that is syndicated columnist mark shields and "washington post" columnist michael gerson.s away tonight. i want to start, mark, with our lead story tonight, the administration, the obama administration putting out a directive to public schools all over the country to make bathroom-locker roomñr facilitis availability transgender students. what effect do you see thisawq having? >> in the real world in education, i'm not sure, judy. politically, prior to today, the politics were all on the side of those whoÑi had opposed the north carolina law, which basicallyçó restricted and was sort of a bogus bogey man,fá whh i guess is redundant. allñr these men putting on womes clothes and going into restrooms to molÑi molest females. >> solve ago problem that didn't exist. i really felt that way and i community reacted as one and costÑi north carolina a great amount, paypal jobs, deutscheÑi banc, google, coca-cola, a bruce springsteen concert canceled. so there was a defensiveness. now tad's movement by the president strikes me that the silence on the partÑi of democrats, of secretary

mark shields and michael gerson talk about the possibility of a united republican party and analyze aull week of news. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

"washington post" michael gers gerson. julie pace, this is the week that donald trump met with paul ryan, where do things stapped in the republican unity? >> lot of talk about unity that was the word of the week at this point it seems to be bit of superficial unity because beneath the surface there continue to be huge differences between the paul ryan wing of the republican party and what now is the donald trump wing of the republican party. but i think the fact that trump came to washington, had this closed door meeting with ryan and got the speak tore speak quite warmly about him was an accomplishment. it showed that there is an effort underway on capitol hill to have lawmakers unify around trump. even a week ago that was big open question. i think we now see the direction that this is headed. >> dickerson: give me your take on this in terms of what the party is going through. is this a situation where all parties a little messy getting unified. they all come together and row in the same direction is that what we have he

joining me now, washington post deputy editorial and michael gerson.o you, you and i were covering the white house and tell me about the decision by his sister, vince foster east's foster's sister to write this column. >> there is a difference between donald trump going after barack obama not being born in the united states, barack obama is not around to defend himself and vince foster is not defending himself. so, i know sheila anti any baho in day and my e-mail to her asking her to write something to break the esilence. she was so upset and she said she would. >> vince foster was my brother and donald trump should be ashamed. >> indeed, vince foster had lived with her bin guyeginning clinton investigation. he talked about how he was suffering from depression and asked for the name of the psychiatrist which were in his pocket before he died and she talked about the after math for her elderly mother and her siblings to be hearing that. it is one thing for a kind of irresponsible right wing press to bring things up. now, one of the central nominee of th

join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and michael gerson. all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention. in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ♪ >> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america'