support for kqed comes from es integrated resougroup, with showrooms in brisbane, dublin, and sacramento. irg, surfaces, selection, service. marble company.com. > the american people have failure of any presidentialni adration in the history of >> i ask you, stoplaying politics with people's lives. robert: showdown over the health of the nation.t presidump i'm not going to waste my time. >> we don't know what the president is going to do. robert: and it alarms democrats. >> this isn't about president trump b we are reminded about the health of the urrent president. >> that is absurd, i think tho kinds of wild comments should be discounted. robert: next.

>> this is ashington week." funding is provided by were when the world getsomicated. with fidelity wealth management a adviser can taylor recommendations to your life. that fidelity wealth management. >> babel a teaches spanish, french, russian and more and less ops are available as an app or online at babel.com. >> consumer cellular. additional funding isrovided by -- committed to bridging cultur differences. the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions

to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, from washington, moderator robert costa. robert: goodng evewith 25 days until the election, president trump's conduct and health continue tl transfix washington with the democratic use smear nancy pelosi so alarmed that she has raised the constitutional stakes. the speaker announced the creation of a commission of the evaluating whether the president is fit to serve. rponse, the president's allies have lashed out to her saying she might be or chest traiting a coup and the president has asked attorney general william barr to indict his opponents. it is political war over a pandemic thatdas kil over

210,000 americans. and stimulus talks are nduttering the white house as coronavirus spreading among top officials. joining us to discuss american moment are three of washington's finest journalist. gentleman meach alcindor from the pbs news hour, susan page ear u.s.a h a today and et journal" and author of we should have seen it coming from reagan, we should have seen it coming. yamiche, i congratulatef winning the international women's again i've he'll award and her commitment tthe truth.

congratulations. let's turn to the latest news, you have been following itor the past hour. the president will speak from the white house balcony on saturday and hold a rally on monday int florida, w do you know about his health tonight and is there any dissent inside the west wing aboese events? yamiche: i want to say congratulations to susan for moderating that debate and i'm happy to be on tv with youto ght. i think that the i presidents clearly very, very eager to get on then campa trail and wanting to look in charge. he is tired of being in the white house and con find to that building. weon't know critical things, when was the last time he tested gative. the white house has refused to

swer and we don't know if he if anything has happened to him has compromised his heah. his doctor hasn't answered questions. we are getting written updates but there are unanswered questions. the white house insists thathe president will be ok to start having o eventsn saturday. we are seeing the president and the white house -- they are not calling a rally but saying president is doing remarks on law and order, there will be not dozens but hundreds of people. this pple who are scared and people are freaking and bob, you should have been hearghis. we have 35 people at least who tested positiv at the white house recently. people are really scared. but the president tomorrow is ciding he wants to be out front and seeing joe biden hit

the campaign trail. robert: the pre giving remarks on law and order and he has been tweeting and making tweets about how he is frustrated with his attorney germ about a lack of a d yourham probe and lack of probes. what does this say about the president? that i think even for president trump who has been a disruptor from the start hasoved on to new territory to be running for re-election, pretty far behind, behind by double digits in the last four hi quality polls we have seen nationwide suggesting th should use the justice department to meet his political

agenda to cause damage to his litical opponents. this is really quite extraordinary. these are -- we talk about these times, hard to imagine a more wm yl tuous time maybe since the civil war with such high degree of anger. robert: jerry, will the attorney germ buckle athe president's demands? year year he is stheltic that thede pre places on him but not his hand maiden. he said and told republican lawmakers that the origins is not going to be in the done in time. that is not makeing the president happy. that isn action bill barr has taken. the broader tng we have

learned heris thathe coronavirus is now cement the as the dominant issue of this campaign. this is whathis is all about. this is the president's a ustratio the inability to avoid talking about the coronavirus, which i think the trump campaign was eagero talk about anything else and now can't aioid the que and it was the dominant topic that susan and congratulations to susan for that. this is the coronavirus election. and one of the reasons you are seeing the president movingut is that frustrates him. robert: jers said ite coronavirus election and also the coronavirus west wing and you said people are freaking out how is it affecting the american government?nctioning of >> you have all but one of the joint chiefs of staff

quarantining. a number of high level officials testing positive and including the presidentnd first lady and the white house press secretary and trump campaignanager. there are a number of people who have tested pitive including stephen miller and chris christie. he is someone to watch, hes still in the hospital and he didn't hear from the white house and thatets to the issue of contact tracing. one of the things that this white house is supposed to be doing is how this get started. that saturday evento announce the anomination of the amy coney barrett and people thinkhere might have been a hot spot area. this white house is not taking outside help. the.d. we would be happy to help you but the white house

said they have an in-house ep deem lolingist. women aren't sure how much that i will go into the people that have been touched. the white house is functioning in chaos. the press secretary is not abl to give briefings because she is at home quarantining and the president is walking around restless and going into the ova fice and people have put hazmat suits to interact with him. they are trying to say things are as usual, but it is anything but business as usual. robert: dr. fauci sd on cbs radio that amy coney barrett last week was probably the superspreader event for these white house officials. you are not only a debate moderator and writing a book about speaker pelosi and has

raised stakes about e 25th amendment and whether ngss should talk about the fitness of the president to serve. what is she up to before the 2020 campaign ends? susan: it's not unreasonable to lookt a questions of suck ceaseon butt looks -- successon. speaker pelosion p --elosi said it wasn't directed at trump but indicated it wa motivated by trump and has long expressed concerns about the fitness of his office and whether the drugs he is taking to treat covid-19 might be affecting i think there is no chance this bill gets passed in the future but something that hasus f

our attention on the president and his fitness and cid-19 and those are bad issues for him three weeks bore him. robert: jerry, republicans are expressing alarm and not going to the 25th amendment issue and i wrote about this for the "post," the president is plummet eting in the poles and senator cornyn saying he is disappointe with the president on the pandemic. is the g.o.p. finally srting to crack when it comes to president trump or is this just another round of muted grumbling? ear crack is a little too strong. i thinks there reservaons and doubt and a rock and a hard placeor them. election and will pay a price if they move away from the

president. and i think they have to live with the consequences. what worries them, if you look at our "wall street journal" pole you start to see erosion in the trump base. senior citizens are moving against the president and working-class men are moving against the president. and so the one thing republicans who had doubts about the president was that the base is solid and trump base will hel me, but there is some doubt about that and y have suburban women who continue to move south.is ther a lot to be worried about if you are a republican senator. robert: that why the presidt came back to the negotiating table on friday and secretary mnuchin working with speaker posi on a stimulus

deal? >> there was real backlash when presidethnt trump too surprising step and said he will be calling off negotiations in the relief package and wanted senators t focus on the confirmation of judge barrett. this is a talking poi. the democrats have been saying that the president wants to think abou himself and his nominee and doesn't care about the american pple. when the president took that move. airline companies saidl we w keep on furloughing employees and people were saying, millions of people are out of work, how are you goito to negotiating and say, aisle talk to you after the election. i think the president heard from a lot of people including republicans on capitol hill and said this not good for down ballot republicans and we will have to defend the president and

sorry, you can't get more stimulus tracks. the federal reserve chair said ifn' there w another stimulus bill that isn't going faster than you thought that it could falter and thrown into disarray and sai the consequences could be tragic. the president had to take in all of that backlash and the white house is sayinget's play ball. robert: i was talking to a repuayican senator t and they said they think a deal is possible. the democrats want it and the president needs it and if you are on the edge of your seat wondering, seems there i optimism. to the vice presidential debate. susan, you worko hard to bring up important issues including the pan and historic night to feature a black woman senat harris of california.

use susan: would you impose for usinesses, schools and a senatois: they knew what was happening andt didll you you. what they knew and what you might have done to prepare.w they kd covered it up. they still don't have a plan. they still don't have a plan. joe biden does a p yourn is about what we need to do around a national strategy and contact tracing to have a vaccine and make sure it is free for all.su n: how can you the administration to follow the safety guictlines to pro themselves from covid when you at the white house have not been doing so? the vice president: we trust the american people to make best choices in theer it of their health.

joe biden and kamala harris, talk about mandates. robert: susan, beyond the headlines about that fly on the vice president's head. you were there in the room. susan: i'm the worst person in the world to judge t headlines. we had this 90 debate, the biggest, i walked off offstage, the fly and the fly. fly. at [laughter] robert: what mattere at that dwathe? often not had a huge impact but two nominees that are over 70 years old. susan: in this debate mattered more and got higher ratings than the previous ones because of that fact. either of these candidates for vice preside if their ticket

wins has ever chance of becoming president. so that raised i think the stake for this deb and the fact that kamala harris not a well known figure nationally, people want to tune in to see if they are comfortable with putting a heartbeat away from the president. this debate gave her more ressonance than other debates have. robert: w want to show clips about the pandemic because that he issue. ut vice our read a what's the reviewnside of these white h yamiche: the review inside the white house they fee mike pence did the best he could when it came to defending the president's strategy. the thing that should be noted heres that the coverage that would have been not only the fly

but the policies, that was stepped over because president trump decided to go on fox news and give a long interview about th things he thought of. the debate, the thing that struck me the mos about mike pence, he is less brash and definitely gave susan a run her money when adhering to the rules but he was defending the trump white house but with the same talking points from the president. he said that senator harris was the oneplaying politics with people's lives and said we have been honest with the american people. the president admitted he downplayed the virus and said he didn wt to alarm the public. another thing as, i wruck how many questions didn't get answered by senator harris and vice president pence. he didn't talk about what the health care plan for trump

administration if it comes out before election day, he didn't answster the qn whether in termsf president trump's know diagnosis and would not commit to a peaceful transr of power. because vice president pence did it in a smooth way, it didn't get the head lines. those are things that mad me sit back and think this is aod defender of the trump administration with a different kind of sty. robert: vice president biden has notre aed and senator harris didn't address it, whether the democratic nominees want to pack the supreme court. let's listen to vice president biden this week on that question. vice-president biden: you will know it when the election is over. it's a great question. but you knowom thet i answer

that question, the headline and every one of your papers will be about that. other than, othehan focusing on what is happening now. robert:, jer i'm told by my sources, they don't want to answer it because if they say yes, they will jailen ate and will jailen ate others. what is going on? year yearalf of the reaso that the barris-biden ticket doesn't want to ta about this. and that is an uncomfortable situation to be in. they are going to be in there. but part of the reason is as you say, you alarm and upset progssives if you say you are not for this plan. you willpset moderate democrats if you are for thisra pr the other reason is the biden team views this as a way of the

republican party to move the subblet away from the attempt bt jam i rats is an attempt to that is no longer the. supreme couking is the issue. hey are trying to keep the cus which is to debate over amy coney brett. but this is an uncomfortable situation. they will be asked this question a lot more. if there is another debate, it will be raised b president trump. robert: whenhecome the committee t next week, ay going to talk about it? susan: they are going to talk about health care and confirmed by november 10 and will be on the high court when it considers the loss case to strike downhe affordable care act which has provided protections for people

pre-existing conditions and access to affordable health care. the trump administration has promised to continue those protections but hasn't said they will do it. so that is the primary focus of democratic attacks. but i got to say at the momt, confirmation. is headed to a robert: senator cruz the votes are there. before we came to air, the commission on presidential debates canceled that sond debate. is the president committed to going to that debate in late october moderated by kristen welker? yamiche: after the announcement was made, the trump administration or the trump campaign said the really want two more debates and want october 22 and october 29.

it seems as thouge the deb commission is not waing to get on board with that buteeping the schedule the way it is and bypassinat the dif things can't be done in person safely. the biden campaign, they wanted to keep the dates and wanted den to have this town hall and take questions from voters on 5 october 1 and the last debate on october 22. theen b campaign doesn't want this october 29 debate.rt ro we have to leave it there for tonight. we appreciate you all coming out susan page,n congratulations moderating that debate. not easy be in that chair and in that room. yamiche cindor, jerry seib. what a group. we'll take you as close to the news as we can and check out the

washington week" bookshelf hisew book on the g.o.p. i'm robert costa, good night from washington. corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated adviser -- that's fidelity wealth management. for 25 years consumer cellular has been offering plans designed to help people do more of what

they like. how our customer serce team can find a plan to fit you. babel, offering a languageog m that offers technology to teach a new language like spanish, french and russian. it is available in the app store bel.com. at ba bmp proving by -- theorporation for public broadcasting and by contritions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

[sounds of vehicle doors opening] [siren pulses] [vehicle doors shut] announcer on commercial: it's how most of us got here. it's how this country was built. american citizenship is a treasure beyond measure. but now the rules are being broken. there'a right way, andth e's a wrong way. they keep coming, 2 million illegals in california. the federal government won't stop them at the border, yet requires us to pay billions to ke care of them. man on video: we have an immigration policy, which we support, but we also have illegal immigration. that's what we're talking about. man 2 on video: we're getting abused by aliens. they're using our system against us. man 3 on video: he is chting on the system.: first man on vidople who are not supposed to be here in the first place. man 4 on video: entering our state without permission, then taking advantage of our benefits here that we provide for citizens. first man on vid: the state of california is a sanctuary for illegal aliens.