The West Wing s03e18 Episode Script
Enemies Foreign and Domestic
Tell me what the problem is, Toby.
I'm Sam, sir.
I'm the deputy communications director.
I'm Leo McGarry, White House chief of staff.
- I'm personal aide to the president.
- I'm a speechwriter.
I'm the deputy chief of staff.
Which, I guess, makes me deputy deputy chief of staff.
I'm the press secretary.
It's an unavoidable conflict of interest.
I'm Josiah Bartlet.
I'm president of the U.
S.
Whoever's on the printer, get off.
Now.
- That's me.
- Get off! You wanna make it clear we're pushing for Slovenia and possibly the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
- We're gonna leave Fredonia out? - Point is, the zero option's off the table.
Can we please? Aren't we pretty much admitting the countries we formed NATO to fight? - Yes.
- Then why not dissolve it? - We like the bomber jackets.
- When you joke - My jokes are funny.
- Fredonia was good.
- Heard it.
- Give you $500 if you do "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" at the Gridiron.
Can we talk about sugar subsidies? We're not done talking about summit.
- It's a two-day grip and grin.
- You of all people.
The Russians finally elect a reformer and you still that would make Tammany Hall Iook like the League of Women Voters? I'm not sure that qualifies as a .
- C.
J.
? - There was a fire at the King Fatah Middle School in Medina.
Seventeen girls died in the fire when they were prevented from coming out and rescue workers were prevented from saving them.
- What was preventing them? - The muttawa.
The girls weren't dressed properly.
Don't comment.
I haven't spoken to the president, to Leo, to State, to anybody.
You wanna muzzle me before I go in there? Speak now or hold your peace.
God knows it's not likely I'm gonna.
Let's get a good spot.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
I have some schedule details on the summit.
Air Force One will depart Andrews at 7 p.
m.
Friday arriving in Helsinki 4 a.
m.
Eastern time.
That's 11 a.
m.
Saturday, local.
Presidents Bartlet and Chigorin will have their meeting at 3:00 at Mantyniemi.
That's a change.
Photo op, stills only, at the beginning of the meeting.
- C.
J.
? - What are the president's goals of the summit? - First, to meet the new Russian president.
But they share the aspiration of building a secure and undivided Europe.
Are you aware of the fire that happened at King Fatah Middle School? Yeah.
That's a tragedy.
Chris.
Saudi news says rescuers were prevented from getting to several female students by the religious police.
- Yeah, I read that too.
Steve? - Can the White House comment? I literally got this a minute and a half ago.
I haven't spoken to the president or chief of staff, State or anyone in Communications.
This is just me.
- Well, do you have a comment? - I don't.
No.
I'm sorry, C.
J.
, but you're not outraged by this? Outraged? I'm barely surprised.
This is a country where women aren't allowed to drive a car.
They can't be in the company of any man other than a close relative.
Their dress code is so strict that it'd make a nun look like Malibu Barbie.
They beheaded 121 people last year for robbery, rape and drug trafficking.
They have no free press, no elected government, no political parties and the royal family allows the religious police to travel in sixes carrying nightsticks and they freely and publicly beat women.
But Brutus is an honorable man.
Seventeen girls died because they weren't wearing the proper clothing.
Am I outraged? No, Steve.
No, Chris.
No, Mark.
That is Saudi Arabia, our partners in peace.
Bonnie, then Scott.
Sam, you know a guy named Farley who worked here before I did? - Where did he work? - For the president.
- No.
What's his first name? - I don't know.
A kid wrote to the president saying that when he was campaigning he met his assistant, Mr.
Farley.
Probably one of the guys from early on.
I didn't know them.
It couldn't have been that early.
The kid says they met at a budget speech in Pittsburgh.
- He means San Diego.
- He says Pittsburgh.
We never did a budget speech in Pittsburgh.
- This is a little weird.
- How many weird letters come a day? Couple thousand, but this one has the president's private mail code on it.
How many confused people does he befriend every day? But he doesn't give them the private mail code.
I don't know.
I'm on with the Russians.
- Good morning, I'm Sam Seaborn.
- Nickolai lvanovich.
- George Kowzlowski.
- Thanks for coming by.
This should be quick.
Let me say that President Bartlet looks forward to meeting President Chigorin and having a productive meeting.
Mr.
Seaborn, we understood that the protocol arrangements had been finalized by the advance teams in Helsinki.
That's right, but there are points I'd like to revisit.
My thinking being I could relay my concerns to you at the embassy.
You could send them to Moscow and hopefully get an answer quickly because we're coming down to it now.
I'm sorry, I .
It's coming up quickly.
The summit.
- It's Saturday and this is Monday.
- Oh, yes, yes.
We've agreed to a consecutive translation? - Yes.
- I'd like a simultaneous translation.
They prefer that the two leaders pause while their remarks are rendered.
Rendered into the particular language.
President Bartlet has a rhythm to his speaking that's best uninterrupted.
- That's the reason I bring it up.
- We'll pass that over.
- I'm sorry,"pass it on"? - Yes.
I'm sorry, it's just that one is good and one is bad.
We agreed on the Grand Salon in Finlandia Hall for the 6:00 meeting and I wanted to change that to the Hall of Flags.
Hall of Flags.
Didn't we agree - It's funny you should mention that.
- I'm sorry? It's funny It's a coincidence that you happened to mention the time of the meeting.
See, President Chigorin only has to fly through one time zone.
President Bartlet has to fly through seven.
Don't get me wrong, this president can do three shows a night.
But there's no one who has a worse reaction to jet lag than he does.
Any trip eight hours or longer, someone gets fired.
- It's already been me three times, so - We'll pass it on.
Everyone on the White House staff would agree that's a deal breaker.
All right, then.
- Was there anything else? - Yeah, we're just getting started.
- You guys hungry? - No.
- You ready? - Yeah, where are we going? The yogurt place.
Are those angry faxes? They're Yeah.
They're very angry faxes.
- From Saudis? - Yeah.
- What did you expect? - Very angry faxes from Saudis.
And angry e-mails.
Look at these.
I'm seeing some troubling spelling here.
"Godless" with two D's? - Let's go.
- Hang on.
- C.
J.
? - I saw it.
- It's a death threat.
- It's not a big deal.
- You sure? - Yeah.
Don't tell anybody, okay? I don't want a lot of production.
- All right.
- Thanks.
Josh? Can you come in here and look at this, please? - Donna.
- Look at what? - C.
J.
's e-mail.
Call Frank Tenney downstairs, I wanna talk to him right away.
Yeah.
- You take this seriously? - Yeah, it's a death threat, C.
J.
I take it seriously.
I've had some experience with this.
- Thank you all so much.
- Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
- They wanna show us a picture.
- Of what? I don't know.
We've got a problem.
Jake Kimball came to see me this morning.
- What's he doing here? - Looking 100 years old.
Anteras is gonna announce a chip recall on Thursday.
How big? Everything.
What are you talking about? - They discovered a problem - That's gotta be 50 million chips.
Eighty million.
- Leo, how the hell? - I know.
That's the end of Anteras.
- Yeah.
- 98,000 workers I think 75,000 in the U.
S.
Plus the kidney punch at NASDAQ.
I think Jake's gonna put a shotgun in his mouth, I really do.
Sir? Yeah.
- Mr.
President.
- Fitz! Fitz, you old polecat you old so-and-so.
- You trying to be one of the fellas, sir? - Yeah.
- Well, well done, sir.
- Thank you.
This picture was taken by an SR-71 during a routine flyover in the Gulf.
This is Bushehr.
And this is what looks to me like the early days of construction on a light water reactor.
Light water is ordinary water, tap water.
It's Perrier.
Yeah.
Light water is what's used for nuclear reactors and the Iranians contracted the Russians to build them a light water reactor for that purpose.
What's the problem? Four intelligence agencies tell me I'm wrong.
And I am.
The Russians are building them a heavy water reactor.
What do you use heavy water for? Plutonium.
- Morning, Janice.
- Morning, Mr.
Ziegler.
- Call me Toby.
- Okay.
That's a nice uniform.
- How long have you guys had it? - About a thousand years.
- Okay.
- Hey, Toby.
Excuse me.
I've gotta tell you something.
You ready? - What? - I've got nothing to do.
What do you mean? I got to the office at 6 and it turned out everything I had to do got done by 7:30.
Some strange fluke of the calendar.
So I'm just out here walking around.
- You know, just being in the world.
- In the hallways.
- Yeah.
Well, you know.
- I'm gonna change all that.
Meet with a Russian reporter named Ludmilla Koss.
She's the Washington correspondent for the Novaya Gazeta.
She wants a seat on the press charter.
- Why is she asking us? - The Russians banned her.
- Why? - She supported the other guy.
Time to teach these Stoli-drinking Tchaikovskies a thing or two about free press, American-style.
You don't ban those who supported your opponent you make them wallow in their loserdom by covering your victory.
You sit them in the front row, you give them a hat.
I will save Ludmilla Koss, for I am Toby and in so doing Why am I going on like this? - I don't know.
- Set up the meeting.
- Obviously I have a little time.
- Thank you.
Ron? C.
J.
, Frank Tenney spoke to me this morning.
Yeah, Josh made me see him yesterday.
He filed everything he was supposed to file.
Can I see the message? It's just .
You know, it's what it is.
Could you type in your password? - You checked your e-mail yet today? - I just got here.
Okay, he sent another one at 5:20 this morning.
- Have you had cyber-threats before? - Not explicitly.
Agent Tenney says you don't recognize the sender's address.
No.
Have you had a bad breakup with a boyfriend lately? God, Ron, I haven't had a boyfriend in I get a lot of hate mail.
After the president, I'm the single most visible person in the federal government.
Every day I'm on TV and every day exactly half the people are gonna disagree with you.
Some will hate you.
And some will write letters.
Yeah, this isn't hate mail, this is a death threat.
Could I use your computer for a second? Sure.
Okay.
I'm gonna need to take your hard drive.
- Why? - I just used trace-route tools.
The server and the IP address don't match.
The address is disguising the origin.
In my briefing yesterday I made remarks about a situation in Saudi Arabia.
I may have gone too far, I was thinking of apologizing.
Yeah, this doesn't have anything to do with that.
What do you mean? Muslim extremists don't get personal.
They don't know your name or care.
They don't want one person, they want hundreds.
That's why they don't use bullets.
Killing one person is a waste of a bomb.
He wants you, why doesn't he want me? Someone will come get your hard drive.
We're intercepting all your e-mails from the address.
Thank you.
The press conference can be moved to 9:00.
- Thank you.
- And Excuse me.
Thank you.
And the venue can be moved to Hall of Mirrors.
- Flags.
- Yes.
- But we need something from you.
- Okay.
On his arrival and during outdoor photograph opportunity President Bartlet must wear overcoat.
- A coat? He must wear coat.
He must wear gloves.
Scarves and earmuffs permissible, but optional.
Hang on.
Yes, because President Chigorin wants to wear a coat and doesn't wanna look like a wimp.
- It is freezing to cold in Reykjavik.
It is freezing to cold in Helsinki.
It is freezing to cold in Staad.
Why must every American president bound out of an automobile like as at a yacht club, while in - Excuse me.
Compare? - Comparison.
Compare.
While in comparison our leader looks like - I don't even know what word is.
- Frumpy? I don't know what"frumpy" is, but onomatopoetically, sounds right.
It's hard not to like a guy who doesn't know frumpy but knows onomatopoeia.
I'll talk to the president about the coat.
Final meeting is tomorrow on the last points and that's it.
- Thank you, sir.
- Thank you.
- What is onomatop? - Sounds like.
Sounds like.
- Well, you were right.
- About what? He never made a speech in Pittsburgh.
Kid's 9, so he would've been 5 or 6.
Maybe he thought everything was a budget speech.
- Or maybe it's a crazy letter.
- It's not.
- You sure? - I read a lot of letters.
I got one last year asking me to donate my brain to a medical school in Granada.
There are days when I think, "Yeah, why not just get it over with?" He took a picture with the president.
The advance guys get the name and address, we send a copy.
But there's no record of this one.
- Plus, his father's in trouble.
- Why? He works at the Franklin Mill's furnaces.
The kid said they may fire him because he's joining a union, a group called the Steel Workers Organizing Committee.
Ever heard of them? Yeah, except they have a different name today.
- What? - The AFL-CIO.
And furnace workers are all unionized.
Charlie.
- Hey, Charlie.
- Hey.
- Ms.
Koss? - Yes.
Toby Ziegler, come on in.
- You write for the Novaya Gazeta.
- Yes.
- Your circulation's gotten huge.
- Highest daily in Russia.
It's hard to tell if it's because of your reporting, your editorials or the naked women on page three.
We did not invent this thing.
Nor did we invent the comic strips or Lotto.
Touché, madam.
So, what did you do to piss off President Chigorin? President Chigorin does not like criticism.
- Have you met someone who does? - That is not the point.
No, I'm just talking.
Listen, you're already credentialed to cover our president.
It's just putting you on the plane.
Before I do that I wanna check the State Department to make sure it's not a grotesquely insulting thing to do to a new president from whom the U.
S.
is hoping for quite a bit.
So your First Amendment only extends as far as is polite? No, it extends farther than that, but it only protects us.
Believe me, if we were able to enforce U.
S.
law around the world I'd retire and go scuba diving.
- You like diving? I've never done it or anything else.
But I've seen pictures.
It looks fun.
I've seen pictures of people out there in the world and they all look like they're glad they are.
Granted, someone's usually trying to sell something in these pictures but I'll tell you what, I'm 44 years old and I'm buying.
I usually don't talk this much, but I'm having an odd day.
Wanna stay and look at pictures of scuba divers? - No, thank you.
- Okay, then.
We'll talk tomorrow.
Thank you very much.
Thanks so much.
Thank you.
Listen, before we go in there, let's take a second to talk about Anteras.
- Yeah.
- It's not like we can't help.
- We can't help.
- I'm not saying Commerce or Treasury calls the banks, but an emergency loan guarantee, if we can get Congress to - Good morning, sir.
- Good morning.
Yeah, we can't do it.
How did it go? They confronted the Russian atomic energy minister.
- And? - He denies everything.
- Good enough for me.
- He doesn't deny building a reactor.
They've had contracts with Iran since '76 and he says that deuterium-based reactors have been up and running in Canada for years.
Yeah, well, Canada, Russia, roughly the same relationship with the U.
S.
Fitz, you old horse thief, you old muckety-muck.
Well, good morning again, sir.
Josh says the director of Minatom says it's commercial power production.
Yeah, except that there are no power lines to and from the site.
And there's no reprocessing facility.
This one's 50 megawatts thermal, which is identical to the reactor Pakistan's got in Kushab.
This isn't used to make the lights go, it's used to make plutonium.
Mr.
President, I am not your national security advisor or your secretary of Defense or State but the Russians are giving Iran the bomb.
Well that's what was said by my national security advisor 20 minutes ago right after it was said by the secretaries of State and Defense.
And for what it's worth, the directors of the CIA, NSA, FBI and Naval Intelligence agree.
Leo, isn't Minatom in terrible shape? They lost some customers after Chernobyl.
Yeah, that's welcome to free markets the hard way.
But my point is, their light water reactor contracts are behind schedule.
- All kinds of technical failures.
- Did the Iranians force them to build a heavy water reactor? - To satisfy their contracts, maybe.
Crap.
And even if that were the case, it doesn't make them Jean Valjean.
They want a power broker in the Middle East.
Just what the doctor ordered for the Middle East.
All right, while avoiding the biggest diplomacy disaster since I don't know when Josh, Leo, you guys have to figure out a way to get me out of it.
Get him out of what? He's not going to Helsinki.
There's something really good on television.
- What? - That's why he can't go.
Something good is on TV and he can't work a VCR.
No, not that.
They know he's got a staff.
They wouldn't buy it.
- It's that he doesn't trust technology.
- Josh.
- This is insane.
- News of the reactor's gonna break.
You know it will, and it's gonna break at the worst possible time.
In fact, my money's on it breaking right next to the picture of him with Chigorin.
While wearing a coat to protect his MS-riddled body from the fierce climate in Finland.
- How can all of you guys be so sure it's not Minatom and the other Cold War holdouts the ex-Soviets? - I don't care who it is.
There are other issues.
NATO expansion, the Caspian pipeline You don't get to put a bomb in Iran! There are no other issues right now.
We're gonna have to fly over there and blow this thing up and given what they're manufacturing there, I don't know if that's possible.
We were all so smart.
Russia's hobbled, the next conflict's gonna be in the Middle East.
Turns out it is in the Middle East.
With the Russians.
You didn't answer my question.
- What question? - Chigorin just took office four months ago.
How can you be sure it's not a rogue thing? I don't want a leak, Josh.
- Everyone's proceeding like we're going? - Yes.
How can you be sure? I can't.
Toby.
Thanks for coming down.
Is there still a summit to go to? - I'm sorry, what did you say? - Sorry, I asked because Yeah.
I wanted to talk to you because I've been asked to put a reporter from the Novaya Gazeta on the press plane.
That's a mistake.
You understand I'm talking about a pencil and a pad of paper, from which no one has ever died.
There isn't any publication in Russia more critical of the Chigorin government.
The editorial judgment aside, what's the damage assessment? The point of the summit is to build strong bilateral ties with a new administration.
So - We make it clear it's not personal.
- How do we do that? I don't know.
What are the things they could do? We've got a half-dozen U.
S.
reporters in Moscow whose credentials are pending.
This is like if they credentialed the Enquirer to cover the summit.
If the Enquirer ever asked us, we'd credential them.
Making sure the Enquirer can write freely is the only way I can be sure that The New York Times is writing whatever it wants.
Well, you asked me what I thought, I'm 100 percent against it.
- Okay.
- Thanks.
Good morning, Mr.
President.
You'll get Secret Service protection.
But I can't order it unless you sign this piece of paper, so sign this piece of paper.
- Sir, can I ask why you feel? - Because Ron says it is.
And around here, we do whatever Ron says.
- Well, I think it might be an overreaction.
- Good for you.
With all your years of training and experience in sniffing out crime your opinion carries a lot of weight with me.
- I'll appear fragile.
- You kidding? - Sir - We're talking about one bodyguard.
I have 12.
And that's before I leave the house.
You ever count how many guns come with me when Abbey and I take in a play at the Kennedy Center? - Do I seem fragile to you? - No, sir.
- Then - You're also not a woman in a man's job.
You're required by law to be protected by the Treasury Department.
You don't have a choice.
Frankly, sir, you and I both know you've scored points with the public and the press by shrugging off Secret Service and going to a bookstore.
- I don't care.
- Sir - You're part of my family.
This thing is happening and I simply won't permit it.
Sign the piece of paper.
- Look - Let me tell you.
The last time a member of my staff got a death threat, they missed him and hit me! Ron, is there any evidence? Any evidence at all that this guy? Look, I work in the White House everybody knows that, but is there any evidence to suggest that .
Where did you get these? Today's e-mail.
That's me leaving my house on Monday.
This one's at a restaurant where I had dinner with my niece.
This one's from this morning.
It was taken from about 20 feet away.
Okay.
- Let's go outside and talk.
- Okay.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
- Toby.
- Yeah.
- Good morning, sir.
- What's going on? I wanted to give you a heads up.
The Journal's running an editorial with regard to broken promises and fiscal spending.
Oh, man, the greatest campaign speech ever about money.
FDR promises to tighten our belts.
What's he do when he gets here? Spends more than we knew could be spent.
It's because he discovered it's better for long-term growth.
The Journal probably wrote an editorial about his broken promises too.
I can reference that speech, where did he give that? - It was in the industrial Northeast.
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Charlie, FDR gave a budget speech in 1932 in Pittsburgh.
Can you get your hands on a copy? - I'm sorry, sir? - I said, FDR gave a budget speech Yeah.
- Yes, sir.
- Okay.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
- Good morning.
- How's it going? Is there a TV show you really, really like? - No.
- Then don't worry about it let's talk about something else.
- What? Helping out Anteras.
What do you want from my life? The government can't be in the business of cosigning loans.
It wouldn't be handing them a bag of unmarked bills just backing the loans to cover the recall.
- It's a subsidy.
- It's a small one.
- I'm an economist! - Sir, this was not a failure of business.
It was, I don't know, it was a mistake it was human error.
And Jake's been completely forthright - The marketplace will take care of it.
- The marketplace will kill Anteras.
- That's what's supposed to happen.
- This isn't unprecedented.
- We helped out steel.
- That industry was hurt by unfair trade.
Anteras was hurt by their own carelessness.
A loan guarantee doesn't cost the taxpayers a nickel.
Unless they go under.
Either way, we've said,"We're open for business.
" For a corporate icon that feeds into tech companies, computers, aerospace.
The ripple effects.
Workers losing jobs.
It's a blue-chip stock that's in every major They were huge contributors! How the hell am I supposed? They were huge contributors! Carelessness doesn't have to exist for a mistake to be made.
- What? - You said it was carelessness and I don't believe carelessness has to exist for a mistake to be made.
Jake was a contributor and he's never asked for a favor, not even now.
He was a contributor because he knows us and we know him and we know if a mistake happened in design or production at Anteras it wasn't shoddy, it wasn't on the cheap.
You know how many chips have acted up so far? One.
Dollars to doughnuts he could've gotten away with it.
But he wanted to warn people they may have a problem before .
I don't even know what happens when But tell me this isn't exactly how we want American business to behave.
I know it doesn't look good, he's a friend of ours.
But there is a reason he's a friend of ours.
They're announcing end of business tomorrow? Yes, sir.
I'm not saying anything, but grab people and put together some numbers.
- Yes, sir.
- I'm not saying anything.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
The Baltic herring industry was subject of recent trade agreement between Russians and Finns.
However, we'll take off menu.
- Why? - We were asked to.
Mrs.
Bartlet likes shrimp.
That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
- Put whatever you want on the menu.
- Very well.
And I'd like to request that the press pool be allowed to photograph the Arctic Peoples' exhibit.
Also very well.
And that, my good friends, is that.
It was a pleasure doing business with you.
- We have one more.
- Name it.
On the issue of the language in the joint statement.
Well, I can't negotiate language in the statement.
It's just a suggestion.
The language has been worked out by State and Commerce and Defense.
- It's way beyond - Just hear suggestion, Sam.
Okay.
"Both President Chigorin and myself agree that we must enter 21 st century as partners and friends, not as adversaries.
We must lead way in stemming tide of nuclear proliferation and we must start with ourselves.
For why should two nations still possess power to destroy each other 10 times over? Surely once is enough.
" - Whose idea was this? - Mine.
Who wrote it? I did.
You will pass it up? - Yeah.
- That's good one, yes? Yes.
Thank you.
- Hello.
- Hello.
Here are your credentials for the plane.
Here's your plane ticket.
Here are your credentials for the palace the Saturday press conference, the Arctic Peoples' exhibit the Sunday press conference and the Hall of Flags.
- Thank you very much.
- By the way, I found out why Chigorin and his people have such a problem with you.
- It's because I don't flatter them.
- No, it's because you stink.
- I beg your pardon? - You can beg all you want you're not gonna get it.
Last month you alleged that the Chigorin government bombed several apartments, based on an unattributed source.
It was refuted, you never retracted it.
The government's case was all over TV.
Last week you wrote a cover story about Chigorin's mother-in-law moving near the Kremlin.
You printed her home address, she had to relocate.
Well, that's her decision.
You reported the failing grades of the defense minister's 12-year-old son.
Does that count as journalism? Does that do anything but bring ridicule on a defenseless kid? We've got people like you here.
On cable and on the Internet.
And there's no one anywhere on the ideological spectrum who doesn't roll their eyes when their names are spoken out loud.
We've always had free press here, we take it for granted.
How can you treat it like this? You should give up your space and put another naked woman in there.
Anyway.
There are your credentials.
The majority leader moves up HMO reform.
- He'll do that? - We've talked to him.
He's moved up HMO reform, nothing we can do about it the welfare of your people comes first.
- He has a duma, he'll understand.
- Makes sense.
We save face and send a strong message.
- Anybody? - Sounds great.
Sounds good to me.
Can I use this to get out of weddings and stuff? Sam, the majority leader's gonna move up HMO reform.
My duma's voting on it, what do you think? Sorry, sir.
Would you hear what Sam has to say for a moment? What? Listen, I'd like to tell you about something and if, when I'm done you think I sounded like an idiot, just know that I'll be feeling like one as well.
Nickolai lvanovich, the senior member of the logistical negotiating team said he had language to add to the joint statement.
He wrote it himself.
- What's he getting involved in that for? - Yeah.
And what he wanted added was: "Together, in partnership, we must stem the tide of nuclear proliferation.
For why should our two nations still possess the power to destroy themselves 10 times over? Surely once is enough.
" Now, I have to tell you, sir, that both these negotiators had conversational English, but they didn't have idioms.
- I promise you.
-"Stem the tide" is an English idiom.
Yeah, and they don't have "Surely once is enough" either.
Sir, Chigorin wrote that.
I think he's trying to send you a message, Mr.
President.
- He is trying to send me a message.
- That's what he's doing.
We've been trying to get nonproliferation on the agenda.
We've been trying to put those exact words in Chigorin's mouth.
He's got a Soviet defense establishment trying to do business.
Wait a second, hang on.
You're telling me that foreign policy of this magnitude is conducted through Sam? And I'm still alive? We're pretty impressed ourselves.
Why didn't he just have somebody pick up the phone? It's the old diplomatic corps and he can't trust them yet.
Fitz? I think he's going out on a limb.
I think you should meet him there.
Let's go to Helsinki.
But the reactor's first thing on the agenda.
Anybody? - Thank you, Mr.
President.
- Thanks, everyone.
- Thanks, sir.
- Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
- Thanks.
- I've got Jake Kimball in my office, sir.
I'll be right in.
Sam? Yes, sir.
- Nice job.
- Thank you.
Tell me again why I can't wear whatever the hell I want.
Well, that's not entirely true, sir, the earmuffs are optional.
Okay.
I probably won't be wearing them.
Yes, sir.
Whatever happened to Pong? It was great.
It was relaxing, it had that very satisfying sound.
- I don't know, sir.
- Yeah, me neither.
Leo? No.
Leo wanted to see if we could guarantee a loan.
I can't ask you for that.
I appreciate that and I can't give it to you.
But I can do one better.
- What? - We'll stay his biggest customer.
When you announce your recall, say you're keeping your government contracts.
Leo will work with Congress.
That's very generous.
I appreciate your confidence.
Talk to me about the 75,000 workers.
I'll have no salary for two years and my managers will cut their salaries in half before we even consider laying anyone off.
All right.
Jakie, this is the White House.
If we only screw up twice before breakfast, it was a very good morning.
- Yes, sir.
- One more thing.
You can't make any more campaign contributions to me or any Democrat.
- You can vote, that's it.
- Yes, sir.
I knew I'd get screwed by a computer one day.
I have an important photo op.
Excuse me.
Charlie? - Mr.
Tatum? - I'm Dr.
Tatum.
I'm the one you talked to on the phone.
This is my father.
I'm Charlie Young.
I'm personal aide to the president.
- Yes.
- You didn't tell him anything, right? - He thinks we're on Candid Camera.
- Or that this is a ruse of some kind.
- What the hell? - It's not.
It's not a ruse.
When you were 9, you wrote this letter to Franklin Roosevelt.
You met him when he was governor of New York and a candidate for president.
Well, I'll be damned.
You met his personal aide, Tom Farley.
That's me.
Mr.
Tatum, by any chance the apartment where you grew up in Pittsburgh, was it 2345 Northern - State Boulevard.
- Yeah.
That's the only residential building in Pittsburgh torn down recently.
In fact, it was just two weeks ago.
Somebody found your letter and put the right postage on it.
Well, would you look at what people do? None of it would've happened, except there's a five-digit code that presidents give out to close friends.
And President Bartlet copied his from FDR.
- For the 100th time, it was an homage.
- Yes, sir.
- Alan Tatum? - Yes, sir.
- The White House owes you one picture.
- Oh, my.
- Let's go, Dad.
- Mr.
President, this is my son, Ted.
- Good to meet you.
- He's a doctor.
- Dad.
- Oh, God, I'm sorry.
I'm married to one.
Oh, no, you meant that as a good thing.
Let's go.
FDR was a fine president, don't get me wrong.
But if you want something done right, damn it, call New Hampshire.
Come in, please.
Are you retired, Mr.
Tatum? Yes, sir.
- New York to St.
Louis.
- Your grandfather was a furnace worker.
Your father was on the railroads.
You couldn't find honest work? I'd like my picture taken with that young man, if you don't mind.
Charlie.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
You're welcome.
Well, thank you very much, sir.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for both of us.
Where are you going? - You got pictures, what do I get? - I don't know what You were there at his speech.
You gotta tell me everything.
Sit, we're gonna get some food.
You sit quietly over there and try to resist the temptation to bill me for something.
- Hello.
- C.
J.
Cregg? - Yeah.
- Special Agent Simon Donovan.
I'm with the Treasury Department.
What branch of the Treasury, Agent Donovan? U.
S.
Secret Service.
I don't like flashing it, gives some people the jumps.
But Agent Butterfield said you're a reluctant How does this work? - What is it you'd like to know? - From how far away can you do this? - I respect a certain perimeter of privacy.
- What does that mean? - I don't need to see you naked.
- Okay.
Though"better safe than sorry" is a bit of a motto for us over at Treasury.
I don't know, you're the boss.
I'll be leading four agents, each working a third of a day, one day off a week.
We've set up a command post in your apartment building, set up surveillance.
You can put your car in a garage, you'll be using ours.
- You can't come in the briefing room.
- Crowded room, anyone can get in.
- You're up at the podium.
I'll be there.
- This what you mean by"I'm the boss"? Yeah, I guess that's more of an honorary thing.
This guy isn't smalltime, Ms.
Cregg.
You're being hunted.
I can't guarantee anything except to say if you're dead, chances are I am too.
I guess it's gonna have to be the little things now.
Yeah.
I'm gonna go check in with my command.
I'm Sam, sir.
I'm the deputy communications director.
I'm Leo McGarry, White House chief of staff.
- I'm personal aide to the president.
- I'm a speechwriter.
I'm the deputy chief of staff.
Which, I guess, makes me deputy deputy chief of staff.
I'm the press secretary.
It's an unavoidable conflict of interest.
I'm Josiah Bartlet.
I'm president of the U.
S.
Whoever's on the printer, get off.
Now.
- That's me.
- Get off! You wanna make it clear we're pushing for Slovenia and possibly the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
- We're gonna leave Fredonia out? - Point is, the zero option's off the table.
Can we please? Aren't we pretty much admitting the countries we formed NATO to fight? - Yes.
- Then why not dissolve it? - We like the bomber jackets.
- When you joke - My jokes are funny.
- Fredonia was good.
- Heard it.
- Give you $500 if you do "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" at the Gridiron.
Can we talk about sugar subsidies? We're not done talking about summit.
- It's a two-day grip and grin.
- You of all people.
The Russians finally elect a reformer and you still that would make Tammany Hall Iook like the League of Women Voters? I'm not sure that qualifies as a .
- C.
J.
? - There was a fire at the King Fatah Middle School in Medina.
Seventeen girls died in the fire when they were prevented from coming out and rescue workers were prevented from saving them.
- What was preventing them? - The muttawa.
The girls weren't dressed properly.
Don't comment.
I haven't spoken to the president, to Leo, to State, to anybody.
You wanna muzzle me before I go in there? Speak now or hold your peace.
God knows it's not likely I'm gonna.
Let's get a good spot.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
I have some schedule details on the summit.
Air Force One will depart Andrews at 7 p.
m.
Friday arriving in Helsinki 4 a.
m.
Eastern time.
That's 11 a.
m.
Saturday, local.
Presidents Bartlet and Chigorin will have their meeting at 3:00 at Mantyniemi.
That's a change.
Photo op, stills only, at the beginning of the meeting.
- C.
J.
? - What are the president's goals of the summit? - First, to meet the new Russian president.
But they share the aspiration of building a secure and undivided Europe.
Are you aware of the fire that happened at King Fatah Middle School? Yeah.
That's a tragedy.
Chris.
Saudi news says rescuers were prevented from getting to several female students by the religious police.
- Yeah, I read that too.
Steve? - Can the White House comment? I literally got this a minute and a half ago.
I haven't spoken to the president or chief of staff, State or anyone in Communications.
This is just me.
- Well, do you have a comment? - I don't.
No.
I'm sorry, C.
J.
, but you're not outraged by this? Outraged? I'm barely surprised.
This is a country where women aren't allowed to drive a car.
They can't be in the company of any man other than a close relative.
Their dress code is so strict that it'd make a nun look like Malibu Barbie.
They beheaded 121 people last year for robbery, rape and drug trafficking.
They have no free press, no elected government, no political parties and the royal family allows the religious police to travel in sixes carrying nightsticks and they freely and publicly beat women.
But Brutus is an honorable man.
Seventeen girls died because they weren't wearing the proper clothing.
Am I outraged? No, Steve.
No, Chris.
No, Mark.
That is Saudi Arabia, our partners in peace.
Bonnie, then Scott.
Sam, you know a guy named Farley who worked here before I did? - Where did he work? - For the president.
- No.
What's his first name? - I don't know.
A kid wrote to the president saying that when he was campaigning he met his assistant, Mr.
Farley.
Probably one of the guys from early on.
I didn't know them.
It couldn't have been that early.
The kid says they met at a budget speech in Pittsburgh.
- He means San Diego.
- He says Pittsburgh.
We never did a budget speech in Pittsburgh.
- This is a little weird.
- How many weird letters come a day? Couple thousand, but this one has the president's private mail code on it.
How many confused people does he befriend every day? But he doesn't give them the private mail code.
I don't know.
I'm on with the Russians.
- Good morning, I'm Sam Seaborn.
- Nickolai lvanovich.
- George Kowzlowski.
- Thanks for coming by.
This should be quick.
Let me say that President Bartlet looks forward to meeting President Chigorin and having a productive meeting.
Mr.
Seaborn, we understood that the protocol arrangements had been finalized by the advance teams in Helsinki.
That's right, but there are points I'd like to revisit.
My thinking being I could relay my concerns to you at the embassy.
You could send them to Moscow and hopefully get an answer quickly because we're coming down to it now.
I'm sorry, I .
It's coming up quickly.
The summit.
- It's Saturday and this is Monday.
- Oh, yes, yes.
We've agreed to a consecutive translation? - Yes.
- I'd like a simultaneous translation.
They prefer that the two leaders pause while their remarks are rendered.
Rendered into the particular language.
President Bartlet has a rhythm to his speaking that's best uninterrupted.
- That's the reason I bring it up.
- We'll pass that over.
- I'm sorry,"pass it on"? - Yes.
I'm sorry, it's just that one is good and one is bad.
We agreed on the Grand Salon in Finlandia Hall for the 6:00 meeting and I wanted to change that to the Hall of Flags.
Hall of Flags.
Didn't we agree - It's funny you should mention that.
- I'm sorry? It's funny It's a coincidence that you happened to mention the time of the meeting.
See, President Chigorin only has to fly through one time zone.
President Bartlet has to fly through seven.
Don't get me wrong, this president can do three shows a night.
But there's no one who has a worse reaction to jet lag than he does.
Any trip eight hours or longer, someone gets fired.
- It's already been me three times, so - We'll pass it on.
Everyone on the White House staff would agree that's a deal breaker.
All right, then.
- Was there anything else? - Yeah, we're just getting started.
- You guys hungry? - No.
- You ready? - Yeah, where are we going? The yogurt place.
Are those angry faxes? They're Yeah.
They're very angry faxes.
- From Saudis? - Yeah.
- What did you expect? - Very angry faxes from Saudis.
And angry e-mails.
Look at these.
I'm seeing some troubling spelling here.
"Godless" with two D's? - Let's go.
- Hang on.
- C.
J.
? - I saw it.
- It's a death threat.
- It's not a big deal.
- You sure? - Yeah.
Don't tell anybody, okay? I don't want a lot of production.
- All right.
- Thanks.
Josh? Can you come in here and look at this, please? - Donna.
- Look at what? - C.
J.
's e-mail.
Call Frank Tenney downstairs, I wanna talk to him right away.
Yeah.
- You take this seriously? - Yeah, it's a death threat, C.
J.
I take it seriously.
I've had some experience with this.
- Thank you all so much.
- Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
- They wanna show us a picture.
- Of what? I don't know.
We've got a problem.
Jake Kimball came to see me this morning.
- What's he doing here? - Looking 100 years old.
Anteras is gonna announce a chip recall on Thursday.
How big? Everything.
What are you talking about? - They discovered a problem - That's gotta be 50 million chips.
Eighty million.
- Leo, how the hell? - I know.
That's the end of Anteras.
- Yeah.
- 98,000 workers I think 75,000 in the U.
S.
Plus the kidney punch at NASDAQ.
I think Jake's gonna put a shotgun in his mouth, I really do.
Sir? Yeah.
- Mr.
President.
- Fitz! Fitz, you old polecat you old so-and-so.
- You trying to be one of the fellas, sir? - Yeah.
- Well, well done, sir.
- Thank you.
This picture was taken by an SR-71 during a routine flyover in the Gulf.
This is Bushehr.
And this is what looks to me like the early days of construction on a light water reactor.
Light water is ordinary water, tap water.
It's Perrier.
Yeah.
Light water is what's used for nuclear reactors and the Iranians contracted the Russians to build them a light water reactor for that purpose.
What's the problem? Four intelligence agencies tell me I'm wrong.
And I am.
The Russians are building them a heavy water reactor.
What do you use heavy water for? Plutonium.
- Morning, Janice.
- Morning, Mr.
Ziegler.
- Call me Toby.
- Okay.
That's a nice uniform.
- How long have you guys had it? - About a thousand years.
- Okay.
- Hey, Toby.
Excuse me.
I've gotta tell you something.
You ready? - What? - I've got nothing to do.
What do you mean? I got to the office at 6 and it turned out everything I had to do got done by 7:30.
Some strange fluke of the calendar.
So I'm just out here walking around.
- You know, just being in the world.
- In the hallways.
- Yeah.
Well, you know.
- I'm gonna change all that.
Meet with a Russian reporter named Ludmilla Koss.
She's the Washington correspondent for the Novaya Gazeta.
She wants a seat on the press charter.
- Why is she asking us? - The Russians banned her.
- Why? - She supported the other guy.
Time to teach these Stoli-drinking Tchaikovskies a thing or two about free press, American-style.
You don't ban those who supported your opponent you make them wallow in their loserdom by covering your victory.
You sit them in the front row, you give them a hat.
I will save Ludmilla Koss, for I am Toby and in so doing Why am I going on like this? - I don't know.
- Set up the meeting.
- Obviously I have a little time.
- Thank you.
Ron? C.
J.
, Frank Tenney spoke to me this morning.
Yeah, Josh made me see him yesterday.
He filed everything he was supposed to file.
Can I see the message? It's just .
You know, it's what it is.
Could you type in your password? - You checked your e-mail yet today? - I just got here.
Okay, he sent another one at 5:20 this morning.
- Have you had cyber-threats before? - Not explicitly.
Agent Tenney says you don't recognize the sender's address.
No.
Have you had a bad breakup with a boyfriend lately? God, Ron, I haven't had a boyfriend in I get a lot of hate mail.
After the president, I'm the single most visible person in the federal government.
Every day I'm on TV and every day exactly half the people are gonna disagree with you.
Some will hate you.
And some will write letters.
Yeah, this isn't hate mail, this is a death threat.
Could I use your computer for a second? Sure.
Okay.
I'm gonna need to take your hard drive.
- Why? - I just used trace-route tools.
The server and the IP address don't match.
The address is disguising the origin.
In my briefing yesterday I made remarks about a situation in Saudi Arabia.
I may have gone too far, I was thinking of apologizing.
Yeah, this doesn't have anything to do with that.
What do you mean? Muslim extremists don't get personal.
They don't know your name or care.
They don't want one person, they want hundreds.
That's why they don't use bullets.
Killing one person is a waste of a bomb.
He wants you, why doesn't he want me? Someone will come get your hard drive.
We're intercepting all your e-mails from the address.
Thank you.
The press conference can be moved to 9:00.
- Thank you.
- And Excuse me.
Thank you.
And the venue can be moved to Hall of Mirrors.
- Flags.
- Yes.
- But we need something from you.
- Okay.
On his arrival and during outdoor photograph opportunity President Bartlet must wear overcoat.
- A coat? He must wear coat.
He must wear gloves.
Scarves and earmuffs permissible, but optional.
Hang on.
Yes, because President Chigorin wants to wear a coat and doesn't wanna look like a wimp.
- It is freezing to cold in Reykjavik.
It is freezing to cold in Helsinki.
It is freezing to cold in Staad.
Why must every American president bound out of an automobile like as at a yacht club, while in - Excuse me.
Compare? - Comparison.
Compare.
While in comparison our leader looks like - I don't even know what word is.
- Frumpy? I don't know what"frumpy" is, but onomatopoetically, sounds right.
It's hard not to like a guy who doesn't know frumpy but knows onomatopoeia.
I'll talk to the president about the coat.
Final meeting is tomorrow on the last points and that's it.
- Thank you, sir.
- Thank you.
- What is onomatop? - Sounds like.
Sounds like.
- Well, you were right.
- About what? He never made a speech in Pittsburgh.
Kid's 9, so he would've been 5 or 6.
Maybe he thought everything was a budget speech.
- Or maybe it's a crazy letter.
- It's not.
- You sure? - I read a lot of letters.
I got one last year asking me to donate my brain to a medical school in Granada.
There are days when I think, "Yeah, why not just get it over with?" He took a picture with the president.
The advance guys get the name and address, we send a copy.
But there's no record of this one.
- Plus, his father's in trouble.
- Why? He works at the Franklin Mill's furnaces.
The kid said they may fire him because he's joining a union, a group called the Steel Workers Organizing Committee.
Ever heard of them? Yeah, except they have a different name today.
- What? - The AFL-CIO.
And furnace workers are all unionized.
Charlie.
- Hey, Charlie.
- Hey.
- Ms.
Koss? - Yes.
Toby Ziegler, come on in.
- You write for the Novaya Gazeta.
- Yes.
- Your circulation's gotten huge.
- Highest daily in Russia.
It's hard to tell if it's because of your reporting, your editorials or the naked women on page three.
We did not invent this thing.
Nor did we invent the comic strips or Lotto.
Touché, madam.
So, what did you do to piss off President Chigorin? President Chigorin does not like criticism.
- Have you met someone who does? - That is not the point.
No, I'm just talking.
Listen, you're already credentialed to cover our president.
It's just putting you on the plane.
Before I do that I wanna check the State Department to make sure it's not a grotesquely insulting thing to do to a new president from whom the U.
S.
is hoping for quite a bit.
So your First Amendment only extends as far as is polite? No, it extends farther than that, but it only protects us.
Believe me, if we were able to enforce U.
S.
law around the world I'd retire and go scuba diving.
- You like diving? I've never done it or anything else.
But I've seen pictures.
It looks fun.
I've seen pictures of people out there in the world and they all look like they're glad they are.
Granted, someone's usually trying to sell something in these pictures but I'll tell you what, I'm 44 years old and I'm buying.
I usually don't talk this much, but I'm having an odd day.
Wanna stay and look at pictures of scuba divers? - No, thank you.
- Okay, then.
We'll talk tomorrow.
Thank you very much.
Thanks so much.
Thank you.
Listen, before we go in there, let's take a second to talk about Anteras.
- Yeah.
- It's not like we can't help.
- We can't help.
- I'm not saying Commerce or Treasury calls the banks, but an emergency loan guarantee, if we can get Congress to - Good morning, sir.
- Good morning.
Yeah, we can't do it.
How did it go? They confronted the Russian atomic energy minister.
- And? - He denies everything.
- Good enough for me.
- He doesn't deny building a reactor.
They've had contracts with Iran since '76 and he says that deuterium-based reactors have been up and running in Canada for years.
Yeah, well, Canada, Russia, roughly the same relationship with the U.
S.
Fitz, you old horse thief, you old muckety-muck.
Well, good morning again, sir.
Josh says the director of Minatom says it's commercial power production.
Yeah, except that there are no power lines to and from the site.
And there's no reprocessing facility.
This one's 50 megawatts thermal, which is identical to the reactor Pakistan's got in Kushab.
This isn't used to make the lights go, it's used to make plutonium.
Mr.
President, I am not your national security advisor or your secretary of Defense or State but the Russians are giving Iran the bomb.
Well that's what was said by my national security advisor 20 minutes ago right after it was said by the secretaries of State and Defense.
And for what it's worth, the directors of the CIA, NSA, FBI and Naval Intelligence agree.
Leo, isn't Minatom in terrible shape? They lost some customers after Chernobyl.
Yeah, that's welcome to free markets the hard way.
But my point is, their light water reactor contracts are behind schedule.
- All kinds of technical failures.
- Did the Iranians force them to build a heavy water reactor? - To satisfy their contracts, maybe.
Crap.
And even if that were the case, it doesn't make them Jean Valjean.
They want a power broker in the Middle East.
Just what the doctor ordered for the Middle East.
All right, while avoiding the biggest diplomacy disaster since I don't know when Josh, Leo, you guys have to figure out a way to get me out of it.
Get him out of what? He's not going to Helsinki.
There's something really good on television.
- What? - That's why he can't go.
Something good is on TV and he can't work a VCR.
No, not that.
They know he's got a staff.
They wouldn't buy it.
- It's that he doesn't trust technology.
- Josh.
- This is insane.
- News of the reactor's gonna break.
You know it will, and it's gonna break at the worst possible time.
In fact, my money's on it breaking right next to the picture of him with Chigorin.
While wearing a coat to protect his MS-riddled body from the fierce climate in Finland.
- How can all of you guys be so sure it's not Minatom and the other Cold War holdouts the ex-Soviets? - I don't care who it is.
There are other issues.
NATO expansion, the Caspian pipeline You don't get to put a bomb in Iran! There are no other issues right now.
We're gonna have to fly over there and blow this thing up and given what they're manufacturing there, I don't know if that's possible.
We were all so smart.
Russia's hobbled, the next conflict's gonna be in the Middle East.
Turns out it is in the Middle East.
With the Russians.
You didn't answer my question.
- What question? - Chigorin just took office four months ago.
How can you be sure it's not a rogue thing? I don't want a leak, Josh.
- Everyone's proceeding like we're going? - Yes.
How can you be sure? I can't.
Toby.
Thanks for coming down.
Is there still a summit to go to? - I'm sorry, what did you say? - Sorry, I asked because Yeah.
I wanted to talk to you because I've been asked to put a reporter from the Novaya Gazeta on the press plane.
That's a mistake.
You understand I'm talking about a pencil and a pad of paper, from which no one has ever died.
There isn't any publication in Russia more critical of the Chigorin government.
The editorial judgment aside, what's the damage assessment? The point of the summit is to build strong bilateral ties with a new administration.
So - We make it clear it's not personal.
- How do we do that? I don't know.
What are the things they could do? We've got a half-dozen U.
S.
reporters in Moscow whose credentials are pending.
This is like if they credentialed the Enquirer to cover the summit.
If the Enquirer ever asked us, we'd credential them.
Making sure the Enquirer can write freely is the only way I can be sure that The New York Times is writing whatever it wants.
Well, you asked me what I thought, I'm 100 percent against it.
- Okay.
- Thanks.
Good morning, Mr.
President.
You'll get Secret Service protection.
But I can't order it unless you sign this piece of paper, so sign this piece of paper.
- Sir, can I ask why you feel? - Because Ron says it is.
And around here, we do whatever Ron says.
- Well, I think it might be an overreaction.
- Good for you.
With all your years of training and experience in sniffing out crime your opinion carries a lot of weight with me.
- I'll appear fragile.
- You kidding? - Sir - We're talking about one bodyguard.
I have 12.
And that's before I leave the house.
You ever count how many guns come with me when Abbey and I take in a play at the Kennedy Center? - Do I seem fragile to you? - No, sir.
- Then - You're also not a woman in a man's job.
You're required by law to be protected by the Treasury Department.
You don't have a choice.
Frankly, sir, you and I both know you've scored points with the public and the press by shrugging off Secret Service and going to a bookstore.
- I don't care.
- Sir - You're part of my family.
This thing is happening and I simply won't permit it.
Sign the piece of paper.
- Look - Let me tell you.
The last time a member of my staff got a death threat, they missed him and hit me! Ron, is there any evidence? Any evidence at all that this guy? Look, I work in the White House everybody knows that, but is there any evidence to suggest that .
Where did you get these? Today's e-mail.
That's me leaving my house on Monday.
This one's at a restaurant where I had dinner with my niece.
This one's from this morning.
It was taken from about 20 feet away.
Okay.
- Let's go outside and talk.
- Okay.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
- Toby.
- Yeah.
- Good morning, sir.
- What's going on? I wanted to give you a heads up.
The Journal's running an editorial with regard to broken promises and fiscal spending.
Oh, man, the greatest campaign speech ever about money.
FDR promises to tighten our belts.
What's he do when he gets here? Spends more than we knew could be spent.
It's because he discovered it's better for long-term growth.
The Journal probably wrote an editorial about his broken promises too.
I can reference that speech, where did he give that? - It was in the industrial Northeast.
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Charlie, FDR gave a budget speech in 1932 in Pittsburgh.
Can you get your hands on a copy? - I'm sorry, sir? - I said, FDR gave a budget speech Yeah.
- Yes, sir.
- Okay.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
- Good morning.
- How's it going? Is there a TV show you really, really like? - No.
- Then don't worry about it let's talk about something else.
- What? Helping out Anteras.
What do you want from my life? The government can't be in the business of cosigning loans.
It wouldn't be handing them a bag of unmarked bills just backing the loans to cover the recall.
- It's a subsidy.
- It's a small one.
- I'm an economist! - Sir, this was not a failure of business.
It was, I don't know, it was a mistake it was human error.
And Jake's been completely forthright - The marketplace will take care of it.
- The marketplace will kill Anteras.
- That's what's supposed to happen.
- This isn't unprecedented.
- We helped out steel.
- That industry was hurt by unfair trade.
Anteras was hurt by their own carelessness.
A loan guarantee doesn't cost the taxpayers a nickel.
Unless they go under.
Either way, we've said,"We're open for business.
" For a corporate icon that feeds into tech companies, computers, aerospace.
The ripple effects.
Workers losing jobs.
It's a blue-chip stock that's in every major They were huge contributors! How the hell am I supposed? They were huge contributors! Carelessness doesn't have to exist for a mistake to be made.
- What? - You said it was carelessness and I don't believe carelessness has to exist for a mistake to be made.
Jake was a contributor and he's never asked for a favor, not even now.
He was a contributor because he knows us and we know him and we know if a mistake happened in design or production at Anteras it wasn't shoddy, it wasn't on the cheap.
You know how many chips have acted up so far? One.
Dollars to doughnuts he could've gotten away with it.
But he wanted to warn people they may have a problem before .
I don't even know what happens when But tell me this isn't exactly how we want American business to behave.
I know it doesn't look good, he's a friend of ours.
But there is a reason he's a friend of ours.
They're announcing end of business tomorrow? Yes, sir.
I'm not saying anything, but grab people and put together some numbers.
- Yes, sir.
- I'm not saying anything.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
The Baltic herring industry was subject of recent trade agreement between Russians and Finns.
However, we'll take off menu.
- Why? - We were asked to.
Mrs.
Bartlet likes shrimp.
That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
- Put whatever you want on the menu.
- Very well.
And I'd like to request that the press pool be allowed to photograph the Arctic Peoples' exhibit.
Also very well.
And that, my good friends, is that.
It was a pleasure doing business with you.
- We have one more.
- Name it.
On the issue of the language in the joint statement.
Well, I can't negotiate language in the statement.
It's just a suggestion.
The language has been worked out by State and Commerce and Defense.
- It's way beyond - Just hear suggestion, Sam.
Okay.
"Both President Chigorin and myself agree that we must enter 21 st century as partners and friends, not as adversaries.
We must lead way in stemming tide of nuclear proliferation and we must start with ourselves.
For why should two nations still possess power to destroy each other 10 times over? Surely once is enough.
" - Whose idea was this? - Mine.
Who wrote it? I did.
You will pass it up? - Yeah.
- That's good one, yes? Yes.
Thank you.
- Hello.
- Hello.
Here are your credentials for the plane.
Here's your plane ticket.
Here are your credentials for the palace the Saturday press conference, the Arctic Peoples' exhibit the Sunday press conference and the Hall of Flags.
- Thank you very much.
- By the way, I found out why Chigorin and his people have such a problem with you.
- It's because I don't flatter them.
- No, it's because you stink.
- I beg your pardon? - You can beg all you want you're not gonna get it.
Last month you alleged that the Chigorin government bombed several apartments, based on an unattributed source.
It was refuted, you never retracted it.
The government's case was all over TV.
Last week you wrote a cover story about Chigorin's mother-in-law moving near the Kremlin.
You printed her home address, she had to relocate.
Well, that's her decision.
You reported the failing grades of the defense minister's 12-year-old son.
Does that count as journalism? Does that do anything but bring ridicule on a defenseless kid? We've got people like you here.
On cable and on the Internet.
And there's no one anywhere on the ideological spectrum who doesn't roll their eyes when their names are spoken out loud.
We've always had free press here, we take it for granted.
How can you treat it like this? You should give up your space and put another naked woman in there.
Anyway.
There are your credentials.
The majority leader moves up HMO reform.
- He'll do that? - We've talked to him.
He's moved up HMO reform, nothing we can do about it the welfare of your people comes first.
- He has a duma, he'll understand.
- Makes sense.
We save face and send a strong message.
- Anybody? - Sounds great.
Sounds good to me.
Can I use this to get out of weddings and stuff? Sam, the majority leader's gonna move up HMO reform.
My duma's voting on it, what do you think? Sorry, sir.
Would you hear what Sam has to say for a moment? What? Listen, I'd like to tell you about something and if, when I'm done you think I sounded like an idiot, just know that I'll be feeling like one as well.
Nickolai lvanovich, the senior member of the logistical negotiating team said he had language to add to the joint statement.
He wrote it himself.
- What's he getting involved in that for? - Yeah.
And what he wanted added was: "Together, in partnership, we must stem the tide of nuclear proliferation.
For why should our two nations still possess the power to destroy themselves 10 times over? Surely once is enough.
" Now, I have to tell you, sir, that both these negotiators had conversational English, but they didn't have idioms.
- I promise you.
-"Stem the tide" is an English idiom.
Yeah, and they don't have "Surely once is enough" either.
Sir, Chigorin wrote that.
I think he's trying to send you a message, Mr.
President.
- He is trying to send me a message.
- That's what he's doing.
We've been trying to get nonproliferation on the agenda.
We've been trying to put those exact words in Chigorin's mouth.
He's got a Soviet defense establishment trying to do business.
Wait a second, hang on.
You're telling me that foreign policy of this magnitude is conducted through Sam? And I'm still alive? We're pretty impressed ourselves.
Why didn't he just have somebody pick up the phone? It's the old diplomatic corps and he can't trust them yet.
Fitz? I think he's going out on a limb.
I think you should meet him there.
Let's go to Helsinki.
But the reactor's first thing on the agenda.
Anybody? - Thank you, Mr.
President.
- Thanks, everyone.
- Thanks, sir.
- Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
- Thanks.
- I've got Jake Kimball in my office, sir.
I'll be right in.
Sam? Yes, sir.
- Nice job.
- Thank you.
Tell me again why I can't wear whatever the hell I want.
Well, that's not entirely true, sir, the earmuffs are optional.
Okay.
I probably won't be wearing them.
Yes, sir.
Whatever happened to Pong? It was great.
It was relaxing, it had that very satisfying sound.
- I don't know, sir.
- Yeah, me neither.
Leo? No.
Leo wanted to see if we could guarantee a loan.
I can't ask you for that.
I appreciate that and I can't give it to you.
But I can do one better.
- What? - We'll stay his biggest customer.
When you announce your recall, say you're keeping your government contracts.
Leo will work with Congress.
That's very generous.
I appreciate your confidence.
Talk to me about the 75,000 workers.
I'll have no salary for two years and my managers will cut their salaries in half before we even consider laying anyone off.
All right.
Jakie, this is the White House.
If we only screw up twice before breakfast, it was a very good morning.
- Yes, sir.
- One more thing.
You can't make any more campaign contributions to me or any Democrat.
- You can vote, that's it.
- Yes, sir.
I knew I'd get screwed by a computer one day.
I have an important photo op.
Excuse me.
Charlie? - Mr.
Tatum? - I'm Dr.
Tatum.
I'm the one you talked to on the phone.
This is my father.
I'm Charlie Young.
I'm personal aide to the president.
- Yes.
- You didn't tell him anything, right? - He thinks we're on Candid Camera.
- Or that this is a ruse of some kind.
- What the hell? - It's not.
It's not a ruse.
When you were 9, you wrote this letter to Franklin Roosevelt.
You met him when he was governor of New York and a candidate for president.
Well, I'll be damned.
You met his personal aide, Tom Farley.
That's me.
Mr.
Tatum, by any chance the apartment where you grew up in Pittsburgh, was it 2345 Northern - State Boulevard.
- Yeah.
That's the only residential building in Pittsburgh torn down recently.
In fact, it was just two weeks ago.
Somebody found your letter and put the right postage on it.
Well, would you look at what people do? None of it would've happened, except there's a five-digit code that presidents give out to close friends.
And President Bartlet copied his from FDR.
- For the 100th time, it was an homage.
- Yes, sir.
- Alan Tatum? - Yes, sir.
- The White House owes you one picture.
- Oh, my.
- Let's go, Dad.
- Mr.
President, this is my son, Ted.
- Good to meet you.
- He's a doctor.
- Dad.
- Oh, God, I'm sorry.
I'm married to one.
Oh, no, you meant that as a good thing.
Let's go.
FDR was a fine president, don't get me wrong.
But if you want something done right, damn it, call New Hampshire.
Come in, please.
Are you retired, Mr.
Tatum? Yes, sir.
- New York to St.
Louis.
- Your grandfather was a furnace worker.
Your father was on the railroads.
You couldn't find honest work? I'd like my picture taken with that young man, if you don't mind.
Charlie.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
You're welcome.
Well, thank you very much, sir.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for both of us.
Where are you going? - You got pictures, what do I get? - I don't know what You were there at his speech.
You gotta tell me everything.
Sit, we're gonna get some food.
You sit quietly over there and try to resist the temptation to bill me for something.
- Hello.
- C.
J.
Cregg? - Yeah.
- Special Agent Simon Donovan.
I'm with the Treasury Department.
What branch of the Treasury, Agent Donovan? U.
S.
Secret Service.
I don't like flashing it, gives some people the jumps.
But Agent Butterfield said you're a reluctant How does this work? - What is it you'd like to know? - From how far away can you do this? - I respect a certain perimeter of privacy.
- What does that mean? - I don't need to see you naked.
- Okay.
Though"better safe than sorry" is a bit of a motto for us over at Treasury.
I don't know, you're the boss.
I'll be leading four agents, each working a third of a day, one day off a week.
We've set up a command post in your apartment building, set up surveillance.
You can put your car in a garage, you'll be using ours.
- You can't come in the briefing room.
- Crowded room, anyone can get in.
- You're up at the podium.
I'll be there.
- This what you mean by"I'm the boss"? Yeah, I guess that's more of an honorary thing.
This guy isn't smalltime, Ms.
Cregg.
You're being hunted.
I can't guarantee anything except to say if you're dead, chances are I am too.
I guess it's gonna have to be the little things now.
Yeah.
I'm gonna go check in with my command.