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tv   PBS News Hour  PBS  November 18, 2019 3:00pm-4:00pm PST

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captioning sponsored by newshour produions, llc >> nawaz: good evening, i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff away. onhe newshour tonight... (gunfire) hong kong chaos-- tensions escalate as police and protesters clash at a localiv sity. then, rules of war-- how president trump's latese pardons raisous questions about military justice. and, our politics monday team breaks down the latest from the campaign trail and results from key governor's races across the country. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:
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♪ ♪ moving our economy for60 year bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals.
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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.io and by contrib to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> nawaz: police in hong kong tightened their siege of aun ersity campus tonight, where hundreds of protestors remain trapped inside. it's the latest bout of violence the city has seen inhsearly six mof protests. in other parts of the city, protests fueled by the-off continue. nick schifrin has the latest. >> schifrin: overnight and theugh morning darkness, th streets of hong kong, remained a battleeld. the police pushed to retake the campus of hong kong's harvard-- the polytechnic iversity. and students used any means necessary to hold their ground
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>> in the pre-dawn raid hoa kong police arrested student journalist and repeatedly asked the student to stop recording. some protesters fled on motorcycles. the police arrested more than 40trying to flee. protesters tripped over bacicades and were takled to the ground. this is th crescendo of six months of protests that started against the law that would have ited criminal suspects mainland china. but today demonstrators are calling for fundamental reform, and mainland china is threatening to escalate. for the first time since thees prott began, this weekend chinese soldiers left their hong kong barracks and cleaned up debris wearing t-srts and shorts. and today, china's ambassadoro the united kingdom blamed the west for instigating the protests and warned the protesters. >> to restore law and order,
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violence must end, and the violent perpetrat brought to justice. this is the only way to safeguard the interests of the future for hong kong and cement the foundation of one country. >> the two sides are on a cle of escalation. police say they're defending themselves and warned they could begin using live ammunition, but protesters say they are responding to police brutality and demand the city give in to their >> we want a peaceful hong kong to be back, but i think before at, the government has to listen to the people, and the police has to stop whatever they're doing. and i hope that hong kong can go back to the previous hong kong as soon as possible. >> schifrin: for more on wha this stand-off means for hong kong, and china, we're joined by kurt tong, who just finished a 29-year-career in the state department.
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he was the most recent u.s. consul general to hong kong, who served there from 2016 to july 2019. he's now a partner at ia group, an international business consulting firm. welcome to "newshour". thank you very much. >> thanks. pleasure to be here. >> reporter: what is the significance of this we're looking at now, the standoff in the universi, one of the first times we've seen protesters actually try and hold a littlebi of ground? >> i think that's right, it's a departure in strategy by the t proteste establish, essentially, a situation where they're under siege rather than using their old philosophy of move like water, have a prote and leave before they could get arrested. so i think it creates new risks both for the pr also for how the police handle it. >> sa the policedling of not only this moment but throughout this process, the protesters have talked about things like police brutality, that's language that they use, and we up protesters, for sure.beating
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do you believe that some of the police actions over the last few months have fueled the protest? >> i think that's right. i think that the police have been underntense pressure. personally, i don't think that they were particularly well-train for this kind of circumstance, and, so, they're having an emotional response to people comt them violently and, in some instances, responding inappropriately. responding violently in ways they shouldn't have. that is something that the protesters are now calli for an investigation of, and that probably makes sense to do that. it is portant to remember, at the same time, that the protesters have, if you will, taken first blood in terms of making this a violent stuation. >> reporter: of course, behind the police, literally in a garrison in the midd of hong kong, are chinese soldiers, and we saw them out in t-shirts and shorts. >> rht. >> reporter: in response to this in the last day or so.
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talked to some people who fear that it could be some kind of test run of some sort. do you share that fear that the chinese military could respond in some way if this violences? contin >> the fact of the matter is that there is a significant military presence in hong kong which is not designed for crowd control or fr police activity. china, of course, has imm police resources across the border that are not, again, preparedor working in the hong kong environment under hong kong law. so i think that the options for the mainland in terms of direct intervention are limited and bad, and, so, i on't anicipate that happening. but they have, from time to time, for example, earlier this fall, they relea d a videoof them practicing this kind of activity. >> reporter: and we've seen rhetoric increase from chees officials to xi jinping.
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>> and that's scare peoe. >> reporter: as a level of deterrence in you don't think it will gabeyond tht? >> i certainly hope not and i think it would be a mistake if iit did. >> reporter: the u.s. has warned china not go further than it has gone and we've seen secretary of state mike pompeo in the state department endorse the police investigation and gave reference to o of th protesters' key demands. let's take a listen. we call on chief executive carrie lam b for accountability by supplementing with an independent investigation into the protest-related incidents. the united states government has said repeatedly the cnese communist party must honor its promises to the hong kong peoe who only want the freedoms and liberties they have been promised in the british joint declaration. reporter: must honor promises in its police investigation. is that an adequate response?
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>> i think it's a good response. i think what secretary pompeo d,said is right anou know, we need to keep in mind there are limits to the reach of the united state influence events reason hong kong, but, certainly, callinga thorough investigation of what has taken place is a natural thing to do inthis circumstance and is an important thing to do, and the reference to the 1984 is spot on. i think it' important to understand what the protestersar trying to achieve, what does china, hong kong and the united >> reporter: u.s.icials are weighing even more drastic e options, fample, even removing some diplomats from hong kong, some kind of sanctions. would those moves be positive, do you think? >> i think tha -- it depenon who the sanctions are on. removing diploma, i don't ink, is necessary unless its
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sun safe. >> reporter: would this signal us to remove dipt mats? >>uld, but would bit effective? i would question that. i think the bigger question here is whatever the u.s. does as a matter of u.s. polcaicy should e fully designed to really have an impact on a situation in a positive way, not anti emoal response to short-term exogeneralsies but how do weis reinforce idea of hong kong that's part of china that's very different from the rest of china. to be specific on that, it's not do something tat actuallytes ends up hurting the hong kong people more than the in target, which, in the case of a bad situation, that would be the beijing government. if hong kong is no longer has autonomy then we should treat it like it no longer has autonomy. but if it has autonomy, i don't think we should take away our recognition of the autonomy because of a short-termat sin. this hong kong serves the united
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states' interest being a great place to do busess and a communication point for dealing with china, and it's also a place where 7 million people live, most of whom we like, and we don't want to take away their livelihood just to spite beijing. >> kurt tong, until july, consul general of very much.thank you >> thank you. >> nawaz: in the day's other news, iran's powful revolutionary guards warned protesters they will face "decisive" action, if tionwide unrest does not stop. people occupied streets, andet fire to cars, banks anher buildings over the weekend. they were angered by a 50% hike in gasoline prices. the government cut off internet access in an effort to smother the protests. >> ( translated ): today the 80% calmer compareer, more than yesterday. only some minor problems remain and by tomorrow and the day
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after, there will remain no riots. >> nawaz: the protests took place in dozens of cities and put more pressure on iran's government as it struggles with an ailonomy and u.s. sanctions. in iraq, anti-government protesters again seized a major bridge in baghdad. they camped out to block traffic, and hammered down a econcrete barricade near city's diplomatic center. they vowed to stay until a new government tackles reforms. demonstrators also blocked roads to the country's main port. the trump administration is softening its policy on israeli settlements in the west bank. s secretary te mike pompeo tmnounced today he will abandon a 1978 state dept legal finding that the settlements are inconsistent with international law. mpeo said the finding ha hindered the path to peace. >> we've had a long time with the policy, the legal interpretation being the other way and it didn't work. that's aact in evidence. we believe that what we've done
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today is we've recognized the reality on the grod. we think we increased the likelihood that the vision for peace this admin has we think we've created space for that to be succeful. >> nawaz: today's move is one of a series of trump administration decisions that weaken palestinian claims to statehood. north korea declared today it does not want "meaningless" nuclear talks with the u.s.. president trump had hinted at a third summit with kim jong un. but north korea's foreign ministry said kim rejects any summit, unless he gets something tangible. a senior official said: "we will president with som he can boast of." kim has demanded that the u.s. offer acceptable terms by the end of the year, in return for him ending north korea's nuclear program. the city of venice, italy struggled to begin recovering today, after unprecedented tidai on sunday, tourists and officials waded through historic st. mark's square, though some businesses stayed open despite the water.
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the mayor said the record flooding is a trrning. >> ( slated ): venice is a way to give a signal that we need scientists tore. they neeome here and create a permanent place where they can study awh then recount is happening here because of climate change, with all its effects. venice is a frontier; we are in the trenches. >> nawaz: the water levels on for the third time in the past week. that had not happened since record-keeping began in 1872.ou back in thisry, a congressional watchdog group says at least 60% of supfund sites are prone to flooding or other effects of climate change. those sites contain hazardous industrial waste. the government accountability office called today for the environmental protection agency to state explicitly that it will focus on the problem. president trump has often derided talk of climate change. seven people are dead after two shootings in different parts of the country. in duncan, oklahoma, three people were killed today outside a wal-mart.
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police said the gunman shot two people in a car, before killing himself. meanwhile, a manhunt is under way in fresno, california after four people were shot and killed sunday evening. it happened at a backy gathering where about 30 pinple, cluding children, werewa hing a football game. six more people were wounded in the shooting. >> they walked into the backyard and began immediately firing into the crowd. w 10 of those e struck by bullets. the unknown suspects fled the scene on foot. what ian tell you is that this was not a random act. >> nawaz: poli say some of the victims may have been involved in an incident last week. roberts has ordered a hold onohn letting house democrats see president trump's tax cords. a federal appeals court had ruled in favor of enforcing a house subpoena for the documents. the roberts order today blocks
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enforcement for an unspecifiedto timeive the high court time to issue a definitive ruling. president trump is backing away from a plan to bar sales of most flavor e-cigarette products. he had said in september he would announce a ban, to try and curb teenage vaping. but, it was widely repted today that he changed his mind after being warned that a ackdown could cost jobs and votes. and, on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 31 points to close at 28,036. the nasdaq rose nine points, and the s&p 500 added one point. still to come on the newshour: the latest in the impeachment inquiry and what to expect in the second week of publicin . how president trump's latest pardons raise concerns about military justice.ti our po monday team breaks down the latest from the causaign trail. a new exhibit of paintings by winslow homer examines the artist's fascination with the sea.
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>> nawaz: the stage is set on capitol hill for the second week of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into president trump. and, as white house reports, there's wday hecindor may testify on his own behalf. >> alcindor: on cbs's "face the nation" sunday, house speaker nancy pelosi invited president trump to appear. >> if he has information that is exculpatory, that means ex, taking away, culpable, blame, then we look forrd to seeing it. the president could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants. if he wants to take the oath of office or he could do it in writing. >> alcindor: today, president trump responded on twitter. he wrote, "i like the idea [and]
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will, in order to get congress focused again, strongly consider it!" president trump is accused of witholding almost $400 million ne military aid from ukrain exchange for probes into his political opponents.ee over thend, republicans continued to defend the president. the house intelligencesits on committee, said democrats don't have a case because uk never followed through on the investigations. he also appeared on "face the nation". >> the ukrainians did nothing to, as f as investigations goes, to get the aid released. so there was never this quid pro quo that the democrats all promise existed before presint trump released the phone call. >> reporter: at a cancer fundraiser in san antonio, rex tillerson criticized the esident's actions. >> woodruff: what is appropriate and what is proper inhe role of a diplomat? >> well -- >> woodruff: and american foreign policy?
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>> yeah, i mean, clearly, asking for personal favdors an using united states assets as collateral is wrong. there's just no two ways about it. >> reporter: meanwhile, house democrats >> alcindor: meanwhile, house democrats on saturday released two more transcripts from closed-door testimony. they came from tim morrison, a departing national security council official, and jennifer williams, a career state department official, who is an aide to vice president pence.bo were on the july 25th call between president trump and ukrainian president volodymyrze nskiy. on it, president trump pressed zelenskiy to investigate democrats. morrison testified that he had "concerns about a potential leak" of the call for political reasons. he also was concerned about how its release might "affect the heukrainian perceptions of u.s.-ukraine relationship." but, he said, "i was n concerned that anything illegal was discussed." williams testified the cl seemed "unusual and inappropriate." and she said it "shed some light on possible other motivations behind a secury assistance
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hold." in a tweet on saturday, president trump went after lliams. he called her a "never trumper" and accused her, and other witnesses, of attacking him. williams and mrison plan to testify publicly along with army eutenant colonel alexand vindman, national security council director for european affairs as well as kurt volker, former u.s. special envoy to ukraine. ey all will appear before the house intelligence committee >> nawaz: yamiche is here with me now to break all this down. >> nawaz: good too see you, yamiche. >> good to be here. >> nawaz: we have three days of public hearings, a number of officials coming before congress to testify. walk us through who we're gomng to hear nd why they matter. >> reporter: we have a full, packed schedule this week. democrats want to do this to make sure they'realas laying out their case. if you look at the calendar, there e a number of current and foreign officials serving in the trump administration or who administration.the there are three key people i'm going to point to.
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the first is lieutenant coloneln alexander vin someone who is working at the national security council, a ukrainee expert, ands someone with a purple heart. he's someone democratspoint to and say he's someone with a good charhter, patriotic, servede country, and someone who's had concerns in real time with th july 25th phone call between president trump and the president of ukraine.st vinmond l to the phone call and said he had concerns. repuicans say vindman has been inconsistent with his testimony and is someone who can not spe to whether or not the president did something that's impeachabl soouldn't be coming before congress in this way so that's one person they will point to you will hear the contrasting messages between both parties. kurt volcker is a long-time foreign service officer, aen speciaoy to ukraine from the u.s., no longer in that
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role, but he's someonetimes will point to who say when the call came out on july 25th, he was surprised and troubled. but republicans will make the case kurt volcker said he was never himself requested to doyt ng wrong. he's also going to say, they think, that he is someone who is going to say ukraine didn't know in raltime thi money was being held up. essentially they didn't know there was a bribe because they couldn't know there was a bribe happening. and gordon sondland is t person everybody is going to be watching, i am going to beca watching, e he's a european union ambassador, a close ally of present trump, and he's going to be making the case essentially that he was in direct contact with. president tru democrats say he knew that president trump wanted these investigations before and after the call,d that he was pressuring for that. republicans will be making theia case essey that sondland acting on his own but theen president didn't directly say i need you to do this for me, so a lot to watch there.
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>> indeed, and some of those folks will raise concerns about the president's behavior and what they allegedly saw. president trump has been tweeting about them before we even hear from them publicly. what are you hearing from the president's party about hisac ons? >> the shock friday of the president going after yovanovitch, the former ambassador to ukraine, in the t peachment inquiry has nrn off. i've talked to sources who ask have you talked to white house sources, will they control the president? the answer is no one can stop the president from tweeting.ar republicanhoping the president won't undermine their meaging and attk the witness' characters. the president has already done that saying these were never trumpers and are bad ambassadors. so we will have to watch president trump's twitter account because it will be very active ielmeantime. >>ed to the twitter account you just reported in your piece, speaker pelosi said the president is welcome to como this hearing and testify and give us his account.
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he tweeted hemight be open to that. what do we know about that happening? >> the presidentveays, do you uestions? we want to give you answers in writing. the issue is tt the house is already looking into whether or not the president lied to speciacounsel robert muell during the russia investigation. csentially he provided written answers and specunsel robert mueller said the answers were inadequate and he really was not happy with the fact he couldn't have follow-up questions to the president. the other thing to note is democrats say this is really the president playing games here, the president, if you really wanted to come before congress, could come and si before the lawmakers and answer questions. they also say he could provide y ople like acting chief of staff mick mulvao has refused to come before congress to come in and speak fore before congress. they say he could tell john bolton to come before congress, to provide docthuments a white house to help this impeachment inquiry. they're not doing any of that. democrats are saying we understand that the president wants to provide usrien answer bus that's not quite good
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enough. >awough. >>: a good reminder a number of white house officials a busy week ahead.rom. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor. >> thanks. >> nawaz: please join us for special live coverage of the public ieachment hearings. we start tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. eastern. : >> nawte friday, president trump intervened in the legal l ses of three u.s. servicemembers, whom had been accused of war crimes. against the advicef the pentagon, the president pardoned the rank of the thd reinstated as william brangham reports, these cases have ignited a debate aut justice in war, and whether these moves undercut the military's own legal system. >> brangham: that's right, amna. despite the objections of some senior officials in the pentagon, presidentrump believed these men had been wronged by military justice, and so he stepped in.
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in a statent issued friday, the white house said "for more than 200 years, presidents have used their authority to offer second chances to deserving individuals, including those in uniform who have served our country." the first pardon went to army lieutenant clint lorance, who in 2013 was convicted of second degree murder for ordering members of his platoon to shoot several afghan men approaching their position on motorcycles. lorance had been sentenced to 19 years in prison. the second pardon was for army major matthew golsteyn, a highly decorated special forces officer who later admitted to killing and burning the body of a suspected taliban bomb makgh in istan. he was to go on trial xt year.d the thse involved navy seal eddie gallagher, who earlier this year was acquitted of killing a suspected teenage gallagher was demoted because he posed with the dead boy's body in a photograph.re president trumrsed that demotion.
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joining me now are two people with very different views of the president's moves. tired lt. colonel david gurfein had a 25 year career in the marines. he is chief executive officer of americans for patrts, an advocacy organization that supports service personnel when they get into legal trble. and retired lt. col. rachel vanlandingham had a 20 year career in the air force where she was a lawyer. she's now a professor at southwestern law school where she teaches criminal law, constitutional criminal procedure, and national security law. welcome to you both. rachel, to you first. the president in his statement onriday said that these three men were deserving of this pardon, desving of mercy, as you said elsewhere in the statemene i know you hen very crital of the president's move. what is your concern? >> my concern, i think -- i hope everyone is deserving o mercy, but by pardoning these three individuals, hed undermiot
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just the military justice system, he undermines his ownnd military coms. in the military, it is senior-level commanders that makeo he decision bring subordinates.st one of their it's not lawyers. guess what? in the military, it's also military members, oose wh understand and appreciate themp operational cxities of the battlefield that sit in judgment of their peers. so bes pardoning th individuals and saying they're deserving of mercy, what is he saying about the coanders and the fellow military members that found these three -- at least -- excuse me -- that we had two convicted war criminals earlier this year that were pardoned, we had lieutenant lorance, a convicted war criminal pardoned, and goldsteyn's war crimes court martial that's been aborted. so what message is president trump sending to the folks who sat throughout these
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processes and what message is he sending to those indiv adhering to the commands of thr senior leadership, thatng are adheo the proper and honorable way to fight? i'm not sure this is aboutdi duals being deserving of mercy. >> reporter: dav gurfein, there's a lot there he's arguing. wee of the points she's arguing is these guys re tried by a military court, military prosecutors, by a juryeir peers or higher in rank. you think that the president din the right making this pardon. give me the argument there. a olutely. the president stepped in and it's not about the combatant comanders.it's what happens aftt call is made, and it's about the individuals' rights. this is one of those things where we've sross the board prosecutorial misconduct,v seen investigator abuse, we've seen unlawful demand influence, and we can go into detail in every one of these cases. those types of ofensesthee cases occurred? >> absolutely. and we can go into details withg
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every one. we've seen exculpatory information hidden not brought to bear, we've seen lies told by senior officers to protect the perception of the institution and also perhaps t protect their own careers, where you've had appeals which should be identifying off these wrong doers that were not even alowed to go forward. byo metric evidence proved thata the so-ed civilians ordered to be killed by kurt tong were not civilians. these were -- by lorance were not combattens. this is how we solve cases with dna and skin cells, that are coming off i.e.d.s and americans prior.s killed these are enemy combatants. same in goldsteyn's case, he killed an enemy and he's brought up on murder charges and was investigated and in that investigation they found no evidence to supporthis
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allegation other than matt said he killed an enemy comicbatant, many of us have done. that is not a crime. and, so, they stl didn't like it. they didn't like the rumor of it and that he was talking openly about this. they stripped him of his army special forces hat, too his silver star and next held him for nearly over ten years, had this over him and his family's head and continuously said, hey, we're going to get thi they kept bringing him on. >> reporter: rachel, again, david is making the point that, in each of these cases there was serious misconduct. you were a jag lawyer, you proscated cases like this. >> iefended cases. i was an appellate defense counsel as well and my heart is with the defense but my heart also is with t rule of law an the rule of law involves process. nurous appellate courts are established to make surthese
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cases are remedied. the army court of criminal appeals said there wasov whelming he committed murder, attempted mude obstruction of justice, hereatened lives. those individualilled were found by overwhelming evidence, by has the testimony of his own subordinates to have posed absolutely no threat to him or his teammates. they were on otalking back to their motorcycles at the direction of the afghan national army who commanded them to do so. yet lieutenant lorance ordered them to be killed, fired upon and murdered despite the lack of threat.he knew of no evidence ae time that they were any type of .emy combata he was only given the orders to ensure that he protected his troops against those who posede some t imminent threat and all his troops testified veryea y to other fellow military members those individuals did not oppose a threat and were
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gunned down indiscriminately and lieutenant lorance created greater taliban threats and risk for the americans honorably serving. you know why? the third individual he tried to murder joined the taliban and committed attacks because he knew the americans wereoing after every innocent afghan as well, at least according to lieutenant lorance. >> reporter: i know it's vericy dit and the viewers are confused by the avalanche of details we're getting ito, i'd like to step back, dvid, and lo at a criticism some h made, veterans, primarily, that in pardoning these three gentlemen, again, putting aslide slightly the specifics of what they have been cused of, tha this gives free rein to the occasional bad actor in the war zone and the rules of war donpl if you can exert i political pressure and get your case thrown out. what do you make of that
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criticism? >> we talked about kur about cle kill civilians. then the -- he acted in accordance with the rules of ellen engagement. heas found not guilty of violating the rules of engagement. so what's said acting inappropriately, his pierce found he did not act inappropriately. he acted and all his soldiers >> reporter: iar you. but what about the larger question of the criticism of many veterans, people who served in iraq, afghanistan and earlier combat missions that this sends a message that sometimes the rules of war are not going to apply? >> no, the message it sends is make the right decision, or even if you make the wrong decision, that youedill be trefairly and you will receive your rights they swore to support and defend our rights yet don't get the
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same protecti that perhaps an individual who would go into a school and gun down children with intent is getting. here we're seeing tim and time again where the warriors areer thrown uhe bus for political reasons. right after clint lorance'sa case patrol outside theyne clint got put away for murder and a motorcycle came dsow their patrol and they had to make the decision what not to do. they chose not to engage. those four iividuals are dead. our warriors should not have to question whether or not they will goto levenworth for pulling the trigger and doing the right thing at the theig time for so many different teasons. >> rep i'm sorry we can't get into the complicated details tonight, but, davidgu ein, rachel vanlandingham, thank you very much for being here. >> thank you, appreciate it. so much. >> nawaz: we turn now to the
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democratic presidential race-- where candidates still trying to break through in the cwded field headed west this weekend. >> hello nevada democrats! >> nawaz: as impeachment news consumes washington, a show of force by the 2020 democratic candidates in nevada. >> this is a fight to end that national nightmare called donald trump. >> nawaz: in las vegas sunday night, 14 of the 2020 candidates made theiritch to nevadans, who'll vote third in the party's nominating contest. the lineup included former massachusetts governor deval patrick, who entered the crowded race just last week. former u.s. senate leader harry reid, still a gie't in the statpolitics, made an appearance, and, a call for unity. but beneath the surface, theti struggle ced over what kind of democratic nominee should lead the party next. a centrist like former vicejo presidenbiden...
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>> the risk of nominating someone who couldn't beat trump will be a nation and a world our children and our grandchildren won't want to be in. >> nawaz: ...or a progressive like massachusetts senator elizabeth warren, who often warns agait running what she calls a "safe" campaign. >> we're n gonna change it by a nibble here a little bit of change over there. we're gonna chan it with big structural change! >> nawaz: it came after former president barack obama, a moderate democrat, made re comments on the 2020 race, and a veiled criticism of that "big structural change." mr. obama said, "this is still e country that i revolutionary than it is interested in improvement. they like seeing things improved, but the average american doesn't think you have to completely tear down the system and remake it." he warned candidates to "pay some attention to where voters actually are," and that "we also have to be rooted in reality." >> i got something important really wrong. >> nawaz: meanwhile, another
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potential late addition to the democratic race, michael bloomberg, apologized for the "stop-and-frisk" policing policy he led while mayor of new york, and has since defended as a means to combat crime. >> i spoke with many of the innocent people affected, and listened to their frustrations and their anger. >> nawaz: the policy, granting police broad authority tesdetain and on people, overwhelmingly impacted people of color, and is largely seen as out of line with the current was wrong, and i am sorry. >> nawaz: today, bloomberg picked up a key endorsement from stephen benjamin, mayor columbia, south carolina and one of the state's highest-profile black politicians, who applauded bloomberg's apology. and that brings us to politics monday. i'm here with our politics monday team-- amy walter of the cook political report and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter." and tamara keith from npr. she co-hosts the "npr politics podcast."
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and welcome to you both. we have some new poll numbe. shall we dig in? >> let's. >> nawaz: let's go to iowa first. this is from a new pole in iowa for the cnn and the des moines register. look at who's at the top of the poll now, pete buttigieg leads with 25% of supthport in state. after him, senators warren, vice president biden and president sanders, and then the everyone else polling below 10%, that is in iowa. amy, start us off here. what is happening here? the 16 point surge -- >> it's pretty remarkable that of all the candidates this is the one candidate who has gne back inarch, i think he waslead pulling somewhere around 1% or 2%. what's remarkable about iowa, we've had four polls since march from the des moines register, which is the gold standard of polling in the state, and while it's very volatile, right, wve
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had three different leads in these polls, so four polls, the different leaders, they have been the same people. of the pool ofoor people, we have a huge field, but the same four pd ople are mentio one, two, three or four since march. so what we'res seeing, is , there is some volatility here but it's not, at this point, oping a lane for somebody who is not in those top four. >> tam, what do you see when you look at the numbers? one of the things for the voters sis do they want eone who reflects their values, do they want someone who will beat donald trump? what does this say to you now? >> part of what this says is ttye buttigieg has a pre strong ground game in iowa. this is a unique state, it has a he raised a lot of money earlier this year, and he spent it. the ground in ioa.ting staff on he just did a bus tour through the state. all of thse things, like being someone who is the mayor of a
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small city an having time to meet a bunch of voters, that can actually matter in a state like iowa and can be reflected in this poll. it certainly helped elizabeth warrhy when people saidwas she moving ahead in a june or september pol ian't remember, but it was she was building the ground game. why are g we spend much time on iowa? icalifornia has over 490 delegates. for the last four years with an asterisk on 1992, and i won't get into the details. the democratic nominee for president has won iowa, new hampshire. iowa is so important, and it also sets the narrative and it sets the media expectations
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really for aood -- obviously for the next week before we get to new hampshire butit wins over the field pretty quickly. >> iowa is not perct reflective of the democratic party or america as a whole. this is the criticism. iowa and new hampshire are super white, and it just is what it is. they're so highly educated, and there are a lot ofhi demogr that make iowa and new hampshire not your standard reflection of the bro democratic party, which is where you get to south carolina, where we also have l new pol and where pete buttigieg is in fourth plce, but, like -- >> nawaz: let's put this up so you can talk tohe numbers. the latest south carolina poll,t quinnipiac ooday. a very different picture here. >> pete buttigieg knows 's had trouble with african-american voters. he's been working on it pretty much o his campaign at least since the summer, but it continues to be a challenge, and you see that i polling in south carolina.
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it's also not clear how he's comes after that, then it'sthat super tuesday, which is a whole bunch of states incdi california. >> and you've mentioned to our producer earlier, butigieg being on top, does that make him here's what we see, december through march, it was biden who was on top in iowa, scrutiny gets on to bidenthen moves to warren, scrutiny on warren and her medicare for all pln. she dips a little bit, we see buttigieg on top. we have a debate wednesday, ad i'm sure his friends and will have a couple of questions. >> i hate to make predictions but you ing my to elizabeth warren. i want to ask you about a revolution on r medicare for all plan. this has been sort of the defining issueor our candidacy, and she seemed to -- i don't want to say evolve, but shifw. she rolled out a time line for
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how she plans to get there. what do you think of that? >> it's the whole thing of having cake and eating it, however the phrase goes.g she's getttremendous amount of criticism even from democrats for a plan that wouldl kick poff their private insurance and institute a medicare for all, basically a single payer system. what she has offered is to say, well, okay, for the first two years, i will be able to push through a public option, which people can staon their private insurance or buy into a medicare system, simar to what pete buttigieg and joe biden are talking about and many others democre talking about. but then, by year three and four, all thoseeople who have gotten in the public option are going to say this is so great, i'm saving so much money, the healthcare system has been so incredibly altered in the year since it'been implemented that we're going to do then medicare for all. >> but let me just say that i have covered presidents, and their third and fourth yeaotrs
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tendo be when they pass most meaningful legislation. >> right. ysat's why candidates al talk on day one observe or the first 100 days, there's a reason for that. midterms happen, things come to a screeching halt. >> nawaz: this opens her offto criticism she's changing her tunes and lining up wit more moderate candidates. >> it opened her up to criticise from the beanders and the pete buttigieg side of the world. she's getting it from all angles, in part because she decided to go out and say that he h p a plan and it in writing. >> a last word on something else, the last time we were sitting here, i was asking you about theseree key southern states in which president trump campaigned very heavily for the there -- louisiana, mississippi and kentucky, those are the won election in 2016 in each of those states. you said watching the races would paint a picture, at least give us an education of what's ahead. what do we now know?
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>> i will say president trump at a rally said you've got to givme big win, please. and said that the eyeof history would be watching, that people should send a message to washington and the democrats in washington.pe guess what h? two out of three of those ended up going to the democrats. now he will sayhat the republican in kentucky, good guy he says bute deply unpopular, and will say john bel edwards,u ow, it was super close, but the reality is that the president couldn't get them over the finish line. you know, he went and did a bunch of rallies, put a lot of personal political caital out there to say i'm thee prsident, i can drag them over the finish line and he didn't do it. >> nawaz: amy. if i am a democrat on th more moderate side of the eweighs, i look at it and said what the two democrats did that won, they ran as a centrist, they raon building on the affordable care act, not on medicare for all, the medicaid
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expansion is very ulp in these states, i.. democrats stay toward the affordable care act and building on that and not move too far to the left.y >> nawaz: lter and tamera keith, always good to see you guys. >> thank you. >> nawaz: finally tonight, the mysterious meeting of land, se and sky through the eyes of 19th century american artist winslow homer. special correspondent jared bowen examines at an exhibit of enchantment with seascapes as part of our ongoing series on arts and culture, canvas. >> reporter: many an artist hase heard the call of the sea. for winslow homer, it would change his lif >> we think of him today principally as a marine painter.
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until age 33 though, he hadsh neven a marine painting. kn reporter: until then, homer had been a well-n ed therator who'd capt he was raised in cidge,t lines. massachusetts and was a new yorker by the time hd the sea as a painter in 1869. he was enchanted, says curator c billss. >> the times of ofy, the times ide. storms washi in and washing t. the mysterious meeng of land sea and sky was alluring to him as it is to us. >> we've been able to assemble 51 works by homer here at the cape ann museum. >> reporter:liver barker is the director of the cape ann museum in gloucester where homer at the beach commemorates the 150th anniversary of the artist as a marine painter. >> we know he came here on four separate occasions, initially to manchester and then three separate occasions to gloucester.
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and so it wasn't accidental. >> reporter: homer initially sought out the sea up and down the east coast. in new jersey, he found heavily populated beaches-with crowds in wool bathing cosmes like this one. erbut as he moved north, h found vastly different vistas. he discove gloucester shipyard and the solitude of rock strewn beaches. he was very inspired by the ordinary people of gloucester.k i th time went on he started to show some of the beauty of the surrounding areas. there are these glorious sunset >> reporter: this is the first marine painting homer ever exhibited, inspired by singing beach in manchester. it went on view in new york. and says curator bill cross, thc crhated it. >> he received disdain because he was ahead ohis time. >> reporter: homer had embarked lengthy trip to france where he was exposed to all that was new in european painting, photography and japanese prints.
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none of which had yet taken hold in america. >> homer was using diffused light, had little narrative conten and the critics wanted less sketchy paintings. they wanted a work that included figures. >> reporter: the hostile reviews continued with these two works called low tide.'s but here homesponse was equally hostile and physical.is i know thi trick question but, one painting or two? >> both. homer made his most ambitiou painting based on his visits to long branch, new jersey in 1869, and exhibited to scorn. scorn from the critics. he removed the painting from the exhibition before the exhibition ended and took his own knife to it, dismembered the painting,
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and turned it into two works. only once before in u.s. history have these two paintings beenou t together in this way. >> reporter: part of the beauty of homer's works. the light, the glint of the sea. and even a lot olandscapes are still as ty were. living on ten pound island in gloucester harbor, homer painted some 100 watercolorsver one summer. today he's known as one oflohe best watersts ever. but he had a profound role model: his mother. >> she exhibited her watercolors in new york before he did. and when he exhibited his watercolors for the first time, she was in the same exhibition. >> reporter: cross says e 11 years of works in these galleries are tantamount to an f-artist in a process of s discovery. one that would result in the most significant workss career. >> he was discovering these
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places in himself through the application of three essential lessons. travel widely, experiment boldly, and love deeply. >> awaz: in september the trump administration proposed an annual refugee cap of 18,000 people for 2020. that's down from the low of ,000 refugees this year. but what makes someone a refugee and another person migrant? tonight, writer dina nayeri offers her humble opinion on that important difference. >> in 1989, when i was ten, i arrived in oklahoma as a refugee. in iran, my mother had been
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threatened with execution for converting to christianity, soed we were recogns political dissidents and granted asylum. according to american la refugees deserve asylum because they've suffered persecution and face future danger, whereas economic migras must prove their merit. the difference between the two groups may seem obvious-- danger to one's life-- but in practice, it is anything but. when you apply for asylum, either at the border or in an embassy, and often before you get a lawyer, you're given a" credible fear" assessment. let's say you're from central america and a gang demanded money from you.se you re and they threatened to kill you. naturally, you fled. at the u.s. border, the officerf will a your specificus reason for rg the gang. the truth is that there are many reasons you didn't pay. you don't have the m it stinks to face extortion every day. tht if you happen to say t
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officer, "because i didn't have the money," then you doret qualify fogee status. but if insteadou say "because i don't believe gangs should be running my country," that would make you a refugee. why? because you have a well-founded fear of future persecution based on your political opinion-- that the country shouldn't be run by gang think about that for a minute: if you testify that the gang said "we'll kill you, you cheapskate!"mi you're just ant. if you say they said, "we'll kill you, you traitor," you're a refugee. seems arbitrary doesn't it-- to hang an entire persos fate on the gangster's insult of choice? i come from a family of doctors and scholars. when we had our asylum interview, we knew that our christianity was the central question. if my mother had been less educated about asylum storytelling, she might have wept about her marriage, or oure lack of money we escaped iran. if she had, would our asylum
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have been denied? would i be a writer now or a frustrated housewife forced tove nder a headscarf? i'd like to believe that would have been a waste.s so her question: how meaningful is the distinctiont is this arbitrary ten? useful in deciding how much people have suffered and what care and protectr n we owe to llow man? and how exactly do you define a life in danger? if a life is sure to be wasted in poverty, without education, opportunity, or purpose... isn'f that a kinanger too? >> nawaz: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online and again here nmorrow at 9:00 a.m. east for special live coverage of the impeachment hearings. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank sou and see you . >> major fundi for the pbs newshour has been provided by:
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>> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting scienced technology, proved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. ported by the john d. an catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing supportf hese institutions >> this program was made le by the corporation fo public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org
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hello everyone and welcome to "amanpour" and company. here's what's coming up. >> how could our system fail like this? how is t itt foreign corrupt interests could manipulate our n govent? >> ambassador marie yovanovitch describes being kneecaped byer own government as she worked to serve american interests in ukraine. resigned after 33 years at the state department who was also undermined as she pursued american terests. then i speak with democratic congressman and former cia alyst alicia slothkin. the reaction she gets at home in swing state michigane plus, look at how u.s. policy plays into