captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: god eveni. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: agaiot a mass shog in the united states. this time, 12 people murdered at a california bar and dance hall. then, president trump moves to limit who can seek asylum in the united state plus, justice in the balance. what president trump's pick for acting attorney general means for the lefuture of the mu investigation. and, prime real estate. amazon nears a decision on the location of its second headquarters. we look wt that might mean for the chosen city. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancnaent of interonal peace and security. at carneg.gie. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions:vi and inals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributionsur pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: thousand oaks, california is the latest american city to mourn a mass shooting. the killing of a dozen people last night was the deadliest incident since the parkland high school massacre in february. mary maccarthy of "feature story

news" begins our coverage. >> we ere at the bar, you know, having fun, dancing. and then all of a sudden, you hear, like, thbang, bang of e gunshots. >> reporter: it was college country night at the borderline bar and grill in thousand oaks. but a hooded gunman, dressedrnll in black, ed it into carnage. >> so thenur friends got the bar stools... (crying) and starts slamming them against the windows so we could get out. just so we were able to get out. they broke the window! (cries) they broke the window, and we were able to climb out. >> reporheter: gunman killed a dozen people, before apparently killing himself. the victriims included aff's deputy who answerehe911 calls fo. sergeant ron helus had been set to rete from the ventura county sheriff's department. >> it's lost a hero. it's lost a great human being. it's part of the loss 11 other victims that weret'n

there, andall part of the suffering that we're all going to go through as family memberse and pants and brothers and sisters on this tragic,el sensess loss of life. >> reporter: officials identified the shooter as 28-year-old ian david long, a marine corps veteran decorated in afghanistan. sheriff geoff dean said long used a glock 21-- a 45-caliber handgun that he obtained legally. it holds ten rounds, but long used a la mrgerazine that is illegal in california. investigators swarmed his home today, near the borderline bar. officers were called there in april, and reported long might have post-traumatic stress disorder from military service, but a ment decided he did not need to be hospitalized. the shooting came less than two weeks after the synagogue attack in pittsburgh that killed

11, and added yet more fuel to the long-running debate on gun violence. california's democratic lieutenant governor gavin newsom was elected governor just this week. >> this can't be normalized. this is just remarkable, just another day in america. tragically, now, in our state. >> reporter: b as that broader debate proceeds, families waited today for news of loved ones who'd been at the bar, and thousand oaks councilman rob mccoy vowed the attack will not define his city. >> wjust have to pick up the pieces from this mess some idiot made, and we're going to do it. this is a community that stands together, and it's just a remarkable-- i want everyone to knowhat a remarkable city thousand oaks is. reporter: for now, the mourning begins. a procesrision car the body of sergeant helus to the coroner'sf ce today, where officers gathered in solidarity.

and next of kin notified. policesay a complete listf their names will be released in the coming hours. judy? >> woodruff: mary, you have been talking to people in the community today. what areou hearing about the scene after this happened? >> well, i mussay, judy, this is very much a community that is still on edge after the horror gh the late-night shooting, many hours thrt the morning waiting to see who had sur hived, many sadly who were among the deceased and who was in the hospital with injuries. i spoke to one mother who said she lives very close to the rderline bar and grill, which is just in this shopping mall behind us.sa sh that, on wednesday night, the community knows it's going to be a noisy night there, it college night, so used to there being a lot of noise into

e early hours of morning. it suddenly becameerily silent around 11:30 p.m. she knew something was wrong, touched base with her own college-agedhildren, found out, fortunately, they were safe, boft said one her daughters had a friend who she was not able to get in touch with at the point i had spoken to her. in this sma thousand oaks town, seems everybody eitr knows someone who went to the bar or who might have been there that night, everyone deeply affected. >> woodruff: we know the sheriff's deputy was one of the first to go in. he, of course, was shot. he has died. he was supposed to retire very soon. what are you hearing abo him? >> that's right, the ventura county sheriff's deputy ron helus, a 29-year veteran of the force here. he was among the rst to die. obviously, he went in, part of

the emergency response to the tragedy wn e 911 call first came out this morning after confirmahetion that ied in the hospital, there was a process here carrying his body out of the spital in the blocks here behind us. i spoke to a sheriff's deputy right after that, andhe was too overwhelmed to say much. she said that, as of last ght, she was working alongside ron helus and she couldn't even express how much he will be missed on the force and how much ey admire him and are just thaken by his loss. >> woodruff: jo horrific, the whole thing. riry, you said in your report that the ss officials said the gunman was a former marine, may have had ptsd issues. anything more known about that? >> we know-o 28-year ian david long who did have some contact already with the sheriff's department here, at one point he has been a victim of a battery situation, also police were

called to his house back in april for a domestic disturbance. at that point, the records say that he was i rate and irrational but uh not disturbed enough to hospitalize. to what degree any of this may be tied to the fact that heis a veteran of war, at this point, that would beure speculation. we don't know much. those are the details that will be coming out in the coming hours and days. >> woodruff: mary mccarthy reporting for us from thousand oaks, california. mary, such a terrible story. thank you. and another major story tonight: the trump administration has limit the number of non-citizens permitted to claim asylum when crossing the so hern border. explain what this means, i'm joined by our white house corresponnt yamiche alcindor, and alan gomez. he is an immigration reporterfo "usa today." hello to both of you. alan, i'm going to start with you.

you cover this issue all thee. tim what exactly does this new rule represent? what does it mean?> yeah, currently people are allowed to apply for asylum if they either present themselves at a rt of entry or enter illegally into the country and asylum. still apply for u.s. law is very clear on that, our international conventions that we are a party to are very clear on that, but what the administration is proposing now th to cut of ability for people who enter the country illegay from being able to apply for asylum. >> woodruff: and do we know -- does the administration have legal authority to do that? >> that is something that is going to be litigated quite heavily almost immediately. we tsare expecting laws possibly as early as tomorrow challenging this announcement because, again, the 1965 immigration nationality actst specificalles somebody is allowed to apply for asylum hether or not they enter at a designated port of arrival." what the administration is

using, the legal arguent that they're making is another part of u.s. law that allows the presidento ban entry to people if they are deemed "detrimental to the interests of the uniteds. sta that's the same rationale that they used to implement their travel ban, which was shot down, the first two versions of that which wasot down but ultimately upheld by the supreme court. so they're thinking thatsa rationale can apply here and we're expecting a presidential proclamation as early as tomo orrow, on fridalining exactly who he's targeting with this, and then the lawsuits will start, and then we'll see -- this is the kind of case that will likely end up before the supreme court. >> woodruff: yamiche, tis is something we have been hearing from the white house for the first several days, the fs st hint fore the midterm elections. what is driving this decision on their part? >> the president is invoking national emergency powers, national security powers because he sees immigration as a national security crisis, really. over and over again, the

president says he thinks america is being invaded by immigrants and as a result you see him taking this really remarkable move. i want to walk you through some to have the numbers informing thisat adminison. i was on a call with a senior administration initial today. something we know, theasylum denial rate in 2012 unwe are president obama -- under president obama was 44.5%, n under trump 70% in 2018. the incredible fearererrals, people referred to for interviews, 5,000 people iw n 2008, to 97,000 people in 2018. so the trump administration say thr too many peoplelaiming asylum and the vast majority of these people don't have a credible fear claim. >> woodruff: but the rationale behind their doing this is that they think most of these people are going to do what in this country? what is the fear? what is the concern? s it the knurls or is it that they think these people will

break laws, or are they making that clear? >> the president has made it pretty clear that he thinks immigrants are daerous to thi country and he thinks that they're going to be terrorists and all sorts of people will do harm mixed in with the people coming to this country. i think a big thing motivating the president is a large group of immigrants from central icam people have been referring to it as the caravan. the president said jus last week at the white house, they should dunn back now, they're wasting thr time, seen large as a threat before. now the president is following up that statemenh policy changes. >> woodruff: alan gomez, ho does this get implemented? do they simply look at people who come across the bored around say, if you're requesting legal asylum, we'reg ot even goi take your paperwork is this. >> yeah, i mean, we're still a w los away from getting there because this wille

challenged in court and judging from the administration's previous actions, there is a strong likelihood there will be at least some kind of primnary injunction which molds this off sor a while. but if t goes into effect, it will be, yes, if you come into a port of entry a legally process the asylum, yes, you will be heard. if you come across the bored and y to request asylummum, you will not be able to. that's themaker. there will be some mechanisms to stay in the country but asylum will no longer be one of them for them >yamiche, the presidentbelievess under siege. does he feel reinforced by the midterm elections? >> this is all about the presidenteeling like he' keeping promise to the base that's staying with the president campaigned in 2016 and during the midterms traveling all across the country making the case that immigrants

were one of the largest likely threats to amica both economically and i would say culturally in some ways. so the presidenis saying this is a national security issue. i mean, i can't stress enough that he is invoablging national emergency powers to do this, so the president is looking at immigrants and saying we can't do this. also there's a 78-page re announced today or really released today u part of that says that the are negotiations going on between mexico, honduras,an el salvado the u.s. and those negotiations have not helped this situation, so spresident is alsing i tried to do this diplomatically, i now have no choice bu to do this this way. >> woodruff: alan gomez, bottom hein, the earliest this could be implemented, what's the best educateduess? >> again, that's a very good question. he's expected to poibly sign the presidential proclamation by tomorrow, which means this could go into eect very quickly, much like what we saw with the travel ban right after he took over ande moved into the wh

house. so that could go in very quickly. that mea, in theory, it could affect these caravan members trying to make it to the u.s. taright now, but it's impt to note the last caravan that got here, we actually have good numbers -- good data on this, 401 of them legally presented themselves at ports ofntry to request asylum. about 122 of them got fed upha withwait and tried to enter the country illegally. so that gives us the idea the majority of these people are trying to do exactly what they say they a trying to do, which is legally present themselves at these ports, so it remains to be seen how many people this would actually affect. >> woodruff: late-breaking story. we thank you both for scrambling. an gomez, yamiche alcindor, thank you. >> thank you so much. . in the day's other news, a new wildfire exploded to life in northern california, and officials ordered an entire town of 27,000 people, including a hospital, to evacuate. high winds drove the fast-moving flames toward paradise, 180 miles northeast of

san francisco. witnesses described homes engulfed by the fire. with the fire growing rapidly, the state has now declared an emergency in the region. u.s. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg was in a washington hospital today, after she fractured three ribs. ginsburg is 85. a spokeswoman said she fell in her office last night, and was hospitalized early thimorning. the justice broke two ribs in 2012, and had other health problems, but she has never missed upreme court arguments. in justice ginsburg's absence, the court went ahead with a ceremony welcoming new justice asbrett kavanaugh, whoworn in last month. president trump attended today's en along with the first lady. the seven other justices and new ti attorney general matthew whitaker also attended. several major undecided today from tuesday's elections. puin georgia, ican brian kemp stepped down as secretary

of state after claiming victory in the democrat stacey abrams has not conceded. allegal nges proceeded today, while the two sides jousted at separate events in atlanta. >> we're in court this morning, still dealing with these, quite honestly, ridiculous lawsuits, and we'r fight that.ntinue to the votes are not there for her. i certainly respect the hard- fought race that she ran. >> how can anyone claim a victory when there are enough votes that have not been counted that could cause a runoff here? we believe that everybody is entitled to have their vote counted, and we will not stop. >> woodruff: meanwhile, in florida, the top two races in the state appear headed for tsreco in the senate contest, republican rick scott has a nyead over democratic incumbent bill nelson. in the governor's race,

republican rick desantis has a shrinking lead over democrat ceandrew gillum, who cd tuesday night. nsboth marre small enough to trigger recounts under state law. inrizona's senate race, republicans are suing over how mail-in ballots are being tcounted senate race, where republican martha mcsally holds a slim lead over democrat krysten sinema. there are new questions about president trump's confrontation with cnn correspondent jim acosta. his white house pass was revoked after yesterday's news conference. press secretary sarah sanders claimed that acosta put his icnds on an intern who was trying to take thephone from him, and she tweeted out video to support her claim. slowed down, the originavideo captured acosta's hand brushing the woman's arm. to some viewers, the version tweeted by sanders appeared to make the gesture look more aggressive.

in pakistan, a christian woman sed of blasphemy against islam has been released from a prison. asia bibi was set free a week afr a court threw out her death sentence. the announcement touched off fresh protests today by radical islamists. the foreign office said she is still in pakistan, but it would not ere. >> ( translated ): she is a free woman now. heher writ is beind. when a decision is made, she will go wherever she wants to go. its a free country; she is free national. >> woodruff: bibi has been fed asylum by the european parliament. the captain of a tourist boat that capsized in missouri and killed 17 peopledawas indicted kenneth scott mckee faces 17 federal counts of misconcuct, or negli the so-called duck boat capsized during a storm in july mckee allegedly fa tthe weathers

to putn life jackets. google will now overhaul, it says, how it handles sexual misconduct allegations. the company announced today it will end forced arbitration for those king complaints, and will require training for all employees. last week, som20,000 google employees around the world walked off the job to protest how the company deals with sexual misconduct. in economic news, the federal reserve today kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged. but, it signaled that an increase is likely next month. the news had little effect on wall street. the dow jones industrial average gained less than 11 points to close at 26,191. the nasd fell almost 40 points, and the s&p 500 slipped seven. still to come on the newshour: the politics of guns in america, after an election and the latest mass shooting. nehow the acting attorney l

could alter the mueller investigation. a closer look at some of the newly-elected members of congress. h and, mre. >> woodruff: we begin tonight with the midterm elections and a newly-elected member of the house: jason crow. crow won his election on tuesday night, in part because of his stance on gun control. his republican opponent, incumbent congressman mike coffman, on the other hand, was a top recipient of n.r.a. donations. the district crow will now represent is the site of the aurora, colorado mass shooting in 2012. congressman-elect jason crow joins me now. first of all, congratulations on your win, jason crow. given what has happenet overnight in california and

given the fact that gun violence was part of your campaign, you must have thought something about what happened last night. >> yes. the pace of these mass shootings are accelerating. it's happening more and more. we seem to be getting o desensitized. we're going to continue to push back. i've made this a part om campaign because i'm not willing to sit back and let this become a n normal. this isn't okay for anybody. i have young cldren and there wasn't a week at the we want by on the campaign when teachers and parents didn't come to me and express concern about this issue. why was it important for y to talk about? >> well, i'm a first-time candidate. i had never run before. i'm a father. i'm an army ranger. i grew up, you know, hunting deer and duck and rabbit when i was 12 growing up, and i became an army anger, used weapons of war atar, ie had them used

against me, i foe what they're capable of, but way before my political career starred and way after it's going to be done, i'm going to be a father, and when my 5-year-old daughteromes home from school and talks about the bad man drillct and the they have to hide in dark closets, i'm not okay with that and i'm willinto step up a lead from the front. what do you think is realistic to be coafnlt members of h congree tried time and time again to pass stricter gun corol legislation, they've had a very difficult time doing that. i mentioned the n.r.a. and other groups. both sides, spending a lot of g money bo control and gun rights. what makes you think now is the time guto pas control legislation? >> i do think we reached a tipple point on that issue in america. you parkland shooting, i think, was a shift in moment. you see there's now sustained

conversation and momentum around the on common sense gun violence prevention. i think there's a lot ofohings we canhat respect the culture and heritage of responsible gun ownershp in america and respect the second amendment, but also say, you know, there's a lot of thingsd that no get done. you know, colorado is actually a very good example of a stay that led on. th after the war, the shooting that had a devastating impact on my community, we led a passed yferls background checks in colorado and00 people have been prevented from buying firear them. shouldn't have so people are still able to own firearms for home defense and recreation and hunting but those people who should haven't them don't have them because we do universal background checks and the vast majority of people are behind those measures. >> woodruff: jason crow, congressman elect, yes, we know gun control worked out to be a

good issue for you go gun rights seem to help republicans, particularly candidates for the senate this year. so this is not going to be a free raid in any regard n this issue. there is a strong body of opinion in this country that there shouldn't be gun control. >> well, i certainly understand there are some people thatak that position, but i think we have to talk about this in the right way, eve to respect each other's views, but try to find middlemmon ground, that ground where we can make progress, and that's what i did campaign. my district is not a deep blue district. we have a lot of people that are responsible gun owners and i engaged with them in aon conversauring the campaign about what makes sense and what we can do. i think people recognize and appreciate when there are leaders willing to have the tough by honest versions, and if abwe talt this in kind of personal terms, you know, i always talked about me being a hunter and an army ranger and using, you know, military-style assault weapons i iraq and afghanistan, but also being a

parent. so we have to really humanize this debate and understand what we're dealing with and what fferentnt people in communities are dealing with in their community. >> woodruff: so on the other side, the gun rights folks argue, well, they're trying to take away your righto have a gun and do away with the second aamendment, what's yower? >> it's just not true. i have a long history of respecting the second amendment and culture and heritage of responsible gun ownership. i'm a gun ownei myself. still hunt. i grew up hunting and i served in iraq and afghanistanled over 100 combat missions, including speciaorations missions. i understand these firearms well. you know, i engage in recreational firearm use. but, you know, we've gone too far as a country. we have over 33,000 people dying a year on our streets and in our schools and in our homes. enough is enough. there are common-accepts things twe can do t strike that right

balance, that respect, again,ur the cu and heritage of this country but will save thousands of lives, d i think we have an obligation to do those things. >> woodruff: very quickly, what an example of that, universal background checks? what else? >> universal background checks, magazine limitations, another thing colorado led o i would like to see magazine limitthions. closingun show loophole. things like no fly, no buy. if you're on a tempt watch list and can't bored a play, you shouldn't be able to walk in buy an ar-15. this won't impact law abiding citizens right to own firearms but i think make a lot of sense and we can build a coalition around and can get things done. >> woodruff: congressman jason crow newly elected this week to congress, joining us from denver, colorado. thank you, congressman. >> thank you fohaving me on.

tu>> woodruff: w now to yesterday's shake-up at the very top of the department of justice. the firing of attorney general jeff sessions continues to stir questis about the future of the special counsel's russia investigation. wiiam brangham explores this uncharted territory. >> brangham: just to review how we got here-- last year, jeff sessions recused himself from any investigations into the 2016 campaign. and so, when special counsel robert mueller was later appointed to lead the russia probe, oversight of that tyvestigation fell to depu attorney general rod rosenstein. but with sessions' being pushed out yesterday, that oversight now reverts to his replacement, his former chief of staff, and now the acting attorney general, matthew whitaker. before joining the justice department, whitaker was openly critical of the mueller investigation he is now overseeing.

that has led some leading democrats to call for him to recuse himself. help us understand what all this could mean for the russia investigation, i'm joined now by the "washington post's" devlin barrett, who's been breaking some interesting news on this today.vl , welcome back to the show. i'd like to get into two of the things you reported today. rdthe first was we've h leading democrats and now many people around the country today sayinghitaker has to recuse himself because he has clearly expressed he's already made up his mi about mueller's investigatiood you reported that that does not seem likely, that recusal. >> right. we're told that whitaker has no intention of recusing and, also, that he is very sptical of any potential subpoena of the presiden both of which could, you know, have real significant consequences for the mueller

investigation. >> so help me understand this -- there is ntho la could compel whitaker to recuse himself, right? so what ife's made these opinions. is there any arbiter here tacked say, well, you actually can't be overseeing an investigation you've already passed judgment on? so the recusal process is a little murky, but what we do know is that what happens is ethics officials at the justice department can look at a perp's past works and statements and make aecommendation as to whether or not they should recuse from specific matters, but part of that involves essentially the voluntary cooperation of the official in question, and what we're he ting t whitaker, as the attorney general, doesn't really believe there is an there and isn't particularly interested in having a officials about at the matter. now, we are told that whitaker intends toollow the normal process on such questions, but lit's a r open question if the

person themse doesn't believe that there is a conflict or a potential conflict, how much does a recommendation from the ethics office matter? and that's where we stand now. >> the other thing you touched on earlier was this other piece of your reporting today which is no one believes that whitaker will allow robert mueller to subpoena the president. for people who haven't been following this tt closely, explain where we are with regards to mueller and his would-be interview with donald trump. >> right, this has bee essentially an endless negotiation, it's been going on for months where mueller and his lawyers have been trying to get the president to agree to an interview and the president's lawyers have been resisting that, you know, offering written answers, debating sort of the subject matter that can be asked about, that sort of thing, and what's interesting from a strategic point of view about the notion that whitaker may just simply not agree to consider a subpoena of the president is the threat hat

subpoena has hung over these negotiations the entire time. if, in fact, the justice department takes away the threat of that subpoena, to a certaine degree, egotiations probably die because, at that toint, the justice departmen has much less ability to pressure the president wh the e house into submitting to an interview. >> help us understand a little bit more what other leavers, control, et cetera, does whitaker have over mueller? could he go to mueller tomorrow and say, i want you totop investigating this particular part of your investigation? >> ell, the main area inwhich the senior justice department official oversees muell is the way the regulations are written, the senior -- the attorney general has final approval for what's called significant or major acts in the investigation. so, for example, a subpoena of a major figure, an indictment

of -- in the investigation. so major steps require the approval of the attorney general. so, you know, it's up to whitaker, essentially, if mueller askse to taka major step l whitaker agree, or will d whitaker say't think you have it, i think you need to do more work or i just don't think this case is strong enough, those are the questions tet being asked now, but really, the next move is whitaker's. syou know, we haven'tn a signal from him yet what he actually plans toly proactiveo as opposed to not do. >> just remind u whitaker himself as the acting agent would have the authority to fire robert mueller if he wanted? >> he does have that authority, that does rest with him yes. >> lastly, there was an interesting article in the "new york times" today, several legal scholars argued that president trump doesn't have the constitutional right to appoint whitaker to this position without senate approval. can you explain what that

argument is all about? >> yeah, it's an interesting argument, but i'll beonest, i know those are two excellent lawyers, but i will be honest, i know dozens of lawyers in who are themselves pretty good lawyers who disagreely emphaticith their interpretation of the law. cat they don't seem to address is whatled the vacancies oform act, and the vacancies reform act spellt this process very clearly and, frankly, the large majority ofwy the s ever spoken to say that there is legal authority to appoint itaker to thi position under the vacancies reform act. i understand that people, includinsome pretty good lawyers, have some questions about that, but, to be honest, there's vt much of aw inside the government or even, frankly, inse washington that the president doesn't have the actual authority to do so. >> in the last few moments we have, i'm just curious if your hereporting has shown is any evidence that president trump knew about mr. whitaker's opinions about the mueller investigation when he gave him

this job? >> a little bit in the sense that, yesterday, we were ld that the president doesn't believe whitaker would recuse from the rusanvestigation. now, we don't really know the basis for that belief. is that belienf based o something that whitaker told the president or told someone in the white hou, or is tha simply a belief that the president came to based on, you know, foin something about whitaker's background and past public statements. but do i think it's very interesting and potentially important that the president felieved, at least as o wednesday, that whitaker was not planning to recuse himself from the russia investigation. devlin barrett of "the washington post," thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: this january, there will be a number onew faces in washington. a number of incumbent members of congress lost their seats in

this week's election, after a year marked by several retirements and resignations. amna nawaz takes a look at what the next congress will look like. >> nawaz: judy, from women to veterans and peoe of color... how will the new members of the 116th congress differ from their predecessors? lisa desja to know the new lawmakers she has been covering. you have been crunching the numbers all day. how different is the new congress going to be from the last one? t s is an historic shift in who will be serving the people of america. let's look at incumbents, for example, who actually will ben office and, you know, this year was a record year forre rements and also we saw defeats. amna, there will be 101 members of congress who serve right now who are leaving and will n longer be there in january, the most since 1993. if you go back tthe '50s to find another year like this, so it's a generational change. so they are younger, the people coming inow.

the average age of the 25 members of the new class are 4ol yearor under, and includes the very first two women ever to be elected to congress under the age of 30. overall, this new group of members of congress, their average age is ten years younger becausto have the memrs offcongress sitting now. thahe>> parties are changing to different degrees. the democrats, you look at the house democrats coming into this new congress, what changes are we seeing? >> right at the top, women. th's one of the reasons the democrats were able to take over the house and you see they're add ago net total of 28 women t their ranks. this is net, there were more women who weren't new members but they had some retire. a net gai of 12 member of color, equally divided almost between black and hispanicsbut two native american members of the democraticaucus. two other native american

membs are republicans. lgbtq, a net gain of one. however,here are some outstanding races that could affect that number. siveterans, there will be new democratic members who are veterans and that's something democrats wanted to put on the ballot and the democratic veterans won. >> that's on the democratic side when it comes to the house. a lot of change there. what about the republicans? >> the republicans lost seats and lost seats in some of these ea overall, seven fewer women in the house republican conference, three fewer people in clough, and losses in. florida. lgbtq, there are no republican members who are lesbian, gay ori xual. and veterans, republicans, a big gain in that, ten new members who are veterans of the u.s. military. >> what about the senate? the senate is actually going ikto look a lote now with one exception, their overall ill be

three new women. we know that because some of them wre appointed in elections. even though we saw heidi heitkamp and mccaskill, in diversity the senate will look just as it does now. >> we are sll weight on the result of the races. we should know these numbers are based on the results. what do we know about the races outstanding? >> it's not over. the yellow states are states with senate races going down to the wire or a runoff like in mississiti. it's interg, in these three states, republicans at this moment have the advantage. but it's hard to say there couls be recou. we'll see what happens. these dots on the map, these are use races. now, these races as the counts are coming in seem to be evenly split in the way they're leaning between republicans and democrats but all of this will have a big effect on the makeup of the house and the senate. >> it's been a long-standing

yriticism that congress as a representative b doesn't exactly mirror the general demographics of the country it's supposed to be serving, right? has that become more or less true with this congress? how representative are they? >> like everything, there are two ways to look at that. the first is this will be tsehe most divongress this country's ever seen, no question about it. i will have the mt gender balance, more ethnic and racial minorities and more lesbians, gays and bisexuals. however, it's not remotely approached what this country self looks like. about 40% of this country is of course, half of the country is made up of women. neither the senate nor the house oks remotely like that, and you can take out subcategories like african-americans. there are three african-americans in tate. there have been only been five na the entire u.s. history in the since reconstruction who have been elected to the senate. so, you know, some gains. when it comes to congress, a long way to go and especially a challenge as we saw in the numbers for republicans who say

they want to have diversity in their conferences but they lost some this year. >> so here is the million-dollar question -- what does all of this mean for how they're able to do the job they're sent there to do, how they're able to legislate? what can we say about that?e' >> watch the house where democrats have taken over and we see the change in their demographics. younger membs are more interested in more controversial issues, we see them talking about guns more like jason crow which is one of the new democratic members, ath k they're going to come in. as much as we saw the republicans whwent in the freedom caulks a few years ago, they will try to demand more aggressive change. how the leaders who he been there much longer of the d.ic party react is sometg we'lllo follly. >> you will follow closely indeed. lisa desjardins with really important numbers and context. thank you. >> my pleasure.

>> woodruff: so where will amazon build its second it is a question that has gotten renewed attention in recent days amid reports that e company may be looking at more than one new location. big companies often make news cowhen they ask cities tete for their jobs and facilities, but amazon is a much bigger fish in whatever pond it lands in, so to speak. billions of dollars, and potentially 50,000 jobs are at ste. john yang has our conversation in a moment. but first, our economics correspondent paul solman starts us off, as part of our series "making sense," which airs every thursday. >> hey, alexa, where should azon locate h.q.-2? >> in frisco, texas. >> reporter: the competition for amazon h.q.-2 began over a year ago. 238 cities and regions were in the running. many made quirky-- some might say desperate-- pitch videos. others offered amazollions

of dollars in tax breaks. case in point: former new jersey governor chris christie's newark bid: >> all of the economic incentives put together from the city and the state would realize nt$7 billion in pol credits against amazon state and city taxes. >> reporter: southern arizona promoters sent the company a cactus, while other places touted traits they're not uslly known for. >> las vegas is well positioned lyto be a ca for the most advanced smart city technology in america. >> reporter: in january, amazon narrowed the list of contenders from 238 to 20. now, comes a new twist. the company reportedly plans to split h.q.-2 between two sites, which, according to the "new york times," are expected to be crystal city, virginia, dtside washington, d.c., long island city, queens, new york. instead of 50,000 workers in one place, each locale would get 25,000.

ouboth locations give amazon what it wants: access to major metro areas with public transportation and tectalent from which to draw. and they each have unofficial amazon c.e.o. jeff bezos has ties to both areas. last fall, matt cabrey of select greater philadelphia hoped that would lure h.q.-2 to his neck of the woods. >> one of the things that's often under-recognized is, it's not just the city, where it's located, or it's not just the town or the office park. it's where the c.e.o. and where the c-suite want to live. >> reporter: well, jeff bezos has a connection to washington, d.c., owns the "washington post," has a house down there, right? >> he does. and he's a princeton grad, and he has other family connections in the greater philadelphia region. so those kinds of factors may actually be part of this decision-making. >> reporter: but nothing is final. en in new york, governor andrew cuomo continued his hard sell this week >> i think it would be an economic asset for the entire

state. i've said to them personally, "i eewill do whatever ito do to make it a reality." i offered to change the name of my oldest-born. cara is a nice name, but i would change it to "amazon-cara." or maybe, "cara-amazon." we have to talk out it. no, i didn't offer up cara. i did offer that i would change my name. i've gotten tired of andrew, anyway. "amazon-cuomo," i would change it to. >> reporter: an official announcement is expected any day. thiss economics corresponden paul solman. >> yang: for a closer look at the way both amazon and the various cities involved approached the se-selection process, and what's at stake, we turn to richard frida, an urban studies theorist and professor at the university of toronto's school of cities. he's co-founder and editor-at- large of the atlantic's "citylab," a publication focused

on urban life and development. and we should note at the he has advised two of the cities who bid for e amazon headquarters. mr. florida, thanks for joining you said you've written that this was never really about a cond headquarters for amazon. what do you mean by that? >> no, i think this was amazon's way of going out toim uely 236 cities and crowd sourcing information on thousands of sites across the u.s. c andada and north america because amazon is siting all sorts of facilities. i think q is a ruse and obviously it's becoming clear t it,they decided to spli they were going to cite a headquartersother regional headquarters, logistics and production facilies, r&d hubs. i think this was about crowd sourcing information on sites, on lab markets, gathering informatiothat allows amazon to site a whole lot of things in

e near term. >> in fact, amazon announced it's putting about 6,000 jobs in the 218 cities that didn't make the final 20. but when you say "ruse," it sounds like vit's decep, it's somehow false, it's hurtful. jhow is puttingobs in these cities that didn't make the final cut hurtful to them? >> look, it's pretty clear toju no me but most experts, amazon if you where it was going tto go from beginning. maybe it didn't know it was going to crystal city, virginia and long island city, new york, but if you thought about it for a minute, i'm not the only one, other urba experts, maybe ten or 15 urban areast could go for, but back in january of this year when the short list came out, i was able to predict this. i i saidzo a is going to go either -- now my prediction was quite wrong because never envisioned a split -- either to

washington, d.c. where jeff bezos owns aon $20 milli mansion or new york city, the greatest hlobal city in the world wit more headquarters than any other city, or jeff bezos and conardominium in the timer center, if i could see it in january and i'm not the only one, i think it wasclear they knew who they wanted to go, why put 236 cities through? the cities had to have board ti, staff time,onsulting time all putting this together because i think amazon had something bigger inyind, the wanted to get to know all of the cities, they wanted the best database on ec development and site selection and ultimately will site a lot of things and maybe extract incentives from the cities in the process. >> are the ientives that the cities and the states are offering, we heard governor cuomo in that say say it would be a great economicsset, is it worth getting the headquarters to give up those tax incentives,

those other incentives? >> no, absolely not. the level of incentives that governor christie was talking about, 5 bcialtion i think, the state of maryland i believe, wut 7 billion on the table there's no way 25,000 or 55,000 jobs are worth that. here's the thing. i actually think amazon played this just right.on amid what it needed to do as a company. the real fault -- and when i began to speak out on this was the u.s. mayors and governors, people iw knod like, progressive mayors, bill de blasio and many others talking about upgrading jobs, maving higher minimum wage, thesrs know one another ces like thenferen u.s. conferences and mayors, why not have an agreement and say we're not giving amazon incentives, we're competing on the merits. we'll make investments on education, public space, in transit, but why are we going to

hand out hunds hundreds of millr billions to a trillion-dollar coany and the world's richest men? that was really the thing that galled on this and p other people are the war progressive cities and myors, our blue cities and mayors really caved into thisi competiton. >> richard florida from the university of toronto, thank you so much. >> thank you very much, a pleasure being with you. druff: songwriter gabrie kahane wrote his latest album ve"book of trs" while riding a train across the united states on amtrak following the divisive 2016 presidential election. in tonight's "brief but spectacular" episode, in the wake of this week's midterm election to better understanding those whose political views differ from our own. >> so, iad written maybe a

dozen and a half songs leading up to the 2016 election. i began to feel that i needed to leave behind the digital world. s i bought a ser train tickets for this kind of circuitous, looping trip around the continental u.s., which amounted to 8,980 mile and i decided that regardless of ie outcome of the electio was going to leave the morning after, justo talk to strangers, leave my phone at home, leave thinternet behind, and try to have a kind of unmediated encounter with a side that i didn't really know. >> i set some ground rules for myself when was on the train. one of the things i was really interested in doing was not arguing with people. nei think it'sf the fundamental problems that we face right now, is this idea we l rt of have contempt for the other side we say, "i just can't engage rswith that ." and there were some cases where i fail back to my sleeper car and write in my journal, "you argued. you said you weren't going to do

that!" the amtrak dining car is an incredibly unusual space. i was having meals with sisomewhere betweeand nine strangers a day. the dining car creates this atmosphere of social adjacencies, ways in which people encounter one another that they would not in their regular lives, particularly not in their digital lives. i met an incredible array of people. i met truck dreners, software neers. i met three siblings in their an60s who are a family trains in america are inefficient in a way that few other train systems are. in that inefficiency, there's a space at which reconnect with a slow pace of life, a slower pace of thought, and one of the leings that i thought quite a bit on this trip w was looking out at a mountain in montana, loong at the plains in north dakota, was the way that we've grown to believe that someing that is more efficie is necessarily better.

as we become more blindly enamored of things that are efficient without kind of interrogating what is being lost, i think that we send ourselves into both a more divided space, but also a space that's less able to grapple with complex truth. there are no simple solutions to the kinds of intractable problems that we face as a wcountry, whethre talking about systemic racism, automation, the hollowing of all of these are incredibly complicated problems. in an era where our attention spans are shorter, we're constantly looking at a screen, but not taking time to think about someone else's experience. d think there's a real consequence to, to not having that space tjust sit silently and think, "what is it to be rsin this other 's body?" and you know, that's something

lswhich i think that cor grave concern. my name is gabriel kahane, and this is my "brief, but spectacular" take on why trains in america are the road to radical empathy. .> woodruff: now we kn you can find additional "brief but spectacular" episodes on our website, pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here rktomorrow evening when shields and david brooks analyze a dramatic week of news. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin? >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> bnsway.

>> consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoing support ofhese institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. ank you. ptioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

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