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tv   PBS News Hour  PBS  July 14, 2017 3:00pm-4:01pm PDT

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captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: new revelations about a former soviet counter-intelligence officer joining the meeting between donald trump jr. and a russian lawyer. then, we continue our series "inside putin's russia" with a look at the complex relationship between the u.s. and russia, and what could change under a trump presidency. and it's friday. mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the week's news plus, we head to denmark, where music lovers follow the sound of improvisation to the world's largest jazz festival. >> we are the red headed step- child of the music business.
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we are a niche market. but the people that love jazz, they're willing to pay, they're willing to suffer a little bit to hear this music. >> 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.
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>> the ford foundation. 6working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> 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. >> woodruff: the week is ending the way it began, with new disclosures about the president's son and his meeting with a russian lawyer.
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it turns out at least one more person was at that session than previously known. john yang begins our coverage. >> reporter: president trump returned from a quick trip to france today to new questions about whether his campaign sought damaging information on hillary clinton from the russian government. among the uncertainties: how many people were at the june 2016 meeting at trump tower? today, a new name emerged: rinat akhmetshin, a russian-born washington lobbyist and veteran of the soviet army. he met with donald trump jr., trump son-in-law jared kushner, campaign chairman paul manafort, russian lawyer natalia veselnitskaya and music promoter rod goldstone, an acquaintance of the younger trump who helped set up the session. and an interpreter. donald trump jr. had not disclosed the additional people. >> so as far as you know, as far as this incident is concerned, this is all of it? >> this is everything.
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this is everything. >> reporter: it's also not clear just when president trump was told of the meeting. this week, he told reuters that he had only learned of it two or three days before that. but aboard "air force one" on his way to paris, the told reporters: "in fact maybe it was mentioned at some point." kushner has revised his security clearance disclosure form at least three times to add more foreign contacts. that's drawing the ire of democrats like house minority leader nancy pelosi. >> i also called for the revoking of the security clearance of jared kushner. it's absolutely ridiculous that he should have that clearance. >> reporter: and mr. trump is adding to his legal team: washington attorney ty cobb becomes special counsel to the president and will oversee the legal and media response to the russia investigation. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: for more, we're now joined by julie pace.
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she's the washington bureau chief for the associated press, and took part in a phone conversation with rinat akhmetshin earlier today. julie, thank you very much for talking with us. julie, what is known about rinat akhmetshin mentioned? >> rinat is a person who is fairly well-known in washington. he's a lobbyist who has worked on issues with ties to russia. a bit of a character. a bit of a fixer on these types of issues. not this back room, shady character who doesn't have a profile. if you work in these circles he's probably someone that you have run in to, he's been on capitol hill before. despite that, it is certainly unique that he would end up in a conference room at trump tower in the middle of a presidential campaign. >> woodruff: i heard the word "fixer" associated with his name. why is ha his his name surfacing now?
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we learned a bout this meeting days ago. >> that is the perfect question on this, why now. why sit that we have had so many explanations about the purpose of this meeting and the participants of this meet meeting. it's kind of baffling if you're thinking about this from a political strategy, this is politics 101 that if you are in a crisis, something controversial that's happened it's best to get all of the information out. take the hit in one lump as opposed to dripping that out. in this case, over the course of a week. so there has been no explanation as to why we're just finding out that he was a participant other than the fact that he was willing to get on the phone with us today and disclose this information and talk to us at some length. >> woodruff: but it sounds like now he is talking to the press, is there anything more to be learned about this meeting and what's already said? >> i think there -- the big thing that all of the participants have said is that in the end nothing came out of this meeting. one of the things that rinat told us that the russian lawyer
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who was in the meeting showed up with some documents in hand and they were at a plastic folder, he professed to not know the content of those documents. i think that's one question that we need to answer. what were those documents, who were they specifically given to, who took them out of the room, but more broadly i think that it's worth pressing participants in this meeting about whether anything did come out of this. given the fact that the explanation has changed so much are i really don't think we should be taking explanations on face value at this point. >> woodruff: julie, there's this question we heard it mentioned in the report, when president trump himself learned about the meeting, initially it was that he just learned about it a few days ago, then he said something different in that conversation with reporters. >> i think this is again timelines keep shifting when it comes to this meeting, what the president initially said is that he only knew about it to or three days before. one of the reasons why there are so many questions about this,
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though, is that jared kushner and his advisors said that this is something that they discovered and put on a disclosure form a few weeks ago. this was known to people in the white house prior to this past weekend when the reporting started to come out, given the closeness of the president to his family, and given the fact that the russian investigations and every little detail about these investigations is so critical right now. it is hard to imagine that this is something that would be kept from the president for so long. >> woodruff: finally, julie, you mentioned jared curb there are, there are a number ever stories this week about turmoil ongoing turmoil inside the white house. fingers pointing in different directions and some of the white house staffing upset with jared kushner, what is that about? >> this has become a bit of pattern for this white house when something goes wrong you start having people turn on each other, the finger pointing gets intense, and nibble, you have a situation where you have someone like jared kushner who is a
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senior advisor to the president but operates in pretty rarefied territory because he's also family. he is the one person whose name has come up in relation to the russia investigations with currently sitting in the west wing. and for some of the folks who are in there right now the fact that he is in that situation and still remains a protected advisor, it's pretty irritating for them. they worry about their interactions with them, whenever you have a special counsel investigation, you have staffers that have to get lawyers. staffers that are pretty -- staffers that are fairly well paid having to get pretty ex pensive lawyers, this is not a comfortable situation for anybody and jared kushner given his relationship and his position in the west wing is taking a lot of the heat. >> woodruff: we've seen some democrats on capitol hill some saying he should step down, others say he should have his security clearance taken away. julie pace with the associated press, we thank you. >> thank you, judy.
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>> woodruff: and in the day's other news: the u.s. military announced the death of abu sayed, head of the islamic state group in afghanistan. it happened tuesday, in a drone strike on isis headquarters in kunar province, in northeastern afghanistan. a pentagon statement says that several other militants were killed as well. at least seven people died today in egypt, in a pair of attacks that bore the hallmarks of islamist militants. five policemen were killed in a shooting south of cairo near some of the country's famed pyramids. later, two german tourists were stabbed to death and four others wounded at a red sea resort hotel. in jerusalem: arab attackers struck at israeli police today in one of the holiest sites of both islam and judaism. three gunmen killed two police officers before being shot dead themselves. chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner has the story. >> reporter: a security camera
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captured the opening of the assault, gunmen coming from behind to attack two israeli officers. then, a running gun battle, seen on cell phone video: police gave chase, and one attacker jumped up and lunged at an officer before being shot himself. >> we can confirm that there was a terrorist attack that took place three terrorists used an automatic weapon and a knife in and around in the area. >> reporter: all of this at the holiest site in jerusalem, the temple mount to jews, the noble sanctuary to muslims. it includes the al-aqsa mosque, and the western wall surrounding part of it. all three assailants were identified as arab citizens of israel. relatives say they were devout muslims who frequented the site often. israel police quickly closed the site, rarely done since the six- day war in 1967, when the israelis captured the old city
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from jordan. provoked riots from palestinians. in turn, the grand mufti of jerusalem called for palestinians to defy the closure. >> ( translated ): we have to enter the mosque to attend the friday prayers. al-aqsa mosque is our mosque and is an islamic mosque so it is not allowed, under any circumstances, to be prevented from reaching the mosque and praying at al-aqsa mosque. >> reporter: the mufti was later detained by israeli police for several hours. palestinian president mahmoud abbas telephoned israeli prime minister netanyahu today, to condemn the attack. he also called for reopening the holy site. in a bid to ease tensions, netanyahu quickly issued a statement that the status quo "will be preserved". but the leader of the militant islamic jihad movement in gaza city welcomed the attack. >> ( translated ): jerusalem is an arab and islamic land, so when the zionist enemy seeks to
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turn it into a jewish temple, one of our people will come out and stand in the face of this plan and confront it as it happened today. therefore, who is responsible >> reporter: in the end, israelis and palestinians were left to bury their dead amid fears that the attack is a harbinger of more violence to come. for the pbs newshour, i'm margaret warner. >> woodruff: back in this country: the u.s. justice department says it will appeal directly to the supreme court, after a federal judge dealt another blow to president trump's travel ban. the judge in hawaii ruled last night. he said the list of "bona fide" relationships that allow entry to the u.s., must include grandparents, among others. a federal appeals court ruled today that county commissioners in north carolina violated the constitution by starting meetings with christian prayers. the fourth circuit is also likely headed for the supreme court. the ruling says prayers at public meetings are not inherently unconstitutional. but in this case, no prayers
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from other faiths were permitted. president trump pushed senate republicans today to approve a revamped health care bill. in a tweet, he said: "republican senators must come through as they have promised!" already, rand paul and susan collins have said they will vote "no". that means g.o.p. leaders cannot afford to lose another vote. the president spent much of his day taking part in france's celebration of independence. this year, bastille day coincided with the 100th anniversary of america's entry into world war one. mr. trump joined president emmanuel macron at a military parade in paris, complete with a flyover. macron thanked the u.s. for its role in what the french commonly call "the great war". >> ( translated ): we have also found sure allies, friends who have come to our aid. the united states of america are one of them. that is why nothing will ever
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separate us. the presence today of the american president by my side, mr. donald trump, and his wife, is a sign of friendship which has endured time. >> woodruff: macron later traveled to nice, france, to mark one year since a terror attack there killed 86 people. former president jimmy carter is back building houses, after being released from a hospital in canada. he became dehydrated yesterday, while working on a project for habitat for humanity. today, he returned to the worksite in winnipeg, manitoba, smiling and wearing work clothes. mr. carter is 92 years old. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 84 points to close at 21,637-- a new record. the nasdaq rose 38 points. and the s&p 500 added 11, also reaching a new record high. for the week, the dow and the s&p were up 1%, the nasdaq gained 2.6%. still to come on the newshour: "inside putin's russia," a look
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at the evolving relationship between russia and the u.s., the legacy of liu xiaobo, the chinese dissident who died in government custody, mark shields and david brooks take on a full week of news, and much more. >> woodruff: now, we continue our series "inside putin's russia." there may be no more consequential relationship for the united states than with russia. both nations possess world- ending capacity, and may be at the most critical moment since the end of the cold war. tonight, we explore the bilateral relationship, the tension and how russians see the united states. again in partnership with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting, special correspondent nick schifrin and producer zach fannin start their report in moscow, on victory day.
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>> reporter: on russia's most patriotic holiday, russians of all ages remember what they consider their finest moment. they mark the anniversary of victory in world war two by honoring the dead. kiriginov naimovich's grandfather fought the nazis. he says russia and the u.s. were once allies, and should be again. >> ( translated ): we really want to love you and be friends with you. we are waiting for you to finally meet us half-way. >> reporter: for russians, it's the u.s. who's unwilling to come halfway. many here believe president trump wants to improve things but is being blocked by what dmitriy schyukin calls the american establishment. >> ( translated ): trump wants to do something, but he's forced to follow the general political line. >> donald trump is the most right wing candidate of the republican party. >> reporter: perhaps nobody expressed more hope in trump than alexander dugin, a right- wing tv firebrand and philosopher who's helped inspire
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the kremlin's ideology. really, we supported trumpism. we supported agenda. >> reporter: dugin says the kremlin saw trump as a kindred spirit who vowed not to meddle internationally. >> reporter: that changed when president trump ordered a missile strike on russia ally syria, and said he felt must respond to a chemical weapons attack. >> as long as america stands for justice, peace and harmony will in the end prevail. >> we trusted not in trump as pro-russian figure, we trusted in trump as a realist. and we are disappointed. >> reporter: the disappointment, and tensions, have been growing. last month over the baltic sea, a russian jet flew within five feet of a u.s. air force reconnaissance plane. that same week a nato jet shadowed the russian defense minister's plane and a russian jet came up and rocked its wings to demonstrate it was armed. last year the obama administration accused russia of
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hacking the election, and then seized russian properties and increased sanctions. all of that has led to russian frustration. maria zakharova is the foreign ministry spokeswoman. >> we were trying to establish normal relationship. normal. do you know this word, "normal," relationship? what is wrong with this? >> reporter: last week the u.s. took steps toward normalization. presidents trump and putin announced deals on cyber security and syria. both presidents called their meeting the first step to warming the relationship. >> ( translated ): if we develop our relations in the same way, there is every reason to believe that we would be able to at least partially restore the level of interaction that we need. >> reporter: the president echoed that note. on sunday, president trump tweeted he wouldn't dwell on 2016 hacking, and wrote now was the "time to move forward in
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working constructively with russia!" this is not the language other trump administration officials use about russia on syria. >> how many more children have to die before russia cares? >> reporter: on ukraine... >> we do call on russia to exercise influence over the separatists in the region that they have complete control over. >> reporter: and on putin personally. >> this is a man for whom veracity doesn't translate into english. >> reporter: the one senior administration official who's declined to echo that criticism is donald trump, as candidate and president. >> wouldn't it be a great thing if we could actually get along with russia? i respect putin. he is a strong leader, i can tell you that, unlike what we have. we have a pathetic leader. >> he's a killer, though. putin is a killer. >> there are a lot of killers. do you think our country is so innocent? do you think our country is so innocent? >> reporter: and last week in warsaw, president trump once again questioned the u.s.
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intelligence community's unanimous assessment that russia hacked the 2016 election. >> i think it was russia. but i think it was probably other people and/or countries, and i see nothing wrong with that statement. nobody really knows. >> at the very least, giving the president all the benefit of the doubt, this is very bizarre behavior. >> reporter: democratic senator mark warner is the vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee. >> we are seeking to determine if there is an actual fire, but there's clearly a lot of smoke. >> reporter: warner is helping lead the senate's investigation into russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether president trump or his campaign colluded with russia's attempts to sway the election. we first interviewed him three weeks ago. >> it is very strange that any presidential candidate-- and in particular, as republican presidential candidate-- would parrot so much of the russian line. >> reporter: republican senator james lankford is also on the intelligence committee. >> in some ways, has president trump aligned himself with the ideals expressed by russia? >> yeah, he's pushing out some messages that are consistent with the kremlin policies. and i would tell you every opportunity i have, i try to articulate very clearly, there's
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no question the russians were trying to hack into our elections, and there's no question we should have a strong nato and that the united states should be a part of that nato alliance. >> reporter: do you believe he's not echoing that criticism because the russians have compromising material on him? >> i don't know. i hope not. but the goal of this investigation to not only reconfirm russian intervention and explain that to the american public, but also to see if there were any contacts between the trump campaign and the russians prior to the election. >> reporter: and just this week, we learned that last june, donald trump, jr. met with lawyer natalia veselnitskaya because he thought she had dirt i spoke to senator warner again last night. >> what we're seeing is a lot of dots that are starting to be connected. and clearly the case that the trump campaign was interested in negative material on hillary clinton and they were willing to
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>> reporter: much of this town was worried about trump and russia since he became president. current administration officials tell newshour the white house drafted an executive order that would have lifted sanctions imposed on russia over ukraine. senior administration officials and the intelligence community successfully lobbied against it. and this spring, senators passed a bill restricting the president's ability to lift those sanctions. the bill's not yet a law, but it was designed to be a nearly unanimous message to the president and to putin. >> we believe strongly that what russia continues to do-- to be able to threaten ukraine, threaten its neighbors, threaten nato, to continue to pry into not only our elections, but other elections-- is destabilizing and it demands a response. they've yet to have a consequence to what they did in the election time. and they should. >> reporter: in some ways, the president has fallen in line. on sunday he tweeted he wouldn't lift sanctions on russia over ukraine until "ukrainian & syrian problems are solved!" and last week he also endorsed article 5, nato's collective defense. >> the united states has demonstrated not merely with words, but with its actions, that we stand firmly behind article 5, the mutual defense
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commitment. >> reporter: that convinces many in moscow that the u.s. establishment is making sure the us remains anti-russian. dmitry trenin is a former soviet army colonel who directs the carnegie center in moscow. >> the united states has been, remains, and will be the power that defines common, western, i.e. u.s.-driven, foreign, defense and security policy. >> reporter: and given that, trenin says the u.s. remains russia's main adversary. and russia is simply targeting the u.s. with whatever tool it can. >> i'm sure that the russians have been looking at things, have been hacking things, have been using the material that they have hacked. why are you surprised that you are being hacked? this is a method of espionage. this is what you do. if you can do it, do it, if you can protect against that, protect against it, but don't whine. >> reporter: but it goes one step further.
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many in russia look at washington's turbulence and see a u.s. they'd considered strong and unified, suddenly weakened. and they're exploiting that weakness in the us foundation. >> it is not so coherent. it is not so stable. and it is vulnerable, i would say. and we seen that. we have seen what we needed to see. vulnerability of american society. >> woodruff: and nick now joins me in our studio. nick, that sounds pretty foreboding. >> i think it should sound foreboding, because it is. i think usual russians do see a vulnerability in the u.s., they see a lack of unatoned when talking frankly to people who actually know what they're talking about in rush russia, not so much denial, it is that we did it in the united states last year and we will keep doing it. >> woodruff: so, from talking to them is there any doubt that they are going to keep on doing it? >> i don't think so. mostly because they don't feel like they paid a price. the russian government does not
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feel like the united states government really penalized them for what happened last year. and frankly, a lot of american official here in washington agree with that. they fault the obama administration and the trump administration for simply not following through on some of the things that they feel like russia should have paid for what they did last year. >> woodruff: now, you and i talked a little bit about this. you talked to so many experts, is there hope? is there a glimmer of a belief anywhere that this can be repaired? >> there are analysts in moscow who think the only thing we can hope is that we avoid war. i mean there are some people that are that dire right now. i think the people who are trying to make it better and hope it can make it better are doing what basically president trump and putin did earlier in the story, trying to find a lowest common denominator, if you will. trying to find a corn are of syria, for example. where they can work together and use that very small deal to expand perhaps in to greater
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syria, to expand into a warming of the relationship. certainly the people who understand that this relationship has to get better, that's what they're trying to do. >> woodruff: looking for place to make that happen. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: little a remarkable series, thank you very much. you call watch all of nick schifrin's reports from this week's series on our website: pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: the nobel peace prize laureate liu xiaobo died yesterday in china of liver cancer-- after years behind bars for his efforts to democratize his homeland. liu's work-- and his plight-- brought him global attention, work that enraged the chinese government. his death brought an outpouring of tributes william brangham has this look
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at liu's life, and legacy. >> reporter: the death of liu xiaobo prompted an outpouring of john kamm runs a human rights organization based in san francisco that advocates for political prisoners in china. >> a great loss of china someone who was committed to non-violent change is gone and it's a great loss for the world. >> reporter: he'd been released from prison on medical leave only a few weeks earlier, but supporters say he was denied proper care. >> the chinese government brutally killed my teacher and one of the most genuine and conscientious chinese in the world. i would like to ask the world, world leaders and people around the world, which side are you on? >> reporter: president trump praised liu in a statement yesterday, calling him "a poet, scholar, and courageous advocate." china's government flatly denies liu was mistreated, and today, a
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spokesman condemned the international criticisms. >> ( translated ): those statements are interference to china's judicial sovereignty and domestic affairs. it is also against the spirit of liu xiaobo is a criminal who was put on trial by china's laws. >> reporter: for decades, liu was one of the chinese government's most outspoken critics. he rose to prominence during the 1989 tiananmen square protests, returning from the u.s. to support the original student demonstrators. after troops opened fire-- killing hundreds, perhaps thousands-- liu helped negotiate safe passage for the survivors. he remained in china-- despite detention and constant surveillance-- and continued his political advocacy. in 2008, he helped author "charter 08," a manifesto demanding political and civil reform, and was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion. >> 10,000 people signed that petition. he is the only one to have been sentenced to prison and he was given a very long term.
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so i think he sacrificed there, too. >> reporter: but the case gained international attention, and in 2010-- over china's vehement objections-- liu was awarded the nobel peace prize. stuck in prison, liu was unable to attend the nobel ceremony, so a chair was left empty in oslo. and a statement he had written for his trial was used as his nobel lecture. "hatred can rot a person's wisdom and conscience," it said. still, beijing's hard line on liu makes clear that the reforms he sought for decades appear increasingly out of reach. >> there's a major party meeting in a few months. the government and its president and chairman xi jinping will be inclined to be very, very tough. in terms of changing china's political system, i don't see it, i'm afraid. >> reporter: the focus turns now to liu's wife, liu xia. she remains under house arrest and calls for her release-- including from the secretary of state-- have so far gone
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unheeded. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: we travel to one of the world's largest jazz festivals in denmark. and a view on how school choice has evolved from the pressures of parenting. but first, to the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. welcome, gentlemen. so, mark, welcome back. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: we missed you last week. the drum junior story now learned that he had a meeting, a year ago, trump tower with a lawyer who had some connection to the russian government. how does this change our understanding of the russia collusion allegation? >> i think it's fair to say that white house lost any benefit of
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the doubt that it could claim on this story. the shoes continue to drop, like a zappos warehouse, amelda marcos' closet. they're amending their story, appending, extending their story. so i just think the fact that there was such denials and accusation of the democratic plot, all of those are gone they stand naked and exposed as shams. they were actively engaged at least welcoming russia involvement in the 2016 election in behalf of drum against hillary clinton. >> what may have been going on? >> yeah. my colleague wrote that any time you give donald trump the benefit of the doubt he always let's you down, that's true for his business clients and true far those ever us who thought they couldn't have been some
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stupid to walk right in to collusion with russian meeting. yet they were not only that stupid but i think what is striking me is the complete amorality that donald trump junior gets an e-mail the russian government is offering you this, he says i love it. reminded me of the e-mails out of jack abramoff stan call. frat boys going against the law and going against morality and not even overcoming any scruples to do this. they're just having fun with it. then in the days since we've had on donald junior on sean hannity's show, again, i did nothing wrong, just incapable of being something wrong about colluding with a foreign power that is hostile with you. and donald trump saying he's a wonderful guy, not seeing anything wrong. even last day lying how many people in the meeting completely inconsequential. we're trapped in the zone just
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beyond any ethical scruple where it's all about winning. >> woodruff: beyond any ethical scruple, is that where we are? >> i think fair to say that donald trump is without the embarrassment gene or moral reservation gene, he we sense that most people would take that meeting, judy. but this is not -- i've been around for awhile, been to the dallas fair twice, all of rest of it. people wouldn't do that. in 2000 al gore's campaign, got ahold of george bush's briefing book, they turned it over to the fbi. that's what you do when you're in politics, this isn't a meeting with a foreign policy, this isn't canada, the swiss family robinson, this is russia. this is a country that supported, popped up the worst of anti-democratic regimes in the middle east, brag practiced, mistreated its own press,
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mistreated own civil society. intimidation of neighbors including invasion of its neighbors. this is the one country on the face of the earth with the capacity to obliterate the united states. this is serious stuff. to do it so casually as david said without moral reservation, is -- i guess -- sadly it isn't. >> woodruff: some of the trump team in their response to this are sounding almost offended that people would even think that they were doing something wrong. >> yeah, they just don't get it. mike gerson had a good line if you make losing us in you make cheating a sacrament. that is true if it's all win-loss you do whatever you can to win to make money and beat the deal. so, i do think venture where they don't quite see what they have done wrong. cheating with a foreign company -- country as mark keeps saying is a grave sin.
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then there's just the scandal management of it, letting it drip out today and today and there is almost just a clueles cluelessness that they're color blind about the rest of the world to go react to this. this is elite motif for the frump administration. >> woodruff: it is the face that there was one version we heard then monday a little bit more then tuesday, wednesday, then today still another. >> it is, judy. i don't know what to think. drip, drip, drip comes downpour at some point. how about the disparaging of the united states intelligence agencies and professionals by president trump, candidate trump now president trump i can't be sure rush averages involved, yeah, probably, i can't be sure. it's the trump tower with the people, their names approved on the visitor's list for meeting in the trump tower and
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pretending they didn't know it. in a management sense just incredible, judy. apparently it's hit the president or someone got to the president because his statement about his son was so sort of homogenized, he's a quality person jared he's a wood r good boy. >> praised limb for his transparency which is a little bit like, about to be indicted for tax evasion, want to make something clear, i failed to pay my taxes. >> does open up the questions. as intelligence experts this looked like a russian field operation, see what kind of reaction they can get from donald junior, how do they respond to the signal. so what else do they do? there must have been other things. the second is connected donald trump gave a speech we're abut to have a big revelation. did this fall out of this
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meeting what was the timing of that? who else was in this meeting? what actually was said in the meet knowledge, we have some testimony but what documents were brought to the meeting. it means there's another several weeks of questions and it gives new channel to walk down -- >> one thing about -- he has advantage and a power that nobody else -- none of us in the press has. he has powers of subpoena. he has the power of the grand jury, he has certainly indictment of perjury. you just can't keep changing these stories. jared kushner now has amend the the point, number of contacts of foreign individuals and interests, 100, three times he's now had to do so. raises the question, who leaked these e-mails on donald trump junior. did they -- is there distrust, i
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know in the white house whether it's kushner or kushner's people saying that we had to get this out. >> woodruff: meantime, one thing the president is saying that he wants the senate to get done is health care. so, we now few days ago we saw the newer version of health care reform that rita mcconnell is saying that he really wants his troops to come together, but they still aren't there. what is going on? >> it's interesting when you see the reaction to this latest, some people say, shifted to the right, some people say, no, shifted to the left, in reality it short of shifted both ways. it keeps some of the taxes on the rich which some of the moderates want, includes deregulation of the insurance markets which ted cruz and mike lee wants. certainly moves in both direction. i give mitch mcconnell credit, pretty unpopular bill. yet he's got to the point where he's kind of close to getting it. i don't know if we'll get there,
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i bet against it. but as active legislative craftsmanship if your own goal to pass something i would say mitch mccontinental has done as well as you can do by pushing a lot of different buttons and bringing people within the ballpark given how unpopular this s. i still think it's a bad bill because it does so much to punish medicaid among population that can afford it least. just asset of ledge splaytive craftsmanship, mcconnell is turning the nobs and getting people close. maybe 40% chance that it actually passes something this summer. >> woodruff: will it go over the top? >> i don't, just point out affordable care act was being fought for 18 months in the congress, there was always a public case could you make for it. there was criticism of it but public case included that women would not be charged more than men. that nobody could be denied coverage, that preexisting condition people would be
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guaranteed insurance and access to health care. there is -- the inside part was done by harry reid in the senate and nancy pelosi in the house. this is all inside. there is no public argument, there is no public case that can make, no public case, you have two minutes to address the american people why is this better. why would this republican plan be better for americans? why would it bet are for those who don't have health care y. would it be better for the elderly, for the poor. for the quality of health care in the country. there is no case to be made. it's all inside baseball. can you get by leading on the governor sandoval that is a terrible -- somehow they do rang ale vote, what have they got? incredibly unpopular piece of legislation. >> woodruff: does anybody make positive case for this? >> not really. they say the insurance markets
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are failing, obamacare markets are failing which is somewhat true. they say we have market-driven system to shove down costs which is somewhat true. i do this there is public case that could be made. which is why it's so unpopular. but if we had public scrutiny, say the insurance markets, this thing called the cruz amendments gives the insurance companies chance to charge less. and what that will do, with the insurance markets into two different systems. so the people will pay a low fee then people who are sick are paying much more. so whether you agree or not with the principle these things actually have to work. i'm not sure the way this is written this will actually even just work as functioning way to run a market as the health insurance companies have been strongly saying that. >> we're waiting to find out now whether it's going to be 19 million or 24 million people who are knocked off health insurance. what everyone says about affordable care act 20 million americans who didn't have it did
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have health care coverage. jew die, let's be very blunt, 12 million came to the extension of medicaid. this is the starvation of medicaid. seven years, 2024. the extension of medicaid disappears, they can talk about money and everything else, they are implicit in the republican bill is different in those that are on medicare. they are stayers, free load edges, not you are -- >> woodruff: we'll leave it there. on that note. mark shields, david brooks, thank you both. >> woodruff: the copenhagen jazz festival ends this weekend in denmark's capital. the organizers claim it's the world's biggest such event, and that denmark has now become the epicenter of global jazz.
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some of the american musicians there express envy that the quintessential american music now thrives abroad, thanks to danish government investment. special correspondent malcolm brabant is based in copenhagen and brings us all that danish jazz. >> reporter: the streets and squares are alive to the sound of improvisation, as the city stages 1,400 concerts in ten days, leading to claims that copenhagen is now the jazz capital of the world. >> it's a kind of music you can make swing. we like the swing feeling, so that's how we perform it. >> reporter: drummer jorgen fjelstrup fears that like viennese waltzes, traditional jazz will soon be consigned to history. >> everything has its time. i think 5% of the people knows or likes this kind of jazz. mainly my age i think, so it will die with us.
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>> reporter: but in copenhagen's meat packing district the boundaries of jazz are being expanded in a way that's attracting international attention. drummer emil de waal. >> to me jazz is a very open genre. to me, jazz is a very alive genre and what we're trying to do here is to make jazz work together with electronic music. i can't see a world without improvisational music. so i'm really optimistic. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: grammy-winning drummer victor jones has joined a distinguished list of american musicians who've moved to denmark because of its rich jazz culture. >> they have an audience that understands the music which in america it's pretty difficult to
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find an audience like that you know. what's good about here is that they also teach it in school. in america they just don't have it in school and they don't have it on tv, so here i am. ♪ >> reporter: six times grammy- winning saxophonist david sanborn laments a lack of investment in a culture that america invented. >> you have a different dynamic over here. in europe in general the arts are funded by the governments which you don't get in america and even less so now. so i think that there's a certain institutional respect for what this music means to the world. consequently it fosters great danish jazz musicians. ♪ >> reporter: such as pianist niels lan doky. he learned his craft among legends in new york, and now runs a successful jazz club in
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copenhagen. >> in new york and america in general, it's difficult to experiment and develop new products because the pressure to be profitable is so high, so bottom line oriented that you have to play it safe, established names and you know you don't see the kind of experimentation and diversity that we have here. ♪ >> reporter: in denmark, the jazz gene pool is being revitalized. lan doky's protege, 19-year-old amanda thomsen, has chosen jazz over other genres. ♪ >> jazz surprises because, yeah, you can do what you want in jazz and improvise you can create all the time so every song is new, every day.
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>> reporter: jazz may be thriving here. but the common perception that jazz is incapable of standing on its own two feet financially also applies here, too. festival organizers say that subsidies from central and local government as well as private foundations are essential. because without them this festival would not be on such a grand scale. ♪ curtis stigers says jazz will always struggle because its art takes precedence over commerce. >> i'm very, very, very lucky. i make a living playing jazz music. i have to come to europe to do it. we are the red headed step-child of the music business. we are a niche market. but the people that love jazz, they're willing to pay, they're willing to suffer a little bit to hear this music. and to support it and i'm grateful for that.
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♪ charlie parker played pop songs. he just turned them into jazz tunes and that's what we have to do. as opposed to just listening to miles davis and saying that's jazz. >> reporter: here's another dimension. liturgical jazz. ♪ >> reporter: anders gadegaard is the dean of copenhagen cathedral. >> when you add this jazz tone. it becomes much more vital for people and it becomes easier for us to proclaim the gospel so to speak. >> reporter: the jazz mass was written by bassist chris minh doky, brother of the pianist. >> if you take an old song from the danish song tradition that's 300 years old, there's a reason why it lasted 300 years, because the melody is really good.
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if you take the melody and set it free and don't constrain it in any boxed in way and just present it as is with a contemporary harmonization and presentation, you'll hear that this melody is universal. it's basically the same as hearing a pop song from the '50s that turns into a jazz standard. >> reporter: the claim that denmark is the epicenter of global jazz may be disputed, but this congregation proves beyond doubt the spirit is strong. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in copenhagen. >> woodruff: author gayle tzemach lemmon usually reports for us from the other side of the world, covering stories such as the refugee crisis and child marriage. tonight she shares her humble
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opinion about something closer to home and much more personal. >> school choice. those two words spark a whole host of emotions from people across the political spectrum. as a kid, i never heard the words school choice uttered. but they did indeed shape my childhood. you see, my mom was a single mom, a union democrat who worked at the phone company during the day and sold tupperware at night-- at least on the nights when she wasn't studying to earn her college degree. she frequented yard sales, grocery shopped with double coupons, and knew her way around the marshall's layaway window. and she lied about our address so that i could attend what she judged to be the best public elementary school in our area. in a number of states that is seen as a felony. in fact, parents across the country regularly face jail time and huge fines for what my mom did. really. parents are facing prison to give their children possibilities. possibilities that area given
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for upper middle class and wealthy families. families that can exercise their own school choice because they have the means to choose what and where is best for their kids. as a kid, it didn't occur to me that using a babysitter's address or an address where my dad used to live before the bank took his property back was wrong. it was what was required. do-it-yourself school choice to make more choices down the road possible. and it worked. the good school my mom got me into, gave me a great start for the rest of my education. i went to a good college. from there i had the privilege of becoming a fulbright scholar and that helped lead me to harvard business school. but along the way, i saw just how narrow the funnel that leads to the nation's elite institutions truly is. the thing that strikes me now is that all that i have had the privilege of learning and doing and undertaking since then is because i had a mom who understood that education was
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the best antipoverty vaccination she could give me. and the best shot at class mobility she had to offer. for many moms and dads, school choice is not an "issue"; it's a it is not partisan. it is about possibilities. and a chance to give kids the springboards they need to vault over class barriers and toward the best future they can build. and that future is something in which every one of us has a stake. >> woodruff: on our facebook page: how worried should we be about lyme disease and lyme- carrying ticks? our science team spoke with the director of the john hopkins lyme disease clinical research center, and took questions from our facebook viewers. you can find that and more on facebook.com/newshour. robert costa is preparing for "washington week," which airs later tonight. robert, what's on tap? >> tonight the russia scandal hits close to home for the trump family pushing the white house into cries mode. we talk with the investigative
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reporters who broke the story and about any reports that former russian spy may have been at that dump tower meeting tonight washington week, judy. >> woodruff: and we will be watching, thanks. coming up tomorrow on pbs newshour weekend, the final installment of our six-part series "inside putin's russia". an in-depth look at rising opposition to president vladimir putin, led by alexei navalny who is inspiring young russians to speak out against corruption. >> reporter: the 41-year-old lawyer is the country's most prominent opposition politician, on a crusade against corruption. his rallies are unusual in a country where retail campaigning is almost unheard of. the crowds are young, and he talks like them. >> ( translated ): they think we have no right to ask questions, that we have to shut up and listen. but no, we have gathered here to say we're going to ask these questions and we'll obtain the answers. >> his anti-corruption message resonates with me. and i think that he's a very
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charismatic politician. pbs newshour weekend. >> woodruff: that's tomorrow on pbs newshour weekend. and we'll be back, right here, on monday when the healthcare battle will heat up as the congressional budget office is expected to release its analysis of the latest senate bill. 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: >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour.
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>> 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 >> you're watching pbs.
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>> frost: welcome to the program. i'm wildred frost filling in for charlie rose. we begin too,evening with foreign policy and talk with matthew barzun former u.s. ambassador to the u.k. and david miliband the president to have the international rescue committee. >> i think it's really important the russians know europe is more united than at the time of the brexit vote, that europe won't put up with intervenors and maintains -- it's really important. >> frost: we continue with jon wertheim, editor at sports illustrated and tense tense. joins us in london with the wimbledon tournament. >> the barometer is major titles won. roger federer has 18, going for 19, is in first place. i am a little sym