tonight on "kqed newsroom," the midterm elections gave democratse control of th house, while a justice department eshakeup could thren the russia investigation. as california prepares for a high-profile role on capitol hill, we look at what the results meanothe golden state. diverse women candidates made history across the country on election night. hello and welcome to ""ed newsroom i'm thuy vu. we begin with a constitutional debate on immigration. dday president trump issued a proclamation ty asylum to anyone entering the u.s. illegally, a staunch reversal of immigration policy. the migration had undermined the

integrity of our boards. in a separate move, the president forced attorney general jeff sessns to step down and appointed matt whitaker as his placement. he's been a vocal critic of robert mueller's investigation intoin russian medinto u.s. politics.i jog me now to talk about this and more is congressman zoe lot of gren. nice to have you with us again. >> thank you very much. >> you chair the house judiciary subcommittee on immigration. what is your reaction to president trump'sio proclam today denying asylum to people who daughtr or son border illegally? it's a move that'sasidely viewed imed at the central american migrant caravan. >> first the president can't make the laws unilaterally. there are specific statutes enacted by congress that's

contradicted by this executive order. he just throw out the constitution and the law books and make the law up himself. thoenc he needs to come t congress if e wants to change the law. this will be litigated and i believe he will lose. the laws are in great detail how individuals can come where they can come, how they can claim asylum. >> but federal law does give the president authority to restrict immigration when it's detriment detrimental to the country. the court upheld mr. trump's revised travel bs summer. what actions can you and other democratic leaders take at this point to counter that if anything? >> there will obviously be litigation on this, but the avel bans somewhat different than this issue. there is very detailed procedures in the immigration eat and they're backed up by international rets that have

been ratified and also bind the united s as to the treatment of people seeking asylum.o people need treated in an orderly way, either when they ludicr their cas lose their case, they can't come in. simply trying to change the law by executive order is they know, frankly, shocking. >> the white house is making the case that most migrants w seek asylum are eventually denied but e same time they are allowed to stay in the u.s. legally sometimes for years while they're cases are being adjudicated. how would you address those oncerns coming from the whi house >> we could speed up the adjudication process. e have repeatedly asked for the appointment of additional judges, instead of fundi the judicial branch, they've fund

more forces. that's a responsibility the administration can address. but we here in america believ in the rule of law and in due process. and we had a program that the trump administration eliminated where virtually 100%, 99% to 100% of the politics shadow for their day in court. if they lose, they have to go home. if they win, under the law they're permitted to stay. that's the way t law should work, not abry ted by the president. >> i would like to ask you about daca a. federalppealsourt in san francisco upheld an injunction barring the trump administration from removing deportation protections for the so-called dreamreers. therebout 700,000 of them in this country. now that the midterms have given democrats control of the house, what will you and other decked lawmakers do on this issue of daca? >> well, i think we ought to

provide a permanent protection for these young people who have doneothing wrong. to didn't make a decision come, in most cases they were brought by their parents as children. they are defacto americans, they are meshes americans in every way but their paperwork. there's broad support among the american public of all political parties to try and keep these young people who are blameless from being deported. so i hope that we can pass legislation to do that. the president in the past h said that he favored that, so let's see if he can sign a bill thate send him. >> will you offer a pass to citizenship for the dreamers? >> i believe that no one should be a permanent underclass in the united states. that hasn't worked well for other iocountries, but osly the length of time a person would waitntil they would have their residence, and then you have to wait tive yearsapply to become a citizen, all that

would be subject toiscussion and hopefully bipartisan negotiation. >> also another big storys t week, congresswoman, the firing of attorney general jeff sessions. withresident replaced him matt whitaker. in the past mr. whitaker has criticized not only the russia investigation but also the supreme court, taking t task his authority to declare actslative and executive as unconstitutional. what is your reaction to thism e to put mr. whitaker in that position? >> first it's unconstitutional. the apointment is unconstitutional. article 2 section 2 requires the acting attorney general to be confirmed by the senate. mr whitaker has not been confirmed and has been pointed out syveral scholars everything he does in that position would be invalid because his appoinment is invalued. >> but i think there are rules, though, that the trump administration is pointg out that allow the president to put mr. whitaker in place as an

interim pers t, correct? ey can say what they want. it's not what the constitution provideno it's what the statute provides. and it's not what the rules of the justice department prove. further, this guy, his views are out there. he has apparently opined that mar buryv. madison, the case establishing the role of the preme court in the united states when thomas jefferson was entering the white house, that that decision should be rethought. that is bizarre. >> so what can democrats do at this point? th senate widened its majority as a result of the midterms. >> well, there will be litigation if the president doesn't rethink this. you can't have an invalid appointment. you can't just avoid the

constitution. that's the president's decision, not my decision provided that he follows the rule the issue here is also the mueller investigation. we all believe mr. mueller should be permitted to finish this investigation, let thes chi fall where they may, whatever he reports, i'm prepared to accept, whether it chon rates the president or fdoesn't, he should jusish the report and let the american public see wt it is. >> congresswoman zero lot of grene oining us from her off in san jose. thank you. >> thank you. >> now that democrats have gained contrl of the house, san francisco congresswoman nancy pelosi appears poised to be house speaker once .againhe s says democratic leaders will focus on infrastructure, controlling prescription drug costs andam changingpaign laws. meanwhile in the wake of the mass shooting in thousand oaks,

gavin newsom is ca for gun control. >> theon nal rifle association is bankrupt morally. and they need to be held to account to their rhetoric and to their actions. now with michelle election results, i'm joined by kqed politics and government te m, senior editor scott schafer, marisa lagos, reporter uy marzorati and joining via skype, reporter katie orr. let's begin with nancy pelosi. she made it a point to put forward a more modesda, health care, improving the affordable care act. now that the democrats have a majority in the house, do you expect thorough pursue a more liberal agenda? >> no, in a word. there will be elements of the caucus that will push for that forimpeachment, but i think

he's going to be want to bring up issues that are going to bring people together, things like universal rol which is broadly popular in the country, things like taking care of dreamers, daca. there will be more oversight. adam schiff is going to tke er from devin nunes on the house intelligence committee. >> more subpoena than investigation. and protecting the mueller investigation but i don't think pelosi wants to get out in front of that. she wants to show they can govern and the way you show that is put forth ideas that are broadly popular. maybe they don't pass the senate, if they do, they might not get a signature from the president but it gives the country a sense of what the democrats would do as opposed to what the republicandsaid they woo. >> how much of this do you think is building the template for the 2020 presidential election? >> i think shet wants to s set a tone that will be helpful to candidates. there's going to be so many people both in d.c. and

throughout the country who are going to be vying for that democratic. nominati and i think that it's going to be up to them to decide what their messages are and we'll see a similar split. between what we saw in 2016 with the progressive left wing and then folks trying to hit a more middle centrist ground. but they can only do what they can do in the house as democrats. you know, pelosi is very good at keeping that caucus together, but it is diverse caucus as well. you're not going to have a majority for health care for all. >> in night of the thousand oaks shooting, gavin newsom talked about gun control and criticizing the nra. what can he do realistically as governor given tt californi does have some of the are strictest gun contaws in the country. >> i'll give you two examples of bills that were vetoed governor jerry brown that may have a better chance this time around. one, to stop gun a andunition

sales here at the cow palace. governor brown twice veto add bill that would stop those anone to expand these gun ersales. violence restraining orders, basically a family member can petition a jdge and make sure someone they think has a mental issue cannot access guns. there's a bil to expand that to a coworker or a teacherwould be al to make had a that petition. that was vetoed by the governor. think this time around both bills will be rein moduced. >> ht be going out and using his bully pulpit to push other states to do this.he seen as a national figure already and that is something -- i think therese might be t ammunition -- having to register for ammunition sales, that could be something you could see him trying to take elsewhere. >> let's bringat in katie or this point. during the campaign gavin newsom took every opportunity to attack donald trump, but now he needs to lead the state.

what issues will he tackle rig away? >> he knows that in his acceptance speech he saida califor is not just about resistance, it's about results. uring his campaign he said addressing child poverty is going to be one of his number one issues. he's going to have to address the housing affordable care act d homelessness. >> gavin newsom campaigned on grooufrl preschool and medicare for all do you think he'll face a lot of tensions bween the liberal and more moderate wings of the democratic party in the state? it's interesting. it's looking like the democrats will have a two-thirds majority in the house. jerry brown was saying it's harder when you have a super majority because there's so many people to keep in line. newsom is going to come in and the first thing he's going to find to do is propose a budget. he doesn't want to blow up that $9 billion rainy day fund jerry brown built. we've seen the speaker of the

assembly make overtures. they disagreed publicly in the past. i think they're going to try to work together. a grooufrl preschool is a huge issue flash flood rendon in the state senate. tony atkins has been very active on affordable housing. i don't think he's ginng to come ay one just like pelosi and try to much all these libel agendas. >> how can we expect newsom to be different? his campaign slogan was courage for a change. what will he do that's different from brown? >> gun control. nown nk jerry brown was k for panel once on the right, wasn't on the left. i think you'll see certainly childhood poverty issues and preschool, education, housing. i think yng're go see him step back from high speed rail in some way. maybe less of the cap in trade

money will go to high speed rail. and then there's the tunnels question that jerry brown -- the water tunnels and the delta. i think he wants to create his ' own legacy and going to lean in onhings jerry brown didn't think of. >> i think that speaks to their different life experrences. brown has never had children, has never really wanted for much. i don't think he cares about money that much, bute's never had to worry about it. and newsom grew up in a single-family homh his mom. >> and he has four children. >> the way he will approach these thingas a father and given his life experience will be very different. >> i want to move on to the proposition. there were a number of propositions on the state ballot, two measures. yet voters rejected a measure tn

exrent control. what does this tell us about the mind-set of voters? >> rejected by a huge margin. housing stillnt remains impor to california voters. we see support in polling. this particular measure, proposition 10, it lost only passed in one county, san francisco, in the entire state. i think it had a message that the rent is tooamn highnd that's an issue that prfgz care about. it didn't have the money.nt it was outsp3 to 1 and it didn't have a coalition. there wasn't a party support, big elected official suppo, organized labor gave some money, but not a lot. and so in e end i think that added up for a resounding defeat that will have implications for next year because i'm not sure now that the landlords, thear ment association really has that much incentive to make a deal around rent control considering how well they did in ehis campaign. >> also voterscted prop 5 as well which would have allowed older homeowners to take their lower property taxes with thm when they move. katie, what happens now with the

housing? how will move forward with a new governor, governor newsom and other state lawmakers going to step up on this issue as well? >> i think it's interesting. i feel like governor jerry brown got flak for not making ffordable housing more of an issue while s office this second time around. that's simply not a choice politicians can make anymore. the affordability s has spread to most parts of the state. funding for affordable housing has gone away a long time ago and there hasn't been a new funding source established. so i think we mightsee a little bit along those lines, creating a new source for affordable housing. also you have to look at some of the environmental regulations which can hold up ps. of course, you have to deal with the nimby issues

once people have their house, sometimes they're not exactly excited to allow for a big development close to where they are. they're challenges that newsom is going to have to take atto considen. >> scott, let's talk about quickly the congressional races. there ere seven districts california that democrats were hoping to flip from red to blue. what is the upda that? >> going into the election republicans held 14 of the 53 seats, they lost two. the darrell ices seat .ipped to bl the one held by steve knight in northern l.a. county, katie hill defeated him.r there is anotn orange county, leaning toward the democrat in that. then there's three that are a tossup, two of them in or county, one of them in modesto. veose, 1,300 votes between them and tens of thousands of ballots still to count. really up in the air. >> thank you all. you guys have been doing wonderful work thk. go get some rest this weekend. >> thank you.

>> mike scott,arisa lagos,ar guy mzorati, and katie orr in sacramento. thanks to all of you. now to another much talked about aspect of the midterms, the many women who ran for office this year.f here in calinia first-time candidate katie hill flipped a traditionally red congressional district to blue. nationwide more than 120 women have won so far, among the many firsts, the first two native american women elected to congress, the first woman senatorrom tennessee, e first female governor of maine. and ayanna pressley became the first african-american to represent massachusetts in congress. >> when it comes to women of colo', candidates, folks do just talk about a glass ceiling. what they describe is a concrete one. but you know what breaks through concrete? seismic shifts. [ cheers ] >> here now with me to talk about the wave of women in politics are amanda renteria with emerge americagaa national

zation that trains democratic women who want to run for office and anne moses with ignite that trains women not political world. to goodhave both of you here. amanda, the women who ran for office were pretty diivrse. asian namerican, some had military backgrounds. did they have certain campaign themes in common, though? >> when we look across the women that ran, i think one key message folks have is they're bringing a new perspective. so you saw women really talking about who they were and whether it was the fighter pilot or it was the reason why they personally got engage what we saw across the board is women come to the table with their own stories who they genuinely and authentically were and what fired them up to be there. for som, it was health care for some, it was their perspective that they were goin ing into these roles. >> what made them more comfortable telling their own stories instead of sticking to the resume as we've seen in

prior elections? >> i think there's been this whole discourse of we need to art getting to a new place of politics. ae er the 2016 election peo really did look inside themselves and said how can i be a part of changing the culture of the conversation or changing the leadership of our country. and women stepped up largely because there's great rg izations out there trying to help women tell their story, run for office, sop up and be t there. >> one of those organizations is ignite and anne moses with that group. i know you're training women from a young age, high school eill the way to early 20s. you're now even starting younger. moving forward do you see a new wave of young women will be inspired by this and we'llee office?them running for i'm thinking alexandria , ocasio-cort she's latina,

youngest woman ever elected to congress. >> what we're seeing is post-2016 -- pre2016 we saw young women were driven by the u iss. they aired about kaushz, he wanted to make change around those issues and you had toco ince them, though, that that desire and that passion and all that work they were already doing, that they should take that and run for office and be in a place of w powerre they could actually make the decisions. that was a big push to convince them that they could do it. after 2016 they realized they could do it, they realized they had to illinobno choict to do i. they got out at and marches looked around and realized this is wo's going to say vote for me. that barrier went away. we'veee extraordinary political activism. >> jut in the last two years? >> just in the last two years, we are racing to keep up with ntmand. we rom being in four states to being in 20 states in

two years. even since, in the three days since the election my staff has been receiving calls from alorida, arkansas, wom over the country. we got a call from someone in pana who wanted to get involved. >> what are the concerns you're hearing from these young people as to why they want to run? >> everyone brings their own personal take on it.s i the issue that isersonal to you. so we have a young woman we've known since he was 14 she's abork to graduate from bey and she's now on the commission for women and girls in oakland appointed by the mayor. for her, her brother w killed when she was in high school in a drive-by. for her the issue is gun violence. that's the issue that's driving her. we have young women for whom the issue is access to reproductive rights or immration. >> very, very personal like amanda was saying.to amid the vies nationwide, and there were many. there were also some big losses.

including senators claire mccaskill of missouri and heidi heitkamp in north dakota. what doeshi tell you? >> you know, there was an articl out about i red getting redder and is blue getting . blu i think right now what we're seeing is there is a whole new generation of folks who are gaged and who are really -- no one expected at the beginning we twould be talking abtacy abrams right now and what's happening in georgia. no one expected sogillum. i think some of that is not just about a party question, but abtht is e a time for new faces that aren't affiliated republican andr really the space in between that seems to be being filled by a lot more young people coming at politics from a different angle. >> one of the reasons we're nonpartisan is young peoplere registering in droves are declining to state. even if they do affiliate, they don't feel 100% affiliated with el and they're issue to issue.

>> do you like they would want a new party or they don't want to be part of a party at all? >> they want to be who they are. maybe they go this way on immigration and that way on health care. they want to stand up for the issues they believe in. they don't feel particularly represented by parties at this point, and i think that's a great thing becae they can run as they are authentically as nhey are. for young women particular, their first race is more likely to be a local race. >> board of education. >> or city council race. why do you need affiliate yourself with that. you should just go forward and do it. >>a, i want to talk about california's influence nationally. we have now democratic majority in the house. nancy pelosi is expected to become speaker. maxine waters othe financial

service committee. how can californa's interests be reflected in washington? >> i think when you start to see that in the state of california re's not just someoneking through and becoming a first. wow all of a sudden you're seeing a lot moreen at the table. on thely when i worked hill for the first woman elected from michigan, we were fighting to get maternity care withinhe affordable care act and there were four women on the committee. today you can imagine that conversation happening, and you now have six, aseven. of a sudden the course is a little louder, and i think we're goi to see over the next five to ten years, what does that meanrn for gog now, how are coalitions being built with the new voices. >> amanda renteria with emerge america and anne moses with ignite. nice to have both of you here. >> thank you. >> that will do it for us. as always, you can find more of our coverage at kqed.org/no r m

kqed.org/newsroom, including the latest on the california 'mwildfires. thuy vu. thank you for joining us.

robert: the acting attorney general under fire. democrats rising andto washing divide. i'm robert costa. welcome to "washington week." president trump: we're looking people for different positions. it's very common after the mid terms. robert president trump begins cleaning house. attorney general jeff sessions steps down. matthew wtaker, a critic of special council robert mueller rises, and democratsxpress alarm about the probe. >> it would create a constitutional crisis, and protecting mueller is paramount. robert: and a diverse field of newcomers and look to the future. >> we will have a responsibility