captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on theewshour tonight: hurricane florence lashes the carolinas with high winds, storm surges and heavy rains, we arehe onround with the latest on the destructive flooding. then, president trump's former campaign manager paul manafort pleads guilty to charges ofns racy against the u.s. and obstruction of justice. plus, it's friday, mark shields and david brooks analyze 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 independce. >> we really do have control over everything we do.

i honely think that's why we're still a band because we've done it on our own terms for the whole time. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. ng >> major fundior the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. 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 susined winds of 90 miles-an-hour. by late afternoon it was downgraded to a tropal storm, rot kept dumping heavy rain. p.j. tobia reports wilmington, north carolina, on a long day on thstate's coast.ep >> rter: white caps in the streets of new bern, north carolina this morning, testimony to the huge size of the storm, as the center pushed on she-- 90 miles to the south. new bern is cradled between two rivers that rose ten ft overnight.le 200 pead to be rescued by dawn. >> we are continuing to do rescues througut the community. people all night long have beenn in atticroofs, asking for help. and with the resources we had,

we got them out, we are callg for more resources. >> reporter: staffers at a local tv station even had to abandon their studios, in the middle of hurricane coverage. llrther south, heavy flooding also hit jackson next door to camp lejeune. the eye of florence made landfall just after 7:00 this morning in wrightsville beach, north carolina, uprootees and flooding streets as it moved slowly inland. but wrightsville beach police chief dan house said it could have been much worse. >> in the grand scheme of things so far we've gotten away really lucky. there wasn't a lot of damage, there were a few downed power lines, some building dilage on a few ngs but certainly less than what we expted. >> reporter: in the hours just fore landfall, storm bands battered wilmington, about a dozen miles inland from wrightsville beach.ts wind gus reached 105-miles-an- hour, the highest recorded in the city since 1958. most houses and buildings withstood the winds, but a woman and her baby were killed when ab

tree wwn down on their home. blacked-out traffic lightswung wildly from their wires, over empty streets. >> having come outin the morning, i've been out a couple times, i'm not surpris to see all this devastation. i watched this sign on the building fly off. >> reporter: the battleship "north carolina"-- now a museum- - lay undisturbed. but tree branches lay everywhere. but power outages piled up in e coastal regions. governor roy cooper warned the destruction is not limited toea thern part of the state. rain measured in feet could fall from central nth carolina, to the foothills farther west. >> this one is so widespread you're gonna have a hard time honding a north carolinian is not going to be affected by the storm in some way. i still think we don't know the magnitude yet of this storm

because it has just come ashore and it's gonna be here a long a ti it's gonna cut a long swath across our state. >> reporter: for families wholt moved to ss, there is no way to tell how long they might be there. >> we decided to come to the hotel because we live in a zone e ere it was dangerous, wh weren't going to be safe. we want best for our family.e so, that's why we came here. >> reporter: the hurricane'ssh sluggiace promises to prolong the misery, as it lumbers slowly southwestward, alg the coast. south carolina began feeling the effects today, and governor henry mcmaster forecast a long sl. >> this is something that we have not seen before. this much rain, a hurricane staying on top of us for this long. l so that means,ies and gentlemen, that we're going to have to have patience. >> reporter: ait finally leaves the coast, florence is expected to move west, then curve back toward the mid- atlantic by next week.

>> here in downtown wilmington, the worst of hurricane florence's winds have passed but transportation gust winds are blowing and parts of downtown gladded. >> woodruff: you mentioned the mother and child who were killed. what do you know more abut 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. the father of that child waspi alsoned beneath the tree and also the roof that had fallen in on him.al offihere in wilmington say it took a long time to extricate him. 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 >> woodruff: such a tragedy.

p.j., you've also been in touch with the police in new bern 90 something miles to the north where they're dealing with flooding and rescues? >> that's exactly right. n floods in the new bern area. nce the storm hit, 360 people were rescued motly by bot and high-water vehicles. 140 people ar yet to be rescued. peopleynd fire officials sa they're working as hard as they can to get to those folks, alsao multi-agency effort involving fema. also t cajun navy, average jo from texas andouisiana, who bring their own boats and help o authorities, very active in hurricane harvey, they're helping out in florence today as well. >> woodruff: pj., people are out and about. i see some behind you. >> that's right, and they really shouldn't be, according to officials. just from driving around ourselves today, wieeen lots of downed power lines, trees are

everywhere. a lot of the beautiful, old historic trees are on top of houses tonig. it's sti raining, the flood waters are rising, streets flooding, ponding on streets, so folks should stay put because this storm is not done with eastern north carolina just yet. >> woodruff: downgraded t tropical storm but still a danger. p.j. tobia, thank you much. in the days other news: puerto rico had new power outages 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 september hard. it took nearly a year for power to be mostly restored in its aftermath, but the systere ins fragile. in the western pacific, a powerful typhoon has slammedhe intoortheastern philippines, with winds of 127

miles an hour. the eye of the storm made landfall on the island of luzony early satuorning, 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 explosions ripped through three towns yesterday, killing one person.ff today, stateials blamed over-pressurized gas lines. but they said it's still not clear exactly what sparked the explosns. the fires engulfed at least 39 homes in north andover, andover and lawrence-- forcing 8,000 people to flee. the andover fire chief said it looked like a war zone. >> i've been in the fire service for almost 39 years and i've never seen anything like this in my entire career. looked like armageddon. it really did. there were billows of m oke coming fwrence behind me. i could see pillars of smoke in

front of me from the town of andover. >> woodruff: the govnor of massachusetts declared an meergency today, as safety workers checked block by block.ta u.s. sec 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 that kerry had negotiated under president obama. today, pompeo attacked kerry'sir meetings wit's foreign minister, since leaving office. >> what secretary kerry has done teis unseemly and unpreced this is a former secretary of statengaged with the world's largest state sponsor of terror. actively undermining u.s. policy as a former secretary of state is literally unheard of.dr >> wf: 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's general election as the heavy favorite. and, on wall street: the dow jones industrial average gained eight points to close at 26,154, the nasdaq slipped three points, and the s&p 500 added a fraction. still to come on the newshour: following a guilty plea, what could paul manafort bring to the mueller investigation? the role that climate change plays in today's hurricanes, russia flexes its militaryit strengththe largest exercises since the cold war, and much more.

>> woodruff: now to today's guilty plea by paul manafort. it marks the fourth former trump presidential campaign aide to to federal crimes as par of special counsel mueller's investigation.ar asof the deal, the former trump campaign chairman agrees to cooperate 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 happene >> this was really a stunning development. the reporting all along indicated that paul manafort pled guilty to the crimes he was facing here -- money laundering, failure to register as a foreign agent, tax, bank fraud, things like tha but then when the revelation eame and judge amy jackson today went through all charging

with manafort and said did you t commit alese crimes, and he said, i do, i do, i do and at the very end she said and you now agree to cooperate with the office of speucial consel, paul manafort very quietly said, i do. >> woodruff:hat does this an for the mueller investigation? >> manafort has to cooperate fully wih mueller's team. he has to answer questions, turn over dcuments, nothing sems to be off limits in their questioning. what paul manafort cantell roberrobert mueller is still $64,000 question. we don't know. if you think what mural' mandate is, what did russia do visou-a-s elections and what role did the trump campaign play in that. paul manafort was a central charuter in the trmp campaign 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 alng has been very complimentary to paul manafort, saying how glad he was that he didn't break undersu pr, comparing him to michael cohen. so now that the reverse has happened today, it's got to be unsettling for the white house. >> woruff: the prsident went out of his way to compliment. do you know what led to this? all along, paul manwyort's s said he would never cooperate or agree to plead guilty. >> i asked paul manafort's long-time, personal lawyer that question today and he said his sense was paul manafort recognized he was in a tough spot. he was convicted on eig counts in virginia earlier this summer, facing many years in prison for that. that trial was incredibly costly to him, he has no h incom he's been stripped of houses, bank accounts, life insurance policies, and he was facing an expensive upcoming trial supposed to start monday.i

ink he hopes if he cooperates with mueller he may get leniency on the other charges. >> wooydruff: r giuliani, sarah huckabee sanders pointed out this plea, tis acknowledgment by paul manafort is all about things that had nothing, thesay, to do with axesident trump -- money laundering, it's issues -- so that's their argument looking at this. >> on one level, that's factually true, most of the charges had to do with things that happened well before the trump campaign and manafortin' involvement. that said, the elephant in the ro's is h now cooperating and telling mueller about things directly related to the trump campaign. so that'rewhehe crucial part is. >> woodruff: we know in connection with all this there e was talk ann before the president was compl complimentim that the president might conser pardoning paul manafort. what does that look like right now? >> i think the calculus has to

change now for the white house because now that manafort is we know talking to mueller's office, if the presidt were to pardon him, i think this increases the chaps it looks like the president is offering him adon to keep him quiet and stop himing that. ay, i don'ttors tod know if this was right preempt that, they were making clear that there are other ste charges for which the president cannot pardon anyone for that hang over paul manafort and possibly could be exerted some day. >> woodruff: and we still don't know about prime for him. >> we don't yet. >> woodruff:. >william brangham,impostrtanry,. >> 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 hurrines. amna nawaz joins that conversation for us now. >> reporter: the question is a vital one with more and more people living along the coas and the seaboard, which many say is a problem in and of itself. there already is certainly some debate among scientists about how climate change impacts a storm.t creasingly, researchers are trying to explain the connections immediately after a storm hits and they say climate change is definitely aociated with both sea level rise and rising temperatures. to help walk us throug 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 earth observatory. welcome to the "newshour". let's art with the million-dollar question we face every huicane season, what is it we can say difientively between the link between climate ange and these kind of

hurricanes? >> there's a clear link and three dimensions toway human activities have increasedi the risks ased with these types of storms. the first is because climater change and wng has increased sea levels and, as a result, enever any storm hits, water levels are that much higher by rtue of the baseline having been raised. it mea more area foded when sostorm happens, deeper and more perilous waters ated with that flood. ihe second component is the amount of ranfall associated with a given sto as we've warmed the atmosphere dnd upper ocean, it can now hol more moisture, so for a storm of a given strength, there's thate much mo moisture available to fall out in the types of catastrophic rains that we're seeing here. the third element which is a little less certhan the first two is that the storm themselves can becometronger with climate change, the actual

strength of the winds, the depth of the low pressure. the balance of evidence sug that the major-- major hurricanes will be more frequent and intense w further warm the atmosphere, that is not 100% at thi point. >> hurricane harvey formed over the gulf of xico, you talked about the rising sea levels and warming temperatures, reportedly the waters were just one degree celsius warmer than average. t are understand that can mean that much dramatic difference in a storm? >> one degree matters a lot, especially when the ocean temperatures ae already high to begin with. you increase the temperature a little bit, the air can hold a lot more moisture which leads h, when we think about infrastructure, increases the rate at which it rains ann mean more flooding.

paraxically, as you raise sea oevels for a given amount of rainfall along thest or inland, it's that much more difficult for the water the drain out to the ocean with a storm surge and with the average sea level pushing some of the rawater back on land and making it harder to drain. >> so walk me three the scenario. we're seeing hurricane florence batter the carolina coast. if climate change asn't an issue, how would this storm be different? >> back 100 years or, so sea levels would have been foot or so lower than today. primarily because of t absence of the grouse gas emissions. that means that woss ared be getting flooded, and that means that the dep tths water which poses that risk of loss of life, extreme damage to infrastructure, would have been 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 story, and then there are thes, other dimensioo. if you had a little less rainfall falling in the past, there would be less risk as well. there are other thingsan hum are doing as well in some regions, people moving into high-risk areas and removing natural surfaces that had been able to absorb some of the inwater can exacerbate some of the risks. >> despite the overwhelming scientific consensus, there are a group of people with powerful voices among them whoay climate change is a hoax and say after hurricane karina in 2005, we went nearly a decade before a major storm and cite downgrading of storms, saying everyone hypes up the storm, it advances the

climate change agenwhat they call it. what do you say to that?ha >> climatee is about shifting risk. if you look at one storm, one small region, in just a few years, there's aways going to be that natural variability. what climate change is doing is loading the di. if you're a coastal planner, thinking about asset and investments along the coast, the risks are changing. the frequency of the coastal flood events are becoming much moree frquent. in any individual place you will have runs of a few years of below-normal storms and temperatures, but the key point is climate change has shifted these statistics. we're getting much more frequent and more severe flooding, much heavier rain events, and now getting twice as many record break heat events as extreme cold. statistics are shifting and we need to plan for the shifting future. >> radley hon, columbia university, thank you very much. >> thank you.oo

>>uff: now, all this week in the vast expanse of siberia, russian military forces havect been cong the largest war games in a generation. as nick schifrin rciorts, the exs are as much about projecting power as demonstrating it. reporter: in russia's f east, the troops are on parade and the tanks extend as far as the eye can see. not since the soviet area has the russian military showed off nis much weonry, and tried to convince the worldot only the russians are coming, buty hey've alreadrived-- with sound and fury. an all out assault from the groundnd the air, simulating conventional war. soldiers repelling from helicopters as if they were launching an invasn. the russian navy flooded the bering sea that separates russia

from alaska, and ships launched cruise missiles at hypothetical enemy boats. all hailed as proof a military that 15 yes ago was depleted and demoralized can now mobiliz what the russiaim is their largest exercise since the cold war, said russian president vladimir putin. >> ( translated ): our duty to the homeland 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 ateat power, in many ways has been restored in terms of military capability. and they also sound very impressive to foreign audiences. >> reporter: michael kofman is a anior research scientist at the center for navalnalyses. he says the exercise isn't only to improve russian deployment and coordination.ab it's also out increasing what he calls coercive diplomacy against other countries. >> if you want to push people around, veraging the military power that you have, the threat of force, but that threat of

foe has to be seen, people have to believe it, it's got to be made credible. and of course the bigger more exaggerated it see, the better your coercive diplomacy. >> reporter: and the diplomacy of this exercise is all out china. those are chinese troops, and chinese helicopts integrated into a simulated russian attack. the two militaries have worked together, but never this high profile. and never before has a chinese president participated. at a nearby economicorum, xi jinpg and putin showed off their relationship, and cooking skills. they me russian pancakes-- with a healthy dollop of caviar, washed down with a vodka. xi rarely conductsublic diplomacy, and, watching themselves, the two were at times self-conscious. but at aoment when the u.s. is talking about great power competition, china tied itself to russia. nt ( translated ): we will continue to make jfforts to consolidate our traditional friendship, enhance our comprehensive cooperation, and-r push the chisia

relationship up to a new height. th the two are increasingly demonstrating sog very important. they don't see each other as a threat but they are ding to a shared threat that they perceive in the united states. and it's iortant to understand that alliances between classical powers, great 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 largerth at is very clearly the united states. >> reporter: the west considers russia increasingly hostile. the 2014 annexation of crimea-- ongoing battles by russian- backed separatists in eastern ukrain- and the russian military intervention ia that saved syrian president . shar al assad. in response, the uhas deployed more troops to europe than at any time since the cold war. just this week, nato jets practiced intercepting 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 with the west. but it wants the world to believe that it can exert force, and frighten chinese troops with a littleelp from their friends. for the pbs newshour, i'm nickin schi f: >> woodrhere are new details in a controversy surrounding president trump's supreme court nominee. oett kavanaugh today strongly denied an allegatisexual misconduct from his high school years. "the new yorker" reported that a woman, who is choosing to remain anonymous, accused kavanaugh oce trying to "fimself on her" at a party more than 30 years ago.

here to unpack what we know-- and what questions remain unanswered-- a: capitol hill correspondent 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 remainingnonymous in which she alledgeses sexual misconduct from when she wain high school and judge kavanaugh was in high school. that's our reporting. the rest we have to refer to the "nework times" and the new yorker which are reporting this wom 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 vole 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.s meantime ttter was referred to the f.b.i. for

potential invesgate by sator feinstein's office. the f.b.i. said they're not investigating this as criminal matter, among other issues, the's atatute of limitations. they're putting it in a file on mr. kavanaugh that who has gone through six different investigations. >> the white house is sticking by judge kavanaugh, they're saying they're continuing to suppt him and in a stateme last night, a spokesperson from the white house actually questioned the tming of this and said judge kavanaugh has sat through more than 2,000 questions, 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 saithere is an 11t 11th hour attempt to delay his nfirmation. the judge is saying he categorically denies this

happened, that he denies anytng at allould have happened. then a letter by 65 women who went to high school with judge kavanaugh was written and it says, for t entire time we've known brett kavanaugh, heh has ed honorably and treated women with respect. our reporting shows clerks for judge kavanaugh organized the letter and i spoke to a white house source who say the reason there's 65 women from high school who can write this letter is he has be vetted so many times he is actually in touch with all these women. >> woodruff: the tim raise questions. what do you know about that? >> senator feinstein was made aware of this letter in juy and she held on to it for many reasons, the most prinent of which were that the woman strongly wted to remn anonymous at that time and she wanted to protect her identity, the other which th's these are

older allegations and they were vetting what the allegations meant. other democrats felt like this was something that needed to be made public. it's been aoblem for newsrooms as well. this is an anonymous womthn. is something that's hard to vet for anyone, but clearly some des 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. t what is the thinking abe president? >> it's going to politically hurt the president i this hampers the nomination. president trump stands accused by several women of sexual abuse in his own right and faces backlash because rob porter had to regn because two exwives accused him of abu so there's pressuring saying this man is accused, surrounding

himself with other men who are also accused. but i spoke to a representative of anita hill, who is a woman who accused supreme court justice clarence thomas of sexual harassing her, she said this would be investigated fairly and not be weaponized against the accuser. >> woodruff: no sense that this will derail his confirmation? >> it is changing notmportant calculus. the key senators who will make the decision i think will take more time to announce the decision including senator susan collins of maine, that will put more pressure on democrats who e hoping she will announce her vote first. no one wants to be the deciding vote at this moment, everyone is going to wait the see how it plays out. >> woodruff: very interesting. lisard dess, yamiche alcindor, thank you.

>> woodruff: as the carolinas grapple with florence's destructive forces, president trump sparked a new political storm after questioning the number of americans killed in puerto rico last year. and the general election for control of the house and senate has officially begun. a perft time for the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. hello to both of you. mark, i'm going to start withor the paul manplea. he said for months he wasn't going to do this, but now h has, he's pled guilty, and he's cooperating with robert muller. there's so much we don't know, but what does this mean for the president, potentially? >> it means bad news. paul manafort is the person closest to the president, who was in the camhopaign,as

involved in a meeting at trump tower with the russia' who was involved ultimately in the convention preparations, changing of the platform's position on ukraine. so there's a lot, plus he was the conduit to the degree there was one ina the trump cmpaign to the tradition of the republican party so paul manafort is potentially real problem. >> woodruff: david? i agree. it's striking to me how late in the process this plea deal came. maybe manafort was holding out, but the fact mueller decided to cut the plea suggests there is something there, either by trump, member of trump's family, something else. it suggests mueller is proceeding slowly but reigrselessly. it not even be about russia. it's been interesting the indictments that have come down have been about other thingand there could be other law

breaking irump's past. >> woodruff: we'll certainly watch and wait. t meantime, as i mentioned, mark, this is a week in which we're waiting for th hurricane to hit the southeastern coast of the u.s. it surprised everyone with a tweet everyone questioning the o numbpeople who died in the aftermath of hurricane maria that hit purto rico, the outside experts, completely non-political, came to t conclusion, several of them, it was around 3,000. the president said that's not so. it's not just democrats but republicans in the statef florida and elsie came back and said the president is wrong. what hs he stepped into here? >> he's stepped, into judy, and exposed himself as somebody whose ego is so out of check, who is narcissistic impulses are so total that he could equate a

personal tragedy of some 3,000 and some estimates as high as 4,000-plus deaths in puerto rico to be a political conspiracy against him ton part of his political enemies. as far as republicans in florida, rick scott, the governor, not surprisind y spoke out id it's not true. he has been to puerto rico admself seven times, he'sa big effort politically and governmentally to welco the puerto ricanwho were moved to florida as a result of that storm and will immediately become voters in that state. but i think most telling was 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 what it's comparable to, breaking with the king?

so i would say trump has really, in this case, islated and exposed himself. >> woodruff: any positive caulus for the president? >> remember when he was bragging about his crowd size at the inaugural, that was a lie through at least harmless. this is a lie where you render nearly 3,000 americans invisible, tha youn't acknowledge their existence and you don't even see them, and, so, it's essentially telling the families of the people who died and anybody who cares about their fellow citizens that you can wre them out of the history books because their deaths make donald trump look bad. >> pardon me. i agree. one other thing, problem of disasters in this country are very real. superstorm sandy and even the 2012 election when barack obama went to new jersey and republicanovernor chri 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 a president in popular support was accelerated by hurricane his apparent indifference, his endorsement mi can of a brown brownie, failed. there's no politics involved in natural disasters. whether red, blue, liberals or conservatives, they look to the federal government for effective, 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 turoun again, making it about donald trump. >> woodruff: and, david this, comes as there ar polls now and, in fact, a number of polls over te lasfew weeks that are showing some slippage in the president's apprtal ing. we're wary of bringing up polls

because we're reminded they're just snapshots that ar we seeing something here. 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 an election. donald trump had been sitting around 43 for a long time,in edibly stable poll, this scandal, that scandal, nothing moved him, then the last two weeks he t dro 37, 38, and that's fiveo ght months, especially two months before the election, that's the difference between your par doing badly or getting wiped out in the midterms. thquestion is why all of a sudden is it going down, and there's probably no one answer, maybe a little t 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 d they're more annoyed with the guy than they were. but the drop is aong independents and republicans.

so it would be vry aling news for all republicans, should be very alarming news. >> woohauff: mark, w been saying the numbers look good for democrats inse the h of representatives, but now there's a claimer of sign thate thay be good news in the senate, and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said we have the equivalent of a knife fight in an ally in seven or eight different senate race in. the count >> i think there are two factors that contribute to trump's trouble.rs i think the mccain funeral and attendant attention was just a reminder of a hero of military service and donald trump's total tone deafness during that entire week. think the contrast is in people's minds. anybody who is a veteran, knot a an, has a veteran in the family, respected military service, i tnk had to look at m hisd just recoil fro 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., heliid have the ab to drive the political narrative and i think that's failed him. as far as thmocrats in the senate, it's unthinkable they would even be competitive. they have ten seats u in states that donald trump, democrats running for election, donald trump carried five in which he won by landsides, wesvirginia, indiana rk missouri, montana and north dakota, and yet there are competitive and encouraging mbers for democrats. i'm reminded of texas, if texas is in play, bill cohen, former secretary of defense there from maine who never lost an eleion in maine has said once before they vote for you, they have to like you, and if that's the se, ted cruz is in trouble in texas. >> i btieve that when i see >> woodruff: what do these

congressional races look like? >> we're at the bbed of the primaries. i think we've learned some things. donald tmp owns the republican party. in about every place you looked, the most pro-trump person won and anybody who crossed him, ou the conservative movement, whatever it was, it's a trump party now. the second thing we've learned is the democrats have not swung super far left. if you look at who was baked by various groups, the dccc which is the democratic official establishment, 97% of their candidates won, the new democrats, 87%. thee morft wing groups, 30-odd percent. >> woodruff: they had a fw headlines. >> they had a few races that were shocking where the leftt wing won b learn the left party did notwing. the democratic turnout doubled over previous primaries. those are pretty must havee takeaways that i see. >> i think david is right.

the tensity and interest and enthusiasm on the d. j. side right now by every measurement, just in 2010 and 2014, they're on the republican sde, and to me in a midterm, that's the greatest measurement of what's going to happen, whre the enthusiasm and intensity was, where the interest in the campaign is and it's higher among democrats by an increasing margin than republicans. part of the prdoblem is ld trump said to his people polls 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 get involve >> woodruff: the last thing, less than a minute left, david, is whaweust heard lisa and miche reporting on is the allegation against brett kavanaugh, something that happened allegedly in high school. where do you see this going or do you see it mattering? >> well, given what we know now, if he did it,wo he d be and should be disqualified. but right now, an anonymous, very abstract, very vague, with

no police record, no police evidence, i don't think that stops his noination. it's something that everyone denies, and if there's no evidence, i don't think it's going to hu him. >> yeah, i don't know, but in this atmosphere, when you've just had a week where the president of cbs news and the producer of its most popular show fell to charges, i mean, charges are taken more seriously than they have been in past, but this is a far reach back, and it's totally o of character from anything else we've learned about brett kavanaugh. >> very different time than clarence thmas. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: mark shields, david brooks, thank you. >> thank y. >> woodruff: finally tonight, in a couple of weeks outside los s angelee of the biggest-- and loudest-- groups in rock and roll will gather for the cal jam

festival. and none of those groups is bigger-- or louder-- than the foo fighters. their leader, dave grohl, hasre now stin two of the most popular bands in rock history. but as jeffrey brown tells us, grohl has also successfully built a life balanced between music and family. >> reporter: he may be on the cusp of 50, but dave grohl is still a ur of rock and roll energy. >> it is honestly the best feeling in the world. when we walk outn stage and i bust into that first song it's like the theme from "jaws." you just know "awww, someone's gonna get torn up."l alght! it's like being shot out of a cannon every single night. r >>eporter: as frontman, guitarist and leader of the foo fighters, grohl spent the nextwh few houripping up a sold-outyl house at marand's merriweather

post pavilion. but he well remembers how it began, as a teenager growing upm not far ere in the northern virginia suburbs. >> i'm like, "i'm going too it now. i'm going to put on a show at 1 years old in ske v.f.w. hall and put up flyers and hire the p.a. and i'm going start my own band, i'm going to record a record all by myself, and i'm just going to keep phing it because i honestly believe i can do it." >> reporter: grohlropped out of high school to play music in local bands with the blessing of his mother, a teacher. he made his way to the west 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 bsist krist novoselic, their breakout album,

"nevernd", featuring the hit song, "smells like teen spirit"e ted in september 1991, and shot them to super-stardom. it was great, but not always. >> being in nirvana at such a young age-- i was 21 or 22 years old when the band got popular.ea that's a 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 thebe oom that i grew up in. i had a way to weather all of that and survive it. >> reporter:urt cobain would t. he struggled with depression, addictn, and the crushing pressure of sudden global fame. in april 1994, just 27, he shot himself. grohl withdrew, uncertain and unclear where next to go six months after cobain's death, he recorded a self-made demo

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

hits all along the way. it's taken the band tohehe foot of t acropolis in athens, as seen on pbs's "landmarks live". ev- as grohl re-made himsel now as a lead singer and guitarist,oined by drummer taylor hawkins, guitarists chris shiflet and pat smear, bassist nate men'del and keyboard player rami joffe.e o 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 nobody cared what i was doing and now it's still nobody tells us what to do because we've just built this sort of fortress 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 anhbo 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 abt the flattening of the earth, right? everody has the same chnology? >> now it's just the touch of a button a some kid in his sement can let the world hear ths latest masterpiece that he recorded in his om. you know, i think that's azing. that's the kind of independence and distribution that like we dreamed of when we were kids. as far as it sort of changing the regional aspect-- there's still different flavors and there's still different temposto very city. go spendike a good winter in seattle. that oppressive gray drizzle. >> reporter: that still s an impact on the music. >> i mean it's completely messes with your psyche and if you're a musician your shit's going to get dark.

it just will... >> reporter: these days, grohl amhimself is very much they man, 15 years married and the father of three girls-- headbanging by night, carpooling 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. g i get them in the minivan smiling, it's goin be a good day. >> let's go see her... d. reporter: and home some comes on the roa >> gus brant, tour manager, and his assistant, violet >> reporter: hello. >> reporter: they put you towo , huh?'s so whe boss?we >> wrong a i'm the boss! it's the family business. one day she'll be like, "dave, inme on let's go. you're on stage 15 minutes dad!" >> reporter: if the band's late video is any clue, with ols song "run", set in a nursing

home, 12-year-old et grohl might be well into middle age trying to corral her father. >> we want to be the band that's you know rocng a show at a nursing home and it turns into i ot. but it was funny because tn it became the antithesis of the "smells like teen spirit" vide n thatvana made 27 years ago. there you have a high school gymnasium and you've got all of these principals and teachers trying to keep the kids in line famous. now they put them in the nursing home. you've got these people 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 rvana and the death of kurt cobain. you can-- you can think about him as one story of rock and roll, the youth that burns o 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 imb

re 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. i never want to die. honestly i feel like if i get to do this and i've got these beautiful kids as long as i can do this and dohis i'm all good. yeah, that's how i fl. >> reporter: car-pooling by da 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 anohl, including how music 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 provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! k in. >> advice for life. life well-reanned. learn t raymondjames.com. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org.

>> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supportingpr institutions tote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institution and friends of the newshour. >> his program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributionsur pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ecaptioning sponsy newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

♪ tonight on "kqed newsroom," san francisco holds a global summit tackling climate change. also checking up on california's lgal pot market from testing the safety of cannabis to keeping track of where it goes. plus two governors spanning four generations. a new book examines california's history brown family.ry of the hello and welcome to "kqed newsroom." i'm thuy vu. we begin with the environment. this week, thousands of people attended a global summit oncl ate change in san francisco. industry titans such as mark benioff ofsalesforce was there plus politicians from around the world andactor harrison ford.