♪ ♪ captioning sponsored by cbs >> dubois: on the "cbs evening news" this tuesday, the acting defense secretary is out amid allegations of domestic violence. yet another new vacancy as tensions with iran escalate. >> he presented me with a letter this morning. that was his decision. >> i think it would have been a problematic confirmation. >> to have no secretary of defense at this time is appalling. >> mike pompeo says the president does not want war with iran as the united states prepares to send additional troops to the middle east. >> we are there to deter aggression. >> duboi obs, president's campaign chief tells why he expects a trump landslide in 2020. >> define an electoral landslide? >> i think even more electoral points than he had last time.

>> dubois: what we've learned about the recent deaths of american tourists in the dominican republic and how it's impacting tourism. and the third graders knew their textbook was wrong. convincing the publisher was not easy. why do you think they ignored you? >> because we were just kids. >> dubois: good evening. i'm maurice dubois. this is our western edition. another key member of the trump administration is leaving. today acting defense secretary patrick shanahan withdrew from the formal confirmation process even as tensions with iran are escalating. defense and eight other top administration jobs are now held by acting leaders, including homeland security and chief of staff. shanahan's exit comes as court and police records of domestic violence surrounding his divorce were brought to light. david martin has more on that. >> reporter: patrick shanahan and his wife kimberly divorced rcght years ago, a year after a run-in with police which began with this 911 call: >> my husband is throwing punches at me. >> reporter: according to court

documents, he denied that and claimed she had punched him, giving him a bloody nose. when police arrived, she was the one charged with assault, which was later dismissed. after the divorce, fights over money and custody of the three children continued. in 2011, their 17-year-old son beat his mother with a baseball bat. "i was knocked unconscious twice, kimberly declared in court documents, adding that her ex-husband has taken the position that i provoked the assault. the documents are all public and were available to the f.b.i. when shanahan was nominated to become deputy secretary of defense in 2017. but a member of the senate armed services committee says they were never told. >> that there was something in this nominee's past, patrick shanahan's past, that was deliberately concealed or mistakenly covered up. >> reporter: two white house officials told cbs news they knew about shanahan's family

turmoil when the president announced last month he would nominate him as the next secretary of defense. today president trump claimed he just found out. >> i had heard about it yesterday for the first time. >> reporter: announcing his resignation, shanahan said, "continuing in the confirmation process would force my three children to relive a traumatic chapter in our family's life." a sad story which leaves the country without a confirmed secretary of defense. >> to have no secretary of defense at this time is appalling. and it shows the chaos in this administration. >> reporter: the president says he will probably nominate his current secretary of the army, mark esper, to be his next secretary of defense. esper happens to be a west point classmate of secretary of state pompeo. maurice. >> dubois: okay. david martin at the pentagon tonight. thank you. secretary pompeo met today with leaders of u.s. central command

on ways to counter iran after recent attacks on international shipping. charlie d'agata is in the united arab emirates and reports on the u.s. buildup, which includes 1,000 additional troops. >> president trump does not want war, and we will continue to communicate that message while doing the things that are necessary to protect american interests in the region. >> reporter: but protecting american interests means boosting american troops, something that has only added to tensions. iranian president hassan rouhani also insisted today that iran does not seek war with any nation, but that "we are in a face-off with america." china warned the u.s. against opening a pandora's box and along with russia called for restraint, fearing an escalation of hostilities. the pentagon won't say exactly where the additional 1,000 u.s. troops will be sent. the u.s. already has a significant military presence in

this region of around 35,000 service members manning warships, air bases, and ground operations. iran's regional arch-rival saudi arabia is stepping up the pressure, too, releasing video showing its warplanes on joint exercises with u.s. fighter jets over the persian gulf, a show of force sending an unmistakable message to iran. but even some of america's allies continue to be skeptical, most recently japan whose tanker was attacked now asking for more proof. germany and france remain unconvinced, and even here in the u.a.e., they're stopping short of actually naming iran as the culprits. maurice. >> dubois: charlie d'agata, thank you. president trump is formally kicking off his reelection bid tonight. supporters have packed an arena in orlando, florida. let's listen to that now. >> together we stared down a broken and corrupt political

establishment and we restored a government of for and by the people. ( cheers and applause ) our country is now thriving, prospering and booming and, frankly, it's soaring to incredible new heights. >> dubois: today, major garrett met the president's campaign chief for a rare interview seen only on cbs. >> i think we win in an electoral landslide as of today. >> reporter: define an electoral landslide. >> i think even more electoral points than he had last time. >> reporter: president trump's campaign manager was extremely confident when discussing the president's chances in 2020, but he would not discuss leaked internal polls showing the president trailing in key battleground states that led to the firing of three campaign pollsters. who decided to get rid of the pollsters, you or the president? >> i'm not going to comment on the leaked stories and all this stuff. i'm not commenting about how i run the operation. i can tell you right now, we're focused on tonight. we're focused on this event. we're focused on the president

relaunching for 2020. >> reporter: parscale said public polling is broken and the president's datamining process is far better. >> i think country is too complex now. there are so many different people will show up to vote now. the way turnout works and the ability we have to turn out voters, the polling can't understand that. that's why it was so wrong in 2016. it was 100% wrong. nobody got it right. >> reporter: the president's focus on illegal immigration and what he calls the crisis at the southern border is expected to be a centerpiece of his campaign. last night the president announced on twitter his plan to deport millions of illegal immigrants next week. is that a political message or a policy message? >> this president has always been about securing the southern border. that's important for him. >> reporter: were you surprised by that tweet? >> i'm not surprised by it at all. >> reporter: does it help you politically? >> it's the promise he made. it's why he won the victory in 2016.

i stand by the promise he made. >> reporter: democrats think they can capitalize on the president's anti-immigrant rhetoric and turn out the latino vote. they also hope the fallout from the mueller report will help them win the white house. but parscale said the mueller probe has become a net plus. >> i think it's actually ending has been a good thing. he's fully exonerated, and all the lies about russian collusion and all this crap that said we cheated and these things, they want to act like that stuff never happened now. >> reporter: if a foreign government offered the reelection campaign assistance, parscale told us this. ca look, i would never talk about policies we have, but the president stated that he would do it, he would listen, go to the f.b.i. if he wanted to and the things he would do. i would never talk about internal policy. >> reporter: parscale told us the campaign will raise at least $18 million today alone, and soon will roll out an app that trump supporters can use on their phones to organize and donate, activity he said will

increase the trump reelection data set to more than 100 million potential voters. maurice. >> dubois: okay, major garrett, thank you. and there's much more of major's interview with brad parscale tomorrow on "cbs this morning." as major reported, the president vowed to remove millions of undocumented immigrants beginning next week. but he offered no specifics. so we asked jeff pegues to look into this. >> reporter: before leaving for florida, president trump insisted the immigration roundup would begin next week. >> put your hands up! >> reporter: targeting more than a million people who have open deportation orders. >> when people come into our country and they come in illegally, they have to go out. r: reporter: the president has been pushing immigration officials to take a harder line, and recently appointed mark morgan to lead immigration and customs enforcement. the news shocked immigration advocates and public officials like oakland mayor libby schaaf, who famously warned residents of a pending ice raid last year.

>> this president continues to searmonger. he continues to spread racist lies. >> reporter: while most crossing illegally into the united states recently won't be affected, those that helped them say the threat of a tougher tone is meant to scare and deter. last month alone almost 145,000 migrants crossed into the u.s. from mexico. most asked for political asylum. theresa cardinal brown is a errmer homeland security official. >> my guess is that for the next 48 hours or so you will see a lot of immigrant kids who are not in school. a lot of parents will not show up for work. >> reporter: in phoenix, many recent refugees were dropped at bus stations to make their way to families and to await court hearings on asylum claims. connie phillips helped hundreds. do you think this tough talk will stop the flow of immigrants? >> no. because what's driving it is the issues they're experiencing it in their home country.

>> reporter: roundup operations take hundreds of agents and requires coordination across multiple agencies. already ice and d.h.s. are stretched thin, dealing with what could be at the current pace up to a million people crossing the border illegally. maurice. >> dubois: jeff pegues, thanks so much. we have an important story now about a private company that serves as a landlord at 55 u.s. military bases. it's called balfour beatty communities. a joint investigation by cbs news and reuters found balfour beatty falsified maintenance cecords, leaving military families waiting for repairs while the company qualified for millions of dollars in performance-based bonuses. now the f.b.i. is investigating. llre's omar villafranca. >> reporter: in 2015... >> turn this way. >> reporter: ...paige and nick ippolito moved into a house managed by balfour beatty communities. >> it was a distressed property probably 20 years ago. >> reporter: within months a water leak warped their floor

and a company technician recorded his concern that the couple's infant daughter could become sick from chewing on flooring tiles that contained asbestos. >> it's very upsetting to know that he was concerned for our child's safety but didn't tell us. >> reporter: maintenance documents say the leak was repaired almost immediately. >> it says the call was put in at 4:32 p.m., and it was completed at 4:52. that's a physical impossibility to fix something of that extent in 20 minutes. >> reporter: but internal records reviewed by cbs news and reuters reveal at the time balfour beatty employees at epnker kept two sets of books. calls were first recorded on paper and only entered into a computer system when a job was nearly completed. this made it appear the company was quickly addressing problems and kept it eligible for millions in performance bonuses. >> whenever you generate a work order, it automatically puts today's date on it.

and it's like a stopwatch. >> reporter: tina brown scheduled repairs at tinker for balfour beatty. what was the longest you saw a regular maintenance request sit in a logbook? >> they used to sit in there for as long as a month. >> reporter: did your boss expressly tell you not to put them into the computer unless they were ready to be worked on? >> yes. >> reporter: assistant secretary of the airforce john henderson told cbs news his office took immediate action, putting balfour beatty on a corrective action plan. balfour beatty said in a statement it has not and does not condone the falsification of records in any way. >> right here, this is all water. >> reporter: the company says it has strengthened its documentation process at tinker, but derek, a naval flight engineer who asked us not to use his last name, lives on base. he says problems persist. >> we get phone calls saying, hey, your house is leaking. well, your mind goes from what you're supposed to be doing to i'm thousands of miles away. why is it leaking? it was already fixed once. >> reporter: tina brown was fired in 2016.

she is suing balfour beatty for wrongful termination. the f.b.i. is currently investigating allegations at tinker and two other bases in california and washington. the company's incentive fees are estimated to be worth up to $800 million. >> dubois: omar, we know of one person being fired. any others that we're hearing about? >> just tina brown. that's the only one we know about so far. >> dubois: astonishing. alright, omar villafranca, thanks so much. next on the "cbs evening news," an update on what we know and don't know about the deaths of american tourists in the dominican republic. and later, breaking news from san francisco, a big vote today on the sale of e-cigarettes. of e-cigarettes. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. are you in good hands? age-related macular i've degeneration, with which could lead to vision loss.

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created confusion and raised questions about the island's safety. 55-year-old joseph allen of avenel, new jersey was the latest death. he died in his hotel room earlier this week. the authorities have not said how. here's what we do know: so far this year seven tourists have died on the island of non- accidental causes. five of them had similar symptoms of pulmonary edema, fluid in the lungs, and respiratory failure and occurred at resorts in punta cana or la ntmana. what we don't know is what caused those symptoms. the f.b.i. is conducting their omn toxicology tests on three of the deaths. two others have been deemed natural causes, both heart attacks, by island medical officials. a tropical paradise in the caribbean, the dominican republic is a tourist destination to 6.6 million vacationers a year. césar duverany is a spokesperson for the dominican foreign ministry and insists the deaths are unrelated and isolated. what do you say to americans who feel it is unsafe to visit here?

"more than six million people visited and most of them north americans, so we don't think it's a good representation. the country is very safe, and the best thing they can do is just to lay out the numbers and the facts." there were two other deaths with similar symptoms at those same resorts last year, and the u.s. embassy here in santo domingo anto at this point there is no proof that any of these deaths are, in fact, related. meanwhile, those f.b.i. toxicology results are expected back, maurice, some time in the next three weeks. >> dubois: mola lenghi in santo domingo tonight. thank you. still ahead here, what one major league team is doing to protect its fans from foul balls. you know what i'm thinking? why not use it? i mean, we're talking about six trillion dollars here. that's a whole lotta cash out there people are just sitting on

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feeling more than a little frustrated. >> i felt disrespected. >> i felt stressed and i didn't like it at all. >> reporter: what made them so unhappy was a problem in a math workbook that said christopher columbus landed in america. >> my reaction was that, whoa, that's not the right answer. >> america and the americas. >> reporter: america, they said, refers to what is now the united states of america. >> they immediately protested because they knew that columbus didn't land in the united states of america. he landed in the caribbean islands. be reporter: so they voted to o nd a letter to the publisher asking that the wording be changed. who was the motivating force here, you or the kids? >> no, this was student led. this was entirely their idea. >> reporter: over several months they sent three letters, but lyly got form letters in return. that made them mad. >> really, really furious. because they didn't answer me. i don't like when people don't

answer me. >> reporter: why do you think they ignored you? >> because we were just kids. >> reporter: kids who refused to give up. next they created a petition p.line and got 1,285 signatures. that got mifflin harcourt's attention. they said the next version of the textbook would say, "christopher columbus landed in the caribbean." they commended the students and they were elated. ( cheers ) what felt the best? >> having so many people support p. >> reporter: what do you think is the big lesson of all of this? >> i think if you're a kid, just keep pushing to do something incredible. i mean, if it's hard, just keep pushing, keep pushing, and then if somebody says you can't do it, just prove them wrong. >> reporter: a big lesson for the rest of us, too. chip reid, cbs news, oneonta, new york. >> dubois: out of the mouths of babes. and that is the "cbs evening news."

i'm maurice dubois. we'll see you back here tomorrow. have a good night. ca ioning sponsored by

right now at seven, the bomb squad arriving at a building in sunnyvale. the developing situation with the suspicious package.>> i see a lot of cops and i pull over to the right and say that's my car. >> of bay area mother's instinct turns into her worst nightmare. her son, a victim of the third freeway shooting in three days. bombshell testimony and the ghost ship warehouse trial, defendant just admitted that he lied to police. with the dating app, tender, had to do with his testimony. san francisco's tough new crackdown on e cigarettes.>>

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