tonight on news room, the he battle over next supreme court justice and heren the bay area, the mayor of a divided city and the scmble toreunite separated family as u.s. immigration authorities face another deadline. plus as alta bates plansos to cle its berkeley emergency room, how some residents in richmond are reacting. welcome to d kqws room we begin with politics this morning justice department issued indeemts for 12 ofoicers offenses related to the meddling in the 2016 election. it comes a few days before president donald trump is scheduled to mean with rus president vladimir putin this earlier this week the president

nominated brett kavanaugh who has a conservative record and has expressed strong support for presidentia immunity. his confirmation would push the court to the right and a showdown is under way. and herein the bay area, london brie made history whe she was sworn in as mayor on wednesday, the first african-american woman to hold the dupost. ing her speech, she had a message for the trump administration. s we are going to the president that here in francisco, we don't put children in cages. we put them in the classroom. joining me to discuss the week's legal and political developments are, nyu school of law professor melissa murray. kqed politics and government senior editor, scott schaeffer and politicalconsultant, shawn walsh. let's start with the big news, the justice department issued 12 indictments against russian intelligence officers for offenses related to t hacki

of the democratic national committee, the targ the 2016 election. shawn, what are the legal consequences of this? because it's n like russia is going to extradite these guys. >> new york city there's not much they can do. i was looking at the president's statement he put out. it was all defenses, we didn't do anything wrong. n'it do look like any americans knew what was going on and i think he lost a real opportunity hammer putin and hammer the russians before he goes to meet with themng say it's outrageous, you're try og to interfere in our electoral process. from a legal perspective there's not much i think that the u.s. government can do to access peole in russia. >> i guess to the other question, what are the political optics? you said lost opportunity are there other political consequences here as well? this will loom large in the coming nominations hearings for brett kavanaugh. one of the issues on the table are his views on executive power

if it looks like there's been some kind of collusion between the trump administration or the trumpgn campand the russians, the idea that potential supreme court justice would take a broad view of ex and excuse the president from answering to those charges would be a fair game for idemocrats. think republicans are test practice the to change the subject off of other things and the hearing yesterday with the fbi agent. former fbi agent. >> peter strzok. >> indicates that they really want to take attention off the other things, like some of the fauely separation i down at the border and there's, democrats are eager to keepon thissue. i'm not sure voters, i think it's a little fatigue among voters, even among democrats. the number of democrats who wrap this upme is going up. partly because of the success i think that republicans are having in convincing the public that this is gone o. too lo i think the indictments today remi everybody that there may

be some fire with all the smoke. ocratss something that de are seizing upon as we talk about the battle for the confirmation hearings, right? for brett kavanaugh and you are rring to the law journal articles that he's written in the past, suggesting that are sittendent should not be indicted. suggesting that the president should notbe distracted by criminal proceedings, so shawn, isissue subpoenaing a sitting president, going to reach theupreme court and if kavanaugh is in place and confirmed how could it play out? ? the audacity of a political hack, talking to legal expert, i'm audacious, i believe fundamentally that saidiid prnt cannot be indicted. i think talked about a decision he made atne juncture that the sitting vice president could. there's a processn ace to go after a president and remove a president from office and that's the impeachment process. impeach in the house, convicted in the senate. once the president is out of

office, if there are criminal charges to befiled. those criminal charges can be filed. i think mr. kavanaugh will be consistent with that view, think with an executive power perspective, he has a long historyoing back to jefferson and others where a president sitting in office can't for political purposes,nr e for criminal purposes, be indicted. >> i think all of that may be fair game. one of the things that will come up that the democra will ma hay on this is the idea that any president, particularly this president could be above the la and if there is someone on the supreme court who is providing crucial vote for excusing the president while he is president, i think that's going to rai some issues both for the public and for the democrats who have to vote for this. nd again, this is going to be a tight nomination, every vote is going to coun getting to 50 or 51 will be a uge haul. these questions are going to loom large. ant to run democrats

out the clock and try to get this as close as they can to the election. i think it will be tough given they don't have control of the senate this is an issue that motivates the base, women, suburban women i think, which is going to be key to democrats winning back the house. but you know in the end, i think 's going to be confirmed. if he's not there will be another conservative nonee who mes forward. democrats are hoping they might get control of the senate which is a long shot. >> let lee me do a babe ruth analogy. he's going to be confirmed. of the six major candidates, he's the most appealing to the broadest base of republicans and i would argue the democrats. t he' most reasonable, probably the most moderate. theswampiest of the candidates, because he's a washington insider. i don't think there's any way e that the democrats aing to be able to unwind mr. hkavana unless there's something in his background we haven't seen yet. other than america's favorite

past-time, which is consumer debt and baseball tickets. they should save their powder for ruth bader ginsberg. >> they're doing a hail mary as stll sugg that mr. cavanaugh, if he's confirmed, he should recuse himself from any cases coming up that involve mr. trump. but president trump, what are ce the ch of that? because there's, doesn't that usually require some kindob of ous conflict of interest? >> yeah. >> i think it's very unlikely this came up a lot with justice scalia. when he was on the cower. should he recuse himself. it's come up i terms of justice thomas and his wife who is an operative th a conservative think tank in washington. it never goes anywhere but it's a lot of political theater. >> it's strictly up to them to decide whether to recuse . themselv >> scott, we know that on the republican side, w have sue colins of maine and lisa murkowsky, they're perceived as key swing votes. what about democrats, what kind of pressure is there or democrats running for

re-election in states that president trump won in 2016. >> joe manchin, jim donnelly in indiana. heidi heitkamp, these are all states that trump won. they're going to have to decide if they' the votes to confirm him. can i be the 51st, 52nd, 53rd vote. why should i take all the flack for voting against him, then you lose it both ways so it's tough for the democrats, because they don'tant to disspirit their base by having one of their own vote for somebody who they fear isoing to roll back roe v. wade. w >> nt to touch on a bay area election. with the elections over, london breed was sworp in as mayor this week. made history, first african-american woman to hold the post? inn san francisco. >>s homelessn is the number one issue on voters' minds, she's going to have to show progress in ter of cleaning up

encampments on the streets and she's got to you what's going to happen in terms of a crisis, she's got a show that she's control. she's got good people around her. if she does, think she probably won't have a serious challenge next year. >> she's got to hope it's a relatively smooth 18 months.r she's up he task. she's very inspiring. i went to her swearing in this week. a lot of excitement and goodwill. even among people who didn't vote forher. she the want to give her a chance and they want her to succeed. >> shawn i know you have a perspective on this, onsc san fran the direction it's headed in. what's your perspective on london breed? >> well the best of times, the worst of times. you just had a rert that came out that says that san francisco, the bay area economy alone, will be the19th largest economy in the entire world. it has a $11 billion budget. it is dgleaming.

tech things are booming. yet you've got 16-pound bags of fecal matter on the streets, you see peop walking a line of heroin addicts shooting up. getting off thea.r.t. station. you've got medical conferences that are canceling in san francis. this image is projected not just around the country, but around the world. so you know, if she takes some decisive action with regards to not just homeless issues, but drug addiction, mental illness, quality of life issues, i think she can make a dramatic impact fairly quickly. the question is some of the real liberal activists in the city willing to let her do it? or not have very talented liberal lawyers stop her? >> i think this is herroiggest em. the attack from the left that she's inevitably going to get. her challenge like jam kim and mark leno are right there. >> the majority on the board of supervisors she's going to be battling them as well, anything she wants to get done. >> thank you all. scott schaeffer, nyu law schoole professorssa marie and

shawn walsh. political consultant. thank you. >> thank y . >>w to immigration. this week the federal government reuniten working to children separated from their families at the border under a zero tolerapoce cy. officials had faced a court ordered deadline it reunite children under w fiveth their paren a. the trumpinistration said there are about 100 separated children under five and roughly hf of them could not be reunited for various reasons. meanwhile, aigger deadline is looming on july 26th. to reunite the nearly 2,000 other children who were recently separated from their parents at the border. >> joining us to sort through this, are othe host kqed's california report. john sepulveda, leaning "times" rerder cindy fro santa ana. and attorney talia inlander who represents mothers seeking asylum in the u.s. who joins us via skype from los angeles. happy to have all three of you on. thank you.

john,et's begin with you, give us a status update at of this moment what is the trump s administratiing about why some of these families with very young children can't be reunited? >> well, they're essentiallyg saycouple of things. the first is that some of these parents have committed crimes. in fact one man from guatemala is wanted for murder. another man is supposedly allegedly had ad.u.i. case that's been verified. there's a lot of other asons besides these ten or so parents who have had committed crimes. anothereason is that 12 of these parents have been deported. that means that their children eie in this country, but they are in t country of origin. and there's no clear reunificthion pay for those people. one man has a communicable disease and two other people, it's been determine reasonable doubt not actually the parents, the granhearents. so trump administration says it's hard it make reunification happen with these particul cases, because they don't meet the judge's o definitionthe parents that are needed for

reunification to happen. >> so the aclu filed a lawsuit that led t tose various deadline force reunification. john, fewer than half of the really young children are back with their parents. lhat's the outlook then for older grade schchildren and teenagers to be reunited by the d july 26 deadline down the road? >> well the government actually said in hearings headed into the weekend that they have a plan which is the first time that they've said that they might have some type of organization for these 2900 other children. who need to be eufied. at least 2900. the plan is still needs to be evaluated. the aclu is going to look at it and tey've been quick to note that the government has said only e had plans before, to have some unfortunately spectacular fails in these reunifications. themre's a lot that ns to be seen about what the government's plan is. but it is notable that for the first time the government has presented some tyvi ofnce to a plan to this judge. >> talia, you represent threers motrom central america, who are separated from their

daughters. why did they cross the border? and what is their situation nowo >> theyed for similar but heightly different reasons. two of are fleeing severe domestic violence at the hands partners. one of whom was a member of the military in the home country. the other lost her husband to gang olence and the gang was then going after their son. but all of them claiming severe violence in their home country. and when they crossed the border here instead of finding safety. they were separated from their children, torn apart from themd nt states away. so one of the mothers is detained here in california, and two up until yesterday inhe ternoon when we secured their release were detained up in washington state while the teildren have two of the daughters ins and the third in the state of arizona, they're being kept very far if one >> you've filed a federal lawsuit on their behalf. what are you claiming in that suit? >> that's correct.

we filed a federal lawsuit on their behalf, weed fi late last night. seeking trauma informed care for these parents and family, care for their children as well. >> what does that an. what is trauma-informed care? >> reliefnd reunification is the first step to get these folks out of custody and int a safe environment. given the trauma that they have ered and our clients have suffered severe trauma in their home country. alsotr sufferedma anew at the hands of our government. who tore them away from their children. and we believe that because the government acted in thatway and inflicted that harm on these individuals that they have a right for the government to help haredy that >> cindy, you've been speaking with families at the /mu.ico boarder in tijuana, has the president's zero tolerance policy and family separation slowed the flow of people tryg to cross t border seeking

asylum? >> i think it's too early tell. >> i can tell you what i've seen on the ground and the people that i'veen spo with. have actually told me that really not going to stop them. they're very pragmatic about it. i spoke with a woman who s ing to give herself up, san ysidro port of entry for asylum. she was weaning her 6-month-old daughter from her breast, stop breastfeeding her in case she were to be separated. she says i can't go back to my home country. because my abuser is there. and he might kill . >> sohose kinds of stories, also another woman who i spoke with wh is escaping gang violence. they think she says, i'm going to give myself up at the port oe entruse even if it means being separated if my cifld, because go back i might be killed and that's separation

forever. so it's a -- the people i've spoken with have told me thatt this is going to stop them. >> it's not a deterrent. do you think that the opposite effect, meaning there's a mad rush snce some people may feel this is perhaps their last chance to cross the border as the trump administration keeps rolling back various avenues of immigrati relief? >> yes.de . there are people who are, they're very desperate. ghey see that there's a methodical clos of america's doors. asylum lawsare being tightened. there are tolerance all around them. they almost see it as okay i really need to act now. if i'm ever going to get to safety. >>john, as migrants are coming into the system, children and parents are in detention all over the country. how is the immigration system handling all this. >> the first thing is that

migrants arenoming into the country. we're hearing about asylum seeks, mothers trying to flee horrible situations, i've seen with my own eyes customs and border patrol officers turn these mothers away. which it is their legal right to seek asylum. when cond thing is that they do, are essentially coming into the port of entry, they're often threatened with family oparations still this day. my colleague kqu define ahaex confirmed this with a woman had was seeking asylum, threatened with family separation. the final thing e that we h confirmed that there are still family separation cases happening, albeit much fewer i numbers th was a few weeks ago. just from that vantage pointit s not working very well critics would say. the second thing is when people do enter the process of the system they're faced with quicks court hear they're faced with not enough sleep. they complain about the conditions. on there's arn that these people are being coerced to essentially plead guilty to d

crimes thdn't commit, including the misdemeanor of crossing the country illegally. that's what defense attorneys tell me in court here in san diego. ss the aclu taking any additional stn that regard? asking the government to do anything to change that? >> the lu wants to hold the government accountable. the thing they keep pushing for in the court hearings. the aclu wants to have a hand in reunification. they've asked the government and the court to essentially be allowed to work hand in hand with i.c. to reunify some of these people who it's been very difficult for the government to find. eople who were lost in the system because bad data was collected or becausehey were unaware that these were parents. sometimes children lie about who the parents are. the aclu has said that they want to really take a bigger han in using third parties and nongovernmental organizations. to reunify. >> this weekend officials with

i.c.e. questioned the whole notion of reunification, sayi there's n obligation to bring deported people back to the u.s. to be reunited with theirhi ren. what's your reaction to that? >> the reason these folks were separated was because of t government's action and they do have a duty to reunify the parents. reunify give them the serviced that they nto recover from the government-inflicted harm and then allow them to oceed th their immigration case, win or lose. >> thank you to all of you. john sepulveda, cindy kackuma and talia inlander, we value your time. we turn our attention now to health care. in 2016 alta bates hospital announced it would close its m emergency roo bierkeley and expand emergency services in oakland. it's generating dismay in many berkeley residents. further away in richmond are also worried about being

negatively affected by the change. we have this report from c berkeley journalism students. >> i don't see no chicken mcnuggets in that ear. let me look in this ear. see if have chicken mcnuggets. ke sure there's no chicken mcnuggets. >> this doctor has patched up richmond residents for decades. >> my mission is and has always been to provide health care to ts richmond community. >> listen to your heart, ma'am. there you got a good heart. >> it's gotten harder and harder for doctors like cars ton insure richmond residents get the they need. carson worked for carson medical cente nor 15 years. it served a community of 400,000 west contra costa residents until it shut in. 20 the day it closed, the moved across the street to a newly opened urgent care run by life

lock. sophia waldron who runs the front de says they're working with far less resources in a much smaller space. even though the community's needs are the same. >> you're the only hospital nearby for people to get to. that cannot drive and there are needs here for a hospital because we're congested, we have longer waits. >> the closure of the hospital meant richmond residents los their one major emergency room. besides kaiser richmond. which hly so much capacity. the nearest emergency rooms the community relies on are more il than 10 away. life lock's ttaff saey do what they can to get people back on their feet. but it isn't an emergency room. >> we're struggling every day and if somebody comes in through gunshot wound a or stab, we address it immediately. we call 911, we do what we have

do to make sure that that person gets the care they need. and ar g able to to the place they need to get. >> one of those places is alta bates medical center in berkeley, a nu20-mte drive without traffic. but now that option is fading ay. recently sutter health which owns alta bates announced it would close the emergency room in berkeley and movehose services to its oakland location. dr. brian pots who runs the emergency room in alta bates says this move is a necessary development. >> you got to build to develop this new campus. that's going to take nine to ten years. there is no short-term switch that's going to happen. >> alta bates spok people say the expanded oakld er would only be two miles further away. but some east bay residents and dmunaders argue the closure shouldn't happen at all. >>to say th we will not let our community become a hospital >> alta bates were to close you're not going to have any emergency rm to go to. this is an issue that's beyondy berkelat affects the entire

east bay. >> without alta tes, this rich mpdesident isn't sure she or her baby would be alive. after months battling a rare ans dangero pregnancy complicion, milton gave birth to her child mariah, born three months premature. >> what is she thinking about? after mariah was born, milton drove 13 miles every day visit her child in the intensive care unit at alta bates. >> all that traffic. going down 80, it was our only option at the time. we didn't have a choice, we had to do it. s a very day mariah g little bit stronger. but she still faces serious health risks.r her mot fears what could happen in an emergency. being so far away. >> there's nothing close by or local where i can go get right away. even if i call the ambulance. it probably won't make much of c diffe >> like milton, residents in

west contra costa county feele re being left behind. in the u.s. hospita have been pull out of poor neighborhoods for years. since the 197s, the number of hospitals nationwide has cut by nearly half mostly in poor urban neigthorhoods. mor 80% of doctor's hospital patients were medi cal recipients. >> in west contra costa. the schools are [ bleep ] up. and the hospitals are [ bleep ] up east of that, you have nordstroms and health care and good schools. where there's money, there's health care. >> in the case of alta bates, the community fears it's a similar story. that the closure of the e.r. is about saving dollars. but dr. potts says it willt benehe community and physicians to have one big emergency >> we're looking at the largest emergency department in the east

bay, serve about100,000 people a year. >> they argue having thgs ntralized is bettor for patient care. if you live in san pablo or el cerrit or richmond. and driving on the i-80 corridor and it's backed up. every second counts? >> for dr. carson, it's a reality he's already come face toace with. when doctors hospital closed. >> a good friend ofis mine, wife has a heart ttack. i humbly, humbly believe that if we were open, she would have had a fighting chance. >> time is muscle. your heart is a muscle. if you could open e blood vessels that go to the heart, quickly then youe could s the heart tissue. if you can't save that heart tissue, you can't save the heart, the patient dies, my friend's wif had to go, she was dead before she got to alta bates. >> it's hard to say exactly how avmany lives been cut short because doctor's hospital wasn't

there. but dr. carson says he sees the impact every day. >> i can go on forever with who got shot, wh had a stroke, who didn't make it to the hospital. who didn't have transportation. to thos othertals around. we deserve to have a hpital. >> and that's the community continues to grabble with changes to their health care options, alta bates has emphasized the move won't happen for anher ten years. that will do it for us, as always can you find our cverage kqed.org/news room. thank you for joining us.

♪ robert: bombshellic ient. the justice department charges 12 russian military officersio with ele interference. i'm robert costa. inside the laters turns in the mueller probe and president trump's confrontational diplomacy. tonight on "washington week." >> charges 12 russian militar officers by name for conspiring tointerfere with the 2016 presidential election. robert: the justice department ha charg 12 russian military officers with hacking into clinton's 2018 campaign. they directly link the kremlin with election interference that went beyond t jusgeting democrats. >> in a second conspiracy, they hacked the website of a