robert: turnover in thee. white ho president trump reshuffles his national sity team ahead of critical negotiations. i'm robert costa. what it means for u.s. foreign policy, plus the president's ad attorney in the russia probe resigns. tonight onon "washineek." president trump: i say to congress i will never sign another bill like this again. robert: a defiant president trump pushes back against signing a budget bill. the threat of anm govt shutdown capped off a wild week of staffkeups and surprise resignations the president continues to reshuffle his foreign policy team, naming john bolton to be his third national security

advisor. does the appointment of bolton, a hardliner who supports a preemptive strike against north korea and iran, signal a cad -- radical shift in foreign policy? and the departure of john dowd, the president's lead attorney in the russia pre and the addition of the hard-charging federal prosecutor joseph we discuss it a with geoff bennett of nbc news. nancy youssef of "the wall street journal" journal. jackie calmes of the los angeles time and dan bal of the "washington post." >> this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> their leadership i instinctive. they undstand the challenges of today and researc the technologies of tomorrow.

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committed to bridging culturale diffs in our communities. the ethics and excellence in urnalism fun to san diego, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, from washiteton, mode oimp robert costa. robert: good evening. president trump is rebootingis foreign policy team as he prepares for talks with nor korea and iran over their nuclear programs. replace e will national security advisor h. mcmaster, a three-star general with hardline hawk john bolton, a former u.s.f mbassadore united nations. won't has ban an outspoken advocate of preemptive military strikes. he wro a controversial piece in the "new york times" to stop iraq's bomb, bomb iran.

he wrote in the "wall street journal" "the legal case for striking north korea first." senators chuck schumer responded bsh -- mr. bolton's tendency to try to solve every geopolitical problem with american military first is a problematic one. geoff, when you look at h.r. mcmaster, the national security advisor, was he let go because of a personalities clash with the president, because of a policy difference or was it because of that leak earlier in the week of the c presidentl with russian president vladimir putin? geoff: mcmaster's deparchaur has more to do with a personity clash between him and the president. they o disagrer policy issues. last month the president publicly rebuked mcmaster for

not backing his electoral win. many mcmaster you have a guy who's relentless. he's aggressive. also a scholar and in army parlance, as one person put it, he's all-transit, meaning he likes to lecture and the presiden is said to have gone bored in briefing sessions with thatt of mcmaster's approach. we're told one of the reans there has been a delay in mcmaster leaving the white house was that the white house wanted to make sure there was some sort of so landing in place. that his leaving wouldn't be as unceremonies as rex tillerson's was. >> his main claim to fame was that he had written in thee sills calledment dirt election of duty" was that the biggest

mistake of the vietnam war was tlihat ry generals before not honestwi enoug mainly linden b. johnson and that with co accomplishment with untruths told. i ink his lesson was to be as can did as possible and live by his research and candor didn't endearp him to donald trump. bert: what kind of candor does bolton bring especiallyhen it comes to nuclear deal in iran. the possible meeting with kim jong-un. j >>n bolton has happened positions on north korea andir . at time promoting preemptive strikes on both. immediately, he'll be a key person in negotiating in the run-up to the talks that the president said will happen in may. we'll see if they do. he's in a position where he could potentially advocate for

those talks and get the best position for the united states or he aguld sab him. he'll have an advantage that incoming sretary of state mike pompo and sect of defense mik -- will not. he'll be in the white houseer ev day. he'll be there all the time and be the sort of fir roundf advice that he gets. so in that regard he ituld be influential. that said, the mitigatinum ciance will be all those around them. particularly the defense kepartment, which has warned against any stri. it says it's cataclysmic in terms of the consequences and the jefpble who say they find that the iran deal has worked. that will be the balance between what he's hearing in the white house and what he's hearing around him. robert: dan, sometimes the national security advisor is a

major powern player administration. sometimes it's the secretary of state. i' toldhat bolton does have a pretty strong relationship with mike pompeo. but what do you make of the addition of bolton. is haye hardliner coming in, is he going to totally disrupt foreign policy is or -- is he someone with a l bgkground in many administrations? >> well, he's been in many administrations and he's had establishment mentors and reefpblets years, he's come forward much more as a hard i think there are a couple of things about him we'll have to have away. it's one thing to be a fox news analyst as an expert on foreign poifls and statement your views in the way you think that i ought to be done. ng it's another t to be in a white house advising a president and have that responsibility o your shoulders. so i think the one thing to watch is the degree to which he tempers himself a bit in the

kinds of things he said. i think when you look at this new team, you have t think that pompeo is likely to be the strongest member of that team because he has the longest rhythm with president trump, more than anyone septemberra gemattis. bolton will have to develop therehabut familiar a lot of people in the foreign policy community alarmed by his appointment. richard haas tweeted today that we're at one of th mt perilous moments in recent u.s. histy in part because of this nomination. robert: the president appears to beg mov to that k. zone across the board in the white hse. the appointment of culled low to the white house economic assignment. peter with the new tariffs on china. mcmaster gone and bolton comin in. what's happening inside of the

white house that's making the president move in this drecks? idea logical shift, a personal shifts, a transition? >> i think it's a personal shift. o a matt personal sometime. the president doesn't really have an it lodge. when he was asked during the campaign, where do you get your twice? he said i watch the shows. he's bringing all the from the shows into the administration. one thing they have in common -s these j we've talked about. whether it's bolton a national security advisor or larry cudlow, head of the national economic counsel. those two jobs within the white house are jobs that you areos su to be an honest broker and not hold forth with your own opinion so much as bring the opinions of the administration to t president and lay out

options and these are both two peoplep cannot see standing by and not expressing. >> you make ant great p and i think we're seeing the continuation of a trend that's developed over the last two weeks. the equipment of tillerson. sometimes people disease napetted as globalist but all people who have tried to put guardrails around the president's hawkist -- hawkish sort omesh first guardrails. these are all happening weeks ahead of crucial decisions. robert: why is this happening? because of the allegations of infidelity on the president on cableelevision, which he watches by the hour? there's a lot of political pressure on political. why is this happening? >> the indicatns we' getting is he's hearing more comfortable in the job and rather than hearing from conflicting views, he's forming his own comfort

level. he seems to be fming circle of people who val date how he inks national security policy should be cared -- carried out. in some ways it' an argument for someone who feels more comfortable. there is o key area where he disagrees with the president, which is on russia. h he called russia a foe after a salisbury attacks where a suspected russian spy was poiseened as was his daughter. bolton tweeted o that he wanted stronger measures againss , very different than president trump who's talked about talking toa. rus notably congratulated vladimir putin on his eleion win sunday despite advice to the contemporary. robert: we used to go and meet with trump. didn't have a chief of staff. flat structure. everyone will go there and meet with him. is that where we're going? >> it's beenha speculate

would if general kelly leaves as chief of staff, the president will not replace him. in part woo we'ree' -- what sighing is the transition that never happen it would first time. that transition, as we know, was rocky, not well organized and ey've made a lot of very hasty decisions. and i think now what you've seen, as the president has gotten more comfortable in personal. some he is clearly comfortable with, some not. he'sepopulating in a way he's more comfortable. robert: amountignificant change. john dowd, mr. trump's lead attorney in the russia investigation resigned. the 77-year-old lawyer reportedly encouraged th t presiden corporate with bob mueller. but steve bannon suggests that dowd was fired for talking too

ooperation. >> i think that's why essentially more aggressive attorneys got bught in that are now -- i think president trump is going to war in this. robert: trump did hire former federal prosecutor joseph digenova to join his team, a washington lawyer known for defending the presidents and for attacking the special counsel investigation on cab news. when you look at digenova, excuse me. i'm italian and sometimes even mispronounce it. digenova. my grand parents would be unhappy with that. but he's a lot like cudlow, a presence thent presi has seen on television. shoes l issue is white attorneys in washington are turinning down the offers from thehite house. a lot of law firms said no thanks because of the political risks involved, conflicts. >> from the beginning, when you saw the lawyers that h

surrounded himself with. michael cohen, mark cassowitz and john doumed subsequent lip. it was open talk in washington about how is it that a man who's th president of the united states couch such a low-wattage, second-rate legal team around him? then he started to bring in people that were more representable. robert: dowd. cobb. >> exactly but the way he's treated him, who of any repute woul wants to work with him? people like ted olson.ed >>lson mentioned he's touch turned dow the trump legal team twice. he said he was vean hen at best about joining them. john dowd saide was frustrated one, that the president wasn't taking his advice but also that the president wasg bring

other people to the legal team to include jody by. and mark cazowitz, another touch talker is also in the president's ear, even though he officially stemmed down leading the legal team relating to russia last year. in is all happening ashere are ongoing face-to-face negotiations between the trump d legal team representatives from the special counsel about a meeting between the president and robert mueller. >> where doess stand? >> they've been talking about it for months but therump administration is trying to stall by providing' key documents and those questionsme may not p in the interview with the president. >> the president has said any number of times i would like to testify personally. yet it's been clear foronths

that the lawyers around himth ks that's a bad idea. it will be interesting to see whethe that posture changes. the degree to which a those take different turn about whether will he or will he not testify n person? if you're his attorney, that is a very tough decision to have ta on his behalf, particularly when he keeps saying i want to doyle. robert: we've seen the posture turn a little bit in a significant way on how he goes after the mueller probe. for months h advisors kept saying lay off the bob mueller but in recent days, hen tweeting more than ever. >> by name. before because of theha fears he would fire muller and maybe seeing the reaction to that. at a time when republican senators called that a r line. some interpretted the decision to start using himy b name and

floating the idea as where was that line? was there a real red line or something short of that? tweeze -- these tweets are seen as his wayo possibly t shame it or impact it. robert: i spoke tolaenator earlier and he brought upac iment if the president fired him without cause.e but thesn't seem to be a move to protect mull we are legislation. jackie: no, the is -- it's interesting how ty put a lid on that. house speaker ryan and senate majority leader mcconnell said they have assurance from the white house that he will not fire mull sore legislation isn't nelms. he's fine. the same two leaders, mcconnell and ryan, also said yesterday that they had talked to the h president anped promised

them he would sign the $1.3 trillion spending bill only to wake us and see trumps thinking of vetoing it. in the endid het veto it but hat makes you wonder if that assurance about his signing it is not 100% long in. how certain are we about the talk that mueller willab b to finish his investigation? >> we'll have to see if we ever get to that point but again, it's fairly remarkable that, i think, i many ways the president felt emboldened sending out the trial balloon via tweet base tonight facts that he did not get the pushback he expected frons republi robert: he's so unpredictable. it was a hot week.ev y dale something new and more happened today, friday. spite friday morning veto threat, the president vinyled -- signed o oa $1.3 trillion

spending package to keep the federal government operating through september. mr. trump warned lawmakers that he would never again ape prove such a bill, citin unnecessary spending on some programs and insufficient funding for his promised border wall. he also talked outs democrats as talks continued to stall over the status of undocumented dreem immigrants known as dreamers. he's erupting saying i want the wall, i want the money for the wall. i'm unhappy with different facets of administration, yet he still signs the bill. >> i think he probably had no choice but to sn the bill in the ends and i think everybody assumed that he will and the tweet he put out this morning is his way of blowing off sndel when he says i'll never sign ik another bill there, i think

this is potentially a hollow promise. but i think it's a reminder to republicans and everybody on capitol hill that he's operate the way he sees fits for himself. that he's not going to play ball in a team way. he wasn't part of these negotiationss nd hing to say i'm washing my hands of it. >> h team was. >> his team was but not the perspective. >> only trum speaks for trump. robert: there was a big development with th military and the spending in this package. >> he brought up military repeatedly in this his announcement. t0 billion morn last year. at the% they're stressing readiness and training and maintenance parts of this budgets yet he was stressing the anine nrcraft he's going to build, the 14 ships, the toys, if you will. ey're talked about sort of

getting back to basics and he was really foced on these multibillion dollar platforms, the f-35, more blackhawks. ven an aircraft carrier, two destroyers. these are kinds of developments and building of equipment we haven't seen in a longimand so -- at a time wn there are so many strings on the military because of the 17 years of war. robert: any concerns by the white house over the spendin here? g.o.p., the tea party movement? they were deficit hawks. and has that faded away? >> that's what influenced the president's tweet. he said there were parts of the bill we were unhappy abou it reflected our priorities for the most parts so we had to sign it. that's exactly what mu ley toldeporters yesterday. he said is the bill perfect? no, but it reflects our priorities so the president is

going to sign it. of course, the difference in those 24 hours was the president sent that tweefments. he was trying to reflect concerns among the conservative base who tried to cast this a steful government spefpbleding and framed his change of hea through his efforts with the military. couldn't necessarily throw away the argument made by secretary jim matusz that the milita -- matusz that the mill stormy needed this money. bert: he's watching late-nights division and despite what his advisors say, he says i'm going in a different direction. >> it's not going to win him any battle unless congress and it's the last thing the republicans wants in this midterm election season. it's against the

republican-controlled congress and this is not going to help his party in the midterm elections as they struggle to hold on to their majority. robert: we'll have to leave it there. thank you so much, everyone.a s lwpleasure. our conversation will continues on the "washington week" extra where we'll preview this weekend, watch for our livepls. it will address school safety and gun regulations. plus, those three pending lawsuits against president trump. you can watch it online later tonight and all week long ator pbwashington week. i'm rert costa. have a great weekend.

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narrator: tonight fric ken burns and lynn n it was exactly what america wanted. and it caught us mpletely by surprise. it turned citizens into criminals animinals into kings. it changed the very nature of our democracy--twice. prohibition. heering] man: what a stupiddea it was that people actually thought you that you could actually ban alcol, completely eliminate its usage in american society. it's a preposterous idea. narrator: it was a struggle between small tos and big cities. the wets and the dries, with the whole country caught in the ddle. man: it's not that sin is so terrible, ive,