cang sponsored by newshour productions, llc ev >> woodruff: gooing. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: hurricane florence lashes the carolinas with high winds, storm surges and heavy rains, we are t the ground with the lat the destructive flooding. then, president trump's former campaign manager paul manafort pleads guilty to charges of . conspiracy against the ud obstruction of justice. plus, it's friday, mark shields and david brooks alyze the controversy around the president's puerto rico tweets and the other political storms this week. and... >> all right! >> woodruff: rock star dave grohl discusses his musical life and the importance of creative independence. >> we really do have control

over everything we do. i honestly think that's why we're still a band because we've done it on our own terms for the ole time. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 year bnsf, the engine that connects us.

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thank you. >> woodruff: four dead, thousands in the dark, and a string of towns flooded. hurricane florence crawled ashore in north carolina early today with sustained winds of 90 miles-an-hour. by late afternoon it was downgraded to a tropical storm, but kept dumping heavy rain. p.j. tobia repor from wilmington, north carolina, on a long day on the state's coast. >>eporter: white caps in te g,reets of new bern, north carolina this mornestimony to the huge size of the storm, as the center pushed on shore-- 90 miles to the south.s new bern iadled between two rivers that rose ten feet overnight. 20ypeople had to be rescued dawn. >> we are continuing to do rescues throughout the community. people all night long have been in aics and roofs, asking fo help. and with the resources we had,

we got them out, we are callingr for moources. >> reporter: staffers at a local tv station even eid to abandon studios, in the middle of frricane coverage. farther south, heaoding also hit jacksonville, next door e camp lejeune. the eye of florede landfall just after 7:00 this moing in wrightsville beac north carolina, uprooting trees and flooding streets as it moved slowly iand. but wrightsville beach police chief dan hous have been much worse. >> in the grand scheme of things so far we've gotn away really lucky. there wasn't a lot of damage, there were a few downed power lines, some building damage on a few buildings but certainly less than what we expected. rm reporter: in the hours just before landfall, sands battered wilmington, about a dozen miles inland from wrightsville beach. wind gusts reached 105-miles-an- hon, the highest recorded i the city since 1958. most houses and buildings withstood the winds, but a woman

and her baby were killed when a tree was blown down on their home. blacked-out traffic lights swung wildly from their wires, over empty streets. >> having come out, in the morning, i've been out a couple times, i'm not surprised to see l this devastation. i watched th sign on the building fly oor. >> repr: the battleship "north carolina"-- now a museumr s lay undid. but tree branchelay everywhere. but power outages piled up in the coastal regions. governor roy cooper warned the destruction is not limited to atthe eastern part of the rain measured in feet could fall from central north carolina, to the foothills farther west. >> this one is so widespread you're gonna have a hard time finding a north carolioian who is not to be affected by the storm in some y. i still think we don't know the magnitude yet of this stm

because it has just come ashore and it's gonnae here a long time and it's gonna cut a long swath across our state. >> reporter: for families who moved way to tell how long they might be there. >> we decided to come to t hotel because we live in a zone where it was dangerous, where we weren't going to be safe. we want to be safe, we want the best for our family. so, that's why we came here. >> reporter: the hurricane's slgish pace promises to prolong the misery, as it lumbers slowly southwestward, along the coast. south carolina began feeling th, effects tond governor henry mcmaster forecast a long slog. >> this is something t have not seen before. this much rain, a hurricane aying on top of us for this long. so that means, ladies and gentlemen, that we're going to have to have patience. >> reporter: as it finally leaves the coast, florence is expected to move wes then curve back toward the mid- atlantic by next week.

>> here in downtown wilngton, the worst of hurricane florence's winds hpassed but transportation gusi wnds are blowing and parts of downtown gladded. >> woodruff: you mentioned the mother and child who were killed. what do you know more about what happened? >> that happened around 9:30 this morning. an 8-month-old babe c and mother were killed when a tree fell through the back of their home. e father of that child was also pinned beneath the tree and also the roof that had fallen in on him. ofincials here in wion say it took a long time to extricate they used special equipment including pillows that expand. it required help from fema. it was a multi-agency, intense effort, and he is now in the

hospital. >> woodruff: such a tragedy. p.j., you'valso been in touch with the police in ne bern 90 something miles to the north where the wy're dealih flooding and rescues? >> that's exactly right. there have been floods in thear new berna. since the storm hit, 360 people were rescued mostly by boat and high-water vehicles. 140 people are yet to be rescued. people and fire officials say they're working as hard as they can to get t those folks, also a multi-agency effort invvi fema. also the cajun nvy, average joes from texas and louisiana, who bring their own boats and help out authorities, very active in hurricane harvey, ey're helping out in florence today as well. >> woodruff: p.j., people are out and about. i see some behd you. >> that's right, and they really shouldn't be, according to officials. just from drivg around ourselves today, wie seen lots of downed power lines, trees are

everywhere. a lot of the beautiful, old historic trees are on top f houses tonight. it's still raining, the flood waters are risg, streets flooding, ponding on streets, so folks should stay put be this storm is not done with eastern northarolina just ye >> woodruff: downgraded to a tropical storm but still a danger. p.j. tobia, thank you very muc in the days other news: puerto rico had new power oages today as remnants of a tropical storm passed south of the u.s. territory. forecasters predicted three inches of rain, and possible flash floods. hurricane maria hit puerto rico last september hard. it took nearly a year for power to be mostly restored in its aftermath, but the system remains fragile. in t western pacific, a powerful typhoon has slammed into the northeastern

philippines, with winds of 127 miles an hour. the eye of the storm made landfall on the island of luzon early sarday morning, local time. hours earlier, heavy rains and winds were already lashing the island. the storm could threaten more than five million people. an investigation is underway north of boston, after gas ilplosions ripped through three towns yesterday,ng one person. today, ste officials blamed over-pressurized gas lines. but they said it's still not clear exactly what sparked the explosions. th39fires engulfed at least homes in north andover, andover and lawrence-- forcing 8,000 people to ee. the andover fire chief said it looked like a wazone. >> i've been in the fire service for almost 39 years an never seen anything like this in my entire career. it looked like armagedn. it really did. there were billows of smoke comi from lawrence behind me

i could see pillars of smoke in front of me from the town of dover. >> woodruff: the governor of massachusetts declared ange emy today, as safety workers checked homes, block by block. u.s.ecretary of state mike pompeo is accusing his predecessor john kerry of working against president trump's policy toward iran. last may, mr. trump withdrew from the iran nuclear deal thate kerry hatiated under president obama. today, pompeo attacked kerry's meetings with iran's foreign minister, since leaving office. >> what secretary kerry has done is unseemly and unprthedented. is a former secretary of state engaged with the world'sst largese sponsor of terror. actively undermining u.s. policy as a former secretary of state is literally unheard of. woodruff: last night, president trump accused kerry of

holding illegal meetings. pompeo said he'd leave that question to others. new york governor andrew cuomo today hailed his victory in thursday's democratic primary. the two-term governor defeated actress-turned-activist cynthia nixon by 30 points, after outspending her eight to one. cuomo now heads to november'sge ral election as the heavy favorite. and, on wall street: the dow jones industrial average gained edght points to close at 26,154, the nasdaq slipp three points, and the s&p 500 added a fraction. still to come on the newshour: following a guilty plea, what could paul manafort brto the mueller investigation? the role that climate change plays in today's hurricanes, russia flexes its military strength with the largest exercises since the cold war, and much more.

>> woodruff: now to today's guilty plea by paul manafort.rt it marks the fformer trump presidential campaign aide to admit to federal crimes as part of special counsel mueller's investigation. as part of the deal, the former trump campaign chairman agrees to coopete with the mueller probe. william brangham was again in the courtroom today and he joins me now. so bring us up to speed, william. what happened? >> this was really a stunning development. the reporting all along indicated that paul manafort topled guilty he crimes he was facing here -- money launderin failure to register as a foreign agent, tax, bankud, things like that. but then when the revelation came and judge amy jackson today

went through l the charging with manafort and said did you commitll these crimes, and he said, i do, i do, ino, ad at the very end she said and you now agree to cooperate with the office of special counsel, paul manafort very quietly said, do. >> woodruff: what does this mean for the mueller investigation? >> manafort has to cooperate fullyith mueller's team. he has to answer questions, turn over documents, nothingoeems be off limits in their questioning. what paul manafort can tell roberrobert mueller is still the $64,000 question. we don't know. if you think what mural' mandate is, what di russia do vis-a-vis our elections and what role didh trump campaign play in that. paul manafort was a central character in the ump capaign and at the trump tower meeting but we don't know what he has to offer. this certainly has to make the

president quite nervous. the president all along has ben very complimentary to paul manafort, saying how glad he was thatre didn'tak under pressure, comparing him to michael cohen. so now that the reverse has happened today, it's got to be unsettling for the white house. >> woodruff: the predent went out of his way to compliment. do you know what led to this? all along, paul manafort's lawyers said he wouver cooperate or agree to plead guilty.au >> i askedmanafort's long-time, personal lawyer that question today and he ssid hi sense was paul manafort recognized he was in a tough spot. hes convicted on eight counts in virginia earlier this summer, facing many years in prison for that. that trial was incredibly costly to him, he has no ineome, h's been stripped of houses, bank accounts, lifee insura policies, and he was facing an expensive upcoming trial supposed to start monday.

i think he hopes if he cooperates with mueller he may get leniency on the other charges. >> woodruf rudy giuliani, sarah huckabee sanders pointed out this ple this acknowledgment by paul manafort is all about things that had nothing, they say, to do with president trump -- money laundering, 's tax issues -- so that's the argument looking at this. >> on one level, that's factually true, most of the charges had to do with things that happened werel behe trump campaign and manafortin' involvement. that said, the elephant in the room is he's now cooperating and teing mueller about things directly related to the trump campaign. so that's where therucial part is. >> woodruff: we know in connection with all this there was talk ad even before th president was complpl coenting m that the president might consider pardoning paul manafort. what does that look like right now?

>> i think the calculus has to change now for the white house becae now that manafort is we know talking to mueller's office, if the president were th pard, i think this increases the chaps it looks like the president is offering him a k pardon ep him quiet and stop him doing that. the prosecutors today, i don't know if this was right preempt thatthey were making clear that there are other state charges for which the president afnnot pardon anyone for that hang over paul mat and possibly could be exerted some day. >> woodruff: and we still don't know about prison time for him. >> we don't yet. >> woodruff:. >william brangham,important sto. >> woodruff: as florence was closing in on the carolina coast this week, the size of the threat it posed rekindled the discussion about the role of

climate change in today's weather patterns-- and how it may be intensifying this storm and other past hurricanes. amna nawaz joins that conversation for us now.ep >>ter: the question is a vital one with more and more people living along the coastsab and the rd, which many say is a problem in and of itself. there already is certainly somen debate among ssts about how climate change impacts a storm. but increasingly, reses are trying to explain the connections immediately after a stem hits and they say clim change is definitely associated with both sea level rise and rising temperatures. to help walk us through some of the latest thinking and science around this, i'm joined by radley horton of columbia university. he's a climate scientist at lamont-doherty earthob rvatory. welcome to the "newshour". let's start with th million-dollar question we face every hurricane season, what i it we can say difieively between the link between climate

change and these kind of hurricanes? >> there's a clear link and three dimensionsto the way human activities have increased the riskassociated with these types of storms. the first is because climate change a warming has increased sea levels and, as a result, whenever any storm hits, water levels are that much higher by virtue of the baseline having been raised. it means more area flooded when a storm happens, deeper and more s associated with that flood. the second component is the amount of rainfall asociated with a given storm. as we've warmed the atmosphere and uer ocean, can now hold more moisture, so for a storm of a given strength, there's that much more moisture available to fall out in the types of catastrophic rains that we're seeing here. the third element which is a little less certain than the first two is that the storm themselves can become stronger

with climate change, the actual strength of the winds, the depth of the low pree ssure. lance of evidence suggests that the major -- major hurricanes will beore equent and intense as we further warm the atmosphere, that is not 100% at thi point. >> hurricane hry formed over the gulf of mexico, you talked about the rising sea levels and warming temperatures, reportedly the waters we just e degree celsius warmerhan average. are we to understand that can mean that much dramatic difference in a orm >> one degree matters a lot, especially when the ocean temperatures are already higto begin with. you increase the temperature a little bit, the air can hold a lot more moisture which leads to, when we think about the infrastructure, increasethe rate at which it rains and can

mean more flooding. paradoxically, as you raise sea levels for a given amount of rainfall alonghe coast or inland, it's that much more difficult for the water the drain out to the ocean with a storm surge and with the avrage sea level pushing some of the rainwater back on land and making it harder to drin. >> so walk me three the scenario. we're seeing hurricane florence batter the carolina coast. if climate change wasn't an issue, how would this storme different? >> back 100 years or, so sea levels would have been a foot or so lower than today. primarily because of the absence of the grouse gas emissions that means that less area would be getting flooded, and thata means t the depths of the water which poses that risk of loss of life, extreme damage to eefrastructure, would have a bit less. some homes, some assets, some

people at the margins, if the waters are 7 inches or a foot lower, that's a big part of the ory, and then there are e other dimensions, too. if you had a little less rainfall falling in the past, there would be less risk as well. there are other things humans ere doing as well in som regions, people moving into high-risk areas and removin natural surfaces that had been able to absorb some of the rainwater can exacerbate some of ks. ris >> despite the overwhelming scientific cone sensus, the a group of people with powerful voices among thm who say climate change is a hoax and say after hurricane katrina in 2005, we went nearly a decade before a major storm and cie downgrading of storms, saying everyone hypes up the storm, it advances the

climate change agenda is what they call it. what do you say to that? >> climate change is about shifting risk. if you look at one storm, one small region, in just a few years, there's always going to ch that natural variability. what climatege is doing is loading the dice. if you're a coastal planr, thinking about asset and investments along the coast, the s are changing. the frequency of the coastal flood events are becoming muc more frequent. in any individual place you will have runs of a few yearsf below-normal storms and temperatures, but the key cint is climaange has shifted these statistics. we're getting much more frequent and more severe flooding, mucavh r rain events, and now getting twice as many record break heat events as extreme cold. statistics are shifting ande need to plan for the shifting future. >> radlehorton, columbia

university, thank you very much. >> thank you. ee woodruff: now, all this in the vast expanse of siberia, russian military forces have in a generation. as nick schifrin reports, the exercises are as much aboutec prng power as demonstrating it. >> reporter: in russia's far east, the troops aree n parade and nks extend as far as the eye can see.vi not since the area has the russian military showed off this much weaponry, and tried tv coince the world not only the re coming, but they've already arrived-- with sound and fury. an all out aault from the ground and the air, simulating conventional war. soldiers repelling fro helicopters as if they were launching an invasion. the russian navy flooded the bering sea that separates ruia

from alaska, and ships launchedt cruise missileypothetical enemy boats. all hailed as proof a military that 15 years ago waeted and demoralized can now mobilizh the russians claim is their largest exercise since the cold war, said russian president vladimir putin. >> ( translated ): our duty to the meland is to be ready to defend the sovereignty, the security, and the national interests of our country. >> they sound very impressive to a domestic audience because they make it seem like russia is a great power, in many ways that has been restored in terms of military capability. and they also sound very impressive to foreign audiences. >> reporter: michael kofman is a senior research scientist at tht er for naval analyses. he says the exercise isn't only to improve russian deploymentdi and coornation. it's also about increasing what he calls coercive diplomacy against other countries. >> if you want to push people around, leveraging the military hrwer that you have, the threat of force, but thatt of

force has to be seen, people have to believe it, it's got to be made credible. and of course the bigger more exagrated it seems, the bett your coercive diplomacy. >> reporter: and the diplomacy of this excise is all about china. those are chinese troops, and chedese helicopters integrat into a simulated russian attack. the two militaes have worked together, but never this high profile. and never before has a chinese president participated. at a nearby economic forum, xipu jinping ann showed off their relationship, and cooking skills. they made russian paakes-- with a healthy dollop of caviar, washed down with a vodka. xiarely conducts public diplomacy, and, watching themselves, the two were at times self-conscious. but at a moment when the u.s. is lking about great power competition, china tied itself to russia. >> ( translated ): we will continue to make joint efforts to consolidate our traditional friendship, enhance our comphensive cooperation, and

push the china-russiaip relationp to a new height. >> the two are increasingly demonstrating something very important. they don't see each other as a threat but they are responding to a shared threat that theyrc ve in the united states. and it's important to understand that alliances between classgral powerst powers, they're not made out of love, affection, or trust-- or even or even mutual appearances making pancakes. they're made in response to a larger threat and the rger threat is very clearly the ited states. >> reporter: the west considers russia increasingly hostile. the 2014 annexation of crimea-- ongoing battles russian- backed separatists in eastern ukraine-- and the russian military intervention in syria that saved syrian president bashar al assad. r inponse, the u.s. has deployed more troops to europe than at any time since the cold war. just this week, nato jets practiced intercting russian jets. it's a sign nato is more united against russia, nato secretary general jens stoltenberg said

today in washington. >> reporter: analysts believe russia does not want confrontation withhe west. but it wants the world to believe that it can exert force, and frighten chinese troops with a little help from their friends. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: there are new details su a controversy ounding president trump's supreme court nominee.ug brett kavatoday strongly denied an allegation of sexual misconduct from his high school years. "the new yorker" reported thatch woman, who ising to remain anonymous, accused kavanaugh of trying to "force himself on hert party more than 30 years ago.

w-here to unpack what we k and what questions remain unanswered-- are: capitol hill correspondt lisa desjardins and white house correspondent yamiche alcindor. hello to both of you. so, lisa, what is the nature of these allegations? >> our own reporting is that there is a letter received by senator feinstein and at least one other member of congress from a woman remaining anonymous in which she alledgeses sexual misconduct from when she was in high school andudge kavanaugh was in high school. that's our reporting. nhe rest we have to refer to the "new york times"the new yorker which are reporting this woman alleges she was held down by then student kavanaugh and that he acetempted to force himself on her, that he and a friend raised the volume of music so her protest couldn't be hear but she made her way out the classmate said he does not recall the incident at all. antime this letter was

referred to the f.b.i. for potential investigate by senator feinstein's office. the f.b.i. said they're notin investigthis as a criminal matter, among other issues, there's a statute limitations. they're putting it in a file on mr. kavanaugh that who has gone through six different investighiions. >> the house is sticking by judge kavanaugh, they're aying they're continuing to support him and statement last night, a spokesperson from the white house actually quitioned the timing of ts and said judge kavanaugh has sat through more than 2,000ti qus, that he's answered dozens of questions about all sorts of things and, essentially, that he's been vetted a lot and this is something that's coming out at the 11th hour. they said there is an 11t 11th hour attempt to delay his confirmation. the judge is saying he categorically denies this,

happenat he denies anything at all could have happened. then a letter by 65 women who went to high school with judge kavanaugh was written andf it sayr the entire time we've known brett kavanaugh, he has behaved honorably and treated women with respe our reporting shows clerks for judge kavanaugh organized the letter spoke to a white house source who say the reason there's 65 women fro school who can write this letter is he has been vetted so many times he i actually in touch with all these women. >> woodruff: the timing does raise questions. what do you know about that? >> senator feinstein s made aware of this letter in july and she held on to it for many reasons, the most prominent of which were that woman strongly wanted to remain anonymous at that time and she wanted to protect her identity, the other which th's these areal

oldeegations and they were vetting what the alegations meant. other democrats felt like thisg was somethat needed to be made public. it's been a problem for newsrooms as well. this is an anonymous woman. this is something that's hard to t for anyone, but clearly some democrats wanted this out and leaked it. top democratic sources said, yes, this was a leak by democrats. >> woodruff: and yamiche, quickly, "me too" is very punch in the atmosphere right now. what is the thinking about the president? >> it's going to politically hurt the president if this hampers the nomination. president trump stands accused several women of sexual abuse in his own right and faces backlash because rob porter had to resign because two exwives accused him of abuse. so there's pressuring saying this man i accused, surrounding

himself with other men w are also accused. but i spoke to a representat of anita hill, who is a woman who accused supreme court stice clarence thomas of sexually harassing her, she said this would be investigated fairly and not be weaponized against the accuser. >> woodruff: no t senhat this will derail his confirmation? >> it is changing not important calculus. y senators who will make the decision i think will take more time to announcthe decision including senator susan collins of maane, tht will put more pressure on democrats who are hoping she will anounce her vote first. no one wants to be t deciding vote at this moment, everyone is going to wait the see how it plays out. >> woodruff: very interesting. lisa desjardins, yamiche alcindor, thank you.

>> woodruff: as the carolinas grapple with florence's destructive forces, president trump sparked a new political storm afterth questioninnumber of americans killed in puerto rico last year.th angeneral election for control of the house and senate has officially begun a perfect time for the analysis of shields and brooks.d that's syndicalumnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks.ot hello toof you. mark, i'm going to start with the paul manafort plea. he said for months he wasn't going to do this, but now he has, he's pled guilty, ands he' cooperating with robert mueller. there's so much we don't knobuw, what does this mean for the president, potentially? >> it meansad news. paul manafort is the person closest to the president, who

was in the campaign, who was involved in a meeting at tower with the russia's, who was involved ultinimatelhe convention preparations, changing of the plaorm's position on ukraine. so there's a lot, plus he was the conduit to the degree there was one in the trump campaign to the tradition of theub rcan rty so paul manafort is potentially a real problem. >> woodruff: david? i agree. it's striking to me how late in the process this plea dealame. maybe manafort was holding out, but the fact muellerecided to cut the plea suggests there is tmething there, either by trump, a member oump's family, something else. it suggests mueller is proceeding slowly but remorselessly. it might not even be about russee. it'sinteresting the indictments that have come down have been about other tings and

there could be other law eaking in trump's past. >> woodruff: we'll certainly watch and wait. in the meantime, as i mentioned, mark, this is a week in which we're waitincafor this hur to hit the southeastern coast of the u.s. it surprisedveryone with tweet everyone questioning the number of people who died inhe aftermath of hurricane maria that hit puerto rico, the outside experts, completelyl, non-politiame to the conclusion, several of them, it was around 3,000. the president sad that's not so. it's not just democrats but republicans in the state of florida and elie came back and said the president is wrong. what has he stepped into her >> he's stepped, into judy, andm exposed self as somebody whose ego is so out of check, who s narcissistic impulses are so total that he could equ a

personal tragedy of some 3,000 and some estimas as high as 4,000-plus deaths in puerto rico to be a polnitical cspiracy against him ton part of his political enemies.re as far aublicans in florida, rick scott, the governor, out and said it's not true. he has been to puerto riti himself seves, he's made a big effort politically and governmentally to welcome the puerto ricans who were moved to florida as aesult of that storm and will immediately become voters in that state. but i think most telling wa ron ron -- ron desandes, the minime donald trump cloned, self styled, self-admitted, saying he did not agree with the president on this. i don't know whait's comparable to, breaking with the

king? so i would sayrump ha really, in this case, isolated and d himself. >> woodruff: any positive calculus for the president? >> remember when he was bragging about hisrowd size at the inaugural, that was a lie through at least harmless. this is a lie where you render nearly 3,000 americans invisible, that you don't acknowledge their exyostence and don't even see them, and, so, it's essentially telling th families of the people who died and anybody who cares about their fellow citizens that you can write them out of the hiauory books bec their deaths make donald trump look bad. >> pardon i agree. one other thing, the problem of disasters in this country are very real. superstorm sandy and even the 2012 election when barack obama went to new jersey and republican govnor chris christie, a big supporter of

mitt romney, thanked him publicly for the concern and his compassion he and his administration showed the people of new jersey suffering. on the other side, it was george w. bush's decline as aresident in popular support was accelerated by hurrine katrina. his apparent indifference, his dorsement michael brwn, he can of a brown brownie, failed. there's no politics involved in natural disr ters. whetd, blue, liberals o conservatives, they look to the federal government forct efe, efficient, responsive help. donald trump, when he went to texas after the great storm last year, the first thing he said was what a crowd, what a turn out, again, making itb aout donald trump. >> woodruff: and, david this, comes as there are polls now d, in fact, a number of polls over the last few weeks that are showing some slippage in the president's approval rating.

we're wary of bringing up polls because we're rehminded tey're just snapshots that are we seeing something her we are officially past labor day, in the general elections. >> there are snapshots, but it's a moment and we're only two months away from anl eection. donald trump had been sitting around 4for a long time, incredibly stable poll, this scandal,, hat scandthing moved him, then the last two weeks he drops to 37, 38, and that's five to eight months, especially two mons before the election, that's the difference between your party doing badly or geing wiped out in the midterms. the question is why all of a sudden iit going down, and there's probably no one answer, maybe a little the comparison with john mccain. i mostly think it's seasonal, people weren't paying attention, it's summertime and they come back and start paying attention and they're more annoyed with the weuy than thee. but the drop is among

independents and republicans. so it would be very alarming news for all repub cans, should ry alarming news. >> woodruff: mark, we have been saying the numbers look good for democrats in the house of representatives, but now there's a claimer of sign that there may be good news in thete seand senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said we have the equivent of a knife fight in an ally in seven or eight different senate race in the country. >> i think there are two factors that contribute tomp's trouble. first, i think the mccain funeral d attendant attenti was just a reminder of a hero of military servicend donald trump's total tone deafness during that entire week. i think the contrast is in people's minds. nowsody who is a veteran, k a veteran, has a veteran in the family, respected military oservice, i think had to at it and just recoil frosm performance. the second thing is i think, quite frankly, his tweeting is

wearing thin. i think it's lost its pressureness. tweet two dozen times about the national anthem and the n.f.l.,e he did have t ability to drive the political narrative and i think that's failed him.th as far ae democrats in the senate, it's unthinkable they would even be competiteve. they havseats up in states that donald trump, democrats nning for election, donald trump carried five in which he won by landsides, west virginia, indiana rk missouri, montana and north dakota, and yet there are competitive and encouragingm numbers for ocrats. i'm reminded of texas, if texas is in play, bill cohen, former secretary of defense there from maine who never lost anlection in maine has said once before they vote for you, they have tod like you, if that's the case, ted cruz is in trouble in eexas. >> i believe that i see it.

>> woodruff: what do these congressional races look like? >>e're at the ebbed ofhe primaries. i think we've learned some things. donald trump owns t republican party. in about every place you looked, the most pro-trump person won and anybody who crossed him, out. the conservative movement, whatever it was, it's a trump party now. the second thing we'vlearned is the democrats have not swung super far left. if you look at who s backed by various groups, the dccc which icial democratic off establishment, 97% of their candidates won, the new democrats, 87%. the more left wing groups, 30-odd percent. >> woodruf they had a few headlines. >> they had a few races that were shocking where thleft wing won but in learn the left rty did not swing. the democratic turnout doubled er previous primaries. those are pretty must have the

takeaways that i see. >> i think david is right. the intensity and interest and enthusiasm on the d. j. side right now by everyeasurement, just in 2010 and 2014, they're on the rpublican side, ando me in a midterm, that's the greatest measurement of what's going ppen, where the enthusiasm and intensity was, where the interest in the campaign is and it's higher among democrats by an inc margin than republicans. part of the problem is donald trump said to his peopl pol don't matter, don't believe what you read. now he'll come back and say, wait a minute, the polls are great so get enthusiastic and t involved. >> woodruff: the last thing, less than a minute left, david, is what we just heard lisa andrt yamiche reg on is the allegation against brett kavanaugh, something that happened alegedly in high school. where do you see this going or ho you see it mattering? >> well, givent we know now, if he did it, he would be and should be disqualified. but right now, an anonyus,

very abstract, very vague, with no police record, p noolice evidence, i don't think that stops his nomination. it's something that everyone denies, and if there's no evidence, i don't think it's going to hurt him.on >> yeah, i know, but in this atmosphere, when you've just had a week where the president of cb news and the producer of its most popular show fell to charges, i mean, charges are taken more serioy ly than tve been in the past, but this is a far reach back, and it's totally out of character from anything else we've learned about brett kavanaugh. >> very different time than clarence thomas. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: mark shields, david brooks, thank you. thank you. >> woodruff: finally tonight, in a couple of weeks outside los angeles, some of the biggest-- and loudest-- groups in rock and

roll will gather for the cal jam festival. and no of those groups is bigger-- or louder-- than the foo fighters their leader, dave grohl, has now starred in two of the most popular bands in rock history. but as jeffrey brown tells us, grohl has also successfully built a life balanced betweend music anmily. >> reporter: he may be on the cusp of 50, but dave grohl is still a blur of rock and roll energy. >> it is honestly the best feeling in the world. when we walk out on stage and i bust into that first song it's like the theme from "jaws." you just know "awww,omeone's gonna get torn up." all right! it's like being shot out of a cannon every single night. >> reporter: as frontman, guitarist and leader of the foo fighters, grohl spent the next few hours whipping up a sold-out

house at maryland's merriweather post pavilion. but he well remembers how it began, as a teenager growing up not far from here in the northern virginia suburbs. >> i'm lik "i'm going to do it now. i'm going to put on a show at 1e s old in some like v.f.w. hall and put up flyers and hire the p.a. and i'm going to start my own band, i'm going to recd a record all by myself, and i'm just going to keep pushing it because i honestly believe i can do it." >>eporter: grohl dropped o of high school to play music in local bands with the blessing of his mother, a acher. he made his way to the wes coast, and became the drummer in nirvana, the seminal seattle grunge band that helped give new, punk life to rock in the 1990s. ♪ with guitarist and singer kurt cobain and bassist krist novoselic, their breakout album,

"nevermind", featuring the hit song, "smells like teen spirit", debuted in september 1991, and shot them to super-stardom. it was great, bunot always. >> being in nirvana at such a young age-- i was 21 or 22 years old when the band got popular. that's a heavy trip for a kid to go through at that age. and it was overwhelming at times when it was overwhelming, i would just come back here to virginia and go back to the bedroom that i grew up in. i had a way to weather all of that and survive it. >> reporter: kurt cobain would not. he struggled with depression, addiction, and the crushing pressure of sudden global fame. in april 1994, just 27, he shot hielf. grohl withdrew, uncertain and unclear ere next to go. six months after cobain's death, he recorded a lf-made demo

tape of 15 songs. >> i recorded the first album all by myself played all the instruments. >> reporter: from that srt, a new band-- foo fighters-- was born. and grohl learned an important business lesson as well. >> a record company called andan said, "hey, weto put out this record." but my lawyer said, "hey, don't just give it to somebody, you should start your own record company." so i'm the president of a record company. we really do have control over everything we do. i honestly think tt's why we're still a band because we've done it on our own terms for the whole time. ♪ >> reporter: that self-titd debut landed in 1995, "learn to fly," and so far has led to eight more studio albums, >> ♪ there goes my heroor >> repr: ...and platinum

hits all along the way. en the band to the foot of the acropolis in athens, as seen on pbs's "landmarks live". even as grohl re-made himself-- now as a lead singer and guitarist, joined byer taylor hawkins, guitifists chris sht and pat smear, bassist nate men'del and keyboard player rami jof. the foo fighters are now on world tour in support of their latest album "concrete and gold." and grohl calls the shots. >> nobody told me what to do back then because ibody cared whas doing and now it's still nobody tells us what to do because we've just built this sort of foress around our band so that it's protected by us. ♪ >> reporter: grohl is now equal parts ambassador and evangelist of rock and roll. the band's "sonic highways" project-- both an album and hbo documentary series-- took them

to iconic musicians and locales around the nation. making the point that local still matters when it comes to music. is that still true? i mean do we hear so much about the flattening of thearth, right? everybody has the same technology? in now it's just the touch of a button and some kiis basement can let the world hear his latest masterpiece that heco ed in his bathroom. you know, i think that's amazing. that's the kind of independence and distribution that e dreamed of when we were kids. as far as it sort of changing se regional aspect-- ther still different flavors and there's still different tempos to every city. go spend like a good winter in seattle. thatppressive gray drizzle. >> reporter: that still has an impact on the music. >>es mean it's completely me with your psyche and if you're a musician your shit's going to get dark.

it just will... >> reporter: these days, grohler himself ismuch the family man, 15 years married and the father of three girls-- headbanging by night, carpooling by day. >> i'm not ashamed to say that i wake up at 6:00 in the morning. i wake everybody up, i make some bacon and pancakes, a couple glasses of milk, and get them dressed. if i get them in the minivan smiling, it's going to be a good day. >> let's go see her...nd >> reporter:ome sometimes comes on the road. >> gus brant, tour manager, and his assistant, violet grohl. >> reporter: hello. >> reporter: they put you to work, huh? so who's the boss? >> wrong answer, i'm the boss! it's the family business. one day she'll be like, "dave, o comen let's go.yo u're on stage in 15 minutes dad!" >> reporter: if the band'san latest video iclue, with its song "run", set in a nursin2

ho-year-old violet grohl might be well into middle age and still trying to al her father. >> we want to be the band that's you know rocking a sho nursing home and it turns into a riot. but it was fny because then it became the antithesis of the "smells like teen spirit" video that nirvana made 27 years ago. there you have a high school gymnasium and you've got a of these principals and teachers trying to keep the kids in line famous. now they put them in the nursing home. p you've got theple these elderlies that are overtaking all of the guards and it's kind of the opposite. >> reporter: on a more serious note: you're often asked about nirvana and the death of kurt cobain. you can-- you can think about him as one story of rock and roll, the youtthat burns out way too early. we've had too many. >> yeah. >> reporter: but you're describing a very different story of rock and roll. >> you know when kurt died i

remember the next day and thinking i... i still get to live. so i'm going to live every day like it's my last one, even if it's the worst day, i'm going to try to appreciate it. and i still feel that way.di i never want t honestly i feelike if i get to this and i've got these beautiful kids as long as i can this and do this i'm al good. yeah, at's how i feel. >> reporter: car-pooling by day, and headbanging through the night. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown from merriweather post pavilion in columbia, maryland. >> woodruff: wow. online, we hear more from dave grohl, including how music can bring together people of

different backgrounds, religions or political views. you can find that on our facebook page: facebook.com/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been proded by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org.

ew>> the william and floratt foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshou >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. c and tributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, c captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

"amanpour and company." here is what is coming up. the torrent o accusations against the catholic church keeps coming. i speak with one of america' most powerful catholic leaders cardinal timothy dolan of new york. super chef jose andres. so from the nfl to the