tonight on "kqed newsroom," thidterm elections gave democrats control of the house, while a justice department shakeup could threaten the russia investigation. as california preparesor a high-profile role on capitol hill, we look at what ther ults mean for the golden state. diverse women candidates made history across the country on election night. hell and welcome to "kqed newsroom." i'm thuy vu. we begin with a constitutional debate on immigration.to y president trump issued a proclamation to deny asylum to anyonentering the u.s. , illegally staunch reversal ofig ition policy. the migration had undermined the

boards.y of our in a separate move, the president forced attorney general jeff sessions to step down and appointed matt whitaker as his placement. he's been a vocal critic of robert mueller's investigation into russian meddling into u.s. politics. joining 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 toen prestrump's proclamation today denying asylum to p who daughter or son border illegally? it's a move that's widely viewed as aimed at the central american migra>> caravan. irst the president can't make the laws unilaterally. ther are specific statute enacted by congress that's contradicted by tves execut

order. he can't just throw out the constitution and the law books and make the law up himself. thoenc needs to come to congress if he wants to change the law. this will be litigated and i believe heill lose. the laws i are great detail how hedividuals can come where they can come, how can claim asylum. >> but federal law des g the president authority to restrict immigraon when it's detriment detrimental to the country. the court upheld mr. trump's revised travel ban this 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 travel ban is somewhat different ths issue. there is very detailed procedures in th immigration act and they're backed up by international retreats that have been ratified and also bind the

united states as to the treatment of people seeking sylum. people need to be treated in an orderly way, either when they ludicrous their ca lose their case, they can't come in. simply trying to chang the law by executive order is because they know, frankly, shothing. >> white house is making the case that most migrants who seek asylum are eventuallyenied but at the same time they are allowed to stay in the u.s. legally sometimesor yea while they're cases are being e adjudic how would you address those concerns coming from the white house? >> we could speed up t adjudication process. we have repeatedly asked for the appointment of additional judges, instead of funding the judicial branch, they'veund re forces.

that's a responsibility the administration can address. but we here in america believe in the runde of law in due process. and we had program that the trump administrati where virtually 100%, 99% to 100% of the politics shadow for their day in court. if they lose, they have to go home. if theywin, under the law they're permitted to stay. that's the way the law shou work, not abry gated by the president. >> i would like to ask you about daca a. federal appeals court in san francsco upheld an injunction barring the trump madministration f removing deportation protections for the so-called dreamers. there are about 700,000 of them in this country. now that the midterms have given democrats control of the house, what will yound other decked lawmakers do on this issue of daca? >> well, i think we ought to provide a permanentrotection

for these young people who have done nothing wrong. they didn't make a decision to arme, in most cases they were brought by theirts as children. they are defacto americans, they are meshes americans in every way b their paperwork. there's broad support among the politicalublic of all parties to try and keep these young peopleho are blameless from being deported. so i hope that we can pass legislation to do that. the president in the past has said that heavored that, so let's see if he can sign a bill that we send him. >> will you offer a pass to citizenship f the dreamers? >> i believe that no one should be ae perm underclass in the united states. that hasn't worked well for other countries, but obviously the lengt of time a person would wait until they would have their residence, and then you have to wait five years to apply to become a citizen, all that

would be subject to discussion and hopefully bipartisan negotiation. >> also another big story this week, congresswoman, the firing of attorney general jeff sessions. the president replaced him with matt whitaker.i the past mr. whitaker has criticized not only the russia investigatn but also the supreme court, taking to task his authority to declare legislative and executive acts as nsuntutional. what is your reaction to this move to put mr. whitaker in that position? >> first it's unconstitutional. the appointment is article 2 section 2 requires the acting attorney general to be confirmed by the senate. mr. whitaker has not beenir cod and has been pointed sut by several scholars everything he dn that position would be invalid because his appointment is invalued. >> but i think there are rules, though, that the trumpon administra is pointing out that allow the president to put mr. whtaker in place as an interim person, correct?

>> they can say what they want. it's not what the constitution provides. it's not what the statute provides. and it's not what the rules of the justice department provide. further, this guy, his views are out there. he has apparently opined that mar buryv. madison, the case establishing the role of the supreme court in the unheed states thomas jefferson was entering the white house, tiot that dec should be rethought. that is bizarre. >> so what can democrats do at this point? the senate widened its majority as a result of the midterms. >> well, there will be litigation if the pr'tident doesrethink this. you can't have an vid 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 theue ler investigation. we all believe mr. muellerer should betted to finish this investigation, let the chips fall whey tmay, whatever he reports, i'm prepared to accept, whether it chon rates the president or doesn't, he should just finish the reportnd let the american public see what it is >> congresswoman zero lot of gren joining us from her office in san jose. thank you. >> thank you. >> now that dem gained control of the house, san francisco congresswoman nancy pelosi appears poised to be house speaker once again. she says democratic leaders will focus on infrastructure, controlling prescription drugco sts and changing campaign laws. meanwhile in the wake of the mass shooting in thousandoaks,

gavin newsom is calling for gun control. >> the national rifle association is bankrupt morally. and they need to be held to account to their rhetoric and to their actions. >> here now with michelle election results, i'm joined by kqed politics and government team, senior editor sco schafer, marisa lagos, reporter guy marzorati and joining via skype, reporter katie orr. let's begin with nancy pelosi. she made it a point to put forward a more modest agenda, health care, improving theab affo care act. now that the democrats have a hajority in the house, do you expect thoroursue a more liberal agenda? >> no, in a word. there will be elements of the caucus that will push for that for impeachment, but i think

he's going to be want to bring up issues that are going to bring people together, things like universal gun control which is broadly popular in the country, things like taking care of dreamers, daca. there will be more overscht. adamff is going to take over 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 sh 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 tco try a sense of what the democrats would do awopposed to t the republicans said they would do. >> how much of this do youithink isding the template for the 2020 presidential election? >> ink she wants to sort of set a tone that will be helpful to candidates. there's going to beo many people both in d.c. and throughout the country who are

for that e vying democratic nomination. and i think that it's going to be up to them to decide what their messages a 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 yiddle centrist ground. but they can oo what they can do in the house as democrats. you know, pelosi is very good at keepi that caucus together, but it is a divee caucus as well. you're not going to have a majority for health care for all. >> in night of the thotsand oaks shg, gavin newsom talked about gun control and criticizing the nra. what can h do realistically as governor given that california does have some of the are strictest gun control laws in the country. >> i'll give you two examples of bills that were vetoed by governor jerry brown that may have a better chance this time around. one, to stop gun and ammunition

sales here at the cow palace. governor brown twice veto add bill that wosed stop t sales. another one to expand these gun violence restraining orders, basically a family member can petition a judge and make sure someone they think has a mental issue cannot access there's a bill to expand that to a coworker or a teacher would be allowed to make had a that petition. that was vetoed by the governor. i think this time around both bills will be reintroduced. >> he might be going out and using his bully pulpit to push her states to dothis. he's seen as a national figure already and that is something -- i think there might be these ammunition -- having to register for ammunition sales, that could u be something yuld see him trying to take elsewhere. >> let's bring in katie orr at this point. during the campaign gin newsom took every opportunity to attatr donalmp, but now he needs to lead the state. what issues will he tackle right

away? >> he knows that in his acceptance speech he said california is not justbout resistance, it's about results. during his campaign he saidng addres child poverty is going to be one of his number one issues. 's going to have to addre the housing affordable care act and homelessness. >> gavin newsom campaigned on grooufrl preschool and for all do you think he'll face a lot of tensions between the liberal and more moderate wings of the democratic party in the state? >> it's interesting. it's looking like the democra will have a two-thirds majority the house. jerry brown was saying it's harder when you have a supber majorityause there's so many people to keep in line. newsom is going to come in and she first thing he's going to find to do propose a budget. he doesn't want to blow up that $9 billi rainy day fund jerry brown built. we've seen the speaker of the

assembly make overtures. they disagreed publicly in the past. i thi t they're going tory to workogether. a grooufrl preschool is a huge issue flash flood rendon in the state nate. tony atkins has been very active on affordable housing. i don't think he's going to come in day one jus like pelosi and try to much all these liberal agendas. >> how can we expect newsom to be dfferent? his campaign slogan was courage or a change. what will he do that's different from brown? >> g control. i think jerry brown was known for panel once othe right, wasn't on the left.ou i think y'll see certainly childhood poverty issues and preschool, education, housing. i think you're going to see him step back from high speed rail c some way. maybe less of tp in trade money will go to high speed

rail. and then there's the tunnels question thaterryrown -- the water tunnels and the delta. i think he wants to create his own legacy and he's going to lean in on things jerry brown didn't think of. >> i think that speaks to thenr diff life experiences. jerry brown has never had children, has never really wanted for much. i don't think he carn about that much, but he's never had to worry about it.n ansom grew up in a ngle-family home with his mom. >> and he has four children. >> the way he wilapproach these things as a father and given his life experience will be very different. >> i want to move on to the propositi. there were a number of propositionse on state ballot, two measures. yet vots rejected a measure to expand rent control. what does this tell us about the

mind-set of voters? >> rejected by a huge margin. housing still remains important to california voters. we see support in polling. this particular measure, proposition 10, it lost only passed in one county, san france.co, in the entire st i think it had a message that thet r is too damn high and that's an issue that prfgz care about. it didn't have the money. it was outspent 3 to 1 and it didn't have a coalition. there wasn't a party support, e big eleofficial support, organized labor gave some money, but not a lot. and so in the end i think that aded up for a resounding defeat that will have implications for next year because i'm not sure now that the landlords, the apartment association really has that much incentive to make a deal around rent control considering how well they did in this campaign. >> also voters rejected prop 5 as well which wou have allowed older homeowners to take their lower property taxes with them when they move. katie, what happens now with the housing?

how will move forward with a new governor, goernor newsom and other state lawmakers going to step up on this issue as well? >> i think it's interesting. i feel likeovernor jerry brown got flak for not making affordable housing more of an issue while he was office this second time siound. that'ly not a choice politicians can make anymore. the affordability crisis has spread to most parts of the state. funding for affordable housing has gone away a long time ago ngd there hasn't been a new fundource established. so i think we might see a little bit along thse lines, creating a new source for affordable housing.u also ave to look at some of the environmental regulations which can hold up projects. of course, you have to deal with the nimby issues. once people have their house,

sometimes they're not exactly excitedow to a for a big development close to where they are. they're challenges that newsom is going to have to take into consideration. >> scott, let's talk thout quicklycongressional races. there were seven districts in californithat democrats were hoping to flip from red to blue. what is the update on that? >> going into the election republicans held 14 of the 53 seats, th lost two. the darrell ices seat flipped to blue. the one held by steve knight in northern l.a defeated him.e hill there is another in orange county, leaning toward the democrat in that. then there's three that are a tossup, two of them in orange county, one of them in modesto. very close, 1,300 votes between thd tens of thousands of ballots still to count. really up in the air. >> thank you all. you guys have been doing wonderful work this week. go get some rest this weekend. >> thank you. >> mike scott, marisa lagos, guy

marzorati, and katie orr in snkramento. ths to all of you. now to another mucha talked bout aspect of the midterms, the many women who ran yr office thr. here in california first-time candidate katie hill flipped a congressionalred 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 senator from tennessee, the first female governor of maine.r and ayanna sley became the first african-american to represent massachusetts in congress.s >> when it co women of color, candidates, folks don't jusngtalk about a glass ceil what they describe is a concrete one. but you know what breaks through concrete? seismic shifts. [ cheers ] >> here now with me to lk out the wave of women in politics are amanda renteria with emerge america, a national organization that trains democranic women who want to

for office and anne moses with ignite that trains women not political world. good to have both of you here. amanda, the women who ran for office were pretty diverse. asian native american, some had military backgrounds. did they have certain cpaign aemes in common, though? >> when we looss the women that ran, i think one key essage folks have is they're bringing a new perspective. so you w women really talki about who they were and whether it was the fighter plot or it was the reason why they personally got engaged. 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 some, it was health care.e, for st was their perspective that they were going to bring 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?th

>> ik there's been this whole discourse of we need to start getting to a new place of politics. after the 2016 election people hally did look inside themselves and sa can i be a part of changing the culture of the conversation ochanging the leadership of our country.d omen stepped up largely because there's great organizations out there trying to help women tell their story, run for office, step up and be out there. >> one of those organizations is ignite and anne moses with that group. i know you're training womeno a young age, high school all the way to their early 20s.n you'r even starting younger. moving forward, do you see a new wave of young women will be inspired by this and we'll see more of them running for office? i'm thinking alexandria ocasio-cortez, she's, lati youngest woman ever elected to

congress. >> what we're seeing is post-2016 -- pre2016 we saw young women wereriven byhe issues. they aired about kaushz, he wanted to make change around those issues and you had to convince them, tough,hat that desire and that passion and all that work they were already t doing, t they should take that and run for office and be in a place of power where they could actuall make the decisions. that was a big push to convince them that they could do it.r af 2016 they realized they could do it, they realized they had to illinono choice but to d. they got out at and marches looked around ands realized thi is who's going to say vote for me. that barrier went away. we've seen extraordinary political activism. >> just in the last two years? >> just in the last two years, we are racing to keep up with demand. we went from being in four states to being in 20 states i

two years. even since, in the three days lsnce the election my staff has been receiving cfrom florida, arkansas, women all over the country. we got a call from someone in panama who wanted to get involved. >> what are the concerns you're hearing from these young as to why they want to run? >> everyone brings their own personal take on it. it's the issue that is personal to you. so we have a young woman we've known since he was 14 she's about to graduate from berkeley and she's now on th commission r women and girls in oakland appointed by the mayor. for her, her brother was killed when she was h inh school in a drive-by. for her the issue is gun violence. that'rithe issue that's dng her. we have young women for whom the issue is access to reproductive righ or immigration. >> very, very personal like amanda was saying. amid the victories nationwide, and there were many. there were also some b losses.

including senators claire mccaskill of missouri and heidi heitkamp in north dakota. what does this tell you? >> you know, there was an article out about is red getting redder and is blue ge bluer. i think right now what we're seeing is there is a whole new generation of folks who are engaged and who are really -- no one expected at the beginninge would be talking about stacy abrams right now and what's happening in georgia. none expected gillum. so i think some of that is not just about a party question, but about is there a time for new faces that aren't affiliated awith demo or republican and really the space in between that seems to beeing filled by a lot more young people coming at politicsrom a different angle. >> one of the reasons we're nonrtisan is young people are registering in droves are declining to state. ven if they do affiliate, they don't feel 100% affiliated with it and they're issue to issue.

>> do you feel like they would want a new party or they don't want to be part of a party at all? >> they want to be authentically who they are. maybe they go this way on immigra ton andt 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 because they can run as they a they are.cally as for young women in 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 goorrd and do it. >> amanda, i want to talk about california's influence nationally. we have now democratic majority in the house. nancy pelosi isxpted to become speakers maxine wa on the financial

service committee. how can california's interests be reflected in washington? >> i think wh s yourt to see that in the state of california it's not just someone breaking through a becoming a first. now all of a sudden you're seeing a lot more women at the table. certainly when iorked on the hill for the first woman elected from wemichigan, w fighting to get maternity care within the affordable care act andwe there four women on the committee. today you can imagine that conversation happening and you now have six, seven. all of a sudden the course is little louder, and i think we're going to see over the next five to ten years, what does that mean for governing now, how are coalitions being builh with new voices. >> amanda renteria with emerge america and anne moses with ignite. nice to have both of you here. >> thank you >> that willit 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 wildfires. i'm thuy vu. thk you for joining us

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