captioning sponsored by 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 the people in this category are required 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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>> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongopport of these institutions: and indis. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers le you. thank you. >> woodruff: firefighters in northern california have made

more headway against the deadliest u.s. wildfire in a century. officials said todayhe fire that destroyed the town of paradise is 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. ey argue the whitaker appointment was unconstitutional becaushe has never been confirmed by the senate in any capacity. 16 democeleased a letter today saying they will not vote for nancy pelobe the next speaker of the u.s. house of representaticls. the group es 11 current members of the house, and five just elected.

they said they camigned on changing the status quo, and will carry through on that promise. in yemen: heavy fighting resumed around ty of hodeida, shattering a brief cease-fire. a saudi-led coalition launched new air strikes on the red sea port citd 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 looking at it positily and, god willing, we hope that all the yemeni parties can reach a political solution to relieve people's suffering, which has lasted for years because of the war, the blockade, the destruction and the killing. >> woodruff: a saudi coalition of sunni countries has battled the rebels since 2015, with american assistance. ns of thousands are believed to have died in the war-- many of them, civilians.

the gont of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu survived today after a key ally agreed to maintain its support. that means netanyahu's coalition keeps a bare majority in the the crisis was triggered when defense minister avigdor lieberman resigned over a cease- fire with militants in gaza. trial ha for nine organizers of pro- democracy protests. th led unsuccessful demonstrations in 2014, aimed at forcin china to gran elections. rapporters of the so-called "umbrella movementllied outside the courtroom today, as leaders said freedom o expression in hong kong is at stake. >> ( translated ): what is on trial is not just the nine of what is on trial also is the high degree of autonomy and 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 da.

the nine on trial have pleaded not guilty to charges of incitement and conspiracy. the chairman of nissan was arrestedoday, on financial 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 pbichristmas nned. president trump ordered the deployment as caravans oof migrants headed for the border. back in this country

back in this country: the white house has now halted its effort to permanently suspend cnnm correspondent osta's press credentials. his press pass will be ful restored, after being temporarily reinstated by a federal judge last week. but the white house warned if doesn't follow new rules for reporter conduct at presidential press conferences, they'll take further action. on wall st helped send tech stocks lower, and new worries about tensions china weighed on industrial shares. the dow jones industrial arage 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 on the "newshour," hundreds remain missing following the deadliest wildfire in california histor u.s. determines the saudi crown prince ordered the murder of a journalist; a new work requirement program causes thousands to le medicaid coverage in arkansas and much more. >> woodruff: returning to the wildfires in californi more than 11,000 homes have been torched since the mp fire broke out in the northern part of the state. officials say it may take until the end of the month before the blaze is fully contained. in addition to the devastation and loss of life, residents are dealing wivily polluted air as well.

as william brangham reports, firefighters reported significant progress weekend. >> reporter: it's been 11 days since the led "camp fire" ignited. >> almost like hell on earth, honestly. it's been crazy. >> reporte 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 ro identified using lookouts that are available, so they can see if we havessues come up with spot fires. >> reporter: presirump got a first-hand look on saturday, joined by governor jerry brown and governor-elect gavsom. now, fire crews are hoping that rain-- which is expectcome in the next few days-- will bring more reli but that forecast also adds urgency for search teams loong amid the ashes for the hundreds of people still listed as missing. ey fear the rains could turn all that ash into mud, and

possibly trigger landslide but rain could also help clear of the dangerous levels of pollution caused by the fire. rancisco this weekend, people wore face masks, and smoke and smog obscured the bay bridge. >> it's pretty uncomfortable. mean, it's definitely causing shortness of breat >> reporter: meanwhile, hundreds of evacuees who sought shelter last week at a walmart parking lot in chico, are being urged to officials say several inches of rain could 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 fs final toll will grow. california state assemblyman jim wood is also a forensic dentist who's helping to identify

victims using dental remains. he's volunteered and similar forensic work after 11, hurricane katrina an after the fires in northern califoia last year. mudr. wood, thank you very for being here. i wonder if you could start off by helping us understand a little bit about wha forensic dentistry in a circumstance like the this, what it actually does. what ddo? t' well, for us, doing forensic dentistry,an opportunity to take the records of a person who has died in one of these incidents, compare them to before-death re them up and hopefully identify them. it's a laborious processat times, but it's very effective, and it's been used in many, many mass disasters throughout the last 100 years. >> so searchers in the towns of paradise and elsewhere go through burnt homes and burnt structures and try toind teeth and dental remains, and then

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

dental records that have been uploaded to the cloud or backed up to servers off- wte. re relying on them to get us what they can, but those offis that were burned were completely destroyed and there really is no usable evidence from there. >> i understand you were saying that you work largely in the morgue in sacramento. have you been physically able to see the towns of paradise or what these environments actually look like? >> yes, i was in paradise on wednesday and thursday, and i will tell you, from my experience in the wine doesn't fires, it prepared me for what i might see, but i was simply overwhelmed by the devastation there. it's far greater thahat we experienced in sonoma county. the breadth of it is enormous. >> and i understand that the rain is forecast to come later fors week, which, obviously the fires and for the air quality will be a ge relief. could that complicate the search efforts, though? >> it actualy could, and this

is a little bit unprecedented for us. in the fires we had before, it was earlier in the year, we were le to recover remains earlier, it wasn't an issue, but if these rainare hard, it could have a real -- we could have a real problem recovering remains, things could be moved, things could be washed away, andre there'ly no way to contain all of this at this point. so it is a biof 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 there ar duplicates in there, i understand there are probably people who are safe and so who just haven't alerted the authorities, but is it your sense that even 'sif the a certain percentage of that list that really do turn out to be fatalities, we're talking about hundreds of people that still could have lost the lives. ll we are, and i think what's

rtag staggering about this h is we simply really don't know. by now you would have thought that a lot of the people that are truly going to be accounted for would have c in, but we're not seeing that, and that's a little disturbin indeed, the numbers are dropping, but i'm really surprised that we haven't bee a make this list smaller, and that's very concerning. >> obviously, the work that you're doing is hugely important for the families who just would like some sense of knowing what has happened to their loved one or their fay member. i'm just curious, how are you and your colleagues doing? you have been at this for, i don't know, nine, ten, eleven days now. how you guys holding up? >> we're holding up fine. really are struggling to get records and, you know, once -- i'm ju convinced, once we have more records, we'll be able to make more identifications. the conditions of the remainsis are cont with what i've seen in the past, and some are

in better condithan others, but as in anybody, there's a little bit of tenhasion builds up there, and we just feel like we could be doing more and we're just kind of sck waiting for records. >> dr. jim wood, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you very much. ev>> woodruff: it has been weeks since a journalist was murdered at the saudi consulate in istanbul. the evidence is mounting that saudi arabia's crown prince orchestrated the killing. now the white house must decide how to respond. nick schifrin has ory. >> reporter: in the gilded hall thosts saudi arabia's consultative council, a frail e king salman arrived to gs first major speech since jamal khassogi's murder. and he stood by his son, crown prince mohammad bin salman, by

presenting the kingdom as couommitted to relijustice. >>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 responsibilities. >> reporter: but the kingdom is shouldering heavy pressure today, after europe banned 18 saudi nations connected to 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 thout 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 b>>l's co-signer. hey're an important ally, but when it comes to the crown prince irrational,

unhinged, and i think he's done a damage to the relationship between the united states and saudi arabia, and i ngve no intention of worki with him ever again. >> reporter: but the administtion has made the crown prince the center of its middle east policy: reduce radicalism from a hub in riyadh, confront iran and its use 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, president trump suested the pressure on the kingdom should only go so far. >> you saw wput on very heavy sanctions, massive sanctions on a large group of people from saudi 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. >> reporter: as a real este developer, donald trump had many saudi customers, as he mentioned on the campaign trail. >> saudi arabia-- and i get along great with all of them. they buy apartments from me, they spend $40 million, $50 million. >> reporter: but mr. trump is not the first president to stand 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's a strong and important friendship. and he knows thatnd i know that. and we're not going to let that happen. >> reporter: in 2009, president obama welcomed king salman. >> the facthat he has chosen to take this first visit to the unittes is indicative of the long-standing friendship between the united states and saudi ar >> we have worked in close partnership with the saudi's for a long time, >> reporter: and president n in 1996, one day after terrorist attack on a u.s. housing complex in saudi arabia. >>ke think it would be a mis for the to change its mission. >> reporter: wn it comes to khassogi, the saudis have changed their story multiple times about how he died, but have continually insisted mohammad b salman knew nothing. >> did m.b.s. lie to you, sir? >> i don't-- i don't know. who can really know?

but i can sa: he's got many people now that say he has no knowledge. >> reporter: tt isn't the 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 communitys gi's murder was caught on tape, and was brutal. >> it's a suffering tape. it's a terrible tape. >> what happened? >> it was very violent, very vicious, and very terribl >> reporter: now that the u.s. intelligence community has ined that crown prince mohammed bin salman ordered the murder of jamal khashoggi, what tion, if any, should the trump administration take? tom malinowski was just elected to congress. he also served as assistant secretaray of state man rights during the obama administration.ch and l doran was the senior director on the national security council staff for the middle east duringshhe george w. dministration. he's now a senior fellow at the hudson institute in washington, d.c.

ome 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 tral ban. we saw today europe instituted a travel ban as well. has saudi arabia paid enough of a price? >> hi, good evening. i wouldn't start with the question of have they paid enough of a price. i woulstart with the questio of what are u.s. interests, what are our values and how do we bring your values and interests into some kind of -- intoync with each other. think the president is handling this very well, expressing distaste, sanctioning individuals who are involved, buhaalso ezing to the saudis, to the world and to the american publi that saudi arabia is a very important ally, and we have a lot of our interests in the region are being carried on the backs of the saudis. >> tom malinowski, expressing

distaste, but also saying saudi arabias a strategic ally. is that enough of a response from the president? >> absolutely not. you know, this is not just about our values. t is is st a gruesome human rights abuse. there are thousands and ousands of people in the united states who are refugees from countries in the middle easm russia, from china, who are critics of their genover. if a dictatorship can reach across its borders and murder somebody in the way that the saudi government did in this case and get away with it, we're going to be living in a very different world, in a punc more unfriendly world. it's extremely important from the standpoint of our interests that we take a very strong stand, that we hold those responsible accountable and that we sprayed our relationship with saudi arabia from our relationship with this extremely volatile and destructive young man who is campaigning to be the leader of this cor try e next 50 years. >> so michael doran, what about that? as you know well, there are mechanisms that u.s. congress

has, sanctions, totarting m.b.s. without affecting the larger u.s. military relationship. is that targeting respons appropriate? >> let me first address the question of the refugees in the united states. there are 10 million people uprooted in syria by the coalition of iran, the syrn regime and the russians. it's that kind of event tt we are trying to prevent. we are trying to stabilizeth middle east so that we don't have millions of refugees, and we're trying to -- and the saudis are very important partners in that effort. so to completely throw away our strategy, disstabilize the region in order to take action against the leader of saudi arabia makes no sense to me, makes no sense strategically, it makes no sense to memorially.

rll these kinds of suggestions or proposals are based on the idea that we have the ability to enforce our will on the saudis, and they will simply take whatever we do, that they needre us much han we need them. i think that that is a very dangerous assumption. we could end up destabilizing saudarabia. the crown prince has very significant enemies inside sesaudi arabia who want t him go down. he has enemies outside saudi arabia. we could also end up pushing saudi arabia into the arms of the russians and the chinese. ti think you o be dr. we have to be very, very clear-eyed about the real choices that we're making. >> tom malinowski, is that a threat? -eyed, asg cle 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 counteringiolent extremism? >> saudi arabia, when they help

us, they do it becse it's in their interests, and that's not going to change. the notion this crown prince is helping us stabilize the middere east ae ordered the murder of an american citizen, american resident in turkey after he launched a blockade t qatar, after he launched a war in yemen, the trump administration, to its credit, is now trying to end a war that created mass humanitarian suffering, none of these things are in the u.s. interest, and all of these things i think should lead us to question whether this young man with his volatile temperament, with his belief that he can get away with anything, that the united states, for the sake of the relationship, is simply going to give him a pass, no matter what he does, that's what should conc here. the mag nine ski act gives us a perfect tool, allows us ncto on the person without the country. allows us to say to

saabia, it's up to you who you choose to be your leader, but should you choosthisoung man to be your absolute leader for the next 50 years, well, h won't be able to travel to the united states or do business with us, and i would the notion that the saudis can somehow replate withussia or china the relationship they have with us is absolute fantasy. th ssauurity is inextricably linked to its relationship with the united states military. that is not something that russia or china can provide in the next 10, 20 years or ever. >> michael doran, very quickly in the time we have left, what tout the argument that saudi arabia neee u.s., effectively, a lot more than the u.s. needs saudi arabia? >> i would think that if there's one 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 way we want the world to be, and i think that

that's simply a mistake. we have made a decision as a 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 ally and w's an enemy, there are only three major allies that we have, really, that can help us stabilize iraq, syria, lebanon, yemen, an that's saudi arabia, turkey, and israel. that's what we have to work. with if we start distancing ourselves from allies, we're st handing the region to iran. >> i'm going to have to cut it off there, uortunately. michael doran, tom malinowski, thank you very much to you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: one of the trump administratiajor initiatives has been adding work requirements to benefit programs for the poor. that includes medicaid for the fime in its history. this year, arkansas became the first ste to roll out the requirement.

it so far, it affects a small percentage of those who got medicaid coverage through the able care act, but more than 12,000 people have lost their coverage for not comndying and thoumore are expected. more than a dozen other states would like to impose their own requirements. special correspondent and "washington post" columnist rampell traveled there to explore what's at stake. >> well, i just got out of the hospital. >> reporter: adrian mcgonigal' life is coming undone. in the past few weeks, he'lost his job, his health insurance, rten his feelings of self- >> 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. depart services.lth and human >> your status as far as... >> the arkansas works is concerned, yeah. >> reporter: this summer, he had

a decent-paying job at a chicken plant outside bentonville. but when the trump adminion allowed the state of arkansas to impose new work requirements on medicaid, he-- like many medicaid recipients-- got confused abo 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 that was it. e >> reporter:s wrong. he was supposed to log those hours online every month. 0he became one of the 12, people that the state has booted from the medicaid rolls in the last three months. he discovered this only when he went to fill prescriptions at this drug store and the pharmacist told him, "sorry, your coverage has been canceled." >> and thait was going to be like $340 for one of the medications, and like $80 for the other one. >> reporter: so he left empty- handed. this was a big deal, because mcgo-gal has severe c.o.p.d.- a chronic lung disease that makes it difficult tthe. 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. he's now part ofsuit against the federal government, charging that his story is a cautionary tale. his lawyers say it proves why adding work requirements to a health insurance program can backfire and actually make it harder foroor 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 tus out. since the trump administration announced medicaid work requirements would be allowed, five states have gotten approval, though ktucky's was blocked by a federal judge. nine other states have also applied. many conservatives say it would make them feel more comfortable th obamacare's medicaid expansion for "able-bodied" adults, which they see as a ne"" entitlement." but they also argue that work requirements will help the poor.

>> there's been a lot of research over the years about the connection between work and community engagement as a health factor. >> reporter: cindy gillespie is the direct of the arkansas department of human services which oversees the state's medicaid program. anyone who becomes isolated, who is not actively engaged in some way with family, community, workplace, their health suffers. you see that across the board. >> 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 school, or volunteering for at least 80 hours each month. sors spent job searching can also count. many are exempted from reporting because the state already knows they work at least 80 hours a month, they're caregivers or are unrgoing treatment for addiction, among other

exceptio. one state invested no addi dollars in helping people find work, but gillespie says medinrollees should take advantage of the services that already exist. >> the goahe program is uanot to have an indivwho is in need of ongoing medical care and needs their health one reason or another, life h them at a point where they can't out of poverty, it's to find them and help them move up the economic ladder. >> work requirements are not mately for the benefit of low income individuals on >> reporter: kevin de liban is an attorney with legal aid of arkansas. this nonprofit, alon the southern poverty law center and the national health law program, ng 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 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 absolutely false. edere's not an extra dime of money inven meaningful job training, or anything that would empower people to get skills that would allow them to qualify for something other than low wage work. >> rter: the new rules have proven especially worrisome in the many rural parts of arkansas ke the ozark mountain town of marshall where jobs are hard to come by. many poor residents in this region 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 required to work, and there are no jobs, then you know, what are these people supposed to do? they can, they'll lose their insurance, and it's not anything that they can ent, they can report monthly, but they're not y going to report that theve a sb, or that you know, they can say they've beenearching, but there's only so many places that they can apply. >> reporter: those who don't comply for three months are kicked off medicand 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 hou a week as a dishwasher at a restaurant in downtown little rock. book has spent many years homeless, getting help from pastor paul atkins at canvas community church. he now works with her each month log her work hours. if she makes every shift at the restaurant, she's just able to meet the monthly threshold. but ot 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 until 7:00 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 anyl ing. i have p the insurance, who actually files the work requirements for me, because i don't have access to a computer to do it.

>> reporter: some of the confusion will be resolved with time, cindy gillespisays. new, people struggle with it. so that's why we tried really hard to set up wayomfor people toback and talk to someone >> so how would you explain the fact tha80 or 90% of people required treport work hours are not reporting work hours, they're too unmotivated? >> some are. 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 trprising that people don't wabe insured if its not costing them anything. >> but it costs them something

if they then have to begin to engage in activities, report something they don't want to report, etc. > bentonville, mcgonigal's lawyers have made some progress. convinced the state to give him a m"good cause" exetion. 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. onte the day we vi he opened bills totaling more than $4,000. >> i don't know how m ever going to p >> 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 alady done, so >> reporter: he's resting for now, and hoping for the meds

that will get him back to better for the pbs newshour, i'm catherine rampell in bente, arkansas. >> woodruff: we turn now to results from outstanding midterm races. over the weekend democrats flipped more seats in the house eats in their favor in t house of representatives, while recounts in georgia and florida ended up with republican gaining two governorships and a seat in the senate. for analysis on all othis and more, i'm joined by tamera keith of npr a amy walter the "cook political report." hello to both of you. happy monday. so the democrats, it looksics have picked8 upre seats if the house, three seats we still

don't know the results on ey're still counting, but if it stays at 38, includinesg stunningts, and we're looking here, a total as we have it right now, including stunning results in orange cnty, california, kind of the home base between conservative anrepublicanism, ronald re country, what does this overall showing say about the midterms, amy? >> wasn't it ronald reagan say orange county is where goodre blicans go to die? this is the whole heart of conservatism, not just california, but it spawned a lot of national conservative movements. what 2018 told me is it was essentially a replay of 2016 in that the places where trump did well, ere he's still popular, republicans did well, but in the districts that he did not do well, eithe came very clitose, her lost it or won it by a very narrow margin. republicans could n hold on to those districts. what was remarkable to ime is

looked at the vote share, what percentage of the vote doald tmp got in those districts in 2016 and compared it to how republicans candidates tid in 2018, and --id in 2018, and they're almost identical. if donald trump got 45% as he did in some of the orange county districts, with or without an incumbent, the republican got within a point or two of 45% in other words, trump, once again, becomes the really important factor in determining how the house looks, and the suburban districts ultimately are the places where trum remained really unpopular post post-2016. >> woodruff: picking up on that, tam, you looked at how the people trump campaigned for, how they did, to build on this story. >> the people that president ump endorsed in the primary won 27 to 1. his brand is gold in the republican bble in rean

primaries, even republicans who were not necessarily e frontrunner ended up winning after a trump endorsement. now you go to theene 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, one thing that also stands out as we get these results from florida and g is that final campaign swing he did, the states thate went to in that final week, those people generally won. in po po josh holly won in the 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 trump, unright. so thehing about polling elections year after year after year is you get to find outth whicgs are outliers and which are trends, and we all

rememb 2000, when al gore lost, he omlost hisstate of tennessee and that really began the first moment when wert s 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 ias talking to who are out in california are concerned that this isn't anjust county, this is the west. >> right. that whole -- you know, the orange curtain has fallen in orange county, the r 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 pick a leader, a what we're witnessing is a fight e dimension over whether nancy cordes is going to be elected the next speaker. amy, 16 democrats today signed a letter saying they will oppose her no matter what. there are some other fremen who have expressed concern.

how much trouble is she in? 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 t frustration wi leadership that is older, significantly older. th're in their late '70s, every single member of the democratic leadership in the house, and the frustration there's been a bottle next, isentially, for ambitious young members to go leadership. but what i think these democrats are having a hard time doing is finding a significant number of folks to say6 publicly an important number because she can't lose more than 15 members now to get the magic number of -- >> woodruff: assuming all vote. >> assuming all vote and all that. but the other piece of this is there still is not an other.

it's nancy pelosi, we do not er 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 alternative is congresswoman marsha fudge, b she didn't even sign that letter, and the word now is that she's thinking about it and, you know, the heavy load of fundraisinponsibility for speaker is sething she's thinking about because there's a lot of travel. speaker of the house is this highyrofile, rea significant, importance job. it is also a job that involves a ton of traveling and a ton of fundraising and, in some ways, 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. wh she has. an she's really selling is i have been able to keep this caucus together and get the tough votes passed through the caucus time after time, and

going up against president trump, youeed somebody has experience. you need somebody who knows how to be strategi 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,ut especially one of the younger members who hasn't been around a long time to say they will be able to do that. >> woodruff: what it means for the newly elect eds eshmen voting for or against ore and how that affects what they do in a new district in 2020. so much to talk about. next monday, we'll talk about mississippi. >> and the speaker vote is after december as well. so we can talk about that. >> tamera keith, amy walter. thank you. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: yesterday marked the 40th annivsary of the 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 jonestown with a small team investigating the cult's activities and was shot and killed by jones' followers. but one of his aides on that trip, jaie speier-- now herself a democratic congresswomafrom california-- 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 involved in a church in san francisco called the people's temple led by a man named jim jones. as more and more criticismto started come out about sexual phabuse and ical abuse and money ldering, 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 to congressman ryan, there were defecwho also came and told him of really torrid things happening at that compound, and the congressman wanted to find out what was really going on. the state department was basically telling us there really wasn't a story there, there really wasn't anything to talk about, and, unfortunately, we found out something very different. >> woodruff: you went there, you sensed in a very short period of time that somethin was terribly wrong. then as you were leaving with people ready to defect, some of the followers of jim jes came and shot to deathive people, and you were badly wounded, shot five times. jackie speier, how did you getug ththat? you lay there on the tarmac and climbed into the baggage

compartment on this little plane, no medicalare -- >> no medical care for 22 hours on that airstrip. for a long period of time, waiting for the lights to go out and, when they didn't, i vowed myself that if i survived, i would never take another day for ranted, that i would live every day as fully as possible and that i would dedicate my life to public service. but it was a long, long process. i came home on a u.s. medivac plane. i then was in surgery for two months, had gas gang green, they thought they would he to amputate one of my limbs, and survived, rafor term as congress and lost. >> woodruff: shortly after you got out of the hospital you ran for congress. >> it was mostly motional therapy. i did not want to be a victim or wn for survivor of jones

the rest of my life. it was a way of fulfilling his legacy, but i lost.as itne to have the three losses professionally that i've had that were really the first steps to 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 hperience personal loss. you had toe an abortion after a medical crisis along with a baby you were expecting. your first husband was killed in a car stent -- car accident. what's kept jackie sper going? >> i refer to the three fsmi, , friends and faith. when you're in the depths ofpr sion from some personal loss, it's very important t reach out to those around you, because they will be there to help, but oftentimes they don't know how to help unless you tell them what you need.

i, at one point, was at the brink of personal bankruptcy, and i called on friends to help me patchomething together, because my late husband was the bread winner, and all of a sudden i was a single parent with a 5 and a half-year-old and pregnant with our second child, and it was a very desperate but i'm going forward and the book is aboil trying to a life and moving forward. >> woodruf serving in california legislature, now in congress. bringing it up to today, yourri goodd nancy pelosi says she's going be elected speaker but some democrats say they' wt 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 saker of the house of representatives and probably will go down in history as the most effective speak as we've ever had. because she, unlike lsanyone

who served has, with exception of sam rayburn, i think, has en able to come back, and she's always known how to count. that's how we got the afrdable care act passed, that's how we've gotten many measures ifth throug house, unfortunately noalways through the senate. woodruff: what about te newly elected democrats who say it's time for democrats to turn things over to a younger generation, to turn the page? >> yeah, so i think she scognizes that, and she said that she sees herself as a transitional speaker, so i d believe that the young and very talent crop of freshmen members will be very effective and wigiven lots of opportunities to excel. >> woodruff: the house intelligence committee, you're a member of it, when under republican control, they announced, what, lpring that they were wrapping up the investigation into russian attempts e terchts to influenceh 2016 election.

they said they found no evidence of any collusion between the trump campaign and the russians. what is the committee going to do now regarding the all that now that democrats are in charge? >> so that repor was done prematurely, it wasoefully incomplete. all you have to do is look at the senate side where the republicans and the democrats are still investigatg the russian intervention in our elec mons. there wey persons that we had requested of their documents that didt nome forward, there were a number of people that testified before our committee that purgerred themselves, and it's important 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 with vladimir pun and why there was such a bromance in the early part of therump

administration. >> woodruff: we are all watching that. but for now, thank you so much for coming in to talk about your book "undaunted, surviving jonestown, summoning courage and fighting back." thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: as we head into the suggestion for when your flight is delayed, or you just can't possibly watch any more football: get book and read out loud. but don't just gather the kids and grandkids. tonight, beloved cn's book author kate dicamillo, shares her humble opin 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 are wood, and there's a ticking clock on

the wall and there's akb chrd and there are mottos to live by strung up above it, anhethe teis wearing cat eyeglasses with glinting rhinestones. 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 do and i literally on the edge of my seat. i'm listening, listeninaug,t up in the wonder of it all. i'm a kid who loves the story. t also in the second grade classroom, seated not too far away from me,' thea class bully. because i am so terrified of this boy, he doe not even seem real to me. he is in my mind lesoy a and more a monster. in any case, the teacher was reading and i look at this boy because he is in one i am very much in the habit of keeping an hae on, and i notice he is listening, too, he is engaged by the story, that he, like me, is leaning forward ifat his nd listening with his

whole heart. stare at him 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 who likes a story. the boy must feel my eyes on him because he turns. he sees me seeing him, and something miraculous happens. he smiles at me. really. and then another miracle, i amid afsmiled back. we're two kids smiling at each other. ve i never forgotten this small moment? why almost 50 years later do i still recall every detail of it? i thk it's because that moment illustrates so beautifull power of reading out loud, reading allowed ushers us into h d place, a safe room, a room where everyone involved, the readernd t listener can put down their defenses and lower their guard. we humans long not just for story, not just for the flow of language, but for the connection that comes when wor are read

aloud. c thnection provides illumination. it lets us see each other. when people talk about the importance of reading allowed, they almost mean an adult reading to the child. we fthget about surly adolescent and the confused yog adult and the weiringy middle aged and the old. we all neethe third place, the safe room that reading out loud provides. we all need thathance to see each other. >> woodruff: what a great piece ofdvice. and that is the "newshour" for dtonight. tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line andagain here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the p newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> and by the alfred p. sloan

founda supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peacef world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the onsupport of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. urand by contributions to bs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newsur productions, llc captioned by wg media access group a access.wgbh.org

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