captioning sponsorho by news productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: a meeting for the record books, as north korea's leader kim jong-un steps over the border into south korea to meet his counterpart. and, it's friday. besides the korean summit, two e topean leaders c washington, and president trump's pick to run the veterans administration withdraws. mark shields and mona charen analyze the week's news. finally reckoning with history. a new monument grapples with one of the darkest chapters of this country's past >> most of us have no understanding about the legacy of slavery. we have no understanding about the era of lynching. >> wdruff: all that and more on tonight's p newshour.

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>> woodruff: north meets south: leaders of the two koreas hold a dramatic summit. meir meeting along the heavily- fortified bordked a day of diplomacy after months of war talk. it was-- quite literally-- an historic step. kim jong-un became the first north korean leader to set foot in south korea since the korean war, 65 years ago. he greeted president moon jae-in with a long handshake before inviting him to step onto north korean soil. the official talks at the peace house in panmunjom focused heavily on north korea's nuclear weapons program. afterward, president moonwo offered hopefus, but few specifics. >> ( translated ): today, chairman kim jong-un and i confirmed that ourhared goal to rid the korean peninsula of nuclear weapons through complete denuclearization.

>> woodruff: the two koreas have made similar statements in the past, but kim said this time must be different. >> ( translated ): today, we will make sure that the agreement we have reached, which the people of the korean peninsula and the world are watching, does not repeat the unfortunate history of d promises. >> woodruff: all of this comes after the north carried out a series of nuclear and missile tests, and after bellicose exchanges between kim and president trump ised war jitters. in january, the north korea leader unexpectedly signaled that he was open to dialogue. this month, he announced pyongyang will shut down its nuclear test site, and suspend nuclear and missile testing. today, a newfound friendliness frs on full display, punctuated by easy smilesuent tendshakes and even laughter. the leaders plana tree near

the demarcation line, using soil and water from both countries. >> ( translated ): standing ngface-to-face, i heartwar realize that north and south koreare not just neighbors that live separately, but rather a family. we, who live so close by, are not enemiethat must fight against each other, but are more unmilies that share the same bloodline, who muse. >> woodruff: kim and moon concluded by signing a joint e reement and calling for a peeaty to formally end the korean war. ( applause ) the koreas have held two previous summits, the last one in 2007, when kim jong-un's father, kim jong-il, and south korean president roh moo-hyun met in pyongyang. after today's meeting, people in seoul sounded hopeful, but cautious. ti ( translated ): i am stic about the result of the summit and wish for this to bring the war to an end. >> ( translated ): seeing the two leaders meet, it feels as if the unification already took

place. but i am also worried, and suspect that we may be deceived by north korea. >> woodruff: the koreas summit was welcomed by china and russia. in tokyo, japanese prime penister shinzo abe talked lly, while calling again ar answers about the fate of japaneucted by north korea p cades ago. president trplans his own seting with kim, in late may or early june, and nded upbeat today. >> i d it's never gone like this. it's never gone this far. i don't th enthusiasm for them wanting to make a deal. we're not going to be played, okay? we're going to hopefully make af deal, bue don't that's fine. >> woodruff: it remains unclear if kim is willing toup his nuclear program entirely. but in brussels today, newly sworn-in u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo insisted that has to be the final result. >> our objective remains unchanged.

we're committed to permanent, verifiable, irrevers dismantling of north korea's weapons of mass destruction programs without del until then, the global maximum prese.re campaign will continu >> woodruff: kim jong-un is now back in north korea, with the promise that president moon will visit him in pyongyang, this fall. we will examine just how significant today's summit was, after the news summary. in the day's other news, president trump leveled a new warning at iran. it came as he weighs whether to withdraw from the multi-nation nuclear agreement with iran next month. mr. trump discussed the issue with the visiting german chancellor angela merkel. afterward, he was asked if he uld ever order a military strike on iran, to destroy a nuclear weapons program. >> i don't talk about whether or not i would use military force. it's not appropriate to be talking about. but i can tell you this, they will not be doing nuclear weapons. that i can tell you, okay? they are not going to be doing nuclear weapons.

you can bank on it. >> woodruff: iran has said that its program is for peaceful purposes only, and has warned the u.s.ot to try to change the nuclear deal. merkel said today ere is room for improvement in the agreement, but she asserted that it has helped contain iran's nuclear ambitions and influence. the leaders of china andndia began their own two-day summit today, seeking to ease strained xies. china's presideninping greeted india's prime minister narendra modi at a lakeside resort in central china. xi called for grter cooperation. the world's two most populous nations are competing for influence across asia, and have long-standing border disputes. in the middle ea, violence erupted again at gaza's border with israel, with three palestinians killed and scores wounded. thousands of gazans protested for the fifth friday in a row, some burning tires and slinging stones. dozens tried to break through

the border fence, and israeli troops answered with tear gas and live fire. back in this country, the man accused of being the "golden state killer" was arraigned on two counts of murder. former police officer joseph deangelo appeared in court in sacramento. he is suspected in 13 killings and nearly 50 rapes during the 1970s and '80s. investigators say they finally cracked the case by using a genealogy website to match d.n.a. teachers in arizona and colorado stayed off the jobgain today, keeping scores of schools closed. sands ofix, tens of th striking teachers rallied for a second day in near 100-degre heat. they are demanding pay raises and more. meanwhile, thousands of colorad teachers gathear the state capitol in denver, after walking out of class in protest. an uproar swept the u.se of representatives today over the ouster of revere patrick

conroy as house chaplain. earlier this month, speaker paul ryan asked him to resign, and ryan told fellow republicans that the catholic priest was not meeting members' needs. that set off arguments between the two parties. >> there were some questions about responsiveness, and it just seemed like it was time for a change. that's something i think is appropriate, within the speaker's power to make. >> pat's a good friend, someone whom i've had great conversations with on the floor of the house. i've seehim have those same relationships and those conversations with both sides of the aislemen and women on both sides. he's a beloved person on the house floor. >> woodruff: democrats said ubnroy's prayer before the vote on the rcan tax bill was the real reason for his firing. in it, he appealed for fairness for all. ryan'sffice today said there was no one prayer that led to the decision, d he believes it

is in the best interest of the house. another member of thhouse of representatives has resigned over sexual harassment allegations. pennsylvania republican patrick meehan stepped down today. head already decided not t seek re-election. meehan has acknowledged using taxpayer funds to settle a former aide's harassment claim. former nbc news anchor tom brokaw is denying that he and tried to kiss a former co-worker. in published accounts, linda vester says it happened twice, in the 1990s. a second woman makes simar claims. brokaw says it never happened, and calls vester someo "with limited success" in her career "who has trouble with the truth." he's now 78, and remains a special correspondent for nbc. on the russia investigation, a laderal judge today rejected paul manafort'uit challenging the special counsel's authority. manafort is president trump's elrmer campaign manager.

he faces charges ued to russian election meddling or alleged collusion with the trump campaign. meanwhile, the u.s. house intelligence committee formally reported that it found no collusion. inmocrats rejected that fi the president said he was "very honored." wall seet had a mostly flat friday. the dow jones industrial average lost 11 points to closat 24,311. the nasdaq rose one point, and foe s&p 500 added three. the week, all three indexes dropped a fraction of a percent. and, the newest member of the ucitish royal family has a name. the duke andss of cambridge announced today their newborn son will be louis arthur charles windsor. it pays tribe to the baby's grandfather, prince charles, and to charles' great-uncle, louis mountbten. still to come on the newshour: the historic meeting bween north and south korean leaders. answers to some of the issues raised in our series on the

plight of rohingya refugees, and the atrocities they face in bangladesh camps. a caravan of asylum-seekers arrive at the u.s. border. and, much more. >> woodruff: now back to our top story, the summit between the leaders of north and south korea. for more, we turn to frank jannuzi. po is a former state department analyst, who sed the u.s. delegation for talks with north korea during the clinton administration. and, victor cha is the korea chair at the center for strategic and international udies. he served on the george w. bush national security council, and was considered by the trump white house to be ambassador to south korea, but that post remains unfilled. gentlemen, thank you both for bein cwith us. vict, to you first.

to the leaders of the two koreas came together. was this historic? how is thisr diffet from what's happened before? >> thanks, judy. thirt of all, this is the meeting between leaders of north tw south korea. the firs took place in 2000 and 2007. in tms of atmospherics and optic, this was by far the best of them, in part because this is first time the south koreans hosted, which allowed them to control the message. it was in korea earlier this week. five news blocks were details about the summit. so the overall messaging was very good about peace on the korean peninsula. in terms of substance, it wasn't as strong as past agreements, not just the summits, but the five joint documents that exist between north and south korea going back to 1972. so overall optics was very good, but in substance maybe good.s >> woodruff: frank jannuzi, how do you read this meeting?

>> well, i agrthee ictor that the style was greater than the substance,e,ut in this c i actually think that by playing small ba, victor is the expert on sports diplomacy, but byin plsmall ball the south koreans are aiming for a more achievable and sustainable visult than the grandiose ons of previous summit documents. cois agreement does include some rete specifics about the west sea, about liaison office, about people-to-people tie, and it also meets the trump administration's bottom line withespect to complete denuclearization in exchange for peace. so i think the less-ambitious agenda maactually be more achievable. >> woodruff: what about that, victor cha? even if the language in the document is not as complete or full as it has been in the past, if it's more achievab, is that not more desirable? >> well, a certainly i woulee that you have to be practical

about these sorts of things, and you ve to find the common space between the two sides. in this case i still think there are lots of questions about what denuclearization means for north d south korea and whether it means the same thing. there is a lot of concern that the language beinet useden the two koreas in terms ofnu earization is not similar to language that north korea has signed up to in5 2 and in 1992 where they wereery clear about abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear program, nor 1929 when ty said they would not have uranium itrichment facilities or reprocessing facs in the country. the reason this is a problem is the next summit coming up is at between president trump and the north korean leader, and if there is ambiguity about whher the u.s. and south korea on the one hand and north korea on the other have different definitions of denuclearization, that is going to have an impact on the mmit, and the last thing anybody wants is for the sum

between the u.s. and north korec to fail,se if the sum fails, you have no more diplomacy left. >> woodruff: so frank jannuzi, that sounds like it could be a problem. >>ell, of course, it will be a problem if the two sides cannot agree on what denucearization means. but i'm more optimistic with respect to what happens if this summit between president kim and president trump doesn't reach any final conclusion. i don't think we're ck to hostilities. ffthink we're back the more diplomaticts. there is no alternative approach diplomatiche hard work to nail down what the north is prepared to givep, on what kind of sequence events, what kind of phasing, andi think for president trump, we should not expect him to be ham, out all the details. this is going to be high-level iplomacy in which he looks the north korean leadethe eye and says, look, i want to end the north korean war. and kim jong-un needs to respond to president trump and say, i want to live on a non-nuclear

korean pins last, let's make it happen. then it's up to to special o itselfs tolot of hard work. >> woodruff: victor cha, what about that? after all, president trump did say today when he was answering questions from reporters saying, look, we're going to try make something happen, bu they're not willing to make the deal that we want, we're going to walk away? right. and this is why generally better to do these o sortsf negotiations before you have a summit. i participated for three years as part of the u.s. negotiating team that got e last denuclear agreements with north korea. what you want, as frank said, for grunts like me and frank to eroll up our sleevs and do these negotiations for a long period of time with a summit promise at the end as sort of the action event that will take us over the goal line. we're doing it very differently when president trump agreed, surprising everybody, agreed that he would meet withkim jong-un before there has been any substantive prenegotiation or negotiation takin place.

so as a result of this interkorean summit, more emphasis, more expectations have been placed on the summit between trump and kim, because the y issue, that is the key to a peace treaty, a peace to normalization of relations, denuclearization, this key issue still has not been clarified to any real extent as a result of the inter-korean summit. one is hopeful that's what will happen in the trump-kim summit, but course we can't be sur >> woodruff: frank jannuzi, why do you believe the north korean leader has come to this point right now? >> three things have changed, isdy. onhat we have a south korean leader from the progressive side who has four more years in offic and who is committed to improving north-south relations. second change is that kim jong-un himself has conlidated power. there were many of us, including i think victor, who thought that he might not be achievable, bu 's done it. he has consolidated his position

and he's presented a nuclear deterrt, and the third thing is donald trump. and donald trump understands there is only one decision makea in north kwith the power to change that country's direction. it is kim jongun. by going to the top, he has circumstance vented the grunts like vicr and , but i think he may have struck upon the only formula of diplomacy that high work to try to changeth n korea's trajectory. so the circumstances are different, an we can hopefully expect a better outcome than the evious two summits. >> woodruff: victor cha, how much credit will president trump deserve if something positive comes out of this? >> well, i think if someting positive comes out of it, if the north korean leader has made a strategic decision to give up all his nuclear weapon, i think he would deserve a lot of credit, as wouldhe north korean leader, as would the south korean leader. ope problem is i think many still believe north korea wants to have its cake and eat it too. it wants a peace treaty,

normalization, economic aid, humanitarian assistance, but it arnts to keep some semblance of their nucle program. and that is a deal i think that this president is not going to accept. >> woodruff: gentlemen, we'llle e it there. victor cha, frank jannuzi, thank you both very much. >> tnk you. >> thank you. dr >> wf: for three nights this week, we brought you stories about the rohingya refugee crisis aseen from bangladesh: on the refugees' hopes for return to their homeland in myanmar; on the troubling practicof child marriage; and on the horrors of the human trafficking trade. john yang brings us a broader look at their plight. >> yang: judy, to give us a deeper perspective, i'm joined by skye wheeler. n'e is a researcher in the worights program at human rights watch. skye, thanks so much for being

with us. there's a u.n. security council team on their way to bangladesh and myanmar. the u.n.'s ultimate is for the rohingya to return to myanmar, but what do the rohingya think about that? how do they feel about that? >> when my colleagues and i have asked rohingya abouther e'ey want to return, they look at us like crazy, because they will have just described to us the horrific abuses they suffered at the hands the myanmar army and other security forces in their homes. we've documented more than 350 villages burned. we've documented widespread and at times clearly systematic rape of women and girls as well asru some horrific massacres. the situation has not chaed. rohingya are still arriving. they are still telling stories of horrific persecution, as you know has been going on now for decades. so on the one hand, this canno be the end of the story.

the rohingya deserve to go home. they must go home, but they must go home with safety, with dignity, and when they want to go home. and right now it's just not safe enough. the myanmar government is still srsecuting these people. >> yang: oies on the rohingya was brought to us by tania torres rasheed and philip collier looked at some troubling issues. one was childarage. let's take a look at a clip from the piece on child marriage l ad welk about it on the other side. >> reporter: this girl was married at 12 to a 30-year-old ern who promised to support her and her four siafter her father fell ill and was unable to work. but a few weeks after the wedding,e discovered the truth. >> ( translated ): mhusband lied to me. he said he was from myanmar but actually he was from bangladesh and was already married to another woman with two kids. one morning he nt to work as usual and didn't come back. he's been gone now for six months and hasn'acted me

once. i think he's gone back to his other wife. >> reporter: she is six months pregnant with his child. it is illegal fora bangldeshi men to marry rohingya refugee women, but there is little enforc the camp. >> yang: the piece really made it clear tre are family pressures and there are also economic pressures on this. does that make d ficult to attack this problem? >> no. there's no question that these families are doing this because they have to do it. they have been put in a situation of complete desperation, and they see vy little choices, but child marriage is a very serious problem. in that case, you saw the story e' the girl, she's lost autonomy, lost control over her own body, her own life. she probably wasn't able to make that decision truly willingly, but we found in our research on while marriage all over the world that this is just the beginning of the pro girls who are married very young

almost always have worse health outcomes. they often have very serious problems with giving birth urge because their bods are not ready for it yet. they often lose much of their education, if not all of the rest of it after they get married. and they are often at risk of much higher levels of domestic violence. this is aroblem all over the world. it's a really serious issue, and it's something that needs to be taled. and it's like the sex trafficking, which your reporter also looked at, of rohingya women and girls, it's yet another level of humanht rs abuses against this population who has suffered so much already. >> yang: let's take a look atpi the of that story about the sex trafficking. >> reporter: this woman whose t me and face we concealed to protr identity started sex work to feed and protect her two children after her husband left atr for another woman. >> ( tran ): the food handout is not enough. when my kids cry for rice, wher

will i get iom? i'm only doing this to support my family. i feel bad doing it, but i have to survive somehow. >>eporter: she's one of four rohingya women working in this brothel. >> ( translated ): i see onetw sometimes men per day for about 20 minutes, 15 minutes to one hour. othey give me $2 t $6. the men come from different backgrounds. some are poor. others are rich. they're mostl rohingya. occasionally i see bangladeshi men as clients. they make me do bad thingto them and make me work really hard. when i do it, i'm soam aed, so i only take my pants off. >> yang: this is just heartbreaking. what can be done about this? >> the stories that we heard about what happened to these women and girls in myanmar ar also heartbreaking. they have been denied access to healthcare for many years. the horrific stories of rape, i spoke to one woman who saw her kid's head bashed in by aie sowith the back of his

gun. another woman had to leave one child behind in a burninhouse because she could only manage to carry the other one. these people have bee through horrors, and now they're in this enormous megarefugee camp facing terrible condiions, including sex trafficking. m the truth of tter is that the u.n. security council's response for thisr, the ethnic cleansing, the crimes against humanity, habeen inadequate. the security council is now on their way to myanmar and the bangladesh, as you mentioned, chance for a rea them to hit the reset button. we need to see u.n. security coeocil sanctions againste responsible for what has happened. we need to see an arms embargo, and we ulttely mead to see a referral to the international criminal court, so eventuerally is some accountability for these horrfic crimes committed against the population. >> yan skye wheeler of human rights watch, thank you so much for being with us.

>> thank you. w oodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: the korean summit, the nominee to be v.a. secretary dut-- mark shields and mona charen take on the week's news. and, how a new monument reckons with ameri's history of systemic lynching. but first, over the past few days, more than 300 central americans have arrived in tijuana, mexico. on sunday, they plan to ask for asylumt the san ysidro, california port of entry. as jean guerrero of pbs station kpbs in san diego reports, the justice department has directed u.s. attorneys to "take immediate action" to send judges and prosecutors to the border to adjudicate cases quickly. castro cradles her baby outside the san ysidro port of entry in tijuana. she's among hundreds of central

americans who plan to ask for p ylum, part of a caravan the trministration has accused of planning to enter the u.s. illegally.an >> ( ated ): i didn't come here to cross illegally. i came here fo, for the president to have a heart, since he's a human like us and was also created by god. c reporter: castro and most of the other migrane from honduras, where a divisive presidential ection last fall s led to killings in the streets. >> ( translated ): i've heard they don't give asylum anymore, that the u.s. isn't helping anyone. that they're going to deport me and take my daughter away. >> reporter: the caravans are organized by a humans collective called pueblo sin fronteras, and have occurred for more than a decade, raise awareness about violence in central america. but this year's attracted more attention due to the trump administration's new policies. president trump saidtweet monday that he had instructed homeland security to turn th away, and yesterday, the department's secretary, kirstjen elsen, said officials would enforce immigration laws.

>> if you enr our country illegally, you will be referred for prosecution. if you make a false immigration claim, you have broken the law ond will be referred for proseu if you assist or coach an individual in making a false immigration claim, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecuti >> reporter: immigration lawyers are planning to offer legal advice to the migrants before their planned crossing on nday. attorney nicole ramos says the government can't refuse them tetry because u.s. and ational law require that asylum seekers get a fair hearing. >> i think it's just a way for him to rile up americans who fear brown immigrants invading their borders, to create this tage that a caravan of central americans are comidescend upon america. er reporter: buses of cent ans have been trickling into tijuana all week, mostly families with children. most stay at migrant shelters like juventud 2000, where coordinators take down names, ages and home countries. coter weeks of traveling through

meximany are hungry. this little boy was given a plate to eat. reina isabel rodriguez came with her seven-year-old grandson, whom she says she adopted after a gang in el salvador kidnapped his mother. >> ( translated ): if we arrived here, it's because god permitted it. he gave me courage, strength to disappear from my country. >> reporter: mario llerena is a 26-year-old member of the caravan who says he's fleeing violence. he declined to say what part of central americhe's from, for fear of the gangs there. llerena says he's not interested in sneaking across. >> ( translated ): a thief e esn't announce he's coming. we've announced weming. nump knows. or has he not beified? in reporter: he and others wato cross on sunday say they have the legal right to ask thr asylum. ie pbs newshour, i'm jean guerretijuana. k

>> woodruff: the w washington was consumed by talks dof deals: a possible peal for the korean peninsula, and discussions withs uropean leadout the iran nuclear deal. that brings us to the analysis of shields and charen. that is syndicated columnist mark shields, and syndicated columnist mona charen. david brooks is away. we welcome both of you on this friday. so we've had this back drop of a cliffhanger of a relationtwip n the united states and north korea. mark, a lot of tough language shared. but then this week we see this remarkable yesterday coming together early this morning, coming together at the border, the north and south korean leader. how do you read this, and how do you see president trump's role in it? >> i read it qui superficially, because i'm like a -- i'm in utthe anrity on

korean politics. but politically it's a dramatprc ement. just a few months ago we were talking about the possibility of a million people being killed on the korean peninsula in a war which people feared in some wases was only weeks away. and hereare talking about blood relatives reaching across the 38th parallel, reconnecting, reconciliation between north and south, endi formally 65 years of war between the two. and so you ask about president trump, you know, i think you have to sahi that whils unorthodoxy, his inflammatory rhetoric, his unpredictability has been in many cases a impediment to thoughtful and positive relations, actually, here it y have work. i mean, it may be working. this is a positive development, an eouraging development.

it's not the red liewtionz, but i think this is one case where nald trump's style may have ve results.posit >> woodruff: and we'll see u at happen, mona, but at this point what do e in. >> well, the optics as we would put it in washinergton terrific, stepping across the barrier, both of them and forth, and making a lot of promises. ert i think scepticism, deep scepticism is in o look, what does kim jong-un want? he wants to remain in power. nuclear weapons are the . key toey're his insurance policy. an has devoted tremendous effort tremendous expense to obtain them. the idea that he would now wake up one morningnd say, you know, forget all that. i actually want to live in peace and denucleari, and by the way, as your previous guest said, a t of dispute about what that means to the two different parties, but we have seen over the e years orth koreans, the kim family has made

promises, has made overture, have promised even to give up their quest for nuclear weapon, and they have never done it. they constantly renege. so i'm deeply sceptical that anything has really changed except the optics. >> woodruff: so meantime, mark, the nuclear that exists now between iran and several other counties, including the u.s., president trump keeps saying that he doesn't like it and there is every indication he's going to pull out. he's melt this week with t president of france, emmanuel macron, and just today with chancellor merkel of germany. does it look like the president is going to go through with this deal, and how do you see the usesident as diplomat this week? >> well, to respond to aona's point, all of that is true as fa the history of relations between north korea and the rest of the world under four different american presidents. this is different. this raising the stakes on the part of the president himself.dr

>> wf: in korea? >> in korea. the reality is, judy, that the per capit income in north korea is $1,80s, and i $33,200 in south korea. i think there is pressure there. i'm not saying that he's goin to keep his word. i'm eptical, but all of sudden the shoe is on the other foot. is our word reliable. >> woodruff: you're talking about iran. k iran. are we going top our promise tde just three short years ago? are we goi pull out? right now i think you'd have to say the betting is that that's what the predent is going to do as far asresident macron's visit this week, i think besides the heavy htcking and the l petting that we saw in public beeen these two grown and married men in our liberalized area, i don't think there's any

question that he absolutely dazzled. and for home consumption and playing to positive revies in paris before the congress. his message was direct and candid to the president about .solationism and its cos >> woodruff: a direct message to the congress from emmanuel sn'ron, moanback but it d appear to have changed the president's mind when it comes to this iran nuclear deal. >> yeah. it's hard to understand the position that he should tear up the iran deal. as someone who was dopily oppod to the original deal, it just strikes me that once you've given away all the money, which is what we did. bwe gave thk their $100 million, we've lost all of our negotiating leverage. how is it that we'll get the iranians to give up somethheing morewe've already given them what they were after? it seems to me we don't have the leverage we think we do with this iran deal. regarding macron, i think he did

the star turn this week, he tally did, because he managed trump, he flred him, he got along with trump and all of that, which isn't the easieinst to do, and then when he spoke to congress, he sounded like the leader he was talking about our obligations and our freedom and we shouldn't rat into nationalism and protectionism. i thought it wasr a turn, and i thought he did himself a lot of good. >> i haven't heard a president with such command of the english language speak to congress since barack obama. >> woodruff: he did have quite a strong french accept. >> no freedom fries. >> woodruff: let's talk about some more domestic questions. mona, ronny ckson had been the white house physician for three presidents. esident trump a few weeks ago quickly sort of abruptly suddenly announced that he ws his choice to be the next head of the veterans administration

when his previous secretary left. now it turns out there are questions in his background, and he withdrew. what does this episode say about the presidt, mr. jackson, vetting at the white house? >> vetting. that's the thing. one of the obligations the president has is to be surehen he puts somebody up for a very important post that he has done his due diligence, and this president seems to have made a very rash decision. i like this guy, let's nominate him. and unfortunately the reason that you vet is so thaouy aren't embarrassed and that your omminee is not embarrassed. and nowody whose career has been stellar and who is a rear admiral in the navyand who mus served his country has been dragged through th it was extremely unfortunate. and i have to say that a lot of the responsibility -- there are o things. there's the toxic nature of our politics that cause people to just air all of tse unfounded or at least unproven

allegations. they may or may not be true. but the other thing was the president in the first place to do his due diligence and select the proper nominee. >> woodruff: what did you see there? >>resident was impulsive. he did it on a whim. he trusted his own manifestly flawed judgment again. and i think it's fair to say that he did a dservice not simply to himself, to the government, to the people of the country, to rny jackson, to the failure of due diligence, t he did an increasing disservice to the 20.5 million american veterans, 9.5 million of whom depend personally and individually on the veterans administration services. this is an enormous375,000 employees. >> woodruff: because they have to wait? >> they have the wait. we know that it's been a flawed sency and a flawed institution and thevice has been

imperfect, not that it ever will be perfect, bu certainly veterans for whom we pay great lip service in this country about thanking them for their service endlessly, it would an improvement, a positive development, if they did provide the services we pledge beginning with abraham lincoln to the widow and the orphan and the veteran. >> woodruff: the president said he was concerned about alln those s, but he said it a those times during the campaign, and so another one of the esident's choices, mick mulvaney, the former congressman from south carolina, chosen by the presidenthto ru office of management and budget, raised a few eyebrows this week, mona. heas giving a speech to a group of bankers, and here's part of what he said. he was talking about his time as a congressman. he said, "if you're a lobbyist io never gave us mone didn't talk to you. if you're a lobbyist who gave us money, might talk to you." a lot is being said about this comment, about the way o washington worr doesn't work

and how business gets done hereo what dthink? >> well, i love this topic decause it gives me a rare opportunity to def trump administration official, which i haven't been doing much of lately. qlvaney's... the other part of thte was, if you're a member of my district, if you're a constituent of mine, i will see you no matter what, even if you haven't given me a dime, but this outrage that has been heard from the democrats about oh,y gosh, it's pay for play and this is horribly corrupt and elizabeth warren said that this is the most corrupt administration in history, which it might b but this does not prove it, and senator sherrod brown said that... he was denouncing mulvaney. look, both sherrod brown and elizabeth warren take donations from special interests. warren takes from google, comcast, time rner. brown takes from squire, patent,

boston, a big law firm in d.c., one of his biggest contributors. so i think this isaux outrage. >> woodruff: are you outraged? >> i am. i think it's a scandal. i think the system is a scandal. the average price of a united states senate race ireased to $10.6 million in 2016. s that up $1.8 million from two years earlie you're constantly raising money. mick mulvaney puts the lie to the old cliche that i'm not influenced by those who give me money. i'm obviously influenced by people who give me money, because those are the only ones i talk to, unless somebody wants to get a bus from greenville, south carolina, and travel overnight and knock on the door and get a pass to the house and tell mr. m ll vinnywhat he or she really feels. this is a systm, judy, that is a wash and has been for too many years. it's dark money.

it's secret money. it's money that i spend on your behalf so you as a candidate don't have to declare it so i can attack your opponent. it's a corrupt and corrupted system. and it diminishes everybody who is connected with it. us woodruff: and not all of disclose. >> i would say we've made so many efforts to shiel politics from the influence of money, and none of it has worked. >> yang: i disagree. we had four elections in a row where we did keep limits, where they were publicly financed with fair and full elections with no funny must be. >> look, i'm not convinthced. k that the only way to get money out of politics is to get politics out of money. the reason that these people give the money is because there's so much government in their lives, so much interference with the marketplace, and because their livelihoods are at stake, theye going to spend money the

influence the government. >> it began with mark hannah who said, it's two tngs that matter, money, and i can't remember the other thing. hat evey've lived with since. it's a corrupt system and it corrupts anybody in it. >> how do we cnge it? >> public financing. blic financing. we elected ronald reagan twice under it, and he abided by it. hi had limitations on what he could raise and what he could spend. woodruff: we'll keep talking about it. mark shields and mona charen, thank you both. >> thank you. m woodruff: and finally tonight, a norial and museum in montgomery, alabama, aim to shine new light on one of the darkest periods in american history-- one of racial terror and lynching. jeffrey brown has this look. and a warning: viewers may find some images in this piece disturbing. >> it speaks to a difficult

past, a difficult history. >> brown: it's a haunting feeling, to descend beneath a forest of steel columns, symbols of a haunted american past-- the systematic lynching of thousands r african americans. as we walk, the. so it becomes, what? >> yes, well, it become sobering to now know that these fires are being raised up above you, this violence is being raised above you. but that was the menace, and the threat, and the terror that lynching was designed to create. >> brown: the national memorial ler peace and justice, a project by civil rights attorney bryan stevenson, sits on six acres on grassy hill overlooking downtown montgomery, alabama. construction continued during our visit. this is a city resonant with the history of racial strife. coe first "white house" of the ederacy, statues and memorials to confederate

leaders, the church where martin luther king, jr. preached, the bus stop where rosa parks became a symbol of resistance. it's also home to stevenson's "equal justice initiative," a legal advocacy organization, which documented more than 4,400 lynchings between 1877 and 1950, putting mes and stories to mostly forgotten victims. >> most of us have no understanding about the legacy e slavery. we h understanding about the era of lynching. black people were routinely edlled out of their homes, and hanged, and buand drowned, and mutilated, and tortured, sometimes on the public square with thousands of people cheering on that torture. >> brown: at the memorial, more than 800 rectangular steel monuments, suspended from the ceiling, rising in height, rusted and stained, some as bleeding. each represents a county where

lynchings occurred, with victims' names and dates of death. some with just a few, others with dozens, and many more unknown. >> it's only when we find a way to talk about these things, when we tell the truth about these things, that we can create new relationships. that's what truth and reconciliation is about. it's just that we can't skip any steps. truth and reconciliation is sequential you've got to tell the truth first, and then you get to reconciliation. >> brown: i mean, this is a kind on, i don't know if "obses is the right word, but this missing link in our history from slavery to, let's say, the civil rights movement. >> yeah, it is a compulsion. want to be free. i want all of us to be free. and i don't think any ofs are free, black or white. og are constrained by the created by this history. and to deal with that, we're going to have to clean the air. we're going to have to talk about some things we haven't talked about before. >> brown: one of the names here: elmore bolling, killed in 1947 in lowndes county, alabama, less

than 30 miles from montgomery. >> he was killed simply because he was too prosperous a negro farmer. us brown: josephine bolling mccall wasfive when it happened. >> one white man was arrested at the time, but never prosecuted. >> brown: her father had started a business employing other african ericans, and josephine believes he was murdered for violating the racist social contract of thtime. >> it was maintaining status quo and that is, the black man w never supposed to achieve the level and level of success that white men had. we were never to aspire. it even killed your aspirations when you think about when someone is murdered like that.me >> brown: she ers not just fae terror from her father's killing-- theily fled to montgomery shortly after his death-- but the pain that came from justice denied.

>> there's an emptins that one doesn't get over easily, especially when you are wondering why. why was he so brutally killed? and then once you find out that it's really for naught, then it really, really hurts. >> brown: along with the atmorial, stevenson's organization c the legacy museum downtown that traces african american history through four eras. it begins with "enslavement," and recognizes the troubled past of this very site, once used to warehouse slaves. " in the period nching and stcial terror" during reconstruction, rds in which white spectators pose by hanging bodies, and large jars containing the actual soilgrrom thnd where lynchings occurred. in the 20th century, into the

civil rights era, a collection ofmeaws across the country, banning activities as trivial as playing cards with a black person. finally, our own time, a period of "mass incarceration." stevenson has spent decades defending wrongfully convied prisoners, some of whose stories can be heard here. >> i think slavery didn't end. it evolved. and for the last 160 years, 170 years, we've been dealing with the legacy of slavery. and you can see that manifest in lynching and in segregation and presumptions of dangerousness and guilt that challenges us today. i see young kids who are being born into a world where they are still weighed down with that burden. e d so, i want to get us to the point wh get past that. e at's how we're going to get past these polootings of unarmed black men and women. that's how we're going to get past the wrongful coons of people of color.

we're not going to get there if we don't deal with this legacy. brown: you are of cours forcing people in some way to look augly things, right? >> yes, i me, you can't live in a community where most people in the community came out and cheered while someone was burned alive, or someone wartured, or someone was hanged, and expect to be a healthy community by never talking about it. it just doesn't work that way. that stuff festers. it's too traumatizing, it's too painful, it's too terrifying to just evaporate. it's in the air, and communities of color still feel that pain, that menace, that anguish. and they're being told they can't talk about it eith. le>> brown: stevenson modehis new project on those in other countries, such as germany and south africa, which have publicly faced their pasts. where are we in remembering? >> we are nowhere. i mean, we're the opposite we're actually trying to romanticize these periods, that

are actually periods of great trauma and shame. and that's why i think these projects are so important. we should create a new kind of iconography that we can all be i don't want segregated iconography, segregated memorials. i want an honest accounting of our history, reckoning with r history. and then, i want to see how we want tdeal with that. brown: to that end, stevenson is creating replicas of each of e markers, and inviting counties to take theirs home for public display, in memory of the victims. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffery brown in montgomery, alabama. uf >> woo right now, robert costa is preparing for "washington week," which airs ter tonight. robert, what's on tap? >> a breakthrough agreement in rie korean peninsula brings promise and as president trump prepares to meet with the

north korean leader. we tonight, on "washington week." judy. >> woodruff: and we will be watching. thanks, bob. and later, "in principle" looks into the future with bill gates, who says that despite what you may think, the world is getting better, not worse. that's tonight at 8:30, on most pbs stations. on pbs newshour weeken saturday, residents near puerto rico's only coal-burning power plant fear coal ash may be making them sick. >> reporter: alberto colon is a ratired maintenance worker in r, one of the city's poorer neighborhoods. lo suffers from sinusitis, and has ded an abscess on his chest. >> people complain about diseases like asthma, cancer. it's normal for people to have cancer. it's like, before a n point, if a person here got cancer, you would say, "my god, this person has cancer!" today, you see them t one more person. ew woodruff: that's tomorrow night on pbsour weekend. and we will be back, right here, on monday, when i sit down with

former f.b.i. director comey. that is the newshour for dynight. i'm oodruff. have a great 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 conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> consumer cellular. >> leidos. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most olessing problems-- lfoundation.org.

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welcome to the future. pbs digital. el e: we're the history detectives, and we're going to investigate some untold stories from america's past. gwen: this week: can this autographed ticket take us behind the scenes at yankee stadium on the day lou gehrig left baseball? wes: did backroom plotting by the automobile industry derail a once popular form of mass transit? tukufu: and did this mysterious document spell the difference between freedom and slavery in antebellum, virginia? elvis costello: ♪ watchin' the detectives ♪ he gets so angry when the teardrops start ♪ ou♪ but he can't be wed 'cause he's got no heart ♪