william: an economic crisis avoided, and donald trump's reelection campaign gets more complicated. pres. biden: passing this budget agreement was critical. the stakes could not have been higher. william: a potential disaster averted after congress raised the nation's debt ceiling. plus -- >> his conduct i think is one of the reasons he is not in the white house. pres. trump: you d't want him as your president. william: to be the next florida governor ron desantis kicks off his bid by hitting the campaign trail and sparring with former president trump. but the former president also faces another kind of threat, new developments in the investigation of his handling of classified documents. next.

>> this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal is to provide wireless service that helps people connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans and our team can help find one that fits you. for more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> additional funding is provided by the ewing foundation. rose herschel and andy shreve's. robert and susan rosenbaum. e corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. william: good evening and welcome to "washington week."

after weeks of posturing and intense negotiation, president biden will soon sign into law a bipartisan bill that lifts the country's debt limit and averts what could have been an economic disaster. the president spoke about the bill's significance a short time ago. pres. biden: nobody got everything they wanted, but the american people got everything they needed. we have noted an economic crisis. william: the fiscal responsibility act was negotiated between biden and speaker mccarthy and their teams. it passed the house overwhmingly wednesday and was rushed through the senate late thursday. joining us to discuss this, p baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times," leigh ann caldwell, co-author of the washington post's "early 202," osma politics, cohost of the mbr politics forecast, and nikole killion is congressional correspondent for cbs news. open to you all.

thank you for being here. peter, does the passage of this deal and eventual seem to be signing by the president, tell us anything new about president biden and how he and his white house team operate. peter: it tells us that president biden has been able to -- it is part of his political identity, part of his case for reelection next year. i am the adult in the room in the time of a lot of fighting amongst parties. it does not necessarily match the desires of his own party. a lot of house democrats prefer he would be more of a fighter and less of a compromise or. tonight you saw him give that speech in which he made clear that his priority is being seen as somebody who rises above the partisanship. william: asma, do you see how the president defended his

legacy to priorities, is that when he thinks of as victory? asma: certainly. in many ways, he emphasized tonight the fact that he ran his 2020 presidential campaign as being someone who can find consensus, who can help the nation find unity, and he believes in bipartisanship still. he echoed those themes this evening. i also heard from him a sense of what he was able to defend, that he was able to protect medicaid, able to protect social security. to me, those were messages directed toward a larger possible 2024 electorate, so folks can be aware of where his ambitions are. william: leigh ann, though, he did say for many months i am not going to negotiate on his debt limit -- on facebook cap women, and thene -- on this debt limit, and he did. does that open up room for hostagetaking, as he called it?

leigh ann: let me back up a little bit. at the beginning of these negotiations, democrats were angry that he participated. as speaker mccarthy was coming out talking to the press all day long, really dominating the narrative, there were members of his party, including sheila jackson lee, who stood up in a closed-door conference meeting and asked hakeem jeffries, the minority leader, task president biden to please address the nation, put pressure on these republicans, and the white house did not do that. and now he did this request tonight to claim victory, to use it as an opportunity, as asma said, to fight back. but i will say there is a lot of concern on capitol hill about what sort of precedent this creates. there are a lot of members on the right who are very angry that this debt limit is suspended to 2025, because they

say kevin mccarthy gave away his leverage to try to reform government spending. so this might set another precedent, depending on who is in power in two years. nikole: i would argue in talking to senate democrats on the other side of the aisle, many of them told me they actually think going forward that the 14th amendment should be invoked. >> to get out of this. nikole: no, for future debate, because from their standpoint they do not want to be subjected to hostagetaking, from their point of view. the president argued 14th amendment did not have time to fit it out. it could be subject to legal challenges. now when you are looking two years out, bernie sanders, jeff merkley, a number of senators told me that should still be an option. >> there are questions too about what this means for the broader u.s. economy. the ratings agency fitch said it

would downgrade the u.s. credit rating. william: sickly because of the way we behaved as a nation. >> exactly. this does not preclude that they are worried about fallout. you are hearing president biden to clear this as a political victory, but you do not get the sense that the domestic economy feels that way definitively. william: it does not actually end the debate. it takes the debt ceiling off the table for two was, but that does not mean the budget issues are resolved. you already hear about people going back to the wealth. the president said i want to raise taxes on the wealthy. you heard that republicans in the house say let's go back on more cuts. and you heard the house and senate say how about the defense ? they don't think they got enough for the pentagon. there are appropriations bills coming in the fall that may relitigate a lot of these issues. >> and what republicans are going to try to do in the next couple of weeks is start the process to extend the trump tax

cuts. democrats are furious, saying if you care about reducing the deficit, extending the trump tax cuts is not the way to do it. you are right, there was going to be more budget fighting ahead. william: at least we'll get to stay employed for a bit longer. nikole, do you think the political press overreacted to the threat of a default? deadlines have an incredible way of quickening people's pulses and forcing action. there has been a fair amount of bipartisan reaction. do you think we got too worried, or was there an appropriate level of concern? nikole: we were reporting what we were being told, which is that jenny yellen sent a letter after letter to, saying this is the date, and if you do not do anything, we are going to have an economic catastrophe. i don't think we in the press were blowing anything up. we were reporting what the treasury secretary was conveying to lawmakers, and many of them clearly felt, whether it wa

republicans or demo rats, bound -- were democrats, bound to that deadline. there was question of the validity of the date, saying the treasury could do some things if that date approaches, but the bottom line is i think everyone took that date seriously, because as we saw with the senate, they got this cleared in record time. william: peter mckevitt mccarthy came through, he thinks this is a success because this is how he is presenting it publicly. does this tell us something about how he might govern over the next couple of years? peter: i think it tells a lot more about mccarthy than biden. we did not know if kevin mccarthy was going to be serious about government. he had to trade away the store to the hard right in his own caucus. does that mean he is now beholden to their priorities, or is he going to be able to make a compromise? he seems proud of the fact that he made a compromise. he seems perfectly comfortable that he came to the middle with the democratic president they

tend to vilify and found that that is best for the country, even at the expense of complaints on the right. that does not mean people on the right are going to let it go. it may cost him down the road. for the moment, it shows he has some instinct for governor. nikole: i thought that was one of the most interesting things the president said tonight, he said with spectra bipartisanship, we can never stop trying. speaker mccarthy has repeatedly said he does not give up. both of them conveying a sense of optimism going forward, but whether they ctinue working together remains to be seen. peter: to praise mccarthy mig not help mccarthy. [laughter] william: let's pick it to the people who want to replace president biden. the race for theepublican nomination stepped up with president trump and ron desantis attacking each other on the campaign trail. desantis took aim at trump, who is the current front runner.

governor desantis: at the end of the day, leadership is not about entertainment. it is not about building a brand. it is about results. william: trump criticized desantis for saying it would take the next republican president two terms, something former president trump legally cannot fulfill to get the country headed in the right direction. pres. trump: it will take me six months to have it totally the way it was. if it takes eight years to turn this around, you do not want him. william: as this front runner feud intensifies, the republican field is about to get even more crabbed. former vice president mike pence and former new jersey governor chris christie, both one-time trump allies now turned adversaries, are set to join the race as well next week. all this comes amid do reporting that seemingly further chips away at trump's defense about how he handled those classified documents. a lot going on.

asma, ron desantis, we are seeing him on the campaign trail for the first time, sparring with donald trump. santos has been thought by many as the obvious "main rival" to trump. does it still seem that way? asma: i think it does. public opinion polling has showed that, but also the dynamic between these two men, clearly trump sees the florida governor as his main rival, just hearing the level of attacks between them. clearly he sees that rivalry. one of the things the florida governor needs to try to do to distinguish himself is built on this idea of electability. it is what you often hear him percent, here his aides suggest. that he is more electable than donald trump. that is a big argument for him to make, but you got a glimpse this week because he was out doing some retail campaigning, and with his wife, telling stories about being a dad.

those are stories that donald trump is not really able to tell in the same way. get me, i'm just like you, right? [laughter] william: leigh ann, desantis is arguing the gop has to embrace the idea of winning. he keeps bringing up 2020 and 2024 as digs at donald trump. is that argument resident with voters? leigh ann: some republicans in congress would also bring up 2018 and 2022 have lost, because of donald trump. it is still really difficult. there is still no one like donald trump who has such a handle on the republican base. for his base, the best way to win is donald trump, but he has proven over and over that he has been unable to win national elections. the difficult thing for ron desantis is no one could be meaner and more effective on their attacks than donald trump. ron desantis, who is hesitant to

directly attack donald trump, unless he is, as we saw this week, only when he is talking to the press, not to voters, it is a really challenging position. i am going to go one step further in the sense that ron desantis is also not willing to talk about january 6 or the 2020 election as well. that is a clear way to draw a contrast with the former president. if he is not willing to do that, what is the difference between the two? just a less better nald trump, maybe. william: it is a tricky path. nikole, we are going to see two new entrants next week, chris christie and mike pence. do you have a good sense as to what they think of as their argument for why they belong in this race and why they have a shot at this? nikole: chris christie has made clear he is the anti-trump.

that is the lane he has carved since day one. william: to go directly at the president unlike anybody else. nikole: that, and that he is not the former president. he is willing to pull those punches were some of the other candidates have not. with respect to mike pence, it remains to be seen, because we have seen him kind of toe the line between allying himself -- aligning himself with the trump administration while also putting some distance between january 6. it will be interesting in august to see how much the gloves come off between all these candidates. leigh ann: and who is on the stage also. [laughter] william: right. what is your sense of the calculus. are they all just waiting for a trump implosion? peter: there are two ways to win, one is to take trump down, the other is to wait to take

trump down. they are waiting for jack smith, waiting for georgia, waiting to see what happens, if he gets a second indictment, a third indictment, a fourth indictment, does that change the calculus? republican voters like trump, but maybe there is too much baggage here. that is why desantis won't go after him. santos doesn't want to alienate the trump voters. he wants to be there the minute trump blows and says i am here for you, come on board. it is a gamble. nobody knows. he did bter after the first indictment that he was before, but the question is whether it adds up into a cumulative baggage. willia peter is talking about, one, potential liability for t president is these looming indictments. there was a chip away this week, it seems, at tru's argument that he handled the classified documents in an above-board way.

but is it your sense that -- t's say there were another indictment to come. does thato ry ea'll you think is primary voters would forgive that? asma: the primary voters i met leading up to the midterms, because i was in florida doing reporting when the original classified document were discovered in mar-a-lago, did not seem bothered by this. just looking at how he has held a steady lead in all of the polls being the front runner, i don't know that there is any indication. it is an interesting hypothetical. if there are additional indictments, will that over time the love and make people -- build up and make people question him? so far, i do not see any evidence of anything the former esident has done that has actually led people to question whether or not they want to vote for him, at least within the diehard base. william: is that your sense as well?

leigh ann: yeah, the challenge is that donald trump has done such an effective job that can sing his supporters -- at convincing his supporters that these investigations are nonsense, are witchhunts, that the 2020 election was in fact stolen, that it was a bunch of peaceful people on january 6, so why would a deep state government investigation and indictment change any of their minds? i am super skeptical that it is going to have any real impact on the republican primary. the only way it could as if he can't maybe get on the campaign trail because he is spending his time in court and cannot visit these primary states. may it will convince some republicans to not vote for him. but conventional wisdom iout the window, as we have been talking about for a long time about donald trump. william: as leigh ann is saying, there is a huge slice of the gop base that does not believe

january 6 was such a big deal, or that the election was somehow tainted. it makes sense for anyone who does not toe that line to punch through. nikole: that is a big part of it. spending a lot of time in georgia specifically, and fulton county has to deal with election interference, but a lot of conservative voters there during the midterms told me that they do buy into that and do think there was some shenanigans going on during the election. to your point, yes, it is hard to convince those voters, but i would also argue republicans as a whole are trying to be very forward-looking. there is a lot of reticence to look back at january 6, back at 2020. to your earlier question about mike pence and some of these other candidates, it is about defining how the party is moving forward. under those sues that are key to the base? what are the issues of

importance going forward as opposed to relit getting things from the past? you will see that difference in how candidates litigate their arguments to voters. that being said, i think immigrants continue to rely on this argument -- democrats continue to rely on this argument about democracy. yes, it is about the economy and reproductive rights, but i think democracy will play big, but maybe more so on the democratic side than the republican side. peter: i do not mean to say he will implode. i will say the one thing he has to his see with these new candidates coming in, is a split field. that is how he got ahead so conveniently in 2016. there were 16 other candidates

that never coalesced in opposition to him. we are seeing something like that right now. the question is will they coalesce by the end of the year. william: and the point nikole is making here is if you are on a debate stage and donald trump is there, you cannot avoid those questions about 2020. pence and haley and asa hutchinson and all of those will have to speak their mind about whether they thought the election was stolen. that is going to put a lot of them on the spot and maybe in the crosshairs of gop primary voters. peter: most of these people are on record saying they do not think the election was stolen, or at least giving that indication. nikki haley, my pants, chris christie have said that, asa hutchinson. when it is said that trump is a loser, it means he really did lose in 2020. we'll see how that is handled all the big stage. william: last question, we saw

president biden last night after he was giving a speech at the air force academy stumble and fall. that was immediately picked up on across conservative media, donald trump at his town hall last night on fox news talked about it at length. how much of president biden's age and mental acuity is going to focus by the gop? asma: you hear from democratic voters who are concerned about his age. the question i would say is to us -- is who is on the republican side, because donald trump is not particularly younger. leigh ann: i agree, and it brings into question, harris too. -- brings into question, harris too. people think about 46 years later. nikole: i think it was interesting that donald trump says his fall was not inspired, but he also referenced his own tripping on the stage, so it

happens to everybody. peter: on the same day he gets a big deal through, he also stumbles and falls. a great advantage of being seasoned, a great disadvantage of age. william: thank you for joining us on friday. forget to watch -- don't forget to watch pbs news on saturday for a look at what is next in congress following the passage of the debt limit deal. i'm william brangham. good night from washington. >> funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> for 25 years, consider your cellular has offered no contract wireless plans to help people do more of what they like. our team can help find a plan that fits you. for more, visit consumercellular.tv. ♪

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ >> you

announcer: major funding for "tell me more with kelly corrigan" is provided by karen and tom mulvaney and the barlow family foundation. there are things that are so hard to talk about, like the dubious proposition of becoming a parent; deep, immovable depression; the tenuous relationship between the races; and then you think about comedy and somebody like neal brennan, who, as many people know, co-created what is considered to be the best sketch comedy show in the history of television-- "chappelle's show." but he's also directed and produced amy schumer and chris rock. and for at least 10 years now, he's been taking the stage himself with standup specials like "3 mics" and "blocks," in which he talks about the very things

that make the rest of us so uncomfortable.