captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> schifrin: good evening. i'm nick schifrin. judyoodruff is on vacation. on the "newshour" tonight, the u.s. is set to restore sanctions on iran, the first major economic punishment, since pulling out of the nuclear deal. we talk with president trump's national security advisor, john bolton.th , we travel to iran for an inside look at the economic and political fallout. plus, a key witness takes the stand in thetrial of president trump's former campaign manager new questions emerge about the 2016 meeting at trump tower between trump campaign aides and kremlin-coalected lawyer. that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour."

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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> schifrin: the united states began re-imposing sanctions on iran today as it penmised to do resident trump withdrew from the iran nuclear deal. ck" target autos, aircraft,p gold and other metals. in a statement, president trsp said iran a choice: "either change its threatening, destabilizing behavr... or continue down a path of economic isolation." hours later, iran's president hassan rouhani accused president trump of hypocrisy. >> ( translated ): the first step would be for president trump to show that he tnuinely

wantengage in negotiations to solve a problem. what's the meaning ofhe negotiationsyou impose sanctions at the same time? it's like someone pulling ato kniftab a rival or an enemy in the arm while at the same time claiming "we should be talking and negotiating." >> schifrin: we'll talk to the president's national secu adviser-- john bolton-- after the news summary. star witness ri gates took the and late today in paul manafort's tax and bank fraud trial. rick gates testified that he hid foreign bank accounts and helped manafort file false income t returns. that was in the years before manafort served as trump campaign manager. we'll discuss the gates testimony later in the program. a manhunt is underway in venezuelaafter an attempt to kill president nicolas maduro. so far, six people have been arrested. the attack came saturday evening as state tv broadcast maduro speaking in caracas. suddenly, two explosions erupted, t and body guared to shield maduro as hundreds of

assembled troops scattered. venezuelan officials say drones carrying plastic explosives targeted thmaduro, an blame conspirators in the u.s. and colombia. washington has denied any volvement. in indonesia the death toll98 reachen sunday's powerful earthquake on the resort island lombok, east of bali. rescuers today used everything from nds to heavy machinery to clear away debris. more than 13,000 homes areou damaged, and trists said they ran for their lives. >> we didn't get any tsunami warning at all and then it was literally everyone started running to the hills, everyone followed each other and then we slept on the mountain until morning, until daylight and then everyone started gog back down ere. >> schifrin: this was the second earthquake to rock lombok in the last week. the first one killed 16 people. canada and saudi arabia faced off today in a diplomatic struggle. first, ottawa criticized the arrests of saudiacomen's rights ivists.

riyadh expelled canada's ambassador, and the saudi foreign ministry warned against interference in its internal affairs. cada's foreign minister responded that her government will always stand up for human rights-- everywhere. bacs k in tuntry: city leaders in chicago are appealing for public help, after 11 people died in weekend shootings. most of the violence was linked to gangs and targeted large gatherings on the west and south sides. about 70 people were wounded. today, police suedperintendent e johnson implored residents to help identify the killers. somebody knows who did it. they do. they know that. they hold me accountable. they hold the mayor accountable. you should be able t your block and have a block club party without the fear of being gunned down. and it's the same individuals that continuously commit theseme cr. where's the accountability for them? >> schifrin: the deadly shootings sparked protests, with people demanding the ouster of both johnson and mayor rahm

emanuel. in fact, last year homicides in chicago actually declined, from 771 to 650. a sprawling wildfire burnedcr s more of nnithern calif today, becoming the second largest in state history. the mendocino complex fire was two fires that merged into one over the weekend. it has charred nearly 300,000 acres, destroying 75 homes, and forcing thousands to evacuate. strong winds and temperatures over 100 degrees are fueling the fire. andwa o street today, the dow jones industrial average gained 39 points to closat 25,502, the nasdaq rose 47 points and the s&p 500 added ten. atill to come on the "newshour," one on one with nnal security adviser john bolton. a view frraomn-- an economy in turmoil dafter the u.s. pul out of the nuclear deal. how climate change is exacerbating the wod's wildfires. and much more.

>> schifrin: the snap-back of economic sanctions onilran today fu president trump's promise 90 days ago, when he withdrew from the iran nuclear deal. at the same time, the administration is trying to get north koreto give up its nuclear weapons, and dealing with ongoing russian aggression. at the center of all this-- national security advisor, ambassador john bolton. i spoke to him ashort while ago. >> schifrin: ambassador thank you very much. what is the goal of the sanctions that are snapping back ty >> well, we believe that the government of iran has not given up its intention to get deliverable clr weapons so by abrogatek the iran nuclear deal which we feltwas numently flawed, this enables us to put sanctions back on and re-create the pressure thawe think will be necessary to get the regime to change its bevior. we've been in consultation with our ally beings this.

we're a of a mid we don't want iran to get nuclear weapons but i think we aliz recogn that the iran deal didn't cover ballistic missile development it didn'cover iran's terrorist activity. it didn't cover iran's we lige rant military activity in the middle east. we think all of those issues need to be on the table to talk to in about. >> some of those activities that you mentioned across the mid e8 east are fundamental to iran's regime and fundamental to iranian behavior. are you actually trying change the iranian regime itself. >> no, that is not the administration policy but when you say support for terrorism is fundamental to the iranian regime, it puts us on a course that is flatorley contradi to basic american national interest. iran has been the central br ker ternational terrorism for a long time. that's not behavior that we shouldtolerate. and when you consider the danger of a terrorist regime in possession of nuclear weapons i think you can understand why our yncern with the ba flawed iran nuclear deal lead the

president 20 withdraw the uted states and to take the steps we have taken which we think have already had a significant detrimental impact on iran. >> with all due respect, sir, a lot of eople listened to what you said and what you have written over the years 679 your support for the group mek, a group thats advocar regime change and also the administration's policies right now inn geal, advocating for protests that are calling for political change as well a putting economic pressure on the regime, is that not a policy to actually change the regime itself? >> no, it's not. and i'm always happy to have reporters and anchors refer to my previous writings. i'm glad you had a chance to read them. but that's not what i do you no. i give advice to the president. i don't make decisions. i think i can say that we are determined to put enormous, unprecedented pressure on the regimeo get it to change its behavior. nd i think the collapse of the iranianrrency, it's down by

more than two thirds from the beginning ofhe year, much of it in the last 9-- dr 90 days. the flight of large amounts of money out of iran. the iranian elites aretaking their money out of the country and putting it in european bank accounts to safeguard it and 9 protests we've seen all around iran from those in tehran itself to small towns and villages where the people are showing their enormous discontent with the regime of the ayatollahs, shows that the pressure is echaving an eff >> schifrin: the regime often uses anti-u.s. propaganda but the u.s. itself is actually relatively popular among the iranian people. i wonder if you have any fearwh her your strategy risks ienating the u.s. among the iranian people at the very time are you calling for iranian people to protest. >> look, what we have seen in these demonstrations which as you know began in earnest in over a hundred towns and citi last december, is that the protestors, farmers, shop

keepers, workers, not the educated he realities although they are getting i involved, what they have been chanting is death to the regime. they haven't been chanting death america at this time. actually give regular people a good deal of credit for common sense. i think they know their problem is with the regime in tehran, not withhe united states. >> mr. ambassadove i want to mo to russia and i want to read you something that you wrote last summer. as you said, you've changed roles now but do i want toitread ou wrote last summer quote tump got to experience putin, looking him eyes and lying to imhad. denying russian interference in the ection t should be a fire bell in the night warning about the value moscplaces on honesty whether regarding election interference, nuclear prolive raise, armings control or the middle east. negotiate with today's rusa at our peril. you also wrote russian meddling in 2016 was a quote act of war. if that was an act of war, has the u.s. response been proportionate? >> well, as i say, i love hearing my words read back to

me. what i can say today is that the president is deeply concerned about russian electionddling. he said so on numerous occasions and that's why he ordered after a briefing by key agencies on the national security council of the steps they were taken t prevent russia and other foreign meddling in the 2018 election, and the broader sue of influence operations against the ited states-- . >> schifrin: i think we saw that briefing and we saw other security officials in that briefing but we also see the esident himself and the rhetoric he chooses to use, especially standing next to a putin, and saying that he believes hisenial on election meddling in 2016. >> well, now you will le finish the answer i was giving. he heard all of what you heard in that briefing. he knew exactly what people were going to say, less detailed because classified informations thheld. and he wanted the american people to hear what the

vernment was doing to protect the integrity of our elections so that they woule d continu have confidence in our constitutional process. i think really one of the objectives of russia and other add ver tear-- adversaries is to u8ode confidence, erode mut 50 trust among americans and i think hearing that we were working effectively to stop it was important. the president has said on multoccasions that he believed that russia had meddlde and he was rmined to stop tment and that is the position, that is the policy we're all pursuing shdz were there any areas of cooperation that came out of the hell sink-- helsinki summit that you are pursuing suing with russia today. >> we didn't really anticipate there would be concrete reements. we felt there was an opportunity for the ta leaders of these two significant nuclear powers to omacywhat we call in dipl an exchange of views. and they did, across a fum range of issues-- full range of issue you including onelec midelling. >> schifrin: on the russia side they say the two presidents

discussed syria as well, about humasanitariastance in thattier, repatriate some refugees in this area and help reconstruct syria. was there any agreement specifically on working together in sir why? >> well, no, as i say, there was a bad discussion. we said, and much of this oiscussion, i might say, a took place in the expanded bilateral meeting where the twoe leaders joined by senior advisors. we talked about the importa of having a political framework within which to consider these questions. and in particular, the president's strong view that we needed to work with the russians to get ranian forces out of syria and back into iran. >> you mentioned syria, you mentned russia and iran, russia-- do you believe that russian and iran are actyua guaranteed president a sad victory? >> well, it's possibl. on the other hand president putin told me in mprepractice tore meeting before the helsinki

summit, he told president trump there that the russian too would li oke to see iran of syria. although they didn't think they could guarantee it on their own. i ink it's unclear exactly what the relationship among the three i r the a sadeg eem,-- assad regime, russian aniran. but the trump administration inherited an expanded russian presence insyria fromthe obama administration. and the growth of the iranian threat took place substantially during that administration as well. president trump's objective hear is to get ir out of syria, get it out of iraq and lebanon, get it out of yemen, get it back inside iran. that's one of the reasons whyo any discusn with iran about their nuclear weapons programta has t place in this broader context or else we'reig ignoring a ficant aspect of the iranian threat. >> just want to ask in the brief time have i leftk a couple of questions on north korea. north korea has frozen nuclear tests, as you know, they have run up the ent rans to their

nuclear tecility, shut down an engine testing site, they .snded over remains of u soldiers and north korea new says that the u.s. is backtracking from some of the commitments that the president madein singapore, what steps has the u.s. taken to live up t the president's commitments in singapore to provide security guarantees a to establish a new relationship with north korea. >> well, the president at singapore suspended major exercises, joint exs between the united states and south korea. that has been done. buwhat was significant about singapore was the north korean commitment to denuclearize and ney have not take affective steps to do that. let's just take the decision to close the entrances as you correctly seay to th nuclear test site, that was done before the agreement. there wereno international observers present really to inspect what was done. there were sl ome, wu forgive me, representatives of the media who were kept at dia ance and not shown anything except the bright explosion.

and i think the view in south korea and elsewhere a that tht test site is not necessarily disabled. gathat is why when you in the process of denuclearization, you need iernation inspection. you need declarations of what north korea has.e you d observers and inspectors who can verify exactly what is happening. that needs to take place in a process of negotiation. we've asked again recently for ofsecretartate mike pompeo to return to pyongyang to meet agn with kim jung-un on this subject. we're not looking for rhetoric here, 're looking for performance of north korea's own commitment made us to, madeth to soorea before hand, to denuclearize. >> schifrin: are you suggesting north korea is not living up to that commitment? >> i'm suggeing president trump has held the door open for them. they need to walk through it. >> schifrin: ambassador john bolton, nationacurity advisor, thank you very much. >> thank you. #r

>> schifrin: as you heard john bolton just say, the sanctions re-impoday by the administration will, by design, accele steep economic decline in iran. as rrspecial pondent reza sayah reports from tehran, that's leadin to anger-- at the united states and the iranian regime. >> sayah: even in the best of laying in a street band in tehran is a hard way to make a ligng, but members of risin star say these days, getting by is harder than ever. this time last year, they each pocketed the equivalent roughly $100 a day. this year, they're lucky to make $30 bucks each. >> ( translated ): before we had saving now, after daily expenses, not much is left. every day is a struggle. >> sayah: things are so bad, they say, they can't replace broken instruments. and sometimes they skip a meal. >> ( translated ): we can't reach our goals.

we all have things we want. we can't have them. everything is put on hold. ♪ ♪ >> sayah: the twenty-something musicians are among millions of working class iranians in the grips of one of the country's worst economic crises ever.h >>e united states will withdraw from the iran nulear deal. >> sayah: in the three months since s. president donald trump pulled out of the iran nuclear deal, iran's currency has lost almost half its value. companies have retreated investments in iran, fearing violating u.s. sanctatns. a combinn of scarcity and ins flation hathe cost of real estate, cars, everything from groceries to imported good soaring the price of eggs? ipubled. apple's populane x? doubled. >> ( translated his time, things are awful. i think many won't be able to withstand these conditions. many will go bankrupt. >> sayah: the struggle is life and death for sanaz allah

bedashti. sanaz' mother is recovering from breast cancer. finding and actually buying her mother's life-saving drug, she says, has become increasingly difficult. >> ( translated ): the fawr of cancer il. i think about all the people struggling to get their medication. the same thing happened when my mother was diagnosed with cancer during the previous sanctions. >> sayah: u.s. sanctions don't ,pecifically target medici but pharmacists say soaring prices and uwarnings about banking transactions with iran ishurting their ability to import the drugs. or some, the pressure is reaching a boiling point. scattered protests have broken out throughout iran. last week demonstrators marched in isfahan, shiraz, mashhad, and the tehran suburb of karaj. the crowds are small- numbering in the hundreds-- but increasingly angry. protesters lash out at iran's

religious clerand what they call a corrupt system of governance that's long mismanaged and looted iran's economy. fueling turmoil in iran appears to be the trump administration's jective. >> right now the united states is undertaking a diplomatic and financial presre campaign. >> sayah: in a speech last month, secretary of state mike mpeo said the pressure campaign is designed to reign in iran's destabilizing behavior in the region. the trump administration's other g, oal, he sa to help iranians free themselves from an oppresve regime. >> the united states hears you. the united states supports you. the united states is with you. >> that's sheer hypocrisy. >> sayah: analyst marzieh javadi says washington's real intention is regimchange, even at the cost of hurting ordinary iranians. h ow can you help people by imposing sanctions on the country? who is hurting by the sanctions? no, we are not saying the situation is perfect here.

we are trying to make it better and improve it, but i think nobody trusts the untates. >> sayah: the street band rising star agrees. >> ( translated ): in my opinion, they're not out to help. if they succeed in getting rid of this government, then it's only about fulfilling their own agenda. >> sayah: the signing of the nuclear deal with thobama administration produced hope and optimism in iran, especially ofong political moderates. today, mis the trump administration spans iran's political spectrum. at a heateic debate in tehran last week, pro-reformist sadegh zibakalam argued in favor of the rule of late iranian monarch reza shah pahlavi. his conservative opponent abbas salimi namin argued against. after the debate bh agreed on one thing: the u.s. should keep out of iran.

>> ( translated ): those people that they have experience and know the history, won't accept this. >> ( translated ): the biggest mistake would be to overthrow the islamic regime because we would move backward not forward. i think the best help that trump and other western leaders can give to iranian people is first, not to meddle in iranian affairs- leave iran alone. i>> sayah: washingtons unlikely to ease the pressure. that's why iran is turning for help to european powers, co- signers of the nuclear deal. europe is devising a plan to sidestep unctions and deliver to iran economic benetsuaranteed in the nuclear deal, according to the u.k.'s ambassador to iran, rob macaire >> as i said, there is no single recipe that is going to... noet magic buere.

but in the area of protecting european companies through issues like the blocking statute which is a piece oe.u. legislation in increasing the mandate of the european investment bank. in work through export credit facilities and wk looking at special purpose financial vehicles and of course also engaging with the u.s. a wdministratiore there has been a very senior level engagement to talk about what exclusions would apply to us sanctions. >> sayah: in many ways saving the nuclear deal means takinon washington. >> i wouldn't put it in those terms. i think the united states is our oldest and closest ally and there are a lot of things that we continue to agree with the u.s. on when it comes to iran policy. obviously we have one major disagreement which is over the j.c.p.o.a., the nuclear deal, an agreement which the u.k. has eden absolutely clear that we are signp to and committed to. >> sayah: even if europe helps,

many analysts say iran's economy will continue to suffer under u.s. sanctions. many here say the y to resolving the crisis with the u.s. is not escalating tensions with the u.s., but instead enacting long overdue domestic ngform to address decades- mismanagement of iran's economy. >th> the firsg that all people are demanding is fighting corruption, making economy impve. that's what people want. >>, sayah: until th's harder days ahead for members of rising star and millions of iranians stuck in a spiraling economy. as the street band finished wh michael jackson's "they don't care about us," many wondering if and when someone will. for the pbs newshour, i'm rez sayah in tehran.

>> schifrin: stay with us. coming up on thenewshour," president trump's changing story on his son's meeting with russians. and from the newshour bookshelf, at could be our biggest threat-- cyber-weapons. now, as we reported, california is struggling with two enormous fires simultaneously. they're being driven by high winds, high temperatures and a pervasive drought. but as william brangham reports, these extreme conditions are prevalent throughout the american west and now, in much of northern and western europe; and now are causing many tin point the fger squarely at the impact of climate change. >> brangham: firefigrners in califo were already stretched to the limit by the carr fire near the town of redding, but then this weekend, 150 miles south, the mno complex fire exploded in size, burning now over a quarter of a million acres. it's become the second-biggest .fire in california histo

>> in this particular location, its burning somewhat in our faisr, but in other areas, i not in our favor whatsoever. >> brangham: it's been a devastating fire sean for california -- and for other western states, where roughly 85 large fires are burning simultaneously-- all exacerbated by a widespread years-long drought that's created prime, dry fuel for these blazes. at least eight people have died, including two firefighters thousands have been evacuated across cala, washington, arizona, colorado, and utah. >> i'm wai down in a minute here. pretty overwhelming, pretty overwhelming, especially since we've been here since 1989, that's a lot of years. >> brangham: in july, california alo spent more than114 million fighting its fires. last week, california governor jerry brown described this as the new normal for his state wi fire seasons growing longer and more intense, as a result of climate change. >> fires now are more a part of

ouordinary experience. the predictions that things would get drier and hotter are occurring, and that will continue. >> brangham: but this isn't just an american problem. northern and western europe is suffering a similar fate with fireing through large swaths ofortugal, spain, sweden, norway, latvia, ireland, and most devastatingly in greece. europe is also in the grips of a brutal heat wave, with temperatures over the last few days reaching 116 degrees fahrenheit, as well as suffering a prolonged drought. >> schifrin: how much is clite change driving these events? for that, i'm joined by dr. michael mann-- he's an atmospheric scientist at penn state university, where he directs the earth system science center, and co-author of "the madhouse effect" which is about nkimate change. united states be tou for being here. this is a series of striking events happening, the aughts,

the heat waves, the fires. none of those in and themselves are unique. so could you help us understand, what is the scice say about how climate changer is exacerbating these types of evts. yeah, so's not saying that climate change is literally causing the ents to occur. what we can conclude with a great owdeal of confidences that climate change is making these events more extreme. and it's a not rocket science. you warm up the atmosphe, it is going to hold more moisture, you get larger floogd events, you get more rainfall. you warm the plen et, are you going to get more frequent andea intense hwaves. you warm the soils, you dry them out, you get worhtse draugyou bring all that together, and those are all the ingredients hor unprecedented wildfires. now beyond there is something else that we think is happening. and that's why there is this comentioner that-- coherence that off these events around the northern hemisphere, extreme

dreuts, floods, wildfire what connects them is the fact these weather systems are remaining in place. they are remaining stationary. we have these large undulations in them et strat gives us extreme weather. nut what is also happening is the jet stream 't moving them along. we have a slow jet stream so these weather systems sta the same place day after day. they rain on the same locations day after day, that is when you get unprecedented flooding. ey bake the ground day after day, that is when you get unprecedented heat and draught. and we think that climate clang is actually creating th conditions. climate change is literally making the jettream more wild, it yundulates more ou get those weather extremes and kawtding the jet stream to slow down so those extreme weather events stick around. that is when you get unprecedented damage and threat. >> you heard governor brown olif rnia say this is the new normal for us, really speaking globally and not just in california.

is that true? >> it is actually worse than maat. a new nomakes it sound like we have arrived in a tinew po and that is where we are going to be. but if we continue to burn fossil fuels and put carbon pollution he atmosphere we are going to continue to warm the surface of the ea'rrth. going to get worse and worse draughts and heat waves and superstorms andloods and wildfires so it is unto us. if we act to redu these carbon emissions, to move away from burning of fossil fuels to renewable energy, than we can prevent these changes from continuing to get worse and worse. >> there has been some talk recently that civilization had a moment several o decades to try to act and ameliorate the impacts of climate change and that that moment passed and we did not act. do you agree with that assessment? >> no, i don't. ct framing's incorre of the problem. it makes it sound like there's some gocliff and we've off the cliff and there is nothing we can do. but what we are doing instead is

we are walking out to a mine field. as we continue to move forward on to that mine field, as we continue to burn fossil fuels we are likely to encounter more and more extreme and damaging and irreversible impacts on our imate. 9 only sensible thing tho do is stop walking forward on to that minfield. we can do it we can move away from the burning of fossil fuels. the paris agreement has set a course for us that if we follow and improve on that agreement in ahthe yearsd, we can prevented the worst impacts of climate change from occurringer >> thank youmuch. >> thank you t was a pleasure. >isschifrin: president trum on vacation at his home in new jerseyr, but as yamiche alcin reports, the president's comments on twitter are raising new que campaign and ties to a russian lawyer.

>> alcindor: an evolving explanation. on sunday, president trump offersoed a nn for a controversial june 2016 meeting atrump tower. in the room: the president's son, donald trump jr, son-in-law jared kushner, campaign chairman paul manafort and a russian lawyer with ties to the kremlin, natalia veselnitskaya. at issue? at the meeting was about. mr. trump tweeted, "this was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all theic time in polits-- and it went nowhere. i did not know about it!" that justification was just the latest in a year of shifting stories. the meeting has become a central question of special counsel robert mueller's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to the trump campaign. lasju, the "new york times" first reported the meeting happened. ponse, don junior responded with a statement saying, "we primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children..." lawithin days, afication,

saying ,"the information they suggested they hut hillary clinton i thought was political opposition researcid" and the prt himself offered public support. >> i do think is: i think from practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. it'sea called opposition resh or even research into your opponent. >> alcindor: the president's involvement in his son's first statement has become a topic o debate. white house press secretary sarah sanders-- just dayinto the job-- said this a year ago. >> he certainly didn't dictate, but he-- like i saideighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do. >> alcindor: but in june, the "new york times" published a letter written by the president's lawyers to mueller. in it, the lawyers acknowledged that mr. trump did in fact "dictate" that first misleading statement by don junior. the latest about-face from the president set off a flurry of new questions about his campaign. trump's lawyer jay sekulow playing defense: >> the question is how would it egal? i mean, the real question here

is would a meeting of that nature constitute a violation, the meeting itself constitute a violation of the law? >> alcindor: new explanations have not sto ed questions about the president's role and potential obstruction of justice. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> schifrin: pair that with today's testimony of rick gates, a former top aide in the trump campaign, and there is plenty to bebreakdown coming out of mueller's investigation. here to help make sense of it all, we turn to tamara keith of "npr" and eliana johnson of "politico." welcome, so is if a big deal that trump tweeted this yesterday, somhing that he said in the past. >> it is something that he has precisely said in the past. itseems this is lickly related to a "washington post" article over the weekendhat saide was concerned that his son done 58d-- donald trump, jr. would be at legal peril as par mueller investigation. i think it is interesting that the president is emphasizing that he didn't know about it 234

advance-- in advance. this comes after acnn report that michael cohen, his former personal lawyer and fixer had said that he might be willing to tell the fbi that donald trump did know about it. so the president is sort of emphasizing that in particular. >> schifrin: is this a big deal am you heard jeh secretary youly say how coulthisbe a big deal. >> the first thing to note is we ob mueller is looking too this, it would certainly be a big deal if bob mule prer to fis nd that the presidenson who was an integral part of the campaign were criminally at fault in anyway. and that is why en though we don't know that the president knew about this in advance, the president seems to be intervening and has been involved himself in this whole thing. at first helping his son craf a response to a new york times story d now awrving a different response so the president seems to have embiled himself in this by

being concerned that his son may be criminally liable and theim really would be it is illegal to take anything from value from a foreig to help an american presidential campaign or any kind of political campaign. >> the president is trying to disembroil himself, if you will, from the testimony of paul manafort and rick gates today.rm campaign chairman, former deputy campaign chairman. the president sys look, this happened way before these people joined my campaign and these people, frankly, have nothing to do with me. so ismp ittant to see gates testifying against manafort? >> gates is the sort of key witness for the prosecution in this case. and paul manafort, president trump likes to say he only work on my campaign for a couple of months. he was there with the president's campaign for about five months, a critical five months in that campaign. and although this isn't specifically about the campaign thisout things that happened well before the campaign, this is the first time that there is a trial related to robert mueller's special ounsel

investigation, so the stakes are very high for. this and based on the reporng coming out of the trial, the osution has built a strong case. >> are the stakes high coming out the trial even though none tfer is specifically about russia or the campaign itself. >> it stakes e high, people considered him a criminal and though it isn't specifically with russia collusion i feel if he is convicted it helps speedth narrative that donald trump surrounded himself by criminals, if he eis convid and i think that michael cohen investigation happening in the southern district of new york helps speed the same narrative. >> and if they were, if the prosecution were to win,puhat sort oes back on the idea of a wish hunt, you know, president trump's lawyers havet said, s put up or shut up. well, getting a conviction would putting up, i guess. >> schifrin: let's go to domestic politics and switch

over to ohio. congressional district 12, this is right outside ousf colua special election tomorrow, this has been a republican stronghold for 35 years. but right now it looks like it is a tight race, why is it a tight race, what is going on here? >> this is a special election, as you mejed a deep red district in ohio with the republican candidate leading by only one point, president trump has thrown his weight behind the republican candidate. and of course as people watch this race, they're asking whatdo it mean for the mid term election. and i think this is giving republicans cause rry because the take away i have, if republicans sse thi race, i think the take away really is all of the economic good news that republicans are campaigning on may not outweigh all of the drama and tum ult we are seeing from the president on twitter, the neck tiff headlines of child separation at the border. people ve said, you knw, look, americans vote their poact books. if republicans lose that is a real dire warning sign i think for november. >> it seems to me that special

elections are tough, right? they are tough to understand vesther they are parts of wa or not parts of waves or totally local issues. do you believe special elections re a bit of bell weather for how things could go the next few months. >> there have been a lot of special election this area. and in those special electio even in the races where democrats lost, they outperformed the candidates outperformed how hillary clinton perford in 2016. -- 2016. one thing i'm watching for with this particular special election is the sort of revenge of the suburbs. the suburbs havisbeen g up and favoring democrats or pushing more towards democrats, more independent voters leaning tyay from president trump's parince the 2016 election. so that will be something to wa h. >> schifrid then one other election that we should bring up, the governor race in kansas. and we saw a presideiatweet endorsing chris kovac and 9 tweet reads chris kovac, a strong and early supportedder of

mine is running for governor of the great state of kansas. he is fantastic guy who loves his state and our country. he will be a great governor an has my full 57bd total endorsement, strong on crime, border, and military vote tuesday. kovac as the president tweeted, not perhaps a surprise, strong and early supporter of the president or should we be surprised about then dorsment? >> not surprising because it is this president who has really buck tradition by getting involved in primaries in his own peamplet and unlike the special elections where republicans have faced democrats and tump doesn't have such a strong record,e really has shown the ability to tip the scales in republican primaries the republican base remains loyal to the president and they have shown that ty, that trifer a trump endorsement makes a dirchls. this kansas race, very crowded republican primary andum trs indoorsment really could help kovac in what is a sevenway race. >> presidenp'trendorsement hasn't always helped, right. there is a bit of a mixed record

on that. qut president's endorsement help on this and how closesly shod we bwatching this racial. >> this endorsement comes pretty close to the day of voting. so you know, certainly the president will be watching to see how it furns out. everyone will hang this on the president, depending on which way it goes. but i think this is also a signal, kovac is a candidate wy.ithout is very tru and he, in fact, lead up thes presidenection fraud commission that fizz eled in a big way. and so tnt presi seems to be betting for these mid terms on candidates that are uch like him. he wants to-- he's trying to turn out the base. he's not actually at the moment yet with his rallies reaching for indep endents. hifrin: ileana johnson, is it controversial for him to enthis particular candidate and can he be as trumpian as trump, if you will? >> you know, i don't think it's controversial at thi because the president has waded into so many republican prime airs.

but it is atypical for a publican president to wa into republican primaries. now chris vac who was one of trump's very early supporters, he has made immigtion and border enforcement one of his signature issues. he may even outtrump t president on this. >> schifrin: he is very, very right on the immigration. >> the presiwanted to make him secretary of homeland security and sort of told he couldn't be concerned by confirmed by the senate. this is almost strump's revenge against his own advisors whosh thwarted his to make him part of the cabinet. i think hoping to see ckovac to become governor of kansas. >> thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. >> schifrin: last week, david r of the "new york times reported that russian intelligence hackers are now mosrre focused on ting the u.s. electrical grid than they are on sowing chaos in america's electoral system.

just before that report, judy woodruff sat down with sanger to discuss his new book, on the specter of cyber warfare; how the united states wages it; and how prepared america is to dend against it. the book is a ect weapon, war, sabotage and fear in the cyberage. you know, i d't normally say this in an interview, the fear is in the title but in is a frigening book, did you men for it to be? >> i meant it more to be an explanory book but st an explanatory book about a frightening time. and the frightening part this is that cyberweapons have moved alst without us recognizing it, to be the primary way, judy, that countries are beginning to undercut each other, do sort of war operations againach other, operations that they don't think will start a military spofnlts you know, spent years worrying about the giant cyberpearl harat was

going to cut off all the lights from boston to washington or san francisco to l.a and in fact, that kind ofde blus to the much more subtle uses of sien in which all of us are the clrl damage to this war-- collateral damage t this war going on far above our heads. >> woodruf you have so many fascinating stories, you had i think incredible access to some. key playersment one of the points you make, david sanger is that the u.s. has not only stressed secretary resee abve all, but it hag been much more comfortable talking about what other countries are doing to the u.s. than it has ever beewin ing to talk about what the u.s. is doing to others. >> 've hit this moment, judy where i think in the reporting i became convinced that the secretary resee surrounding cyberwhich arises from the fact that it's one of the first weapons doaferled b intelligence agency and they are naturally secretive is actually beginning to become a security

problem for us, because it's getting in the way of us establishing rules a deterntds. let me give you an example. we have felt freeo go attack nuclear facilities in iran, or as this book reveals, norths koreissile program. and yet because we won't talk bout our own capabilities and operations, we can't get the government involved a serious conversation about what is off limiha. >> and whn't u.s. officials been more willing to talk about that? >> you know, they've confused keeping secretary resee around how wthe builese weapons and what we do, from secretary resee about how we want to go use tinhem. and evehe nuclear age we kept everything about how wet buclear weapons, where we stored them secret and we had a big public debat about how we wanted to go use them. and it ended up in a completely different place. >> you write at one point that the u.s. is sphil ahead but you

said that china and russia very close to catching up and maybe even north korea and ira how well equipped right now is the u.s. to fend off a major cyberattack? >> well, much better at our offense than we t e aour defense. and that's partly because most of the targets in the united states are in private hands, utilities, financial firms. but also because even while our cyberdefenses have improved or improved dramically in the past five years, the number of targets has exnded so dramically that we can't keep up. so you now havean nternet connected refrigerator or the cameras outside your house, i you've gothem prrks internet connected. yo autonomous car. there have so many new ways in that no matter how much better we have a defense t seems like there are mortar gets. >> woodruff: of course wufntd things that arises out of this is the timing of the book, is what happened in 201 the

russian reported, russian .ttempt to interfere in the u.s. electi what did you find out about that? did you come away convinced that that happened? >> i not only came away bunvinced that it happenedi came away convinced that we missed huge numbers of signals there are four quhap teres in the book on russia but the first starts in ukraine and it's called putin a pet ree dish becauseically every single thing the russians did to us, they tried out in ukraine first. and we didn't have the imagination to think that they would take that and try it here. the second thing was the fbi was way too slow on the investigation into what happened to the dnc. it took nine months before they really got everybody to wake up to it. and even they then the britid step in and warn us that russian military intelligence was inside the dnc. and then the white house got hevolved in a lengthy internal debate abouter to calm

out-- call out president puceti. again, they made the decision that they had made when the russians went into the white house, t state department and the joint chiefs of staff, t to publicly pennallize the russians, at least before the d ection. >> course the whole argument about whether president obama moved quickly are enough or not. >> and aggresively enough. >> and aggressively enough. >> last thing, david sanger, you ask an importantion at the end about how the u.s. is really almost seen as a hypocrite because we argue against-- we argue against o thcountries interfering in what we do and yet it is something that theil u.s. is of doing. >> and thego on to say it's up to us, up to the united states to come up with ways to control this monster >> uh-huh. >> that we have created, that the u.s. has created.ou dohink that's going to happen? >> if so it's going toen happ very gradually and it's going to anquire a change of view in the

united statea change of view among our adversari ies. one of tividuals that is kicked around. you hear the president of mieblg soft smith, executives at siemens and other places talk about, about having a geneva digital conventioner rules you wouldn't to civilians. would they get violated all the time, sure, but then again th syrians violate the geneva conventions ef retime they gas civilians, but we would have some normings of havior and a few efforts so far ta to start that at the u.n. has really gone off. >> which is a bleak prospect for the future. >> it is. you don't want to wait until you have such a big paralyzing set of events or a series of smaller but incredibly damaging cyberattnkks for us to thi about those in retrospect. >> david sanger, i started out saying the book is frightening, r is, but st also fascinating and so important ead at this particular time.

it's the perfect weapon, a war, sabotage and fear in the cyberage. thank you. >> thank you, ju-- judy. >> schifrin: book clubs are very popur. in 2015, the "new york times" estimated that some ve-million ericans belong to one or more book clubs. in popular culture, book clubs have been mostly judged as a man's pursuit, but tonight, author nick arvin shares his humble opinion of why men should start reading together more >> maybe you're a guy. and maybe you like books. maybe you like talking with peop about books. maybe you're a guy who could be described as book club-curious. but maybe, while you're a pretty enlightened guy, you're also still a guy's guy, and all the book clubs you know seem to be by and for women.

can you have a book club for men? yes. it's easy. rule 1: don't call your book club a "book club." you're enlightened, but some guys might be a little wary. make it easier for them by naming your club-that-reads- books something that shows it's car tough guy-guys. your club, for example, the litnaerary doon society. rule 2: keep it small. take turns chcking books. person gets their turn. choose mostly novels, because they are easy to have oabnions t and argue over, kind of like quarterbacks. rule 3: you can only chose books that no one in the club has ever read before. this way, you're all plunging into the unknown together, adventurers in a new land. rule 4: everyone has to read the book. if someone fails to re the book, it's okay to mock thit and hit themtrash talk. is this, or is this not, a literary domination society?

rule 5: after discussing the book, everyone rates the book on a scale of one to ten. this forces everyone to formulate an opinion, which you can then argue about. which is fun. think, mixed martial arts. but much less painful. track not only how each book is rated, but how good eacherson is at picking books. it.'s competiti it's like fantasy football! but books! lap st rule, king this, meeting every month or two. keep meeting for years and years. have incr share things you've never shared with anyone else. if you're lucky, you'll make some of the greatest friends of your life. friends who can talk about the nature of fate in the novels of elena ferrante, and they will somehow also become friends who can help you to retain your grip on sanity when going through an unexpected divorce, when facing the crippling anxiety of

une ymployment, or wh find yourself in the inexplicable crush of depression. at least, that's what happ bed to me and k club-- i mean, literary dination society. where, by the way, i am the best at picking books. and i have the data to prove it. >> schifn: online, the newshour has its own book club, in partnership with the "new york times." it's called "now read this," and you can learn all abt our latest pick "what it means when a man falls from the sky," and how to join on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm nick schifrin. join us e and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french,

german, italnd more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> consumer cellular. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial .teracy in the 21st centu >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful worl more information at macfound.org >> and with thengoing support of these institutions: >> this program wamade possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

captioning sponsored by newshour productions, ll ptioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

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