robert: a legal storm looms over president trump and the nation remembers senator jonathanoh --n mccain. i'm robert costa, welcome to "washington week." president trump: our justice department and our f.b.i. have to start doing their job and doing it right and doing it now. robert: president trumpacing mounting legal changes rallies his supporters and says he is frustrated with his attorney general and the head of the f.b.i. president trump: i want them to do their job. il get in there if i have to. robert: in rapid fire tweets and interviews, the president lashed ou at other targets this week, ahead of a potentially stormy season in his presidency. he called the russia probe illegal. railed against google, social

media and books about him, calling them all fake. h ande downplayed the coming departure of the white house counsel. president trump: don mcgah is a really good guy. he's donen excellent job. robert: we make sense of the week. plus -- remembering senator john mccain, his heroism, love of country and h legacy. [singing "amazing grace"] announcer: this is "washington week corporate funding is provided by wman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own products to charity and nourishing the common good. koo and patricia yuen through the yu foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.xc

the ethics andlence in journalism foundation. the corporion for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbsie station fromrs like you. thank you. once again, from washington, moderator, robert costa. robert:good evening. a week of stark contrast. the nation paid tribute to the late arizona senator john mccain fuwith pow scenes and powerful words. but politics didn't stand still. president trump continued to lash out at targets old and new and in the process he previewed the battles to come this fall. the president's fury with attorney general jeff sessions, it remains, but w byk's end, he says sessions was safe until after the november electndns ahead of those midterms, the president is returning to h co issues -- immigration and trade. president trump: a vote for democrss in november i a vote leavese our borders and

innocent americans at the mercy of hardened criminals. apat's what willn. we are replacing nafta with a beautiful brand new u.s.-mexico trad deal. robert: whilete trade dis with canada linger, the white house is facing legal headaches -- the exit of white house counsel don mcgahn and ongoing special counsel investigation.in jo me tonight, yamiche alcindor of "pbs newshour," mark landler of the "new york times," julie hirsfeld davis of the "new york times" and erica werner of "the washington post." mark, you've been tcking the trade developments all day. what a change from earlier in the week when the president was touting progress with mexico, trying to rewrite the wholeno h american free trade agreement. now talksave stalled with canada. where does the president go from here?

mark: the canadiens will be back in washington next week tohe continue negotiations so this process, like it often does despiteald trump, various milestones, seems to be ania endless negon so that continues. but i think what was telling about theso canadian e these past two days is that even as the negotiators were clo a room trying to work out a deal, president trump was giving interview to bloomberg in which he had an off-the-record passage where he basical sounded off on what he really thought about the kind of deal he wand to do with the canadians and he said there will be no compromises,an say this publicly because they'd be so insulted they'd never agree to a dea and those remarks were leaked to the toronto-star, in the 11th hour of this negotiation. and again, as always with donald trum the question became, who leaked it, what was the motive?e was som trying to blow up

the talks? and in the end, tks tind of petered out, not ending entirely but with a commitment of trying again next week. it was the drama of donald trump and the extent in which he's always willing to make these things personail he'sng to go at the canadians and i'm sure it will leave a sour taste in theouths of canadian negotiators as they go back to canada and reassess this weekend.rt roerica, beyond the intrigue of the leak, what's congress doing when they watch this? the administration says it could pursue a deal on its own with mexico and leave canada to the side for the moment but is that actual possible under nafta? erica: there is some question as to whether that's thnically possible but i think it comes down to a political question more so than a legal or polic one in that if congress wanted to take up a bilateral agreement, they could find a way to do that but the realityth is,

don't. republicans want nothing to do with an agreement between the u.s. and mexico that leavesan asidea. nafta knits these three countries together. republicans think that's been good for the economy for their states. they want canada in. so they a not going to pass a bilatera reality is that even a trilateral agreement is not going to pass thi year. there's just not time under fast track with the midterms but what some republicans will tell you is that given the pain that trump' trade policies have exacted on farmers and others in middle aherica,want to be able to show some progress and so that announcement of a deal, orever, kind of fleeting perhaps nonexistent in the end is, is, inro fact,ess, that they can point to politically. robert: when we think p about wy thsident is making these decisions, you often think about the political dynamics around them and you look at m thet

recent polls, disapproval of presiden trump is at a new high according to a new poll released friday. theational poll found 60% of americans disapprove of mr. trump's job perfoance and 36% approve. his support among republicans remas strongt 78%. yamiche, is the president not only trying to rally votes but reassure voters in t midwest and farmers and manufacturers who may not lik where he's going on trade? yamiche: i think the president wants more time to prove his promes from the campaign trail. in city after city he reassured that they would get the jobs back and bernie sanders was making the same pitch on the trail saying nafta was a problem and it hurt america so president trump i think wants to get a deal done because people are wondering if he'll actually gee. the deal d when i look at the approval rttings, at the end of the day,

republicans supim. that might be because there's a smaller number of people who consider themselves republican. americans are increasingly becoming independent but the fact that we've seen all these guilty verdicts and guiltyas p and trump supporters say until the ponsident iscted and there's concrete evidence that the president committed a crime and will be charged with it, they'll stick with him robert: why are the voters sticking with him, julie? you've been tracking the president all week. he's railing against the media saying you can only trust me. view inside the whi house about how to handle this? julie: i think they feel they have no choice her than do what the president's instinct is -- to double down, increase his complaints abouthe justice department. yamiche is right, clearly his coreitupporters are staying him but i think the bigger issue for him and republicans in the midterm elections coming up is

what really appeals to people, not just really conservative publicans and populace who are the ones who will never dessert dessert -- desert him, was him being willing to say the trade agreements don't work, i'm the one who's going to get in there and say i won't have it anymore, i don't want to deal th the canadians. they liked that. but they are not seeing the result. what agreements will he beble to strike as an alternative that's good for americans.d until in a see that -- until they see that, iouhinkl see more poll results where the majority of the country is dissatisfied. robert: and the mueller cloud i hanging over all of it. the news today is that news ade.'t robert mueller didn't issue his report and so now you wonder if you're the white house or an american voter, does that report on the president's possible

obstruction of justice on his conduct wait until after the midterm elections? mark: i thinke to s extent this labor day milestone that mueller was going to either act by labor day or keep his silence until november 9, perhaps that was artificial. but to come back to the poll, the interesng number in the poll was about the public's attitudes towar the mueller investigation. it was in the 60's -- 63%. that's suggests to me that after weeks and itheed m of president trump's daily efforts to impugn the integrity of mueller and his prosecutors, calling it this week aneg i investigation, it's clear to me he hasn't made as mucheaay as he hoped in discrediting this effort and the oer number the poll is 49% of people are in favor of impeachment proceedings, a rather high number and a number that would

no doubt pressure the democrats if they were to take the house in the fall. but to return to the question, because the labor day thing was somewhat artificial, i don't think the white house can feel they're really off the hook. i think as soon as this midterm is over, he's probably going to drop one or two really problematic things. roger stone's been pretty open that he thinks he'll be indicted so that combined with the results of the midterms probably will mean president trump will continue to act more and morehi ed in his tweets and his reaction. robert: mark brought up impeachment. if democrats take over the hous many are ready to move in that direction but is the white house ready for the barrage of subpoenas. white house counsel don mcgahn prepareag to. erica: that's a question that was brought up with the announcement of mcgahn's departure. we also learned that the overall office of white house counsel is like drastically understaffed now compared to what it a w

the beginning of the administration. i believe they have 25 attorneys now compared with somethinike 35 when the administration began. some ofut those d positions right under mcgahn are unfilled or about to be unfilled. it would appear that a lot of people don't want to work in that office and that willecome a ver big problem, if democrats take over the house. not just because of the specterral prospect of impeachment but the investigations, the subpoenas. every committee in the house will be investigating one aspect or another of the administration and they have to be able to respond to that and clearly they're not really in ato positn do so. robert: the white house has an attorney, specialist in peachment, worke for president clinton in the 1990's on that issue but havde't ded who will be white house counsel. you think about the attorney general, how long does the drama ntinue with the attorney general? anyone else in the cabinet wou resign if they lost the

confidence le this? yamiche: i think the drama will go on until president trump feels when he fires jeff sessions, he'll get another attorney general lindsey graham was saying sessions should keep hisob but maybe that's not the case anymore.tc mcconnell saying he has confidence in jeff sessions but president trump is blaming him for the cloud onussia and this week there were nine tweets in the morning about the russia investigation from president trump. it felt like he was getting more and mor angry because he can't deal with this and he has someone working for him he doesn't feel is loyal and loyalty is a number one priority for the president. robert: does the president feel if he moved ainst sessions now, it could be construed as obstruction of justice with the be?sia p yamiche: i'm not sure that's holding him back. to me it's more, can i fill the

job. the sourc i've talke to are about can jeff sessions actually have a replacement from this president and will the senate actually confirm somebody, because the cabinet members that he has now that are senate confirmed, none of them are likely to b an attorney general type person for the job so he would have tohe go back to senate so i think it's about filling that job. robert: speaking of t senate, let's turn our attention to the capitol, where there were tears and tributes today for the late nator john sidney mccain. family, friends and colleagues paid final respects to theim long lawmaker and former republican presidential nominee. former prisoner of war in vietm, he was held captive for five years and then ran for congress. a generational figure in p americanolitics, he had critics and supportersn policy but on issues of character he was remembered this week for hia

isan and patriotic spirit. >> john mccain stood up for every value that this capitol buo ding represents is only right that today near the end of his long journey, john lies here t ins great hall under this mighty dome, like other american heroes before him. >> this is one of the bravest souls our nation hasr e produced. >> john understood that america was, first and foremost, an idea, audacious and risky, organized around, t notbe, but around ideals. urday, there will be a ceremony at the national cathedral for former presidents george w. bush and barack obama will deliver eulogies.

so many big names at the capitol today. powerful to see them laying their hands on the casket. i was intrigued about the everyday people you encountered at the capitol, notus a political scene but an american scene. julie: absolutely. you had clips of mitch mcconnell and paul ryan, house and senate leaders and there werey m dignitaries but when the ceremony ended, there was a flood andng still g on at night-fall with people sneaking in lines on the street around the capitol of ordinaryeoe, many who had never met john mccain. some were veterans who came wearing hats with patches, denoting their own, servi and said they felt they owed it to john mccain to honor h and be there in the room with his casket. some of them, many of them said they were democ who never voted for him and would never would have thought of voting foi but felt he represented a dying breed, aadg breed of

statesman, of elected official who was willing to put his country or his o party and over himself and really them in ways they don't feel inspired by the politics they see today qo it waste powerful to talk to some of these people. there was a ln of grief that room but also a lot of inspiration. people seemed very elevated by the experience of being under the dome, sort of looking at the casket and thinking of what john mccain meant to tm. robert: you mentioned senator graham. who's going to fill the maverick role mccain leaves now, sometimes challenging the president. that kind of figure on the american political scene, if anyone? yamiche: you think of all the republicanshave been critical of the president both in the house and the senate and many are lving, retiring. paul ryan, who -- wasn't a big critic of the president but who privately said he guild to the president and talk to him. he's gone. jeff flake is gone.

there's really a void in the senate for republicans to push ck on the president but if mitt romney comes to the capitol, that could be someone who was a voice during the campaign. mitt romney had thatamous speech where he laid out why president trump would be b for this country and went back and was seen dining wit the president, trying to get a job. but if he comes to the capitol and he's utah's senator, he might be vocal. robert: what's your thought on what's next in the capitol? erica: that's a question senators have been asked all week and asking each other and the reality is that mccain just leaves an enormous void and i don't think anyone fills it any time sotn. it'sust a question of who will push back on trump because perhaps someonean d that. maybe it will be mitt romney but it's his very unique biography, it's his legislative ability. he is one of tse old bold legislators from that generation

of ted kennedy and others. and that's why i think so many ople poured out to the capitol o from ar the country to pay their respects and there was a lot of sadness in tha feel like he is passing and that something is leaving with him that won't be replaced. robert: you've been aeporter on foreign policy, national security, for a long time. a compliced legacy for senator mccain. mark: to be sure. he was an ad and defiant supporter of the iraq war, never apologized for that. he was extremely hawkish. rememberhe famous "bomb bomb, bomb iran" thing that probably wasn't featured that much this week. so that was on that side of the ledger. on the other side of t ledger, he was a tireless traveler around the world. he had his own relationships with world leaders. probably no senator had that kind of stature -- perhaps joe

biden came close overseas. and that deepened knowledge of america's relationships and ofping with the theme something's leaving with john mccain, here we are in an era where o alliances are under pressure and canada and other countries are wondering about their standing with us and our relationships. john mccain embodied all of the post world war ii liberal international order that the united statesuilt. he w really a symbol of that and he worked hard at preserving and building that up and again, you have to ask, who picks up that importa work and keeps going, if not john mccain? biden is certainly one but he's older now, too. so the question is whhe are next generation of american states men and it's not at all clear. robert: president trump, his tensions continued with the senator even in death for senator mccain. there was a skirmish about whether or not the flag was at

half staff at the white house. what did this week reveal about handlesident and how he these kind of things? julie: what i found striking was not only the fact that john mccain made it clear that he didn't want president trump to take part in the celebrations of his death and life and legacyen but pres trump seemed to have no interest in taking part in that, himself.ne lly we've seen presidents who embrace it as a key part of their role, when the nation is grieving, when the nation is reflecting on what it means to be an american, the president is leading that and wants to be i that conversation. president trump had no interest in being inat that conven although ultimately he issued a proclamation to keep the flag lowered and said he respects the senator's service. n'he cou bring himself to praise john mccain at all this week and that i really quite something and one of the things that both elected officcals, net members and ordinary

people in the capitol today look around and see and wonder, you know, if that's the politics of the future, whereas john mccain's read of politics is the politics of the past. mark: there was an extraordinary moment in the bloomberg interview where he declined to y whether he thought john mccain would be a better yresident than barack obama. erica: apparenarah sanders was glaring at him. imark: and he said i thi going to give sarah a nervous breakdown. yamiche: there are also republicans on social media that were attacking john mccain after he died so you have to almost think out inhe country there are people are at least echoing and repeatingome of the things that president trump is saying. d echoing his behavior. so we have a country, also, when you have someone m whobe you didn't agree with but who was a certified hero -- five years in capture is not something you can

just dust up. that's not something you can. argue abo and people online were still attacking him so not only was the president somewhat problematic in his responses, there are amerithns out there are problematic, too. robert: there's a difference in how people approach issues. you talked about president trump -- i continue to think back to that moment in 2016 where the president, then as a candidate, went after senator mccain, about his service in vietnam and it raised alarms ten but it didn't destroy his candidacy andt was a time i really thought, if trump could survive that, then the norms truly have changed. mark: i think that might have been theirst moment where trump's political invincibility started to become cle to people. erica: we all said, this is the end of him. said, like people who weren't captured and everyone said, there's no way he can survive thiseh and lo andd that was first of a trillion things like that. julie: i think iakt also s to how personally threatened he felt by johnn. mcc

the fact of john mccain and his biogray, the fact tha he's a war hero. mccain represented, i think, to him, alls the thinghe wanted to define himself as against and this was a way of sort of trying to cut with the establishment and i'm not part of that and i don't want any part of that. ihink it was also partly a response to the fact that there was a portion of the republican ba that really loved sarah palin and didn't love john mccain, wn he was runni for president, and that was the segment of the electorate donald trump knew he had to lock dow and ride to victory, which is what he did. robert: when you think about the tensions b the president and senator mccain, there's a moment tomorrow with president bush and president obama delivering eulogies, historic to see presidents comingogether like that. yamiche: imagine president trump sitting in the white house watching these two presidents who will be celebrated forayhat they

people will be talking about barack obama's words. people will be saying president bush gavelf him beautiful eulogy and you have president trumwho wants to be celebrated like obama and president bush and he'll be alone, isolated, i think sarah sanders wants to make sure he't doeweet and white house aides are hoping he puts his phone down but i would watch his twitter feed tomorrow because that will be a tgh moment for the president. mark: and t largeness of spirit that it took for john mcin to askhe two leaders who defeated him to be the ones who eulogized him. when you think about donald trump in tt context, the gap, the chasm between them is so great. robert: we'll miss seeing senator mccain in the hallways. if you're ae reporter,as someone you always wanted to talk to. thanks for joining us andhank for being here. our conversation will continue online on the "washinexon week

a." you can find that friday after 10:00 and all week long at pbs.org/washingtonwe. i'm robert costa, thanks for joining us. enjoy the labor day weekend.in [captionperformed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible forntts caption cot and accuracy. visit ncicap.org.] announcer: funding for "washington week" is provided by -- newman's own foundation, donating all profits from's newman's oood products to charity and nourishing the common good. the etcs and excellence in journalism foundation. koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bdging cultural differenc in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪

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