>> this is not your father's republican party. i'm robert costa. we expect how president trump is ushering in a new political order, tonight on "washington week." president trump: we will reduce your taxes. we will cut your regulations. we will support our police. we will defend our flag. we will bring back our jobs and our dreams. and by the way, we will protect our second amendment. robert: conservatives rally behind president trump at the annual cpac conference, reassured he's not backing down from his hardline campaign promises. president trump: our victory was a victory and win for conservative values. robert: declaring war on the media and opposition forces, the

president's chief strategist vows to reconstruct the administrative state. >> if you think they're going to give your country back without a fight, you're sadly mistaken. robert: outside of washington -- >> you work for us. >> obamacare saved my life. >> please, please, please. robert: lawmakers face protest and pushback from constituents. >> it's pretty clear what they're protesting and that's the outcome of last year's election. >> senator, we're not protesting the election. we're protesting right to work, we are protesting losing our health care, we are protesting russian interference in the white house. robert: we explore the trump doctrine with molly ball of the atlantic, dan balz of "the beash post, and julie hirsch field-davis of the washington

post. >> this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> xq institute. >> additional funding is provided by boeing. newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. ku and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation. the corporation for public broadcasting. and through contributions to your local pabs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again from washington, robert costa of "the washington post"."

robert: good evening. donald trump was greeted with cheers and multiple standing ovations during his first appearance as president of cpac. as the de facto lead ore they have conservative movement, the president reconfirmed his commitment to a nationalist agenda. president trump: there's no such thing as a dwhrobal anthem a global currency or a global flag. this is the united states of america that i'm representing. i'm not representing the globe. i'm representing your country. robert: the president began his speech raging against his favorite enemy, the fake news media. he went on to talk about dismantling obamacare and stopping illegal immigration. last year, the president skipped cpac. this year he was welcomed like a returning hero. dan, is this a vivid example of how power unites the right? dan: it was extraordinary to see what happened this week with the

embrace he got, not simply because he skipped cpac last year. as we went through the election, we all talked about and wrote about the likely civil war that would break out in the republican party, almost whether donald trump won or lost. we've seen the opposite, at least on the surface. what we were reminded of is the degree to which one person, like donald trump, as the ability to redefine almost everything. certainly to redefine the republican party as we have known it for a generation. robert: does the white house expect this unity among republicans to last, especially as president trump he understand to congress next week to give his address? julie: i think that's the aim of this address and the aim of his first few weeks in office. he is sort of presenting himself as a man of action. he's going to take action on all these issues that republicans have for so long wanted to see action on, repealing obamacare, doing a big tax cut. sort of cutting regulation. all of the things that they have

such a penalty up appetite for. if you talk to republicans on capitol hill right now, you see they really are hopeful that this can happen. i think there are a lot of doubts, though and a lot of questions about whether this president is going to be able to actually execute on this ambitious of an agenda and there really isn't much specificity yet in terms of how he wants to get these things done. the sequencing has been a question. now they're saying they're going to do health care first and tax reformulater. but we still haven't seen what this replacement is going to look like. what we saw in the town halls we were just looking at is that people are really concerned, not just democrats but also republican, how their constituents are going to react to whatever the white house puts forward on this. robert: it's not just health care and taxes. molly, left unmentioned in that list is the deconstruction of the administrative state, the phrase used by white house chief strategist steve bannon. in the republican -- is the republican white house in washington with them on this

statement that was so strident at cpac? molly: yes and no. one thing is you almost didn't have any republican congresspeople at cpac. ted cruz i believe is the only one to speak and many turned down offers. they've seen how the base of the party, that conservatism is what donald trump said it is and that can change. the deconstruction of the administrative state, scaling back the federal agencies' roles in things, that's something that i think republicans can agree on. republicans in congress agree with the administration, they've largely been with one voice behind all of the cabinet nominees. whose role in their agencies they largely see as scaling back what they saw as an everyly meddlesome executive branch in areas like environmental protection and the federal department of education.

it is a conservative principle to scale back those agencies' roles. they felt the obama administration made those agencies too aggressive. where they don't agree is on things like immigration, on things like trade, on things like our government's posture toward russia. so you have a congress that, as julie said, is waiting for signals from an administration that hasn't given concrete signals. robert: who's got the power, can? are you listening to vice president pence, you've written about his power on capitol hill, or steve bannon? dan: you want to listen to vice president pence. vice president pence is your link to that white house and a dusted link on capitol hill because of his time there and because he's a much more conventional conservative than donald trump who is all over the lot, ideologically. as you watched cpac, you would have to say the intellectual

architect of the trump administration or the biggest influence on donald trump is steve bannon. if you're a conventional republican in any general session o-- sense of that word, that will make you nervous because he has a world view that is contrary to what the republican party of the last 40 years has been about. robert: one thing bannon said at cpac is the media remains the opposition party. you had the president come to cpac and talk about the media as the enemy. is this an experience of inexperience at the white house? are they reacting to media scrutiny? or is it a strategy to make the media an opposition party? julie: i think it's a strategy. we saw it progress in a much more orderly way than they have in the past. it's been offhanded comments by the president, a tweet here but here you had steve bannon come to cpac and say the media is the opposition party, it's only

going to get worse. the next morning we had donald trump come and unleash this very aggressive attack on fake news, he charged that reporters are making up sources. it's not to be believed. they're just trying to hurt him. it's very dishonest. very cunning. it's a strategic attempt to undermine him. and then, you know, a few hours later at the white house, sean spicer, the white house press secretary, limited what is usually an on-camera daily briefing to an off-camera briefing in his office with a select group of reporters, which did not include "the new york times" or cnn, whose coverage the president has taken issue with. it didn't include huffington post or politico or other mainstream publications that cover this white house. but it did include breitbart, which steve bannon used to be the head of it did include one america news and fox news. what you're seeing is, i think, a very strategic decision that, you know, the press is our foil

here and we're going to aggressively go after it. it's a way of undercutting outlets that maybe doing coverage of the white house they find unflattering. it's easier to say it's all lies, all fake, than to say, ok, here's our side of the story. we disagree. robert: real quick from everyone, as we saw what happened at the white house with some organizations being banned, you wonder who is running this trump white house. is it chief of staff reince priebus? is this steve bannon? does anyone belief it's a convenient partnership? molly: there are competing powers cent -- power centers in the white house. it's been trump's m.o. in his business, his campaign and now in the white house to have competing power centers around him and pit them against each other to some extent. it's possible that that may be a fruitful management style on some level. in terms of getting the best work out of people. but it -- there's going to have

to be decisions on some of these things when you do have one part of the white house that is toing a more conventional republican line, reince priebu s's point of view and one part more bannon-ite and they're putting competing executive orders under the president's nose and having him decide on a whim what to sign, that's a difficult way to run an actual country. we have seen them have a lot of challenges in that regard just because the chaos is affecting their ability to get results. it's going to affect their ability to get their agenda through congress, and their ability to do big things even through the executive branch like the travel ban that they had to pull back. robert: while the president was being cheered at cpac, republican lawmakers were facing a reveelt of angry constituents attending town hall meetings. many of the people who were concerned about the republican

plan to repeal and replace o-- obamacare, there were many of them at town hall meetings but there's another. former house speaker john boehner. >> all this happy talk that went on in november and december and january about repeal, repeal, repeal. we'll do replace, replace. i started laughing because if you pass repeal without replace, first, anything that happens is your fault. you broke it. but most of the affordable care act, the framework, is going to stay there. robert: what's fueling this newfound activism out will? molly: the activism at the town halls i think is largely organic. the president and others have said that this is all paid protesters, that they're all being ginned up by george soros and the teachers' unions. but you cannot buy protests this big both because it would cost too much money and because this

kind of passion only come when people are really excited about something. there was a progress i movement in this country before donald trump got elected and many of those organizations are trying to piggyback on the grassroots anger that's out there. but i think very similar to the tea party in 2009, there is a legitimate organic groundswell of public anger out there and it's flooding these town halls. robert: do the democrats see an ability here to take advantage politically of all this grassroots energy on the left? there's a race ongoing right now for democratic national committee chairman and it seem like the democratic party is still trying to figure out its future. dan: i think the democratic party leadership has been surprised by what happened since donald trump has been sworn in. the size the women's march was way beyond what anybody saw or expected. what we have seen since then is that kind of passion if you talk to members of congress, they will say they are get manager response in their offices,

they'll send out a survey on an issue like the affordable care act, the response is way over the top of what they expected. what we're seeing at the town hall meetings, way beyond what people would have expected. it's forced the democratic leadership to recalibrate what they do. so the first issue is how much can they cooperate with donald trump? i would say and i think everybody would agree, much less than they thought six weeks ago. it's going to be painful for anyone who looks like they're cooperating too much with donald trump. but the bigger issue you raise is what happens to this energy? can it be sustained into 2018 and the mid term elections? i think that democrats, democratic leaders are trying to figure out how do you perpetuate that? will it be self-generating for that much time? robert: julie what do you make of the white house as they look at these town halls, is it a threat to their agenda in congress as senators and congressmen face hostile attendees? julie: i think what the white

house is seeing is sort of the proof of what they're hearing privately from some members of congress whone they say, we can't just go out there with repeal and nothing, nothing to replace it with, as john boehner said in that clip, it's very revealing. donald trump keeps say, if i wanted to i could just leave obamacare in place and just have it collapse and blame it all on the democrats. that would be just fine but i don't want to do that because that's, that's not good for the country. but the reality is that he knows he has to, you know, come up with a solution. the white house knows that's what's expected of them and what is not clear is whether republicans on the hill are going to step forward and say, listen, we've heard this from our constituents. here's what we think we need to do. and the white house is going to take that and run with it. or if the white house is going to say, here's what you need to do, we're going to go out there with you and help you sell it. donald trump said i'm going to campaign in the mid-term elections and campaign against democrats who try to block us and help the republican cause.

what these town hall meetings say to the white house is, there is a huge political price to be paid if they get this wrong on health care and they may already be paying it. the longer they wait, the more they pay. robert: base odden your reporting, is speaker boehner right? do many republicans privately, in the white house, or on capitol hill, do they think maybe a full repeal and replace on health care is impossible or this grand promise isn't going to be able to be repealed? julie: i think some are worried about this. i think republicans feel this can be done but i don't think they've reached a consensus of what that looks like. without leadership from the white house it's difficult to do. you would think at the beginning of a presidency that there wube the political capital there to say, ok, we're going to go bold and here's what it's going to be and we're going to help you sell it. but until there's something to sell, i think republicans are really -- there's a question in their minds whether they're going to have the backup they need to get some of this done. i don't think they're going to be willing to go forward, as

boehner said, with repeal unless there's a very robust plan that they think will work. dan: one of the forces in this battle are the governors, who are in town this weekend. we were told today that hill republicans have been talking to republican governors on the medicaid piece of it. what to do about that. and they're still absent a consensus on that. the governors feel that that's an important element for them. they want to weigh in and want a voice on this. robert: do you think they'll pull aside the president on sunday night at that event? dan: i suspect some will. and i would think that kasich, who saw the president today, raised the issue. robert: health care is not the only issue causing this administration headaches. and this isn't the only issue on american's minds they feel president's executive order rolling back lgbt protections and aggressive immigration guidelines have sparked protest.

we've seen some real tension, i'd like to get julie and dan on this too. with secretary of devos an the department of education, there's been active debate in the cabinet about whether rolling back the lgbt rules makes political or moral sense. molly: that's right. reportedly within the administration you had this sort of sessions wing advocating for this rollback of the obe ma protections for transgender kids and betsy devos who, despite her reputation as a quite conservative, including socially conservative person, is friendly to lgbt issues and didn't want this to happen. so this an example of an issue that's a huge cultural flash point and where you know, the social conservatives who are very well organized within the republican party, within the conservative movement, they want this white house to do their bidding. they feel they got trump elected

and now they deserve things in return. but there are other school offingsthouth even within the administration, even within the white house, and with a president, again who hasn't been in politics and doesn't have a well-articulated ideology, you end up with a squabbling that can sort of go either way. robert: the squabbling is happening, but in politics we track who is winning. it seems that attorney general sessions, the confidant of president trump, is deeply shaping policy not just on lgbt but on immigration. julie: absolutely. jeff sessions came out of the debate on transgender bathrooms on top. he basically -- which is interesting because donald trump himself has been fairly open to lgbt rights and he made a comment about kaitlyn jenner being welcome to use whatever -- about caitlyn jenner being welcome to use whatever restroom she chooses in trump tower.

but sessions and devos were on opposite sides. there have now been three executive orders, the wall, the immigration ban that's being rewritten, and this. jeff sessions has been working on those issues for a long time, had been in the senate. his views on those issues were seen as rather fringe, even by republicans, that he was really, really far to the right on being hardline and you know, deportations and cracking down. and this is actually the policy now and it's, i think, largely driven by him. his former aid is now a very senior domestic policy -- steve miller. and of course we know steve bannon agrees with this as well. i do not think you can overstate jeff sessions' influence right now in shaping the policies of this white house. robert: dan, we know attorney general sessions is an ideologue, a conservative. but president trump didn't run on ideology. what are the consequences for a

first-term president adopting these policies early on. is that -- does that make it harder for him to moderate late her is he putting his reputation in a hard way early on? dan: on immigration, he's basically where sessions is for the most part. on lgbt issues not at all. if you remember what he said at the republican convention, he was much friendlier on the idea of anti-discrimination issues to the lgbt community. so there's a balancing act that he's having to weigh as he makes these decisions. you know, the lgbt issue, i suspect their calculation is, that's better for them to go in that direction than not because that part of the republican base desperately wants to see that shift take place. on immigration, i mean, you have this, you know this cleavage in the country over this immigration issue. for trump supporters, if you talk to trump supporters, one of

the basic things is, keep the border secure. get the bad people out. i mean, the kind of language that donald trump uses resonates and connects directly and yet, given the actions that they've taken and kind of the uncertainty as to how this enforcement process is unfolding, because there's still a lot of uncertainty about it, it's created within the minority community, within the latino community, great fear. great nervousness. a sense of, you know a sense that they're coming to get us. that's a very volatile situation for donald trump who has claimed he wants to do it humanely yet the language and the forward motion of it suggests something else. robert: but he knows that he also has some other issue to deal with. we talked about nationalism and the rising issues in the country because we're in a disruptive time. but there are some ugly issues. this administration is grappling with the number of -- with a number of them on several fronts in its early days, including a wave of bomb threats against

synagogues and jewish community centers. molly, why is this happening now? this anti-semitism we've seen across the country? and we've seen president trump have to deal with it and address it in his own way. he took some time to deal with it. molly: that's the question, why is it happening? jewish groups are reporting there's a wave of threats that is higher than what they've seen before. there was anti-semitism in this country before this presidential election and it has been for a long time -- anti-semitism has been for a long time by far the largest number of religiously motivated hate cyles. so it is not the case that this didn't exist before donald trump came along and his administration feels that as the constant demands for him to disavow things and if he doesn't he's encouraging it, they see it as political correctness that's unfair. there is a wave of incidents. trump has not been forthright in disavowing them. so the question is, is that where they are getting

motivation? robert: thanks, everybody, great discussion, wonderful to have you all here. just a reminder to watch pbs news however's coverage of president trump's address to a joint session of congress next tuesday at 9:00 p.m. eastern, 8:00 p.m. central. also, "washington week" is celebrating a milestone few television programs have attained. this month marks the program's 50th an verse vi. -- anniversary. it seems like a good time to thank all our faithful public television viewers for your support. check out the 10 biggest story "washington week" has covered in its first 50 years along with a special salute to one of the original staff members still on the team. find it at pbs.org/washingtonweek. we also want to take a moment to mark the passing of ward chamberlain, a longtime supporter of "washington week." he served as president and c.e.o. of our producing station, weta, for 14 years, from 1975 to

1989. and remained a strong advocate for public broadcasting. ward chamberlain was 95 years old. that's all the time we have tonight but our conversation continues on the "washington week" extra. i'm robert costa. good night. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> funding for "washington week" is provided by --

>> additional funding is provided by the xq institute. newman's own foundation. donating all profits from newman's food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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