Democratic Presidential Race and Impeachment Update
This week, House Democrats continued to press ahead with their impeachment inquiry against President Trump. They interviewed several key witnesses about the president’s efforts to persuade Ukraine’s leader to open a corruption investigation against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Meanwhile, 12 candidates faced off for the latest Democratic presidential debate, held on Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio. Reflecting her surge in the polls and front-runner status, this time it was Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren fending off attacks from her rivals, especially over her support for Medicare for All. She refused to say whether she would raise taxes on the middle class to pay for her health care overhaul, while also trying to broaden her appeal beyond her progressive base and mounting criticism from moderates like Joe Biden and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Guests:
- Scott Shafer, KQED senior politics and government editor
- Tal Kopan, Washington, D.C. correspondent, San Francisco Chronicle
Congressman Ro Khanna
Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna serves on two House committees, including the Oversight and Reform Committee, which deposed several current and former White House and State Department officials this week, including Gordon Sondland and Fiona Hill. The top Russia adviser to the White House before she resigned in July, Hill reportedly told investigators that Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, posed a potential national security risk because of his lack of diplomatic experience. On Thursday, the president’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, suggested during a press conference that nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine was held up to pressure the nation to open investigations into Democrats.
Guest:
- U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Santa Clara
Deadline Looms for PG&E Wildfire Claims as Fallout Continues over Outages
Survivors of recent California wildfires linked to PG&E’s equipment have until Monday to file liability claims for their losses. Also, the state’s top utility regulator is holding an emergency meeting Friday about the widely criticized massive power shutoffs last week that left more than 700,000 PG&E customers without power. On Thursday, the California Senate announced that it will investigate the utility’s power shutoff while Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week that “Californians should not pay the price for decades of PG&E’s greed and neglect,”and called on the company to issue a $100 refund or rebate to customers affected by last week’s outages.