authentic. i want to control the narrative. i want people to know from me. but first the "nightline" five. good evening. thank you for joining us. a night of triumph and turmoil. president trump addressing the nation. basking in a democratic debacle at the iowa caucus as he prepares for an impeachment finale. >> madam speaker! the president of the united states. [cheers and applause] >> reporter: possession is nine tenths of the law. that maxim on full display tonight at the capitol. what it means is that custody equals ownership. >> members of congress, the president of the united states. [cheers and applause] >> reporter: donald trump has custody of the presidency. he owns it. >> the state of our union is stronger than ever before. >> reporter: doesn't matter that just six weeks ago in this very same chamber, president trump was impeached. >> article ii is adopted. >> reporter: that's ancient history. tonight he stood center stage triumphantly. >> we did our job. >> reporr: because trump doesn't just own the presidency but the grand old party, too. the republicans have his back. tonight the word impeachment was not on the script but it was the elephant in the room. for an hour and 18 minutes and sought to fire up his base. he awarded the presidential medal of freedom to rush limbaugh, gave a scholarship to a schoolgirl and reunited a combat veteran with his family. >> such a strange scene. half the people the president is looking out at and the woman sitting behind him wanted to kick him out of office through the most drastic remedy in the constitution, impeachment. and he's triumphed over them. >> it is 11:00 out east, and zero precincts reporting. >> something is seriously off about this vote count. >> reporter: only now, 24 hours late, have we finally started getting vote results from the iowa democratic party. pete buttigieg has a surprisingly strong showing, neck in neck with bernie sanders, elizabeth warren in third with joe biden in fourth place. >> our campaign is absolutely electrified by this fantastic news. it is going to help propel us into a great position to compete here in new hampshire and beyond. >> reporter: four years ago, a tie in iowa gave bernie sanders a big bump headed into new hampshire. it's years ago, barack obama surprised victory, and the caucuses set him on a path to beat hillary clinton. tonight the democrats trying to beat trump trying to move past the caucus catastrophe. >> everybody knows who donald trump is. we need to show them who we are. >> i'd say his playbook is really three basic words. divide and demoralize. >> and i see this amazing opportunity in 2020. our chance to turn that around and make this government work for everyone else. >> this is an unprecedented moment in american history. it is absolutely imperative that trump be defeated. >> reporter: the shocking meltdown in iowa caused by a catastrophic system failure reporting results. local precinct captains were unable it to get their results in. >> we've been recommended to call in to the hotline. and the hotline has not been responsive. >> reporter: one local election official finally got through to the hotline. live on cnn. >> i'm with the democratic party. can i help you? >> this is a real coincidence, wolf, i just now got off hold, just now. so i've got to get off the phone to report the results. hi, hello? they hung up on me. >> this was a meltdown of epic proportions in iowa. almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong. there were problems with understand the party rolled out. >> reporter: iowa supposed to reflect clarity, and give the person momentum. last night, msnbc's chris matthews started down right dejected. >> for those of us who love the romance of politics, there's the crackle of election night where the winner is clear and the loser is clear. we've lost that majesty. we've lost it because of a screw up. >> reporter: only at 4:00 p.m. today in des moines did the results finally start to come in. >> good afternoon. >> reporter: along with a much-needed apology. >> the reporting of the results and circumstances surrounding the 2020 iowa democratic party caucuses were unacceptable. as chair of the party, i apologize deeply. >> reporter: it may be too little too late to completely heal the damage done. >> in a lot of ways, this is the worst way pofor the country to start off 2020. we started off knowing that the russians tried to affect the election. this is a bad thing for democrats. >> reporter: democratic candidates have all moved on to new hampshire, which holds its first in the nation primary one week from tonight. that contest now has the potential to be more decisive than ever. >> it feels like a whole new ball game here in new hampshire. most of the candidates are already here. new hampshire is a much more simple and straight forward process with a primary ballot, easy to understand. >> i put iowa separate from new hampshire. i think it was a mess, but it doesn't affect the way i'm going to vote. >> i don't happened in iowa this morning. >> reporter: joe biden, the iowa screwup is good news. he now gets the chance for a do-over. mike bloomberg, who didn't spend a penny in iowa, is also laughing all the way to the bank. >> i hear something happened in iowa. or didn't happen. i don't know which. still can't figure that out. >> it was a gift, from the iowa democratic party to donald trump. and this is not a guy who turns down a political opportunity like that. >> reporter: president trump called the snafu on the democratic side an unmitigated disaster. nothing works, just like they ran the country, he tweeted. like the race to replace trump is in chaos, the effort to remove him through impeachment is pretty much dead in the water. tomorrow the senate is scheduled to take the final vote on the issue. the only mystery there, will it be along straight party lines or will someone in either party be tempted to break ranks. four senators are thought to be potential wildcards. on the republican side, mitt romney of utah remains the only possible vote against the president. on the democratic side, joe manchin of west virginia, doug jones of alabama and kyrsten sinema of arizona, all from red states may be tempted to break with their party and hand the republicans a bipartisan acquittal. >> that divide was on full display. from the moment president trump walked in to the house chamber. and straight off the bat, that awkward snub between the president and house speaker. she reached out her hand and he left her hanging. the republicans started chanting "four more years." democrats tonight say it felt more like them that they were at a trump rally, a maga rally than a traditional state of the union. >> reporter: tonight the state of the union is as divided as it s , that suits president trump just fine. i'm david wright for "nightline" in new york. >> and this friday evening, be sure to tune in to the next democratic debate, live at 8:00/7:00 central, 5:00 in the west right here on abc. up next, fighting in silence no more. why shannen doherty is coming forward with her painful health battle. 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[ fast-paced drumming ] to deal with the problem.icians but they wouldn't. so we took it to the voters and forced big tobacco to pay its share of healthcare costs. we fought oil companies for new clean air laws and closed a billion dollar corporate tax loophole to fund public schools. by going directly to the people we got results. that's not something you see a lot of from washington these days. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message. let's make change happen. actress shannen doherty is doing things on her own terms. bringing a private health battle into the public. the message full of >> my stage four cancer came back. and that's why i'm here. >> reporter: actress shannen doherty is fighting for her life. now revealing her breast cancer has returned and has now spread to her lymph nodes and bones. it's not the news anyone wants to hear, and you've been living with it privately for a year now. >> yes. >> reporter: and you wanted to keep it private, why? >> i've processed it. i've had a year to let this sit and resonate with me. i definitely wasn't prepared to come out with it. >> reporter: because, when you tell people it that you have stage four met static breast cancer, the way people treat you changes. the way people look at you changes. >> they look the you like you're dead man walking basically, and they need to say their good-byes to you or something. and also work dries up. i enjoy working and working gives me another reason to wake up every morning. it's another reason to, you know, fight to stay alive. >> reporter: shannen is best known for "beverly hills 90210". >> tell me the size and it's yours. >> reporter: and "charmed." she was first diagnosed in 2015, she documented in raw moments like shaving her hair. >> it's how it's going to affect the people that you love. >> reporter: and in 2017, she posted triumphantly that her cancer was in remission. she continued to act throughout her journey, returning to the role that made her famous, brenda walsh in the "90210" reboot months after the death of luke perry. what was going through your mind at that moment? because you didn't share this with anyone. >> why wasn't it me? me? me? it's so weird for me to be diagnosed, and then somebody who was even seemingly healthy to go first. it was really, like shocking. >> reporter: shooting the reboot, she put on a brave face publicly, but privately, she knew her cancer was back. >> i thought, when i finally do come out and i would have worked and people would have looked at that and said oh, my god, she can work and other people with stateme stage four can work, too. >> reporter: how did you keep it. >> i had moments of great anxiety where i thought i can't do it. and brian was the one person who knew, like we got theiis, ki >> reporter: she admits it has been a struggle. can you tell me how you found that it was returning? >> i started feeling some very odd aches. i called my oncologist. >> reporter: were you shocked? >> i think yes and no. in the back of your head you are always suspecting that it's going to happen. but i had also convinced myself that i had beaten it. i was the true warrior. >> reporter: you said you slayed cancer on "good morning, america." >> the cancer slayer. yeah. it's a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways. i'm not going to lie. i think the first time around i found some really beautiful, positive way to look at it, and i felt very enlightened. this is a much more difficult one to deal with. i'm grappling. i haven't found my path. and my peace. >> reporter: but she's treating her cancer like she does everything in her life. she's fighting it. what have your treatments been like? >> it's basically a chemo pill you take 21 days on. and a blocker to prevent fractures. that's the biggest thing with cancer in the bones. it just starts breaking down your bone. >> reporter: and standing by her side through it all, her mother and husband. but even so, it's an isolating place. i imagine when you're in this situation, how alone you peefee. >> you do feel alone. there are moments i feel alone and i have the most amazing support system, friends, but sometimes i think oh, my god, i have a headache. i have stage four, you know. and i don't want to be that person. it can be isolating. because you're just on a completely different scale. >> reporter: a bitter dose of perspective. >> i want to be, you know, the person that does help people. like hey, i'm so positive and peaceful and do it like i did last time. but i also think what an incredible disservice to everybody else going through this if i put forth something completely false. like i'm not okay. that's the truth. >> reporter: shannen is also in the middle of an ongoing legal dispute, state farm, after her home was destroyed in the woolsly fire. >> walked in the house and it reeked of smoke. i got passed around from claims adjustor to claims adjustor. so i ended up suing state farm. >> reporter: she has been forced to pay out of pocket for losses she believes should be paid by her insurance policy and some claims have been unjustly declined. we reached out and they said we empathize with ms. dougherty's health issues and wish her a full recovery. we strongly believe we have upheld our commitment to our customer. they say they have paid 1.1 million to clean and repair plaintiff's home and personal property. but nevertheless she claims she is entitled to additional benefits under her policy. she is set to begin in early march. >> reporter: you want to own your cancer story. >> yeah, i'd rather people hear it from me. i don't want to be a court document. i want it to be real and authentic. i want to control the narrative. >> reporter: how do you handle the fear? >> i don't know. i'm pretty scared. my mom is, you know, a ridiculously strong, courageous human being. so is my husband, but i worry about him. >> reporter: have you decided how you want to live? are you going to change how you live? >> i think the thing i want to do the most right now is i want to make an impact. and i want to be remembered pour something. bigger than just me. >> our thanks to amy. and next, black history, center stage. ♪ i thought i had my moderate to severe ulcerative colitis under control. turns out, it was controlling me. seemed like my symptoms were taking over our time together. i knew i needed to talk to my doctor. think he'll make it? that's when i learned humira can help get and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, control is possible. seaonly abreva cany to help sget rid of it in... ...as little as 2 1/2 days when used at the first sign. abreva starts to work immediately to block the virus and protect healthy cells. abreva acts on it. so you can too. break out the butter loif you've been dreaming aboutr tender wild-caught lobster, dig in to butter-poached, fire-roasted and shrimp & lobster linguini. see? 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