His son. Meanwhile, on tuesday, 12 candidate squared off in a democratic residential debate, held in ohio. Reflecting her surge in the polls, this time it was Elizabeth Warren facing a tax from her rivals. Especiallyover her support for medicare for all. She refused say ifshe would raise taxes on the middle class, to pay for it. Joining me now, Senior Editor for politics and t government, scaver. Joining sh via skype from the nations capital, is tall coping, the washington correspondent for the San Francisco chronicle. Welcome to you both. Thank you. Lets start with you, scott. You were in washington this week and you spoke with several members of californias congressional delegation, several of them are players in this impeachment u quiry, what did learn . Adamis of course leading the charge along with nancy pelosi, and he is the chair of committee, a we with him after a long meeting he had with the speaker. He has become the rget of republicans and the president in particular. Who are claiming they are attacking the process could not so much defendwhat the president did on that phone call with the president of ukraine. They are saying this is an unfair illegitimate process. In terms there was no houseboat on this. This is all happening behind closed doors and what adam schiff described, is what exactly is happening behind closed doors. In his telling of it anyway, the democrats on the panel, get an hour of questioning of these wiicesses and the repus get an hour and they go back and forth like that for hours on end. According to adam schiff, esl the ons they want to ask can be asked of these witnesss. So in his telling, it is a very fair process, it will become public once this portion of the behind closed doors part is finished. There will be, transcripts released, testimony, some of these witnesses may come back for public hearings. To you in washington, republicans of cose want to force a vote against intelligence share, adam schiff, what are the grounds for justifying such a vote . Reporter procedurally, if enough of them sign a petitifo, they can e a vote. We expected to fail the democrats will vote to table it and move on. The point repuicans are guing, is that they say that adam schiff isngnot conduc this fairly as scott was mentioning. They have taken issue with some of his statements em for exampl he t s gone by the fact checkers. He made a comment saying no one had spoken with the whistleblower essentially and we found out later, that in fact the whistleblower had goproached his staff and the advice to go ahead and move forward with the whistleblower complaint which is the proper procedure, but hehad made is comment srt of saying that hadnt occurred. They also take issue with this sort of purity of the phone call that he read as an opening statement, in int hearing, over the whistleblower. He made very clear that he was not knyou , verbatim recounting the president s words. But, they are hitting him for it and they are repeating the president shilanguage accusing of lying and that type of thing. Another Big Development this week was the meeting between President Trump and speaker nancy pelosi, this was the first time they had met in months anended in explosive fashion, you had nancy saying that with trump, all roads lead to putin. What you make of that . That is a pretty remarkable thing for her to say to the yopresident s face. Know, we have heard her say it in press conferences, but she is a woman who respects the political process, she has worked with multiple president s as a leader her party. She is generally very respectful of the office, and so for her to sort of take that shot the president in that meeting, i think is a bit of escalation reof the tionship you see between the two of them, but we also hear from democrats that the president was insulting her fato her and calling her a third rate politician or a third grade politician. You know, so clearly for a while, there seems to be a Mutual Respect between thtwo them at least for the as we move forward with this impeachment inquiry, that seemsy to be g quite a bit more than even we have seen in the past. Well, scott, you had an portunity to sit down with one of the freshmen democrats, who is in a purple district. Katie porter of irvine, she has certainly made a splash in the last year,since she t to washington, but i have to ask, what doeshe tell you out how this impeachment and her support for this inquiry, has affected he chances of winning. Is she worried . I dont think she is worried at all. She first of all was one of the very first freshman to come in support of impeachment inquiries. So, i dont think that, she is an attorney, she taught law. I think she understands the process and the implications of everything pretty well. Lot of these freshmen also, they are not necessarily career politicians. They didnt necessarily run foec officese they wanted to make a career out of it. So the prospect of not getting reelected is not that troubling to some of them. I think stkatie porter feels this is the right thing to do. Her district alth gh yes it was held by a republi she defeated, Orange County is not a particularly friendly place to donald trump either. I think she els confident and comfortable being supported of the inquiry as it goes forward. Lets also talk about this house resolution, on syria. On the u. S. Withdraw from syria , obviously spearheaded by President Trump. Ha yotremendous republican support for that resolution, bipartisan effort here. Are we starting to see the tide turned in terms reof blican support and backing for President Trump . I am not sure how ch you can extrapolate from this part ular vote. Republicans being willing to vote with democrats is on some of these military issues. So, we do see a rebuke the president s Foreign Policy and military moves, especialar in this i think this has been one of the strongest reviews of that to itdate. Arkens back to what we saw in terms of saudi arabia support for this campaign and a yemen that is causing widespread famine and mass casualties. That was another instance where we saw this, but you have members like Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senator, very close with the president. Very vocally against his moves to withdraw from syria and allow this turkish invasion. The next day gohe is g to go back to defending the president on everything else. I dont know that you are seeing a flooof republicans off the sidelines, but certainly on this issue, and perhaps broader Foreign Policy issues. They are not afraid to rebuke the president in this way. Well, lets turn now to the democratic debate this week. In ohio, and scott we had Elizabeth Warren sort of with a target on back during that debate. Should she feel threatened by that, or flattered . I dont think she is threatened by it. She is the target because she appears to be the front runner or at least with joe biden, the cofront runner at this point. So, she probably was exlocting of incoming and she got it. I think by and large, she held a etty well. She did have some trouble around the question of how is she going to fund hemedicare for all. And whether there would be a middleclass tax increaseto fund that. Teeth in particular i think did a pretty good job of pushing her on that. We didnt hearlot from harris. She made a point about not talking, why are we talking about womens Reproductive Health as well. But by and large, you can see this field narrowing, in terms of who is getting attention, w much time ththey have during the debate, and is pretty much coming down to biden, sanders, warren, pete, to a certain extent and some harris, but all these others you know t have to there time in and it just alludes the whole process. I think it is hard for viewers and ters to reallyu know, take the full measure of these candidates. How do you think Elizabeth Warren did . What we saw on that debate , stage was a passing of the mantle so to speak of the front sarunner status. Weher front and center, taking incoming from several candidates, i mean you saw those candidates who are pulling in the single digits, you know, it is biden warren and nders and a big gap between the rest of the field. Every single one of them came in knowing they would have in do someto change their fate, and several of them decided that something was going to be going after Elizabeth Warren you know, dishe handle every attack perfectl . Maybe not. Did she show that she is capable of withstanding some onslaught . Which arguably, if you are auditioning for the role g of go against donald trump, you have to be able to take some onslaught. And took it. She stood up there i think, i dont think we will see anything in the polls that fundamentally shifts the trajectory of ecthisrace, which right now has her picking up steam against all her rivals. Scott, we have to talk about harris, and she has definitely seen her stfall, but interesting see biden faltering as well th couple of weeks. How might she be a plan b for some of his space . Well, fojoe biden,his firewall has been African American voters. Epecially in places like South Carolina and other state in e south. So the question is if biden continues to drop where do those votes go . Migh they go toharris . Or cory booker, the two African Americans in the race . Or could they go to warren . I think those votes will up for grabs. We are going to see that dynamic play out in the next few weeks. Scott shafer, our politics editor here, thank you both so much. Thank you. Thank you. Us three hoe committees are spearheading the impeachment investigation into President Trump. One of them, the oversight and reform committee, to post several current and for Trump Administration officials this week. Meanwhile on thursday, nicole veiny the president acting tachief of, suggested at a press conference thats nearly m 4lion in military aid to ukraine, was held up, to pressure ukraine to investigate democrs. Hours later, mulvaney tried to walk those samments back, ng there was no quid pro quo for the release of the eight. With us now is silicon n,valley congress ro khanna. He serves on the reform committee, and the Armed Services committee. Thank you for being sshere congreman. Thank you for having me on. I want to begin by asking conference yesterday,which ress ce suggested that there was in fact a quid pro quo with ukraine , what is your reaction to that and how does that impact the impeachment inquiry . It was shocking to have the white house chief staff admitting that the united from ukraine to advance the id president s personal agenda. I mean the president is asking ukraine to investigate a conspiracy theory, that ukraine somehow allegedly help the Democratic Party win elections in 2016. That is absurd. It has been deb yet the president is tying our aide asking ukraine to do that. Is wrong. It is further eviden of the abuse of office of this administration. Are you planning to callva mister my as a witness . We certainly will. I dont know if he will testify or cooperate, but at this point you know we dont need that many more witnesses. We have the chief of staff admit to quid pro quo on television. The president of thunited dates bragged about asking ukraine and china to investigate joe biden and hunter biden. At this point, there really is no factual dispute. Administration did and the ar question is,we going to uphold the Constitutional Values or not . Congressman, of all the testimony that you heard this week, what was the single most important thing that we learnedw in your re based on the public reporting of the testimony, i would say the most disturbing part is how this president outsourced foreignpolicy to his personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, for his personal benefit. I mean this was not Foreign Policy being conducted by john bolton or mike pompeo or ambassadors. This was rudy giuli his own interest and the president s personal interest to win reelection, with ukraine. That is just, every american, i dont care about your party should be appalled that a personal lawyer to the president is representing the United States of america in Foreign Policy matters. What does the timeline at this point, look like in your review, when it mes to impeachment . On a vote to impeach. Does thanksgiving seem like n isthe ballpark at this point . I think it is. We n d to get itdone before the end of the year. Like i said, most of the th evidence ie. We need to move expeditiously edd then we also to focus on the work. I mean i have been focused on the bay area and expanding transportation and making sure that we have investments in infrastructure and jobs. Obviously i have held this president accountable but i also want to be focused on the v work to imour district and peoples lives. Pe lets turn to syria now and the trum administrations withdrawal of there, in the past week we have seen kurds displace. With turkey annexing parts of syria, the cokurds of se have been one of americas key allies in the battle against islamic state, yesterday Vice President mike pence announced that turkey had agreed toa temporary ceasefire, so congressman, i want to ask you, does that ceasefire do anything in terms of undoing the damage done in this e very fraggion . Unfortunately it doesnt. It is not a ceasefire turkeyit is describingas a pause. Obviously it this good the violence has stopped but the question is what is going to happen to the 1. 7 million kurds . The president is saying they will flee. That is unacceptable. They have a vibrant society in northern syria, we cant just have a mass exos and then what hapvens after the days . Does turkey go back in and start killing women and children and civilians again . What we need is far more pressure on turkey, to come up wint a permanent commit not to invade that region. We have to note here congressman that in april, you and kentucky senator, n, sent a letter to the president , supporting his cision to bring u. S. Troops home from syria, you urge the completion of thatdr wial, over a six month timeline. That was exactly 6 months ago. I did, but i called for a d responsible withdrawal i said lets make sure that we have diplomacat we have a deal with him, so that we dont have an invasion. Lets make sure that we secure the kurds, and secure the regional interest. The esident do did not do any of that turkey did not even inform the allies. He did not inform the kurds. He did not inform his ow administration in parts and he basically ceded to him. So i do think a responsible withdrawal is ssible. It still my position, but not without diplomacy. Do you ha any regret about sending that letter now, because you are right, that you did call for s orderly proc but this happened almost exactly on the timeline that you had asked for. No i have no regreti gret that we dont have a competent foreignpolicy. That we dont have people like richd or georgie wouldve been able to do this. I have no doubt if Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders or any competent democrat was prent they would able to withdraw all troops and make sure we diplomacy. The effect of i want to ask you reout the lution passed in the house of representatives on monday on a 35460 vote, this is a rebuke. No doubt about ofit the president s withdraw from syria. Are you surprised by the bipartisanupport on this issue . I am not. Ha yoprogressives like me supported, even though we withdrewe we believe that ndouts to turkey and allowing for the slaughter of the kurds was irresponsible. You have conservatives who believe we should up standing with our kurdish allies and not allow for isis, so the one in congress, is whatever ideological perspective you come from, that this has been incompetent. It has been a colos that is costing people their lives. Rissman, we know on thursday that t presidump has chosen his owresort, one of his resorts in florida as the location of the next g7, next year. Can we get your reactionto that . It is shocking. I mean i dont understand how this president becan selling his own business as a ace to conduct official policy. It is a violation of the clausehe says it is not about m so i said, i tweeted out, i said if it is not about money, why does he offer these places for free. Why is he having the taxpayers reimburse him, his private businesses, for the spaces. Is there anything that congress can do to stop th . We are calling for investigations and we are saying he is violating the clause but how many things can we investigate . We are focused on the biggest anhaving a process of the articles of impeachment. Lets turn to the passage, the death of your good friend, representative, Elijah Cummings, you served together on the House Oversight committee. How is his death being received it washington . Is an enormous loss. I would describe him more as a mentor and a friend. I had the honoof serving th him for about a year on the oversight committee. He is the son sharecroppers, a man who had a booming presence, a moral authority. That very few others in co ress have. I think of people li lewis and Elijah Cummings as having had the moral weight, moral conscience of congress, he wont be replaceable. But, wefrcan learn his wisdom, his sense of fairness to both sides. His sense of commitment to civil rights, to rights of immigrants. And i just fe blesseand privileged to have learned from himand served on his committee for a year. Our condolences to you and your colleagues there in washington. Congressman ro khanna, thank you so much. Thank you, it is always a pleasure. Survivors of rernnt cali wildfires linked to pg es equipment have until monday to file liability claims for their losses. Also the states top utility in regulator, is hog an emergency meeting today with pg e executives about crthe widelyicized Power Outages last week. That left hundreds of omousands of custs without wipower. Governor gavin, is demanding accountability, saying liis week that rnians should decades of pg es grd for neglect. Joining me now to talk about this is law professor, jared, from Uc Hastings College of the law. Thanks for being re. X for having me. There is this deadline on monday, and before we get started i want to put up the website for folks who do want ms to file clwho havent. It is pg wildfire info. Com. I think it is really interesting that if you dont get your claim in by this monday, you basically forfeit your claim, so my first question to you, is why does t this deadline ext in the first place . That is a great question. So, when you ink about Bankruptcy Law, it is easy to focus on especially in this caseimthe wildfire vi whose lives were upended by fires that had been attributed to pg e agreement. But the company itself need finality, and ey need to be able to move through the bankruptcy process and the judge needs to know just exactly what is it sitting in front of him, and because of that Bankruptcy Law has ththe harsh rules whe it is harsh, if you dont file a claim by 5 pm on monday, you are more than likely forfeiting any rights anything from pg e. T for any damages that you suffered. And to the extent that you were haed by pg e related fires and you dont file a clai youre goin be out of luck. Even if the person who lived next door to you who did file a claim and alsuffered damages gets a huge payment on account of it. You really do need to file a that date. We know that tens of thousands of people have filed claims, but there could be tens of thousands of people who havent yet. Im really surprised by that figure. It might be as much as haof those out there who still havent done so. Why do you think that is . That is a great question. You are hearing in a couper of dit stories from the it. Le who have been looking at onibility is there is just misinformation going around and people dont understand they need to file a claim. The company has done a really great job i think in advertising that you need to do it. L is a leform. It is intimidating. This is a process people are familiar with. I can understand how you would look at this and say i am not sure what to do. It another possibis people might think if they file a claim, they have to know exactly how much they are owed. Proof that thisis the number. Actually the company has done something great which is you can just check a box on aye formg you are not sure how much you know and you can amend the form later, once you learn more out what yo damages are. There is no real reason not to file a claim, you just have to put your name on it, explain can check the box saying i am not sure, and later you can figure it out and amenit. You need to do by 5 pm monday. There are a lot of misconceptions. Touched on some of them just now. One of the questions i have heard is do i need a lawyer to do this . What do you tell people . Lawyer in life. Helpful have i say that as a lawyer. But it is always helpful to have a lawyer to help you with things. But, you dont need a lawyer to help you with this form. You just need to go online and u fill it it is great if you have a lawyer and is also great if you consult with a lawyer while you lling it out yourself. If you dont have time to do that between now and monday, fill out the form and work with a lawyer lar to amenit and fix any mistakes you might have made. We should note the sh liabilities from these wildfires are the primary reason that pg e cited when they entered into bankruptcy pr the end of january. Today, we have the state regulator, the California Public utilities commission, calling executives from pg e and. We are talking about the ceo, also the chairwom the board and a number of executives as well. I just wonder, homuch of this is going to influence the bankruptcy process. What they are talking about today, is these oucontroversial poweges from last week. Do you think this could influence the bankruptcy proceedings, that conversation we hear today . Absolutely. A but, in subtle way. So, the bankruptcy judge, is a very experienced judge. He has been doing this for over 30 years. He really good atpaying a bankruptcy judge. You have this incredibly your court room and they need help. They are under siege from the press, under siege from the pu ic of california. The state gov regulator. All of this kind of adds upto a landscape for dgthe where i need to do something, to help move this company on, so we can focus on these bigger challenges that it faces. You know, the fire conditions and the shutoffs, like these are not things that thjudge or the bankruptcy can fix. These are things that the company is going to have to work througthlater. K it sort of shows thin grand scheme of things how unimportant in some ways, this bankruptcy process is for pg es future. It is real important for e fire victims that happened in the past, but this Company Wants at least reps he. It is not li it will be rainbows and unicorns and all of their problems are coming to an end. This is a really tough situation. Why should ratepayers Pay Attention to this. I think a lot of us are wondering at the end of the day, are the rates going to up . Ratepayers should Pay Attention to this. As a pg e ratepayer myself, i certainly think about it in that sense. And what will probab happen, is your rates are not going to go up ght away after the bankruptcy. But, after this ends, you know, the problems that pg e has, will continue to force rates up and up and up, you would assume overtime, absence and dramatice change in cost of doing business which only seems like it is going up. If you are a caratepayer you cover your eyes and hope that ey nothing bad happens. But it is not thisbankruptcy that will force rates up in the future. It is all of the business problems, that pg e faces. Problems that the governor and other state officials were saying were years in the making were the product of neglect and choices made by the company. Help us contextualize this bankruptcy in the grand scheme, this is the biggest utility bankruptcy thatthis company how unique is this case . S this to be you know, i was a professor and i was a nk ptcy lawyer. This has to be, if not the most unique bankruptcy that we have seen, it is one of them. We have seena lot of companies that have very unique cases like general motors, that was very unique in 2009. You know the city of detroit had a unique case. This is unusual. It is unusual in that the bankruptcy judge really doesnt have the poweto solve l the problems that pg e has. Like there is a sort of powerlessness of the bankruptcy system over this company. That just makes this real strange. Okay, well jared elias, professor at Uc Hastings College of the law. Think you. Thank you for having me pierced the act that will do it for us as always you can find more of our coverage at kqed. Org newsroom. I am lily, thank you for joining us. Robert the Trump White House confronts impeachment threats, and a syria showdown. Turkey and the united stat of america have agree to a sanctuary city ceasefire in syria. Robert but was it a ceasefire . Wt we have done the kurds will stand as a blood stain inn in the annals of american history. Robe explosive testimony in thimpeachment inquiry. And the white house scrambles to deny a quid pro quo. Withholding milityil aid to ukraine. We do that all the time with Foreign Policy. I have news for everybody, getbo over it. Robert next. Announcer this is washington week. Funding is provided by