pete:donald trump goes from political novice to commander-in-chief. can the ultimate outsider turn promises to make america great again into real policy? and what will it take to unite a nation?ivided plus, democrats must decide what their role will be as the minority party. i'm pete williams in for gwen tonight on "washington week." the transition begins. >> it is important for all of party, andess of regardless of political comerences, to now together. mr. trump: i very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future. pete: president-elect donald his agendas plotting knowing he'll have a congress led by republicans. >> donald trump heard a voice in this country that no one else heard. he turned politics on its head

will lead ald trump unified republican government. pete: and with the stroke of a can dismantle much of what president obama did through executive orders. courtthere's a supreme vacancy to fill. but overseas, the soon-to-be andident faces uncertainty skepticism from countries concerned about his foreign policy. democrats, their historic nominee conceded the race with a optimism. hope and secretary clinton: donald trump is going to be our president. we owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. left but the party is scrambling to find a new path and new leadership. discontentedw voters changed the way americans elect the president. with dan balz, chief correspondent for "the post," lisa lerer of press, michael crowley, senior foreign affairs correspondent for politico, and jacobs, national political reporter for bloomberg politics. >> award-winning reporting and

analysis. covering history as it happens. nation's capital. this is "washington week" with ifill. funding for "washington week" is by --ed we say, but is what we mean so much more. we mean, how can we help? mean, what can we do? turn to do ourur you for all you've done to serve us. >> additional funding is institute, the xq newman's own foundation, donating all profits from toman's own food products

charity and nourishing the common good. the ford foundation. ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. patricia yuen. thank you. once again, live from washington, sitting in for gwen week, pete williams of nbc news. trumpgood evening, donald came to washington this week surveying the swamp he promised was respectful, almost referrential, and the determined to stress a peaceful transition of power. it was a welcome tone after a bitter campaign. show his victory was fueled by older, whiter, middle byss voters who felt ignored the government and left behind by the economic recovery. ironically, it was a billionaire

at hisked that anger rallies but his acceptance speech was about healing. mr. trump: now it's time for america to bind the wounds of division. we have to get together. to all republicans and democrats independents across this usion, i say, it is time for to come together as one united people. pete: dan, very few people seem to see donald trump's victory coming. what fueled it? it in theentioned opening. this was an angry electorate elected donald trump on tuesday night. these are people who are fed up with washington. they're very discouraged at where they fit into the new economy and the future for not only themselves but for their children. they are uneasy with a lot of culturalraphic and changes in this country. they're uneasy with the direction that's going. pete, this is a group of people who have lost

political,ith in the economic and media establishments in this country. they stopped listening to that country and they lvend -- listened to donald trump. they believed donald trump understood them and that he would be their voice in washington. people -- they were there certainly four years ago. is it just that he reached out has?em and nobody else dan: nobody else has been able to tap into it the way he has. populace message, make america great again. you can take that in a a variety of meanings. talked about immigration and terrorism in ways they responded otherh more than candidates have been able to do. and they turned out particularly in those northern industrial states -- ohio, pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin -- in numbers that no one had anticipated. pete: lisa, at one point hillary clinton called donald trump's a basket of deplorables. how damaging was that to her? much deplorables as ignorables. she didn't fight for those

voters. time she was in wisconsin was in april. she really only went to michigan the campaign. her campaign banked on the fact that they could get the obama coalition, young voters, female voters, minority voters, to turn out for her. clinton, it turns out, is not barack obama. she couldn't motivate those supporters in the same number and she wasn't making outreach to white, working class voters were fueling trump so she wasn't fighting for them and in the end that hurt her. she didn't have women to make up the gap? lisa: women did not turn out in campaignrs that her expected, particularly women bute educated she wasn't making the argument for them, she wasn't going to places to make that fight. they didn't see the battleground map. they weren't calculating wisconsin and michigan in their plans until very late so it was a complete shock. irony is that these are the people that fueled bill clinton

to victory twice. are his voters, people he understood and throughout the campaign he was arguing to her campaign staff, we need to go to wisconsin, we need to go to michigan and they said, no, no, anymore,t how it works we're ok, we don't need to go to turns out heand it was right. pete: did trump's only people coming? were there people in the back room that saw it coming? conway, you asked kelly she was tweeting if he did lose, trump was grooming people to was ae if he lost it rigged election and some of the staff were telling me on the very last day, that final push, were on trump's jet between the last rally in new hampshire and the final rally in michigan, they were debating about what are his chances for winning and somebody said 40%. them said like 75% and believers very true said 100%. so even amongst his staff, they weren't certain. but yes, there were analysts.

there were data analysts within the trump campaign who were seeing rumblings of this, predicting a different one, even, but no trump, believed this was the way it would turn out. pete: did donald trump set out to appeal to these people that ended up voting for him? or was it a coincidence of the way he talked, they flocked on him? >> when donald trump started campaign, i don't think he had a sophisticated sense of this group versus that group. but that immigration message, he and the trade message is something that's been long,f his belief for a long time, so in a sense, he was in touch with that group of people. probablye was surprised early on at the response he was getting and then he figured out how to expand it. pete: there's been a different kind of response the past few nights because every night since election, thousands of people have turned out in the streets in at least 10 cities

expressst to coast to their frustration with donald trump's victory and their anxiety about what's to come. are these protests signaling to the rest of the world about stability and democracy? michael: i think america's --ies, liberal western democracies, are gratified to see this. france, germany, and can't believe trump won they don't want to think america has such power of the world so see dissent. to russia,s rivals, china, are delighted. they like to see america chaos, riven by finding having trouble a way forward. we can talk about uncertainty in our foreign policy. pete, i'lloader way, add, i know for a while senior

officials in the obama administration have been concerned it seems as though america democracy isn't working. the stalemate between the president and congress and this contributes to the idea on some level doesn't work, which is an argument that authoritarians beend the world have making, the vladimir putins of world, saying democracy is not a good system, it's leading to instability, come to our way things. it's a setback for america around the world. pete: donald trump ended up these protests. he had one tweet that came out the night of the protests and another the next day. in first tweet, he said they looked like professional people were riling them up and that's not fair. and then in the next tweet, he said it's good to see that we have this democracy where people get to express their views. does this tell us anything about we're going trump to have in the oval office, it?h donald trump is >> i think that's still an open question. we've seen a more subdued donald

trump. he looked sobered, frankly, sitting next to president obama and having office gotten 90 minutes of what he's about to run into. but i don't think we know. and everything about donald trump throughout the campaign was that he reverts back to a style and personality, particularly when he's under pressure or particularly when he's criticized. he's in the glow of winning right now but we don't know what happens when he runs into a crisis. been fascinating in the past 48, 72 hours, to see him ofe on some of the mainstays his campaign. the iran deal which he promised to eliminate right away. now he's going to re-examine it. one of his foreign policy guys as saying he's softening a little bit on healthcare although he did always say he would keep for people with pre-existing conditions. he's saying, well, i talked to know,ent obama, i don't maybe we got to figure out a way with this thing. the wall, you know, newt gingrich out there saying, well, he's not -- maybe the mexico

the wall.ly pay for i think it was a really good campaign device. so on these big, big promises, mainstays of his campaign, you now see a little bit of waffling his team that could put him in trouble with his supporters. positionsways changed indiscriminately. do you think it will affect his supporters? justifies keeping parts of obamacare in place, even if they're separate and he trump care and says there are provisions similar to obamacare but different, trump can justify just about anything and it seems his supporters it.d be ok with pete: whatever he wants to do, he needs the support of congress and like president obama, he partynter office with his in the majority in the house and senate. that's a boost for that top repealing obamacare. thatt's just stipulate every single republican thought mistake, without exception. that's still our view. and you can expect us, with a

new president who has the same view, to address that issue. >> if we're going to repeal and to replace ited with something that doesn't take healthcare away or insurance people.m 20 million pete: see, lisa, can -- whether to -- but cans donald trump repeal obamacare? lisa: he can repeal it. throughe to go congress. there's mechanisms there. the question is what does he with?e it republicans haven't had a replace plan for six years or more. forward a't put comprehensive plan and the problem with obamacare is you can't keep the things everybody likes -- pre-existing conditions, allowing children on until they're 25 -- without the individual mandate to pay for the whole thing. that's how it's structured. the same tricky spot, republicans are, that they were isore the election, which how do you keep the things you like and get of the things you don't? pete: after meeting with the president, he said i want to keep parts of obamacare.

has that always been his position during the campaign? >> yeah, he said in the early primary that he having people of pre-existingg conditions and he didn't want to have a gap, once repealing obamacare, he didn't want to a gap where people were uninsured so he has been saying that for a while. needs the support of mitch mcconnell and paul ryan, that were cool to his candidacy? what is it now? forgive and forget? paul ryan said their meeting was very good, they're excited to work together. if trump chooses steve banninad his chief of staff, possibility, that would be a big signal. steve bannen, of course, of breitbart fame, there is friction between him and paul ryan, i think that would send a trump is giving a nod to forces of division that

establishment republicans are very fond of. but i talked to someone of the staff and i said what was he privately after he left these meetings with obama and mcconnell and ryan and he he didn't gossip, he didn't dish. he didn't say anything sarcastic. he was respectful. >> it's hard to see this being an easy relationship given what went on in the campaign. you're paul ryan, when things get tough, as they always do, in politics in washington, you got to wonder if you're going to be the first theon trump throws under bus when he gets a chance so i think it's a fraught dynamic. have to the democrats decide what their role will be as the minority party. they don't have any of the major government. how are they going to sort that out? who's going to be in charge? really good really, question. well, of course, in the senate, it looks likely that chuck be the top democrat there but there a soul searching divide happening right now in democratic party where you see bernie sanders of the world, the elizabeth warrens of the

party diding what the wrong here was, they didn't embrace a populace enough that hillary clinton leaned too far the wall street side of the party. chuck schumer represents new york, the wall street side of the party. tensionswill be figuring out the best way forward and how to recover from the loss. shock.ts are just in everyone i've talked to this week has been totally dumbfounded. not even in a place, most people, where they can discuss moving forward. a mourning period. >> i think an interesting question will be what does the most popular democrat in america do at this point, it's barack obama, who probably could have been re-elected. leave as when you president, you let other people run the show but trump is such case, the party has such an extreme leadership crisis, will we see barack who plans to stay in washington, d.c., maintain a voice and try to keep a profile the publicrole in conversation? >> of course it's his legacy underill be totally

siege. pete: how much do numbers count in the senate? the republicans don't have much of a majority? will the democrats have -- will they have to deal with the passed?s to get things dan: generally you still need 60 votes for most things, particularly legislative things they'll have to figure out a way to do that so they'll have to -- they'll have to work with and trys, if possible, to pick some off. there are a lot of democrats who are going to be up for beelection in 2018 who will vulnerable and they'll be thinking about their own futures. once young is as easy get into it as is seems now. gleeful theyns are now have control of the government but we've seen in the particularly when they're in washington, that republicans trouble governing because what do they do with the federal government? most of what they've done is say we want to run against it, we want to tear it down, they want obamacare but what do they replace it with? what do they do about spending?

he came out, when on election night, the one thing he really talked about was a big to putructure program millions of people to work. that's an old-fashioned democratic idea. tohow are they going reconcile that with paul ryan's old budgets? pete: and how do they pay for it while cutting taxes? the republicans in the congress when obama was president basically had a strategy of trying to stop wanted to do. is that what the democrats will do with donald trump? >> i certainly don't -- they've they want to try to work with him where they can but it's hard to see that happening. think after -- they ran so strongly against him and i think was still suspect, as dan alluding to, there might be divides within the republican exploited inuld be in way but at the same time if he does a big infrastructure bill, that's a democratic idea. so how do they -- pete: hillary clinton proposed something similar? >> similar, not as much spending but similar.

topsy turvy election we were in. pete: i read that somewhere. >> it's going to be really interesting to see if they work with republicans at all or if they try to be totally in opposition. pete: one of the surprising things that came out after the statements from russia's deputy foreign minister and spokesman from vladimir said each week that they had been in contact with members of donald trump's something the trump campaign insists never happened. but the disclosure raises questions about trump's relationship with putin and the kremlin's role in the election. trump havees donald a foreign policy? michael: not yet. all eagerly awaiting -- waiting to find out it willwill be and what look like. i do think, so, he has said things that are ambiguous and contradictory about what he would do on foreign policy. there are some consistent pete, and i think one of the main ones -- this was his

slogan, america first. is not interested in adventurism. he is not particularly interested in our alliances and spending a lot of money on flexing military muscle and involved in conflicts around the world. i think we're going to see a ofhdrawal, a shrinkage american power. that may be something that a lot of americans are happy about. in the case of russia, for if there's one -- maybe two main threats -- throughthat have run his campaign, one was to try to get rid of the iran nuclear and the other was that we would get along with russia. in the latter case, that would de-escalating and shrinking our posture, for instance, in andern europe and syria ceding some of that strategic global terrain to russia. americans might be happy about that. a lot of strategic thinkers america has an obligation to maintain a bigger role in the world. pete: you mentioned the iran nuclear deal. is that something the president by himself can nix?

michael: it's not that simple. remember, that was a deal among five nations and iran so it china, great britain, russia, the united states and france and ended with a security council resolution. there is some debate about would internationalg law if we tore up the deal and us. would it mean for there are things iran could do a response to that, that span variety of scenarios, including split us, playe, us against europe, or cut ideals russia and china so it's not as easy as with a stroke of a dead,e iran deal is iran's nuclear program starts again. i think that's true of a lot of has saids that trump about foreign policy on the campaign trail. implementation, they're more complicated than he said they were and we don't know he'll followthrough on and if he tries, whether he'll be

able to and how it will play out. we've almost never seen ambiguity like this on foreign policy. pete: things happen that he'll have to respond to. i'm wondering about syria. he have to make big decisions about what we'll do there? michael: sure, but that's an example about american engagement around the world. beingot interested in us a party in the syrian civil war. he does not share the obama weinistration's view that need a change of regime in vera. syria. he will probably stop our program of arming syrian rebel fighters. do is knock out isis and he says he'll partner with russia to do it but i think we'll bethat increasingly engaged in a covert trying tog rebels, shape the future of a syrian government, is probably over at this point. pete: he has 70 days to pick the numbers of his cabinet, his closest aides and put together the people running the thousands of political positions. names floated so far for some of

someop positions include outsiders, people from the business world, but also figures washington including newt gingrich, former house speaker, and ben carson, of his opponents in the primary. jennifer, what does this tell us anut whether he'll be unconventional president? jennifer: i think he can choose unpopular people but if he chooses people who have been part of d.c. for a think he can justify anything. for the transition team, he who were his allies, people who stuck with him and he's signaling a little bit about who he'll have surrounding him. andill be people he trusts believes he can lean on but donald trump has always been willing, if you act respectful come forward, if you've had disagreements in the past, and you come forward and shake hands again, he's willing to forgive and forget. he always has been. you what it ask means that chris christie was running the transition and was

demoted. he's got his vice president-elect in. what does that mean? dan: it's a clear demotion for governor christie and the entirely clear. donald trump's son-in-law is not a big fan of governor christie and we know there was unhappiness about the basically ofically -- basic outlines what they were doing but we saw this in the campaign. different campaign operations over the course of six or seven months and this may be another sign that the administration will be the same way. pete: thank you all very much. definitely to be conditioned. for now. our conversation tonight online on the washington week extra where we'll tell you about a woman who made presidential history on election night. from the "washington week" at anotherok back presidential election when voters were dissatisfied, demanded change and got it. can find it later tonight and all week long at

pbs.org/washingtonweek. don't look just yet. while you're on the site, check out what a transition of power means.y we'll take a moment to salute all the veterans and their onilies for their service veterans day. thank you. i'm pete williams in for gwen ifill. good night. funding for "washington week" is provided by -- xq institute.

>> additional funding is provided by boeing, newman's own's foundation, donating all own foodrom newman's products to charity and goodshing the common ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. foundation. koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by to your pbss station from viewers like you. thank you.

mche h . hello and welcome to kqed "news room." coming up on our program, california voters weighed in on a host of issues including education, marijuana and the death penalty. we'll analyze the winners and losers. also, political and racial themes have long been part of the arts. we'll look at how they're playing out in the bay area arts scene. plus, nfl hall of famer steve young talks about successes and challenges, both personal and professional. but first, thousands of high school and college students have been staging walk outs and protests reflecting similar demonstrations nationwide in the wake of donald trump's presidential victory. mr. trump and president obama held their first face-to-face meeting this week. both are calling for unity. it is unclear when that will