captioning sponsod d 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 vefluence of the russian goment. then, the government shutdown has become the longest in u.s. history. wexplore the particular impact felt by farmers. and, los 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... a look at the ongoing staltoate in washi the mueller investigation and trump's weekend tweet ndorm. all thatore on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> babbel. a language app that teaccos real-life nversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more.

>> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better .orld. at www.hewlett.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you have two lead stories tonight the government of the united states remains partly meut down. at the same resident trump

denying that he ever worked on behalf of another government we begin with that denial and the new questions about mr. trump and moscow. foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin reports. >> schifrin: on a wintry mrnday g outside the white house, the president of the united states declared, i am not a russian agent. an i never worked for russia, and you know thaer better than anybody. i never worked for russia. k t only did i never work for russia, i th's a disgrace that you even asked that question.be use it's a whole big fat hoax. it's just a hoax. >> schifrin: president trump was responding to a "new york times report the f.bened a counter-intelligence investigation into whether mr. trump was "knowingly working for russia or had unwittingly fallen under moscow's influ the bureau opened the counter- intelligence investigation after president trump fired f.b.i. director james comey, and suggested to nbc news did so to end the russia investigation. >> i was going to fire comey knowg 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 know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. >> schifrin: today, president trump accused the f.b.i. theicials who starte counter-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 actuay get along with ssia? >> schifrin: as both candidate and president, mr. trump has long advocated fs. improved ussia relations, and defended russian president 'sadimir putin. >> put killer. >> there are a lot of killers. we got a lot of killers. whso, you think our country' innocent? >> schifrin: the intelligence community was already investigating mr. trs business and political connections to russia. and then he fired comey. days later, deputy att general rod rosenstein appointed

former f.b.i. director robert muller to investigat conspiracy, and obstruction. what's new, is "the new york times" reports the f.b.i. also asked mueller investigate whether mr. trump was acting on russia's behalf. and i havet put been discussing various things, and i think it's going very well. >> schifrin: president trump also fes allegations he withheld details of his meetings with putin, even from his own staff. according to the "washington post," on at least one occasion the president took the interpreter's notes and to the interpreter "not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials." that means "there is no detailed 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 the readout. today president trump said he today president trump said he was willing to release details, and that private meetings are

normal. i i have those meetings one on one with all leadeluding the president of china, including prime minister of japan, abe. we have those meetings all the time. if big deal. >> sn: the president feared his private conversations becoming public, white house d nior counselor kellyanne conway sday. >> the president at that time in 2017 was suffering froeat number of leaks. we are always very concerned about leaks, obviously, particularly national security leaks. not funny and is seriou business. >> schifrin: the trump administration pursued a more aggressive policy against russia than its predecessors', launching missiles into russian- ally syria, sendg offensive weapons to ukrainian soldiers fighting russian-backed russiansts, closi consulates, and expelling russian diplomats. but president trump's rhoric continues to defend putin, and instead target the u.s. law enforcement agency investigating him. u' they are so embarrassed by their leadership, never seen-- i have never seen a turnaround in a bureau or ency like i have with the f.b.i.

>> woodruff: elier 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 where president kowtowed the sloom in the health sin -- vladimir putin, why wouldn't he want to share those notes with eas top people so that he could give them at a readout. anstill think the vast majority of all of the amereople and for that matter even the top folks in the trump administration tonight know what took place at that meeting. >> woodruff: how do you get to the bottom of that. how do you find out what actually hpened in those meetings or is it even possible

to do that. >> i know the may be committees in the house that are going to try to subpoe that. i have some hesitancy about that because interpreters should be able to do their job without allegiance who they were interpreting for but i think there are legitimate questions that have to be answered here. my hope is when the mueller investigation 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 interests. >> donald trump, i'm going to give him, take his word for his statemts today. there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered. for an individual that lnstantly says there's no there there then he shou the mueller investigation finish.

>> woodruff: when he says nobody's been tougher on russia than he has that he has through sanctions and through otheme ures, how do you respond. >> i would say that is not fact dhully accurate on any -- fact dhully accurate on any. the tangions that were imposed ma cases against his administration's will at the will of congress. you've got right now real time in the next 2 hours, his administrations trying to move -- 24 hours his administration is trying to move on one of the russias companies and one of putin's august gawrks. we're trying in a bipartisan way to stop that from happening. >> woodruff: let me turn now to the government's shut dn on the 24th day. you represent the washington suburbs in virginia, t state of virginia which has so many government employees. my colleague lisa day dejardins jess joe manchin is having a small private bipartisan meeting with other members of congress

now to try to find some sort of compromise some way to break through this. er you know anything about that or any offort to 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 government reopened, the kind of stories i'm hearing from fed employees. 'ven if they get their back pay, if ytaken our your money from your ira you still have to pay a tax penalty. if you're taking an advance against your credi you still have to pay fees. s have one family last week brought in theen week old baby and they tried to get their enbaby on their health inf and the person that fulfilled e form was furloughed. when the doctor gave them the prescripon luckily the insurance put that baby on the insurance form. but there are stories like that whe people shouldn't have go through this kind of stress. i think actually, anssi was a busiuy, 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 ca studies how not to negotiate on donald trump's the deal maker's approach if you look business rules 101 try to make sure both sides claim there's a win/win. if you are empowering peop try to make shr they can negotiate on -- sure they can negotiate on your behalf. if you have a work force bring them on your side. have advisors tell you the truth. on every one of those donald trump has broken all of the 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 many ways. woodruff: is there any way for the democrat to say look wen the president is responsible here but we're going to stwawl owe our pride because soluch is at stake and we'l ght something on the table in order to get thrhis in order to try to get to some i'lution beyond. >> judall for additional

border security but it ought to be done and spent in a part way with modern technology, not with nofrankly fifth century tegy like a wall. we don't know and we seen the vice president make offers and those offers get rejected by trump. we've seen majority leitch ndconnell pass something that passed 96 to twouly rejected that. lindsey graham trump's wt pertry a variety of thing. nobody knows what donald tmp will take other than trying to get a hundred percent of a solution set that no border expert says is the right way to actually 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 investigations work and foreign policy implications, i'm joined by andrew weiss. he worked for both republican democratic administratio

as a staffer on the national security council. he's now at the carnegie endowment for international peace. 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 is it to have pese kinds of revelations we've seen about tsident and russia's leaders. >> when i was at the white house there were plentof opportunities where we would beage manage a one-on-one encounteeen then president clinton and president putin and boris yesin. the idea that it sit in some broader diplomat for the united states. adin this case there's no t on the meeting, no sharing what happened with staff. it doesn't look like donald trump is doing national curity 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 with vladimir putin. that's something that doesn't seem like a p priority with your first encounter with one of your most important foreign counterparts. >> woodruff: what exactly is missing as we know. >> money. that meeting, that people sort of wind the tape back was much anticipated. it was the first bilateral encounter between donald trump and vladimir putin. it was on the ruian interference. it was what was reported in "the washington post" over weekend said to vladimir putin said i y lieve you when he disavowed ssian role in the u.s. election. trump went further and said tt's set up a cyber task force we'll sort of woether to deal with these threats which looks incredibly credulous and trusting with foreign adversarial government. >> woodruff: so david kris from the standpoint of the justice department the fbi looking and knowing about what what does it look ke and what does it take to trigger what we

understand was an investigation by the ourovernment by our esident. un well the fbi had a rintelligence investigation open but was on russian interference we know that from former fbi 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 appointee special counsel bob mueller. what appea to be going on here as reported in the times story tod other media is they focus the even closehe center not just on the campaign but on the president himself. >> woodruff: i asked this question of andrew weiss, how unprecedented. >> that is very very unusual. you have to go back to the nixon administration to get anything close to that 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 e nt to ask you about. we know th in many regards what was going on already was a criminal investigation. hris added counterintelligence. what's thehold for that? >> well so in the olden days, that is before 2002, the fbi seg gated its criminal and cater intelligence investigations quitcarefully for legal reasons. after 2002 those different lines t authority were able to be brought together as investigation as i said has ed ins been as descr early 2017, a counterintelligence investigation but with criminal aspects that is looking at whether crimes were committeas well. so i think from the fbi's perspective it didn't so much ingnal a change in the type of thstigation but more in it's emphasis and focus. druff: and the emphasis being counterintelligence as well as. >> yes. and on the president individually i think, it appears from 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 justice department to look at this based on what was happening in these bilateral meetings. th being old fashion, i remember good old days when these two worlds were sort of distinct and separate where national security and foreign policy were the president. the president had tremendous amount of latitude and discretion and there's the law enforcement domain. david was just saying, that sort of changed after 9/11 but to me that's a law enforcement tcision. it's not somethit is in the realm of foreign policy. and it seems to fit thple in the justice department had annumber of cases. we assume the reporting of weird connectionetween the trump entourage and people who seemed to be connected th the russian government. going on didn't look normal and

seemed to have some sort of tforeign intelligence valan adversarial government or potentially was about undermding our direct processe >> woodruff: speaking about national security of the united states, what is at stake here. s if there were conversatid we don't know the content of those conversations, what's stake not knowing and having to conductor this investigation and waiting to find 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 very aggressive in trying to basically take out the united states as a threat and to neutralize our threat. in the milgt of this domestic political 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 le to manage that threat successfully and effectively. tit if you run around having

secret ms where you don't let your staff to know what talking about, you don' organize your government effectively to manage that threat, basically you're giving the russians a forty te and you're doing their -- freebie and you're doing their work fora hem. that's asadvantage all of the crises it's creating. not only are we looking intensely but our government is disorganized and coherently responng to russia. >> 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 btom of this? >> i think there is no better version and investigative deem team than -- team than bob mueller. they areape many, they are very dogged working very hard and motivated to leave no turn unturned. the one thing the special unsel or special prosecutor investigators doesn't want is for something to pop opposition months from now to show they missed something.

they've got every incentive to t to the bottom of it and i think it will. >> woodruff: even if it takes more time. >> even if it takes more time. they will follow the evidence where it leads and that will d ctate where they go. >> woodruff: dais, andrew weiss. we thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the day's other major story: the partial government shutdown, now in its fourth week. ciite house correspondent yamiche or has been following the president on that front. >> alcindor: shutdown day 24 and no end in sight. today, president tmp said he is still looking to make a deal and does not want to act alone. >> i'm not looking to call a national emergency. this is so simple, you shouldn't have to. >> alcindor: as he left for an event in new orleans, he aedo insihe shutdown is now entirely the fault of democrats. >> the democrats are stopping us and they're stopping a l of great people from getting paid. >> alcindor: but some in the president's own party are now delling for m to compromise on his nd for $5.7 billion for his southern border wall. on sunday, senator lindsey

graham of south carolina, a longtime ally of the president, said mr. trump should at least temporarily end the shutdown. >> i would urge him to open up the government for a short period of time, like thr 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 thi linsdey made, but i did 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. th alcindor: democrats say it's up tpresident and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell to make a deal. today, senator ben cardin of wiryland spoke at the baltimore airpor employees of the transportation security administration. they are among nearly 400,000 federal workers required to work without pay during the shutdown. >> it's extremely challenging when people say 'why dou compromise?' when you're dealing with the president of the united states who's holding america hostage and when the president

mself undermines his own negotiators over and over again. 3, alcindor: today, t.s.a. said that on januarwo weeks into the shutdown, a man got sfrough security at atlanta's hald jackson airport undetected, with a gun. the agency said the security checkpoint was fully sffed. meanwhile, in new orleans this afternoon, at the american farm bureau convention, mr. trump addressed the concerns of farmers. >> we're fighting very hard for you, we're making a lot of progress i can tell you that. so i'm asking all of our citizens to call your democrat lawmakers and ask them to pass a bill that secures our border, protects our country and now reopens our government because >> alcindor: the shutdown means many farmers are unable to get critical federalor 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 refus pg

vide no-cost birth control. trump adration rules, allowing employers to opt out of the coverage, would have taken effectoday. but, judges in san francisel and philia issued injunctions. ode government of turkey complained after being threatened by president trump. on sunday, the president warned the u.s. will "devastate turkey economical", if it attacks u.s.-backed kurdish fighters in syria. u.s. secretary of state pompeo calledoday for everyone involved in jamal khashoggi's killing to be held accountable. the saudi journalist was sla at a saudi consulate in turkey last october. pompeo says he raised it today with the king and crowince, in riyadh. u.s. intelligence has ggested the prince himself ordered the

killing. in britain, prime minister theresa may urged lawmakers not to reject her deal for leaving the european union. 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 peuntry's vote to leave the eu union? y d we safeguard our security, our econd our union? ?r did we let the british people do opsay we should deliver for the british and get on with ng a brighter future for our country by backing this deal tomorrow. >> woodruff: from all indications, opponenthe plan outnumber supporters in parliament. rts of asia were blanket again today by unusually high levels of smog. korea recorded its wor

unhealthy air reading since it began monitoring, in 2015. and, in bangkok, thailand, crews used water cannons to clean the streets and air, while officials handed out 10,000 face masks back in this country, the mid- atlantic struggled today to recover from a heavy winter storm that's blamed for six deaths. heavy snowfall clogged roads across the region on sunday, stranding cars and trucks. hundreds of flights were canceled as well. nearly 200,000 people lost power in virginia and north carolina. the top republican in congress today joined growing condemnations 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 congress or the country for an ideology of racial supremacy any

ound." the u.s. supreme declined th hear a dispute over acting attorney general m whitaker. at issue is whether deputy attorney general rod rosenstein meanwhile, william barr, the permanent nominee for attorney general, begins senate confirmation hrings tomorrow. a major utility, pacific gas and electric, says it will file for chapter bankruptcy protection against huge liabilities from california wilires. officials are investigating whether the company's equipment sparked a november fire that killed at least 86 people and burned down 15,000 homes. and, on wall street, stocks slipped after china reported a drop in exports, further evidence that its ecomy is slowing. the dow jones industrial average lost 86 points to closat 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 impacting farmers. a wisconsin indian tribe feels the effects of the shutdown. over 30,000 teachers go on strike in los angeles, and much more. i >> woodruff: tact of the acutdown has been felt by many communitiess 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 tion in new orleans that he is on their side. cut it's an especially dif time for some farmers. already, many are coping with the fallout from trade showdowns with chi. additionally, with so many u.s.d.a. offic closed around the country, farmers cannot get the loans they may need to pay

bills or mortgages, or the money they need to plant crops for the season ahead. and they aren't getting the planical data they use t ahead. joe schroeder is an advocate for faers in need. he works for farm aid, the group founded by willie lson that supports family farmers and may be best known for putting 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. e usda is essentially the governmeity 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 arrmers in particular. those folkgoing to be significantly impacted as 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 been hearing from farmers who may be having difficulty getting their loans processed. >> most farmers who call me with heme issue are affected by shut down. the most oious example are folks who are trying to get money. this is thtime where we have to plan ahead and makeour investments, your loans to be processed. so one interruption inhis specific window for a lot of the commodities, mid western farmers is a significant set back and in fact makes me we arely at night. >> is there a particular incident owe particular 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 are eligible. avuld have bought the mother out, couldheld on to that farm and seen another day. it's likely the case that foreclosure process will happen y ster than the opportunity for them to apd process and .rant it their own. that's one examp i have many others from other farmnes. anybody whs money and there are a lot of folks during thtewintertime who do to ope in the next year are sort of scratching their head ansttrying to undd when they might be able to process them, peel bk from fsa see if they can hold on in the interim. >> this is coming a time when foremanners have already been facing stressful times because of the trade wars 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 decisions 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 native ans under treaty rights. from wisconsin public television, marisa wojcik whports from shawano, wisconsin, e one tribe is already short more than a million dollars. >> cer this closely.onitoring >> reporter: shannon holsey is the president of the stockbridge-munsee band of anhin indians, located on 22,000 acres in sho county, wisconsin. her office has been fielding questions from the community. >> we've gotten calls asking how

hncerned they should be w regards to the services that are provided. >> repter: like any government, community services including health care, education, public safetynd care for the elderly are all supported by the tbe. most tribal nations receive federal funding budgetough congress annually. >> the funds that we receive are through trust and treaty responsibilities. orey're not aid. >> repter: and with the government shutdown, these funds are no longer comingthe community. >> well, i can say that we're starting to feel the impact already. >> reporter: andrew miller is the director of the community health clinic. >> i.h.s., indian health service, provides funds to allow us to run this clinic. these are not handouts, if you will. these are a requirement per those treaties. right now, we serve about 2800 patients. of those patients, about one third are elderly who rely heavily on our services. >> reporter: even before the shutdown, the tribal nation has

eten offsetting costs from their own po >> we started out underfunded. i.h.s. has estimated that we're only funded about 40% of our need to provide medical services he our population. >> reporter:tockbridge- munsee community supports more ust its native citizens. >> as the largest employer in shawano county, we recognize the overwhelming need of the citizens. we don't just live on a native ameran reservation. we contribute to a broader extent to our community. >> i try to be friendly to everybody and wave. >> reporter: officer paige lehman is non-native. she's cross deputized, as a tribal officer and shawano county sheriff deputy. >> we basically patrol two different areas of the whole shawano county. i think for a long time we actually had a shawano patch on and a stockbridge on the other. >> reporter: even though she serves all of shawano county, 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 likehat, but you never know. orter: a shutdown that leaves tribal nations severely meshorted on the u.s. govent's obligations hatched long ago in >>eaty agreements. we gave up a great deal and a lot was lost. it's not just land. the fact that we're caught up nr thisated, d.c. politics over a border wall when quite honestly the president and congress need to really immediately reopen the government. 're talking about human capital. we're talking about people and the effect that it has on their lives. >> woodruff: more than half a million students, and eir parents, were dealing with the strst day of a huge teachers ke in the los angeles

unified school district, a district that is 700 square miles and stretches well beyond the city lits. it's the first strike there in three decades. and as special correspondent mary maccarthy tells us, there are some big dividing lines between the union and th district. it's the focus tonight of our weekly education segment, "making the grade." >> reporter: braving the driving 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 il fighting for the rights of en to have proper education. te are. >> rep she is one of thousands of teachers across the los angeles unified school district that walked out today.

suey're protesting pay and class d-ze, among other in the nation's seconlargest school district. >> i'm optimistic that the public is with us, and that they know that we are there for their kids and here to provide a better educaon. >> reporter: the school district and the teachers union, which represents some 30,000 teechers, have bin contract negotiationsor 21 months. talks stalled late last week, prompting the strike. schools were open today, b with far fewer substitute 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 we starve our public neighborhood hools so that they are cut and privatized or do we reinvest in our neighborhood public schools for our students and for a thriving 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. due school district offered to class size by two students, but the teachers want significantly smaller class zezes. class can average above 30 to even 40 students as kids move igher grades. 1,e school district also said it would ad0 new teachers, iaunselors nurses and libr to schools, but the union said arit wants more nurses, lins and counselors to fully staff all strict schools. school district superintendent thstin beutner says he believes two parties can make a deal even though they are at an impasse. >> we remain committed t ai would encourage them, we urge them, to resume bang with us anytime, anywhere, 24/7, we'd like to resolve this. >> reporter: another key point

of contention is how to deal with charter schools. buetner is seen more open to a greater expansion of charter schools. but the union wants a hard cap on charter schools, arguing that they adversely affect other public schools. >> those that are not that good, those that a over-saturating our community and are fighting. we are actually competing as a business for students. that's not appropriate. >> reporter: today, some parents still brought their children into school. but across the city, many parents and students said they support the teacrs' efforts. >> our teachers need our support, the students' support and they need to know that we're on their side and we want them >> reporter: the los angeles strike is part oa series of strikes that have taken place nationwide in the past two years. tet most of those walkouts took place in red s while today's strike is unique in nilidly democratic califora. teachers say they expect tog

continue strikmorrow and potentially further into the week. thank you. we can see them that background right there where you are. rting about what they're asking for. we understand they're saying that their work load is just too much. thll us in a little bit more on what they mean b. >> speaking to teachers on the picket line throughout the day is the same thing i've heard r om them reporting on the lead up to the strike oe past few months. they are saying there's simply not enough staff. whether that's enough teachers to keep class size a little bit smaller or enough sport staff like nurses -- support staff nurses librarians and saches, all those that make up the schooltaff. just to give a couple examples about los angeles public schools. irhools here only have a f one day a week. only have a librarian one week

tt of every two weeks. sose are the types of things that the teachers, the union is calling for. te district in response has say will agree to boost but the union's response to that is they haven't agreed n add enough staff. likel the issues they hit a point where it lead to the strike. >>uff: mary, what about parents with so many students affected. , how are they handling thw are they coping with it? and whicside are they on? >> as you can imagine it's a bit of a logistical nightmare about half a million students are faced with should we go to school or not. the official line onhe direct is that schools are open, there were 900 school campuses. they have staff administrators and some other temporary staff who have been brought in. in most cases class will not be held, students will be supervised in auditoriums, maybe watching movies. the majority of parents that i'vespoken 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 course many parents however s n't have a choice, working parentin 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 neighborhood in west los angeles the turnout rate at an elementary school was 15%. we don't have official numbers but largely parent support for the strike but some parents have to send kids to school while they get to their jobs. >> >> woodruff:it's clearly going on and we'll see how long it goes.

mary mccarthy, thank you. >> woodruff: the first polling is out since the govnment shutdown began 24 days ago. to break it down for us and discuss several other big developments, i'm joined by our politics monday duo. that's amy walter of the "cook political report" and tamara keith from npr. hello to you both and happy 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 reblicans mie to blame, only 29% say the democrats, 56% b the republicans and 36% the democrats. what does it say to usbof

anything where the chips are falling after this shut down on its 24th day. >> it's not entirely surprising this is where the numbers are. it's somewhat aligns with the way people view the president generally. red also, the president be the shut down started said he would beroud to shut the government down to get his hrder wall. done absolutely nothing to change that narrative. the only thing that is possibly workinin his favor and this is a small thing, it's a sler but under the hood, there were a couple areas where t public opinion has shifted slightly. now the minority of peoplea significant minority but more people now suprt building a wall along the mexican border than did a year and-a-half ago. it's still only 44% but that's up a fair bit from a year and-a-half ago similarly whether they believe

that undocumented immigrants contribute to crime more than american citizens which is not true, but it was 22% in april of 2018 andow it's up to 29%. so the president is shifting at least a little bit though it's a small amount of people toward his viewpoint. >> woodruff: is that contradictory, amy. >> n i think what's happen is republicans are shifting the alst on those issues. but ov if you think about what strategies going into this would the president like to see happen, right, what wo like to come out of the saddle over the border wall. coone that the wall would more popular. while there has been some shiftinghat's true and the washington post pole shows the same thing it's still at best gets about 42% approval rating. h the wall's not really m more popular than it's ever been. voters who is to blame, they blame the president. you would think, if you were in se white house, you want the blame shifted to democrats.

even making the ca about whether this is a crises, there was a question about do u see this as a crises and about 45% of voters said it was a crises but among those who saw it as a crises, only a third of those said building a border wall is going to fix it. if your whole strateind shutting the government down was to make the wall more popular make the democrats take the 'same and get folks concerned that the real crises on one border that needs to be solved, he'snone 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 grappling oday and that is a disclosure that the president, whether he was taking information papers away from the veterpreters, questions inside the ment about whether the president might have been working for the russians. on top of everything else, what are the political repercussions of this.

>> so the differences between these articles coming out four aynths ago and these articles coming out ts now in the house, there are committees that can t on it, can use their etsubpoena power to try to this information. they're exploring, the democrats are exoring how they might be able to gain access to these interpreters who wmee there at thing with putin. unclear whether they'll make it very far. but this is now, the ground s shifted for the president. now these stories come o and he can go out on tv and stand on the lawn and shout oe helicopter and say i had nothing s do with russia but then democr congress in the house will follow up, right. they've already noted as such a new member of the foreign committee say and adam shift tweeting saying yes we're going to try to get testimony from the interpreter in helsinki.

we've all had three elements here. one was the news 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 o don't know anything that's going on theree new thing now is congress and that changes some of the dynamics about this story, makes it harder to kind of push it away by just blaming it on the fakes news. >> woodruff: what happened in november matters. it's changing it. so very quickly you mentioned tweets amy. the president was in the white house this week and there was a snowstorm in washington. he did a lot of tweeting. i wasn't going to use rm tweet storm. >> but you can. oodruff: but i will say that. what i want to ask you about is some of the languagen the president's, i mean singling out at one point ncy and crying chuck can end the shut down 5 minutes. elizabeth warren referred to as pokahantas referring to a

commercial she did looking at running. the president finally talks about lying james comby. all the things together but we're following line james comey and on and on. adults were accustomed to these labels, these name >> what's different now and i think this started in the 20 campaign is that democrats are no longer taking the bait on these. they don't feel any need to respond to the president doing this. you saw every canned tate in the 2018 campaign focus on healthcare. they didn't react to the president. elizabeth warren in her opening video never mentions the president one time. she's been on the road now going he iowa and new hampshire doesn't talk aboutresident unless she's asked about the tesident. she didn't respothis tweet. and what the president 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 is, this side says that and then we move off the bigger tonic. >> and if it's oy one-sided it's less of a feud. >> woodruff: each one of these candides have to calculate how they're going to do. other thing that's come late today the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has issued a stateme, first one to come from high levels of republicans in congress condemning what steve king the republican congressman from iowa who got a lot of attention last week when he had made a statement about white supreme sist and say how can this be mifensive. but to havh mcconnell say this is unwelcomed and unworthy. ybody, if he doesn't understand why white spren supry is offensive he should find another line of work. >> another one possible censure and in other ways rebuking the statements.

ng's remarkable in some ways besteve as been saying things like this for years and years and years and then he would just sort of continue on. this seems a little different this time. >> woodruff: but republicans eyven't been, they've said it's wrong, amy, but aven't been in their willingness -- s he's in his character for so long, steve king sazy things and it doesn't matter. naw it does because we talk a lot now about whitonalists and white spren supremacists d s a cookie fringe thing this is very very serious and should be tan very riously. >> woodruff: amy walter, tamara keith, thank you both. you're welcome. >> woodruff: now to our newshour shares, something interestg that caught our eye.

n r decades, the culinary industry has bad largely by men. but, as renee shaw and producer abbey oldh of pbs station kentucky educational television report, one high-profile cf is n ying to change that. >> this isdustry that i love. it's an industry that i've stvoted my life to. and the rant industry is just a very tough and high pressure environment. >> reporter: edward lee is an award winning chef, author and owner ofive restaurants in the louisville, kentucky and unshington, d.c. regions. in 2015, he d 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 kentucky initiative as part of that mission. >> what we're looking for are young women chefs who are not only goingo rise to be great chefs, owners, investors, what

have youbut also great activists for the next generation. >> reporter: fe female chefs from kentucky were selected in the inaugural year othe program. in addition to participating in group learning events througho the year, each woman spent a week being mentored by an established female chef elsewhere in the country. lindsey ofcacek is the lee initiative's managing director. >> we wanted a way to bridge the gap between women in leadership roles and won at the bottom of the restaurant industry. when you come in, you see a lot of women who are servers and backwaits and bussers and bartenders, but you don't meet a lot of women who are general managers, chefs and owners. >> repter: mentee nikkia rhodes studied under chef ann neatrano in atlanta, georgia. >> i'vr worked in a kitchen so diverse. from race to age to sex, it was really interesting and powerful sir me to see. ane doing this, i've realized i can't just be into ve

work, i o be developing myself too. >> reporter: the program culminated with the five women preparing and executing a menu at new york city's renowned james beard house in the fall. >> at the end of the day they haveo perform. this isn't a feel good charity, and i have confidence in them, we picked the best that we found. they have to live up to that r:allenge. >> repor and in doing so, lee hos the women chefs of kentucky initiative will help address another challenge facing the culinaryndustry: allegations of sexual misconduct by hh-profile chefs and restaurateurs. >> for every bad chef that's out there, there's an army of good enes ou have women in positions of power, you just have companies that are run with a little more equality, more fairness. >> reporter: and while it is a new and small program, lee hopes his initia ripple effect across the 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 all that starts to blossom. >> reporter: the women chefs of kentucky initiative will select its next group of mentees in march. >> woodruff: on the newshour online, you can watch attorney general nominee william barr'snf mition hearing before the senate judiciary cee tomorrow live, scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. easte r. you can ald his full testimony now on our websitepb that's all aorg/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorr evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanishfrench, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more informationn babbel.com. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur bundation. committed lding a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org ti and with the ongoing support of these instituons >> this program was made possible by the corporation for

public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by nshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," bridget and julia unlock the secrets to a foolproof chocolate cream pie, jack challenges bridget to a cocoa-powder tasting, and le makes julia the perfedar. it's all coming up right here en on "america's test kit