captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc g >> yang:d evening. i'm john yang. judy woodruff is on vacation. on the newshour tonight: >> rudy knows it's a witch hunt. he starteyeerday. he'll get his facts straight. >> yang: president trump's new lawyer, rudy giuliani, tries to clear up contradictory statements around hush money given to adult film star ephanie clifford. also ahead, growing russian influence and a surge in nationalism spark tensions in bosnia. why many fear the country could be sliding back towards war. >> it's not far when we will have a military police instead of a civil police. so that's the prefix to war. >> yang: and, it's friday. mark shields and david brooks are re. we discuss rudy giuliani's bombshell-filled week, and the sheup in the president's

legal team. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newsho. bs>> major funding for the newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> consumer cellular understands that not everyone needs an unlimited wireleou plan. u.s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan

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thank you. >> yang: president trump ent much of today trying to tamp down a new furor over hush money paid to a porn star. ssage: "nothing to see here." the story has not changed, despite what his lawyer said. ite house correspondent yamiche alcindor begins our y verage. >> it's actually vmple, but there has been a lot of misinformation. >> reporter: outside the white house this morning, the president made a point of stoppi to talk about the storm stirred up by his new personal attorney, rudy giuliani. he will get his facts straight. he's a great guy. >> reporter: at issue: a $130,000 payment before the 2016 election rom long-time trump attorney michael cohen to the porn star known as "stormy daniels." she claims she had an affair wth mr. trump in 2006.

nesday night, giuliani disclosed for the first time that the president personally reimbursed cohen. >> that was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way i would do, out of his law firm funds. or whatever funds. it doesn't matter. and the president reimbursed that over the period of several months. >> reporter: giuliani insisted mr. trump was unaware of the full details of the arrangement until recently. today, the president would not say when he learned the details, or exactly when he reimbursed cohen, who's now under federal investigation. >> you're going to find out, you know, we're going to give a full list so people know, and virtually everything said has been said incorrectly. >> reporter: later, giuliani released a stateme clarify his earlier comments. giuliani said his claims that e president learned of the payments recently were based on giuliani's understandith, and no of the president's. but, he did not say when the president learned of the payoffo tormy daniels, or when cohen

was reimbursed. last month, on "air force one," mr. trump denied knowing about the stormy daniels payment, or where cohen got the money. >> no, i don't know. no. >> reporter: today, as he boarded the presidential plane for dallas, he denied that he had lied. >> we're not changing any stories. all i'm telling you is that this country is, right now, is running so smooth, and to be bringing up that kind of crap and to be bringing up witch hunts all the time, that's all you want to talk about. >> reporter: mr. trump also said today his lawyers have advised him against an interview with special counsel robert mueller o the russia probe. >>e wants to speak more than me. in fact, against my lawyers, because most lawyers say never teak about anything. i would lovespeak. if i thought it was fair, i would override my lawyer. >> reporter: hours later, the president mod on to gun policy at the national rifle association's annual meeting. >> your second amendment rights

are under siege, but they will never, ever be under siege as long as i am your president. >> reporter: it was mr. trump's urth consecutive n.r.a. convention, and it followed february's mass shooting that holled 17 people at a high in parkland, florida. >> we're going to do strong teckground checks. >> rep initially, the president vowed new action on national gun laws.e but he has silled back. in that almost hour-long speech, preside of his past support for some gun law changes. he did not talk about raising p the age chase for certain firearms. he also didn't mention expanding background checks. john, leaving out these efforts is seen by some as president trump giving into pressure from the n.r.a. >> these were all the had supported, the n.r.a. had opposed. did any of his opposition to ositions or differences with the n.r.a. show up if that speech today? all.porter: not at this was a campaign style speech.

t spoke a little about guns, a lot about midterms. he talked about the fact that republicans need to show out for the elections. seems concerned about fact republicans need to win in these states. he also said he did sign $2 million bill for school funding. he talked a little about the changes that he made in baarground checks but these things the n.r.a. actually supportet he have not l trying to pick a fight with the n.r.a. made m think of an exchange with the deputy secretary. i said is the president going to back cates if they go up against n.r.a. and want stronger gun refor sm? d yes the president will cover them. this speech says otherwi y. g: the exchange on the white house plan, he said rudy giulia will get hisacts straight. giuliani came out with clthe ification. what are people inside of the white house telling you what's going on here? >> my sources tell mehe president was not throwing rudy giuliani under the bus per se. he said he was really trying to

clarify the timing of this. giuliani's statement if you read it c'ssely, bout timing and campaign finance laws. kedy giuliani wants to maure he backtracks on the idea of when president trump learned about tnthe payme he said this week that president trump learned about the reimbursement for stormy daniels to michael cohen recently, and now rudy giuliani is essentily leaving that open and letting it be vague. i should say that one oef th first lines of the clarification atement stood out to me, iohere is no campaign viol" that's really important because that assertion has not been made. stormy danie lawyer says the esident was trying to influence the 2016 election with his payment to stormy danils. that's still unsettled. rudy giuliani wants to make sure at least his boss thinks that's clear. >> yang: when the president n t to joint base andrews, before he got o air force one, there was an interesting scene with john kelly. what happned? >> the president walked out.

this is the chief of staff, reports say he called the president an idiot, e's doing a fantastic job. a john kelly praised the president. >> well, i would just say it's an absolute privilege to work for a president that has gmten the econgoing. we're about to have a breakthrough, i believe, on torth korea. the jobs repory. i mean, everything is going phenomenally well. attacking the opioid crisis.'s othing less than brilliant, what's een accomplishd in 15 months, i believe. >> reporter: now, is kind of praise is what donald trump likes to see. he loves to hear people talk about how great the country is going. i think this is john kelly essentially saying i want to m kejob and, mr. president, here's all the great things i ycan say aboutou today. >> yang: whi house correspondent yamiche alcindor, thank you so much. and in the day's other news, the april jobs report was mostly encouraging. the labor department said employers added 164,000 jobs last month. at the same time, the unemployment rate slped from

4.1% to 3.9%, the lowest since december 2000. we'll look at whether the new x is affecting job creation right after the news summary. president trump says the details aregset for his planned meet with north korean leader kim jong-un. eyt, he's not saying what are. he spoke today, as he left the white hoe. >> stay tuned. i think you're going to be e eing very,ery good things. and also, ip is being scheduled. we now have a day, and we have a location. we'll be announcing it soon. >> yang: the president also said withdrawing u.s. troops from a is "not on t table," although he would like to lower troop levels there "at some poine.t in the fut the "new york times" had reported that mr. trump asked the iopentagon for o on troop reductions. in the middle east, thousands of palestinians protested again in gaza, along the border fence with israel. gazan medics said at least 70 people were shot and wounded. protesters threw stones and burned tires as israeli soldiers fired li ammunition and tear

gas. the israelis sd they targeted rioters trying to breach the fence. since march, 40 palestinis have been killed in the weekly protests. palestinian president maoud abbas apologized today for a speech widely criticized as being anti-semitic. he'd claimed monday that european jews were persecuted because of their role in anking. tatement today, he condemned anti-semitism and said, "i would like to reiterate my full respect for the jewish faith." nearly 60,000 hondurans who had sought refuge in the unid states now have 18 months to leave. the department of homeland scurity announced today they are losing tcial status they received after a major hurricane two decades ago. the trump administration has already canceled that status for migrants from five other nations. hawaii's kilauea volcano kept spewing lava today, burning two homes and filling the air with sulfur gas. the eruption started late thursday, sending lava into

forests and neighborhoods, while smoke and ash blew high into the sky. some 1,500 residents on the big island were ordered to evacuate. >> since it's right there behind our house, we vauld hear the xploding, right from the hoe. is the house still going be there when we go back over there? it might be. the lava's floating downhill, we're uphill.bu it's going to be changing the scenery, for sure. >> yang: kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. late this afternoon, iowa governor republican ynolds signed the nation's strictest abortion limits into law. the new state bans abortions ce a fetal heartbeat is detected-- around six weeks of pregnancy. opponents of the bill say they'll sue to block the measure from taking effect. backers say they hopcase provides a vehicle to ask the supreme court to reconsider n e versus wade. a stunning decisday in the long-running michael skakel

murder case. the connecticut supreme court reversed its own, previous ruling a threw out his 2002 conviction. he'd been found guilty of killing a young girl in 1975, when both were teenagers. skakel is the nephew of ethel kennedy, widow of senator robert f. kennedy. a sexual abuse scandal has scuttled plans for this year's nobel prize in literature. the swedish academy announced today that it won't give the award in 2018. it cited a scandal that's roiled the organization and prompted seven members to quit. one member says that has made it impossible to conduct business as usual. >> ( translated ): we have decided not to award a prize this year. and we did that after long and intense discussions. but weeached the conclusion that the confidence in the academy is so low in the world at the moment, and that is the deciding reason why we now refrain from awarding the prize. >> yang: this will bfirst time since world war ii that the

literature prize is not awarded. instead, the academy will give out two prizes in 2019. and, on wa street, tech stocks theled a friday rally. dow jones industrial average gained 332 points to close at 24,262. the nasdaq rose 121 points, and the s&p 500 added 33. still to come on the newshour: the effect the new tax cuts are having on the economy. old wounds from the bosnian war spark new tensions in the region. mark selds and david brooksth weigh in on e president's legal troubles. and, much more. >> yang: now, let's dig a bit on jobs, the economy and what kind of impact tax cuts may be yving on all of this. as we to earlier, the jobless rate is the lowest it's been in 17 years, and, as

m brangham tells us, the president says it's a result of his policies. >> brangham: april marked the 91st concutive month of job growth. that's seven-plus years in a row, and the longest streak on record for the u.s. average job growth this year is 200,000 new jobs a mont that's up a bit from last year's average of 182,000. and when president trump was speaking befory,the n.r.a. tohe said the tax cuts are part of the reason. >> we are seeing the increble results as a result of our massive tax cuts. d everybody is benefiting. and everybody is happy. we've created 3.2 million jobs. unheard of. if we would have said that three years ago in the caouaign, people have said "what a horrible exaggeration." >> brangham: at the same time, companies reported a very profable first quarter this year in fact, according to the "wall

reet journal," it was the best in seven years-- due in part to pre-tax profits and smaller tax bills. but wage gwth remains sluggish, and there are questions about whether these profits are leading to the kind of hiring that was also promised as part of the tax law. jim tankersley covers this for the "new york times" and joins me now. so under 4% unemployment is a s pretiking milestone, isn't it? ue it's great. there's noion about it. it's a great number. you want the economy to run as hot as it canthout too much inflation and we're there right now. maybe we even have more room to run hot, and this is a thing we have not seen since the very beginning of this century. >> brangham: wages, thoughah, remained a bit sluggish and my basic understanding of onomics is when unemployment is low and the economy is roaring, there is more scompetition for the say number of workers, wages should go up. why are there not? >> one theory is there's actually still not as much competition as you might imagine

based on the unemployment number because there are about 2 million people who be working but are not looking for jobs right n and that lack of them in the labor force is keeping wages down.ss another le explanation is that workers right now have for so long not had bargaining power with comnies, they've not had the ability to demand raises an theyving a hard time getting it back for whatever reason. companies ar just not used to paying themmore but they're slow to react tookay we need to do that. >> brangham: so there is the possibility that somewhere down the line we could start to tick up. >> absolutely, if it keeps being a ry low unemployment rate, if we keep creating jobs at thisro level, wageth should, at some point, kick in. at some point you actually exhaust the number of people out of the labor force and should come back i. until we get there, we might see the subdued wage growth we have been experiencing. >> brangham: the president, as we heard, is crediting the tax

bill that was signed and says this is the reason we're supercharging the econmy and certainly profits have been going up after the tax bill passed, a lot of companies said we'ri gng bonuses but a to have the tax bill. one florida c.e.o. stamped tax cut on the check for hi employees. >> i wanted to do it because i'm excited about the new tax plan from trump and the g.o.p. and i wanted to share the wealth, as they say, and my employees who are mostly generation xeres and millennials are not particularly ynto politics, it reall impacted that. when they got in their hand a check for $1,000 that pnly said, this is why you're getting this check because of the change in the new tax plan. >> brangham: i mean, $1,000 is great, let's not diminish that, but a bonus is no the same as a wage hike. >> it's not. and it's also not wh anybody

thought including proponents of the law would be the natural outgrowth of the big tax cut. there's no economic theory that says wean youut taxes people a t big bonus checks from employers, it'ing that happened that snowballed because companies got wise that republicans would amplify look at this great company giving out bonuses based on the tax cuts. that ended. workers got the bonus which is fantastic but in thse they're not seeing a sustained next year bonuand th wage hikes haven't followed. sat the thing again is we wouldn't necly expect that right away. you wouldn't think companies, unless they have a union or someone demanding strongly for them, to give wage hikes from a you wouldn't expect a company to do it on its own. you would expecnvthem tot in better equipment, other capital expenditures that make their company more productive and when their workers get morea

productive the to pay them more because they're producing more. so in a weirway, it's bank shot of wage growth we're looking at and the bank shot is not appearing in the data yet. >> brangham: if they suddenly get a big windfall from this tax cut, are they plowing it, or does the record reflect companies are putting that money cvestmentwise into factories, plants, tera. >> there's not an incation the tax relief initiated investment. in the first quarter of the year, invtment growth was about the same as a year ago. so, on the other hand, we've seen some surge of investment on the large public companies this quarter, and that maybes gives u plus some other survey data some hope that we will see anve ment surge in the months and year to come, but, again, we don't have great evidence ye that that's happened. >> brangham: why is that? that was a huge selling point of

the tax bill that this will supercharge companies doing this act kind of investment. why haven't we seen it or is it just natural it will take this long. >> i plenty of economists think these things have lags, in particular the tax law was more complicated than a corporate tax cut, so it takes time to figure out things and wherto employ your resources as a best response. the fact that there's instability in thenomy in chilling trade and that might be chilling the investment. and it's also true, companies, the first thing they've done in a lot of cases with this money is to buy backnheir ow stock and to pass on to shareholders through dividends or other ways. >> brangham: we've seen a lot of companies doing buybacks. for those who don't know exactly what it is, what is a stock buyback and who does it benefit? >> a company decides it is going to repurchase shares of itsk stut on public markets. wo it goes out, spends money to

buy its on shares. now it controls more of its own shares, anonthat putsey in the hands of people who did own the stock and decide to sell it and also increases the value of steld by existing shareholders because the price goes up when there's a big demand surge for the stock. now, the hope is that, by nservative economists, is that eventually, the money that gets into the hands of the investors who sold will find its way into the economy through other investments. they will take the money, fund startups or buy other stocks d find a way to seed new companies. but for now, in the initial phase, it just turns into a bump for mostly rich people. the rich in america control most 'rock. ththe predominant shareholders, so that is who is benefiting now.ho again th is it will ping its way through and benefit th whole economy. >> brangham: jim tankersley of the "new york times," thanks her ing us wade through the weeds. >> my pleasure.

y>> yang: tonight, we bri the first of two reports on the messy state of affairs in the balkans. in the 1990s, thformer wgoslavia was ripped apart by bloos. first up: how rising nationalism and russian influence are exposing old fault-lines in bosnia herzegovina, which was wracked by a three-way ethnic conflict. now, some fear it's on the brink of conflict again. special correspondent malcolm brabant covered the bosnia war a quarter century ago; with the support of the pulitzer center on crisis rerting, he returned to examine the rising tensions. >> reporter: in the past, the bosnian serb capital banja luka might have expected a visit from the bolshoi ballet or moscow state circus. these days, russia sends the nightwolves-- without leeir motorcyc- when 'sitnowing. >> they are bad news.

i mean, them appearing somewhere means there's something in the making. they spread a hateful ideology. it is an anti-civilisation, nihilistic gangster view of the wod. >> reporter: reuf asbajrovic h just published a report for the foreign policy research institute on russian meddling in the balkans. >> in reality, they are an ectremist paramilitary group. they are a mnism of the russian state.l people who fowed the seizure of crimea, the aggression against ukraine, know very well that this group a signal by the russian state of its intent. >> reporter: the nightwolves claimethey were on a pilgrimage to reinforce russia's centuries-old historical cultural, and christian orthodox spiritual ties with the serb half of bosnia. "god bless you heroes," said the serb ortdox priest dragan wodovic, who seemed unconcerned thatf the nightwolves niaders had been barred from entering bfor security reasons.

>> ( translated ): look, you know what, if bikersire bad guys, only comes from american films. actually, i don't judge people for what they are doing. we judge them if we hear about good or bad deeds. i don't know these guys personally, but i know of the things they have done, and in the past, they brought humanitarian aid to kosovo and republika srbska. >> reporter: the russian bikers said that they didn't want to talk to us. the are some balkan experts who believe that this visit was nothing more than a publicity stunt. if you believe the serbs, it was not evidence of russian meddling in the balkans. but according to critics, what this visit has done is to stoke up nationalism, and in this l,rrent nervous climate, that is unhelpo say the least. >> now, everything is rhetorics, you know, hate speech. but hate speech is just a step fore war. >> reporter: in the war-scarred campus of sarajevo university, security studies lecturer goran kovacevic embodies bosnia's ethnic complexities. he has an orthodox serb father,

a catholic croat mother, and is married to a muslim. he's also a former intelligence agent for the sarajevo government. o> if we continue building up these national ten, we could end up in a dreadful war agai that's my opinion. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: you are listening to a radio recording i made in sarajevo in 1992, as a cellist mourned friends killed when a serb m tar struck a line of people queuing for bread. ajevans were killed by snipers and shells during the three-year-long siege by serb forces. ( gunfire ) the serbs hated the concept of a andi-ethnic bosni conducted a campaign of murder and expusion of muslims and croats. this so-called ethnic cleans culminated in 1995 with the massacre of 9,000 muslim men and boys at srebrenica. the war crime triggered an erican-led bombing campaign

against the serbs, and a u.s.- aokered peace deal called the daytord. teyton froze the conflict lines and effectively crtwo mini-states within a country. one is called the republika srka. the other is a federation between the catholic croats, and th themselves bosniaks.l this is the man widely perceived as bosnia's most provocative politician, milorad dodik, the leader of the bosnian serbs. as this recent television interview shows, dodik raises the spectre of republika srbska breaking away from bosnia once and for all dodik's critics fear secession could l, ead to wt he argues re could be done peacefully, after rendum. n ( translated ): if there is no agreemente state level of bosnia, our main intention is more independence usd autonomy fo i don't know if those in bosnia and herzegovina will be smart enough to accept this principle or not, to acpt our autonomy in a way that is acceptable for us.

that is their proble but if they think they can force us to believe in bosnia and herzegovina, that cannot happen. >> reporter: under the dayton peace treaty, all three ethnyities have to agree on a government issue. each group has its own president.e given thnationalist tensions, consensus is difficult to achieve, leading to deadlock and stagnation. the muslim, or bosniak leader, bakir izetbegovic, is disturbedb that his sounterpart is blocking bosnia's membership of nato, at the behest of moscow. >> russia is looking for players, the ones who will be on their side, especially in this slav orthodox world. and poputions. and you have them on balkans. and dodik is ready to play that game >> reporter: in another wing of the bosnian presidential building, trohe leader, dragan covic, is less concerned about the bosnian serbs rhetoric about breaking away and joining serbia proper. he believes such an act would hurt serbia's chances of joining

the european union. >> ( translated ): in the long run, bosnia and herzegovena has a path towards europe along with serbia, and the very fact that i am mentioninserbia suggests early that it won't encourage aspirations of territorial divisions. throughout the centurisnia has been multi-ethnic, multinational and multicultural. you see it in every part of the country, and it can onvive in this way. orter: bosnia's politica instability and accompanying economic stagnation have led to young pe leaving the country in droves. serb zhelko pantelic is thinking of joini them. he left school three years ago, and now, aged 21, has unemployed for all that time. >> if you finish college or hgh school, you done any opportunity to do any job here. we have like, two siddes, everything they do, they argue, they don't do anything for young people, for economy, for anything. the politicians upset not just me, but all young people,

because we want to work, but we don't have the opportunity to work. >> it doesn't feel like peace. there's so, so many problems, this country is so ripped apart, so negative. >> reporter: 200 miles away in sarajevo, 38-year-old lejla karovic also has problems finding work. >> nationalism is getting in the in thisprosperit country. >> reporter: after her last job application, she learned she failed because she was the wrong ethnicity, a muslim. >> we don't belong to any political party. we don't want to belong to any political party we don't believe in. it's totally destroying ou belief. only natnalists are happy in this country. they're good. they're fine. they have big salaries. >> reporter: haris silazdic was bosnia's wartime prime minister, and is a critic of the u.s.-brokered peace accord. he believes it rewarded serb aggression by freezing the lines of conflict. he says americand its allies must help forge a new deal that will end the divisions in the

country. >> what is happening now runsco ter to what we know as democracy, because this is a democratic feudalism that we have now. what we would like to see is something different. a normal citizens democracy. >> reporter: prior to the bosnia war in 1992, the serbs began stockpiling weapons in the hills above sarajevo. recently, the serb police tookve delivery of l thousand assault rifles, which they insist are essential for anti- terrorism protection, but former telligence agent goran kovacevic is concerned that history is repeating itself. >> it's not far when we will have a military police instead of a civil police. so that's the prefix to war. and everybody is saying "we are ready to use this military potential of the police tos. defend ourselv against who? nobody knows.th buserbs are saying the bosniaks will probably attack

them.re bosniaksaying maybe the serbs will make the first move. >> reporter: in sarajevo, there is a cstant reminder that a small spark can start a global conflagration.th this ispot where, in 1914, a young serb, gavrilo princip, shot dead austia's archduke ferdinand, unleashing a sequence nts that led to the first world war. in this, the cf entenarye end of that war, bosnia's muslim leader says the world must heed the lessons of history. >> bosnia herzegovena is a meeting point of emotions, of nation emotions that lead to moscow, to the islamic world, that lead to europe, so we shouldn't again create a whirlpool, that started from sarajevo 100 years ago. so we should take care, we should stop in tim >> reporter: this depiction of a mother and child is part of an evocative memorial to the 1,500

children who were killed during the siege of sarajevo. many bosnians believe there is wano appetite for another but as sarajevo knows all too well, the un for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant ina. >> yang: on monday, malcolm reports from kosovo, anoth n balkation still reeling from conflict. sh yang: stay with us. coming up on the nr: g.the new documentary, "r. the life and work of supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg. but first, a lot can happen in a week. the president caagain shake up his legal team, and then have one of those new lawyers contradict him, and a red congressional chaplain can get his job back. here to make sense of it all,

the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shindlds,new york times" columnist david brooks. le should explain, david brooks just back from i >> i apparently where you have been studying sir thomas haquinus, apparently. >> yang: we've d the scene this week of the president getting a new lawyer, the star of hs team rudy giuliani coming out and contradicting him. today theesident said he'll get his facts straight, he's new on the job. then giuliani issuing this clarification. david, what do you make of all this? >> when one person tells a lie, it's what a tangled web we weave.o whenve got 60 or 70 people doing it it's like a univer of tangled. it's a universe of who did the payoff know, when did he know. i find it all secondary. the headline here is thepr ident of the united states

allegedly paid hush money to a porn star. what else do we f need the scandal? that covers it for me. if people are willing to tolerate that in their presiden whether the money counts as a campaign donation or not which is one of the things argued, to me is tertiary or something else. the main fact is we have cme to the point in our country where that seems normal. >> yang: so the little detils don't matter. mark, what do you think? >> ie elcvid back. i have to disagree in the senseh access hollywood during the campaign show bed it wasn't a factor to at least trump voters at that point. go back to the cuban missile cry sis and president kennedy dispatched dean atkinson to debrief president degall ince frhat they found, the what soviets placed in the way of missiles in cuba and after the

meeting it was asked of general degall, do you wsht me to you the secret photos? no, no, said general all, the word of the presidentis all we need. fast forward, we hava man incapable of telling the truth. less than a month ago, on air rce one, asked by the press do you know anything about this payment, te $130,000, no, and, now, of course, he does. it reach a point where te "wall street journal," the bible of american business which has been sympathetic to president trump, especially on s economic policy, said he's compiling a record editorially that increases the likelihood that fewilbelieve him. mrtrump should worry americans will stop believing anything he says. the word of the president of the united states is something to trifle with and he has trled wit and he has fractured >> yang: david, you were way outside the beltway.

i know you think perhaps we're a little carried away with this focus on stormy daniels and payments and all this sort of thing. what do you mean by th >> well, you know, i do think the norms he's violated and the way he's degraded public debate in the nation are a serious thing. we'vtalked about that three years. yet, when you think of the important things that havewe happened thik, probably the china-u.s. trade talks were a very big deal,he north korea north korea-south korea thing is promising all of a sudden, theis economoing great, so apparently a lot of people made the calculation, he has nch of scandal that those in washington care about, but when you think o the substantive things, things seem to be going fine, and that's the calloculatn of people are making. there are times i think we get little hypedup over whatever rudy giuliani said this morning and lose sightf things in washington like the china-u.s. trade talks. i hate to sound like the earnest middle-prow guy but i think that's the calcudetion people

i think the threat to the norms are serious and poisonous to the country but other people sa, no, i just care about the anbstance. this week the sub is pretty good on what the trump administration achieved. >> the lowesraunemploymene since bill clinton is certainly impressive and welcomed and no american can be anything other than happy about it. but the presidency isal histor and actually above all else a place of moral leadership and you lose tha and i don't care how big the dow jones is, whaot the crporate profits are. you know, i'm not quite a as sag gwen at david is. we know 86% of middle classl families wve taxes raised and tax cuts will go to% the 1

when settled. that's really not unidmportant it certainly affects the way people live but i ought the piece with jim tankersley, we're still seeing where wages are not rising, and, you know, to me, i'm just worried that the presidency itself will be a diminished and tarnished officen we'll have tou tme -- >> iwill be and it will be devastating for people in politics and society. but can't hide from the fcts that are in the story. the tax cuts are workingetter than i thought. the first quarter, capital expendures up 39% among s&p companies. far high than w taut. stock buybacks, givg to shareholders, only 16%. so the evidence from the first

quarter seems to be what thes trump told us happening is happening, that companies are reinvesting. a lot of things trump said about north korea are terrifying, yet if it has an effect of unnerving north koreans so they're more flexible and we don't know if that's the case but there are possible implications, maybe the terrifying tweets had effect. it's important to oppose what's opposable and re reprehensible d we have been doing that threeye s but it's also important to see reality, and the more serious opposition will be on disastrous or not disastrous policies. >> it's sort of a mix of thet' disans and wgoing on, sort of the scandal is at play, also. we're going to get into next week the question againing of the midterm season in earnest as we start this string of primaries next week in india, ohio, west virginia, north carolina, and we're seeing in the republican primaries a loof these candidates trying

to ghlam on deto pre trump as much as possible. enes at the surprise you, giv where we were a year ago and where we seem to be going with the president, that the republican candidates are running toward him? >> yeah, and i thought as the scandals magnified people would drift away from donald trump including republicans but he's got 89, 9% support among republicans so that's notha ening. then i thought that will snap back and we'll revert to normalcy vilian life. but as i was watching, a guy that did jal time for a series of deaths in the coal mines, apparently he decided donald trump isn't vulgar enough. the add is crude, quasial rat, you know, making wild accusations about mitch mcconnell and cocaine.

there are reaary zero sta in this add. he's not winning, coming in third in the republican primaries, but if that the the standard to which poitics has descended donald trump was just john the bap it's the and we'll see a lot worse. >> politics is the most hated ot human ivities with the possible exception of political journalism. i just say whea candidate wins -- i mean, joe mccarthy spawned a whole generation of imitators and people are still running for state representative in massachusetts today who say again and again because john kennedy said again an but it should be no surprise it's a race to the bottom. i mean, it was donald trump who announced that the president of the united states was born in kenya an insisted that was true. it was donald trump who told lies and paid no pce for it and, in fact, was rewarded. so it is imitative and derivative. what's interesting is that the two other candidates in west virginia, evan jenkins and

congressman patrick morrissey, the attorney general, are hitting each other the head with two by fours saying you're not deserving of trump'srt sup you're not a real trumpian and blankenship, as david's right, spent a year in jail, $259,000 fine for 20 miners dying on his watch and violation of nine safety standards and law, he was leading until last week. i don't know what's going to haen in the primary. >> you know watts interesting, show, a lot of the fashionableai cas are so ugly, yet you go to the municipal and gubernatorial campaigns and they're a lot better. i met a guy mike dugan who is the mayor of detroit and he's the guy whd o saiey tried to iticss-them tribal pol against them, but he said i'm going to fix the treat lights and city and let's hat stuff away. he got massive support from the african-american com amunid people wanted to hire a guy who could run the city well. you can depressed at the

national level, the paradoxes in the state and the city level, golitics is working pretty good. >> david makes d point and probably the strongest challenge to donald trump would be somebody who's a successful mayor or governor who's actually brought people together, had achievements, worked with the other side. senators are one of a hundred. stthey don't make hiy, they make speeches, they cast votes, and they go onelevision, and governors and mayors really run something and have a track record and, boy, i thinke'll be looking for a track record if 2020. >> we have about a minute and a half left. the other story, the speaker of the house in massachusetts saald politics is local, the current speaker is sort of learning the lesson at. he tried to fire the chaplain, uproaring his precinct in the house of represeatives and now the chaplain's. >> what do you make of this, mark? >> political ineptitude. i' done some reporting on

speculation that speaker ryan was bowing to the iterests of some in the freedom caucus who didn't want faty her conere because he was "too liberal." olitical is what he's been. his one provocative statement was to offer a prat yer thae tax bill not pick winners and losers but confer benefits and burdens equly and justly upon us. i mean, the catlic preferential option to the poor is central to it. he gethefired, and was a genuine backlash and almost spontaneous wildfire and prine had to back down. >> apparently jesus christ had a low freedom caucus store. it's ridiculous. he's doing what he's supposed to be doing which istoe the conscience. i will give prine a little credit, at last he backed n. he admitted a mistake and at least backed down. but the pastowas dong what he was supposed to be doing.

>> david brooks, mark shields, thank you so much. >> yang: finally tonight, she is largely known for issuing stinging dissents from the supreme court bench. but a new documentary, out today innelect theaters, provides intimate and rare look inside the life of justice ruth bader ginsburg. jeffrey brown has that. >> ask no favor for my sex all i ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks. >> brown: it is a look at perhaps the most unlikely rock star washington's ever seen. >> i am 84 years old, and everyone wants to take a picture with me. >> brown: the new documentary, "r.b.g.," follows the life of supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg: her brooklyn roots; a legal education, then rare for a woman, at harvard and columbia;

her husband, also a prominent attorney, who supported her rise every step of the way; and, most of all, her early and continuing fight for gender equality. that theme winds throughout the ficluding at her 1993 confirmation hearing, after her selection by president bill clinton. >> in my lifetime, it to see three, four, perhaps even more women on the high court bench. women not from the same mold, but of diffent complexions. i surely would not be in this room today without t determined efforts of men and women who kept dreams of equiv citizenship >> brown: d the rest is a story that continues to this day. filmmakers betsy west and julie cohen join me now.e welc you. >> thank you. >> brown: you make much of

this unexpected cutural rock star. is that what attracted you to her in the first place? >> well, julie and i had both interviewed justice ginsburg for previous projects, so in 2015,t when we iced the notorious "rbg" just exploding on th internet, we realized there was an opportunity to tell -- >> brown: a play, of course, on the rapper. >> the rabber, noorious big. >> brown: yeah. ut we knew there mus so more to her story. back in the 1970s as a young lawyer, ruth bader ginsburg argued a series of cases that changed the world for american women, ande thought this was a story and an opportunity that needed to be told. >> people are on the hand so excited by her but she's got this amazing history that isn't widely known. receives sort of the legal side of the women's rights ttle that gloria steinem was fighting out on the streets and yet

hadn't attained that same level of fame. s>> brown: i want toow a clip, one of her arguments before the supreme court which is part wa her story, sh appearing before the court, and we hear the voice ofn heief justice william rehnquist. so let's take a look. >> men and women are persons of equal dignity and they should count equally before the law. >> you wfon't settlr putting susan b. anthony on the new dollar, then? lara logan >> when they'd say things like this, how did you resnd? >> well, never in anger, as my mother told pe. that would have been self-defeating. always as an opportunity to teach. i did see myself as kind of a kindergarten teacher in those days because the judges din't think sex discrimination existeth well, one o things i tried to plant if their minds was think about howou would like

the world to be for your daughters anndd graughters. >> brown: a couple of stunning lines in there, right? justice rehnquist talking about susan b. anthony. >> just joking. here she is make ago serious constitutional argument and he's just tossing off this joke. i meanwe found a number instances of this kind of, you know, ally blatant xism. you can't believe that the justices would say this. >> brown: but then justice ginsburg now with this line, i felt like a kindergarten teacher -- wow (laughter)z >> what's ag, even listening to her voice back then and we have so much of it in the film is how much this young lawyer is able to keep her tcomposure in a siuation that can be quite intimidating for a lot of lawyers. now when sh's looking back on it she kind of explains why. she was going to use th opportunity not to be offended and get bristly about it but to educate. >> brown: she, of course, is a liberal icon at this point ia

court at the has moved more and more conservative, a famousnd frip with antonin scalia, the arch conservative, but the role has become more writing disaccidents, right? h> yes. she tells us in movie she would prefer to write majority >> brown: any justice would. any justice would to make the law of the land but ifecessary she will write in dissent and she writes very clear, striking eose, which is one of th reasons people have been so attracted to her. >> brown: she got in one public mishap with candidate donald trump which she criticizedhich was a little unusual for a justice. >> absolutely. a number of court watches were surprised to hear her criticizing then candidate trump at a time when most of the nation didn't expect he would be elected president. conservatives criticized h but liberals criticized her as well and ultimately not long after justice ginsburg said that thee

best respoom her about donald trump would have been to say nothing. >> brown: yeah, she realized that. >> yeah. >> bwn: supreme court justices are sort of famously mysterious hidden and not public figures. this is a largely warm look at her with her family.e we she long hours she keeps we see the physical workouts. i learned she watches the "newshour" while she's working out. so hello justice ginsburg, ght? and keep lifting. >> yes, shout out to her. when we interviewed her children, we were asking her whether or not she's seen the parody of her on "saturday night live." >> you can't get rid of me yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah... >> they said, we dn't think so, she doesn't really watch television, except pore the "newshour" when she's working out. >> brown: isat's nice. sh5, right? >> yes. >> brown: you show her being questioned about -- beause a lot of people wondered should she have retired, does she h wih sd retired when president

obama was still president. >> well, she has answered this that, first of all, president obama did have an oornity to nominate a justice and that didn't work out so well, so there's no guarantee that she would have been replaced by his nominee, and, secondly, she objections to the idea that you necessarily have to go out with the same purty that pt you in. she says, look, i will do this job as long as i'm capable &f doing it full stnd from everything we saw, she still is capable. >> energy level like you wouldn't believe. >> we were chasing her around.so we wermetimes exhausted by her travel schedule. you know, it's extraordinary. >> brown: she's still keeping the long hours you were showings >>utely, works long hours into the night and has a strikerringly short me cases even she argued in the '70s. >> brown: the new documentaries "rbg," betsy west, julie cohen, thank you very much. >> thank you.

, jeff. >> yang: on the newsnline right now: by the time stephen hawking died in march, physicist had published more than 200 articles on the universe, black holes and quantum mechanics. it turns out he had one more-- this one about the big bang,he stringy and holograms. read all about it on our ite, www.pbs.org/newshou and tune in later tonight. robertosta untangles the series of bombshell explanations and contradictions by president trump and his lawyers about a payoff to an adult film star. plus, a federal judge questions special counsel robert mueller's authority to prosecute trump's former campaign manager. that's later tonight on "washington week." tomorrow, on pbs newshour weend, how nato is prepari nations to fight digital warfare. and that's the newshr tonight. i'm john yang. have a great weekend.

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gwen: we're the history detectives, and we're going to investigate or some untold s from america's past. tukufu: e in this episode,e the latest scientific techniques to discover if this trumpet played a role n. in shaping the nat was this really used during the revolutionary war? tukufu: and we track down a long forgotten war hero. now who was captain lewis? who is he, where s he, and how was this object used? wes: is this drawing of george washington really a lost work by an american master? i uld have to guess it would probably be in the range of value of $30,000 to $50,000. but, of course, we've got to find out if it really is a genuine gilbert stewart. elyse: was this quaint little house