Pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. The ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. And with the 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. Ifill christmas day, 2015, brought fresh appeals for an end to terror, and a new focus on peace. The theme dominated annual messages from various World Leaders, starting at the vatican. Cheers erupted from the thousands in sunny saint peters square, as the pope emerged to deliver his christmas message. In it, he spoke out against atrocities by radical islamists. translated my thoughts also turn to those affected by brutal acts of terrorism, particularly the recent massacres which took place in egyptian airspace, in beirut, paris, bamako and tunis. Ifill francis did not directly name the Islamic State group, but he did urge World Leaders to focus on syria, libya and elsewhere. He also praised countries whove taken in refugees fleeing the violence. Some of those refugees spent their christmas in a camp in calais, france, where theyve waited for months, hoping to get to britain. Across the channel, Queen Elizabeth took note of the hardships suffered by many, in her annual holiday message. Theres an old saying that it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness. There are millions of people lighting candles of hope in our world today. Ifill again this year, american troops spent christmas in afghanistan and other far flung outposts, including kuwait. Well, as we know, our army, our been whole military has been deployed for over the last fifteen years, so its important to go out, and many of these soldiers have been deployed multiple times during Christmas Holidays and other holidays, so again we just want to thank them for their services and really tell them we appreciate what they do for our army and really for our nation. Ifill president and mrs. Obama also paid tribute to the troops in their pretaped holiday message, and they urged americans to come together as one family. Caring for those on societys margins the sick and the hungry, the poor and the persecuted, the stranger in need of shelter or simply an act of kindness. Thats the spirit that binds us together not just as christians, but as americans of all faiths. Ifill the obamas are spending their holidays in hawaii again this year, hiking, golfing and seeing friends. It was a far more somber day for tornado victims across the south. At least 14 are now confirmed dead in wednesdays storms. The same weather system also brought flood warnings in several states today, and much of the east coast saw record warmth again with readings 20 degrees above normal. In britain, the government called a rare holiday cabinet meeting, to deal with record flooding in northern england. The british army has been deployed to build barricades in cumbria. That area has already seen the wettest december since records began in 1910. A world away, the problem is fire. Raging bushfires in australia destroyed more than 50 homes southwest of melbourne and forced hundreds of people to evacuate. The fires were burning near a popular tourist attraction, the great ocean road. Witnesses said some people had to flee christmas celebrations on a moments notice. They were all prepared, putting their barbecues on, they were cooking away, and all of a sudden they could see the smoke coming over the hill. They thought it was still four hours away, according to what theyd heard. And then all of a sudden it was an hour away, and all of a sudden it was half an hour away. So, they just dropped everything, stopped cooking and hopped in their car and headed here. Ifill crews are using water bombing aircraft and 60 fire engines to battle the flames. But Officials Say it could take some time to make progress. Tragedy struck in nigeria last night. An explosion at a gas plant killed dozens of people as they lined up to buy butane gas. One reporter said he saw about a hundred bodies. Officials say a truck was discharging gas at the facility when it exploded. The blast touched off a fire that raged for hours before it was finally doused. Theres another sign of potential warming between india and pakistan, after decades of war and tension. Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi made a surprise visit to pakistan today. He met with pakistani Prime Minister nawaz sharif, and aides said they discussed the disputed kashmir region. The two also met at the Climate Change talks in paris this month. And an apology today from a british astronaut for an errant phone call. Tim peake misdialed on a christmas greeting from the International Space station. Later, he tweeted id like to apologize to the lady i just called, saying hello, is this planet earth . not a prank call, just a wrong number. Ifill still to come on the newshour why some drug prices suddenly spike; the man whos Walking Around the world; what the highway bill means for the nations roads and bridges; mark shields and Michael Gerson on this weeks news; and the hit musical about the founding father you forgot about. Ifill we now turn to a story that continues to worry and anger consumers soaring drug prices, even sometimes for new versions of old drugs. The latest case involves a drug that helps treat a rare autoimmune disorder. Until recently, its manufacturer often offered it at minimal, or no cost. But now another pharmaceutical company, catalyst, says it wants the f. D. A. To approve a modified, and likely more expensive, version of the drug. I recorded this conversation yesterday, with reporter Sabrina Tavernese of the New York Times. Sabrina, im going to start out by asking you to define something most people have never heard of which is orphan drugs. What are those . The orphan drugs is a law passed in the early 1980s to try to stimulate development of drugs for rare diseases. So it was specifically meant to get Drug Companies to come up with new ideas and new inventions for small populations of patients that wouldnt have otherwise been profitable, so it gave some advantages to companies that wanted to that agreed to develop these drugs. Brown so now what you see is some companies are repurposing some of these old drugs that were created with this protection under this umbrella for profit . So, essentially whats happened, gwen, is the companies are just sort of scouting around in the landscape looking for older drugs to get approved under this law. So, essentially, not really doing any development work, not really doing any of the hard, you know, invention required to come up with something new, taking something that was old that was already on the market and getting it approved, getting it special status under this law and, so, that gets them seven years of market monopoly which is actually a very, very long period of time for the drug industry. Reporterindustry. Ifill you wrote in the New York Times about a particular drug designed to help patients suffering from a specific syndrome. Tell us about the drug. The drug, its for a neuromuscular disorder, people having trouble walking, confined to wheelchairs or beds. The drug is quite old. The u. K. Developed it and the earliest traces of it i could find were in france and scotland in the 1970s. Essentially, the drug has been effectively given away for free to patients since the early 1990s by an unusual familyowned drug company in new jersey called jacobous. That was the situation for many years. A wall streettraded company swept in and has seen that the drug did not have fda approval and decided to get it approved under this special law, so kind of racing to approval and taking the drug off the market for patients that currently are getting it for free and starting to charge what most patrick analysts think will probably be 100,000 a year. Ifill exorbitant costs. Who controls this . I know its the fda but is it also the market . Maybe these companies have a right to charge what the market will bear . Thats a good question. Effectively, they do. Its not illegal. The fda, when it decides what drugs to approve, doesnt look at price. Thats not something that it considers. Its not it never has. So, effectively, the United States is really the only rich country in the developed world that country have any where the government has no control over drug pricing, none. And this is a vulnerability in our system that effectively companies that are really, really out to get very high profits for their stockholders has taken advantage of. Ifill so it becomes out of the good of the companys heart if they want to guarantee access for people who need this medication . Essentially what the companies have done is they agree that, when a person is uninsured or if a persons Insurance Company wont cover the drug, the company has what they call a Financial Assistance plan that will help, essentially, apply for various subsidies, rebates and often the company kind of chips in some money to help patients pay for these things, but for the most part Insurance Companies do pay for the drugs, particularly under the orphan drug act, the populations are fairly small, the prices are exorbitant but the Insurance Companies say, okay, there are not that many people so we will cover this. But what economists say is this comes out in everybodys premiums and in everybodys healthcare costs. The price of having insurance has gone up and up and up and why is that . This is part of whats going on, its part of the dynamic of rising costs in healthcare in the United States. Ifill is there any way of knowing how widespread this is . I know it shows up in our premiums, but if you put together all these different orphan drugs, you end up with quite a population of affected people. Well, some of the kind of gaining of the system that Drug Companies have been doing under this act is they will take a broader disease, say breast cancer, and slice it into narrow definitions of smaller kind of subsets of that disease, then they can qualify for afterren drug status when, in fact, the population is much larger. Another example is a drug thats been approved for some other treatment that they just want to extend their monopoly on and under the act get it approved for a new treatment, but effectively its the same drug, no new research or work or inveges has gone into it, its just a repackaging. So this is ways the drugs are used. Ifill sabrina tavernise, thank you very much. Thank you so much. Ifill a journey of a lifetime journalist paul salopek spent his career covering the news overseas and jetting around the globe, until he realized that Walking Around the world might provide deeper insight. Earlier this year, Hari Sreenivasan traveled to the republic of georgia to take a stroll with salopek. It was such a memorable walk that we decided it was worth showing it to you again tonight. There is something not in your brain, but almost in your backbone, about the rhythm of walking, this a b, a b. Its the pace of a heartbeat. Sreenivasan on a high country cool morning, paul salopek is out for a walk. But his walk is unlike any you or i might take. On this morning, he is nearing mile 4,000 of a trek that began in january 2013 in ethiopias great rift valley, the wellspring of ancient humankind. This whole project is about two things. Its about the past and the future. And the past element is following our first ancestors who spread out of africa during the stone age, so, following the footsteps of some very old and intrepid pioneers. Sreenivasan he calls this project the out of eden walk, and he will end it some time in six or seven years at the very southern tip of south america, after logging 21,000 miles. Thats about 30 million footsteps, for those of you counting yours every day. The twotime Pulitzer Prize winning Foreign Correspondent was used to dropping into war zones and driving his way out as fast as possible. But so far on this trip, hes walked through some of the conflict zones of the middle east, now on an assignment that is his lifetime. With support from the National Geographic society, the nieman and knight foundations and others, he has walked across deserts and mountains. So, why do this . There has got to be a space for us to slow down, analyze and absorb more meaningful information. I dont think we need more information. I think we need more meaning. Sreenivasan what kind of context are you able to get when you are walking vs. When we get there in cars and planes and trains . Walking has shown me that the boundaries between stories are permeable, in that one story bleeds into another, because human life bleeds into each other. And so walking between stories shows me connections that didn i didnt used to see when i would parachute in. Sreenivasan and what are we saying . What is humanity telling you . The same stories over and over again. Its the same classic stories of complaint, of joy, of aspiration, of hope, of hopes dashed. And i never get tired of them. Sreenivasan we caught up with him in southern georgias caucasus mountains, near armenia, where the walk was stopped late last fall at this destroyed sovietera building. Last november, we had just crossed the turkish border, and it was very bad weather. It was snowing, it was sleeting, very cold both during the day and at night. We came down, and with frozen feet had to break through a frozen river, plunging in up to our thighs. And we were very afraid of hypothermia. Sreenivasan salopek and three walking partners found this spot. One man set his gloves alight to start a fire and stay warm. On a november night a year ago, this was heaven. This was better than a fivestar hotel. Sreenivasan then he waited here in tbilisi, the capital of georgia, for a lot longer than he planned. He was stuck in what he calls a geopoliticallyinduced storm, waiting for visas that would determine the rest of his route. A hundred thousand years ago, the problems were different here, in this land littered with volcanic boulders from ancient eruptions. When our ancestors, the first people who walked out of africa, passed through this region, their big obstacles were glaciers and big animals that would eat them or droughts or famines. Today, mine is these ethnic fault lines and these imaginary walls, these imaginary glaciers called borders. And they have knocked me sideways, way off my intended track. Sreenivasan months of back andforth talks with regional governments made it clear that his original plan to walk across iran and points east wouldnt work. Finally, he set a route from georgia that will pass through azerbaijan, on to kazakhstan and beyond. It doesnt look like much, but this ruin on the high plateau of southern georgia is the beginning of phase two of the out of eden walk. So this is the gateway to the orient for me. From here, im leaving the caucasus, going on the old silk roads to china. Sreenivasan so at mid morning on october 20, salopek set out, with the world revealed before him one step after the other; on this day, up to a Mountain Pass at more than 9,000 feet. Down the other side, salopek and his walking partner spent the night in the small village of mamishlari a village of ethnic azeris, from azerbaijan. They were taken in by the nasibov family. 72yearold ziauddin nasibov, and his wife, 70yearold wife azmat married as teenagers. It is a tough farmlife, on the edge, really, of civilization. We came around the corner of this Mountain River and here was this village that we didnt even know existed. Their first reaction was curiosity. When i finally told him well, actually, ive hiked all the way from africa, that was the surprise moment and there was laughter around that table. And there was a Lively Exchange about oh, youve got to be crazy translated i dont think he is crazy. I actually thought he was quite enlightened because they actually want to walk across the world and see whats out there you might not notice a place, but when you walk by on foot you see it, and appreciate it for what it actually is. And ziad has really joined the walk because hes shown us the way. Sreenivasan all along his route, salopek has been joined by walking partners, who function as guides, translators and companions; in georgia that partner was dima bitsuleiman. What is the reaction of most of the people you bump into when you tell them what hes doing . They go yeah, yeah, yeah coming from africa. On walk . What do you mean . they kind of dont believe it why is he doing it . What is he trying to find out . Sreenivasan what about when they figure out he is trying to walk to the end of the world . And then, its even worse and then they really ask what is he searching for . Like, why is he doing that . I dont think there is an easy answer. Sreenivasan after passing through boggy lowlands where horseman emerged from fairytale fogs, salopek arrived at a village ipnari, largely abandoned since stalins time. It revealed a much deeper history. Nearby, a bronze age wine store. 5,000year old fermentation vats sunken in the ground. Youre talking about the beginning of civilization, and georgians were already drinking the walk has opened up the vista to me in both space and time where i can see the connections between all of these stories and i see how history informs everything thats happening today. Time pools in certain valleys, and it runs like a river through certain canyon systems, certain youre talking about the plains and every step you take could be in a different era. So here we are coming up to another one and i think that the task now is to kind of go slowly. Sreenivasan but for now, his steps were taking him toward the village of boslebi, georgia. And as the evening gathered, salopek explained one mind boggling facet of this grand experiment. More often than not, when he sets out each morning, he has little idea where he will sleep that night. Were gonna draw attention, obviously, and just star greeting people and start striking up conversation. And every single village is different. Sreenivasan and it is this exact moment, First Contact in a village, that salopek was hesitant to have us film up close. Its hard making a First Impression with a camera crew in tow. This day, five minutes after this scene and after meeting two other people in town, he had a place to stay for the night. You dont plan out every step of the way . Its hard to explain to readers who think that ive got a team back in the states with a big map with blinking lights and computers plotting out my route. They would laugh if they saw how seat of the pants this is. This is truly sort of strolling across the world, and seeing how far i get before nightfall and then looking for shelter. The world is, by and large, a hospitable place. Merab, this is my friend hari, from the United States. Sreenivasan hari. Pleased to meet you. Paul introduced me to his host for the night before i arrived, merab saaladze, a retired Deputy Governor of the local municipality. You just invited him into your home . Hes a total stranger . translated i asked him who he was and he said he was from the u. S. , so i immediately invited them in. Sreenivasan is it common to be this hospitable to take in a stranger . translated for me, it was the first time. Sreenivasan after tea and a bit more conversation, we set out for the next waypoint the ancient village of dmanisi which well tell you about in our next story about six miles away. So, basically, there is no shortcut. Merab said, well, yes, you have to cross the river. Ok. Sreenivasan but, as we soon found out, even the most precise directions need updating, which we were given by a man with hands stained from a lifetime of gathering walnuts. And that, says salopek, is just part of the plan. Youve got g. P. S. , youve got maps, youve got guides, you are still going the wrong way sometimes. Being found is overrated. Being a little lost is good because it keeps you alert, keeps you looking around. It keeps you scanning the horizons about to find your bearings and you are not sleepwalking through the world. Sreenivasan so how many pairs of shoes do you think youve gone through . This is the fourth. Somebody brought me these from the states, so theyre kind of special. Sreenivasan do you get tired by the end of an average day or has your body gotten used to this pace . I do. You know, it depends on my physical condition. You know the walk has kind of turned into my life, so its a complicated question to answer. Its like you you have good weeks and bad weeks. Like, you have good weeks and i think im in pretty good condition, but i get tired, and my job in quotes is to write, not just to walk. So at the end of the day it takes a special effort to sit down and write a story. Sreenivasan those stories dispatches from this ambling eden are being followed online by a growing group of digital companions. Young people in particular, students, catch up with salopek along the way. The tools of the trade are the heaviest thing he carries in his backpack a laptop, cameras, notebooks and not more than a single change of clothes. He stops every 100 miles to record a milestone, a panoramic photo that includes an exhausted newshour crew and a wayward pig, in this case. Then some video, and a brief interview with the nearest person. This one, number 29 after 2,800 air miles traveled came outside a Truck Drivers house near a georgian mining town. And after a few questions and a handshake, salopek is again on his way, the rhythm restored. Sreenivasan what makes a human want to go over the next ridge . Ah, the eternal question. The one that probably doesnt have a rational answer through science. The walk is part of that exploration, the impulse, not even rational to know whats over the mountain. Why, why paddle into the sea . Weve set out again and again and nobody came back and yet, we set out. And once scientist geneticists said were just crazy. And i think that magical wonderful craziness is part of the joy of this project, and i think its something that also binds us together. Sreenivasan for the pbs newshour, im Hari Sreenivasan, in southern georgia. Ifill after leaving georgia, paul salopek traveled through azerbaijan the 10th country hes crossed and will soon continue his walk across central asia on the road to china. Ifill that trip over the river and through the woods might go a little more smoothly in future years, thanks to the big highway bill that became law this month. It is the largest deal of its kind in a decade, and as political director Lisa Desjardins reports, its attracting both cheers and concern. Reporter the scope of this highway bill is vast over 300 billion that will touch roads and bridges in every state and most counties for half a decade. A dramatic law that hits very familiar places to americans. Behind me is one of the most congested intersections in the state of maryland, and we have had design weve had the designs completed for this upgrade of this intersection for maybe ten years. Its shovel ready. Reporter meet hans riemer, a man who thinks about transportation a lot. He has to, as a councilman for trafficheavy montgomery county, maryland, north of washington. Riemer showed us this intersection that is a major bottleneck each morning. The county has had a fix ready for years, but has been in limbo waiting for stable federal funding to help. Because listen to this fact since 2009, congress has limped through 34 shortterm highway bills, and no Stable Funding to back big projects like this. Until now. If the concern is, the federal government is not going to be there on the other end, then there is a lot of pressure not to spend the money locally. And that is, you know that is just a downward spiral really for everybody, so the fact that bill is done at least for a temporary funding fix is a great step forward. It will be the longest term bill to Pass Congress in almost two decades. Reporter Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell pushed the highway bill as a priority and the megadeal was put together by usual adversaries, democrat Barbara Boxer of california and republican jim inhofe of oklahoma. They hashed out a final agreement with house members and the new speaker. Were going to have a highway bill which will help families and workers by rebuilding our infrastructure and giving a boost to our economy. Reporter its good news for american drivers, counties and states five years of stable federal funding for highways and bridges. But critics question where that funding comes from, and say it may lead to bigger problems down the road. When created in the 1950s, the Highway Trust Fund was meant to rely on the federal gas tax for funding, but with lower gas prices and more fuel efficient cars, the money coming in has dropped. Despite less gas tax money, this deal increases highway funding for the next five years. That may sound good, but it does this in controversial ways. One it sells oil from Americas Strategic Petroleum reserve. That sale wont happen until 2023 but the law spends the money now. Another issue it takes 53 billion from the federal reserves surplus accounts. So unfortunately, instead of financing this in an honest, straightforward way, were relying on budget gimmicks, onetime funding mechanisms, shortterm measures that really are going to make the problem more difficult in the longer term, instead of fixing it. Reporter Maya Mcguineas is the president of the committee for a responsible federal budget. Her organization wrote its own report, saying highways should be funded, but only by reliable sources. Their idea raise the gas tax. The reason that makes sense is the biggest burden of that tax falls on the people who use the highway system. Its not quite a user fee, but it acts like a user fee in a lot of ways. The gas tax hasnt been increased in quite some time, so one of the proposals that is on the table, and that we think makes an awful lot of sense, is to gradually increase that gas tax. Reporter back in maryland, the state gas tax just went up this summer, specifically for transportation. County councilman hans riemer is grateful for the new federal highway law and hopes it brings changes to his mosthated intersection, but he is already thinking of five years from now, when the money runs out. I think the most important thing, of course, is a sense of stability to the commitment of the federal government to meet transportation needs. And whether that budget Funding Sources comes one way or the other, i am less concerned about that, than the fact that the commitment is solid. Reporter that concern goes beyond drivers, to the economy. The new law, and the Highway Trust Fund supports over half a million jobs across the country, making it both a public and political need. For the pbs newshour, im Lisa Desjardins. Ifill now, for our weekly political analysis of this weeks news, we turn to shields and gerson. Judy spoke with them earlier this week. Woodruff the president ial candidates, and voters, are enjoying a brief holiday break from campaign season. But just before they left the trail, candidates were reacting to the final debates of the year. And in just the last few days a new war of words erupted, between Hillary Clinton and donald trump. That brings us to the analysis of shields and gerson. Thats syndicated columnist mark shields, and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson. David brooks is away. Gentlemen, welcome to you both at this christmas week. Lets talk first about the democratic debate, mark, of last weekend. Did it change in any way the arc of this democratic contest . Not apparently and not obviously, at least to me. I thought all three candidates had respectively the best debate show they have been showing so far excellent presentations, command of the facts, seemed comfortable. But is Hillary Clinton entered as the dominant National Leader according to every survey and she emerged as the dominant National Leader among democrats. One question i dont know is it affected something in New Hampshire that will fester, or iowa, but those are the only two contests now. Woodruff did you see anything i in the debate to chae where things, are mikele . No, it confirmed the arc but its an interesting arc. I think Bernie Sanders is not going to be the nominee but i think hes affected the debate in the discussion. Hes pulled Hillary Clinton toward the Progressive Side on a number of issues. She was not distinguishing herself the way her husband did by going to the middle. Shes a very conventionally progressive in this debate. That shows Bernie Sanders influence. Woodruff and, mark, so neither one of you mentions Martin Omalley. Martin omalley was better than Martin Omalley has been. I thought he was good. For whatever reason and Bernie Sanders, i agree with michael, Bernie Sanders has had an influence quite beyond anything, anybody predicted when he came into this race. Over 2 and a quarter million contributors, clinton people are now sending out direct mail requests for money complaining not complaining, but comparing the fact they had fewer contributions than bernie and that bernies raised more money. He has certainly influenced and shaped the debate and is ahead in New Hampshire. I pointed out for historical purposes that no president since Dwight Eisenhower has been elected to the white house who did not finish first or at least second in New Hampshire. Not that that affects Hillary Clinton at this point but it certainly affects the republican race. Woodruff we appreciate the history. I think there were two minor gaffes hillary had. One on the glitches on obamacare. There are more than glitches weve seen. And the other is where we need to be on i. S. I. S. , which she doesnt agree with, she supports a no fly zone. Both those show the dynamics of a third term when youre defend you can immediate predecessor. George bush did it in 1988. Al gore didnt do it well in 2000 dealing with the clinton record and background, and shes going to have to deal with that as the case goes forward. Woodruff the other thing that hillary said that continued to get picked at after this debate is her comment that i. S. I. S. Is using video of donald trump speaking against muslims as a recruiting tool. Hes come back and demanded an apology, said this was outrageous. Where does this go from here . We have a war of words going on. You have to come down on Donald Trumps side because hes so fastidious with the facts and apologized so frequently for his ohno occasional misstatements. Where this goes, judy, is something that Hillary Clinton did not need. Hillary clintons strength to the candidate that shes experienced, strong, smart and in command. Her weaknesses are that she is not particularly likable to the majority of voters and not seen as honest and trustworthy. She and trump had the most identical stories in the last quinn pi piiac poll quinnipiac poll. She doesnt need fuel to the blaze that shes not forthcoming. She cast it she is running against trump which is to her advantage. Woodruff she brought him up several times during the debate. This erupted into a real battle between the two of them. Trump has gone on and used earthy language talking about Hillary Clintons loss in 2008. Well, i think that mark is a minich and thats my limit on yiddish here. I think we all learned yiddish we didnt need to know here. Some of this is a back and forth in politics but donald trump is an innovator in contempt and the decay of american discourse. When it comes to knocking the disabled or when it comes to comparing another candidate to a child molester or his raw misogyny. This is not normal. This is getting rid of the guardrails of american politics and life, and then to complain when theyre gone and not used, its not credible in his case. Mark, can he basically just say whatever he wants and get away with it . The polls out this week have him up again nationally. Now, there was another poll. There was one poll that came out this week that showed half of americans would be embarrassed if he were elected president. Meanwhile, the polls when matched up with other republicans have him out front. No yes, he does, he has strengthened. This year repelled every rule ive known about politics. Before they vote for you, they have to like you. Donald trump is not liked. In New Hampshire, you have to go there and be there, whoever is there most often, they expect to see candidates. Hes been there less frequently than either scott walker or rick perry, both of whom have withdrawn from the race yet hes ahead by a commanding margin in the polls. His language harry truman was roundly roasted in the editorials of the country for saying damn and ike used hell. This is the jersey shore version of reality tv politics. I mean, its the mad housewives of one of the cities you want to name, being sort of verbally abusive. The other thing is every president ial candidate is about capturing the future, and donald trump is sort of a restoration of this earlier america where america was dominant, america could do whatever they want, america showed the earth and didnt have to Pay Attention to anybody else economically, politically or militarily. I dont know, as of now, hes defied gravity. It does express something deep and disturbing about American Life and that is contempt for institutions. Weve had a lot of institutions come under attack for a certain segment of the public. Donald trump shows disrespect. Thats an advantage. Thats what appeals to them because they have such disrespect for the system itsself. That i think is dangerous and sad. Is there something to be said, michael, about the rest to have the republican race . We do spend a lot of time talking about donald trump. Do we see any new shaping ben carsons been slipping in the Public Opinion polls . What do you see . I was in iowa recently. You could feel some gains for cruz. Religious conservatives and religious right people. Thats a broader coalition than huckabee had, his was more narrow. I think cruz has a good chance in iowa. You could sense carson is slipping. I dont know about trump. Big question is does Donald Trumps poll numbers translate into caucusgoers and builders. Normally his group, bluecollar voters, noncollege educated vote least of many groups. Will he be able to get them out to the polls through twitter and other messages that we dont know . I think thats what republicans are really wondering. Woodruff how do you see the rest of republicans . I think the cruz surge has been documented. Woodruff how do you explain it . I think there are three dprowms hes done well with. The tea party conservatives, he went up a score there. Among religious and cultural conservatives, especially evangelicals who had been leaning strongly toward ben carson and then away from him. Thirdly, conservatives, and that will serve him well in iowa and the southeastern states on march 1. Its not much help in New Hampshire. Pat robinson and Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum did well in iowa, and all foundered in New Hampshire, which i believe you can check this out, judy is beautiful, white congregational churches on the green, made great paintings but theyre quite empty. Woodruff im going to check it out. Another big question, who can solidify the republican establishment vote in about four people now. There is some expectation rubio had some traction here by Chris Christie could do well in New Hampshire and cmple kate rubios plan here. Governor bush is still significantly back. So that is the open question, will that lane be filled by a strong candidate that can contend for this nomination . And is it a viable lane in this atmosphere, when you have so much insurgent antiestablishment support already wound up with cruz and trump and ben carson. Woodruff last question it is christmas and, so, i have to ask you two, what gift would you give . Michael, its been an up and down year for president obama. What gift would you give to the president and what gift would you give to the republicans . Mark . First, the president. I dont think any democrat deserves anything in their stocking this year because theyve already got donald trump. That is christmas gift, birthday gift, valentines day. I think anything more would be greedy. Grecian formula. laughter the president , certainly careful about his appearance, mentions more than once his greying hair. If it bothers him so, at least if he cant 60 favorable job rating, we could give him black hair. We love grey hair on this program. The republicans, what gift, michael, for them . Wouldnt want normally this, but i think a lump of coal because republicans love coal. laughter that was good. Woodruff youre going to have a hard time topping that. I am going to have a hard time topping that. I would say the recorded speeches of Abraham Lincoln from whence they came. Woodruff coal i didnt record the speech. Maybe morgan freeman. Woodruff we wish both of you a merry christmas, best of holidays and well see you again in the new year. Ifill next, what happens when you take a look at america before and after the revolutionary war, throw in a little hiphop, dance and attitude . Just the Biggest Box Office draw in new york city, thats what. Jeffrey brown has this encore look at the musical hamilton, and the man behind it. Its the coolest American History youre likely to get, and the hottest ticket on broadway. Hamilton a kind of hiphop musical, tells us of alexander hamilton, immigrant, ambitious young rebel, a founding father who arguably never got the recognition he deserved. Im actually working on a hiphop album. Its a concept album about the life of someone who i thinks embodies hiphop, treasury secretary alexander hamilton. laughter you laugh. Hamiltons creator and star, linmanuel miranda, performed an early version of one of the plays songs at the white house in 2009. I was the son of the scotsman dropped in the middle in the caribbean to be a hero and a scholar brown when we talked recently, he told me how hamiltons life came to be about so much more. The joy of discovery of, oh, if i tell hamiltons story, i actually tell the story of the forming of our country, that was a joyous experience. And i think, honestly, thats the secret sauce in the score. I was learning this stuff as i was researching it to write the show. I knew the basic outlines that everyone knows. He was on the 10 and he died in a duel. Thats pretty much anyone knows about him. Brown but were you thinking from the beginning that this larger story was what would emerge . I knew that reading reading ron chernows biography of his life was like a dickens novel, such Humble Beginnings to such incredible heights, and such incredible incident throughout, that, you know, i always tell people i feel like im a mosquito that hit an artery. Like, theres so much here. How am i going to get it all . Brown storywise, theres so much there, yes. Absolutely. What im always on the hunt for when im writing a song are details, and really attacking every moment in the most original way and theatrically compelling way possible. So, our mantra is, the political always has to be personal. So if youre going to write a song about the compromise that led to hamilton trading his vote for the debt plan for the capital of the u. S. Being down here in the newly formed d. C. , well, thats easy to say in a sentence, but lets tell it from the perspective of aaron burr, who wasnt in the room, and desperately wants to be in that room. And, suddenly, we can get away with anything, because we have got dramatic tension. I want to be in that room the kind of life he knew. singing i want to be in that room brown miranda, now 35 and the son of puerto rican immigrants, is an actor, composer and playwright. He first made his name with in the heights, an exuberant musical of life in new yorks latin american community, the kind of life he knew. Hamilton is set several hundred years earlier, but miranda found a similar connection. I would argue that hamilton feels twice as autobiographical as in the heights does. Brown really . Yes, absolutely, especially i actually think we kind of double down on the themes of in the heights, and sort of blow them up to a grand scope. Were not going to tell the story of an immigrant neighborhood. Were going to tell the story of the First American immigrant and the formation of our country. And so, in that sense, it felt intensely personal. Its not the story of people who have been here for generations, but what it feels like to land here and make your way. Brown and the language, the rhythms of hiphop . Its the best form for hamilton. And when you extrapolate from him, its a wonderful language for our revolution. We need a revolutionary language to describe a revolution. And this was brown you mean hundreds of years later . Were separated by an ocean from britain, so this wasnt a fistfight. This was a war of ideas, in a sense. And so we needed not only great fighters, but great thinkers to navigate us from rebellion to the forging of a new nation. And so hiphop is uniquely suited to that, because we get more language per measure than any other musical form. Brown what about the casting of the Founding Fathers as latino, as black . Is that an important part of this to you . I think so. I think one of our overarching goals with this show is with any show is, you want to eliminate any distance between your audience and your story. And so lets not pretend this is a textbook. Lets make the founders of our country look like what our country looks like now. This is what our brown so, its not a costume epic with a distance. Correct. Correct. And this is what our country looks like now. It looks like, you know, we are we are every shade and every color. And it also comes organically out of the music. This is hiphop and r b music. These are the best people to sing this type of music. Brown these days, miranda is himself a new kind of rock star vetted all over. We joined him in washington as he received an ingenuity award from the smithsonian institution, and gave a talk to an adoring audience. I asked him about the use of the word ingenuity to describe his work, and that brought on a characteristic riff on how he develops his own word play. I remember there is a lyric in our show where lafayette say ingenuitive and fluent in french. And i remember having a fight not having a fight, but having a debate with my collaborators, because one of them was like, well, thats not a word, ingenuitive. And i was like, i think it is. And then we were split twotwo whether ingenuitive was a word. And we looked it up. And it is an archaic conjugation of ingenuity. And i was right. And i dont know why i knew that word, so and other people didnt, but brown and, therefore, you use it. And, therefore, we use it. Yes. Brown but you can make up words if you want, cant you . Well, shakespeare did it. And it worked out pretty great for him. laughter brown so, writing musicals, entertaining musicals, telling stories, and now filling in large gaps in American History. Is there a hierarchy of that for you . Whats most important for you . The most important thing for me, honestly, is meeting those expectations every night. You know, were not film actors in that show. Its not like you get it once on camera in the can and were done. Were shots. And we have to make the experience happen for the audience that im going to see tonight after i get on the plane, for the same audience that you know, for a difference audience that i saw last night. Brown i saw where you said you think to yourself, whats the thing thats not in the world, that should be in the world . Thats a big idea, right . Yes. Brown i mean, do you feel that . Like, whats missing in our world . Absolutely. I mean and it goes back to i hope that what i can contribute is something that hasnt been seen before. You know, in the heights very much, came out of me wanting a career in musical theater, but theres only about three great roles for latino men in musical theater. Brown yes. Youre bernardo, youre paul in a chorus line or, if you can really sing, youre man of la mancha. I cant sing well enough to be the man of la mancha. Brown so you did two out of three. So, i wrote i wrote something that had so many parts for latinos, because i knew there was a void there. I knew it because i was going into that world, and i was scared. Brown but its also a big idea to think that you can fill a vacuum. I think thats what we do about artists. Its, what the thing that only i can contribute . Its not about the confidence to like, hello, world, heres this idea that never existed. Its, this is my brain, and unless i express it, its only going to stay in my brain. Its more about personal expression than imposing your will on the world. Its more about, you know, if i dont get this idea out of my head and on to paper, it dies with me. Brown all right, linmanuel miranda, thanks so much. Thank you. Ifill finally tonight, we bring you a special newshour shares something that caught our eye, that we thought might be of interest to you too. Santa has been doing a lot more than delivering presents today, and its been hard work. Take a look. carol of the bells on the newshour online right now, some beautiful pictures of tonights christmas moon. It is the first full moon on a christmas night in nearly four decades, and it wont happen again until the year 2034. We have collected images that some of you have been taking and uploading online from around the world, and the images are truly stunning. Take a look. You can find all that, and more, on our web site www. Pbs. Org newshour. Ifill on pbs newshour weekend saturday, an ambitious plan to find homes for all of the homeless vets in los angeles. And we will be back, right here, on monday, with a look at a new tool to help people with celiac disease and Food Allergies dine out safely. Thats the newshour for tonight. Im gwen ifill. Have a great weekend, and a very merry christmas. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. Bnsf railway. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions 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 this is bbc world news. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newmans own foundation, giving all profits from newmans own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs, metlife premier client group, and Sony Pictures classics, now presenting the lady in the van. Cliques just until you sort yourself out. And educated woman and living like that. Merry christmas. Shut the door. I am a busy woman. I am a sick woman, dying, possibly. The lady in the van. Rated pg13