on getting answers. will abortion be the defining issue of this presidential election, or will it be about the economy

or i? south bay congressman ro khanna joins us to explain what he's doing to build a better bay area and nation. and is silicon valley taking a new interest in the war economy and is anti-war? san francisco actually the hub? our media partner, the san francisco standard, takes a close look through the lens of an over-the-top party. but first, another shoe drops for oakland mayor shantel. in the aftermath of the fbi raid on her home, a key member of her team has resigned. ripple effects from last week's fbi raid of oakland mayor shantel's home are shaking up city hall today. here are the latest developments. the mayor's chief of communications tells abc seven news today that he resigned his position in the wake of the fbi raid on the mayor's house. francis zamora had been in the position for nine months. the city's budget deadline is now just five days away, and oakland's finance committee met today to discuss the budget plan submitted by tao

and tao's plan relies on funds from the sale of the oakland coliseum to the african american sports and entertainment group. and the head of that group just told abc seven they are committed to making that sale happen. despite the turmoil in tao's administration, tao said yesterday in her first public comments that the deal is a priority for her as well. joining us live now to talk about the latest developments is abc seven news insider phil matier. phil, let's just make this a regular thing, but but tell us about the latest departure, her chief of communications, francis zamora, was what we'd call the spokesperson for the administration prior to working with oakland mayor shengtao. he worked in san francisco with the mayor's office for the department of emergency services, his departure. it's. he's not talking about it much. he didn't even mention the mayor shengtao in his exit statement, saying that it was an honor to work for the people of oakland and with his colleagues. but the timing of it is pretty clear. i

mean, he is leaving in the wake of a what would be the considered a rather controversial statement and performance by the mayor in reaction to the fbi raids on her house in which she declared her innocence and then went on to question the fbi's intentions, whether or not they were part or in some way. she hinted that they that it was coincidental that the raid came just two days after the initiative to, for a recall, qualified for the ballot and hinting that possibly this was all tied together in some sort of conspiracy that includes billionaires from san francisco and piedmont and piedmont. >> okay, but zamora, he is you know, he didn't say why he was resigning, as you said. he didn't mention her name. you know, and i'm not going to ask you to guess, but this does follow the attorney, tony brass's resignation, in which he was a little more explicit that she had her approach. i had my approach after the press. >> and i think that we can safely assume that that was the case here as well, that, as they

say, we had a difference in opinion, possibly about the direction in which the should be going. yeah this, but i would say that this has my understanding that this has sort of been building up for a while, this, you know, that there are tensions or questions about the direction, but you know, while that is on the mayor's plate, the city of oakland itself today is, is moving into some pretty choppy waters. as you mentioned, the finance committee met to go over the mayor's budget and at the same time start to move to declare a state of extreme fiscal necessity, extreme fiscal necessity. in other words, they are facing a fiscal crisis in oakland. they are about $117 million short of what they need to get through the year. the mayor has been saying that she was going to use the $100 million from the sale of the coliseum to help balance that, to help get the city out of that jam. and while she is committed to that deal, going through, and the people that want to buy it are committed to the to it going

through, i know that there are questions being raised in the city that even if the deal goes through, the money may not be able to be used by the city for a year or more. >> why is that? >> well, two reasons one, you still have to work out the deal and you have to actually go through it. and that takes time. it takes time for a real estate deal like this to go through oakland. >> the second thing, the second thing is you can't spend the money on a piece of property until all of its debts are cleared. >> and we have to remember that the oakland coliseum is still on the hook for another couple of years for the raider deal that they to bring the raiders back. so in other words, they have to pay off all their debts before they can use the money. wow. >> okay. >> so that could mean that this could the whole budget could be in for questionable sailing. >> even if the coliseum deal goes through. but let's talk about that right. you have the group saying, hey, we're still committed to buy despite the mayor's challenges. but when you

lose a key cheerleader, key supporter, key backer like this, what happens to it? i'm asking whether her troubles will make it harder for this deal to go through. harder for a budget to pass or not really. >> it as it stands right now, there are. i have yet to hear anybody on the oakland city council openly questioned the deal or the budget. people outside are questioning it, but i have to tell you that a number of people on the oakland city council are just hoping to get through till november without a complete meltdown. the mayor wants to get through to november because that's when the recall election is. other uh- people on the council are looking or running for other offices, so they want to keep the lid on things for as long as they can. whether or not they can do that remains to be seen, especially in light of the fbi investigation and how that has sort of brought everything up to the fore. >> now, yesterday she was emphatic that she's still the mayor, she's still taking care of business. she's still working. she's not going to be derailed. has anybody seen her

working? has she gone to any public meetings, any of the typical mayoral things, ribbon cuttings and things like that? >> anything uh- not. i don't know what she had on schedule. i haven't seen that. we will see if that becomes more of the case going forward. one would think that after an emphatic statement like that, you usually actually hit the bricks and get out on the streets as much as you can and be seen. but if there's one thing we know about the oakland administration is that it's like none we've seen before. and so they play by their own way, okay, have any supporters come forward at all for her? you know , i can't answer that because have any at all is such a definitive it's such a wide ranging scope. but i would say that, for example, at yesterday's news conference, with the exception of her chief of staff, there were not you did not see other city council members there. you didn't see other city electeds around her. this is the mayor is on her own on this and which is which is, you know, sort of understandable because this is what's going on

is a bit outside the realm of day to day operations of the city. this is something on her, even though it involves possibly a business that's doing business with the city of oakland. but then that business has been giving campaign contributions to all the politicians. that is true. >> that is true. okay, we got to run. but one quick question for you before we go. so for now, she's not resigning. so the recall is still on, i presume, for november. who's lining up to go for mayor should she get recalled? >> well, i think dan noyes is going to report later today. i know he's going to report today that lauren taylor, one of the who who she defeated very narrowly, is already gearing up to run again. so i'd stay tuned and watch for the for that, because that could be a face we're going to be seeing a lot from in the next couple of months. >> and dan appreciates that push to the later newscast. thank you so much. allight, phil, abc seven news insider appreciate it. all right. coming up with the widening of political divides in our nation is congress becoming more gridlocked and ineffective? frankly, we'll ask south

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u.s. supreme court reversed 50 years of a constitutional guarantee for women to be able to obtain an abortion whichever state they live in. the anniversary comes ahead of this week's highly anticipated televised debate between president biden and former president trump, as they vie for the white house in november. joining us live now to talk more about that and more south bay congressman ro khanna. congressman khanna, it's nice to see you. >> great to see you, kristen, as always, we have a lot on our plate. >> but i do want to start with uh- dobbs and roe versus wade and abortion rights. what can you do in your role as congressional rep to protect reproductive rights? >> kristen, it has been

appalling to see the assault on women's rights and reproductive rights. i was on the board of planned parenthood marmonte before i got into office, and just last week i was visiting a new marmonte center in my district. they said 40, 40% of the patients they're seeing for abortion care are coming from texas. and one of the things that i can do is make sure that our district, our community, is open to other states where women are being denied reproductive care. we also, in congress, need to pass a law to codify roe versus wade, because this supreme court is just out of touch. >> well, i want to ask you i know that's your desire, but is that realistic? is that feasible given today's congress and the makeup? and i wonder what's different between this and interracial marriage, which congress was able to codify in in 2022? >> well, what's different is that the republicans have not

recognized yet that this is an issue of women's rights, of human rights, of women's equality. uh. but we passed a bill in the house last congress codifying roe versus wade. the problem is that the republicans now are in charge. the only way we're going to codify roe versus wade is if the president is reelected, and if the democrats have the house and the senate, if we do get that trifecta, then i'm quite hopeful we will get it done. we almost got it done last congress, but it was held up in the senate. >> yeah. well, the biden administration, the biden campaign is certainly making abortion a key issue this november. do you think it'll land with americans, especially the key demos and in key swing states, because polls seem to show people care about the economy more and they're they're not giving biden a lot of credit. >> i do think abortion is a huge issue. i was in wisconsin campaigning for the president, where there is a law that would ban abortion and the courts are considering it. and in those

states, a particularly with young voters, particularly with many women, it is the decisive issue. we saw that that's what won us the a lot of races in the midterms in 2022. uh- now we have to also have a compelling vision on the economy. the president, as you pointed out, is presiding over record job creation, record unemployment. and he has an agenda for the second term for child care, for helping with college costs, for increasing wages. and we need to contrast that with donald trump, who basically gave tax cuts to the very wealthy. >> all right. well speaking of employment and unemployment here in the bay area, there certainly are some worries given some of the layoffs in tech recently. right. many people blame. i uh- you saw this week, bay area based homework help service chegg lay off a quarter of its workforce as chatgpt kind of made it unnecessary. and today, voice actors filed suit against a berkeley ai startup, lobo, saying their voices were cloned

without their permission. so i guess as the congressional rep for the silicon valley, how are you balancing preserving jobs while encouraging innovation in entrepreneurship? >> well, the new york times op ed just on this topic a few months ago. and what i said is we need to give workers voice. workers say, on how ai is going to be adopted so that it is enhancing people's capability, not eliminating jobs. and the key to that is to have a worker empowerment. but i also offers extraordinary benefits. i mean, uh- ai is being used to discover new molecules for drugs. ai can be used to have an industrial revolution to bring manufacturing back. ai can be used to help on education, so we need the positives while regulating uh- and making sure it doesn't eliminate jobs. >> all right, we report on people who build a better bay area, and that encompasses a lot, right? from housing to transportation to jobs to fighting drugs and crime. and

what are the top things you want to work on to build a better bay area person? >> the first is the cost of housing and the cost of rent. uh- rents are too high. we need to have a rent cap that rents can't go up higher than inflation. we need to build, build, build, build more affordable housing in san jose and the bay area. the second issue is transportation. i'm working very hard to secure the federal funding to continue the extension of bart. we need to continue to invest in public transportation. and the third for our area and for the country and the world is climate. i have been leading on ending fossil fuel subsidies and investing in solar and wind and geothermal and in small modular nuclear, which we're going to need as i takes up more and more energy with data centers to tackle climate. >> all right. definitely not discounting climate. definitely not discounting budget. i'm going to pass budgets to keep

the lights on. but in terms of the big things that really advance the welfare of people or advance our society, i think there's a sense amongst a lot of people that congress can't get it done now because of how divided it is that, you know, everything has to come from presidential executive orders, which can be reversed, or supreme court rulings, which leaves a lot of people unhappy as well. where does congress go from here, given today's realities? >> kristen sze it's a very fair question. i would say there are some big things. we came together on. we passed the chips act, which is bringing semiconductors back. we passed the american rescue plan, which put $100 billion into our schools and gave people checks during the pandemic. we passed the infrastructure bill, which is benefiting my district and districts across the country and building new roads and bridges. we also passed aid to ukraine. so putin can't march into ukraine, and we have managed to pass budgets. so we haven't defaulted on the budget, but we

need to figure out how do we work to get things done. i mean, there are two types of people in congress. there are those who go to be show horses to just get on social media or the media and make sensational statements. my district and silicon valley expects their members to get things done to work across the aisle, and i'm going to continue to do that. that's how we got the chips and science bill passed that i helped co-write. i passed over seven bills in congress, and i will look for those opportunities to do more, more legislation. >> all right. speaking, i want to turn things back to the debate thursday night real quickly. what do you think president biden needs to do? its about the economy. >> it's about what you said improving people's lives. how is he going to do that in the second term? i would talk about three big things. he's going to get universal child care. he's going to help make community college and college free or affordable. and he's going to push for an increase in the minimum wage and for working class wages. >> all right. and speaking of

the presidential election, i know you're definitely team biden right now, but during a panel at the annual indian american, impact summit in may, your colleagues said yes to the question, is ro khanna running for president? so let me ask you, are you seriously or maybe even not that seriously, but are you considering a run for the white house in the future? >> well, let me say this every community has pride, and i'm really honored that the indian-american community, thinks that of me. but we've got to win this election to have future elections. what i will say about the future is that it will be wonderful to have a new generation lead. certainly, silicon valley should have a voice in that. and we need a progressive with economic ideas, and i hope to be part of the conversation in what capacity? i don't know, but right now i'm just grateful to my district for giving me the opportunity to represent such a consequential district. >> so what i'm hearing is that it's not a no, maybe it's a way.

>> i never say no to anything in life, nor do i say, clearly, yes. i mean, i think the one thing i've learned about politics is it's unpredictable. you can't predict more than six months out. so i would never rule anything out. but certainly that's not my focus right now. my focus is doing an amazing job to represent silicon valley, which is probably the biggest wealth generation in of any area in the world, and dealing with such important issues of technology. i and then to help make sure president biden wins this race. >> all right. congressman ro khanna, thank you so much. appreciate it. and you can watch the cnn presidential debate this thursday here on abc seven. abc's coverage begins at five. and then the debate itself starts at six. all right, a tech convention happening now in the bay area is focused on turning science fiction into reality. our media partner, the san francisco standard, gets us inside a

party featured a part of bay area world war two history. what exactly is deep tech week? our media partner, the san francisco standard, just published an article, a military grade tech rave signals a new movement in silicon valley. standard tech culture reporter priya anand wrote the article and is here now to tell us about the event. hey priya. >> thanks for having me. >> nice to have you on. what is deep tech and what is deep tech week? >> the shorthand for deep tech is anything that could sort of change the course of how we live. our lives and turn science fiction into reality. so think self-driving cars, brain mapping , neurotechnology, aerospace things, supersonic flight. so we can fly from place to place significantly faster. and of course, alternative energy sources that can help put a stop to climate change. >> okay, so that's deep tech. but this deep tech week, is this a first? is this a new event? >> they're hosting a series of events around san francisco over the next week to have different panels on these topics. and at

the party over the weekend, they had a panel, for example, called how not to die about longevity and different efforts to improve longevity for people. >> that's been a very popular topic in silicon valley. i definitely know a lot of money has gone into that. everybody wants to live forever. but talk about it. you mentioned a weekend event. that's the launch party, right? tell us about that. >> this party was on the uss hornet, which is docked in alameda. it's an old aircraft carrier there. old fighter jets inside. they had this whole hangar space that they decked out with lights and lasers for music show. they had dj sets, various dj set up inside the hangar and on the flight deck, and there were about nine cybertrucks from tesla parked outside. one of them said, pimp my ev on it, so it was a real vibe. when i got there, i walked past all the cybertrucks. i saw the pimp navy in cursive on it, and then there was a robotic dog from the company boston dynamics. they've made this robotic dog for years now. i followed it up the steps to get

into the aircraft carrier uh. and then, you know, you go inside. they had some tech demos set up, and then they had some panels and a bunch of bars, too. >> looking at your video, i'm entirely jealous. i didn't get an invite, but this is really, really neat. in fact, one venture capitalist you talked to said this was the most epic tech event that she's ever attended. i don't know if you agree with that, but but tell us what these technologies suggest to you covering this topic in terms of the changing landscape. >> well, there are a couple things. one, i think i don't know about epic because i think that's sort of in the eye of the beholder and what you consider to be fun on your sunday night. but at the end of the day, it was the most flashy tech party i've been to in years, and i've been covering this industry for almost a decade. having it on an aircraft carrier by the water with a view of san francisco, all the cyber trucks lined up and one thing that is clear is there was a message of san francisco is not only back post-pandemic, but this is the

epicenter for tech. regardless of how much money is going to other places. and, you know, the rise of remote work. yeah. the other thing is a lot of these topics were very focused on sort of american national interests, right? i mean, aerospace defense, doing things to, to help america's national interests. i mean, one of the most prominent venture firms, andreessen horowitz, coined this term american dynamism for one of their funds. and it's really tech that's in these various spaces i just mentioned. and i think something that's come along with that is their increase in popularity. and this idea that, you know, it's almost like the make america great again of venture capital, looking at industries that can actually really improve the us manufacturing infrastructure. robotics, things like flying cars, flying water taxis, things that seem really far fetched but could change the course of how we live our lives. >> oh, and there's that beloved boston dynamics robotic dog. and even that has potential military applications, right? just like

ai and all that. so is that kind of a change? because silicon valley companies, you know, google, many others have always been kind of skittish about getting close to that industry or having their technology applied to that sector. >> ai is a huge focus right now, and i would say the military applications are certainly something that many folks in the industry are discussing right now. it's a huge topic, and it's interesting because a handful of years ago, google actually opted not to renew a contract with the pentagon when workers were upset that their technology was going to be used to improve targeting for drone strikes. they had a huge internal controversy over that. uh- employees had long been told that one internal motto was don't be evil. and so they felt upset that their work was being used for war making. but i think that era is very clearly over right now, and i also think workers have a lot less leverage in silicon valley. right now. right? many companies have had rounds and rounds of layoffs. there's this, there's this sort of idea that everyone should operate more in a more

lean way. now, the cushy tech job era is, is kind of over at this point. >> no more free lunch at lots of places, priya anand, thank you so much. really appreciate it. if you want to read priya's article and check out more of the standard's other original

from around the bay area. world news tonight with david muir is tonight, the severe weather threat as we come an the air. 75 million americans under alerts. storms from chicago, the midwest, now headed for the northeast. president biden and former president trump, final