Irreversible. We all share the same responsibility. Make our planet great again. Robert former president obama, who signed the deal, called out the administration for the absence of america leadership and said the plan was meant to protect the world we leevepl to our children. Inside the west wing, a power struggle among the president s inner circle, pitting family advisors and moderates against the harmedliners. Plus, russian president Vladimir Putins new theory about who may have meddled in the u. S. Election. We explore it all with Indira Lakshmanan of the boston globe. Michael michael of time magazine. Kelly odonnell of nbc news, and Jonathan Swan of axios. 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. Koo and Patricia Ewen to the ewen foundation. 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. Robert good evening. President frumps decision to exit the Paris Climate Accord has sparked an international detective, in particular among allies, who would like the u. S. , the worlds second greatest carbon polluter to share the burden of reform by in his rose garden remarks, the president talked less about Global Warming and more about his americafirst zenled agenda. President trump i was elected to represent the citizens of pittsburgh, not paris. Our withdrawal from the agreement represents a reassertion of americas sovereignty. We dont want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore and they wont be. Robert they may not be laughing anymore. Theyre paying attention. But you were born and ratesed in pittsburgh. You know the area and strip places like it. Whats the economic and violate arl effect on a place like pittsburgh because of this decision . Indira my ears really perked up when i heard the president say he was elected to represent pittsburgh and not paris. As the mayor of pittsburgh pointed out yesterday, pittsburgh went 80 for Hillary Clinton in the last election. Pittsburgh is not that kind of rustbelt idea that donald trump has put out there in his inaugural he talked about the rusting tombstones of empty factories. Thats not pittsburgh. When i grew up in the 1970s, 1980s, its true, it was the end of the steam industry but the city leaders came together and managed to really reinvent the city and right now the city has hightech jobs. Google has a campus there. Theyve double their edge nearing staff. Uber launched their selfdriving cars there just last year. Its medicine, its hightech. Its green energy, cleanenergy jocks so pittsburgh has completely reinvented itself and the average per captaina average income in pittsburgh is now 70 over the National Average and 70 of the jobs are cleanenergy jobs is so pittsburgh is not happy about donald trump pulling out of the paris agreement. Robert michael, youve been such an observer for the president. If the economics of doing this are debatable, what else is behind the decision . Michael this is the mags rationale of donald trump as the politician, that he is the guy fighting for the forgotten america against Global Leaders mistreating them for decades. It was a message he found in the course of his campaign although it goes back to the late 1980s when he said jim was robbing us us mind and he was going to fix is. That is trump where hes most comfortable. Its the rationale of his presidency. On the policy side, this is not actually going to in itself do anything to the amount of carbon the u. S. Is releasing. The paris is an volume taxpayer accord. He can run is tear accord and he can back out any time. He said amount the rothse rose garden, maybe i can renegotiate a new deal. Maybe not. That would be ok as well. Two issues is he going to continue to give foreign aid from developing countries . The answer is almost certainly going to be no unless congress stops him and the second issue is in terms of regular la stormy changes, other things he does to the Clean Power Plan that obama got in place, what he is going to allow for more carbon in the u. S. Robert so the policy amp math is still kind of unclear. Jonathan, youve been scoop after scoop this week on paris and the climate deal. When i looked that want rose garden crowd on thursday and i saw Stephen Bannon in the front row beaming, was this decision by the president a return to power that forsteve bannon and perhaps a demoralizing moment for the more moderate forces within the white house like gerald kushner, the soninlaw and his daughter ivanka trump. Juliet it was definitely demoralizing, especially for i vanc ivanka trump. She tried. She really tried. She worked hard. I think you guys reported that she tried to place opinion in the wall street journal, with business leaders. You know how i found that out . Not from her p. R. Aide smbingts, from Movement Conservatives who remember complaining about her. Trump has never really wanted to stay in this deal. The misconception i think was that he was actually going to stay in. When i spoke to people close to him for weeks he was saying he was going to get out. He told scott pruitt last week and at least one senator he was going to get out. Robert so you dont buy that he was convinced by steve ban season you think his instincts were always to get out of it . Jonathan absolutely. Yes, it looks good for bannon. But i dont buy its a bannon puppeteer move. Bomani robert there were a lot of people around the world, including german chance lore Angela Merkel that trump might be convinced to stay in she said the times when we could completely rely on others are now to an extent over. Everyone sauna as a shot to President Trump and when you look at the reaction, especially in western europe, to visceral with in decision. You were aboard with President Trump and i wonder about the critics in his foreign policy. He talked at nato about burden sharing yet when it comes to the climate, he doesnt want to share that burden. What explains that . Kelly its let me get past you policy and get to the front of the line, right . It is a classic donald trump persona now on the world stage, where he is willing to upend the norse. Willing to not shake hands when it suits him and at other times embrace leaders and lead us to think thats a change. One of the most puzzling times on the trip was when we were told by the top advisors that the president s views were evolving, that the conversations were so fruitful and that he was really listening and taking in the views of the leaders he was meeting with. There were views that programs they were signaling a change. Now in retrospect, that looks like it was participate to have leverage being placed by the president on those around him. He clearly is the man who wants to rip up anything that barack obama managed in terms of a deep. He sort of equivocated there but we could get a better deal. He also wants to be seen as an environmentalist. He is so quick to point ous outs to those World Leaders awards he won in his Business Life for different times of environmentally friendly buildings. He wants it both ways in some ways. He doesnt want to look like a climate harriet hater. Yet weve twied every arm to get officials to say what is the president s views today. And doesnt he need to have a belief about the science to decide what the policy should be and they will not answer that. Robert indira, you havent just lived in pittsburgh. Youve lived abroad. Whats going to be the cost for the United States. Is it more isolation in Global Affairs and how does this rock, perhaps, Global Environmental policy . Indira among my times overseas as a correspondent for the boston globe, i intent seven years based in china and comploin has some of the knost polluted cities in the world. China and the United States lead the world in terms of Carbon Emissions and its most important for those two countries to be socalled lead not guilty commitments in paris or other commitments to redoes Carbon Emissions. Whats interesting its in the reaction was even before donald trump formally made his announcement, china and the e. U. Came together and said thats ok. Were still going to keep our commitments and india said the same thing. This is key, why . Because china and india have literally hundreds of millions of people who live on the coastlines who will go underway if Climate Change proceeds. Robert californias governor jerry brown. A lot of blue states and blue cities in the u. S. Republican massachusetts. Are saying theyll have their own policy on climate. Youre going to have bluestate governors. California is what the 11th largest economy in the world . Theyre going to fight in you have a number of big companies. Even Companies Like exzaun who is making a lot of money right now from national gas as an economic incentive to push in transition, theyre going to continue to fight this it may be that even though donald trump and scott pruitt pull back on regulations that the u. S. Doesnt actually pull that far behind. Also, this is a fouryear window. Donald trump is going to be in office less than four years. If he doesnt win a second term, its possible the u. S. Never actually leaves the paris climate deal. Robert every republican says dont just Pay Attention to paris but what pruitt is doing to redeg late. Does the president actually believe in climate clang . Kelly they wont answer that in part because if they were to say he does, the quea is about why would you do this from a policy stand assistant if they allow him to still be candidate trump, calling it a hoax, thats also problematic. Pruitt today did acknowledge that there is a clang in the climate, a human factor. Yet hes often described as one of the more stept kabul skeptical about science. The way they wont answer a straightforward question is problematic. Robert the Business Community is revolting against this administration and gary cohen and so many other people within the administration couldnt convince the president. Thats right and gary cohen was Still Holding out hope, even on wednesday staying this isnt over privately. These are the people hes been working with for a long time and he was told that lloyd bank fien, the first time helped ever tweeted was about this and gary cohen said this took him by surprise. It doesnt. Robert president Vladimir Putin conceded his country couch had a connection in the election. His alternative theory is that private citizens, socalled patriotic hackers, may have acted on their own. They fight against those who say bad things about russia. Robert he was dismissive of this ymed that russia has had a prominent role. How is this going to affect the ongoing probes . Kelly he also said that a child couch hacked the American Election and he referred specifically to her daughter. Its akin to donald trump saying he didnt even knew that she had an underage daughter but its akin to donald trump saying it could be some 400pound guy sitting on a bed in new jersey who would have hacked the election. What ive found interesting ive been in the kremlin with secretary of state clinton and secretary of state john kerry and been up close to Vladimir Putin and watched him. Hes a very smooth guy and the way that me behaved with megyn kelly saying dont worry, be happy. Dont worry about Climate Change. Its only two degrees. Here in moscow its cold and rainy so were happy that donald trump pulled out of the accord. This guy is a smooth operator. Defiant. Hes gloating. Hes bragging to the world that not only does he have now an American Government that is much more favorable to anything in the past, that his policies are coming his way. Are the sanctions going to go away . Michael the sanctions are difficult because you have to go through congress to get the sanctions. Some of them are executive. Michael and theres also been discussions about getting back some of the dep lomatic nasty that they lost. Put season telling the world that its a new day for russia. This is an authoritarian who controls russia. People who oppose them him get thrown in jail or killed. For him to say he doesnt know what his hackers are doing, is lamble. His upon opinion is only one part of the story. Inside the white house, the a lot of people feel undersieged. Bob mueller, the counsel. Hes said to be looking into michael flynn. Whats the atmosphere as former f. B. I. Director james comey prepares to move to capitol hill next week . Under siege is a good way of describing it. Theres a high level of anxiety. People are spending money on lawyers. Not just people inside the white house but people who are close to the white house and lawering up. Once you start pulling on the thread, they dont know where its going to go. And something ive heard from a lot of people in the west wing is these investigations never end where they start. What theyre all aware of is that the bill clinton impeachment started with white water. It ended in the oval office with an intern. No one knows where muleer is going to go with this. No one knows what kind of sloppy things they did during the campaign but theyre going to put out. Robert kelly, so often we here about the International Counsel and all these ongoing probes. But there was a curveball this week. House intelligent chairman david nunez has issued sup postseasonas for information about alleged unmasking by former obama officials. He wants to know why trump aides were caught in the surveillance of foreign official. Former n. S. A. Advisor susan rice, and former u. N. Ambassador Samantha Power and former c. I. A. Director john brennan are in this. He is still the chairman of that committee and with that comes a lot of power and he had to nope democrats but he could go it alone when it comes to these subpoenas. Hes able to run a simultaneous parallel investigation, at least raising this notion of unmaskinging, which is what the president s wants the focus to be about. He wants to show that there were obama officials who were unfairly looking at people in the trump woverled. By coining this doing this it rocks the plan of the committee to give to it the next person in charge and have these abovereproach Committee Actions where its bipartisan. Nunez has the power to do this unilaterally, to put out these subpoenas. And he can take some criticism over it but he also came to the white house to tell the president about what he had length ever learned. I was standing next to the west exec driveway when he came to tell the president how troubled he was. Bomani michael, if the administration wants to have awful these different sides heard on the russian matter, are they going to block comey from testifying by citing privilege . Sean spicer said they were considering it. There are a couple of problems. One, it wouldnt be effective. There are legal opinions about whether comb illinois could come out and say publicly what he knows. But so much of what he knows has already been leaked by his friends. It was it would just look like a coverup more than it would achieve any objective. But i think the fact that they didnt answer the question today shows that theyre considering hard ball. And chief of staff rinse priebus is setting up Reince Priebus is Reince Priebus is setting up a committee. The idea is to day take the daytoday legal problems out of the hands of sean spicer and other chief of staff to get on with the business of operations. It could be a good thing or it could be more cause for confusion. The way someone described that to me, every time one of these stories lands, there are a lot of communications staffers who stafferers who dont know the details. Scrambling to find a response and one personal said to me during the campaign, if you asked me anything about Hillary Clinton, i could have told you that like that because we live and would breathed that stuff. We need people just focused on this so they can be nimble when requested. Robert the shakeup hasnt happened yet. Kelly i look forward to this war room so they can actually answer some questions. Indira but the whole idea that you even have to have a war room , that just robert woach to live it there. Our conversation will continue online. Well talk look the white houses decision to take its case for a travel ban to the supreme court. Find that all week long at pbs. Org Washington Week. Find out my rermses for the most mustread articles on the paris accord. I have a swan article in there as well. Anyway, im robert costa. Thanks for watching. Well see you next time. Funding for Washington Week is provided by boeing. Newmans own foundation. Donating all profits from newmans own Food Products to charity and nourishing the common good. Ku and Patricia Ewen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities at the present Time Corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs striation from viewers like you. Thank you. Thank you. Youre watching pbs. Announcer explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Magic moments announcer tonight Public Television brings back the Magic Moments from the 1950s. Sincerely the mcguire sisters, pat boone, patti page, debbie reynolds, and your favorite artists from the 1950s pop era bring back the music that makes memories. Love is a many splendored thing join us for my music Magic Moments,