captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. w i'm judydruff. on the newshour tonight:l althe president's lawyer's men. two associates of rudy giulianio are arrestcampaign finance charges as the u.s. house subpoenas them in the hepeachment inquiry. then, crossing t line. kurdish civilians attempt to flee for safety as theurkish invasion into northern syria escalates. and, sally, you've never seen a street like sesame street. eveything happens here, you gonna love it. >> 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 childrein those critical early years when you can make the most difference. t

and ham arrive at school ready to learn and ready to thrive. and so it's not just the academics, it's the social emotional skills.il >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. p. sloan foundation. supporting science, techy nd and thprovede economicgy,fr>>ed literacy in the 21st century. no >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace security. go carnegie.org.

>> and with the g support of these institutionsan individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for adcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.rl thank you. >> wdruff: a new twist in th impeachment inquiry: two associates of rudy guiliani who were to appear before congress today and tomorr were arrested on charges of violating campaign fr wapendeat theanor -w airport with o tickets out of the country. this afternoon a u.s. attorney in new york and assistant

director of the f.b.i. laid out the severity of the charges and how th strike at the heart of our democratic system. >> they sought political influence not only to advance their own financial interests, but to advance the political interests of at least one foreign official, a ukrainian o adthssmeicial who soug ukl raisindie.hesa>> these allet about some technicality, a civil violation or an error on form. this investigation is about. corrupt behavi deliberate lawbreaking. >> woodruff: to breakdown these latest developments and how the american public view them, our own lisa desjardins and yamicher alci hello to both of you. so much going on. yamiche, i'm going tme to you first. tell us who these men are and what is their connecon to rudy giuliani? >> well, the allegations laid out ainst them are very serious in this 21-page indictment. parnas and fru aman areccused of

trying to funnel foreign money 're utos. aelcioce tctons tyusp companies to mask donations tool u.s.icians and candidates in a pro-trump sup.er pa giuliani to pressure ukraine to investigate joe biden. that is really important. evens rudy giuliani is saying he is not really connected with these two men in the work they are doing, they were cac oused elections by using this money. they are two men house democrats want to know a lot about. there are photos of presidente trump and two men circling around on the internet, both twith rudy giuliani and wh th quesons about this on th white house lawn. he says i dn kn.n'to w i take photos with a lot of different people. the president says he hopes rudy giuliani doesn't get indicted, but he wouldn't sayhether or t he was concerned about that.

it's also important to note these two men were arrested, asd you with one-way tickets on an international flight. federal osecutors essentially saying they were trying to get out of town. rudy giuliani says they were just going on a business trip. >> woodruff: again, so much to follow. so, lisa, tell uo more abut how all this relates to ukraine as yamiche mentioned and to the house impeachment inquiry. >> there are so many complicated threads. here are the connections we know 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 outlets that these two were pushing ukraine to investigate vice president biden and his son hunter biden. also, these two men are cited in the whistleowerblom caintpl. thesthreads. judy, also today, we had a new subpoena, not only for these two men, but for enrgy secretary rick perry. how does that connect? part of that subpoena issking

for information about why perry was pushing for a change in management at a ukrainian energy company. who else might have an interest in that ukrainian energy company? democrats say, these two men also had interest in thatn ukrainergy company.uk so a lot of sort of early edges still remain.e, many ques >> woodruff: now, separately from all this, yamiche, we have the results of now of a new poll, pbs nfewshour/npr/maris how voters are reacting to the impeachment inquiry. what d we see fl? >> this new poll out this afternoon shows a slim majority of aericans now support going forward with an spoovment inquiry against president trump. i want to walk you through some of the numbers. the polls show national support for an impeachment inquiry is up fr 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 polls that show the majority of americans want to see an impeachment inquiry. independents are a big part of this. two weeks another 44% supported w mpeachment inquiry. pe aa n uptick to 54%. that's bad news for president trump.sw he wouldn't questions about this poll specifically at the white house lawn today, but what it telels you is that t peent quas h s witthe hedid nothing wrong, as he says he does not want to coply with house democrat s. >> woodruff: fascinating. lisa i knoinw they are wat this closely on alcohol. >> democrats were not jumping ie the aisles r this, but they do feel this add to the cloud over thedrump presidency, an it raises more questions about corruption in his administration and among those aro.und him so they obviously are trying to get details themselves. they think this adds tt they see as their narrative, which is this is an

administration tt tries to cross legal boundaries on a regular basis. now, democrats are also paying atfntion to some other kind effects of this. is part indictment today, it named these two men had been reaching out to a specificng ssman. we know from dates, times, and other reporting, thtc that congressman is former congreman pete sessions of texas. there he is right there. he's not just any republican. he was chairn of the rules committee, a very powerful sition. the allegation here in the indictment is that these two men were trying to get him to leverage donations with him to get him to pressure for the ouster of thaat ukrinian ambassador. hoe has released a statement transaction, no request. i never did anything like that. but, judy, he's trying to get back into congress. democrats see a gain for them. two othequick notes about what's hapning with democrats tonight. nancy pelosi nancy pelosi is planning a call tomooorrow aftewith all of the democratic members in congress. they are-- in the house, raher. they're going to talk about

impeachment, and talk about things like do they hold lia ful house vote? what do they next? how fast do they move? as these layers pile up democrats will have to choose which ones they pursue and how long. tomorrow, ambassador marie yovanovih, is supposed to testy behind closed doors. and my democratic source says k she's going to come.inh eywe'll see. it's tomorrow morning. >>oufersny ho 24 delayed from lastrs week.. >> that's right. >> woodruff: and you reminded us there has not been an a formal vote for impeaotment. >>y the house, right. >> woodruff: thank you both. >> woodruff: in the day'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 his country would investigate whether ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election. 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 case and interference from t i ukrainian sio u.s. elections in 2016, if it happened. we are ready and i've talked about this befor wf e,beilitl >> woodruff: president trump ha clairaine involvement in a democratic plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. but there has been no evidence to support this.un turkey's gand air assault against kurdish fighters in northern syria raged for a day as tens of thousand tempd to flee.ear the border meanwhile, kurdish soldiers

spended their operations 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 in rthern and central california were in the dark today, after the state's largest utility shut off their electricity. beginning yesterday, pacific gas and electric deliberately cut off thpower to avoid sparking wildfires as strong winds moved through the drier than ual region. wel unprecedend move rorig afte er h eansws summary.to ig rockies today,wea po srful threatening to dump up to two i feet of snown some parts of the country. it was a slick morning commute for drivers in cities like billings, montana and rapid city, south dakota, which saw eight inches of snow. and in denver, colorado, temperatures plummeted nearly 64 degrees since yesterday. apple has removed a digital app

that helped hong kong protesters track police movements, amid a backlash from chinese state media. apple said the demonstrators had used the real-time mapping app, hkmap.live, to ambush law enforcement. in beijing, a chinese n ministry spokesman denounced any type of support for the ongoing prests. n>> ( translated ):d to repeat again that the recent extreme and violent criminal acve happening in hong kong challenged hong kong's rule of law and its social oer, when it comes to these kinds of extreme and violent criminal acts it is reanable to oppose and resist rather than support "and e.nniv >> woodruff: the app appeared to still work for users in hong ppng who downloaded it before it was moved from's app store. the environmental protection agency in this country is proposing an overhaul to how

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. fl iis minn gat, tainted water 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.th u.s. centers for disease control and prevention reported tomost 1,300 confirmed and probable cases of lung conditions tied to vaping. every state but alaska has now reported vaping-relatedes ils.pr the nobee for literature author peter handkpolishtrian novelist olga tokarczuk. two recipients were and this year since no one won in 20 following a sexualwi misconduct scandal involving the swedish academy that bestows the honor.

tokarczuk hailed the academy today for recognizing literature from central eure. >> for me as a polish peon, it shows that despite all those problems with democracin my country, we still have something very strong literature, very strong culture and i am part of this big, big power. >> woodruff: her fellow recipient, peter handke, has long faced criticism for defending the serbs during the balkan wars in the 1990s. today, the non-profit da it cation pen america hamet harendke has question thoroughly documented war crimes." ans tod,ie d nellw aroy untod of hasigh-le lks between the u.s. and china

>> to roll back the 2010 doddrank act. it would change rules on livg bwiallnkssmust develop if they l. and, stocks rallied today as a new round of high-tavel trade lks between the u.s. and china got underway in washington. president trump said the negotiations were goiny,eag l,al on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 150 points to close at 26,496. the nasdaq ros47 points, and the s&p-500 added more tn 18. still to come on the newshour, panic in northern syria as turkish forces escale invasion. the lights go out in california. what is driving a mapower outage? a new book reexamines the russia inquiry anthe president's troubled relationship with the f.b.i. plus much more.

out inorthern california and aeb utility officials to reduce ther risks of wilas high winds mix with dry weather. but many don't agree with that timing or reasoning. and as william brangham tells us, the anger is building arount the as residents, businesses and local government offices are trying to deal with it. now.his is my neighborhood right >> brangham: across northern california overnight, entire communities turne invisible to the naked eye. the gion was plunged into darkness after the california utility company pg&e shut down could bring down lines and start wildfires.ti pg&e ily said it would which according to otherseholds,

estimates could impact nrly two million people. >> i think they jumped the gun in my opinion. turning it off is good, but wait til it's dangerous. >> pg&e should have taken care of this for the past 50 years. >> brangham: pg&e says it restored power today to hundredf housands but warned some oi faced a between hardship or safety, and we chose safety. we deeply apologize for the incoenience and the hardship but we stand by the decision." in the meantime, residents stocked up on ice and supplies, shopping in stores left in virtual darkness. businesses that stayed open had o operate cash-only. elsewhere, authorities reported veral traffic accidents overnight which resulted inju inries.on the decisio shut down power came as high winds and particularly dry conditionsre increased the at of new wildfires.

but california governor gavin newsom said the reason for blackouts falls squarely on&e >> they've created these conditions, it was unnecessary. we're doing everytng in our power, my gosh, toelp them help themselves. now it's time for them to do the right thing. >> brangha the electric utility has been held liable for its role in prior wildfires in 2017 because of downed powerdo lines. it filed for bankruptcy this year after last year'sva ating "camp fire" which was believed to have been triggered in part by pg&e ansmission lines. that blaze killed 85 people and destroyed ns of thousands of buildings. >> brangha let's hear mo out the impact of this blackout. matthias gafni of "the san francisco chronicle" is covering it in northern california and joins me from oakland. hias, thank you very muc for being here. i know you have been driving around in the regions, some of them that have been blacd out right now. what's it like.

>> yeah, it's really frustrated a lot of people in the area. i mean, thre's people who are th,heeling to know what to doooh for schools. hothere's moms, new moms are ferreting out what to do with their frozen breast milk. rpe opitley . d they just want to knen it's going to end. >> blackouts are one of thosef ings that emphasize how many parts of our life are dependent upon electricity. i think about think abouts, hospitals, stores. nl of those places are seeming in some sort of cis>> m, frankly. i mean, i went around a small city today in the major kind of business district, and i didn't i saw a janitor at a bar who was figuring out how to keep the ndin a igure out how to

kind of get through it. and youro seecery stores with empty shelves, because they had to dumpll tir perishs.abra mle some people-- bt of the people i visited today had just closed up shop and were going to wait it out. >> now pg&e says it's really dry. it's really windy. wead to shut down the power so that these lines don't go down and trigger new fires. how are peop reslepon understand it? >> yeah, thatealhelynk about it? you know, w had two straight years of just devastating caldfires nort he litimern of theia year. anat the time, for the first one, at least, pg&e didn't have hea programre they could even do a shutdown like this, which is what thedo in southern california, utilities do year.

and, yet, we still had the camp fire. and i think the camp fire last year was a watershed moment. they had warned that they might do ahutdown. all the weather factors seem to align with their standards and criteria for when they would do it. anowen,d e, ye andy the kir elet cttricity woup causing this incredibly deadly died.where more than 80 peop 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, she's shutd mns. >> in, obviously, people pay their utility bills. they have some reaspeonable ation that the power would stay on somewhat consistently. is there a viable, long-term solution to this that doest involve putting people into the dark every time it gets hot and. there's people-- you know, one siun of the spectrum say you this utility. dou shouldn't have to shut it

th tis skehoeulpd be s iafe to n with.ou when you talk increasing tta loof se hesisd tarofatss oe system, that can be difficult. that's also putting stress on ture. we have a lot of dead trees in california that when they topple over, they can hit a power line. so it'sery difficult. but at the same time, people are concerned that, you know, pg&e is a publicly traded company, and a lot of people think that they're caring more about the'r shareholders than they arebout the geeral public and keeping them safe. so there's a balance that needs to be struck there, that's, you know, incredibly difficult, and a lot of people say,ou know, make it go public. san francisco has thought about buying out pg&e and taki it over. but, you know, there's a lot of difficulty there, too. do they want to take on the liable if something bad happens? >> i imagine this has just got to be so frustrating for so many people. and some of tobviously, is the uncertainty of not knowing how long this is going to go. is this-- is pg&e giving people

a sense of how long their lights will be out >> they give you a ballpark idea. i mean, th weather event hopefully is going to be ending by the end of toda but that doesn't mean your power's coming right back on. my power isut. i'm not expecting it to be on for a da or two. and the reason is once the weather subsides a you don't have that threat, pg&e has to go out and inspect all the lines before they evenk thin about re-energizing those lines. and i taed to a pg&e official yesterday who compared all the lines that they'll have to investigate and inspect after up-- if you line all up, lining it would equate to the circumference of the ear, the entire equator. >> wow. and, obviously, there's no predicting whether or not this has to be redone in wekor mont ahead. matthias gafni of thee "sane,rancisco chronithank you very much for your time. >> thanks for having me.

>> woodruff: the situation in dangerous pace. turkey continu its military assault into northern syria rcing tens of thousands to flee. aid agencies warn nearly a half- million people near the border are at risk. amna nawas has the latest. >> nawaz: inside syria's rthern border, turkish tanks let loose a hailf gunfire. turkey stepped up its assault on urs. allied syrian kurdish forces on the ground. and in the air. on day two of the offensive, turkish planes bombed kurdish- held towns, dotting the syrian skyline with smoke. near qamishili in northeastern iraqi border.es fled for the >> ( translated ): last night, ired rockets and i swear the situation is not good at

all. >> nawaz: those still in townin grievehe hospital for family killed by the airstrikes. in ankara, turkish president recep tayyip erdogan defended e operation, dubbed "pea spring." he insisted the onslaught is about protecting terri >>ust like all the other operations carried out by turkey, the aim of the peace spring is to contribute to syria's territorial and political integrity. >> nawaz: turkey says the territory should ilude a 20- mile buffer zoneng syrian kurds, who itisiews as terr. turkey today hit a number of kurdish-held bder towns. the assault on the u.s. kurdish allies came after the u.s. withdrew its forces from the area monday. on sunday, president trump spokh with erdogan ophone about e rianmoval, giving turkey a ureeds pgrlayed gha key role in the u.s. led anti-isisit con that took back "islamic state."y the so-called after coming under fire for the

troop withdrawal, president trump threatened economic action agnst turkey, a nato ally, over the attack. in a tweet this morning, he in washington this afternoon, president trump weighed in: >> we are going to posdo something very very tough wi regard to sanctions and other financial things. >> nawaz: the u.s. also annound today it had in its custody two isis fighters from a group of four known as "the beatles" for their british accents. th weye erowknfon ber adheing experts worry that other isis fighters dained in syria by kurdish forces could escape amid the onslaught.ei but turkey's f ministe said it will take over the prisons if the assault on the kurds succeeds. >> it will bour responsibility to make sure that they will be held accountable for what they d. and we will make sure that they will not be released. >> nawaz: but others including a criticism, erdogan threatened to send turkey's 3.6 million syrian refugees to europe.

>> ( translated ): if you try to label this operation as anin sion, it's very simple, we million refugees your way.nd 3.6 >> nawaz: since the fighting started wednesda60 an estimated 00 have already fled their homes in northern 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 risk. >> nawaz: and for an inside look, we have sinam mohaed. she's the u.s. representative for the syrian democratic council, the politic wing of the syrian democratic forces, the coalition of kurdish, arab and other minority groups fighting on the ground in northeast syria. the council's mission is to work toward implementing a "secular, democratic, and decentralized system for all of syria."ri sinam, welcome to the newshour.u >> thank you sh. >> i have to ask you, turkish president erdogan has said the purpose of theose fights is fight and target terrorists on the ground. tau have been in contact with

those comes.n the ground in what are you hearing today? >> unfortunately, what's going on, on the ground, it is not te same thing that mr. erdogan is telllg. first of athis attack has been launched from yesterday, and even though the agreement between the united states and turkey and about the securi mechanism, how to leave tho i tshah area's peace. awe wanted to avoid the in unfouny, men, erdan, he is not satisfied with this agreement. although we ar showing great flexibility in this agreement, all the fighters, the kurdish fighters." we withdrew about fivme

kirs away from the border. they say, "you have to pull all the heavy weapons from the border." we did it. uan apons away from the border. >> you're saying in those negotiations-- >> this is in the agreement. >> you did not expect the turkish forces to launch this offensive. >> this is what ese united stold us. "okay, this agreement will be to avoid the war between turkey not to attack you. >> that is what the u.s. to you. >> yes. and this is what we agreed . >> so when president trump said that the u.s. forces would be leaving, did you know then that turkish forces would be moving in? >> it was suddenly this happened. en erdogan is gathering all his forces and his army across tiur border, to border, that h ae wee ked them, "he is gathering all the forces there. and it seems he's not satisfied what's going on in ou agreement." they say, "he's erdogan. what can he do but we are there

on the ground." suddenly what happened, the u.s. pulled back their forces from the border on of turk dispe put it back inside syria. gianlois makes turkey to come to a, d we don't have too much time. i do want to ge o to sothe people you have been talking to onwhhe ground. are they telling you? >> now, the situation is catastrophe. turkey is shelling from air space, and fm the artery. iney are using the airplanes, and they are sheall over the border from the euphrates river to the tigris river, the border of iraqi river. it is about 450 kilometers long, they are shelling. >> and what is the impact on thr nd. >> all the civilians. the civilians are there. they are shelli the cities where there are civilians. for instance, i will give you one exmple.

theys sye shelled a neighborhooe two people a killed, they were christians, and thothersre injured. now we have people against this attack of turkey. and it's inhabited. it is 400,0in00 li tvhere. nstrey is shelling the nddied.n, we are telling--re notning. shelling the civilian-- >> but you're hearing they arean shelling civias well. . >> i want to ask you something a senior state departmiot official med to us earlier. they said they think i this is s big ke. they wished turkey had not launch this. they plan to work with the s.d.f. in the future. very briefly, do you see the s.d.f. working with the u.s. again? they are still there, military. but we hope that they can stop

this attack. this is what we hope. we hope that can they op this attack because we would like to have stability. we would like to have the pce process talk in order to save the people, the syroian peple. it's enough for the syrian people, they suffered a lot through these eight years. and now thisack will be destabilizing the ea, and will be the consequences ofvet, it will b dangerous. >> you would like to see-- >> for syria and even for turkey. >> you wod like to see the u.s. act right now. >> yes. >> sinan mohammad. thank you. >> nawaz: we invited the turkish ambassador to the united states to join us on tonight's show. the embassy declined. we now g a perspective fromso turkey experr cagaptay. he's the director of the turkish research program at the washington institute for near east policy. he's also the author the newga book "ers empire." soner, welcome back to the newshour. >> with pleasure, thank you. >> i want to ask you about this,

the president of turkey saida this iational security concern. explain for us what is the threat? and how do these strikes address that threat? >> there is a legitimate security concern for rkey here. the kurdish group is an offshore group called p.k.k., listed as a foreign terrorist, by the united states. unity.., ie' oros ffshoot of this group that is designated. this group is establishing a legal entity, a state-like entity, and of course turkey for a long time tolerated that because the united states partnered with the kurdish group to combat isis. with the defeat of isis, turkey wants not only this relationship to be reconsidered, but also is going after this offshoot ofern syria. >> let me ask you about the fight agaist iis. s. uevf o.f could become resurgent again,

and take the attention of the same forces that helped toan defeat isi allow them to reassess and reassert themselveses there. what do yosay tohat? >> that would be an unfortunaten outcome and thas why i think it's important for this nflict come to a speedy end. the united states might be mediating between turkey and the fighting parties. i think, though, at this stage, it is importa for washington to not appear as if it is mocking our underestimating a severe security threat to turkey. turk sea united states ally by treaty. and i think for a very long time, the turks are very patient allowing the united states to work with this grat is a sworn enemy of ankara, and nowou ofe they have gone after it. hopefully this will end up quite soon and we'll see someore stability in northern syria. l> a state department offic briefed some reporters earlier and mentioned they did not think they they gave a green light in and they hope this mission and operation concludes quickly. do you have any idea of how long it will go on?

i think turkey at this stage wants to establish bridsdgeh in northern syria. ankara has done something quite smart. they have used as entry points arab-majority areas in northern syria, where turkish troops would be more welcome than had they gone into kurdish-majority areas. i don't think turk sego hg to invade ald on to large parts of northern syria. they only want to tablish bridgeheads, populated by arabs, in order to undermine and weaken certain kurdish groups. >> there is a lot of talk aut the group empowering turkey's position in the area. they could expand further. i'd like your thoughts on tif yu think it empows 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 looking at isis he uprniobteled m,st awhich is f bashar al-assad, the dictator, who has bombed medicine of people, and he's the root cau

of the radicalization of syrian people. i thinkh, short of that, you cannot find a global fix to a serious problem. >> how much of this offeive do you think 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 soething he has wanted to do for a ile, while he is vulnerable electorally at home? >> look, i have been quite critical of turkish president erdogan. i wrte an enre book "the new sultan in thicase, i think eogan is right. the concern he has towards the terrorist group is shared by many who oppose him. there is broad consensus among turkey's 82 million citizenry athathis isf t thee t.im otherwise, a terror group across the country's longest land border in syria will establish an independent or autonomous political entity. so in this regard, the timing is right, and mr. erdogan isi rght. >> soner cagaptay of the washingtonu institute'skish

research program. thank you for your time. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the n eouewlmr,o, big bird, and all the residents of sesame street celebrate a milestone anniversary. even as imachment consumes much of washington's attention, the president as well as his critics and supporters still focus on robert mueller's and its continued fallt. into a new book that re-examines the story with a tough take of some of the central characters in that drama. it's part of our "newshour bookshelf." b ngham: in his new book, pulitzer prize winner james b. stewart gives an in-depth look at the two of the most controversial recent investigations by the f.b.i. and the justice depart first, the probe into hillary clinton's use of a private email

server when she was secretary of state, and then the investigation into russia's interference in the 2016 the trump campaign participated in that effort, or tried to block the inquiry. the book is called "deep state: trump, the f, and the rule of law." and james stewart ins me now. welcome. >> thank you. aood to be here. >> so "deep s" as we know it is a pejatorivrme ateb shadowy, unseen forces conspiring and pulling theof loaferpower. and the president has repeatedly stated that certainly withinheb. , that there is a deep state of trmp-hating agents and officers and officials. you've spent two years digng into this agency. is that true? >> it's utterly false. president trump has weaponized this notion of a deetep sta turned it into this pejorative term. there is a career bureaucracy. there ar independent agencies

in this country, and there areec and balances, and in this case there are checks on the power the prethdency. 're constitutionally designed to do that. he accuses anyone who unectarths that he doesn't like or criticizes him as being part of this sinisr deep state. in fact, to the extent they are their constitutional duty, they are doing their patriotic duty to honor their pledge to both support the constitution and recognize the fact they work for the people of the united states, not theesident. >> as you repeatedly point out in the book, if the names tha the ident likes to cite as evidence of the dee costmp eyn,c derail his presidency or candidacy, they could have. >> absolutely. i think many beam nooem doot realize-- because we didn't know it at the time-- bot thhe hillary clinton email investigation and the trump russia investigation were going on at the same time before thuai where the f.b.i. is

ndidates.ting both major one of the questions i wanted to answer in the book was whyas the clinton one public but we never heard about russia. if they wanted to derail trump, one leak would haverushed that campaign, not only a leak that it was going on, but a leak of some of the slacious details which we now know were being investigated. >> two of the most-notorious people on the p twitter speed feedare peter strzok. strzok was the man who helmed the hillary clinton investigatioand ok otor thvee he lisa page. even though you report that they deaed and lied about the ct that they were having an affair and that they exchang many of these very hostile texts exprsing antip pea of the president, your book goes to great lengths in some was to show they really were not theev. >> that's correct. and i want to clarify.

peteostrzok never did lie aut the existence of the affair. obviously, neither one of them wanted it to become public, and they never thought it wouldu becomelic, 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 wereat prtexts, expressed political views that were hostile to trump. but everyone in the f.b.i everyone in the government, everyone in this country h a first amendment right to think whatever they want. 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 an a thorough investigation by the inspector general, the conclusion was, no, it nev did. and i demonstrate in the book, on the contrary, there were times when both page and strzok were harder on hillary clintonag than their cols wanted to be and softer on trump. theyrere very cautious aboutmenting to make trump the subject of-- a formal suject of an f.b.i. investigation. >> perhaps the most complicated

some would smning portrait in this book is of rod essionsre sed him. d largely, atpo first, was seen as a calming influence. >> rosenstein to me is bota fascinating character and someone who kind of captures what has happened to many people who come ito the trmp administration with the highest of motives, wanting to serve the country, and the slowly but surely get brought ito this vortex of amorality, dishonesty, expediency, and they seem to lose their bearings. i mean, he was a respected independent prosecutor. he almost immediately got sucked in by trump to providing a false totionale for firing comey. trump wanted hiave a press conference and claim he was the ie who told mptr tovirer the-- comey's handling f clinton. all of this was completely false. d i think it completely unnerved him. and he also-- there's a drascmac

e in the book where he confides in andrew mccabe. there's no one he can trust. he can't to mcce or sessions or underlings in the justice department. and after comeyas fired he said the one person i wish i could talk to was comey, whi ft everyone kind of flabbergasted. he then proposes wirinhimself to secretly record trump, invoking the 25tdmh amt-- >> he has denied that, that he did any of that. >> he said that the wiring thing was a joke. it's not a joke, as you can see in context. and he dnied the 25th amendment thing, but there aree witnesses to that. i'm amply persuaded tht that did happen. i think he was somewhat-- he was unnerved by what was happening him and the position he was thrust into. and you then see he manages to keep his job, what he had to promise trump to do, that i we don't really know. his defenders have told me that he was soledely focn helping mueller over the finish line. but what compromisees were made?

why didn't mueller rea a conclusion on obstruction? why didn't mueller include thesb eventsut rosenstein in his report? why in the end did rosenstein gh along arr's characterization of the report, which was a blatant mischaracterization, as elueller hisaid in a letter. >> we know the mueller report comes out, we sathe imact it had on our country. the president is now involved in another investigation, this impeachment inquiry, about whether he's trying to get foren governments like ukraine, perhaps china, to investigate joe bid. does-- does what we are seeing documented about the presihant's or now make sense to you given the two years you spent looking at t president's behavior during the election and thereafter? >> it makes total sense to me. if you read last few pr of "deep state"-- not to mention all that's gone before it-- it's almost as though is was going to be inevitable. the relationship is there are certainly qualities that emerge anrump s.a.tte

nohab one" , he'ts extremely impulsive. two, he doesn't listen to anyone around him. three, if people doet him get his way, he gets rid of thm.. he fires t four, he lies about it, which then makes it look like he has something to hide over cover up. and, fnally, 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 muelle, epishich put the country through years of turmoil, is it was a total vic htory fm. he was exonerated. he won. and it only emboldened him to go out and behave in an even moreon egregious fas the russia investigation, it lacked one critical piece of evidence to conclude that he broact law, which washat truel hididn't instigate or conspire with anyone to get a foreign government involved. what has he done now? he makes a phone call, where asks a foreign government to undertake acts thact would interfere with the next election. he just handed the democrats the

very missing piece from the mueller report. that is, i find, pretty flabbergasting. >> the book is "deep state: trump, the f.b.i., and the rul james b. stewart , thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: let's close out tonight with a little muppet lkttah anniversary "sesame street's" children's television.in beyond all of the fun, humor and oisongs, the show has been serious work to reach out to families in need that's not widely known by the general public its latest effort: wh its -kno a itiain characters to help families deal with addiction, including alcoholism, drugs and opioids. work and how it fits into the 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.iv >> srean: ever since big bird and his friends took their first steps onto their nehborhood full of harlem brownstones and into public television households,he 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.n, but back thets secret sauce was unprecedented for children's television. it provided children with a mix of early childhood education, all with a sense or, musicing, keep parents eaged as well. en diversity into the show's d.n.a. common in tv.ov i more than 4,50 episodes, 35 tv specand

ths1,000-plus fuzzy charact it introduced, the sw's reach is enormous. tens of millions of adults and their children have watched in more than 150 countries. new episodes air firstn hbo and then on pbs, and more than five million subscribe to its youtube channel. >> we are experts on helping ad l.ratoo >> sreenivasan: sherrie westinde is the pre of global impact and philanthropy for sesame workshop, the company bendsesa wmehem trareet.ve" at o ready to learn and ready to thrive. >> sreenivasan: sesame street iy being inclusive and showcasing it. ♪ there's nothing that can compare with my hair ♪an >> sreenivit 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 role in history. >>yo >> i do. >>s sreenivasan: that goa expanded over the past 15 years. sesame workshop's "communities" initiative now reaches specific .dilngesarfa maj that can mean inctive videos for children of parents who are incarcerated or families with children who have special needs, or live in foster care, or are homeless. sesame workshop has done this internatnally as well, creating early chiodhorefues in, iraq, syria, and banesh. though the communities program has grown, there'still a big targeted groups: military families. >> it started actually 13 years ago with our military family initiative, when we realized how many young children had parents often multiple deployments and realized there were no tools foe

those s and no resources for those young children to help understand it. >> sreenivasan: sesame creates videos, apps and books with messages aimed at these families 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 chalnges. elmo and rosita helped me understand.ou elmo, donow a lot of kids that have military families?lm >> you know,s really lucky because elmo has gotten to meet tddowd wint?iedas mhear elmo learned that military kids are actually a lot like elmo, but sotimes they have to go through big changes, too. >> sreenivasan: fooshea an w felicia mille one of several sets of parents we caught up with at a special sesame event for military families. when fooshea, a staff sergeant in the army, is away, the family connects over video chat, but that's not always an option. what's hard for you to communicate to them?

>> basically, sometimes we're out on deployments where we don't have internet service or communicate back home.onisrs >> sreenivasan: how do you deal with missing your kids? >> for the most part, i try to block it out. which you can't, at thsame time. >> sreenivasan: abraham and nicole blocker face similar challenges, but because abraham is a marine corps reservist, they face even more difficulties connecting to a larger community. >> and so a lot of people where we live, they don't know. 're the only military people they know. and so we don't have that community, even though people are very eager to help. don't have that. >> i think the challenge is jusn ane s that comes with that o ngtr t iturnto not to dwell on that. but to own it and know that something is sad, that daddy's really going to miss them.

>> sreenivasan: parents told us thprograms helped their children better understand what was happening, and gave tools they used to reassure their kids. >> so, we recently watched elmo's dad gets deployed. and this one understands, when daddy leaves and goes to work, he's helping other people. >> sreenivasan: the military families initiative goes beyond deployment it has expanded to include material about dealing with grief when a loved one doesn't come home, and care-giving for n loved who comes home with injuries. sherry westin says the programs can be watched by all families to increase their empathy, but ari tlps and parents directly affected. >> he's not here? what do you mean? >> you know how poppdays where he feels okay? >> si. >> he also has days where he doesn't feel like himself, and

they're rough and stormy. >> sreenivasan: westin says wor like t a natural outgrth of what the show always did, like in 1982, when big bird and millions of children learned about the death of longtime character, mr. hooper. who's going to take care of the store and make me birdseednd milkshakesell me stories? >> big bird, i'm going to take o cathe store. lmr and i'll make you your milkshakes and we'll all tell you stories and we'll make sure siv: hetay. leyear the show gainedit recon for its introduction of a muppet on the autism spectrum with autism, julia.ee >> may iour painting, julia? julia? >> sometimes it takes julia while to answer. it helps to ask again. julia, can big bird see yo painting? >> see your painting?

yes... >> and so i think julia 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 you in the eye. >> sreenivasan: me of that praise turned into tough a different group,utisticwhen self-advocacy network, broke off its work with "sesame street." the group criticized an advertising campaign ahich itsar autism. it says that stigmatizes and treats autistic people burdens on their families. for its part, the sesame rkshop says the campaign was deloped in close consultation 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. eare than any criticism, the at one point, a filg change

whether it could sloat.o wonder sesame workshop just signed a five-year deal with hbo forr new episodes to air first oneats upcoming sng app. they'll then be available for free here on pbs. in t meantime, the hugs are free, too, for kids and us parents as well, if you can get one. for the pbs newsur, this is 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'm awfully fond >> woo ♪ uff: love that show. onewshour online inside a mobihle viseion clinic bringing eye exams and glaes 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.l for us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> majorunding for the pbsne hour has been provided by: on and with the ongoing support of these institu and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for publicroadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from vwers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc

♪ ♪ ♪ - today on milk street, we travel to beirut, ere we visit a bakery that specializes in flavored flatbreads, a we eat breakfast at all cafe, soussi, and bring back a recipe for pita chickpea yogurt salad. plus, we make middle eastern rice with toasted pasta and herbs. so, stay right here with milk street as we learn how to ck the lebase way. - funding for this series was provided by the followin

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