Race, religion, ethnicity, can be fully and equally american. Weve got folks who are deliberately trying to make folks angry. To demonize people who have different ideas. Plus, President Trump praises, then shuns a bipartisan deal to restore funding to the Affordable Care act. I wont do anything to enrich the insurance companies. We think its a good solution. It stabilizes the system. Meanwhile, republicans shift to the president s sweeping tax plan, after pushing through a budget framework. We cover it all with Yamiche Alcindor of the new york times, molly ball of the atlantic, Nancy Youssef of the wall street journal, and jeff zeleny of cnn. Celebrating 50 years, this is Washington Week. Funding is provided by. Their leadership is instinctive. They understand the challenges of today and research the technologies of tomorrow. Some call them veterans. We call them part of our team. Additional funding is provided by newmans own foundation. Donating all profits from newmans own Food Products to charity and nourishing the common good. The ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. The yuen foundation. Committed to 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, live from washington, moderator robert costa. Good evening. The f. B. I. Is now assisting the pentagon with its investigation into the ambush in niger that targeted u. S. Special forces. It was the deadliest attack on u. S. Troops since President Trump took office. Yet so far, much of the focus has been on the president s conversations with the families of the fallen soldiers. Four u. S. Service members were killed in the isisled gun fight. Staff sergeants dustin wright, jeremiah johnson, bryan black, and sergeant ladavid johnson. On friday, defense secretary james mattis met with arizona senator john mccain. The chairman of the Armed Services committee threatened to issue subpoenas to get more details about that october 4 attack. The fallout has rattled the military, congress and the country. But it was the president s calls and what he said that ignited a national debate. Florida democratic congresswoman Frederica Wilson said she heard the president tell the widow of one of the soldiers who was killed that, quote, her husband knew what he signed up for, but i guess it still hurts. End quote. Mr. Trump denied saying that and his chief of staff, john kelly, a retired marine general whose son was killed in afghanistan seven years ago, defended the president. He called four people the other day and expressed his condolences in the best way that he could. And he said to me, what do i say . I said to him, sir, theres nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families. Hours later, President Trump attacked wilson, who criticized his call to the widow of sergeant johnson, insisting she lied about what he said. Lets begin tonight about what we know, nancy, about the mission there. Just a few weeks ago, most americans didnt even know we had u. S. Forces in africa, fighting isis. Now u. S. Service members have been killed. What is our mission in niger . So there are about 800 troops in niger itself. And this mission is part of an effort to train their nigerian counterparts against a multiple number of threats. There are various jihadist groups, for control of snuggling routes. So the goal is to create a force that can contain that threat and stop the expansion of islamic jihaddist groups in that territory. Nbc is reporting that there was a massive intelligence failure in this operation. Well, one of the challenges is that the u. S. Is depending on Nigerian Forces. And the Nigerian Forces are compromised. Some are demoralized. Some are using these smuggling routes themselves. And the villagers will tell you that they are fearful to provide information to those sources, because those forces leave at night. The jihadi groups do not. Should they be found out to be giving intelligence, they fear for their lives. So it makes it very hard to have strong intelligence. And you find that, with such few u. S. Resources there, that theyre depending on alternative sources of information. As we try to answer all these questions and the government tries to look for answers, why is the f. B. I. Involved. So the f. B. I. Investigation is separate from the pentagon investigation. The pentagon is trying to answer, what happened . What are changes that need to be made in terms of techniques, tactics and procedures . The f. B. I. , on the other hand is trying to figure out two things. One, what kind of intelligence can they gather . And two, if we can find out the actual individuals who were involved in this ambush, that their plan is to then bring evidence force to then charge them potentially in federal court. Did President Trump authorize this mission . We dont know the answer to that. He was asked in the oval office today. He heard the question and did not respond. The White House Press secretary was asked that, did not respond. James mattis was asked that. He did not say. Its very likely that a type of mission like this would not need president ial signoff, because it was, in many respects, a routine mission. Obviously there was some type of intelligence failure, because this happened. But it was actually more of a routine or seen as a routine operation. This is something it happened on the day the president was flying back from vegas. He went out to visit the victims of that horrible shooting there, and he learned news of this when he was flying back to washington. The striking thing, though, was the utter silence from the white house for 12 days. They did not say anything at all about this, with the exception of the press secretary, sarah sanders, but the president did not. This is a president who talks about a lot of things very often. So the political side of this, which is very separate from the substantive side of this, all started on monday, when he was asked by my colleague, sarah murray, in that rose garden display, why havent you said anything about this . And then it touched off the firestorm. And youve been on capitol hill all week. Congress seems to be on edge, senator mccain in particular, about the lack of information about this mission. And theyre threatening subpoenas. Yes. And senator mccain is essentially saying, i want to know what happened, why we were there, what happened. Was there an intelligence failure. Did they have the right support . I mean, there are so many questions that Congress Wants to ask. I should say that ive been talking to some democrats about this, including representative wilson, and she essentially says, and the talking point is, that this is trumps benghazi. They see it as a political opportunity to question what his effectiveness as a commander in chief. I think theres republicans also wanting to know more. And i think democrats generally want to know more as well, but its also whether or not theyre going to use it to attack the president. And the most jarring moment for some, the most powerful moment for others this week, molly, was when general kelly came to the podium in the Briefing Room and it was powerful to hear from a gold star father, but even that moment, hearing from him, was a flash point. It generated as much praise as it did criticism. Well, and it was, on the one hand, a very different presentation of the sort that trump gives. And so i think that affected a lot of people, to see someone who had such seriousness and who really projects that air of authority. And speaks for emotionally about his concern for the lives of those killed in combat, including his own son. On the other hand, there were parts of it that were very disturbing. The story that he told about representative wilson was a very trumpian tactic, of turning something into a political attack on a perceived enemy, rather than what keeping it a depoliticized zone, the death of soldiers. Hes been doing exactly what trump does, which is turn it into a personal, political fight. And then he wasnt telling the truth about what she said, whether it was because he misremembered the encounter or deliberately he didnt tell the truth about this speech that he attacked her for, that apparently didnt happen. And then, you know, he made these comments attacking the press and saying that essentially saying if youre not, you know, flesh and blood of a member of the military, youre not qualified to have an opinion about this. Or even to cover it. I mean, i happen to be related to a member of the military. But i dont think that makes me any more or less of an american citizen than anybody else. And so it was a very remarkable presentation, i think. And i think whats interesting about what you said is that its a trumpian tactic. So you have general kelly saying this. At first, as a reporter, i think a lot of people heard this and said, okay, Frederica Wilson, shes very well known as being bombastic, someone who wears her decorative hats, so at face value, they would say, okay, general kelly wouldnt make up a story about this congresswoman. But then local reporters in miami have been doing a phenomenal job and they come out with this nineminute video that shows the exact opposite. General kelly said she was basically bragging about getting 20 million from President Trump. So you have said saying she was using this as a political moment, but also invoking President Trump. Neither of that is true. In the speech, she actually thrangs a lot of thanks a lot of republicans for helping her get this building named for these fallen f. B. I. Agents. I think thats where the problematic thing is. When i was speaking to representative wilson all week, she said i dont even understand why he would say this, because its so easy to trace that this would be a lie. She called it a lie. But also she said essentially, that she felt there was some racial charge there. This is a president , of course, thats had all sorts of issues with race. When i asked her, what do you think is going on . She said the white house is full of white supremacists. Thats really interesting, because there are people in miami who said they feel this way. So you have this president , even when hes trying to do the right thing, people are seeing it through this prism of race. We heard from the former president obama. Theyre talking about the ugliness of this national debate, this messness, this infusion of race, gold star families. They stepped forward to not criticize President Trump by name but to criticize the kind of week we witnessed. No doubt. I think as we take stock of weeks and weve done this often, this was an extraordinary week in that respect. To hear from president bush specifically, because president obama has been out there a little bit more. But to hear president bush talking about this, we basically know how he and his family feel. But to hear him articulate this, in a more optimistic way really, to say that the country is essentially better than this. We can overcome this. It was all tied together. This speech was long planned. But i think the timing of it is, you know, really interesting. Back to the chief of staff for one second. I was in that Briefing Room on thursday. Just to i mean, you could see the emotion on his face, you could hear it in his voice. As he wore his three hats, his chief of staffs hat and his fathers hat, he is eminently qualified to talk about all of this. But the reality is he has a political job. His job is politics. He was defending the president. But i think it highlights how all of this has been politicized by him, by the president , by the congresswoman. It shows how low our discourse has sunk, i think, and how theres no trust or credibility, even a phone call can become controversial like this. It was pretty unseemly, i thought. And the context of these phone calls, nancy, is really a subject of debate, interpretation. Youve spoken with gold star families about what its like to get that call. I spoke to families who had received a call from the president. I spoke to families who were told they would get the call and didnt. What struck me, the connector thread, is that call is not the thing that sustains them in those early days. Its not the comfort that carries them. Its the support of local communities, of families, of friends. I talked to people who couldnt even find the letter that theyd gotten from the president , because at the end of the day, as they describe it, when you lose a loved one, its flattering to have that acknowledgment by the president , but in those horrific early days in particular, what carries you through are the people who loved your loved one as much as you did. And thats what they remember in that period, not the v. I. P. s who may or may not have called. Molly, you covered senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for some time. He said today we dont want the next 9 11 to come from niger, to come from isis in africa. Are we witnessing on the republican side a willingness to have more intervention in that part of the world, to fight isis . No. Theres never been a lack of willingness on the part of Lindsey Graham. Hes one of the most ardent interventionists in the congress. He has taken on one version of trump, the America First vision that he has sometimes espoused and sometimes not, because the president was all over the map on everything, including Foreign Policy. So i think Lindsey Lindsey is Lindsey Graham is always willing to go there. This administration has been so all over the map that we have no idea. There has not been a coherent ideological push to reorient the United States in one direction or another. Its just been things here and there. It hasnt added up to yes, were going to, you know, push forward, or yes, were going to pull back. Were going to fulfill some of those America First promises and really get the troops out of all these foreign countries, where candidate trump was so critical of the efforts. I do think that one thing the niger incident highlights is that that is a very significant unfulfilled promise, that the president has basically done nothing to scale back the american presence overseas, even though that was the signature plank of his Foreign Policy platform. Do we see a strategy emerging, isis in africa . We could see potentially two things. We could see a more aggressive approach in an attempt to go after the islamic in the sahara. Alternatively, we could see a retreat, that the u. S. Simply doesnt have the resources, particularly in africa, to have enough intelligence, enough drones, air support to protect those troops such that when theyre in harms way, they can be safely taken care of. In this instance, it was the french that evacuated u. S. Troops, because the u. S. Military did not have air assets in that area. As lawmakers evaluate what happened in this niger attack, theyre also dealing with a lot of other issues on capitol hill. Where President Trumps agenda has been stalled for months. This week, there are a few sparks that could reshape how americans Access Health care and who pays what in taxes. All of this doesnt mean anything is a done deal. First, the possible overhaul of the tax code. The Senate Passed a 4 trillion budget overnight, clearing the way for the republican tax revamp. Passing this budget is critical to getting tax reform done. So we can strengthen our economy, after years of stagnation. Under the previous administration. At the same time, two dozen senators have signed on to a Bipartisan Health care deal, sponsored by Lamar Alexander of tennessee and patty murphy of washington state. The Alexander Alexander proposal would alexandermurray proposal would reinstate the subsidies for lowincome families for two years, stabilize individual Insurance Markets and give states flexibility to customize health plans. President trump announced that he would stop paying the costsharing subsidies, because he said they were nothing more than a bailout to insurance companies. Looks like there was some progress in the budget, tax reform and health care, but many obstacles remain. There are a lot of obstacles remain, mainly because congress has this long laundry list of things to get done. If you think about health care, essentially senator Lamar Alexander said we just want to avoid chaos. I thought that was striking, because essentially republicans are making the case that we cant do anything about health care. We have to do something about it. Because essentially well be blamed for it when peoples premiums skyrocket. They have this bipartisan deal that would allow people to do all sorts of things and would help premiums go down or at least stay lower than they would be. The problem is whether or not thats actually going to pass. Only a couple of senators support it. Sources that ive gotten say the president is the one who wanted to have a bipartisan deal on health care but then you saw him kind of back track. That was so interesting. Talk about the old frayed, i was the old phrase, i was for it before i was against it. On monday, he spoke in favor of it, in the rose garden. Then there was by the time he walked back inside, i was told by an advisor, there was already alarm from conservatives coming in, including some house republicans, who arent in favor of this plan at all. The president is sort of out there supporting it. Then he dials it back the next day. Then on thursday, he says hes for a bipartisan plan. Hes been on the phone with senator alexander repeatedly this week, urging him to keep going. So i think this is a sign that the president wants some type of deal. He knows that the ownership of health care will eventually be his. I think thats a worry of his. But i do not see any agreement in the short term on that. Perhaps at the end of the year, after the tax plan and other things. But the president is sending mixed signals. And, again, he does not always have the grasp of all the details. Molly, when i was at the capitol hill the other, i was talking to senators and they say theyre moving on tax reform. Is that really going to be the priority for the next few months . If youre worrying about what is going to happen first . You know, theyre both sort of up in the air. This health care thing is sort of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They actually managed to work out a bipartisan deal. Then they left poor Lamar Alexander essentially all alone, out on a limb, and sawed it off, with the president dramatically undercutting imhad. The Republican Caucus is never going to sign on to something that they dont know President Trump would have their back on. If they feel like they would be instantly unpopular, they are never going to do something that puts them at that kind of political risk. Because plum President Trump hat these mix signals, they are terrified of it. Do they also feel like they could easily own tax reforms and cuts in a way that they could not own health care . It is an encouraging sign for those who want to get this done that the budget did pass. I think much faster than a lot of people expected. But all that does is open the door. And they still have to actually, you know, make a bill. Ha ha so, like, there is no agreement that this is something everybody wants to get done. But the devil is in the details. The details dont exist. And this is not a congress that inspires a lot of confidence about its ability to work out details. I mean, i think that it all comes down to the president s credibility on capitol hill. And from what i can tell, from all the republicans that i talked to, even if theyre on the record saying, yes, i support this president , in reality, they dont really trust him. They dont really trust that if they pass this bipartisan deal or they pass something that may be repeals parts of obamacare and then everybody gets mad, and peoples premiums go up and the base doesnt like it, that President Trump is going to turn around and say, look, its not my fault. This is what Congress Gave me. I passed what i could. You can almost see the argument that he would make from the rose garden. I think thats why health care is so hard. I think tax reform is one of those things that republicans have thought about it for so many longer, its closer to their brand as a party, i think thats why. And they need it more than anything else. They need a victory. That is one reason Mitch Mcconnell was at the white house this week. They need some type of an accomplishment, i think, if they want to, you know, not face the wrath of their vot voters next. And the white house is involved in trying to yank this murrayalexander bill to the right, because they probably feel they need something for 2018. Thats right. But im told that these principles that theyre talking about is basically repealing obamacare, which makes this thats right. Which makes what was a bipartisan plan no longer a bipartisan plan, so were sort of back to square one, because the problems still exist in the republican conference, not among democrats. You can always feel the tugofwar thats happening internally in the white house. Different staffers with different priorities, different positions and a president who doesnt really have one, and he gets tugged in Different Things and so there isnt a coherent line. Such a smart point. The president seems to want a bipartisan deal. Theyre talking about getting rid of the individual mandate, the employer mandate. That seems to be the possible tweet. Youre looking at a president being pulled in both directions. I dont think donald trump himself wrote those talking points, right . Its a faction in the white house. Theyre competing factions in the white house, always. I also heard that the president possibly himself or at least people in his administration have literally been making the pitch to democrats, why dont we get a bipartisan deal to repeal and replace obamacare . Like using that actual language. And democrats are like, of course im not gonna do that. So i think theres a real problem, because you had a president who was wildly popular enough to win the presidency, but never has a firm grasp of what actually policies he wanted passed. Thats why the president made a move on those subsidies, to try to get the democrats to the table. He did. Look, the reality here is that health care no one that i talked to think its going to happen this year. Tax reform might. Well leave it there. Before we go, we want to take a moment to acknowledge Judy Woodruff and the late gwen ifill, who were awarded the Walter Cronkite award for excellence in journalism this week. Gwens brother said the coanchors were so successful together, because they shared the same commitment to the truth. Thats what so many of you saw every week, around this table, with gwen. We miss her very much. And judy said it best during her speech, that we need good journalists now more than ever. I cant think of any duo wed rather have, holding leaders feet to the fire, than those two wonderful ladies. Our conversation will continue online. You can find that later tonight and all weekend at pbs. Org washingtonweek. Thank you for watching im robert costa. Have a nice weekend funding for Washington Week is provided by. [music] their leadership is instinctive. They understand the challenges of today and research the technologies of tomorrow. Some call them veterans. We call them part of our team. Additional funding is provided by newmans own foundation. Donating all profits from newmans own Food Products to charity and nourishing the common good. The ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. The yuen foundation. Committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. The corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you thank you youre watching pbs. Dear friend. Have you ever known a special someone, but never met facetoface . Before the internet, there were. Letters many, many letters you belong to a Lonely Hearts Club . i have never done that sort of thing before. I got another letter today. From her . its so beautiful, ive got to read it to you did she enclose a snapshot this time . I dunno his name or what he looks like but what if he was right under your nose . Can we not fight about this . Can we have a truce . Any time, mr. Nowack, after all, youre always the one who starts things. Ooh oh, im the one . theres something in the air at maraczeks is it romance or just the perfume . Come with me ilona no