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tv   Washington Week  PBS  January 25, 2019 7:30pm-8:00pm PST

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robert: the shutdown. short-term fix. but the political war is only beginning. i' robert costa. welcome to "washington week." president trump: i'm very proud to announce today th we have reached a deal to end the shutdown andeopen the federal government. robert: president trump backs a bipartisan deal to reopen the government until mid february. it ends the longest shutdown in hist but conservatives are furious because it does not include money for a border wall. and the president warns if he doesn't get that, he uld declare a national emergency. plus -- >> open the door. robert: trump ally roger stone is arrested in a pre-dawn raid. indicted on seven counts by the
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spec counsel. he vows to fight. >> there is no circumstance whatsoever under which i will bear false witness against the bepresident. ro: we cover it all next. announcer: this is "washingto week." funding is provided by -- >> i was able to turn thear craft around and -- the aircraft around and the mission around and save two men's lives that night. >> my first job helped me to grow up quickly and thatill happenhen you're asked to respond to a coup. >> in 2001 i signed up for the airrce. two days later 9-11 happened. ♪ >> babble. the language program that teaches real life conversations in a new language. such as spanish, french,
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german,nd italian, more. babble's 10 to 15-minute lessons are available as an app or online. more information on announcer: fundingid is pr by through the yuen foundation. committe bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, from washington, moderator robert costa. robert: good evening. president trump announced friday that the longest history shutdown in would end. for three weeks, the deal with congressional leader reopens the government until mid february as talks continue on immigration and president's demand for border wall funding. the trump administration's budget office said that the 800,000 federal workers who have missed paychecks would receive back pay as soon as
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possible. joining me tonight, margaret brennan, moderator of face the tion, and senior foreign affairs correspondent for cbs news. elisabeth bumiller, washington bureau chief for "the new yo times." white house correspondent for "the pbs newshr." and jeff zeleny. senior white house correspondent for cnn. margaret you sat down with vice president pence last sunday. he was talking about a deal. working with democrats. he laid out possible protections for dreamers in exchange for border wall funding. that was a few days ago. what changed friday? >> 14,000 i.r.s. workers apparently didn't show up for work as ordered to do. u had la guardia airport and other airports disrupted because of lack of required t.s.a. agents to actually get people on planesel s so i think some of those reality checks slowe the politics a bit in terms of how to spin this.
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andnstead the president offered this temporary reprieve. but basically at the end of that rose garden address, today,nt the presi said we can do this all ove again in three weeks with this funding oly taking us t february 15. but i was looking back at what the vice president said to me on sunda and he laid out exactly why the president couldn't do what he just did. saying he knows that speaker pelosi even ifeo theyn the government and begin negotiating won't give him that border wall. that was the reason t he said president couldn't do it and yet the president did do it. robert: well, what happened, elisabeth, with president trump? >> well, he was -- he really wanted to make the state of the union addrs. that was a big disappointment to him. it was a -- it's pageantry. it's t kind of -- the presidency that he loves. the sh. and also what happened was that mcconnell said to him i just can't hold my -- i can hold the republicans. there was a lot of phone calls last night. between mcconnell and trump. they continued this morning. trumast night wanted to declare a national emergency and was talked out of it.
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and that's where he went this morning after talkingo mcconnell. and then with tn slowd at la gardia and the i.r.s. workers not turning up, that -- that was enough. robert: so -- >> and want to add one thi is he is talking about a smart wall. so i think tre might be an avenue toward open government in this smart wall which is of course not really a wall butrt f sensors. but that might be where they go with this. robert: that creld be w they go in three weeks. elisabeth, you mentioned he was walked back from a nationaler ncy. was that senate republicans just getting uneasy and people like mcconnell and others side. white house? >> the senate republicans never liked this shutdown and mcconnell had to come tff sideline and decide that nancy pelosi was not going to budge. and he had to move the president. and the president of course, it was classic trump. he declared victory. and it sureoo didn't a lot like a victory but said this is great. but he ended up bk where he started. he ended up -- he made no headway in this -- >> even like worse than when he
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started because he was making a case for the wall and actually became sort of a mocking symbol of something he can't l g but i think the mcconnell calls on thursday night into friday morning, that was key. because the cracks in the senate were becoming very apparent. there was a very explosive lunch that you wrote about into "the washipost," a senate lunch on thursday but it continued. he was losing republicans. so he had to accept political reality. but when you saw president trump in the rose garden, like he was giving this same o speech. still talking about the wall. but it has become much more difficult now. f so three weem now, i do not think there will be another government shutdown. he knows -- he can do one thing. read polls. every single poll said this was bad him. so i would be very surprised if there's another one on his gtch. robert: that'sd point. this agreement does come as the president's approval ratings have dropped. ew "washington post" abc news poll released friday shows 58% of americans disapprove of the job he is dng. and 37% approve. when asked who they thought was mainly resnsible for the
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shutdown, 53% of those surveyed blamed theresident. and republicans. and also pressure points from l 800,000 fede workers. who were going without a paycheck. you saw on friday the f.a.a. temporarily halted flights into new york's la guardia airport. what was another --ere tho the key breaking points as well or was it all politically driven in the senate on?apitol hi >> i think it's really important to walk people through what the president did e was not that going to ever break for a wall. he held a prime time special. he went toexas and actually went to the border. he also had this -- the ip mu meetings where he had all this misleading information where he said drugs are pouring in. our country is being invaded. nor 35 dayse literally made the case and what happened? his approval ratings were dropping. people were blaming him. you had worker -- federal workers saying we cannot take is. and you had people saying apart from the federal workers not getting their money, the cabho driversaid no one is going -- going anywhere in d.c. you had restaurants that were extending literally washington -- washington's restaurant week was extended a week. because psple said no one i going tout and spending money.
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so you had -- the american economy also looking at president trump and saying something needs to give. the white house is -- official stance today was that rank and file democrats told president trump and told replicans that they're going to give him money for the wall. that's what were they sayin who were these democrats who made you this promise? they would not give you one name. that tel t me that president came one this line to tell reporters that. but in reality, it was all the pressure that you just talked about. w robert saw in this showdown over the shutdown, a new dynamic in washington. we have speaker pelosi, three weeks into her job after being sworn in, she's pushed the president to reopen the government and as elisabeth said postpone his state of the union address. she was asked abouthat today. >> state of the union is not planned now. what i said to the president is when government is open,sse will dis mutually agreeable date and i loo forward to doing that and
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welcoming the president to the house of representatives with the state of the u on. when we agree on that mutually. robert: she is saying there the speaker, in her words, that she controls the capitol. but she also ipartontrols this new washington -- was this shutdown as much about speaker losi and her asserting herself in this new d.c. as it was about president trump? >> her ability to flex her muscles to the power and to show what she does control, was masterful in terms of the p.r. win. she can claim that. on this. but it's the matter of the battle versus the war here. president trump looks like he lost this battle. the qstion is does he lose ultimately the war? there's also the question of certainly the polling tha we see says this was unpopular. and you can look at ratings l agencie s&p that says this shutdown cost $1.2 billion per week. that ts could have hurt the economy. but does the president actually come out of this being able to say i was on brand, i fought for this? and pocket a win i someay?
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that's another question. i one of the things that would say is another point perhaps in pelosi's court is because this has been so publicly litanated in ways that the white house is actually kind of talked itself back. we'r no longer talking about -- own this. no longer concrete wall. sea to shining sea and talking about as vice president pence described like 200 miles of steel slats and they're scaling back the ask in the public domain. robert: that's such a good point. was this actually about just showing the republican base he went to the brink, that he did all erked on the wall? >> that of course -- that's what it was about. he can take that to the 2020 campaign and say i did my best. i tried. i was stoed b you know, nancy pelosi. i went -- also address naloncy here. i mean, this is the first -- trurp's first experience with divided government in washington and his firstex rience as cheryl wrote this week dealing with a really, really powerful woman. and you talkeny to of the trump biographers, and they say this was -- this was very
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difficult forhe president. because in the past, he's dealt with powerful women. he likes powerful women. out he's always been going around them t their more powerful male boss and no male boss, nancy pelosi and a tough one forrump and also understands the legislative process more than he does. >> i think that's significant. you saw an experienced leader blink. d not going to leader schumer was not going to blink. so they outmaneuvered tpr ident and very new -- he thinks he can control washington. he is learning very muchdihat ded government is like. but he does respect speaker pelosi. we're comhig out of five-week period and he hasn't branded her with a mean nickname. he -- there is something abo -- respects -- i think this relationship, we still don't know how it's .ing to e we know that president trump likes to make deals. so i don't think that we should view the rest of this year being sort of out the window because of this.i ink that we'll see how this goes. but we've learned a lot about the wall. a lot about what he's willing to compromise on.
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i think we have to watch the right-hand flamping and ann coulterargely responsible or partly responsible for this, she called him weak. and compared him to herbert walker bush, george herbert walker bush. so we'll see what they say. but i'm intrigued to see what the trump-pelosi dynamic -- >> i want to pick up on he something hite house saying how they want to sort of split rank and file -- or that seems to be their th they can split away rank and file democrats from leadership. but they won't name who it is. that actually they say do agree with them. but as a play, it seems to be maybe a bit of projection here. but maybe perhaps truthful ultimately which is that they think they're going to see what democrats the s problempu icans had years ago in terms of on the left a lly essive flank r causing problems for democratic leadership. you didn't see that here in terms of nancy pelosi still kept her caucus in line on this. robert: shse almost them as a weapon and alexander ocaso cortez walking with other
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freshmen to the senate to demand from s ator mcconnell that he hold a vote to reopen the government. how do you see speaker pelosi handling those pressures? >> i think that right now, we've gotten somewhat of a preview of that. there was this talk about whoo is going -- who is going to challenge nancy pelosi for the speakership and what we saw w her one by one do away with the people who were trying to say hallenge going to her. i still remember marsha fudge, representative marsha fudge being almost perp walked into nancy pelosi's office cameras snapping as she came out and i looked at nancy pelosi's calendar and mouch mon she raises and i'm not sure i'm ready for this job. that was a big change from what she was saying before. i also think that it's interesting that president trump called nancy pelosi reasonable. he said the reason why he postponed the state of the union is because h found nancy's offer to be reasonable. reasonable is not the word that esident trump has used with opponents so i think that we see him not in the public atmosphere saying i do respect this woman. li robert:beth, a big profile of senator mcconnell in
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the upcoming "new york times magazine speaking about the word reasonable. what happens around valentine's day when theresident again maybe starts toying with the idea of declaring a national emergency? ere is mcconnell? is mcconnell now the force the republicans -- >> mcconnell has to go to trump and jared kushner and say wehi can't do again. and i think -- i think that is what will happen here. i think -- as -- as we were n saying, this -- this can't happen again. there's actually talk that he would actually pass legislation now making it illegal for another government shutdown to happen. it's not goingpe to h and maybe in the next two weeks but i can see that coming. i just don't thi there's -- there's -- there's no political -- there's noolitical good that will come out of this for president trump to to this again. obert: let's say there's not another shutdown but an agreement. jared kushner kept talking about a big deal. something that included daca protections like vice president pence was talking about with l margart sunday. maybe even adjusting green card policies. is that real, i jeff, thdea of an immigration deal in mid
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february now that the government is reopened? >> it is very for me to get my mind around a big immigration deal. we've all wat ed when president bush was in office and that's the driving force of that republican party orthodoxy at the time. s to get a deal. if they couldn't do it then i don't see how suddenly this becomes something that happens now. we don't like to rule anything out. because this president is nothing if not flexible. and again, he does, i think, want to make a deal. he lov the press coverag when he sees himself getting a deal. he hates this press coverage -- he's saying that it wasn't a concession. he didn't cave. we, he did cave soatch his reaction in the coming days as he watches this all be picked apart. all that said, i can't really see a big immigration deal comingut of this. the right flank of the party is just not there. >> i've been in meetings after meetings with the vice president pence and secretary nilsson and floating the idea when the government isd reope we will have a big i gration bill. i put the question to vice
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president pence, why should immigrants trust you if president said that some of these haitians and nigerians are from s-hole countries and asians brought aids to the united states and how canop trust you? well, i would take issue with the way that you're characterizing the psident's statements. but all my immigration source including advocates, they saysi this pnt just isn't credible on immigration. we don't trust him not to deport large s pths ofple if he gets the opportunity. so i'm with jeff in that. i can't imagine a big immigration package happening any troe soon. rt: we will be tracking it all. let's turn to that story that broke befor dawn. the arrest and indictment of long-time trump ally roger ste on charges related to the special counsel's investigation. the f.b.i. arrested stone at his florida home. the seven-count indictment includes one count of obstruction. five counts of false statenents and count of witness tampering. lcording to the indictments, stoned to congress. and obstructed its investigation. after a brief court appearance, before a federal judge, sto said this. >> i will plead not guiltyth to
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e charges. i will defeat them in court. i believe this is a politically motivated investigation. robert: the indictment mentions context stone had with senior trump campaign officials. about the release of democratic national committee emails during the 2016 election. margaret, when you think about rogertone, the connection here to the trump campaign, how important is it for the mueer investigation and perhaps for president trump, this mention of the trump cpaign contact? >> hugely. because it shows that there's -- the connection that the white house has died and for a while the president's attorney, public attorney atas rudy ghoul yan -- guliani can't say no one had contact. the thing that is also interesting is in the indictment when you read through it, the frequent mentions of email, texts,
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differentorms of contact, trying to establish timing and the conte of these releases, is so interesting. because what did we learn back in 2017? that the u.s. intelligence community assessed with high confidence that the source of the wikileaksaterial so damaging came from russian military intelligence from the so you are starting to see that those dots being connected in a certain way. at leads us back to that premise that the president has dismisd out of hand that russia had anything at all to do with his campaign. now you do see some conneroion. rt: you oversee the investigations in d.c. at the d.c. bureau.wh you look at this, is this -- is it hard for us to see the whole picture from th indictment? >> well, here's what this is -- most interesting to us in that is on page -- on page 4, item 12. where it says in passive voice, that -- a senior -- a top trump mpaign official was directed
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to tell roger stone to get in touch wdh wikileaks to f out what they had. now, there weren't that many people in that -- in tha t orbi t point. this is the summer of 2016. so they leave on the possibility or there's this suggestion perhaps that that -- that the top -- the only person who would have directed the top campaign official is potentially the president. and -- they do it in this very strange way. so - i but bear mind that just because a top trumpic campaign ol is telling roger stone to reach out to wikileaks and get some stolen emails, that's not conspiracy. it's not clear -- that's not a crime. but what -- what the indictment does establish is, you know, very -- as mark rhett said between the trump campaign and the summer of 2016 and wikileaks. and they were working in parallel ways. >>htou're absolutely r it was directed. i mean, if the -- the tru campaign as we all know was very small. it was run, theresident at
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the time donald j. trump was involved in most of its -- the decisions and run out of his office. so we do not know if he was directing him. but the big question is all along the waybe i rema campaign official saying gosh, they wish roger stone andther hangers on and old friends wouldn't spend so much time on the phone with dold trump. because they didn't necessarily like those conversations. so how it's -- is hard to imagine that candidate trump then was not talking a lot to yoroger stone. ve written about this extensively about how theate night phone calls and things. so that is the question here. but you're absolutely right. the passive voice was directed is fascinating. so this is a building block. we don'tnow exactly what this means. but if you piece all these friday indictments together, it leads to something but we're just not there yet. and it sends a signal to me that we're n necessarily even close to being there. that bob mueller still has some work to d >> was directed stuck out to me and there's this part in the indictment that says after they -- after wikileaks released john podesta's emaes some
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from the campaign texted well done. for over and over again, when i watch people get indicted, i'm almost taken back by how much they didn't try to hide what they were doing. is idea that you're texting well done and you're not encrypting it and not sing something else and stating our friend in the embassy when we n know who is living in a embassy. so i think what we're seeing here is not only is there going to be a paper triml and a line. but that people could also have just been sloppy. robertd that's a gint. when you think about roger stone, who is he? he's this character with a -- the nixon gestures. and the tattoo on his back of achard nixon. he's beund politics for decades. why does he matter? who is he? >> it is -- one of the comments speaker pelosi said today, i thought, was so understated but interesting -- so int esting, who the president surrounds himself with. he's a character. and a very rea sense as you described, that the tattoo, the nixon references, and apparently he was 16 years old as the nixon library tweeted out today to clarify that he
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wasn't -- havin a hand in that presidency in the way that he perhaps has played off publicly to -- you know, as he calls himself a dirty trickster this goes beyond just typical badolitics or, you know, opposition research. what ngwe're descri here. so he is a character almost seems cartoonish. but these are very serious things being laid out in this indictment. and it was so extensive and so detailed in what was laid out in the public. i think we're going to be learning more and more about him. robert: hishas onnection to paul manafort. >>n backe 1980's when ronald raringen was president black, sanafort andne was the big consulting, lobbying firm in town. and they represented a lot of dictators and foreign countries. they made a lot of money. but they we the big guys in town. and then -- and obviously split
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anup. roger stone has kept on going. and he turns upub in everyc -- republican administration doing something strange. wufrnt things that he did -- one of the things that he did is he likes to play a lot of practical jokes on people. and he apparently with one of his friends, put out the word that he was dead andent out mass cards to people and he thought this was hilarious. robert: we also had another friend. and he was bringing up to mina so mny trump characters we've all reported on over the years. and more news from therump world this week. michael cohen, the long-time lawy, subpoenaed by the senate intelligence committee, what -- private or public from what we can tell? >> he was supposed to have a publicestimony before the house on february 6 or february 7, i believe. and said because of his safety easons and not doing that. so he is subpoenaed to the senate. we'll hear from him at some point. i don't think that is supposed to be public. but i'm not certain of that. but i -- the fact -- and paul manafort was in a courtroom today as wl. he was dressed in a suit and
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wife at his side a still litigating if he lied during his plea deal. so it was interesting how p speakelosi said this. for all of this, who surrounds donaldrump haseen fascinating. a lot of them indicted and other things. but this roger stone situation is going to lead to something more. he's doing lot of interview he's talking a lot. and he's in this trouble now because of all his talking. not because necessarily of anything else. robert: talking about what it could lead to, could it lead to a pardon from president trump? >> p i think the moment i heard michael cohen's number the first thing i thought was this is someone who is supposed to be so loyal tsi the pnt who sounded a lot like roger stone when he first got caught up and then who thenps f so maybe roger stone might have that same fate. robert: got to wrap. thanks, everybody, for being here. our conversation will continue on the washington week podcast. find it on your favorite app. or watch it on our website. i'm robert costa. have a greateekend. and thanks for joining us.
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[captioninperformed by the tional captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit] corporate funding is provided by -- >> i was able to turn the aircraft around and the mission around and was able to save two men's lives that night. >> my first job helped me to grow up prett quickly. that will happen when you're asked to respond to a coup. >> in 2001, ihesigned up for air force. two days later, 9-11 happened.
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>> babble. a language program that teaches real life conversations in a new language. such as spanish, frenc german, italian, and more. babble's 10 to 1 lessons are available as an app or online. more information on announcer: funding is provided by -- through the yuen foundation. committed to bridging cultural r public ces in communities. broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs ke you. thank you. >> you're watch
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♪ ♪ >> you're watch -a lot of people that we meet in the choir,on we know their background up-front. we hold space for them in a loving way and create community and invite them in. they can bring who they are. each person that i have helped is an individual and has their own issues. i try to connect with them through my eyesd rough my heart and my love of them. i just see them with great potential. ♪ good to see you. what's up? do you want some -- you want inwater, any food or anythg? -oh, no, i'm fine with the food. just had a nice breakfast. -right on. what's your name again?


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