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Speaker 1: New White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, asserted his

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Speaker 1: authority on day one by firing Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci,

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Speaker 1: a strong message to those inside and outside the White

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Speaker 1: House that he's in charge. Republicans are hoping that Kelly

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Speaker 1: will bring order to a White House where chaos and

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Speaker 1: scandal have reigned. Is that mission impossible? Here to help

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Speaker 1: us put the role of White House chief of staff

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Speaker 1: in perspective is David Cohen, political science professor at the

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Speaker 1: University of Akron. He's currently co authoring a manuscript entitled

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Speaker 1: The President's Chief of Staff, Evolution of a White House Institution.

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Speaker 1: And I'm sure you're gonna have a lot more information

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Speaker 1: to put in your manuscript David soon. So, as a

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Speaker 1: White House institution, what is the role of the chief

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Speaker 1: of staff, Well, let me just say that the Trump

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Speaker 1: White House is the kift that keeps on giving. So

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Speaker 1: you're exactly right. There's a lot of a lot of

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Speaker 1: things that are going to be going into the Trump

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Speaker 1: chapter in this book. The role of the White House

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Speaker 1: chief the staff is an important one. It's a complicated one. Uh,

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Speaker 1: It's one in which the chief is supposed to regulate

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Speaker 1: access to the presidents both paper and people. Um. They're

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Speaker 1: supposed to be the gatekeeper at the oval office door. Uh,

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Speaker 1: to make sure that the President is using his time

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Speaker 1: wisely and that lots of people aren't going into the

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Speaker 1: president to talk about various things. Um. The chief of

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Speaker 1: staff is supposed to instill discipline upon the White House,

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Speaker 1: to make sure that there aren't more in factions that

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Speaker 1: are undercutting each other, and that everybody's working as a team.

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Speaker 1: And I think the most important thing to achieve of

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Speaker 1: staff does is to be a guardian for the President's interests,

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Speaker 1: which means standing up to the president and telling the president,

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Speaker 1: uh know sometimes and telling the President that he's about

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Speaker 1: to make a very bad decision that's gonna hurt him politically. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And you know, those are all important roles. And there's

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Speaker 1: many more roles that chief of Staff assumes, but it's

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Speaker 1: it's the most important unelected position in our government. David.

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Speaker 1: There have not been a lot of generals who have

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Speaker 1: been chiefs of staff in the White House. This is

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Speaker 1: actually a rare occurrence that a general will get appointed.

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Speaker 1: Do you think somebody with Kelly's background in the military

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Speaker 1: is the kind of person who could work as chief

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Speaker 1: of staff in this White House. Well, first of all,

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Speaker 1: you're correct. In fact, he is only the third general

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Speaker 1: I believe that has served as Chief the staff of

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Speaker 1: the last one with Al hag who took over after

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Speaker 1: hr Holden wasspired during the Nixon years. Um. I think, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, General Kelly brings a different portfolio to the job.

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Speaker 1: I think in this instance, being a general, being from

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Speaker 1: the military, I think will help him because uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: having spent his career in the military, uh, and building

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Speaker 1: his career upon the notion of discipline in the chain

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Speaker 1: of command, I think he's somebody that can probably impose

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Speaker 1: that kind of uh discipline structure on the White House. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And I think he's somebody that you know, he's uh,

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Speaker 1: he's pretty much seen at all. And I think he's

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Speaker 1: going to be unafraid to speak truth to power. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And that is, you know, to his boss in the

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Speaker 1: Oval office. And that's that's the most important thing that

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Speaker 1: he can do at this point. I listened to several

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Speaker 1: of the things that you mentioned that that the chief

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Speaker 1: of Staff is supposed to do, one being regulating access

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Speaker 1: to the president. And we listened yesterday to the press

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Speaker 1: conference from the White House Press secretary about you know,

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Speaker 1: whether or not his daughter and son in law going

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Speaker 1: to have access to him, And the question was sort of,

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Speaker 1: he'll decide. Do you think that's going to be very

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Speaker 1: difficult for him to stop people from going in just

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Speaker 1: Willie Milly, Well, well, when it has to do with

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Speaker 1: the president's children, Uh, it's this is why we have

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Speaker 1: nepotism laws, right the unfortunately don't apply to the White

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Speaker 1: and it's going to be very difficult for the cheapest

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Speaker 1: staff to tell his own daughter or a son in

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Speaker 1: law that they can't see the president like he could

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Speaker 1: do with a regular White House staff. Of so, I

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Speaker 1: don't know in that case how he's going to be

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Speaker 1: able to do that. And you know they can you know,

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Speaker 1: John Kelly's not going to be living at the White House,

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Speaker 1: and I'm sure his daughter knows how to get a

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Speaker 1: message to her dad or or communicate with her dad. So, um,

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Speaker 1: that's going to be a very difficult task. And um,

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Speaker 1: you know, right now, I don't think uh Avanka or

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Speaker 1: Jared Kushner are going to exploit that advantage. Um, but

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Speaker 1: you know, there may be some policy disagreements or political

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Speaker 1: disagreements in which they actually do and they exploit that

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Speaker 1: relationship with the president, and that will undermine the chief

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Speaker 1: of staff, and that's going to make his job that

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Speaker 1: much harder. David. Obviously, the chiefs of staff, as as

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Speaker 1: you point out, an incredibly important position for imposing order

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Speaker 1: on the White House. But how much of this really

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Speaker 1: depends on what the president allows him to do and

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Speaker 1: what the President's meant style is. I think that is

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Speaker 1: the X factor and all of this. That's the most

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Speaker 1: important thing, you know, as the president, uh is truly

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Speaker 1: committed to granting John Kelly the authority and the power

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Speaker 1: and the prestige that that the position demands, and he's

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Speaker 1: committed to not undercutting his chief of stat like he's

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Speaker 1: undercut so many other members of his administration. You know,

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Speaker 1: this could work, but we're talking about a seventy one

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Speaker 1: year old man that is very much stuck in his ways. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He is an impulsive person. Uh. He's shown very little

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Speaker 1: understanding of the job as presidents even six months in

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Speaker 1: and really has been unwilling to change and to be

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Speaker 1: become more presidential and to learn on the job. I

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Speaker 1: think right now it's going to work in the short term,

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Speaker 1: and it appears that um you know, he's allowing John

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Speaker 1: Kelly some space to be able to reorganize and to regulate.

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Speaker 1: But in the long run, UM, I think Trump is Trump,

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Speaker 1: uh and I think he'll revert to his old patterns.

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Speaker 1: David about thirty seconds. Is part of his job to

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Speaker 1: shield Trump from Mueller's investigation? Absolutely not. His job is

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Speaker 1: to make sure that the president doesn't interfere uh. And

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Speaker 1: at the White House staff and administration do not intercur

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Speaker 1: with Mueller's investigation. UM. That would be protecting the president's

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Speaker 1: political interests um. And as the president is unwilling to

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Speaker 1: do that, I think it's going to be a source

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Speaker 1: of a lot of friction between he and his chief

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Speaker 1: of staff. Thank you, David com We'd love to have

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Speaker 1: you on again. That's He's a political science professor at

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Speaker 1: the University of acron