vice president joe biden said his chief rival, elizabeth warren, is making it up with her medicare for all costpr ections and weighed in on the impeachment vote. do p you believe thesident is involved in a cover-up? >> yes. >> also tonight, the view from ukraine. how people areeacting to their country taking center stage in the impeachment inquiry. and it is friday. we are here to look at the next phase of the impanchment inquiry the 2020 race. and a place to stay with a chance to rebuild. how a community in nasgille is openoors to women battling

addiction and trafficking. >> i don't tnt y worry about how you will pay your rent. i don't want you to worry about how ceu will buy your ges. i want you to worry about how you are going to heal yourself. >> all that and more on tonight's pbs. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ bnsf engine that connects us. >>eshen it como wireless,

consumer cellular gives the choice. >> the john s and k jamesght foundation. more at kf.org. >> the fordn, foundatioorking with visionaries on the front lines of social change. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting andti by

contris to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> good evening from newshour twest. here a latest headlines. a strong jobsma report show sectors of the u.s. economy are shaking off an ongoing trade war with china and a strike by general motors workers. the better than expected jobs numbers showed employees added a net of 128,000 jobs in addition jobs numbers in august and septembervi were d upward by 95,000. unemployment rose to 3.6% but is staying near a 50 year low. e dow jones industrial average gained more than 300 points to close at 27,000. the nasdaq rose 94to point finish at a new high in the s&p 500dd 29. also reaching a record close. the first member op'president t's cabinet has been called

t testify in the impeachm inquiry. rick perry has been asked to appear before investigators. a spokesperson for the ergy department said he would not no counsel present. doors with he originally told the president he would step down by the end of the year. news from the campaign 2020 trail. beto o'rourke idropping out. the former texas conga men -- congressman tweeted his campaign does not have the means to move forward. 16ti democrats are in the race including former vice president joe biden. will have that interview after the newsma s. pressure is mounting on california's largest utility mpany, pacific gas and electric. california's governor isalng for an emergency meeting with executives and other stakeholders to expedite the ility's emergence from bankruptcy.

he says if they fail resolution, the state will not hesitate to step in and restructure the utility. california's war with wdfires eased a bit today but officials warned the danger is far from over. fire crews kept is he. >> wins are now dying down by firefighters isouthern california still faced a fast-moving brush fire of los angeles. >> all we could do is pray and hope and rely on their professionalism. >> the so-called maria fire scorched 9000 acres fueled by flammable oil in eucalyptus trees. >> this is a community with a lot of avocados in the area. a lot of times, the use eucalyptus for windbreaks. thes are extreme wildfire conditions. >> 2300 homes and other buildings were in danger and 8000 residents were ordered out. e elsewhere, crews mre

headway even as red flag warning's remained posted. to the east, in san bernardino, families have returned home but some found nothing left. >> we did not have a chance at all. i have ait laptop w my kids pictures on it. that is what hurts. >> in northern california's wine y,coun00 thousand people have been allowed back. utilitiesor are ending me of the blackouts thatffected hundreds of thousands. overseas in iraq, central baghdaditnessed its largest rally since antigovernment protests began one weeago. thousands of demonstrators filled thequare, bringing traffic to a standstill. ndthey called for ano vernment corruption and economic hardship. 350 people were wounded by security forces. tens of thousands of people

thrned out today in pakistan demanding that prime minister resign. crowds chanted in the streets ae hu of vehicles flying the black and white flaf ais hard-line lamist party arrived in the city. they charge that the government has let them down. >> we were told we would build a new pakistan but almost after one point five years, the government has failed to deliver so the opposition parties are demanding this government should resign due to his failure. >> he has said he is working to improve the ecomy and today refused to step down. president trump namedti new secretary of homeland security. chad wolf is an undersecretary. he will be the fifth person to head the departmumt under mr. also today, the presidentd nomina a doctor to lead the food and drug administration. he is currently chief medical executive at a cancer center in

houston. the fda hasad an active commissioner since april and today was the deadline for a still to come, judy woodruff one-on-one with former vice president biden on why he is seeking the democratic nomination. ouwhat ukrainians think their country being tied to an impeachment investigatioa world away. revolting hope, a community organization in nashvilleer offs solace to survivors of trafficking, plus much more. >> this is the pbs from w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> now toowa, where judy former former vice president joe biden earlier today. >> most of the democratic candidates for president are here in des moines, iowa tonight

for a dinner to rally their party and fire up their voters. no one has more on the line then former vice president joe ben, who is making his third run for president in this state and facing stiff competion from rivals who right now are ahead of him in the polls. i sat down with him this afternoon to talk about the challenges he faces. thank you for talking with us. let's start with impeachment. this is a historic week and house about. you are one of the few people who was around for the nixon and clinton impeachment. you know the seriousness of this. my question is, do you believe that the focus should be on ukraine and a conversation about investigating you hould it be broader, to include the mueller report, potential financial impropriety?s >> i think it included all. as you know, impeachment is a

difficult thing for a country to go through. it is not like -- you know, there are potential violations of constitutional responsibility and the house has no choice but to look at all of the things they said they were to look at. i said at the outset -- >> a the things? >> all the things. financial impropriety.wh they have laid out, i think they have an obligation under the constitution. it could be difficult, but they have no choice. >> so that is different than the house approach. right now, they are saying narrowly ukraine. >>hatever they decide to do, they decide to do. there her areas that he has stonewalled the administration, including the mueller report a conflict of interest. their jobto i take down the

constitional responsibility. >> the pne call between president trump and president of ukraine, now theree is a wouse aide saying there was material left out of the transcript of that call. do you believe the president is involved in a cover-up? >> yes. you have some of the finest people in the administration eling they have to come forward and say exactly what they heard. the idea that someone could withhold -- apparently, the allegation -- withhold vital military aid voted for by the in use during ukraine -- inng

eastern ukraine, in order to take on russians who are there killing these people is just- it is one of the things that no tpresid has ever thought of doing. >>rs there a dan in this process that now we see the vote was almost entirely along party lines, president trump is saying this is about demoakats trying to up for what happened in 2016, they are out to get him, that they are trying toel overtn thtion, plus he is saying it has never been done in and onelec year. could this end up hurting? >> t it could, b house has no -- they have a constitutional responsibility. imagine if you didn't investigate this. what does tt do to future presidents? free up a person like trump. the one thing george washington warned us about in his farewell

address was republics fall robecause of intervention foreign powers. foreignra powers in our elec process. that is exactly what apparently happened here. they have to investigate. >> let'al about this campaign. we are in iowa. you know this state well. you ran for president twice. you ran as barack obama's vice twice. you have to win here. >> i think i will win here. right, nwans are -- there is a basic pattern. they take a long time to make up their minds. i think they are facing ahe dead now in the polling. >> but you are running third or five points behind elizabeth warren. and behind pete buttigieg. >> be honest, it is a

statistical tie. you know tter than anyone. there is a margin of error three or four points ithis poll. the point is that it is not unusual. that is how these primaries always work. nationally, i am beating elizabethit warren double d in most places. i am not looking at the polls. i am looking at do we have the resources, the organn and am i getting around enough to be able to make my case? >> your favorite question, your age. you were asked about president jimmy carter's comment not long ago that he does not thi someone should serve as president -- that the job is too demanding. you said, the experience counts. the new york times had a story yesterday saying that a numbe of democrats are worried and i'm just going to read aut what it says have been your uneven stagemances on the debate and verbal miscues as a campaigner presenting -- preventing you from presenting a

strong and confident presidency as a candidate. >> ok. the fact of the matter is that they went out and found people who sa that. i have not -- there is a significant number ofeople who haven't been worried about any miscue. thiss for the voters to decide. look at me, see if i have the energy, see if i know what i'm talking about. it is as simple and as complicated as that. >> the economy. new jobs numbers out tod look good. on a plummet rate is staying low. as low as it has been in 50 years. >> go back to your own neighborhood. find me middle-class folks who think they are better off. y find me anybt there who

thinks they are truly as well off as ty are. do you think they are able to benefit from whais happening here? we are in a positionhere wages are stagnant. they are going up slightly but not enough. part-time workers are being counted. the numbers i don't look at. what iat look at is hear in the what i look at in my own neighborhood. all the studies show if a middle-class pern got $400 one month, they would have to borrow the money or sell something. that is not security. that is what the voters will decide. i think the middle class is being left behind and working people are being left behind by these polici. >> democrats in the past have been identified as a wors ng people'rty. you are lunch pail joe. that is how you have run in the past. look at the democratic already

and say it has become the party of the elites, academics, well educated urban folks while the republicans have got the wealthy business owners, but they have also got the working class. >> that is not aurate. they haven't got the working class. they dug into some of the working class in america, because they felt like they were not being paid attention to. they felt like they weren't paying attention to their concerns. d what has happeound america is look at the efforts to prevent unions fm organizing. look at the efforts that now you have to sign noncompete agreements to work for a fast food cha so you won't go across town to get another job. the american workers are being stifled. it has to end. what the mide-class and working-class do well, everybody does better. the poor do better, the middlelass are able to maintain themselves and the rich well. >> mpoint is, the democratic

party is not seen as exclusively the home for working class. >> joeic biden's democrarty is. that is what it's going to be. look at the numbers, however be trump in pennsylvania and ohio middle-class working-classe states. that's what he doesn't want to run against me. >> health care. elizabeth warren put out an estimate of the cost of her medicare for all plan at around $20 trillion over a number of years. in the past, e timate had been $34 trillion. she is talking about making it up with targeted defense spending cuts, wealthax cracking down on tax evaders. >> she is making it up. look. nobody thinks it is $20 trillion. it is betwe $30 trillion and $40 trillion. every major sdy that has taken

a look at this, there is no way -- even bernie talks about the need to raise taxes. he c o't even meet the co it. we don't have to go that route. all we have to do is restore obamacare, make it provide a public option, further subsidize and my plan will cost $750 million over 10 years. it does not cost $4 trillion pe year and it can be done now, not in four ye>>s. if the democratic nominee forxt president ear supports single-payer medicare for all,ut is that anatic loser? >> let me put it this way. i think it is going to be difficult to even a g democratic congress to vote for that. i think it is going to be demo -- it is going to be difficult to get democrats. hethe cost is,et increase in what they save in care counting cost is going to be up

exponentially. some studies show you have to increase the tax by 25% to geter another subject, the president's son-in-law. rthe told a re this week asking about yourricism of him that he has spent a lot of time in the white house cleaning up the messes that you left behind and in particular, i am quoting, the reforms enacted by this administration he said rollback a lot of the hars laws that were created and partially lit in bypa -ially written by ve president biden, which put african-americans in prison and destroyed a generation. >>ug i t he was a foreign policy guy. i didn't know he was a criminal justice person. i guess the best way to answer the question, why is that i get overwhelming support from the african-american community?

why was it that members of the black caucu -- why was it that the black mayors of the country support me? y is it that i have more support from the african-american comnity today than everybody else combined? >> back to the ukraine controversy, your son hunter -- you have been asked a lot of questis about this. both of you have said you would not have your children -- have him and your children involved in foreign countries. if it is not appjopriate i biden's president, why was it appropriate when you are vice president? >> number one, no one has established that he did anything carried out the policy of the united states of america, our allies, the international monetary fund, the eu and dealt with a corrupt prosecutor. i did not know hd was on the

bo that company and no one o has assertthe board he did anything wrong. >> if y had known, would you have said don't? >> it is not wrong. his words speak for hielf. he wished he had realize how dogs like rudyi giuli -- thugs like rudy giulianiinould try to him. the reason for my saying my children would not be involved in foreign affairs or any affairs isas because what happened in this administration. i wanto makeer sure ne understands that there is going to be a hard, fast rule. nobody in my family will be involved. they will not have offices in the white house. they will not sit in cabinet meetings. they will not have foreign the fact is all t has been said -- i'm not asking you to

agree, butou have observed -- has been mainstream reporters say trump said but it is not true. why is he doing it? he doesn't want to run against me. period. >> we also talkeabout several foreign-policy hotspots he would have to deal with as president. there is news this week to the democrats are saying that because of israel, they would look at cutting off military aid to israel as a result of that. >> that would be a tragic mistake. i strongly oppose israel's settlement policy on the west bank. i have made that clear when i was vice president, i made it crystal clear to the israelis, but the idea that we would cut off military aid to an ally, our

only true ally in the entire region, is absolutely eposterous. it is beyond my comprehension. >> this is an administration that, as you know, advocated moving the capital of israel to jerusalem from tel aviv. if you are elected president, would you reverse that? >> i wouldn't have done in the first place. >>on last ques campaigning in iowa, you're been campaigning in the state a long time, running for president. have you changed the way you reach out to people? >> i haven't. everybody kns i mean what i say. what i find is that the values of iowa people are like what ied was ra they do think honesty matters. they do think a straigforwardness matters.

it matters whether or not you treat people with respect. i just think that fore, i am who i am. the good newss everybody knows who i am and the bad news is they know who im. my weaknesses are real. my strengths are real. right now, i hope that the strengths i bng to this contest are ones that are most needed by thisountry right now. we will see. this is a marathon. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> the eastern european nation of ukraine has feared in much of the coverage of the u.s. house impeachment probe. at home, ukraine is consumed with war against russia. have been fighting for control of ukraine's eastern flank. it is the newest challenge for

the new president. nick schifrin looks at the situation on t ground. >> ukraine is the only country in europe at war. for the last five years, ukrainian soldiers have faced off against russian backed separatists. they have fought in fmland and muddy trenches. they are throwbacks to wars of 100 years ago. ,000 people have been killed, millions have fled their homes, families separated across the front les in ukraine's east along the russian border. ulnow, ukrainian srs are showing their weapons to international inspectors. th pulling back from one and possibly two spots along the front lines. it ise an effort byhe new president to conclude t wt has challenged the core of his

government already fighting a a journalist s covered bothon. wars and last week received the international women's media foundation's courage in journalism award for enduring threats while exposing government corruption. you have noticed here in the u.s., we have been very focused on the impeachmentross. is ukraine at all focusedn u.s. impeachment? >> no, in ukraine this is not the main topic. the main topic is war in the eastern part of ukrae. the main topic is this withdraw troops in the hotot. pro-russian separatists should step back one kilometernd ukrainian soldiers should step back one kilometer and not all the people in ukraine except

ethis, but this is the reason for the meeting with the ukrainian president and the russian president, angela merkel and president of france. >> president zelensky is trying to find a piece process solion for the war in the east, but the war rages . how hot are things on the front lines? >> this is hot conflict. we have many problems with howle pean cross check points between occupationerritory and territory controlled by ukraine. many people have relatives on one side or another side and e 100,000 people cross this line every day. >> the ukrainian government is not only dealing with the war in the east, but also war on corruption. how endemic is corruption? >> he became the president

because people of ukraine d deciey do not want to see these old politicians who re corrupt and that's why they decided, decide, the ukrainian people decide, let t t s new guy from nowhere, from comy, but not someone who was in politics already. >> there is so much corruption in ukraine. so many people don't want it be reported, don't want you to report on corruption. what challenges have you faced? >> once, i covered a story about a secret compound in the east of ukraine and secret service lled me the enemy and said i should not cover these stories, and many trolls wrote me messages that i should be in the secret compound, in the, secret

priscause i do wrong things. some comments were even worse, about someone should kill me. >> of course, we can't talk about corruption in ukraine without talking about some of the politics here. president trump alleges that his possible opponent in the 2020 election, joe biden, when he was vice president, was running ukraine policy in the obama administration -- his role and hunter biden's role, what is the ukrainian government looked into those allegation >> we don't have any ces against the former vice president and we don't have any cases against hunter biden. some politicians want and ask the general prosecutor to reopen these cases, but now, general

prosecutor don't do this. >> can you explain the connection that many people in ukraine have to the west and how they see the u.s. contrasted to russia? >> nobody believes putin of course and ukrainian president zelensky does not believe putin. we need to protect ourselves against russia. that is what we need military aid. >>bieputy editor in television, thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ >> in nashville, there is an

unusual program that helps women in recovery make a new start in life. by a sense of sist and a powered boutique line of home and body is story is part of our look at poverty and economic >> it is the morning rush in nashville, tennessee. the cafe is open for breakfast while the adjoining shop sells handcrafd home and body products made across the street. first, workers gather in a circle for a moment of reflection. >> i am jennifer, of the development team. >> i am kristin, 2015 graduate. >> this is no ordinary business. it is a nonprofit staffed by women who have battled addiction, sexual abuse or trafficking. >> i am five years clean. >> for these women, it is more than just a paycheck. it is a lifeline. >> the love and compassion i was shown. >> kimberly works on the production line. n.o years ago, she was in the

throes of addict >> i was going to make and commitmentet this right and trto rebuild and reshape my life and the path that was on. or i was going to give up an die.>> thistle farms two-year program provides group housing and free therapy and medical care. this woman is about to graduate. wide shut, living life but youe are not seeing anything. i lost everything. i lost my kids, they were taken by the state. then the dysfutionality just became a way of life. >> she says not having financiae wo allowed her to focus on recovery. >> they taught me during the two years i don't want you to focus on anything else. i don't want you t worry on how you will pay your rent, how you're going to buy groceries. i want you to worry about how

you will heal urself. >> in episcopal priests start of therogram 22 years ago, driven by her own history of beseg sexually aas a child. >> it was awful. it was scary. there are aifo some about how you read the world. i can use it for good. i can do all kinds of stuff but i don't have to get over it. at first, it was a single home providing shelter. five women came in, all with crimal histories of trafficking and addiction and everybody stayed. nobody left. >>in the bs came later. >> four years into it, we said we cannot talk about women if we are not concerned abo economic well-being. nobody would hire them. had no work experience. we thought, we wilstart our beautiful.y and make something thistle farms aims to d well

by doing good. last year, product and cafe sales topped $4 million. ccthatnts for about 70% of the total operating budget. in 2017, thistle farms ceo led a $3 million expansion. >> there are a l of businesses that have a mission. we are a mission with a business. we are not here to make candles. that is not why we get up every day. we get up everyday to make candles because we know that will help the next woman come in and be a part of this community. >> this couple sells thistle farm products in their store in washington. they came to nashville for a first-hand look. >> wni rec that women especially have a hard time finding a place. ve so much to learn about how we can make this wld -- they have figured o how to do it. the cafe manager did not go through the program but she has her own history of drug

addiction and time in federal prison. when she applied for a job, she found a welcoming environment. >> my boss told me when she interviewed me that it didn't matter what my past was. that has nothing to do with this job. tell me what you are doing now. tell me what you are doing for your recovery and how you take care of yoself. >> women in the program said the most powerful thing provides is a feeling of sisterhood. >> even before my addiction, i was always searchingor something. my sister from c chicagoe to my graduation. she looked at me with tears running downer face and said, you have finally found your people. >> from a single residence, thistle farms has gro to five homes in nashville but the demand is still far greater. >> honestly, some o w ten die waiting to get into this

program. the demand o is far exceedi resources. >> thistle farms now has more than 50 affiliated groups across the country, and 30 more partners around the world, from rwanda to ecuar and cambodia. >> it's never going to be the woman just comes off the streets by herself, because she didn't get out there by herseol. it took a community of brokenness to get her out there. so why can't there be this whole beautiful community welcoming her home? a and women about to graduate from thistle far looking toward the future. kimberly simkinslans to pursue degree in clinical social work. >> i would like to think that i am some sort of mentor, that the things that i experienced in the program and have been through, and was able to push through all of those challenges and complete the program, that it's going to give motivation to somebody else, like, hey, she did it. maybe i can too. >> shamika simpson's future returned to her last year.ere >> it's taught me how to love myself, taught me how to be a mother aga. all my kids are back now.

so, doors that i thought were shut forever have openk up. wer of with the sisterhood and the support of the community. for the "pbs newshour,i'm john yang in nashville, tennessee ♪ >> this week marked a historic moment. for the fourth time in u.s. history, the house of representatives passed a resolution formalizing publiced impeachment pres against the president. meanwhile, the race to head the dem aquatic ticket has shrunk by one. f here to make sense all our columnists with the washington po. market shields and david brooks arey way. haiday and thanks for being here. a lot to cover. let's start with news we have

tonight on the impeachment process. eth is reporting tonight about details from the testimony this week. this was a man whos being reported that he as a member of the national security staff was on the call between president trump and presidentsky and he was instructed after that call by a top white house lawyer not to discuss the call with anyone. when you take into account all of the reports this week, what do y take away? >> for a conversation that the was going to read to us in ahe fireside chat, there is a lot of alarm abouthis.

it's difficult to tell whether l this wasyer being careful and just simply telling the people he advises not to make more of this conversation than there was, or whether this was a lawyer trying to cover up and conceal this conversation. it's one of the many things that we need to know more about. and it's one of the many things that we have learned il the last seveeks that really makes this impeachment inquiry so central and so essential, and just means that we cannot avert our eyes from this and go on with the elect'n as if we d't know what was going on here. >> michael, as we have mentioned, the president keeps saying it was a perfect phone ca. vice president pence has also said there was no quid pro quo. he said this sevinal times in an rview with our own judy woodruff earlier this week. the more information we get, it seems to contradict those two claims. >> well, i think it's fair to non-political appoes thats, the were involved in this process from state and the nsc, were deeply concerned, contemporaneously, when they found brought it up to superiors, and didn't get much result. even the polical appointees that were involved in this, however, didn't exonerate the president. they actually pretty much confirmed the account from the

whistle-blower. so the effect of all this is to take away the argument no quid pro quo. that argument doesn't work anymore. it's been deflated and defeated. and i think republicans are now driven to other positions, away.se that has been taken >> well, we will see if they let it be taken away.le but i coly agree with michael. asked and answered on quid pro quo. that was the signifiof this week. not only ambassador taylor from the previous week, but lieutenant colonel vindman andrr tim on, another aide at the national security council, reaffirmed quid pro quo. the second question is, ok, if you don't have the "there's no quid pro q" argument, do you have the unfairness argument? that's the other significance os eek is, we finally have debate about whether we should have had it tirlier a reso that will set forward what the procedures should be going forward. publicans are claiming that this is deeply unfair and the whole thing is tainted by the but i guess i woulthem, if they had video if theim achment inquiry came up with video of the president shooting

someone in the middle of fifth avenue, would they say we should ignore that becausthe proceedings were unfair? they weren't. and they shouldn't ignore and they have set fair proceedings going forward. >> well, what about the process here, michael? because that is the sortf the core of the republicans' protests at this point, right, that the process has been unfair. as it looks like we're moving into an open public hearing set now, what about those protests? are those vali >> well, it seems basically d.ir, what they have outli as far as the judiciary committee, the president's lawyer gets the right to bring c witnessellenge witnesses. in fact, we may next week get a lot of the closed hearing information come out next we, as far as the transcripts ofe thher things. so there's a degree of transparency there that i think just makes intuitive sense. land if -- and if -- but the republicans love to

talk about process, because they don't want to talk about substanc i mean, they're happy when they can talk about process in this case, because their artyments are preak otherwise. >> go ahead, ruth. >> if these procedures aren't fair, then they weren't fair to essentially the same procedures. >> let me ask you about how some of these messages andgo information arg over with the american public, because we heard judy ask this of vice president biden earlier, is there a potential political cost for democrats here? we saw that house vote really strictly along party lines. take look at this poll now, the new numbers from the washington post and abc news. people were asked, should congress impeach and r president trump from office? that's obviously a different bar, impeach and remove. but the country is very evenly divided when it comes to that. what do you say to that, ruth? is there a political cost for how this is moving fward now r democrats? >> well, one thing i would say to it d i suggested this before it doesn't matter. this conduct is serious enough that it needs to be taken seriously, political cost or not. and the other thing i would say is that, if you look at hiose numbers, show a very divided country, but look back at numbers from july before the

ukraine story broke, when th question was asked, not whetherl he sbe impeached and removed from office, which is a dramatic outcome, but simply whether an impeachment inquiry should go forward, the number was 37%. so, from 37% supporting an inquiry going forward to 49 % supporting removing him from office, that's a dramatic change.or and the reasonhat dramatic change is because the facts have emerged, that people understand this is something serious going >> michael, very b, moving into next week, there are some key white house officials who have been invited to testify. what do you think we will be hearg next week? and could it change the narrative at all? >> well, i think that bolton holds a lot of power in his hands right now. i don't know when he might appear. but it's -- this is a case where he could confirm a lot of things and have some significant influence. and i think, as we move into the public hearings, some of these witnesses,ike the lieutenant colonel, are going to be great witnesses. >> in his dress blues. .magine th >> right.

exactly. so, i think democrats can look forward to that, i think. and some of those witnesses will be very effective. >> i'd be remiss if i didn't ask you about the 2020 race. >> we had some news on that front as well tonight, as we reported earlier. the field has been narrowed by one on the democratic primary front. beto o'rourke announced today he is dropping out ofhe race, saying, "though it is difficult to accept, it's clear to me now this campaign doesn't have the means to move forward successfully." what does that say to you,uth? >> he didn't have the money. > this crowded field has made it all but impossible foral indiviwho might otherwise have broken through to break through. beto o'rourke just two years ago was the new thing. ort, this cycle, there's a new new thing in theof pete buttigieg. and he -- i'm sorry, in a sense, that he didn't make the decision to run for the senate in texas think he would have had a better shot at that. and i think it might have been better both for him and the country. >> and he took positions,gh thin the campaign that would make a run in texas

impossible, in my view. >> that is true. >>hen you come out against tax exemptions for churches thatf disapprovey marriage -- >> and take guns. >>alking about gun confiscation, i mean, i think trump's support survives on fear. and he justified those fears for a t of people. i think it's better for the democratic party that he's goneo >> wha it say to you about him leaving now? and where do his supporters go, given some of the movement we have see fund-raising numbers, right? we saw judy asking vice president biden about some of the struggles he had with fund-raising he had what some would say is a meager $15 million at the end of the last quarter. kamala harris restructuring her campaign, probialy under finapressure there, too. this is a key moment in that race. where does his crowd go? >> well, there's some winnowing going on in the race. i don't think his crowd was large enough to ffke much of a ence, to be honest. but he certainly represented kind of liberal idealism in the race. and there are others that take that up. i mean, the candidate that has

risen over the last few weeks and months is elizabeth warren. and she now has her plan outay about how toor medicare for all. and i think the reaction to settle on it, is gothe views determine whether people think she can win or not. >> and very briefly, ruth, in 30 jconds, has she done a go defending that now? >> well, kudos to anybody who puts out a plan with some meat on the bonesatnd some expln of what she thinks it's going to cost and how she thinks -- is going to pay for itin but i'm to quote nancy pelosi here on medicare for all. there's a comfort level that people have with their current private insurance.d that is to be phased out, let's talk about it, but let's not just have one bill that would do that. and she questions whether elu can win thtoral college with that message. i think that's a serious question for democrats. >> that's going to be a conversation to continue there, for su. ruth marcus and michael gerson, thank you so much for being here. ♪

>> finally tonight, a film out today shows abolitionist harriet tubman in a new light. as i found any recent conversation with the director and star, there is so much more to her personal story an historical role than is usually told. it is part of our ongoing arts and culture series. born around 1820, she braved a 100 mile journey north to freedom as a young woman. ershe beganew life with a new name.ie ha tubman. tthen returnefree more than 300 and slaved people throughout family, among a network ofio abolitsts and safehses. she continued to lead in the fight against slavery and went on to become one of the only

american women to lead an armed. expediti after the war, tubman returned to her home in new york where she died in 1913 at the estimated e of 91. the story of the underground railroad's most famous conductor ist,ow being told in "harrie a new film which is also the first to tell tubm's story on the big screen. i'm joined now by the director, kasi lemmons, and the star, cynthia erivo. welcome to you both. >> hi. >> thank you. >> thank you for being here. kasi, let me start with you. there is enormous responsibility and pressure that comes with telling this story for the first time in this way. kasi: i was definitelyhis sty? intimidated at first, but i was also very excited for the opportunity. and i figured, if i kept harriet as my north star, sest really foon the research, really focused on the connection that i was making with her, then i would be ok. it kind of -- it alleviated some of the nerves.

amna: there is very much a biographical element to this. there's a historical element to this. this is also very much an action film. there is a lot of activity. you see not just what the work is, but how she did it. what did you do to do that, to prepare for a role like this and be connected? how do you do that? anthia: it was the conversations ka i had, the research you do. you do the reading. you make sure that you mean take a look at pictures, imagery,yi st her face. we tried to find out what her voice could sound like, how she would speak, the cadence that she would probably use. working on the physicality, and because of what was in the script, i was able to figure out the ,nd of run she might have things like, when does she trip? is it an even rure is it eminine? and i wanted to make sure that people saw her femininity. well.o throw that in as you do a lot to make sure you're connected. and those are the things that thrill me. amna: this is always the cha'nge with telling someones story, though, years after they have passed. there are historical bones there.ed you o flesh them out with detail and color and dialogue.

and there are a lot of characters in there, for example, william still, right, which we know played a central role in intaining the records of the underground railroad. how do you decide where the line historical fact and then taking some artistic liberties? kasi: you can stick very close to historical fact like, you might know that she and william met at a certain time, but you're going to have to fill in some of the dialogue. >> would you like to pick a new name to mark your freedom? most ex-slaves do. any name you want. >> they called my mama rit, but her name harriet. i want my mama name and my husband. harriet tubman. amna: there's thi element to it ticed as i watched. it's very much told through a female gaze. a lot of stories about enslaved people we hear come from men. and in this role, you have got a strong female character. even in the time when she delivers her most impassioned speech, it's from a female's perspective.

it's about the rape of young girls. it's about children bei t separated frir mothers. was that a deliberate choice? cynthia: i think it was definitely deliberate on her part, but it was, for me, essential, because i think too about women, and ten'tories coming from women's places. and we don't have enough of it. >' there'nothing more you can do. >> don't you tell me what i can't do. i made it this far on my own. god was watching, but my feet was my own, running, bleeding, climbing, nearly drowned, nothing to eat for days and days, and i made it. kasi: we specifically wanted talk about family separation. a lot has been said about the cruelty of slavery, psychological torment of seeing your sisters sold away or a mother seeinher daughter sold, or people having to choose between running and leaving. their childr those kind of decisions were inherent in her story, and were so full of pain and so, i thought, relevant today. amna: there's also this part, which i love, was sort of

surprising to me. there's a love shat inspires her, that sort of guides her journey from the beginning, which inot how most of us learn about the story of harriet tubman. why was it important for yes to flh out that part of her life? cynthia: possibly because we don't get to see that of her. i think we see this picture.w we k her as the hero. we know that she's done all this work, and we know that she is the strong, strong woman. but we don't get to know that she was loved and was in love. and i feel like it's the one thing that sorof makes her real and grounds her and says to us that she was human, and that gse things she went through were -- were human th and she was an extraordinary being. amna: kasi, i have to ask you. some of the criticism has been that you have kind of glanced over much of the atrocity and the actual horrors of slavery in america, that people may see the scars that resulted fr that horror and atrocity, but you don't show how it came ao ut. that had a deliberate choice on your part. tell me why. kasi: yes. i mean, a lot has been done with the cruelty to enslaved people's

bodies. i mean, it's beenfuone very beauy. i focused on what anybody would say about the harriet tubman story. so, if you were to talk about harriet, you would say, she escaped slavery. she went back to libere others. i focused on the verbs o freedom. i really did. it's about -- it's about escape. it's about what one woman was willing to do in order to be free. and she wawilling to die for in liberating others. so, the freedom, the liberation, the return, that's what i focus on. amna: the movie is "harriet." cynthia erivo and kasi lemmons, thank you for being here. cynthia: thank you. kasi: thank you. ♪ >> newshour weekend saturday and

a repo on programs that send drug addicts to jail or rehab. check your local pbs listings for that. that is the newshour for tonight. have a great weekend. thank you g ad night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by bnsf railway, consumer cellular. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems. school foundation.org. >> there william f andra hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world had -- a better world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the newshour.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to you station from viewers like you. thank you. >> this is pbs newshour west from w eta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> the kincade fire

as thousands of evacuees return to their homes in tysonoma co. also the impeachment inquiry into president trump entee a new phaswith a key vote on pitol hill as democrats go on the offensive. and plus smoke fr the kincade fire has triggered air quality alerts for the bay area. we'll hear from an expert on how ecst to pryourself. good evening and welcome to kqed newsroom i'm sara farmer. we begin with the fire in king county. the kincade fire was roughly