Madam Secretary

Damn it. - Agendas?

You left them in the printer. - Thank you.

This is your Sunday look?

Elegance has no schedule.

- Cookie? - Oh, yes.

- I'll take a cookie. - Mike?

No. - How about in a circle?

Yeah. Excuse me.

Sorry. Uh, yeah.

- Uh, right there next to the secretary. - Yeah.

I got you.

Who put their bag there?

It's Mike B's.

Next time you got to pee on the chair.

Hey, Jeff.

Yeah, okay, I'll let her in.

No, no, no, no. I'll let her in.

You have to go upstairs.

Oh, that's right. Stevie.

Come on. - Yes. I'm right here.

Time to go into exile.

I didn't make up the rules about...

White House employees staying out of campaigns.

And the two of you, shoo. Guys, did neither of you hear the timer?

Oh, shoot, sorry. You put me on cleanup duty. Hey, guys,

Ah.A presidential campaign

is about to kick off in our living room.Ah.

A little excitement. I'm very excited.

Ooh, there we go. Great British Baking Show?

You kidding? It's Shark Week.

Okay! People!

Now that everybody's here... That's my seat.

I would like to call to order

the first official Elizabeth McCord kitchen cabinet. Yeah!

I like it.

And just as a reminder,

you're all here voluntarily outside your government duties.

That means that nothing we talk about tonight,

by law, can be discussed at the State Department.

No accidental

breakroom check-ins.

No e-mails from State.

And now

I will turn this meeting over to the next president

of the United States, Elizabeth McCord.Aw.

Thank you, everyone.

Oh! And I have to thank Stevie,

especially for those cookies.

Yes, thank you, Stevie. Thank you, Stevie.

I made them, too.

Can we have an oven on the tour bus?

No.Not really. But sort of.

That would be... Okay, forget it.

Number one topic tonight is the launch of the campaign,

which we think will be in two weeks.

Ten days. - So...

Ten days. Ten days.

Are we, uh, sure the speech is ready?

It's a masterpiece. I made a few tweaks.

That brings me to our next topic,

defining everyone's role in the campaign.

Most of us will have the same title

we now have at State.

With a much higher level of intensity.

This isn't gonna be some cushy conference in Geneva, people.

This is the longest marathon

of your lives, running uphill the whole way

with this woman's campaign agenda

carved into your foreheads.

You got me? Are we joining a cult?

It sounds like a cult. Right?

It's a team, and we're all in it together,

so for now rest up, get your annual checkups

and dentist appointments out of the way,

and try and enjoy the calm before the storm.

The fight of our lives.

Uh, excuse me. Mom,

security said that Russell Jackson's here.

Oh. - We've got room for him if he wants in.

We-we do?

Let's take five.

Yeah, hey, there's-there's more cookies in the kitchen.

Oh, there's cookies? - Yeah.

Hey, Russell.

Didn't realize I was crashing a party.

You're always on the guest list.

An article's

coming out in the next few days

in the Washington Chronicle

alleging an intimate relationship

between Elizabeth and Conrad

during their days at CIA.

- What? - Okay.

- Who's the source? - No, who's the reporter?

Some stringer named Terrence Robinson.

We don't know where he's getting his info. Well, that is

straight-up defamation.

No, this is good.

That means they have nothing in their oppo file

if they're making stuff up this early.

Unless they're not making it up,

which we'll talk later. They're making it up, Mike.

All right, well, the Chronicle called the White House

for comment, and we declined.

Most likely they'll be reaching out to you next.

Well, I absolutely want to comment.

Well, that's up to you and your team.

Obviously you've got more at stake with your campaign coming.

That's why we're not giving this

any oxygen.

But it's a complete load of crap.

Ignore it, it's one news cycle. Answer it,

it follows us the rest of the campaign.

What if we do some digging into the reporter?

Discredit the article as blatantly biased. MIKE: Sure,

wage war on the press ten days before we announce.

It's a brilliant strategy.

Not answering makes it look like we have something to hide.

Okay, we push the announcement three days

until the air is clear.

In the meantime the only thing

you talk about is policy, okay?

Let's get back to the meeting.

Let's go, people!

"She's not likable."

"I don't want to have a beer with her."

"I hate her voice." I mean, these are the things

that I was ready for,

but "she slept her way to the top"?

What century are we in?

It just means they're terrified.

No. This works, Henry.

This taps right into America's id.

And it works with women just as well as men.

Well, can you find out where it's coming from

and shut it down?

I mean,

there were always these stupid jokes

at CIA about Conrad and me.

Isabelle and I used to laugh about 'em.

We have to tell the kids.

Yeah, we do.

Morning, ma'am.

Morning.

Hey. I saw your draft

of the Global Climate Migration Agreement.

You must have been up half the night.

I'm all right.

You don't seem lit up by the thrill of negotiating shelter

for the displaced people of the next hundred years.

Thrill got dampened by this.

From East Asia and Pacific Affairs.

Oh, what the hell?

We knew China was trying to break into

the private jet industry.

A custom jet for General Bo Htun?

Hey, what's going on?

China just violated economic sanctions against Myanmar.

By selling a private jet to the military leader

of one of the poorest countries in Asia.

You know, why hide the corruption?

It's so much easier this way.

A total slap in the face right when we're negotiating the deal.

It's China. They're doing it because they know we need them

on the Climate Migration deal.

One jet sale is worth it to threaten the whole deal?

I want to put out a statement. Strong.

Don't hold back. On it.

There is the larger issue.

Yeah, I know.

Myanmar is all but getting away

with the Rohingya massacre.

They've met none of the demands of repatriation,

hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people still stuck

in camps in Bangladesh.

And the world is moving on, playing politics, selling jets.

It's Rwanda all over again.

Nina, get me our U.N. ambassador.

Of course, ma'am.

I share your outrage.

The Rohingya massacre is one of the worst human atrocities

in the last 20 years.

And President U Khaing?

Might as well be back under house arrest.

He's completely under the thumb of the generals.

Who are getting away with murder... in a private jet.

Thanks, Jen.

We can step up the sanctions.

Because it worked so well the first time?

If you really want to go rogue,

we can call an international criminal tribunal

at the U.N.

Prosecute Bo Htun

and his cronies for violations to the Geneva Convention

and crimes against humanity.

Well, I like the sound of that.

It's only been done once before, with Bosnia.

Milo. evic weaponized mob violence

against a Muslim ethnic minority. So there's precedent.

We can point up the parallels.