captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: beating economic expectations. what a strong july jobs report and record run on wall street mean for main street. then: >> we are taking a stand. this culture of leaking must stop. >> woodruff: attorney general jeff sessions triples the number of investigations into press leaks, in a crackdown of information making its way out of the white house. plus, we continue our look at drug-resistant superbugs. tonight, one way the market is trying to make investing in antibiotic research more profitable. >> the model that people are coalescing around is some sort of a significant prize, a

significant billion dollar payment. >> woodruff: and, it's friday. mark shields and david brooks talk about what john kelly's brings to the trump administration, 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. >> the ford foundation. working 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: july was the second straight month of solid job gains for u.s. employers.

the u.s. labor department says employers added 209,000 jobs last month. that dropped the unemployment rate down to 4.3%, tying a 16-year-low. the good report pushed stocks higher on wall street. the dow jones industrial average gained 66 points to close at 22,092. that is its eighth straight record high. let's get an assessment about the job market and the stock market and what it means for millions of americans. i'm joined by mark vitner, managing director and senior economist at wells fargo. mark vitner, welcome to the program. so just how good a jobs report is this? >> well, it's a pretty solid report. pretty much top to bottom. 209,000 jobs exceeded what folks were looking for. we had a small upward revision of the prior data and we saw that a very wide majority of industries added jobs, over 60% of the industries that make up the employment survey added jobs

during the month of july. >> woodruff: why is it doing so well? what's the driver behind this? >> well, i think that, after eight years of economic growth, things are finally beginning to broaden a little bit. previously, most of the growth that we saw in the economy, most of the improvement was coming from either the tech sector or the energy sector. then energy faltered a little bit, oil prices came down and things slowed a little bit in 2015, 2016. in this past year, we've seen global growth picked up, oil prices rebounded a little bit. so, really, for the first time since the recession, seems like we're firing on all cylinders. the strength we have in the economy is broadening. it's reaching not only more industries but more parts of the country. >> reporter: so, when you say it's firing on all cylinders, you mean literally everywhere and every kind of industry. >> well, i wish it was literally everywhere, but it's in more places than it used to be. and there are a lot of places. and you look within a state.

you go to tennessee, for example, and nashville's been booming for a long time, but memphis really hasn't been doing that well. memphis is starting to see stronger economic growth, and some of that is that we've had so much growth in a handful of areas, that their unemployment rates have gotten low enough that companies are searching for other places where they can find workers, find office space, find industrial space, so the strength to have the economy seems to be reaching more parts of the country. >> woodruff: so the stock market seems to be roaring. we said a minute ago apparently it's eighth straight record. what's going on there? >> recently a lot has been in the tech sector where we've had very good earnings. the stock market and the economy are somewhat reflecting the same thing. we had a slowdown in the global economy in 2015 and 2016, and the u.s. economy was outgrowing the rest of the world, and the dollar shot up in value. that made it very tough for companies to boost their profit

margins. within the last year, we've seen global demand picked up in more than half of the earnings of the s&p 500 come from overseas, and that stronger growth is translated into stronger profits, and that's what's taken the market up. >> woodruff: and we see that wages are fanally beginning to picpick up a little as well. mark vitner, what about ordinary americans? you still get the sense many people say they don't feel they're part of the great boom, this recovery that's taking place. >> well, america is a vast country, and you've got people of all walks of life, and, so, it's not surprising that a lot of people, and i would say most people aren't really tied into the stock market, at least not directly. but i can tell you that companies are more likely to add workers and boost salaries and expand their operations when stock prices are going up than down. when the stock market is going down and we're talking about eight straight losing sessions,

actually longer than that when we have a pullback that persists, there is a lot of pressure on corporate managers to find cost savings, so a weaker stock market may show up to ordinary americans a lot more directly than a stronger one shows up. but ordinary americans do benefit from a stronger stock market, whether they do so directly -- maybe even if they don't do so directly, they do benefit indirectly. >> woodruff: sounds you're saying if they haven't felt it, already, maybe they'll feel it soon. >> i would certainly hope so. the improvement in the stock market, when the stock market goes up for odd reasons, it probably country mean much. but when it goes up because the economy is improving and we're seeing a broadening in the strength of the economy and earnings have improved, that's something that should benefit everyone. >> woodruff: final question. president trump has said on a number of occasions he deserves a lot of credit for this. how much credit does any president deserve when the economy booms?

>> my philosophy has always been give them credit when it's good and blame when it's bad. they get all the blame when it goes bad. president trump's policies are pro growth. the problem is none of those policies have really been enacted. the one area where the president has made progress has been lessening the load of regulation, and we see that in some of our surveys of small business where the number of businesses that say that their number one problem is regulation has fallen substantially over the last six months, and i think that has contributed to a little bit of the pickup we're seeing in business-fixed investment. >> woodruff: mark vitner of wells fargo, it's nice to have a good report on the economy for a change. we thank you. >> glad we could help. >> woodruff: and in the day's other news, the justice department announced a new crackdown on leaks of classified government information. since january, the department has tripled the number of investigations into leaks

compared with when president obama left office. four people have been charged with unlawful disclosures or concealing contacts with foreign officers. alongside top intelligence officials, attorney general jeff sessions called the crackdown a top priority. >> this nation must end this culture of leaks. we will investigate and seek to bring criminals to justice. we will not allow rogue anonymous sources with security clearances to sell out our country. these cases to investigate and prosecute are never easy, but cases will be made, and leakers will be held accountable. >> woodruff: just yesterday, the "washington post" published transcripts of president trump's phone calls with the leaders of australia and mexico from the first days of his presidency. the leaked exchanges revealed at times contentious conversations, at odds with the white house's description to the press. today, director of national

intelligence daniel coats issued a warning to any would-be leakers. >> anyone who engages in these criminal acts is betraying the intelligence community and the american people. we feel the pain of those betrayals intensely. and i can ensure you, i will do everything in my power as the director of national intel to hold these individuals accountable. >> woodruff: we will have more on his department's efforts, right after the news summary. president trump kicked off his 17-day "working vacation" today. he left washington this afternoon, en route to his golf club in bedminster, new jersey. it is his first extended vacation as president. while mr. trump is gone, the west wing of the white house will undergo a series of renovations. in venezuela, the country's new constitutional assembly convened for the first time today. the body has sweeping powers, which opponents fear will be used to impose a dictatorship for president nicolas maduro. pro-government demonstrators

took to the streets in caracas, as the assembly picked its head: an ex-foreign minister, and maduro loyalist, who took aim at president trump. >> ( translated ): to the head of the empire, we say, and we will repeat as many times as necessary: don't mess with venezuela. from here, from this powerful chamber surrounded by our liberators, we say, "savage and barbarous empire, don't mess with venezuela, because venezuela will never faint nor surrender." >> woodruff: the results of the election for the assembly have faced mounting scrutiny, after the company that provided venezuela's electronic voting machines said turnout numbers were manipulated. a federal appeals court in washington has thrown out the murder conviction of a former blackwater security guard in the 2007 massacre of 14 iraqi civilians. nicholas slatten will now get a new trial, after the court said that he should have been tried

separately from his three co-defendants. the court also ordered new sentences for those men. prosecutors have added a key witness in the two corruption cases against israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. israeli police say netanyahu's former chief of staff has agreed to testify against him. the investigations involve improper gifts and attempts to influence media coverage. netanyahu dismissed the news as "background noise." back in this country, former pharma executive martin shkreli, who gained notoriety for hiking the price of anti-infection medicine, was convicted today in an unrelated case. federal prosecutors accused shkreli of misleading investors and stealing money from one of his companies to pay them back. shkreli, however, was found not guilty today on five of eight charges, and he praised that outcome. >> i'm delighted the jury did their job. they saw the facts as they were. this was a witchhunt of epic proportions, and maybe they

found one or two broomsticks, but at the end of the day we've been acquitted of the most important charges of this case. and i'm delighted to report that. >> woodruff: shkreli could face up to 20 years in prison, but legal experts expect a lighter sentence. and, the british security researcher credited with stopping a global cyber-attack back in may was due in court today, on unrelated hacking charges. 22-year-old marcus hutchins was arrested in las vegas this week, for allegedly distributing software years ago, to collect bank account passwords. hutchins helped control the so-called "wanna-cry" attack that crippled thousands of computers. still to come on the newshour: stopping superbugs-- the search for profitable ways to create new antibiotics. mark shields and david brooks take on the week's news. a visit to one of the country's first folk festivals. and, much more.

>> woodruff: now, to a problem that knows no party, and has caused pain in every modern american presidency. we are talking about leaks. the obama administration brought more leak-related charges than all other presidencies combined. as we heard, today, attorney general jeff sessions vowed to triple the number of investigations. it follows the rare disclosure this week of the full transcripts of president trump's early calls with world leaders. hari sreenivasan has a look at the debate over freedom of information and national security concerns. >> sreenivasan: for that, we are joined by james risen, investigative reporter for the "new york times" and author of the book "pay any price: greed, power and endless war." he fought a protracted legal battle that spanned two administrations, over whether he could be forced to identify his confidential sources. and, jeffrey smith. he served as general counsel of the c.i.a. in the clinton

administration. he is currently a lawyer in private practice. james, let me start with you. your reaction to what jeff sessions, th the department of justice, said this morning. >> i think they didn't have much in the way of specifics. there were no specific cases they announced that they were bringing against either reporters or whistleblowers, and i think their press conference was mainly in reaction to donald trump's continued pressure on sessions and on dan coates and the intelligence community to get tough on leaks, but they lacked any real policy depth to what they were saying. they just talked about how they were going to get tough. so it sounded a lot like what previous administrations, both the bush and the obama administrations, have said. really, we're going to have to

wait and see whether they really have specific cases that they plan to bring or not. they talked about how they've tripled the number of investigations, but that really leaves a lot to -- a lot of questions, because the intelligence community, for years has made many, many referrals to the justice department that never get prosecuted, and, so, the fact that they have more referrals doesn't really mean that we're going to see more criminal cases. >> sreenivasan: jeffrey smith, is this different than what every administration tries to do when they come in? >> no, i don't think so. leaks are a real problem. they can cause real harm, but i think one has to distinguish between leaks of information that is genuinely classified and truly does cause harm and leaks of information that people regard as sensitive but as more political in nature. so it's important to concentrate on those leaks that really do

cause harm to national security and not just on those that are inconvenient for leadership. >> sreenivasan: james risen, given the definition jeffrey smith gave us of what constitute a leak and what doesn't, should "the washington post" have published the transcripts of the president's conversations between the mexican president and the australian leader? >> yes, in my opinion it's in the real public interest because, for one thing, it shows what donald trump really thinks of his wall idea and how political an issue it was for him. i think jeff is absolutely right, that there is a distinction between national security reporting and political reporting, and i think donald trump is going to beer are disappointed because the kind of leaks he rages about are just what jeff just described, political in nature, and they don't really fall under the kind of cases that can be prosecuted

in any meaningful way. >> sreenivasan: james, staying with you for a second. given there was a substantive difference we l learned about in president trump's policy from that transcript, given that, should there be an expectation that a president has that he can have a conversation with another world leader and it be private? doesn't it change the equation, every president that's going to call or every leader that's going to have a conversation with president trump might speak differently to him knowing now those conversations might be accomplished in "the washington post" the next day? >> well, you know, that wasn't even the first phone call that was accomplished. the intercept accomplished one between trump and du duarte, the leader of the philippines, a few weeks ago. you have to understand the context in which leaks happen. leaks happen when people are unhappy with the government. >> sreenivasan: jeffrey smith, according to even yore own definition, would the publishing of those transcripts by "the washington post" constitute a

leak? should it be prosecuted? >> yes, i think it could. undoubtedly, those transcripts were classified. i don't know what level, but i cement intent many years in the department of state and conversations between eheads of state and secretaries of state and foreign ministers are extremely sensitive and the leak of that will undoubtedly chill any future conversations between the president and others because they'll wonder whether or not what they said to him can remain confidential. so, yes, it will cause harm. >> a lot of these cases, you've got to remember there are two sides to conversations. some of these may be coming out from foreign governments who don't like trump. i think you have to remember the reason there's been this cascade of leaks about donald trump is because he's gone out of his way to insult and ridicule virtually everyone that he deals with. >> jim, i'm not disagreeing at all with you on why they occur. i'm just saying that, in the particular case of heads of

state conversations, damage to u.s. relations with that country anand other countries will occu. >> i'm saying those leaks may have happened from the other government, wanting to get it out. >> that is certainly possible. jeffrey smith, i just want to ask you, also, how do we balance out the needs for national security with the needs of an informed public? you know, the reporters committee for freedom of thea press said today what the attorney general is suggesting is a dangerous threat to the american people to know and understand what their leaders are doing and why. >> it is always a delicate balance, and there is no perfect answer here. one thing i do want to comment on is the previous administration had come up with guidelines for the subpoenaing of reporters, and i think those guidelines strike the right balance, and i hope that the new administration will not change them. that said, it is important that we do protect things that truly

are harmful, and my impression is, over the years, that most news organizations check with the executive branch before they publish, and the executive branch has the obligation to try to tell them why harm would occur, but leave it in the journalistic judgment of the news media to decide what to do. unfortunately, in my view, they accomplish more than they should, but striking this balance is difficult. >> all right, jeffrey smith, james risen, thank you both. >> thanks. >> woodruff: now, to our series on the hunt for new antibiotics, as superbugs and bacteria are building more resistance to the current line of drugs. it is a joint project from our correspondents, paul solman and miles o'brien. last night, paul looked at why the market for developing new

drugs is simply no longer working. but as one expert warned, antibiotics are a class of drugs that could be lost for treatment if there's no new investment. as part of his series, "making sense," paul looks at some new options for solving that problem. >> solman: northeastern university biologist slava epstein has traveled the world, on the hunt for hitherto undiscovered microbes. some trips are shorter than others. >> o'brien: we are five minutes from your lab, right in the heart of boston, and this soil is as good as any? >> it is. this soil is as good as any. >> solman: as professor epstein told my newshour counterpart on the science beat, miles o'brien, just about any handful of soil contains tens of thousands of different microbial species, 99% of which remain utterly unexamined. in part, because they refuse to grow in petri dishes. epstein's breakthrough was figuring out how to cultivate

them, inventing a gizmo that isolates individual bacteria, then grows them back into teeming colonies. >> solman: so you can kind of see through them there. >> that's right. so in each one of those individual holes, in theory, there is a single cell. and by capturing single cells and putting them back out into the environment that they came from, you can cultivate micro-organisms no one has ever cultured before. >> solman: amy spoering is research director at novobiotic, the company slava epstein co-founded to study newfound bacteria-- now up to 60,000 strains, and counting-- as potential sources of new antibiotics. and how does that work? >> antibiotics are produced by micro-organisms to kill the neighbors, the enemies, the competitors. this is an exercise that the micro-organisms have been going through for the past four billion years. >> solman: and that humans have exploited for the past century or so, with chemicals from micro-organisms like

penicillium, the mold that makes penicillin. the trick is finding chemicals that kill infections in people, without killing the people too. so, i don't mind interviewing movers and shakers, but it's actually making me slightly dizzy, so i'm just going to look at you. >> so just look at me, that's fine. >> solman: so what is this? >> so what this is, is, this is where we grow all of the novel micro-organisms that we cultivate. they need a large amount of air in order to grow well, in order to produce the antibiotics. >> solman: so you're aerating them? >> that's right. that's why they're shaking. >> solman: so far, they've identified 33 novel compounds here, one of which may be a breakthrough: a new antibiotic that kills bacteria in two completely different ways, making resistance much less likely. >> so this is making our lead compound, teixobactin. >> solman: and the cost, if all goes well, of eventually getting it to market? >> that's big money. >> solman: big money that investors would be tripping over one another to provide, right?

to get in on the ground floor of the next z-pack? >> the payout will be huge, if we are successful. >> solman: but it's a long lug, says spoering, between bug and drug. >> this is 30 liters of it growing, to produce the compound that we need to do the next set of pre-clinical tests. >> solman: and then after you've done those animal trials, the toxicology trials-- >> yes. >> solman: --then and only then, do you do trials on humans? >> first, an initial set of studies that is just for safety, and then you move on to the efficacy studies, which is phase two. and then the larger efficacy studies, which are phase three clinical trials. >> drug discovery is a very long process. >> solman: dallas hughes is novobiotic's president. >> we are talking with venture capitalists now, but venture capitalists aren't going to become interested until we discover a compound like teixobactin and move it forward a bit farther than it is now. and we're hoping to raise some financing soon. >> solman: but for now, they're relying on government and foundation grants.

>> promising something that may or may not happen 10 years from now doesn't make people as excited as if you were promising the results like here. >> solman: but hey, every drug costs a fortune to bring to market. that can't be the reason that antibiotic firms like this one have such a tough time raising private capital. so what's the story? as we explained in a prior report, there just isn't enough profit, soon enough. you buy a week's worth of an antibiotic, not three months, say, of harvoni for hepatitis c. >> that's one pill, once a day, for 12 weeks. >> solman: and it costs about $30,000 a month. moreover, when a company comes up with a new killer antibiotic, a new superbug slayer, the medical community wants to keep it off the market as long as possible, to delay toxic micro-organisms developing resistance to it. meanwhile, the patent runs out. small wonder that even big pharma has said "no mas." >> most of the companies that were really doing the large

scale development work backed away from the area. >> solman: like astrazeneca, where infectious disease doctor john rex used to head antibiotic development. what did he learn from his tenure? >> it's a good way to destroy $50 to $100 million worth of net present value after 30 years of really hard work. >> solman: but ever-hopeful startups like this one, tetraphase, outside boston, have popped up. and a new public-private partnership called carb-x has stepped in to help fund their trek from test tube to clinical trials. >> we have, at carb-x, $455 million over the next five years, but what we need globally across all countries is about $2 billion per year for antibiotic r&d supported by public and charitable funds. >> solman: so says executive director kevin otterson. >> this is an infrastructure investment that has to be made in order to keep this drug class alive. i think antibiotics is the most valuable drug class in human

history. it's done more to save lives than any other drug class. it's incredibly powerful. but it's the only one that if you don't keep investing, you lose it. every other invention of modern medical science is still going to work in 100 years. antibiotics, we know they won't. >> solman: because bugs resistant to the antibiotic will evolve. but what cure can economics possibly come up with when the market itself fails? >> the model that people are coalescing around is some sort of a significant prize, a significant billion dollar payment, that rewards them for the innovation and then we can still use that antibiotic sparingly for the next 10 or 20 years. >> solman: rich prizes. they've motivated everything from discovering a way to determine longitude at sea, to charles lindbergh's transatlantic solo flight in

1927, to private space flight today. >> we've got $50 million of prizes on the table right now, and $200 million of prizes in development at different stages in the pipeline. >> prizes can be the answer when you're trying to motivate people beyond the normal suspects. >> solman: daniel berman is in charge of today's so-called "longitude prize." 10 million british pounds for a quickie test to see if you need antibiotics at all. >> one of the main reasons why drug resistant infections occur is that antibiotics are used inappropriately, such as people taking the wrong ones or not needing them in the first place. >> we need a rapid diagnostic test, because we need to make sure that we don't burn through the few antibiotics that are left. and when new antibiotics come on, we have to make sure that we dramatically use them in a more rational way. >> solman: without such a test, doctors are under constant pressure to prescribe.

>> often, acute infections are viral, and without the ability to specifically diagnose you at the point that you're in the office, it's very hard to know that an antibiotic won't help. >> solman: boston infectious disease expert lindsey baden. but to just distinguish between a virus and a bacterium, that would be a big deal. >> a virus and bacterium would be very important. >> solman: and even more so in developing nations. >> for example, in india, you can still purchase antibiotics without a prescription in a lot of places. so people are dying because, for some pathologies, there are simply no antibiotics that work anymore. >> solman: but look, says slava epstein... >> can you use antibiotics smarter? absolutely, but that will not prevent anti-microbial resistance. it will delay it. >> solman: that's why, he says, we must ramp up the efforts, and investments, in new ones. this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting for the pbs newshour.

>> woodruff: and i'm still dizzy from the shaking. >> woodruff: today marks the close of week one on the job for president trump's new chief of staff. a week that kicked off with the firing of a outspoken communications director and ends with word of a new grand jury in the russia investigation. it's a perfect time for the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks. welcome to you both. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: so, mark, some good numbers on the economy out today. jobs numbers impressive. president trump is saying it's all due to him. does he deserve this much credit? >> of course he does, because we learned from candidate trump these numbers are totally bogus, that we live in this big ugly bubble, that unemployment is actually 42% at the time of

president obama. no, judy, i mean, the economic news is phenomenal. it isn't just good. setting new records in the stock market, 22,000. you've got the lowest unemployment rate in 16 years. you've got economic confidence. today, mazda a and toyota announced they're building a $1.3 billion plant in the united states. amazon 50,000 jobs hiring. if donald trump would get out of the way, if he was silent cal coolidge and just let the good news take over and say, wow, isn't that something? but motor mouth don has to keep changing the subject, intruding, making unhelpful news himself. so -- but, at the same time, i mean, does the president get credit? david has a well-developed thesis presidents really don't shape the chi except over longer

priorities in their administrations. >> woodruff: is that right? i agree with mark's version. yes. they can have a very neglective effect if they do something terrible and maybe over the long term the investments they make over the decade can lead to genes gaines in the next but on a quarter-to-quarter basis, no, no effect at all. what puzzles me is this is such a long recovery. timing wise, we should be dipping down again, yet the public spirit is bad. people have faith in the economy, they do not think the country is going in the right direction. you're not getting spillover in the way people view the country and politics. i think the cynicism is self-perpetuating. no matter what happens, people are still cynical and distrustful about the country. so my message to america is cheer up a little. >> woodruff: we all need to remember that, right. but i don't know how much is due to anything going on in washington. mark, this does, as we said, in the first week o on the job for the president's new chief

offstaff, general kelly, does anything feel different to you? >> judy, two weeks ago i sat here and announced what a breath of fresh air anthony scaramucci brought. my prophet's credentials are severely tarnished. i think general kelly had a good first week by getting rid of the aforementioned scaramucci. but the difference between a pre-school center and the white house staff under donald trump is the pre-school center has adult supervision, and i think it's fair to say general kelly has brought to it adult supervision. he is an adult, and he did something i thought very shrewd and, at the same time decent. he called jeff sessions, the attorney general who had been cyber bullied by the president rather openly and repeatedly and assured him his job was safe. that sent a message not simply

to jeff sessions but to everybody else in the white house where anxiety and nervousness and looking over your shoulder had become endemic. >endemic. >> woodruff: cyber bullied and said it in a couple of interviews. there's a new sheriff in town. did it make any difference? >> there were a number of things i thought he did were shrewd, getting ahold of the schedule so even family members would have to go through him to the president. two, he didn't want to take the job and resisted for weeks. that shows realism. third, firing scaramucci. there's been a purging within the national security. so h.r. mcmaster clearly feels more empowered to get the people he wants in control, establishing chain of command. so all of those things, maybe we'll have less melodrama than the past six months and i think that will be good for all of us. there are a lot of limitations.

another shrewd thing, he said i'm not going to try to control the *79, just the staff. but the president will be the president, center of chaos, and this staff is not the 1929 yankees. he is not dealing with a lot of people who are highly competent at their jobs. there are a lot of people, but a lot are highly promoted for when they showbd so there would be a lot of self-inflected wounds. >> woodruff: i think he said the 1929 yankees. >> he means the 27 yankees (laughter) kelly won't be in good shape till he's given credit for righting theship and saving the presidency at which point donald trump will become upset and he will be expendable. >> woodruff: but president trump is still going after republicans in congress. he's tweeted, he's remarked several times. republicans let him down on healthcare. he seems angry that they passed this russia sanctions legislation, which he was not happy to sign.

they seem to be standing up a little bit more to him. to you see that? >> standing up, yes, judy. i think he blamed the russian-american relations at an all-time low, he blamed it on the congress. nothing that the russians had done, nothing that had happened, that 17 american intelligence agencies had found their interfering in the american political process and presidential election. but i think that, first of all, jeff flake, the senator from arizona, really broke with the president, wrote his own book. david wrote a very good column about et. it was almost a call to conscience for republicans. i compare this almost to g. mccarthy in 1967 standing up to the democrats lyndon johnson and the vietnam war, and one man did make a difference then, and people galvanized around him.

i think some republicans obviously see it in their self-interest, their self-preservation that donald trump's numbers are sinking badly, republicans numbers in the quinnipiac poll, judy, 80 to 14 negative ton handling of health care among american voters. they're beyond the basement. so i think there is some courage, but, at the same time, i think there's a large dose of self-preservation involved. >> woodruff: i talked to jeff flake this week. it was interesting. he said at one point there are so many things to criticize about this president, we hardly know where to begin. but it does look as if the president doesn't have the cloud or the republicans on the hill don't seem quite as afraid of him, maybe, as they once were. >> yeah, i think jeff flake is still going to be relatively lonely in direct opposition. there are a few, ben sasse from nebraska, lindsey graham, susan

collins, maybe mike lee who are pretty much against donald trump, but the rest are just sort of going along, but the going along used to be going along close, and now going along, let's do it without this guy. one, during the health care thing, they saw not only what a loser he was but how destructive his presence was to try to get anything done. second, nothing offends members of the senate republicans more than being attacked by the president of their own party because it does feel like an act of disloyalty. so incompetence andties loyalty, that suggests let's do our own thing, the sky is hopeless, and i think that mentality has begun to sip in to a lot of the senate republicans but it doesn't mean they will counter the cultural and political and institutional rock in the trump administration, they don't standing up to that degree. >> woodruff: we learned yesterday bob mueller, special counsel, apparently was working

with one grand jury, already, but a newer one set up in washington which spells, according to the experts, a really serious investigation that'sent going to end soon. >> no, it suggests we're in for some duration. don't plan thanksgiving or christmas. it's going to be long-standing. i would say this, judy, first of all, the grand jury is impaneled. it's purpose is to hear evidence, to make an indictment, and also to investigate, and i think it becomes quite serious. i mean, you don't have to be henry steele cumminger to remember bill clinton got in trouble and faced impeachment for lying before a grand jury about his relationship with monica lewinsky. that's what people all over town are facing right now.

there's a sense of gravity and really a seriousness about this. >> woodruff: yet the president, david, goes out on trail as he tid last night in west virginia and says it's all a witch hunt, the democrats are still mad about losing. >> i think he still believes that. that seems to be the obsessive thing on his mind more than anything else in the country today, and he seems to believe he's the persecuted person. i think the grand jury, as far as we have been told, means there is some actual evidence of a crime. can't launch a grand jury unless you have some substantive evidence. doesn't mean there will be an indictment. second, you can take hostile witnesses and put them in front of a grand jury in a way you can't in other procedures. so it's a ramping up. i must confess i'm embarrassed to say the collusion thing is the meat of the thing, but we know about special prosecutors, once they get into the tax returns, russian investments, ancillary business relationships, seems to be that's where mueller is more

likely to go than simply the campaign collusion. >> woodruff: lastly -- judy, what is it, every time the president -- i mean, he really is upset with this. he won't let it go in any way. i mean, so, i mean, that just raises the curiosity, suspicion, whatever you want to call it, interest, in what actually is going on. >> woodruff: last quick thing and only a minute, david, these telephone conversations the president had months ago earlier in the administration with the president of mexico, the prime minister of australia, just fascinating that he was pushing the president pi pin pi neddo oe wall. >> i think we're full up of donald trump. he's petulant, doesn't care of

his own image, is not deep in policy knowledge. >> what you see is what you get. donald trump in private conversation turns out to be donald trump in public. primarily concerned about himself, how he's seen and with a large dollup of self-pity in dealing with other leaders. >> woodruff: meantime, as you started out saying, the economy is doing well. >> it is. >> woodruff: which is what a lot of people are focused on. mark shields, david brooks, good to see you both. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: the newport folk festival: it's the place where bob dylan famously went electric in 1965, and so much music history was made since its founding in 1959. these days, summer festivals are everywhere, dominating the music scene. but, as jeffrey brown found out

this past weekend, newport not only survives, but once again thrives. ♪ ♪ >> brown: there were big names onstage: younger stars like the band "fleet foxes," and old masters, like john prine. there was also a bit of this, from comedian megan mullally and her musical partner stephanie hunt. what do you call it? >> punk vaudeville, maybe? they don't have the newport punk vaudeville festival yet. >> it's not a genre just yet. we're working it up. >> brown: for the most part, though, traditions were upheld.

>> we're playing folk music with a capital "f." >> brown: and parents pleased. >> i've certainly made my dad proud. he's like, "i never thought my daughter would sing in newport." >> brown: the newport folk festival was three days of sun and wind, sailboats and seagulls, held in a 19th century fort named for president john adams, on a gorgeous setting on a spit of land in rhode island's narragansett bay. >> the one thing you'll notice about this festival when you walk around is, there's nothing but music. we don't have ferris wheels. we don't have crazy things, and big arts, and big-- it's nothing but music. and we jam quite a bit of music into a very small spot. >> brown: and everyone wants to play here, even though the pay is far less than for other, bigger festivals. >> remarkably less, to the point where it's almost embarrassing, and to the artist's credit, they completely understand. we're about as transparent as

you can get. >> brown: what are you saying? what do you say to them? >> what i'm saying is, most of these artists play for ten times what we pay them, and they still come. >> brown: and the audience does, too, drawn in part by the intimacy. relatively small, some 10,000 people spread out over four stages, this festival sells out before anyone knows who's performing. music promoter george wein founded the festival in 1959, five years after starting the newport jazz festival. >> it's like a time warp. when i see the people coming in, the same faces, the same people, different generations-- it's the same peace and love feeling, without saying peace and love. they don't dress alike, because the dress is different, but they respond alike. and that's a fascinating thing. >> brown: at 91, he gets around these days on his "lean green wein machine" golf cart and serves as chairman of the

newport festivals foundation, now set up as a non-profit. >> i love it. it keeps my head going. my mind is as clear as ever. i can't walk, but who cares. who has to walk? >> brown: pete seeger, who helped wein start the festival, is honored at an indoor stage series titled "for pete's sake." ♪ ♪ the spirit of '60s protest music is all around. "the late greats" commemorates some of newport's legendary performers, now gone. the folk festival itself almost died several times, most but today, the audience skews young. ♪ ♪ attracted by a new generation of musicians who gladly stretch any remaining bonds of "folk music." what do you call what you're doing? >> something between a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. my favorite compliment is that

people say, "i don't like country music but i like you." >> brown: 34 years old, nashville-based nikki lane is an up-and-coming singer/songwriter, working hard to make it on the festival scene throughout the year. >> at festivals like coachella, they're doing 150,000 people a weekend. if you aren't playing something that can necessarily be played on radio, how do you market yourself? how do you reach the masses? these festivals are serving you up, and it's survival of the fittest. >> brown: this one, compared to there with 150,000-- this is like a little boutique sort of place, i suppose? >> yeah, but i imagine where, if you look at the people who are coming here, i would imagine that almost all of the bookers for festivals have spent time here, figuring out what to book next. this is, to me, the biggest tastemaker. ♪ ♪ >> brown: even if you're now a headliner here, like fleet foxes, you know the feeling. the band has sold several lead singer robin pecknold: >> the first time we played here in 2009, they can't have paid us that much.

but i remember the experience was great and the-- i'm not even sure they paid us what we deserve to be paid. >> brown: whatever they paid-- >> but the experience was amazing, and it was a great show. you do get put in front of an audience that maybe doesn't know who you are, when you're on your way up. i'm sure half the people out there probably don't know who we are tonight. >> brown: oh, yeah. but you're back here as a headliner now. >> i'd buy a ticket to this without knowing who anybody was playing. before they even announce the lineup. >> brown: 30-year-old british musician michael kiwanuka calls his music "psychedelic folk soul." ♪ ♪ he came here on the heels of major new exposure through the soundtrack of the hit tv series, "big little lies"

at newport, he was a clear favorite of fans, and other musicians. >> i'm working on my career and want to be around for a while, like other singers that inspire me. so i'm not like a mega pop star, but i do my thing. but i think that's really important here, is this good, is that it's music lovers that come and music lovers that play it. so if you get to newport, it means that there's something in your music that is honest or raw or comes from the heart, and i think ever since a young age, that's what i've been trying to do or been inspired by. >> brown: there was one old-time rock star here: rogers waters of "pink floyd." he made a surprise acoustic appearance to help honor the great american folk singer, john prine. waters, as much as anyone here, felt newport's past and present spirit. >> this is about music, but it's also about love. but it's also about protest, because there's a strong tradition in american music.

get musicians started! enough with kim kardashian's bum, katy perry or whoever, and all that bubblegum nonsense. and there are, there are a lot of young committed musicians who are desperate to find a platform. >> brown: newport offered that platform once again this year, continuing its long and storied history. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the newport folk festival. >> woodruff: and you can watch more performances from the newport folk festival, including one from british singer- songwriter michael kiwanuka, on our facebook page. that's at facebook.com/newshour. >> woodruff: seth stephens-

davidowitz has used data from google to measure all sorts of human traits, from racism, to depression and insecurity. he has written a book called" everybody lies," and tonight, he shares his humble opinion on how what we see posted on social media often has nothing to do with the real picture. have a listen. >> i've spent five years studying human beings' darkest and weirdest thoughts. and, it actually made me feel better. i've analyzed google search data to learn who we really are, and i frequently found out the world doesn't work like i thought it did. we consistently lie: to friends, family members, doctors, and surveys. but, we are remarkably honest with google. google serves as digital truth serum, as a modern-day confessional. so, where do you think anxiety is highest in the united states? cities with over-educated, over-thinking intellectuals? not true. google searches show us, anxiety and panic attacks are highest in rural areas with more people with fewer years of schooling.

how about this one: where do you think racism is most prevalent in the united states? i thought it would be the deep south. again, not true. the most common racist searches are for jokes mocking african americans. these searches are made the most in upstate new york, western pennsylvania, and industrial michigan. what percent of website visits look for ways to change one's body are done by women? what's your guess, 90%? in fact, men are almost as likely to visit sites looking for weight loss or plastic surgery. here's one that you will never guess: what is the most common search in india that begins "my husband wants..."? got your guess ready? it is, "my husband wants me to breastfeed him." of course, you would never see this on someone's instagram feed. on social media, people try to make themselves look good. the "national enquirer" sells more copies than the "atlantic monthly," but the "atlantic monthly" is 45 times more popular on facebook. i guess people want their

friends to think they're more intellectual than they are. when you study enough google search data, it's hard to take the cultivated selves we see on social media too seriously. sometimes it's interesting to compare people's google searches to social media posts. consider how people complete the phrase "my husband is...". first, on social media posts, when people are presenting an image to their friends. the top five ways to complete this phrase are "the best," "my best friend," "awesome," "amazing," and "so cute." now on google, where people are anonymous, one of the top five is also "awesome," so that checks out. the other four: "mean," "a jerk," "gay," and "annoying." there's a popular saying in alcoholics anonymous: "don't compare your insides to other people's outsides." as we move our lives online, i propose a new mantra: "don't compare your google searches to other people's facebook posts." >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now: a new economics paper says the people who drive for uber are in revolt against the app's

algorithm. we explore how and why drivers are gaming the system. that's on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. later tonight on "washington week," president trump is heading out of town, but he can't escape the washington heat. robert costa and a panel of journalists delve into the weeks's news. plus, tomorrow on pbs newshour weekend, an author's view on why so many americans should stop considering themselves middle class. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> 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. >> 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

ñi >> charlie: welcome to the program. today "the washington post" released transcripts of contentious phone conversations between president trump andñi to worldñi leaders. i'll talk to dan balz of the "washington post." theçó portrayal of the new port, president, as you said, being unhappy, concerned about his own image, talking at cross-purpo'% with two leaders of allies, ofñr neighboring mexico and australia i. i mean, they are remarkable documentsñr of what the trump presidency started as for so long has continued has. >> charlie: and then dan miller, the reporter who broke the story, and then we assess the impacts. >> you read the transcript of the conversations, and he's always putting donald