Woodruff 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. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. The lemelson foundation. Committed to improving lives through invention, in the u. S. And developing countries. On the web at lemelson. Org. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org 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. Woodruff a president ial visit. An f. B. I. Interrogation. A mystery yet to be solved. The days headlines in the Las Vegas Massacre. Cat wise begins our coverage. Reporter the investigation proceeded today, from the las vegas strip, to the main f. B. I. Building in los angeles. The las vegas gunmans girlfriend, marilou danley, was being questioned there. She flew back last night from the philippines, where she had been when Stephen Paddock opened fire on concert goers sunday night. Danleys sisters spoke with faces obscured, to australias channel 7, and insisted she knew nothing of paddocks plot. She didnt even know that she was going to the philippines until steve said, oh, marilou, i found you a cheap ticket to the philippines. He sent her away. So that he can plan what he is planning without interruptions. Reporter meanwhile, president and mrs. Trump arrived in las vegas this morning. They were greeted by local and state officials, and went first to a private meeting with survivors and their doctors. It makes you very proud to be an american, when you see the job that theyve done, and people that would not be around today are up there, leaving the hospital in a week, two weeks, some cases, five weeks. Its amazing. Reporter mr. Trump met later with police and emergency crews who answered the call sunday night. We struggle for the words to explain to our children on how such evil can exist, how there can be such cruelty and such suffering. But we cannot be defined by the evil that threaten us or the violence that incites such terror. We are defined by our love, our caring, and our courage. Reporter here, at the crime scene, the Mandalay Bay Hotel and casino looms over the site that became a killing ground. Investigators are methodically gathering evidence from the gunmans hotel room and from the grounds where a Country Music festival erupted in bloodshed. gunfire Stephen Paddock aimed a torrent of gunfire at the concertgoers for a good nine minutes, before he killed himself. Get out of here, theres gunshots coming from over there. Go that way Reporter Police body camera footage shows officers trying to get concert goers out of harms way. Go that way, go that way, go that way. Everybody stay down. Stay down. Reporter and among the concertgoers, more stories of sacrifice and heroism, even after being hit by bullets. I just felt it hit me once. Thats when i said weve got to get going, and then i ended up trying to line everyone up, and i kept telling everybody to get in front of me. And then i got hit a second time, just a couple inches apart. Reporter investigators now know paddock stockpiled at least 23 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his hotel room. F. B. I. Special agent jill snyder says hed been collecting guns for many years, and especially in the last 12 months. From october 2016 to september 28, 2017, he purchased 33 firearms, majority of them rifles. Why is there no notification if someone is buying multiple rifles . There is no federal law requiring that. Reporter 12 of the rifles found in the hotel suite were outfitted with a bump stock, allowing a gun to function like a fullyautomatic rifle. In washington today, democratic senator Dianne Feinstein of california introduced legislation to outlaw the device. Mr. And mrs. America, you have to stand up. You have to say, enough is enough. You have to say that there is no reason to make a semiautomatic assault weapon into a fully automatic battlefield weapon. Reporter some republicans, including texas senator john cornyn, agreed today its worth examining the issue of bump stocks. For the pbs newshour, im cat wise in las vegas. Woodruff we will look at the debate over bump stocks and remember more of the victims in las vegas, later in the program. In the days other news, secretary of state Rex Tillerson denied that he almost resigned over the summer. And, Vice President pence denied he talked him into staying. Nbc news reported tillerson was close to quitting after President Trumps politicized speech to the boy scouts, which tillerson once led. The secretary insisted he never considered leaving. He stopped short of denying another part of the report, that he called the president a moron. Im not going to deal with petty stuff like that. I mean, this is what i dont understand about washington. Again, im not from this place. But the places i come from, we dont deal with that kind of petty nonsense. And it is intended to do nothing but divide people. Im just not going to be part of this effort to divide this administration. Woodruff later, the state department did deny that he called the president a moron. Mr. Trump said the entire report was made up, and that he has total confidence in tillerson. Nbc news said it stands by its story. Leaders of the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Say the question of whether the Trump Campaign colluded with russia is still open. They spoke today, about their ninemonth old investigation. Republican richard burr and democrat mark warner said there is no doubt that Russian Hackers tried to influence the 2016 election, and that theyll do it again. You cant walk away from this and believe that russia is not currently active in trying to create chaos in our election process. I assume that the same tactics we saw in montenegro, in france, in belgium, and in the u. S. Will continue to be tested. Woodruff the senators said that social Media Companies did not take russian infiltration seriously enough at first, but are cooperating facebook has turned over more than 3,000 ads tied to russian interests, but the committee is not releasing the content. The white house budget chief says there wont be a federal bailout for hardhit puerto rico. President trump suggested yesterday that the islands huge debt, more than 70 billion, will have to be wiped out. Instead, budget chief Mick Mulvaney says thats not happening. Instead, a new disaster package is going to congress. Its expected to total 29 billion, for texas, florida and puerto rico. Well hear from the mayor of san juan, right after the news summary. This years nobel prize in chemistry goes to scientists from the u. S. , britain and switzerland, for creating finely detailed images of biomolecules. The honorees are Jacques Dubochet of the university of lausanne, Richard Henderson of cambridge, and Joachim Frank of columbia university, who got the Early Morning call at home. I was very nervous, because we have this dog now and we are anxious about being woken up at around that time by the dog. So there was a competition between the Nobel Committee and the dog at that time, and all i kept saying was this is wonderful news. I repeated myself and, you know, i wasnt very sophisticated in my response. Woodruff starting in the 1970s, the researchers made breakthroughs in freezing organic molecules so they could be studied by electron microscopes. The technique is being used now to develop drugs against the zika virus. Online retailer giant amazon has been ordered to pay nearly 295 million in back taxes to luxembourg. The European Union ruled today that the tiny nation gave amazon illegal tax benefits over an eightyear period. It said the result was to shield almost threequarters of amazons profits from taxes. Its the latest move in the e. U. s crackdown to close tax loopholes. And on wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained about 20 points to close at 22,661. The nasdaq rose three, and the s p 500 also added three. Still to come on the newshour we talk with the mayor of san juan. Las vegas reignites the gun debate. One on one with venezuelas president , whose country faces an economic meltdown. And, much more. Lets turn now to puerto rico. The federal response continues to draw criticism from locals. They were only. A flied yesterday after President Trumps visit to the hurricaneravaged island. San juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz has been especially outspoken, and shes personally called out by mr. Trump. Special correspondent Monica Villamizar caught up with the mayor this afternoon. She began by asking about mr. Trumps comments about what constitutes a catastrophe. Mr. Trump had nothing to say. I think a picture speaks louder than a thousand words. And the photographs that you have seen, the horror that we have witnessed speaks for itself. Yesterday was an interesting day. The meeting that we had, the second part of the meeting with white house staff i think finally put into perspective the disconnect between what theyre hearing and what is actually happening, what they think should happen and what is actually taking place, and this is an important gap to be filled. So i hope that people hear reports, we have town, for example, where the mayors have not been heard of. Why . Because theres no communication. I keep asking people, 100,000 people have registered with fema, 100,000 out of 3. 5 million. Less than half the population has been affected. 100,000 . We still have 1. 5 million to go. Its of the it most important to bring in the communications. I cant believe the logistical problems. You go to the middle of the desert, put down a solar panel and theres communication, so i think that the world needs to pay more attention to puerto rico and less attention to what he says. Do you think there is a lack of will to help the island . You said it yourself, the military can establish communication. From the American People theres not a will be of will. Theyre here. I think that what has to happen is that Standard Operating Procedures have been put in place, and, you know, when youre in the habit of just listening to those that tell you that things are okay, then you are in trouble. My staff tells me when i screw up. Every day, no qualms about it. I am not perfect. I do some things that are right. I do some things i could have done better. I do some things that are wrong. Everything within the confines of being ethical and moral, but sometimes you have to admit it. I think general buchanan was very strong when he was looking forward and said, i dont have everything i need and this is the worst devastation ive ever seen. Look, i dont know why the president keeps saying things are getting betterment let me tell you one thing thats going to get bad really soon. The water levels are depleting, so we may be running into further problems. But this is about saving lives. This isnt about politics. Some people make it about politics because they want to change the dialogue. Looking at the injustice and the suffering and the faces will have to make them admit their failures. Were still in a lifesaving moment. I know were in a lifesaving moment, and the further you go from san juan, the White House House the worse it gets. So this doesnt cut it. Why do you think, you were there, what did you feel personally in. I wasnt there. I wasnt there. I was at the first briefing that lasted for about 17 minutes. When the president proceeded to say that katrina really was a real disaster and went on congratulationing, because there were only 16 deaths. We are calculating lives as if they were chips. It just doesnt work that way. And when you dont know and when you havent gotten everywhere, you just cant say what the total is. Then he talks about the deaths. Then he talks about we were injured. We have no time for politics. We have no time for the kind of discourse thats trying the change the focus from where it should be. No, we dont have all that we need. Yes, there is a moral imperative to help us, to come to our aid, and, yes, this is a humanitarian crisis. The world can see it. Our brothers and sisters can see it. Our brothers and sisters from new york, from california, from miami beach, from boston, from chicago see it. So were going to work with those that see it. Do you think President Trump should have flown around the island like general buchanan did to see the scope of the devastation for instance . If your heart isnt open, it doesnt matter where you go. You dont think his heart is open . It doesnt show a lot of sensitivity. He can attack me all he wants. Bring it on. Im here. As long as it gets the message out that we are thirsty, that we are hungry, that we need supplies. Woodruff we return to the debate over guns in the United States, a conversation taking place across the country this week, sparked by the tragedy in las vegas. Last night, we spoke with senator richard blumenthal, a democrat from connecticut. And tonight, im joined by republican senator James Lankford of oklahoma. He serves on the Senate Homeland security committee. Senator, welcome back to the program. I know youre hearing the conversation about what the shooter used to increase the capacity of these weapons that he used to kill so many people, the socalled bump stocks. Some Republican Leaders in the senate are saying they want to take a look at that. Whats you view . I was trying the look at the whole situation. Its incredibly tragic. Its what we always say in this situation. There are so many violations for so many laws for this individual, from bringing guns into a casino and to shooting people, obviously breaking, violated so many laws. Hes trying to examine, is there another law that would have fixed all of this . As i say, that we have to address the issue of bumble bee. Bump stocks. These were approved during president obamas time. Why was it approved . Why has it been allowed since then . What does it accomplish . And how does that fit into our total rife of where we are as a nation that honors the settlement, as well. Woodruff based on what you know right now, do you think its possible you could support banning these socalled bump stocks . I dont know enough to be able to answer that question or to know how it would have affected this environment. What i can say is decades ago, the United States resolved that we dont allow the private possession of automatic weapons except for a very small number of people. And while the individuals that sell the bump stocks would say this doesnt turn a weapon into an automatic weapon, it certainly turns them enter a weapon that features and acts like an automatic weapon in its firing mechanism. Those are questions that have to be solved. Woodruff what would be the use of a bump stock . What would be the rationale reason to need that for a gun for a semiautomatic . Its not necessarily a need that for a gun. It is a lot in our own culture and in oklahoma and in multiple other states, people just enjoy shooting sports. They enjoy going to the range and being able to fire different types of weapons of different calibers. Its a sport as much as it is anything. So there is always a question of why do you need that for hunting. Not everything is done for hunting. Just like everyone who has golf clubs doesnt necessarily play golf all the time, sometimes they putt around in the yard. Thats what they enjoy doing. We have four Million People in oklahoma and eight million guns in the state. Individuals like shooting sports and some hunting. What is limiting a settlement Second Amendment right or what is an issue about automatic weapons that weve resolved as a scown dry. Woodruff is there anything else about the shooting in las vegas that makes you rethink your support for gun laws as they exist today . Well, one of the things that senator cornyn and aexamined years ago that we proposed the bill on is dealing with individuals that are on the terror watch list. How do we allow those individuals not to be able to purchase weapons and still have due process. So there are unresolved issues still that should be addressed. We have to be able to know the rest of the facts in this situation, to be able to determine what could have actually been an impact to be able to get this addressed that would have made a difference. Again, for someone who is intent on breaking the law in so many ways, that this murderer broke the law, we have to figure out, was there one more that would make a difference . If so, what is that, and lets try to address it. Woodruff senator, as you know, there is a lot of conversation about how powerful the National Rifle association and other organizations that support gun rights are in this country and in this city of washington. How much power do they have . Because its been said that i guess republicans, even democrats are afraid to go up against the gun lobby for fear they will run somebody against them or will oppose them, that it is just a power they have the way beyond what it should be. So i would only say that people lose track of the fact that the n. R. A. Is not some random group that sits out there with a great power. There are millions upon millions of americans that agree with the perspective of the n. R. A. Theyre members of the n. R. A. They love shooting sports. They love recreational shooting and they know the n. R. A. Represents their opinion. The power is not in the organiz