robertout over foreign intelligence. i'm robert costa. welcome to "washington week." tensions betwe the united states and i ran, followingn explosionswo oil tankers. >> i ran should meet displomesi not with terro and extortion. robert: backtrack. president trump now says he would alert the f.b.i. if a we political r offered him political dirt, one day after he scoffed at the idea. while pelosi holds the line on impeachment. >> you have to handle it with great care. robert: we cover it all next. ♪ announcer: this is

"washington week." funding is provided by -- >>. kev >> kevin? >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well d.plan learn more at raymond james.com. >> babl, a language program that teaches real-life conversations in a new language such as spanish, french, germa italian and more the 10 to 15-minute lessons are available as an app or online. announcer: additional funding is provided by -- otsuka. kizer permanen. koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation. committed to bridging cultural differences our communities. fe corporation for public

broadcasting andm contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again from washington, moderator robert costa. robert: president trump insisted on friday that iran was responsible for the recently explosions on two tankers, bringing the united states and o oriental close a confrontation. on thursday, two tankers were crippled in the gulf of oman. u.s. military leaders released photos and this video when they -- which they claim show oinchian special ovforces rg an unexploded mine. secretary ofte mike pompeo called it a crisis moment. >> these attacks present a clear threat to international peace and security and an unacceptable campaign of escalating tension by iran. robert: but in has denied

involvement and accused the trump admistration of stoking talk of war. joining me tonight are fourf the sharpers reporters who cover this president. peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times." yamiche alcindor, white house correspondent for the pbs wshour. ashley parker, white house reporter for the wow post and eamon javers, washington correspondent for cnbc. te r, when you look at all of the facts and all of the different cues from this administration, is president trump leaning toward military intervention? peter: that's a great question. he was very straightforward today in saying that iran was responsible. didn't hedge it. he said 's got iran written all over it and yet if you saying what he feels he was not threatening. he wasn't using bombastic terminology and even said he was still open to talks if the iranians want to have it. i think he wasg try be more

measured. more programs than hise m hawk irk advisors. mike pompey -- hawkish advisors. mike pompeo and john bolton. he's not eager to get into a war overseas. robert: is the president still noninterventionist at heart but he's round by hawks like john bolton? >> he is until hell isn't on the who he is an anti-inter conventionalist. there are a uwith cup -- -- couple of core values he holds and that is one of them. he was preforward, not always but anst the iraq war. it's the same region and the same concerns. o one s some talk that n has provided the evidence and there would be some hesitancey get into a war in that region with no evidence. but the president is alsoso one who can be provoked.

everything is about him and his ego he doesn't like to be diminished so if there's a tweet that provokes him or goes too far or statement, he could change his potion on a dime and then change back again. robert: all comes down this video we saw from secretary of state pompeo. the japanese shipping company involved has contested the u.s.'s conclusion that it was definitelyta ori is the u.s. going to stand by this video? >> it seems as though they will. i in some ways share ashley's idea that people can change their mind, including the esident, who is the key person who obviously is always changing his mind. some close to white house advisors have been stressing that iran is a corrupt nation in the u.s.'s eyes. they'veio corrupted the nl banks and is a bad actor in that region. in some ws i think the president has been clear about the fact he thinks this is iran

because of those background ideas. that being said, whoernows whe in goals because i think the president, as both peter and ashley said, he got into this race understanding that war was not what his supporters wanted and i recognize talking to this woman in pennsylvania who was very concerned about the iran sclear dealo these are people that sometimes are talked about as working class peop interested in the economy and other things. i was taken aback that she was really focused on the iran getting into ot more wars. robert: but people are focused on the economy. what you're nbc and talking to investors, what do they think this standoff means for the economy? >> pompeo esms is that's the going to to be a diplomatic and economic response. he was emphasizing diplomacy and economic response so i think that sends a signal to the market that this is a government

in the united states that esn't want to get into a shooting war in the gulf and will do what it can to keep out of that i think that sent a message of reassurance to global markets. robert: could that affect gas t prichis is summer? eamon: absolutely it could. the gulf of mexico is such tiny space and some of the world's oil goes through there and there are so many hostile countries and forces right there, it's a real bot.ene robert: what kind of test is this for president trump? 's aced a lot but this is a particular bringing him close to the brink. peter: it's a test on two levels. one on his handling of iran. how do you exercise touch policy, which is what he wants shorts of getting into a shooting war. through sanctions, by plomesi, what have you. right now he's trying to convince the europeans thagh hes about the tankers. this is not a president whose

lationship with the truths has been particularly close. we've seen this now for three presidents. ever since george w. bush and the iraq war went south with the failure to find w.m.d., the world at large has been skeptical. this is a president whose own credibility is much more questioned than bush or obama and it's a challenge form. h >> it's also a challenge if you talk abouty idea bringing allies and the rest of the on board. for the reasons peter stated but also the way the president has behaved. he pulls out of treaties, he ail yates -- alienates our neighbors to the north and south, that is threatened to destroy ato. i've been on a lot of trims with the vice president who is always coming in behind him saying that thing the president said, don worry, it's not guy quipet as

bad as -- quite as bad as you think. so now he is in a position to have to convince allies he's alnated in a lot of ways and it's an uphill battle. >> the hawks are a little bit in retreat after the venezuela d isode. when the uniates was backing a challenge to the rn incumbent gont in venn scalea. e venezuela. it seemed likere on the verge of potentially changing the governments. that didn't work out.i ink the hawks took some of the blame on that internally in the white hou. they're little bit on the back foot right now. peter: -- robert: pushing iran to come to the negotiation table since the administration walked out of the oriental nuclear deal. we'll keep an eye on it. president trump ignited when he told nbc news he did not anything wrong in receiving p information onitical issue

fr foreigners. those i congress sai it's time to begin the impeachment congress. >> if now isn't the time then i think a lot of folks would like to know when is the time. robert: speaker pelosi facing a bot of that pressuring. we've been talking the impeachment question for weeks.e but the pre's comments oar foreign intelligence, what message does that send to the intelligence community? >> it says that the president is going to openly criticizanyou the president is going to do that really with his own political ccess in the back of his mind so when i think about all this president has said, all the scandals and troverbings, something like this will stand out in time and history. have the president essentially saying in 2020 i'm open again to talking to foreige coun about dirt on my political opponentnai think

y pelosi is in a space where a.o.c. and other freshmen on capitol hill want some reaction. nancy pelosi this week was very cautious. she said i'm not going to be pushed into a one thing going to push me into impeachment proceedings. at the end of in, s if ever does go into proceedings, she wants to say i held off as i could. this is now about patriotism and the counky. i th when we see her not going into knee jerk reaction into impeachment talk, that ght give her more credibility. >> how vulnerable is this president? he views the idea of getting foreign intelligence from a foreign power asottial strength for his campaign but the same could happen on the other side. the chinese could go out and get his tax returnsrom an american computer, still those and put those on kick leaks or theext

stormy daniels' set of documents. those are hackable. if the president is sending a signal to foreign ie,ntellige it's ok for americans to take a look at whatever you guys produce, you're going to have a lot of i hostile intelligen the 2020 elections. robert: -- said it is illegal to self a campaign contribution or informatio from a foreig national. you have to report it to the f.b.i. >> yeah, there's galedebate as to who derogatorynformation about hillary clinton would constitute a thing of value under the law. we haven't taken that on in a court of law. mueller shied away from that. nobody made a legal assertion in that regard. the me interesting thing in some ways is how a president who had basically kind of moved on about the russian thing and now the question is about

obstruction of jufrls and impeachment and now he's put russia back on the table. ro rt: why can't he move on? peter: ashley wrote a good piece on impeachment this week. i think he's obsessed about . th he wants to prove his right. ashley: first, i think what he said that he was open, again, to foreign intelligence, you have to take him his word. that's what he said in a public interviebut peoplelose to him has said this also comes down to his legitimacy so when he went out there in thatin rview and said this part of it was him trying to say i didn't nothing wrong the first time. that whole thing, that witch-hunt,e ths nothing wrong with it and therefore i would do it again. they istres not so much he would do it again, he was trying to defend what heor did b and frankly, defend his namesake, hi son, who did take that

meeting. it felt almost teachly personal rather than the info h really wanted. robert: let's stay with this legitimacy point. if you're asking why doesn't leader mcconnell and the senate move on lathis legon about report together f.b.i. to get foreignon informa is that balls you have -- ublicans wary of angers angering this president knowing he's so concerned about the legitimacy of what happened in 2016? ashl: they've shown a deep unwillingness to cross him on any number of issues. but they are aware of the legitimacy issue, that that is what drove everything. when they talk about the mueller probe, they sort of say athe whole obstruction bucket wouldn't have happened because of the perspective and what he felt was an attack on his

legitimacy, he self-destructed for twoears. >> earlier in the year we had the president sail when it was revealed that kim jong un's half brother or family member had been s aource of administration for the c.i.a., the president said that wouldn't happen under my watch. you're in effect suggesting to the c. that they shouldn't gather intelligence fromosle governments from eullsle sources. their heads must be spinning when the president is saying we're going to put a slowdown on spying on the north koreans and 're also sending signals that the united states he election in 2020 is open for foreign interference. robert: there was a heari this week on deep fake videos. all the disinformation campans that are going to be expected in 2020. miche: one of the most remarkable things, he's worried about his presidency not seen as legitimate but it's also about

his ego andi hs idea he can sell to the american people. enveloped in his conversation s this idea that if you look t lawmakers, who wouldn't want this information? what kind of personal calls the f.b.i.?'s lmost like saying no snisms. this is the president of the united states talking sort of like a mobster and i think that's partsi of the pnt's ego part of his personality. he thinks as a relt he can riled this wave and be political limb sucrdcessful. ress. eachen because talking about this idea that people could hacn get his tax returns or information about stormy daniels. he already has gone through this i'm invincible, go ahead and try to hack me. robert: ashley? ashley: one thing i think we'll se the democrats struggle with is what i think of as asymmetrical warfare, which is

that the same rules of engagement don't apply tohe president. so hacking a differente' candidtax returns could be devastating for his democratic t rival for him there's no problem. same thing with ls or misstress. you could see him on a detective with someone else who fudges the facts and they pay a tremendous price. robert: pter, the impeachment issue in the house seems like it comes up every week. speaker pelosi says he -- the president has committf onses that seem like they could be impeachable yeont they move forward. is this because they're polling or hearing from constituents -- constituents that they don't want to see them go in that direction? peter: some of it is. but they're looking over time if they receive enough evidence to

chan that. polls say that a majori doesn't want impeachment. do you overcome a democratic election without a mandate from the public? rested in the house of representatives for a reason. that's a political body. it's not surprising that they would have an eye to what's happening politically if they took this risk. eamon: what happens if you impeach in the house and send it to the senate? and looks like at that point democrats have run this flag up the flag pole then back down ask they feel that would be a political loser. >> and you've expose led 20, 30 democrats who sits in trump districts who may have just won their seats and you've exposed

them on a vote that might cost them. robert: i spoke to a house democrat this week who was prepared to rally around the impeachment ideahen the president flips his statement on fox news in an, cal what's happening with iran. that even if democrats try to seize on something and bring to it public attentio there's new wave of news that make it harder. president trump had nothing but praise for outgoing press secretary sarah huckabee sanders who announced she would leave during the end of tmonth. the president called her "a warrior." and urged her to run for governor of her home state of arkansas. sarah huckabee sanders, press secrary, what's her legacy? ashley? ashley: i mean, her key legacy is that she effectively ended the white house briefing. i think today is the 95th day when we've not had a briefing.

does that mean it won't be reinstated again? i don't know. it seems less likely under a trump presidency. robert: did that hurt the press's ability to report? ashley: two things. i believss that the p briefing is important. there was lots of chatter about should reporters boycott them? i always think when up a chance to shoup and ask someone in power questions there's a lot of importance in nafments i think all the reporting we're proud of and told something happened behind the scenes. robert: what about what she said in may of 2017 that she had all these pieces of information coming in from f.b.i. agents, former employees and then she had to correct that when interviewed by robert mueller.le hecy on the truth?

yamiche: she had pretty muchcr ibility by the end of her job. i hate to say that because she's a nice wan but st of the information that she shared with reporters had to be checked and rechecked because we knew she was someone who was not going to be alwayselling us the trufmentse. i think whether or not you're judging her on the president's, ge way he would view her. she was definitelyod spokesperson for him and set out her agenda buteps ater i was displayed by her frankly not telling us the truth a lot of times. peter: she had the title of press secretary but not the job of it that. job happens to be filled by donald j. trump d because of that, there was no briefing.id she was afr that she was not suppose toleds get out in front of the president at's a mistake in that a press secretary can take arrow ifs or esident that he or she might not want to take. on the other hand this president

allows us, reporters, to ask us questions in a way his predecessors did not. we get much more access to him directly than we did under president obama and under president bush as well. eamon: true, but we get scrums on the south launch. everkine a question -- some of these people are ci s. >> if there are topics the president or sarah sanders doesn't want to talk about --gr imion. the fact he was named in the new zealand shooters imanfesto. these were things that -- tan presiden sarah sanders could just dodge. >>he can pick the questions he doesn't want to answer. >> mr. president, you said this on this date on on this date, the pentagon said this can't document. >> it's like word association. you shout out a name and let him

go. >> president obama, weeks went without any opportunities for reporters to ask himst qns. whole troverbs came and went and e never asked him once about it. >> i was in sarah sanders' office yesterday ju after the announcement was made public and she was talking to a few of us. on a human level she seemed ly rehoked up and oemotional as she was talking to usbout her tenure. she was asked if she regretted holding more press bgsrief she said no, for that reason, she said the president speaks for themsels. >> a lot of reporters said that behind the scenes often she uld be professional, polite, courteous and frankly, helpful in moments so there was that side of her that was not as public facing. >> a lot othe stuff that you see from the white house aides we see on camera is for show. bluster and posturing and very

much foran shobehind the scenes those same people are not that way allhe time. >> she was certainly personable. robert: there's that and then the administration and how it handles the thorny questions it faces. >> the discipline of having the white house briefing is that the administration itself has to check it facts be aware of the information themselves. it forces that daily dil palestinian every day of knowing what you're going to be criticized for or questions about and knowing you have your facts straying. soter: representative of the most powerful pon the planet day in and day out has th take questionher they want to or not. they can choose to answer or not but it's there on camera.: robeer father is mike huckabee, the former governor of arkansas, populist questioner active. ores she runovernor in

2020? >> the job is not open. >> she's definitely going to run. i was sitting right there when asked if she was going to r. she did not say no. robert: sounds like a polician already. did not say no, being coy. thanks, everybody. next on the "washington week" extra, we'll discuss the race for the democratic nomination and who is breaking out of the pack. m robert costa. ve a great weekend. announcer: corporate funding for "washington week" is approvaled by -- -- provided by --

>> w -- babbel, a language program that teaches real-life conferrings in a new language such a, spani french, german, italian and more. more information on babbel.com. otsuka. kaiser systems permente. raymond james financial services alfirm. additiunding provided by koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundatio committed to bridging cultural differings differencesn our communities. the corporation for publng broadcasnd by contributions to your pbs station from viewers le you. thank you.

it's week 4 of baking mayhem. we've had bread, we've had cakes, we've had biscuits. that tent is seriously hotting up. i think it's the friction from mary's satin bomber jacket. narrator: last time, the bakers took onread. rise! rt maha: oh, it's so stretchy. re thining 9 bakers... whoo! had something to prove. as iain: myt chance to rise to the challenge. nancy: perfect. pure alchemy. ivrrator: luis' inventcreations won him the title of star baker... [applause] thk you. paul: nice idea, but unfortunately it's not been executed that well. and jordan became the third baker to leave the tent. now the remaining bakers face the sauce st signature challengt... kate: oh, no, it's all bubbling! mary: now, that's what i call a sauce pudding. narrator: a technical where precision is paramount... diana: don't make a mess.