Rose the president makes his move on Immigration Reform, analysis by add sheer and karen tumulty, and remembering mike nichols. Rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by the following rose additional funding provided by and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose we again with president obamas announcement on immigration in a primetime speech, he disclosed plans to shield undocumented immigrants from deportation. First well build with considerable resources, so they can stem the flow of illegal crossings and stem the speed of those who do cross over. Second, im make it easier and faster for highskilled immigrants, graduates, and entrepreneurs to stay and contribute to our economy as so many Business Leaders have proposed. Third, well take steps to deal responsibly with the millions of undocumented immigrants who already live in our country. I want to say most about the third issue. Especially those who may be dangerous. Thats why over the past six years, deportations of criminals are up 80 . And thats why were going to keep focusing enforcement resources on actual threats to our security. Felons not families. Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mom whos working hard to provide for her kids. Well prioritize, just like Law Enforcement does every day. Millions of immigrant in every state and every race and nationality. Im being straight with you. Its also not who we are as americans. The actions im taking are not only lawful. Theatre kinds of actions taken by every single republican president and every single democratic president for the past half century. To those members of congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question of wisdom of me act when congress has failed, i have one answer pass a bill. I want to work with both parties to pass a more permanent legislative solution. And the day i sign that bill into law, the actions i take will no longer be necessary. Meanwhile, dont let a disagreement over a single issue be a deal breaker on every issue. Thats not how our democracy works, and Congress Certainly shouldnt shut down our government again just because we disagree on this. Americans are tired of gridlock. What our country needs from us right now say common purpose. Rose there are an estimated 11 Million Immigrants living illegally in the United States. Both parties agree that the nations immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed. The question is how. The president s plan has come under sharp criticism from republicans who accuse him of going beyond his executive authority. Joining me now from washington are two reporters who have been covering the story in recent days. Michael shear is the White House Correspondent for the new york times. Karen tumulty is the National Political correspondent for the washington post. I am pleased to have both of them on this program. I note that we taped this conversation before the president spoke but with much anticipation and advisement as to what he is going to say and why he is saying it at this time. I begin with michael shear. Michael, just set this up forinous terms of the context of Immigration Reform coming out of the election, what happened before the election, and the intent of the president and republicans to do something. So i think that the thing to understand here is how far the president has traveled in terms of changing the way hes approached this issue. He came into office and spent, after Getting Health Care through, spent much time trying to persuade the congress, and especially the Republican Congress and the republicans in the house, to actually pass a legislative overhaul of the immigration system, you know, on the theory that you could, by change the nations laws, you could actually do a whole lot more in terms of putting immigrants, undocumented immigrants on a path to legalization. That literally went no it didnt go nowhere, they passed it in the senate but in the house it went nowhere. And he essentially over the last year and a half had increasingly come to the realization that he was going to leave office with this this piece of business undone if he relied on congress. And so what had started as a belief among himself and his advisers that he really had no choice but to rely on Congress Really changed over the last six months, especially, where he came to believe while he couldnt do everything, that he really could do a lot to proceed down the path to kind of getting some of these people a kind of legal status that would allow them to come out of the shadows and work legally in the country and thats what hes doing. Rose karen talk about the republicans in terms of how they see this. Obviously, the new congress doesnt take place until january, and the president is saying, look, give me something, republicans, and ill act on it, and ill shred executive authority. They choose not to give him anything at this time. And they also seem to say if he goes along the route that he is planning to go, it will be poisoning the water. Well, of course, poisoning the water, anybody whos been in washington for the last few years, would say, you know, how could you tell . How would that be any different from what weve had . The president , i think i think he has surprised the republicans since the election. Hes been sort of gone all in on a number of issues on Net Neutrality, making a deal with the chinese on carbon emissions, and then this, which is, you know, essentially the republicans have been have been stressing that they believe this is just another example of executive overreach by a president who they keep saying thinks of himself as a monarch. They but at the same time, they understand theres a real danger here for them if they overreact. Theres a feeling they need to sort of step on the people within their own party who are talking about shutting down the government or impeaching the president , that in many ways, this is the kind of act that also brings out the worst impulses of the republicans. And so the leaders here have a pretty pretty delicate job on their hands, on the one hand to push back against the president but on the other hand, to tamp down some of their own members. Rose michael, what can the president do with executive action . Well, what they said they can do is to create a group of people that comes close to four million, four to five Million People that essentially wont be able to get citizenship but will be able to live without the thres of an i. N. S. Agent coming through their coor and taking somebody from their family and sending them out of the country and at the same time, get a Social Security number to be able to present to an employer and work legally. And that is a huge difference for, you know, Something Like 11 Million People that are in the country illegally, and, you know, Something Like approaching half of those people may be able to actually have a legal presence here. Rose is there a difference in what the republican definition of Immigration Reform and the president s definition of Immigration Reform . I think so. I mean, you know, you sort of have this belief that everybody talks about the system needs reforming, but on the republican side, you know what that really means is a sense of shutting down the border so that no more folks are coming in. When you talk to republicans, especially in the house, what do you want to do onimigration . Thats what they talk about is shutting down the border. Thats different than dealing with the kind of people that the president has focused on in these actions, which are really the people that have lived here in the country a long time, paying taxes, but always living under the threat of deportation. Rose karen, both sides know the hispanic population is going to be a crucial fact in the 2016 election. Does that play a role in how they approach these issues . Absolutely. And the president has in some ways been backed into a corner here. Because he promised this action early this year, and promised that it would happen some time during the summer. Then they announced they were going to delay it until after the election. So the president really doesnt have much choice. For him to not do this sort of executive action now would really be breaking faith with a very key part of the republican constituency. I mean, of the democratic constituency. Sorry about that. And the republicans have a problem here, too because they actually did fairly well with latino voters in this midterm election, but they know that they that to alienate this group, which is the largest the Fastest Growing minority in the country, is to creates a longterm problem for them. Rose there are two point here from republican senators jon cornyn of texas and i believe his unilateral action children is unconstitutional, anticipated unilateral action, which is unconstitutionally illegal will deeply harm our prospects for Immigration Reform. It will be deeply harmful to our nations tradition and rules of law and deeply harmful to the future of democracy. That from cornyn, john cornyn. And this from senator tom courn, the countrys going to go nut because theyre going to see it as a move outside the authority of the president and its going to be a very serious situation. Youre going to see hopefully not but you could see instances of anarchy. You could see violence. Thats a big bit extreme, i think. But what could we see as a response to this executive action . The calculation that the white house is making and certainly its what im hearing from a lot of lawyers ive talked to is that this is the kind of case that the court dont like to get involved in. They see it as a sort of political dispute between the other two branches of government. So congress options here are to a. , they could pass a bill with a vetoproof majority to override this executive order. They could defund the parts of the government that would be required to implement it. And in the most extreme case, they could impeach the president. But, you know, but, charlie, just to add to that, you know, i think both sides are trying to sort of sussous what the reaction from the public is going to be, too. The republicans are betting by focusing on the powers of the perez paens and the idea thats hes overreaching, that they will fire up their base and ultimately be a plus for them goinged for politically and in elections. I think the democrat democrats e betting that in fact the more the republicans rail against what the president has done, the more fired up and likely to turn out at the polls the hispanic voters are going to be. And especially in the president ial election. That seems to favor the democrats. Rose does paul ryan have a point when he said he had two years with the super majority of his own party and didnt lift a finger and now he wont give us two weeks. Hes basically choosing to give us a partisan bomb. He has a point and he doesnt have a point. Yes, it is true, that the democrats did not act when they had not only a majority in the house but a, you know, filibusterproof majority in the senate. They were completely preoccupied with health care. But also the idea that the republicans were somehow going to deal with this in a few weeks is unrealistic to the point of being ludicrous. Rose is there a frame of mind and i think you alluded to this in the beginning that the president really has looked at this election and he understands the results of the election and may believe it could have been different if he made different arguments, or participated more or whatever. But has he come to certain conclusions about what he has to do in the next two years that hes president . Well, look, i think part of you know some of what we see and i think karen noted the right things, the Net Neutrality and all of the the china example some of those those are things of coincidence. They have been in the works for a long time and they happen to have sort of all come together. But it is hard to look at the kind of stacking up of issues and not come away with the conclusion what the president and his advisers have decided is that relying on this congress in particular, or really and congress in these last couple of years is not going to form his legacy. If hes going to try to shape that legacy, what hes going to have to try to do is exert and press against the outer edges of the authorities he has as a president to act on his own. And i think this is sort of the centerpiece of that idea. Rose karen, what about the possible areas the republicans and the president can cooperate on, including Corporate Tax reform and, 2, trade . You know, i think you know, the idea that this fight is going to affect those other fights, im a little bit skeptical of, because, you know, this is a very transactional system we have here in washington. I mean, the republicans and the president are going to deal on these issues if they both decide it is in their interests to deal on these issues. This idea because they fought on one thing they cant Work Together on another, it just doesnt make a lot of sense to me. Rose go ahead, michael . I agree, you know, and it is a transactional city. I will say that, you know, the relationships matter in this town, and the questions of trust matter, and i do think that to the extent that there might have been some hope in this city that the election would mean a sort of turning of the page and that there might be a slow building of the trust that would lead to things, this doesnt suggest that will happen. Rose michael shear, thank you. Karen tumulty, thank you. Thank you, charlie. Thank you. Rose mike nichols the director died last night of a heart attack. He was 83 years old. The legendary entertainer explored all mediums film, television, and his first love, theater. His career spanned five decades. He was known for his exquisite comic timing, and his interest in the relationship between men and women. He won the oscar for best director in 1968 for the graduate, which starred Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. Oh, i guess this isnt the bathroom, is it . Its down the hall. How are you, benjamin . Fine, thank you, mrs. Robinson. The bathrooms down at the end of the hall. Such a pluzzant room. Look, mrs. Robinson, i dont mean to be rude, but im im awfully is there an ashtray in here . Rose his other film credits are whos afraid of virginia wolf, silk wood, working girl, the bird cage, and primary colors. Governor, why did you quit politics in 1978 . There are a lot of reasons, charlie. I had personal problems. Rose he won emmys for his work in television, including wit and angels in america. And he won one of his nine tony awards for bare foot in the park. Richard burton once said he appears to defer to you, then in the end he gets exactly what he wants. He conspiers with you rather than directs you to get your best. Born to jewish parents in berlin his family immigrate to the United States to escape the nazi. His passion for theater began at 16 when he took a date to see a streeted car named desire. He met elaine may, and their satirical twoperson character sketches won them a grammy award and national audience. Nichols credittedly the relationship to his success of the director. He once said it is a long kid on an icy road and you do the best to stay on the road. If youre still here when you come out of spin, its a relief. But youve got to have the terror if youre going to do anything worthwhile. He is survived by diane sawyer, his wife of 26 years, three children, and four grandchildren. He appeared on this program several times over 24 years. His first appearance was in 1992. We talked about comedy, improvisation and directing. When you were with elaine may did you even think about directing as something that might be your mietre. No, the strange thing that happened is elaine and i did it because it was the only job we could get. We started this there was a group in chicago which was started by my friend paul sills, who is now part of the new actors workshop. And elaine and i were in that group. Its why wherewe met. And i went back to be in the group because i couldnt get a job of any any tiend in new york and we thought this is what we would countil we got grownup jobs and it turned out those were our grownup jobs, and when elaine and i split up and stopped the act, which was in 61, i didnt know what i was. I was sort of a lefted over half of a comedy team. And then saint siewber the the director suggested i try dwrecting this play called, nobody loves me. I said why dont we try it was in summer stock. Why dont we do it for a week . I said ill do it if i could get that guy i saw in played house 90. It was robert redford. We rehearsed for a week and did it, and during the week of rehearsal, i thought, this is it. This is what i was supposed to do. Rose it has been said and you may have said this that there was, between the two of you she was the brilliant idea creator, and upper the person you were the person, even within that knew how to move it along, had the sense of what . I had the sense of the shape of it for the simple reason i wasnt as inventive as elaine. Elaine was enormously invent and i have still is and she came up with these characters and she could have gone on. But i was through after a certain amount of time, and i needed to move on. And also, therefore, i learned improvising is a great thing because you learn what the audience wants. The audience says, okay, why are you telling me this story . And you learn that you have to provide certain answers. Because its funny, is one answer. Because its you, is another answer. But because of the pressure from the audience while youre improvising, because theyre constantly, in an unspoken way, of course, saying, so . Yes . Whats your point . That pressure is somehow a great crucible for teaching you what a scene is made of. Elaine used to have a rule, when in doubt, seduce because seducing as you and i would understand seducing the the audience no, seducing me. A fight is a scene. A seduction is a scene. Not that many other scenes are a scene . And