There is no classified material. Gwen and defense. When i got to work as secretary of state, i opted for convenience to use my personal email account. Gwen but will questions about transparency complicate her bid for president . Covering the week, carol leonnig, National Reporter for the washington post, peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the new york times, and jeff zeleny, senior washington correspondent for cnn. Awardwinning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. Live from our nations capital, this is Washington Week with gwen ifill. Corporate funding for Washington Week is provided by from a world of darkness we became a nation of light. A nation powered by electricity. A nation powered by the i. B. E. W. I. B. E. W. , powering north america. How much money do you have in your pocket right now . I have 40. 20. Could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement . I dont think so. Well, if you start putting that money towards your retirement and let it grow over time, 20, 30 years that retirement challenge might not seem so big after all you. Announcer additionalCorporate Funding is also provided by boeing. By newmans own foundation, donating all profits from newmans own products to charity and nourishing the common good. And the annenberg foundation. The corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. Once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. Gwen good evening. The hits just keep on coming. Unfortunately the agency taking the hits is the u. S. Secret service, which among other things, is responsible for keeping the leader of the free world safe. Its also an agency that just got a new leader to help them recover from earlier setbacks that included white house breaches and international incidents. Carol leonnig, whos been breaking all these stories, was on the case again this week. Recap for us what happened in this latest episode on march 4. So the secret service has investigated that theyre investigating this after we came to them bay week later that two very, very senior agents, not rank and file but two of the highest ranking people in the agency were coming back from a party in a downtown bar drove a government car onto the white house grounds, went through an area that was then undergoing an investigation a live investigation for a possible bomb and that the officers, the palace guards, if you will, that protect the white house suspected very strongly that the two men were intoxicated and wanted to stop them question them, and possibly test them for sobriety but were told not to. Gwen by . By supervisors on deck, on duty that night much the service says, you know, were verging this and also asking the investigating this and also asking the department of homeland security, the Inspector General to take over the investigation. But weve heard these allegations as well as were taking it very seriously. Gwen help me with this again. Were they on duty . Were these two senior, highranking guys on duty coming back from this party . So duty at the headquarters of secret service is typically 9 to 5 30. The presumption is that we they were not, that they were at a Retirement Party and had a great time at the party. The problem is the secret service like most government agencies, but the service has a much higher standard for this, the use of a government car for something thats not a Business Purpose is an automatic violation. Getting in the car with . I alcohol in your system also automatic violation. So it will be hard to tell ultimately because there were no sobriety tests, what exactly happened in terms of their level of drinking that night, although im hearing that the investigation has been very throw, that there is a look at even the bills for that night for drinkss at the bar. Carol, we didnt learn about it until you told us about it in the newspaper. When did mr. Clancy, the new director of the secret service, learn about it . Really good question. The director told law makers and confirmed to us today that he learned about this monday a good five days after the event happened. Thats caused a lot of consternation not just for him, but also for lawmakers who are saying if youre the new director taking over in the wake of all these problems, if this is when President Secret Service is supposed to be on its ps and qs, why are you just learning this so late . Thats still to be answered and he said hes still looking into that. Hes going to the hill obviously next week and obviously will take tough questions on this. But he was going to be the director who was going to reform the have. Is there any chance of that now . Does he even had have a hope of doing that . How do you think he stands now and is reform possible m so, that is so interesting because i think he has huge support in the form of the president and the first down first lady, president obama the gwen he was the president s personal guard . Yes at the beginning when the president was learning to be the president. 20092011, he was a steady hand. People call this guy father joe. Hes got a wonderful reputation in terms of his integrity. That is in his favor. What is not in his favor is that as you all know, the administration independent panel that looks looked at who should be the new director said you need somebody from the outside. You cant have somebody so close to this group. Hes a 27year veteran and he is friends with one of the men who is under investigation. Gwen is there a culture problem that is so pervasive . You cover the agency. Should we as citizens be worried about the safety of the first family . What i worry about after covering this for a while is that nearly ever every person who has come to my from inside the agency and people who have recently left say that there is a culture of senior, senior people feeling that theyre above the law untouchable, that marry made, and that that that theyre made, and that could lead to significant risks for the president. If up think youre not going to get in trouble for anything, things can go wrong. What do the president and first lady think . You said they have confidence in the director, but it must be disconcerting for them to have gone through this again and again and again. When the president said he was disappointed, i think there was probably a stronger word that he was considering. How much more can we go through . I interviewed congressman cummings today, Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and he said i do not do not want you and i to be talking about any more of these incidents ever again after this, not because i dont like talking to you but because the president s life is on the life line. Pretty strong say. Statement. Gwen gwen and this takes us back to when the stories first broke, it was in colombia and the question of prostitution and then the breach at the white house, someone getting in the front door. Its been quite a series of incidents. Some international. Gwen and speaking of international incidents, 47 republican senators set out to create one of their own this week, breaking protocol and enraging the white house by sending a letter to iran, asking them to step away from nuclear negotiations. Their argument that any deal the u. S. Agrees to could be null and void once this democratic president leaves office in 2017. The ringleader was arkansas freshman tom cotton. The deal that is emerging would allow iran to develop a path towards a nuclear weapon, and thats not acceptable because its too dangerous to the United States and too dangerous to the world. Gwen the Obama Administration did not take this lightly. This letter ignores more than two centuries of precedent in the conduct of American Foreign policy. I think its somewhat ironic to see some members of congress wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in iran. Its an unusual coalition. Gwen the prince of understatement the unusual coalition. John kerry said this was unprecedented. How unprecedented was it really . Its not that rare for leaders to interester pose in foreign policy. But youve seen instances in the past George Mcgovern went to cuba, nancy pellose aye pelosi went to syria jesse helms wrote a letter on the front page of a paper in moscow just as the president landed to negotiate a deal. Gwen i forgot about that. He said this is a lame duck and its dead on arrival, dont negotiate. But this is out of the ordinary, especially for 47 to do it all at once. It upset the white house and people on capitol hill who want to question what the president is doing what who actually dont think he is making the best deal but wonder if this is too partisan. Gwen how did tom cotton get this ball rolling . Its a good yes, right. Apparently, give him credit for being dogged. He just worked the caucus, he was Walking Around with the letter and getting people to sign up. I think a lot of people didnt fully Pay Attention to what they were signing and think through the longterm consequences. There is some regret on the part of some republicans who signed it. Its a fairly straightforward letter. It says this is how the system works, the president has to submit a treaty. Gwen to congress . To congress and then the congress can von it. So its presented as a factual statement rather rather than gwen but with a point of view . Its got a point of view. Thats the ultimate message. The problem is who it was dwreased to. It wasnt to the American People saying hey, congress hays role here. But congress is so skeptical of the deal thats been in the works anyway. So Many Democrats are opposed to the deal. They had a veto proof majority almost. What is after sending this letter, has it blown up the bipartisan deal . Thats a great question and thats the risk. The president and john kerry i think were genuinely angry about this but there is also a strain they wont say it on the record, but that theyre happy about this because it gives them leverage to say to the democrats, you dont want to be part of this, you are with us even if you dont like this deal. And mccain and bob menendez, a lot of folks who have opposed the administrations handling of this were very upset about this. It does have the potential of making what had been a Bipartisan Coalition a little bit partisan again. What about the Legal Framework . Where does this fit in law . There is a law called the logan act, much discussed in washington, never enforced. It was passed in 1799 when john adams was president and it says no private citizen, nobody but the president of the United States can conduct negotiations with a Foreign Government to influence their actions or oppose american interests. A lot of people in washington today, democrats especially, were saying this is a violation. They should be prosecuted. 277,000 people have signed a petition asking the white house to prosecute the 47 senators. I think we can guess right now its not going to happen. Only one person has ever been indicted for this. That was 1803 and he wasnt convicted. Probably not a execution constitutional law. But our standard is only the president so be negotiating with foreign powers. Gwen as soon as this letter got to the person it was indend intended to did iran do anything to exploit it . It wasnt actually sent to them. It was styled as an open letter on a web site. Thats another thing that would make prosecution problematic. I think senator cotton did tweet it at the ayatollah but i dont know if that counts. But iran did say this is a sign of the decline of america and than they will backstab us. The question is will it blow up the talks . The white house says look, we dont think its going to blow up the talks but if they fail its going to make it harder for us to blame the irinians because theyll say its really congress fault. Gwen do we know where the taungs stand . John kerry is on his way back, right . Hes on his way back. Theyve got an end of march deadline and they feel like theyre close. Gwen both sides . Yes. Eventual foreign minister of iran has scugged suggested theyre getting closer. But getting that last 5 or 10 yards is often the hardest. Gwen ok. Thank you. She hasnt announced yetthat shes really running for president. But already Hillary Clinton is in the middle of the first fullscale Political Drama of the 2016 season. Complete with secrets, questions about trust and transparency, and a News Conference that seemed to leave more questions than it answered. Looking back, it would have been better if id simply used a second email account and carried a second phone but at the time this did not seem like an issue. Gwen well, when youre running for president , everything can be an issue, and the question of what is contained in the 50,000plus pages of emails Hillary Clinton has turned over to the state department and the presumably many more that she deleted from her private e mail server remains a live one. First of all, bottom line, did Hillary Clinton break the rules . Jeff . She skirted the rules at the very least. I was standing in the room just about 10 feet from her at that sort of raucous press conference and she struck ne as Hillary Clinton, the lawyer. She was answering questions in very specific legal terms, reading from a prepared statement. The rules, as we found out this week, are entirely inconsistent, crazily so across the administration. The white house requires people to preserve and save everything. Other agencies, not quite as much. So its not clear that she broke any law, but clearly the spirit of the policy of retaining things and set upping this private email raised so many questions because she made that decision on her own right before she became secretary of state in january 2009, to ket set up this private server. That was a decision that she made, so shes trying to compare herself to colin powell and others. Shes the first one who has not even had a state. Gov address. And emple email technology has changed so much from these others that the comparisons are not that relevant the gwen heres the other thing. She says for convenience she only used one device. Letsen to her at a sillison valley conference. I dont throw anything away. Im like two steps short of a hoarder. So i have a, you know, an ipad a mini ipad, an iphone and a blackberry. Gwen now, its possible this is since she left the state department. But the idea that shes a hoarder . And we find out all these emails are missing . I asked a clinton person about that specifically and they say she only with had one device since as secretary of state. She got the i phones since she left. Thats certainly possible. But the most damaging thing or the issue that raise the raised the most questions is the idea that she was policing this herself and she decided what she was going to hand over the to the state department and what she wasnt. 62,320 emails. 30,000 were deemed government relate the. 31,000 she deemed privately realitied. Whats in the private ones . Is that a political discussion . Is she having a discussion about the new president , her rival . So many things were going on. And how did they determine which ones to turn over . They were searching by top aides and using anything with beng azzi in it benghazi in it or libya. To be complear clear, youre saying she searched for beng hawesy and saved those benghazi and saved those . Right . R50eu79 this has really taken on legs though. Why . Is it specific to the clintons . Does it have longterm impact . Part of it is her family of course, so many scandals of the 1990s and 2000s. Everyones been wonder ha kind of president ial candidate will she be . She took eight days to respond to this at all and i think that created a problem and a vacuum. Do voters care about this specifically . No, probably not. The people who didnt like her scr a fresh reason not to, the people who like her will probably come to her defense. But it put a window into the idea that transparency does not necessarily apply to them and how she was reacting, as a lawyer up there, presents a problem the and im curious jeff. I thought so many questions werent answered then and after by the state department about, you know, who reviewed this . Who decided this . What key words were used . Why who at state approved or didnt approve this decision . Is she courting more political fallout by not sperer answering those questions and letting this continue and continue . The short answer is i believe so because congress now has a pressure fresh reason to look into her. The whole reason that has come about is because the House Committee on Bengie Molina benghazi has been looking in on this. Shes its now got new legs and shes going to be called to testify before the committee at least twice. This going to be there for a long time and who knows what else is in there . Gwen is she proving to everybody shes not concerned about the time . I dont think so but shes doubling down on that that is the time to do it. Most people believe 3ri789 that looks like where she is leaning. And you will be on the jace case, jeffrey thegwen thanks, everyone. We have to leave you a few minutes early again this week to give you the chance to support your local station, which in turn supports us. But we plan to keep on talking off the air but online in our Washington Week webcast extra, about politics, selma and maybe even the politics of selma. You can find us later this evening and all week long at pbs. Org. Washingtonweek. Keep up with developments with me and Judy Woodruff at the pbs news hour, and well see you here, next week on Washington Week. Good night. Corporate funding for Washington Week is provided by were committed to strong. Were committed to sure. Were committed to smart and light, secure and bold. In a world of enduring needs, the men and women of boeing are proud to build and deliver critical capabilities to those who verve serve to protect our nation and its allies and thats an enduring commitment. Announcer additional Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by prudential and i. B. E. W. Additional funding is provided by newmans own foundation. The annenberg foundation. The corporation for public broadcasting and by contributiones to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is next on kqed newsroom dying orchards, parched fields. Weve got good years and bad years. This is i call it the worst years. This is really bad. Californias extreme drought and the future of the states water supply. Good evening and welcome to kqed newsroom. Im thuy vu. And im scott shafer. California desperately needs rain. The drought that began in 2011 has grown worse every year since. And if you have any doubt about the droughts impact, take a look at these pictures. This was folsom reservoir in 2011, and this is what the reservoir looks like after three years of drought. This is like