>> tonight on kqed newsroom, ti12 democratic presidal candidate faced off this week, we will look at the state of the race amid the growing impeachment inquiry pick >> also we will hear from arbay congressmen, rowe, who serves on one of the committees investigating president trump. plus survivors of some of northern california's most destructive wildfirensare up aga key deadline to file claims against pg&e. good evening d welcome to kqed newsroom. i am lily. we begin tonight with the democratic presidential debate and impeachment investigation. this week, house democrats pressed ahead with their impeachment inquiry, against prident trump. they interviewed several key e witnesses about president's efforts to persuade ukraine's leader to investigate former vice president joe biden, and his son. o meanwhiltuesday, 12

candidate squared off in a democratic residential debate, held in ohio. reflecting her surge in the polls, this timeit was elizabeth warren facing a tax from her rivals. especially over her support for medicare for all. y she refused to if she would raise taxes on the middle class, to pay for it. >> joining me now, senior editor for politics and government, scott shaver. joining us via skype from the nation's capital, is tall coping, the washington correspondent for the san francisco chronicle. welcome to you both. >> thank you. >> let's start with you, scott. you were in washington this week and you spoke with several ngressional delegation, several of them are players in this impeachment inquiry, what did you learn? >> adam is of course leading the charge along with penancy si, and he is the chair of the house intelligence committee, and we met with him after a long meeting he had he has becothe target of republicans and the president

in particular. who are claiming they are attacking the process coul not so mudefending what the president did on that phone call with the president of ukraine. they are saying this is an unfairillegitimate process. in terms there was no houseboa on this. this is all happening behind closed doors and what adam schiff described, is what closed doors. d in his telling of it anyway, the mocrats on the panel, get an hour of questioning of these witnesses and the republicans get an hour and they go back and forth like that for hours on end. according to adam schiff, all the questions they can be asked of these witnesss. so in his telling, it is a irve rocess, and it will become public once this portion of the behind closed doors part is finished. there will be, transcripts released, testimony, some of these witnesses may come back for public hearings. >> to you in washington, republicans of course want to force a vote against inteigence share, adam schiff, what nde the gr

for justifying such a vote? >> reporter: procedurally, if enough of them sign a petition thn force a vote. we expected to fail the democrats will vote to table it and move on. the poinrepublicans are arguing, is that they say that adam hiff is not conducting this fairly as scott was mentioning. they have taken issue with some of his statements for example he has gone hit by the fact checkers. he made a nocomment saying one had spoken with the whistleblower essentially and we found out later, that in fact the whistleblower had st approached hisf and got the advice to go ahead and move forward with the whistleblower complaint which is the proper procedur but he had de this comment srt of saying that hadn't occurred. they also take issue with this sort of purity of the phone call that he read as an opening statement, in not hearing, over the whistleblower. he made very clear that he was notyo know, verbatim

recounting the president's words. but, they are hitting him for it and they are repeating the sipresidents language ac him of lying and that type of thing. >> another big development this week was the meeting between president trump and speaker nancy pelosi, this was the first time they had mot in hs and ended in explosive fashion, you had nancy saying that with trump, all roads lead to putin. what you make of that? >> that is a pretty remarkable thing for her to say to the ac presidents you know, we have heard her say it in press conferences, but she is a woman who spects the political process, she has worked with multiple presents as a ader of her party. she is generally very respectful of the office, and so for her to sort of take that shot at the president in that meeting, i think is a b escalation thof relationship you see between the two of them, but we also hear from democrats that the president was insuheing her to face and calling her a third rate

politician or a third grade politician. you know, solearly for a while, there seems to be a mutual respectbetween the two of them at least for the dignity of their office. as we move forward with this imachment inquiry, that bseems fraying quite a bit more than even we have seen in the past. >> well, scott, you had an si opportunity todown with one of the freshmen democrats, who is in dia purple rict. katie porter of irvine, she has certainly made a splash in the last year, since e got to what does she tell you about , how this impeachment and her support for this inquiry, has fected her chances winning. is she worried? >> i don't think she is worried at all. she first of all was one of the very first freshman to come out in support of impeachment inquiries. so, i don't think that, she an attorney, she taught law. i think she understands the process and the implications of everything pretty ll.

a lot of these freshmen also, they are not necessarily career politicians. they didn't necessarily run for office because they wanted to so the prospect of not getting reelected is not that troubling to some of them. rti think katie just feels this is the right thing to do. her diitrict although yes was held by a republican that she defeated, orange county is not a particularly friendly place to donald trump eith. i think e feels confident and comfortable being supported of the inquiry as it goes forward. >> let's also talk about this house resolution, on syria. on the u.s. withdraw from syria , obviously spearheaded by president trump. you had tremendous republican support for that resolution, bipartisan effort here. are we starting to see the tide turned in terms of republican support and backing for president trump? >> i amnot sure w much you can extrapolate from this particular vote. one area we have seen ou

republicans being willing to vote with democrats is on some of these military issues. so, we do busee a of the presidents foreign policy and this area i think this has been one of the strongest reviews of it harkens back to what we saw in terms of saudi arabia support for this acampai yemen that is causing an widespread faminemass casualties. that was another instance where we saw this, but you have members like lindsey graham of south carolina, a senator, very close with the presidenag very vocallynst his moves to withdraw from syria and allow this turkish invasion. the neis day he going to go back to defending the president on everything else. i don't know that you are seeing a flood of republicans off the cedelines, but ainly on this issue, and perhaps broader foreign policy issues. they are not afraid to rebuke the president in this way. >> well, let's turn now to the t democratic dthis week. in ohio, and scott we had elizabeth warren sort of with

targ her back during that debate. should she feel threatened by that, or flattered? >> i don't think she is threatened by it. she isthe target cause she appears to be the front runner or at least with jobiden, the co-front runner at this point. so, she probably was expecting a lot of incoming and she got it. i think by and large, she held a pretty well. she did have some trouble around the question of how is shndgoing to her medicare for all. and whether there would be a middle-classtax increase, to fund that. a pretty good job of pushing her on that. we didn't hear a lot from she made a point about not ar talking, whywe talking about women's reproductive health as well. but by and large, you can see this field narrowing, in terms of who is getting attentiome how much that they have during the debate, and is pretty much coming down to biden, sanders, warren, pete, to a certain extent and some harris, but all these others you know have get there time in and it just alludee the

wholocess. i think it is hard for viewers and voters to really you know, take the full measure of thnde ates. >> how do you think elizabeth warren did? >> i think to scott's point, what we saw on that debate stage was a passing of the mantle so to speak of the front. runner sta we saw her front and center, taking incoming from several candidates, i mean you saw pulling in the ngle digits, you know, it is biden warren and sanders and a big gap between the rest of the field. every single one of them came something to change their to fate, and several of them decided that something was going to be going after elu abeth warren. ow, did she handle every attack perfectl? maybe not. did she show that she is capable of withstanding onsome aught? which arguably, if you are auditioning for the role of going up against donald trump, you have to able to take some onslaught. so, you know she stood up ther and toit.

i think, i don't think we will see anything in the polls that fundamentally shifts the trajectory ofthis race, which right now has her picking up steam against all her rivals. >> scott, we have to talk about harris, and she has hedefinitel seenstar fall, but interesting to see bide faltering as well these last couple of weeks. how might shbe a an b for some of his space? >> well, for joe biden, his firewall has been african- epecially in places south carolina and other state in the south. so the question is if biden continues to drop where do those votes go? might they to harris? or cory booker, the two african- americans in the race? or could they go to warren? i think withose votes be up for grabs. we are going to see that dynamic play out in the next few weeks. er >> scott shour politics editor here, thank you both so much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> > three house committees are spearheading the impeachment investigation into president trump. one of them, the oversight and m

reform cmittee, to post several current and former trump administration officials this week. meanwhile on thursday, nicole veiny the president acting chief of staff, suggested at a press conference that's nearly $400 million in military aid to ukraine, was held up, to pressure ukraine to investigat democrats. hours later, mulvaney tried to walk, those comments ba saying there was no quid pro quo for the release of the eight. with us now is silicon valley congressman, ro khanna. committee, and the armed services committee. thank you for being here congressman. >> thank you for having me on. >> i want to begin by asking you about mick mulvaney's press conferensterday, in which he suggested that there was in fact a quid pro quo with ukraine , what is your reaction to that and how does that impact the it was shocking to have the white house chief of staff admitting that the united stes of america withheld aid

from ukraine to advance the presidents personal agenda. i mean the president is asking ukraine to investigate a conspiracy theory, that ukraine somehow allegedly help the democratic party win elections in 2016. that is absurd. it has been debunked. yet the president istying our aide asking ukraine to do that. is wrong. it is further evidence of the abuse of fice of this administration. >> are you planning to call mister mulvaney as a witness? i don't know he will testify or cooperate, but at this point you know we don't need that many more witnesses. we have the chief of staff admit to quid pro quo on idtelevision. the prt of the united dates bragged about asking ukraine and china to investigate joe biden and hunter biden. at this point, there really is no factual dispute. we know that what the administration did and the

question is, are we going to uphold the constitutional congressman, of all the testimony that you heard this week, what was the single most important thing that we ylearn r review? >> based on the public reporting of the testimony, i would say the most disturbing pa is how this president outsourced foreign-policy to his personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, r his personal benefit. i mean this n-s not fore policy being conducted by john bolton or mike pompeo or ambassadors. this was rudy giuliani pushing his n interest and th presidents personal interest to win reelection, with ukraine. that is just, every american, i don't care about your party should be appalled that a personal lawyer to the president is representing the united states of america in foreign policy matters. >> what does the timeline at this point, look like in your review, when it comes to impeachment? a vote to impeach.

does thanksgiving se like it is in the ballpark at point? >> i think it is. t we need to it done before the end of the year. like i said, most of evthe ence is there. we need to move expeditiously al and then we need to focus on the work. i mean i have been focused on building affordable houng for the bay area and expanding transportation and making sure that we have investments tu infrastr and jobs. obviously i have held this president accountable but i also want to be focused on tth woimprove our district and people's lives. >> let's turn to syria now and onthe trump administra withdrawal of u.s. forces there, in the past week we have seen kurds displace. with turkey annexing parts of syria, the kurds of course have been one of america's key e allies in battle against islamic state, yesterday vice president mike pence announced that edturkey had agto a temporary cease-fire, so congressman, i want to ask you, does that cease-fire do anything in terms of undoing

fragile region? in >> unfortunately it doesn't. it is not a cease-dere turkey is ribing it as a pause. obviously it is good that the question is whatis going to happen to the 1.7 million kurds? the president is saying they will flee. that is unacceptable. they have a vibrant society in northern syria, we can't just have a mass exodus and then e what happens after five days? does turkey go back in and start killing women and children and civilians again? what we need is far more with a permcommitment, come up not to invade that region. >> we have to note here congressman that in april, you and kentuckysenator, ran, sent a letter to the president, suppting his decision to bring u.s. troops home from syria, you urge the completion of that withdrawal, over a six month timeline. at was exactly 6 months ago. >> i did, but i called for a th

responsible awal and i said let's make sure that we have plomacy, that we have a deal with him, so that we n't have an invasion. let's make sure that secure the kurds, and secure the regional interest. of that turkey did not even inform the allies. he did not inform the kurds. he did not inform his own administration in parts and he basically ceded to him. so i do think a responsible wiitdrawal is possible. still is my position, but not without diplomacy. >> do u have any regrets about sending that letter now, because you are right, that you did call for an orderly process but this happened almost exactly on the timeline that you had asked for i regret that we don't have a competent foreign-policy. richard or georgiuld've e like been able to do this. i have no doubt if elizabeth

warren, bernie sanders or any competent democrateywas present would be able to withdraw all troops and make sure we would have the effect of diplomacy. >> i want to ask you about the resolution passed in the house of representatives on monday on a 354-60 vote, thi rebuke. no doubt about it of the presidents withdraw from syria. e you surprised by the bipartisan support on this issue? >> i am not. you had progressives like me suorted, even though we withdrew. we believe that the handouts to turkey and allowing for the slaus ter of the kuwas irresponsible. you have conservatives who believe we should be standing up with our kurdish allies and not allow for isis, so the one& inngress, is whatever ideological perspective you come from, that this has been incompetent. it has been a colossal blunder, that is coing people their lives. >> rissman, we know on thursday that president trump has chosen his own resort, one of his resorts in florida as the

locaon of the next g7, next year. can we get your reaction to that? >> it is shocking. i mean i don't undetand how this president can be selling his own business as a place to conduct offial policy. it is a violation of the clause. he says it is not about money, so said, i tweeted out, i said if it is not about money, why does he offer these places for free. why is he having the taxpayers sinesses, for the spaces. >> there anything that congress can do to stop this? >> we are calling for investigations and we e saying he is violating the clause but homany thingscan we investigate? we are focused on the biggest and having a process of the articles of impeachment. >> let's turn to the atssage, the of your good friend, representative, elijah cummings, you served together

on the hoe oversight committee. how is his death being received in washington? >> it is an enormous loss. i would scribe him more a mentor and a friend. i had the honor of serving with him for about a year on th oversight committee. he is the son of sharecroppers, a man o had a booming presence, a moral authority. that very few others in congress have. i think of people like john having had the moral weight, moral conscience of congress, he won't be replaceable. but, we can learn from his wisdomhis sense of fairness to both sides. his sense of commitment to civil rights, to righ of immigrants. and i just feel blessed and privileged to have learned from him and served on his committee for year. >> our condolances to you your colleagues there in washington. congressman ro khanna, thank you so much. >> thank you, it is always a

pleasure. >> survivors of recent california wildfires linked to monday to file liaby claims for their losses. also e states top toutility r, is holding an emergency meeting today with pg&e executives about the widely criticized power outages last week. that left hundreds of thousands of customers witho governor gavin, is demanding accountabiekty, saying this that californians should not pray pay the price for decades of pg&e's greed and neglect. joining me now to talk out this is law prfressor, jared, uc hastings college of the law. thanks for being here. >> x for having me. >> there is this deadline on nday, and before we get started i want to put up the website for folks who do fiwant to claims who haven't. it is pg wildfire info.com i think it is really interesting that if you don't get your claim in byaythis moyou basically forfeit yourclaim, so my first

question to you, is why does this deadline exist in the first place? >> that is a great question. so, when t you think ab bankruptcy law, it is easy to focus on especially in this ld case, the re victims whose lives were upended by fires that had been attributed to pg&e agreement. but the company itself needs finality, and they need to be able to move thugh the bankruptcy process and the judge needs to know just exactly what is it sitting in front of him, and because ofkr that btcy law has these harsh rules where it is harsh, if you don't file a claim by 5 pm on monday, you are more than likely foriting any rights you might oft had to anything from pg&e. for any damages that you suffered. and to the extent that you were harmed by pg&e related fires and you don't file a claim, you're going to be out of luck. even if thperson who ved next door to you who did file a claim and also suffered damages gets a huge payment on account . you really do need to file a claim. by that date. >> we know that tens of thousands of people have filed claims, but there becould tens

of thousands of people who haven't yet. i'm really surprised by that figure. it might beasas much half of those out there who still haven't done so. why do you think that is? is >> that a great question. you are hearing in a couple of different stories from the people w have been looking at it. one possibility is there is just misinformation going around and people don't edunderstand they to file a claim. the company has done a really great job i think in advertising that you need to do it. it is legal form. it is intimidating. this is a process people are familiar with. i can understand how you would h look at and say i am not sure what to do. another possibility is people might think if they file a claim, they have to know exactly how much they are owed. they have to have f ientific prat this is the number. actually the company has done something great which is you form saying you are not sure how much you know and you can amend the form later, once you leatn more about your damages are. there is no real reason not to put your name on it, explain

what happened to you and you can check the box saying i am t sure, and later you can figure it out and amend it. you need to do by 5 pm monday. >> there are a lot of misconceptions. touched on some of them just now. one of the questions i ha heard is do i need a lawyer to do this? what do you tell people? >> it is always vehelpful to a lawyer in life. i say that as a itlawyer. but is always helpful to have a lawyer to help you with things. but, you don't need a lawyer toi help you this form. you just need to go online and fill it out. it is great if you have a lawyer and is also great if you consult with a wyer while you are filling it out yourself. if you don't have time to do that between now and monday, fill out the form and work with a lawyer later toamend it and fix any mistakes you might have made. >> we should note the liabilities from sthese wildfi are the primary reason that pg&e cited when they entered into bankruptcy protection at the end of january. today, we have the state regulator, the rn cali public utilities commission, calling executives

from pg&e and. we are talking about the o, also the chairwoman of the board and a number of executives as well. i just wonder, how muchof this is going to influence the bankruptcy process. what they are talking about today, is these controversial power outages from last week. do you think this could influence the bankruptcy proceedings, that conversation we hear today? >> absolely. t, in a subtle way. so, the bankruptcy judge, is a very experienced dge. he hbeen doing this for over 30 years. he really is good at paying a bankruptcy judge. you ve this incredibly important company that is in your court room and they ed help. they are under siege from the press, under siege from the ca public of fornia. the state governments, the regulator. all of this kind of adds up to a landscape for e judge where he looks at pg&e, and he thinks i need to do something, to help move this company on, so we can focus these bigger

challenges that it faces. you know, the fire conditions and the shutoffs, like these are not things that the judge or the bankruptcy can fix. at these are things the company is going to have to work through later. i think it sort of shows in the grand scheme of things how unimportant in some ways, this bankruptcy process is for pg&e's future. it ist really importfor the fire victims that happened in the past, but this company wants at least reps he. it is t like itwill be rainbows and unicorns and all of their problems are coming to an end. this is a really tough situation. >> why should ratepayers pay attention to this. i think a lot of us are wondering at the end of the day, are the rates going to go up? >> teyers should pay attention to this. as a pg&e ratepayer myself, i certainly think about it in that sense. and whatwill probably happen, is your rates are not gog to go up right away after the bankruptcy. but, after this ends, you know, the problems that pg&e has, will continue to force rates up and up and up, you would assume

overtime, absence and dramatic change in the cost of doing business which only seems like it going up. if you are a ratepayer you can cover your eyes and hope that nothing bad happens. but it is cyt this bankru that will force rates up in the future. it is all of the business problems, that pg&e faces. >> oblems that the governor and other state officials were saying were years ngin the ma were the product of neglect and choices made by the company. help us contextualize this bad ruptcy in the grscheme, this is the biggest utility bankruptcy that this company and country has ever seen. how unique is this case? this has to be you know, i was a professor and i was a bankruptcy lawyer. this has to be, if not the most unique bankruptcy that we have seen, it is one of hthem. e seen a lot of companies that have very unique cases like general motors, that unwas veryue in 2009. you know the city of detroit had a unique case.

this is unusual. it is unusual in that the bankruptcy judge really doesn't have the power to solve all the problems that pg has. like there is a sort of powerlescyess of the bankru system over this company. that just makes this really strange. >> okay, well jared elias, professor at uc hastings college of the law. think you. >> thank hayou for ng me pierced the act that will do it for us as always you can find more of our cove.oge at kq/newsroom. i am lily, thank you for joining us.

robert: the trump white house confronts impeachment, threats and a syria showdown. >> turkey and the united states of america have agree to a sanctuary city -- ceasefire in syria. robert: but was it a ceasefire? >> wte have done to the kurds will stand as a blood stain inn in the annals of ericanistory. robert: explosive testimony in thimpeachment inquiry. ond the white house scrambles deny a quid pro quo. withholdingilitaryil aid to ukraine. >> we do that all the time with foreign policy. i have new for everybody, get over it.ro rt: next. announcer: this is "washington week."