the latest on breaking the impasse of the pitol hill for new round of federal economic relief. democrats and their national conventions republicans prepare for their t turn at banext week. it has been 100 years since women won the right vote. we dive into issues that face california's women at the ballot x and inelected office today. welcome to kqed newsroom. i am david clemens. so we plunge in the fire seasond with hunof fires burning more than 500,000 acres across northern and central california. firefighngrs are batt main fires while contending wi

high wind and difficult terrain. at least five people have now died. in santa cruz and san mate county alone more than 64,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. the air quality in the bay area is now among the worst in the world. >>cathe northern fornia wildfires expected to burn for several more days. and sseepo wly.ksfor up-to-date air-quality maps and evacuation information. earlier today postmaster general lewis to joy testify before senate lawmakers. he was called to answer for controversial changes to the postal service. changes which have led to widespread delaand warnings thma mail-in ballotsnot award on time to be counted for the november election. those changes would be suspended until after the election. also this week a bipartisan group released a report saying that russia interfered to help

donald trump when. the report also laid out extensive contact between trump campaign advisors and ssian operatives. me now buy skype from burbank is democratic concert congress member and chair of the house intelligence committee adam schiff. thank you so much for joining us. >> what isyour response to the testimony in front of the senate today? >> i amprofoundly concerned that the postal service does not have the resources that are needed to make sure that we carry out the solution properly. but also that the changes y the alret in place need to be reversed. it is noenough the sorting machines need to be installed and figure ouwhere theyare to make sure that we can handle the volume which is going to be higher than we'vever seen it before. notwithstanding efforts to discourage and disenfranchi people. there is a reason why others

have chosen people who cehave experi to run the social postal service. in thrisa my donald trump chose a donor instead and that is because the president wants to liticize everything including postal service and as we have seen amply the president wants to do anything he can tocast votes. andat is just unconscionable. >> what do you expect will come from the postal service here? >> i know it will pass. and it will provide 25 billion for the postalservice. and it will insist on the restoration of the equipment the postmaster general the question as well republican support it? or the going to continue to enableth presidents attacks on the postal service and on people's rights to vote? so are republicans going to continue to enable this craven

president and hiefforts to tear down the democracy? >> you're pointing again to the split that exist in oucountry . during the democratic national convention joe biden made a plea for unity. do atyou think is a pipe dream given the state of politics in america today? >> i don't think this is a pi dream. i think the president has a profound ability greater than tone and partof the reason is become so divided is because we have a president whose tone haso be of bitter division. he gets up in the morning after stoking himself on wiright news and he tweets r bio much d in his public address he never tries to reach out to people that did not originally support him. joe biden has a very different philosophy like he said. he wants to be the president s.for all americ he will work hard for all of their support including people who didn't vote for him.

anthat's the way should be. and i think is much as anything character is really on the ball. and they can really help to bring us together. someone of poorharacter just drives us apart. >> turning to the news of the week now. steve bannon who is president trump's former advisor angn campanager was indicted and arrested on fraud charges this week. he and someof his associates raised money for a border wall project. and now he is accused of siphoning off hundreds of thousanddollars from that project to pay off his own personal expenses. what are your thoughts about steve bannon with the arrect, his innt and would you support an investigation in the use into this alleged game? >> donald trump promised the american people that mexico would pay for this wall. at was a lie and it was a fraud and a con. and now you have steve bannon

promising that people who doe ted to this priv organization that all of their money would go to building the wall. and that was also a lie and a fraud and a con. that's who these people are. it's never enough for them. they're both very wealthy. but stthey are l intent on ripping people off. donald trump was trying to use his power of position to move the british open over to his it's just never enough. and it's never about the american people. and i think this is why we are in such terrible straits in terms of dealing with the om ec and whether or not there's a rolling movement in congress that would not be in intelligence committee matter but i think certainly the laen rcement and southern district of new york are doing what they should invest getting criminality no matterwho perpetrates it.

>> let's turn to another case of big news this week. a bipartisan senate report came out which rgets the links between the trump campaign and the russian intelligence in 2016. the report detailed several pointsof contact tween the two. but it opped short of saying there was a coordited conspiracy. what is the bottom line for your. >> what's great here is that the republicans were not going to go to the same place. democrats and republicans agreed with what inwe found the house they welced and encouraged intervention to help the campaign. they built it into the campaign plan and made full use of it. e trump campaign paul manafort secretly was meeting with an agent of russian intelligencet providing that agth internal polling datat

to help eldonald trump. these are really pround acts of corruption. whether they are enough to prove a crime or not is one question. but they are clearly raunethica imand wrong. >> do thyou think e acts of corruption are in the past? do you believe there are current links between the t campaign the trump presidential campaign and russian intelligence now? >> yoknow i can't say that the corruption in terms of trying to get foreign help to this campaign is in the past. as we saw after inviting russia to help him in 2016 he then went on to try to force ukraine to help him. according to john bolton he also begged china's president to help s mpaign. so what he and others may be w but you can certainly conclude that there is nothing about his

character that would preclu him from corruptly seeking foreign help again. everything about his character would suggest that kind of unethical conduct will continue. >> i do want to talk about the stimulus package which has t.en stalled can you tell me if you or any closer to a bipartisan agreement when it comes to the e round of coronavirus for the funding? >> i certainly hope so. i was here with project angel t od. a great nonproin my district. and i met someone who told me that she had $500 in unpaid utility bills because she had to choospaying rent or utilities. she was basically using a fan and 's been the hundreds here in los angeles. this is whpeople are experiencing. ey need help right now. the challenge politically is that mitch mcconnell's republican conference for the senate at least half of them n't want to do anything more. so he is just sat on the silines.

they need to come to an agreement they've been sitting r on a bill three months. they need to can negotiate in good faith because we need to get this done. >> this wepresident trump ulster the legitimacy of a conspiracy group the says he is battling double worshiping pedophiles and cannibals were linked to democrats. and he said these are people who love our country. they also recently won a support race in georgia and e you worried about the influence in our government? >> absolutely. in the fbi has warnabout the dangers of the extremist conspiracy theories. either the subject has been here myself. or someone who attempted or nted to make a tizens arrest and did not attempt to thankfully. but did matry to one to someone else. and ended d shooting killing him. this is dangerous stuff. and the president needs to stop

trafficking in it. the repuican party i thinis playing with fire. by encouraging people to run for office. it just shows how the gop has lost any moorings. but it is a real danger and they need to stop amplifying this extremist content. >> thank you for joining us. >> democrats wrapped their all democratic national convention this morning. governor gavin newsom appeared briefly to warn about the dangers of climate change as hundds of thousands acres were burned. california junior senator and vice presidential running ma h kamaarris was highlighted throughout. nancy pelosi and another hometown figure also rally the faithful. joining me from skype in san ci

fro discuss this is guy maserati. joining us from mountain view is hoover institution fellow la chen. thank you so much for joining us. okay let's touch briefly on the wildfires in the stg e enforc many people to flee their homes in the midst of this pandemic. hos have the chanthe governor has put in place to contain the pandemic impacted the resources thatwe had to fight the fires? >> even in the year of this pandemic stricken budget enwe'v assive cuts to universities and courts among other things, firefighting is an area in which they've increased spending. more than $85 million in the last year's budget. re millions spent in hiring more. werestill seeingthe scope and intensity around northern california stretchi resources. >> so what was the core message that stood out to omu most

the democrats this week? >> it had to be message ofa big party. that is the message that they wanted to put forth on the first night of this convention with them talking glowingly about organized bor and autoworkers all immediately followed by john case in the republican who battled with organized labor tiduring his in the governor's seat. and we don't know if this will tran ate to electoral succes but it is clear that the virtual format was a political strategists dream. allowing them to control the message really hone in on a few hours of programming every night. and i think with the exception of kamala harris's speech on is wednesday whic oddly formatted i thought for as much it is and we were able to control that message. >> so puyou advise ican candidates for the white house including mitt romney and marco rubio. as they jul mentioned, seve prominent republicans were also featured during the dnc this weekend.

not only meg whitman and hn casey but colin powell as well. how are those presentations received in republican circles? >> productively e theeches were perceived as being deliveredby republicans in name only. this derisive term that has been applied to peop like governor case eric it was part of a cohesive strategy. go thei was to speak to independent voters who they even those who supported donald trump in 2016. so the goal of having john casey and meg whitman and others picking at the convention was not to convince the uppublicans tort joe biden. but was in fact intended to convince those may bein the middle or maybe those who consider themselveblstill rean but are unsure about the president and in that sense itwas a rategy that did make a lot of sse.

>> and governor newsom was scheduled to give a larger address but because the wildfires he sent in a prerecorded message. before the convention night even really began. that was broadcast. and in his place alex padilla spoke along with michcran ary of state jocelyn benson. let's talk about why he was chosen to speak. voting security? his focus on >> absolutely. across the country there's a vote by mail here. and that is something that they've been pursuing for years as far as the voters choice act. shifting counties to defend all registered voters to the ballot. it also doesn't hurt that he's become vice president. d is also on the short list of possible appointees. >> next week is the republicans turn in front of everyone and the nation in the limelight. what do ey need accomplish next week? >> first of all they need to

articulate what president trump's accomplishments have been in the first term. for a lot of americans this is the opportunity to encapsulate what is going on here. so what is it trthat donald p has accomplished. the recent flow of the last fewo months ibeen positive given the coronavirus and racial strife that we have seen in america. r this is thopportunity tell the story of the trump record. but more importantly they have to present a vision for what president trump would do in his second term. that has been something that has been noticeably absent so far from the . campaign tra and this is an opportunity for them in this next week to demonstrate that there is some things that president trump wants to accomplish with the policy and other issues. and i think this is the uninterrupted opportunity to do sobecauswhile this is the case that you do have a bunch of people that have decided they'rgoing to vote r or

against president trump there is still a persuadable middle that we have talked about in that persuadable middle will be difficult to move i think without concrete plans that the president will present for the e next four s. >> he spoke and often how he likes to speak in front of large crowds. is you expect virtual format to present an obstacle for him? >> it's not his favorite venue for sure. he drives energy from the crowds. that's a big part of his campaign presence. so i think we will have to see how he does. but for republicans i think in much the same way as the democrats being able to control the message an environment that is the most important thing. you don't want surprises. you may recall in 2012 clint eastod gave a speech at the republican national convention i was part of. and that was e surprise. we didn't know the content of his speech before he gave it. we are not going to have m that probis time around if you're the republicans and 2020. they need to control that environment as much as possible.

>> let's move forward to election day. you've been doing excellent research into g sues of poll places. governor newsom has signed an der allowing fewer in person polling places and is encouragin mail-in voting. u expect an accurate vote count here in california shortly after election day? or will there be a significt delay? >> accurate yes. but quick that's nothing new in california. the midterms were conducted fairly and the state. but because mail-in ballots being dropped off later toward election day while still allowing peoplmail their ballots in on election day itea willto a longer vote counting period. there is a new state law on the books this year that i would say postal proves the state and allow 17badays for ots to be received and counted. expect that process to play out through november. i do think lea bigger che is actually going to be the in person voting. i've heard from elections officials there's beena real

scramble to find poll workers and locations. there's going to be huge shift to mail-in voting but it's not ing to be everyone. there's a big question mark on whether not they will be able to have a efsafe and cient election experience. poll that was released this a month. 90% of democrats favor - expanding mailin ballots. but only 20% of republicans feel the same way. what is the resi ance to mail-in ballots in the party? >> there are two factors here. there's a traditional concern about the integrity of mail-in ballots. thintegrity of the process and whether in fact votes that are coming in a properly counted and valid. properly cast by the person that said they were ing cast by. those tend to be somethn g that's b the water. more recently heard the president's rhetoric from the white house podium and campaign events what he has done. g

castubt i think on the validity of mail-in voting processes. they have the availability that has been brought here. he tries to draw a distinction between abntee ballots saying one is okay and what is not. that nuance is lost on a lot of voters. saying i don't like to mail-in ballot. he i someone that isin influential voice with republican voters right now. when you hear them casting doubt that is something that republican voters in particular . take note and i think that is driving the negative aspects towards the ballots. >> thank you th. this week marked 100 years since women gave the right to vote. we've used it in increasing numbers ever sens

in fact for the past 40 years more women have voted in every single lepresidential eion then men. despite a record number of women in congress today along with the selection of kamala harris on a story making presidential ticket women still face challenges. joining me from sacramento is manny ror ro. the founand director of the center for inclusive democracy at the university of southern california. thank you for joing us. >> thank you for ving me. >> earning the right to vote did not necessarily mean it was easy to vote. especially women of color. can you describe the hardships that women inface are the early years? >> sure. just because e we have right to vote doesn't mean it was a done deal. so women still faced quite a signifant pushback from society. really strongly discouraging men felt it wasn't appropriate. to participate at the ballot boxes and as you alluded to of

course womeof color rican american women did not have access. fo novery long time. >> so right now women hold 24% office. national does the qualy mean gettin to 50%? i think at is part of the quality. numbers matter. having representation matters. but it's also the quality of the representation. and i don't mean specifically credentials of the candidate. but that you want women to be elected. you want 50% representation buto also want women in the positions of power. both of them will and up at the state level as there are key policy committees that women are not represented on. and key decisions that are where women are just not at the table. >> let's turn to california. hereogis the ssive state. we've had strong female leadership's such as dianne d

feinstein kamala harris. what is the data revealing to you about the state of women in politics in california? >> we have strong leaders. and nancy pelosi is the speaker ofthe house representatives for the u.s. but we are still underrepresented amongst elected officials. at the state legislative level. but important tonote at the local level as well. and local supervisory districts and city councilson posiof power like being a mayor. for instance. al of these local positions make a difference in terms of local policy. it impacts people on a il basis. and we still have a ways to go. and certainly california and across united states you see that here. >> you see it changing over time. women are starting to emerge in local leadership? >> it is changing and fluctuating certainly.

there is some good news to talk about in terms of the growth of representation. but you still want to emphasize that there is still a ways to go. and part of that is the pipeline. we still don't have a strong pipeline for women as we do for men. into getting into those local statewide and national level offices. >> what barriedo you see that exist in voting in the u.s.? particularly that impact women? >> as you mentioned at the outset women to thvote more men. the 2016 general election is four percentage points more. but if we break that we have to e arrstand those numbers. byag younger women go with larger numbs than older men. for the most part ey still so our mother's generation as

the support there. as we look out with the breakout wen's vote, women of color felt much lower numbers than white went women. 2016 they had a turnout rate of 17 percentage points less than white women. african-american women had three percentage points. that might sound not so bad. but if we look midterm elections and special elections the gap widens significantly between african american women and wh e women. that a quality of the promise of the suffrage movement is not there fully. within the women's vote. >> so the issues around voter id laws resonateparticularly with women in any sort of disproportiote way. >> n women offind themselves in groups that are more likely not to have a state issued id. women of color and those from

low income backgrounds disproportionately will disadvantage them. and also just hang knowledge that it may view have been required is something that not everyone has that information readily available. >> so access to political capital in terms of fundraising and in terms of influence, it can still be a major hurdle for women who are working to get into elected office, can you talk us throh the issues women face as they are trying to get elected and how those ocan rcome? >> sure. er okay so is still a lot of bias for women in our society when it comes to entering into public life. first vault many w even take that leap because they are so discouraged in their personal life and professionalnetworks from ing so. women are ambitious but maybe they're not encouraged to do so. when it mes to money and funding, they are less likely to be connected to those big

dors. and those other funding ar networks thaabsolutely necessary physically in today's time to run a successful campaign. >> manny romero with university southern california. thank you for joining us on the show tonight. you can find more of our coverage@kqed.com/the kqed newsroom. you can reach me on twitter, facebook and instagram at you can reach me on twitter, st facebook and ram@ericleeclemens.com. for all of us here thank you for watching and good night.

♪ >> democrats unite and sound a warning. a virtual convention concludes with urgency. >> all elections are important. .e know in our bones this one is more consequenti senator harris: donald trump's failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods. president obama: good evening, everybody. >> and a plea from a former president. president: oban't let them take away our democracy. senator sanders: nero fiddled while rome burns. trump golfs. president trump: the only way they are going to win i b