robert: high stakes and running mates. >> the american people have witnessed what is the greatest failur any presidential administration in the history of our country >> i ask you, stop playing politics with people's lives. robert: showdown over the health of the nation. president trump i'm not going to waste my time. >> we don't know wha the president is going to do. robert: and it alarms democrats. >>t this is about president trump but we are reminded about the health of the currepr ident. >> that is absurd, i think tho discounted. robert: next.

>> this is "washington week." fundg is provided by were when the world gets complicated. with fidelity wealth management a adver can taylor recommendations to your life. that's fidelity wealth management. >> babel a teaches spanish, french, russian and more and less ops are available as an app ornle at babel.com. >> consumer cellular. adtional funding is provided by - committed to bridging cultural differences. the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers

like you. thank you. ce again, from washington, osderator robert. robert: od evening, with 25 days until the election, president trump's conduct and health continue toll transfix washington with the democratic house sme nancy pelosi so alarmed that she has raised the constitutional stakes. the speaker announced the creation of a commission of the amendment focused on evaluating whether the president is fito serve. in response, 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 br to indict his opponents. it is politicalr war oa pandemic that has killed over

210,0 americans. and stimulus talks are sputtering and the white house as coronavirus spreading among top officials. joining us to discuss thiser an moment are three of washington's finest journalist. gentleman meach alcindor from the pbs news hour, susan page from u.s.a h a today and year eye seib, editor from the "wall street journal" and author of we should have seen it coming from reagan, we should have seen it coming. yamiche, i congratulate of winning t international women's again i've he'll award and her commitment to the 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 in florida, what do you know about his healthig t and is there any dissent inside the west wing about these events? yamiche: i want to say cotulations to susan for happy to b on tv with you i'm e tonight. i think that the pre clearly very, very eager to get on the campaign trail and wanting to look in charge. he is tired of being in the white house and con findo that building. we don't know critical things, when was the last time he tested the white house has refused to

answer and we don't know if he has a lung damage. if anything has happened t him has compromised his heah. his doctor hasn't answered questions. we are getting written updates but there are unanswered questions. thewhite house insists that president will be ok to start having events on saturday. we are seein the president and he white house -- they are no president is doing remarks on la and order, there will be not dozens but hundred of peopl this people who are scared and people are freakin and bob, you should have been hearing we have 35 people at least who testedheositive athite house recently. people are really scared. but the president tomorrows deciding he wants to be out front and seeing joe biden hit

the campaign trail. robert: the president could be giving remarks on ld order and he has been tweeting and mang tweets about how he is frustrat with his attorney germ about a lack of ayo did ham probe and lack of probes. what does this say about the president? that i think even for president ump who has been a disrupt new territory to be runng for e-election, pretty far behind, last four high quality polls we have seene nationw suggesting that should use the justice department to meet his political

agenda to cause damage to his political opponents. this is really quite extraordinary. these are -- we talk about thes, tiard to imagine a more tum you will 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 the president placesn him but not his hand maiden. he said and td republican lawmakers that the origins is not goin to be in the done in me. that is not makeing the president happy. that is an action bill barr has taken. the broader thing we have

learned heris that the coronavirus is now cement the as the dominant issue of this campaign. this is what this is allbout. thisen is the press ustration and the inability to avoid talking abouthe coronavirus, which i think the trump campaign was eager to talk about anything else and now can't avoid the question 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 is that frustrates him. robert: jerry said it is the coronavirus election and also the coronavirus west wing and you said people are freakin out how is it affecting the effectiveness and functioning of american government? >> you have all but one of the joint chiefs of staff

quarantining. a number of high level officials ndtesting positive including the president and first lady and the white h press secretary and trump campaign manager. there are a number of people who have testedcl pitive ing stephen miller and chris christie. he is still in the hospital and he rodidn't hear the white house and that gets to the issue of tracing. white house is supposed to ing is how this get started. that saturday event to announce the anomination of the amy coney barrett and people think there might have been a hot spot area. this white house is not taking tside help. the c.d.c. we would be hap to help you but the white house

saidy tve 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 sry is not able to give briefings because she is at home quarantining and the president is walking around restless and going into the oval office and people have put hazmatui to interact with him. they are trying to say things are as usual, but it isin any but business as usual. robert: dr. fauci said on cbs radio that amy coney barrett last week was probably the superspreader event for these white house officials. you are notnly a debate moderator and writing about speaker pelosi and has

raised stakes about the 25then amenand whether congress should talk about t fitness of the president to serve. what is she up before the 2020 campaign ends? susan: it's not unreasonable to look at questions of suck ceaseon but it looks -- successon. speaker pelosion -- pelosi said it wasn't directed at trump but indicated it was motivated by trum and has long expressed concerns about the fitness of his office and whether the drugs he is takingo treat covid-19 might be affecting his judgment. i think there is no chanc this bill gets passed in the future but something that hasocused

our attention on the president and his fitness and covid-19 and those are bad issues for him three weeks before 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 i plummet eting in the poles and senator cornyn saying he is disappointed th the president on the pandemic. is the g.o.p. finally starting to crack when it comes to r president trump is this just another round of muted grumbling? year year crack is a little too strong. i think there is reservations and doubt and a rock and a hard place for them. three-plus weeks from an election and will pay a pri they move away from the

president. and i thinkhey have to live with the consequences. what worries them, if youoo our "wall street journal" the trump base. senior citizens are moving against the president and working-class men are moving against the president. and so thene thing republicans who had their doubts about the president was thathe base is solid and trump base will help me, but there is some doubt about that and you have suburban women who continue to move south. there is a lot to be worried about if you are a repub senator. robert: is that why the presidt came back to t negotiating table on friday and etary mnuchin working with speaker pelosi on a stimulus

deal? >> there was real backlash when president trump took that surprising step and said he will be calling off negotiations in the relief packa and wanted confirmation of judge barrett. this is a talking point. the democrats have en saying that the president wants to th hk aboutself and his nominee and doesn't care about the american people. when the president took that move. airline companies said we will keep on floughing employees and people were saying, millions of people are out o work, how are you going to stop negotiating and sayal aisle to you after the election. i think the president heard from a lot people including republicans on capitol hill and said this is not good for down ballot republicans and we willh to defend the president and

sorry, you can't get more stimulus tracks. thedederal reserve chair s if there wasn't another stimulus bilsn that 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 house is saying let's play ball. robert: i was talking to a republican senator today and they said they think a i deals possible. the democrats want it and the president needs it and if y are on the edge of your seat wondering, seems there i optimism. let' turn to the vice presidential debate. susan, you work so hard to bring ssup importants including the pandemic and historic night to feature a black woman senator harris ocalifornia.

use usan: would you impose for businesses, schools and a federal mandate to wear mask senator harris: they knew what s happening and didn't tell you you. what they knew and what you might have done to prepare. cthey knew andered it up. they still don't have a plan. ey still don't have a plan. joe biden does and you plan 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. susan: how can you the administration to follow the safety guidelines to protect themselves from covid when you at the white house have not been doing so? the vice pre: we trust the american people to make bt choices in the interest of their health.

joe biden and kamala harris, talk about mandates. robert: susan, beyondhe headlines about that fly on the you were there in the room. susan:'mhe worst person in the world to judge the headlines. we had this 90 debate, the biggest, i walked off offstage, the fly and the fly. and what fly. i never saw the fly.au ter] robert: what mattered at thathe dw vice presidential debates have often not had a huge impact but two nominees that are over 70 years o. susan: in this debate mattered more and got higher ratings than the previous ones because of at fact. either of these candidates for vice president if their ticket

wins has ever chance ofg becom president. so that raised i think the stakes for this debate and the well known figure nationally, people want to tune in to see if they are comfortable with rom ing a heartbeat away this debate gave her more ressonance than other debates have. robert: we want to show clips about the pandemic because that is the issue. what is your read about vice president handled the debate and what's the review inside of the ite house? yamiche: the review inside the white house ty feel mike pence did the best he could when it came to defending the president's strategy. the tulng that sbe noted here is that the coverage that would have been not only the flu

the policies, that was stepped over because president trump decid too on fox news and give a long interview about the long thi he thought of. the debate, the thing that struck me the mos about mike pence, he is less bsh and definitely gave susan a run for 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 one csplaying poli with people's lives and said we have been honest thhe american people. the president admitted he didn want to alarm the public. another thing was, i was struck 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

administrati if it comes out before election day, he didn't answ the question whether americans have the right to know in terms of president trump's diagnosis and would not commit to a peaceful transr of power. because vice president pence did itin a smooth way, it didn't get the head lines. those are things that made me good dr of the trump s is a en administration with a different kind of style. robert: vice president biden has not addressed and senator harris didn't address i whether the democratic nominees want to pac the supreme court. let's listen to vice president biden this week on that question. vice-president biden: you will know it when the eleion is over. it's a great question. but you know the moment answer

that question, the headline and every one of your papers will be about that. other than, other than focusing on what is happening now. robert: jerry, i'm told by myhe sources, don't want to answer it because ithey say yes, they will jailen ate and will jailen atethers. what is going on? year year half of the reason that the barris-biden ticket doesn't want to talk about this. and that is an uncomfortable situation to be in. they are going to b in there. but part of the reason is as you say, you alarm and upset progressives if you say you are not for this plan. you will upset moderate democrats if you are for this program. the other reason is the biden team views this as a way of the

republican party to m what democ is an attempt to t bs it. supreme court packing is the issue. they are trying to keep the focus which is to debatever amy coney barrett. but this is an uncomfortable situation. they will be asked this question a lot mor if there is another debate, it will be raised byde pre trump. robert: when they come the committee nexteek, are they 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 courthen it considers the loss case to strike down the provided protections for people with pre-existing conditions and

access to affordable health care. the trump administration has promised to continue those protections but hasn't said how they will do it. so that is the primary focus of democratic attacks. but i g to say at the moment, looks like she is headed to a confirmation. robert: senatoresruz the v are there. before we came to air, theco ission on presidential debate. canceled that second is the president committed to going to that debate in late october moderated by kristen welker? yamiche: after the announcement was made, the trump administtion or the trump campaign said they really want two more debates and want october 22 and october 29.

debate as though the on board with that but keeping the schedule the way it is and bypassing the debate if things can't be done in person safely. the biden campaign, the wanted to keep the dates and wanted biden to have this town hall and take questions from voters on ocber 15 and the last debate on october 22. the biden campaign doesn't want this october 29 debate. robert: we have to leave it there for tonight a weppreciate you all coming out susan page, congratulations on moderating that debate. not easy to be int tair and in that room. yamiche alcindor, jerry seib. what a group we'll take you as close to the news as we can and check out t

"washington week" bookshelf series and chat with jerry o 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 digned to help people do more of what

they like.ur how customer service team can find a plan to fit you. program that offers technology to teach a new language like spanish, french and russian. it is available in the app store or onle at bmp belom. >> additional funding is providing by -- the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

[sounds of vehicle doors opening] [siren pulses][v icle doors shut] announcer on commercial: it's how most of us got here.co it's how thitry was built. american citizenship is treasure beyond measure. but now the rules are being broken. there's a right way, and there's a wrong way. they keep coming2 million illegals in california. the federal government won't stop them at thborder, yet requires us pay billions to take 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 on video: we're getting abused by aliens. they'reem using our sygainst us. man 3 on video: he is cheating on the system. first maon video: people who are not supposed to be here in the first place.n ma4 on video: entering our state without permission, then taking advantage of our benefits here that we provide for citizens. first man on video: the state oa californ is a sanctuary for illegal aliens. gl