Robert Costa On Why Congress Keeps Giving Away Its Power To The President

**Michael Smerconish** (0:00)
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You hold my hand.

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Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council.

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Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast for Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:53)
Robert Costa is National Correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning. He is the Chief Washington Analyst for CBS News. Bob, nice to have you back on the program.

**Robert Costa** (1:04)
Always great to be with you, Michael.

**Michael Smerconish** (1:06)
I got to tell you something before we discuss politics. So in studio with me today are 20 students from the PATH Foundation. They are Virginia based. They are all undergraduates. They're doing God's work in Virginia nonprofits. And their ranks include students from Virginia Tech and William & Mary and James Madison and Oberlin, etc., etc.
All involved in, for example, the Free Clinic of Culpepper and the Afro-American Historical Association and the Plains Community League and the Chamber of Commerce, etc., etc.
So I was briefing them during the commercial break about what's to come. And I said, Robert Costa is about to join me and like, he's the big maha for CBS News. And I got some head shakes, some nods. And then I said, and when he was in high school, he booked John Mayer for his high school prom and, oh yeah, Maroon 5 All of a sudden, they were very engaged and interested in what is your deal, Robert Costa.

**Robert Costa** (2:14)
Well, Michael, that's very generous of you to even bring up that from 20 plus years ago. I have to say, if there are undergraduates who have resisted the siren song of Virginia Beach in July and are spending the morning with Michael Smerconish, I got to say, they're pretty accomplished already to me.
You know, they're doing truly good work spending their summers with you, Michael. I love you, Michael, but you know, there's other things they could be doing at that point in their life.

**Michael Smerconish** (2:39)
I know, I know. I've got to make it worth their while.
So let's do this. But one thing, one thing, just indulge me. You did get John Mayer to play the prom, and then you bumped into him later in life at one of the inaugurations. Was it Obama's inauguration?

**Robert Costa** (2:56)
That's right. I mean, I'm glad you're regaling them with tales of my own music experience instead of your own obsession with Yes and other bands.

**Michael Smerconish** (3:03)
But they wouldn't know who Yes are. John Mayer and Maroon 5, they understand. Just tell the Mayer story and we'll get to politics.

**Robert Costa** (3:11)
Very quickly, I was very annoying to John Mayer for a long time. I had no connections. I had gotten to know Maroon 5 before they were famous. I had Adam Levine and his buddies come play at my high school, public high school outside of Philadelphia for free. They were friends with Mayer. They put in a good word. Mayer came. He told me the night before he was coming. He brought along Rolling Stone. He came to my high school gym, wore a tux top and jeans. He got a little too close to my prom date. Took that kind of photo with the prom date doing that.
And long story short, he came. He did it for no money. He was truly a generous spirit, but I was annoying. I was 18 years old with no connections, bothering a rock star who had won multiple Grammys. And a few years later, I was covering President Obama's inauguration in January of 2013
And I see John Mayer walk right past me with Katy Perry, his girlfriend at the time. And I said, John, John, John, Bob Costa, Hensberry High School. He looks at me with a smile, but also a bit of a withering glance. And he says, of course, you're here.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:16)
I love that story. Thank you, Bob, for indulging us.