captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" toni contentious question-- the justice department is still looking for a legal rationale to ask aboucitizenship on the census. then, after president trump's july 4th speech draws criticism for politicizing the armed forces, we examine his history tical statements in military settings. plus a group of diabetic women leads a caravan to canada to purcha statement about drug prices in the u.s.n' >> i dget the choice to get diabetes, but i certainly had the choice of how i was going to react to getting diabetes. >> woodruff: and it's friday-- david brooks andaren tumulty break down the president's july fourth speech, the contentiou

census citizenship question and more. htall that and more on ton "pbs nshour." p>> major funding for the 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 thgs you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv l. bab a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide.

>> 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 from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president trump said he is considering issuing an executive order to add the citizenship question to the 2020 emnsus. this, after the sucourt ruled last week to block the government from adding that question. mr. trump spoke to reporters g this morning before leavr a weekend at his new jersey golf club. >> i just spoke to the attorney general. we have a number of different

avenues, we can use all of them or one. we're doing very well on that issue. we're spending $15-20 billion on a census. we're doing everything. e finding out everything about everybody. think of it. $15-20 billion and you're not allowed to ask them if they're a citizen. >> woodruff: in the meantime, the justice department said today it will continlook for legal grounds to include the wtizenship question. we'll take a look re things stand with the census ter the news summary. a powerful 5.4 magnitudeho afte rocked southern california before dawn today. there have bn some 80 smaller aftershocks since the quake n struck yesterdr ridgecrest, northeast of los angeles. the quake left enormous fissures in the earth, near its epicenter in the mojavdesert. emergency officials are remaing on high alert.

>> we're trying to make sure we're ahead of the curveaff we do get arshock. obviously, we just had an aftershock. we want to make sure to get enough resources awe can possibly here to make sure that we take care of the communities that are gonna be affected. >> woodruff: more than 20n millople felt thursday's temblor, from los angeles to las vegas. t only several minor injuries were reported. authorities in the bahamas are investigating what caused a helicopter crash that killed seven americans late thursday. the chopper was found in the water off grand cay island. it was bound for fort lauderdale, florida. officials said there were no survivors. billionaire coal magnate and republican donor chris cline was among the dead. there was celebration in the s streets an today after the ruling military council reached an agreement with the country's pro-democracy movement. it settled a power dispute by creating a joint council to rule

the country for the next three years. scores osition protesters have been killed in a violent crkdown since president omou al-bashir waed in april. ouusra elbagir of independent television news hareport. >> reporter: the sounds of ululation, usually heard atce weddings... lebrating an unlike union "a fresh start for sudan," this man says, following the long- awaited agreement between the mitary junta and the opposition. in the late hours of last night, they announced the formation of a civilian government headed by a prime minister. and a sovereign council with 5/11 members confirmedo be civilian. >> ( translated ): this agreement opens the way to transitional bodies that will bring reform, in all aspects. the first of which is the issue of peace and the independent tranarent investigation and punishment of the killers of the martyrs.

>> reporter: and the are the martyrs he's referring to: thect ims of the deadly dispersal of sudan's mass pro-democracy sit-in by the troops of this l man, mileader mohamed hamdan dagalo, known as hemedti, notorious for war-crimes in darfur and now the face of the military council. we would like to say this agreement will be comprehensive, not exclude anyone and reach out to the ambitions of the sudanese people and it's revolution. >> reporter: in an act that can only be described as political theatre, 235 prisonersref a darfuri bel group were pardoned. and this morning, the streets of the capital celebrated-- but unrneath the euphoria is a undercurrent of mistrust. >> ( translated ): the official opposition is the leadership...

but the real leadership is the street. today they formed a council. if we like it,hen fine, but if we don't like it then... our tools of protest are still in place. we are ready to activate, escalate and start over. at the end of the day, our government will be a civilian one, no matter what.>> eporter: eyes will now be on the military to fulfil their end of the bargain, and to the dethroned islamists that have been sidelined in this process, the agreement has yet to be signed and the future of sudan is far from sealed. >> woodruff: that was yousra elbagir of independentsi tele news reporting. back in this country: the u.s. neb market shattered expectations in the labor department reportedom the u-s ecadded a net 224,000 jobs last month.e, meanwhhe unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.7%. that's up from 3.6% the previous two months. and wages rose 3.1% over last

year. stocks fell on wall street today, over fears that the better-than-expected jobs report would ke the federal reserve less likely to lower interest rajos. the dos industrial average lost 44 points to close at 26,922. the nasdaq fell eight points, and the s&p 500 slipped five. and iconic "mad magazine" will leave newsstands this fall, ending its 67-year-long run. the satirical magazine-- with its gap-tootd mascot alfred e. neuman-- influenced generations of readers with its subversive humor. at its peak in the early 1970s, it attracted more than two- million subscribers. but its circulation declined in recent years. still to come on the "newshour," the trump administration struggles for a legal reason to include in the u.s. census; we examine president trump's history of political statements in militars

settina group of diabetic women travel from the u.s. to canada to purchase more affordable insulin; and much more. >> woodruff: as we reported earlier, the trumpti administ is still exploring how to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. yamiche alcindor is here to explain the options being considered by the white house and justice department. hello, yamiche. rned in more have you lea your reporting about what the administration is doing, why it's doing this and, frankly, how they see the jonustifica for it? >> the president's strategy when it comes to the citizenship question on the census is to push forward and try to find some way to get it on the

census. i want to play for you what his justification is from earlier today outside the white house. >> you need it forany reasons. you need it for congress for districting. you need it forppropriations, where are the funds going? how many people are there?he are y citizens, are they not citizens? you need it for many reasons. >> even the president is saying there are many, many reasons why you need the question on the census, the supreme last week simply said that the government had a contrived reason for having the citizenship question on the census, so there haees nota real reason to pass the courts. so the president though he's spelling this out is still scrambling for a reason. >> woodruff: h clearly pitted strong political opponents against one another. what are the politics of this? >> well, the qstion about the citizenship, whether or not it gets on the census, is really at political tle. it's over the electoral college. the census is used to determine congressional delegations, and that also, of course, reflects

on the electoral college and, of course, how we elect the president of the united states. so the president intially saying we need to know all the people that are in the united states, we need to know if they're citizens or not. opponents say this is about forcing undercounting people across the country. they worry that immigrants who are not citizens will be scaredo and won't fiut the census and as a result will have congressional de are smaller than the actual populations. it really is going to be a political fight beuse democrats feel strongly this should not be on the cens while republicans seem to be backing the president in this fight. >> woodruff: so, yamiche, we know today is a day a federal judge in maryland, they said 2:00 today the administration has to ener a written agreement that confirms it's no loger pursuing the citizenship question on the census. what's the status of this legal case? >> the status of the legal case is that lawyers are stll scrambling for a way to give the president what he wants which is a reason to put the citizenship

question on the census. they told judges the situation y're tryingcause th to look at all options on the table to figure out a way to give the presihent wha wants, but essentially they have not come up with a path forward. so what 're seeing is the government saying, look, we want to come up with a reason, we're not sure yet at thas going to be. the government also said that they're going to go straight to thsupreme court. essentially this is going to play out in the courts and the president said he might take execute action and that aga might end up in the court. >> woodruff: as you have been reporting, thesident seems committed to this. so what happens next? >> what happens next and now is the census is being printed as we speak thout the citizenship question. there's a deadline of roughlyom reports he "new york times" and npr saying october 31 is a drop dead deadline. people are suing the government saying they don't want the nquestion on the cesus. they asked for a drop dead deadline and one wasn't provided. so there is a ticking time to

try to get this done. the present said this might be some sort of attend dumb so there might be an extrsheet of paper people get with their honsuses, but right now it's going forward wit it. >> woodruff: they're printing it without this question. >> yes. >> woodruff: we will see. yamiche alcindor, thank you. >> thanks. >> woodruff: the troops are baca in bs, the military jets have landed, and the fireworks smoke has cleared after president trump's "salute to america" last night. but as william brangham tellsma us, questions about mr. trump's relations with the military, and the role politics play. s ♪ >> reporter: it lled as the show of a lifetime by the president, who cast himself as its star. flanked by military hardware outse the lincoln memorial a with jets overhead, president trump's "salute to america"

heaped praise on the u.s. med forces. >> through centuries our soldiers have always pointed toward home proclaiming this we'll defend.ey re the greatest soldiers on earth. ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: but some critics just across the mall said the event was a wae of millions of taxpayer dollars, and another move by the president to co-opt the military and to make patriotism political. h >> i don't think the fou july should be politicized like it has been this year because it's a national holiday, and >> reporter: after presidentat trumnded france's grand bastille day parade in paris two summers ago, he said he wanted to do the same back home. >> because of what i've witnessed, we might do somethine hat july 4th in washington down pennsylvania. >> reporter: the president's supporters point out this isn't the first time military armaments have rolled through the streets of washington. president roosevelt's 1941 inauguration had tanks on the

mall. in 1957 president eisenhower celebrated his second presidency with missiles and war planes. ♪ ♪ and president kennedy's 1961 inaugural parade brought troops down pennsylvania avenue. spectators watched on ockets roed by. the last time americans saw a parade like this was 28 years ago, at the end of the 1991 gulf arr. in the largest milparade since world war ii, president george h.w. bush, with throngs in the streets, welcomed homed the armed forces.bu some analysts argue this is different, saying trump has politicized the military to a dangerous level. st may during a visit to japan, some in the white house reportedly told the u.s. navy to move the "uss john mccain," named for the late senator and his father and grandfather, out of sight for fear of angering mr. trump; he denied any

knowledge of the effort. n' to me, john mccain, i w a fan, but i would never do a thing like that. >> reporter: then acting defense secretary patrick shanahan later sent a department-wide memo reiterating pentagon standards on political activity." i call on leaders at all levels in the department to reinforce the apolitical nature of military and civilian service and professionalism." in january 2017 president trump- - while standing in the pentagon's hall of heroes-- a space dedicated to the those decorated with the medal of hono- announced histr controversial el ban against seven mostly-muslim nations. td as president, he upend appointing general james mattis to theob. his first naonal security adviser was retired lieutenant general michael flynn; and his second, general h.r. mcmaster remained on active duty while in

that role. his second chief of staff john kelly was a retired four-star marine general. the president has also has a habit of using the possessive when describing the u.s. military. >> i see my generals, those generals are going to keep us so safe. and what i do is i authorize my military. my generals, and my military, they have decision making ability. >> reporter: to discuss theon relaip among presidents, politics and the military, we are joined by peter feaver. he's a profeor of political science at duke university. he served on the national security council staff under democratic and republican presidents. and, mike lyons is a non-el residentw at the modern war institute at west point. he served in the gulf war as an my officer. gentlemen welcome to you both. thanks for being here on the "newshour". peter feaver, to yo first, do you think president trump is stepping over the line?

>> no. i think i know what he was trying for. he perhaps didn't hit the mark foat he was aiming for, but what he was lookinr was a celebration of america, a celebration of things that bring us together, probably something like the movie, if you've n to the world war ii museum narrated by tom hanks which really desib america in ngroic terms and you leave the movie feeery proud to be an american, i think that's what he was aing for, but because of the baggage he brings to the table and it's not his strong suit giving these speeches, it probably didn't hitthe mark, and probably inadvertently politicized something that would have been better off left untouched. > reporter: mike lyons, you heard theiticism that the president is politicizing the military in some way, not just yesterday but in prior events. my sense is you tnk that's a lot of temp estin a teapot, is

that right? >> yeah, it is. the hysteria built up even weeks or months before, uld go so far to say the pentagon almost undermined themsees. ey didn't want to do. this the mission came out very early on as to what the expectations was going to be and i think they used the media unfortunately to get a lot o disinformation out with regard to how the thing was going to go, the general officers weren't happy about it. their mission was to execute onr what thesident's vision was. as it turns out, they saw the benefit of it, because the president became the recruiter in chief perhaps inspiring and influencing someone to join our great military, which would be worth everpenny spent on the event for that one thing to happen. >> reporter: speaking e issue of what you would have referred to the pentagon to do with regards to last night. you said they let out a false narrative. what would you have ratherred they would have done? well, i think this whle

thing how the vehicles were going to get to the national tmall, they could have that expectation out earlier on. you had famous people and analysts talking about they were going to be marching down pennsylvania avenue, tiananmen square and all, the pentagon said if it was only going to be a display of some tanks andrad lis, it would have quelled the his tearnd beforehand aade this more palpable from the beginning. >> reporter: peter feaver, what's your sense of the down side? let's say i appreciate what you said about the president's actions yesterday, but theci polition of the military, what is the down side of that, symbolism aside?et >> be clear, in the president had announced what actual w happenedas what would

have happened from thebe nning, there wouldn't have been much a fuss, but it wouldn'tent have been at exciting either. it was overhyped by the white house and footg draggom the pentagon, i think blame on both sides. but t third party is to blame is parties and critics of the president who seized this oppounity, releasing t-shirt off the u.s.s. mccain trolling the president because of his stormy relationship with the former senator mccain. this is fierghting he carcass of the u.s. military, which is supposed to be independent, nonpolitical servant of the entire state and not just of the political party. when u bring i it politicization and you're raising counts about the reliability that the military will obey lawful orders when givennen, that they will not inject their own partisan

preferences into their job, we depend on that. but when you bring them into parts upfood fights as in the last several weeks, yo're chipping away at the nonpartisan status and that's not good for anyone. knighter the republin or democrat wins if the military takes on aarty caste. >> reporter: mike, do you see that as danger? do you see this administration or prior ministration do that chipping away? >> no, i think it is a danger and, clearly, other administrations have done it, even one-off situations. but i think the danger is retired general officers, retid litary analysts come in, pick a side, make it feel like they think this is the worst thing for democracy, they bring this incredible source and make a problem a loe than it actually is. the fact that you had people complaining about troops working

ngon the weekend, worn holiday away from families, where was that same pushback from general officers about keeping troops deployed overseas and going on seven, eight, nine deple ments? every the soldiers there were likely volunteers. they loved to talk about the equipment, want to usit as a recruiting tool, want to inspire those to serve as well. 'tis partisan critics in this case are on full overdrive, heated white hot and itth tarnisheevent based on a lot of things that they said. >> reporter: peter feaver, in terms of scale, isn't sending armed forc overseas for wars that seem to have no end, repeated deployment, isn't that a much greater tax on the military tha arade, a little bit of political posturing. posturing? >> no question that's a greater burksd but that's the wholee reasonve a military is to defend our national interests if it's challenged at home or abroad, so that's mission one.

and the kind of civic photo op being the garden gno on stage next to a political rally, that's not mission one of the military. i expect there are fos who would have said i would have ratherred spent the day with family and friends at a barbecue. but let's be clear that the d milita the right thing about executing the lawful order the president gave. e president ordered soething like this. the president that is right to do that and the military was right to implement the order. i put the more burden on this white house to be more sensitive to the politicization char there's a number of steps that the president has taken over the last several years and, yes, previous administrations have crossed the line as well, but this administration neo be more attentive to self-correcting when they cross e line and not putting the militarylaw enforcement, intelligence community, all our

national security apparatus, not putting them in that awkwa position of appearing to be politicized. >> mike lyoth, do you think e is a good way, an easy way for the military to wall its off? because on some level, you can't change how a political actor operates. is there a way for the military to protect itself from these concerns? >> it's difficult and challenging. we have been bessed with goo military leaders that know where that boundary is and i think what would put that boundary out there if aatn adminisn continues to cross over it, one to havthe lessons i leaed in the military was don't confuse moral courage with loyalty, an i think the military will always come back to the president saying, look, we shouldn't do something like this. but the military is a reflection of society. the army and navy in particular tu over individuals all t time of its own people, it's also a subculture of itself. the military picks and chooses sometimes when it co and out of these kinds of

situations. but i think it's all about leadership and making s that the right message is sent. i thought that the chairman ofth joint chiefs and others dhere on stage last night set the right tone, hood poker faces on, weren't trying to politicize it and the predisidet 't bring up a lot of things people were concerned about. >> repe orter: mons, peter feaver, thank you both very muce for g here. >> woodruff: stay with us. u comion the "newshour" david brooks and karen tumulty break down the president's july four speech and the week's political news. plus, a new documentary details the life and legacy of nobel prize-winning author toni morrison. but first, let's turn to the anger over the skyrockcost of insulin-- a life-savin7.drug for somemillion americans with diabetes. the trump administration has vowed to rn in drug prices, but when it comes to insulin, the cost remains an enormous

burden for some patients. special correspondent sarah varney joined a group of diabetics and parents who crossed the midwest to b insulin in london, ontario-- the birthplace of the drug. our story was produced in collaboration with kaiser health news. >> reporter: it's early morning in downtown minneapolis and quinn nystrom is scrambling to arrange last minute logistics for the trip to canada. >> i got a little nervous there! >> you and me both! >> reporter: the caravan h drawn the media's eye to a vexing problem that threatens her diabetics in the u.s.-- the exorbitant cost of insulin. they'll cross five states, picking up passengers along the way, all to buy insulin in canada, where it costs 90% lessd s everyone have their passports? >> reporter: for nys, this quest began years ago, when she was growing up in rural baxter, minnesota. e she was diagnosed with tat 13 and hated being different

from other girls at school. but when her parents sent her to s,camp for kids with diabe she learned she wasn't alone. >> i didn't get the choice to get diabetes, but i rtainly had the choice of how i was going to react to getting diabetes. >> reporter: she had dreams of finding a cure for diabetes. but about five years a she was starting her career in public relations, she realized the real crisis: the price of insulin. >> it started costing me $200 out of pocket. then $300 out of pocket. so i just started posting that on my social media and started to get a lot of responses. >> reporter: so nystrom, once her senior class president and self-described rule-follower, took a different path. she now expedites transfers of black market insulin. >> thank you so much. this is perfect. >> reporter: in her refrerator is a drawer of insulin donated by good samaritans. even with insurance, nystrom herself pays up to $600 a month for 2-3 vials of novolog.

>> i don't care if somebody steals my tv, but if they steal myou insulin i'm in big e. >> reporter: between 2012 and 2016, the cost of insulin nearly doubled. nystrom meets people online whol can't afford i, likeye abigail hansmer, who turned to this "blackca market" a dede ago. and with a special nee daughter and a tight budget, a trip to canada isn't an option. >> there's costs for gas, food. you know, if you're needing to stay overnight at the hotel. it's not a solution for everyone.pe le that work full time, have children. it'sot a feasible thing. and this is certainly a band-aid on the problem. and it's not even a band-aid for everyone. >> reporter: in washington this year, lawmakers have grilled executives from the three main producers, eli lilly, novo nordisk and sanofi, and investigated price fixing. but, so far, no bills have passed. in may, colorado became the

first state to cap monthly insulin co-payments at $100. and in minnesota, people like nicole smith-holt have pushed for legislation to provide free or low-cost emergency insulin. her son, alec, a type 1 diabetic, died because he couldn't afford the drug. we met smith-holt on the second anniversary of alec's death. her family's made a memorial in their backyard. when alec turned 26, he was noll longered on his mother's insurance plan, and the restaurant he worked at didn't offer any. l >> test plan that we found was $450 a month with a $7,600 deductiblely so it's realot affordable. >> reporter: instead, he decided to pay for his insulin over the counter at list pric but the pharmacist told him a month's supply would be $1,300. with only $1,000 in his bank account, he left empty handed. when did you first get word thd something hagone terribly wrong? >> i rec actually my mother, who received

a phone call from hi girlfriend. hi wasn't answering his door and he wasn't answerinphone. she could hear the phone ringing in the apartment. and she just happened,ou know, checked one of his windows that happened to be unlocked and shea able to climb in through his bedroom window and she found him on his floor, cold and responsive. >> reporter: alec's official cause of death was diabetic ketoacidosis, or d.k.a., when, without insulin, acid hedangerously builds up in bloodstream. d.k.a. can occur when diabetics ration their insulin. a study found one in four do so because of cost. >> i went through a stage where i felt extremely guilty, like i could've prevented it somehow, or i should have seen something, or i should've known something. it wasn't long before, you know, my sadness turned into anger.

>> reporter: in the wake of alec's death, smith-holt bstan sharing hey. did you think at that point that alec unique, that this just happened to you? >> yeah, i thought we were, like, the only ones. and i was reluctant to share the story at first because i was like, "why would people want to hear, ow, our sad story about alec passing away?" and now i ow why. every single type 1 diabetic in the world can picture sethes in alec's situation. >> rorter: until prices come down in the u.s., people with type 1 diabetes, and activists like smith-holt, are ming these trips to canada stock up on insulin and call attention to the dramatic price difference. unlike in the u.s., the canadian government, and many other countries, negotiate insulin prices with manufacturers. so they traveled throu wisconsin... illinois... indiana and michigan, adding riders and cars to the caravan. their reasons for joining were all personal. >> when i was ten-years-old i

remember going to the pharmacy and we bought a vial of insulin for $3. now i'm paying $380. >> i'm going for my son, he's 11, had type 1 diabetes for three years. >> reporter: the trip is both practical and symbolic. >> i don't think anybody on ths uld have chosen to go on an 817-mile ride today, but we're being forced to do this because we're in a crisis in america. i >> reportestatements to the newshour and in public testimony, eli lilly, novois prdk and sanofi blame high- deductible insuranns and payments to pharmacy middlemen for the out-of-pocket costs borne by patients. for example, sanofi said, "we believe loweringe ist prices alll not necessarily result in lower out-of-pocket tcosts for most patients pharmacy. this is why we have not dropped the list pricef our insulins." the companies all say they offer couponand discounts to help defray the price of insuli the patients we taed to said

it was difficult to qualify for these assistance programs. some 16 hours later, the bus crosses the border to canada, arriving well after midnight in london, ontario. >> we made it! >> reporter: the next mornin the logistical problems continue for nystrom. multiple pharmacies have turned the group away, not wadiing the meattention. >> the insulin's here, let's go and get it! >> reporter: the group finally loads onto the bus and heads off to a local walmart. at a pharmacy inside, one by one, they fill their prescriptions, some filming on their cell phones. >> buy nine vials offor less than one vial. >> the group spent about >> reporter: the group spent about $2,000 for insulin. the same haul would cost almost $24,000 in the u.s. to mark the end of the trip,

they head to a spot revered by diabetes activists. it was here in london, ontario, at this house, that frederick banting first had the idea that led to the discovery of insulin. th was almost 100 years ag he sold the patent for just $1 to the university of toronto. pharmaceutical companies began manufacturing the drug and the price remained low until well into the 20th century. and in canad insulin has stayed inexpensive. nicole smith-holt says if she only knew she cod have come here for alec, she would have walked, crled, done anything to save her son. and in a quiet, painful moment at the banting house, she left some of alec's ashes. for the pbs newshour and kaiser health news, i'm sarah varney in london, ontario.

>> woodruff: president trump may have kept his july 4 speechs last night fo largely on the u.s. military but doesn't onan it was free of political fallout. story in a busy holiday week to discuss with brooks and tumulty, that"'s "new york tim columnist david brooks and woes "washington post" columnist karen tumulty. mark shields is away. an was focusing last night most mostly on militarywove it into his story of america. how does his story of america comport with teal story of america? >> i was up on the mall early in the afternoon and there was a rally of gold star moms and wives, people who had lost a son or a husband in ira and there was a great military feel to that, and they took the sevice in which they were so proud of and what they've suffered and tied it to the fight on socialism and struck me that ereally is trump story, he goes to the military as a source

of american values and then ontrasts that to the hostile world outside, anat's one story of america. i don't think it's the rea story. i think it's the story of rome, frankly. we have military pow that's really not what the american story is about. most americans who are in an immigrant country who proabvide sociity and reliberation for people who come from pressed lands can't be the trump story because he doesn't believe in that story. i'd say we're a story that believes in democracy which is the belief ofhe universal dignity of all people. we have a strong military to realize the promise of democracn dignity. trump gives us a basic pagan,n ro story. >> woodruff: karen, how close do you think he is to the true story of this country? >> well, nobody would mistake this speech for winston churchill, but he did weave in a lot of threads of the american

d story. he talout the student who sat in at lunch couers during the civil rights movement, he mentioned harriet tbman, frederick douglas, talked about the wright brothers and ingenuity. all the threads with you in the speech. where it was in congruent was with the rest of his presidency. it's graded on a curve thawe are surprised to see him stand in front of a big crowd and noto start hants of lock her up and not start railing about, you know, witch hunts. it was sort f a one off. i think the speech itself did what it should have done. love the flyovers, i love the blue angels and we see thin a lot of other contexts, they fly tver the super bowl, so tha part really didn't bother me. again, it was just very jarring to see th again the context

of the rest of donald trump's presidency. oodruff: how, david, do you think this affects him litically? you were saying it helps him with his base, the people who already like him. does it add? do people look atis and say, mmm, i want to feel better about my country? >> yeah, well, his political strategy, i remember back, like, 15 years ago, there are a lot oo ervative books coming out and the publisher sar job is to arrange liberal reviewers, not please readers, and once wee the other side the people will rally to us. when i think back, that's probably donald trump's political strategy, how can i anger liberals, if i can get them attacking, my people will be for me. a lot of the stuff with the tas, for example, i thoug there was a lot of over the top, frankly, trump phobia, kind of fascism in the streets.bu a lot of presidents had tanks and rallies. people like to see tanks. i like seeing tanks.

so what he attemptto do poke something and then generate a response and then his people rally to his side. i think that is the trump genius, the maketing geius that he knows how to pick fights that will cause the otheside to be offended and his people to be loyal. >> i will be interested to see what he does next year becae next july we will be in the middle of a presidential season. we will know who the democrat minee is at that point. it will be very interesting to see whether he tries to do this again next year and if he takes a different kind of tone when he is in the middle of a campaign season. >> you know, one of the things we're struggling with as a country is what's our national rrative. we d a narrative that left a lot of voices out. maybe we have no narrati, we're just a universal country with a lot of different narratives. t i at least like way trump started the conversation, not meaning to, better than just

we watch fireworks and go home. it was a moresubstantive event than all past years except when the beach boys played. (laughter) >> woodruff: karen, do i hear you saying it's not clear whether it's aolitical plus for him north? whether he has to try to again? >> we are living in trump warp speed. i think by this time next week, this will feel like it happened five years ago, and thre will have been ten other controversies. >> woodruff: probably e, or 25. immigration. we had morage imes, troubling images this week from the border, pictures of crowded holding cells foreople who have come across. you had a democratic congressional delegation go down there and say that isthis inhumane. many of the -- you know, much to tave the same criticism tha we've heard before, you had the president coming back, karen, and saying, well, what we've go to dis tighten up our asylum laws because that's the only wa we're going to get this under control. is there a way through on this

immigration? or do we just have this, you know, weekly combat, political combat over it from now on? s well, you alo have the president today saying thate thnters are beautifully run and clean and really that, you know, the administration is doing a terrific job. a federal judge has given them until july 12 to come with some kind of plan for fixing the problems down thre. it's going to require a lot of imsources. not only iproving the conditions in the centers, but also in hiring hundreds and hundreds more onmigraudges to deal with a backlog of over 800,000 immigration cases. sohere's not a real short-term solution, but until the administration is willing to regnize that there is an mead

problem, that there is a crisis down there, it's really hard to imagine that they aro going t move to solve it other than to just blame this on the democrats. >> woodruff: david, react to that. i just kp coming back to the republicans keep saying we need to tighten up the asylum law so what's the answer to that? is there a legislative remedy somehow to this? >> well, maybe. a couple of things, one, you know, we've these great jobs numbers, we could be feeling good about ourselves, but a lot of us look at these centers and think i'm ashamed of my country, and 's such a drag on our national morale that our government is sponsoring essomething that mas feel embarrassed and ashamed. that's the first thing. the second thing ise deterre doesn't work. the idea of the trump administration that we could be so cruel and make it so hardo get here and cause people so much pain that they will stop coming, well, they're still coming. the third thing is presidents

used to appoint czars. you get a problem, pick somebody super confident and administering programs and say figure out what to do, you know, build more centers, get more judges, do all the things one needs to do to just manage e problem. but we take mix these issues asl cultbstract battles and not as concrete things that we could actually address.so t becomes a philosophical piece of the culture warather than let's build more centers and hire more judges. upwoodruff: both sides end making the same arguments over and over again. i do want to come back to the democratic presidential candidates. we mentioned immigration, clearly that's an iss, but we're now a week, karen, past joe biden faltering in the first democratic debate in that encounter with kamala harris.so he tried t of explain this week what he meant when he answereder challenge on busing. how is he doing? is he still on hist? back foo

what do we see? >> well, if you look at the polls that came out this week, this is sudvdenly y, very fluid race for the mination. both joe biden and bernie sanders have fallen significantly in the polls. joe biden is still ahead but mun more rowly, and the two women who i think were the standouts of the two nights of the debates last week, elizabeth warren and kamala harris, have really seen a surge in their numbers. i don't think that you can overstate the amunt of pressure that is going to be on joe biden at t next round of debates at the end of this month. he's really got toco back and show that he got the message in these first debates and that he is, in fa tct, who democrats want to have on the stage a year from now agauinst donald mp. >> woodruff: pressure on joe biden? >> for sure and he's still on his back feet. he can't really hit back, yet he can't pivot either.

that's what mistfies me. we're talking about busing, pens in thehat h mid '70s, and we're talking about tell me prance next? why can't he just say i had a very dominant majory position back then that said we have to integrate and bus. let's talk about now. he could say here's my plan for that and reacting with a much more gressive posture a saying this is my plan now, what do you think of this, kamala, that tohtme is the ri thing to do, because he tried to rise above the fray, andhoe tught he could coast as the transcendental candidate. he has to come back with a plan. i think that's the way to hold the motored part of the partoty ther which is right now his only strategy. >> woodruff: it's almost as if what they doand say between now

and the next debate doesn't matter because when he's on the stage it's going to be a bigger wotional audience hanging on everybody's everd. >> yes, and he made the argument in an interview with cnn today that, you know, i'm the kind of guwho would just go ch out a bully like donald trump, but then, at the same time, he says, but i didn't see those questions coming from kamala harris. it was --f: >> woodrbecause she was a friend of our family. >> but it was like how could they notave anticipated? i mean, these were questions that came directly out of the news the week before the debate, and, so, i think you're right. he's going to have to realize and show that he's realized that he's not just sitting there waiting for the nonation to come to him. >> and that itself was an obsolete answer. i mea we're n in the relative politeness of 1992 anymore. it's 2019 and people play by much harder rules. when kama harris said to him i don't think you're a racist, that's really going somewhere,

so he has to be ready for that and understand the way politics are right now. >> talking about punching people out. david brooks,aren tumulty, thank you both. >> woodruff: finally, she is a master of the written word john yang talks to the director of a new documentary aut taking the power of a nobel laureate from the page to the big screen. it is part of our "canvas" series on art and culture. >> reporter: toni morrison's readers know the power of the written word, now a newcu ntary gives film audiences to hear the power of her spoken words. in "toni morrison: the pieces i am," she walks about being a working single mother, the disdainful attitude of critics toward her early works and the zey of winning the nobel pri for literature.

timothy greenfield-sanders is the director of the film which is playing nationwide. thanks for joining us. there's so much of the delight of this film is just toning morrison speairectly to the viewers. you've worked with her, you've known her, was there a moment where you've thought this is what i want toand how i want to do it? >> yeah, i've known toni for 38 years and i think the toni that ismes through in this film the one i know very well in a way tha tt therei morrison and chloe wallford, her real name, and this is a bit of chloe here, a really intimate look and a feel from her. >> reporter: she talks in thee film about action to her second model, sula. she's a pulitzer prize winner, a nobeprize winner, but, at the time, the "new york times" was a little condescending, they said she was too good a wrter to restrict herself to the

provincial world of black characters. hodid she talk about that? >> she was appalled, of course. today we read that and it's so shocking, but in those days, in the "new yk times," it kind of was a perfectly normal thing to say by a rewer. toni's whole mission, really, has been to kind of eliminate the white gays, and talks about the little white man signature on your shoulidr. >> it want to speak for black people, i wanted to speak to and to be among. it's us. so the first thing i hado do was to eliminate the white gays, used to talk about the little white man that sits on you shoulder and checks out everything you do and say, so knock him off. yo knowand you're free. now i own the world. i mean, i can write about anything, to anyone, for anyone. reporter: she also talked

about black writers, ralph ellison, frederic douglas who wrote assuming their audiences,r their readers white. >> right. >> reporter: she mentioned james baldwin there. were there other writers who she felt did what she was doing got that white gaze off her shoulder? >> i think there weren't really. andstwhen tonited to write in the late '60s and her book was published in the '70s, there was no writing like that. she broke the canon, in a sense. >> reporter: she talks about she didn't want the whi gaze looking at what she was doing but she chose to have her sty told by a white man. >> you know, we have a long friendship, and i'm honored, of course, that she chose me to do it and allowed me to do it. toni was really a very private person and when i first as her a few years ago if she would let me do a documentary about r, she didn't say n, and i took that as a yes. >> reporter: how didthe

relationship started? >> she came into my studio in 19p smoking a e for a portrait for the soho news. i was a very young photographer. i had read "thue blest eye," and we kind of had a friendshipng starthere, and over the years i bam her go-to photographer. i did a lot of her book covers and press andshe was the inspiration for us, a whole series i did on identity called the blck list. >> reporter: when she won the nobel prize, you qted a critic who you didn't identify in the film but i went back and find out it was stanley crouch saying, i hope this prize spires her to write better books. >> it's appalling. it's a i didn't put his name in or kind of identify him because i didn't want to give him any more agency s.an he it's about toni and what i was owying to show there was h disgusting some of the remarks were about this black woman who had just won the nobel prize in

literature, and here are the kind of remarks about it, and in "the washington post." >> reporter: there are also some things i didn't know that some people may not know, for inance, her career as an editor at random house and the way she helped other black writers find their voices. >> muhammad ali published hisea book, toni, angev dais, so many people that were kind of marginalized and toni said, no, no, no, this is going to be opened up ere, we're going to bring in other voices, and she really was kind of the scholarship that we read today in schools, really the scholarship we real in schools today came out of a lot of random house publications. >> reporter: she talked about the the world of publishing, largely white males, as a black woman raising two children on

erown. >> she said they weren't interesting, i was more interesting than they were. >> reporter: and not afraid to show it. >> exactly. that confidence is what i remember from her when i first met her, tht there is a kind of amazing person who always felt secure in who she is. >> reporter: so the people who've read toni morrison's words can hear toni morrison's words. thfilm is "toni morrison: the pieces i ," timothy greenfield-sanders the director, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and tonight on the "pbs newshour" online, it's mmer and the sun is out. how do you know what to look for in sunscreen and wh exactly should you wear it. inddive into the science beh which ingredients are safe and which aren't, at pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you and good night. >> major fding for the pbs wshour has been provided by:

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♪ hello, everyone, welcome to "amanpour and company." tothis week we're dipping the archives and looking back at some of our favorite interviews of the year. i don't think there's ever been a a negotiation that wa more difficult than this one. hours withlmost no sleep. people dying. >> in a world where personality often trumps policy, we dig deep into one of the biggest characters in american diplomacy, rhard holbrooke. writer george packer takesn us o a sweeping tour through the eyes of the globe-trotting diplomat. ageing in america. rethinking employment as peopl live longer and longer. plus -- >> time to listen!