>> welcome to "charlie rose: the week." charlie is away this week. i'm jeff glor. just ahead, the first six months of the trump presidency. new violence rocks jerusalem and the temple mount, and a look at the making of hollywood comedies. >> i met gary when eworked for the larry sandler machined he talked a lot about story and comedy coming from a very deep, honest place and watching him explore his own life and spiritual quests, i got inspired to slowly attempt to figure out how to do that. >> we'll have those stories and more on what happened and what might happen. >> 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 >> rose: and, so, you began how? >> make progress. >> rose: is it luck at all or is it something else? >> find kind of a weird little gnificance of the moment. >> glor: we begin this week with a look at the news of the week. here are the sights and sounds of the past seven days. >> the legendary actor martin landau died at age 89. >> i'm ready now! roll the camera! >> secret service reject ago claim by president trump's lawyer that the agency would have prevented anything questionable from happening at that famous meeting. >> the vote to replace obamacare has endowrntd yet another obstacle. >> the g.o.p. healthcare bill collapses. >> this is a fistful of republicans determined to ultimately deliver. they are not going to give up on it. >> we hope john mccain gets better soon. he's a crusty voice in

washington. >> he's dying to get back and for the sake of his family, i hope he doesn't have to stay there over a week. >> the white house confirms a second meeting with president putin. >> the president tweeted fake news story of secret dinner with putin is sick. >> the president's lawyers are looking for ways to undermine the russia investigation by special counsel mueller. >> mr. simpson, i do vote to grandpa role when eligible. >> thank you. e next big storm in the pacific ocean, and i'm not making this up, will be hillary. >> the champion for the eighth time! >> so many fans tuned in to watch last night's premiere of "game of thrones" it crashed hbo's web site. >> give it up for new jersey governor christie liking a nice grab. >> bared handed and gets booed for the efforts. >> nice to see from the beach to the wall park. russia is banning -- 's consumer agency says

it will investigate gidget spinners after they say the toys could be an american plot to zombie-fy young russians. >> there goes russian's reputation as count. >> glor: this weekend is a sixth month anniversary of donald trump's inauguration marked by appointment of neil gorsuch to the supreme court and many frustrations. at the top of the list the president's growing concern over the russia probes. shannon pettypiece joinings me, covers the white house for "bloomberg news." and in washington dan balz, chief correspondent for "the washington post." welcome to both of you. shannon, let me start in studio big news of the station sean spicer is out as communications director. >> and anthony scar moochie, finance year and italian and long backer of trump is in as

communications director. there's not a sense he will be doing much communications messaging, strategy. he will most be doing tv appearances, possibly the podium and be a public face for trump in the white house but not necessarily anyone who understands washington, understands congress, understands messaging. >> glor: it's interesting, there are similarities between the president and anthony scarmucci, the native new yorker, the fighter, anthony's more finance, the president real estate, but there are similarities. >> there are. they're both combative, both money people, they're both new york. they speak a similar language in that respect. neither has washington experience, which the president believed was an asset, and i suspect he sees in scarmucci that it will be a similar asset, that he will be a disruptor rather than somebody who will play by washington rules. what we know about this white house is there's no long-term planning or very little of it

particularly on the communications side. the president creates the communication strategy day by day, hour by hour, and, so, maybe scaramucci with roll with it easier than sean spicer. >> the communications director is the president. >> right, he is his own communications director. his own foreign policy advisor and domestic policy advisor. that was a frustration among people in the communications operation, a strategy, a message they're going one direction and the president does an interview and blows it all up. >> and, dan, it's more shocks for a white house where it doesn't seem to stop. >> well, it's a shock a day, jeff, really. and, you know, as you said, we're at the six-month mark. you know, week by week, month by month it's become apparent that this is what life with president trump is going to be like, that there is not going to be a pivot to a more settled white house or to a more sedate pace or to a president who is more predictable or more

presidential in that sense. so this is -- you know, this is just one more day in a six-month rollercoaster that we have been witnessing and experiencing as a country under president trump. >> and as this drama plays out, dan, primarily the president is now focused or is still trying to focus on getting something done on healthcare. >> well, that is what he says he's focusing on, but, you know, his attention span is very short and, so, from day to day to day, it's not clear that that is really where he is focusing his time or energy. i mean, seems to be more focused on frustrations with the probe on the russia investigation under special counsel bob mueller, frustrations he aired this week with jeff sessions, the attorney general, differences in all kinds of ways, and he indicated he wants something done, but getting to

that goal line has proven so difficult, and the president has not necessarily played a constructive role in getting it to success. so he will say those kinds of things, but there has been very little follow-through, and i think we have to be skeptical that there will be presidential follow-through. >> glor: days of peaceful but growing palestinian protests outside jerusalem's temple mount turned violent after friday prayers this week. at least three palestinians have been killed and scores would bed in clashes with police. the protests began after authorities closed the holy site for only the third time in 50 years. khalid al-ghindi is a fellow for the center of middle east policy in washington. i am pleased to welcome him to this program. khalid, it's all about metal detectors.

explain what happened and how we got here. >> well, it's ostensively about metal detectors, but when it comes to anything having to do with jerusalem it's much more than that -- it's history, religion, politics, it's identity. the specific actions that got us to here were little over a week ago, i guess, an israeli officer was killed on the compound of the mosque also known as the temple mount, and three palestinian citizens of israel who were responsible in an armed attack against israeli forces there were killed in that process, and then there was a decision by the israeli authorities to institute metal detectors. palestinians and jordanian

officials, jordan is the official custodian of the holy site for muslims there at the alexei mosque compound. all rejected the introduction of this new measure on the temple mount as a violation of an historic arrangement known as the status quo which is a 19t 19th century agreement to sort of leave each community's religious shrines under their own authority. palestinian continue recognize israeli authority over the holy site or any part of east jerusalem which is considered occupied territory. sothere are really a lot of layers that we're dealing with here that deal with history and religion and politics in a site that is very, very sensitive and holy to both muslims and jews.

so it's a very volatile situation all around. >> glor: can you remember last time friday prayers were canceled? >> no, i cannot. i don't think it's happened in my lifetime and, from what i've read -- i'm not an historian, but from what i've read, it's been many hundred years since the muslim authorities that oversee the mosque compound actually canceled the weekly friday services. it's pretty extraordinary and unprecedented. >> glor: if authorities on either side don't get control of this situation, i think a lot of folks feel it could quickly get a lot worse than it is right now. in your estimation, what has to happen? >> what has to happen in general is that cooler heads have to prevail. there needs to be deescalation on all sides by israeli

authorities, by whoever is representing palestinians, and, of course, with the involvement of jordanians. that doesn't appear to be happening. i think the ball is very much in the israeli government court, and the fact that we have now fatalities and there will be funerals, and funerals are often flashpoints for more demonstrations and more unrest, is a sign the crisis will more likely continue. >> glor: sanctions cited against iran for terrorism

ballistic missiles and terrorism in the gulf. this one day after the united states reluctantly certed after iran was in compliance with the two-year nuclear deal. zarif served an iran's minister of foreign affairs since 2013. >> i think the united states has had, unfortunately, a hostile policy toward iran for some time and this administration is certainly pursuing an even more hostile policy. i think it's a misguided policy, i think the allegations against it are tired and don't stand any test in realty. i think it would be best for the united states because the u.s. should just look at its "achievements" in our region and see what it has achieved. it has made all the wrong choices. its allies are accusing each other of supporting for terrorism, and i believe the united states needs to take a fresh look at the situation in our region and see where its

interests are, how it's dealing with important issues of stability and security in our region and decide for itself where i want to stand. >> rose: when you look today, what does iran want? what role does it want the play in the world? >> iran is a country that has been able to survive, despite pressure, despite the war, despite sanctions, we have been able to make progress to make scientific achievements, in spite of the fact that every restriction was imposed on our country and our people, even our students were prevented from studying physics and mechanics at western universities. but we made advances for one reason, we are content with our

size, with our geography, with our national resources -- >> rose: and you have no global ambitions. >> we do not have global ambitions. we want stability in our region, we want stability within the countries in the region. we do not want turmoil in the countries in the region, and we have shown in our support for the people of iraq, in our support for the people of syria and in our support for the people of kuwait when they were invade bid saddam hussein. >> rose: several things about that. influence, the german intelligence says, for example, that you still have great desire to have a nuclear capability. >> we do have a nuclear capability, but we have foregone a nuclear weapon option. >> rose: and did you do that because of the pain of sanctions? >> no. no. we did that long before the sanctions started. i believe the sanctions were misguided and misplaced and did not achieve any outcome other than --

>> rose: conventional wisdom by almost everybody is you were hurting so badly from the sanctions that you were willing to come to the negotiating table, and if you will take the sanctions away, we will agree -- >> charlie, charlie... i presented a proposal to the french, the brits and the germans on march 23, 2005, before all these sanctions were presented. at that time, i was ambassador here at the u.n. and i was the nuclear negotiate, the chief nuclear negotiate was our current president, and i was negotiating on his behalf. i presented the proposal which is very similar to the final deal that we reached ten years later. >> rose: why did it take that time to do it? >> i'll tell you because, at that time, the ambassador was sitting in the state department preventing that deal from taking

shape and, today -- >> rose: representing the bush administration. >> representing the bush administration. and today, he's trying to do that all over again by calling -- >> rose: but he's not part of the government. >> but he's one of the most proactive -- there are quite a few of them. >> rose: there was great division about the nuclear deal. >> i understand. but the sanctions did not bring iran to the negotiating table. the united states decided that its zero enrichment option which it had pursued from 2003 till 2013 was not going to get it anything. you see, sanctions -- what the sanctions produce, sanctions produce a lot of economic hardship for iran, i grant you that, but was that the objective of the sanctions? or the objective of the sanctions was to change iran's

policy? >> glor: steve bannon was the driving force behind right wing breitbart web site when donald trump appointed him to head his campaign in august 2016. bannon is credited with crafting president trump's populous message and helping guide him to victory. joshua green tells the foreof bannon and trump unlikely part partnership in his new back called "devil's bargain." >> trump and bannon met in 2010. bapen has a wild background that had gotten attention. >> rose: his political goal. always the same, to push for a kind of hard right, pop list nationalism -- populist nationalism that is distinct from orthodox movement conservatism and bannon's prescription for how to do that is essentially to tear down the global free trade system, to close america's borders, to deport people who are here

illegally, and to curb legal immigration as a way of privileging american citizens and reasserting kind of a cultural identity. >> rose: when does donald trump come into the picture? >> trump comes into bannon's picture in 2010 and that's really about the same time that trump's -- that's when they met through a long-time clinton activist named david bossy who was very central to a lot of the bill clinton scandals and investigations in the 1990s. bannon knew bossy from kind of the conservative fringes. >> rose: what kind of reaction did they have to each other? >> according to the people i talked to around trump's orbit is they immediately clicked and the reason is because bannon, like trump, is a deal guy. he's somebody who knows money in wall street, but he's also someone who worked in entertainment and cares about it and speaks the lingo.

bannon is a guy full of political ideas. >> rose: most of us during the campaign when manafort was out and began to understand who was coming in, we were surprised by steve bannon. most were surprised he put him where he did at the top of the campaign. but you were saying he was always there. >> he was always there in the background. hey had always been an formal advisor and there were several key moments in the campaign before steve bannon came aboard when bannon played a pivotal role on trump's behalf. the earliest one i think was right after trump announced his candidacy when he came down the elevator in trump tower and gave the speech calling mexican immigrants drug dealers and rapists. there was this uproar. paul ryan and jeb bush criticized him. the ordinary thing to do would be to apologize, revise your marks, make some show of

abasement to these people -- >> rose: he doubled down. not only did he double down, steve bannon went and organized trump's trip to the laredo border because bannon knew a bunch of border guards, organized a trip for trump to come down to laredo and say exactly the same thing to mexico's face. so not only was he not apologizing, he was walking up and poking them in the chest and doubling down, and that's the sort of mindset, i think, that bannon brought to trump's universe. >> rose: how powerful is he in the white house today? >> not as powerful as he once was, that's for sure. >> rose: what happened? well, bannon really is a propagandist at heart, and he's very good at messaging, at stoking the worries and fears of the electorate. you know, and galvanizing a certain kind of dispossessed voter who hasn't felt like they've had a place in american politics maybe over the last 1020 years.

that's a real talent, and i think that helped get donald trump elected. but you need an entirely different set of skills when you wind up in the white house, and the problem that steve bannon had and the problem that donald trump had is both of them only have one speed, this kind of need to dominate their opponents, to kind of come in, throwing haymakers and be as aggressive as you can. bannon told me a couple of weeks into the transition that they were going to pursue a shock and awe strategy that was going to blow up the washington establishment and impose trump's stamp on the american government the same way you put a stamp on a trump building, and the world doesn't work that way. almost immediately, you saw this begin to backfire, protests in the streets, federal courts knocking down the travel ban and, pretty quickly, the trump administration kind of came off the rails, and there were a lot of people in the white house who were very unhappy and blamed steve bannon for that i think

with some justification. >> glor: comedies hold a special place in hollywood. genres one of the few where the vision of the director still drives the film. earlier this week charlie rose sat down with three of the top filmmakers in comedy, judd apatow, michael showalter and lucia aniello. >> i only wand to be a standup comedian when i was a kid. i didn't think about making movies. i didn't watch movies to pay attention to the angles, i never thought about the lenses or the framing. i just liked seinfeld and leno. then i met gary sandly when i worked with larry's show and he talked about comedy coming from a deep, honest place and watching him explore his own life and spiritual quests, i got

inspired to slowly attempt to figure out how i might do that. >> rose: what broad generalizations can we make about making comedy, being comedic, whether sketch comedy or stand-up? broad generalizations about who's drawn to it, who does well at it, that kind of thing. >> hmm. i have been talking to people, a lot now that "the big sick" is coming out. there's a lot of stuff in the big sick where we see smeed yans talking to each other, wantserring. there is a competitiveness but a lot of camaraderie. i've always felt comedians like musicians, there's a shared vocabulary when you get a bunch of comedians together, there's a way that they talk to each other that is not something you learn, it's just who we are. the same way if you get five musicians together, there's a very good chance they will start to jam, and the people who are not musicians want to leave the room. >> rose: you started doing

stuff for youtube, didn't you? >> yes, i was doing improv in new york and making sketch videos for the internet, yeah. >> rose: how did they find you? >> youtube.com. >> rose: i know that, but i mean -- >> of course. we began making videos because i make videos with my partner and we basically ere able to find kind of a weird little niche which is basically you wanted to make things that had a hook to them, that were quick and that people would want to share not just because it had a relatable moment but because there was something about it that took something about society and especially pop culture and put a spotlight on it and exacerbated what's funny about it and it's been interesting adapting that into tv and film because it doesn't always adapt it that easily. so realizing that the medium as the message really informed the way that we write and try to produce things.

>> glor: now, here's a look at your weekend. lana del ray release as new album "lust for life." >> the world war ii drama dunkirk opens in theaters nationwide. and the 146th british open championship runs all weekend at royal birkdale. >> champion golfer of the year -- >> the open. an>> and here's a look at the wk ahead. sunday is the final day of the tour de france. monday is the 65th birthday of filmmaker gus van zandt. tuesday is the day the mtv video music award nominations are announced. wednesday is the first day of the gathering of the juggalo's

music festival in oklahoma city. thursday is the day german chancellor angela merkel holds her summer news conference. friday is the annual "just for laughs" award show in montreal, canada. saturday is the start of europride 2017 inner amsterdam. -- in amsterdam. >> glor: that is "charlie rose: the week" for this week. from all of us here, thank you for watching. i'm jeff glor. we'll see you next time. >> rose: for more about this program and earlier episodes, visit us online at pbs.org and charlierose.com. >> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by: captioning sponsored by rose communications

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