And im confident theyll be proven false. But the corruption charges go wide and deep. In two state capitals a fight over gay rights and religious freedom. Religious freedom restoration act was about religious liberty not about discrimination. It has divided families and there is clearly a generational gap on this issue. Is the debate ending or just beginning . And the 2016 money chase, how secret donors plan to funnel unlimited cash into the president ial campaign covering the week. Foreign correspondent for bloomberg news, pete williams, justice correspondent for nbc news and john harwood and political reporter for the washington post. Award winning reporting and analysis. Covering history as it happens, live from our Nations Capital this is this is Washington Week. Corporate funding is provided by once again live from washington moderator. Good evening depending on hu who you listen to and either case negotiators who spent hour after hour sweating the details announce yesterday seemed happy and relieved with the results. We have said from the beginning i think youve heard me it again and again that we will not accept just any deal. That we will only accept a good deal. And today i can tell you that the political understanding with details that we have reached is a Solid Foundation for the good deal that we are seeking. What i hope is that true courageous implementation of this such of that miss trust could be remedied but that is for us all to wait and see. Both Foreign Ministers were speaking to the skeptics of the agreement which will limit the capacity for nuclear but the deal collapsed more than once and theyre just back to tell us what happened and what didnt and why. Well, it was a pretty dramatic time, i have to say. John kerry spent 19 days in switzerland this last month and it was a real slog at the end. The last batch we were there for eight days and began to take on a groundhog day quality. They were coming back and saying gaps remain, gaps remain and didnt clinch in it until the very last night when they were negotiating from 9 00 p. M. To 6 oclock the next morning. When john kerry went to bed for one hour of sleep they didnt even know yet that they had the deal. Im also sleep deprived. I just landed today. We have been talking to you every single night and i remember, you said we thought it was going to be today and not too much. What turned it and clinched it . Whole time secretary of state was trying to put the pressure on iran and say, nothing is going to change that will make it easier for you to make to make a deal. So lets make it happen. Were told that the last three issues that they had to work out were research and development, the scope of how much iran would be able to do both under the main years through the deal and the extended years, the level of enrichment overall and also sanctions release. Those three items were the last pieces of the proverbial rubiks cube that had to snap into place. Finally after the long session the last night they were able to work out solutions and on the phone with livermore laboratories working out different sin yo theyre yos and they got this Framework Agreement that they think would lead them down the path from preventing iran having at least one year out from making from acquiring what it would need for a Nuclear Weapon for at least ten years. We tend to think of this as a deal between the u. S. And iran but its a multinational thing. How it is going across in the middle east to israel and the arab countries . We have seen some grudging willingness on the saudi king and we know theyre mortal enemies in the region. This of been a lot of wars between them in yemen. Netanyahu not so much. But i think we already knew the president has said this that netanyahu was pre disposed against the deal. Any deal at all that would not not the Prime Minister said it too. He never minced words. There was going to be no deal that would please him until it completely removed the Nuclear Program from iran. There will be a lot of push back from israel. On that reaction i was struck by talking to some republicans yesterday on the hill some who served in the Bush Administration by how they were not so fear in their opposition to this. They were surprised. This is more than we expected. What is your judgment about whether or not there will be a Critical Mass of opposition, republicans and some democrats to stop this deal if its materializes . Thats an excellent question. What this has stopped from happening the Kirk Menendez bill. I think thats not going to happen. The idea of kofpbgsal oversight on top of any iran deal i think theres still going to be an effort to put that on. I have to say youre absolutely right. This four page perimeters for the comprehensive join of action was much more than i think anybody connected they were going to be able to get. Taken by two thirds the number of centrifuges that iran would install and limiting them to their old generation centrifuges taking them down to 300 kilograms. If you look at this deal, it looks like they got most what they were asking for. And you have until the end of june before it can. Great work. When the Justice Department unleashed its indictment against Robert Menendez that involved luxury travel, quid pro quos and all of thing American Express points bringing a charge against the a sitting senator is no small water. They say they gave the senator a Million Dollars worth of gifts and contributions. The senator helped get visas for three of the doctors girlfriends from brazil, the Dominican Republic and ukraine but there was heavy lifting. The government said he intervened with medicare and urged the government to honor a Port Security contract. But senator menendez defense said none of this was illegal. Theyve known each other for a long time and some of the allegations do seem to fit in that friendship territory about a dozen flights with the senator on his private planes and vacations. Private train trips on his plain and reports. If you look at the timeline there is some pretty careful dove tailing between checks that the doctor wrote to senator menendez at the time hes knocking on doors and calling assistant secretaries and meeting with cabinet secretary ares how is this different from the case that was brought against governor mcdo notl in virginia. The Robert Mcdonald case was a big success in the Justice Department which will bring this case. Through had someone who never met bob mcdonald came out of nowhere and turned states evidence and agreed to testify for the government. You have none of these things here and they tried to get him to testify against senator menendez and no deal there and they have known each other. The generosity isnt necessarily corruption or gratitude or niceness thats true. Especially when it comes to friends. In fact the Supreme Court has said, its not illegal. The standard of proof here is for the government to prove that one thing led to another. That senator menendez asks for gifts and then did favors. Any lessons from the prosecution not too long ago of the late former senator ted stevens of alaska . That was a huge set back. Remember the stevens case was simple. He failed to report work that was done on his house boy an oil company executive. It went off the rails and the judge threw the case out and retried tried to retry it and they said no way because he said there was misconduct and they failed to turn over evidence that would have been helpful to the defense. Im wondering what if he could prove they were good friends and they took vacations thoughing together. These people were actually close. Can he prove that . I dont think theyll trouble proving that they were good proves. Because they were. There was a close association. It may be different if he was helping a constituent. But menendez is a big deal in florida and the hispanic community. These were not christmas gifts. This was not your Easter Basket of chocolates. This was checks to his campaign and democratic packs that would help senator menendez at the time he was doing favors. Senator said in his defense he would was going to prove this wrong and people are just trying to slime him. How strong is his defense at this point . Well, hes right certainly about the kind of strange tauedry origins of this, rumors about what they were doing the Dominican Republic which turned out not to be true which got the government curious about their relationship. The indictment was more detailed. The number of plane flights and hes charged with not only bribery and corruption but failure to report a lot of these things and the government has a pretty good case there. How long do you think this will come to trial and do you think hell be in senator for a quite a long time. The government is trying to get a trial date within the next few months. He stepped down as Ranking Member of the Financial Committee foreign relation committee. Just it in time we are right back in the middle of a major culture clash. This time in the states and this time an out growth about freedom and discrimination and freedom from discrimination. Add to that a rattled Business Community and you have a spicy stew that has already leaked into the president ial campaign, john. It absolutely has and this is a fascinating window into an is a respect of the Sweeping Change that weve seen in National Attitudes towards guy marriage. Just 11 years ago the Bush Campaign in 2004 was running and raising the spector of gay marriages. Well public opinion, Younger Generation has dramatically changed. Was this about gay marriage or about businesses being able to decide. Its about businesses but comes out of that shift. What you had was in the state of indiana in the wake of a decision that occurred in New Hampshire new mexico when you had a photographer that didnt want to shoot a same sex wedding you had the state of indiana enacting a version of a law that existed on the National Level and 19 other states that religious freedom restoration act that was designed to tell cultural conservatives well protect your beliefs as christians which in many cases are not tolerant or becoming towards same sex marriage. This was different from some of the other laws because of the specifics. This law said that a for profit business could claim as a defense religious belief against a suit not brought because of government compulsion but because of an individual. It was designed and some of the proponents said it was designed to accomplish what was not able to be accomplished by conservatives in new mexico. To vindicate the rights of the photographer not to shootl same sex wedding. It produced a tremendous backlash and you saw many Large Companies and shows the limits of how red states, pockets of the country can advance their agenda agenda. You have them all speaking up saying were not for this. And backlash was tremendous and indiana tried to calm the storm at the end of the week. This is going in arkansas too. Does this take the air out of this movement because other states want do the same thing. I think other states are going to think very long and hard about doing what he tried to do in indiana. His predecessor Mitch Daniels counselled a couple of years ago we need to take a truce in the culture wars, step back from those, thats because republicans are on the losing side of this nationally. Mike pence was beat up badly and Asa Hutchison saw what was happening, backed away and said no, im not going to sign the bill thats moving through legislate are with the same intent and cited the fact that his own kid disagreed with him and made those disagreements known. I want to ask you about governor pence and how much theyre a bell weather for how the candidates in the next election how they might campaign on culture war issues given the fall out. Stabbing up and saying these shameless fortune 500 companies are tram mr. Ing on the rights of conservatives. The ones who have the eye on the prize which is to win the presidency will step away from this and we saw jeb bush take two different points of the week, one he said that indiana had done the right thing and after the backlash occurred in indiana moved to fix their law he said they should have had a more consensus oriented approach. How did this spotlight this divide in the Republican Party right now what are the implications for that in 2016. The Republican Party has a hugely disproportionate influence of evangelical conservative christians but not anywhere close to a majority nationally about a quarter of the vote and republicans have got to figure out a way to appeal to the primary voters without turning off young people who are moving very rapidly in the direction of tolerance. That debate in indiana and arkansas really took off after a big business got involved as we were discussing a reminder as often as not money drives he debate. Thats what she wrote about. She wrote about a new twist and Nonprofit Group that raises money from anonymous donors with the scarcely disguised goal of supporting a single candidate. They created a new hybrid money funnel. Explain how it works. They formed as an Nonprofit Group. The bush folks did not announce this but my colleague and i stumbled across this and whats so fascinating this is really going to be a dark money outlet for supporters of governor bush. If you give money to a nonprofit they can accept mondaymoney from individuals and corporations and these groups actually have quite a bit of latitude about how they engage in politics. Theyre not supposed to collaborate with the actual candidate. But the name is the same . Governor bush has a sort of arms length relationship with right now. Must be a coincidence. His leadership pack is also named right to rise. And he is doing a lot of fundraisers for both of the facts. But this ally of his says they chose the game and set it up because they believe in his principals and want to promote his policies and not want to run a ds and this is going to be a policy shop. What i find fascinating in order to avoid to make donations to a campaign or super pack this group will post online all of its policy papers just for anyone who might be interested so its a way to get some undisclosed money into the inflorida stpra instpra structure. So, there will be policy advisors within bushs campaign as well. But what were seeing because campaigns can only raise money very limited increments that advisors to candidates or would be candidates are becoming creative about out score is them. We saw there were independent groups and now we have this nonprofit policy shop that doesnt have to disclose. How much of the money will be secret where there is no accountableability . Its a big question because there are other candidates who have Nonprofit Groups who are supporting efforts. Governor huckabee and governor perry and if those groups become active those will be institutions that will bring more undisclosed money into the campaign. This is a jeb bush question. He encountered resistance on common core and immigration for some of the reasons we talked about because hes eyeing the general more than the primary. How much can this nonprofit and other financial bags of money, how much can that protect him from that resistance . He has seemed very wetted on immigration and common core. His outreach and focus can be in the primaries. Here is why i think i make a strong general election candidate. A lot of it money could come from corporations that share views not these thing. Thank you everybody. Thanks a lot especially for you who is falling off. Wed like to at the take a moment to condolences of sara brady. She found her flat form after attempted assassination of president reagan and jim brady. She died of pneumonia today at the age of 73. There is more to say but no time to say it except online where our conversation continues on the Washington Week web cast where among other things why so many are choosing this month to formally announce theyre running for president finally. Not what you think. That will be up later tonight and all week long at p bbbs. Org. Keep up with daily news and developments over at the pbs news hour and well see you here next week on Washington Week. Wishing you a paphappy passover and easter. May your bracket not be busted. Good night. Next, the mayors of san francisco, oakland and san jose. Watch what i do and make sure you hold me accountable. Weve got to preserve what makes oakland oakland. Tech lead evers dont want to get involved with what government does. The plans to take on the regions toughest problems. Good evening and welcome to a special edition of kqed newsroom. Tonight, we have a rare opportunity. Were going to talk with the mayors of the bay areas three largest cities about the regions most pressing issues. Joining us are the mayor of san jose, the new mayor of oakland,