort of firing back, i am sure that the democrats are licking their chops and very grateful for this fighting among republicans. >> harris: all right, so michael, you might be right about that, you guys might be salivating a little bit, but then there is sort of a wrench that got thrown in, that new jersey senator mcdonough mee democrats are going to fall short of some certain issues come up, maybe health care comes back onto the plane. >> absolutely, if he is not allowed to return to d.c. to vote, the republicans are definitely going to take a hit, with mccain also being out for health purposes, and we hope that he makes a recovery and

comes back soon, it puts republicans at a weird cross paths because with democrats it down and republicans down one, they almost cancel each other out, republicans can only afford to stomach lose two seats, so there'll be an interesting conversation about whether republicans tried to bring over democrats or what happens, but i think increasingly what we are seeing is the president isolated and not being able to work with mcconnell or paul ryan. >> harris: well, they are saying that they are working together and they plan to have a meeting as soon as we get back to work on the health, it is interesting with menendez though, he is not opting out, he may be having to leave, and steps leaves you guys in an interesting position on the democratic side, we are winning this white house press briefing, so i'm going to ask you to stick around so that we can talk about it, so thank you, in addition to monitoring the white house briefing, we are also watching hurricane harvey, and we have seen a just and the last couple of hours become a hurricane. and now we know it is set to

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we lost a lot of food. we actually filed a claim with usaa to replace that spoiled food. and we really appreciated that we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life. >> harris: we have seen a lot happen on this day in terms of political policy and news from this white house, not to mention just one of those things, the transgender implementation for new rules in the military, they deploy the ability of transgender people in our military being one of the issues that that policy handles, might sarah sanders to be asked about that, the white house press briefing secretary, as she steps up to the lectern, we will bring you that event alive, and this is the first on camera that we have seen in several weeks, the report is there have been assembled for well over an hour, as they wait for her, she is not that late, but they have been there that long, democrats are hoping to gain seats in the

midterm election, of course, targeting areas of the nation where the president has strong support, despite people they are historically voting democrat, peter is live in cedar rapids, iowa, with more. peter. >> and congressman rada blum says that he is not even thinking about it yet, though he is one who is trying to win back its back. he does not think that they are all going to let him in when they go to vote. >> i think there is an independent streak end of this district, the majority of voters here are registered independently, they are not so blinded by politics, i think it is one of the reasons that i have done well is i don't even think about partisan politics when i think about bills, when i think about my stances on the issues.

>> still, the democratic chairman says that democrats got more excited after the 2016 election the done they were before, and part of their strategy is going to be to harness that energy to take out blum and replace them with a democrat. >> yeah, i guess they probably hope that's that intensity really spreads infectiously because they didn't have it going into the election, as you just mentioned, so what are they going to do to tuneup excitement? >> they have been really hammering republicans on health care, we went to a meeting of the linn county democrats in the district, and the big applause line was all about health care, including one from courtney rowe, vying to get on the ballots as a.d., she is a local engineer who supports single payer health care. >> when i talk to voters, whether they voted for trump, clinton, whether they voted for nobody, they voted third party, the biggest issue that comes up here in iowa and in this

district is health care. and people almost universally are supporting universal health care. >> and even though she is a democrat, she doesn't think the democrats did a very good job of making their case as the party that cared about people in this district in 2016, now the engineer is going to try to do better herself in 2018. >> harris: all right, we'll watch for it, this is what else we are watching, and it is huge. hurricane harvey, on track to become the first hurricane to hit texas in nearly a decade, we said we would bring you back it, some things are changing steadily. >> yeah, it is strengthening, we are also talking about the first major hurricane to hit to this part of texas in 40 years, think about how much smaller the population was and where they lived, and they will largely impact coastal areas, the rain is going to fall far inland,

they need to evacuate, which might be three or 400 miles. it is a very big hardship. we have been watching it since i came up the coast of africa, now it is right here in the gulf, people not having a huge amount of time to prepare for this, we have about 36 hours before we have landfall, probably around corpus christi, a major hurricane. we'll have it sometime late tomorrow night. >> harris: thank you for the update, and we are watching what is happening, waiting for that briefing to begin moments from now.

>> harris: fox news alert, we have been told that we are very close to this, we are awaiting the white house briefing, guy

benson is a political editor of townhall.com and a fox news contributor, democratic strategist, i am asking you to come back it, we are going to talk about politics as we await sarah sanders, the white house press secretary to step up and begin taking questions from reporters there in the room, i want to start with you and the idea, politico ran an article today about where the white house's ads with its leadership and the new chief of staff, he is there now, starting to make some changes already, let's pop something up on the screen, i want to get your response, this again from politico, it is an effort to make trump conform to the white house decision-making norm, he has floated without making him feel shackled or out of the loop, first of all, your thoughts on that and how you don't want to alienate the people who voted for him. >> definitely not, but this is fundamentally the job of the white house chief of staff, throughout modern history, what's the chief of staff serves as is the chief gatekeeper to

the president, that involves people, time, information, making sure that the president -- that his attention is focused at various parts of the day without getting distracted, anyone who walks up in the door, the present time is extremely valuable, and the job of the chief of staff is to make sure that it is being maximized to the greatest extent possible, there is nothing unusual about this, this strikes me as general kelly a frankly doing his job, and trying it to tighten the ship that was may be running a bit off course in the oval office in the west wing. >> harris: are you impressed by where it is gone? >> well, it is a mixed bag so far, but one of his first actions, aside from booting a couple people out of the west wing was to make it a much more structured process to actually get face time with the president of the united states, he has limited hours in the day

like all of us, and he has more demands than any of us on his time, and having that sort of time is almost an open door policy, people walking in, saying hello, distracting the president, that does not to behoove the administration or the president's agenda, task one, now it looks like he is going after the information flow as well. >> harris: michael, i want to talk to you a little bit about the opportunity, and whether they go forward or message on a couple things that could really benefit the nation, a whole host, but certainly tax reform ends the debt ceiling. >> absolutely, i think the debt ceiling has to be raised, and a paul ryan and numerous other republicans have come out and said that it cost more money to actually shutdown the government then will be saved by not raising the debt ceiling, so i think we will be able to work together on that. >> harris: so you think that the democrats will help in this funding situation for the wall? >> no, i don't, the democrats are not going to help pay for

the wall, but at the end of the day, i don't believe that to the wall is going to be a poker chip that the president is able to effectively use in this kind of gamble of whether or not we shut down the government. shutting down the government should never be a playable issue. >> harris: we are going to take a quick break, will bear back. you don't let anything lkeep you sidelined. come on! that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals... for the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. ensure, always be you.

>> harris: the white house press briefing has begin with sarah huckabee sanders. let's watch. >> earlier this week, the. delivered his first prime time address to the nation on our path forward in afghanistan and south asia. his strategy is based on conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables. it will ensure that terrorists never use afghanistan as a haven to attack the united states. the brave men and women of our nation's military have given extraordinary sacrifices to this longest war in american history. the president recognizes the sacrifices and i'd like to recognize one story today. joseph from tennessee, sent his son a letter while he was in the air force and serving in iraq.

now he's on his second tour of duty in afghanistan. his father shared the letter and mailed it to the president that he wrote. joseph told the president that he's been a police officer for over 30 years and he sent this letter to his son and on to the white house in hopes that the president would actually receive it and read it, which he did. joseph wrote, "please don't lose sight of your purpose. you're the only hope and glimmer of light for the innocent men and children that you're protecting. this may be hard for you to see or understand, most people know that all of you are there because you volunteered to be there. your actions and dedication are seen by people throughout the world as without a doubt the most heroic action of any person which can be made. you and the soldiers next to you from all of the other countries are the pride of not only the nations they represent but every individual that yearns to be free.

stand tall, my son and be steadfast. you are the defender of freedom". we owe it to the service men and women that have fought in afghanistan for 17 years and the families that have watched them go, to security and honorable and lasting outcome to this conflict. as the president said monday, the men and women that serve our nation in combat deserve a plan for victory. once that victory has been achieved, they also deserve to return home to a country that honors their sacrifices and provides our nation's heros with the support they earned by risking their lives to ensure the freedoms of all americans. that's why the president was also honored to sign yet another historic piece of legislation to support our veterans earlier this week. the va choice act streamlines the process of getting benefits for the more than 70,000 veterans wai