captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good eveng. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: all the president's lawyer's men. two associates of rudy giuliani are arrested on campaign finance charges as the u.s. house subpoenas them in the impeachment inquiry. then, crossing the line. kurdish civilians attempt to flee for safety as the turkish invasion into northern syria >> sally, you'esveca nlaevteersa street like sesame street. everything happens here, you'ree nna t. >> woodruff: this show is brought to you by the number fifty. a half-century of learning and growing with the neighbors of sesame street. >> we have a 50-year history of reaching child those

critical early years when you can make the most difference. and have them arrive at school ready to learn and ready to thrive. and so it's not just the academics, it's the social emotional skills. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. or pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economice performancd financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs u.ation from viewers like thank you. impeachment inquiry: two in the associates of rudy guiliani who were to appear befe congress today and tomorrow were arrested on charges of violating campaign finance law. the two: lev parnas and igor fruman were apprehended at t on a u.s. attorneyay tickets ouo

in new york d assistant f orref. o how they strike at the heart of our democratic system. >> they sought political influence not only to advance their own financial stinte t s,to advance the political interests of at least one foreign official, a ukrainian government official who sought the dismissal of the u.s. ambassador to ukraine. a >> theegations are not about some technicality, a civil violorm. this investigation is about corrupt behaviorat.onion for ao deliberate lawbreaking. >> woodruff: to breakdown these latest developments and how the oamerican public view the own lisa desjardins and yamiche alcindor. helltomi both iof'm yooiung. t to you first. tell u who these are and what is their connection to rudy giuliani? >> well, the allegations laid out against them are very serious in this 21-page

indictment. parnas and fruman are accused of trying to funnel foreign moneyin u.s. elections to try to interfire with u.s. elections. they're accuse of setting up companies to mask donations to u.s. politicians and candidates inuper pac. they are accused of working with of with president trump and rudy ths iman to pressure ukraine toi liani s rudy giu is saying he is not really connected with these two men in the work they are doing, they were accused of trying to meddle in theelection. they are two men hoe democrats nt to know a lot about. therare photos of president trump and these two men circling around on the internet, both with rudy giuliani and withesidk questions about this on the white house law he says i do know these two men. i take photos with a lot ofpe differenle. the president says he hopes rudy giuliani doesn't get indicted, but he wouheldn't sayer or

not he was concerned about that. it's also important to note these two men we arrested, as you said, with one-way tickets on an international flight.o federal secutors essentially saying they were trying to get out of town. rudy giuliani says they were just going on a business trip.uf >> woo again, so much to follow. so, lisa, tell us more absout hw all tis relates tukraine as yamiche mentioned and to the house impeachment inquiry. >> there are so many complicated threads. about right now distinctly. first of all, we know that these two men worked not only for rudy giuliani, but specifically, that they assisted the president's-- juul's work for president trump. we also know from reports from many different ouets that these two were pushing ukraine to investigate vice president den and his son hunter biden. also, these two men are cited i the whistleblower complaint. so it does draw together some oh theseads. judy, also today, we had a new subpoena, not only for these two men, but for enrgy secretary rick perry.

how does th connect? part of that subpoena is asking for information about why perry was pushing for a change in nagement at a ukrainian energy company. who else might have an interest in thrainian energy company? democrats say, these two men also had interest in that ukrainian energy company. to thisuzzle, many questionsges still remain. >> woodruff: nowseparately om all this, yamiche, we have the results of now of a new poll, pbswshour/npr/maris of how voters are reacting to the impeachment oquiry. whate see fla? >> this new poll out this afternoon shows a slim majoritya ericans now support going forward with an spoovment trinquiry against presidenmp. i want to walk you through some of the numbers. the polls show national sutpp for an impeachment inquiry is up from two weeks ago. two weeks ago, 49% of u.s. adults supported an impeachment inquiry.

now it's 52%. those numbers dovestale tailwith "washington post," fox news, and a next of polls that show the majority of americans want to e an impeachment inquiry. independents are a big part of two weeks another 44% supported an impeachment inquiry. now a pel out today shows an uptick to 54%. dent's bad news for pre trum he wouldn't answer qustions about this poll spifically at the white house lawn today, but what it tells you is that the process prt is essentially facing more pressurei wth the impeachment inquiry as he says he did nothing wrong, as heys he does not want to comply with house democrat s. >> woodruff: fascinating. lisa i know they are watching this closely on alcohol. >> democrats were not jumpi in the aisles over this, but they do feel this add to the cloud t over thmp presidency, and it raises more questions abtit corruption in his administration and among those around him. get details themselves.rying to they think this adds to what

they see as their narrative, which is this is anha administrationtries to emogacrs atcrs uarele also payie ion to some other kind of effects of this. is part idictment toay, it named these two men had been reaching out to a specific congressman. we know from transaction, dates, times, and other reporting, that that congressman is former congressman pete sessions of texas. there he is right th he's not just any republican. he was chairman of the rules committee, a very powerfu position. the allegation here in the indictment is that these two men were trying to gethim to leverage donations with him to get him to pressure for the ouster of tht ukrainian ambassador. hoe has released a statementreac ansaio .he tue i nengver disadyi anything like. but, judy, he's trying to g back into congress. so this is, again, where democrats se gain forh tem. two other quick notes about what's happening with democrats tonight. losi nancy pelosi is planning aall tomrow afternoon with all of the democratic members in congress. they are-- in the house, rather.

they're going to talk about impeachment, and talk about things like do they hold fua ll house vote? what do they doy mve? as these layerpile u democrats will have to choose which ones they pursue and how. lo tomorrow, ambassador maramie yovanovitch, is supposed to testify behind closed doors. and my semocratic sourys they think she's going to come. we'll see. it's tomorrow morning. we'll know in 24 hours. >> woodruff: her tmony was delayed from last week. >> tat's right. >> woodruff: and you reminded us there has not beean ae foch . >> not by the house,ight. >> woodruff: thank you both. >> woodruff: in thday's other news, ukraine's president denied that president trump sought to

blackmail him by withholding military aid unless kiev investigated the president's democratic rival, joe biden. volodymyr zelensky also vowed for the first time that hisuntre whether ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential eltion. he said they'd also look into the ukrainian gas company burisma tied to joe biden's son. >> ( translated ): indeed we are ready to investigate the burisma hese and interference from ukrainian side into u.s. elections in 2016, if it happened.we aeande ed before, if it will be a joint investigative team of u.s. and ukrainian general prosecutors. >> woodruff: president trump has claimed ukraine involvement in a democratic plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. but there has been no evidence support this. turkey's ground and air assault against kurdish fighters in northern syria raged for and seay as tens of thousands of civilians near the border

tempted to fle wh against the islamic state to focus instead on battling turkish troops. we'll get an inside look at the conflict later in the program. back in this country, more than 1.5 million people ihern and central california were in the dark today, after the state's largesutility shut off beeir electricity. nnoff g thyee stpoerwedar y,to g wildfires as strong winds moved through the drier than usual region. we'll exple the impact of this unprecedented move right after the news summary. a powerful snowstorm is roaring through the great plains and th central rockieday, threatening to dump up to two feet of snow in some parts of it was a slick morning commute for drivers in cities like billings, moana and rapid city, south dakota, which saw eight inches of snow. and in denveadolr,o,or

64 degrees since yesterday. apple has removed a digital app that helped hong kong protesters track police movements, amid a back f apple said the demonstrators had used the real-time mapping app, hkmap.live, to ambush law enforcement. in beijing, a chinese foreignng type of support foongoingced any protests. ( anexsleme and violent criminalas appening in hong kong have law and its social,g's rule of when it comes to these kinds of extreme and violent criminalso acts it is rble to oppose and resist rather than support and conne." >> woodruff: the app appeared to still wo for users in hong kong who downloaded it before it was removed from apple's app store. the environmental protectionprow

communities test their water for lead contamination. it's the first time the rule has been revamped in three decades, and includes stricter testing requirements at schools and day care centers, among other things. that comes after tainted water crises in flint, michigan; newark, new jersey; and other areas exposed tens of thousands of residents to the toxic metal. the number of deaths linked to vaping has climbed to 26-- up from 18 just last week. the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention reported today almost 1,300 confirmed and probable cases of lung conditions tied to vaping. every state but alaska has now reported vaping-related illnesses. the nobel prize for literature was awarded today to austrian author pet handke and polish novelist olga tokarczuk. two recipients were announced this year since no one won in18 ollowing a sexual misconduct scandal involving the

swedish academy that bestows the honor. tokarczuk hailed the academy today for recognizing literature from central europe. >> for me as a polish person, it seshows that despite all t problems with mocracy in my congtry, we still have somet to say to the world and we have very strg literature, very strong culturend i am part of this big, big power. >> woodruff: h fellow recipient, peter handke, hasfene balkan wars in the 1990s. today, theon-profit-p organization pen america issued a rare statement opposing his nobel win. it cited that handke h "persistently called into questionhoroughly documented war crimes." neroof hh-l tre

talks between the u.s. and china >> to roll back the 2010 dodd-frank act. it would change rules on living willlls that big banks must develop if they fail. and, stocks rallied today as a new round of high-level trade talks between the u.s. and china got underway in washington. president trump said the ll"ry,reions were going " ly on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 150 points to close at 26,496. the nasdaq rose 47 points, and the s&p-500 added more than 18. still to come on the newshour, turkish forces escalate thetu invasion. the lights go out in californi what is driva outage? a new book reexamis the russia inquiry and the president's troubled relationsp with the f.i.

plus much more. >> woodruff: the power is still out in northern california and a wide swath of the state. the blackout was planned by utility ofcials to reduce e risks of wildfire as high winds but many don't agree with that timing or reasoning. and as william brangham tells us, the anger is building around cefie ofes and local gtnmoven >> this is my neighborhood right now. >> brangm: across northern california overnight, entire communities turned invisible to the naked eye. the region was plunged into darkness after the california utility company pgwe shut down poover fears high winds could bring down lines and start wildfires.

pg&e initially said it would afct up to 800,000 househos, which according to other estites could impact nearly >> i think they jumped the gun in my opinion. turning it off is good, but wait til it's dgerous. >> pg&e should have taken care of this for the past 50 years.>> rangham: pg&e says it restored power today to ndreds of thousands but warned some outages could last for days. a statement today read: "we faced a choice between hardship or safety, and we chose safety. we deeply apolognve for the inience and the hardship, but we stand by the decision." stocked up on ice and supplies, shopping in stores left in virtual darkness. stsssihaesneayt t to operate cash-only. elsewhere, authorities reported several traffic accidents overnight which resulted inov injuries. the decision to shut down power came as high winds and ditionslarly dry c increased the threat of new

wildfires. but california governor gavin newsom said the reason for blackouts falls squarely on pg&e. conditions, it was unnessary. we're doing everything in our power, my gosh, to help them help themselves. now it's time for them to do the right thing. t >> brangha electric utility has been held liable for its role in priowildfires in 2017 because of downed power lines. isit filed for bankruptcy year after last year's devastating "camp fire" which was believed to have been triggered in parby pg&e transmission lines. that blaze killed 85 people ande destroye of thousands of buildings.m: >> branget's hear more about the impact of this blackout. matthias gafni of "the san francisco chronicle" is covering it in northern california and joins me from oakland.tt as, thank you very much for being here. i know you have been driving around in the regions, some of them that have keen blacout

right now. whate. >> yeah, it's really frustrated lia lot of people i'sn the i ar. me anst, rugglirng to know what too with their food, for child care, for schools. ere's moms, new moms who are ferretg out what to do with their frozen breasmilk. it really runs the gamu coiefo alondt,f people. and they just want to know when it's going to en >> blackouts are one of those things thaemphasize how many parts of our life are dependent cn ittri lethinkic about think abo, hospalals, stores. of those places are now seeming in some sort of crisis mode. most of them are closed, frankly. i mean, i went around a small rity today in the major kind of business dist, and i didn't find much open. i saw a janitor at aar who was figuring out how keep the beer cold, you know. the people are trying to

maintain and figure out howo kind of get through . and you see grocery stores with empty shelves, because they hada to dum their perishables. some people-- but most of the f ople i visited today had just closed up shop andere gointo wait it out. >> now pg&e says it's really dry. it's really windy. thheindot dwnhe powr eand triggesor newne fires. how are reopponding to that rationale in do they understand it? twhan >> yeah, that's really the tricky part. you know, we had two straight years of just devastatingin wildfire northern california right around here, around this time of the year. and at the time, for the first ike this, whichpg&e divt d sehul is what they do in southern california, utilitioeswn

year. and, ye the camp fire. and i think the camp fire last year w aatershed moment. they had warned that they might dawithstwnn.al de l ththwea ititeria forhen they would do . rnd their electricityound up causing this incibly deadly fire where more than 80 people died. so i think a lot of people understand that, but at the same time, they realize that this is an incredible inconvenience. and they just hope it's done better,ow she's shu. >> i mean, obviously, people pay their utility bills. they ve some reasable expectation that the power would stay on somewhat cistently. is there a viable, long-term solution to this thatn' does pulv hininotte opg t pentand wendy? >> it's really. ere'pee-- yoknri one tc side of the spectrum say you run this utility. you shouldn't have to shut it

down to keep it safe. this should be safe to begin with when you talk about increasing climate issues thatd of putting a lot of strenarss on e system, that can be difficult. that's also putting strss on nature. heycaana lot of dead trees in verysoeot'sle are concerned that, you know, pg&e i is a publicly traded company, 'reye rgethcaine reral public ag them safe. so there's a lance that needs to be ruck there, that's, you know, incredibly difficult, and a lot people say, you know, make it go public. san francisco has thought about buying out pg&e d taking it difficulty there, too. dohey want to take on t liable if something bad happens? >> i imagine this h just got to be so frustrating for so many people. and some of to, usbvheislyg ho w

long this is going to go. is this-- is pg&e giving people a sense of how long their lights will be a ballpark idea. t mean, the weather even hopefully is going to be ending by the end of today. but that doesn't mean your power's coming right back on. my power is out. i'm not expecting it to be on for a day or two. and the reason i once the weather subsides and you don't have that threat, pg&e has to go out and inspect all the lines before they even think abot re-energizing those lines. and i talked to a pg&e official yesterday who compared all the lines that they'll have to atstind le inigp iianafecnst ng up-- if you lined them all up, it would equate to the circumference of the earth, the entire equator. >> wow. and, obviously, there's no predicting whether or not this has to be redone in weeks ormo hs ahead. matthias gafni of the "san francisco chronicle," thank you very much for your >> thanks for having me.

>> woodruff: the situation in syria is escalating a dangerous pace. turkey continues its military assault into northern sy forcing tens of thousands to flee. are at risk. amna nawas has the latest. >> nawaz: inside syria's northern border, turkish tanks let loose a hail of gunfire. turkey stepped up its assault on u.s. allied syrian kurdish forces on the ground. and in the air. on day two of the offensive, turkisplanes bombed kurdish- held towns, dotting the syrian skyline with smoke. near qamishili in northeastern syria, families fledor the iraqi border.

>> ( translated ): laseynight, thiredthe siation not gd at rks aralwel. iein ttal rhose still in tn family killed by the airstrikes. in ankara, turkish president recep tayyip erdogan defended the operation, dubbed "peace spring." abprtierryauisgh jsl t like all the other operations carried out by turkey, the aim of the peace spri cs ngibliontitotol utintrt. >> nawaz: turkey says the territory should ilude a 20- mile buffer zone along the syrian border to progainst syrian kurds, who it views as terrorists. turkey today hit a numbeldof kurdish-heorder towns.on the assaulhe u.s. kurdish allies came after the u.s. withdrew its forces from the area monday. with erdogan on the phone aboute the removal, giving turkey a grees.light to attack the kurd the syrian kurds played key role in the u.s. led anti-isis coalition that took back territory held by the so-cald

"islamic state." after coming under fire for the troop withdrawal, president trump threatened econoc actionns agturkey, a nato ally, over the aac weetmo aasngtothisfter tinon, president trump tweighed : we are going to possibly do something very very tough withrd regao sanctions and other financial things.>> nawaz: the o announced today it had in its custody two is fighters from a group of four known as "the beatles" for their british accents. they were known for beheading prisoners. experts worry that other isisai fighters dd in syria by kurdish forces could escape amid e but turkey's foreign minister slt.id it willth take auover toe prisons if the assault on the kurds succeeds. >> it will be our responsibility to make sure that they will be held accountable for what they did. will not be released. >> nawaz: but others including a >> nawaz: iresponse to

criticism, erdogan threatened to send turkey's 3.6 million syrian refugees to europe. >> ( translated ): if you try to label this operation as an invasion, it's very simple, we will on the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way. >> nawaz: sie the fighting started wednesday, an estimated 60,000 have already fled their hos nerinthorn syria. the violence threatens some 450,000 syrians who live within three miles of the turkish border. human rights groups say they are all at ris >> nawaz: and for an inside look, we have sinam mo. she's the u.s. representative for the syrian democratic council, the political wing of the syrian democratic forces, the coalition of kurdish, arabty and other minoroups fighting on the ground in northeast syria. the council's mission is to work toward impmenting a "secular, democratic, and decentralized system for all of syria." welcome to the newshour >> thank you so much. >> i have to ask you, turkish president erdogan has said the purpose of thse fights is to

fight and target terrorists on the ground. you have been in contact witthh people on the ground in those communities. what are you hearing today? >> unfortunately, what's going on, onhhe ground, it is not same tng that mr. erdogan isin te first of all, this attack has been launched from sterday, and even though the agreement between the united ates and turkey and the s.d.f. about the security mechanism, how to lave this border safe, t agreed to. weh agriseed becausse we wantedo have this area's peace. wanted to avoid the war in the area. unfortunately, i mean, erdogan, he is not satisfied with this agreement. although we are showing greexat ility in this agreement, they say, "you have to withdraw all thhte figs, the kurdish

fighters." we withdrew about five kilometers away from the border. they say, "you have to pull all e heavy weapons from the border." we did it. and we pulled back all the heave ons away from the border. >> you're saying in those negotiations-- >> this is in the agreement. >> you did not expt the turkish forces to launch this offensive.th >> this is wha united states told us. "okay, this agreement will be to avoid the war betweenurkey no >> yes.ck y.ou and th is is >>what weto agree. >> so when president trump said that the u.s. forces would be leaving, did yonu moow thing in? >> it was suddenly this happwhed. erdogan is gathering all his forces and his army across r border, to the border, that time here we were in the united states, and we asked them, "he is gathering all the forces and it seems he's not satisfi what's going on in our agreement." they say, "he's erdogan. wh cane

on the ground." suddenly what happened, the u.s. pulled back their forces from the border on of turk dispe put it back indeyria. and this makes turkey to come and to attack this region. >> yes, and ize apolowe don't have too much time. i do want to get to some of the people you have been talking tot ground. what are they telling you? >> now, the situation is very catastrophe. turkey is shelling from air space, and from the artery. and they are shelling all over the border from the euphrates river to the tigris river, to the border of iraqi river. it is about 450 kilometers long, they are shelling. >> and what is the impact on the ground. >> all the civilians. the civilians re there. they are shngelhe cities where there are civilians. for instance, ve you one egixl ai wimple.

ey one of thiee cityesterday, shelled a neighborhood. two people are killedthey were christians, and the others are injured. now we have people against this attack of tukey. and its inhabited. its 400,000 living there turkey is shelling the demonstration, and 10 people ats isawh shelling the civilian-- >> but you're hearing they ar shelling civilians as well. >> yes. >> i want to ask you something ortetmofal iotsa earlier. they said they think i this is a big mistake. they wished turkey had noted launhis. they plan to work with the s.d.f. in the future. very brefly, do you se thee s.d.f. working with the u.s. again? >> they are still the

military. but we hope that they can stop this attack. this is what we hope. st hope that can theop this attack because we would like to have stability. we would like to hav the peace process talk in order to save the people, the syrian people. it's enough for the syrian people, they suffered lot through these eight years. and now this atack will be destabilizing the area, and will be the consequences of it, it will be very dangerous. >> you would like to see-- >> for syria and even for tuuley. >> you wlike to see the u.s. act right now. >> yes. >> sinan mohammad. thank you. >> nawaz: we invited the turkish ordessclamthed t.adite o taun we now get a perspective from turkey expert soner cagaptay. he's the director of the turkish research program at the washington institute for near east policy. 's also the author the n book "erdogan's empire." soner, welcome back to the newshour.

>> with pleasure, thank you. >> i want to ask you about this, the president of turkey said this is a national security concern. explain for us what is the thre? and how do these strikes address that threat? se there is a legitimate ri con here.di the kur group is an oflled p.k.a foreign terrorist, by the united states. and known as people's protection unit, y.p.g., is an oshoot of this group that is designated. this group is establishing a legal entity, a state-likeco entity, and ose turkey for a long time tolerated that because the united statesth partnered wit kurdish group to combat isis. with the defeat of isis, turkey wants not only this relationship to be reclso is going utaft aonsier b threid,s f this terrort group in nothern syria. >> let me ask you about thens fight ag isis. even u.s. officials say isis

could become resurgent again, and take the attention of the sa forces tht helped to defeat isis anl adld rowssert themselveses tu re. what do ay to that? >> that would be an unfortunate outcome and that's why i think coit's important for thinflict to come to a speedy end. the united states might be mediating between turkey and the fighting parties. i think, though, at this stage,t it is imporor washington to not appear as if it is mocking ourre unimating a severe security threat tot turkey. y rk sea united states alby treaty. it's a member of nato. and i think for a very long time, the turks are very patient work with this group that is a sworn enemy of ankara, and no of course they have gone after it. hopefully this will end up quite soon and we'll se me soore stability in northern syria. >> a state deptment official briefed some reporters earlier and mentioned they did nt think they they gave a greoen light in any way to president erdogan, and they hope this mission and operation concludes quickly.

do you have any idea of how long it will go on? i thinturkey at this stage wants to establish bridgeheads in northern syria. kara has done something quitents arab-majority areas in northern syria, where turkish troops would be more welcome than had they gone into kurdish-majority areas. g i don't think turk sego invade and h sld on to large parts of northern syria. they only want to establish oidgehes, populated by arabs dor w teeraken certaikurdish groups. >> there is a lot of talk about the group empinowturkey's position in the area. they could expand further. i'd like your thoughton that. i think i want to know if you think it empowers omar al-bashir. does it empower russia and iran? >> it probably does empower those parties and that's why there is a need for a global solution. other than lookg at isis problem,he united states has naturally looked into the other problem, ich is the problem of bashar al-assad, the dictator,

who has bombed medicine of people, ood he's the rt cause of the radicalization of syrian peh,le. i thinkhort of that, you cannot find a global fix to a serious problem. >> howivuch of this offedo you thk is driven as primarily security concern for president erdogan? how much of how much of it is him seeing an opportunity to make good on something he has wanted to do for a while, whi he is vulnerable electorally at >>meal?hoe rkish president erdoga i wrte an entire boo "the newk caltan." in thie, i think erdogan is right. the concern he has towards the rrorist group is shared by many who oppose him. there is broad consensus among turkey's 82 milon citizen that this is the time for turkey to act. otherwe, a terror group across the country's longest land border in syria will estdelish an inndent or autonomous political entity. so in this regard, the timing is right, and mr. erdogan is right. >> soner cagaptay of the

washington institute's turkish research program. ank you for your time. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: stawith us. coming up on the newshour, elmo, big bird, and all the residents of sesame street celebrate ale one anniversary.ac even as iment consumes much of washington's attention,n the president well as his critics and supporters still its continued falleller's and william brangham is back to dive into a new book that re-examines ofe story with a tough tak some of the central characters that drama. it's part of our "newshour bookshelf." puerzenemem: in his new book, stewart gives an in-depth look at the two of the most controversial recent investigations by the f.b.i. d the justice department:

nto hillary t irst,rohe pof a private emaie server when she was secretary of state, and then the investigation into russia'sth interference i2016 election, and whether anyone in the trump campaign participated in that effort, k tried to ble inquiry. the book is called "deep state: trump, the fd the rule of and james stewart me now. welcome. >> thank you. >> so "deep state" as we know it is a pejorative term about shadowy, unseen forces conspiring and pulling the loafers of power. and the president has repeatedly stated that certainly within the state of trump-hating agents and officers and officials. you've spent two years digging into this agency. is that true? >> it's utterly false. president trump has weaponized this notion of a deep state, orative into this pej term. there is a career bureaucracy.

there are independent agencies in this contry, and there are checks and balances, and in thic case there aecks on the power of the presidency. they're constitutionally designed to do that.c heuses anyone who unearths criticizes him as being part of this sinister deep state. in fat, to the extent they are independent, they are doing their constitutional duty, they are doing their patriotic duty to honortoheir pledg boroth support the constitution and recognize the ct they work for the people of the united states, not the president. >> as you roueatedly point in the book, if the names that evidence of the deep state--as strzokpage, comey, mccabe-- nf they wanted to do him ir o derail his presidency or candidacy, they could have. >> absolutely. i think many beam pooem do not realize-- because we didn't know it at the time-- both the russia illnvestigation were goig on at the same time before the

election. this extordinary situation where the f.b.i. is investigating both major candidates. one of the questions i wanted to swer in the bok was why was the clinton one public but we never heard about russia. if they wanted to drail trump, one leak would have crushed that campaign, not only a leak thaast itoing on, but a leak of some of the salacious details which we now know were being investigated. >> two of the st-notorious ople on the president's twitter speed feedare peter strzok. peter strzok was the man who helmed the hillary clinton investigation and took over the beginnings othe russia investigation and e.sa pag e denied and lied about act that they were having an affair and that they excnged many of these very hostile texts expressing anip pea of the president, your book goes to great lengths in som the partisan villains we've been led to believe.

>> that's correct. and i want to clarify. peter strzok never did lie about obviously, neither one of them wanted it to become public, and they never thought it wouldme beublic, and they ended it before it did become public. let's put that aside for a moment. they did have an affair, they did, in what they thought werepr ate texts, expressed political views that were hostile to trump. but everyone in the f.b.i., everyone in the government, everyone in this country has first amendment right to thinkn whatever they everybody has political views. some are pro-trump, from anti-trump, some pro-clinton, anti-clinton. do their views affect their professional work? and in both my investigation and a thorough investigation by the inspector general, the conclusion was, no, it nev conte times when both page and strzok were harder on hillary clinton than their colleagues wanted to be and softer on trump.r they were cautious aboutmenting to make trump the

t bjofec.i. -invaes- tiogation. >> perhaps the most complicat s, some wouy damning portrait in this book is of rod rosenstein, the acting attorney, who came in after sessions recused m. he appointed robert mueller to take over the investigation. and largely, at first, was seena as a clming influence. >> rosenstein to me is both a fascinating aracter and someone who kind of captures what has happened to many people who cou into the trmp administration with the highest of motives, wanting to serve the country, and tey slowly but surely get brought into this vortex o amorality, dishonesty, expediency, and they seem to endes.nd bringea see cutomer. he almost immediately got sucked in by trump to providing a false rationale for firing comey. trump wanted hip to have a press conferencend claim he was the one who told trump it fire comey over the-- comey's handling of clinton. all of this was completely false. and i think it completely unnerved him.

and he also-- there's a dramatic scene in the book where he confides in andrew mccabe. there's no one he can trust. he can't to mccabe or sessions or underlings in the justice department. and after co left everyone kind of wish iey,i flabbergasted. he then proposes wiring himself to secretly record trump, invoking the 25tendment-- >> he has denied that, that hee atam.ny of thh >> he said that the wiring thing was joke. it's not aan joke, as youee in context. and he denied the 25th amendment thing, but there are witnesses to that. i'm amply persuadedhat that did happen. i think he was somewhat-- he was unnerved by what was happening to him and the position he was thrust into. and you then see he manageto keep his job, what he had to promise trump to do, that i don't really know. werdon't really know. his defenders havld me that he was solely focused on helping mueller over the finish ine.

but what compromisees were made? why didn't mueller rach a conclusion on obstruction? why didn't mueller include thess evbout rosenstein in his report? why in the end did rosenstein g alth barr's characterization of the report, which was a btant mischaracterization,his mueller elf said in a letter. >> we know the mueller report comes out, we saw the impact it had on c ouruntry. the president is now involved in another invesgation, this impeachment inquiry, about whether he's trying to get reign governments like ukraine, perhaps china, to investigate joe biden. does-- does what we are seeing documented about the psident's havior now make sense to you given the two yearsou spent looking at the president's behavior during the election and thereafter? >> it makes total sense to me. if you read last few prafs of n "deep state"t to mention all that's gone beore it-- it's almost as thoh this was going be inevitable. the relationship is there are

certainly qualities that emerge in "deep state" that are built into trump's d.n.a. nob one, he's extremely impulsive. two, he doesn't listen to anyone around him. three, if people don't let him get his wa, he gets riof en makes it look like he has something to hide over cover up. and,nally, the important thing, he doesn't really recognize the constraints of law on his office. all he concluded, as far as i can tell from the whole mueisllr e, which put the country through years of turmoil, is it was a total vic fto him. he was exonerated. he won. and it only emboldened him to go out and behave inen evn e rumori gacked one critical piece of evidence, to coitnclude that he broact law, which was that truhp elf didn't instigate or conspire with anyone to get a foreign government involved. what has he done now? hemakes a phone call, where asks a foreign government to undertake acts that would

interfere with the next election. he just handed the democra the very missing piece from the mueller report. that is, i find, pretty flabbeasting. >> t book is "dp state: ulemp, the f.b.i., and the of law."james b. stewart , thanu very much. >> thank you. f: >> woodret's close out tonight with a little muppet talk. children's television.h now lann beyond all of the fun, humor and songs, the show has oing serious work to reach out to families in need that's t widely known by the general puic. its latest effort: a new initiative with its well-known characters to help families deal with aiction, including alcoholism, drugs and opioids. hari sreenivasan looks at that work and how it fits into th

program's growing legacy. it's part of our arts and culture series, "canvas." >> sally, you've never seen a street here like sesame street. you're going to love it.re >>ivasan: ever since big bird and his friends took their first steps onto their mneighborhood full of har brownstones and into public television households, the program's creators have always had a few goals in mind for its young audience. it all seems as simple as a-b-c today.ck but bahen, its secret sauce television.dented for children's it provided children with a mix of early childhood education, social and emotional learning, and hundreds of guest stars toic keep parents engaged a. >> sreenivasan: at the samee time, eators wove diversity into the show's d.n.a. at a time when that was not mmon in tv.

over its more than 4,500 episodes, 35 tv specials, and the 1,000-plus fuzzy characters it introduced, the show's reach is enormous. tens of millns of adults and new episodes air fst on hbon and then on pbs, and more than five million subscribe to its youtube channe >> ware experts on helping children child arrive at school ready to learn. >> sreenivasan: sherrie westin p is tsint of global impact and philanthropy for sesame workshop, the company behind "sesame street." >> we have a 50-year history of reaching children in those critical early years when you can make the most difference. and have them arrive at school ready to learn and ready to thrive. >> sreenivasan: sesame street teaches those social and being inclusive and showcasing it. ♪ there's nothing that can compare with my hair ♪en >> sasan: it was the first children's show to prominently feature actors of color.

in 1971, it cast sonia manzano as maria, in the first latina leading ron tv history. d >> sreenivasan: that goal of expanded over the 5 years.s sesame workshop's "communities" initiative now reaches specificn aus who are facing major challenges. m that cann distinive videos for children of parents who are incarcerat or families with children who have special needs, homeless.n foster care, or are sesame workshop has done this inteationally as well, creating early childhood programs for children of bfugees in jordan, lebanon, iraq, syria, andgladesh. though the communities program has grown, there's s big focus with one of the original targeted groups: military families. >> it started actually 13 years ago with our military familyo initiative, when we realizedow many young children had parents who were being deployed and

often multiple deployments and realized there were no tools for those parents and no resources anfor those young children to hp it. ta>> sreenivasan: sesameun creas videos, apps and books with messages aimed at these famili about how to help them cope with the realities of their experiences. they are available online to all, but they are crafted to show parents how they can talk to children about their challenges. elmo and rosita helped meun rstand. elmo, do you know a lot of kids that have military families? because elmo has gotten to meety and daddies in theary. mommies and you know what? elmo learned that military kidsc arally a lot like elmo, but sometimes they have to goch through big anges, too. >> sreenivasan: foosmia and felicier were one of several sets of parents we caught up with at a special sesame event for military families. when fooshea, a staff seeant in the army, is away, the family buconnects over video chat that's not always an option. what's hard for you to

communicate to them? >>asically, sometimes we're out on deployments where we don't have internet service or where we're out on missions for days without being able to communicate back home. >> sreenivasan: how do you deal with missing your kids? >> for the most part, to block it out. which you can't, at the same time. >> sreenivasan: abraham and nicole blocker face similar challenges, but because abrahamm isine corps reservist, they face even more difficulties connecting to a larger community. >> and so a lot of people where we're the only military people they know. and so we don't have that community, even though people we don't have that.elp. >> i think the challenge is just the sadness that comes with that and trying to turn it into a positive.we not to on that. but to own it and know that

something is sad, that daddy's real going to miss them. >> sreenivasan: parents told us the programs helped thei children better understand what was happening, and gave tools they used to reassure their kids. >> so, we recently watchs stmo's dad gployed. and this one undds, when daddy leaves and goes to work, he's helping other people. >> sreenivasan: the military families initiative goes beyond deployment. it has expanded to includewhen't co hom andare-vingor dveoesn l ovloone who ocomes nehome with injuries. sherry westin says the progr can be watched by all families to increase their empathy, but they are written to help kids and parents directly affected. >> he'not here? what do you mean? >> you know how poppy has days where he feels okay? >> si. >> he also has days where he

doesn't feel like himself, and th're roh and stmy. sreivas: wein says work t lis is a natural outgrowth of what the show always did, like in 1982, when big bird and about the death of longtime h character, mper. >> he's going to comback? who's going to take care of the store and make me birdseedes nd tell me stories? >> big bird, i'm going to takeca of the store. and i'll make you your milkshakes and we'll all tell you stories and we'll make se you're oka >> sreenivasan: in the past couple of years, the show gaineo ition for its introduction of a muppet on the autism spectrum with autism, julia. i >> mee your painting, julia? julia? >> sometimes it takes jua a while to answer. it helps to ask again. julia, can big bird seyour

painting? >> see your painting?yes... julind so i think has been amazing because, again, she's helping children with autism have a child they can relate to and feel less alone. but she's also teaching others why julia might not look youn the eye. >> sreenivas: some of that praise turned into tough criticism over the smer, whenp, a different grhe autistic self-advocacy network, broke off ree rks esith ic wstedam a"sn." etadvertising campaign which it says promotes screening for autism. it says that stigmatizes and treats autistic people as burdens on their families. for its part, the sesame workshop says the campaign was with over 250 organizations and experts across the autism community. it also says it will celebrate the uniqueness of every child, as well as what all children have in common. asre than any criticism, the show heathered a big change in a fractured tv landscape, and

at one point, a financial deficit that led many to wonders whether it couy afloat. sesame workshop just signed a five-year deal with hbo for new episodes to air first on its upcoming streaming app. fory'll then be availabl free here on pbs. ar the meantime, the hugs free, too, for kids and us parents as well, if you can get one. for the pbs wshour, this is hari sreenivasan, hanging out under sunny skies with a few furry friends on the friendliest block in new york. ♪ rubber ducky you're the one ♪ you make bath time lots of fun ♪ rubber ducky i fully fond of you ♪ >> woodruff: love that show. on theouewonline inside a mobile vision clinic bringing eye exams and glasses to kids in need. that's on our website

pbs.org/newshour. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening.r fol of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >>ajor funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. ing.his progmaras adwadest poss b and by contributions to your pbs station om viewers like you. thank you. ptng sns by

rehaco u , everyone and welme ". turkey launches its invasion into northern syria. a top official i ankara on why they are going in, and the former american general who led the fight againstis on why it could be sodanger >>heas havingome kin breakdown? >> somewhat tire that is anythi ng butof alight-hearted chris morris takes on america's na onal security s lasttanteis hfilm. >> and -- >> i want to come down and rerdcor radio show and put u on this thingng called busine getting fired ,

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