>> the president makes his case for four more years. presidentrump: this eltion will decide whether we will defend the american way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it. >> as americans wrestle with another police shooting of a black man -- >> they shot my son. seven times. seven times. like he didn't matter. >> the republican national co nvention rallies around a message of law and order. but as thousands arrive in washington calling for racial justice, and the number of americans killed by the coronavirus tops 180,000, the democratic ticket pushes back. >> donald trump has failed at the st basic and important

job of a presidente of united states. he failed to protect the american people. plain and simple. next. annocer: this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> when the worldets your mind.d, a lot goes through with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and that's fidelity wealth life. management. announcer: additional funding isrovided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and tricia yuen through then y foundation. committed to bridging culturalin differenceur communities, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like yo thank you.

once again, from washington, substitung for robert costa, -- welcome to "washington week." robert costa is off couldn't. republicans wrap their unconventional convention on thursday with presidentrump pummeling democrats and presenting himself ashe defender ofri an values. president trump: your vote will protect ether we law-abiding americans or whether we give free rein to vient anarchists and agitators a criminals who threaten our citizens. the convention shattered long-standing norms and violated ethics law. the president used the whi house as a, political sta issug a pardon and naturalizing citizens for the cameras. amid the covid-19 pandemic, t.veral speakers downplayed the virus thr some promoted questionable public health information. others fired new rounds in the

culture war being waged croorks the ccentry. resident mike pence took aim at democratic nominee joe biden blaming him for protests in american cities. >> joe biden would double down on the very policies that are leading to violence in america's cities. the hard truth is you won'te safe in joe biden's america. meanwhile first lady melania trump shared a rare personal reflection on the president claiming he is bes fo the country. >> we all know donald trump makes no secrets about how he feels about things. total honesty is what we citizens deserve fromtur presidhether you like it or not, you always know whathe thinking. joining us tonight with more insight on the week are our four top national reporters. maggie haberman is white house correspondent for "the new york times." errin haines is editor at large for the 19th. weijia jiang is white house

correspondent for cbs newsnd dan balz is chief correspondent welcome to you all. st." and weijia, let's start with you. because you are out there traveling the president in new hampshire at his rally tonight. and the story going int the week from the democrats last week was this is a nation in trouble. with the pandemic, the economy, and uncertainty ahead, you're with the president and his team, do they think that they changedhat storyline? weijia: it is incredibly louder just because the crowd was cheering for the president. but i can tell you that what we ard tonight, whalkhe's g about right now is really an extension of what he presented during his acceptance speech yesterdou on theh lawn. and, you know, the campaign promised that he would deliver an optimistic message andas praringsal message. --ge aspirational mesut because he focused so much on joe biden in order to draw that contrast it really has been a

long string of dire warnings to americans about what kind of the country they would live in if the democrats were to win. od so inste focusing on his priorities, and focusing on biden's, it's really not necessarily a hopeful tone. but rather one that sends, you know, stark warnings w aboutt could be. basically saying that joe biden will demryish eing that you know and love about american errin haines, pick up where weijia left off there. when you think back to the message delivered from the r.n.c. stage each night, the topics they focused on, the voices they chose to elevate, who was the audience they were speaking to? was it just the base or wasn therefort to open the door a little wider? errin: i think who the president was speaking to wass america. you know, the president talked about the founding fathers and

is country's history as mostly white and mostly me. you know, the two americas were really on display. the dual pandemics of coronavirus and racism largely not happening in the esident's america. you had joe biden saying that he had talked with the family of jacob blakthis week while the president didn't even mention jacob blake. nor did he address the systemic racism around policing that has d protesters in the streets for weeks. instead, choosing to focus on things like cancel culture, a you know, the threat of looters and violence that is the minority of the activity that unrest acrs the country. and maggie, when you look at he location for that speech, where those remarks were delivered from, and caught a lot oftion we've never seen the white house used in that way. the president even referenced it directly saying we are here and they are not. the lines were so blurred between the t campaign

administration. das there any consideration or conversation arohat from the trump team and the campaign befo that speech? maggie: look, there certainly was an awareness tt they were doing something that no president has done and no president has done for a reason. no president has sought to use what isheeally people's house to suggest it's their own home. the president literally did the president is not subject to the hatch act but certainly the staff members who work for him who we involved in aspects of setting this up are subject to the hatch act. however, it's unlikely to come to pas or to be enforced here in any way. and the president likes thumbing his nose at this ok, i president obama or president clinton or president bush had doneomething similar, they would he been destroyed for it. obama and clinton by the ednservative. and that media would have been correct. so the media did somethinghat he knows is so shattering of, you thow, for all o norms he has busted, this took it

much further than what we've seen before. he is playing to an image of, you know, the force of the presidency and he wants people to see whether that is going to be enough for people to come around to hiside given where his poll numbers are, i think is a big question. dan, will the me ask you about some of the messages that that esident delivered i speech. because it's not uncommon at a convention, right? to do somery slling. but there wasn't a lot of policy. there were a lot of big ideas. a lot of ideas that are feeding into these culture wars that we ioned earlier. even among trump supporters, though, some of the top issues are things lik the economy. so was it worth it for the campaign to spend that much time on those kinds of issues that aren't top of mind for ? mo dan: well, i think frankly that he believes clearly that it he worthime to spend doing what he did rather than outlining policy. although i have to say this speech sounded in many ways more like a state of the union address tha an acceptance

speech or a campaign speech. there was so much in it.0 it ran minutes. it was only six minutes shorter than his016 speech. at he did have an opportunity to toutomplishments that he thinks people don't give him enough credit for he did talk a little bit about a second term. but the bulk of the speech was to deliver a very harsh message about joe biden and a very rsh message about law and order in this country and what the -- what that wld mean if biden is elected. and it is a i gamble buthink as somebody said to me today, they did what they felt they hado do at this convention in order to start to move the campaignack in his direction. some of that messaging of course was that only president trump can move the country so even as republicans predicted better day ahead, the nation is srallling with multiple crises. today, thousands marched in washington calling for racial justice. just days after police in kenosha, wisconsin, shot jacob

blake in the back l ateast seven times.e hurricura delph stated parts of the gulf coast this week and the pandemic has now claimed more than 180,000 american lives. even asem --rats continued to hammer him. here is vice-presidential nominee kamala harri >> donald trump has failed. you see, its most basic level, donald trump doesn't understand the presincy. he thinks it's all about him. well,t' not. it's about you. it's about allf . the people. democrats are now also planning t hit the campaign trail in the coming weeks while harris spoke fron, washing joe biden said this week he will campaign in person in battleground states like wisconsin, pennsylvania and arizona after labor day. weijia jiang, i want to bring yo back in her now because one of the lines we hear most often from the president when

he's attacking joe biden is that biden is hiding in the basement. the announcement that biden t will now h road, does that take some of the power out of that puh? weijia: well, we heard sort of, you know, what the president is going to continue saying until we actually see biden emerg and hold events in person. and tonight, president trump said he's still in the bament. and he's not going to start doing anything for another 10 days which is aifime during this campaign season. and so that does buy him more time to continue to aack joe biden and to sharpen that attack. but, you know, at some point, he will have to fe the reality that the vice president, the former vt,e presid will be in fact meeting with people and really gearing up to meet him face-to-face for their first debate. but i don't think we should

expect mr. trump to stop that line of attack anytime soon. icause he really feelst worked for him. because it's a way that he can also attack biden's men wl fitnesch we have heard time and time ain as well and so i think part of this is also understanding who else president is speaking to and it in swing states who he wants to know, that he's t only one who has the capacity to make as they knowives are protected and that's why he is going all in with tnds law order persona. that's why he is not acknowdging the root of the unrest instead focusing on the protests and the riots that result. ged as a dan balz, i want to ask you about this as we mentioned those sta tes, wisconsin, pennsylvania, arizona, the democrats lost those, wire

tell me what is t and can you biden-harris plan? wh's the message that they're carrying into tse states? dan: the message that they're going to carry is that the problem that we areeeing at th point is in donald trump's america. ues about e of the i the law and order argument that donald trump h made consistently is that he will be able to stop this. butis happeng under his watch. and i think that one of the arguments that we are hearing already from vice presidentde is that donald trump has actually made tngs worse. country.donald trump has torn t country apart. and that if you want t get ck to a more peaceful america, part of the answer to that es toct joe biden and not to re-elect donald trump. sof t's parte argument that they're going to carry into these states.

but again,n talking to people today, there is a sense on the part of both -- some democts and republicans that vice president biden wl need to walk a careful line about this. that he may need to be more forceful in talking about the violence and denouncing the violence. so t he's got audiences he's got to worry about. but i think his main fus will continue to be that donald trump is the dividernd cause of the main problems. > dan, that message that you mentioned law and ords, it a central team at the republican convention. while that was happening, protests calling for racial justice unfolded in kenosha, wisconsin, in the aftermathf the shooting of 29-year-old jacob blake who was shot in the ck at least seven times by police. blake's family said he is unlikely to ever walk again. two protesters were later shot and killed, allegedly by 17-year-old kyle rittenhouse. he had spoken to the conservative website the daily caller moments before the shooting.

ing a them that car rifle to protect local property was, quote, part of my job. i want to ask errin about something you mentioned earlier which was the fact that jacob blake's name, even though the d shooting happe on sunday, really didn't even come up at the republican nati convention until a few days in. expect someone to mention it sooner? errin: well, you know, given that there was attenti paid to the protests, although that attention was focused as others have mentioned o the -- on lootg and violence, you know, and given that the president is -- is touting his record on criminal justice reform you have been some recognition of the national recning on race that is happening. again, on his watch this thsummer. bu isn't something that happened. and i think that that actually is i keeping with the racial playbook that this president has been operated under, you know, that got him elected in

2016. that he used again in 2018 and that we've already seen him using in this campaign and headed into november. listen, you know, the president is -- the messaging that he'sea using isy aimed at energizing his base. really aimed at expanding the electorate even though you did see kind of a parade of blale pen the lineup for the r.n.c. this week. that is not reflective of his administtion. that is not reflective of the electorate that got him into office. we know thablack voters overwhelmingly rejected this resident in 2016 and are not necessarily inclined to vote for him in any large numbers headed into 2020. racism is on the ballot for a lot of black voters that i talk to and, you know, them not hearing anything from this president in the wayf empathy or understanding around george floyd, breonna taylor, ahmad arbrier, rashard brooks or others is not surprising to ther. and the dice for those voters in particular is going

to be whether a biden-harris ticket how responsive they are between those vot being galvanized to really turn out for them and the numbers that are going t oust an incumbent president in general and this president in particular or whether those people stay home. maggie haberman, the president comes back to the lives matter are now painted in the nearby street. there were historic march here in the nion's capital today. they continue. protests continue in citieshe across country. and yet even during the convention, the president was talking about l and order. the president had athletes, black athletes, as errin just mentioned and other ballock republicans coming in talking about the fact he is the right leader and there's a dissonance thatsonnable in tks and months ahead? >> a big difference between expectation that black voters will turn out in bigger numbers than they did last time. and th they are more

motivated to vote after seeing this president in action for sour years. seeing his polic and seeing what he says. and hearing what he says. and the consistent thing between 2016 and now is that the president has talked about law and order.it as a defining theme of his convention in016. it's a dining theme now a problem for him as dan correctly said is that the biden folks a going t highlight th this is -- he is the psident right now. not joe biden and joe biduc said as this week. but i do think that look, the president, a lot of what we saw in terms of them focusing on black voices during this convenon was les aut frankly appealing to black reassuringban white bout votersnd women who have recoiled from the president's language and in some cases his policies to try to convince them to come back and vote for m. you know, frankly don't expect that to be a consistt tme that the president articulates and i do expect it to be a consistent theme his campaign but as we have often seen,

there is a split between how the president con cts himself on the trail and what his campaign would like him to be doing. dan, we heard joe biden accuse president trump of fueling the flames of the unrest saying he's leveraging these protests for political advantage. when you look at amall midwestern city like kenosha, when you look at a place like wisconsin, does turmoil in the streets there actually help the president? dan: well, we'll have to see what transpires. you know, there has been some evidence that there's been at least some shiftn public opinion away from broad support for the black lives matter movement. what we saw after the george floykilling obviously was just an outpouring of support and they -- the poll numbers moved significantly and have been moving significantly.ha we'l to see whether that begins to move away fm support for the blackives matter movement. at the same me, what i've

been told a number of times is thathat doesn't necessarily change the attitudes of people toward president trump. and so there continues to be a perception on the parof lots americans, a majority of americans, that there are p serious raciblems that have been left unattended and need to be attended t so we don't know at this point what this country is going t look like in late september or mid october when people are actually casting their votes. if there is continued violence in the streets, certainly the esident will do everything he can to point to that and warn thatort would getnder biden but it is a bit of a heavy lift. weijia, you are out there with the president and his team traveling. there's a rally in the background and we hope you can still hear us. but we've heard again and again from the president ad joe biden this election is historic, it matters that right now there is a battle for the

soul of the country. we've only got 1.5 minutes left but when you talk to the voters out ther do they see it the same way? weijia: the voters here do. and the voters at trump rallies do. these are the people who are at the core of his base. and he fls the energy from them. he responds to them. and when we talk to vers, they do hear the president's very stark warning that everything that he stands for is at stake. because i think the campaign and certainly president trump himself have done an effective job at painting these contrasts and portraying joe biden and kamala harris as these left w radica will again tear apart everything that they believe in. and so when you come to these rallies, certainly. but again, it's not necessarily theseoters who attend, who -- that they really want to focus

on. eoit's thosee who have not decided. and there's still a lot of time betweenow and november and the campaign thinks as they continue this message, that they'll be able to court some of those people. theres still a lot of time indeed. and that is it for tonight. for this conversation. many thanks to the reporters onr joining usht. that's maggie haberman, errin haines, weijia jiang, d bal thank you all vy much for your time. and thank you for u joinias well. we're sorry we have to leave you a little bit earlier this week. ou it's soan support this show and your local pbs station. our conversation will continue on the washington week extra. find it on our social media and on our website. good night from washington. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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