captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: the demoatic party sues russia, the trump campaign, and wikileaks for meddling in the 2016 election. plus, we see james comey's memos on meeting with the present. then, i sit down with the u.n. high commissioner for human rights, zeid ra'ad al hussein, to talk about the ongoing conflicts in syria and. and, it's friday. mark shields and reihan salam are here to talk about the comey memos and what the passing of barbara bush may teach us about politics today. then, a poet's best friend. author stephen kuusisto writes about his relationship with his dog, after a condition left him legally blind. >> as i'm writing about what

corky and i did together, right, i began to realize this is about my opening up and becoming a larger, more courageous, open, ngrious, flexible and outg person. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects

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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to youpbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the claim that president trump stole the 2016 election is going to deral court. a democratic party lawsuit today s a conspiracy and seeks civil damages. it comes as the president is also doing battle with former f.b.i. director james comey. yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. >> reporter: the list of atdefendants in the democr national committee's mtiulllion dollar federal lawsuireads like a "who's who" of trump associates. the president himself is not among them, but the d.n.c. is d ing the trump campaign; the president's son, dtrump jr.; the president's son-in-law

and white house adviser, jared kushner; long-time associate roger stone; anthe indicted former trump campaign chairman, paul manafort. it also includes wikileaks, and the site's founder, julian assange. russia, and ssia's main military intelligence unit, the g.r.u., sit at the top of the list of defendants. the d.n.c.'s central allegation? that people close to president trump and russian entities conspired to spread dos that were stolen from the d.n.c., and bolster then- candidate trums presidential bid. "russia and its co- conspirators," the lawsuit says, tyust answer for these actions." the democratic pet off a similar legal battle decades ago, after the watergate break- in. back then, the d.n.c. sued president nixon's re-election campaign for damages.pa thy ultimately won a $750,000 settlement on the same

day that mr. nixon resigned. there was also continued attention today on the "comeyco memos," james mey's first-hand accounts of his interactions with president trump, while he was still director of the f.b.i. there are seven memos in all, 15 pages total. thursday, after pressure from some republican lawmakers, the justice departnt handed over the notes to congress. they detail discussions comey had windth the president a white house aides about hifirst national security adviser, michael flynn, as well as the president's fixation on thee so-called "stessier." comey had publicly discussed some of what's in ths previously. >> sure. i created records after conversations, and i t did it after each of our nine conversations. if i didn't, i did it for nearly all of them, especially the ones that were substantive. >> reporter: president trump today lashed out at comey again. "flynn's life can be totally destroyed," he lamented, "whilee shady comey can leak and lie. is that really the way life in america is supposed to work?" meanwhile, three house g.o.p.

committee chairmen argued that mr. trump would befit from the memos being released. "rather than making a criminal case for obstruction, these memos would be defense exhibit a." congressional democrats disagree house miniority leader nancype si tweeted that the memos proved mr. trump's "contempt for the rule of law."r e pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> woodruff: late today, the trump campaign responded to the ouwsuit, calling it "frivolous" and "completely wimerit." we will hear from the chair of the democratic national committee, right after the news summary. in the day's other news, russia says president vladimir putin is still waiting for president trump to follow up on an invitation to visit the white house. the offer came in a phone call with trump last month. in moscow today, foreign minister sergei lavrov said mr. trump had also talked of visitingussia. >> ( translated ): we proceed from the fact that the u.s.

president said that he would be glad to see president putin in thwhite house, that he wou be glad to meet in a return visit. president trump has returned to esthis topic a couple of tso of course we assume that he will make it more specific. >> woodruf there was no immediate response from the white house. in the middle st, violence erupted again at gaza's border, and palestinia said that fived were killed an150 wounded by israeli fire. thousands of gazans turned out, and me burned tires and sailed kites carrying molotov cocktails toward the border fence. israeli officials said they defended the barrier with livefi and tear gas. north and south korea took another major step today toward resolving their long standoff. the rivals installed and tested the first-ever direct telephone hotline between seoul and

pyongyang. their leaders hold a summit next friday. several people were publicly caned in indonesia's aceh province tay, despite international condemnation. some unmarried couples were punished, under islamic sharia law, for public displays of affection, along with two women accused of prostitutio a crowd of hundreds-- including rdlaysian tourists-- looked on. many jeered and re the scene on their cell phones, and some objected to plans to move the public canings indoors. >> ( tran is carried out in public because it can be witnessed by everyone, so it will give a deterrent effect against others. the caning should not be done prison for that reason. >> woodruff: "human rights watch" says caning amounts to torture, and it has demanded the isprovincial government ab the practice. the state of alabama executed an 83-year-old man overnight, by lethal injection. walter leroy moody jr. became the oldest prisoner put to death

in the u. since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. moody was convicted of mailing four bombs that killed a federal judge and a civil rights lawyer in 1989. the casket of former first lady 1rbara bush lay in repose in houston today, forhour public viewing. her husband, former president george h.w. bush, greeted some of the first people to file past a private funeral will be h tomorrow. mrs. bush died tuesday at theag of 92. a warning today, to avoid eating all roine lettuce from uthwestern arizona. the centers for disease control and protection expanded an earlier alert over an e-coli outbreak. at least 60 people across states have fallen ill so far. the c.d.c. says the best advice is, if you don't know the source

of lettuce you bought for certain, don't eat it. and on wall street, interest rad,s rose, tech stocks tumb and the market gave ground. the dow jones industrial average lost 202 points close at 24,462. the nasdaq fell nearly 92 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 23. for the week, all the indexes gained about half a percent.in and, bri prince charles will be the next leader of the 53-nation commonwealth. member states met in london today and unanimously chose charles for the largely symbolic position. he will succeed his mother, queen elizabeth, when she dies.u thn turns 92 tomorrow. still to come on the newshour: why the d.n.c. lawsuit against s e trump campaign. the u.n. human rigief on the crises in yemen and syria. students stage another walkout to protest gun violence. and, much more.

>> woodruff: we return to the lawsuit filed the democratic national committee today against president trump's campaign,um ssveral top advisers, wikileaks and the n government. the d.n.c. alleges a massive a plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, in part by hking the democratic party's computer network and releasing olen emails. i spoke with democratic national committee chair tom perez ati shor ago, and started by asking why they filed the suit when the investigation by special counsel bert mueller is still underway. >> well, there are three reasons, scwood. first of all, we don't know wher direueller will finish his investigation and he should take his time to do a thorough job. we have to file within a statute of limitations and, so, if we t and wait, we're frankly committing legal malpractice.

a yeargo when i came to the d.n.c., it was clear we had been hacked and by the lssians. it ws clear to me a year ago whether there was a conspiracy and the trump campaign. it has become abundantly clea to me that there is that conspiracy and, because we have done our homework, we've filed this suit. finally, judy, i'm veryou concerned the upcoming elections. civil lawsuits have an imporrpnt e of deterrence, and i hear from so many people across this couny, they've hacked before, they've interfered in 2016 and they're going to do it again, what are you going to do about it, tom? >> woodruff: i hear u, but to the point of conspiracy, this is something we know. again, special counsel robert mueller is look into it. the public doesn't kn if that actually happened. it may appear to some people it d but untile dots have been connected and there is some

legal basis for that, are you at risk in a lawsuit of getting ahead of what are known facts? >> well, i'm very comfortable of where we arw. i feel we have ample evidence to don't strait in a civ prding what we're doing. and we have a lower burden of proof in a civil cas so i've dealt with this from the criminal side as a o.j. prosecutor, and i understand and i have great respect for the eork tht director mueller is doing, and we ha great respect that they will continue to do the independent, thorough job that they need to do. >> woodruff: let. but we also -- we were hacked and they tried to cause chaos in the inn in the democratic party, and we need to seek justice in aivil case and we need to deter. >> woodruff: let me ask, you won't be sprised to know tht there has been a full-throated response from the trump campaign. st quoting their campaign manager who said this is a sham lawsuit, about a bogus rsian

solution claim filed by a desperate, dysnctional and nearly insolvent democratic party. >> well, i think thehad their greatest hits of conspiracy theories. and, judy, for your viewers, i think it would be interesting to go back to thet wagate era because the d.n.c. filed a lawsuit against the nixon mpaign back then, an the response when that lawsuit was filed was almost identical to what we saw today. so it seems like the trump folkh annixon folks, once again, there's yet another thing that they he in common, which is these false defiles of involvement. >> woodruff: one last question and that is it gets back to the mueller investigation, does your lawsuit run the risk of politicizing something that for most par mr. mueller has managed to keep away from politics >> this isn't partisan, this is patriotic. making sure our elect free and fair with no foreign

interference, there is nothing more important than that. you look at what general mcmaster said on his way out from his service in the trump administration. he said, eyave not paid a cost for their misdeeds, referring to russia. john mccain referred to the hack as an t of war, and the absence of deterrence righinnow, i thit's incredibly important we move forward. and the civil proceeding is something where we will bein an article 3 court. we're not going to have a trial of twitt're not going to have devin nuúñez presiding ovea the i believe in the federal civil justice system and that, is think, a really important vehicle moving forward for us te haveruth out there, and i'm confident at the the truth is going to show that there was an unholy alliance between th trump campaign and the russians to interfere with our 2016

election. >> tom perez, the chairman of the democratic national committee, we thank you. >> thank you. it woodruff: and now, william brangham is herethe legal implications of the d.n.c. lawsuit. >> brangham: for that analysis,b i'm joinsusan hennessey. she is the executive editor of "lawfare" and a senior fellow at the brooking institution. welcome back to the "newshour". >> thanks for having me. >> reporter: you he aardbout tom perez, the campaign, wikileaks all consped to make hillary clinton look bad. from a legal perspective what do you make of the su? >> the peres notes there is ample yefd. there are quite a few allegations. some grounded, relying on this intelligence media assessment oe russian intnce but a lot relies on things like news reports including a sinsogle ce or anonymously sourced reports. the challenge will be translating the essential news reports into evidence that wills be adble in court.

what's relevant right now is not necessarily whether they can dor that but wher not they can survive a motion to dismiss, whether or not they have a well-pleaded complaint on the face. it does seem likely this lawsuit, at least some defendants, s least some cla are likely to survive a motion to dismiss. this is most relevant because it ans they will move to the discovery phase. that might end up becoming really powerful tool for the d.n.c. to unearth newin rmation. >> so the tricky part for their case, seems to be, thile there might be discreet evidence of the wikileaks release, the d.n.c. being hacked, some members of the trump organization indicating that they would like to get dirt on hillary clinton, they have to tie all those things together as a connected cospiracy, right? >> right. so what they are alleging is this broad cniracy. they're alleging there was an actual agreement between rusan actors, the trump campaign and .c.ociates to hack the d.n and agreement to distribute stolen materials to help donald

trump andllarm y clinton. that is a high bar and ahead of the public record we've seen thus far. that's going to be a difficult showing for tell me to make the cour that said, there is another case going on in an invasion of privacy theory. there is going to be a motion to dismiss monday. we have a case that will provide a road map as to whether the legal claims are going to be sufficient. >> reporter: the elephant in the room is the mueller investigation, undergoing constantly right now. what does this do vi-a-vis the mueller investigation because, theoretically, tt d.n.c. sui touches on some of the same people, evidence and events.hi isa conflict? can they go on at the same time? help me understand at that time. >> i think they are fundamentally unrelated. we don't know much about the mueller investigation but it doesn't appear to be particularly reactive to things like this. the d.n.c. sui tt relies e

mueller investigation because it uses some evidence that actually comes from thecourt filings. it gets quite ahead. it is alleging this actual conspiracy but we haven't seen mueller make that showing.re theyelated to the extent they're talking about the same events and people, so i think wh cak of it as an alternative. oi don't know how the mueller investigation is to end. even if he found evidence of serious wrongdoing, that might be included in ath repor remains within d.o.j., a report that goes to congress and isn't distributed to the american public. so this is an alternate vehicle by which d.e n.c. might unearth some of the same or similar facts but in a f in which they can conduct their own fact finding and in a fashion in which they can make these thinso public. he best way to think about it is parallel tracks, the same subject matter but not necessarily related. >> reporter: this als when the president is juggling so many other legalases -- the mueller case, stormy daniels

case, thmichael cohen case, the emoluments lawsuit -- i mean, this is an enormous amount for a white house and trump organization's team to be juggling. >> right, it's also a year and a half into his term. this is anngma complex legal landscape they're working through and we're seeing peculiarities. in this southern case against michael cohen, we hae the president's private lawyers arguing on a attorney-client privilege against justice department attorneys, donald trump's private attorneys are argug against his institutional attorneys so that illustrates the strangeness that we're in and potential conflicts there. orter: the release to have the comey memos, the memoso jameey contemporaneously wrote down after different meetings with the president. we've heard about the memos a long time. now they're released and we have been ae to read them specifically. do the details of the memos tell us anything gerne legally with

regard to the russia investigation? >> they don't offer muchi informon, considering what comey said in his book and congl,ssional testimony as we so i don't know that it advances the ball forward legally at all. that said, itai cey does corroborate comey's account. it goes to his credibility, and it knocks down this notion of comey as a disgruntled employee that's recountg these evnts in a way that's unfavorable to trump after the fact. these are the memos he wrote while still f.b.i. director, while he watostill wante have a good relation with the president, had every inc to not make a mountain out of a molehill. what we're seeing in the mos is a profound degree of concern and concern he has remainedns tent about the way president trump was treating the justice department in his inability to understand the importance of maintaining those instutional norms of independence. >> reporter: susan hennessey, thank you so much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: the u.s. state department released its annual, global accounting of the state of human rhts today. e report blasted russia, china, iran and north korea, specifically for being "forces of instability." it also accused syria's bashar al-assacrd of indinate attacks on civilians, onit hos, and of employing torture, and using rape as a weicon of war. crsm of saudi arabia, a close u.s. ally, aon its intervenn yemen's brutal civil war was more muted. for an international look at these issues and more, i spoke a short time ago with the united nations high commissioner for human rights, zeid ra'ad al hussein. i began by asking him about the brutal syriacivil war. well, for the last few years, there's been an absolute disregard for the most minimal

standards of principles in law, and we have seen every conceivable atrocity being t mmitted by most parties to the conflict, but morticularly the syrian government and its lies in terms of scale. that's not to say that the armed groups, and particulhe extremist movements, the terrorist movements haven't themselves been complicit in the most -- and perpetrated the most awful atrocities, but the lion's share of the alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes that are almost certainly to be proven by a court of law in the future fall at the foot of the syrian government. one mustn't forget this whole crisis ban with the torture, the abuse of children, and started from severe violation

of human rightsnd respect o the rights of those children and, from there, we have acr is that's almost breaking the world in a very real sense. >> woodruff we're reading about another aspect of this crisis in syria today. the "the washington post reporting on raqqa, occupied by i.s.i.s. for so long, aout the destruction of 11,000 or 12,000 buildings or damage under u.s.-led airstrikes and goes on to say thentiment there is that the u.s. took part in this deruction but not taking responsibility for cleaning it up. >> yeah, in all such operations, basic principles that govern the conduct of milary forces, principles such as distinction, proportionality have to be observed, and wheneveree actions like this, you expect there to benquiries and

investigations such that you cal then n to the people why it is that civilians have fallen to the rocndketsthe bombardments. otherwe, you're fighting a losing battle. basically, as nicha once, sa if you're not careful, when fighting monsters, you yourself beco one, and that's the point that has to be driven at every me we sit with a particular government. don't make it worse. you are there to protect the civilian population from armed extremists that ve run amok. don't, through criminal negligence or even in certain cases it could be deliberate, one doesn't know, don't make it worse. investigate anmake the investigations transparent. >> another crisis zone in that nnection, of course, is yemen, where, again, terrible human suffering, civilians, women,ch

dren, what is your understanding of the situation there? >> well, likewise.be i mean, it'n this horrific humanitarian catastrophe and oongoing. we m the human rights side have been tasked by -- from the human rights council in geneva to put together a group of eminent experts to investigate these attacks that have led tos civilian clties. there was a reported attack ilians 20 people, civ being killed just outside of taz, and this ivestigation will be made public in september, and one hopes that all sides his horrific conflict in yemen, the coalion on one e, the houthis and the separatists in the south, that they understand that, one day, if they don't, or even if they n't continue, one day they may well have to stand before a judge and account for

the alleged crimes that have been committed. >> of course, all this is ppening at a time when we are seeing voices, leaders around the world whore showing disrespect for humans, rig parts of eastern europe, hungary, the czech republic, the philippines. w do you in your role at the united nations speak to them?he what's t role of the rest of the world when we see these kinds of forces arising? >> well, this year we celebrate o e 70th anniversary of the universeve the declaration of human rights and it's a document put together by those who really suffered in tw world wars and the holocaust and, in the second line, it says contempt and disregard for human rights and contribud to the suffering of humanity. what we see now is exactly that on the part ofmany of the world's leaders who should know better that, as said in

respect of syria, you have a conflict that has destroyed not just one part of the world but maybe two, and it bieganth a severe human rights violation and, eventually, all human rights violations, if they're not curtailed, they can turn into conflict and it behves us to pay much more attention. >> well, words for all of us to thutk abo the high commissioner at the united nations for human riht zeid ra'ad al-hussein, we thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: mark shields anreihan salam analyze the week's news."n and, from thshour bookshelf," a blind poet details

his life-altering connection with his guide dog. but first, thousands of students walked out of schools nationwide this morning, in the lmass protest against gun violence. the events marked the 19th anniversary of the massacre at columbine high so ool in colorat killed 13. lisa desjardins reports on the day's events.w >> we are ing to pause to honor the victims of columbine. >> reporter: the scenes were repeated across the country. s moments ofence in places like indianapolis... students and teachers in a hoton high school, forming a ncper chain of names of people slain by gun vio and everywhere, as in new haven, connecticut, protests and appeals foaction to stop mass shootings. >> we as a nation cannot afford routine mass murders. we need action now. we need to remind our

politicians that this is us. these are our childrenre dying. >> reporter: in washington, students staged a sit-down itprotest in front of the house. >> all of these are columbine victims. we stopped saying their names a long time ago, so until the end this moment of silence, will continue to repeat their names so you guys don't forget them. rachel scott, daniel rohrbough, dave sanders, kyle velasquez, >> reporter: from there, they marched to the capitol and demanded action on gun legislation. >> they deserve to live in a place where you don't have to be worried about going to c.v.s. or going to school or walking down the street just because of what you look like or because someon bad day.>> eporter: students at parkland's marjory stonema s douglas highchool, where 17 were killed in febary, also walked out. they've led a push for stronger background checks and bans on

mp stocks and assault-ty rifles. that push is national, again today up to the steps of the capitol. shortly after the last student s walkouts in march, congrd pass two gun measures. they were to shore up the current background cystem, and also get more funding to states. but neither of those changed norrent law, and there is expectation that congress willgu return to the issue anytime this year. president trump has said the mental health system needs improvement, and he's supported the idea of letting teachers carry guns at schools. >> this would only be, obviously, for people that are very adept at handling a gun, you would no longer have a gun- free zone. gun-free zone to a maniac-- because they're all cowards-- a gun-free zone is "let's go in and let's attack because bullets aren't coming back at us." >> reporter: the presilso formed a school safety commission, led by education secretary betsy devos. but students at the u.s. capitol today demanded more concte action to address their generations' fears.

>> we want people to have that sense of comfort again and be able to walk around the street and not put your hands up when a cop car. enough of violence, enough of killing, enough of being scared. >> reporter: this as today, in marion county, florida, another school shooting left one student wounded. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa. desjardi >> woodruff: and one postscript to lisa's report: studenmb at coe did not walk out today since classes are never held on the annivers the shooting. but, they are encouraged to participate in a day of service. and let's finish our look at w this dh the story of a student who survived columbine 19 years ago. the nehour's student reporting lab at legacy early college high school in greenville, south carolina, interviewed physical education teacher lindse o'donnell. she describes how she came to see mental health and mindfulness as the keys to healing. >> my name is lindsey o'donnel i am a physical education teacher at legacy early college in greenville, south carola.

i was 17 years old during the columbine shooting. it was my senior year of high- school. my initial reaction was, i thought it was a fire drill. someone might have pulled it. i thought it might have been a senior prank. we really didn't know. >> 20 wounded. >> it was just chaos. people were running, just crying, hysterical. it was just shocking.♪ ♪ it was just unheard of, 19 years ago. i coped with the columbine m shootitly through the support of my friends and family, and also through catness. i became a physieducation teacher and a soccer coach. when i was at columbine, i wish i would've known more about mindfulness-- not only for me,

but my friends would have coped with the situation differently. a lot of them coped with it through drugs or alcohol. columbine was, like, the first big masshooting. nowadays, we have to practice lockdowns. and with that,tudents are stressed. they come to school scared. they're anxious. every single day, with my students, we start our day with a five-minute mindful moment. and by practicing mindfulness, it's not going to eliminate school shootings. however, fitness, mindfulness, and mental health can help. >> woodruff: it was another news-packed week, and we have shields and salam to un-pack it. that's syndicated columnist mark shields, and "national review" executive editor

reihan salam. david brooks is away. gentlemen, welcome on is so, mark, i want to point out we've just learned there is a post-story just moving that the attorney general let the white house know last weekend that, if the president were to fire the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, that he, attorney general jeff sessionld have to step down. i guess the language is "might have to leave his job." so it looks as if there's still worry, concern about the president's intentions, even though he said he doesn't plan fire these peple. >> it's a happy, productive place to work, the trump administtion, a feeling of trust, congeniality and mutual ssense of mision. i mean, as a personnel director, the president is unrivaled as a disaster if the profession -- in the profession. people who work for him work so in terror, anxiety, unsure of

what he wants to do and what they're supposed to do and ohether they will be there two weeks fm now. >> woodruff: rihan, just another element in this ongoing saga? i can't say we know where the story is here. were with we to hear there was a move to fire the deputy attorney general, that would be big newse anse resistance with republican lawmakers and other figures in the senior ranks too have the whitese. so i'm not sure there is a story yet, but certainly it's a sign there ar many people the white house who would strongly discourage the president from s takingep and he himself said he had no intention of pursuing it. we'll see what happens. >> woodruff: it was in the several-day period when we were hearing the president was upseta and thinkiout or talking about firing, but, as you said, nothing's happened yet. so let's move, mark, to the story toay. democratic national committee announces it is filing a lawsuit against a trump campaign,

against high russian officials, russian government and wikileaks fo acking into the democratic national committee email system and essentially for stealing, they're saying, corrupting the election in 216. we heard tom perez a few minutes agthe chair of the party saying one of the reasons we're doing this is the statute of limitations, we think there is evidence to elieve there is a conspiracy. is it a smart move on their part? >> wall find out if it's smart move, judy. part of the problem is it does have echoes of watergate and without, right now, at least the persuasive proof that the same soviet facts operated where the president was intimately, deeply involved in a criminl act i would say this, part of it is, i think, bricks has become litigation, politics has become lawyers and depositions and

whether you're going to testify and, you know, if that senseit not -- at least initially exhilarating to those of us who care about politics and policy and legislation and righting wrongs and bringing justice. you onow, i can hestly say i don't know. >> woodruff:ak what do you of it? what's the significance? >> well, politics is becoming litigation, certainly, p but it is alsosi fundr. that is especially true if you're the chair of the iodemocratc nl committee. one thing important to understand is american politics is very decentralized. typically, candidates raise their own money, have their own networks. the d.n.c., for it to be influential and important, it has to raise money, and one way to raise the profile s to do things that fires up the base and small-dollar donors, many who are passionate about the russian story. susan hennessey earlier on the program explained they are setting a very high bar for themselves. it's hard to see they're really going to prove theseegllions

in court, but the litigation is definitely going to get the d.n.c. and d.n.c. chair tom perez in the news and i think it's going to fire up aon of people to open their checkbooks, so in that sense i think it is a very sh rude move for the -- shrewd move for the d.n.c. >> woodruff:ll thiming, mark, in a week where were hearing so much about james comey, his book and then todaasy ornight, i guess, after urging by republicans on capitol hill the comey memos that he bote after his conversations with the presideore comey was fired have now been made public. a th of you have had ance to look at them. do they changey anthing? >> other than perhaps your airmann of the three ch who pushed for their publication. they in no way cflict, at least in my reading of them, with james comey's own testimony. they reinforce what he has said

d has written. i think congressman gowdy has said their exhibit a for the defense for the white house for any case of obstruction of justice on the part of the president, there is certainly not -- they're certainly not complimentary of the president, they're not inspiring, but they reinforce what comaey hasid. >> woodruff: what do you see reihan and with the coming out of the book? most people say they are affirming what's in the book. >> i agree with mark's re i think that, basically, this is entirely consistent with what james comey sa before. clearly, james comey had serious misgivings about president trump long before he was elected and also, you know, now he's opening campaigning againsts president trumelection. he's telling people he wants american voters to throw him out, and t trouble her is this, if you are james comey and you really want to convince folks that president trump

should be voted out of office,h et cetera, theng is you have to find persuadable people. you have to find people who might be favorably disposed to the president and persuade them not to be. i'm not sure hhy's doing that. we know he's always had misgivings about thesident and i think it intends to reinforce the narrative that he was not favorably disposed. >> reporter: how do you see that?y >> i will is about james comey and he's certainly gotten criticisfrom a number of quarters and earned it by including the snide remarks abt the president's appearance and suntanning and hair color and all the rest of it which wat mud wrestling, getting down where donald trump mud wrestle. by his statement uncontradicted in any way before the election, he revealed thatry hil clinton's personal emails were going to be reopened at a time

e en he and virtually everybody in sholeather and a majority of people in the trump campaign firmly believe thhillary clinton was going to win and he put that election in some suspense. the clinton people foame him it, the trump people acknowledge what he did, and i have toay, it certainly was not -- it was an act of some integrity, professional integrity for him to do that. the safe thingould have bee to not say anything at the time and,ct, let it happen and be reappointed. he wapu certainlyting at jeopardy his own position, if, in fact, hillary clinton did win, that he had tried to sabotage and sub ma a rein her chances in the last week of the campaign. so i think right now, judy, what we've seen in the first week is the two tribes have formed, on the one side those who don't believe james comey and those who do. i don't know how many people are persuadable on this issue at this point.

>> woodruff: you i want to k you both finally about former first lady barbara bush who was a remarkable figure, somebody with a sense of humor, passed away this week. her funeral is tomorrow. reihan, there would have been, of course, been a loof attention, but why do you think there is particular attention right w? well, i have a little theory which is a lot of us have women in our lies, particularly mothers and grandmothers, who came atg ae at a time when women's contributions weren't necessarily valued and women made a mark by serving famlies, putting others ahead of themselves, and i think people looked at barbara bush and saw a verysharp, formidable woman, with an as id tongue and sharp width and who helped build an incredible dynasty and who might have not gotten the spotlight

she would have had she come of age at a different time. i think this is a mor talent who had a deep effect on the >> woo she was the wife ufuntry. and mother of a president. we foul road her over decades. so she -- we followed heover decades. she played the traditional role but did it with very much her own identity. >> she did, and her death touched something in the nation that surprised me. i think the response has been national. i think there's a couple of factors, judy. at a time when the debate abut character and fitness for office and the president rages and continues to rge in the country, she reminds us, ass doe her husband, of a time when at sense of moral obligation of those of advantage, those of ivilege to act generously and compassionately toward those not so gifted, not so blessed was

essential to our national leadership. at the same time, and reihan's point about she did have an acia tongue, she waable of that, but i remember the act of courage, a time when the aids epidemic tt we were seized by fear that if you shook hands with somebodyai witds you could contract it. her predecessor, the reagans, had been more than arm's length on this issue. she left the white house a dent to a hospice of infants afflicted with aand held and caressed and comforted childrena and it was at of enormous courage. it was a yearning for what the represented -- the marriage, the family, the sense of duty, the thnse of responsibilit each of us has to our country, and i think she just touched it.

>> gotten away from that, haven't we? >> we certainly have. >> woodruff: we ce htainly think and the entire bush family at this moment. thank you both. reihan saam, mark shields. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: finally tonight,t a story abe power of man's best friend. in a new memoir, poet and author stephen kuusisto detailsis life-altering connection with a guide dog. and as jeffrey brown discovered, it was a change that impacted him boths a blind man, and as frwriter. it's the latest om our "newshour bookshelf." >> brown: on the campus of syracuse university, a brisk wind, and a very brisk walk.no >> youw, most of my friends- - even my wife, who's very atetic-- they can't keep u

with this. >> brown: it's a perfect match of man and dog. 63-year-old stephen kuusisto, poet and professor, and caitlyn, a four-year-old yellow lab trained as a guide dog. >> brown: kuusisto was born with a condition that left him legally bld. he describes his vision as having vaseline smeared on a lens.or the auf two volumes of poetry, his new memoir, "have dog, will travel," traces his own path, one that began as aer child whose anted his blindness hidden. >> my job was to really just live without the kinds ofnd assistanceccommodations that i needed, and to make it seem okay. >> brown: but the way you write it, at least, came off as a n that.worse t as in, she made it feel shameful. >> she did.d, ou can't emerge with a

good sense of self-regard and become your own self advocate i that k dynamic. "the kid who couldn't see he flew right up his parents camed they ban pots and pans they hoped to get him back to earth but they were far below and the boy was in the sky of verities." >> brown: he describes a limited, "small" life-- a fear of anything new, including new places. it wasn't until his late 30s, cater losing a job, that h to a realization. >> i'm not going to make iin the larger world unless i know how to actually navigate the larger world, and this is really a crisis. >> brown: the opening came through a new york-based training school, where kuusisto was troduced to his first guide dog, corky, and embarked w onks-long process of learning to work together. >> at first i thought, well, this will be easy. you show up, they give you a smart dog, and it's like picking up a car and then you leave,

right? that's what i thought, and i didn't realize that you learn more about dogs than you ever knew possible, one. and o, they are building you up, the trainers, to feel not only that u can do this, but that this was the life you were always meant e. >> brown: as kuusisto ites in his book, the benefits of guide dogs arose from the horrors of war. the first world war. think of the famous john singer sargent painting, "gassed," showing a line of soldiers, their eyes bandaged. a german doctor, gerhard stalling, seeing how dogs had rarformed under pressure on the battlefield, beganing them to help blind soldiers. the first guide dog school in the u.s., "the seeing eye," was stard by morris frank in 192 the movement transformed many lives, including kuusisto's. you describe when you were just getting corky, your firsguide

dog, going into manhattan. >> that defied my capacity as o writer tlly explain. that feeling was so immense, so meaningful, so beautiful, that i'm still not sure i reallyd engait, right? >> brown: in the harness, caitlin is all business, but the moment it comes off at home, she's all play. look at this! >> get ¡em! get ¡em! >> brown: in addition to his writing and teaching, kuusisto is also a strong advocate for disability rights, working at syracuse's famed burton blatt institute. he regularly meets with other faculty and students to discuss issues of the day. >> people with disabilities doesn't mean they're not capable

of doing something. lo brown: one topic during our visit: the termi associated with disabilies. >> this is why i don't believe in the term "assistive teotnology." it'sust technology for the disabled-- all technology is assistive technology. >> brown: kuusisto himself usesp a er program when he writes. a voice reads his words back to him. and, he recognizes a car connection between his poetry and the new world he foundith guide dogs. >> we all know, i think, those of us who read and love poetry, that one of the things poetry does well is to chart awakenings. there's that spiritual aspect to poetry that is slowing down and a coming to real clarity about something, and as this bookm proceeded, as iting about what corky and i did together, right, i begano realize, this is about my opening up and becoming a larger, more

courageo, open, curious, flexible and outgoing person. a person who i did not know existed. >> brown: caitlin is kuusisto's fourth guide dog. in "have dog, will travel," he writes movingly of the death of, cois original four-legged companion, who died at age 13 in 2005ne >> this ishing i'm proud of, that when she was lying there on the gury in the vet's office and it was the final moment and i was aboutrst in a tears, i realized this dog who has cared for me and been concerned for me at every turn. and i held her and i sang to her our favorite little walking song. so, she died while hearing that, s d then i fell apart. >> brown: for the wshour, i'm jeffrey brown in syracuse, new york.

>> woodruff: oh, my. thank you. eric greitans has been charged with felony data tampering in his 2016 campaign he used the or list from charity mission continues without permission. h he's facing invasion ofpr acy for taking a nonconsensual nude photo of a won with whom he was ving an affair. later tonight on "washington week," robert costa is here and he and his guests will discuss another wild ride of a wk in litics. and that will be followed by "i principlere president george w. bush recalls his mother, barbara bush, and discusses his ongoing workaf against aids ica, as well as whether "coerassionate cotism" still has a place in today's republican party. tomorrow on pbs newshour weekend, the wave of women

running fopublic office-- many of them as republicans. and finally tonight, w to welcome a new addition to the extended newshour family. npr's tamara keith, part of our "politics monday" team,de vered a newborn son early this morning. welcome to the world, gibson. we cannot wait to meet you! congrats to tamara and the family. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. a hareat weekend. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> babbel. a language program that teaches real-life conversaons in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italn, and more. babbel's ten to 15 minute lessons are available as an app,

or online. more information on babbel.com. >> bnsf railway.me >> concellular. ei supporting social entrepreneurs and solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made

possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by mediaccess group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

loss al tonight o kqed newsroom, how a small city has kiff a wave of resistance to the stole's sanctuary city pcies. and carl pope lays out a vision for how every fern, city and busess can fight climate change plus political analysis of governor brown's decision to deploy national guard troops at the border. hellond welcome to kqed newsroom, i'm thuy vu. we begin with immigration battles. thiswe the city of los alamedos in declared itself exempt from a state-wide law's th drawing criticism from president trump. that law sb-54, also known as the california values actpr ohibits state and local police