Transcripts For KQED Washington Week 20180113

Love, whose parents are there haiti demanden an apology. She called the comments elitist and fly in the face of our nations values. The exferings exploded just weeks after it was reported the president made similar remarks at a meeting last summer, claiming that all haitians have aids. The white house denied this reporting. Plus, new droments in the russia probe. Testimony about a frumprelated document is released and the president skirts questions about testifying before special counsel robert mueller. Well see what happens but when nobody has found any conclusion, it seems unlikely youve youd have an sfwuff. Weve cover it all with Jeremy Peters of the New York Times. Anthony parker of politico and manu raju of cnn. Celebrating 50 years, this is Washington Week. Funding is provided by their leader shism is instinctive. They understand the challenges of today and research the technologies to have tomorrow. Some call them veterans. We call them part of our team. On a cruise with historic cruiselines, you can experience historic destinationings across the nips river, the Columbia River and across the United States. American cruiselines fleet of small ships, explore american landmarks, local cultures and calm waterways. American cruise lines, proud sponsor of Washington Week. Additional funding is provided by newmans own fun to depation. Donating all profits from nusmens own Food Products to charity and nourishing the common good. The excellence in foundation. The cooperation for public broadcasting and by contributions from your pbs stations from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again from washington, moderateor robert costa. Robert good evening, the yupe roar over President Trumps description of haiti and the nations of africa continues to echo following a roller coaster day at the white house. Critics accused him of racism. Some allies looked away. A statement reeled in part President Trump is fighting for Permanent Solutions bk by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation. President trump denied he used alexis language. He said i never said anything derogatory about haitians other than haiti is obviously a very poor and troubled country. He also said never said take them out, made up by dems. I have a wonderful rhythm with the haitians. He also added we should probably record future meetings. Unfortunately no trust. Thats all from President Trump. Witnesses, however, inside Oval Office Meeting were divided. Two republicans who remember participate of the session say they could not recall the president using vulgar language. Others have chosen to stay quiet. Senator dick durbin, a democrat, insist the president did use vile and racist language, his words in thatism graduation meeting. What a day. Ashley and andy, welcome to Washington Week. Take us inside the white house. The perspective was at a Martin Luther king jr. Event at the white house. He didnt take any questions and didnt respond to rompletse yelling at him are you a racist . Is this a white house in christ or are they defiant . For in quhowls crisis is often standard operating procedure. Was it chaotic in the fallout . Absolutely but theyre now used to operating this way. In taking to aveds inside the white house, yes, this was bad. Not as bad as some things theyve had to weather or things theyve heard at other times and the president himself, my sense from people inside white house who had spoken to him was that last night, at least, he was not particularly bent out of shape. He called friends and confidants to get a sense how this was playing. Of course he doesnt like negative news coverage. Thats why you saw him sort of tweeting and trying to walk it back. Again, they said the president has a sense of what washington goes crazy about and what dom names cable news is not necessarily what his base, what people around him care about and he doesnt necessarily think its that bad for him there. I would say i agree, that for aides that have been there since the beginning of the campaign, theres a sense of like weve survived this a million times. This language isnt out of the ordinary from what theyre used to hearing from the. President. A little bit of a binled, though, was that this was different because trump made in remark in front of durbin, a democrat, and other lawmakers. So we saw trump, the white house push back very hard on a New York Times report where he made similar comments saying people from africa have aids and live in huts and they pushed back very hard. It wasnt just an environment of white house aides where they could agree amongst themselves. Here the audience was too big to just deny it so that caused more of a hiccup but in general i saw a lot of kind of shrug um it off. A few aides were kind of demoralized because it was a week to shift away from the mental state conversation and they actually had a good economic message to press yesterday. Chrysler announced it was moving a factory from mexico to million. Walmart announced it was raising the mini much wage for some u. S. Workers. Aides in the white house were hoping they would talk look that yesterday then it gets blown up but there was some discouragement but not thinking this is a turning point. Robert and the base seemed to stick with him, jeremy, today. Theyre either going to not believe he said it or not going to care. I think more of them fall into the latter category. The if the we thought maybe we believed earlier in week was walking back his promises on immigration. Make considering some type of am nestty for daca kids. No, the president who doesnt want unskilled labor coming into in country, thats the game who would say that vulgarity about these countries who are seemeding people here. Two things playing in the president s favor today. One was that, oh, our guy is back. Two is that the left is overplaying their hand. You heard commentators from rush leadership baugh on down saying this is moral preening, pearl clutching by the left once again. Come on, like theyve never heard a bad word before . Please. So i do think that theres some noise out there. Think about what happened in week. We started with the president s mental fitness. The president has dementia, then oprah is going to be president. Then steve bannon is fired then the perspective is walking back that deal with democrats and calling haiti and these other predominant live black and brown countries an incredibly borderline racist if not outright racist term. Its too much for people to catalog in name brains. Robert and too much programs for lawmakers to categorize. We hear the law makers in part may be shrugging off the controversy, the base may be shrugging it off. This has a cost, programs, on capitol hill. Theyre trying to avoid a Government Shutdown and cut an immigration deal. It seemed today that the lawmakers on both sides were reeling in the twake of all this no question. Theres so much uncertainty heading into that january 19 deadline. Most likely theyll have to kick the can down the road, extend government funding for another few weeks, avoid a shutdown and deal with this immigration issue at another time. I think one thing that dick durbin the comment on this is probably correct, that any deal is going to have to essentially be cut between the republicans and the democrats in the senate an september the white house. Of course the president is going to have to stein something at the end of the day but its going to have to be a deal that the leadership agrees on and the democrats in particular dont trust this president to be on the same board with them when it comes to immigration. They will have to get some buyin from republicans and leadership of the senate and take that to the white house and say take it or leave it. Well see if that plays out but most likely for the short term, its going to be punting. If you watch that sfrooled 55minute basically repeat tv show may not be quite right. He calmed it the stuche. Welcome to the stuche. I went backed and watched ate second time but if you looked at that, the president was very much an empty vessel on immigration. He was almost asked where are youied lollingly and he said im kind of nowhere. These guys will put something together and ill sign it. On the other hand while he may be an empty vessel in some ways on policy, he has a real sense of where he is on immigration and hes very unpredictable. Ill do anything, sign anything, oh, by the way, except wait a minute, i wont sign that. So its tricky for lawmakers. Robert if hes flexible on ideology, is the white house prepared to agree to some sense to agree to a wall it depends on your definition of wall. An electronic wall . Trump made it cloorp he means a physical border wall like he described during the campaign. So for now he seems to be sticking to the position that a wall mean as physical barrier. You can see through it thats what hes willing to shake on but he seems to think a wall is a wall. And senator flake from arizona said today, the republican moderate that a deal is ready on the table. Is there a chance the president could sign that, because because, as flake said today, thats the only deal available. The president himself said he wouldnt sell this. This democrats a lot of republicans and democrats minds on alcoholism. The president says one thing but how do you know where hes going to be at the end of the day . Hex this week, you guys sign anything, im draw up anything, ill sign it and take the heat. That brings up the bigger question, can this president govern . As ashley said, she watched the whole thing again. 55 minutes. Wonderful television. Robert we can argue look that. Theyre trying to showcase to the tchaun he can handle these kind of negotiations but then it unravels. Can he govern . The president american elected does not care to understand policy. Its not that he doesnt understand it, he doesnt care to or need to. Other people will do that for him. This is why hes so swayed by the last person to speak to him and thats clearly what happened overnight after that last meet in the oval office where he was basically agreeing with diane fine semifinal and dick durbin about what to do with the dreamers. He had this meeting with Kevin Mccarthy jumping out of his seat saying no, no, these are what republican principles on this issue are. He doesnt really care to know. Its only after the fact when hes reminded hey, this is what you campaigned on. When people come to the of office and tell him no, when Steven Miller is in his ear, about immigration especially saying this is not some place we can go, mr. President. Its a good thing to put more of these meetings on camera because he performs for the camera. That 55minute televised meeting with lawmakers was a win for him. He can stay on topic a long time. Unlike what Michael Wolff reports in the book, he doesnt repeat himself every minute and tell the same stories and he said a very out of character thing, ill take the heat. When does the buck ever stop with trump . Robert we have hundreds of fouls thises of youngun document immigrants looking at their permits and wondering if theyre going to expire. Thats the ultimate question. We know that the ultimate deadline is march and as we know from congress, theyll take it almost certainly all the way until the demrinle to get a deal. The democrats want to attach this to the spending deal in order to force republicans to keep the government open but today paul ryan made a clear pronouncement that he does not want to tie it to the Government Spending bill and thats going to make things presumably more difficult. Robert the issue that drove everything today race. The president talking look preferring people from norway versus those from african countries or from haiti. He has a history on race. You look at the birther moment on america. His statements on the central park five. How is this white house grappling with the charges of racism that came fast and furious today . Well, today you sort of didnt see them publicly grappling with them at all. Their official position is the president is not racist and tpwhroin nice otherwise, that is a gross misunderstanding. Thacks, there were his comments inspect wake of chartsville where he said both sides were to blame and you mentioned birthers briefly but a lot of people see that as the orange sin. It wasnt just refusing against all evidence to accept that president obama was born in the United States but it was to fuel his rise. Candidate trump, there is no President Trump without birtherism so issues of race are inextricably bound with in perspective and followed him into the oval. Theyre not going to answer for it until the Republican Party answers for it. Robert leaders around the world and u. S. Allies have are condemn it would president. I dont think hell feel any pressure until the Republican Party makes him answer and right now youve seen lawmaker after lawmaker basically take a pass. Republicans for the most part have been silent about this. Why . I think they made the collation that they need this president on their calculation that they need this president only their side to get things done. Lindsay graham is an example of that. Hes been a sharp critic of the if thes until lately. Hes now central on this immigration deal. And he realizes that perhaps we cant get a deal to help the dreamers, hes more model rat than the president is on immigration and as we know, it was Lindsay Graham who confronted the president and the white house about those vulgar remarks but Lindsay Graham did not address that specifically. He alluded to it but did not confirm durbins account. Robert jeremy mentioned steve ban en. Hes out of the white house now. People naught earlier last year maybe it was bannon the puppet match behind the president but some say this is who he is. Bannon wasnt around when President Trump made the remarks about charlottesville and he wasnt around when he used this vulgar language describing people from haiti and african countries. I think trump will continue to get a long leash as long as hes delivering on the republican agenda. Hes got tax reform done. He moved the ambassador to jeers lem. If the other thing ask, i think, Sarah Sanders canceled her press breaching today so we dont know. The white house kicked the can down the road on is the president a racist . But his defenders were saying its just kitchen takeable talk, as one person said to nep. Like locker room. Robert were going to keep an eye on all of this. There were some more issues this week. A laundry list of things that happened this week but there were, as well, new details in the russia probe with the release of terrorists revealing how a former british spy who compiled that controversial dosea of President Trump and his capable team was concerned that he was being black maimed by the creme lincoln. Former British Intelligence officer crimp steele was so alarmed about a potential National Security threat he personally went to the f. B. I. In july of 2016. According to transcripts of testimony bill Glenn Simpson whose firm commission, the socalled steele dossa. And this week the president dodged a question about whether or not he would testify before special counsel robert mueller. President trump they say theres no conclusion. I speak to attorneys. There was absolutely no collusion. It has been determined by virtual little everybody so well see what happens. Robert meanwhile, President Trumps former chief strategist steve bannon, whos avoided the spotlight out of the reaction from that book by michael woltf. Why did senator Dianne Feinstein of california move to release that striment and what does it tell us . She wanted to make the case push back against the aggressive republican effort to discredit the dossier and Christopher Steele who republicans have said, the president have said that this was a democratfunded dossier aimed at going after the president. This is the reason why the f. B. I. Investigation into these connections happened and this has been their tavert target for a long time. What diane fine semifinal wanted to show was that this is what actually happened behind closed doors over 10hours of testimony. He discussed why he hired crimp steele to investigate in matter. He said under oath that crimp steele had no knowledge of the funding, sources behind the reason why he was over interest. He also explained why. Hes a notable russia expert and he was so alarmed that he decided that he had to breach the f. B. I. On multiple occasions about what he learned about this e. By the kremlin to help the trump campaign. Now, this is not going to at all stop the efforts to go after him because the recommendation believe that the dossier there are a lot of questions about why he was doing what he was doing and they believe that there are some nefarious actions by the f. B. I. But the interesting thing, though, is that in this election year, democrats want to focus more on russia. What happened with the rushinga meddling and the republicans want to focus on what they believe is f. B. I. Misconduct in that russia probe and thats going to continue. Robert what should we expect from bannon from when he heads to capitol hill . I think probably as little as possible. Robert hes still on team trump. Its going to be the exact opposite of what weve come to expect from steve bannon, which is fire and fury. Hes lawered up, as you point out. I cant imagine that hes going to get too far out there ahead of himself. Hes loyal to this president , as you correctly exoinlt out, despite what he is quoted as saying. He may understand, as almost everyone around President Trump does that this is a man with deep flaws but hes not given up on his ideas that he campaigned on or the possibility for what i think bannon sees as real change in certain policies. Robert such a back and forth between the president s legal team and the mueller probe. Where does that stand in terms of the perspective ever meeting with the investigation . You can understand from the president s point of view certainly and from his legal teams point of view that thats something nemmed prefer to avoid and if they do have to do it, one of the things that makes this president a challenging clients for lawyers is that hes so unpredictable and that he engageses in what in the real estate world might be called puffry or exaggeration to put it generously and early only his legal team was trying to team him there are two groups of people you cant lie to and its a special investigator and congressional investigators. Thats why were hearing and seeing look this effort to take sure that ideally from the president s point of view, its written questions. Its responding to stuff written that gist them a lot more carom and prevents the president from saying something that may not quite align with what muellers team has heard. Robert final naught on the president s legal team . He keeps insisting no collusion. He does. A subject he likes to address less is whether there was in any obstruction of justice. Well dont see him trying to brosme that topic. He did a little bit with the wall street interview, putting it on rosenstein but that doesnt quite aide up with how hes defended himself in the past. Robert annie, great to have you, welcome to Washington Week. Thanks, everybody, if being here. Our conversation will continue on the Washington Week extra where well talk about reports oprah fin winfrey may run for president. I wrote a story about this this week. It could happen. Im robert costa. Thanks for watching and have a wonderful weekend. Funding for Washington Week 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. American cruise lines. Proud sponsor of Washington Week. Additional funding is provided by 1 newmans own foundation. 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