captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newsur" tonight, russia's role-- two new reports outline how moscow targeted americans by race, religion and ideology in the 2016 elections in an even more comprehensive way than previously known. then, fighting over the ture-- nearly 200 countries strike a fractious deal to limit climate change. plus, how a growing culture of over-protective parenting may actually be fueling poor health outcomes, and a budding movement to let kids be kids. > w> crime is less today thn you were growing up, so there is no factual, stcal reason that you shouldn't let your kid have at least as much freedom as you had. >> woo on tonight's "pbs newshour."

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>> woodruff: it turns russian efforts to sow discord in american politics and help elect presidt trump were much broader than first believed. the senate intelgence committee released two reports today, focusing inly on social media data. among other things, they found the russians tried to discouragr african ans from voting and to whip up conservative anger. we'll have aull look, after the news summary. in the day's other news:d a broad-ball-off walloped wall street again. health care stocks helped lead the retreat-- after a federal judge's ruling that the "affordable care act" is unconstitutional. the dow jones industrial average lost more than 500 points, close at 23,592.98sd the fell nearly 157 points. and the s&p 500 slid 54-- to its lowest level in 14 months. former f.b.i. director james comey lambasted republicans today for backing president

trump's attacks on the f.b.i. he met again with the house judici committees as they conclude a a probe eged bias in the f.b.i. before the 2016 election. instead, comey charged that the agency has been tarred by lies from the president and his supporters. >> republicans used to understand that the actions of a president tter, the words of a resident matter, the rule of law matters and the truth maters. where are those republicans today? at some point, somebody has to stand in the face of fear of fox news, fear of their base, fear of meanweets. stand up for the values of this country and not slink into retirement. >> woodruff: this was comey's second appearance befe the two house committees. the u.s. military says weekend air strikes in somalia killed 62 odmbers of "al-shabab." the announcement said the strikes prevented a major attack.

the raids targeted a town thuthwest of mogadishu, in coordination witsomali government. a u.s. air campaign across the horn of africa has intensified, under president trump. the u.s. and china clashed over trade policy today at a world organization review in geneva. the u.s. envoy slammed what he called china's "heavily skewed playing field." the chinese attacked u.s. tariffs that they called "unilateralist and protectionist." e exchange came as the t nations have been taking steps to smooth over grievances. in britain, prime minister theresa may rejected calls for a second referendum on britain's departure from the european union. may has struggled to pusoua "brexit" t parliament-- with just over 100 days untilo britain is dueave the e.u. today, she addressed the house of commons, and insist that holding a re-vote is not the answer >> another vote which would do

irreparable damage to the integrity of ourolitics, because it would say to millions who trusted in democracy, that our democracy does not deliver. another vote which would likely leave us no further forward than the last. >> woodruff: may also said the parliamentary vote on her brexit deal will take place in mid- january-- more than a month after it was originally scheduled. the government of malaysia filed criminal charges today against ldman sachs and two former executives for allegedly looting a state investment fund.th are accused of helping former prime minister najib razak steal billions of dollars over several years. goldn sachs denies the charges. back in this country, google cbs corporation announced les moonves will not receive a $120 million severance package. he resigned in september, over multiple allegations of sexual

misconduct. the company said that it found moonves breecd his contract and refused to cooperate with an investigation, but itlso said the investigators found sexual harassment and retaliation ar not pervasive at cbs. 1 d back in this country, google says it will spendllion in new york city, and double the size of its work force there. the internet search giant e ready employs about 7,000 people in ty. last month, amazon announced plans for a second headquarters in new york's long island city and arlington, virginia. and apple plans to build a billion-dollar campus in austin, texas. still to come on the "newshour," new details on how russia influenced the 2016 election; a world gathering to fight climate change; a growing movement to give kids morem free be kids; and much more.

>> woodruff: there are new details on the scope of russia's efforts to divide americans and sway voters to vote for president trump in 2016. tsa pair of bipartisan rep commissioned by the senate intelligence committee were released today the searchers outlined the strategy by the russian government propaganda wing "the internet research agency." tactics included speciy targeting african-americans, using a wide variety of social media platforms to sprea, their messagd working toward electing candidate donald trump. democratic senator ron wyden of oregon sitets on the se intelligence committee. i spoke to him a short while ago about these latest findings. >> what is really new, judy, is that the companies have been excruciatingly show to deal with

this very serious problem, and let me give you an example. well after the 2016 elections, the facebook general counsel came to an upopen intelligence committee hearing, and i asked him about the rusans and their efforts to suppress the liberal vote. he claimed, well after the 2016 election, he didn't know anything about it. then, about a year later, cheryl sandberg came. i asked her about another problem, and that was sites giving out false information about when the date of the election was. she said then that was a serio problem and, within a couple of weeks, it actually got corrected. so what is really new here is not only is this serious business because it undermines our democracy that the ometimes, trying to

get them to change. ny woodruff: so you're saying it's on the comthey should have known about this earlier. are we also seeing here, tugh, a higher level of sophistication on the part of the russians than we realized in trying to divide americans by race, by geographyy religion? >> the russians are clearly sophisticated an by the way, there wasn't their only strategy. e was wikileaks, ther were the efertle with -- the efforts with the n.r.a., the hacking. but what i will tellyou and this is also what sot lined in coming out, in somane insts, when you're talking about st. petersburg being the address em the site, or you're talking les,t paying in rub that ought to be a wakeup call to get these companies to move. oodruff: well, paying i rubles, seems like a dead giveaway. >> you think? >> woodruff: senator, any new

information here that points to coordination with the trump campaign? >> what new here is the extent of the efforts. wei thin all understand there are issues left to be resolved about collusion, generally. when donald trump, jr. came, for example, to that big meeting, there is no question in my mind, there was an intent toe. coll when you look at all of these stories with respect to thess ility of a trump tower in moscow, therareal questions with respect to collusion. what is new here is just how expensive the effort was by the russians to use these social media platformto consistently pound out a message, and you be they were sophisticated. they'd try, forto example

build up credibility on a particular site. for example, they might target african-americans, and they would use something, the equivalent of blacks don't matter, they build up confidence among african-americans, and then at the last minute say c hillary clintldn't care less about african-americans. >> woodruff: senator, we've seen, by my count, at least half a dozen reports on russian interference. is this the end of reports? or, even if we're getting close to the end, what happens next? >> what is essentialnext is fo these companies to be much more gilant and much more aggressive. i don't think they have tak this seriously in the past. for example, i c say they have been much more interested in rakiro in pts than dealing with efforts by the russians to stack an elction for donald trump. >> woodruff: well, for

example, facebook put out a statement today saying they'vta n extensive efforts, steps to try to make sure ts hind of thing doesn't happen again. they pointed to the fact that, in 2018, the interference wasn't anywhere nr as serious as it was in 2016. are you saying you don't believe they're ing what they say they're doing? >> my sense is that there has been some progress, but that's why i gave you the two examples, while after the election and ntst recently with cheryl sandberg, when i p out that there were sites putting up ngtes about the election, she did move to chthat quickly. she moved within a couple of weeks. they have moved to do more of what is calinled down-ra which is to make it harder to see a particular site. but i would tell you if somebody really tried to specialize in these issues, think they hae got to be much more vigilant anm

mue aggressive. >> woodruff: so you're saying, senator, this is all on these cial media companies, that there's not a particular role here for the government hior an related? >> i think there is a role for us as americanshere, judy. for example, for all of us as americans, as citizen we've got to understand that it's important for us to be careful, when someone uses se dog whistles to undermine the heritage that we all share as amerans, you bet. there's also some personal responsibility here. >> woodruff: senator ron wyden the senate intelligence committee, thank you, senator. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: on saturday, negotiators from over 200 nations agreed to a set of rules

that would help implement the 2015 paris climate accord. it's a very different political moment of course, than when countries met in paris. but as william brangham reports, even though the united states-- one of the world's top carbon polluters-- has said it will pull out of the paris accord, some believe important progress was made this weekend. >> reporter: with the paris accord, the world's nations try to slow their carbon emissions to keep global - rming under two degrees celsiuich is about 3.6 degrees fahrenheit. above that, scientists say, thea will be even more intense: food shortages, massiv droughd hugely destructive sea-level rise. ndthe conference that just in katowice, poland, helped set some ground rules for how that paris accord will be implemented. diplomats agreed on a common set of standards to measure their own emissions, and their own goals. it asks countries to further limit carbon emissofns in advanche next meeting in two years, and it calls on wealthr tions-- those that

created this problem-- to address how they'll help the poorer nations that are disproportionately hurt by climate change. nathaniel ohane is the senior vice president of the environmental defe he's just back from the talks in poland. nat, thank you very much for being here. i wonder if you could just give us a sense of whais your sense of the greatest accomplishment that came out of pola>>nd? o you mentioned it, it's that rule book that requires countries to transparently tport their emissions, to report howhey're going against the commitments they've made, and the reason that's so important is because we know we need to ratchet up ambition, take much deeper cuts in climate pollution, in the greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, and the thy to do at st for countries to build tru in what other countries are doing what they said. that's why the transparency rule

book ty agreed to in poland is going to be so important, and it strikes a balance between a common standard for everyone, a level playing field for all countrs, so that china ad india are facing the same basic requirements as the u.sl as well asibility to recognize that not every country has the same capacity and to build in flexibility for countries that need it. >>here was some concern tha going into this that with the u.s. pulling out ofhe is accord and basically the second largest emitter of rbon in the world saying we're going how many and not interested, that that would have a kno effect and other countries would follow suite. did that happen? >> you saw two u.s. delegations show up in poland. the one delegation was the professional negotiators who were really looking out for u.s. otiatings in the neg rooms throughout the two weeks, and they're the ones who scored such a big victory for the

planet and for the u.s. with those strong transparency rues we just discussed. then there was the white house that showed upnd ems to be mainly interested in pulling stunts. they have a side event on fossil fuels, they allied themselves with saudi arabia to make sure thaterthe coce didn't welcome a scientific report on rming, but, luckily, the stunts and the sort of side shows of the white house didn't actually interfere with the substance of the talks, and the talks, i think, yielded muchmo , including for the u.s., than many of us thought might be possible. >> i appreciate that sense of optimism that you have, but, a you well know, global carbon emissions reached a record high last year. we've seen over the past year many of the long-predicted impacts of climate change with droughts and wiestledz anddl raintensifying storms wreaking havoc on the u.s., not to mention what'sappening elsewhere in the world. there are still many in the

environmental community, in the scientific community who are arguing we are just not doing nearly enough. >> well, we aren't doing enough. that's absolutely right. and if we doubted the evidence of our own eyes in the hurricanes and the the wildlifes and the extreme weather, we got a stark reminder, when the internet governmental panon climate change, a scientific body with world-renowned experts, found earlier this fall the planet is warming even father than we realize, that events are coming sooner than we realized. climate change used to be something that was going to beof fain the future. now we're seeing it in our own times, we're going to see it in the lives of our children. and, so, with we do need to really ramp up that urg but i guess i think wha happened in poland as an important step towards operationazing the paris agreement, which is one of the tools we're going to need to use if we with're going to tack the challenge and meet that sense of urgency. >> there is always this gap

between when people recognize the severity of the problem an then act accordingly to do this. there are a lot of pressures that push mainsteaningful action on climate change. some of them are economic, some it them are social, some them are polal. what gives you a sense of hope that we really will tacklethis problem? >> well, i think if we're goings to tackle problem well, we need two things. one is that sense of urgency that we just were talking about that i think is increasing with the evince of our eyes and the reports and so on, but the other is a sense that there are solutions out there, that we have what it takes, if we put our minds to it, if we put the resources to it, to address this problem, and there i think we're seeing bright spots. if you look atenewable energy like land and solar, the costs of that energy are plummeting. in some places like the united states, wid solar are

existing means and cheaper than coal plants. you have a big eleri utility in the mountain west agreeing to cut cos by 30% and 100% by 2050. china is likely to peak its emissions and start on a downward path in thmiddle of the next decade, which is five years ahead of its own commitment. i there are talwinds that economic drivers on renewable power, on renewable clean technology that are blowing in our direction, and i think that's what gives me some optimism that we have the solutions we need, if we can match th to that sense of urgency, we should all have. >> all right. natalia veselnitskaya of the environment del fence fund, thanks very much. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: now, we turn to the democratic republic of congo, in

central africa. the eastern part of the country has been wracked by cades of instability, and since this past summer, it has been wracked also by a deadly outbreak of the ebola virus. more than 500 cases. as nick schifrin reports, managing this crisis is proving more challenging than any previous outbreak because it's not just a public health challenge-- it is spreading in a warzone. and a warning: images and accounts in this story will upset some viewers. >> reporter: in northeastern congo, the dead are left on dirt roads, and at the grassy edges of remote villages. families are targeted, and homen are to the ground, in a conflict that started before many victims were born. >> ( translated ): they arrived in the village and immediately started shooting, looting the shop and setting fire to the shop. they asked me and my aunt to come out from under the bed, and if we refused, they would burn us ave.ir

( gu ) >> reporter: for a quarter edntury this region's residents have fled from axtremist groups, and local militias. they attack the military and anyone they accuse of collaborating with the govement, and have left villagers in coffins, killed by brutal violence. and now,illagers are being killed by brutal disease. ebola causes high fevers and fatal bleeding, and spreads through bodily fluids of the sick, or already dead. and in this outbreak, the main problem is instality, says community leader jamali musa. >> ( translated ): insecurity will scare away the doctors helping to fight against ebola if they leave, then the virus will spread and it will kill even more people. it's a real danger. >> reporter: already, the violence intermittently forced authorities to suspend their efforts, and pushed the u.s. center for disease control out of the region completely that has helped allow the disease to spread to a major city where mass vaccination is impossible. young children are particularly vulnerable, says unicef regional

director marie-pierre poirier. >> over 30% of affected people by the ebola crisis are children and this number cr not sing. fatality numbers are much higher for ch than for adults. >> reporter: but doctors have managed to reduce fatality number vaccines.y can provide more than 40,0 have received shots. many others are on experimental drugs that doctors call effective. in remote villages that historically resisinoutside helprnational groups educate families to recognize ebola, a prevent it, says save the children's paul lopodo. >> ebola in the eastn part of the congo has been one of the issues that the population has not understood propey. through communication and sensitization the masses have really undstood about ebola. it was really incredible to see a child showing us how to do properly washing in this area, even the number of cases have been reduced. >> rorter: that good news helps convince families ebola isn't necessarily a death sentence. kasereka mulanda talks to his wife, who's infected, through

plastic. >> ( translated ): when we look into each other's eyes through the cubicle and, smiling, she asks how the family is and how the children are... i reply that they're all good and that the children are waiting forer. i feel that we are together again and she is confident that she will return home very soon. >> reporter: the smallest patient just did return home. benedicte began treatment at six days old after her mother but doctors say she is now fully recovered. they call her, "the youngra e." t for the vast majority here, that optimism is tempered. the world health organization warns this outbreak won't be contained for at least six months, and that it will get g worse, before s better. and for more on thise la crisis, we turn to nancy aossey ief executive officer of the international medical corps. they hoe over 200 peple on the ground responding to th the eboa

outbreak. thank you for coming on the "newshour", nancy aossey.is how bahis outbreak? >> well, it's bad because there's a tremendous amount of violence in the easter congresso and, as a result of that, we're not able to go all the things that weeed to do to contain the outbreak. for insyotance, whehave a lot of violence, you have a lot of people who are displaced from eir homes and who lose track of, you know, people in their family, and, also, when people are on the move, it is hard to reach them with education efforts. it's harder to do contact tracing -- that is, if somebody does present wit with ebolams sympwe have to find all the people they have come in contact. with it's hard to do because to have the violence and the instability that's been there for a long time.t >> also,ems because to have the distrust that a lieutenant of these people have. is that right? >> that's correct. you know, often esee that --

see that can such outbreaks. there'a lot of education that has to be done in the community so that they understand what is needed to overcome the outbreak and so tha they trust healthcare workers who just want to help them. on the flip side, you have -- it seems like there have been some bitof good s here. quite a few number of people vaccinated and also newmedicine being deployed that we haven't seen before. >> yes, and we've seen e results of that, so far, are very positive, so we remain t optimistic those efforts will continue and they will be very fruitful in the future. but, at the end of thday, it still comes down to being able to findse thondividuals who have the symptoms and to treat ose individuals. so what's happening, what's alarming right now is that we have new cases that are hopping up that are happening outside on ebola treaunits and, as a result, we don't know where they're coming from, and we

don't know what contacts tha person has had with other people. that's the concern in an area where there's so much instability. >> and is there not only conceru ide the treatment units, but is there also concern outside is there any fear of this crisis spreading beyond the eastn rt of the democratic republic of congo? >> certainly. orytime you have an ebola outbreak, you're wed about it getting into dense citoies r urban areas of that particular current and certainly very concerned about it cross inger into borders. >> quickly in the time we hav left, we've heard the urn basically say that this is going to be an outbreak for at least another six months but possibly it cout worse before it coulttget beer. is that your fear? >> it's definitely ou fear. we think that it will get worse, and it won't be r lack of trying. we're working with all our partners at the table, trying to do their part, but what we dot have in the eastern congo is a political solution.

there e between 4 and 100 rebel groups operating in the eastern kong o and we are -- congo, and we r re doing oubest to support the minimu minisy of health, but because of the fighting, we have a tremendous concern and fear that thing will get worse. >> nancy aossey with the international meancal corps, you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: as childhood obesity, anxiety, depression and suicide rates continue to grow in the united states, some blame in part a relatively new twist of modern life: so-called helicopter parenting. a growing culture of wme see as overprotective parenting may actually be fueling poor health outcomes initany comms. as william brangham reports, there's a budding movement for everyone to take a deep breath,s std let kie kids. >> brangham: with a few

steps, these little feet, all atsix of them, recently ki up a nationwide debe about parenting in america. the two sneakered ones belong to dorothy widen. one afternoon inrbhis tony subu north of chicago, eight- har-old dorothy was walki dog marshmallow. it was one of her regular chores. someone saw them, and called 9- 1-1. >> the police showed up at the door. i mean like you know, bullet proof vest, squad car, you kno gun on her hip, and dorothy was just like, "mom, the police are here!" >> brangham: cory asked if her daughter had done something wrong. >> she said no, there was no other issue other than she was reported to be very young, and alone. >> brangham: child protective services launched an covestigation, and widen was warned her childred be taken away. the case made national headlines. cory and dorothy appeared on morning news shows, and while

the investigation went nowhere, widen became part of a growing and outspoken group of parents who have been investigated or charged for things that seemed ordinary not long ago. >> will you be coming to theom next badmeeting? >> brangham: take widen's friend, kim brooks, a fellow chicago area mom who, on her way to the airport, recently leftol her four-yeason in a locked car on a cool day in suburban virginia. she was gone for five minutes. brooks comes out of the store, gets in the car, her son is f ne, they go to the airport, she thinks nothing. what she didn't realize, though, is that while she was in the store, someone had seen her leave her n behind, came over, videotaped her son, and called the police. >> almost a year later, i got a call and learnedhat no, they actually, they had filed a warrant for my arrest in virginia. somehow i had never been contacted about it until then. >> brangham: a warrant for your arrest for what?

>> for a misdemeanor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor. >> brangham: brooks flew back to virginia, turned herself into the police and did 100 hours of community service. she wrote a book abouthole ordeal, "small animals," and she's concluded that panoia, about parenting, has run amok in america. >> statistically for a child to be abducted by a stranger, because most child abductions are not by strangers, they're by family members, to be abducted by a stranger, you'd have to leave a child alone in a public space for 750,000 years. >>eople are fantasizing an insane level of danger that doesn't-- it almost doesn't a exist action movie. >> brangham: lenore skenazy is something of a patron saint for these moms. she says it's time for parents to push back. her nonprofit, "let grow" aims to make it easy, normal and

legal again for parents to give kids back so independence. skenazy herself came under fire several years o after she allowed her nine-year-old to ride the new york city subway all alone, and then wrote a column about it. it's hysteria, she says. tldhe wors safer today than it's ever been, even as the push to bubble-wrap children keeps growing. >> crime is less today than when you we growing up, so there is no factual, statistical reasonho that youdn't let your kid have at least as much freedom as you had. >> brangham: in communities nationwide, like wilton, connecticut, skenazy's ias are now bringing together parents, law enforcement and elected officials to dial back all the judgment and fear. >> we can use some of lenore's language, that the science is tear that outdoor play, >> brangha state of utah, with skenazy's help, recently passed what's called a "free herange parenting" lawterm,

to enshrine these same ideas. but skenazy says it's not just about societal judgement.s parethemselves need to learn to let go, and sometimes let their kids go wild. what you're seeing here is called play club, one of skenazy's "let grow" ideas being piloted in the patchogue-medford school dis ict on long island, new york. looks like old-fashione recess, but once a week, schools like eagle elementary are throwing open their ors open an hour early and giving kids the run of the place. adults keep eir distance. the kids can tear through the hallp, shake, send things flying. searchgray is a professor of psychology at boston college. he worked with skenazy on this program. he says restricting kids freedom is partly why anxiety and major depressive disorders are five to ten times higher than they were

in the 1950s. and the suicide rate for kids has increased six fold. play, he says, helps them learn crucial resilience and social skills. >> how do you develop the capacity for all of these ings if you're growing up just doing what you're told to do, right? you absolutely need freedom, you need to be able to take risks, need to learn how to fail, you need to learn i can fall down, t hurt, and i can get up again, and recover. >> brangham: gray says this loss of unstructured play is partlyoo why childhobesity and other health issues are on the rise. >> there are a lot of people who think that adult directed sports would make up for that, or gym classes, or going and, god forbid, working out atut work out, b children are not ansigned to lift weights, run track, and swim laps. they're designed to chase one another around, laughing, and screaming, until their sides are splitting. this is how chdren get exercise, and there's no substitute for that. >> brangham: once the school day starts, "let grow" follows these

kids into the classroom, and eventually home. >> i cut a cucumber all by myself. >> brangham: starting in kindergarten, the program also assigns students to try something new once a week, no help from mom and dad. second-grader nathaniel ames recently started venturing into the backyard to feed the family chickens. fourth-grader gia rosello learned to pop her own popcorn. >> i've been thinking about it a >> brangham: connor hayes is a fifth grader who has never walked more than a block from his house, by himself. .> look both ways before you cross the street m, brangham: the next day, he convinced his mo maggie that he was ready. >> bye, connor. i love you. >> brangham: she knows this freedo hard for her. but it's >> when i was younger, i was outside bike all around themy neighborhood, and i was doing iw probablyn i was younger than

him. c >> branghanor made it to the playground that day, two blocks, and he said the feeling he got lived up to the hype. >> kind of wanted toe see how cool it was to just like be alone for the first time without anybody watching me, and having it all under control, and stuffr makes me feel etty proud of myself. >> brangham: skenazy says of course these are just baby steps. and while she knows it makes many uncomfortable, she says its cruciafor parents across the spectrum. >> these, certainly the id of a free range parenting law that says that you can take your eyes off your kids, and it's not illegal, is great across the entireconomic spectrum, because some people want to give their kids freedom, and they don't want to get arrested. some people have to give their kids freedom, because they're coming home from work later than so, whether it's by choice or by necessity, the idea of giving children some independence, or some unsupervised me, shouldn't be illegal. >> brangham: after being investigated for letting her daughter walk the dog, cory

widen says dorhy is now nervous about being out alone. she's worried she's going to get in tuble. they're both hoping that will change soon. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham, in wilmette, illinois. >> woodruff: the debate and the battles over the fed healthcare law called the affordable care act-- often re arred to as obamacare-- a constant seemingly without end. is weekend a new round was fired in the battle that threatens the very future of th self. a federal judge in texas ruled friday night that thncentire law isstitutional. and, as amna nawazxplains, by doing so, the judge has triggered questions about what happens now. >> reporter: judy, u.s. district judge reed o'connor sidewith republicans from 20 states who brought suit against the

affordable care act. the judge said that since congress originally passed the law with the mandate to buy insurance, the law is unconstitutional without it. the decision will be appealed by alher states and congressi democrats. but it cast doubt on the future of the insurance marts that millions use. and the stakes go even higher. there are huge parts of the healthcare system-- including medicare, medicaid, as well as payments to doctors, hospitals, insurers-- that are all intricately woven into the health cae law. julie rovner of "kaiser health news," who joined us friday night about the insurance markets just before this broke, is back with us. welcome back.>> thanks for havi. so before we pack all t potential changes, let's make t clear whais means now. has anything changed immediately as a result of this ruling? no, nothing has chnged immediately. the trump administration put out statements that said while his case kes its way through the courts, we will continue to enforce the law as written.

the president, however, has made it clear tht he agrees with this decision and believes the law is unco so i suppose there's room for them to change their minds but, at the moment, what the department of health and human services is saying is everything goes as it has until there's conclusion to this. >> at the moment, the law stands, but if the ruling the upheld, you say the potential is enormous, there could be enormous disruption. what did you mean bethat? >> t, partly because this law is so ach large than wht we talk about, the insurance markets, people who buy theirinso insurance antimes the medicaid expansion, but this law made huge changes o the medicare program to make sure every provider under medicare is paid, allowed generic version to complicated by lodging drugs, included the health service, money foromnity health centers. all of that would go away if the

law was struck down.at s so embedded into the healthcare system that it reall wouse an enormous disruption, almost hard to overstate how much offa disruption it would be. >> one of the more thpular of law, protection for those with pre-existing conditions, those would goway, too? >> not only those, but protections for pple with pre-existing conditions in employer sponsored health plans that date back to 1996. i discovered doing another story earlier this fall that those weitten into the affordable care act, so if the affordable care act pre-existing conditiont tions for individuals went away, so would the ones for people in employment insurance. >> something else we talk about a lot, too. people under the age of 26 allowed to stay on their parents-insurance.ea i want to be cabout this. that also would go away. >> the requireme would go away. presumably employers couldco inue to allow fit they want to but the requirement that employs offer to parents with children up to age 26 would

go away. >> drug pricing, what would this ruling, if it's upheld, what would it do to their ability to dry to lower some of those drug prices? >> it would undercut what the adminidration is trying to o on drug prices because the short the administration is using is authority congress anormed in the affordable care act. a lot of t things the administration is trying to do are having toth do wihat was allowed under the law. it's important to remember even though this law passed woman democratic votes, the democrats wrote it trying to peal torooms and indeed there are parts republicans like a lot. th it's impossible to tak politics out of this. this was an effort led republicans, state attorneys general and republican governors. fis there a counter t by democrats to try to preserve the law? >> that's who's defending the law in court, our democraticge attorneyral, because the trump administration decided not to defend the lawsuit. they sd maybe the whole law shouldn't go down but we think

perhaps the pre-existing ntricatelys, those tied to the manhattan, maybe those should be struck down so the democratic attorneys general said we would like to defend the epw and the judge said okay. south basically ublican atrneys general versus democratic attorneys gen >> if the rules is upheld, goictd to the appeals court and a potentiait ends up before the supreme court. they've weighed in on the affordable care act before. do we know what would happen if it ends up before this court? >> we don't know but it's been to the supreme court twice and upheld twice and even people who were on the side of striking the law or parts of it down before say this parcular case is pretty weak, so there is an expectation fit got to the supreme court, th would overturn it. however, we don't know how long it might take, and there mig be different supreme court by the time the law would get there. >> we ve no idea what's ahead but you will be tracking it for

us. julie rovner, thank you. >> good be >> woodruff: while the white house deals with more staff changes, new polls give us a glimpse into what vote are thinking about notable democrats-- and president trump- - as we head into a new year and gear up for the 2020 campaign season. to discuss all of this, we're joined by our politics monday duo, tamara keith of npr and amy walter of "the cook political report." hello to both of you. it is "politics monday." let's talk first about some personnel changes at the top of the administ. tam, the president let us know a while ago that john kelly, his chief of staff, was leaving, and just sort of ab wuptly s announced he was going to bring in as an acting chief of staff, mick mulvaneyyalso heading you

have the office of management and budget, big job, he is going to continue to hold that job while he is being white house chief of staff. meanwhile a change of thede rtment of interior ryan zinke is out. what are we to make f all this sninchts seems there's been a lieutenant of turmoil in the trump administration, e 's because ths been. president trump, right now there are four people awaiting confirmation for cabinet-level positions, and, already, he has had to, if you include chief of staff as part of the cabinet, there are 11 positions, 12 depending on how you count, that he has had to fi vacancies for. so that was, you know, like second time around he had to fill vacancies. we're working to come up on the third time around ochief o staff and some of these others. it is remarkable. ts.is off the char he is lapping all his recent predecessors in terms of cabinet-level turnover and also

in whieg-ranking white house staff. brookings institutions announced 65% turnover in top white house staff. this is not normal. >> woodruff: there have been changes in other administrations, this is just more rapid. >> it's more rapid and some of it can be contributed to this was a group of people that were completely unprepared for staffing the white use. 've heard all the stories. hillary clinton was well on her way for staffher cabinet and people in her immediate ngiversity. >> woodruff: measuhe curtains. >> yes. and, of course, you remember st was chris ch who was putting the transition together, and was abruptly let go right after president trump won. onthink what's also notable is donald trump ran draining the swamp, right, got to get rid of all these people who havall these ethical problems or who are putting the interests of corporate america or, you know, heere are other special interests abovemerican

public. when you look at the turnover, it's not simply people are leaving because they're burned out or not experienced or weren't rey to take the job so many of them, and i had to go through, like i forgot about some of these people, tom price at h.h.s., people who had ethical clouds over them when pushed out or fired, michael flynn, scott pruitt from the ep rex tillerson wasn't an ethical problem, but a problem of personality. d.a. secretary shelton that had problems and now the ethics surrounding dr. . >> woodruff: the cabinet level. >> all with a cloudf ethical scandal around them. and this is coming, zinke mae it pretty explicit that he was leaving, in part, becau they were going to -- there were going to be investigations by a democraticallyolled house, and he said he didn't want to blt his family through the expense and the trof all of these investigations for what

he says are unfounded allegations. that is a reason to leave the administraon to avoid investigations, then there are other cabinet secretaries who could end up leaving as well.i' not convinced that zinke is going to avoid all th investigations just because he left the administration, but president trump, at least politically, will be able to say, oh, that's not me, he's gone. >> woodruff: only two more years to go in the firsttem. so we're talking about the president. we mentioned a new poll, an nbc-"wall street journal" poll out and others, right now the nbc-wrowrm poll says the president has the support of 85% of republicans, they approve of his job performance. at the same time, 56% of americans say they think the country is moving in thewr g -- is on the wrong track. the economy may be going well, but there's something that's bothering them. so what do we make of that?

>> what seems to be bothing em is the president and the president's behavior, and that's been the dividing line here since he was candidate trump. what i fofaund scinating about the poll is when you look at the core group of vots that shea they will vote for president trump for reelection in 2020 and people o are definitely or likely to vote for them, that's about 38% of americans who fall that category, which isn't much different from where bill clinton was at the end of 199 fortunately, we don't have the '94 number there. soucnot different than previous presidents. bu52% say they are not going to vote for president trump, including 39% who sy they definitely will not vote. that is very different from where bill clinton was, only 18%, he said they definily wouldn't vote for bill clinton -- 14% who definitelywo dn't vote for bill clinton. think about that, this core group, for asuch as we talk

about trump's base and how significant they are to him, hoh loya are to him, and how he caters to them, they make up a very small -- much smaller proportion of the electorate than those who are veryro disang of the president, and there is no elasticity here, the people whlike him will stick with him foreverrenned ever, and the people who don't like him, the odds of them moving, that 52% movg into may support trump gets harder and hard s. >> woodruferal ways to look at these numbers. i want to ask you about numbos on demcrats, tam. i think this was just in iowa -- it was an iowa poll over then whole ctry, people were asked which democratic candidates do you like, joe biden, bernie sanders and then beto o'rourke who lost the rac for senate in texas. >> so what you have is a bus load of people who say they are likely to run for president on

the democratic sidwh do you have a bus load of people running for presidentet ially? because of the numbers amy is talk about, because they see potential. but i would just say at this time in 2014 or whatever year it was, jeb bush was the leading candidate with the giant field. it's likely unpredictable. >> woodruff: it is really early. >> it is, but the horse race is sort of t irrelevant athis point. i love polls, it's relevant. but the priority is most important, 54% want to pick someone to beat donald trump. that's the number one thinfog primary voters in iowa. , >> woodruff: tamera keiy walter. thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: oxford dictionaries has named "toxic" as the word of

the ar. there was a 45% jump in the number of times people looked it up online. and it was chosen to, "reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year." despite that backdrop, poet ada limon believes there is a more effecte way to communicate, and shares her humble opinion on the radical hope in poetry. >> these days it seems like all we do is read and write, or should i say scroll and post. and while some people have rigorously stuck to the model of sharinonly perfectly framed photos of peach bellinis or pictures of homemade posole, por the mot it seems that thesi one thing we cently share is our outrage. now, i'm not saying rage can'thy be useful, heaeven necessary, but it is not lost on me that at the same time we're inundad with diatribes and rants on our news feeds, on our televisions, people have been

turning, more and more poetry. at a te when language is often used only as a blunt tool, poetry reminds us that language can also be used for nuance, mystery, and even radical hope. poetry is a place where both grief and grace can live, where rage can be explored and examined, not simply exploited. like the lines from one of terrance hayes's poems called "american sonnet for my past and future assassin." "something happens everywhere in this country every day. someone is praying. someone is prey." or how josé olivarez explores the danger of his own anger in the lines of his poem, "poem in come wolverine." "i know my rage is poison. i know it kills me first."

and still i love it. and feed it. poetry isn't a place of answerso and easy sol. it's a place where we can admit to an unknowing, own our privatl despair, and ssometimes, practice beauty. in my own work, i'm always trying to lean toward the real questions, as in my poem "dead stars." "look, we are not unspectacular things. we've come this far, survived this much. what would happen if we decided to survive more?" i believe people are reading more poetry because we distrust the diatribe, the easy answer, the argument that holds only one note. poetry makes its music from specificity and empathy, it speaks to the whole complex notion of what it means to be human. and that is exacy what we need more of these days: a chance tol be seen in both our rage

and our humanity. >> woodruff: thank you. and on the nshour online right now, as temperatures drop, the number of colds and flus starts to tick up. the science of how the viruses that cause those common illnesses stay contagiout and the ays to protect yourself and family. that and more is on oupbwebsite org/newshour and that's the newshour for tonight.dy i'm oodruff. join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular. >> financial services fi raymond james. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology,

and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation.d commit building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc cadiioned by access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour and company. even the tabloids are flipping now. is the investigation into president ump reaching critical mass. then, thrills and spills were the message. widowsirector steve mcqueen tells me about his new film and what he thinks about being snubbed by the goldenes gl plus, why this conservative publisher and son-in-law of the late senator john mccain abandoned the republican party. >> uniworld is a proud sponsor " amanpour & co." when bea tollman found a collection of boutique hotels, she had bigger dreams, and those dreams were on the water.