captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm ju woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, russia's role-- two new reports outle how moscow targeted americans by rac religion and ideology in the 2016 elections in an even more comprehense way than previously known. then, fighting over the futu-- 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. >> crime is less today than when you were growing up, so there is no factual, statistical reason that you shouldn't let your kid have at least as much freedom as you had. >> woodruff:ll that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." aj

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>>oodruff: it turns out russian efforts to sow discord in american politics and help elect president trp were much broader than first believed. the senate intelligence committee released two reports today, focusing mainly on social media data. among other things, they found the russians tried to discourag african americom voting and to whip up conservative anger. we'll have a full ok, after the news summary. -o the day's other news: a broad-based se walloped wall street again. health care stocks helped lead the retreat-- after a federal judge's ruling that the "affordable re act" is unconstitutional. the dow jones industrial averalo more than 500 points, close at 23,592.98 the nasdaq fell nearly 157 poin. and the s&p 500 slid 54-- to its lowest level in 14 months. former f.b.i. director james comey lambasted republicans ttoday for backing presid

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

the raids targeted a town southwest of mogadishu, in coordination with the somali government. a u.s. air campaign across the horn of africa has intensified,s under ent trump. the u.s. and china clashed over trade policy today at a world organization review in geneva. the u.s. env slammed what he called china's "heavily skewed playing field." the chinese attacked u.s. tariffs that they called "unilateralist and proteconist." tae exchange came as the two nations have beeng steps to smooth over grievances. in britain, prime ministery theresa jected calls for a second referendum on britain's departure from the european ion. may has struggled to push a "brexit" through parliament-- with just over 100 days until britain is due to leave the e.u. today, she addressed the house of commons, and insisted that-v holding a e is not the answer. >> another vote which would do

irreparable damage to the integrity of our politics, because it would say to millns 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 ldiminal charges today against n sachs and two former executives f allegedly looting a state investment fund. they are accused of helping former prime minister najib razak steal billions of dollars over several years. goldman chs 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 a multipegations of sexual

misconduct. the company said that it found moonves breeched his contract and refused to cooperate with an investigation, but it also said the investigators found sexual harassment and retaliation are not pervasive at cbs. and back in this country, google says it will spend $1 n in new york city, and double the size of its work force there. the internet srch giant already employs about 7,000 people in the city. 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 more freedom to 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. a ir of bipartisan reports commissioned by the senate astelligence committee were re today the researchers outlined thegy y the russian governmentropaganda wing "the internet research agency." tactics included specifically targeting african-americans, using a wide variety of soci media platforms to spread their messages, and working toward electing candidate donald trump. democratic senator ron wyden of oregon sits on the senate 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 thes russid 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, cherya berg came. i asked her about another problem, and that was sites giving out false information heout when the date of t election was. she said then that was a problem and, within a couple of weeks, it actually got corrected. so what is really new ere is not only is this serious siness because it undermines our democracy thatthe companies, somemes, trying to

get them to change. >> woodruff: so you're saying it's on the company, hould have known about this earlier. are we also seeing here, though, a higher level of sophistication on the part of the russians tha we realized in trying to divide americans by race, by geographye bygion? >> the russians are clearly sophisticated and, bthe way, there wasn't their only strategy. there were the efertle with -- the efforts with the n.r.a., e hacking. but what i will tell you and this is also what sot lined in coming out, in some instances, when you're talking about st. petersburg being the address of the site, or you're talking about them paying in rub that ought to be a wakeup call to get these companies to move. >> woodruff: well, paying in 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. i ink we all understand there are issues left to resolved about collusion, generally. when donald trump, jr. came, for example, to that big meeting,er is no question in my mind, there was an intent to collude. when you look at all of these stories with respect to theil possy of a trump tower in moscow, there ar l questions with respect to collusion. what is new here is just how expensive the effortas by the russians to usee thse social media platforms to consistently pound out a message, and you be they were sophisticated. example, to for

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 lden at the last minute say hillary clinton ct care less about african-americans. >> woodruff: senator, we'v seen, by my count, at least half a dozen reports on russian interference. is this the end of reports?if or, even we're getting close to the end, what happensnex >> what is essential next is for these companies to be muceh mor vigilant and much more aggressive. i don't think they have taken this seriously in the past. for exampl i can say they have been much more interested in raking i prots than dealing with efforts by the russians to ack an election for donald trump. >> woodruff: well, for

example, facebook put out a statement todayaying they've taken extensive efforts, steps to try to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again. they pointed to the fact that, in 201 the interference wasn't anywhere near as serious as it uas in 2016. are you saying y don't believe they're doing what they say they're doing? >> my sense is that there has been some progress, but at's why i gave you the two examples, while after the electionnd most recently with cheryl usandberg, when i pointed that there were sites putting up dates about the election, she did move to change t quickly. she moved within a couple of weeks. they have moved to do mre of what is called down-ranking, which is to make it harder to see a particular site. but i would tell you somebody really tried to specialize in these issues, i theink they hav got to be much more vigilant ana

much morressive. >> woodruff: so you're saying, senator, this is all on theseal soedia companies, that there's not a particular role here for the government or anything related? >> i think there is a role fo us as americans here, judy. for example, for all of us as americans, as citizens, i ink 've got to understand that it's important for us to be careful, when someone uses these dog whistles to undermine the heritage that we all share as americans, you bet. there's also some personal responsibility here. >> woodruff: senator ron wyden on the senate intelligence senator.e, thank you, >> 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 s lluters-- has said it will pull out of the pacord, some believe important progress was made this weekend. >> reporter: with the paris accord, the world's nations agreed to try carbon emissions to keep global h rming under two degrees celsius-- wh about 3.6 degrees fahrenheit. above that, scientists say, thel damagebe even more intense: food shortages, massivu droughts, anly destructive sea-level rise. the conference that just ended r katowice, poland, helped set some ground rules w that paris accord will be implemented. diplomats agreed on a common set r standards to measure th own emissions, and their own goals. it askcountries to further limit carbon emissions in advance of the next meeting in two years, andt calls on wealthier nations-- those that

created this problem to address how they'll help the poorer nations that are disproportionately hurt by climate change. nathaniel keohane is the senior vice president of the environmental defense fund, and he's just back from the talks in poland. nat, thank you very much for beerg here. i wof you could just give us a sense of what is your sense of the grhmatest accomplt that came out of poland? >> so you mentioned it, it'sbo that rulok that requires countries to trartparently retheir emissions, to report how they're going against the comtments they've made, and the reason that's so important is because we know we need to ratchet up ambition, take much deeper cutin climate pollution, in the greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, and the way to do that is for countries to build tru in what other countries are doing what they said. that's why there transy rule

book they agreed to in poland is going to be so important, and it strikes a balance betwe a common standard for everyone, a level playing field for all countries,o that china and india are facing the same basic requirements as the u.s., a well as flility to recognize that not every country has the same capacity and to build in flexibility for countries that need it. >> there was some concern tha going into wis thh the u.s. pulling out of the paris accord and basically the second largest emitter of carbon in the world saying we're going how many and not terested, that that would have a knock-on effect and other countries would followu site. did that happen? >> you saw two u.s. delegations show up in poland. the one delegation was the professional negotiators who were really looking ouu.s. interests in the negotiating rooms throughout the two weeks, and they're the ones who ored such a big victory for the planet and for the u.s. with

those strong transparency rules we just discussas. then therehe white house that showed up and seems to be mainly interested inpulng stunts. they have a side event on fossil fuels, they allied themsel sves di arabia to make sure that the conference didn't welcome a scientific report o warming, but, luckily, thest ts 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 much more, including for the u.s., than many of us thought might be possible.t >> i appreciatt sense of optimism that you have, but, as reu well know, global carbon emissions reached ord high last year. we've seen over the past year many ofthe long-predicted impacts of climate change with droughts and wiestledz and rapidly intensifying storms wreaking havoc thu.s., not to mention what's happening elsewhere in the world. there are still my 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 panel on climate change, a scientific body with world-renowned experts, found earer this fall the planet is warming even father than we realize, that events are comioner than we realized. climate change used to be something that was going to be t far off future. now we're seeing it in our own times, we're going to see it in thlives of ou children. and, so, with we do need to really ramp up that urgbuency. i guess i think what happened in poland as an impoant step towards operationalizing the paris agreement, which is one of the tools 're going to need tose 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 and then act accordingly to do this there lot of pressures that push against meaningful action on climate chanmege. of them are economic, some of them are social, some them are political. what gives you a sense of hep that we really will tackle this problem? >> well, i think if we're going to tackle this problem well, we need two things. one is that sense of urgency that we just were talking about that think is increasing with the evidence 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 weput our minds to it, if we put the resources to it, to addressthis problem, and there i thinke' seeing bright spots. if you look at renewable energy like land and solar, the cos of that energy are plummeting. in some places like the united states, wind and solar are

existing means and cheaper than coal plants. you have a big electric utility in thees mountain agreeing to cut costs by 30% and 100% by 2050. china is likely to peak itsar emissions and on a downward path in the middle of the next decade, which is five years ahead of its own commitment. so there are tailwinds that economic drivers on renewable power, on renewableclean 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 them that sense ofnc ury, we should all have. >> all right. natalia veselnitskaya of the environment del fence fund, h.anks very muc >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: now, we turn to the democratic republic of congo, in

central afca. the eastern part of the country has been wracked by decades 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 provi 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.re familiesargeted, and homes d e burned to the ground, in a conflict that starfore many victims were born. >> ( translated ): they arrived in the village and immediately started shooting, loote shop and setting fire to the shop. they asked me and my aunt to d,me out from under the bend if we refused, they would burn us alive.

( gunfir) >> reporter: for a quarter century this region's residents have fled from armedmist groups, and local militias. they attack the military and anyone they accu of collaborating with the government, and have left villagers in coffins, killed by brutal violence. and now, villars 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 instabilitysays 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 aeal 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. ung 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 is not decreasing. n fatalibers are much higher for children than for adults. e reporter: but doctors h managed to reduce fatality numbers where they can provide vaccines. more than 40,000 have received shots. many others are on experimental drugs that doctors cal effective.es in remote villhat historically resist outside help, international groups educate families to recognize ebola, and prevent it, says save the children's paul lopodo. >> ebola in the eastern pa of the congo has been one of the issues that the population has not understood properly. through communication and sensitization the masses have really understood about ebola. it was really incredible to se a child showing us how to dohi properly w in this area, even the number of cases have been reduced. >> reporte 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 for her 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 died. but doctors say she is now fully recovered. they call her, "the young miracle."t r the vast majority here, that optimism is tempered. the world health organization warns this outbreak won't be contained for at leastix months, and that it will get worse, before it geter. and for more on this eboa crisis, we turn to nancy aossey, the chief executive officer of the international medical corps. they haveover 200 peoe on the ground responding to th the eboa

outbreak. thank you for coming on the "newshour", nancy aossey.hi how bad iss outbreak? >> well, it's bad because there's a tremendous amount of violence in the eastern congresso and, as a result of that, we'lere not o go all the things that we need to do to contain the outbreak. for inshatance, when yoe a lot of violence, you have a lot of people who are displaced from theihomes 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, ifdy some does present wit wi ebola symptoms, we have to find all the people they have come in contact. with it's hard to do because to have instability that's been there for a long time. >> also, it seems because to have the distrust thatet a lint of these people have. is that right? >> that's correct. you know, we often esee tht --

see that can such outbreaks. there's a t of education that has to be done in the community so that they understand what is needed to overcome the outbreak and so that they trust healthcare workers who just want to help them. >> on the flip side, you have -- seems like there have been some bits of good news here. quite a few number of people vaccinated and also new medicine being deployed that we haven't seen before. >> yes, and we've seen the results of that, so far, are very positive, so weemain optimistic that those efforts bell continue and they will very fruitful in the future. but, at the end of the day, it still comes down to abeie to find those individuals who ha the symptoms and to treat those individuals. so what's happing, what's alarming right now is that we have new cases that are hopping up that are happening outside of ebola treatment units and, as a result, we don't know where'r thcoming from, and we

don't know what contacts that person has had with other n ople. that's the conc an area where there's so mucinh ability. >> and is there not only concern outside the treatment units, but is there also concern outside the country? is there any fear of this crisis spreading beyond the eastern o partf the democratic republic of congo? an>> certainly. ime you have an ebola outbreak, you're worried about it getting into dense cits or urban areas of that particular current and certainly very concerned about it crossing over into borders. >> quickly in the time we have left, we've heard the urny basicay that this is going to be an outbreak for at least another six months but possibly it could ge worse before it could get better. is that ur fear? wi it's definitely our fear. we think that itl get worse, and it won't be for lack of trying. we're working with all ourne pa at the table, trying to do their part, but what we don't have in the eastern congo is a political solution.

tiere are between 40 and 100 rebel groups ope in the eastern kong o and we are -- congo, and we are doing our t to support the minimu ministry f health, but because of the fighting, we have a tremendous concern and fear that things ll get worse. >> nancy aossey with the international medical corps, thank 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 twistof odern life: so-called helicopter parenting. a growing culture of what some see as overprotective parenting y actually be fueling poor health outcomes in many communities. as william brangham s, there's a budding movement for kieryone to take a deep breath, and let kids be . ew>> brangham: with just a

steps, these little feet, all sipof them, recently kicked a nationwide debate about parenting in america. the two sneaked ones belong to dorothy widen. one afternoon in thithtony suburb n of chicago, eight- year-o dorothy was walking her dog marshmallow. it was one of her regular chores. someone saw them, and lled 9- 1-1. >> the police showed up at the door.u i mean like ow, bullet proof vest, squad car, you know, gun on her hip, and dorothy wa just like, "mom, the police are here!" >> brangham: cory asked if her daughter had done something wrong. >> she said no, there was noot other issur than she was reported to be very young, and alone. >> brangham: child protective l servicesaunched an investigation, and widen was warned her children could be taken away.th 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 cho have been investigated or ged for things that seemed ordinary not long ago. >> will you be coming to theme next bad moming? >> brangham: take widen's friend, kim brooks, a fellow chicago area mom whothon her way toairport, recently left her four-year-old son in a locked car on a cool day in suburban virginia. she was gone for five s. brooks comes out of the store, ge in the car, her son is fine, they go to the airport, she thinks nothing of it. what she didn't isalize, though, hat while she was in the store, someone had seen her leave her son bend, came over, videotaped her son, and called the police. >> almt a year later, i got a call and learned that no, they actually, they had filed a warrant for my arrest in virginia. somehow i had never been contacted about it until then. y>> brangham: a warrant fr 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. shlewrote a book about the w ordeal, "small animals," and she's concluded that paranoia, 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. >> people are fantasizing an insane level of danger thatit doesn't-lmost doesn't e ist in an action movie. >> brangham: lenenazy is something of a patron saint for these moms. she says it's time forts toush back. her n"rofit, "let grow" aims to make it easy, normal and

legal again for parents to give kids back some indendence. skenazy herself came under fire several years ago afr 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. the world is safer today than it's ever been, even as the push to bubble-wrap children keeps growing. >> crime is less today than when you were growing up, so there is no factual, statistical reason that you shouldn't let your kid have at least as much freedom as you had. >> brangham: in communities nationwide, like wilton, connecticut, skenazy's ideas are now bringing together parents, law enforcement and electedto officialial back all the judgment and fear. >> we can use some of lenore's language, that the science is clear that outdoor play, >> brangham: the state of utah, with skenazy's help, recentlypa ed what's called a "free range parenting" law, her term,r

to ee these same ideas. but skenazy says it's not just about societal judgement.se parents lves need to learn to let go, and sometim g let their kiwild. what you're seeing here is called play club, one of skenazy's "let grow" ideas being piloted in the patchogue-medford school district on long island, new york. it looks like old-fashioned recess, but once a week, schools like eagle elementary are throwing open their dooropen an hour early and giving kids the run of the place. adults keep theidistance. the kids can tear through the halls, jump, shake, send things flying. peter gray is a rese ch 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 sresilience aial skills. >> how do you develop the capacity for all of these things 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, you need to learn how to fail, you need to learn i can fall down, and get rt, and i can get up again, and recover.m: >> brangha gray says this loss es unstructured play is partly why childhood oby 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 at a work out, but children are not designedo lift weights, and run track, and swim laps. hiey're designed to chase one another around, la, and screaming, until their sides are splitting. this is how children get exercise, and there'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 walk more than a block from his house, by himself. >> look both ways before you cross the street. >> brangham: the next day, he convinced his mom, maggie that he was ready. >> bye, connor. i love you. >> brangham: she knows this freedom is important, but it's hard for her.i >> whes younger, i was outside all day long, riding my bike all around the neighborhoodi was doing it probably when i was younger than

r m. >> brangham: conde it to the playground that day, two blocks, and he said the feeling he got lived up to theype. e >> kind of wanted to like how cool it was to just like be alone for the first time wtchout anybody ng me, and having it all under control, and stuff. makes me feel pretty proud of myself. >> brangham:kenazy says of course these are just baby steps. and while she knows it makes many uncomfortable, she says its crucial for parents across the spectrum. >> these, certainly the idea 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 entire enomic spectrum, because some people want to give ththeir kids freedom, an don't want to get arrested. some people have to give their kids freedom, because they're coming home from work later than , whether it's by choice or by necessity, the idea of giving children some independence, or some unsupervised time shouldn't be illegal. >> brangham: after beingin stigated for letting her daughter walk the dog, cory

widen says dorothy inow nervous about being out alone. she's worried she's going to get in trouble they're both hoping that will change soon. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham, in wilmette, linois. >> woodruff: the debate and the battles over the federal healthcare law called the affordable care act-- often itferred to as obamacare-- are a constant seeminglyut end. this weekend a new rounwas fired in the battle that threatens the very future of thf law it a federal judge in texas ruled friday night that the entiit law is unconional. and, as amna nawaz explas, by doing so, the judge has triggered questions about what happens now. >> reporte judy, u.s. district judge reed o'connor sided with 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 other ates and congressional democrats. but it cast doubt on the future of the insurance markets tt 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 alth cae law. julie rovner of "kaiser health news," who joined us friday night about the insurance markets just before this broke, back with us. welcome back.>> thanks for havi. so before we pack all the potential changes, lmake clear what this means now. has an iything changediately as a result of this ruling? >> no, nothing has changed immediately. the trump administration put out statements that said while this case maits way through the courts, we will continue to enforce the law as written.

the president, however, has made it clear that heagrees with this decision and believes the law is unconstitutional. so i suppose there's room foro themange 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 a conclusion to this. >> at the moment, the law stands, but if the ruling the upheld, you say the potential is enormous, there could be en what did you mean bethat? >> t, partly because this law is so much lge than whawe talk about, the insurance markets, people who buy theirin' insurance and sometimes the medicaid expansion, but thi law made huge changes to the medicare prram to make sure every provider under medicare is paid, allowed generic version to complicated by lodging drugs, included the health service, money for community health centers. all of that would go ay if the

law was struck down. that is so embedded into the healthca system that it really would cause an enormous disruption, alst hard to overstate how much offa disruption it would be. >> one of the more popular of the w, protection for those with pre-existing conditions, those would go aay, too? >> not only those, but protections for people th pre-existing conditions in employer sponsored health plans that date back to 1996. i discovered doing another story earlier this fall that those were written into the affordable care act, so if the aordable care act pre-existing condition protections 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. i want to be clear this. that also would go away. >> the requirement wou go away. presumably employers could continue to allow fit they want to but the requirement that employers offer it 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 dthog prices? >> it would undercut what the administrati is trying to do on drug prices because the shott e administration is using is authority coness anormed in the affordable care act. a lot of the things the administration is trying to do are having tot do with was allowed under the law. it's important to remember even though thispa lawsed woman democratic votes, the democrats wrote it trying to repe torooms and indeed there are parts republicans like a lot. >> it's impossible to take the politics out of thie this was anort led by republicans, state attorneys general and republic governors. is there a counter effort by democrats to try to preserve the law? >> that's who's defending the law in court, our democraticl, attorneys genebecause the trump administration decided not to defend the lawsuit. they said mae the whole law shouldn't go down but we think

perhaps the pre-existing protections, those intricately tied to the manhattan, maythbe e should be struck down so the democratic attorneys general id we would like to defend the law and the judge said okay. ubsouth basically rcan attorneys general versus democratic attorneys general. >> if the rules is upheld, heictd toppeals court and a potential it ends up before the supreme cohet. they've wein 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 wh were on the side of striking the law or parts of it down before say this particular case is pretty weak, so there is an expectation fit got to the supreme court, the supreme court would overturn it. howeve we don't know how lon it might take, and there might be different supreme court by ule time the law wod get there. >> we havno idea what'shead but you will be tracking it for

us. julie rovner, thank you. >> good to be >> woodruff: while the white house deals with more staff achanges, new polls give glimpse into what voters are thinkingbout 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. is "politics monday." let's talk first about some oprsonnel changes at thef the administration. tam, the president let us know a while ago that john kelly, his chief of staff, was leaving, and just sort of abruptly it ws announced he was going to bring in as an acting chief of staff, mick mulvaneyy, aldi hea you

have the office of management and budget, big job, he is going tot ontinue to hold tb while he is being white house chief of staff. meanwhile a change of the department of interior ryan zinke is out. what are we to make oalf l this sninchts seems there's been a lieutenant of turmoil in the trump administration, it'ss because there en. 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 othe cabinet, there are 11 positions, 12 depending on how you count, that he has had to fill 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 on chief of staff and some of these others. it is remarkable. it is off the charts. 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 admini more rapid.is is just >> it's more rapid and some of it can be contributed to this was a group ofople that were completely unprepared for staffing the white housee weard all the stories. hillary clinton was well on her rway for staffing cabinet and people in her immediate university. >> woodruff: measuring t curtains. >> yes. and, of course, you remember it was chris christie who was putting the transition together, and he was abruptly let go right after president trump won. i think what's also notable is donald trump ran onraining the swamp, right, got to get rid of all these people who have al these ethical problems or who are putting the ierestof corporate america or, you know, there are other special

erinterests above the aican public. when you look at the turnover, it's not simply people are leaving because they're burned out pe not enced or weren't ready 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 epa. rex tillerson wasn' 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 cloud of ethical scandal around them. and this is coming, zinke made it pretty explicit that he was leaving, in part, because the were going to -- there were going to be investigations by a democratically-controlled house, and he said he didn't want to put his family through the expense and the trouble of all of these invtigations for what

he says are unfounded halegations. ifis a reason to leave the administration t avoid investigations, then there are other cabinet secretaries who could end up avias well. i'm not convinced that zinke is going to avoid all the 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 first tem. so we're talking about the president. we mentioned a new poll, an nbc-"wall street journal" poll out andthothers, right now e nbc-wrowrm poll says the president has the support of 85% of replicans, they approve of his job performance. at the same time, 56% of americans say they think the country is moving in theg wr is on the wrong track. the economy may be going well, but there's something that's bothering them. so what do we make ofhat?

>> what seems to be bothering them is the president and the presidenths behavior, an's been the dividing line here since he was candidate trump. what i fosund facinating about the poll is when you look at the core group of voters at shea they will vote for president trump for reelection o in 2020 and people are definitely or likely to vote for them, that's about 38% of americans who fall into that category, which isn't much different from where bill clinton wa the end of 1993. fortunately, we don't have the '94 number there. so not much different than previous presidents. but 52 say they aret going to vote for president trump, including 39% who say they definitely will not vote. that is very different from where bill clinton was, only 18%, he said theyly defini wouldn't vote for billto cl-- 14% who definitely wouldn't vote for bill clinton. think about that, this core group, for as mucas talk

about trump's base and how significant they are to him, hoa loyal th to him, and how he caters to them, they make up a very small -- much smaller proportion of the electorate than those who are very disapproving of the president, and ere is no elasticity here, the people who like him will stick with him foreverrenned , er, and the people who don't like hime odds of them moving, that 5g 2% movto may support trump gets harder and harder.er >> woodruff: s ways to look at these numbers. i want to ask you about numbers on democrats, tam. i think this was just in iowa -- it was an iowa poll over the whole country, people were asked idich democratic caes do you like, joe biden, bernie sanders and then beto o'rourke who lost the f race 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 side.do whou have a bus load of people running for presidenia potey? 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 earlth >> it is, buhorse race is sort of irrelevant at this point. i love polls, it's relevant. but the priority most important, 54% want to pick someone to beat donald trump. that's theenumber on thing for primary voters in iowa. >> woodruff: tamera keith, amy walter. thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: oxford dictionarie med "toxic" as the word of

the year. 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 effective 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. anpld while some phave rigorously stuck to the model of sharing onlyerfectly framed photos of peach bellinis or pictures of homemade posole, fot the most pareems that the one thing we consistshare is our outrage. now, i'm not saying rage can't be useful, healthy, even necessary, but it is not lost om me that at thetime we're inundated with diatribes and rants on our news feeds, on our televisions, people have been tuing, more and more, to

poetry. at a time wh 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, wherea 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." how josé olivarez explores the danger of his own anger in the lines of his poem, "poem in which i becomeolverine." "i know my rage is poison.kn it kills me first."

and still i love it. and feed it. poetry isn't a place of answers and easy solutions. it's a place where we can admit to an unknowing, own our private despair, and still, sometimes, 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 distrus 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 exactly wh we need more of these days: a chance to be seen fully in both our rage

and our humanity. >> woodruff: thank you. online rightewshou now, as temperatures drop, the number of colds and flus starts to tick up. we examine the the viruses that cause those common illnesses stay contagiou and the best w protect yourself and family. that and more is on our website pbs.org/newshour and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. jo us on-line and again he 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. >> fancial services firm raymond james. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology,

and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation.ui committed ing a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of tse institutions 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 bydu newshour pions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

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