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tv   Washington Week  PBS  November 10, 2018 1:30am-2:01am PST

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robert: the acting attorney general under fire. democrats rising andto washing divide. i'm robert costa. welcome to "washington week." president trump: we're looking people for different positions. it's very common after the mid terms. robert president trump begins cleaning house. attorney general jeff sessions steps down. matthew wtaker, a critic of special council robert mueller rises, and democratsxpress alarm about the probe. >> it would create a constitutional crisis, and protecting mueller is paramount. robert: and a diverse field of newcomers and look to the future. >> we will have a responsibility
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to look at your oversight responsibilitieses. robert: t andhe president remains defiant. blaming the democrats for their defeat >> they decided not to embrace whethe is me or what we stand for. hey did very poorly. robert: we discuss this turbulent moment next. ♪ announcer: this is "washington week." funding isrovided by -- >> kevin. kevin. >> kevin. >> advise for life. life well planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> funding is provided by newman's own foundation donating all profits from food products to charity and nourishing the
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common good. kund patricia ewing, committed to bridging culturalnc diffe in our communities. the ethics in jourmism foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again from washington, moderator robert costa. robert: good evening. we begin tonight with ahakeup at the justice department. jeff sessions out as attorney general. a lyle math you -- ally matthew whitake in. rattling washington raising new questions about the future of the special council's t's looking t into russian interference. and it's all as the democrats are poised to take over t house next year following this in the midterm elections.
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joining me is chuck todd moderator of "meet the press on nbc." molly ball of the "time" magazine. and karoun demirjian of "the washington post." and markander of the "new york times." let's start with matthew whitaker who was unknown just days ago. he's taken t agh line on mueller's investigation. >> there is a red line. there is a very specific scope to this investigation. and anything that is outside of russian coordination or the 2016 campaign would be the guide to the scope of that investigation. >> democrats have asked for him to recuse himself. and today the president was asked about him. know nt trump: i didn't matt whitaker, but matt whitaker
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is a smart man. he is very respected, at the top hu the line. robert: cck, the president says he doesn't knowim. he said he's a loyalist. what does it mean fort rob mueller and his independence? >> i don't think we know yet in fairness to mr. whitaker. first of all, you don't know what happens hen you're actually in the job. he expressed those opinions when he was a political pundit for cnn. he has take than oath as a u.s. torney in iowa. you don't know what happens when he's actually getting briefed by robert mueller about what he's found. in fairness to mr. whitaker, we ve to see wha happens when he gets briefed. robert mueller knew this was coming. this was telegraphed. he knew he was going to have a new supervisor soon. he's off-loaded par of the investigation. he's put some of it at theso hern district of new york. and the east district of virginia has gotten a piece of
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it. he's protected the probe that there isn't much whitaker can do. b he m the eyes and ears for the white house. that is not illegal. many people would call that unethical. perhaps, he's there to launch another investigation. maybe he has also talked about onening an investigation into hillary cli maybe he's not there to curtail or trim the sales of mr. but maybe to add a probe which of course as far as thees ent's concerned is all about diluting the scandal pull if you will. i actually think mueller's probe is as safe as it cane. robert: the democrats, they don't believe that. what can they do in the lame duck before they take the house next year to try to protect the mueller movestigation? y: make a lot of noise. once the lame duck is over and they're actually in power at least in the house, they can try to u that power to investigate anything they can that they thid is untorrid or fishyr happens to be where mueller had to leave
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off in theirat estn. at this point, chuck, you're right, we don't know what they're going to do. but by making the switch it gives democrats all the ammunition they need if they're not satisfied with the finding if it falls anything wrong and finding woirongdoing you're to see people saying wait a second there could have been interference and it's going to launch the investigations that were going to happen as to what oirt of activity was on in the.j d even once mueller is done even if he had been protected the whole way through. this is putting more fuel to the fire that we already knew was coming. they've been clamoring for him to recuse himself. they can't make thatappen. they're going to have to deal with whoever the president wants nominate on a consistent basis that's not just interim. rtand that could s a whole
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knew round of fights. we don't know where mueller would be at this point -- mueller will be at this point. this is optics. and we know now this is going to amp that up. robert:li the repns don't want to act to protect mueller. mitch mcconll said he's not going to move forward the legs. senator susan collins saidwo it d be appropriate to bring some legs to protect mueller. where's the g.o.p.? are they stillg standin him nd how he's handling this? >> they've been in the same position which is to preend that nf this is happening. and that's something that mitch mcconnelleels hasone them in good stead. they're not going to going to be able to do that once the democrats get into power in the house. but you know, the danger is i think not only. optic there's a potential legal
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complication a well because a lot of conservative legal experts argue that whitaker cannot be appointed. cannot act as the attorney general because he hasn't been confirmed by the senate. and tha t sets up potential for anything that he actually does in that position to be challeed in the c so anything that he actually tries to do, i think,s chuck is saying could -- could -- he hasn't actually done anything. haven't prejudged him. he hasn't fired muler. he hasn't interfered in anything that we know so far. but when and if he did that could potentially be undone by the courts. robert: but you've been looking at some question marks when you think about mark whitaker. it's not just his statements about the mueller probe. there are issues about his business dealings. the f.b.i. in miami is looking into his past business experiences. he's friend with sam clovis, a witness in the mueller investigation. what else have you fnd that's
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hanging over whitaker as a cloud? >> well, one of the things that many legal theorists talk about being the most fundamental is his view of the role of the courts. he was asked to enumerate badon deci by the supreme court. he singed out marbury vs. madison. -- by raising a doubt, by criticizing that ruling, you could read to mean that he sees the courts as having an inferior position in the government. for the legal theorist in washgton, that more than maybe more of the other issues includino his prior statements of the mueller investigation are what has himwo y. it doesn't pass statements or not predictive of future actions, but in this case he's well outside the legal mainstream. a lot of people in washington are worried about that as well.
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robert: what about the president's pick to replace attorney general sessiont and someone over whitaker? could he look to a judge or a senator or a chris christie or an alex acosta?t >> looks like he's going to get stuck with chris christie. i find it interesting secretary azar would love this job if marco rubio had been president but apparently the secretary has put out word, ask again after mueller's done. there are some people that do not want the responsibilityr the burden of having to be in that awkward position. they saw what happened to jeff sessions. the amazing thing in the jeff sessions thing, he enacted the president's agenda when it came to law and order, immigration. there's a bit of separation on policy. the sole reason that he was fired was his recusal o cr this. yo tell the bitterness in jeff sessions. he made sure we knew h thate had -- he was asked to resign.
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meaning i was fired. ironically if the president had waited untilhanksgiving, maybe sessions would have resigned. but i think the panic of the house getting going democratic has the president panicked, and that's why he made th move so fast and so quickly.e and frankly dn hayes. it looks like this white house dn't even vet, they didn't realize that the guy speculated -- well, you know, maybe a recessed opponent -- appointing general could defund the mueller probe. so he describeed what perhaps he was actually about dng. robert: talking about sessions, a final note on his legacy. sessions, of course, got the president irritated because he recused himself fro the mueller probe overseing it. but oimmigration, he was right there. >> right. he pushed forward an agenda like you were saying just a second ago was all trump all theay. the zero tolerance at the
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border. he held the line when it came to criminal justing reforming people in his own party. anything thales the d.o.j. touched -- i mean, that didn't have anything to do with russia he was right there in lockstep. he had cover because democrats didn't want to touch him bause he was so important to keep in place in order to protect the line above mueller, otherwise, you would have seen a ground swell of opposition toward him. you would have seen much more vitriol out of jeff sessions. >> it's all about the mueller probe. >> even when the democrats thought jeff sessions under oath to them about what he knew when, they still said, y know what, we don't have time to get into that because they were focused onrotecting this guy because he recused. that's -- it's aost comical in a sad way that that's his legacy. he went from having a very,ery conservative, very, very -- noted for his anti-immigration polies when he was a senator that could have carried him to
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the d.o.j. bu, right n he's been, you know, turned into an enemy because of the russia probe. he was always an enemy with the democrats. and he's leavingithis tail between his legs but some people are sad to see him go on the democratic side. whoever signs themselves next you're signing for their last fate. you don't want it to be your last job. robert: and the trigger was the midterm elections. sometimes we forget it actually happened this weekue onay. things moved so quickly. let's think about what happened. democrats seize control of the house majority winning 225 seats. that's accord dog the "associated press"'s latest count. republicans won 1297 seats in -- 197 seats. in the senate, they held on to 51 seats. but there are two races that remain too close to call. in florida, rick scott hold as
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narrow lead over bill nelson is suing t democratic county bow ward and palm beach claiming in rampant ag fraud. >> i will not sit b idlyy while liberals try to steal this election from the great people of florida >> in arizona, kristen sinema has taken a slight lead over martha mcsalley. there are still many, man votes, thousands of ballots that have not been counting. most of the outstanding ballots they're coming from arizona's largest county maricopa countyh wh includes sinema's congressional district. molly, your headline seems to tell the story about pos election america. red or blue, it's a great story. you think about this done there, a split decision in the midterm elections. what did we learn? molly: first of all, it was a split decision, but it was mostly for the democrats. let's not falselyer --ly fal
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quivilize. it was an incredible night for the docrats. there are still several races yet to be called that could add to the house majority. there is, if, youf know, they're on the knife's edge and there's a run-off in mississippi that we assume the republicans willin, but even if -- but if the democrats manage toin those races that are still being counted, the republins would only have picked up one seat in the senate. and what was the friendliest environment for them in decades. it was mostly a good night for mocrats. but there were some unexpected results that went the republicans way. most of the polls would have led you tieo b that claire mccaskill would have pulled it out. and that joe donnelly, theat demo senator from indiana
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didn't survive and it wasn't close. what weem sawrats were hoping that what we would see was that the backlas to trump was so overwhelming that he was repudiated completely. instead what we saw an intensification of all of the trends that began in 2016, all of the -- all of the galvanization that trump started to put into plation -- place because he inserted himself sometimes to the chagrin of his own party. yes, democrats were enthusiastic and we aroused and wanted to send that message to washington and a lot o independents and suburban ice. but trump's base was activated too. that's whyur theut was off the charts because the republicans were almost as riled up as the docrats. robert: florida native, chuck todd. what a c tightontest -- chuck: i'm sorry. i have to apologize for my :ate. robehat happened there?
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chuck: what was interesting about floridan general,t is the microcosm of america as i always say. as i always joke it's america's sedyment. robert: it's bter than that. chuck: there are great parts in florida. ere are very few swing counties. it was margins in every county that didn't touch salt wat was once again just like 2016 showed up in big numbers. the counties that touched salt water were the places that democrats did pretty well in. look, this recount is going to round of the firs what is going to be a bloody partisan warfare for the next two years. this is going to be the backdrop to 2020. the president is himself into this. there's going to be a lot of court battles believet or not there will be three recounts.
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one for the senate race. the governor's race continues to shri t too. don'nk it's going to get into the hand recount, but it's something else. one larger point i want to make though. this was a blue wave but there was more realignment that necessarily wave. because you sae,w, for insta ohio -- i think ohio is moving -- it's off the presidential battleground. republicans won in a fairly comfortable -- still under five points but by a bigger margin than we thought for thern go's race. and indiana moves. indiana come with the democrats. they always move in wave years. that didn't happen this year. on the other hand, you saw oklahoma -- the suburbs went so blue whether it was northern virginia,a oklahty, seattle, you can name it. in that sense, i think we've seen this mropolitan versus urban -- rural-urban divide
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shown across the country. robert: you think about the democrats, their strategy. does that mean they move for impeachment of president trump or try to workith him on infrastructure and other thingsg >> there's ning to be any impeachment. the leaders are not going to let it happen unls muell finds something to obviously glaring unconstitution that that trump did that republicans would hop onboard too. the leaders just don't want it. and what they're nervous about is the leaders who won in trump country, they ran on a message of we'll work with the presidents. they don't want to answer for an impeachment vote that can never get through the senate anyway. he's not going to get removed from offic they're going to put a lot of capital in investigations of his finances, of the security clearance process in theus whit or why the d.o.j. didn't defend the a.c.a., the health
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re bill in court. and then they will also probably focus on infrastructre and otreas where they can work with the president. but they're not going to go whole hog into impeachment. d i think that is kind of a representative --eal thing in terms of the legislative prioritys that reelects what's going on in the democratic party as a whole. they need to figure who they are. the answer for the subus i the00 the answer is be your own person say yeou'll work with white house and with trump. that didn't work so well for claire mccaskill and joe donnelly. i guess it worked well for joe mancin. you can say that mccaskill and donnelly ran to the center and abandoned their base. they have to figure out how to campaign as one party in two years' time. robert: mark, what about the
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ite house? of course, sessions is the news this week. are we expecting moreeptures inside the cabinet maybe chief of staff john kelly. >> well, kelly has stayed he will stay until 2020. the next name they will focus on as jim mattis. that's a possible shoe to drop and one bthat wille more consequencetial than almost any other. the bigr question around trump is if you look at his progression from his psychology from his hapless effort that this was a scess and not a setback, to the greater degrees of anger all week lashing out at reporters, getting involved in the florida senate race, alleging vote rigging. i think we're seeing what w see in the coming year. he's not responding well to losing the house. and h how welle deal with the incessant round of investigations next year will be
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one of the major stories to watch coming up after the midterm. robert: what about stacy abrams, beto o'rourke? democrats were hoping for a new generation to emerge. some did. buny women won across the country. not a total win for the democrats. >> right. and some of those ris stars had captured the heart of the democratic party. become celebrities the left. the margin is shrinking, it's a lot of votes for him to make up there. but thatnace hasn't b call. but beto o'rourke also certainly -- these were all long shot races. ese were all really tough states. maybe florida a little bit less he was leading in the polls going in. but these are allphill states. for democrats, i think there are a lot of brenearted people. these were all promising,
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charismatic candidat what democrats are looking for more than anything is not someone who checks a bunch boxes in terms of ideology or resume. they want to be swept off their feet. they want to bensred. that's why they haven't flocked to one of the many sitting senators who are talking about possibly running or the old guard and all of them seemingly zillion democrats over the age of 70 whose names out there. they do need that influx of new blood. this has been the complaint against pelosi as well is that there hasn't been the opportunity for the democrats to put forth an inspiring new generation of leaders because of e old guard. robert: the house leadership races. looks like kevin mccarthy, the majority leader, the frontrunner, chuck, for minory ader in the house, pelosi, a lot of dissatisfaction among the house in the democratic conference but not reallva a >> there's nobody to run. i just interviewed abigailrg span who is from central
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virginia outside the richmond suburbs. and she was defiant, i'm not going to vote for nancyi. pel i'm not going to hedge. she wasn't going to be begged. i asked her has anybody contacted you? she said no. because there's nobody there. i have to say, i'm stunned. but i guess this happening that pelosi, hoyer, clyburn, steny hoyer,im clyburn who two, three, i one, guess they're going to end up the same one, two, three. nobody's rt ning againsyer. and there is one can't against r cl but i don't think that person can win. it's a head scratcher to me that the democrats in our national exit poll, she had a fave unfave 56 -- of 1 >> is that because she's going to be a transitional -- >> think it's interesting. hakeem jeffress, someone that the black caucus wanted to get
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bend has agreed to run for the number four spot. i think they cut a deal. >> there may be something up there. but also there is no obvious person in the democratic party anywhere to take over leadership if you try to have a big free for all message of challenging nancy pelosi,ouritter away some of the momentum bause everything matter looking ahead to 2020. robert: all this debate is the democratic caucus. where are the new leadersnd there will be more running for president in 2020. we're go have leif it there. you can find us friday's after :00 on our podcast. i'm robert costa. have a great weekend. and thanks for jning us.
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announcer: funding is provided by -- financial servicesd own, raymames. and newman's own foundation, donating all profits to charity urishing the common good. and the cellence in journalism foundation. ku and patricia ewing, comtted to bridging cultural differences in our communities, theor coion for bub broadcasting, and by contributions to youriobs st from viewers like you. thank you.
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