Good evening and welcome to Washington Week.

It's hard to believe, but Gwen Ifill, an icon of American journalism, died 10 years ago, November 14th, 2016, at the much too young age of 61.

She was a friend, confidant, and adviser to me and to so many people across journalism.

We'll talk about Gwen tonight and her trailblazing role in journalism and what she might make of today's Washington Circus.

Before we do this, I'll talk about some of the news of the week with my guests.

John Dickerson, contributing writer at The Atlantic and co-host of the Political Gabfest podcast.

Jonathan Carl is the chief Washington correspondent for ABC News.

And Michelle Norris is a senior contributing editor for MS Now.

Um, thank you all for for being here, all of you friends and admirers of Gwen.

I appreciate you doing this on a on a sad occasion, but um I'm glad that we get to to to sit and talk for a little while.

Let's talk about the news.

We're not going to talk about the Friday the 13th ground stop because it's developing as we speak, but it doesn't seem like a great day to fly.

Well, the whole week has been one fragile reminder of the membrane between the day as we go through it and total collapse.

There's the FAA, the ground stop.

You had the Outlook, Microsoft Outlook was down for two days.

people didn't know what to do.

And Jensen Huang, the head of the most uh important AI company in the world, has an total and complete collapse, which means the center of the AI economy is fibrillating.

Well, thanks for the buzzkill.

Uh that was a reasonable reasonable summary of a week that probably should end.

I wanted to ask we'll get to Jensen Huang in a second.

And I wanted to ask uh um Michelle about Pete Hegseth narrowly escapes impeachment, but this is something that is going to happen again, we think.

Yes, it will.

I mean, he uh did a lot of chest pounding afterwards and called it a stunt.

Um but he should be prepared for this to happen once the Democrats take over the House and the Senate.

He will definitely face impeachment again.

And you know, the interesting thing that we have to remember is we're a nation at war.

and the seep the head of the the department of defense I guess that he's calls it the department of war right is facing impeachment I mean normally when a country is at war you're trying to build a case for what you're doing you're trying to bring along the American public and this is happening you know the impeachment is in the news but the real news I think this week is what the people who are who are serving the conditions that they're serving under you know on these ships that they don't have food there's mold on these ships they're learning that they're not sure when they're going to come back.

Um, it's it's it's it's a larger problem than just impeachment.

But the the larger the larger sort of almost philosophical question is are you at war when the president says you're not at war?

I mean, you've been following this closely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We've we've been through that many time.

But, but look, first of all, on the impeachment, uh, this was a deeply flawed eight articles of impeachment written by Thomas Massie, the one Republican that the Republicans in the House dislike more than any other.

Uh so it was easy for them to all vote against it.

But it was eight articles including impeaching him for violating the War Powers Act uh by by ex executing the war in Iran.

I mean that might be a a terrible thing and that'd be something you might even want to try to impeach the president of the United States.

But he's doing it on behalf of the president, right?

Yes.

And and and the only thing it didn't include some of the obvious things such as uh all the firings of senior military officers.

So many of them women, people of color, and you know, fired for what?

None of that will.

The next one will the next.

So, so, so the members of the house were given a choice.

Vote up or down all these eight articles, some of which you might not like and didn't include your real and it's not just impeachment, it's hearings that will come in in the next year, which is did you or did you not tell the president about the number of missiles that were being burned through?

What was the actual evidence before this war was started about what Iran had?

Those are questions that are going to be uncomfortable.

And by the way, they bases overseas right now.

And they voted to refer those articles of impeachment to the committee which will now bury it because it's a Republican held committee.

Well, guess what?

Next time it happens, the clock resets in January.

Um, Jensen Huang um surprised that the most indispensable CEO in tech turns out to be dispensable.

Well, we'll see if he's dispensable or not.

You look at the stock well the board the board of his company believed that it had no choice but and the stock market thinks he was indispensable if you look at what's happened in the number I mean what it reminds us is that human beings are at the center of these companies and those companies are being handed extraordinary power over the future of AI which will affect all of our lives and perhaps this should be a lesson that maybe you want to have not just a single point of failure when it comes to AI which will have all these ramifications.

So people who have asked either to slow AI down or have some sort of extra um process for managing the Gallup um that this might remind them that single people are are fallible.

This has become a mess for the White House not only for the commerce secretary but for the president of the United States.

I mean I mean you have to the way it's been described to me the president's trip to China where he leaves Washington on Air Force One and realizes that Jensen Huang is not on the manifest for his trip to China and and the and he gets briefed by we understand Secretary of State Marco Rubio because there are suspicions that he may uh be sleeping with a Chinese spy and the president wants him on this trip.

So he calls Jensen Huang from Air Force One and says, "Can you meet us in Alaska where we're going to be refueling Air Force One?"

And it's I mean, I'm told it was very close whether or not he could scramble.

And by the way, he's the head of one of the most important companies in the world.

and he drops everything to to fire up his maybe Trump just wanted to keep an eye on him based on I mean the president's at the middle of this and of course you know the real pressure right now the first pressure point's going to be the commerce secretary right um quickly Chuck Schumer Hakeem Jeffries big week coming up for them quickly they have are there any real foreseeable threats to their rise to leadership in their respective houses.

Maybe Jonathan, Senator Chris Van Hollen of of Maryland is gonna try try and challenge Chuck Schumer.

I don't know how far that will go.

Um uh their biggest challenge is being leaders of a big big big complicated co coalition now.

That's what happens when you win people.

I mean, this is natural, but it's a tough leadership and a progressive wing that is coming in and feeling themselves.

I mean, they they really and even if they they don't challenge Hakeem Jeffries, they will make sure that they are going to be heard.

thing about that going to what John has said is that the the the Democratic caucus is so big that the power of that progressive wing is actually a little bit diluted or am I No, no, no.

You're exactly right.

This isn't like the Freedom Caucus that would constantly give Kevin McCarthy or Mike Johnson problems because the margin was so narrow that a couple of guys in the Freedom Caucus could derail a piece of legislation.

There aren't enough progressives to derail a piece of legislation.

Chuck Schumer in trouble?

I I he I don't think he is.

But look, Van Hollen is mounting a really serious and I think quite personal campaign against Chuck Schumer, challenging challenging his integrity essentially uh for you know the the where his sources of money come from uh his position on Israel, his his association with AIPAC.

I mean it's a it's a it's a pretty brutal campaign.

This isn't a nice hey we you know we just have some disagreements on policy.

This is a tough challenge.

I think it will fail.

Hakeem Jeffries' smoother smoother sailing we think.

And also he has history behind him.

I mean there's a certain amount of enthusiasm on top of his um leadership style because he would be the first African-American.

Yeah.

There's no opposition within the House Democratic caucus, but there is in the base that think that he is not tough enough.

There is this amazing quality to to to the to the rush of news these days where we we don't even pause as much as we should to say, "Oh my goodness, the the House of Representatives is going to have a black speaker of the house."

Another thing worth noting uh is that u a big winner of this weird week is uh Scott Colom um Mississippi Democrat, first black representative, first black senator from Mississippi in 150 years.

You're an expert on this subject, John.

I I know he he was giving Kelso Bruce.

Yeah, he was giving me the history before.

guy.

Um, but Michelle, talk about that.

And actually, it's a it's an interesting way to talk about Gwen in a way because Gwen, one of her many one of her many subsp specialties was tracking the and reporting on the rise of a new generation of African-American politicians.

She would be absolutely fascinated by the idea that Mississippi of all places is sending a black Democrat to the Senate.

Did you all miss her this week?

What are you thinking about her this week that you know on Tuesday this week or I miss her all the time?

Whenever you think of her, you kind of the text that would have been flying the conversations.

She would have loved this.

And you're right, she would have spotted.

She was a tremendous spotter of early talent.

Yeah.

Yeah, she was always looking down the road at, you know, who was that was her book was all about that.

Just one word before we talk about Gwen and that though was with Scott Colom.

He said something interesting about the leadership in um the leadership race here in Washington.

Both Schumer and Jeffries come from the same borough, borough, you know, I mean, so there, you know, and as a southern he's saying, you know, maybe we need to think about having that kind at least get somebody from Can we talk about diversity of that kind?

Also, I'm not sure I like this subtle prejudice against the five boroughs.

Well, we're we're talking a single borough, but the idea that he did this um now, yes, he was running against a weak candidate and he was running in an unusual year where people were concerned about affordability and corruption and the chaos that we've been talking about.

But he also just ran a really tight campaign and he went and campaigned in places that other people have not campaigned in.

He went to every corner of that state.

His wife was in a food truck and she was traveling all over the state.

His father is a Republican and so he had a leg up in going to some of the places that Democrats have ignored.

He himself is a gun owner, believes in gun rights to a certain extent.

He's a former prosecutor.

Prosecutor.

Yeah.

And and so I think it is a message about the limits of our imagination as journalists, but for the party, you know, to think about where these possibilities exist because the party didn't see this happening.

There were very few people who thought that he had a path to victory.

No, you know that's and and I want to pivot, but the amazing thing is Texas was surprising.

Kansas is really surprising.

Mississippi is another level.

And that just shows how what a dramatic race this was.

You can imagine Gwen asking, "Was the Supreme Court right when they said the Voting Rights Act didn't wasn't necessary anymore because the South had had changed?"

and you know Colom's election maybe show that I think the answer from perhaps even Gwen would be you can have progress without necessarily getting rid of or thinking that had that what is gone are all the efforts to try to to stop progress the Obama presidency well exactly Hiram Revels just to do one the very first black senator from from Mississippi Blanche Kelso Bruce's predecessor when he came to Washington his opponent said when he came to Washington his opponent said you're not a citizen.

You shouldn't be a senator.

Right?

Draw that line right to the current sitting president of the United States who attacked Barack Obama for not being a citizen.

We're not that far from that history.

By the way, people who voted did did bring a $10 note that's signed by Blanche Kelso Bruce.

This is in Washington DC.

For some reason, I feel like we're on a reconstruction reconstruction quiz bowl.

Gwen didn't allow show and tell.

No, no, there was no show and tell.

We're gonna I'm gonna cease control of this table.

Can I It was provident that it happened on Veterans Day because the veterans played such a role in pushing this country forward in the civil rights movement.

Medgar Evers included, right?

And we should just note that this is not ancient history.

that some of the people who voted for Scott Colom remembered having to pass a poll test, remembered what it was like, you know, when when that that hill was so much deeper.