building a better bay area, for a safe and secure feature, this is abc 7 news. >> hi, everyone. i'm liz kreutz, welcome to our daily program called "getting answe answers". we're asking experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers to you in real time. we're looking at the new biden administration. we'll talk to a journalist and biographer for vice president kamala harris. we'll also take you inside the white house transition process. but, first, it is time to get to work. so joining us to talk about what happens next, and everything we saw today, is abc 7 contributor phil meantier and fellow lonnie chang. good afternoon to both of you. phil, i'll start with you, both of you, feel free to jump in,

let's have a conversation here, phil, first, your overall thoughts an what we saw today. what struck you the most? >> what struck me the most is the difference between this and two weeks ago. it was a reaffirmation of democracy and what, you know, the peaceful transfer of power. it was a ritual. we had the swearing in. the president became the president automatically. but the swearing in is a statement to the nation, and i think we have got what we heard before, a call for unity. but my question to lonnie is, okay, we have the inauguration, we have the words, we have the imangs, what do we have to take away from this and what's next? >> that actually, lonnie, i was going to say the same, you'reol adviser to mitt romney, no fan of president trump now. to phil's point, d yoou biden's speeod tchay to bridge some of the divisions in the country? >> well, look, words and rhetoric can matter a lot. i think president biden's call to end what he termed an uncivil war between red and blue,

between conservative and liberal, i think that was a very appropriate call, i think it is one that hopefully no american can disagree with, a need to come together, a need to try and bridge some of the divisions. it is the case that joe biden is going to be governing as a democrat. he was elected as a democrat, elected with a progressive agenda. some of the first items out, calling for immigration reform, a contentious topic, a stimulus package that includes $2 trillion of spending, some of which republicans will like, some won't like, it is a mixed bag going forward now. i think the words are very important. the actions are going to be more telling over the next several weeks. will joe biden try and get together and find more common ground with republicans to get things done or try it pursue things in a strictly partisan . i think that is something wer ma nenned to watch as the days go . >> it is an interesting dynamic we have set up. we have a democrat -- democrats have control of the house of representatives. but not all of them on the

bernie side of the spectrum. there is a moderate wing there that could get things passed as well with republican help. the senate is pretty evenly spt.split. and with just one vote that swings it over to the democratic need moderates to work together to get things done. my question is, for all the talk of unity, first issue that is facing those bodies is the impeachment of donald trump. now, where do you see that going? >> well, you know, i don't see there being 17 republicans to vote to convict the former president. you know, i think there will be many more than there were in th ary of last year. so i think maybe do you see eight, nine, ten, republicans coming forward to vote in favor of convicting the president? i do think that's a possibility. to get to 17 is unlikely. i think the goal frankly for both sides is to have the trial,

to get this behind folks as soon as they can, you know. i don't think there is a strong desire frankly amongst the biden administration, or amongst republicans to linger too long on this trial. so this is going to be one of those cases of a situation where, you know, both sides have it, i think, in their interest to get this thing kind of rolling, get it behind them, and move on. biden has a lot of things he wanted to do, a lot of nominees that need to get confirmed. those will be ultimately theth r president and the new administration. >> lahnee what do you think is next for the republican party. there is so many different brands of republican right now, and sort of is the party moving in the direction of the trump party? or does he think it is going to get back to the mitt romney republicans? >> well, look, some of this, liz, is overblown. in every political party you're talking about coalitions that are the combinations of a lot of different kinds of people. and certainly when a party loses the presidency, loses both houses of congress, it is cause

to examine what happened and what went wrong, and there are, of course, divisions and disagreements within the party about the best way to proceed. i think part of this is going to be what donald trump decides to do. trump has talked about forming his own party, forming his own movement, leaving the republican party, that would obviously leave the republican party in a difficult place electorally. in some places makes the sationr nv because, you know, trump will go and do his thing and republicans in some ways will try to be a p you know, that looks to ideas as opposed to personalities again. i think that is something that a lot of mainstream republicans say, okay, look, if trump is going to do that, he's going to do it, is there short-term pain, absolutely, but in the long run it may be better for the conservative movement if some of that is separated out. >> but let's go back on that for a second here, because if we have an impeachment trial of donald trump, you're giving him a plat foreign ministero quietl mar-a-lago.

he'll be on the floor of the senate testifying himself. you're going to be handing him a second exit. i know you don't think they have the votes to convict,o you see a trial of donald trump in the first 100 days? >> well, that's going to be the democrats' decision. that is fundamentally going to be a decision that chuck schumer and his caucuseav h have to make a decision on. they have control of the senate effectively now. it is going to be their call. i do think if the charges come over, which they have, obviously, they were sent over by speaker pelosi, they have to do something with them. i don't think there is a huge appetite to give donald trump a platform. that's why i argue, it is in their best interest to dispense of this as quickly as possible. look, there are a lot of investigations going onto what happened in i then capitol of weeks ago. there is a lot of investigations into that. those need to happen. the people who perpetrated the violence need to be held

responsible, but ultimately the question of trump in my mind is one that both sides are kind of eager to turn the page on, and i think that's what they should do. >> you see the reason i'm bringing this up, not just to harp on it, but, liz, i would like your thoughts on this as well, you know, if you're going to go forward with such things as the dream act, daca, executive decisions, an ambitious plan by the president to have a path for citizenship for 11 million people, if we have stimulus package, if we have all these things that are going to require people to actually, you know, look ahead and not look in the rear view mirror and at the same time we have this, liz, you covered california up and down the state in trump country, what do you think an effect trump trial would have on the central valley? >> i think there is a lot of anger right now. the people want accountability, maybe accountability will come from the lawsuits coming after president trump right now. we know that is something that f

he's going to be in a lot of legal trouble it seems in the next few week and months. that could be the accountability. but i do think that you can't just move on for democrats. i think democrats feel like there has to be accountability in some way. as far as unity, i think it is a question, some people say the only way to get unity is to go after trump, but, lahnee, the big question is what would going after -- he's no longer president, right, what could impeaching the president and convicting him do now? what do you think? >> well, i mean, the only -- in my mind, the productive question is do you have enough votes to convict because the next question will be do you have enough votes subsequently to bar him from future public office? the constitution provides that as a remedy potentially for a situation like this, but it does require according to most interpretations an initial vote to convict. you got to get 67 senators, two-thirds of those senators

voting in the situation to say, yeah, we ought to vote in favor of convicting the former president, and then on top of that, you got to have another vote where, you know, a simple majority could then fyhi frosqm office. that is really the only way this process ends with any kind of a -- an outcome that impacts the future in terms of the fate of donald trump. so if you don't get to that initial bar, if you don't think you're going to get the 67 votes, it is a relatively elementary -- relatively academic question at that point. i think people want to do this for different reasons. but i haven't heard a ton of people, even democrats who believe that they ought to convict donald trump, former president trump, i haven't even heard them say they want to spend a long time dwelling on this. i think the answer is, get it done, get it out of the way, so joe biden can move on to his agenda. >> speaking of that, lahnee, we talked about 17 executive orders the president is signing today. we were talking about this earlier, what do you think of this, is this the new normal, that presidents can come in on

day one and kind of rewrite the past four years? do you think that's what's going to be moving forward for every president, how they handle it? >> well, it certainly has been the case for the last several administrations, yes, we have seen a secular increase in the use of executive action, started with the tail end of the george w. bush administration, when barack obama came in, he used the executive action quite frequently. donald trump did the same thing and we're seeing it with joe biden. look, executive action is a great way for a president to come in, and to demonstrate and show that they're doing something. that the new administration is getting things done. it doesn't create very durable policy, because it is very easily overturned by the next president. but the use of executive action is really about the president demonstrating, a, they can get something done, but, b, they're something done too. and that is also what joe biden is trying to accomplish here, to use executive action to tell congress, hey, get off your rear ends, let's work together and get things done, otherwise i'ms going to use the pen and the power of executive action to do it myself.

>> the flip side of that it lets congress off the hook. to do things. and we have seen that with immigration and other big issues, where we sort of let the president do executive orders, and then they say this is for the time i'm in office a it lets everybody off the hook. on immigration, yet to lead to a solution, which brings me to my question. specifically, do you see, you know, given the numbers in the house and the senate, and the administration, do you think that this senate will go the republicans would go for a $1.9 trillion relief package or a path to citizenship over eight years for 11 million people, or is that going to be the classic 50/50 vote with kamala harris coming in and breaking the tie. >> well, first of all, there is a lot of things you can't do by executive action, so you're right, congress is going to have to step in and act, immigration policy is one example of that. i think a lot of republicans will support a big stimulus

package. i think giving away money always is something that politicians at the end of the day don't mind doing. i think a lot of republicans will end up coming along. there is some provisions in what biden introduced that republicans aren't going to like. but those aside, i think they will be able to come to agreement on something. immigration is going to be a lot harder. that one, even democrats don't all agree on what to do. can you get a conservative democrat like joe manchin of west virginia who a lot of times basically votes like a republican, can you get him essentially to agree to a relatively progressive package on immigration reform. that's a challenge. democrats have some work to do there and if immigration reform gets done, it is probably going to be a more partisan alignment than you would see on coronavirus relief legislation, where you will see a more bipartisan coalition coming together. >> a lot to track and follow in the coming days and weeks. phil mattier, lahnee chen, thank you. >> i loved his line, at the end

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welcome back. history was made when kamala harris was sworn in as vice president of the united states today, an joining us to talk more about the vice president is dan morain who wrote a new biography on harris called "kamala's way." good afternoon, good to see you. >> great to see you, liz. >> i want to start with the name of your book. "kamala's way." what do you mean by that? what is "kamala's way"? >> well, you know, i suppose there are two meanings. one is how she got to -- from where she was, and oakland, in

1964, to where she is today, and, my goodness, what a trip it has been, but then it is also how she operates. you know, we californians know something about her, she's very tough, she's very smart, she's deliberate, she's a strategic thinker, she canlso be quite charismatic and charming, but very good retail politician, th a woman in a hurry. san franciscans will well know she was district attorney, been sworn in for a second term, not very much longer after that. she announced her candidacy for attorney general. a few days after she was sworn in for her second term, she announced her candidacy for united states senate. and two years after that ran for

president, so she was a woman in a hurry. nothing wrong with that, she moved up the ladder astonishingly quickly, didn't she? >> certainly on the fast track, absolutely. and, dan, you have been covering kamala harris for a-long ti lon. what did you learn about her through the process of writing this book that maybe you didn't fully understand about her before? >> well, i certainly learned a lot of details about her, about her life, and her rise and how she viewed issues. but, you know, the thing i suppose that i was most intrigbyd empathetic side of her. i was unaware that in many instances i document some of them, she went out of her way to, you know, carry on acts of kindness, for people who really

weren't in any kind of position to help stands out in my mind, was district attorney in san francisco, and lawyer, law school, classmate of hers, matthew davis called her one habeenolr uniser for h kamala harris' district attorney was very ill, near death, at laguna honda and he asked harris whether she would write a note to this woman. rather than do that, harris got in her car and invited her lawyer friend to meet her at laguna honda and there they -- the friend walked her to the woman's room, and she sat there for 20 minutes holding her hand, talking with her, and i thought that was touching. there was nocara, tre were

no reporters. it only became public later and the presidential campaign when kamala harris' friend posted it on facebook, and i spoke with him and hermfionedhe t details and -- but there were other instances like that, she calls mother who i write about of a daughter who died unexpectedly, teenager, calls her on anniversaries as we all know. >> i think you mentioned actually she called the widow of a friend of mine, tyron gail, a wonderful person who died a few years ago sadly of colon cancer but worked for kamala harris. we have to take a quick break for commercial. stick with us. we're streaming online and we're going to continue the conversation. if you're watching on facebook, send us your questions as well. if you're watching on tv, you can get dan's book "kamala's way" and we also have more on vice president kamala harris in

a documentary we produced harri on abc7news.com and all our connected tv apps.

welcome back. so much happens inside the white house to make sure one family moves out and another family it is a complicated process, and i talked about it with journalist kate anderson brower, author of the number one new york times best-seller "the residents inside the private world of the white house". kate, how does the white house staff prepare for this presidential transition? when does this process even start? >> well, in a normal transition, and this is anything but normal, right, with the pandemic, and also president who hasn't accepted the results, in a normal transition, they would start this process in the primaries, the chief usher who runs the white house and runs the staff of about -- manages a staff of 100 people, these are butlers, ushers, housekeepers,

they would start looking at what the president -- potential presidents like to eat, you know, their favorite kind of shampoo, things as specific as that, because they want this -- the new president and first lady to move in and feel like they're home. and they have about six hours, five to six hours to make this move happen. >> that's what -- going into detail about the actual day of the inauguration, ultimately it all happens in a matter of hours. it seems like cinderella almost. >> it is amazing how they do it. and you have to give them a lot of credit for their speed and just the ability to do this, every four to eight years they have this incredible choreographied routine they did and the staff does the move because for security reasons they don't hire an outside moving company. as the president's being sworn in, on capitol hill, it is the white house staff who is physically moving headboards, mattresses, unpacking clothes, hanging them in the closets, so

that when they move in, everything is absolutely perfect. >> and i even think i read in your book you said sometimes the staff almost hopes the current administration wins simply because they don't want to have to do this every four years. >> yeah. the head of operations told me the best transition is when there is no transition. and they get re-elected for another four years. they don't want to do this, they also don't want to say good-bye usually to the president and the first lady. there is a really moving good-bye ceremony that they do where they're in the state dining room, and these 100 people gather who serve the president and the first lady, and the president and first lady come around and say good-bye to each one of them and there is usually not a dry eye in the room. which is something you don't really normathy llink tradition where a gift is given to the outgoing president of the flag that flew over the white house, his first full day in office, and his last full day in office, and the carpenter shop makes a wooden box to present

the flag in. so it is very sweet. >> right. and i know -- i think if i'm correct, your reporting in the book goes throu part of the obama administration, but do you know much about what is happening right now inside the white house, as you mentioned that president trump hasn't really fully conceded? >> we any that melania trump has moved a lot of her things out. sent a lot of boxes to florida, to mar-a-lago. i'm in touch with somebody working on the transition, on the residence team, who says they are preparing for this deep clean of the residence, where we know that because of the pandemic, there is going to be an extra level of sanitation required in the residence, but then also every transition, there is this -- what they call a deep clean. >> you talk about presidents come and go. at the end of the day, the deca loyal regardless of party. can you talk about that loyalty and do you think that's changing at all now, just given how divisive our country has become had it comes to politics? >> it is a really interesting

question. i think that, you know, the residence staff is the snirsgee people, people who are there to serve the presidency, no matter who the president is. and i did wonder, you know, the staff who really enjoyed working for the obamas how would they feel about working for president trump, and, you know, i interviewed three of them on the record actually who had worked for trump and had since retired, and they said that they gave him the same amount of effort, you know, and they enjoyed working for him too. i actually think that it is one of those strange, rare things in washington where what you see is what you get and they are discreet and they are loyal, and it really doesn't matter who is there. i know they're looking forward to having the bidens in b they know -- they know them, they know what to expect. >> well, kate anderson brower, author of "the residents inside the private world of the white house," and this children's book, "exploring the white

house," thank you, kate. we appreciate it. >> it was nice talking to you. we were talking about the differences between the trump administration, biden administration and residents, biden is bringing two dogs and a cat. she expects a little bit of a softer side shown as well, with biden being a grandfather, maybe playing on the lawn with his dogs and his grandchildren. we'll see if that sort of comes back awell, something we saw during the obama administration with his photographer pete suiza. we're going to take a break now on

all right, thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers. we had a spirited conversation with abc 7 contributor phil matier and lahnee chen.

what happens now that we have a new administration? our inauguration coverage continues at 4:00. we'll talk live with congressman eric swalwell. have a good one. thank you for joining us. tonight, america waitnesses history. a new president is sworn in. president joe biden, america's 46th president. and vice president kamala harris making history as the first woman, first black, first asian-american vp. an inauguration like no other. president biden sworn in on the capitol steps in the shadow of a pandemic, an economic crisis, amid deep national divisions. under tight security and in the very place where rioters descended on the capitol two weeks ago today. >> so help me god. >> congratulations, mr. president. >> presidentid address nation, calling for unity and proclaiming this america's day. and that democracy has prevailed. vice president kamala harris making history. she will carry an influential voice with the president and a

decisive vote in the senate. shattered glass on a