: a high-stakes standoff. president trump and his allies clash with the justice department. russia probe enterss second year, tonight, on "washington week." president trump: i have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now and actually much more than that. robert: as president trump continues to insist there was no wrongdoing by his 2016 campaign, the russia probe hits the one-year mark,nd t allheies in pushing toongrs discredites robt mueller'soi ongng showdown, over aopecret b.i. se. b.i. director bureauhr scrambles. he>> tay is thheay t

robert: a new dlea pl son-in-lat more pressure on the mr. trump's personal attorney says he's more hopeful about tha possibilit sit-down interview between the president and special counsel. others remain skeptical or urge against it. >> we had thest f i do hn't wulant to dismiss it narrow the focus dramatically of the questioning. roberthewe discuss w the investigation and the president go from here,, yamiche alcindorf the pbs newshour, devlin barrett of "e washington post," kelsey snell of npr and mark landler of the "new york times." announcer: this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided

by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the challenges rr today and research the technologies of to. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> on a cruise with american cruise lines, travelers experience m theitime heritage and culture of new eland. our fleet of small cruise ships explesmericandss,ca lndpe histoc harborsheou creus wtoms y and c. "wrsosp o wk."asf nes, proud

>> additional funding is provided by cancer treatment ocentersf america -- newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own's foo products for charity and nourishing the common good. koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communiti. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. the corporation for broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.fr once again washington, moderator, robert costa. robert:good evening. it has been a year since robmut ler and his team began their special counsel investigation into russia interference during the 2016 presidential election. the expansive probe hasth grippd white house and congress and certainly newsrooms. so far, mr. mueller has charged

19 people, including four former trump campaign advisers, and three russian companies. he has secured five guilty pleas, along with their cooperation. this week, president trump marked the-y or anniversary of the probe with criticism and suspicion, suspicion of the government he leads andg long-stand institutions -- the department of justice and the f.b.i. on twitter he slammed the special counsel as, quote, the greatest witch hunt in american history. he also tweeted, the obama f.b.i. spied on the trump campaign with an embedded informandr mccarthy, conservative former federal prosecutor, says, ifigo, this isr than watergate. but let's take a step back and get up to speed on what this all means. in brief, the president is echoing a claim being made by his allies on capil hill. they believe the russia probe, including the surveillance process, of trump campaign

associates, was mishandled by the d.o.j. and f.b.i. that belief has led them to push justice for more documents. in the latest firestorm, over a top-secret source who provided informion to the f.b.i. republicans and the president want morema infon. d.o.j. officials, however, are worried about the source's safety, which they believe could be ineopardy if exposed. last week, "the washington post," inclu who joins us tonight, reported that the source is at the center of the back-and-forth between housentligence committee chairman devin nunez and the d.o.j. so what was a congressional outcry now has presidential support. devlin, welcome to "the washington post." talking to a source last night, i heard this is a firestorm inside the white house.er onen described it as a tinder box, the fight between the d.o.j..o and., now the president of the united states.

at justice tonight, are they on edge devlin: i think they are not on edge but prepared for this to escalate, the possibility of escation, because for a lotf folks in law enforcement, this fight over this source, while an important fight on t merits, is really about a bigger problem and a bigger set of confrontations, really about is rod rosenstein going to stay as deputy attorney general overseeing thisga inveson, is the congress going to turn this fight over the documents into a fight over who gets fired or who quits inside the administration? is theer mue probe going to be allowed to continue? or is there going to be some ortf ultimate confrontation between the white house, republicans in congress and t justice department? robert: what does that mean, when you say escalation, ultimate confrontation? does it mean the president issues direct order for the classified materials to be released to the public? devlin: certainly with republicans in congress a who

angry at the justice department abouer t but the justice department and to a lesser extent, the intelligence community, have made pretty clear that thatre ia line for them and a very hard order to carry out in their minds because they genuinely tywo i everyoneld is trying to protect, but people who have helped the source over the v yeayrs. firm legal and moral grounds to out,o, and just gaming it if that order were to come, and if that order were toe essentially refused, what does the president do then? wand that'st goeso your earlier point about a tinder bo tx. that's-c the wore scenario of an ultimate confrontation that could happen as a result of this between the whitebertouthi, it, pushed it forward this week. but when you think of how it's been building overime, it started on capitol hill.ng

ssman mark meadows, north carolina republicair cmahan nunes, who are people sayingo t kelsey: they're saying it is a witch hunt but they're a portion of the republican party on the hill. there are many i talk to who say there's a learship firewall that needs to be maintained, to avoid the tinder box situation. so far, house speaker paul ryanj andity leader mitch mcconnell say they're supportive of mueller finishing the investigation and they'd like it to wra up quickly. but they're staying out of the hyper-partisanship os and as long as there is leadership firewall between the talk inhe freedom caucus, the group that is run by markea, snroong roon -- lon ashat is nfin tha small group, thereopnga

tabls itill s h that way. robert: containment is a tough thing, when you see, mark, in the conservative media, people like steve bannon out there pushing meadows and nunes along. what does that tell you? you've covered bannon for a long time. when you see people on fox news pushing thetrblinic an, lateaisl the situation? mark: i think it does because i think they have an astute read of what appeals t their base and galvanizes their base so thisop secret informant is a perfect test case. you call the person a spy. we don't know. details haven't come out. you put o this sinister portrayal of this person and it evokes all the worst kindse of e of the deep state and government agencies orstepping bounds. rmouyowerlith tritp'sase and i think it does resote with some percentage of the republican voters generly

al yowhu think i the mueller investigation is legitimate or being conducted properly, broadly speakin you see support for it. but if you look at the numbersub within the rcan party, a significant percentage of republican voters believe that this is an investigation that's run amo so to some extent i think they have alreadyed succe in discrediting this investigation so that when mueller does finally file his report, x-percentage of americans will simply not believe it,f on the face it. robert: there have been many threats from the president and allies buthe president has yet to the pull the trigger when it comes to tiger -- firing the eneral.attorney who is holding him back on that? yamiche: in some ways it's hard to tell who the president iso listeningn terms of who has the most weight in the moment in e day. i think the larger picture, it

would throw people in a constitutional crisis if the president tri to fire rodihink the feeling the rom hisnt is getting own party, whether from john kelly or fromepublin l leadershe mitch mcconnell, it's the fact that, if you do really,is will be really bad and all the things you want to do -- the e.p.a., d.o.j -- all the things you want to do on trade. even meeting wit ukim jongn and everything whnoitrt thrown f the w if heired rod rosenstein and tried to stop thf mother probe because every tn ulo but when i think of where we are a year from now, it's critical what mark said, the idea that for a longe the president has been laying the groundwork ho say that robert mueller, is a republican, he is some hyperpartisa hack that is after him because people are mad that president trump is president and

people want to get rid of him. and that idea has been something they've been working on for aim long i think rudy giuliani coming out and saying the mueller camp saying they might issue ai report think that's laying the groundwork that the report deal.a big robert: what about the origins of the probe. we've seen reporting from "the times" this week about the crossfire hurricane code name, the source we have been reporting on at the "st." are there legitimate questions about how the investigation was started? is vulnerable to congressional scrutiny, public scrutiny? >> i think mosrs law would tell you no, that this is how atstin wioigornsk. what the trup administration and his people have decided is a political solution to a legal problem. it is both a legal problem and political proem but they're

really pouring as much energy as they can into the political strategy of trying to deal with this legal problem. but iner of the origins of the investigation, the way i think it's easiest to understand it is, the f.b.i. was looking at a bunch of different things at a bunch of different times and lar th o campaigonn iestselftir seor peoe the trump campaign themselves actively engaging with a foreign power to influence the outcome o o turasc quioeson. ayo b get impatient for an answer to that question. but right now it's a lot o legal blocking and tackling among the individual players and in that, mueer's been pretty successful. robert: it comes down to carter page and george papadopulous, who they were meeting with, what

they were doing. mark: and were they having conversations with people more t senior i trump organization, bringing things to the trump campaign that the campaign was representative to. i think to pick up on one thing devlin said, the question of was the origins of this pvestigation, werehe tnpero the broader context of a very charged political environment an you can't reallyalk about the beginning of the trump investigation without talking about the end of the clint just as the f.b.i. properly said agth investigation, james comey did sp ubclinton email investigation some percentage of the population iss alwayso going to believe that this was handled unfairly, a improperly, way that disadvantaged hillary clinton and i think that all of this will be, again, rehashed when robertueller makes his report.

yamiche: i think one of the things we're watching happen politically speaking, you're watching people on the campaign trail notalking about protecting mueller. that's not the message republicans are campaigning on.o tw ng abot furth aer ople t when it comes toi america views this. owpeople that believe h he's russian operave and this ia abig problem and hillary clintn wasroa w.chng wed hunt and thera large numberf o of what's going on andvery e in thf the democratic party and republan party say people aren't paying attention to this and tyinioof this investigation though they realize it's probably important. robert: people may not be able ee pay attention touthesoou

is former newan e morkall or rudy giuliani. i feel we have him on speed dial calling him every dayor our newspaper stories and reports for "pbs newshour." nireulsi. cnt i tiaruinmpers w, someone to hammer the message to the plic. few stament ahere a former new york city mayor made this week. >> this is ael compl tntai est inio comey? thear like mccabe in f.b.i.? a guy with a con ict of interest from day one on the hilly investigation? it's about time to get the darn thing over with, about time to y we're tortured this president enough. robert: we've had many interviews with rudy giuliani. when will hee m a decision whether the president sits down with robert mueller for an interview? yamiche: i think we both asked him that question every day. i ask him that yesterday. robert: will he or not? he doesn't know.now.

he said at this point the mueller team and trump's lawyers have been in conversations, narrowing the scope of the he wasn't very clear when i talked to him about what that meant a whether or not he could sit down and i said, is he kind of ready to s down and he said it's too soon to say. the thing rudy giuliani is doing is feeding the idea that this was made up and the president is a victim. i think i maybes working in ways because i think what you said about the idea that the population is ready to look at it from the lens that they come from, from a political party, i think the keyer thingis that when w talayng s aatut demo who are angry hillary clinton lost. all those people are looking m t robeller saying, please get this man out of office. and the republicans who like so many people told them enley wer feee supporting the wg idtratumep could never win, thel very wronged and feely like t should be doingingbout a the

investigation. robeesdortuell m ihesser aue president decline an interview? mark: he could issue a subpoena. he'sessiveear hel. how lling to be. hence, that gution -- discussion about whethere would indict president trump. he tends to play things by the book. it's not clear how the president would respond. it would quickly escalate if he rejectedth it. reason that rudy giuliani has to be soeful on this question is that i think a lot of his lawyers or several lawyers would argue there are manyisks for h speaking to the special counsel because many of the things the president h said to date have been proven wrong or contradictory so i think there's a worry on the part of his legal team him in front at thef o m devlin,iuliani d.j.o

asserted that the d.o.j. and mueller c the rgesident, that it would endan'p in the hds of congress. is that ttm justice dept's standpoint? devlini thinkanas e tthus talk to lawyers aroundn an many flabbergasted bf t thiny an oiuli i ho here i a general understanding in inhe jti deptm thitiptincri presidelent is not to be indicted. tested mp coelpo lsitetiony oatf the justa i rtint doueepkarth ienllt mseres poli o do think that if it comes tn without a subpoena, i think mueller is the kind of person will be to issue a subpoena. that will stakes and could be an intense thing. robert: we'll keep an eye on the

report, whether or not he does the interview.er s been more news into the mueller front because one year into the vovings capitol hill, - investigation on capitol hill, the senate intelligence commite concluded thesi r eusled boost mr. trump ahind relssedee wa report on the trump tower meetingen don trump jr., ander rjaussianreshn k andus we learned that mueller has reached a plea deal with paul manafort, former campaign chairman. with allhese moving parts, there's been one constant, the seecy surrounding the mueller operation, no leaks. there is a recent cnn poll that ndi increasingly losing fai7%ubs rfh icans but you seeansorkingn o with senate democrats came to theusonouiosen republicans, and they s

heeyifta dfedrencai between the senate and house approach, this week was it. you saw senate republi sabs tngyiytashingt never behind. in fact,se hepouub rns the find the election was tilted towards trump. they rejected thisel ent you see all of the republicans coming out and saying that they are happy and senate hepublicans arpy to look into this and want to continue the investigation. the partisanship on the house said is not surprising. they're dra into districts where they're more likely to be elected by republicans who are more likely to believe in the president so they have different political concerns back home and it appears when legislating.

robert: one question, about t mandate mueller, horhewh r hno giuliani keeps saying the elesident doesn't want to talk about mic cohen or stormy daniels, should he sitown. is that an issue the trump side will continueh? p t the sources i've talked to faliar with how special l investigation works say why presidents hate them ca tusbehee cy tentacles and go different when you have someone like presrutidndmp tis a h intertwin, complicated financials, you hear how michael cohen or stormy daniels might figure into this. there's an idea that the president might be very nervous sitting down. the one thingi giuli didn't say today o tishat the d.o.j. wouldn't indict the president's children.

you think about donald trump jr. he could be indted. jared kushner could be indicted. so there's all these people around donald trump who could be hingegal jeopardy, som that's a lot bigger. when i think of president trump sitting down think of the interview with lester holt. he was asked why did you fire james comey? he said it's because of the russia thing. it was stunning but he was telling the truth so if he does go into t interview and tells the truth, what does that mean? robert: mark, you've studied american power ander itional diplomacy. the president is trying to do a lot of things around the world. what does it mean for him to have this cloud as he endangsn n fore policy? mark: the white house c to function normally in terms of the state departmndt cabinet

so at some level the policy rontinues. theem is, when you have a president that is thisu distracted, an have the president lose the plot. i was talking to a white house official recently about north korea policy, which has gotten a bit messy in the last few days. the north koreans have sent whethersignals about the summit meeting will happen or not so here's the president dealing wit a curveball from the north koreans at the moment legal 's situation and i think there's a danger when you have t tarts to be iwn n wixatergate, pp wpedssraues, he's not thinking clearly about his own problems. joining uks for tonight. our conversation will continue online on the "washington week extra." we will discuss this week's primary elections. you can find that later tonight at pbs.org/washingtonweek. i'm robert costa. thank you for joining us

announcer: 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 verans. we call them part of our team. adno by.

>> at cancer treatment centers of america, we publish treatment rumentsanor 11r types so patients can make informed decisions about c theircer care. learn more atrccom. caisceines,an c proud sponsor of "washington week." newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own's food products for charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. koo and patricia yuen througat the yuen foun, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.co thoration for public broadcasting, and by contbutions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning institute, the which is responsible for its onption content and accuracy. alvi sit ncicap.otirg.] na -there was a night of tv that was mary tyler moore.

-i watched ow "the mary tyler moore there's not one show that i missed. ♪ fey: that show was big, big deal. yeah. ♪ -♪ who can turn the world on... ♪ -it was second nature to me, i didn't feel that separate -♪ who can take a nothing day -sheame america's sweetheart very quickly. -♪ well, it's you, girl, and you should know it ♪ -dick van dyke: i mean she was gorgeous, and she had a sensuality about her. -she was an embracer of the world. -♪ love is all around... -betty white: we became very close friends. anthat's why it was such fun. -♪ you're gonna make it after all ♪ -gavin macleod: she just had a gt from god. and, for me, she was a gift from god.