Courage and speaking out in times of hatred and in times of real sort of danger and creating art against all odds and, as you see in indecent, the odds sort of keep increasing and they keep telling their story over and over and over again. Rose we conclude with a remembrance and appreciation of the actor Jeanne Moreau. She died monday in paris age 89. I dont think about my life based with a career and a life separated. Rose yeah. Everything goes together, and i think im growing. Some people would say grow old, but im growing. Rose you dont fear age at all . No, no, not at all. Im growing, and i try to improve, and i discover new interests, and its curiosity. Rose Phillip Rucker of the Washington Post, indecent, and remembering Jeanne Moreau when we continue. Rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by the following and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose the Washington Post reported on monday night that President Trump personally dictated a statement about a june 2016 meeting between his son and a russian lawyer. That statement claimed the meeting had primarily been a russian Adoption Program subject. This was later shown to be misleading. Joining me from washington is philip rucker, White House Bureau chief at the Washington Post also political analyst for ncb news and msnbc. Phil, tell me for those who did not read the story, who did not get their Daily Briefing from the Washington Post how this story has developed. Well, so were talking about the meeting that donald trump, jr. Had with the russian lawyer during the summer of 2016 during the campaign. The news of the meeting broke in the New York Times a few weeks ago at the beginning of july. The story we detailed in the post yesterday is President Trump personally overruled the advice of his attorneys and advisors to dictate a statement that would be issued in the name of his son donald trump, jr. To mislead the public and conceal facts about the meeting to spin the story in a less damaging way, and thats a new revelation. Rose is it illegal or otherwise to do that . No, its not illegal to deceive the public, its not illegal to lie to a newspaper, but it raises some problems because this is all happening in the context of Robert Muellers special counsel investigation into the russian matter. So you have the president taking action to try to influence the Public Statement of his son in the midst of this investigation. One of the things mueller is looking into is potential obstruction of justice. So some of the president s advisors are quite concerned that this incident of crafting the statement himself is going to draw the interest of the special counsel. Rose i think the president s spokeperson said that he was simply doing what any father would do for his son. Thats right but not any father is the president of the United States. Were dealing with the criminal investigation here. The rules start to change a bit and thats why people have lawyers, why they have publicists who can do this work for them but donald trump is increasingly acting like his own lawyer, publicist, strategist, trying to shape these events, trying to manage the russia story from a p. R. Perspective without being sensitive to the legal ramifications. Rose his lawyers advised him not to do this, did they not . His advisors concluded ahead of time that they thought the best course of action for this don, jr. Meeting would be to get as much information out there to the public at once, rip the bandaid off. They knew this would be a damaging story and the information would eventually come out. The information were talking about is the meeting was set up from emails in order for a russian lawyer to provide negative information on Hillary Clinton obtained by the russian as part of their effort to help in the campaign. Donald trumps lawyers knew it would come out and suggested the course of action but the president overruled them, thought it would be better to talk about adoptions and try to cover it up. Rose do we know the president knew about the time of the meeting at the time he was coaching his son or writing the statement . Thats a good question. The answer is not totally sure. We dont know yet if President Trump had actually read ethe email chain before he dictated the statement, but i know from my and my colleagues reporting at the post that the president was fully aware the meeting was more than just the adoption issue and he was intentionally deceptive and misleading and concealing of information when he put together the statement for his son. Rose the president of the United States knew when he put together the statement for his son he was intentionally deceptive, misleading and what else . And just not providing the complete picture. You know, this was a strategic p. R. Move by the president and, charlie, as you know, its in keeping with the way hes behaved over many years including in his Business Life where he likes to manage these things himself. He had a history in new york of calling the new york tabloids, even posing as a spokesman under a false name. So this is in keeping with Donald Trumps past. Its just highly unusual for the president of the United States to act this way and overrule the advice of his advise,. Rose it was his own hue hubs that led him not to follow his advisors advice in this case. What is the implication today . The president s credibility. Its another example of him misleading the public. Theres a long history of falsehoods hes uttered as president and certainly president ial candidate running for the office and it just muddies the water. The other problem is the president s attorney jay sekulow was on television on meet the press shortly before the statement came out and said emphatically President Trump had nothing to do with the crafting of that statement. Its possible s sekulow and oths didnt know about it until after the fact, but the story in the the Washington Post exposes that as not true. Rose what was the subject head of the emails. It had something to do with clinton and russia and of course the email enticing don, jr. To arrange and agree to the meeting was the promise of information that would be incriminating about Hillary Clinton. Campaign popo, dirt, if you will, provided that was uncovered by the russians as part of their effort to shape the election in trumps favor, they were going to present it to donald trump, jr. At this meeting and thats why trump, jr. Agreed to the meeting. Rose and why Jared Kushner and others agreed to it . Don, jr. Arranged the meeting and invited kushner to attend. He said it was about adoption issues but it was ostensibly to provide incriminating information. Rose what can we say about at a two of the chief of staffdom of john kelly . John kelly made it clear there is a new sheriff in town. There is a new sense of order and rigor in the west wing. Kelly is making all the staff report to him. Hes trying to cut off the breezy, freeflow access in the oval office and trying to instill discipline around the president. Its unclear if he can instill discipline in the president himself but the staff and aides and senior staff are getting in line to try to give kelly a chance to make things right. Rose including the family . As far as i know. Ivanka trump tweeted a picture yesterday on kellys first day saying she was pleased to be working alongside him, thats very different than working for him. The reporting structure, the formal structure has her and Jared Kushner, the soninlaw, reporting to the chief of staff, but, of course, theyre going to have their own unique individual access to the president just being family. Rose what do we know about the understanding between the president and general kelly . Thats a good question. Neither has spoken too much yet in public about what agreements they reached in setting up the staff this way, but i do know that President Trump recognizes things are not going great right now at the sixmonth mark. He wants to be focusing on the economy and get tax cuts through the congress. Hes had no major legislative achievement and i think hes expecting that kelly is going to come in here and try to instill more order, discipline and try to create more tangible achievements that the president can call wins. Rose any information on who is likely to be the new head of the department of communications, succeeding scaramucci . Thats a great question. I think there are a number of people in the mix for that. For the moment, sean spicer who resigned as press secretary a little over a week ago, he remains coming to the white house. Hes still there and i think functioning to some degree as the Communications Director at the moment helping get organized and keeping the trains running on time, but ultly they will need a replacement and im not sure who they will hire. Rose is it fair to say for all intense and purposes theyve moved from health care to focus on tax reform . I think thats right. The president may still comment and tweet about health care but there is no active negotiation really underway right now. I think the white house concedes privately, at least they do when i that you can to officials, that health care is not going anywhere right now and mitch mcconnell, the Senate Republican leader, is very eager to get going on taxes and other issues and turn the page on this whole healthcare situation. Rose i mentioned to you before we started a vanity fair article about the editor of the New York Times and the whos. Yeah. Rose is there just so explain to me the competition that exists today for this story. Its a 247 competition, i think, between both of our news rooms but also between a number of other competitors doing great journalism out there. Im friends with the folks at the New York Times but were also competitors. Were competing for schools, investigative inclusive and ultimately its good pore the public. Were all trying to find truth and bring light to whats happening here in washington and around the country. Rose is it an overstatement to say this is a story of a lifetime . I think thats an understatement, charlie. Im not that old but ive never experienced a story quite like this one. Rose phil rucker, thank you for joining us. Pleasure. Thank you. Rose well be right back. Stay with us. Rose indecent is the new play from paula vogel, the tony award winner for best direction and lighting tells the true story of the controversial 1923 broadway debut of god of vengeance and actors who risked their careers to perform it. The New York Times writes indecent is above all decent in the most complete sense of the word. Virtuous, informeddive and brimming with good faith. We have a story we want to tell you about a play a play that changed my life. Of all the boys ive known and ive known some until i first met you i was lonesome and then you came inside and this old world seemed new to me i have to admit you deserve expressions that really fit you so ive really racked my brain hoping to explain all the things you do to me please help me explain rose joining me is director rebecca taichman, one of the stars of the play, Richard Topol and tentime tonyaward producer daryl roth. In the interest of full disclosure, she and her husband are supporters of this program which i am very proud of. Let me begin with this. This is about two plays, a play written that opened back in 1923, gods of ven vision. Paula vogel read the play and liked it very much. Then there is rebecca who directed the play as a young yale dramatist and all that, and then they come to you. How did you end up producing this . Well, it went, actually, where i saw it at the vineyard theater in new york, and it was a relationship i had with paula for many years because 20 years ago i produced how i learned to driveway is her beautiful play. So i was the natural person they would call and say daryl, come see this play. I think it has the sensibilities you were attracted to. They were right. In the process of my loving the play and figuring out how to move it to prodway was the step that was the most exciting for me because i love the play very much. It stands for so many things i care about. Also, paula had never been produced on broadway. A woman who worked in theater, wonderful writer, teacher, mentor in her 60s, and i felt it would be important on so many levels to bring this play to broadway. Rose did you call paula and say i want to talk to you about this play . How did this happen . 20 years ago im a graduate student at yale and i happen on this play gods of vengeance. The night it opened, they were tossed in jail. I tried to find a transcript that interwove the trial with the text of the play. Didnt work but it was clear there was a very important story to tell and i was determined to be a caretaker of this memory. So fast forward about a decade, im sort of trying to find the right home, the right partner, have the audacity to call paula vogel, who basically before i finished the sentence would you want to make a play with me about the god of yes laughter rose so im all in . She was in. She said, the only thing i want to say, i think, firm correctly, its about more than a moment in 1923. Its a play that spans a much larger period, and i said yes, yes, yes, god, yes. Rose whats it about in your eyes . So indecent is about so it tells the story of the life of this one piece of art, this play, god of vengeance, as sort of an optic through which to look at this plan of turbulent history. It goes from the moment it was written in 1907 to the early 50s when the playwright himself forbids the production of the play. So its a way to look at the swath of american and jewish history through one piece of art and how does this one piece of art articulate this huge period in time. Ultimately, i think the story of the play is one that kind of calls out for courage and speaking out in times of hatred and in times of sort of real sort of danger and creating art against all odds. As you see in indecent, the odds sort of keep increasing and they keep telling their story over and over and over again. You know, it comes to new york at a time of enormous immigration reform, a real cut down on immigrants in the u. S. You know, it was a pretty audacious move and its a real eng the play calls out as a reminder to love in times of hatred. Rose someone said its about immigration, history, homophobia, misogyny, history, art and all that in 94 minutes. Its exactly why its such a pertinent play today because the subjects are subjects were dealing with as we speak around this table. Rose immigration. Immigration, censorship, homophobia, religious persecution, love, the freedom to love who you choose to love, all of those are subjects that we care deeply about. Rose and this place speaks to all of them. One historical point. What happened at the trial . Was it reversed . Eventually. Its defended by this wild guy Harry Weinberger who also produced the play on broadway. He also couldnt find anybody else to defend it. So he himself takes it to court, and theyre found guilty, but he fights and fights and fights and fights and eventually its overturned on appeal. Rose richard, whats your role . I play lemml, the stage manager, hes a little indent tailor from a schteddel and he shows up at the first play and falls in love with the play. Hes never seen a play. He follows the journey of the play. He becomes the stage manager and follows sholem asch throughout its history and comes to america and travels with the play. Hes our way into the story. Rose right. Hes the one. The audiences weigh in to understanding the turbulent journey of the play. Rose i saw singing and dancing. Is it a musical . Im so glad you picked up on that. laughter i would say its a truly unique form. I had never quite seen anything like this before which is part of why it was such an amazing thing to create and develop. It has enormous amount of music andance in it and sort of, you know, profound what we consider straight theater. So its a mix, and its a real mmelange. The music propels us through time in a kind of wonderful and surreal way. So we start in 1907 and its somewhat music that sort of propels us all the way through. Also its the joy. Rose yeah. People always say, well, you know, its a play that has serious subjects but the music infuses and weaves joy true it that keeps you kind of guessing. And the dancing, too, the movement. Yeah. The scenes sort of happen and then theres a swirling kind of choreograph. Sometimes its a dance, a song, and all of a sudden youre in a different place, in a different country and another scene happens. And theres a score by lisa gut and aaron halva that really brings this production to this soaring life. It is celebrating the love at the center of god of vengeance and the music does it in this extraordinary way. Rose what are you looking for when youre looking at a property that you may want to produce . I look for a story that resonates with me personally in the hope that it will then resonate with others. I look for a story that would enlighten people and maybe give us a different view of the world. Im a very cautious person in my real life but somehow in theater im just not afraid to take risks, not afraid to try something that is, you know, exciting or different or shakes things up a little bit. I mean, i feel its almost my mission, in a way, to bring things to people to change their minds about the world as they see it. Rose and their lives. And open their minds, open their eyes and have them think about things that are tough to take, maybe, or things that are a