captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: the u.s. congress issues a subpoena for the full muell after the release of the redacted version leads to practically opposite opinions on whether it exonerates th president. then, after pushing out long- running leaders in algeria and wds in both countries protest those who take their place. >> we are still protesting to make sure that all our demands are being achieved and that the military council is not cheating us. >> woodruff: and it'ay. mark shields and david brooksy have a second-ok at the mueller report and its impact. all that and more tonight's

pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: be >> b a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. me >> concellular. ra >> bnsway. f ancial services firm raymond james. >> 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 station from viewers like you.

thank you. >> woodruff: president trump is back on the attack about the special counsel's russia rblort. today, hted his own former advisers who told investigators that he tried repeatedly to hinder the probe. in tweets, he charged many of the statements were "fted and totally untrue." he also called them "total b.s.... only giveno make the other person look good." this was a shift from a y earlier, when mr. trump claime that he had been vindicated. the redacted report found no trump campaign conspiracy with russia. it stopped short of charging that the president obsucted justice. meanwhile, house judiciary chair jerry nadler issued a subpeona today for the full, unedacted report, by may first. but late todya, the justice

department responded that the move is premature and unnecessary, because it says it has already made arrangements for nadler and others to see th report with "ewer redactions." severe weather pounded the southern u.s. again today, with heavy downpours, powerful winds and threats of tornadoes. the front is blamed for four deaths, including an eight-year- old girl in florida. the storm system had already brought flash flooding and tornadoes elsewhere. little rock, arkansas got a record five inches of rain yesterday. secretary of state mike pompeo has dismissed north korea's demand that he be replaced asgo the lead u.s. ator in stalled nuclear talks. the north said yestorday it want deal with someone who is "more careful and mature". but day-- as he and acting defense secretary patrick shanahan met with panese officials-- pompeo said "nothing's changed."

>> we're continuing to work. i'm still in charge of the team. president trump is obviously in charge of the overl effort. it will be my team and special representative biegun who will continue to lead u.s. efforts to achieve what chairman kim committed to do, back in june of last year, which was to denuclearize. >> woodruff: the u.s. and japan vowed today to continue enforcing tough sanctions on north korea until it dismantles its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. in 2020 presidential campaign: former vice presidenjoe biden is expected to announce he'll seek the democratic noon. it was widely reported today that his announcement will come as early as wednesday, after months of speculation. biden is 76 years olwould join a democratic field that already has 18 high-profile candidates. in ukraine: president petro poroshenko and his challenger held a raucous debate in a soccer stadium-- ahead of sunday's runoff election.

inlls show comedian vladimir zelenskiy leadinhe race. he accused poroshenko of enriching himself in office. poroshenko warned zelenskiy would be too weak to confront russia, which backs rebels in eastern ukraine. earlier, thousands of poroshenko backers ralliein kiev. r ey wore flags on their backs and smiles on thces, in a bid to project optimism. fire officials in paris say crews have now stabilized the damaged sections of notre dame cathedral after this week's disastrous fire. that word came today as workers began to remove bris and artwork and prep the cathedral for reconstruction. the french culture minister said all of the major artworks survived the fire. ( translated ): the very good news is that these artworks were not damaged. we will have to clean them up, dust them up, they're already starting to dry. oey are in almost-normal

condition which course excellent news for the integrity of all the artworks.f: >> woodreanwhile, notre dame's resident beekeeper saidee some 180,000- living on the cathedral's roof-- have been found alive.ei three hives escaped the flames. g this wd friday for christians around the world. in jerusalem, thousands of pilgrims took part in a procession through the old city. they retraced what they believeh was jesust's path to his crucifixion. and in the philippines, four people had themselves nailed to wooden crosses-- including one man who the annual re-enactment draws hundreds of tourists. an international press freedom group reports the u.s. has become a more dangerous place for journalists. reporters without borders today dropped the u.s. from a "satisfactory" classification to "problematic". it cited increased attacksnd

threats against journalists. the group also blamepresident trump's attacks on the news media as an "enemy of the people". and, fiat-chrysler is recalling nearly 300,000 cars in the u.s. that can roll away, without warning. the company has received several thousand reports of the problem- - involvina transmission defect-- but there have been no injuries. the recall includes dodge dart compact cars from the 2013 herough 2016 model years. still to come onewshour: we debate what we learned from the special counsel's investigation, interim leadership in algeria and sudan drawotests following the l removal of tg-term rulers, how teams of surgeons save live by treating acart conditions in rwanda, plus, mark shields and david brooreak down the political impact of the mueller report.

>> woodruff: we rern to our coverage of the mueller report, and in particular to the central importance of russia to the entire story. special correspondent ryan chilcote was in russia all week for us, and knows many of the russians named in the special counsel's 400-plus page report. ryan also has covered russia for decades, and joins us tonight from his home in london. so, ryan, hello again. y.'s now been over a d is there an official reaction from the russian government to this report? >> yes, there is, judy. in fact, i just got off the phone with dimitri pizkov, the russian president's spokesman. he's also got anot of attention in the mueller report, was in 18 ses tioing back to

2015 in relation to the trump tower projects in moscow. people in the trump team were lyasg with him. he says it's very simple. there's nothg knew, he says in this report that changes anything, there's no evidence, he says, of collusion, no evidence of russia's meddling. as far as russian businessmen trying to act for inmediaries for the russian president trying to establish backchannel conversations with membes of the administration, he says, yes, russian businessmen were trying to talk to members of the new administration, but there's nothing strange about that. they were, yes, also briin the russian president, nothing strange about that either. he says that's simply whta business people do, judy. >> woodruff: so,. pazkov is also saying, we gather, that they're going through the report to determine wheother they uld brief president putin. of course, he can read it on his own, but what is the

expectation? that he will read it? i hink he will read it. i think that's a fair assumption. after all, he was in the k.g.b. he did run russia's intelligencv es. that's exactly what you're supposed to do in intelligence and counterintelligence wok is learn what your adversary or rival knows about you and learn how they learnedt. there's an awful lot of very specific allegations or evidenc in that mueller report. of course, he's going to want to know all of tht, i would have thought in. addition to that, of course, while e russians may fee that this might abstrolve presidenp of some wrongdoing, they wil relize that their troubles are probably not over. tere are at least a couple of bills right now inhe u.s. ingress that could lead to more sanctions beiposed against russia. buth not just the russian president who wiinterested in reading this report, i've spoken with several russian businessmen since the report

came out, and they all start the conversationy saying to me, hey, ryan, am i in there? because they're concerned that they, too, could be sanctioned if they are in th report, an that, of course, would be bad for business. >> woodruff: quickly, ryan, as we know, this report accuses the russians of systematically having a sweping interference in u.s. elections. president trump, though, isno stilaccusing the russians directly. how do they read that ins mocow? >> they actually mirror president trump quite often. you will remember when the attorney general's summary of the mueller report came out about a month ago, the russians, just like president trump, said that it absold them, it exonerated them of any kind of responsibility and that they arkn obviously, yow, very pleased. remember helsinki, i was at that press conference where president trump and president putin stood next to one another anresident trump said he belntieved presiutin when president putin told him the russians had not interfered.

that said, the russians were very concerned about what happened the next day when ko effectively took control over the relationship between the united states and russia. i interviewed president putin at an energy conference at the end of last year, and i'd him wat did he want to see in terms of relations with the u.s., and he said, look, i wrnt them to sot out this effectively, if you will, partisan conflict. he says, the russians are simply being scae goated. ssians are saying, hey, you guys should sort this out so we can starto work on a constructive russian-american relationship. >> woodruff: but again, what the report ss after a two-year investigation is the russians were clearly blind a sweeping interference in the elections. ryan chilcote reporting, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: we turn now to why robert mueller chose not to subpoena the president to testify and more. for that, i'm joined by robert ray. he was independent counsel during the whitewater investigation into president clinton.

and garrett graff. he's a contributor to "wired" magazine and the author of "the threat matrix: inside robertr' muelf.b.i. and the war on global terror." hello to both of you. thank you for being here. i wa to get to the subpoena question, but, first, i want to ask you about the -- what mr. mural did in trying to determine whether there was obstruction of justice. robert ray, the investigator -- rather the investigators,sp including thial counsel, clearly spent a lot of time looking at what the president did, and we learnee that asked, on a number of occasionsk people who wor him, the white house counsel, other advisors, to either go and ask the attorney general to resign, to step down or ttop the cork work that he was doing, tried to get mr. mueller to stop what he was doing. how do we read that and how do we read that as not obstruction? >> i think at one level, of

course, most of what you refer to we already knew about. mean, none of that really is new, and much of it, also, was out in the open.os i suone way to read it is that the system worked and the president was well-served by, among others, his white house council and several oter individuals who knew better than to involve themselves in wha potentially could well have amounted to their efforts to obstruct justice. and, you know, i think we depend, in a democracy and an executive branch where, while the presidenis the head of the executive branch, we, in that democrac that the people who are in positions of authority and surround themselves with the president ultimatelhe right thing and, in many instances, i think what we saw is that's exactly what happened. now, how does that your other question, how does that bear on

obstruction of justice? i yoink that i, know, despite much commentary and criticism of the attorney general, ultimately, it was left to him as both a matter of law, facts and more importantly policy, how to apply the obstruction tactics to presidential conduct and it was his opinion after consulting with office of legalouncil that there was insufficient evidence to establish that a crime of obstruction of justiceh agains president has been committed. >> woodruff: but -- i believe that's a final determination as far as the department of justice is concerned. >> woodruff: garrett garrett, gratf, iwanou to respond to that because th.>> yes, mr. ray and e

disagreed about this since barr's original summary at the d of march which i long said we needed to see how mueller whtually framed this and we saw the report yesterday, it's very clear that muell saw his role as prohibiting himof under thce of legal counsel's existing opinion within the justice department fr ever briing charges against the president. and, so, he was not approaching this, as he said, to come to a traditional procutorial decision and, instead, was gathering facts and saithink it's impossible to read his report, especially wn you read the executive summary that he wrote at the top of volume 2,s anything other than an impeachment referral, that he never intended for the attorney general to make decision on this and that he saw what he was doing as independent fact finding that, in the situation where he couldn't bring charges

and, in fact, he sort of gos out of his way to explicitly say he does not exonerate the president and that this is -- go ahea w >> woodruff: going to say, to quickly come back to robert ray, in other words, it was never in the cards different that's not -- with all due respect, that's not what prosecutors. do prosecutors are not independent fact finders. what prosecutors do, i have been one, so i can tell you, is particularly what independent and special counsel do is gar evidence, that's all prosecutor do, in order to determine whether or not there's a case and whether or not a crime has been comhetted ander or not it's worthy of prosecution. that's what they do. now,ou know, in the regime that we are now in with the demise to have the indennt council statute post-1999, this is the first time where we have proceeded down and traveled down the road of this special counsel regulations, and i respectfully disagree, also, with the notion

that this was simply an impeachment referral. you know, that's baloney. there's no mchanism for a impeachment referral by the special counsel as distinguished from the independent counsel's statute, and ultimately it was the department of justice's call because under the ecial counsel regulations, the special counsel authority derives from the attorney general of the united states. >> wodruff: garrett graff, i want you to respond and i'llme quickly ack to my earlier question. go ahead. >> yeah, i think that's just not whatobert mueller sas, that he doesn't say that he's leaving it up to the general barr, and i think this is going to be, obviously, the first question that he's going to face en he goes up to capitol hill to testify, presumably mometime inay. >> woodruff: and garrett graff, the earlier point that robert ray made about the decision by the people around the president not to carry out s s orders, whether it w fire -- to get mr. mueller fired or to fire secretary -- or attorney general sessions, how do you read that?

s this a case of the system working? >> well, the sstem worked to a certain extent, yes, in that the staff didn't carry out orders that could end up causing criminal jeopardy in the obstruction case. however, the criminal federal standard for obstruction of justice includes the word "endeavoring." this is a situation where even mply attempting to on instruct justice makes you guilty of doing so, and this is a situation where we certainly saw the president endeavor to obstruct justice in these ten instances that theco special sel outlined in his report. >> woodruff: and, mr. ray -- i don't think ttaat's cer at all, and that's, by the special counsel's own acknowledgment and, moreover, more precisely and significantly the attorney general, it's obous, profoundly disagrees. so, you know, applying

obstruction statutes to presidential conduct presentsue unonstitutional challenges, not the least of which is that the president is afforded sufficient latitude to exercise his constitutional authority, including hiring and firing, replacing people, inquiring of the department of stice with regard to the pendantcy of an investigation and should be free to do so in the case of allegations i it indicates any endeferring, it shouldn't be ta tntamounto the conclusion that obstruction of ju the attorney general was clear about that in the period of time before he was nominated as heattorney generalas the subjects of confirmation on that basis and he's now made that call. to suggest somehow or another that was an easy determination and that there's clear endeferring here is blyed noty

onlyhe report by the attorney general's findings and conclusion of that investigation. >> woodruff: garrett graff? again, in the endeferring -- and again this is all in the criminal statute and written out in mueller's report -- that mere speculation doesn't rise to the level of endeavoring, but specific acts that could cause substantial action do. so that's certainly saying to your white house counsel, fire the special unsel, telling your attorney general to unrecuse himself so that he could take the probe back from the act attorney general, those certainly could arguably be the cause -- or cause ofio obstru and that's precisely, again, going back to our earlier disagreement, why it seems like mueller was trying to set this up for a finding o fact at the the congressional level, that it's up to the house

of representatives to -- >> woouff: if i may, i would -- >> prosecutors don't deal in what is arguable. that's not what they're paid to do >> woodruff: if i may, in just the little bit of time we havewa left, to ask you both to comment on the portrait of the white house that emerges from this, what peoe who worfor the president were telling the public at intervals throughout l of thi it tur turned out later not to be true, frankly, the relationships inside the white house, what emerge force you, mr. ray? >> i think the attney general captured it. what emerged from it was th president was firm in his belief from tot set that there was no llusion with russian government officials. he struggled mightily in the political enviro went in which s in to try to protect the integrity of his presidency and efforts in the political process ermine opponents to und

the legitimacy of his election and to try to do that in an environment in which personnel decisions had to be made, leaksa werepening, and those not loyal to the president were attempting, obviously, to impair his ability to exercise hisns tutional authority. he made decisions, one of which was to fire the f.b.i. director because he found him to be disloyal, and he als suspected, probably rightly, with the dsight, now of hin leaking to the media damaging information that, frnkly, furthered a narrative that, at the end of the day, robert mueller concluded based upon evidence was not sutofficien sustain or establish, for that matter, rssia collusion -- >> woodruff: garrett graff -- that's a substantial wtermination. odruff: we're almost out of time. garrett graff, could you respond? thank you. >> yeah, i think this is a very

damaging portrait of a white house beset by leaks and fundamentalldisloyal to the president. this is sort of a mismanaged white house, and you see ththat n the campaign and you see that in the white house. i mean, you see that in the first half volumone of this report, and in a campaign where the president's own top advisors were all running their ownre en unrelated schemes and crimes in the midst of trying te serve the dent. i mean, this is a very damaging portrait of the president's management. >> woodruff: we're going to leave it therend, of course, we will continue to look at this report in the days to come. garrett graff, robert ray, we thank you both.nk >> t judy. >> woodruff: rheumatic heart disease, a condition that afflicts more than 30 million

people globally, kills an00 estimated 30every year, most of them young people in developing countries.es special condent fred de sam lazaro repor on one group ying to make a dent in rwanda. it's part of fred's series "agents for change." >> reporter: it is an extraordinary reunion, held once a year in rwanda's capital. >> how are you feeling, you good? >> reporter: nearly 200 per.le came toget almost all of them would be dead from a serus heart condition, if it weren't for surgery they got througthe project they came to celebrate. they're all survivors of rheumatic heart disease, a condition that's caused by untreated strep throat, an infection routinely treatein developed countries with antibiotics like penicillin. >> but in places like rwanda, they don't get treated, so this eventually turns into rheumatic heart disease over time, the valves become infected, theyth

become narrowed so that the blood can't get through them, or they don't close properly, and both of them can result in premature death if noa d. >> reporter: overwhelmingly, dra chip bsays that's what happens in a country that has only five cardiologists and no heart surgeons for a population of 1anmillion. bolms an american heart surgeon and with his wife, an intensive care nurse, started a nonprofit called team heart 11 years ago. they wanted to draw attention to a condition that afflicts some one millioyoung people across sub-saharan africa. once a year, a large vunteer surgical team arrives in rwanda and ts up in kigali's king faisal hospital for about three weeks. in that time, 16 lucky patients will uergo sophisticated open heart procedures. the best estimates are that some 30,000 young rwandans suffer from rheumatic hrt disease so

the 16 patients chosen for surgery have gotten here agast lottery-like odds. but their selection is far from random. the team's work begins witham the eets the day before surgeries begin to reach the wrenching consensus for the 16ai ble slots. >> i get the impression that there's some aortic regurgitation here. >> reporter: there's the case of 18-year old william. the doctors were on the fence. >> he's got profound biventricular dysfunction, i don't think he's a candidate for today.>> eporter: but surgeon bruce leavitt felt that with medications, wilt am's heart mirengthen enough to undergo the deeply invasive heart valve repair.y >> he's a at either gets one shot, or he doesn't live. >> one of the most ds ficult aspect this whole experience is we do have to decide that some patients are not ableiso undergo th operation. >> reporter: 17-year-old janvier dusengimana was one of the lucky ones. for the last two years, his disease has been steadily crippling him.

>> ( translated ): when i tried to do any sort of work, especially lifting hhings or farming, i would become weak. it happened to me once that i and so since then i haven't been doing ything, just sitting at home. >> reporter: he would soon go in for several urs of intricate surgery. the previous case, 16-year old olive mukeshimana, was just out of surgery and recovering in tensive care. like all the others, every aspect of her case and care was reported and deliberated. for her mother just outside, the wait was excruciating. >> ( translated ): it's like when you're in labor and you just, go through the pain, you're just hoping that the child will be born healthy. >> reporter: one day later, that's how it turned out for olive, her graduation fromre intensive o the recovery

unit was marked by jubilant cheering. >> ( translated ): i am really,a really hapnd really thankful for everything that th have done for her. >> reporter: despite these suesses, there are reminde of the vast unmet need. remember william, whose case a doctors wonderut at screening? inhe end, his disease was deemed too far gone for surgery, a reminder to doctors of the limited options for patients here. -- the u.s. he may have been a transplant candidahat is, if his disease ever progressed this far. >> we know almost with a certainty that if we wble to see him two or three years ago we would have been able to save him. i this is just rwanda, all of sub-saharan afrisuffering from the same thing. >> reporter: rwanda's healther miniiane gashumba says for years the government's priority has been to deal with infectious diseases like malaria,

tuberculosis and h.i.v., what she calls "the first killers." tackling non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease are only now getting some of the attention they need. >> reporter: dr. maurice musoni has been mentored for years by team heart. he will complete his traing in south africa and return this spring as rwanda's firstrd thoracic surgeon. >> it places a big responsibility on your shoulders my biggest worry and challengens will be to tion from a situation that is well equipped do with what little you have.o >> reporter: and dr. musoni will soon have an unlikely ally. erneste simpunga's is the kind of happily-ever-after story the bolmans wish they could tell about young wiiam. >> he was really qui sick, very small, 17, he weighed 72

pounds. >> reporter: but he pursued her with irrepressible curiosity. >> he would ask me, "but if your husband could do my surgery what would he do?" and i would show him a diagram and each day my heart would break a little bit, and i said i don't think i can leave him and not see him have surgery. >> reporter: thanks to a sponsor in massachusetts, erneste won the jackpot. he was flown to boston and did have surgery. >> it's been 10 years now and it still hope to ue with further training and be able to contribute something to this long medical journey. >> reporter: that journey took him to medical school, a unexpected dividend, the bolmans say, toward their eventual goal >> we will not feel that we have accomplished what we set out ot do until there's a rwandanat surgeon he table with a rwandan anesthesiologist at the head of the table and the

patients in the i.c.u. taking care of by rwandan i.c.u. nurses. >> reporter: when he graduates th november, dr. ernest simpunga plans to specialize in cardiology.ho for the pbs ne, this is fred de sam lazaro, in kigali, rwanda . >> woodruff:he demonstrations that have swept through northern africa and ousted long time strongmen are not over. protestors in sudan, algeria, libya, and mali are still calling for democratic reforms. and they are trying to learn from some the mistakes of the 2011 arab spring revolutions. nick schifrin looks at wt some>> reporter: in northern africa it is the spring of discontent. and one week after they deposed a dictat, sudanese demonstrators are still on the streets, demanding a "glorious summer" of civilian control. at friday prayers outside the khartoum defense ministry, a cleric called for a representative government to replace the military-led transition council.

and as they have been for months, these demonstrators were majority women. >> we are still protesting to make sure that all our demands are being achieved and that the military council is not cheating us. >> reporter: fadya khallaf is a tour guide turned yellow-vest weing demonstrator. she and all of these protestors support the opposition's plan to present its own list of technocrat leaders. >> we need a civilian government right now. if we do not see that then, we well continue in the sit-ins. >> reporter: las those sit-ins pushed the military to remove 75-year-old omar al- bashir, who ruled since 1989 by waging wars while wearing a smile. in southern sudan and mi darfur, his tias scorched earth andma acred his enemies. hundreds of thousands died, and suffered from fami. he was indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genode. and he's not the only longtime regional strongman who's lost power. in algeria, dulaziz bouteflikagn resi two weeks ago under the

pressure of protests. and today those protestors returned to the streets, saying a planned july election run by the military, wasn't good enough. they too want to replace a military-led regime they consider corrupt, with civilian-led government. >> ( translated ): we came out today to change the entire regime from its roots. youth and old me are with us, we will not tire, and we will continue to protest every friday until the regime falls. they all must leave, we are determined. >> there's been a boiling tempest in both of these countries, and it's reached a breaking point. r orter: salih booker is the president and c.e.o. of the center for international policy. he says inoth countries, the demonstrations began as protests against local issues like food prices, but quickly became political calls for equality and fundamental change for generations of young protestors. >> they have not had eonal

tiportunities, they have not had employment opportu, and they faced political restrictions on their freedom of speech, on thega freedom of zation. many of them have suffered from being imprisoned, and have had physical human rights abuses. >> reporter: mucof the region finds itself at a pivot point. in libya, general khalifa hifter is trying to become a new strongman, and has left the country on the verge of all-out civil war. and in mali, the prime minister and the entire government resigned yesterday, after ethnic violence that sparked widespread protests. the u.s. should side with the protestors who are demanding democracy, argues salih booker. >> traditionally, the u.s. preoccupation has been with stability, and traditionally, the united states has seen the military as the institution that can bring stability. hopefully this time, the u.s. t make that mistake. in fact, the path to securityil

and sty is through respect for human rights, and political governance that actually represents the will of the people. >> reporter: but getting to that model of governance is contested. the countries are already proxy battles for regional politics. in khartoum, protestors held aloft signs denouncing middle east countries that have intervened on behalf of the military.on panopf is a former diplomat who served in sudan and the middle east. >> that would be a nightmare scenar for sudan. if you have the rivalries of the middle east, exported into this very fragileoment in sudan, it certainly risks further fragmentation, further splintering, both ofhe various political elements in the tauntry, but also the mili and security elements. >> reporter: and it's thosele securitynts that protestors fear. in egypt, eight years ter the hope of the arab spring revolution, president abdel fatah al-sisi maintains widespread military influence, and dramatically restricts freedoms. if today's protests are ar spring 2.0, the protestors have

learned from egypt's mistakes, says booker. >> that they're not just focused on deposing old men who have been in office too long. they're intent on changing the system.ol they are rionaries. they want to rip out the corruption in the ruling parties, in the military, in other institutions. they want a clean sweep. >> reporter: but thesee transitions ver easy. sudan, algeria and the region will continue to see protests,an it's not clear whether this emscontent can actually transform into docracy. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifirn. >> woodruff: and now to help us understand the broader implications of the mueller report, we turn to the analysis of selds and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist dad brooks, who

joins us from vancver. and hello to both of you. so the mueller report is out, still generating a lot of controversy as we heard a few minutes ago on th show. but, mark, i want to ask the two of you, what is your main takeaway from this? what is most important here? >> i guess sadness, more than anything else, sadness about the state of the leadershihe country. i mean, every white house is inevitably a mirror reflection of the president at the top of it, whether it's in terms of optimism of a reagan or the paranoia of the nixon. but this white house, it may be good at some level to work at donald trump's white house for somebody, but it's terrible forc one's self-re i mean, at no point in the entire narrativeoes any sense of the pressident's unselfishn or patriotism or larger national

interest ever emerge in any way, and i'm grateful that peothe who arre, who did not come with a heroic reputation did heroic b thiny resisting his orders to do corrupting acts. >> woodruff: david, your main reaction? >> we have a lot of threats to the infrastructure of our society. donald trump is a threat to the systems of government have and ahreat to the basic honesty of our system. every time hein appearhe mueller report, he's running roughshod over what he's supposed to be doing.'s nterfering with an investigation, he's ordering somebody to fire somebody else. he juskt taes all the procedures and systems we have in place in our government and runs right through them. the second character in the report of the russians and they're undermining the informatiol structure of our society, the fact that we can have a debate based on solid facts and information, and they

are systematically trying to undermine that. the third player is julian assange and wikileaks, and they're trying to undermine thea idea we ca privacy in our society, the idea organizationse caberate with each other. so i see three players in either tight or loose alliance that are all enaged in the same project which is disrupting the basic >>frastructure also of our society. oodruff: pretty grim. mark, so, clearly thisoe administration't come out looking great from this report. what does it mean, though, for government, i mean, for our rderal government, for o system of government? is there a long-lasting effect from what we see here? >> well, we obviously don't know yet, judy. i think there's a couple of events that will take place. iean, i think robert mueller's testimony on capitol hiilll be very crucial to where we go from here and just picking up on the point david made, if there's an imperative that comes out of this whole sordid talfoe, it's r

a new 9/11 cmmission. it's -- to have the 9/11 commission after the attacks of 2001 chaired by tom kaine, a republican vernor of new jersey and lee hamilton, a former democratic congressman, to investigate what h wppened, how avoid it ever happening again, what do we need to do statutorily, collectively in the country. and the russians did, they subverted and sabotaged our election, d te obama administration was remiss in its response in 2016, and president trump has chosen for two and a half years to deny what russia did, and the most public ofacraments that we have as a people, a presidential election, was subverted andge sabo and they're about the same evil mission again. we ought to have that, it ought to be bipartisan, it ought to be republicans and democrats and we

ought to just ammandrican elections be only involved with americans, and it has to bring in all of the silicon valley and all the companies and we have to do this to preserve our democracy and to restore some sense of public trust. >> woodruff: david, follow this witoh anther investigation, something that maybe provides ao catharsi what we have been through? >> well, i would say we need an action planor what to do with russia because, obviously, it's still ongoing, so thawould be something that would be good. i'm concerned over what's going to happen in the next two or sx years. you've had that piece in the national review today that's getting a lot of attention and he asks what woe do if there's a world crisis? we now see a white househere e president makes a disaster strouse decision and we're only saved because of the fact hissn staff do carry it out. but in moments of crisis where decisions have to be mae in rapid fire, everything is

centralized in the oval off and we have been fortunate we've not had that kind of crisis, but most presidencies have one, two, or three, and what do we do when central power falls on a man who can't make sound decisions? s it's acaishy prospect when there's something in the leader of the free wos to do something about. >> woodruff:s it something to worry about? >> it is. and not to go back to ancient history, which is my life, but i can recallhen the cuban missile crisis happened and the president of the united states dispatched dean atchinson, former secretary of state, to meet with charles degall, leader ofrance, to tell him about the presence ofieovmissiles in cuba 90 miles from the united states and what the president intended to from it and confronting khruschev. and dean atchinson when he went to see charles de gaulle, went

and showed him that president kennedy authorized him to do that and charles de gaulle said, no, that t's cessary, all i need is the word of the president of the united states. that's unthinkable in these mes that the word of the president of the united states, i mean, even to hiswn staff of whom he was unfeared and unloved, thank goodness, that he could resist his commands. >> woodruff: david, what about on the shortererm? you have democrats saying not irey they want to see the ent unredacted report, they want robert mueller to testify, they want to pursue this, there are some democrats on left-hand of the spectrum that say let's move toward impeachment, so far the leadership in democrats in congress are resisti what should we see democrats doing right now? i think they should have mural testify. i think they should use the capower they have to ed the voters, and whether that the

mueller testifying or getting more information out of the repo i, i certainly think it, they should have that and we shouldi ave hearings. ink impeachment would be handing donald trump the kind of gift he likes where he could set it up as the left verthsus right than what is donald trump's actual behavior. and this is a case where i think where voters should have the ultimate wd here and giving information to the voters about what is happening is a good idea, subverting the choice of the voters by taking it to al leocess i think would be a mistake. >> politics remains the art of the possible. i have yet to see other than senator romney today being quite critical of the president and his lack of truthfulness or honor as seen in theport. the republicans have been mute. they have united behind him. to talk about ieachment, conviction would mean, what, 20 republican senators in the inunited states senate co over. so i think that it's

unrealistic. but i do think the mueller testimony is important i think that hearings should be conducted in specific areas and puic education is important, but i don't see impeachment right now as a plausible alternative. >> woodruff: but, david, if it's nt about impeachment, is it just about educating people, as you just said? >> well, mueller, in the report, gave us a little road map. i mean, he was clearly disinclined to indict on the obstruction of justice charges and he said i was collecting information for either future prosecutors or members of congress, so there is an open avenue if people want to see that. i just hate the idea of conducting our politics always through scandal, always through the par time of watergategate where we're going to bring down a president. sometimes that may b and it may be in this case, it could be a borderline cas

i ink, a, it's not going to happen, and when we're haing politics through scandal, we're not having politics through the politics of issueoo >>uff: mark, what about that? are we stronger as a country becaine we see etail what happened throughout this -- you know, this move from th cmiddle of tmpaign year in 2016 or even before that, when the russians started trying to interfere in the election, up through the end of robert mueller's investigation? >> we're not stronger if we don't do anythg about it. i mean, that's why i come back to -- and i don't mean the 9/11 commission or the reincarnation of that as just a feel-good measure. i mean, i think it's imperative that we confront.an amerlections are sacred. they are our sacred publicst utions. and they would sabotage. they would subvert it. and this president has deied it, and because somehow it would affect the magnitude and enormitiy of his own victory and

his own vaity would somehow be pierced. so, no, i -- we're only stronger, judy, is with that ion, we act. >> woodruff: and how does the president come around to acknowledging the russians were conducting this sweeping attempt to undermine the elections two years ago? >> well, the glaciers will march down on pennsylvania a before that happens. i don't think that's going to happen. you know, ones of the thoug i've had the week similar partial is our scarce history source by now and tat robert mueller seems to have been pretty impartiality, and we rely on umpires in this society who are impartiality. william barr ruined the idea of impartiality with that press conference and ruined any benefit of the doubt peple like me were inclined to give him. restoring impartiality in government is a necessary thing. you don't really see it in kong

or theupreme court. 've lost the sense that one should just try to be an umpire. >> woodruff: 15 seconds. robert mueller and donald trump are the book ends. born to privilege, private school ivy league education, confront the dilemma of their nation, vitnam, one chose o go, carried wounds of battle, the other can't remember which foot he had the boe sur on that prevented his serving. one devoted his le ifto public service, the other to the pursuit of money. this is it. 258,000 americans died in that war and donald trump and robert mueller ar at odds with it. >> woodruff: david brooks, mark shields, we thank you. >> woodruff: actress elizabeth mcgovern is most recently best

known as cora crawley, the countess of downton, from the popular pbs series "downton abbey." but this month she returns to the big screen with a new film from pbs' masterpiece. we get an inside look now asf part o"canvas," our recurring arts and culture series. >> louise has been cinled to study ew york. >> she can't go without a chaerone. she hn't been able to find anyone. >> i'd like to propose myself. >> woodruff: the film tells the real life drama of one of america's first big screenbo shells. >> it's the story of a young louise brooks who traveled fromi her tokansas when she was 15 to study dancing in new york. at the time she was travelingie she was accompby a middle aged housewife as a chaperone. >> woodruff: actor elizabethla mcgovern the chaperone, norma. louise "lulu" brooks-- a flapper

icon who popularized the bob hairstyle-- starred in several silent and early talkie movies, and inspired liza minnelli in her famous role in "cabaret." >> i was instantly attracted to it because i love things about change. >> woodruff: julian fellowes, author of the "downton abbey" series, wrote the movie screenplay. >> this was a drama really about child of the new age helping a middle aged housewife who'd grown up at the end of victorian values find herself. >> woodruff: a teenager-- and minder-- both unleashed new york. >> we watch her discovering a kind of ownership of her own sexuality by brushing up against this highly sexually charged figure. b louiseoks and we see that manifest in her own life. so she's the sort of the ordinary person's storimwho's- who's bibing the message of the icon and it's a wonderful

positive story. >> woodruff: norma uncovers details about her early life: >> i've come a long way from kansas. >> woodruff: born inork, placed in an orphanage as a toddler, and sent on a train top wichita to be d. louise becomes the star pupil and accomplished dancer. >> these two women at completely different stages of their lives helping each other and having a mutual effect so that by the end of their sojourn in new york they're different people. >> reporter: unlike most masterpiece projects, "the chaperone" is now in theaters. rebecca eaton is the executive producer. >> both norma and louise had been-- i don't want to use the word abused too broadly-- but they had been through the fire. and as they come together they

give each other strength. they give each other the nerve first of all to tell the truth about what's happened to them and then to kind of go the next ep to recover which for norma >> she takes ownership of her own sexuality d she realizes that she has a right to have a sex life basically. i mean i think that'something that american women don't necessarily assume they do. there's a kind of a puritanical i think heritage that we all have in our d.n.a. that that we don't really have the right to u appetite and this is norma's discovery that this is a key to her happiness and sense of self. >> woodruff: mcgovern also produced the film-- creating a happy reunion. >> i love writing for elizabeth because she has this curus vulnerability combined with great strength. they seem like opposite qualities but she has them both. she has a certain delicacy. and you feel she could be defeated and ground down by things.

but she at the same time has an inner reserve of strength that fights back. at the beginning she's people pleaser. she's trying not to make trouble.sh s trying to make things work. simultaneously you realize here is a woman capable of fighting back. >> woodruff: part offight is over her wardrobe and the corset that women wore. >> woodruff: did you actually a have to weorset? >> i did. i did.l i wore it e way through. >> i felt that it was a good illustration of what norma was putting herself through every day she'd come from this not ndexactly unhappy backgrou. and she felt she had to keep going with it in order to keep the show on the road.in and way that became the corset that she was putting herself into every day of her

life. >> in the last screen, louise's character asks normalla, did you ever put your corset on again? and she says, no, i never did. i'm hoping, after this movie, i can reply the same bay, that i never put it on again.th >> woodruff:chaperone" opens nationwide today. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. lifeleell-planned. n more at raymondjames.com. b f railway.

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♪ hello, everyone and "elcome anpour & co." here's what's coming up. the mueller report makes its public debut. we get the unredacted remains and break downt you need to know. what all the president's men t' think, and w the historical context of this special investigation? plus -- >> how do we level the playing field, especially in something that we all desire to have a meritocracy. at least we all say that. how do we actually create >> one man's soaring ambition to give the entire planet auality education. academys ounder sal khan talk to our walter isaacson. ♪ uniworld is a proud sponsor of "amanpour & co."