welcome to "amanpour" on pbs. tonight the u.s. congress votes to reopen the government after the president was forced to mark his first year in office with a weekend shutdown. one year after the women's march started an unstoppable movement, planned parenthood leaders richards joins me live. one nation after trump. my conversation with the authors norman orenstein and e.j. dionne about what the government shutdown says about the great negotiat negotiator.

"amanpour" on pbs made possible by the generous support of roslyn p. walter. >> good evening, everyone, and welcome to the program. i'm christiane amanpour in london with the global perspective. as the u.s. government suffered a bout of paralysis this weekend, women all over america and all over the world were on the move. in almost every major city, hundreds of thousands of women marched for the second year in a row, demanding their rights. so is the opposition to trump female, is the future female? cecile richards is one of america's most well-known women's rights activists. she's president of the planned parenthood federation of america and she joins me now from new york. cecile richards, welcome to the program. >> thanks for having me. >> so what do you say to those questions? is the opposition female? is the future female? >> it's absolutely extraordinary here in the u.s. to see,

christiane. i think after one of the most devastating elections of our lifetimes that women now have become the most important political force in america. they have been leading the resistance to this administration and to congress. they are training to run for office and filing to run for office all across the country. and they've determined every election that we had in the last 12 months. so it's actually a very exciting time to see this kind of movement. >> so you were at one of the marches. and you've said women of america, or women, are shaking the foundations of america. just describe what it was like this year, particularly compared to last year, which was the first. >> well, sure. i think that, look, the first women's march, that was really a moment, of course the day after the inauguration when a lot of women were really at sea a bit, somewhat desperate about what would happen. this year's marches to me, and i was able to be in the one in new york, then also in las vegas, nevada, yesterday, women were resolute. and not only women. thousands and thousands of men joined these marches as well.

because women have now seen what this -- the agenda of this administration. i mean, frankly, planned parenthood has been in the crosshairs of this congress. women's health care, women's rights. and women have risen up. so i felt like the spirit w one of commitment and a real focus on the november 2018 elections in the u.s. >> so clearly you are looking forward, you're not just taking to the streets, it's not just marching for marching's sake, it's not just commemorating last year. or the entire momentum of this year. what specifically do you think has the women's movement got planned for 2018? and other local elections? >> sure. well, what we saw last year is not only that women organize and self-organize -- i can't go to a town in america where there's not a new women's group that's started up. a lot of the fight last year was around protecting planned parenthood and affordable care act for women. women were victorious and i think that's given women the energy to feel like now they can

really turn their sights on politics. we had of course a big senate race in alabama and it was really women of color that determined the outcome of that. democratic senator to the united states senate. we saw the same thing happening in virginia. even just last week, a woman in rural wisconsin won a race that no one thought she could win. emily's list estimates that more than 25,000 women have asked them for help in learning how to run for office. i think what we're going to see now is women keenly focused on changing the face of who's in power, not only in washington, d.c., but in state legislatures all across the country. >> just as you were talking, we had a four split showing major cities with huge, huge marches from yesterday. let me pick up on what you said about women of color. because you have called on white women of america to stand up and pi believe those were your word. what do you mean by save america from itself? but also, the difference you're making between women of color

and white women? >> well, i think it's really important, christiane that we call out the role women of color in the u.s. have played in winning elections. not only this last year but several years. in fact women of color are the most reliable progressive voters in this country. it's still very disturbing for many of us that 53% of white women voted for donald trump. we have a lot of work to do. we have a lot of work to do in talking to our sisters and to our mothers and our friends and really talking about the dangerous policies of this administration, the attacks on women. i feel like that's the work that we have to do to ensure that we're not relying simply on women of color to carry us over the finish line. that's work that i thought people really committed to doing in the marches yesterday. >> just quickly, do you feel that there were more men involved this year than last year? have men now got into the movement sort of whole-heartedly? >> i think men absolutely have been. because one of the things i

think as a generational change, christiane, men want their daughters, their granddaughters, to have the same opportunities as their sons and grandsons. and they recognize that this administration that has gone after women's rights, rights to legal and safe abortion, rights to access to health care, sexual harassment, issues that are profoundly disturbing, men are seeing they have to be out there in the streets with us. not only that, but in the voting booth as well in november. >> and you talk about those rights, of course today is the anniversary of roe versus wade. let me ask you to respond to president trump's tweet. he basically said, beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all women to march, get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months, lowest female unemployment in 18 years." he's hearing you, jumping on your bdwagon too. >> i mean, extraordinary, this is a man who's aolutely able to block out any news and any

real information. he obviously wasn't reading the signs of the women that i was reading yesterday in these marches. women are deeply concerned. and what we saw even in the fight over health care access and protecting obamacare, protecting the birth control benefit that planned parenthood has fought for, protecting access to planned parenthood, in that fight in congress, the estimates are that 86% of the calls were coming from women. deeply disturbed about losing access to affordable health care. if i were president trump, if i were someone in the republican leadership in congress, i would be worried about women because i think women in november are coming for revenge. >> and that's a pretty strong way of putting it. do you feel the organization is there? you talked about emily's list, you talk about the thousands and thousands of women who presented themselves for some kind of -- figuring out how to actually run and get into the race. do you feel that the organization is there and the moment is going to be harnessed and not squandered?

>> i think it is. and again, we can just look at last year when folks really didn't know what to expect. but we saw, for example, state of virginia. not only did women help win the governor's race there, but the first latinas ever elected to the state legislature in virginia took office. the first transgender woman ever was elected in the state of virginia. these are races that everyone had written off, had thought were impossible to win. so i think it's important. women are building on that sense of empowerment. you know, when my mom was governor of texas, it used to frustrate her that women never wanted to run for office, they were waiting for someone to ask them, or to have the perfect resume. what's exciting this year is seeing the numbe of women who aren't waiting to beaske are looking who's in office, looking at who's in congress, looking at who's in the white house and saying, you know what i can do better than that. and they're going to run for office. to me, it's a huge opportunity. >> your mother, governor ann

richards of texas, was truly a force of nature. very few people with her skills and her presence in public office. so it's also a year since hillary clinton was not inaugurated, the first female president of the united states. but do you think that the debate in 2018 or the list of candidates in local legislative city councils and national races will look different than last time? will there be more on stage or just one or two token women out there? >> no, i mean, it's not only at the national level. but we're seeing it all across the country. women running for office, state and local offices, as well as hundreds of women have now filed to run for u.s. congress. and the united states senate. that has never happened before. women now running for governor. and of course that's an area which we are so underrepresented. i actually -- if you look at the numbers, women are the biggest

voting bloc in this country. they have been leading the resistance to every policy this administration has undertaken. and of course we're seeing in the "me too" movement and "time's up." women are also questioning every cultural assumption that we've had. so there's just no -- any way you look at it, women are changing the debate in this country and around the world. and it's about time. it's very exciting. >> we'll keep wahing. cecile richards, president of planned parenthood, thank you so much for joining us tonigh so hundreds of thousands of women marches were protesting a government they say doesn't represent them. but this weekend on the very anniversary of president trump's inauguration, the u.s. government was representing no one as it was shut down. partisan dysfunction forced most government services to grind to a halt. so why does this keep happening? my next guests have each spent long, distinguished careers considering that very question.

norman orenstein is resident congressional scholar at the american enterprise institute. and e.j. dionne is a columnist at "the washington post." together they wrote the new book "one nation after trump." as yet another vote was under way to try to reopen the government for business. i asked them what this sorry state of affairs says about the world's only super power and its president. norm orenstein and e.j. dionne, welcome to the program. what does this whole episode about the government shutdown tell us about the great negotiator? let me go to you, norm, first. >> you know, i sometimes joke that i don't think donald trump read "the art of the deal," much less wrote it. here we are one year later. and the shutdown in many ways is emblematic of what has become an utterly dysfunctional government that can't seem to get its act together on much of anything except republicans with a

ginormous tax cut and through the executive branch for which you can at least acknowledge some credit to the trump/pence administration demolishing a whole series of regulations, many of which have been 40 or 50 years in the making, and jamming through some judges. in terms of governance, taking care that the laws be faithfully executed, seeing that the country moves along on a reasonable track, trying to find the kinds of compromises that are built into, should be baked into the american political system, we have very little to show for one year of trump. >> e.j., you are a columnist for "the washington post." your progressive colors are stuck to the mast. what about the republicans, the white house switchboard, everybody's calling this a democratic shutdown. >> right. i think it is not the schumer shutdown, first of all. and secondly, i think that this

episode teaches us a lot about why we can't have what a lot of people say they want, which is moderate, reasonable government. the democrats and republicans like lindsey graham and jeff flake negotiated very carefully to construct a deal that donald trump could accept. it was going to be a deal that would protect the d.r.e.a.m.ers who came here after all not voluntarily, they were brought here by their parents as children. deporting them would be an abomination. so they protect the d.r.e.a.m.ers. but they gave trump a lot of serious concessions on stronger border security and also on other aspects of immigtion trum strong signals that he accd that deal. and then along come right-wing members of his administration on immigration that includes chief of staff john kelley, but notably steven miller, who informed trump that that really

isn't his position. and so what could have been a very easy and sensible fix that would have avoided all of this kerfuffle was pushed aside by trump. then that happened a second time with schumer. and it's not just democrats who are saying that trump is being pushed by right-wingers inside his administration or that he -- and that he really doesn't know the issues. mitch mcconnell, the republican leader of the senate, got on the floor and said, it would help if knew where the republicans stood. and of course lindsey graham called out steven miller outright. so this is one particularly stark example of how we could govern ourselves in a perfectly reasonable fashion that didn't tack way left or way right. and that the republican party is now in thrall to some very radically conservative elements who when the crunch comes win out. that's a real problem for the

country. >> i guess what people all over the country and all over the world are trying to figure out is what happened to the great negotiator? how much did president trump have to do with these various steps that have been going on? he said, we can get it done. we saw that huge roundtable that was filmed for some 55 minutes about two weeks ago. so what was his role in this, norm? >> so we had the president saying, if you can agree on any kind of deal, i'll sign and it i'll take the heat. and then as e.j. said, what's happened basically is the president has become a captive of the 30% or 35% that make up his base, and not just that 35% of the american public which includes a substantial number of people who are for doing something positive for the d.r.e.a.m.ers and resolving these issues.

but the most anti-immigration, nativist forces that include senator tom cotton, representative bob goodlatte, and the two people who seem to be acting as copresidents, steven miller and john kelley. and trump simply does not want to alienate that base. and he's blown up a deal that was right there for the making. he is unable, i think, to understand the whole nature of w you make deals in governance, which are not the same as making deals in real estate. >> and he has -- again, around this table, talking about an immigration bill full of love. he wanted it to be a good bill for these dream e.r.e.a.m.ers. and he's proudly nonideological. on many issues he says he's nonideological, he wants to make the best deals possible. how is it he has as you said gotten hijacked by the hard

liners on this? >> i think he's the most ideological nonideological politician in history. i think the problem with trump is he always postures in the direction of the crowd or the individual that happens to be in front of him. he tends to agree with the last person he talks to, that's widely reported. and in the campaign, he succeeded in having it both ways. to americans who are simply upset that washington didn't function, didn't like gridlock, he presented himself as this dealmaker. his history as a dealmaker isn't all that good. he went bankrupt a number of times. there are a lot of people who stopped making deals with him, who stops doing business with him because he couldn't be counted on to live up to the terms of a deal. but then on the other side too, the hard-core particularly nativist right, he presented himself from the beginning, this is the person who started his campaign by saying that many mexican immigrants were rapists.

he presented himself as a real hardliner. and every time in this negotiation, when push came to shove, he backed away from the dealmaker who would give us a bill of love, as he said at one point, and went in the ideological direction. the disturbing thing about this shutdown is that the republicans went much closer to embracing a kind of pure nativist position than they have before. it used to be the case that an enormous number of republican l yes, the d.r.e.a.m.ers should be protected. suddenly once the fight started the d.r.e.a.m.ers became illegal immigrants. few republicans stood up and condemned that outrageous ad saying the democrats would be responsible for murders committed by immigrants. most republicans a year ago would have said, no, that is

unacceptable, you just didn't hear them speaking out in any kind of numbers this time. >> you're talking about the one that the campaign to re-elect the president has put out called "complicit." it is pretty shocking. you've heard chuck schumer, the senate minority leader, talk about negotiating with trump is like negotiating with jell-o, goal posts constantly moving, as you said he pretty much listens potentially to the last person in his ear. but a republican senator has said, john kennedy has said that our country was founded by geniuses, but it's being run by idiots. that's harsh. is it your assessment as well? >> i have to say we certainly have people who may not meet the iq test of being idiots. they could do better than the president on any one of the tests that were given. but what we're looking at is a bunch of reckless people who

have been taken over by an ideological wing and by big donors who push them in that direction that move us away from what the framers saw as a way of governing. you know, there are two larger points to make here, christiane. one is, we're doing this over a government shutdown because we had a fiscal year that began october 1 of last year. we're supposed to have 12 spending bills done by the republicans in congress that would have taken us through the year. and they didn't do any of these. and this is the fourth time that they've been unable to come to an agreement and had to do one of these continuing resolutions. now any resolution we get of this issue would just take us three more weeks. and then we're going to have it again. and we're going to have groundhog day or friday the 13th all over again. because they can't agree on their own spending priorities. this is the republicans in the

house verses the republicans in the senate. and all against democrats. where they're trying to slash and burn a whole series of programs. >> i just wanted to stop you on continuing resolutions. because for our international audience, just explain exactly what that means. it doesn't just put another pot of money and then the government functions as usual, right? it has serious restrictions on departments like the pentagon and others. >> and what we've had is the secretary of defense who says, we can do no planning when what we're told is you're just going to have last year's spending levels for another three weeks, and we have no idea what will happen after that. it is extremely bad. this is idiotic governing. in that sense john kennedy is absolutely right. what we also have to keep in mind is we have another program that has overwhelming bipartisan support. it provides health insurance to nip million poor children called c.h.i.p., children's health surance prram. the republican leaders, paul

ryan the speaker, mitch mcconnell the majority leader, deliberately refused to extend that program. some kids are already losing insurance. ong with yet another s to go continuing resolution. this is governing in a sadistic way, frankly. >> it really is very, very harsh. go ahead, e.j. >> let me just underscore briefly the point that norm made. because most people in democracies don't think that much about, and it's good that they don't because governments function, but they don't think that much about the guts of government and how it works and how governments deliver the services that people count on. what we have had for quite a while now is the systematic destruction of the structure of our government. secretary mattis is right to complain that with this kind of budgeting, you can't plan. that's as true in health and

human service agencies as it is in the pentagon. and the other problem is this disrespect shown toward the basic functioning of government has led to trump administration to leave an enormous number of jobs completely empty in the government. leadership jobs in the government. and as you have talked about before, there's really been a kind of gutting of our state department, no matter where you are philosophically or ideologically, this is not in the interests of the american people to be systematically undercutting the capacity of our government to work. >> norm, just to expand, the global impact of this -- and let's not forget, president trump is scheduled to come over here to the very progressive talking shop of the global elite in davos in the next several days. how wil he be greeted, do you think? >> i think he will be greeted with disdain. which is the way most world

leaders think. the global impact, though, is a dangerous and difficult one. as e.j. mentioned, the diplomatic corps has been devastated. we've lost 60% or so of our most senior and trusted career diplomats. recruitment for the state department is down. you worry that some foreign leader might try and take advantage of a military that's still active but not being paid and demoralized. we are in a situation where of the 600 or so key policy positions, one year into the administration, more have had nobody nominated than have actually been filled. that means that we have a world that looks on the u.s. in a very different way, can't trust it, doesn't know where it's going, and can't believe that we are in the midst of this kind of embarrassment. >> i wonder if you view the women's movement and the massive marches, almost unreported this

year, but the massive marches that commemorated the first marches last year. do you think that in a way is a political position or some kind of political turning point, game-changer, in united states and around the world right now? >> what you saw in the marches is exactly what you've seen reflected in the ballot boxes in pretty much every election since trump was elected. democrats have taken 34 legislative seats. republicans have taken only four away from the democrats. andwo ofhose are in the deep south. you had the results in virginia, in new jersey, in connecticut, in pennsylvania. i mean, there is -- what you have is the opposition to trump is mobilized and his supporters aren't. it's 2010 and 2014 in reverse. and women are a huge part of that. i can't remember the precise numbers. but i think that today's

"washington post"/abc poll in the congressional races, republicans are winning men by 9 points. democrats are winning women by 35 points. we have never seen a gender gap like that. there's something very particular happening among women. >> it is an extraordinary way to mark an anniversary. norm orenstein, e.j. dionne, authors of "one nation after trump," thank you so much. and that's it for our program tonight. thank you for watching "amanpour" on pbs. join us again tomorrow night. >> "amanpour" on pbs was made possible by the generous support of roslyn p. walter.

>> you're watching "beyond 100 days" on pbs. the u.s. government will reopen tonight after a three-day shutdown. >> democrats agree to give republicans the votes to get things moving. in return for discussion on a key immigration issue. >> but this deal only lasts for a fortnight, which means we could be back in shutdown territory again next month. it's an odd way to govern. [applause] >> scuffles in israel's parliament as the u.s. vice @prl move its embassy to jerusalem by the end of next year whether also on the program, we're in davos, where the snow is falling and debate is shifting to how the world may b