JUDY WOODRUFF: As we
reported earlier, President
Trump today unveiled his
long-awaited infrastructure

plan and spending priorities.

Both were overshadowed, though,
by internal struggles at the
White House and the questions

of how top staff handled
domestic violence allegations
against two aides.

It was a major focus of today's
White House briefing with
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS,
White House Press Secretary:
The president and the
entire administration

take domestic violence
very seriously and
believe all allegations
need to be investigated

thoroughly.

Above all, the president
supports victims of domestic
violence and believes everyone

should be treated fairly
and with due process.

QUESTION: Why haven't we heard
the president say exactly what
you just said right there,

that he takes domestic
violence very seriously?

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: I spoke
with the president, and those
are actually directly his words

that he gave me earlier today.

QUESTION: But why
hasn't he said that?

He had the opportunity.

He's been active on Twitter.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS:
It's my job to speak on
behalf of the president.

I spoke to him, and he relayed
that message directly to me,
and I'm relaying it directly

to you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And our Yamiche
Alcindor joins me now for more.

So, Yamiche, what the White
House wanted to talk about today
was the budget and something

else, and we will get
to that in a minute.

But this lingering story
is still hanging out
there, reporters asking,
how did the president,

how did the White
House handle this?

Why is this still going on?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, this
was, as you know, supposed
to be infrastructure week.

This is the White House's second
try at infrastructure week and
each time it's been overshadowed

by this scandal.

We're talking about it still
largely because President
Trump tweeted about it over the

weekend.

He didn't name Rob Porter,
the other aide that resigned
because of domestic violence

allegations, but he said that
people's lives were being
destroyed and that they needed

due process.

Because of that tweet
and because of the fact
nobody really knows
who knew what when at

the White House, this has
been an issue the White House
is continuing to deal with.

John Kelly, who is the chief of
staff to President Trump, has
said as soon as he heard about

the allegations, that 40
minutes later Rob Porter
was out of the job.

But Sarah Sanders today from
the podium said that it was
actually 24 hours later that Rob

Porter resigned or terminated.

And even that detail
is still murky.

So there is the idea this
President Trump continues to
likely -- come to the defense

of men who are allegedly
domestically violating people.

And you have this idea that
Sarah Sanders said herself
that the president dictated a

statement to her in support
of domestic violence victims.

But the president, who of course
has no qualms ever using his
Twitter account to say whatever

is on his mind, has
not spoken publicly in
support of the women here.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And people
were pointing to a series of
these statements over the last

several years where he's
spoken out in more sympathy for
the people have been accused

of abuse.

So, Yamiche, let's talk about
the other things going on
at the White House today.

The president did roll out --
they did roll out their budget
for the coming fiscal year.

Just give us the highlights.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Some of the
highlights are that this is a
budget that's $4.4 trillion.

That's 10 percent more than
Republicans spent in -- or
wanted to spend in 2017.

The other thing that's happening
here is that they're asking for
$23 billion in border security.

That includes
money for the wall.

Of course, that's the wall on
the border of Mexico -- then
you have -- $28 billion, sorry.

Then you have $13 billion for
opioid treatment services.

That's a critical step since
President Trump has declared
a public health crisis about

this issue in October.

And then you have $200
billion for infrastructure
structure over 10 years.

So, then you have 17 --
I'm sorry -- $716 billion
for military spending.

The other thing that's
happening here is that it
eliminates 62 agencies,
including the Corporation

for Public Broadcasting.

It eliminates a lot of
entitlement programs,
which is something
that Republicans wanted

to get rid of.

They said 64 agencies.

Sorry about that.

Then they have $554 billion
are getting cut from Medicaid;
$250 billion are getting cut

from Medicaid; $214 billion
is being cut from the SNAP
program, which of course used to

be known as the
food stamp program.

The other thing that's really
being cut is here the EPA.

It's going to be
losing $2.8 billion.

That's a lot of money.

Most of those programs
are to eliminate
climate change programs.

So, that's a big deal, because
a lot of people are saying
that this is an administration

that has been hostile to
climate change issues.

And then the last thing that
it does is that it adds $984
billion to the deficit in 2018

- - in 2019, which is a huge,
huge change for Republicans
who have really been wanting to

balance the budget.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It's been noted
that they don't even make a
pretense of getting to balance,

of worrying about deficits.

So, the last thing,
just quickly, of course,
is infrastructure.

This has been long awaited
and the White House did
finally push out their plan.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The
White House pushed
out their plan today.

And it's a plan -- it's an
issue, I should say, that the
White House should be able to

get some bipartisan support on.

The president, when he talked
about infrastructure, it
was a very popular thing.

Bernie Sanders, when I
was on the campaign trail
with him, also talked
about infrastructure.

But the way that President
Trump is talking about
the infrastructure
plan is essentially

saying that states and local
governments are going to be
the ones bearing the brunt and

paying for the most of it.

The federal government
would spend something
like $200 billion, but
that's a small fraction

of what they want to spend.

And today Senator Chuck Schumer
came out and basically said
that there are going to be

Trump tolls all across the
country, saying that for
President Trump to get this plan

passed, it's going to have
to turn into tolls and
all sorts of fees being
passed on to different

Americans.

Republicans, on the other hand,
some of them have been saying
they praised this program.

And some of them, of
course, have been saying
that they want more
explanation, because they're

very worried about the fact that
they're adding to the deficit.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A lot of
discussion still about
how this is paid for,
in very early stages.

Yamiche Alcindor,
so much going on.

Thank you.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thanks.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, as
Yamiche said, the president's
broad infrastructure
blueprint does rely on

states and local governments
to fund much of the money
that would be needed for
a trillion-dollar-plus

plan.

It also would depend on a
major infusion of investment
from the private sector.

We get some reaction now to all
this from the Democratic mayor
of the city of Los Angeles,

Eric Garcetti.

He's also the chair of a task
force on the subject for the
U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Mayor Garcetti, thank you
very much for joining us.

So, let me just start
out by asking, what's
your overall reaction?

They are talking about
leveraging federal dollars to
state and local dollars and the

rest of it, something
like one to five.

ERIC GARCETTI (D), Mayor
of Los Angeles: Well,
good evening, Judy.

And any day that Washington is
talking about infrastructure
is music to my ears, but, of

course, the devil will
be in the details.

But we have got a yawning $5.4
trillion gap, and we want to get
home to our families quicker.

We want to cut traffic.

We don't want to be
on unsafe bridges.

And we need the next generation
of ports and airports to help
fuel prosperity in this country.

So, since President Trump
was elected, American
cities have passed $260
billion of infrastructure.

This only proposals $200
billion over 10 years.

There is more money, for
instance, in his budget for
the wall than there is for the

next 10 years for all the cities
in America to have transit
dollars and to fix their roads,

to fix those potholes.

So we're doing our part, and we
want to see federal government
do its part and not just

take $20 out of our wallet and
give it to themselves, give
it back to us, and say, here's

your infrastructure money.

We want it to be real money
for real jobs and for real
infrastructure repair that this

country so badly needs.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we know
that is important to you and
other state and local officials

around the country, Mayor
Garcetti, but at the same time,
the federal government is -- has

to be focused on the deficit,
on how much spending there is.

We just heard some red ink
numbers that are pretty scary.

You can't -- or can you, I
should say, expect the federal
government to come up with the

lion's share of this
money that's needed?

ERIC GARCETTI: No, we expect
them to do what they have in
the past, and think about the

Erie Canal, the work the
federal government did to help
the interstate highway system

or to build the Internet.

These are things that pay back.

And when we don't take
care of our infrastructure,
we pay billions, even
trillions of dollars

in lost competitiveness,
in literally millions
of hours we're away from
our family, companies

that don't start here in the
United States because it's
too difficult to get through

the red tape.

So this is money that
helps bring more money in.

And we're not expecting them to
have the lion's share, but they
actually cut existing programs

in some cases to pay for this.

And we want to work
with Congress, both
houses, both parties.

We have got Democratic and
Republican mayors who are ready
to show how what we have been

doing and have the
federal government can
come and help lead.

But we're going to need
that money to be paid
for with real dollars.

We should have done it with
probably the offshoring of those
overseas profits -- or onshoring

of those, rather.

But we will keep looking
at other alternative
ways to get in there.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we know
the federal is also -- this
administration is also looking

to the private sector to come
up with some of these dollars.

Why isn't that a good idea?

ERIC GARCETTI: It can be.

And we're doing that
here in Los Angeles.

Denver was able to help the
private sector build a new
rail line from downtown to the

airport quicker and cheaper.

But don't expect the private
sector to come and to redo water
that right now in many cities

is polluted or to always upgrade
our electricity lines, to build
out our port or our airports.

Those are things that we
have to do with federal help.

And American cities
have a loud and clear
message for Washington.

We will help.

In fact, we're doing
more than you are.

But we want some of
our federal tax dollars
back in our communities,
from rural communities

to our most densely populated
urban areas, to match those
dollars, as we traditionally

have.

And we both can count
those dollars if we
do it the right way.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Mayor Garcetti,
another quick point I want to
ask about is what the president

had to say about
streamlining, in effect,
the permitting process.

He said, Washington
will no longer be a
roadblock to progress.

Washington is now going
to be your partner.

We know that a number of your
fellow mayors are saying, hey,
it's a good thing that they're

talking about streamlining,
cutting back on some of
the federal regulations.

What about that?

ERIC GARCETTI: Absolutely.

Any day we cut red tape
is also music to the
ears of America's mayors.

And so I think that's a
great part of this proposal,
if it actually bears out.

But we do need to have
money to match that.

We don't want projects to
take a decade to move forward,
two decades to move forward.

We have built some of the
greatest infrastructure
in this country in a
war, in moments of growth

in this country in a matter of
months or just a year or two.

We should be able
to do that again.

So, that part is good.

But we need to make sure
there is also money to match.

Money is what moves
projects forward.

And we are stepping up, as
I said, with a quarter of a
trillion from America's cities

just in the last
year-and-a-half.

We need the federal government
not to space out $200 billion,
which is less than that,

over a decade.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Mayor Garcetti,
I also want to ask you a
question about immigration.

As you know, the Senate,
the United States Senate is
beginning a major debate tonight

on what to do about
immigration reform.

Among others, the big --
one of the big questions
being discussed in the
Congress is what to

do about these young people
who were brought into the
country without documentation as

children and whether they should
be given a path citizenship.

There is something
like 700,000 of them,
so-called DACA recipients.

Right now, people are asking,
are Democrats prepared, if
Republicans give on that and

keep that path to citizenship
for these DACA young people,
are Democrats, in turn, prepared

to give on things like the
visa lottery, on so-called
-- what Republicans
call chain migration,

letting more family members
in, parts of legal immigration?

ERIC GARCETTI: My opinion
is that we should hold
the president and hold
Republicans leaders

who have said they are for
these dreamers to their words,
independent of other things.

I'm the grandson of a dreamer
who came to this country when
he was 1-year-old fleeing

war in Mexico.

He volunteered to fight for the
only country he knew in World
War II and got his citizenship.

I'm literally here today.

I have seen the brilliance
of these young men and women.

Paul Ryan, of course, the
president, they have all said
they want to do something.

Do that independent.

And then negotiate the rest
of immigration, whether it's
border protection, whether it's

the type of family
reunification we have.

That's the place where we can
give and take in negotiations.

But holding the dreamers hostage
after people have publicly
said and over 80 percent of

Americans support giving them
a permanent pathway to some
legal status, that needs to

get done right away.

People should -- I believe, kind
of old-fashioned, that people
should live up to their word.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well,
we're going to watch that
debate unfold this week.

Mayor Garcetti, Mayor Eric
Garner, of Los Angeles,
thank you very much.

ERIC GARCETTI: Great
to be with you, Judy.

Thanks.