captioning sponsored by wnet on this edition for sunday, february 19th: president trump considers candidates for national security advisor. details emerge about the administration's revised travel ban. new democrats focus on reconnecting with working class voters. and the legacy of interning japanese americans during world war two. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg.

corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. president donald trump spent part of his day in palm beach, florida, interviewing four finalists to be his new national security adviser. three of them are active or retired army lieutenant generals. acting national security adviser keith kellogg, h.r. mcmaster., and robert caslen. the fourth candidate is former u.n. ambassador john bolton. mister trump is filling the vacancy left by the firing of general michael flynn for misrepresenting his phone calls with russia's ambassador to the u.s. before the trump administration took office. today, white house chief of staff reince priebus said while

flynn was untruthful, neither flynn nor anyone else working for mister trump talked with russian intelligence officers during the campaign. >> i can assure you, and i have been approved to say this, that the top levels of the intelligence community have assured me that that story is not only inaccurate, but it's grossly overstated and it was wrong. >> sreenivasan: the republican congressman who chairs the house of representatives intelligence committee, devin nunes, said today he'll follow the facts wherever they lead. >> if there are american citizens from any political party that are communicating with russian agents, i want to know about it. bring it to the committee, because we'd like to investigate. >> sreenivasan: at his rally in melbourne, florida, last night, the president continued his attack on the news media. in an interview broadcast today, senate armed services committee chairman john mccain said mister trump is wrong to call the media an "enemy of the people." >> if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you

have to have a free and many times adversarial press. and without it, i am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. that's how dictators get started. >> that's how dictators get started, with tweets like that? >> with-- no. they get started by suppressing a free press. in other words, a consolidation of power, when you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press. and i'm not saying that that's, that president trump is trying to be a dictator. i'm just saying we need to learn the lessons of history. >> sreenivasan: the white house is also drafting a new immigration executive order to replace the one blocked by courts that banned immigration from seven predominantly muslim countries. iran, iraq, libya, syria, somalia, sudan, and yemen. according to drafts seen by the "wall street journal," the new streamlined order may ban immigration from the same seven

predominantly muslim countries, exempt green card holders-- permanent legal residents, lift the ban on syrian refugees but limit their numbers. according to the "journal" and the "washington post," the administration is also considering ways to expedite deportation proceedings of undocumented immigrants from mexico and central america and prosecute parents who help their children illegally enter the u.s. for more analysis, i am joined by skype from west palm beach, florida, by reuters reporter jeff mason, who is also the president of the white house correspondents association. what do we know about the decision making process to fill mike flynn's job? >> well, we know that president trump was planning to interview four candidates today here in florida. and he said to reporters on air force 1 last night, if they were traveling to his rammy in melbourne florida, it is something he is planning to execute very soon.

>> sreenivasan: on his short list for military leaders, is there a reason for this focus? >> there seems to be a comfort in military leaders in this role, he chose military leaders for some of his top cabinet position he. they are leaders that have background in national security, that is something he's very comfortable with and in fact he said last nighten the plane, of the four candidates he was looking at he was leaning towards someone who was similar, he stopped himself. when he said that i presume he meant someone as the previous military advisor who had a military background. >> john, does not have a military background. he has a bit of a controversial history. he did serve in the bush administration and was a advocate for the war against iraq and also suggested that iraq had biological and chemical weapons which turned out not to be true.

trump is very critical of that war and that's something that is clearly down for bolton. but he is one of the people the president is considering. >> expecting a reefnsed version of the travel ban to happen sometime this week. any idea how it's going to be pared down? >> certainly they want to avoid the legal challenges that the last executive order led to. we have seen a few details such as this new 61 will probably not affect green card holders but otherwise we are still waiting for a lot of details. the president is committed though to giving had a a second try and to do so in a way that does not generate the legal problems that the last one did. >> all right. >> sreenivasan: all right, jeff mason from reuters, joining us. thank you so much. >> sreenivasan: puzzled swedish diplomats are asking american

officials to explain a comment by president trump during his florida rally yesterday referring to terrorist attacks in european countries that accepted refugees. mister trump said: >> look what's happening last night in sweden! sweden, who would believe this"" >> sreenivasan: swedish officials say no terrorist incident occurred friday night. sweden has admitted 190-thousand asylum seekers in the past two years. >> sreenivasan: american ships are patrolling the south china sea. a strike group led by the aircraft carrier u.s.s. carl vinson began what the navy cal"" routine operations" in disputed waters this weekend. china, which completed its own military exercises in the area last week, claims a number of shoals and reefs, and has been building artificial islands with airstrips on some of them. backed by american air-strikes, california is grappling with flooding, mudslides, and power outages from this weekend's torrential rain storms that are blamed for at least five deaths in the southern part of the state. crews cleared mud from roads, filled-in sinkholes and even recovered a fire truck that fell

off the side of a crumbled highway. in the north, the sacramento and san francisco bay areas could get up to ten inches of rain, and officials warn the san joaquin river is reaching flood stage. >> learn how republicans are attempting to keep russia in compliance with a nuclear arms treaty. visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: in tonight's signature segment, we look at a new generation democrats plotting a way forward in the post-clinton, post-obama era. besides losing the white house, the democrats are at one of their weakest points ever in the house of representatives, with only 194 of the 435 seats. newshour weekend's jeff greenfield has the story of a pair of brothers from philadelphia who believe they have some answers.

>> reporter: on a sunday in february, more than a hundred democrats crowd into a home in the philadelphia suburbs to listen to their congressman talk about the state of their party and the nation. 40-year-old brendan boyle is in his second term representing northeast philadelphia and suburban montgomery county. it's something of a political family affair. brendan's younger brother, kevin, is a 37-year-old state representative in his fourth term. if you're looking for what's troubling democrats, this is a good place to start: mayfair. not the tony london neighborhood, but northeastern philadelphia, a working class neighborhood with a tradition of big pluralities for democrats, a tradition that was broken last fall. both bill clinton and barack obama easily won the mayfair neighborhood, but hillary

clinton carried it by a lot less, which was one factor in her narrow loss in pennsylvania. >> hillary didn't really sort of offer any economic plan that she really hammered home. donald trump was talking about bringing back industrial jobs to blue collar america and that's what people cared about in my area. >> there is a real disconnect within the democratic party between the elites who make the decisions and the vast majority of people who are regular democratic voters, and what the elites care about versus what most people here in philadelphia who are casting democratic ballots care about. the hardcore social left are saying we can't reach out to white working class voters, because somehow that would be racist. i think that is absolutely crazy to say that, because a progressive economic platform could unify workers, it could unify white workers with latino workers, with african american workers, with asian workers. because at the end of the day what will drive the democratic

party back into the majority is when joe smith in northeast philadelphia, who voted for barack obama twice but then voted for donald trump in this last election, when he makes his determination as to who he's going to vote for, to me it always comes down to economics. >> reporter: glenn clark is one of those obama voters who went for trump. he's a longtime firefighter and the co-owner of this bar, pub 36. >> this is working class neighborhood, blue collar, more or less city employees. >> reporter: so you're talking cops, firefighters, civil servants. >> yes. >> reporter: add a good number of construction and factory workers, and you have a neighborhood, where, like many around the country, a dramatic loss of votes cost the democrats dearly. so explain to me why a democrat from a blue collar philadelphia neighborhood voted for donald trump? >> served in the navy, could not support hillary, because of

benghazi, didn't trust her. also don't trust a lot of the politicians today. donald trump has four years as a non-politician to make a difference. >> reporter: for brendan and kevin boyle, trump's showing is a political threat and a personal wound. >> our dad came as an immigrant from ireland when he was 19. he spent a lot of time cutting lawns and trying to get into a union. eventually he was able to do that, was a warehouseman for acme markets for 25 years. >> reporter: that that kind of security of union jobs and the kind of comfort that brought, that's not around much anymore much less, much less around. is that an accurate perception? >> yes, that's completely accurate. actually people feel more anxious than ever before and even worse than that is they're really questioning whether the american dream still exists. >> reporter: one of the symbols of the jobs that aren't around anymore is the nabisco plant >> you used to actually be able

to smell the cookies being made where we're sitting right now, we were that close. so that plant existed for generations and was profitable. for a company that was profitable, still employed 320 people, and these were not minimum wage jobs. these were good family sustaining jobs. well, it turns out nabisco ends up getting bought by a different company. they decide that they're going to layoff completely close the plant even though it's profitable, because they're building a brand new one in monterrey, mexico, where they can employ people for far less. >> reporter: and which presidential candidate called out nabisco for closing multiple plants? >> nabisco closes a plant, they just announced a couple of days ago, in chicago, and they're moving the plant to mexico! >> reporter: to help reestablish the party's connection with working class voters, brendan started the blue collar caucus in washington, now with 26 members, to push for higher wages and new manufacturing jobs. >> they rail against trade deals, they have proposed bills

that would make college free for students that get at least a 3.0 gpa >> reporter: holly otterbein profiled the boyle brothers for philadelphia magazine. >> at the same time, there are parts of the boyle brother's agenda that disappoints progressives in the party. in the past, brendan has voted for pro-life legislation, although now he's been endorsed by planned parenthood and has kind of changed his mind on that issue. so that raises the question that i think some progressives in the party have, which is that "if we try to go more aggressively for the white working class, do we have to sacrifice these things that are very important to the party?" but a lot of democrats are not convinced the party can or should rebuild its strength with the white working class. at last year's national convention in philadelphia, the party was more ethnically diverse than ever before, and social issues like abortion, gay rights, and gun control were front and center.

joe defelice chairs philadelphia's republican party. >> trump just found a way to connect with them, and he was saying things that they believed in. and it's strange to think right that a billionaire from new york city can connect with, you know, working class people in northeast philadelphia. he understands the neighborhoods, understands the people here. >> reporter: defelice says the leftward drift of democrats helped push working class voters into trump's camp. >> look, i'm not going to tell them how to do their jobs, i'm a, i'm actually happy that they're going further and further to the left, makes my job a little bit easier-- but if they continue to push like some of these leftist policies with regards to immigration or whatever, i think you know, we're going to continue to keep those people. >> reporter: which is why the boyles say democrats need to be open to more moderate approaches on social issues. >> we can't end up becoming the worst caricature that talk radio on the right says we are.

i don't think there's any question that the democratic party is a pro-choice party, and we'll always support a woman's right to choose, and it's part of our party platform and should certainly stay that way. with that said, in appalachia, the areas where donald trump was winning two to one, if we were running, or if we were putting litmus tests on the sort of candidates that we were recruiting, i think we'd find it very challenging to keep those seats or to win those seats. >> now, i'm clearly for stronger gun regulations. i sat in, participated in the sit-in with john lewis on the house floor for 25 hours after the orlando massacre, because i feel so strongly about the gun issue. that said, if we have that as a litmus test, we're already in the deepest minority since 1928, we'll be even further in the minority. >> reporter: walking that tightrope is no easy challenge, especially when voters like glenn clarke see a potential champion in president trump.

>> he spoke of jobs. he spoke of safety, security. he wants to make america great again. and anybody that's hoping that he fails can't truly call themselves an american. >> reporter: so how do you convince skeptical white working class folks that, that they really ought to take this to heart. >> i think it's about authenticity. when we're the party of the little guy, and i know that sounds simplistic, but when people internalize that, i think that we do much better in elections, and that's what we have to be true to. i really believe our party is at its best when we're the robert kennedy coalition, that we are the party of blue collar workers, of all races, of all backgrounds, that we are the party of those who were left out and deeply believe in the american dream and want to achieve it. that is who the democratic party is in our soul, that is the best to win elections, but it's also

the best to govern. if we're going to achieve progress in these areas, we need to it needs to be everyone and that includes white working class voters. >> sreenivasan: 75 years ago today, ten weeks after japan's surprise attack on the naval base in pearl harbor, hawaii, president franklin roosevelt issued one of the most controversial executive orders in american history. it allowed the military to relocate anyone it feared might possibly aid the enemy. this led to the internment of more than a hundred-thousand men, women, and children of japanese descent for the rest of world war two. two thirds of those interned were u.s. citizens. correspondent eddie arruza, from the pbs station in chicago, wttw, has one family's story. >> this is my grammar school years here. >> reporter: minoru imamura was

born in a farming community just south of los angeles in 1926. it's where his immigrant parents had settled after leaving japan in search of a better life. and while imamura-- who likes to be called min-- grew up during the great depression, he led what sounds very much like an all-american life. >> i had a dog and i had a shotgun and went rabbit hunting and i think it was the nicest time of life for me. >> reporter: but the idyllic youth that min remembers came to a very sudden end in his mid- teens. on december 7, 1941, minoru imamura was a high school sophomore and a few weeks shy of turning 16. two months later president roosevelt issued an executive order calling for all japanese americans to be relocated to internment camps. >> my dad worked so hard. he put his energy in his farming, and he decided to buy 50 acres. he lost everything. >> reporter: a new book of photographs reveals some never-

before-published images of the internment. it's called "un-american" and published by chicago's cityfile press. michael williams is the book's co-writer who says a photograph he saw years ago sparked the project. >> it was of a japanese-american shopkeeper in oakland california and he was in the process of being incarcerated and he put a banner on the front of his business that said "i am an american." and it was that single image that always stuck in my head. >> reporter: that photograph was taken by the noted photographer dorothea lange. lange, along with other noted photographers, including ansel adams, were commissioned by the u.s. government to chronicle the internment of japanese- americans. and those photos were carefully controlled by the government. >> if newspapers wanted a picture they would supply a picture. generally they would be pictures that showed positive aspects of life in the camps. they did not document the dust storms, the extreme cold, the un-insulated conditions in which people were living.

they did not show the horse stalls that entire families were living in. >> reporter: michael williams says he and his co-author sifted through thousands of photographs at the national archives, uncovering some they say are being published for the first time, and span the entire four years of the internment era, beginning in 1942, when families were notified and began selling off their possessions. they were transported by trucks and trains to assembly camps where they were processed. the imamura family was later transferred to the internment camp in granada, colorado, one of ten such facilities. it's where min finished high school two years later and, in a supreme case of irony, he was then drafted into the army. >> there were two questionnaires: if you'll be loyal to the united states and if you are drafted would you serve. and on the two questions i answered yes, yes. but by the time he reached europe, the war had ended. >> reporter: back home, the last

of the internment camps would not close until 1946. survivors did not recover the >> reporter: in 1988, president ronald reagan signed a law granting reparations to japanese americans who had been interned. each survivor received 20 thousand dollars. among them were min imamura and his wife mary whom he met at the granada internment camp. gayle imamura huffman is their daughter. >> whatever monetary amount was given was inadequate to compensate for our loss. i think my parents came out of that experience remarkably un- bitter compared to some other people that unfortunately it was a very scarring experience for them. >> reporter: and min imamura, who recently celebrated his 91st year as a proud japanese- american and u.s. army veteran, says he's never lost pride for his homeland. >> there's no country like the usa, yes. >> reporter: so you don't harbor any ill will about that time?

>> sreenivasan: maya angelou, who died in 2014, was a poet, singer, dancer, and activist. her life and work is the subject of a new documentary, "maya angelou, and still i rise." premiering as part of black history month this tuesday on the pbs program "american masters." here's a brief look. >> i know why the caged bird sings. i.t. was a very important literary feat. >> caged bird was really almost another bible for me. >> it was the opening for me to want to be a writer. >> it was the first time i read something that resonated. it touched a very young-girlish rt of me. it reflected my own mother's life. >> when i read it, i couldn't believe that she was free enough

to talk about this. >> i read those words and thought, somebody knows who i am. >> she was big. and she had the voice of god. >> out of the hut of history's shame i rise. up from a past rooted in pain. i rise. i'm a black ocean leaping and wide. well and swelling. i bar bear in the tide. bearing the gifts that my ancestors gave. i am the hope and the dream of the slave! and so i rise! i rise! >> sreenivasan: on "pbs newshour weekend" next saturday, the brexit effect on northern ireland. will it challenge two decades of peace? >> i believe that sectarianism will increase even more.

and i believe it will result in violence. i really believe it. and i hope i'm wrong. i want to be wrong in what i'm saying. >> following up on president trump's comment about sweden the white house said late today the president wasn't referring to a terrorist attack but rather a rise in crime in sweden. mr. trump him self tweeted, my statement in reference to sweden concerned immigrants in sweden. overall, crime did go up in sweden very slightly last year, according to the swedish national council for that's all for this edition of" pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made

possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. nty piano music)

♪ (narrator) one of gregory peck's earliest memories was the arrival of a silent film crew, shooting a film in his boyhood town of la jolla, california. ♪ (gregory) well if somebody at that moment had come along and said, "look, you're gonna grow and be just like that, and you're gonna have that orange stuff on your face, and you're gonna play make-believe in front of a camera," i'd have thought they were totally out of their minds. (adventurous music) ♪ but this is what i've doing for about 40 years now, in a lot of locations in a lot of different parts of the world. and i love it. (narrator) often playing larger than life roles, gregory peck never let himself get tied down by one studio.