captioning spoored by ns newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, a frantic search continues-- nearly 1,000 are missing in paradise as california confronts the deadliest wildfire in the state's history. then, as evidence mounts linking saudi arabia's crown prince to the murder of a journalist, president trump stands by the long-time u.s. ally. plus how a requirement to work in arkansas forced thousands to lose their medicaid coverage. >> it's really difficult because if the people in this category are reired to work, and there are no jobs, then you know, what are these people supposed to do? >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour."

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more headway against the deadliest u.s. wildfire in a century. officials said today the fire that destroyed the town of paradises now 66% contained. the casualty count stands at 77 dead, with just under 1,000 people missing, but that is down we'll have a full report, after the news summary. three democratic u.s. senators asked a federal judge today to remove matthew whitaker as acting attorney general. senator richard blumenthal of connecticut, mazie hirono of hawaii and sheldon whitehouse of rhode island filed the suit. they argue the whitaker appointment was unconstitutional because he has been confirmed by the senate in any capacity. 16 democrats released a letter today saying they will not vote r nancy pelosi to be the next speaker of the u.s. house of the group includes 11 current members of the house, and five just elected.

they said they campaigned on changing the slltus quo, and arry through on that promise. in yemen: heavy fighting resumed around the city of hodeida, shattering a brief cease-fire. a saudi-led coalition lnched new air strikes on the red sea port city, held by shiite rebels aligned with iran. earlier, the rebels announced they are behind missile attacks on saudi arabia and its sunni allies. some in yemen's capital sanaa welcomed the news. >> ( translated ): we are ing at it positively and god willing, we hope that all the yemeni parties can reach a political soluti to relieve people's suffering, which has lasted for years because of the war, the blockade, the destruction and the killing. >> woodruff:saudi coalition of sunni countries has battled the rebels since 2015, with american assistance. tens of thousands are believed to have died in the war-- many of them, civilians.

the government of israeli prime minister benjaminyahu survived today after a key ally agreed to maintain its support. that means netanyahu's coalition keeps a bare majority in the israeli parliament. the crisis was trigger when fense minister avigdor lieberman resigned over thcease- fire ilitants in gaza. trial has opened in hong kong for nine organizers of pro- democracy protests. they led unsuccessful demonstrations in 2014, aimed at forcin china to grant free elections. supporters of "ue so-called rella movement" rallied outside the urtroom today, as leads said freedom of expression in hong kong is at stake. >> ( translated ): what is on otrial is not just the ni us. what is on trial also is the high degree of autonomand the rule of law that all hong kong people are entitled to. >> woodruff: the 2014 protests shut down hong kong's financial district for 79 days.

the nine on trial have pleaded not guilty to charges of incitement and conspiracy. the chairman of nissan was arrested today, oncial crime charges. the auto maker immediately announced it will remove carlos ghosn from his post. he is accused of under-reporting his income and misusing company funds. ghosn is credited with rescuing nissan from near-bankruptcy by closing plants and cutting thousands of jobs. troops sent to the border prior to midterm elections could head home as early this week. all units should be ohmly bichristmas as planned. president trump ordered ntthe deploys caravans oof migrants headed for the border. back in this coury

back in this country: the white house has now halted its effort to permanecoly suspend cnn espondent jim acosta's press credentials. his press ss will be fully estored, after being temporarily reinstated by a federal judge last week. but the white house warned if he rules forllow n reporter conduct at presidential press conferences, they'll take further action. on wall street fall sales helped send tech stocks lower, and new worries about tensions with china weighed on industrial shares. the dow jo lost nearly 400 points to close at 25,017. the nasdaq fell 219 points-- 3%, and the s&p 500 slipped 45. and, former new york city mayor michael bloomberg has donated a record $1.8 billion to his alma mater, johns hopkins university. it's the largest gift ever given to an american educational institution. the money will go to replace student loans with scholarships

at the baltimore university still to come onnewshour," hundreds remain missing following the deadliest wildfial inornia history; the u.s. intelligommunity determines the saudi crown prince orderedurder of a journalist; a new workra requirement prcauses thousands to lose medicaid coverage in arkansas and much more. >> woodruff: returning to the wildfi california. more than 11,000 homes have been hed since the camp fire broke out in the northern part of the state. officials say it may take unti the end of the month before the blaze is fully contained. in addition to the devastation and ss of life, residents ar dealing with heavily polluted air as well.

as william brangham reports, firefighters reported signt progress this weekend. >> reporter: it's been 11 days since the so-called "camp fire" ignited. >> almost like hell on earth, honestly. it's been crazy. >> reporter: through the weekend, some 5,000 firefighters secured containment lines around two-thirds of the fire-- an area roughly the size of the city of chicago. >> the danger is our footing right now, having our escaped routes and safety zones identified using lookouts that are available, so they can see if we have any issues come up with spot fires. >> reporter: president trump got a first-hand look oninaturday, by governor jerry brown and governor-elect gavin newsom. now, fire crews are hoping that rain-- which is expected to come in the next few days-- will bring more relief. but that forecast alsos urgency for arch teams looking amid the ashes f hundreds of people still listed as missing. they fear the rains could turn all that ash into mud, and

possibly tgger landslides. but rain could also help clear the air of the dangerous levels of pollution caused by theire. hiin san francisco ts weekend, people wore face masks, and smoke and smog obscured the bay bridge. >> it's pretty uncomfortable. mean, it's definitely causing shtness of breath >> reporter: meanwhile, hundreds of evacuees who sought shelter last week at a walmart parking lot in chico, are being urged relocate-- quickly. officials say several inches of rald flood their makeshift camp. the search for the missing is a daunting one. nearly 1,000 people from the camp fire are still unaccounted for. officials believe this number will get smaller as duplicates are spotted, and those who have been found are removed from the list. but the fire is already the deadliest in the state's history and many fear its final toll will grow. california state assemblyman jim also a forensic dentist who's helping to identify

victims using dental remains. he'steered and done similar forensic work after 9/11, hurrkatrina and after the fires in northern california last dr. wood, thank you very much for being here. i wonder if you could start of by helping us understand a little bit about what forensic dentistry in a circumstance like the this, what it actually does. what do you do? >> well, for us, doing forensic dentistry, it's an opportunity to take the records of a person who has died in one of tese incidents, compare them to atfore-death records andch them up and hopefully identify them. it's a laborious process at times, but it's verec eve, and it's been used in many, many mass disasters throughout the last 100 years. >> so searchers in the towns of paradise and els through burnt homes and burnt structures and try to find teeth

and dental remains and then they bring them to you, and then what happens at thatoint? >> essentially, you're right. search and rescue teams are out there. when they find what they suspect to be human remains, they bring n.coroner's team they sometimes have with them an anthropologist. they gather the the remains. all the remains are lakes being taken to sacramento, to the morgue in sacramento which is a much larger facility than what they have in butte county, where it is examined by pathologists, e forensic dentists, we document the dental evidence, then, in the background, we're working to gather the dental records toe able to make a comparison. >> i take it in this community that's very difficult because the very dentists' offices where people might have gone might have been destroyed as well. >> yes, more than half the dentists in the city of paradise, for example,s their offie gone. so we're relying on those dentists who did lose their offices, many have electronic

dental records that have been upload to the cloud or backed up to serve so we're relying on them to get es what they can, but those offices that w burned were completely destroyed and there really is no usable evidence from there. >> i understand you were that you work largely in the morgue in sacramento. have youeen physically able to see the towns of paradise or what these environments actually look like? >> yes, i was in paradise ondn weday and thursday, and i will tell you, from my perience in the wineoesn't fires, it prepared me for what i might see, but i wpl sy overwhelmed by the devastation there. it's far greater than what we experienced sonoma county. the breadth of it is enormous >> and i understand that the rain is forecast to come later this week, which, obviously, for the fires and for the air quality will be a huge relie could that complicate the search efforts, though? >> it actually could, and this

is a little bit unprecedented for us. in the fires we had before, it was earlier in the year, we were able toecover remains earlier, it wasn't an issue, but if these rains are har could have a real -- we could have a reacol problem ring remains, things could be moved, things could be washed away, and there's really no way to contain all of this at this point. sot is a bit of a race against time, and the hope is that maybe the rains justin aren't as heavy, and we don't have that much of an impact. >> we saw this missing list is now somewhere the high 900s, and i understand the are duplicates in there, i understand there are probably people who are safe and sound who just haven't alerted the authorities, but is it your see that even if there's a certain percentage of that list th really do rn out to be fatalities, we're talking about hundreds of people that still could have lost their lives. >> we are, and i think what's

really tag staggering about this h is we simply really don't know. by now you would ve thought that a lot of the people that are truly going to be accounterd uld have checked in, but we're not seeing that, and that's a little disturng. deed, the numbers are dropping, but i'm really ven't beenthat we able to make this list smaller, and that's very concerning. >> obviously, the work that you' doing is hugely important for the families who just would like some sense of knowing what has happened to their loved one or their family member. i'm just curious, how are you and your colleagues doing?ee you have at this for, i nn't know, nine, ten, eleven da. how you guys holding up? >> we're holding up fine. we really are struggling to get records and, you know, once -- i'm just convinced, once we have more records, we'll be able to make more identifications. the conditions of the remains are consistent with what i've seen in the past, and some are

ter condition than others, but as in anybody, there's a litt bit of tension that builds up there, and we just feel like we could be modoinre and we're just kind of stuck waiting for records. j >> d wood, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you very much. >> woodrt has been seven weeks since a journalist was murdered at the saudi consulate in istanbul. the evidence is mounting that esaudi arabia's crown pri orchestrated the killing. now the white house must decide how to r spond. niifrin has the story. >> reporter: in the gilded hall that hosts saudi arabia's consultative c, a frail king salman arrived to give his first major speech since jamal khassogi's murder. and he stood by his son, crown prince mohammad bin salman, by

presenting the kingdom asom ctted to religious justice. >> ( translated ): the kingdom was founded on the islamic system, and takes pride in the efforts of the judiciary and the public prosecution to guide the nation and shoulder its responsibiliti >> reporter: but the kingdom is shouldering heavy pressure today, after europe banned 18 saudi nationals connto the murder and the c.i.a. concluded salman ordered khassogi's murder, as first reported by "the washington post." california democrat adam schiff is the incoming house intelligence committee chairman. >> it's very difficult of me to conceive of a murder of a prominent journalist and critic being carried out without the crown prince's knowledge. >> reporter: bipartisan senators are proposing a bill that would suspend offensive weapons sales to saudi arabia, and sanction saudis connected to the war in yemen and khassogi's death. south carolia republican lindsay graham is the bill's co-signer. >> they're an important ally, but when it comes to the crown prince, he's irrational,

unhinged, and i ink he's done a lot of damage to the relationship between the united states and saudi arabia, and i have no intention of working with him everorgain. >> repter: but the administration hasthe crown prince the center of its middle east policy: reduce radicalism from a hub in riyadh, confront iran anuse of proxies like hezbollah and support a middle east peace plan. >> do you just live with it, because you need him? >> reporter: on fox news sunday, prident trump suggested th pressure on the kingdom should only go so far. >> you saw we put on vavy sanctions, massive sanctions on a large group of people from udi arabia. but at the same time, we do have an ally, and i want to stick with an ally that in many ways has been very good. >> reporr: as a real estate developer, donald trump had many saudi customers, as he mentioned on the campaign trl. >> saudi arabia-- and i get along great with all of them. ty buy apartments from me, they spend $40 million, $50 miion. >> reporter: but mr. trump is tat the first president to arm in arm with the kingdom. president bush met crown prince

abdullah six months after 15 saudis participated in 9/11. >> a strategy by some would be to split the united states and saudi arabia-- it'a strong and important friendship. he knows that and i kno that. and we're not going to let that happen. >> reporter: in 2009, presidt obama welcomed king salman. >> the fact that he osen to take this first visit to the united states is indicative of the long-standing friendship between the united states and saudi arabia. >> we have worked in close partnership with the saudi'sa or ng time, >> reporter: and president clinton in 199 day after a terrorist attack on a u.s. housing complex in saudi arabia. >> i think id be a mistake for the united states basically to change its mission. >> reporter: when it comes to khassogi, the saudis have changed their story multiple times about how he died, but have continually insisted mohammad bin salman nothing. >> did m.b.s. lie to you, sir? >> i don't-- i don't know. who can really know?

t i can say this: he's got many people now that say he has no knowledge. e>> reporter: that isn't first time president trump expressed faith in a foreign leader's denial, and skepticism in a u.s. intelligence assessment. but where the president agrees with his intelligence community: khassogi's murder was caught on tape, and wabrutal. >> it's a suffering tape. it's a terrible tape. >> what happened? >> it was very violent, very vicious, d very terrible. >> reporter: now that the u.s. intelligence community has determined that crown prince mohammed bin salman ordered the murder of jamal khashoggi, what action, if any, should the trump administration take? tom malinowski was just elected to cgress. he also served as assistant secretaray of state for human rights during the obama administration. and michael doran was the senior director on the national security council staff for the miw.le east during the georg bush administration. he's now a senior fellow at the hudson institute in washington, d.c.

welcome to you both. thank you for being on the "newshour" michael doran, let me start with you. u.s. has sanctioned 17 saudis, instituted a travel ban. we saw today europe itituted a travel ban as well. has saudi arabia paid enough of a price? >>ood evening. i wouldn't start with the question of have they paid enough of a price. i would start with the question of what are u.s. terests, what are our values and how do we bring your values and interests into some kind of -- into sync with each other. i think the president is handling this very well, expressing distaste, sanctioning individuals who are involved, but also emphasizing to the saudis, to the worldnd to the american public that saudi arabia is a very important ally, and we have a lot of our interests region are being carried on the backs of the >> tom malinowski, expressing

distaste, but also saying saudi arabia is a strategic ally. is that enough of a response from the president? >> absolutely not. t you knos is not just about our values. this is not just aruesome human rights abuse. there are thousands and thousands of people in the united states who are refugees from countries in the middle east, from russia, from china, fwho are critics their governments. if a dictatorship can reach across its bs and murder somebody in the way that the saudi government did in thcais and get away with it, we're going to be living in a very different world, in a punch more unfriendly world.xt it'smely important from the standpoint of our interests that we take a very strong stand, that we hold those sponsible accountable and that we sprayed our relationship with saudi arabia from our relationship with this extremely volatile and destructive young man who campaigning to be the leader of this country for the next 50 years. >> so michael doran, what about that? as you know well, there are mechanismshat u.s. congress

has, sanctions, to starting m.b.s. without affecting the larger u.s. military relationship. is that targeting response appropriate? >> let me first address the estion of the refugees in the united states. there are 10 million people uprooted in syriby the coalition of iran, the syrian regime and the russians. it's that kind of event that we are trying to prevent. we are trying to stabilize the middle east so that we don't have millions refugees, and we're trying to -- and the a saud very important partners in that il to completely throw away our strategy, disstae the region in order to take action against the leader of saudi arabia makesnse to me, makes no sense strategically, it makes no sense to memorially.

all these kinds of suggestions r or proposals are based on the idea that we have the ability ti enforce ou on the saudis, and they will simply take whatever we do, that they need us much more than we need them. i think that that is a very dangerous assumption. we could end up destabilizing saudi arabia. own prince has very significant enemies inside saudi arabia who want to see him go down. he has enemies outside saudi arabia. we could also end up pushing saudi arabia into th of the russians and the chinese. i think you have to be dr. we ve to be very, very clear-eyed about the real choices that we're making. >> tom malinowski, is that a threat? by deeming, clear-ey michael doran just said, are you missing the strategic implications, the saudi administration, of course, wants them to help with iran, yemen, the middle east peace plan and m?untering violent extremis >> saudi arabia, when they help

us, they do it because it's in their interests, and tt's not going to change. the notion this crown prince is helping us stabilize the east after he ordered the murder of an american citizen, american resident in turkey after he laun blockade against qatar, after he launched a war in yemen, the trump administration, to its credit, is now trying to end a war that rianted mass humanita suffering, none of these things nterest, and.s. all of these things i think should lead us to questionis whether oung man with his volatile temperament, with his belief that he can get away with anything, that the united states, for the sake of t relationship, is simply going to give him a pass, no matter what he does, that's what sh concern us here. the mag nine ski act gives us a perfect tool, allows us sanction the person without the country. allows us to say to

saudi arabia, it's up to you who you choose to be your leader, but should you choose this young man to be your absolute leader for the next 50 years, well, he won't be able to travel to the united states or do business with us, and i would just add the notion that the saudis can somehow replicate with russia or china the relationship they have with us is absolute fantasy. the saudi security is inextricably linked to its relationship withhenited states military. that is not something that russ or china can provide in the next 10, 20 years or ever. >> michael doran, very quickly t time we have left, what about the argument that saudi arabia needs the u.s., effectively, more than the u.s. needs saudi arabia? >> i would think that if there' one thing that we have learned in the middle east in the last decade, it's the law of unintended consequences. we continue to intervene in the region as if we can dictate outcomes that are completely in line with the way we want the world to be, and i think that

that's simply a mistake. we have made a decision country to take a step back from the region and to work with our allies, to try to stabilize it. when you start summing up who's an alland who's an enemy, there are only three major allies that we have, reall that can help us stabilize iraq, syria, lebanon, yanemend that's saudi arabia, turkey, and israel. that's what we have to worthk. f we start distancing ourselves from allies, we're just handing the region to iran. >> i'm going to havto cut it off there, unfortunately. michael doran, tom thank you very much to you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: one of the trump administration's major initiatives has been adding work requirements to benefit programs fothe poor. that includes medicaid for the first time in its history. thisear, arkansas became the first state to roll out the requirement.

it so far, it affects a small percentage of those who got medicaid coverage through the affordable care act, but more than 12,000 people have lost their coverage for not complying and thousands more are expected. more than a dozen other states would like to impose their own requirements. special correspondent and "was catherine rampell traveled there to explore what's at stake. >> well, i just got out of the hospital. drian mcgonigal's life is coming undone. t few weeks, he's lost his job, his health insurance, even his feelings of self-worth. >> without my medication, i can't really sleep good, so... >> reporter: he's worked all his life. but now, at the age of 40, he's entirely dependent on people like his mom to get by. and he blames the u.s. department of health and human services. >> your status as far as... >> the aansas works is concerned, yeah. >> reporter: this summer, he had

a decent-paying job at a chicken plant outside belle. but when the trump administration allowed the state of arkansas to impose new work requirements on medicaid, he-- like many me recipients-- got confused about how to report his hours. >> i thought that everything was good. i thought it was just a one-time deal that you reported it, and then tt was it. >> reporter: he was wrong. he was supposed og those hours online eve month. he becamof the 12,000 people that the state has booted from the medicaid rolls in the last three months. he discoveis only when he went to fill prescriptions at this drug store and the pharmacist told him, "sorry, your coverage has been canceled." >> and that it was go be like $340 for one of the medications,nd like $80 for the other one. >> reporter: so he left empty- handed. this was a big deal, because mcgonigal has severe c.o.p.d.-- a chronic lung disitse that makeifficult to breathe. without his meds, he landed in the hospital multiple times and

missed a lot of work. his supervisor tried to accommodate him, but he wasn't healthy enough to perform his job. so he lost it. now part of a lawsuit against the federal government, charging that his story is a caut tale. his lawyers say it proves why adding work requirements to a health insurance program can backfire and actually make it harder for the poor to hold down a job. arkansas is the very first state in the country to require people to prove they're working if they want to receive medicaid. now other states are watching to see how the experiment here turns out. since the trump administration announced medicaid work requirements would be allowed, five states have gotten proval, though kentucky' blocked by a federal judge. nine other states have also applied. many conservatives sayhet would makefeel more comfortable with obamacare's medicaid able-bodied"r " ults, which they see as a new" entitlement." ent they also argue that work requir will help the poor.

>> there's been a lot of rearch over the years abou the connection between work and community engagemea health factor. >> reporter: cindy gillespie is the director of the nsas department of human services which oversees the state's medicaid program. anyone who becomes isolated, who is not actively engaged in some way with fily, community, workplace, their health suffers. you see that across the bod. >> reporter: she says the state has made every effort-- including establishing a new call center-- to connect with roughly 70,000 people who now need to prove they're working, attending sc volunteering for at least 80 hours each month. some hours spent job searching also count. usny are exempted from reporting bethe state already knows they work at least 80 hours a month, they're caregivers or are undergoing treatment for addiction, among other

exceptions. the state ed no additional dollars in helping people find work, but gillespie ys medicaid enrollees should take advantage of the services that already exist. >> the goal of the program is not to have an individual who is in need of ongoi medical care and needs their health one reason ornother, life has them at a point where they can't get out of poverty, it's to find them and help them move up the economic ladder. >> work requirements are not ultimately for the benefit of low income individuals on medicaid expansion. >> reporter: kevin de liban is an attorney with leg of arkansas. this nonprofit, along with the southern povertyaw center and the national health law program, is suing to block the medicaid work requirements. >> they're based on two huge myths, the first is that poor people are lazy. so the fact is most people are working, or have a barrier to work.

the second myth is that these work requirements are somehow lending people a hand up. that's absolutlse. there's not an extra dime of money invested in meaningful job training, or anything that would empower people to get skills would allow them to qualify for something other than low wage work. >> reporter: the new rules have proven especially worrisome in the many rural parts of arkansas like the ozark mountain town of marshall where jobs are hard to come by. many poor residents in this rely on boston mountain rural health center clinics. debbie ackerson is the c.e.o. >> it's really difficult because if the people in this category are reired to work, and there are no jobs, then you know, what e these people supposed to do? they can, they'll lose their insurance, and it's not anything at they can prevent, they can report monthly, but they're not going to report that they have a job, or that you know, they can say they've been searching, but there's only so many placeppthat they canly. >> reporter: those who don't comply for three months are cked off medicaid and barred from re-enrolling until the next january.

anna book worries she's hanging onto her health care by a thread. she works about 24 hours a week as a dishwasher at a restaurant in downtown littlrock. book has spent many years homeless, getting help prom pastoraul atkins at canvas community church. he now works with her each mon to log her work hours. if she makes every shift at the restaurant, she's just able to meet the monthly threshold. but it's not just putting in the hours-- users or their authorized designees then have to record that time in an online-only portal. that portal shuts down every night at nine unti7:00 the next morning. and arkansas has the lowest household internet access of any state. >> being homeless, i don't have a lot of access to anything. i have paul do the insurance, who actually files the work requirements for me, b i don't have access to a computer to do it.

>> reporome of the confusion will be resolved with time, cindy gillespie says. new, people struggle with it. so that's why we tried really lerd to set up ways for pe to come back and talk to someone >> so how would you explain the % fact that 80 or people required to reporthours are not reporting work hours, they're too unmotivated? >> s some are just not-- they don't value the insurance, they're not using it. that's what you do hear from some people. >> i would find it very surprising that people don't want to be insured if its not costing theming. >> but it costs them something

if they then have to begin to engage in activities, report something they don't want to report, etc. >> reporter: back in bersonville, mcgonigal's law have made some progress. they convinced the state to give him a "ause" exemption. but thanks to additional red tape, he still hasn't been able to get any of his meds. meanwhile his hospital bills have piled up. on t day we visited, he opened bills totaling more than $4,000. >> ion't know how i'm ever going to pay it. >> reporter: but even if he can get his meds and the state covers the backlog of bills and he gets his job back, his health may be permanently damaged. >> the doctors told me each time that i have this c.o.p.d. flare ups, it gets a little bit worse each time, so, i mean, that damage there is already done, so >> reporter: he's resting for now, and hoping for the meds

that will get him back to better health and back to work. for the pbs newshour, i'm catherine rampelin bentonville, arkansas. >> woodruff: we turn now to results from outstanding midterm races. he weekend democrats flipped more seats in the housei more seats in favor in the house of representatives, while recounts in georgia and florida ended up with republicans gaining two governorships and a seat in the senate. for analysis on all of this an more, i'm joined by tamera keith of npr and amy wa of the "cook political report." hello to both of you. happy monday. so the democrats, it looksics have picked up 38 more seats if use, three seats we still

don't know the results on, they're still counting, but if it stays at 38, including stunning results, and we're looking here, a total as we have it right now, includinstunning results in orange county, california, kind of the home base between conservative republicanism, ronald reagan country, what does this overall showing y about the midterms, amy? >> wasn't it ronald reagan say orange county is whereood republicans go to die? this is the whole heart of conservatism, not just california, but it spawned a lot of national conservative ovements. what 2018 told me is it was essentially a replayf 2016 in that the places where trump did well, where he's still popular, republicans did well, but in the districts that he did not do lose, either he came very he either lost it or won it by a very narrow margin.bl reans could not hold on to those districts. what was remarkable to is i

looked at the vote share, what of the vote donald trump got in those districts in 2016 and compared it to how republicans candidates tid in 2018, and -- did in 2018, and they're almost identical. if donald trump got 45% as he did in some of the orange county districts, with without an incumbent, the republican got within a point or two of 45%. in oords, trump, once again, becomes the reallyor important fain determining how the house looksand the suburban districts ultimately are the places where trump remained really unpopular post post-2016. >> woodruff: picking up on that, tam, you a lookedhow the people trump campaigned for, how they did, to build on this story. >> the people that president trump endorsed in the primary won7o 1. his brand is gold in the republican base in republican

primaries, even republicans who were not necessarily the frontrunner ended up winning after a trump endorsement. now you go to the general election, his win rate is 58%. not terrible but it's a sign that gravity does apply, that president trump's brand is not so great when you're talking to the entire electorate instead of just republicans. , so you know, onthinghat also stands out as we get these results fr florida and georgia is that final campaign swing he did,he states that he went to in that final week, those people generally won. in po po josh holly won in he senate, indiana, and then florida -- >> and the real question is whether this is going to be a bigger trend or whether this is really about president ump, so the fun thing about polling elections year after year after to find out get which things are outliers and which are trends, and we all

remember in 2000, when al gore lost, he lost his home state of tennsee and that really began the first moment when we started seeing democrats losing their hold on these areas of the country that are more rural and southern, and that trend has continued up through 2016. >> and talking to republicans today, the ones i wasalking to who are out in california are jucerned that this isn't orange county, this is the west. >> right. that whole -- you know, the orange curtain has fallen in orange county, the republican strength there, and that this may say something broader than just orange county. >> that's right. so now that the democrats have taken the majority in the house, they have to pi aeader, and what we're witnessing is a fight of some dimension over whether nancy cordes is going to be electethe next speaker. amy, 16 democrats today signed a letter sayg they will oppose her no matter what. there are some other freshmen who have expressed concern.

how much trouble is shen? you've looked at who the people are. >> you know, what's really interesting is this is not a battle over ideology or cover tensey. the frustration with democrats who sign that letter and others who eve said they're not supporting her is really about wanting to see change in the ustration with the leadership that is older, significantly olher. they're in late '70s, every single member of the democratic leadership in the house, and the frustration there's been a bottle next, essentially, for ambitious young members to get into leadership. but what i think these democrats are having a hardime doing is finding a significant number of folks to sayublicly 16 is an important number because she can't lose more than 15s memb now to get the magic number of 218 -- >> woodruff: assuming all vote. >> assuming all vote and all that. but ece other piof this is there still is not than.

it's nancy pelosi, we do not want her to be speaker, but they have not unified around who that person would be if it's not nancy pelosi. >> and one name that had come up as a potential alternate is congresswoman marsha fudge, but she didn't even sign that letter, and the word now is that she's thinking about it and, you know, theoa heavy of fundraising responsibility for speaker is somethi's thinking about because there's a lot of travel. speaker of the house is this high profile really significant, importance job. it is also a job that involves a ton of traveling and a ton of fundraising and, in some ws, that's more important than the lawmaking part of it, especially in a year when they're going to g one-half of one-third of the government. >> r. >> woodruff: and nancy pelosi raise add lot of money.. >> she h and what she's really selling is i have been able to keep this d get thegether tough votes passed through the caucus time after time, and

going upgainst president trump, you need somebody who has experience. you need somebody whknows how to be strategic. you need somebody who knows how to count votes and that is something that, i think, is going to be very difficult for someone, not nancy pelosi, but especially one of the younger members who hasn't beenround a long time to say they will be able to do that. >> woodruff: what iteans for the newly elect eds freshmen voting for or against e d how that affects what they do in a new district in 2020. so much to talk abo.ut next monday, we'll talk about mississippi. >> and the speaker vote is after december as well. so we can talk about that. >> tamera keit thank you.r. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: yesterday marked ethe 40th anniversary of jonestown massacre, the mass

murder-suicide that killed more than 900 followers of cult- leader jim jones in the south american country of guyana. congressman leo ryan was in jon with a small team investigating the cult's activities and was shot d killed by jones' followers. - t one of his aides on that trip, jackie speiew herself a democratic congresswoman from cala-- survived, and i spoke with her recently about her harrowing experience. congresswoman ryan was the congressman i worked for at the time he made that trip to jonestown because many of his constituents had young adults who had gotten invved in a church in san francisco called the people's temple led by a man named jim jones. as more and more criticism started to come out about sexual abuse and physical abuse and money laundering, he then took about 900 of his members to

jonestown where he had been building a commune for about two years, and concerned relatives came tcongressman ryan, there were defectors who also came and told him of really torrid things happening at compound, and the congressman wanted to find out what was really gog on. the state department was basically telling us there really wasn't a story there, there really wasn't anything to talk abond, unfortunately, we found out something very different. >> woodrf: you went there, you sensed in a very short period of timehat something as terribly wrong. then as you were leaving with people ready to defect, some of the followers of jim jones came and shot to death five people, and yo badly wounded, shot imes. jackie speier, how did you get through that? you lay there on the tarmac and

climbed into the baggage compartment on this little plane, no medical care -- no medical care for 22 hours on that airstrip. for a long period of time, uaiting for the lights to go and, when they didn't, i vowed myself that if i survived, i uld never take another day for granted, that i would live every day asully as possibl and that i would dedicate my life to public seritce. buas a long, long process. i cameome a u.s. medivac plane. i then was in surgery for twomo ths, had gas gang green, they thought they would have to amputate one of my limbs, and survived, ran for term as congress and lost. >> woodruff: short after you got out of the hospital you ran for congress. i >>was mostly motional therapy. i did not want to be a victim or

just a survivorr of jonestown the rest of my life. it was a way of fulfilling his legacy, but i lost. it was one to have the three losses professionally that i've had that were really the first steps o moving forward in my life. so the book talks about lots of loss, and how i've gone from heartache to healing. >> woodruff: as you say, you experience personal loss.yo had to have an abortion after a medicalrisis cam along with a baby you were expecting. d ir first husband was kil a car stent -- car accident. what's kept jackie speier going? >> i refer to the three fs family, friends and faith. when you're in the depths of depression from some personal loss, it's very important to reach out to those around you, because oey will be there t help, but oftentimes they don't know how to help unless you tell them what you need.

i, at one point, was at t brink of personal bankruptcy, and i called on friends to help me patch somethig together, because my late husband was the bread winner, and a of sudden i was a single parent with a 5 and a half-year-old and nt with our second child, and it was a very desperate time. tbut i'm going forward a book is about trying to build a life and moving forward. >> woodruff: serving in california legislature, now in congress. bringing it up to today, you good friend nancy pelosi says she's going to be elected speaker but some democrats say they won't vote for her h. what the going to happen? >> nancy pelosi knows how to count. he was the first and will be the second female speaker of the house of representatives and probably will go down in history as the most effective speak as we've ever had. because she, uike anyone else

who served has, with exception of sam rayburn, i think, has been able to come back, and she's always kno how to count. that's how we got the affordable care act passed, that's how we've gotten many measures through the house, unfortunately not always through the senate. >> woodrhat about the newly elected democrats who say it's time for democrats to turn thin over to a younger generation, to turn the page? >> yeah, so i think she t recognizt, and she has said that she sees herself as a transitional speaker, so i do believe that the young and very talented crop of freshmen members will be very effectiv and will be given lots of opportunities to excel. >> woodruff: the hous intelligence committee, you're a member of it, when under republican control, theyno ced, what, last spring that they were wrapping up the investigation into russian attempts e terchts to influence the 2016 election.

they said they found novidence of any collusion between the trump campaign and the russians. what is the committee owing to doegarding the all that now that democrats are in charge? >> so that report was done prematurely it was woefull incomplete. all you have to do is look at the senate side where the republicans and the democrats are still investigating the russian intervention in our elections. there were many persons that we had requested of their documents that did not come forward, there were a number of people that testifd before our committee that purgerred themselves, and it'smportant for them to come back and for us so be able to question them again. i think, most important of all, we have to find out whether the trump properties had an infusion of rusian money, and that is why there was such a linkage th vladimir putin and w there was such a bromance in the

early part of the trump administration. >> woodruff: we are all watching that. but for now, thank you so much for coming in to talk about your gook "undaunted, survivin jonestown, summoning courage and back."g thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: head into the holiday week, here's a suggestion for when your flight is delayed, or you just can't possibly watch any more football: get a book and read out loud. but don't just gather the kids and gran ids. tonight, beloved children's book author kate dicamillo, shares her humble opinion on the universal and age-defying magic of listening to a shared story. it's 1972, and i'm eight years old and in second grade at clairmont elementary in clairmont, florida. the classroom floors a and there's a ticking clock on

the wall and there's a chalkboard and there are mottos to live by strung up above it, and the teacher is wearing cat eyeglasses with glinting rhines she's reading ah allowed to us from the blue dolphins and we came to the part of the book where the character tames a wild dog, and i'm literally on the edge of my seat. i'm listening,istening, caught up in the wonder of it all. i'm a kid who loves the story. but alson the second grade classroom, seated not too far away from me, there's a class bully. because i am so terrified of this boy, he does not even seem real to me he is in my mind less a boy and morester. in any case, the teacher was reading and i look at thisoy because he is in one i am very much in the habit of keepinan eye on, and i notice he is listening, too, that he is tengaged by the story, t he, like me, is leaning forward if his seat and listening with his

hole heart. i stare open-mouthed. i am struck with the sudden knowledge that this boy that i'm so afraid of is, in fact, just like me. he's a kid w likes a story. the boy must feel my eyes on him e he turns. he sees me seeing him, and something miraculous happens. he smiles at me. really. and then another miracle, i am afraid, smiled back. we're two kidling at each other. why have i never forgotten this small ment? why almost 50 years later do i still recall every detail of it? i think it because that moment illustrates so beaufully the power of reading out loud, reading allowed ushers us into a third place, a safe room, a room where everyone involved, the reader and the listener can put down their defenses and lower their guard. we humans long not just for n stor just for the flow of language, but for the connection that comes when words are read

aloud. that connection provides illumination. bo lets us see each other. when people talkt the importance of reading allowed, they almost mean an adu reading to the child. we forget about the surly adolescent and the confused young adult and the weiringy middle aged and the old. we all need the t place, the safe room that reading out loud provides. t all need that chanceo see each other. >> woodruff: what a greate pi advice. and that is the "newshour" for dtonight. tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line andagain here tomorrow evening. for us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided b >> bnsf railway. >> financialces firm raymond james. >> and by the alfred p. sloan

foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john dt.and catherinacarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcastinon and byibutions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by cnewshour prons, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

o." here is what is coming up. the province in syria was destined for a blood bath. can one woman changee history? ncredible story of how a syrian-american doctor lobbied president trump. plus -- >> what can i play? oh, dear. >> hiser acting ca already has a cult following. now, jeff goldblum hits the keys for his deb jazz album. and -- >> i was clear i would never change. > the comedian settles in for an honest conversation about fatherhood.