case, democrats say cover-up refers to white house aides stonewalling on subpoenas and ignoring hearings. >> it cannot be the case that the executive branch gets to decide what witnesses will appear and what documents will produce. >> reporter: today's walkout may not have been the first. >> when leader pelosi said she didn't agree with the wall, he walked out. >> reporter: infrastructure is one of the areas they do have exxon ground. >> maybe it was a lack of confidence that he couldn't match the greatness of the challenge that we have. in any event, i pray for the president of the united states. >> reporter: the president said democrats can't investigate and legislate, they have to choose.

democrats organi s argue the re he walked out is because he can't tell his own party on a $2 trillion infrastructure package. he's looking, they say, for a way out. john walker lindh, you may remember that name, is expected to be released from a federal prison tomorrow. he admitted providing support to the taliban. he was with them on 9/11. jeff pegues picks up the story. >> reporter: when john walker lindh was captured by the taliban, he was dubbed the american taliban. >> connected with the taliban. >> reporter: he was interrogated at an afghan prison camp. soon, after this video was recorded, span was killed in a prison uprising, the first u.s. casualty of the war. lindh was right back to the u.s. and sentence d to 20 years in

prison. ahead of his release, after 17 years, spann's daughter, allison, wrote in a letter to president trump, that lindh's early release was a slap in the face. he is a traitor. >> i think every american should be outraged at his release. >> reporter: cbs news analyst, fran townsend. >> he volunteered to go to afghanistan, met with bin laden and put himself on the front lines of this fight, fighting american forces. >> reporter: law enforcement and intelligence reports from 2017, said lindh continued to advocate for global jihad and translated violent text. lindh's family refused to comment today. but in an interview with cbs news, he said his son was not a traitor. >> we know he's not anti-american. he doesn't have sympathy for terrorism. >> reporter: federal officials aren't talking about what led to lindh's early release. but it will be supervised. and he's not allowed to process,

view or act on extremist or terroristic views. >> jeff pegues, thanks so much. a top official says there's a high risk that africa's latest ebola outbreak will spread. it's killed 1,100 in the democratic republic of congo. deborah pado is the only reporter in the outbreak, where she found a danger in the disease. >> reporter: 2-year-old charity fighting for her life in this ebola treatment center. she was admitted today with her mother, who lies isolated in another plastic tube, too sick to tend to her little girl. there's been major advances in thebola since the outbreak in 2014. now, patients are put in these plastic tubes, that provides a protective barrier between the doctor and the patient. there's a new vaccine, which should be good news for the

democratic republic of congo in its fight against its deadliest outbreak to date. but this epidemic is in a war zone. this ebola manager told us their hospitals are repeatedly being targeted by the more than 30 armed militia groups roaming the f forests around the hot zones. >> every time you have an incident, it takes weeks to recover. the last incident was around april, when our w.h.o. colleague unfortunately got killed. it took us three weeks to recover. >> reporter: but the violence has not deterred this woman from her work at the unicef children's unit. she, herself, is an ebola survivor. here, they don't wear productive gear, as survivors are immune for further infection. the survivors look after babies, suspected of contracting the vir virus, was who need a loving touch in order to thrive.

i'm not afraid of ebola, she tells us. i'm afraid of the violence. another survivor also called esperance, which means hope, lost both her children to the disease. how are you coping? and yet, you still continue to work with children. that's incredible. this poor woman who went to get treated for malaria, got ebola where two children died. and here she is, working with children. this is the country's tenth ebola outbreak. and it's getting worse every day. while the people may be used to death, they haven't given up on hope just yet. this country is used to dealing with ebola quickly and efficiently. and doctors tell us that if it wasn't for the violence, the outbreak would have been contained by now.

major? >> deborah, thank you so much. next, three deadly

there's a new warning, tonight, about the safety of float planes. three have crashed since last week in alaska, killing nine people. there was a wreck yesterday in prince william sound. another crash happened near

ketchikan. here's jonathan bigley yatty. >> reporter: the ntsb report details the moments before the collision. the pilot of the otter said he was dropping altitude to show tourists a waterfall, when he saw a flash and experienced a large, loud impact. six people were killed and ten injured. as the ntsb investigates all three accidents, they've issued this warning. these kinds of flights may not be safe. in their so-called most-wanted list of safety improvements, the ntsb says air taxis, like float planes, are aircraft that don't require the same advanced crash prevention technology that is required of commercial airlines. alaska residents relies on planes more than any other state, with 8,000 residents

holding pilots licenses. the faa says they regularly perform unannounced surveillance on float planes and will increase oversight of taquan air, the company responsible for two of the three crashes. but today, the ntsb is asking all float planes update their technology. coming up, the geico makes it easy to get help when you need it. with licensed agents available 24/7.

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political riots turned deadly in indonesia. they broke out after official results were released showing the incumbent president had won re-election. the supporters of the challenger tried to storm the agency in jakar jakarta. an investigation into a racist yearbook photo, quote, could not conclusively determine, unquote, whether the person wearing blackface was, in fact, virginia governor, ralph northam. northam admitted it was him in the photo, standing next to a person dressed as a ku klux klansman. northam has then denied it. a woman who stole an r.v. led police on a wild chase through los angeles' san fernando valley, smashing into

cars and a palm tree during a 25-mile pursuit. two dogs in the camper, including one that jumped out, are okay. the driver is under arrest. up next, cli

so, what is it like to be on top of the world? here's someone who ought to know. if you thought you had a busy week, consider kami. he reached the summit of the tallest mountain, everest, 29,000 feet into the sky. that was his 23rd summit, a new world record. just tuesday morning, he made it 24, becoming the sherpa everyone must now look up to. last year he told well-wishers

he would ascend again if his physical consider permitted. did he ever? sherpas plot rooms, deliver ropes and ladders, deliver food and oxygen and monitor climbers' safety. without sherpas, this peak would remain beyond reach. his father worked as a guide when everest was opened up to foreigners in the 1950s. the work is dangerous and demanding. nearly 100 sherpas have died in the past century. but he says he will keep going for another decade, until he turns 60. in that rarified air, we're guessing, 60 will be the new 20. that's "the overnight news" for this thursday. for some of you, the news continues. for others, check back with us a little later for the morning news and "cbs this morning." from the broadcast center in new york, i'm major garrett.

this is "the cbs overnight news." >> welcome to "the overnight news." i'll meg oliver. tempers continue to flare between the white house and democrats and congress over the mueller report. president trump abruptly ended a meeting with democratic leaders, after nancy pelosi accused him of a cover-up. subpoenas are flying around and some of the president's current and former aides could be held in contempt. does this mean impeachment is inevitable? nancy cordes reports from capitol hill. >> what they've done is abuse.

>> reporter: the long-planned meeting lasted about three minutes. and ended with a presidential brushoff. >> to watch what happens in the white house would make your jaw drop. >> reporter: congressional sources say the president walked into the cabinet room 15 minutes late and didn't shake hands or sit down. he accused house speaker nancy pelosi of saying something terrible about him and left. >> he just took a pass. and it just makes me wonder why -- why he did that. >> reporter: president trump says it was this comment this morning that set him off. >> we believe that the president of the united states is engaged in a cover-up. >> reporter: he took to the rose garden to vent his frustration. >> and instead of walking in happily into a meeting, i walk into look at people that have just said that i was doing a cover-up. i don't do cover-ups. >> reporter: it's a loaded term, reminiscent of watergate. >> are you maintaining you have no knowledge of the cover-up? >> i had no part in any cover-up.

>> reporter: in this case, democrats say cover-up refers to white house aides stonewalling on subpoenas and ignoring hearings. >> it cannot be the case that the executive branch gets to decide what witnesses will appear and what documents will produce. >> reporter: today's walkout may not have been the first. >> when leader pelosi said she didn't agree with the wall, he walked out. >> reporter: infrastructure is one of the few areas they do have common ground. >> maybe it was a lack of confidence that he couldn't match the greatness of the challenge that we have. in any event, i pray for the president of the united states. >> reporter: the president said democrats can't investigate and legislate, they have to choose. democrats argue the real reason he walked out is because he can't sell his own party on a $2 trillion infrastructure package. the death toll continues to rise with the floodwaters in the midwest and the southern plains.

people there are bracing for another round of horrible storms after a week of severe weather that included more than 130 tornadoes. meiryea villarreal has the stor. >> reporter: homes on the brink. one collapsed. another was swept away by the water. >> it's coming in fast. it usually just floats. now, it's just eroding everything. fast. >> reporter: the same storms responsible for rising floodwaters made their way east overnight. a tornado in adare, iowa, destroyed a house, killing one person inside. a submarine that once floated during world war ii, was sitting on dry land three days ago. 22 miles away, the arkansas river is close to cresting, forcing the entire town of webbers falls to evacuate. jewel hall is packing up her

entire home, with the help of family and friends. >> i am moving my furniture out because if the water gets as high as they're forecasting, it will get in the house, probably. >> reporter: three blocks away, he is watching the water creep up the backyard of a home he's lived in for 46 years. he's leaving but determined to return home. >> when the water goes down, hopefully this piece of dirt will be here. the house might be gone. this tree will be here and i will have a yard and i'll come back. >> reporter: this is supposed to be someone's driveway. and now, it is part of the arkansas river. the riverbed is supposed to be 200 yards behind me. the fear is, if more rain comes overnight, as predicted, this water will take over the entire town. the mayor came by and told us the mandatory evacuations are in place. major, things are so serious, we saw a nursing home on the other side of the bridge, evacuating. as we speak. they're taking it seriously.

celebrity lawyer michael avenatti is in legal trouble again. this time, he's been indicted for allegedly stealing from his most famous client, porn actress stormy daniels. paula reid reports. >> reporter: adult film star stormy daniels made michael avenatti a household name when he represented her in a lawsuit against president trump. >> she wants the public to know the truth. >> reporter: but an indictment unsealed today, alleges that avenatti stole $300,000 daniels was owed for her book detailing an alleged affair with the president. according to court papers, avenatti forged daniels' signature on a letter to her literary agent and put her book advance into a bank account he controlled. he then allegedly used the money to pay for a ferrari, airfare, payrolls and his law firm.

avenatti said no moneys relating to ms. daniels were ever misappropriated or mishandled. he is also charged with stealing from clients in los angeles. and attempting to extort nike, by claims that the shoe company was paying high school basketball players. >> did you try to extort nike for millions of dollars? >> no. and any suggestion is absurd. >> reporter: avenatti had considered challenging president trump for the white house. he even started his own political action committee. as his legal problems piled up, he announced he will not run in 2020. he used one-third of the money he raised to pay himself. the so-called american taliban, john walker lindh, is scheduled to be released from prison today. lindh was captured in afghanistan shortly after the 9/11 attacks and spent 17 years behind bars. jeff pegues has the story.

>> reporter: when john walker lindh was captured by the taliban, he was dubbed the american taliban. >> i came into contact with many people, connected with the taliban. >> reporter: he was interrogated at an afghan prison camp by johnny mike spann. soon, after this video was recorded, span was killed in a prison uprising, the first u.s. casualty of the war. lindh was right back to the u.s. and sentenced to 20 years in prison. ahead of his release, after 17 years, spann's daughter, allison, wrote in a letter to president trump, that lindh's early release was a slap in the face. he is a traitor, she said. law enforcement and intelligence reports from 2017 said lindh continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent, extremist texts. lindh's family refused to comment today. but in a 2007 interview with cbs

news, lindhlindh's father, fran said he's not a traitor. ♪ searching for something fresh?

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this is "the cbs overnight news." >> there are so many high-speed chases in california that they're really not news anymore. but this one involving a stolen r.v., you have to see. jamie yuccas showed us the wild ride. >> reporter: it was just after rush hour tuesday evening. >> i cannot believe what is going on. >> reporter: authorities in santa clarita chased a stolen motor home with a huge gash. behind the wheel, a female driver with two dogs inside. during the pursuit, you can see one dog leap from the moving

r.v. >> oh. oh, my god. no, no. no, no. >> reporter: somehow walking to safety. the driver maneuvered her way through several streets, and sped through intersections, slamming into cars. oh. >> reporter: this woman's vehicle was totaled after colliding with the r.v. >> i was practically pulling my hair out. that is the craziest thing i've ever seen. >> whoa? what's going on? i hear a kaboom. >> reporter: it came to a violent end, injuring a driver in the process. she jumped out of the r.v. one of her dogs running behind her. but didn't get far before police tackled her in front of a home. >> charges that we're looking at right now would be felony hit and run, felony evading and also we're investigating driving under the influence at this time. >> reporter: at least three people were hurt, all with minor injuries. and officials say both dogs are safe with animal control.

jamie yuccas, los angeles. president trump fired off an angry tweet storm after fox news hosted a town hall meeting for democratic presidential candidate pete butte geg. h is among two dozen candidates speaking the democratic presidential nomination. john dickerson spent a day with mayor pete in his hometown. >> reporter: the house i was born is across the river there. >> reporter: pete buttigieg wants to be president. the mayor of south bend, indiana, and veteran of afghanistan, likes a tough project. >> needed a ton of repair. >> reporter: in the right market. >> the house was vacant. and the price was dropping a few

thousand bucks every few weeks. it might dip to where i could afford it. >> reporter: mayor buttigieg lives in this 1905 home with his husband, chaston. >> mayor pete buttigieg. >> reporter: now, he has his eyes on a different white house. >> i'm a proud son of south bend, indiana, and i'm running for president of the united states. >> reporter: once a long shot. the mayor of indianindiana's fourth-largest city has been rising in the polls, attracting contributions and attention. >> you're amazing. thank you so much. >> reporter: if elected, he says his top priority would be fixing the democratic system the electoral college, to gerrymandering. >> let's talk about what might be the great security issue of our time, climbate change. >> reporter: otherwise, he believes progress on climate change or health care would be difficult. but what most people see in pete

buttigieg, is the man who would become america's youngest president. do you think because donald trump has opened the window of possibilities, that you actually benefit in what's possible in a candy and a presidency? >> in some ways. i never thought as a 37-year-old mayor i would be able to say that i have more government experience than the president of the united states. >> reporter: what other part of your life would you point people to, who might be concerned, given your age, who might say, well, has he been tested? >> i remember one moment in afghanistan, when i was responsible for making sure that a vehicle that i was driving got to where it was going safely. and you're warned, for example, a magnetic i.e.d. could be on your vehicle. when it sounded like somebody had attached something to the vehicle i was driving. and for a split-second, we had to figure out whether to ditch the vehicle, which would have been obviously very risky, as well, because you're a target in the middle of a city where some

people are privy to attack you if they got a chance. it turned out, there was a b beggar, who was on a dolly. and he slapped the side of the car to move himself along. if nothing else, it taught me not to overreact and not to panic when something is coming along that's alarming. >> reporter: buttigieg is a trained pianist. and he's a rhodes scholar from harvard. also from harvard, also a veteran, and also once considered too young for office. >> if you look at his old campaign poster when he's running for congress, it's this scrawny, toothy, young guy. and the slogan is, a new generation offers a leader. >> reporter: truman came out and said, senator kennedy, i amateur you're going to have a great future. but now is not the time.

>> when you're young, you're patted on the head and told you're the future. i'm interested in what you can bring to the present. and the presence has been shaped in some measure by young people. >> reporter: elected mayor of south bend, at age 29, buttigieg took over just after "newsweek" declared his hometown one of america's dying cities. ♪ big news big news >> reporter: its golden age was more than 50 years ago, as home to the carmaker studebaker. >> more than 20,000 strong, these men and women make up the studebaker family. >> reporter: but in the early 1960s, studebaker shut down. >> those were shattered, old-school factory windows. >> reporter: and took much of south bend's economy with it. part of the old factory is a tech center. >> we have a code school for enagers. >> reporter: buttigieg calls it

a symbol of what's happened to south bend under his leadership and what he would do for the country as president. >> america deserves our optimism, deserves our courage and deserves our hope. >> reporter: you talked about improving the symbolism of the presidency. why is that important? >> because the presidency is also a moral office. it calls this nation to its highest values. and it sets the tone for the story that we tell ourselves. narrative is a very powerful thing. and we need to make sure that everybody in america understands where they fit in this country's story. >> reporter: but until recently, the mayor's own story was only half-told. when you went to serve, you wrote a letter in case you didn't come back. what's in the letter? >> i want people who cared about me to know that i wouldn't have felt that i had been cheated. as tragic as it would be if my life was cut short, it was so full, i wouldn't have left it with a sense of anger.

it's a strange thing to think about, too, because i didn't come out until after i came out. i packed my bags for afghanistan having no idea what it was like to be in love. and the richest and fullest part of my life is what happened after i came back and met chaston and got married. thank god i came back. >> reporter: buttigieg came out publicly during his re-election bid in 2015. last year, he married junior high teacher chaston. their two rescue dogs, truman, and one-eyed buddy, have their own social media following. it was buddy who interrupted our interview. this is like politics. this is like the trail. you think you're doing a great job. and someone comes from the left and interrupts everything. >> or the right. >> welcome to politics. >> exactly. >> reporter: it's not the kind of marriage voters have seen before in a presidential campaign. and raises the question, is the

country ready for a gay president? do you feel that your marriage is campaigning, as well? because you are doing something that is new in american politics. >> i think i would argue i don't have to answer for it. i mean, we passed marriage equality. i don't think i have to answer for my marriage anymore. >> i think, how could i possibly be doing this, if it weren't for chaston, if i didn't have someone in my life that cares about me as me. >> reporter: the messenger is the message. the youngest candidate is promising generational change. with a campaign built on reanimating his party's values for a new era, including a connection with faith. do you have a particular passage from scripture you're particularly fond o? >> if there's one that i try to think about when i'm deciding what to do, it's the bee yatitu.

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jane pauley and the crew from cbs sunday morning recently spent some time in florence, italy. they recently bumped into some characters, including one man who takes extreme art to the extreme. here's jane. >> reporter: take a close look at the street signs around florence. naturally, in this city, even they are pieces of art. playful, funny, irreverent. hundreds of signs dot the landscape. they're all the work of this man, the street artist who goes by cleft. who saw an opportunity to do something different. in a place imbued with history. >> the relationship is interesting. of course, you can't do the same kind of art. >> reporter: the 52-year-old frenchman moved to florence 14

years ago, barely scraping by. >> my life was difficult because i was a painter but without success. so, it was difficult to pay the rent. >> reporter: down on his luck, he looked to the street as his canvas. >> i make a sticker. i put it on the street sign. two days after, it was the first time in 20 years that the newspaper called me. i think i have a good idea. >> reporter: locals took note of the plastic stickers plastering the city signs. >> i'm trying to give an example that it's possible to make more harmony between authority and freedom. >> reporter: at first, officials weren't pleased. >> they tried to remove everything. but i was more quick to put it again. >> reporter: today, he has fans worldwide. clients pay thousands for his art. and now, he's even leaving his mark in america.

he just installed this work, a nose, if you're wondering, at a los angeles intersection. the mantra of an artist alw

coffee lovers, this one is for you. the search for the perfect espresso took seth doane to where else? italy. and the university of coffee. ♪ >> reporter: the vibrant, southern italian city of naples seems to run on espresso. >> it's a very exciting city. >> reporter: is any of that due to its love for coffee? >> yes. >> reporter: this is packed in here. >> it's like a temple. >> reporter: and coffee here is like a religion. this cafe was established before italy was, when naples was a

kingdom. >> talking about coffee, it's talking about part of our tradition. >> reporter: he offers high-end tours of his city and says this is a regular stop. espresso, simply called coffee here, takes about 30 seconds to brew, a little less than that to drink. >> okay. please, next time, take your time. >> reporter: he works for italian coffee powerhouse illi. how many cups of coffee do you have in a day working here? >> roughly, ten. >> reporter: he says it's a shame to simply knock it back. >> think about what happened before the 50 beans were selected. how many people were involved in brewing the right cup of express sew. and then, you have to achieve the balance, the saourness and the sweetness. >> reporter: there's so much to

know, that they developed the university of coffee, its headquarters in the northeastern port city. >> there's more than 140 rules that can affect the final result in the cup. >> reporter: yes, rules. this barista is a sort of coffee professor. what exactly is espresso. >> if you consider from latin, it means under pressure. that's the way we construct the coffee. >> reporter: italians invented this method of preparation. but first, the beans must be roasted and ground just right, an art in itself. ili imparts coffee beans from two dozen different countries and at any different time has about 100,000 bags on-hand. that seems just about enough to fuel the city of naples. >> seth doane with another tough

assignment. that's "the overnight news" for this thursday. for some of you, the news continues. for others, check back with us a little later for the morning news and "cbs this morning." from the broadcast center in new york city, i'm meg oliver. captioning funded by cbs it's thursday, may 23rd, 2019. this is the "cbs morning news." severe weather turns deadly in the central u.s., and a tornado just rocked jefferson city, missouri, trapping people in the wreckage. another migrant child dead in u.s. custody. what happened to a 10-year-old girl from el salvador. and president trump versus democrats. speaker of the house nancy pelosi accuses the president of a coverup, and the president is >>ring back.