>> president biden unites nato leaders as republicans complicate critical defense funding at home. president biden: a stronger nato makes the world stronger. >> president biden notches historic wins at the nato alliance, with a deal with sweden and comments on ukraine. plus -- >> we don't want disneyland to train our military. >> how speaker mccarthyeek. navi the result could spell problems for the future of the must-pass defense bill. next. ♪ >> this is "washington week."

corp translate funding is provided by -- >> f 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to unify family and friends. to learn more visit consumer cell already.tv. announcer: additional funding is provided by koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation. sandra and carl delay-magnuson, rose hirschel and andy shreeves, robert and susan rosenbaum, the corporation for public broadcasting from viewers like you. thank you. leasa: good evening and welcome. tonight, president biden is back in the country after an historic trip to europe. he recorded some potentially legacy building convince

including the expansion of nato and increased support for ukraine. on thursday he wrapped up his three-country swing in helsinki. president biden: this week we affirmed how finland and the united states together are allies and partners in lock step are setting us on a stronger and more secure path. not just for nato or europe but the world. >> he welcomed finland as a new member and thanking president ed want to allow sweden to join. but you crane wanting him to push for membehip now but he reaffirmed the claim that eventually they would be able to join the alliance. joining me, leigh ann caldwell. francesca, white house correspondent for "usa today." nia-malika, senior political analyst at cnn and scott wong,

sister congressional reporter for n news. let's jump into what's going on with nato. i want to ask you, francesca, since you were kind enough to join us tonight after just flying back. take us into the submit and how important was this both for nateo and for president biden? francesca: as the nato summit was beginning, you saw president zelensky of ukraine sent out comments that he haad gotten word that what nato membership was agreeing to was not membership for ukraine. we had known before this they were not going to be inviolated to join nato at the summit but he had said if he didn't get strong signals on that front he may not even come. he decided to go from and finds out from g7 members that they're coming up with this alternative

long-term security guarantees that president biden and the u.s. having spearheading but that's not what he wanted. they hoped to get the nato membership invitation that they can use in the future to help deuteration aggression. instead they got individual security guarantees from the u.s. and other administrations. lisa: the biden administration is touting bringing in sweden. navigating a three-dimensional chess game with turkey and sweden. that was a win but was that overpromising and beyond delivering or was that really a surprise? >> last year there had already been an agreement for both sweden and finland to join. finley land was able to move forward and then you didn't see that for sweden until the eve of the such. with erdogan, you also saw the nato secretary general having

conversations on the eve of the summit, trying to get in deal done. you other saw u.s. officials talking to their counterparts too. it really went down to the wire before the summit. lisa: so much drama. >> i think for president biden it was a really good summit for him. i think it was a good week for president biden. even though there was a lot of drama regarding sweden. heading into it being on capitol hill, members and people were skeptical that he was going to be able to get it done with turkey and sweden and he was, we think, able to do it. we'll see if the plane actually lands there but i think what this does is resolidifies president biden as being able to manage in international crisis and i think that it comes at a time where you look two years ago with the withdrawal of afghanistan was one of the

lowest points of president biden's presidencies and i think this is on the other side when it comes to international davis. >> and i think if you look back a few months ago when the g.o.p. took over the house, there was a sense of whether or not there would be a declining support among the g.o.p. and the general public. declining support for this ukrainian war effort. the pops show broad support for this effort, something like 60% so i think being strong at home also helps his hand abroad, being able to go to the nato members and bolster this case that nato has to stand strong with you crane. if you look back to why people wanted biden to be president, one of the reasons was that he was strong on foreign policy. it's one of the reasons obama wanted him to be hisice president. it happened at the vice presidential gig and i think the presidential gig as well so if

you're the white house, you're look thing at a pretty successful such. he didn't really make any mistakes. there have been times overseas when he's had what could be construed as sister moments. lisa: we talk to democrats all the time on the hill and behind the scenes they're really not quite sure about biden. some are, some aren't. what does this such do for your hill senate democrats? scott: there has been grumbling among house and senate democrats about biden's age. does he have the stamina to be president for another four years. he's 80 years old. i think what this week showed is that he can deliver. i talked to a number of democrats on the hill, reveronica escobar who serves on armed service. she called it an overwhelming success. she said there's something to the fact that that this man is a

seasoned leader. he was able to close a deal and help get sweden and finland part of nato and really grow nato. dick durbin said nato is bigger d stronger now and this is a bad week for vladimir putin. lisa: zelensky, how much support can if the biden deliver for him to use scott's words and there is divide on the hipfl. you were one of the few reporters who was able to ask questions of president zelensky there at the summit. how he is trying to convince september ticks that we should continue to invest in supporting ukraine? >> after that initial report, he was very, very frustrated. we heard him talking a much softer attorney once he got to the summit. very grateful to the american people for all their support and he expressed that again when he talked to president biden.

when i had the exchange at that news conference, he defended the use of cluster munitions and said that russia had been using them all along, going back to 2014 when they invaded crimea and that basically they want fairness. he said "we are defending ourselves here." but it has created some controversy in the united states because the people coming out against it primarily are progressives, democrats, within presiden biden's own party. many republicans sided with perspective biden. they would like to send -- see him send more aggressive we havery. this is one of the things president zelensky said he would be talking about to president biden in the meeting. >> own the one hand there are republicans on biden's side on that issue but then over the past couple of days they were

debating the national defense authorization act and there were amendments where republicans were trying to strip all sorts of support for ukraine and we got the clearest sense yet how big that coalition is. there were 70 republicans who voted the stop helping ukraine. of course that's not a majority but it's still significant. it's going to continue to be a challenge, especially since with the security agreement they promised to continue to help ukraine, humanitarian and military aid and that has to go through congress. lisa: how'd by get to this point where now we have many republicans who do not want to support what used to be a cold war against russia vs. those who do support more military, with some exceptions. how did this dynamic evolve? >> i think the answer is donald trump. he sort of scrambled the decks

in terms of republican stance on russia, putin, intervention and war. his rhetoric with putin often suggested he wanted to be best friends with putzen. even when this started, he seemed to sort of side with putin in terms of the invasion of ukraine. so you have people like margerie taylor greene and even attimes presidential candidates saying this is just a territorial dispute, america needs to focus on its own border, not sending money to ukraine to protect their border. i think this starts with donald trump's rhetoric in 2016 and his relate rick in offense about foreign engagement and international alliances. he was very skeptical of nato. lisa: sort, one more question on this front. what do you think are the prospects on the hill for ukraine support? senators seem to think a supplemental will happen, the

hous thinks no way. scott: one of the more fascinating aspects to have ukraine's angle is that margerie taylor greene was leading the charge trying to block funding for ukraine. kevin mccarthy just named her as a member of the negotiating committee between the house and the senate on this big policy bill which is going to set policy on ukraine. she's going to have a big volleys in that room. lisa: -- >> and one breach thing senator thom tillis told me is that he thinks there will need to be another supplemental bill on ukraine. it was important to note there was a bipartisan group of senators at the nato summit and they pushed for more nato allies to pay up more money. they think that will help to get morehouse republicans on board. lisa: back in washington, it was a win for members of the house

freedom caucus as -- after they pushed mccarthy to add to the bill. he proved he can pass bills be big margins. >> radical programs that have forced our troops at the suspense of readiness are eliminated. lisa: the bill includes racial diversity and to cover travel for any member seeking an abortion. most house democrats are furious. >> republicans have hijacked a bipartisan bill that is essential to our national security. in order to jam they're extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the american people. lisa: the senate version will be very different. it could jeopardize the defense bill's all the mattackage.

why do we talk so much about this bill. the ndaa. kawhi is it so important? >> great question. when we talk about it, we don't explain what it is. it doesn't exactly fund the government but it sets the policy. it touches every aspect of a service member's life and their family. it's about war preparation. weapons systems. health care. housing. it's about everything that encompasses the military so it's an extremely important bill so this sets the policy so that when they go to fund the government, they know what they're actually funding. lisa: scott, this bill did pass narrowly. 219 votes it got. ther were some party switchers, a few on both sides. what did this whole week tell you about mccarthy and the relative power of the freedom caucus.

scott: the freedom caucus and the conservative hard lineupers are able to dictate to mccarthy what they want in these house republican packages. we saw this with debt ceiling. they were able to attach a number of provisions to that package and pass that through the house. it happened here with the defense authorization act and it will happen later this year when we deal with the spending fund because those same house conservatives are demanding steep cuts. prix covid-level spending as they struggle to fund the government and avert a shutdown. so it's the exact same dynamic. we've seen time and time again how mccarthy has rponded is by punting the hard issues down the road in order to survive as speaker of the house. he had a perilous way of getting to the speakership initially and he is constantly under threat of losing that speakership so his

sort of strategy is to push awful those difficult issues down the road and to live another day. >> not just the speaker's identity. it's sort of the american identity pushing back. republicans talking about what ey call woke but we also heard republicans on the floor use the term colored people. he said he misspoke. it was stricken in the record. but nia, you wrote about senate tuberville who repeatedly saying white nationalists are americans and this week he did say they are racists. it was after continued questioning. what do all these lines tell you about the direction of the republican party right now and their gentle? nia-malika. i think this tells us that in

2024 we're going to have a republican party that runs very strongly on values. a party that in 2024 returns much further to the right on lgbtq issues than they did in 2016 and you see some of this rhetoric i think in this bill around transgender folks and whether or not they should have a right to get care. whether or not women should have equal access to abortion if they're in a southern state. that's what it tells us. everyone someone like donald trump. he was fairly moderate, ihink, on issues of lgbtq in 2016. and now he's some place different. partly he was pushed there by people like ron deisn't a ill this race and identity and whiteness and blackness and lgbtq identity.

they're going to be front and center for republicans in 2024. lisa: something else house republicans have been trying to run on is the idea of oversight and that includes a roth of directionings. we saw the f.b.i. director on the hill. i didn't hear a lot that was new there. republicans say they're very serious, including maybe impeaching the secretary of homeland security. how does the white house see this? >> and they've been saying that they were running on that inspect last election. so that'snot especially surprising to the white house. they didn't respond to it they can woo. they wanted the spotlight to be on president biden's accomplishments on this trip. in part there weren't the typical white house briefings but it was intentional this week that the white house didn't talk about some of the things happening on the hill with the legislation. they also think that there's

time. you're going to go into august recess. probably no agreement on the ndaa bill. yes, a potentially short period of time after lawmakers come back from the august recess but there is time. they're not sweating some of these things quite yet. lisa: we're at the six-month part of this mccarthy house era. hound you look at the way they have governed and the pledge they said that they will govern? scott: i think there were very low expectations for kevin mccarthy heading into this. there were a lot of people who thought he wouldn't secure the speaker's gavel. he did. there were a number of people who thought he would fail at passing the immigration bill and energy bills. he has hit the mark every time but cobbing together his very

garage ill -- fragile majority conservatives, moderates, bringing everyone together. the final product in a lot of those things haven't always ended up where the conservatives like them and that's what i was sort of alluded to before is that at some point the rubber is going to meet the road and he's going to have a major showdown wi those same conservatives that were trying to block him from the leadership initially. it hikely will come down with this fight in september and heading into the fall. right now he's enjoying himself. he loves become speaker of the house. >> he loves taking pictures with tourists. >> in fact, yesterday he created sort of a selfie line allowing people to come get your picture with the people of the house. kind of bizarre but he is living in the speakership day by day.

lisa: i want to get to margerie taylor greene. as scott reported, she will be, we believe on the conference committee. she's now with kevin mccarthy. margerie taylor green, an establishment republican? what's happening? >> this week kevin mccarthy also hostedded a fund rater for her. georgery taylor green often raises money from the rebels, the small-money donors. she was in d.c. with some of the biggest donors and the swamp. she is now officially part of the swamp and she's done that tragically to gain power, confidence and become an ally of kevin mccarthy. a similar path to what jim jordan did. kevin mccarthy and gree's

relationship is also bell. -- beneficial. she is not rallying up the troops against kevin mccarthy at this point. she's lost her seat in the freedom caucus because of it but i think she feelings she's much more important with a seat next to kevin mccarthy and it is going to be fascinating, the fact she has a seat on this conference committee because nothing gets added into this bill. this is the final product after the house and senate pass theirs unless the two top -- the republican and democrat from the house and senate armed services committees can agree so i done don't know how much sway she's going to have in this conference committee. >> one of the things her ascent means i that her ideas become sort of mainstream in establishment too, right? she was somebody who was essentially a fringe figure, kind of a conspiracy theorist with the fact she's sort of

working hand in glove now with kevin mccarthy and the establishment, some of these ideas might also have more sway. lisa: in the last minute or two we have left, i want to talk about the road ahead because it looks perilous to me. if the defense authorization bill is really necessary in order to help appropriators get the spending bills going -- and we know there are a great deal of ropes tied to this spending process right now. i want to ask each of you, do you think that we could be facing a government shutdown? increasingly, my sources think they will. >> yes, i think so. given the makeup of the house g.o.p. and the different sort of factions and mccarthy's tenuous grip on things. >> the white house said they expect them to meet the commitments with the debt deal. lisa: what is your sense about

where we are with a possibly shutdown? scott: i think there's going to be a shutdown. based on the fact we've seen several over the past decade and everyone knows that the world didn't blow up. the sun still rose the next day. they may have a shutdown. whether it's days or weeks we don't know yet. lisa: you think in october? scott: yh, i think heading into this next deadline. >> kevin mccarthy has a choice to make. is he going to fund the government and not concealed to thear r and over again throughot his speakership or is he going to concede to them? if he does, there will be a government shutdown. lisa: right, because you can't square that circle. there's no way in that does that end up being good for the president, possibly, do you think, a shutdown? >> i don't know. it's definitely. no good for ameri.

lisa $for president biden politically? lisa: who knows. >> i don't know if we're at the points yet to know that but it would be a chance for republicans to reiterate many of the things they were unable to get in the debt deal the first time. lisa: i had someone tell me maybe two shutdowns. thank you to this fantastic panel for joining us and sharing all of your great reporting and all of you as well. on saturday, pbs news weekend, as extreme heat sweeps across the country, we look at our prisons and people incarcerated in sweltering facilities. good night from washington. announcer: corporate funding for "washington week" is provided b- >> for 25 years consumer cellular has designed plans to help people do more of what they like. visit consumer cellular.tv.

announcer: additional funding is provided by koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation. sandra and carl delay-magnuson, rose hirschel and andy shreeves, robert and susan rosenbaum, the corporation for publi broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪

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