captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, the day ctbefore midterm ens, candidates sprint toward the finish line focused t getting eir voters. >> get your friends, get your co-workers and go out and vote republican! we're going to make sure that people vote to sta making things better. >> woodrf: then, protecting the vote--efforts to keep voting secure and ay from forces trying to unduly influence the results. and the next generation: highho students speak out about the issues ahead of tomorrow's election. >> it does seem like o of the most important elections, especially because it seems like the fiber of the country is coming apart.

>> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:♪ ♪ moving our economyor 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> consumer cellular believe that wireless plans should reflect the amount of talk, text and data that you use. we offer a variety of no- contract wireless plans for people who use their phone a

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>> woouff: democrats and republicans are campaigning down to the wire tonight, for the crucial mid-term elections.ul the outcome shift control of congress and render a judgment on the trumpcy presiden mr. trump acknowledged as much alday, as he headed out to a final round of rlies. but, he played up republican prospects. >> i think we're doing well. i think the senate we're doing very well and i think we're going to do very well in the house. the energy that we have. the ener that this whole party has now. it's really incrible. >> woodruff: meanwhile, formerur president obamd democrats to vote. in northern virginia, he said american decency and equality are at ske. >> all across the country what i'm seeing is this great awakening. 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 said, "oh, i guess we can't take this for granted." >> woodruff: on a related note: president 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 are offensive." presidt trump stumps in three states today-- ohio, indiana and missouri-- trally republicans ahead of tomorrow's elections and make his argument againstti democratic. yamiche alcindor begins our reporting.em >> therat party wants to sign illegal aliens up for fre healthcare, free welfare, free education. >> reporter: president trump's fiery and often misleading closing argument. >> the democrat partpenly encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws or

violate our laws, violate our borders and bankrupt our country. >> reporter: but, in his final two-week campaign sprint, mr. trump is ratcheting up his divisive rhetoric. he's held rallies in 1cities, across 12 states, stoking tensions over immigration and race in some of the country's tightest elections. that's an unusual schedule for r ident 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 's16. lso claiming-- without evidence-- that democrats are encouraging millions of undocumented immigrants to vote >> you know what i am? i'm a nationalist. okay? i'm a nationalist. >> reporter: while campaigning in texas, mr. trump called himself a "nationalist." in florida, he sd he would end "birthright citizenship" which is guaranteed by the 14th amendment. >> we will the drug dealers, we will keep them all out of our country. >> reporter: many saw that as

the president aligning himself with "white nationists" 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 achievements, including two supreme court justices and a strong economy. he also recently promised yet another tax cut if republicansei hold onto majorities in the house and senate. >> we will soon follow it up wi a 10% tax cut for the middlelass. >> reporter: but his main message continues toenter 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 e border, and threatened to send more. >> if you don't want america to be overrun by masses oillegal aliens and giant caravans, you better vote republican. build that wall chants ) thank you, and the wall is beinu t.

>> reporter: despite his claims, construction of that border wall still has not begun. >> reporter: a number of republicans are taking a page from the president's playbook as ey face tight races. 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. agriculture secretary and former georgia governor sonny perdue used a racial slur while campaigning for republican ron desantis in florida. >> public lelicy matters. eship matters. and that is why thction is so cotton-pickin' important to the state of florida. i hopeou all don't mess it up. >> reporter: meanwhile, mr. trump hasn't visited a number of states this midterm seas r-- some whereepublicans in more moderate, swing districts are facing tough re-elections. a few republicans, including south florida congressman carlos

curbelo and utah congresswoman mia love, have spoken outai t the president's attacks on immigrants. >> i'm the only one in this delegation who has stood up to nee president when he has something wrong and have worked with him when he's donet. something ri >> reporter: tonight in missouri, president trump willt hold onemidterm rally-- his final pitch just hours before polls open tuesday.f: >> woodreanwhile, democrats are enlisting a high- profile surrogate and focusing on one major issue as they campaign to pick up the 23 seats needed to regain control of the house of representatives. lisa desjardins has that story. >> change is coming. >> reporter: in 2018, crats are talking health care. it is perhaps the party's single most unifying message, appearing in toss-up districts likens outside g, michigan... >> i got into this race because when my mom was diagnosed with stagfour ovarian cancer-- >> reporter: ...in red states

that voted overwhelmingly for trump... >> one in three west virginians have a pre-existing condition and i'm one of them. >> reporter: ...and in perennial liberal bastions... >> californians, we're not backing down. i'll do whatever it takes to protect health care as a human right. reporter: the numbers show why. 70% of people polled by the nonpartisan kaiser family foundation said health care is very important to their vote for congress this year--utranking all other issues. our pbs npr marist poll fod democrats rank health care as their most important issue this election and-- significantly-- for independents, it is number two, jusafter the economy. the theme carries through to candidates as well. democrats have nominated a number of medical professionals- - like nurse lauren underwood, >> i'm not a politician.rs i'm a nue. >> reporter: like nurse lauren underwoo running for congress in illinois. and fellow congressionaled hopeful,trician 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 affordab o care act-- macare-- 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 stressing that their opponents both backed a lawsuit to dismantle obamacare. >> mike braun supports a lawsu today, today, that would takeg away pre-existnditions coverage. >> you don go to court to get rid of important protections when there is no backup. i am more than happy to work with anyone to makecsure these prons would stay in place. >> democrats are going to protect yourare, period. >> reporter: the health care law's namesake, former president barack obama, growing hoarse raising this and another closing argument-- that democrats are more civil and more honest. >> there have got to be consequences when people don't tell the truth.

>> reporter: obama doesn'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 againsti polis 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. >> reporter: iareed, democrats 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 senatoron tester in montana-- are touting their work with president trump, not criticizing him.as >>ngton's a mess, but that's not stopping me from getting bills that help montana get signed into law by president trump. >> reporter: even as progressives like massachusetts senator elizabeth warren push the other way. >> for almost two yew, the only thing the american people

have gotten from done d trump and publicans is chaos, corruption and hatefulness. >> reporter: there is similar divide over house democratic leaderancy pelosi, with dozens of swing-district democrats-- like arkansas' clarke tucker-- distancing themselves from here >> i won't vr nancy pelosi. >> reporter: pelosi herself has shrugged that off. >> reporter: and that's a messagtoo. 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 lisaar dens. >> woodruff: yamiche and lisa are both here with me now. you have been out on the trail reporting on all this. yamiche, as you said in your rert, the tv nework's facebook said they're not going to air this ad that the trump campaign put out showing migrant. the argue is that it's racially inseweitive. what dnow about this ad and the trump camign decision to run it.

>> it's viewed widely athas racist. this is featuring a man who killed two sheriff's deputies, undocumented immigrant now on inath row in dray -- california, and the president is asking the voters to lok at all the other immigrants and say, this man is dangeus and that's stereotypical and that's unacceptable. that's pretty remarkable for the president of the united states to be tolyour add cannot be run on major networks. add to that the fact that people e looking at president trump and saying his rhetoric has been unhelpful and is forging racial divisions here. this morning the president was on a call wit0,h 0 supporters and he's sounding a bit fearful of what could be comming toorrow. he says he doesn't want to talk about the house and is sene he feels good about. he says he doesn't want thi be a referendum on his presidency, while saying if the republicans pull it off saying

republicans should feel good ofout my presidency, this is a president hat a loeople see as racially divisive but also some see a little nervous as to what's going to come tomorrow. woodruff: lisa, a number of democrats in swing districts. how are they lookingt at this an this message of divisiveness and some say racism? >> the truth is thimigration tactic of the president puts both parties in a trickyau position b he started it so late that they're not able to yet poll as to how it's affecting their voters. ere are some republica who hope that it does get out their base. this is obviouslymething that helped the president get elected. but judy i talked to one republican campaign in a swing congressional district, they are very concerned is is going to hit those swing districts, especially the ones at the have newer represent and have increasing minority populations. think about a state like california where they right now are six to seven seats in play. democrats also have that hop and they're thinking about

senate seats like arizona, nevada, texas where we're seeing record early votuerrnout. they say this could turn out more hispanic popation tha will vote their way. the truth is they don't know yet. when you look at the house and the senate, 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, it's still v uryclear, there are many different scenarios for ho that could go and depends on each race. the message is still out there though the ad is not being aired. >> yeah. >> woodruff: thank you. >> woodruff: as millions of americans go to the polls tomorrow, election officials int every will be watching the process intensely. as william brangham reports, in the face o 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 thatfficials are

guarding against? where are thecoming from? foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin has been following this closely. nick, there have been a lot of concerns raised in the las ot coupdays about the coming election. we saw the president tweeting today abow there is going to be a severe crackdown on legal voting though there's no evidence that really occurs. woe saw in georgia the trial court secretary of of state brian kemp overseeing the electione's running in accused democrats of hac voting rolls there, again with no evidence. you have been covering legitimate threats we know about with regards foreign actors. what are the threats?n >> twofoldrms of hacking, psychological and real hacking. those are the things we have twbeen covering the las years and are focused on for 2018. ychological is changing people's opinions like in 2016, trying to convince people to vote for or against a candidate and also to sow disrd, to create some kind of doubt about

the election results. the means we're seeing this yea are jst like 2016, fake facebook account manipulative twitter bots, google ads. and this is lsss from rua this year and more from iran. ten days ago, fackebook too down 82 pages from iran after they took 600 down uin agust. we have a few examples, fake liberal groups depicting president trump in aegative light. another tries to say brett kavanaugh's life have beend destroyeby young black men who killed police and another mish mish. text messages, one is around around may be under iminal investigation. there is an f.b.i. investigation into russian in tallahassee city illumnment, but they say g is not the target. text two, president trump, the

early vote has not been recorded onindiana's roster. that is obviously fake. that is the psychological aspect and the real hacking. we have absolutely not seen the levels that we saw in 2016 of hacking into people's accounts to create discord, disseminate information and e-mails, for example. but what we ar seeing are concerns of what we saw a little bit in 2016 which is hacking before the vote. so this is hacking web sites that have registration org pollocation information. security experts say thi be effective, one because the web sites aren't that guarded, don't have that much security and, two, in a midtermlection that is diffuse, if you create a lack of confidence in people's vote or any kind of suppression of the vote, that could have a big impact. >> give then varied misinformation campaign going on, what are thed eral agency of the government doing to protect.

>> they're going to information with the states, and there's a new fusion center, as you know, that is goi to do that. but there are realñi timing isss here. the f.b.i. influence taforce starts after the election, for example. there are some cyber offensives going on to try and deter some of these actors, and $380 million from congress, but at the end of the day, william, these efforts are coming very late in the day. one expert says, frankly, at the enof the day, for 2018, we've done very very little to improve our defenses. >> elections are really run by the states, 50 different states each running their own systems, what are they doing to protect against all this? >> doing various things, and some are ricysting federal help and some accepting federal help, buthe fact is they need a lot of federal help. listen as stephen simon, minnesota's secretary of state, speaking in june. imagine a car thief case ago park lot and make he goes a day or two in a, rowserves

traffic patterns and tries to figure out is there a way in. lot of people ca ago lot of parking lots and it's up to.h.s to tell us who they are and what they're for and they have done that. with respect toñi the 2016 election we didn't know till months afterwards, but they're doing a beter job of that. >> hard way, inside the states,v oling machines are hackable and sometimes not as reliable as 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 pape mtrail toake sure the votes are actually counted. five states have no paper trail at all and nine states use a combination of paper and electronic voting, some of which again does not leave a paper trail. >> reporting is also finding good colbotion between states and companies. >> unprecedented collaboration between companies and companies the government. and not only facebook,

googles, the twitterthe world, but facebook companies trying to help out and this is a key aspect of there whether 2018 will be better. there is a company clled lookout. we spent time on capitol hill with c.e.o. mike murray. he tolpeople how easy it was to hack. he said hacking is better by the y 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 my nare, but you have to realize the attackers know how to take advantage of the tectthnology than the average person knows how to protect themselves. >> synac, the company, they prepared the government to do more. >> i think while you look at our

preparedness today, we've made great strides but we're not doingnoug i doubt we'll see some sort of cybersecurity incident. my big concern is losing confidence in the integrity of our vote.ne onceote is compromised, i think it puts our entire electoral system into jeopardy. >> that is how fragile some people think it is and howm seriously private companies are taking this. one last point, we will not 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 wein bego know really what happened tomrow night. >> nick schifrin, thank you so much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: make no mistake about it, tomorrow is election day. here to give us the analysts' view of the state of the races before voters have their say, i'm joed by our politics monday duo, tamara keith of npr and amy walter of the "cookre politicart." tuesday. >> it's like christmas eve. it is! >> it's all waiting for me to open. s>> woodruff: open up an what's inside. >> yeah. >> woodruff: we heard a few minutes ago yamiche and li talk about the final arguments they're hearing from each side. what else are you hearing as the final mesysages, a? >> what's interesting is watching where republicans have gone this cycle, especially republicans running the house in the swing suburban districtsne time held easily by republicans. they are distancing themselveid from the prt not by running ads independent from the president but really by turni their attention to nancy pelosi, making the race a rtferendum on the president, they're osi.ng, but on nancy pel we're hearing terms like

liberal, officialized medicine, tax raising. the goal, of course, is to make voters who may not like the president fear something even more which is a liberal consgr run by a -- the person in charge, being a liberal person from san francisco. >> woodruff: another kind of fear. >> tt's right. >> woodruff: tam, what are you hearing? >> there's a l split between the president but it continues today. w he's oth a new editorial written under his name, at t leasking about sort of an economic case for republicans. it doesn't mntion immigration. at the same time, you have the 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 ripted rhetoric that they're trying to push out through other channels. >> woodruff: it was interesting, i read one report

that said he didn't actually like an ad they put together aag few dayo 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 are you watching, amy? you both have the list of things what are you looking at right now? >> we're going to get a loft information coming at us pretty quickly on election night, and i'm going toe looking for certain kinds of races, the way they go, democrat or republican, that willive us a nse of what the rest of the night could look like, but also what a new congress could look like. if democrats are picking up seats in those districts we have been talking about, the cinton suburban districts, there's nothing particularly earth shattering about tha but if they're expanding into places where republicans have ver lost, some these outer ring suburbs where democrats are hopingo pick up some seats, or i'm also looking a lot at the districts that clinton lst but

ceama had carried four years earlier, those pthat still have sort of a democratic dna but they're more bllaue-c working suburbs than the onesy hillinton won, so the breadth of the seats will tells usch as much as the number of seats. also looking at independent votersb we've talkedout how both sides are revving up uh theirs, bahat's real important, but in the last three midterm elections the winning par carried the elections by double digits, and how those voters break here at the end is going ht tell us what kind of nig it's going to be. >> woodruff: interesting, too, who defines themselves as independent. >> that's right. >> woodruff: tam, your list? so i am watching one district that amy sort of alluded to as being an interesting type of district, which is florida 15, i vited it when we were in florida. it's a district that's been in republican hands for a very long time but that th "cook

political report" rated a tossup that had a lot of money co to the democratic candidate in the early going of the race, anof yu have sor a very moderate tioncrat who doesn't men president trump, and she's a woman running against a republican who has, you know, statewide -- or state-elected experience. it's just an inttoeresting rac watch. the other thing that i'm watching is i have built this database or spreadsheet of president trump's tw endorsements. he has endorsed 80 different onople, some repeatedly twitter. i will be building a scorecard to see how he does in his a endormtso how the candidates he held rallies for end upi faring because a lot of fees are considered tossups s it's not guaranteed the people he campaigned for will win. so much of the conversation, i think, early inhe in the election season were about whether the democrats wee going to be able to keep women and younger voters energized.

i know it's early, we haven't counted the vot, yet, amy, but should we be thinking about breaking the electorate up into groups andeeing how each -- >> sure. i mean, we know that theor democraticof constituency now, definitely women but specifically women white with a college degree, latino, african-americanoters, yonger voters, though remember millennials, now, oldest millennials, their first election who was barack obama are now 30 and the old millennial is almost 40. (laughter) going all ancient now. so when we talk about young voters, we need to including the folks who were the obama generation who turned out for b hit may not have turned out before. s a difference between what the president is talk about on paper and at rallies, is another group that doesn'tua y turn out in midterm

elections are part of trump's core vote. your turnout in election in midterm is drive an lot about education as well as income level and age. the older, more affluent and the more likely that you have a college degree, the more likely you vote. so the voters that make up the core of trump's 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 or john mcn. they were uniquely attracted to donald trump. will they turn out to vte for republicans when trump's not on the ballot? >> woodruff: fascinating e questions and the issues it's raised about education dives among people voting. tam, you were taking to us about looking at the relationship between the presidenthe congress. at one point, he's very crliti of congress. not so much. >> yeah, here's the thing, hes

en saying, you know, a lot of people are saying that maybe my voters won't turn out and vote because i have been so negative on congress. on his inauguration y, he actually said it doesn't matter which party is in power. well, he now believes itrs mat a lot which party is in power and he i trying to convince the core vote horse maybe voted the very first time in 206, that even know his name isn't there that they need to vote as if his name wre on the baot. so it's a big change, he says, from a congress that he sas disappointed him and people who still disappoint him, to now, but, but, but i nem.ed the >> woodruff: and that will raise questions going into 2020, amy.oi he's to need this congress for the next two years. >> to be able to push throughag his legislativnda. but most of what he's done even with the republican congress, most of his aenccomplis in the first two years have been done through executive action and not through a legistive action. the axe bill being the one major

piece of legislation, bighe exception, butest have all come through his executive or orders. so even having a lot of republicans didn't necessarily mean he got more legislation. what it did do,f course, is it meant there wasn't going to be the sort of oversight that will happen if democrats take control of the house. >> woodruff: interesting to think about what newly-elected members of congress will think they owe pesident trump bas on how much he did or didn't campaign for them, whether he helped or didn't help, that's one of the thingwe will be watching. >> remember a lot of the republicans who could lose woule be the mooderate, the ones who will be in congress who we left are the more tru.mp aligned >> woodruff: exactly. amy walter, tamera keith, tomorrow's the big day. >> can't wait! >> woodrf: thank you! you're welcome. >> woodruff: now to the day's

other news, and there was some: a new wave of u.s. sanctions hit iran, targeting everything from oil exports to shipping to finance. it follows president trump's decision to quit the 2015 nuclear agreement. iran's president hassan rouhani sounfiant, trading long- distance verbal volleys with u.s. secretary of statmike pompeo. >> ( translat): 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 its economy crumble. >> woodruff: separately, u.s. national security advisor john bolton said the trump administration plans to add more sanctions against iran. t in afghanistiban fighters killed at least 17 afghan sold spate of attacks overnight and

today. one strike targeted a checkpoina ini province that was designed to cut off a keypp taliban route. four more security troops wereli killed hours e in kandahar province, in the south. there's been a new bf fighting in yemen, around the crucial red sea port of hodeida. a saudi-backed sunni coalition massed tros there over the weekend. they've been firing rockets into the city at iite rebels aligned with iran. that is despite cas last week from the u.s. and other western countries for a cease-fire inbi ther struggle. reports out of turkey say ato saudi team sennvestigate the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi, removed evidence instead. a senior turkish official confirmed it today. the two-man "clean-up" crew wast saidbe part of this group that entered the saudi consulate in istanbul-- one week after

khashoggi was killed there. meanwhile, the u.s. today addressed the u.n. human rights council in geneva, and demanded a full investigation. >> we condemn this premeditad killing. holding accountable those identified as being involvednd continuing the investigation is an important first step. , conclusive and transparent investigation, carried out in accordance with process with results mad public, is essential. >> woodruff: khashoggi's sons aling for the return of their father's body forsa burial ii 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- fluo-carbons were banned fro aerosol sprays and coolants. the ozone problem is separate and distinct from global warming

known to be caused by greenhouse gases. back in this country: opening arguments began in federal court in new yor on including a citizenship question on the 2020 u.s. census. 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 e olympic level. the u.s. olympic committee announced the move today. usa gymnastics was rocked by the scandal over former team doctor larry nassar sexually abusing athletes. since then, the group has struggled to reoanize. 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. d, shareholder activist evelyn davis has died after decades of confronting corporate executives. she pressed for accountability with an array of tactics at annual meetings-- from donning outlandish outfits to shouting down c.e.o.s. at herirection, her tombstone will read: "i did not get where i am by stanng in line, nor by being shy." evelyn davis was 89-years-old. >> woodruff: more than 200 children remain separated from feir families as a result the trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy. one of the challenges of that policy was transporting the large nuers of immigrant children the government now shelters. from the center for investigative reporting's "reveal" team, aura bogado

reports. >> reporter: seven-year old wilson remembers the place whe 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 larie soto, says o of them made their journey northward toward the u.s. border to escape violence in their home town in guatemala. at the end of may, as they walked across the u.s.-mexico border in arizona to seek asylum, they were apprehended by border patrol for crossing without permission. hos later, a border patrol agent told larios soto she wou be separated from her son. >> ( translated ): we were all scared because officers would tell us that we were going to be ed and our kids were goi to stay here. and we wondered how could that be possible? nobody gives up their children just like that; they are the most precious thing for us. >> reporter: larios soto recalls

the very moment wilson was taken away from her. >> ( translated ): around 4:00 a.m., they took 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 told me is acat he was going to be pl with other kids because he couldn't stay with me. >> reporter: what was that first night like for you without your son? >> ( translated ): it's a terrible life to be all alone s and not knowing where hed not being able to talk to him. i had never been away from him. it was so hard. >> rorter: immigration and customs enforcement paid a company called m.v.m., inc. totr sport wilson to a shelter contracted by the office of refugee resettlement. ice allows its contractors toim bringrant children to their own offices, like this one leased by m.v.m. in centralzo phoenix, a. but ice said its contract todoesn't allow contractor hold children for more than 24 hours.

itthe facilities are "g areas for minors awaiting same- day transportation," "these offices are not overnight housing facilities per the contract wh ice." but in wilson's case, he spent two nightsfat one of these lities. lianna dunlap lives next door, and over a couple of days witnessed at least two groups of children entering the building. she filmed this video the day after wilson was brought there. >> i was doing my dishes and i see a van pull up, and then i noticed that the van has kids. and then they walked inside and i got a really weird feeling likehat didn't seem right or normal or i just didn't get a good feeling from it. and then that's when i was like, i'm going to go get my phone and 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.ey ust started having them come straight out of the door onto the vans. >> reporter: from juside the office windows, she saw a blow-up mattress, a box labele"" baby shampoo," and medicationle schedu suggesting extended stays. though the building is now vacant, at least 200 children came through herover the course of a few weeks. we were able to view an internal government database that showed in addition to wilsoleast 15 other children stayed here for more than 24 hours. in second phoenix office building leased by m.v.m., a concerned insurance executive also took video and photos after of saw children washing their hair in the sinkhis shared bathroom. neither of the buildings meets requirements for a government- approved shelter. they have no outdoor playground; kitchens, showers, and no bedrooms to keep age groups separated. founded by three former secret service agents in 1979, m.v.m. has contracted with the federal

government for more than 30 years, providing guards for sites including prisons, as well as c.i.a. personnel in iraq. since 2014, they have received contracts worth up to out $225-million for the transportation of imgrant children. yet this summer, m.v.m. clarified their role in a statement posted on their website: "the current services m.v.m provides consists of ting undocumented families and unaccompanied children to facilities. we have not and currently do not operate shelters or any other type of housing for minors." ten we reached out to m.v.m. about our findint multiple children had stayed overnight, they declined an interview but responded with this atement:" when we identified several instances in which our policy was not followed, m.v.m. instituted tighter controls and gave employees additional instruction prevent these regrettable exceptions from l ppening again." >> the primary g any contractor is profit. if the well-being of children is

profitable to them it is potentially possible that they will do a better job. >> rorter: pratap chatterjee is the executive director of corpwatch, a research group advocating for corporate accountability. >> it is not entirely surprisin that m.vs been accused of nirting their obligations arizona because these accusations 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 people to think if it was your three-year-old grandson placed in the hands of strangers, how would you want your three-year-old to be treated? >> reporter: representative zoe lofgren is the top democrat the house judiciary committee, which supervises the department of homeland security and ice. >> if there is misconduct then i think there ought be mifications 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 arded m.v.m. a new contract to providtranslation services potentially worth up to $185- million. lofgren says more should be done and asked the department of homeland secury, which oversees ice, to investigate m.v.m.'s treatment of immigrant children based on our ing. >> ultimately it's the government's responsibily and they can't shirk that responsibility merely by signing a contract. >> reporter: we contacted the office of every republican member of the use and senate serving on committees that oversee ice, but none agreed to be interviewed. after spending his s birthday away from his family ie a sh wilson and his mother reunited in july and are living with family in arkansas.

they drove together to an orientation at wilson's w school. the day beforee started first 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 seekinc ss the border in the first place-- for wilson to have a good school in a safe environment. >> ( translated ): we don't come here just becavee we want to ancy lives, we come here to be safe and give our children a better life. our lives are alwayssk over there. llen you leave your house, you don't know if yoome back alive or in a coffin. it's the worst. unat's how it is in our cotry. >> reporter: larios soto can now remain with wilson in the united ates for one year on a humanitarian parole, but after that, the future is uncertain. and it remains uncertain for the hundreds oother children who are waiting to be reunited with their families. for the "pbs newshour," i'm aura

bogado in fort 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 an ambitious project, a single-volume story of america, and ideally timed, enseving at a moment of in division over where the nation has come from and where it' headed. these truths -- "these truths: a history of the united states" sets out an experintnt in governhat continues to unfold. author jill lepore is an aard winning historian and staff writer at "the new yorker." welcome. >> thank you. >> brown: you said at the beginning you did thics beause it was important and felt worth the try. >> it us to be historians at a

certain point in their career would write such a book, a cap stone, befoom you becan emeritus professor, and that has fallen away entirely. i think american history tinvinces us american past dismantled at the the country began to divide and these books arewrn'itten anymore. it's the attempt to use yourri scholarly aut to tell a big, long, sweeping story. >> brown: there are the contradictions and paadoxes of american history. you have 800 pages from this idea of natural rights and equality to the institutionf slavery to open borders to now we must limit who comes in. that never stops, right? >> no, it never stops. i mean, it's the beauty and the tragedy, the rise and the fall and the fall and the rise and everything that has always a kind of dobleness to it. the trick was to try to see both of those -- benjamifranklin

invented the bifocal and said you need to be able to see at the same time things that are up ose and far away. news a book aimed at binocular vision that we could march from president to president and see administlutions and evae them, but also reckon with the incredible work done in they acad the last century recovering and investing in lives as well, in women and people of color, and these are also political stories and origin stoes, and you can't understand the presidency or the politics with a capital p thout bringing these two strands together. >> brown: i asked you to thin about an episode -- because there are too many in this booka all about ame history -- but something that surprised you or gave you some understanding ofhere we're at today. >> yeah. so much that i found out wor on this book surprised me. but taking stock, in particular, really in a systematic way of how women participate in

american political cultures decafore women get the eight to vote in 1920 with th 19th amendment, and what you see that when you do that is women develop a very specific political style, a moral persuasion, a moral crew said.so h you think about it, you ton't vote, what you're goin do is tell men how to vote. you say, i have more moral authority than you. so it's abolition, temperance, later prohibition, and in the 20th century, so many mo crusades that are led by women 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 cabet, the g.o.p. ladies auxiliary, goes on to a mccarthyian,

campaigns for goldwater, and in 1972 she funds an organization do stop the e.r.a. and it is a moral crew saind really realliance the party system. quite fannable to think about he southern strategy of nixon administration. the parlities reaed around questions of equality ofomen. 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 is about the law not really working, right. women have the right to vote,w but the latually isn't protecting women, granting women equal protection. so there's a feeling of a political settlement we see the legacy of now. >> brown: fusing on women, telling the story is in a way inging people into the history that were not there always.

>> they're there in the sense that you know now and we can see now that supreme court and gender politics are intersecting, that's the case as hiaory has been written ins to artificially divide them. so syswmatically ho historians decided to write about the american past, they set aside things women do as apolitical. they set aside slary as an economic issue, not a political issue, so there is almost like . segregated p >> brown: inevitably the book leads to now. when y look at now in the framework of this long history, whe does donald trump fit? where do you see -- where are we this american story? >> yeah, this is a verdy troub time that few people would deny this is a troubled time. the partisan divide is extremely wide, income ini quality growing since 1968 is hiring than ever before by in metrics, our

politics are not working effectively. policy gridlock. so the tone of our politics is particularly dire. by that measure, you could say this is a vey difficult time. erere are all kinds of oth measures where you can have some sense of proportion, right? when people say the count's never been so divided before, that often is a way of sayingh i'm onlynking about the country as the history of white people because, when youhink about people who were enslaved as a pol citicalmmunity, they are deeply divided from the rest to have the country. there is no moment befe emancipation that's better for women today or safety in childbirth that is a better moment than today. so one way to tell story is to get that sense of proportion. that said, donald trump didn't win the popular vote so you can't really writan account of american history whose whole

rationale is to exain how he got elected. could have gone the other way,s contingencd chaos, and not everything falls to an explanation, that is a pattern.e >> brown: book is "these truths." jill lepore, thank you very much. thanks for having me. >> woodruff: worth paying attention. one big question for election day tomorrow is will young people show up at the polls. the newsho's student reporting labs, our network of high school journalism programs across the country, interviewed over 300 young people to learn more.ti >> i do think matters. i think it's a really important part of our democracy and i think that everyone 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 matter and one vote won't change anything. >> i am one of those 18-year- olds that do not go to theolls 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 ther >> 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 talkingo about politicsat might negatively affect the youth vote because people are hearing less about it. think the only way to get people to vote more is making ting required. >> lower the voting age to around6 because i feel like if we start voting at a younger age or becoming routine. >> make voting mobile. our generation is so technology- driven that if voting were literally at our fingertips then that's an initiative to get all young people to ghte. >> we bra goat, a miniature goat onto campus like a fainting gd 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 ere we said" y, you know you've already taken a minute. do you have a second to register to vote?"te and we regd to over 100 people that day. so, that was really awesome. >> what would get me to vote is

something that would affect me every day like minimum wage,ar payments, car taxes, taxes.y >> probae rising cost of college education is the most important to me because it's the most relevant to me in theext 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 to get rid of birth control and planned parenthood. >> it does seem like one of thet mportant elections especially because it seems like the fiber of the country ispa coming. >> i think what's encouraging me to v know my ancestors didn't get the nd they didn't get a say in how their lives were spent. >> so, we can't sit around and ouy that things are bad wi trying to change them and the major platform for changes votingn 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.uf >> woo a reminder: with the midterm elections tomorrow, we'll have special coverage all evening long. >> get out and vote republican. you've got to do more than tweet. you' got to vot >> woodruff: across the country, candidates of both parties hit the trail to win voters. >> woodruff: that's tomorrow at our regular newshour time, followed by our election special. we'll be reporting and analyzing election results all nightu nd we invite join us. and that's the newshour for ank you and see you soon..od >> major funding for the p newshour has been provided by:

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[ theme music plays ] ♪ -♪ i think i'm home ♪ i think i'm home ♪ how nice to look at you again ♪ oa ♪ along the r ♪ along the road ♪ ♪ anytime you want me ♪ you can find me living right between youryes, yeah ♪ ♪ ♪ oh, i think i'm home ♪ s -today on "cook'untry," julia and bridget make the ultimate new jersey crumb buns. adam reviews non-stick skillets. and lan makes relia a streamlinepe for cheese blintzes with raspberry sauce. that's all right here on "cook's country."