captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, president trump responds to a report that the f.b.i. had opened a counter intelligence investigation looking into whether he had fallen under the influence of the russi government. then, the government shutdown has become the longest in u.s. history. we explore the particular impact d,lt by farmers. anos angeles teachers go on strike over class sizes, pay, and the expansion of charter schools, what this means for the nation's second largest school district. plus, it's politics monday..on a look at thing stalemate in washington, the mueller investigation and trump's weekend tweet storm. igall that and more on tonht's pbs newshour.

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thtonight the government o united states remains partly shut down. at the same time president trump nying that he ever worked on behalf of another government. we begin with that denial and the new questions out mr. trump and moscow. foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin reports. >> schifrin: on a wintry monday morning outside the white house, the president of the united states decred, i am not a ssian agent. >> i never worked for russia, and you know that answer better nean anybody. r worked for russia. not only did i never work for russia, i think it's a disgrace that you eesn asked that on. because it's a whole big fat axax. it's just a ho. >> schifrin: president trump was ding to a "new york time report the f.b.i. opened a counter-intelligence investigation into whether mr. trump was "knowingly working for russia or had unwittingly fallen der moscow's influence." the bureau opened the counter- intelligence investigation after president trump fired f.b.i. director james comey, and suggested to nbc news he did so atto end the russia investn. >> i was going to fire comey

knowing there was no good time to do it. and in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you ow, this russia thing with trump and russia is a de up story. >> schifrin: today, president trump accused the f.b.i. officials who started the unter-intelligence investigation, of corruption. >> i guess they started it because i fired comey, which was a great thing for our country. so the people doing that investigation were people who had been caught who were known scoundrels. i guess you could say, they're dirty cops. wouldn't it be a great thing if we could actually get along with russia? >> schifrin: as both candidate and president, mr. trump has long advocated for improved u.s.-russia relations, and defended russian president vladimir putin. he putin's a killer. >> are a lot of killers. we got a lot of killers. what, you think our country's so innocent? >> schifrin: the intelligence community was already investigating mr. trump's

business and politicalto connectionussia. and then he fired comey. days later, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein appointed trmer f.b.i. director robert mullerinvestigate isnspiracy, and obstruction. what's newthe new york times" reports the f.b.i. also asked mueller to investigate whether mr. trump was acting on russia's behalf.in >> president pnd i have been discussing various things, and i think it's going very well. >> schifrin: presint trump also faces allegations he withheld details of his meetutgs with, even from his own staff. according to the "washington post," on least one occasion the president took the interpreter's notes and told the inatrpreter "not to discuss had transpired with other administration officials." that means "there is no detaed record, even in classified files, of trump's face-to-face interactions with the russian leader at five locations over the past two years."

such as national security advisor john bolton received th readout. today president trump said he today president trump said he was willing to release details, and that private meetings are rmal. >> i have those meetings one on one with all leaders including the president of china, includinprime minister of japan, abe. we have those meetings all the time. no big deal. >> schifrin: the president feared his private conversations ming public, white house senior counselor kellyanne henway said today. >>resident at that time in 2017 was suffering from a great number of leaks. we are always very concerned about leaks, obviously, particularly national security leaks. at's not funny and is serious business. >> schifrin: the trump administration pursued more aggressive policy against russia th its predecessors', sslaunching missiles into n- ally syria, sending offensive keapons to ukrainian soldiers fighting russian-b separatists, closing russian consulates, and expelling russian diplomats. but president trump's rhetoric continueto defend putin, and instead target the u.s. law enforcement agency investigating him. >> they are so embarrassed by

their leadershipyou've never seen-- i have never seen a turnaround in a bureau or agency like i have with the f.b. >> woodruff: earlier i spoke with senator mark warner, vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee. i asked him if he takes the president at his word that he hasn't worked for russian interests. ?ñafter that pathetic performane hwhere president kowtowede sloom in the health sin -- vladimir putin, why wodn't he want to share those notes with his top people so that he could gi them at least a readout. i still think the vast majority of all of the american people and for that matter even the top folks in the trump

administration tonight know what attook place hat meeting. >> woodruff: how do you get to the bottom of that. how do you find out what actually happened in those meetings or ist even possible to do that. >> i know there may be committees in the house that going to try to subpoena that. i some hesitancy about that because interpreters should be able to do their job without legiance who they were interpreting for but i think there are legitimate questions that have to be answered here. in hope is when the mueller stigation concludes and i hope it concludes as soon as possible that we will get some of those answers. >> woodruff: just very quickly. so am i hearing you correctly that riot now you don't know -- right now you don't know whether or not president trouble worked for russian government intereums. >> donald i'm going to give him, take hiors word his

statements today. there are a lot of questions that still need to answered. than individual that constantly saye's no there there then he should let the mueller investigation fin wish. druff: when he says nobody's been tougher on russia than he has that he has through and through other measures, how do you respond. >> i would say that is not fact dhully aurate on any -- fact dhully accurate on any basis. the tangions that were imposed many cases against his admi will of congress.t the you've got right now real time in the next 2ours, his administration is trying to move -- 24 hours his administration is trying to move on one of th russian's companies and one of putin's august gawrks. ipartisan wayin a b to stop that from happening. >> woodruff: let me turn now to the vernment's shut down o the 24th day. you represent the washington suburbs in virginia, the state of virginia whh has so many government employees. myle cague lisa day dejardins

jess joe manchin is having a small privatpartisan meeting with other members of congress now to try to find some sort of compromise some way to break through this. do you know anything about that or any other effortto break. >> judy, i'm not going to talk about any specific names. i know there's a number of us in both parties talking about how we get the governedment reopen the kind of stories i'm hearing from fed employees. even if they get their back pay, if you've taken our your money from yllr ira you s have to pay a tax penalty. if you're taking an advanc against your credit card you still have to pay fees. we have one family last week brough in their seven week old baby and they tried to get their baby on their health inference and the person that fulfilled te form was furloghed. wh doctor gave them the prescription luckily the insurance put that baby on the insurance form. but there are stories like that where people shouldn't have to

go through this kind of stress. i think actually, and i was a business guy, i was a governor where i had a two to one republican legislature. i think when history looks back at trump's fractions, business schools will have case studies how not to negotiate on donald trump's the deal maker's approach if you look. business rules 101 t to make sure both sides claim there's a win/win. if you are empowering people try to make shr they can negotiate on -- sure theey can ntiate on your behalf. if you have a work force bring them on your side. have advisors tell you the truth. every one f those donald trump has broken all ofhe traditional rules how you negotiate for success. and again, i think it's pretty remarkable the guy that said he was a telomeric seems to have fumble -- deal maker seems to have fumbled this in so ma ways. >> woodruff: is there any way for the democrat to say look we ink the presidens

responsible here but we're going to stwawl owe our pride because so much is at stake and we'll put something on the table in order to get thh this in order to try to get to some solution beyond. >> judy i'm all fo additional border security but it ought to be done and spent in a part way with modern technology, not with frankly fifth century technology like a wall. we don't know and we seen the vice president make offers and those offers get rejected by trp. we've seen majority leader mitch mcconnell pass something that passed 96 to two and july rejected that. lindsey graham trump's whit s rtry a variety of thing. nobody knoat donald trump will take other than trying to get a hundred percent ofa solution set that no border expert says is the right way to actuly secure our border. >> woodruff: sownsdz like we're no -- sounds like we're no closer at least we know of this evening. senator mark warner of virginia. thank you very much. >> thank you judy.

>> woodruff: to explore how these vestigations work and foreign policy implications, i'm joined by andrew weiss. he worked for both republican and democratic administrations as a staffer on the national security council. he's now at the carnegie endowment for inpernational e. and david kris. he previously served as the justice department's top national security official. gentlemen we welcome you both. i'll start with andrew weiss. how precedented isto have these kinds of revelations we've seen about the president and russia's leaders. >> when i was at the white house the were plenty of opportunities where we would stage manage a one-on-one encounter between then president clinton and president putin and ris yesin. the idea that it sit in some broar diplomat for the united states. in this case there's no readout on the meetig,o sharing what happened with staff. it doesn't look like donald trump is doingal nationecurity

business it looks like he was doing something else. at this point we're just guessing. he has his word. he says he talked about the russian ban on adoption of u.s. children as his main topic and with undisclosed second meeting th vladimir putin. that's something that doesn't seem like a top priority with your first encounter with one of your most important foreign counterparts. >> woodruff: what exactly is missing as we know. m money. theting, that people sort of wind the tape back was much anticipated. en was the first bilateral unter between donald trump and vladimir putin. it was on the russian interference. it was what was reported in "the washington post" over weekedi said to vr putin said i believe you when he disavowed any russian role in the u.s. election. trump went further and said let's set up a cyber task force we'll sort of work together to deal with these threats which looks incredibly credulous and trusting with foreign ad >> woodruff: so david kris

from t standpoint of the justice department the fbi looking and knowing about what what does it look like a what does it take to trigger what we understand was an investigation by the our government by our president.i >> well the fd a counterintelligence investigation open but was on russian interference. we know that from formerbi director jim comby in congress and that investigation then also came to embrace links between the russian efforts and the trump campaign and that memorialized in the order appointeeou special el bob mueller. what appears to be going on here as reported in the times story and other media is they focus the even closer to the center not just on thcampaign but on the president himself. woodruff: i asked this question of andrew weiss, how unprecedented. >> that is very very unusua you have to go back to the nixon

administration to get anythingth close t kind of fbi scrutiny of the president and there in a domestic context this has a fine context and counterintelligence aspect to it. >> woodruff: that's what i wanto ask you about. know there is in many regards what was going on already was a criminal invest this added counterintelligence. what's the threshold for that? >> well so in the olden days, d at isefore 2002, the fbi seg gas criminal and cater ntelligence investigations quite carefully for legal reasons. fter 22 those different lines of authority were able to be brought together and this investigation as i sa always been as described in early 2017,a counterintelligence investigation but with criminal aspects that is looking at whether omimes weretted as well. pe i think from the fbi's pective it didn't so much signal a change in the type of the investigation but more in

it's emphasis and focus. >> woodruff: and the emphasis being counterintelligence aswe as. >> yes. and on the president individually i think, it appears om what we're seeing. >> woodruff: in addition to the people around him. back to you andrew weiss.so from the viewpoint of someone who works on russia, works on foreign policy, was it warranted for the ju department to look at this based ton what was happening se bilateral meetings. >> being old fashion, i remember the good old days when these two worlds were sort dtinct and separate where national security and foreign policy were the president. ident had tremendous amount of latitude and discretion and there's the law enforcdaent domain. d was just saying, that sort of changed after 9/11 but tme that's a law enforcement decision. it's not something that is in the realm of foreign policy. and it seems to fit that people in the justice department had any number of cases.

we assume the reporting of weird connection between the trump entourage and people who seemed to be connected with the russian government. going on didn't look normal and seemed to have some sort of foreign intelligence value to an adversarial government or potentially was about underminding our direct processes. it woodruff: speaking about national sy of the united states, what is at stake here. if there were conversations and we don't know the content of thohse conversation's at stake not knowing and having to conductor this investigation and waiting tofind out what transpired. >> let's step back for a second. russia is very important. russia clearly sees the united states as a hostile threat to the survival of the putin regime. and they've been vsiery aggres in trying to basically take out d e united states as a threat neutralize our threat. in the milgt of this domestic polical crises they're succeeding beyond their wildest

expectations. if you're running a foreign policy in this case with president trump you want to be able manage that threa successfully and effectively. but if you run around having secret meetings where you don't let your staff to know what you're talking about, you don't organize your governmentto effectivelanage that threat, basically you're giving the russians a forty three be and you're doing their -- freebie and you're doing their work for them. that's at a disadvantage athll f crises it's creating. not only are we lookingou intensely bugovernment is ussorganized and coherently responding toa. >> woodruff: david chris is somebody who worked inside the justice department in similar if not exactly issues like this. what do you think the chances that investigators are going to get to the bottom of this? >> i think there is no better version and investigative deem team than -- team than bob mueller. they are cape many, they are very dogged working very hard and motivated to lave no turn

unturned. the one thing the special counsel or special prosecutor investigators doesnr want is mething to pop opposition months from now to show they missed something. they've got every incenti to get to the bottom of it and i think it will. >> woodruff: even if it takes more time. >>taven if is more time. they will follow the evidence where it leads and that wictll e where they go. >> woodruff: david kris, h drew weiss. we thank you bvery much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the day's other major story: the partial itvernment shutdown, now i fourth week. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor has been following the presidenon that front. >> alcindor: shutdown day 24 and no end in sight. today, president trump said he ea still looking to make a and does not want to act alone. >> i'm not looking to call a national es rgency. this simple, you shouldn't have to. >> alcindor: as he left for an event in new orleans, he also insisted the shutdown is now entirely the fault ocrats. >> the democrats are stopping us and they're stopping a lot of great peop from getting paid.

>> alcindor: but some in the president's own party are now calling for him to compromise on r s demand for $5.7 billion for his southern borll. on sunday, senator lindsey graham of south carolina, a longtime ally of the president, lsaid mr. trump should st temporarily end the shutdown. >> i would urge him to open up the government for a short period of time, li three weeks, before he pulls the plug, see if we can get a deal. if we can't at the end of three weeks, all bets are off. >> alcindor: this morning, mr. trump rejected the idea. >> well that was a suggestion that linsdey made, but i did, i did reject it, yes. i'm not interested. i want to get it solved, i don't just want to delay it, i want to get it solved. >> alcindor: democrats say it's r to the president and senate majority leatch mcconnell to make a deal. today, senator ben cardin of maryland spoke at the baltimore airport with employees of the transportation security administration. 00they are among nearly 40 federal workers required to work without pay during the shutdown> ds extremely challenging

when people say 'w't you compromise?' when you're dealing president of the united states who's holding america hstage and when the president himself undermin own negotiat >> alcindor: today, t.s.a. said that on january 3, two weeks lato the shutdown, a man got through security aa's hartsfield jackson airport undetectedwith a gun. the agency said the security checkpoint wasully staffed. meanwhile, in new orans this afternoon, at the american farm nsreau convention, mr. trump addressed the co of farmers. >> we're fighting very hard for you, we're making a lot of progress i can tell you at. so i'm asking all of our citizens to call your democrat lawmakers and ask themss a bill that secures our border, protects our country and now reopens our government because >> alcindor: the shutdn means

many farmers are unable to get critical federal data or loans they will need to plan for spring planting. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, two federal court rulings blocked employers from refusing to provide no-cost birth control. trump administration rules, ralowing employers to opt out of the co, would have taken effect today. t, judges in san francisco and philadelphia issued injunctions. the government of turkey bmplained today after being threatenpresident trump. l sunday, the president warned the u.s. wevastate turkey economically", if it attacks u.s.-backed kurdish fighters in syria. u.s. secretary of state pompeo called today for everyone involved in jamal khashoggi's killing to be held accountable.

the saudi journalist was slainsu at a saudi conte in turkey last october. pompeo says he raised it today with the king and crown prince, in yadh. u.s. intelligence has suggested the prince himself ordered the killing. in britain, prime minister theresa may urged lawmakers not to reject her deal for leaving the european union. a crucial vote is set for tomorrow. today, may told the house of commons that a "no" vote would fail to honor the 2016 referendum that approved brexit, and cause economic turmoil. >> did we deliver on the ?ountry's vote to leave the european uni did we safeguard our security, our economy and our union? or did we let the british people wn? say we should deliver for the british people and get on with building a brighter future for try by backing this deal tomorrow. >> woodruff: from all

indications, opponts of the plan outnumber supporters in rerliament. parts of asia lanketed again today by unusually high revels of smog. south korerded its worst unhealthy air reading since it began monitorid,, in 2015. ann bangkok, thailand, crews used water canno to clean the iareets and air, while off handed out 10,000 face masks. miback in this country, th atlantic struggled today to recover from a heavy winter storm that's blamed r six deaths. heavy snowfall clogged roads across the region on sunday, stranding cars and trucks. hundreds of flights were eonceled as well. nearly 200,000e lost power in virginia and north carolina. the top republican in congress tiday joined growing condems of republican congressman steve king of iowa for racially charged comments. king had questioned why terms like "white supremacist" are offensive.

in a statement today, senate majority leader mcconnell said, "there is no place in the republican party, the congrs or the country for an ideology of racial supremacy of any kind." the u.s. to hear a dispute over acting .ttorney general matthew whitak at issue is whether deputy attorney general rod rosenstein meanwhile, william barr, the permanent nominee for btorney generains senate utnfirmation hearings tomorrow. a majoity, pacific gas and apectric, says it will file for r 11 bankruptcy protection against huge liabilities from california wildfires. officials are investigating whether the coany's equipment arked a november fire that killed at least 86 people and burned down 15,000 hom. and, on wall street, stocks slipped after china reported a drop in exports, furthers evidence that onomy is slowing.

vethe dow jones industrialge lost 86 points to close at 23,909. the nasdaq fell 65 points, and the s&p 500 slid 13. still to come on the newshour: how the government shutdown is scpacting farmers. a wisin indian tribe feels the effects of the shutdown. over 30,000 teachers go on strike in los angeles, and much more. >> woodruff: the impact of the shutdown has been felt by many communities across the country. as john yang reports, farmers have felt pressures from multiple angles. >> yang: judy, today the president told the american farm bureau federation's convention in new orleans that he is on their side. but it's an especially difficult time for some farmers. frready, many are coping w

the fallou trade showdowns with china. additional, with so many u.s.d.a. offices closed around the country, farmers cannot get the loans they may need to pay bills or mortgages, or the money season ahead.plant crops for the and they aren't getting the critical data they useo plan ahead. joe schroeder is an advocate for farmers in need. he works for farm aid, the group foundd by willie nelson that supports family farmers and may be best known foputting on benefit concerts. joe schroeder, thanks so much for joining us. we touched on some of the ways in the introduction but help us understand the many ways that farmers are affected by this government shut down. >> yes. so us is essentially the government entity that's set up to deal with all of the issues the farmers have that the private sectors doesn't manage well. loans for farmers and diary

farmers in particular. edose folks are going to be significantly impas well as a host of other farmers accessing other usda programs like insurance and other things like that. >> can you share with us some of the stories you've beeinn he from farmers who may be having difficulty getting their loans processed. >> most farmers who ca me with some issue are affected by the shut down. the most obvious example are folks who are trying to get money. this is the time where we have to plan ahead and make your investments, your loans to be so one interruption in this specific window for a lot of the commodities, mid western farmes is a significant set back and in fact makes me we arely at night. >> is there a particularar incident owecular case that sticks out in your mind. >> i talked to a woman in her

90's who is being foreclosed on who has a farm that's over 200 years old. her sons work on the farm. typically in a situation like this, we would work with the family to prepare farm ownership loans. in this case these two sons aele ible. could have bought the mother out, could have held on to that farm and seen another day. it's likely the case that foreclosure process will hpen ster than the opportunity for them to apply ad procs and grant it their own. that's one example. i have many otherm froher farmers. anybody who needs money and there are a lot of folurksg the wintertime who do to operate in the next year are sort f scratching their head and trying to understand when they might be able to process them, peel back fromfsa see if they can hold on

in the interim. >> this is coming a time when foremanners have already been wacing stressful times because of the trads and that sort of thing. >> the farm economy has had a pretty rough go in the last five or six years. the context is that it's a tough time to be a farmer, particularly dairy, particularly grain farmers and it's not because of a few decisions or policies but the most recent policy and decisis we're hearing about are not helping. >> one more strain on family farmers. joe schroeder of farm aid. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: >> woodruff: the shutdown has also had an impact on services the federal government is obligated to pay to nati americans under treaty rights. from wisconsin public television, marisa wojcik reports from shawano, wisconsin, where one tribe is already short more than a million dollars. >> certainly we are monitoring this closely. es reporter: shannon holsey is ane ident of the

stockbridge-munsd of mohican indians, located on 22,000 acres in shawano county, wisconsin. her office has been fielding questions from the community. nc we've gotten calls how coerned they should be with regards to the services that are provided. go reporter: like any rnment, community services including health care, lyucation, public safety and care for the eldre all supported by the tribe. emost tribal nations rece federal funding budgeted through congress annually. >> the funds that we receive are through trust and treaty respsibilities. they're not aid. >> reporter: and with the government shutdown, these funds are no longer coming into the commity. >> well, i can say that we're starting to feel the impact already. re reporter: andrew miller is the or of the community health clinic. >> i.h.s., indian health service, provides funds to allow us to run this clinic. e are not handouts, if y will. these are a requirement per wose treaties.

right noserve about 2800 patients. of those patients, about one third are elderly who rely heavily on our services. >> reporter: even before the enutdown, the tribal nation has ffsetting costs from their own pocket. >> we started out underfunded. i.h.s. has estimated that we're only funded about 40% of our need to provide medical services to o r population. orter: the stockbridge- s nsee community supports more than just tive citizens. ec as the largest employer in shawano county, wenize the overwhelming need of the citizens. tiwe don't just live on a american reservation. we contribute to a broader exte to our community. >> i try to be friendly to everybody anwave. >> reporter: officer paige lehman is non-natide. she's crosputized, as a tribal officer and a shawano county sheriff deputy. >> wbasically patrol two

different areas of the whole shawano county. i think for a long time we actually had a shawano patch on one side and a stockbridge on the other. >> reporter: even though she ,rves all of shawano coun she's employed by the tribe. >> we're hoping that it never has to get to the point where you're going to have to furlough people >> i like working here and i hope that i never have to leave for something like that, but you never know. l reporter: a shutdown that leaves trinations severely shorted on the u.s. government's obligationhatched long ago in treaty agreements. wa we gave up a great deal and a lolost. it's not just land. the fact that we're caught up in this uelated, d.c. politics over a border wall when quite honestly the president and congress need to really immediately reopen the government. we're talking about human capital. we're talking about people and the effect that it has on their lives.

>> woodruff: more thf a million students, and their herents, were dealing with first day of a huge teachers strike in the los angeles unified hool district, a district that is 700 square mids and stretches well bey the city limits. it's the first strike there in three decas. and as special correspondent mary maccarthy tells us, there are some big dividing lines between the union and the district. eg's the focus tonight of our weekly education sment, "making the grade." >> reporter: braving theriving rain, thousands of teachers descended on los angeles city hall with a list of demands. across the city there were other, smaller protests like this one outside of magnolia avenue elementary school in central l.a. second grade teacher carmen chavez said the teachers are fighting for fair compensation. >> we are not being greedy. we're being caring. no other union in this district

is fighting for the rights of children thave proper education. we are. >> reporter: she is one of lothods of teachers across the angeles unified school district that walked out today. they're protesting pay and class size, among other issues in the nation's second-largest school district. o >> iimistic that the tblic is with us, and that they know that we arehere for their ds and here to provide a better education. >> reporter: the school district and the teachers union, which erpresents some 30,000 tea have been in contract negotiions for 21 months. talks stalled late last week, prompting the rike. schools were open today, but with far fewer sstitute teachers and school administrators filling in. the union's president said teachers are striking in the interest of students. >> here we are in a fight for

the question is do wve our public neighborhood schools so that they are cut and privatized or do we reinvest in our neighborhood public schools for our students and foriving city? >> reporter: friday, the union rejected the school district's latest offer of a salary increase of 6% spread over the first two years of a new contract. it wants an instant 6.5% pay increase that applies retroactively for the past fiscal year. the school district offered to reduce class size by two students, but the teachers want significantly smaller class sizes. class sizes can average above 30 or even 40 students as kids move e to higher grades. hool district also said it rsuld add 1,200 new teachers, counseurses and librarians nu schools, but the union said it wants mores, librarians lsd counselors to fully staff all district sch school districausuperintendent in beutner says he believes the two parties can make a deal evenhough they are at an

impasse. >> we remain cmitted to we would encourage them, we urge them, to resume bargaining with us anytime, anywhere, 24/7, we'd ke to resolve this. >> reporter: another key point rt contention is how to deal with c schools. buetner is seen as more open to a greater expansion of charter schools. but the union wants a hard cap on charter schoolsarguing that they adversely affect other public schools. >> those that arnot that good, those that are over-saturating our community and are fighti. we are actually competing as a business for students. that's not appropriate. ar reporter: today, some pents still brought their children into school. but across the city, many parents and students said they support the teachers' efforts. pp our teachers need our t, the students' support and they need to know that we're on their side and we want them >> reporter: theos angeles strike is part of a series of strikes that have taken place nationwide in the past two

years. but most of those walkouts took place in red states, while today's strike is unique in solidly democratic california. teachers say they expect to continue strtomorrow and potentially further into the week. thank you. we can see them that background right there where you are. you arreporting about what they're asking for. we understand they're saying that their work load is just too nch. fill us little bit more on what they mean by that. >> speaking to o teachethe picket line throughout the day is the same thing i've heard from them reporting on the lead up to the strike over the past few months. they are saying there's simply not enough staff. whether that's enough teachers to keep class size aittle bit smaller or enough sport staff like nurses -- support staff like nurses librarians and coaches, all those that ke up

the school staff. just to give a couple examples about los angeles public schools. schools here only have a first one day a week. only have a librarian one week out of every two weeks. so thosere the typ of things that the teachers, the union is calling for. the district in response has sa they will agree to boost staff but thone union's re to that is they haven't agreed to add enough staff. like on all the issues they hit kepoint where it lead to the st >> woodruff: mary, what about parents with so many students affected. how are they handling this, how are they coping witt?h and which side are they on? >> as you can imagine it's a bit of a logistical nightmare lout half a mn students are faced with should we go to school or not. the official line on the direct is that schools are open, there were 900 school campuses. they hve staff administrators and some other temporary staff who have been bught in. in most cases class will not bew

held, studenl be supervised in auditoriums, maybe watching movies. the majority of partts tha i've spoken to today and leading up to this said they would not send their students to school because they saw that as crossing the picket line. of coursehoany parentver don't have a choice, working parents in a district that is major telo income families -- majority low income families. 400 out of 900 students did show up today. so close to half of the students did show up according to the principal. he said they did go through it despite being under staffed and the additional challenges of a rain day but i would expect those number to vary widely across the districts. in another school in a more affluent neighboood in we scs angeles the turnout rate at an elementarol was 15%. we don't have official numbers

but largely parent support for the strike bomutparents have to send kids to school while they get to their jobs. >> >> woodruff: it's clearly long on and we'll see how it goes. mary mccarthy, thank you. >> woodruff: the first polling is out since the government shutdown began 24 da i ago. to bredown for us and discuss several other big developments, i'm joined by our politics monday alo. that's amyr of the "cook political report" and tamara keith from npr. hello to you both and happ monday. so let's talk about this poll. we have both "the washington post" and -- university do some polling wrapping up in the last few days. as you can see in the post poll 53% of the public are saying the president and the republicans are to blame, only 29% say the

democrats, 56% blaming the republicans and 36% the democrats. what does it say to usf ything about where the chips aye falling after this shut down on its 24th >> it's not entirely surprising this is where the numbers are. it's somewhat aligns with the way people view the president generally. and also, the president before the shut down started said he would be proud to shut the government down to get his border wall. he has done absolutely nothing to change that narrative. the only thithat is possibly working in his favor and this is a small ing, its a sliver but under the hood, there were a couple areas where the public opinion has shifted slightly. now the minority of people, a significant minority t more people now support building a wall along the mexican border than did a year and-a-lfgo.

it's still only 44% but that's up a fair bit fom a year and-a-half ago. similarly whether they belive riat undocumented immigrants cote to crime more than american citizens which is not true, but it was 22% in april of 2018 and now it's up to 29%. so the president is shifting at least a lile bit though it's a small amount of people toward his viewpoint. >> woodff: ishat contradictory, amy. >> no. i think what's happen is republicans are shifting the most on those issues. but overall, if you in about what strategies going into tis would the president like to see happen, right, what would he like to come out of the saddle over the border wall. one that he walwould become more popular. while there has been some shifting that's true and the washington post pole shows the same thing it's still at best gets a 4bout% approval rating. so the wall's not really much

mo popular than it's ever been. you ask voters who is to blame, they blame the president. you would think, if you were in the white house, you want to see the blame shifted to democrats. even making the case about whether this is a crises, the was a question about do you see this as a crises and about5% of voters said it was a crises but among those who saw it as aa crises, onhird of those said building a border wall is f going it. if your whole strategy behind shutting the government down waa to the wall more popular make the democrats take the blame and get folks concerned that there's a real crises on the border that needs to be solved, he's done none of those things. so republicans are still with us. that's basically what he's got. that's kind of always what he said. >> woodruff: let's talk about the other big story we're atappling with today and s a disclosure that the president, whether he was taking information papers away from the interpreters, questions insideme

the gove about whether the president might have been working for thnse russia on top of everything else, what are the political repercussions of this. >> so the differences between these articles coming out four utnths ago and these articles comingoday is now in the house, there are committees that can act on it, can use their subpoena power to try to get this information. they're exploring, the democrats are exploring how they might be able to gain access to these interpreters who were there at the meeting with putin. unclear whether they'll make it very far. but this is now, nde gr has shifted for the president. dow these stories come out an he can go out on tv and stand on the lawn and t shout ov helicopter and say i had nothing to do with russia but then democrats in congress in the house will follow up, right. they've already noted as such a

new member of the foreign committesay and adam shift tweeting saying yes we're going to try to get testimoe from th interpreter in helsinki. we've all had three elements he n. one was tws reports and leaks that have been part of the sort of you'll hear for a long time about russia and the president, the investigation. mueller's always been there but we don't know anything that's going on there the nething now is congress and that changes some of the dynamics about this story, makes it hardernd to k of push it away by just blaming it on the fakes news. >> woodruff: what happened in november matters. it's changing it. so very ly you mentioned y.eets a the president was in the white house this week a there was a snowstorm in washington. he did a lot of tweeting. i wasn'toing to use the term tweet storm. >> but you can. >> woodruff: but i will say that. what i want to ask you about is some of the language in the president's, i mean sing out at one point nancy and crying

chuck can end the shut down in 5 minutes. elizabeth warren refeed to as dkahantas referring to a commercial s looking at running. the president finally talks about lying james comby. all the things together but m're following line jaes comey and on and onts. adere accustomed to these labels, these names. >> what's different now and hii think started in the 2018 r mpaign is that democrats are no lonaking the bait on these. they don't feel any need to respond to tesident doing this. you saw every canned tate in the 2018 campaign focus on healthtre. they did react to the president. elizabeth warren in her opening video never mentions the president one time. she's been on the road now gngoi to iowa and new hampshire doesn't talk about the president unless she's asked about the

president. she didn't respond to this twee p and what thsident wants and what he's done in the past is to engage in that battle and then the media's focus is all about he says this, th side says that and then we move off the bigger tonic. a and if it's only one-sided it's less feud. >> woodruff: each one of these candidates have to calculate how they're going to do. the other thing that's come up late today the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has issued a statement, first one to come from high levels of republicans in congress condemning what steve king the republican congressman froiowa who got a lot of attention last week when he had made a statement about white supreme sist and say how can this be offensive. mt to have mitonnell say this is unwelcomed and unworthy. anybody, if hsne d't understand why white spren supry

is offensive he should find another line of work. >> another one possible censure anin other way rebuking the statements. it's remarkable in some w s besteve kis been saying things like this for years and eears and years and then h would just sort of continue on. ents seems a little differ this time. >> woodruff: but republicans haven't been, they've said it's wrong, amy, but they haven'bet in their willingness -- >> he's in his character for so long steve king says crazy things and it doesn't matter. now it does because we talk at w about white nationalists and white spren supremacists ans is no r on cookie fringe thing this is very very serious and should be taken very seriously. >> woodruff: amy walter, tamara keith, thankou both. >> you're welcome.

>> woodruff: now to our newshour shares, something interesting that caught our eye. for decades, the culinary industry has been lead largely by men. but, as renee shaw and producer abbey oldham of pbs station kentucky educational television report, one high-profile chef is trying to change that. >> this is an industry that i t ve. it's an industry tve devoted my life to. and the restaurant industry is just a very tough and high pressure environment. >> reporter: edward lee is an award winning chef, author and owner of five restaurants in the louisville, kentucky and washington, d.c. regions. in 2015, he founded the lee initiative, a non-profit seeking to increase diversity and equality in the restaurant industry. last year, the group launched

the women chefs of ken initiative as part of that mission. >> what we're looking for are young only going to rise to be great atefs, owners, investors, have you, but also great activists for the next generaon. >> reporter: five female chefs from kentuckwere selected in the inaugural year of the program. in addition to particiting in group learning events throughout the year, each woman spent a week being mentored by an established female chef elsewhere in the country. lindsey ofcaceis the lee e itiative's managing director. >>nted a way to bridge the gap between women in leadership and women at the bottom the restaurant industry. when you come in, you see a lot of women who are servers and yockwaits and buers and bartenders, budon't meet a lot of women who are general managers, chefs and owners >> reporter: mentee nikkia rhodes studied under chef ann quatrano in atlanta, georgia. >> i've never worked in a

kitchen so diverse. from race to age to sex, it was really interesting and powerful for me to see. and since doing this, i've realized i can't just be into my work, i have to be developing myself too. >> reporter: the program culminated with the five women preparing and executing a menu d new york city's renowned james beuse in the fall. >> at the end of the day they have to perform. this isn't a feel good charity, and i have confidence in them, weicked the best that we found. they have to live up to that challengor >> rr: and in doing so, lee hopes the women chefs of kentucky initiative will help s another challenge faci the culinary industry: allegationof sexual misconduct by high-profile chefs and restaurateurs. >> for every bad chef thhe's out there,'s an army of good ones. when you have women in positions of power, you just have companies that a run with a

little more equality, more fairness. >> reporter: and while it is a new and small program, lee hopes his initiative will stimulate a ripple effect acrosshe industry. >> we're trying to use our platform to make the restaurant community a better place, if i can inspire 5, 10, 15, 20 young chefs to do the same in the future, it just creates this environment where althat starts to blossom. >> reporter: the women chefs o kentucky initiative will select its next group of mentees in march. >> woodruff: on the newshour online, you can watch attorney general nominee william barr's confirmation hearing before the senate judiciary committee tomorrow live, scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. eastern. you can also read his full testimony now on our website, that's all apbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us onne and again here tomorrow evening.

for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs ednewshour has been provid by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversatis in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. p >> and by the alfrsloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, rdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. ontributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh acss.wgbh.org

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up.ed he bat california's fires. now he's fighting to make ends meet. without pay. thanks to the government shutdown. we hear from a furloughed worker for the u.s. forest servic then -- >> i'm happy to repeat what i have said previously. >> leadership is no more steadfast on this side of the atlantic. two takes on brexit after a wild week in, parliame which is nearing a crucial vote. and the value of art in times of turmoil. the acclaimed german director of "the lives of others" on his new post-war epic. and finally -- >> can't give up >> the everyday champions soulng their heart a into changing one