Ukraine for tion help. And that the white house e tried to cover it up. On thursday, the acting director of national intelligence, joseph mcguire, testified before congress about the complaint which he called quote unpreced ted. It centers phone call the president held with the ukraine president in july where he asked him repeatedly to open a torruption investigation his 2020 president ial rival, joe biden. On tuesday, House Speaker nancy pelosi announced the start of a formal impeachment inquiry against the pepresident accusin him of betraying his oath of president tr called the p fice. Impeachment inquiry quote a witchhunt and attacked the credibility and charactetlof ujoining us now via skype from washington dc is political reporter jessica taylor. And here in studio the editor politics and government, scott shafer. Jessica taylor and scott shafer, thank you for bein here. Scott, of course given californias representation and congressional leadership, we are playing a prominent ro in this. Nancy pelosi today accuse william barr of going rogue. She yesterday accused the white house of trying to cover up the president s alleged abuse. She is all in, and she was not all in on an impeachment inquiry a week ago. So so give us insight into her change of heart. I think it is personally speaking nancy pelosi wouldve liked nothing more tha to impeach donald trump and he has offended her politically, ethically, and every way in terms of his style and politics and everything, but she is an inherently political person. She understands in order for something as serious impeachment to forward, there has to be something that is tangible, understandable, and provable. I think the caucus was really nervous because pelosi wants to preserve and grow her mausrity in the there were some new members of congress who just got elected and knocked off republicans and purple districts. D she was worried and ey were worried that pursuing impeachment, at least using it after the mueller report, would not go over well in those districts. She worried about those candidates losing for reelection. Everything change this week with the whistle thwer report and the testimony from the n actiional Security Intelligence director. This is something that is a real smoking gun and easy for the public to understand. The key is that seven these moderates wrote and op piece in the washington post, seven people with National Security and military background including gil cisneros of Orange County and said now is the time we have to act. In the meantime, republicans want to paint vincy pelosi as to the more progressive elements of the democratic party. Is th fair . I think that as scott mentioned, when these moderate membersbawho had cia grounds or military backgrounds wrot thoped, this felt like where this sort of wall that had been sort of protecting this began to fall. When you have these more moderate members that were willing to stick their necks out, it seemed like things were moving within the caucus in a co way that she d not ignore. I also thing for democrats too, this is a much easier case to prosecute to e public than the whole russia scandal was because that was very convoluted. People are thinking, okay, this is in the past, but now you have a president who is soliciting help from a foreign government. I have this whistleblower. Of this call. Partial readout so i think we can see public sentiment shifting as well. We had our n npr pbs ws hour poll that came out this week with the public split peachment. I caution that pot. Ing in the heat of the moment, it is always a bit tricky. I think in the coming weeks we can see how this moves. But before i thinbue public was more against impeaching trump. I do think there is sort of evidence of public sentiment shifting as well as when you look at the ings that are laid out before them and it sort of felt li democrats had no choice other than to act if they were going to follow what was in the constitution, really. Maybe there isevidence of public sentiment shifting, but is there evidence of sentiment shifting in the Republican Party . As usual, they are rallying around the president ,but are u noticing anything different in the way that they might be defending him or any cracks at all . A lot of senators yesterday were sort of declining to comment, saying they did not read the whistleblower report that had been classified when less than 10 pages long. I read it in 10or 15 minutes and less. They are on recess now foa few weeks. So we will see what kind of pressure could build up in their districtsand states and things too. T you have a lot more people either say no comment or avoiding it. The people who are sort of o republicans and have come out swers are the ones who have agitated the president in the past like mitt romney and ben sasse nebraska and will heard who sits once the intellig republican who not only sits in ua swing district but retiring and also a former cia msofficer f. What are the risks then to democrats for tepursuin this st as you see it . There are considerable l risks. First of nancy pelosi knows the reason she is in charge of speakers the midterm elections went well for the democrats in thlarge measure because were focused on things that voters cared about, namely, healthcare in particular. So the risk is, if democrats are seeing is shifting focus away from something and ters dont care so much about it, that was what happened with the mueller report. It never really capture the publics ima voters just did not care about it and the democrats were smart in the midterms not to focus on it. The risk is going into an Election Year where your have this sense ofgridlock of course and partisanship. Trump is already blaming democrats for keeping the do Nothing Party eve though e house has been passing all kinds of legislatn on gun control and other things. Ere the voters look at moment everything in congress and sort of return to their corners and tribes and and sort of say like a pox on all your houses. I think that is the risk for democrats. I think pelosi has come to the co sion that you cant let the riskstop you. This is the job of congress, oversight, and the details of this case are so egregiou that they felt no real option but to act. Jessica taylor, what you think aboutthe risks to the nation . We talked a little bit about the risks for the democratic party. But thtoe is a cost pursuing something as volatile and plunging washington into crisis mode. There is a cost to the puic. I think where we are with our politics is so divided. I think it is hard to see cohow uin a way. Mere divided but i , there is certainly part of the public that is calling for this that we have seen democrats for a long inme. I you know, the rule of law being under assault. If you see trump, he sort of to buil this in a way, doing things outside of the norms of what a president would do. It is okay. Let this slide d what else could happen in a way. We certainly saw there was back lash to republicans when eyhm pursued impet against president clinton in 1998. So i think there e risks in that. Ti our is also at a very different place than we are, and certainly there will be people like we have seen most threpublicans in Congress Still continue to defend trump. I was going to say also the nature of this so incident with the ukrainian president , if you read the co whistleblowelaint, it is very well written and very cautious. It is very specific. I think what we are seeing behind theseeienes and jessica can speak about this for being in dc more than i am but many people the National Security Law Enforcement apparatus who are career people who have served under republican anin democratic atrations word, who are offended. To see thesident reaching out to a foreign country to get help with the political adversary in this country. I think there e many people who are offended by the notion of the u. S. President doing that, irinspective of n their clinical persuasion. Jessica, who are we going to see testifying before congress . I think we will see the house subpoenaiacertainly rudy gi. They want to hear from attorney general william barr who is also named in this complaint as somebody that could have been ss involved. Ly people that were in the room for this. Both of to hear quickly fromyo your guess on if democrats will vote to impeach. If so, by e . Jessica . I think they probably will move forward. Honestly, with the timing that can expect, it uld be ct right as voters are voting in iowa and New Hampshire next year. I spoke to congressman congressman eshoo and she said she expect articles of impeachment to be voted on by sh december. Scott afer and jessica taylor. Thank you to both of you. Kyla Johnson Trammell is the superintendent of Oakland Unified School district. As the distritop administered her, oversees 83 Public Schools rvseg 87,000 children. In march it corenegotiated a ntract with the teachers who went on a weeklong strike to smaller igher wages and class sizes. The district also facing funding deficits of millions of udollars, which has prompted layoffs, School Closures and mergers. With us now as superintendent kyla Johnson Trammell. To say that you are dealing with a t is understatement. So tell me, given those challenges, what are your priorities . We have three main priorities aligned to our missioand vision which i hovisi steadfast to which is creating a fullservice costunity ct in our believe is really that we have bethe chance of serving all children by serving the whole child. We do that by really focusing on longstanding partnerships to make sure that we can use all the resources that we have within the city to serve the nearly 37 thousand students and families in our city. To get to that anrealize our mission and vision, we have three priorities, which pre around ing and having high quality and sustainable schools n every neighborhood, fiscal vitality, and organizational wellness. Si you made a hard de that one way to reach her goals is to close schools. So what you say to parents that are having a hard time understanding that this is the way to go. U heard at board meetings, frustration from parents who have been very tense at times and children has been in tears. At this may not beat the right direction . I would say one thing through the citywide plan, it is actually kind of three lovers one of those is some of the decisions around consolidations and closures but also, within that plan, it is a focus on mergers and expansions. So even within enour first cohort, although that did include a painful closure, which is not something i take lighy or the board take slightly and that anyoon staff take slightly. But it also included an expansion of one of our more successful high schools that already has a 90 graduation rate. We expanded it for that reason. At the end of the day, what are seeing is that we want more polity options within our system. So this small school actually is one of our high demand high schools and the model is really around kids having an internship experience built into high school. So within the plan, we are also looking at where we have quality programs that are smaller in size that we can o expand can offer more of expand chose seats to students. It is a blend of both. For parents who are shutting down a Successful School like kaiser elementary, what you say to them . Thy is not so much around shutting dowthe school the relocating the school in an area where we have more families so that more of our families have access to the program. Is this move about saving money as well . It is a bit more nuanced thant that. As mschools in california, throot issue is we simply dont have enough money in the state of california, regardless atof the criteria you look at. We either fall 46, or 47 or 48 compared with r fundingof others in the state. That is the root. We he many in our community and across the state of california that are really advocating for more money. But in addition to that, every district has to look at the number of students that you have in a district and the number of schools. There is a huge cost to run any school, whether the school is fully enrolled or undell en. So within our system, and. Largely our elementary schools, we do have many schools that are under enrolled. So what that means is that we are not able to resource each school to the magnitude that we want them. We believe a fullservice community school. We believe that our students and families have support arnd mental health, have support around electives. This is what i hear when i tal to ts and families. We want to make sure that we have arts in our schools and make sure we have sports. What that means from a financial perspective is is even the schools we have, we need to resource them even deeper so they can really si realize on the. So having to consolidate is not about putting money in a piggy bank but being able to redistribute in the most effective way so that each school gets more resources to create a Better Program that we have more familiescoming to not just a Certain Group of elementary, a Certain Group of middle and high schools, but. All of th you say the state needs to do more. Whatbout communities . In june, for example, voters in los angeles soundly rejected a ballot measure to raise property taxes to help the district, and that was somethfig that district als were hoping ulget past and hoping to pay for teacher raises. So what does that tell you about your ability to be able to afford the raises say that the teachers need in oakland st and also about voters inllingness to put a little more thelp their districts . We actually had a pretty solid parcel tax history in oakland. Wh we have measure g h actually provides us some support around performing arts, music, and librarie we have g won which was recently passed, so that is actually helping us with the raises and it goes partially to our middle schools to help tives and the other part goes to salaries. Ich is another parcel tax. All of that is just for our high schools to support the pathways in learning. And thenj we have measure in the past which is around facilities. So i think there is a tension point. I think piece just around the cost in the bay area leaving la aside and the bay area and how expensive it is, people are ound taxes. Hat addition cost but people are also seeing without having to variety in a Public School syem that that has effects on anybody when we think about having a strong democracy and when we think aboua wanting to have strong and thriving city. The financial problems of the district have been well documented. What have you been doing to address the things that were called out in the alameda mismanagement of funds, waste around contracts, and things like that . What are some of e ways that the Alameda County ial with officer that is with the district right now . Number one ki would say that decision i made to actually have a closer partnership with ucation, and actually, my three priorities were me coming into this role and being a t prod this district where i was the teacher when we first went into state receivership. Who had a teacher pink slip because we had a make massive cuts. I became a principal and had to lay off my class offive staff because we had to have a massive cut. So for me, the grand jury only substantiated what i was eeable toand experience actually on systemic issuesin the system yes. But one thing you can point to is an accomplishment. One is an increase in our reserve. When i took onover the posi we were at. 67 in our atreserv that is actually below what you are required to have as a district of our size. Your are supposed to have nia m of 2 . That is important because when you drop down below thmeyo minimum, its you are at risk of state takeover shippen at risk of running out of cash. Now we are at about 3. 5 , which feels like a lot when we think about the amount of money have overall, but it just means we are in a slightly better pl stablee. O super teed kyla Johnson Trammell. Thank you. For decades national geograic explorer and photographer has traveled the world documenting cultures and traditions in danger of disappearing. His latest book, mask, is a collmation of stunning images. You spent more than 30 years capturing these across six f continenm remote villages in new guinea to cedar forests in british columbia. He hopes his portraits not only help preserve mass rituals but also remind us of our shared connection with the world and the stories we tell about our place in it. Joining me now is photographer and author chris regnier. Thank you. How would you describe the power of masks . Ever since i traveled to neguinea about 30 years ago in the mid80s, i was transfixed by the power of the mass, mask and the Spiritual Energy of them. When these ancient traditional cultures put these masks on the becomes , something elthe spirit of the forest or the spirit of the land and the ocean. It is absolutely remarkable to see. So the minute i started seeing these remarkable mask rituals and dances starting first in new guinea, i knew i woead spend most of my life, the lire of my really following the tradition of the mask rituals around the world. It was amazing. What do these rituals tend to be about . Good question. Multiple purposes around the world, but i think the reoccurring thise that i contly see is a disability to be a part of an initiation ritual from childhood into adthood or adulthood into a warrior like status and not only for men and in many cultures women wear the masks asenwell. And also, the kind of connection and Spiritual Connection to the afterworld and to the other world d if there is a disease or a drought going on and they willput the masks on and the make some sort connection with the spirits of the forest, the im spirits and try to balance out the problems within their communities. What is the uimportance of seeing the masks whey are used . You photograph them being used, so how does that compare to them hanging a museum for example in the message sent to their . Precisely. I think that is crucial. Sks hanging in the great these museums here in San Francisco and new york and paris. But what that does is really kind of disconnect people from so my whole role was to go to these cultures. To see the dances and in the still photographs to evoke the sense of what it isand why it is here. It is very important for me when i set up otdoing a shoot is to scout the location, and the location speaks about that mask as much is the mask. So often i will use the moodess of clouds or sunsets in sunrise. That bit of information that surrounds the rmsk is crucial to the viewer in getting the essence and the sense of spirit. A museum can often send the message that it is something from long ago. What were some of the ntst remages you took . As ealy as this january, we were ar in europe, in and around christmas time. There is a wonderful festival that happens up in the high st mountains of a and switzerland, bavaria, eastern germany and atthe masks go and when chrity arrived d pagan and these pagan rituals as of if the children did not behave if the children had done poorly in school, these evil rusks woularound the village and sort of chase the kids and put the fearl the deinto them. And then slowly, ever so slowly, christianity came in and the whole concept of saint nick and father christmaauand santa came into being. But still in modern europe today, you have these festivals that are alive and thriving up in the mountains of europe. Were some of the hardest communities to gain the trust of . I imagine is a white man going s in trying to acsome of these rituals, there were some suspicions. Absolutely. I think each culture had its particular set of challenges, if you will. , but i think the thing for me is to have time and to build up a level of trust. There are many communits and a lot ofthe north American Communities and up in canada, and some of the , cultures in s lanka erand india, was an inherent and rioftly deserved senssuspicion. I needed to prove myself. I am fine with that. Oj many of these ts take 10, 15, 20 years. This one has taken 30 years. It is meet with the community and dont even brinmy camera. Meet them and express what im doing and maybe show them some of my otbooks and build up that level of trust, so with the native american community, it took five or 10 years of io yemmunic patient understanding, to get to the point where i said, okay, we are interested in talking, and especially with the community uin caalda up on t bay which is in the northern part of Vancouver Island on the west coast. We went. We met, and they agreed. Once ey agreed, then i was free to come into their incredible Cultural Center and work with them on picking the masks, taking them out of the center, and again putting them into context with the ocean in the forest how do you account for your o speak . What i mean is the cultural experiences that you have had that will inevitably influenc what you find that is worth photographing or publishing or even beautiful . Exactly. I grew up overseas and hmy fath a job where i lived in australia, africa, england. Especially when i was a young child, my father would go out ol into these ed areas of australia, working on the oil rigs so i was nging around with aborigine children at 6 to 10 years old. I began gan to realize the powe their voice, their traditions. Somewhere along the way, i knew i nted to be a photographer. I really committed myself to a lifetime of putting on ur traditional cu that are on the edge of something. Maybe it is a the end of their culture in the sense of many of the children are moving to the city, but i found that there tas a huge rezation going on. This burst of energy that so many of the younger generations uthe kia po in brazil, they wan to do the dances. They want their culture to be alive and well into the 21st century. My goal for masks is to show people who are interested in looking at it that these rituals are alive. They are not dying. They are indanger, but they are not dying. And there is a vibrancy and a huge burst of Cultural Energy goinaround on the edges of the frayed map of the world. That there are cultures out dathere still doing the e deep in the forest. Thank you. E. You are very welc you can ry meet chris and he more about his book, masks, tomorrow at 4 00 p. M. It book passage. Ssage. Com. Formation sit book that will do it for us. As always you can find more of our coverage at tran03enewsroo i am nina kim. Thank you for joining us. Usic] asbattle lines are drawn President Trump faces impeachment. Im robert costa. Welcome to washington week. The actions of the Trump Presidency rev rledishonorable fact of the president s betrayal, of his oath of office, betrayalf o National Security, and betrayal of the integrity o our eleleions. Therefore, today, im announcin the house of representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. A whistleblower c aplaint sparksction in the house. Under scrutiny,xchanges enbeeen President Trump and the president of ukraine. Did President Trump abuse his power . Republicans fight back. This phone calls a nothing in terms of a quid pro quo. The president of the United States remotely sugge to
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