[MUSIC PLAYING]

When you've heard it over and over again,

10 days and The Mooch is out.

My goodness gracious, they don't last long.

But I'll tell you what, when your communications director

better not do a piece with "The New Yorker," off the record,

so-called, and fill it with a whole bunch of expletives--

not cool.

Well, President Trump's new chief of staff

is wasting no time on the first day of his job.

He's looking to bring order and discipline to the West Wing.

And one of his first orders was getting

rid of the communications director, Mr. Scaramucci.

While the Trump administration is also

dealing with another growing foreign policy crisis,

the chaos in Venezuela.

Dale Hurd has that story.

One of General John Kelly's first orders of business was

to convince President Trump to dismiss White House

communications director, Anthony Scaramucci,

who had attacked fellow White House staffers

in a profanity-laced interview with a reporter.

Scaramucci lasted only 10 days.

Look, the president certainly felt

that Anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person

in that position.

And he didn't want to burden General Kelly.

Did General Kelly ask him to leave?

Or did the President ask him to leave?

Did he volunteer his resignation?

Or how did that come about?

I'm not going to get into the process, tick-tock.

Look, as we've said several times before,

what matters most to us is not who's

employed in the White House, but who's employed

in the rest of the country.

DALE HURD: Scaramucci became the seventh major administration

official to leave in President Trump's first six months.

General Kelly previously ran the Department

of Homeland Security.

We all know him.

We respect him, admire what he's done.

DALE HURD: Kelly will need a smooth

running White House to handle the multitude of foreign policy

problems left by the Obama administration--

news that new North Korean missiles now

have the range to hit much of the continental US;

a new, mini Cold War with Russia after Congress slapped

sanctions on the Putin regime, and Russia expelled 755 US

diplomats; and the growing crisis in Venezuela, which

has been hit by political unrest and violence in recent months,

and where the White House says socialist president,

Nicolas Maduro, is building a dictatorship

with the creation of a new Constituent Assembly

to rewrite the Constitution to give him more power.

The Treasury Department hit Maduro with economic sanctions.

Maduro himself, he joins a very exclusive club,

including Mr. Mugabe, Bashar al-Assad,

and Kim Jong-un in terms of the brutal repression of his

people--

and in this case, the abrogation of the Constitution

with the assembly.

Trump's team will need as much order and discipline

as possible in the days ahead, with so many foreign policy

challenges abroad while gearing up to take on tax reform

and the budget battle here at home.

Dale Hurd, CBN News.

If you remember, ladies and gentlemen,

maybe you don't-- a few years ago,

we were discussing with David Brody a piece that he had done

with our reporter about the crook crisis building

in Venezuela.

And Hugo Chavez was a madman who was enthralled to the Cubans.

And he had said, the Americans were

going to try to assassinate me.

And so, I made an offhand remark, well,

maybe we should go ahead and do that.

Well, that was world wide--

Robertson calls for the assassination of Chavez.

Well, I tell you what--

it would have been a whole lot better for Venezuela

if they'd done it at that time.

But instead of that, they have a terrible situation now.

And it's really time to get busy.

We can't let that ulcer fester on our southern shores the way

it is.

Now, we're going to put sanctions on it-- so what?

We're not going to put sanctions on the import of crude oil

from Venezuela.

Why?

Because we've got a number of refineries in America

that want to take what is called Oriente, which is a--

it's a heavy crude that they need

to fill out their portfolio of oils

that go into their refineries.

And without that Venezuelan oil, they will be short.

They get some coming in from what they call North Slope,

but that's not enough.

So, our people are saying, OK, leave that alone.

Well, that's the only thing going to hurt them.

And all we've got now is just a slap on the wrist.

We need the OAS or some organization

to get in there immediately and deal with that situation.

It's gotten out of control.

And the Cubans still are manipulating Venezuela

to the damage of the people there.

And something's got to be done.

Well, our CBN News political correspondent, David Brody,

is with us right now.

And David, let's start with Kelly.

Is General Kelly, was he responsible

for Scaramucci's firing?

Who made that decision?

100%-- John F. Kelly responsible for it, not

a question in anybody's mind.

Donald Trump would admit that, John F. Kelly

would admit that as well, and everybody within the West Wing,

too.

Look, this is the general's show.

And the good news for John Kelly is that he is in charge.

And if you think about it, President Trump

needs John Kelly probably more than John Kelly needs this job.

I mean, this is a guy who's 67 years old.

He's been in the military 46 plus years.

He's had a wonderful, wonderful life.

So, he's in a position of strength.

And one thing we know, Pat, about Donald Trump,

he loves those generals.

He talked a lot about General Patton.

Boy, he loved Patton.

He sees John F. Kelly, James Mattis, these guys

in that same vein, if you will.

And I think that's going to help here.

Reince Priebus, no disrespect here, he was younger--

45, an RNC guy.

General Kelly, much different--

67 and a general.

He's a peer of Donald Trump's.

Hopefully it will make a difference.

What about Jared Kushner?

Does he come on to the orbit of Kelly, or is he an independent?

Well, on paper he comes under the order of Kelly.

And the working arrangement at this point,

and we'll see how far "this point" goes,

is that he will be under Kelly-- that he will report to Kelly,

and then Kelly-- everything will funnel through,

which is what a chief of staff is typically supposed to do.

Now, having said that, the last time I checked--

hold on, Jared Kushner is the president's son-in-law.

And of course, Ivanka Trump is there as well.

And so, look, the kids are going to have access.

I mean, whether it be after hours,

whether it be in the hallway.

I mean, clearly the kids are going

to have access to their father.

So, the question then becomes, how

do you do this during normal business hours,

and can there be a chain of command?

But I think John Kelly is basically telling the kids

and others to say, look, if you want your father/father-in-law

to be successful, you need to get in line.

Let's get this thing straightened out.

All right.

We were starting to talk about Venezuela.

It is a bubbling cauldron down there.

The Cubans, obviously, are manipulating

the Venezuelan military.

Has anybody got any really significant steps to take?

The sanctions, to my point of view,

are not going to stop what's being done down there.

Well, sanctions, as you said, Pat, a slap on the wrist.

The White House acknowledges that this is just a first step.

They're thinking about sanctions as it relates to the oil sector

and what they can do down there.

That is on the table.

They said it yesterday that it's on the table.

The question is, will they go there?

Now, I will say this.

If there's going to be any president that's

going to quote, "go there," it would be Donald Trump.

I don't think there's any question about that, especially

when it comes to trade and oil.

And it's an area that he knows well and is able to navigate.

And so, I think there's that possibility.

One of the problems for Maduro right now

is that he's now on Twitter trashing the president.

And quite frankly, if you're going to go that route,

I don't think you're going to out-tweet the tweeter-in-chief.

So, I think that might not be the best strategy.

Well, those poor Venezuelans.

It's just terrible what's being done.

That country was one of the richest in the whole world.

It has probably the first or second oil

reserves in the world.

And it's being trashed by that bunch that's

taken over, with Hugo Chavez leading the way.

He's dead now.

Well, the good news here, Pat, is

that John F. Kelly has some experience

as it relates to Venezuela and some of his military career.

And you have Marco Rubio and quite a few other senators,

but especially Rubio, who has been very hard on Maduro

for a long time.

We've had conversations with him about that.

And he has, obviously, access to the Oval Office.

I guess he'll have to go through John Kelly now.

But the point is is that he has the president's ear on Maduro.

And he's been very, very strong in coming out against Maduro

for a very long time now.

Well, we'll keep watching it.

It is a serious thing.

And my take on it is we ought to call the OAS.

They ought to go in immediately.

They may have to take military action-- not the United

States, but the other South American countries.

They could do it.

We can't.

Thank you, David.

You bet.

Well, in other news, some leaders of Israel

are concerned about a new threat from Iran.

They're worried Iran could take advantage

of the recent ceasefire in Syria to eventually launch

a war against Israel.

Wendy Griffith has that one.

Pat, that's right.

President Trump and Russian President, Vladimir Putin,

recently announced that ceasefire

in parts of southern Syria.

And as Chris Mitchell reports from the border near the Golan

Heights, some Israeli leaders feel

it could open the door to a clear and present danger

to the Jewish state.

CHRIS MITCHELL: President Trump discussed the ceasefire

in this exclusive interview with CBN founder, Pat Robertson.

Now, I don't know what's going to happen.

Maybe as we're speaking, they start shooting again.

But this is held unlike all of the other ceasefires that

didn't mean anything.

So, that was a great thing that came out of that meeting.

I'm standing on the Golan Heights.

And behind me, you can see the Israeli-Syrian border.

All of the area behind me is covered

by the ceasefire agreement.

But according to reports, Israeli Prime Minister,

Benjamin Netanyahu, doesn't share

President Trump's optimism about the ceasefire agreement.

And the main reason?

Iran.

One senior Israeli official told the Israeli Daily "Haaretz,"

"It creates a disturbing reality in southern Syria.

The agreement doesn't include a single explicit work

about Iran, Hezbollah, or the Shiite militias in Syria."

The regime and Hezbollah and the others have touched

the border here, at [INAUDIBLE].

CHRIS MITCHELL: We talk with Middle East expert,

Jonathan Spyer, About the potential danger that could

result from the agreement.

Israel is concerned that the ceasefire, coming

along with the new apparent revelations of withdrawal

of US support, at least for part of the support given

to the rebels, could be paving the way for regime,

and Russian, and therefore, Iranian Hezbollah achievements

in that area.

And that's a matter of deep concern.

CHRIS MITCHELL: Spyer says Iran is building a land

bridge across the Middle East.

The Iranian ambition is to have a contiguous corridor

of de facto Iranian control stretching

all the way across Iraq here and then across southern Syria.

And then of course, at this point, you hit Israel

and also, via Lebanon, you get to the Mediterranean Sea.

These are two big Iranian ambitions.

CHRIS MITCHELL: It's those ambitions that

put Israel in grave danger.

And the prospect is-- and in another war,

if Israel goes to war, let's say, with Hezbollah again,

in here or in southern Lebanon in the future, yeah?

You'll have a clear, contiguous logistical line,

stretching all the way across Syria, Iraq, and back to Iran.

Now, Iran can run supplies across that line.

It could run thousands of volunteers,

for example, across that line.

But it would massively increase the dimensions, potentially,

of a future war between Israel and Iran-supported Hezbollah.

And that's something of very deep concern to Israel.

CHRIS MITCHELL: That's why some are warning

the next phase of the Syrian Civil War

might be the most dangerous of all.

Chris Mitchell, CBN News, the Golan Heights, Israel.

Thanks Chris.

Pat, how serious do you think this is for Israel?

I think it's very serious.

You know, what we learned is that the North Koreans have

developed a guidance system for the Scud missile.

And everybody was using Scuds, you know.

Way back in the days of Saddam Hussein, he had Scuds.

But the Scuds were not aimed properly,

so they missed their target quite frequently.

Now, if they have technologically superior Scuds,

they can actually target where they're going.

Now, there are all kinds of Scud batteries

on the north of Israel.

Hezbollah has them.

If they've picked up that technology, and then

all of a sudden, Iran is backing them

with more money and more supplies

and so forth, they can decimate Israel.

I was over there during that last war.

And some of those missiles were coming down.

But they were missing their targets.

They missed targets in Haifa.

They missed targets around where I was in the area--

near the Golan Heights, in that area,

and also in the heartland of Israel.

But they missed, fortunately.

This next time, they won't miss.

And the threat to Israel will be profound.

So ladies and gentlemen, keep a watch.

Wendy?

Pat-- NASA is planning to test its system for defending earth

against threats from space when a small asteroid flies by Earth

in October.

The "London Daily Mail" reports that the asteroid will come--

get this-- as close as 4,000 miles, or as far as 170,000

miles to earth.

NASA will use its international network of observatories

to follow the space rock and learn more about it.

The space agency is hoping to learn

how well it can track future asteroid approaches,

so they can be detected before they become

a serious threat to Earth.

Pat-- 4,000 miles to Earth.

That seems a little bit close.

It's like next door neighborhood.

When they get close, the gravity of earth

takes over and starts sucking those things into our--

well, into our orbit, then into our space.

And it's very dangerous.

I wrote a book [INAUDIBLE] called "The End of the Age."

And in my book, I had an interesting encounter

of the American president, who was on television.

And he had just seen the hit of an asteroid on Earth.

And before television, he took a pistol,

and he shot himself and said, I'm

sorry I vetoed the measure which would have given the funding

to track the asteroids.

Well, right now, we don't have anybody doing that.

So, I hope they'll put up the dough to do it,

because we really, really need to watch those things.