ANNOUNCER: This is the Washington Week Webcast Extra.
GWEN IFILL: Hello, and welcome to the Washington Week Webcast Extra.
I'm joined around the table by Susan Davis of USA Today, Yochi Dreazen of Foreign Policy
magazine, and Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post.
The trauma or drama in South Carolina has had moral overtones, but also political ones -
especially for three South Carolina lawmakers: Paul Thurmond, the state legislature -
state legislator and son of the late U.S.
Senator Strom Thurmond; Lindsey Graham,
the U.S. senator now running for president; and Nikki Haley, the state's governor.
Haley in particular was front and center.
Let's face it: her political stock rose as well, didn't it, Karen?
KAREN TUMULTY: Oh, I think so.
I was in Charleston last week and I was really struck by the almost grace with which
everyone in the state it feels like came together and the way they handled themselves.
And you know, Nikki Haley got out there and called for the flag to come down, and those
numbers in the legislature were huge.
And I did spend a fair amount of time with Paul Thurmond, the son of Strom Thurmond, a,
you know, state senator who's grown up with that last name that more than any other, I
think, in modern state history has been - has spoken to the politics of race and the
politics, you know, of segregation.
And he really talked about, you know, how this was a moment in history and that they had
to seize it.
And he cited the very Bible passage that the - that the nine people who were murdered in
that church were studying that night, and it was the Parable of the Sower, and how
sometimes the ground is fertile.
GWEN IFILL: You know, I mentioned Lindsey Graham, but both U.S.
senators from South Carolina called for the flag to come down and did it in a way - both
of them Republican, one black, one white.
And both of them went out of their way, it seems, to try to do that kind of knitting together.
When Nikki Haley, however, was asked about whether this would make her better fodder for
someone's vice presidential slot, she said this wasn't about her.
KAREN TUMULTY: And I really think - and one, when I arrived, the funerals were still
going on and I was standing outside the church and saw her come out.
And you know, you did get the sense - I mean, she stood there outside the - with the
floral tributes, and she was just wracked with grief.
She was grieving along with her state.
And so I do think that, you know, this is a moment where we ought to suspend, you know,
our typical calculations.
GWEN IFILL: Oh, for a minute.
OK, fine, I'll do that.
Sue, I want to take you back up to Capitol Hill, where you spend all of your time, and
talk about a lot of the - there's actually work kinda sorta getting done up there on big,
big legislation.
One I think comes to mind for me is the highway bill, which, after the Amtrak accident
and after bridges fell down, we spent a lot of time talking about infrastructure.
And the other is this obscure Export-Import Bank, which doesn't - which requires
explanation, but it also is important what's going to happen to it.
SUSAN DAVIS: Yeah.
It's become such a bizarre and interesting little fight in
Congress over the Export-Import Bank, which is a small federal agency that actually
makes money and contributes to the Treasury, and it helps underwrite loans for
companies to sell their products overseas.
It has become an unusual litmus test for conservatives, who have seen it become
a symbol of what they would say is crony capitalism, corporate welfare,
and they want to get rid of it.
And it has become more of an ideological struggle right now in the Republican Party that
I think largely exists inside the confines of the Beltway.
This is not something that you hear about when you go talk to regular people about
Boeing getting, you know, loans under it and by the government.
But outside groups, particularly groups like the Americans for Prosperity that's
affiliated with the Koch brothers that seek to eliminate government regulations and
bureaucracy, and it's come up a lot on the presidential - on the campaign trail.
Most of the presidential candidates are now saying that they believe the bank should
have to go away.
It's become sort of like after the financial crisis if you remember the Audit the Fed
movement, how that became the sort of conservative cry.
The Export-Import Bank is the new target.
Now, what's unusual about it is that it has a majority of support in Congress, so you
know Congress continues to be dysfunctional and even the things they agree on can't
really get through.
So the transportation bill is a must-pass bill.
We have to fund
our highways.
Probably not as much as most people would like to see it funded,
but it's the must-pass bill.
And so they're going to try and attach this Export-Import Bank onto at least a
short-term funding bill and try and revive it that way, but it's going to be a big fight.
And if they can't get it done, then we are now - we'd be in a position where our Highway
Trust Fund's running out, and then that's something real people are actually going to
start to care about when projects start to go dry.
GWEN IFILL: Let's talk about timings.
We're mid-July, so what's the timing on getting this done?
SUSAN DAVIS: The bank has already expired.
The bank expired at the end of June.
So if they do it, they're going to be retroactively reviving the charter.
The Highway Trust Fund runs out at the end of this month.
As we all know, Congress leaves town for the month of August, happily so.
So they have about two weeks to try and resolve at least a short-term.
If they don't do the Ex-Im Bank on the short-term, it's possible it may just go away.
GWEN IFILL: OK. Well, that - we'll be watching that over the next two weeks, then.
Yochi, I want to talk to you about some testimony yesterday.
The new incoming or at least nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff went to
Congress, went to Capitol Hill and had a confirmation hearing in which he said a couple
of unusual things about - at least he went further than I've heard the administration go
about our relationship in particular with Russia.
YOCHI DREAZEN: It was interesting.
So he was asked about the four top threats to
the United States.
He was asked -
GWEN IFILL: Dunford is his - YOCHI DREAZEN: Sorry, his name is Joe Dunford.
He had been the top commander in Afghanistan.
He's a Marine.
And the number-one threat in his mind was Russia, which raised eyebrows around the room,
but also the language he used.
He said that Russia could pose, in his words, an existential threat to the United States.
He talked about Russia that was assertive not just in parts of Eastern Europe that we
think of, like Ukraine, but right on the border of NATO countries, and if Russia were to
move into a NATO country there would need to be a U.S. response.
So he talked about Russia as the main threat to the United States, which is not what the
White House would like to say.
They don't want to think new Cold War.
They'd like to think things with Russia will eventually calm down.
GWEN IFILL: So what's he base that on?
YOCHI DREAZEN: He's basing it, I think, on what he's hearing from a lot of his
commanders, who are very deeply worried about Russian warplanes that are flying very
dangerously close to NATO planes.
Russia has sent nuclear submarines to Sweden.
Sweden spent some time trying to find a nuclear sub that had been spotted off its coast.
There are Russian warships going deeper and deeper into waters outside of Europe, off
the coast of Europe.
So they're seeing provocative actions that aren't simply Vladimir Putin with his shirt
off riding a bear, like you typically see.
But it's actually the Russian military doing kind of scary things.
GWEN IFILL: To what degree does the Joint - head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff raising
this question kind of poke at that bear?
YOCHI DREAZEN: It's a very good question.
And the related question is: To what degree does it poke at the White House?
You know, the White House has to eventually respond when they're asked: so your top
military adviser says Russia's the biggest threat to the United States; discuss.
So if it's General Dunford talking to the White House, that is one set of impacts.
If it's General Dunford talking with Moscow listening, frankly, I think Vladimir Putin
would love to hear this.
He would love to hear that he's being seen as the main threat to the United States.
He sees himself that way.
That means, in his mind, Russia has again become,
like during the Cold War, a world hyperpower.
GWEN IFILL: Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel it hard - I find it hard to believe that this
isn't coordinated in some way, that the White House doesn't mind a little good cop, bad
cop with Russia.
Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe it's bad cop, bad cop.
I don't know.
We'll see.
We'll be watching.
Thank you, everybody.
And thank you all for watching as well.
While you're online, check out everything else our panelists are coming in News You Need
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