Republicans seem to be talking only about me. Dont know if they would talk about if i werent in the race. Gwen but its not just the republicans talking. What do we need to know about the Clinton Foundation . On capitol hill t. Took five months and vote on an enpyrely unrelated bill this has been a long, strange journey here to final passage but here we are. Gwen but Loretta Lynch finally wins senate confirmation. And in yemen, on again off again military strikes. Growing u. S. Presence in the gulf and looming influence of iran. Theres a lot of speculation about what may or may not be on the iranian convoy. But having our ships in place is the right thing to do. Gwen and then what . Coversing the week, ma zpetty from the New York Times, jeff zeleny, senior washington correspondent for cnn. Juana summers, congressional reporter for npr, and hannah allam, National Correspondent from mcclatchy newspapers. 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 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 for those who serve to protect our nation and its allies, and thats an enduring commitment. Additional Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by prudential. Additional funding is provided by newmans own foundation, donating all profits from newmans own Food Products to charity, and nourishing the common good. 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. It was an extraordinary moment. The president yesterday taking responsibility and apologizing for the deaths of american citizens at the hands of american forces. Today in a speech to the National Intelligence community he spoke of his regret. President obama we all bleed when when we lose an american life. We all grieve when any innocent life is taken. We dont take this work lightly. And i know that each and every one of you understand the magnitude of what we do. And the mistakes involved. And these are not abstractions and were not cavalier about what we do. Gwen but were still figuring out exactly what did happen on two separate dates in different locations where u. S. Drones apparently guided by faulty intelligence took the lives of four men. One an american hostage, another an italian hostage and two americanborn al qaeda operatives. None of it happened on purpose. Three months after it happened and barely 36 hours after we learned about it, what do we know now about the circumstances that led to this mark . Mark we know that the cia was tracking several compounds as it has for years in the travel areas of pakistan. And in the case of the strike that killed the hostages, it was there were drones surveiling the compound for days, weeks and in the very end almost unbroken surveillance. The order was taken to take to carry out the strike and it took weeks to find out what actually had happened. And as it turns out and as we reported today, they found out the real evidence of the mistake is there were two extra bodies pulled out of the compound and buried when the cia only thought there were four in the compound. That is a strike getting the more attention and obviously it sort of raises this issue of just how accurate these strikes are. Gwen so they were watching, they were careful. But how could they not detect the two additional humans inside this building . Mark well, the technology only allows them to see who comes and goes. He they cant see inside of a compound. Ostages are presumably kept in one place for a long period of time or they were brought in during one point in the gap in the surveillance. So all they were able to see were four people coming and going and not the two people who were possibly inside the compound the entire time. So again it was only afterwards they found out many people had been killed. We saw the president speak therein we saw him make this announcement at the white house on thursday, fairly dramatic. Why is this Drone Program defined his administration . And how has it defined his administration . Mark well president obama campaigned on getting the United States of being in messy wars of occupation. The drone in many ways has been a tool hes embraced because it was something besides iraq and afghanistan. He has accelerated the Drone Campaign far more drone strikes under obama than there were under bush. So this has been in many ways his program. This is really the first time though you see him out there expressing his redepret. It should be noted this is not the first time there have been civilians killeds or even the first time there have been american civilian killed. Clearly this weighed on obama and i think it really created this moment where the program is under fire like never before. Even it calls into question also the use of signature strikes, which i thought we were told would be phased out last year some time. So what happened . Mark so its interesting gwen first of all, what are they. Mark signature strikes are when the cia will carry out a strike without knowing specifically who theyre targeting. Theyre based on what theyre called patterns of behavior. Someone determined to be al qaeda or different type of militant but they dont know that is specific people. Those have been allowed in pakistan in part because of questions of people going over the border into afghanistan and going after american troops. As you pointed out president obama indicated in a big speech he gave two years ago that by the end of last year, those strikes would end. But very quietly they were allowed to continue and as we saw in these two strikes in january, they have sometimes when you lower the bar, you have really dangerous consequences. And one person we havent talked about in this conversation is john brennan. Looking at the landscape and drones, what does this mean for him . Mark yes, brennan is an interesting character. He was an architect of the program in the first term in the white house. He goes to the cia. He continues the program, but he remains very close to obama. Hes one of the obamas closest advisers. Hes been embattled before, notably last year with the issue of senate Intelligence Community and hacking into their computers. Obama stood by him. And for all we have seen so far will continue to stand by him. Gwen we only have a few seconds but i do want to talk about pack stn of its interest ling both of these things happened, both this strike and strike that killed the al qaedaamericans, both happened in one the country thats one of our allies. How do we arent they supposed to be helping us on this . Mark has a long and complicated story about the relationship with pakistan. Yes, the relationship is better but the United States is continuing to carry these strikes out at a lower rate than before. But theyre not doing it theyre not informing the pakistanis in advance and sometimes theres real tension in the relationship when the u. S. Carries out these unilateral acts. Gwen theres going to be more. Supposed to be investigating this, so we will see what they come up with. Thanks, mark. We hopscotch now to another of the big headlines this week following the money inside the Clinton Foundation. And its a lot of money. Much of it directed towards philanthropy but where is it coming from and why . A number of reports it this week have sought to make the link between the foundations activities and action of then secretary of state surprise hillary clinton. Are we seeing smoke or are we seeing firing, jeff . Jeff yes, we are seeing both. I think it depends were not quite sure how much fire theres going to be because theres so much smoke, were not sure where this is going to go. More often than not, the reports this week were not as revealing for something we didnt know was going on but shining a broad light and reminding us that the Clinton Foundation has been under way for a while but its grown so much over the last several years. We had no idea really what the speaking fees that the president was getting. Former president bill clinton. 500,000 to give one speech in moscow. The reason that became important was because moscow and russia, this uranium company, was trying to invest in the u. S. And buy u. S. Uranium and someone else involved in it happened to give . 35 million to the Clinton Foundation. The deal went through so, of course, it looks suspect. We dont know if it is suspect. But that was one example the New York Times wrote about this week that reminded us this is such an unusual situation. A former president , secretary of state and now shes running for president. So everyone is looking at this. Gwen wasnt the secretary of state supposed to notify the administration she was now working for whenever she had any the foundation had any dealings with with foreign governments or foreign entities . Jeff yes. And that did not appear to happen in this case and that is a good point. Going back to january of 2009, senator dick lugar sat in the Foreign RelationsCommittee Hearing and said the Clinton Foundation is going to be attempting entity for foreign governments and other people who are trying to do business with the u. S. She said look everything will be above board. We will sign a pledge to disclose everything. So for the first time we are seeing that didnt happen in this case. Thats why it matters. So this has all come to a tension because of the new book going to be released may 5th. Its written by a conservative author, former speechwriter to president george w. Bush, former sarah palin adviser. So the Clinton Campaign seized on that and said this is a partisan hit job. Dont mind that quite as much. Theres so much actual interesting stuff at the foundation that were going to see, some people ask why its legitimate. Well if she wins, the president will still be in the white house. She will be the president. Other entities will be there. Clinton foundation is still there. Its a legitimate question with so many, so many angles. Jeff, its april 2015. Election is still pretty long ways away. Is there any benefit to this coming out now oppose to say around labor day or when shes actually the democratic nominee . Jeff good question. I guess it can be seens old news, oh this sounds familiar but im not sure this is what the Clinton Campaign wanted week two of its candidacy. Very careful rollout. She was doing this reconnection tour with voters. So certainly they didnt want this. But you sort of deal with the hand that you have. So i guess it gets it out of the way at this point. At least this part of it. But we still dont know the whole picture. Obviously people have very strong opinions about hillary clinton. Does Something Like this you think going to affect do they care . Are voters going to care from anything we know at this point . Gwen it helps that its really murky. Mark and the more complicated it is the better it is for the clintons. It seems like a very familiar story. But i think youre right, most people have their minds made up. They like her or like what she stands for or dont like what it stands for. But it goes to the heart of course, voters are not paying attention. They dont know enough about it yet but it goes to the heart of the key worries of some of her Advisers Trust and credibility. If this is hammered out every day for the next, you know, year and a half, thats not good for her. Was there a vetting failure here . Gwen what do you mean by vetting . Why didnt we know about all of this before . You think of her as someone on the National Stage so, so long. The Clinton Foundation has changed so much since 2008 when she ran for president the last time because bill clintons speaking fees through the roof. The Clinton Foundation has grown into this sprawling thing. When she ran the first time, it was much smaller and swheapt secretary of state. Thats a key question. Did it grow on her watch . Gwen is it too soon . Affecting her fundraising or what voters are saying at all . I think its a little too soon. The reaction has basically been partisan reaction but theyre trying to raise money, a lot of money and the fact theyre reminded the clintons got really wealthy over the past decade does not help fundraising. Doesnt help it at all. Gwen thanks jeff. I guess we will be revisiting this time and time again. Today at the department of justice, outgoing attorney general eric holder had yet another goodbye ceremony. 5 1 2 months after he first announced he was leaving. This is my third going away, but i promise, its the last one. I think we can officially say now eric holder is free. Gwen he then took off two free eric holder rubber wrist bands and flung them into the crowd. Prosecutor Loretta Lynch is finally on her way to justice after 10 republicans joined the democrats to confirm her nomination. In the end finelely she got through, juana. What changed . Juana everything and nothing at the same time. This was never really entirely about Loretta Lynch. What this long, protracted nomination battle that we had not seen before was about was the fact republicans did not like eric holder and yet when they were presented with a replacement in Loretta Lynch who many concede shes very well qualified and ready for the job she got someone who spoke up and said she supported the president s action on immigration, which may be some of the things republicans dislike more than eric holderp himself. So we saw it dug up improbation and unrelated human tracking bill which you discussed on the program before get drawn into this. That was rehe resolved earlier this week and in the end she won the support of 10 republicans. Most interesting Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell. Gwen of the things i found interesting about all of these confirmation hearings but this one in particular she was being peoplized for agreeing with the president who nominated her. What was expected . Juana if you listened to what republicans said, what they wanted in a new head of Justice Department is someone who would lead the Justice Department independently of the president. Which may be far flung from a nominee from a democratic president. What they want is their own ed and with president obama in the white house, they were not going to get it. Jeff and all of that elections have consequences. The person who talked the most was ted cruz. He surged senators to purt a hold on her nomination. Where was he this week . Juana thats a funny one. Ted cruz spoke to the floor and spoke forcefully about Loretta Lynch and said she was she would consider the wallaceness of the eric holders Justice Department. Then he got out of town. His staff said it was a scheduling conflict. And posted online an instation he had flown back home for a fundraiser. So its definitely an interesting molt gwen thats a schedule conflict. Jeff big fundraiser but hypothetical, right . Juana a little bit. And its happening where ted cruz is coming under fire from news organizations like huffington post, for not doing what voters elected him to do showing up and voting. Jeff what do we know about what does she want to do, what are her priorities at the Justice Department . Juana one of the biggest things were likely to see from Loretta Lynch and this is what president obama remarks he made last night after she folk is she would work really hard to bridge the trust gap of the minorities across it country and Law Enforcement officials as the president , others in the administration have said Loretta Lynch knows a lot about justice but also knows a lot about community. Thats a hole we expect to see her step into. And what we saw in charleston, South Carolina is what we are saying play out this weekend in baltimore, maryland. There will be a lot of ground there. She will also be tasked obviously with sentencing reform and surveillance issue thats had been hughes for the holder Justice Department. She will also have to work to gain the trust of republicans, who are as we stated earlier, not likely to trust they are given the feelings they have about eric holder and the feelings they have about the president S Immigration policy which, of course, she will play a huge part in. Gwen im always curious about what republicans are up to more broadly. So for instance in this case, this was an effort to say we got something done. Right . After 5 1 2 months but we got something done. They got something done also on moving ahead on trade authority. Got something done on the medicare doctors fix to medicare. So is this part of a new campaign on the part of republicans to say weve got something going . Juana if you listen to Republican Leadership on both sides of the capital, house instant, big thing theyre talking about now is this is the new republican congress. Its been a little more than 100 days since the 114th congress was sworn in and they point to the accomplishments you mentioned, doc fix, Human Trafficking bill that fi