ctaptioning sponsored by newshour prons, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. ton the "newshour" tonighhe day before midterm elections, candidates sprint toward the finish line focused on getting out their voters. >> get your friends, get your co-workers and go out and vote republican! we're going to make sure that people vote to start making things better. ct>> woodruff: then, proteing the vote--efforts to keep voting cesecure and away from fors trying to unduly influence the relts. and the next generation: high school students speak out about the issues ahead of tomorrow's election. >> it does seem like one of the most important elections, especially because it seems like

the fiber of the country is coming apart. >> woodruff: all thaand more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ mong our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that conn us. >> consumer cellular believes that wireless plans should reflecthe amount of talk, text and data that you use.

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>> woodruff: democrats and republicans are campaigning down to the wire tonight, for the ucial mid-term elections the outcome could shift control of congress and render a judgment othe trump presidency. mr. trump acknowledged as much today, as he headed out to a final round of rallies. but, he playedosp republican cts. >> i think we're doing well. i think the senate we're doing very well and i think 're going to do very well in the house. the energy that we have. the energy that this whole party has now. it'seally incredible. >> woodruff: meanwhile, former president obama urged democrats to vote. in northern virginia, he said american decency and equality are at stake. >> all across the country what i'm seeing is this great awaking. people, i think, who had taken for granted that we had made

certain strides, that we had made certain progress. suddenly people woke up and g said, "oh,ss we can't take this for granted." >> woodruff: on a related note:r ident trump rejected criticism that a campaign ad featuring a migrant convicted of murder is racist and offensive. cable tv networks are now refusing to air the ad. the president brushed that aside, saying, "a lot of things ume offensive." president trump in three states today-- ohio, indiana and missouri-- to rally republicans ahead of tomorrow's elections and make his argument against voting democratic. yamiche alcindor begins our reporting. >> the democrat party wants to sign illegal aens up for free healthcare, free welfare, freeat edn. >> reporter: president trump's fiery and often misleadinggu closing nt. >> the democrat party is openly encouraging millions of illegal

aliens to break our laws or violate our laws, viour borders and bankrupt our country. >>aleporter: but, in his fin two-week campaign sprint, mr. trump is ratcheting up his divisive rhetoric. he's hd rallies in 15 cities, across 12 states, stoking tensio over immigration and race in some of the country's tightest elections. that's an unusual schedule for a president who is not up for re- election. but, mr. trump is campaigning like it's 2016 all over again. he is focusing mainly on predominantly white small towns and cities in states he won in 2016. he's also claiming-- without nsidence-- that democrats are encouraging millf undocumented immigrants to vote for them. >> you know what i am? i'a nationalist. okay? i'm a nationalist. >> reporter: while campaigning in texas, mr. trump called himself a "nationalist." in fndrida, he said he would e "birthright citizenship" which is guaranteed by the 14th amendment. >> we will keep the crs, the drug dealers, we will keep

them all out of our country. >> reporter: many saw that as the president aligning himself withwhite nationalists" and playing to racists' fears that america is becoming too diverse. >> we defeated the dem mob and >> reporter: more broadly, mr. trump is also touting his administration's achiements, including two supreme court justices and a strong economy. he also recently promised yet another tax cut if rublicans ld onto their majorities in the house and senate. >> we will soon follow it ax with a 10% tut for the middle class. >> reporter: but his main message continues to center on immigration and a group of central american refugees heading to the u.s. to seek asylum. he's sent 5,200 active duty troops to the border, and threatened to send more. >> if you don't want america to be overr by masses of illegal aliens and giant caravans, you better vote republican. ( build that wall chants )

thank you, and the wall is being built. >> reporter: despite his claims, construction of that border wall still has not begun. >> reporter: a numr of publicans are taking a page from the president's playbook a they face tices. many are stoking fears over immigration and using racially charged language, including g.o.p. senate candidates marsha blackburn of tennessee and ted cruz of texas. over the weekend, u.s. riculture secretary and former georgia governor sonny perdue used a racial slur while campaigning r republican ron desantis in florida. >> public policy matters. leadership matters. and that is why this election ii so cottoin' important to the state of florida. i hope you all don't mess it up. >> reporter: meanwhile, mr. trump hasn't visited a number of states this midterm season-- some where republicans in more, moderaing districts are facing tough re-elections. a few republicans, including

south florida congressman carlos curbelo d utah congresswoman mia love, have spoken out against the president's attacks on immigrants. >> i'm the only one in this delegation who has stood up tot the presiden he has done something wrong and have worked with him when he's done mething right. >> reporter: tonight in missouri, president trump will hold one last midterm rally-- his final pitch just hours before polls open tuesday. >> woodruff: meanwhile,en democrats arsting a high- profile surrogate and focusing on one major issue as theyai ca to pick up the 23 seats needed to regain control of the house of representatives.rd lisa dess has that story. >> change is coming.or >> repter: in 2018, democrats are talking health care.th it is perhaps party's single most unifying message, appearing in toss-up districts like outside lansing, michigan... >> i got into this race because cen my mom was diagnosed with stage four ovaricer--

>> reporter: ...in red statesve that votedhelmingly for trump... >> one in three west virginiansp have a-existing condition and i'm one of them. >> reporter: ...and in perennial liberal bastions... >> californians,e're not backing down. i i'll do whatevtakes to protect health care as a human right. >> reporter: the numbers show whpo 70% of peopled by the nonpartisan kaiser family isundation said health car very important to their vote for congress this year-- outranking all other issues. our pbs npr marist poll foundra democrat health care as their most important issue this election and significantly-- for independents, it is number two, just after the economy. the theme carries through toca idates as well. democrats have nominated a number of medical professionals- - like nurse lauren underwood, >> i'm not a olitician. i'm a nurse. >> reporter: like nurse lauren underwood, running for congressi inois. and fellow congressional

hopeful, pediatrician kim schrier in washington state. >> i see what my patients and their families are up against. >> reporter: above all, democrats have blasted republican attempts to repeal and rewrite the affordable care act-- or obamacare-- saying that threatens anyone with a pre- existing health condition. cases in point: indiana and missouri, where embattled democratic senators joe donnelly and claire mccaskill are streing that their opponents both backed a lawsuit to dismantle obamacare. >> mike braun pports a lawsuit today, today, that would takeaw pre-existing conditions coverage. >> you don't go to co get rid of important protections when there is no backup. i am more than happy to work with anyone to make sure these protections would stay in place. >> democrats are going to protect your care, period. >> reporte the health care law's namesake, former president barack obama, is growing hoarse raising this and another closing argument that democrats are more civil and more honest. >> there have consequences when people don't

tell the truth. >> reporter: obama doe't name anyone but the obvious implication is that president trump is a dishonest, divisive figure. similarly, listen to florida gubernatorial candidate andrew gillum: >> let's stand together against politicians who use race to divide us. as governor, i'll ensure the most diverse state in america also sets an example as the most united state in america. ts reporter: indeed, democ are running a more diverse slate of candidates than republicans-- including minorities, women, veterans and first-time office- seekers. but the party also has its own internal divide. some democrats in red states-- like senator jon tester montana-- are touting their work with president trump, not criticizing him. >> washington's a mess, but that's not stopping me from getting bills that hel get signed into law by president trump. >> reporter: even as progressives like massachusetts senator elizabeth warren push the other way. a >> fost two years now, the

only thing the american people otten from donald trump and the republicans is chaos, corruption and hatefulness. >> reporter: there is similar divide over house deic leader nancy pelosi, with dozens of sng-district democrats-- like arkansas' clarke tucker-- distancing themselves from her. >> i won't vote for nancy pelosi. >> reporter: pelosi herself has shrugged that off. >> reporter: and that's a message too. that democrats want to win. and are happy to run on healthcare-- and after that, each candidate can craft their own closing message. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: yamiche and lisa are both here with me now. you have been out on the trailg report all this. yamiche, as you said in your report, the tv network's facebook said they're noth going to airs ad that the trump campaign put out showing a migrant. the argue is that it's racially what do we know about this ad and the trump capaign decion

to run it. >> it's viewed widely athas racist. this is featuring a man who killed two sheriff's deputies, undocumented immigraro now on deatin dray -- in california, and the president is asking the voters to look at all the other immigrants and say, this man is dan agerousnd that's stereotypical and that's. unacceptab that's pretty remarkable for the president of the united states to be told your add cannot be or networks. add to that the fact that people are looking at president trump and saying his rtoric has been unhelpful and is forging racias divisire. this morning the president was on a calwith 200,000 supporters and he's sounding a bit fearful of what could be comming tomrow. he says he doesn't want to talk about the house and nis seate he feels good about. he says he doesn't want this to be a referendum on his

presidency, while saying if the republicans pull it off saying publicans should feel good about my presidency, this is aen preshat a lot of people see as racially divisive bute also se a little nervous as to what's going to comow tomo >> woodruff: lisa, a number of democrats in swing districts. how are they lookingt at this ad and this message of divisiveness and some say racism? >> the truth is this immigration tactic of the prtsident s both parties in a tricky position because he started it so late that they're not able to yet poll as to how it's affecting their votere there are sopublicans who hope that it does get out their bav. this is ously something that helped the president get elected. but judy i talked to one republican campaign in a swing congressional district, they are very concerned this is going to hit those swing di,tric especially the ones at the have newer representatives and ha increasing minority populations. think about a state like california where they ght now are six to seven seats in play. democrats also have that hope,

and they're thinking about senate seats like arizona, nevada, texas where we're seeing record early voter turnout. they say this could turn out more hispanic population that will vote their way. the truth is they don't know yet. when you look at the house andse thate, it's not clear yet that for sure the democrats will take over the house both parties think that's likely, but the senate right now, its still very unclear, there are many different scenariofor how that could go and depends on each race. the message is still out there though the ad is not beingre >> yeah. >> woodruff: thank you. >> woodruff: as millions of americans go to the polls tomorrow, election officials in every state will be watching the reocess intensely. as william brangharts, in the face of numerous threats and prior attempts to meddle with our elections, federal and state officials are trying to step up their defenses.

so what are the kinds of threats that officiae guarding against? where are theomy coming f foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin has been following this closely.ck there have been a lot of concerns raised in the last couple of days about the comin. electi we saw the president tweeting today about how there is going to be a severe crackdownn illegal voting though there's no evidence that really occurs. he saw in georgia trial court secretary of of state brian kemp overseeing the election he's running in accused democrats of hacngnto the voting rolls there, again with no evidence. you have been vering legitimate threats we know about with regards foreign actors. what are the threats? >> twofold in terms of hacking, psychological and real hacking. those are the things we havein been covthe last two years and are focused on for 2018. psychological is changing people's opinions like in 2016, trying to convince people to vote for or against a candidate and also to sow dicord, to

create some kind of doubt about the election results. the means we're seeing this year are just like 2016, fake facebook accounts, manipulative twitter bots, google ads. and this is less om russia this year and more from iran. ten da ago, facebook tok down 82 pages from iran after they tok 600 down in august. we have a few examples, fak beral groups depicting president trump in a negative light. another tries to say brett kavanaugh's life have bee destroyed by young black men who killed police and another sh mish. text messas, one i around around may be under criminal investigation. there is an f.b.i. investigation into russian in tallahassee city government, but they say gillum is not the target.

text two, president trump, the early vote has not been recorded on indiana's roster. that is obviously fake. that is the psychological aspeca and the l hacking. we have absolutely not seen the levels that we saw in 2016 of hacking into people's accounts to create discord, disseminatein rmation and e-mails, for example. but what we are seeing areat concerns of e saw a little bit in 2016 which is hacking before the vote. so this is haceking wb sites that have registration or polling location information. security experts say this coul be effective, one because the web sites aren't thatuarded, don't have that much security and, two, in a midterm election that is diffuse, if you create a lack of confidence in people's vote or any kind of suppression of the vot that could have a big impact. >> give then vardie misinformation campaign going on, what are the federal agency of the government doing to

protret. >> theoing to share information with the states, and there's a new fusion center, as you kno that is going to do that. but there are realñi timing isss here. the f.b.i. influence task force starts after the eleion, for example. there are some cyber offensives going on to d deter some of these actors, and $380 million from congress, but at the end of the day, william, these efforts areng coery late in the day. one expert says, frankly, at thy end of the d, for 2018, we've done very very little to improve our defenses. >>nlections are really ru by the states, 50 different states ch running their own sytems, what are they doing to protect against all this? >> doing various things, and some are ricysting federal help and some accepting federal helps but the facthey need a lot of federal help. listen as stephen simon, minnesota's secretary of state, speaking in ne. >> imagine a car thief case ago park lot and make he goes a day

or two in a ro, observes traffic patterns and tries to figure out is there a way in. there are a lot of peple case ago lot of parking lots and it's up to d.h.s. to tell us who they are and wht they're for and they have done that. with respect toñi t01he election we didn't know till months afterwards, but they're ing a better job of that. >> hard way, inside the state old voting machines are hackable and sometimes not as reliables they need to be and some have a lack of paper trail and this is key because if there is any claim of a hack, there needs to be a paper trail to make sure e votes are actually conted. five states have no paper trail at all and nine states use a combination of paper andel tronic voting, some of which again does not leave a paper trail. >> repsoting is alinding good collaboration between states and companies. >> unprecedented collaboration between companiesnd companies and the government.

and not only facebook, t google twitters of the world, but facebook companies trying to helpdut an this is a key aspect of there whwiether 28 be better. there is a company called lookout. we spent time l capitoll with c.e.o. mike murray. he told people how easy it was h ck. he said hacking is better by the bay and 2016 hacks were relatively unsophisticated. >> that is practice of where it goes from here. i hate to be doom and glam because it's usually not myha nature, but yo to realize the attackers know how to take advantage of the technology better than the average person knows how to potect themselves. >> synac, the company, they prepared the government to do more.

>> i think while you looat our preparness today, we've made great strides but we're not doing enough. i doubt we'll see some sort of cybersecurity incident.o my bigern is losing confidence in the integrity of our vote. once one vote is compromised, i think it puts our entire electoral system into jeopardy. >> that is how fragile some people think it is and how riously some private companies are taking this. one last point, we wilnot know entirely this story. tomorrow, there's a requirement, a director of national intelligence produced a report about what happens tomorrow 45 days after the election, and only then will we begin to know really what happened tomorrow night. >> nick schifrin, thank you so much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: make no mistake about it, tomorrows election da here to give us the analysts' view of the state of the races pofore voters have their say, i'm joined by outics monday duo, tamara keith of npr and amy walter of the "cook political report." tuesday. >> it's like christmas eve. it is! >> it's all waiting for me to f:en. >> woodrpen up and see what's inside. >> yeah. >> woodruff: we heard a few minutes ago yamic and lisa talk about the final arguments they're hearing from eac side. what else are you hearing as the final mesages, amy? >> what's interesting is watching where republicans have gone, his cycpecially republicans running the house in the swing suburban districts one time held easily by republicans. they are distancing thefrmselves the president not by running ads independent from the president but really by turning their attention to nancy pelosi, making the race a referendum not on the preeysident, e

hoping, but on nancy pelosi. we're hearing terms like liberal, officialized medicine, tax raising. the goal, of kurse, is to mae voters who may not like the president fear something even re which is a liberal congress run by a -- the person charge, being a liberal person from san francisco. >> woodruff: another kind of fear. >> that's righ >> woodruff: tam, what are you hearing? there's a real split between the president but it continues today. he's out with a new editorial written under his name, at least, talking about sort of an economic case for republicans. it doesn't mention immigration. at the same time, you havehe president continuing the message of the caravan. so there's this real split between part of the campaign and then the other part of the campaign. the president's rhetoric at his rallies and then the more scripted rhetoric that they're trying to push out through other

>> woodruff: it was interesting, i read one report that said he didn't actually like an ad they put together afe days ago that talked about the economy, that he wanted there to be more of a fight. >> he said, here's the message on the economy, but, you know, you really don't need to talk about the other stuff. >> woodruff: what else ar you watching, amy? you both have the list of thing you keepe on. what are you looking at right now? >> we're going to get a loft information coming at us pretty quickly on election night, and ngi'm going to be looor certain kinds of races, the way they go, democrat or republican, that will give us a sense of what the rest of the night could look like, but also what a new congress could look like. if democrats are picngp seats in those districts we have been talking about, the clinton suburban districts, there's nothing particularly earthng shattebout that. but if they're expanding into places where republicans haveo never lost,e of these outer oing suburbs where democrats are hoping to pick upme seats, or

i'm also looking a lot at the districts that clinton lost but obama had carried four years earlier, those places that still have sort of a democratic dna but they're more blue-collar working suburbs than the ones hillary clinton won, so the breadth of the seats will tell us as much as much as the numbef seats. weso looking at independent voters. e talked about how both sides are revving up uh their bases, that's real important, but in the last three midterm elections the winning party bleried the elections by dou digits, and how those voters break here at the end is going to tell us what knd of night it's going to be. >> woodruff: interesting, too, who defines themselves as independent. >> that's right. >> woodruff: tam, your list? so i amtc wang one district that amy sort of alluded to as being an intdiesting type of rict, which is florida 15, i visited it when we were in florida. t''s a district thbeen in republican hands for a very long

time but that the "cook political report" rated a tossup that had a lot of money come to the democratic candidate in the early going ofhe race, and you have sort of a very moderate democrat who doeti't men president trump, and she's a woman running against a republican who has, you know,at ide -- or state-elected experience. it's just an interesting race to watch. the other thing that i'm watching is i have built this database or spreadsheet oft presidump's twitter endorsements. he has endorsed 80 different people, some repeatedly twitter. i will be building a scorecard to see how he does in his endormtsz, also how the candidates he held rallies for end up fairing because a loof fees are considered tossups so it's not guaranteed the people fo campaigner will win. so much of the conversation, i thin early in the in the election season were about whether the degomocrats werg to be able to keep women and

younger voters energized. i know it's early, we haven't counted the votes, yet, amy, but should we be thinking about breaking the electorate up into nggroups and seow each -- >> sure. i mean, we know that the mocratic sort of constituency now, definitely women bt specifically women white with a college degree, latino, afcan-american voters, younger voters, though remember millennials, now, oldest millnials, their first election who was barack obama are now 30 and the oldest millennial is almost 40. (laughter) going all ancient now. so when we talk about youngwe voterseed to be including the folks who were the obama generation who turned out for him but may not have turned out before. there's a difference between k at the president is taout on paper and at rallies, is another group that doesn't

usually turn out in midterm elections are part of trump's coreote. your turnout in election in midterm is drive an lot aut education as well as income level and age. the oldermore affluent and the more likely that you have a elylege degree, the more lik you are to vote. so the voters that make up the core of trump base, of course, specifically mete white men without a college degree, are they going to turn out in a prm year in a way they turned out for trump? a lot of us probably didn't vote for mitt romney o john mccain. they were uniquely attracted to donald trump. will they turn out to votfor republicans when trump's not on the ballot? >> wo: odruscinating the questions and the issues it's raised about education diides among people voting. tam, you were taking to uabout looking at the relationship between the president and the congress. at one point, he's very critical of congress. not so much.

>> yeah, here's the thng, he has been saying, you know, a lot of people are saying that maybe my voters won't turout and vote because i have been so negative on congress. on his inauguration day, he actually said it doesn't matter which party is in power. well, he now believes it matters a lot which party is in power and he is trying to convince the core vote horse maybe voted the very first tie in 2016, that even know his name isn't there baat they need to vote as if his name were on thllot. so it's a big change, he says, from a congress that he says disappointed him and people who still msappoint h, to now, but, but, but i need them. >> woodruff: and that will rae questions going into 2020, amy. he's going to need this congress for the next two years. >> to be able to push throughhi legislative agenda. but most of what he's done even with the republican congress, most of his accomplishments in the first two years have been done through executive action and not through a legislative

action. the axe bill being the one major piece of legislation, bigex ption, but the rest have all come through his executive or orders. so even having a lot of republicans didn't necessarily mean he got mre legislation. what it did do, of course, is it meant there wasn't going to be the sort of oversight thatill happen if democrats take control of the house. >> woodruff: interesting to think abt what newly-elected members of congress will think they owe president based on how much he did or didn't campaign for them, whether he't helped or dihelp, that's one of the things we will be >> remember a lot of the republicans who could lose would be the more moderate, the ones who will be in congress who we left are the more trump aligned. >> woodruff: exactly.y amlter, tamera keith, tomorrow's the big day. >> can't wait! >> woodruff: thank you! you're welcome. oo

>>uff: now to the day's other news, and there was some: a new wave of u.s. sanctions hit inan, targeting everything from oil exports to shito finance. it follows presideon trump's decio quit the 2015 nuclear agreement. iran'sresident hassan rouhani sounded defiant, trading long- distance verbavolleys with u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo. >> ( translated ): we are at an economic war situation. we are standing up to a bullying enemy. yesterday, saddam hussein confronted us from iraq. today, trump confronts us. there is no difference. we must resist and win. >> the iranian regime has a choice, it can either do a 180 degree turn from its outlaw course of action and act like a normal country, or it can see els economy crumble. >> woodruff: separ u.s. national security advisor john bolton said the trump administration pns to add more sanctions against iran.in fghanistan taliban fighters e lled at least 17 afghan

soldiers and pol a new spate of attacks overnight and today. one strike targeted a checkpoint in ghazni province that was designed to cut off a key taliban supply route. four more security troops were killed hours earlier in kandahar province, in the south. there's been a new burst of fighting in yemen, around the crucial red sea port of hodeida. a saudi-backed sunni coalition massed troops there over the weekend. they've been firing rockets into the city at shiite rebels aligned with iran. that is despite calls last week from the u.s. and other western countrs for a cease-fire in the bitter struggle. reports out turkey say a saudi team sent to investigate the murder of jourlist jamal ashoggi, removed evidence instead. a senior turkish official confirmed it today. the two-man "clean-up" crew wa said to be part of this group that entered the saudi consulate

in istanbul-- one week after khashoggi was killed there. meanwhile, the u.s. to nddressed the u.n. human rights council in geneva, demanded a full investigation. >> we condemn is premeditated killing. holding accountable those identified as ing involved and continuing the investigation is an important first step. a thorough, conclusi transparent investigation, carried out in accordance with r due process wiults made public, is essential. >> woodruff: khashoggi's sons are now appealing for the return of their father's body for burial in saudi arabia. a hopeful note today about the earth's ozone layer. a united nations report says it is finally healing, and the huge ozone hole over antarctica should be gone by the 2060s. the trend reversed when chloro- fluoro-carbons were banned from aerosol sprays and coolants. the ozone problem is separate arand distinct from globalng

known to be caused by greenhouse gases. back in this country: opening arguments began in federal cot in new york, on including a citizenship question on the 2020 u.s. csus. a dozen states and big cities are suing the trump administration to block the question. they say it will dissuade immigrants from participating and cause a severe undercount. usa gymnastics is losing its status as the sports governing body at the olympic the u.s. olympic committee announced the mo today. usa gymnastics was rocked by the scandal over former team doctor larry nassar sexually abusing athletes. since then, the group has stggled to reorganize. on wall street financial stocks led the blue chips higher, but tech shares flagged again. the dow jones industrial average gained 199 points to close at 25,461. the nasdaq fell 28 points.

but the s&p 500 added 15. and, shareholder activist evelyn davis has died after decades of confronting corporate executives.se she prfor accountability with an array of tactics ats- annual meetifrom donning outlandish outfits to shouting r wn c.e.o.s. at her direction, mbstone will read: "i did not get where noi am by standing in lineby being shy." evelyn davis was 89-years-old. >> woodruff: more than 200 children remain separated om their families as a result of the trump administration's "zerl tolerance"y. one of the challenges of that iglicy was transporting the large numbers of int children the government now shelters. from the centefor investigative reporting's "reveal" team, aura bogado

reports. >> reporter: seven-year old wilson remembe the place where he spent his first nights away from his mother. >> ( translated ): this is the first office we went to, we went in here. >> ( translated ): i slept in this room. >> reporter: wilson's mother, maria antonia larios soto, says the two of them made their journey northward toward the enu.s. border to escape vi in their home town in guatemala. at the end of may, as theywa ed across the u.s.-mexico border in arizon, to seek asyley were apprehended by border patrol for crossing without permission. a hours lateorder patrol agent told larios soto she would be separated from her son. >> ( translated were all scared because officers would tell us that we were going to be deported and our kids were going to stay here. and we wondered how could that be possible? nobody gives up thr children just like that; they are the most precious thg for us.

>> reporter: larios soto recalls the very moment wilson was taken away from her. >> ( translated ): around 4:00 a.m., they tk him away from me. they didn't tell me where they were going to take him. i asked them, but they said they couldn't tell me. the only thing they tolds e is that he ing to be placed with other kids because he couldn't stay with me. >> reporter: what wathat first night like for you without your son? >> ( transled ): it's a terrible life to be all alone and not knowing where he is and not being able to talk to him. i had never been away from him. it was so hard.ig >> reporter: ition and customs enforcement paid a company called m.v.m., inc. to transport wilson to a shelter contracted by the office of refugee resettlement. ice allows its contractors to bring immigrant children to their own offices, like this one leased by m.v.m. in central phoenix, arizona. but ice said its contract doesn't allow contractors to hold children for more than 24

hours.ti the faci are "waiting areas for minors awaiting same- day transportation," "these offices are not overnight housing facilities per the contract with ice." but in wilson's case, he spent two nights at one of these facilities. lianna dunlap lives next door, and over a couple of days witnessed at least two groups of children entering the building.i she filmedvideo the day after wilson was brought there. i i was doing my dishes a see a van pull up, and then i noticed that the van has kids. and den they walked inside an sgot a really weird feeling like that didn'tm right or normal or i just didn't get a good feeling from it. and then that's when i was like, nei'm going to go get my pnd i started recording it. >> reporter: dunlap says she witnessed a separate group leaving the building. >> about four or five vans pull up and that's when i saw them come out.

and it was probably like 80 to 90 kids come out of there. they just started having them come straight out of t door onto the vans. >> reporter: from just outside the office windows, e saw a blow-up mattress, a box labele"" baby shampoo," and medication schedules, suggesting extended stays. though the building is now vacant, at least 200 children ca through here over the course of a few weeks. we were able to view an internal government database that showedo in addto wilson, at least 15 other children stayed here for more than 24 hours. in a second phoenix office building leased by m.v.m., anc concerned insuexecutive also took video and photos after he saw children washing theirir n the sinks of this shared bathroom. neither of the buildings meets requirements for a government- approved shelter. they have no outdoor playground; no kitchens, showers, and no bedrooms to keep ageroups separated.hr founded by former secret service agents in 1979, m.v.m.

has contracted with the federal government for more than 30 year sites including prisons, as well as c.i.a. persnel in iraq. since 2014, they have received contracts worth up to about $225-million for the transportation of immigrant children. yet th summer, m.v.m. clarified their role in a statement posted on their website: "the current services m.v.m provides consts of transporting undocumented families and unaccompanied children to facilities. we have not and currently do not operate shelters or any other type of housing for minors." when we reached out to m.v.m. about our findings that multiple children had stayed overnight, they declined an interview but responded with this statement:" when we identified several instances in which our policy was not followed, m.v.m. instituted tighter controls and gave employees additional seinstruction to prevent t regrettable exceptions from happening again."he >>rimary goal of any contractor is profit. if the well-being of children is

profitable to them it is potentially possible that they ll do a better job. >> reporter: pratap chatterjee is the executive director of corpwatch, a research group advocating for corporate accountability. >> it is notntirely surprising that m.v.m. has been accused of skirting their obligations in arizona because thesesa acons have come up in the past. during the iraq war, the c.i.a. pulled out of a $1-billion contract with m.v.m. for failing to provide the full number of guards for government personnel. >> i just ask pele to think if it was your three-year-old grandson placed in the hs,ds of strangow would you want your three-year-old to be treated? >> reporter: representative zoe lofgren is theop democrat on the house judiciary committee, which supervises the department of homeland security and ice. >> if there is misconduct then i think there ought to be ramifications either a loss of

profit or termination of the contract depending on how severe the misbehavior was. >> reporter: ice did "look int"" m.v.m.'s overnight stays and says they have: "outlined several specific adjustments with the contractor to rectify that issue going forward." but at the same time, ice awarded m.v.m. a new contract tt provide trann services potentially worth up to $185- million. lofgren says more should be done and asked the department of meland security, which oversees ice, to investigate m.v.m.'s treatment of immiasant children on our reporting. >> ultimately it's the government responsibility and they can't shirk that responsibility merely by signing a contract. >> reporter: we contacted the office of every republican member of the house and senate serving on committs that oversee ice, but none agreed to be interviewed.en after ng his seventh birthday away from his family in a shelter, wilson and his mother reunited in july and are living with family in arkansas.

they drove together to an orientation at wilson's new school. d the day before he starterst grade, wilson was excited to meet his teacher. >> you have a nice smile. and you have happy eyes. >> reporter: this moment is why larios soto says she was seeking to cross the border in the first place-- for wilson to have a good school in a safe environment. >> ( translated ): we don't come here just because we want to live fancy lives, we come here to be safe and ge our children a better life. our lives are always at risk over there. when you leave your house, youn' know if you'll come back alive or in a coffin. it's the worst. i that's howt is in our country. >> reporter: larios soto can now remain with wilson in the united states for one year on a humanitarian parole, but after that, the future is uncertain. and it remains uncertain for the hundreds of other ch who are waiting to be reunited with their families.

for the "pbs newshour," i'm aura bogado in rt smith, arkansas. >> woodruff: on the eve of tomorrow's elections, we examine a recent book with a sweeping view of american history that's especially resonant right now. jeffrey brown has more. >> brown: it's aambitious oject, a single-volume story of america, and ideally timed, arriving at a moment of intense division over where the nation s come from d where it's headed. these truths -- hese truths: a history of the united states" sets out an experiment in government that continues told un author jill lepore is an award winning historian and staff writer at "the new yorker." weouome. >> thank >> brown: you said at the beginning you did this because it was important and fet worth

the try. >> it used to be historians at certint in their career would write such a book, a cap stone, before you become an emeritus professor, and that has fallen away entirely. i think american history convinces us american past dismantled at the time the country ben to divide and these books aren't written anymore.pt it's the atto use your scholarly authority to tell a big, long, sweeping story. >> brown: there are the contradictions and paradoxes of american history. you have 800 pagesm this idea of natural rights and equality to the institution of slavery to open borders toow we must limit who comes in. that never stops, right? >> no, it never stops. i mean, it's the beauty and thee tragedy,ise and the fall and the fall and the rise and everything that has always a kind of doubleness to it. the trick was to try to see both

of those -- benjamin franklin invented the bifocal and said you need to be able to see at the same time things that are ur close and fa away. news a book aimed at binocular vision that we could march from president to president and see administrations andluate them, but also reckon with the incredible work done in the academy in the last century i recovering aesting in lives as well, in women and people of color, and these are also political stories and corigin stories, and yon't understand the presidency or the politics with a capital p without bringing these two strands together. >> brown: i asked you to think about an episode -- because there are too many in this book out american history -- but something that surprised you or gave you some understanding of where we're at tod. >> yeah. so much that i found out working on this book surprised me. but taking stock, in particular, really in a systematic way of

how women participate in american political cul decades before women get the right to vote in 1920 with the 19th amendment, and what you see that when you do that is women develop a verey spcific political style, a moral persuasion, a moral crew said so uh you think about it, you can't vote, what yo're going to do is tell men how to vote. you say, i have more moral authority than you. so it's abolion, temperance, later prohibition, and in the 20th century, so many moral crusades that are leomd by wen have really not been fully examined by political historians or -- so if you think about phyllis schaflly, the leading architect of modern conservatives. she starts out in the '50s as a member of the kitchen cabinet, the g.o.p. ladies auxiliary, goes on to a mcarthyian,

campaigns for goldwater, and in 1972 she funds an organization to stop the.r.a. an it is a moral crew said and really realliance the party system. que fannable to think about the southern strategy of the nixon ainistration. the parties realigned around questions ofqualit of women. i think now, if you think about the #metoo movement which is a moral crew said, it comes out of that long tradition. >> brown: even though at a very different angle. >> but it also isbout the law not really working, right. women have the right to vote, but the law actually isn't protecting women, granting womee equal prion. so there's a feeling of a political ttlement we see the legacy of now. >> brown: focusing on women,ry telling the ss in a way bringing people into the history

that were not theralways. >> they're there in the sense that you know now and we can sem now that sucourt and gender politics are intersecting, that's the case as history has been written in ways to artificlly divide them. so systematically how historiant decided to wabout the american past, they set aside things women do as aolitical. they set aside slavery as an economic issue, not a political lsue, so there is amost like a segregated past. >> brown: inevitably the bok leads to now. when you look at now in the framework of this long history,a where does trump fit? where do you see -- where are we in this arican story? >> yeah, this is a very trubled time that few people would deny this is a troubled time. the partisan divide is extremely wide, income inirualityowing

since 1968 is hiring than ever before by in mtrics, our politics are not working effectively. policy gridl tk. so tne of our politics is particularly dire. by that measure, you could say this is a very difficult time. there are all kinds of oher measures where you can have some sense of proportion, right? when people say the country's never been so divided before, that often is a way of saying i'm only thinking about the country as the history of white people because, when you think about people who were enslaved as a polical community, they are deeply divided from theest to have the country. there is no moment before emancipation that's better for women today or safety in childbirth that is a better moment than today. so one way to tell stoisry o get that sense of proportion. that said, donald trump didnp win the par vote so you can't really write an account of

american hitory whose whole rationale is to explain how he got elected. could have gone the other way, contingencies and chaos, and not everything falls to an explanation, that is a pattern. >> brown: the book is "these truths." jill lepore,muhank you very . >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: worth paying attention. one big question for election day tomorrow will you people show up at the polls. the newshour's student reporting labs, our network of high school journalism programs across the country, interviewed over 300 young people>>o learn more. do think voting matters. i think it's a really important part of our democracy and ith thin everyone should take part in it because that's our duty as american citizens. >> young people are less likely to vote because they think that their vote doesn't mteter and one on't change anything. >> i am one of those 18-year- olds that do not go to the polls to vote. >> i do not vote because i do not pay attention to what's going on in the news and i don't want to just throw a vote out there. >> my peers are really quiet about it. they don't really like talking

about politics so much because it's, it's very uncomfortable and my family doesn't really bring it up either. >> i think teachers are a little more cautious about talking about politics so that might negatively affect the youth vote because people are hearing less about it. >> i think the only way to get people to vote more is making voting required. i lower the voting age to around 16 becausel like if we start voting at a younger age or becoming voutine. >> makng mobile. our generation is so technology- driven that if voting ore literally fingertips then that's an initiave to get all young people to vote. >> we brought a goat, a miniature goat onto campus like fainting goat and it was that was our vote goat and so many folks stopped by just to pet the goat or play with the goat. and"while we were there we " hey, you know you've already taken a minute. do you have a second to register to vote?" and we registered to over 100 people that day. so, that was really awesome.

>> what woulget me to vote is something that would affect me every day like minimum wage, car paents, car taxes, taxes. >> probably the rising cost of college education is the most important to me because it's the most relevanto me in the next four to six years of my life. >> it can change so many issues that are important to me, especially considering the recent school shootings and so many attempts to try of birth control and planned parenthood. >> it does seem like one of the most important elections especially because it seems like the fiber of the country is coming apart. t i think what's encouraging me to vote is the fat you 'tow my ancestors didn't get the vote and they diet a say in how their lives were spent. >> so, we can't sit around and say that things are bad without eying to change them and major platform for changes voting in candidates that want to change the problems you see. >> i think voting does matter. i think it's kind of an obligation, especially because as a woman the people who came before us fought so hard and so tirelessly for our right to

vote. >> woodruff: a reminder: with the midterm elections tomorrow, we'll have special covereve all ing long. >> get out and vote republican. you' got to more than tweet. you've got to vote! >> woodruff: across the country, candidates of both parties hit the trail to win voters. >> woodruff: that's tomorr at our regular newshour time, followed by our election special. we'll be reporting and analyzing election results all night and we invite you to join us. and that's the newshour for ank you and see you soon.. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ns

>>railway. >> consumer cellular. >> and by the alfred p. sloan 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, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by gmedia access group at wgbh access.wgbh.

hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour and company. here what's coming up. >> with your spirit, come holy spirit, come. >> the reverend willi barbour, one of america's greator leaders, just ahmed of miead ofs elections say he senses a freshm ment to fightingorty, bigotry and environmental devastation. plus, the end of an era. angela merkel considered the firewall against a rising tide of weste nationalism. why is she stepping away from the fray? thin, alicia menendez talkin