captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: as the u.s. and iran trade accusations over damaged oil tankers in the persian gulf, a look at what iran's strategy may y. in this tense moment. then, it's frid mark shields and david brooks nte here to analyze president trump's coroversial comments about receiving foreig intelligence on political pponents, and preview the upcoming democratsidential debates. plus, a second life for a southern juke joint. n w clarkesdale, mississippi became a boomtow embracing its legacyf blues music. >> it was just realling down. you could almost just see it winding down. re it's kind of like, well, you make it able, i can bring

you tourists, blues fans. but they're not going to spend the night in clarksdale if i can't promise them you've got music tonight. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> ordering takeout. >> finding the west route. >> talking for hours. >> planning for showers. >>an youo the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. th talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv >> babbel. talanguage program that teaches spanish, french, ilian, german, and more. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of cial change

worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >>program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to yourbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: tensions are still running high in the persian gulf region's troubled waters, a day after two tankers were attacked. the u.s. military has released video that purportedly shows iran's revutionary guard removing an unexploded mine from one ship. u.s. officials said it is clear that the iranians were trying to

remove evidence, but iran denied any involvement. we will explore all of this, after the news summary. president trump today walked back, a bit, from saying he might not tell the f.b.i. if a foiggovernment offered "dirt" on a political opponent. he had made the original ement in an abc news interview. nhe was asked about it ag today, in a fox news interview. >> i don't think anybody wouldme presenith anything bad, because they know how much i love this country. nobody is going to present me with anything bad. number two, if i was-- and of course you have to look at it, because if you don'took at it, you're not going to know if it's bad. how are you going to know if it's bad? but, of course you'd give it to the f.i. or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that.oc >> woodruff: dts had condemned the president's initial atement as inviting foign interference in u.s. elections. president trump says he will not

fire adviser kellyanne conway despite a government watchdog agency's recommendatio the agency says her criticism of democratic presidential candidates has violated the "hatch act." that law bars government employees from engaging in political activities. the president rejected the finding, sayg that conway has the right to free speech. o in another staffiue, mr. trump said he plans to name tom homan as his new border czar. homan was acting head of immigration and customs enforcement from january 2017 unl retiring last june. he has since been a fox news contributor. in hong kong, pressure is ding to scrap a bill setting up extraditin with mainland china. the bill has sparked mass protests, and police are bracing for more this weekend. but today, several former senior thng kong officials sided with protesters. ti what the people are atte to tell this government is that we are very

worried about the asnsequences ofng the extradition bill, because no one will feel safe, even in their own beter passage of this bill. viit places everybody's inal freem and safety at risk. >> woodruff: some members of hong kong's governing cabinet also called today for delaying action on the legislation. south sudan is warning that a record number of peoce hunger, and potentially starvation. in a new rort, the south sudanese government and the united nations say nearly seven million people are at risk. that is more than 60% of the population. the report blames delayed rainfall, economic crisis and the effects of a five-year civil war. women across switzerland went on strike today to demand equal treatment. th walked off jobs and blocked traffic, carrying signs and chanting slogans calling for fair pay and an end to sexual harassment. it was the first such protest in

switzerland in 28 years. >> ( translated ): it's a historic day because women, whether they protest normally or not, tnebe heard. things need to change. are the majority of thi country's population, but we are noill not listened to enough, present enough in decision- making jobs. >> woodruff: women in switzerlke an average of .2% less than their male counterpar for the first time, a woman will lead the u.s. navy's war college. rear admiral shoshana chatfield was named today as the school's new president. she has led a u.s. military command in guam since 2017. y rear admiral jeffrey hars removed as the war college's president on monday, amid allegations of excessive spendin authority.of hiring hundreds of thousands of people marched and celd in tel aviv, israel today, in one of the world's largest l.g.b.t. pride parades.

participants waved rainbow flags, walked with colorful balloons and danced on floats. some called for israel to drop curbs on same-sex marriage and parental rights. on wall street, stocks failed to make any headway on this friday. the dow jones industrial average lost 17 points to close at 26,089. the nasdaq fell 40 points, and the s&p 500 slipped four. and, the toronto raptors are n.b.a. champions, for the first time. they clinched the title last night, beating the two-time defending champion golden state warriors in game six of the finals, 114-110. fans in o, including rap star drake, celebrated into the night. he is the raptors' first title in 24-year history.

congratulations. still to come the newshour: what will iran do next as tension grows in the persian gulf? an inside look at the aining school districts undergo to prepare for mass shootings. the three million lives at risk as syria's president bashar al-assad steps up his bombing campaign. and, much more. >> woodruff: the suspected attacks yesterday on two oil tankers near the strategically- vital straits of hormuz ratcheted already-high tensions between the u.s. and iran to a new level. and, global reaction has varied in markedly thfferent ways. e united nations secretary general called for an independent investigation. president trump says the u.s. knows iran was responsible. nonetheless, today he expressed interest in talks with tehran. japan's prime minister shinzo

abe condemned the attacks, one of which hit a japanese-operated tanker while abe was in tehran. and, iran's president hassan rouhani accused the u.s. of "radicalizing the situation" in the region, and pursuing an "aggressive policy" against the islamic republic. at the pentagoy, acting defense secretary shanahan had t >> we have an international situation there in the middle st. it's not a u.s. situation. and the focus, for myself, and ambassador bolton d secretary pompeo, is to build international consensus to this international problem. >> woodrf: we take a closer look at what is at stake and how riran might respond, wiel marc gerecht. he was a c.i.a. operations officer in the middle east in the 1980s and '90s. en is now a senior fellow at the foundation for d of democracies. and, vali nasr is a middle east 'sholar, and served in the obama administratitate

department. he is now the dean of the school of advanced and international studies at johns hopkins university, although he will be stepping down from that job so he can advise democratic presidential candidates. and we welcome both of you back to the "newshour". so my first question to both of you is do you accept the trump administration insistence that this was iran that was behind these attacks, vali nasr? >> i think more tn like, yes, although we have the see the final proof, and the administration will do well to prooide the irrefutable but i think, more than likely, it happened in a way thatid pr them with plausible denight club, and now there actually is a very interesting situation where the debate is about whether they d it, rather than the ramifications and what signal th were trying to send. >> woodruff: do you believe the administration is correct in saying it was iron? nd yeah, i don't think there was any plausible ate besides iran, the islamic revolutionary

guard corps' naval units have a long histay of ing mines and using the persian solf, think it's conclusive. >> woodruff: why did they do it? >> a few reasons i think, most importantly, they're trying to spook the europeans, the japanese and others, they're trying to send a signal to put pressure on the americans to sort of back o. i think they also enjoy it. i mean, i think there's a certain feeling of revolutionary pride here. >> wy druff: en it? yeah. they have been under tremendous sancons pressure, and they wanted a means to strike back. they can't strike back directly againsthe americans because they knew that would be, i think, suicidal,o they go after others, they go after peripheral targets, and i think it gives them considerablac sation as well as, they lope, achieving a strategic goa of getting everybody worried that chaos might break out, wat might break nd the americans will be put in a tight

spot. >> woodruff: vali nasr, what do you see is the motive here? >> i tnk iran wants to show it's defiant, that maximum y ofsure strat president trump has not worked, and that they are also capable of resisting the united states and also escalatists, and in particular if this president does not want to go to war, iran acting rashly, threating escalation, could essentially turn the tables on the presidt, but i also think that iran cannot go to the table with the united states looking like it's surrendering, like its capitulating. so gen that prime minister abe was in tehran, everybody was expecting he ced messages from president trump and may bring messages back. i think the iranians wanted to send a message to the domestic and international audience that regardless of what is brought to them, they are nevertheless gointo be fine. this is not going to be easy for the united states. >> woodruff: so reuel marc gerecht, does this bring iran

closer to what they want? do these attackdohat? >> i think it depends in part on how the united states responds. i think, eventually, the united steates is going to h to n ohibit them from using mining operationse persian gulf. i think the u.s. navy is going to get quite crank about. this if you recall, it was a mine attack in 1988 that led president reagan to authorize the u.s. navy to essentially destroy much of the iranian nah. so i thinku.s. navy sin cleaned to become much more aggressive if e president authorizes it to prevent this type of action. i agree with i think there's a predicate being made for possible negotiations, possible diplomasy. i think the regime isn a ry tight spot and they will, perhaps, try to find an out witp the trdministration. they may not wait until 2020 to

ree if the democrats win. >> woodruff: wo you see that going, vali nasr? because on the one hand, adthe nistration has had this maximum pressure, the trump administration, maximum essure,but, on the other hand, you hear them saying -- the president saying we would consider talking to them. how do you see that coming about or not? >> well, i think it's wonderful, thurpurpose of maximum pres is not clear, so there are elements of the admistrati who would want either regime change or for iran to completely capitulate and then the president in tock owe said iran can prosper unr the existing regime, and what i likely wanted was to talk to iran. so i think the united states would do well if it had a clear rategy and would signal it properly. but i agree with reuel that iran is in a tough spot't. they doave an option of going to war with the united states. would be the end of their republic. they cannot suffer under the sanctionings as is, and they will have to come to the table. but it will be a delicate dance

of getting to the table. we saw ththis im jong un and north korea, that beating their chest and being threatening essentially might be a way to come to the tabl and w shouldn't forget, you know, that the prime minister of japan did not go to iran without having at least some indication that the iranians wou like to hear proposals from the united states and it's quite possible he's carrying back at least certain conditions and proposals from iran so the public message between the two sides may be providing, reuel says, an umbrella or cover for some kind of engagement that might be fortufoming. >> woo so counterintuitive, so with resaying the maximum pressure campaign that might have pushed iran into a corner that made them want to do this,c reuel m gerecht, then may, in turn, lead to talks? >> well, it's entirely possible. again, i think it depen on what the iranians do. .hey are creatures of habit so since we haven't responded yet to their provocations, and i

thk in retrosuspect it was probably a mistake that we didn't respond to the attacks f the foes of fijaro where four ships were damad -- woodruff: a few weeks ago. right. d we had been more bold and said ythat again we'll unleash helicopter gunships on the revolutionary guard corpse navy, this might not have happened. it depends on with they return to these tactics, i suspect they might, in which respect i think thu.s. navy will ha to become more forceful. that could derail or delay the process of -- for the regime if it really is trying to find an avenue to have negotiations with president trump.ck >> woodruff: qy, right now, we are still waiting to see a clear response from the trump administration. is that right? >> absolutely, and also we don't know exactly what prime minister abe brought back and what related to the president. i think reuel is correct, i thi both sides need to show decisiveness as they're perhaps trying to go to talks and gain

leverage. but this is exactly why it's dangerous, ican get out of hand and one escalation may essentially lead to somewhereer neither country, i think, would want to go. y woodruff: and in the meanti had acting defense secretary shanahan talking about an international reaction. th we'll wait to see whether that comes toge in some way. reuel marc gerecht, vali nasr, we thank you. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: with an increasing number of school shootings across the country, school boards and administrators are struggling with how to pwopare for tht-case scenarios. as john ferrugia from rocky mountain pbs in denver reports, colorado has become a center for developing school eefety protocols that have adopted in many districts throughout the u.s.

>> reporte walking the halls of platte canyon high school in r iley, colorado is always bittersweet hn michael keyes. it is here he lost his daughter. ( sins ) in 2006, a lone gunman, a stranger, got into the school and took students hostage in a classroom. all got out, but one--mily keyes. she sent this last text message to her parents. >> you know, emily gave us a voice, and she also told us what to say. "i love you guys." >> reporter: and it is from here that an idea emerged, and a plan to save the lives of others. >> i realid that there wasn't a common language and common expectations of what to do in a crisis around the country wh our schools. and we found a handful of districts in the country that were usie very specific language in their crisis response, and we packaged it and relabeled it and called it the standard response ol. >> reporter: the "i love you guys" foundation, started by

johchn-l and ellen keyes, trains hundreds of teachers, administrators, organizations sd agencies every year to expand the reach ape of the program. >> we took lock out, lock down, evacuate, and we added shelter. and those are the four actions of a standard response protocol. >> we found the standard response protocol in 2009. it changed our lives. >> reporter: that was john michaekeyes. >> that was john michael keyes. the i love you guys foundation. >> reporter: john mcdonald heads security at the jefferson county school district. this is the district of columbine high9 chool, where two students killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before killing themselves. mcdonald andeam, working closely with local law enfo keeping kids safe in schools. he oversees the frank deangelis center, which was once an elementary school. it is named after former columbine high school principal frank deangelis, who now speaks ross the country about the lessons learned from columbine. at this training nter, school

districts and law enforcement agencies from across the country can train for the wo >> in the past year, we have had ovager 6cies and 6,000 police officers, sheriff's deputies, state and federal agents training here, preparing for that given day. >> reporter: the goal is making sure a responding officer, even if working alone, undersnds the tactics that can help stop a shooter who gets into a school. this is a state-of-the-art, coer-controlled, virtual reality shooter training. officers can be run through hundreds of scenarios involving eva gunman in one room, oral rooms. >> it really provides our professionals the ability to go into an environment and train just like they would have to respond using multiple rooms, noise, sight. us>> reporter: but this is one part of the school safety equation. another mponent is how schools immediately respond, before law enforcement arri js. that brougn michael keyes, with program in hand, to

jefferson county. >> he came to me, sat down in our office here. and i said, how much? he said, "i'm not going to charge you anything. i just want you to try it." i call him back the next day and i said i don't belie testing it. we're going to implement it. we startedstraining on the dard response protocol in all of our schools, and it was battle-tested that year. in february 2010, three weeks before the deer creek middle school shooting, we first went into that school and trained teachers abouthat they would see, what it would feel like, what they needed to thinabout. >> reporter: on that day, a mentally ill man shot and wounded two students outside deer creek middle school, before tackled by a teacher and subdued. >> i support this program. i have for many years. >> reporter: and that is why john mcdonald is oen right alongside keyes, helping to train the standard response protocol. >> i believe it to be the fundamental program that we base all school safety on, here in

this district, and so many districts across the state of inlorado, and now across the country ananada. pe reporter: the i love you guys foundation has mwhere school districts are now using the standard respod e protocol, e list continues to grow. but despite their efforts, john ilmcdonald says there are huge gaps in school safety training across the country. >> there are no national andards. there's no states' standard. there's not local standards other than what we decide and determinnd and,hat's a struggle, and frankly, t >> reporter: for jefferson county and many other school districts, student and staff training and law enforcement response are just two components of a comprehensive safety plan. oocolumbine also changed s access and school surveillance. >> you have to be on a video or intercom to get into a school today. >> reporter: mcdonald is committed to making sure they never let a gunman near, or in a >> video camera, robust surveillance systems that track people's movement outside and inside the school if need be. panic alarms inside schools that

automatically connect with our emergency dispatch center here. we are on the same radio system that all of our first responders are. >> reporter: and while he would not reveal the capabilities of the high-tech, high-definition surveillance system, he did demonstrate the lower-tion optics. >> if there's a critical recident in a school and w locked down, our dispatchers can open the door the moment they e.e law enforcement pull up on sc remotely. and that's aig deal. >> reporter: and, he says, these are safety measures for all district schools. but for columbine high school, there are even more unique security elements that can't be discussed. >> for so many, it iace of hope and inspiration. lot of victims ce here. but so too do a lot of people who are inspired by the killers. and that's been thbiggest challenge for us. >> reporter: how many people have tried to get into the school? >> we're averaging about 198 month. >> reporter: month!

>> uh-huh. >> reporter: 198 people a month are trying to get into the school. >> yeah. >> reporter: and what do you do when you have people there? >> oh, we stop them. we engagoutside the building, not inside. i'm not giving them the opportunity to get in. >>eporter: and, mcdonald says, unlike in 1999 when there were unheeded warnings about the killers being violent in their writings and conversations, today, if there are threats-- spoken, written or on social media-- his team will react quickly. >> look, if you say you're going to kill us, you say you're gng to blow us up-- i believe you. and we're going to send law weforcement to your house, and e going to try to get consent to search your room from your parents. and we're going to makyour parents partners in this, because we're not going to allow this to happen. we're going to make sure that in arr environment, you and everyone elsnd you is safe and secure. >> reporter: that is the message from a school district that has experienced mass murder. and it is a message officials here hope other districts acro the country take to heart to prevent yet another school shooting. inr the pbs newshour, i'm john ferrugienver.

>> woodruff: stay with us. comi up on the newshour: mark shields and david brooks break down president tmp's controversial comments about receiving foreign help in campaigns. plus, how embracing the legacy of blues music is revi sng a strugglithern city. >> woodruff: but first, in syria, there is a tale of two territories-- the final stronghold of those opposed to ete assad regime is the ta of relentless attacks, and the source of constant tension between syria and neiboring turkey. and then there is the area berated by the u.s. and its allies. as nick schifrin reports, each area faces unique, and immense, challenges. >> reporter: with the war in syria now grinding into the shnth year. baer assad has all but won t war and kept power with much of

ssia and the country. the killing and suffering continues especially in northwest ria in idlib province. lillions of civilians and tens of thousands of nts are under constant bombardment. in northeast sia, theyrian kurds with u.s. and european backing destroyed i.s.i.s.'s strong hold nearly three months ago. the kurds control a st area, but many of its major cities are destroyed, and they live with a threat of promise of u.s. withdrawal. to update us on both reons, we welcome two people covering the war, hassan hassan grew up in eastern syria now a director at the center of global policy, a foreign policy think tank, and journalist, gayle tzemach lemmon, adjunct council on foreign relations and frurnder sixth trip from syria and is working on a book about the kurds. welcome to you both. hassan, how bad is the onslaut by is syrian regime and the

isssian air force against th last location where rebels are living? >> this is as bad as it gets. we were anticipating that the regime and the russians will attack idlib. we have been anticipating this for about a year now. so the defense has been relentss. the russians have been bombarding sthe areas nontop for about six weeks now, but with very little military progess on the ground. >> reporter: so what is their ho are they trying to bomb these people into submission? these people don't have very many place to go other than across the board in turkey, or is i more a limited goal? >> the campaign have been very limited. there are signs russians wanted it to be geographically limited. iran has not been involved in the fight on the ground, and this is one of the major reasons why russia has not managed to make any meaningful progress against the syrian rebels in idlib and northern.

they managed to take%. >> reporter: these horrific things that we're seeing inno idlib arthe same as we see in northern syria and northeast syria. iraqa was i.s.i.s.'s strong holda place -- raqqa was i.s.i.s.'s strong holiday season, executions in thuae . kurds with the u.s. help have taken over that city. is it a real city today? >> it is, it is a real city with real problems led by a non-state actor with real-state issue as, righ, so, what you see now is a real fragilety stabili one we visited, i was worried her business was going to be closed after slow in december and we walked in this time and not only does she have a great business that's going and a sewing machine that's up but she has a 14-year-old girl from h family that's helping her and clerking. so you see this real fragile stability taking hold amid

enormous challenge and a real threatof i.s.is. emergence. they're looking for any opening they can possibly use. it's interesting, one mother we met said, you know, what we likely love is women are in all kinds of new roles around rac ak cay. >> one of the challenges is what i. do with the members of i.s. or held by yierksz so-called i.s.i.s. wives, womenv who ed with her husband dozen join i.s.i.s. how dohey feel about i.s.i.s. today and how are they raising their children? >> its depends on who you talk to. i think you should call them both i.s.i.s. wives an followers because they were very much in adherence to what was ouhappening. soalk to them and you hear this mix of real disappointment and disillusionment with bag daddybagwithbaghdadi and the is.

chdren of the women died in isolatn while leadership had access to potato chips and juice and pepswhile our childre died in our arms and you really hear that now. at the same time yhave the united nations of i.s.i.s. in this whole came with people from seychelles, germany and amsterdam and all kinds of countries. you walk in and hear the real rainbow lofguages being spoken as people talk about it and you see how far reaching this project was and you wonder, you know,his camp had 9,000 people in the school running, it was prepared for 30,000 to 40,000 and nowas 73,000 people, at least 60% of them children, and they're trying to figure ouwhat to do with this including all of the foreigners who absolutely no one wants to take back. >> reporter:dsecause the kur don't have the capacity to do much with them. >> up until a few months ago,

right, they were fighting, and now we've asked them to please not only house, feed, shelter them and make sure viruses don't spread and their healthcare is taken care of but also hold people that their own home countries don't want. >> reporter: let's quickly look toward the future. hassan, what do you see in idlib? do you think this onslaught will continue and are we going to see it spread past? >> well, i think both russia and the regime willu eventally want to take over idlib because this is the last stronghold held by the syrian forces. the preference is to demolish the area, the reason is because they know that, even after they espel the syrian rebel forces from areas, that will turn into an endless campaign and insurgency by these force so they don't want to take chances essentially of having some remnants of e rebels in tt very critical area. >> reporter: tzemach lemann,

what do you see in this area, the threats to stability, do the kurds have the capacity to prevent instability and is the u.s. focused enough on it? >> the u- is the oz-like presence you don't see but everybody knows. so far they have been able to keep out the regime in iran, turkey and keep i.s.i.s. more or ss at bay, with a partner force doing its job every single day. so the challenge is what comes next, and that has always the question. you hear or talk to sdf leadership, to folks who are rt of this partner force, and they are focused on trying to get with the americans t to a deal with turkey, they're very quick to talk to you about it. whetr that deal can be dheefd is a whole orthoquestion. >> gayle tzemach lemmon, council on foreign relations, hassanha an, center for global policy, thank you. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: back in the u.s., the stages are set for the first democratic primary debates, and president trump weighs in on accepting information from foreign governments about political opponents. which brings us to the analysis of shields and brooks. that is syndicated columnist merk shields, and "new york columnist david brooks. he to the both of you. so let's start with the story that has pretty much dominated the week, david, and that is president trump saying ithat terview with abc that, if he were offered information from a foreign government about a political opponent, he wouldn't and any trouble taking it, why would he report it to the f.b.i. now, he's walked it back a little. >> yeah. >> woodruff: but how serious is this? >> well, it's a ery moment in moral philosophy where you're asked if you're going cheat and you say, of course, everyone cheats. n salute him for not pretending to be better t is, he's pretty candid about it.bu that's a bit of his mind set that everybody breaks the rules.

maybe he conducted his business life that way and he certainly wants to do that. it's his natural reaction, everybody breaks the rules. what's so disturbing is how many republicans are now walking themselves up to the position, well, we're in a death match and, so,twe need to leave like that. and i think in order to just eitherupport for president trump, they've talked s emselves, many have, into a position that thislife or trath struggle, the left is out to d us, so breaking the rules is what you have to do. that to me aost a scarier prospect than the heart and soul of donald trump. >> woodruff: some republicans said he made a mistake. >> but some of the others, people who are supporting himth, ends justify the means. >> woodruff: mark? i agree with vid. it strikes me the president remains unchanged in a changing world. being president has not changed him in the least. even warren harding, not a particularly thoughtful or

self-reflected han, said the white house is an alkemist. he finds what your strengths and weaknesses are. donald trumpaid in that interview with george stephanopoulos, i've heard a lot of thingin my life, i've never gone to f.b.i. he's talking to the new york state real estate guy. he never i had the transition, nited statesor the u of america, for the working families, world peace, whatever, that a president is supposed to think through that prism. it comes down to is it good for me. and that's ae point, hey, get i'lt advantage over my opponent, you better believ do it. toat am i, a sissy, a snitch that's going to ghe f.b.i.? and, you know, it really is sort of a sad moral judgmt. the other thing i'd just point out is it was abc's story, and abc today broke that -- they revealed that the trump state polls at this point, and i don't know if you saw that, but he now trailing joe biden by 16

points in pennsylvania,y 10 points in wisconsin, by 7 points in florida. , i mean, we're looking at the cusp right now, given those kind of numbers of the campaign. >> woodruff: whichenthe preswhen asked about those the other day said that's not correct, his polls show he is ahead in every state. >> and these are his polls. >> woodruff: david, to your point about republicans being on board, the fact is you have mainly republicans holding up efforts in the congress right now to tighten ection security. so this is having some consequence here. >> yeah, and this is mch mcconnell, and, you know, frankly, the federal government has already authorized $380 million for the states. one of the bills would give another billion. i don't knowhat thright spending level is for this, but you would think, given the seriousness of what we have been through, that you would want to tir on the side of preventing corr, which is going to

happen again from multiple sources maybe, the russiansdi doing somethinerent than last time. if we're going to spend, whatever, hundreds and hundreds of billions on our military defense, a billion to defend our electoral system doesn't seem to me an outrageous expense. seems like something they should be doing and you get the impression mitch mcconnell doesn't want to do anything to annoy donald trump. >> and mitch mcconnell has been constanin this. he was the one voice to recall in the leadehip in 2016 when the leadership of the congress unanimously agreed with the obama administration to go public on the revelation that russia was already deeply inv solved in thestematic undermining of our electoral process. he re asisted itnd, as a consequence, stopped it. he is now to tp stoppihe reforms. even roy blunt, chairmaof the rules committee, has been quite candid about this. i mean, the fact that, in a secular democracy, the closest

thing to a public sack meant is a national ection. when you're starting to tamper and trifle with that, we went through it in 2016, we saw what happened when there was stive -- strife and disunity nurtured in the democrat side between sanders and the clinton campgns by those e-mails, party chair was forced out and donald trumpnt 140 times ned wikileaks approvingly during the campaign. so there was a play and the mueller report investigation confirmed it. >> woodruff: but at this point, nothing is really moving that would change. at no, thanks to mitch. >> woodruff: would protect what we've got going . mark, you mentioned the polls of the democrats probably brought a little spring to their step but wesnow these po are

temporary. today, david, the democratic dtional committee announ they have the first debates coming up next week and they're divided intotwo nights because there are so many candidates. the democrats, the party said, okay, the most we'll allow on the stage on any one night is ten. so they have ten one night, ten the next. today they drew names and we can show you the lineup. on the first night june 26, there are goinbe these ten, and i'm not going to name every single one of them, but i c tell you elizabeth warren sin clued here, beto o'rourke and then the others, cory booker, amy klobuchar and otseers. thnd night you have, neankly, several of the frontrun, joe biden, bernie sanders, pete buttigieg, kamala harris and others. is this a linep, david, that tell us something about what we can lookor? e party was clearly trying not to have an adult night, a kids' night. >> i think the short answer, i

don't know, the first thg is it's bad for elizabeth warren because the bert night is the second night. you have biden, buttigieg, sanders, three of the top tier, and then some of thewildcards as well as kamala harris. so if people are going to watch one night, i expecwat they h two. of course, we'll be watching both nights. >> woodruff: both and so that. second thing, hearing from the campaigns, is y usually go into a debate with some strategy, like who you're going to say what, to, but with so m there's no strategy, you can't pick a strategy because you don't know what's going to happen, ten people will be on the stage. >> woouff: two hours each night. >> and then 10 the next night or some oer time, so a little parallel play with the candidates not ting to react much to each other but trying to shine their ownselve ownselv. >> woodruff: mark, does this

lineup foretell something special about this? >> it does, jude, and i'll tell you what about it says, if you're going into 2%, 3%, this is your night. ing have to say someth memorable, that's what it is. that is maybe good news r a candidate, maybe bad news to the party. you know, going to make the boldesboldest assertion. i'm going to take a position that's farr to the left and challenge everybody else to do it. you know, but i have to do something that's memorable. i want to bell the cat, i want to go after joe biden or one of the fronunners or ezabeth warren in the first night. i would say elizabeth warren's probay got the best position t,cause she has the first nigh and out of curiosity a lot of people will turn in. but, no, i thinkthat's the risk, and plus it's the reward. i mean, you do something that's memorable. i remember 1988 the democrats, the seven dwarfs, nine dwarfs,

whatever they were then, when brucbabbitt, a darkrse, the governor of arizona, stood up wd said we're going to have to raise taxeknow that after ronald reagan, and i know i'll do it as president and wi stand up and challenge the rest of you to, and all the others sat down. of course, he was right. >> woodruff: he was the ly one. >> he was the only one who did it. >> did he get the ntii? no, he didn't get the no, nomination, but you have to do something to roll the dice t get the attention. >> the good news for the democrats, i left out a syllable from solocystic, but the good news for the democrats is they all qualified. you had to get 65,000 and be at least a x%, and you have all of these people out, they all did it. so that's a sign democratic interest is super high and we could see exponentiallyrecord turnout either through primaries or the whole year.

>> i'm expecting we'll have a huge viewership on both nights. do you really. okay. >> woodruff: mark, you mentioned the candidates having a chance to stand out. there are a feof them whore now beginning to take shots or mini shotsesi guwe could say, at frontrunner joe biden. last nighwe interviewed beto o'rourke here and he took what i would say is a gentle swipe at the former vice president. >> i think some of the appeal of the vice president's candidacy is a return to an eaier era. and while we are grateful for that era and certainly for the service of president obama, i think we need to be focused on the future because, even before donald trump, we had challenges in this cntry. >> woodruff: even before president trump we had challenges. >> yes, that's true. no one's going to argue that. stalgia isn't what it used to be. that's the beto o'rourke bumper sticker. i can understand that.

i think more than anything else it was a subtle, non-venomous way of raging the age issue, that joe bden is yesterday, i'm tomorrow. tomorrow basically wi in american politics. i think today might be an exception, when yesterday looks pretty darn today to most americans. >> woodruff: is thatctive for him to be doing that? he's not the only one. he subsequently there is an argument whetheremocrats ajnt to continue on the obama-biden ctory or want a different one and sanders and warren were on a different trajectory. i personally don't think it's effective to do inow. think the democrats with all these good poll numbers are terrified and they do not want to sully each other too much. i think there's going to be low markpecially early in the campaign to sully the candidates. second, people like joe biden, and so, there's some expectation from some of the otr campaigns that he's just going to fade on his own or they hope he will,

but to go out so early and be negative -- >> it was pretty general. but i would make just the larger point thater think going aft each other as heavily and hard as sanders and clinton or obama and clinton did, i think is probably the wrong formula this year. that's my question, mark, is that the kind of thing we're going to look for in these debates and say how hard are they going to go and be prepared? >> we're looing for substance in ideas but we will look for elbows and knes in the groin and rabbit punches and that, ane wh in fact, the they're rewarded for i i think the sense of urgency that you've got to break through in one of those appearances is so strong and so compelling and overwhelming a >> woodruf this week we saw, david, bernie sanders talk about democratic socialism. he's clearly feeling some heat

from maybe not so mucrom democrats, although they've expressed their differences, but so from republicans. is that something he needs to do right now? >> yeah, i certainly h it from democrats that we're not all socialists, we don't want to be the socialist party. i don't think he helped himself at all. he didn't describe what kind of socialist he is. he's just a socialist that wants to consthtruenew deal, i wouldn't call that socialisms. elizabeth warren makes it clear she has aggresve policies but wants to reform capitalism, not do away with it.r sanders is nele to define the left where he won't go, whether venezuela, nicaragua, he won't say, and without throwing that boudary trump can say, look, he's as socialist as you want to be. so i don't think he did a good job of defining what he means a socialist. >> woodruff: he will have a chance to do that thursday night on the debat stage.

mark shields, david brooks,be we'lalking about that next friday. thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and now, a music ivstival attempting to keep the blues e in the mississippi delta and revive a struggling town. jeffrey brown reports, as part of our arts and culture series, "canvas," and our look at "american creators." ♪ ♪ anthony's big a sha rad is holding course. ♪ ♪ it was just onact in a town-like celebration of the blues that, for 16 years,as been bringing thousands of fans

here, rain or shine, spring. >> it's wonderful, man. t >> it's wonderful, man. it's lovely. they love the blues, just like i do. you do, too. rown: they came from all around the country, and all over the world-- including this contingent from australia. this year, the festival featured more tha100 performances. for the kids, there were racing pigs, and a monkey riding a dog heing goats. the festival takes its name from juke joints: informabars and music venues once scattered throughout the african american south as an answer, in part, to whites-only clubs. a rich history, now in danger of being lost. red's lounge is said to be one of the last true juke joints in clarksdale. and, on a friday night, was packed, as frank rimmer dazzled on guitar. ♪ ♪

red paden has been running this place for over 40 years. so why do you think people are coming here from all over the world? they keep coming. >> they heard i was a mean son of a bitch! at's what that is. ( laughs ) >> brown: no, really, why are they coming to clarksd why are they coming to red's? >> it tes a story, man. and a lot of them have gone through certain thgs, you know, but didn't know how to exprs themselves. so in the music, they learn how to express themselves. >> brown: clarksdale sits at a very famous crossroads of blues history: where route 61-- whh runs from new orleans to memphis, st louis and beyond-- meets route 49, which runs across mississippi. and it's where, according to lore, blues legend robert johnson sold his soul to the devil to learn the guitar. it's home to the riverside

hotel, on the southside of town, where singer bessie smith died after a car accident. and, it was once home to legends like muddy waters, sam cooke, ike turner, and many more. juke joint festival co-founder roger stolle grew up in ohio as a fan of the music, and moved here in 2002 to open cat head, a record store. he says the downtown was dead, and live music was struggling to heard. >> it was just really winding down. you could almost just see it , nding down. so it's kind of lill, you know, can you make it reliable? that was my only thing with him. yomake it reliable. i could bring you tourists, blues fans. but they're not spending the annight in clarksdale if i promise them you've got music tonight. >> brown: today, there are new cafes, restaurants, hotels-- ♪ ♪ and live music across town, including at many new venues

like ground zero blues club, co- owned by actor morgan freeman.co realmic challenges remain, but cultural tourism has been a major factor in the growth. >> well, i don't think it's because of the weather. >> brown: john henshall is an economist based in melbone, stralia. he first came here in 2001 by accident, and has since returned 22 times. now, he's written a book about its downtown redevelopment, and lessons for other small cities. >> well, you have to have sothing that you can authentically promote. in this case, it's the blues. >> brown: something real. >> something real. it's not just the music, but certainly the blues, that's one of the lessons. you got to promote it. you've got to get people engaged and, increasingly the clarksdalians themselves are now recognizing what they have here >> brown: you mean they didn't before? >> they grew up with it. they didn't realize that alsomething could be so apg to people beyond the city ormits. >> brown: in a my-black area, those visitors are overwhelmingly white, as are many of w businesses-- and the challenge here is to make sure the benefits are spread evenly.

>> lot of people depend on the festival >> brown: archie buford is owner of our grandma's house of pancakes, one of a number of new downtown establishments-- but one of the few black-owned. >> what we got to work on is making sure what wfedo inside the gets outside to better the community. the better the community, the better the city. >> brown: festival co-founder roger stolle. >> it's the first puzzle piece on that empty table. and it was absolutely an empty table. and the thing about puzzle pieces is, you can build off of that. so now you look at it, there's the obvious things like, okay,e well, wet live blues 365 nights a year. we do. we have a dozen festivals a year, which we do. it just reverberates. y, may not save the town, obviou on its own, but it's sort of the foundation of what we're doing, at least for downtown revitalization. >> brown: it's a hope for the music, and for the economic benefits it can brg. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in clarksdale,

mississippi. >> woodruff: tonight, pbs' "american masters" presents "terrence mcnally: every act of life," a documentary on one of the nation's leading playwrights mod writer of the broadway musical "the fuly." >> i was in a prep school, and my first play that i did was next by janice mcnally, and i remember bythe end of the play i was in tears, i couldn't even finish the play, and the light went down and i just felt very raw, and i feltike, wow, i guess that's what acting is. >> i went by the theater one night and i saw patrick wilson on a gershwin review, and i thought, this guy's really greae an're casting.

the cast, in full money means the characters have gumption and cant want the to better themselves. >> this show about life a love and not taking anybody for granted as any shoni have bee a part of. >> woodruff: american masters tonight on pbs. >> woodruff: that's "american masters," tonight on pbs. and that ithe newshour for tonight. earlier i said on shields and brooks the democratic debates are next tuek. they're ly in two weeks. i was in too big a huery. we will be here to analyze it all. i'm judy woodruf have a great weekend. thank you, and good night.un >> majorng for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin? >> advice for life.

life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> consumer cellular. >> babbel. a language program that teaches spanish, french, italian, german, and more. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- lfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, itvancing ideas and supporting inions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station fr viewers like you.

thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.or >> you're watching pbs.

♪ tonight on "kqed newsroom," california's top law enforcement officials seeks to block the merger of two wirelesss provid as the government investigates the dominance of big tech companies. also we'll talk with a ceo ose digital academy has revolutionized online education for kids and life long learners. and we'll hear how an innovative lab isne pioneeringw ways to improve the health and well-being of teens and young adults. hello, welcome to "kqed newsroom." i'm thuy vu. we begin with the growing battles of tech against government. california attorney general becerra is leading an effort to block the telecom