WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.320 align:start ROBERT COSTA: Hello. I'm Robert Costa. And this is Washington Week Extra, where we 00:04.320 --> 00:08.450 align:start pick up online where we left off on the broadcast. The White House, like the rest of 00:08.450 --> 00:12.760 align:start Washington, was transfixed by Comey's appearance before the Senate Intelligence 00:12.760 --> 00:16.700 align:start Committee. But, Julie, this was supposed to be infrastructure week. 00:16.700 --> 00:21.720 align:start Even before Comey's testimony, the president seemed to get knocked off his own message by 00:21.720 --> 00:25.980 align:start delivering a speech about health care and naming a new FBI director. 00:25.980 --> 00:30.450 align:start What does this say about the administration's message discipline? (Laughter.) 00:30.450 --> 00:33.010 align:start JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: Pete's laughing. There's - 00:33.010 --> 00:35.130 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: There's a question which answers itself. 00:35.130 --> 00:37.540 align:start JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: There is - there is no message discipline. 00:37.540 --> 00:40.990 align:start You know, there's no - there really - I mean, when you have the president tweeting out 00:40.990 --> 00:45.280 align:start the morning of the Monday of infrastructure week that he has selected a new FBI director, 00:45.280 --> 00:48.990 align:start I mean - or the Wednesday that he's giving this big speech, I mean, there's really not 00:48.990 --> 00:54.190 align:start even an effort or even really a point of trying to keep him on message. 00:54.190 --> 00:57.620 align:start He's going to talk about what he wants to talk about, what he thinks is, you know, 00:57.620 --> 01:01.350 align:start politically compelling, what he thinks he needs to do for his reputation to talk to the 01:01.350 --> 01:04.730 align:start American people directly, and it's not going to matter whether they put together, you 01:04.730 --> 01:08.360 align:start know, the best plan in the world for a policy rollout. That being said, they didn't 01:08.360 --> 01:11.940 align:start put together the best plan in the world for this policy rollout. They basically had 01:11.940 --> 01:16.630 align:start a series of kind of PR events with no actual infrastructure plan to offer people. 01:16.630 --> 01:22.000 align:start So they're sort of doubly handicapped here because not only do they have a lot of stories 01:22.000 --> 01:26.150 align:start and investigations and coverage that's detracting from their message, but they don't 01:26.150 --> 01:30.640 align:start actually have a message to sell. And that's, I think, the real - the real hard part 01:30.640 --> 01:34.880 align:start for them. I mean, we heard from a senior White House official at the end of last week 01:34.880 --> 01:38.700 align:start that, you know, they were concerned that, yes, the investigations were preoccupying 01:38.700 --> 01:43.030 align:start members of Congress who should be, you know, paying attention to legislation, but 01:43.030 --> 01:46.630 align:start they don't actually have any legislation that's really ready to go. They're actually - 01:46.630 --> 01:49.490 align:start they don't have a tax plan. They don't have their infrastructure plan ready. So it's 01:49.490 --> 01:53.190 align:start very difficult to keep people focused on something that essentially doesn't exist. 01:53.190 --> 01:56.140 align:start KIMBERLY ATKINS: And in the issue - on the issue of infrastructure, it was a double 01:56.140 --> 02:00.680 align:start blunder because this was the one - one of the few, few areas where Democrats tell me that 02:00.680 --> 02:04.480 align:start they are willing to work with him, willing to roll up their sleeves and get something 02:04.480 --> 02:07.660 align:start done. So he could have rolled this out in a way - you know, having a plan would 02:07.660 --> 02:12.450 align:start help, yes, and then having some Democratic support at a time where everything is 02:12.450 --> 02:15.490 align:start very polarized. So it was a big blown chance by the White House. 02:15.490 --> 02:17.800 align:start ROBERT COSTA: Are Democrats biting at all? 02:17.800 --> 02:20.270 align:start KIMBERLY ATKINS: I think at this point it'll be a little harder. 02:20.270 --> 02:23.850 align:start But it's also harder for Democrats who are going to have a tough time in 2018 to walk 02:23.850 --> 02:27.960 align:start away from infrastructure when that's something that people in their districts care about 02:27.960 --> 02:31.930 align:start very deeply. So I think that was some leverage that the White House could have 02:31.930 --> 02:34.030 align:start used, but they squandered it. 02:34.030 --> 02:37.450 align:start ROBERT COSTA: You know, it's interesting, whenever I bring up infrastructure with a 02:37.450 --> 02:41.360 align:start Democrat, they talk about we're going to have federal funding for bridges and roads; and 02:41.360 --> 02:45.100 align:start when I talk about it with a Republican, they talk about tax credits for companies in 02:45.100 --> 02:48.900 align:start their districts. So the definition of infrastructure is often debatable. 02:48.900 --> 02:52.330 align:start Anyway, let's stick with you, Kim. As we mentioned earlier, as the fired FBI 02:52.330 --> 02:56.150 align:start director was telling his story to Congress, the president was moving on. 02:56.150 --> 03:00.270 align:start After a monthlong search with a revolving door of candidates, the president nominated 03:00.270 --> 03:04.600 align:start Christopher Wray to be the nation's top cop. Wray has been in government before. 03:04.600 --> 03:08.380 align:start He served as assistant attorney general in the Justice Department Criminal Division 03:08.380 --> 03:13.570 align:start during the George W. Bush administration. I want to get Kim on Wray, and then Pete. 03:13.570 --> 03:17.280 align:start KIMBERLY ATKINS: Well, obviously, it's a choice that drew a lot of praise from both 03:17.280 --> 03:21.990 align:start sides of the aisle; again, a very smart thing to do. But, again, to the point that - 03:21.990 --> 03:25.810 align:start your point that this came out when it was - was it infrastructure week, was it health 03:25.810 --> 03:31.250 align:start care? I mean, he should have gotten the sort of rollout that Neil Gorsuch got when he 03:31.250 --> 03:35.510 align:start made that nomination, given the fact that he is so well-respected, given the fact 03:35.510 --> 03:38.210 align:start that that's a tough position to fill right now. 03:38.210 --> 03:41.290 align:start I'm sure it was tough to find somebody to say yes to it. 03:41.290 --> 03:44.210 align:start ROBERT COSTA: And he's a close ally of Governor Christie, Christopher Wray is. 03:44.210 --> 03:48.300 align:start KIMBERLY ATKINS: He is, he is. He represented him personally during the Bridgegate 03:48.300 --> 03:52.780 align:start scandal, so he is somebody who the governor knows very well. 03:52.780 --> 03:56.340 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: They worked together as prosecutors, of course, both assistant U.S. 03:56.340 --> 04:00.360 align:start attorneys - or U.S. attorneys at the time. But you're right about the rollout thing. 04:00.360 --> 04:06.090 align:start If you go back and look at for Comey, for Mueller, for Freeh, for Sessions, they all got 04:06.090 --> 04:10.720 align:start a Rose Garden ceremony with the president announcing them, by the way in either June or 04:10.720 --> 04:15.550 align:start July it turns out. But nothing like that for Christopher Wray, who now has the 04:15.550 --> 04:18.930 align:start tough position of - no question about his qualifications. 04:18.930 --> 04:22.700 align:start The Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are all saying, yes, he's qualified on paper. 04:22.700 --> 04:26.970 align:start The question is, can he persuade us that he'll be sufficiently independent at a time 04:26.970 --> 04:30.900 align:start where it turns out that's kind of an important question with the current president? 04:30.900 --> 04:34.670 align:start He's among the younger people the president looked at; he's 50. 04:34.670 --> 04:39.160 align:start Of course, it's hard to get people to take this job. It's always hard. 04:39.160 --> 04:44.200 align:start Remember, it took - it took two years to get James Comey to agree to do it - they had to 04:44.200 --> 04:48.590 align:start extend Bob Mueller's term two extra years while Comey thought about it - because it's one 04:48.590 --> 04:52.550 align:start thing to agree to be the secretary of labor; it's another thing to basically take what is 04:52.550 --> 04:56.530 align:start normally a 10-year hitch, especially at a time like this. 04:56.530 --> 05:02.050 align:start ROBERT COSTA: Do we expect Christopher Wray to be asked by lawmakers on Capitol Hill 05:02.050 --> 05:04.770 align:start about whether he took a loyalty oath? 05:04.770 --> 05:10.030 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: (Laughs.) Yes, I'm sure we expect - I'm sure that question will come up. 05:10.030 --> 05:13.710 align:start And if they hadn't thought about it before, now they know do it. 05:13.710 --> 05:15.960 align:start ROBERT COSTA: You're such a student of the FBI, Pete. 05:15.960 --> 05:18.930 align:start Does he restore confidence in that beleaguered institution? 05:18.930 --> 05:24.230 align:start PETE WILLIAMS: You know, that begs a question about whether there is a lack of 05:24.230 --> 05:27.620 align:start confidence in the FBI, and I'm not sure that there is. 05:27.620 --> 05:31.670 align:start I mean, the president said that it was demoralized within; that's just not the case. 05:31.670 --> 05:35.250 align:start Yes, there were agents who thought Comey screwed up the Clinton thing, but for the most 05:35.250 --> 05:41.750 align:start part they liked him. And, you know, within the FBI, there's good cohesion, and I 05:41.750 --> 05:45.830 align:start think the public still has a pretty good view of the FBI. I think the public view of 05:45.830 --> 05:50.050 align:start the FBI changes based on your age and whether they're trying to get into your Apple 05:50.050 --> 05:54.400 align:start iPhone or not. That's a bigger issue for the public. But, you know, I think the - 05:54.400 --> 05:59.280 align:start it goes back to a classic story I heard from an FBI guy who was an assistant director 05:59.280 --> 06:03.220 align:start here in town, and he said his first job was running out to a bank robbery. 06:03.220 --> 06:08.140 align:start And the robber had a shotgun, and there he is in his summer weight suit and all he has is 06:08.140 --> 06:13.120 align:start this little revolver, and he say, "Freeze, FBI!" And just hearing that, the guy dropped 06:13.120 --> 06:17.870 align:start the shotgun. Now, that's what you want to have happen, and I'm not sure that that 06:17.870 --> 06:20.040 align:start isn't still the case with the FBI. 06:20.040 --> 06:23.560 align:start I think for the most part public confidence in it is still pretty high. 06:23.560 --> 06:27.180 align:start JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: Well, I was just going to say that, you know, whether or not 06:27.180 --> 06:32.300 align:start Democrats feel like they need to know whether Wray took a loyalty oath, his firm is a 06:32.300 --> 06:36.480 align:start firm that has advised Trump's businesses, so I think this will definitely become a 06:36.480 --> 06:38.840 align:start question in his confirmation. 06:38.840 --> 06:42.450 align:start And whether or not there's a lack of support for him in the agency - which, by all 06:42.450 --> 06:46.630 align:start accounts, he's very well-respected among the folks at the FBI and at the Justice 06:46.630 --> 06:51.050 align:start Department - I do think he is going to have a very rough confirmation hearing. 06:51.050 --> 06:55.090 align:start I don't question whether he'll get confirmed, but that is going to be a really tough 06:55.090 --> 06:58.930 align:start session where they're asking - where the Democrats are going to be pressing him on, you 06:58.930 --> 07:03.800 align:start know, what did Trump ask you, what did you tell him, and can you really be an independent 07:03.800 --> 07:09.510 align:start FBI director the way the country needs an independent FBI director under the current circumstances. 07:09.510 --> 07:13.390 align:start ROBERT COSTA: Kim, real quick, where does the GOP agenda stand amid all these Russia 07:13.390 --> 07:15.620 align:start probes and questions? 07:15.620 --> 07:19.570 align:start KIMBERLY ATKINS: I think a lot of Americans are asking that, or a lot of viewers of news 07:19.570 --> 07:24.450 align:start right now. It's tough. I mean, you have House Speaker Paul Ryan, who would love to 07:24.450 --> 07:29.780 align:start talk about anything other than Russia, trying very hard to move forward - you know, 07:29.780 --> 07:33.770 align:start nothing to see here, you know, we're carrying on as usual. 07:33.770 --> 07:38.880 align:start And I think that's one reason that we saw Ryan sort of defend the president, just to sort 07:38.880 --> 07:43.410 align:start of kind of set this aside and say, hey, you know, he's new at this, he doesn't really 07:43.410 --> 07:48.790 align:start quite know what he's doing, in an effort to try to quell that and allow - give the GOP 07:48.790 --> 07:54.750 align:start cover in order to sort of push this aside without causing any more damage, and then maybe 07:54.750 --> 07:59.170 align:start turn the focus back to things like health care and tax reform and all the things that 07:59.170 --> 08:03.670 align:start they wish they were focusing on but all the oxygen has been stolen out of the room. 08:03.670 --> 08:07.430 align:start ROBERT COSTA: I want to turn to one of my favorite topics, Dan Balz and the United 08:07.430 --> 08:11.830 align:start Kingdom. (Laughter.) Let's take a quick trip overseas, where the results are in 08:11.830 --> 08:15.550 align:start the for the parliamentary election for America's closest ally. Just weeks after a 08:15.550 --> 08:21.920 align:start series of terror attacks, the United Kingdom's prime minister held on to her job, barely. 08:21.920 --> 08:26.460 align:start Theresa May's Conservative Party actually lost seats, but the prime minister isn't 08:26.460 --> 08:30.800 align:start dwelling on the results with Brexit negotiations set to begin soon. 08:30.800 --> 08:34.760 align:start BRITISH PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY: (From video.) I have just been to see her majesty 08:34.760 --> 08:41.660 align:start the queen. And I will now form a government, a government that can provide certainty 08:41.660 --> 08:48.050 align:start and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our country. This government will 08:48.050 --> 08:55.220 align:start guide the country through the crucial Brexit talks that begin in just 10 days, and deliver 08:55.220 --> 09:01.260 align:start on the will of the British people by taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union. 09:01.260 --> 09:06.150 align:start ROBERT COSTA: Dan, you were in the U.K. for the last election, in 2015, Snapchatting, 09:06.150 --> 09:10.700 align:start filing stories. You know the country, you know the people, you know the politics. 09:10.700 --> 09:13.540 align:start What led to such a dramatic shift? 09:13.540 --> 09:17.220 align:start DAN BALZ: A couple of things, Bob. Although, I have to say, this outcome was a 09:17.220 --> 09:23.510 align:start surprise. When the exit poll popped last night, on Thursday night at 10:00 p.m. 09:23.510 --> 09:28.460 align:start in Britain and 5:00 p.m. here in the U.S., and it showed the Conservative Party 09:28.460 --> 09:33.060 align:start falling short of a majority, I think jaws were dropping. Here's what happened: Theresa 09:33.060 --> 09:37.700 align:start May became prime minister a year ago, after the Brexit vote, when David Cameron, the 09:37.700 --> 09:42.450 align:start then-prime minister, resigned because of what happened with the Brexit vote. 09:42.450 --> 09:46.830 align:start She had never faced the public in the way she had to face them in this time. 09:46.830 --> 09:51.930 align:start But in the - and she had always said she was not going to call a snap election. 09:51.930 --> 09:57.720 align:start But she was looking at the polls that showed the Labour Party 20 points behind her in 09:57.720 --> 10:03.980 align:start popularity. And she thought, if I call a snap election, I can have a huge majority 10:03.980 --> 10:08.830 align:start in Parliament, which will give me much more strength in the negotiations over Brexit. 10:08.830 --> 10:13.620 align:start And so she called the election. What happened? There were two terrorist attacks. 10:13.620 --> 10:19.260 align:start She made some very bad policy choices - including something which became labeled as the 10:19.260 --> 10:23.980 align:start dementia tax, which as you can imagine anything that's called that is going to be bad 10:23.980 --> 10:30.270 align:start politics. And she turned out to be a woefully weak candidate. She would not debate 10:30.270 --> 10:37.190 align:start her opponents in a televised debate. She was stiff on the trail. And over time, her 10:37.190 --> 10:41.460 align:start strength eroded. And so she made this - she took - she made a bet. 10:41.460 --> 10:46.570 align:start And it backfired completely on her. And so they ended up short of a majority. 10:46.570 --> 10:51.460 align:start They've had to cobble together, you know, a coalition government with one of the Northern 10:51.460 --> 10:56.770 align:start Ireland parties. She's weakened going into Brexit. Her standing within the 10:56.770 --> 11:01.770 align:start Conservative Party is weaker. She will face challenges to her leadership. 11:01.770 --> 11:05.760 align:start And her government will be in a very fragile position in the Parliament, because even 11:05.760 --> 11:10.130 align:start with the coalition she's put together, she's only a few votes beyond a majority. 11:10.130 --> 11:15.890 align:start ROBERT COSTA: It's not always smart to say we can take lessons from the U.K. over in U.S. 11:15.890 --> 11:20.970 align:start politics, but it is interesting across the pond to see a rising left, a rising Labour 11:20.970 --> 11:25.230 align:start Party. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, did better than expected. 11:25.230 --> 11:28.490 align:start Does that show that maybe this populism is on the wane? 11:28.490 --> 11:32.080 align:start JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: I think it's really difficult to know, and certainly to draw 11:32.080 --> 11:35.770 align:start parallels between here and there. But, listen, Theresa May was one of the leaders in 11:35.770 --> 11:40.120 align:start Europe to whom Trump was closest. You know, he was - the rest of - you know, 11:40.120 --> 11:44.080 align:start Angela Merkel has been critical of him. Marcon in France has been critical of him. 11:44.080 --> 11:48.990 align:start He had this trip, you know, to the G-7 and NATO where there was a really chilly dynamic 11:48.990 --> 11:53.690 align:start there, except for with May. And it's not the warmest relationship in the world, but 11:53.690 --> 11:57.340 align:start it was fair to view them as sort of two peas in a pod. 11:57.340 --> 12:01.180 align:start And it's difficult to look at this result and think that there isn't some sort of shift 12:01.180 --> 12:05.570 align:start going on there in the same way that we felt a real shift going on here after our last 12:05.570 --> 12:09.040 align:start election. And it was so interesting to hear her talk about certainty and we have to 12:09.040 --> 12:12.550 align:start have certainty, because to me I look at what happened in the U.K. 12:12.550 --> 12:16.900 align:start in this election, and all I see is murkiness and uncertainty. And you add to that 12:16.900 --> 12:20.720 align:start the fact that they are now going into these Brexit negotiations, and it's just - 12:20.720 --> 12:24.290 align:start it's a really - it's sort of an upended time there, like it - like it is here. 12:24.290 --> 12:29.700 align:start ROBERT COSTA: Do you think it could upend the relationship, perhaps, with Trump - the May-Trump relationship? 12:29.700 --> 12:33.170 align:start KIMBERLY ATKINS: Well, I think it's difficult to say what factors go into a relationship 12:33.170 --> 12:36.670 align:start with the U.S. president at this point. I mean, alliances that we thought we might 12:36.670 --> 12:42.120 align:start see have been strained to a great extent. So I think we have to wait and see. 12:42.120 --> 12:46.990 align:start I just think - just watching this without as much insight as Dan, but I just thought it 12:46.990 --> 12:52.720 align:start was really interesting to see Theresa May choose to call this snap election based on 12:52.720 --> 12:58.560 align:start polling, after the polling for the Brexit indicated that it was going down in flames, and 12:58.560 --> 13:02.610 align:start yet that was still a political gamble that she chose to take, even before the terrorist 13:02.610 --> 13:05.520 align:start attacks and the other things that happened subsequently. 13:05.520 --> 13:08.850 align:start DAN BALZ: Yeah. It's interesting. You know, the president is supposed to make a 13:08.850 --> 13:12.720 align:start state visit to the United Kingdom sometime later this year. And that's - that was even 13:12.720 --> 13:16.660 align:start before this election hugely controversial. She's going to have to make a decision about 13:16.660 --> 13:20.880 align:start what to do on that. You can't rescind the invitation, and yet how they handle it or 13:20.880 --> 13:23.680 align:start what they - what they do is tricky. 13:23.680 --> 13:27.850 align:start You know, on the question of what it means for the left, one of the things that happened 13:27.850 --> 13:32.060 align:start in this election - which is directly contrary to what happened in France, where the two 13:32.060 --> 13:39.240 align:start major parties cratered - both the Tories and Labour Party increased vote. 13:39.240 --> 13:44.080 align:start UKIP, which was behind the Brexit vote, completely cratered. 13:44.080 --> 13:50.420 align:start And what Theresa May was hoping was that those UKIP voters - conservative, you know, 13:50.420 --> 13:56.000 align:start anti-immigration voters - would do was back Conservative candidates. 13:56.000 --> 14:00.500 align:start Instead, in many places, they seemed to back Labour candidates. That might be a 14:00.500 --> 14:04.950 align:start sign for the Democrats here, although it's difficult to read too much into it. 14:04.950 --> 14:08.870 align:start I think the one thing you can read into it - whether it's, you know, there or here or 14:08.870 --> 14:13.480 align:start France of whatever we've seen - is there is still a lot of discontent. 14:13.480 --> 14:16.810 align:start ROBERT COSTA: I used to be an intern at the House of Commons over in the U.K. 14:16.810 --> 14:20.500 align:start And if you think American politics is rough, watch those guys yell at each other - and 14:20.500 --> 14:24.540 align:start ladies. (Laughter.) Anyway, that's it for this edition of the Washington Week Extra. 14:24.540 --> 14:28.000 align:start While you're online, learn more about the new guy at the FBI, Christopher Wray. 14:28.000 --> 14:32.830 align:start And see if you really are a news sleuth, by taking the Washington Week-ly News Quiz. 14:32.830 --> 14:42.940 align:start I'm Robert Costa. See you next time on the Washington Week Extra.