Transcripts For KQED Washington Week With Gwen Ifill 2014052

Hospitals. Gwen let the investigations begin. At the Justice Department indictments aimed at getting the Chinese Government to stop hacking american companies. These criminal charges represent a groundbreaking step forward in addressing that threat. Gwen but what effect will they have . Election day victories strengthen republican prospects for the fall and clarify their strategies. Kentuckians are not going to be deceived. Alison Lundergan Grimes is Barack Obamas candidate. Gwen and half a century after Lyndon Johnson engineered a sweeping expansion of government for in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society. Gwen how does it resonate today . Covering the week, jeff zeleny of abc news. Pete williams of nbc news. Susan davis of usa today. And Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post. Award winning reporting and analysis covering history as it happens, live from our nations capitol, this is Washington Week with gwen ifill. Corporate funding for Washington Week is provided by ora bora, fallujah, argon, normandy, medina ridge, these are places history will never forget, but more important are the faces we will always remember. Additional Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by prudential, Brigham Womens hospital. Additional funding is also provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again, from washington, moderator gwen ifill. Gwen good evening. Its a perfect storm. Allegations of government malfeasance, coverup, the possibility of lives lost and betrayal of our nations heroes all culminating in multiple demands that heads roll. The growing scandal engulfing the department of Veterans Affairs Health Programs is now the subject of several investigations. Our veterans deserve to know the facts, their families deserve to know the facts. Once we know the facts, i assure you, if there is misconduct it will be punished. Gwen at the center of it all, mild mannered v. A. Secretary Eric Shinseki, who for now, at least, still has his job, but demands for accountability are coming from both sides of the aisle. This is awful stuff and somebody ought to be held accountable for it. I have not called for general shinseki to resign although i have to admit i am getting a little closer. Gwen these allegations are not new. Why is all this exploding now, jeff . Well, gwen, one of the reasons its exploding now, there are so many examples. It is not an isolated incident at the phoenix v. A. Investigations are underway across the country at 26 of these centers. That means that half the senate is involved. In theyre in 26 locations, everyone is now suddenly investigating this. The reality is anyone who has gone to a congressional town meeting or listened to or talked to someone who opens the mail in a congressional office, they hear v. A. Complaints all the time for years. One question is why is this just coming to a head right now . Its because its an Election Year for one and there is a lot of political outrage. There is real outrage here. We are just ending 12 years of war, more than 12 years of war, all of these new people coming into the system, several older veterans are still in the system, so all this coming together, as you said, a perfect symptom. A lot of people are surviving that would have died from previous kinds of medical care. Im curious what the white house thinks it can do. He sent a deputy chief of staff this week to meet, i guess, with the people in phoenix and does the white house feel like it has to do something just to do something . I think the white house is obviously taking this very seriously. He sent a top visor, deputy chief of staff, but not a household name certainly. I asked senator john mccain, a veteran what he thought of that, he said who . He did not think rob was a credible person to send, someone who had experience in veterans issues. There is no question the white house is engaged and involved in this, but i think its worth asking why did it take the president so long to speak about this. He finally did this week at the podium. One thing there arent any easy answers to this. He is famous for not rushing to fire people. I think thats the case here. So the head of the v. A. , a decorated veteran himself, Eric Shinseki is certainly under siege here, but probably not entirely his fault. Now its his to cleanup. What is the end game on this scandal . Is it just to find out who is cooking the books, how fast to process, or lead to fundamental changes in the v. A. . Thats a good question. It depends if the same problems were happening this all of these 26 locations. If this was a systemic thing to actually, you know, change these wait times and other things, thats a real problem. I think there has to lead to some type of a solution here. What that is, i dont think we know yet. The controversies though that have hit this administration, benghazi, the i. R. S. , have generally stirred up the partisans. Is this one likely to resonate differently with democrats and with swing voters . I think it is, no question, were already seeing that. Veterans are from both parties, the republicans, theyre democrats, the outrage is coming from both sides, not exactly equally. You see some people who are running for office who are saying that the secretary should be fired. Some people who are in office said he should be fired. The reality is i think that this is a scandal that people can understand. This isnt sort of some pars san witch hunt, these are actual victims. People who have died with families. It is a real scandal. It is an Election Year. Who is calling for shinseki to go and what point do you think the president is going to have to make a call . Its a small number of people. We heard Speaker Boehner earlier saying he is not yet. Leader mcconnell, both republicans, he is not either. Not surprisingly perhaps Mitch Mcconnells democratic opponent issued a statement calling for the firing of general shinseki, so perhaps thats one way for her to distance herself from the president. Right now its pretty mixed. A couple democrats, a few more republicans, but, look, we have not seen this administration, this president fire people, shove people out the door. That wouldnt solve anything. Someone else would have to be confirmed. He stays for as long as the president wants him to. Gwen it seems like they are alike in that their temperament is so mild. General shinseki said im really mad as hell. He is from hawaii, someone told me. That is exactly why this mild mannered sort of i think there is anger there, no question about it. It is that kind of gentle manner that both of them have in common. Gwen were going to see whether politics overtakes the facts. Well what happens after that. Ok, it seems straightforward enough. If chinese hackers are infiltrating your computer systems, why not do everything you can to stop them . But what if they accuse you of doing the same thing . And what if the accused hackers are not private sector tech geeks but agents of the Chinese Government . For the u. S. Justice department, that spells indictment. But to what end, pete . Well, in the past, the government says, any time they confront the chinese and say youre spying on american companies, they say where is the proof. The Justice Department said here is the proof in public, the first time the u. S. Has ever charged officials of a foreign nation with using cyber tools to hack on american companies. And think of how extraordinary this is. You showed those pictures at the beginning. Actual wanted posters of individuals in china that the u. S. Says this guy did that. This guy did this. Gwen in military uniform. To raid american companies. To go in some of the biggest names. U. S. Steel, alcoa, westinghouse, all part of a military intelligence unit. The charges say they went after executives of these companies, sent them emails that when opened up basically gave them complete access to the computers and they could steal these trade secrets. In the case of westinghouse, for example, the government says they got data equal to 700,000 emails. And the charges were possible because of the evolution in the ability of the u. S. To investigate these hack attack. What im told by one official is that it got so good at one point that the investigators could sit at their cubicles here in the u. S. And watch the individual hackers actually entering key strokes on their computers in china and thats why the indictment is so specific with, you know, dates and graphs and circles and arrows and times and dates on when people did specific things to these companies. Gwen what does the Justice Department say about whether we do sort of the same thing . The u. S. Says there is a big difference. Of course, the United States spies on foreign governments. We all do that, they say and of course it spies on things like trade missions. What the United States says it doesnt do is say, for example, on behalf of boeing spy on the French Aerospace Company Airbus in order to steal trade secrets to help boeing. We dont take orders from companies. Now, of course, in china, there is a difference because these are stateowned companies. The chinese says its no different. Were spying on each other. The United States says its a big difference. What are the chances that this actually ends up in court . Somewhere around zero. Ok. That any of these five Chinese Military people will be standing in a courtroom in western pennsylvania which is where the charges were filed because u. S. Steel is there, so many of the companies are there. The government says, look, we have tried making nice. We have tried doing this diplomatcally, quietly, the little letters back and forth. This is an effort every time they get nowhere with that, this is a way to raise the temperature and saying to the chinese were watching closely and keeping on doing this. What was the reaction in china by the officials . Two things, first of all utter denial in the strongest possible words calling the charges completely false saying they are fabricated outlandish and more directly, the chinese have withdrawn their participation in an upcoming summit in july on cyber security. Its probably a temporary setback there, the people who do these things think the chinese will come back and talk about it some more. How have the companies you mentioned responded to this, they have so many business interests in china . Many of these companies were attacked by the chinese at the time they were doing deals with the chinese to do business in china. Westinghouse, for example, was Building Nuclear power plants in china and the chinese are getting the plans for the plants. On the one hand, the Companies Realize that they want to continue doing business with the chinese. They dont want to offend them. Secondly, i think some of the companies in general, not perhaps these, but companies in general are always a little embarrassed to have it disclosed that they were hacked into by something as simple as opens ing email, someone it and launches malaware that creates a back door. Gwen i dont know if it ever gets discussed, on a week when there are tensions in the south china sea, when Vladmir Putin is in shanghai cutting a deal on gas purchases, whether there is any concern that the timing of Something Like this is tied to all of that, u. S. , beijing relations . I suspect that probably wasnt thought through in that level of detail. I know they were thinking about other cyber cases that they were doing the same day. There were three big things that the Justice Department all on the same day, this day another computer thing and going after credit suisse. Those are that twherp thinking of. Gwen thanks so much, pete. This Election Year is not turning out at all as democrats were hoping for. Senate minority leader Mitch Mcconnell, once thought to be the Top Republican most likely to fall to tea party challenge, did not. In fact, from kentucky to georgia, antiestablishment republicans have been sidelined again and again. What did tuesday tell us about the state of the race this year, especially for the fall, sue. Tuesday reinforced a couple of lessons we saw for 2014. Incumbents are way more prepared for these threats. They have been warned by the campaign operations, recent history, 2012, 2013 put them on notice they cant take anything for granted. Mitch mcconnell started preparing for this primary campaign two years ago. Nothing that happened on tuesday was a surprise to him and part of the reason why he won by 25 points. The second thing is some of the Tea Party Candidates just werent very did. If you want to outstanding an incumbent, which is difficult, you need a top notch candidate, especially when theyre not taking things for granted. The third most important thing, this year, unlike 2012 and 2010, democrats cant count on republicans winning the races for them by nominating candidates that are going to suffer in a general election. Gwen there is no todd aiken, a matt benefitin, not only did he get beat by Mitch Mcconnell, he got beat by a lot. By a lot. In georgia there was a sevenway primary, still a runoff to get to in that. The two that escaped the pack, the most closely associated with the establishment, the party would be happy to have either one of them. In oregon in a primary out there the establishment favorite was endorsed by mitt romney. She pulled over a tea party favorite. In idaho and pennsylvania, House Republicans who faced the only tea party challenges, they came through. So incumbents are in a good position. Particularly in the senate, republicans are seeing the lineups move to their favor. The general election is proving to be very competitive. Is Mitch Mcconnell really in trouble . Yes, he is. I think that he did such a masterful job getting ahead in the primary, but the data is very clear that he is in trouble in the general. Grimes is his opponent. They have been neck and neck in every election poll to date. In the most recent one that came out the friday before the race, he was ahead. Kentucky doesnt really like Mitch Mcconnell. His disapproval in that state has been within 50 and 60 this entire time. So he not only needs to overcome a strong democratic challenger with Significant National resources and get over his own unpopularity in his home state. Where does, speaking of the senate, how does it look for republican control of the senate . Its a jump ball. It is entirely possible that republicans can perform a akeover, particularly if president obamas ratings continue to be so low, particularly in these red states where theyre defending race i am, arkansas, louisiana, north carolina, and the fact that republicans seem to be, they have wised up and have better candidates. Its going to be a very expensive race. I think people, particularly the outside money we see coming in know whats at stake. So from here forward, what surprises do we possibly have left in store . A lot of the primaries are done, there are still a come out there. One interesting one is mississippi. Yes, mississippi is probably the last great test of the Tea Party Establishment to test this cycle. Fred is the incumbent then and Chris Mcdaniel has the edge. He seems to be faltering a little bit in the closing weeks of the race helped in part by some activist bloggers who took some really devious steps and took some very nasty film of his wife who has been disabled in a home for about 15 years. Theyre not associated with the mcdaniel campaign, but there is a lot of ugly innuendo as far as we know. No reason to believe theyre associated, its offended the sensibilities of a lot of mississippians. That plays to his favor. Thats in two weeks. Gwen is it bad news, lets cycle back. We have talked about the bad news for democrats, but im curious about whether democrats are sitting back here and watch this happen, or whether they like the republicans who sat there and said, here is a problem, lets fix it, lets get better candidates and take the tea party seriously this time. Are democrats figuring how to set themselves up for the fall so they dont get run over by the new discipline on the part of republicans . I think they do. I think what hurts democrats is the mass, the field is tilted far against their favor. Two races where democrats have a chance to pick up, one is in kentucky with grimes and in georgia. I think it goes to show you with michelle. It also shows you how vulnerable democrats are when their best chances are in the south which has been traditionally not a very, you know, warm territory for them. Gwen thank you very much. Now, weve been marking so many anniversary in the past year, you have been following them with us from the march on washington, the assassination of john f. Kennedy to the passage of the civil rights act. Its tempting to lose sight of the big picture. The Great Society was the big picture. From president johnsons seminal speech in may of 1964, to the signing of antipoverty and civil rights legislation later that year, to the creation of medicare and the Justice Department<\/a> indictments aimed at getting the Chinese Government<\/a> to stop hacking american companies. These criminal charges represent a groundbreaking step forward in addressing that threat. Gwen but what effect will they have . Election day victories strengthen republican prospects for the fall and clarify their strategies. Kentuckians are not going to be deceived. Alison Lundergan Grimes<\/a> is Barack Obamas<\/a> candidate. Gwen and half a century after Lyndon Johnson<\/a> engineered a sweeping expansion of government for in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society<\/a>. Gwen how does it resonate today . Covering the week, jeff zeleny of abc news. Pete williams of nbc news. Susan davis of usa today. And Karen Tumulty<\/a> of the Washington Post<\/a>. Award winning reporting and analysis covering history as it happens, live from our nations capitol, this is Washington Week<\/a> with gwen ifill. Corporate funding for Washington Week<\/a> is provided by ora bora, fallujah, argon, normandy, medina ridge, these are places history will never forget, but more important are the faces we will always remember. Additional Corporate Funding<\/a> for Washington Week<\/a> is provided by prudential, Brigham Womens<\/a> hospital. Additional funding is also provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again, from washington, moderator gwen ifill. Gwen good evening. Its a perfect storm. Allegations of government malfeasance, coverup, the possibility of lives lost and betrayal of our nations heroes all culminating in multiple demands that heads roll. The growing scandal engulfing the department of Veterans Affairs<\/a> Health Programs<\/a> is now the subject of several investigations. Our veterans deserve to know the facts, their families deserve to know the facts. Once we know the facts, i assure you, if there is misconduct it will be punished. Gwen at the center of it all, mild mannered v. A. Secretary Eric Shinseki<\/a>, who for now, at least, still has his job, but demands for accountability are coming from both sides of the aisle. This is awful stuff and somebody ought to be held accountable for it. I have not called for general shinseki to resign although i have to admit i am getting a little closer. Gwen these allegations are not new. Why is all this exploding now, jeff . Well, gwen, one of the reasons its exploding now, there are so many examples. It is not an isolated incident at the phoenix v. A. Investigations are underway across the country at 26 of these centers. That means that half the senate is involved. In theyre in 26 locations, everyone is now suddenly investigating this. The reality is anyone who has gone to a congressional town meeting or listened to or talked to someone who opens the mail in a congressional office, they hear v. A. Complaints all the time for years. One question is why is this just coming to a head right now . Its because its an Election Year<\/a> for one and there is a lot of political outrage. There is real outrage here. We are just ending 12 years of war, more than 12 years of war, all of these new people coming into the system, several older veterans are still in the system, so all this coming together, as you said, a perfect symptom. A lot of people are surviving that would have died from previous kinds of medical care. Im curious what the white house thinks it can do. He sent a deputy chief of staff this week to meet, i guess, with the people in phoenix and does the white house feel like it has to do something just to do something . I think the white house is obviously taking this very seriously. He sent a top visor, deputy chief of staff, but not a household name certainly. I asked senator john mccain, a veteran what he thought of that, he said who . He did not think rob was a credible person to send, someone who had experience in veterans issues. There is no question the white house is engaged and involved in this, but i think its worth asking why did it take the president so long to speak about this. He finally did this week at the podium. One thing there arent any easy answers to this. He is famous for not rushing to fire people. I think thats the case here. So the head of the v. A. , a decorated veteran himself, Eric Shinseki<\/a> is certainly under siege here, but probably not entirely his fault. Now its his to cleanup. What is the end game on this scandal . Is it just to find out who is cooking the books, how fast to process, or lead to fundamental changes in the v. A. . Thats a good question. It depends if the same problems were happening this all of these 26 locations. If this was a systemic thing to actually, you know, change these wait times and other things, thats a real problem. I think there has to lead to some type of a solution here. What that is, i dont think we know yet. The controversies though that have hit this administration, benghazi, the i. R. S. , have generally stirred up the partisans. Is this one likely to resonate differently with democrats and with swing voters . I think it is, no question, were already seeing that. Veterans are from both parties, the republicans, theyre democrats, the outrage is coming from both sides, not exactly equally. You see some people who are running for office who are saying that the secretary should be fired. Some people who are in office said he should be fired. The reality is i think that this is a scandal that people can understand. This isnt sort of some pars san witch hunt, these are actual victims. People who have died with families. It is a real scandal. It is an Election Year<\/a>. Who is calling for shinseki to go and what point do you think the president is going to have to make a call . Its a small number of people. We heard Speaker Boehner<\/a> earlier saying he is not yet. Leader mcconnell, both republicans, he is not either. Not surprisingly perhaps Mitch Mcconnells<\/a> democratic opponent issued a statement calling for the firing of general shinseki, so perhaps thats one way for her to distance herself from the president. Right now its pretty mixed. A couple democrats, a few more republicans, but, look, we have not seen this administration, this president fire people, shove people out the door. That wouldnt solve anything. Someone else would have to be confirmed. He stays for as long as the president wants him to. Gwen it seems like they are alike in that their temperament is so mild. General shinseki said im really mad as hell. He is from hawaii, someone told me. That is exactly why this mild mannered sort of i think there is anger there, no question about it. It is that kind of gentle manner that both of them have in common. Gwen were going to see whether politics overtakes the facts. Well what happens after that. Ok, it seems straightforward enough. If chinese hackers are infiltrating your computer systems, why not do everything you can to stop them . But what if they accuse you of doing the same thing . And what if the accused hackers are not private sector tech geeks but agents of the Chinese Government<\/a> . For the u. S. Justice department, that spells indictment. But to what end, pete . Well, in the past, the government says, any time they confront the chinese and say youre spying on american companies, they say where is the proof. The Justice Department<\/a> said here is the proof in public, the first time the u. S. Has ever charged officials of a foreign nation with using cyber tools to hack on american companies. And think of how extraordinary this is. You showed those pictures at the beginning. Actual wanted posters of individuals in china that the u. S. Says this guy did that. This guy did this. Gwen in military uniform. To raid american companies. To go in some of the biggest names. U. S. Steel, alcoa, westinghouse, all part of a military intelligence unit. The charges say they went after executives of these companies, sent them emails that when opened up basically gave them complete access to the computers and they could steal these trade secrets. In the case of westinghouse, for example, the government says they got data equal to 700,000 emails. And the charges were possible because of the evolution in the ability of the u. S. To investigate these hack attack. What im told by one official is that it got so good at one point that the investigators could sit at their cubicles here in the u. S. And watch the individual hackers actually entering key strokes on their computers in china and thats why the indictment is so specific with, you know, dates and graphs and circles and arrows and times and dates on when people did specific things to these companies. Gwen what does the Justice Department<\/a> say about whether we do sort of the same thing . The u. S. Says there is a big difference. Of course, the United States<\/a> spies on foreign governments. We all do that, they say and of course it spies on things like trade missions. What the United States<\/a> says it doesnt do is say, for example, on behalf of boeing spy on the French Aerospace<\/a> Company Airbus<\/a> in order to steal trade secrets to help boeing. We dont take orders from companies. Now, of course, in china, there is a difference because these are stateowned companies. The chinese says its no different. Were spying on each other. The United States<\/a> says its a big difference. What are the chances that this actually ends up in court . Somewhere around zero. Ok. That any of these five Chinese Military<\/a> people will be standing in a courtroom in western pennsylvania which is where the charges were filed because u. S. Steel is there, so many of the companies are there. The government says, look, we have tried making nice. We have tried doing this diplomatcally, quietly, the little letters back and forth. This is an effort every time they get nowhere with that, this is a way to raise the temperature and saying to the chinese were watching closely and keeping on doing this. What was the reaction in china by the officials . Two things, first of all utter denial in the strongest possible words calling the charges completely false saying they are fabricated outlandish and more directly, the chinese have withdrawn their participation in an upcoming summit in july on cyber security. Its probably a temporary setback there, the people who do these things think the chinese will come back and talk about it some more. How have the companies you mentioned responded to this, they have so many business interests in china . Many of these companies were attacked by the chinese at the time they were doing deals with the chinese to do business in china. Westinghouse, for example, was Building Nuclear<\/a> power plants in china and the chinese are getting the plans for the plants. On the one hand, the Companies Realize<\/a> that they want to continue doing business with the chinese. They dont want to offend them. Secondly, i think some of the companies in general, not perhaps these, but companies in general are always a little embarrassed to have it disclosed that they were hacked into by something as simple as opens ing email, someone it and launches malaware that creates a back door. Gwen i dont know if it ever gets discussed, on a week when there are tensions in the south china sea, when Vladmir Putin<\/a> is in shanghai cutting a deal on gas purchases, whether there is any concern that the timing of Something Like<\/a> this is tied to all of that, u. S. , beijing relations . I suspect that probably wasnt thought through in that level of detail. I know they were thinking about other cyber cases that they were doing the same day. There were three big things that the Justice Department<\/a> all on the same day, this day another computer thing and going after credit suisse. Those are that twherp thinking of. Gwen thanks so much, pete. This Election Year<\/a> is not turning out at all as democrats were hoping for. Senate minority leader Mitch Mcconnell<\/a>, once thought to be the Top Republican<\/a> most likely to fall to tea party challenge, did not. In fact, from kentucky to georgia, antiestablishment republicans have been sidelined again and again. What did tuesday tell us about the state of the race this year, especially for the fall, sue. Tuesday reinforced a couple of lessons we saw for 2014. Incumbents are way more prepared for these threats. They have been warned by the campaign operations, recent history, 2012, 2013 put them on notice they cant take anything for granted. Mitch mcconnell started preparing for this primary campaign two years ago. Nothing that happened on tuesday was a surprise to him and part of the reason why he won by 25 points. The second thing is some of the Tea Party Candidates<\/a> just werent very did. If you want to outstanding an incumbent, which is difficult, you need a top notch candidate, especially when theyre not taking things for granted. The third most important thing, this year, unlike 2012 and 2010, democrats cant count on republicans winning the races for them by nominating candidates that are going to suffer in a general election. Gwen there is no todd aiken, a matt benefitin, not only did he get beat by Mitch Mcconnell<\/a>, he got beat by a lot. By a lot. In georgia there was a sevenway primary, still a runoff to get to in that. The two that escaped the pack, the most closely associated with the establishment, the party would be happy to have either one of them. In oregon in a primary out there the establishment favorite was endorsed by mitt romney. She pulled over a tea party favorite. In idaho and pennsylvania, House Republicans<\/a> who faced the only tea party challenges, they came through. So incumbents are in a good position. Particularly in the senate, republicans are seeing the lineups move to their favor. The general election is proving to be very competitive. Is Mitch Mcconnell<\/a> really in trouble . Yes, he is. I think that he did such a masterful job getting ahead in the primary, but the data is very clear that he is in trouble in the general. Grimes is his opponent. They have been neck and neck in every election poll to date. In the most recent one that came out the friday before the race, he was ahead. Kentucky doesnt really like Mitch Mcconnell<\/a>. His disapproval in that state has been within 50 and 60 this entire time. So he not only needs to overcome a strong democratic challenger with Significant National<\/a> resources and get over his own unpopularity in his home state. Where does, speaking of the senate, how does it look for republican control of the senate . Its a jump ball. It is entirely possible that republicans can perform a akeover, particularly if president obamas ratings continue to be so low, particularly in these red states where theyre defending race i am, arkansas, louisiana, north carolina, and the fact that republicans seem to be, they have wised up and have better candidates. Its going to be a very expensive race. I think people, particularly the outside money we see coming in know whats at stake. So from here forward, what surprises do we possibly have left in store . A lot of the primaries are done, there are still a come out there. One interesting one is mississippi. Yes, mississippi is probably the last great test of the Tea Party Establishment<\/a> to test this cycle. Fred is the incumbent then and Chris Mcdaniel<\/a> has the edge. He seems to be faltering a little bit in the closing weeks of the race helped in part by some activist bloggers who took some really devious steps and took some very nasty film of his wife who has been disabled in a home for about 15 years. Theyre not associated with the mcdaniel campaign, but there is a lot of ugly innuendo as far as we know. No reason to believe theyre associated, its offended the sensibilities of a lot of mississippians. That plays to his favor. Thats in two weeks. Gwen is it bad news, lets cycle back. We have talked about the bad news for democrats, but im curious about whether democrats are sitting back here and watch this happen, or whether they like the republicans who sat there and said, here is a problem, lets fix it, lets get better candidates and take the tea party seriously this time. Are democrats figuring how to set themselves up for the fall so they dont get run over by the new discipline on the part of republicans . I think they do. I think what hurts democrats is the mass, the field is tilted far against their favor. Two races where democrats have a chance to pick up, one is in kentucky with grimes and in georgia. I think it goes to show you with michelle. It also shows you how vulnerable democrats are when their best chances are in the south which has been traditionally not a very, you know, warm territory for them. Gwen thank you very much. Now, weve been marking so many anniversary in the past year, you have been following them with us from the march on washington, the assassination of john f. Kennedy to the passage of the civil rights act. Its tempting to lose sight of the big picture. The Great Society<\/a> was the big picture. From president johnsons seminal speech in may of 1964, to the signing of antipoverty and civil rights legislation later that year, to the creation of medicare and the Voting Rights<\/a> act in the year that followed, a lot got done that changed our lives and our politics forever. Karen tumulty and her colleagues at the Washington Post<\/a> have been focusing exclusively on that big picture this week in a series of stories on the Great Society<\/a> at 50. There has been nothing like it since, has there karen . And i think you can argue nothing like it before. L. B. J. Launched the Great Society<\/a> with a commencement speech at the university of michigan six months to the day after john f. Kennedy was assassinated. What he launchedening you can argue was the single biggest experiment ever in what government is capable of doing. You couldnt compare to the new deal, but the fact is the breadth of what he tried to achieve was greater because it did take on civil rights and a number of areas of American Life<\/a> that really the new deal didnt touch. I think more importantly, the new deal was about sort of putting out the crisis, putting out the fire of the great depression. What johnson tried to do was figure out how to invest our prosperity and twice during that speech, he sketched out what he thought america could and should look like in 50 years. Gwen one of the Little Details<\/a> in your first story that caught my eye was just that 200 bills were passed, major bills were passed in the 89th congress. Think about that for just a moment. What were they . It was extraordinary. There was medicare and medicaid. There was the Voting Rights<\/a> act. There was a lot of people forget, the enormous immigration bill that effectively, it ended what had effectively been a whites only immigration policy that had existed in this country for 50 years. There were consumer protections. You have padded dash boards and seat belts in your car day because of the Great Society<\/a>. They were actually talking about ending poverty by 1976. At the same time it opened up, i think, just about every political debate that we have today somehow has roots in the Great Society<\/a>. And why did it work so well legislatively . Was it him, the mood, why . There were a number of things that combined. Number one, he had a huge, the biggest landslide in American History<\/a> in 1964 gwen nothing like a landslide to get your bills passed. The economy was booming. The country was still mourning this president who had awakened its idealism and the Civil Rights Movement<\/a> had awakened its conscience. L. B. J. Recognized that you put all of those things together with a president of unmatched legislative skills and you have the opportunity to get a lot done very quickly. But by 1966, it had all turned. We talk about today, the contrast is so interesting to me, particularly as i Cover Congress<\/a> just about the gridlock that we see. Do you think its possible in modern american politics to do similar grand legislative movements like we saw then . Its certainly not i think today, again, l. B. J. Had huge democratic majority. I also think that the Great Society<\/a>, he was weakened by vietnam. He was weakened by the backlash and also the Great Society<\/a> laid the premise for, i think the republican philosophy of today. It was the 1966 election that elected a movie actor, the governor of california. So does that mean it was a success or a failure . His own objectives sort of create a rise of what were seeing now today . Obviously it failed in a lot of areas, especially eradicating poverty. Interestingly enough, some of its greatest successes were the things that were most controversial in that day, civil rights. I think both the left and the right will acknowledge today that these barriers were impossible to knock over except by government dictate. This is something that only the federal government could do. Gwen it seems to me that there kind of enduring reverb raises, not only in the things that you mentioned, but also in the way that government functions. For instance, you pass something as huge as medicare and medicaid, you give people these kind of entitlements and theyre hard to let them go. So when 50 years later we have a debate about health care, a part of the pushback from republicans was, we dont want to pass this because once you give people something, its hard for them to give it up. Is it continuing to reverberate in other policy debates later . Its not just the benefits. Its around each of these programs, a big bureaucracy grows, that bureaucracy often outlasts the politicians. I have a question im so curious about this story. I find it interesting that part of the reason why l. B. J. Was pushing this was he was saying the government the federal government should be the motivator, the operator. That is exactly the opposite of the conversation were having now where were saying take it away from the federal government, send to the state. In part because he didnt trust the states. In the middle of the Civil Rights Movement<\/a>, the states were the obstacles. Beyond that gwen states rights being what it was in civil rights. They shifted power from the legislative branch from the executive, from corporations to regulators and a really big one was shifting power around the big city machines and giving it to local Community Organizers<\/a> including one of whom who sits in the white house. In looking through the contributions and successes, was there one little thing that you said i didnt know that was part of the Great Society<\/a> . Interestingly, the one big legislative fight that l. B. J. Lost was over home rule for the district of columbia. Gwen we all live in washington, d. C. Now, we think, oh, we still dont have a Voting Member<\/a> in congress because that was the one thing that failed. He pulled out all of the stops and he couldnt get it done. Gwen so fascinating. Thank you, karen for doing that. Its just one of those stories that we all kind of know, but we have no idea what the rhythm and the fallout has been all of this time later. Thats where you have been all of these weeks. Thank you, everybody. The entire Washington Post<\/a> Great Society<\/a> series is on our website. Thats also where youll find our webcast extra where we tackle all of the rest of the weeks stories we didnt get to here, shock being there was more. Including what the house did this week to rein in the n. S. A. N. S. A. You can watch the webcast all week long at pbs. Org washingtonweek. Also, keep up with developments with me and Judy Woodruff<\/a> at the pbs newshour, and well see you here, next week on Washington Week<\/a>. Have a lovely and observant memorial day. Good night. Corporate funding for Washington Week<\/a> is provided by we went out and asked people a simple question, how old is the oldest person you have known . We gave people a sticker and had them show us. We learned a lot of us have known someone who lived well into their 90s. Thats a great thing. Even though were living longer, one thing that hasnt changed, the official retirement age. The question is, how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years . Corporate funding is also provided by boeing, brigham omens hospital, additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Funding for this program is provided by the Gruber Family<\/a> foundation and by the members of kqed. A coproduction of kqed and center for investigatie ive reporting. Californias San Joaquin Valley<\/a> is one of the most productive farm regions in the world, yet the people who live and work near those farms cant always access that bounty. Theyre picking fresh fruit for everybody else, but actually they dont even have fresh fruit for their own family. Families in the Central Valley<\/a> experience some of the nations highest levels of food insecurity. One in four families are at the risk of going to sleep hungry. One in three children are at risk of being hungry","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia902209.us.archive.org\/34\/items\/KQED_20140524_023000_Washington_Week_With_Gwen_Ifill\/KQED_20140524_023000_Washington_Week_With_Gwen_Ifill.thumbs\/KQED_20140524_023000_Washington_Week_With_Gwen_Ifill_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240620T12:35:10+00:00"}