Transcripts For KQED Washington Week 20240713 : comparemela.

This is Washington Week. Corporate funding is provided by ife isntt a straigh line and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. Fidelity is here to help you work through the uxpected with Financial Planning and advice for today and tomorrow. Additional fding is provided by the estate of arnold adams. And cue and Patricia Yuen through the yuen foundation. Thera coron for public broadcasting and cricks to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Oncegain from washingto moderator robert costa. D robert gvening. The week ends with new reporting revealing white house that is far from settled. While the coronavirus pandemic gripthe nation, the is a growing clamor inside the west wing to reope the american economy. For the Washington Post and others, the economy is in free pressu to resume Business Activity as soon as next month. Especially after the Labor Department said that 6. 6 million americans filed for unemployment last week. The president spoke out friday about his position an he was echoed by the attorney general, william barr, earlier in the week. Your doctors who are gathered here seem to be i doubt as to whether or not the country can reopen on may 1. If they come to you before may 1 and say the country is not ready, or huge parts of the country are not ready toon reop may 1, will you listen to them in President Trump i listen to them abo everything. Remember, theres no i understand the other side of the argument very well this period of time, at the end of april, expires, i think we have to allow people to adapt more. Han we ha and not just tell people to go home and hide under the bed. Robert but the president s own experts are more cautious and theyre unwilling to commit any date until they see more data. This is not the time to feel that since we have made such important advances in the sense of success of the mitigation, that wee need to b pulling back t all. Robert four top reporters join us to discuss these issues. Yasmeen abutaleb for the post, carl hulse, chief washington correspondent for the New York Times, amna nawaz, Senior Correspondent for the pbs news however, and Jonathan Karl chief correspondent for abc news and auth of front r at the trump show, now a New York Times bestseller. Good evening to you all. Yasmeen, you have been reporting on the task force all week. We saw all smiles today at the ite house be dr. Fauci and President Trump. But whats going on behind the hescenes . Are winning the argument to keep the country closed down for weeks . Yasmeen i think we have to wait and see. Some sources i have spoken to pointed to the fact that President Trump, before, was pointing to easter as an opening date. Seemed like that was inevitable. And then you know theying mored to talk him out o that. I think the Health Officials do agree we need to reopen the s country ae point, but you need to do it in a way thats safe and mhodical and make sure you have the right pieces in place. Right now the understanding is, and the agreement is they certainly dont have all the pieces in place to be able to d it safely. Es brderng to make sure you dont have new outbreaks, contact tracing, teous to figure who has immunity to the virus. None of that is in place. Its being discuss bud certainly not going to be ready bethe end of the month or at theni beg of next month. Robert when you think about the Economic Task force, wl that be competing with health abexpes t the timeline for reopening the economy . Jonathan i think theres no question aboutsi it. The p has been hearing it throughout this period. Even before he made d theision to go from april 15 to april 30. There have been two camps. The preside h has advisors from the start, robert, who have made the case that rlly the beginning of this was also an overreaction. Thats their view. They believe, this is largely oo themic team, that youve got to have some kind of a reopening by april 30 and clearly that is not theio dire the medical experts are pointing to. I think this will be a battle that will pit largely the Economic Team versus the hmlth care tnd i am not sure where the president goes on this, younow. On one hand he sounds like hes getting ready to call for an opening. Problem cant be worse tn the cure. He is sounding like somebody who wants to do that. But at every major Decision Point s far, he has actually listened to the health care experts. Robert on the business side, john who is listening to . Ha wh his ear . Is it secretary me chew anyone . Is it friends on walstet . Jonathan certainly secretary mnuchin is an parent port of. This but he works the phone. You know tt. His friends on wall street, his friends in the business world, hes talking to them, hearing from them, hearing a lot of arguments in favor of getting the country back to work again and hes also hearing warnis that doing that too soon could be counterproductive and perhaps disastrous. Robert amna, i wg as watchu on newshour yesterday. As much as president rump wants to make this th decision about reopening the economy its governors in a ltaot ofte who will make decisions about their own states an when they reopen. What did he governor tate tell you aou what are y learning about governors, whether theyll listen to the president or not . Nena youre seeing governors on the front f this making the decisions about how theyre going to be handling theases, the infection rate , the test, procurement of the perform p. E. , th protective medical equipment that frontline workers need. Governors are on the ont e, tip end of the spear on all of this tip revis was saying, we hear the arguments, the hrpresident waitedee weeks before they had their first con that he waited three weeks before they had their first shelter inlace, he said i dont think we should be doing this weeks and week os end because well have an economi dastthorne back end. This huge debate has emerged now which is whitech disr do you mitigate . Do you try to address the healsh dier which we know is spreading arn the country and really stop the economy in its tracks to do that first . Or do you try to do both things at the same time . Do you worry about the economic fallout and not take as many aggressive steps to address theo hell fut early on . Health experts will say you cant addrenoss the ec fallout before the health fallou and we dont have a good sense of whats needed to address the health issue right now. Mississippi even said, they were late to starting. Didnt start until after the cases in early march. They dont have nearly the testing kits they need to be able to figure out how widespread it is and theres a patchwork of responses across the ate before the governor stepped in robert carl, when you talko your sources on capitol hillmark republicans are telling me privately t theyre nervous about President Trumps decision here because their own electoral fates are on the lin tied i with what the president does. Whats the white house hearing from Top Republicans in congress an democrats . Carl what theyre hearing iso they havet these test , the antibody test, to show people have been infecteybd and theyre safe to go back. I heard this repeat think from republican senators saying this is the key. Weve g to g tha going. We need to have millions of these by memorialay. So thats where theyre focused right now. I think theyreery nervous about reopening and have this another spi later on in the year closer to the election. They know theyre actually in pretty big trouble on the hill right now in terms of holding on toorheir my. Saw some ratings shift on senate races this week. The president s trying to bolste these endangered republicans announcing, im f ventilatorsbers o to colorado, sending x to arizona. Unease. Ink theres a lot of ople are pulling back from the idea already that congressou come back april 20. So i think theyre probably signaling to theresident, lets slow down until we know exactly whats going to happe because not only is your political fortunes at stake, ours are too. Robert on another front, hlth care, youre seeing a new development thats really important this week. Reported by the new imes and the post shows the coronavirus is infecting and lling africanamerica and latinos at an alarming rate. We have a particularly difficult problem of exacerbationhf a hea disparity. We have known literally forever that diseases like diabetes, hypertension, osity, and asthma are disproportionately afflicting the minority populations, particularly theam africaicans. Robert this was on the front page of many newspapers. Its a development that leaders acront the c are grappling with. When you look at the data and talk tou youres, what are you learning about why this is happening . Yasmeen i think, you know, theres an understanding that a lot of this comes down to systemic inequities between minority communities and white communities. Part of this is, is that some states only recently started collecting databased on race. So much of the early response was tests, getting tests, but u didnt address the inequities that are inherent to the u. S. Health care system. Part of it is, as dr. Fauci sai in the clip, preexisting hypertension occur in higher rates in minority communities. We know that one cirus is especially risky to people who have Underlying Health conditions. You see all of that starting to take effect. The state is still not very comprehensive so youve seen a lot of lawmakers calling for administration cat to think about ways to address this. Robert when youto listen hat yasmeen just said and think about all your reporting over the years abouteah care access, the burdens of care, what are you seeing right now thhi pandemic and communities of color . Amna yasmeen is absolutely right. The numbers dont and paint an astonishing picture even with the patchwork of data we have s far. Its limited, early data and were relying on states to collect that data and offer it up. The federal government is not ig collecting it now. Theyre not releasing it in a comprehensive way. But to take mississippi, in mississippi, africricans make up less than 40 of the state population, far theyupake over 70 of all covid related deaths. They also make up a majority of the infection rate. We know this is happening across the country. In places like michigan a ohio and virginia and North Carolina, cities have started relatsing thattoo. Yasmeen is right, theres a higher chronich burden, hea burden, carried by africanamericans in particular. But its also a matter hen they are able to access care. Theres a minimizing of pain. Theres a dismissing of simp tops there. All tho things will lead, according to the experts ive taed to, to a profound rtality or morbidity rate. One of the reasons its important to get the data across the runt country is to know where to surge the resources when you do get them. Robert there was an exchange today between reporter and the Surgeon General about this issue. When you talk to sources at the white house, are they confront this . Are they dealing with this in the Trump Administration . Jonathan it caught their attention. These figures are a reflection of inequalityam in ica and about the outlines of that inequality. Tink its goingbe a similar situation to look at the economic impact. We have had some 16plus Million People file for Unemployment Benefits over the past three week. As you know, so Many Americans e get theith Care Coverage through their employer. This is an economic crisis and Health Care Crisis that is intertwined ver closely. Robert such an important point. When you think abo the economic crisis, these dual crises in health care, carl, it all ties into, inclung the racial disparity, with this ongressional showdown over funding, in brief heres what we need to know. The Trump Administration wants to shore up th 2 trillion stimulus package with an addional 250 billion for Small Businesses. Speaker pelosi an democrats wanm guarantees f repubcans that half of that money would go to minorityowned businesses and Community Banks andheyd like to see another 250 billion for hospitals and states. Senate republicans and democrats bothried to pass their versions of funding late this week. Both efforts failed. Carl, the issue about race, tabout who is goingo get access to capital, they persist notst n the health front but also the economic front. Whats next on chill as they continue to negotiate about Small Business funding . Carl you know, you cant quarantine partisanship. We saw some of that happen this week. I think, oou know, of the interesting things to me about this, bob, isthat senator mcconnell has been very successfg in mov judges on a majority vote. Hes gotten used to doing thing osen a majority vote. Now hes strog face democrats who have real leverage in this because he needs 60 votes for legislation. Theyre going to press their ,vantage. Thou know, what happened was senator mcconnell in the white house wanted a straight through 250 billion for small siness and the democrats said hey, wait a minute. We want to take care of some of the proems we see there too. Got into a stalemate. I do think they are going to work this ou probably by next week. Democrats areealing with secretary mnuchin who is their favorite partner they like dealing with him. I think then the bigger figu come do ink the road is the socalled phase four thatll be a much brotter thing. The democrats, they are not going to just sitndhereay were going to take what the white house wants. I think one of theti fasci things about thispidemic is how it hasoliceallized some of these divides that weve had in the country and i think democrats see that and going into election they want to make sure they take care of d whas they see their focus. Robert yasmeen, carl mentioned phase four, t next round of talks. I spoke to speakerelosi this week who said hospitals need billions of dollars. When you talk to y our sources, where are the needs . As Congress Starts to look ahead to ihase four,n terms of health care, where is money needed right now as the pandemic continues . Yasmee hospitals are seeing disproportionate numbers of are sta in the i. C. U. Longerho than usual. Ey e insurers have waived fees for testing and you know, some insurers have waived certain money for types of t coronaviruatment. But i think the biggest thing is that hospitals are seeing a huge rge of patients, many of tm dicare patients, so the payments are lower than in private insurance. And i. C. U. Stays are longer and the i. C. U. Is verype ive. A lot of hospitals especially rural hospital or hospitals in smaller communities are say eyre bleeding money tiing to respond to this crisishand dont enough resources. You know, a lot of people here talked aut need for supplies, protective equipment, ofs of just about everything right now. Theyve got staff that you know need to work overtime for some of these tests thatoure sending out, you need technicians actually operating these tests is very ebs expensive. The need is spread throughout bufor smaller hospitals, i think they say theyre hurti and bleeding moneyryg to respond to the crisis. Robert lets finish by coming o the president. He is at the lectern every day casting himself as the pandemic patron, personalizing the overnments spread of cash and supplies new reporting shows him reusing his powers to remove two past tors general in the week. Michael atkinson the Intelligence Community Inspector General, an gle fine, chairman of the Panel Congress create t. D. Oversee t administrations handling of the 2 trillion stim jus. John, mark meadows is the n chief oftaff, former North Carolina congressman. Hes in there put in a new press secretary tals week, but been the president s tnity danl try to push out i. G. s. Is this part of a pge of i. G. s well continue to see . Jonathan i wou add a third Inspector General, the h. H. S. Al inspector genhe president bitterly complained about this week, he hasnt fired her b bitterly complained about her and the fact that she served in government under the previous adshnistration. Served under plinton, bush, obama and now trump es what you call a career public servant. I would expect a continuation of a purge thats already been under way. When the predent hears the words Inspector General right now, what he think about is he thinks about the i. G. For the Intelligence Community, atkinson, about the fact that atkinson was the one who passedl on the whister complaints regarding the ukraine call to congress that set forth the series of events that led tois impeachment. He aibitterly comd about this, even the notion of an Inspector General. When he realizes, learned that these areop largely that have done this from administration to administration, these aren ag career public servants, he sees this as an iextension of whats allies call the deep state and y particul nefarious one because theyre out to get hem at least in his mind. So yes, i think youll see more robert whats tt for this kind of executive action . Think about Inspector General atkinson, very protective o whistleblowers. One of the people who protected the whistleblower about the ukrainian call between President Trump and predent zelensky. Does this mean whistleblowers may be more hesitant to come forward . Amna theres no doubt. With the pressure from the highest in the land there was a Washington Week<\/a>. Corporate funding is provided by ife isntt a straigh line and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. Fidelity is here to help you work through the uxpected with Financial Planning<\/a> and advice for today and tomorrow. Additional fding is provided by the estate of arnold adams. And cue and Patricia Yuen<\/a> through the yuen foundation. Thera coron for public broadcasting and cricks to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Oncegain from washingto moderator robert costa. D robert gvening. The week ends with new reporting revealing white house that is far from settled. While the coronavirus pandemic gripthe nation, the is a growing clamor inside the west wing to reope the american economy. For the Washington Post<\/a> and others, the economy is in free pressu to resume Business Activity<\/a> as soon as next month. Especially after the Labor Department<\/a> said that 6. 6 million americans filed for unemployment last week. The president spoke out friday about his position an he was echoed by the attorney general, william barr, earlier in the week. Your doctors who are gathered here seem to be i doubt as to whether or not the country can reopen on may 1. If they come to you before may 1 and say the country is not ready, or huge parts of the country are not ready toon reop may 1, will you listen to them in President Trump<\/a> i listen to them abo everything. Remember, theres no i understand the other side of the argument very well this period of time, at the end of april, expires, i think we have to allow people to adapt more. Han we ha and not just tell people to go home and hide under the bed. Robert but the president s own experts are more cautious and theyre unwilling to commit any date until they see more data. This is not the time to feel that since we have made such important advances in the sense of success of the mitigation, that wee need to b pulling back t all. Robert four top reporters join us to discuss these issues. Yasmeen abutaleb for the post, carl hulse, chief washington correspondent for the New York Times<\/a>, amna nawaz, Senior Correspondent<\/a> for the pbs news however, and Jonathan Karl<\/a> chief correspondent for abc news and auth of front r at the trump show, now a New York Times<\/a> bestseller. Good evening to you all. Yasmeen, you have been reporting on the task force all week. We saw all smiles today at the ite house be dr. Fauci and President Trump<\/a>. But whats going on behind the hescenes . Are winning the argument to keep the country closed down for weeks . Yasmeen i think we have to wait and see. Some sources i have spoken to pointed to the fact that President Trump<\/a>, before, was pointing to easter as an opening date. Seemed like that was inevitable. And then you know theying mored to talk him out o that. I think the Health Officials<\/a> do agree we need to reopen the s country ae point, but you need to do it in a way thats safe and mhodical and make sure you have the right pieces in place. Right now the understanding is, and the agreement is they certainly dont have all the pieces in place to be able to d it safely. Es brderng to make sure you dont have new outbreaks, contact tracing, teous to figure who has immunity to the virus. None of that is in place. Its being discuss bud certainly not going to be ready bethe end of the month or at theni beg of next month. Robert when you think about the Economic Task<\/a> force, wl that be competing with health abexpes t the timeline for reopening the economy . Jonathan i think theres no question aboutsi it. The p has been hearing it throughout this period. Even before he made d theision to go from april 15 to april 30. There have been two camps. The preside h has advisors from the start, robert, who have made the case that rlly the beginning of this was also an overreaction. Thats their view. They believe, this is largely oo themic team, that youve got to have some kind of a reopening by april 30 and clearly that is not theio dire the medical experts are pointing to. I think this will be a battle that will pit largely the Economic Team<\/a> versus the hmlth care tnd i am not sure where the president goes on this, younow. On one hand he sounds like hes getting ready to call for an opening. Problem cant be worse tn the cure. He is sounding like somebody who wants to do that. But at every major Decision Point<\/a> s far, he has actually listened to the health care experts. Robert on the business side, john who is listening to . Ha wh his ear . Is it secretary me chew anyone . Is it friends on walstet . Jonathan certainly secretary mnuchin is an parent port of. This but he works the phone. You know tt. His friends on wall street, his friends in the business world, hes talking to them, hearing from them, hearing a lot of arguments in favor of getting the country back to work again and hes also hearing warnis that doing that too soon could be counterproductive and perhaps disastrous. Robert amna, i wg as watchu on newshour yesterday. As much as president rump wants to make this th decision about reopening the economy its governors in a ltaot ofte who will make decisions about their own states an when they reopen. What did he governor tate tell you aou what are y learning about governors, whether theyll listen to the president or not . Nena youre seeing governors on the front f this making the decisions about how theyre going to be handling theases, the infection rate , the test, procurement of the perform p. E. , th protective medical equipment that frontline workers need. Governors are on the ont e, tip end of the spear on all of this tip revis was saying, we hear the arguments, the hrpresident waitedee weeks before they had their first con that he waited three weeks before they had their first shelter inlace, he said i dont think we should be doing this weeks and week os end because well have an economi dastthorne back end. This huge debate has emerged now which is whitech disr do you mitigate . Do you try to address the healsh dier which we know is spreading arn the country and really stop the economy in its tracks to do that first . Or do you try to do both things at the same time . Do you worry about the economic fallout and not take as many aggressive steps to address theo hell fut early on . Health experts will say you cant addrenoss the ec fallout before the health fallou and we dont have a good sense of whats needed to address the health issue right now. Mississippi even said, they were late to starting. Didnt start until after the cases in early march. They dont have nearly the testing kits they need to be able to figure out how widespread it is and theres a patchwork of responses across the ate before the governor stepped in robert carl, when you talko your sources on capitol hillmark republicans are telling me privately t theyre nervous about President Trump<\/a>s decision here because their own electoral fates are on the lin tied i with what the president does. Whats the white house hearing from Top Republicans<\/a> in congress an democrats . Carl what theyre hearing iso they havet these test , the antibody test, to show people have been infecteybd and theyre safe to go back. I heard this repeat think from republican senators saying this is the key. Weve g to g tha going. We need to have millions of these by memorialay. So thats where theyre focused right now. I think theyreery nervous about reopening and have this another spi later on in the year closer to the election. They know theyre actually in pretty big trouble on the hill right now in terms of holding on toorheir my. Saw some ratings shift on senate races this week. The president s trying to bolste these endangered republicans announcing, im f ventilatorsbers o to colorado, sending x to arizona. Unease. Ink theres a lot of ople are pulling back from the idea already that congressou come back april 20. So i think theyre probably signaling to theresident, lets slow down until we know exactly whats going to happe because not only is your political fortunes at stake, ours are too. Robert on another front, hlth care, youre seeing a new development thats really important this week. Reported by the new imes and the post shows the coronavirus is infecting and lling africanamerica and latinos at an alarming rate. We have a particularly difficult problem of exacerbationhf a hea disparity. We have known literally forever that diseases like diabetes, hypertension, osity, and asthma are disproportionately afflicting the minority populations, particularly theam africaicans. Robert this was on the front page of many newspapers. Its a development that leaders acront the c are grappling with. When you look at the data and talk tou youres, what are you learning about why this is happening . Yasmeen i think, you know, theres an understanding that a lot of this comes down to systemic inequities between minority communities and white communities. Part of this is, is that some states only recently started collecting databased on race. So much of the early response was tests, getting tests, but u didnt address the inequities that are inherent to the u. S. Health care system. Part of it is, as dr. Fauci sai in the clip, preexisting hypertension occur in higher rates in minority communities. We know that one cirus is especially risky to people who have Underlying Health<\/a> conditions. You see all of that starting to take effect. The state is still not very comprehensive so youve seen a lot of lawmakers calling for administration cat to think about ways to address this. Robert when youto listen hat yasmeen just said and think about all your reporting over the years abouteah care access, the burdens of care, what are you seeing right now thhi pandemic and communities of color . Amna yasmeen is absolutely right. The numbers dont and paint an astonishing picture even with the patchwork of data we have s far. Its limited, early data and were relying on states to collect that data and offer it up. The federal government is not ig collecting it now. Theyre not releasing it in a comprehensive way. But to take mississippi, in mississippi, africricans make up less than 40 of the state population, far theyupake over 70 of all covid related deaths. They also make up a majority of the infection rate. We know this is happening across the country. In places like michigan a ohio and virginia and North Carolina<\/a>, cities have started relatsing thattoo. Yasmeen is right, theres a higher chronich burden, hea burden, carried by africanamericans in particular. But its also a matter hen they are able to access care. Theres a minimizing of pain. Theres a dismissing of simp tops there. All tho things will lead, according to the experts ive taed to, to a profound rtality or morbidity rate. One of the reasons its important to get the data across the runt country is to know where to surge the resources when you do get them. Robert there was an exchange today between reporter and the Surgeon General<\/a> about this issue. When you talk to sources at the white house, are they confront this . Are they dealing with this in the Trump Administration<\/a> . Jonathan it caught their attention. These figures are a reflection of inequalityam in ica and about the outlines of that inequality. Tink its goingbe a similar situation to look at the economic impact. We have had some 16plus Million People<\/a> file for Unemployment Benefits<\/a> over the past three week. As you know, so Many Americans<\/a> e get theith Care Coverage<\/a> through their employer. This is an economic crisis and Health Care Crisis<\/a> that is intertwined ver closely. Robert such an important point. When you think abo the economic crisis, these dual crises in health care, carl, it all ties into, inclung the racial disparity, with this ongressional showdown over funding, in brief heres what we need to know. The Trump Administration<\/a> wants to shore up th 2 trillion stimulus package with an addional 250 billion for Small Business<\/a>es. Speaker pelosi an democrats wanm guarantees f repubcans that half of that money would go to minorityowned businesses and Community Banks<\/a> andheyd like to see another 250 billion for hospitals and states. Senate republicans and democrats bothried to pass their versions of funding late this week. Both efforts failed. Carl, the issue about race, tabout who is goingo get access to capital, they persist notst n the health front but also the economic front. Whats next on chill as they continue to negotiate about Small Business<\/a> funding . Carl you know, you cant quarantine partisanship. We saw some of that happen this week. I think, oou know, of the interesting things to me about this, bob, isthat senator mcconnell has been very successfg in mov judges on a majority vote. Hes gotten used to doing thing osen a majority vote. Now hes strog face democrats who have real leverage in this because he needs 60 votes for legislation. Theyre going to press their ,vantage. Thou know, what happened was senator mcconnell in the white house wanted a straight through 250 billion for small siness and the democrats said hey, wait a minute. We want to take care of some of the proems we see there too. Got into a stalemate. I do think they are going to work this ou probably by next week. Democrats areealing with secretary mnuchin who is their favorite partner they like dealing with him. I think then the bigger figu come do ink the road is the socalled phase four thatll be a much brotter thing. The democrats, they are not going to just sitndhereay were going to take what the white house wants. I think one of theti fasci things about thispidemic is how it hasoliceallized some of these divides that weve had in the country and i think democrats see that and going into election they want to make sure they take care of d whas they see their focus. Robert yasmeen, carl mentioned phase four, t next round of talks. I spoke to speakerelosi this week who said hospitals need billions of dollars. When you talk to y our sources, where are the needs . As Congress Starts<\/a> to look ahead to ihase four,n terms of health care, where is money needed right now as the pandemic continues . Yasmee hospitals are seeing disproportionate numbers of are sta in the i. C. U. Longerho than usual. Ey e insurers have waived fees for testing and you know, some insurers have waived certain money for types of t coronaviruatment. But i think the biggest thing is that hospitals are seeing a huge rge of patients, many of tm dicare patients, so the payments are lower than in private insurance. And i. C. U. Stays are longer and the i. C. U. Is verype ive. A lot of hospitals especially rural hospital or hospitals in smaller communities are say eyre bleeding money tiing to respond to this crisishand dont enough resources. You know, a lot of people here talked aut need for supplies, protective equipment, ofs of just about everything right now. Theyve got staff that you know need to work overtime for some of these tests thatoure sending out, you need technicians actually operating these tests is very ebs expensive. The need is spread throughout bufor smaller hospitals, i think they say theyre hurti and bleeding moneyryg to respond to the crisis. Robert lets finish by coming o the president. He is at the lectern every day casting himself as the pandemic patron, personalizing the overnments spread of cash and supplies new reporting shows him reusing his powers to remove two past tors general in the week. Michael atkinson the Intelligence Community<\/a> Inspector General<\/a>, an gle fine, chairman of the Panel Congress<\/a> create t. D. Oversee t administrations handling of the 2 trillion stim jus. John, mark meadows is the n chief oftaff, former North Carolina<\/a> congressman. Hes in there put in a new press secretary tals week, but been the president s tnity danl try to push out i. G. s. Is this part of a pge of i. G. s well continue to see . Jonathan i wou add a third Inspector General<\/a>, the h. H. S. Al inspector genhe president bitterly complained about this week, he hasnt fired her b bitterly complained about her and the fact that she served in government under the previous adshnistration. Served under plinton, bush, obama and now trump es what you call a career public servant. I would expect a continuation of a purge thats already been under way. When the predent hears the words Inspector General<\/a> right now, what he think about is he thinks about the i. G. For the Intelligence Community<\/a>, atkinson, about the fact that atkinson was the one who passedl on the whister complaints regarding the ukraine call to congress that set forth the series of events that led tois impeachment. He aibitterly comd about this, even the notion of an Inspector General<\/a>. When he realizes, learned that these areop largely that have done this from administration to administration, these aren ag career public servants, he sees this as an iextension of whats allies call the deep state and y particul nefarious one because theyre out to get hem at least in his mind. So yes, i think youll see more robert whats tt for this kind of executive action . Think about Inspector General<\/a> atkinson, very protective o whistleblowers. One of the people who protected the whistleblower about the ukrainian call between President Trump<\/a> and predent zelensky. Does this mean whistleblowers may be more hesitant to come forward . Amna theres no doubt. With the pressure from the highest in the land there was a Chilling Effect<\/a> from people who felt they had something to share. I heard this from different Government Agencies<\/a> along the way. 123 inning ast real concern, a real fatr out there. Why you heard from lawmakers that more needs to be done to potentially protect those because of the language and Consistent Actions<\/a> robert c Speaker Pelosi<\/a> with her select committee overseeing the stimulus try to be the Oversight Branch<\/a> even if theres an i. G carl this was one of the big problems with phase 3, the democrats insisting on idoversight. Prt ump doesnt think the congress should have a role in overseeing how he operates. This is a tremendous amou of money thats being shelled out to coin a phrase. Its not just aut corruption. Its about waste and inefficiency. You have to keep an e on mon in this amount. I think the president will keep doing this as long as Senate Republicans<\/a> kind of roll ovey which tve done so far. They sent an angry let cher is sort of a joke in washington, angry letter to come. I think if youre going to st the president , theyre going to have to take some serio actiee. I have no indication so far that theyre willing to do that. So thisther group that Speaker Pelosi<\/a> and senator mcconnell noe o come to agreement on a chairperson of that group, i think thats kind of anin resting negotiation thats going on right now. But the president will fight oversight until hes stopped by his own party. Robert yasmeen e. Carl im not d jonathan the president thinks thates the Inspector General<\/a>. No oversight, hell do t. E oversi the president will oversee his own actions. I mean he said this explicitly. S what he says privately as well. He doesnt need somebody lookins over hoing to make the right decisions. He detests the entire the idea these are internal tchdog, two ofhe dirty words or phrases hes come up with, nd whistleblowernspector general. He does that. He wille the ethics watchdog. He doesnt want somebody else doing. This i think carls exactly right. Unless republicans in Congress Stand<\/a> up and say no, there needs to be oversight by congress, and by inspectors general, this purge or this effort to stymy this will continue. Robert thats a critical point. It brings up the question of hydroxychloroquine. The president is not going to war with his own officials on the i. G. Issue but whent comes to the f. D. A. Which is taking its time with tries on hydroxychloroquine, an antimalaria drug being used by some doctors to treat covid19, the president i gting ahead of his own f. D. A. What kind of tensions has that used on the task force as they move ahead . Yasmeen you know, i think it actually plays into the division we were talking about earlierbe een the Economic Task<\/a> force, the president , the people who want to get theeople open and the medical professionals who want to do things methodically and make sure youre doing it safely. The drug factors into that. One of the argues medical professionals an outside expers have bn making is if youre going to get the country back to work art reopening things, you need a therapeutic, at something to toronavirus. The president and some of his advisors are leaning onhy oxychloroquine as the answer to that as something they can point to say its fine, youan taket, you can take it to prevent it, i think the president at one point might take it to try to prevent conavirus even though theres no evidence of that working. So i think a lot of this comes from the desire to have some magic bullet that can treat the virus, can get the country back to work, but the reality is the dat isretty mixed and not at all conclusive. One thing ive hrd from sources over and over is you cant put too much pressure on a single drug because a dr. Fauci said this publicly if it doesnt work you need to move on to the next thing. Ro rt we must leave it there. Thank you to our guests for joining us. Make sure to watchhe Washington Week<\/a> extra, it airs live on social media at 8 30 eastern and is later hosted on our website. For now, thank you. Our audience is growi in this difficult time. We welcome those who are new to this wvekly cation and we appreciate those who keep coming back. We will continue taking you all aslose to the news as we can. Im robert costa, good night from washington. [captioning performed by the nation which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] funding for Washington Week<\/a> provided by life isnt a straight line. And sometimes you can find urself heading in a new direction. Fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpec with Financial Planning<\/a> and advice for today and tomorrow. Additional funding provided by the estate ofrnold adams. And koo and Patricia Yuen<\/a> through the yuen foundation, commted to bridging cultural differences in our communities. The corporation for public broadcasting. Anby contributions station from viewers like you. Thank you. Nathan masrs growing up here in Southern California<\/a>, i never felt very far from the beach. My familys weekly trips to corondel mar provided a sunny rhythm to my summers. Back then, spending hours ie waves. Ral than i always ft totally at ease in the ocean, and i know im not alone. In Southern California<\/a>, the beach is part of our identity. In some wa, it defines the Southern California<\/a> lifestyle. Hodid this sandy strip between land and sea acquire so much cultural power, and why does it keep people feeling so young . Could these waters possibly be the mythical fountain of youth . L. A. Is andea, as much as a city, a set of hopes and beliefs that inspired millions to move here. But behinthe idea of l. A. Are the stories of people, dreamers who realized their vision for Southern California<\/a> and os","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia802903.us.archive.org\/21\/items\/KQED_20200411_083000_Washington_Week\/KQED_20200411_083000_Washington_Week.thumbs\/KQED_20200411_083000_Washington_Week_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240716T12:35:10+00:00"}