swamp. next time on "american swamp" -- roads getting better or worse? >> i'd say getting worse. >> the crumbling states of america. >> fix the damn roads. >> politics and potholes. >> why washington loves a roadblock. so the gridlock is a welcome thing for most lawmakers. >> for most people here, absolutely. good evening. i have an update on powerful hurricane dorian. right now the storm's eye is working its way over the grand island of the bahamas. this storm is moving slowly to the west at 6. the winds 180 miles per hour.

this is a category five storm. you can see the slow movement will puersist into the straight couple days coming close to the florida coastline. that's really the biggest concern. even if it's within 60 miles, a slight jog to the left could make a big difference in the impacts for florida. this storm is going to affect hours further north. it goes by thursday very close to the carolinas, and we may see a third land fall with this monumental storm, hurricane dorian still a category 5 hurricane. stay with us. i'll have updates throughout the night. >> we're at penn station. >> why don't you like coming

here? >> it's old, crowded. they're working with old tracks, old trains, infrastructure that is not in the 21st century. we're the richest country in the world. the richest country in the world. democracy, america. and our infrastructure is not great. >> is that what you think? what do you think? >> yeah. it smells like piss. >> how reliable is the train for you? >> dear god. there's always something. like, always. >> so when donald trump said we're like living in a third world country when it comes to our infrastructure, do you agree with them? >> i don't disagree. >> it's a sad fact of our government. lawmakers across party lines don't agree, don't get along and

as a result don't get much done. >> case in point, this year's state of the union address which was delayed because of the partial government shutdown. washington's dysfunction was on full display. >> mad m speaker, the president of the united states. >> are we going to see a single 2020 democrat shake his hand? >> i don't think you'll see a single democrat period shake his hand. >> the state of our union is strong. [ applause ] >> it is always interesting to watch. >> half the audience? >> yes. >> but in this starkly divided room there was an issue that had bipartisan support. >> both parties should be able to unite for a great rebuilding of america's crumbling infrastructure. >> infrastructure. it's been a popular talking point for democrats and

republicans for years. >> upgrades infrastructure, it will help save lives. >> rebuild our infrastructure. >> rebuilding america with green and modern infrastructure from sea to shining sea. >> so if all our leaders agree fixing our infrastructure is essential, then why are our bridges, roads, and tunnels a crumbling mess? well, for one thing, untangling who is in charge of what is complicated. though some parts are privately owned, the rest is the responsibility of the government, both local and federal. and that's a problem because washington's currently stuck in a state of gridlock. and while d.c. does next to nothing, catastrophes like these strike. >> during the evening rush hour in minneapolis, the unthinkable happened. an interstate bridge over the mississippi collapsed. >> a state of emergency has been declared in flint, michigan

after high levels of led were found in children's blood. >> 2 00,000 people wait after fleeing their homes in panic after the path of a broken dam spillway. >> katy and i are focusing on how the federal government is funding fewer and fewer infrastructure projects. the work is underway to expand the concourse area here. the decrepe id rail tunnel under the hudson tunnel between new york and new jersey is in desperate shape. it was completed in 1910. and while crews have been patching it for years, it really needs a major overhaul. approximately 200,000 passengers travel through this tunnel every day. if there's a catastrophic failure, the death toll could be significant. >> right now we're going from new jersey to new york city. >> yes. >> sal and mike are engineers at

amtrak. they're taking me on a guided tour of what's considered to be one of the most pressing infrastructure problems in the u.s. >> if you look up, you see all the ice? that's all the water. all that ice is coming down from the road? >> yeah. that's from the road because we're not under the river yet, but that's kind of what happens when you have water infiltrated. >> how deep under the hudson does it go? >> approximately 100 feet. >> and during hurricane sandy, this was flooded out? >> the tunnel was flooded out. >> manhattan was essentially cut off from the rest of the continent in terms of rail travel. >> bring me back. >> in addition to the buckling concrete, the electric cables are failing and sometimes they even explode. contained in this are two high voltage transmission cables. they're 12,000 vote transmission cables. >> if water gets into the transmission cables, you could have a blowout? >> yes, and we did here. >> every single day multiple

times a day you're dealing with things that could potentially shut down traffic? >> yes. >> that's our job. >> does it piss anybody off this is the way that it is? >> i wouldn't say -- use that language. sometimes it's stressful for us to maintain this. >> i think frustration. >> yeah. frustration. >> it's frustrating at times because you want to get in and do the right job, and if you don't have the time or you don't have the funding, and you don't have people backing you up, you know, that's the frustrating part. >> local officials have been fighting for some time over how to fix the problem. in 2010 new jersey governor chris christie scrapped a multibillion dollar deal to build a new tunnel. in response, a plan called the gateway program was announced in 2011. the project would not only repair the physical structure of the tunnel but also build two

more tracks to increase capacity. as you can imagine, it's expensive. >> president obama promised to split the 20 billion price tag for the gateway project 50/50 with new york and new jersey. but then in 2017 president trump refused to fund the program. essentially killing it. the flip-flopping federal commitment has kept the tunnel stuck in the swamp. soy want to know what senate minority leader chuck schumer has to say about this. after all, he's represented new yorkers for more than 20 years. why do you think this project needs federal funding? this is a tristate project. >> federal government has always funded rail. it's amtrak. the northeast corridor from boston to new york to philadelphia to baltimore to washington d.c. is one of the most vital transportation rail

lines in the united states. >> how do you convince a congresswoman from iowa that they should invest in a project out here? >> they need mass transit in io iowa too. it's buses, but they need it. >> but i need money for a bridge here. >> there's enough money for both. if this tunnel should fail and they'd have to close the one tunnel under the hudson river, the economy in the northeast and in the country could go into recession. it's that serious. >> why? >> because we depend on transit. we depend on highways. we depend on roads. two out of every three people who travel in the northeast corridor no longer use planes. they use amtrak. >> my colleague went down there. they didn't let me because i was pregnant. he went down there and said it's crumbling. it's literally crumbling. >> these tunnels are 100 years old. >> why is it not getting the funding it needs? >> donald trump. we need the permission of the federal government.

>> did trump try to make a trade? >> he did. he wanted his wall for gateway. >> i said we're not trading. >> why not? >> you shouldn't hold things hostage. this should be done, period. >> holding the american people hostage because of clashes between the legislative and executive branches is nothing new, but you can't blame all of washington's dysfunction on the president alone. it makes me wonder how did we get into this partisan swamp in the first place? for that story, we're headed back to washington. the gridlock is a welcome thing for law clermakers? >> for most people here, absolutely. unstopables in-wash scent booster ♪ downy unstopables

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you hear it over and over again. congress needs something j anything about our bridges, tubls and roads. it seems easy. right? pass a law and get it done. do you remember the song, schoolhouse rock? >> i know i'm a bill sitting here on capitol hill. >> i don't think it was i know that i'm. >> it wasn't that. >> he wasn't self-aware. >> no. >> that catchy song i'm just a bill made the inner workings of government seem to simple, so reasonable. ♪ sitting here on capitol hill . >> but spoiler alert, most bills don't make it into law. in the last congress more than 13,000 bills were introduced.

fewer than 500 passed. it's not that schoolhouse rock got it all wrong. the legislative process has changed. for starters, deals aren't always made sitting here on capitol hill. they're often made in places just like this. >> what's your name? >> my name is angel. >> this is my first time here. the reason we came is because they said this is the d.c. power spot where all the kind of rules and regulations and back room deals are made. is that true? >> well, i can't really -- >> you can't reveal the details? >> yeah. >> thanks, angel. nice to meet you. >> charlie palmer steak is a hot spot for wheeling and dealers. and it's often lobbyists who help write bills. meredith works for a nonprofit that bills itself as bipartisan. every year it seems like they keep saying this is the most do nothing congress. nothing ever gets done. >> the system is set up in a

way, even from the beginning, that there are a thousand cuts here to tree and kill a bill. it's easy to do. the hard part is actually passing a bill. >> dumb question. is there like an inbox where you bring your bill? >> yes. you literally put it on an inbox on the house floor? >> yes. >> it comes in and gets printed. gets given a number and a high staff person decides which committee this bill should be referred to. >> okay. so you introduce it. but it in the in-box. it goes to the committee. >> this is very broad. the number of bills that the committee ever acts on, we're now getting very narrow very quickly. >> because why? a chairperson says we have to do hearings on this? >> yes. the committee chairpersons has their own agenda. this is a complaint. they want a hearing on ideas but if my chair of my committee isn't interested, it's going nowhere. >> and even if a bill does make

it out of committee, party leaders can still refuse to schedule it for a vote. since the beginning of this year senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has ignored about 100 bills the democratic counterparts from the house have already passed. including one that seeks to close the gender pay gap and another that combats gun violence. mcconnell defended his position on sean hannity's show in may of 2019 and was hardly apologetic. >> as long as i'm majority leader of the senate, i get to set the agenda. that's why i call myself the grim reaper. ♪ >> bill is a long time democratic representative from new jersey. he says some of the problems on capitol hill stem from a strategic decision in the mid 1990s to slash spending by cutting expert staffers. those staffers were never reinstated, and he says that hurt congress's ability to legislate.

>> you're saying there used to be a bunch of experts that would inform committees and inform lawmakers. >> you need those people. >> and who replaced those people? >> lobbyists replaced them. >> lobbyists who have their own agenda. >> yeah, and that's legal. >> when you don't have your own research and your own people to find out the numbers and data, you want to know what you're doing. if you're just going to read off a sheet and you don't understand really the nucleus, the axis of what is going on on any issue, you know what? you're worthless as a congressperson. >> so if there are fewer expert staffers on the hill and lobbyists are writing the bills, and leadership is controlling the legislative agenda, what exactly is congress doing? according to colorado republican representative ken buck, not much. >> so there's a political reality. you never get punished for doing nothing. you get punished because you did something and there's a bunch of money that comes in against you. >> who punishes you? >> the voters because the

special interest groups spend money to take you out, and if you don't do anything, you won't hurt the special interest groups. if you do something to change the status quo, then the money comes in. the commercials come in. the mailers come in. the opponents come in, and you lose your seat. >> so the gridlock is a welcome thing for most law clermakers? >> absolutely. >> what about finding common ground with infrastructure? the result is still gridlock. there's all sorts of topics and policies that are extremely controversial, but there's a lot of stuff that everybody agrees on, and one of those things is infrastructure. >> you don't have -- >> we need to fix roads and bridges and tunnels and airplanes, et cetera. why has that not been done? >> you don't have enough time to agree because you're always disagreeing. because it's a built-in thing. >> representative buck says members of congress are not judged by their ability to compromise or pass legislation.

but on something much swampier. >> there's very little time to read bills, so analyze legislation, to develop coalitions with fellow members because there was so much pressure to raise money. >> is there a partisan thing? >> both sides do it. >> and raising money isn't just for reelections. it's also the key to gaining power within the parties. >> how do you get a committee chairmanship? >> you have to pay a certain amount of money. when we were in power, to be a chair of an a committee, ways and means, appropriations, rules, you had to raise 1.2 million for the republican party. a b committee, i think it was $825,000. >> buck's numbers check out. for example on the last congress kevin brady, the former chair of the house ways and means committee raised over 1.8 million for house republicans. and top democrats on several of the most powerful congressional

committees each gave their party at least $500,000 from their campaign and leadership pacs. >> what are the consequences of that? >> well, the consequences are you've got to have a lot of friends in this town. and the way you get friends in this town is make sure you vote the way they want you to vote. >> so you're not an independent thinker? >> not in this town. >> so who gets credit for this no-win game of follow the leader? turns out we can thank the so-called god father of gridlock. that's a lot of blame for one person. >> well, he's a big person. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ so chantix can help you quit slow turkey.key. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit.

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only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ congress has long had abusinessal approval ratings. 76% of the people disapprove of the job lawmakers are doing. it's not just the infrastructure that's to blame. posters say americans are fed up with the level of toxic visit ree yawl between both of the parts. >> the roots can be found in some as mild and dry as the tv channel c-span. that's right. c-span. >> we have been trying to figure out why congress is so dysfunctional. what's your take on that? >> well, congress is partisan in ways that it wasn't when c-span

first started. but i think in the 1978, 1979 a new breed of congressman of which newt gingrich was a leader of. they were technologists and they weren't satisfied with the status quo. >> according to c-span president and co-ceo, when republican newt gingrich came to the hill as a freshman in 1979, he quickly embraced the new tv surface because it gave him the opportunity to bypass traditional news outlets. >> i have a vivid recollection of one night when we were covering one of these big congressional dinners. newt gingrich was not in the ballroom. he was standing behind our producers and directors watching them produce. he was fas nigcinated by what hs seeing in the room versus what was happening in the room. >> radical democrats perfected the technique of not holding

left wing governments accountable for their actions. >> people watching at home were thinking that newt and his cohorts were speaking to a full house, and they were arguing in the face of democrats and -- and no response. >> and nobody had to guts to respond to them. that was the tactic. >> there was just one catch. gingrich and his republican colleagues were speaking to a totally empty chamber. but the audience at home couldn't see it. >> so tip o'neal was the speaker of the house at that time, and he was watching night after night. so speaker o'neal at one point just had enough of it, picked up the phone as we understand it, and told the technician, start panning the chamber. show this is -- >> this is a farce. >> it's so an empty chamber. >> the battle between tip o'neal and newt gingrich later erupted on the house floor. >> you deliberately stood on

that well before an empty house and challenged these people, and you challenged their americanism, and it's the lowest thing that i've ever seen in my 32 years in congress. >> the c-span theatrics were all a part of news strategy to win, and political scientists say it worked. no not just on the floor but with the public as well. >> newt believed the only way to overcome democrats' advantage was to nationalize the election process and get americans so disgusted with politics and washington that at some point appropriately they would say throw them all out and bring the other guys in. >> all the dysfunction we see in congress, this congressional dysfunction comes down to one word, newt. >> if there is a catalyst to tribalism, there is no doubt in my mind having seen it up close and been immersed in there over a lot of decades that newt was the catalyst. >> that's a lot of blame for one

person. >> wem, he's a big person. >> in a memo from his political action committee, gopac gingrich proposed a long list of negative words republicans could use against democrats. words like traitors, sick, corrupt, cheat. >> our new speaker, the gentleman from georgia, newt gingrich. >> as speaker of the house, he shut down the government twice. oh, and remember the problems caused by eliminating expert staffers? well, that was newt's idea. >> what newt did was to try to centralize the policy-making process through the speaker's office and also give great traction to those who raise more money than others. it was more about whether you are going to be loyal to the team and i'm the captain and i'm the one making the decisions. >> we asked the former speaker for comment. his office declined citing his contract with fox. but as far as analysts are

concerned, the timeline from newt to now can be called the path to polarity. >> it's only as it began to develop in the late 19 70s and then really crystallizing from the last ten years that polarization. i can work with you even though we have different viewpoints became tribalism, you're evil and trying to destroy our way of life. >> you're evil and trying to destroy our way of life? >> yes. >> they say this level of extremism is dangerous. >> if we don't move away from this kind of tribal identity, then the entire constitutional system is going to fail us. >> political tribalism isn't going anywhere any time soon. and while politicians bicker, the potholes just get bigger. >> roads getting better or worse? >> i'd say getting worse. the infrastructure has gone way down. ou need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection.

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hurricane dorian has made land fall. the storm could prove to the devastating with possible wind gusts at over 220 miles per hour. and a strong surge of up to 23 feet. as doer yab travels north it poses a threat to portions of the southeast united states. including florida, georgia, the carolinas and south eastern virginia. so far seven counties in east florida are under mandatory evacuation. seven people are dead and si

injured after a shooter opened fire from his vehicle in a hijacked mail truck in west texas. among the injure second down a 17-month-old child hit by the gunman. authorities have yet to release the names of those killed but indicated they range in age from 15 to 57. there's no known motive at this point. the gunman was killed following a shootout with police outside a movie theater. now back to "american swamp". zblncht capitol hill seems more divided than ever. what does that mean to you. i'm headed to ohio to look at the reality on the ground. this bridge connects cincinnati, ohio to kovington, kentucky. and they have been arguing about how to replace the rusty bridge for years. even though funding has the full support of the president,

congress has been reluctant to financially commit to the more than $2.6 billion price tag for a brand new bridge. it's a hot topic in these parts. especially right here, at 55 krc, a local talk radio station. >> we're talking the bridge, how to pay for it. is it a problem? if you're a commuter that drives on it every day, my in studio guest today wants to know we have a huge one here that has national implications. >> there's no shortage of people who call into the morning show to complain about this bridge. it's falling apart, and it has no emergency shoulder. a fender bender away from carmagedon. it carries more than 160,000 cars a day, double what it was built to accommodate in 1963. >> mark, thank you for calling. welcome to the morning show. >> hi. thanks. i started out a quarter after seven this morning.

i just got to work if that tells you anything about the morning commute. >> and -- >> an hour and 15 minutes. >> that's not that far. >> what do you attribute that to? >> caller: really, this bridge is the single -- >> it's a choke point? >> it is the choke point. >> can i ask you something quick? i got a tweet. this person said i tell you it's insane that at one point we had the speaker boehner from cincinnati and a president obama eager to spend on infrastructure stimulus and still nothing was done for the brent/spence. what's your take? >> i'm in the same brooat. if anybody came out here and soberly looked at the situation, i don't see how they couldn't make it number one on -- >> we know boehner crossed that bridge to get out of town to get back to d.c. >> i don't know. i think he probably went and took a private jet.

>> this isn't just about inconvenience. so many people's livelihoods depend on crossing this bridge. like trucker harold dudley. >> how long you been doing this? >> right at 20 years. >> 20 years. >> uh-huh. >> how many miles you driven? >> probably 2 .5 million. >> 2 .5 million miles? >> yes. >> roads getting better or worse? >> i'd say getting worse. the infrastructure has gone way down. >> of all the millions of miles of road he's traveled, dudley says the worst is right here on this bridge. >> it's losing concrete from the upper deck to the about lower deck. and the bottlenecking, that's one of the biggest issues. >> and you're driving a truck like this on there. this must clog things up, too. >> yes, it does. >> what does traffic mean for you all? when you get slowed down -- >> less money. >> less money. >> less revenue. if i'm riding 20 miles an hour, i'm making $10. >> is that true? >> yes, sir.

>> talk to me about it. i don't see any shoulders here. you can't pull over if you want to. >> if you break down, you're doomed. it just shuts everything down. about ten years ago i was coming back to pepsi in cincinnati, and a gravel truck turned over an 75. i sat there for seven and a half hours. >> what i've heard in washington is that it just comes down to didn't have anywhere close to the amount of money they need to put it into roads and bridges and trains and et cetera. >> that's because it goes up to foolish stuff. 70 $0 hammers and $3,000 toilets. >> first, i'd love to sit on a $3,000 toilet. i bet it would feel real nice. you ever driven a politician around in this truck? >> no. >> mitch mcconnell? we're in kentucky. >> never. they would have a clue what was going on maybe if they spent a day or two days in a truck. >> all they got to do is drive

across that bridge with you. >> that's right. any time they want to get in here. [ laughter ] ? >> it's not just a local problem. the brent/spence bridge is part of interstate 75 and fear of failing is justified. mark, regional transportation advocate says it's one of the busiest freight corridors in the nation. he's working to get leaders to agree on funding a new bridge. explain to me the significance to the economy? >> it connects michigan to miami. a huge freight corridor. $450 billion worth of goods goes over the bridge every year. >> $450 billion goes over the bridge every year? >> more than a billion dollars a day. >> is there any way to quantify with the log jam does for that number? >> just under a billion dollars is wasted when it comes to time

and fuel. people caught in the traffic. >> a billion dollars? >> a billion dollars. >> president obama stood below it. >> behind us stands the brent/spence bridge. >> and prurch taesident trump t about it. >> yes. this is part of the greater problem we face with infrastructure in the country. a lot of major projects can't be built. the point is it's the poster child of what's wrong with infrastructure in this country. as a matter of fact, when the last transportation bill was debated on the floor of the senate, the visual that they had on the easel was the brent spence bridge. >> much of america's bold infrastructure projects are literally from another century. president eisenhower signed an act that constructed a 41,000 mile of roads connecting much of the country. these days infrastructure is less about building the big things and more about maintaining old pipes, old dams

and potholed roads. katy and i want to know how wa decides what to pay for and what to let crumble. >> we're headed to see one congressman who thinks he knows how washington can pay for this bridge and a lot of others. >> what's at steak? >> what's at steak is catastrophe. what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

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liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ let's invest in our crumbling infrastructure. >> transportation infrastructure is critical to our economy and to our quality of life. >> fix the damn roads. >> politicians at every level of government know their constituents care about fixing the damn roads. it's tangible. it's relatable and it will get you home faster. >> jacob and i are at the first house transportation and infrastructure committee hearing of the year. >> everybody knows what the problem is. america is one big pothole.

>> transportation advocates and local politicians like los angeles mayor are testifying about the need for the federal government to play a bigger role in funding. >> and that's why it's so critical the federal government be that place to come to and partner with. >> we spoke to the chairman of this hearing, peter defaz you, hoping for a bipartisan win on this issue for quite some time. >> so, mr. chairman, president trump, i think, won a lot of people over by talking about america's infrastructure, airports, roads and bridges by describing them like we were living in a third world nation. is he right? >> i kept giving a speech saying we had evolved to third world status. he said that's insulting. i said, you don't know how bad things are. he said, no, no. you're insulting third world countries. we have been the envy of the

world to now we're like the joke of the world, the united states with its crumbling eisenhower era infrastructure. >> congress has spent less and less on infrastructure. in 2011 the republican-led congress banned earmarks, money lawmakers would slip into bills often to pay for infrastructure projects back home. >> it is not just the ban to blame for the funding problems. congress hasn't raised the gas tax since 1993. >> and ever since then there has been risk of urgency. obama pulled the plug because he was scared to death we were going to talk about a gas tax. >> let me stop you. sorry. president obama was scared of raising taxes, so he pulled the plug and that's part of the reason that infrastructure isn't better today? >> absolutely. >> how crucial is the gas tax? >> it is the way that we could provide money short-term. what i would like to do is a tiny increment. i capped it at one-and-a-half cents a year. who is going to lose the election over that?

>> that's it? >> that's it. we could bond $500 billion. >> $500 billion. >> over the next 13 years. >> what's at stake? >> what's at stake is catastrophe. if the tunnels under the hudson fail, it will cost the economy $100 million a day in lost productivity. congestion, chaos, essentially. people are tired of it and they want to see action. >> raising the gas tax triggers fear on both sides of the aisle. even if it benefits an aged bridge in their own backyard like the one we visited in cincinnati. this republican has been representing cincinnati for more than two decades. >> what is your perception of the bridge? >> well, it needs to be replaced. it is probably our most critical infrastructure need. but the local communities have to come together. that means the state of kentucky, the state of ohio and other local folks involved have to come to an agreement on a specialty funding.

that's been the key issue. >> if it's critical, why doesn't the federal pay for it? >> this is one bridge and a very important bridge to anybody in our community, including myself but there are competing projects all over the country, and the federal government just doesn't have the resources to pay for all of them. the chairman argues there's a way to increase funding easily which would be to increase the gas tax. it hasn't happened since 199 3. what do you think about that? >> it's one of the things on the table and being considered. that tends to be a tax that hits people at lower income levels harder than anybody, so it's not something that i think is quite likely to happen any time in the near future. we can talk about it, but i don't think it's going to happen. >> he said the federal government has so far come up with $53 million for the bridge. around 2% of the cost of a new bridge. he expects additional money to come from a highway bill passed by congress in 2015. but before any more federal funding kicks in, local

governments must agree on how to pay for their share of the cost. >> what do you say to your constituents, to the truckdrivers that drive across this thing every day that say we need to get it done right now? >> that's something you're absolutely right. >> and that is the maddening cycle of congress. next to nothing gets done, even though everyone agrees our infrastructure is crumbling. >> but while we were reporting on this story, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope. on april 30th, democratic leaders emerged from a closed door meeting with the president and announced a $2 trillion infrastructure agreement. >> it's clear that both the white house and all of us want to get something done on infrastructure in a big and bold way. and there was good will in this meeting. >> the news seemed promising, but there were red flags. >> thank you very much. >> for starters, not one congressional republican publically backed the idea.

and there was no word on where the money would come from. still, for a few weeks, the impossible seemed possible. >> but on may 22nd, less than two hours before a follow-up white house meeting on the infrastructure deal, nancy pelosi accused president trump of obstructing the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. >> we believe that no one is above the law and clearly the president of the united states and we believe that the president of the united states is engaged in a cover-up, in a cover-up. >> by the time the democrats got to the white house, the infrastructure deal was dead on arrival. democratic senator tom carper of delaware is the ranking member of the environment and public works committee. he had a front row seat for the drama that unfolded. >> so just describe the whole meeting. tell us where you were sitting, what the president did. >> the president finally came in, went into the room ten minutes after the meeting was supposed to start. he stood at the end of table and

looked at everybody and said nancy said bad things about me, unkind things about me. if you guys want to continue to investigate, go right ahead, but we won't be working on infrastructure investigation as long as these investigations are going forward. he turned around and walked out. >> the meeting lasted all of three minutes. the president immediately held a supposedly impromptu press conference, although the no collusion sign on the podium suggested otherwise. >> i told senator schumer, speaker pelosi i want to do infrastructure. i want to do it more than you want to do it. i'd be really good at that. that's what i do, but you know what? you can't do it under these circumstances. so get these phony investigations over with. >> a few weeks later, we asked speaker pelosi if she had any regrets about the times of her comments. >> looking back, was it a good idea in that comment right before you walked in to accuse the president of a criminal cover-up before you were trying

to get a deal done for the american public. >> we are not giving up on infrastructure and i say almost every day that the president is involved in a criminal cover-up. he just chose to pick it up that day, so there is nothing new about anything i said about the president that time. i think the president just didn't want to pay for it. >> we caught up with republican senator chuck grassley for his take on the partisan impasse. >> so often we hear so many of your colleagues pointing a finger at impeachment in particular saying this is why things aren't getting done. democrats are obsessed with impeaching the president. they're obsessed with his connections to russia. >> investigating him. >> i think it's obvious. >> senator, infrastructure is something president obama could not get done. why infrastructure in particular has sometimemied both parties for so long? >> it's a much bigger issue now than it's ever been throughout the history mostly highways and transportation. it's much broader than that now. it's metropolitan

infrastructure. it's broad band and raising a trillion dollars is a problem. >> while leaders in washington diter on an infrastructure deal, we found one city that's actually getting it done. >> what are we looking at? >> so this is going to be the future station. s your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. i love you! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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with the infrastructure deal stuck deep in the swamp, katy and i are committed to finding some light at the end of this tunnel. to look for hope we headed to an unlikely place, the l.a. freeway. >> we're driving under 5 miles per hour on an interstate highway. you know what i think honestly? literally every member of congress should have to sit in los angeles bump tore bumper traffic as punishment for not passing infrastructure. and then i think infrastructure would pass. >> i think that would be defined as cruel and unusual punishment. >> we're crawling along the 10

freeway west of downtown los angeles. the problem here isn't crumbling roads. it's that there are just too many cars. a fact jacob and i are painfully aware of having both grown up here. >> i'm somewhat optimistic because l.a. is trying to expand the subways and the light rail. have you ever been on the train in l.a.? >> i haven't. i don't think of trains in l.a. >> they're getting it done. i think when you see it for the first time, it will change your whole outlook on infrastructure. the l.a. metro system which includes the subway below ground and the light rail above has been around for years. but it hasn't made much of an impact on traffic. now l.a. metro is investing billions of dollars to expand and improve public transportation in time for the los angeles olympics in 2028. the mayor is leading the charge.

so this is will shire boulevard. >> it's literally on top of us. cars and trucks are going by up there. >> wow. >> the project includes extending one of the existing subway lines, the purple line, nine miles west which they think could cut the rush hour drive time in half. >> so what are we looking at? >> so this is going to be the future station. so you've got to imagine people coming up and down into the station and the tunnel coming through. >> to speed up the schedule, crews are boring tunnels and building stations at the same time. but that comes with a hefty price tag. the budget for the purple line project alone is estimated to be $9 billion. >> where is the boring machine right now? is it that way? >> on the other side. >> it's coming this way. >> when i was under the hudson river looking at the gateway project, this is what they told me they are dying to have. >> right. and this is the only big project

like this in america with federal and local funding. and there's no way we could have done it on our own. >> the federal government has already ponied up about a quarter money of the purple line extension, more than 2 billion and has promised even more. >> the reason? l.a. has skin in the game. local leaders promised to shoulder a hefty chunk of the cost, but that's not all. los angeles voters also agreed to fund infrastructure projects all across the county. we were at a transportation hearing, and you were there, and you guys were advocating going to the voters and saying we want to give you a tax. we want to propose a tax to fund infrastructure. >> this isn't a tax. this is an investment. this will be 40 years and 787,000 jobs. >> permanent sales tax? >> a permanent sales tax. the funny thing about this is when we pulled it, the longer we said the lasted, more people

were willing to vote for it. >> voters agreed to fupd not just the purple line extension but overhauling the entire metro system. >> you're saying the residents of los angeles wanted to pay for that? >> absolutely. not just this line but 15 rapid transit lines in a single city. that's never been done in american history in one place. this is not about infrastructure. this is about quality of life. >> the mayor says the key to draining the swamp is to first bridge the partisan divide. >> i went to a republican on our board and we were partners in putting forward this measure before the voters. he got it. >> los angeles county with its 10.1 million residents stands to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in sales tax revenue each year. >> how do you do this in a much smaller place? >> that's absolutely a great point. there are certain big places that can afford to do this. los angeles. new york is trying to figure out

what to do with the subway system, but for most of america's small towns, if we don't have national leadership, this simply won't get done. >> when katy and i were growing up here, taking a train to the beach would have been science fiction. >> but now that's exactly what we're doing thanks to this improved light rail which has been totally funded with local money. >> which goes to show when there's a strong commitment by the powers that be and by the people, the swamp can be drained if even just a little. not only is this your first ride on the l.a. metro, it's teddies. >> it is teddy's. >> you're experiencing it together. when we grew up here, this didn't exist. >> i grew out of los angeles because i was sick of sitting in traffic. i wanted a city where i could get around easily. >> and the city is trying to figure out a way to beat the traffic. >> we've been trying to figure out a way where congress and the

white house can work together with local governments to do something the people need to fix infrastructure, and we didn't really find the solution. we've been on this story so long that i had a baby. >> that's true, who