good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley, tonight a first can steve cohen, the democratic congressman from tennessee will give us an update on the articles of impeachment he plans to file against president trump following his comments about charlottesville. then we'll speak with actress miss green about her starring role in star trek discovery. glad you joined us. all of that in just a moment.

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. president donald trump's failure to condemn the white supremacist and neonazis in charlottesville led steven cohen to introduce articles of impeachment against the president. he joins us now for what could be a historic piece of legislation, an honor, sir, to have you back on this program. >> it's an honor to be on it, thank you. >> let me start by saying something to you is that articles of impeachment is serious business. i don't know if there's anything more serious when it comes to

the presidency, and you must have thought a lot about that before you introduced or even started to talk about this legislation. >> i'm a student of history. and i know about andrew johnson and of course all of us watched bill clinton and that bizarre effort by the republicans to get him for lying about an affair, and but -- people may age, we lived through watergate too. >> uh-huh. >> so it's a serious thing, but when you have a president who violates his oath of office to take care of the laws or administrate properly and that he's not abusing his office and i had does it, you have to be cautious and coming up with the right language and you want to do the right thing, but i can't -- after charlottesville and seeing the -- and this is i don't think going to be part of our impeachment article because while it was disdainful and despicable and disheartening to

see his response and equivocate on in a zis and klansmen and protesters, that's what drove me over the line. i just thought, this man is not looking out for me or my constituents. i'm jewish, my constituents are predominantly african american and there were enemies of both of us. and the enemies and nazis are not wild about blacks either, the klans aren't wild about jews. we're in the same boat of hate. >> what has he done, what do you think is impeachable? >> well, the first thing would be obstruction of justice and the firing of james comey. >> right. >> james comey was an fbi director, doing a good job, trump claimed he fired him because what have he did with hillary clinton and the campaign, what he did with hillary clinton and the campaign was wrong. i condemned it. i thought he should maybe resign. and i think it interfered with the result of the election.

but i think james comey did it out of a sense of rectitude, i think he has a high degree of rectitude, and he's a brilliant man and well-respected. he later admitted to lester holt that he fired him because he thought the guy was interfered with him and russia, and he couldn't take it anymore. so that's part of it. and i think that the facts will be produced by mueller, but i think that was obstruction of justice. then you get the clause where there are civil suits brought for him getting money without going to congress to ask from foreign governments. he's got trump tower, he's got trump world tower, he's got the trump hotel, and he's got usa disand chinese and turks and he's almost like -- little bit like blazing saddles and getting all the bad actors together at the same time and getting him to come into his hotel and business established to pay him money. you're not supposed to do that. there's a clause on domestic issues too. and you're not supposed to get more money than you get a salary as your job. and he's getting money at

mar-a-lago and at these different trump golf courses and every chance he can. so that's another. and then what he's done to question the rule of law in this comments and actions about the jew dish area of so-called judges and the judge out here which shows a pattern dealing with the hispanic judge who couldn't treat him right on this days that should have been dismissed that he settled for $25 million. >> there are going to be democrats who shy away from this, some have because they think even nancy pelosi hasn't wrapped herself around this because strategically, it's a bad decision that it might backfire on you all, the democratic party that is, come november of next year, certainly come the 2020 elections, this might backfire. and all it's going to do is serve to anger his base, his supporters. >> i understand that. and i appreciate -- i have the highest regard for nancy pelosi. she's a great woman, great person. and i think when mueller has his report whenever it is, there'll be more facts out there, and i

think even some of the trump people will say hey, i'm not for this. you know. the connections with russia are too much, but at the same time, i think, how can i be angry at republicans for not coming on board and saying they're for impeachment which they have primary base that's pro-trump. and it'd be difficult for them to do it. if i can't do it with a district that's for impeachment. so it was a combination of things, and when i called nancy, i said nancy, i know, and i held off, i did something called new concept which i created with 31 others a resolution of no confidence as kind of impeachment light. i said nancy, i can't do it anymore. when he couldn't condemn the neo-nazis. it may be a move and maybe i shouldn't go out to the subway gate, but i did it. and i'm going to do it and i'm going to have fellows with me and we're going to show a lot of democrats that there's somebody out there that thinks like they do and some democrats that

realize that our constitution, democracy is at risk. needs to be addressed and might give republicans more backbone down the line to support it as well. they have to support it for it to pass. and i'm hoping that this gives them some backbone. >> there are safety concerns that you or your staff have for you when you're pushing something that could be seen as a troubling moment given what we saw in charlottesville. >> my staff has had that concern. i've seen some responses that have suggested that there's a bullet with my name on it. i should be careful when i go out. roger stone even said those people who are, big trump supporter, those people do so at the peril of their own lives. i thought about it and we had police protection at one point. we probably will have it again at certain times. a lot of these people that are big trump people are big on the second amendment. you know, and trump didn't take

any concerns from the campaign and he said maybe some of those second amendment people will help me with hillary. he's not one to hold back unlawful conduct for somebody who claims he's for law and order. he's for his law and his order. >> what's your sense of when you will get to the point of introducing these articles of impeachment? >> probably very soon. we go back in session next monday. it was a suggestion by one of my colleagues that we wait until he does something really, really boneheaded and stupid again, and that could happen any minute. so we're kind of wait for donald to be donald. while he's going down to hurricane harvey and hurricane irma, wasn't necessarily the right time. it was a little bit of a kumbaya moment, not much. and then he met with chuck and nancy and kind of had a deal on the debt ceiling, and then the three-month extension. looked like leopard don't change their spots. you know --

>> when people show you who they are, believe them. >> and there was a tweet i saw the other day. and that said daca, and showed -- and, you know, she's shown people who he is. he's the seven deadly sins incarnate, pride, anger, gluttony, greed, lust, envy. >> yeah. >> he's all of them. >> there used to be moderate republicans, and those persons are non-existent for the most part these days. everybody seems to be on one side or the other and at the polars. so where and how did you get the support and do you think that the evidence can be, will be strong enough to convince either republicans that something has to be done? >> mueller's evidence will be what does that. i have to admit, my resolution will not be what gets them on the train. >> right. >> it's going to have to be some strong evidence, whether it's the smoking gun that mueller brings forth. i think it can happen.

the sad thing is there are four committees in congress that have jurisdiction. house and senate judiciary and house and senate intel. all the house judiciary which is the committee that would bring impeachment charges are doing work on this case. on this issue. and russia, our chairman has said, oh, well these other three committees are doing it. and the fbi is doing it and mueller's doing it, so we're not doing anything. well, i think we're being derelict in our responsibility as a judiciary committee to not looked into firing of the fbi director and other things. and we've had resolutions of inquiry that have been presented in our committee that republicans have hijacked and turned them into resolutions to go to the general sessions to ask about hillary clinton and the clinton foundation and all kind of other things. i mean, they're more interested in a person who's a private citizen who doesn't have any influence over foreign affairs or domestic affairs than they are the president of the united

states of america. >> yeah. >> i mean, they're just -- hillary clinton's their jones. they've got to somehow get off of it. >> yeah. i would assume that a congressman, even his district you don't want to be which one assumes doesn't like donald trump, i would assume that you would still though want to check in with your own district to see whether or not they want to be the district that is represented by the guy who introduced impeachment articles. how did that you have conversation and did you have that conversation? >> in town hall meetings, we've had two town halls. one, about 700 people came out to east high school, and another at the college of art and we packed the college. and then through social media. i'm real active on twitter and facebook. my district wants him impeached and my district is really proud of the work that i'm doing, and when i go to the memphis ucla game, people are just thrilled. they say, had one guy -- i do a

360 and walk around the stadium. one guy went, i'm not going to vote for you. walked on. so many other people came up, keep doing what you're doing. we need you to do what you're doing. we're proud of you. get him. get him. it's strong in our district, it's strong among democrats. >> do you know -- do you have -- do you know, do you have any sense right now of what kind of support you're going to have? how deep is your support going to run inside your own party when you introduce these articles? >> i'll admit if i can get to double digits, i'll billion pleased. i know for a fact that louise gutierrez and gwen moore are on board, al green's on board. there's a few other folks that have said they're definitely going to be on board. some of them are 95%. i think they'll be there. i'm trying to work mostly on judiciary committee and get some of those folks. i know there'll be some brushback, i don't think john conyers is in favor of it, he's like my political father which

makes it difficult. john lewis isn't there because he doesn't recognize him as being president. john lewis is strong. if we can get to ten, weapon don't want it just to be me and we know we have at least three or four others for sure and probably going to have seven or eight, maybe ten. >> we shall see what happens. steve cohen, congressman, thanks for your time. >> for my of conversation with congressman cohen, go to pbs.org/tavissmiley. coming up next, ta mee ka martin green. stay with us. best known for her role as shah that williams on the walking dead, she will don a uniform to play michael bern m. that was right? >> yeah. >> in the new series star trek discovery.

before our conversation, a clip from star trek discovery. >> 10:15. warning, proximity alert. scanning for data base recognition. i cannot be confirmed. cling on. >> the united federation of -- >> as we say in any neighborhood, that's high cotton. thabs high cotton. the star trek franchise. >> who's running things? >> when i was wrapping up on walking dead -- >> what a wrap-up that was.

>> thank you. that was already happening. when i knew that the network and the producing team and the writers were going to go boldly and have a black woman be at the helm. i was very, very moved by that. >> i would love to hear what their argument, explanation was to why they thought that a sister should lead the enterprise. it's a bold move, and i love it. i love it. but what did they say to you? did you look at them sideways like -- what you talking about, willis? >> what are you talking about willis? >> when i heard that they were -- that that was their plan, my -- i hornsly thought, really? really? really? it's your plan, but are you

going to, you know -- and then i found out, no, no, no, they're very adamant about this. this is the vision. and then you know, i was floored by that. and i feel that for everyone involved, everyone that was in that decision, decision-making room, i i think it was important for them to uphold the legacy of star trek by going further. and i think that's exactly what we're doing with having me at the helm. and i think it also extends beyond me and it's really important to say as well that we have the first asian female captain. and then we have the first female captain with a female first officer. >> yeah. >> we've never seen that before either. and then the first openly gay officer as well. and so, i feel that they just decided -- these are people that love this franchise, love the cannon, the universe, love what it all represents, and they said okay, how are we going to step in? how are we going to step into this endowment and make it our own and how are we going to go

further? i think that's what every star trek should be doing. >> sure, sure. >> is going further than the last. >> and there's always the risk that when one is that bold, when one is that visionary, and that inclusive, and all the adjectives and adverbs we could put on that, when one is all of that, that means you run the risk of pushback. so have you gotten any of that yet? >> yeah. >> read any of that online or ignoring that stuff? >> no, i. >> we have gotten that. we've gotten the backlash, the negative response from that. we have people who say that they are true trek fans who are upset about the diversity. i've heard lots of things, it's like check box diversity. and so it's empty because of that, i've heard all of these things. and you know, i've been saying it a lot lately, it's surprising on one hand because of the universe that has always been star trek and every has boldly

gone nap surpriseds me, but on the other hand, i am a black woman in america, and i'm in tune with the times and i was also born in the sth and raised in the south. so it doesn't surprise me in that way. i will say though that i think the people that sort of nay sayers, i think they're small in number to be honest because i have gotten an overwhelmingly positive response as well. we all have a lot of love, a lot of passion and a lot of support. and so i think that while they sort of made their voices loud for a little while, they're not the majority. >> yeah. they never are. >> right? >> they almost never are. >> they never really are. >> yeah. >> which is important to know and important to say i think as well. >> another thing i've learned, the nay sayers are small, but vocal. but then something happens when they see the product. >> yeah. >> and if the talent is undeniable. >> uh-huh. >> and if the work is that good. and they get in line like

everybody else. >> and already known for that. for that indwizability. >> i think that, and i've been saying that a lot as well. i encourage these people who have their issues with it and their inner resistance to it to just give it a shot. and join us hopefully it can't be denied and it's able to shape you in positive ways. and so i always sort of try to end on that. i always try to say, i get what you're saying, i get where you're coming from. and that's unfortunate, but just join us. and see what happens. >> i wonder if there's any

intimidation in taking on this role. and i ask that because i was talking to jj abrams is a friend of mine. i was going to have this conversation not too long ago. he's done this at least three times now. he's got the next star wars reboot again. but jj has helmed star wars, star trek, mission impossible. >> right. >> this guy -- >> jj. >> three times. three times he's taken these franchises in his hands, but that's a lot of responsibility when you again are taking on the role of being the cure rater and being the protector of a franchise. so is there any intimidation in this for you? >> you know, i -- >> you like intimidation. bring it on, bring it on. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> i mean, i certainly hope that i respond well under pressure. >> yeah. but yeah, yes, i can -- you know know what i'd like to say, oh no, no, no, i'm just so excited

and so blessed and, you know, i took it and i said let's go. and i had my moments where i was like under the weight of it. right, because it's been coming in ways. and i've been working so hard. you know, i rolled right from walking dead -- >> and they waited for you. >> yeah. >> the white folk really did want you. they had to wait until you cleared walking dead. to start the process. >> oh man. and i didn't even -- >> that's a lot of love. >> yeah, it is. i appreciate that. and i really do. and i just, like i said, coming in waves and you know, i already knew how important it was, i knew what an institution it was and a film and tv history. >> yeah. it keeps, it keeps cascading. it keeps cascading, and i see -- i see it. i see it in front of me. i hear about it the. i read about it.

just how important it is. >> yeah. >> to so many people. >> yeah. >> and how important it's been for such a long time. >> as a daughter of the south, how -- i think i can use a word with you, how blessed do you feel -- >> you can. >> i'll say it again then, how blessed to you feel to have been connected to these two major -- i mean walking dead -- >> right. >> it's a goliath. >> you go from walking dead to star trek there's like this globe, this halo. >> praise the lord, i am, yeah, i feel like i am in the middle of his divine plan. i really do. and i, i didn't know what walking dead was going to be. i didn't know i was going to be on the show for as long as i was. i didn't know i was going to love those people as much as i do. i didn't know, i didn't know, and then that was unfolding, and then to go from that, right as

that door was closing, star trek door opened. and i didn't know that would happen. to go from that franchise to a franchise even bigger that it's even more beloved if i can say, with another group of people that are amazing, and stellar and passionate and kind and all of these things. it's, i can't really -- some things can't be vocalized. >> say that. say it. just take it. >> oh, man. i'll take it. >> before i let grow, let me circle back to walking dead, because i intimated, that's a high quality show. >> yes. >> that is how you close a show. tell me about the experience and the clothes. >> oh my goodness. well i knew that it was coming and i knew that it would be in a sort of sack official way that was all that our amazing producer told me we were in a lot of talks leading up to it. when i read that finale script,

i cried tears of joy. i really did because i just -- i felt so humbled and grateful to have been given such a poem, that's what it was to me. and then, you know, being a walker is not something that you want to do, i never really wanted to be a walker, but i felt that, you know, being able to be that and have people root for a walker like never before, and kevin wagner went all out with my -- with the make-up as well and made it him and the rest of the special guys made it a really good time. even though it was bitter sweet and sad, we had fun getting ready for it. and i just um -- i cannot be more grateful and more full of love from those people and from that experience. i call them my post graduate degree. >> there you go. >> the walking dead, for sure. >> i hope this won't sound paternalistic -- >> no, please. >> but you use the word grateful. we are grateful and proud, proud that you get to represent us,

and it's a beautiful thing to see you go from walking dead to the enterprise. >> yeah. >> so all the best to you. >> that means a lot coming from you. because i love you and what you do. >> i love you for loving me. i love your talent. i love your gift. the new face of star trek discovery. so i'm sure we'll all be checking that ou good to have you on the program. >> that's our show tonight, thanks for watching and as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. >> hi, i'm tavis smiley, join me next time for a conversation about political organizing on the so-called religious left, that's next time, see you then.

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

good evening from los angeles. i'm tavis smiley. tonight a conversation about the latest novel and "new york times" best seller, the golden house. set between president obama's election and the current political climate. it tells the story of an indian businessman who moves to new york to start a new life. we're glad you joined us. a conversation with novelist sal monorushy in just a moment.