robert: another cabinet member steps down. and deportation rates loom. i' robert costa. welcome to "washington week." >> until thi u came there was never an ounce of problem with this very good man. robert: president trump accepts abor signation of secretary alex acosta. the exit comes ascosta's handling of epstein's case i under scrutiny and epstein faces new charges in new york. >> we cannot have as one of the leading appointed officials in america, someone who has done this. >> they came in illegally, they go out legally. >> iigration crackdown. nationwide raids are planned for this weekend. and the president drops his census fight b pledges to

pursue citizenship data in other ways, next. ♪ announcer: this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> kev. >> kevin. . >> kevin. >>dvice for life. life well planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. babel, a real life program teaching new languages such as spanish, french, italian and more. babbel's 10 to 15 mesute lns are available as an app or online. more informationn babbel.com. >> additional funding provided by ku and pricia yuen committed to bridging cultural differens in our communities. the corporation for public roadcasting and by

contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: once again, from washington, moderator costa. robert: labor secretary alex acosta long hovered under the radar in president trump's washington. but a plea deal herokered for jeffrey epstein has cast a shadow over him. and th week effectively forced him out following developments that brought up tough questions about his judgment. federal prosecutors in new york charged epstein on monday with new sex crimes. acosta's critics say he was too soft on epstein a decade ago. acosta defended himself. >> ts was theiew of the office. there is a value to a sure guil plea because letting him walk, letting what the state attorney was ready to do go

forward would have been absolutely awful. robert: but the firestorm did not fade. and acosta submitted his resignation to the president on friday. >> it would be selfish for me to stayn this position and continue talking about a case that's 12 years old rather than about the amazing economy we have right now. and so ied submi my resignation to the president effective seven days from today. >>ust want to let you know, this was him not me because i'm wi him. >> joining me tonight, paula reid washington correspondent for cbs ns. philip rucker, white house bureau chief for "the washington post." kimberly atkins senior wearble correspondent for wbur, boston's m. p.r. station. and jerry sibe, executive editor for "the wall street journal." paula, you've been tracking the

new york prosecutors. why did they debt side to come back on the epstein case a decade lateer? whs prompted t action over last weekend? >> some great reporting by the miami ha -- the mia herald. they started digging into these allegations once again and the uncovered this 2007-2008 that had been brokered by u.s. attorney acosta to helpes resol allegations of misconduct with young women. he got just 13 months. they wer supposed to give him immunity from federal charges. earlier thi year, a federal judge found that this violated the victim's rights because they did not disclose to the victims that they were negotiating this plea deal. we saw earlier this week,ne the charges and allegations. these occurred between 2002 and 2005. robert: and many of acosta's critics say the d he struck in 2008 was too soft that he

could have went for -- acosta said he did what he could the state prosecutors wouldnd move far enough.d is argument hold up? >> the explanation left a lot of folks m likee scratching their heads. it was a false choice. he said he could have eher allowed him to walk free under state prosecution or negotiate this deal which is the only deal that he couldch negotiate w absolutely isn't true. as prosecutor he had discretion for that. he could have at the very least notified the victims but the fact that he didn't led to this entire cwatroversy that h entirely too soft. given what we see now is thety sevef the charges. i mean, this is really, really horrific trafficking of people under age and that he got 13 months is really remarkable. robert: let's over the charges. on monday, federal prosecutors indicted him on new charges. one count of sex trafficking on

minors. epstein pleaded not guilty.n epstnd a friend were running a vast network of urgedage girl f sex some as -- under age girls for sex under 18. they knew they were under 18. i'm s glad we have two attorneys and phil rucker. president trump was watching what did he take away and why did epstein end up resigning? excuse me, why didcosta resign? >> the performance was not the kind of performance we're used to from people when they're trying to please the president. on lacked pas he lacked indignation. you'll remember when brett kavanaugh in his confirmation hearings for the supreme court defended himseo, he did s with a lot of vigor and passion and indignation and anger and trump really liked that. i think trump wasn't sure what to make of acosta's performance.

started asking around and fast forward to friday and acosta's out. rort: he also did not apologize to the victims, jerry? >> i think the way the victims were treated may have been the biggest part of it, at least the publ relations problem even the legal problem not telling the victim what is you were doingtruck a lot of people kind of the worst of the sins that were committed down in florida. but i tnk the backdrop of this that's important to remember is that this isti just cing turnover within the trump administration, remarkable level of turnover. nine cabinet secretaries have resigned. we have an administration that have a not permanent chief of staff, u.nta sec, head of the custom enforcements -- those arepo try, not permanent people. it is a lot of turnover. it's administration on autopilot. the white house willlame the

senate for not confirming people but c that's not thee of the problem. robert: phil h mention president trump was watching acosta's performance. the president wted to distance himself from the relationship with jeffrey epstein he had in palm beachecades ago in the 1990's at the mar-a-lago club. paula asked president truat about elationship in the oval office earlier this week. let's see that. >> mr. president -- >> ok. anybody else. >> do youe think a terrific guy? >> i knew him like everybody in palm beach kne him. people in palm beach knew him. he was a fixture in palm beach. i had falling out with him a long time ago. i don't think i've spoken for hifor5 years. i would say maybe 15 years. i was not a fan of his. that i can tell you. i was not a fan of his. robert: the president's words "not a fan." t what is the real history here? >> back in 2002, f a profile, the president was quoted as

saying he thought epstein w a terrific guy and the two had been friends for 15 years. the president noted that they shared a taste for beautiful women. but he even noted in that article that epstein tend to like them on the younger side. it's interesting here earlier this week, yeah, i don't really like the guy. we had a falling out. but what so strange is that he would not answer earlier this week what that falling out was about. so earlier today at the white house when he had his press availability, i pressed him again. he said it doesn't matter. i said itet does m was this a business dispute or was this about his abusef underage girls? he confirmed a story that has been out there that he threw him out of mar-a-lago after there were complaints on young women. robert: you have a white house that ss this issue is now dead because secretary acosta is going away.ey

say president clinton also knew epstein. he said, president clinton knows nothing about these terrible crimes that jeffrey epstein pleaded glt in flori some years ago. clinton has not spoken to epstein in well other aecade that's what conservatives and republicans are saying. does this issue go away for president trump? >> i don't think the issue goes away until he offers a fuller accounting with epstein. epstn's behavior with him has been an open secret in palm beach for years. we need to tryo kno what did trump know? when did he know it? did he know that epstein was with these younger stpwhim did he do anything about it? could have witnessed some of this behavior? did it happened at his club? he will continue to face these questions until he answers the robert: is the character question a factor? >> we are in the me too era,

right? these questions have particular resonance. these questions are not inescapable. there's going to do be an -- a court proceedings. it is going o be in full display in new york f some time t come. >> jerry brought up how there are so many acting secretaries inside of this argument. you haveatck pazella. was secretary acosta facing pressure from conservativ? >> absolutely. when i was talking to republicans on the hill this week, their number one complaina about the job that acosta was doing not necessarily his treatmentf this case at the time. they belve he wasot rolling back regulatory efforts fast enough, the obama regulations with the a speed gusto that

president trump wanted. and they wanted him out already. the treasure that built up, it was actually a concern that donald trump wanting to fight the democrats callor his resignation might keep in his off longer, but all of those the s seem to converge and lackluster defense of himself seed unten b >> and it was coming to the -- from the business communi. >> fiduciary duty, regulations involving workplace rules, just wanting to be more pro-business. >> to be fair to secretary acta, his argument was if you fully do these things ca you'll find that they get rolled back in the court. his argumen was do it slowly but do it right. robert: one last thing on the d.o.j. front, where is robert mueller's testimony stand? is that on? is that off. he was supposed to come last week. >> it's in the air. he's expected to come on

wednesday but there were some concerns that his testimony omuld be limited to only senior members of thettee because of the time restrictions. some of the younger members wanted to have an opportunity to have the special council question. robert mueller is open to this. but it's not clear if it will be pushed to the following week. officially set for jul 24th. we got some baking news on that. with congress on and the d.o.j. u never want to say it's set in stone. let's turn to the census because president trump backe off his battle to insert a citizenship question for next year. he ordered a sweep of all federal data bases for exiting -- existing census. this comes after the administration is ready to deport this weekend.

>> we must have a reliable count of how many citizens, noncitizens and ill leem aliens are inur country. robert: attorney general bill ba h suggested thaing more information about noncitizens is essential for districting. >> there's current dispute whether illegal aliens can be included for apportionment purposes. depending on that,his data may be relevant to those nsiderations. we will be studying this issue. robert: opponents argue the legal battle and public debate could have a chilling effect on undocumented immigrants who could be afraid t in the census. phil, the administration wanted to take ts hard line on immigration uses the census as a way to insert a citizenship question. did the supreme court force their hand to back off? >> they did. i mean, the supreme court is the highest court on the land and had a ruling that the administration ultimately concluded they had tofoll.

presidt trump's instinct was to dig in and fight on this and that's because he saw political advante. he thought his conservative base would want to see him fighting for the citizenship questn. it polls very well with republicans and with conservatives. and it's a ver oy sortf simple issue for folks who support trump to ralehlyd. and he thought this was galvanizing his supporters but there was not a legal path for the administration to put the question on the census either by ecutive order or to challenge it in the courts. ultimately trump gave up. this is a concessio the part of the administration. robert: experts say that mapnls basedy on the citizen operation would reflect more white and less diverse. and the administration say they're moving in that direction. >> it would make it more publican. would trip democrats of power and embolden republican districts. that's precisely why up t now all residents have been considered when drawing maps because think abo it, a lot of

things are based on this not just the congressional maps but also federal funding and people who are in the country. we're talking people who ls have visas who can be in the country legally. they are using t services. ey are just as much a concern of the people in that -- in the district as everybody else. so to deny funding to them would only hurt everyone in those districts and that'he argument of democrats. but phil is exactly right. this wasn immigration fight. the president sees immigration as the keyssue f him in 2020 to get re-elected and to please his base. and he is goi to bang that drum any way he can. robert: what do you make of the attoey general play here congratulations the president? he had some trouble in the courts with d.o.j. lawyers earlier in the week. what's next for bill barr? >> wouldnd even pretend to guess -- >> he has truly surprise me. you get a sense of why he took this job. a sense of duty. he has aien expansiveof

executive power. but he has been a surprise. outhe supreme said you're not going to get a citizenship question on the census. bar d.c. r was look -- barr was still looking foior o. we pressed the president on this. he suggested loan applications. we're gng to be one trove of information from the federal tovernment. bugain, yes, william barr also saying that it was rampa speculation that there was going to be an executive order. the president said he wacos idering an executive order. >> don: think we should lose sight ofhe fact that this country has pushed the country to the edge of a very big debate which is how d ao yortion congressional districts? is it perso o eligible voters or citizens? that's a huge question. it's never beeth decided b supreme court in the rueli --

ruling the court -- justice ue thation here. that's got to come at another time. when we get to that point, that's going to be an explosive debate in this c. robert: let's talkability the latest report. we got a pool report from josh dawesy. he's with vice president pence down in texas at the mcallen border station. he saw hundreds of men, phil in cage-like atmosphere down in texas. he was brought in as the pull reporter. he captured images that if you go to his twitter account you'll see and its rocheting online as to a real glimpse that it's a crisis. how iss t administration handling it? >> yeah, so this was a tour that the vice president along with republican members of congress were taking in texashe and conditions that dawesy described were truly horrific. these pple were - men, all of them men nearly 400 piled into a cage. there's not even enough room on

the floor for cots. the stench in the roo vy bad. very hot. sweltering heat. no air-conditioning. this is going to ricochet for the president. because the president has maintained that the condiseons in t facilities are good. and better than what these h immigrane come from in their home countries. and here his own vice president is doing a tour, which you would think thed a --he administration officials would present them as clean. >> here's vice president pence said. i knew we would see a system that was overwhelmed. >> yeah, i mean, saying that you expected an overwhelmed systemca aning on democrats to send more funding there. i don't think is a -- it's going to work as an adequate response from this administration to these pictures. i mean, they are literally people in cages some of whom who haven't been able to bathe i over a week. they say in realtime these folks

were denying claims that they were getting three meals a day and getting accessygone. tat's going to be a really, really tough imagio rebut. >> you have the vice president inex. you have ice raids scheduled to start this weekend. who's being targeted? they have been ordered deported some becauseaif theirre to appear in court and in at least 10 cities are going to be volved in raids. you have the pictures from the report. and the ice raids starting this weekend. what does this mean for congress? >> well, look,here's a short term and long-term answer. people are going to respond to this kind of picture of the condition on the bordernd democrats and republicans alike and want to do something about it. and that's, think, is going to be a bipartisan impulse. i don't think anybody is going to say no. there's a huge issue in the 2020 campaign. it's just going to get bigger and bigger. robert: and there's a real

debate how to respond to the raids andll this. lawmakers testified about theio cond at migrant detention centers. >> this is a manufactured crisis becausehere is no need for us to do this. there's no need u fors to overcrowd and to detain and underresource. in's no reason to arrest innocent people and treat themnt no differe when they are pursuing their basic mue han rights. robert:casio-cortez is saying that they should not deal with the president on immigration. you have a speaker of the house that has clashed with ocasio-cortez aut strategy for the democratic party. where does it go? >> at some point they do need tg comeher and resolve the issue of asylum. they need to decide how you can seek asylum in the u.s. and you if -- if you have these large numbers how do y for them? do you want to keep families

together? they do have tor come toget and decide on how to proceed with our asylum laws and how to care for people ihincountry. the president argues that democrats aren't doing enoug to be blunt, the system is not designed to hold this many people. it is true that our law en arcement officiang the border they are not nurses. they are not trained to care for people in this -- in this large volume. >> what do you make of the speak they're -- what do you make of the speaker this week? she's getting this pressure from the left. >> she's getting a lot of pressure from t lt. and another issue that she's feeling heat on is the question ofeachment and what to do about trump after the mueller report bause she's been trying to delay any sort of decision about impeachment proceedings and increasingly her caucus her membership in the house is frustrated and agitated and they want to see some actions. >> one of the issues here is

don't mess with nancy. she's tough.pe le in her caucus know that. conservative who is dealt with her over the years khat as well. and i -- i think she is basically trying to guide our ucus down a center path because she's got to worry not just about a.o.c. and members from blue districts, she's got to worry about members 31 of them who won in 21 districts that donald trump carried in the 2016 presidential election. she's got a broader caucus ocasio-ctez realizes. robert: they have a twitter following and she said i have power. when asked if she regretted hers commbout her house votes? .he said no regre >> she doesn't do regrets. that was a little trumpian coming from her. i think, all those things were true. that so has the problem not just these four lawmakers want to see things done, not

just in their disicts but when it comes to things like the situation at the border. phil is absolutely right about thwing number of people including her ally who are calling forprmpeachment eedings at least to begin. i think at some point they're heing to have to move forward and that can't just hold the line. robert: where does it m is it toward an asylum deal or towardnt impeach do the democrats say enough of this? >> there's a push toward impeachment. but i think the calendars running out. you can't start an impeachment proceedings before an election year? >> no, you shounled. voters want answers on immigration and infrastructure. she's trying to steer people away from that. further more as robert mueller's eventual testimony will show it's not clear that they have a sufficient case, this question of obstruction was ambiguous. is in the case you want to go on or see what happens in the

southern distric of new york and other questions on loan fraud and maybe he's reelected then pursue that issue. robert: does the hard lin continue when the images that we see from twitter, from dawesy and others at the border today? oes this pull the administration bac is it raids and everything else? >> i don't think so. we've had a number of moments where we're seen kind of human horror at the border and the president has not reacted with empathy and not changed his policy. robertt we'll keep tracking t story and many others. thanks for being here. we'll have msh on the "washington week" ex--- we'll "washington he week" extra. i'm robert costa. have a great weekend. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.visit ncicap.org] te

announcer: corpora funding for "washington week," is provided by -- >> babbel, a language program that teaches real life conversations in a null language such as spanish, french, german, italian and more. babbel's 10 to 15 minute lessons are av alable as anpp or online. morenformation on babbel.com. financial services firm, raymond james. additional funding is provided by ku and patricia yuen, through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities, the corporate for public oadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

welcome back to the tent.t. re at the quarter final stage, and with only 5 bakers left stding, who are mary and paul gonna pick off next? they're like the velociraptors of the baking world. dddllll! rrrlll! mel: last time, the bakers strove for perfect pastry. nancy: come on, pasties! mel: richardxcelled at eclairs... great pastry thank you. winning star baker for the third time. others didn't fa so well. this is awl. ow! looks a little bit messy. yeah. mel: and kate became the seventh bar to leave the tent. with fruity signatures... he just does achieve the perfect coil loaf in a tortuous technical... it's a funny-looking thing. and conjure up 36 mouth-watering doughnuts. curtain ring. who has the skill to stay the course?