angeles, i'm tavis smiley. tonight with the mid. term elections less than five weeks away now, we have an assessment where the congressional races stands with debbie wasserman schultz who is also chair of the democratic national committee, some pundits insist the republicans will retake the senate and hold on to the house, others are take the races are too close to call. then we'll turn to a conversation with two-time emmy winner, anna gunn who won back-to-back awards for her outstanding performance as skyler white, the wife in breaking bad. she's now the other side of the law playing a detective in "grace point" the ten-point crime drama debuting tomorrow night on fox. glad you joined us. those conversations coming up right now.

♪ ♪ >> announcer: and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ mid-term elections are less than five weeks away now with the power structure in congress hangs in the balance. joining us tonight is

representative debbie wasserman schultz, chair of the dnc, the democratic national committee joins us tonight from where else, washington. congresswoman, glad to have you on the program. >> thank you. >> less than five weeks to go, how are you feeling? >> you know, we're feeling good. we have 34 days and we are focussed on making sure that we can explain the choice, the very stark choice that's right in front of voters between a republican party and their candidates, who have focussed on extremism, whose last act before leaving town was to actually sue the president for doing his job when they wouldn't do their job and really what it comes down to, we think, voters want to know who have their back. on issue after issue, whether it's jobs, the economy, education, health care, voters i think will consistently decide that it's democrats that have their back and republicans who really have been so strangled by the tea party and extremism and focussed on obstruction at every turn and hell-bent on stopping

this president from accomplishing anything, i think they'll reject that 34 days from now. >> how do you stay focussed and how do you stay on message when what you're up against erd is a punditry that suggestions republican will hold the house and take back the senate. >> we have to ignore the political noise. we spent a decade as a party between howard dean, when he was chair of the dnc, the two incredibly successful obama campaigns and the dnc's partnership in building the most significant technological and digital advantage that any party has ever had and we've also built a grass roots network with neighborhood organizers and team leaders and field organizers that is deeply embedded all across the country in communities that have swing voters that are really going to make a difference and the republicans are playing catch up. couple that with a year and a half ago my counterpart at the rnc, reince who roled out this

out topsy why they lost the 2012 election and they actually said the good news that their principles were sound, it was how they talked to people that was the problem. and so they really think it's not their policies that are the problem. that it's just that they speak more nicely. i think they're just going to come up short in a lot of the competitive races. >> how do you explain to the american people that this do-nothing congress, that's not my phrase, that's the president's phrase, calls them a do-nothing congress, how do you explain to the american people that they're on recess and this is the earliest, they get nothing done and now they're on early recess doing all of this at taxpayer expense, how do you explain to that to the everyday american watching this tonight? >> the republicans have a lot of explaining to do, tafs. i've been in congress ten years. this is the earliest we've gotten out to focus not on the work that we need to do for the american people to focus on politics. i mean, the republicans leaving town when there is so much that

we have left to address, every time i talk to my constituents at home or travel across the country and talk to other voters, they want us to work together on creating jobs, getting this economy turned around. you know, they're obviously pleased. we had 54-straight months of job growth in the private sector. we had manufacturing that had a resurgence. we made progress. we have millions of people who have access to health care now, but still people are feeling like, you know, the ground is not as firm as they would like it to be underneath them. and if we worked together, if we actually had republicans who were willing to be partners with us instead of throwing obstacles in the president's path at every turn, we could make more progress. there's no excuse for us not still being in session with the work we have left undone, but the republicans, again, today is the anniversary one-year anniversary of the republican government shutdown when you remember a year ago, they shut the government down in the name of denying people access to health care, cost the economy

$24 billion, kids turned away from head start programs, children turned away from nih tests that would help save their lives and yet they're still talking about doing this again if they don't get their way and president obama doesn't do exactly what they want. that's the choice in front of voters. that's what we'll be talking about and focussed in our get out the vote operation. >> you said a couple things i want to follow up on. if i'm stepping too gingerly, let me know. >> you step gingerly? never. >> yeah. if i'm getting too close to home, let me know and i'll back up. >> sure. >> you talked about health care a moment ago. i do know that today is also the first day of breast cancer awareness month. >> yes. >> i see your pin on. you are a breast cancer survivor. >> i am. >> how do you see this on-going battle then that's being waged in washington over as they call it obama care? >> well, as a breast cancer

survivor, i was diagnosed more than five years ago at 41 years old, tavis. for me, the fact that january 1st of this year we -- that have a preexist -- live wefrd a pre-existing condition got the peace of mind knowing that never again a insurance company could drop us and the republicans remain hell bent on taking that peace of mind away, i have to tell you, that i know not on my watch. i will fight until my last breath and president obama made it a top priority to ensure not only that breast cancer survivors like me have that peace of mind that being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition. young adults could stay on their parent's insurance until their 26. seniors have the peace of mind they can get access to more affordable prescription drugs. the republicans are bent on turning the clock back and going

back to a time when insurance companies were in the driver's seat. if we elect more republicans on november 4th, then they will be focussed on doing everything they can to repeal the affordable care act and i know millions of americans who now have health care who don't want to go backwards. >> so there are many who believe this election will be a referendum on president obama's policies. in fact, the way the president is behaving, the way he invested himself in this certainly believes will have a remaining effect on his two remaining years. >> i think the voters will go to the polls and make a decision on who to vote for based on the question that i mentioned earlier, they just want to know, who is going to have my back? and when they're faced with that choice in race after race, they'll have a democratic candidate who says the top of our agenda should be continuing to create jobs. investing in education, creating more opportunities for people to

climb the ladders to the middle class, invest in education, create more opportunities for higher education, make higher education more accessible and affordable, make sure that we can invest in infrastructure, both so that we can move people around more efficiently and prevent it from crumbling around us and create jobs and republican party and republican candidates who want to double down on the tea party extremism who voted to shut the government down a year ago. who -- forced us to vote more than 50 times to repeal the affordable care act. who voted to sue the president for doing his job and who refuse to focus on the priorities that our constituents are telling us should be at the top of the agenda. the tea party shouldn't be allowed to control the direction this country goes. our voters, our middle class families who simply want to make a better way of life for themselves and create more opportunities, not fewer, that's who should be in the driver's seat after election day. >> you think the tea party is

going to be even relevant this time around? if so, in what ways? >> i certainly am not willing to take it for granted. we saw what happened four years ago in 2010. it resulted in a lot of extreme members of congress who decided that most important things on the agenda were bosses to make decisions for their employees for their female employees on the kind of access to health care they could get. defunding planned parenting hood. forcing the government into a situation where the government would make decisions on your family planning choices, not a woman. focussing on denying people access to quality affordable health care, tax cuts for the wealthiest most fortunate americans. and turning it into a voucher system, look, i don't want to take for granted for a minute that voters might think the tea party is the way to go. so we're focussed on drawing that contrast.

making sure that folks know -- that the stakes are very high and that if we want the country to go in the direction that most americans do, equal pay for equal work for women and increase in a minimum wage, making sure that people have more opportunity, not less, that they vote -- they need to vote for democratic candidates. >> i have to believe that the democratic party is watching a number of key races, perhaps as bail weathers for what will happen on election night in less than five weeks now. can you give me a sense of a few races that you're looking at that you think might give some indication we're out here in california. we always get taken for granted on the west coast. they're called to early in the evening our time. but what are you looking at on election night, tuesday night, that you think will give us some sign of how the night might be turning snout. >> we're taking nothing for granted. you have four competitive house races out there in california. of course california is a very blue state. but there are four real competitive house races out there.

we have obviously six or seven competitive united states senate races. we're leaving it all on the field. i wouldn't point to any one race that's a bell weather. our focus critically for the next five weeks is making sure that voters know what's at stake. that there's a very dramatic contrast. that the difference between knowing that we can move our country forward and work together and make progress or whether we're going to go backwards and, you know, be in a situation like mitch mcconnell promised if he were majority leader and the senate was controlled by republicans that we would be in more battles over government shutdowns. he would use the budget process and force us to the brink of government shutdown just to get president obama to do what he wants. i think we've watched that movie. it didn't have a very happy ending and i think voters are going to choose not to go there again. >> let me close asking what do you think can be accomplished in the president's term if democrats can hold the senate and if by some miracle they

could take back the house. i want to ask you the flip side. you don't want to consider that. but if the democrats can hold the senate and do well in the house, what's your sense of what can be done in the president's last two years? >> oh my gosh, if we have an opportunity to be in the majority in the house again and hold on to the senate, actually which like i said i'm confident we'll hold the senate, then we'll be able to make sure that we can pass the american jobs act. we can make the kind of investments we should be in education, like the preuniversal pre-k program. we can further solidify the affordable care act and iron out any challenges and problems that have arisen and actually make sure that we can -- significant a change as that was, make sure that it's working effectively for everyone and ensuring everybody so that he with can give them that peace of mind

that i know i have. we can invest in health care and education and create more opportunities for young people to create a pathway for their success in life. we can focus on making sure that we pass comprehensive immigration reform the republicans say they support but actions speak louder than words. we haven't had a vote on that in the house because john boehner sadly cares more about staying in power than he does about doing the right thing. so we can move our country forward. that would be what would happen. >> congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, chair of the dnc. thanks for your insights. >> thanks, tavis. coming up, anna gunn. stay with us. anna gunn, won back-to-back emmys for outstanding performance in the critically acclaimed series, "breaking bad." she now stars in a new limited

series for fox called "grace point." she plays someone on the right side of the law this time. she is a detective investigating a homicide in a small town turning neighbor by neighbor. let's look at the scene from the series which begins tomorrow night on fox. >> i have returned. that's right. vacation is over. we are now living the dream once again. so, what's been going on? >> elle? >> yeah. >> my office. >> elle, we hired someone else. >> what? >> i knew you would be disappointed. >> you said the promotion was mine. it could wait until after my vacation. >> the situation changed. >> who did you give it to. >> his name is emmitt carver. >> a man. so what happened to we need women in more positions of authority in this department? >> he has a lot of experience.

>> when does he start? >> last week. >> can i just take it for starters, you have the coolest name ever. >> thank you. >> anna gunn. >> i know. i'm waiting for my action movie. >> i love that. anna gunn. have you always liked your name? >> no. when i was a kid, i said to my parents, why did you do that to me? because everybody came up to me and said, annie get your gun. that's about the 30,000th time that i've heard that. but, you know, as i got older, i thought, that's a pretty cool name. then i started thanking them for it. >> same with my name. i hated tavis smiley. i got called travis all the time, still do. but i got to tv, i was like, know what, nobody on tv will have this name. any way, people are loving -- the critics like this already. how does it feel to be on the right side of the law for a change? >> good. >> yeah? >> it feels good.

i mean, it was -- you know, playing skyler had so many dark kr crevices. of course this series takes us to some of those as well. but she's not -- she's not as buttoned up and shut down i think as skyler. there's such a difference in elle. and it was incredibly liberating to me as an actress to play somebody with such color and such complexity. >> in fact, in this series from what i've seen so far of it, we get a chance to see some intimate moments with you and where as the character skyler on "breaking bad" you were kind of -- >> yeah. at first i didn't really understand why that was. and then as i got to understand the story more and i really was listening to people's reactions, which was a lot of my journey through "breaking bad," i realized that vince did

something brilliant with the construction of the narrative of that show, which was had you really gotten very intimate glimpses into what was going on inside skyler, it maybe would have drawn the audience very sympathetically towards her and away from walt and then the show doesn't work then. it really was a brilliant piece of writing and construction by vincent and our amazing team of write es. >> i want to jump back to "grace's point." you're an actress and a good one. are there consequences to playing a character as that many dark crevices. what's the price you pay for that? >> well, you know, in some ways it's really cathartic and you feel cleansed after some of those. i mean, i remember that scene

with ryan and me after i walked into the pool and he came into the bedroom and it was an 11-page scene and he -- we really carefully rehearsed it. if you remember, he sort of pursues me around the room, cornering me, cornering me, cornering me and finally i end up back on the bed. and that line -- she finally just says what really has been going on, she tried to turn to that life of crime but she found out she wasn't any good at it. he's black belt at it and she's just not that good at it. and knows it. and she's paralyzed because she's already sort of lost her moral compass at that point and she knows she's lost. after you play a scene like that, there is a feeling -- because it's exhausting to -- i mean, it took us all day to shoot that scene and we didn't finish it and had to come back and complete it actually which is very hard because you drop out of it and then you have to raise that back up.

but there's also something about it that feels -- you wait for material like that, that's that rich that speaks so deeply about human beings. and i felt so lucky to be able to dive into that. >> this is a great vehicle for you, this series, were you at any point concerned that "grace point" or whatever was coming next, might be not be something that allowed you to play a different character? >> absolutely. when a job wraps you think will that be my last job, will i get another one? but, you know, i mean, it really changed all of our lives and opened doors for us that were certainly not open before. and i was waiting for the right thing and it didn't matter to me if it came in the form of theater, film or television, i just look for good writing. i look for an excellent story and i wanted a really complex character that you did get to really get intimate with, the viewers got to really get to know.

>> great segue. tell me about "grace point". >> "grace point" is a story of a small community that experiences a tragedy. the death of a 12-year-old boy. and elle miller, my character, is a detective and she's gone away on vacation, as we isn't that true that clip, and she comes back fully expecting to get a promotion. it's been essentially promised to her. instead she finds out that a man -- an outsider, somebody who is not from that town has come in and taken her job. and she feels like -- i think that's a moment of complete betrayal for her. and she's such a forthright character, just a truth teller without being nasty, without being snarky, she is just able -- she can look you in the eye and tell you what she thinks because she has pure -- i think she's a very pure, innocent character. and she sees -- she wants to see goodness in people.

and i think what starts to happen is that she has a seismic shift, a sort of earth-shattering thing happen to her which is that she has to change the way she looks at the entire world in order to do her job. and in order to serve her community and try to find out who is responsible for this horrible thing. >> that's fascinating she has to change her view of the world. i take your point. what's fascinating for me is that this is her hometown. she's not just on the police force, this is the place she was born and raised so the connections are visceral. >> they are. these are her friends, neighbors, people she's grown up with. >> and they're all one by one having the spotlight placed on them. everybody basically in this town essentially becomes a suspect in this case. >> yeah, they do. and at first i think that's where she and david's character, carver, really butt heads because they have the same imperative. they have the same drive. they want to find out who did

this. and it's not just because that's their job. i think for -- i was very lucky in my research process to talk to some amazing people. i talked to the -- a woman named ally jacobs. she was the cop who actually solve the jaycee dugard case. i talked to a female fbi agent who was in charge of a special task force for crimes against children. it was very important to me to understand how they balance, how they dealt with a job that had that intensity and danger and seeing things that were probably just unspeakable some days and what they had to do to let that go and go home and make dinner for their kids and be present for their kids. i found they were so gracious and so helpful to me. and then i went on a ride along with another cop in l.a. and -- >> how was that? >> it was honestly like one of the best acting classes i've ever had. when i walked up to the precinct, he came out and said,

detective miller, good to see you. and at first i thought he was just making some -- having a little fun with me. but he was absolutely serious. he wanted to immerse me in that world and to give me the most honest view of it that he could and he referred to me as detective miller all day. we went and questioned three people. he called me -- he introduced me as detective miller. don't you think that -- you know -- >> hey, chick from "breaking bad". >> exactly. and he said, i already thought of it. all you need to do is say i get that all the time. i get it all the time. i said, they're not going to buy that. he said they'll buy it. >> sure enough, the first group of people we went to question, the guy went, wait a minute -- and i went, no, i get it all the time. >> did he buy it? >> he went -- it confused him but he ultimately did buy it. he did. i thought, how is that possible? i guess if you believe in it enough, there you go. you know? >> you're not the only actor in

town. >> exactly. i don't know. i may have walked out of there and he was going, i know that was -- come on. what was she doing in here? >> yeah. you're not the only actor in town, but you are the best. >> thank you. >> anna gunn on a new series called "grace point" that starts tomorrow night on the fox network. i would say good luck, but your stuff is so good and you had such a great run on "breaking bad" you're okay. thanks for watching. as always, keep the faith. ♪ >> announcer: for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. i'm tavis smiley, join me with a conversation about jonah about the financial crisis. that's next time. we'll see you then.

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

>> rose: welcome to the program. tonight part one of a two part conversation with mikhail khodorkovsky, once the richest man in russia. his story, he is now telling. >> i had to deal with the problems in jail through resistance. and in prison, there's only one gain that you can play-- game that you can play, and that's your life. you can only stake your life. if you do a hunger strike, that means you need to either put your life on the line, or they don't take you seriously. if you have put your life on the line and then haven't held out to the end, that's it. you are a nobody. i had to do this four times.