captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, secretary of state pick, mike pompeo, faces tgh questions on russia, north korea and more in his senate confirmation hearing. then, a u-turn on trade-- president trump tells lawmakers he is now open to a pan-asian trade deal. kansas senator pat roberts was there and joins us to talk about that and what tariffs mean to farmers. plus, cryptocurrency explained: our economics correspondent paul solman makes sense of the money you can't hold and the bitcoin economy. >> money's sort of the system that we created to be able to transact with each other efficiently, and the reason that a bead or a shell or a gold bar,

or a coin or bitcoin has ve'ue is because all decided it has value. >> 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. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundangon. supporcience, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in e ucation, democratic engagement, and vancement of international peace and security.

at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was madee possible by rporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. ank you. >> woodruff: world hot spots, america's role in the world, and the state of the state department itself. the nominee for secretary of state, mike pompeo, spis day discussing all those issues. li desjardins reports on t c.i.a. director's confirmation

hearing before the senate foreign relations committee. >> desjardins: after the cam oas cleared, oamerica's top spies set out to defend his qualifications to be its top diplomat. >> the story is i'm a i'm a hardliner. >> desjardins: pompeo, a former u.s. congressman and army officer, stressed he believes in diplomacy. >> there's no one like someone who served in uniform, who understandplthe value of acy and the terror and tragedy that is war like someone who served in uniform. it the last resort. it must always be so. we best outcomes are alwa at the diplomatic table. >> desjardins: pompeo also pledged to make americas diplomats feel relevant again, after the stormy tenure of rex t h llerson at state department, rife wcancies >> desjardins: but pompeo was quickly met with fierce criticism from democrats, who say they fear pompeo won't speak up against the president, his close ally. some of those democrats voted to block pompeo from becoming

c.i.a. director last year, as did republican senator rand paul, who spoke about his objections today. >> and my main conrn is that, will you be one that will listen to what the president acally wants, instead of being someone who advocates for us staying forever in iraq war, bombing syria without permission?>> esjardins: with paul opposed and ailing arizona republican john mccain likely to miss a vote, pompeo will need at least one democrat vote. and for democrats a key issue ow conscience and today was how pompeo would handle a potential conflictver the russia investigation. >> i'm convinced that ifhe president were to fire the special counsel,r to interfere with his investigation by firing rod rosenstein with an intention shto then interfere with o down this investigation, that it would put the rule of law genuinelat risk. if that were the case, and if that happened, would you resign your post of secretary of state in order to demonstrate that we

are a nation of laws, nomeof >> senator, i haven't given that question any thought. my instincts tell me no. my instincts tell me that my obligation to continue to serve america's senior diplom would be more important at increased times of increased political turmoil. >> desjardins: pompeo said he has spoken to special counsel simueller as part of the r investigation, but could not say anything further due t confidentiality. another heated topic-- pompeo's past opposition to the iran nuclear deal. maryland senator ben cardin wanted to know what this could mean for mr. trump's upcn ing decisionether to withdraw s fore an upcoming deadline. >> i want to fix tal. that's the objective. if the questions cannot changed we're running close to the deadline >> senator-- >> yes or no. >> no, senator, it's not a

yes-or-no question because it's a >> desjardins: as cardin pressed, at one point committee chairman bob corker stepped in. >> i understand thsipresident's on. i want to know your view, not the presidents. >> i think what director pompeo is saying is that's also his opinion, is that correct? >> yes. >> desjardin pompeo told the committee there was no evidence the iranians had broken their part of the deal, but it seemed more a question of the deal's importance. pompeo had this exchange with arizona senator jeff flake implying low risk if the deal >> iran >> iran wasn't racing to weapon before the deal. there is no indication that without the deal they would immediately turn and work to build a weapon. >>esjardins: iranians themselves have said they could resume enrichment within days if the deal ends. >> i want to quickly switch to russia. >> desjardins:vlsked about imir putin, pompeo indicated the u.s. should use all of its tools to push back against russia, and that he sees putin as a cold-war style adversary.

>> i will take him at s word that greatest failure of 20th century was dissolution of o viet union. >> desjardins: pomfended the trump administration as opushing back at russia, point appearing to boast about the s. killing russian mercenaries operating in syria in february. >> in syria, now a handful of weeks ago, the russian met their match. a couple hundred russians were killed. >> desjardins: the pentagon has been quiet on the subject. u.s. officials have only conceded that "scores" of russians were killed. new jersey's cory booker pushed pompeo on a social issue, gay marriage, now legal and recognized by the state department. >> when i was a politician i had a very clear view on people not marrying, so you believe-- >> no to gay marriage.ja >> dins: but pompeo insisted l.g.b.t.q. rights are human rights, and that he wants a diverse state department.

strengthening the agency. >> i will work every day to provide dedicated leadership and race, color, sexual orientation. i've treated every one of our officers with dignity and respect. i've prmoted them when the deserved. i've held them accountable when they deserved that as welil. >> desjardins: judy, another heated topic-- pompeo's past statementssln islam, and s. after 2013's boston armbing, and apces on a radio show containing anti-muslimric and conspiracy theories. that included words from pompeo today, judy, pompeo insisted he is a tolerant man with a history of defending all rigious rights. >> woodruff: so, lisa, tell us, who are the key votes here on this confirmation question, and what are they saying tonight. >> there are 14 democrats who voted to support mr. pompeo when he was the nominee for c.i.a. director. they wanted nim that job. those are the ones t watch. wyer one of them has said he's a no on mr. pompeo for state department. i talked to several offices of those democrats, and they're

undecided tonight. honestly, i think they're waiting to see whi way the wind blows on this hearing, how he is perceived after this, and to meet with hi in person. >> woodruff: and what is the timing of this con vote?tion >> the first vote will be in committee. that's expected next week. and, frankly, judoy, it esn't look like mr. pompeo will get an sidorsement from the committee because rand paus on the committee. he'll vote no. then we'll wait to see the scheduling on the senate floor. it will probably depend on how much support he has at that time. >> woodruff: so separately,k lisa,iment to u about something else, and that is after paul ryan's announcement yesterday that run for re-election, won't serve in congress again, what are you hearing about the rao succeed him as speaker of the house? >> i thought this would take longer but we did get some fast news today from whip steve scalise. he said he will not run against kevin mccarthy. if kevin mccarthy wants to be speaker, he will let him run. now, kevin mccarthy hasn't announced that yet, but it's expect. we'll see how this plays out. those two men won't run against

each other. at least we than for now. >> woodruff: and if depwhends on h party has a majority in the house after this november. a that's exrengt exactly. >> woodruff: lesjardins at the capitol, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: t pompeo confirmation hearing to be secretary of state is taking place as the administratgen confronts questions about syria. president trump and russian officials swapped warnings today about whether to strike the middle eastern nation, over asu ected chemical weapons attack. the president first said a u.s. response could come, "very soon or not so soon at all." then, at a white house meeting, he was pressed on whether the u- s is indeed getting ready to attack. >> we're looking very, veryri sly, very closely at that whole situation and we'll see what happens folks.wh we'll se happens. it's too bad that the world puts us in a position like that. we have just absolutely decimated isis, but now we have to make some further decisions so they will be made fairly

soon. >> woodruff: later, the president met with his national security council to discuss next steps. afterwds, officials said he plans to speak tonight with miench president emmanuel macron and british primster teresa may. today, may announced her cabinet has approved a plan to work with the u.s. and france to coordinate an international response to syria's actions. meanwhile, russia asked for the u.n. security council to meet morrow. its ambassador to the u.n. said moscow wants to avoid a war. >> we ho that there will be no point of no return, that their u.s. and tllies will refrain. the danger of escalation is higher than simply syria because our military are there on the invitation of the syrian government. >> woodruff: the back-and-forth came as international inspectors headed for syria. they'll begin a fact-finding mission on saturday.

amid the tensions over syria, there's another shakeup in president trump's national security team. y it's widported that ricky waddell will step down as deputy national security adviser. he's the latest of several top staffers to leave since john adlton took over as the new national securitser. the dpresident today playn talk that he might fire robert mueller, the special counsel in the russia investigation. instead, he tweeted that he's cooperating with the probe.he aid: "i have agreed with the historically cooperative, disciplined apoach that we have engaged in." later, cobb denied an nbc news report that negotiations wiro mueller haven down. in london, international investigatorhave confirmed that former russian spy sergei skripal, and his daughter, were poisoned with a nerve agent. the organization for the prohibition of chemical weons

did not say who was responsible. britain charged again was russia, t moscow insisted the findings mean nothing. >> ( translated ): russia will not trust any concluons in the skripal case until russian experts have been granted access to the relevant materials linked to the o.p.c.w. expertise and all the information london has on this incident. >> woodruff: britain has asked the u.n. security council to meet next week to discuss the report. the "national enquirer's" parent company is denying it suppressed a story that president trump had a child out of wedlock in the 1980's. american media incorporated said today the claim was "not credible." the "new yorker" and the associated press reported a.m.i. paid a former trump tower doorman30,000 in late 2015, but never ran th the doorman maintained today his story was true. the u.s. senate today confirmed

andrew wheelers scott pruitt's puty at the environmental protection agency. wheeler is a former coal c lobbyist aef of staff to oklahoma teachers say they're going back to class, after an almost two-week walkout that shut schools across the state. the teachers union celebrated what it called a historic funding increase. the republican legislature had approved tax hikes that provided $450 million in new funds, $150 million short of the teachers' demands. and, on wall street, stocks rose as fears of a trade war with china eased again. the dow jones industrial average gained 293 points to close at 24,483. the nasdaq rose 71 points, and the s&p 500 added 21. still to come on the newshour:

kansas senator pat roberts on president trump's trade policy and the implications for american farmers. the governor of missouri is accused of sexual assault. the head of the federal consumer financial protectioneau gets grilled by its architect, and much more. wh>> woodruff: at the house today, another surprising reversal on policy straight fro the presidenuth. this time, mr. trump told a group of mostly midwest lawmakers he is now open to re- joining a sweeping trade deal with asian nations, known as the trans-pacific partnership or t.p.p. mrtrump had called the pact "ridiculous" and withdrew the u.s. from it in one of his first acts after taking office. republican senator pat roberts of kansas was at the white house.

he's the chairman of the senate agriculture committee and joins me now. senator roberts, welcome back to the "newshour." >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff:o how surprised were you about what the president had to say about the trans-pacific agreement? >> well, we started off with a very strong message, those of us who are privileged to represent our rural areas and our farmerss and rangrchers anwers. and we have been going through a really rough patch with the los of farm income and our pricesun ng. mother nature hasn't been investigate to us, either. but the subject was trade, and there was a proposal that was at least floated out, bil dollars in aid to offset anyri retaliation. everybody there insisted and really made their point to theen presthat we wanted trade, not aid. and i think that message was well delivered. then there was a considerable effort made to talk about the

possibility of t.p.p., either o bilatera by one, or multilateral "p" and i think the prmident truly listened fr the standpoint that if you want to get tough with china and youl really want-- of these information do not want to really do business with china-- and we alsll all these people we have their back. so from a ational security standpoint and an economic opportunity, i think the president listened. he deputized robert lighthiser and larry kudlo, our new economic dviser, toy, "okay, boys, you work on that." so that was very lcome news. >> woodruff: well, and i want to ask you about your own it's reason you went to the whiteir house in the place, as you say, was to talk about chinese t tariff effects they're having on american farmers. but before we get to that, iu just want tockly ask you about that, the t.p.p., the trans-pacific agreement, because because in the more than a year since the president announced the u.s.as pulling out of that, the other, what, 11 nations have gone on to create another trade deal. so i guess i'm curious, as are

many others, about what exactly is the president talking about-- completely reversing his e approach? >>aid he's going to take a hard look tat. and he wanted bob and he wanted larry-- pardon me for calling them bob and larry-- to take a look at it as w. i think the way it was presented, it madeore sense right now since we're trying to offset the-- all of the tariff problems with regds toarmers are paying for, almost being pawns in this kind a situation. so given in that light, and the fact he'willing to take a new look, i think that's-- i think that's local. >> woodruff: but how concerned are you about the-- i guess the inconsistent signal that this sends about american policy,t abe president's thinking here? >> well, i think the presint still will continue to try to get single trade deals to thf best his ability, but, again, it was an opportuni that we raised, several of us.

and for him to say to bob lighthiser, our trade ambassador; and larry kudlo, our new economic adviser "take a lookt it." and that raestles the extent of it. >> woodruff: well, we will certainly be waching that. but in the meantime, senator hoberts, the reason you went to the white and others was to talk to the president about the effect the chise tariffs, the proposed tariffs on china, the retaliation, that whatthat could mean for americanrmers. the administration is saying, "we can handle this. we can come up with other ways to recompense these farmers." but you were concerned. you are concerned, aren't you? >> yes, i was concerned. i don't think that's tt approach. everybody in that room said they prefer trade over aid. we have a lotf subsidy programs. we have a revenue program, we have a price-loss coverage program. we, obviously, have crop insurance. we need to pile another--

somebody was talkin talking abo5 billion, for goodness' sake. i don't know how you do that. i don't know how you freight sprait that out with everybody that's been involved inth s trade business with china. and it is very widespread. almost everybody that either rms or is a rancher or grows anything has been affected. the classic was theg surum producer, when they saw 80 cents on their dollar go out of price one day because of washing chines and solar panels. now, the chinese are doing an investigatn on that, but just the news on that really hit the surgum producers very hard. add in wheat, add ain cord in soybeans, add in whiskey. how are you going to make a whiskey payment, by the way? th whole idea i thiwas resisted by the u.s.d.a. i'm not are who cme up with

it, but i think it was basically the idea by the president, whoh really knowst he has a lot of support in rurowal small areas and we're hurt. >> woodruff: as it was reported, it was the president and others around him suggestina that theseents come from the department of agriculture. without ge the details of that, why do you believe the president-- do you think the president completely thought through the impact of what these tariffs against china would meanr fo the american agriculture community? >> well, i can't answeri hat. ink he is responding-- you know, this has been a long, long-sought situation here, where trying toss addo many different things. we're very unhappy with china. they had never ahered to their w.t.o. oblations. we have intellect property. we have copywright laws, and quite frankly, when you build a manufact you better be realizing they-- they will have access to everything you're doing.

so there are a lot of things where we're upset about. but the problem is that when you say that we're going to put ria on "x," "y," or "z" with china, on intellebaual property, they come. and the first it's first folks in our economy thatt geit is agriculture. >> woodruff: do you think you made an impression on the president today? >> yoing there's any questioni abou i think, to be quite frank, he understands that we're coming u. on 20 he understands that it's an even-numbered year. there's a little bit of politicin this, to say the least. and what you don't wa to do is really hurt the very folks who brought you to the dance. >> woodruff: just finally, senator, what is the thrust of what you're hearing from the farmers who you talk to? >> well, e surgum producers were in my office when i was meeting with the president, witi thance committee-- again, on trade policy. and th could not understand when, boom, they were hit with a

market price drop. it is true that the chinese are studying this, that they're inspecting it, or they're atle t, you know, taking a look at it. and when you do that, immediately the markets-- you know, they respond. and so you can have a market drop-- soybeans went down 17%. you know, they've recovered some. but if a farmer wants to sell rticularuct on that pa time, he's really hurt. and this applies to all of our- livestocrk, cattle. in california, it's nuts, almonds, raisins, wine. na all those-- a lot-- all ch has to do is say, "well, we're going to take a look at you in terms of retribution," and the rfarmer pays thece. that's not fair. we're not pawns in this busins of trade. >> woodruff: senator pat roberts of kansas, thank you very much. >> yes, ma'am. >> woodruff: in the past 24

hours, the cris confronting missouri governor eric greitens over a sexual relatiedship has deepignificantly. , hn yang has the details. >> yang: judy, todssouri senate majority leader mike kehoe became the highest-ranking republican to call on his party's governor to resign. it comes the day aftercial legislative committee released a report detling the graphic nine-hour testimony of the woman who acknowledges having an affair with greitens. she says he spanked, slapped, groped and shoved her during sexual encounters that sometimes left her crying and fearful. yesterday, before the report was released, greitens said the extramarital affair was "entirely consensual." >> this was a private mistake that has nothing to do with governing and shouldn't be about politics, but people are turning a personal mistake into a political spectacle and telling new lies about it. let's call this what it is: a

political witch hunt >> yang: greitens has been indicted for felony invasion of privacy for allegedly taking a photo of the woman in a compromising position and threatening to release it if sha ed about their relationship. his trial is to begin next month. b we're jointony messenger, a columnist for the "st. louis post-dispatch." tony, thanks for joining us. late this afternoon, the governor released a statement that raistsed quens about whether or not he had slapped her. what can you tell bus this? >> well, the testimony from the woman before the house committee was quite clear that he had slapped heraore thn once, that he had been very physical with her. and she answered to a question, "was he trying to hurt you?" "nand she said, o, i believe he was trying to claim me." the gvernor's statement today is relatively generic. he's saying he didn't slap her, relating to one incident. i'm not sure wheincident he's talking about. his statements have generally been very generic in context. and so i don't know exactly what

he's denying at this point. >> yang: the governor did nothi testify beforecommittee. he didn't provide evidence of any kind before the committee. this affair has been known since january. how did this reseport, rel last night, change the atmosphere, chaenge circumstances of what's going on? >> it was shocking. when he was first dicted, there were a few people who came out-- republicans and democrats-- who called for him to resign. w you have most of the topka anna politkoititions in the state, including u.s. senator claire pla cakil, mike kehoe, who you mentioned, many republicans lawmakers in both the nate and house, calling for his resignation. and one of the key statements from attoey general josh holly-- excuse me-- indicated that he beieves there is legal grounds for impeachment. that really changed the dynamics, i believe, of this discussion. >> yang: we should also note that this fall, you got a senate

election, claire mccaskill running for re-election, could be pivotal in who controls the senate. is that having an effect on what's going on? josh holly, of course, is one of the republican candidates for the nomination. >> i believe it is. keep in mind, there is also al privatsuit against the governor brought by two st. louis torneys, mark pedroli, and ben thnsewn. and it lawsuit, they're seeking to depose the goveor. and josh holly was also investigating that situation. and before the report came out, he basically whitewashed whether or not the govern's office violated sunshine law. now he is betraying-- showing himself to be strong again in ferminterms of calling for imp peevment. i believe the senate election is having a direct impact on his action. >> yang: the woman's testimony about their first encounter-- her first encounter withei governor ns -- he was not governor yet-- makes it sound something less than welcome,

certainly, to say the least. what did she say when the investigative committee asked her why she continued to have contact with him after that? >> she said-- and d iescribe this in one of my columns -- she was afraid that she was not going to beowed to leave his basement. she was scare she was fearful. she was crying. she was shaking. and he grabbed h b in aear hug, lowered her down to the ground, and then, depending u interpretation of what happened there, either sexually assaulted her or engaged in somo of sex with her. it was, to me, the most shocking part of the statement. because it changes the entire dynamics fre consensual affair that the governor has been talking about, to mething that looks much more like sexual predation. >> yang: tony messenger of the p "st. lout-dispatch," thanks so much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: sy with us, coming up on the newshour: making sense of the rise of cryptocurd rency at it means for the economy. am aerican isiloser look at americans who moved to the middle east to join the so- called caliphate. and a brief but spectacular taki on w from an award-winning jamaican novelist. the consumer financial protection bureau, created by congress and president obama inc 2010, focuses bing predatory practices and other pr with lenders. but there has always been division over its mission: it's been applauded by most democrats, vilified by many republicans and e industry. president trump and its actingch director havted a dramatically different course for the bureau. today, as william brangham tells us, those two visions collided in a showdown on capitol hill. >> brangham: the acting directob of the c.f as it's often

called, is mick mulvaney. he's also the president's budget director. the day he took over the agency four months ago, he said it was "an awful example of a bureaucracy gone wrong." since then, he's proposed changing its independence from congress, how its funded, and easing its overall approach toward lenders. today, when he testified before the senate banking committee, he delivered a very different kind of hello and took a swipe at the agency's charter. >> i evidently made a little news yesterday when i reminded everybody at least pointed out the fact that while i have to be here by statute i don't think i have to answer your questions. if you take a look at the actual statute that requires me to be here, it says that i shall upear before the committee on banking, housing aan affairs of the senate and i'm here. i'm happy to do it. i want to make it clear i'm going to answer every question i can today. i'm not using this as an excuse to not answer your questions, but the statute says i have to appera. >> bham: one of the senators on that committee is democrat elizabeth warren from massachusetts. the c.f.p.b. is considered her

brainchild, from when she was a harvard professor, anat one point early on, her name was bandied about as its possible first director. that didn't happen, but she remains a big defender of the bureau original mission. and today, she had some choice words for mulvaney. >> you've taken obvious joy in talking about how the agency will help banks a lot more than it will help consumers and howth upse must make me. but here's what you don't get mr. mulvaney: this isn't about me, it's about active-duty military first responders and students and senio and families, and and millions of people who need someone their side when consumers get cheated. you are hurting real people to score cheap political points. >> brangham: for a look at what's at stake here, we turn to ken sweet. he covers banks and the consumer bureau for the associated press. he joins me now from new york city. so, ken, today's hearing was really quite brief, but there's probably not two more diametrically opposed

individuals in washington, d.c. what did you make of today hearing? >> if there's two people who loathe eacother more in d.c. than mick mulvaney and elizabeth warren, i haven't met them. elizabeth warren, the c.f.p.b. was her brainchild, as you mentioned. she has a lot of allies inside of it, and she really believes inhe bureau's mission. while mick mulvaney, when he was congressman, basically said that the bureau was a sick, sad tejoke-- and that's a qurom him. one of the things he has had to say repeatedly-- and he said in the committee hearings-- he's not in that position to "burnw the place " which seems like quite a baseline to work from, if you get wher he's coming from. >> brangham: the c.f.p.b. was originally created to go af ter predatory lending, banks, car loans, paybay of day lerpds and things like that. you did a very big investigation recently that looked at whatrc types of enent actions the c.f.p.b. is doing since mulvaney took over. can you tell us what you found.

>> well, the answer about how much enforcement the c.f.p.b. ha s been doi zero. since mulvane tooker-- or actually a little bit before he took over-- the c.f.p.b. has done zero enforcement actions under his control. now, what's an enforcement action? enforcement action is kind of one of the main tools the c.f.p.b. has to reurn money to consumers. so, like, they would take an enforcement action against, for example, bank of america, which they did in 2015, and turned $727 million to credit cardom cus who had been duped by dubious fees. this is their pri maway of returning money, and they've done a lot of it. t ere was about, i think, $4 billion in dirsh back to ,onsumers, and another, like $7billion, $8 billion in what they call indirect relief. so doi-- no enforcement actions means that no money is t going back hose consumers, at least right now, under

mulvaney. >> brangham: i mean, ho how muh of this is just m geng his feet under him as the new head of the bureau? in some ways this was his philosophy all along. he always argued that the bureau was guilty of over-reach, too many fines, too many new rules, and he owed to roll it back. so hoach of a surprise is this? >> well, mulvanes defense on this issue is kind of two-fold. he said at the committee hearind today and yes that cordray, richard cordray, who ran thebureau before mulvaney, didn't do any enforcement actions in the first six months that he was in that position. now, when cordray started, it lly when the bureau was rea just getting started, so, you know, they really weren't-- didn't have anything in th pipeline to, like, put enforcement actions in place. the other part that was, you know, he says that the bureau has about 100 investigations going on right now, and about 25 lawsuits that are currently pending. now, none of those have turned a inenforcement action, but

i think what we've learned from reporting is te bureau has slowed its enforcement down to a trickle, as opposed to that steady flow we would see under cordray, which was, le, basically an enforcement action once a week. >> brangham: mick mulvaney has also said wants to change how the c.f.p.b. is funded and how congress exerts oversight. can you explain what he wants to >> sure.. so the c.f.p.b. was createddans independent, strong bureau that was supposed to be sort of exempt from the polital goings-on of washington. so it gets its budget from the soderal reserve. hen the director-- in this case mulvaney-- needs money, hes just go to the fed and says, "i need such and such amount of money." so want c.f.p.b. is not subjected to the traditional congressional budg which is a thing that republicans have been hounding on f months and years, basically going back to the creation of the bureau. the other thing is that the director sition is a very

strong, independent position, where it canld mulvaney cou only be removed-- or a permanent director could only be removed in cases of extreme wrongdoing, basically, you're in that job and there's nothing anybody can do about it. so he wants that job to more subject to, you know, if the president wants to get rid of that person, hen get rid of that person. >> brangham: all right ken sweet of the associated press, >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: you've been hearing a lot about the digital currency, bitcoin, and the technology behind it called blockchainve, but you may been afraid to ask: what is it and why woulyou want to use ? our economics correspondent, paul solman, is here to help explain. it's part of his weekly series, "making sen$e," which appears here every thursday.

s reporter: think of thisry as "news you can use": how to buy bitcoin, and know what you're buying.s tut in many big cities, glu can do it right around the corner, though i w an m.i.t. computer scientist, neha narula, into coming with me for guidance. >> it actually works the opposite way to a regular a.t.m., you give it cash and it gives you bitcoin. >> reporter: true, i could have just gone to the online currency exchange coinbase, which, in the midst of this crtocurrency craze, now has more account holders than charles schwab. but hey, why go online when you can hop on down to a quality mart, the kind of emporium where crypto-atms are cropping up. >> i thought it wagoing to be a waste of space but i was very wrong. a lot of people come and use it, a lot. >> reporter: co-owner chafik hamadeh was initially sold by the $300 he got to host the turns out to have more than earned its keep. >> it brings in a t of traffic that people that normally wouldn't be coming to this area. >> reporter: and how much money does the typical customer put in near as you can tell?

>> a lot. i've seen people put in a lot of money in that machine. >> reporter: really? >> yes. i've seen people put in $6000, i've seen people put in thousands. >> reporter: are youmazed when you see it? >> i am, i'm kind of shocked. >> reporter: and the higher bitcoin's price, the nuttier things get says narula. >> this technology is really excing and i think it could potentially change the world but nee mania and the hype right now is completely insa and unfounded. >> reporter: hey, you en see the mania at m.i.t., in it's media lab's insanely popular cryptocurrency design class": standing room only. >> today i'm going to talk out signatures. >> reporter: good thing i brought narula, who runs the course, to the quality mart, because some of us need an .i.t. professor just to buy $20 bucks worth of bitcoin, much less figure out what we' really doing. so i'm setting up my bitcoin wallet. the wallet, which holds the key to the bitcoin, is a sine qua non. narula advised me to s mine up via a mobile app called co-pay.

are you being watched? now is the perfect time to assess your surroundings. nearby windows? chiddera? shoulder spies? apparently not. anyone with your backup phrase can access or spend your bitcoin. you can make a safe backup with physical paper and a pen. i understand. the backup phrase is literally your personal key: a dozen words in a particular order. and so these are jusn12 sort or ram words, all simple words. >> yup. english words. that way it's easier to write down. and even if you lose thiphone, right, even if this phone falls into the ocean-- >> reporter: yes. >>s ou can use those 12 word get your money. >> reporter: but if you lose the phrase, bye-bye bitcoin. >> the company that made tt s app doesve access to your money at all. only you have access to your money. d what that means is that if you lose this, you can't call them up and ask them to help you it's gone.oney back. >> reporter: forever. so now i'm writing these down. yup. >> reporter: i have to do this so that the camera doesn't see. >> yeah. and normally i shoulee either.

but it's only $20. so... >> reporter: you know wh? if my $20 suddenly disappears, pu're the prime suspect. i'm now going to it in my wallet. >> yup. >> reporter: but, of course, it almost l wallet somewhere yesterday. >> exactly. >> reporter: that's my leather wallet. but i need to get my smidgen of cryptocurrency into the cyber wallet. >> you're going to scan it right there. ca reporter: so the a.t.m. the wallet you've just created >> i think it worked! >> reporter: and then you put some good old-fashioned paper money into the automated teller machine. i'm going to take a $20 bill out of here and let's see, we put it in here. and after paying over $6 in processing and transacti fees... >> you're going to get .0016 bitcoin. >> reporter: 16 ten thousandths of a bitcoin? >> that's how much that $20 turns into. >> reporter: at that day's bitcoin price of $8600, the equivalent of $13.82. >> man this thing charges a lot of money, huh? >> reporter: okay, without spou oking yoth the hi- falutin' math that goes into actually buying and spendingat

in your wallet, hacker- free, the basic idea is simple. >> really it's an entry in a ledger. except insad of a financial institutio for us, there's a whole bunch of nodes all around the world that are running this computer thprogra takes care of the ledger for us, makes sure all the tranns are correct and keeps track of who has what bitcoin. >> reporter: and that ishe bitcoin blockchain: a chain of computers linked through the ternet, all using the sa software to record and verify every bitcoin transaction. and therefore nobody can cheat becae everybody is watching. >> exactly. and no one controls it, it's controlled by everybody altogether. >> it's a distributed form of trust. >> reporter: a single individual can't corrupt the block chain, says investment guru vikram mansharamani.bu we don't know if somebody cannot figure out a way to

manipulate an entire network. >> sure, i mean loothere are rumors that there are fields and fields of computers at work in eastern european and other parts of the world designed explicitly to take over networks. >> reporter: indeed, there's speculation, and some evidence, that russia is both mining bitcoins, and hoarding them. >> par tt of bitcoineat model is that no single entityge ends uing a majority of the processing power in the network. >> reporter: this is the 51% attack. >> yes. if somebody got 51% of the processing power in the networkh could theoretically rewrite history and changerahe state of actions in the ledger. >> so they haven't been successful yet. might they be successful in the future? who knows. none of this is purely failsafe. >> reporter: now you may also bc wondering: h a crypto- currency like bitcoin, which is nothing but computer code, be worth anything anyway?

or as bill maher put it: >> someone has to explain to me the difference between bitcoin and me saying, "this hunk of foil i just rolled up into a ball is worth a million dollars." >> reporter: well, says neha narula >> why is gold worth anything, right? money's sort of the system that we created to be able to transact with each oer efficiently, and the reason that a bead or a shell or a gold bar, or a coin or bitcoin has value is because we've all decided it has value. >> reporter: and it's even more valuable to those who use it for d legal transactions, since it's hard to tax, h trace. now just like there are different kinds of physical currency-gold, silver, greenbacks, yen, so there are different cryptocurrencies, hundreds of them now. even the quality mart a.t.m. offers several crypto options. so i can buy bitcoin, litecoin or ethereum here? >> yeah, looks like it, this supports all three of them. >> reporter: so why so many? e >> we're at the stage wh

really need to experiment. we don't know that bitcoin is the right design and bitcoin, because it's very decentralized 's very robust of failure, it's actually really hard to change. so onehat we experiment in this space is with other cryptocurrencies, we design a new one that works slightly differently than bitcoin and we see how th goes. >> reporter: and differently means what? >> one thing difrently could mean is it processes more transactions per second, it makes different trade-n terms of security versus ease of use. >> reporter: but i'm a bitco man and i've got a stake worth nearly $14 when i bought it in february. less than $12 as i record thise in lrch, maybe more than $25 if the price goes back to where it was in january, or maybe down to, i don't know, ts25 cents if bitcoin retro the price it was when we did our first such story back in 2013, bitcoin at what then seemed a stratospheric $125. t at the quality mart on the

corner of boston's mass ave and beacon street, even though bitcoin has lost more than half its value since the start of the year, folks were still buying. >> yesterday, i saw someone put in 3,000. >> reporter:ere people putting in money when bitcoin was up 18 to $20,000? >> more so than now. they were buying a lot thinkingw going to keep going. >> reporter: at the moment, of course, it looks like they were buying high.ac and in there are plenty of reasons to think today's hrice is still air balloon with otwhere to go but down. that however is r story. for now, this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting from boston for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: last night we broadcast poions of the first interview with sam el hassani, an american wan who went to raqqa, the isis capital, with her children. she was led there by her

husband, who was later killed fighting for isis. now, amna nawaz follows up on this case, and looks more broadly at the issue of americans who fled america for the so-called caliphate. >> nawaz: our pbs colleagues at "frontline," in partnership with the bbc, worked with filmmaker josh baker over the course of 18 months to find and interview saal hassani, and tell her remarkable story. the el hassani family are not who went toericans land controlled by isis in syrih and iraq're among the dozens that we know of who have ventured to the caliphate since 2014. for more on their fates, i'm joined by seamus hughes. he's the deputy director of the program extremism at george washington university. seamus, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> this report you put outarily ther year. it examined the experiences of families like sam, americans that have traveled to syria or iraq to join isis. for the vast majority of them,

what ends up betheir fate? >> most of them, if they come back, they're arrested. if they stay there they die. another 40% are unknown, we don't know where they ended up.w >> z: the numbers are sort of murk whe we talk about americans who actually traveled to join isis. why are they so murky? what do we know about americansr >> very, murky. the intls comlmunity tks about hundreds who have traveled. we were able to identify 64 individuals by true names namethe earlier cases it was because of the aas you atrocities they saw on tv. the later was a perceived obligation. we've seen ones and twos, bu we've already seen families, at least six american families who traveled and picked up from ali regula here and went to join the caliphate. >> nawaz: from the ones you lotied at, you mened in the report, most who go don't come back, but let's talk about those who do come back. when they come back to the u.s., what's theho fate? whatd they expect in terms of consequences? >> most come bac disillusioned

for starters. we've had about a dozen come back frm joiningis. most got arrested when they came back, ended up inandcuffs. some got 20 years, others got home release. it ran the spectrum on thosedu indis. a few of those individuals law enforcement decided not rest. they either didn't have enough ivformation to build the case or decided these inuals were more useful on the outside. >> nawaz: how is that decision de? that's produce you can porl discretion? >> yes. it's quite ad hoc. there's not a systematic way of intaking americans whod joi foreign terrorist organization. depending on the prosecutor, you get terrorm, which is 20-plus years or another prosecutor and he decides not to bring aase. >> nawaz: we featured the story of sam el hassani. as you mentioned, shet the only one like that over there. i want to play a clip of the same documentary and lk about it on the back end. this is sam talking about how she sees her life now. >> repter: so why are you still here in latin america? >> i'm not sure its by

choice or not.do i really n't want to go back. >> reporter: you don't want to go back to america? >> not right now. >> reporter: a lot of people will feel that you are choosing to keep your four children in a refugecamp, rather than turn to the safety of america. >> yeah, you know, you're right. they can think like that. but right now, i need to be able to sit and think what's best fo my kids. i don't need anyone pushing me into making any desion right now. >> nawaz: so, seamus for people like sam and her family, her childre what's the standing u.s. policy towards them? >> completely all over the ma. it depends on it. so right now, you have a number of americans beg held by kurdish officials, by turkish officials, where it depends on the prosecutor and whether they decide to bring them back or not. for someone like sam, she's probably facing some ter charges. her children, obviously, the sins of a mother should not be the sins of the child. and so how do you reintegrate these children back into soquety?

these arstions we haven't grappled with in the u.s. government. >> nawaz: so wngt happens moorward now? i think it's going to be hard for a lot of people to knowledge there are american children over there who aren't rwant under any nd of effort t repatriate them, rescue them in any way? >> that's a problem we'reh dealing w lot of western families. think of france. they have 300 or 400 childr believed to be in isis-controlled territory. america has a hand full of people, at least a dozen that we know of. and each one isfe dint. you're hoping you can bring them back into a loving society, into a safety netyou bring in mental health professionals, a family that can bring them back to where they used to be each case will be different. >> nawaz: we're. in unique territory here. what would you likto see happen next? >> i would like to see the children come back to the u.s. i think we're a smart enough country to be able to figure this out. and they've been dealing with the trauma of being in a foreign terrorist organization-- again, the sins of the mother should not be the sins of the child. and we should figure out a way to get them back into society. >> seamus hughes, thanks for your time. >> thank you for having me.

>> woodruff: now to another in our brief but spectacular series where we ask people about their passions.to ght, jamaican-born writer, nicole dennis-benn. her award-wning novel, "here comes the sun," was named a "best book of the year" by the "new york times." >> i was raicld in a working s family in a town called vineyard town, kingston 3 in jamaica. growing up working class, there was this expectation that you would be the one to make it in your family, you know, first generation college student, i was pre-med at cornell thinking that i was going to go to medical school. however i did not, i was not passionate about that, you know and what was really plaguing me was the fact that i wanted to be a writer. it wasn't until meeting my wife, who challenged me. she said, "are you a writer or are you a researcher?"

d i lived in jamaica i could not have been a writer. i would be, first of all i would not be courageous to challenge the issues that i challenge in my work. you know, especially homophobia, sexualization of our young girls, race, class, socioeconomic disparities. being here in america gave me that opportunity i didn't come out. i was found out. my mother discovered, well, overheard a conversation i had on the phone with another woman. and i had no idea that she was even present in the house. and so after the conversation ended, she approached me and she said"you know, nicole, was that a woman on the phone?" and i said, "yes." and she said, "well, you know, two women don't speak like that to each other." i'd spent my whole career, my whole undergaduate career trying to please her and my faer being pre-med. so here was that one thing that i coul't, i had no control over, and so when that was, that was, when that happened i was devastated. when i met my partner in 2008, she said she wanted to go to jamaica just to see that part of

me. i took her back home in 2010 w actually spent a great time. it was at a resort, because we couldn't have stayed withy parents, given the obvious, for obvious reasons and it was then that all the thinginthat i was ruaway from came back to me. the classism, the complexion- ism, the homophobia, one of the biggest, most memorable aiperiences there was interacting with ar onsite. you know, he was at the resort and at first he was speaking to me like he was british, thinking that i was a tourist, i knew the class he's from because i'm of that same class, right? so it wasn't until he found out that i was jamaican that the mask came off. i reflected on the fact that we were socialized to be performers, to be ambassadors for our country. we were responsible for selling the fantasy. i actually wanted to show the people behind the fantasy, right; who are these waiters serving us the resort? who are the maids making our beds? who are the hotel clerks, the bus drivers, those are the people who are often neglected, often invisible, the working

class imaicans. and anted their lives, especially our working class women, to be out there. people needn. to be s wanted to hat. i wanted to document that, right, so that next time, the next person who comes to the island can actually see us as pcoy my name is nicole dennis benn, and this is my brief but spectacular take on wring untold stories. >> woodruff: you can watch additional brief but spectacular episodes on our website, pbs.org/newshour/brief. a news update before we go: multiple news outlets are now reporting on former f.b.i. director james comey's new book "a higher loyalty," set for public release tuesday. among the headlines: comey says the president is unethical and, "untethered to the truth." he describes mr. trump as having been obsessed with the prostitute portion of the infamous dossier compiled by former british intelligence

officer christopher steele, raisingea it at four times with the former f.b.i. head. he also describes the trump presidency as a "forest fire" mathat is doing serious to the country's norms and traditions. and that's the newshour for tonight.dy i'm oodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with markda shields and brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour,hank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life billio well planned. learn more at rayndjames.com.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was mae possible by rporation 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

tukufu: we're the history detectives and we're going to investigate some untold stories from america's past. wes: this week, can this ticket a be evidence ofn unknown chapterin the career of one of the 20th century's greatest athletes? gwen: could this modest suburban house have a secret connection to one of the 20th century's most menacing eras, the cold war? tukufu: and does this document reveal a forgotten era when african-americans won their freedom, two centuries before the civil war? elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ i get so angry when the teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can't be woundedea 'cause he's got no ♪