captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc en >> woodruff: good g, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, another looming deadline-- negotiations to keep the government open stall as lawmakers disagree over the number of beds to provide for detained migrants. then, collateral damage.ea nearly aafter russian agents poisoned a defector with a nerve agent, the british cit of salisbury is trying to attract tourists back. and, to kick off our new arts series "canvas," we speak with actress amy adams anrector adam mckay about their film "vice." the dick cheney biopic is nominated foeight academy awards. >> i think there's moment where lynne and dick almost become the same person. when you really go to that viche presidency, 's totally

internalized her ambition and her smarts. and they really are the same person. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>> the williamnd flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoinort of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program wa possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: with five days to go before another potential government shutdown, funding talks on capitol hill have hit rough waters. a group of bipartisan lawmakers met again late this afternoon to try to revive the stalled bordet negons. meanwhile, the president continued to throw barbs at democrats. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> it's not going to work without a wall. >> desjardins:useaving the white e today for a rally in el, paso texas, president trump ctweighed in on the prospef a second shutdown, just weeks after the longest in u.s. story ended. >> at issue: who and how many people should be detained by u.s. i enforcement agents.s democrats specifically want to cap e number who are apprehended and detained inside untry to 16,500 at any o time. california representative lucille roybal-aard, a democratic member of the border t curity conference committee, said in a statemat the cap

"will force the trump administration to prioritize deportation for criminals and people who pose real security threats, not law-abiding immigrants who are contributing to our country." but republicans insist capping ice detentions is dangerous. >> they want to cut i.c.e. they take out m.s. 1357bd others by the thousands,. gain, you cannot take a shutdown off the table. >> desjardins: on sunday, acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney indicated many outcomes ible, including another shutdown, a compromise or a declaration by the president of an emergency. >> you cannot take 5.7 off the table. but if you end up somewhere in the middle what you'll probably see is the president saying yeah okay and i'll go find the money somwhere else. >> desjardins: in a last ditch effort today, four members of the bipartisan group met again this afternoon. two democrats, house

appropriations chair nita lowey and two republicans: senate apprriations chair richard and house can agree on, and one the president will sign, before fray at midnight. woodruff: we turn now to lisa and our own white house correspondent yamiche alcindor. hello to both of you. lisa, where does everything stand now? >> right. i just came from the capitol and the conference committee meeting. they broke up and said we're thcoming back. should be back, restarting that meeting any minute now. that's a good sign. they met for an hou hour and 15 minutes and still think it's useful for them to b talking tonight and an even better signy idn't tell us anything about what was said inside.al that's usuly a sign of project. let's talk about the interior deteions the democrats wanto deal with. they want to cap the interior detentions, that is people defined tanned while inside thio country, not ple detained while crossing the border ore seeking asylum. charges can range from d.u.i.s, vio ant crimesnd gang related but can also be

visa overstays. that's a very wide group of people. in this group are a wide people with no offenses. democrats want to limit the number of detention for that group to 16,500, a per-day detention number. currently, there are about # 0,0 to 22,000 people detained in the intioerior dete category. >> woodruff: so 1/6 thousand per day. >> an average per day. yamiche, what's the white house's position on the number of beds >> the white house doesn't want a limit on i.c.e., they don't want a miment on the number of people that can be held as interior or ex tore yore attests. they want no cap on any beds beuse they say.c.e. should be able to do their job without thinking of the number of people in custody and want to keep the 20,000 to 22,000 people arrest eds inside the country.

they say it'hbecausese people have already run out their stay herthe. 're people who have overstayed visas and have committed violent crimes, domestic violence or drug offenses, and they saye president wants a budgets of 52,000 beds total, including people arrested inide the country as well as crossing the border. i talked on a i.c.e. official today. the person said they don't make the distention between interior and exterior. they want to say anybody here should be considered a criminal. because they're not making the distinction,hey say there are 48747 people total in i.c.e. cuody currently and y're making that number because they say 52,000 is a little bit above that and they're in the cisis here. the more people arrested, they need more beds. they also say 21 family units, ildren coming not just ch but also parents included in that number, and their officiale sts we don't want to

immediately release anybody into society. thns if we get the number capped, we'll have to put the people somewhere and at means back into the community. >> woodruff: given the split, what are the prospects we'll see the government shutdown again? >> the sign of hope is lairts are talking now. the problem is we'regee politics of the base come to have placement with democrats make this new kd of new demand here, republicans are starting to say, well, maybe if there is a shutdown ate will be blamed on democrats. who knows if that's the case, but republicans arting to see an advantage to the shutdown is bad thing for government workers. democrats want something for their base who does not like i.c.e. >> woodruff: in the miof all this, yamiche, how far is the president willing to go? 's already com compromised so much. how much ill he g to compromise further? >> last week the white house said we'll let the hill figure this out.

today was different. mulvaney always running arohod the whitese making the case the shutdown is still on the table and says the government wants a comprome. the democrats are saying we want to give you a little wall money but we want so much more in return. so the white house is signaling the president will take less than the $5 billion he shut down the government for last time but they haven't come up with an exact number. the president has changed his mind. they can slow to 2.6 or $2.5 billion for a wall or the president can say i wantal l 5 billion because lis makes me feel bad. we'll have to see. >> woodruff: they're still talking. >> they may still be talking friday. we'll see. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor, lisa desjardins, thank you both. in the day's other news, house democratic leaders condemned freshman congresswoman ilhan omar for a tweet accusing a powerful pro-israel lobbying

group of paying members of congress to support israel the democratic leaders said the "use of anti-semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about israel's supporters is deeply offensive." later, the minnesota democrat took to twitter to "unequivocally apologize." a democratic delegate fromke virginia bdown on his threat to begin impeachment proceedings today against the state's lieutenant gr, justin fairfax. fairfax faces two allegations of sexual assault. he's denied them both. meanwhile, virginia's embattled democratic governor ralph northam acknowledged he considered resigning after a rast photo from his medica school yearbook surfaced. but, he told cbs he'll remain in office to help the state "heal." >> it's been a difficult week, and again i'm fine it'been mainly difficult for virginia and this country. so yes, i have thought about resigning but i've also thought about what virginia needs right

now and i really thiti i'm in a po where i can take virginia to the next level and will be very positive. >> woodruff: northam also said he will spend the rest of his termn office focusing on "ra and equity." more than 4,000 denver teachers went on strike today after they failed to reach deal to increase wages. it's the city's first teacher- led strike in 25 years they hope to change their bonus- pay structure and tie raises to ucation and training. we'll take a closer look at what's at stake later in the program. the pacific northwest is digging out from unusually h snowfall after a winter storm ekend.ed the region over the in tacoma, several hundred residents organized a massll snow fight. nearby seattle has been blanketed in more than 14 inches of snow this month, making it f the snowieruary there on record. washington governor jay inslee raised concerns about the homeless population, after at least one person died of

exposure. >>e don't have a system to handle this problem in the state. it kind of drives me nuts. when a state that has these enormous pockets of wealth to have a system where we can take care of homeless people and they're not dying of exposure. i hope that's a lesson we m n take fis snow storm this year. >> woodruff: the national weather service said seatt received as much snow in one day as the city usually gets in an entire year. a new winter storm is now abearing down on the regi could dump several more inches of snow. in in, tens of thousands of people rallied in the streets of tehran todayo mark the 40th anniversary of the country's islamic revolution. noowds celebrated in the s waving flags, and carrying pictures of ayatollah khomeini, who came to power after oustg the u.s.-backed shah in 1979. the revolution turned the tides of u.s. relations with iran from allies to stark rivals.

u.s. led coalition warplanes in syria struck the country's last islamic state stronghold in the eastern part of the counaty. riggered fierce fighting between u.s.-backed syrian forces and isis in the baghouz region near the iraqi border. the head of the syrian ivmocratic forces' media office reported some 1500ians were forced to flee. back in this country, there's esword cigarette smoking r among young americans have stopped falling. new data out today from the centers for disease control and prevention said the popularitys of e-cigarettewas most likely to blame. over the last year, the number of high school students using tobacco products increased by around 38%. and nearly 21% of high school students, roughly three million, admitted to vaping in 2018. that's up from 12% the previous year. stocks were mixed on wall street today.

the dow jones industrial average lost 53 points to close at 25,053. the nasdaq re more than nine points, and the s&p 500 added nearly two. the music industry is celebrating a string of storic wins at last night's 61st annual grammy awards. cardi b became the first solo woman to win best rap album, while kacey musgraves' "golden hour" took home album of the year. childish gambino, the stage name for donald glover, made history as "this is america" became the first rap-based track to win both record and song of the year. and a passing to note: north carolina republican congressman walter jones died sunday on his 76th birthday, aer suffering complications from a fall. jones served in congress since 1995, and gained a reputation for being a political maverial. he was ini a passionate

supporter the 2003 invasion in iraq, but later became an outspoken critic.wr jonee letters to over 11,000 families of fallen soldiers as a form of penance. still to come on the newshour: new reporting details decades of sexual abuse committed by southern baptist church leaders. almost a year after a chemical weapons attack, the british city of salisbury struggles to regain its footing, and much more. >> woodruff: 20 years and 700 victims. that's just part of the shocki revelations contained in a joint investigation by the "houston chronicle" and the "san antonio express news" into sexual abuse, assault and cover-up within the southern baptist church, the largest protesnt denomination in america. the report is called "abuse of faith."

william brangham has more on the findings. >> brangham: this series makes for very difficult reading, and frankly this conversmight not be appropriate for everyone. after a six month investigion, the two papers have documented about 700 victims being sexually abused, assaulted or raped by southern baptist leaders and rs.unt many of the victims were children, some as young as three years ol in addition to these violations, some teenage and adult victims were then shunned by their w church, othee told to have abortions. the papers also detail church officials brushing aside repeated warnings of trouble. some leaders who were convicte of sex crimes and officially listed as sex offenders, werela r able to return to the pulpit. one still works with teens in houston today. the "houston chronicle's" robert downen is one of the three reporters on this series:u robert, thank ry much for doing this, and just kudos to this really remarkable and

horrifying bit of reporting that you guys have done. i don't want to dwell too much on this, but i wonder if you rould gist us more of a sense of the types of cimes we're talking about here? >> we looked int yo ars worthov allegations, a lot of those involved sexual assault of minors, solicitation of minors online. the many cases we found, amongu them involved th pastors using the technology they have to gro victims in youth groups sometimes for sex, other times for, you know, sending them de photos. ch found many cases in whi people are convicted for child porn. so, really, as far the scope of crimes, it's pretty broad what we found. >> reporter: and how did you go about compiling all this evidence? >> for a while, nw, there have been a number of bloggers and

activists, victims, survivors who have been tracking this stuff, who have been compiling it, so that definitely made for the first g of finding these casings, made that a lot easier, but after that we started using court reports, doing any kind of search we cod of online civil court records to find civil suits that also made ference, convictions. really, you name it, we try to define these, whi kind of speaks to the broader issue as well as that, these cases andle the peccused in them are sometimes very, very hard to locate. >>ou document about 220 offenders, and i believe iwas 380 who were accused. you also detail, in very illing parts of your reporting, how church leaders ore warned about this ki trouble. the victims would go to them and say, this is going on, you hav to ac how did they respond? >> in 2007 to 200 we're the loudest calls for this.

as i mentioned, there have been all thes bloggers and people who have been for years, now, saying, hey, this is an issue and you guys need to do something about it, and, in 2008, the leaders of the southern baptist convention or at least the executive committee had that opportunity, and they declined to implement a lot of the reforms, part becauseof the denominations' quality. doe southern baptist convention is less a de nomination than it is a cooperative of 47,000 churches, each of which is independent and self-governing, so, therefore, the executive members,he "leaders" of the convention don't necessarily have the same authority to, you know, implement change top-down in the way that you would see in, like, the catholic church. >> reporter: but it does seem at least from your reporting that church leaders did not actively respond to it. in some people's words, they seemed to have dodged the issue.

>> that's a sentment shared by people pressuring thd other survivors and victims. think it's a fair critique to say, obviously, after years ofad them beinge aware of this issue, the fact that no reforms were ever undertaken orri sly considered, i think that it's a fair critique from the people who were vocalizing this problem for years. >> reporter: how has the leadership of the southern baptist convention responded recentlyo your reporting? >> the current leadership,t curresident j.d. year as well as russell moore, who heads the s.p.c.'s ethics and religious liberty commission, they have been generallyve respon they definitely see this report as opening a lot of eyes and really laying on the table the extent of the s.p.c.'s sexual abuse problem. thus far, almost all the

reactions are people who are shocked orateful that this was finally coming to light in a edy that can't be ign anymore. >> reporter: there are two more installments of your reporting to come out in the coming days. robert downen of the "houston chronicle," thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: denver public school teachers go on strike over compensation. amy walter and tamara keith join us to discuss the growg field of 2020 presidential candidates. a conversation with amy adams and adam mckay about their film "vice."et and rica dawson shares her take on individuality. but first, it has been almost a year since kremlin intelligence rs tried to kill a russi defector in the british city of salisbury by poisoning him with

nerve agent. that attack, and subsequent death of a british woman last summer from the nerve agent,sc ed away tourists and shoppers. as special correspondent malcolm brabant reports, british authorities and the town's people are working hard to get salisbury's economy back on track. >> reporter: at salisbury's twice weekly market,ively sales patter and cheap prices are irresistible lure. >> pound a punnet, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, seedless grape. pound a bowl. pound a punnet. >> reporter: stall holder shane gilkes is keen to consign the poisoning to history and projects an image of confidence and normality >> took three months to pick back up. but we're okay now. people are a bit more confident back out in the town, so here we are as you can see. >> rorter: these two officer from the kremlin's g.r.u. intelligence agency intelligenca agentsre blamed for the sharp decline of salisbury's economy. this is c.c.t.v. footage of them in the city last march. t

according to british authorities the two agents tried to kill russian defector sergei skripal and his daughter yulia, by smearing a tiny amount of a nerve agent called novichok onr the door ome in salisbury. the skripals survived, just. but the deadly nature of the assassin's invisible weapon , ared visitors away. in the market squa a stall selling indian street food, tony dokhpanjan singh is still suffering from the fear factor. >> we lost at least 60%. 60% losses. when it happthed. slowly, a little it picked up. now it's like, i'd say, it's down about 30%. i'm down 30%. a lot of people are stng. >> reporter: in order to prevent local businesses from going under, the county administration festablished an emergencyund and a task force under pauline church. >>e keep a close eye on ou businesses and some of the investment we put into businesses whether it was helping with grants or withne bu rates etcetera, that

was to help prevent business from making staff redundant or closing down. and you have to ensure the locat commremains buoyant and confident. what we really want to do is to bring visitors back to salisbury and that's starting to happen. >> reporter: the restaurant where the skripals dined before collapsing was closed for eight months. it has been spruced up and is now open for business. but close to the place where the skripals were found comatose, these shops are having a disastrous time. staff didn't want to talk onme , but described sales as being almost non existent. other retail workersd about customers still being terrified. sausage maker jim martin thinks eeat terror is misplaced. >> i just think it a bit ironic that the city's got, iow don't knowany people living in it, two people in the whole of that city got it. >> reporter: colonel hamish de bretton gordon is a chemical weapons expert and a senior advisor to britain's ministry of defense.

he's spent more than 30 years on battlefields around the world, assessing the impa of chemical warfare. >> i am pretty certain that 99% of the contamination has been identified. i mean we've buried over 37 vehicles already. hundreds of bags of contaminated material have either been incinerated or buried. and the skripals' house in sasbury is still being decontaminated. apart fr that it's all gone. >> reporter: the skripals may have survived. but 44-year-old dawn sturgs did not. she died last july, days after spraying what she thout was perfume on her wrists. the bottle contained novicho and had been thrown away by the assassins. her death shatterepublic confidence. >> this is the ultimate terror y apon. people are fixated and terrified by it. because the ssaging, particularly, from the british government has been particularly poor. ury is safe and open for business. pehave absolutely, i probably

know more than mosle about this, i have no qualms at all of going to salisbury and have noha fearwe will have any more ilsualties. >> reporter: ten north of hilisbury is stonehenge, the 5,000 year old poric stone circle that's a world heritage site. >> for many people, stonehenge is iconic. they've traveled all the way around the world. they want to go and stand by the stones. >> reporter: stonehenge had 1.5l n visitors last year, 400 thousand of whom came from north america. normally many would have visited salisbury. but last year, because of novichok they stayed away, causing financial problems for the museum and staff like louise tunnard. >> we are an independent charity and so the majority of our income comes from our visitors, from our ticket sales, from pople coming to use the cafe and the shop and so the impact has beenig. >> reporter: the museum is intensifying efforts to win back stonehenge visors with improved displays.

the two russian intelligence agents claimed salisbury's famous aractions were the only reason they visited the city. >>ri translated ): ourds have been suggesting for quite a long time that we visit this wonderful city. >> salisbury? a wonderful city? >> yes. >> what makes it so wonderful? >> ( translated ): it's a tourist city. they have a famous cathedralth e. salisbury cathedral.s it'sthroughout europe and in fact throughout the world i think. >> reporter: there's very little prospect of ever bringing the russians to justice, but their legacy lingers. the authorities in salisbury may be putting on a brave bout how business here is improving, t't almost one year on from the novichok attack,clear that some traders are still suffering. the rry for terrorism expert is that salisbury has become ate late for rogue governments or extremists who want to causea maximum with a similar deadly invisible weapon.of as memoriettacks at the

bataclan club in paris, and berlin's christmas market fade with the passing years, chemical bweapons expert hamish derettoo on fears a new terrorist outrage inspired by salisbury. >> the impact of this tiny amount of agent, you know, it's fixated the world for ten months, the jihadis, the so called islam state, the dark web, people running it at the moment are telling jihadis around the world to use chemical weapons be it in the u.k., the u.s. or elsewhere, s has had a profound effect, and of course we've seen the jidis use chemical weapons frequently in syria and iraq. >> reporter: de bretton gordon believes mainland europe is the most likely target because jihadis are able to move across frontiers more easily than in britain or america. >> what i would say to the nderican people is that they should not worryy. i've recently run a conference and an exercise with the mayor of new york's office looking exactly at this sort of thing and actually the u.s. is better prepared than any other country in the world to deal with this

sort of thing. >> reporter: nearly ar after the attack, staff at salisbury cathedral hope visitors will start flocking back to see its copy of the magna carta, the 13th century human rights document which paved the way for democracy in britain. salisbury's sense of resilience is embodied by the museum's louise tunnard.s >> it wadreadful attack on the heart of our society, on human beings, real people, that was quite devastating. but there reaches a point where s you have to pick yoursel and carry on. we live here. were bring up children her we're growing old here. we're falling in love here. that's how we have to carry on.w >> reporter: ah that attitude, the novichok attack will eventually become another footnote in thousands of years of rich history. for the pbs newshour, i' malcolm brabant in salisbury.

>> woodruff: the wave of teacher strikes and activism that's been spreading around the countryhe overast couple of years keeps growing. the stke in denver is especially focused on wages and compensation. surrounding education, funding and academic performance nationally amna is back with that. >> nawaz: teachers hit the picket line in denver today for the first time since 1994. hools were open today and partially staffed by substitutes. but the walkout and standoff over pay affected some 70,0000 students. this was the scene in one high school this morning as the strike got underway. much of the fight comesydown to a paem, known as procomp, that involves a complicated merit and bonus system i teachers ss vastly outdated for all kinds of reasons. o madeline will partner, "education week," is here to help fill in the picture. welcome to the "newshour". >> thank you for having me.

>> reporter: so this system procomp, a lot of other place looked to denver as an example and tried to put in the own systems of linking performance and pay. did it have an impact and did it ad to other places putting into place the same system? >> it tid. there's a federal grant program whe idea performance pay was at the heart o other school districts even the district dir columbia started implement ago similar model. >> reporter: is it a trend in education these days? >> it's less of a trend these days. we have been tracking governor governors who have includedte her pay proms and their -- in their state of the stay addresses. only one offered the idea of merit rase. ithers have just across the board ras. >> reporter: denver teachers are mparatively paid higr than other teachers. what's the problem here.

>> denver teachers average of $63,000 a year, higher than in otherlaces, but teachers say that the housing prices in denver have gone up so dramatically over the years that they can't afford to live where they teach and they could make more going to a school district in nearby areas. >> reporter: when we look at other areas, some strikes took place in conservative states. in los angeles, now denver, we're seeing this take place i big cities now and potentially moving into blue states. is that a trend we're likely to see moving forward? >> it will be interesting to see. it's important to note that teachers in colorado, lastl spring, theysed schools across the staote protest the state swlaimpt for more funding. teachers are looking at their state legislature to see hw they're investing money into education. >> reporter: se of the recent strikes we've seen in the last year, arizona, west virnia, oklahoma, can you give us a sense of what they

were able to get out of those strikes? is that a sense this is what we'll see in denver, tentially? >> for the most part, teachersvan successful with the strikes. in strikes last year teachers got a pay rail. in. teachers got most of what they asked for, signing techer are kind of inspired about what's happening before them. >> reporte some of the places that were on strike before could go on strike again? >> it's interesting, the west virginia teachers unions said their members authorized another statewide labor tion, so we're not sure exactly that would look like, but ief thy're not pleads with what the legislature is doing, they could potentially go on strike again. >> reporter: day one in denver. do we have any idea how long it willo on? >> the two sides go to the bargaining table tomorrow. we'll see. >> reporter: we'll be following it. madeline will of education week. thanks for being here. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: we' less than a year from the first primary votes of the 2020 presidential election, but many of the democratic candidates are already hitting the campaign trail. two u.s. senators officially joined the field this weekend. >> announce my candidacy for president of the united states. >> woodruff: in heavy snow and freezing temperatures on the banks of the mississippi river, ota senator amy klobucha threw her hat into the crowded 2020 race to take on president trump.h she's the finator and fifth woman in the democratic field, out of the nine candidates who've announced so far. klobuchar touted her ability to reach across the aisle and made her ca to midwestern working- class voters, many of whom voted for trump in016.

>> as your president i will look you in the eye, i will tell you what i think, i will focus on getting things done. >> woodruff: in her own home state, massachusetts senator elizabeth warren made her campaign official, sticking to familiar refrains. campaigning later in iowa, the frequent target of mr. trump responded with her sharpest attacks on his presidency and the potential outcome of the ongoing russia investigations. >> by the time we get to 2020,ay donald trumpot even be president. (applause) in fact, he may not even be a free person. >> woodruff: other democrats are criss-crossing the early states and making their case to key groups. new york senator kirsten llibrand spoke outside a church in south carolina, a state where more than a quarterr idents are african

american. >> i believe that president trump is tearing this country apart at the seams dividing us at every racial, religious, and socioeconomic background he can find and i want to fight for the >> woodruff: the palmetto state at also where new jersey s cory booker, one of two black democrats running, campaig.d this morni >> and, people in my community don't care about political posturing. they don't care what i am >> woodruff: and that brings us to politics monday. i'm joined by our regular team, amy walter of the "cook political report" and tamara keith of npr. hello to both of you. hey're off and running there are nine and we expect more to come, amy. >> yes. >> woodruff: what do we se here? amy klobuchar, clearly not i southern california, you know, in a driving snowstorm in minnesota. how is she setting herself apart is this. >> it was really interesting watching and listening to. >toelizabeth warren one day and

the next to listen to amy klobuchar. elizabeth wa only way to make change is to make significant structural change. she says over and oagain, i'm not talking about going around the edges here people, i'm talking about blowing the system up and reforemanning it, lking about the system being rigged and bringing it back to structurally reforming it for regular, middle class peple. amy klobuchar talked about overcoming obstacles, not s blowing up thstem as much as trying to fix some of the observe stacks also within the system. so this is the clierchg growing now which is cub can you be a dynamic capt. and also price tag -- candidate and also pragmatic, moderate and also progressive in your policies? and warren is on the side with benders, certainly of the we

need to shake it up and be aggressive in our change and -- you know, changing the structural ways in which we do things in this country. klobuchar for into the camp of doing it in a much more moderate way, although they have pretty liberal voting records. >> so is it more about tone and style, tam, than it is about substance at this point? >> you know, in a lot of ways, all of the democratic candidates, more or less, agree on thbig ideas, and it's, you know, small things around the edges where they disagree on policy. but they have taken very different approaches to president trump and to sort of the case that they're making for themselves. some of these candidates are not mentiong trump byme. like, cory booker talks about the president. he doesn't talk aboutrump, and he's not attacking trump. cory booker is doing sort of the, you know, we need to heal

america idea, whereas, you know, elizabeth warren certainly went after the president in a way that almost seemed designed to get his attention and to get him to go afterger aain. so -- >> woodruff: and he goes after r. >> right. and then you have someone like sherrod brown who isn't officially running for president but who is campaigning or listening in new hampshire this weekend, whatever it is beforyo re actually a candidate, and he's talking about himself, talking about, you know, valuing work, and h and klobuchar are both in the category of potentia candidates or candidates who are saying, hey, look, i'm from th midwest. that blue wall that donald trump knocked down, i'd like to build it back up again. >> woodruff: speaking of taking on the president, amy, beto o'rourke, who ran and lost tonock off ted cruz, the senator from texas, is haing a counter rally while the president is in el paso tonight.

>> right, and beto o'rourke has set himself up to be in between those two counties -- inspiring but also unifying. i'm not going to make this ability donald trump, he rn this campaign in texas for the senate. i'm not going to go negative on ted uz, i'm going to make it about voting for rather thanme against ing. but here he's taking a significant stand against the president, as the preside has a ral in el paso, this is a counterrally, and also goes to show you tht beto o'rourke is very serious about his potential 2016 -- 2020 candidacy. >> woodruff: but we now have to have note cards to keep up with all the candidates and the fact there are five women a four men. speaking of divides in the party among democrats, tam, we saw today what happens in the

aftermh ofis freshman congresswomano hacongresswoman m minnesa, today you had the democratic leadership in congress reprimanding her and she apol aapologized. this is an important issue abogt beose to israel. >> this comes in the wake of a significant controversy over antisemitism among the organizers of the women's march. in some way the ground was plowed for this conversation. a quote from a statement that adam sciff put out kind of sums up where democrats are on this. he says, if we do't raise the te

alarm when members of our own pay use anti-semitic language we fo forfeit to criticize whene other party does so. democrats have taken that stance on a lot of issues, scwarmt, #metoo issues, governor ralph northam, the governor of virginia, democrats want to be able to say we don't tink this is right and, so, they are .aying it about their own >> that's a good point but also goes to show the div the democratic caucus, which they say on one side as a plus -- look at ourucus we're so diverse, we have all the members from so many differentkg religious baunds and different race and ethnicity -- but the more diverse you get, e harder it is to keep everybody on the same page, especially some ofhese isues. and the issue of the b.d.s., which is the boycott dives sanction israel movement, has deen picking up a lot of steam

especially on thocratic side, and we saw this came to a head in the senate where you had a number ofocrats voting against a bill that they agreed with in principa principle onrig the president's syria moves. actually, they liked the idea that the predent is pulling troops out of sir. i can't what they didn't like about the bill sit included sanction -- is ited inclanctions on people who work with the b.d.s. movement. thathows once again the balancing act democrats have to have between keeping, as you said, their traditional relationship with israel, the c jewimmunity very big, supporters of democratic candidates, but also a growing group of voters within their caucus, especially younger voters, who see human rights as very significant issue, and who see israel as abusive of human rights, keeping that balance is going to be somethint he leadership is going to be dealing with, not just in the

house but aso in ths presidential campaign. >> woodruff: that was my last question, is this going thave me sort of lasting effect? is it going to have repercussions inside the campaign? >> you know, i think at e 2020 candidates are going to be asked about this, but whether it remains salient months down the line is not really clear right w. the other thing is there are divides among the american wjewish community about they feel about israel, very big divides that are playing outm among ocratic lawmakers. >> woodruff: and you saw that in some of the reaction today as to what was going on. >> yeah. >> woodruff: although some of what the congrewoman had to say brought together people. >> it's one thing awbt talki about the policy, another thing sonalit's about making per attacks. >> woodruff: amy walter, tamera keith, thank you very much. >> you're welcome >> woodruff: our reporting and

coverage o and culture have long been a hallmark of the pbs newshour,he dating back toery earliest days of the program. tonight, we're proex to say we arnding that coverage each week with a new series, anvas." we'll continue to profile the exciti and emerging work of artists, writers and creators as we always have. but we'lbe working to feature even more voices, new talents and provocative ideas on the broadcast and online. s 're starting this week with some of the artid performers who have been honored with oscar nominations this year. jeffrey brown launches our 'canvas' series with a conversation about one of this year's most-nominated films, "vice," the story of dick and lynne cheney. >> i want you to be my v.p. i want you, you're my vice. >> brown: part comedy, part tragedy, all raw politics: "vice" is a film for our own politically divided times.

>> different understanding, maybe i can handle some of the more mundane jobs, overseeing bureaucracy, managing military, energy, foreign policy. >> that sounds good. : "vice," of course, is dick cheney. and here we see his rise from yale dropout and wyoming lineman to wasngton power player extraordinaire: chief of staff for gerald ford, congressman, secretary of defense under george h.w. bush, hallndurton c.e.o.inally george w. bush's vice president. it's a portrait created by director adam mckay. >> we nt into it with an open mind and-- >> brown: you did really? >> oh absolutely the whole idea of the movie was, "who is this guy?" how did he mmake the decisions that e. >> brown: mckay, whose last film, "the big short," took on

the 2007 financial crisis, makes no secret of hwn liberal politics. >> my mom is definitely right wing and i told her i said mom maybe don't see this one. >> brown: christian bale, in a remarkable physical transformation, plays cheney, while amy adams plays his wife, lynne. >> can you feel it dick? half the room wants to be us, the other half fears us. know george is next in line, but after that who knows. >> brown: but while recent events and real people are the ficus, adams says she approached it like any other lm. >> i looked at it as a character study and the way that thech acters evolved from their, you know, early 20s to their 70s and the way our relationship evolves and the way thatlv marriage evoes.ip for me the swas so unique and so individual, i found myself forgetting and until weta starteing about the movie

with the press that we had made something that had a political point of view. >> brown: still, she says, lynne cheney presented a unique challeng >> people have a lot of opinions about her and about her politics and so stepping aside from that and just really diving into the truth of who she was and where she came from and how-- not who is lynne cheney but who was lynne cheney and how did that create this story that then became what we kw of her today. >> brown: does that meanur divorcing lf from the real lynne cheney, who is still alive, who is out there? >> to some degre it's always tricky. you know when you're playing someone who is real and alive because everyone i mean even if someone were to play me, it's not the me that you see in front of you. it's a curated public persona. you know she's on book tours and doing interviews. it's not-- i'm not in bed with lynne cheney you know. so i have to kind of figure out some aifferent aspect of her

personality. here's my plan, either you stand up straight and you get your back straight and you have the couragto become someone or i'm gone. >> brown: mckay says he came to see lynne cheney as the lynchpin of the movie. >> a lot of people in their hometown, in casper wyoming, to this day still say toever lynn vincent would've married would've become president or vice president. so it was hard to ignore that that lynne was really the engi of dick chen and i agree with i think there's a moment where lynne and dick almost become the same person when y really go to that vice presidency. he's totally internalized her s ambition and hrts and they really are the same person. >> brown: critics have praised the acting performances, but a nuer have raised questions about mckay's portrait of cheney as a man devoid of any

conservative beliefs or political ideology beyond the quest for power. op the question coming into it was how did these end up in this circumstance where they were advocating for torture or you know tweaking the intelligence to invade iraq, which we now know is a fact that that happens, so coming into it, we were open to the idea of who are these people. and in the research we did we did not find a core ideology. s and so there ae people that interpret the actions of cheney through an ideological lens. i just don't agree. i don't see that kind of consistency.ro >>: you tell us at the top of the film that it is mostlyou true anday, or as true as we could make it, and you say we tried our best. but what does that mean? >> anything we're showing has been fact checked. we're not putting it out the lightly. but what we're acknowledging is st a lot about dick cheney you're never going to know. he's a secretive guy.in heof prides himself on it.

so we just wanted to acknowledge dark matter within the movie at the head of the movie and make i le bit of a joke about it. i definitely have a lot of faith in the audience that you can feel the history when it clicks. ok>> brown: mckay said he with his actors during filming about the partisan blowback the movie would likely face in today's political climate. amy adams adds this. >> it's unusual for me. what's interesting is that i have close family on both-- i e ve close family on one side of the aisle and clmily on the other. so these are conversations that we have around the table all the time and it's something that i think is really important. and so whether or not i talkab t it a lot outside of my own dinner table i-- i think theer cotions are going to move us forward so i'm happy to be a part of something that again created the conversation. >> brown: "vice" competes for best picture and sever oscars at the upcoming academy awards. for the pbs newshour, i'm

jeffrey brown in los angeles. >> woodruff: in our national conversations on politics, race ortntertainment, we ofen group people together, but when we usn shorlike african-american voters, we often overlook the diverse viewpoints of any given erica dawson is a poet and professor; and in her humble opinion, it's time to recognizal the individu, not just the group. >> last fall, i was fortunate to trav all over the country to provide my new book when rapra spoke ht to god. i know i love few things more than meeting new people, but i was surprised when almost after every reading i was met witthe same question and and again. it struck me. so i wrote a poem to try towns. so i did this reading the other day, right? after, in theso&amebody raised their hand and asked, what is it like for you to be

tasked with the job of speakingh foblack experience? as if there's only one, like somewhere there's a single stack of words or a single story spun on a single tongue. the other night, somebody asked, i black poetry back? we penned one verse and it got lost at sea or slipped inside a big olcrack inside a big old effort and then we returned like there was yay chaos, li here we are and it's us, and we're feeling concerned and all political. we never went away. we don't only deserb the ste in tumultuous times, we aren't just rage, we're not a flag, a torch, a blaze and proud to save urys to have the world, a guide to help you gauge what's rights and wrong. look at the page. i love ode tolo phyllis wheatley's hymn to evening. langston hughes does more than sing america. nghe hears the dim, sweet-f

the rain. let it pour and flow like currents. teach that in classrooms, too. learn every verse. lift every voice off of the fla whge. get up. rehearse. recite. remember every phrase. black poets aren't a passingph e. ask me about the part where i say the ocean always finds it way. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, we look at how social media bots spread viral, political memes after president trump's state of the union address last week, and why uthrs shar. read more on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshouras been provided by:

>> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial ryliteracy in the 21st cen >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundati b. committed lding a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs statn from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by nnewshour productllc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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