captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: new details bring the russia investigation to president trump's cabinet for the first time. i sit down with senator susan collins about what this means for the trump white house, and the prospects ahead for immigration reform. then, policing in a divided america. how one florida sheriff's brash leadership cuts across traditional political lines. >> if you don't like the fact that we're going to put sanctity of human life first, and we're going to switch from a warrior mentality to a guardian mentality, then i think you need to go. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> bnsf railway. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: for the first time, a member of president trump's cabinet has talked to the special counsel's office

investigating russia and the trump campaign. the justice department confirms that attorney general jeff sessions was interviewed last week for several hours. president trump said today that he is "not at all concerned." we will explore this and related developments right after the news summary. hundreds of thousands of federal employees went back to work today, after congress ended a three-day government shutdown. there were questions about what comes next. under the deal, senate republicans got debate protection for young immigrants brought here illegally. party leaders chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell spoke about a potential deal today. >> the clock is ticking. leader mcconnell made a promise, not just to democrats, but to republicans as well. we expect him to keep his word to the body. >> well, we'll see. ( laughs ) you know. we're going to have a fair and open process that will give everyone an opportunity to participate, and we'll see.

>> woodruff: schumer's office said today that he has withdrawn an offer to support funding for a border wall in negotiations over an immigration bill. and this morning, president trump tweeted that "nobody knows for sure" if a deal is even possible. later, the white house said that an earlier, bipartisan immigration bill should be declared "dead on arrival." the nation has had its first fatal school shooting of 2018. police in western kentucky say a 15-year-boy killed two classmates, a boy and a girl, with a handgun today. it happened at marshall county high school in benton. 17 other students were hurt, most of them with bullet wounds. >> this is something that struck in the heart of kentucky, and it's not far away. it's here, and it hits home. i have a 15-year-old daughter, and i think about that. we have two 15-year-old high school students that have been killed, just showing up to go to

school, and how tragic that is. it doesn't get any worse than that. >> woodruff: the accused shooter was arrested, and will be charged with murder and attempted murder. there is no word yet on a motive. a powerful earthquake triggered tsunami alerts from southern alaska to california early today. there was no damage, and the alerts were lifted hours later. the quake measured 7.9 and struck 175 miles southwest of alaska's kodiak island, deep beneath the pacific ocean. footage on social media showed the moment the tremor hit, and long lines of cars as people headed for higher ground. meanwhile, another earthquake shook indonesia, killing one person. it struck the island of java, including the capital, jakarta, and people fled high-rise buildings for the streets. officials say hundreds of homes and other buildings were damaged. two volcanoes are also causing chaos along the pacific rim. in the philippines today, mount

mayon fired jets of lava and huge ash plumes into the sky. more than 50,000 people have fled since eruptions began last week, and more left today. >> ( translated ): i heard people screaming. that is why i went out of our house and looked at mayon volcano. i saw thick smoke descending, and everyone was shouting and looking for their children to evacuate. >> woodruff: and in central japan, an eruption rained volcanic rocks onto a military ski training exercise. one soldier was killed. the u.s. state department confirmed today that multiple americans were killed in saturday's taliban attack in afghanistan. gunmen stormed the intercontinental hotel in kabul, took hostages and shot it out with security forces. officials say 22 people died, including 14 foreigners. back in this country, president trump formally imposed 30% to 50% tariffs on imported solar

panels and washing machines. at a signing ceremony, he said that it will protect american jobs and benefit consumers, but some u.s. solar companies said just the opposite. the u.s. senate this evening confirmed jerome powell to chair the board of the federal reserve. he will succeed janet yellen. and on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average lost three points to close at 26,210. the nasdaq rose 52 points, and the s&p 500 added six. this year's oscar nominations are in. leading the way: the monster romance "the shape of water" with 13 nominations. best director nominees include jordan peele for "get out" and greta gerwig for "lady bird." he would be the first black to win. she would be only the second woman. and, "mudbound"'s rachel morrison is the first woman nominated for cinematography. u.s. senator tammy duckworth

has announced today that she is pregnant with her second child. the illinois democrat is 49. she would be the first sitting senator to give birth. duckworth lost both legs in the iraq war as an army helicopter pilot. and, the acclaimed science fiction writer ursula k. le guin died on monday at her home in portland, oregon. her works, including the "earthsea" series and "the left hand of darkness," have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold millions of copies. ursula k. le guin was 88 years old. still to come on the newshour: republican senator susan collins on dealing with democrats post- shutdown. and, much more. >> woodruff: there were multiple

developments today connected to the russia investigation. the "washington post" reports that special counsel robert mueller plans to question president trump about why he fired former national security adviser, michael flynn and former f.b.i. director, james comey. this, hours after the department of justice confirmed attorney general jeff sessions faced questions just last week. here is jeffrey brown to help piece together what we know now. >> brown: the attorney general is the first trump cabinet member to sit down with robert mueller's team. we also learned today that former f.b.i. director james comey was questioned by the special counsel's office last year. the "new york times" reported that this afternoon. and, washington investigations editor mark mazzetti joins me now. so mark, we have attorney general sessions last week. we have james comey last year. what does this tell us, if anything, about the state of the probe? >> well, it certainly says that mueller's team is looking pretty

closely at this question of obstruction of justice. did president trump since he took office try to impede the ongoing f.b.i. investigation into russia and later the investigation taken over by mueller? did he try to impede it with regards to michael flynn? did he try to impede it when he fired james comey? and so sessions and, of course comey himself, would be critical witnesses to try to answer these questions. but it's not just the obstruction issue. recall that sessions was also a key campaign adviser for donald trump, and so the question of was there any collusion, was there... what was the extent of contact with the russians, sessions would also be able to speak to that question. >> brown: he was a key cam feign adviser on foreign affairs specifically. >> that's right. and he sort of ran the foreign affairs team, a team that has several members that have already been examined by mueller and f.b.i. because of their

contacts with the russians. george papadopoulos, carter page, flynn himself. sexes was running that group. and there were key meetings in the spring and summer of 2016 that mueller would want to ask sessions about. >> brown: there is also, as judy said earlier, new reports that mr. mueller wants to talk to president trump. do we know anything more about timing? >> you know, reports have come out in the past few weeks that mueller in the coming weeks and months will want to talk to trump. obviously we knew he would. the new report today in the post was that it would be or could come in a matter of a few weeks. that certainly is very interesting. it would certainly indicate that mueller is beginning to, you know, perhaps wrap up the investigation because trump would in normal circumstances be the last witness. you would want to interview the president last, because he would be... you know, you might only

get one shot at him. so this is not normal times, so i don't want the make any prediction, but certainly he would want to ask president trump about the obstruction question, about the flynn and comey issue, as we just discussed. he'd want to ask about any possible collusion. there would be any number of things to talk to the president about, and the president and his legal team would obviously want to have their ducks in a row before that happens. >> brown: another development here is the report that the attorney general has been pressuring f.b.i. director christopher wray to fire his deputy, andrew mccabe. and further that the f.b.i. director has threatened to rezane himself if the pressure doesn't stop. what do we know or not know about all this? >> it's unclear whether wray did threaten to resign, but there is no question there has been this tension, in part because wray was put in after comey fired, and yet he inherited a lot of comey's team. the white house and attorney general sessions have sort of

made no secret about the fact that they thought comey and his team were partisan and to some degree corrupt. so the question of how much wray should clean house at f.b.i. has been a point of tension. certainly wray would want to at some point pout his own team in place. i think the question of the pace at which he did that and how much pressure from above to fire comey's aide, that's really the issue, and the become dop of this, of course, is overriding tension between president trump and the f.b.i. president trump made no secret about the fact that he thinks the rank and file of f.b.i. and the senior leadership has been very part accident and against him. >> brown: no secret. that's continued. mark mazzetti of "the new york times," thanks very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: with these new revelations about robert

muller's investigation coming to light, we turn now to a republican member of the senate intelligence committee, susan collins of maine. she also played a key role in building bipartisan agreement which led to the government's reopening monday night. we started with what these latest reports on mueller say about the state of his investigation. >> it suggests to me that the special counsel's investigation is proceeding. usually the lower-level witnesses are interviewed first, and then the special counsel works his way up the chain, if you will, to the most important figures. so it suggests to me that perhaps the investigation is nearing a conclusion in terms of the interviews. >> woodruff: meantime, i have to ask you about what's going on in the house.

house republicans on the intelligence committee are calling into question what's going on at the f.b.i., casting their objectivity into question, calling for an investigation into missing text messages. are you supportive of what the house republicans are doing? >> i don't think it's helpful to cast doubt on the investigations that are under way. having said that, i share their concern about the six months of missing text messages between the two f.b.i. employees, which apparently contained political comments in the midst of the investigation that was done into hillary clinton's e-mails. that's troubling that all of a sudden six months' worth of text mesages have gone missing. i don't think that's a reason to

cast doubt about the entire f.b.i., but it is sufficient reason for the inspector general to get involved, and it's my understanding that inspector general horwitz has begun an investigation. >> woodruff: let me turn now, senator, to immigration. you were a part of that bipartisan group that helped come up with an agreement between republicans and democrats in the senate to get the government reopened, to come up with a plan to bring up immigration. but here we are 24 hours later. we're already hearing the president tweeting that he's not sure there's going to be a deal at the white house today, press secretary sarah sanders was saying the president would insist on various things. do you feel whatever deal there might have almost been is already coming apart? >> new york i really don't. you know, there's going to be a meeting tomorrow and a meeting the following day to talk about

the specifics of an immigration bill. and those are bipartisan meetings. and i believe that what we in the senate have to do is our job, and our job is to concentrate on producing legislation. we know that we have a crisis as far as the dreamer population, which is protected under the deferred action for childhood arrivals program being at risk of deportation after march 5th. i know a very few members of the senate who want to see that happen because these are young people who are breakthrough to the country through no decision of their own, and they should not be living in fear. we also do need to strengthen border security. we know that there is a flood of drugs, particularly a potent kind of heroin, coming into this

country from mexico, and my state is one of those that's been afflicted by that crisis. >> woodruff: well, almost everywhere you look, senator, even if there is some kind of agreement in the senate, and we've had now senator schumer saying he withdraws the offer to fund the wall that he made to the president last week, but you look at the house. you have conservatives putting forward a list of demands today, a large group of conservatives saying they are not going to go along with any kind of amnesty, that there has to be an end to chain migration. then you have progressive, people supporting these young daca immigrants saying, no, it has to be in the exact opposite direction. no matter what the senate does, this is still going to be very hard to do, isn't it? >> it is. i'm not minimizing how difficult the task before us is. but that doesn't mean that we should not proceed. and my belief is that if we can

come up with a bill in the senate that gets 60 votes, that it would give momentum for the house to act and for the president to take a very close look at it. so that's my hope and there are a lot of people who share that goal. keep in mind that our common sense coalition by monday, just yesterday, had 26 members of both parties who were committed to ending this shutdown and moving ahead on immigration. >> woodruff: but senator, i mean, just very quickly here, this is a tough... this is such a tough issue. on the one hand you have people saying no amnesty, no path to citizenship under any circumstances, and on the other hand, you have people saying there must be a path to citizenship. how do you cut that down the middle. >> well, it seems to me you distinguish between those who knowingly broke the law when

they came here and their children, who did not knowingly break the law. and in one of the bills that has been advanced, the way that the parents who did break the law would be treated is they would not be made citizens but would be allowed to have renewable work permits to stay in this country but would not ever be allowed to be citizens. that may not be the perfect answer, but there are a lot of different variations, and i think we can make those distinctions. >> woodruff: you have all of 16 days to get it done. senator susan collins, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: a sheriff who supports undocumented immigrants, in a

county that voted for president trump. the pope comes under fire for comments about sexual abuse. and, remembering the father of south african jazz. >> woodruff: but first, as we reflect on president trump's first year in office, let's check back in with some familiar faces. i sat down last night with a group of six voters in the swing state of virginia. thank you all, again, for talking with us. we do appreciate it very much. a year-and-a-half later from the conversation we had with five of you in august of 2016. so i'm going to start this evening with our host, the gentleman whose home we're having this conversation in, bill lupinacci. thank you very much for having us here. let's just start with the basic question-- how do you think things are going in this country right now? >> i don't think they're going very well at all. i didn't want trump to be the

new president. and i think a lot of things have gone wrong since he's become the president. >> woodruff: cory sullivan, you said when we talked to you a year and a half ago you were planning to vote for donald trump. how do you think things are going right now? >> i have a much more positive outlook, at least financially. i think we had a huge progressive win in our tax reform with the tax and jobs act. >> woodruff: peter hamill, what about you? you were a supporter of hillary clinton. how do things look to you right now? >> well, i'm surprised and in the surprised. i'm disturbed and i was concerned about his temperament last year before the elections, and i'm even more now concerned about his mental stability and whether he is fit to lead the country. >> woodruff: and allison katzmann, you liked donald trump when we last talked. >> uh-huh. >> woodruff: what's your sense

of how things are going under his presidency? >> i'm very, very excited and happen pimp i'm glad that we finally have somebody who is leading this country who is not going to let us be played for a sucker as a nation as we have in the past. it's about time we had somebody that stood up for the american people. >> i'm looking for opportunities to find a reason to believe that we're going to pull through as a country, but at the same time, i'm surprised by the fact that we have someone who is the leader of our country who is just unabashedly tearing the constitution apart, who has no regard for social constitution and humanitarianism. >> woodruff: >> you voted for hillary clinton. you were not a trump supporter. what do you think? >> i wasn't looking forward the

a trump presidency for sure, but i don't think i could have imagined anything worse, and i feel like i have never seen the u.s. so isolated in the world. back at home, on one hand, you know, after obama, we saw the end of racism. now we know that was hardly the fact. i think it's been helpful to see just how strong racism is and that it's a minority. it's a significant minority, but it's a minority of people who are really challenging the bedrock of our national assumptions about equality and justice. >> woodruff: cory, i want to come back the you on the economy. several of you have brought it up. you say that's one of the things you've liked. have you felt that personally, the economy? >> absolutely. just as an example, my children's 529 plans have didn't amazing in the last year to the tune of north of 20% return.

my 401(k) has done 25% to 30% last year. these are all wonderful, positive things i haven't seen for the better part of ten years. >> the economy is going great. and we look at the stock market. it's fantastic. things have gotten a lot better for me in terms of job opportunities. i think there's more demand. there's been a couple of jobs that have f i've had to juggle because there's been so much work. >> woodruff: what about... you can't deny the economy, at least the stock market is doing really well? >> i think it's great that we're doing very well, my business is doing very well, i'm waiting for us to fall off the cliff when it doesn't meet the expectations of the promises. >> woodruff: what about you? you're not a fan of this president, but how has the economy been for you? >> actually, i don't have any stocks. so i can't see how a trump

presidency financially has benefited me. i feel like i represent mainstream america. most americans aren't invested in the stock market. most americans are working, you know, minimum wage jobs. i happen to be a very small start-up company, an entrepreneur, and i have not seen yet any benefit. an i'm afraid that just because the corporations may bring their money back within these shores, it's not going to trickle down to the employees because $14 every two weeks in your paycheck extra is not any money. >> woodruff: what about immigration? this is an issue the president ran on. he was very tough on that issue. he said he was going to build a border wall. he was going to be very tough on people in this country without documentation. it's come up again just recently. how do you size up this administration, this president

on immigration? >> it's a personal issue for me because my wife and i have been going through legal migration, and all the daca bill does is reward those who have broken the law and circumvented the legal process and penalized -- rewards them and penalizes families like my own who have gone through the legal process to immigrate. >> woodruff: how have you gone through it? what is your particular situation? >> my wife is eastern european descent. we got married abrought, came back through, and have gone through a long, five-year process, and she's still not a u.s. citizen. >> woodruff: you were reacting when cory was speaking about immigration. what are your thoughts on this president and that issue? >> i was always sympathetic to the dreamers because of the fact that they have been in this country all of their life through no fault of their own, but what actually brought me even more strongly into the debate was when the president made the s-hole comment about immigrants from african

countries. i'm an african american woman born and raised here in the united states, but my ancestors were from africa. and for you to advocate that people from european countries such as norway come over here as opposed to allowing people from african countries or other countries where people of color would come from, it's flat-out racist. and the president is racist. >> woodruff: is he racist, in my opinion? >> no. he's opinionated, but let's be fair about. this how many of us are planning a vacation to haiti? i mean, it's... he just sort of lets it loose, and he's kind of a new york type, and he lets go with a lot of stuff that he's thinking. and there's in the a filter on his mouth. and we better get used to it because that's what everybody really believes and thinks deep

down, and trump is just saying what's been there anyway. >> that's no what i believe and think deep down. it's in the at all what i believe and think deep down. we as a people have to decide what kind of society we want. make america great again can't mean make america white again. it can't. we can't let the things that he's saying just go by and say, we have to get used to it and we have to accept it. we don't have to accept it. racism in this country is becoming emboldened and out of control, and it is reminiscent of things that have happened in other governments in past years such as the why mar republic when hitler rose to power and many other governments where despots rose to power and forgot about the notion of mercy tempering justice and the notion of people caring for each other. >> i did want to add, i can't go to any kind of social event or interact with people who

democrats without somebody, and this is before trump, some snarky remark or some little snide comment, and they don't know i'm a republican, and i have to keep my mouth shut -- >> i need to let key that say something. >> one thing that president trump has done is he's reenergized that, and he's told the white supremacists that it's okay for you to pull off your sheets and it's okay for you to espouse hate, xenophobia, anti-l.g.b.t. views. it's okay for you to discriminate. and this is what is most disturbing about this president is that he is hateful and he's the leader of the free world, and he is openly doing this. and this is hurtful to people, this is divisive to the american people. >> woodruff: do you all think the country is more divided now, a year into the trump presidency, than it was, i don't know, halfway through the obama

administration? cory? >> absolutely. any time the democrats don't win an election, there's... it's not about the right and the wrong or the left and the right or the progressives. >> i think the results of the interim election will argue against what cory is saying. i think people are starting to come together now. democrats are winning in historically republican districts all over the country in these interim elections because people are rejecting what the republicans have done since they've been in power and since trump has been in power. and i'm hopeful, even though i have never been a democrat, i'm hopeful that this republican leadership will be gone with the 2018 elections. >> so we've heard from a couple of you that republicans have too much power, but who is giving them the power? it's us. it comes down to us as the american people.

>> in the middle schools you have children who are more impulsive, mouth off in inappropriate ways, and i'm reminded of president trump. he reminds me of a middle school bully. now, is he fit to be a president? i don't think he's crazy, but i don't think he's the model of what i would want in a president, and certainly his policies are hurting more americans than they're helping. you mentioned divisions. the divisions have always been there. he's brought them to the surface. and i think he's done us a favor in that regard. >> and you wanted to be as a child, you aspired to be president. what do we have to offer our kids when we have a president that's, you know, st. louis -- slut shaming a senator on twitter? what kind of message is that sending to our children? >> if you want to talk about the

deterioration of our culture, we'd be here all night and it didn't start with president trump. admittedly he does say some outrageous things, but look at hollywood, we could look at movies, we could look at tv, we could look at... i mean, there's just been such a huge, in my lifetime, there's been a huge cultural shift in everything, from promoting very liberal values out of hollywood -- >> like transgender everything, gay marriage. >> transgender, yes. >> it's not the kind of thing that most of us grew up with. >> that's right. >> and conservatives are being vilified for believing a certain way. because it's... i guess -- >> life is in the a reality show. >> reality tv is a very good example. >> my life is not one. >> back the trump.

>> you can't blame trump for all of these things. this isn't the 1950s anymore. you can't just say, oh, trump shouldn't say that and he shouldn't say that when everybody is swearing right and left. >> woodruff: let's focus on the future. there are big, important conditional election happening this year. they call it the mid-term. how much do these election matter to you. do you intend to get involved in the congressional or senate race in your state? and, you know what, do you think? should the congress continue to be controlled by republicans? should it be controlled by democrats? cory? >> i think it's a mid-term elections go democratic to both house and senate, you're going to see a gang rush to impeachment proceedings because they've been looking for their pound of flesh for whatever story or story line they've been supporting. if it stays republican, i think

you're going to hopefully see some more initiatives. >> virginia is going to lead the way with not only the resist trump, but resist trump with a purpose. and we are going to be energized. we're going to show up. we are, you know, training and supporting more women candidates who are running for office, and we are interested in pushing policies that benefit people. >> for me beth parties are on the take. it's the rich people who run the show, no matter which party is in power. i think the women's march last year was a watershed moment, and there are going to be some incredible women coming forward. >> woodruff: on this question of divided, united. how worried are you about the country being divided, people being divide? does it affect your daily life? is it something that you think

is sick. is it healthy for us as a democracy to debate all these things and to have these vigorous disagreements? >> the civil discourse we're having allows for us to find common ground, allows for us to have discussions that are important for us as a nation without name-calling, without belittling each other's opinions. >> i think a lot of america realizes community starts from exactly that, your neighborhoods, the places you go to church, the places you go to school, and the places youen joy your time as families, the areas that you live. i think that's where the divide can start coming back together. because these are your neighbors. these are your friends, your family. these are the people you rae re late to. you have that common ground. yet at the same time, you share those vast differences. that's where that dialogue begins. i don't think we'll ever see anyone in washington or richmond for that matter solve this problem. if anything it's to their job description to make it worse.

>> absolutely. but we need to be led, and we need to be challenged to actually do those things. it's nice to say in my community this is what i aspire to as an individual. but we need our leaders. >> i feel like everybody has become much more tribal and you don't identify as americans at this point. we identify as african-americans or hispanic-americans or by a political party or even beyond ethnicity, lidge -- religious. there are people... people are not identifying as a whole. they're identifying within their subgroups. >> woodruff: about the future, finally, does anybody want the say they feel hopeful? not hopeful? >> i'm always hopeful for the future. i think that's been the great strength of america, our willingness to move forward, to invent, to listen to each other,

and to find ways forward. >> woodruff: thank you all very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> woodruff: we move from virginia to florida. president donald trump won the county around daytona beach with nearly 55% of the vote. the same residents of volusia county also elected sheriff mike chitwood, a brash and uncensored police leader, who is a vocal defender of undocumented immigrants. special correspondent john carlos frey reports on why sheriff chitwood's appeal often cuts across traditional political lines. this story was produced in partnership with the marshall project, a nonprofit news organization covering u.s. criminal justice. >> reporter: whether he's at his favorite bar late into the night... ( talking ) ...or a church service the next

morning... ...sheriff mike chitwood is a familiar face across volusia county in eastern florida, a sprawling section of the state best known for both its beaches and nascar's daytona 500. it was also one of the last places in the south to end segregation. blunt and often profane, chitwood is a constant presence on local news... >> this scumbag ruined their childhood. there's some real sick scumbags. who knows who this scumbag is. we are going to find that scumbag. >> reporter: the 54-year-old political independent is both pro-gun and pro-immigrant, and he's been endorsed by the n.r.a. and the n.a.a.c.p. >> we just love how you just say what you're feeling. >> reporter: and, since taking office last year, he's publicly feuded with nearly everyone who ha questioned his vision. >> if i don't get re-elected, i really don't give a ( bleep ). i am going to do my job, and what i was elected to do was to bring progressive change to the county. >> reporter: that change has

come by deploying a statistical crime tracking strategy popular in many cities, called compstat. and, he's moved away from a focus on weapons training toward a policy of de-escalation. he's also ordered an independent study of all recent officer- involved shootings, and mandated that his deputies keep their body cameras on when responding to a call >> everything we do is not about kicking in front doors and dragging people out by the scruff of their neck. statistically, 80% of the crimes are committed by 15% or 20% of the same people, over and over again. that means the general population, the people that you come in contact with everyday, are not criminals. >> reporter: chitwood's career began as a beat cop in philadelphia, where he spent several years investigating homicides. he eventually moved to florida to become the police chief of daytona beach, a job he held for more than a decade before he ran for sheriff. you're described as bull-headed, as stubborn, as brash, as offensive. can't you tone it down a little bit?

>> if you don't like the fact that we're going to put sanctity of human life first, and we're going to switch from a warrior mentality to a guardian mentality, then i think you need to go. because the day of being a warrior and policing your community like you're a warrior, that's the past. >> reporter: last august, however, the trump administration rolled back restrictions on giving military equipment to local police, and president trump has struck a far different tone on policing. >> please don't be too nice. >> reporter: chitwood says during extreme weather events like hurricanes, and he applauds the president for making more available. but on most days, you'll find him riding his bike. we tagged along as he rode through the mostly low-income neighborhood of spring hill in the city of deland... >> we have an idea of what happened, but we need a few more

witnesses to get to where we need to be to make an arrest. we had a homicide here a week ago, right up here at this house. there was some type of an altercation with a homeless man. when the altercation ended, somebody pulled out a gun and shot the homeless man five times. >> reporter: you're in a pair of shorts, and you're riding your bike in what people would consider to be a dangerous neighborhood, looking for a killer. >> correct. >> reporter: does that sound kind of strange to you? >> it may sound strange to people who don't do this for a living. but for those of us who do it for a living, it's the norm. >> reporter: it's a philosophy known as community or neighborhood policing, and chitwood is a firm believer. so something like ferguson, where the police showed up in tanks, and fired, you know, tear gas, and looked like a military or a war zone, that's not appropriate? >> ferguson didn't just happen. ferguson was ten years in the making. and it took that one incident, that one incident was what sparked everything. where maybe, had they engaged in a little bit more community involvement, had they been part of the community as opposed to apart from it, ferguson might not have happened. >> when cities and states refuse

>> reporter: chitwood also strongly disagrees with the trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. earlier in the year, amid heightened fears within immigrant communities... >> racial profiling is unacceptable. >> reporter: ...he reached out to the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 undocumented residents in volusia county-- an area that has long been dependent on migrant labor. the sheriff made it clear that he doesn't want his deputies seen as agents from i.c.e., immigration and customs enforcement. you were in a county that went for trump. trump ran on tough immigration policy, a border wall, going after anybody who doesn't have papers. are you thumbing your nose at the constituents in this county? >> if you're a criminal, if there is a warrant out for your arrest, no matter who you are, we're coming to get you. but we're not going to be proactively going out and be immigration officers.

i believe that just-- that's not what our job as local state and county and municipal law enforcement officers is. >> reporter: chitwood says breaking up families doesn't make sense to him, and he points to the fact that three of his own deputies-- roy, daniel and billy galarza-- were raised by undocumented parents near pierson, florida. their father, pantaleon galarza, has worked as a fern picker since coming to the u.s. from mexico in 1980. i know that he's gotten his legal status since then, but you don't have any question or any shame about the fact he entered in illegally? >> no. i'm very proud of my dad. i'm here because of him, because he helped us. the times when i needed to get to school-- there were times i didn't have money-- i would always call him, "hey, i need some gas money." but he was there, he was there for me. >> reporter: when it comes to patrolling the surrounding community, the galarza brothers say they simply follow the protocol laid out by their boss. >> the majority of this community, the way it's grown, there's a lot of people that don't have papers. but that's not up to me to determine if they should be here or not.

until they commit a crime and i need to act on it, so be it. and until they do commit a crime, they commit a felony, and they're in prison for some other reason, they will eventually get deported back to mexico. >> reporter: chitwood's office says crime is down by more than 20% since he took office. but critics, like former volusia county legal advisor john mcconnell, say that chitwood is padding the books when it comes to certain property crimes like auto theft. >> it's logical that he should show a fairly good drop the first year, because he's changed the way that-- he's changed the rules of the game. he's changed the way you keep score. it's a legal padding, though. you know, is it ethically right? is it morally right? that's the question. if i live in this neighborhood, i want to know if there were 35 or 40 car burglaries. instead of them saying, "hey, you had a car burglary the other night." and i say, "well, that's not a big deal. every now and then, you have one of those." >> reporter: but chitwood says

he's not hiding anything, and that he has another three years before voters will decide if he should keep his job. before we left, we met him back at the bar after he finished filming his local news segment, dubbed "scumbag of the week" you like that term. >> i do. i do. i think it adds a little panache to what we're looking for, and i think there's a lot of people in the world that want to say that, but they're like, "oh my god, it's not politically correct." me, i'm not politically correct. i'm a bull in a china shop. i'll admit that. i have the least political skills of anybody you'll ever meet. >> reporter: while some believe chitwood will seek higher office one day, he says he has no intention of turning in his badge anytime soon. i'm john carlos frey of the marshall project, reporting for the pbs newshour in volusia county, florida. >> woodruff: the pope just concluded a trip to chile this weekend, aimed at healing some of the after-effects of sexual abuse committed there. but his remarks during that trip, and on his return from it,

about the role of a bishop in a sexual abuse scandal there, have raised questions. lisa desjardins looks at the pope's pledges to change the church's actions and attitude. >> desjardins: the cases in chile date back to the 1980s and a well-connected priest found to be a pedophile, the reverend fernando karadima. both the vatican and a chilean judge concluded those accusations were credible. the church defrocked him. why this matters now: karadima was a long-time mentor to a current bishop, juan barros madrid. he is accused of covering up and witnessing abuse. while in chile to apologize for abuse by other priests, pope francis defended this bishop, saying "there is not one shred of evidence against him." that set off a firestorm. the pope apologized for his wording yesterday, but also stood by the bishop. anne barrett-doyle is the co-director of the watchdog group and website, bishopaccountability.org.

she joins me now. first, let's talk about this case in chile. we have one pierce, fernando karadima, who was found to commit abuse and also to mentor many other priests who are believed to be abusers. >> right. >> reporter: what exactly are the allegations against this bishop who is one of those who this priest mentored. >> right. bishop barros was said to, at one point, he supposedly destroyed a letter that complained about karadima's behavior many decades ago. but really the allegations that are far more serious is that the victims of karadima say that he was in the room when children and young men were being abused by karadima. juan carlos cruz, a well-known victim of karadima, said that

barros, then a middle east, watched him being abused by karadima. >> reporter: and these are victims that the church itself accepted as credible when they were looking at karadima's case. >> that's right. >> reporter: but now it seems the pope is not giving credibility to these accounts. i'm wondering what do the pope's words, someone who i know many catholic see as man of healing, what do those words and this trip mean to survivors? how are they taking it? >> i think the words are devastating to survivors and the catholics who had thought this pope might be cleaning up the church. i think that the mask has fallen from pope francis. i think that this was a tremendous setback. to have him resort to the oldest trick in the church's playbook, which is to accuse victims of lying, was turning back the clock to the darkest hours of this crisis. this is a cruel tactic that the

church we hoped had discarded. i imagine this is going to have a tremendous chilling effect on victims who were considering coming forward. why would they do that when the head of the global church has accused victims of lying. >> woodruff: we reached out to boston cardinal sean o'malley, who is the pope's point person and headed up the commission to look into priest abuse. he was not available to come on the show, but he did indicate he understood why the pope's words were seen as painful. we do want the look at some of the things the pope said just in the last day on his plane trip. first he said, "i know how much pe says, bring me a letter, a proof, it's a slap," that's the pope recognizing that his initial words were painful when he asked for evidence. but the pope in that same slight also said, "but there is no evidence of abuse," meaning with bishop barros.

"covering up an abuse is abuse, there's no evidence. there isn't." what do you make of that contradiction, and also is there room to say the pope is assuming that his bishop is innocent before pronouncing him guilty? >> well, i think certainly innocent until proven guilty is a concept we all hold dear, but this is different. this is an aggressive, affirmative declaration that the bishop is innocent, and it's an attack on his accusers. that is biased. that is not a disciplined approach to this case. if he were a judge in a civil case, he would be asked to recuse himself or maybe even, you know, thrown off the bench for remarks like that. this is... unfortunately this defense of brother bishops is very consistent with pope francis' record when he was an

arch bishop in buena vista -- buenos aries, and this dismissiveness with catholics who complain about barrasso is consistent with remarks he's made when he's been caught off script. i think that this is a turning point. i think that this is a, you know, a sign that we cannot at all depend upon reform from this pope when it comes to this issue. >> reporter: we will continue to follow this story, and we will continue to ask cardinal o'malley for response. anne barrett-doyle, from bishop accountability.org, thank you for joining us. >> you're so welcome. thank you for having me. >> woodruff: finally tonight, remembering the legacy of hugh masekela, a major figure in world music and jazz who became well known for his activism and

battle against apartheid in south africa. jeffrey brown is back with this appreciation of his life. >> brown: he was first and foremost a master musician. trumpet player and singer hugh masekela honed his distinctive afro-jazz sound across a career that spanned more than six decades. ♪ ♪ he began playing in the 1950s as a youngster growing up near johannesburg, forming a jazz band in school and then a top bebop group, the "jazz epistles." his international fame grew as he paired his music and voice with his activism on behalf of the anti-apartheid struggle. growing violence and turmoil had led masekela to leave south africa in 1960, for exile in england and then the u.s., where he continued to reach bigger

audiences, appearing with the likes of janis joplin and jimi hendrix at the famous 1967 monterey pop festival. ♪ ♪ >> brown: the following year, he scored his first number one hit with "grazing in the grass," performed here much later at the 2010 world cup. ♪ ♪ >> brown: in 1987, masekela joined paul simon and the south african musicians, ladysmith black mambazo, on the "graceland" tour, continuing to rouse international crowds to the cause of south africa freedom with song's like "bring him back home," calling for nelson mandela's release from prison. ♪ bring back nelson mandela bring him back all tosoweto

♪ i want to see him walking down the street in south africa tomorrow ♪ >> brown: when mandela was >> brown: when mandela was finally released in 1990, masekela moved back to south africa for good. he continued to record and perform into his 70s, even after a 2008 diagnosis of prostate cancer. he spoke about it in this 2011 interview. >> i am a musician. i love music. i've loved music since i was a child. and i try to collaborate as much as i can, with as many people as i can. when i look at the time i have left, i said, all of the sudden i have to hurry up and do a lot

of things. but i've never had a greater time. >> brown: hugh masekela died today in johanesburg. he was 78 years old. >> woodruff: what a legacy. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> bnsf railway. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide.

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

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