out? presidentrump replaces more senior staff with like-minded madvisors. pete williams in for robert costa. we discuss the chu inside the white house as robert mueller's russia investigation looks at the trump organization's business practices. tonight on "washington week." president trump: but there'll alys be change. pete: just 14 months into office, president truha rs his administration. president trump: i'm at ain p where we're getting very close to having the cabinet and other things that i want. pete: this week he fired the tesecretary of stand chose the c.i.a. director to take over. he's also reportedly preparing to name his thir national security advisor in less than a year. scandals have other issues have

put other cabinet members on ice, including questions over spending and hudson over a $31,000 diningtoable prosecu if his office. also, the trump administration slapped new sanctions on russia for its atlantic election meddling and attempt to man niche lit the u.s. power grid. we discuss it all with jonathan swan of 25 axios. abby philip of cnn. peter peter of "the new york ustimes," and glasser of politico. >> this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand theof challenge today and research the technologies of tomorrow.

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koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridgg cultural differences in our communities. the corporati for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you thank you. once again, live from washington, substituting for robert costa, pete williams of nbc news. pete: good evening. here's a tip for top officials in the trump administration eager to keep their jobs -- don't leave town. james comey found out he'd been fired last year while on a tip to losngeles. rex tillerson was warned he was about to bevi fired on t it to africa and got the news of his area yu -- firing just a few hours after he got home. the president is acknowledging that he is considering more changes after his sudden firing of rex timber.

the president has chosen as his replacement c.i.a. director mike pompeo. law.duate of harvard mr. trump wants gina haskell to become the first woman to lead the c.i.a. she's a career c.i.a. employee. but it could be complicated by the fact she how a torture effort in 2011. word h.r. mcmaster may be replaced after the president suggested he wants to build a new teamligned to his agenda and style. the model inside the white house in recent days has verged on mania, as trump increasingly keeps hisnd own counsel senior aides struggle to determine the gradations between rumor and truth. peter peter, what is going on? is the president more

comfortable making these decisions or does he want people to fight it out to see who's going to win? peter: this is probably the wildest week of the trump presidency since last week. likes this kind of churning. he -- it keeps things exciting. remember, he spent 14 years as a reality show host so he likes to keep u on edge to see what's happening next week. pete: is that your own met or for-- metaphor or is that the rey way he really thinks about it? peter: that's the way he really thinks about it. he said at the beginning of his presidency, think of this as a reality show. we have to keep v thewers interested. other prlts really, really trim sponsororing a bi to california for the purposes of showcasing his big policyit tive on the border wall

and distracting with something else. is president has no problem with that. if you want to pay attention to the other thing, fine. he's going to do three, four, five things a day. keep up with him, please. pete: on rex tiller son, what was mostg, surpris that it happened or that it took so long to happen? >> i think that it took so long toappen. remember, it was last august he was reported to have said by nbc that the president was a moron. it's really hard to come bachak from i think the president only left him there soe long beca we'd all been writing stories and reporting thath he was on way out. he decided to show he was the one in charge, nots. but it was ultimately going to happen. pete: abby, could he have lasted longer ifd been more adept at issues withithe administration? abby programs but probably not. it seems there was a penalty

misalignment with the president and they didn't have a sometime of communicating with each other that was effective and beyond, that tillerson had a very hard time being second friday toll another chief executive. he came inon exx where he was the top man and wanted to run thgs his way. all in all, tillerson did not fit into the government rticularly well and he certainly didn't fit into ltrump's chaotic world w at all. at the end of the day, the moron issue became kind of the big elephant in the room with trump, in part also because tillerson never actually denied it. he still to this day had not denied it. he simply doesn't answer the question. trump knew about it and wasn't happy about it but tillerson's insistence to continue to let it be there was something that kept it front of mind for trump.

every time they were face to face, whether on subcyantive po issues or other minute things. pete: we know about their big differences on the oinch nuclear deal, for example, but does rex some credit erve for setting the table for the northreanlfalks or did that happen in spite of it? >> obviously t president's now. that he was going to meet with kim jong-un was a surprise to everybody, o including his staff. president trump did an altraordinary thing. he actuallyd in, pulled his aides out of a meeting with south korea and said no, no, i'd like to do this right now. brought him into the oval ofhace. look at picture and it tells you an awful lot, i thi, about th trump white house. you have h.r. mcmatch in there. jim milt is, the secretary offe

e. poor rex tillerson in africa, not even consulted. everybody sittinground. donald trump says i'll just do it. sure, tillerson was advocating for talks for months but president trump began undercatting -- cutting him, beginning over the summer witht tw while tillerson was on overseas travel. no one believes this is some sort of thought-out, planned occupant cemetery that donald tr ep isngang ga -- engaging in remember, there's no ambassador of south korea. theresident's longtime envoy just quit the state department so you don't have a long preparation already under way formi this s between trump and kim. pete: so there may be aew secretary at the state department, mike pompeo. what do you know about hisst e? whether he might go about fixing

the hollowed out state dertment that r tillerson has left him and how will he be different? >> the most important way he'll be different is you had a secretary of state which did not speak to the president and that was very obvious to everyone.ob ous to foreign leaders and people on capitol hill. one senator who is vy close with mike pompeo and donald trump said to me, you can have paration between the president and his attorney general. we've seen that. trump is -- obviously loathes and depieses jeff sessions, takes great glee inti humil him. you can have that divide with him a the secretary of state. you can't have that with this position. mike pompeo andmp toke. a similar relationship in the way trump had with mike flynn. theyust shoot the whatever. i think you'll have a secretary

of state that there no difference between him and the president. and that is going to be the wig e-- biggest difference. pete: thank you for saying whatever. >> mike pompeo kno how to talk to trump. the major task with trump isev when you disagree you know how to stay say it in a way that doesn't get his back trump tends to react to people trying to school him or tryinge to him what to do. it's simply managing your manager. pete: which would e allies rather have, a secretary of state who speak for the president or someone they findr cceptable? >> i think the first. they can get a message to the id prt and get a message programs in reshaping the thoughts. if they convince rex tillerson of their direction, it meant nothing. if thigh convince mike pompeo,

it's different.> it's been portrayed in conflicting ways. on the one hansd i this about loyalty and president trump wanting someone who blindly reflects his policy priorities. on the other hand he's shown with his new economic advisor who is against the tariffs and gpublicly comut against him and now he's willingly appointed t.somebody like t same thing with mike pompeo. i don't think he's just an american-firster. he's much more of a person hawkish conservative almost in the dick cheney mode -- mold when means he and trump will have disagreemts. pete: there's some question about whether gina haskell might have a tougherti time g confirmed. is there a chance she might not make it? >> there's a chance, certainly. rand paul has already come out againshe were andlso against

mike pompeo. with a 51-49 margin, the republicans can't afford to lose a lot of people. the question of t ituregoing to come up in herings. what was she doing in thailand and what reshensibility does have? that said, she does have the pport of some democrats. she would be the first woman at the c.i.a. e's a career person at the c.i.. a, which probably benefits her in this effort. so we'll see. i think it's unknown at this point. pete: the trump administration announced n sanctions to punish moscow for interfering tie election in 2016 and for cyberattacks tar u.s. and european power plants. this week britain condemned russia for a nerve agent attack on a former spy and his daughter in the u.k. that has left both

critically ill. the u.s. embassy, nikki haley, blasted the russian government for that attack. >> the united states stands in solute solidarity with great britain. the united states believes that russia is responsibility for the attack onn two peoplee united kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent. pete: the british government expelled more than 20 diplomats after announcing that the penny used was developed by the former soviet union. president trump left it upo the u.s. embassy to deliver the strongest combination and didn't mention the sanctions at all.rs of all, to you all, this step against the russians, the sanctions, two questions. one is, i it more symbolic than practical and secondly, are you more interested in the fact that it mentioned the hacking -- cyberattacks than the election hack something beter:h good

questions. on the issue of tangable impact, no, not a lot thes are a handful of people and organizations that probably don't have assets here the important thing is it's the first statement made in effect by thetrrumpings since taking office that the election hacking requires a retaliation, a response by the united states. having said, that we still have we have stem where nickey hail illinois willing to say tough things about russia.er tin until he got fired willing to say tough things about russian and the president still not. he didn't mention putin or put a finger on him. you're right, the part about the electric plans is the sca participate. this hadn't been put out by the u.s. government as a industrialize and it's a sign of how serious some of thistuff really is pete: we make a lot about the fact that thni adration issued the

sanctions. that means they endorse the findings, that the russians really did hack. do you accept that part of and given to the message we were putting out on the cyberattacks, do we sl the facthat the trump administration is fully onboard with the intelligence community's findings? jonathan: you asked me about the trump administration, not donald trump. they were two separateat entity s require different analysis. hasn the trump administrat given the good housekeeping seal ofl appro to the mueller indictments? yes. but does donald trump accept mueller's investigation as legitimate? no, of course he doesn't. anyone who's spoken to him prively will tell you wil that. it's this dual track system senior officials who think it's

completely credible. i was wit mike conowac morning. on the house intelligence committee. he won't say a bad word about mueller. trump doesn't think that. trump thinks it's a witch-hunt. pete: we had their preliminary t report outir sort of initial take on.hr they'regh doing the interviews. does the trump administration mostly agree about what we heard this week, that t russians weren't trying to help trump? no, mike conway regrets the language used in that first talking point. the talkingyoint basica said utat they don't agree with the assessments that wanted trump to beat hillary. what he's saying is more nuanced point and he regrets way.it came out that his points is he doesn't trust the trade crafter that lay u

it. that it meets the standards of the i.f.c. it's the house intel committee. >> just one parties on the cheap. >> just one party o the committee and we're going to get a dissent by the democrats. we'll get some of it next thursday and it's going to b very controversial on that point and also on the central point they're making which is there is no evidence that there's been any collusion. pete: abby, was it slow coming out, susan and what's the significance of the u.s. adding its voice to thisay andg us too. >> of course it's slow. the bottom line is thathe united states and united kingdom have handd long-sg special relationship and this week, i think we did not show ourselves to be the very best friends of great britain in the world. we signed only and did sort of the formal things that one would do as allies but the president of the united states was not there right alongside teresa

may, who gave really one of the speeches of her career in parliament this i week which she personally blamed vladimir putin r this attack. the nerve agent, is one of the deadliest things manufactured in the former soviet union. there are only two possibilities for this, which is number one, the russian governmentaunched a terrifying attack with a chemical weapon in a crowded british city or number two, they've lost control ofhis deadly well. either outcome is terrible. the british gernment has shared intelligence with the united states saying that it waa the ru government. this now happens days before the derussian preial election and i can put that in quotes. we know the outcome of the election on sunday.ad ir putin will be re-elected to another six-year term and he'dy alrby the way longest serving rushing leer since joseph stalin.

this may be exactly what putin wants. he's not only attempting to knock off his turn colt former spice and sending a message of tough guyism. playing gotten the west right into his campaign thing, which is the west is united against me and therefore you need me as your l beader. for the white house to punishment occupant that minimum was the bare they needed to do at this point in time toe reass not just great britain but all of europe that they were t there stand with them when literally, a chemical well is deployed in the middle cf arowded city. but the president was that same day, hours later, asked about the attack and his own words were commute whoo -- muted. he essential little said it's a sad thing that happened. it looks like it might have been putin. that's not in any way what this sport -- sort of situation warranted and president trumpil

is demron stating this -- demonstrating this reltance to go as far as he needs to go. the white house and people like ckey hailry -- haley are frying to do the forceful part bun it comes to the president and his mouthpiece, sanders, the press secretary, it's always a stem believe a condemn nation. te: there's a report that the trump organization is su poenaing businessers from the trump organization. it was trump who said if the mueller investigation started going after his business, that would be aed line. >> it was an interview we did last july with the president a we did couch the president. we said if he went into your fincials that is went beyond russia so theres that exten weight clousclalls there. we asked would that b crossing your red line? he said yes. we don't know whether the subpoena covers business matters

beyond rusa at this point. president trump's red line on in things can change from week to week butt's an important issue and something to watch. pete: thank you all. find out how you can support your pbs station which in turn supports "washington week." and on the "washington week" extra, we'll talk about the secrecy surrounding the soon to be released book by former f.b.i. director james comey, plus the election in pennsylvania where a democratso appears have won a reliably republican district. you can watch us tonight and all weekend long. robert costa returns next week. i'm pete williams, thanks for watching. >> funding for "washington week"

is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctiv they understand the challenges of today andh reseae 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 prided by newman's own foundation. do noithnalting all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation,

commitmented to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.th k you. k you. >> you're watching pbs.

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