captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. st the newshour tonight: a dangerous mileone. the u.s. now has the highest outbreak of measles since the year 2000. then, a cross-country protesdi saudi arabiaident manal al-sharif drives across the u.s. to ghlight her country's repression of women's rights. it's friday. mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze joe biden's entrance into the race for president, elizabeth warren's plan to pay for free college and continuing fallout from the mueller report plus, a dramatic version of the beloved story "les miserables." >> i realized that, like all classics, i suppose, that it ioars constant reinterpret you can't get a 50-, 100-page

anok into a two-hour musical. >> woodruff: all td more, on tonig's pbs newshour. >> major funding fur the pbs newsas been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> text night and day. >> catch it on replay. >> burning some fat. >> sharing the latest viral catd >> you cthe things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you.

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>> woodruff: presint trump railed against special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation today, calling the probe a "coup." mueller didn't find any evidence of russian collusion in the 2016 election, but he did find proof that mr. trump tried to interfere in the investigation enltiple times. the president's co came during a speech to the national rifle association in indianapolis. r a coup.ried it didn't work out so well. ( applause ) and i didn't need a gun for that one, did i? all was taking place at the highest levels in washington, d.c. >> woodruff: the president'sou remarks came after deputy attorney general rod rosenstein defended his handling of tru two-year-lonia investigation. en was his first public co since the special counsel's nsdacted report was released. roin also lashed out at lawmakers, the media, and the

obama adminiration as he spoke to a lawyers' group in new york. >> the previous administration chose not to publicize the full story about russian computer hackers and social media trolls, e d how they relate to a broader strategy to undermerica. today, i belie our nation is safer, elections are more secure, and certainly citizens are tter informed about cove foreign influence schemes. >> woodruff: in a lated development, f.b.i. director christopher wray sounded a new warning today about threats of russian interference in the coming presidential election. he called russia's actions in the 2018 midterms a "dress rehearsal" for 2020. president trump also announced today that the u.s. is withdrawing its support for the united nations' arms tradeea . he told the n.r.a. that the pact threatens the second amendment's eedoms. the treaty regulates the international trade of weapons, from small arms to warships.es

ent obama signed it in 2013, but the senate never ratified it. the u.s. economy grew ex a better-thacted 3.2% annual rate in the first thnths of this year. that is despite the partial federal government shutdown and trade tensions. the upbeatews pushed stocks higher on wall street. the dow jones industrial average gained 81 points43o close at 26 the nasdaq rose 28, and the s&p 500 added 14.si admitted r secret agent maria butina was sentenced today to 18 months in prison. the 30-year-old pled guilty in december to conspiring with a russian official to infiltrate and influence conservative political groups in the u.s. butina will be deported back to russia, afr completing her sentence. sri lanka's president announced today that the suspected sungleader of the easter sunday

attacks died in ide bombing at one of the targeted hotels. police are searching for 140 people they say are linked to the islamic state, which claimed responsibility for the blasts that killed at least 250 people. meanwhile, the country's muslim community gathered for friday prayers under tight security, and voiced hope the tragedy won't define their country.ve >> it's sad situation. we work with the christians, buddhists and the hindus. se has been a threat for all of us, because of tew people, of what they have done to this beautiful country. i urge the people around the d to visit this beautifu country, and just don't isolate sri lanka. >> woodrf: catholic churches on the island also canceled all sunday masses until further notice, out of pcaution. in mozambique, the death toll from the second cyclone to hit the country in six weeks rose to three people today.st thm has weakened to a

tropical depression, but continues to bring heavy downpours and high w. the southern african nation is expected to get twice as much rain over the next ten days as it did from last month's cyclone. u.n. officials warned that without immediate aid, the situation could worsen. >> cyclone kenneth may require a major new humanitarian operation, at the same time that the ongoing cyclone idai response targeting three million people in three countries remain itically under-funded. the disaster comes only six weeks after cyclone idai devastated central mozambique, killing more than 600 people. >> woodruff: mozambique's disaster management agency 7 estimated so,000 people remain at risk. back in this country, formernt vice presioe biden has raised $6.3 million in the first 24 hours of his democraticen presal campaign. he's now bested the rest of the 20-person democratic field in

first day fundraising. the biden campaign says that buted dollar donors cont most to the haul. and, the kansas supreme court ruled today at its state constitution protects a woman's right to abortion.it id so while blocking a ban on a common second-trimesteron aborrocedure. the landmark decision would keep abortion legal in the state, even if the roe v. wade case that establish federal protections for it is ever reversed. still to come on the newshour: "outbreak:" measles cases in the u.s. hit a nearly 20ear high. a six-month deadline for the trump administration to reunite familieseparated at the southern border. "scandal:" the mayor of baltimore is investigated for alleged corruption. "driving for rights:" a saudi woman's drive across the u.s. protestinger country's treatment of women. and, much more.

>> woodruff: this is precisely what public health officials were trying to avoid-- the u.s.s now dealing with the worst ou.reak of measles since 20 there have been nearly 700 cases confirmed in 22 states this year. mostly concentrated in a handful of places: new york, california, washington state, michigan and new jersey. in california, los a officials initially quarantined more than 200 students and faculty at two universities this week. students a staff from u.c.l.a. and from califernia state unty were required to remain at home or in their rooms. today, president trump called for unvaccinated children to get immunized. dr. anthony fauci is the director of the national institute of allergy and

infectious disease. dr. fauci, welcome back to the "newshour". he first question is what is the source of this outbreak of gmeasles? whating on? >> well, it's almost always someone coming in from out of the country or someone viting a country in which they haves measles thaetty much prevalent, and they bring it back into a community in which there's a low level of vaccine protection. that's exactly what we saw in the major outbreak that's going on right now in the williamsburg section of brooklyn in new york city, that you have a community very l in the degree of protection. you need about 93 to 95% of the community to be vaccinated in order to get that blaprnket of ection. >> woodruff: and with regard to these colleges in california, why was the qua necessary? couldn't they just assume that most everybody has been vaccinated? >> i think they will make that assumption, that's a reasonable assumption. what happened was that the

student that went to the different classes and exposed individuals, the reason they do atat right away, judy, is th measles is clearly one of the most contagious viruses known to man, and the very fact that one is in a room th someone even for a relatively short period of time puts them at hih risk. so what the officials at the college wanted to make sure that, first of all, to go through the students, screen them and find out if there was documentation that they were vaccinated, then they would be whne. if it was unclearther they would be vaccinated or not, then you might have to keep them a bit longer through that incubation period. so i think they did the right thing. >> woodruff: sugething that my eye and that is more than three-quarters of measles patients in california had n eitht been vaccinated at all or had gotten only one of the two doses reommended, but that means that another quarter ients hadmeasles pat been vaccinated, but they dill still got measles. thereah, what happened is are situations where a person may have gotten vaccinated but

the real, true protectatn th you get that's 97% is you get two doses, one at 12 to 15 months, one at 4 to 6 years. so there may be people there who either got a single dose and are not fully protected, or thet vaccine did protect them. >> woodruff: as we reported, the united states now has the highest number of meaescases since the disease was supposedly eliminated in 2000. nhat does that mean for the people who live in of these 22 states or anywhere, for that matter? what should they do to protect themselves? >> two things. one, wheyou get cases, they need to be isolated and keep people segregated away from the ople who clearly have measles, but getting back to the firstes order of busis to make sure that you're up to date on your vaccinations, and at's the message we really want to get out to people. if you have good documentation of your vaccination, you're fine. if you have been born before 1957 or an olndividual, it

is likely that you were infected with measles, you're okay. if you're not sure of what your vaccination status, is thenewhat yo to do is a couple of things, if you're an adult, get vacs united for the measles, single shot, because there is no harm in doing that, or you can go to a physician and find ou if you're immune. but the bottom line of all of this, judy,s to make surthat we vaccinate our children and, if you're an adult, tcheck and see if you've had the full component of te vacinations. >> woodruff: and i was reading, for some people over age 30, it may be nessary to get another measles vaccine. >> it depends on who you are. if you've had a singlshot and you're not living in an area where there's a clear outbreak,o re okay. but if you're in an area where you' at risk, even if you've had one shot, it's recommended you get a booster shot. >> woodruf and finally, how do you view the fact that many people are still protesting

against havg measles vaccinations? they have thousands of people protting in california this week. >> it's likely unfortunate, judy, that we have that mindset that, even now, with the demonstration that this is a tavery conous disease, the misinformation that this is a vaccine that causes serious adverse events like tism, which it definitely doesn't, and the manifestation that rit now in real time we're seeing outbreaks, to still protest about getting vaccinated is something that's just i don't explanation, i believe. >> woodruff: dr. anthony fauci of the national institutes of health. thank yo >> woodruff: the separation of migrant parents from their children entering this country from mexico remains a difficult and emotional issue, one where the president and his administration have been

criticized both for the policy and for reunification delays. but as yamiche alcindor tells us aederal judge ordered the government to speed up reunifications. >> alcindor: in january, an inspector general's report found that u.s. officials on the southern border had separated thsands more children from their parents than had previously been reported. tein fact, the practice st before the administration announced it's "zero-tolerance" policy in the spring of 2018. the trump administration suggested two years tote children and their parents, but a federal judge in california rejectethat yesterday, giving the trump adminstration a six-month deadline to locate all kids. lee gelernt of the american civiler liberties union is the lead attorney in the successful lawsuit, and joins us from new york. lee, thank you so much for being here. the trump administration wanted a lot more time to identify these separated families.is how importanhe judge's decision? >> this is absolutely critical, this ruling. the administration was askg

for two years just to identify the milies that ad separated. i mean, we already know that they separated 3,000. that's been reported. now there are potentially thousands more. these thousands more were separated ten months ago -- nt least ten m ago, maybe far longer. ted twoinistration w years just to identify the children, not to actuallyju reunify them to identify them. take a child who's three years old, now, separated when they were two, another two years means that three othe five ars of their life, they would have been separated from theirnt pa the judge put his foot down and said i want this done in six months, and i'm hoping it can actually be done much quicker, and i want production to the aclu on la roling basis. so we're hoping, within a few weeks, we start seeing lists of families because, ultimately, we are going to be thenes to contact the families, track them down. it's going to be a very, very

difficult task, it's going to enormously resouite intensive. going to be difficult. it may require us to be on the ground inen ctral america but we're going to have to do it. i think this is the most important moment in the whole family separation issue sin sce lamer when we got the court's ruling. >> now the government started separating families as early as july 2017, but it really didn't develop a stem to track the children till 2018. with that in mind, how feasible sit that the government can identify these families in six months. >> i think it's absolutely feasible. what's going to be har then tracking them down because the last contact information may steal now. now -- stale now, the government knows they're part of a group 45,000 children, most of whom came by themselves but, thousands were sep. so they have the files. what they were really arguing in the beginning is they don't even want to track them down because itould be too much of a buden

to go through these files. we tho0 ugh these 47,les can be reviewed very quickly. a's ultimately a matter you going to prioritize the lives of these children.mp >> the tdministration hasn't been able to pin down just how many children it separated from their families. with that in mind, how many parents have already possibly been depted without their children? >> i fear that a good portion of them have already been deported without their children. in the first batch of 3,000, we know that nearly 500 were deported without their children. these separations occurred before those 3,000. i think it's kely a substantial portion of the parents are sitting ovrseas without their children now. >> and children are at the heart of this story. when you think abouthe trauma of abused children who arely posstill separated from their families are enduring, what concerns you most about these children? >> i think there oistentially

irreparable permanent dam they will be suffering. what the medical community has been saying is the separation itself causes enormous trauma, but what really causes the permanent trauma is the length of the separation. so, now, we have the families who have now already been separated for ten months, at least ten months, and it could go on farn longer,d i think the medical community has been warning that we need to fin these children and reunite them and then, once they're reueenit, weto get them medical help because they're going to be suffering severe traa. hopefully it's not permanent. >> severe trauma. well, thank you so much, lee gelernt, of the aclu. >> thank you for having me. r >> woodruff: federds on public buildings... and once again, the city's top leader besieged by allegations of corruption.

all of this is leading to more anger, cynicysm and frustration in baltimore, often referred to as "charm city." william brangham looks at the scandal that has become central in baltimore, even as residents grapple with much bigger problems, like crime and a lack of economic opportunity. >> brangham: iwas a striking scene. federal agents raiding mayorgh catherine home yesterday, carrying out boxes of financial records and documents tied to a growing political scandal. the f.b.i. and i.r.s searched at least six baltimore addresses linked to the mayor, including city hall. it's the first federal involvement in this growing investigation of pugh. the allegation against the mayor is that she took payments for's her childrook series, called "healthy holly," when in alfact, the payments were kickbacks. since 2011, the university of maryland medical syste pugh half a million dollars fo100,000 copies of the self-published books.

she was a board member there for 18 years. the c.e.o. of that medical system resigd this afternoon. pugh sold another $300,000-worth of books to other instomers, incltwo health carriers that did business with t city. last month, she apologized, her voice weakened by an apparent bout of pneumonia. >> i am deeply sorry for any lack of confidence or disappointment which this initiave may have caused any baltimore city residents,ll friends and gues. >> brangham: pugh has since taken a leave of absence and resigned her board seat at the university medical system. an acting mayor has steppein. but, calls for her to leave office permanently are growing. in a letter earlier this month, baltimore's entire city council wrote, "we urge you to tender your resignation, effective immediately." and this week, maryland's republican governor larry hogan said the same. pugh is just the latest baltimore mayor besieged by

scandal. her predecessor, stephanie rawlings-blake, faced heavy criticism for how she handlede 15 riots after a young black man named freddie gray died in police custody. ctshe did not run for re-en. before her, sheila dixon resigned after being convicted of embezzlement. the city has also gone through four police commissioners in the last 18 months, while the city's crime is surging. homicides are up, and arrests are down. so let's get some perspective from a longtime baltimore resident. paul jay is the editor-in-chief of the real news network, a n-profit headquartered i baltimore. y, thank you very much f being here. could you just help us understand the nature of the allegation against the mayor is that these medical centers were buying all of these copies of her book, self-published book, which is really money right into

gr pocket, andess the assumption then is they're somehow trying to curry favor with the mayor, is th? >> yeah, and this begins before she was a mayor, when she was a member of the state aembly is when the book sales began, which i think goes bacfive or six years, and she was voting on legislation that favored the expansion and development of the maryland healthcare and other hospitals while she's been on the board. she's been on the board for many years of the maryland hospital system, and, so, she was pocketing this money, 100,000 books at bucks apiece for half a mall dollars. but when she becomes mayor, other places buy the books. a big insurance company in town up for an insurance contract with the city bought something like $100,000 of the books and wound up gettin the b insurance contract. another fellow who does financing for fleets of vehicles and other kinds of finfoancingr city enterprises apparently

bought $50,000 worth of these books. the number in the end comes, to i think, over $800,000, and i'm assuming the allegations are correct. it seems rather overt case of corruption, but i must add, one must ask why did she think she would get away with it?a >> i m it is such a striking scene to see federal agents maraiding the house of thor, going into city hall. what has the reaction beent amoneople in baltimore? >> the immediate reaction or the herly reaction of a lot of ordinary people wae they go again, targeting an rican-american politician. there's an enormous cynicism in the city about goernment and politics in general. most people lieve there's a whole culture of corruption. we just had a major sca the baltimore police force where the gun task force, this is the unit that's supposed to get guns off the streets, it turns out, for ten years, was actually involved in robbery and rbing

sealers and breaking into hou and some of those guys are cops who have now gone to jail. several employees police commissioners have gotten into hot water. the one before this one believe actually got some jail time. br reasons, the f..i. came out with the box and such. people accepted there must be something to these allegations, but it's added on to what's alady an enormous cynicism that these chronic problems of poverty and unemployment and a murder rate of, you know, something similar of upwds of 350 a year, now, that's as much as new yty, which is 13 times the size of baltimore. there's enormous cynicism anything can change and, of course, this adds to it. >> the governor, the city council, all seem to say the mayor has to go. n there a sense she can survive this. there's no way same-sex survive this.e'

emotionally dysfunctional herself, we understand she's in deep depression, and one way tore the other, the city, even though there's noo formal way t get rid of her, i can't see she's coming back. but that's an important point. people are getting organized to change theity charter so there is, in fact, a way to impeach the mayor and more imortantly devolve some of the powers of this all-powerful mayor to city council to make this process more accountable. who benefits from an all powerful mayor? real estate develops, bank,ers, people who want insurance contracts. so the question is if baltimore is going to be for the people and not all the other commercial interests, primarily, they neede to change thay the city is governed. >> paul jay of the real news network ink baltimore, thu so much. >> thank you for inviting me. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour:

mark shields and david brooks break down the week's top political stories. plus, "les miserables." a dramatic version of the award- winning musical. but first, women in saudi arabia started demanding the right to drive years before they won it. one of the most prominent voices belonged to activist manal al-sharif. earlier today, she demonstrated in front of the saudi embassy in washington, taking on the guardianship law, which dictates at a woman must always have a male relative approve even basic decisions. our amna nawaz spoke to al-sharif before her protest today, and about the state of women's rights in saudi arabia. ( speaking arabic ) >> nawaz: in 2011, when manal al-sharif posted this video of herself bend the wheel of a car, she sparked a revolution in saudi arabia-- where women were forbidden to drive. al-sharif inspired other women to buck the saudi ban and post

videos of themselves driving, too. but her protest landed her in jail for nine days, and she was only released after her father appealed directly to the king. >> at 2:00 a.m., the secret police came to my house, and seey arrested me from my h and i was sent to jail with one line in my paper: it was "driving while female." >> nawaz: the powerful saudi crown prince mohammad bin salm lifted the ban in 2018, part of an effort to paint himself as a reformer, after he started running most of saudi's affairs of state. last year, he toured the united states, receiving warm welcos from the white house. >> it's a great honor to have the crown prince with us. >> nawaz: and silicon valley, meeting the c.e.o.s of google and apple. but the crown prince's reality is in stark contrast to the modern image he sought to present to the world. the country's gruesome tradition of executions by beheading has continued under his watch, including 37 this week.

and, it continues to imprison female activists, including eight this month. the c.i.a. also assessed thatsa bin lman ordered the assassination of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi last year. and, the saudis are still leading a coalition fighting on behalf of yemen's government against iran-backed rebels. the united nations calls the war in yemen the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with more than 20 million civilileft starving, and tens of thousands dead and injured. manal al-sharif is sti fighting the saudi government for her rights, and those of her fellow saudi dissidents. now bad in australia, she justpe wrapa weeklong, coast-to- coast driving tour of the united states. covering new, and different terrain... ar we are part of the pace here at long beach grand prix in california. ma>> nawaz: ...and paying along the way to rosa parks in birmingham, alabama. al-sharif says the black civil rights struggle in america isg informinand inspiring her own

fight for civil rights in saudi arabia.-s manal rif's driving tour took her to the united states where she drove in the pride parade in new orlns. e joins me in the studio. welcome back to the "newshour". >> thank you. e driving video you first posted was eight years agola. year the driving ban was overturned. so why are you still protestingu >> b i promised my son when the driving ban is lifted d wive with him cross country in saudi arabia. unfortunately, the woman who ught with me against tis ban were all sent to jail, and that made me postpone my driving with my son. i've seen a lot ofomen being tortured ann asylum seekers running away from saudi arabia.h ght it was time to take a cross country drive in the u.s.

because of the so-importantip relationetween the saudi arabian government and the u.s. government. the americans need to know the violation of human rights. there are allies who have been violating th>>m. s we saw in the set-up piece there, there was a lot of poem when bin salman came ipower. what has changed for women in saudi arab >> i was one of the supporters, and a lot of activists went against me when i openly supported his vision. but there were a lot of red flags happening, like the amannh war, embargo. but when the war moved from outside to inside, whethey started detaining clerics and influential and arresting the women activist and then the assassination o of jamal

khashoggi, this made us lose hope. now i'm seeing a group of people who have absolute power that they can arrest people in this way in my country. it doesn't come from he. it comes from pride ofmy roots and background and we deserve better. >> you mentioned female activists in prison today. what do you know about the conditions under which they're being held? >> only the families can eak who are in saudi arabia on a travel ban. the two in afghanistan who were released and facingial, they took her husband. >> in prison. yes and banning the internet or even phone calls. >> you were in prison in 2011.

es. what were conkditions e? i wasn't tortured. it was nine days, and my father ew the king and i was released by pardon. i wasn't harassed by the government. no one ever talked to me again or put my famelily in the trav ban. so what we ar seeing is something we haven't experienc before. >> the saudi embassy spokesman tweeted he was awau of yor u.s. tour and said you would be welcomed at the embassy t meet with the ambassador. would you accept that invitation? >> i'm actually happthere is a woman who is there. >> reporter: ambassador. yes, and thede gratioes to those women in jail today for having the first female ambassador in history. i am happy wither and congratulate her, but my problem is i don't trust to go into the inside of any of my emmys after jamal khashoggi. i used to write forhim at "the washington post." he tweeted today this morning in

arabic, that i don't represen them and have nothing to do wit thses and i have no say in demanding their ras >> the embassy spokesman talking about the women in prison? >> yes, the same guy who tweeted in english tweeted a different statement in arabic that i don't want them. but they acknowledge there is a drive and a movement pushing back and creating a spotlight on thesserious violations of human rights. >> what do you think il take for there to be change? >> to change the mitticle we have in an absolute monarchon wherman has power. the government serves you. we need a costitutional monarchy and we need the law, the rule of the law, and that doesn'happen toay in saudi arabia. all these detainees have no achss to legal advice,ey don't know their charges, they

have been taken awam y froeir homes without warrant, remain in jail without trial, the trial is being postponed. so we want the rule of law. right now it's the rule ofone man. >> thank you very much for being here today. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the 2020 mocratic presidential primary field continued to fill up this we. former vice president joe biden's entrance into the race was just one of sevel major political stories this week. bringing us, as always, to the analysis of shields and brooks. th is syndicated columnist mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks. hello to both of you. it's friday. t so letk about joe biden. he finally is in therace, david. and it was interesting his message, the launch of the video message yesterday contrasting

mself with president trump and charlottesville and a president who would condone the kind of violence in charlottesville. what did you make tha >> i thought it was a smart strategy. first, if you're a demrat and you think all we have to do is nominate someone normal and not screw is up, we can bet trump, and joe biden is normal, and the country knows him, he's be aen through itll before. so him versus trump, if you just want to beat trump, he's probably your safest bet, that's a pretty good gument. second, i like the way he made this al about values, but what america stands for and wat our values are is a central one, and he really made it about that. he really wrapped himself around the constitution, the mern founding, and said this is not who we are. if you're worriheed t democrats donned don't like the founding documents, he said, no,e're american, we like the documents, we just want to live up to them. the one riskyhing in the announcement was the emphasis on restoration, that 're going to restore whd we ha, and there's

a forward focus in the electorate now so that one, i think, might have been a little off. >> woodruff: what abot and the stark choice he seemed to put forward? >> i think it's the best way for joe biden to run. i think he made it a ben not against the rest of the field but a biden agast trump. there was almost implicit in it a campaign i didn't cover but should havand that was the 1920 campaign of warren harding, h return to normal, a covens we have been ine abnormal. joe biden, the overridingpr ise of the campaign is a line joe biden used himself in the sense of rack obama when obama was being criticize bid democrats of not having lived up to his mission and his mandate in the first term, and he said, compare him not to the almighty, compare him to the alternative, and that's what hes asking, compare me to the alternative, donald trump. and i think that makes sense for

joe biden's candidacy, and there's a logic to it. >> woodruff: so he got good news to start out. with first 24 hours, hei rased 6.23 million, a little bitter than beto o'rourke and bernieut sanders,e also ran into head winds. he went on the television show this morning on abc lled "the view," and they asked him about the anita hill hearings where she still holds him accountable for what happened, and, most recently, the women who accused joe biden of being tooi famliar, touching them when they didn't ask to be touched. >> correct. >> woodruff: i want to show an excerpt of what he had to say when they ta lked about. >> i'm really sorry, if th-- what i did, talking to them, trying to console-- that in fact, they took it a different way. and it's my responsibility to make sure that i bend over backwards to try to understand d how not that. >> nancy pelosi wants you to say, "i'm sorry i invaded your space."

>> sorry i invaded your space. and, and i'm sorry this happened.bu i'm not sorry in the sense that i think i did anything that was intentionally designed to do anything wrong or be inappropriate. >> woodruff: so, david, that wasn't good enough for some of the womethis morning and the reaction on social media, women were saying, wait a minute, he should have just directly apologize. >> he coulhave but they want say this was ant sexual thing. i agree. joe biden invaded my space plenty of times. that's the way he is. when it's gross gender, it's a more sensitive subject, obviously. his answer is he's just cient of an ebulent kind of guy whgrabs you. but i think he's aware this is not the way things are done now inern era wwe're much more sensitive about sexual harassment, youeh can't bave that way. so the not good intent combined with i've learned the new situation is a reasonably fair

option. one thing i have been thinking about with biden in the last 24 hours, is if you looked at twitter, you would think nobody supports joe biden, yet he's number one in then fudraising. you have this weird phenomenon where the republican eliteare kind of moderate, they would be happy with mitt romney, but the grassroots are radicalized. on thedemrats side, the elites are kind of radicalized but the grassroots are ea littl more moderate. so you have the two different situations in the two matters. >> woodruff: so how is he navigating this, mark,nd could it be a problem with women voters? >> i guess it could be, judy. 46 years in washington, a city that lives by innuendo and thrives on rumors, none about joe biden. i mean, joe biden has led an exemplary life in terms of straying from values and so forth, and it's important to emphasize that. i think what he fails to do in his answers to come up, qe frankly, with a disciplined

answer, which ought to be three sentences, and it ought to be one paragraphnd he shouldn't steveate from it. just as an ample, not book end, george w. bush, when he was about to run for esident in 2000, faced the charges about his own misspent youth all the way up to the age of 40, and he had a sime answer every time something came up what about the crunching driving, about this fight u got into, h had a simple answer, when i was young and foolish, i wasoung and foolish. after a while, reporters got red of asking. joe biden needs something not quite that glib, but something like times have changed, i have changed. i think there is a big fference between invading someone's space and a hand on the shoulder, and the anita hil event t been handled bill biden so far. >> woodruff: you're saying all he needs is a disc response? >> and the same one so he doesn't deviate from it. >> woodruff: i want to as about one of the other democrats of this week.

elizabeth warren g a little out front, bernie sanders talked a little about free colge in 2016, but elizabeth warren this week came up with a plarnon vid, which in so many words makes public college almost free for students who need help, does that set her apart in ao significant wa what? >> well, i respect she has a whole series of serious policy proposal which have been on the ground for some cadidates but this one is a terrible idea. college graduates are amoie the weal people and well' off people in our society, we should not be subdizing college graduates. the top quarter earners hold 50% of the student debt. if we start forgiving student debt, we're really helping people who are going to be she could have a plan to forgive hnly $10,000 worth of debt, muc cheaper and will help the people who really need it, those who racked up that but never got aee deho are still strug --ng

struggand she didn't do that. there was an obvious political reason is democratic primary voters are pretty well educated and this goes to the core of the democratic primary electorate but seems to be a very foolish plan. >> what about it,k? mar i think first of all elizabeth warren has won the ideas primary. she's been specific, she's beeln she's laid them out. this is a problem, judy, make no mistake about it, college debt today is a bigger debt than is the mortgage bt carried by americans. it's bigger than auto loans. it is a public policy dilemma, and just a time bomb that is really affecting decisions, professional life decisions that irople make. in the f 100 years of the california system, the best public educational higher education system in the world, not aenny was charged for tuition. what happened? in the last three decades in lics country, the cost of pub college education has increased

300%. the cost of private education has increased twice, 200%. and this is an attempt to confront that blem, and the consequences of that problem, i dot think it's the tal answer, but at least it's dealing with, i think, a very serious public policy question that both parties have essentially avoided.uf >> woo she's putting a proposal out there, whether it's too much, t eugh, but we're talking about it. >> yeah. >> woodruff: just quicklyo the reaction to the mueller report, david, still a lot of conversation around it. mocrats aren't moving full blown ahead with impeachment but they are picking up, asking ngpeople to testify, cal for documents. the white house reaction, the president's reaction is, no way we're not givu anything. who comes out ahead in this? i hink the democrats do in this case. torical a long, hi precedent that congress has oversight responsibility for the executive thanch. 's as old as the hills. and if that comes under

questin', if they cacall an executive branch official to a hearing and ask how did you do your job, then that really does undermine our system. so i'm not wild about impeachment,ut i am earnest about forcing the executive branch to submit to thy we do things in this country which is to have oversight hearings and to answer calls when members of congress ask you to come up the hill and exp ylaurself, and, so, i think the democrats should be pretty forceful on thise. >> woodruff: but, mark, the president himself is saying we're not giving you anything, not giving you tax returns, no going to let you talk to my former white house counc don mcghan. >> my favorite color, my favorite movie, notng stonewalling, judy. and i think what we have in that stonewalling is donald trump lily, i think, publicly wrestling with his reaction to the mueller report. he's gone from alternating being the chest-thumping triumphant

victor, i'm exonerated,o obstruction, no collusion, to i'm the poor beleaguered victim that these lawyers spent time and money to get m, i'm the victim. i don't think he's quite got his own fiteing onhis and, obviously, his administration doesn't. but i think what he wants to do is play out the clorox oks like, heading into 2020, that that's what -- bill clinton ad ronald reagan were elected by the minority of the vote and both in two terms enlarged. donald trump each day narrows his base and maybe solidifies it but it gets narrower and smaller instead of reaching out to get . majori >> woodruff: his base loves what he's doing. they love the fact that he's

basically saying no way. >> it works for his base and impeachment works for the democratic base. the democratic partisans are pretty pro impeachment, a recent washington poll shows independents are not and most americans don't wanto go down the path of impeachment, and they want to focus on tissues. that's where the core is. but tvee democrats bit of a base problem there. >> woodruff: mark, do the democrats ju keep asking and asking till they're blue in the face? >> they've got tbe disciplin in their asking. nancy pelosi ha psoblem with that caucus. i mean, the caucus is the loudest, hashe moglamorous voices in it come from single party districts where they don't have to worry about primaries, d the voters that david mentions are worried about the cost of prescription drugs, they're worried about medical care and the d. j. partys ha to be seen as responding to that and addressing it and notimply

pursuing donald trump with five different committees. but i think itas to far more disciplined and focused than it has been so far. >> woodruff: a fewconds, we'll watch it play out. >> at least i hope they take it to cou. i think the courts say the trump inginistration is in a los position. >> i agree. this has to be established. we have three branches of government, congress and the executivsort of works together but congress has the oversight power that has to be protected. >> woodruff: david brooks,s, mark shiee thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: this sunday, pbs' "masterpiece" continues with a dramatic version of "les miserables." jeffrey brown has insight on this newersion of an old story, as part of "canvas," our series on arts and culture.

>> brown: most of us know it with song-- the recent oscar- winning movie, based on thely hugeopular broadway musical. both, stemming from the 1862 novel by victor hugo. now, comes a new "les miserables"-- no music, more story. on pbs's "masterpiece," told in orialorm over six hours. dominic west plays of literature's great heroes, jean valjean. west, too, wondered at first keout the need for a re-ma >> i realized that, like all classics, i suppos that it bears constant reinterpretation. you can't get a 50-, 100-pe book into a, into a two-hour hosical, and insert. it deserves a si treatment, which it hasn't had, in living >>mory anyway. rown: the story is set in 1815 just after france defeat in the battle of waterloo. released from prison after serving 19 years f stealing

a loaf of bread, valjean establishes a new life, crime- free. but he is pursued by french policeman javert, onof literature's great bad guys, played by actor david oyelowo, previously best known for his irole as martin luther ki "selma." >> with javert, wh never get into the psychology of why he is so obsessed with thepu uit of violence. >> brown: in this "les mis," the actors say, there's ro characters to develop. lily collins plays fantine, the much-suffering working class young woman. >> you have a whole episode dedicated to her being in paris and falling in love, and having a child, and it really being romance, so that when things go south for her, the aud feels more empathy and more attached to her storyline, because they rooted for her. >> brown: th is a co-

production with the u.k.'s bbc. rebecca eaton is ecutive producer of "masterpiece." >> it seemed kind of perct timing to tackle that bigam canvas, at thetime to tell the story of a hero. hero stories are important, because we don't have enough of them, in my view. >> brown: it's also a respite of sorts for dominic west, best known for playing charming cads in shows like "the wire" and, more recently,the affair." this offers a new challenge. >> you know, he's the greatest hero in literature. he's a superhero. and he climbs up the sides of houses and, you know, he's stronger than anyone else. but he's also done 20 years in a labor in a 19th century french prison. so he's tougher than any superhero ever. he's a hero who is kind of finding his own heroism. and i think-- i think we're desperately in need of that, these days.

we don't know what human heroes are anymore. we know what superheroes are. you know, "transformers" and things. but we don't know how a real person becomes a hero. and he's pretty real. >> brown: just as some of the tensions driving this historical drama are real again today. >> we live in a world now where there are more protests around the world than i think there ove been since, say, the civil rights movement,r all the feminist movement in the '60s. it's gun laws or immigration, or the rise of terrorism, whatever it is that people are holding placards up about, it is idisputable. even right now, we see the yellow vests in paris, where o show took place 200 years ago. so that for me was the reason to do it.

>> the child is yours? >> we as a society are still dealing with a lot of issues that bleed into a lot of the topics that were discussed in the series. >> brown: a series that tells the stories of those at the bottom. >> what's amazing about thisow s, they look like the people who are like that, and certainly in the u.k. now, but, you know, they're immigrants. they're the poorest of the poor. they're the people we pick on first, because they' the weakes and i think it's more relevant today than ever before.le >> brown: nce producers hope attracts a new audience to this oft-told tale over the coming weeks. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in new york. >> woodruff: on the newshourne onight now, you can listen to our new podcast. "the last continent" is a deep dive into our team's joucaey to antarc

search for "the last continent" orpbs newshour" on apple podcasts or your favorite podcast app, to subscribe and download episodes. while there, you can also rate us or even write a review. you may also listen directly on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour/ thelastcontinent. don't forget "washineek" later tonight. and we'll be back, right here, on monday, with an interview with senator cory booker of new jersey, on his bid to becomc the democrominee for president. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruf g have aat weekend. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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♪ tonight on kqed "newsroom," demanlds for the president's ta returns and subpoenas of former aides are leading to bettitter fights. also a controversial state bill pasd a key hurdle this week as lawmakers weighed easures to tackle the housing crisis. and after thousands of performances in front of millions a bay area icon that's the world's longest musical review says good-bye. hello and welcome tokqed "newsroom." we begin with a flurry of action this week in the nation's capital. white house lawyers h ve signalled they plan to tell former officials including don mcgahn to not comply with subpoenas for their testimony. the subpoenas came as house de