jerry seib, executive editor for the washington post. darlene: i wanted to start with the big news of the week. how should democrats respond to paul manafort, his conviction on financial crimes. also, the guilty pleas by michael cohen, president trump's longtime personal attorney. how should democrats respond to those developments? neera: there are two issues at play. those cases see the idea of a culture of corruption in washington. democrats have been talking about the challenge of corruption. we have these 2 incidents with the news around duncan hunter and chris collins, members of the house of representatives, and died of for self-stealing as part of being members of congress. that paints a picture of the swamp invading washington. the public rightly feels that people are helping themselves, public.ing the i also think this is connected strongly to the russia investigation at large. a situation in which news seems to be getting closer to the president. candidates i think, should talk about what is happening in washington. the russia

our two reporters, jerry seib and darlene superville. darlene, before we get into a discussion of the elections, you spent a lot of time at the white house. what is that mood after the week we have gone through? darlene: the mood is subdued. although it was an extraordinary week, there have been a lot of weeks like this at the white house. the president is frustrated. there is a feeling that the walls are kind of closing in with associates left and right seemingly turning on him and being willing to talk to the feds about what they know. but it is kind of a subdued mood. we had one breaking this week with sarah sanders that was a little bit contentious, but that was it. susan: the president on friday heading to ohio to get involved in the election. let's move to the elections. the optimism level among democrats is -- how would you read? jerry: what was interesting in the conversation with neera tanden was that they are trying to contain their optimism. on the one hand, they had been there before in 2016 with hillary clinton, and are spoo

jerry seib, executive editor for the "wall street journal." we will jump right into it. somene, you are up with questions.