captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc ev >> woodruff: gooing. i'm judy woodruff. s- the "newshour" tonight, turmoil on two froa new allegation of sexual assault thhews into further question confirmation of supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. then, an uncertain fate for deputy attorney general rod rosenstein after reports he considered wearing a wire to record the president and discussed invoking the amendment. plus robert redford reflects on leaving the screen after a storied career. >> i just felt that i had been doing it for so long it was time to maybe exit on a good note, on a positive note. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour."

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back against a new allegation of sexual misconduct. senate republicans are pressing forward with plans for the nominee and one of his accuserss tofy thursday, as their democratic counterparts call for a delay. >> judge kavanaugh will be voted on here on the senate floor. t or down, on the senate floor, this fine nominee supreme court will receive a vote in this senate in the near future. >> there is simply no way, in good conscience that, no way that the uted states senate can vote on this nomination of brett kavanaugh without a full, fair investigation, without anrt opity to be heard for these sexual assault survivors. >> woodruff: and on a second front, questions srled about the uncertain future of deputy attorney general rod rein. our capitol hill correspondent

lisa desjardins and white house correspondent yamiche alcindor have been covering both stories and join me now. a note, this and t next conversation will contain some explicit language. hello to both of you.so isa, i'm going to start with you. summarize for us what these new allegations are against brett kavanaugh. >> it appeared in the new yorker last night and these are from a woman who deborah ramirez. she says she went to college with brett kavanaugh and at a party at a dorm. this is a quote. she remembers kavanaugh had exposed himself at arunken dormitory party thrust his penis in her fa and caused her to touch it without her consent. that is her accusation i this article. now there are no eye witnesses that were able to corroborate that stry. there is one person that we spoke with who said he rememberb hearint this incident. but the "new york times" after the new yorker is reporting came out with its own sto

and the "new york times" wrote, quote, the times had interviewed sevel dozen people over he past week in an attempt to corroborate ms. ramirez's story and could find no one with first hand knowledge. this is a new acquisition but there are n eye witnesseses. the new york time said it did not report because it did not feel it hanough information. >> woodruff: i'm going to be talking in a few mines with ronan farrow who is one of the authors o of the new yorker's story. the white house has been dealing over a week with accusations from one woman and now come accusations from another woman. who are they defending.sa what are theing. >> brett kavanaugh is defending himself which is why the white house is sticking by him. brett kavanaugh says he did not do this nor is there athing in his past that would suggest he would do something like. he revealed somethiy personal toen he sat down with fox news to do an interview with him. let me tell you a little bit what he talked about with fox news. >> i never sexually assaulted

anyone. i did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter. >> throughl althese years you are saying you were a virgin. >> that's correct. >> never had sexual intercourse with anyone in high school. >> correct. >> and through your years in college. >> manyears after. i'll leave it at that. >> but brett kavanaugh is saying that because he was a rgin that should be part of his defense agfeainst por forward ford. no's saying these are false acquisitions he' going to address. he's saying he has a good h reputation as not going to fall back on that. of course, professor ford is also sding her ground. she's saying this did happen and impacted her life. i want to read a letter she wrote to senator grassley who of course is on the sene judiciary committee. she writes quote mr. kavanaugh's actions while many years ago were serious and has had a lasting impact on my lie.

while i'm frightened please know my fear will not hold meck from testifying. i ask for fair and respectful treatment. you have two questions revealg rsonal things about things about themselves. it's verrhard of course people to weigh these two things. while all that is happening, the ite house is on ford's side. they praised him from the united nations in new york. the president acted on this. let me telyou what the president said today. >> it would be sad indeed if something happened to reroute that. ehis is a fine man and w certainly hope rees he's going o irmed. his family has suffered. his family has suffered. what's going on is not something that sould happen. brett kavanaugh is an absolute outstanding person.il hopefully hebe confirmed quickly. >> again t president's caling brett kavanaugh a fine person.

i've talked to people who professor ford and saying she's a fine and creble woman. there's information e-mailing reporters on a daily basis saying we are standing by judge kavanaugh. ere's the "new york time versus the new yorker and this new allegation and the white house is capitalizing on theyat. ent out an e-mail that said look the "new york times" didn't want to print th woman's story that should mean something to the people trying to assess this. >> woodruff: lisa, you're talking toeople on the hill, capitol hill, republicans democrats. e were protests today, what are you hearing. >> first of all protesters have sworn all around e senate office in particular. last week there are even more today. there's a new sort of tactic. look at some video here. in some cases likue this,dy more often what i saw today was protesters going into offices and women telling the ir individual stories on sexual assault to senate staffers one

a time. so that is taking up more officn space, takg longer amounts of time. it's taking up more hallway space and certainly rising tentions on the hill. let's get down to the bottom line. tonight it does look like this thursday's hearing is going forward. both republican and democratic sources on the hill tell me they expect this to happen. the only change is if there isn't a final agreement on details especially asking questions to dr. ford or she fr other reasons is not able to come. i also think republicans feele w yorker article may have helped and do not feel that is s ong as the previous allegation and they think it raises questions aut the accusations in general. that's just republicans. >> woodruff: if that weren't enough news, we're also dealing todayamiche reporting. throofs speculation he was going to -- there was speculation he was going to step down. where does thastand.

>> where that stands according to the president we'll see. the president was asked whetheru or not he wold fire deputy attorney general rod rose stein and he said i talked to him but we'll see on thursday how i feel and whether or not there is somethini'm going to move forward w the president subpoena backing down. there are a lot of times when we hear things about jeff sessions or the attorney general they are reporting where the pret dent's ab fire him and the president says no i'm not going to do that. he didn't say that in ths kaissments case.that dn't happe. republicans all across the country they want to be talking about the tack cuts tey want to be talking about how great the economy is doing. instead they're having to answer all these questions. on the hill it's t goibe hard because when the president wants to push something forward the republicans ha to answer all these questions about what's going on in the pol spheres. then you go to the mid terms and there are candidates want to be talking about thng that aren't political scandals. also i was told republican donors have a problem because

when you have tension you don't know whethert the deputy attorney general is going to be fired. how do i get to this party if i don't know things are going to be settled. all that and there's some talk j thhn kelly personallyut walked onrosen stein today and actually seen with him. there are people that say the signal this white house is nding maybe he's going to be okay but really as with this administration we'll have to see what happens on thursday. >> woodruff: we'll save the big day working in the calendar. thank you both. well now for more about that specific allegation that's been made about judge calf's conduct dure -- judge kavanaugh's conduct during his college yeara it reported he exposed himself to deborah ram nez while they were both fresh months i the 1980's. kavanaugh has categorically denied this storas well as the

earlier allegation of misconduct. ronan farrow reported on this for the new yorker along with his colleague an he joins now from los angeles. welcome back to the newshour. i want to go right back to the allegation being made by did not raw ramirez. how ctain -- deborah ramirez. how certain is she that she said it was brett kah who exposed himself to her while she was a freshman at yale. >> she is certainly certain. judy, one thing i want to highlight is in cases of trauma and cases which there has been heavy drinking very often we see actly what we saw in ramirez's case. which is she took her time and was extraordinarily careful and really thoug carefully about this. this was already being vex on the hill and something -- investigated on the hill andme ing that prompted our reporting and she knew this would be a significant issue an would command a lot of attention. rather than jump how the ahead of it and say something inca t

scious sned every piece of evidence and considered this carefully and decided yes, she was certain and decided it was important to speak about this. woodruff: you talked to all of the people who she remembered were present when this happened. and none of them was able to remember it, is that right? you were able to speak with someone who heard about it in the next day or so. >> so thiris coroborated by more than just one person, judy. there's a number of people including people on the record who learn board of director this at the time. the individual you mentioned who was told right after and independently of ram nez not someone in touch with her ppened the exact fact pattern down to small details. son.'s a very credible per there's an individual who saw a young woman crying recountingtt the sam n again soon after the incident that ms. ramirez we had a number of individuals in the yale community saying this was known and discuss the before dr. forward' ford's allen me to light.

as to the people who were present. i want to point out sometrtng imt that is often lost in the conversation. the individual present who denied that this happened are individuals who deborah ramirez said were involved in the alleged misconduct who egged on kavanaugh and taunted her. we included the statement in full saying they didn't recall this e vefnt and they thought judge calf va to be an individual of good cha>>cter. oodruff: you're saying they would have a motive not to acknowledge what they knew. >> i think 's portant context to note the statement of support is signed by three individuals who doave a clear stake in the allegations and are not impartial bystanders and one other classmate that he rallied. there were two uth who initially supported judge kavanaugh in that statement who came forward today and with true their names from that. >> woodruff: as you know the new york time is saying they talked to two dozen people abut ms. ramirez allegation. they were not able get anyone to drawing rate icorroborate ito

know the republican and the white house is saying that's the reason to suthey can this may not be true. how do you answer. >> i want to correct the correspondence what she said earlier. the "new york times" did noto pass on this . they did not decline to run this story. they've come out publicly hand said this is a case as is very often a case with big stories a lot of publications chased it. the times was among the ones that aggressively pursued deborah ram his an ramirez to se declined. she wanted to work with aru reporter shested. that's why they couldn't corroboratthat. clearly we found other corroborators. we also say we made dozenses of calls and there were many people who didn't recall this or didn't respd for comments. have been extremely careful to disclose all of that up front. >> woodruff: yo tu mentie senate found out about this democratic senators, republican staffers in the senate.kn

d yo the state of the investigations they are doing? are they rsuing these allegations? >> as i understand it,eval of these offices are pursuing them further. at least two are investigating and i knat least one has had ongoing contact with . ramirez and her counsel since the story ran. >> woodruff: is she prepared to come forward and speak publicly to make a public appearance, go on television to talk about this? >> as you've seen with dr. ford and as you now see with many attacks on ms. ramirez and her credibility, this is incredibly taxing personal dec make. to how and when one comes forward. ms. ramirez has just made the difficult decision to speak publicly in the first place. she readily admitted she would be attacked in exactly the wa she has been. and she has big decisions to make about what comes next.s she said she would like to see an fbi investigation. >> woodruff: ronan farrow with the new yorker.

we thank you. >> thank you judy. >> woodruff: in the day'other news: the united states formally imposed 10% tariffs on $200in billiomported chinese goods. beijing accused the united states of "trade bullyism" and imposed levies of 5% to 10% on $60 billion worth of american goods. in addition "the wall street journal" reported china rejected overtures for a new round of trade talks. russia says it will supply syria with an advanced air-defensess e system. today's announcement came a week after syrian gunnersal accide shot down a russian plane. they had been aiming at israeli war planes. the united states warned the new russian missiles will only worsen a volatile situation.et sey of state mike pompeo spoke at the united nations. mm>> we're trying to find ground every place we can, but in many places russia is working against american interests. we're trying to hold t accountable. >> woodruff: moscow said it's going ahead withhe missile

transfer, regardless. the russian defense minister said it's aimed at preventing "impulsive actions" in sia. a southwestern iran thousands turned out today ass funeral for the 25 victims of an e.attack on a military par mourners filled the streets of ahvaz, chanting "death to america". the dead included a dozen members of t country's elite "revolutionary guard." arab separatists claimed they carried out saturday's attack. the heavy rains that hurricane florence dumped on the carolinas brought new flooding today. river leve kept rising through the weekend and thousaof people in south carolina's georgetown county were told to be ready to leave. >> if they live in areas that may well be flooded, we're encouraging them to visit the maps, asking them to

continuously monitor conditions, as they see rising water to seek refuge outside flood zones.ur we highly ene them to take action sooner rather than later. >> woodruff: there was some good ws in north carolina. the governor announced that interstate 40 has now reopened all the way to hard-hit wilmington. on wall street the tariff battle .th china weighed on stoc the dow jones industrial average lost 181 points to close at 26,562. the nasdaq rose six points, but the s&p 500 slped ten. and, from now on, it's okay to use "ok" as a word in scrabble. merriam-webster released an updated scrabble players dictionary today, adding 300 s to the list of approve words. in addition to "ok" they include "ew" and "emoji." still to come on the "newshour," president trump meets the south korean president at the u.n. a chicago police officer faces murder charges in the death of a teen. we take an inside look at a key election in minnesota and much

more. >> woodruff: the world converges on new york this week, at the annual united nations general assembly. president trump will be thereth untisday, meeting with other world leaders. he addresses the assembly tomorrow. today he met with south koreanmo presiden jae in, and others, and our foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin is there. hi, nick. so fell us about- tell us about the trade agreement that the two leaders talked about to y. this is one of the only times that president trump has actually followed through on his promise to renegotiate a trade deal and he's trying to help u.s. aut auto manufacturers the number those manufacturers can

sell u.s. safety standards to factory language on environmental standards that help the manufacturers. also lengthens the period of time that the u.s. truck industry can protect itself by tariffing south korean trucks. now on the side south korea gt new language on exports. administrately the south koreans have agreed to reduce steel exports and for that they are f getting exemm steel tariffs. eytalked to many experts today and thay this does not help u.s. car manufacturers but it is a far cry from what president trouble caled redoing this agreement. these changes are modest and were build on changes tha already done a couple years ago. but judy, it gives bth presidents a win and allows president moon to go back toy seoul and look the u.s. alliance is on track and thato gives himitical maneuvering to keep working with north korea. >> woodruff: nick you were telling us the two leaders were

sounding positive about recent moves by th north kons? >> yes. they are unified in public and unding positive together in enblic. first with prestrump and then president moon. >> we're making tremendous progress. chairman kim has been really very open and terrific frankly. i think he wants to see something happen. so we have done i think, mutually we've done very well with respect to nordth korea an we'll be discussing that for the next couple days. >> thanks to your bold decision and new approach, we are in the process of solving a problem that no one has been able to solve in the decades past. i would like to thank you for this, mr. presided . airman kim also repeatedly conveyed his unwaiverring expek peckations for you. while expecting to meet you soon to clear the denookization

process with you because you are indeed the only person who can solve this problem. >> now that is the public happiness on both sides but inth privatu.s. official say there is a lot of concern from the u.s. side that preside moon is going too far too quickly in trying to dea with kim jong-un in north korea.a this i reflection point because both south korea and north korea are asking the u.s. to declare an official end to the korean war wn eded in armistice and not a peace treat. they are saying they want to end the war and bring our boys homeo from seul. there is some administration who don't want any daylight between the u.s. ad south korea. the majority of officials i'm talking to are much more skeptical. they have to take more steps toward due nuclearization before any end of the car can be declared. there's debate what north korea has to do right now before theiv u.s. will north korea the concession of ending the war.

for example does it allow inspectors to come in and verify the closure of sites. give over a couple nuclear weapons. is there a list of inventory and some don't want to give them e anything in regards to tnd of the war until there is total do nuclearization. there's skepticism is very high judy but the presidencies thi as a moment of opportunity and that is why he's talking about a second summit with kim jong-un. >> woodruff: there's a number of things unsettled. the general assembly goes on the rest of the week. so many world leaders there. what else do you expect? >> a modest focus on iran from the u.s. side. the president will be saking about iran and security council. the secretary of state asks thei se advisor who will speak to a group who advocated for iranian regime changd will meet with the family members of political iles being held in iran. the you're means are trying -- europeans are trying to resist that. the evident trying to get aid to palestinians the u.s. has cut

half a llion dollars of humanitarian ai and european countries are trying to fill that in. the u.s. says they are going tto talk abhe words sovereignty tomorrow in president trump's ospeech. a lof critics of that word here unilaterali you will no only hear from donald trump the populous you will hear from multipleinopulists herhe united nations from the general assembly and that led to cretary-general of the u.n. to say there's a war on multilateralism going on. the u.s. ambassador to the u..n says we're not against untie lateral position but we wilsul t ort them in a way that infringes on our sovereignty, judy. >> woodruff: words matter. nick schifrin covering these important meetings. thank you, nick. >> woodruff: defense attorneys

in chicago began making their case today in the trial of a ite police officer accused of murdering an african-americanag te in 2014. four years after the shooting, the trial and case have taken on huge importance in the chicago,g a city alreappling with far too much gun violence and too many homicides.a as awaz tells us, two parts of the story have particularly stood out: the policeman fired 16 times and many say the video of that night's shooting undercuts the credibility of the police. >> nawaz: it's the first time in decades a chicago police officer has been charged with murder in an on-duty shooting. jason van dyke shot and killed quan mcdonald-- a black 17- year-old-- in october 2014. van dyke has pleaded not-guilty to t counts of first-degree murder and other charges. his defense team has said mcdonald was thrtening van dyke, who feared for his safety. >> a out of contl individual

who didn't care about yone. not citizens, not armed police officers, not himself. >> nawaz: van dyke and his partner were responding as backup to a 9-1-1 call on chicago's south side. the caller said someone-- later identified as mcdonald-- was breaking car windows in a parking lot and had a knife. dashcam video of the shooting shows van dyke arring, getting out of his car and firing 16 shots at mcdonald as he appears to walk away. van dyke's attorneys have said he was acting in self-dense. last week, prosecutors called ceficers who were on the s to testify. the first officer to confront mcdonald said he had a knife, and was questioned as to whether mcdonald was a threat. >> did he threaten you with th knife at all? >> he held it out, but he didn't y anything verbally, no. >> the question officer is: did he threaten you withhe knife? >> no. >> nawaz: his partner that night-- joseph walsh-- testified that mcdonald moved like e was haing to attack with a knife. "i was convincedofficer

van dyke took necessary action to save himself and myself," van dyke's partner said. he requested his testiot be recorded. prosecutors gue that van dyke was never in danger. they have repeatedly played the dashcam videof the shooting r jurors and showed diagrams of where the bullets hit mcdonald. >> the defendant continues to pull the trigger of his un over and ovil he empties the entire clip of the g. >> nawaz: for 13 months after the shooting, city officials fused to release the dashcam video-- citing an ongoing criminal investigation-- until a judge ordered them to release it. the video release sparked protests in chicago, a citwith a history of excessive police violence against african- american residents. chicago mayor rahm emanuel fired police superintendent garry mccarthy amid calls foown resignation. earlier this month, emanuel announced that he will not seek n-election in february.

three officers a being prosecuted for allegedly covering up for van dyke and lying about the events of that night. t trial continues, it remains unclear if van dyke himself will testify. >> woodruff: let's take a look at some of the importt moments of this trial so far-- and the larger impact of this case. jennifer white is with wbez,ag chpublic radio/media. she's also the host of a podcast done in conjunction with theib chicago e about this case, "16 shots." jennifer white, wecome to the newshour. i want to ask you, the defense today began to lay out their case for however van dyke but for 11 days before that te prosecution's turn laying out their argument. what was the thrust of the case they were making? >> the thasst of theire is that the shooting wasn't justified. that jason van dykwas not reasonably in fear of his life or reasonably in fear that mcdonald was a danger to others

hfore he firs weapon. that's really the central question. also working as part of their case is none of the othere officers on cene fired their gun and of course there's the video that seems show incommcdonaldmoving away from on dyke. >> he felt he was in danger at the time about the encounter. how have the other testimony from the other polficers that you mentioned how has that impacted the case do you think? >> well, it's hard to say whatro are taking in. jason van dyke's partner thitg even course testified that he too felt laquan monald was a danger. that officer's evidence not given to the jury is being charged in a separate case as a conspiracy to cove up t truth of the shooting. so it's hard to say what jurors are taking in. but what's clear is that

officers who were on the scene that night seemed to be holding a pretty strong line in supportn of jasonyke. now the other experts that were brought in, f.usb.i. experts of force experts say the shooting was notit jused. they went through a process of showing how long it takes to fire 16hots fom the type of gun jason van dyke was carrying that evening and that it was a deliberate motion. you have to take time to fire each shot. so you have really two different law enforcement groups testifying against each other. and what the juror decides we'll have to wait and see. >> le st's take atep back here and note this trial was a year in the making. lot of people are paying very close attention to it. one official actually caled this a watershed moment for the city. to you agr with that? >> it's hard to call it ad watersment because we're not through it yet. right now the city of chicago is

in thprocess of obtaining a consent de cree that will re chicago police, the chicago police department being enforced by a federal judge. this is a story that's still very much in motion. i think once he verdict cmes down, there will be a sense, some people in the city that either justicwas done or justice was not done and depending upon where you stand, they'll have that sense. but it feels like the sto been very much in motion. the build up to this moment was decades inn'he making. i think that a single moment is going to resolve the tension ben twd and chicago's black community. >> we're also have this conversation and th trial is unfolding against a national back drop. a lot of other high pro police shootings in which those officers were either acquitted or there were mistris in several other states across the country with the recent exceptions of course the dallas case last week, right. i wonder how you think chicago fits in to that larger picture.

we're talk big a city where we mentioned earlier no chicago police officer has been convicted of murder for an on duty shooting since 1970. is chicago different in some way? >> i don't thi ink chica different. i do think that chicago is in the spotlig right now however. the current administration talks a lot about chicago and it talks a lot about gun violence in the city. d unfortunately, this binary has been created, that police cannot police unless they are able to police freely. and then you have community members that are saying no police are accountable to us. and so the moment we're at rhtig now is chicago becomes a case study for whether or not police e n effectively do their job and also the community they rven. it's alid up in the verdict and consent decree but as i said before this story plays out it's gointo play out over th week, months and years to come. >> less than a minute left here

i want to as you, the trial continues, are we going to hear from officer van dyke himself? is he expected to testify? >> we don't know. the defense hasn't said whether or not he'll take the stand. they have said they exect to call witnesses into next week nwhich is longer than y of us were expecting but we'll see if that plays out. whether jaskeon van dyke the stand we'll have to wait and see. ll we'll wait and see and we' continue to follow it on your podcast called 16 shots. jennifer white, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the "newshour," amy walter and tamara keith break down the latest political news and robert redford discusses his gendary film career. with less than 50 days until the

midterm elections, democrain are hithe campaign trail, hoping to pick up 23 seats to take control of the house of representatives.ro onblock could be in minnesota, where early voting has already started. the state is home tonly two democratic-held seats rated a toss-up by election analysts. esmary lahammer of twin cibs reports on the case both candidates are making in one of those districts. >> reporter: minnesota's first congressional district is an agricultural area with rich, rolling prairies which produce abundant crops. >> i'm jim hagedorn. >> nice to meet you. running for congress here. >> reporter: politics is always adominent in a state that the nation in voter turnout. this season even more so. with some of the country's most- watched congressional contests near the top of every list is cd-1, the candidates know control of congress could be attermined here.

>> more money, morntion. yeah. well, you're here aren't you? so, yeah. i guess so. if you look at this district, basically southern minnesota, for 150 years its been republican except for two 12- year stints. but they also have to hold to what you have. >> this one of the few seats in the country in which there's a very high need to do just that. in reporter: this congressional seat in southernsota is a classic competitive district. president bush won here twice followed by president obama and recently president trum had the best performance of any presidential candidate in the lastouecade. >> didote for hillary? >> damn right i did. >> okay, ma'am. thank you very much. i hope you have a good day. sorry to bother you. >> you better get that damn trump out of there. >> i think you can put her down as a definite maybe. >> reporter: the republican candidatjim hagedorn has a father who represented the district in washington. >> we like to suort the candidates who share our values. >> reporter: he has run and lost twice fore, but he believes three times is a charm.

>> sometimes in a big district, and this one is a big district, it takes a little time, especially against an incumbent to get your name out there. >> reporter: the incbent had been democrat congressman tim walz, who's now running for governor. now, dan feehan is the democrat in the race. he's one of a record number of veterans running for office this fall >> what's going on, brother? you were just at the table over there. yeah, corporal. >> four years active. two years in the guard myself as an officer. icis is where i learned the value of public se a value that i've carried with me throughout my life. i served two combat tourin the army after i joined after 9/11. i was a middle school math teacher after, which in many ways was a lot more difficult. >> reporte both the candidates have roots in the region and each has worked in d.c., but they have very different views about what's happeningn washington. are they good republican dogs or democrat dogs? what do you think? >> they're kind of a mixture. >> are they?do independen. i'm the conservative republican that wants to keep moving the country in what i say is the right direction. so we offer the opportunity to

stand with our president and stand wi the issues we believe. the other time, well, they want to resis they want to replace, they want to move us back to obama so it's a clear choice. >> we're trying to present a pretty clearhoice. you can vote for an extension of the trump administration here or you can vote for an indendent voice that's not beholden to party leadership or corporate pac money. >> reporter: two issues appear to be dominatinghe district: health care and agriculture. >> bad government like obamacare, extra regulations, extreme energy costs, those things really hurt farmers and agriculture and makes it tough for them to be sustained in tough times. >> i'm not someone that wants to go backwards. i want your family, i want every family, frankly i wary family in the country to be able to have affordable heare. and the fact that soy bean and pork farms have worked for generations to open up markets arou the world, it's been on their backs that that's happened. right now we have in my view what is a government intervention that has taken that market away from them right now. >> reporter: the last congressional race here was decided by less than percentage point.

this looks to be another one toc for the pbs newshour, i'm mary lahammer in mankato, minnesota. >> woodruff: and now for more ot how the m elections are shaping up, as well as how the allegations against supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh impacts republicans, it's politics monday. we're joined btamara keith of r and amy walter of the "cookrt political re amy, light let's start with this minnesota congressional race us it ay to look at what's going on out there on the campaign trail. let's talk about healthcare to begin with because it's an issue here. how much is that coming up into this conversation? ki democrats have been ta about healthcare on the campaign trail now really since the 218 campaign started. it's the overwhenning number of ads democrats are running about this is true in the senate races

in red states like montana anju west i where democrats are talking joy west virginia where democrats are talking about preexisting conditions. they are running in some cases of attorney generals who are signed on to th lawsuit that wants to overturn obamacare and specifically overturn obamacare you get rid of good and noto popular provisions like the preexisting condition. the great irony of all of this is the 2010 election was a referendum on obamacare and backlash the obamacare.s 2018aping up to a backlash to republican attempts to dismantle it. >> woodruff: it's really h slippesn't it tam. >> you have josh holly runningi in mssouri. he has an ad up now. he's the republican talking about his son who has a preexisting conditions. republicans see this as enough of a problem that they're ving

to go out and proactively message about their views on healthcare and they're not talk big repealing andp relacing obamacare anymore they are now talking about we're going to protect your preexisting conditions. slanwhile democrats previ hid from the affordable care act didn't want to talk about it, certainly did not campaign on it and now they are proactively campaigning on it. >> obamacare is more popular now than it ever was. >> woodruff: it's turned up side town. >> in large part because it's about protecting, voters don't like to lose something that they already have versus the fight over its existence in the first place. >> woodruff: the other thing, tam, being discussed in this race and minnesota sight and other parts of the can cuntry the tariff issues how much of an impact do we see that having in races. >> what we know is a couplewe s ago we had an npr piece owed came out that sh sciggant erosion in support for president trump and sort of the

generic ballot, generic democrat versus the generic republican. that erosion happening in the upper mid west. those staprtes thaesident trump won or nearly won in the upper mid west have been affected by the these trade policies. >> woodruff: so at this point amy, we're seeing there may be some effect. >> someffect of saying this isn't what i necessarily bargainen for whewas supporting the president. i heard from some groups who were involved in the ad industry a couple months ago the feelinge i don't love se tariffs they are hurting my bottom line but i trust the predent will dut right thing eventually. the question is how long is their patience. how long of a ropey do theve the president on this before they say you know what itt doesok like we're getting any better deal it doesn't look like the thing with china is getting fixed. they may not be supportive of democrats but they are not turning out in support of republicans. >> woodruff: okay. the thing we are watching, tam,

this week and we've been ngtal about it at the lead of the program is brett kavanaugh his confirmation a now the secd woman coming forward with allegations. know it's early, the herings are three days away, hearing on thursday but what do we see at this point inerms of how republicans are playing this. they have to be concerned because they're worried about women voters in particular. >> certainly. and though if you look at sort of the way this has progressed the way the white house apud ican allies approached this, early on, they were verfuy ca they wanted to seem as respectful as humanly possible. they didn't wanet to qustion the accuser. and now they have gotten to te point, the president has tweeted a few things and sort of th proactive white house messaging is this is a left wing smear campaign. as moved a long way. they are taking a different taco and as one republican told me, gpresident likes a good ht.

and they are now taking the fight to thatis nomn. >> woodruff: are they taking a risk by doing that amy, or do we rnow. >> iached out to some of my campaign strategist sources today and they had the same imh ession i did too wh it's really hard to know where this thing goes. you just say i don't know where this will go esially if there is a hearing, what response the american public is going to have to what christine ford to judge kavanaugh to the questions being ked and the way those questions are asked. i think it does, it is worth waiting maybe a little bit t know how this plays. i do think the problem that republicans have wh women is about as intense the gender gap is as big as we've ever seen we had these hearings. i don't know that republicans are going to be able to repair th or make it any worse with these hearings. i think the bigger question is

isat itst in terms o it does inf intensity and thues the candidates want to be talking about going into the midterm elections. >> woodruff: initially when the second round of allegations came out there was quick speculation that maybe his nomination was going to go down but they are doubling down rig t nom, the white house and brett kavanaugh himself. they're saying we are going tot. fi >> but i would say that history tells us that they're all in until they're not alin. and who knows, maybe it will go through the hearing and they will go to a floor vote but it can be like flipping ah. swi you just don't know until it happens. >> woodruff: last thing as if there's not enough gong on. the swirling speculation around the deputy attorney general rob rosen stein. normally we don't pay attention to the number two person at the department of justice but this is the person overseeing the robert mueller special council

investigation. right now -- >> lot is still swirling around. of course it's happening thursday someone tweeted out thursday for those of us in politics will feel like directly looking into the sun. that's the intensity of thene politicas. they have those glasses. but look, if you were are blican right now, you have five weeks until the elect an we're ery competitive race. who would you not want to be talking about for the next five weeks. chaos in the white house. what is going to happen at the doj. do the voters trust the president will handle thisat appropy. shouldn't congress be passing something to protect mueller. d eller is still more trus handling this issue than, the issue of the russian investigation than the president. the intensity level this is ae piat just cam out today shows while republicans are very supportive of the president are theyt intensely supportive of the president on this issue as democrats are intensely not

supportive of the president on this. >> woodruff: 20 seconds. >> ther for democratic voters at least hare is their number one issue but so is cuppion in washington which is sort of a stand in for concern about how president trump handling these things. m >> woodruff: y have something to chew on later this week. ankara keith, amy water, you both >> you're welcome. re woodruff: on friday, je brown brought us a look at a new film, "the featuring veteran actors sissy spacek and robert redford, who'r de this will be his last role. jeff continues the conversation now with a look at redford's remarkable career, on and off the screen.

>> this is a robbery. >> reporter: in what he says will be his final role, robert redford turns back to the kind of character he so wonderfully played in earlier classic films- - the "good bad guy." in "the old man and the gun", he plays "forrest tucker," a charming, aging bank robber who just cannot quit. >> when you're thinking about aving, when you're thinking about having the end of a career in terms of acting, you'd like to think that you wantt on an upbeat note, you want to out on something that's upbeat and fun. fun to do.r: >> reporedford, now 82, joined us at the toronto international film festival, alongside co-star sissy spacek, lm talk about their new find his decision to call it quits. >> i just felt that i had been doing it for so long it was time to maybe exit on a good note, on a positive note. i've been doing it since i was 21.

you know the first, the first project i ever did, i'll tell you how my beginning was, was a "perry mason" tv show back in 1959. >> put up a fight. t >> a title was "the case of the tortured toupee." i still don't know what that asant. but, anyway thaty first job. >> reporter: you remember that? i mean-- >> how can you forget something like that! >> reporter: hisirst triumph came on broadway in 1963 in neil simon's "barefoot in the park," a role he reprised opposite jane fonda in the film adaptation in 1967. >> paul? let's kill each other. >> like heep we will.

>>ter: the real jolt to stardom came two years later as the "sundance kid"-- an early version of his "charming bad- guy" persona opposite paul newman's "butch cassidy." >> whoa! >> reporter: from there, film fans can reel off favorites. among them: "the way we were"br with bstreisand and "the sting," again with newman. both released in 1973. >> bob woodward. >> reporter: "all the president's men" with dustin hoffman, came in 1976. "the natural" in 1984 and many, many more. recently "all is lost" asu ival at sea drama and "our souls at night," teamed once more with fonda, just last year. >> can i talk to you? >> reporter: in 1980, he also launched a directing career-- and won an scar for it-- with "ordinary people." other directorial projects include "a river runs through it" and "quiz show."

he traces it all to his southern california childhood. >> i grew up in a lower class neighborhood. and so the onlentertainment we had-- there was no television at that time, it was radio-- that you would walk to a lol theater and see a movie. and so what i remembered was the joy of leaving ts life you were forced to lead and go into a room that was suddenly dark with a lot of people that you knew sitting there with and all the lights would go down and then something would c the screen that was fresh and new that took you out of where you were. and that had some impact on me, i think. i think that made a strong pact on me-- the value of that which i think is why i was eventually drawn to film. >> reporter: i don't kw introspective you are in thinking about your life at different times-- did you ke a decision that this is the right moment, you've d>>e enough and-- don't spend a lot of time thinking back. i don't spend a lot of time thinking about whether it's going to be right or not for a career. at happens is you just feel an impulse and the impulse tells

you, this is something i want to do. you know, you don't spend a lot of time thinking beyond that. it just feel-- s >> like,uld, or-- >> yeah, yeah. you just go forward. >> reporte both redford and his current co-star, sissy spacek, saw fame come early-- she in the 1976 horror classic, "carrie"-- and both have taken painto make lives outside hollywood. spacek and her husband raised their chdren on a farm in virginia. >> after "carrie" it felt like the whole world went whaaat! and then it was so unn that i just needed a place to go and kind of-- i call it, i went to ground. it was very important to m mand to raichildren in a rural environment. >> i felt the same way about raising a family and not having my life dictated entirely by career choices. because there's leother life to . and if you, if you submit yourself to only one dimension in your life, like, "i'm going

to be an actor and that's all atm going to think about, all i'm going to do," then your life narrows, narrows down. >> reporter: are there things su still want to do? >> one thing's fe whatever i do, i want to spend more time in nature because that's played such an important role in my life, the value of being in nature and respecting nature and then being a part of it. >> reporter: outside acting, redford's most important legacy may be his creation of the sundance institute in utah-- which began as an environmental effort to preserve land and then became a kind of lab for training and fostering independent filmmakers. and home of one of t world's leading film festivals. >> you know there are other stories ou they're not being given a chance. how about starting somethingre that youe a mechanism for people to come and not only develop their stories but then have a place to go? >> this guy's done more for independent film than anybody that i've ever heardand he's given young writers a platform

and a place to work. and it's just been great. >> well, thank you. i think the idea is that if you're lucky enough to have some success, what are you going to do with it? are you just going to sit there o d try to repeat that success or are you goingke that success and try to do something else with it? >> reporter: you're clearlyha proud ofyou created. >> i am. >> reporter: redford says he will continue to direct and produce projects. "the old man and the gun" will be his last fi as an actor-- unless, like his character, he really can't stop. for the pbs newshour, i' jeffrey brown at the toronto film festival.on ine you can watch president trump's speech before the united nations general assemblyow tomot 10:15 eastern. that's on our live stream. you can find kurnlg at our

website pbs.org slash newshour. take a deepive how wese and what becomes of plastic. >> plastic isl around us and we use it every day. from our cars and phones. it doesn't ju appear. in fact most of what we've made over the last 70 years is still here on our land and in our water. we'll take a closer look where it is, how it got there and what we can now do to break our plastic addiction. >> woodruff: that's this week on the newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newsur has been provided by: >> bnsf raily. >> financial services firm raymond james.

>> and by the alfred p. foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, rdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> at with the ongoing suppor of these institutions >> this program was 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, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

[ ththeme music plays ] ♪ e -♪ i think i'm hom ♪ i think i'm home ♪ how n to look at you again ♪ ♪ along the road ♪ along the road ♪ ♪ anytime you want me ♪ you can find me living right between your eyes, yeah ♪ ♪ oh, i think i'm home ♪ o -today on "cook's country," christie makes julia the perfect hearty beef lasagna, jack challenges bridget a tasting of mozzarella, and lan makes bridget, a new weeknight favori chicken scarpariello. that right here on "cook's country."