robert: president trump retaliates. he lashes out, alarms intelligence leaders, an rattles some republicans.ro i'rt costa. welcome to "washington week." >> mr.du brennan's recent c is inconsistent with access to closely held secrets. robert: president 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 ve. >> mr. brennan has gone way over the line in my view and i think restricting his clearance makes sense. robert: others disagree. >> i thought it was just kind of a banana republic thing.

i don't like it. robert: as the president considers stripping acss elsewhere, more than a dozen intelligence community leade have signed off on a statement mr.olidarity supporti brennan. that fight comes as the white 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. >>hi this is "wton 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. to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. fothe corporatiopublic broadcasting.

and bybs contributions to your p station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, fromto washi moderator robert costa. robert: good evening. president trump increasingly wary of the russia investigation punched back as he watched members of the national security establishment criticize him. he revoked john brennan's security clearance ands considering taking only access for others. it is all rt of an effort to diminish special counsel robert mueller's probe which has brought paul manafort to trial. while mr. trump has called it a witch hunt, mr. muell has been defended by many intelligence veterans. mr. brennan testified last year that he saw a troubling pattern of contact betweentrussia and thp campaign. joining me tonight, julie pace, bureau chief for the associated press, michael scherer, reporter

for the "washington post," toluselorunnipa, for bloomberg news, and josh gerstein, politic for brennan versus president trump. y d the president choose now to pick this fight? >> he always need something to be fighting.sc there was a ating moment on the south said, i'm making his voice bigger. this is rt of the effort to discredit the entire russia investigatio anyone who says there is credibility, he's gog after them he has a political goal in mind. twhatev report says, whatever theutcome of this 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. robert: the intel community is not sitting idle. at least 15 former intelligence chiefs have signed that letter 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 as well. julie, a lot of pushback, but does it really matter? is this ain brepoint or are we still waiting to hear from general mattis and people inside e 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 pushing back against an outs for a smaller subset of voters, perhaps independents who are on edge after ' summer where weve seen president trump up here to

buddy up to putin, to see so many national securi 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 days as a candidat robert: what about inside the intelligence community? when the president does this, could it have a chilling effect? >> it is defitely intimidating to people inside the cia and nsa. a lot of those folks rely on the fact that when they go into retirement, they can get lucrative jobs in the private sect by using their security clearance. you see these ads that we need top secret secure compartment information. they have access to those. it becomes a way to get a very essuul job after you leave.

to see that being pulled for what people see as a political s reason will hae repercussions. robert: should we expect more 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. people that the president feels have crossed g him ang to have their clearance revoked for disloyalty to president trump. robert: context is everything. when you think about this moment, the white house, the president facing a possible subpoena, a report on possible obstruction of justice, how much e those challenges influencing the fight? toluse: all that is front and nter. if you look at the list of people the president is revealing, these are all people who have been part of the russia investigation. james komi, andrew mccabe, peter listrzok page.

these arepa people who wer of the russia investigation. he is trying to discredit them and say they are part of the deep state. he's getting a lot of backing from members ohicongress, from base. if you look at the people who have been dismissed from the fbi, have left under a cloud of scandal, sometimes created by the president himself, they are saying these are people who are out to get the president and anything that mueller comes up with is going to be discredited cause there's such a large number of people the president has managed to discredit. julie: i think you could arguere that thedent is being successful. if you look at the polls, it has been a pretty partisan split before this. the fact that mueller is coming forward with indictments, and if you look at what republicans are

saying, there was a time when st of the rhetoric was, he needs to do his job. now you hear more republican saying we need to wrap this up. i think at is the effect of the president politicizing this. robert: why is that, michael? why are republicans abt speaking out 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. both parties are going 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 other

poteials. he knows what they said. he's creating 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 constantly showing him fighting against this, is the goal. robert:se federal ptors and your sources in that world, do they worry that he is beingoo political? >> someha peopl been critical of things he's said over the last few months. the step of stripping somebody's clearance is just an extraordinary thing. i can't conceive of anything like this in the past several decades. people lose clearance, but for very different reasons than comments considethd critical of white house with the president. they lose them due to behavior or foreign intelligence penetration, but because of an appearance on cable tv, once

agn, an extraordinary departure from the norm. robert: is this interview ever going to happen between the president and mueller? >> it is looking less and less likely. we heard t president saying mueller should just write his report. e president believes mother has what he needs. pthvided interviews with other people. the president is basically saying that he should get this over with. f we've heam rudy giuliani that september 1 is some kind of deadline and after that th trump legal team is going to crack down in some way. they are not sounding like they want to be very cooperative at all. y they are reaaring up for a fight. robert: they are facing a aight there, aight with manafort, the manafort trial.it angs over everything this week. he's facing a fraud case.

the jurors in that case continue to deliberate. manafort did not testify and his lawyers did not call a witness. on thursday, the jury asked judge ellis for clarity on reasonable doubt. josh has been the courtroom since day one. whats d 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 list on thursday. uggested the government may not have the kind of slamdunk case they pere suggestilicly. it sounded like a couple of the charges which involved bank accounts overseas, that the jury or somne on the jury might not be totally persuaded bthe theories that government put forward. there were also indications that these deliberationsa ould go on fong time. they were asking for cross-reference indexes,

something on the order of 400 quexhibits that ed the jury to move into a larger room 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:ug i t 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 think it would be a significant blow for people who want to have trump ee up on this politicization of the investation. if manafort gets off here, trump is going to wrap that vdict 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 no col nothing wrong, even though the

manafort trial has nothing to do with the investigation into russn interference 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 f lawr day -- he said we appreciate president trump's support. is that a sign that they are looking for a pardon? >> while the jury was deliberating, the president said his government is treating manafort 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. robert: how serious is the talk inside thehite house? we've heard the president say, i have absolute power to pardon, i could even pardon myself.

we've heard him talk about thas investigatio witch hunt, as rigged, something that the government is doing to his former campaign manager. he is basically saying it is something he has the power to do. re's two arguments. one is this is a prosecution that is baseless. but if he's convicted, they have this a stuff that no one else would be taken to court for, which is a way ofwh protectin else could come out. you could have further charges againsmembers of trump's family, against other parts of s 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 would make more sense. robert: you've been at the courtroom in alexandria. such a heated environmt. you have judge ellis saying he's getting threats. we talk about what this means

for mueller. people on the left and right are plugged into this trial. >>e had members of the general public on both sides of the aisle showing up to sit alongside the reporters in the courtroom for days ofestimony, 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. youg have other things loom the background, like the pardon, which seems to have shifted the wathese things play out. you don't normally have the possibility of a pardon. it is also important to keep in ismind thinly the first manafort trial. s supposed to be another one on issues somewhat closer to the trump campaign, more having to do with the oligarchs and ways thaty manafort ve been

indebted to them. that is coming up in mid-ser. you have these things looming in the back the normal flow. alter robert: one of the best things about the jury keeping its deliberations going is we get to have you at the tae. we were worried the jury may come out with a verdict. that didn't happen tonight. another controversy in the white house, the fallout from omarosa's new book. sethe one-time white h aide spent the week on a media blitz, recording -- releasing secretlyo recorded aith 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 is hard to stop in t court. even if it could be stopped, it is already out there.

this is the trumpiest of trump stories, a reality contestant using trump strategies, not just the taping, but the id 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 lashes out. it can really spiral out of control quickly. robert: is this going tot? l you think about steve bannon. trhe got ible for things he said. now he's trying to fight for president trump in the midterms. could they reconcile? >>'m not sure. like julie said,onmarosa is the on offense here. you saw the president pick fights with mueller, with wbrennah 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. she seems to have strategy of releasing them. she wants to sell a lot of oks. he doesn't control that narrative. you see in this week trying to push theebate into friendlier terrain. robert: it is not just about what the president is doing to fight omarosa's book. he's using words like dog in his rhetoric. orwhat is the costhe white house politically? >> y have started to see some pushback from republican leaders who are not comfortable with thatro language comingthe white house, from the top leader of the free world, calling american citizens dogs. but it is clear that this book has gotten under th' president'

skin. omarosa has known the president r more than 15 years. she talked about his mental abilities, the fact that he might be declining. he has a tanning bed next to his 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 that thpresident is 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 whetalking about an african-american woman. what is this president? >> he doesn't seem to be concerned about the criticism he faces. the's his repeated use of saying low iq, referring to maxine waters and other african-americ lawmakers. 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. he seems to do them again and again. >> i think they are a central part of his strategy. go back tohat first debate. megan kelly asked hwo about callinn dogs. he answers, i don't care much about beinpolitically correct. not a huge ovation from the audience, was the front runner from that point on. that was one of the keye momens wh began to wrap up the republican party. when he something that is offensive, it gets people talking about it. in makes his message go viral. it gets him the re he needs. julie: one of his lessonsle ned from charlottesville was that even if there is a short-term cost, it doesn't last. th was the moment where you saw the most push back. it faded.

are still with him on t wits, on the supreme court, and we know his base i him. for trump, the sson learned is that he can energize his face and there is very little political cost. robert: what is the endgame for ms. newman? le i think she wants to sell as many books as poss she realizes that she lost a lot of credibility based on her time on the apprentice an.in the campai she's been seen as this villain. bshe wants ically 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 bembraced and really allow her start to shine. what turned her? >> according to h, and she's been doing this media tour, she

says she wassi blid by the celebrity of donald trump and that she thought he was just being a political figure, just usingifferent strategies to try to get into office. she thought that when he got into office he would change and he did not change did not represent the white ouhouse as he . she basically said that president trump was no longer her horse in the rac >> she was making these recordinca early in the aign. this is a woman who has always been the tv villain. e playing to type. she knows the game and she's beating him for the moment. robert: got to go watch those old episodes of the apprentice. we have to leave it there. and we need to leave you a little early tonight, but stay

tuned and supporyour local pbs station. later, we will update you on mr. trump's postponed military parade. nd that later tonight a pbs.o rg. i'm robert costa. thanks for joining us. [captioning performed by the-na, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracyrg visit ncicap >> fding for washingtonweek is provided by newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own to charity and nourishing the common od. 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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