captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: i sit down presidential candidate bernie sanders. then, hu prosecutors, both republican and democrats, sign a letter stating that president trump would have been indicted for obstruction of justice, if he were not a sitting presidt. plus, from crib to college. pennsylvania will noopen a college savings account for every newborn baby in the maate, aucally, 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. >> mor 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. i >>t on replay. >> burning some fat. >> sharing the latest viral cat! >> you can do the thingskeou o 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 possible by e 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 jolt of certainty 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. e trump white house today intensified its resistance tost inations by congressional democrats.

officials ordered former whiten house counsel gahn to defy a subpoena from the u.s. house judiciary committee. it seeks documents related toti the russia invtion. meanwhile, senate majority leader mitch mcconnened the president's pushback against democrats. >> they told everyone there'd been a conspiracy between ruia and the trump campaign. yet, on this central question, the special counsel's finding is clear: case closed. case closed. this ought to be good news for everyone. >> woodruff: democrats say the question of whether the president obstructed justice is anything but closed. house speaker nancy pelosi appeared today at cornell deiversity in ithaca, new york, and said the pre 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 very divisive in the country, but he doesn't really care. just wants to solify his base. >> woodruff: pelosi said again that congress needs to follow the facts before dec whether to pursue impeachment. also today, the house judiciaryt coe negotiated with the justice department over gaining access to the full mueller report. staffers from both sides met in a bid to resolve the dispute. so far, attorney general william barr has refused to release the complete, unredacted report.mm the tee is scheduled to vote tomorrow on holding him in contempt of congress. f.b.i. director christopher wray broke with the attorney general today, saying he has seen no evidence that the f.b.i. spied on the trump campaign in 2016. attorney general barr asserted last month 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 peuld use.

there are lots ole who have different colloquial phrases. i believe that the f.i. is engaged in investigative activity, and part of itvestigative activity includes surveillance actof 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 a riew 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 and said intelligence indicates that oran might take some action against americans in the middle east.t the vime two days after news that a u.s. aircraft carrier group is being rushedo backe region. u.s. health officials areco voicing neern about pregnancy-related deaths. the centers for disease 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.th 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 fetaleartbeat is detected. that is roughly six weeks into c preg before a woman may know she's expecting. at the signing, republican governor brian kemp acknowledged 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 will not back down. we will always continue to fight for life. >> woodruff: georgia is now the fourth state this year to outlaw

abortions once a fetal heartat is detected. president trump has pardoned a former army lieutenant concted 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 militant. behenna said that he thought the man was going to try to take his gun. ane there will not be a tri crown winner in horse racing this year. his handlers say kentucky derby t nner country house has a cough, and will n in the preakness, in two weeks. the colt was declared the derb winner last saturday, after the first-place finisher was disqualified. still to come on the newshour: sitting down with 2020 presidential candidate bernie sanders. 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 for the 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, welcome back to the "newshour". >> good to be with you, judy. >> woodruff:et's start with the news tooptd, the stock rket dropping over 470 points, fears, analysts say, of a trade war with china, the president's policies toward china. it appes to many people that your approach to trade with china with very similar to the

president's. >> no, it is not. what i recognize is that, for many years, our trade policies have been a. disast if you look at nafta and you look at tntr with chictna, in it's cost us about 4 million decenpaying american jobs and helped lead the 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 peoplef this country, not just for the c.e.o.s. but, as usual, i think trump gets it wrong in terms of implemdrtation. >> wf: but you would be tough on china, as he is. >> i would be supportive of american workers. i think it is wrong that, whe large corporations are making huge profits, that they simply shut down in this country, throw american workers out on the street and look for cheap labor abroad. so i believe thawe have got to deal with that issue but not the way trump is dealing with it. >> woodruff: let me tto something that you spend a lot of time talking about in this

campaign and that is medicare, healthcare and a proposal for medicare for all, guarantord healthcarevery person, man, woman and child in the country. i think everyonagres the current system needs fixing, more people need to be covered, but, right now, this is an economy that is spending $3.5 trillion a year on healthcare. >> right. >> woodruff: it is a sixth of the american economy. >> right. >> woodruff: and even you acknowledge thadoing soething like medicare for all would be a massive disruption, do awayal with -right. >> that wasn't my word. >> woodruff: other people were saying it would be massive disruption. do away with private insurance. why not move incremently? >> because you have a dysfunctional system that is really rotn to the core. and let me tl you something, judy, the people who are opposing medicare for all are id the insurance try, in the pharmaceutical industry. bese are people who are making huge compensatinefits, and they are seeing their corporations make huge profits.

ten largest drug companies made made billion in profits last year. they don't like the idea that i intend to lower drug prices by 50%. but here is the bottom line -- right now, you've got 3million people, no health insurance, even more underinsured. st pay the higrices in the world for prescription drugs. we end aup spending twi much per person on healthcare as do the people of any other country. i live 50 miles away from the canadian border. how can anyone defend aio dysfunl system like that? >> woodruff: but when you have, as we said, such a huge part of the u.s. economy -- the congressional budgete today, nonpartisan analysis of your plan, universale, cover came away and concluded many people employed in them healthcare sysw would lose their jobs, they concluded that employer-based healthare service most non-elderly americans now use would be eliminated, and they say fewer

people would likely go into the medical profession because pay would be less. >> that's exactly wrong. right now, because of all of the surancethat the i companies put on doctors, you're find 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 any procedure, they've got to call up tnseeance company folks. here is the bottom line, all right, the bottom line is we are e only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people. we spend twiasce uch and our healthcare outcomes are poor. medicare, right now, jis the most popular health alsurance program in the country. that i want to do over a four-year period is expand medicare to all of our people. we will save the average person significant sums of money, give him or her freedom of choice regarding doctors and hospitals. >> woodruff: but you say it's freedom of choice, but you're doing away with private

insurance. >> yes. >> woodruff: remember president obamkesaid you can your healthcare plan, you can keep your doctor. it didn't work out that way >> yeah, because those were junk plans he end upped doing away with. right now, do you think the average american has freedom o choice regarding the doctors? if a doctor is not in your twork, your can't go to that doctor. all i want to say to the american people tonight is we artaking on the insurance companies and the the drug companies who make huge prooffis of a dysfunctional system that is not working for the average american.o they are goingend, judy, in my view, hundreds of millions of dollars trying to preserve their profits and their outrageous compensation packages. the guy who's head of aetna created a merger with cvs, got $500 million in bonuses. i don't think that's where we shlld spend healthcare rs. >> 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 to bed air.

but when you eliminate those things, the average american will be better off. >> woouff: let's talk about the cost of college. one of your signature proposals, tuition-free colleges -- >> public colleges and universities. not al y. >> woodruf would impose a financial transaction tax to pay for it. but how much -- what this mean for the, what, 4anmillion amerwho have college debt right now? fiw would they benefit? >> oh, they'd bevery substantially. >> woodruff: because they've left college and -- >> no, this 900 billion we're talking about -- look, here's the story -- right now, wall street profits are very, very high, they're chyorginu 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 whenundreds of thousands of bright kids can't ugford to go to college and many

are string with at rages levels of student debt, this is an issuee have to deal. with i'm glad more people are following me lead. i believe in the 21st century when you'rtalking about public education, public colleges and hooling should be free. people should not be punished for getting a hiring education a global economy. >> woodruff: states would have to pick up the cost? >> yes. >>uff: but many are states that have been cutting spending for higher education. >> right. >> woodruff: how do you get them to flip or spend more? >> well, that's another issue. instead of giving tax breaks to bilbillionaires. you have amazon and dozenof other corporations not paying a nickel in taxes last year.i my idelarge corporations should start paying their fair share of taxes. the bottom line, is in a competitive global economy, rifu kid in this ry, regardless of his or her income, deserves a higher education if that is their goal. >> woodruff: quick question on

foreign policy. you have been saying recently you wish you had spoken more about foreign policy two years ago when you ran for president. what would you now to punish russia for what they did in 2016. >>uirst of all, unlike tr, you have to acknowledge the very seriousness of what they did. to try to undermine democracy ic amand other countries is simply not acceptable, and they have got to pay a price. sn'tave a president who doe even acknowledge that. but i think we should be looking at very tough sanctions. this is an act of aggression against the american dem which cannot be accepted. >> woodruff: beyond thisst admition. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: what would that do? are the russians going to stop -- arthyou sayinat's going to stop them from hacking? >> we have ae prsident who virtually doesn't even acknowledge the reality of what they did. here is a putin and his friends are trying to undermine american democracy annd democracy europe. they have got to know that is

not acceptable and the world hah got to tell they are going to pay a very heavy price for it. >> woodrf: a question about polls. joe biden, you and he were runng roughly one-two in the polls, and then he got into the race officially. he has surd into the lead. you've slipped. what's going on? is he appealing to the moderatem g democrats? what's going on? >> i think you're going to see -- here's my prediction, you're going to see polls tha are good for bernie and joe and polls not so good. we're working 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 beat trump but to take on the powerful special interests who c sontr much in our country. >> woodruff: are you concerned he appeals me to the moderates in the democratic party? >> no, our message who appeal to working people, we had polls out

there who showed us, by the wayl winning in pennia, winning in michigan, winning in wisconsin, and i think we'll appeal to the hartland becae our message of standing up for the working class in this country which has been ignored for so long i think will resonateand i think people are seeing trump is a phoney, he told the amen riople he would guarantee healthcare to everybody, and wand to throw 32 milon people off of healthcare. he wouldn't cut social security, medicaid, h budget did exactly that. so we are going to compose trump forta fraud that he is. we have a message that apeal to working people, black and white and latino all over this country. >> wodruff: senator bernie sanders, thank you very much. we look forchrd to watg you on the trail. >> thank you very >> woodruff: now, to another c democrattender. our amna nawaz is on a ugporting trip to iowa. last night, she up with former texas congressman beto o'rourke. here is part of what he had to say.de

e comment you arly 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 yo, too. >> yes. and when it came across to a lot of people, you are ina 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 u explain toople 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 the hedlines on the magazine made that choice. toat i said is i feel like i was born erve people, you know, o a small busineer creating jobs, making payroll week in, week out. i'm not entitled to anything. every vote, every caucusgoer will be earned by showing profound respect by lteisng to their concerns, learning for them and loge up with courage for our convictions, talking about what theuntry needs to

do at this pivotal defing moment. >> woodruff: more of amna nawaz's >> woodruff: stay tuned forna more of reporting from iowa next week. and, join us tomorrow for a conversation with another 2020 contender: former mary congressman john delaney. >> woouff: after nearly 18 months in captivity, two reuters journalists walked out of prison today in myanmar their crime? reporting news the government there did not want known, about its campaign of persecution against the rohingya muslim people. their reporting recently won the pulitzer pze, among other prestigious honors. as john yang tells us, their plight garnered worldwide attention, and their release 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 toe 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 neighboring bangladesh. authorities in mostly-buddhist myanmar charged the journalists had secret government documents, and last september, they were envicted of breaking stat secrecy laws and given seven-. year sentenc the two men argued they were targeted for their reporting, and their case sparked a global anmpaign for their release. myanmar's civili leader aung san suu kyi was accused of not doing enough to stop the persecution of rohingya, or to free the journalts. today, without explanation, the pair were included in a mass pardon of more than 6,500 prisoners. reuters editor-in-chf steve

adler: om since their arrest 511 days ago, they have bece symbols of the importance of press freedom around the world. we welcome their return. >> yang: on twitter, u.s.ta secretary of s mike pompeo also welcomed their release. j as thernalists celebrated with their families today, there was no apology from myanmar's military, which still controls much of the government. their release was part of an annual amnes marking the nation's traditional new year, which began last month. we are now joined byilla clapp, whose long career as a u.s. diplomat includes time as chyf of mission in the emba in myamnar, which is also known as burma. senior advisor to the u.s. institute of peace and the asia society. priscilla clapp, thanks so much for joining us. help us understand what was going on re. the defenders of these two journalists said they were set up. remind us of the circumstances of their arrest. >> they wok for reuters, as the

news clip said, and they are experienced investigative journalists. they went to the northern state after the exodus of the rohingya and the violence against them to do some investigative reporting, and they came upon a village called indin, and there were keople there willing to tal about a massacre that had occurred at the hands of the army of the police, the security forces. one of the locfal oficials -- i don't know if he was an official, he might have been a village chiefbut he was actually a rokine buddhist had taken pictures with his phne and shared the information with the reporters, showing the massacre of these young men, the rohingya men. they brought this back to yongon and reuters was going to do report on it, but the police and military knew they had picked it up, so they set them up.

the two poelice invited thm to a restaurant or a tea shop to meet and handed thea sealed envelope. before they could open they envelope, as tre getting up to leave, they were quickly arrested by the police. >> reporter: so they were arrested for having the documents that they wen given. >> wey didn't know what theyere. >> reporter: they they peeled this conviction, the supreme court turn them don last month. why do you think they were releed now? >> the process -- the legal process had been fully exhauste and i think that the state counselorung san suu kyi is concerned about restoring the rule of law to the country and is trying to make an example of the legalrocess, and she wanted the league patrol seases to run its course which it did with the final supreme court

denial. a> reporter: her reputation has taken a ting 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 seem in be sayit's a little more nuanced. >> it is quite a bit more nuanced because she's not in charge of the courts. the civilian leadership is not in charge of the legal process, it is still under control of the military.n the military ols key parts of the government under the constitution, the 2008 constitution whch brought te transition. and, so, this setup was impeious to civilian intervention, and if she had tried to pardon them earier free them earlier, they probably would have resisted, the military or court system would have resisted. but she's not the o 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 been sentenced, so after the process has finished. >> reporter: 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 that shetewanto guarantee that the legal process ok its full course, and she has to also probably make sure that the miitary is comfortable with the decision when it was finally taken. it's not an easy situation that she's in. she really is between a rock and a hard place. >> reporter: explain that. e.plain her position, her rol help us understand her role in the government without getting too weedy here. 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 with a foreigner in the nuclear family cannot been pres according to the constitution. seny people think it was deliberately becf her, but it existed even before. at any ra so when her partywo a great victory, she, as head of the party, should have been nominated as president, but she couldn't be because of the constitution. so heraw lyers found another position that had been inserted ine constitution to take care of the old military leaders in case they sti wanted to be in the government but they didn't, so it was just sitting there, undefined her lawyers defined it, state counselor, and they mae it really quite high, as sheaid "sort of above the president," but it really depends upon her ability to make it that way.

>> reporter: priscilla clapp, former chief of mission at the u.s. embassy in burma. thank you so much r elaining this to us. >> thank 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. and, a new documentads light on the trump administration's trade war with china.rs but the redacted mueller report became public more than two weeks ago, but the discussion around it, and whher it incriminates the president, has not gone away. william brangham has the latest on the fallout. >> brangm: yesterday, a group of former federal prosecutors from all over the country published a statement line, saying that in their professional opinion, robert mueller's report makes it crystal clear that president trump obstrued justice.

it reads, "each of us believes that the conduct of president trp described in special counsel robert mueller's report would, in the case of any other person, result in mult felony charges for obstruction of justi." yesterday, the statement had tmore than 300 signaturest number has nearly doubled today. and this is a bipartisan group of prosecutors-- they've served in both democratic 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 "whitewater" investigation into president bill clinton. >> thanks for havir: me. >> reporelp me understand what your intent was. why did you sign on to this letter? >> well, i can't speak for evybody else, but my personal intent was twofold. the first was kind of a public licy desire to cut through the summaries and the cloud of misunderstanding and, at least for myself, do mbey st to make sure that the american public w

understands wh really in the letter, that it actually did describe acts of potential criminal misconduct, so that they could appropriately evaluateresident trump and his conduct in their own minds. so that was the first part. the secd part was more personal, which was, -- which s i feel the burden of intellectual consistency. i said much the same thing aboun bill cli0 years ago when i was working with kenneth starr or thought much the same out it, and seems to me important, especially today, for lawrs to speak about consistent -- with consistency about the rule of w and apply it without consideration of party or partisan benefit. >> reporter: in the ter, you see multiple instances, you and your collective signatories, what you alle as clear

incidences of obstruction. what sticks out to you. >> each us has a favorite. first and most obviously, the president's apparent direction to the white house counsel to create a false record of earlier conversations to obscure the fact he ordered mcghan to see t muellering, at least how mcghan tells it, and when it became known in the preorss he red mcghan to write a false memorandum so say it nev happened, mcghan refused. that is an effort to obstruct justice and tamper with a witness' memory that to mee the bar of obstruction of stice. 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 up his parents' his family's history.

that's, again, a an obstructive act intended to cow mr. cohen and prevent him from testifying, for starters. >> reporter: you say this is crystal cleathat as former prosecutors you could have brought a case on these, yet robert mueller didn't seem to say in his orrepthe thought these were crimes. why not? >> you have to ask mr. mueller that. >> reporter: we tried. to be fair, he said, if they had found evidence that hexonerated the presidey would have so stated, and they did not so state. he alluded to difcult issues. i assume that those are issues of legality, mostly, relating tt boe nonindictablety of presidents and probably relating to the fact that he knw his boss, bill barr, had a different legal viw of what constitutes

obstruction of justice for a esident, and he was not willing to throw a hand grenade in and have it swattedk bact him by the attorney general. i think he repose a great deal of confidence in the attorney general to treat his report fairly and in his own letter to the attorney general in the immediate aftermath, his confident wasn't as well-founded as it might be. >> reporter: do you think the attorney general treated roberte mus 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 at odds 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 evince and not say that this is sufficient evidence for which a protose could, and the quote is "obtain and sustain a conatction," and from the federal

prince -- principles of feder prosecution. i think the evidence in at least three, four, some might say asei many aht of these instances would meet that standard. >> reporter: undergirding all of this has been this, as yo cited, long-standing belief inth department of justice that a sitle president cannot be indicted because it would so terfere with the prsident's ability to do his job. you disagree wih that finding. you think a president could be and should be ifdicted he evidence warrants? >> that's correct. 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'sh wat d.o.j.'s view is. i think it is wrong. it is certainly extra constitutional, which is to say there is no such immunitin the constitution and the framers knew how to write immunities in. they wrote a speech debate immunity for legislators. it is based on policy judgments alone that it would be toost

cting for the president to face a criminal charge, andil i am happy to acknowledge that that's real, that a -ep- >>ter: it would be a real distraction. >> it would be a real distraction, it would be for an human being. i also think that it ignores tho tervailing value which is that, in ameca, at least, no man or woman is above the law, everybody is subject to the same rule of law, and that ought tocl e the president as well. otherwise, if the d.o.j. is right, then the presint is a unique category of e. because the vice president can be indicted, governors indictable, every cabinet member, but the president, he's super special and he gets to be essentially a free pass, at least while he's in office. >> reporter: paul rosenzweig, thank you veryfouch. >> thankhaving me.

>> woodruff: as we discussed with senator bnie sanders, college debt is a huge problem in our country. roughly two-thirds of students finish school owing nearly $30,000. sanders is not alone in his call for free public college. many of the 2020 presidential candidates have started laying out their own plans. as those ideas take shape, a numb of states and cities ar creating their own plans to provide grants and money for t very youngest to ensure they can eventually go to college. hari sreenivasan has the story for tonight's "making the grade," and 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 college savings account with $100 in his or her name. >> that $100 is invested in our 529 account, and will grow over time.

>> sreenivasan: the accounts ard the brainchif pennsylvania state treasurer joe torsella.id so 140,000a year are born in pennsylvania? >> yes. >> sreenivasan: the new program, called keystone scholars, is ant effohelp future students cope with skyrocketing costs of college. >> over roughly 30 years, the coin of higher ed has gone u this country around 300%, while the median family income hassi lly not budged. >> sreenivasan: according to the federal reserve bank of new york, americans owe $1.46 trillion in student debt. treasurer torsella ss pennsylvania's student debt burden is particularly troubling. >> i'm a proud pennsylvanian. i love it when i can say we're nember one, except when the thing we're numbern is college debt. we currently lead the nation in that. our average graduate has about $36,000. >> sreenivasan: born january 18, charlie 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 automaticay 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. anted to do something at that moment, when people are looking at their newborn, or their newly-adopted cheyd, and ad the widest horizon, and the widest sense of those possibilities. >> sreenivasandressler took t a loan to pay for her firsts two year college, and will take out more to complete her degree. she wants an easier path for her son's education. >> i'm hoping that hesn't have to worry about that. >> sreenivasan: but if the average debt load innn lvania 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 chilis born in the account with it,hey'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 is earmarked for education. 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 alone. 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. >> are you guys excited for your field trip? >> yes! >> where are you going again? >> the bank! s >>reenivasan: at san francisco's william elementary school, teacher joyce melocotn prepares her kinder trip to the bank.field >> we're going to the bank because you have to deposit money for what?

>> college. >> college, right. and if you start saving now, then you'll be ready for college. >> sreenivasan: on this day, kindergart students were joined by san francisco treasurer jose cisneros, at cibank, a partner in the program. >> we put $50 in your account. you already have money savedgeor your colleuition. >> sreenivasan: $50 is not much, but treasurer jose cisneros says creating an early perception about going to colge is just as important as creating actual wealth. >> what matters less is how much money is in the account, or what the income of the family is. it's all about building aspirations in this studt'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 families less likely to attend college. >> just engaging with that account, 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."ma and fo 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 ishe available to t >> sreenivasan: but soonly 20% of families in san francisco have made additial deposits in their child's kindergarten to college accounts.of sor brigitte madrian is an expert on family savings, and the dean of brigham young marriott school of business. >> parents who are acty contributing money is pretty low, so it's going to take more than just automatic. >> sreenivasan: madrian says automatic savings accounts, set up for things like retirement,

have been hugely successful when tied to payroll deductions, t 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 saving, 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 san fraisco's program is three quarters of a million dollars. >> is it more cost-effective to direct tho same financial resources that are coming from government to, you know, early, ssearly kindergarten readi programs, small class sizes in k-12, direct financial aid whens ave applied to college? >> sreenivasan: as for the william cobb elementary students, the most popularci future careed on this field trip: superhero. >> so when you grow up? be

>> a superhero! >> sreenivasan: six-year-oldai xavier ochoa she wants to be batman when he grows up, but he aly. got the message of the >> i want to get money for college, so i can learmore things, so you can learn when 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 sullivan of npr is the yrrespondent. she will talk wiiche alcindor in a moment. but first, here is an excerpt about how the presid 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 s. 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 to call a national security emergency, kind of watt we're doing on the border right now.

you used the national security emergency powers ineested in th defense department to go after steel, aluminum, mybe autos but eventually technology. it's time to get it on. >> by march 2018, the president was ready to take action. >> thank you very much, everyone. in have with us the biggest steel companiehe united states. they used to be a lot bigger, but they're going to be a lot bigger again. >> reporter: executives from thsteel and aluminum industry were hastily gathered in washington. >> they were all called to the white house, h the meeting and, at that time, the president announced what he was going to. >> next week, we'll be imposing taffs on steel imports and tariffs on aluminum impeports. >>ter: what was the reaction? >> the reaction was surprise. will be 25% for steel, it will be 10% four alminum. >> this moment was a seminal moment in trade policy because l's the most aggressive use of

this kind of tra approach ever. this is done under the theory of national security. >> we need it. we need it even for defense, if you think. i an, we need for defense. we need great steel >> steel was important to your national security broadly. military, critical infrastructure and the economy as a whole, and that had never been done before. >> thank you very much, everybody. thanyou. thank u very much. >> reporter: the sweeping steel tariffs also surprised america's closest allies. it turns out t thoariffs hurt u.s. allies more than china. that's because allies like canada sell much more steel to the u.s. than chi des. at the state department, the top china specialists quickly started getting complaints. what were some to have the united states' s lying? >> well, certainly the allies tere very much taken aback tha they were the target of the steel tariffs. they don't understd the focus on tariffs, they don't

understand the focus on, deficiey don't understand the rejection of theio internl trading, you know, norms and institutions, they don't understand the u.ss 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,ar determined to a fight he felt was his.n >>veral meetings, even in high-level meetings with the dersident, some foreign lea offered, they said we want to help with china, we want to do this together with you, but heem to think that this was his fight alone and that he wanted to do it mano ammano. >> reporter: at that int, were you disappointed, frustrated? >> if you adamantly believe that something doesn't make sense, you are personally diappointed, 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 trp administration on $50 billion worth 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 econoc history. >> of course, sinceco >> alcindor: ose, since those tariffs were first imposed, the trade war with china has acceleested. but the ent's threat this week to add even more tariffs to $200 billion in chinese goods caught many off-guard. some see the president's warnini as his way of to get better leverage and more concessions from china. admini president trump's announcement came after the chinese government dug in on some u.s. mands. for some further insight into all of this, laura sullivan joins me now thanks, laura, so much for being here. >> thank you. >> reporter: so, in the documentary and iwhat we know w the president has said he's planning to increase tariffs on china. he said that the chinese government had renegedn some of the policies and promises

that they've made. what's happening there? >> this is part of a longtanding message that h come out of the sort of more hawky members of trump's china team that china has failedto live up to the promises it's made for almost 20 years now since joining the wto in 2001. they felthat china promised to open its markets, to play fair, not to steel american technology, promised to not force companies into technologya transfeements ore and over depend and have failed to do that. the trukdz's position is -- the trump administration's position is the bush administratioand 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 busdiess communitnot want the previous administrations to take this hard line, and now it's sort of coming push to shove. the oba administration did

make a deal with presidentov ina 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. t the markets are important to the trump administration. it's personally important to trump. he hlked about h issue of trade and trade deficits for, osknow, especially with china for alm20 years, but the stock market to him reflects that idea, theealth of the country. there's to sides to this. on the one hand, it's emboldened trump and the trump adminiration to take on china with additional tariffs because the economy is in a good placema and the stocet has been high. however, if this volatility s something that's definitely one of the few things

that will hold the administration back. >>eporter: in the documentary, you detail how china used international a domestic tactics to try to grow its economy and compete with the united states. talk a little bit about what they have been doing but also the reasoninghat they're leaders use. >> so the chise haveomething called the china model. it's the way that eir economy is based, they can martial the entire forces of their onomic engine to drive forward in whatever the chinese leadership wants to d. if they want to move their country toward the high-tech sector, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, basically america's holy gra til, they can at swiftly and fiercely. they have plans for ten, 20, 50 years out, and they are moving their country forward. they hs.e done thi they have been incredibly successful. they have moved 300 million people out of poverty. no country in tohe historf 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 administration and how does that dovetail with the preelsident's longbeliefs on trade in china? >> these fights in the trump admithstration were some of most vicious, nas fights. that's how people in the trump administration describe them. the reason they were so nas is because what they were fighting about is such a passionate issue of the trump admintration advisors. they were really deciding whether or not tariffs would destroy the economy o the united states or whether tariffs would have the ability to bringa country to challenge the united states as the nextsu rpower. when the nationalists won and the globalists lost and thefo globalisrce the most part have left the white house, there is now no counterbalancing force inside the white house t back any idea that tariffs might be dangerous toy.he econ at this point, only the

nationalists' agenda is on the table, and there is very little suggesting to anybody inside te trump administration that this could be dangerous. >> reporter: well, thank you so muuch lauralivan. >> thank you so much for having me. >> woodruff: and thefrontline" wd npr joint investigation, "trump's trade warl 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 comedian patton oswalt, on love 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 compled 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 wearted talking about it. and you know, ther nights when i was trying to talk about it and couldn't find what the trmorous angle was. or, how dare i eveto find a humorous angle. but then it went right back to the bacs of being an open- mic'er: go on stage over and over and over again, until youke can make this ense. >> woodruff: you can see all episodes of our facebook watch series, @thatmomentwhenshow. anthat is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, d again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for hhe pbs newsho been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teache real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> consumer cellular. >> financial services firm raymond jame >> 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 of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.th >> and witongoing support of these institutions and individuals. t s program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour proctions, llc

captioned by media access growgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

cooking, and eating in mexico for over 40 years. now i'm king you to mexico city for a deep dive into the classic dishes you've asked to learn. it's time to share my best recipes ever. announcer: "mexico one plate at a te" is made possible by these funders.