captioningored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: i sit down with 2020 democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders. then, hundreds of former federal prosecutors, both republican and democrats, sign a lettting that psident trump would have been indicted for obstruction of justice, if he were not a sitting president. plus, from crib to college. acnnsylvania will now open a college savings count for every newborn baby ithe state, tomatically, and with $100 already invested. >> that $100 grows to $400, and if they deposit $25 a month from the time that child is born, they'll have more than $10,000 by the time that child reaches 18.

>> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin? >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> text night and day.>> atch it on replay. >> burning some fat. >> sharing the latest viral cat! >> you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv >> babbel. a language program that teaches spanish, french, italian, german, and more.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: wall street is feeling the pain tonight, from a jo of uncertainty over u.s trade talks with china. talk of new tariffs starting this friday sent the market into a day-long sell-off. the dow jones industrial average plunging 473 points to close at 25,965, for its worst percentage decline since early january. the nasdaq fell 159 points, and the s&p 500 shed 48. the trump white house today intensified its resistance to

vestigations by congressional democrats. officials ordered former whitese house codon mcgahn to defy a subpoena from the u.s. house judiciary committee. it seeks documents related to i the russestigation. meanwhile, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell joined the president's pushback against democrats. >> they told everyone'd been a conspiracy between russia d the trump campaign. yet, on this central question, the special counsel's fiasing is clear:closed. case closed. this ought to be goonews for everyone. >> woodruff: democrats say the question of whether the president obstructed justice is anything but closed. house speaker nancy pelosi apared today at cornell university in ithaca, new york, and said the president is making the case for impeachment. >> trump is goading us to impeach him. that's what he's doing. every single day, he's taunting,

taunting, because he knows that would be verdivisive in the country, but he doesn't really care. just wants to solidify his base. >> woodruff: pelosi said again that congress needto follow the facts before deciding whether to pursue impeachment. also today, the house judiciary committee negotiated with the justice dertment over gaining access to the full mueller report. staffers from both sides met in a bid to resolve the dispute. so far, attorney general wil ram barr hused to release the complete, unredacted report. the committee is scheduled to vote tomorrow on holding him ine contempt of co. f.b.i. director christopher wray soke with the attorney general today, saying he hn no evence that the f.b.i. spi on the trump campaign in 2016. attorney general barr asserted lastonth that the f.b.i. had spied on the campaign. at a senate hearing today, wray distanced himself from that claim. >> well, that's not the term i

would use. o there are lopeople who have different colloquial phrases. i believe that the f.b.i. is engaged in investigative activity, and pa of investigative activity includes surveillance activity of different shapes and sizes. and to me, the key question is making sure it's done by the book, consistent with our lawful authorities. >> woodruff: attorney general barr has ordered review of whether the f.b.i. had a proper basis for its investigation. wray declined to discuss that issue today, citing the ongoing review. secretary of state mike pompeo made a surprise visit to iraq today, amid new tensions with iran. he met with iraqi leaders d said intelligence indicates that iran might take some actioan against amerorces in the middle east.vi tht came two days after news that a u.s. aircraft carrier group is being rushedck o the region. u.s. health officials are voicing new concern about pregnancy-related deaths.

the centers fodisease control and prevention reports the risk has risen 50% in the last generation. in all, about 700 women a year die from pregnancy causes, and the victims are three times more likely to be black. the c.d.c. says more than half of the deaths are preventable. the governor of georgia today signed a law that bars most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected. that is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, before a woman may know she's expecting. at the signing, republican governor brian kemp acknowledg weeks of protests against the law, and the likelihood of a legal fight. >> i realize that some may challenge it in the court of law. but our job is to do what is right, not what is easy. we are called to be strong and courageous, and we wilback down. we will always continue to fight for life.

>> woodruff: georgia is now the fourth state this year to outlaw abortions once a fetal hrtbeat is detected. president trump has pardoned a former army lieutenant convicted of murdering a prisoner in iraq. michael behenna had served five years in a military prison before being paroled in 2014. he admitted to stripping, interrogating and then shooting a suspected al-qaeda militan behenna said that he thought the man was going to try to take his gun. riand, there will not be ae crown winner in horse racing this year. his handlers say kentucky derby winner country house has a cough, and will not run in the preakness, in two weeks. the colt was declared the derby winner last saturday, after the first-place finisher was disqualified. still to come on the newshour: sitting down with 2020 presidential candidate bernie nders. two journalists are released after over 500 days of

imprisonment in myanmar. hundreds of former federal prosecutors claim president trump would have been indicted if he were not in office. and, much more. >> woodruff: independent senator bernie sanders of vermont became a household name in 2016 when he ran a progressive campaign forth democratic party's presidential nomination. but much of that primary race was a one-on-one contest. he is now vying for the democratic nomination again, but this time, he's up against 20 other candidates. senator sanders joins us now. senator sanders, wel"nme back to thwshour". >> good to be with you, judy. >> woodruff: let's start with the news tooptd,he stock market dropping over 470 points, fears, analysts say, of a trade war with china, the preside's policies toward china. it appears to many people that your approach to trade with

china with very similar to the president's. >> no, it is not. tat i recognize is that, for many years, oade policies have been a disaster. if you look at nafta and yotu look tntr with china, in fact, it's cost us about 4 million decent paying american jobs and helped lead th race to the bottom where wages were depressed in america. so i think we do need new trade policies that are fair to the working people of this country, not just for the c.e.o.s. but, as usual, i think trump gets it wrong in terms of implementation. >> woodruff: but you would be tough on china, as he is. >> i would be supportive of american workers. think it is wrong that, when large corporations are makingha huge profits, they simply shut down in this country, thron amerorkers out on the street and look for cheap labor abroad. so i believe that we have got to deal with that iss but not the way trump is dealing with it. >> woodruff: let me turn to end a lot that you s

of time talking about in this campaign and that is medicar healthcare and a proposal for medicare for all, guarenteed healthor every person, man, woman and child in the country. i think eveone agrees the current system needs fixing, more people need to be covered, but, right now, this is an economy that ipending $3.5 trillion a year on healthcare. >> rig i. >> woodrufis a sixth of the american economy. >> right. >> woodruff: and even you acknowledge at doing sething like medicare for all would be a massive disruion, do away with -- all right. >> that wasn't my word. >> woodruff: other peorple wee saying it would be massive wasruption. dowith private insurance. why not move incrementally? >> because you have a dyissfunctional system tha really rotn to the core. and let me tell you something, judy, the people who are opposing medicare for all are in the insurance industry, in the pharmaceutical industry. these are people who are making huge compensation benefits, and

they are seeing their corporations make huge pro ten largest drug companies made made billion in profits last year. uhey don't like the idea that i intend to lower dg prices by 50%. but here is the bottom le -- right now, you've got 34 million people, no health insurance, even more underinsured. we pay the highest prices in tho d for prescription drugs. we end up spending twice as much per person ason healthcaro the people of any other country. i live 50 miles away from the canadian border. how can anone defend a dysfunctional system like that? when youff: but have, as we said, such a huge part of the u.s. onomy -- the congressional budget office oday, nonpartisan analys your plan, universal coverage, came away andcl coned many people employed in the healthcare system now would lose htheir jobs,ey concluded that employer-based he lthcare servhat most non-elderly

americans now use would be eliminated, and they saerfew people would likely go into the medical profession because pay would be less. >> that's exactly wrong. right now, because of all of the stress that the insurance companies put on docfitors, youe manager doctors demoralized. doctors and nurses are trained to work with their patients and try to do well by their patients. right now before they can do ane procedure,ve got to call up three insurance company folks. here is the bottom line, all right, the bottom line is we are the only major countn earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people. we spend twi as much and our w,althcare outcomes are poor. medicare, right udy, is the most popular health insurance program in the all that i want to do over a four-year period is expand medicare to allf ou people. we will save the average person significant sumshif money, give or her freedom of choice regarding doctors and hospitals. >> woodruff: but you say it's freedom of choice, t you're

doing away with private insurance. >> yes. >> woodruff: remember presiden keep your healthcare plan, you can keep your doctor. it didn't work out that way. >> yeah, because those were junk ghans he end upped doing away with. now, do you think the average american has freedom of choice if a doctor is not in your network, your can't go to that doctors all i want ty to the american people tonight is we are taking on the insurance companies and the the drug companies who make huge profits f of a dysfunctional system that is not working for the average american.oi they are to spend, judy, in my view, hundreds of millions of dollars trying to preserve their profits and their outrageous compensation packages. e guy who's head of aetna created a merger with cvs, got $500 million in bonuses. i don't think that's where we should spend healthdollars. >> woodruff: but your plan would call with some form of higher taxes. >> of course. if i'm going to do away with your premiums, co-pays, deductibles and expanding

benefits, it has be paid for. but when you eliminate those things, the avcarage ame will be better off. >> woodruff: let's talk about the cost of college. one of your signature proposals, tuition-free colleges --l >> public ges and universities. not all. >> woodruff: you would impose a financial transaction tax to t y for it. but how much -- wuld this mean for the, whaer 45 million ans who have college debt right now? how would they benefit?be >> oh, they'fit very substantially. >> woodruff: because they've left college and- >> no, this 900 billion we're talking about -- look, here's the story -- right now,t wall strofits are very, very high, they're charging you 17% interest rates on your credit card. we're in usery. we bail them out after their nearly illegal activity destroyed the economy. at a time en hundreds of thousands of bright kids can't

afford to go to college and many are struggling with at rages lebls of student t, this is an issue we have to deal. with i'm glad more peoplare following me lead. i believe in the 21st century when yo're talking about public education, public colleges and schooling should be fr people should not be punished for getting a hiring education in a global economy. >> woodruff: states would have to pick up the cost? >> yes. >> woodruff: but many are ttings that have been cu spending for higher education. >> right. >> woodruff: how do you get them to flip or spend moe? >> well, that's another issue. instead of giving tax breaks to bilbillionaires. you have amazon and dozens of other corporations not paying a nickel in taxes last year.de myis large corporations should start paying their fair share of taxes. the bottom line, is in a competitive global economy, riff kid in this country, regardless of his or her income, deserves a higher education if that is

their goal. >> woodruff: quick question on foreign policy. you have been sayingecently you wish you had spoken more about foreign policy two years agwhen you ran for president. what would you do now to punish russia for what they did in 2016. >> first of all, unlump, you have to acknowledge the very seriousness of what they did. to try to undermine democracy in erica and other countries is simply not acceptable, and they have got to pay cea pri we have a president who doesn't even acknowledge that. but i think we should be looking at very tough sanctions. this is an act of aggression ocracyt the american dem which cannot be accepted. >> woodruff: beyond thisad nistration. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: what would that do? are the russians going to stop- are you sayg that's going to stop them from hacking? >> we have aesident who virtually doesn't even acknowledge the reality of what they did. here is a putin and his friends are trying to undermine amecan democracy and democracy in

europe. they have got to know that is not acceptable and the world hae got to them they are going to pay a very heavy price for it. >> wdruff: a question about polls. joe biden, you and he were running roughly one-two in the polls, and then he got into the race officially. he has surged into the lead. you've slipped. what's going on? is he appealing to the moderat among democrats? what's going on? >> i think you're going to see -- here's my prediction, atu're going to see polls th are good for bernie and joe and polls not so good. we're worng very hard. we have over a million people volunteered to work on our cam campaign. i think in our campaign you will see an unprecedented grassroots efforts, not just to b but to take on the powerful special interests whotr con so much in our country. >> woodruff: are you concerned he appea more to the moderates in the democratic party?

>> no, our message who appeal to working people, we had polls ou tho showed us, by the way, winning in pennsylvania, winning in michigan, winning in wisconsin, and i think we'll appeal to thecaeartland be our message of standing up for the working class in this country which has been ignored for so long i think will resote, and i think peple are seeing trump is a phoney, he told the amerin people he would guarantee healthcare to everybody, and wand to throw 32 million people off of healthcare. he wouldn't t social security, medicare and medicaid, his budget did exactly that. so we e going compose trump forta fraud that he is. we have a message thaappeal working people, black and white and latino all over this country. odruff: senator bernie sanders, thank you very much. we look rward to waching you on the trail. >> thank you very >> woodruff: now, to another democratic contender. our amna nawaz is on a reporting trip to io last night, she caught up with former texas congressman beto o'rourke. here is part of what he had to

sau e comment yode early in an interview that kind of stuck with you is the idea of being born to be, born to do this, people have said it about u, too. >> yes. and when it came across to a lot of people, you are in a diverse field of candidates, a straight white man, it sound add little entitled. so i wonder how you look back on that now. how do you explain to people who say that maybe wasn't the right thing to say? >> i hope that you read the entire article, because i didn't say i was born to be president of the united states. whoever decides theheadlines on the magazine made that choice. what i said is i feel like i was born to serve people, you know,e a small bu owner creating jobs, making payroll week in, week out. i'm notit end to anything. every vote, eve cucusgoer will be earned by showing profound respect by listening to their concerns, learning for them and loge up witcourage for our convictions, talking

about what theountry needs to do at this pivotal defining moment. >> woodruff: more of amna nawaz's >> woodruff: stay tuned for more of amna's reporting from iowa next week. and, join us tomorrow for a manversation with another 2020 contender: formeland congressman john delaney. >>oodruff: after nearly 18 months in captivity, two reuters journalists walked out of prison today in myaar. their crime? reporting news the government there did not want known, about its campaign of persecution against the rohingya musm people. their reporting recently won the pulitzer prize, among other prestigious honors. as john yang tells us, their plight garnered worldwide attention, and theirelease brought relief and joy. ( car horns ) >> yang: a thumbs up and a wave today, as wa lone and kyaw soe oo walked to freedom. they were swarmed by cameras

after leaving yangon's notorious insein prison. >> i'm really happy, excited to see my family and my colleagues. and i can't wait to go to my newsroom now. >> yang: the two reuters journalists were arrested in december, 2017. they had been investigating a brutal military campaign that forced some 700,000 rohingya muslims to flee to neighbori bangladesh. authorities in mostly-buddhist myanmar charged the journalists had secret government documents, and last september, they were convicted of breakine secrecy laws and given seven- year sentences.tw thmen argued they were targeted for their reporting, and their case sparked a global campaign for their releasevi myanmar's cilian leader aung nsan suu kyi was accused doing enough to stop the persecution of rohingya, or to free the journists. today, without explanation, the pair were included in a mass pardon of more than 6,500 prisers.

reuters editor-in-chief steve adler: >> since their arrest 511 daysve ago, they ecome symbols of the importance of press freedom around the world. we welcome their return. >> yang: on twitter, u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo also welcomed their release. t as journalists celebrated with their families today, there was no apology from myanmar's military, which still controls much of the govement. their release was part of an annual amnesty marking the nation's traditional new year, which began last month. we are now joined by priscilla clapp, whose long career as a u.s. diplomat includes time as chief of mission in the embassy in myamnar, which is also known as burma. she's now senior advisor to the u.s. institute of peace and the asia society. priscilla clapp, thankuch for joining us. help us understand what was going on here. the defenders of these two journalists said they were set up. remind us of the circumstances of their arrest.y

>> trk for reuters, as the news clip said, and they are experienced investigative heurnalists. they went to northern state after the exodus of the rohingya and the violence against them to do some investigative reporting, and they cme upon a village called indin, and there were people there willing to talk about a massacre that had occurred at the hands of the army of the police, the security forces. one of the locfalficials -- i don't know if he was an official, he might have been a village ief, but he was actually a rokstine buddad taken pictures with his phone and shared the information withp the orters, showing the massacre of these young men, the rohingya men. they brought this back to yongon and reuters was going to do a report on it, but the police and

military knew they had picked ie up, so the them up. the two police invited them to a rest or a tea shop to meet and handed them a sea envelope. before they could open the envelope, as they were getting up to leave, they were quickly arrested byce the po >> reporter: so they were arrested for having the documents that t>>y were given. hen they didn't know what they were. >> reporter: they they peeled this convtion, the supreme court turned them down last month. why do you think they were released now? >> the process -- the legal process had been fully exusted, and i think that the state couelor aung san suu kyi is concerned about restoring the rule of law to the country and is ting to make anmple of the legal process, and she wanted the league patrol sases to run its course which it did

with the final supreme court denial. >> reporter: her reputati has taken beating in this. nobel peace prize winner, former political prisoner herself, couldn't say that she should have done more to help these political prisoners. but you em to be saying it's a little more nuanced. >> it is quite a bit more nuanced because she's not in charge of the courts.e vilian leadership is not in charge of the legal process, it is still under control of the miliryry. the milicontrols key parts of the government under their constitution, the 2008 constituti which broughe transition. and, so, this seups impervious to civilian, interventid if she had tried to pardon them earlier or free them earlier, they probably would have resisted, the military or court system would have resisted. but she's not th one who pardoned them.

it's the president. now, that's something that is guaranteed in the constitution. the president has the right to pardon prisoners, but, after they have beenentenced, so after the process has finished. >> reporr: so you're saying that, by waiting, she is trying to reestablish the legal process? >> i believe so. that is my thinking about it, why it took so long. i think th she wanted to guarantee that the legal process took its full course, and she has tos o probably make sure that the military is comfortable with the dcision when it was finally taken. it's not an easy situation that she's in. she really is beten a rok and a hard place. >> rephorter: explain tt. explain her position, her role. help us understand her role in the government without getting too weedy her >> well, first of all, the constitution doesn't allow her to be president because she has

foreigners in her nuclear family, her two sons are foreigners. so anyone inth a foreigne the nuclear family cannot bees ent, according to the constitution. many people think it wasec deliberatelyse of her, but it existed even before. at any re, so when her party won a great victory, she, as head of the party, should have been nominated as president, t she couldn't be because of the constitution. so her lawyers found another position that had been insertedn the constitution to take care of the old military leaders in case they sti bll wanted e in the government but they didn't, so it was just sittinged there, undef her lawyers defined it, state counselor, and they made it really quite high, as she said "sort of above the president," but it really depends upon her

ability to make it tht way. >> reporter: priscilla clapp, former chief of mission at the u.s. embassy in burma. thank you so much for explaining this to us.ha >> you. it's my pleasure. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: pennsylvania's experiment to give every newborn baby in the state a college fund.en and, a new docry sheds light on the trump administration's trade war with china. but first, the redacted muellere rt became public more than two weeks ago, but thero discussiond it, and whether it incriminates the president, has not gone away. william brangham has the latest on the fallout. >>prangham: yesterday, a gr of former federal prosecutors from all over the country published a statent online, saying that in their professional omunion, robert eller's report makes it crystal clear that president

trump obstructed justice. es reads, "each of us beli that the conduct of president trump described in special counsel robert mueller's report ltuld, in the case of any other person, result in le felony charges for obstruction of jtice." yesterday, the statement had more than 300 signat that number has nearly doubled today. and this is a bipartisan group of prosecutors-- they've served in both democric and republican administrations, going back decades. one of the those people is here with me now. paul rosenzweig was an associate independent counsel under kenneth starr, part of the"w tewater" investigation into president bill clinton. >> thanks for orving me. >> rr: help me understand what your intent was. why did you sign on to this letter? >> well, i can't speak for everybody else, bmy personal intent was twofold. the first was kind of a pub policy desire to cut through the summaries and the cloud o misunderstanding and, at least for myself, do my best to make

sure tht the american public understands what was really in the letter, that it ay ctuaid describe acts of potenally criminal misconduct, so that they could appropriately evalste president trump and conduct in their own minds. so that was the first part. the cond part wa more personal, which was, -- which s i feel the burden of intellectual consistency. i said much the same thing aboui billon 20 years ago when i was working with kenneth starr or thought much the same about it, and seems to me important, especially today, for lawyers to speak about consistent -- with consistency about the rule of law and apply it without consideration of party or partisan benefit. >> reporter: in the letter, you see multiple instances, you and your collective signatories, what you allege as clear

incidences of obstruction. what sticks out to you. >> eh of us has a favorite. first and most obviously, the president's apparent direction to the white house counsel to create a false recorof earlier conversations to obscure te fact he ordered mcghan to see tl r's firing, at least how mcghan tells it, and when became known in the press he ordered mcghan to write a fal memorandum so say it never happened, mcghan refused. that is an effort to obstruct justice and tamper with a witness' memory thato me meets the bar of obstruction of justice. others we could name, the apparent threat to michael cohen in advance of his testimony, that bad things might happen to him and they might open upis parents' his family's history.

that's, again, a an obstructive act intended to cow mr. cohen and prevent him from testifying, for starters. >> reorter: you say this is crystaclear that as forer prosecutors you could have brought a case on these, yet robert mueller didn't seem to say in his report the thought these were crimes why not? >> you have to ask mr. mueller that. >> reporter: we tried. to be fair, he said, if the had found evidence that exonerated the president hay would have so stated, and tty did o state. he alluded to difficult issues. i assume that those are issue of legality, mostly, relating to both then noindictablety of presidents and probably relating to the fact that he knew his boss, bill barr, had a different legal view of what constitutes

obstruction of justice for a president, and he was not willing to throw a hand grenade in and have it swatted back at him by the attorney general. i think he repose a great deal of confidence in the attorney general to treatre hisort fairly and in his own letter to the attorney general in the immediate aftermath, his confident wasn'as well-founded as it might be. >> reporter: do you think the attorney general treated robertu ler's work unfairly? >> i think the attorney general's conclusion has a factual matter there was no proof of obstruction of justice is not sustainable, is simply ad with the evidence in volume two of this report. i don't see how anybody who is a prosecutor and not trying to be the president's defense lawyer could look at that not say that this is sufficient evidence for which a prosetor could, and the quote is "obtain and sustain a conviction," and at's from the federal

prince -- principles of federal prosecution. ati think the evidence ineast three, four, some might say as many as eight of these instaes uld meet that standard. >> reporter: undergirding all of this has been this, as u cited, long-standing belief in the department of justice that a sitle president cannot be indicted because it would so interfere with the pesident's ability to do his job. you disagrewith that finding. you think a president could be and should be indicted if the evidence was rants? >> tharrect. i think that that is a policy of the executive branch that, quite naturally, is defensive of the executive branch and government. i'm not surprised that's what d.o.j.'s view is. i think it is wrong. it is certainly extra constitutional, which is to say there is no such immunity in the constitution and the framers knew how to write imunities in. they wrote a speech debate munity for legislators. it is based on policy judgments

alone that it would be too stracting for the president to face a criminal charge, and ile i am happy to acknowledge that that's real, that a ->>- eporter: it would be a real distraction. >> it would be a real distraction, it would be for human being. i also think that it ignores the countervailing value which is that, in america, at least, no man or woman is above the law, everybody is subject to the same rule of law, and that ought to clude the president as well. otherwise, if the d.o.j. is right, then the prsident i a unique category of one. because the vice president can be indicted, governors indictable, every inet member, but the president, he's super special and he gets to be essentially a free pass, at' least while he in office. >> reporter: paul rosenzweig, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me.

>> woodruff: as we discussed with senor bernie sanders, college debt is a huge problem in our country. roughly two-thirdsf students finish school owing nearly $30,000. sanders is not alone in his call for free public college. many of the 2020 presidential yicandidates have started out their own plans. as those ideas take shape, a number of states and cities are creating their own plans to provide grants and money for the very youngest to ensure they can eventually go to college. hari sreenivasan has the story for tonight's "making thean grade,d it's part of a special series on tuesdays this month about "rethinking college." >> sreenivasan: just days old, this newborn has already started saving for college. under a new pennsylvania program, every baby born or adopted in the state is given a colle savings account with $100 in his or her name. >> that $100 is invested in our

529 account, and will grow over time.>> reenivasan: the accounts arenc the brld of pennsylvania state treasurer joe torsella. so 140,000 kids a year are born in pennsylvania? >> yes. >> sreenivasan: the new program, called keystone scholars, is an effort to help future students cope with skyrocketing costs of college. >> over roughly 30 years, the cost of higher ed has gone up in this country around 300%, whame the mediany income has basically not budged. >> sreenivasth: according to federal reserve bank of new york, americans owe $1.46 illion in student debt. treasurer torsella says pennsylvan's student debt burden is particularly troubling. >> i'm aroud pennsylvanian. i love it when i can say we're number one, except when theer thing we're nune in is college debt. we currently lead the nation in that. our average graduate has about $36,000. >> sreenivasan: born january 18r e ross was one of the first babies to benefit from the statewide program. kristin dressler is charlie's mom.

>> it was something i wish my parents had done for me when i was a baby. it's a really good idea. >> sreenivasan: pennsylvania is betting that parents will be less likely to delay saving for college if accounts are automatically created at birth. >> there is a time when a child is born, you always remember for the sense of magic, and possibility. life quickly takes over, with all kinds of demands. we wanted to do something at that moment, when people areok g at their newborn, or their newly-adopted child, and they had the widest horizon, and the wist sense of those possibilities. >> sreenivasan: dressler took out a loan to pay for her first two years of college, and will take out more to com.ete her degr she wants an easier path for her son's education.th >> i'm hoping he doesn't have to worry abouenthat. >> sreivasan: but if the average debt load in nnsylvania for college graduates is $33,000, can $100 really make a difference? >> that $100 grows to $400, and if they deposit $25 a month from the time that ild is born in

the account with it, they'll have more than $10,000 by the time that child reaches 18. >> sreenivasan: pennsylvania's new accounts are funded through surplus earnings from the states existing 529 college program. like all 529 accounts, the money onis earmarked for educati if an individual wants to use the funds for other purposes, they face tax consequences, and any money the state contributed is returned to a general fund. pennsylvania is not alon plans to help families save for college are popping up across the country. in san francisco, every child when they enter public school gets a new bank account with $50 in it. so far, they've opened more than 33,000 accounts in their kindergarten-to-college program. ur are you guys excited for field trip? >> yes! >> where are you going again? >> the bank! m sreenivasan: at san francisco's willbb elementary school, teacher joyce melocotn prepares her ergarten class for a fie trip to the bank. >> we're going to the bank

because you have to deposit money for what? >> college. >> college, right.rt and if you saving now, then you'll be ready for tllege. >> sreenivasan: s day, kindergarten students were joined by san francisco trsurer jose cisneros, at citibank, a partner in the program. >> we put $50 in your account. you already have money soled for your clege tuition. >> sreenasan: $50 is not much, but treasurer jose cisneros says creating an early peeption about going to college is just as important as creating actual wealth. >> what matters less is how ch money is in the account, or what the income of the family is. it's all about building aspirations in thistudent's mind, and making sure they know this is an option that is available for them. >> sreenivasan: half of san francisco's public school students come from low-income families, and while all students

receive an account, cisneros hopes to engage famies less likely to attend college. >> just engaging with thatac unt, going to the bank, making deposits, talking about it at home, maybe talking about it with friends, sends a signal that says, "oh, i've got a college savings account. why? because i'm going to college."d r many kids who don't have that in their childhood, that kind of conversation, that kind of influence, it turns out not being something they think is soailable to them. >> sreenivasan: buar, only 20% of families in san francisco have made additional deposits in their child's kindergarten to llege accounts. professor brigitte madrian is an expert on family savings, and the dean of brigham young rerriott school of business. >> parents who actually tyntributing money is pret low, so it's going to take more than just automatic. >> sreenivasan: madrian says

automatic savings accoun, set up for things like retirement, have been hugely successful when tied to payroll deductions, but she's less confident that automatic college accounts will be work when families are asked to make contributions on their own. >> households have a lot of things for which they probably should be sang, and short-term financial needs may be taking precedence over longer-term needs like saving for your children's college. >> sreenivasan: the annual costs of sanrancisco's program is three quarters of a million dollars. >> is it more cost-effective to direct resources that are coming from government to, you know, early, early kindergarten rss programs, small class sizes in k-12, direct financial aid when kids have applied to college?an >> sreenivas: as for the william cobb elementary students, the most popularar futurer cited on this field trip: superhero.

so what do you want to when you grow up? >> a superhero! >> sreenivasan: six-yech-old xavier o said he wants to be batman when he grows up, but he also got the message of the dayi ant to get money for college, so i can learn more things, so you can learn wn you want to grow up. >> sreenivasan: for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan >> woodruff: it was yet another rocky day when it comes to the trade war between the u.s. and china. as we reported, the markets reacted strongly. chinese and trump administration officials are supposed to meet later this week to hammer out a trade agreement. but, getting a deal done looks even dicier than it did a week ago.

over the weekend, the president unexpectedly threatened to raise more tariffs on chinese goods. this all fits right in line with president trump's approach to china. and that's the focus of tonight's "frontline." it's a joint investigation with npr. laura sullivanrrf npr is the pondent. she will talk with yamiche alcindor in a moment. but first, here is an excerptes about how the ent surprised the world with tariffs on china, after the two sides had already made some progress. eir negotiators agreed on a plan for china to buy billions of dollars of u.s. products like beef and natural gas. but behind the celebration, trump's nationalists had dideviseed a different plan. >> we had a couple of tricks up our sleeves. we starred to dust off the secret weapon we had tl o cala national security emergency, kind of watt we're ng on the border right now.

you used the national security emergency powers inhvested in t defense department to go after steel, aluminum, maybe autos but eventually technology. it's time to gett on. >> by march 2018, the president was ready to take action. >> thank you very much, everyone. we have with us the biggest steel companies in the united states. they used to be a lot bigger, but they're going to be a lot bigger again. >> reporter: executives from the steel and aluminum industrye astily gathered in washington. >> they were all called to the white house, had the meeting and, at that time, the pesident announced what he was going to do. >> next week, we'll bimposing tariffs on steel imports and tariffs on aluminum imp>>orts. eporter: what was the reaction? >> the reaction was surprise. el, itl be 25% for ste will be 10% for aluminum. >> this moment was a seminal moment in trade policy because

it's the most aggressive use ofa this kind of law approach ever. this is done under the theory of national security. >> we need it. we need it even for defense, if you think. d i mean, we nee for defense. we need great steel manufacturers. >> steel was important to your national security broadly. military, critical coinfrastructure and the emy as a whole, and that had never been done before. >> thank you very much, everybody. thank you. thank you very much. >> reporter: the sweepi steel tariffs also surprised america's closest allies. it turns outhose tariffs hurt u.s. allies more than china. that's because allies like canada sell much more steel to the u.s. than china does. at the state department, the top china specialists quickly started get ctimplaints. what were some to have the united states' allies saying? >> well, certainly the allies were very much taken aback that they were the target of the steel tariffs. they don't uerstand the focus

on tariffs, they don't understand the focus onfi ts, they don't understand the rejection of thete ational trading, you know, norms and institutions, they don't understand the u.s.'s rejection of global free trade, since this is the system that we basically set up. >> reporter: trump had ended decades of u.s. trade policy, determined to start a fight he felt was his. in several meetings, even in high-level meetings with the president, some foreign laders offered, they said we want to help with china, we want to do this together with you, but he seemed to think that this was his fight alone and that he wanted to do it mao ammano. >> reporter: at that point, were you disappointed, frustrated? >> if you adamantly believe that something doesn't make sense, you are y rsonasappointed, but ultimately it's not your decision to make. >> reporter: within a month, cohen would leave the white

house. the nationalists had won. >> president trump turning tough trade talk into action. >> new tariffs announced by the trump administration onrt $50 billion of chinese exports. >> china is now punching back with an equal amount of tariffs on american exports. >> president trump has just slapped tariffs on another $200 billion of chinese exports. >> igniting the biggest trade war in economic history. >> of course, sice >> alcindor: of course, since those tariffs were firstpo d, the trade war with china has accelerated. e t the president's threat this week to add even mriffs to $200 billion in chinese goods caught many off-guard. some see the president's warning as his way of trying to get better levage and more concessions from china. administration officials said president trump's announcement camefter the chinese government dug in on some u.s. demands. for some further insht into all of this, laura sullivan joins me now. thanks, laura,o much for being re. >> thank you. >> reporter: so, in the documentary and in what we know how the president has said he's planning to increase tariffs on. ch he said that the chinese government had reneged on some

of the policies and promises that they've made. what's happening there? >> this is part of a long-standing message that has come out of the rt ofe hawky members of trump's china team that china has failed to live up to the prmises it's made for almost 20 years now since joining the wto in 2001. they felt that china promised t open its markets, to play fair, not to steel american technology, promised to not force coanies into technology transfer agreements ore and over depend a have failed to do that. the trukdz's position is -- the trump administration's position is the bush administrion and obama has allowed china to walk on these issues and they are not going to be the ones to do that. there's a lot of backstory to this. the united states business community did not want the previous administrations to this hard line, and now it's sort of coming push to shove. thobama administration di

make a deal with presintov china about cyber hack. there are some of the reasons to believe some of the promises have not been fulfilled. >> we saw how volatile the markets were. how does that factor into the president's thinking. the the markets are important to the trump administration. h's personally important to trump. talked about h issue of trade and trade deficits for, you know, especially with china for almost 20 years, but the stock market to hi reflects that idea, the health of theun y. there's to sides to this. on the one hand, it's emboldened trump and the trump adinistration to take on cna with additional tariffs because the economy is in a good placeoc and the market has been high. however, if this volatility

continue it's something that' definitely one of the few things that will hold the administration back. >> reporter: in the documentary, you detaihow china used international and domestic tactics to try to grow its economy and compete with tht states. talk a little bit about what they have been doing but also the reasoning that they're leaders use. >> so the chinese have something called the china model. it's the way that their economy is based, they can t martie entire forces of their economic engine to drive forwhward in ever the chinese leadership wants to do. if they want to move their country toward the high-tech sector, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, basically america's holy grail, they can do that swiftly andy. fierc they have plans for ten, 20, 50 years out, and they are moving their country forward. they have done this. they have been incredibly successful. they have moed 300 million people out of poverty. no country in the history of the world has been able to do that

in 20 years. at the same time a number of the people in the united states feel like the united states is falling behind. >> reporter: in a documentary you say that the nationalists won. what impact is that going to have on the future of the trump admihstration and how doest dovetail with the president's long-held beliefs on trade in chin >> these fights in the trump administration were some of the most vcious, nasty fights. that's how people in the trump eministration describe m. the reason they were so nasty is because what they were fighting about is such pa sionate issue of the trump administration advisors. they were reallywheciding her or not tariffs would destroy the economy of the united states or whether tariffs would have the ability to bring a cou cntry llenge the united states as the next superpower. when the nationalists won and the globalists lost and the globalist force the most part have left the white house, there is now no counterbalancing force inside the white house to hold back any idea that tariffs might be dangerous to the economy. at this point, only the

nationalists' agenda is on the table, and ere is verlittle suggesting to anybody inside the trump administration that this cod be dangerous. >> reporter: well, thank you so much laura sullivan. >> thank you so much for having me. >> woodruff: and the "frontline" and npr joint investigation, "trump's trade war," will air tonight on pbs, and can be watched online at www.pbs.org/frontline. >> woodruff: newshour's "that moment when," our weekly show on facebook watch, today features lcomedian patton oswalt, e after loss. here's a preview. >> michelle passed away on april 21, 2016. i didn't know what else to do with myself. i was so just functioning. i was just a series of tasks that i completed every day. that's all i was. no personality, nothing.

so i'm like, well, the thing that i do is, i do stand up. so i started going on stage, and started talking about it.er and you know, were nights when i was trying to talk about it and couldn't find what the humorous angle was.ve or, how dare itry to find a humorous angle. but then it went right back to thbasics of being an open- mic'er: go on stage over and over and over again, until you can make this make sense. >> woodruff: you can see all episodes of our facebook watch series, @thatmomentwhenshow. orand that is the newshour tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here hemorrow evening. for all of us at t pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversationin a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> consumer cellular. >> financial services firm raymonjames. >> bnsf railway.

>> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement international peace and security. at carnegie.org. w >> ah the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was madee possible by rporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by

newsho productions, llc captioned by g media acceup at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs. .

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & compas." here's wha coming up. is it a showdown? is it a crisis? it is congress versus the white house, and we drill down into whether these fieg fights over the mueller report,s trax returns, the sanctity of the next election leave the constitution on shaky ground. then. >> i was sleep deprived, and coerced into confessing something i didn't do. >> the truth behind saudi arabia's mcus eon of 37 people. in an exclusive, the lawyer who had represented some of them says he now fears for his life. plus, howan afric-americans built industries despite crushing inequality. award winning filmmaker stanley

nelson is our guide through