captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit : icap.org robeat happens when a president goes to war against the government leads? president trump approves the release of a disputedrepublican memo, alleging the f.b.i. and justice departmentbused their surveillance powe t we discu fallout civil and political tonight on "washington week." president trump: i think it's a disgrace. robert:e ignores warnings from e f.b.i. and signs off the release of a repubcan memo he says shows bias ainst him in the rusan probe. president trump: people shoulsh beamed of themselves. robert: democrats accuse the president of trying to discred robert mueller. >> this is not about the facts. this is about a narrative that

the chairman wants to put out to undermine the f.b.i., undermine the department and ultimately undermine bob mueller. robert: it is republicans against republicans. the speaker: this is not indictment of the f.b.i., the department of justice. it does not impugn the mueer investigation or the deputy attorney general. robert: but senat mccain strongly disagrees. he released a statement that read in part, ife continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing pin'sob for him. at the heart of the document, a controversial dossier, paidor by democrats during theneral election. and by a republican client in the early primary season. we discuss it all with molly ball of "time" magazine. michael scherer of the washington post. rachel bade of politico and carl

hulse of the "new york times."ti >> celeb 50 years, this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> the 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. >> on a cruise with american cruise lines, you can experiench istoric destinations along the mississippi river, the columbia river, and across the united states. american cruise lines fet of small ships explore american

landmarks, local cultures and islm waterways. american c lines, proud sponsor of "washington week." >> additional funding is provided by new man's own foundation, donating all profits from new man's food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics in excellence through journalism foundation, and 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. once again, from washington, moderator robert costa. robert: good evening. the white house approved release of a house intelligence committee memo that landed like a hand grenade in washington

broing simmering tensions over the russia probe. it was a day of unrest and the u.s. stock market plunging as the nation's justice system was challenged by president trump and the republican party which controls bother cha in congress. there are many names involved in this story, lots of parts and compettig persp. the memo drafted by the republican staff, averts that the f.b.i. and the justice department lacked integrity in o tical biased and explosive claim about a political institutions. it accuses law enforcement leaderpp of oversg their authority to obtain a warrant. democrats railed against the release, so did a number of republicans including senatormc in who said mueller's investigation must proceed

unimpede former.b.i. director, he tweeted, that's it?t dishonnd misleading memo wrecked the house intelligence committee and damaged relationships with fa court and inexcuse apply exposed classified investigation o an american citizen, for what? for what? that is the question that seemingly sparked 1,000 answers in washington on friday. and our reporte tonight have been at the white house and on capitol hill hearing them all, looking for the facts as both parties clashed. let's start with the president u wh this in motion and approved the release of the memh t redactions. what drove him to do so, >> for president trump, the investigation has never been out russia but about him. he sees it as an attack onim he has been doing everything he can to fight back. and this is the latest gambit in that.

i think it' fair to say that the thrust of that memo is political. it's a political argument, not a legal argument. it's not saying that a court this ot have accepted warrant or that the warrant was wrongly gotten, it's saying ere is a political motivation at the f.b.i. and that's the story that the president wants out. and we know today in a spray at the oval office, the president gets a question about it and he ys it's a shame and we will see more fweets. it ges him a talking point so the daily news fight, he able to feel like he is taking the upper han >> there have been some the licans arguing for member's -- memo's release a saying it was the need for certai institutions and there are a lot of holes in that b

rationalt the president hasn't tried to do that. the president has told his own friends, this is just about discditing the mueller probe and undercutting in the public's view because he knows where this is goingventually i mueller that comes up with something that touches him, it's going t hinge on public opinion. and so, the important thing to me abouthis whole episode is that far from being pushed by some csis into having to decide whether to defend the president against the mueller probe, republicans in congress took it upon themselves, nunes and the intelligence committee staff, they came up with this memo and gave it to trump in order toelp him, and help him discredit the russia vestigation. robert: democrats say there are ons. >> i would say it landed like a thud. i talked to both republicans and democrats todayho agree with

comey. there were some elements of the mo that pointed that the investigation started with the story that the "times"" had broken with a trump associate lking to an australian diplomat. i think tha the memo in some ways accomplished its main goal. there were two weeks of discussion about this and people, thr there is a lot of smoke abo it and they were trying to undermine the investigation. republicans were saying let's move on and this did not touch theeller investigation in any way. and senate republicans have been stancing themselves from this and lindsay graham said let' move forward. i don't think it did what the staff of e house republican of the intelligence committee. rort: you covered nunes so

closely. how did he get here and how he lead this? >> so, there are different f fractions republicans and all over the map of how they see this memo. nunes and trump's allies, matt gates, a republican from florida, toy have tried t undermine the investigation.ma an greaths said mueller is he ding a coupe against president. this is a very small fraction of republicans. most republicans aren't saying. th but there are republicans who are saying this. an trey gowdy saw these documents and he had an issue with them. he thought tha perhaps there should have been more information presented to the j court totify these warrants. he worked with nunes and didn't want himet to out over his skis but wanted to raise this as

oversight issue. and so he proceeded to work with hi the issue here is that senate republicans do not agree with at all. a lot of them said, why didn't we see this memo first and could have craft m ite delicately and it looks like a political document. and speaker ryan wants support nunes as the chairman of the house intelligence committee and he thinks theres an oversight issue to look into, but he said i'm not trying to discredit the f.b.i. or undercut the d.o.j. and s nothing to do with mueller. robert: he is the oy person in town that thinks this. iean that's a general agreement. one thing about the democrats. democrats have this rebuttal, i presume we will see it at some time, in that ruttal, that there -- that they did tell the

court that this was a politically motivated and didn't say it was being paid for by the clinton campaign. and that is going to satisfy a lot of people. ha it's very common in these situations sources get warrants that are politically motivated. informts oftenave aagenda asand there is nothing wrong with that. the question is whether the court was deceived a't we d know the answer to that. robert: let's get back to the charges and come back to you, molly. they are aerting that law enforcement leaders abused their power to obin wiretap warrants. the warrant wasssd for carter page because of that dossier, put togher by former inteigence officer christopher steele. republicans say the use of tha dossier in the process was inappropriate since the research

was funded by democrats and llary clinton's campaign, but that was after initially being funded by conservative donors. republicans seized on this saying the way the page warrant was handled raises broader questions of how they handled the russian investigati the start and that's a perspective shared by the esident. but that conclusion has been contested by republicans and democrats and the f.b.i. the mo isn't just about carter page. the memo also indicates that actions taken by former trump campaign p foreiicy adviser george papadopoulos triggered the pro. he is now cooperating. in the middle of this political storm, the leaders of the enjustice depar because named in the memo is r rosenstein appointed by the president and oversees mueller's

investigation. his approval of that page warrant has made him a targetf the president's political allies wh called on rosenstein to step down. his supporters say the president is looking to discredit the russian investigation and using the memo a a weapon to discredit the man androtect himself. >> rosenstein is a target for a of reasons. it's because of this warrant and hee is man standing between trump and mueller. trump already tried to fire mueller once and was prevented from dng so last year. so that's the real reason i think rosenstein is in trump crosshairs. but there are a couple of issues to tease out about what is so objectionable about the evidence presented in the memo. number one is theti ass that the whole investigation sprang

from the tainted dossier. as you mentioned, trump opponents, original funders o the d.n.c. who picked up the t funding and l the creation of the actual dossier, an anti-trump fax and f.b.i. takes it and goes straight to the court with it without doing their homework, that's the t allege, tey were carrying water. the charge is not that they overstepped the authority but motivations ical and staging this based on flimsy evidence because they wanted to take down the president. there are a couple of things wrong with that. in the memo itself, it wasn't -- that the stuff that was in the dossier wascked out before it was brought to the court and satisfied the court. and then evidence that

just the dossier. as you said there was an investigation into the pop pop matter.th an f.b.i. -- papadopoulos and the f.b.i. wa aeady on this case. those are the two arguments. >> p cartere had been a target of russian intelligence years earlier before the trump campaign. now this from other court documents. he had g power-point presentations so the t ideat going after carter page was an arbitrary thing,his is auy who had been targeted before and was traveling to russi again during the campaign. >> the trump campaign administration sought to push themselves away from carter page and interesting that he wld become this person. one to molly's point, warrant was extended. they had to go back and get

multiple renewals, so it wasn't just this one time to convince these judges. judges tend to go along, but you still have to justify this. >> it is a surveillance request. you have t justify. robert: rosenstein is under fire from the right today. are there efforts to protect mueller inside congress, protect rosenstein a protect the russian process? d ocrats and some republicans have been talking out legislation that would protect mueller and make sureth rosenstein couldn't be fired and the leadership in the house and the senate, ryan and mcconnell have said they do not think it is necessary and do not think the president is going to come after mueller. but obviously there are questions on this, right.to d his answer, what about rod

rosenstein, he sou figure that one out. he was ticked off about the memo and rosenstn was re-uping the application. bert: you figure that one out. so what happs if rod rosenstein decides to step down or fired by thent presi >> he said he isn't going to stepown and not -- unless he is fired. if he steps down, then hishe deputy, next person in line would take over. jeffessions has recused himself. and keep going down. in the yy, could have the president continue to take people out. and eventuallhe would have to nominate someone else but congess would h a say. the issue here is whatever mueller finishes doing, he is going to deliver that report to rod rosenstein or whoever is in

that position and if that person who has the authority and responsibility to do with it, mueller doesn't go to the judge and prosecute the mueller delivers a document to the justice department and that peon decides whether to release it publicly, give it to congress or taker some o action. that's the moment -- at this point, the investigation so far along, i don't think you could get rid it. robert: the process is supposed to bea political. >> these are republicans and for the house republicans and the president to b attacking the f.b.i. is a big rolesa rev one thing i would say about rosen tine if nunes thought that this report was going to come out and buildup a big push to fire mueller rosenstein, i

think that that did not work. >> i think there are two other pieces of news we should connect this to. number one, the disputed resignation of dety f.b.i. director mccab that was sudden and apparently heas force out. this is what the i.g. is looking and the other thing is that the report in the "new york times" th the president's former legal spokesperson deciding how to respond in the meeting with the russians that his son had had, and that is ann indicat that the investigation may be getting closer to the president robert: as molly is saying, the mueller team is turning its attention to a meeting that took place on a force oneast july

and that meeting, the white house aides described a trump tower meeting, donald trump junior had and focused on russian adoption policy. mueller wanted to know h this came together. hope mix is under scrriny for role. and anoth piece of news, the attorneys for rick gates, an associate and paul manafort have asked to withdraw. all these moving parts in the russia probes and a molly is sake. hope hicks under scrutiny. >> i can barely keep up. look, i tnk some republicans are realizing they may have overstepped. this we paul ryan specifically called of he democratic rebuttal this memo to be released and be released as soon a yesterday at a press conference,

he tried to say over and over again, this is what this government is, congressional oversight of the f and not an allege of the f.b.i. and d.o.j. are corrupt and not anything against mueller, but he has lost control of that narrative. and -- robert: can you critique the leadership of law enforcement institutions and say you are not critiquing? >> that is their big problem. the republicans have always portraye themselves, big defenders of law enforcement. the president has taken some steps or rank and file. but you are stillttacking the institution and that has been one of the dangerous aspects of this and one of th long term repercussions are going to come in. intellence oversig by the congress is difficult. the intelligence agencs,

they're not sure, they don't trust members. and don't like to t sharet much information. this is going to make them even less apt t do it. >> it should be bipartisan, right? that's been one of the biggest criticisms today. is that democrats wereot included and excluded for a long time and the senate republicans on the intelligence committee are saying specifically, i doesn't have to be like this. >> as i said earlieroday, it's alst unimaginable to think of some of these past intelligence pes and have this kind of thing happen. this does not happen. robert: this is what president trump doesn't care about. we knoheares a great deal and believes -- he is a salesman -- he can create a reality force field. that's what he is doing. he has 38% base and trying to

create an alternative set of facts that will play on "fox and frnds" and twitter feed and allow him to keep the be. d if most in congress eventually don't go alongh w and hurts republicans in the mid-term elections, president is convinced if he holds to it, it will protect m. >> this was the week of the state of the union. it seems like a century ago. he has an immigration deal he is trying to cut. tryi to get a spending bill done before the february 8 deadline. does this choke all of these efforts? >> yes and know. we are seeing a rebound for trump. since tax reform and his aggressiveitch, we have seen his approval rating has ticke up and the approval rating for the tax bill has ticked up and

the congressional ballot has narrowed. so in the bigoticture,s are giving trump another chance since the new year. and his state of the union was very well received. his poll records, most of the people who watched it had a positive impression. the question is does the russia investigation, background noise, can he convince it is background nois >> there was no real rule they had to have this big fight after the state of the union.ar robert: w going to have to leave it there. molly and michael and rachel and thanks for joining us. we will be streaming the "washington week" extra starting at 8:35 eastern time and

ascussing the president's first state of the uniress and look ahead to next week's looming deadline to fund the government to avoid a shutdown. if you missed the showr o "the extra," go to pbs.org/washingtonweek. i'm robertosta. thanks for watching. and go eagles. >> funding fork" "washington wee is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the 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 new ron's foodcts to charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics in excellence in journalism. the foundation committed bridging cultural differences in our communities. for public on broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. station from viewers like you. thank you.

narrator: on the evening of april 2, 1917, president woodrow wilson and his wife edith left the capitol aand to the white house. only moments earlier, wilson had asked congress aandfor a declaration of war against germany. a. scott berg: it was the greatest applause wilson had heard in his years in office. ndafter the speech, heis wife go back to the white house. wilson goes into his office. and he puts his head down on the table and he weeps. and one of the men on his staff said, "but mr. president, what-what are you...