nomy roars and so does the trade war. president trump claims his policies are responsible for an uptick in economic growth. and hisriticsonder, is it sustainable. i'm robert costa. we talk, tra taxes, and have the latest on mr. trump's former lawyer, michael cohen, tonight on "washington week." president trump: i amhrilled to announce that the united states economy grew at the amazingat of 4.1%. we're on track to hit the growth annual average rate in over 13 years. robert: president trump touts a surging economy that grew during the secot quart the strongest pace in nearly four years. he also took a victory lap over his recent trade discussions with the european union. president trump: as the trade deals come in one by one, we're

going to go a lot higher than these numbers. robert: some republicans on capil hill are increasingly wary of the president's news, saying the just-announced $12 billion in aid for farmers is a federal bailout that proves the its.ident's policy has l >> i don't think tariffs are the right answer. i don't support tariffs. robert: leaders of the house freedom caucus call for the impeachment ofut depy attorney general rod rosenstein who oversees the ongoing russia probe, a move the attorney general does not support. >> my deputy, rod rosenstein, is highly capable robert: plus, mr. trump's long-time attorney, michael cohen, accuses the president of having prior knowledge about a 2016 meeting at trump tower that included his son, campaign advisers, and russians who were offeringncriminating formation about hillary clinton. president trump: just remember,

what you're seeingnd what you're reading is not what's happening. robert: we cover it all next. announcer: this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- wman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. koo and patricia yuen rough the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewersike you. thank you. again, from washington, moderator, robert costa. robert:good evening. president trump held up today's 4.1% growth report as vindication of his economic policies andde the pre insisted the second quarter numbers are not a one-shot

bounce. president trump: as the trade deals come in one by one, we're going to go a lot higher than these numbers. these numbers are very, very sustainable. this isn't aim one shot. robert: but the administration's tariffs are sargt to -- starting to rattle some farmers imi the dwest and elsewhere, who are seeing a decrease in international sales. many republicans say the $12is billion ance plan for the industry is not enough, or a long-term solution. >> this isfr comin the effect of what the administration has done and it's an admonition that tariffs are harming agriculture and harming farmers. so it's not what they prefer. robert: but the president hask pulled bac from an all-out ade war with the european union, agreeing to adjust his proposals. president yump: this was a v big day for free and fairde t we agreed today, first of all, to work together towards zeros, tari zero non-tariff

barriers, and zero subsidies on non-autous iial goods. robert: joining me tonight, ana swanson of "the new york times," welcome to "washington week." josh gre of "bloomberg businessweek," nancy cordes of cbs news, and vivian salama of "the wall stet journal." ana, it's great to have you here at our roundtable. the president took a lot of credit today for these growth numbers. can he take credit for this economic growth? ana: that's right, heid. in general, i think presidents tend to take too much credit in good times and bad for the cycles that the economy goes through. we are seeing very str growth right now. 4.1% in this quarter, and g.d.p. growth this year could rise to 3% for the first time in over a decade. so tho are very strong numbers for the president. on the other hand, the question is, how long do these numbers last. i think some of this isef the

ct of the tax cut and economists see that fadingso what into next year. and then also we had some very interestingumbers with trade, as well, with the trade tarif increasing growth now but not in the way that the president probably wanted. actually pulling forward puhases so people were trying to buy goods ahead of those tariffsoing into effecto that's likely to drop off, as rters.in coming q robert: you're saying maybe there's a frenzy of activity before next quarter. so will this frenzy of economic activity,ll this growth, be sustainable if people are buying now to do differe deals before the tariffs kick in?p joshua: trys yes. mostly economists say no. as ana alluded to, a lot of foreign buyers of u.s. agricultural goods like soybeans moved forward purchaseswo they d have been made in the third quarter into the second

quarter in anticipation that the products will be hit by tariffs, as they wer july 6. so that added a little bit over 1% to g.d.p. growth which gave us this big headline number today. t if you think forwa to the next three months, those purchases are now gone, they' h alreadpened. so it's going to be tough for trump to figure out how to fill in that gap and produce, as he says he will, a sustainable mber in the 3%, 4% range. robert: we have been looking at reports from different campaign forecasts and democrats seem to be gaining momentum ahead of midterm elections but republicans must like this report as they try to tout the tax cut and rally ahead of november. nancy: they'll take it regardle of the reason for the surge. they can get on the campaign trail, republicans heading home forhe five-week recess in the house. and they'll be -- talking about 4.1% everywhere they go. that's a great nheber for and even if it does fall off in the third quarter,yhat's o two weeks before the midterm

elections. h many people made up their minds by them. the problem for republicans is that people tend to vote more on orther wages are rising falling than what the overall g.d.p. looks like. that's a number tha people don't really feel. and wages have basically been stagnant. if you think back to014, president obama had great g.d.p. numbers, even better in thend secondhird quarter. and democrats did terribly in those midterm elections. they los control of the senate. robert: so the president's happn about thesebers but he's also getting some pushback from republicansra on. we saw some movement this week. you were at the white house, vivian, reporting on the west wing, deep inside, about how the president seems to be taking a few steps backn tradeith his deal with the e.u. vivian: unlike a lot of meetings where they go into theti ms, a lot of details are already ironed out. this was touch-and-goen until te and it was fascinating to

watch and report on where literally as of tuesday night, ey started to say, wait, maybe we can come together and work something out. all through their meetings on wednesday, between president trump and the european commission president, jean-claud juncker, it w unsure until the end if theyold theyold -- they would really do it so president trump excitede they w doing a deal, helping farmers. h. didn't go into the meetings expecting that m so the white house was really excited about that and especially, a, because they could deliver somethi to the republicans who are now going back to their home states, campaigning ahead of midterms, but also coming off of a really rough week last week, a lotf backlash after the president's meetings with president helsinki. they felt this turned things around for them so it was goo momentum for them to go in and now g.d.p. numbers coming out today cap off the wee for them. robert: what's actually in the deal with the e.u.?

is it an actual deal? sometimes the details matter, not just about the president claimi credit for a broad stroke agreement. >> both the americans and euroans called this a deal but i would characterize it as a deal to talk about a deal. the details were vague right now. the highlight were that the president said the european union had agreed t pchase more natural gas and more soybeans. we have to see how exactly that would work and when thosese purc would go into effect. in addition, the two governments will talk about reducing tariffs on a variety ofoods, including industrial goods. and then the two sides also agreed to talk about reforms at the world trade organization, a lot of which seemed specifically aimed at china and many interpreted that as aood sign that the united statespe and eu union were on the same w sideith regard to china's unfair trade practices. robert: that's one high level,

josh, about where this tradete de going and the president working with the e.u. but what about down where it matters for people day-to-day. it's not just the midwest. it could be lobstermen in maine dealing with the effects of the trade war. joshua: i think the immediate effects of trump's trade war will not economic in the macro sense. most economists recently worried yet about the tradeau war b the tariffs are a small percentage of the overall u.s. economy. where i think it' going to hit is in individual states and industries, especialtes that voted for trump, in all sorts of localized areas. so we've heard about soybean farmers in iowa. certainly it hurt there. buthese tariffs are spread across many industries. you mentioned lobstermen in maine, subject to a chinese seafood tariffs but the lobster traps are now more expensive as they're made with canadia steel so across the country, alaska, southol ca, places where

there are competitive house races alis the tariffs are localized issues in a way that vors absolutely see and feel. robert: why aren't republicans ubspeaking out more pcly? we hear it, nancy, privately. the free trade republica, they n't like where this is going. but they're reluctant to say much. nasey: it's interesting bec on the campaign trail you're starting to hear democratic challengers say yougee got to off the fence and say where you stand on this and south carolina is a perfect exampca e the entire south carolina republican delegation has basically either stayed mum or has said, yout,now w maybe you need some short-term pain for long-term gain, the president is going to negotiate something that is better in the long fun u.s. businesses. the problem is that he has shown an t abilityo start a lot of negotiations over all types of things -- trade and iigration and everything else. not as much of aec trackd on completing negotiations. joshua: this is what republicans privately say they're very worried about.

they're furious that trump started this fight four months before the midrm elections and what you see, anecdotally talking to auto workers and farmers, many are sticking with trump, giving him room to negotiate. but we need to wat, do the farmers and auto workers peel away as the bite of the tariffs start to make an impact. robert: what about the $12 billion trade package? ana:utt's a lot of moneyo one's convinced it will yield a solution.s yes, i before the midterm electionssi but pnt trump says he feels congress is undermining his authority to make these trade deals and when they push back and don't trust his instincts to go for these long-term deals, he feels b they'rically trying to derail any of his efforts to help these voters down the line. robert: final throughout this, ana, theredent may be having a hand shake with the e.u. but

his trade war with china seems to continue. ana: that's right. there are trade warsy on m fronts right now. we've seen a step back with the european union. however, that could a temporary step-back and meanwhile, we still have negotiations over the north american free trade agreement with canada and mexico and a potentially damaging conflict with china that needs to be resolved s there's a lot on the administration's plate with trade. robert: are those countries expecting any movement? they see the movement with the e.u. do they expect a move before midterms on their own agreements? ana: potentially, there is discussion about trying to finish the nafta agreement before the end of august but it's still pretty much up in the air. it's possible this could prove to be a blueprint for these other agreements but it's also possible that other negotiations could be a blueprint for how this goes. we did see with china, the two sides come to what seemed lik

tentative agreements and then actually have the president decide those weren't tough enough measures and wal back. could that happen with the e.u., as well? we'll have to see. bert: you had a great piece, vivian, about how eveone's trying to evaluate president trump, how do you get him to budge on the signature issue of trad we'll come back to this next week. let's turn our attention to new york city, the saga of michael cohen, the president's long-time lawyer and loyal adviser, who is now signaling his willingness to cooperate with federal investigations looking io russian interference in the 2016 election. >> mr. cohen -- robert: cohen is under siege, under federal investigation in lethe big a for bank fraud and n e f.b.i. is looking into his business dealingsnew york. his break with the president has been dramatic. a week ago, the "new york times" reported that cohen secretly

recorded a conversation with then-candidate trump in which they discussed payments to a former model who said she had an affair with mr. trump. the tape is one of many the f.i. seized in a raid on cohen's office earlier this year. then, last sunday, cnn obtained thatecording we talke about and broadcast it. mr. cohen could be heardbr fing mr. trump on financial arrangements and mr. trump is gaged in the discussion. here's why all this matters. trump's campaign ahead of the election had denied thend ate had any knowledge of payments to the model, kar mcdougle. it also raises questions about ssible campaign finan law violations and it shows cohen is willing to share tapes ofis d boss. josh, we have been covering president trump for some time. we wou go trump tower, there would be michael cohen, the fixer. to see him break like this and release the recording, what does it mean for this white house? joshua: it's scking, first of all, because cohen has been

associated as trump's fixer protector, lackey, and attack dog, including with reporters, b goink years. so the fact that he's broken and is openly flouting the material he declines have on trump -- claims to have on trump, not just the one tape but according to cnn, or 100 tapes of recorded conversations, means he's a potential very valuable witness against trump should bob muler, special counsel, and investigators, decide to bring him in and offer him a deal to testify or provide damaging material about trump. robert: is the white house considering a pardon, vivian, when they watch this spectacle, they watch cohen make these moves? vivian: frankly, they don't wans to touch the. every time we, and they refer us to president trump's outside counsel, rudy giuliani, and others. frankl speaking, though, it's fascinating to the watch because it's like what josh was saying, thisas the man who a year ago

was saying he would take a bullet for predent trump and now we see him turning in this way. but president trump, remember, takes loyalty very seriously. and something like this, someone who was so loyal for so long, could really, you know, just upset him in a way that we've no seen before and question those who are closest to him becausehey could flip. nancy: what's really amazing about this saga is it's such a stark reminder that so many people who were involved feel so little responsibilityut to the michael cohen, after don jr. was interviewed, said i'm so glad he told the entire truth about his meeting in trump tower and obviously the president knew nothing about it. now michael cohen said, actually, the president did know all about it. rudy giuliani, a few weeks ago, said, michael cohen is an incredibly honest man. i trust him. ew he says, he's been a liar hisire life. you know, when you're hearing

this -- from both sides -- it makes itery difficult. robert: trying to keep him contained and he explodes out with this information. nancy: but at the same time if people are willing to change their stories -- not a little bit. this is not tweaking around the margins. these are 180-degree turns and it really makes you wonder who, if anydy, is telling the truth. joshua: to me it makes the existence of tapes all the more important because as you said, you've had rudy giuliani cling him a great lawyer, a terrible lawyer. you've had cohen defending trump, tn going against him. i'm not sure who's really got credibility to be able to testify but if there are tapes, something investigators can draw on to establish conhmporaneous trf what actually happened, i think that's important. robert: there areapes about one of the big things that came out. cnn reported that michael cohen has knowledge of presidentwa trump'sness, his prior knowledge, cohen alleges, of the 2016 meeting at trump tower

where donald trump jr. met with russian figures and discussed dirt on secretary clinton's campaign. cohen is now saying he's aware of some exchange between donaltr p jr. and then candidate trump about the occurrence of that meeting in the summer of 16. president trump issued a rebuttal via twitter on fday that read "i did not know of the meeting with my son, don jr., sounds like someone is trying te p stories." cohen is facing bank fraud investigation into the southern district of new york but another thing caught my interest. i know cohen's the headline for st of us but alan wiselebur long-time c.p.a., accountant for the trump organizatio gets subpoenaed to testify as part of the cohen investigation in new york and he has thehe keys to kingdomming in understanding the trump financial network worldwide. ana: he's been handling the family's finances for decades,

including some of the campaignna es as well as the charity. in the tape that you played, he's referred to as the person who is setting up that payment an so he would have very deep knowledge of the trumpza orgaon and its various activities abroad. we've seen a little bit of a dive into that with reporting from around the world as well as leak like the panama papers, things likeffore financial accounts, shell companies. but, yeah, he's somebody who would certainly know where the financial are buried. robert: that's the whole thing everyone's alway wondering, the possible obstruction of justicep wisident trump with the russia investigation and michael cohen and what he may know about what the president discussed with donald trump jr. and it comes back to the trump organization, the tax returns. joshua: it's significant because trump said expli that mueller should not cross

the red line of investigatingp trrganization finances and that's what's happening right now so this has to be a source of great angst the president. you wonder, talking to advisersi if isn't part of what's fueling the twitter outbursts and the defensiveness we saw this morning when he claimed hea didn't knothing about the meeting with don jr. and listen to h attackueller on practically a daily basis. >> how far havee we crom the days of nondisclosure agreements where the president guided all of his dealings with noisclosure agreements a now it's coming out in the open, creating angst for the president. robert: we still don't know if president trump will sitrt with roueller for an interview. i asked mayor giuliani this week, the president coulde provlair 50 he sits down with bob mueller and mayor giuliani said we haven't knhead decision, it's a biased group. but that's the kind of thing we're waiting to see, if he'll sit down with mller. t's go to capitol hill because freedom caucus leaders in the

house., g.oark meadows and jim jordan, introduced a resolution this week amid the controversy about michael cohen, tory to impeach deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who ocirsees the spe counsel's russia probe, arguing rosenstein shoule b removed because of what they call a stone call from the justicert dent of subpoenas. after meeting with g.o.p. leaders, meadows and jordan backed off and said they would instead pursue contemptf o congress measures, falling below the threshold of impeachme. this the latest example of g.o.p. leaders trying to contain the president's allies on capitol hel as russia probe continues. it's becoming a tough fight for speaker ryan whh so m anger, you must be detecting, among trump's allies in the congress. >> sure but a lot of anger a republican rank and file that the freedom caucus members went this route.an republhave been arguing, don't elect democrats, don't let them lead the house bause all

they want to do is impeach president trump and then their own members go ahead and say they want to impeach the deputy attorney general who was hired by president trump. they didn't think i was a good look. they were very frustrated and meadows especially admitted to us on thursday that this was sort of a strategy to tray -- try to force republican leadership into collaborating with them on that lesser contempt charge. d.o.j. says we've given you thousands of documents. we can't give you every document you want because some pertain to an ongoing investigation.do fr caucus members like meadows want every document they can get becauseoo they'reng for evidence that this investigation was pursued wrong-headedly. joshua: do you get a senan -- republ think part of this effort is to remove rosenstein so thatan trump fire bob mueller and stop the investigation? nancy: sure.me ows insists that's not his

goal, that he hasn't talked to the president about that, he's not encouraging the president to do that. but obviously, you know, there has been a concerted effort and it's not just on h there are a few people in congress who are really interested in looking for ways to discredit the investigation and the investigators. robert: when you're at the white house, vivian, w president, who says a lot of things on twitter, is happy to rally against the mueller investigation, why isn't he pushing to impeach rod rosenstein? is it because he's wary of the obstruction of justice charge? vivian: conversations with his lawyers, everyone is saying to take a deep breath and let it play out without your interference and going back to the experience with what happened with former f.b.i. director jim comey and of people felt that was a potential violation and potential case of obstruction oc ju they're telling him to calm down and let it go for now but anything can happen and

we're seeing this now, including with bueller looking at the oresident's twitter feeds possible obstruction of justice. at the end of the day, president trump is alone with his phone sometimes, he's tweeting without consultingis lawyers sometimes so you honestly never know what to expect so it's nothat surprising that mueller would look at the tapes. robert: how long can this last? paul manafort, former campaig chairman, his trial starts next week. michael cohen is makingesll these m a movement in the house tompeach rod rosenstein. it's up to bob mueller, that's the answer. thanks, everybody, for joining us. our conversation will continue on the "washington week extra." we'll look back asecretary of state mike pompeo's congressional testimony this weeknd find white it revealed about u.s. foreign policy. you can findhat later tonight at pbs.org/washingtonweek. i'm robert costa. thanks for joining us.

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