- [Voiceover] This is the Washington Week Webcast Extra.
- Hello, I'm Gwen Ifill,
and welcome to the Washington Week Webcast Extra,
where we pick up online where we left off on air.
I'm joined by Carrie Johnson of NPR,
Beth Reinhard of the Wall Street Journal,
Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post,
and Manu Raju of CNN.
As we watched the candidates exchange
political slings and arrows,
it's always wise to remember
the best stuff is happening behind the scenes.
Example the first, the veepstakes.
The courting of candidates has become so obvious
that it's almost suspicious.
Who is really on the list and who is really not.
What do we know, what's the latest, Manu?
- Well, Donald Trump has taken a different tact
than we've seen other politicians in recent years,
and, actually, almost having this public auditioning process
and Tweeting about them,
and talking about how great certain people are.
We know that two of them,
who are considered to be on this so-called short list,
have taken their names out.
That includes Joni Ernst, the Iowa Senator,
as well as the Tennessee Senator, Bob Corker.
- Can I just stop you there?
The weirdest week of the moment for me,
in many respects,
was the night that poor Bob Corker
came wandering out onto the stage at a Trump rally,
as if blinking in the lights,
and said, "Mighty big crowd here,
"we don't get crowds like this in Tennessee."
And then the next day, he's like, I'm not really right.
It felt like he had been...
It did not look good for him.
- Yeah, he said he didn't really feel,
I talked to him afterwards, and he said that it just,
it didn't feel right for him.
- [Gwen] You could tell that. - [Manu] Yeah, exactly.
- But he's open to something else in the administration,
like Secretary of State,
'cause he's the foreign relations chairman,
so that's something he's possibly interested in.
But, we're probably looking at
Newt Gingrich on the top of the list,
Mike Pence, the Indiana governor,
Trump said there may be a couple of generals
that he's thinking about,
he even said that there are maybe
up to 10 names he's still considering.
- [Beth] Chris Christie.
- [Manu] Chris Christie.
- Beth is covering this stuff especially.
If you guys were Donald Trump,
do you really want someone on your list
who wants too badly to be on it?
- Yes, if you are Donald Trump, yes!
- Donald Trump prizes loyalty, flattery.
As we saw this week in Washington, you know,
when he met with folks on the Hill,
if you have crossed him,
he will punch back as hard as he possibly can.
And if you've been loyal to him,
and if you were loyal early on,
as Chris Christie was, for example,
which is a big reason, I think, why he's on the list,
that is very prized by Trump.
- I think so too.
I think what he wants more than anything else
is, you know, someone who's not gonna disagree with him,
who is not gonna challenge him,
who's not gonna criticize him.
- You think there's any chance for a surprise,
someone who's name we haven't seen at all?
Like, last time, Sarah Palin came trotting out,
and we all went, "Who?"
- With Donald Trump, there is a very big chance of that.
- And if there's a good woman candidate,
certainly that would be helpful,
given how underwater, potentially helpful,
you know how underwater he is with women voters.
- I'm sure women voters will say,
"Oh, well, he's got a woman vice president.
"So, I'll just change."
- There were some reports of
Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee,
the Congresswoman being on the list.
One of my colleagues spoke with her about it.
She didn't rule it out,
and she also didn't say if she was being vetted or not.
But she also didn't seem totally interested in it, so,
I'm a little skeptical that he's gonna go that route.
- Fascinating, okay, well, Carrie,
I'm gonna move you back to the Justice Department here,
because, today, probably buried
in all the other news of the week,
was an indictment of a sitting Congresswoman.
Tell me about it.
Corrine Brown from Florida,
who's been in the House since 1993,
and is up for reelection this year,
got indicted for essentially operating,
allegedly operating, a slush fund,
for creating this charity
that was supposed to give scholarships to students,
raking in $800,000, according to the Justice Department,
and then using a lot of that money
to buy tickets, and skyboxes at NFL games, Beyoncé concerts.
- I have to say, the last time I saw
Corrine Brown on camera somewhere,
was when she was walking off Air Force One
with the President, when he arrived in Orlando
to meet with the victims of the shooting.
- So, authorities say,
of that $800,000 that she allegedly raised
with her Chief of Staff, who was indicted alongside her,
they gave $1,200 to scholarships and to charity.
That case has obviously
got to be litigated through the courts,
and in these situations,
lawmakers tend to mount a big defense,
as Chaka Fattah did,
Democrat from Pennsylvania, earlier this year.
He ultimately wound up convicted of bribery
and numerous other offenses.
- And had to leave Congress,
but she doesn't have to unless, obviously, she's convicted.
I wanna ask Beth about a story you had this week
about Trump's general election strategy.
We talk a lot about him from week to week to week,
lurching along,
but, it turns out there's a long view here somewhere.
- He has come up with a list,
or the campaign professionals around him
have come up with a list of 17 target states,
which is a pretty big landscape.
That's a big battleground.
I think Mitt Romney had closer to 10 or 12.
And, so, part of the reason it's so long
is that it's got some reliably Republican states on there,
that, most of the time,
Republicans sort of take for granted,
but, Donald Trump can't because he's Donald Trump
and the numbers are all wacky this year.
He's also got a couple blue,
Democratic leaning states on there
that he thinks he can do well with.
- He has said he thinks he would do well in California,
but he is way, way behind.
- Yeah, California and New York did not make the cut,
and the reasons are obvious.
The cost of competing in those states,
and the gap he needs to make up is just enormous,
it's just prohibitive.
But, he is going, the battlegrounds will be different.
The states we are so used to seeing the race focused on,
Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Colorado,
those are still gonna be big states,
but, you're also gonna see Trump having to defend
states like Arizona,
a very large Hispanic population,
one out of five eligible voters in Arizona is Hispanic,
and he is doing terribly with Hispanics.
- Maybe even Georgia or Utah.
- Georgia has a growing Hispanic population,
and, in a close race, that can make the difference.
- Okay, well, we'll be watching for all of that.
Of course, as always, thank you so much everybody.
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