Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20170617

There. Woodruff and, its friday. Mark shields and david brooks analyze the latest in the russia investigation, the state of partisanship in our country, plus the rest of the weeks news. All that and more, on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. 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. Woodruff President Trump is now apparently acknowledging he is under investigation for possible obstruction of justice. He tweeted today about reports that special Counsel Robert Mueller has expanded his probe of russian meddling in the election. The president said, i am being investigated for firing the f. B. I. Director by the man who told me to fire the f. B. I. Director that would be Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein. He authored a memo criticizing james comey, before comey was fired last month. Rosenstein now oversees mueller, but several news outlets reported today, he may yet recuse himself. The president released his latest Financial Disclosure late today. It covers january 2016 through this spring. But not exact income. The report says he resigned from more than 500 positions, many of them one day before the inauguration. He listed at least 315 million in liabilities, about the same as last year. Mr. Trump spent much of this day in miami, rolling back some of president obamas opening to cuba. The new policy seeks to reduce the flow of u. S. Dollars to businesses controlled by the cuban military. Well have a full report, later in the program. In london, anger over an apartment tower fire boiled over today, as officials raised the death toll to 30, with dozens still missing. Jackie long of independent Television News filed this report. Shame on you shame on you victims and others across london took that anger to the local council, storming the hown hall. Earlier, a more subdued response as the queen and to talk of cambridge visited one of the makeshift Relief Centers set up in a local sports center. They met residents and volunteers. The queen praised the brave riof firefighters, with a desperate father in the crowd holding a picture of his children. Please come here, come here, please the duke promised, i will come back. Ill be back. Ill come back. Ill come back. The Prime Minister today announce add 5 millionpound Emergency Relief Fund but wasnt enough to assuage the anger of some. Criticizing yesterday for visiting but failing to talk to residents. She came back today and was met with this. screaming also today in a recent statement, the Prime Minister assured residents that the government is there for all the victims of this tragedy. Woodruff jackie long of independent Television News. The Guardian Newspaper reported today the Guardian Newspaper reported today that recent renovations to the apartment tower used a cheaper kind of exterior paneling, instead of a flameresistant version thats more expensive. Irans supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei, is charging that new sanctions approved by the u. S. Senate violate the 2015 nuclear deal. The sanctions are aimed at tehrans missile program. Today, a Senior Advisor to khamenei said they are unquestionably a breach of both the spirit and the letter of the nuclear agreement. The spokesman promised iran will respond. Russias military says that it may have killed abu bakr albaghdadi, the Islamic States leader, in an air strike. The Defense Ministry in moscow said today the strike happened late last month in syria. It said it is still verifying the claim. U. S. Officials say they have seen no evidence that its true. The u. N. Refugee agency warned today that 100,000 iraqi civilians remain trapped behind Islamic State lines in western mosul. The officials said isis militants are using the civilians as human shields, as they continue to lose ground. The announcement came in geneva. If you put yourself in their situation, you know, when you may have a fighter on top of your roof, attracting the artillery fire, you can imagine in which condition of penury and panic they live, being unable to flee and knowing that if they try to flee, if they are caught, they will be killed. Woodruff Iraqi Government forces have been fighting to retake mosul since october. Back in this country, a Massachusetts Woman was convicted today of involuntary manslaughter, for urging her boyfriend to commit suicide. Michelle carter sent hundreds of Text Messages to conrad roy. In july 2014, roy filled his truck with deadly carbon monoxide, then got out, contacted carter and told her he was scared. She responded get back in. She could get as much as 20 years in prison. Doctors in washington now say that representative Steve Scalise can hope to make a full recovery after being shot this week. He was gravely wounded when a gunman opened fire at a Congressional Republican baseball practice. Scalise is still in critical condition, and is expected to have additional surgery. On wall street today, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 24 points to close at 21,384. The nasdaq fell 13 points, and the s p 500 added a fraction. For the week, the dow and the s p rose a fraction of a percent. The nasdaq fell nearly 1 . The man who brought about germanys reunification, helmut kohl, died today. He became chancellor of west germany in 1982 and guided the rejoining with east germany, after the berlin wall fell and the soviet bloc collapsed. Helmut kohl ultimately served as chancellor for 16 years. He was 87 years old. And, los angeles temporarily turned into gotham city last night in memory of adam west, who played batman on the 1960s tv show. Hundreds of fans gathered to watch as officials flipped a switch and flashed the iconic bat signal on city hall. Adam west died this week at 88. Still to come on the newshour my conversation with David Petraeus on the fight in afghanistan. New travel and business restrictions between the u. S. And cuba. And, much more. Woodruff wars in afghanistan, syria, and iraq. Tensions within the gulf states. And, a new administration trying to manage an exploding region. All topics for retired general David Petraeus. He commanded american and Coalition Forces in the wars in iraq and afghanistan, and served as overall commander of u. S. Military operations in the middle east. He later served as director of the c. I. A. In 2011 and 2012. Hes now with a Global Investment firm. We spoke a short time ago. And i started by asking him about reports that the Trump Administration will soon send 4,000 additional u. S. Troops to afghanistan, and whether he thinks that is a smart move. I think it is, and its heartening. I think what we need to get to in afghanistan is a sustainable, measuring the expenditure of blood and treasure, a sustainable, sustained commitment. We need to recognize we went and stayed for a reason, to ensure that afghanistan is not once again a sanctuary for al quaida or other transnational extremists the way it was when the 9 11 attacks were planned there. Thats why we need to stay. We also have a very useful platform there for the regional counterterrorist effort and, of course, weve greatly reduced the capabilities of al quaida Senior Leaders in that region included, of course, taking out osama bin laden. But this is a generational struggle. It wont be won in three years, we wont take a hying, flag, plant, go home and a victory parade. Were in for the long haul. Its sustainable. We have been in corina 65 plus years because there is an Important National interest for that. We were in europe and still there with a renewed emphasis given russias aggressive actions, and i think thats the way we need to approach this. To be sure, the forces woodruff are you saying we may need to stay in afghanistan 60, 70, 80 years . I wouldnt say 60, but we should not approach this as a yearonyear mission. I think that was harmful. I think it gave all the afghan leaders basically get the jitters. Those investing money consider every year whether to keep it there or go to dubai. I think this is an important interest, and i think we ought to have a sustained commitment but at a level that is sustainable, and i think a few more, 3,000 to 5,000 more troops are very sustainable, but also we should relax the remaining restrictions on the use of our air power to support our afghan partners that have shown they are willing to fight and die for their country against al quaida, the insurgents of various times and so forth. Woodruff as americans look at afghanistan, you say we may need to stay decades and decades. We have been there, 15 years, have had hundreds of thousands there and did not turn back the taliban. We are not going to permanently win this, keep in mind, theres a huge difference between afghanistan and even iraq when we did the surge there. You cant pressure the leaders of the afghan taliban, the other insurgent groups because theyre out of our reach and in sanctuaries inside pakistan. Indeed, there should be a regional effort to get our pakistani partners to do more to deny sanctuary to those elements that are making life so difficult for afghans and the afghan government. Woodruff the other comment made is the administration has nod laid out its strategy for afghanistan. General mattis said this week were still working on it. They are. I understand there have been a number of meetings at the principals level, so forth, the National Security team is working on that. I do think you can ants peat an integrated strategy. Again, the troops are just a part of this, an important part. Without them, without halting the erosion of security that has characterized afghanistan over the last year or more, then youre going to have a serious problem on your hands. Woodruff lets talk about i. S. I. S. In syria. You mentioned syria and in iraq. We are told progress is being made against i. S. I. S. Opened battlefield, but the Coalition Air strikes we are now told, strikes are resulting in hundreds and hundreds of civilian deaths. Is that the price that americans should be prepared to pay to get ahead of i. S. I. S. . We should absolutely minimize the civilian deaths, and theres no question that there will be more of these. This does happen in wartime. There will be far fewer than certainly what the extremists, these very barbaric Islamic State state forces have done. But this is an enemy thats sheltering among civilians, thats whats making it difficult to take the last recommend napolitano of Islamic State in mosul. This is now old mosul, the old city. I spent a year there as a two star when we were in charge of iraq with 101st airborne, this is very difficult and the enemy barricaded itself in there with explosives, rooms, houses rigged, surrounding themselves with civilians and this is the most dibolecally, difficult callenge even for the skilled Counterterrorism Forces of the iraqi army. Thats whats really slowed this down. We can expect some of that in raqqa. That operation began in syria. That was until recently presumably the Islamic State headquarters. There are roars that some of these leaders have already led and moved town the Euphrates River valley. Thats going to be a tough fight but its a much smaller city compared to the 2 million, a quarter or less the size of mosul. Woodruff im moving through difficult areas quickly but i want to turn to vaibz, the gulf nations. President trump was there recently trying to present a united front with the saudis and other countries mainly against iran, but turns out theyve turned against qatar, and the president has signaled that he has problems with the qatars support for terrorist activities. At the same time, his administration has said we hope these countries can Work Together. What is the strategy, the approach that we should expect that we should understand as americans about the Administration Policy there . Well, secretary of state tillerson is taking charge of this now. Hes trying to get the temperature down some. Clearly, theres been a frustration that boiled over with the emirates, our close partners, the emirates and the saudis against our other close partners, the qataris. The Central Command headquarters, my headquarters is inside the air base. They gave us 100 million. At times i said youre giving us all this money for our headquarters and aljazeera is hammering us every day in the news. There is something not right here. Similar frustrations have, again, boiled over. Also the allegations of support of political islam. You have to understand that for the emirates, especially, there is more worry about Muslim Brotherhood kind of activity than there actually is with iran or the Islamic State. The crown prince will say we can see the extremists, the iranians, the creep of political islam is more difficult and qatar allowed the heads of hamas, muslim brothers and other political islam organizations in the region to locate there. These are all three our friends and partners. I hope would be that, in this case, secretary of state tillerson can indeed get the temperatures down, get talking going on behind closed doors rather than out as visibly as it has been, because that makes it very difficult and you start to back different friends into corners. But its hard. The United States, in some respects, needs to avoid being engaged in a beauty contest where we have to say which is the fairest of them all. Its not fair to us and not fair to them. I think this is resolvable but its not going to be easy. Woodruff general David Petraeus, thank you very much for stopping by. Pleasure, as always. Woodruff as we reported earlier, President Trump took steps to roll back some parts of the obama administrations opening to cuba, which began two and a half years ago. John yang reports now on whats out, and what stays in effect. Yang President Trump made the announcement in miamis little havana, before an enthusiastic crowd in a packed auditorium effective immediately, i am canceling the last administrations completely onesided deal with cuba. Yang while the president s action falls short of canceling, he said it fulfills a Campaign Promise to undo president obamas reengagement with cuba. Today, the United States of america is changing its relationship with the people of cuba. Yang in december 2014, mr. Obama restored diplomatic ties with the island nation, after more than 50 years of hostility. In march 2016, he became the first u. S. President to visit cuba in nearly a century. President trump says his focus is halting the flow of u. S. Dollars to the communist government. Our policy will seek a much better deal for the cuban people and for the United States of america. We do not want u. S. Dollars to prop up a military monopoly that exploits and abuses the citizens of cuba. The revised policy bans transactions with enterprises, including hotels and other touristrelated businesses, ultimately owned by the cuban military. Mr. Trump is also reinstating a rule that restricts individual travel, and requires most visits to cuba to be in group tours organized by american companies. But, the policy continues direct commercial flights between the two countries. The administration will also maintain the u. S. Embassy in havana, but still, with no ambassador. Reactions in havana today were mixed. Well see what happens but now i think its like going back to the cold war. None of the changes will tak will take effect until the u. S. Treasury and commerce departments issue new regulations, which could take months. For more on the revised policy, and how its being understood in cuba, we turn to alan gomez of usa today, who joins us from havana. An, thanks for being with us. We heard a little smarting of the reaction in the streets of havana, but i know you have been out reporting today. What are you hearing from average cubans in have in about this change . I mean, its been a level of confusion, of sadness, of disgust, of anger. You know, just imagine, these people have lived here for decades without any interaction with the United States, with the u. S. Just treating them as an enemy and closing off to them, then two and a half years ago, they get this opening and they talk about this period already in the past tense as this glorious period where they were able to have more americans down here, interact with them more and visit the u. S. More and now trump has taken it not all away but cut that back significantly. So, yeah, theres a lot of anger here right now and a lot of confusion over why its being done. How have they talked about how their lives have changed, what difference this last two years has been to them. Cuba, the staterun economy, you only get certain sal and benefits from the government, so they relay heavily on tourism, and its infused a whole lot of americans down here over these past two and a half years. So you think about everybody from private restaurant owners, private taxies, tour guides, all these people that interact with americans, theyre all the ones getting the benefit directly. President trump talked a lot today about all the of the money thats been going down over the last couple of years is going straight to the cuban government, but i can tell you from being down here the last couple of years and talking to folks today that they get a lot of it. Of course, some goes to the government, but theyre upset that to punish the cuban government they get hurt as well. Yang how will life change under the changed rules . Simply, fewer american tourists will be able to make the trip because of the way the Trump Administration will change the visa system. It will be a lot harder for american tourists to get to the u. S. If youre an american and want to come to cuba, hop online, figure out your trip and you can pretty much get your visa at the airport counter on the way down here. Now they will go back to the old way where you have to apply beforehand to the federal got to get a trip to go down. So cuba is expecting the torrent of american visitors will dry up and the aspect that a lot of private Business Owners that have had a lot of interaction in the last few years, going to the United States, working with business people, getting training and bringing the lessons back to cuba, theyre worried that will be limited as well. I want to ask you about a development on your regular beat, immigration. The Trump Administration announced last night they were going to keep the program that protects from deportation undocumented immigrants who came as chilren. The president during the Campaign Said he was going do away with that and change that obama policy. What do you make of deciding to keep this . What the president did was pretty much eliminate a program that would have protected their parents from deportation. That program, theres no immediate effect of that because all that program had been on hold in the courts for some time now but what it does is means those parents are never going to get any sort of legal status under this president and, more than that, means that those children that have been protected for deportation under the preferred program are worried they will have that taken away. The Administration Last night specifically said the program would remain in place. Alan gomez of u. S. Today from havana, cuba. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Woodruff stay with us. Coming up on the newshour the long road to recovery after staying in the i. C. U. Mark shields and david brooks take on the weeks news. And, an author explains why she went against her friends advice and followed her boyfriend to a new city. But first, it was a shooting that captured the nations attention last summer, as the country grappled with tensions over police shootings. And today, the jury reached a verdict in the trial of the officer. Hari sreenivasan has the latest. Sreenivasan Philando Castile was shot when his car was pulled over for a traffic stop last july. His girlfriend was in the car, and live streamed the aftermath on facebook moments later. Officer Jeronimo Yanez said at the time that he believed castile was reaching for a gun. Castiles family and girlfriend disputed that. Yanez had been charged with seconddegree manslaughter and endangering safety. This afternoon, a jury acquitted him of all charges after five days of deliberations. Soon after, his mother and sister came out and spoke to reporters. My son was murdered, and i will continue to say murdered, because where in this planet do you tell the truth, be honest and still be murdered by the police of minnesota while you have your seatbelt on and youre in the company of a woman and child . My son would never jeopardize anyone elses life. The system really is wrong, and they really failed us, once again. Because my brother was a good man. You never heard him raise his voice, never heard him yell, and for that man to get on stand, and lie he got caught in three, four, five lies. Sreenivasan it was the most recent example of an officer being acquitted in a high profile shooting. The jury had been deadlocked in recent days. Tim nelson of Minnesota Public Radio has been covering the trial and joins me now. Tim, first, you were in the courtroom. The reaction . It was swift and shocking. The castile family was sitting in the courtroom, the judge asked people to be quiet while the verdicts were read, but as soon as the notguilty verdict for the manslaughter account was returned, valery castile, philandos mother, got up and started shouting profanity in the courtroom. She had been the people in the court had been told to wait until all the verdicts were read before they left, and she pushed her way out, was joined by many of her friends and family visibly upset, very, very angry about the verdict here tad. On the other side, the friends and family, some of the fellow officers of Jeronimo Yanez were weeping as well, clearly relieved this ordeal is over, its been going on almost a year now. He was charged in november. A lot of angst initially in the courtroom. Sreenivasan the county attorney when he was bringing these charges said no reasonable officer would have used deadly torse in this situation, why wasnt he able to convince a jury . One of three factors, first, the squad car video, the perspective of the officer from his dash cam. We saw this happened very quickly. You could feel the emotion, you could feel the tension in this situation as it happened, and its confunding. Confounding, you cant see what was actually going on in the car and i think that left some doubt there. The other thing, the defense continued to return to the thc found in mr. Castiles blood after he died. They continued to suggest he had been smoking marijuana and that may have clouded his judgment when he told the officer when he pulled him over that he had a gun, that he may not have done it in a way that lessened the risk they both faced in this case. And i think the third thing in this case is officer yanez actually taking the stand last friday. He was near tears when he talked about the fear he felt, the tension he felt, his thoughts of his family running through his mind as he encountered Philando Castile for those first few seconds of this incident. So it, i think, may have left some doubt in the jurys mind and, you know, there are some Supreme Court cases, graham vs. Connor, that give the benefit of the doubt in a lot of these cases to the police officer. They urge the jury to think about it from the officers perspective in the moment, not in perfect 20 20 hind scieght. Sreenivasan we learn from castile had a permit for that weapon. Whats the level of concer concr anger in your community. We remember there were protest force days and weeks on your streets. Not just the streets. They closed an interstate in between the two cities in what authorities later called a riot. There were Police Officers injured in that incident. The protester protesters occupie front of the Governors Mansion for weeks here, and, you know, you remember this happened just after the shooting in louisiana and had been it sort of added to the tension there. We havent seen these protests lately but as soon as i walked out of the courthouse, there were people with hand lettered signs shouting, making their voice known, their unhappiness about this verdict. So its clear there are people who are very angry and we may see that more soon. Sreenivasan tim nelson of Minnesota Public Radio, thank you so much. Woodruff more than five million americans are admitted into hospital intensive care units, or i. C. U. S, each year. Undoubtedly, they are a crucial component of the Health Care System for treating seriously ill patients and preventing deaths. But some patients also eventually leave the i. C. U. , with new complications and problems. Special correspondent jackie judd looks at those concerns and an effort to make sure patients are getting the right interventions. As soon as we get this ultrasound done, well get the lights on and windows open, okay . Reporter every year, almost six million patients land in an intensive care unit, and through often heroic efforts, lives are saved. For many of those survivors, that period of time becomes a bright line in their lives, of before and after. I am very aware that i am not the same person who went into the hospital with sepsis. I am just not. Reporter in what ways . Well, my personality. Im shortertempered. Mood change, mild depression. Reporter paul turpin, an endocrinologist who lives outside of nashville with his wife mary lou, spent a month in an i. C. U. That was two and a half years ago. Richard langfords first i. C. U. Stay was a decade ago, and he has not lived on his own since. Mom is the one who takes care of me. Now my mother is 88 years old. The challenge is. Reporter psychologist jim jackson leads this support group, and is part of a team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center that helped identify a constellation of symptoms mimicking p. T. S. D. , post Traumatic Stress disorder. They call it postintensive care syndrome, p. I. C. S. They dont have a traumatic experience, in the way that a combat veteran or a rape survivor would, so theyre not referred to a Mental Health professional. They really fall through the cracks. With all of these gaps, there just is a lack of awareness. How do you feel . Reporter dr. Wes ely has studied this phenomenon for almost 20 years. He says the risk factors are clear; powerful sedatives and prolonged use of ventilators which can trigger delirium. Some i. C. U. Patients need those interventions, but not all of them do. We had to tie people down so they wouldnt pull lines and tubes out, but we also chemically restrained them with these deep sedatives, so we got comfortable pummeling peoples brains with gargantuan amounts of benzodiazepines, propofol and other types of sedation. We put them in this cocoon, but it wasnt a safe one. And when we started measuring delirium and then started measuring physical and mobility, it unveiled this issue of p. I. C. S. Hi, sweetie, can you open your eyes . Reporter a substantial number of patients leave the i. C. U. With newlyacquired problems, ranging from dementia, to depression, to muscle and nerve disease. Dr. Ely has been following some of them for six years, and will soon release a study. Preliminary data shows that onethird of patients improve and get back to normal cognitive and functioning levels. Onethird remain the same as the day they left the hospital. And, onethird decline even further. We should talk about whether we should move the tube to the neck. That will allow us to decrease the sedation youre on. Reporter so, leaders in acute care developed a different i. C. U. Treatment. When possible, they keep patients out of the cocoon by reducing the use of drugs and ventilators, and by getting them moving. Turning off of sedation every day and turning off the ventilator every day gets people out of the hospital sooner. It decreases cost of care and it helps improve survival. Reporter hospitals across the country have been slow to adopt the practices in use here at vanderbilt. Its been more than four years since the society of Critical Care medicine issued new treatment guidelines for controlling pain and delirium in the i. C. U. , and yet today, the organization describes compliance as mediocre. Every day, were going to get you up as much as we can, okay . Reporter coaxing patients out of bed to exercise takes a lot more staff time than sedating them. And getting doctors to change what has long been done is hard. A lot of it has to do with people in long white coats, the doctors. The doctors are used to how they do things. They dont want to be told to do it a different way, and theyre late adopters. We have early adopters in life, and we have late adopters, and the doctors think, well, this is an invisible problem. I dont see it. I dont see it as an issue anyway. They cant even necessarily envision what it is that could happen so much better. Hi, mr. Peters. Good to see you. Reporter vanderbilt used to release patients from the i. C. U. With no followup. Now, it is one of a handful of hospitals with posti. C. U. Clinics; a waystation for patients at risk. The goal is to be a bridge to a medical world with little awareness of the syndrome. Dr. Carla sevin is one of the founders. The main purpose of the clinic is to sort of bridge this Million Dollar intensive care time to this outpatient status, which is not set up to take care of the multipronged problems that people experience after the i. C. U. That might be permanent. Reporter the clinic also organizes the support group where Richard Langford is a regular. It helps give me a structure for why im feeling the way i do, and that im not going crazy. This anxiety is not something that will kill me. Its not something that i have to worry about, and keep worrying about, worrying about, worrying. Thank you, lord, for this nice day. Reporter as for paul turpin, he is happily back practicing medicine and still managing emotional ups and downs, including a lingering sense of terror, which is common among i. C. U. Patients. Fear of ever being in an i. C. U. Reporter what is that fear rooted in . Being back in those circumstances. Being out of control. Being wrapped up in that cocoon. Reporter is it what you fear most in your life . Probably. Do you know youre an inspiration to us . Reporter dr. Ely, who travels worldwide to spread the word about p. I. C. S. , says he senses a momentum to shift i. C. U. Care to reduce the harm it can cause. People were built to be vertical and moving around, not lying in a bed 24 7, so were trying to get back to the humanness of Critical Care. Reporter even so, he predicts it will be at least five years before what happens in this i. C. U. Becomes the norm for patients being treated at the most vulnerable and frightening time of their lives. For the pbs newshour, im jackie judd in nashville, tennessee. Woodruff and, to the analysis of shields and brooks. Thats syndicated columnist mark shields and New York Times columnist david brooks. Gentlemen, its been another tumultuous week on top of several others. The attorney general of the United States testifying before the Senate Intelligence committee and then we learned in the last 48 hours, mark, the investigation by the special council into the russia meddling in the election has been expanded to include whether or not the president committed obstruction of justice. Is this a onealarm crisis, twoalarm, or are we making too big a deal of this . Well, based on how the president s reacting, judy, i dont think were making too big a deal of it. I mean, the president having acted briefly president ial after the tragedy of the shooting of Steve Scalise and the others at the baseball field has reverted to form and gone back to, as you reported at the outset, now the man who told me to fire the f. B. I. Director is after me because is investigating me because to have the firing of the f. B. I. Director which is totally contradictory to what the president said to lester holt on nbc, that the recommendation of Rod Rosenstein had nothing to do with his decision to fire james comey as f. B. I. Director, that it was based sole on Donald Trumps desire, as he expressed to the russians the next day in the oval office, to get the Russian Investigation behind him. And i just think he is behaving like a man who really wants to fire Robert Mueller and, you know, who didnt live through october 20th, 1973, when president nixon ordered Elliott Nixon to fire Archibald Cox and the independent counsel, and he refused and resigned and william merkelhouse resigned and we had a constitutional crisis that led to impeachment hearings. Woodruff president is calling it a witch hunt and white house says he isnt going to fire the special counsel. It isnt clear but there have been reports out about that. It may not be a witch hunt but hes acting like a witch. The idea there is been collusion between the russian and the Trump Campaign has been investigated for a long time and so far we have no serious evidence they did collude and Everything Else seems to be leaking out. So i began to be a little suspicious and well see whether there was actually collusion. There were conversations about building and investment so well see whether or not there was a crime. This is a psychological story about a president who seems to be under more pressure and threat, lashing out in ways that are painfully destructive and extremely disturbing to Anyone Around him, so whether the north korean cap net hearing where they all had to praise him or the tweets later this morning, this is not a president projecting mental stability, and the idea hell fire somebody seems very plausible. So me, if there is something really damaging here, its something that has not yet happened cause bid the psychological pressure that he apparently feels. Woodruff it is. People are reflecting back, mark, to the whitewater investigation, the water gate investigation, what happened after the original alleged crime made whatever happened in the first place much worse. The two iron rules of washington scandal also is its never the act itself, its always the coverup and rule two is everybody always forgets rule one. Im not ready for the clean bill of health yet. Weve got the transition to go through and the New York Times story this week that suggested that rorkt robert was looking at money laundering, that this would have been the way through the russians, the beneficiaries had received their payments through offshore banks. This kind of opened up a new avenue thats reported in the New York Times. So i just think, judy, the abject absence of curiosity on the part of the president an his nine conversations with the f. B. I. Correct or anybody else and for the attorney general before the Senate Intelligence committee, abject lack of curiosity and how the russians did it. You come in and say 17 intelligence agencies concluded the russians tried to sabotage the american electoral process, and theres not a single question about what did they do, how did they do it, how can we avoid it, what can we do in the jeez, lets find the 3 Million People illegally voting in california instead and appoint a commission for that. Reporter mark has a point, when the attorney general was asked about a number of things, one of the things he said is he had not been briefed at all on the russia meddling. And thats in part why its a psychological issue. Riff contact where we know donald trump had conversations about the russia thing, we saw through the prism of his own victory and would he get credit for the victory. Its perfectly plausible for a normal human being to say well, i won the presidency but the russians did also seriously endanger american interests and the american political system and therefore im going to go after that. But hes incapable of seeing that second part. Its how am i getting full credit for what i think ive achieved. So its the intellectual security thats overshadowing all else. This is why its so different than whitewater and watergate, nixon has his complexities but he acted in machiavellian but certainly straightforward ways and that was the same for clinton, but this team, no. Clinton and Richard Nixon had very competent people around him, thats not the case here. The Clinton White house, it was hell to be in that white house. They tried to build the chinese walls to do their work while the investigation was going on and it was super tough for them, especially when you have tweet storms coming out, its near impossible to do your job. Richard nixon was no donald trump. Richard nixon served four years in the United States navy as an officer, 14 years in house and senate, eight years as Vice President , a constant reader of history and biography, may have been the bestprepared president in terms of experience in the history of the nation and has a record of achievement that amply documented character defects and criminal activity but an historic record of achievement, whether osha or e. P. A. Or whatever else. The two things that davids mentioned of that cabinet meeting, it was the most awkward event i have seen in 50 years. Woodruff when he went around the table he was to tell how wonderful you are, not what i did on vacation, but how wonderful you are. Not a single web with the exception of james mattis who escaped with his or her selfrespect in tact. It was wonderful, they love you in mississippi, youre doing a great job, everybodys better, the economy is better. I mean, this was scary. And the final thing was yesterday he goes after Hillary Clinton again, crooked hillary. I mean, hes trying to rerun that 2016 election. Woodruff all this takes place, david, in a week when, as you both have mentioned, the shooting happened, the republicans are practicing for their annual baseball game against the democrats in congress, and this man comes in to town from illinois, he ends up being killed, grievously wounds congressman Steve Scalise, still in the hospital in critical condition. After this, we see a coming together of the parties. I wanted to show a picture. This is from the baseball game last night where you had or two nights ago wh where you hade four leaders of congress there for once. I dont think weve ever seen a picture like this coming together looking like they at least can tolerate each other. And the thing thats symptomatic for me is i used to think polarization was a washington phenomenon. The people on capitol hill was polarized, still a moderate nation but there is little evidence to support that now. Theres a polarized country. Most of the politicians i know, members of congress hate the system im no. Theyre stuck in a much more polarized world than they wish they were in, and its out of the country and that doesnt say the shooter is symptomatic, its an atypical nut case. But it is a sign on the fringes. We saw a ratcheting up of violence. We saw it at the convention on both sides, the trump rallies on both sides. The people on the fringes of society, weve seen a ratcheting up in their feeling of justification they can resort to violent means and this guy reportedly had a list of people according to whats reported this afternoon of people he wanted to shoot. So thats weaponizing mentally disordered people through the process of political extremism. Woodruff is this coming together at all, mark . Do you see any endurance or is it just going to be a blip . You hope, judy, but davids point, both parties, according to pew research, in both parties, what drives the most activist wing is not support and energy and advocacy of their own side, its loathing of the other side. Thats the gauge as to whether youre going to be politically involved, vote and contribute, how much do you loathe the other party, how much do you hate them. There was a time, when i came to washington, when the legitimacy of your opponent was never questioned. You questioned their judgment, cted from t sten woodruff a lesson for all of us. And a news update go a u. S. Navy destroyer, the fitzgerald, has collided with a merchant ship off japan. The destroyer suffered damage and some flooding, but is now sailing back to port in yokosuka. One sailor was injured. The merchant vessel is sailing to tokyo. And, robert costa is preparing for washington week. Bob, whats on tap . Well, judy, in the wake of this weeks shooting at a g. O. P. Baseball practice, democrats are reaching out to republicans to Work Together on health care. Could it be the first step toward bipartisan action in congress . Thats tonight on washington week. Judy . Woodruff and well be watching. And well be back, right here, on monday, with a look ahead to the most expensive house race in u. S. History georgias special election. Thats 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 bnsf railway. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. 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. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org youre watching pbs. When a judge said, punishable by death, i lost it. Theyre moving. Funny. And surprising. Inmates perform their own stories. When youre in prison for so long, you get used to one costume and its blue. For one of the toughest audiences anywhere. We all look like smurfs in here. Hello, and welcome. Im swee vu. A kqed special. Many inmates are doing time for crimes like murder and assault. Most will be released back into our communities. Once known for its violence today, san quentin has some of the most rehabilitative in the california prison system. Well talk to