captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org >> threats, intrigue and broken bonds over an explosive new book. we examine the chaotic new week and tonight on "washington week." bombshell betrayal. former white house strategist goes after the president and his family in a behind-the-scenes book that raises questions about trump's fitness to serve. >> we thought that donald trump was an interesting and unique character and they came to the conclusion he cannot do this job. robert: they say the book is full of lies. >> there are numerous mistakes and not going to go

page-by-beige that a book is tabloid gossip. robert: we go through the fury. and the role that jeff sessions played in the firing of james comey and the longest snar and clearing the way for one of his critics, mitt romney. we discuss an extraordinary week with amy walter of the cook political report, peter baker of the "new york times," erica werner of the "washington post" and josh green of bloomberg businessweek. >> funding is provided by --

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>> additional funding is provided by new man's own foundation donating food products to charity and nourishing its common good, the excellence in journalism foundation, and the foundation committed to bridging cultural differences. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, from washington, moderator, robert costa. robert: what a week. president trump's on-again and off-steve bannon and is a thorn in the republican establishment took direct aim in a new book "fire and fury by michael wolff

and called the son's unpatriot trick and claiming to have dirt on hillary clinton. and he said the russian investigation could turn up money laundering. steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency when he was fide. he not only lost his job but lost his mind. trump stepped up his attacks and taunted bannon for losing the support of the mercer family where bannon now serves for chairman. we are joined by josh green, the author of "devil's bargain." josh great to have you back. when you look at this break,

was it a strategic break or another complicated turn? >> in the end, bannon was done in and at one point he was the architect of president trump's victory and viewed himself as a historical figure and the administration went off the rails and bannon began feuding with many of the people he goes after, done junior, ivanka trump and jared kushner. robert: white house chief for the "new york times," how did he end up in the west wing? and who is he? >> he has been around for a long time. controversial writer. very viv i had writer and tells stories and challenges the veer asity and sometimes he uses

materials that weren't meant to be used on the record. he was in the white house. he was sitting on the couches and places we weren't allowed to go. he had a blue pass rather than a gray pass for pass. cleared by steve bannon who helped him bet interviews. robert: if he wanted to play a big role, what does that mean to get anti-establishment? >> he saw the leader of this insurgency. he was asking candidates to come and speak with him and they had to commit for not voting for mitch mcconnell for leading. there wasn't a whole lot of there-there. one candidate he got behind, roy moore. that was a disaster and that

turned a whole lot of people against him in the aftermath after that. and the people he had been supporting and wasn't clear he was going to have a lot of muscle, including money muscle. and provide real support in terms ofmon tower support for roy moore. there is a lot of talk, this is a lot more plus ter than reality. this movement has been around a lot longer than steve bannon. it started back in the election of 2009. and there was the rise of tea party movement. and candidates were getting involved. they are going to exist whether bannon is there or not. this is a challenge. this is a party that is trying to figure out how we work together and work together and

bannon and trump have been successful at creating chaos and sowing covers and taking the anger of voters and pushing it into elections, winning elections that way, but no one has figured out how to build something. they used it to blow stuff up. they are still out in the country. and in a couple of these races, there they will be problematic. robert: i spoke to one running in nevada in senate. and he is sticking by bannon. on capitol hill, there is a bit of a shift. mitch mcconnell, he was always smiles. the question is, does bannon leaving the scene a bit in this trump orbit, does that mean it will be more mainstream driven

by mcconnell and the leadership working with trump? >> mcconnell and trump, of course, have had famously rocky relationship at times. they feuded over the summer. as you alluded to, mcconnell could not have been happier over bannon's comeupance, where he said after bannon got fired or lost his job, he lost his mind. mcconnell spoke to trump and said he wouldn't have changed a word in that statement. he was very pleased and brings the two of them closer together. as much of these electoral threats were empty threats and denny may not go anywhere, michael grim, kelly ward may

not have much of a shelf life, it makes things easier. john cornerin and said it makes things easier. and makes the legislative agenda the path forward, just easier and eliminates distractions and lessens the potential of controversy and the power of some controversial figures that would eli figures with bannon. so it is good news. robert: does that make the fight, the dreamers a little bit more easier? >> i think it does, the one thing that bonnon was effective was channeling this right-wing

anti-immigrant members of the house. and it was very difficult for republicans running in prime area races to compete against them. bannon had a voice. i talked to jeff sessions who said, i do a lot of right-wing radio and all of these hosts read breitbart news. so the fact that bannon is weakend and talk that he might beous ted. there is news for republicans hoping to come to a resolution on daca. >> and the temperature is going down on capitol hill was just the success of passing the tax bill. a lot of the anger at the establishment was, this frustration that they had been so incompetent in not passing an obamacare repeal. the president was blaming them.

now they passed something and put one foot in front of the other. and we hate washington so much, it's still there. the base is not like iowa -- >> the donors are happy. they were threatening to a bandon ship. put some wind in their sails. >> the president had no time to enjoy his one big-time victory. and boom, we are back into this constant stream of fighting. >> you think about the republican leaders are at camp david. >> i don't mean fighting with the republicans. instead of saferering their victory. we are talking whether the president is fit. we are talking with his fight with the chief strategist. >> can they ever get beyond the

drama? >> this is the opening episode of season two. we have a new start. and grab the viewers and readers. they are paying attention. >> there is another part of this week that was -- you saw things turn in the russia investigation because there is talk of potential obstruction of justice and the president pressured jeff sessions to stay in charge of the russia probe. and he is saying where is my the hard-charging opportunity. he wants loyalty. and could raise loyalty. >> it can. and we actually saw a preview of this in a "new york times" interview that was done in mar-a-lago where trump said i think the justice department works for me.

that conflicts with the history of justice department independence from the white house at least since watergate and shows that trump views the attorney general as his personal lawyer, someone whose duty is to protect him personally from his enemies. robert: what do you make of this clamor. paul man for the went to federal court and doesn't have the authority and devin nunes is going after the justice department about president trump. we heard the f.b.i. encouraged by members of the administration and investigating the clinton foundation. is that heat in washington after all of these issues about the probe and mueller, what is the scene out in the country? is that clamor out there nationally? >> i think this is a tried and

true strategy when your party or the leader of your party is under investigation or there is controversy that you lash out and try to discredit the institution that is investigating them. that's not particularly new. what is different, of course, is the fact that you have now both democrats and republicans at different times embracing and also calling out the f.b.i., right? so you had all of 2016 with democrats saying the f.b.i. is basically a viper pit. these folks are all leaking bad information about hillary clinton and it's getting out there and they are breathing this thing for donald trump. and not too long later, republicans making that same claim. it's not clear if it's getting into the public. we have seen that not a whole bunch of folks know who bob

mueller is. he has higher identification than a few months ago. but the most recent poll that came out at the end of the year, it has dropped a little bit in terms of his overall approval rating. where this ends up i think for americans, unless there is something really clear-cut about what the president did or didn't do, i think voters, americans are going to be divided by party on whether charges or issues that were raced by the final mueller report are credible or not. >> it is interesting to watch the division that remains about mueller when he was initially selected. and by and large, mitch

mcconnell, paul ryan, the top leaders, have not weafered too far or at all from that. but it's kind of creeping, the water is creeping higher and higher with chuck grassley. >> the iowa senator, another news today and recommending to have a criminal investigation of christopher steele who is behind the dosier, what is more significant, the dosier, nunes working with speaker ryan, what matters? >> i'm not sure frankly that what grassley dr matters all that much. the justice department and the f.b.i. are perfectly capable of deciding who they are going to investigate. they don't need a member of congress to refer something that is in the public domain to

them. and grassley has been really a partisan attack dog on trump's behalf throughout the administration. nunes piece could take on a little bit of a different profile because here's an investigation that is in his committee's domain and paul ryan has cited with him on it. where it goes, remains to be seen. >> the f.b.i. is asking questions about the clinton foundation is an example of where his president isn't doing himself a favor. he has badgered the f.b.i. to go after hillary clinton. this decision by the f.b.i. to ask questions is automatically going to be suspect and perceived a response to the possible in effect. even if there is a legitimate question there and could be, there were lot of questions

raised about the clintons and foundation, it's now automatically seen as the president butting it. >> the mcgahn call. >> first of all, robert mueller is focusing on obstruction and likely avenue for prosecution in this case. almost always easier to prove obstruction than the initial crime. and in this case, you have a very strong indication of the president's view of the justice department should be his own personal fiefdom and shows an effort on his part to stop an investigation that was coming after him. >> we will keep an eye on this. this week, the longest serving republican senator announced

his retirement. senator hatch said he would not run for re-election. 83-year-old is the chairman of the powerful finance committee and worked with the trump administration. he urged hatch to run again because mitt romney is considering running. romney coming back on the national scene, are traditional like him, are they still welcomed? >> i don't know. what is so interestings, if you look at the investments, there have been very few republican-elected officials and senators willing to be openly critical of trump. unlike corker and flake, they are retiring.

this is in the direction of trump. romney who has been willing to stand up and say explicitly that he isn't presidential or fit to be and criticized throughout his administration, if he were to serve in the senate, it would be a beachhead or bulwark for this kind of encroaching pro--trump. >> doug jones, the alabama democrat sworn into week, tina smith, what does doug jones mean? >> it certainly limits the flexibility that mccome and republicans have in getting an agenda passed in the senate. and it was a shot of adrenalin for a party that is now talking about being able to compete in

all kinds of places, not only in blue states. they are feeling bullish. and feeling better about their chances. and arizona and nevada, two states that are pretty purment -blewish, certainly conceivable. >> what is his legacy? >> he has been a bipartisan deal maker and working with senator kennedy on the children's health insurance program. he has had a role in every key piece of health legislation you could think of over decades. most recently, of course, chairing the finance committee that wrote the tax bill that just passed. and that's what he leaves behind. it's so interesting, someone

who has been such a bipartisan auro especially with senator kennedy, that he embraced trump so closely. that was interesting and curious to see in recent months. >> mitt romney has his own shifts and what is he is like. he wasn't working. romney care was similar to obamacare and ran for president from the right. several conservative. and i think we can assume, there will be a vote. he will vote for tax cuts and a lot of these economic conservative issues. he might be more of a partner on issues like daca. i think he wants to reshape his legacy and the issue didn't go like the way he wanted in 2015.

>> no one wants to play that role. >> no, they don't. another issue where he might stand up, if trump were try to remove mueller, romney seems like the type of person whose own sense of decorum would stand up and block that. i'm not sure that is true of the republicans in the senate and house. >> charlottesville and the racial issues, he was very strong in condemning the president. we will see if governor romney runs. there has been talk for a long time and looking at that race. thanks for being here tonight. don't go anywhere, "washington week" extra is coming up next. we will talk about that legislative to-do list and

thorny issues around the globe. if you missed the live show, find both online on friday nights at pbs.org /washingtonweek. thanks for washington. >> funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the challenges of today. and research the technologies of tomorrow.

some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> american cruise lines, proud sponsor of "washington week." additional funding is provided by new man's own foundation, donating all profits from food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the excellence in journalism foundation, and the foundation committed to bridging cultural differences. the publication for public broadcasting and by contributions from viewers like you. thank you. >> you are

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