'This Week' Transcript 9-28-25: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries & House Majority Leader Steve Scalise

A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday, September 28, 2025 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form, may be updated and may contain minor transcription errors. For previous show transcripts, visit the "This Week" transcript archive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC “THIS WEEK” CO-ANCHOR: President Trump promises more indictments are coming after his historic pressure campaign to bring charges against former FBI Director James Comey.

"THIS WEEK" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I'm innocent.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's about justice, really. It's not revenge.

RADDATZ: Trump's hand-picked prosecutor fulfills his wish for action against his political opponents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The attorney general does not take that as pressure. I don't take that as pressure.

RADDATZ: Sparking outcry over the Justice Department's loss of independence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump has just installed a political hack to do his bidding.

RADDATZ: This morning, Pierre Thomas breaks down the charges. Plus, the legal and political fallout with Dan Abrams, Chris Christie and Reince Priebus.

Deadlocked.

TRUMP: If it has to shut down, it'll have to shut down.

RADDATZ: The administration threatens mass layoffs as Congress again barrels towards a government shutdown. Will this one be different?

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): This is a Trump shutdown.

TRUMP: This is what Schumer wants. This is what the Democrats want.

RADDATZ: Rachel Scott has the latest from Capitol Hill and top House leaders, Republican Steve Scalise and Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, on what comes next.

And --

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: This post of Trump, it’s a big shift.

RADDATZ: As President Trump declares Ukraine could now win the war, we speak with Ukrainians about the toll of the brutal conflict.

So, how do you keep going?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must be stronger with our family and with our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News it's "THIS WEEK." Here now, Martha Raddatz.

RADDATZ: Good morning, and welcome to "THIS WEEK."

President Trump has made threats before to target his political opponents with legal action, but this week that became a troubling reality. The president going to extraordinary measures, ousting a U.S. attorney he appointed and hand-picking a new U.S. attorney, his former personal lawyer, to secure a grand jury indictment against former FBI director and longtime Trump adversary James Comey. And the president warning there is more legal action to come.

This as Washington is on the edge of a government shutdown. The Trump administration threatening mass federal worker firings if Democrats don't agree to a short-term deal to keep the government open by October 1st. A meeting with congressional leaders now set for the White House on Monday.

The nation is also grappling with the latest act of targeted violence following a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility that killed a detainee and wounded two others. The FBI says the shooter wanted to terrorize ICE agents.

But we begin this morning with that stunning indictment of James Comey and what comes next. Our chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas starts us off on what we know about the charges.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PIERRE THOMAS, CHIEF JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This week, the Justice Department, under heavy pressure from the president of the United States, successfully sought an indictment against one of Trump's longstanding political enemies, former FBI Director James Comey.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He lied. He lied a lot.

THOMAS (voice over): But the indictment is light on details and only two pages long. In two felony counts, Comey indicted for allegedly lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.

Sources tell ABC News, prosecutors allege that Comey shared information with a close friend about an investigation connected to Hillary Clinton so that friend could leak the information to a reporter. The charges against Comey allege he then lied to Congress about that when he reaffirmed testimony he gave in 2017 during a 2020 Senate hearing.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) TEXAS: Chairman Grassley asked you point-blank, quote, “have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?” You responded, under oath, quote, “never.” He then asked you, quote, “have you ever authorized someone else of the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton administration?” You responded, again under oath, “no.”

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by what -- the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.

THOMAS (voice over): Comey defiant, declaring his innocence, and suggesting he was a victim of Trump's revenge.

COMEY: My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn't either.

THOMAS (voice over): But Attorney General Pam Bondi defending the indictment this weekend.

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We are going to trial in this case. And this is just the beginning.

THOMAS (voice over): The former FBI director has long been in Donald Trump's crosshairs, with the president believing he's been unjustly targeted by Comey and other senior law enforcement and intelligence officials. Trump ramping up his demands in recent weeks that the Justice Department pursue charges. Just days before the indictment, Trump posting that message directed at Pam Bondi, saying, “we can't delay any longer. Justice must be served now.”

But getting DOJ to pursue Comey proved challenging. So, Trump forced out his hand-picked U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after that prosecutor declined to bring charges against a president’s adversaries. Trump then announced one of his former personal attorneys, Lindsey Halligan, as that prosecutor’s replacement.

TRUMP: We have to act fast. If they’re guilty, that’s fine. If they are guilty, or if they should be charged, they should be charged.

THOMAS (voice over): Halligan, who worked on Trump's classified documents case, has no prosecutorial experience and has primarily worked on insurance cases. Sources telling ABC News that prosecutors presented Halligan with a memo this past week saying there was not enough evidence to charge Comey, but she proceeded in spite of that and was able to secure that indictment from the grand jury just five days after Trump posted his demand on Bondi. And more of the president's enemies are being targeted.

BONDI: Whether you're a former FBI director, whether you're a former head of an intel community, whether you are a current state or local elected official, everything is on the table.

THOMAS (voice over): But is it retribution?

REPORTER: Is that what this is? Is the former --

TRUMP: It's about justice.

REPORTER: Now that James Comey has been indicted, who is the next person on your list in this retribution --

TRUMP: It’s not a list, but I think there will be others.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

THOMAS (on camera): And, Martha, it’s extremely rare that prosecutors don't secure an indictment when presenting to a grand jury because the defense does not get a chance to make their case.

But DOJ did fail one of the three charges they did try to get Comey on. And the grand jurors were not unanimous in their votes on the two counts they did approve.

Martha.

RADDATZ: Our thanks to Pierre.

Let's bring in our legal panel now. ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams, former New Jersey governor and former federal prosecutor Chris Christie, and former Trump White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

Thanks for joining us this morning, all of you.

And, Dan, I want to start with you.

This is an extremely vague indictment. Tell us what we know and don't know.

DAN ABRAMS, CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, we know that it was about authorizing someone at the FBI to leak. We also know it was about a statement that he made on September 30, 2020. So, right there that tells us a lot. We know which statement they're talking about. We also know that he's reiterating something he said before. Why is that important? Because we also know that that has been investigated already. That the inspector general of the Department of Justice investigated this issue. That the first Trump administration investigated this. And no one decided to move forward with any charges in connection with this.

What we don't know is exactly who is the person who he was leaking to. It seems it was his friend, Daniel Richmond. But, of course, that poses questions about, was he at the FBI? He was an unpaid adviser to Comey at the time. Is that someone who's at the FBI? So, there are still a lot of questions about exactly what article was this, exactly what did he say to Richmond, who did Richmond talk to, et cetera.

RADDATZ: And, Chris, playing off what Dan just said, he ousted his own former U.S. attorney who wouldn't press charges. Do you see a reason to prosecute here as a former prosecutor?

CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, Martha, one of the things I used to say all the time when I was U.S. attorney is that the -- one of the best things about the job was only you know what you know. And what I mean by that is, you don't have to put everything in the indictment that you have in terms of the evidence. And so, you know, look, I can't make a judgment about whether I would have prosecuted this or not.

But here is what I will say. It is concerning, when you can't get an indictment returned on all the counts you have, usually an experienced prosecutor, with ample evidence, can convince a grand jury, because there's no counter facts, to agree with the prosecution. It's very concerning here, and should be for DOJ, that they got what's called no billed (ph) by the -- by the grand jury on one of the counts, and got a bare majority on the other two. And so, there are warning signs here that there may be very, very thin evidence. And, let's face it, you're dealing with someone who has never prosecuted before, who authorized this, went into the grand jury.

And it raises this question for me, Martha, why wouldn't anybody else from EDVA, the Eastern District of Virginia office, handle this? And is it because they had already rejected this a number of times?

Those are all warning signs.

RADDATZ: And, Reince, President Trump considers James Comey an enemy. Can you really say this is not a political prosecution?

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER RNC CHAIR, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF & ABC NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I mean, one of the things that you look at for whether somebody is being targeted wrongfully isn't just whether they're -- they're being political tar -- politically targeted. One of the ways you can defeat that claim is to show that other people, whether it be the FBI, the CIA or in the intel committee, were, in fact, prosecuted. That's one of the ways you can defeat a claim that something is a political prosecution.

And even -- even if he is a political enemy -- and he is. I mean, our first meeting in Trump Tower in December of 2016, Jim Comey came up to Trump Tower in a meeting said to the president, "Hey, I want to meet with you after this meeting alone,” and which was bizarre in of it -- in of itself.

And then he told the president about the Steele dossier, and then two days later, that document leaked. And so, look, he's being prosecuted for the -- potentially lying to two senators about this question, said he didn't leak. And then, McCabe and another guy James Baker said, in fact, they were asked to leak.

I think that what's happening here is that Jim Comey is changing the definition of what a leak is. And his defense is going to be as he stated to Anderson Cooper on CNN that he didn't consider it a leak unless he leaked classified information. What he's going to say is that “I leaked unclassified information and that's why I answered the question the way I did”.

RADDATZ: And, Dan, I want you to --

PRIEBUS: This is the road he's going, and it's flabbergasting.

RADDATZ: Dan, I want you to respond to that.

DAN ABRAMS, ABC NEWS CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Yeah. Well, I mean, look, it has to be a leak about the Trump or the Clinton investigations, right? I mean, that was the specific question at issue.

And as of now, when you talk about Andrew McCabe, for example, the Department of Justice inspector general looked into that, listened to what McCabe said, listened to what Comey said, and said, "We find Comey's account more credible than McCabe's."

And what makes that particularly interesting is that they almost indicted McCabe back in 2019 for lying about the same conversation they couldn't get a grand jury to indict. And now, they're going to indict James Comey for that?

So, I don't think that's what this is about. I think this, in the end, is about another conversation.

But look, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I don't even think that many in the Trump administration believe they're going to get a conviction. I think that there's a 95 percent plus chance that there won't be a conviction. That it'll either get dismissed by a judge, there'll be a hung jury, there'll be an acquittal. But I'm not certain that that's the end goal here.

And that's what makes this so unusual because typically, a prosecutor's office will not bring a case unless they think they can win it.

RADDATZ: And, Chris, even if they don't get a prosecution, even if they don't get him a prosecution, if they don't find him guilty of something like that, part of this is the chilling effect, is it not?

CHRISTIE: Well, it is, Martha.

Let me say this as someone who prosecuted these kind of cases -- you know, the fact is that the president has made it nearly impossible now to get a conviction because of the things he said, the way he's prejudged the evidence, the way he said he's a liar, he's guilty, and the way he directed Pam Bondi by saying, "Pam, it's time to do this” when everyone knew that the statute was getting ready to run -- the five-year statute on this statement was getting ready to run on Tuesday.

So that was the imperative that the president was talking about. It's clear.

And so, he's made it very difficult for any prosecutor to be able to get a conviction on this case because on the face of his comments, he's saying go get this guy. That's not the president's job. And in fact, a jury -- a jury may look at this, and certainly, as Dan said, a judge will look at this.

The other problem is that we have a situation where they -- everyone else now is waiting to see who's next. And when he was asked who's next, he said there will be others. You know, this is the time --

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: He's looked at you, Chris. He's threatened you.

CHRISTIE: Yeah. I mean, look, I -- I don't have any worries or concerns about that at all, Martha. This is not about me. It's about the conduct of the president.

And the fact is that he's making it very difficult. I am sure that Todd Blanche in particular, who is an experienced prosecutor, is shaking his head at some of the stuff he's had to deal with here.

And so, you're looking at the U.S. attorney's office in Eastern District, Virginia, a very important one because it deals with so much of our national security problems, is essentially being gutted because they decided that there was not enough evidence here. Something tat the grand jury already decided on one count, which is very, very un -- very, very unusual for a grand jury.

RADDATZ: And, Reince, Republicans repeatedly accused Joe Biden's administration of weaponizing against President Trump, weaponizing the Justice Department. Isn't that exactly what is happening here?

PRIEBUS: I don't think any Republican gives one rip about this issue of weaponizing, because we've been through so much. I personally have been so much through crossfire, hurricane, the Russia investigation, hundreds of thousands of dollars in criminal defense fees for something that was totally ridiculous. These guys came into my office, told me that there was nothing to the Russia hoax in February of 2017. Told me to my face that it was B.S. and overstated. Then leaked these stories -- leaked stories to the press to string us up, twist us in pretzels.

I'm sorry, you know what, we had a U.S. attorney go into a grand jury, convince 12 members at least of a grand jury that there was likely a crime here, and they did it in Alexandria, Virginia, where Donald Trump won 20 percent of the vote. I think that people that think that there's nothing here or that he's going to win on a targeted prosecution, you don't know where this is going.

RADDATZ: OK.

PRIEBUS: You don't know what other evidence is going to turn up. And nobody knows where this is going to go.

RADDATZ: OK. Thanks to all of you this morning. We appreciate your analysis.

Up next, are we inching closer to a government shutdown in just a matter of days? We'll ask House leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Steve Scalise when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: We are just days away from a potential government shutdown. Congressional leaders are now set to meet at the White House Monday, but Democrats and Republicans say the other side is to blame if a deal isn't reached in time.

ABC's Rachel Scott has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL SCOTT, ABC NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): With just three days to go until a government shutdown, the top four congressional leaders are scheduled to meet Monday at the White House with President Trump. Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate leaders John Thune and Chuck Schumer all expected to be in attendance, just days after the president canceled a previously scheduled meeting with Democrats.

TRUMP: If it has to shut down, it'll have to shut down.

SCOTT (voice over): Democrats have been demanding a bipartisan meeting to address government funding, insisting they are trying to protect Medicaid and prevent health insurance premiums from going up for millions.

HOUSE MINORITY LEADER REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES: We are fighting for the health care of the American people, period, full stop.

SCOTT (voice over): But Republicans won't budge, pushing for a short-term bill that the House already passed with current spending levels.

TRUMP: This is all caused by the Democrats. They asked us to do something that's totally unreasonable. They never change.

SCOTT: The White House now ramping up the pressure threatening mass firings of federal workers if a deal cannot be done by October 1st. In past shutdowns, workers were furloughed and returned to their jobs when the government reopened. But the administration is now directing agencies to consider firing employees from programs that are not consistent with the president's priorities.

Democrats call that intimidation, saying they won't back off their demands that Republicans reverse Medicaid cuts and extend expiring Obamacare subsidies so health insurance premiums don't rise for some 20 million people.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: He says Democrats have a radical agenda. Really? Really? Tell the American people what's radical about protecting America's health care.

SCOTT: Senate Republicans appear open to discussing rising health care costs, but they say not in the few days remaining to prevent a government shutdown.

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: It's a short-term spending bill to give us time to negotiate these bigger issues. You shouldn't hijack a bill that will keep the government open in order to do a lot of extraneous things.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT (on-camera): All of this really does put Democrats in a bind, not agreeing to a short-term spending deal could mean more drastic cuts by the White House that they cannot control. All of this really raising the stakes for tomorrow's meeting at the White House -- Martha.

RADDATZ: Our thanks to Rachel.

I'm joined now in studio by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Good to see you, Leader Jeffries. We have learned this morning that you will be meeting with Donald Trump on Monday, with Mike Johnson, Leader Schumer, Leader Thune. How did that meeting come about?

JEFFRIES: Well, Leader Schumer and I initially requested a meeting last Saturday. Donald Trump agreed to the meeting and then, a few days later, abruptly cancelled it. We've made clear that we're ready, willing, and able to sit down with anyone at any time and at any place in order to make sure that we can actually fund the government, avoid a painful Republican caused shutdown, and address the health care crisis that Republicans have caused that's impacting everyday Americans all across the country.

RADDATZ: So did the White House call you, all of you, or did you keep asking for a meeting? Did they explain why it was canceled before?

JEFFRIES: They did not explain why it was canceled other than the statement that Donald Trump issued that mischaracterized the Democratic position. Our position has been very clear. Cancel the cuts, lower the cost, save health care so we can address the issues that really matter to the American people in an environment where the cost of living is too high, where the quality of life of everyday Americans has been undermined consistently since January 20th.

Speaker Mike Johnson reached out to me yesterday, indicated that there had been a conversation between Republican leaders and the president, and as a result, the meeting is back on.

RADDATZ: I know you haven't had any formal meetings with President Trump. You were around him during inauguration and have obviously met him. What are your expectations from this meeting? And can you compromise?

JEFFRIES: Well, Donald Trump has taken a go-it-alone approach from the very beginning of this Congress. And unfortunately, my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle have behaved not as a separate and co-equal branch of government and a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch, but as a consistent rubber stamp for Donald Trump's extreme agenda.

Our view going into the meeting is that we want to find bipartisan common ground to find a spending agreement that avoids a government shutdown and actually meets the needs of the American people in terms of their health, their safety, and their economic wellbeing.

RADDATZ: If I had to mark this day, do you believe that there will be a government shutdown? They need Democratic votes.

JEFFRIES: Well, it's my hope that we'll avoid one. At the end of the day, Republicans do control the House, the Senate, and the presidency. And what we've seen consistently, including with the passage --

RADDATZ: But they need Democratic votes.

JEFFRIES: Well, certainly any enlightened agreement at the end of the day, any sustainable agreement should always be bipartisan in nature, and that's been our position. It's also been our position, quite clearly, that we've got to address this Republican health care crisis.

Think about this. The largest cut to Medicaid in American history, a potential $536 billion cut to Medicare if Congress doesn't act by the end of the year. And if we don't extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, more than 20 million Americans are going to experience dramatically increased premiums, co-pays, and deductibles in an environment where the cost of living in America is already too high.

RADDATZ: You just said they don't expire until the end of the year. We know they don't expire until the end of the year. So why not approve this and just get seven more weeks to negotiate?

JEFFRIES: Well, because notices are going to go out in a matter of days, and it's going to be a shock to the system of everyday Americans who are already struggling to get by. Life is already too expensive. People are already living paycheck to paycheck, and we're talking about –

RADDATZ: So, today, you could say, you know, let's compromise, and those notices wouldn't go out, right?

JEFFRIES: Well, we actually need to enact legislation to ensure that the Affordable Care Act tax credits are extended.

And the challenge that we have in this particular instance is that several times over the last few months, Republicans in the House have had the opportunity to vote with Democrats to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. And they've repeatedly and consistently declined to do it. They voted no over and over and over again.

And we know that Republicans have basically relentlessly attacked the health care of the American people, not simply this year in the context of the one big ugly bill, and hospitals and nursing homes and community-based health clinics all across the country, including in rural America, are shutting down. But they've been after the Affordable Care Act since 2010.

They are obsessed with canceling the healthcare of the American people. We actually are working to save the healthcare of the American people.

RADDATZ: Let me -- let me talk about the American people.

I want to play what -- play what you were saying back in December after then President-elect Trump came out against the bill Congress was working to pass to keep the government open. This is what you said would be the result of a shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFRIES: Families will be hurt. Farmers will be hurt. Border Security and Border Patrol agents will not be paid. TSA agents will not be paid.

Small businesses will be hurt in every single community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: And this time, the threat of mass firings basically and telling people they may not be able to come back to work at all.

So, do you still believe a shutdown would broadly hurt the American people?

JEFFRIES: We are always of the view that we need to fund the government and make sure that the services that the American people rely upon can continue to be received and also that we stand by our federal civil servants.

We've seen since January 20th, mass firings already taking place by the Trump administration, in the absence of government shutdown because this is what they've determined to do, hurt everyday Americans.

We consistently have made the point, we want to find a bipartisan path forward and reach a spending agreement with our Republican colleagues that actually meets the needs of the American people, but that also addresses the Republican health care crisis that is harming everyday Americans all across the country -- rural America, urban America, the heartland of America, suburban America, small town America, and Black and Brown communities throughout America.

RADDATZ: If there is a shutdown, then what do you do? We have about 30 seconds left here.

JEFFRIES: Well, we've seen during the Trump administration, the first time around, a 35-day government shutdown. That was way too long. Ultimately, Donald Trump and Republicans came to their senses.

Hopefully, we avoid a shutdown this time around. And if we're in one, we find a quick path out.

RADDATZ: Are you more optimistic this morning?

JEFFRIES: I'm hopeful.

RADDATZ: Okay. Thanks very much for joining us, Leader Jeffries.

JEFFRIES: Thank you.

RADDATZ: And let’s bring in House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

Good morning, Leader Scalise.

You heard Leader Jeffries there. The Democrats sound dug in. Do you think President Trump can make a big difference?

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER REP. STEVE SCALISE, (R) LOUISIANA: He can, Martha. And thanks for having me.

You know, President Trump’s been trying to get a deal. You know, we passed a bill through the House to keep the government from shutting down. Hakeem actually whipped his members to shut the government down. He voted that way.

But luckily, we were able to get the bill passed. So, right now it’s over in the Senate, and it’s on Chuck Schumer and Democrats in the Senate to keep the government from shutting down, and I hope they’ll come to their senses and do that early next week.

RADDATZ: But -- but you need those Democratic votes for sure. So, how do you bring them towards your side, or compromise?

SCALISE: Well, nobody needs to move to any side. Just keep in mind, Martha, if you go back to March, this is the same set of funding levels that Democrats voted for in March that -- that is contained in this CR.

So, there is no new changes to what we’re trying to do to keep negotiations going. We still need to have negotiations. There is a conference committee on many of the appropriations bills right now.

Tom Cole and his appropriators have gotten agreements on most parts of government funding. And it’s been the Democrat leadership that’s held them off.

Ultimately, let’s let those talks continue until November with this short-term government funding bill that’s in the Senate. But it’s the same levels of funding that the Senate voted for, Democrats included, back in March.

RADDATZ: And the administration has threatened these mass firings of federal employees. What would that look like? And is that something you -- you support?

SCALISE: Well, I haven’t seen the full details. But if you go back to COVID, Martha, President Biden dramatically expanded, mushroomed the size of the federal government, supposedly to deal with COVID. Well, COVID is over, and yet many of those federal agencies are still 20 or 30 percent larger than they were before COVID. And so there's been a need for a rightsizing of the federal government for a long time.

President Trump has talked about that with DOGE and other things he's doing to try to save waste, fraud and abuse in government. And I think everybody knows there are billions and tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse that still needs to be rooted out. We got to some of that, but there's more that needs to be done.

RADDATZ: Is that the way to do it? Whether you pare down the federal government or not, is that the way to do it, a government shutdown, you just start mass firings?

SCALISE: Well, obviously, there's lots of ways to do it. It'd be nice if there was a bipartisan agreement to cut out waste, fraud, and abuse in government. But every Democrat voted no, voted against things like taxpayer funding for illegals to get government benefits. Every Democrat voted against rooting that out. Giving checks, government checks to dead people. It's been going on for a long time. We finally put verifications in place. Every Democrat voted against that. So, so far they've shown they don't want to root out waste, fraud and abuse.

President Trump ran on doing it. He was elected with a mandate by the American people to finally bring fiscal sanity so we can reduce deficits, get spending under control, get the economy back on track. And that's what we've been laser-focused on.

RADDATZ: You heard Leader Jeffries say he was hopeful there would not be a government shutdown. Would you say you're hopeful? And if so, why?

SCALISE: I'm not only hopeful. I, Speaker Johnson, all of my Republican colleagues voted to prevent a government shutdown, and we passed that bill to the Senate. That bill is still sitting over in the Senate. You saw a vote a few days ago where almost every Republican and only one Democrat voted for it. There's still time for an agreement to be reached. I'm glad that President Trump is showing leadership in meeting with all leaders, Republican and Democrat, Monday in the White House.

But ultimately, those Democrats have to make a decision. Do they want to shut down the government to appease their radical base, who's been just looking for a fight for Donald Trump for no reason other than they're not happy with the results of the election last year, or are they going to work with the president to keep negotiations going? This, again, this is a short-term funding bill that goes until November 21st, allows for government, you know, troops to be paid.

All of the other things that Hakeem and everybody says they don't want, yet they voted to shut the government down. Let's have the Senate go do the right thing and pass that bill that's sitting over there waiting.

RADDATZ: And, quickly, if you could, Leader Scalise, I want -- I want to talk about the Comey indictment. Let me read you what your fellow Republican caucus member, Representative Don Bacon, wrote in response to the indictment, "Lawfare undermines our great country. It didn't start in January, but it didn't end either. The continued escalation will only hurt us all."

Your response to that?

SCALISE: Well, we saw an unbelievable abuse of power from federal agencies for years and years. And, frankly, James Comey is one of the main culprits in undermining the public's trust in agencies like the FBI. He abused his power, Martha. And now, ultimately, he has been indicted for lying to Congress. This isn't about what he did to the president, it's about lying to Congress and obstructing justice. And that's what he was indicted for. He's going to ultimately go before a jury of his peers. So he gets to make his case.

But they're serious charges. And it's not the only thing that he's done that he's been accused of in the past. I mean, he was behind the Russian hoax that undermined public confidence in these agencies. He's accused of being a dirty cop. And that's a -- it's not a good place for somebody to be. And he's disgraced the agency.

RADDATZ: We will see what happens in court.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning, Leader Scalise.

Coming up, the president's message to world leaders at the U.N., and the fallout from the latest targeted shooting. The roundtable weighs in when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And I don’t mind making this speech without a teleprompter, because the teleprompter is not working.

These are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.

I'm really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell.

If you don't get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail. And I'm really good at predicting things, you know? They actually said during the campaign that a hat, the best-selling hat, Trump was right about everything. And I don't say that in a braggadocios way, but it's true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: Just some of the president's message to the U.N. General Assembly this week. The roundtable’s all here to debate that and much more.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: Let's bring in the roundtable now.

Former DNC chair Donna Brazile, “NPR Morning Edition” host Steve Inskeep, “New York Times” national politics reporter Astead Herndon, and SCOTUSBlog editor Sarah Isgur.

Good morning to all of you.

And Steve, I'm going to go right at you. You just saw that little U.N. tape talking about escalators, talking about teleprompters, saying the other countries are basically going to hell. How do you think that played around the world?

STEVE INSKEEP, NPR MORNING EDITION HOST: I think most of the world has gotten used to the president's presentational style if we can and is trying to figure out what they can get out of the situation.

And I do want to note, Martha, as you know very well. Even though the president remains unconventional in the way that he's talking, his policies in some areas, particularly Ukraine, have become more like the old bipartisan consensus, a little bit more conventional. The president is now stepping back saying that he thinks Ukraine can win, that Ukraine should be armed by the United States, just through a little different route and with somebody else paying the bills.

At the same time, there is a bit of a cost on the world stage to the way that the president presents the United States.

I was in a meeting with the president of Iran this past week with a number of other reporters. He's answering questions and he was able to take a number of shots at the Trump administration saying, "We would like to make an agreement. They’re backing away.”

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: They've taken a couple of shots at them.

(CROSSTALK)

INSKEEP: No, for sure. For sure.

RADDATZ: Yeah.

INSKEEP: In a big way. In a big way.

But there was a moment in which one of the people in the room said, "I would like to travel to Iran, but I do not trust that you would let me out of the country." And the president of Iran said, "We'll let you out of the country. The concern you would have is whether Mr. Trump would let you back in."

RADDATZ: Trying to do a zinger there.

INSKEEP: Yeah.

RADDATZ: But people listen to him, that's for sure. He definitely has influence.

But back home, Sarah, it's the America First agenda, and that's really what people want to hear in the Republican Party.

(CROSSTALK)

ISGUR: I actually think at this point in the presidency, if you wanted to define what the Trump doctrine is, looking at this speech might be the first place I would point you to. It really walked through, I think, the underpinnings of what Donald Trump is about and what, frankly, the new Republican Party, therefore, is about.

He talked about immigration that they have not had anyone released into the country illegally under, you know, for the last four months. He talked about the need to stop migration between countries, that globalization was the evil. What is the purpose of the U.N.? Talking about the United States being responsible for ending wars and the U.N. not doing anything except words.

This is the Donald Trump presidency and this really now is the Republican Party.

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: What he did not talk about, sorry, what he did not talk about is the war in Gaza. But there was a tease on Friday from the president saying he thought they were close to a deal. Is that -- we've heard that before.

ASTEAD HERNDON, NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: We've heard that before. We'll likely hear that again. We've seen the White House kind of talk about this peace plan he's putting out. I think we should be skeptical to take it on its face. There's a number of proposals in there, even the parts that have leaked that, you know, Israel or Hamas may not necessarily agree to.

But what we saw in the speech in the U.N., what I think is an example of what Trump has always said. The setting was different, but this is the MAGA rally -- MAGA rally version of him.

And I really think that he has, you know, to Sarah's point, made a kind of foreign policy transition among the Republican Party. They take pride in the way the kind of America First agenda has supplanted the George Bush, more conventional versions of the Republican Party of the past, so much so that it's very hard to see them kind of returning back.

Donald Trump has written a new version of kind of what Republicans are abroad, and the party has taken it on.

RADDATZ: And Netanyahu, Donna, he did not have a new version. He was -- he was defiant.

And if there is a ceasefire, if there is -- if Netanyahu has moved, it is President Trump who's going to have to push and push hard.

BRAZILE: There's no question.

Look, in addition to being defiant, I think the prime minister goal was to tell the world and that Israel is not ready to negotiate if part of what is on the table is a Palestinian state. I think he also wanted to tell the world that unless Hamas is decimated, Israel is not ready to come to the table.

So, tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. The prime minister is going to be facing a president who now has a plan. President Trump has a plan, a 21-point plan. Some of it has been negotiated or renegotiated with some of the Arab Muslim nations, but the bottom line is the president is going to present his plan, say, “Look, if you want to release the remaining hostages, if you want a path to peace, then this is the plan.”

Now, he's done some 380s or 160s, I don't know. With Trump, who knows? But he basically said, "We want to make sure that Gaza remain intact." He's not calling on the Palestinians to leave.

So, tomorrow is going to be a very big day for President Trump. And can he move Netanyahu? It remains to be seen indeed.

I want -- I want to move to Comey, Sarah, and your thoughts on that. Did Halligan just suddenly find a lot of evidence in those three or four days on the job that more seasoned prosecutors did not?

ISGUR: No. What she saw was a time clock where if they had not brought charges by tomorrow, really, they were out of time. So they got the charges as you heard. What's really unusual about this is to fail in front of the grand jury. One of the three charges they were not able to get an indictment on. The grand jury wasn't unanimous on the other charges. A lot of us are still confused on what exactly this charge -- the underlying facts are going to be.

Perjury, lying to Congress, is actually an incredibly hard thing to prosecute successfully, not to mention layering on top the idea that Donald Trump targeted him. Those are usually failing arguments in a court, but this time they might work.

HERNDON: There was such a good point earlier from the desk. You said, is conviction even the point, you know? And I think that's really what we talk about this administration. We have to leave open that possibility, retribution is the point, the intimidation is the point. We have seen that both in the treatment of Comey in this instance. I think we see that in tariffs. This is their version of economic retribution.

I think this is the -- this is how Trump sees negotiating tactics. He calls it justice, but this is how Republicans have really motivated their own base over the last several years. A feeling that they have been inundated by a government that liberals have afflicted on them, and now they want their get back and Donald Trump is doing so.

ISGUR: It's so short, Steve.

RADDATZ: And they want more, right, Steve? You, this week, I know, interviewed the president of the Open Society, George Soros, a society who President Trump has also had his sights.

INSKEEP: And this is a significant escalation depending on how far it goes. We heard Steve Scalise say the prosecution of James Comey is about the misbehavior of a government official who weaponized government and so forth. Trump last week talked about going after George Soros and Reid Hoffman, two prominent Democratic donors, who were not in government.

They are people who support causes the president doesn't like. Soros has the Open Society Foundations. They support liberal causes across the board, many things that Republicans would disagree with. Soros himself is the target of conspiracy theories and now they are preparing for the possibility that they'll be investigated because the president doesn't like him.

The president of the Open Society Foundation, Binaifer Nowrojee, by the way, told me we are not afraid, and they're ready to fight.

RADDATZ: And, Donna, you, you know what the argument is. They say, you heard your friend Reince Priebus say, look, they -- Biden weaponized against us, so here's the retribution.

BRAZILE: That was a long spoon or whatever you want to call it. The Justice Department was not weaponized under Joe Biden. The Justice Department has always tried to stay away from some of the politics of the White House. But, look, we know what comes next. We know that Donald Trump and Mr. Miller and others will target Democrats, target these so-called organizations that don't exist, but everyone needs to be prepared for this season of retribution.

Chris Wray now is in their crosshair because, apparently, they're saying that the former FBI director somehow or another had FBI agents in the January 6th crowd, so he lied about that. They are coming after all of us. We are citizens of the United States of America. We need to own our citizenship and own our right not to be targeted by a vindictive president who is looking in the rear-view mirror. And that's what he's doing.

ISGUR: Where was this passion when New York indicted Donald Trump for obviously political reasons? The guy ran on indicting Donald Trump.

BRAZILE: So we're going tit-for-tat?

ISGUR: No, exactly.

BRAZILE: Are we going tit-for-tat, all 36 accounts?

ISGUR: This is the problem. Democrats played with fire, and now look at what the blaze looks like.

BRAZILE: This is the Constitution of the United States. It's not Democrats playing with fire. We have somebody who's just ripping the doggone Constitution to go after his enemies, and he'll come after all of us.

(CROSSTALK)

ISGUR: -- each other.

BRAZILE: You know that.

ISGUR: It's wrong. It's terrible, and it hurts the Department of Justice.

BRAZILE: Thank you.ISGUR: And it hurts the country, but let's not pretend that this came out of nowhere.

HERNDON: I mean, the important political point is it's not working for Donald Trump, right? Like his approval rating is up to 60 percent disapproval, he's seeing decreases among D, R, independent, whether it's tariffs, whether it's immigration raids their folks have gone too far, whether it's the indictment of Comey, which we have seen these attempts at retribution not be politically popular.

Universally, we do not see voters think the sequel is as good as the original. It's the White House who frankly doesn't seem to care.

BRAZILE: And he ran against locking up Hillary Clinton in 2016.

RADDATZ: OK.

BRAZILE: This is part of Donald Trump's mojo.

RADDATZ: Got to stop it there. We let that go for a long time. Appreciate seeing all of you.

Up next, Ukraine reacts to President Trump's big shift on the war, and our report from Lviv on how residents are coping as well.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm very disappointed in Putin, and I'm not ever going to call anybody a paper tiger, but Russia spent millions and millions of dollars in bombs, missiles, ammunition, and lives, their lives, and they've gained virtually no land.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: President Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday striking a harsher tone toward Vladimir Putin. As world leaders gathered at the U.N. this week, Trump, for the first tim,e said he thinks Ukraine can win the war.

We were in Ukraine recently talking to people there about navigating this endless conflict.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ (voice-over): Ukraine has been at war for more than three and a half years. Here in Lviv, however, life goes on.

(MUSIC)

RADDATZ: Hundreds of miles from the front lines, the vibrant western city has largely escaped the near nightly bombardments in areas like Kyiv and the front lines. But signs of Putin's ongoing war are felt everywhere here.

Tributes to fallen soldiers line the square. Air raid sirens ring out and you routinely see amputees. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have lost limbs in the war.

And while it is relatively peaceful here, almost everyone we spoke to in Lviv has been directly impacted like Ivan McHoven (PH), a teacher by day and a waiter by night, who lost his brother last month. We set up some chairs in the square near the restaurant where he works to talk about him.

His name Ruslan, and he was 42 old. And he was killed in Russian drones on August 18th.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Ivan says he last saw his brother just before he was killed.

RADDATZ: He was home.

MIKHOVYCH: He was home, yes.

RADDATZ: That was the last time you saw him.

MIKHOVYCH: Yes, yeah. I'm sorry, yes, I'm sorry. It's -- little, little time.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Despite his loss, Ivan says Ukrainians must press on.

RADDATZ: There's no sign of peace. No sign of peace yet. So, how do you keep going?

MIKHOVYCH: We must be stronger with our family and with our country. Now, we're fighting for our independent.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Life also goes on for children here.

RADDATZ: We visited the bunker below an elementary through high school in Lviv where students put their mark on this space.

And they painted the walls.

IRYNA SOLTIVSKA, PRINCIPAL, LVIV LCYCEUM LYCEUM 93: Yes.

RADDATZ (voice-over): The school's principal tells us they can fit 500 to 600 students underground when the air raid sirens blare.

SOLTIVSKA: It's not very good to spend our time in the shelter, but it's -- helps us to be safe.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Anya and David just started third grade. They say they don't remember life before the war.

RADDATZ: Is it scary?

RADDATZ (voice-over): But their fear is very real. They are afraid of missiles and explosions.

And these high school students, Anya and Sofia, have grown up with the backdrop of war.

ANYA, UKRAINIAN STUDENT: I remember my first, like, experience in the bomb shelter. It was very nerve-wracking, like there were a lot of people, all of them are panicking, and no one knows what's going to happen next.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Sofia says her family was worried about her father.

SOFIA, UKRAINIAN STUDENT: We understand that he can go to the front line and -- it's so scary.

RADDATZ: And still scary.

SOFIA: Yes. My mom lost so much cousins. My dad's lost so much cousins. It's so ugly, it's so frightening.

RADDATZ (voice-over): But despite the staggering toll of this war, Anya still has hope for a different future.

RADDATZ: You're a teenager now.

ANYA: Yes.

RADDATZ: What is it like for you now?

ANYA: It's normal for me now. I can't imagine my life without it, but I -- I'm hoping that the war will stop very soon.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Something that everyone here is fighting for.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ (on camera): We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: And that's all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us. Check out “World News Tonight” and have a great day.