robert: presidentrump retaliates. he lashes out, alarms intellence leaders, and rattles some republicans. i'm robert costa. welcome to "washington week." >> mr. brennan's recent conduct is inconsisten with access to closely held secrets. robert: predent trump at war with his critics. he revokes john brennan's security clearance, citing his link to the russia probe. >> i've got tremendous response from having done that. robert: some republicans support the move. >>nn mr. b has gone way over the line in my view and i think restricting his clearance makes sense. robe others disagree. >> i thought it was just kind of a banana republic thing.

i don't like it. robert: as e president considers stripping access elsewhere, more than a dozen intelligence community leaders have signed off on a statement of solidarity supporting mr. brennan. whthat fight comes as the ite house battles on another front, a tell all book by a former aide , and waits to hear the legal fate of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort. we cover it all, next. >> this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own to charity and nourishing the common good the u.n. foundation, committed to bridging cultural in our communities. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. e corporation for public broadcasting.

and bytr conutions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, from washington, moderator robert costa. robert: gd evening. president trump increasingly wary of e russia investigation ionched back as he watched members of the natnal security establishment criticize him. he revoked john brennan's security clearance and is considering taking onlyrsccess for ot it is all part of an effort to diminish special counsel robert mueller's probe whi has brought paul manafort to trial. while mr. trump has called it a witch hunt, mr. mueller has been defended by many intelligence veterans. mr. brennan testified last year that he saw a troubling pattern of contact between russia and the trump campaign. joining me tonight, julie pace, bureau chief for the associated

press, michaelcherer, reporter for the "washington post," tolusea olorunn, for bloomberg news, and josh gerstein, reporter for politico. brennan versus president trump. why did the president choose now to pick this fight? >> he always need something to be fighting. there was a fascinating moment on the sout' said, i'making his voice bigger. this is part of theffort to discredit the entire russia investigation. anyone who says there is ity, he's going afte them. he has a political goal in mind. whatever the report says, whatever the outcomeis investigation is, he wants to be able to dismiss it, and he needs a new enemy every day. brennan is a willing participant.

brennan will be out there over the coming days, fighting back. the president will love that. bert: the intel community is not sitting idle. at least 15 former intelligence chiefs have signed thaletter of support for brennan and dome agreement wrote this in a letter published by the "washington post." i would consider it an honor if you would result -- revoke my clearance l well. julie, of pushback, but does it really matter? is this a breaking point or are we still waiting to hear from general mattis and people inside the administration? julie: it is a question of who it matters too. if you are trump's base, this doesn't matter. this is just another sign of the washington establishment a pushg bainst an outsider. for a smaller subset of voters, rhaps independents who are on edge after a smer where we've seen president trump up here to

buddy up to putin, to see so many national security officials come out with this united voice, it could potentially make a difference. there is no love lost between trump and the intelligence community. this is something we've been dealing with since his early ys as a candidate. robert: what about inside the intelligence cmunity? when the president does this, could it have a chillingffect? >> it is definitely intimidating to people inside the cia and nsa. a lot of those folks rely on the fact that when ty go into retirement, they can get lucrative jobs in the private sector by using their security clearance. you see these ads that we need top secret secure compartment infoation. they have access to those. it becomes a way to get a very successful job after you leave.

to see that being pulled for what people see as a political ason will have some repercussions. robert: should we expect mor critics of president trump to see their clearance removed? >> it sounds like trump is lining up a bunch more. it is not going to just be brennan. pele that the president feels have crossed him are going to have their clearance revoked for disloyalty to presidentrump. robert context is everything. when you think abouthis moment, the white house, the president facing a possible subpoena, a report on possible obstruction of justice, how much are those challenges influencing the fight? toluse: all that is front and center. if you look at the lisof people the president is revealing, these are all people who have been part of ige russia inveion. james komi, andrew mccabe, peter strzok, lisa page.

pthese areple who were part of the russia investigation. he iins tto discredit them and say they are part of the deep state. he's getting a lot of backing from members of congress, from his base. if you look at the people who have been dismissed from the fbi, have left under a cloudf scandal, sometimes created by the president himself, they are saying these are people who are out to get theresident and anything that mueller comes up wi is going to be discredited because there's such a large people the presiden has managed to discredit. julie: i think you could argue that the president is being successful. if you look at the polls, it has been a pretty partisan split before ts. the fact that mueller is coming forward with indictments, and if you look at what republicans are

saying, there was a time when most of the rhetoric was, he needs to do his job. now you hear more republican saying we need to wrap this up. i think that is the effect of the president politicizing this. robert: why is that, michael? whngare republicans not spea out about this the same way they did about lcd and putin -- about helsinki and putin? michael: anytime anyone who has criticized the president -- just this week the former governor of minnesota went down for having criticized in 2016 the president for the excess hollywood tape, that was a deal too far for republicans in minnesota. he lost his attempt to become governor again. reboth partiesoing to become more political. the way the president is rolling out this strategy, he takes away clearance from brennan, but then introduces a list of oth

potentials. he knows what they said. he's creati suspense. what he wants is to keep this in the news. maybe tomorrow will be susan rice. maybe in three days it will be jim clapper. the drama, the constany showing him fighting against this, is the goal. robert: federal prosecutors and your sources in that world, do they worry that he is being too political? >> some people have been critical of things he's said over the last few months. the step of stripping somebody's clearance is just an traordinary thing. i can't conceive of anything like this in the past severalde de people lose clearance, but for very different reasons than comments considered critical of the white house with the president. they lose them due tbehavior or foreign intelligence penetratio but because of an appearance on cable tv, once

again, an extraordinary departure from the norm. robert: is this interview ever going to happen between the president and mueller? >>ki it is l less and less likely. we heard the president saying seller should just write report. mothersident believes has what he needs. they provided interviews with other people. the president is basically saying that he should get this over with. 've heard from rudy giuliani that september 1 is some kind of deadline and after that the trump legal team is going to crack down in some w. they are not sounding like they rative ate very coo al they are really gearing up for a fight. robert: they are facing a fight there, and a fight with, manafoe manafort trial. it hangs over everything this week. he's facing a fraud case.

the jurors in that case continue to deliberat manafort did not testify and his lawyers did not call a witness. on thursday, the jury asked judge ts ellis for clarity on reasonable doubt. josh has been in the courtroom since day one. what does it mean when the jury is asking about reasonable doubt? josh: reasonable doubt questions from any jury are not that uncommon. there were other questions they asked in that same listn thursday. that suggested the government may not have the kind of slamdunk case they were suggesting publicly. it sounded like a couple of the charges which involved bank accounts overseas, that the jure or someone on jury might not be totally persuaded by the theories that government put forward. were also indications th these deliberations could go on for a long time. they were asking for

cross-reference indexes, something on the orderf 400 exhibits that required the jury to move into a largeroom so they could talk and still have these documents. it is a very fact and dollar intensive case. it seems like they are going to go through the evidence methodically. robert: i thought this was supposed to be an open and shut case. how big of a blow would it be if it goes the other way? julie: i thinkgnt would be a icant blow for people who want to have trump ease up on this politicization of the investigation. if manafort gets off here,mp t is going to wrap that verdict in this entire investigation. he's going to say, see, they are going to far, going after my campaign chairman and he's innocent, and therefore there is noer collusion, ore i did nothing wrong, even though the

manafort trial has nothing to do with the investigation intoer russian intece or obstruction of justice. i don't think trump will let that get in the way of his political argument. robert: what about the link link game between the manafort lawyer on fridayd -- he s appreciate president trump's support. is that a sign that they are looking for a pardon? >> while the jury was delibeting, the president said his government is treating nafort unfairly and it is sad what they've done to paul manafort. the manafort lawyers were happy to hear that. when president trump was asked whether he was considering a pardon, he said, i don't talk about that. sebert: how serious is the talk inside the white h >> we've heard the president say, i have absolute powero pardon, i could even pardonse .

we've heard him talk about this investigation as a witch hunt, aset rigged, sng that the government ifodoing to his er campaign manager. he is basically saying it is something he has the power to do. >>s there'o arguments. one is this is a prosecution that is baseless. but if he's convicted, they have thisat argument his is for stuff that no one else would be taken to court for, which is a way of protecting what else could come out. you could have further charges against members of tru,'s fami against other parts of his campaign. even if they are guilty, the president's team is reserving this argument that maybe they did something wrong, but it is a technical violation, and a akpardon wouldmore sense. robert: you've been at the courtrm in alexandria. such a heated environment. you have judge ellis saying he's getting threats.

we talk about what this means people on the left and right are plugged into this trial. >> we had members of the general public on both sides of the aisle showing up to sit alongside the reporters in the courtroom for days of testimony, especially when rick gates was on the stand. just ordinary folks lining up to see this. the dynamic in the room has been interesting. it is not like your normal trial. youth have things looming in the background, like the pardon, which seems to have shifted e way these things play out. you don't normally hite the possibof a pardon. its also important to keep in mind this is only the first manafort trial. there's supposed to be another one on issues somewhat closer to the trump campaign, more having to do with the oligarchs and ways that manafort may have been

indebted to them. that is ming up in mid-september. yoinhave these things loomin the background that really alter the normal flow. robert: one of the best things about the jury keeping its deliberaons going is we get to have you at the table. we were worried the jury may come out with a verdict. that didn't happen tonight. another controvey in the white house, the fallout from omarosa's new book. onthtime white house aide spent the week on a media blitz, recording -- releasing secretly recorded audio with trump advisors. they are alarmed. the trump campaign is trying to have a legal fight. a tell all book from a government employee, hard to stop in the court. julie: it isard to stop in the court. even if it could be stopped, it is already out there.

this is the trumpiest of trump giories, a reality contestant using trump stra, not just the taping, but the idea of dripping out these revelations day after day, which is something that is trump's forte. i do think this creates headaches inside the white house. it is getting under the president's skin. when he is irritated, he lashe out. it can really spiral out of control quickly. robert: is this going to last? you think about steve bannon. he got in trouble for things he said. now he's trying to fight for president trump in the midterms. could they roncile? >> i'm not sure. like julie said,s omarosae one on offense here. you saw the president pick fights with mueller, with brennan, with the mayor of d.c.

over parade costs, pick fights with andrew cuomo. the president wants to be choosing the fights he's in. omarosa has however many more tapes. e seems to have a strategy of releasing them. she wants to sell a t of he doesn't control that narrative. you see in thi week trying to rosh the debate into friendlier terrain. rt: it is not just about what the president is doing to fight omarosa's book. he's using words like dog in his whetoric. is the cost for the white house politically? >> you have started to see some pushback from republican leaders who are not comfortable with that language coming from the white hou, from the top leader of the free worlder, calling an citizens dogs. but it is clear that this book has gotten under the president's

skin. omarosa has known theredent for more than 15 years. she talked about his mental abilities, the fact that he might be declining. he has a tanningis bed next to bedroom in the east wing. he and the first lady aren't getting along. a lot of insider information that embarrasses the president. you even heard on fox news t at the presid being outsmarted by his former protege. that is part of the reason he's lashing out. robert: a year after charlottesville he's fighting the nfl players who take the knee, using dog when talkingan aboufrican-american woman. what is this president? >> h' doesnt seem to be concerned about the criticism he faces. there's his repeated use of saying low iq, referring to maxine waters and other african-american lawma it seems to be a pattern with

the president. he doesn't seem terribly concerned when people say there's a clear racial overtones of these things. the seems to m again and again. >> i think they are a central part of his strategy. go back to that first debate. kelly asked him about calling women dogs. he answers, i don't care much llabout being politi correct. not a huge ovation from the audience, was the front runner from that point on. that was one of the key moments where he began to wrappu up the ican party. when he something that is offensive, it gets people talking about it. it makes his message go viral. g s him the readings he needs. julie: one of his lessons learned from charlottesville was that even if there is a short-term cost, it doesn't .a that was the moment where you saw the most push back. it faded

they are still with him on tax cuts, on theupreme court, and we know his base is with him. forrn trump, the lesson l is that he can energize his face and there is very little political cost. robert: what is the endgame for ms. newman? >> i think she wants to sell as many books as possible. she realizes that she lost a lot of credibili on the apprentice and in the campaign. she's been seen as this villain. she wants to basically say, i'm here to be a whistleblower and expose what this white house has been up to behind the scenes. and be a hero in some ways to the left. she wants to be embraced a really allow her start to shine. robert: what turned her? >> according to her, and she's been doing this media tour, she

says she was blindsided by the celebrity of donald trump and that she thought he was just being a litical figure, just using different strategies to try to get into office. she thought that when he got into office he would change and he did not change and basically did not represent the white house as he should. she basically said that president trump was no longer her horse in the race. >> she was making these recordings early in the campaign. this is a woman who has always been the tv villain. she is playing to type. she knows the game andinhe's be him for the moment. robert: got to go watch those old episodes of the apprentice. we have to leave it there. kstheverybody. and we need to leave you a little early tonight but stay

tuned and support your local pbs station. later, we will update you on mr. trump's postponed military parade. find that later tonight at pbs.o rg. i'm robert costa. thanks for joining us. [captioning performed by the-na, which is responsible for its caption coent and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> funding for washingtonweek is provide' by newmans own foundation, donating all profits from newman's ow charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics and ethical once -- and excellence in journalism foundation.

the foundation committed to bringing -- bridging cultural differences in our community. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >>

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