Going win elections. Thats not how were going to solve problems. Gwen less than a week before the first big faceoff, a summer dual with much at stake. Lawmakers debate war, peace and highways. Im proud of what weve accomplished in congress so far this year. Gwen covering the week, robert costa political reporter for the washington post. Susan davis Congressional Correspondent for usa today and john harwood chief washington correspondent for cnbc. Awardwinning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. From our nations capital. This is Washington Week with gwen ifill. Corporate funding for Washington Week is provided by how much money do you have in your pocket right now . I have 20. Could Something Like that make an impact on Something Big as your retirement . If you let it grow over time for 20, 30 years that retirement challenge might not seem so big after all. Additional funding is provided by newmans own foundation donating all profits from newmans own Food Products to charity and nourishing the common good. The corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again from washington moderator gwen ifill. Gwen good evening. So every poll is telling the same story, donald trump is enjoying a summertime serge. Its one that will be tested next week on a debate stage in cleveland. Surprising to say that when trump is on stage he dominates. Donald i think were so politically correct in our country that people are sick and tired of it and things arent getting done. Certainly you want to be diplomatic. Were diplomatic and everybody hates us all over the world. Gwen 16 republican candidates have the grievance vote. Mike huckabee says dealing with iran would in danger. President obama its a general pattern that weve seen is would be considered ridiculous if it werent so sad. Gwen but huckabee did not back down. Wasnt comparing the president to adolf hitler. When we did not take seriously the threat that was made to jews for 20 years after the writings of hitler gwen Chris Christie flat out said what others are thinking that no matter what his popularity now trump has a disqualifying characteristics. This was in a conversation with john harwood. Not possible for him to be a successful president. I think its much less likely for him to be successful than it is for me to be successful. I dont think it wow be in the best interest of our party who i dont think would be an effective president to be the nominee. In the end thats why im running. Gwen some republicans are worried about the stone throwing. Jeb bush speaking today tried for a little humor saying he looks forward to sharing the stage with another candidate ben carson a neurosurgeon. Jeb im glad hell make it into the top 10 before next weeks debate. Before that things over we just might need a doctor. Gwen ha ha, right . But the debate is no joke. What do you think is going to happen . Take a measure about whether donald trump looks like a joke. Most republican political strategists assume this is a phenomenon that is going to fade sooner rather than later. And how he interacts with candidate where is its not just him hurling invective from a distance but on stage thats the number one thing. And they have to figure out how to distinguish themselves. Very crowded field. People are going to be laying their records alongside one another. How they cast themselves in a way that helps them stand out is going to be what im watching. Gwen robert, we know as of today there are 17 republican major candidates. There are a lot more out there. How do we know who is going to be on stage . Fox news will decide. They will announce which 10 candidates will appear on stage. Those who wont make the first cut will be able to appear in a Previous Forum on the day of the debate. Gwen as of friday night, tonight, who do we think is likely to be there . Who do we think is not likely to be there . Donald trump is leading the poll. Scott walker, jeb bush, marco rubio, mike huckabee, ben carson. Then you get on the on the bubble territory. The john kay sicks of the world. Rick perry, does he find his way . Governor christie, hes doing a lot of interviews, hes trying to get a lot of attention to get on that stage. I noticed that rick perry has given four interviews on fox news. Everybodys trying to get their numbers up both nationally and both in the early states. The way i look at the National Polling is there are three candidates who are competing for the last two slots christie, john casic and rick perry if you look at the averages as they appeared this morning christie and kay sick would be in, perry would not be. But this decision would be made on tuesday so well see. Gwen do they sound like theyve positioned themselves. Rick santorum sounds like hes thrown up his hands. Do they sound like they figured out how to get up on that stage . If youre not perry that would get me the bounce i need to get on that stage. But then again this is the first of nine officials of republican debates. There will be other opportunities. Gwen ok. Lets talk about donald trump. We know that the horserace numbers tell us that hes leadg. They tell us who his supporters are. Who benefits if hes not in the race . What else are we learning from him . We know that half of republicans dont think should there should be a path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants now. Of those 1 3 supported donald trump. 34 . Thats a very healthy chunk of a large chunk of the republican electorate. He speaks to a lot of people in a way that we once thought Chris Christie might do who are tired of scripted politicians. Want somebody who is agrissive, who talk aggressive who talks straight at least as they interpret it and go around and smack some people around. And donald trump is certainly doing that. Is it president ial . Were in the entertainment phase of the race. Gwen yes we are. If you go back and look at his record hes been all over the map. But maybe that doesnt matter. It may not matter. I was briefed earlier by Donald Trumps advisors about his debate strategy. Gwen oh, do tell. It was a face nat ig conversation because they believe everyone thinks hes going to be the outside presence on that stage. They think trumps plan is to hole back, to let others come at him to have lines ready and to be prepared. He thinks a lot of the other campaigns are having Opposition Research and going after his conservative record. If hes comfortable with himself, if hes a representative of the antipolitics of an outsider and that he can succeed and he doesnt need to be the star he just needs to be donald trump. Gwen thats what Donald Trumps doing. What are the other candidates doing . Do they decide to ignore the el fact in the elephant in the stage . I dont think jeb bush wants to ignore the elephant. Jeb bush may be the least likely to inherit Donald Trumps vote. So he has an interest to distinguish himself as he courts all those other people. Hes got the stature and the presence to be able to do that. I think the people who are in a solid but less robust position are going to be distinguishing themselves from each other. Ive been interested in the back and forth of casic and walker about their gubernatorial records. He put out a release saying my rating is 60 in horse. Scott walker and Chris Christie about 40 that says im for viable. I talked gwen whos the audience for that little detail . I dont know. Its a way of talking about yourself as a successful politician. I talked to scott walker and he said thats because ive taken on tough fights and had them against me. John kay sick spend all this money to promote himself so hes got higher ratings. Gwen scott walker seems to be zen about this. Lets take a listen about what he had to say about this whole big crowded field. With this many great republicans on the field this is not going to be wrapped up after a couple of states. Its probably going to be a couple of months in if not longer and were ready for the long haul. Gwen the long haul, hes thinking right past this debate isnt he . Thats right. Walker thinks that this is a trump phenomenon and that it will fizzle out. Hes focused on fundraising building a national network. He believes he become that alternative to jeb bush and be there in the top tier. The other thing you have to watch this week, is everyone is expecting fireworks in the debate. If youre ted cru carson or huckabee you want that coalition should trump not pan out. Gwen because there are so many of them its easy to spend some time obsessing about whats happening to republicans. But i want to talk about what happened to republicans. Hillary clinton was at the National UrbanLeague Convention in fort ladder dale. She took a couple of not very well bail digs against jeb bush. I dont think you can credably say that everyone has a right to rise and then say youre for phasing out medicare or for repealing obamacare. People cant rise if they cant afford health care. They cant rise if the minimum wage is too low to live on. They cant rise if their governor makes it harder for them to get a college education. And you cannot seriously talk about the right to rise and support laws that deny the right to vote. Gwen well John Hillary Clinton was defending her turf. Thats a constituency that she hopes to do extremely well as president obama did. She went after jeb bush. Interestingly jeb bush did not return the fire. Gwen he spoke a couple of hours later. His speech was very highminded, very effective. The best speech ive seen from him so far. Thats why its going to do be a matchup to watch if both of them end up surviving this process. Gwen on the other hand, jeb bush pulled out a lot of money. Todays the deadline to find out about the super pac money. Hes sitting really pretty. Thats the whole jeb bush play. Longterm, build the network, have the 100 million plus ready so you can have the positive ads and the negative ads once this Campaign Heats up. You dont see bush going after trump or clinton. This is a careful campaign. Hes a candidate whos becoming more confident. Gwen you also saw Bernie Sanders show up andsaake a point. Bernie sanders is pretty out there if he wants to be. Is he h creeping up at all . Is he creeping up . Hes certainly his trajectory is more like this and hers is like that. I think he is creeping up mostly with white liberals. He needs to do better with African Americans if hes going to be in the challenge. Were in a situation where Bernie Sanders is a refreshing voice to a lot of democrats who think who dont want caution in their Democratic Leaders and want a fullout push for bigger government activism and going after the rich and all that. I still dont think you have many people in the party who think he poses a serious threat to her nomination. Gwen go ahead. I want to ask you i feel like im ignoring you. I want the pull you on this senator thing because what were seeing is bern wi sanders on the road. Its far more robust than anyone if the Senate Anyone in the senate expected. There is a very significant divide among democrats who are reluctant about Hillary Clinton that think that they would like to have a more liberal candidate, a more progressive candidate and sort of the obama one that gets them to 08. I think bernie is different. Hes an antipolitician. Hes been consistent. He says what he means. He has a gruff style and its refreshing hes not in packing in when you hear clinton speak vs. Sanders speak he rails against wealth corporatism. Clinton with her h speech today she rails against the republican party. Shes much more partisan, energetic and passionate. Its a different kind of message, liberal vs. Straightforward democratic. Threading the needle on tissue of wall street where, you know Bernie Sanders talk about a Political Revolution taking on higher tax rates much more astringent regulation on people at the top. Hillary clinton has more incremental proposals. Ted cruz and some of the republicans are saying shes not going to do do anything on wall street. Shes a status quo candidate like jeb bush. They try to lump bush and clintonton. Gwen you talked about ted cruz. He found his own politics of provocation appear on capitol hill too. Its been quite something. He started out by calling Mitch Mcconnell a liar on the floor. Hes not backed down at all. Has not apologized in any way either. I think part of what it has drawn the anger over the highway bill. In some cases when you have paul, cruz and sanders its going to do be a platform for these candidates who arent breaking through that have the senate floor to try to make that a plat form. Gwen particularly for candidates theres some value being seen as an insider. Nobody lost any points and running against the republican establishment when youre trying to win the republican nomination is not necessarily sue, i thought when you called somebody a liar on the floor your words would get taken down and you would be rebuked instantaneously. That didnt happen. Why not . They could have. They had the option to. In some ways you have an establishment leadership, Mitch Mcconnell and john boehner who are managing the parties. They dont want to inflame the right but they dont want to appease them. Gwen theyve been the establishment tried to knock me back. Im a fighter. Gwen exactly. On capitol hill were approaching the time of year when big things hang in the balance as the house and the senate begin to think summer vacation. Yesterday the senate agreed to a stop gap extension of a major transportation bill guaranteeing another fight in three months. Once again were facing another deadline. Its a deadline here. A deadline there. Always deadlines. Management by crisis. Gwen meanwhile the 60day clock is running on the congressional review of the iran deal. Where does that stand tonight, sue . Well, its interesting because we go into the august recess and normally when congress leaves the party in power likes to do a big hoorah. Its a very consequencetial october. The iran debate they have until september 17th to take some action to try to weigh in on the iran nuclear deal. It seems as though, although it has been fully decide that theyre going to try to pass a resolution of disapproval. Theyre going to try to block it which is going to set up a veto shut override fight with the administration. Is where you see president obama on he will veto it. He has been very actively courting democrats. He had a Cocktail Reception which is obviously not something that they do very ofn. They need to have the votes they need to block any votes. Gwen isnt it unusual but something so legacy building that the president has gone so far out on a limb to depend that he should be whoaing democrats that stage . Yes and no. When you factor into the proisrael lobby and aipac they have a lot of traditional alleys that have come out against this particularly among i think for a lot of democrats its a tough vote. Theyre torn over israel and concerns over benjamin netanyahu. And a lot of those who have jewish constituencies. Gwen sandra levin her brother retired. Gwen i get the levins retired. He came out in favor of it. John kerry touted. He brought it to the attention of mens. They are actively courting lawmakers of that tenure in the house. I think it matters a lot that Nancy Pelosis onboard. Shes actively working her members. She said yesterday that every day more and more members come to her and say theyre going to do be on this administration with this. Gwen the objective is also the concern about someso concerns that there were side deals that were cut with the iaea. Ted cruz feels that they havent received all of the paperwork. Hes saying the 60day clock hasnt started. We dont feel that that clock has started from we get all of the paperwork. September 17th is the deadline but we could see that change. Gwen 39 times . 34. We might get there. Gwen thats the number of times they have voted to kick this out of the road and not to pass a longterm extension. Whats going on . I think the highway bill is best understood as an example of how congress has sbock dysfunctional in the past five, six years in that 34 extensions only since 2009. The highway bill is in the simplest of terms politicians filling potholes. This used to be an incredibly easy bill to pass because everybody can run on it. Everybody likes it. And theres nobody opposing i. Gwen it was the pro albuquerques barrel of bills. Everyones trying to get a piece of it. We have a deep philosophical divide on how we pay for the things we want. They both want the highway bill. Theres absolutely zero chance republicans are going to raise any new taxes to get there. Its almost like were scrounging for change. Even the bill they havent passed is a six year bill thats only funded for three years. Yo know, paying for the things we want is probably the biggest philosophical question facing the republicans are you saying that congress is not good at planning ahead . [laughter] gwen letsgw be clear with whats on the table. Whats on the table is a bill that would extend this for three months. Three months. Until the end of october. Gwen and extend it for six years. But only pay for it for three. We were facing at ten of the year a shutdown. So were funded until october. Gwen remind me what happened after the amtrak derailment. Theres much discussion about getting this piece of equipment on the amtrak trains that was going to stop this from happening in the future. Thats all tied in this as well. The will is there to get a longterm highway bill. But were in a reality where congress cant do anything until the absolute last minute until every other process has been exhausted until they wear people out to get there. I think they could get there. But remains to be seen. Mitch mcconnell has been pushing hard to get a longterm bill. I think he sees the highway bill as a good example of proving that republicans know how to govern and that hes been from the time that republicans took over the senate. He said my job is th