robert: protests and fierce debate over presidential power and american values. >> let's stop thinking that our voice don'tatter! and vote! because it's a lot of u's it lot of us! it's a lot of us! [cheers] robert: across the country, protests over the police killing of george floyd brings civil right to the floor of the americanonversation. >> i am your president of law and order -- robert: but presidentrump responds with force and calls for domination. nd somemilitary leaders republicans are alarmed. >> i am struggling with it. have struggled with it for a long time. robert: and top democrats speak out.

>> donald trump has turned this country in a battlefield driven by old resentments and fierce. robert: next. announcer: this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> life suspect a straight line. and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected, with financial planning and advice for today and tomorrow. ♪ [laughter] ♪ announcer: keiser per man then in te. additional fund funding is provided by the estate of arnols adnd koo and patricia yuen, with the yuen foundationmm

ted to pridging cultural -- bridgin cultural foundations in ourmu cty and by contributions to your pbs station from vieours like thank you. once again from washington, moderator, robert costa. robert: good ening. a week that b wille remembered by history began on monday with a wal across laugh fa yet square that tested the bounds of presidential power. president trump'sio dec to visit st. john's church and the use of force to move out peaceful demonstrators, it sparkedm outrages fro americans across the nation whoe protested the killing of george floy by a police officer. according to some reports, attorney general william barrrd personally law enforcement officials to clear the area. and his roll in the militaryization is now under increasing scrutiny. th president has been dismissive of critics from

leading members of the clergy to res,blican senato his former defense secretary general james mattis. but he remains defiant and bouied by economic numbers on iday that show the unemployment re dropping to 13.3% in may from 14.7% inap l. the president also invoked mr. floyd's name at the white house on friday. >> hopefully george is looking down right now and saying it's a great day for our country. it's a great day for everybody. it's a great day for everybody this is a great, great day in terms of equality. robert: former vice president joe biden later responded. >> george floyd's last word "i can't breathe, i can't breathe" have echoed all across this nation and quite frankly around the world. for t president to try to put

any other words in the mou of george floyd i frankly think is despicable. robert: and ininneapolis this week, there were calls for sweeping change at mr. floyd's memorial service. here is the reverend al sharpton. >> the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed to be in is you kept your knee on our neck. what happened to floyd, happens evy day in this country in education and in health services and in every area of american life. it's time for uso stand up in george's name and say get youre ff our necks. robert: joining me tonig are fo reporters who have been covering this american moment. jonathan martin, nional political correspondent for the "new york times." amna nawaz senior national

urse upon dent for the pbs newshour. paula reid for cbs news.rr and p thomas, chee justice correspondent for abc news. paula, you join us tonight from the white house. you are at the white house when e president made that decision to walk across lgh fa yet square. what drove that move inside the west wing? wat a response to reports that he was in the white house bunker on friday night? or was it a deliberate flexing of executive power? paula: a little bit of both. there was ang feenside the white house that the presidents was being perceived as weak, and he wanted a demonstration of strength and he wanted to show support for thisto hcally significant church thatad been a part of it -- that had been seten f the night before. but it was so remarkable because just a few yards from where i am here, the president in the rose garden saying heupport peaceful protest talkinging

abt law and order. wile a few yards this way they were using flash bangs to car peaceful protestors so the president could walk across and have what is effectively a photo op in froth o church. so the president really stepped on his own message of showing strength and support for law and order and a preventingny sort of vandalism because of the way they cleared that park. now, there were all these argumentthat they were too aggressive, that they sho udn't havesed this kind of force. some even called it, unconstitutional. robert: bill, you spoke to the attorney general bill barr this week. everyone's wondering across in washington what exactly was his role in that incide? >> well, he made the case or tried to make the case that there were people throwing project tiles objects at police, that it was aangerous situation. the media has pushed back on that saying there was little of that. any people say they didn't see any of it.

and so his case to b made was that it was a securing issue that needed to be rolved. that he wanted that park cleared a day earlier. they hadn't gotten around to it. but iwas a touch tone moment because the crowd was largely peaceful. i think we can all agree with. that and to see those horses and to see the aggressive tactics by police it was jolting to a lote of peoho believe in the first amendment andreedom of speech and the freedom to assemble. robert: pierre, i just want to follow up on that point. why is the attorney general of u theted states involved in these source of security decisions on lgh fa yet square? why is the attorney general involved with assembling a security force in the nation's capital with correction officers from around the country? >> number one, the president wants him to. and he is a law and order attorney general. he's spoken about the fact that during the rodney king tragedy

that he belie ss heuld have been more involved in dealing with the onslaught ofeaction, violent reaction in that city. but at the same time bar is a complicated figure. he's the same attorney general who sought to prosecute and did prosecute the officers who beat up rodney king in tha vicious way. and at the time, that was extremely rare for that to happen, bob. robert: jonathan,'ve been following your reporting all week. you come out of a great tradition at the "new york times." bo when you think the political side here, what was gained? was this a president thinking about the campaign and law and order and suburban vots or >> oh, y he had his eye on his re-election, certainly in his comments. i think he sees an opportunity to try to come acros as sobody who is -- pushing off to some voters frightening are

seeing -- lootingre seeing s being broken into. trump has taken it upon himself saying if i'm the one as a strongan to come down on that conduct, i'm going to be over politically. that's a gamble, though, becaust if people w order, they want stability, they're not lking for a sort of chaotic moment, well, he's probably not the best candidate given his conduct. this has always been the challenge with trump, i bob, that even if he's sort of given a political, oortuni can often be his own worst ene given his ownhetoric. even when has an opening he will often make incendiaryts comm you look at this past week and time and time again, that's what he did. robert: when we watch these

protests, we pay attention to the activism, but also the police forces. and it's not just in lafayette square. i was wondering how do the police leaders see this. police officials. how are they handling this ml tarization not only in washington but across the country? >> i think it's two different conversations, rht? if y get back to that moment which was a tipping point in so many ways of the president's walk across lafayette square, obviously military officials were troubled enough by that general milly who was with him on that walk felt heiseeded to e a statement to all of the want to remind you o your y i constitutional obligation which is to the constitution and not the president. there's arowing fear withi a number of seniorilitary officials that i talked to that over the last threeal and a years, they've become increasingly used as political tools for the president. now, on the law enforcement

side, you're right. i talked to the houston pole chief. he oversees one diverse areas in the country. he is notis immune and department is not immune of so many police departments across the country. on the same day that george floyd was killed, the houston police deparent had its sixth fatal shooting in as many weeks and that acevedo, the policeve chief as he's walking with the protestors is facing tough questions about why he won't release body camerasge foo there are some questions about all the uses of force that we don't see caught on camera but also the use of force in that are against police brutality. obert: speaking of tough questions, president trump's call for "domination," it has faced pushback. some governors have spoke out. i had a story about them having

some concerns on a conference call. and defense secretary mark espee says he not support invoking the insurrection act, sending the military to states. forces in a law enforcement duty should only be use as a matter of last we sort and only in the most urgent and diref situations. we are not in one of those situations now. i do not support invoking the insurrection act. robert: esper's spread says sora says the president's action were abuse of executive usauthority. we reject and hold accountable those in office who woulmake a mockery of our constitution. someh republicans suc as senator lisa murkowski of alaska called the general's comments true, honest and necessary. the president, heas since pledged to defeat her. paula, when you're talking to white house officials and theye general mattis stepping out who has often been quiet, what'

the significance of that and of spsecretary making his own views clear? >> on defense secretary esper that probably contradicting good ent trump is not a way to keep your job in this administration. he is still in his position as of tonight. e even thoughroke with the president on this issue, sort of things that he said, as of tonight, he is told most of the active duty miliry troopsho came here to washington to return to their home bases, though a few will remain on high alert. so even thoug the president and he had a public disagreement. it seems that he prevailed. the defense secretary prevailed. behind the scene i'm told there are no eminent plans to fire the defense second they. but as we knowerat the white house things can change on a dime. in terms of forr administration officials it is significant to hear from james mattis.

it was just about 10 months ago that he told my colleague david martt he did not intend to publicly criticized the he said he wouldn't criticize him publicly. so to see the president being criticized by current and fornsr de officials, it is significant. and it doesn't do a lot to rely bolster his arguments about law and order or the need tose active duty military. robert: jonathan, when you see general matisse speak out and senator murkowski speak, do you see g.o.p. cracks? do you see a party considering breaking away at the mom t or not? >> i see two things. i see it affirming the decision of former republicans to stay former republirtns and sup joe biden or at least not vote for president trump. but ilso do see it sort of sowing some doubts in amall pool who are perhaps still deciding who generally are

republicans who are uneasy for votingor a democrat, watching a democratic presidency for four years but d really't like president trump that much, just aren't sure if they can support. a democ i think when you have people like mattis put this in thef context the country's security, i think it sort of does give that sort of voter pause. and i would just add, bob, on senator murkowski, this to me is a vivid illustration of what a i fallacyis to suggest that president trump operates with some sort of grand strategy, the five-dimensional chess. this completely disproves that. no political advisorlo let a g.o.p. senator would advise the sitting president to not only attack senator murkowski but threaten to run her out of thet se she didn't say she was against trump. but he was struggling with how she was going to vote.

he's anot undecided, if you will. the most cherished person for most politicians and typically not the kind of voter that they threaten. that's what president trump did. it was confounding politically but not terribly surprising. robert: when i was talking to capitol hill, they said partf the reason to build on jonathan'sting that they're sticking with president trump is because of the economy. they see this jobs report that's amna, there are still mlions of americans unemploy. what's the reality for people of color in this country?ti >> it's not a good picture. we've heard the president again talk about t fact that african-american unemployment numbers, latino unemployment numbers under his presidency have been as good as they were, and they were. the pandemic changed everything. and as we are slowly starting to see especially in today's be surprising n where we saw

some of those job numbers go backp, that's t way most recessions have ened in the united stateseally helping one segment of the population more than the other. and that is white americans. for all the numbers for black americans thatent up even though it went o down forer communities. it nearly hit 20% for latino americans. and even among the trump voters that i've spoken t and i s to a lot in the lead-up to the 2016 election and the ones i kept in touch with, and maybe they held their nose. they don't like his tweets. they don't want him weighing in on se of thessues he does. they wereoting on the economy, on their jobs, on thet fat it would help them. and they are asking themselves questions abo whether that is enough. obert: pierre, let's turn to what's happening in minnesota. we saw the images from the floyo

al. you see n charges now from the state attorney general from in that k state,th ellison. what's the next step for the department of justice as they nsider a civil rights investigation? >> well, the sta charges have been filed. ere's a parallel federaln investigatngoing being conducted by the f.b.i. and they're doing what they call a color of law investigation, looking at whether thosece of intentionally violated the civil rights of mr. floyd. and those are difficult cases to prove because you must get i mo thd of the officers. part of the investigaon will look at their backgrounds. what kind of complaints were filed against but i must tell you, bob, that funeral was very poiant to see because it reminded us of the origins of all this unrest, a man was held down for nearly ni minutes, white police knee r, knee on his neck,

in his pocket looking as casual as ife he w reading the newspaper. that has struck a cord in a way -- it symbolizes all these case particular have encountered police in routine situations and ended uped seriously inj or dead. robert: pierre, such an important point because so many people are asking for meaningful change and the question is what does that change mea and we're seeing paula, some ned s proposed by joe biden and a federal boo chokeholds by police officers, calling for a national police oversight commission. is the white house focused on any criminal justice issue at this moment to address racial problems on the police force across the country? >> the white house has not given specifics that they intend to pu forward to address this issue. both the attorney general and the presint have acknowledged this problem.

says something needs to be done buthey s won't. what if you look at the statusics from thisra adminion especially using federal authority tos in gait practices of racially bias policing, one statistic is that the previous three administrations, obama, clinton, bush, they opened nearly 70 investigations intoarious law enforcement agencies. this administratn has opened issue in springfield, discrete massachusetts. it appears that the trump justice department has not opened an investigation into this specic incident. when it comes to looking at orstemic issues, it has not been a priority this administration. now, this administration will argue that they have done a lot for that community. they will point to criminal jissity reform, they will fund historically black colleges and university, but that moment, this administration i not

putting forth any specific policy ideas to address these larger issues about disparities in the crinal jew tiss system. robert: amna, quickly, what's next for the black lives matter movement? what do they wt? amna: i think none of us are in the job of speculating what comes next. but in writing this chaischapter ofry as it unfolds before us is we're seeing a movement unlike we've ever seen. death or one city's pain, this is about 400 years of systems being used around racist ideas and all of thatol ung in an uprising across the country. you've seen the protest get bigg in cities that you don't expect about racial gap healthcare, education, economy, every single part of our country is touched by this. and you're seeing this frustration pour out into the streets. it's about policing reform right now. place where is you can start to

see some standards changed. buthat thisovement is about and as diverse and big as it is, it's something muc big ethan that. we'll have to wait and see what happens. robert: is biden running as healer-in-chief? >> i think that's the hope. as long as president trump keeps saying things like fodder to biden, i think biden will beo ableo that. robert: we've got to go. >> once we have a head-to-heada ca at this summer or fall does thisartive shift -- robert: this is a shorter show than usual due to the pledge week at most staons. make sure to support them. and jonathan martin, amna nawaz, paula reid, and pierre thomas, ank you for joining us. we'll keep taking you as close to the news as we can. on the extra, we'll continue our conversation. it airs on our facebook.

for now, i'm robert costa. good night from washington. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.visit ncicap.org] >> corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by >> life isn't a straight line, and sometimes you can find yourself heang in a new direction. fidelity is hele to h you work through the unexpected with financial planning in place for today and tomorrow. announcer: kaiser permanee. additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen, through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

the corporation for pubc broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station fro viewers like you. thank you. >> you're watching pbs.

captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. welcome to this pbs newshour specialtt, "race maers: america in crisis." >> i cann' breathe! i breathe!