ANNOUNCER: This is the Washington Week Webcast Extra.
GWEN IFILL: Hello, I'm Gwen Ifill.
I'm joined around the table by Robert Costa of The Washington Post, Susan Davis of USA
Today, and John Harwood of CNBC.
John's New York Times column this week exposed some of the worries some Republicans are
feeling as this year's campaign unfolds.
One Republican, Tom Cole of Oklahoma, says "It's always easier to stand up with the
crowd and say, 'You're right, they're all bums.'
We've played into our worst instincts
instead of our best."
As we look at these early polls, are we seeing distress and
skepticism turning into anger, John?
JOHN HARWOOD: We are.
Republicans have been angry pretty much throughout the Obama presidency.
Pew Research Center did - compared the average trust in government since - of the
presidency through the last half-century.
Republicans during Obama have been most mistrusting of the federal government than -
more than any other party in the last 50 years.
Fifty-two percent of Republicans said that President Obama makes them angry.
We're seeing that flower in this campaign right now.
GWEN IFILL: We've seen - this week you spent time with three of the candidates who are
elbowing each other, still trying to get on the debate stage.
And I wonder if you see any of that bubble up in their strategies of how to get
attention in this kind of Trump-centric world.
JOHN HARWOOD: All of them were pretty temperate.
Chris - GWEN IFILL: Chris Christie.
JOHN HARWOOD: Chris Christie, in fact, said you're seeing all these other candidates
like Donald Trump say outrageous things to get attention; I'm not going to do that.
He's trying to fight through circumstances that have been reduced dramatically from what
we thought just a couple of years ago, trying to campaign intensively in New Hampshire.
Carly Fiorina, who I spoke to, very temperate candidate, very good communicator,
probably the longest of longshots in the Republican field.
But she's staying at it in a steady way.
She said in a very calm demeanor, I will stack my business record up against Donald
Trump any day.
And Scott Walker's had a quite consistent message throughout, saying there are two kinds
of people in politics, there are fighters and there are winners; I'm the only one in the
race who's both.
GWEN IFILL: Today, this week, we saw Hillary Clinton, Robert, talk about a couple of
interesting issues which get lost a little sometimes in all of the other discussion,
the bombast.
But one was about - today, in Miami, she was talking about Cuba and
opening relations with Cuba, which obviously puts her up against Jeb Bush and
Marco Rubio.
But we also saw her earlier this week asked about the Keystone
Pipeline, something she oversaw or had a look at while she was secretary of State,
and which nobody can quite get her to nail down.
Let's listen to what she said when she was asked what she would do about that.
HILLARY CLINTON: (From video.)
This is President Obama's decision, and I am not going
to second-guess him because I was in a position to set this in motion and I do not think
that would be the right thing to do.
HILLARY CLINTON: (From video.)
If it's undecided when I become president, I will
answer your question.
GWEN IFILL: "When I become president."
Does she get away with that, Robert?
ROBERT COSTA: We'll see.
It was interesting to see Senator Sanders challenge her, and he's been very respectful
of Secretary Clinton throughout the campaign.
But he said, if she's going to come out with all of these positions on climate change
and be an advocate for the climate, she really has to have a position on the Keystone
Pipeline.
And because his campaign has momentum, I think eventually this is going
to exert pressure on Clinton to take a position.
GWEN IFILL: I also have to wonder, however, if there's any other answer she can give or
should even as - just as a political professional give in this situation.
If you don't have to answer a difficult question, why bother?
It seems to be their approach.
ROBERT COSTA: No, that's right.
I think Clinton, she continues to try to respect
President Obama.
She is still his secretary of State, if not officially.
She remains an ally to him.
She realizes how important he is to her own bloc within the Democratic Party, to her own
political success.
And that's what I really interpret.
I don't think it's so much she's hesitant on the climate, hesitant on things like
energy.
She's with the left of the Democratic Party.
But she's respectful of his position and her role and her friendship with him.
GWEN IFILL: And also we've seen a lot of money numbers come out today, super PAC money,
in which it looks like even people who we think are the longest of longshots are getting
some chunks of money.
John Kasich is getting a couple million dollars from people.
Rand Paul, who people have now been writing is beginning to fade, he's been pulling in
money.
Of course, Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton.
Any surprises you see in those numbers so far?
ROBERT COSTA: Well, one thing I found out last night was the Ricketts family, which
owns the Chicago Cubs, they've thrown $5 million towards Scott Walker's super PAC.
And I think you see a lot of the establishment donors - like Joe Ricketts; the Koch
brothers, of course are always involved - they see the Trump rise and they're really
going to these super PACs and throwing more money, perhaps, at this early stage than they
would have earlier in the year wanted to do because they realize they have to have a plan.
If Trump continues to ascend, how do you have a super PAC or a few there
ready to stop him?
GWEN IFILL: That is interesting to me, that all of a sudden Donald Trump is having
other effects that maybe even he didn't think about.
Let me - $10 billion man that he is.
Let me ask you, Sue, about what happened on Capitol Hill behind us this week.
I mean, I called it the coup that wasn't, and that was the short-lived, as far as we
know, effort to once again take down John Boehner.
SUSAN DAVIS: Yeah.
It was a congressman named Mark Meadows.
He's a Republican from North Carolina.
And he introduced a resolution to essentially vacate the speakership, citing - a
two-page resolution citing any number of offenses against John Boehner, saying he has
consolidated power, that he has used that power to punish people who vote their
conscience and not the party line - to which I think John Boehner might say I wish I had
consolidated enough power.
(Laughs.)
So far it's a resolution of one.
John Boehner was asked about it this week.
He very literally shrugged it off.
He said, member here, member there - and I quote - "no big deal."
So it'll be
interesting to see if other members would step forward and sign on to that resolution.
I'm skeptical.
He certainly has had pushback as speaker.
The past two elections for speaker he had - the first time a dozen Republicans voted
against him.
This past January, he had 25 Republicans vote against him.
There's absolutely a small but vocal group of agitators that would like to see Boehner
go.
But - GWEN IFILL: But the speakership is not in imminent danger.
SUSAN DAVIS: No.
And until you can answer the question who can beat him, I think that he's - his handling
of the speakership, while it may be criticized, is not really in doubt.
GWEN IFILL: I believe that is a story for the ages in politics: Who can beat you?
(Laughter.)
Thanks, everybody.
For more check out my take online, where I tackle one of the great myths of the two-term
presidency, that anybody really wants a third - anyone other than Bill Clinton, that is.
And we'll see you the next time on the Washington Week Webcast Extra.
