robert: theer mueeport shines a bright light on the president's conduct. i'm robert costa. president trump claims victory and continues to attack the mueller report calling it crazy, but democrats say, hold on. >> the special couple made clear he did not exonerate the president and the congress hast hold the president accountable. >> thettorney germ and special counsel a cled to testify as a new political battle begins. we cover itxt all, ne announcer: this is "washington week." funding is provided by --

>> kevin. k >>in. >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well planned. learmore at raymondjames.com. >> babbel, a language program that teaches real lifeon conversatis in a new language such as spanish, french, german, italian and more. babbel's 10 to 15-minute lessons are availae as an app or online. more information on babbel.com. announcer: additional funding is provided by -- koo and patricia yuen through thyuen foundation, committ to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributionto your pbs station from viewers like you. ank you. once again, from washington, moderator robert costa. robert: good evening, the

release of robert mueller's 448-page report margd the end of the special investigation but also the start of a political war. . mueller's volume on russian's efforts were extensive showing how first and business executives sought to boost the campaign but they did not accomplish that they conspired with russia. mr. mueller provided a portrait how the president operates. they were under oath. depen and again, the president is portrayed as angry and pushing his advisers to the brink of obstructing justice or to lie. attorney germ barr called the president's reaction furious. >> the president was frustrated and angered by his pleff that the investigation was undermining his presidency.

bert: the president told don mcdepaun that mueller had to go and engaged the justice department but mueller writes that other requests >> unsuccessful because other people around the prident declined. it demands more scrutiny and more testimony. >> whether these contacts were sufficiently elicit were to rise, they were dishonest, unethical, immoral and should be condemned. robert: kaitlan collins for crmp c nmp. is, yamiche alcindor, carl hulse from the "new york times" and josh dawse t from washington

post. a vivid portrait. it shows the president trying th ge advisers to act on his behalf and they said n operates? w the president kaitlan: it seems related to the mueller report and happens on some many reports. and any kind of decision the president tweeting additio t. there iss run-around going around behind theces and the president is trying to get people, change his mind. so the president is seeing this and going so angry and i his being covered in cable news and going angry. is seeing how his staff sees him behind the scenesnd the very different picture and how they talk about him publicly. >> one of the chief perpetrators

was donah m and don mcgahn in his extensive interviews, 30 hours or so, in his happened written notes described the president trying to fire department officials and go around avenues and at every turn was trying to take this probe and trying to get it off. an jeff sessions unrecues and don mcdepaun is the star witness. for all of the details, the cover, the schemes, th lies and the testimony of don mcgahn are would he have together and the president is frustrated with don mcgahn was he is showing the president. robert: the president is fuming on twitter, but mcgahn is a

complicated >> he is a lawyer who plays in a rockd band aaccomplished musician and biggest accomplishment with the judges. he has worked with the president to develop the famous judicial list of the supreme court nominees that was beneficial to the president. and worked with mitch mccobble to put dozens and dozens of people on the supreme court. at the same time, you could look at him two ways, one, his olympicing of the president and refusal to do what the president have ordered. two, elivered what is going to be the biggest legacy of the ump era. robert: talked about mcgahn saving the president and that was within of the main questions

we were askin why didn't mr. mueller come to t differonclusion on obstruction. the "washington post"aid it was complicated, d.o.j. practice that a sitting president can't be accused of crime. the president didn't obstruct justice but at the same time, what does it say about his presidency. >> what the report is abouthe idea that someone could consider a mad king, he isth givine orders and people are calling him crazy saying i'm not going to follo that through. and how hard it was to get to get be elected president and he feel h people thinke is not legitimate. when you read this report, his instaff is s a lot of his decisions are not legitimate. that has to be infuriating and a

lot of people have gathered over the last couple of years, the president has these ideas about things he wants toha do a a lot of them aren't legal. the staffon't want to be caught up in doing ale lot of l things. robert: what makes this difference. the "new york times" and "washington post," by c nmp n b an woodward, here, it's the president's own aides on the record describing how he was governing this country and how he was trying to effect this probe. it i harder for the president to say, fake news, no way and people saying it under oath. h kaitla is so mad at don mack depan and he was part of the reason, notes he took and recollectionsng he had du the recollections of the special

counsel but he helped the president avoid an obstruction of justice charge. when a lot of thenformation in here that is damning of the president came from a wide girth. robert: w didn't mr. muscle irdemand the president sit down? we are talking about thi it doesn't get to the president's intent. >> whene see mr. mueller on capitol hill, there will be at questions. he decided he didn't want to goingthe time and i'm not to waste the time to get the president to testify. in other ways, he left bread crumbs in the report for congressaying, it's your job to investigate some of these things, but didn'tome out and declare that. so i think people want to hear from him on the hill and get an

explanation. robert: he said in the report that the president's were inadequate but would have called it too much of a delay. they kept thinking mueller team team was goi to say you have to come in for an flew and never did. the prosecutors can never say why the president was doingth sog. there are a lot of holes. we don't know what the en press intent here. robert: what about the political ng? s of l you have all these instances throughout the w report, tte house press secretary, president trump talking about don junior'r meeting, flynn, there are pervasive lies,f even i it doesn't rise to the level of obstruction of justice. >> sarah sanders was doubling down that we know now wasn't

true. she was hearing in personalac co with all sorts of f.b.i. agents were telling herhat they were not happy with james comey. she told the special couple and went on tv today. robert: why is that, is that because the whole culture of loyalty is she under pressure? >> i think theyep want to their jobs. and they are continuing to lie while not having any political problems with that. there weres issth the midterm, that was largely on democrats to talk about health care. 2020 a will be completely different story. maybe people will look at thisp and the president is trying to get him to lie. i was talking to a democratic consultant is he going to get

away with it, and the answer is yes. robert: how does the white house defend that? >> the president didn't dictate that miss lding. e was told that he did not done that. and she later learned that the president's attorney to the special counsel that he actually dictated the statement. that is the statement she is getting bad information and fascinating what youri about and see the president get away with lying. that is an epidemic and trump and can get away with it. as far as the lying goes, it stems from t top. president trump says the lies,m s the staff extend the lies and sarah sanders -- >> the president is accusing the people who testified under oath that he told them to lie and

accused them of lying. >> the president encouraged his cooperate. he is angry today. cobb and saying we are not go to go raise executive privilege. >> former and currentia off and for 10, 20, 30 hours. and they brought in notes. they never exerted privilege. once a different team of lawyers, rudy giuliani, took an aggressive posture. a lot of these key interviews were done. the theory is we will cooperate extens and hope the president gets cleared quickly and we ve nothing hide. at the end, they didn't exertpr ilege. the president and his team told truth in and tell the and you are seeing blowback what the white house said do

>> i will say in the report. in the instances on the report where the president's words are at odds, the report fds that the weight of the evidence is usually with the otherern. they do not pleeven the president when he ex erts that. robt i reserve the balance of my time. democrats have called on attorney general barr and specia counsel mueller to testify, they want to probe. andy say he seemed to be protecting theresident. house judiciary committee jerry nadlerssued a subpoena to barr for the unredacted report. late friday, the justice department pushed back and said they did all that was necessary to do. the question goes to house mocrats, how do you handle a report that does president recommencriminal charg but raises many questions? >> nancyelosi is in a tough spot. congress has talked about

robert mueller said congress has the authority to check this president and look at his behavior and really protect the integrity of the constitution. nancy pelosi hasn people i her party that are running for president and the question iset r or not you want to have 2020 to be about these fights and testimonies on the hill or move past this and move past the idea of bringing p in people and take that case to the american people and say we are going to use this people 689 we are going to say the president is corrupt. if you didn't read the report and this is something you need to knowabout or do you bring in people. what i hearing from democrats, shey are not interested in a long continuonversation about the mueller report. robert: what abo attorney general barr and they are not happy with his summary and press

conference before the report is released. >> the president's outside legal team looked at it. that was an interesting thing. not a lot of democrats were he calling for president's impeachment. they were caug for bill barr to be fired or resigned which will not do. the president is comparing him to jeff sessions. the president is pleased. >> i think the democrats expected barr to be siding with the president but never expected to be as bad as theyre consi it to be. wi will have an uncomfortable time. the democrats when he testifies, they are four yous. robert: whatou they do? >> they could complain and .barrass h i think setting the narrative in

washington is very important i these stories. anbar really helped the president. the report coming out is starting to reverse that narrative. they are furious. they think he acted improperly. >> if you watched barr's press conference before theeport came out, the defenses he gave of the psident mir order of the president's defineses. no coordination or conspiracy. he said no collusion, over and he said the president had noncorrupt kept.es the ent was mad at the investigation. what explains that is either barr feels that way after looking athe report, he sees noncorrupt intent or has a broad expansive view of expansive wer and the president has the

right to do all of these things he public should not be able to repudiate him for that essentially and he seems comfortable in the role of defendg the president almost as his own personal lawyer. >> one of the tngs that barr said at that a.m. press conferences. they cool ask informe questions and that has to be flagged over. had they seenhe report, that presser would have been different. he said robert mueller didn't make the. congress is mentioned smany times it is clear that mueller saw the real for congress in obstruction of justice anbar didn't have to make that in his letter talking about the report. robert: are republicans totally with this psident? we saw former massachusetts

governor williameld is running. any other cracks that are with him? >> it depends on who you ask. many of them have said, it is problematic to see this culture in dishonesty. but they haveeen very quick to say they are no collusion and no obstruction. senator romney was talking about the report. he was sayg, he was the most critical so far. f nd it sickening but he toed party a line said no obstruction. one of those things that they come across criticizing that behavior but didn't say there ouldn't be some questions. >> rob portman called it and bold statement.

they are hanging in there with the president. th have used the excuse, we have to review the report. there is no eagerness on the senate side. robert: you covered the house as well,mmfment, is it happening or not in the house? i don't think so. i think what they will do is continue to investigate, have witnesses and get into that cucible. robert: why not. haupted by what what happened in the 1990's. what happened with bill clinton in 1998. they said it will be distracting fromca healt. and keep the focus on this. once you turn itnt a an impeachment process, the republicans are saying he is being persecuted. and speaker pelosi said she doesn't want to do this without

bipartisan support. >> the other side yl w see ferocious effort as what they see bad conduct and to turn the tables on on a lot of the democrats and folks who are calling for collusion, am schiff comments, f. president and his team seem mord emed than ever before to turn the narrative to investigate the investigators. bert: mr. mueller's mandate to investigate russian interference. he showed that russia carried to provoke and amplify social discord and wipt into great detail how the russians used warfare. and by 2016 showed support for president trump and disparage

hillary clinton. and released information through wikileaks. mr. mueller wrote that the investigation did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired. let me step back and weoced on the obstruction. there is an enormous volume on russian interference. is this u.s. government and a president who has been skeptical of russian sbrerns do they address it? >> it's hard to say. attorney germ barr said there were efforts from the russian government to interfere. they had a sweeping wayf interfering with the 2016 election. i was atanding few feet at 11:00. the first thing i read was that line, russia interfered with the

election. apart from this argument, we are americans and we have a foreign government interfered and setting up in houston, texas, where they had one side for one thing and possibly, i'm thinking behind the scenes there are officials that will figure out that 2020 is different. it's hard to say because i looks as though the president doesn't want to bn s as an illegitimate president and i think it will guide wher he thinks about this. >> barr's press conference gave endorsement. and that is not what you hear from president trump. he was saying the real crimesre committed by the hillary clinton campaign and when you read the report, it makes clear hothey hacked to get the emails from hillary clinton to

embaass her a try to help her chances of winning the election. that is concerning. because as senator rubio has said, it can be republicans on the other side of th target next time and no one wants them interfering them. >> the president doesn't like to talk about this. there is bipartisan concern about this. senator mcconnell talks about this. they will find a way to do something to limit this. but you are fighting the last r. there will be a new whole new way to interfere. i think both sides reaze outside the president this is a serious issue. >> i talkedo the president's first homeland security adviser and he said the reading of the report was scary and not prepared t handle it. three, four administrations have been dealing wit this. and no one has taken it seriously and should be a wakeup

call. >> and used it as a way to blame president obama. robert: thanks everyone. and our conversation will continue every friday starting at 8:308 p.m. eastern. have a happy holiday weekend. announcer: corporate funding is provided by --

>> babbel, a language program that teaches real life conversations in a new language such as spanish, french, german, italian and more. babbel's 10 to 15-minute lessons are available as an app or online.mo information on babbel.com. announcer: financial services firm, raymond james. additional funding is provided by -- koo and patricia yuen thugh the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcastingand by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org.] y 're watching pbs.

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