captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> yang: good evening. i'm john yang. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: >> it is tragic that the make impeachment necessary.s he gave us no choice. >> yang: a day for history. for only the third time since the country's founding, the house takes up a vote of icpeachment against the am president. we break down todates historic vo-- what it means, and what to expect as the senate prepares tol.ut president trump on tr then, on the ground in california ahead of tomorrow'sho ne/politico democratic presidential debate, where climate change is a top concern and, stepping towa future.. medicine at the edge of current knowledge sparks hope for those paralyzed by spinal cord

injuries. >> you put weight back on the legs, yoget them extended, you get the trunk upright, and the spinal circuitry says, "oh, i know what th is. that's standing. i know how to do that." >> yang: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding fho the pbs news has been provided by: ♪ ♪ co moving our enomy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>>onsumer cellular. ♪ ♪ >> supporting sos al entreprened their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on t web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> yang: the house of representatives is facing its moment of truth this evening-- ntthe impeachment of presi trump. obstruction of congress.wer and our coverage begins with congressional correspondent lisa desjardins. momentous day. >> the house will be in order. perhaps it was a specter of history. >> today marks a sad day for america. >> for the high stakes involved. this president elected by the american people has violated hio oa office and violated the rule of law. the president is, as we speak, abusing his power and placing himself above the law. >> desjains: ...or, perhaps a sense that the die was already cast. >> since donald trump was eleted in 2016, democrats h been on a crusade to stop him by any means. >> desjardins: in the house chamber today, weeks of fiery

words over hypothetical impeachment turned somber and serious when lawmakers faced t reality. >> i solemnly and sadly open the debate on the impeachment of ths ent of the united states. >> desjardins: speaker nancy pelosi wore a large brooch of the house mace, a syol of the power of the speaker of the house, as she charged that the president has undermined his office. >> if we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. it is tragic that the president's reckless actions he gave us no choice.ssary. t desjardins: democrats laid eir argument, that president trump abused his power, using his office toes re ukrainian president vladimir zelensky into opening mr. trump politically.d help jim mcgovern of massachusetts. >> our inquiry is simply toer anhe following question: did president trump and his top advisors corruptly withhold official government actions to obtain an improper advantage in xt election? work of our investigativehard

committees and because of the president'own admission, that the answer to that question is "yes." >> desjardins: and pramila jayal of washington state: >> the president td us himself on national television exactly what he wanted from e prone call witident zelensky. came onto the white house president zelensky to open an investigation into the bidens." he solicited foreign interference before, he is doing and he will do it again. the president is the smoking gun. >> desjardins: but republicans portrayed president trump as the victim here, offering several counter-arguments, first assailing democrats' evidence as incomplete. tom cole of oklahoma. >> if my colleagues in the majority believe they have proven their case, let me be clear: they have not.re the entirese of these articles of impeachment rests on security assistance.rainian a pause of 55 days.

the majority has spun creative narratives as to the meaning and the motive of this pause, alleging the president demanded a "quid pro quo," but with no factual evidence to back it up. >> desjardins: argument two from republicans, that speaker pelosi d use democrats are motivated by politics, not principle. utah chris stewart. this vote this day is about one thing d one thing only-- they hate this president. they hate those us who voted for him. they think we're stupid. they think we made a mtake. they think hillary clinton should be the president, and theyant to fix that. that's what this vote is about. they want to take away my vote and throw it in the trash. >> desjardins: and florida's ross spano.ri >> the an people see through this sad charade for what it is: an attempt to undo the 20 election based on hearsay and opinion, not fact. this is incredibly divisive and

has lowered the bar for what future presidents will face. i strongly oppose the articles bere us today and hope that we will finally move past this nightmare. >> desjardins: the rhythm of the day was partisan, but the tone was less caustic than recently, even as republicans repeated the president's bottom line. >> this impeachment is a total joke and a total sham. >> desjardins: and democrats repeated that, for this is about principle and protecting the future. f >> to ends on the other side of the aisle, i say this: this is not about making history. this is about holding a lawless president accountable in the way our framers intended. >> desjardins: as the house debated his fate, esident trump blasted out his response on twitter, writing "atrocious lies" by what he called the "radical left," an assault on the replican an party."

outside the capitol, some voters loudly disagreed ( protests ) hundreds of pro-impeachment demonstrators rallied this cold washgton morning. this followed last night's nationwide protests, including in san francisco, represented be speaker losi, and new orleans, where protesters stood outside puican whip steve scalise's office. >> noy early in the da, republicans tried parliament moves to voice objections to lthis process but i'm td they do not plan to have any more motions like that. what thea's that means, john, is we are likely in the found hour or so of debate, we expect votes soon and we expt it to be largely partisan with the exception of perhaps two or so democrats who may vote with republicans. >> yang: lisa, as we take a look at whangt's happen the house floor now, this is one the days where you had a front-row se history. give the viewers an ideatof wh

it was like in the chamber on capitol hill that they could not see in here. >>hather viewers felt thi been a turbulent and dramatic story for the past two mths but today felt strangely like the moment after a storm where lawmakers felt weary to some degree, they didn't fel they were at their high-tempted self, they had a moment of pause. w an unusual feeling but one more reflective than i've seen in the past. alteworthy, john, today you could see the full skills of house speaker nancy pelosi on display. it wasn't evidence to those who saw the camera shot, but she, much to have the time, was on the house floor, sitinting, tawith her members, sintd look asif she were twisting elbows as geing in touch wit her caucus which is how she has been able to keep them unified which is not ot easy phvote for her members. >> we have the rest to have flnel at the the desk whe

they have been since nine this morning. morning: newshour foreign affairs who has been anchoring our special coverage. mieke eoyang, vice president of thatnational security progra "third way," a washington think tank, and former house intelligence subcommittee staff director when the democrats were in the majority. and michael allen, managing director at the advisory firm, beacon global strategies, and form staff director of the house intelligence committee when the republicans held the majority. and from thewashington post of "washington week," and ator "post" national political correspondent. rethank you all for being ll day long, in many cases. bob, i want to start with you. we have en able to watch the proceedings on the floor all day long. what have you been able to learn about what the president's day walike? >> just minutes ago, the "new york times" phographer doug mills published a photo to have the president beore he -- photo of the president before he head

out to the helicopter to head to michigan for tonight's rally ans ita black and white photo that showed the president scowling, and talking to top confidence of the esident, it was clear president trump throughout the day was following the proceedings at the capitol, closely keeping tabs on who was speaking against him, in support of him, e was also looking ahead to tonight's rally. he is planning to give a grievance-filled speech tonight to his core voters, looking not just at what happened today? congress, but ahead to the 20 campaign. inside the white house, already the focus is on how to turn impeachment into an issue to >>lvanize his own voters in 2020. o we'll likely hear more about this, even beyond the trial, after the trial ends in january. >> it will not end. because impeachment now is, of course, historic, but it's histic in the sense that it happening just before a idesidential campaign season, and prt trump wants to run away from this, in part, he

doesn't like his own personal branbeing associated with impeachment, but his political advisors are telling him he can use impeachment as a cudgel against democrats, if he can find a way to explain it as an that istablishment moo forming against him and he wants to use that sentiments to get his voters out in theli repn party. but there is some personal grousing behind the scenes today, trump associates tell me, that the president just doesn't prizes, was central to his so business enterprises, now being stained through history by the word impeachment. >> motomieke eoyang and michael allen, you've seen big moments in tse hou how do you think the republicans and democrats use their time today, the message they deler, the arguments they made. >> wt you saw between the democrats and the rep was very different messaging,

democrats calling bk to history, quoting alexander hamilton, talking about founding principals of the -- principles of the country and they are trying to make a casto swing voters necessary to build the democrats' majority, and you saw in a number of the district that had flipped from republican to democrat in the 2018 midterm out in favor of impeachment on a national security case. you saw that very much reflected what they were doing, in contrast to republicans who, as bob noted, were really arguing about grievous and victimization for the president, using very loaded language, trying to really fire uphe base.ha >> m, what was your takeaway? >> well, usually we're used in the house of representatives to seeing a motion and passion. today ey actedre like senators, in my estimation. they were veryareful, they made solemn arguments, but the messaging was also very, very tight, from the democrats i heard over and oveth the

president solicited foreign interference for personal gain and put national security, and from the republicans i heard the folling formulation over d over, it's that it's politics, it's a shm process, and they're trying to overturn the electio so i thought, overall, i thought they were all flying in formation, trying to message their base and the larger country about what they're doing tonight. >> yang: and perhaps a preview of each side will say in the senate during the trial? >> i think so. i think you will see, in the senate in particular, a lot of the grievous-style politics tsot we've hear far. it will slow down, of course, becae it will be more likea trial and less like an indictment that we'll see tonight. >> nick, they both mentioned the national security ent. i mean, that's where we got -- or how we got here rath was because of a phone call about ukraine, about giving aid to ukraine.

did we hear much about that today? >> we did not. there was not a lot of focus about what brought this about,no an a lot of focus of the importance of this policy. we've talked about ukraine is the only cotry in europe at war, and the trump administration had a policy, and that was different than the president's poaiicy on ukr over the last six months, and that's how i see it. a couple of ars ago, the trump administration decided to help ukraine, sending more offensive weapons that the obamami stration did not, increase dollar amounts, increase help, inter-agency consensus for ukrain fast forward to this year. rudy giuliani leads a different policy, questioning military aid and changing the folk of -- focus of corruption toll joe biden's son, who was on the board over the largest energy company in ukraine and a discredited theory on ukraine being involved in the 2016 lack,

and that's what leto the july 25 phone call and the often the-quoted phrase "do us a fair, though. what happened is the president or aides around him froze military aid. they conditioned a white house meeting on president zelensky ok ine, and ukraine overall, doing those specific corruption investigations. what democrats say is that freeze, that witolding, that' an abuse of power because that's the president elevating his own interests over national security. republicans say aid was delivered in the end and the president was right to question all kinds of corruptionn ukraine. >> yang: lisa, ths process is still going on, the action is still going on on the house floor. give ue a sef what's going to happen in the next several hours, couplof hours, and then what happens beyond that. diswhrmplet. >> that'thats righ this debate will wind up on both sides who they feel are their strongesspeakers in the next hour, potentially, then move to

votes expected. they will split the single resolution into two votes, one e h article of impeachment. we expect the votes to be sowhat different, at least one democratic member, jared golden of maine, has said he wvill yes on one and no the other. after that, we also expect a resolution on who the house democrats elect to appoint as their managers, who wbe their prosecutors en this goes to the senate. so we're looking to that as well.and the big question tonig, john, this is talk by a few democrats holding on to these ticles of impeachment even after theve passe not transmitting them to the senate right away, as a negotiating tactic to try and change the sete rules. thatds a remarkable idea, there's a lot of debate about whether it could even work, but the next step after this would be too transmit se articles. it's notea clr if house speaker nancy pelosi will do that and it's a maer of discussio t tonight when that will

happen. >> help us understand, by delaying the trnsmission across the building to the senate, what would that do? that wou delay the senate trial? >> well, as i said, this is an untested, i think, perhaps the panel will agree, idea, but the idea is that mitch mcconnell wants a trial to happen without much delay, andhe house could use that as leverage, withholding those articles, leaving that hanging over the senate and thunpresidentil mcconnell allows, say, more of the witnesses that democrats want, but knowing how leader mcconnell works, i haven't seen pressureo that kind of in the past. i think this could be a strange d mouse game these democrats are playing. it is a small group of democrats. it is not clear at all that house speaker pelosi agrees witt this idea, bus something in the air. we're going to watch it. it will be important when they transmit these articles.

>> michael and meike, do you have a sense of the gamesmanship here? >> this has not happened before so we're in uncharted territory in terms of articles of impeachment timing but inote the political calendar changes once you get out of jant ry, you stpacting the democratic primaries, you start getting into filing deadlines senators. so a delay could have political ramification >> taking hostages in legislative log rolling is as old as the republic, but if you take a hostage, you've got to be willing to shoot the hostage,tc and when mcconnell doesn't want the impeachment bill coming over, i can't see, like lisa, a situation where he's negotiating down what he wants to do in order to getim achment spedp to the senate. >> bob costa, i want to ask you, what areou hearing from e white house about the white house's participation in the trial in theenate, whether -- how much they're going to participate? they shadehey didn't want to

participate in the house impeachment proceedings, but what are they going to do en they come to trial in the senate? >> there is an appetite within e white house to call some witnesselikeunter biden and vice president biden to be part of that ial, but it's unlikely that's going to happen because the white hoe is not just going to get what it wants or at white house counsel wants, but it's going to come down to what 51 senators in the majority, perhaps some democrats, agree will be how the trl unfolds. when i was in the capitol this week, senators li susan collins of maine, senator mitt romney of utah a moderate republican told me and other reporters that they want to see a trial that plays out in a civil way that even though its a political exercise, has e feeling a trial, they want tot takeriously, so the white house will want to direct this to some extent, but it will b the senators driving the process. and you're going to see the

white house try to nge mitch mcconnell, the majority leader, at some point to maybe dismiss the trial, adjourn the trial to move to a vote. senator rand paul of kentucky, the president's ally told me he may move to call for a vote two weeks into t trial or maybe even a weekend if he feels he's heard enough. so that conservative clamor is something on my radar. >> and, bob, you talk about calling witnesses, was senator opening bid in this negotiation or gamesmanship askteing for w house witnesses like john bolton, mick mulvaney, the acting chief of staff saying you want witnesses, hunter biden, w joe biden, buwant these guys. >> i would not frame it as gamesmanship. senator schumer, whether you loathe him or support him it represents theemocratic view,o a culmination of frustration on the democratic side with the white house's refusal to provide

witnesses to congress as they investige the president's conduct, and senator schumer is reflecting the calls from so many decrats to try to hear a firsthand account from secretary pompeo, ambassador john bolton, the former national security advisor, about president trump's role in the ukraine epictde, what e he did and what others did in terms of asking the budget to be held off and the spending to held f. so many facts remain and questions remain unanswered at this point. so senator schumer, of course, he would like to see president trump defeate's an opponent of president trump politically, but he also wants to hear more of the story. post." costa at "the washington lisa desjardins on post as always at the u.s. capit. michael allen, mieke eoyang, nick schifrin, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> yang: as we've been saying,

today's house proceedings areon the third time that body house has debated impeaching a president. so where does all this fit in the historic context? beverly gage is professor of history and american studies at yale university, which is where she is tonight. thofessor gage, ks for joining us. the hiss to bicle aspect of this, how does what is going onm now pare with previous impeachments, not so much with the specifics of what thes presidening charged or the allegations against the president, but the polical environment, the political struggles around these proceedings? we've been in a moment like this a few times inmerican history. in the 1860s, the andrew johnson impeachment, of course, watergate in the 1970s and then the impeachment of bill clinton in the 1990s, and i would say what they have in common ithat, in each those

cases, we saw very particular battles about very particular events, the actual charges that were brought in impeachment proceedings were about very ecific acts but they all took place within maybe a larger set of pot,itical conflnd those were so central to theaxe that impeachment proceedings really tended to fit into naratives that a critic certainly already had about each of these presidents, and i think that's the case with trump as well. >> yang: is thersomething you can see about the dierences in the political atmospheres, sort of the criticisms already president about the way thosidents have reonded to what was going on and how their parties respond to what was going on? >> yeah, i think ourest point of reference is really watergate in the 1970s, which nis log enough ago to see pretty big differences in the structural changes that have happened in erican politics. you know, in certain ways, trump

and nixon are similar political figures in terms of their rsonalities, their combativeness toward their political critics, but i think ferentin a very dif atmosphere in a lot of ways. if you look at the 1970s, the parties had a lot more overlap in terms ofog ide they were a lot less national, so the structure of the parties was different. the structure of the media was really different, there wasn't any fox news, and there wasn't anything like twitter where the president was able to directly get his message out, and you see a lot of other structural differences already in kind of how impeachment proceedings are going along. we're seeing a lot less use of the courts now than we saw under nixon and, of corse, politically, one to hav -- one e big questions is how is this going to affect e 202 election, both in the 1970s oud the 190s d ou, you were

talking presidents who had already been elected to second terms anwe had this big election hanging over the entire affair. >> yang: in watergate, it was the republicans who told president nixon it was time to go. but in more recent sways, president clinton and president trump, we had their paies rallyin around their president. does that speak to the nature of the allegations against them, or does that speak to t political atmosphere of the times? >> i think it speaks to a little we do have a story of watergate in which there is a very, very long process from the middle of happened, all the way through to august of 1974, when nixon finally resigned, and actually for most of that timethe republican party stuck very fiercely with nixon as the democrats did witclinton and as the republicans appear to be doing with trump as well. i think what happened in 1974 is

really that nixon hadk taen a stand that he had not participated in the burglary, he had not participated in the coverup, and, so, when the tapes finally came out, showing that, in fact, he hadte qu explicitly been lying, that was a genuine shock to many ophis reublican allies, and, at that momveent, t , very late in the process, they suggested they were going to turn on him.ak trump has a very, very different approach to the whole thing by saying, yes, of course, i did the things that you are suggesting that i did, but they are perfectly fine. so we might have new revelations and, in fact, i think we will, as ts continues, but it's a very different strategy, very different set ofa tctics coming out of the white house. >> in the first 220 years of this nation, we had only one president face an impeachment proceeding. now we're having the second in about 20 years, and the third in about 45 years. whatoes that say? what as an historian, what do

you think that says? >> well, i think it's partly that, after the johnson impeachment, the particular politics of reconstruction were so specific to that moent, what was happening in the republican party, the reentry of the southu it didn't have a lot of parallels over the next century and didn't tend to look to impeachment for an option. of cou e, sinxon, we've seen these three sets of impeachmenproceedings -- nixon, clinton and now trump -- and i do think they have fed on each other a little. some of it is just the pace of our politics are different, but we g e seeightened levels of partisanship and the fact that were getting a little bit of a kind of tit for tat situation, though a lot of people in the end cognize the legitimacy of watergate, there's always a core of republicans that felt it was a witch hunt, an ufair attack on the presidency. some of those folks were the ones who went on the attac

against bill clinton and, of course, the clinton impeachment really set a precedent for a highly partisan set of processes that now different people are looking back to eas th primary point of reference. >> president clinton, of course, looks like sident trump will probably be acquitted in the senate. has the nature of impeantch changed? has it now become not this rare event but a tool in the partin arsenal? >> i think that that's partly a fair characterization. i me, one of the strange things about our history of impeachment is tt, actually, it's never worked. butohnson was impeach stayed in office. nixon was about to be impeached but he resigned, so didn't go through the full impeachment and trial process. bill clinton was, inact, impeached and put on trial but also remained in office. and, so, i think we are seeing it being used, to some degree, as a partisan tool, but we're

also seeing it, you know, as a check for rule of law, for oth more principled aspects, but it g esn't seem like it's go be terribly effective in terms of removing the president frfiom , in this case as it really hasn't been in the past. >> yang: before before of yale university, thank you very much. >> thanks a lot. gh yang: there is other news to a federal appeals court struck down part of obacare today, but it stopped short of throwing out the entire law.dg the three-panel in new orleans agreed with a lower court in texas that the individual mandate to buy health insurance is unconstitutional. congress had already gutted that provision. the rest of the law gok to the lower court for further review. a new york judge dropped state charges of mortgage fraud against former trump campaign chairman paul manafort.

the indictment was widely seen as an attempt to keep manafort in prison, even if president trump pardons him for his federal crimes. manafort is now serving a seven-year sentence for those l convictionked to the russia investigation. in australia, unprecedented summer heat gripped the continent for a second day. the nationwide average on tuesday was 105 degrees record.eit, the hottest on today, temperatures in somees pleached 118. the heatwave has helped fuel dozens of wildfires. elsewhere, children played in fountains and many families took to local beaches. experts said the readings are extraordinary by any standard. >> that is incredible. these national average maxum temperature records. we normally only break them by just a very small margin, but we broke the previous one back in january 13 by a .6 of a degree. >> yang: meanwhi, in russia, scow saw unusually warm temperatures, despite the onset of winter. it was almost 43 degrees, when

that made it the city's warmest december 18tsince 1886. back in this country, immigrants claiming asylum in the u.s. may face more restctions. a new federal regulation would bar asylum claims from anyone convicted of illegally re-entering the united states, committing domestic violence, or driving drunk. it is the trump administration's latest effort to curb the flow of migrants. the proposal is subject to public comment before it can take effect. the trump administrationaid out proposals to allow the importation of caper drugs from abroad. one rule would let states bring in brand-namdrugs from canada, unr federal oversight. the other lets manufacturers import cheaper versions of their own drugs from any country. it is still unclear when thego proposals woulnto effect. fiat chrysler and p.s.a. peugeot signed a merger deal today to form the world's 4th largest automaker. the new company will produce more than 8.5 million cars a

year, with revenues of nearly $190 billion. the companies said they plan to invest more in low-emissions and new driving technologies. and, on wall street, thejo s industrial average lost 27 points to close at 28,239. the nasdaq rose four points, but, the s&p 500 slipped one point. r:ill to come on the newsh on the ground in california, where democratic voters are getting a close lo at the candidates. a breakthrough treatment forin spinal corries offers results once considered impossible. and, students from around the country she their questions for the candidates in tomorrow's decratic debate. >> yang: california is the

nation's most populous state, and with more an 400 delegates at stake, it's a major prize in the democratic presidential primary. this year, state officials havet moved upg, to march 3-- super tuesday. sy traveled to southernstephanie california to hear what voters have to say about the state of play. >> reporter: around tables and kitchen counters, california voters are torn between hope...co >> i aident that in the y d our electorate will sathe right thing and we will move inn a better direc >> reporter: ...and fear: >> i'm afraid to see a repeat of r 16. i'm fearful for mocracy. >> reporter: among this set of democrats in the los angeles suburb of south whittie talk is grounded in the experience that comes om a li long-lived. >> i'm with a candidate who is being realistic. >> reporr: these are voters less moved by vision and big ideas, and attentive to policy specifics. >> and we want our private insurance. >> i like thfact that people should have options.

>> repter: kathie, elias, jois, and jan are all undecided, bibut former vice presidenn feels like a safe fallback. >> we needdeomeone who can at trump, and right now, i'm certainly leaning with biden. although i'm a feminist, so it hurts me. ( phones ) >> reporter: at a millennial phone bank event in westwood, a voters are more interested in who inspires them, and most have made up their mind. >> i mean, i think that we havex a lot of reallllent candidates. i have my candidate chosen, pete buttigieg. i hink i'm going to support elizabeth warren. >> reporter: for decades, california has been mostly an afterthought for democratic presidenal primary candidates, but this year, with an earlierim y, the golden state could be decisive. >> voters will get their vote by mail balts the night of the iowa caucuses. >> reporter: it's why more than in the past, candidates havehe been coming totate courting voters and holding rallies, not jusysfundraisers,

ongtime political analyst iristina bellantoni. >> we used to vojune. and by doing it in march, the idea was that, you're after the first four traditional yting and caucusing state can have a significant impact. >> the candidateinho wins here, he largest state in the country, will, in all likelihood, win the nominationut >> reporter:the most populous state is toriously difficult to run a campaign in. it's a lot of ground to ver and a unique set of challenges. >> reaching that number of voters is just so expe i mean, you could spend $20 million on television ads in california and not rmake a dent. >> reporter: but despite the hurdles, my californian democrats, like working mom anda nottke, are energized. what do you think of the democratic field so far? >> i mean, i'm exced. we're spoiled for choice, in a lot of ways. >> reporter: amanda was among a small contingent of senator elizabeth warren supporters

gathered for a sunday morning beach clean-up in santa monica. >> there's been a lot of talk about which candida would do better in the general election, a progressive candidate or a moderate. where do you fall when it comes to electability? >> i want someone that is electable. but i feel like elizabeth warren is the best of both worlds. she's smart. she has plans. she is a progressive. but i ink she also knows the senate and she knows congress, and she knows how to get things through. >> reporter: and back at the phone bank in westwood, rachel bracker says this is a pivotal moment. >> it feels like we're kind ofom on the cusp ofhing where our country can either go towards a more progressive future, where we're doing things like addressing climate change, addressing healtsicare and addr a growing college, an automobile and home debt. or, we're going to ignore those issues and go towards the sort of isolationists, more xenophobic, you know, less united country. >> reporter: a recent poll by the los angeles times found

california ranked e changein as their number one priority for the next president. >> climate is getting worse every year, every year it's getting hotter. we're not getting rains as much anymore. >> reporter: matt and ndy valdivia, who live in san bernardino county, are one of thousands of californians who have been impaed by devastating wildfires. >> that's my house burning... >> reporter: they lost their home a little over a month ago in the hillside fire. the memories are still raw. >> so i just i saw it, rightmp there, just tely engulfed in flames. it was burned to a crisp. s >> reporteit was a total loss. >> total loss, total everythingg everytas gone.at >> reporter:and wendy lost irreplaceable letters to their stranded laptop, by alsoed on a lost the sense of security they

thought they had gained when they purchased their first home. h th saved up for two years >> it's still almost check to check with everything that has to that goes within a family. you ow, you got your mortgag and then the prices in california aren't cheap either, you know, and that just keeps rising and rising. you got your, your hcare is, is rising and rising >> insurance is too, everything, you need insurance for everything. >> reporter: the valdivias face the kind of systemic challenges that make senator bern sander's message resonate with them. gh you know, just he's he's been there through a for a lot of things that weren't popular, >> reporter: matt calls himself a hardcore bernie supporter, but like all the democrats we spoke to, he agrs the 2020 election is about more than any single candidate.

and for many voters like jan baird the bottom line is clear. >> i hate to say this but the most important quality is that they can beat trump. >> that sentiment from jan baird, y of california voters. they feel conflicted between supporting the democratic candidate they really like and ere is a lot of anxiety about a repeat of the 2016 eleanion herethat's why the debate that pbs "newshour"arnd politico hosting tomorrow night here at loyola mount university is being closely watched. at lot of undecided voters want to hear from the candidates to see who they will back in the end. john. >> yang: stephanie, moving california up the primary calendar means it will be the first big diverse state to test the candidates' app tl. >> it biggest state on super tuesday, and it is the mostiverse stte. a lot of latino voters here, a lot of asian-american voters here, and there is not a single candidate that voters of color a he coalitioning behind.

i will say the latest polls show senator sanders haan ee with latino voters. >> and california is intesosting becausany of the policies that the democratic candidates are debating right now have actually been enacted out there. >> yeah, i would like so say, john, california is actually a laboratory for progressive policies. they have the governor's mansion, they have aer majority in the legislature here, so that has meant the last two years, they have passed a lot of progressive legislation. they have stricter emissions controls for vehicles here, they ve stricter gun control. they recently passed a bille protecting binomy freelancers, which it's still being debated in this state. so what you see is a lot of the big ideas that we'll hear candidates talk about in the debate tomorrow nighy actua being enacted in this state and, for that reason, californiaians like to think of themselves as trendsetters. >> yang: stephanie sy at the site to have tomorrow night's

"pbs newshour" politico debate. you will be part of the "pbs newshour" coverage tomorrow night, right? and post-show with mytime show colleagues. tune in. >> pre-show starts 7:30 p.m. eastern and the full debate 8:00 p.m. eastern on pbs stations. >> yang: roughly 300,000 people in the united states have had spinal cord injuries-- life-changing events, with far-reaching effects. but as william brangham reports, new research outf the universi of louisville is giving dozens of paralyzed ople the prospect of regaining some of what they'veost. it's part of our series, "breakthroughs on the leading edge of science." >> brangham: for the last ten years, this is the only way kent stephenson has been able to get around. he has a severe spinal cordel

injury-- no feg or movement below his chest. is something that shouldn't be possible. because doctors told him his and yet... never work again. struggling and straining to re-learn how to take steps again. let's ba up. in 2009, stephenson was a semi-pro motocross ri but one day at practice, he took a jump, his bike seized up, and he crashed.ed as he was ronto the hospital on a gurney, he got a glimpse of a future he'd never imagined. >> open my eyes and you could see the ceiling, it was metal, and i could see the reflection of myself. and that was when it really hita me, e one of my boots was still on for some reason. i don't know why they didn't take it off, but i was le, oh, boy. i could not feel that. >> brangham:tephenson had

destroyed two vertebrae in his back. doctors said he'd be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. his career was over. >> i mean, that was my dream since i was little, was to go do that, ra that pro circuit and do all that. and it was, i mean, it was like, "heck, yeah, let's go" because everything was in place, and then everything changed that day. >> brangham: but in 2010, he enlisted in an experimental rearch program at the university of louisville. the traditional view has been that when someone like stephenson has such a bad injury, the signal between hishi brain anspinal cord is - rmanently severed. but susan harkemat's her in red-- directs spinal cord injury research at the sity of louisville and t frazier rehab institute, and she wondered whether there was more to it than that. >> when a person has a spinal cord injury, as devastating ason that is, it' where the bone is broken that the neurons die.io but there's mi of neurons below that are still alive and

can function under the right conditions. and then we know all the neurons in the brain are still there. it'sust that communication network that's broken. >> brangm: harkema and her colleagues ran a series of experiments using what's known as an epidural stimulator, device typically used to treat pain. implanted near the base of the spine, it delivers a small electrical current. they wanted to test the idea that thicurrent could restore some of that spinal communication. but when stevenson got his implant, he thought the whole thing sounded pretty far- fetched. and the whole me, are you just thinking, like, "come on, guys, we know what the answer is-- it ain't gng to happen?" >> you know, the little gremlin over here on my shoulder. yeah, he's like, what're you... you're wasting your time. >> brangham: that was, until something remarkable started to happen. this is from 2011. that stevenson there. he'd just had his stimulator implanted.mb re, he hadn't moved his lower body in years. but now, he's going to try. >> up.ow

>> up, awesome. >> oh, man. i mean, it was... my mom was inh room. i was there, got all eye-watery and everything. i mean, i was like, "oh, boy," you know, "now what?"e' whthis going to go? you know? because i've just been told from day one that you just traumatically injured your spinal cord. it's done. you know, there's nothing. >> brangham: rkema acknowledges she too was stunned at these results. she and her colleagues don't exactly know how or why this all works. the theory is, even with the most severe spinal injuries, some pathways remain intact, and the stimulator helps amplify the signal from the brain through the spine to the limbs. then, to augment this effect, they use intense physical therapy to recreate what it physically, and mentally, feels like to walk again.

>> you put weight back on the legs, you get them extended,ou get the trunk upright, and the spinal circuitry says, "oh, ikn what that is. at's standing. i know how to do that."an then the circuits for standing relearn again. >> brangham: nearly two dozen others have been implanted with stimulators through this prograbl 12 are now ato stand upright leth support. two have been abo walk-- assisted-- over flat ground. one managed to walk nearly aar qur of a mile, wh breaks, over the coue of an hour. her programs in switzerland and the mayo clinic in minnesota have proced similar results. of course, it's all easier said than done. training, in many cases, takes more than a year. marisskirkling has had her implant since last summer. after a car accident lt year left her paralyzed below the chest, she too had been told this... would never happen.

she's in the early days of learning to stand again. and she's the first to admit, it's really hard. >> you have to be thinking... as i keep talking and kind of get a little off focused of my legs, i'm losing them. >> brangham: so am i distracting you here, should i go away? >> no, you're okay. >> brangham: she's got to ncentrate on every singl muscle, her posture, where her feet are. not to menon my questions. >> before my accident, you know, you don't have to really think. like, you're standing there ght now. you don't have to think, "oh, squeeze your glutes, toes up,lo heels to the." >> brangham: so you're thinking all those thoughts right now? >> yes. yeah. and, like head up straight, neck back, shoulders back. so... because if you don't think i'm going to buckle.o... >> brangham: but the benefits

r her go beyond standing spinal cord injuries also impair some peoples' ability to regute their blood pressure. kirkling said hers would drop so suddenly, even getting out of bed was a chlenge. >> you pass out, and then it's like, you're out and then you just come back. and then just have to ain. >> brangham: and that would happen several times durinan average day? >> yes. yes, it's just, you could be at the grocery store, or the mall shopping, just sitting there watching a movie, doesn't matter. >> brangham: but the epidural stimulator also improves this function. now, kirkling is off most of her blood-pressure medications and she can get through most days she's also regaining her ability to sing, something else her accident robbed her of.

of course, there are still plenty of other, open questions. dr. ali rezai is a neurosurgeon and director of the rockefeller neuroscience institute at theer univty of west virginia. exciting, but there's a lot of constraints that we need to look at, in terms of, it doesn't work in everybody. so we've got to understand why is it, and i think being able to get rough movements is very exciting, no doubt.ra but we need tolate that into functional practical applications. >> brangham: beyond that, rezai says, there's the issue of scalability. >> a lot of these stwoies across thd have large teams, neurosurgeons, neuroscientists, neurologists, dons of people. d e patients have to come to the hospital or to the clinic. we need to translate that to the home. >> brangham: harkema acknowledges this research, which is funded in part by the national institutes of health, jich also gives grants to the newshour, is stit the tip of the iceberg. >> we need to look at process dierently right now. regardless of epidural stimulation, whether it should be a treatment or not. we know people can recover. i mean, that's clear.

>> brangham: forent stephenson and his wife-- who were babysitting their niece when we visited-- it's meant dreams of an expanding future. >> one of my questions right out of the gate, in the back of my mind was, can i have kids? you know, the physical fitness that i've gotten back eing rt of the stimulator program. it gives me that instillment that i could be, you know, the utmost father that i was going to bbefore or after injury. >> brangham: for marissa kirkling, it not only means the possibility of one day standing and walking on her own, but regaining the ability to do something she loves. ♪ ♪ >> brangham: for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham in louisville, kentucky. >>ang: after a historic turnout from generation z in last yeas midterm elections, democratic presidential

candidates are heavilyvoourting younrs. our student reporting labs nsproject reached out to t around the country, to find out what issues they care about and oat questions they'd like hear the candidates answer at tomorrow's newshour/politico debate. >> my name is haskelle trigue white. i'm from bearton, oregon, and the question i have for the presidential candidates at the next democratic deba is about gun violence. as a high school student, i am terrified every day th my school will be next. what are you going to do to stop school shootings? >> my question to the democratic candidates is: to those republicans at home who are dissatisfied with the current state of the trump administration, what can you say to them to show that you would be a president for all the t people, not juse within your party? >> my name is sam oswald from salt lake city, utah and my question for the democratic candidates is: how will yourin faituence your actions in the white house? >> my name is phylicia bailey from mount clemens, michigan, and my question for the candidates is: what can you do about lowering the cost of

college tuition? how many refugees should the u.ho take in? anwould you balance the humanitarian concerns ofde migrants and benforcement? >> if daca were to end, what would you do to help t inople that are no longer protected? >> are they going to keep troops in iraq and afghanistan? are they going tcontinue funding a war that's been going on for almost o decades now? >> how will you put an end to mass incarceration, and how will you put an end to white united states?hate crimes in the >> how can you take on the billionaire class if you yourself are ting monies from billionaires? >> the national debtas doubled in the last decade to over $22 trillion. young people of my generation are expected to bear the burden of national debt. why do we have to pay the price of your promises? >> what actions will you take to protect women's rights? for example, are y going to prevent restrictive abortion laws? >> the question i would like to ask the democratic candidates is how they plan to deal with big pharmaceutical companies and ths current prf medicines,

such as epi-pens and insulin. >> should funding for mental health illness be increased for research purposes? i'm a high school student and student stress is a really big thing, student stress can cause depression, anxiety and a lot of other medical issues. >> if elected, how would your environmental policy address states that have economies largely based upon the fossil fuel industry? >> my name is angelina hunt. i'm from alexandria, virginia, and my question for the democratic candidates is: in a time where there's a lot of political division in our country, if yowere electedt >> yang: you can find ato preview of tomorrow's "newshour" politico debate online. we'll be posting stories andll analysishe way through the debate. that's on our web site pbs.org/newshour. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm john yang. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening.

for all of us at the pbs newshour, thanks, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> when it comes to wireless, consumer cellular gives itsst ers the choice. our no-contract plans give you as much, or as little, talk, text and data as you want, and our u.s.-based customer servicen team is on h help. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> bnsf railway. >> and with the ongoing support of these ititutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributns to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what'coming up. what is the president hiding? why doesn't he want the facts to come out? >> the white house braces for tomorrow's impeachment vote. trump confidee and newsmax ceo chris ruddy joins me. then vox founder ezra polarized, what, iything can be done about it. and -- >> you know there's a saying. god always corrects one pope andsresent the world with another pope. i'd like to see my correction. >> divine intervention from jonathan price.