Announcer this is Washington Week. Funding is provided by kevin. Kevin kevin. Advice for life. Life well planned. Learn more at raymondjames. Com. Babble. A Language Program that teesms conversations spanish, french, german, italian and more. Babbles 10 to 15minute lessons are available as an app online. More information on babble. Com. Announcer additional funding is provided by kaiser permanente. Through thetiuen foun, committed to bridging cultural differences omin ournities. The corporation for public broadcasting and by contribuouons tor pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again, from washington, moderatorst Robert Robert the United States was minutes away from launching a i strike againn when President Trump abruptly called off the mission. The operation would have been a response to iran shooting down a u. S. Military drone. The New York Times broke the stor andreported that the president had initially approved a tarkse on a handful of iranian targets. On friday the president then said he shelved the plan after a general told him that 150 people could die in an attack. In an interview with nbc news, the president also said he had not given final approval to strike iran. And that no planes were in the air. Joinin me tonight, elisabeth bumiller, Washington Bureau chief for the New York Times. Kaitlan collins, White House Correspondent for cnn. Jake sherman, Senior Writer for politico. And coed tore of playbook and toluse olorunnipa. White house reporter for the washington post. Elisabeth, the times broke the story. Why did the president back away . A lot of reasons. He says by the way that the lanes were not in the air. Thats very much contradictory to what weve heard from Senior Administration officials who would know. He i think one reason is because he was told that there would be there could be as many as 150 deaths. Whats curious is thanot something you generally tell the president 10 minutes before an at its something that should have been told to him perhaps it was told to him long before. There are oeaerns as well. He was a political advisors were telling him this would be zast russ f his reelection chances. And there was also some talk that the americans really did think that the iranians had made a mistake and there was a rogue commander who had shot thwn the drone an the iranians were upset with him. The president hintee at that ther day. So its a little bit of a mystery. It could be all of the above. Robert and Kaitlan Collins was in the oval office with the president on thursday asked him some tough queions about iran. Lets take a listen. President trump iran made a mi hake. I find d to believe it was intentional if you want to know the truth. I think that it could have been somebody who was loose and stupid that did it. Robert kaitlan, theyre in the room with him. What was your read on the president . Hes getting intelligence as elisabeth was sayins what elsen his mind when you talked to his advisors . That was the first time we to y saw his reactio this. Because other than that, he had just been saying that they made a mistake and we would find out how he was going to respond. But i asked, do you still feel that iran is a different country . Because thats something he said repeatedly essentially that since hes been in office, he feels that theyve changed their ways. And he said it just a few day ago. And so there the president seemed to be minimizing what they did. Shooting this over 100 million military drone out of the sky. S and leavie leeway that essentially could have been a rogue general. Even though the iranians werehi sayingwas intentional. We did this to send a message to the president. Hat was actually our first indication they werent going to strike. Or at least showed the president s ambivalence about doing so. Robert so he not going to use a military strike at this moment what about other action . Coulde add o additional sanctions . Sure. And the Administration Officials say tha they have a sanction that they could do if they wanted to. The president claimed this morning when he was explaining his decision that sanctions were added last night. That is not true basedn what ve been reporting because the Treasury Department hasnt announced any new sanctions today and though Steve Minchin said if they wanted to they could impose additional count measures they have not done so yet. Robert what about the president s advisors . Secretary of state pompeo, National Security advisor john bolton works is the driver . The president says he likes to put differing views around him and ts is very clear example of that. The president has hawks in his adminiration, people that are sort of pining for war and pining for regime change in iran and president also has people who are saying politically this is horrible for you if you decid t to goo war with iran. And his own instincts are not to get invved in another conflagration in the middle east and maybe wants to do the same thing he did with north korea which is get to the brink of potential military conflict and thennd deescalateave discussions or have talks and hes been sort of pesing for discussions with the iranians saying that you know, when theyre ready to talk im ready to talk and i think he wants to have a similar situation that he had with kim jongun wheree gets a lot of cameras and really great ratings where hes having discussions ths previ president s have not had directly with the iranians and showing that even though previous thingses have struggled with iran, im able to sit down across the table with them and not clear that other advisors that ar close to the president are supporting that. People like john bolton are not in favorin of thatof diplomacy. But right now the president seems to be calling the shots. Robert the president is the only stakeholder. What does Congress Want . Do they want more talks with iran . Theyre worried about the president being in the mushy middle so to speak. Not taking action after an American Asset washot down in the region. Adam kinsinger from said if im a pilot in the middle east toy im worried. As he was. He was a pilot in the middle east because youre in danger. He said just as well could have been an aircraft with human ibeings on and the president said h has a different relationship with iran and iran doesnt want to talk to donald trump and they made that abundantly clear and d talk to the obama administration. And i think that by and l cge yout paint congress with a broad brush. At by and large, republicans do not supportn additional round of talks with iran at the moment. They believe ira is aalign actor and dont believe that any sort ofeal beyond the iran agreement reached under obama will be reachil. Robert the congress have any authorization over a strike . Probably not. Y is Administration Made clear they believe tve the leeway to conduct strikes without an additional aumf authorization for using military force. Ro rt jake brought up adam kiinger a hawk from illinois. And the president this is such a test for him. Is he leaning toward the hawk, toward senator graham or senator paul the noninterventionist . Right now a struggle whin the president. He talks very tough and waves a big stick but in the end he is not annterventionist. He is an isolationist in a lot of different ways. D i think he was pulled and pulled and pulled in this direction for a strik by pompeo and by john bolton. And in the end, as hes done af number times, he just changed his minding. Its a it was interesting he t some praise from liberal quarters today for doing that. It was very interesting to see. Robert so what about john bolton the nationality advisor . Is he overestimated and is he this person perched on thes presidear influencing him toward war . I think it depends on where the president stands but lately weve seen him really discount john b otons advice several occasions. And the president has dismissed him at times in meetings that theyve had. So i think were seeing a little bit of a change with john bolton. But i think a lot of that was to dh the president doesnt like this idea that john bolton is goading him into conflict. And you saw that in the oval office when the president was asked are somef your advisors, pompeo and john bolton are standing over his shoulder goading you into conflict . And he said no, i actually think its the opposite sometimes. But thats because the president doesnt like this narrive that any person no matter john bolton or whoever is telling him what to do. Robert and one person were cting lking about is the secretary of defense. All this turnover at the pentagon. What does that mean for these discussions inside the administration . Yeah. Were told and some of our reporting that thursday, while top military officials were trying to decide what military options the president should be looking at, he had the the president had both his outgoing acting defense secretary and is incoming acting defen secretary, both in the room, there early showing that is no actual cabinet senateconfirmed cabinet level defense secretary in the last six months since jims left the administration. And thats showing how much this administration has sort of in turmo o having a l acting officials not having people who have been confirmed by the senate who can really show that they have the full confidence of the senate to carry out Foreign Policy and to out defense operations. This is an administration that struggling to fill the top ranks of the cabinet and thats inear from some of the Decision Making that is h an impact. Robert and who fills the void a person like tom cotton wh to politico this week, hes for bombing iran. He sai it very outwardly, he said hes for military action in iran. As we kno from three years of experience donald trump is talking to these members of congress dly. Sometimes multiple times a day. And when theres no kind of commanding figure in r them, people are going to fill his mind and fill his brain with all sorts of ideas. Which in the normal white house is not happening. Receipt now theres a power vacuum at the pentagon and right now the secretary of state is filling io he seems playing the role of both secretary of state, secretary of defense and a little bit of c. I. A. Director which was his job before he got to state. And so pompeo i think is the one to watch here. Robert there are other voices here. You have the hawks like secretary pompeo. Ou but whene on capitol hill, some democrats are war feary. Republicans somehem are war weary. Do we know anything about secretarysper, the army acting secretary of defense . Were told by sources he was actually in favor of some kind ion against iran. Now, whether it was the strike that john bolton wanted we dont knowngbout the var degrees of that. But he actually was in favor of it. And so its interesting how he was involved in ese discussions because sunday night at midnight is when he assumes the power as the acting defense secretary. Of course, whether or not the president nominates him formally thats goin throw a whole loop for that because he cant serve as the acting defense secretary ifeseen formally nominated. So questions about how that leadership is going to go. Robert youre heading to the pan for the g20 . Yes. Robert where is the rest of the world as the president heads abroad next week . Is europ trying to may cut their own deals with iran on oil . The rest of the world are they on edge about war . Theres a lot of concern rom other countries that arent necessarily onboard with the u. S. Intelligence about what iran has done even before this drone shooting. We had a situation where the u. S. Was basically saying that iran was responsible for a number of tanker. Attac and it wasnt clear that the rest of the world was along and sort of supportinthe u. S. Intelligence on that front. So theyre asking for more information. Theyre asking to make s te that u. S. Is sort of crossing all of its ts and dotting its is to make sure the intelligence is clear before moving forward with any type o and you have to remember that a lot of these countries support the iran deal that the u. S. And t president pulled out of. And theyre not in favor of the idea that the president and the u. S. Is sort of leading to more tension with iran when they t felt liky had a good deal to deescalate some of those tensions. Robert saudi arabia, we have seen Senate Republicans take action against the arms deal this week. Yes. Was a real show of force against the president. It was a bipartisan vote against him. There was seven republicans who voted with theemocrats not t sell arms to saudi arabia. Now, its a largely symbolic vote because the president is going to veto it and hes got a veto prooc majority. Robert and where does it play in the iran discussion . Theyve been large silent. Weve heard again from rand paul and from from lindsey ot graham butrom a lot of other people on the hill. Y generaey stick with the president or dont say new england because they dont want to dont say anything because they dont want to get involved with antagizing trump robert based on your repor hng are wding toward war . No. I think the president s impulses are no tt involved in a war. You have to remember this is a Political Animal here and you think about the president of the his instincts are not to get involved ia war that would be politically damaging for his prospects in 2020. Remember, he want deals. And everythin weve seen, weve seen the president tweet probably a dozen times iran,ll me. And he said this. Many times that he thinks he can do the deal. And hes urged iran to come to e the t now, iran has said thanks but no thanks. And last night reuters reported sent a message through oman that he wanted to talk to iran smeeled and iran said no immediately and iran said no thanks. This might be a tough one to crack. Thats the q because essentially hes at the brink i got to follow through on this promise not to get inmo lved in the middle east or just not going to respond to them consistently provoking me . They dont want to talk to him but its likely theyll keep up th flair antics so the question is going to be what does he do the next thing that they do . Because we were very close to a strike in a milary strike so the question is what does he do the negotiation time they try to prove . The real when they reach Nuclear Threshold whanctheyre ned to close to next month and thats what theyre really concerned about in the administration. Its not shooting down manned drones. This is bad but getting close to a Nuclear Weapon is the real r thel concern at the white house. Robert lets turn to the race for the white house. Prffident trump kicked his second bid for a term in office in orlando this week and former Vice President joe biden who s faced latest po criticism from rivals over remarks he made about his past work with senatorwho supported segregation. Toulouse and kaitlan covered the rally. TPresident Trump the onlng these corrupt politicians will understand is an earthquake at the ballo box. Thats what they will understand. And theyre going to see it. We did it once. Again. We will do it and thim were going this time were going to finish the job. Our radical democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice and rage. They want toou destroy and they want to destroy our country as we know it. Not aseptable. Ot going to happen. Robert the Trump Campaign announced wednesday that mr. P traised nearly 25 million in the 24 hours after his tlly. That all gives president a financial advantage over his democratic cmrllengers. Biden for his part is dealing with the fallout from those comments about finding Common Ground with others, even segregationists. He has defended his record on civil rights. The point im making is you dont have to agree. Youav dont to like the people in terms of their views. But you jus simply make the case and you beat them. Robert e toulouse, inshe arena in orlando, grievances, immigration, trade, is th a revival of 2016 . This is a complete doubling down on the b president se. He thinks that they helped him win in 2016. Even though hes raising all this money that would would presumably allow him to reach out to new voters and reach out to moderates, hes focusing specifically on his base and even heard him say that he was goingo go after Hillary Clinton and lead chants of lock her up and it was really a throwback to 2e6 because believ that whipping up his voters and getting them sortf aggrieved and angry gets them enthusiastic about voting for him,ives them an enemy to focus on. And he thinks he said it in the past that he thinks fear is much mor a motivator than hope. And thats what hes campaigning on and thats how hesnoing to run 2020. And he talked about Hillary Clinton before he got to anyone who isn running against i 2020. It does show that not only is it a revival of 2016, hes consistently carried that same message throughout. So the question is going to be, if hes just settling old scores and talking about his grievances and not setting forth a newgenda, is that going to be enough for the voters . But we were there. It was 20,000 people. In orlando. And the question is if theyr c going te or if theyre fine with the president repeating his old statements. Robert what ro theylly into when youre talking to those voters, toulouse and kaitlan . They tnk the president has kept his promises. That he said he was going to be a fighter and said hwas going to be a disrupter and hes done that over the past two years in washington. And theyre also focused on not only bread and butter issues like theconomy and taxes but some of these cultural flash points and everything from the Mueller Investigation to abortion tohe immigration, president is really touching on some of those issues and hes getting a lot of support fros se voters who wanted him to shake things up in washington on those specific issues and hes doing so. Whats interesting is we did talk to voters and we asked them if there was one democrat that you think is worrisome for the president. They all said the same one thats been on his mind. So much and occupied so much of his head space which is of course joe biden. Robert what do we think about how Vice President biden handled the controversy this week, notzi apolo, defiant, he faces a debate next week in front ofany contenders. Is this a senator biden, Vice President boven youveed . Is this in character for him . Hes taken a page from donake trump. O prisoners and apologize for nothing. And i would have to say that i think you know, he biden is being held to a different standard than the president is being heldo. You know, given the president s record on race. D i think theres something to be said for biden saying i can work across the ool andh work weople. You dont have to like what they stand for. And i thought also wn heaid you know im not a racist, you know my record on civil rights. Get real. I thought it was a different kind ofidoe and very much taking a page from trump. The number three democrat in the house of represe jim clyburn came to the speakers lobby behind the eouse floor and asked him about the episode and hmmediately leaped to bidens defense. Robert why . You would have to ask him. Th k that he believes he said this this reminds me of my work with Strom Thurmond who i vehemently disagreed with. This isrn saying it not me. And you had to his basic point and didnt say this directly but you have to work ple you dont agree with and you find abhorrent at different times. Now, a lot wehe read in post, and we heard from other people, that t president Vice President bidens advisors asically said dont do this. This is a bad message. You dont need to talk about w these peopl you know are really out of step with not only these times but last 50 years. And he did it anyway. So that and the leaks from the campaign throwing biden u the bus should be concerning for the campaign. Re theres a concern that biden and his pastdential campaigns was a gaffe machine. And even though he started thish time around w a much more organized operation, he was able to raise a lot of money d stay on message a not take questions from reporters, theres a sign that he might be sort of reverting into that gaffe mode and getting into trouble and with unforced herors. An had some help from some senior black lawmakers who have come out and in his support and talked about how ey dont think what he said was offensive. But this was definitely an unforced error and you did see people like cory booker come out and use it as ay opportun to draw contrast between himself and biden. A number of democraticre candidatesooking for ways to draw a contrast with biden because hes a frontrunner andw likely see that during the debates. Them showing how they can be different from biden. Robert lets go back to orlando for a second. U d the president have had a pretty Ragtag Campaign in 2016. W Brad Parscale is running it and raised mless and millions of dlars. Whats the difference this time around behind the scenes . Well, theyre touting it as a complely differe machine. That they know what theyre doinghis time. Theyve got the power of the incumbency and got a lot of money which is true. They do have a lot of money that they have raised. Just evident in what they raised in the 24hour period in orlando. But the question is going to be, is this really going to any different . Because you saw what happened with that poll episode recentlyg where theive numbers leaked out that he was trailing people like joe biden. And when it first leaked out the campaign was not that worried about it they dideny the numbers. They just downplayed them. But then when the president reade it on ront page of the New York Times and it really got under his shen, thats you saw them come out. So sure, it can be a new campaign. They have a lot of mstey. Theyrl dealing with the same candidate. Robert the immigration focus by the president hes now pledging to have all these crackdown, and many reports from the a. P. And others and a the timeut Migrant Children at the border facing reallyifficult, terribl issues. Does the president pay a political cost or does h see in his and his team see it as a political winner . He certainly pays political cost with suburban voters, suburban women particularly who wereed horri by the separation of children from their parents at the border. Bbut heieves that immigration plays really well with his base. He certainly played well last time. Support o people who the president and they say its terrible about a family separation. Ss but theyre cg the border illegally what do they expect . Andas strategylways been to hold the base really close and to annihilate your othonent. An seems to be where theyre going. Certainly in 2020. Robert when you talk towm ers on capitol hill does the economy matter, the Federal Reserve indicated on wednesday its likely to cut rates, is the economy much more of a factor than maybe some of the issues we heard at the rally . I thi people who want to win back the house of representatives, republicans, think its a concern and very nervous about the saber rattling with china and what emight come out of g20 next week and if theres a deal with china, mor tariffs and more tariffs with mexico . People are very concerned about that. And the thingrnhats cong and this was concerning in 2018, too, the president , republicans say the president has all these gre t things tk about. He has an economy thats pretty healthy. He has a tax bill which he thought was good and republicans thought wasd. G why arent why isnt he talking about any of these things that most republicans agree with . Instead hes gough down some of theseabbit holes. This is a president that likes to talk about things that make people angry andvi more ve issues and said it himself. Robert is that a strategy . It is his strategy. He thinks that its much more talk about t things that are divisive. And youve seen him reading from a teleprompter or reading from a pepared speech in past and he stopped himself and said this is boring and lets hi talk about som else and talk about the hot topic of the day. Weve seen this president weigh in on anything from nfl protests to the academywards to celebrities in hollywood. He connects with some voters that way. Hes able to gin up his base that way and get people to think this guy is on my side and a layman and talking about th issues that i cant maybe vocalize but esaying that things that everyone else is thinking. So this is a president that would much rather talk about those hot button issues than talking about the economy or using the same speec the same stump speech that people write for him about how good the economy is. Its funny because the congressional peck nick he talked about the economy for a good six or seven minutes which is probably the longest he talk about it than any campaign rally. But its because hes in front of all these republica there the south lawn. But this isnt a traditional president. I dont think hes going to win lose in a traditional way and traditionally they would win on the economy. Sonk dont really t thats going to play a factor. And polls sho he doesnt get much credit for the economy and started before he came into office. I also think that o iando, when he when he tells the people the elites are looking down on and you they hat you, and he really does play up that culture war in a way in a ive h never seen w any forepresident. And just just this anger a it it seems to really work. You guys were there and seemed to really work. Yeah. One thing thats fascinating to me is how he talks about draining the swamp and weve seen s many scandals out of his administration and clear that hes vulnerable on that issue. Robert has, everybody, for being here on a friday night. Much appreciated. We will ten our discussion on election 2020 on the Washington Week extra watch it on our website. Ook or youtube starting at 8 30 p. M. Every friday night. Im robert costa. Have a great weekend. Announcer Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by babbel. A rang program that teaches reel lafe conversations in spanish, french, german, italian, and more. Babbel 10o 15minute lessons are available as an app or online. More information on babbel. Com. Oksuke. Kaiser permanente. Financial Services Firm raymond jaadmes. Tional funding is provided byu and Patricia Yuen through the yueen 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. Thk you. Announcer youre watching announcer youre watching pshes. Announcer last time. Freezer, freezer, freezer, please. Announcer desserts proved the undoing of iain. No, no, no, no, you cant announcer richard came out on top. Now, thats what i call a sauce pudding. Announcer and was crownedon star baker for the sectime. Sue oh, well done. E, mel well donichard. Announcer this time. Okay. Okay. The bakers tackle pies and tarts. Got it as thin as i dare. Announcer with a signature that challenges ea thdiest of hands. Whoa. Announcer a technical that gets everyone in a spin. B i think this has toup there with one of the strangest things ive ever done. Announcer and a towering showstopper. If that stays up without falling, ill be amazed. Announcer that might just prove too much to handle. Oh, my goodness. 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