captioningponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, secretary of state pick, mike pompeo, faces tough 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 abouw that at tariffs mean to farmers. pous, cryptocurrency explained: our economics corrent paul solman makes sense of the money you can't hold and the bitcoin economy. >> money's sort of the system that we createdo 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 value ause we've all decided i has value. >> woodruff: all that and morebs on tonight'sewshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that ifaches real-lconversations in a new language. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial litera in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new yorkpp ting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security.

at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support ofhese institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station om viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: world hot spots, d, anda's role in the wo the state of the state department itself.fo the nominesecretary of state, mike pompeo, spent this day discussing all those issues. lisa desjardins reports on the c.i.a. director's confirmationar

g before the senate foreign relations committee. >> desjardins: after the cameras cleared, one of america's top spies set out to defend his qualifications to be its top diplomat. >> the story is i'm a hawk, 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 understands the value of diplomacy and the terror and tragedy that is war like someone who served in uniform. it the last resort.e it must always. the best outcomes are always won at the diplomatic table. >> desjardins: pompeo also pledged to make americas diplomats feel relevan after the stormy tenure of rex tillerson at the state department, fe with vacancies >> desjardins: but pompeo was quickly met with fierce eoiticism from democrats, who say they fear poon't speak up against the president, his close ally. some of those democrats voted t block pompeo fcoming

c.i.a. director last year, as did republican senator rand paul, who spoke about his objections today. >> and my main concern is that, will you be one that will listen to what the president actually wants, instead of being someone who advocates for us staying forever in afghanistan, anothein iraq war, bosyria without permission? >> desjardins: with paul opposed and ailing arizona republican john mccain likely to vote, pompeo will need at least one democrat's vote. and for democrats a key issue of conscien and power today was how pompeo would handle a potential conflict over the russia investigation. >> i'm convinced that if the president were to fire the special counsel, or to interfere with his investigation by firing rod rosenstein with an intention to then interfere with or shut down this investigation, that it would put the rule of law genuinely at 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, not of

men? >> senator, i haven't given that question any thought. my instincts tell me no. my instincts tell me that my ligation to continue to serve as america's senior diplomat would be more important at edincreased times of incre political turmoil. >> desjardins: pompeo said he has spoken to special counsel mueller as part ofhe russia investigation, but could not say anything further due to confidentiality. another heated topic-- pompeo's past opposition to the iran nuclear deal. maryland senator ben cardin wanted tknow what this could mean for mr. trump's upcoming decision on whether to withdraw fore an upcoming deadline. >> i want to fix this deal. that's the objective. if the questions cnot be 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 the president's position. i want to know your view, not the presidents. >> i think what director pompeo is saying is that's also hisin opion, is that correct? >> yes. >> desjardins: 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 fwke implying risk if the deal ends. >> 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. >> desjardins: iranian themselves have said they could resume enrichment within days if the deal ends. >> i want to quickly switch to russia. >> desjardins: asked about vladimir 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 his word that greatest failure of 20th century was dissolution of soviet union. >> desjardins:ompeo defended the trump administration as pushing back at russia, at one point appearing to boast about the u.s. killing russian mercenaries operating in syria in february. >> in syria, now a handful of weeks ago, the russian met their match.un a coupleed russians were killed. >> desjards: 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 iue, gay marriage, now legal and recognized by the state department. >> when i was a politician i had a very clear view on people notb marrying, so yieve-- >> no to gay marriage. >> desjardins: but pompeo insisted l.g.b.t.q. rights areri humats, and that he wants a diverse state department.

strengthing the agency. >> i will work every day to provide dedicated leadership and race, color, sexual orientation. i've t officers with dignity and respect. i've promoted them when they deserved. i've held them accountable wh they deserved that as well. i >> desjardins: judy, another heated topic-- pompeo's past statements on islam, and muslims. after 2013's boston bombing, and appearances on a radio show containing anti-muslim rhetoric and conspiracy theories. that included words from pompeo peo insisted he is a tolerant man with a history of defending all religious rights. >> woodruf so, lisa, tell , who are the key votes here on this confirmation question, and what are thesaying tonight. >> there are 14 democrats who voted to support mr. he was the nominee for c.i.a. dired or. they wanm that job. those are the ones to watch. lawyer 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 which way the wind blows on this hearing, how he is perceived after this, and to meet with him in person. >> woodruff: and what is theti ng of this confirmation vote? >> the first vote will be in that's expected next week. and, frankly, judy, it doesn't look like mr. pompeo will get ar endorsemen the committee because rand paul sits on the committee. he'll vote no. then we'll wait to see the scheduling on the senate or. it will probably depend on how much support he has at thatti . >> woodruff: so separately, lisa,iment to ask you about something else, and that is after paul ryan's announcement yesterday that he's not going to run for re-election, won't serve congress again, what are you hearing about the race tosp succeed him asker of the house? >> i thought this would take longer but we did get some fat 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 thatet, but it's expect. we'll see how this plays out. those two men won't run against

each other. at least we thafor now. >> woodruff: and if depends on which party has a majority in the house after this november. >> that's exrengt exactly. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins at the capitol, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: the pompeonf mation hearing to be secretary of state is taking place as the administration s urgent questions about syria. president trump and russian officials swapped warnings today about whether to strike the middle eastern nation, over a suspected chemical w 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 wh iher the u- s eed getting ready to attack. >> we're looking very, very seriously, very closelhat whole situation and we'll see what happens folks. wel see what happens. it's too bad that the world puts us in a position like that. we have justbsolutely decimated isis, but now we have de make some further decisions so they will be airly

soon. >> woodruff: later, the president met with his national security council to discuss next steps. afterwards, officials said he plans to speak tonight with french president emmmacron and british prime minister teresa may. today, may announced her cabinet has appred 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 tomorrow. its ambassador to the u.n. said moscow wants to avoid a war. >> we hope that there will be no point of no return, that the u.s. and their allies will refrain. the danger of escalation is higher than simply syria because our military are there on thef invitatione syrian government. >> woodruff: the back-and-forth came as international edspectors heor 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. it's widely reported that ricky waddell will step down as deputy tional security adviser. he's the latest of several top hnstaffers to leave since bolton took over as the new national security adviser. the president today played down talk that he mightleire robert mu the special counsel in the russia investigation. instead, he tweeted that he's cooperating with the probe he said: "i have agreed with the historically cooperative, disciplined approach that we have engaged i" later, white house lawyer ty cobb denied an nbc news report that negotiations with mueller have broken down. in london, international investigators have confirmed that former russian spy sergei skripal, and his dauter, were pooned with a nerve agent. the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons

did not say who was responsible. britain charged again it was russia, but moscow insisted the findings mean nothing.at >> ( tran ): russia will not trust any conclusions 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 askedur the u.n. sy council to meet next week to discuss the report.l the "natioquirer's" parent dempany is denying it suppressed a story that pre trump had a child out of wedlock in the americia incorporated said m80's. today the claim was "notcr ible." the "new yorker" and the associated press reported a.m.i. paid a former trump tower doorman $30,000 in late 2015, but neveran the story. the doorman maintained today his story was true. the u.s. senate todayonfirmed

andrew wheeler as scott pruitt's deputy at the environmental protection agency. wheeler is a former coal lobbyist and chief of staff to oklahoma teachers say they're going back to class, aftern 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 providel $450on 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 protection bureau gets grilled by its architect, and much more. >> woodruff: at the white house today, another surprising reversal on policy straight from the president's mouth.im this mr. trump told a group of mostly midwest lawmakers he is now opre- joining a sweeping trade deal with asian nations, known as the trans-pacific partnership or t.p.p. mr. trump 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."ou >> thank, judy. >> woodruff: so how surprised were you about what the t president h say about the trans-pacific agreement? >> well, we started off with a very strong message,se of us who are privileged to represent our rural areas and our farmemer and ranchers and growers. and we have been going through a really rough patch with the loss of farm income and our price plunging. 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, billions of dollars in aid to offset any tariff retaliation. everybody there sisted and really made their point to the president that we wanted trade, not aid. and i think that message was well delivered. then there wasa considerable effort made to talk about the possibility of t.p.p., either

bilateral, one by one, or multilateral "p" and i think the president truly listened from the standpoint that if you want to get tough witnh chiand you really want-- all of these information do not want to ally do business with china-- and we also tell all these ir back.e have the so from a national security standpoint and an economic opportunity, i think the president listened. he deputized robert lighthiser and larry kudlo, ournew economic adviser, to say, "okay, boys, you work on that. so that was very welcome news. >> woodruff: well, and i want to ask you about your own it's reason you went to the white house in the first place, as you say, was to talk about chinese tariffs, the effects they're having on american farmers. but before we get t i tha just want to quickly ask you about that, the t.p.p., the trans-pacific agreement, because because in t more than a year since the president announced the u.s. was pulling out of that, the other, what, 11ti s 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 approach? >> he sd he's going to take a hard look tat. and he wanted bob and he wante larry-- pardon me for calling them bob and larry-- to take a look at it as well. i think the way it was presented, it made more sense right now since we're trying to offset the-- all of the tariff problems with regards to farmers are paying for, almost being pawns in this kinof a situation. so given in that light, and the fact he's willing to take new look, i think that's-- i think that's logical. >> woodruff: but how concerned are you about the-- i guess the inconsistent signal that this sends about american policy, about the president's thinking here? , >> wellthink the president still will continue to try to get single trade deals to the best of his ability, but, again, itas an opportunity that we raised, several of us.

and for him to say to bob lighthiser, ourtrade ambassador; and larry kudlo, our new onomic adviser "takea look at it." and that raestles the extent of it. >> woodrf: well, we will certainly be watching that. but in the meantime, senator t roberte reason you went to the white house and others was to talk to the president about the effect the chinese tariffs, the proposentariffshina, the retaliation, that whatthat could mean for american farmers. hhe administration is saying, "we can handles. we can come up with other ways to recompense these farmers." but yorn were con. you are concerned, aren't you? >> yes, i was concerned. i don't think that's the best approach. everybody in that room said theo prefer traer aid. we have a lot of subsidy programs. we have a revenue program, we have a priagce-loss cov program. we, obviously, have crop insurance. we need to pile another--me

dy was talkin talking about $15 billion, for goodness' sake. i don't know howyou do that. i don't know how you freight everybodyat out wit that's been involved in this trade business with china. and it is very widespread. almost everybody tt either farms or is a rancher or grows anything has been affected. the classic was the surgum producer, when they saw 80 cents ce their dollar go out of pri one day because of washing rachines and solar panels. now, the chinesedoing an investigation on that, but just the news on that really hit the surgum producers very hard. add in wheat, add in corn, add soybeans, add in whiskey. how are you going to make aen whiskey pa by the way? this whole idea i think was resisted by the u.s.d.a. i'm not sure who came up with

it, but i think it was basically the idea by the president, who really knows that he has a lot of support in rural small-town areas and we're hurt. >> woodruff: as it was reported, it was the president and others arim suggesting that these payments come from the department of agiculture. without getting too much into 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 mean frthe american agriculture community? >> well, i can't answer that. i think he is responding-- you know, this has been a long, long-sought situation here, where trying to address so many different things. we're very unhappy with china. they had never adhered to their w.t.o. obligations. we have intellect property. we havae copywrights, and quite frankly, when you build a manufacturing plant over thee, you betterealizing they-- they will have access to everything you're doing.

so there are a lot things where we're upset about. g t the problem is that when you say that we're goo put a tariff on "x," "y," or "z" with china, on intellectual property, back they me. and the first it's first folks in our economy that t hit agriculture. >> woodruff: do you think youde n impression on the president today? >> yoing there's any question out it. i think, to be quite frank, he understands that we're coming up on018. he understands tit's an even-numbered year. there's a little bit of politicin this, to say the least. and what you don't want to do is really hurt the very folks who brought youo the dance. >> woodruff: just finally, senator, what is the thrust of what you're hearing from the farmers who you taltok >> well, the surgum producers i wasin my office whe meeting with the president, with the finance committee-- again, on trade policy. and they could notunderstand 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 at least, you know, ta look at it. and when you do that, immediately the markets-- you kn., they respo 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 his product on that particular' time, really hurt. and this applies to all of our listock-- pork, cattle. in california, it's nuts, almonds, raisins, wine. so all those-- a lot-- all chins has to day, "well, we're going to take a look at you in term of retribution," and the farmer pays the price. that's not fair. we're not pawns in this business of trade. >> woodruff: senator pat roberts of kansas, thank you very much. >> yes, ma'am. >> woodruff: in thpast 24

hours, the crisis confronting missouri governor ericreitens over a sexual relationship has deepened significantly. john yang has the details. >> yang: jud today, missouri senate majority leader mike kehoe became the highest-ranking republican to call on his party's governor to resign. it comes the dayfter a special legislative committee released a report detailing 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 theff extramaritalr was "entirely consensual."pr >> this was ate mistake that has nothing to do withd governing ouldn'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 witc ghunt. >> yanitens has been indicted for felony invasion ofv y for allegedly taking a photo of the woman in a compromising position anden threg to release it if she talked about their relationship. his trial is to begin next month. we're joined by tony messenger, a columnist for the "st. louis post-dispatch." tony, thanks for joining us. late this afternoon, the governor released a statement that raised questions about whether or not he had slappedr. what can you tell bus this? >> well, the testimony from the woman before the house committee was quite clear that hd slapped her more than once, that he had been very physical with her. and she answered to a question, "was he trying to hurt you?" and she said, "no, i believe he was trying to claim me." the govaernor's tement today is relatively generic. he's saying he didn'tapler, relating to one incident. i'm not sure when incident he talking about. his statements have generally been very generic in context. and i don't know exactly what he's denying at this point.

>> yang: the goveror did nt testify before this committee. he didn't provide evidence of any kind before the committee. this afair has been known since january. how did this report,eleased last night, change the atmosphere, change the circumstances of what's going on? >> it was shocking. when he was first indicted,er were a few people who came out-- republicans an democrats-- who called for him to resign. now you have most of the top anna politkovskayaititions in the state, including u.s. senator claire pla kehoe, who you mentioned, many republicans lawmakers in both se, callin and ho for his resignation. and one of the key statements from attorney general josh holly-- excuse me-- indicated that he belves there is legal grounds for impeachment. that really changedthe dynamics, i believe, of this discussion. >> yang: we should also note that this fall, you got 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 cous rse,e of the republican candidates for the nomination. >> i believe it is. keep in mid, there is also a private lawsuit against the governor brought by st. louis attorneys, mark pedroli, and ben sansewn. d in tha lawsuit, they're seeking to depose the govanerno. josh holly was also investigating that situation. and before the report came out, he basically whitewashed whether or not the governor's office violated sunshine law. now he is betraying-- showing himself to srong again in fermintermof calling for imp peevment. i believe the senate election is having a direct impact on his >> yang: the woman's testimony about their first encounter-- her first encounter with govenoor greitens -- he was governor yet-- makes it sound something less than lcome,

certainly, to say the least. what did she sayhethe investigative committee asked her why she continued to have contact with himfter that? >> she said-- and i describe this in one of my columns -- she was afraid that she was not going to be alled to leave his basement. she was fared. she waarful. she was crying. she was shaking. and he grabbed her in a bear hug, lowered her down to the ground, and then, depending on your interpretation of what happened there, either sexually assaulted her or engaged in some sort of sex with. he it was, to me, the most shocking part of the statement. because it changes the entire dynamics from the consensual affair that the governor has been talking about, to somethint uals much more like sex predation. >> yang: tony messenger of the "st. thanks so much.tch," >> thank you.

>> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: making senthe rise of cryptocurrency and what it means for the economy. erican isis: a closer look at americans who moved to the middle east to join the so- called caliphate. and a brf but spectacular take on writing from an award-winning jamaican novelist. the consumer financial protection bureau, created by congress and president obama in 2010, focuses on curbing predary practices and other problems with lenders. but there has alwa o been divisir its mission: it's been applauded by most mocrats, vilified by man republicans and the industry. presidt trump and its acting director have charted 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 actindirector of the c.f.p.b., as it's often

called, is mick mulvaney. he's also the president's buet director. the day he took over the agency four months ago, he said it was "an awful example of a poreaucracy gone wrong." since then, he's pd changing its independence from congress, how its funded, and easing its overl 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 lile news yesterday when i reminded everybody at least pointed out the fact thawhile 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 core, it says that i shall appear before thittee on banking, housing and urban affairs of the senate and i'm here. i'm happy to do it. i want to t clear i'm going to answer every question i can today. i'm not using this as an excuse to not a but the statute says i have to appear. >> brangham: one of the senators on that coittee is democrat elizabeth warren from massachusetts. the c.f.p.nsb. is ered her brainchild, from when she was a

harvard professor, and at one point early on, her name was bandied about as its pe first director. that didn't happen, but she remains a big defender ofhe bureau's 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 how upset this must make me. but here's what you don't get mr. mulvaney: thissn't about me, it's about active-duty military first responders and students and seniors and families, and and millions of other people who need someone on 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 co bveks and the consumer bureau for the associated press. he joins me now from new york city. so, ken, tay's hearing was ally quite brief, but there's probably not two mor diametrically opposed

individuals in washington, d.c. what did you make of today's hearing? >> if there's twoe peoo loathe each other more in d.c. zaan mick mulvaney and eth warren, i haven't met them. elizabeth warren, thc.f.p.b. was her brainchild, as you mentioned. she has a lot of alls inside of it, and she really believes in the bureau's ssion. while mick mulvaney, when he was a congressman, basically said that the bureau was a sick, sad joke-- and that's a quote from him. one of the things he has had t say repeatedly-- and he said ihe the committeings-- he's not in that position to "burn the place down," which seems like quite a basrine to wok from, if you get where he's coming from. >> brangham: the c.f.p.b.was originally created to go after predatory lending, banks, car loans, paybay of day lerpds and things like that. vestigationery big in recently that looked at what types of enforcement actions the c.f.p.b. is doing since mu took over. can you tell us what you found.

>> well, the answer about hownf much rcement the c.f.p.b. has been doing is zero. since mulvaney took over-- or actually little bit before took over-- the c.f.p.b. has done zero enforcement actions under his control. now, what's an enforcement action? an enforcement action is kind of one of the main tools the c.f.p.b. has to return money to consumers. so, ke, they would take an enforcement action against, for example, bank of america, which they did i 015, and returned $727 million to credit card customers who had been dupdu by ous fees. this is their primary way of returning money, and they've done a lot of it. there was abouit, i nk, $4 billion in direct cash back to consumers, d another, like, $7billion, $8 billion in what thecall indirect relief. so doing no-- no enforcemmet actionns that no money is going back to those consumers, ateast right now, under

mulvaney. >> brangham: i mean, ho how muc of this is just him getting his feet under him as the new head of the bure? in some ways this was his philosophy all along. he always argued that the bureau walty of over-reach, too many fines, too many new rules, and he vowed to roll itback. so hoach of a surprise is this? >> well, mulvaney's defense on this issue is kind of two-fold. he said at the congmittee hea today and yesterday that ordray, richard cordray, ran the bureau before mulvaney, didn't do any enforcement actions in trst six months that he was in that position. now, when cordray sts arted, it en the bureau was really just getting started, so, you know, they really weren't-- didn't have anything in the pipeline to, like, put enfocecement actions in pla the other part that was, you know, he says that the bureau has about 100 investigations going on righw, and about 25 lawsuits that are currently now of those have turned nopending. into an enforcement action, but

i think what lewe'vearned from reporting is that the bureau has slow its enforcement down to a trickle, as opposed to that steady flow we wseuld under cordray, which was, like, basically an enforcement action once a week. >> bangham: mick muvaney has also said he wants to change how the c.f.p.b. is funded andho congress exerts oversight. can you explain what he wants to do ther >> sure. so the c.f.p.b. waseateddans independent, strong bureau that was supposed to be sort ofm exempt f the political goings-on of washington. so it gets its budget from the federal reserve. so when the director-- in this case mulvaney-- needs money, he jud goes to the fed ays, "i need such and such amount of money." so want c.f.p.b. ist no subjected to the traditional congressional budget process, t which is ahing that republicans have been hounding onth for mand years, basically going back to the creation of the bureau. e other thing is that the director position is a very

stro, independent position, where it can-- mulvaney could only be removed-- or a permanent director could only be removed in cases of extreme wrongdoing, basically, you're in that job,s and therthing anybody can do about it. so he wants that job to be more subject to, you know, if the president wants to get rid of that person, he can get rid of that person. >> brangham: all right ken sweet of the associated press, thanks very much. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: you've been hearing a lot about the digital currency, bitcoin, and the technogyehind it called blockchain, but you may have been afraid to ask: what is it and why would you want to use it? our economics correspondent, paul solman, is here to help explain. it's part of his weekly series, "making sen$e," which appears here every trsday.

>> reporter: thinkf this story "news you can use": how to buy bitcoin, and know what yore buying. turns out in many big cities, you can do it right around the corner, though i wangled 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 e dst of this cryptocurrency craze, now has mcount holders than charles schwab.b ut 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 was going to be a waste of space but i was very ngo a lot of people come and use it, a lot. >> reporter: co-owner chafik gomadeh was initially sold by the $300 he t to host the machine. turns out to have more than earned its keep. >> it brings in a lot of traffic that people that normally wouldn't be coming to this area. >> reporter: and how much money does the t customer put in as near as you can tell?

>> a lot. i've seen people put in a lot of money in tchine. >> reporter: really? >> yes. i've seen people put in $6000, i've seen people put in thousands. >> reporter: are you amazed when you see it? >> i am, i'm kind of shocked. >> reporter: and the higher t bitcoin's pric nuttier things get says narula. >> this technology is really exciting and i think it could d tentially change the world but the manithe hype right now is completely insane and unfounded. >> reporter: hey, thu can even semania at m.i.t., in it's media lab's insanely popular" cryptocurren design class": standing room only. >> tod i'm going to talk about signatures. >> reporter: good thing i brought narula, who runs the course, t,o the quality ma because some of us need an m.i.t. professor just to buy $20 bucks wth of bitcoin, much less figure out what we're really doing. so i'm setting up my bitcoin wallet.wa the et, which holds the key to the bitcoin, is a sine qua non. narula advised me to set mine up via a mobile app called co-pay.

are you being d? now is the perfect time to assess your surroundings. nearby windows? hidden camera? shoulder spies? apparently not. anyone with your backup phrase can access or spend your bitcoin. you m canake a safe backup with physical paper and a pen.i derstand. the backup phrase is literally your personal key: a dozen worda articular order. and so these are just 12 sort or random words, all simrds. >> yup. english words. that way it's easier to write down. and even if you lose this phone, right, even if this phone falls into the ocean-- >> reporter: yes. >> you can use those 1words to get your money. >> reporter: but if you lose the phrase, bye-bye bitcoin. >> the company that made this app doesn't have access to your money at all. only you have access to your money. and what that means is that if you lose this, you can't call them up and ask them to help you get your money bk. it's gone. >> 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 suldn't see either.

but it's only $20. so... >> reporter: you know what? if my $20 suddenly disappears, you're the prime suspect. i'm now gointo put it in my wallet. >> yup. >> reporter: but, of course, i alest left my wallet somewh 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. >> reporter: so the a.t.m. scans 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 he and let's see, we put in here. and after paying over $6 in processing and transaction fees... >> yongu're go get .0016 bitcoin. >> reporter: 16 ten thousandths ohaa bitcoin? >>s how much that $20 turns into. >> reporter: at that day's , bitcoin price of $86e$1 equivalent of 3.82. >> man this thing charges a lot? of money >> reporter: okay, without spooking u with the hi- falutin' math that goes io actually buying and spending

what's in your wallet, hacker- free, the basic idea is simple. >> really it's an entry in ledger. except instead of a financial institution holding this ledges for us, therwhole bunch of nodes all around the world that are running this computer program that takes care of the ledger for us, makes sure all the transactions are correct and keeps track of who has what bitcoin. >> reporter: and that is the bitcoin blockchain: a chain of computers link through the internet, all using the same software t vo record aify every bitcoin transaction. and therefore nobody cacheat because everybody is watching. >> exactly. and no one controls it, 's controlled by everybody altogether. >> it's a distributed form of trust. >> reporter: a single individual urn't corrupt the block chain, says investmentvikram mansharamani. but we don't know if somebody cannot figure out a way to

manipulate an entire network. >> sure, i mean look there are rumors that there are fields and fields of computers at work in eastern european and other parts of the wld designed explicitly to take over networks. >> reporter: indd, there's speculation, and some evidence, that russia is both mining bitcos,nd hoarding them. >> part of bitcoin's threat model is that no single entity ends up getting a majority of the processing power in the >> reporter: this is the 51% attack. >> yes. if somebody got si% of the proc power in the network, they could theoretically rewrite history and change the state of transactions 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 be wondering: how can a crypto- currency like bitcoin, which is nothing but computer code, be woanrthing anyway?

or as bill maher put it: >> someone has to explain me the difference between bitcoin and me saying, "this hunk of foil i st rolled up into a ball is worth a million dollars." >> reporter: well, says neha nala. >> why is gold worth anything, right? money's sort of the system that we created to be able to transact with each otherfi ently, 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 illegal transactions, since it's hard to tax, hard to trace. now just like there are different kinds of physical currency-gold, silver, g areenbacks, yen, so the different cryptocurrencies, hundreds of them now. o en the quality mart a.t.m. offers several crytions. so i can buy bitcoin, litecoin or ethereum re? >> yeah, looks like it, this supports all three of them. >> reporter: so why so many? >> we're at the ste where we

really need to experiment. we don't know that bitin is the right design and bitcoin, because it's very decentralized and it's very robustilure, it's actually really hard to change. t one way that we experim this space is with other cryptocurrencies, we design a new one that works slightly differently than bitcoin and we see how that goes. >> reporter: and differently means at? >> one thing differently could mean is it processes more transactions per second, it ade-offs inrent terms of security versus ease of use. >> reporter: but i'm a bitcoin man and i've got a stake worth nearly $14 when i bought it in february. less than $12 as i record this in late march, maybe more than $25 if the price goes back to where it was in january, or maybe down to, i don't know, 25 cents if bitcoin retreats to the price it was when we did oui t such story back in 2013, bitcoin at what then seemed a stratospheric $125. but at the quality mart on the

corner of boston's mass ave and acon 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: were people putting in money when bitcoin was up 18 w. $20,000? >> more so than they were buying a lot thinking it was going to keep g >> reporter: at the moment, of course, it looks like they were buying high. anofin fact, there are plent reasons to think today's price is sll a hot air balloon wit nowhere to go but down. that however is another story.s for now, t economics correspondent paul solman, reporting from boston for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: last night we broadcast portions of the first interview with sam el hassani, an american woman 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 sam al hassani, and tell her remarkable story. the el hassani family are not the only americans who wentroo land coed by isis in syria iraq; they're among the dozens that we know of who have ventured to the caliphate since 2014.mo fo on their fates, i'm joined by seamus hughey he's the deprector of the program on extremism at george washingtonniversity. seamus, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> nawaz: let's talk ayout this reporput outarily ther year. it examined the experiences of families like sam, americans that have traveled to syriar aq to join isis. for the vast majority of them, what endsr p being thfate?

>> most of them, if they come back, they're arrested.a if they y there they die. another 40% are unknown, wen' know where they ended up. >> nawaz: the numbers are sort of murk whe we talk about americans who actually traveled to join is. why arthey so murky? what do we know about americans? >> vry, verymurky. the intls commuty talks about hundreds who have traveled. we were able to identify 64v iniduals 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, but 've already seen families, at least six american families who traveled and picked up from a gular life here and went to join the caliphate. >> nawaz: from the ones you looked at, you mentioned in the report, most who go don't come back, but let's talk about thoso who doe back. when they come back to the u.s., what's their fate? at should they expect in terms of consequences? >> most come back disillusioned

utr starters. we've had abo dozen come back from joining isis. eost got arrested when they cam back, ended up in handcuffs. some got 20 years, others got home release. it ran the spectrum on those w dividuals. a those individuals law enforcement decided not rest. they either didn't have enoughfo ation to build the case or decided these individuals were wore useful on the outside. >> nawaz: ho is that decision made? that's produce you can porl discretion? >> yes. it's quite ad hoc. there's not a systematic way of intaking americans who joined a foreign terrorist organization. depending on the prosecutor, you get terrorism, which is 20-plus years or another prosecutor and he decides not to bring a case. >> nawaz: we featured theof storsam el hassani. as you mentioned, she's not the only one like that over there. i want to play a clip e same documentary and talk about it on the back end. this is sam talking about how she sees her life now. >> reporter: so why are yu still here in latin america? >> i'm not sure ifit's by

choice or not. i really don't want to go back. >> reporter: you don't want to go back to america? >> not riwght no. >> reporter: a lot of people will feel that you are choosing to keep your four children in a n returncamp, rather tha to the safety of america. >> yeah, you know, you're right. they can think like that. let right now, i need to be to sit and think what's best for my kids. i don't need anyone pushing me into making any decision right now. >> nawaz: so, seamus for people like sam and her family, her cht'ldren, whathe standing u.s. policy towards them? >> completely all over the mp. it depends on it. so right now, you have a number of americans being helby kurdish officials, by turkish officials, where it depends on the precutor and whether thy decide to bring them back or not. for someone like sam, she's probably facing some terrorism 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 society? the are questions we haen't

grappled with in the u.s. government. >> nawaz: so what happens moving forward now? i think it's going to be hard for a lot of people to knowledge there are american children over there who aren'rwant under any kind of effort to repatriate them, rescue them inyany wa >> that's a problem we're dealing with a lot of western families. think of france. they have 300 or 400 chbeildren eved to be in isis-controlled territory. l ofica has a hand ful people, at least a dozen that we know of. and each one is you're hoping you can bring them back into a loving society, into a safety net, you bring in mental health professionals, a family that ca bring them back to where they used to be but each case will be different. >> nawaz: we're. in unique territory here. what would you like to see happen next? >> i would like to see the children come back to the u.s. i think we're a smart enotrh coto 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. tonight, jamaican-boter, nicole dennis-benn. her award-winning novel, "here comes the sun," was named a "best book of the year" by the "new york times." >> i was raised in a working class family in a town called vineyard tow kingston 3 in jamaica. growing up was this expectation that you would be the one to make it in youlyr fayou know, first generation college student, i was pre- that i was going to go to medical school. wahowever i did not, 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?" l

haded in jamaica i could not have been a writer. 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 younge, girls, rlass, socioeconomic disparities. being here in america gave me that opportuni i didn't come out. i was found out. my mother discovered, overheard a conversation i had on the phone with another woman. and i had no idea that she was even present in the house.d after the conversation ended, she approached me and she said, "you know, nicole, that a woman on the phone?" and i said, "yes." and she said, "well, you know, men don't speak like th to each other." i'd spent my whole career, my erole undergaduate career trying to pleasend my father being pre-med. so here was that one thing that i couldn't, i had no contr 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 tom aica just to see that part of

me. i took her back home in 2010 we actually spent a great time. it was at a resort, because we couldn't have stayed with my parents, given the obvious, for obvious reasons and it was then that all the things that i was running away from came back to me. the classism, the complexion- ism, the homophobia, one of the biggest, most memorable experiences there was interacting sith a waiter e. you know, he was at the resorte and at firsts speaking to me like he was british, thinkina that i wourist, i knew the class he's from because i'm of that same class, right? so it wasn't untiathe found out 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 actuallyanted to show the people behind the fantasy, right; who are these waiters serving us the resort? who are the maids making our beds? who e the hotel clerks, the bus drivers, those are the people who are often neglected, often invisible, the working

class jamaicans. and so i wanted their lives, especially our working class women, to be out there. people need tbe seen. want to show that. i wanted to document that, right, so that next time, the next person who comes to the island can actually see us asll pcoy my name is nicole dennis benn, d this is my brief but spectacular take on writing 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 unethil and, "untethered to the truth." es describes mr. trump as having been od with the prostitute portion of thein mous dossier compiled by former british intelligence

offieecer christopher , raising it at least four times with the former f.b.i. head. he also describes the trump presidency as a "fore fire" that is doing serious damage to the country's norms and traditions.e and that's twshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. erjoin us online and again tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been prided by: >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life billio well planned. learn more at raymondjames.com.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station om viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc ptioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.or

martha stewart: if you can never get enough cookies, then you won't want to misrt this season of " bakes". i'll bombringing you cookies all over the world. join me in my kitchen, each week, where i'll share popular classics from italy, scandinavia, france, the netherlands, eastern europe; even from do under. ng discover unusualdients, plus helpful tips for decorating and sharing. welcome to "martha bakes". "martha bakes" i. made possible by for more than 200 years, domino and c&h sugars have bed by home bakers to help bring recipes to life and create memories for each new generation of baking enthusiasts. ♪