captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight... >> if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said s >> woodruff: ...special counsel robert mueller speaks for the first time about the findings of his investigation into russian interference and obstruction of justice. we break down reaction from congress, the white house and hedive into the details of report. plus, murals in miami blend art and technology to envision the city ravaged by climate change. >> i really want to reach more people from the general public. but the bridgeo the public is ssing and i think art can be that bridge. >> woodruff: all thaand more on tight's pbs newshour.

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>> woodruff: the man who led the russia investigation has finally gone public. special counsel robert mueller spoke today at a nine-minute news conference. he summed up his findings, on russian election interference and the trump campaign, and on the president and obstruction of justice. >> if we had had confidence that the president clearly did met commit a ce would have said so. we did not however make a dettion as to whether the president did commit a crime. >> wf: special counsel robert mueller broke his silence today to emphasize that his report did not clear president trump-- on whether he tried to obstruct the invtion. he pointed out that justice department guidelines barred him from prosecuting the president. >>nder long standing department policy a present president can not be charged with a federal crime while he is in office that is unconstitutional.

charging the pnt with a crime was therefore not an option. >> woodruff: on russian interference in s. elections, mueller warned, as he did in his 448-page report, of ongoing efforts by moscow. but he also said today he was unable to prove a criminal conspiracy between the trump campaign and russians to influence the 20 election. >> there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. >> woouff: the special counsel's statement comes amid a growing bale between the trump administration and congressional democrats, who want mueller and administration officials to testify on the investigation and other matters. today, mueller warned he would not say more than what is in his report. >> the report is my testimony. iswould not provide information beyond that whiclready public. so beyond what i've said here today and what is contained in our written work i do not

believe it is appropriate for me to speak further about the investigation or to comment on the tions of the justice department or congress. >> woodruff: mueller also acknowledged he had disagreed with some of attorney general william barr's decisions in the release of the report. >> at one point in time i requested that certain portions of the report be release >> woodruff: instead, barr , itially released a four-page lettying there was no finding of conspiracy with the russians, and not enough evidence to pursue obstruction. in a subsequent letter, mueller privately complained to barr that the barr's letter did not adequately represent his randings. >> the attorney ge preferred to make the entire report public. all at once. and we appreciate that the attorney general madreport largely public and i certainly do not question the attorney

general's good faith in that decision. >> woodruff: referring again tot justice departolicy, mueller said it is now up to congress to pursue any legal charges against president trump. >> the opinion says that the constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sittiidg prt of wrongdoing and beyond department policy we nere guided by principles of fa. it would be unfair to to potentially accuse somebody f a crime when there can be no court resolutione actual charge so that was justice >> it was a complete and total exoneration. ru>> woodruff: president has repeatedly claimed that the mueller report cleared him of any wrongdoing. after mueller's appearance today, mr. trump wrote on twitter, "nothg changes from the mueller report. there was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our country, a person is innocent. the case is closed!"

white house press secretary sarah sanders echoed that clai >> there was no real news in there. conspiracy, case closed. >> woodruff: but from democrats, a very dferent view. jerry nadler, chairman of the suse judiciary committee,d mueller clearly did not exonerate president trump on obstruction, and he vowed to continue his committee's investigation. >> with respect to impeachment question all options are on the table and nothing should be ruled out. trump is lying when he says no collusion, exoneration. if mueller wanted to exonerate, pe would have said so. >> woodruff:er of the house nancy pelosi also said stat democrats will continue to inate, but she again stopped short of calling for impeachment. >> evebody wants justice, everybody wants the president to be held accountable and

everybody, talking about the democratic side, that nobody is above the law, especially the t of the united states. f no questions. >> woodrufor his part, mueller said today he is elsigning as special couns and returning to private life. we turn now to our white house lcindorondent, yamiche and congressional correspondent, lisa desjardins. hello to both of you. yamiche, to you first, how does this message that we've heardob fromt mueller compare to what you are hearing from the white house and from the president today? >> well, the main message from the whe house as well as president trump is move on, let this go, the president has been totally common rated. in conversation is had today with white house pre secretary sarasarah sanders as well as ruy ni, they both said the same thing, this case needs to be closed, people need to move

away from the robert mueller investigation. the issue is that robert mueller was crystal clear today. he said i'm not clearing the tead i have been u ided by this idea that d.o.j. policy says an't indict a sitting president, therefore we didn't consider charging president trump. that's a lot different than what the president is saying. i said to sarah snders how can you say the case is closed giveh robert mueller was saying. she said we're leaning on bill barr's assessment of robert mueller's work and in that regard wasn't guide bid d.o.j. policy but came to the conclusion presidentrump was cleared after having looked at the evidence. >> woodruff: so given all th, what's the political calculus? what's the calculus, perioder forks democrats. >> right now house speaker nancy pelosi and the leaders around r are not changing course. they are staying with their plan to continue to investacigate ss six different committees, many aspects of the trump

administration, including the mueller report. they are not going to ramp up an opening of an impeahment inquiry, but this does add to pressure and fuel to the desire for that kind of inquiry. but pelosi knows, in thend, the votes for impeachment do not exist in the u.ssenate. so for democrats like pelosi, it's a question of what is righs many democry it is right to move toward impeachment. wills saying more what work, it will not work now to move to impeachment. she says we needre to build of a case to the public for impeachment and this will take investigations they do want mr. mueller to testify. it is not clear how thatill happen. they may have to issue a subpoena. stay tuned, thacould take weeks because it is now more pamplicated because he has left the justice ment. >> woodruff: so, lisa, if they were to move toward an impeachment inquiry, how would that be different than what they were doing already. >> yamiche and i get this

question a lot, what doethat mean, even? an impeachment inquiry is ne of several ways to issue articles of impeachment against a president. another way is another member can file on the floor. house democrats are saying we don't want to start the first formal step, butit's tricky, judy, because, technically, they're asking the same questions that they probably would ask if they had opened this official inquiry, th maybe down the road many democrats believe it is, and they're already talking about what does impeachment mean. pl saw an interesting tweet in the last cof days from republican justin amash. he said look at the high crimes and misdemeanors which similar peachable crimes, that's not defined in the cstitution, and he wrote the constitution implies it is just conduct that violates the public trust, so it is not defined,anthat adds to sort of the tricky issue here for democrats. adding to all this pressure,

more democratic presidential candidates are coming out in favor of taking that fmal step toward impeachment, today three more candidates said the should do that. >> woodruff: yamiche, they're not there yet but could be amet oint, so how is the white house preparing? >> well, thehite house and president trump really have a simple reaction to the threat of impeachment -- bring it on. the president is saying that, essentially, if he were to be imam anwar al-awlaki featured, it wouldn't help him in the campaign. white house reporters say if the president were to be i he would use it in 2020 and ifssibly win back the house from democrate was able to use that message. it's also important to note that the preside for a long time has been saying there's a deep state conspiracy against him. but the idea of impeachment could play into that. the president could double down on the idea the people are very

upset about it. democrats are oceeding cautiously because the president is saying try me, impeach me if you want to, but i'm probably going to come out ahead. >> woodruff: fascinating all of this. so much in these 24 hours. yamiche alcindor, lisa desjardins, we thank you. we were hearing about congressional democrats. let's hear from one of them. i >> woodruff: we hear now from one of those congressional democrats. i spoke earlier this evening with represeolative gerry of virginia. he serves on the u.s. house oversight committee. congressman gerry connolly, thank you very much for talking with us. >> pleasure. >> woodruff: so we heard today finally from the special ayunsel. what did you take rom it? >> i found it extraordinary that he decided to break a silence after two years in person, and whayou heard from him, i think, was pretty consequential. he said, on the russian part of hisio investig that there was plenty of evidence of -- nvincing evidence of russian

interference, and there wasev ence of cooperation but not enough to file criminal conspiracy charges. that's not the same as saying i found full common regulation, sabody did anything wrong. he didn'that, and that's a huge difference between him himd rre summary provided by mr. second he all by said the president committed a crime. he said the fact that we didn't find a crime esn't mean didn't commit it and, oh, by the way, they didn't let us, meaning the department of justice. >> woodruff: what should happen now? the congss was asking the special counsel to testify. you heard him say today, i'm going to let the repeak for itself. you have no further comments to make. that won't be his choice. you're a citizen of the united states, andhen congress subpoenas you to come and testify, especially given the fact of who youre, he

wrote one of the most consequential documents in history with respect to the president and the poion fortunately impeachable and even criminal behavior, you've got to come and explaiyourself, and it's not true the document speaks for itself. there are many unsred questions or questions that need ation in terms of answers in that report. >> woodruff: what's an example? >> one example is hi didn't you summon president trump warsonally the way president clintosummoned by ken starr, and were you pressured into not doing that and did the fact that you didn't mo that, didn't hear from hi personally, did that change any opinions in your report? did it wat it down? did it mean that you couldn't take actions you might otherwise have? >>oodruff: we talked toyou on the "newshour" last week, you were at the capitol. yot side, aat time, you did not think an impeachment inquiry was needed. do you still have that feeling? >> well, that was in the context

aof do you nen impeachment inquiry to elevate the issueor judges to rule in favor of as,gress in enforcing subpoen and i oppose that did because the precedent that sets is terrible. so, in other words, the only time judges are going to rule io of congress is if we've hment inquiry.peac i don't think that's right. a subpoena by congress is a legitimate toolor investigation, as the judge found two weeks ago, and needs nd be upheld by the court without any f impeachment inquiry. after that, i think we are being pushed more and mor toward that direction. i don't think we're quite will yet and i think a few things have to play out.ai cey what mueller had to say today, in my view, makes it harder to avoid the impeachment question. >> woodruff: is it your sense that the center of gravity is shifting in the house? >> yes. >> woodruff: as a result of this? >> absolutely. i think impeachment started out sort of at the edges for a few individuals who were passionate about it.

i think today the broad middle whatvaluating carefull their duty is and what the political follow up could be. >> woodruff: i'asking because we saw that speaker pelosi was saying today -- i'm quotinpart -- she says in order to proceed with impeachment there has to be such an ironclad case the majority of the snot would have to go along with it. >> i don't know what ironclad means. ironclad means there is nothing to detract from the obvious truth of something. i wish life were that simple. i think that's a standard no one can meet. but the question is have we crossed a threshold in terms of impeachable offense that require congress constitutionally to undertake an inquiry and possible subsequent actions. i don't think we're there yet. i think it does need to play oft you know, maybe a few months, but i think we're

getting closeor and closer that point. >> woodruff: do you think it dos any bearing whoont congress that you have more and more the democratic candidates f president moving into the we need to pursue impeachment camp? >> i don't think a presidential candidate doing that in a democratic primary, trying to position for vantage in a crowded field is gointo influence any of our swing democrats who just won retoblican districts and wan be very careful about how they thread this needle. i don't think that's have an effect on them at all. >> woodruff: what ll affect them? >> convincing evidence, not necessarily ironclad but certainly compelling evidence, as the speaker said, that makes it almost impossible to avoid. to them. but i think that's a standard they have to consider. for many of us not any longer in the swing distrcts, i have to define this as what is my ednstitutional duty with the evidence i'm fwith, and that evidence becomes more and

more inconvenient if i want to avoid the impeachment question. >> woodruff: congressm o gerry connol virginia, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: robert mueller made clear that he wants the report to speak for itself. jo dive back into some of the key points now wit carlin. he ran the justice department's national security division from 2013 to 2016. before that, he served as chief of staff and senior counsel to then-f.b.i. director robert mueller. and carrie johnson is the justice department correspondent r.r and welcome back to the "newshour" to both of you. i want to get your reaction, both, first to you, carrie, you have been foll twis investigation for the last few years. this is the first time we have heard publicly from the special counsel. what did you make of those nine minutes? >> you know, he used his words carefully. he said his written report mostly speaks for itself, as you

said, it is his testimony, but he used his short time -- ninune s or so -- in front of the cameras and the eyes of the world to make a few key points. one is that the russians attacked our elections in 2016, and they may be up to that again. another is that the case and the evidence theyem abled with respect to obstruction were su that the special counsel team could not exonerate president trump of obstruction. the third is people should read his report. he doesn't want to testify to congress. he says if people read hi report, the answers to their questions will be in that document. ar>> woodruff: and john n is somebody who worked very closely with robert mueller in years past. caat did you make of how he across today? >> i think it's classic mueller. he thought carefully about ewoey that was in this statement today so i engowrnlg people to listen to the statement. he heart feltly meant what he found which is the russiansrf

ined in our election is something every american should care about and payo.ttention number two, i think he carefully placed in his report the facts that match up with his report. in his stathment today, e carefully said the statements that match up with his report that perhaps clarify what's bee confuse that there was systematic russian interference. number two, as carrie said, if they had found sufficient evidence that made it clear that the president had not obstructed justice, they would have said it, but they were bound by department policy not to make such a finding. >> woodrf: but left it wide of, in other words, and thoughts what i want to -- and that's what i want to come back to on thonthe obstruction question. citing one sentence from the report, our investigations found multiple acts by the president that were capable of exerting undue influence over law ssforcement investigations

including the n interference and obstruction investigations. that iecone those have ps of -- that is one of those pieces of evidence the special counsel was pointing to. >> that's right. he talkeofabout a numbe possible episodes of obstruction of justice, among them efforts fire the special counsel himself, efforts to get the attorney general at the time jeff sessions to limit the mandate of wat special counsel robert mueller was doing, and efforts to get the president's own white house counsel don mcghan to issue a statement in public saying the president never tried to limit the special counsel's mandate to begin with. even though these obstructio were not successful, they were serious, and the report says they arched up afterprhe ident realized he was under investigation. >> woodruff: picking up on that, john carlin, carrie mentioned the then general jeff sessions, from the report indicatings substantial

evidence of th'spreside effort to have sessions limit the scope of the special counsel's inveigation to future election interference was ertended to prevent furth investigative scrutiny of the president and his campaign conduct. >> so there are three elements to obstruction of justice and they're lied out in the report. number one, some typef act taken that impairs an in ystigation. wh've laid out are clearly acts. they tried to shut the investigation down. as a prosecutor that would be overwhelming evidence you're trying to impede the investigation. two, there's a nexus, and this le important in terms of the statement mr. mumade today, he said the matters they were investigating were of paramount importance and that when a subject of investigaruon obs or lies to an investigator, that that strikes at the heart of the government'd effort to he truth and hold wrong doer's accountable.

that's clearing out there was a nexus there was a hugely important investigation and efforts to shut it down blocks the pr the third, why was the person trying to block your investigation? was it curupt? and co in terms of the criminal law definition means that your intent was not part of your official duties but that you had some personal motive , re in order to shut the investigation dod that's what he says he clearly couldn't find him innocent and says there is another body whose job it is to make this determination. he doesn't name congress but that's congress. >> woodruff: ag he's referr congress. quickly, carrie, we don't have time to read all of the sections we picked out from the report, but there's certainly a point where, in the mueller report, said substantial evidence indicates and repeatedly urged don mcghan the president's own white house counsel to dispute that he was ordered to have the special counsel terminat d, the presidted for the purpose of influences mcghan's account

to deflect further scrutiny o the conduct of the president in the investigation. you don't have to go back over all these but you see parallels between what the special counsel said today and what is in that rert. >> absolutely, don mcghan was one of the central witnesses in this investigation. we know he met with special counsel team for 30 hours or more. we also know crthat des in mcngress desperately want don an to. the they think he will be a very important witness to make their case to the american publc. mcghan for now at the instruction of the white house and his own ew is th he's not going to testify, but there may come a time where he becomes an important witness in any ind of congressional inquiry moving ufrward. >> woo john carlin, coming back to the russia, the part of this that started theve whole tigation in the first place, was there any collusion,p ation, conspiracy between the trump campaign and the russians, and you have thl e specunsel saying we were not able to prove a broader

onspiracy, but, again, you point ba you look at the ribller report, they de deleted text messages, failure to talk totnesses, they couldn't get to people like donald trump, jr., they called itten answers's w to their questions inadequate. so you get thhasenset they didn't get everything they wanted to know. >> think that's clearom the report, and he reiterated again, based on what they did find, they didn't find the crimi evidence to support a criminal conspiracy charge, but what they found was troubling in terms of an amazing russian campaign rected by russian military intelligence officers to target one candidate andm h her along with an attempt to undermine our confidence in our democracy, and alen they found numerous indiviwho didn't tell them the truth about what was occurring. >> woodruff: and finally, carrie, as we hear the reports from congress that democrats are not there yet in terms of

launching an impeachment inquiry, but there's more and more of a drum beat in that direction. what is the justice department's posture about that? what are they saying about that? >> the attorney general bill barr has been in conlict with some democrats in the house, in earticular, remember th judiciary committee voted to hold him in contempt, but since that time he's reached some accommodations with the house intelligence committee to provhee some briefings and o documents. that's where things stand right now. it's possible that parts of the house could decide to try to vote -- the full house could try eo vote the attorney general in contempt of the hoand i annder what that might do to any ongoing effortd cooperation and evidence sharing, probably put a nail in the coffin of that effort at this point. >> woodr cuff:rie johnson with npr, coveringhe justice

department, john carlin, thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other ws, hundreds of new tornado victims we left sifting wreckage, from the kansas city area all the way to pennsylvania. tuesday's storms made 12 straight days with at least eight confirmed twisters in the u.s. that had not happened in nearly 40 years. we'll get the details, after the news summary. the state of israel will have to have an unprecedented second election this year. prime minister benjamin netanyahu failed in his efforts to form a coalition government by tonight deadline. his conservative "likud" party had made a strong showing in last month's initial election, but netanyahu could not assele a majority in parliament. that was partly due to his own corruption scandal.

iran's supreme leader has again ruled out any negotiations with the united states, amid heightened tensions. w atollah ali khamenei issued a atement today, apparently overruling iran's presid ht. earliesan rouhani had told his cabinet that talks might be possible, if wton ends sanctions on iran and complies with the 2015 nuclear accord. >> ( translated ): whenever they stop cruelty against our nation, put aside theruel sanctions, stand up for their commitments and return tthe negotiating table, which they left themselves, the road is not closed for them. the road is open >> woodruff: meanwhile, u.s. national security advisor john bolton blamed iran for recent attacks on tankers in the persian gulf and on a saudi oil pipeline. idlton visited the united arab emirates, ny further attacks will draw "a very strong response" from the unid states.

inese tech giant huawei asking a u.s. court to rule immediately on the legality of barring its sales to the u.s. military and contractors. the motion was filed late tuesday with a fteeral court in s. huawei argues it is being unfairly punished. the trump administration says huawei is a national security threat. separately, a former leader of the tiananmen square protests in china urged the west today to make trade privileges contingent on beijing's human rights record. 30ng dan spoke days before the anniversary of the deadly crackdown on the protests. he said the goald must be to the communist party's unchallenged rule in china. >> i know a lot of western countries dotht want to ruin r relationship with china, gid don't want to see any change happen in china, but i have to say, if there's no reme change, nothing can b resolved. >> woodruff: it is believed that

chinese troops killed hundreds, and possibly thousands, in the 1989 massacre in tianamen square. in venezuela, the government has made a rare admission of just how bad things are. the nation's central bank repo contracted 22% in the third quarter last year. and, inflation soared to 130,000%. some three million people have fled venezuela as the economy crashes. back in this country, democrats criticized senate majority leader mitch mcconnell for saying the senate would fill any supreme court vacancy that occurs in 2020. in 2016, mcconnell blocked action on merrick garland, nominated by president obama. he said it should wait for that year's presidential election. his office says the difference is: the white house and the 2nate were held by different parties 6, but not now. the democratic national

dammittee has toughened sts for its second round of 2020 presidential debates, in wptember. contendel have to register at least 2% in four approved polls. they also have to raise funds atom at least 130,000 donors across 20 . it is an effort to winnow a field of two dozen candidates. and, on wall street, stocks fell again as investors sought refuge in bonds, id worries about slower growth. the dow jones industrial average lost 221 points close at 25,126.th nasdaq fell 60 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 19. still to come on the newshour: what is fueling a rare string of 12 days straight of tornadoes across the u.s. how the politics of washington are shaping conversations outside the capital. plus, art collide in a series of murals depicting the dangers of climate change.

>> woodruff: as we reported, severe weather pounded large sections of the country again today. flooding is already overwhelming residents in oklahoma and arkansas, and is expected to worsen in the next few days. violent storms are claiming lives as well., so frnadoes have been blamed for at least 38 deaths this year. as william brangham tells us, tornadoes injured more people overnight when they battered parts of kansas and northwest missouri. >> brangham: several tornadoes struck kansas overnigh winds so powerful this co was thrown othe roof of a house, d knocked this semi onto its side. redozens of homes weorn apart in lawrence, kansas, with at least a dozen injuries there as well. debris blown from nearly 50

miles away left the runway of the kansas city airport so ous it had to be shut do and evacuated for several hours last night. passengers were left stranded and ducking for cover. >> it came over the loud speakers that everybody was to move and then everybody just moved very quickly and orderly to the basement. >> brangham: tornadoes also struck as far as eastern pennsylvania. of a sudden it is like rapid fire machine gun hitting the side of the house. >> brangham: for the last two weeks, an unreleing barrage of floods, tornadoes and extreme weather has pummeled the middle of the country. and over the last month, the national storm prediction center says there have been over 500 reported tornadoes. today, 11 states and the district of columbia still were given an enhanced risk advisory of sere weather. for many communities, flooding remains the much bigger problem. cities and town along the swollen arkansas river in oklahoma and arkansas are preparing for that river to crest.

in fact, within the next week or so, every large community along oe arkansas is expected to suffer majrecord flooding. arkansas governor asa hutchinson warned that levees could be breached. >> this is flood of historic magnitude it surpasses all arkansas riv flooding in our recorded history that sho ld be enought everyone's attention. >> brangham: and along t swollen mississippi, eight states have now seen the longest stretch of continuous flooding since the great flood of 1927. and the forecast offers no relief. olre rain is expected. we spoke with meteists at the national storm prediction center today and they told us that the number of consecutive s ys we've had with tornad a pretty rare occurrence, and certainly far more than in recent years to help us understand more, we turn to victor gensini.

he's an atmospheric scientist at northern illinois university and he joins us via skype. sir, thank you very much for being here. i wonder if y could just help us understand why are we seeing so many tornadoesrecently? >> we have been in an incredibly anonmallous weather pattern especially for may standards. we've seen a lot of toadoes in may every year, but this particularly pattern is noted by a big jet stre in the northeastern part of the united states and east of the jet stream a rollercoaster pattish. moisture is brought north o of the gulf of mexico creating an atmospheric sort cesspool of tornadoes across the center portion of the united states, and this has been going on now for -- this is day 13. >> andre those the traditional underlying factors that cause tornadoes? >> yeah, you would really like -- if you're a forecaster and you're looking for tornadoes to occur, uh you're looking for

very strong wind sheer provided by the jet stream which is a narrow ribbon of windun ad 30,000 feet where aircraft fly, you want to see that over humid unstable air at the surface. as the air rises and th j stream tilts the updrafts in the storms, you can get rotating thunderstorms to produce tornadoes and that's really what's been prlent in the last two weeks. also, as we have bee reporting on seen son incredible flooding alongome to have the major rivers in the northwest of the country driven by huge rainfall. are those particularly huge events this time of the yr as well? >> and very strongly correlated to the all the tornado activity we've been eing. when you talk about economic loss, it's not just the tornado and hail storms we've seen, but we'll see way more from the widespread floodin farmers in the midwest and my home state of illinois are so far behindn planting this year due to the copious amounts of

thinfall. >> there's also, ll of these conversations we have been having in recent years about extreme weather, how much climate change driving this or maybe how much climate change may be exacerbating th underlying conatditions. oes your research tell us about this particular setof storms? >> we can't say anything from a small subset like just this may. we like to look at weather and climate as two separate things. for a baseball analogy weather is at bat and climate is the batting average. we have to look at a succession of events over 30 or 40 years to see how they are potentiallyw changes, sre not able to say whether or not the results y the tornado and flooding this year is direclated to climate change. it's consistent with some of our projections going forward, but we're not able to say with a degree of certainty whether or not that is the case at this time. >> my understanding is there is some reporting that climate

change mht be shifting where certain tornadoes might be hitting, hitting places that are not used to them. is that right? >> that's exactly right. we did a study last october that looked at, well, the number of tornadoes across the united states hasn't changed much in the last 40 years but where they have been happening is changes. tornado alley like texas, oklahoma and kansas, a downwar trend them and an increasing trend in the east like mississippi, alabama and portions of the midwest, which is a big population forla poon density and vulnerability, of course, exposure as we have more people living east of the mississippi river. >> i know you do a lot of prediction work as well. we're seeing this incredie heat wave and some rains projected. in the next days and weeks, what do it look like for the people already suffering? >> it looks like a reprieve is on the horizon. day 13 looks like theday of significant tornado activity, at least in this stn there's a rash, if you will, of severe weather. things look like they will calm

down especially into the weekend and early next week, so w have some reason to believe things will calm down and be mu quieter, which i'm sure the inctims to have these horrible tornadoehe city will be very thankful that they can begin the cleanup efforts. >> that is good news and we'll be watching out for people who might be suffering flooding in the next couple of days. g victnsini, thanks for being fre. >> thank you so mu having me. >> woodruff: robert mueller again commanded the attention in evshington today, but how are his findingsberating across the country? for that and more we turn to: chris buskirk, editor of the conservative journal and web site "american greatness." he's in phoenix. ad connie schultz. she ulitzer prize-winning columnist and journalism siofessor at kent state univ in ohio. she joins us from cleveland.

welcome back to the program to both of you. so i think the two of you have been telling us for many weeks that, for all t attention the russia investigation is getting in washington americans arenot bringing it up when you talk to them around the country. chrichris buskirk, does today ce that in any way? >> no, not really. robert mueller, i think, said it all right in his first sentencew or tn he said i don't have anything to add other tha what's in report. the irony is he talked for another 15, 20 minutes. but that's it. for most people, i think the report is the report. they've sort of mentally closed that section of thie amercan political history, and now it's on to 2020. >> woodruff: we actually clocked it. it was nine mutes. but close. >> seemed longer. >> woodruff: connie schultz, do you think tod changes anything? o> i think it's time for robert mueller t testify. a lot of americans have been --

haven't been paying close enough attention to this, most aren'th readinmueller report, most aren't watching cable news shows, frankly. i think having him testify will draw the attention much as watergate, much as the anita hill hearings, focusing the meerican attention, and i think this is the . >> woodruff: so chris buskirk, if that were to happen, if heo were required to testify, and we had a guest tonight, congressman connolly of virginia, saying that i something congress can require, what would happen, do you think, in the minds of aamerican voters? >> i think we get the sort of sense of deja vu all over again which is didn't we just end this? you know, robert mueller has been two years, $35 million, hundreds of hoursfnterviews, issues a report and then congress wants him to testify, ich, okay, fine, i think congress may want him to do that. i actually sort of tend to agree with connie on this one, which i think that might actually be

helpful. but for sort of your average voter, your average american, is this something that is goi to all of a sudden make them think differently than they did a month ago or six mago or a year ago? i don't think so. this has been lit dated and relate gated in the court of public -- an and relitigated ine court of publi opinion. >> wooi uff: connie? n't think they're thinking about it. robert mueller should be concerned about russian 'tterference with the elections. we c emphasize that robert mueller has not common rated president trump d has made it very clear that there is work to th done here in terms of peeling away everg that has happened since his presidency, .nd this is the way we do it i always look at it this way -- when in doubt about what americans kn, give them ore information. >> woodruff: meaning mr. mueller testifies. >> yes. even if he just reads from the report, judy, a lot o americans

will be hearing it for the first time. >> woodr buff: chrskirk, you do now have one, granted only one, republican mber of wngress, congress justin amash of michiganho has called for an impeachment proceeding against thpresident. said he's read the mueller report several times and he believes the president should be impeached based on that. s you e republicans you talk, to memb the public see this as something that could grow? >> well, at least if you're asking if it's something that could grow within republican ranks, the answer iseasy no. justin amash, this inot something other republicans take very seriously, and for a good yeason. he is apparen unaware of the fact that he is actually aer mef congress. if he thinks donald trump should bempeached, he has the power to file the articles, he could write the bill. he does don't it.

he goes on twitter and grand stands. my position is if you really believe that, you have a moral and constitutional obligation to act on it, and whether it be justin amash or democrats are saying the same thing, if you think donald trump should be impeached, do it. >> woodruff: connie schultz, if it's justne republican, what difference does it make? >> how concrning. well let's talk about criticizing grandstanding on twitter. i expect every republican should going after the president. i think you have one republican, and we all know who hs, because you only have one republican, i don't know for sure what it' going to take. if more voters start to brin pressure to bear on republicans, something could change. if more high-end donors started bringing pressure, and i'm more optimistic about that than a month ago, because you start to sense the discomfort among life-long republics who have spent all of their careers, you know, the money they're making, avch of it theybeen investing in republican

candidates, i mean, you'rnot seeing a lot of republican opposition in congress because they're getting what they want from don'd trump, th getting the tax breaks, look what's happening with immigration, look athese young judges who are being put on the bench, they're getting a lot of what they ant right now, and i don't know, except for outside pressure brought to bear where they actually think they could loseheir jobs, i don't see how it changes right now. >> woodruff: i want to change the ubject in the little bit of time we have left quickly to the democratic candidates running for president, chris buskirk, there are 24 of out there. a number of them are talking issues, they're talking education, they're talking climate, immigration, education, and they're also talking abortion. i noticed tonight the louisiana legislature is another sate passing very restrictive abortion laws with no exception incest. or are these issues you see at this point sticking with voters? >> yeah, i don't think they are yet, and here's why, is i think

there are too incrementalist. i critize republicans for t same thing. a lot of these policy issues may be interesting and worth while in and of themselves, thosean thingslways be debated, but if somebody wants to stand out and run for president angrd sort of the vision and the imagination of voters, they need to do smething thats not merely incrementalist, they need to do something with a big, bold plan for the country, something that -- well, you kno the old saying fortune favors the bulb, every candidate needs to do something big if they want to win. >> woodruff: connie, do you see somethinsticking out there? >> yeah, i think what's happening with abortion in various states, i agree, a gr rwing number ofublicans say they've overstepped when you don't have an exception for rape or incest, you are attacking women and girls, and i think republics are underestimating the impact this will have in 2020. >> woodruff: well, ts is clearly a subject we'll be bringing up, we may well bring upto 2020 candidates, again,

when we talk to both of you. conniechultz, chris buskirk, thank you both. >> thanks. >> woodruff: we spoke earlier in coe program about climate change and potentiaections to our weather. let's look now at how one woman is using art and technology to warn about the risks of climate change. special correspondent alicia menendez takes us to miami for the story. it's the focus of this week's "leading edge" segment. urd part of our ongoing arts and cue coverage, "canvas." >> reporter: the colorful murals that line these miami streets have turned the wynwood neighborhood into a mecca for street artists. the walls are bright, grab your attention and in the age of social media and instagrammable moments, make a perfect backdrop for almost anything.

alis mural is all about an a black panther. a sea turtle. a coyote. all thatened by climate change and what's known as the sixth mass extinction of plants and animals. look closer-- with the help of a smartphone or tablet-- and there's even more to see. >> this isort of the ocean and coral and it turns into sea vel rise. >> reporter: linda chung is the mastermind behind the project. >> we picked animals that are either endangered just some of them invasive, like that lionfish right there. am>> reporter: but it onlyto life with the work of two other people >> my favorite part of the mural is all of it. >> reporter: and juan carlos gallo who designed the augmented reality experience. >> you come up to the thing and you kind of point out the animal. and in this case for example it

recognize the sea turtles leg. so in this case now it's playing the sea turtle video a as you can see there is there is coral on the ground. oh here's a little bottle. and then this story it's basically lling you how plastic is affecting the ecosystem d how turtles and all kinds of animals are consuming this plastic. orter: for chung, puttin the project together was a steep learning curve her background s in finance, not art or technology. >> i had to meet and find mt who the bealists were in wynwood, find a wall. itw do you do augmented re i needed to find someone who did augmented reality programming so bringing about the team and then hankng you know, you had a b slate and it's like what do we ge with this mural. what's the meswhat's the story with the design. >> reporter: when you were getting your m.b.a. at m.i.t. did you think you'd be painting murals on the streets of wynwood? >> actually it's funny because i used to scoff at art. i was working on wall street you know.

for me everything is about numbers. like for me it's like this is a systems problem. we need policy change. we need investment dollars going into this. and i started to realize no that's not the problem the problem was cultural. our economic system is entirely focused on productivity on this sort of, you know produce more growth, endless growth. and yet we can't have endless >>owth on a finite planet. eporter: there's a warning in this, mural right. so it would have been easy to do it all very dark. u wanted big bright pops of color. >> exactly. i mean that'it's part of the miami aesthetic. everything is competing for attention. all these colors are jumping at you. i like this juxtaposition of just opposing species. you know, so this is a nice eclectic mix almost li mirroring the way that we combine ourselves. >> reporter: the designers faced a number of challenges: among them theight that hits the mural affects the augmented reality experience.

at night, whenhe animals are flooded with bright controlled light, it makes it easier for the image recognition technology to work. it also makes it brighr on yo phone. another issue for the app design was how the animals were painted. to make the augmented reality work, there needed to be so- called "markers" wh detail for the app to recognize. >> so as you can see the manatee is kind of a smooth body. so if yowanted to pick up the manatee itself the only detail b really here in the face and rend of this area ause so this is wost of the edges are. so we picked this section as the marker. haand that kind of thing wto figure out for all the animals, what sections of the animals were easier to be cked up. >> reporter: just down the street, perhaps forebodingly across from miami's oldest cemetery, is chung's first try at an augmented reality mural. this one posed a stark choice:" be the change" or "no change."

pick "no change" and the city crumbles into rapidly rising water as stormy skies swirl above. but choose to "be the change" and miami turns intoush oasis filled with wind turbines, solar panels and cyclists. miami and south florida are no strangers to the effects of climate a ange. florsidents stand to lose more homes to flooding this century than any other state. and most climate models show that by 2070, miami's streets could flood every singay. yoca arditi rocha is the executive director of miami's cleo institute, a non-profit dedicated to climate change education. >> between the algae blooms crisis that we had this year and extreme weather events like hurricane irma and hurricane michael late last yearn addition to rising seas, aoridians, south floridia

really understanding, connecting the dots what's happening to oua ing oceans and our warming climate. are we are 100% climate literate? no, we're not. but i think we have moved the needle as a community into taarning that we are feeling and undersing the impacts of a warming world. >> reporter: but chung wants to do more than move the needle >> there is this belief that you viow it's either care about the nment or care about people's economic welfare. and i want people to realize these are two and the same things. if you don't care about the environment you enup paying for it way down the line, not even way down, you end up paying for it way more. i really want to reach more people from the general public. but the bridge to the public is missing and i think art can be that bridge. >> reporte and she hopes to spread the message one mural at a time. for the pbs newshour, i'm alicia menendez in miami.

>> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodrnef. join us onnd again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank sou and see you . >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> text night and day. >> catch 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 >> for projects around the house, home advisor helps find local pros to do the work. you can check ratings, read, customer revied book appointments with pros online at s newshour.is proud to support

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hello,ry ee and welcome to amanpour and company. here'sco what's ng up. amw are you m chancellor? >> the leader of the most powerful nation in europe in for y 15 years sits down her first and exclusive interview with an american television network.ll chance angela merkel warns that the fight to defend democracy, tolerance and human rights is farover. ♪ and director ron howard tells the story of luciano pavarotti, the global rock star of opera world. then to one of the most powerful women in world finance. >>