Introduce Climate Change. Next. This is Washington Week. Corporate funding is provided by. For 25 years, Consumer Cellular gold has been the Wireless Service that helps people communicate and connect. We offer a variety of no contract plans and u. S. Based Customer Service team can help you find one that fits you. To learn more go to Consumer Cellular. Tv. Additional funding is provided by the u. N. Foundation committed to fostering cultural communities rose herschel and annie shreves. Robert and susan rose involvement. The corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station and from viewers like you. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to Washington Week. While the country suffers through a relentless heat wave. On the east coast, a flurry of Legal Development as dialed of the temperature on the former president. Donald Trump Lawyers at on thursday and special counsel jack smith and team are hoping to prevent aikely second federal indictment. This time related to trumps efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020lection. The former president is also facing new charges in the classified documents case. Late thursda the special counsels office revised its initial indictment to conclude accusations that he thought to delete Surveillance Video from insight maralago. And for President Biden, his sons legal issues are not going away as hope to. On wednesday, Hunter Bidens plea deal on tax and gun charges are was put on hold after a judge question the agreement to the constitutionality and deferment of the case. Republicans who are already investigating the doj plea deal are plotting the judges scrutiny. If this shows that viz. May continue to plague the president as he ramps up his reelection bid. When he me to discuss this is peter baker the chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times. Here with me in the studio Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department for the Washington Post. Leanne caldwell is the anchor of Washington Post live and coauthor of the early 202 newsletter. And we have senior managing editor at politico. Welcome to you all. Thank you for being here. We saw these new charges against the former president not in the case we were expecting this week, but allegations that trump tried to destroy Surveillance Video. And a few other charges. Tell us what we learned. What we learned is the prosecution case for obstruction obstruction and a coverup in this case is previous then will be new. It involves another trump employee that allegedly set out in trumps direction to try to just destroy security fara footage according to prosecutors. That shows a Broader Group of people to engage in more alleged misconct. And it adds an additional card against former President Trump with this tax document that is generated so much interest in part because he talked about how it was classified. This is more bad facts for the former president. Bad facts that is the technical term for it. Yeah. And a water net. One of the things that they will always tell you is the more people are at the defense table the worse it is for each of those people you just saw another person added to the defense table. That is an ominous sign. Tell us about carlo. He was a longtime trump employee. He is an immigrant who first attracted trumps notice and praise by working on the doors of maralago. We have recording about this this weekend. What happened to him is that the fbi and prosecutors and special counsel spent a period of months trying to make him a witness in their case. With the what they increasingly came up against was in their minds a lot of bad memory, a lot about answers and that all combinative these increasingly testy exchanges and questions while culminating and able session in court where he had a queen for a day interview where you get a chance to make your final pitch of why you might be considered a witness. We are told he did not pass that test. Now, he has gone from essentially a failed witness to a defendant. Separate from the alleged crime, everything that youre talking about rlly strengthens this sense that it was a coverup. And the coverup is worse than the crime, whatever that is. That seems to be very strange here very strengthened here. It does. The question is do so Trump Supporters care. After every single indictment and charge against him his supporters support him more. If you look at the polls, republicans are supporting him or than they have. Even small dollar donors. That is all really going really well for him. And so the question is, what will happen with there is another federal indictment. And that is about january 6 which is an entirely different issue wch might impact other people. And what do his opponents do. They have been eventempered so far. Most of this we are hearing it is a distraction and we should be talking about joe biden and not what is going on with donald trump. They have not really gone there yet. Obviously this is bad news for donald trumpegally and he has a lot to deal with. On the political front he is moving straightforward. This is a january 6 indictment which is all about the alleged crime that the president , the former president might have done along with his allies to try to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. We have gotten some gleaning of what the charges might be. Do you have a sense of how the doj would approach this if they drop this indictment . How will they go after the former president . That is a good question. This is the oth shoe expected to drop this week and it did not. The president s lawyer met with the department of justice official councils early to discuss this case and possible indictment. To make it the case for why they did not think their client should be charged. And we will see if that is persuasive. It is hard to imagine that it was. It was the same routine right before the classified documents invited indicted. The next time they meet they usually meet on tuesday and thursday the next time would be this coming thursday. If they have not indicted him already under seal that is another day they could potentially indict him. This indictment goes farther than the two we have already seen. Along we are talking about with the classified documents and the state charges in new york about hush money paid to Stephanie Cooper who was the Stormy Daniels the film actress. This goes to the heart of the matter. If we were to get an indictment, it isbout returning an election. It is about some wording a constitutional process for changing power to be one leader to the other. That goes further than what we have already been talking about. A series of classified documents or as serious as the hush money may be a ghost of a heart of the matter. He would set a different order of significance and consequence. We have to wait and see if they go through with it. And the president s defense if he has one. To that point, he is the explaining this is an extraordinary indictment. The alleged crime is here. Lets say it does drop, what you think the president does . It does not does it change his defense at all if the indictment does come if we as we expect. I dont think so. I think what is happening with donald trump this is political it is very closely intertwined with his legal effort as well. His people will flat out tell you it is one in the same. The legal strategy and the political strategy are one in the same. I do not think a lot changes, but what i do think is unknown is if this january 6 indictment does it differently with the american public. It might not hit differently and probably wont with his base, but beyond the 35 of the americans who have diehard support for donald trump, where does this go . In the meanwhile, you have the house of representatives for the first time in the House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy open the door to the potential impeachment into biden. And this is also a very political tactic to ensure that both front rotors for the president ial election are involved in these investigations. On this, contrary to the in vice advice of every single attorney in america, the president keeps talking openly about this case. Is there greater potential that this puts him in more legal jeopardy. We are already seeing that play out in real time. I mentioned out about the iranian document. President President Trump weeks ago said there is no such document. He came out and said that and then not too long later they say it is a new charge in his case. He continues to talk in ways that would be for anyefendant incredibly risky. It is hard to expect that pattern to change just because he is his own chief Legal Counsel for better or worse. Peter, i wonder if as leeann and others have touched on. Do you think it is possible these indictments could be a doubleedged sword in the sense that the indictments might strengthen the former president standing with his core base while at the same time making him increasingly politically radioactive to the independence he might need to be joe biden if he were to become the nominee . Yeah that is exactly the worry Many Republican strategists have right now. In fact, he maybe unbeatable for the nomination certainly if the barring the way of the front runner. But he is turning off in the democrat and independent. But he may win the general election. We do not know. It has been a marked remarkable to see him not want indicted not once but twice. An increase in holes in his own party. That is something you have never seen before. We are trying to make a judgment on a lack of any kind of historical president here. So far it is not it is a political defense they are out to get me it is a persecution, witchhunt. And so on. But when you look at his statement he says on tv he does not deny the fact and he does not deny doing the this they are charging him with doing to say if there is nothing wrong with it or that it is all politically motivated. He does not try to explain or deny that he did not delete the tapes. And he did not deny that he simply said he had the right to do it or he did not do it or make some other version of reality. So his ability to change the narrative rather successful among Republican Voters we will see where it leads when it gets to the general election. You were touching on this before and you believe even if full guns lazing from the doj it does not really didnt him with the core base . It only strengthens his hold on them . It is hard to tell because we have never been here but i think we have seen four years of his presidency. We have seen years after and we have not seen a dent. All these times, ter and i covered the Trump White House together. All these times where we said this is really going to affect it never did not one time. So i just had that to go on. Obviously this is very different than the other things we saw during the presidency with the charges and this is serious. It does not seem to look that way. We do not know area theres a couple things that could impact it, january 6. Charges against the fundamentals of our democracy. And the second is the timing of this will we see trials before the 2024 election . If so we will hear all sorts of things and see all sorts of people come forward and talk. That may change something. It will for a lot of americans. I do not know about the core base though. I want to do that to hunter biden and what happened with him this week. And i will turn to you with our legal expert here. Hunter biden thought that they were going to have a boring hearing and this week it did not turn out to be that way. What happened from there . It is something that happens a fair bit in the federal court system which is prosecutors cut deals and there are part of the deals that are tricky. They did not want to spell out too clearly. A good judge of will kick the tires. Good lawyers will have good answers to the judges questions. What you saw was a lawyer did not have good answers to the judges question. And the problem is there are too many vague arts of the deal. And the judge said basically youve got to go back and work on this more because i do not even understand what im approving here. That is not a great look for the Justice Department, hunter biden, again, most of the issues get resolved along the way. This is just taking everything to do with the hunter biden case. This is taking even more time than it should. And we know this will not tamp down any of the house gop investigations into hunter biden, the allegations that this is a twotiered justice system. With regard to hunter biden, we did also see another revelation that just happened today. Tell us about that. Next tonight for the first time, President Biden acknowledged that he has a seventh grandchild and the seventh grandchild was edged illegitimate child of hunter biden. And the reason this is a big issue is there was a paternity case, a big legal case that just finished up. Huer biden initially denied this grandchild. It turns out it is his. The reason it became in issue is because predators President Biden after the case finished a couple weeks ago said that he loves all of his six grandchildren. And he left out the seventh. The child of hunter biden. And, you know, joe biden got a lot of criticism for that including in the columns of the New York Times where they wrote this might be the one hunter biden scandal that people care about. And now we have seen after people joe biden acknowledging that he does have a seventh grandchild. They broke it to People Magazine so you can see where their audience is. His audience is people who they were talking about. The mothers, families, the people who they can emotionally connect with. Ok we will leave that section here. We have to say goodbye to you thank you for your insight and for joining us tonight. This week all of washington was alarmed when senate would Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell seemed to freeze up midsentence and stood there after nearly 20 seconds, he was helped away from the podium by his colleagues. The 81yearold ended or came back and said he was fine and has continued to do his work. Questions now linger over the future of one of the most influential republicans in the nations capital. As this relentless heat wave continues his journey across the country it is also increasing calls for President Biden to do more to address one of its underlying causes, Climate Change. Peter baker, to you first about Mitch Mcconnell. Again, this was such a striking thing. For a figure in washington politics for as long as he has been. To be such an influential figure, he says hes going to continue his term and there are no changes in leadership, but it sounds like republicans are concerned about this. What is your sins . Peter yeah. Mitch mcconnell has been a giant in washington now for many years. He has been one of the most Successful Party leaders weve seen in a long time in the senate. To see him so, you know week in this way it was striking and disturbing for a lot of his friends as well as for some of its rivals. He of course had a fall in march i believe it was where he tripped and broke he got a concussion and he was out for six weeks. And now we are told he had a couple other falls that we did not know about. And they use a wheelchair when he goes to the airport to try to get it through. And that is the best way to go forward. So it reinforces that at 81 he is having trouble. Like a lot of 81yearolds would have. This is something we have seen repeatedly in the last year or so in washington. We have a democratic senator from california and the big controversy and debate over President Biden winning another term. He is at 80 right now and has had moments of confusion or tripping over his memory or Something Like that. Polls show that has been a big concern with President Biden the other person is Mitch Mcconnell and he is not happy about this. And President Biden in the white house paying this issue should not be front and center. But our leaders that are acting do get older and the question is at what weight is it right for them to step aside and can they continue to do very job . X you have been reporting recently that the white house has been watching mcconnell in this regard. He used to be in the stereotype where he was a r. G. Villain for democrats. And he denied the seat on the supreme court. But now, he has been seen in some ways as a check on the more rambunctious mccarthy house. I wonder what your sense is as to how democrats might be thinking about negotiations going forward. That is right remember joe biden and Mitch Mcconnell have decades long history. You do not really hear them. They might have a couple funny lines about each other but you do not hear them outright criticizing each other because there is a long history. Remember joe biden is the one that says i can get along with anyone and cut deals. It is making people and his party not very happy and sometimes we do see that. There are definitely people in the Democratic Party that feel like he is alright. I do not think they will get that from the white house but they are thinking they have people in Mitch Mcconnells party inking and looking at the watch. Is this the time to not say that out loud yet but people are talking about it and whispering it. And i think this week a lot of people are thinking about this but they do not want to say it out loud. It is not a place yet because it has been around he has been around for so long. And i was going to say he has a grip on his party. The challenge he had with his leadership this year where republicans voted he should not be the leader. But beyond that, he has, like i said such a grip on his party. And no one it is interesting beuse i was talking to republican doors on one day. I ask about mcconnells health. This is prior to this. What people are saying and talking about. We know he had a head injury. And a source said no one talks about it. Maybe because his mind is still very strong. No one talks about his age or him getting older. Then this incident happen and people started talking about h a little bit more but no one is willing to come out and challenge him area his team reminds us that he has had a long history of falls. He is a polio survivor. He fractured his shoulder in 2019 by falling on his porch. They are saying they are also trying to reinforce that he is mentally completely they are. He just has always had challenges. I want to turn lastly to this issue that we are all experiencing. Currently almost have the country under heat seat heat waves. These have again brought up this push to press biden even though he already passed some sub stance of legislation to address Climate Change to do more. And i wonder if you think that this kind of a calamity that we are living through with our electrical grids being taxed all over the country and people literally sweltering. If this really does dial up the pressure on the president and what he might do with that. That is a really good question because he did pass Climate Action last year as part of the inflation reduction act. The largest expenditure on climate issues in our history. But that does not necessarily mean that is enough. A lot of climate actors would say that is a nice start but keep going. And the question is whether the heatwave we are seein in the climate impacts that we are seeing right now changes the political dynamic at home. Does that build a larger more broadbased consensus on everyday people who can now look outside and see the impact of Climate Change on their own lives. They cannot send their kids to camp. The airconditioned brakes and in which case they do not know what to do at night with their families. The work is more complicated because of the heat. And this impacts their life and they associate with Climate Change. Does that mean the political environment changes over time . A lot of people would say it is not a sign of anything all that big. The question is whether or not the arguments the climate act was making get through in a moment like this. We will see it in their everyday lives. X in the last 30 seconds we have, is your sense that this moves the needle especially with republicans this show a good amount of change with the Climate Action. As far as republicans are concerned, they really are intent on assuring that fossil fuels remain an essential part of our energy sector. There are outliers within the republican party, but not really. We have not seen a major shift yet. I think we have to leave it there tonight. Enke for joining us and for peter joining us. And thanks to all of you for joining us as well. Good night from washington dc. Funding for Washington Week is provided by for 25 years, Consumer Cellular has been offering no contract wireless plans designed to help people do or of what they like. Our u. S. Based Customer Service team can help you find a plan that fits you. To learn more visit Consumer Cellular. Tv. Additional funding is provided by u. N. Foundation cooling. Committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. Sandra and carl elaine matheson, Rose Marshall and andy shreves. Robert andusan rosenbaum. The corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Jenny kwak korean food is always comfort food to me. Thats really what i want to eat at the end of the day. Robin ha well, in the early 2000s, that was still the time where not many people really knew about korean food. Either, like, i have to find somebodys mom to cook for me or i have to go to 32nd street. Jenny there was 32nd street, but there was really nothing downtown. Thats actually why i thought we should open in the east village. Shohui kim i remember thinking, wowits so nice that korean food is getting popular enough that were just leaving koreatown. Jenny you might think something i cooked is strange, but its ok because somebodys going to get it. Thats what i love about new york. Shohui its so great to know that young people these days know words like bibimbap and