captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: presidents obama and clinton mark the 20th anniversary of americorps. we sit down with former president bill clinton on the legacy of the corps. and how to take on islamic state militants. >> eventually destroyed if and only if the people they are abusing are willing to fight. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. also ahead, the growing safety concerns over exploding air bags that have caused manufacturers to recall more than fourteen million cars. then, investigating the chinese

government's role in the $4.7 billion deal to buy the american pork company, smithfield farms. >> the chinese, they paid a 30% premium. very interesting. not exactly the best business deal. so, what's really going on here? what really is it that this merger, this purchase, was all about? >> woodruff: and it's friday, mark shields and david brooks are here, to analyze another week full of news. those are some of the stories we're covering 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. >> i've been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. the ones getting involved, staying engaged. they are not afraid to question the path they're on. because the one question they never want to ask is, "how did i end up here?" i started schwab with those people. people who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. and... >> this program was made

possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the obama administration faced growing questions today about the coalition it's trying to build against "islamic state" militants. secretary of state met with turkish leaders in ankara, hoping to win their support. later, he said the roles of turkey and other potential allies have yet to be determined. >> it is frankly inappropriate at this point in time to start laying out one country by one country what individual nations are going to do. more than 40 countries had already offered assistance of one kind or another before i left washington. meanwhile, french president francois hollande was in iraq, meeting with the new prime minister, haider al-abadi. afterward, abadi said france agreed to join in air strikes

against "islamic state" fighters. secretary kerry also announced nearly $500 million in humanitarian aid today for syrian refugees, and the countries where they've fled. some three million syrians have taken refuge in neighboring states. more than twice that many remain inside syria. the world health organization has issued an urgent new appeal for health workers, to fight ebola in west africa. the agency announced today the death toll in the outbreak has topped 2,400 out of nearly 48 hundred cases. cuba, meanwhile, announced plans to send 165 health specialists to sierra leone to help in the effort. the united states and the european union both formally imposed new economic sanctions on russia today, for fomenting unrest in ukraine. the u.s. measures target russia's largest bank, plus energy and defense companies.

russian foreign minister sergei lavrov told russian state t.v. that the moves could jeopardize the cease-fire in ukraine. this was already commentary and our position is that making this type of decision at the very moment when the peace process is gaining stability, it means choosing the path of disrupting the peace process. we're going to respond calmly, adequately and, most of all, from a need to protect our interests. >> woodruff: the kremlin said later it will issue its own retaliatory measures. in south africa, double-amputee olympic runner oscar pistorius was convicted of "culpable homicide," akin to manslaughter, in the shooting death of his girlfriend. the judge acquitted him of murder charges. afterward, police and bodyguards led pistorius through a mob of television cameras and supporters. he could get as many as 15 years in prison. the embattled mayor of toronto, canada, rob ford, has dropped his run for re-election, after

discovering he has an abdominal tumor. ford had previously insisted he'd stay in the race, despite drug and alcohol scandals. in a statement today, he said he'll run for a seat on the city council, instead. his brother, who now holds a council seat, will run for mayor in his place. the fiery, long-time leader of northern ireland's protestants, the reverend ian paisley, died today. for decades, he rejected compromise with catholics, and demanded the defeat of the irish republican army. after the i.r.a. disarmed, paisley stunned the world in 2007 by forming a unity government. the reverend ian paisley was 88 years old. deportations of undocumented immigrants from the u.s. have fallen 20% this fiscal year, to the lowest level since 2007. the associated press reported today. it's partly because border patrol agents have been swamped by a surge of central american children crossing into the country.

president obama has postponed any official immigration policy changes until after the midterm elections. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average lost 61 points to close at 16,987. the nasdaq fell 24 points to close at 4567. and the s-and-p 500 slipped nearly 12 points, to finish at 1985. for the week, the dow and the s-and-p lost about one percent. the nasdaq fell a fraction of a percent. still to come on the newshour: former president bill clinton on the legacy of americorps, the threat of islamic state militants, and more; how an airbag defect has triggered the recall of fourteen million cars since 2009; what you should know before checking into outpatient surgery medical centers; the role of the chinese government in buying america's largest pork company; and mark shields and david brooks on the week's news.

>> woodruff: they celebrated at the white house today, 20 years after a landmark law that enshrined a domestic version of the "peace corps." and the man who signed that law, was on hand. >> woodruff: with the stroke of his pen, former president bill clinton made the americorps national service program a reality, in 1993. a year later, the first class was officially sworn in. >> will you all raise your right hand and repeat after me: i will get things done for america. >> woodruff: in the 20 years since, more than 900,000 participants have spent in excess of 1.2 billion hours working on projects across the u.s. today, that spirit of service was celebrated at the white house, as clinton and hundreds

of current and past americorps members joined president obama to mark the anniversary. >> americorps has changed the life of our nation. and now it's up to us to make sure it continues cause we're not just here to celebrate what's already been achieved. we're here to rededicate ourselves to the work that lies ahead. >> woodruff: a new class of some 75,000 volunteers was sworn in today at the white house and around the country. members must be at least 17 years old and commit to volunteer for a year or two in exchange for a modest living allowance as well as an education stipend. over the years, they've tutored and mentored children in under- served communities and helped rebuild after natural disasters. volunteers have also worked to combat hunger and on environmental conservation projects.

matthew little joined americorps shortly after its inception. he worked with the service organization "city year" at an inner-city school in boston. >> this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that people don't typically get to have. you get to serve your community. you get to serve the nation. and you get to serve these individuals. it's just something that makes you a better person for having done it. >> woodruff: but the program is not without its critics. some republicans have objected to giving a monetary incentive for civic service. at today's ceremony, former president clinton called it a "wonderful investment in america's future." >> americorps works because all of you who went before kept your promise to get things done. i hope that congress will on this occasion reconsider its opposition to its budget requests and give us a chance to

grow americorps some more. >> woodruff: i sat down with the former president this afternoon to talk about americorps and other matters. former president bill clinton, thank you for talking with us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: as we just saw, you're celebrating the 20t 20th anniversary today of ahmeamericorps. you said this was one of the proudest things you did as president of the united states. but from the very beginning, many republicans said this is something that should be done in the nonprofit sector, the government shouldn't be funding it, it's been difficult to get it fully funded. why do you think it's been so hard to get bipartisan buy-in? >> i think it violates their ideology, but if you think about it, it costs us less to hire an americorps person on basically a

living stipend and give them college credit like the g.i. bill than it does to pay a year's worth of unemployment, and every dollar we spend on americorps represents a dollar spent on the community, every dollar on an independent study provides almost $4 worth of benefits and every dollar spent that way saves governments, federal state and local, more than $2 they would have to spend otherwise because of all the free labor. and the americorps, like when the tornado hit joplin, we sit americorps volunteers down there and they were adept at generating and organizing large numbers of other volunteers, something not everyone knows how to do. it's just been a great thing. and, you know, we still have to fight it, but i guess we'll just keep doing it. president bush supported it, and i appreciated that. so we've had three presidents in a row that have really been in

here for it, and i think with 900,000 people having served in americorps now, i think it's part of the fabric of our national life. >> woodruff: even some big supporters of the program have said that it's been harder than you would have expected to get young people interested in this. last year, there were half a million young people who applied, but that's out of 32 million in this 18 to 24 cohort. how do you explain that? >> well, first of all, they were applying for 75,000 slots. so they knew that there was -- i mean, that's like trying to get in an ivy league school. that's first. secondly, i think a lot of young people still don't know about us, but i believe if we had 250,000 slots, which is what we wanted to have by 2017, i

believe there would be millions of people apply for it. i'm amazed. i think whatever we can provide, the demand will exceed the supply in americorps. >> woodruff: president clinton, you the clinton global initiative has now become a big annual happening in new york city coming up in a few weeks and you raise tens of millions of dollars every year for a variety of causes. one of your major focus this year is women and girls. in the wake of the ray rice incident and other domestic abuses and after all the education that's been done in this country on domestic abuse, why do you think this is such a problem in our country? >> oh, i think it's a problem around the world. you know, there was a recent survey, at least sometime in the

last couple of weeks, and i wish i could remember who did it, but the number of women and girls who have been physically and sexually abused, the percentage around the world is staggering and far greater than it is here. i think the reaction to the rice incident shows that we're still moving on it here, but i don't know that you will ever eliminate it. there is an enormous amount of violence in every society within the home, sadly, where people live in proximity and are under pressure, have lives they don't show to the outside world. but i actually think america is making headway here. it's a big issue to me. i've lived with it and hillary spent a lifetime fighting against it, and it's a big issue. but i think what we would like to do primarily with the c.g.i.

is to keep trying to empower women and girls around the world and to work against much more institutionalized violence against women and girls that exists all over the world. >> woodruff: let me turn you to some news of the week, the big story, president obama's announcement of his plan to go after, in his words, to degrade and destroy the terrorist islamic state group. how confident are you that this is going to be successful? and how long do you think it's going to take? >> well, this group, i think they can be degraded and eventually destroyed if and only if the people they are abusing are willing to fight. in other words, the strategy he outlined, which i strongly agree with, requires us to use air power and people on the ground

to give training and support and intelligence and to bring in equipment they need so it will be a fair fight. but ever since vietnam, we have learned that if the united states goes anywhere in the world to fight -- i hate sports analogies -- but potentially it's an away game, and we need to be back in the home team. and now because of the changes in the iraqi government, it appears that the sunni tribal chiefs are, once again, having been abused by i.s.i.s., and they were by al quaida and iraq, are willing to fight and, this time, looks like they're going to be involved in a more unified iraqi government. the peshmerga of the kurds has fought. we need to keep them equipped, trained, full of intelligence and give them support, i think they can win, but it's not going to be easy or quick. >> woodruff: i must ask you

about russia, vladimir putin. you know this plan, his government. they've annexed crimea, now effectively control much of eastern ukraine. there have been more sanctions announced today, they don't seem to phase him. is the west helpless to stop him? >> no and i don't think they will phase him. >> the allocation of money and power in russia is not as it is here and there's nothing that resembles the free market and there's a lot of politics in it and that's going to be felt. but putin controls the media. russia doesn't have a free media, so by the time they get through whipping everybody up, he can maintain ocularty longer than -- popularity longer than he should. poroshenko is probably the best president ukraine can have right

now. he's a responsible, strong man. we need to make sure they've got equipment and other support. and they're not n.a.t.o. members. we can't commit to put troops on the ground. we don't want a major war, but we ought to back them and protect and support them as much as we can. >> woodruff: question about american politics. you have been all over the country, you will continue to go all over the country campaigning for democrats, you and secretary clinton will be in iowa this weekend. despite that, all the experts are saying republicans are going to take control of the senate this fall including in your home state of arkansas. what's your assessment? >> can't tell you. in arkansas, it is a question of whether the democrats can get over their primary disability as a political party which is we can produce in a presidential race but not a mid-term race.

mark pryor i believe can win a substantially victory if we had a normal turn out of african-manner, hispanic voters. we have too many lower income white voters. we have too many voters in state after state offafter state where that's the case. i don't know what's going to happen yet but i'm going to help all over the country. >> woodruff: you're not going to predict the democrats? >> i think we have a slightly better than 50% chance to hold the congress. i still think we can win in georgia and kentucky. we're now competitive in kansas, and we have to, i think -- i think we have a great chance to win in north carolina. i think we're now going to hold michigan, and i believe we'll win in iowa, and i thinken mark and mary landrieu will win, so i'm not with the skeptics. >> woodruff: president bill clinton, we thank you very much

for talking with us. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: general motors major series of recalls has so far been the defining consumer safety story in the auto industry this year. but now, to add to that, there are concerns being raised around airbags on the part of honda and ten other car manufacturers, that have prompted more recalls, and a focus on disclosure, regulation and safety. jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: as with g.m., the problems may date back a decade or more. in this case, it's the rupturing or explosion of air bags that injured drivers and are linked with two deaths. the airbags are supplied by takata corporation. which makes them for automakers around the world. honda first began recalling a few thousand as early as 2009. this year, recalls related to the airbags have grown dramatically. and now exceed 14 million overall, six million of them by honda. while toyota, b.m.w. and nissan have also recalled large numbers of cars. david shepardson of the detroit

news joins me now. first, remind us what the problem is with the air bags. >> sure. these are abags deploying in a frontal crash. rather than just getting the pillow you see in a standard air bag, they are rupturing because of the high force and in some cases sending shrapnel or pieces of metal causing injuries and reports of two deaths. >> brown: as we reported here, it was found first a long time ago. it has taken a long time to get to this number of recalls. kind of quickly bring us up to date. what's been happening? >> well, it's been a real puzzle both for honda and regulators, in part because you had two different plants, one in mexico and one in washington state that had two different issues with these air bag inflaters that prompted, you know, starting with honda to recall these vehicles and grew to almost a dozen worldwide. in fact, the government is still

deciding whether the recalls that have been done so far are enough and still may be more vehicles to be recalled, and that goes to the issue of it's hard to figure out exactly how many vehicles and which specific air bags should be covered by this. >> brown: and that's led to the question whether ford and honda have done enough or have tried to keep it quiet. >> as standard procedure in the auto industries, some auto companies have settled suits but the settlements are confidential. the government receives reports of settlements through early warning database, but remember, when you have 6 million crashes a year, 30,000 people who die and a relatively small number of people for the government investigating, it's often hard to find a needle in the haystack, as they would say. >> brown: that leads to the other side of this, questions about the regulators, how much are they looking and how much are they able to look?

>> the senate commerce committee is having a hearing tuesday to decide, look, the number of car sales has grown and the complexity of cars has grown with the computers. the groups investigating is relatively stable. there's a question of does the agency need to be beefed up and have more tools to force auto companies to recall vehicles faster. >> brown: the company involved, the japanese company is supplying a lot of automakers. >> right. >> brown: that's representative of changes in the auto industry, right? >> absolutely. we had the crisis in 2009, which caused and spurred dozens of major suppliers to file for bankruptcy. as a result, some of the suppliers who survived got bigger and bigger and, therefore, you have this one inflater part that in the past may have only led to recalls by one or two companies but, as a result of the market dominance of the company, you had a dozen companies in the u.s., in germany, around the world. so it goes to the fact that

commonality of parts is leading to much bigger recalls in some cases. >> brown: and what is honda itself saying at this point about where things hand and its own culpability? >> it took them a long time to figure out what the problem is and said they're committed to recalling vehicles if they find they're unsafe. >> brown: you say there's a hearing coming up. what happens next? what do we look gore. >> well, the government in june pushed companies to recall vehicles. in fact some of the automakers did it even though they said they didn't need to. so look for the national highway traffic safety administration to keep up its investigation whether honda acted properly and recalls need to be expanded and look for congress to grapple with the issue of auto reforms. >> brown: david shepardson,

"detroit news." thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, the rising use of outpatient medical centers for surgeries and other procedures. it's a corner of the american health care market that rarely gets public attention. but after the death of comedian joan rivers, who suffered from complications at one facility in manhattan, there are larger questions being asked about those centers, as their numbers are growing. there are more than 5,000 of them performing a total of 23 million surgeries a year. hari sreenivasan fills in the picture from our new york studios. >> sreenivasan: joan rivers first went to the yorkville endoscopy center on august 28th. but she suffered complications and was rushed by ambulance to mount sinai hospital that day. she never regained consciousness and died september fourth. it is still not clear what went wrong or what procedure she was undergoing and there are no allegations of wrongdoing. but the facility is the subject of a state investigation.

it announced the departure today of its medical director and there are questions being asked about similar facilities. shannon pettypiece is covering this for bloomberg news and joins me now. what exactly is the type of facility ms. rivers was at? >> it's actually very common. there's more than 5,000 of these called ambulatory surgery centers. they're basically a free-standing surgery facility for outpatients only and they're typically owned by the doctors rather than a hospital. some of them are small, like the one ms. rivers was at with just a few doctors that focuses on one or two types of procedures like endoscopy or colonoscopy, but some are quite big and do a range of outpatient procedures and almost look like a hospital. so it can be tricky for a patient to tell the difference between a hospital and outpatient surgery center. essentially, these facilities

don't have an emergency room or an i.c.u. and, like i said, are owned by the doctors performing the procedures there rather than a nonprofit or a large corporation. >> sreenivasan: why are they increasing in number? what's creating the market for them to exist? >> two things -- one, more and more procedures are done outpatient because of improvements in technology. you don't have to spend the night in the hospital for one or two days. the second is they're cheaper. they cost about half as much as as having a procedure done in the hospital because they don't carry the hospital overhead like the emergency room or charity care that a hospital provides. so they save insurance a lot of money and with people having these $5,000 deductible and co-pays now, they can save individuals a lot if it's $1,000 at the outpatient surgery center versus $2,000 at a hospital. >> sreenivasan: the insurance companies pay less, the patient may pay less out of the deductible. is there a conflict of interest if the doctor tells you to go to a facility they have a stake in

versus a hospital where they make money differently? >> the doctor will make more money if he sends you to a facility he owns rather than going to a hospital where he's basically just paid for his labor. there have been concerns and studies that have shown doctors who have an ownership stake in these facilities refer more patients and do more of a certain type of procedure. why that is hard to tell. some people said it's because they think the doctors have a financial stake and also may be because it's nor convenient to do the procedures, can schedule them more easily and quickly but that's one of the main concerns raised about the facilities. >> sreenivasan: are there concerns about the health.coms? if you don't have an emergency room on the premises and if something goes wrong like in mrs. rivers' case, what happens? >> there's no data that shows that, for the general population, an outpatient surgery center is any more risky than a having it done at a hospital. but for that one in a million

case where something does go wrong, there's not an emergency room, so there has to be a backup plan, usually that's calling 911, which was the case with joan rivers, and then you have to be rushed to the hospital where there isn't an emergency room. so one of the big questions is what type of emergency equipment do they have on hand and how far are they from an emergency room facility if it is one of those rare cases where something happens? >> sreenivasan: so what kind of questions should a consumer be thinking about when they might go into one of these procedures? >> first there's the stuff you should always ask before you go into the procedure. the surgeon's history, how many procedures, they've done, what their safety record is like, is the facility accredited and certified. there is an accreditation process for these facilities. but the other thing to ask specifically for an outpatient center is what's the backup plan if something goes wrong. how close am i to a hospital if i need to get to the emergency room. and you might want to ask if the

doctor has an ownership stake in it and then question is this procedure really necessary or is it possible the doctor is suggesting this because he does have a financial motive. >> sreenivasan: obviously this particular tragedy put this into light. had this been a debate or struggle in the healthcare community in the past few years now? >> there has. as these outpatient facilities are more prevalent, there are an increase in the number of them in the past decade. there have been a lot of studies and research, physicians groups and ants thesology groups, everybody's concerned about them. so this is not something new in the medical debate just because of this event though it's getting a lot offattention. >> sreenivasan: shannon pettypiece, bloomberg news, thank you so much. >> mm-hmm. >> woodruff: one year ago this month, a chinese company bought america's largest pork producer, smithfield foods. the $4.7 billion deal is the biggest chinese acquisition of a u.s. company to date.

nathan halverson from the center for investigative reporting looked into the chinese government's role in the takeover. this story was produced as part of the food for nine billion series, a collaboration between the center for investigative reporting and homelands productions with broadcast partners, the p.b.s. newshour, american public media's "marketplace" and p.r.i.'s "the world." >> reporter: pork pride is everywhere in smithfield, virginia. this small town of 8,000 dubs itself "the ham capital of the world." painted pigs line main street. and, at the "taste of smithfield cafe," bacon graces nearly every dish. the town's museum even features the world's oldest edible ham. and some in town still produce ham as it was done generations ago. >> we are curing ham the same way it was done during colonial times. jamestown, williamsburg, right

on up to now. >> reporter: the town is also home to the world's largest pork producer, smithfield foods. this factory processes more than 10,000 pigs a day. >> we've got boneless loins, bone-in loins, butts, back-ribs, spareribs, neck-bone, cushions, we've got an assortment of everything. >> reporter: and this is going all over the country? >> all over the world. >> reporter: here, every employee from secretaries to the c.e.o. learns how to properly butcher a pig. a year ago news broke that stunned the town. chinese buyers had purchased smithfield foods. >> that was the issue when it was announced. it shocked the town. nobody saw it coming. >> another foreign deal causing chatter if not national security concerns. >> smithfield agreeing to be acquired by china's shuanghui international. >> a chinese company today offering nearly $5 billion. >> it would be a largest chinese takeover of any american company >> questions are being raised about why china wants our pigs. >> reporter: the takeover raised

concerns the chinese government was a hidden player in the deal. some members of congress wondered why shuanghui group would pay more than smithfield's market value. >> the chinese, they paid a 30% premium. very interesting. not exactly the best business deal, so, what's really going on here? what really is it that this merger, this purchase, was all about? >> reporter: senator debbie stabenow heads the senate agriculture committee. she says food is a strategic resource that should be as important to the u.s. government as oil. >> this isn't just an acquisition of a company. it's 25% of the pork industry in the united states. >> reporter: stabenow worried that the smithfield takeover, could signal a long-term threat to the vital american food industry. >> this is a precedent setting case. >> reporter: while the deal was still under review by the u.s. government, stabenow called a senate hearing to take a deeper look at the first chinese purchase of a major american food company. >> it's a matter of control.

>> reporter: daniel slane, a congressional advisor who receives classified china briefings from the cia, warned of chinese government involvement. >> they have told their domestic industries, like shuanghui, go out and find these companies and acquire them. american companies are not competing with a chinese company but with the chinese government and they cannot win that competition. >> reporter: larry pope, president and ceo of smithfield foods, said this was simply the case of one private company buying another. >> would you agree that shuanghui is a state controlled company? >> reporter: no i would not agree, senator, that it is a state controlled company. i think that's fairly easy to research. i'd just ask mr. slane to do the research. maybe he's just got some bad information. some senators even laughed off slane's remarks. >> did you realize you were the victim of a chinese communist plot? >> senator, i did not, to this moment i'm not sure i understand i'm the victim of a communist plot.

( laughs ) >> and the control of your company? >> ah, senator, i was not aware of that. >> reporter: in his written testimony, pope said the chinese government has absolutely no ownership stake or management control in shuanghui. >> the chinese government has absolutely no ownership stake or management control in shuanghui. >> he's either lying or delusional, one or the other, i just don't think he understands the situation and you can't expect him to be a china expert. his job is to do what's in the best interest of the shareholders. >> reporter: the treasury department approved the deal last september. a special committee, which meets behind closed doors to evaluate foreign purchases of american companies, reviewed the acquisition to assess whether it posed a threat to national security, focusing on military defense. since treasury's final report is classified, the center for investigative reporting spent four months determining if the chinese government played a role in the takeover. carl sanchez, the lawyer who brokered the deal for shuanghui says the bank of china approved the $4 billion loan to buy smithfield in a single day.

>> bank of china is owned by the government. so if the government has an initiative, and they want to go forward with that, they can support that. >> sure. we had our financing all lined up. we were ready to roll. we were ready to sign that agreement. we were ready to provide commitment letters from the banks for about $5 billion for financing altogether. >> reporter: in it's annual report, the bank of china highlights the smithfield takeover calling it their "social responsibility" and saying it "spares no effort to support chinese enterprises in their international competition." >> reporter: we asked sanchez directly about the chinese government's role in the deal. >> so that part of the transaction i'm not sure i can comment on. >> reporter: so to find out more, we went to china, where a rapidly growing middle class is eating more meat every year, pushing the country's pork production to the limit. at factories like shuanghui's, the government has established massive pork reserves, akin to oil reserves in the u.s., to

store millions of pounds of frozen meat. >> reporter: in 2011, the government issued a five-year plan directing food companies, such as shuanghui, to obtain more meat for their production lines by purchasing overseas businesses. we went to shuanghui's headquarters in luohe, china. >> welcome to shuanghui, thank you, thank you >> reporter: we got a tour of the company from zhang taixi, president of shuanghui. zhang, like the other senior management at shuanghui, was appointed to his position by the chinese government. how supportive was the chinese government of shuanghui's purchase of smithfield foods? >> very supportive. >> reporter: how did the chinese government support this deal? >> the chinese government has been supporting us with preferential policy as well as investment. for instance, the bank of china has shown great support both financially and politically. >> reporter: and why has the government given so much

support? because shuanghui, according to its own documents, is required to carry out china's five-year plan. in effect, the chinese government does exercise management control. we went back to smithfield ceo larry pope, who is now an executive with the chinese company, to ask whether he stands by his testimony to congress. >> i have never seen a government official related to this transaction from china at all. >> reporter: we showed larry pope the bank of china annual report that details their role in the smithfield acquisition. this is the bank of china document where they lay this out. >> i didn't know they did it in 24 hours >> reporter: you can see here, i just mark it, they're saying that that transaction is part of the government's plan and they are supporting it and its their social responsibility. >> wow, the bank performs its social responsibility. the bank spares no efforts to support china's enterprises. wow! >> reporter: how do you compete with that?

>> it's hard. i don't think i could go out today and get the us government to support j.p. morgan, or bank of america, or goldman sachs making a $4 billion loan as a social responsibility for smithfield to move forward on a foreign country's territory. no, i don't think that's doable. >> reporter: sanchez, the lawyer for shuanghui, says the bank of china is set to fund many more chinese takeovers. >> i can tell you first hand that this has paved the way for other deals. we are now looking at a few other very large transactions for chinese clients looking at other iconic brands in the united states. >> reporter: senator stabenow said that if the chinese government has a global food agenda that includes purchasing american food companies, the u.s. government should provide strategic protection for its food industry. >> food security is national security.

i can't imagine that the american people will feel comfortable if they wake up someday and find that half of our food processors are owned by china. think there are some very, very tough questions that need to be answered. >> reporter: stabenow is now drafting legislation that would require the treasury department to take a much harder look at foreign takeovers of american food companies. >> woodruff: one footnote: the chinese company, "shuanghui," in the story has officially changed its overall name to "w.h. group," but it still retains the name and use of smithfield foods for that brand of products since the deal was completed. tomorrow on pbs newshour weekend, we look at what the smithfield deal reveals about china's plan to modernize its food system, and feed its people.

>> woodruff: a major presidential address to the nation and calls for congressional backing to take on the islamic state. it was another full week of news, as we turn to the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and new york times columnist david brooks. >> woodruff: again, the major so, we love the program tonight with bill clinton. he is supporting president obama's plan to degrade and destroy i.s.i.s. and thinks it won't be quick but he thinks it will be successful. my question is, two days after the president rolled it out, you said it feeds a healthy debate. is it getting that kind of debate now? >> no, it isn't. if john kennedy were writing a post script of profiles and courage, he wouldn't get any material on capitol hill, with few inconspicuous exceptions, tim kaine, democratic senator from virginia and several others arguing congress should accept the responsibility.

the irony is republican house members are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to sue the president for excessive abuse of power, and here's the one power that is delineated by the constitution that resides with the congress to declare war, and they've abdicated that responsibility or appear to be. i want to get to the election. leaders now see their responsibility as to avoid difficult votes for their members, whether it's leadership, mitch mcconnell being the exception. he's calling the republicans in the senate for a vote. harry reid doesn't want one and i don't think john boehner does either. >> we'll have a debate about the backdoor funding mechanisms. what's interesting is it seems to me the democrats are more divided. it's more troublesome for the democrats than the republicans. republicans are more united. rand paul has come out more or

less in favor of this so what had been more of isolation strategy, that part of the republican party merged and looks more like a conventional republican party, the national security party. the democrats are the divided ones and anywhere the democrats leading wants to push it beyond the election. but we are having a national debate about it on the streets. what struck me is how hard it is to talk about it. most people think you have no choice but to somehow you can't allow a genocidal caliphate in the middle east, but how you do it has everyone scratching their heads. what kind of coalition do we need? what happens if the iraqi army is not successful or the free syrian army is not successful. so the tenor of the debate shifted from ends for the most part to the means because people are up in the air and not clear how that works. >> woodruff: the president

asked congress to support the training of syrian rebels, as soon as they identify the moderate rebels. >> they've got to be -- is there a test here? i mean -- no, judy, the western united states, the western military has shown it's ability and capacity to come in and dominate the battlefield, but the idea of establishing order, security and peaceful government in its wake after that has eluded us. and there's no way in the world, the question of coalition, who are these people? where are they? who are the troops who are going to be there to guarantee stability, order and some sense of justice in the areas? you can't do that with airstrikes. i mean, airstrikes are wonderful, they're antiseptic, they're at a distance, the possibility of your own

casualties is finite. but they don't occupy. you can't occupy a nation and bring order and stability by air strikes. so who is the coalition? where are the troops coming from? >> woodruff: you're saying these are reluctant warriors and can can a reluctant warrior lead in a situation where we don't know what the end game. >> a syrian moderate is anyone against beheading, that makes you a moderate in syria. but he doesn't want to be there and that has advantages that he won't be carried away by his own righteousness and won't want to dominate the ground, it will make him skeptical of things the generals bring him because he's not gung-ho and it means he will be realistic about our goals. turning syria into a great country is not one of our goals and turning iraq into a viable country is one of our goals. he's more interested in keeping

iraq a healthy country more than sir. i can't our goal is not positive. it's not make the middle east a better place. our goal is make sure the middle east doesn't get any worse. so i think with that limited goal, with some buy-in from the sunni tribes who have done it before, they have defeated this kind of army before, it should be possible to degrade this group. >> woodruff: something very different, politics, we've talked to bill clinton about it. he's gone to iowa, mark, with former secretary hillary clinton, who a lot of people think will run for president in 2016. she has not been back there since she ran for president in 2008. is this something you're going to be watching? is it a big deal? >> it's a major deal, first time back up you see in iowa. two things, fog the earlier discussion, judy, iowa democrats

are the most (indiscernible) democrats in the country. the iowa caucuses were created in 1968. the anti-war democrats could expect their opposition to lyndon johnson's vietnam policy. so hillary clinton who is priding herself on barack obama coming over to her position and arming the syrians and her toughness will be interesting. what is interesting to me is how she handles bill clinton. bill clinton -- think about this, we've had one balanced budget in 45 years, during bill clinton's presidency. we had the lowest unemployment in the history of the united states among african-americans and latinos. we had the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years under bill clinton. there were 22 million jobs created in bill clinton's eight years, which is more than in the 20 years of ronald reagan's

eight and the bushes' 12. an amazing record. so she's running a nostalgia back to the future campaign. >> woodruff: do you think it's a good idea? >> presidential campaigns are about the future and i don't think you can run a nostalgic campaign. she wants to remind people how good things were when bill clinton was there, yet it's going to be 16 years later. >> since she left the secretary of state job, she's emerged as certainly one of the most hawkish democrat and probably the most hawkish presidential candidate. how forward leaning is she in talking about it? if you remember the tears, her voice quavered, she was in new hampshire at the time, but it was a scene of maximum

vulnerability for her and one expects the clinton mind, it will seem a maximum effort this time. >> woodruff: to broaden it out, i asked president clinton about the senate races. he said at first he didn't know, then he said, no, i think the democrats are slightly better than 50/50 chance. >> you and i specifically analyzed the mike ross -- >> woodruff: one right after the another. >> the problem, judy, the democrats are not an encouraging environment right now. the seven key races, six the democrats control the senate are being run in red states that mitt romney carried by more than 14 points. you've got a president who's at the lowest job rating in his presidency right now at 40%, and you have people feeling the country is headed the wrong direction by a 2-1 margin, the worst it was in 1994 when the democrats was swept and in 2006 when george bush was routed.

so the interest and enthusiasm factor is higher among republicans than it is among democrats. you know, it's not an encouraging picture. so the democrats, the mark pryors, the mark udalls, all trying to make a one-on-one race. >> woodruff: mark, a good name. >> they don't want to mention barack obama, and the republicans all want the say, my opposition, my opponent went to washington and voted 95% of the time with barack obama and forgot the people. >> it's funny how the barometric pressure among those who watch the polls, a couple of months ago looked like a great republican year, then the tide shifted, georgia and north carolina hanging in there. i'd say in the last two weeks if you look at the polls, officially they've gone to a tighter screen where they only look at the likely voters. it shifted more toward the republican side.

the democrats still doing well in georgia and other places, but the momentum feels, at least at the moment, back again a little more on the republican side. >> woodruff: president clinton is saying he's going to be out there campaigning in the fall and getting more invitations than president obama is. >> he is the most popular political figure in the country. >> woodruff: one last thing, the announcement by the white house, they confirmed the president is not going to announce any sort of executive action on immigration until after this election. is this good for the democrats, david, or not? >> in the short term, yeah. so it's a short-term/long-term thing. in the short term, means a lot of democrats running in red states will have an easier time, they won't have to confront the issue. over long term, the democratic strategy to sacrifice the short term, it will benefit us so much more in the long term. they've taken a hit among latino

gropes, president obama's poll standing among hispanics is down. there's a lot of anger from the groups to whom were promises on they made a long-term sacrifice for a short-term play. >> i think some democrats view this long term, 1994, judy, when the democrats were routed and the republicans were in the congress, for the first time in 40 years, won the house. after that the post script, the narrative was the democrats lost because of the vote for gun control, and gun control became toxic at that point. i think democrats are concerned in 2014 if they didn't lose and immigration was front and center that it would kill prospects for immigration in the future. >> woodruff: we'll be watching because you're right the pro immigrant groups are really angry now. mark shields, david brooks, we're not angry at either one of you, come back! >> thank you.

>> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. secretary of state kerry pressed turkey to join the coalition against islamic state militants, but he said it's too soon to say which countries will contribute what. and the number of confirmed ebola deaths in west africa rose past 2,400. and on the heels of the ray rice case, minnesota vikings star running back adrian peterson was indicted for child abuse in texas. he allegedly used a tree branch to switch his son. on the newshour online right now, our national anthem is celebrating its bicentennial this week, so we're observing the occasion by bringing you seven facts you may not have known about the "star spangled banner." see what they are, plus listen to two very famous renditions of the song, on our art beat page. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. and a reminder about upcoming programs from our pbs colleagues. gwen ifill is preparing for "washington week," which airs later this evening.

here's a preview: >> ifill: we go behind the scenes and read between the lines, delving into the world of hard choices, harder politics and uncertain outcomes. at the white house, on capitol hill and along the fault lines in the middle east. that's tonight on "washington week." judy? >> woodruff: and we'll be back, right here, on monday. we talk with voters in scotland, before a crucial vote for independence from the united kingdom. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff, have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic

engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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