captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: a major week in the russia investigation, as special counsel robert mueller details the level of cooperation from the president's former personaln at and campaign chairman. then, team trump. the president announces hiss. picks fo attorney general, ambassador to the united nations, and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. plus, "the future of work." how getting a liberal arts degree could help land a job in the tech sector. >> thinking clearly, writing well, working well with other pey,le, understanding divers working in groups... inese are skills that are useful in virtually anyof work. >> woodruff: and, it's friday. mark shields and david brookse

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>> woodruff: president trump's former lawyer, michael cohen, has provided investigators detailed information about contacts between russia, the trump organization and the trump campaign. in a court filing this evening, the special counsel says cohen has provided prosecutors with details on "certain discrete russia-related matters" that are central to the investigation. it is just one of three major developments from robert mueller's team this week. in a separate filing, federal prosecutors in new york detail how cohen made payments to silence women at a critical moment in the campaign at ther. direction ofrump. william brangh is here to bring us up to speed. william, so robert mueller what's been happening?

>> brangham: he put out a series of tweets this morning, again blasting robert mueller, he woke up and issued several tweets in anticipation of. this again, as often, he criticized the mueller v said all the coosecutors are licted. at he was worried about isent at happened earlier tuesday and todicay, was these three major filings detailing crucial details about the operation that three major fiures have been providing. ws take a look. the first filing on tuesday, and it concerned michael flynn, who was president trump's short- lived national security advisor. last december, flynn admitted lying to federal agents about talks he had during the transition with russian ambassador sergey kislyak.ea after ng guilty, flynn agreed to cooperate with mueller's team, and he's been doing so for a year. this week, mueller's office ised this heavily-rected sentencing memo asking for no prison time for ynn, citing his "extensive cooperation," including sitting for 19 interviews.

among other matters, flynn talked about "interactionsn betwdividuals in the presidential transition team and russia."cr the filing ded flynn as "one of the few people with longerm and firsthand insigh regarding events and issues under investigation." because of the redactions, however, it's not clear what else was discussed, but the cument indicates there are at least threstdistinct inigations he's helping with, including the russia probe. like flynn, former trump lawyer and "fixer" miael cohen has also been cooperating with the special counsel.de cohen first pld guilty in august to eight counts unrelat to his work for trump, but then tyst week, he pleaded guilo lying to congress about negodations he did on a faile trump real estate deal in moscow. those negotiatns went on throughout the 2016 campaign, and cohen says then-candidate trump was updated on t

discussions. former trump campaign manager paul manafort was convicted on eight coun of bank fraud and related crimes this summer, and later pleaded guilty to other conspiracy and witness tampering charges. he too agreed to cooperateth "fully and trully" with mueller's team, but that apparently didn't happen, because mueller last month accused manafort of repeatedly lying to investigators. so, judy, as we just heard, paul manafort was accused prosecution of repeatedly lying, and robert mueller just issued a filing tonight detail how he alleges that manafort broke that cooperation agreement. we'll go through it and update our viewers on all that. but let's turn to the cohen f filing todm the southern district of new york. 38-page filing that they put out today, and it was a very tough indictment that they put forward about michael cohen.

they reiterated his behavior throug tut the procesy refer to it as repugnant. they said there is going to beme serious consequences for him, they recommended the maximum sentence for him. they detailed the four specificr trials thee alleging that he has committed and those are willful tax evasion, making false statements to a fin institution -- these were personal loans he took out from banks -- illegal campaign contributions -- these were the arranging of hush money paymentr to daniels and the other women, if you remember -- and then making false statements to congress -- this was about that moscow-trump real estate eal he had lito congress about and they are pointing that out. for this, prosecutors are recommending a substantial term of imprisonment, could be up to four years. they went on to describe cohen's motivations. quote, he was motivated to do sl by persogreed and nudessed his powe are and influence for

ieceptive ends, now he seeks leniency with no time based on his rose-colored view of the seriousness of the crimes. they went on to reject his reques for lean ye yes and noted some of the crimes committed in the middle a campaign, specifically the stormy daniels hush payments, eonee were meant to keep som who might potentially have very embarrassic information frub going lic. he arranged what we now believe are illegal payments to her that violated campaign finance laws. this was another vote regarding thispayment. akikoen's crimes were particularly serious because they were committed on the eve of a prsidential election and they were intended to affect that election ." so tough talk from them. >> woodruff: and tough recommendation. within minutes after that filing came out of the southern districtf new york, youad robert mueller's office issue a filing that had a different take, frankly a milder

recommendation for miccohael n. >> that's right, somewhat in contrast to the way mueer treated michael flynn earlier this week where he said he'sbe coorpting and we want to give him no sentence whatsoever the muelletter detailed, yes, he lied but has gone tong great s to do bert, admit to his crimes, to explain who is cooperating with him in tho crimes. they say he offered seven proffer sessions, conversations cohen had with prosecutors, specificly detailing how he told him about this moscow reala project. the important thing to remember is cohen lied toongress about all the negotiations he was doing during the campaign and into the transition where, simultaneously, you have then candidate and then president-elect trump saying nice things abut russia while his main lieutenant is trying to negotiate a potentially multi-billion-dollar deal to

builwhat was going to be the biggest building in all of russia. so i'm not prosecutor, so i don't know exactly what this means, but they did say we will abide what the judge's recommendations are. >> woodruff:iall right, wi that is a comprehensive look at that. as you mentioned, we have this second mueller filing tonight havingo do with paul manafort. you're going to take a look at that and we'll comk to you at the end of the program to find out what's in there. thank you, wiliam. >> woodruff: so let's dig a little deeper into the legal questions here, with jessica roth. she's a law professor at yeshiva university, and a former federal prosecutor for the southern district of new york.th jessica i think you have been listening to william brangham's report and i'm sure you've had a chance to take a iok at these filngs that have come one, two, three. maybe not the latest one but certainly the first two from southern district and then from robert mueller. what do you see here that tells us anything more about t

president's role in all this >> well, what we see, certainly, is a contrast between the two filings, one frome southern district and one from the special counsel's offace, nd the filings from the special counsel's office makes it clear that mr. cohen provided information about four areas that have been enumerated, some of which are described in a way that's fairly opaque and could involve the president and other people in the white house. there is a reference to people connected to the white house, i think from 2017 to 2018 period, that it's not elaborated further what those communicationwere about specifically. but there is enough there tat suggest people affiliated with president trump and possibly the prede himself were involved in some of the conduct that mr. cohen himself was involved in.

certainly, that's always been alenld, and mr. cohen has said as much in court in terms of his coordinating with the president who's identified as individual one or candidate for federal office in different filings with respect to the payments to the women during the campaign, the women who alleged the preside d affairs with him. so there's lots of statements that potentially could connect conduct to the preosdent and to close to the president. >> woodruff: so we are beginning to see here more pieces of the puzzle, but we also understand that there is a lot more. we are led to believe that thre is a lot more that robert mueller has been working on that we don't see here. what new questions has all of this raised for you? >> well, one of the things that i saw in the special counsel filing -- i believe in the special counsel filing thiss evening reference to communications that mr. cohen had wi people in sia that brought up the idea of synergy

between political alliances, if you will, and business interests, and that has beens sort of the msing link. we've had a line of inquiry in the mueller investigation into communications between people saying in the trump campaign and officials with respect to u.s. polies such as sanctions against russia, communications about actions thathe security council with respect to resolution on isel, and, so, those are political policy issues, and those are the thing that michael flynn has admitted that he had communications about. then they have a separate line of inquiry sabout buiness interests that the trump organization had, what milchae cohen admitted recently he had ied to congress about, the timing of thosecommunications that he most recently admitted that he lied to congress about how far into the campaign those

communications continued. so, to the extent michael cohen is able to connect those two lines of inquiry to suggest thernwas a contion between policy discussions and business interest discussions, that could be quite significant.>> oodruff: in the few sects weave left, a sil if you cooperate with the prosecutors you are likely to ge a more lenient sentence than if you don't. >> absolutely. i see a big distinction here between how the special counsel wrote in favor of flynn and his upcoming s antencingnd how they wrote with respect to mr. cohen. so with . flynn facing a zero to six-month sentence, thed recommenmething that the bottom of the range and we're quite clear about that. and here the speal counsel's recommendation was essentially nothing specificc, and, in f it wasn't recommending much of a benefit at all. it was recommending that simply the sentence on thesingle charge to which mr. cohen pled

guilty purrsuant to chages by special counsel's office run concurrently with his sentence on the seven dist trharges, and that's the traditional practice is to runsentences concurrently, absent extraordinary circumstances. so don't really think that the special counsel is offering him much. >> woodruff: forr federal prosecutors jessica roth, thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other major story, the president announced his picks foe key posts: attorney general, chairman of the joint chiefs of stf, and ambassador to the united nations. our white house correspondent yamiche alcindor is here to lay out these latest staff shake-ups. so, yamich let's talk first about the president's pick to be attorney general. there's an acting attorney general, robert barr -- i'm sorry -- william barr who servet administration of president bush, george h.w. bush, is now being askedby president trump to become attorney general. what do we know about him? >> well, what we kn is william

barr is looked at as a respected attorney and democrats and republsignaled they could support him as attorney general. from 1991 to 1993, he was attorney general for the late former president george h.w. bush. he was, however, involved in the controversial iran contra pardons. heked at the c.i.a. in the 1970s and executive at vines. he's now prcticing law in washington, d.c. people who i talked to today told me he wa an establishment republican. not someone who is a trump loyalist. the trump has at times filled the cabinet members and the white house with people who are m loyal to hipersonally, but this is something that marcot rubio mive picked for his attorney general. he's had past conversations with spial counsel and investigations. from the "new york times" on november 14, 2017, the "neblyork times" phed an article where they said, "mr. barr saide

hes more basis for investigating the clinton uranm deal than any supposed collusion between mr. trump and russia." b and mrr told the "new york times," to the extent it is not ersuing these matters, department is advocating its responsibility. so, to be clear, mr. barr is saying hillary clinton might need to be investigated some more. he also said 'okay for presidents to specifically ask for investigations to hapen under the doj. the democratic national committee put out a statement saying he could get behind william barr but will have to prove the people he can be an independent officer and stand up to president trump. >> woodruff: crucial because he oversees the mueller s vestigation. so, second, lelk about his appointment to be the next ambassador to the united natis. heather nauert, she has been the spokesperson and assistant secretary of state. .hat do we know about her

>> she was spokesperson for the state department, she wasin apd by president trump in april 2017. she is a former correspondent for the fox news and a correspondent for abc ns. so she's someone who has a lot of experience in urnalism. i'm told today president trump appointed her because she's ash good talker,'s someone who defended this administration's foreign policy plans. s the president said shery smart and quick. people i talked to said she is someone who could talk, really come up to speed on the u.n. dealings, could do the outside job which is giving speeches and rely on her state to talk about other countries and get them to really support the things that the united states wants them to do. >> woodruff: but no significant dip experience. what about the appointment of mark miller to be the xt chairman of the joint chiefs? >> he is a four-star general and

the army chief of staff. a special forms officers, he was, commanded troops in afghanistan, iraq and korea. the people who know him says het, blthat once he figures out he's right is going to push for his poinof view. at could mean he gets along with president trump who is also someone like that, or thahe could butt heads with the president instantly. i'm also told lik to deal with troops and visit troops. i talked to someone w spent time with him in afghanistan and told me a funny anecdote, and that is he went to visit a french battalion and they b preparuette, and his dentures got stuck in the bread. the troops were saying, omigod! we're to embarrassed. he said, it's okay, isometimes carry a spare pair of teeth with me. so he's downrtto efnd beloved by a lot of troops, so he could be someone who gets along with the president. >> woodruff: he may need that sense of humor. >> y yh. >> woodrufiche alcindor, thank you.

in the day's oer news, former f.b.i. director james comey appeared before the house judiciary and oversi committees for a closed-door deposition. house republicans are investigating the f.b.i.'sti s in the 2016 presidential campaign before democrats take power in january. comey had unsuccessfully requested a public hearing, over concerns republicans would leak damaging information. w ve scheduled another date for me to come back, on the 17th, after a full day of questioning. two things are clear to me. one, we could have done this in en setting. and two, when you read the transcript, you will see we're talking again about hillary clinton's emails, for heaven's sake, so i'm not sure we need to do this at all. >> woodruff: presint trump weighed in on twitter, and called on lawmakers to force comey to answer questions under oath. the man who rammed his carnto a crowd of counter-protesters at a white nationalist rally in charlottesville, virginia last

year h first degree murder.f james fields was also convicted of nine other charges. the 2017 rampage killed heather heyer, and injured dozens mool. the 21-yeas sentencing hearing will begin monday. he could face up to life in prison. a chinese telecommunications executive is facing multiple fraud charges in the u.s., for allegedly violating u.s. sanctions against iran. huawei's chief financial officer, meng wanzhou, wasst ar saturday in canada, at the request of the u.s. today, she appeared in a vancouver court for her bail hearing. her arrest sparked fears of an escalation in a trade war between the u.s. and china. huawei is the world's largest sulier of phone and intern technology. u.s. intelligence agencies have accused the company of spying for china. on wall street today, a weaker-

than-expected monthly u.s. jobsi report, couple lingering fears about a u.s.-china trade war, caused stocks to take another nosedive. gethe dow jones industrial plunged a total of more than 1,700 points this week, shedding 4%. today alone, the dow plunged over 558 points to close just under 24,389. nee nasdaq fell 219 points, and the s&p 500 slippely 63. opec and other oil-producing countries have agreed to cutob oil output starting in january.ca the oiel today announced a reduction of 1.2 million barrelo a day for sihs. the move is aimed at stabilizing oil prices, which have fallen 25% in recent months. word of today's agreement caused the price of crude oil to surge 4%. former u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson is speaking out

publicly for the first time about working for president trump, after being fired inma h. tillerson described the president as impulsive andis someone wh"undisciplined, and doesn't like to read." last night in houston, tillerson told cbs news contributor bob schieffer that the president also asked him to do things that weren't legal. >> president would say, "well, here's what i want to do, and here's how i want to do it." and i would have to say to him, "well, mr. president, i derstand what you want to do, but you can't do it that way. it violates the law. it violates treaty." r you know, he glly frustrated. i didn't know w to conduct my affairs with him any other way than in a very straightforward fashion. >> woodruff: today, president trump fired back on twitter he wrote, "rex tlerson didn't have the mental capacity needed. he was dumb as a rock and i couldn't get rid of him fastou . he was lazy as hell."su some 2ivors gathered today in pearl harbor, hawaii to

remember the more than 2,400 lives lost in the japanese attack 77 years ago. they shared a moment of silencem at the exactthe bombing began back in 1941. the youngest of the survivors is now his mid-90s. for the first time, none of the survivors from the u.s.s. "arizo" were able to make the oor health.o that ship lost 1,177 sailors and marines in the attac more than any other vessel. and the host of this year's oscars, kevin hart, has stepped down following public outcryis overast homophobic tweets. most were posted from 2009 to 2011, and some were deleted. last night, the actor and comedian tweeted that he didn't want be a "distraction," an apologized for, "insensitive words from my past." still to come on the newshour: mark shields and david bros break down a packed week of politics.

how quality of housing can have a major effect on asthma rates, especially in poor communities. and, the tech sector reconsiders college graduates with liberal arts degrees. >> woodruff: let's take a look nchow at an innovative appro health care. john yang tells us about an effort in north carolina that tries to track and treat the housing conditions that contribute to chronic ses like asthma before they become health emergencies.he >> t's some mold on the door sill. >> yang: there is so much mold in the greensboro, north carolina, rental property that inspectors krishnaveni balakrishnan and k cook are examining that the residents moved out after only a f weeks.

er>> the family that lives they have five children. one of them is asthmatic, and the mold in the home is causing not only tild but also the rest of the family to become sick. >> mildew spores. >> there's a lot of moisture issues, a lot of mold on the ceiling, on the family's belongings. the home is not habitable. >> yang: the residents say the landlord's suggestions for getting rid of the mold haven't worked. they had to pay for a hotel-- while still paying rent here. balakrishnan and cook don't work for the city. they work for an advocacy group called the greensboro housing coalition. they're part of an innovative approach aimed at improving the health of low-income residents. doctors, housing advocates, and community activists say taking care of houses like this is a form of preventive medicine. g ting rid of unhealthy environments, they can keep people out of emergency rooms.y rasearchers thma accounts for 93% of the resry

illnesses in greensboro emergency rooms and clinics. on this day, one of them is alveno stanford's 14-year-old so jacob. >> i noticed like his chest would come out more than usual. i could tell the chest was, like, coming out more. >> yang: it's not the first time jacob's made a costly emergey room visit. >> three times a year. like this year, he may come three. year before that, he may come like two or three.e year beforat, he may come two or three. >> yang: greensboro's efforts are part of a growing interdisciplinary approach attacking the causes of conditions like asthma, to try to improve health and reduce medical costs.ll >> respiratoryss around the crescent. >> yang: stephen sills is a stiversity of north carolina- greensboro sociolo he looks for patterns in asthma cses, using data from cone health system, ty's major hospital operator and a partner in the project.

then he uses google maps' streetview to plot substandard housing. >> we map that, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood. where are more of these respiratory illnesses coming from? you see that there's three areas of greensboro that really are the concentration of poor roofing, absent gutters, broken, hiacked foundations, cracked windows, missing sngles and siding. >> yang: and they're the same areas where asthma cases are concentrated, underscoring the link between poor housing and poor health. and l these conditions, what you just described, can exacerbate or trigger asthma? >> exactly. exacerbate is good word. if i'm living in a house where the roof is leaking, the pipes are leaking, there's mold andth mildew, carpet hasn't been replaced in years... all are triggers for someone who has a respiratory condition like asthma. >> yang: sills' students use the

data to make refrals to the greensboro housing coalition. it turns the traditional approach to delivering hs lth care on ad. >> often, the physician is thinking about the biology of the individual, what's wrong with this person, how can i treat that problem that is a biological, medical problem? what drug can i give them, or what behavior can i ask them to change? in this case, the treatment is for the community. the problem isn't the individual, the problem is the structure around t individual. >> yang: sills' research ppprovides hard data to sut the coalition's work at anap tment complex in the impoverished east greensborohb nehood of cottage grove. >> you can see the roofing andhe all this up re, very old. >> yang: josie williams of theng greensboro houoalition documents conditions there. sewage was coming up in the drgen? >> yes, seas coming up in the drain. that's why the water is so dark. the way ey were turning this off, was by pliers.

>> yang: and the people are paying rent for this? >> yes. >> yang: there were 177 apartments, and 10cases of asthma. >> we walked into an apament one day, and the sewage from the bathroom had come out of the toilet onto the floor, into the living rthm. anfamily had been living like that for three weeks. >> yang: three weeks. >> we walked into another apartment complex where the ceiling was leaking, and it was raining, a the mother was catching the water with an inflatable pool in the middle of e floor. >> yang: one of the asthma cases: seven-year-old shaw meh, whose family are immigrants from myanmar. dr. beth mulberry is her pediatrician. >> they were living without heat, it waselow 20, they'd had a huge water problem. their carpet was soaked. she was needing to be on maintenance medication. allergy medication, oral. and then she was on a rescue inhaler. >> yang: the housing coalition

helped the family find better housing, and shah mei quicklyim oved. >> i think it was about two months. so, it's pretty quick. pretty amazing change. she has not used her rescue inhaler since july. in yang: the complex has s been sold, and the coalition is working with the new owner to improvit. led by josie williams, the housing coition holds monthly neighborhood meetings to help residents press for other changes in the area. at their most recent session, they discussed a corner store. >> anything healthy in that little store? alcohol, cigarettes, what else you see in that little store? snacks, what else? you have the power to create those changes. r >> yang: tognition that health care extends beyond the walls of hospitals and doctors offices is growing. in october, federal officials approved a five-year pilot program allowing north carolina

medicaid to pay for such services as removing mold, controlling pests and repad ing heating r conditioning. >> we really need to start making an investment in what are the root causes of these chronic illnesses. and a lot of this has to do with our people that are living in poverty, and the inability to rent a place where they expect changes to be made if it's an unhealthy environment for them. >> yang: a prescription for good health, that cannot be filled at a pharmacy. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang in greensboro, north carolina. >> woodruff: this week, our nation mourned a president, and got a better glimpse of the investigation into the current commander in chief's ties to russia. roere is a lot to unpack tonight with shields ands.

that is syndicated columst mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks. hello to both of you. so there's a lot of news tonight. it's friday, as we've seen on lot ofidays, david, the special counsel robert mueller and not only he but the southern district of new york, the prosecutors there have made public what ley cal filings that detail activities by people who are close to the president, specifically michael cohen who's his former lawyer, and later on we had another filing about paul manafort. ie have been listening, rapidly reading through what do we think it has up to? >> first, these twice are not very good cooperators. if you're going to cooperate, cooperate, but manafort is going to jail probably for the res his life and cohen is getting a healthy sentence because he semicooperated, something like that, but i think what we're seeing is the pace rapup on a lot of frontes. they are clearly interested in

more contacts than we knew with russia in the cam pain, the synergy they reportedly found, and the business dealings, trump's dealings in mocow. and my instinct is there's going to be a lot more investigation into business than into russia collusion. there's just a lot more there. the other sense you get is a lot of republicans are looking at this white house and they are seeing an administration under a lot of judicial and legal thre and a lot of political threat, and they see a white houcose cil's office that is dinuted of authority and people and they e thmembrane failing, the people they put around trump to protect him from himself, and the john kellies of the world are going and gone and you see trump unprotected from himself r and a lot ublicans are looking at 2018 at a lot of afridays like this onend trump maybe hurting himself and maybe

not serving out the term. >> woodruff: it's a lot, mark. it is. >> woodruff: start with the what do you see here? >> well, quoant, judy. i mean, i look at michael cohen, and he turned over computers, tapes, everything h. he turned over his life. he had a publn ic converso have you chew and saved him a year, is what it looks like, anyway, to the layman from the outside. it certainly doesn't look like he's skating by any means. so m not sure if he gave what he thought he was giving or whah thought he was giving or whether there was a miscommunication, i don'idknow, but itot seem like a major reduction to me. >> woodruff: it's not clear. no, it's not clear, and in' pretend to be an authority on it. i would say that manafort, you know, is looking at a difficult choice. i mean, looks like he was tryin to keep channels open to the white house where the ultima

executive pardon lies, and the t caught at it. >> woodruff: ad hearing from republicans expressing concern about the kind of pressure -- not that he hasn't been under pressure, but that now seems rious.in a way that is se >> i have yet to see that kind of independence on the part of -- i see the concern there, but it's donald trump's party. it really is. there's no question. it's a mark sanford experience of 2018 that is burnt in the mind and conscioness of every republican who's looking at 2020, that is the idea that donald trump with just the snp of a finger or an unfortunate flattering comment can cost you renomination in your n republican primary. sanford had been a governor, a omber of the huse and just by

trump's ki of dismissive, lost the primary. and it made no difference his party ended up losing the general. that's where the concern is.do ot see that streak of independence other than by those who are leaving. i have yet to see it of those in 2020. >> it took them a while to digest their ow election results and what it meant that democrats control thohouse, and, what you see is it's going to ramp up the political pressure. the southern district pay be more important than mueller. got a lot of legal help.'s then themore fear, worry, almost mania in the whi hou as they feel all the safety guardrails coming out. d so they realn't know what's going to happen to. me, the crucial thing over the next year r a crucial thing is tmw the base republicans react if there are indts, if there is a political catastrophe, if people start leaving the white house in

droves. the republican base is still very pro-trump. in the talk radiocircuit they're getting rid of anyone like mikeay medvev, m be closed because not sufficientlypr o-trump. you see the base going so pro-trump at the exact moment when the wheels are g off the whole thing. >> woodruff: mark? republicans are really slow learners. they lost midterms by more votes than any midterm ection in the history of the country, all right. the repuicans got fewer, democrats got more votes. i don't know what point has to be driven home t thm. donald trump announced the day after the election it was a great victory. that's 40 seats later and with north carolina nine still hanging in the balance, it could be 41 seats later. i don't know, they lost 324

house seats, s.a.t. legislative seats. it's a pretty stinging rebuke of thsitting administration. >> woodruff: what about in terms of today's news, the president announcing who his pick, is mark and david, to be the forge. william barr who served in the george h.w. bushgo- and we're g to talk about him in just a moment -- his life, and that and heather nauert to the u.n. d new pick for the he the joint chiefs. does this tell us something new? i think bill barr is probably as quali a choice as has been in the trump admistration. he confirmable, an able man. especially confirmable in theat sense e's now identified with george h.w. bush, 41, who was lionized if not idealeyed this week, it's a great credential. to me, perhaps the inwritten story is the dismissal -- the abrupt endi of joe dunford's

chairmanship of the joint chiefs of staff. his term does not expirel unti next i want september 30th. they annnced his successor today, which puts him in a terrible position. >> wooudruff: sual. unusual position. the word is both mattis and dunford were pushingfor the chief of staff, the general of the air force to be the next chairman of the joint chiefs, they didn't prevail. general milley was chosen. so this will be real upset. dunford will be gone. the stories that the chief of naval operations will leave, the general of the air force will leave, a major tunover inta mi leaderships. >> a lot of change. david? >> barr is a big one for me. a great pedigree, a lot of respect around this town. h he is a republican. there are a lot of democrats

complaining he has views. the herring thing is does he become elliott richardson. elliott richason resigned rather than fire the special counsel and after that it's curtains for richard nixon. and here is someone with integrity, credibility, loyaltyh to somethiher than donald trump. and if trump asks him to o something immoral it's possible he would resign and you would see a sort of saturday night massacre again. >> woodruff: wow. in the fewv minutes we hae left i want both of you to reflect on the life of preesident geo h.w. bush. we spent several days this week remembering him, remembering hit admition, mark. not a perfect man, everybody said that, but someone who stood out for his decency, for his belief in public service. >> yeah, i found the whole week rather fascinating, a reminder david has written and gotten a lot of atteion for, the

difference between resume virtues and eulogy virtues, resume virtues being those that operate in the marketplace -- meyour professional achie, your business success, your high test scores -- and the eulogy virtue being the qualities, the character one is remembered or cherished for. the concentration was very muchn he radder. it led for an awkward ceremony at the national cathedral because even by unintention, everyone was compared, the unselfishness, deansy, thoughtfulness to people. a little ory, when president bush was meeting pope john paul and he arranged in his close detail that day that the sotholic members of the secret service be therthat they would have the privilege and honor of meehting hioly father. and when donald trump was

meeting pope francis, the most excited person in his whole entourage was san spicer, his press secretary, who was then excluded fromthe party. it stood in ark and march contrast and merely is overt in its difference as was the mccain where this is one-sided - >> woodruff: much more overt.d, and, davhere was humor, too, in remembering him. >> one of my favorite bush stories is when he was first running for office, the staff would put in paragraphs in thee speech whereould talk about how great he was, and he would never read them ben'cause, i do do that, that's the ethos of a modest man. they finanally persuaded hi he eventually read the paragraph about how great he was and his mom who was still ali called him up and said, george, you're talking about yourself, and he would never read it again. so that' -- >> woodruff: it'reminder

of how differently we view our political leaders. we may leave office and step aside from being in the public eye every minute to being 25, 27 years later, and, you know, as you say, mark, there's a big contrast. >> a prison of the present. that's right.am if barack were president, there wouldn't have been, i don't think, theph is upon the personal virtues, which he certainly deserves. >> woodruff: mark shields, david brooks, thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: we hear it all the time-- a degree in the liberal arts may not be the ticket in our high tech economy. many young people seem to believe it. just one in 20 of all college degrees are now in the humanities and liberal arts, down from nearly one in five in the 1960s. but some experts, both scholars

and tech executives, see another side to the story. jeffrey brown reports from california's bay area, for our special series this week on "the future of work." >> he eventual goal is such that my movement... as i'm doing all this crazynt moveall over the place, will actually control the robot. >> brown: jobs of the future? catie cuan calls herself a "robot choreographer." at>> we created this 3d ann of the robot, which i can then interact with through this depth sensor. >> brown: a former professional ballet dancer, cuan nces with robots, doing research as a ph.d. student in mechanical engineering at stanford university. >> i move with robs in my research, and my artistic work is about how those movemts can either control robots or change human behavior and human conceptions of themselves. >> brown: the idea: when robots are taught graceful movements,

they become less intimidating and more approachab, even friendly-- important traits, as humans interact with them more and more. >> right now, we have incredible hyperbolic overwhelming sense of fear of robots in the media. >> brown: and taking over theer world, taking obs, taking over everything? >> right. and that fears ry real for so many people. and i think the fear is absolutely legitimate, but it's why we need artists and people from humanities backgrounds t help re-frame what robots can and will be in society >> brown: no surprise that at stanford, ground zero forn sililley's higher ed-high tech connection, the biggest major by far is computer science. students here, as elsewherewa these days their studies to lead to high-paying jobs, immediately. >> it very much changes the way you think about college, and i brown: louis newman is

stanford's director of undergraate advising and research, and himself a religious studies scholar. >> we tell students all the time, "don't think about the job you're looking for. think about the job that hasn't even been created yet, because the skills that you're gaining m he well position you for something that you can't even imagine." b wn: he says that while enrollment across the nation in history, philosophy, literature and other liberal arts majors has been falling for decades,ls the skilhey provide are still needed in the modern workforce. >> thinking clearly, writingll well, working ith other people, understanding diversity, workinin groups... these are skills that are useful in virtually any kind of work context. >> brown: you can't promise, you can't y to an english major or a history major or a classics major, "you'll get a job with itat degree," right? >> we can't promisbut we have a lot of track record to say that students with those majors have, in factgotten jobs. >> brown: and that includes jobs in some unexpected places. >> iyou look at some of the senior-most leaders of companie susan wojcicki, she studied literature and history.

or you look at t founder of nterest, ben silbermann, was a political science major. you look at the founders of airbnb, they studied design and art. >> brown: scott hartley is a venture capitalist who advises tech startups, and author of a new book, "the fuzzie and the techie: why the liberal arts will rule the digital world." he argues that tech companies are more and more in the business of solving large-scale human problems. technology, seen this way, is sometimes the easy part, and getting easier. figuring out how to use it is still key. >> fluency with technology, literacy with technology, in order to get your foot in the door, is important but if you look at sort of the growth over time, oftentimes, the leadership of these companies are people that have the ability to take a step backe havebility to ask the right questions, and have the ability to empathize with the customer. and these are the various things that you learn through a humanities or liberal arts type program. brown: one example cited by hartley: stitch fix, a seven-year-old company in

san francisco, with nearly three million customers. a tech-driven busiarss, but basend retail clothing: customers fill out surveys on their fashion preferences, and are then paired with people like layne cross, an art history major, who now oversees more than 4 of the company's stylists. >> ...or you could totally layer this and wear it in the fall. >> brown: cross and her team prepare a "fix," and a box of clothes is assembled, packed, and eventually shipped out. customers keep what th w like, retut they don't. what's the biggest problem youol all had to? >> i believe it was getting machines and humans to work ngether to solve this com problem. >> brown: eric colson, who studiestatistics at stanford, as it happens, is the company's chief algorithms officer. he sayalong with tech skills, stitch fix needs people with a

sense of "empathy." >> relate to your fellow humans. this is what's most important to that job. you are picking clothes, not ffo yourself, buyour fellow human client, and you want to make sure you understand them. a client might write in, "i ne to look good, i'm going to my ex-boyfriend's wedding." oh, wow! there's a lot of meaning in that, that a human-- >> brown: of course. there's a whole story embedded r in thaht? >> there's a whole story, things they didn't say. yet, our fellow human is going to know what that mend they can appropriately curate some items that will meet that particular need. here. >> brown: they're in high demand, but of course, you couldn't run the company with just philosophy majors? >> no, you need both. if you're on thelearn how to work with people and learn the power of storytelling and getting people on board with your ideas. and if you're on the sofside, you're going to have to appreciate what technology can do for you. >> brown: embodying both: stphart butterfield, philosoy major and co-founder and c.e.o. of slack. when you were studying philosophyyou did not imagine this kind of future. what were you thinking? >> well, i was thinking that i would end up a philosophy professor. >> brown: slack is a popular

chat app with more than eight million daily users, widely relied upon by companies and large organizations for internal office communications. butterfield, who, by the way, also has a masters in philosophy, oversees a $7 billion business. >> there's a lot of companies i who started hethe bay area that have incredible technical abilities and have a great solution in search ooblem. on the other hand, you could have the greatest idea in the e rld, and if you're not a implement and execute, again, it doesn't really matter. so againthere's, like, a real marriage of all these different skills and approaches that are required to aceve this level of success. >> brown: here at slack, it herns out, even reading james joyce ca... at least, according to jaime delanghe. >> i'm basically responsible for making all of the businessci deons around how we help people find what they're looking for in slack. >> brown: search, delanghe says, is about language, and how it's used and intend.

now head of search learning she was an english major in college who loved joyce. p >> i loved tple who were more playful with language, and i think a lot of what i spend my time doing in the technical world of trying to build the best product is thinking about what is somebody typint are they trying to do here, and then make that happen for them. >> brown: but-- and this is important-- delanghe also became fluent in the technology side of her work. she offers this advice: >> you're not done yet, i think, if you're an english major.o you have more thinking and reflecting on where it is you actually want to be, apply those skills, i guess, in society. there's totally hope, there's definitely hope. >> brown: but, looking to the future, will the machines one day take even the most "human" of jobs? back at stanford, robot choreographer catie d.an isn't worr >> i mean, it becomes so circular, right? because then, at that, maybe i'll be doing something completely different i can't en comprehend yet at thi point.

and "robot choreographer" will feel superfluous or antiquated. >> brown: maybe so. for now, the message here: "there is hope for artists and s, as long asmaj they keep moving with the latest technology." for the pbs newshour i'm jeffrey brown in california's bay area. >> woodruff: as we reported earlier, in a court filing late this evening, special counsel robert mueller's team detailed how former trump campaign chairman paul manafort lied repeatedly to prosecutors, after manafort had agreed to become a truthful, cooperating witness. william brangham has been going over this latest document, and is back to help fills in. so what do you see here? >> the important thing, before we get into the filin is remember that giving paul

manafort -- getting paul manafort to age to a plea deal and cooperate was a big deal for muelleras teamme. er, he was the campaign manager at a very crucial part a of the truministration, the very fledgling trump administration at the end of the campaignass well. hehere at the infamous trump tower meeting where don, jr. and jared kushner was there, so he might have a lot of information central to muelleras investigation. mueller's team earlier this year was able to get him -- guilty pleas against him about bank fraud, money laundering, lying about his work as a ukrainian lobbyist, and as part of that conviction, they got him to agree to be a plea. so, today, they said, you agree to be truthful with us and you were not. they laid out fully. they said manafort laid about the following items -- interactions with a suspectedra russian ove -- this was about to coordinate a story to make him look betr -- he lied about the the nature of one particular wire trance ferks he lied about a separate other

department of justice investigation but because ofns redacte don't know what that is, and he lied about contacts with trump administration officials. this last part about thent ts with the trump administration is particularly tough, because it's not illegal but you're not osed to be telling the trump administration what prosecutors are asking you about. >> woodruff: the pieces just continue to come togeth. william brangham, thank you very much. >> you're welcome and that is the newshour for tonight.i' judy woodruff. yve a great weekend. thank you, and s soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been prided by: >> financial services firm raond james. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years,

advancing ideas and supporting institutions to omote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possibley the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everyone, and welcome to r"amanp & company." here's what's coming up. >> no man dies to himsf. >> as president bush 1 is laid to rest, one of the senate's true moderates heads home in defeat.il did compromiseclaire mccaskill's senate campaign? and ashley judd, award-winning activist and me too champion whose roles live up to her ideals. also, children trapped in poverty. "los angeles times" reporter steve lopez on hiseporting and the surprising reader response.