♪ william: china and hunter biden, some of the sub text behind the president's recent state visit. >> two grereat friends, two gret powers. cheers. william: indian p.m. modi with an eye towards china's influence. but an eye on some of the attendees. the president's son hunter biden in attendance just days after reaching a plea deal with the justice department. >> we were investigating hunter biden, and more importantly, joe biden. william: outraged republicans cry foul and vow to further investigate the president and

his family. next. ♪ announcer: this is "washington week." corporate finding is provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. to learn more visit don assumer cellular . tv. announcer: additional funding is provided by koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation. sandra and carl delay-magneson. rose hirschel and andy shreeves robert and susan rosenbaum, the corporation for publi broad d.a.'sing and viewers like

you. tough. william: good evening and welcome to "washington week, " i'm william brangham. president biden welcomed in indian prime minister modi. the visit was aimed 59 drawing the u.s. and india closer together strategically while also countering china's global influence. president biden: challenges and opportunities facing the world require that india and the united states work and lead together and we are. william: this comes as tensions between the u.s. and china flared up again there week when perspective biden referred to president xi jinping as a dictator at a california fundraiser. a day after secretary of state delicate diplomatic visit to beijing. on thursday, biden defended his comments. president biden: i expect to be meeting with president xi

sometime in the future. i don't think it's had in i-real consequence. william: joining us tonight is vivian. she covers national security for the "wall street journal" and here with us in the studio. mary bruce is the chief white hoe correspondent for abc news. carl hulse is the chief washington correspondent for the "new york times. and weijia jiang suspect senior cbs correspondent. welcome and thank you so much for being here. before we get to mod and i, his visit, i want to talk about amount breaking story in russia. we're hearing reports out of moscow of armored columns in the streets. and the head of the wagner group has been threatening a coup and that there was an arrest out for him. what can you tell us about what is happening in russia right now? >> there are pretty extraordinary images unfolding in moscow as we speak. the city essentially going into

lockdown after brogosian who is the leader of the wagner group, an infamous group which has supported the russian campaign in ukraine and syria and africa. we've seen resistance against him as to how the campaign in ukraine is going. while he is considered to be a close ally, he has been critical of the way the war is going, saying that losses have been severe and that the management from the military has been awful and he's called them out for months now. today he went live on video and said essentially his people, his men were targeted by the rushingen military and he said he was essentially going to fight back. he's claimed that he's waking -- making his way towards moscow so the military has said that he is planning an armed rebellion,

essentially a coup. so we are seeing cracks in the seemingly impenetrable front that the russians have had thus far. when -- where you have a very plural figure coming out and calling them out on severe losses and mismanagements on that. still unfolding but something we have to watch very closely. william: indeed, vivian, thanks for the update. mary, prime minister modi's visit, this is just is third official visit that president biden has had. mary: it was pretty remarkable. only the third state visit and we saw the white house do the full pomp and cirque cans -- circumstance. thousands of people on the front

lawn. moldy, who prides himself as being a leader of this huge democratic superpower but we're seeing a back slide with them when it comes to freshmen freedom of the pre, religious and political freedom so this white house took a lot of heat for meeting with modey. it's a balancing -- modi thing we've seen presidents do in the past. the president addressed a question about human rights during the press availability but what struck me sitting in the east room watching them field questions was the history of the moment because we saw modi do something he's a never done in his nine-year tenure, and that is take a question from a live reporter, something that all of us perhaps take for granted. even this conversation was something that would be

remarkable to many and to see the look on the indian reporters was pretty wild. it also reminded me of the power of the white house to force modi essentially into that situation. he didn't have to do that and yet this president, this administration felt it was important to put him in a situation where he'd have to take a question is. because it was about human rights, it gave the biden administration a chance to appear they were tackling this issue. do i think it's going to change modi? certainly not but it showed the power of the democratic values at stake. william: the white house seemed eager to downplay these issues of modi's human right record, arguing that this is a strategic rhythm that we care a great deal about and the sub text being we care about india and their ability to help counter cna.

help us understand how that might actually work. what are the things that china could do to be a buffer? >> everything is having to do with china. when it comes to the economy and u.s. dependence on china and that is why this relationship is so important to the white house. and even thee the president reiterated himself that they talked about human rights and demoatic values behind closed doors, it's incredibly important to set the stage as beijing is watching to show that we are moving away from our need for you, for things, when it comes to technology, semiconductors. they announced a match deal today at the white house to invest millions and millions of dollars into india so that the u.s. wouldn't rely so much on china for this. so that is one way.

they also have formed a quad relationship with not only india but australia as well and the u.s. and being in the region, i think that everything strategically at this moment is to prepare for china's nonstop goal of trying to being the superpower with a capital p. despite all the issues that mary just brought up. this was incredibly important for the president to roll out the red carpet to show this that the u.s. is invested in not only nurturing but building this relationship more. carl: the indian-american voting bullock is one of the fastest, if not the fastest, voting bullock in the country and you see many more indian-american

politicians. in the republican primary, in congress and the house when you look out on the floor now so both parties are maneuvering here. i think the general sense is that bullock was more favorable to democrats and to biden in the last election so there's a lot going on domestically but i have to agree with mary. presidents have made their careers pushing these considerations into the background when there's a serious strategic advantage and i think in his speech to the house and joint meeting of congress, he sort of clear it would bar he had to clear with you it was minimal. there wasn't the enthusiasm i've seen for other speakers and they were filling seats with pages and other staff. although it was horribly scheduled, on a thursday afternoon because most people leave congress on thursday.

>> and he was asked whether the prime minister responded to the president's questions. and the answer was president biden was satisfied with the opportunity to talk to him about it. so it was couched in the way you would expect. william: vivian, president biden was overheard calling xi jinping a dictatorror. on one level, that is a classic gaffe in that it is terribly timed. earned president xi also does fit most traditional definitions of a dictator. president biden seems to think this is not that big a deal and this will all blow over. do you think the chinese will really take an affront to this? vivian: whether or not they do, they know they can't afford to make it into a big deal. president biden's comments came

just as secretary of state anthony blinken was leaving for this very high-profile trim finally after the balloon incident. and bo sides emphasized how chemothey were to get over their differences and try to find common understanding because they knew the stakes were so high. so these unscripted remarks from president biden on the heels off that visit caught a lot of people in the administration offguard who had been working to rebuild the ties and communication between beijing and washington but they tried to downplay it on both sides. the very interesting thing that happened immediately after president biden made those comments is that there was an official summoning of the u.s. ambassador nicholas burns to beijing and they gave him a good finger-wagging but usually chinese state media would

advertise something like this. parade it around and celebrate but this time there wasn't a single mention of it. they kid not want, a to draw attention to anyone, let alone the president of the united states was referring to their president as a dictator but they were keen to build on that moment from blinken's trim and having some productive outcome to come from it. so the white house, when they keep saying there's no fallout, that's their hope and overit -- so far it seems like china is on the same page. william: thank you. president biden's son hunter turned heads. he mingled in the crowd just days after new of the his plea agreement with the d.o.j. set off a political firestorm. he's expected to plead guilty to

two misdemeanor tax charges and illegal leoning a gun. outraged house republicans vowed to continue investigating the president and his family. >> as it continues to show a two-tier system in america. if you are the president's son, you get a sweetheart deal. now, this does nothing to our investigation. it actually should enhance it. william: but attorney general maybe gashedden has rejected accusations that biden received any special treatment. >> some claim that we do not like -- treat like cases alike. nothing could be further from the truth. william: two i.r.s. whistleblowers claim that the investigation was interfered with to favor the president's son. a lot of political intrigue

going on right now. weijia, are you surprised that hunter biden was brought to this state dinner? the same week this plea deal was announced, he was welcomed with full fanfare. weijia: no, i wasn't surprised and the white house's response was, you know, this is still the son of a president and i don't think that the strategy right now is to run away from it. i think they wanto show that he is a real person. that he is unlike some of his republican counterparts, who the republicans have been trying to compare him too, he fesses up. he admits wrongdoing and there is a clear separation between the white house and the dodge -- doj. what ha of that is what the biden team is tryi to portray. it made sense to me that they didn't try to hide him.

they didn't want toave an had de something even further wrong. they wanted to show he is, in fact, trying to rebuild his life after years of addiction, which is something they're very willing to talk about. mary: joe biden is in a position of having to respond personally and politically and i think joe biden the father is always going to take first bidding over joe biden the politician. this is incredibly painful for the president and him showing to his son, to the world, come to dinner at the white house. william: you still have my embrace. mary: exactly. not just showing a message to the world, to his political opponents. they think there's a lot left to be investigated here polit politically, even criminally. they're not bringing any criminal charges linked to hunter biden's business dealings

but perspective biden is a devoted father who has stood by his son through struggles with addiction. he is not distancing himself from hunter but he is distancing himself from this investigation. carl: i thought if i happened written a movie script that had that state dinner with the president, the president's son, the two howls republican leaders who are pursuing him and the president and the attorney general, who is trying to avoid the whole mess all at the same dinner somebody would say that could never happen. [laughter] but the republicans, no matter what hunter biden agreed to and admitted to, the republicans were always going to say that this is a two-tiered justice system, that trump is being treated differently than hunter biden and with these whistleblowers now, they finally made a little headway. this is really the first time they've seemed so have some credible -- william: these are two

whistleblowers who have come forward and said the investigation was delayed, they gave biden's lawyers heads up when they shouldn't have. carl: right. they finally have a little something to grab on to. that there was some unequal equal treatment and hunter wasn't investigated the way a normal personal would be for tax fraud. however, it's still hunter biden. st not joe biden. they're trying to drag joe biden into it. so there's this new transcript of a -- i think it's a text message that he supposedly -- talking about his father. hunter biden's lawyer came of the and, hunter biden is speaking only for himself, no one else in the family. we'll see where they can go with this but it's obviously not going away. they're going to continue this all the way through the election but they still haven't really

made the direct link to the president but they're going to try very hard to do that that. william: this text message carl is talking about is a text message where hunter is speaking to, we believe a chinese official. he's saying i'm sitting next to my father. this was when biden was not president yet. he essentially said i'm sitting next to my dad and if you don't do this deal with me there's going to be hell to pay. do you think this adds to the republicans' case there is more here? >> it certainly looks that way. frippetted they weren't moving ahead with some energy deep and to carl's points, hunter biden's lawyers, the white house have all said the president knows nothing about this. there was no connection to the president, then former vice president, who wasn't in office

at the time. this also was a time when hunte was heavily addicted through drugs. but i do think the republicans are going to try very hard to do whatever they can to keep this in the conversation. whethere learn anymore from the trump-appointed prosecutor, david-wise. there are many questions. obviously he looked into all of these things. why didn't he bring any criminal charges linked to hunter biden's overseas' doings? i do won'ter if at some point we may get more transparency that may clear things up in an attempt to ferret it all out. carl: he had written a letter to jim jordan? congress saying i had full discretion to make the decisions here. now, there's some question whether that is true but he put

it in writing. there's a lot to disentangle but i think the republicans are going to keep at it and move slightly towards impeaching the president. >> the other thing you're seeing from republicans is trying to chip away at president biden's credibility because he has said so adamantly that he knew nothing about his son's business dealings and this particular text message would show otherwise after the president said he didn't know and the white house officially said that the president didn't know. to so they're trying to paint this picture of he actually did know and lied about it. william: right, and there's no evidence that joe biden was accepting next to hunters when that text was written. maybe that's another line of investigation. the other point the republicans keep making is that this is the we havization of the d.o.j. and

president biden directing maybe garland and the d.o.j. for his rivals. but we saw a report showing how the d.o.j. was very reluctant to open an investigation about january 6 and then-president trump and any of his colleagues were involved in all of that. so do you think that that argument will continue? carl hulse: yes, they will continue but maybe garland was a very conservative person and a lot of people think he was way too reluctant to do several investigations and moved way too slowly but both sides are moving to their bails. they want to show that donald trump is being treated unfairly no matter what's going on in the

courts. they're going to stick with that. william: do you have a sense of what the next step in the investigation of the republicans is. is there more a pulling of these threads or more things they're going to pursue? mary: i think they're going to pull at all the threads they can find. just simply to keep it in the conversation because -- and to weijia's points, just because something may be inappropriate or a moral even, dsn't mean that he's criminal behavior and also doesn't necessarily link it to the president, and, of course, hunter biden was not in the administration, knot running for president, not only any ballot but it doesn't matter i think in the optics of it and trying to keep it in the conversation because as long as donald trump is having the legal challenges he's having, if sympathetic keep that conversation with hunter biden up, i think they think there's a lot of opportunities here. william: -- carl: remember,

kevin mccarthy got in trouble for talking about how the benghazi investigation was a benefit because it served its benefit of lowering hillary clinton's poll numbers. >> i think you'll see the white house try too distance themselves as much as possible. also with garland there doing everything they can to try and underscore the fact they believe in the independence of the justice department but you have two very different conversations going on where the president is doing everything he can to look presidential. while all of this is playing out to try and make it look like the republicans are being chaotic. that's their strategy. william: do you have a sense of inside the white house with the bidens themselves how this plea deal with that hunter took sits with them? is it a moment of relief? how are they seeing it?

weijia: i think that there are certainly reports that the president was relieved and i think that overall the bottom line is these are federal charges and it is remarkable that a president's some is pleading guilty to them but they -- to mary's earlier point, are not what the republicans had wanted or expected to come out of this investigation. so i do think that there is relief because it shows in their mind that there is no their there. of course, the republicans would say the d.o.j. is just covering it up. william: excuse me, i'm sorry. we have to suddenly wrap. thank you so much. i want to thank everyone here for joining us. thank you so much for being here. and i'm william brangham. good night from "whatever week." announcer: corporate funding is provided by --

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