the government side. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the well-being of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at rockefellerfoundation.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> 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: neil gorsuch has been sworn in as the 113th supreme court justice. the 49-year-old former appeals court judge fills the nearly 14- month vacancy created by the death of antonin scalia, and restores the court's conservative majority. during a rose garden ceremony, gorsuch received praise from president trump, and took the second of two oaths, administered by justice anthony kennedy, for whom he once served as clerk. >> and to the american people, i am humbled by the trust placed in me today. i will never forget that to whom much is given, much will be expected. and i promise you that i will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the constitution and laws of this great nation. >> woodruff: we'll take a closer look at the impact justice gorsuch could have on the high court, later in the program. in the day's other news, there's word the governor of alabama, robert bentley, is resigning amid allegations he used state resources to hide a romantic affair with an aide. jail records showed bentley was booked on two campaign and ethics charges. alabama's lieutenant governor, kay ivey, is expected to take over as governor. don dailey, host of alabama public tv's "capitol journal" was at the governor's resignation. don dailey, thank you for being here. tell us what the governor is accused of. >> all these charges as you mentioned relate to his alleged inappropriate relationship with his former top political aide rebecca pacen. the legislature a year ago initiated impeachment articles against the government and hearings started today while, at the same time, officials were behind closed doors negotiating a resignation deal with governor bentley under which he would plead to lesser charges, thus the campaign finance charges that you talked about. >> woodruff: the governor denied this for the longest time. is that right? >> he has. he has denied any wrongdoing. he said that he and his former top political aide never had a physical affair, that he made inappropriate remarks to her and he apologized to her for those a year ago. he also insisted he has done nothing illegal in the furtherance of that alleged affair. >> woodruff: since it came out so many months ago, why, don dailey, has it taken so long to get to this point? >> alabama has never impeached a governor. there is never been but one other impeachment process against a constitutional officer in 100 years. once the articles of impeachment were brought, the legislature had to create the process from scratch. it began doing that about a year ago. it then hired special counsel to investigate the charges against the governor and was finally ready to present the findings and the hearings that started today. >> woodruff: the governor was actually booked in a county jail today on these ethics charges? >> he had to go to the montgomery county jail to be booked and fingerprinted on these misdemeanor charges as part of the process and was expected to go over to the capitol and meet the press where he was formally expected to resign. >> woodruff: and the reaction of alabama citizens so far? >> alabama citizens, by and large, have been clamoring for a resolution to this one way or the other for quite some time, at least according to a lot of lawmakers that we've spoken with. in the last 24 hours, both the heads of the alabama house and senate have also called for bentley to step down. >> woodruff: don dailey with alabama public television, we thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: a state of emergency has gone into effect in egypt, after yesterday's palm sunday suicide bombings at two coptic christian churches. at least 45 people were killed in the isis-claimed attacks in alexandria and tanta. mourners carried wooden coffins through the streets today, as relatives began burying their loved ones. it was the deadliest day for egyptian christians in decades. officials in china are calling for restraint today, amid heightening tensions around the korean peninsula. the comments come after a u.s. navy strike group moved closer to the area over the weekend, in a show of force. in beijing, a chinese foreign ministry spokesman called for dialogue in addressing north korea's nuclear and weapons activities. >> ( translated ): china has been paying close attention to the development of the situation on the korean peninsula. we think that under current conditions, the parties involved should exercise restraint, and should avoid conducting activities that will deteriorate and escalate difficulties in this region. >> woodruff: meanwhile, the nuclear envoys from china and south korea met in seoul today. they agreed to take "strong measures" if pyongyang carries out more nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile tests. there's been another staffing shuffle at the national security council. it's been widely reported k.t. mcfarland, one of president trump's top national security advisers, will be reassigned as the next u.s. ambassador to singapore. national security adviser h. r. mcmaster has been reorganizing his team since his predecessor, michael flynn, was forced to resign. united airlines faced public outcry today, after footage posted online showed a passenger being dragged off an overbooked flight in chicago. in the cell phone video, authorities pull a screaming man from his seat, then drag him down the aisle by his arms, as other passengers shout. airline officials asked for volunteers to give up their seats and none did. chicago's aviation department says an officer involved in the incident has been placed on leave. wells fargo is clawing back an additional $75 million from two former executives, over an account-fraud scandal. a new report out today from the bank's board said an aggressive sales culture led employees to open millions of checking and credit accounts without customers' permission. it said former c.e.o. john stumpf and community bank executive carrie tolstedt stocks finished flat on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly two points to close at 20,658. the nasdaq rose three points, and the s&p 500 added more than a point. the 2017 pulitzer prize winners were announced today in new york. author colson whitehead won the prize for fiction, for his book, "the underground railroad." david fahrenthold of "the washington post" won in the "national reporting" category for investigating president trump's philanthropy claims. and the "breaking news reporting" prize went to the "east bay times" in california, for its coverage of last year's deadly oakland warehouse fire. and, spain's sergio garcia has ended his golf major drought. the 37-year-old won the coveted green jacket at "the masters" last night. garcia rallied to beat englishman justin rose on the first hole of a sudden death playoff. it comes 18 years after he joined the professional golf tour. still to come on the newshour: i sit down with former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mike mullen to discuss the global hotspots. how the newest justice is likely to change the supreme court. a new top dog of the u.s. auto makers, and much more. >> woodruff: now, we return to the u.s. missile strikes on syria and what the trump administration's options are amid the now-six-year-old civil war. chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner begins our coverage. >> we rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world. >> warner: secretary of state rex tillerson made that vow today at a memorial ceremony for victims of a nazi massacre. he spoke ahead of a g-7 meeting in italy. his message came just days after dozens of u.s. cruise missiles struck a syrian air base in response to another massacre-- a chemical attack that killed more than 80 people in rebel-held idlib province. syria dominated today's summit, and all eyes were on tillerson for clues as to what the u.s. plans to do next. >> mr. foreign minister are you looking for clarification from the u.s. on its position on assad? >> warner: those questions came after tillerson and u.n. ambassador nikki haley appeared to send mixed messages yesterday about u.s. policy on syria going forward. most notably: on the future of syrian president bashar al- assad. tillerson told cbs's "face the nation" that defeating the islamic state, not removing assad, remained the top priority. >> once the isis threat has been reduced or eliminated, i think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in syria. we are hopeful that we can prevent a continuation of the civil war, and that we can bring the parties to the table to begin the process of political discussions. clearly, that requires the participation of the regime, with the support of their allies. >> warner: but haley seemed to suggest otherwise, on cnn's "state of the union." >> there's not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with assad at the head of the regime. well, regime change is something that we think is going to happen, because all of the parties are going to see that assad is not the leader that needs to be taking place for syria. >> warner: today in washington, white house press secretary sean spicer tried to square the two statements. >> i can't imagine a stable and peaceful syria where bashar al- assad is in power. be a multi-pronged approach. we're ensuring that isis is contained and that there's a de- escalation of proliferation of chemical weapons and at the same time creating the environment for a change in leadership. >> warner: spicer also raised the possibility of u.s. military action against assad, for use of conventional weapons. >> if you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bomb into innocent people-- i think can-- i think you will see a response from this president. >> warner: tillerson, who has charged that syria's principal backer russia was either "complicit or simply incompetent" in syria's use of chemical weapons, heads to moscow for meetings wednesday. he will meet with foreign minister sergey lavrov, but not, the kremlin announced today, with president vladimir putin. for the pbs newshour, i'm margaret warner. >> woodruff: in a statement this afternoon, defense secretary james mattis said friday's u.s. missile strike damaged or destroyed 20% of syria's operational aircraft, and jets could no longer refuel or rearm at the base. for more on u.s. options in syria, relations with russia and the ongoing crisis with north korea, i'm joined by retired admiral mike mullen. he served as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff from 2007 to 2011. syria, first of all. was the u.s. strike on that ai airfield justified? >> i think it was justified. i think it sent a pretty strong message nat the use of chemical weapons -- that the use of chemical weapons which are banned globally is not to be tolerated and i think that was the main message. what has been a little surprising to me, anyway, is to find out through media that there actually have been several chemical attacks recently, with some belief on my part and i think a lot of people that we thought we got rid of the chemical weapons with the regime that president obama and president putin put in place. that's a bit of a surprise, but i think we have to send the message that this is unacceptable. >> woodruff: do you think that message has been received? what do you think this accomplished? >> i think the message has been received and it was really focused on that and i certainly have seen the discussion that, after the fact, the air base was back in operations. that didn't surprise me, but i thought it was proportional, which i think is important. it was focused on the air force, which has been barrel bombing its people, you know, for some time, and in that regard, a pretty strong message. will it, in fact, be absorbed by assad and others? i don't know. i think that's what we're going to have to wait and see. >> do you think it means that if assad uses chemical weapons again, the u.s. will strike again? >> i don't know the answer to that. certainly, you know, from where i sit, there's an expectation that if he continues, obviously he'll continue to pay a price for that. and, so, we'll see. it's just such a tragedy to see what he has done to his own countrymen, you know, the civilians, the women, the children and just the visible images of that chemical strike. i think, in the long run, he loses if he continues to do that. how that happens, what that will be, i'm not sure. >> woodruff: is it clear to you, admiral mullen, what the priority to have the trump administration is toward syria? is it mainly to continue the fight against i.s.i.s., sit more now against president assad? many people, i think, are having difficulty understanding. >> i that you could with general mcmaster yesterday on the sunday show, i thought he was excellent in framing it, that there is going to be some of both, clearly. the priority, it seems to me, is i.s.i.s., and that was used for justification for this attack, and in terms of supporting fighting i.s.i.s. and responding to the use of chemical weapons. my own personal view is i think, you know, in the long run, and i don't know how long that is, but i think it's a while, that assad doesn't have much of a future in that country. i worry a little bit about "regime change." we haven't had a great deal of success with that in years. that's just really difficult. that said, i think it's a strong message, at least from the trump administration, that we're not going to tolerate his continuing the to use these weapons and we'll see where it goes with respect to the rest of syria. >> woodruff: russia. the associated press is reporting this afternoon according to a u.s. official they have now concluded that russia knew about the the chemical weapons attack before it happened and they may even have gone in and bombed the location of the attack to hide evidence that chemical weapons were used. if that's the case, what can the u.s. do about it? >> i think just the strike itself, our strike itself was a pretty strong significance fall to russia in terms of starting to draw a line, if you will, in the sand that there are limits, first of all. secondly, i think it undermines the use of chemical weapons, certainly undermined putin. i know secretary tillerson is on his way to moscow this week and i suspect -- i mean, i don't know for a fact -- but i expect he will carry a very strong message to russia. mcmaster yesterday talked about he thought it was important that russia, in fact, asked themselves what they're doing and what they hoped to accomplish. there's been a considerable amount of press on deconflicting the u.s. and russia and i think that will continue even though russia has called it off, per se. >> woodruff: you think what will continue? >> i think the deconfliction have to stop killing russian agreement? >> no, i've believed for years russia buzz going to be part of the solution even before they went in. obviously, it became much more evidence when they did go in, and i don't think there is any way that this is can bevolved without the u.s. and russia getting together and figuring out politically what the solution is. there's going to be a need to include other political leaders in the region, but certainly the u.s. an russia are the two key ones. >> woodruff: finally, admiral mullin, north korea, right now there is a u.s. carrier group on the way to the korean peninsula in the wake of a north korean missile tests, and you were part of a council on foreign relations report some months ago saying that the next administration had to make getting china involved in dealing with north korea a priority. is it your sense that the administration -- this administration is doing that successfully? is that happening? and do you think the chinese can make a difference? >> i think the chinese with make a huge difference and i think, if they don't and without them, that the options are pretty drastic and pretty bad pretty quickly. i do think the trump administration has taken a more regular approach. i see reported that there have been national security council meetings on this so there clearly is a planning process going on. i think the message from the president, the north korean leadership and the rest of the world is that there are limits on what he's going to tolerate. that was clearly priority message in his meeting with xi jinping, president xi jinping from china on thursday. all of those steps, i think, are positive and, again, what is an enormously complex problem, he's got nuclear weapons that are buried deeply, that are very difficult to impossible to hit. he's emerging on more and more capability, and this is a very tough solution to set no matter what you do, but i believe the longer we wait the more challenging the solution set becomes. >> the longer the u.s. waits to do what? >> the longer we wait to take some sort of action, whether negotiations or some kind of military operation depending on what the president would choose, the more difficult those solution sets will become. back to where they started from the perspective of this solution must go through beijing, we need to incentivize beijing to do this, we need to figure out if we can how to incentivize the leadership in north korea if there is a possibility to do that and i'm not sure it is to avoid what will be a potentially drastic capability that allows that very uncertain leader in north korea the ability to strike the united states of america with a nuclear weapon. >> woodruff: serious problems in all these directions. >> there are. >> woodruff: admiral mike mullen, we thank you very much for coming by. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: on the domestic front, the supreme court today welcomed its newest member: neil gorsuch. who brings the court back to its full compliment of nine justices. jeffrey brown takes it from there. >> brown: now that he's officially justice gorsuch, we confront the question of how he might influence the high court and its work going forward. for that, we turn, as we always do, to marcia coyle, chief washington correspondent at "the national law journal." so, marcia, on one hand you have a conservative justice replacing another conservative justice, so you wouldn't expect major ideological shifts. >> that's right, jeff. i think it is true that justice gorsuch will not change the conservative direction of the supreme court, but that doesn't mean that his vote is going to be insignificant, and i think we saw that just last term, for example, with justice scalia's death, the court split 4-4 in a major immigration case affecting millions of people, it also divided 4-4 in a major labor union case affecting thousands of union and nonunion workers. >> brown: which may well come back. >> absolutely. it's an agenda case on the part of a conservative organization that already is pushing another case toward the supreme court. so this court has been divided ideologically, and justice gorsuch will play a role in the outcome of some very important cases. >> woodruff: let's look at some of -- >> brown: let's look at some of the most immediately will be this week where he takes part for the first time in making the decision which cases will go forward. >> that's right. the justices meet thursday in a private conference and they will go over petitions submitted to the court in which parties are asking the court to hear their case. there are actually two petitions that he may play an important role in whether the court takes or doesn't take them. one is a case from his home state, colorado, it involves a baker who was that it's against his religious beliefs to bake a cake for a gay couple's wedding. >> brown: that got a lot of attention early on. >> it did and it's been hanging in the court since early december. so we're not sure what the court plans the to do with it. another case out of california involves the second amendment and california's law that requires a very good reason for you to have a concealed carry gun, permit for that. >> brown: next week, he starts hearing cases for the first time, right? >> yes. >> brown: and the biggest one next week is a church and state separation case out of missouri. >> that's right, and it involves trinity lutheran church of missouri which is challenging an amendment to missouri's constitution -- state constitution that prohibits direct and indirect support of religious organizations and institutions. trinity lutheran church operates a playground, daycare center, and it wanted to participate in a state grant program that allows organizations to refurbish playgrounds with recycled tires, but trinity lutheran was turned down because it is a religious institution, so it's claiming that that state constitutional amendment violates our first amendment free exercise of religion clause. >> brown: all right, so then we start to look at the longer term, and even as i say that, i realize he's a younger man, so the long-term for him could be a very long time, right? but the closer long term, one of them -- one of the possible cases would be, well, for example, donald trump's immigration case, right? >> right, the executive order on immigration. that is percolating in a number of courts around the country, federal appellate courts that could rule soon and i think some of them are hearing arguments in may. we may see decisions from those courts this summer, depending on the urgency of the government in getting the supreme court to take a look at this, if the government loses, or if the other side loses, either way, that's going to get to the supreme court, undoubtedly. >> brown: let me put you on the spot a bit, we've talked about this in the past, but we just went through a process with a lot of questions about impact on the senate going through the so-called nuclear option, but also lasting questions about impact on the court itself, a partisan country, a polarize country. to what degree can we say that this has had any impact that you might see about a polarized, partisan court some. >> this court is ideologically divided right now. whether it's partisan may depend on your point of view. i tend to think that ideology is stronger here than any desire to reach decisions in order to benefit a mar political party. what it all comes down to eventually jeff is presidential elections are very important, and if you agree with what the court is doing, the justices and the majority, or you don't, you really have to pay attention to who you elect as president. >> brown: marcia coyle of the national law journal, thank you as always. >> my pleasure, jeff. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: a university in ghana aims to educate students about corruption. our monday duo looks ahead to the week in politics. and the last show for the famed and sometimes controversial ringling brothers. but first, some eye-popping news in the automotive world. the market value of tesla, the manufacturer of high-end electric cars, has actually surpassed that of ford and general motors, both of which sell millions more cars than tesla does. william brangham has more. >> brangham: here are some head- scratching numbers to consider: tesla's market value is $50 billion, yet tesla may lose nearly a billion dollars this year. whereas combined, ford and g.m. are expected to earn more than 15 billion. last year, tesla sold just about 80,000 vehicles. ford and g.m? they sold nearly 13 million. james stewart is a business columnist for "the new york times" and staff writer for "the new yorker" and he's here to help us understand why tesla 's value is skyrocketing. james stewart, welcome to the "newshour". you know these numbers very, very well. what is going on here? >> well, these numbers are pretty amazing. they make no rational sense, really, but tesla is what i call the sort of ultimate story stock which means investors care about the story, they don't care about the numbers. they do not care that it's losing. it lost over 500 million last year may lose a billion this year. they don't care if g.m. and ford are making billions in profit. the story with tesla is they are going to dominate the auto market, that they are going to create the world's safest car, that they are going to take over the battery market, and that they are going to dominate and reinvent the electric grid. i mean, these are all huge markets, and they think tesla is going to dominate every one of them. >> brangham: as you wrote in a recent column in the "new york times," there have been other stock stories and companies that the story turned out to be for fiction than fact. how do we know whether tesla will be one of those? >> we don't. most stocks that trade at these astronomical levels end up badly. there were scores of these in the dot-com boom and they're now worthless. amazon didn't make any money for years, plowed all its revenues back into r&d, but the story was it was going to dominate the vast retail market. investors in amazon have done very well over a period that's now gone on to decades. so stock investors in tesla can do well every time the story holds. every time you see a bit of data that confirms the story, the stocks had modestly better sales than expected, stocks up 7%. i will say tesla delivers a product people love. it's quality, it looks great, it performance great and, so far, it has actually met its promises, even though they seemed farfetched at one time. >> brangham: i would agree with you all those characterizationings. it's a beautiful car, i've ridden in one,eth a fantastic vehicle to be in. there have been quality and reliability issues. it's been a luxury market mostly. they're trying to roll out a more mid-market car. if they have the same reliability problems, do you worry that could dent their image? >> i have to say in tesla's defense that, yes, there have been some issues but nothing out of the ordinary. i think in january the federal monitor gave it its highest safe to evaluation and one of the stories that people are so excited about is that its autonomous driving technology will make the car incredibly safe. it is high-end customers driving the sales and a big step for them is when they try to expand that market by moving into more of the mass market car with this three-model at a much higher production level. can they keep the quality levels up? can they keep the consumer satisfaction levels up? again i have to say tesla was very smart. they start at the high end, develop incredible brand allure, and now they're moving down market. g.m. i think had a terrific car first with with the volt, now the bolt. they buried in the chevy name plate and it didn't take on any allure for consumers whatsoever. >> brangham: what are the other automakers saying? they must be lived. >> they won't say it publicly, but they're tearing their hair out. tesla gets the benefit of every possible doubt from investors and they get the benefit of none. tesla doesn't have profits, you can't measure its stock compared to profits. profit-to-earning ratio, common stock measure, ford and f.m. g.m. have some of the lowest in the stock market. tesla trades seven times the revenue. ford was trading at .3 times revenue. i do feel kind of bad for them. people feel the sun has set on the traditional auto industry and they just are not getting any benefit of the doubt. >> brangham: james b. stewart, thank you very much. >> sure. >> woodruff: africa may not be home to many well-known universities, but one man is trying to change that. a one-time microsoft executive who was educated in america, patrick awuah. as special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports as part of his agents for change series, one special focus of classes is to teach africa's next generation of leaders about ethics. >> reporter: it looks like a pretty typical college campus-- with students working in computer labs, studying at the library or hanging out with friends. but ashesi university, in the west african nation of ghana, has embarked on an experiment which its founder hopes will help start to fundamentally change the entire continent. >> in the next three decades or so, the population of africa is going to double and 40% of working age people in the world are going to be africans. a lot of jobs are going to be created. we need to be educating the next bench in a way that they're going to create those jobs and opportunities for people. >> reporter: patrick awuah was born and raised in ghana, but came to the united states on scholarship to get an undergraduate degree in engineering from swarthmore, and an m.b.a. from the university of california, berkeley. he went on to become a program manager at microsoft. when he decided to return to his homeland, he assumed he would start a software company, but quickly realized the system of higher education was so poor, there wasn't a competent workforce to hire. experts say that the problem with education in africa is not so much that there aren't enough institutions, but rather it's what students are taught and how they're taught it-- with an emphasis much more on rote learning and memorization and much less on critical thinking and thinking for oneself. >> under colonial rule, we were the educational system was really designed to educate people to follow instructions and do things in a very consistent way. >> reporter: so awuah decided he had to start his own university. with money from american friends, colleagues and foundations, he raised $2.5 million to open a school with an initial class of 30 freshman in 2002. ashesi has now grown to a campus of nearly 800 students. the guiding principle throughout has been a laser-like focus on three principles: ethical leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship. >> we need a lot of innovation. we need people who are trained to drive that and we need people who are going to be working on the government side who are going to create an enabling environment for that. >> reporter: ghana, like most countries in africa, has been plagued with government-related corruption, which has hampered job growth. >> in the next three to four minutes, come up with a list of things that a brick can be used for. >> reporter: ashesi's goal is to teach students to fight against the temptations of corruption and think outside the box. it begins almost from the moment a freshman arrives on campus and takes a mandatory course calle"" foundations of design and entrepreneurship." >> how many do you have? 29! >> the instructor says go find a problem you think is worth solving and then find the solution to the problem. it's very open ended and scary. it feels like you've been thrown into this weird world where you can't plant your feet on the ground. it's very different way of approaching education. >> when you see a problem, your first human instinct is to think of the first, easiest solution that comes to mind. >> reporter: professor rose dodd, an ashesi alumna herself, says she hopes the class will encourage her students to take on the entrenched establishments in ghana. >> don't be limited. don't feel that whatever the system is, limits you. think about whatever else could be and then try it out. the end goal should be to make life better all around you. >> look at the question on the board. >> reporter: indeed, many ashesi graduates have gone on to do some form of public service, whether it's teaching in rural elementary or secondary schools... or mentoring the next generation of young women. yawa hansen quao became the first female student council president at ashesi in 2006. while in college, she began thinking about a way to help women grow into leadership positions. it was a goal that she made a reality with the founding of" leading ladies network." >> our goal as an organization is to help women get out of themselves and their problems and to start thinking about what kind of change they can bring to the community around them. >> reporter: one young woman whom quao has mentored is narkie agbettor, another ashesi grad. she has just started her own small business, selling virgin coconut oil products. and while she's enthusiastic about her company, she admits it's not always easy dealing with government bureaucracy and seeing competitors resort to bribery. >> there are solutions to every problem but it requires thinking, it requires strategy. so you want to be successful and you want to be ethical as well. >> reporter: patrick awuah knows that his young, idealistic graduates, many who come from families of modest means, will be severely tested out in the real world. but he hopes the lessons they've learned at ashesi will help guide them. >> are some alumni probably not holding the line? probably. but i would hope that even those who are not holding the line are thinking twice about doing it. >> reporter: the other cultural problem that awuah hopes to change is stopping the so-call"" brain drain" where, after college, people leave the continent to seek careers in developed countries. so far, 90% of ashesi grads have stayed and work in africa. for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro in accra, ghana. >> woodruff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the undertold stories project at the university of st thomas, in minnesota. >> woodruff: and it's monday, which means it's time for politics monday with amy walter of the "cook political report" and tamara keith of npr. welcome to both of you. tam, i just said california. you've got to tell us where in california. >> southern california. >> woodruff: okay. that narrows it down a lot. >> l.a. area. >> woodruff: all right, let's start by talking about a very serious subject and that is the decision by the united states to strike the airfield in syria last week and, amy, we're still dealing with the strategic, the military repercussions from this, but what about the political? how is the public reacting? and then i want to ask you both about congress. >> the congress seems to be giving somewhat a mixed message on how they feel about what happened in syria over the weekend. there have been at three polls that have come out since the strikes happened. the majority of americans say they approve of this decision, anywhere from 51 to 57%, which when you ask them the next question which is should we do more things like this, the majority of americans say we don't want to see any more airstrikes. when you ask the question about what the impact has been on the president, did americans rally around the president, did this bump up his approval rating, it really hasn't done much at all. his approval rating still stands somewhere around 40%. so you have a public that is basically there are a small majority agreeing with the strikes but they don't want to see much more and it hasn't really benefited the president nor has it made people less likely to support him. he's still basically at the same place he's always been which again comes back to something we talk about almost every week is our deep polarization in this country. >> woodruff: and so much of this, tam, is people comparing how this president is handling syria and the middle east, that part of the world, versus the way president obama handled it. >> that's right, and, in terms of congress, when president obama went to congress in 2013 and asked for authorization to take similar action back in 2013, congress was kind of, like, wait! this is a hot potato, we don't necessarily want this hot potato. they found out, sort of let them off the hook with this deal with russia to dispose to have the chemical weapons, which clearly, in retrospect they're not all gone somehow and, so, congress has frequently wanted to have some ability to weigh in, but then when it comes time to actually weigh in to authorize the use of military force in a formal way, they've had a lot of trouble agreeing on something. >> woodruff: and, amy, as tam just said, this is exactly what president obama did. >> we're talking three years later. >> woodruff: but it's what he was concerned about, too, and led to the decision not to. >> it's very familiar and americans feel similar to the situation as they did back in 2013. 50% said they oppose using additional airstrikes in an abc poll. in fall 2013 when president obama was talking about airstrikes, about 60% were opposed. so the american public isn't looking more forward today than they did back then to getting involved in that part of the world. >> woodruff: members went home for two-week easter recess. are they likely to hear much about syria, are people talking about healthcare? what are they expecting in that regard? >> i think that healthcare is something they're far more likely to hear about. town hauls, if they're happening, and fewer of them are happening, there are more teletown halls, and facebook town halls and any sort of town hall that won't allow the same sort of images that dominated during the rise of the tea party, absolutely they are going to hear about health care, and it's an interesting time for the health care legislation. republicans in congress realizing they're about to go home and not wanting to say, wow, we have completely failed to repeal and replace the affordable care act, did some amendments at the very end right before they left for recess so that republican members of congress could go to republican districts and say, well, we're still working on it, health care is not dead. meanwhile, democrats are trying to put a lot of pressure on the left side. progressives are really pushing members of congress and trying to make sure this effort doesn't come back to life. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about that, amy, but i want to get to another way of gauging public reaction to what's going on in washington and that is the special congressional elections taking place in the next couple of weeks. very interesting republicans worried about some of these special -- >> we have one coming up tomorrow in kansas and the next week in georgia. in two districts that are heavily republican, these districts are special elections because the republican members are now sitting in the cabinet. and this goes to the issue really of enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm gap between democrats and republicans. this is what republicans are very fearful about. they're not seeing that energy around their candidates in the same way that democrats are and we know that energy in close turnout especially when you have the spleks, where -- when you have a special election when a whole lot of people are not coming out and voting, we're going to be looking at the special elections for upsets, especially in places like kansas. this district in kansas went for trump. senator ted cruz is out there trying to get people excited, energized, but it's democrats who are energized. the anti-trump momentum you can feel both in the -- how voters are reacting in these sort of places as well as the fundraising. the democrats in georgia, this again a very republican district outside of atlanta, a district that tom price, the now h.s. secretary won easily, very, very close there. he's raised over $8 million as an unknown candidate. he's not a celebrity, but that shows the fervor and energy on the side of democrats. >> is tam the kind of tea party with the shoe on the other foot? >> it is certainly a 180-degree turnaround. next weekend there is going to be a tax day protest. this is exactly eight years after the tax day protest that was really the kickoff for the tea party movement. but, you know, these special elections are special for a reason. they aren't necessarily good indicators of what's to some. democrats won a special election in april of 2010, and then that fall were completely knocked out, lost something like 63 seats. >> the important thing about the special elections, tam's point is correct, you don't want to read too much into them. success for the democrats would be they do very well, ie they win, or come close enough to impact their ability to recruit candidates to run in 2018, people get excited. >> woodruff: it's only been five months since the big election when the earth shook. >> and the midterms. >> woodruff: midterms coming up. amy walter, tamera keith, "politics monday," thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: for many years-- 146 to be exact-- ringling brothers and barnum and bailey circus has been awing crowds with acrobatic feats and animal stunts. but "the greatest show on earth" is coming to an end next month. its parent company made the decision after ticket sales had been dropping for years. the circus also struggled with a long court battle over the treatment of animals, particularly the elephants. the circus won in court. but the elephants were dropped from the show. we caught up as ringling brothers rolled through washington, d.c. one more time, and spoke with long-time performers and families. >> ringling brothers, and barnum and bailey circus, welcome to the greatest show on earth. >> my name is johnathan lee iverson, ringmaster. it's just pure, unadulterated, unapologetic entertainment, where everything you look at, now, is sort of defiled, circus is the last bit of magic in the world, and your children's imaginations are safe there, your imagination is safe here. >> in this amazing show i'm playing the character of the queen tatiana, of the circus of fire. we are artists, we are performers, you know, like the people in the movies. they are in there doing the shots, we are doing live, we don't have no repeats, we... perform our stunts. >> it's all about the impossible, it's all about really art at its highest level people are flying, they're talking to animals. >> the kids love the clowns, the animals, the cotton candy, the popcorn, all that stuff, so we have a great time. >> we're extremely disappointed to see it end. this is just, i understand the concerns, but we're very, very sad, sad to see it end. >> i'm not very happy about it, because i love coming here, and it's really nice, and it's really nice, and fun for me and my family to hang out together. >> i like the lions, and the tigers. i like the suspense, i like the danger that's involved... and they're beautiful animals, very beautiful animals, very majestic. >> mostly the animals. i like the animals. like they're colorful, and >> have the animal rights disputes hurt ringling bros.? yes, it was a factor, but it wasn't the only factor. we won in court, and we won in most legislative fights. >> my name is stephen payne. when we transitioned the elephants off of the circus last year, we knew we were going to see some decline in ticket sales, but the entertainment landscape has changed. when ringling bros. started there wasn't tv, now there's 1000 stations. there wasn't iphones. it's a huge, huge undertaking that requires an immense number of talented crewmembers to pull off. >> my name is alexander lacey, the big cat trainer and presenter. of course everyone wants to see the lion and tiger trainer get eaten, so i have a point in my act were the lions attack on command, which is quite a highlight, that people think they've suddenly gone out of control, but it's a trained movement. >> my name is david vassallo, i am the highlight clown. my grandfather was a clown, my father was a clown. i just have fun, become like a child, watching a clown is a little bit like watching children, how can you not smile when you see a children a little bit goofy, falling down, doing some funny things, and in this moment, you don't think about anything else. >> for us it's our home, it's our life, it's our love, it's our heart, it's everything. >> when in the end, our announcer saying for the last time, enjoy ringling brothers barnum and bailey circus, my tears are coming out. >> when those curtains close it, you know, a part of-- a part of us ends in america. >> woodruff: starting tonight on pbs, american experience presents a three-night series about the war that at the time was thought to be the war to end all wars. "the great war" explores the reluctance of president wilson to lead america into the deadly conflict, the experiences of african-american and latino soldiers as they fought for their country and their rights, and probes one of the most oppressive domestic crackdowns as suspected german supporters were rounded up. "the great war" airs starting tonight, through wednesday, on most pbs stations. on the newshour online right now, you can watch our in-depth conversations with some of the writers who were awarded puitzer prizes today, including novelist colson whitehead and playwright lynn nottage. find those interviews in our roundup of the winners. that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, a look at the dueling visions of enforcement and compassion in the trump administration's war on drugs. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> 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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> rose: welcome to the program. we begin this evening with tom friedman, columnist for the "new york times," and talk about syria china, russia and other foreign policy questions for president trump. >> i think it was important for the united states to use its power to send a signal that people use poison gas, as we were talking about the hundredth anniversary of world war i, at the that is just not on. it doesn't mean we can right every wrong or reverse every atrocity but when we have a chance to do this at a cost that's tolerable and a message that's loud, it's important. because you don't want a world where people think that's okay. >> rose: we continue with the same questions with ian bremmer, president of eurasia group.