Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20240713

These his, to this land that is their home, and go back out and hear it and see it a little differently. Woodruff and, its friday. Mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the turkish incursion into Northern Syria, n and the president s tumultuous week, as the impeachment inquiry charges ahead. All that and more, on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Consumer cellular offers nocontract wireless plans that are designed to help you do more of the things you eny. Whether youre a talker, texter, browser, photographer, or a bit of everything, our u. S. Based Customer Service team is here to find a plan that fits you. To learn more, go to consumercellular. Tv the ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. And with the ongoing suppor of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Oodruff focred out. The former American Ambassador to ukraine tells lawmakers that President Trump pressed to have her fired. Lisa desjardins breaksown how her testimony is the latest twist in the escalating impeachment inquiry. Desjardins from her first steps on capitol hill today, former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch entered, and added to, a political drama. The career diplomat arrived even after the state department told her last night she was not permitted to speak to lawmakers voluntarily. The solution . House democrats quickly ised a subpoena, allowing her to say she was legally compelled to attend. Yovanovitch was recalled from her post in may, amidst charges from Rudy Giuiliani and in conservative media that she had spoken against the president. She blasted back at those ideas in her opening remarks, which have been obtained by multiple news outlets. She said her removal was based on unfounded and false claims. Yovanovitchs ousting was cited in the whistleblowers complaint at the center of the houses impeachment inquiry. During the july 25 phone call that triggered that complaint, President Trump spoke against her to ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky. He said, the woman was bad news, and added shes going to go through some things. And according to an indictment handed up yesterday, also working to remove her were igor fruman and lev parnas, two men who say they were working for Rudy Giuliani and the president. The federal indictment charges, parnas efforts to remove the ambassador were conducted, at least in part, at the request of one or more ukrainian officis. Also today, news that Gordon Sondland will testify next week. Sondland is the ambassador to the e. U. , and Text Messages show he was involved in discussionsis the president wanted fromnd wh ukraine. Last night, mr. Trump campaigned in minneapolis, leveling more criticism at his opponen i congress. These are bad people. My phone call, for example, with the president of ukraine, was perfect. Desjardins the president rallied supporters, telling them their views are at stake. They want to erase your vote, ke it never existed. They want to erase your voice, and they want to erase your future. The president is holding another rally tonight in louisiana. Woodruff and lisa is here with me now, along with our own yamiche alcindor, who has been tracking todays developments from the white house. So, lisa, lets go back to former ambassador yovanovitch. Tell us, again, who she is and what more do we know about what she said today. Well, she is still with the state department, so, in doing this, she was kind of bucking the high command, although getting a subpoena to her gave her a legal reason for showing up. Were going to come back to that. S extraordinary on a few levels. She also fired back and said she has never, for example, met hunter biden, she never advocated on behalf of Hillary Clinton or president obama, as some of her critics have alleged and, judy, she went on to lay out her suspicion that the reason she was being pushed out by some, i think shes implying Rudy Giulianis associates, was for their financial interests. She says she wasighting corruption in ukraine and that was a problem f r some who were trying to make use of that corruption for their own financial gain. Judy, shes also said shes incredulous over the fact she was removed at all. This is important for two other reasons one, shes laying out a case for corruption potentially within the Trump Administration. Two, she submitted to this subpoena, she complied with the subpoena. The more Trump Administration officials gotten do that and the more people like her comply, democrats will try to willed a case for obstruction of justice for that. Woodruff ia niche, you have been talking to folks at the white house, what are they saying in their defense and what do they see as their strategy Going Forward here . Well, President Trump is really pushing back on the ambassadors claim that he personally was pushing to have her removed from her post. Today on the white house lawn, the president said i dont know this woman, im sure shes wonderful, but i have nothing to do with her. So the president is trying to put distance between himself and the ambassadors claims. Stephen miller, the president s senior adviser, was speaking to reporters today and told us he believes this is part of partisan hatred toward the president. Their strategy is saying the democrats are doing this because they want to overturn the 2016 elections, with a lot of messaging from the white house on that front. But the democrats pushed back and said its about getting to the truth. Add to that stephen miller, when asked over and over again whether or not he would personally comply with a subpoena to testify before the house, he refused to answer. When the president was asked what do you make of ambassador sondland coming next week andia vanovich coming together, he kind of shrugged and said i dont like anybody testifying, i dont want anybody testifying. So the white house strategy is to block people from testifying and try to not comply with any document requests. But the president ise stuck in the position where ambassadors cacome and say they are likely obligated to come before the house. Woodruff so, lisa, what are the next steps for the democrats in congress . Democrats in the last hour got off conference call, talking about their messaging. Congress comes back next week, so the dynamics will be critical when the lawmakers from both parties return. They will have a serious look at impeachment. They are trying to get out theyre working on other issues. They want that to be part of the narrative. Its going to be difficult when talking about impeachment but they will try. Whats going on today, i learned House Republicans have a new concern about the president and are moving on it and it has to do with turkey. House republicans are joining with House Democrats on the Foreign Affairs committee to propose legiation to sanction turkey, beyond what the president and the treasury secretary have been talking, it would be much sharper sanctions, a rebuke of the president s policies. We are weight for that legislation. Woodruff and speaking of turkey, yamiche, we saw that the treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said they are putting in place sanctions they could impose on turkey down the line. What do we know about that, the thinking that went into this . Well, Steve Mnuchin and the president both say these are authorized sanction bus are not actually issuing the sanctions. So this is really the Trump Administration and President Trump himself responding to the bipartisan criticism that lisa is talking about. The president feels as though his heart party is definitely making noise about this and sustaining noise about this. He wants to say, if turkey gets out of line, we have something to do that. The president said im ready to wipe out turkeys entire economy if needed. That said, when the administration is pushed and asked how is this going to help the kurds and the foreign allies who fear for their lives. They say its complicated and we cant answer the question. So the president is trying to deal with the criticism, but most people are saying these do not go far enough and obviously, as you can see in the house and in congress, lawmakers themselves are banning together to do even more than the president is doing. Woodruff again, so much to follow. It has been an extraordinary week. Yamiche alcindor, lisa desjardins, thank you both. Woodruff in the days other news, the u. S. Has reached a partial trade deal with china, after a 15monthlong trade war. President trump agreed to suspend a 250 billion tariff hike on chinese goods that was set to go into effect tuesday. In turn, c this is a closed captioning test. This is only a test. Please stand the Dow Jones Industrial average jumped 320 points to close at 26,816. The nasdaq rose 106 points, and the s p 500 added 32. More than 100,000 people are under evacuation orders as a wildfire rages in Southern California. So far, 1,000 firefighters have been deployed along the Northern Edge of los angeles. At least two people have died. The saddlebridge fire started raging overnight, fueled by strong santa ana winds. Planes dropped fireretardant chemicals on the flames. Officials urged residents to heed orders to leave. This is a very dynamic fire. The public can help us by listening to Police Officers and firefighter directions, especially when were talking about evacuations. Do not wait to leave. If we ask you to evacuate, please evacuate. Woodruff Southern California utility edison turned off electricity for about 20,000 people. It warned that thousands more could be affected. Meanwhile, in northern california, the lights were back on for more than a Million People impacted by planned outages. But pacific gas and electric said that more than 300,000 customers were still without power. Fire officials report that a man who relied on oxygen died 12 minutes after losing electricity. The casualties are mounting on both sides, as Turkish Forces advance farther into northeast syria. Turkey claims to have killed more than 300 kurdish fighters. About 100,000 civilians have been forced to flee. Meanwhile, two car bombs exploded in the kurdish controlled urban center of qamishli, a city that has been heavily shelled by turkish troops. Lindsey hilsum of independent televsion news was there today, and filed this report. Reporter qamishli was calm until this week. The war was over. People dared to think peace might last. This was the scene today, after a massive explosion in a different part of town. At first, people thought it was another mortar. There have been three days of attacks now. We arrived about an hour later, as the smoke began to clear and the damage became evident. This was not a rocket, but a car bomb. The vehicle that carried it was utterly destroyed. This is right in the middle of qamishli. People dont know exactly what happened. It was an explosion, they said. And you can see, it must have been huge. See all the damage thats been done . Qamishli was peaceful, but people are now afraid of the turks attacking, and theyre afraid that there may be sleeper cells of the Islamic State here in the town. The car bomb was most likely planted by fhters from i. S. , daesh as they call it, who went underground when the caliphate was defeated earlier this year. Now, Kurdish Forces are too busy fighting the turks to track and catch terrorists. translated we want europe to hear our voice. And trump, who abandoned us. We fought daesside by side with his soldiers, and now he just pulls out his troops and left us alone. Let trump hear us. Reporter they know they cann defeat turkey alone. Woodruff that report from Lindsey Hilsum of independent television news. The pentagon announced today that it will send nearly 2,000 additional troops to saudi arabia to help protect against iran. That is in spite of President Trumps recent pledge to reduce the u. S. Presence in the middle east. The u. S. Will also move several dozen fighter jets, and other air defenses. U. S. Defense secretary mark esper announced the deployment. Irans attempts to use terror, intimidation and military force to advance its interests are inconsistent with international norms. Saudi arabia is a longstanding Security Partner in the middle east, and has asked for Additional Support to supplement their own defenses and defend E International rulesbased order. Woodruff the troops will join more than 10,000 American Service members already deployed across the middle east. A super typhoon is barreling towards tokyo, japan, today, threatening to dump as much as 30 inches of rain. It is expected to make landfall south of tokyo tomorrow. W. In the meantime, Grocery Stores in the capital city were packed as people stocked up on last minute supplies. Elsewhere, residents on oshima island boarded up their homes and shops. In ecuador, antigovernment protests against a fuel price hike ground the capital city to a standstill for another day. At least five demonstrators have been killed in the last week of unrest. Protesters in quito threw rocks at police, who then fired back with tear gas and rubber bullets. One demonstrator insisted their strike will continue until their demands are met. translated we are not going to stop until we reach our goal. But right now, we are being repressed. They are killing us with these weapons. These are not rubber bullets, these are real bullets, bullets that kill people. Woodruff Government Operations have been moved outside of the capital, but ecuadors president has refused to step down. The gunman who attempted to attack a german synagogue wednesday has now confessed to carrying out the shooting, and he acknowledged being motivated by antisemitic views. The rampage happened on yom kippur, judaisms holiest day. The attacker was unable to enter the synagogues locked doors, and instead he fatally shot two bystanders outside. He faces two counts of murder, and seven counts of attempted murder. A new report out today has found that boeing withheld Key Information about its 737max plane from pilots and safety officials. The panel of International Aviation regulators also found that the federal Aviation Administration lacked the expertise to review the planes automated Flight Control system, that is linked to two deadly crashes this year. The 737max is grounded while boeing works on software updates. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders said today that his recent heart attack has made him more aware of the need for quality, Affordable Health care. Sanders, who is seeking the democratic president ial nomination, suffered a heart attack last week. The 78yearold spoke to reporters today outside his vermont home, where hes been recovering. My recent heart attack has made me think even more about health care. This is america, and you have millions opeople today who are sick, that have symptoms, who are not going to the doctor because they are fearful of the incredible medical bills theyre going to receive. Woodruff sanders said he will attend next seeks democratic primary debate in ohio. It will be his first public event since his heart attack. And, the washington mystics are celebrating today after winning their firstever Womens National Basketball Association championship. They defeated the connectit sun 8978 on thursday night, in a winnertakeall game five of the finals, as their fans erupted into cheers. Congratulations. Still to come on the newshour how ethiopias Prime Minister made peace with his neighbors, and won the nobel prize. One on one with former National Security advisor susan rice. Plus, mark shields and david brooks break down a weeks worth of impeachment news. Woodruff now, to an inspiring story that won the nobel peace prize. In their official announcement today, the nobel committeey, listed a series of accomplishments for ethiopian Prime Minister abiy ahmed, all achieved in his first 100 days in office. Amna nawaz has the story. Nawaz thats right, judy. But his most significant accomplishment was in making peace with neighboring eritrea soon after he became Prime Minister last april. The two countries had been at war for two decades, in a bitter border conflict that drove hundreds of thousands of people into exile or internal displacement. They now have diplomatic relations, and many families kept apart by war were reunited last year after the first commercial flight between the two nations in 20 years. Prime minister abiy has a doctorate degree in peacemaking, and served as a u. N. Peacekeeper in rwanda after the 1994 genocide. For more on who he is, im joined by salih booker. Hes the president and c. E. O. Of the center for international policy, and he served as director of Africa Studies at the council on foreign relations. Welcome backreo the newshour. Thank you for having me. So, Prime Minister abiy is 43 years old. Tell us about him. He is the youngest head of state in the african country. He was the child of mixed marriage. His fatheras a muslim and his mother an orthodox christian, so at a very young age he learned the value of tolerance and understanding across religious and ethnic divides and later socioeconomic divides. He joined the rebellion against the autocratic marxistegime as a teenager. He got formal training and game a soldier in 93. As you mentioned, he served as on peacekeeper in rwanda after the genocide. He did his first deee while still in the military and went to london, got an m. A. , came back, entered politics, but continued studying and eventually earned his ph. D. Only in 2017. So his rise has been medioric and he became prps only in 2018. This conflict hecredited with bringing to some kind of peace accord, walk me through the heart of the conflict between the two nations. The short is ea ethiopia an d eritrea in 1962 and began an arms struggle to topple the monarchy and the regime that followed. So when the eritreaians Peoples Liberation front and ethiopias regime in 91, the eritreans pushed for independence. They had a referendum in 93. The country splirkts stayed on good terms but five years later were at war. At the time, the people said this is a ridiculous war, the equivalent of two bald men fighting over a comb. It wasnt about strategic resources, it was very much about the egos and the National Pride of these two leaders who had been friends and allies during the struggle but were trying to assert who was goi to be the primary new generation of african leaders. Reporter and the two nations stayed in the state of not really at war or peace, but with the peace accord that Prime Minister abiy was able to bring forward is not without criticism even with the prize today. Some people say across the border there is still oppression. Does the peace prize come too early . I dont think it comes too early. I think its deserved and aspirational to encourage the peace process. 100,000 people died in the first two years of the conflict, then it was a cold war. The stubbornness prevented resolution. Prime minister abiy in the first 100 days, traveled to eritrea, returned territory to eritrea and created an incredible restoration of peace and ties between the two countries. He cannot be held responsible for the internal reforms that need to happen in eritrea. What hes dope is removed the rationale for the eritrean government to continue its oppressive and restrictive rule. The people of eritrea are going to be demanding the reforms they say happening in eat open under Prime Minister abiy now. Reporter this hopefully continues to path toward peace for both nations. Yes. Reporter salih booker, always good to have you here. Thank you. Woodruff susan rice is best known for serving in highprofile roles in the Obama Administration, first as the u. S. Ambassador to the united nations, and then as the president s National Security advisor. But her new book, tough love my story of the things worth fighting for, reveals her personal side a working mom, raising young kidsnd caring for her parents, all while navigating some ofhe countrys toughest Foreign Policy and National Security issues. And susan rice joins me now. Welcome to the newshour. Great to be with you, judy. Woodruff i do want to ask you about the book, through but theres a lot in the news that relate to an area where you spent a lot of time and thats the white house, and i want to ask you about whats going on in syria. President trump spoke to president erdogan of turkey, essentially agreed that u. S. Would in northern syr get out of the way. Turkey saw that as a green light. Theyve come into syria, but now the Trump Administration is saying, well, we are going to put sanctions on you if you go too far. What do you make of this strategy . How do you think the turks will respond . First of all, im not sure what our strategy is, judy. I mean, its quite disturbing. We have sold out the kurds, who fought on our o behalf against i. S. I. S. With our support. This was a very unusual and economic arrangement that we made where the United States contribution was very low in terms of personnel on the ground. We provided training and advinie and support to the kurds who were taking the fight to i. S. I. S. Quite effectively. The president s decision to pull out those American Servicemen and women in Northern Syria was more than a green light. It was a red carpet, and weve seen what the turks have done. Theyre wage ago relentless fight. 100,000 people displaced now for the administration to turn around and say, bu we really didnt mean it, strains credulity. Woodruff i interviewed this week secretary of state pompeo, after previously saying the kurds were u. S. Allies, is now saying, yes, they are a threat to turkey, they are terrorists. Thats the administrations position now. You know, think about that. 11,000 kurds gave their lives fighting i. S. I. S. With the expectation and the promise from the United States that we would be there for them. We have not viewed these elements of the kurdish s. D. F. , the Syrian Democratic forces, known as the y. P. G. , as people that we believed pose add terrorist threat to us or others. They were, on the contrary, fighting i. S. I. S. When the turks wouldnt. The turks allowed thousands of i. S. I. S. Fighters to flow through turkey into syria, and now to hand over the fight to the turks and pretend theyre going to take totally i. S. I. S. And secure the prisoners isnt credible. Woodruff one of the other big stories were following, the impeachment inquiry into trump, as part of that inquiry, the former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine is testifying today, part of a subpoena by the congress, and we know that she has said that her firing, she said, was after President Trump wanted her out of that job for many months, and she said it was all based on false claims, she said, by people with questionable motives. My question, though, is dont president s have the right for whatever reason to he the ambassador they want . Well, yes, of course, the president appoints ambassadors and they serve at his pleasure, but you know well and many of our viewers know that the car kr ambassadors, the apolitical ambassadors, and that is what ambassador yovanovitch is, are rarely the subject of political scrutiny by the white house. So this raises a lot of questions and it sggests that whatever concern the white house had aboutia vanovich or that Rudy Giuliani had was not about her job performance. It had something to do with whatever interests, business or political, that the president was pursuing in ukraine, and apparently she stood in the way of them. Woodruff you wrte in the tough love book, about failure. You wrote, we did fail, we will fail, our aim has to be to minimize the frequency and the price of failures. How do you contrast the failures of the Obama Administration with the Trump Administration. I was speaking about the business business of making Foreign Policy broadly, not talking about any particularly administration, but im candid about where we succeeded and failed in the Obama Administration. I think the Obama Administration is positive, weighed in the aggregate. The president of the United States helped write the Global Economy in the wake of a financial crisis. He took the fight to osama bin laden. Heothe paris climate agreement, the iran nuclear agreement, but we had difficult challenges in places like syria and elsewhere. So i dont know of my administrations record where they bat a thousand. But i think the lesson is we have to be willing to serve to the best of our abilities in the interest of the u. S. Government, and what im still concerned about is i look at this administration as no were seeing every day more evidence that the actions coming out of the president and the white house are not serving the national interests, however well guided or misguided, but rather serving fernl interests of the president. Woodruff you at one point you, of course, write about the 2016 election. As reno, the Intelligence Community has concluded with great confidence russians did interfere. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is pointing fingers at the Obama Administration saying, frankly, you folks should have done something to stop it. You do write that your administration, and im quting, substantially underestimated the severity of russian social media manipulation. How bigamy stake was that . It was a mistake in the sense that we didnt have that information at the time. It came to light, as you will recall, beginning 2017, the extent to which their social media farms, the bots, the actions they took on both sides of contention issues including rails, immigration, guns and gay rights, we didnt see that. It wasnt as visible as the hacking of the emails, the efforts to infiltrate the election system and the activities that were more transparent of Russian Television and sputnik and the like. So if you look at the Intelligence Communitys assessment that came in january 2017, its notable because it doesnt mention the social media influence as we understand it now. So that was a gap in our understanding. Now we know it, and i think the challenge is what more can we do about it . I think theres more that congress can do, quite frankly, theres more that the social Media Companies can and must do. Woodruff you write with candor in the book about your family, both your parents and your two children, your husband, and one of the things that struck me is, in writing about the countrys political divisions, you write about how they exist in your own family. You have a son who is very conservative in his political beliefs. How do you navigate that as a family and what advice do you have for, im sure, people whopl are watching who have deep political divisions in their own family . Well, i appreciate the question. We have to kids, the older one is quite conservative, the younger one is a progressive closer to the views of her parents, and we have robust discussions. We raised our children to think independently and to be confident in their views, and for better or worse, thats what we got, but were quite proudf both of our kids, they have the courage of their convictions and are not afraid to be engaged on issues that matter. So what is my advice . My advice is we have to listen to each other. We have to respect each others views. We have to search for Common Ground and not close one another out. We are a family that despite our differences are very tight. We love each other, and we decide very deliberately that that love and our commitmento the family will override our political differences. Thats what we need to do on a national basis. We cant take a view that you and i disagree over politics or religion or whatever it is, that were dismissing each other as americans. If that happens, our country is going to fall apart, and there are people who are benefiting politically from pulling us apart. We as americans cant allow that to happen. Weve got to have the same sort of fierce love of our country and touglove, as i like to say in the book, that we try to apply in the family context, challenging as it sometimes is. Reporter susan rice, the book is, as we say, tough love, my story of the things worth fighting for, susan rice, thank you. Thank you. Woodruff it is not easy to keep up with all the twists and turns of another turbulent week in the trump presidency. But to help make sense of it all, joining us are shields and brooks. That is syndicated columnist mark shields, and New York Times columnist david brooks. Hello to both of you. Hi, judy. Woodruff its been a tumultuous week. As the beginning of the week, sically says to turkey, were getting u. S. Troops out of the way in syria, the turks have gone in, they are going after the kurds who were american allies, but just in the last day or so the president has said, but dont go too far, to turkey. What are we to make of all of this . Yeah, welcome in, but we dont want you there. Its complete incoherence. I think the logical thing is donald trump spoke to somebody on the phone, he made a decision, it was a terrible sion, amoral decision and just bad for our Foreign Policy. Whos going to fight i. S. I. S. When were out, whos guarding the 10,000 prisoner prisoners . Theyre going to turn to russia and iran for strength. Its a terrible designatures. They get bad publicity, the administration does, and mnuchin and others come out and say this is terrible. Its a Foreign Policy but what trumps latest emotion is. Its incoherent. I would add he did it after being played by mr. Erdogan, the president of turkey. Once again, he succumbed to either the brandishment or muscles of strong men. He cannot stand up to strong men. He did it without any warning to the kurds. The turks knew about it, but the kurds didnt, 11,000 of whom gave their lives, shoulder to shoulder, with the United States against i. S. I. S. You know, its rather remarkable. Then the president , in probably a new flight, said the kurds hadnt been there at normandy. So today we sent 3,000 american troops to saudi arabia, and we find out saving private ahmed. Thats exactly right. But it isnt incoherent, it is foolishness and it is dangerous and reckless and i feel for the country. Woodruff and, david, in terms of the congressional reaction, its not just democrats but republicans who are really upset about this. How do we read this political reaction . Lindsey graham, Mitch Mcconnell pretty much down the line. Its easy to pa rt with donald trump on Something Like kurds, its a lot different on impeachment. It doesnt arouse the tribal passions of red versus blue. Second, it may help donald trump in the long run when the time comes to whether or not to stand with trump on impeachment, republican sators say im perfectly ent of trump, didnt you just hear what i said about the kurds . So it may make it marginally easier for some republicans to side with trump when it comes to the impeachment. Events are happening so fast it might be a tough vote to vote against impeachment. Certainly, if we have another week like this week, republicans who are back in their district coming back to washington next monday, and i dont think theres any question that the president s position has deier glad it that week. Woodruff quickly, in terms of turkey in terms of the republicans, i agree with david, it doesnt involve his behavior, hisio character or his conduct. That is our ground. Mitt romney made a criticism of the president s position as far as china was concerned in asking them to investigate joe biden, he called him a pompous ass. Thats a way of saying the base will come after you if you criticize me, and i agree. He depersonalizes the criticism of the kurds. Woodruff well, you both are talking about impeachment. You know, its the thousandpound gorilla in the room right now. David, a lot of events this week. You had the behind closed doors testimony, the former ambassador yovanovitch, who said the president was personally trying to get rid of her. You had a number of subpoenas go out and request basically the administration is saying no to. Yesterday you had two associates of Rudy Giuliani, the president s lawyer, arrested for Campaign Finance law violations. Does this impeachment process look stronger, as mark is saying, at the end of the week, or what . Yeah, for sure. It doesnt look weaker. Every day its a blizzard of something. The yovanovitch thing today made me think of how many other people are involved . The state department has to be involved in the firing of a crible, competent ambassador for political reasons. How often does that happen with no resignations . In a normal vegas you get a bunch of resignations, without which it would never happen. But to me it directed our attentiono the right thing, the blizzard. Its like a blizzard of things, and how does that affect the mood . Does it affect the mood as clearly solidified democrats behind impeachment, its clearly moved independence toward it, has it cracked the red wall and affected republicans . So far, i dont see that. So far, when you look at the conservative press, the polls, the republicans are not moving, and they have to move because you have to lose 20 republicans. So you would really have to have a very split republican party, 50 50, on impeachment, and so far i dont see that happening, but thats not to say it couldnt. Woodruff we can quickly show a couple of polls. Mark, the shift in support overall is within the margin of error, 4952 over the course of two weeks. But when you look at independent voters, as david was suggestings, its a 10point shift toward inquiry. Were not talking about impeachment, were talking about the inquiry. What does it look like to you . Is this significant . The polls cant keep up witht the events. Events are very much in the saddle. I mean, we started you recall what the defense was of the president s call to the president of ukraine. The president turned out, we didnt know, was a closet reformer. He was out to dig out corruption. You know, the corruption thats turned up now are two of Rudy Giulianis associates in this whole scenario, which is significant because the diement was announced by a republican, jeffrey berman, Southern District of new york and the director of the f. B. I. William sweeny in the new york office and the u. S. Attorney went out of his way to congratulate and thank each of the f. B. I. Agents. Why is that significant . Because one of the criticisms from stalwarts of the president off and on from ron johnson of wisconsin is somehow the f. B. I. And the c. I. A. Are faulty in this whole thing. Judy, i dont think theres any question that weve gone from that to the president was just kidding about china. We know hes renowned for his oneliners which you could write on the back of the firstclass stamp, the totality of them. I mean, its a tissue of lie s, all of which is collapsing, and as one leading republican said to me just before the show, there is nothing in here thats good news, and what im worried about now are retirements. You will start to see retirement among republicans as they come back in the break. Woodruff and there have already been a number. But doesnt mean theyre breaking. Senator from tennessee is not breaking. Woodruff on the question of the inquiry . Ill be willing to bet a number of republicans in the house will vote for it. That could be, in the house. But youve got to have mass defection, and youve got to have basically two things one, its got to really penetrate into the popular mind. A lot of these things are very Little Things that are in d. C. Thats people who are normal human beings are not paying this close attention. I agree. Then you have to undo the basic part like a lot of republicans did, this guy is a safe, but my life and the community is going bad, he was a snake, is still a snake, but my essential bargain still holds. So far i dont see many republicans saying im going to undo that part. Woodruff there is a race for democratic nomination for president , mark. You still have almost 20 democrats in the race. Thrls going to be another debate next week. Weve learned in the last week Bernie Sanders is still not out on the campaign trail after the heart attack he had and he is arting to talk to the press a little bit. But does all of this focus on impeachment . Does it work to the democrats benefit or not . Because we still dont know who the democratic nominee is. No, we dont know and we dont know what influence this will have on it, judy. The democrats better just confront the reality that theyre about defeating donald trump, and the old saying the republicans fall in line, democrats fall in love with the candidate. Historically republicans have nominated the next in line, next whose turn it was, and the democrats cant afford just a flight of passion in 2020. They better pick somebody, if theyre really interested in defeating donald trump, someone who is not goingo become the issue himself oris herself in tt campaign, and i think thats a concern for democrats at this point, especially as impeachment becomes larger. Woodruff who would that be who youre referring to . Far be it from me t say. I would say bennett bullock, if youre picking people who have good records and have won in purple or red states. Ihink impeachment overshadows e campaign in the extreme. Were barely talking about the campaign in the last few weeks, and this impeachment is going to go on through h. P. New hampshire and iowa and South Carolina and maybe california, so its going to overshadow the campaign and i think benefits the frontrunners, the bidens and the warrens because its hard for the frontrunners to get attention. If youre in the middle of the pack, Kamala Harris or pete buttigieg, its super hard to get attention and makes it much hard tore shake up the race. The only nominees that finish in the top three in iowa or the top two in new hampshire, thats how important the two states are. I dont think theres any question about it. I think thats central to this as far as those are political universes unto themselves, and i dont think it really does freeze the race there. I think it dominates the dialogue and the debate certainly nationally. Woodruff in less than a minute that we have left, how do these democrats distinguish themselves from one another . Think about when we were talking about three weeks ago, single payer versus oth things. We were having the debates the democrats were having on policy and that the all been suckedup with the democrats. Donald trump put at risk his own presidency, he risked impeachment because he was so worried and scared that he went to the president do you think it helps biden . If biden plays it right. You have the evidence there, donald trump was terrified of joe biden that he wants to find information. Hes trying to go to china, sending bill barr out of the record, has Rudy Giuliani talking to everybody at good fellas. So thats the case he ought to be making. Woodruff biden helps . I think it freezes the race, hes on top with warren right now. All right, well leave it there, david brooks, mark shields, thank you. Woodruff lets now take a trek to a destination for art and sic, in rural montana. The Tippet Rise Art Center, which recently wrapped up its fourth summer season, is home to stunning sculptures, architecture, classical music, all surrounded by wonders of nature. Its visitors are a mix of locals and art lovers from around the world. Jeffrey brown has that story, part of our ongoing arts and culture coverage, canvas. Brown underneath a wooden pavilion, a violinist draws her bow. Nearby, kids marvel at a sculpture called daydreams, where willows twist around an old schoolhouse. And all around, hikers and bikers follow miles of trails. This is the Tippet Rise Art Center unexpected, hard to find. From tiny fishtail, in southern montana, a dirt road cuts through the hillside, passing ranches and farmland, the Beartooth Mountains in the distance. Its just four years old, but tippet rise is an ongoing experiment in bringing together nature and art, a place where the worldclass sculptures and the music become part of a spectacular rural setting. The center was founded by philanthropists cathy and peter halstead, globetrotting art lovers who searched high and low for a property that felt just right. We love museums. Weve spent our life going to museums. But art is, in some ways, a prisoner of a museum, whereas here, its, its liberated. Its freed. The land is very emotional, and there is something about being on this land the first second i was on it, i could feel it viscerally, and really had a sense that it was, you know, almost like a trembling. Brown the art centerheyve created is on a 12,000acre working ranch. Its home to eight large outdoor sculptures, including satellite 5 pioneer, a web of yellow cedar and steel created by stephen talasnik. Beethovens quartet, a 25,000 pound piece by mark di suvero. And works by the ensemble studio inverted portal and beartooth portal, featuring giant formations leaning against one another, and domo, which was poured into the land and which was designed acoustically, to host outdoor concerts. But most of the music is performed here, at the gorgeous olivier music barn, with a high pitched roof and windows that overlook the beartooths. On this day, pianist aristo sham played works by Robert Schumann and johannes brahms. Originally from hong kong, sham has performed on five continents. Is this normal as a setting, or unusual for you . Yeah, this is quite unusual. Even summer festivals in ski resorts are more urban. Brown right. Yeah. And for this to be like literally in the middle of nowhere, its quite unique. Its like, where do you even find an audience . But, everything is sold out. Brown in fact, seating here is so limited just 150 for a concert and the price of a ticket so low just 10 that demand quickly outstripped availability. Determined to stay smallscale, the center now doles out tickets throh a lottery system. Its part of the paradox of tippet rise offering a sense of exclusiveness, but being open to all. A destination for welloff art patrons from around the world, while also welcoming in locals. Its the opposite of elitism. Its really, its open to all who are clever enough or lucky enough to somehow get a ticket to our to our performances. We had a student, it was his very first time at tippet rise. And he just said, wow, am i in montana anymore . Brown beth korth is the Art Education coordinator at tippet rise. The center hosts youth groups ranging from College Honors students to elementary age children, such as this group from rural carbon county, who toured the sculptures, got an upclose look at instruments and made their own lanterns out of jars. Clara bernhart is from nearby red lodge. Did you like coming here . Yeah, i like all the music. Brown you like the music . The piano, and the fort in the houses, that was super cool. Having a world class art center with these incredible sculptures from worldrenowned artists, bringing in incredible classical musicians, having some structures here built by some of the most incredible architects i know and heard of, and being able to bring in rural children to come and experience this even for a couple of hours one day out of the summer, i think is tremendous to this community. Brown that same weekend, pulitzer prizewinning composer John Luther Adams debuted a new work, lines made by walking, performed by the jack string quartet. He composed much of the piece, a commission from tippet, while in residence here last summer, inspired, he said, by long walks on the grounds. In recent years, ive been making music intended from the getgo to be experienced out of doors. And ive come to understand, especially those outdoor works, as a kind of echolocation or g. P. S. , a way of music as a way of helping us hear and feel more deeply, and more broadly where we are on this earth. So its my hope that someone from a ranch nearby may come and hear this lyrical response to these hills, to this land that is their home, and go back out and, and, and hear it and see it a little differently. Brown jim mandeville, fr columbus, montana, is one local who heard the call. The tickets are hard to get, you know, so. Its kind of like its exclusive, but its not exclusive. Brown as to all the outof towner he says this if theyre from california and they get into the lottery, like everyone else, can get their tickets and plan their vacation around coming to tippet rise. I think thats marvelous. It brings them into our country. And they get to see it. Enjoy it and then go home. laughter brown and for those who cant or wont make the trek here state of the art recordings of the concerts, free online, offer easier access. For the pbs newshour, im Jeffrey Brown at the Tippet Rise Art Center in fishtail, montana. Woodruff Jeffrey Brown gets to go to all the best places. And that is the newshour for tonight. Im judy woodruff. Have a great weekend. Thank you, and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by p bnsf railway. Consumer cellular. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. The william and flora hewlett foundation. For more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. At www. Hewlett. Org. And with e ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org youre watching pbs. 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