ptioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. onhe newshour tonight: the wave of the future. after sailing across the atlantic ocean, 16-year-old activist greta thunberg gives one of her first interviews in tthe u.s. on the dangers climate crisis. then, it's friday. mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the performance of the leadi democratic candidates at last night's debate, the abrupt departure of national security more.or john bolton, and much plus, three chords and the truth. filmmaker ken bus his epic, multi-part documentary series, "country music." >> country music addresses, in unbelievable ways, these universal truths that we all go through-- loneliness and, and love, and everything in between.

and there is a country song for each one of those moods. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newsho has been provided by: ♪ ♪ o movi economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. d

>> you cano the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv >> 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:he and friends ofewshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributionsur pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.rs

>> woodruff: a new tropical weather syst has hit the northern bahamas tonight. forecasts call for up to four inches of rain and winds of 30 miles an hour, complicating relief efforts in the wake of hurricane dorian. many are living in tents, or under tarps in badly damaged homes, on abo and gran bahama, where dorian wiped out whole communities. the new system could grow into a tropical storm and hit florida on saturday. ch of southeastern south dakota struggled today with widespread flooding after two days of downpours.s strere submerged in several cities, after some got more than seven inches of rain. parts of madison were under three feet of water. the flooding also closed schools in at least 20 districts for a second day.es acfecity huffman now in a college admissions scam.on a federal judge in boston

sentenced her today, and added a fine of $30,000. the former "desperateew hoes" star admitted paying to rig her daughter's s.a.t. scores. rywe will return to this s later in the program.in califoia's largest utility company agreed today to pay $11 billio to settle insurance claims from deadly wildfires in 2017 and 2018. pacific gas and electr said today that it has a tentative deal covering 85% of the claims in the northern california fires. a federal bankruptcy court will have to approve the deal. in france, commuter rail workers went on strike in droves across paris today over pension rorm proposals.pa s streets were clogged with traffic jams after ten of 16 subway lin shut down at morning rush hour. strikers condemned the pension wi have to work longer before retiring.tr

>> ( slated ): they can't take away our social benefits i have been working for almost 25 years for ts company. i don't want to work until i'm 70, getting up at 4:00 in the morning, it's very hard. so today we speak for all paris metro network workers. >> woodruff: president emmanuel macron wants to combine 42 public pension systems into one, and says the result will be greater fairness for newre re. a federal appeals court in new york has revived a lawsuitvo ing president trump's hotels and business. the suit alleges that he is violating a constitutional ban on accepting payments from foreign governments, when foreign officials patronize his properties. a lower urt initially found that the plaintiffs had no legal standing to su china made a new move today toward easing trade nsions with the united states. beijing annoced that it will exempt american pork and soybns from additional impor

tariffs. president trump had alread postponed a planned u.s. tariff hike on chinese goods. the two countries plan new talks next month. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average gained 37 points to close at 27,219. the nasdaq fell 17 points, and the s&p 500 lost two. and, two passingof note. civil rights figure juanita abernathy has died in atlanta, after suffering a stroke. she joined her husband, reverend ralph abernathy, and dr. martin luther king jr. in the front lines of the movement. behind the scenes, she wrote the plan for the 1955 bus boycott in montgomery, alabama. juanita abernathy wa88 years old. and, rock singer and songwriter eddie money died today in los angeles, of cancer of thees hagus. he had a string of hits in the 1970s and '80s, including "two tickets to paradise"take

me home tonight." .die money was 70 years o still to come on the newshour: teenagactivist greta thunberg, on the dangers posed by the climate crisnt. the first ce is handed down in the celebrity college admissions scandal mark shields and david brooks analyze how the candidatesared at last night's democratic debate. and, much more. >> woodruff: a growing number of americans are worried climate change is a real crisis. that is one of the findings of a new poll by the "washington post" and the kaiser family foundation. it found that eight in ten americans believe human activi is fueling climate change, and nearly 40% now consider it a 4 crisis-- a significant jump frot ive years ago. yet, fewer than 40% also believh

that they wie to make "major sacrifices" to tackle the problem. but young people across the world are now mobilizing to pust for urgentn. william brangham spoke today with the swedish teenager who's lped galvanize this movement. our story is part of a specialt initiative cled "covering climate now," a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to enhance coverage of the climate story. >> the younger generation camese to the white hoday demanding that the grownups inside stop acting like schildren. thaid, acknowledge that climate change is criimsis and act accordingly. (chanting) among the cd was 16-year-old greta thunberg from sweden.fo in the pasur years, d autism, who has mil

has helped drive this youth climate movement. she repeatedly called out world leaders for their claimant inattion like herhe u.n. climate change conference in poland. know that change is comingt tem whether they like it or not. the people who rise to the challenge and sinc stop behavine children, we will have take the responsibility they should have taken a long ago. >> reporter: and at the econic conference th yearly gathering of the wealthy elitetz in sland. >> people like to tell success stories, their financial success has come with an unthinkable price tag, and on climate change, we have to acknowledge that we ve failed. >> reporter: across europe, thunberg ha heped spur demonstrations called fridays for future where school kids reeve class to draw atntion to climate change. thunberg rived in theu.s.

last month after crossing the atlantic on a solar-powered sailboat. she won't fly because of air travel's carbon output. she's participating in climate events leading up to the genal assembly in new york next week where climate activists are planning mass rough protestons friday. i asked her how she first learned about climate change. >> i wascompletely unaware of everything like everyone else, ani learned about this in school, and i learned the basics, that the planet is warming because of increased gas emissions that would lead to o that the global temperature would rise, there would be moreh extreme wea, and so on. ugtho, is this really as ser a ser -- serious as they're saying and why isn't it a hi

priority. so i started to read aut it more and more, and then io started tunderstand how acute it actually was and >> reporter: why do you think it is? because a lot of other people read the same studies a understand the same facts and, yet, they dot se it ase crisis that you see it as. why do you think other peopl don't appreciate it that way? >> i don't know. many people seem to have this double moral that they say one thing and then do another thing, that they say the climate crisis is vorry impnt and yet they do nothing about it. and like cognitive -- >> reporter: cognitive dissidence. >> yes. if i know something, if i want to do something, then i go all in and i, lke, walk the walk,

walk the talk, because iant to practice what i preach. >> reporr: you have helped galvanize ung people all over the world to care about this. do you have a sense as to why young people, in par sticular, hao embraced this movement? the ones who are going to be are affected by the crisis th most, and for many it seems so distant, but for us it seems less distant because we are the people who are going to live in the future. we have a future. we aroe thse who are going to and, so, that's why i think a lot oe f peoem threatened about this, young people morthe adults. >> reporter: there is seemingly so much evidence around us. we see wildfires, droughts, ht waves, intensifying storms, melting in the arctic and antarctic, extinction o species, and, yet, as we were

discussing, the evidence is there before usoe that its seem that the sense of urgency is not as intense as you feel it ought to be. i'm just curious why you think that is. >> i mean, of course, it could be many different things, but i think it is because humans ark e stream.animals, we follow the no one else is behaving like this. we see this and we think i should probably behave as they do. >> reporter: just goith life as usual. >> yeah. but for me, iam on the autism spectrum, and i don't usual follow social coding, so that's why i go my own way, nd i think that it's a very strong reason why people just continue because they don't see anyone else reacting to this. >> reporter: you think your

autism in some sense given you an insight to this or a way to act in responsto this that others may not have. that could be, definitely. >> reporter: as you know, we have a president here in the united sttes, who seems dismissive of the science of climate change, and the political rty, a mor political party that goes along with that, he pulled out of the climate accord, but even the nations that did acknowled the severity of the problem and signed on to the paris accord,en those nations are really not living up to their mmitments. so, given that, why do you have hope that we will, as a global society, react? >> i think tt people are good, that people are not evil, and e think not everyone,pe mosople, so i think people are just simply unaware of theon situati and people are not feeling the urgency. i think that, once we wou

start treating this crisis as an emergency, peoe will be able to grasp the situation more. all ese cimate movements that have played out during the las that.s proof of i don't think anyone could have predicted the school strike and become so big and many othert to movements as well. t reporter: you took a solar-powered bo come her because you're trying to reduce your own carbon foo btpri not flying at all anymore. is there a concern tt if people are too focused on individual actions like eating less meat or not flying as often, they might be distracted from the much larger policy changes you're talking about. t t a worry you have? >> of course, that we focus on these isolated problems, that we talk about people need to eat

less meat or something, that people focus on that. and then someone else says, no, it's much more effective if everyone stops flying and so on, and someone say no, weed to -- >> reporter: drive electric cars. >> -- yes, or shut down the coal power plants. and we need to focus on all ofth e things. of course, indidual chge doesn't make much difference in a holisticpicture, but it influences others around you. we need both system change and individual change. >> reporter: if people are listing to you, what onthing would you like them to take awao from this? what one thing would you like em to do? >> everyone can make a huge difference. we suld not underestimate ourselves because it's lots of -- if lots of individuals go

together, then we cn acplish almost anything. so that's what i want people toe ta out from this. nberg,orter: greta thu thank you very much. >> thank you so ch. >> woodruff: we return now t the college admissions scandal. amna nawaz takes a look beyond today's sentencing of a prominent actress. >> nawaz: this college admissions scandal, which includes felicity huffman and other wealthy parents, has essentially turned into a public indictment of some elite institutions. but, it's also spurred a larger conversation about admissions, access and inequality throughout our system of higher education. paul tough's new book focuses on these very questions. it's called "the years that matter most: how college makes or breaks us." and paul tough joins me now. welcome to the thawrs. tell us, these high profile ses like the one involving

felicity huffman, in the largen, sions, areollege adm these the exceptions or the rule? >> i think they are the most extreme expression of the kind of inequality, the extra avantages people of affluence have. certainly felicity huffman and other affluent parents went further but the competition mas a lot of affluent parents behave crazy. >> reporter: the message we get from higher institutions is we're here to reward higher educational excellence. >> thele's a disconnect between ways that college institutions and colleges that are part of the system talk aanbout equitd merit and what you actually see when you look at the populationa of amecolleges and universities at the most hihly selective institutions. the student bos are almost entirely made up of the top

income quintile and those from the bottom are almost absent. these are dominated by thefl nt. >> reporter: is that story true regardless of the type of inns -- institution, whether the tervard's or stanfords, or sta schools, is that the same story everywhere? >> no, there's a real variation, so the most highly selective institutions which are mostly private institutns are dominated by the affluent. but when you lk at the less selective institutions including community colleges, those are the institutions where low income students are most likely to go and the ones we spent least on the students. i feel flip side of the college admission scandal is the scandal of how little we are spending on public high education. over the last couple of decades, we've cut public funding on higher education by 16% on

student. that means the kind of public universities where most low-income students go are not only raising tuition t having to cut corners and that affects the education the students are getting. >> from the college adissions perspective, is this just about them admitting students who had access better education and have a ing up he amissions process, or making a decision based on who can pay and wha they can pay? >> depends on the institutions. there's a handful of institutions where the endowment is so huge they don't depend on tuition revenue at all. the reason they're admorit mgue high-income students has more to do with culture. for a large number of highly selective private institutions, ancialare real fin pressures. about a quart are running a to that line.any more are close so when they're selecting students to admit, they've got to think more than anything else about tuition. they're really looking for

customers d that means affluent students. for admissions officers that leads to a cognitive disidence because they know they're looking for customers who can pay, but theca commuons department and the president's office at thes ir colleften talk about merit and diversity >> reporter: tell us how college administration offimas arng the decisions. >> i spent time at trine uppityo ege in hartford, connecticut and the admansions director there a man named angel perez was and is trying to change the way that trinity does its admissions to become diverse in socioeconomics and race. in some ways, he's succeeding,ma he'sing definitely strides. but what i understood, spending time with him is all of th precious that exist for him and other admissions officers, the pressure of early admissions, the pressure of sports, the pressure of s.a.t. scores, all

of these factors aree wighing on admissions directors like angel and are alm ost allinting in the opposite direction. e pressure you get in the rich kinds and if you want to push back it's often quite epdifficult. >>ter: you've air feud in your book parts of the admissions process -- things ilike the s.a.t., rht -- bu.t even those give an unfair adontage to wealthy studentr students from a wealthy tutors and get their s.a.t.t scores pumped up and helped justify their admission in many casea the college rd has pushed back on that and said the more information they can prode to college admission members, the better, that s.a.t.s are jt one to have the factors that should be considered as a what do you say so that?ess. >> there's a longstanding debate in higher education and particularly admissions on the value of the s.a.t. st people agree your high school grades are the best predictor of how well you will

do in college, and if you add the s.a.tto th factor, you get a slightly better prediction of how well a student will do. what people who are opposed to the use of s.a.t. inollege add medication missions is the slight citiebal benefit of the s.a.t. is outweighed that the s.a.t.s correlate closely with family income so when you use s.a.t. scores in admissions it's hard not to admit rich kids and admitw poor kids. that's the pushback. >> reporter: part of the story is we have been told college is the place where there's ennine of opportunity. regardless of where you came from, college can trainin theou trajectory of r life. you're telling us there are in-qualies that are institutionalized based on the wealth you grew up in. what can be done to make it more equal? >> both things arerue. absolutely, for individual students whom i followed in reporting for my book, higher education is still a fantastic

engine of social m mobility. if they're the lucky ones, their lives change.m a boost, but the scale is tilted and there are advantages at a vels. on the highly ected side it's an admissions question and the departments need to ma different decision and use different criteria in the way they're selecting students,ut in the system as a whoacialtiony what really needs to change, the way that we fund public higher education. i think part of the reason that about those most highly reflective private institutions is wdon't have a robust public system to compete with the private system. if we go backo funding public institutions they will become the real engines osocial mobility. >> reporterpaul tough, author of "the years that maf er most: how college makes or breaks us," thank yo very much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshr: ken burns on the story of country music, the subject ofup himing 16-hour film. on o stage for the first time.n the top mocratic presidential candig te- accord opinion polls-- squared off in houston last night. over almost three hours, they derlined their own cases for why they should be the party's 2020 nominee.arrd lisa dess was there, and has this report. >> desjardins: it was the longest debate yet, ng for deeper discussion of policy divides, starting with healthcare. former vice president joe biden touted his idea to let moret americans to medicare, and charged that universal healthcare plans from vermontie senator beanders and massachusetts senator elizabeth warren simply cost too much. >> my plan for healthcare costs a lot of money.

it costs $740 billion. it doesn't cost $30 trillion. ch far, my distinguished lefriend, the senator on m is not-- has not indicated how she pays for it. and the senator s, in fact,s, come forward and said how he's going to pay for it, but it ts him about halfway there. >> the answer is on medicare for all-- costs are going to go up for wealthier individuals, and costs are going to go up f giant corporations.cor but rdworking families across this country, costs are going to go down. that's how it should work. d jardins: vermont senator bernie sders, who first proposed medicare for all, was >>et us be clear, joe. in the united states of america, we are spending twice as mh on health care as the canadians or any other major country onrt >> this is america. >> yeah, but americaon't want to pay twe as much as other countries. what people want is cost- effective healthcare. medicare for all will save most

americans substantial amounts of bill. on his or her health care >> desjardins: the tone turned more aggressive after biden said this about giving more people the option of buying into medicare: >> if you want medicare,f you lose the job from your insurance-- from your employer, you automatically can buy in this. as desjardins: former housing secretary juliano seemed to misunderstand, thinking biden said people would have to buy in. >> but the difference between what i support and what you support, vice president biden, is that you require them to opt in, and i would not require them to opt in. they would automatically be enrolled. they wouldn't have to buy in. >> they do not have to buy in. they do not have to buy in. >> you just said that. >> no. >> are you forgetting what you said just two minutes ago? >> desjardins: some heard castro's words as attacks on biden's age. this morning, castro responded.o >> i wouldn't do it differently. that was not a personal attack.

>> desjardins: with that exception, it was a civil debate, with candidates raising hands, and often calli common ground. >> a house divided cannot stand. >> desjardins:non emotional texas congressman o'rourke, whose hometown of el paso wa devastated by a mass shooting in august. he trumpeted his call for a tndatory buy-back of assa style weapons, pointing to the bloodshed in his state. to>> hell yes, we are goin take your ar-15, your ak-47. >> desjardins: a night rich in policy, candidates weighed in on a constellation of topics, from education... >> step one, i would appoint a secretary of education who actually believes in education. >> desjardins: ...to race... >> we have more africanrc americs inated today than all the slaves in 1850. we need a plan. >> desjardins: ...to the military. >> i've signed a pledge to end

the forever wars. we've en a state of continuous armed conflict for 18 years, which is not what the american people want. >> desjardins:alifornia directly to her would-beoke republican opponent. >> so, president trump, you've spent the last 2.5 years, full-time, trying to sow hate and division among us. and i plan on focusing on our common issues, our common hopes unifying our country, winning this election, and turning the page for america. >> desjardins: candinext deba in october, when it's widely expected that morell campaigns ualify for the stage. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: a that brings us to the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks.

what did you take away? did one or another help himself or herself? >> if you go by raw qualities, i think klobuchar and buttigieg otional, the sort ofmetimesi candidates donald trump probably coul't pound down very far. among the leaders and the people who seem likely to get the nomination, i thought joe biden night, beginningt back onhe best warren and sanders on they're going to take away the private insurance. i think warren had a good night, too. the fundamental thi, common agreement, nothing shifted in the debate but things sort of solidified a little more and that's probably good for joe biden. >> woodruff: solidified for joe biden? >> i don't agree wiith david think he's too glib and too -- (laughter) no, judy, somehow, nce the last two debateb, the democratio

candidates dired that there had been one democrat since frank lynn roosevelt who twice won the white house with over 50% the voark his name was barack obama. he was the big winner last night. all of a sudden, he banal the most papillar guy, everyone wanted a piece of barack obama, which worked to joe biden'sbe advantaguse joe biden is obviously the closest icln everybody's mind and tuality to barack obama. so i thought that, to me, there wasn't a game changer, i did not believ i think elizabeth warren set out -- she's obably maximized her support baed upon her plans and ideas which are, let's be frank, the senote will pass ntry,93% support in the cou the background checks will nots pass it. the likelihood of passing these comprehensive, sweeping changes is remote at best, but, at the

same time, she filled out her -- she's been all message and little messenger. i thought her messenger part was filled in last night very well. bernie sanders is all message and not messenger. i don't argue with david and his assessment of who did well. i thought pete buttigieg -- hi woodruff: who did you did well? >> i thought biden had a good night in the sense he went in and came out as the leader, with moments. he's not somebody who's going to let your guard down al at all times. i do think buttigieg had a good night. he is as disciplined and as thoughul and as coherent as anybody, and his answer ony, national secure used his credential of a military person, i thought, mothoughtfully. the democrats were pretty shallow on national security, and i thght butigieg, onis argument that it should be aup

ng every three years of an authorization of the use of military force by the congress, the congrs been missing in action for 18 years. >> i think mark's reference to obama reminds me that where the pay center of ideological gravity is. in some of the earlier debates, obama anthat sort of democrat was seen as complicit in the status quo and, therefore, that all had to be torn down. >> yeah. and now obama is saying, well, no, he's viewed as a very progressive guy but not as progressive as the sanders-warren wing.wa so what you saa bit of malurgence of the nor progressive center, and biden's poll supports suggests that's a real thingin the part because african-american voters are not as progressive oe somissues as the warren-sanders wing and are sticking with biden. so you saw the klobuchars, the pete buttigiegs begintoit healthcaressues where people

say you want to put everyone in e same system. at the same time, people on the attract sympathy for biden. we saw that with the castro exchange, with the protesters late in the debate when biden was talking about his late wifee and mes some of the attacks become so vitriolic people say i like joe biden. >> there's a reservoir of good feeling for joe biden and i sawd that amoemocrats last night. castro was on everybody's short list f vice president until he wasn't, and -- >> woodruff: do you think last night -- >> i think he was the queen of mean. was the leona helmsley of the >> woodruff: it was low. it wasn't just a throw away line, he me back and repeated it twice to make sure you got it. >> woodruff: he said it wasn't al. >> who was he talking about? i'm sorry. did i miss something? talking abouthe intitution? so, no, that did not work.

but the one organic moment of real hur in the whole evning was cory booker when he said myw is no, talk about was he going to impose his vegan taste said, no, and i'll translatehe that wasod.panish, no. amy klobuchar had good lines, him credit for that. and i give but somehow it just doesn't come together with coryooker. >> woodruff: another piece of politics today quickly was the makeup race in north carolina, the ninth congressional district, a do-over. the republicahe won, they ld on, put by a much narrowera margin than we saw president trump take that district in 2016. is there aessage here for republicans? >> i mean, it could be that there's a message. trump won it be 12 and then they tarried it by 2, so that's not a

good ng. my buys is we tend to clover local regulations with a strictly national perspective, and that we see it only as about donaldrump, but the republican party behaved pred tty disgracefully in thisacof 2018 with corruption and all this stuff which is why we had have a do-over. so it could have been in part, also, personal sickness with the republican party, and mccready, who was democrat, he did worse in rural areas than he did in the irst version of this election, and that highlights the core problei for democra places like that, which is they've got to get out of their core anstart moreng over people in t not quite able to do that andl mccready is a very centrist candidate, good for that district. >> bleeding for republicans, chartte, big time.bs around is david right that this is more local, it's different because of the congressional race or isme that ing republicans nationally should worry about? >> republicans he to worry

about it. we're going to see it this fall in virginia where thele slature is being elected in the statewide election. judy, the meek lynnberg county, which is the heart and soul of the republican greater charlotte area, 13% mccready won by. david's absolutely right thatre these historically democrat areas. robson county,arack obama got 58% one time, 57% another time. john kerry rar carried it. donald trump carried it over hillary clinton. those conversions, if y will, those white rural democrs left the democratic party, they barely broke from mccready. he suld have caried that county big on tuesday for the democrat.n' he di i think republicans have a big suburban problem. democrats have the white rural problem, then it's real.

t they have voted democratic in the past so democrats can dismiss it and sy they're all racist, thy're all narrow minded. they voted for barack obama in that cunty, robson county. >> woodruff: what happened at the white house this week, david? the predent has parted ways with yet another national security advisor, representing just the latest sign of a lot of turmoil in his foreign polic policy-national security staff. is this the tpical washington turnover or something the american people should be worried about? >> trump admn,inistratlways the dippicle washington thing. you should give john b hton crede did stop some pretty bad things. he sems to have persuaded trump from meeting with the taliban at camp david and doing a deal with north korea. trump wanted headlines in the tv show and bolton looks to be among those whod slohim down so he gets some credit.

there are lots of dif players in the foreign policy game, the state department,ar defense depent, the intelligence agency and the nsc is to be running the process, but with trump there's n process. so there are supposed to be prcipals' meetings, undersecretaries' meetings and diffent laser of meetings andap rently that the not happening. so trump is conducting foreign policy in the room. we have people in the intelligence agency, military, are irrelevant now becauseho donald trump is wching cnn o atever and making foreign policy, and i think that's scary. >> woodruff: scary? scary, judy.to john bnever met a foreign engagement that he didn't like,h in my experience. i mean, he lov military confrontation, except when his number came up in the draft and he says, i confess, i think the

wa iin vietn not winnable, and, so, he confessed he had no desire to fight in it, which, you know, being an arm chairan co you think might inhibit him from sending other people's children into war. but watch the shootout or faceoff between him and donald trump was reminded of being an gnostic at a football game tween southern methodist an notre dame.i wasn't rooting forr side. he was not a yes man. trump wants a yes man and he was not a yes man. >> woodruff: are you saying that about secretary of state >> i think secretary of state pompeo played donald trump like a stradivarius all the way to the point where donald trump gave him the credit for making the decision not to wear both

hats, kissinger, to be both national security and secretary of statd so he's figu out, just as nikki haley figured it out. >> woodruff: former u.n. ambassador. >> former u.n. ambassador. so i'm just not -- i'm not going to misjohn bolton. i think he probably did have abe ng influence at certain junctions, as david points out. >> woodruff: last thing, quickly, i want to ask you both about is the prospect for any sort of legislation on gunes all mass shootings, the democrats are now talking about it. they're pushing legislaon. you both talked about it. night.e up in the debate last democrats are pushing it, mitch mcconnell, the majoritye leader in nate, is saying i'm not going to do this till i know president trump is going to has it look like right now? >> i think the smart thing would be to -- marco rubio, susan collins and a few other senators have a red flag bill to withholo

weapons frome who set off might seem modest.flags, and it beto says he's going to seize assault weapons, but i think at least crack the wall of inaction if you get one thing done, then maybe the n.r.a.'s wall has been cracked and you get other things done down the line. i'm not sure democrats see it that way. they may want to have the iue e big thing down the line. donald trump said he uld be open for background checks. i'm dubious he'll actually do it. ted cruz came out today and said base, you don't want to do that. i wouldn't be surprised about that argument. >> woodruff: 1/5 15 seconds. this has been a huge change, third rail of the american politics, can't go near it. gu changed to vionce. we autosaw it in 35 c.e.o.s coming out. i think there's a change. i think beto o'rourke became the

public witness and the public source last night ia veryht large way, i think america is >> woodruff: mark shields, david brooks, thank you. >> woodruff: the latesty document pbs from ken burns starts this sunday, and will likely get your footpp g. "country music" is an eight-pare seriesuring never-before- seen footage and photos. amna nawaz sat down with burns, who has now had moren 30 films opbs, chronicling the american experience. the conversation is part of r ongoing series on arts and culture, "canvas." ♪ ♪ >> reporter: song writer harlan howard famously called

country music three chords and the truth. merle haggard said it wasn't fiddle, banjo, melody or lyrics, but a feeling. in a newu 16 and a half hor documentary, ken burns and writer david dunn trace the roots of uniquely american music that has defied definition. >> country music rose from the bottom up, from the songs americans sang to mselves in farm fields and railroad yards to ease them through their labors, and songs they sang trso each other on porches andor paand home. >> reporter: burns and duncan chronicle nearly a century of country music, all the way back to the big bang moment in bristol, tennessee. in 1927, the carter family andmm rogers first sang into rudimentary recording equipment. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: it was thein openshot of what would

become a muti-billion-dollar industry. uding everything from so-called hillbilly musicto blue grass, honky tonk songs, outlaw jams, and the neotraditional, hard-rocking and pop country sounds of today. eth the music that changed with medication, caught in a constant tug of waetr bween tradition and progress. ♪ ♪ this latest work by burns comes after deep dives into tics like the civil war, the vietnam war, prohibition bndaseball. and ken burns joinsme here now. "newshour".k to the >> thank you for having me. >> reporter: you've desib yourself as a child of rock and roll and r&b. what led you to dig intcoo untry music this way? >> good stories. that's what we're looking for. i don't necessarily want to delve into stuff i think i know about, like r&b an rk and

roll. i want to delve into stuff i don't know about. but i knew in my gut this eight and a half years ago that this was going e b filled with unbelievable stories. i just was not prepared for h unbelievable those stories were going to be and how revealing they were of us meaning both the u.s., the upper case, and us the lower case, theind of sensitive school yard together. >> reporter: you said one of the goals in se stories i tso get beyond the cliches. what are some of the cliches? >> i think the idea that country music is one thing. it's always been many things. even at the begning, the big bang, there's the carter family and jimmy rogers, but each of em are many different elements, just like the united states, that make them they're alloys of african-american influences as well as gospel and all sorts of things. so that was a big surprise. we also tend to say, oh, you

knowit's about good old boys and pickup trucks and six-packs of beer and hou ds. there's nothing wrong with at the and that is a legitate part of country music, but it's most about two four-letter words most of us would not rather talk aboanut -- love d loss. l ♪ >> we ow and i think obvisly the roots of a lot of american music, theus uniquely american music are as wide as the wasn't itself. does it surprise you the degree to how wi ey are when it comes to the country? >>itxactly. buts jazz, blues and rhythm and blues. in fact, with brittum and blues, it's the -- with rhythm and blues, it's the parent of rock and roll. african-erican artists are listening to country as we know to rhythm ues.thle are listening so you have a sense of mixture where commerce and convenience might categorize it into its own separate, narrow band width,

imprisoning it. it's not true and peoe in country know it's not true and the artists outside of country know it's not true. bob dilan went to nashvil. the rolling stones, the beatles played country songs.ed that music was singular influences on all those people and somehow we want to sregate it and make it a southern, white, rural conservative force and it may have those elements in it, but whatt mters is it is popular from maine to sango d to and from alaska to miami, and there's no explaining that with cliches. >> reporter: and that popularity you track beautifully of a century of music, it's now a multi-billion-dollar industry it's goingveome of the biggest pop stars, too, of our erican history. e of those is patsy cline, one of the songs that everyone knows is "crazy." there's this one moment in the series in which trisha yearwood is unpackinghhe power ofat one song.

here's a clip from that series. >> when you hear her sing, it's sounds like she's in theoom and you feel the emotion of the lyric. if you can find the perfect song and marry it with the voice it's supposed to go with, it's timeless. ♪ >> reporter: this is one of the ideas you come back to again and again, the simplicity oftr comusic is its power. >> that's exactly right. if you are distilling tse universal human experiences, as whit my mar sal ease the jazz great says, in country music, the joy o birth, sadness of jealousy, rage, getting right with god, seekingedemption, all to have the stuff that everybody within the sound of my voice has experienced at one point or another in their lives, then you've g a powerful force. now, that song, that perfect song was written by willie nelson, and it's married with

this voice that's entirely different from willie nelson, atomic explosion.gether was an that's the number one jukebox tune of all time. more nickels were put into jukebox to listen to crazy in honky tonic and baraand i loons in every country in the world more than any other song. >> reporter: despite the roofots he music coming from a lot of black music tradition and the gospel songs, songs of enslaved people singing as they worrked,l black ps stories weren't charlie pride.untry music until a quick clip of the stories he tells in the series were he woks out on stage before an all white audience and they don't black country music singer. >>e could drop a pin.

i said, ladies and gentlemen, i realize it's kind of nique me coming out of here on a country music show wearing this permanent tan. the minute i said that, a big applause. ♪ so i guess they said, well, i'll sit back and see what he's got to offer. >> reporter: how does a man like charlie pride make it in country music? >> because he's so good.ta hient is so good and, at the end of the day, that's what people hear. it's what dr.insaid. at the end of the day when he opened his mouth in detroit andn started to it was the content of his character, the quality of his art and not the color of his skin. and he goes on to have 29 numbe one country hits. he's the first artist of any lor to be the cma artist of the year two years in a row. it's an azing story, and whn u realize it's us, then there's no them. and i think that's thmessage of country music, i think it's

the message of r&b, jaz rock, of art itself. art tells the tale of us coming together.>> reporter: there's ae challenge you document in here that women often fachee in t industry. it was largely seen as a boys' club, and arguably still today much of a boys'b, cluut there are incredible artists, dolly parton, patsy cline, loretta lynn tells this great story that women, a growing part of the audience, were receiving her music at the time. i just wantatto take a quick lien to how she describes what women were doing. >> they just knethat i was going through the same thing, too. ♪ and many a night i've laid awake and cried here all along ♪ >> they just bought the recordd e their husband coming on and turned it up. that's what they d. with loving on your mind ♪

>> reporter: loretta lynn wasbo singing some pretty radical stuff for her time. >> one to have the surprising things about the series is women are central to the story in a way theyren't witjazz and other forms. and country music isn't immune to the indigties women have to suffer, but what's ineresting the original guitar player is mother maybelle carter, singing with sarah carter, and you've got a whole line of women. when you g through patsy to loretta, we're in the mid 60s. nobodyn rock and roll is singing don't come home a-drinkin' with lov' on yourmind. we're thinking about spousal abuse, spousal rape, a woman's right to her own body even in marriage, this is the same year women's liberation enters the lexicon. loretta is not copping to a philophy, but she's speaking to women everywhere who know exactly what she's talking

about. for me, all of these things, race orreativity or mmerce or women, are all trumped by w powerful this music is. i did not expect to be so moved, as somee. who i was in love with other kinds of music. i have fallen in lowe h this music, it has moved me to my core. when hank williams says i'm so lonesome i could cry, there's nobody that doesn't know wh he's talking about. the silence of a falling star rightsp a purple sky, and as i lonesome i could cry. i'm so >> reporter: the words and the songs and the stories of country music will stay with all of us. ken burns, thank you so much for being here today. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and the documentary series starts on blackberrys on sunday nig. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.

have a great weekend. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin?fo >> adviclife. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing proems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour.

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incidents in 2017, and a relative of handful of arrests, the policer chief said coverage have help the break- ins lower by 20%. tonight on kqed news democratic president hopefuls check in with president trump and front runnerjo e biden, was it enough to change the state of the race? a new state bill could radically change the labor status of 1 million workers including uber and lyft drivers. good evening, and welcome to kqed news room. we began the tonight with democratic residential debate, how lot -- held last night in houston this time only 10 candidates, vying for a knockout momentrsfor the time front letter front runner's