robert: president trump and governors confron economic turmoil. and the former vrment p. faces tough questions. >> i think we did a spectacular job. >> the white house on the defensivno amid ecoc, health and political challenges. and with fresh attacks onme long targets. >> china is a very sis f kated country and they could have contained. and the world has suffered greatly. >> everyone's entitled to their opinion. but i am not going to make decisions about our public health based on political gains. robert: and the 2020 campaign takes a turn as former vice president joe bidenie d a former aide's allegation of sexual assault. >> i assure you, id -- it did

not happen, period. robert: next. announcer: this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> life isn't a straight line, and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new directiofi lity is here to help you work through the unexpected with financial planning and advice r today and tomorrow. ♪ announcer: keyser permanente. additionle nal funding is provided by the estate of of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen, through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in

our communities. theio corporfor public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs stion from viewers le you. thank you. once again, from washington, moderator, robert costa. robert: good evening. as president trump settles in tonight fornd a weet camp david, he's facing not only a pandemic but a pressurooker out in the country, a nation on edge. 64,000 dead. economic desperation, political tensns and fiscal uertainty as congresconsiders its next step. all those issues are front and center with governors in bot pears grappling for how and when they open businesses. and the president lashing out at critics fromor adv about the little cal cost of the crisis. joining me are four reporters covering these stories. yeah mish aindor, white house

correspondent for the pbs newshour. weijia jiang, white hou correspondent for cbs news. susan page, washington bureau chief for "usa today." and philip rucker white house bureau chief for "the washington post." let's begin tonight. the president and the stateho one snapsin michigan where democratic governor gretchen hit me has faced intensecriticr ending her restrictions until m 28th. and president trump said "she should give a little." in maryland larry hogan told me in a "waington post" liv interview on thursday that he fierce the federal government could try to seize the 500,000 coronavirus tests his state secured from south korea. and he treated them like treasure when they landed at

b.w.i. airport. >> it was like fort knockso us because it was going to save thousands of lives. >> is the nationalar guin maryland still protecting those tests? >> they are. the unanimous grd and the state police a both guarding them at anndclosed location. robert: amid the reopening plans and the protests and thelarm about testing, federal officials have warned governors to not got too fa fast. >> they know their states. the mayors know their cities mingts you want give them a wiggle room. but m recommendation is don't wiggle too much. robert: dr. fauci said don't wiggle too much. when you're covering the governors, what kind of challenges are they facing when it comes to testing as all states try to reopen? >> governors have essentially been begging the administration to help them g supplies soom they canete these tests. president trump likes to talk a lot about the testing capacity

across the nation. and that's one thing. that is the potential to test americans. but governors say they need the goods to d it. and despite the president and the administration insisting ng, we're re hel just not seeing that play out on the ground. in fact, juwest thi, president trump rolled out a national testing blueprint in an effort under mounting pressure to show that he is takin leadership. but when you really look at this blueprint, bob,us it shows a list of suggestions for the states. sog he biestions still remains why he is not using his full power to procure these pieces of equipment that are so critical for dtesting. think it's not just the we're talking about the capital physicians saying he doesn't have enough tests for lawmakers returning on monday. i think that's a really telling stor of where we are with

testing and how sorely we are still lacking. robert: and phil, you heart from ever governor, governor governor pritzker. help me understand the c president'frontation with governor whit me and with other governors. what behind the scenes driving that strategy and those attacks? >> well, a big part of it, bob is simple politics. we're in a campaign year. he's trying shirk responsibility, shirk blame for any of the failings in the united states' response to the coronavirupandemic, central a weijia just pointed out is the testing fail your thetruggle to get mass testing that governors don't have the swabs they need they doan have the trained technicians they need to run those fancy new abbott machines. and they're able to perform tests at that capacity iorder to feel safe reopening their states. they want help from washington.

and they're note getting it because the white house, the president have determined that they don't want to have responsibility for a national testing strategy. they want to have the states execute it on their own.e robert: e seeing a red state, blue state divide. we're looking at texas and w georgih governors moving swiftly to reopen. and governor whit me facing protests? >> wreare. >> w seeing what is really polarized america as a whole. and we're seeing these different policies psty oue by state. what weijia and phil are talking about tonight athe beginnings of how this crisis began, which is that from the very beginning we saw stateca and leade, governors begging for some sort of real federal pll san antonio testing, real federal policy on how to handl this coronavirus outbreak. and they have continued to say that. they continue to say they want more guidance from the white

house. the idea that you can reopen the government without having a large testing strategy governors say it's just something that can't happen , and that includes larry hogan whoe saw literally smuggle in tes from south korea because he needed to get that equipment from the state. what you're seeing is the fruits of aed polar america and the states having to fend for themselves because the white house doesn't want to be part of this national testing strategy because they say it's a local issue. utwe have to continue ahe fact that the president said more than a month ago now that anyone who wants a te could get a test. and that wasn't true. it's not troupe now. robert: susan, phil rucker brought up of politics driving the president behind the scenes at the white house. what could be driving and shaping the president's

thinking? >> you know, we saw tid prt not doing well with his response to the coronavirus. we see appro for him going down. in our poll he trails joe biden by 10 percentage points nationwide in a head-to-head. weind a aigetite for a more activister f government. both republicans and independents and democrats think , the president ought to be doing more. herotecting those tests from federal seizure.he's trying to e interests because he feels the federal government might work against those interests. part of the result, i think, of the president not taking more forceful natnal action when it comes to taking care of the supply chain on these things or taking more control over when ates close and open back up. that's something he's definitely left to the states. robert: phil, what are we hearing about this new target of

china on the's preside radar? is he actually going to take action against china? >> well, bob, he has threatened to take a cction. hesidering it. and sort of vaguely said that he would that he thinks china b shou punished. he has found ways and really over many weeks now to point the finger at china to blame the chinese for allowing this virus to escape itso borders, fr allowing it to spread first to europe but then to the united states. but it's unclear what action that will be exactly. the one thing driving the president is he wants to appear tough on he see this is as a central campaign issue. he's trying to draw a contrast with vice president biden who was part of the obama administration and the pivot to as several years ago. trump is trying to use this coronavirus pandemic as a way to posture his administration visa

v china. but it's unclear what specific actions he would take. he has not spelled that out in te tail. robert: you saw kayleigh mcannon. what's going on with the new chief of staff? the new press secretary? is there a shift in their whole approach to the management of this? >> i think they ha to make a change until they saw how the president was pn forming w was sort of at the podium and spit balling i many ways, free falling in other ways with these really long, extended briefings that he was using also as a platrm to replace those campaign rallys that he was no longer having. and i think the team saw overall it was not helping him. and thead tohange something. over the weekend, the president him it was not worth it f to have the briefings. of course, tt's not true because at hise, cor he is the

communicator and messenger-in chief. and he's not going to relinquish this power. what we saw him doing the same thing takinguestions from the press but doing it in a different setting. it was in a muc more formal setting. he was less combative whi w apparent. as for his press secretary it was a bighift from her predecessor because she was at the podium today. i don't thi we should give her too much credit for doing her job but certainly it is a stark difference from stephanie grisham who didn't have a single press briefings. kayleigh was out there. we knew she was going to get iny front ofad messaging and try to transition tinha something positive which we saw her attempt to do today.: robed yeah mish, you're in that briefing room. i was struck by one of your reports, about reporting on the

country where people are feeling is economic pain. you see the economic numbers in state after statero soling. what have you learned this week about how the summer looks for many aemericans with rising unemployment rate, with jobs not coming back in many sectors? >> people frankly are scared, they're scared for their families. they're scared whether they're going to be able to survive and thrive in a financial and emotional wy when it comes to thisk. outbr the president is hopeful that in the third or fourth quarter this year that things will get back to being positive. but what we know is that americans are going to keep some of the behaviors that they learned throughout this outbreak. when will we sg, long lines at restaurants again? that might not come back and bounce backn the same way even if mayors and governors continue to open up their economy. i think there are going to be a will -- aot of essential

workers. that those people who are essential our society and the functioning of our society that those people will be the most out o luck. those people arey afraid. i want to add what weijia wasin taabout. there was a big difference. at big overall difference th i saw was while the messaging was the same. whatou get frp her is a less harsh -- she was pushing back oi reporters b a way that seemed little bit slicker. as soon as shi walked out, i thought this is someoneo president trump will like because she's cut her tth on network tv auditioning the job and defending him even before she met him. robert: the speaker wants $1a trillion tddress many of the concerns that yamiche just brought uthat she's hearing from people out in the country.

how realistic that congress is going to come together bewuse we k mitch mcconnell, he businesses as par of this for package if he's going to give >> well, the congress has approved an extraorofnary amount spending already in a pretty quick fashion and in a reasonably bartisan way. but i think that's going to be tougher with this next bill that they're working on because democrats are going to insist on funding. republicans have been left less enthusiastic about that. mitch mcconnell has some history of of worrying about debts and deficits. some of those concerns may come more to the floor. reblicans want to look at liability protection for employers and others. it seems to me it's going t be perhaps a longer process than we've seen. but we do see a bigor appetite government spending by people who feel they are underater, under fire, under siege and are

really looking t the government to help them out. and that has pen alosophy, that's been a sense of the country that is propelled the congress toake som of these extraordinary expeitures so far. robert: to wrap uhis discussion about the white house. i want to go back to where we start. the rawng politics drio much of. this "the post" reported that e presidentad a private exchange to brad pascall, pretty tense based op the reporting. what -- on the reporting. what have have you heard? >> the president was cfronted by the brad pascall and the chairwoman of the republican national committee who brought her a fresh batch of internal polling. it showed himoe losing to bind. it not only showed him losing to biden and these press briefings were taking a toll on his p aolitical standind were damaging. and the president erupted at his des. he said he didn't believe the

numbers. he said they he can't possible be losing to biden. he thinks people likes his briefings. it was a tense exchange and acrimonious back and forth to pascall to the point where the president threatened to sue his campaign manager., althout's not clear if he was being seriousou that. this was reporting from our colleague and f.riend josh dos but it's a sign of how much the political standing, credibility, fortunes of this president hang in the balance because of the pandemic. robert: let's go to the democratic sidef the 2020 race. on friday, joe biden, addressed an alleg of sexual assault by tara reade a former aide. here's msnbc. >> would you please go on the record with the american people? did you sexually assault tara

reade? >> not, it's no true. i'm saying unequivocally, it never ever i happened a didn't. it never happened. >> mr. biden called on the national archive to release any dock! s to read e's allegations. biden asserted that his personnel files are "not there." he declined to discuss her decision to speak out. >> you have said in the past that if a woman goes under the lights and talks about something like this, we have to consider that the essence of this is real. is the o essen what she is saying is real? why do you think she's doing this? >> i'm not going to question her motive. i'm not going to get into that at all. i don't know why she's saying this. i don't knowhy after 27 years all of a sudden this gets raised. i don't understand it. i'm not going to go in ander question motive. i'm not going to attack her. she has the right to say h whatever has to say. but i have a right to say, look robert: susan, as a political

vrmentprment biden, what did you learn from this interview and this wle week? -- has covered the v.p. biden, what did you learn from this interview and this whole week? >> he hadn't respond in a television interview. i think they thought it was necessary but not sufficient. he had to do this. but this story is not over. he's going to have more questions about you know, it's a hard -- we found him being tally ungive cal inis denial that anything happened. but he seemed flummoxed when he was asked abt the university's archive. that is something he's going to have to talk about again. bert: just before the broadcast, the vice president called on the secretary of the senate to ask a search to be done on any senate records.

t he's sti holding 2008 on his university of delaware records. is that going to become an issue the delaware papers? becausealready an issue the trump campaign and surrogates are demanding, you know, as much transparency as possible when it comes to tara reade and the former vice president. but i think, you kidw, prt trump himself has a very complicatedwi relationshi allegations of sexual misconduct. we already know that because of his personal experiencof being accused by more than a dozen women. bu what shock me frankly was when he talked about it last nighte because h said that these accusations against mr. biden could possibly be false. and so, you kw, he talked about how he wasly fal accused. he brought up brett kavanaugh and how he was mistreated.

justid today, prt trump said if i were talking to joe bid, i would say go out and fig these claims . it's almost as ifn they'ree same club of being accused. and that's going to come back and haunt the president because to make it issue, you know, s they can -- the democrats can point to the president's words toefend vice president biden robert: yamiche, i think you want to jump in here? >> yeah, intt's anesting position that president trump finds himself is that he can't go that hard because we know more than two ds women have accused president trump of sexual assault. e white house press secretary says this is all four years old and that people -- that that was already decided when people decided to ect president trump. but she was wrong on the facts there. just last year, we had e. jean carroll.

she was trying to seek the president's d.n.a. in 2020 for a lawsuit related to the sexual assault algations that she's making against the president. this is going to be a tough spot. the president has surroga that want to attack joe biden allegation. ra read e's and joe biden is going to have to continue to answer these questiss because thereoing to be new reporting about who was in the oice? at kind of atmosphere that was. en e picture of joe b touching women in ways that some said made them feel uncomfortable. those pictures are going to continue to circulate. i think joe biden has a long roadad ahef him. but president trump is not going to be able to hit him as hard as he wants to or the combaints -- campaign wants to. robert: ty're an important constituency. speaker posi, top strategies,

how are they responding as they watch all of this unfold? well, bob, it's clearly not a story that any top decrat would want to be in the news right now or want to be talking about that said, they have been behind vice president biden. he has the support of pelosi and others. there did seem to be a private sort of ground swell of urging that biden get out there and thrip band-aid off andt talk ab it. he for days and days was avoiding meda interviews and wasn't putting himself out there where he could be questione about these allegations the way he was this morning on "morning joe." i suspect we're going to see a t o democrats take him at his word and point to his record.he as in the senate for many,

many years. in addition to that many vears ce president. he has a governing record on things hes done against the i imagine that's going to be par of his strategy going for jrd. robertst in the final minute here, as much as the vice president supporters believe he can carry on and he's going tob bele to move on his campaign, this is a me too moment in amica, not just in american politics. how does that change the campaign inks the coming w and months? >> you know, i think -- here's one irony, donald trump helped create this landscape that is creang all these problems for joe biden the me too movement. the opposition to hiaccess hollywood tape and some of his fair or not, these accusations hurt joe biden morehe than hurt donald trump.

because joe bind's brand is that he's ethical in a way that's not donald trump's political brand. robert: that's al the time we have tonight. thank you to our reporters. yamiche, weijia jiang, susan page and philip rucker. we will be taking you as close to the news a we can. this discussion will continue on the "washington week" extra. find it on our website or our social media. but for now, i'm robert costa. good night from washington. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, d ich is responsible for its caption content accuracy.visit ncicap.org] ♪ announcer: corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by

-- >> life isn't a straight line, and sometimesa you cn find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected. with financial planning and advice for today d tomorrow. ♪ >> kaiser permanente. addional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen, committed to briing cultural differences in o communities, the corporation for public broadcasting and byco ributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

nathan masters: at midnight on january 17, 1920, theur manufa sell, and transportation of intoxicating liquors became illegal across the united states. during those dry and trying years of prohibition, how did angelenos keep their glasses half full? the volstead act might have outlawed alcohol, but it couldn't make it disappear. the truth is, clever angelenosun ways to keep the liquor others sold legal medicinaln. whiskey prescribed by obligingat doctors to t host of invented ailments. but most drank foreign booze, illegally imported intthe u.s. by criminal cartels--canadian whiskey and mexican tequila served to thirsty patrons at speakeasies across the southland. what actually raremains of prohibition-e l.a.? today, the illicit liquor trade is notell-documented in the archives, and when you think about it, that's no surpriseiv