harris as joe biden's running mate, and congress' inertia on coronavirus relief. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ >> fidelity wealth management. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> johnson & johnson. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> 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: the centers for disease control and prevention is warning that the u.s. coronavirus death toll could hit 200,000 by labor day. that as the u.s. suffered its highest daily number of deaths since mid-may-- more than 1,500. coast to coast, states are recording bleak firsts. california became the first state to top 600,000 infections, while georgia had its deadliest day on record. we will hear how the pandemic is impacting summer jobs, later in the program. the u.s. postal service has warned 46 states and the district of columbia that some mail-in ballots may not be counted in time for november's presidential election. that is according to documents obtained by the "washington post." that is especially a concern for states that allow voters to request ballots days before the election. a historic number of absentee ballots are expected to be cast during the pandemic, as the very time the postal service struggles with financial troubles and delays. firefighters in southern california faced an uphill battle today against three raging wildfires. a state-wide heat wave, bone-dry conditions and gusty winds made for a difficult task. the largest fire has charred more than 18 square miles, and threatens more than 5,400 homes. it has little containment. residents described the scene as the flames spread. >> i thought, "this is getting out of control." all of a sudden, that little ten-foot section of smoke up there was wider and wider and wider. next thing, it was growing and growing, the whole top was smoking. then, fire department started coming in, all of the sheriffs, et cetera, et cetera, telling me to get out. >> woodruff: the weekend's forecast for the area calls for triple-digit temperatures and extreme fire danger. the death toll from a powerful wind storm that slammed the midwest earlier this week has now risen to four people. miions of acres of crs were damaged and some 250,000 iowans are still without electricity five days later. governor kim reynolds said teams are working around the clock to restore power. >> what we need to do is, we need to get power to iowans and to those that are affected. they've trd to prioritize, but i want you to know that the team that's standing behind me-- your local emergency manager, your mayor, everybody-- is working to make sure we can get that done in a timely manner. >> woodruff: 100 members of the iowa national guard arrived in cedar rapids today to help clear away debris from power lines. a former f.b.i. lawyer is expected to plead guilty to making a false statement as part of a federal probe into the origins of the bureau's russia investigation. a lawyer for kevin clinesmith said that he will admit he altered an email from the c.i.a. that was used to get court permison for a secret wiretap on former trump campaign adviser, carter page. president trump weighed in this afternoon. >> what happened should never happen again. so, he is pleading guilty. terrible thing, terrible thing. the fact is, they spied on my campaign, and they got caught. >> woodruff: the charging cument does not allege any criminalrongdoing by anyone else, and offers no evidence of a broader consracy to undermine president trump's 2016 campaign. in belarus, tens of thousands marched through e capital of minsk today, angered over a disputed election and the brutal police crackdown that followed. police have freed about 2,000 people they arrested during this week's demonstrations. but reports of widespread torture of those in custody are driving fresh outrage. all this as the european union is drafting a list of people in belarus who could face sanctions for their role in the crisis. nick schifrin has our story. and a warning-- some of the images are graphic. you may find them disturbing. >> schifrin: the scars of authoritarian rule are written on vartan grigoryan's back, and in the stitches holding together his eye. >> ( translated ): i was told to lie down, and so i did. they started beating me. i did not resist. they took me to a police truck, and beat me there as well. >> schifrin: he was in a group men released from a detention facility, that included 19-year- old alexander vilks in the green jacket. that's his mother. he'd been held for two days without any communication. and when he shows her the wounds inflicted inside? she can't bear it. >> ( translated ): they treated us as if we were terrorists. they beat us very badly, mostly hitting our legs, but also across the body. >> this was some of the darkest days in the history of modern belarus. >> schifrin: hanna liubakova is a journalist for the independent site outride.rs. >> whenever a person was transported from one place to another, that person was beaten. there were 80 people that were held there for 24 hours, without food, without water, and basically they could not sleep. >> schifrin: since sunday, authorities have cracked down on massive protests that followed what they call an election stolen by alexander lukashenko, known as europe's last dictator. the demonstrations are the largest since independence, 30 years ago. when one protest of 10,000 reached a government building today, soldiers laid down their shields. today, the protests expanded to workers at state-owned factories, the backbone of the belarusian economy, who organized a general strike. these workers were asked to raise their hand if they voted for lukashenko, or for opposition candidate sviatlana tsikhanouskaya. >> many those who were not interested in politics have suddenly understood the nature of this government, of this president. those who are not against lukashenko are now taking another side because of this police brutality, of this police violence. >> schifrin: today, tsikhanouskaya offered a way forward. >> ( translated ): i call on the authorities to end this and enter a dialogue. i ask the mayors of all cities to organize peaceful, mass rallies. >> schifrin: but this is still lukashenko's regime. >> so, they put me on the ground. they put a sheet over my head, so i really couldn't see what was happening. >> schifrin: marissa durham is an american master's student, whose boyfriend, stas gorelik, is belurussian. they wren't protesting, police forcibly entered their apartment two days ago and took him away. she hasn't seen him since. >> stas always did everything, and has done everything to always make sure that it's safe, no matter what. and he always took care of me, and the most that i want to do right now is try to protect him and help him. >> schifrin: for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schfrin. >> woodruff: afghanistan's government released the first wave of its final 400 taliban prisoners toda it was a key demand for peace negotiations with the militant group, in a bid to end more than 18 years of war. officials registered the prisoners' information as they processed their release. taliban officials said the government released 86 prisoners today. there was no immediate word when the rest will be freed. a congressional watchdog said today that the top two officials at the department of homeland security were appointed to their posts without legal authority. it found the appointments of d.h.s. acting secretary chad wolf and his acting deputy ken cuccinelli violated succession rules at federal agencies, since the last senate-confirmed d.h.s. secretary resigned in 2019. the watchdog has now referred the issue to the agency's inspector general. in economic news, retail spending returned to pre-pandemic levels in july. but, sales weren't quite as strong as analysts had hoped. and trading was light on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average gained 34 points to close at 27,931. the nasdaq fell 23 points, and the s&p 500 shed half a point. still to come on the newshour: the trump administration intensifies efforts to undermine mail-in voting and the postal service. n.b.a. commissioner adam silver details how the league is able to play games during the pandemic. temporary coronavirus response jobs take the place of traditional summer jobs for young people. and, much more. >> woodruff: new warnings from the u.s. postal service are coming to light today, suggesting that it will not be able to deliver all mail-in ballots in time to be counted for the election. that message came in letters sent to state officials around the country, and it raised the prospect of even bigger problems for november. william brangham has the details. >> brangham: judy, the letters were sent to 46 states and washington d.c., according to the "washington post." the postal service told states, including battlegrounds such as florida, pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan, that their timelines for counting and receiving ballots for election day would not necessarily line up with what the postal service could actually deliver. there are already delays in mail delivery, and th all comes as ney for the postal service is tied up in a bigger fight between the president and democrats over a covid relief package. erin cox is covering this for the "washington post," and joins me now. >> this letter was sent out earlier this summer to the states warning them basically that potentially millions of voters could be disenfranchised because of delays in delivering their ballots. could you tell us a little bit more about what this letter said said? >> so this letter went to states that support roughly 160 million american voters live. the states warned, states were warned by the postal service that under their reading of election law, there was not enough time between some of the deadlines to request the ballot and return a ballot for the postal service to guarantee that those ballots could be counted in time. and under that scenario, ballots that were asked for on time filled out on time, put in the mail on time would ultimately be disenfranchised, would not be able to be counted and the voters would be disenfranchised. >> so voters could follow all of the rules and still have their vote not counted. i mean, obviously this puts the states in a position, i know pennsylvania and some of them have looked at trying to change those deadlines to accommodate this delay, either making sort of opening up the deadlines for when you would ask for or cast a ballot or maybe delay when you have to finally deliver a final election results. can all of the states potentially affected change their rules in time? >> no. many of the states can't, and some of the states that we spoke to said that they don't intend to, and they have been dealing with some version of this problem with mail-in ballots for years. the problem is heightened dramatically, though, when you have states with, as much as 10 types as many mail-in ballots they usually have. what election officials have been saying they are going to do in those states is an aggressive voter education campaign, telling voters, mail in your ballot early, we know the deadline is coming but get it in a week before the deadline. you know that you are decided send it in. they are putting out extra drop boxes and trying to figure out workrounds so that they can still mail people ballots and also make sure that they don't have to fully rely on the postal services to, delayed system to get them back in time. >> you also reported that simultaneous to all of this the postal service is decommissioning hundreds of these enormous mail sorting machines that people have seen videos of these machines that can sort and count ballots at lightning speed or mail at lightning speed. why is that happening at the same time? >> so the rationale for decommissioning those, according to the postal service, is that the postal service gets a lot more packaging and boxes than flat mail like letters and ballots, so they need the floor space to be able to accommodate those packages and it is inefficient to have these enormous machines that are expensive and difficult to maintain taking up space that they really need to move other packages. on the other hand, rank and file postal workers have he he mentally disagree with that and they filed a formal grievance, they represent 10 percent of the postal service's capacity and can count 23 million pieces of mail in a single day and taking all of those off-line, a lot of the rank and file post workers say can sharply diminish postal service's ability to quickly process mail and things, mail-in ballots. >> i mean, with those machines going off-line, the delays that we know instituted in part by the new postmaster general, we know the president has been possibly threatening to not sign any covid relief deal that would have money to help the post office accommodate this. coupled with what we have been hearing from the president all of these falsehoods he has been making the about -- i sort of hate the cliche but it feels like this is a perfect storm that is brewing for this election. >> there certainly is potential for that, and, you know, it is now, you know, one of the big take aways from the letters from the postal service is that they are putting the onus on voters and election officials to make sure that their votes get counted and the postal service in issuing this warning prior to the motivation as i understand it, is to warn people about this perfect storm that is gathering and to put people on notice early so that people can take appropriate action to avoid having 10s of thousands or millions of ballots end up going uncounted. >> so briefl if there are voters out there who are hearing all of this worried about this, what can they do? where do they go to find out how to get their ballot in their house, sent back and get it counted in time? >> so this is a national issue, but elections always have been, and for the foreseeable future always will be run on a very, very local level of volunteers and local election officials. and those folks have a lot of detailed information about your town, your city, your area, how to vote, how to make sure your vote gets counted how to request a ballot, different ways you can do that. they are all working very very hard to try to overcome these kind of perfect storm issues, and so if you are concerned about getting your vote to count, get your ballot early, your local election officials and figure out a plan. >> erin cox of the "washington post", thank you very, very much. >> of course. have a great night. >> >> woodruff: nearly ten months after the n.b.a. season started, the professional basketball league is set for its playoffs games next week. but, it is unlike any other season. teams, along with staff, are playing in the so-called bubble in orlando, florida, where they are required to stay put. family and some close friends can visit during the playoffs. the league is also publicly supporting black lives matter by printing it on the court itself, and players are wearing messages on their jerseys. adam silver is the commissioner of the league, and he joins me now about all of this, from the bubble in orlando. >> adam silver, welcome to the newshour. you are now into the season, having resumed, you have been saying that it is going better than expected. tell us why you think that is and tell us what you think the risks are that are still ahead. >> absolutely. and one correction. i was down in orlando and am now back in new york and will be heading back again next week. so i am not currently living in the so-called bubble. but in terms of what we are trying to accomplish down there, you know, we have -- i refer to it more than a campus actually than a bubble because people do go in and out other than the players and the coaches and the primary workers down there, the essential people to making it operate. and it requires string subsequent protocols in terms of mask wearing, physical distancing, and daily testing. of course, the we are not always wearing masks. there is that exception when the players are actually on the floor and participating in the games but that is an exception because of course that is the most dangerous time in terms of the virus, when they are sharing common area on the floor. >> so it sounds like people are generally abiding by the rules. what do you see as the risks that are out there? >> well, the risks, i look at it on a relative basis, certainly we knew from the time we shut down our season in mid march until when we started up again in early july in orlando, several dozens of our players became infected with the virus, probably no different than other members of the public, particularly young people who were out and about, and so relative to the lives they were living, we know this is much safer. in fact, we have had zero positive cases since we started. but we recognize there is always risk. as i said it is not a sealed bubble. people are coming in and out, not everyone, frankly, is tested that is coming in and out. there are people who are disney workers, many of whom are tested, some aren't but of course we maintain very strict protocols with them in terms of distancing. but it is possible that someone could get infected while they are down there, we are very mindful of that and i think there is a recognition that with this virus we are all facing risks now and that we are trying like many industries to strike the appropriate balance between getting the economy running again and taking care of our workers and this is the balance that we found. >> woodruff: how do you think this different environment, adam silver, is affecting the game and affecting the players? >> it is actually a great question. one of the things that has surprised us is that the level of play, considering the four month high aadvertise is, hiatus is better than we thought it would be, and it is because the players aren't traveling, often in an nba schedule they play three and a half games a week and traveling back and forth across the country and just like anybody else that of course have an effect on them, particularly fatigue, crossing time zones, lack of sleep, et cetera, living inside this campus, you know, they are all short distance from the arena. they are able to get a good night's sleep and able to get proper recovery after games, and so, frankly the games have been in many ways of a higher caliber and higher scoring and been very energetic and so we have been overly pleased with the results and as you said, the playoffs begin on monday. >> >> woodruff: you said you made it clear the players are getting tested frequently, you are getting quick turnround results. that is not something that ordinary americans are able to do. does that rse a fairness question? >> it does. i would say for us, we are using a private lab down in orlando in addition we have brought additional testing to the market. we wanted to make sure our presence was additive. so we brought thousands of new tests down into the market and created a mobile trailer testing center for citizens down in orlando, disney has added additional testing for both their employees and people in the community. but i would ultimately say to me we are modeling what it means to do more testing, not less testing. i think that we are also participating in studies when we are down there on rapid, quick turn around tests, new kind of saliva tests you get a quick determination, something closer to an inexpensive pregnancy test. so recognizes the an issue, but again, i think by modeling it out correctly we are demonstrating that industries can operate with more testing but it will, i think, to get other sports leagues up and running and more industries up and running what this country needs is a lot more testing. >> woodruff: several other questions i want to ask you. one about black lives matter. as i am sure you know, president trump has been -- has become a harsh critic of the nba and says he is not watching the games and says he is offended that most of the players are not kneeling during the national anthem. he is calling the players nasty and even very dumb. he claims that the public is turned off and that people are not watching on tv. >> so far, in the games leading up to the playoffs, roughly 55 million americans have watched our games. with largely led the night in 18 to 49-year-old men, our core demographics every night we have been on so far, so the public has been responding to our games, and in terms of black lives matter, we support it as a national movement, depending on estimates roughly 25 million americans have protested for social justice, in this country, and in terms of kneeling for the anthem, the league, i recognizes the extraordinary times, the players are participating in a peaceful protest and we have supported that. >> woodruff: and i want to ask you something about what the nba has done overseas in china. you have had an extensive and controversial set of business relationships in china that was worth something like billions of dollars. there was a player development camp where you had young athletes who were reportedly hit and abused the nba you pulled out of this a year ago. but the scholar john has twrin nba and i am quoting was party to a massive human rights violation. are you now reinking your enre plan with regard to china china? >> let me butt it in context. our relationship in china bega over 40 years ago, actually, 1979 when the washington bullets first played in china. it has grown considerably over the years to the point now where we have hundreds of millions of basketball fans in china. there was an incident as you may recall last fall where an nba general manager tweeted something in support of hong kong, as a result we were taken off the air, chinese central television for the first time in 30 years and our games are still not back on the air as we hoped our supporting that general manager and supporting frankly american values, values of free speech, that particular incident that you referenced we have also been involved in youth basketball for decades in china. there is a particular academy in shin judge province where we supply free coaches. we didn't open the academy. we had nothing to do with the operation of the academy. we supplied the three coaches. we heard that there were irregularities at that academy, some of the things that have appeared in articles are not things we were aware of and continuing to do an investigation but we did know that the way the players were being treated there was nothing that the nba -- it was inconsistent with the nba's values and anything we have ever done in china and we pulled those three coaches out. so that's our response. in terms of rethinking our strategy in china, i recognize that even now both -- frankly both sides of the aisle there seems to be a rethinking of what the united states the's relationship should be with china and so we are listening closely. i continue to believe that sports in particular can be a force for change and that these cultural exchanges are critically important. and so of course if we decide not to trade with china and that becomes something that our government is no longer favoring, we will stop as well. but at least for now, we think continuing to be an exporter of american culture, demonstrating to the chinese who can still see our games through some streaming services, what we are about, what the expression is that comes with the nba, we think is positive, but, you know, we are always examining what works best for not just the nba but for our country. >> woodruff: well we are going to leave it there. adam silver, the commissioner of the nba on the friday before the playoffs begin. we thank you very much for talking with us. >> thank you. >> and by the way thank you for staying on the air throughout the pandemic. i am sure it hasn't been easy. >> woodruff: thank you so much. appreciate it >> woodruff: the summer job is a right of passage for many. for others, it's a financial necessity. and especially right now, as the job market remains tough for many workers. yang: in this summer of theg pandemic, a new breed of summer jobs-- like working at this drive-through covid-19 testing site in the parking garage of a montgomery county, maryland, community center in suburban washington, d.c. 18-year-old shaun fayson is on summer break from college. >> right now, i'm doing traffic control and just running samples back and forth. yesterday i was doing intake, so helping people with their registration and things like that. >> yang: is this what you expected to be doing this summer? >> not at all. >> yang: they are part of covid corps, a summer jobs program created by the county to support its pandemic response. about a hundred people, ages 16 to 23, are paid $14 an hour-- the county's minimum wage-- to do things like distribute food to vulnerable families, disinfect county pools, put up signs to raise awareness about covid-19, and, like at this testing site, help track the virus itself. >> in a way, it's a civics building exercise. >> yang: marc elrich is montgomery county's top elected official. >> i think that's good for them. they can kind of see up close what people do. they get to see up close what people are going through. >> yang: for many teenagers, government-run jobs programs are especially important this year, as traditional summer jobs have dried up. in july, the teen unemployment rate was 19%-- nearly twice the overall rate, and up from 13% last year. 17-year-old mekdie wilson usually spends her summers as a counselor at county day camps, but they were canceled this year. >> i'm extremely lucky because i kn i have some friends who are struggling to find jobs due to corona. >> yang: for years, city-run summer jobs programs in places like boston, new york and chicago have employed tens of thousands of young people from low-income families. university of michigan economist sarah heller. >> on average, in the past, kids have been earning between $700 and $800 more than they would have otherwise. and in families that are living in neighborhoods where median income is about $35,000, that's a lot of money. >> yang: that's even more important this summer, as many parents have lost jobs or taken pay cuts because of the pandemic. >> so the money that these programs provide seems very likely to help fill a gap between need and income right now. >> yang: studies have also found that cityun jobs programs have unexpected longer-term benefits. >> two to seven years after the program, it's not improving future employment outcomes. what it is doing is generating big reductions in violence and criminal justice involvement. >> yang: the pandemic led some cities to cancel this year's programs because of safety concerns. in chicago, officials were determined to find a way for its summer jobs program for teens and young adults, called one summer chicago, to continue. chicago department of family and social services commissioner lisa morrison butler. >> there was never a moment where we considered not going forward with one summer. there were also moments, however, where we were really scared about what that meant because it was so difficult to figure out how we would reimagine it in the time that we thought we had. >> yang: how did you reimagine the program for this summer? >> well, we took it all virtual. >> yang: for example, multiple times a week, these participants attend a computer coding class via zoom. they're paid to learn, but they're also developing an app to coordinate laundry pick-up and delivery for people who are trying to stay isolated. for 23-yr-old g'linda hawkins, it's been a lifeline. >> the first class that we went, we dived straight in. oh, this is kind of interesting. and i was willing to learn more about it. and yeah, i love it. i love it. >> yang: before, hawkins was unemployed. not because her job went away, but because she had to quit to take care of her two-year-old son, terrell jr., when his daycare closed because of the pandemic. >> it is amazing actually being able to work at home and still be able to teach him and just, you know, watch him just expand and just grow. >> yang: while her coding class is temporary, hawkins hopes the skills she's learning and the connections she's making will help her find a permanent job. and, working on the app makes her feel like she's making a difference. >> i always wanted to come up with a solution to help my community and help the world, make the world a little bit better. >> yang: in maryland, shaun fayson has that same satisfaction. >> i'm benefiting from being able to say that i am helping keep our community safe and secure, you know, giving back in whatever way i can. >> yang: a sense of purpose in the midst of a most challenging summer. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang in silver spring, maryland. >> woodruff: it has now been two weeks since the federal government's previous covid relief package expired, and the sides appear no closer to a deal. at has led to the end of $600 in weekly federal unemployment benefits, and millions of renters could be in danger of eviction after a moratorium expired. today, the president said he wanted to make sure most americans would get a new round of stimulus checks if he could reach a deal with democrats. but, democrats say the president isn't budging on his demands. this battle comes as millions of americans find themselves with few job prospects and unemployed for the long haul. we followed up with viewers we spoke to at the start of the pandemic. >> my name is austin mcmullen. i'm currently living in raleigh, north carolina, and attending north carolina state university. we, the ones that are impacted, are hurting bad. i've got, like, a couple months left until i am just screwed. $600 to you might seem like chump change and is just, you but for people whose rents depend on this and are not receiving any income at all? that's home. that is not being kicked out. that's not living under a bridge. that is not being evicted. and then, having that on your record for every single place that you applied to after this, and then having to live with the fact that you may not be able to get that apartment that you want for god knows how long. >> in april, professionally, for myself, i've been doing this for a long time. furlough. personally, my wife and i welcomed our first son, our healthy boy. it's been a mixed, mixed bag. on the positive side, it's really nice to be able to spend a whole lot of time with him. so it's been really great to be able to bond with him over the past few months like that. but the other side of that is, we do constantly wonder, how are we going to provide for him? what does this look like in the future? and there's just no clear answer on any of that right now. but it's disappointing to hear the conversation from leaders in washington specifically. to give the argument that this is a disinive for people to work. i would love to go back to work, even if that might mean getting less money than i am receiving on unemployment. i would go back in a heartbeat just to have stability, to know what my future is going to be. >> my name is sunyatta amen, and i am the tea-e.o. of calabash tea and tonic in washington, d.c. our staffing has been very challenging. i'm accustomed to a staff of 25 or so, and now we're down to a staff of three or four people, and that is incredibly different. we've seen a 400% increase in our sales online, and it is sustainable. the question comes in on what happens to your customer base when they are laid off or furloughed, or not as employed or their disposable income shrinks. and so we are relying on the fact that they stay employed. >> i stopped working in mid- march and-- because of the pandemic, obviously-- and in that time, i had to borrow money from my parents. it was really, really stressful. i chose to forgo my apartment. i ll be putting my things into storage and i will be packing up my rabbits and, like, a year's worth of clothes, and driving dn to florida to live with my mother. i cannot wait to see my mom. i'm 43 years old and i had to make the choice of not signing my lease and moving in with my mother to make sure that i don't end up filing for bankruptcy when this is over. what kind of situation is that? >> woodruff: so hard to hear. with that, we turn to the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. and i want to ask both of you about what we are hearing from the folks like the ones we just heard from, mark, but i do want to ask you first about joe biden picking kamala harris as his running mate, mark, what is your take? >> well, judy, you know, .. the successful model in american politics historically whether it is ronald reagan two terms, bill clinton two, terms, both having 60 percent approval, obviously franklin roosevelt has been an irrepressible contagious opt mitch and donald trump has been the exception to that. donald trump is portrayed a world in which we are surrounded by those who are not in our interests, our allies, we can't trust, refugees who want to subvert our nation, or even enemies within. nd i just thought, what came through in kamala harris and her appearance with joe biden was sort of a renewed optimism, i know it is inappropriate to say it, but she has an absolutely million dollars smile, and smiles a bit missing from american politics and i really think it was welcome to an awful lot of people. >> we will let you say that, mark. david, what do you take away? >> i am showing my 5 cents already. i thought it was a triumph. the first 48 hours of any vice president july pick are really important. this is the party fired up or is there some sort of scandal this is the press going into some sort of frenzy and you would have to say democrats are very fired up, raised $50 million in this window and republicans are really finding nothing to really attack at, and so they are struggling to find a way to criticize kamala harris. i also thought, you know, a bit of her return to professionalism how to handle the search left all of the people who did not get picked enhanced. and so they said nice things about duckworth, susan rice feels more enhanced by this so that is just a professional and generous way to do this. and then they have controlled, for many including me was the concern of kamala harris which was her own campaign for presidenwas very poorly managed and run. and so what does the that say about her management skills? and that would be a legitimate concern. and so the biden team according to my newspaper's reporting has said, you know, we are going to have one team there is not going to be harris and biden team, there is one team and biden will control the team so she just can't take the wholealifornia crew and inplant them, some of them, yes but not all of them so all the way along from how they managed the campaign to how they rolled it out, i thought quite an impressive display. >> woodruff: so we always like to ask early on, mark, about pitfalls, i mean, what are the pitfalls ahead and what do you make of the republican response so far which is, as david said is kind of all over the map? >> well, that's right. what national republican says to me today, you can't have it both ways, either the most liberal senator in all of christendom or she is a terrible opponent of democratic liberals. i mean, they have not settled on a line, and the fact it is contradictory. but i would say this, judy, that very liabilities that kamala harris had in the primary the, among liberal democratic voters it was tough on crime district attorney and attorney general, if anything becomes a plus in a general election in making her, not bulletoof then at least a lot tougher to attack on soft on crime, for for example, that the typical republican approach to democrats. and as far as the attacks on her, you know, dane margot asked of david lloyd george, he couldn't never see a belt without hitting below it, and that really is president trump. i mean, he he had every opportuy appeals not to that which is highest and most noble, most elevated in any of us but element to that which is most base, and he did it again questioning her raising questions about her citizenship and eligibility, you know, horrible person, worse person in the senate. you know, i don't know, i just think -- i think it is a song that has been sung and maybe people are tired of hearing it. >> woodruff: and, david, just quickly on that, i mean, the president himself called her right off, as soon as they heard who it was he called her nasty and horrible. is that -- is that a line of attack that is likely to stick? >> no. she is tough, and that is something that is to her benefit. most politicians i have interviewed are flayed of personal conflict and attack someone from across the room or across from tv but room to room, face to face right in person they are loathe to be critical, or have a conflict. kamala harris is not like that, whether as prosecutor, as attorney general or a senator, she is very quick to call somebody out, and that could be an advantage in the biden administration because one of the facts of the administration is the president makes a decision and then nobody, everybody just ignores it there is nobody to enforce the decision the president made and if she can be a person like keeps people in line that would be a gift to the administration. so the flip side of trump calling her nasty is that is actually a true feature of her career which is marked, that she has a certain toughness that is really rare in politics. >> woodruff: maybe she will be the enforcer. so, mark, i want to go back to what we heard just before i introduced you and david and that is the ordinary americans who are out there waiting for help, congress has gone home. they haven't come to an agreement, the democrats say they dropped their bid from 3 trillion to 2, and the administration is saying, we are at one. who should the american people hold responsible for in? >> well, i think they hold responsible the government. as david said last week, 64, 60-40 republican responsibility. i won't argue with that. i would say the administration is not covered itself with glory but i think the democrats, i would be holding hearings at this moment on just exactly what is happening. the voices we heard, statistics don't bleed, statistics don't cry tears, but human beings do, and anybody who can listen to those poignant portraits and self statements just made on our show and not respond and say, oh we can wait until september or i have to get to the county fair and campaign at the 4-h show or wherever else or go to nantucket, you know, i think has to, has an awful lot to answer for. >> woodruff: david. >> yes, this is yet another down side of covid, actually, when you are only in washington or you are only in the media world or in the political world i should sayings life is abstract. it is scoring political points and how to win this game. the advantage of campaigning at any level is you are right face-to-face with human beings and not a distraction anymore, it is their lives and your lives together. and so you see the vast gulf between washington and the real lives of americans and washington is able to say okay we have these fights but these people are really suffering, let's figure this out. and they are lost in the political point scoring and this is why people have such contempt for washington. >> woodruff: well, going back to politics, mark, the story that we heard from william brangham about what is going on with the postal service, they are letting states kw, most of the states know they are not going to -- they may not have ballots returned in time for them to be counted. the president is continually almost daily now denigrating mail invoting, as opposed to, is opposed to funding so much of what the postal service says it needs. what are we headed for this november? >> judy, i am not one to often question former president barack obama's selection of words, his eloquence which is demonstrated, but i think he was absolutely wrong when he said that they are trying to kneecap, republicans are trying to kneecap, it is a mafia term and it is, you know, very harsh, harsh, i think what we are talking about here is nothing less than o'connor in the streets of birmingham with dogs and fire hoses. i mean, this is repression and suppression of americans who want to vote. it is nothing less. that is what it is, and let's call it for exactly what it is. donald trump is afraid of losing, so most candidates, the voters pick the candidate, donald trump in this case wants to pick the voters. he wants to limit who can vote. and, you know, and i just think that they are making an incapable mistake, there are 22 million americans every month who are kept out of poverty, kept out of poverty by a social security check. there are 67 million amerins who live on them. 1,278,000 in florida get a social security check. you go into the united states mail you start playing games there, then you are really, talk about misery and you are talking about outrage, and you are talking about political unrest, i think, you know -- i think the whirlwind is about to be set, and -- but it is indefensible and i have had five republicans i think up to now susan collins, lisa murkowski, tom cole, kevin mccarthy and roy blunt who have even said, dissent it publicly, that this dismantling of the post office is not unacceptable. >> quickly, david, we have seen the president's attempt to talk down mail invoting have worked. we have a quick poll result to share. in may i think it was 50 percent of the american people said they believed that they would be comfortable mailing in their ballot. that percentage is down to 43 percent, a big drop, especially among republicans. so the president continues to talk it down and say he doesn't want to fund the postal service because it could mean universal voting. >> well, you know, with the trump administration you never know if it is incompetence or malevolence this this case the postal service is hemorrhaging money, and it is doing so because of the number of pieces of mail has gone down 33 percent in the last several years, a so it makes sense to sort of try to make the thing a viable operation, whether you wanted to cut some of these services right before a heavy election where people will be mailing in ballots strikes me as extremely foolish but not necessarily malevolence. i think we are going to end up funding this thing kevin mccarthy said it is going to be funded i would say to people, sending your ballots early or delivered straight to the authorities, problem is not going to get ballots to people it is going to be the crush of millions of ballots in the final days in november. and so that could be a crisis even without donald trump, just because of the unusual nature. his tendency to talk down the voting and to deleo legitimatize the system is its own shade of horror. >> woodruff: said of horror. well, it is good advice to tell people to remember to vote under any circumstances, but especially thiyear and if you can vote early, you should vote early. david brooks, mark shields, we thank you. >> >> woodruff: now we want to take another moment to honor a group of individuals who lost their lives to the coronavirus. here are their stories. when the pandemic hit new york, 75-year-old pharmacist philip to refused to abandon the community he served, even though he was considered "at-risk" for contracting the virus. "this is the time they need me most," he said to his family. philip left hong kong for america in 1967, and soon met his wife of 48 years, eileen. the couple raised a family in staten island. philip was a proud and devoted father and grandfather. "he loved things that were beautiful," said his daughter natalie, pointing out his passion for poetry, art, and gardening. katherine blood hoffman never lost her sense of adventure, her friend sherrill said. at 100 years old, katherine, or kitty, was still planting pine trees and fishing with her son norris. kitty was affiliated with florida state university for 88 years, first as a student at the women's college, and later as a chemistry professor and active alumnus. in the 1960s, she helped modernize the school by abolishing her own position: dean of women. she would have turned 106 this month. floyd bluntson was a no-nonsense yet nurturing father to his six children, his daughter latrina said-- resourceful, reliable, and honest. floyd served in the navy before working as an engineer at the field museum of natural history in chicago, where he was born and raised. he retired in 2010 after 35 years on the job. he loved to cook for his family and barbeque for the holidays. floyd was 66. cody lyster's family said he had a huge heart, infectious laugh, and "larger than life" personality. the 21-year-old college junior was studying criminal justice at colorado mesa university, inspired by his father's career in law enforcement. baseball was cody's life from an early age, his mom lea ann said. he umpired games and helped coach his little sister sierra's softball team. cody and sierra were best friends. throughout her life, mary nestor radziszewski of west haven connecticut, had several different careers. all had one thing in common: mary served as a nurse, a teacher and then a realtor, selling homes to many of her former students. "a name to know, a name to trust" was her slogan, and helping others came second nature. above all else, mary treasured her family, her late husband walter, and her three children. mary was 8 thank you so much to the families. coming up this weekend, the oscar edition of "beyond the canvas," profiling film professionals shaping the industry with breakthrough work. only on pbs. check your local listings. and tonight on the pbs newshour online, the 2020 conventions have been upended by the coronavirus, but the political divisions america faces are not new. in the latest episode of our podcast, "america interrupted," we look back 100 years ago to the 1920 election, and what lessons that time can offer us now. listen on our website-- that's www.pbs.org/newshour-- or wherever you get your podcasts. and, please join us all next week for our special coverage of the democratic national convention. that is live, on air and online, from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. eastern. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> when the world gets complicad, a lot goes through yourind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular. >> johnson & johnson. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> 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 tonight on kqed newsroom yes the rich really do keep getting richer. from district attorney to attorney general to senator to vice presidential running mate, we dive into kamala harris's new role on the road to the white house. scientists say they may have discovered a new way to block the coronavirus before it can harm lungs. welcome to kqed newsroom . vice president joe biden selected his running mate this week senator kamala harris. kamala harris ran for the

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