capt sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> wdruff: good evening, i'm judy woodrufr on the newshnight, the the u.s. house intnce committee delivers its report on how president trump subverted national security for personal politil gain. then, on the world stage. we are on the ground irulondon as mr. arrives for the nato summit at a contentious moment for the milary alliance. plus, "supreme ambition"-- a new book explores how brett kavanaugh's fraught appointment to the u.s. suprem ocourt was ju step in a plan to move the judiciary to the right. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> woodruff: the house intelligence committee tod formally accuses president trump of abusing his power to pressure a foreign government for his personal political gain. as lisa desjardins reports, it marks the ofcial launch into the next phase of impeachment proceedings. >> desjardins: for intelligence committee chairman adam schi, a turning point. >> this is not about ukraine; this about our democracy about ouhtnational security, and r to expect that the president is going to act in their interest. >> desjardins: after two months of public and closed-door hearings investigang president trump, schiff and democratic oraff released a 300-page report laying the grounfor democrats' moves toward impehment. it charges that mister trump "solicited the interference of a foreign government, ukraine, to benefit his reelection" by withholding military aid andgs

other thincluding a white house meeting until ukraine agreed to political investigations. the report accuses the president of obstructing congress by ordering witnesses not to testify in the probe.es it states the ent "publicly attacked and intimidated" congressional w witnessech they say is a "federal crime." in their own 110-page report released last night, republicans caed the impeachment inqui "an orchestrated campaign to upend our political system." ey said president trump showed "genuine, and reasonable" skepticism about corruption in ukraine. and that witholding aid was "entirely prudent." trump himself.choed that at a nato summitn london, sitting nexto canadian prime minister justin trudeau, he raged against the democrats. >> i think it's a disgrace. i think the democrats should be ashamed of themselves. if you look at impeachment and the word "impeachment" hereth e was nothing wrong. nothing done wrong. >> desjardins: the president has

also pushed a theory that ukraine meddled in the 2016 election, a clm debunked byu. th intelligence community. as recently as tod, undersecretary of state daedd hale was about alleged ukrainian interference, at a hearing before the s foreign relations committee. >> was the kremlin's interferencen the 2016 ection a hoax? >> no. >> are you aware of any idence that ukraine interfered in the 2016 u.s. election? >> i am not. >> desjardins: but some senate republicans have not been so unequivocal. >> there are articles about ukrainian officials talking to democratic officials. i don't know if th's true or no >> desjardins: democrats say their investigation into president trump will continu the report now goes to the house judiciary committee, ahead of tomorr's public hearings on the constitutional precedent for impeachment. >> woodruff: and lisa joins me now along with yamiche alcindor.

so lisa, to you fi ot. tell us sothe key takeaways from this report today. >> let's look at the big picture, judy. democrats, first of all, are talking about the call between president trump and ukrainia president zelensky. they see two items of misconducp there,ately the idea that the president used his power for political gainto get an investigion that helped him politically. second, the democrats saon that call, the president also did something else wrong, which was try and get a foeign government, ukraine, to intervene in u.s. politics. if you take an even bigger step back, judy, look even bigger recture, democrats are also alleging in thisrt that the president risked our national security by hurtiu a vlnerable ally, ukraine, when it needed help, and helping a potential foe, russia. then one more thing in this report, judy, that thegiy're , they're alleging, democrats,a conspiracy and a cosar-up. they'rng it went beyond the president, including other officials such as cabinet

secretaries like secretary of thstate pompeo. say that their decisions not to tough amount to a cover-up. e are all things we'll be hearing a lot about in the next week and a half. >> woodruff: so ya ache, you haso take an close look at all this. what do you see in here that's new inormation? >> well, judy, this is the report. 's long and it's tedious, but the most important thing and the new thing we learned is that there will be call logs in here between rudy giuliani calling white house officials and white house officials calling him ba . so we put the screen, you see in august, rudy giuliani is making a number of calls to the white house, and we see himin cathe office of manage. and budget. now, that's very important, because we did not know that the president's personal attorney was calling that budget office. they are very critically nnected to the $391 million that was withhaid from uk as part of what democrats would say is a quid pro quo. so it's really important that the president's personal attorney, and w e nohave physical evidence of him doing that. it's also important, in april 2019, on april 24th, rudy

giuliani was again onthe phone with lev parnas. he's on the phone with white house officials. that's the same daythae former ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch, is recalfrd ukraine. so while this is happening, while democrats woulsay this is a criticastep in republicans and in the president trying to get people out of the way and move playrs like marie yovanovitch out of the way to get this scheme as democrats haved to really pressure ukraine to investigate joe bidd and hunter ben. so we now see in these call logs rudy giuliani calling on that critical, critical day. >> woodruff: and you wer telling us, yamiche, there are still other call logs in this report that are interesting. >> anothermportant part of this is that devin nunes, representative dev t nunes, he's house intelligence committee, he's a ranking member, a repuican, he is now connected to lev parnas, which is an associate of rudy giuliani, theesident's personal attorney, who has been indicted for violating campaign finance laws. now, i was on the phone with lev parnas's attorney.

his name is joseph bondy. he said this proves his clients's point that he was in contact with the high-ranking republican congressman and that he was part of this, the lawyer told me, is scheto try to pressure ukraine to investigate joe biden. this lawyer is not saying thatvi nunes was part of the quid pro quo. he stopped short of saying, that but what you have is sitting congressman now being accused of being part of all of this urge and you now have this physical evidence, and i was told that lev parnas did not know tht these call logs existed and that the house intelligence committee had them, so this is really a bombshell that is really, really portant in all of this. >> brangham: >> woodruff: nowlisa, you were accept rattlely at a press conference today that was held by the intelligence committee chair adam schiff. tell us about that. >> thas right, yamiche was calling par's lawyer. i was asking the same quesmtions of a schiff, because it's his report that's connecting mr. nunez to mr. parnas. i asked chairman schiff whether he thought mr. nunez should

recuse himself remembernu mrz is voting on this report in which he is depicted. i asked the decrat schiff should the republican nunez re se himself. t won't surprise you i'm going to reserve comment. it is i thk deeply concerning that at a time when the eresident of the united states was using the pof hiso officeg up dirt on a tolitical rival, that there may be evidence thhere were members of congress complicit it thatity. >> no so that was a classic, yo hem say i'm going to reserve comment, but then he did comment thought this wa a matter of serious concern and he recommended that other group, he didn't say who exactly, should investigate this. now, as for devin nunes, his office has not responded and actually he didanswer questions as he walked into the intelligence committee just a few minutesago, but ally, jim jordan, i spoke to him a few

minutes ago, and jida jor the republican from ohio, said, "i don't understand what the big deal is. everyone makes phone calls. i see no problem with that," jordan said, "many, many people to speak to rudy giuliani. i don't have a problem with that. ." >> woodruff: so we have the intelligence committee report, wh happens next. >> what's next is the white house is going to continue to defend itself. i wanto point now to a statement that was released by the white house press secretary stephanie grisham. it says, "this report reflectsre nothing han their frustration." she's talking about the democrats. that's the white house diggingmo in saying the ats are on a wrong path here and the president essentially did nothing wrong. the lawyer for lev parnas says that devin nunes should recuse himself, but there are people outside of this saying there needs to be other steps here. the other thing note is that the white house is not sendingrr lawyers to to this hearing, this public hearing by

the judiciary committee. we're going to hear from constitutional experts some the white house as they're defending themselves are saying, we don't want to taket in any of this. >> and you know, judy, let me jump in really quck. we do expect one more hearing. chairman schiff told me and other rerters that he expects his staff to present the report at the committee.ig that will be a hearing to watch. >> woodruff: all eyes on all of this. thank you, yaiche. ank you, lisa. and please do all of you join us tomom.ow at 10:00 eastern. we will have special live coverage of the u.s. house judiciary committee impeachment. hear >> woodruff: in the day's other news, president trump's first day at the nato summit was marked by a clash with french president emmanuel macron. the alliance suffers from "brain death." but, the french leader stood by s criticism.

we'll have a detailed report, after the news summary. as he made his rounds london, the president lost a round in his legal fight to keep his banking records from congress. a federal appeals court in new york directed deutsche bank and capital one to comply with subpoenas fr house committees. they're inveigating mr. trump's business dealings. the white house said it may appeal to the u.s. supreme court. the president roiled financial delaying a trade ant withgested china until after the 2020 new tariffs on chimports could take effect december 15th, but mr. trump said there is no deadline for making a deal. >> i think in some ways it's better to wait until after the election wh china. i just think that. in some ways i like the idea of waiting 'till aftethe election for the china deal. but they want to make the deal

now and we'll see whether or nal the s going to be right. it's got to be right. >> woodrf: the president's remarks sent wall street into a day-long dive. in the end, the dow jones industrial average lost 280 points to close at 27,502. the nasdaq fell 47 points, and the s&p 500 gave up 20. california senator kamala harris dropped out of the 2020 democratic presidential race today. she said her campaign cks the money to go on. harris was an early standoutn the crowded field, but her candidacy has since faded. we'll take a closer look, later in the program. in iran, the government acknowledgedfor the first time, that security forces shot and killed demonstrators in a crackdown on protestprover gas es. state tv described the protesters as "rioters." at least 208 people were killed in a crackdown. but, tehran rejected that gure >> (ytranslated i bluntly say

that numbers and figures given by hostile groups about deaths in the protests are sheer lies. real statistics are seriously announce and numbe farey less than what they claim. >> woodruff: president trump said today that irans killing e ousands of people, and he added, "i think rld has to be watching." a new wave of anti-government protests flared across southern iraq today. thousands of college students filled streets in basra to demand government reforms. some carried mock coffins representing more than protesters killed by security forces since october back in is country, republican congressman duncan hunter formally admitted diverting campaign funds for personal use. he pled guilty todayn federal court in san diego and now faces five years in prison. the six-term california lawmaker will also resign from congress.

the u.s. supreme court heard arguments today in a high-stakes environmental casen superfund sites. it involves a former copper elter site in montana. local landowners want a more extensive cleanup of arsenic contamination than federal rules call for. atlantic richfield, the site's owner, argues that the federal regulations take precedent. and, back in london, prince andrew faced allegations that he once had sex with a 17-year-old american girl, and president trp faced questions about the case. mr. trump offed no opinion, he also said he did not know andrew, although photos, like this one, from last june, show them at several events over the cears. the prin has been heavily criticized for his ties to jeffrey epstein, who committed suicide last summer, facing sex- trafficking charges. still to come on the newshour: summit as the alliaces new

challenges. bowing out-- senator kamala hais ends her run for the presiden. plus, on the newshour bookshelf, "supreme ambition: brett kavanaugh and the conservative takeover." >> woodruff: president trump shakes up a gathering of world leaders. chilcote reports ostrained relations took center stage. >> reporter: president trump arrived quietly last night in london for a nato summit meant 70 celebrate the alliance' anniversary that allies were hoping wouldn't descend into chaos. but come this morning, those hopes were dashed. in aay marred by acrimony

between at least three of nato's leading countries, at a meeting with nato secretary general jent tenberg, president trump went first, uncharacteristically defending the allianceou while lashinat the president of france for having labeled nato "brain dead" in a recent interview. >> nody needs nato more than france and frankly the one that benefits really the leis the united states. >> reporter: nato's secretary general listening on, the president railed against what he sees as nato countries freeloading on the back of u.s. military spending, and repeatedly schooled his french counterpart, threatening retaliation foa new french tax on american tech companies. >> that is a very, very nay statement. they're starting to tax other people's products, so erefore we go and tax them, which is taking place right now on technology and we're doing their wines and everything else. >> reporter: in early afternoon, the two sat down for a tense tete-a-tete.

president macron didn't back down. >> i know my statements created some reaction-- shake a little bit a lot of people-- i do stand by it. and i have to say when you look at what nato is and should be, first of all, this is a burden we share. >> reporter: the french president then took a swipe at turkey's president recep tay ip erdogan, wthe lead up to macron himself "brain dead," ey when i look at turkey, now are fighting against those who fight with us, who fought with us, shoulder to shoulder against isis. and sometimes they work withor isiss. >> reporter: isis was even a bone of contenon between the ench and american presidents >> would you like some nice isis fighters? n give them to you. you can take every one you want. >> reporter: president macron responded sternly: >> let's be serious. >> reporter: trump shot back: >> thawas one of the greatest non-answers i've ever heard. >> reporter: meantime, to round

,t the round house punchi before leaving for london, president erdogan promised to block nato plans if the alliance doesn't label the syrian kurdish militia known as the y.p.g. a terrorist group; it's a u.s. partner in the fight against isis and turkey's enemy in syria: >> ( translated ): if our friends at nato do not recognize as terrorist organizations those against whom we carry out fights against terrorism, then excuse me, we will stand against anyat ill be taken there. >> reporter: while the public spat between other no leaders is unusual, president trump's unconventional demeanor with allies is not new. deo years ago, at his first nato meeting, the pre appeared to shove the prime minister of montenegro. d last year, he told nato leaders that if they didn't spend 2% of their g.d.p. on defense, the u.s. would "go it interpreted as a threat the u.s.

>> reporter: in another veiled threat he appeared to make today in a meeting with canadian prime minister justin trudeau,gghe president ted the u.s. wouldn't necessarily defend nato >> it's something be the 2%. talking about. >> reporter: white house officials say the president's combative approach to american allies is paying off. in 2016, four of the 29 nato countries met the 2% threshold. today, that number stands at nine. by 2024, the trump administration says the number will have risen to 18. at an event on the meeting's sidelines, the nato chief, tasked with wranglg its headstrong leaders, praised the alliance, despite today's >> i'm a politiciai'm used to be criticized for having good rhetoric, but bad substance. nato is the opposite. >> reporter: at buckingham palace reception hosted by the queen, nato leaders had plenty on the allies' plates: disagreement too on china. president trump want alliance to take a tougher g ance on china and refrain from buying itschnology, many

of the european allies oppose that idea. for a nightcap among squabbling allies, brith prime minister boris johnson, facing a bruising reelection fight, hostders at downing street, at least three of whom did not go gently into that good night. >> woodruff: and ryan chilcote joins me now. ryan, how unusual was it fortr presidenp to criticize president macron as he did? in any circumstances, and particularly in this case, because after all, you would kind of expect president trump to call nato brade. he's been calling the alliance obsolete for many years. what president macron really meant when he gave that interview a month ago and made that ctment about nao being braindead is that european countries need to do more in terms of the own defense and that european nato countries can't necessarily rely on the united states to come to their

defense. well, even today president trump intimated that last point that if nato countries weren't paying their fair share, the u.s. might not me to their defse, and he has always said that nato counies, european nato countries should be spending more. i think that was suprising. >> woodruff: and you know, ryan, you obviously have covered a number of nato meetings over the years. hoenis this one diff >> look, this is president trump's thir nato summit. tso if the other o leaders were surprised by his unconventional approach to diplomacy in the past, thy certainly weren't this time. in fact, some nato officials even told us tt this meeting was designed in a way to kind of keep everything scripted. as you kn obviously president trump went off script but again, not a huge surprise. time we had a number overis this leaders uabbling amongst themselves.

and i think that if you would just listeto the rhetoric, that kind of makes you think that maybe nato itself is coming undone at the seams, though when it comes to policy, nato is definitely very united. ryan, what do yoook fory, tomorrow? >> well, given all the division th we had toay, i'll certainly be looking to see if we have any fireworks tomorrow, more fireworks. the only fireworks that there should be would be because this meeting is supposed to be celebrating nato's 70 years of unity. bend that i'll look at burden sharing. president trump was talking about it today. actually thconversation began many years ago and intensified after president putin' annexation of crea. i'm sure we'll hear more about that ta,orrow. chthe united states calls china a developing threat. not all of the nato countries agree. and fially, th president is having, well, what you could say would be his fourth press conference after thtoday. a press conference tomorrow that

will begin just one half hour after the impeachment hearing begins. so i think tomoight be another day when we all have split scen on our tv screens again. judy? >> woodruff: no question about it. intereing timing. ryan chilcote reporting from london. thank you, ryan. >> thank you. >> woodruff: three candidates in three days have exited the democratic race for prt. with more than a dozen still remaining in the race, john yang reports on how the latest to bow out could shake up the campaign. >> yang: nearly 11 months after launching her campaign to high expectations, california senator kamala harris addresses hern supportersvidemessage and she speaks to some of the challenges her campaign faced with other wealthy candidates still the race. >> i'm not a billionaire. i can't fund my own campaign. and as the campaign has gone on,

it has become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete. in good faith, i cannot tell you, my supporters and volunteers, that i have a path forward if i don't believe i do. >> yang: to explain what happened to senator harris's campaign and what her withdrawa does to ce, i'm joined by chelsea janes of the "washington post." thanks so much for joining us. we began, the democrats began this campaign season with an historically diverse field of candidates. as things stand now, you'll have six candidates on the stage, all them white, four whit males, two white women. what does that say about what's happening in this race? >> it is certainly striking, and today we've seen a lot of candidatesd pundits and people in that world take to twitter and point that out. it's disappointing to pelot of le in these underrepresented

groups that look to someone like kamala harris and said, youe know, that's rst person the look like me who is going to have a shot at this. to have it whittle down as it has, i think one hand you have the most divee field in not shaping up to remain that way. i think there's a lesson to be learned there, what it is is far above my pay grade, but i think it's really disappointing to a lot of people in an increasingly diverse democratic electorate who hoped they would see somebody different represented this time around. >> yang: the other candidates may still qualify for the debate, butwh that'o has qualified so far. as you say, kamala harris begane this ras a rising star in the party, a wom oan, onethe few women, african american women in the senate, mixed race. she tried to recreate the coalition that elea.ed barack ob you were just in south carolina last week talking about her what happened to her race?ion.

what happened to her campaign? >> you know, think it really started with bang, as we all know. she had over 20,000 people in oakland. stl one of the biggest events of this entire campaign cycle. but that mtsk for a lo of people sort of the relity of kamala harris as a relatively unknown figure nationally. to those of us in the beltway who watch all the hearings and know who she was from that, yeah, she feels like she's been aroundt, but nationally, she had a lot of introduceing to do, and her camofpaign sorhad to operate more nationally on a broader scale as if she were a front-runner. eventually they built out this big opation that when the polling dropped and the money wasn't coming, it was too bigto sustain. you know, entering a senate race in 2022 in a state as expensive as california, she can't do go into debt. this was a calculation that was mostly financial, which is surprising, but i think ultimately they decided there's reason to push this. we're not seeing signs of

wprogress. wh once a really promising campaign just wasn't able to regain its footing. >> yang: in your piece you helked about how she sort of wavered between -- never really defined as part of theiv progre, part of the moderates. talk about the difficulties she had defining herself. >> yeah, you know, i i think it'snteresting. u see biden. you know who joe biden is. voters say, i know joe. and you know who bernie sanders is and elizabeth with her two cents and her big structural change has carved out a brand for herself. but kamala harris was never as easy to put a bumpersticker as some of the others and never found that message that really summ up the brand i word or two and made you know exactly who she was.ot maybe it'sair to ask that of candidates, but i think in her case in this timple, peo really wanted to see someone with clear intentions and clear priorities. and as she tried to pitch herself sort of the one who, you know, would work on isss

and prctical, not ideological, and she tried to that red the needle betweethe moderates in the democratic party and sanders and warren for the left, she sot of lost clarity in exactly who she was and y she was running. i think one thing we heard from voters everywhere is they wanme e we can trust and someone whose intentions are very clear. you know, they want to know who these people are. don't think she ever gave people the answer they were looking for. >> brangham: given that with less than two months to go before the first votes are cast, is there a candidate who would be a natrural recipient of he supporters now? >> that's a great question. i have heard a lote of thories on, that but my understanding is that some of their polling shows that, you know, people that supported kamala harris, theiric second cwasn't a clear-cut thing. it came from a lot of places. think you'll going see some of it go to elizabeth warren. there are a large contingenof suburban women who harris was courting that might find reir way to .

mayor pete is someone with whom she's had overl, and initially joe biden is who her campaign thought she would have to so maybe he'll be the recipient of some of those voters. riety think it helps a va of candidates and maybe isn't necessarily a huge push for one over the other. >> woodruff: chels janes of the "washington post," thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: this year has led to the beginnings of a reckoninh fomanufacturers, marketers and distributors of opioids. the epidemic has taken of hundreds of thousands ofov americans live two decades. multibillion dollar settlements have been announced. but there's great anger over those deals and they are not universally acceptedan many statemunicipalities say there's not enough accountability, consequences and transparency over the companies' roles. purdue pharma, which created oxycontin and is controlled by

the sackler family, is the as amna nawaz tellthere is new information about the rliest days of the crisis that could play into that larger battle. >> nawaz: judy, the information comes from newly unsealed court documents that include richard sackler's emails in the late '90s. sackler was a senior vice president of the company at the time, one year after oxycontin was launed. by 1999, he was president of purdue pharma.me the dos were part of a court case against purdue pharma in kentucky. as part of that caseard sackler was deposed in 2015. stat news has been working to urget these documents for years. and casey ross of stat joins me now. casey ross, help us by understanding what is the new information you have learned from these court documents when it comes to purdue pharma, the sackler family that owns it, and oxycontin. >> well, these documents really shed light on the interactions

that the sackler family, in particular dr. richard sackler, had with executives at the company during the key time period in which oxycontin was ing released into the marketplace. >> nawaz: what is that connection based on what you've seen so far? the e-mails that we found inth e court records discuss richard sackl becoming awre at a very early point in oxycontin's release of concerns manager was expg tocy benefit doctors about abuse potential in the drug. and dr. sackler responded t that concern by calling for a presentation specifically in which he suggested that thepr entation could be given to show that controlled released opioids like oxycontin were less subject to abuse addiction concerns and divsion than other opioids. at the time and since there is no evidence to support th.

>> nawaz: how would you characterize the response to some of those concerns at the time, and also wh it important at this particular point in history? >> well, so this is a time riod when oxycontis just being released into the market. executives at thed company bas on the concerns were very worried that they were going t sentially blocked out of the market because merck med co, the pharmacy benefit mnage their raised these concern, controlled a rge part of the access to the marketplace. so if merck med do is refusing to cover these drugs out of abuse concern, then purdue pharma is in situation where it cannot distribute its products to the extet that it wants. it cannot tap a very lucrative market for chronic pain patients. >> nawaz:asey, you mentioned the concerns. merck med co saitid add could be one of their concerns. richard sackler says, "we should consider that addicty be a

convenient way to just say no ind when this objection is obliterated they fall back on the question of cost unless we can give a coninvi presentation that c.r., that is , areolled released produ less prone to addiction potential." based on these e-mails thata you've seen,y, is this unusual for a pharmaceutical executive to basically be pushinging to get his product out there and tamp down concerns? >> i think that it's not unusual for pharmaceutical executives when they're launching a product to try to protect its reputation and push it intohe marketplace in a way that's going to be beneficial to the company. i think here the situation is that oxycontin is an opioid. it's a drug which coa ntaint so it's something that's sensitive and i think these documents really shed light on the extent to which despite those potential concerns abo addiction, the company was intent on aggressively kerng

the product. >> nawaz: casey, the big questions: now what? there have been a lot of questions about what the sackler family knew and what they didn't know. thgae is ongoing lition. there is a tentative settlement. what do these new e-mails tell us, and do th change ho things could move forward at all? >> that's going to be a question for authorities across the country who are evaluating how this circumstance ought to be relved in terms of the financial liabilities that the sackler family high face y ltimatr the addiction problems that are ongoing in communities across the country. so there areattorneys general, states across the country and other jurisdictions that are refusing to sign on to a settlement with the sackler family. ulght now that d resolve those concerns because they're concerned that the family is nod being accountable enough financially for the harm that has been cased. so i think that's going to be a question in light of these records that folks are going to continue to focus on. we'll have to see what the result is. >> nawaz: casey, as you mentioned, a lawyer for the

sackler family in response your article says there was nothing improper in those aye-mails. theyhe e-mails discuss how doctors who bribe oxycontin were upset that inurance comnies wanted to avoid paying for their patient's medicine. they alssay dr. sackler was responding by asking whether it would be accurate to make ath presentation tinsurance companies and they deferred to purdue's in-house experts. what do you make of the sackler family's respoe? >> well, they're emphasizing essentially that he did defer company experts in asking the question of whether that presentation could be given. they also pointed to dr. sackler's 2015 deposition in which he said, look, i was just asking a question here as to whether a medillcorrect presentation could be given to show the claim that i'd like to mait. but i thin up to the public and authorities to consider whether or not the presentation that he was calling

for had an effect on marketing oxycontin in adeptive way ultimately. >> nawaz: i'd also like to know whave cfered the sakler family or their representative a chance to join us on the program in the fute. for now that is casey ross of stat news. thanks for very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the nation's fall of 2018 after presidenthe trump, for his second nomination to the supreme court, chose a 53 year old federal judgebrett kavanaugh. what was already a bitter partisan fight grew even more so after a california woman, christine blasey ford, charged that kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in high school.he orcefully rejected the claim and went on to sit on the court.

but the fascinating the story of how he got there is the cus of a new book, "supreme ambition," by "washington post" columnist and editorruth marcus, a familiar face here on the newshour. welcome back to the newshour. >> thank you. it's always great to be here. >> woodruff: ans congratulati the book. so was this a search-and-destroy mission, a calculated effort toe im down as brett kavanaugh charged in his hearing? or was what christine blasey ford and others said abo him true? >> i think that what christine blasey ford anothers said about justice kavanaugh wasi true, bus also true that democrats insi the senate and in outside groups did want to find a way to take brett kavanaugh wn, so when he complained that people were out the get him, that was fair. the question is: what was the evidence against him? was it adequately investigated? some people's mind about what in

happened, and it's hard to determine what happened 35 years earlier, who gets the benefit of the dobt? >> woodruff: i have never seen or never read about a campaign to get someone chosen for the court as orchestrated as this was. i meakan,naugh himself was involved. justice anthony kedy, whose seat, whose vacancy he was filling was involved. give us a sense, ruth, of just w extraordinary the campaign was to pick brett kavanaugh? >> so ere were a couple different campaigns. the first phase of the campaign came when brett kavanaugh was not on president trump, then-candidate trump's list to be on the supreme court. cou may remember candidate trump did something ndidate had done before, which is to say, here is my list. he put out one. he put out another. particularly missing from that list. it was brett kavanaugh. so when president trump

surprised all of us and became became president trump, brett kavanaugh homicide a problem. one of the people i report in "supreme ambition" who went to bat for him was jtice anthony kennedy. he had clerked for justice anthony kennedy.wa the white hous eager, desperate even, to convince justice kennedy that it would be safe to retire, and when justice kennedy came to the white house to swear in neil gorsuch, president trump's first choice to the supreme court, he asked for some time alone with the president, and he suggested that there was a name missing from his list. and lo and behold, a few months later, brett kavanaugh's name turned up on that list. >> woodrf: how sual for a justice of the supreme court to go personally to th president as justice kennedy did? >> it's quite unusual. it was a rynusual intervention from a sitting justice. justices can say nice things about people, but this was particularly effective, and it's an illustration of justice

kavanaugh's abily to find extremely influential and powerful mentors, in some waysas the it was is hard for him to get on the list was the president he had worked for, tresent george w. bush, b president bush, once he was powerful advocates, callingto se on his behalf, vouching for him, making sure that his library was able to produce all the documents that were necessary in order to get him confirmed.u >> woodruff: y paint, as we said, this extraordinary picture of th movement in essence to get him n oominated, firall, and then to get him confirmed. and it's a process that it appears the conservatives, the republicans have done a much better jou of figuring than the democrats. is that how you see it? the balk is called "supreme ambition" for two reasons. one, it reflects brett kavanaugh's ambition since really the very early years as a wyer to get on to the supreme

court. but it also reflects the ambition of the conservative movement to finally, after 30 years tring and getting close but having it elude them to, cement tnservative majority on the supreme court. and the book tells the story of the lengths thant republicans the senate and elsewhere went to to make sure that he was going get across the finish line. >> woodruff: there were doubtsn among some rvatives that he was conservative enough in their views to begin with, you point out, he was too much of a buy, loyal tpresidenbush. others, democrats, who said he was far too conservo ive. he at his core? what is his ideology? as we see on the court, and just from knowingim? well, that is partly to beed determ we had one term of brett kaghnaugh, justice kavan where he showed himself to be significantly less conseative than justice gorsuch. that's not to say he's not conservative.

he's a very conservative judge. but his conservatism is more toward the center, closer to the chief justice, who is ver close to than it is to the mor extreme conservatives on th court. >> woodruff: finally, ruth marcus, the last few sentences in the book are pretty telling. i want you to read that and then talk about why youave written this at the end here. where thatark is. okay. "the country has lived with the elections. badly run or tain for the same reason, it has to endure the consequences of a flawed confirmation process. but it does not have to excuse what happened. the kavanaug cofirmation discredited the white house and the senate, which is supposed to ay an independent advise and consent role. e in t it disserved both kavanaugh and the country. as a result, his tenure will forever have an asterisk

attached, a blot on kavanaugh and the court that is, to use christine blasey ford's phrase, "indelible." oodruff: pretty tough >> i wrote that because one of the things i found most tragic here is that we not have anf

kavanaugh and the conservatives takeover." thank you. >> thank you. >> wdruff: stay with us, we' be back shortly with a brief but drms.acular take on documenting but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to off your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air. >> woodruff: for years, female country artists from dolly parton to kasey musgraves have dominated the airwaves. but the reality is that only 16% of coury artists are women, and ny still struggle to get on the radio.s jeffrey brown encore report on nashville's gender imbalance, and what'g done to address it. ♪ ♪

>> bro: this is the sound of monday nights at "the listening room," known in nashville as a" writer's round," whe singer- songwriters learn to hone their craft before a live audience. ♪ ♪ i but this odifferent, and rare: an all-women showcase in a city dominated by male voices. turn to a country station today and this is what you're most likely to hear: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ in fact, in 2017 only around 10% of billboard's top 60 country songs were by women, a number that's actuay fallen in recent years.an it was that persistent disparity that led producer todd casset female showcase, called "song suffragettes." ♪ ♪

♪ ♪e >>ought if we create a female only weekly show where ae lot of tomen can come play their songs try them out see what the responses are, meet like-minded creatives that they would benefit. >> bwn: kalie shorr is one o them. originally from maine, in 2012 she graduated high school early so she could move to nashville to pursue her dream. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> brown: in 2015, shorr had a hit single in "fight like a girl," a song discovered here at the listening room and played on the sirius xm station "the highway." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ it was an anthem for an issue she's become outspen about: the lack of opportunities for young women in country music.

but ironically, that experience only highlighted how bad the problem was.in >> and i walke a couple of major labels and had them look me in the eye and say, we can't sign another girl right now. we already have one. >> brown: we can't sign-- already have one. and it sounds unbelievable. and you kn i would look at the guys w were getting signed and >> brown: for many in nashville, the lack of women's voices on the air came to a head in 2015. that's when a country radio consultant named keith hill told a trade newsletter that to keximize radio listenership, women should be tomatoes" in a larger "salad," of male artists, never played o back and never more than about 20% of the mix. the backlash to the remarks became known as" tomatogate," and galvanized women across the industry to speak out about their

experiences of sexism, including at this monthly fom called" change the conversation." beverlkeel helped found the group. she's a journalist and professor of recording at middle tennessee state university. and i wrote a column in "the tennessean" about it and said, look you know the problem's at country radio because they're not playing women. and then you have a chilling b effeause country radio is still the driver in country music. so if country radio doesn't play women, labels don't sign women. female songwriters aren't going to get sig much you won't see as many female producers and so on. >> i think it's just as frustrating to radio as itses to anybody >> brown: that's r.j. curtis, radio broadcasters, a non-profit group that helps promote the music.>> his is a multi-layered situation and it's ( bleep ) up all over. >> brown: 's been attending the "change the conversation" meetings, and wants people to

recognize th this proble isn't just with radio, but with the entire industry pipeline, from talent scouts to publishers to labels. >> if you looked at the rosters of most major labels in town here i think you'd find that thf ratio is aboutr to one male to female in terms of artists on that roster. so there's just fewer of them coming at radio for airplay consideration. >> brown: we reached out to multiple country radio stations for comment but none responded and whether radio is the driver of this marketplace, or just another victim of decisions made at other levels, many here say it's past time for solutions. cand we don't want to just put the blame onountry radio, and change the conversation is not interested in finding ngame or pointi fingers. we just want to find a solution. >> brown: one answer: new media and touring to connect directly with audiences,

circumventing radio. radio disney country is a relatively young, mostly streaming station based in los angeles that's found an audience by playing mostly women in its mix. and prominent artists suchargo price and kacey musgraves, who just won four grammys, including album of the year, are succeeding despi a lack of airplay. meanwhile in nashville, forums like "change the conversation" and "song suffragettes" are bringing women together to help one another. >> i think in the past five six years that i've en in town i saw this attitude shift even within myself. it was like, she's not your coetition. she's trying to do the same thing you're doing and that's great because like you know,d patsy retta were best friends.

you know and dolly and emmylou and all that, like women can support each other. and i think they're more successful when they are. >> brown: for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in nashville, tennessee. spectacular feuristt's brief but uldus bakhtiozina. the award-winnexg photographer ains her vision of documenti dams and gives her this is part of our ongoing canvas series. d >> i'm notumentary photographer in the common sense. but i am a documtary photographer in a different sense. i document dreams. my photography is widely exposing theme of escapism.

all of us struggle sometimes to escape in order to analyze our realy. i love complicated personalities and actually real life inspires me to create my images. i choose to work with people who are survivors, who are fightin everyday routines that are notul alwaysof color what i really find exciting is the ability to make people's dreams of being someone else a reality. sometimes it take months to actually prepare everything for the shoot. this process of getting ready is like 95% of the time. 5% is of just the actual shooting. real life inspires our escapeme and mes that escape is very needed. irony is still the key in what i'm doing because i believe that our life it's a lot of

sadness.tt and we need a bit of irony to art as well. digilly manipulated photographs is not really true for me.sn it d capture anything real. that's le instead of going travelling you just look at someone else travel photographs. i work with analogues, in spite of the fact that nowadays digitally you can create pretty much everything, i don't lik this path. i see the beauty in authenticity of making and that's impossible without flaws. i see the future of photography, 95% is digital and i'm very happy about that because that makes me special. myame is uldus bakhtiona. this is my brief but spectacular take on documenting dreams. >> woodruff: and you can watch additional brief but spectacular episodes on our web site, pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that the newshour for tonight.

i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern for live special coverage of the u.s. house judiciary hearing on impeachment. for all of us at the newsur, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour hn provided by: >> all right. richard. there is a bomb in centennial park. you have 3 mines. say it. >> he's not the bomber. my son saved people's lives. >> there is a bomb in centennial park. you have 30 minutes. >> the f.b.i. is looking atar ri jewell. >> he's getting ralroaded. >> your client is guilt owe as hell. >> "richard juul," the clint eastwood film, rated r. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social chae

worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovatio education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. a with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible public broadcasting.r and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productionsllc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. >> this is one of the most important journeys we make as id prt. >> president trump en route to nato's 70th birthday, but he's been its biggest internal threat. i ask nato secretary general and a panel experts will it make it to 71? and then -- i spoke to the director of "incitement" abouthe perspective of yitzhak rabin's jewish killer. >> do you want a coupleco anies in california to be the ones to determine that speech is okay and wha isn't ok