WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.910 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: I'm Pete Williams. And this is the Washington Week Extra, where we pick up 00:04.910 --> 00:09.640 align:start online where we left off on the broadcast. Joining me tonight, Robert Costa, who joins us 00:09.640 --> 00:15.490 align:start from Indiana; Kristen Welker, of NBC News; Seung Min Kim of The Washington Post; and the 00:15.490 --> 00:18.460 align:start very lovely Ed O'Keefe of CBS News. (Laughter.) 00:18.460 --> 00:22.780 align:start Traditionally, former presidents step out of the spotlight after their term is up out of 00:22.780 --> 00:28.300 align:start respect for their successor, but today former President Barack Obama broke his silence in 00:28.300 --> 00:33.610 align:start a speech at a college campus in Illinois. He attacked Republicans and he called out the 00:33.610 --> 00:37.420 align:start sitting president, Donald Trump, by name for the first time. 00:37.420 --> 00:42.790 align:start PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: (From video.) It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, 00:42.790 --> 00:51.260 align:start not the cause. We are Americans. We're supposed to stand up to bullies - (applause) - not 00:51.260 --> 01:00.740 align:start follow them. We're supposed to stand up to discrimination, and we're sure as heck supposed 01:00.740 --> 01:09.330 align:start to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. (Cheers, applause.) How hard 01:09.330 --> 01:15.970 align:start can that be, saying that Nazis are bad? What happened to the Republican Party? 01:15.970 --> 01:22.870 align:start They're cozying up to the former head of the KGB. I complained plenty about Fox News - (laughter) - 01:22.870 --> 01:29.070 align:start but you never heard me threaten to shut them down or call them enemies of the people. 01:29.070 --> 01:36.100 align:start As a fellow citizen, not as an ex-president but as a fellow citizen, I am here to deliver 01:36.100 --> 01:41.520 align:start a simple message, and that is that you need to vote because our democracy depends on it. 01:41.520 --> 01:45.690 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: Bob, do you think there are a lot of Democrats wondering where has Obama 01:45.690 --> 01:49.790 align:start been on this, why are we only hearing from him now? 01:49.790 --> 01:55.070 align:start ROBERT COSTA: In a sense, yes, Pete, but this Obama speech really tells us a lot about 01:55.070 --> 01:58.420 align:start where the Democratic Party is right now. 01:58.420 --> 02:04.310 align:start There's so many possible future leaders - Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Warren, there 02:04.310 --> 02:09.440 align:start are mayors like Mayor Landrieu - former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Los Angeles 02:09.440 --> 02:14.410 align:start Mayor Eric Garcetti - probably more than two dozen Democrats who could run for president 02:14.410 --> 02:21.290 align:start in 2020, yet no one's really emerged as the leader of the party at this time in the era of Trump. 02:21.290 --> 02:26.730 align:start And the party needs President Obama to come back - to come roaring back in a speech like 02:26.730 --> 02:31.800 align:start this to motivate them to go to the polls because there isn't a Newt Gingrich-like figure 02:31.800 --> 02:36.370 align:start for the Democrats like there was in '94 for the Republicans who could really galvanize at 02:36.370 --> 02:40.520 align:start the congressional level or a future presidential contender who is seen, like Secretary 02:40.520 --> 02:44.530 align:start Clinton was last time, as the heir apparent to the nomination and will - and will push 02:44.530 --> 02:47.970 align:start the voters out. It's still Obama, as it was years ago. 02:47.970 --> 02:51.340 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: But, Ed, you know, we wonder sometimes, people ask, why don't Republicans 02:51.340 --> 02:55.150 align:start speak up if they don't like what President Trump is doing? But it strikes me there 02:55.150 --> 02:59.230 align:start haven't been these sorts of big set-piece speeches like this from the Democrats either. 02:59.230 --> 03:03.830 align:start ED O'KEEFE: No, there haven't. And look, he's doing this at a moment of maximum exposure 03:03.830 --> 03:07.230 align:start and maximum opportunity because the campaign now really is beginning. 03:07.230 --> 03:11.270 align:start Kids are back in school, parents are thinking about this stuff, you know, they're seeing 03:11.270 --> 03:15.380 align:start the ads on TV. This now makes sense for a time for him to break through. 03:15.380 --> 03:19.750 align:start And if you listen and read that speech, he's not just speaking to Democrats; he's 03:19.750 --> 03:23.420 align:start speaking to independent voters, he's speaking to disaffected Republicans, who probably 03:23.420 --> 03:28.070 align:start agreed with the guy or the woman who wrote that op-ed in The New York Times this week, 03:28.070 --> 03:32.280 align:start who are concerned about the future of the Republican Party and worried that it's gone. 03:32.280 --> 03:35.720 align:start Those are the people Democratic candidates need this year, especially in those House 03:35.720 --> 03:40.050 align:start races, where the Republicans may have a voter registration advantage but for whatever 03:40.050 --> 03:43.180 align:start reason they feel they can win with Donald Trump in the White House. 03:43.180 --> 03:46.520 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: But have the battle lines politically, are they so jelled now that you 03:46.520 --> 03:49.230 align:start really can't move anybody? 03:49.230 --> 03:53.910 align:start SEUNG MIN KIM: I think the hope for Democrats is that those lines still are possible 03:53.910 --> 03:57.470 align:start that you get some of those disaffected voters back to the party because we know that 03:57.470 --> 04:01.830 align:start Trump - President Trump in 2016 were able to reach out to the very non-traditional voters 04:01.830 --> 04:05.170 align:start to vote and pull the Republican lever for him. 04:05.170 --> 04:08.910 align:start And I think it's the Democrats - Democrats have been struggling to get them back, and 04:08.910 --> 04:12.100 align:start that's why they've been testing out different messages to see what really works. 04:12.100 --> 04:16.670 align:start KRISTEN WELKER: And, Pete, that is Obama's whole argument, that there's been this sense 04:16.670 --> 04:20.110 align:start that the battle lines are already drawn and you can't win over new voters. 04:20.110 --> 04:24.810 align:start And he is basically making the point that's how I got elected, by winning new voters. 04:24.810 --> 04:28.220 align:start He gave that speech today in a Republican stronghold. 04:28.220 --> 04:31.780 align:start He's making the case that what Hillary Clinton did didn't necessarily work, that he's 04:31.780 --> 04:35.290 align:start going to do it differently, and he's making this broader argument to Democrats that they 04:35.290 --> 04:37.890 align:start have to get more engaged in midterm elections. 04:37.890 --> 04:40.630 align:start ED O'KEEFE: Also very important, he didn't do this in a vacuum. 04:40.630 --> 04:44.210 align:start All of this is being done in close consultation with the Democratic Congressional 04:44.210 --> 04:47.990 align:start Campaign Committee, the one that elects House Democrats, the committee that elects Senate 04:47.990 --> 04:51.640 align:start Democrats, the DNC, the Democratic Governors Association. 04:51.640 --> 04:55.840 align:start Remember he released a list of like 70 people he had endorsed about three or four weeks 04:55.840 --> 04:59.620 align:start ago? All of that done in consultation with the Democratic campaign committees. 04:59.620 --> 05:03.690 align:start He won't go anywhere or speak about anything generally unless he's checked with all of 05:03.690 --> 05:10.090 align:start them and makes sure is this too much, is this just right, and it's all in close consultation. 05:10.090 --> 05:13.620 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: Bob, you think we'd be paying this much attention to the Obama speech if 05:13.620 --> 05:18.970 align:start it hadn't been for the prerelease of the Woodward book and the anonymous op-ed? 05:18.970 --> 05:24.300 align:start ROBERT COSTA: He's been quiet enough that even without the Woodward book and the New 05:24.300 --> 05:28.920 align:start York Times op-ed President Obama would still command attention because of the way he's 05:28.920 --> 05:32.020 align:start kept a low profile over the past year. 05:32.020 --> 05:37.700 align:start But Ed's right about the timing being not only ripe - because kids are back at school and 05:37.700 --> 05:41.730 align:start people are paying attention now that it's the fall, getting towards the November 05:41.730 --> 05:46.590 align:start elections - but there's a lot of concern among Republicans, and that's really the thing 05:46.590 --> 05:51.410 align:start to watch, as others were saying. Where do Republicans go, the Republicans who may have 05:51.410 --> 05:56.040 align:start liked President Trump as a change agent in 2016 but may have voted for President Obama 05:56.040 --> 06:01.460 align:start in 2012? Can the Obama message here be a magnet for those types of voters? 06:01.460 --> 06:05.090 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: I want to ask you all about a criticism that's come up about the 06:05.090 --> 06:10.690 align:start anonymous op-ed, and that is, how much concern should we have that anonymous, someone who 06:10.690 --> 06:16.230 align:start isn't elected, is trying to derail the activities of somebody who was elected? 06:16.230 --> 06:18.610 align:start Is that a legitimate criticism? 06:18.610 --> 06:22.850 align:start KRISTEN WELKER: I think it is a legitimate concern in terms of the critique. 06:22.850 --> 06:29.300 align:start You have some Trump allies who say this is potentially the beginnings of what looks like 06:29.300 --> 06:34.140 align:start a coup. That's overstated, I think. But I think there is a concern for a commander in 06:34.140 --> 06:39.740 align:start chief to be undercut by people he works with. Nikki Haley came out with an op-ed today. 06:39.740 --> 06:45.280 align:start She said if you disagree with President Trump, go talk to him, tell him or resign. 06:45.280 --> 06:50.460 align:start And I hear a lot of people making that same argument. President Obama said today, look, 06:50.460 --> 06:55.680 align:start this is not a real check on power, writing an op-ed, and so I think that there's going 06:55.680 --> 06:59.570 align:start to be a broader call for those who might disagree with the president to say so. 06:59.570 --> 07:03.710 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: Yeah. President Obama also said, you know, how much is this person 07:03.710 --> 07:07.120 align:start who wrote this doing a favor if they - if they try to block 10 percent of what he 07:07.120 --> 07:09.620 align:start does, but facilitate 90 percent of what he does? 07:09.620 --> 07:12.550 align:start SEUNG MIN KIM: Exactly. And that's again, a similar complaint that we heard from 07:12.550 --> 07:18.170 align:start Capitol Hill. And it's this anonymity issue has really overshadowed, in some ways, 07:18.170 --> 07:23.170 align:start the message of the op-ed. And I think that's why you're hearing all these kind of 07:23.170 --> 07:28.290 align:start questions and mixed messages about what it all kind of really means at the end of the day. 07:28.290 --> 07:33.180 align:start ED O'KEEFE: Two of the most notable modern movies about the American presidency that I 07:33.180 --> 07:39.180 align:start can think of, Murder at 1600 and Dave, featured staffers who were trying to do what 07:39.180 --> 07:45.110 align:start this writer is essentially saying is going on, which is that staffers were going in and 07:45.110 --> 07:49.080 align:start trying to manipulate or control the president when they are unelected bureaucrats, 07:49.080 --> 07:51.720 align:start essentially, or unelected political appointees. 07:51.720 --> 07:54.340 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: And I thought you were going to say All the President's Men because of 07:54.340 --> 07:57.240 align:start the Woodward book. (Laughter.) Speaking of which, Bob, let me ask you this. 07:57.240 --> 08:01.660 align:start Many of the people who are quoted in the Woodward book are now saying I didn't say that. 08:01.660 --> 08:06.540 align:start General Mattis, General Kelly have all said the things that I'm quoted in the book I 08:06.540 --> 08:09.620 align:start didn't say. What are we to make of that? 08:09.620 --> 08:13.710 align:start ROBERT COSTA: Well, we should take it seriously when people deny making these comments. 08:13.710 --> 08:18.310 align:start But the Woodward book is written, as many of - all of his previous books have been, for 08:18.310 --> 08:22.640 align:start the most part, on what's called deep background. And as we all know, that means people 08:22.640 --> 08:27.270 align:start are quoted, but that doesn't mean the quote is attributed to the person who is being quoted. 08:27.270 --> 08:32.390 align:start So Rob Porter, the former staff secretary, is quoted throughout this Woodward book, 08:32.390 --> 08:37.400 align:start describing different scenes and the president's comments, but it's not clear if Woodward 08:37.400 --> 08:42.950 align:start spoke to Rob Porter because the sourcing is not specified in the book at all, it's just 08:42.950 --> 08:47.750 align:start all conducted on this deep background basis, so you have to trust Woodward's credibility 08:47.750 --> 08:53.080 align:start to believe this book. And Woodward is offering this to the readers saying if you believe 08:53.080 --> 08:57.100 align:start my credibility - he hopes you do, going back to his history with Watergate and All the 08:57.100 --> 09:01.430 align:start President's Men and The Final Days and his books about the Obama and Bush years - he's 09:01.430 --> 09:05.780 align:start saying this is what I've found out. And talking to Woodward, you get the sense that he 09:05.780 --> 09:12.570 align:start records everything for every book. So he does deep background interviews on recordings 09:12.570 --> 09:16.360 align:start and he's relying on his credibility to convey these scenes. 09:16.360 --> 09:20.150 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: This is probably a good time to ask you to tell us, Bob, about next 09:20.150 --> 09:24.770 align:start week's special edition of Washington Week, a one-on-one with Bob Woodward. 09:24.770 --> 09:28.320 align:start ROBERT COSTA: I just want to walk through the process with Woodward about, what's he 09:28.320 --> 09:31.390 align:start really hearing from these people inside of the administration? 09:31.390 --> 09:36.200 align:start What's it like to talk to them, to bring them to his house in Georgetown, to really walk 09:36.200 --> 09:39.940 align:start through what's going on with this presidency, a presidency that has the whole world's 09:39.940 --> 09:44.740 align:start attention? And Woodward has spent - what makes Woodward interesting to me is we're on 09:44.740 --> 09:48.780 align:start the front lines reporting day to day. Everybody at this table is reporting day to day 09:48.780 --> 09:53.170 align:start on this White House and Congress and campaigns. But Woodward stepped back for over a 09:53.170 --> 09:59.130 align:start year and said I'm just going to focus on this book and not be part of the daily news cycle. 09:59.130 --> 10:03.150 align:start And there's got to be some different lessons learned from that kind of approach. 10:03.150 --> 10:06.230 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: Well, I'm probably the only person at this table who can say I got the 10:06.230 --> 10:09.930 align:start Woodward treatment, because when I was a lowly government official, I actually did go to 10:09.930 --> 10:15.270 align:start Bob Woodward's house and had some dinners and I was a source for one of his books, the 10:15.270 --> 10:19.350 align:start books he wrote about the Pentagon called The Commanders. I will also say this, that 10:19.350 --> 10:23.930 align:start when Woodward started his interviewing at the Pentagon, my boss at the time, Dick Cheney, 10:23.930 --> 10:28.470 align:start was very suspicious of him. When the book came out, Mr. Cheney gave it to his mother 10:28.470 --> 10:32.770 align:start for Christmas. (Laughter.) That's it for this edition of Washington Week Extra. 10:32.770 --> 10:49.530 align:start I'm Pete Williams. Robert Costa will be back next week. Have a great weekend.