captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: the president's push for ukraine to investigate the bidenstoomes into sharper focus. we report on the ground there, on what's borne out with evidence, and what's not. then, as our special series on china continues, we look at how beijing rced one million camps, tearing families apart. >> ( translated ): i'm drinking tea, i'm eating bread.bu those helpless people are desperate. theyon't have enough to eat. i see them all in front of me, as if i re still in the camp myself. >> woodruff: and, it's friday. mark shieldsnd ramesh ponnuru are here to analyze the swirling impeachment investation, and the money race for the demoatic presidential

candidates. all that and more,s n tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pn newshour hasovided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. w >>n it comes to wireless, consumer cellular giers its customthe choice. our no-contract plans give you as much, or as little, talk,a

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and at the same time, a new trove of text messages adds fuel to the impeachment inquiry fire. congressional correspondent lisg desjardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: on the white house lawn, president trump started the day with a lengthy, free-wheeling defense of his actions, including asking other countries to investigate the biden family. >> this is not about ps. this is about corruption. and if you look and you read our constitution and many other things, i have an obligation to look at corruption. i have an actual oigation and a duty. aw desjardins: this, as at the capitol, house lkers held a closed-door hearing with the attelligenceatchdog, inspector general michael nson, who first flagged a whistleblower's nt.cerns about the presi but dominating the day was npa information-s of recent text messages between trump administration officials some see them as proof the president was pressuring ukraine for political reasons. others disagree.

the messages indicate the president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, was helping craft reraine policy, and pushing for investigations irn for a white house visit. that made some other officials uncomfortable. understand these text messages, first a look at those writing them-- two longtime diplomats: kurt volker, the bill taylor, the atope, and diplomat in ukraine. with them, one political appointee: gordan sondland, hotel owner and republican donor, appointed by president trump to be the u.s. ambassador the timeline matters.. july 25, the day of the controversial phone call betwee president trd ukrainian president zelensky. volker texted an advisor tovoyny zelensky, writing, "assuming president zelensky convinces trump he will get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we will nail down a date for a

visit by zelensky to washington." indicating, if ukraine investigates, whey will get a e house visit. then, an iortant moment. t the last week of august, stories appear te trump administration is lding up aid money for ukraine. then, president trump ncels a planned meeting with zelensky in poland. a few days after that, septemb, 1, bill taylnning the embassy in ukraine, texts sondland, the political appointee, "are we now saying the security assistance andan white house meeting are conditioned on investigations?" sondland does not say. he responds, "call me." justver a week later, on september 9, a few things happen. the intelligence inspector general notifi congress about the whistleblower complaint, and house democrats announce they are investigating the ukraine issue. that day, bill taylor, the top diplomat in ukraine, seems to see a dangerous quid pro quo p here, texting, "i think it's crazy to withhold security

assistance for ukraine for a political campaign."nd sondthe political appointee, responds, "i believe you are incorrect about the present's intentio the president has been crystal clear, no quid pro quo's of any kind." on capitol hill today, reaction g is as congress is waitinforths a response from secretary of state mike pompeo, who's currently in southeast europe. today was the deadline that democrats set ovr him to turn documents related to the house democrats are also planning to subpoena the white house for documents.re but today,dent trump saidnt he doesn't know if he'll comply. >> i don't kno that's up to the lawyers. i know the lawyers think they've never seen anything unfair. >> desjardins: the president himself raised new questions abhis interactions wit w world leadern he said yesterday about china: >> china should start an investigation into the bidens. >> desjardins: today he insisted he won't tie that request for china to a lg-awaited trade deal between the two countries >> one thing has nothing to do with the other.. >> desjardins: but as mr. trump

and his allies mount a defense, today, one republican senator, mitt romney of utah, denounced the president's words and actions, tweeting: "the president's brazen and unprecedented appeal to chin and to ukraine to investigate joe biden is wrong and appalling." for president trump and congress, the disputes may stay in written form a few more days. congress will be on recess, out of washington, next week as well. >> woodruff: to help us better understand all this and more, lisa joins us now, along with our white house correspondent yamiche alcindor. htllto both of you. so, lisa, we thohere was a lot that was going on, already, today. much more, as you just reported. where do things stand right now with regard to this impeament inquiry from the democrats' perspective? >> right, the big picture, democrats in general think this is different than their efforts on theueller report. they think the american public is paying closer attention, is more seriously paying attention to this and, moreover, they're

saying they're not seeing thee kind of backlash they were whene crats were being aggressive about the mueller report. to me that reads there's still moment of decision. the democrats like where that stands on that frontow but have big decisions coming up, the biggest how narrow do they see this. more layers each day. juliany, china, all of this, doe democrat it narrowed to ukraine? a big question for them. more informationor tom the senate.to ron johnsod the washington journal today he also was told there was a quid pro quo in this effort by the u.s. ambassador to the e.u. he said johnson, he asked the president, the president denied it. but the ideudy, is officials thought there was a quid pro quo. >> woodruff: which is passe that they're saying that openly. yamiche, strategfrom the white house? do they have a strategy? >> the white house appears to be

mounting a strategy to go on the offense. the white house is n, i'm told by several sources, praring a let tore send to cgress saying unless the house both on the floor for formal impayment inquiry, the white house does not have to comply with any or t of documents requests. the president is saying to nancy pelosi, until you hold se hou floor vote, i don't have to do anything you're saying.d nancy pelosi sveral times that she does not believe they have to have a floor vote to ha a formal impeachment inquiry. she also points out the constitution does not say that. the president, while sending the letter to congress, he's seding it to the american people and formalizing what republicans have bpn saying all week is nancy pelosi is actually not going through with the proper procedures for iayment inquiry. it's also important to note the president is poskisibly loo at going to court now and this is really about them playing the long game, saying house

democrats take us to court and then w'll prode whatever documents you want. >> woodruff: yamiche, as you and lisa have been reporting, there are other senior figures in the administration caught ups secretary te pompeo, waiting for his cooperation. todainwe're lea they're asking vice president pence for documents.gl just how t up are other top ple in the administtion, tied up into al of this? >> well, the people in the truti administ who are facing documents requests from house democrats is growing by the day. we see secretary of stampte mike , he had a deadline for today to supply documents. it's still unclear whether or not he's going to supply any documents, as i said, the whig house is sayw unless there's a formal floor vote, they don't have to dtho anyg, that might be the stand secretary pomo takes. vice president pence is asked to provide documents not only about the call between president trump

and zelensky but also provide documents aboh his meeting wi the ukrainian president in warsaw whichappened this year. so vice president pence is being pulled into this. the resident office and the vice president's office both say that this is not aious request phi by the house democrats and they think house democrats are trying to harass anthey say pursue "partisan impeachment." so we'll have to see how the house democrats deals with this and how the white house responds. >> woodruff: the story keeps growing and getting more challenging for all of us every day. desjardins, thank you both. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, u.s. businesses managed to make slight job gains in september. the labor department reports that employers added a net of 136,000 jobs last month.

that came as factories shed 2,000 jobs, amid concerns that the manufacturing sector is now in a recession. overall, the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, that is the lowest it has been in 50 years. in iraq, secity forces in baghdad shot and kled at least 17 more protesters. it brought the week's overall death toll to 59. the ngooting sent people runni for cover, after they defied a hospitals reportedens hurt, despite the prime minister's televised appeal for calm. >> ( translated ): your demands in countering corruption, providing job opportunities, and mprehensive reforms are rightful demands. first, we ha to bring life back to normal in all the provinces. we have to respect the authority of law under which we are all are living in peace and stability. >> woodruff: iraqi troops have also killed protesters in other cities this week. the country's leading shiite cleric, grand ayatollah ali al-sistani, called today for an

end to the violence, before it is too late. today after the gomentong kong banned protesters from wearing face masks. thousands of demonstrs turned out, wearing masks. they protested into the night, vandalizing storefronts, setting fires at subway stations-- and defying a rning from thecu city's chief eve. >> if there's no vio if there's no protests, we do not need to have all these instruments with us er toth deal with this violence. of course, if the situation worsens, i suppose that's your question. then, as a responsible w government, l continue to have to identify other means situation.uld tackle the >> woodruff: the protesters wear masks to avoid being identified y,d punished. but, as of saturiolations could mean a year in jail. greece is demanding that turkey

re-impose controls on the out-flow of migrants. turkey had agreed in 2016 to seal off the route to greece. but, in the last two months, a new wave of migrantsrrived at jam-packed refugee camps on the greek islands of lesbos d samos. greece says the turks are using the surge to win more financial microsoft says hackers linked to iran have targeted a 2020 u.s. presidenal campaign, plusme gove officials and journalists. the company today reported that attempted hacks of more than 240 email accounts, with four actually compromised. it did not namthe campaign at was targeted. top u.s. officials stepped uppr thsure on facebook today its plans to encrypt it messaging platform. company says that it wou enhance user privacy. but in washington, f.b.i. director christopher wray warned that the platform could become "a dream come true for predators and child pornographers."

attorney general william barr said that the government is nota as fbackdoor" into any and all communications. >> we would be happy if the companies providing the encyrption keep the keys. at we are asking is someasking responsible party have the keys, so that when we can demonstrate that crimes are bemmitted,ause we can gain access to that evidence. >> woodruff: facebook says it can still identify sexual prors, even in encrypted systems. the u.s. supreme court will take up the issue of abortion again, in the midst of the 2020 presidential race. today's announcement involves a louisiana law that says doctorsn who perform abortions must have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.pe the case is ed to be argued in the winter, with a decision expected by next june. on wall street, the september rally that erased most of the week's losses.

the dow jones industrial average gained 372 points to close at 26,573. the nasdaq rose 110 points, and the s&p 500 added 41. and, pioneering actress diahann carroll has died, of complications from breast cancer. in 1968, she broke triough racial bs in "julia," the country's first tv series poalraying a black, professi woman. carroll was also a singer, winning a tony award in "no strings," and she was minated for oscar in the 1974 film "claudine." diahann carroll was 84ears old. still to come on theour:ac separatingfrom fiction in ukraine, the country caughtin in the middle of the impeachment inquiry. another whistleblower comes out against the white house. this time, from the i.r.s. mark shields and ramesh ponnuru on the widening investigation into president trump.

and, much more. our main story, therng now to country of ukraine lies at the heart of the impeachment inquiry. we've sent special correspondent simon ostrovsky there, to report nt what's true and what's not in the story of and joe biden. >> reporter: how did ukraine find itself suddenly in the ddle of an american investigation? p the heart of the matter are events that tookce in 2016, when former vice president joe biden threatened to pull a billion dollars in guarantees from the struggling post-soviet nation, if itsiet prosecutor general wasn't fired, echog the demands of other allies and the internationalho monetary fund,anted ukraine's judicial system rid of

corruption. but, president donald trump alleges that biden did this in order to stop an investigati u intoainian energy company called burisma, which his son hunter served on the board of. >> somebody ought to look into joe biden's statement, because >> reporter: it alers on this man, viktor shokin, ukraine's former prosecutor general. a bureaucrat who had spent over 35 years as a states' attorney, first under soviet rule and ther in an independent ukraine. it's emerged as a central narrative in trump's 2020 reelection campaign. >> reporter: and, the president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, has been deeply involved in pushing officials to have ukraineal investigate the bidens, and another conspiracy theory that alleges hillary clinton's email

server, and those famous missing to deflect from russia's 2016e. interference, mr. trump has repeatedly called that attack oc ams election process a" hoax." but then came the c.i.a. officer whistleblower complathat resulted from the summary of a july phone call between trump and ukrainian pridentd volodymyr zelensky, where the american president repeatedly asked ukraine to investigate his main political opponent, joe i'm here in kyiv tk to ukrainians who were key playerse in tnts that led up to he dismissal of prosecutor general shokin, to find out if trump'sth ry about why he was fired holds any water. i startewith the man who then at the top: ukraine's former president, petro poros who peally faced the pressure from biden to dismiss his own prosecutor. he told me it was never about biden, or his son's business with burisma. >> ( translated ): we talking only about the reform of the prosecutor oefice.

to make it independent, to make it more transparent. >> reporter: ukraine'squ independencee, known as the maidan, was the epicenter of mass protests that toppled the o-russian regime of viktor yanukovych in 2014, and led to poroshenko's election. it was also the site ofof mass killings rotestors by sethrity forces. former prosecutor shokin's shadow is felt here, acute. in the eyes of many ukrainians,b this was hisgest failure, was that nobody from the former regime was prosecuted for the ings of protestors here independence square. parliamentarian yehor v was the first official to demand thprosecutor's dismissal. when people strongly hoped thata murders here oan will be investigated.

it was te when people hoped great corruption in yanukovych's presidency would be punished. in 2015, i personally initiated the resignation of general prosecutor shokin. >> ( translated ): come up and sign for the resignation of viktor shokin! >> reporter: what sobolev did was ask members of parliament to sign a document calling for a "no confidence" vote in shokin. it was a few signatures short so you're saying it wasn't joe biden who asked for the prosecutor to be fired. you asked for the prosecutor to be fired first? y yes, we were campaigning for his resignation more than half a >> reporter: one campaigner was daria kaleniuk. she heads the anti-corn action center in kyiv, and has been a leading voice againster corruptionsince before the revolution that overthrew ukraine's pro-russiaer yanukovych. she demanded shokin's ouster

for attacking reformeris office, and: r >> anothson was failure to investigate grand corruption of yanukovych. alukrainian prosecutor gen office did not want to help to provide evidence.in >> reporter: s015, the u.s. ambassador to ukraine took the unprecedented st telling the country it should fire prosecutors who were blocking an investigation of the owner of burisma, where hunteriden was reportedly earning $50,000 a month. here's the former vice president speaking abo his efforts to get ukraine to fire shokin a year later. >> i looked at them and said, "i'm leaving in six hours. if the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money." well, son of a ( bleep ), he got fired. >> reporter: so was biden g back the billion to get rid of a corrupt procutor, or to stop an investigationma

into bur i asked ukraine's finance minister, who was a deputy minister at the time. >> well, we had three guarantees that were extended to us by the u.s. governmt, which were a g help. there were some conditions with governance reform.die one of the cons to cease were reform and market oriented. >> reporter: fast forward to 2019, and it's easy to understand why ukraine's current government is unwilling to critice the trump administration's narrative aboui the shokin dismissal, or anything else for that matter.s ukraine depend the united st fes for financial support its economy, and for its security in eastern ukraine, troops and russia-backedian separatists in a war that has ki more than 13,000 people. so, when president volodymyr zelensky was asked this week if mr. trump temporarily froze nearly $400 million of military tod security aid in order press ukraine to invtigate the bidens, he was visibly flustered, and did his best to steer clear of the polical

controversy gripping washington. >> ( translated ): nothing was explained to me, we didn't talk about this issue. >> reporter: so what of mr. shokin himself? he failed to appear in court on thursday in his own lawsuit claiming he was unfairly sacked. for ukraine, a country reliant on the u.s. for support in its war with russia, this political storm that's putting it betwnri an an president and his reelection drive couldn't come at a worse tfoe. r the pbs newshour, i'm simon ostrovsky in kyiv. herwoodruff: there i whistle-blower case that has emerged in recent days. this one involves a career pficial at the i.r.s., and the president and visident's

tax returns. william brangham has the story. >> brangham: judy, it's not a well-known fact, but the i.r.s. does annual auditsf the president's and vice president's tax returns. these audits are supposed be protected from politics. but now, a whistleblower has tome forward alleging th ast one political appointee at the treasury department interfered in that process. president trump has long refused to release any tax returns, and vice president pence has not released any of his cent jeff stein is parte "washington post" team that broke this story. he joins me now. jeff, welcome back to the "newshour". what is ithat thisan you tell us whistleblower is alleging happened? >> we actually first became aware of this whistleblower complaint back over thsummer when, as part of his lawsuit against the trump administration, seeking president trump's tax returns, the house democrat leading that push dclosed he'd received

information that suggested improper interference related to the president or the vice president's tax returns. what we've learned recely and published yesterday is that complaint comes from a career i.r.s. official and names at let one treasury official as being implicated in potential interference to have the president or vice president's audits or returns. it's clear we're trying to stress we do nonot w what kind of interference this refers to. ence it someone calling and sayg stand down, don't go too hard on the president and his audit or return? we have no proof of that ght now. this could be as simple as an informational ca to say, hey, what's the deal with the president or vice president's audit? that said,heot knowing level of comiewb case between political officials at the t treasury and ceer department

to be walled off from political consideration, according to former i.r.s. commissioners and legal exrts, that could be seen as dangerous to the integrity of the aud process. >> reporter: has the treasury department resnd? >> no, they could not comment to us. we've spoken to administration officials who ied downplaying the complaint and said it was based on secondhand information and hearsay. >> reporter: you spoke to the whistleblower, him or herself, and it's obvious this is coming forwin the midst of these accusations that the president d his supporters have me about the other whistleblower with regards to ukraine alleging that that whd istleblower s or her sources are spies or might have comtted treason. did this whistleblower express to you some concern about coming forward in this environment? >> yes, and this was actually quite striking. he did comment on recd to us

to say, you know, in this political atmosph been attacks on whistleblowers, and he said people who have beeo silent these attacks, no veteran should stand up and this this could discourage or deter people who see wrongdoing in government from speakg out ande identifying and could pose a serious harm and serious challenge of the abi to whistleblowers to do that. >> reporter: jeft stein of "the washington post," thank you very much. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: the devastation wrought by china's forced detention of over one million uighur muslims.mill and, an update. late today, the house of representatives oversight committee formally notified the white house that it is issuing a subpoena for documents relatedea to the iment investigation. now, to the political analysis

of shields and ponnuru. that is syndicated columnist mark shields, and ramesh ponnuru of the "national review." david brooks is away. hello to both of you. so the news just keeps coming. it's been a week of cascading information about what the president said in a phone calth, an the pre sident himself, mark, reinforces this with announcing to the world that he's urging china to look into joe biden and his son hunter. my bottom line questionor both of you is is there fire here? is there evidence, in your mind, of either a law that's been broken or a violation of the president's oath? or is this jusst ke? >> i think there's more thare'sn smoke, judy. i'm not a lawyer and i don't play one on tv, but there's certainly a strong case to be made that the president openly solicited and sought the intervention and involvement of

the foreign government on behalf of his own candidacy and americ presidential campaign, and i think -- usually, it's the law that's ispute in these cases of beg argument about facts. there's no real argument about facts here. it pretty much will be open and the president really opened it up on the driveway on thu hrsday wh bid china to come in and come up with information unflattering, libelr criminal information on joe biden and his family. >> woodruff: ramesh, do you see this as a law broken or aol ion of his oath? >> we have this tendency to see scandals in te hidden events that have to be uncovered, and, so, e can always process when the president says something in public the way he did with respect to china, when he, openublicly, with the world

china to investigaliticaled opponents and that his treatment of china in trade negotiations would depend on that. all of his defenders have been saying no quid pro quo. we saw a quid pro quo saw a on national television. >> woodruff: and, of course, the president said tomade a point of coming out today and saying to the press, no, there's no quid pro quo, i'm not tying what china does with regard to these investigatis to the trade negotiations, but he did say that, right? yeah, he said it. i think he realized he made a mistake and he is trying to say it, but it also shows you that heu will undercut the defenses that hisies make, which is one reason why a lot of republicans have been headinga for the tall ss. they don't want to be out there defending the admi with a line that thet administrationlf mignistht abandon. >> woodruff: mk. i think ramesh's point is

salient and right. there's been a little bit of the old sherlock holmes story about the dolmehat didn't bark, the story of the dog, when the race bark in the night, whichg didt suggested that maybe it was somebody inside the household who was responsible. the dog didn't bark. usually there are a number of republicans you can count on to be ontelevision. there's no such term as indecent exposure to them. ifhere's a microphone and camera going, they're tre. as ramesh said, they're in the tall grass. the reason, theo re'swhite house strategy. eth pretty obvious, the difference between this and bill clinton in 1998, when clinton effectively compartmentalized i'm going about my business, donald trump as one leading republican said this week ought to be working on preptscn drugs. he ought to being that and holding meetings on it this and'

that, and totally obsessed with this. so if you're going to defend him, you don't know wat you're going to be defending an hour from now or certainlyomorrow morning. >>oodruff: d do you discern a white house strategy in all of this? >> well, i think as often is the there is a strategy for holding the president's base supporters, and that may well be enough, d a two-thirds super majority in the senatndto convict emove a president from office. so if you're looking forward to the end game, just maintaining your base is enough. i don't see a strategy now thatn is tto chathe minds to have the people in the middle. >> woodruff: meanwhile, ar the congressional, the house democrats, and we mentioned another one asking the white house now for documents i was told it's white house chef offstaff mk mulvaney and others, they're asking for documents as they pursue theseig inveions. but they've asked secretary of state pompeo, they've askednt vice presi pence. they seem to be moving briskly

s.th what does that tell you? is that the smart course? should they e taking their time? what do you make of this? >> i think events are very much in theaddle and i think it's ter than anybody anticipated. if a week ago you had suggestedt he president was going to call for an arrestment tri o treason for the chairman of the housintelligence committee this week and go on to the pace, as ramesh described, his gotiation on trade with china on the basis of information on the bidens, you know, so i don't think there's any master plan here, judy. the white house's decision to say we know how to vote on impeachment in the house, that puli a lot of house repns in a bad posion. i mean, do you want to vote against an impeachmentry inq and then get overcome by events? i mean, to put you in a posion

in november of 2020 when it looks like you wanted the dusthd everything under the rug because given the velocity of the disclosures being made, that's a very risky vote for a lot of house republicans. >> woodruff: you want to give the house democrats a grade on nw they're pursuing this?el >> i think there have been some errors. i think that chairman schiff's disassembling abo his contacts or staff contacts with the whistleblower wa an unforced error, but i think the key thing smart thing to do is not tolly constantlyure trying to fig out the politically smart thing to do at each age of the process. we have to handle this as a serious inquiry by dults and not be distracted by the moment's polls. do woodruff: do you think they'rg that now? >> i think therying. i think speaker nancy pelosi has made a very concerted effort tto

emocrats to take a step back a little bit, not be gleeful about con tell mic this administration, but to rather have a posture of seeing wreture the facts go. >> woodruff: mark, you have long time.ing this city for a do you think this is something the democrats can get done? can they get someing like this, the inquiry finished, mone otentially to an actual impeacent vote in a matter of a few weeks or months? >> i think probably months, judy. just take somebody like mike pompeo, secretary of state, they were talking seriously a week ago about him running for united states senate from kansas. he was the inevitable candidate for republicans. i think he's a lotess so today. this is reaching out and touching more and more people. i ore t disagree h ramesh on schiff and the intelligence committee. i thnk it's absolutely natural that the whistleblower, a e,ofessional public emplo would go to the staff. i mean, he has been surroundedha

by people wh been hostile and i thinkve it'ry frank, and we ought to take notice of the fact that the only reason we' aware of what's happened is because ofareer public itployees. these weren't poal appointees. these are people who are nameless faces who get attacke by every cheap shot in a service and c.i.a. and thereign department of justice, the i.g., was a department of justice 15-year attorney, so i think it's time tgive credit to the t people who put their vow of service above their own self-interest.o >> woodruff: int to turn to the 2020 candidates here and ask you, quickly, mber one, is joe biden hurt by this? at do yothink? >> well, biden, i think, had been sinking in the democratic primaries, and senator elizabeth warren had been coming on pretty strong, evebefore this story

really blew up. but i think those trehandve continued since that story has blown up. i don't know if bidenas been sufficiently agile in making his case and being aggreive and saying, look, the president is afraid of me. thatnk he started to sou note, itbut it's a ltle late. >> okay, joe biden ought to take a leaf out of the campaign ofer grleveland where he was nominated at the convention by general edmund bragg who said cleveland had alienated the democratic organization -- the corrupt democratic organization, and big money on the republican side, and he stood up and said we love grover cleveland for the enemies he has made. joe biden ought's -- joe biden's campaign oug to have the wisdom to stand up and say it's obvious they are so terrified against joe biden, they don't want to run against joe bident ant's why trump has been

doing everything, and i think that's a natural way to , come but i agree he has slipped. >> woodruff: one thing, new informatioat's come , and that's how much moneyhe democrats raised in the last quarter. joe biden came in fourth among all democrats. both the "new york times" and "the wasngton post" are reporting tonight that bernie sanders did have aeart attack this week. we knew there was an incident, he had tw stents inserted in an artery, but the reporting is he d a heart attack. having said that, we showed the graphic, he picked up morthan $25 million, bernie sanders did, better than all of t -- all of his competitors, elizabeth warren came in after him, a en pete buttigieg and joe biden, and we just showed our audience -- we're going back and forth here, but we just showed them president trump's amount andeth 125 million, of course, overshadowing everything thatav the democratsth done. but ramesh, what if we learned

from these numbers if anything right now? >> i think they tend to confirm the trends that we're talking about that war rising and biden has been sinking. close in his fundraising to andrew yang thano sanders or warren. we kno senator sanders had a strong fan ways and i thinkne thing this fundraising appeal shows us is she's n gng to be fading out and muscled out of the primaries in favor of some other candidate who can stain the long haul, if he wants. >> woodruff: what do you seeum in thesebers, mark. >> moneyatters, make n mistake. bernie, god bless him, his numbers in the pol have been slipping, but $25 million, he has a committed donor base. elizabeth warren surgeh in the polls and in money, issi impr, make no mistake about it. i don't think this campaign is going to be won or lost on money, i likely don't. >> woodruff: well -- among the democrats. >> woodruff: one thing's for

sureight now, it's the president who's tting most to have the attention in this campaign. mark shields, ramesh ponnuru, thank you. >> thank you. you're welcome. continue our series, "china: power and prosperity," with what the u.s. calls "one of the worst human rights crises of our time." ghurs are muslims who trace their roots through thousands of years to central asia. today, most of them, about 11 million, live in the chinese province xinjiang. they represent less than 1% ofer the populati in a country that 9 is more th han chinese, the ethnicity that china traces back to an ancient empire. e communist china has long persecuted people based on their religion.te but the u.s., ational groups, and uighurs say this

is different. inthey accuse china of thr uighurs into camps, and targeting their religion and entire culre. with the support of the pulitzer center, nick schifrin reports avfrom a city many uighurs fled to-- istanbul. >> schifrin: istbul is 2,500 miles from xinjiang, china. muslim uighurs who live here are free, but their minds are still imprisoned. >> ( translated ): i never imagined this could happen in the 21st century: innocent peop subjected to cuffs onop their hands, shackles, and black hoods over their heads. >> schifrin: gulbahar jalilova lives alone in a small apartment. the injuries she suffered in chinese detention two years ago have healed, but she hasn't gottenver the memories. ( translated ): i saw them, 14-year-old girls to 80-year-old women. they take them for interrogation. they would come back and their swollen.ere bruised, their heade

after three months, they put a black hood over my head and took me away. >> schifrin: is it still upsetting? ( silence )ou what arehinking about? >): i feel like m in there right now. there, in the cell. i'll never forget this as longng as i live. they destroyed my life.if >> sn: abdulsalam muhammad also found sanctuary here, on the banks of the bospherous. and every uighur we spoke to live in self-imposed exile, because they are tood of the chinese government to go ho. can you describe for us what lithat detention center wa? >> ( translated ): they brought everyone in there because they called us "suspicious." there is unimaginable oppression

inside. every day, they'd toss us a little bread and water so that we didn't die, and every day they would interrogate 15 or 20 of us with unbearable brutality. we are a people who've their freedom. we'd studied relignd because because we had influence in our society. they locked us up in then, after taking us to a camp, done anything wrong-- that they re just educating us. >> schifrin: the chinese say they are re-educating uighurs by teaching them tiinese and voal skills. this is state metaa video. the ees we interviewed, and international researchers, call it staged and scrd, a facade that hides what's really happening. exists of a camp underat construction, the entrance has ve iron gate, the winds bars, and the cells look like jails. an in this drone video the

u.s. believes is authentic, prisoners in blue wived heads are kept blindfolded, and are led away, one police officer per prisoner. muhammad says what the chinese call schools for re-educationtu are ly prisons for brainwashing. >> ( translated he ten hours of class they would teach one dare the exact same ten urs they'd teach the nex the goal was to change our minds, our faith, our beliefs. it was a plot to force us to renounce our religion. >> schifrin: the chinese call some muslim uighurs extremists and terrorists. in 2009, uighurs in xinjiang'sri capital ed. more were injured, mhanndreds chinese, the ethnic group that uighur militants affiliated with al qaeda took credit fs 2013 attack in tiananmen square that killed two people, andal china blamand female uighur militants for this 2014 knife attack that killed more

than 3 those attacks are claimed by uighurs who callinjiang "east turkistan," which self-declared independence in the early 20thdd century. china says it's administered xinjiang since 60 b.c., andre n minister wang yi says china is fighting separatists. >> the education and training centers are schools that help the people free themselves from thfluence of extremism and terrorism, and acquire professional skills. the centers are anything but horrific "coentration camps." >> schifrin: but in xinjiang and neighboring province, residents say china's launched a campaign against islam. completely destroyed at least a dozen mosques. and, uighurs say the chinese aren't only targeting thei religion. in istanbul, uighurs describe how china criminalized uigr nguage and all uighur culture. international researchers have called that campaign "cultural." genoci

♪ ♪ china has even banned uighur music. yusup sulayman sings about a culture that's been lost, and a people who've been silenced. >> ( translated ): they're disappearing our fhey's artists, composers, and songwriters before anyone elpp. they're diring our intellectuals. they've burned what they wanted burn, and scrubbed what they wanted to scrub. >> schifrin: he gave us photos of all his family members who ve disappeared into camps. he hasn't heard from any of them in more than two years. >> ( translated ): the absolute worst thing that i don't know whether they're dead or alive. our communication is completely cut off. >> schifrin: abliz ablikim says many uighur men havetoeen powerlesrotect theirli famies from the chine government. can you tell me how a han chinese basically ended up as a

member of your family? >> ( translated ): ever since the government began locking up most of the men, wngen, children, and the elderly have been left behind. the government has sentof cials to be "ears" in these households. they sent one to my uncle's house. >> schifrin: his aunt in uighur clothes, his uncle ihurghur and then, a han chinese man,a n. posing likmber of the family. but he's not a member of the hemily. waorced onto your family? >> ( translated ): he was forced. he wouldn't be able to live there if he weren't. oe schifrin: state media ds stories on han chinese inserted the program "united as one fami." 1 million han chinese have been sent by the government intm muomes. in your opinion, why is the hichinese government doing >> ( tranated ): they refer to uighurs as criminals. if we ask them whaour crime is, they say openly: aren't you

uighur? that's crime enough. >> schifrin: in xinjiang'sca tal, a huge statue of chairman mao looms over the city. in multiple interviews across china, we heard the same thing: china is fighting terrorism and fake news. su ge is a former ambassador and former head of one of the chinese foreign mini's think-tanks. >> china and the united states, i think that we feel the se about extremists. we also have this danger of terrorism. the best way to eradicate radicalism is to provide education, to provide development. >> schifrin: there have been cases of imprisonment, that are on a mass scale. not st of terrorists or suspected terrorists, but actually entire families andti cities. >> well, these are just, to us, that's just somedy's trying to write a story about it-- >> schifrin: meaning, you think they're fiction?>>

es. reasons, who are pr, youewed know, somehow-- >> schifrin: do you think paid're paid to tell these stories? >> i do not know. i'm only saying that they mustha a source for income. you ask them, how many policemen have been injured,ust by terrorists? >> schifrin: but in the name of pursuing terrorists, international researchers say china turned xinjiang into an open air prison. local residents say police keepl a close eye onighurs,on interrogate them wherever they go, check their documents every lefew feet, and forcibly c d.n.a. samples. and researchers identify at least 85 camps-- and probably many more-- across xinjiang. all are re built. a barren field in august 2016 became, in one year, what researchers say is a former school, turned into a camp with barricades and barbed-wire.

just six miles away, researchers say another camp started beingha built in early 2017. by late 2018, there were barricades, watch towers, and barbed-wire enclosures, and more than a million square feet of buildings. the u.s. says more than a million uighurs have disappeared into chinese detention. on the outskirts of istanbul, ryghurs have been doing their own building, tond protectdi their identity. uighur children are being raised and educated in uighur language and history.th children are all right, because their memories aren't formed. but the ults stare into the distance, trying, but failing, to forget. aqil shamsky is the english teacher. >> first, my mothewas arrested. and three months later released my mother-- dead. dead body. my mother was very healthy.

she was at home. three months later, she died. >> schifrin: walking through hallway, it is impossiblto walk through here without adults asking to share their story. so we assembled five of them. could you raise your hand if you ve multiple ers of your family currently in the camp in xinjiang? sirajidin abdukadir fled xinjiang after the chinese threatened to take his passport. today, he is the school securitr d.he hasn't heard from his famiy since he left them, three years ago. >> ( translated ): i told myel children far and we will meet again. that's the only thing i got to say to them. i never thought this would happen.en.ty i'm secuere. they provide my meals. at this age, i cannot do anything else. that is what allah gave me.on i'm incrediblyy. >> schifrin: everyone here hasie their own stof family imprisonment. both of tursun yasin's brothers,

42-year-old abdugeni musa's daughter, and other children. ablet tursun spent one month inside a camp. and, 72-year-old amina emet is the principal's mother.pal' do you k are?ere your children >> ( translated ): i don't know. i am searching for a kind of news every day. >> schifrin: the chinese say t they have clos camps, and uighurs have returned home. but eryone here says their family members are still missing. emet's 19 children, grandchildren, and their spouses, are still missing. >> ( translated ): i wish god would free us from the chinese. the uighs are too weak to resist. there are noighur people left, my eldest son passed away years ago. i basically raised the two of his kids myself. but even they were taken away.

>> now, every uighur, whether he is inside jail or outside of jail, is feeling the same thingo fedisappear from the world. >> schifrin: a few miles away, gulbahar jalilova's mind is still in detention. >> ( translated ): i'm drinking tea, i'm eating bread. but those lpless people are desperate. they don't have enough to eat. mi see them all in front as if i were still in the camp myself. >> schifrin: after she was released, she wrote s wn a he na the people in her cell. >> qembernisa, meryem, asiye melim, ayshe, gulbahar uzbek... >> schifrin: just one of what could be tens of thousands of cells across xinjiang, china. >> zulpiye, aynisem, aynisaxan, asiyem qeshqer, mehtube, mehbiret, turghunay, guzel,

saket...or >> schifrin:he pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin in istanbul. >> woodruff: extraordinary.>> w on tomorrow's edition of pbs newshour weekend, our ten-part "china" series ends from hong kong, as nick schifrin looks at the fight over freedoms there. take a visual look at the uighur community in china, and the vast swath of so-called "re-educatioi centers,"which at least one million uighurs are being held. you can watch all of the stories from our series, "china: peacety and prospeonline, at and that is the ne for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs nehour has been prided by: >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellulilwa

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems--n. skollfoundatiog. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. fore than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting bestitutions to promote a er world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. m >> this progs made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like yo thank you. cnewsoning sponsored by

hello, everyone and welme to "am &me & this week we're dipping into the archives and looking book at some of our favorite interviews of the year, and here's what's coming up. >> his rhetoric has beenaiul for many in our communy, and thin people shoul stand up and sa they are not happy if he's coming. o >> in the wakthe mass shootings in el pasond dayton, the chairwoman kevin bass jns the program on, guns race and prldident trump and wg influence at a the peak of powe. we tear back the veil on the faly. also ahead -- >> you see somebod who votes the way you don't vote. efore splyaying oh, what a rk or what a lazy person okay, u know, or they must have