captioning spowsored by ur productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening.oo i'm judy wuff. on the newshour tonight: the president's push fore ukra investigate the bidens comes 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 has forced one million uighur muslims into dention t campring families apart. >> ( translated ): i'm drinking tea, i'm eating bread.lp but those ss people are desperate. they don't have enough to eat. i see them all in front of me, as if i were still ithe camp myself. >> woodruff: and, it's friday. mark shields and ramesh nnuru are here to analyze the swirling impeachment investigation, and the money race for the democratic presidential candidates.

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trove of text messages adds fuel to the impeachment inquiry fire. congressional correspondent lise ardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: on the whitela house , 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 politics. o and if you look and you read our constitution and many other tings, i have an obligati look at corruption. a dutual obligation and >> desjardins:his, as at the capitol, house lawmakers held a closed-door hearing with the intelligence watchdog,nspector general michael atkinson, who first flagged a whistleb awer's concerut the president. but dominating t day was new eninformation-- pages of r text messages between trump administration officials. some see them as proof the president was pressuring ukraine for political reasons. others disagree. the messages indicate theic

president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, was helping craft ukraine policy, and pushing for investigations in return for a white house visit. that made some other officials uncomfortable. to understand these text writing them-- two longtimthose diplomats: kurt volker, the u.s. envoy for ukraine, and bill tlor, the acting top diplomat in ukraine. with them, one political appointee: gordan sondland, a hotel owner and republican donor, appointed by presidentedb trump to be the u.s. ambassador to the european union.me the ne matters. july 25, the day of the controversial phone call between iapresident trump and ukra president zelensky. before the call, ukraine envoylk texted an advisor to nsky, writing, "assuming president zelensky convinces of what happened in 2016, wem will nail down a date for a visit by zelensky to washington."

indicating, if ukraine investigates, they will gevia white housl then, an important momt. in the last week of august, stories appear that the trump administrati is holding up aid money for ukraine. then, president trump cancels a planned meeting with zelensky io nd. a few days after that, september 1, bill taylor, running the embassy inkraine, texts sondland, the political appointee, "are we now saying the security assistance an white house meeting are conditioned on investigations?"n sondland does not say. he responds, "call me." just over a week later, on september 9, a few things happen. the intelligence inspector general notifies congress about the whistleblower complaint, and house democrats announce they are investigating the ukraine issue. th day, bill taylor, the t diplomat in ukraine, seems to here, texting, "i think it's crazy to withhold security political campaign." for a

sondland, the political rrpointee, responds, "i believe you are int about the president's intentions. the president has been crystal p clear, no qu quo's of any kind." on capitol hill todaeaction this as congress is waiting for a response from secretary of statmike pompeo, who's currently in southeast europe.ou today was the deadline that democrats set for him to turts over documenelated to the ukraine inusstigation. hoe democrats are also planning to subpoena the white house for documents. but today, president taid he doesn't know if he'll comply. >> i don't know. that's up to the lawyers. i know the lawyers think they've never seen anything so unfair. >> desjardins: the president himself raised new questions about his interactions with dworld leaders, when he s yesterday t china: >> china should start an investigation into the bidens. >> desjardins: today he insisted he won't tie that request for china to a long-awaited ade deal between the two countries.t >> oneng has nothing to do with the other. >> desjardins: but as mr. trump and his alliount 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 china and to ukraine to investigate appalling."s wrong and for president trump and congress, the diutes 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,w, lisa joins us long with our white house correspondentnd yamiche al. hello to both of you. so alisa, we thought there w lot that was going on, already, todaea much more, as you just reported. where dthings stand right now inquiry from the democrats'ment perspective? >> right, the big pictu, mocrats in general think this is different than theis dir effs on the mueller report. they think the american public is paying closer attention, is more seriously paying attention to this and, morver, they're saying they're not seeing the kind of backlash they were whene

democrats eing aggressive about the mueller report. to me that reads there's still a moment of decision. the democrats like where that stands on that front now b have big decisions coming up, the biggest how narrow do they sethis. more layers each day. juliany, china, allf this, do democrats keep it narrowed to a big question for them. more information from the senate. ron son told the hington 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 idea, judth is official thought ths a quid pro o. >> woodruff: which is passe that they're saying that openly. yamiche, strategy from the white house? do they have a strategy? >> the white house appears to be mounting a strategy to go on the

fense. e white house is now, i'm told several sources, preparing a let tore send to conyigress unless the house both on the floor for a formal impayhent inquiry,hite house does not have to comply with any or r of documents requests. the president isaying to nancy pelosi, until you hold aouse floor vote, i don't have to do anything you're saying. ncy pelosi said several times that she does not believe they have to have a floor vote to have a formal impeachment inquiry. she also points out the constitution does not say that. the presint, while sending the letter to congress, he's sending it to the american people and formalizing what republicans have been saying all week is nancy pelosi is actu going through th the proper procedures for impayment inquiry. it's also important to note the president is posatsibly looking going to court now and this is really about them playing the long game, saynging houses democrke us to court and then we'll provide whatever

documents you want. >> woodruff: yamicheas you and lisa have been reorting,th e are other senior figures in the administration caught upt secretary of state pompeo, waiting for his cooperation. today we're lerning they're asking vice president pence for documents. just how tangled up other top people in the administration, tied up into alt of this? >> well, the people in the trump administration who are facing dofrments request house democrats is growing by the day. we see secretary of state mik a pompeo, he h deadline for today to supupply documents. it's stncill ulear whether or not he's going to supply any documents, as i said, the white house is saying now unless there's a formal floor vote, they don't have to do anything, so that might be the stand secretary pompeo takes. vice president pence is asked to provide documents not only about the call between president trump anden zely but also provide

documents about his meeting with the ukrainian president in warsaw which happened this year. so vice president pence is being pulled into this. the president's office and the vice president's office both say that this is not a serious request phi by the house democrats and they think house democrats are trying to harass and they say psue a "partisanen impeac" so 'll have to see how the house democrats deals with this and how t white hou responds. >> woodruff: the story keeps growing and getting more challenging for all of us everya day. che alcindor, lisa desjardins, thank you both.ank : >> woodrn 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 ofjo 136,00 last month. that came as factories shed

2,000 jobs, amid concerns that the mafacturing sector is now in a recession overall, thenemployment rate fell to 3.5%, that is the lowest it has been in 50 years. in iraq, security forcesn baghdad shot and killed at lea 17 more protesters. it brought the week's overall death toll to 59. the shooting senpeople running for cover, after they defied a curfew. hosp,als reported dozens hurt spite the pre minister's televised appeal for calm. >>translated ): your demands in countering corruption, providing job opportunities, and comprehensive reforms are rightful demands. first, we have to bring life back to normal in all the provinces.l th we have to respect the authority 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 countrs leading shiite cleric, grand ayatollah ali end to the violence, before it

is too late.an r intensified in hong kong banned protesters from wearing fa masks. thousands of demonstrators turned out, wearing masks. they protested into the night, vandalizing storefronts, setting defying a warning heions-- and city's chief executive. >> ithere's no violence, if there's no protests, we do not need to have all these instments with us in order t deal with this violence. of course, if thtuation urrsens, i suppose that's question. then, as a responsible government, we will continue to have to identify other means that we could tackle the siation. >> woodruff: the protesters wear masks to avoid beingwedentified and punished. ont, as of saturday, viola could mean a year in jail. greece is demanding that turkey

re-impose controls on the turkey had agreed in 2016 to seal off the route to greece. but, in the last two months, a new wave of migrants arrived at jam-packed refugee camps on the greek islands of lesbos and samos. greece says the turks are using the surgto win more financial help from the european union. microsoft says hackers linked to presidential campaign, plus government officials and journalists.na the company today reported that attempted hacks of more thanem 24l accounts, with four actually compromised. it did not name the campaiar that wasted. top u.s. officials stepped upfa the pressure obook today over its plans to encrypt its messaging platform. the company says that it would enhance user privacy.hi but in wton, f.b.i. director christopher wray warned that the platform could become e "a dream come true for predators and child pornographers." attorney general william barr said that the government is not

asking for a "backdoto any and all communications. >> we would be happy if the companies providing the encyrption keep the keys. what we are asking is somesp so that when we can demonstrate a lawful basis, probable cause thatrimes are being committe we can gain access to that evidence. >> woodruff: facebook says it can still identify sexual predators, even in encrypted systems. the u.s. supreme court will take up the issue of abortion again,n he midst of the 2020 presidential race. today's announcement involves a louisiana law that says doctors who perforabortions must have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. the case is expected to argued in the winter, with a decision expected by next june. on wall street, the september jobs report fuy ed a friday ehat erased most o 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 actr diahann carroll has died, of cplications from breast cancer. in 1968, she broke through racial barriers in "" the country's first tv series portraying a bck, professional woman. carroll was also a singer, winning a tony award in "no strings," and she was nominated "claudine."r in the 1974 film diahann carroll was 84 years old. still to come on the newshour: separating fact from fiction in ukraine, the country caught in the middle of the impeachment inquiry. another whistleblower comes out against the white house. thisime, from the i.r.s. mark shields and ramesh ponnuru the widening investigation into president trump. and, much more.

>> woodruff: returning now to our main story, the eastern country of ukraine lies at ntthe heart of the impeach inquiry. we've sent special correspondent simon ostrovsky there, to reporr on what' and what's not in the story of hunter and joe biden. >> reporter: how did ukraine find itself suddenly in the middle of an american impeachment investigatatn? the heart of e matter are ev16ts that took place in 20 when former vice president joe biden threatened to pull a biion dollars in loan guarantees from the struggling post-soviet nation, if itsal prosecutor genasn't fired,t fi echoing the demands of other allies and the international monetary fund, who wanted ukraine's judicial system rid of corruption.

but, president donald trump alleges that biden did this in neder to stop anestigation into a ukrainiany company called burisma, which his son hunter served on the board of. >> somebody ought to look into joe biden's statement, because it was disgraceful. >> reporter: it all centers 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 then in an independent ukraine. it's emerged as a central narrative in trump's 2020 reelection campaign. president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, has been deeply involved in pushing u.s. officials to have ukraineig invee the bidens, and another conspiracy theory that alleges hillary clinton's email server, and those famous missing

emails are actually . to deflect from russia's 2016 interfer, mr. trump has peatedly called that attack on america's election process a" hoax." but then came the c.i.a. officer whistl resulted from the summary of a july phone call tween trump and ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky, where the american president repeatedlysie asked ukraine to investigate his main political opponent, joe biden. i'm here in kyiv to speak to ukrainians who were key players in the events that led up to the dismissal of prosecutor general shokin, to find out mp's f theory about why he was fired holds any water. i started with the man who then at the top: ukraine's former presidt, petro poroshenko, who personally 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 office. to make it independent, to

make it more transparent. >> reporter: ukraine's independence square, known as the maidan, was the epicenter of mass protests that toppled the pro-ian regime of viktor yanukovych in 2014, and led to poroshenko's election. it was also the site of s mass killings of protest security forces. the former prosecutor shokin's shadow is felt here, acutely. in the eyes of many ukrainians, this was his biggest failure, ormerhat nobody from the regime was prosecuted for the killings of protestors here on independence square. parliamentarian yehor sobolevof was the first ficial to demand the prosecutor's dismissal. >> ( translated ): it was time when people strongly hoped that murders here on maidan will be investigated.

it was time when people hopeditw 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 rignation of viktor shokin! >> reporter: what sobolev did was ask members of parliament to "no confidence" vote in shokin. it was a few signatures short of so you're saying it wasn't joe u biden who asked for the you asked for the prosecutor to be fired first? >> yes, we were campaigning for his resignation more than half a year. >> reporter: one campaigner was daria kaleniuk. action center in kyiv, and has been a leading voice against corruption here since the revolution that overthrew ukraine's pro-russian leader yanukovych. she demanded shokin's ouster for atcking reformers in his

office, and: >> another reason was failure ta investigate grand corruption of yanukovych ukrainian prosecutor general's office did not want to help to provide evidence. he>> reporter: so in 2015, u.s. ambassador to ukraine took the precedented step of telling the country it should fire prosecutors who were blocking an investigation of the owner of buris, where hunter biden waseportedly earning $50,000 a month. here's the former vice president speaking about his efforts to get ukraine to fire shokin a year later.ye >> i looked at them and said, "i'm leaving in six hours. p if tsecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money." well, son of a ( bleep ), he got fired. >> reporter: so was biden holding back the billion to get rid of a corrupt prosecutor,or o st an investigation into burisma? i asked ukraine's finance

minister, who was a deputyer minit the time. >> well, we had three guarantees that were extended to us by the u.s. government, which.ere a big he there were some conditions withh regard to thrncorporate goce reform. eaone of the conditions to were reform and market oriented. >> reporter: fast forward to 2019, and it's easy to understand why ukraine's crent government is unwilling to criticize the trump administration's narrative aboun the shismissal, or anything else for that matter. teraine fopends on the unid states for fancial support for its economy, and for its security in eastern ukraine, where it's fighting russianoo trps and russia-backed separatists in a war that hasan killed more th3,000 people. so, when president volodymyr zelensky was asked this week if mr. trump temporily froze nearly $400 million of military and securityid in order to press ukraine to investigate the bidens, he was visibly flustered, and did his best steer clear of the political controversy gripping washington.

>> ( translated ): nothing was explained to me, we didn't talk about this issue. >> reporter: so what of mr. shokin himself?okin he failed to appear in court on claiming he was unfairly sacked. for ukraine, a country reliant on the u.s. for support in its idorm that's putting it between an american prest and his reelection drive couldn't come at a worse time.s for the pbwshour, i'm simon ostrovsky in kyiv. >> woodruff: there is another whise-blower case that has emd in recent days. this one involves a career official at e i.r.s., and the president and vice president's tax returns. william branam has the story.

>> brangham: judy, it's not well-known fact, but the i.r.s. does annual audits of the president's and vice president's tax returns. these audits are supposed to be protected from politics. but now, a whistleblower has come forward alleging that at tmast one political appointee at the treasu dept interfered in that process. president trump has long refusey to releaseax returns, and vice president pence has not released any of his recent tax returns also. jeff stein is part of thejeff "washington post" team that broke this story. he joins me now. jeff, welcome back to the "newshour". as best we know, can you tell u whatt that this whistleblower is allegingwer happened? >> we actually became aware of this whistleblower complaint back over the summer when, as part of his lawsuit t against thmp admistration, seeking urns,dent trump's tax re the house democrat leading that push disclosed he' received information that suggested

improper interference related to the president or the vice president's tax return what we've arned recently and published yesterday is that complaint comes from a career r.s. official and names at least one treasury official asim beinlicated in potential interference to have the president or vice prident's audits or returns. it's clear we're trying to stress we do not know what kind of interference this refers to. ingit someone calling and say n, don't go too hard on the president and his audit or return? we have no proof of that right now. this could be as simple as an informational call to say, hey, what's the deal witthe president or vice president's audit? that said, not knowing t lel of comiewb case between political officials at the the treasury and career department at the i.r.s. who are supposed touwalled off from political

consideration, according to fomier i.r.s. cioners and seen as dangerous to thed be integrity the audit process. >> reporter: has the treasury department rponded? >> no, they could not comment to we've spoken to administration officials who tried 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 serward in the midst of the accusations that the presidentat and his supporters have made about the other whistleblower with regards to ukraine alleging that that whistleblower and his or her sources are spies or might have committed treason. did this whistleblower express to you somoncern about comuting forward in this environmeth? >> yes, an was actually quite striking. he did comment on record to us to say, you know,n this

political atmosphere, there have been attacks on whistleblowers, and he saapeople who have been silent about these attacks, no veteran should stand up and this this could discourage or deter people who seeo wrdoing in government from speaking out and identifying and could pose a seris harm andrm aerious challenge of the ability 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 er one million uighur muslims.d, n update. late today, the house of representatives oversight committee formally notified the white house that it is issuing a to the impeachmentents related investigation. no o 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 botay. you. so the news just keeps coming. it's been a week of cascading information about what the president said in a phone call, and then the president himself, mark, reinforces this with announcing to the world that he's urging china too lok into joe biden and his son hunter. my bottom line question for both of you is is there fire here? is the evidence, in your mind, of either a law that's bn broken or a violation of the president's oath? or is this just smo? >> i think there's more than smok judy. i'm not a lawyer and i don't play one on tv, b there's certainly a strong case to be made that the president opey solicited and sought the intervention and involvement of the foreign government on behalf

of his ownan cdidacy and american presidentl campaign, and i think -- usually, it's the w that's in dispute in these rgument abouta facts.no there'eal argument about facts here. it pretty much will be open and the president really opened it up on the driveway on thursday when he bid china to come inna d come up with information unflatring, libelous or criminal information on joe biden and his family. s woodruff: ramesh, do you h,see this aa law broken or a violation of his oath? s we have thindency to see scandals in terms of hidden events that have to be uncovered, and, so, we can't always process when the president says something in public the way he did with wspect to china, when he openly, publiclh the world watching, said that he wanted

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 on national television. >> woodruff: and, ofourse,nd the present said today, made a point of coming out today and saying to the press, no, there' no qo quo, i'm not tying what chid na does with rego these investigations to the tradnegotiations, but he di say that, right? >> yeah, he said it. i think he realized he made a mistake and he is trying to unsay it, but it also shows you that he wl undercut the defenses that his allies make, which is one reason y a lot of republicans have been heading for the tall grass. they don't want to be out there defending the administration with a line that the administration itself might abandon. >> woodruff: mark. i think ramesh's point is salient and right. there's been a little bit of t

old sherlock holmes story about the dog that didn't bark, the story of the dog, when the races horse wastolen, the dog didn't bark in the night, which suggeste somebody inside the household who was responsible.ible the dog didn't bark. usually there are a number of republicans you can count on to be on television. there's no such term as indecent exposure to them. if there's a microphoneic and camera going, they're there. as ramesh said, they're in the tall grass. the reason, there's no white house strategy. eth pretty obvious, the difference between this and bill ton in 1998, when clinton effectively compartmentalized i'm going about my business, donald trump as one leading republican said this week oughtb e working on prescription drugs. he ought to be doing that and hothing meetings on iis and that, and he's totally obsessed with this. so if you're going tdefend

him, you don't know what you're going to be defuending an hor from now or certainly tomorrow morning. >> woodruff: d doyou discern a all ofhouse strategy in this? >> well, i think as oft is the case with this administration, there is a strategy for holding the president's base supporters, and that m well be enough, because you need a two-thirdssu r majority in the senate to convict and remove a president from office. so if you f're lookiward to the end game, just maintaining your base is enough. i don't see atrategy now that is trying to change the minds to have the people in the middle.dl >> woodruff: meanwhile, mark, the congressional, the hocre des, and we mentioned another one asking the white house now for documents. i was told it's white house chef offstaff mick mulvaney and others, they're asking forhe documents aspursue these investigations. but they've asked secretary of state poo, they've asked vice president pence. they seem to be moving riskly with this. what does that tell you?

is that thsmart course? should they be taking their time? what do you make of this? >> i thinkervents are vy much in the saddle and i think it's moved a lot fastethan anybody antited. if a week ago you had suggested that the president was going to call for an arrestment trial on treason for the chairman of thel house inence committee this week and go on to the pac as ramesh described, his negotiation 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 puts a lot of house republicans in a bad position. i mean, do you wan vt toe against an impeachment inquiry and then get overcome by events? i mean, to put you in a position in november of 2020hen i

looks like you wanted the dust everything under the rug becaus gihe velocity of the very risky vote for a lot of's a house republicans. the house democrats a grade on how they're pursuing this? >> well, i thire have been some errors. i think that chairman schiff's disassembling about his contacts or staff contacts with the istleblower was an unforced r, but i think the key thi going forward, the politically smarthing to do is not to constantly be trying t figure out the politically smart thing to dot each stagof the process. we have to handle this as a serious inquiry by adults and not be distracted by theme 's polls. >> woodruff: do you think they're doing that now? >> i think they're trying. i thi speaker nancy pelosi hasay made a very concerted effort to get democrats to take a step

gleeful about con tell mic this administration, but to rather have a posture of seeing where the facts go. >> woodruff: mark, you have been watching this city for aim longe. do you think this is something the democrats can get done? can they get something like this, the inquiry finished, move on potentially to an actual impeachment vote in a matter of a few weeks or months? >> i think proybaonths, judy. just take somody like mike pompeo, secretary of state, they were talking seriously a week ago abouhim running for united states senate from kansas. he was the idivitable cante for republicans. i think he's a lot less so today. dhis is reaching out an touching more and more people. i do disagree with ramesh on schiff and the intelligence committee. i think it's abolsely natural that the whistleblower, a professional public employee,wo d go to the staff. i mean, he has been surrounded by people who haven hostile,

and i think it's very frank, and we ought to taknotice ohe fact that the only reason we're aware of what's happened isbe use of career public employees. the weren't political appointees. these are people who are nameless faces who get attacked by every cheap shot in a political campaign, but foreign service and c.i.a. and the department ojuste, the i.g., was a deptmt of justice 15-year attorney, so i think it's time to give credit to the people who pow their of service above t ir own self-interest. t woodruff: i do want tn to the 2020 candidates here and ask you, quickly, numr one, is joe biden hurt by this? what do you ink? >> well, biden, i think, had been sinking in the demin tocrac mrimaries, and senator elizabeth warren had been g on pretty strong, even before this story but i think those trends have

continued since that story has blown up. i don't know if biden has been sufficiently agile in making his case and being aggressive and saying, look, the president is afraid of me. i think he started to sound that note, but its a little late. >> okay, joe biden ought to take a le of the campaign of grover cleveland where he was nominated at the convention by deneral edmund bragg who sai cleveland had alienated the democratic organization -- the corrupt democratic organization, and big money on the republican si, and he stood up and said we love grover cleveland for the enems he has made. joe biden ought's -- joe biden's campaign ought to havehe wisdom to stand up and say it's obvious they are so terrified against joe biden, they don't want to 'tn against joe biden,y and that's trump has been doing everything, and i think that's a natural way to comegr

back, but iee he has slipped. >> woodruff: one thing, new information that's come in, and that's how much money the democrats raisedn the last quarter. joe biden came inourth among all democrats. both the "new york times" and "the washington post are reporting tonight that bernie sanders did have a heart attack this week. we knew there was an incident, artery, but the reporting is hen had a heart attack. having said that, we swed the graphic, he picked up more than $25 million, bnie sanders di5 , better than all of the -- all oi his comrs, elizabeth warren came in after him, and then pete buttigieg and joe goden, and we just showed our audience -- we'rg back and forth here, but we just showed them president trump amount andeth 125 million, of course, overshadowing everything that the democrats have done. but ramesh, what if we learned right now?bers if an

>> i think they tend to confirm the trends that we're talking about that warren has been rising and biden has been sinking. biden is close in his fundraising to andrew yang thano sanders or warren. we know senator sanders had a strong fan ways and i think one thing this fundraising appeal shows us is she's not going to be fading out and muscled out of the primaries in favor of som other candidate who can stay in the long haul, if he wants. >> woodruff: what dosee in these numbers, mark. >> money matters, make no mistake. bernie, god bless him, his numbers in the polbels hav slipping, but $25 million, he has a committed donor base. elizabinh warren surged bot the polls and in money, ise impressive, mao mistake about it. i don't think this campaign is money, i likely don't.t o >> woodruff: well -- among the democrats. >> woodruff: one thior sure right now, it's the president who's getting most to

have the asention in thi campaign. mark shidsramesh ponnuru, thank you. >> thank you. you're welcome. >> woodruff: tonight, we continue our series, "china: power and prosperity," withca what the u.ss "one of the worst human rights crises of our time." uighurs are muslims who trace years to centralsia.thousands of today, most of them, about 11 million, live in the chinese province xinjiang. they represent less than 1% of the population in a country that is more than 92% han chinese, the ethnicity that china traces back to an ancient empir communist china has long persecuted people based on their religi t the u.s., internationa groups, and uighurs say this is different. they accuschina of throwing

uighurs into camps, and targeting their religion and entire culture. with the support of the pulitzer center, nick schifrin reports erom a city many uighurs fled to-- istanbul. >> schifrin: istanbul is 2,500 miles from xinjiang, china. muslim uighurs who live here are ee, but their minds are still imprisoned. >> ( translated ): i never imagined this could happen in the 21st century: innocent people subject to cuffs on their hands, shackles, and black hoods over their heads.er t schifrin: gulbahar jalilova lives alone in a small apartment.ju the es she suffered in chinese detention two years ago have healed, but she hasn't gotten over 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 bodies were bruised, their heads swlen. after three montthey put a black hood over my head and took

me away. >> schifrin: is it still upsetting? ( silence ) what are you thinking about?wh >> ( translated ): i feel like i'm in there right now. ther in the cell. i'll never forget this as long as i live. they destroyed my life. >> schifrin: abdulsalam muhammad also found sanctuary her on the banks of the bospherous. he and every uighur we spoke to live in self-imposed ele, because they are too scared of the chinese government to go home. can you describe for us what that detention center was like? >> ( translated ): they broughtr ne in there because they called us "suspicious."is thernimaginable oppression inside.

every day, they'd toss us ale lireadnd water so that we didn't die, and every day they would interrogate 15 or 20u of us wiearable brutality. we are a people who've lost their freedom. b ame their target because we'd studied religion, and because we had influence in ou society. then, after taking us to a cp, they tell us that we hadn't a dothing wrong-- that they were just ucating us. >> schifrin: the ahinese say th re-educating uighurs by teaching them chinese and vocational skills. this is state media video. the detainees we interviewed, and international researchers, call it staged and scripted, a facade that hides what's really happeng. as seen in the oisy video that of a camp under construction, the entrance has an iron gate, the windows have bars, and the cells look lik jails. and, in this drone video the u.s. believes is authentic, prisoners in blue with shavedhe

s are kept blindfolded, and are led away, one police officer per prisoner. muhammad says what the chinese call schools for re-education are actually prisons for brainwashing. >> ( outranslated ): the ten of class they would teach one day were the exact same ten hours they'deach the next. the goal was to ch our minds, our faith, our beliefs. it was a plot to force us to renounce our religion. >> schifrin: the chinese call some muslim uighur caltremists and terrorists. in 2009, uighurs in xinjiang's capital rioted. almost 200 died, and hundreds more were injured, mostly han chinese, the ethnic group that represents 9f the y. uighur militants affiliated with al qaeda took credit for this 2013 attack in tiananmen square that killed two people, and china blames male and female uighur militants for this 2014 knife attack that lled moreor than 30.os

attacks are claimed by uighurs who call xinjiang "east turkistan," which self-declared independce in the 20th century. ina says it's administered xinjia since 60 b.c., and foreign minister wang yi says china is fighting separatists. >> the education and training centers are schools that help the people free thselves from the influence of extremism and terror and acquire professional skills. the centers are anything but horrific "concentration mps." >> schifrin: but in xinjiang and a neighborinprovince, residents say china's launcheda' a campaign against islam. the government has partially or completely destroyed at least a dozen mosques. and, uighurs say the chinese aren't only targeting their ligion. in istanbul, uighurs describe how china criminalized uighur language and all uighur culture. international researchers have t callt campaign "cultural genocide." ♪ ♪ha chineven banned uighur ban

music. ♪ ♪ yusup sulayman sings about a d lture that's been lost, people who've been silenced. >> ( translated ): they're disappearing our famous artistss cos, and songwriters beforeone else. they're disappearing our intellecals. they've burned what they wanted to burn, and scrubbed what they >> schifrin: he gaotos of all his family members who have disappeared into camps. he hasn't heard from ae of th in man two years. >> ( translated ): the absolute worst thing is that i dotht know whethe're dead or alive. our communication is completely cut of >> schifrin: abliz ablikim says many uighur men have been powerless to protect theirm families fe chinese government. can you tell me how a han chinese basically ended up as a member of your family? >> ( translated ): ever since

the government began l up most of the men, women, children, and the elderly haved. been left behi the government has sent officials to be "ears" in these households. they sent one to my uncle's house. >> schifrin: his aunt in uighur clothes, his uncle in uighur clothes holding his baby cousin. and then, a han chinese man, posing like a membere family. but he's not a member of the family.on was he force your family? >> ( translated ): he was forced. heouldn't be able to live there if he weren't. >> schifrin: state media does stories on han chinese inserted into uighur familiese and calls thprogram "united as one family."io 1.1 mihan chinese haveha been sent by the government into muslim homes in your opinion, why is the chinese vernment doing this? >> ( translated ): they refer to uighurs as criminals. if we k them what our crime is, they say openly: aren't you uiur?

that's crime enough. >> schrin: in xinjiang's capital, a huge statue of chairman mao looms over th city. in multiple interviews acrosscr 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 ministry's think-tanks. china andhe united states, i think that we feel the same about extremists. we also have this danger of terrorism. the best way to eradicate radicalisms to provide education, to provide development. >> schifrin: there have been cases of imprisonment, that are on a male. not just of terrorists or suspected terrorists, butbutnt actuallye families and entire cities. o >> well, these are just,, that's just somebody's trying to write a story about it-- >> schifrin: meaning, you ctink they're n? >> yes. if you have only interviewed

those people who, for some reasons, who are paid for, you know, somehow-- >> schifrin: do you think they're paid to tell these stt ies? >> i do ow. i'm only saying that they muste have a sour income. you ask them, how many policemen have been injured, just by terrorists? pursuing terroristn the name of international researchers say china turnedinjiang into an open air prison. local residents say police keep close eye on all uighurs interrogate them wherever they go, check their documents every checfew feet, d forcibly collect d.n.a. samples. and researchers identify at least 85 camps-- and probably many more-- across xinjiang. all are recently built. a barren field in august 2016 became, in one year, whatin o researchers say is a former school, turned into a camp with barricades and barbed-wire. just six miles away, researchers

say another camp started being built in early 2017. by late 2018, there were barricades, watch towers, and barbed-wire enclosures, and more than a million square feet of buildiays. the u.s.more than a millioghurs have disappeared into chinese detention. on the outskirts of istanbul, uighurs have been doing their ten building, to try and p their identity. it's a school where hundreds ofs uighur chiren are being raised and educat in uighur language and history. the children are all right, because their memories aren't formed. but the adults stare into the distance, trying, but failing, to forget. aqil shaky is the enish teacher. >> first, my mother was arrested. and three months later, they released my mother-- dead. de body. my mother wavery healthy.ry h she was at home.

three months later, she died. >> schifn: walking through hallway, it is impossible to walk through here without adult askingare their story. so we assembled five of them. could you raise your hand if yol have mulmembers of your family currently in the camp in xinjiang? xinjiang after the chinese threatened to take his passport. today, he is the school security guard. he hasn't heard from his family since he left them, three years ago. >> ( translated ): i told my children farewell, and we will inet again. that's the only i got to say to them. i never thought this would happen. i'm security here. they provide my meals. at ts age, i cannot do anything else. that is what allah gave me. i'm incredibly lonely. >> schifrin: everyone here has their own stories of family imprisonment. both of tursun yasin's brothersl 42-year-abdugeni musa'sol

daughter, and otr children. ablet tursun spent one month inside a camp. and, 72-year-old amina emet is the principal's mother. do you know where your children are? >> ( translated ): i don't know. i am searching for any kind of news every day. >> schifrin: the chinese say they have closed the camps, and uighurs have returned home. but everyone here says their family members are stillti missing. grandchildren, and, spouses, are still missing. >> ( translated ): i wish god would free us from the chinese. the uighurs are too weak too we resist. there are no uighur people left, no people left in our homeland. 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 thing fear of disappom the world. >> schifrin: a few miles away,gu ahar jalilova's mind is still in detention. >> (anslated ): i'm drinking tea, i'm eating bread. but those helpless peoe.e are desper they don have enough to eat. i see themll in front of me, as if i were still in the camp myself. >> schifrin: after she was released, she wrote down all tho names of the pple in her cell. >> qembernisa, meryem, asiye melim, ayshe, gulbahar uzbek... could be tens of thousands of cells across xinjiang, china.pi >> z, aynisem, aynisaxan,ax asiyem qeshqer, mehtube, mehbiret, turghuna guzel, saket...

>> schifrin: for the p newshour, i'm nick schifrin in istanbul. on tomorrow's edit pbsnary. newshour weekend, our ten-part "china" series ends from hong kong, as nick schifrin looks at the fight over freedoms there. and on the newshour online, we v takeual look at the uighur community in china, and the vast swath of so-called "re-education lcenters," in which st one million uighurs are being held. you can watch all of the sto from our series, "china: peace and prosperity" online, at w.pbs.org/newshour. and at is the newshour for tonight. w i'm judyoodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, andood night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour h been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> supporting social

entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the william and flora hewlett fountion. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting betterutio to promot world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc

tonight on kqed newsroom, the fight over impeachment ramp its up, and we'll get the latest on this week's revelations and recriminations. plus, a new survey gauge mood of california voters from concerns about the state's future to the tougheissues facing the state. welcome to kqednewsroom. we begin with the latest development in the impeachmen inquiry of president trump. earlier today, the three house committees leading the impeachment investi demanded documents from vice president mike pence about the ukraine, and dealings with