captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight... >> we have to win. we have to start winning wars again. >> woodruff: president trump calls for a budget significantly boosting money to the military with deep cuts to domestic spending. then, the republican chair of the house intelligence committee says he's seen no evidence of contact between the trump campaign and russian intelligence officials. and, hospitals brace for big changes in health coverage as republicans work to unravel the affordable care act. >> we have spent the last six years gearing up towards everything that we were responsible for doing in the a.c.a., and the, the idea of we might have to totally go a different direction or how will we do that? it's going to take a lot of

work. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the well-being of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at rockefellerfoundation.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: more for defense,

less for most domestic programs. that's the message from the white house as it works up a spending blueprint for the coming year. john yang begins our coverage, from the white house. >> yang: meeting with the nation's governors today, president trump outlined a spending plan to fulfill his campaign promise to dramatically beef up the pentagon. >> this budget will be a public safety and national security budget. and it will include an historic increase in defense spending to rebuild the depleted military of the united states of america at a time we most need it. >> yang: the president wants to hike defense spending 10%, to $603 billion, for the budget year beginning october 1. budget officials said mr. trump will also seek increases for law enforcement and first responders and money for the border wall. >> we're going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people. we can do so much more with the money we spend.

with $20 trillion in debt, can you imagine that? the government must learn to tighten its belt, something families all across the country have had to learn to do unfortunately. >> yang: to avoid adding to the deficit, mr. trump wants to cut domestic spending by the same $54 billion he wants to boost military spending. officials said virtually every federal agency will see cuts along with major cuts for foreign aid. white house budget director mick mulvaney: >> yes its a fairly small part of the discretionary budget but its still consistent with what the president said. when you see these reductions you'll be able to tie it back to speech the president gave or what the president has said previously. >> yang: budget officials said proposals for taxes and entitlement programs like social security and medicare will come later. mr. trump met today with top health insurance executives to talk about repealing and replacing the affordable care act.

>> we must work together to save americans from obamacare, people know that and everyone knows that at this point, to create more competition and bring down the prices substantially. >> yang: that was echoed by republican governors like rick snyder of michigan. >> this is a time for reform, to broaden the issue from beyond coverage to how do we do better quality, better cost containment for the long term and ultimately it's about compassion. we're talking real people here. >> yang: democrats, led by national governors association chairman terry mcauliffe of virginia, warned that ending obamacare would create major funding gaps for medicaid. >> at this point we have not been provided any information that we want, other than we want everybody to have health care. we want to make accessible and affordable to all. the devil is in the details. i think the rhetoric of the campaign has hit the reality of governing. >> yang: the president promised his address to congress tomorrow night would include a "big statement" on rebuilding the nation's roads and bridges.

white house press secretary sean spicer said the president would talk about solving real problems for real americans, like creating jobs and ending urban violence. in addition to the 10% reduction in pentagon spending next year. mr. trump will ask for $30 million more for the pentagon this year. not clear how they will pay for that. judy? >> woodruff: john, 30 billion is not church change, where will they come up with that? >> not only that, they're in the supplemental appropriations request will ask money for the first down payment to build the border wall with mexico. if they don't want to add to the deficit which they say they won't, they're going to have to find offsetting cuts somewhere else because the president says he's not raising taxes. >> woodruff: we know, as you just reported, there were

concerns among democratic governors to the changes to obamacare, but over the weekend concerns express bid republicans, too. >> that's right. this is one of the complications the president talked about. a number of republican governors like john kasich of ohio used obamacare to expand medicaid coverage, medicaid, the program that takes care of healthcare for the needy. in ohio, he added 525,000 uninchiewrd meme to the medicaid role. if the medicaid goes away, they will either have to find the money elsewhere or push people off medicaid roles neither which is politically palatable. >> woodruff: john yang reporting for us from the white house. thank you. in the day's other news, the senate moved to confirm the president's nominee for commerce secretary. billionaire investor wilbur ross has said the administration will work quickly to re-do nafta, the north american free trade

agreement. meanwhile, the nominee for navy secretary, philip bilden, withdraw last night. he cited trouble in separating from business interests. the army secretary nominee, vincent viola, withdraw earlier this month over similar issues. more bomb threats were called in today to jewish community centers and day schools in at least 11 states. all appeared to be hoaxes. the threats follow the weekend destruction of more than 100 headstones at a jewish cemetery in philadelphia. interfaith leaders in the city called today for unity. >> every time we are attacked by hate in the cemetery or beyond, we come together in solidarity. we will not only defend our particular group. too many are vulnerable. >> woodruff: a white house spokesman said president trump condemns the vandalism and bomb threats in the strongest terms. in the philippines, the military confirmed today that islamist

militants linked to the islamic state group have beheaded a german captive. abu sayyaf had been holding the 70-year-old hostage on a southern island since last fall. they demanded $600,000, but the ransom deadline passed sunday without payment. dozens of shops were ransacked overnight in johannesburg, south africa, the latest in a wave of violence apparently aimed at immigrants. there's been similar looting in pretoria this month. on friday, hundreds of anti- immigrant protesters marched in pretoria. it comes amid claims that foreigners are fomenting crime and taking jobs from locals. back in this country, theft of opioid drugs has become a major problem at veterans' hospitals. the associated press reports more than 11,000 cases since 2010. but it says v.a. staffers were disciplined in only 3% of the cases. a top v.a. official, dr. carolyn clancy, told a house hearing today that most of the missing medicine is being lost in the

mail. republican neal dunn of florida was incredulous. >> somewhere between once the v.a. has the drug and once the v.a. passes it off to another part of the v.a., the drugs are being diverted? is that the system? >> no, this is outside the v.a.'s system. >> so-- i have to tell you i've just 35 years i've never heard this kind of accusation. >> woodruff: clancy did say the department is adding inspectors and expanding employee drug testing. japanese air bag maker takata pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge today in detroit. the company also agreed to pay $1 billion over faulty inflators. they're blamed for at least 16 deaths and 180 injuries worldwide. meanwhile, in miami, plaintiffs in dozens of lawsuits charged takata and five automakers knew the inflators were dangerous but kept using them because they were cheaper.

on wall street today, stocks had a relatively quiet time, but the dow jones industrial average did hit a record close for the 12th session in a row. it gained 15 points to close at 20,837. the nasdaq rose 16 points, and the s&p 500 added two. and, they're still trying to figure out what caused a mix-up for the ages at the oscars last night. presenters warren beatty and faye dunaway mistakenly announced "la la land" as the best picture winner after being given the wrong envelope. moments later, came word that "moonlight" was the actual winner. p.w.c., the company that tabulates the vote results, says it's investigating just what happened. still to come on the newshour, congress grapples with questions over whether an investigation into the trump administration's ties to russia have been tainted. hospitals brace for big losses if obamacare is repealed. a look at the democrats' choice

of a new party chair with our politics monday duo, and much more. >> woodruff: we turn our focus now to claims the trump campaign was in contact with russian intelligence officials, and new concerns over how they should be investigated. >> we still have not seen any evidence of anyone that's from the trump campaign or any other campaign for that matter that's communicated with the russian government. >> woodruff: house intelligence chair devin nunes met reporters this morning, and responded to questions over his committee's investigation into whether president trump's associates had ties to russia during the presidential campaign, or after. nunes drew criticism after a "washington post" article revealed that the he agreed to talk to a reporter at the white house's request about a "new

york times" story that alleged trump associates spoke with russian intelligence. >> that story was a little odd, i thought, because if you ask me to contact the white house and said, "hey, could you set me up with somebody at d.o.d. or the intelligence agencies," i would say sure. >> woodruff: c.i.a. director mike pompeo and the republican chair of the senate intelligence committee, richard burr of north carolina, also made calls regarding the times story, at white house request. nunes acknowledged the investigation was still open, but said he wanted to be careful not to jump into a "witch hunt," comparing it to the "red scare" of the 1950's. >> we can't have mccarthyism back in this place. we can't have the government, the u.s. government or the congress, legislative branch of government chasing down american citizen, hauling them before the congress as if there's some secret russian agent.

>> woodruff: white house spokesman sean spicer echoed nunes, declaring there was no story. >> we've heard the same people the same anecdotes and we've heard reports over and over again. and as chairman nunes very clear today, he has seen nothing that corroborates that, so at what point you got to ask yourself, what are you investigating? >> woodruff: among those still not convinced: former president george w. bush, who told nbc's "today show" that the questions about links to russia need to be answered. amid growing calls for an independent investigation into russia's attempts to influence the u.s. presidential election, i spoke earlier with senator mark warner, the vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee. i asked for his reaction to the white house enlisting u.s. intelligence community leaders and congressional intelligence committee chairs to help counter news stories about the trump campaign's contacts with

russia's intelligence officials. is>> my reaction was of grave concern and an awful lot of frustration. we are at the early stages of our investigation. we have bipartisan intelligence committee staff, today, working over reviewing basic intelligence. we have been at this now a couple of weeks. we're making progress. for anyone to try to interfere at this early stage of an investigation just makes no sense. let's take for a moment, even if the white house's position was correct, by asking these figures to interfere and lobby, they then potentially color the results of this investigation. i have no idea why they would try to interfere at this point, when this investigation is ongoing. the good news is, judy, though, that we have heard, ove over the

last couple of days, from a number of the members of the committee, democrats and republicans alike, folks like senator rubio and senator collins, who have all said very strongly they continue to support an investigation that's bipartisan, that will follow the facts wherever they may lead, that won't allow outside interference like the white house and others, and as long as we've got a strong majority of the committee that's committed to that process, i think we're in the best place to go forward. >> woodruff: what the white house press secretary sean spicer said today was this is simply in response to the request from the reporters. the reporters were asking for the white house version, the white house said, in order to give you any corroboration, it was the only way they could do that was to send them to these other officials. >> one of the things about an intelligence committee investigation is that you don't talk about the ongoing processes before you have a finished

product. we're really still at the early stages. there are enormts amounts of information that has to be gone through. we've seen massive russian intervention in the election, we've seen hacking, we've seen a number of indications of individuals affiliated with mr. trump who've had contacts with russian officials. we need to find the extent of those contact, the content of those contacts. so somehow asking folks to interfere on a press story before this investigation is completed, to me is both inappropriate, improper and, frankly, weakens the white house's case dramatically. >> senator , that sounds different from what devin nunes, the house intelligence chair, said today. he said there is no evidence he knows of now of contacts between the trump campaign and russian

intelligence officials. >> judy, the one thing that i think has been made clear is there are ongoin' investigations. anyone that jumps to a conclusion while there are ongoing investigations and tries to make a definitive statement does a great disservice to the american people. there is nothing to more important when we have the potension of a foreign nation not only interfering in our election process but lord knows what else. >> woodruff: chairman nunes went on to say this should not become a wish hunt. is that a legitimate concern here? >> listen, what the chairman of the house has done by trying to interfere in the investigation really raises huge concerns. as somebody who has to go back and continue to make the case to my democratic colleagues that this investigation is going to be done straight up, in an honest and straightforward way,

obviously, chairman nunes' actions don't help that cause. you know, if this ends up defaulting into some kind of partisan food fight, at the end of the day what happens is the american public don't get the answers they deserve. i've said from the outset, judy, there's nothing i've done in my senate career that's more important than this investigation. it has to be done right, it has to be done bipartisan, and it has to follow the facts wherever they lead, and when you've got, particularly, an administration like this one which has, unfortunately in the president, disrespect intelligence community so many times, it's important that the intense community feels someone has their back and they can do their job in an honed ant truthful way. >> woodruff: senator durbin said there needs to be an

outside independent commission looking into it. >> if i find we can't get access to the information we need, yes, i will be willing to call for that. but let's remember, if we were to pass an independent commission, it would require passage of the house, the senate and a significant by this prms&dent. who would say that that independent commission would truly be independent? we would also take thatçó commission literally month to get up to speed. we have people working today in a bipartisan fashion, trying to get the facts to get to the bottom of this. i think the american public deserve answers sooner than late, and my theory is the independent commission, one, would it truly be independent, would it truly get passed and be signed by this president and then it would take literally months to get it set up and established. i think as long as we can continue to do this with the majority of the intelligence committee committed to doing this bipartisan, independent, and making sure we get the

facts, this is still the way to go. >> senator mark warner, the vice chair of the senate intelligence committee. thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: for the record: we reached out to every republiccan member of the senate intelligence committee. they either declined or did not respond to our request. now, more on the events and actions in russia and the u.s. that led us to this moment. that's the subject of a lengthy article in this week's "new yorker" magazine, and to william brangham. >> brangham: so what is known, and not known, about russia's involvement in our recent election? i'm joined now by evan osnos. he's a staff writer at the "new yorker" and one of the author's of "active measures," a deep look into russia's actions, that's in the latest edition of the magazine. and i'm also joined by john sipher. he spent 28 years in the c.i.a.'s clandestine service, including assignments in russia and eastern europe. he's now at a consulting company called cross-lead. welcome to you both. >> thank you. >> brangham: evan osnos, really a wonderful primmer in the new yorker you wrote and

several of your colleagues. can you bring us up to speed, what do and don't we know about russia's involvement in the election? >> this was a collaboration and an attempt to say let's clarify what we've learned. than extraordinary moment. we know three things happened. the first thing, as you know, the d.n.c. was hacked. john podesta'sñi email was hack. that's the one americans know the most about. second thing, we know there was an influence campaign, an attempt to change what it is people believed about the candidates. the director of national intelligence said this occurred, and it's not a fake news, as a term that's become politicized in its own way, but from the intelligence committee perspective this is a known fact. the third piece is whether or not and to what degree there were contacts between russian representatives and elements of trump's campaign, advisors or his associates. and that's where the center of gravity is moving in the

investigation. >> brangham: you spent a quarter century in the n.s.a. do the allegations against the russians ring true to you? >> oh, absolutely. this is what the russian do's. what's interesting about this is what fertile soil it took place on. the fact that these type of things, some of it quite sloppy and open cause the problems. >> brangham: you mean fertile soil in the united states? >> i do. the fact they broke in and stone d.n.c. e-mails, i'm surprised, and the effect that had. what i find interesting is there is a lieutenant of concern at the trump campaign saying they did not have improper contact with russians during the campaign, and my question would be what is proper contact? did they have contacts with germans, indians, japanese? why the russians? why would a campaign in the united states need to have any

contact with the russians? >> there could be innocent explanations if members to have the trump campaign or his entourage were talking with russians. couldn't there be innocent explanation force those? >> i think that's the reason we need a robust independent and thorough investigation. we needed to understand this as best we could. we spent months on. this i consider it the beginning of chapter one. we are in a position where the legislative branch, the executive branchch has the ability to say what was the full universe of the contacts and the nature of the contacts and were they serving the interest of the american public? we did that for 9/11. we established a bipartisan independent commission composed of five republicans, five democrats and we know a huge amount about what happened, as a result. we don't know about this yet. we are trying to decide what are the right investigative tools and who will do it. >> brangham: let's see the evidence bears out the russians really were trying to put their numb on the scale here.

what were their ambitions? what would they be trying to do here? >> not much of a surprise. vladimir putin's interests has always been to divide the united states from europe. he has a zero-sum view of working with the united states, so anything that causes chaos or creates problems here is a win for him. we see the same in frarntion germany, the balkans, working with the taliban in afghanistan. their goal is theto essentially create fissures in our alliances. anything that creates chaos and tries to provide some sort of moral equivalence between his regime and the west, he likes to say that, oh, this is no different than you guys messing aroundñr in libya and egypt and syria and these types of things. >> one thing that surprised me is to discover the united states was susceptible to this kind of operation. i spoke to people in the state department who said a couple of years ago we were worried

moldova would be susceptible to. this this was an intelligence operation discovered our politics were so divided, people were already open to a highly propagandaistic form of communication, that we were a soft target for this kind of influence operation. >> one of the things i was struck by in your article is towards the end of your piece you wrote where you describe some of the intense agents think this was more improv on behalf of the russians not a strategic campaign. >> speaking broadly of the impression people have who are focused on this issue, if you look at the dossier of unverified claims submitted earlier to the f.b.i. and was then presented to the president, one of the claims in there was this was a long-standing five, six, seven year operation to cultivate donald trump. i think at the moment what you find is more people who are

focused on this issue are inclined to believe this was an improvisation that was changing. elements were brought in at different points, meaning it may have started as a hacking operation, may have started as an influence operation. but the idea that this started six, seven years ago with a discreet, fully-formed plan with a clear objective is hard to defend at this point. i think that's one of the reasons we need to learn more because we don't know exactly when and how it started. >> why would the rungs have been interested in donald trump now? he was a reality tv star. he had no intention of seemingly running for office. >> i don't know if they were interested in him. they are interested in nine one who visit russia, whether they would have videotapes in hotel rooms or collect compromising information on people, this is what they do. >> how does what we're seeing today compare to what the soviets used to do back in the u.su.s.s.r.?

>> they have new tools. they have mr. snowden who gives them a lot of information about the kind of things we have and where to attack, and talented computer programmers and hackers in russia. >> brangham: evan osnos, john, thansipher, thank you both very much. >> woodruff: now, what hospitals fear about the possible costs of repealing and replacing the health care law. efforts by president trump and congressional republicans to unravel the affordable care act are unnerving hospital executives. they're worried about big changes to their bottom line, particularly after they overhauled how care is delivered in response to the health law's rewards and penalties. while republicans try to figure out their game plan, special correspondent sarah varney

reports on how hospitals are bracing for the unknown. this story was produced in collaboration with our partner kaiser health news. >> reporter: driving to work amid the barren winter fields in northern illinois, cathie chapman is worried about the future. she lost her job after a nearby rural hospital closed, and as republicans work to dismantle the affordable care act, she wonders if it might happen again. now she runs the pharmacy at perry memorial in princeton, illinois. and she's watching the republicans' repeal efforts warily. >> i think everybody who works in healthcare now feels a little uneasy. we don't know what's coming around the corner, and how it will affect us. >> reporter: rural hospitals have long struggled to stay open: they have far fewer patients and thin margins. dozens have closed across the

country in recent years, mostly in states that didn't expand medicaid. but in illinois, which did extend medicaid to nearly all poor adults, patients at perry memorial have gained coverage under the affordable care act and many hospitals have found firmer footing. but annette schnabel, the hospital's c.e.o., says if large numbers of people lose their insurance under the republicans' replacement, the hospital's finances-- and its patients-- would be at risk, especially after the hospital has invested so much money and time in complying with the health law. >> we have spent the last six years gearing up towards everything that we were responsible for doing in the a.c.a., and the, the idea of we might have to totally go a different direction or how will we do that? it's going to take a lot of work. >> reporter: and for some hospitals to survive or break even, it will require congress

to restore billions of dollars in funding that kept hospitals afloat before the law took effect. hospitals across the country made a high-stakes trade when they signed on to the affordable care act. they agreed to massive cuts in federal aid that defrayed the cost of caring for the uninsured. in exchange, they would gain tens of millions of newly insured customers. now that deal is in jeopardy and many hospital executives are anxiously waiting to see what comes next. stroger hospital of cook county, in chicago, is one of the busiest hospitals in the nation. its emergency and trauma teams have inspired shows like "e.r." and "chicago med" and handle most of the city's gunshot victims. the vast majority of patients here used to be uninsured, and the county-run hospital struggled to take care of all of their medical and mental health needs. those patients now have medicaid coverage because of the affordable care act, and the cook county hospital system has

gained $200 million in new revenue to cover their services, breaking even for the first time ever. >> we have no interest in slipping back in what we've been able to do. >> reporter: dr. jay shannon is c.e.o. of the cook county health and hospitals system. >> we're not able to do the kind of work that we do today with good will alone, our staff are not a volunteer staff, we can't get i.v. fluids and medical equipment on credit and a wink and a nod. >> reporter: two hospital trade groups, the american hospital association and the federation of american hospitals, have warned of "an unprecedented public health crisis" if the law is hastily scuttled. they say if congress repeals the law entirely and 20 million people are kicked off their insurance, hospitals will lose $166 billion dollars in medicaid payments alone in the next decade. and face much steeper losses if certain medicare cuts that were part of the law aren't restored.

in chicago, limo driver jerold exson is one of those patients who could lose coverage and have his hospital bills-- once again- -go unpaid. as of now the hospital helps enroll low-income adults like exson into medicaid. in 2014, he was shot nearly a dozen times in a case of mistaken identity. his medical care is covered now and, the hospital can provide follow-up surgeries, physical therapy and mental health treatment that were often off limits to the uninsured. >> i used to be like real antsy. >> reporter: exson sees clinical psychologist natalia ruiz to manage the after effects of gun violence. >> and i had that episode where i was driving that time, and the low rock hit the window, and it kind of sent me into a tailspin. >> reporter: the health law also shifted the business model for u.s. hospitals. it offered them financial incentives to move away from expensive e.r. visits to primary

care and managing chronic conditions. earl williams senior has finally brought his diabetes under control. he's diligent about exercising, taking his medication, and seeing his doctor. >> i had high sugar levels, i due to the teaching of my doctors and the staff here in the hospital. >> before the affordable care act, hospitals had >> reporter: before the affordable care act, hospitals had little incentive to reduce er visits, especially from medicare patients who generate a lot of revenue. at university of chicago medicine, an academic medical center, dr. kenneth polonsky says if those incentives are rescinded and patients forgo preventive care, they'll clog up

already strained emergency rooms. >> we'll go back to a very frustrating time, where people had limited options for healthcare, because of inability to get health insurance. >> reporter: the uncertainty is also roiling county governments which often fund medical care for the poor. the burden on local taxpayers to fund the cook county health system has dropped by $300 million since the health law went into effect. president of the cook county board of commissioners toni preckwinkle says repealing the law could force local governments to raise taxes. >> it's a $300 million hole in our budget. so, there aren't a lot of options other than raising more revenue. it's a nightmare for us. >> reporter: she says the county and the country have been making progress and repeal is a step backward. in waukegan, illinois, near the wisconsin border, vista health

>> what we're entering here is our new open heart surgery suite. system c.e.o. barbara martin says with more insured patients and additional reimbursement from the health law, she's invested in new equipment and hired hundreds of new employees across vista's two for-profit hospitals. she says if the 900,000 illinois residents who gained insurance under the law lose coverage and hospital revenue drops suddenly, hospital executives estimate 95,000 jobs could be lost. >> and that could just be catastrophic to the state and catastrophic not to only vista, to all hospitals across the country. >> reporter: but edmund haislmaier, a senior fellow at the heritage foundation, a conservative think tank says u.s. taxpayers already spend too much on health care. haislmaier, who was a member of president trump's transition team on health policy, says, communities, and states and local governments, shouldn't rely on hospitals to create new jobs and fill their budget holes.

>> hospitals in particular, have become economic development projects. if you're paying tax dollars for medicare or medicaid, treating that as an economic development >> reporter: more than a dozen top republican lawmakers declined to be interviewed for this story. but a spokesperon for senator lamar alexander, chairman of the senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions, said in a statement that he "is listening to hospitals, doctors, patients, state insurance commissioners, governors" and others as they draft the replacement plan. >> reporter: questions doctors are struggling to answer. >> you know, you and i have been knowing each other for a long time, and i'm going to give it to you straight.

and that is: it's likely that it's going to change. it's not going to be the same. >> reporter: with president trump and congressional republicans now saying a final replacement plan may not be ready until later this year, the uncertainty is likely to linger. for the pbs news hour and kaiser health news, i'm sarah varney. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: reshaping our view of africa and its central role in human civilization. but first, from the president's budget signals to a new democratic leader. it's time for politics monday with tamara keith of npr and joining us tonight from miami, amy walter of the "cook political report." welcome to both of you. happy monday. so the white house is talking budgets and healthcare today.

amy, we're going to hear what's in mind, but they're talking big increases in military spending and cuts in discretionary spending. what's the reality? >> the president is trying to fulfill a campaign pledge. we saw him talking about immigration, passing executive orders and now wanting to pass legislation restricting immigration. we're getting to the party we make sure the defense spending is increased and we'll cut budgets domestically. the question is how you do that without running up the deficit, his o.m.b. director said we can do this if we make the cuts on domestic spending. the reality is it's going to be really tough especially when you add into this discussion that the president also had today about increasing funding for infrastructure spending and then, of course, how we'll pay for that wall and all of the

extra agents are supposed to be patrolling the border. this is a party that for years talked about reducing the deficit, not spending more money than you have, this could be a big budget buster. >> woodruff: it's tougher to execute the things than to talk about the outline of what you want to do. >> yes. over, presidential budgets are vision documents. this is not what congress will ultimately end up voting on or putting into place. the other thing to point out is the president wants to vastly increase defense spending and cut it from discretionary spending but there is a law that says you can't do that the budget control act of 2011, so they would have to find a way around that law. so it's more complicated than it seems and this is just a blueprint. this is early in the mo seases. usually the white house doesn't even talk about these kinds of things at this time in the process. >> woodruff: the democrats

chose a new party chair over the weekend, tom perez, former labor secretary. hard-fought contest. what does this say about the democratic party right now and what do you look to tom perez to do? >> wel, whoever was elected d.n.c. chair was coming into a pretty rough position. look, what's not talked about that much is despite the big loss for democrats in 2016 of the white house, they have been losing seats, especially at the state legislative governors and at the congressional level, ever since proive was elected in 2009. so tom perez is coming into a deep, deep hole. the most important thing he can do, i know the candidates talked about philosophy, we heard a lot during the campaign for d.n.c. chair about this being a proxy between the bernie sanders, elizabeth warren wing and the hillary clinton wing. the number one challenge for tom perez or any d.n.c. chairman is to get the party back to winning

especially at the legislative level. redistricting comes back up in 2020. if democrats want any shot getting control of congress, getting a better map, if they want to be able to start controlling some of the state legislative bodies, they've got to start winning on the ground. so unless and until democrats start to do that, all this discussion about philosophy and direction of the party don't mean very much. >> woodruff: got his work cut out. >> absolutely. also, just to note, this is an organization that the d.n.c. itself was hacked in the last year and was completely rocked by that hacking, and is simply an organization that is backon its heels and needs to recover simply as an organization. never mind the democratic party more broadly. >> woodruff: we are talking about the democrats and republicans tonight. amy, you wrote this week about what you called divided america, and you looked at how different groups of voters see president trump differently. give us a taste of that. >> judy, usually, when a president comes in, he's only

been in a month, he has something called a honeymoon period. this president didn't even get a weekend at niagara falls. we went from a polarized candidate for president to being a very polarizing president. but to be fair, i looked and said where was president obama in the last month of his presidency, and we were almost as polarized then by race, by gender, by education, and what we've seen with president trump is the same fault lines we saw on the campaign trail. if you are white, if you are male, if you did not attend college, you have a stronger approval rating than if you're female, non-white, if you attended college. they're a little bigger, these gaps, than when president obama was in office, but donald trump didn't invent polarized america, but it is certainly as polarized if not slightly more than where we were a years ago, or less

than year ago, a month ago. >> woodruff: and it seems like a hundred years ago or a minute ago, i can't tell which. >> both. >> woodruff: tam remarks you got a closeup look at this. you were on the ground in st. louis, missouri, this week talking to voters. >> yeah, i talked to a range of voters. what really stood out to me is i interviewed three trump voters and they have three sort of different views of prump, already. you have sort of a base poor -- president trump, already. you have a base, poor worker, a factory worker who lost his job a decade ago. he loves everything donald trump is doing, can't get enough and loves the bad headlines because he thinks donald trump must be doing something right. but wife, on the other hand, feels president trump moved too fast on the executive orders. another trump voter i talked to said he figured the president would be more president when he came into office and he wants him to have a thicker skin and

stop tweeting. he says, you know, we're looking up to you with our eyes hoping you're going to help us. we need to see more from you. i talked to one other voter who voted for hillary clinton, and she feels like he's not her president and that she's invisible. >> woodruff: so it's interesting that, already, these voters are forming clearer impressions of this president. >> yes, in that first month -- >> woodruff: it's not fuzzy, in other words. >> it's not fuzzy. they have strong views of him and it's already sort of setting in after just a month in office. >> woodruff: tamera keith of npr, amy walter on the road in miami. thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: and looking ahead, please join us tomorrow night for special pbs newshour live coverage of president trump's address to a joint session of congress. it begins on twitter at 7:00 p.m. eastern and on your local station at 9:00 p.m.

>> woodruff: next, a preview of a new pbs documentary series: "africa's great civilizations." audie cornish of npr's "all things considered" has our look. the history of the african continucontinent, home to the 1f the world's population remains a mystery. henry gates admits it was a place he rarely considered, now he has a new series that considers great moments in pre-colonial history, called called "africa's great civilizations." welcome to the program. >> thanks for having me on. you've tackled all kinds of african-american history but this goes back to cave painting. what was the genesis of this

idea? >> i wanted to do a comprehensive history of africa, and this is it. i have been thinking about it five years. took us a year to shoovment we went to 12 african countries. it's exhilarating. 200 years of african history. when i was growing up, africa was a place to be avoided even for black people. our images of africa came from tarzan and we were embarrassed about africa. >> you talked about the effort to distance. it was used as an insult within the community. >> you black african, that was like the "n" word. it began to change in 1960 when i was ten years old and 17 african nation became independent and had a very smart geography teacher, mr. mckinle mr. mckinley, our only male teacher. he was very much into current events, i was very much into being a good student. a lot of the events featured new

african countries. so i mesmerized romantic sounding names and i became fascinated with africa. slowly but surely making my way to africa when i was 19 years old. >> i think we can hear that in your introduction. i want to play a clip of that. >> okay. africa is the home world's most ancient civilization. far to too too often, africa han thought of as isolated and static but nothing could be further from the truth. the roots of every family tree trace here to africa, and so does the history of civilization. in this series, we will be going on a journey through 200,000 years of history. great cities built along africa's extentive trade network. discover art of unparalleled

beauty, technical brilliance, and marvel at thousands of years of breath-taking architecture. >> what struck me is you use words like merchants and trade and engineering. it seemed like you were trying to stress the achievements here. >> mm-hmm. why do you think the achievements have been observe secured. >> i think first of all because of slavery. 12.5 million africans were shipped across the atlantic ocean between the 16th century and the 19th century. 12.5 million africans shipped to enslavement in the new world. after 1884 was the conference in berlin when european powers sat down, looked at an empty map of africa and carved it up like pizza pie. you're spain, what do you want? italy, what do you want? england, what do you want? king leopold personally got the congo. so you have a picture of africa

as a static place full of primitive people stuck in time those were ostensibly our ancestors. but the pre-colonial world knew all about africa. there wasn't a moment since the ancient egyptians that northern africa, the mediterranean and-at-larger world was not in touch with african civilization, with some part of africa. the red sea was a highway, the nile was a highway, the sahara was a ney, particularly after the domestication of camels, and the indian ocean, a highway. the emperor of zimbabwe, eight of porcelain planes plates that came from china. most of europe's gold between 1,000 and 1500a.d. came from west africa. all our history was stolen from us. we were robbed of the history because europeans wanted to justify an economic order which depended upon our ancestors' exploitation. >> it's almost as if you are

taking these stories out of the footnotes of history and elevating them. >> that's an excellent metaphor. we need for the facts of africa and african-american history to be a normal, naturalized part of the curriculum, to be moved from the footnotes into the text. black history month is great. we need every day to be black history month. what does that mean? when you take a course in history and civilization, africa should be there as well. i'm not talking about mythic claims that won't stand scholarly scrutiny. i mean facts about the history of the world which every educated person should know hath about. knowing your history is empowering and africa stands poised on a birth of resurgence and new renaissance. as you said, 15% of the world's population lives on the great african continent, and knowing about this rich and splendid history will be crucial to the individual's self-esteem of every african and to the collective sense of itself of

the african people. >> henry louis "skip" gates, jr., thanks for speaking with us about this project. >> thanks for having me on the program. >> woodruff: the series runs tonight, tomorrow and wednesday at 9:00 p.m., 8:00 central on most pbs stations. >> woodruff: now to our newshour shares, something that caught our eye that might be of interest to you, too. february is "hockey is for everyone" month in the national hockey league, and one woman traveled all the way from abu dhabi to join the celebration. the newshour's julia griffin caught up with her on the ice. >> reporter: though you wouldn't expect it given her country's climate, fatima al ali is an ace on the ice. the 27-year-old is from the united arab emirates and is shattering preconceptions of what a hockey player looks like. al ali picked up a hockey stick for the first just six years ago, but her puck-handling

skills have already earned her a spot on the u.a.e.'s women's national team. in november, those skills caught the eye of former washington capitals star peter bondra. >> i play the game professionally for 23 years and if i try to do the stuff that she does, i have to learn and i'm not sure how much would be accomplished, just to be honest. >> reporter: bondra was so impressed by al ali's abilities that he posted a video to twitter, saying "she has better hands than me!" the video went viral, and a few weeks later, he surprised al ali with a dream trip to meet the "caps"-- coincidentally, that's her favorite n.h.l. team. >> february is a month for 'hockey is for everyone' and i think you'll be a great ambassador for this." >> reporter: for soft-spoken al ali, taking the ice with the team was a thrill of a lifetime. >> it's not expected, it's just unbelievable! >> reporter: over the next hour, the rink was a level playing field and she wasted no time sliding into drills and scoring

goals. al ali's idol, capitals captain alex ovechkin, praised her talent. >> she's going to be famous and she's going to be a star. >> reporter: but al ali doesn't just impress her male counterparts here in the u.s. she also holds her own back home as a men's games referee. >> i had two fights before coming here. the first one ended up bad. i got punched in the face with, but i kept, i finished the game. and then the second fight, they told me how to break the fight, so i was just pulling them from their pants. >> reporter: no matter what side of the puck she is on, al ali hopes she can be a role model. >> i hope that i can inspire enough people, or at least women. have a dream and just go make it come true. >> reporter: fitting advice for pursuing goals, from a woman who excels at scoring them. for the pbs newshour, i'm julia griffin, in washington, d.c.

>> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, we take a look inside the secret process that's supposed to prevent mishaps at the academy awards like the one that occurred last night over the "best picture" award. we also have a trove of conversations with the filmmakers and artists behind the award season's most acclaimed movies. find all of our coverage in our "beyond the red carpet" series on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, a reminder: we'll have special coverage of the president's speech to a joint session of congress. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," bridget and julia uncover the secrets to the ultimate sticky buns, adam reviews waffle irons with julia, and jack challenges bridget to a tasting of almond butter. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen." "america's test kitchen" is brought to you by the following -- fisher & paykel. since 1934, fisher & paykel has been designing