robert: a standoff over ow exutive p andhe rule of law. >> i'm not going to be bullied r influenced by any dy. robe: the attorney general serts his independence following a crisis of confidence at the justice department. but the president insists he has a legal right to intervene and pursues a vendetta. >> where's comey? where's mccab robert: we dighe into t reporting on this critica showdown. presidential race as it heads ic west and south,♪ next. announcer: this is "washington week." funding is provided by --

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the corporation for public oadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again from washington, moderator robertosta. robert: good evening. following his acquittal in the a , a confident and vengeful president is testing the limits ofxecutive power. but president trump's efforts to protect his friends and punish his foes has sparked a firestorm at the f department prompting resignations and forcing the attorney general to answeron questi it began on monday when prosecutors in the roger stone case rommended that the long-time trump advisor receive a 7 to 9-year priste se only charges of obstruction of charges and witness tampering. the next day the president denounced the move. and the d.o.j. announced a softer recommendationeading

ur prosecutors to quit the case and one left the government entirely. democrats were outraged and republicans were mostly muted. >> this is an abuse of power that the presidents trying to manipulate federal law political interest. h and the president is what he is. hee thinks he's abhe law. he has no respect for the rule. but where are the republicans to speak out on this blatant violation on the rule of law? >> the president made a great choice when he picked bill barr to be attorne tgeneral. nk the president should listen to his advise. robert: attorney general william barr decided to speak to abc news's pierre thomas on thursday. he said he planned to mify the sentencing before the president tweeted. barr then told the president to step off. >> wheer it's congress, newspaper, editorial boards or the president, i'm going to do what i think is right. i cannot do mjob here at the

department with a constant background commentary that ridercuts me. robert: byy, a new develoent has further challenged the bond betwatn the rney general and the president, the justice department will not bring charges against former acting f.b.i. director andrew mccabe for lying to investigators about a media disclosure. joining us tonight, molly ball, national political correspondent for "time" magazine. josh dawsey, white house reporter for "the washington post." josh lederman, political reporter for nbc news, and amna nawaz, senior national correspondent for the pbs newshour. let's begin with the josh, you've been publishing all day about andrew mccabe a the president. what's the latest? what's the president's response? >> well, the preside has a deep vitriol for andrew mccabe. he belves that his wif worked for hillary clinton and he was ne of the officials out to get

him. some of this is disputed. but anyway, the presidentan wand ew mccabe to be charged. tod when d.o.j. saidt t andrew mccabe would not be charged, th president did not get a heads up and his lawyer came in to explain to what was happening. and the president and barr spoka thernoon. there's been a pretty tense few g.ys between the president and barr. and it's been interesting cause barr is his favorite cabinet member. he handledll the m probe. he's repeated dwhaun the president has wanted. this is the first tgible riff ween these en b two men. robert: you just said that attorney general tn e with the friday. what do you knowbout that conversation? >> we're still trying to figure out all the details. what wew k is that attorney general barr has been trying to communicate with the president, please stop tweeting. please stop making these public

commentsbout d.o.j. probes. these comments are not help to feel you, they're not hpful to me. can you please step down? we know that wanted mccabe charged. we know h wanted james com charged. we know there's been a number of disagreements between these two men. and that barr has tried to get some distance from theid prt. robert: you've been talking to former federal prosecutors all week on the newshour. what does your reporting tell you that how former officials at the d.o.j. are interpreting all that? do t they s attorney general reclaiming the instition an reclaiming it? >> first of all, it's worth noting how extraordinary it is that a.g. barr had to go on public television to deliver this message that josh was deliver blind the scenes. o we know they're very, very the fact that he had to go to

that extreme show where is the relationship is. bu we know that there was a fallout. he was always trying to contain. he stepped over the line's prosecutor recommendation on sentence. 's he came in and said that's too excessive. ave no idea where that's going land that upset a lot of people. rank-and-file prosecutors within the d.o.j. even though it's totally legal and within his power and per strew d so, it is totally unusual. it's very, very rare that that kind of thi happens. and for a lot of line prosecutors that undermines their ability to move fward for similar cases. why would you stick your neck out there? it sent a huge signo a.g. barr and he had to publicly go out and make that statement. robert: what's your read as a o report the attorney general? he is at one level sending these messages.o the preside but it was still reported this

week that he's appointed an outside prosecutor to look into the flynn case, former nationals security a michael flynn appropriately.at was done d the sentencing with roger stone. where is he with this president >> he has as josh and amna said, he's had a very strong relationship with the president. he's been trying to walk this fine line, tight rope that may not actually exist between being the president's personal lawyer which is what he wants from his maintaining a big leaf of eaves resptbility -- and he is a true believer of executive power. he's given a lot of speeches to this effect. he doeshink that the president can do almost whateve he wantsus and he hasfied a lot of actions of the president's on that basis. but he doesn't seese h as a mignon. he doesn't see mississippi himself as doing the president's bidding. so when the president is out in

tweets, it undermines not only, you know, br's credibility in the building but the ability to say, you know, i'm acting on the basis of the law. i'm notcting on the preside's whims. it makes it much harder for to have any credibility when he says that. when he does this -- sens t public signal that's an extreme step to take when the private signals weren't being heeded. but for these line prosecutor who are disturbed by the president's behavior, it's simply a rhetorica move. he hasn't done anything to contain trump. and he didn't do anything with rega to this case when the prosecutor's resigned it to. >> josh, you'veor rd on the white house on theueller investigation and you see the president frustrated about the mabe atcision. next for this president post acquittal? is he still going to go in an avengeful way from his foes from the president bush yeah pbe?

is he going ask for action? because look, isn't taking place in a vacuum. this has been part of alurry of activities since the president's acquittal that has suggested hs out for vengeance. he dismissed vindman and sondland. the president seems to be emboldened by the fact at there weren't any real that he took in ukraine. and one of the challenges for his critics is there's not lot of remedy left. there's very little appetit among democrats in congress to re-impeach. h there's a concern that democrats are out to get the president as opposed to pursuing things that really need beooked at. and barring that what, are democratsd suppo do? >> josh, you heard no probably frustrations from republicans. i talked to senator kramer who a he agreed with all these steps. he thought the president waswe

right to about roger stone. talked to people close to mitch mcconnell. he has no desire to get involved. mccarthy has no desire to get involved. he has a republican party that he has a 90% aroval on and has a total grip across the country. thertare few people t are trying to harness them in. and what are democrats going do outside the election and campaigning? they've tried for the impeachment a the mueller report. they're hands are a bit tied too. it's a spot where the first three, three and a hff years o his presincy, in some ways he's in the strongest pyeositn to do as he wants, to run the white house as he wants. this year we saw he brought back of people in there. whole number i mean, he now is running thi in some ways like trump tower. all the people who >> trying to rein him in aren't

there anymore. >> he's getting the band back together. that's clear. for the last final months of his term that's clear. absolutely vid he was when jeff that investigation, and speciale council's p and the 2016 interference because he feels that grew from that. thated to flynn's indictment and stone's indictment and to the impeachment trial. all of this has been building for the president up until point. robert: he's always asked, where's my roy cone? t and ahis point, do you see the attorney general maybe being forced at some point t resign or step away? is it a breaking point or not? because at some level yo see the durham investigation of how t.he c.i and the russia investigation and other issues still working its way through o departme justice. >> there are few categories of

people who publicly disagree wi the president on the republican side. democrats yes, they're political rtisans. but you people have left the administration and feel comfortable speaking out once they're out of his per view and out of his power and there are some people who are out of his tlationship and knows tha president relies on them that they can publicly disagree with him on the -- a few things. william barr is in that category of people. there are certain things that he believes to be true about the rule of law. we don't ne where that's going to go. robert:ly m you're writing a biography of speaker pelosi. it's a great looking book. she's been through the impeachment she is going bring up attorney general barr to the house judiciary committee. he will testify. but what now for the house democrats? >> pelosi resisted impeachment in part for this reasonecause

it was clear f had thoroughly -d that impeachment was n going to bear any tangible result and, den thismight only emb president. and that is exactly what has happened. and i think toomeone like speaker pelosi who is an institutionalist, who cares very deeply about the constitution is that not only is this a problem for holding this pticular president accountable because is toothless. en that any remedy but it's a challenge to the constitution and the rule of law s as he sees it because the only accountability measure ino theitution now just doesn't work if the partisan doesn't line up. wlibe about roger stone's case. he's now demanding a new trial because of concerns about the jury. >> there are several people are close to the president who aree all u some type of legal situation where the president seems to want attorney general barr to intervene.

again, we have these developments with roger stone at the t exacte that we've got these developments with michael ynn. a real eagerness by attorney general barr to take a heavy-handed approach to how those cases play out. as long as i doesn't seem like the president wasn't ordering -- robert: before or after the election? >> i think he willee advantages until after the election. >> the president has repeatedlye criticized cases against michael flynn, roger stone and manafort. he hasn't done anything about it. a lot of his, kind of -- >> he's tweeted about it. >> but not done anything abouti if you're paul manafort and you're in solitary confinement -- >> a pardon is on the table? >> well, the president has made a lot ofabout the cases but he hasn't done much legally

for the cases. ter the election the dynamic has changed politically. there will be a lot of peopy who o not pardon these guys. it could nobbling your poll numbers. -- knock your poll numbers. once the election is over things change entirely. >> all that is playing out as the democratic presidential race enters a new race. pete buttigieg finished close bld him followed by klobachar and elizabeth warren and joe biden >> this victory here is the beginning of the end for donald trump. >> vulnerable americans do not have the luxury of pursuing ideological purity. >> hello, america,my i'm klobachar, and i will beat donald trump. step of the way. >> former new york may you,

michael bloombe and he is making overtures to african-american voters. >> i think we're going to do very well in the afrin-american community. they need a good economy. they need better schools. and those are the kinds of things that i can bring -- >> josh, you've been on the campaign trailh w mayor bloomberg all week. can he get over his stopnd frisk policy from new york and win over african-american voters inside south carolina and in super tuesday states early in march? >> was stunned to see the number of african-american vthat showed up at hisents this week as we were with him and south tennessee and north carolina. i asked them is this something that bothers you? element like joe biden where they know mike bloomberg because he's been on thetate for so long. they say things like i know where his heart is. but mike bomberg is

double-edged sword. thesame elements that make him appealing because it looks like might be able to people off some of his voters, go get the progressive firebrand to push their cause. in the same part of him that is sort of aoc tect and make him successful and olicy appealing as a businessman. and mayor, he's said a lot of things in his career that arenu rically accurate but are off-come lorp and rub people the wrong way. >> and mayor bloomberg is not only the only people facing his criticism of his policy. >> iowa and new hampshire are ery different.

>> 90% white. >> and for all the support we're seeing nationally -- like, you look at the african-american vote in particular, right? and no democtic nomin has won the nomination without winning the majority of that vote. it just doesn't happen. everybodngs been looki at joe biden buthen your whole message is electbility and you come in fourth and fifth, y starto lose ground. and we've seen it. so far in south colina tom steyer is pick up some of those voters. >> is he spending a lot of money? >> he' spending the money and pick up on the people have doubts on biden in the same national poll where biden's support has bn dropping, bloomberg has been stepping up. so it's still a very fluid race. i was down in south carolina running a story about joe biden. and his campaign sees it as a fire wall. he has to turn it around.

has to bring african-american voters out. a lot of fol think he still can. he says if he liked himself today biden wins. but steve benjamin the mayor of colombia your heart is collectibility, voters are to be taking other looks at different people. others are women him right now. the question is if they see momentum fading what do they do. >> >> can he stih together a coalition especially as senator elizabeth warren struggles on the left. >> he won new hampshire and hev nearly won the popular vote in iowa. from his perspective, he ought to be the overwhelming front running. however, i think you -- there's

a loft caveatsround that from the so-called democratic establishment. robert: is there a democratic establish anymore? >> absolutely, there is. absolutely, there is. and they are fearful tt bernie sanders are not electable. that's why peopl are flocking to them because they so desperatel ju want to be trump. they're willing to forgive almost everything else. >> it's true of a lot of the nonbernie supporters andhi so faction of the democratic party this sort of mainstrea of the democratic party is saying, you to win in a fractured fweeled 25% of the vote does not show th he can be the standard bearer. it's going to do be his challenge to if he can consolidate this. >> i remember when you said that

pe buttigieg's campaign a year ago -- a narrow second place finish in name. how is h capitalizing. as he looks to not only south carolina but super t>>sday. he started to ramp up his operations and other parts of e country. he ss that he now is going to have staff in every state that ispe cng on super tuesday. robert: what's the message though? e's he message is that h coalition builder. someone that can bring people together and that some of these other candidates staort drop off he will start to consolidate other moderate candidates. but one of the things we heard talking to them around the country, is that, you know, in washington we talk about progressive lane and the moderate lane. way.they're thinking of it >> my second choice is bute -- buttigieg. it's difficult to predict how

that will play out as the field gets smaller and smaller and smaller. robert: you've seen minority candidates struggle. but senator klobachar comes o of nowhere and finishes a strong third in nehampshire can. she capitalize on that quickly enough to actually make a dement this case and be aontender. >> you know, we've seen her kind of step up to seizehe moment. she sees she has momentum. what i m thatsage to people. is what makes sense, america. you don't have to go all the way to the left, but you've got have someone who will speak that voted for obama and went to trum in 1969. you had a mid weatherness do well. : wl or noit carries for four. it's not polling as well as others. but she's got momentum at her

side. and thatat this poi in the race that means lot. >> you think about the a loons. the mayor and him.eets between how do they see bloom werg? >> people around trump are .fearful of his mon people are divide on whether -- bloomberg could actually beat trump or not. he could be a king maker of sorts in the party. he could shave percent damage points. he could be a realm factor in e race. some folks includinghe bloomberg. doe totly. >> but the white house loves watching ber sanders as a frontrunner. the people that i talked to around trump would love to go against bernie sanders. >> they love that matchup. they're clamoring for aon conven if they're very happy with what they're seeing. >> final thing, molly. quick. you used to report from.

what's the you look like andmo atic latino voters in that state. what's the -- >> i think it is absolutely up for grabs. this is a state that has followed and seen polls in nevada voting after the first s.o d the candidates are on the ground. and it's all up in the a i think. >> they have anti-endorse bernie sander they haven't choiceen a candidate. >> we have to leave it there for now, but stay with us for the "washingn week" extra. we will continue this conversation about the race. you can find it on ourrb s media accounts and our website. thanyou for spendingour valentine's evening with us. nothing more romantic, right? right? anyway. i'm rob costa, have a good night. ♪ ra

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