captioning sponsor by newshour productio, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff.on he newshour tonight, president trump expels 60 russian diplomats and closes a consulate as part of a worldwide effort to punish moscow for poisoning a former ssian spy. then, the legality of buying and breaking silence as a growing number of women begin speaking up about alleged affairs with mr. trump. and, we go to nebrka to find how farmers would be affected by a new trade agreement with canada and mexico. >> if we go in there putting tariffs and different things on all these products moving back and forth between the borders, who's going to pay for that? the consumer is going to p for that. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> woodruff: the united states and at least 20 other nations have joined in a mass expulsion of russian diplomats. 60 are being kicked out of t u.s. alone, in a bid to punish the kremlin for an attack on a former russian spy. nick schifrin begins our coverage. >> schifrin: from parliament in london... >> it is part of a pattern of increasingly aggressive russian behavior. >> schifrin: ...to the european council in brussels... >> we remain critical of the actions of the russian vernment. >> schifrin: to the white house in washington. >> this is not the type of conduct us or allies cept. >> schifrin: a united attempt to isolate and punish russia for the alleged poisoning of former russian spy sergei skripal, and his daughter yulia. today 18 countriesly simultaneonnounced expulsions of more than 100 russian diplomats accused of being intelligence officials. s european leaded they wanted to express solidarity with british prime minister teresa may. t ether, we have sent a message that we will not tolerate russia's contino d attemptsout international clw and undermine our values.

>> in addition to ing the seattle consulate, the trumpon administraill expel 60 russians accused of spying, the largest mber of russians expelled from the u.s., ever. in response, russia vowed cold- war style, reciproca retaliation. the russian embassy in shington trolled with a twitter poll: which u.s. "consulate general would youcl e in russia if it was up to you?" russian ambassador to the us anatoly antonov said moscow russia hadothing to do with the former spy's death. >> ( translated ): what the united states of america is doing today, they e destroying what little remained of u.s.- russian ties. i would add that all the responsibility for ruining russian-american relations is on the united states of america. >> russia! russia! >> the u.s.-russia relationship has been deteriorating since the 2014 russian invasion and annexation of crimea. in 2016, in response to election hacking, the obamani adstration closed russian compounds. then moscow limited the number of u.s. staffers in russia.he th u.s. closed russia's san francisco consulate. then the trump administration

imposed sanctions. today's announcement is the trump administration's harshest punishment to date. >> i had a call with pndsident putin, congratulated him on his victory. >> schifrin: president trump himself has not echoed his administration's cri of russia.da tothe white house said russia must change its behavior, but said the door to dialogue. was still open for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: nick will be back, to explore the implications of all of this, right after the news summary. president trump's foreign policy ame under attack today fr man who once sat in the oval office. i spoke with former preserent jimmy cahis morning in new york. mr. carter had vowed to work with the whiteouse on north korea, but took aim at mr. trump's pick for national security advisor. it'seen a remarkably turbulent, tumultuous, some say, first 14 months in office. how do you think he's doing? >> i don't think he'doing

well. he's made some very serious mistakes. i think the worst mistake 's made so far has been the appointment of john boo be his national security adviser. i know bolton from way back at a distance, i've never met him personally, but he has been very eager to go to war with different people including north korea and iran. he's been in the forefront of every kind of radical enhancement the u.s. can make based on its own military prowess. he's, he's told lies about things where i knew the truth. and so, i just have very little confidence in him. >> woodruff: my full interview with jimmy carter will air tomorrow here on pbs newshour.th in the day's news, wall street roared back to life, as fears of a u.s.- chide war eased.

major indexes were up nearly 3% or more. the dow jones industverage gained 669 points to close at 24,202. the nasdaqose nearly 228 points, and the s&p 500 jumped 70. in russia, the death tolrose to 64 today in a fire in a siberian shopping mall. crews worked overnight to extinguish the blaze in the city of kemerovo, some 2,000 miles east of moscow. investigators said they found flagrant safety violations. aey're asking w fire escapes were blocked and movie theater was locked shut. >> ( translated ): the investigators are working round the clock. e questioning witnesses and victims of what happened, including tenants and shop owners are underway. the necessary documentation is being confiscated. forensic examinations have been set up. four suspects have been detained and are being questioned.nv >> woodruff:tigators have

not yet determined what caused the fire.he there's wordnited arab emirates may have steered money through a top trump fundraiser, to members of congress.e sociated press reports elliott oidy received $2.5 million from an adviser to the u.a.e, last april.do then, he madtions pushing a bill to target qatar, the u.a.e's main rival. there are strict curbs on foreign political contributions, and broidy denies any wrongdng. in yemen, shiite houthi rebels launched a new missile assault on saudi abia overnight. the saudis are backing yemen's exiled government. rebel video showed missiles being red at riyadh and other cities. one person was killed as missile fragments rained down. the saudis said they intercepted the missiles, but other video showed the interceptors going ofcourse.

the former president of spain's catalonia region is being held in germany, for possible extradition to spain. carlos puigdemont was detained yesterday. he led a catalan drive for independence before the spanish government seized direct control of the region last fall. today, a german prosecutor said puigdemont could be jailed for erweeks, while courts consis status. >> ( translated ): extradition procedure is the remit of the higher regional cots and that is where this procedure will be dealt with. this does not mean that mister puigdemont is going to be extradited. now it will be investigated whether the extradition is lawful. druff: the spanish supreme court has ruled puigdemont ld be tried for rebellio and misusing public funds. egyptians began castinots today in a three-day election sissi is certain to win.h el- state television aired video of el-sissi voting at a girls

school in cairo. his sole opponent,oussa mustafa mosa, also voted. el-sissi has jailed thousands oi iss and other opponents and muzzled independent news media. back in this country, facebook now faces multiple investigations after a british firm allegedly used data from millions of facebook users in the 2016 elections. the u.s. federal trade commission confirmed today it's looking into the matter. and, 37 states and territories asked for information on when facebook learned of the problem, and what actions it took. new fallout from the police killing of an unarmed black man in sacramento, california. the grandmother of steph clark, sequita thompson, said today that police need to useai tasers ofor arms or legs in order to avoid lethal wounds. officers fired at clark 20 timea week. they said they thought he had a gun, but it turned out to be aho

cell. and, the kansas woman whose court case overturned school segregation america, has died in topeka. linda brown was nine years old when she was barred from vtending a white public school. in 1954, in "brosus board of education," the u.s. supreme court declared the "separate but equal" doctrine was uncotitutional. linda brown was 76 years old. still toome on the newshour: relations with the u.s. and russia reach a new low. could lawsuits filed by ormy daniels and other women undermine president trump? american farmers' hopes and fears when it comes to renegotiating nafta, and much more. th>> woodruff: we return t u.s. and european expulsion of russian diplomats.

nick schifrin looks at whether it was an appropriate response. >> schifrin: an appropraite response withul victoriad. she had a 32-year career at the state department, serving as assistant secretary of state for european and eurasian affairs during the obama administration. she also serd as u.s. ambassador to nato. she's now chief executive officer of the center for a new american security, a washington, dc think tank. and, paul saunders worked in the inate department during the george w. bush atration where he focused on russia, and the former soviet union. he's now executive director of the center for the national interest, another waon, d.c. think tank. welcome to you both. >> thank you. ay schifrin: paul saunders, was tod response appropriate? >> i think it's entirely appropriate if u.s. government knows what russia is guilty of the poisoning. what is not yet clear from the information, athletes that's been released to the public, is how certain we really are, and i would point by way of

explanation to actually -- of what i mean, a press release from the state department last week about the designation of a french national as a terrorist in syria, and this man was designated as a terrorist because he was allegedly producing and helping i.s.i.s. to use chemical weapons on the we were told for seven years every team chemical weapons were used in wria that ths done by the assad regime because no one else had the capabilitto use chemical weapons. now, we're hearing from our own state department that, actually, other people, including i.s.i.s., have the ability in syria to useca che weapons. the reason i give this longis storust to illustrate that determining whis doing what with some of these agents is not always the easiest thing. we had a ver unfortunate

experience, too, with weapons of amass destruction in irq. now, i fully believe russia is the most likely suspect, don't get me wrong, but there's a difference between being the most likely suspect and proving the case. >> schifrin: victi victoria nul, do you share theskpticism of whether russia did this? >> i don't, i don'think 20 government and our own would have joined in solidarity wit the u.k. in sending a very important message to vladimir putin that using a military nerve agent usoduced insian labs on civilians in saryis is acceptable to the international community. you know, if it can happen insb say, it can happen in st. louis, it can happen in setle. so theresa may spent a number of weeks presenting her evidence to

allied governments. it took from the beginning to the end of march to make the case, but it'sery important we acted strongly today and stood in solidarity and there are costs for moscow. >> schifrin: paul younders, have 18 countries responding, 60 diplomats from russia kied out today. will russia get the message? >> well, look, h russia gotten the message from the previous steps we've taken in so far it looks like, no. the obama administration imposed a variety of sanctions on russia after russia's annexation of crimea and its interference in eaern ukraine. the trump administration, the congress, there have been a variety of adick additional mea. russia doesn't seem to be getting the message. then there's the question of is that somlething unique reated to russia that prevents them from getting the message, or do we need to thi nk ourselvesittle

bit more about our policies about the message that we're trying to send, how clear strks how strong is it, how effective is it. >> schifrin: victoria, is the message strong eugh to deter russia from doing something like this again or changing russian behavior? >> kicking out 60 members of the russian staff in the united a stat closing another one of their consulates effectively lomatic they have no dip presence on the u.s. coast is not a small thing, but i don't disagree witspaul that it' relatively easy to reconstitute the intelligence presence in t united states in other ways or when they replace these folks. if you really want to get president putin's atn as we ultimately did during the ukraine chicies when it looked like he was goio drive all the way to kiev, you have to hit

him whh e it hurts, whis in his pocketbook. you have to hit him with tconomic sanctions. you have to makeuch harder for russia to get credit, flobot s, this kind of thing, in the united states or in europe. so i'm glad, now, that we have a concerted, coordinated policy with some of our key allies on russia. this is the firstime i think the trump administration has been able to coordinate with allies. thnow we need to continu pressure across the board on all of the things of concern, including russian continued manipulation of democratic processes, our own 2018 elections and 2020. >> schifrin: paul saunders, what happens if u.s. hits russia where it hurts and es after some of its lieu tenants and some of its money in the west? >> we have tried to do some of that, already. it really hasn't de too much of a difference. what i think we're really doing in this situation actually is preventing people in russia whot wasee more reform -- and

there certainly are more peopleh in russia want to see more reform -- we're preventing them from playing any meaningful role in t process. economic reformers in russia at this point have no cae to make to putin, because their entire set of policy proposals, you know, it's built arod integrating into the international economy, investment, cooperation sth the unittes and the west, they've got nothing. >> schifrin:ictoria nuland, i'll give you the last word. we've heard from the administration today making a relatively strong stance, but we haven't heard from the >> yeah.t. >> schifrin: is the president the wildcard and how much can be affected without the president coming out andying some of the same things the administration is saying? >> well, the only way to have a coherent, comprehensive policy towards moscow that president putin will pay attention to is are all on the same page leading with the president, so the fact that he didn't say anything about this when he made

his congratull ory phone cal president putin could lead putin to concle, well, he's just hamstrung by his bureaucracy, he had todo something for theresa may, he's still my buddy. frankly, the administration's response won't be coherent unless the president leads it as we saw in 2016 when we looked at how the russians manipulated the elections, we dn't fully comprehend until president obaml ordered a l look. so we need a uniefied fe-world response to this kind of aggressive behavior and the united states needs to lead it and the u.s. president nee to lead that. >> schifrin: paul saunders, victoria nland, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: an adult film actress, a "playboy" model and a realy tv star are adding to

president trump's legal problems. the trio owomen allege three separate sex scandals, all of which he denies. but their lawsuits, at the very least, threaten the president with years of litigation. >> and you had sex with him. >> yes. >> woodruff: stephanie clifford's claim finally aired last night on "60 minutes." the porn film actress known as stormy daniels said it was consensual, and happened one time, at a celebrity golf tournament in lake tahoe, in 2006. clifford says she tried to sell her story to a tabloid in 2011, but a trump lawyer got it suppressed. and, she says there was a threat, a few weeks later in las vegas. >> and a guy walked up on me and said to me, "leave trump alone. forget the story."an then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, "that's a beautiful little girl. it'd be a shame if somethingen ha to her mom." ad then he was gone. e woodruff: five years later,

just before the 20ction, mr. trump's long-time personal attorney, michael cohen, paid t daniels $130,0sign a non- disclosure agreement >> if it was untruthful, whyid you sign i >> because they made it sound like had no choice. sentence used was, "they can make your life hell y different ways." >> they being...? >> i'm not exactly sure who they were. i believe it to be michael cohen. >> woodruff: but clifford is now suing the president, saying at the contract is void, since mr. trump is named as a party but never signed it. >> the president watches60 minutes," if he's watching tonight, what would you say to him? >> he knows i'm telling the truth. >> woodruff: cohen has saihe "facilitated" the payment of $130,000 out of his own pocket. he claims that neither the trump organization nor the campaign were party to the deal. lter the "60 minutes"

interview, cohenyer accused clifford of lying, and sent her a cease-and-desist letter. mr. trump and the white house deny the alleged affair. >> the president strongly, clearly and consistently denied the claims. the only one who's been inconsistent is the one making the claims. >> woodruff: but it doest end there: >> so, dozens of times you were together. >> many dozens of times, y w. >> and ye intimate? >> yes. >> many dozens of times? >> yes. >> woodruff: former playboymc model kareugal claims she also had an affair with president trump, one morlong- lastin she told cnn last week that she began a 10-month relatp with him in june, 2006, and that initially, he offered her money. >> well, after we had been intimate, he, he tried to pay me. and i actually didn't know how to take that. >> did he actually try thand you mone >> he did. he did. >> woodruff: this was at the same time as clifford's alleged encounter with mr. trump, whose

wife, melania, had givirth to their son a few months earlier. >> mr. president, is karen mcdougal telling the truth? >> woodruff: mr. trump also denies this affair. but mcdougal insists it happened, and like cd, she says trump allies tried to cover it up. just before the 2016 election, mcdougal says she sold her story for $150,000 to the "national enquirer." but it never ran. >> you're pretty convinced-- you're convinced now this was an effort to do a favor for donald trump in the last few months of the presidential race? >> unfortunately, yes. >> woodruff: now, she is suing the "national enquirer's" parent company, american media inc., to void her deal. e argues it was in fact an illegal, corporate donation toum the trcampaign. anwhile, a judge in new york has ruled that summer zervos, a former contestant one apprentice," may purtie her defama suit against the

president. in october of 2016, zervos claimed mr. trump groped her, ice, in 2007. >> he began thrusting his genitals. he tri to kiss me again with my hands still on his chest and i said, "dude, you're tripping right now," attempting to make >> a of these liars will be sued after the election is over. >> woodruff: zervos says the president defamed her whan he said sheother women accusing him, were lying. >> woodruff: mr. trump's legal team says it will appeal the new york judge's rulin to walk us through the legal word stephanie clifford is suing michaelor koehn defamation for calling her a liar. to walk ushrough the legal arguments i'm joined by kimberly wehle, a former feder prosecutor, now teaching at the university of baltimore school of law. hemberly, welcome to program. let's look more closely at what these three women are staying

starting with stephanie clifford, her name as an acor stormy daniels. she has filed suit to invalidate that agreent that she signed back in 2016, giving up the rights to her story. how strong a case does she have? what kind of case does it look like to you? >> well, her claim is that the contract is invalid because it was not signed, but as a matter of contract law, the sgture itself is not really a magical element of every contract. so the queion really comes down to whether the other signatory the contract, promptively an organization related to or mr. trump, that th impose sanctionons her at $1 million perviation for telling her story in violation of the agreement, and the lawto lookhat a reasonable amount of damages would be. that million-dollar number is not likely to hold either in

arbitration or in a court because the arbitrator is bound by the same law. so i don't think queer going to see as we've herd in media or other places a $20 million judgment against he in light of this. there might be very little daw ges that will floom this violation. >> woodruff: that's te effort e trump representatives to come back at her. but what about her case to get out of that agreement and go ou anll her story which she is doing? >> she is doing it so her cas to invalidate the agreement is probably not very strong in that i think looking at the complaint or the agreement it's probably likely any judge is going to see through and identify mr. trump as party of the agreement, mber one. number two is there's been performance in part on the hagreement meaning's kept silent and she got the money. so arguably, that is probably valid itself. the question then is it enfoeable, can the other si get money from her for violating

it, andgain because there's not a lot of damage to his reputation arably, it's probably hard to see those numbers flowing against her. >> woodruff: so you alshave this lawsuit by karen mcdougal who is seeking to invalidate the agreement she signed with american media, incorporated the company that owns the national inquiring and we've read about that. essentially, she's saying they paid me for my exclusive rights to the story but never ran it,so thcalled catch and kill process. how strong does that case look to you. >> is this that case s different from the other case in ohat she entered into what she understood to beey for actual work and, in exchange, she was going to kep -- basically sell the rights to her story about any married man to the "national enquirer," and she's really asking for a declaration, we call it, a statement by the judage saying theement sin valid. at this point she's telling her story. itd to see what actually

will flow from that lawsuit either direction. >> woodruff: so we may not learn that much more as the lawsuit moves forward. >> correct >> woodruff: summer zervos, the one on the president's show "apprentice," "celebrity "apprentice"," she is accusing the psident of defamation because she said she and other women, what they said are all lies. what about her? >> that's a more interesting case for a number of reasons. first of all, the president came in in tht case and said, listen, you cannot sue me because i am the president ofs. the united sta i need to spend my time doing presidential things. and the couverruled or rejected that argument, which means two things, one, he court looked at clinton vs. jones, the supreme court decision whe c binton raised a similar argument and the court said, no, you can aually be sject to civil litigation as a settle president. e court said, in this instance, look, what's good for

mr. clintois good for mr. trump, number one. number two, it's un it's unlikely that will be reversed on appeal, i think. number two, it's unlikely the case will go to discovery, the fact gathering process, meaning interviewing people which includes a deposition, probably mr. trump, means getting documents, electronic information, and the defense the truth. so ithat instance,he case will be who's telling truth with respect to that relionship and that could be problematic both in terms of the public relations element of it and, recall, i worked on whitewater, mr. clinton was impeached for statements hmade in connection with a civil deposition. >> woodruff: are you saying that the third lawsuity summer zervos could potentially pose the greatest thr >> i believe so both in terms of the facts that could come out and, also, i think thel ing on

saying that this president can be held civilly liable s relevant really to his liability for indictment as well because there's a number of legal documents or arguments that go both ways in terms of whether a sitting president could be dicted byr. mueller. the document that says that he cannot is an opinionrom the office of legal counsel which is kind of the supreme court of the department ofstice and that decision came before the supreme aulat decisions in the jones case. so i think it has to be read in light of that andki this is of putting that a little bit on the front burner. >> woodruff: i think it's fascinating people hadn't thought about the connection between what these women are alleging about the robertia mueller spcounsel investigation, but you're saying there could be links. >> there could be links from aa legal point in terms of if that were ever to turn into ant indict president trump would say, listen, i'm the president, you can't indict me,

i think that predent will ber on that particularly question. >> woodruff: squirm squirm, former federal prosecutor. we thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: the shifng political stakes after thousands of students march against gun violence. inside the yemen conflict that's entering its fourth year and rethinking what it means to rve every day like it's y last. but first, we turn to trade. president trump's tarriffs on steel and aluminum angered allies around the globe. here at home, his efforts to change the terms of the north american free trade agreement or nafta, have divided farmers and ranchers. rlom pbs station net in nebraska, grant k looks at how it might affect their income

and livelihoods. >> reporter: alan tiemann farms corn and soybeans inrn nebraska. but like many farmers, when it comes to his business, he keeps a global perspective. >> 95% of the world's population lives outside the u.s. so, it's a huge factor in that we're noti just pro for ourselves, we've producing for the world. >> reporter: exports are a necessity, tiemann says. and america's two closest neighbors are big clients.da cas a top destination for prepared foods and fresh produce. mexico is the number one export market for corn, $2.6 billion worth in 2017. where does that leavers? what do you do with all that grain if nafta falf through? >>fta falls through that's just a scary thought. up to one-third ofy income comes from exports. so nafta plays a huge partn that and they're the largest trading partner we have. we need trade. >> reporter: for farmers,

n ports are an outlet for the extra grain raisede united states. without trade, there would be an oversupply and therices farmers earn for their crops would fall. de the beef industry, trade has become part of a b blurring, multinational production system. >> when you process one of these animals, it doesn't go to the sa place. you have pieces that go everywhere, okay? >> reporter: craig uden operates darr feedlot in central nebraska where cattle put on weight before they go to market. meat companies sell cuts of beef where they bring the best. pric steaks and hamburger do well in grocery stores and restaurants in the u.s. but other cuts sell better overseas. >> the tongues maybe tgo japa and the oxtail maybe goes to europe. >> reporter: nafta is part of how this works. cattle from mexico and canada are often imported, tariff free, to feedlots and packing plants in the u.s.

ofom there they become par the beef supply parceled out on the export market. just acorn farmers fear an oversupply if nafta were terminated, uden fears the u.s. would saddled with more beef than americans could eat. >> and once it's disruptive to the liveock sector particularly in nebraska, then it presses bacdown to the grain markets and the hay markets and the ethanol production. t >> reportet's what uden worries about if nafta goes away, but there are some in the cattle business who believe nafta has already done more harm than good. david wright operates a ranch in noeh central nebraska where raises calves that eventually grow up to go to feedlots. wright agrees with president trump that the current version of nafta doesn't wor supports efforts to reform it. r s argument sounds like the recent debates oeel and solar panels. he says cheap cattle from canada and mexico undercut his business.of >> the cosiving or production in other countries is

different than it is here. so, as long as we're one of the ghest economies in the world, i don't see a lot of advantage in us trading for something that . already produce. >> reporter: the upically but wright says when you add in foreign cattle imported to the real estate guy trying to keep the town open as opposed to thguy in canada who are not. >> the number of large cattle feed lots d decli more than 50% since the agreement was signed. fears are if nta remains unchanged, that will continue. >> if anythg, they've kept us in the game. >> craig doesn't think there are wer cattle producers in the u.s. because of canada and

mexico. he blames the cost of labor ande ing up with environmental rules. the direction nafta turns under the trump administration is not the only issue on farmers' and ranchers' minds. some 60% of rural voters went for trump in 2016. and that includes many farmers like alan tiemann who says he's been happy with the tax cuts that were passed, and regulations that have been rolled back, such as the waters but nafta ts straight to the bottom line of his business. >> if we go in there putting tariffs and different things on all these products moving back and forth between the borders, who's going to pay for that? the consumer is going to pay for that. >> reporter: dave wright hasge been encouby economic growth and new jobs created so far under trump. he says putting protectiontein nafta to p american workers, and cattle ranchers, would reinforcd that. >> i ne consumer to have money in his pocket so he can purchase my beef that's put out for market. and if we're sending jobs over to other countries, then what are our citizens doing to earn a

living? because if they don't have svenue to spend on the product that i'm trying l, then i guess i don't have a product to sell, you know? >> reporter: he says that's what's in the balance as the trump administration continues talks on trade. for the pbs newshour, i'm grant gerlock in lincoln, neaska. >> woodruff: hundreds of thousands of people marched in washington and around the country this weekend to push for tougher gun laws. will the student-led march fors our litivate congress to take action? our politics monday team is here to weigh in. that's amy walter of the "cook political report" and tamara keith of npr. welcome to both of you,

"politics monday." i know you watchedis i sid dd some of the extraordinary outpouring on saturday, amy. we've talked about guns time and again. is this going to make a difference with the people who make the decisions in coming and elsewhere? >> i think it's clear if we're talking about this congress at this time, we're almost definitely not going to see we're not going to see anything happening in in congress at this time. is this going to be an issue going to forward for the midterm elections as a more powerful motivator for voters potentially especially when we think about where the battleground for house control is for 2018, it's in the suburbs, and i think this issue has always played to the benefit oftimeoftimes or dr. -- to demos or people who want to se more restrictions on guns come to the

forefront. ink the issue is enthusiasm, whether the march or cities and towns across america, the intensity and enthusiasm from younger voiters to make their voices heard and say they're hinterested in voting ins election. even before march in the pew organization asked young people th they were interested to upvote, 62% sai were interested to vote or at least in the midterm ele,ctio compare that to 2010, when it was 39%. so that level of intense phi is a big problem for republicans because younger voters are people wh dislike the president almost more than any other demographic group. >> woodruff: you're nodding. those marchs werebout guns but as an embodiment on the energy that exists on thef let and among young people and the other thing to point out is there were lea whoot of people out at those events all over the

country registering people to vote, and, so, as amy says, there's not really a legislative path right now in congress for gun control legislation othe likes that these rallies were calling foth e were small items put into that big omnibus spending bill that congress passed and the president signed and the white house was today basically saying we've done this, mission accomplished, and that big spending bill was likely the m laor train out of the station for legisla on in congreis year. >> woodruff: tightening of the background check process. >> b it doesn't expand background checks. >> and the bump stocks. it certainly doesn't dress the kinds of gus people can buy which was really a major piece of the rally and the speakers at those rallies. >> the other thing we had going on separate from this but you did -- we are talking about the spending bill, amy, is a t of

drama around whether the president was going to sigthat huge mega piece of legislation, $1.3 trillion we can barely conceive of it. what was all that about? >> i think it was a the fact that the president saw a negative reaction coming from conservative commentators, specifically conservat oe commentato tell investigation saying, whoa, wait a minute, i thought we elected the great negotiate, i thought we were going to get somebody who was going to reduc size of government and get the wall built and make sure that he got the best deals in this bill, instd it looked e he got rolled, by democrats and by his own party, and that is theeal danger for republicans going into this midterm elction that at the president does when he's confronted is he says, oh, no, no, this isn't out me, this isn't my fault, this isng ssional leaders and even his own leadership, he's willing to throw under the bus to protect his own brand at the

expense of his party. they're the ones up for reelection in 2018. he's not. >> right. and, so, 4.5 hours after all this suspense began, the president admitted he signed thl nd expressed separation with basically the separation of ongressand the way c works and the whole concept of negotiation that hay had to give things up to get what they wanted. and he called for an end to the line item veto which that would be -- or he wants a line item veto. that would be unconstitutional and is not going to happen, and other changes that are simply not going to happen. >> woodruff: amy mentioned danger to the president, the other thing we have been talking about is the three lawits which women who alleged they have had some either affair with the president or in t case of this one on "the apprentice" at esident defamed her by saying she lied about his tbroaping her.

how much political jeopardy does this represent for the president? >> it's a good question and it's not clear in tems o polling that these questions are registering with his base in any way. pew polng looked at white evangelical voters who suppedhi overwhelmingly in the election, and they knew what they were getting, the accessha hollywood vide already come out in. january when the story first broke, there was a little dip in his support but in march he's back up to 78% support among white evangelicals. it's not clear it's registering with the people who sident. the pre >> i argue his bigger legal challenge is the fact his legal am around him continues to be incies array, either people coming or going or he's firing, whatever, while he's going into a critical moment in thi mueller investigation, he's aying out loud, sure, i'll get interviewed, sure,ll sit down

with mueller, when you kw his team is not particularly excited about this idea and this sort of winging it on something as critical as sitting down with the special counsel seo be, to me, the most problematic piece for his legal standing right now, the jeopardy. >> woodruff: the law as we wjust heard our gueho's a former federal prosecutor say, tam, the concern may come with discovery with summer zervos. >> exactly, with her case, but they could ultimately get a depositionsiith the pnt of the united states among many things, and president trump, i have been reading a lot of his depositions today for some work i'm doing at npr- >> woodruff: really? i have, going back a number of years.oo >>uff: he was involved in other legal cases, a lot of them? >> yes, a lot of them, in fact.a and ines there are themes that come out including a lack of preparation and a lack of

really paying attention t detail. >> woodruff: we will look for that report., tamera keiy walter, "politics monday." thank you both. >> thank you, judy. you're welcome. >> woodruff: we reported earlier on last night's missile launch by houthi rebels in yemen that targeted the saudi capital, riyadh. the attack coincided with today's third, bloody anniversary of saudi arabia's involvement in yemen's civil war. hari sreenivasan recently spoke with a journalist o has reported for years on yemen, its many conflicts, and the people caught in between. >> sreenivasan: thousands of civilians have died and more than thr million have been displaced in the war between a u.s. backed saudi coalition and houthi rebels. yemen was also the scene of the first commando raid directly ordered by president trump 2017

raid ended in ath of a u.s. navy seal and yemeni civilians. iona craig is a frlance journalist who has just won a polk award for her investigation of this raid. she has deep experience reporting in yemen. thanks for joining us. first, tell us you've lived there for five years you've been on multiple reporting trips. how has yemen changed in the country that you first started reporting in and now through the civil war? it's a depressing place to go back to and i have a number of friends affected by the conflict and the manitarian crisis. yemenis are very resilient but that resilience is worn down. every me i go back, i see more people struggling to livday to day. sreenivasan: we hear about 22.2 million yemenis to need humanitarian assistance, children under age of 5 acutely

malnourished. cholera, tens of thousands killed. what does that do to is a society and economy? how do people fuctn? >> whether in the north where houthi ebbles control, or i the territory controlled by the saudi-led conflict, the chi on both sides are suffering. and to sit and speak to women as their chilen are literally dying of starvation in their ar ireally, really not any tragic -- but hard to get your head around to see that repeatedly in the hundreds of thousands going across the country and to see people so helpless, not able to get to medical care because they can't afford it, not able to buy the food available in the markets because ey haven't got the money to do so. >> sreenivasan: we've heard about the difficulty of trying to get humanitarian aid in there but i think it's important to clarify the role that th., u.s the west and the u.k. are playing in the fightgh not directly. >> exactly, well, the u.s. made involveent in supportin

saudi-led coalition is assistini them, reallthe air war and, certainly according to u.n. figures, the majority of the casualties in the conflict have been caused by saudi-led coalition air strikes and thenv u.s.'svement in s they're doing midair refueling, so the fighters carrying out the raiins orthern yemen and center of the country as well as providinn intell and targeting assistance and that's really crucial because much of the civilian infrastructure has been hit in addition to the high number of civilian casualties. so water supply lines, for example, hospitals have been hit, schools have been hit, farms have been targeted, an that all comes with the u.s. involvement, and in addition to that the fishermen on the redv sea coast also been targeted more than 250 boats and fishermen have been either destroyed or damaged and more than 152 fishermen have been killed as well.

>> the saudio are goingy, listen, this is the houthi's fault, anybody in a war will say it's the other person's fault. they're saying 100 rockets are launched inside the kingdom, we are primarily trying to defend our calf. what is the new crown prince's stake in this? just recently he fired his chief of staff of his army and taking over. is this a crucial part of saudi foreign policbe >> ime so. before crown prince, he was also the ministeeof defense n the war started so he led the war and the saudi involvement in it. their reason for becoming einvolved is is they eve the houthis as a proxy for iran, which is very muchor a st of state of paranoia of the saudis. there is political alignment between houthis and iran and it has in some way almost self-fulfilling. there habeen some iranian involvement and certainly doing small amounts of training of houthi fighters but not of the

ale you will see in syria and elsewhere in the region and sterile not of the level of the houthis being a proxy for iran or answering to iran. >> going back to the raid in early 2017e the white ho called it highly successful. me outlitary commanders c and said they gathered lots of important intelligence. you were really t only reporter actually able to go to the villages and verify what happened on the ground that really changed our understanding ol the entire situation that's what the pk award was for. but tell us what kind of upde that story. what's happened since then? >> the area of al-beda, whi is the name of the government or the province whede it happ is repeatedly targeted since then. this is on the front lines of where the tribesmen a fighting against the houthis and where there has been an al quaida presence who have been fighting on the side of the saudi-led coalition that the u.s. is supporting. so, really, for the people in that area, the story did not end when i left that village and did

that story. it's really continued, and i'ven kept in ct with them actually quite regularly. many of those families weresp ced from that area but caused the repeated air strikesy ould gotten back to their homes, many living in tents on the side of the mountain for m maths because of the risk of being killed in their own homes after that raid. and, so, al-beda has been really sort of at the hert of a lot of the u.s. airstrikes that have been carried out, drone strikes over the last ear, over a year now and the first year of the trump campaign, that has been on area they have specifically targeted repeatedly. >> sreenivasan: i iona craig, thanks very much for reporting. >> thanks very much for having me.

>> woodruff: "new york times" reporter john leland began following a group of men women who ranged in age from 87 to 92. and what he learned shattered s expectations about aging and death, as he explains in his humb p opinion. ple are always telling us to live each day as if it's our last, w of us actually do this, for two good reasons.ha the first isif you really thought today was your last day, you wouldn't pay the utility bill or save for rett, and pretty soon you're in the dark n eating canned beans overen flame. and the second reason is that we don't like to think about death or dying, except as something that happens to other people.fe years ago i met a man named john sorensen, who taught me how to think about death, and it changed my life. he was 91 and he missed his e rtner of 60 years, and every time i visited himid he wanted to die. he wasn't depressed or even sad. in fact, talking about dying

always got him in a good mood. wanting to die was the best reason to live. what i mean is this. john loved opera and he loved old movie musicals. wanting to die meant noting that this might be the last time he heard jonas kaufmann sing wagner or watched gene kelly singing in the rain. ey became more worthy of his attention. the same went for visits from friends. ic economy of scarcity. his days weren't fleeting, they were supersaturated with chosen pleasures. in our culture wthve come to k of death as a kind of failure, whether of medicine or survival instinct, rather than seeing mortality as built into our days, the first as much as the last. viewing death as unrelated to life, or antithetical it, does a disservice to the days we have, because we don't know how to value them. we enjoy a movie more knowing it's going to end in a couple

hours. that ski run in th'sswiss alps? nly fun because you know there's a bottom. the end of the run gives each curve meaning, even when you're still near the top of the mountain. i've heard this acceptance of from most of the older people i've spent time with. but we don't have to wait until we're to enjoy it. we should re-think what it means to live every day as if it's your last. the way i learned it from john, it means embcing that part of the end that exists in this moment, and then in the next. you don't have to quit your job or stop paying your utility bill. there's enough to live for in the things you're already doing. brush with a stranger, each moment with friends, each kiss or caress. there's a little bit of mortality in all of them. and that, i learned, is reason to be happy. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight.

tuesday, i sit down wit former president jimmy carter to talk north korea and the trump white house. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. or funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> my dad once said to me, tragedy has a way of defining people. >> what the hell happened, teddy? >> they're treating this lika crime scen >> we tell the truth-- or at least, our version of it.en >> sator, when can we expect some answers? >> we're in this deeper than i thought. >> these theatrics are not going to hold up in a court of law. ck what have i done? >> chappaquiddirated pg-13. april 6.

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some untold stories from america past. gwendolyn: this week, this navy schooner once flew the flag in a border dispute with the mighty british empire. are these her last remains? oh, my. elyse: how is this connecticut farmhouse connected to the assassination of a russian czar? tukufu: and is this painting an unknown work by an immigrant poet whose words inspired an american generation? people chanting: end the war! end the war! elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get so angry when the teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart ♪ ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ it's just like watchin' the detectives ♪