mark shields and ramesh ponnuru are here to analyze a watershed week for the trump administration. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: we're 113 days into the trump presidency, with more than 1,300 left until the next inauguration day. at times, it's felt like a whirlwind, and this week may have brought the wildest ride yet. our lisa desjardins brings us up to speed. >> and now i will take your questions. >> reporter: a roller coast week for the white house ended with more turbulence-- and questions- - after reports that allies of fired f.b.i. director james comey insist he never told president trump tha

that was not candidate trump at all. >> dickerson: ramesh, give me your take and also this is happeningh there's confusion on which is president trump is this on dealing with nato to has shaved off the rough edges and domestically is having challenge. where do you see this in the evolution of understanding the president? >> i think the speech that's pretty easily in the mainstream foreign policy vision. we've now had three presidents post 9/11 made a distinction between the people we're fighting against and the mainstream of islam. i think what was new here was trump himself speaking respectfully and admiringly about muslims and islam. that we haven't seen. the focus on the terminology, radical islamic terrorist versus the rprevious remarks. i think the focus has been overblown on the part of both parties with one side saying oh, he used those words you'll offend all muslim and others saying you have to name the enemy in order to win. the terms seem pretty much identical as far as i can tell. >> dickerson: the candidate said unless president obama used that he should resign. he put weig

let's see if everyone things start with you ramesh go on ramesh. >> i think that that is absolutely -- we've been talking about the poor pay more for decades. the o- the idea of the possibility of left-right coalition. i think the cost of housing particularly some regions of the house something something we have seen more attention to from both liberal and conservatives that could be tackled but there are serious problems standing in the way of addressing the problems. >> great kathy. >> i want to amplify this point. i spent my career hanging out with folks who are poor and talking to them about the budgets. and what is amazing to me is how skilled many poor people are at economic survival. we did a study the us da looking at 90 food stamp householding the degree of skill in managing a food stamp budgets is astonishing. that's a regular thing that happens to folks who do what i do. they're so amazing at you know budgeting for food. what i think. two psychologists have clued us into is there is a huge tax on one's cognitive band width for do that. the space taken up surviving is the de

there were a few moments this week i think where they -- and i agree with ramesh, don't take it as aze they have to take it seriously at least. john mccain and richard burr among others when asked in the aftermath of the stories confronted by reporters and were flippant about it and once they went back to their offices and realized how serious it was and they went to great lengths to make sure others understood. >> dickerson: and your thoughts on the meeting between the president and ambassador. there were comments about james comey and then the question whether classified intelligence was given to the russians in the meeting. what do you make of that? >> the president has the authority to declassify intelligence. that's one of the powers the president has and we need to know more about that. the meeting just felt unseemly and i felt more generally, john, this crazy week with the appointment of robert mueller as a special counsel you can almost hear an exhale. here comes somebody who i -- i haven't found anybody who says anything negative about mr. mueller. he's outstanding and respe

. >> ramesh?point he took on the burden of being the ombudsman for all of washington apparently. >> yes. >> i can't disagree with that. i do think that the parties and the voters put him in an extremely difficult set of situations. >> totally agree. >> which it was very hard to navigate. i don't think looking back on it i don't think you can say the decision s were the correct ones. i don't think it was just this. there were a series of them. >> diana? >> i agree with that and i don't think that anybody can look back and think that, you know, bob mueller got in some hot water with the bush administration several times, two threatened resignations that were reported at the time. comey seems to have operated a little bit differently, and it is, you know, looking back, i think with a very careful, clear regard for his reputation. and i think that's what there are some objections to. >> i thought it was a bad choice. >> what do you mean? >> you know, he was lauded on the left because we all knew about

no pressure, ramesh. >> thank you for having me here. i didn't realize it was the 50th anniversary of previous conference on the same topic. i would like ron and katherine to know that i am available on may 1st, 2067 should we need to reconvene, which i have a kind of depressing premonition that we may well have the same conversation. i wanted to make two main points. and one of them is admittedly not going to be even slightly helpful. and that is that although we're going to hear some great proposals, have a lot to be said for them, there is a broader context about having -- the importance of having a tight labor market that is just so vitally important because it's sort of harder to get your arms around, sometimes we let it slip out of our minds. but it really is crucial. over the last few decades i believe we've had a full employment economy, something like a third or less of the time. and you know, we just make much much more rapid progress in periods when you've got those tight labor markets. while it may not be directly on point, i

join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and ramesh ponnuru. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org boom! hello, i'm julia child. welcome to my house. what fun we're going to have baking all kinds of incredible cakes, pies and breads right here in my own kitchen. master baker danielle forestier learned her craft in france from the famous boulanger, professor raymond calvel. today she shares her technique for baking the classic baguette. join us on...

join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and ramesh ponnuru. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org