ANNOUNCER: This is the Washington Week Webcast Extra.
GWEN IFILL: Hello, I'm Gwen Ifill.
I'm joined around the table by Carol Lee of The Wall Street Journal, Michael Scherer of
TIME Magazine, and Alexis Simendinger of RealClearPolitics.
This is where we pick up the pieces left on the table during the regular broadcast.
Let's start with a little pre-Labor Day preview, which could be affected by the
roller-coaster markets we saw this week, and that's the planned White House visit by
Chinese President Xi.
The connection, Alexis, between what we saw at the stock
market and what we see with him?
ALEXIS SIMENDINGER: Well, one of the things that the United States is concerned about -
and we all know this - is - there's three things.
One is that there's accusations that China was manipulating its currency, and its
economy is contracting and the stock markets - the markets reacted, among a whole other
lot of indices, with an eruption that then ebbed.
We're also - the United States is also concerned about China's behavior in the South
China Sea, its maritime demeanor.
And also the hacking, the accusations that the Chinese were responsible or behind the
hacking of U.S. personnel records - you know, hundreds of thousands of records, millions
of records.
So this is an interesting - going to be an interesting meeting in September.
GWEN IFILL: Some Republican candidates have been telling him, you know, oh, he's a - he
shouldn't be sitting down with him.
ALEXIS SIMENDINGER: Right.
GWEN IFILL: He's being tough.
ALEXIS SIMENDINGER: And there has been a - you know, there has been - you know, I guess
Walker - Governor Walker thought that this would be terrible, the president should not.
People then accused Scott Walker of being ridiculous.
But Marco Rubio has been also equally critical, but not saying, you know, cancel the
state meeting.
Nonetheless, this meeting is going to happen.
It's the first state visit that President Xi will have at the United States.
The president and President Xi have met before, of course: last year in Beijing.
So this is a big opportunity, and the president's national security adviser was in
Beijing Friday to talk about the preliminaries for this meeting, emphasizing none of the
negatives, emphasizing all of the positives, and hoping to, you know, work things out
together.
And then also later on in September, just to highlight some of the excitement coming up,
the pope is coming.
And President Obama will meet the pope at the White House.
The Congress and Speaker Boehner, who will have hankies next to him - (laughter) - he's
hearing the pope speak in the Capitol.
And I say that because Speaker Boehner is Catholic and is very, very excited.
GWEN IFILL: And is a crier.
ALEXIS SIMENDINGER: And is a crier.
GWEN IFILL: A well-known crier.
ALEXIS SIMENDINGER: My mother says cries at car tricks.
GWEN IFILL: Carol, I want to talk about something else you were writing this week,
about Vice President Biden - not only his political aspirations, but in lots of ways over
the years in this White House he has been a useful - I don't want to say tool; that's not
the word I'm searching for - a useful person for the White House.
CAROL LEE: Emissary, that sort of - yes.
GWEN IFILL: Emissary, thank you, reaching out.
In this case, on Iran, he has been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work.
CAROL LEE: He has, and he's going to continue that.
And part of his - first of all, as vice president, he's had a very large profile.
I mean, he's taken on some really significant chunks of pieces of business, as those in
the White House might say, and this is one of them.
He's seen in particular as a really good advocate for the president to Jewish-American
leaders.
He has a long history in dealing with those folks.
He has had relationships.
You know, he is the guy who can say, like, I remember Goldhamer and, you know, I've,
like, done this and that.
So they know him.
They respect him.
They like him.
GWEN IFILL: Not only can he say that, but I'm sure he does.
(Laughter.)
CAROL LEE: (Laughs.)
Yeah, he does.
And so he's going to be holding - he's held a number of meetings this week.
He's going to continue to do that.
He'll be in Florida, which is a very important state for him politically were he to run
for president, but also there's a large number of Jewish-Americans there.
He's going to be in Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's district.
And a few weeks ago, she asked him to come down and hold a meeting, a small roundtable
with some American Jewish leaders, so he's going to do that.
And there's some speculation that this is also part of Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz's
process to eventually coming out to support the deal.
She's still undecided.
She's obviously a critical vote for the president in terms of who she might be able to
bring along with her, and it would be symbolic if she opposed him.
Also for Secretary Clinton, because she's a supporter of hers, so.
GWEN IFILL: Yeah.
Well, it will be interesting watching Joe Biden for a lot of
reasons, but that's yet another one.
He's always interesting.
OK, you get the short straw, Michael.
We're going to talk to you about the politics of mockery.
Let's listen to some of the back and forth this week first.
HILLARY CLINTON: (From video.)
A lot of people have said a lot of things about my hair
over the years.
(Laughter.)
So I do kind of know what Donald is going through.
(Laughter.)
And if anyone wonders if mine is real, here's the answer - (laughter) - the
hair is real, the color isn't.
(Laughter, applause.)
And come to think of it,
I wonder if that's true for Donald, too.
(Laughter.)
GWEN IFILL: Now, Hillary's comments followed this, which is we saw Donald Trump at an
event this week in which he - I don't know why it came up; maybe it's because he does
these stream-of-conscious speeches - actually asked a woman to come up and feel his hair,
and then tell people it's real.
DONALD TRUMP: (From video.)
Have I ever met you before?
No.
GWEN IFILL: (Laughs.)
"Have I ever met you before?"
he says.
This is my hair and it's real.
What is this?
Is this mockery of self, mockery of each other?
Is it just lighthearted and not worth thinking too hard about, Michael?
MICHAEL SCHERER: Well, for Trump the humor is a huge part of his whole shtick.
I mean, on the question of the state visit, his solution is to serve two Big Macs to
President Xi, which would be four all-beef patties if you're counting.
(Laughs.)
GWEN IFILL: (Laughs.)
I don't get that joke!
MICHAEL SCHERER: Right, but - no, it's just - it's just bizarre.
I mean, and the same - this is just bizarre, too.
I mean, the way that happened was he came on stage and he read from the front page of a
New York Times story that had an anecdote about someone in the Spanish-speaking press
making fun of his toupee, and so he called a woman up to prove he wasn't wearing a
toupee.
For Hillary, it's a different thing.
For Hillary -
GWEN IFILL: It goes back years.
MICHAEL SCHERER: No, it goes back years and she's trying - I mean, her biggest weakness
all year has been she's just not a very good candidate.
She has a really hard time coming across as a real person on a podium.
And you could see in that clip you just played, I mean, the joke was an eight, the
delivery was, what, a five, a six?
I mean, it's a little bit too rehearsed and wooden.
And - GWEN IFILL: You get the feeling she tells the jokes much better backstage.
MICHAEL SCHERER: Yeah.
And she's trying.
I think - like, and I think you're going to hear a lot more humor from her because the
campaign knows they need to make people feel like she - they can connect with her, and
humor's a great way of doing it.
GWEN IFILL: And I don't want to make too big a deal with it - of it, but I do think
that women who have to deal with the issue of appearance so much - and certainly Hillary
Clinton has over the years - enjoyed having an opportunity to just stick a pin in that
balloon and perhaps use Donald Trump as a -
MICHAEL SCHERER: And Hillary's talked about her hairstyles for years.
And actually, that is very endearing, the fact that she dyes her hair and she's, you
know, willing to come out and say it.
GWEN IFILL: Every woman in the audience went, I get that.
(Laughs, laughter.)
Not me of course.
Thank you, everybody.
(Laughs, laughter.)
Stay online to see everything else our panelists are covering on our website.
Just click on News You Need to Know.
And we'll see you next time on the Washington Week Webcast Extra.
