♪[music] brinkmanship, as the election looms. >> this election will be the most rigged in history. >> president trump relentlessly attacks the iegrity of the vote. and keeps his open party on edge. >> but i guarantee you thel electi be november 3 of 2020. >> can congress cut a deal? >> seems to me that senator mcconnell really doesn't want to get an agreement. >> ashe economy shutters, and the virus ravages our nation, next. ♪[music] >> hithis is "wton week." corporate funding is provided by...♪ ♪[music] >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through

your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your lif that's fidelity wealthy management. >> additional funding provided by the estate of arnold adams. an the yuen foundation. committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you! once again, from washington, moderator robert costa. >> good evening. this panmic has changed everything. for you, for me, and for president trump. more than 155,000 americans have now died. the economy has cratered. but as the nation deals with the horrific fallout, president trump has brought another issue to the fore.

the integrity of the election. and this week, i escaped my home office for a day to cover him in action on the road, traveling on air force one to west texas on dnesday, as part of the press pool. up close, it's clear the president is scrambling tort jump-sis campaign, which has fallen behind viceresident biden in the polls. and speaking in front of fracking fields, he railed against the democrats, against protesters in citie where he has sent federal agents and he vowed to protect the suburbs. on thursday, he turned to brinkmanship over the guardrail of democracy. he suggested t election be delayed, after claiming without evidence tt voting by mail would lead to fraud. the president does not have the authority to move the dat of the election, which is set by congress, and has actually been fixed since t 19th century. but he can provoke. and his allies tell me, behind doingenes, he won't stop

so wh just 94 days to go. jooning usht are four terrific reporters. kaitlan collins, white house correspondt for cnn. geoff bennett, white house correspondent for nbc news.hn dickerson, "60 minutes" corresndent, political analyst for cbs news and author of "the hardest job in the world: the american presidency." and susan page, washington bureau chief for usa today. geoff, when you talked to your sources in the white house about this election standoff, wha do you hear? what is the end game? >> well, you know, republican sources i talke to were quick to dismiss the president's notion of delaying the election, dismissing that as more esidential trumpian bluster and bravado. democrats say it' evidence of if fact that this -- the fact that this president will stop at nothing to question the vality

of an election that at the current moment he appears tocke on to losing. they also say it's no idle threat. a top trump donor who he appointed as post master general has made a number of budget cuts and changes at the post office that right nowte have res in about a two-day delay in the delivery of mail, even with express mail. there are postal workers who say if that does not change come election day, there could be chaos. in some 34 states, if completed ballots are not returned in time,hey're invalidated. >> kaitlan, what are you hearing? >> geoff is right. not a single major republican has agreed with the president on this. i think he realized it was a mistake that no one w going to support him on, because today when he was asked about it, hell said act he would like to move the election up. that he is so confident he's going t win, he'd like to move it ahead a coue of days. but his allies viewed this as a political mistake, because not

only is he not legally able to do this, but they said it revealed his weak standing and how even hes admitting that to himself, though he's denied that internal pol have him down. campaign sources say theyo. it the president confirming that he's fully aware that he ii tr joe biden in several of these major polls. instead of portraying the snde of confidence you've heard from campaign officials, the election is still a good 190 days away, the president was admitting that he's worried. >> susan, what's the significce of the president's comments coming on the same week representative joh h lewis his funeral in atlanta? the. >> you know, i sort of felt that thursday crystallized the situation of chaos that we he t ins country. he started out with an economic report, the worst economice declince we started keeping records. the presidenter, tweets that perhaps we should delay the election. then in that afternoon, a service that featured three

american presidents from both parties, speaking in hor of an american hero. and i thought it did two thing t eught it underscored in what perilous times w are compared with before. also the resilience that i think americans believe we have and hope we have in a turbulent time, because no one was more optimistic about the possibilities of america than john lewis was. >> john, help us step back here. you've written a book about the presidency. does history offer us any guidance about this moment? >> well, what history tells us what we should expect from a president, younow. the hallmark of the american system is the free, fair ection that creates a peaceful transfer of power. and ections are how you have that peaceful transfer of power. a president is a steward of that system. which means he must protect it.

he must work as hards he can to keep it secure. and also to keep peopl in that system, because that system will exist after he is out of office. so that's wt t president's duties are by the office he holds. and so for a sitting president for his own personal politicalt his is wildly at odds with office. and it's also an echo of what he did in 2016,he which is the polls looked bad, he talked about a rigged election. too back t susan's point, he is doing this on a day where he was unavailable to give a eulogy for john lewis because of his relationship with the black community and just that that is not a part of his presidency. when you measure what he is doing against thendards of the presidency and what we would distance.here is a vast >> john, it's an important point, because matters of race and power, they hover over all of this. and federal agents are now in amican cities. is week, attorney general william barr was challenged about all of this by

representative paul, a washington state democrat. >> wh white men with swastikas storm a government building witu , there is no need for the president to, quote, activate you, becausey're getting the president's personal agenda done. but when blaeople andeople of color protest police brutality, systemic racism, then you forcibly remove themh w armed federal officers, pepper bombs, because they are considered terrorists by the president. idid i gett right, mr. barr? >> i have responsibility for thr federal gent and the white house. >> geoff, you were in atlanta this week to cover representative lewis's funeral. you also cover the president. what should cities, americans expect as this election n trs? >>nk you can expect the president to try to eciloit divisions in the way that he has done. he has sort of fashioned himself

as wt heikes to call a law and order president. that is t call out cities,ne mostly black and brown, major urban areas like chicago and detroit, and try to suggest that those are democrat-run xis that -- xi cities that hasos exns of crime and violence and suggest that if joe biden it elected,t what's happening in chicago and detroit will be happening l over the country. that is sort of the explicit argument that mr. trump is trying to make but it doesn't appear to be working. the president's pitch is not reaching the white voters i it's not borne outn the polls. >> kaitlan, when i was in texas listening to the president, i kept hearing him railing against the lefting, the so-called mob. not a lot of talk of viid president. inside the white house, when you're talking to trump sources,

ruld they rat run against that idea that characterization of the left, ratherhan biden himself? >> i think that's what they initially planned on doing w the democratic field was large and the views were eanve. but now what they're running into is that it's hard to label joe biden as that, because he's repeatedly pushe back on their efforts to do so, namely with the president recently sayin that joe biden wanted to defund the police. so joe biden expressly said did not want to do that. and things that make that more difficult is when joe bid does make these appearances and he does take questions from reporter, which he did first time in quite some time recently, and he said he did not want to defund the police. also, he said he believed that those who violate the law should prosecuted for doing so. that comes as we've been seeing at's happening in portland and other places. biden is making clear where he stood on that. that's why it's a struggle for the president to label him as that. and hasn't been successful at it.

and aides lament the fact that nghe's sometimes p fights with people like dr. anthony fauci on his own team instead of people likeheormer vice president, who is going to be on the ballot nextember. >> what is this infusion of race mean for the biden campaign as the vice president moves closer to his vice presidential pick.ma black women are being considered for that position, as well as senator warren and othed. there coule a black woman on the ticket soon as the president moves in this direction. >> andhat would be groundbreaking. i think that is likely to happen. he's promise to have woman. i think given the moment that he's in, the idea that it would be a wom of color, i think possibility.ally strong but -- and i think when he looks -- i think when the democrats in general and the biden campaign in partihalar look at the president is doing, they believe that this is not the same america that it was, say, inhe 1968 appeals

to law and order and racially tinged appeals got a lot of action in tn.t elect in this election, the suburbs are not all white. the suburbs are now more diverse th theysed to be. the nation is more divassion than it in 1968 or even in 1980. and more recently. and their counting on a differentmerican electorate to see these appeals in a different way than america has somett.es in the p >> john, can you pick up on that point, about 1968? what's different now? what's the same? >> well, what's dif now is we have a much more integrated society. those kindsfppeals that susan talked about are offensive to many people who are in the electorate that donald trump needs to get. i talked tohe coauthor today of "identityrisis," political scientist.

what she noted in our conversation tod was she wrote about how donald trump successfully in 2016 shifted the area ofebate in the campaign to an area that he was comfortable with. well, that's what he's trying to do here with issues of violence and the cities and anything other than what he is actually facing, which is three ver tough issues on race, on the economy, on covid. he was successful in 2016 in t shifti territory. that is much harder to do now. why? because reali is keeping everybody's focusn those three big problems. you can try to talk about another issue. president is you're supposed to handle those big three programs. and polls have shown u again and again that americans are disappointed with the president's handling of the problems. he might want t talk about something else. america wants to talk about those three things. >> kaitlan, let's jump from 1968 back to 2020. you mentioned dr. fauci. he testified before the house earlier friday. but it's unclear as you said how much the president is listening to him

instead, he has retweeted items that have beened dised. and you pressed the president about this. here is a snippet of that exchange. >> the woman that you said is a great doctor in that video that you retweeted last night said that masks don't work and there is a cure for covid-19, both of which health experts say is not true. >> i thought her voice is an important voice but i know nothing about her. >> last week -- real quick -- thank you very much, everybody. thank you. >> kaitlan, what is the story here? >> so this is this woman the esident retweeted. her name is stella immanuel. she's doctor out of texas. the president elevated a post where sh was saying things like there's a cure for covid-19, which obviously the is not. the president elevated it to his 84 million followers on twitter. his son subsequently tweeted it as well. the question was, why is the present elevating things where he clearly wasn't aware of her past comments? you saw what his reaction to

thev was. the next day, when i saw the president again, and i asked him if he regretted retweeting someone who is discredited, who hasla made bizarres in the past, and he said no. he stood by that. it really does give you an indication that as aides here at the white house are insisting to his team of experts, you can see he's also seeking out other people who will reinforce his beliefs, even ifhey are not tlcked up by scientific studies. >> k, a follow-up. it also looks like the president is seekingnf rcement from his own voters. we all saw thatpr image of ident trump in florida. a crowd greeted him at the airport. based on your reporting, is the president isolated at this time inside the white house? >> this wk, he seems isolated. not only from at times where he differs with his message, when people liked dr. fauci, but what was so stunning this week was how republicans really isolated the president and left him on his ownfter he suggested delaying the election. people who are typically his

allies and will act like they did not see the tweet were coming out and saying what he said was wrong. as you saw, the other livine th presidents, with the exception of jimmy carter, who isn't traveling forealth reasons, they all spoke and ,mortalized john lew while the president stayed back in washington and won answer questions about john lewis or about his legacy. >> geoff, on the virustory, there is the health front and economic front. the $600 federbe unemployment fit expires friday, leaving millions of americans anxious. and we'regr seeing cs right now trying to cut a deal. what's the latest with chief of staff mark meadows and the attempt to workit speaker pelosi. >> of course, the usual trump era caveat applies that this changes hour byth hour. folks who are doing the hard thinking and negotiating about this, whh is house speaker

nancy pelosi and on the white house side, chief staff and treasury secretary, they are meeting saturday morning at 9 a.m. to sort of pick up and see what they can hash out. but the democrats and the republicans, the white house, cannot agree on a dea senate republicans in the white house can't really agree among themselves on issues like eviction moratorium or even provisions sohat people can't sue businesses, covid-related laws to take this out of abstract it, what it really means isnize right now people who have been dependent on a thatitional $600 of federal employment insurance won't get it. most states actually cap unemployment that comes directly from the state. so in florida, for instance, the most you can get from the state is $250. if you were getting $850 up until this week, imagine what losing $600 aea week would to your family, because, you know, that money does not make anyone

but they do come to rely on it. and hopefully with congress leaving tomorrow really for a three-week break, hopefully sides can come to some sort of deal. s an, you're writing the book on speaker pelosi. she's holding her position. she doesn't want t take that short-term offer from the white house. she wants more wholesale deal. you know speaker pelosi better than anyone. what's her position? what do you read int all this? >> well, speaker pelosi would point out, if she were on the program, that they passed their inbill 10 wee weeks ago and han waiting for republicans in the sena to take it up, for the white house to respond. republicans have been mostly debatingeletween thes. i think when these offers came of shorter-term andde smaller s this week, i think speaker pelosi saw no reason to agree to them. the democrats think they're in a powerful position here tof negotiate somehe aid they want.

the differences between these two sides are enormous. the differences amount to about $2 trillion now and even in today's spending climate, $2 trillion is a lot of money. >> john, when you look at this standoff betweenongress and this white house, what do you see? i mean, this is an economic crisis. we've seen the g.d.p.umbers, five years of growth, erased. what is the-- standofhat does the standoff reveal to you? >> well, you have, first of all, epolicy differe among republicans you've got republicans running in more purple states who really want that $600 and want some action from congress, b it affects their political fortunes. you've got other republicans who have kind of refound their fial restraint and concern. it's been missing for the last increased the deficit numbers. among republiow this debate when i talked to economists, they say this is all very important.but the big concern ie

only way you get the economy going again is if you get the virus under control. and the virus is not under control. and the reason the virus is so spending and behaving in the n economy the way they need to, because they're afraid. ey're afraid of getting sick. they're afid of their friends getting sick.th 's what has got a lid on the economy. so all the various measures, disappointing as it is, that congress has enacted, it's really not theain thing. the main thing is getting the virus under control so the economyan get going. the economists point out the clock is ticking. the longer this takes to get worked out, the moreusinesses fail permanently and the more people get left out of the american economy for a generation. >> kaitlan, can you speak to what john just talked about, the elemen ofear? this week, herman cain, the termer presidential candi and ally of president trump, he died at age 84. was athe tulsa rally the president held a few weeks o. louie gomer, another ally, contracted the virus.

what does all that mean, the way it's coming closer t this president as the white house moves ahead? >> i think it really hit home also, don't forget, the national security adviser, robert for covid-19 recently.ositive so it is in their circle. lately president trump has been doing interviews, talking about people he knows who have died from covid-19. when we talke about herman cain, he did acknowledge that cain had attended his indoor rally with thousands of people. aides pointed to something cain's family and friends had said, that he'd been doing a lot of travel. but i do thinkor it became real for them. them.s really a wake-up callor and also for people who were around hermanain. >> geoff, who ends up cutting this deal? is it speaker pelosi and secretary mnuchin, or does mark meadows assert himself aof chief staff? >> it's interesting.

there was this thought that when meadows camever to the hill to serve as president trump's chief of staff, that the negotiation hd relationship between democrats on tl and between lawmakers and the white house would be better. but it hasn't really come into fruition. and so for the most part, yes, you're right. it's still definitely house speaker nancy pelosi and the trsuryy secretary. hissenator mcconnell wanted liability coverage for businesses. what does that tell you? is the president eagler for a deal -- eager for a deal, because of the poll numbers, because of the g.d.p. data? and the president wants a deal. but senate republicans want a deal too, because the economy is so catastrophic at this point. that's gonna hnle not most importantly effects on american lives, that's going to have a lot of political consequences in november as well. senatens republimitch mcconnell, dismissing the idea

of a payroll tax cut, which is what t president has been insisting he wanted, now you aw from what is mitchlking mcconnell's red line, which is liabn.ity protect i think that's one of the things that has undercut the ability ot republican negotiate. one other thing. it's incredible that the president is not more involved in the negotiation over this bill. happening in wasn today.nt thing and the president himself is not engaged.um >> john, in here. >> well, that is -- susan put her finger right on an extraordinary point. the president is the most powerful voice in republican. and then -- in public. and also presumably because he has quite a lot of ctrol over the republican party. he is a player who could have a real effect here. if you go back at look a the president's rhetoric in 2016, what did he sell himself as? a deal maker who could get people in a room and get the deal done. he has been absent from this

debate, both publicly and privately, and that's pretty much been the case going all the way back through hisra adminion, and the persuave power of the llpresident could r be deployed in this instance. and the president has chosen to talker about o things, to talk about mail-in ballots and other things like that, which are not the main concern of the country at the very moment.>> ell, we're gonna have to leave it there for this week. what a group. what a week. kaitlan collins, geoff bennett, john dickerson, and susan page.e ppreciate all of your reporting and time. and thank you all for joining us. we will keep takin you as close to the news as we can. and on the extra, i'll go one-on-one with john to discuss his new book. you c find that discussion on our website a o our social media. but before we go, one last final goodbye to a civil rights icon. >> when we do form a more

perfect union, whether it's n years from or decades or even if it takes another two centuries, john lewis will be a founding father of that fulr, fairer, better america. [applause]>> hat a life. i'm robert costa. good night from washington. ♪[music] ♪[music]

>> corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by... ♪[music] >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through yourwi mind. fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice andom rndations to your life. that's fidelity wealth management. >> additional funding is provided by t estate of arnold committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting. bsd by contributions to your station from viewers like you. thank you!

tents, bunting, glastonbury, glenbourne. i love aic british event. i wish we were going to one, mate. i have the very thinfor you, ch. mel: in the beginning... that is one of the best things i've seen in bread ever. well... there were 12. [sighs] w... oh, no! there 3. how long have we got? [theme music playing]