[Vanier:] U.S. President Donald Trump is blocking the release of an intelligence memo written by House Democrats. The White House says it contains classified and especially sensitive information and has been sent back to the House Intelligence Committee for changes. The document was meant as a rebuttal to Republican memo released last week with President Trump's approval. Now that memo, you might recall, alleged surveillance abuses at the FBI. But the FBI says it admitted key information and was misleading. That is by no means the only major news coming out of the White House on Friday and this Saturday morning. President Trump is praising a former aide who resigned earlier this week over accusations of domestic violence. That is right, he is praising him without mentioning the alleged victims. Mr. Trump said former staff secretary Rob Porter did a good job and said he wished Porter a, quote, "wonderful career." On Friday, a White House speechwriter also stepped down over similar accusations which he has also denied. Sources familiar with the situation say the president blames chief of staff John Kelly for letting the scandal get out of hand. But the White House denies that Kelly offered to resign. Larry Sabato joins us now from Charlottesville, Virginia, to talk about all of this. He is the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Also the author of "Kennedy Half Century." Larry, I thought we had one big topic this evening; turns out we have two. Let's go to the memo first. Mr. Trump is not ready to declassify the Democratic memo. So either this is a technical issue, there is just too much classified intelligence in there that needs to be redacted, or Mr. Trump does not want to give Democrats their right of rebuttal. Where do you fall on this?
[Larry Sabato, University Of Virginia:] I fall at the latter, Cyril. It is very difficult to believe that it's just redactions. And if were just redactions it could be done almost immediately. But it is not going to be. Essentially the
[Sabato:] Republican memo released, that four-page memo, fell flat, completely flat. It did not prove what President Trump said it did, which is that it exonerated him on the whole Russiagate matter. So I don't think the Republicans and certainly not President Trump want to give Democrats an opportunity to score with their more detailed memo, about 10 pages.
[Vanier:] But look, Larry, and I'm just reading the latest statements, the White House is telling Democrats, well, work with the Department of Justice; work with the Intelligence Committee; get your memo in order so that there are not any obvious intelligence so there isn't classified intelligence that's made public. And the subtext is, then we could perhaps release it. Now, Mr. Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is saying, sure. We will work with them and it will be releasable. So where does that get the White House?
[Sabato:] Well, again, we'll see exactly what is what we won't see which what's redacted and that really is the question most people have. You know, you can release a document but redacted enough so that it is meaningless. And it really does not communicate what you believe it should. So I will believe that we are going to see the essence of the Democratic memo when I read it in my hands.
[Vanier:] Can Mr. Trump avoid the perception of naked partisanship if he does not declassify the memo or if he declassifies it only in a very narrow way?
[Sabato:] He cannot avoid that label. It obviously does not matter to him. He has long since adjusted to the fact that he is going to have the strong support of maybe 40 percent of the public and 55 percent or so will be strongly opposed and nothing he does or doesn't do will change that.
[Vanier:] Let's turn now to the other major news that is consuming and has consumed the White House for the last couple of days. Rob Porter, who resigned this week over allegations by two of his by his two ex-wives of physical abuse and now another person from within the White House is resigning, pretty much over the same thing. A speechwriter is resigning. This does not feel like coincidence that it is happening the same week. It feels like the dam is breaking. What are we looking at here?
[Sabato:] Well, it's the #MeToo movement all over again, I suppose, except this relates more to spousal abuse or abuse of a girlfriend and, by the way, a third person has come out now for Mr. Porter, a more recent girlfriend has reported incidents similar to the two wives. So I think we can pretty much conclude that there is a lot of truth to that. The most significant part of this was President Trump's reaction. Everyone is just appalled that when he was asked about it, all he did was defend this Mr. Porter.
[Vanier:] Yes, let me interrupt you, Larry. We're going to play that. We're going to play the sound bite by the president when he was asked about Rob Porter.
[Trump:] He says he's innocent. And I think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that he is innocent. So you'll have to talk to him about but we absolutely wish him well. Did a very good job while he was at the White House.
[Vanier:] So Larry, there appears to be a pattern here.
[Sabato:] Well, there certainly is. He never mentioned the women who were abused. Seems to me that a president ought to be concerned about the victims. But this is par for the course for Donald Trump. As you remember, more than 2 dozen women accused him of sexual harassment during the campaign in 2016. He insisted over and over that every single one was lying. Then when he was supporting that Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, who had all kinds of sexual allegations lodged against him. Trump simply cited the fact that Roy Moore had said it is not true. The denial was enough. Denials are never enough. Proof matters.
[Vanier:] Larry Sabato, thank you. For those of you who obsessively check U.S. stock prices, we see you. You can exhale. Markets are closed for the weekend after a turbulent week of trading. Up next our wrap-up of the numbers. Stay with us.