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ROBERT COSTA: Hello. I'm Robert Costa. And this is the Washington Week Podcast.

Today we turn to the investigations swirling around the Trump administration.

Joining me at the table, Molly Ball, national political correspondent for TIME Magazine;

Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times; Kimberly Atkins,

chief Washington reporter for The Boston Herald; and Jake Sherman, senior writer and

co-editor of POLITICO's Playbook. Retired Army Lieutenant General and former

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to making false

statements to the FBI about interactions with Russian officials.

Flynn is now cooperating with federal investigators and had hoped to be sentenced to

probation rather than spend time in jail, but at his sentencing hearing this week U.S.

District Judge Emmet Sullivan said he was disgusted at what he called a very serious

offense and said that Flynn would probably spend time in jail if the sentencing

proceeded. Flynn agreed to delay until March.

Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee voted to send testimony from Roger Stone,

longtime advisor to Donald Trump, to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

And advisors at the Department of Justice said Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker does

not have to recuse himself from the Mueller probe, even though DOJ ethics officials

recommended recusal. And the Trump Foundation, it's shutting down.

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood accused Trump and his three children of

improperly using the funds there and said an investigation found a shocking pattern of

illegality, including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign,

repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more.

President Trump has been wishing Flynn good luck, but Peter, he is facing a lot of

challenges with all of these angles of the Russia investigation.

PETER BAKER: Oh yeah, absolutely. Look, there's a reason why Robert Mueller's

prosecutors said they didn't necessarily want jail time or prison time for

Michael Flynn. He met with them 19 times.

Now, we don't know what he told them, but if you meet with prosecutors 19 times and

prosecutors then come out and say this guy has been really cooperative, don't give him

any prison time, there's something there. We don't - you know, we're to find out

eventually, but if I were the president I would look at that and I would worry.

There's a reason why he asked Jim Comey to go easy on the guy to begin with.

Michael Flynn was there throughout the campaign. He was the conduit to the Russian

ambassador during the transition, when they were talking about sanctions.

There's a lot of focus on what any contacts with Russia could have led to while the

president was in office. Did they go easy on sanctions or try to lift sanctions as

a result of any kind of discussion that happened prior to taking office?

We'll find out those answers, and it may not be good.

MOLLY BALL: Well, and a couple points to make about this, you know.

Judge Sullivan, during the sentencing, a lot of figures on the right had high hopes for

him, that he would be sympathetic to Flynn and to Flynn's lawyers' claims that he'd been

treated unfairly by the FBI. They could not have been more wrong.

Judge Sullivan actually came out with a false claim that Flynn actually had been an

unregistered foreign agent while serving as national security adviser, but he wasn't that

far off because it was as national security adviser that Flynn continued to lie about

having been an unregistered foreign agent. He didn't register until after he quit.

And Judge Sullivan's outrage was saying you sold out your country, you betrayed this

flag, the United States of America. So there was a real deeply felt - and the other

thing to remember is that Judge Sullivan knows a lot more about what's in the evidence

than we do because Judge Sullivan requested the files, the evidence files, from the FBI.

He has seen a lot more of all of that secret testimony that Flynn gave to the special

prosecutor and the people on that team, and so he has a much fuller understanding of just

how bad it was.

The things that Michael Flynn has confessed to, has admitted that he did - this is a man

who was the national security adviser of the United States, the only person in the whole

Cabinet that President Obama took Trump aside during the transition and said do whatever

you want but do not hire this man in your administration, and Trump went ahead and did it.

KIMBERLY ATKINS: And there was a difference - another difference, too, is Michael Flynn,

unlike a lot of other people involved in the Mueller probe, has not been speaking, has

not been talking publicly, isn't on Twitter doing all the things that you see a lot of

the other figures doing. But at the very least minute he sort of took a Trumpian turn,

right, and tired - his lawyer argued, well, the people or FBI agents who interviewed him

kind of tricked him; he didn't really know.

And that really annoyed Judge Sullivan, who called him on the carpet and made him say in

court, no, that isn't true, I wasn't - I wasn't duped; I know that lying to an FBI agent

is wrong, and I did that, and I accept responsibility for it.

That's also a bad omen moving forward as we wait to see what happens to Roger Stone and

all the other people involved in this probe as they move forward. The Trumpier their

response and the more they defend, the worse it's likely going to be for them.

ROBERT COSTA: Jake, with all of this news on the Mueller front, it doesn't even get to

what the president should expect on the horizon with House Democrats about to take power

and the gavel in many of these investigative committees. What do you expect to see in January?

JAKE SHERMAN: I mean, the committees are already sending letters.

They're already - they're already in full swing here, and I think what you're going to

see, Republican - the House Republicans gave the Trump administration really the benefit

of the doubt and also gave them courtesies that Democrats are just not going to give

them. They're going to have public hearings.

There's going to be constant questioning of every decision the president makes, not only

in relation to his past activities but, like, for example, if the president pulls troops

out of Syria you could almost guarantee that people who are involved in that decision

will be brought up to the Hill and forced to answer questions as part of budgetary hearings.

So I don't - I really have the suspicion and know that the president is not prepared for

these investigations, both mentally, and actually tactically I think he doesn't really

understand what he's getting into.

ROBERT COSTA: Is that your read, Peter, when you're at the White House, when you think

about new White House counsel Pat Cipollone and there's Emmet Flood in there, associate

White House counsel. Are they ready for the gathering storm?

PETER BAKER: No, I don't think so. The president in particular has never experienced

anything like this, right? He hasn't been in politics. Remember, the first president

in our history who was never a day in government office, in the military. He's had a

pretty friendly Congress to him for the last two years. He has no idea what's really

coming. He may know intellectually, and I think he does, but once he starts getting

those blizzard of subpoenas and, as Jake said, not just about himself. What about

Ryan Zinke, by the way, just resigned as interior secretary, multiple investigations?

What about let's go back to Scott Pruitt or Tom Price? Or, you know, what is Jared

Kushner's business up to? I mean, these guys have a lot of avenues that they can explore.

There may not be any fruit there, but they can make life miserable for President Trump

and his team. And I don't think he has a staff yet in place ready to deal with that.

ROBERT COSTA: Roger Stone, Molly, you've covered him for a while.

He's not been indicted or anything, but his name just keeps coming up.

What does - what does that mean to President Trump?

MOLLY BALL: Well, we know that Roger Stone was close to Trump, even after he was

supposedly kicked off of the Trump campaign, has known him for many, many years.

We know that Roger Stone is a liar and a dirty trickster and someone who has delighted in

building this persona for himself of someone who was willing to do all kinds of dirty

deeds, if you will. And we know that he was talking to Guccifer, the Russian agent who

was the liaison to WikiLeaks, who was dealing with a lot of this hacked material from the

DNC. So Roger Stone is potentially the linchpin for the entire potential conspiracy with

Russia that the Mueller team is building a case around if in fact the facts are there.

So Roger Stone could be really crucial to this.

But just to follow up on Peter's point and connect a lot of the dots from this week.

We are starting to see independent institutions rein in and lash back at Donald Trump.

For two years, he has had, more or less, a free ride. In the midterms, we saw the first

instance of sort of political accountability for the - for his first two years in office.

We're starting to see legal accountability in the form of this gathering storm of the

investigation. You saw a Republican-appointed judge stand up and say no, this isn't

acceptable, we're an independent institution here in the judiciary and we have the power

to lash back. You saw the Fed, despite the president's pressure on them, do what they

were going to do and say no, we have our own power, we're not controlled by you, Mr. President.

And now with the Mattis resignation, you have both the Pentagon, the Department of

Defense, and the Congress, as Kim was saying, this extraordinary statement from Mitch

McConnell, who doesn't usually question anything the president does, you have these institutions

all around the president starting to stand up and say we're not going to take this anymore.

ROBERT COSTA: Kim, speaking about the institution, one of those institutions in a way

politically is the Mueller investigation. Were they dealt a blow by what happened

to Flynn in court? He had cooperated, they were urging him to just have probation,

a lighter sentence, yet the judge said wait a second, I'm not going to let Robert

Mueller run the table here in all my decisions, I'm going to make my own.

KIMBERLY ATKINS: It depends. I mean, this investigation is far in and well on its way.

If this was early on and this is one of the early sentencings and the judge did not

accept the sentencing recommendation, that would have been a really big blow because then

it would have taken away the ability to offer these deals in order to get this information.

Michael Flynn has already testified - has already been in for an interview 19 times with

Bob Mueller and his team. It's hard to say what more he could give in order to

convince this judge that he deserves a light sentence.

And the other people who were involved, too, still have not been sentenced, folks like

Rick Gates, they have been - they have been cooperating for a long time, too.

So I don't think it's necessarily a blow, we don't know, but it seems it's far enough

along that they'll likely still push forward.

ROBERT COSTA: Jake, final question for you. You cover House Speaker Paul Ryan

closely, you're writing a book about him and his experience with President Trump.

He was on a farewell tour this week giving a major speech and some interviews, issuing

his videos from his office. When he looks back and other Republicans look back and

they see all this Mueller news building and building, are there any regrets with him or

people close to him about how they handled the Russia issue in Congress among Republicans?

JAKE SHERMAN: No. They feel like they let the Mueller investigation go on, they

did not undermine it. They feel like they fostered an independent committee process

that allowed - that investigated the Russia issue. And I don't think they have any regrets.

And I think - I think we're too close to it. I think time will tell whether that's true.

But I think that they feel like they've fostered an environment that let this go on.

Remember, there are people on Capitol Hill, very senior Republicans, as you know, who

have basically called for Mueller to either be fired or be limited in his scope. And so I

think that Ryan didn't do that and neither did McConnell, so I think they feel OK about that.

ROBERT COSTA: But they didn't pass the Mueller protection in the Senate.

JAKE SHERMAN: They did not. And, you know, the president keeps calling to change

the threshold, the 60-vote threshold. If that were changed, the Mueller investigation

would be protected to President Trump's peril. So I think it's, you're right, it's

a complicated issue. They didn't do it and McConnell keeps saying I didn't feel

like I had to do it because the president has given me his assurances.

ROBERT COSTA: Thanks, Jake, and thanks, everyone. That's it for this edition of

the Washington Week Podcast. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch

on the Washington Week website. While you're online, check out the Washington

Week-ly News Quiz. I'm Robert Costa. See you next time.

For more infomation >> The Russia probe: Pending investigations - Duration: 12:02.

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#Ultimas #Noticias #EEUU Obama reparte regalos en un hospital de Washington ✅ - Duration: 1:47.

For more infomation >> #Ultimas #Noticias #EEUU Obama reparte regalos en un hospital de Washington ✅ - Duration: 1:47.

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A breach in the cabinet and Congress on the brink - Duration: 25:10.

ROBERT COSTA: A breach in the Cabinet and Congress on the brink.

I'm Robert Costa. Welcome to Washington Week.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: (From video.) Every nation has not only the right, but the

absolute duty to protect its borders and its citizens.

Without borders we have the reign of chaos, crime, cartels.

ROBERT COSTA: President Trump digs in on his request for billions for a border wall,

rattling Capitol Hill and the markets. And he announces U.S. troops will leave Syria.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: (From video.) We've been fighting for a long time in Syria. I've been

president for almost two years and we've really stepped it up, and we have won against ISIS.

ROBERT COSTA: But leading Republicans push back.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): (From video.) To say they're defeated is an overstatement

and is fake news.

SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): (From video.) The decision to withdraw an American presence

in Syria is a colossal, in my mind, mistake, a grave error that's going to have

significant repercussions in the years and months to come.

ROBERT COSTA: And Defense Secretary James Mattis resigns. Next on Washington Week.

ANNOUNCER: This is Washington Week. Once again, from Washington, moderator Robert Costa.

ROBERT COSTA: Good evening. You join us live on Friday night as Capitol Hill is buzzing

just days before Christmas. Our reporters have been closely tracking the showdown over

President Trump's ultimatum over funding for a border wall. Here is what you need to know.

The president, he wants 5 billion (dollars) for the wall to be included in the latest

government funding bill. But so far the Republican-controlled Congress on the eve of

divided government has struggled to find the votes, to say the least, and the president's

demand has sparked a frenzy tonight at the Capitol as lawmakers negotiate, exchange

barbs, and try to avert a partial government shutdown at midnight tonight.

SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHARLES SCHUMER (D-NY): (From video.) President Trump, you will

not get your wall. Abandon your shutdown strategy. You're not getting the wall today,

next week, or on January 3rd when Democrats take control of the House.

ROBERT COSTA: Now, there is a plan B out there.

The Senate on Wednesday passed what reporters call a clean bill; in other words, it

doesn't include the 5 billion (dollars) the president wants for his wall, but it would

simply fund the government through early February. The clock, though, it's ticking.

And joining us tonight, Molly Ball, national political correspondent for TIME Magazine;

Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times; Kimberly Atkins,

chief Washington reporter for The Boston Herald; and Jake Sherman, senior writer and

co-editor of POLITICO's Playbook. Jake, you're live on Capitol Hill tonight.

Thanks so much for joining us on this busy evening. We appreciate it.

Where do things stand, Jake, in terms of the negotiation?

There's a lot of talk among top aides that maybe there's a compromise in the works to not

give the president 5 billion (dollars) for his wall, but 1.6 billion (dollars).

JAKE SHERMAN: That's right. I mean, the government - just to be clear, the government

is almost certainly, almost without a doubt, shutting down here in about four hours.

But it was a fascinating scene today.

Basically, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate decided to proceed to a bill -

basically to debate a bill to buy time so they can come up with a global agreement so

they could pass all seven lingering appropriations bills in the coming days here.

So there's seven bills that need to be passed that deal with a big slice of government,

and they're going to try to work over the next couple days to get it done. Now, there

are a lot of pressure points, as you noted, Bob. Like, $1.6 billion is about as much as

Democrats will allow for border security - not the president's wall, but border security.

And I just talked to Jim Jordan, the conservative Republican from Ohio, who said 1.6

billion (dollars) is not going to do it for me, and I think that's the reaction you're

going to get from conservatives across the Capitol. So the question is, what does Donald

Trump do? Does he come out and embrace a lower total, 1.6 billion (dollars), instead of

5 billion (dollars), to avoid a prolonged shutdown into next year?

It's not clear to any of us at this point.

But Vice President Mike Pence is just around the corner from here in the Capitol with

Jared Kushner and Mick Mulvaney, trying to get a deal, doing shuttle diplomacy -

literally going between the House and the Senate, trying to negotiate a deal.

ROBERT COSTA: And some moderate senators, retiring Republicans like Jeff Flake and Bob

Corker, they seem to be playing critical roles tonight.

Are they trying to get a compromise through the Senate as well?

JAKE SHERMAN: They are. Bob Corker voted to proceed on to the bill for a procedural

motion that he seemed at least hesitant to take. Jeff Flake switched his vote, voted

no and then voted yes when he had assurances that negotiations would happen.

It's definitely a last gasp from Bob Corker, who told us literally yesterday that he was

going home and not coming back, and thanked us for all of our work in covering him over

the years. So I guess he decided that he was going to have one more deal-making session

over the next couple days. But listen, this isn't a complicated deal. This deal has been

cooked in the Senate for a long time. The question is, will Donald Trump accept this

$1.6 billion? And we don't have an answer for that at this point.

ROBERT COSTA: Bob Corker also told reporters to go have a scotch while everyone waits

for these negotiations to finish. I promise you we're just having - (laughter) - water

and coffee here tonight at the table. But, Peter, Jake mentioned that the White House has

Vice President Pence, Jared Kushner, Mick Mulvaney - the new chief of staff - on Capitol Hill.

The president keeps - said a few days ago he'd be willing to have a shutdown over the 5

billion (dollars). Is the White House walking back that demand?

PETER BAKER: Well, that's the problem, right? If you're in the room negotiating with

this president or with this president's people, you don't know what he's going to do.

One minute he says yes, the next minute he says no. Earlier this week it looked like

he was ready to back down and accept, you know, a temporary solution till February.

Then he got his backup once the conservative media, Rush Limbaugh and so forth, began

pummeling him for caving in, and he went the other direction.

So it really makes it harder to negotiate if you don't know that your negotiating partner

is going to stick to a position for longer than, you know, a day, basically.

ROBERT COSTA: You've been covering the Democrats over the last few weeks.

Likely Speaker Nancy Pelosi, she's holding the line.

Does she feel and her allies feel that the president's boxed in here, that they have to

accept that original Democratic offer of 1.6 billion (dollars) for the wall, Molly?

MOLLY BALL: They do, and I think that they've - they're somewhat vindicated by the fact

that the next offer that appears to be coming down the pike is basically their original

position. They haven't really budged, and Republicans are trying to give them what they

want. The original Senate deal gave the Democrats what they wanted.

To be clear, the president is never going to have more leverage than he does right now.

He's still got the House. He's still got both houses of Congress.

Now, he does need 60 Republican votes to get something through the Senate.

There was unimaginable level of relief on Capitol Hill, particularly among Republicans,

when earlier this week he not only signaled that he would support this deal, but tweeted

in support of it. But then, as Peter said, he changed his mind.

And so even with Mike Pence and Jared Kushner, nobody on Capitol Hill feels they can

trust any of the people negotiating on Trump's behalf or even negotiating directly with

Trump, because he can turn around and change his mind. And so, you know, everybody there

would just like to go home, and nobody is as invested in the border wall as the president is.

The reason that the Senate unanimously passed this deal that didn't include a border wall

- it included a rather nominal amount of border security - is that they don't care about

the wall as much as Trump does, and the House doesn't care about the wall as much as

Trump does. And that's why for two years they've been putting him off and not funding

the wall, because they don't - he's the one who wants this. And he has realized he's the

one who's going to have to insist on this for it to get done, and even then it may not.

ROBERT COSTA: If the talks continue tonight, Kim, the government will partially shut

down. What does that mean for federal workers? What does that mean for the country?

KIMBERLY ATKINS: Yeah, so there are - that means about 25 percent of the government,

their employees, will either be furloughed - meaning they won't go to work, they won't

get paid - or they will have to go to work, if they're essential, and not get paid,

either way. And these aren't just people here in Washington; these are people throughout

the country, and they're also working at some of the most - the key agencies that the

president is talking about when it comes to border security, right? We're talking

about - we're talking about Homeland Security, the DOJ, customs and border enforcement.

The very folks that are the focus of these talks will be the ones showing up to work

every day - because they are mostly essential - and not being paid while this fight plays

out, which is something that I'm not sure the president has thought that part of it

through, the optics of it. Plus, it's right before Christmas. It's just terrible optics,

and there are folks that are - on the Republican side that are concerned about that.

PETER BAKER: Just what you want, unpaid TSA agents -

KIMBERLY ATKINS: Right, as going on a plane.

PETER BAKER: - as everybody's getting on a plane to go home for the holidays.

KIMBERLY ATKINS: Exactly.

ROBERT COSTA: So that's part of maybe the pressure points here. But, Jake, what about

the markets tumbling today? Has that forced lawmakers to try to get a deal done?

JAKE SHERMAN: You know, I was just talking to somebody about this.

I can't remember the last time I heard any member of Congress talk about the stock

market, which is shocking to think about.

But it does play into the backdrop of the political climate at the moment.

The president, obviously, is exceedingly focused on the stock market and the economic

indicators across the economy, basically.

But I will say they feel comfortable in this shutdown, which is ironic because Saturday

and Sunday are weekends and a lot of the government's not open on weekends, and Monday

and Tuesday are federal holidays. The president just declared Christmas Eve - the

government's closed on Christmas Eve. So they feel like they could actually keep

the government closed a couple days. They have some cushion.

If I had to guess, though, there will be some agreement here in the next 24 to 36 hours.

That's just the sense that I get from being in the hallways and talking to people.

There were some people that thought there might even be an agreement tonight.

They have to give their members 24 hours to get back to Washington.

Many people went home. Carlos Curbelo from Florida was a flight to Miami tonight.

So people need time to get back here, and I think we'll see that in the next couple days.

ROBERT COSTA: I want to come back to something, Peter, you brought up, the right-wing

rebellion. It was only Wednesday I was at the Capitol and it seemed like a deal was

imminent, that they would have some kind of short-term clean resolution, or maybe

with 1.6 billion (dollars) attached. Then you heard about Fox News and Rush Limbaugh

saying the president was caving on his signature promise. Senators were saying there's

almost a tyranny - that's the Corker line today - tyranny of the right wing driving this

president. Is that what the view is inside of the White House, that he's listening to these

conservative voices more than voices who maybe work for him on the White House staff or

are associated with him in Congress?

PETER BAKER: Yeah, I mean, you know, Ann Coulter seemed to have more of an impact than

Mitch McConnell, right?

Mitch McConnell has done an awful lot for this president and gotten through his Supreme

Court nominees and a lot of other judges, gotten through what he could do on legislation.

And yet, when Ann Coulter writes a pretty tough column saying this is a president who has

failed on his most signature campaign promise - and that is the issue here; it is his

most signature campaign promise - he gets all worked up about it.

He unfollows her on Twitter, but basically then is following her in terms of his policy

priorities at the moment. He gets very sensitive to this. And in fact, you hear

former aides of his and current aides of his talk about how the way to shape his

thinking is to make sure you get your people out on Fox News to describe what is going

on, and they didn't do that. They didn't get their side out on Fox News for him to hear.

ROBERT COSTA: But I wonder, Kim, is that the whole story with President Trump?

At one level he's constantly listening to the right wing.

But you also look at what happened this week: they passed a bipartisan farm bill, they

passed criminal justice reform with bipartisan support.

What's the real story with where this administration is going in divided government?

KIMBERLY ATKINS: Yeah, those are two things you think he would be doing victory laps

over. But what else is happening this week? We have the increased pressure from the

Mueller investigation, things going wrong, and when that happens you tend to see the

president want to fight. He feels sort of in his - in his element when he is fighting

a fight and he has an opponent. And he went right back to the wall, which is just a

part of his identity at this point. He loves fighting that battle over the wall.

It was driven in part by the conservative media commentators. But it brings him back

to his base. We saw a similar thing happen when the larger immigration reform attempt

kind of fizzled out. There was a deal that was ready to be done and at the last

minute the White House torpedoed it because he was reminded your base does not

want amnesty, they want the wall, and he walked away.

ROBERT COSTA: Is that what this really all comes down to, then, Molly?

The whole fight, this whole showdown on a Friday night, is it about the president

signaling to that core voter we may have to have a deal here at the end of the day, but

at least I fought to the eleventh hour?

MOLLY BALL: The theme of the Trump presidency for the last two years has been that he is

president for this base of Trump lovers, Trump supporters and not for the rest of America.

He's not particularly interested in the fact that he's got an approval rating in the high

30s and just experienced an epic political repudiation in the midterms. That doesn't

bother him, but it does bother him. And what I don't really understand is, what would

happen if he were to try to lead them on this issue rather than being led by them?

Because on all sorts of issues, he has led the Republican base into uncharted

territory, whether it's being friendly to Vladimir Putin, whether it's being against

federal law enforcement and the DOJ, against Jeff Sessions, previously revered by the

Republican base, on all kinds of issues he has been the one leading the base and they

have followed him. The famous 5th Avenue quote, right?

He could basically do anything and they would follow him there.

And yet on immigration, he continues to feel that this is the issue that he has to

follow not just the base, but, I mean, because even majorities of Republican voters, even

majorities of Trump supporters don't necessarily support a super hard line on immigration

or the wall itself. And yet, the Ann Coulters of the world, who represent a small splice

of that Republican base, he absolutely feels that he cannot earn their displeasure.

ROBERT COSTA: Jake, final point on this. If they do come up with a spending

agreement, based on what Molly just said, if the right is still up in arms about

any kind of deal, does that mean an agreement, should one be made, will likely have

to pass through the House and through the Senate with mostly Democratic votes?

JAKE SHERMAN: Well, it'll pass the Senate with, like, 90 votes because both parties are

in agreement on the broad spectrum of issues here. But the real danger for the

president and, furthermore, Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan, who's halfway out the door

at this point, is that a majority of Republicans in the House do not support the deal.

And that's really, really scary for this president because he has communicated privately

to people, the White House has communicated privately that they really need a majority of

Republicans on this bill. One more point here. Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy have

been promising this border wall fight now for almost two years.

They kept telling him not advantageous to do it now, let's push it off, let's push

it off, and the president's finally saying, where is this fight?

Now you've told me for two years we're going to have this fight, we haven't had it and

now it's at the end of Republican Washington, we need to have this fight.

And that's what I think - why I think the president's fighting so hard here because he's

put it off for so long and he thinks it's time to really have this showdown.

ROBERT COSTA: Let's turn to another big topic this week. President Trump suddenly

announced this week that he is pulling U.S. forces out of Syria, rocking officials at

the Pentagon, who were not expecting the announcement. President Trump has advocated

for pulling troops back from Syria for a long time, but the decision to exit without

careful coordination surprised U.S. allies and Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Mattis widely is seen as one of the steadiest hands in the Cabinet; he resigned soon

after this decision was made.

And in his resignation letter, he wrote, "Because you have the right to have a secretary

of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I

believe it is right for me to step down from my position." Peter, a monumental breach in the

Cabinet. This was not a retirement, as President Trump tweeted. This was a resignation, a rebuke.

PETER BAKER: That's right, a resignation in protest, which is not a common thing in

Washington. I mean, a lot of times, people might quit government, but they don't

say so as they leave the door that it's because they're unhappy with the president, usually

not advantageous to them. Jim Mattis makes very clear in his letter what his problems are.

He says that we ought to be standing up to the Chinese and the Russians and we ought to

be standing with the Germans and French and British and our other allies and we're not

doing either of those things; and therefore, it's time for me to leave.

This is, oddly enough as we're talking about the president's following the lead of

conservatives, the opposite of that. This is where he's taking on the dominant

conservative thinking within his party, which tends to be more hawkish, which tends

to be pro leaving troops in Syria and Afghanistan, definitely pro Jim Mattis.

You heard Lindsey Graham, who's been one of President Trump's biggest allies in recent

months, being caustic in his response, saying this is an Obama-like mistake.

So suddenly, you've got this odd dichotomy where he's with the right on the border wall

and he's against the right on pulling home. And in his view, this is all of a piece,

it's all about the same thing, America first, right? He sees a connection to these things

that is ideologically coherent. But within the Republican Party, it exposes a lot of fissures.

ROBERT COSTA: When you think about this idea that Secretary Mattis was the "adult in the

room," that's widely talked about throughout Washington, who now plays a countering role

to what Peter was talking about, that America first instinct, Molly?

Is it Secretary Pompeo? Is it John Bolton, the national security adviser?

MOLLY BALL: I think nobody knows and that's why so many people are so frightened.

You heard a really - a real sense of panic from some of the most sober-minded and sort of

patrician minds in Washington, members of the national security establishment, who even

up to now have been relatively sanguine, feeling like they could trust people like -

people like Mattis and also John Kelly, the generals, those experienced hands who were

there with Trump, who would literally swat his finger away from the button if it got to

that point. And those people aren't there anymore, none of them are there.

Tillerson maybe might have been counted as one of this group in the past.

And so there is less and less feeling that there is any check on Trump.

And so this is why you're seeing the markets swoon.

This is why you're seeing a real sense of fear and trepidation in Washington is the

concern that maybe he really has cast off all these restraints.

You know, for the first two years of his presidency, I think of the signal promises of

Trumpism that countervened the sort of bipartisan consensus as being trade, foreign policy

and immigration. So there was a bipartisan really consensus in the Democratic and

Republican establishment against tariffs and trade wars, against isolationism, pulling

troops out of all of our places that we are abroad, and against building a wall.

And he has figured out that if he just gets rid of these people who have been holding him

back, he can do all that stuff and that is deeply disruptive, just as he promised.

ROBERT COSTA: So beyond being disruptive on policy and personnel, he's disruptive with

these wars. What does it mean in Afghanistan and in Syria, Kim?

KIMBERLY ATKINS: Yeah, I mean, I think it remains to be seen.

A lot of people are worried, yes, there are about 2,200 troops in Syria, in northern

Syria, not a huge amount, but it brings back memories of Iraq and when we had a drawdown

there and it left a vacuum in which ISIS was able to thrive.

And that if the real focus, as President Trump said so forcefully during his campaign, is

fighting these terrorist groups because they pose such a danger to the United States,

that this could very well be a premature declaration of victory.

And beyond that, I mean, it is, when it comes to Mattis' resignation, it is about these

two different views of how to approach this, but it's also a worldview that is so

different. His letter was so extraordinary.

I think he wrote it for the history books to lay out very clearly the world - for the

world really that the United States should be standing with its allies, the United States

should be cleareyed about its adversaries and work toward those interests, and the

president doesn't believe that, so I can't work there. It's a stunning rebuke.

ROBERT COSTA: Jake, the view on Capitol Hill, are they stunned as well about Secretary

Mattis' departure? Or is President Trump still in full grip of his own party?

JAKE SHERMAN: I think we have to keep in mind that on Capitol Hill people like Mattis

and Pompeo and John Kelly are the people that actually interact the most with members of

Congress. They get briefed. I mean, Mattis is up here all the time. Pompeo, I saw him

this week walking out of future Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. So they have a rapport

with these people and they deal with them a lot, so I think that there's a lot of shock.

You saw Mitch McConnell last night issue a very strong-worded statement about Mattis'

departure, which was stunning for him, stunning for a congressional leader. You saw a

similar one - Paul Ryan issued one when John Kelly announced his resignation. Now, is

he in full control of his party? I think he's losing some control with some of these

decisions. You are seeing people like Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham take very serious

issue with their - with his military decisions.

And the fact that he is not briefing people, I mean, listen, Republicans had a lot of

disagreements with Obama about his military strategy, his foreign policy, but he briefed

key players on Capitol Hill all the time, kept them in the know.

ROBERT COSTA: Jake, who's the frontrunner to replace Secretary Mattis?

Is it Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas or somebody else?

JAKE SHERMAN: I think Tom Cotton would have a tough time because I think Tom Cotton

disagrees with a lot of things the president has done. I think that it would be helpful

if it was somebody from the Senate because they would have an easier time getting

through, getting through confirmation, but I think it's a little too early to say.

ROBERT COSTA: Peter, you mentioned how this underscores President Trump's instincts on

foreign policy, a noninterventionist, not a George W. Bush hawk. Has he always been that? Is

that where this Republican Party is going? Because there's always the discussion about Mattis'

departure and him as a person. But really, where is this administration going on foreign policy?

PETER BAKER: Yeah, it's a great question. And in fairness to, you know, to President

Trump, nobody should be surprised by this or the border wall. These are things he talked

about consistently, passionately, repeatedly as a candidate and obviously since becoming president.

He has felt held back, held back by the Congress, held back by Jim Mattis, held back, as

Molly was just saying, by all the people around him and he does seem to be sort of

feeling more liberated now. His view is not that different from President Obama's,

which is that it's a waste of our resources and time to be enmeshed in these Middle

East conflicts that we can't really solve anyway. Now, the difference in President

Obama and President Trump is in fact partly process, how you go about doing it.

Right? Jake just mentioned briefings. Like, you don't leave your defense secretary

so upset about your process that he decides to resign. You don't leave the chairman

of the Joint Chiefs of Staff out of the room without some consequence. You know, allies

are flustered about what to make of this. But he has always said he thinks America

should be focused back at home, less interventionist, less on the ground in all these

different places where people are killed and he sees it for no particular value.

ROBERT COSTA: You don't see anyone almost in the GOP with that same view.

PETER BAKER: Well, this is the problem.

I mean, if you talked about going to the Senate for a defense secretary, I don't know who

in that Senate would agree with him, at least on the largescale, of these things.

And Jack Keane, I've seen his name mentioned, a general, used to be vice chair of the

Joint Chiefs, he's a very hawkish figure. I can't imagine him -

ROBERT COSTA: The closest could be Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

MOLLY BALL: That would certainly be an interesting turn of events if that were the case.

ROBERT COSTA: But right, he almost shares the views.

MOLLY BALL: Well, here is the thing, is that I think the difference between -

ROBERT COSTA: You've got 30 seconds left.

MOLLY BALL: - even about even a Rand Paul is that, you know, we can't overlook the

Russia angle in all this, the fact that President Trump did what was most advantageous

for Russian President Putin. And the fact that he has so consistently gone against

the interests of our allies in favor of our adversaries - and I don't think that -

and against international institutions like NATO.

ROBERT COSTA: What a night, we have to leave it there. Thank you, everyone.

And thank you for joining us tonight. Our conversation will continue on the

Washington Week Podcast. You can find that on our website and also on your favorite

podcast app. I'm Robert Costa. Thanks for joining us and enjoy the holidays.

For more infomation >> A breach in the cabinet and Congress on the brink - Duration: 25:10.

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From Cabinet turmoil to budget impasse: The chaotic week in Washington - Duration: 5:30.

For more infomation >> From Cabinet turmoil to budget impasse: The chaotic week in Washington - Duration: 5:30.

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What you need to know about the partial government shutdown - Duration: 2:30.

For more infomation >> What you need to know about the partial government shutdown - Duration: 2:30.

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How the debate over the border wall led to a partial government shutdown - Duration: 2:46.

For more infomation >> How the debate over the border wall led to a partial government shutdown - Duration: 2:46.

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Washington is on the brink of a partial government shutdown - Duration: 1:34.

For more infomation >> Washington is on the brink of a partial government shutdown - Duration: 1:34.

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Trump family in Mar A Lago while President Trump stays in Washington - Daily News - Duration: 3:40.

Eric Trump and his wife Lara were spotted enjoying the holiday weekend at the Palm Beach resort owned by his father while the president stayed at the White House to deal with the Government shutdown

Lara flaunted her toned stomach in shorts and a bikini top with sandals as she and her husband, in pants and a long sleeved shirt, strolled across the golf course, accompanied by the family dog CharlieDonald Trump's second eldest son looked ready for some rest and relaxation, and was carrying a fishing rod under his arm as the family piled out of the car

He carried out his one-year-old son Eric Luke. The family looked delighted to escape the stresses of Washington DC for the holidays, but there was no sign of Eric's father

 Putting a crimp on his Christmas, President Trump had to cancel his standard holiday getaway with family in Florida over the partial government shutdown that began Friday night

While the budget impasse stems from the $5.7 billion he wants for a border wall along the U

S.-Mexico border, his wife Melania decided not to stick around in the nation's capital

  'It has long been the family's tradition to spend their Christmas holiday at Mar-a-Lago

Her plans to travel with her son to their Florida home for his winter break have not changed this year,' spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said, CNN reported

Share this article Share Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced no deal had been reached as of Saturday afternoon and the Senate is adjourned until December 27

 'The crisis of illegal activity at our Southern Border is real and will not stop until we build a great Steel Barrier or Wall

Let work begin!' the President tweeted on Saturday.  Lawmakers returned on Saturday to Capitol Hill hoping for a last minute passage of a bill to undo the partial shutdown before the holiday break, but the impasse continued

'I am in the White House, working hard. News reports concerning the Shutdown and Syria are mostly FAKE

We are negotiating with the Democrats on desperately needed Border Security (Gangs, Drugs, Human Trafficking & more) but it could be a long stay,' Trump also tweeted Saturday afternoon

Trump continues to hold firm to the $5 billion price tag that Democrats categorically refuse to entertain, even though he has previously said that Mexico would pay for the border wall

  The president had planned for a 16-day holiday, which would have been his longest as president, but with the shutdown, it does not appear to be happening

 Flight restrictions for the area around the resort were lifted on Friday after the President's decision to stay in D

C., according to the local CBS affiliate.

For more infomation >> Trump family in Mar A Lago while President Trump stays in Washington - Daily News - Duration: 3:40.

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1998 Kia Chad Washington DC Gary - Duration: 23:47.

For more infomation >> 1998 Kia Chad Washington DC Gary - Duration: 23:47.

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Attorney general nominee wrote memo criticizing Mueller obstruction probe The Washington Post - Duration: 3:25.

Attorney general nominee wrote memo criticizing Mueller obstruction probe The Washington Post

William P. Barr, who has been nominated to become the next attorney general, wrote a memo to Justice Department leaders earlier this year criticizing special counsel Robert S. Mueller III for a fatally misconceived legal theory of how President Trump may have obstructed justice.

The memo, written in June and addressed to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, is likely to raise alarms among Democrats who have sought to protect the Mueller investigation. And it could intensify the partisan fights surrounding Barr when he comes before the Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation next year.

Even before the memo, Barr was expected to be grilled about his past statements regarding special counsel investigations, controversial decisions President Trump has made and whether he would publicly pledge to protect the Mueller investigation from political interference.

Barr wrote that Muellers apparent theory of obstruction is premised on a novel and legally insupportable reading of the law. Moreover, in my view, if credited by the department, it would have grave consequences far beyond the immediate confines of this case and would do lasting damage to the presidency and to the administration of law within the executive branch.

Since being named special counsel in May 2017, shortly after Trump fired James B. Comey as FBI director, Mueller has been investigating whether any Trump associates conspired with the Kremlin to interfere in the 2016 election. He has also been investigating whether Trump or his associates attempted to obstruct the FBIs investigation of those issues.

Barr, who served as the attorney general in the early 1990s under President George H.W. Bush, said in the memo that he is in the dark about many facts, but I hope my views may be useful.

The memo argued that a president can be investigated for acts that would directly alter an investigation, such as suborning perjury or destroying evidence. But Barr contended that the department should not investigate the president for acts that are allowed under his legal authority as president but could, in theory, be done for the purpose of blocking an investigation.

Specifically, Barr wrote that because a president has the power to hire and fire an FBI director, Mueller should not investigate the presidents decision to fire Comey. He wrote that doing so would ultimately limit the chief executives authority over government agencies, and the authority of senior Justice Department officials who might later decide to shut down investigations or not approve the filing of charges.

Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the president submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction, Barr wrote. Apart from whether Mueller [has] a strong enough factual basis for doing so, Muellers obstruction theory is fatally misconceived.

Days after Comeys firing, Barr wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post arguing that the presidents action was justified, but that was before many of the details of Trumps interactions with the FBI director were known. The June 2018 memo makes clear that even after those details came to light — such as the president asking Comey two months before the firing to into Trumps former national security adviser Michael Flynn — Barr still considered the presidents actions justified and not criminal.

The memo was made public Wednesday night by the Senate Judiciary Committee and first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

On their face, the presidents comments to Comey seem unobjectionable, Barr wrote. The president expressed the hope that Comey could see his way clear to let the matter go, Barr added. The formulation that Comey see his way clear, explicitly leaves the decision with Comey. Most normal subordinates would not have found these comments obstructive.

Barr ended his memo with a warning that if Muellers obstruction theory were to be accepted by the Justice Department as a whole, the implications are astounding.

Justice Department lawyers are always making decisions that invite the allegation that they are improperly concluding or constraining an investigation, he noted. Under the theory now being advanced, any claim that an exercise of prosecutorial discretion was improperly motivated could legitimately be presented as a potential criminal obstruction.

At the end of his memo, Barr warned, While these controversies have heretofore been waged largely on the field of political combat, Muellers sweeping obstruction theory would now open the way for the criminalization of these disputes.

Barrs assertion is not completely hypothetical. As House Republicans have attacked the Justice Department and the FBI for their handling of both the Trump investigation and the probe in 2016 of Hillary Clintons use of a private email server, they have repeatedly suggested that senior law enforcement officials may have obstructed justice by ending the Clinton investigation.

For more infomation >> Attorney general nominee wrote memo criticizing Mueller obstruction probe The Washington Post - Duration: 3:25.

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The last lines of defense against Trump The Washington Post - Duration: 1:51.

The last lines of defense against Trump The Washington Post

Opinion Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events

MANY PEOPLE who viewed Donald Trump as unprepared and temperamentally ill suited to be president initially reassured themselves that a sober minded Republican majority in Congress would restrain him. Speaker Paul D. Ryans R Wis. pitiable spotlighted the emptiness of those hopes. Mr. Ryan allowed the president and his allies to corrupt the House Intelligence Committee and treat federal law enforcement as an enemy. Like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R Ky. and most other ostensible GOP leaders, Mr. Ryan abetted the president as he sought, fruitlessly, to use fear and bigotry to preserve the House Republican majority in the 2018 elections. Fittingly, Mr. Ryans final act this week was to indulge the presidents capricious decision to rather than accept a budget compromise.

The second line of defense was going to be the grown ups in the administration: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, national security adviser H.R. McMaster, economic adviser Gary Cohn, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, intelligence chief Daniel Coats. These are people who understand the value of alliances, the risks of trade wars, the even more unspeakable risks of real wars. Over the past two years, they did at times restrain the presidents worst impulses — in ways we know and likely in ways we have yet to learn.

But with Mr. Mattiss announcement this week that he will step down in February, almost all the grown ups will be gone. More to the point, the stimulus for the defense chiefs decision — Mr. Trumps impetuous decision to and many from Afghanistan — seems to show that the president believes he no longer needs advice, if he ever did. I watch the shows, he when asked where he turns for military counsel. The country seems now at the mercy of Mr. Trump and whatever he has heard most recently on Fox News.

The peril does not stem primarily from Mr. Trumps wrongheadedness on issues, though we do disagree with him on most things. We believe the sudden withdrawal from Syria will embolden Iran, delight Russia, allow the Islamic State to spring back, endanger tens of thousands of civilians and teach other opponents of Islamist terrorism never again to trust the United States. But counterarguments could be made: that in Syria, U.S. troops are being put in harms way without a clear mission; that 17 years is long enough in Afghanistan; and so on.

But Mr. Trump initiated no process to weigh those arguments before astonishing allies, Congress and his own staff with his flip flop. He apparently did not consider that he would sabotage his own , which, for the first time, seemed promising. Put simply, he still does not know, and clearly does not care to learn, how the government of a major power should operate.

So what now? A third line of defense was hoped to be the other institutions of democracy — the courts, media, civil society more broadly — and norms built up over decades and centuries. In some heartening ways, they have held. But when the president can install an as acting attorney general, and when that appointee can simply ignore qualified ethics advice, it becomes clear how tenuous these norms can be.

Which brings us back to the first line of defense. Congress is the Article 1 power for a reason. The Constitution grants it awesome powers over war and peace, appointments, budgeting, trade and, in extreme circumstances, impeachment. By practice it has ceded much of its authority in recent years, and its muscles have gone flabby. Given the dangers ahead, the countrys only hope may be for Congress, in a responsible but determined way, to begin exercising those muscles again.

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For more infomation >> The last lines of defense against Trump The Washington Post - Duration: 1:51.

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Trumps shutdown stunt is an act of needless stupidity The Washington Post - Duration: 1:29.

Trumps shutdown stunt is an act of needless stupidity The Washington Post

Opinion Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events

ITS ACTUALLY part of what you do when you sign up for any public service position. So Rep. Mark Meadows R N.C. when asked about the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who will have to work without pay or be furloughed without pay over the holidays in a partial government shutdown. You wont get any argument from us about the willingness of those who go into public service to make sacrifices. But they do so hoping to accomplish some good for their fellow citizens, not to be pawns in pointless political gamesmanship.

As it became apparent Friday that no agreement could be reached on a stopgap spending measure, President Trump that a shutdown would last for a very long time. Affected is about a third of the government workforce — about 800,000 employees — in key departments, including Homeland Security, State and Justice. Because of the weekend and upcoming Christmas holidays, the impacts of a shutdown may not immediately be felt, but there should be no mistake that curtailment of these government agencies will impose costs across Washington and the country.

That seemed to be of little matter to Mr. Trump, who last week he would be proud to shut down the government, glad to take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. He changed his tune on Friday in trying to shift the blame to Democrats for not going along with his demand for money to build a border wall he once promised would be financed by Mexico. Nothing better illustrates the needless stupidity of the shutdown than Mr. Trumps claim to be taking a stand for border security when one of the agencies is Customs and Border Protection.

Any doubt that it is politics — not principle — driving Mr. Trump was erased when he flip flopped this week on the stopgap spending bill. He signaled he would sign on to a measure, passed by both House and Senate, without wall funding, but then buckled to criticism from the conservative media. Instead of standing up to him — and doing their job of keeping the government running — House Speaker Paul D. Ryan R Wis. and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R Ky. — went along, once again enabling the worst instincts of a bad president.

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