y captioning sponsored b newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff.on he newshour tonight... >> it is therefore ordered and adjudged, that the said donald t jomp be, and he is hereby, acquitted of the charges in sa articles. >> woodruff: not guilty. the impeachment trial comes to an end: senators vote to clear president trump of abuse of power and obstruction of congress. then... t ee years ago we launched the great american comeback.i tonighand before you to share the incr>>ible results. oodruff: the state of the union is divided. we break down a contentious night on capitol hill. plus, australia burning.

after historic wildfires scar the continent, questions arise over how to manage the land. >> i said,no, something doesn't feel right." and i think it was only like an hour later that this all came through, and we arso fortunate that we weren't here because you would not survive. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the united states senate has spoken, and president trump will remain in office. he was acquitted today on both impeachment counts, almopa entirely dowy lines. republican mt romney was the le senator to break ranks. amna nawaz begins our coverage. >> the president's betrayal-of-his oath of fice, betrayal of >> nawaz: it was five months ago, that house spker nancy pelosi delivered these lines... >> today i'm announcing the house of representatives moving forward withn official impeachment inquiry. >> nawaz: ...lines that opened an historichapter in american history. e third presidential impeachment ever in the united states

and today the final lines of that chapter were written. >> i will vote against both articles of impeachment. >> i will do my part by ting to convict this lawless president. >> i'll be voting to defend this president's actions. >> nawaz: a convictionould've required 67 votes, but the majority of the 100 u.s. senators voted to acquit president trump on both charges: abuse power and obstruction of congress. proo nouns him not guilty as charged >> nawaz: for most, this was no surprise ending. during the senate trial, democratic house managers spent days arguing forhe conviction and removal of mr. trump, claiming his pressure campaign on ukraine for political dirt on former vice presidenbiden and his son hunter posed a national security risk.ic but repus came to agree with the president's attorneys, r. trump's the actions were inappropriate, but not impeachable. that additional testimony from tnesses with firsthand information, like john bolton,

wasn't necessary, and that to remove president in an today's vote in thte, tocratic. to fall along parts.as expected but still, all eyes were on a low moderate senators who had held their cards until the among them: doug ja democrat running for re-election in deep-red y,abama. who totuck with democrats, voting "reluctantly" to convict the president. >> the evidence clearly proves that the president used the weight of his office and the weight of the united states government to seek tcoerce a foreign government to interfere in our election for his personal political benefit. his actions were more than simply inappropriate. they were an abuse of power. west virginia senator sided with his fel democrat saying it evidence

supports the charges and arizona senator voted she too would vote to convict writing her highest outy and greatest love is the constitution. but it was utah republican mitt romney but it was utah republican mitt romney, who'd already sided with democrats in their call for in his party to call for mr.t trump's removal, voting to acquit the president on obstruction of congress, but too ict him on abuse of power. >> the president is guilty of an appallg abusof public trust. kecorrupting an election t oneself in office in perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oatof office that i can image. >> nawaz: in a tweet responding to the senatorronna mcdaniel, publican national committee chair and romney's niece, said" this is not rst time i have disagreed with mittand i i, along with the g.o.p., stand. with president trump." >> back on the senate floor mine order leader chuck schumer crit

side his colleagues across the aisle. accusing them of supporting the president overhehe truth. >>erdict of this kangaroo court will be meaningless. by refusing the facts, b refusing witnesses and documents, the republion practice has placed a giant terisk, the asterisk of a sham trial next to the acquittal of president trump written in permanent inc majority leader mitch mcconnell hailed the sene for tamping fire.what he called the partisan >> whatever policy differences we may have, we should allre ag this is precisely thofe kin recklessness, the kind of recklessness t senate waso created to. >> with the verdict now behind him, president trump begins thim postpeachment chapter with an approval rating of 49% in the latest gallup poll, his highest rating since taking office.

for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: and we again turn to our lisa desjardins and yamiche alcindor. yamiche, at the white house tell us how the president, the president around him are responding to these not guilty verdicts. and also to mitt romney being the one republican to vote against the president. >> the presid wt haseathered all sorts of scandal and the biggest challenge yet. was and he is very happy thousand to put that behind him. he is taking a victory lap saying he was fully vindicated. he tweeted out this video, just moments after the acquittal vote and it shows that president trump might remain in office well past the constitutional limits. it says trump 2024, trump 2100. trump forever. so other things to note, theid prt will be speaking at the white house at noon tomorrow. we expect that he is going to say that impeachment ios a hax,

that this was a witch-hunt, the democrats were just after him.e but judyhave to note that the president can't say this is a partisan vote because senator that firstpeachment articlewith with democrats. so he became the first u.s. nator to vote to remove a president of his same party, that has president trump and lot ofhis allies very angry. some are even calling for mitt m romney to be ousted fre party. president trump will definitely well.a lot to say about that as >> woodruff: lisa, what are you picking up about that, talking to senators and others on the hill. >> there are certainly arrowin the republican party become aimed at mitt romney but not from his fellow senators. i have y republican senators speaking for myself, daniel busand our producer said they actually respect mitt romney, respectfully disagree, is what we heard from them time and again.a we h also from senator chuck schumer, the democratic leader that he thinks what mitt romney did and especially his speech talking about his reasoning reflects what he believes many

republicans might believe but actually didn't vote on. now who says whetever ryone believes, but in the end, given the speeches, those who voted to convict the president like mitt romney of anybuse of power, it seemed their argument was they feel this president thinks he is above the law. those who voted not guilty, their argument is that the how's case did not rise to the level of impeachment. >> woodruff: and yamiche, back to you, i mean now that the president has been found not guilty in the senate on both of these articles, how does the white house see this goingar fo do they have plans? or how to deal with it? a what is thetitude? >> the president wants to go forward and feels emboldened by this acquittal. whatever is needed win theo 2020 election. and he and his lawyers have made clear that he is fine and feels comfortable reaching gt to foreigernments including turkey or chi or ukraine to go and pick and look at political

opposition research or political dirt on his opponents, possiblyi vice pnt bieden or bernie sanders, we will see a continuation of him calling for other foreign countries to givem him inion on his political opponents. i also want to read a statement the white house pu out tonight. i want to read it, today thet impeachment empt con be con kcted by democrats ended in thep exoneration sident trump, one failed presidential candidate talking about mitt romneyloatd for the manufactured impeach. articles, democrats are pushing back on that idea that the president was fully vindicated because they say because new witnesses were not called in tha trial and there were no new documents introduced they say the president can't claim he was fully vincated but this not going to stop the president from taking taking this large vy lap he has been eager to take ever since word of the blwhistle-blower was made . he is now very happy to do that. >> woodruff: lisa, had ins, terms of congrhere does it go. >> really, since early fall we

have had 17 witnesses in the peachment, 3,000 pages ore testimony, narily 70 hours of public hearings largely inbe ocof last year. and of course we just finished 12 full days, 13 i das of senate trial. judy, i think that what we are left with isn exhausted s of lawmakers who may have wrestled with principles but in the e, politics seems to reign large at the capitol. and we saw theren some of the votes. those swing senators ended up voting with their party. some of them, that is a risky move, some of the democrats vulnerable, joe mchon voted to convict even though that is probably more sky for him. we saw examples of mral courage and tt romney doing that. but the rest we saw politicalhe windping philosophy and the divide growing deeper. >> woodruff: a l of to come over these votes, lisa desjardins, yamiche alcindor, thank you both.

we will continue our look athel impeachment trter in the program. we now move to the other end of the capitol, where ithe u.s. house chamber last night, president trump addressed the nation. the deep political divisions ofw our e on clear display. yamiche alcindor is back to unpack the speech. >> alcindor: last ni president trump made history. he became the second man ever to deliver the state of the union as an impeached president. the night began with president trump seeming to decline a chance to shake hands with houpe speaker nancsi. it ended with the speaker ripping up her copy of the president's address. >> the state of our union is stronger than ever bore! e>> alcindor: throughout night, republicans cheered on the president. they even called for his re- election with chants of "four more years." >> four mo years! >> alcindor: democrats often sat silently in theiseats.

at other times, they loudly voiced their disapproval >> h.r. 3! h.r. 3! h.r. 3! >> jobs are booming, incomesre soaring, poverty is plummeting, crime is falling, confidence is >> alcindor: the president touted bipartisan themes like a strongconomy and low unemployment. he also invoked the country's cultural and political divisions. abmr. trump spoke at lengtt his signature topic: immigration. >> days later, the criminal alien went on a gruesome spree of deadly violence. nc alcindor: he railed against so-called "ary cities." he also recognized the brother of a man who had been killed by an undocumented immigrant. then there were the made-for-tv moments of the night. >> rush limbaugh, thank you for your decades of tireless >> alcindor: president trump awarded conservative radio host rush limbaugh with tdo medal of fr limbaugh, who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, got a standing ovation from republicans. but democrats and many others voiced outrage over the move. they pointed to the fact thatrs limbaugh for yushed the racist conspiracy theory that president obama was not born in the united states.

they also criticized limbaugh's mmhistory of derogatory cots his radio show in this remark on >> what does that make her? it makes her a slut right? it makes her a proste. >> alcdor: in true trump style, the speech was part campaign rally and part reality tv. >> janiyah, i have some good news for you. an opportunity scholarship has become available. it's going to you. >> alcindor: there was the bid drum up support for school choice efforts. >> your husband is back from deployment. he is here with us tonight. and we couldn't keep him waiting any longer. >> alcindor: the president also reunited, on live tv, a military wife and family with their father, sergeant first class townsend williams. he came home after hish deployment to afghanistan. but president trump's speech was also filled with false or misleading statements. >> we will always protect your pre-existing conditions.

>> alcindor: he again claimed a that republica protecting health care coverage for pre- existing conditions.hi buadministration is currently urging federal courts to dismantle the affordable care act, and protections for pre- existing conditions along with it. >> the years of economay are over.>> lcindor: the president also claimed he pulled the u.s. out of a economic tailspin. but the u.s. economy has been expanding for a decade. and monthly job creation was last three years ifice thana's during president trump's first three years. one word the presidentn't mention last night? impeachment. and with his party loudly bend him, the president made clear he's ready for his 2020 re- election fight. >> woodruff: and yamiche alcindor and lisa desjardins are back. let's talk about last night, lisa. you were telling me this moratng hat you saw in the chamber was even more divided than we typically see. >> the only contact i can give

is it reminded me of sitting in the chamber for the kavanaugh hearings, it was that intenve. judy, i'ever seen from democrats that kind of look, not just of anger but deeper, personal offense at what the president was doing. their teeth the whole time when dush limbaugh was recognized an throug and that exploded into some of their chanting. members who have never chanted before in the chambern both sides were chanting. that is ccoompletely-letely new. for republicans, that roar much before it seemed like it wasard reacting to almost anything the president said and speak pelosi, i a woman who sort of runs on her own dig who thinks about that a lot, for her to take that step was a very big ne. so it tells me, judy, that now this kind of gov nern-- gof earning by emotion is something that is dominating for both sides and it is t temporary, it feels like this has gone more deeply into lawmakers. it was something that i could >> woodruff: where thehamber

president appeared to decide not to shake her hand when he firlkt out and where she then clearly tore up the speh. yamiche, what more do we know about what you call those made for tv moents where they recognized a 100 area old former tuskeg airmen an several moments like that, visitors in the garyl >> so to understand last night's state of t union one has to understand president trump has e history in reality tv and at one pint was part of a successful show the apprentice. i'm told by white house sources that president trump came t with the idhave these made for tv moments. it felt in some ways like the famous oprah winfrey dishoa where she says you have a car, yocahave a car, giving awas to her guests, that is what the president was going for, this feeling of emotion. he wanted people watching to sfeel like he was doimething for this country. and that is why you had scholarships given away, a wifie re with her husband on live television. you haa conservative radiois host who some as racist and others see as a darling in

the conservative movement e given thatal of freedom. what the president was doing his roots, deep roots andck to reality tv. i should also note that i havee asked ite house about rush limbaugh because it was very controversial to give him a medal of freedom award. they say they understand he is a controversial figure but that the president sees him as someone who is worthhat medal. of course rich limbaugh was someone who had a lot of controversy statementsay the least but tonight the white house is sticking with that deission. >> and coming back to what you and i were just discussg, the move by thep seaker, to tear up the speech, the chanting, how much of that d you think was planned ahead of time. what do you know about the motivation. >> we have reports, i'e been reaching out to specter pelosi staff, they passed on what she told her house democrat morning in their private meeting. she told them that she felt that every page of that speech contained lies and that that is why she wrip ripped it up. she tolthem and th understanding is that she did

that on the fly. that what she made that digs while she was standing there. she also made some very interesting comments tht might have more long-term consequences. she said she felt liberated by the speech, meaning this is the president saying things that she knows to be false, that she believes are false. meaninto me she feels liberated to be so openly at ds with him versus a speaker who is trying to work to compromise tversus a spery reached out her hand, by the end of the speech they felt liberated the speaker who ripped up thcspeech. a bihance in the course of one state of the union. in your report that what youed call, what has been referred to as either misleading or inaccurate statements the president made during e state of the union. >> that's right, the president has been someone who has not hied away from bending truth if it suits his political will. and this speech was no different. he talked about a lot of different things that were mrs. leading including the fact that immigrants were committing a lot crimes, study after

imgranteds do not commit more crimes than american citizens, he talked about the boller wa trk is clear even though he says he building border wall, only about mile of new border wall has been built, most of the wall he talked about is actually existing fencingr existing fencing was, we saw the president really lean into that. and he has leaned to that becaushe has millions of social media followers who only believe what he says and that is part of what the president has been doing. he has been able to really galvanize his supporters to make sure theybelieve what he is saying and create an enemy of out when he is wrong on thei facts. >> yamiche alcindor, lisa desjardins, we thank you both. >> thank you. >> >> woodruff: in the day's other news, delayed results from monday's presidential caucuses in iowa kept trickling in, andeg pete buttiept his lead.

86% of precincts have reported, and the former mayor of south bend, indiana has just under 27%. vermont senator bernie sanders running second, with 25% support in the caucuse senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts, and former vicejo presidenbiden are still running third and fourth. biden said today he is couing on new hampshire's primary next tuesday, but he acknowledged that "we took a gut punch in iowa." the last 24 hours have seen the most cases yet in the incoronavirus outbreak in the death toll there neared 550 today with more than 27,000 cases. in the u.s., officials confirmed a 12th case. and, in geneva, the head of the world health organization5 appealed for $llion to fight the virus. >> this is not a time for panic its a time for rational evidence

based action and investment while we still have a window of opportunity to bring this outbreak under control. >> woodruff: meanw0 le, nearly 3,ople are quarantined on a cruise ship at yokohama, japan, for two weeks.th some 3,600s are being screened on a cruise liner in hong kong. 350 americans were flown from china to california today, to be quarantined. and, officials confirmed ae 2th case in s. there's word that 130 salvadorans were killed in after being deported from the u.s. human rights watch says the deaths came between 2014 and 2018. it also found at least 70 cases ofexual assault other violence. the trump administration has taken a numb of steps to bar central americans from seeking refuge in the ited states. israeli forces killed a

first death amid protests over a u.s. peace plan. the 17-year-old was shot in the west bank city of hebron. israel said troops fired at a demonstrator who threw a fire bomb. earlier, israeli planes struck hamas militants in gaza, after rockets were fired intisrael. in turkey, dozens of rescuers searching for survivors of anil avalanche wered in a second deadly snow-slide. the overall toll reached 38. it happened on a mountain road near turkey's eastern border with iran. soldiers and residents climbed to the site to dig victims out of the snow. they included the local emergency operations chief. move the minibus, to rescue the last two people, thinking they could be under tar minibus or t. as we worked to pave a path, wed were trying ect the excavator to help, and then we heard a noise. and then i was half-bued under snow

i managed toet out on my own. >> woodruff: at least 53 emergency workers were injured, and officials said some are still trapped. the top u.s. milary commander in the middle east traveled to c iraq today, amls for american forces to withdraw. marine general frank mckenzie arrived as news accounts said the iraqis have cut cooperation with the u.s. coalition.he that follows.s. killing of iranian general qassem soleimani outside baghdad. the clock began running today on the last remaining arms deal between the u.s. and russia. the new strategic arms reduction treaty expires one year from now. it limits each side's long-range nuclear warheads. the u.s. withdrew from a treaty on medium-range weapons last year, and has also begun deploying low-yield, nuclear missiles on submarines. the governor of lifornia has pardoned the late civil rights leader bayard rustin, who was jailed for homosexual activity in 1953.ru

in died in 1987, and the state law that he was convictede under, is no lon the books. now, governor gavin newsom says he wants to pardon others who were prosecuted under the statutws in economic the u.s. trade deficit fell last year, for the fime in six years, due largely to the ongoing tariff war with china. and, wall street shot higher, on strong rnings reports. the dow jones industrial average gained 483 points toh at 29,290. ae nasdaq rose 40 points new record close, and the p 500 added 37, also hitting a new high. still to come on the newshour: lawmakers response to the president's state of the union amid a bitter partisan divide. analysis of the senate's vote to acquit the president of high crimes and misdemeanors. and australia burning-- e fires today and the fires to come.

>> woodruff: we return now to our top story: to hear from key president trump and what happens now. we start with one of the president's strongest allies, welcome back to the program, let me ask you first, you have drk dsh the president was img peached by thn house of reprtives, he was acquitted by the senate, how does he read this? j >> i wst with the president, judy, and he sends his regards. the presidenis acuitted forever. it wasn't even close. the senate, of course, under the constitution 67 votes to convict and remove a president it was not close. he has not been removed. he will be re-elected. and i think it's time for thisth

congress city and this country to come together the way the president was making that call to action, so many americans yesterday, the guests and the fidrst lay, the words in that state of the union were meant to paint a piture of an american comeback thark is optimism, an economic oyancy, a growth, a job rate and a blue clar wage boom. but also really celebrating people, figures in history who are sill with us, thank god, the tuskegee airman, his greatan on shown the arc of n.story between those two me you had the little girl ellie from missouri whor was bon at 21 weeks 6 days. you have a military family bei united, you have the president calling on congress to celebrate baghdadii and al- extermination from this country. so so much for us to be happy about. and i think one thi l we are realsed with tonight at the white house is that the president has been acquitted. and yet at the sa time this

is a president who has been bill clinton with theesident label of impeachment forever. >> judy, that is what the critics and nay say errs want ty keepg. i think what is most important is we will talk about president clinton, his impeachment. he had alreadyeen re-elected. this is a different situation. the president's campaign has said public that this impeachment trialnd the proprotracted arguments about the waste of time and money by congress in your interview had helped him, helped his approval atrate, according to gallu all-time high at 49% in that same gallup poll, 59% of americans reported they areer financially behan a year ago and a separate question, 74% say they predict wwill be financially better off a year from now. president clinton-- after he was impeached enjoyed similar numbers. the people said economy is great and those put on him were onthe wrong side. >> woodruff: let me ask you about one help can who did vote

to convict the president, found of power.y on the article ab that is senator mitt romney. of utah, what is the president's message to him. >> well, it is disappointing. maybe unsurprising but disappointing. senator romney stands alone in that regard. don't think he should be much of a headline today. he ran for president and lost. he got bo 100 electoral votes less than president trump when he won. and we counted on senator romney's help on any number of sues in this white house. he has voted with the president most time. the vast majority of the time. and people should recognize that. when it comes to the agenda mitt romney has been a solid yes vote for predent trump's agenda for these policies. i leave that for the people of utah to sort ut. the sen yor senator from utah certainly voted to acquit the president and is a constitutional scholar. i guess it w little unsurprising and at the same time irrelevant because it was

not a squeaker. the vote wasn't even close. >> woodruff: there are other republicans though, kellyne conway, who while they voted to acquit the predent, in effect, who also said they found his actions in reaching out to the president of ukraine, asking hio nvestigate a political rival, that they found it wrong, they found it inappropriate. senator susan collins said that she hoped the president had learned a lesson from tht. these are nothe words of republicans who approve of whtht president did. >> well, these are words of republicans who voted tday to acquit him though judy. because they didn't see this rising to the level of the is constitutionally warrant toat take such a drastic and unusual, really rare action to remove a dully elected president fr a offiany point let alone months before the next election. so i respect their opinions and i respect their right to voice some of theiro cncerns. but i'm also very happy i joined

the president in the de light that they found a way to vote for acquitta >> woodruff: will the president in the future, does he feel comfortable in the futur reaching out to other governments as our yaiche alcindor reported, officials around the president are saying today, feel comfortle reaching out asking them to investigate a political rival. >> i don see the word vestigate in that phone call, i don't see the word aid, i don't see 2020, i don't seethe word election. i don't see the word demand. pact, the ukrainian president and foreign minister confirmed many times they had no iea that demand was being made or-- they certainly had their ms.ti president zelensky o ukraine met withice president pence. >> woodruff: are you saying the president-- sorry to interrupt, you are saying the president would do this aain and feelt was the correct thing to do. >> judy, what i am saying is th there is an even though senators who voted to acquit many of them dinotein this

phone call an explicit demand to vestigate the bidens. if the president were listening to people likme he wouldn't even worry about joe biden. i think that the president has every right to want to investigate corruption and the esident of the ukraine making good on his stated campaign promise that lead t his overwhelming victory at the polls to be an anticorruptio president, to be a corruption fighter. we don't choose who sits on the boarof burisma, a well-known corrupt, ethically compromised energy company in ukraine any more than we choose who is running for president on the democratic side in 2020. t i don't foe who is worried about the bidens, joe biden is struggling to hang on to fourth place now in the partial iowa caucus results. so we dnn't wat anybody to interfere in our elections, judy, that includes on theo democrats em to interfere in their own elections in iowa, that includes many in e mainstream media who put their thumb on the scale last time unfortunately and said they had polling that shwed donald tru couldn't win. i don't want anybody to interfer

with our elections, i want free and fair elections and i certainly don't want oer countries to be involved. >> woodruff: kellyanne conway, advisor, counselor to president trump, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy >> woodruff: and now to a man who impeachment of president trump from the start. in his first interview following today's historic vot congressman adam schiff of california joins me now. he is the chairman of the housee intelligommittee and was the lead house manager during the impeachment trial. chairman schiff, welcome back to the newshour, i don't know if you heard but kelyanne conway is saying in effect the president feels exon rated, and that all he was dng in his interactions with ukraine was seeking to ot out corruption. >> well, that's of course not what the fonatorund on a bipartisan basis. senators acknowledge that not only did the president do something wrong, but he held up hundreds of millions of dollars of aid in an effort to prernure

ukraine into doing politicalig inveions into his opponent. i have to say, i was really-- i found it breathe taking to listen toenor romney today, to see that display of moral courage, to see someone put country above party. i said eaerlier in the wek on monday during our closing argument that a single person, a single vote could changthe course of history. i think mitt romney did that today. i know for many of us, we will look back on that vote, when we find ourselves in a situation calling for us to put count first anreally difficult votes, we will be inspired by today.urage that he sho >> woodruff: but at the same time, congressman schiff, you have put a loof effort, a lot of energy into this process over the last several months, and to see it fl, the articles of impeachment paul, one of them 19 votes short, the other one 20 votes short of convicted the

esident, removing him from office, what does that say to you? >> what it iays, andalked about this earlier in the week is we are at a place right nwhow e one polit wall-- political ate a is willing to tol level of misconduct in a president unsurpassed in history as long as it is a president of their party. that is a very dangerous trend for the country, of the fact that so many senators of that party were not willing to fulfill their oat i the same way that mitt romney did. i think it is a real indisielt-- indictment of today's gop. but not withstanding that, weth felt inhouse that we needed to do our constitutional duty. and appeal to that optimism, the founders put in our ability to have self-governance. i think mitt romney validated that faith in the founders. i will say also there were a number of democratiators from very difficult states who made an equally courageouson decioday. so i find myself at the end of

this trial very optimism about the future. >> do you think there is something you and the managers could is done differently, argued differently in order to have an different outcome here? >> i don't. in fact, i think ha we done anything differently than we did, we would not have enjoyed the unanimous support of theor democratic sen and been able to convince a former presidential nominee, ublicanleader of the rep party that his oath required him to convict donald trump for such an h pgreejous abuse ofer. so we feel that we put the be case forward possible. we are peeled to the bt instincts of the senators andr i'm justendously moved that one of them displed really, veral disayed such incredible courage. >> woodruff: but two other questions. number one, was this a fair trial? your side veryh wanted there to be witnesses, more evidence.

you didn't get that. was, i mean is this in the p end ocess that the american people deserve. >> no, the american people recognize that, overwhelming sejority of americans wanted to hear from witn they wanted to have john bolton they recognized t is not a trial if you have an opening statement and a closing argument and nothing in between. so we made, unfortunately, impeachment history when the senators decided to have the first impeachment trial without witnesses. so it wasn't fair.it akes it all the more remarkable that we had senats show the urage that they did. you know, as mitt romnedid, as a number of democratic senators did. but no, i thtoink his will record the senate did not live up to its constitutional responsibility, did not tryh te case, instead just heard and that is, i think, a dangerous precedent for the future. >> woodruff: and where does the house go from her

ngressman, with, we are aring that there are calls to , thena john bolt president's former national security advisor. will there be more investigations? could there be more impeachment charges brought against the president in the house? >> we've made no decisions about any next steps. we wanted to take this trial to completi, make the best case possible. i think we did that. i think we got the best result under the circumstances of as trial nontrial possibly could. st now a bipartisan vote to convict the president, even though it didn't meet the two thirds threshhold. >> woodruff: but you are leaving the door open? >> i am not saying one way or the other, i can't underscore enough that we did not look beyond the end of this trial. and so whawe will dos we will get together as a caucus with you are o leadership and discuss what the future holds. but we were not prepared to make any judgments about that. >> woodruff: chairman adm schiff who was the lead house

manager in the impeachment trirl ofesident trump, thank you so much. >> thank you >> woodruff: we continue our look at impeachment on thisin clday with two political and legal experts who have helped us analyze this trial e:during our special cover victoria nourse. former special counsel to the the early nineties.mmittee in she also served in the justice department under president a george h.w. bu as vice president joe biden's chief counsel. she now runs georgetown law school's center for congressional studies. and john hart, who worked for hongressman tom coburn, republican of ok, ring the impeachment of president clinton before working ten years for then senator coburn. and communications consulting firm, mars hill strategies. heu,o, again, to ou've been with us virtually through this entire impeachment trial process. let me come to you first, john hart. you just heard kellyanne conway say president views this as exoneration, in so my words.

and you heard adam schiff saying give enwhat they were up against, a senate with a party majority in the other direction, they feel this was in so many words the best they could do. how do you see this? >> judy, i don't see this as a win tbor either republicans, or demoats, st a loss for democracy and the republic. remember, the clinton impeachment. republicans paid a very dear price for that in terms of the opportunit costs and the president's legal team warned against that. the repubcans lost seats in the house following that. and president clin popular after the impeachment went through. we have already seen president trump poll numbers go up after the impeachment. so i think the challenge ihink for democrats especially is to do the soul searching that e ey should hne after president trump won in 2016. republicans supported other candidates srnl did that. d democrats resist-- . >> woodruff: a loss fr-- loss for the country, victoria?

>> well, you knou have to look at the alternative here. if it it is a separation of powe working in some sense but you know, i was sad my son texted me.he aid the senate is broken, there will be too many young people out there who are going to say that this trial was not the big vote here was not today, the vote was on witnesses. >> woodruff: on winesses. >> and that vote will have the events that will follow, in here, and how it will be understood by the american public as the days to come. it. how history will judge if >>uff: so what have we learned from this process then, swron hart? we had a very, a house came out, you saw the hose come out with a very strong recommendatn of impeachment, by the majority. yes, there were a couple of democrats who votedded against the majority. but and then the senate completely the opposite. >> i think we have learned the consequences of goi against

the golden rule of impeachment which is that you don't move forward onm ipeachment without the support of country. if there is not super-- two thirds majority, it is unreasonable to expect two third mass jort in the sen te. beginning we discussed which votes would be up in the air. d e to four. the end theres was one vote that went against party. so i hope the warning is that we don't go down this road again without the suprt of the electorate behind it. >> woodruff: but the one person who did cross prty lines was as we just heard from adam schiff, victoria, was republican mitt romney. sothe voes that moved over was one of the president's, a member ofhe president's party. >> well, now the former-- grnlg now mitt romney have all come out against this president's ste, if not policy. i do think that is important to note, in temples of the idea that we should have aipartisan

basis for impeachmebu. i will note that this disintd is different thancl ton and closer to nixon because the claim here is that the president was trying to interfe in an election, which is the bed rock of our system. we just aw cay kus in the iowa caucuses. the country is on edge because it is true tha russians interfered, probably had nothing to do with trump's election but we know that there was interference in our elections, so that makes this impeachment, i do agee with the bipartisan rule, joe bidengreed with it many years ago. but this problem with elections is not going to go away and it would be better if the president didn't tweet out things like oh i am going toer stay until 2040, and come out with some election security bill. >> woodruff: you know john hart, and i asked kellyanne conway this question, because yamiche alcindor reported that white house people are telling her the president may well reach out to other countries for help investigating a polit ricval,

that they don't see anything wrong with it. >> well, judy, i don't frankly take that seriously. i think what this president does is he is very, very effective at emotionally manipulating democrats. so his state of the yun address was poinafter point after point designed to elicit a re stion. when hys that i don't take it seriously, his tweet moments heter we sat after the vote happened that trump would be in office forever, that shows him being our satirist in chief. is he critiquing a pitical culture that doesn't accept humor and he is criticizi the il liberalism of liberalism. >> woodruff: but he still was impeached by the house ofta represves, the third president in our history to have been so. >> yes, and i would was profud mitt romney for standing up, it tas as you said th mos controversial evt of his entire lifetime, i man who has run for prsident. and he knows that vote will subject him to abuse by the partisans of the president.

so mitch monnell who said that the fever has broken strikes me optimistic, don't think the fever has broken at all, i think you will see mevnt up to the next election. >> woodruff: how do you see that. >> i think there will be mor and more animosity. the challenge is, it wasn't long ago that republicanand democrats were -- leislation, to his credit the president last night did a good job of describing his accomplishments that involved democrats. chris kunz in the oval office praizing the president, that is what the american people want, more of that. my former bos tom coburn physically embraced president obama in his first state of union. >> woodruff: youre not saying that is where we arede height now. >> i think the country wants that, the electorate really does want th. hopefully there will be a reaction against, hopefully there will be outrage fatigue. >> woodruff: john hart,

victoria nourse, we thai for being with us throughout s process. >> thank you. >> pleasure being with you. >> woodruff: the australian bushfires are still burning in partof that country. the fires have claimed the lives of more than 30 people, including three ameran firefighters who died in an air nker crash. tens of millions of acres of land have burned so far this season. the toll on the forest and the conversations abouthe land should be managed. that's the focus of miles o'brien's latest piece, produced in collaboration with the weather app, my radar. it's for our "leading edge" series. eager platoon of vers, from an noel and trish butler are takina the first step on a long road to recovery.

thday they lost nearly everything is seared forever in their minds. >> we did come out here a couple of hours before, maybe even one hour before toollect some more items. noel wanted to hose everything down again, and-- >> but you said, no. >> i said, "no, somethingfe doesn' right." and i think it was only like an hour later that this all came through, and we are so fortunath we weren't here because you would not survive. >> we'd never have got out of here. >> reporter: before the fire their now denuded valley looked like this: lush, green, ome to some friendly marsupials. their little patch of paradise, and even more. noel butler is aroud budawang elder. a famous artist, teacher and practitioner of aboriginal culture. their me was also a widely known educational nter focused on history andraditions that date back more than 100,000 years. with the fire approaching, they

frantically filled this shipping container with artwork, toolsan anenartifacts, hoping they would be protected.t is is all that survived. is it kind of hard to fathom it >> it still is. i don't know, i guess, it's still a bit surreal that we're here and we're looking at it. >> and we're alive. >> and we're alive and we're very grateful for that. >> reporter: for noel butler, thrloss is a poignant remin of the lessons of ancient aboriginre history. fi is a part of a natural cycle in the forests of australia. >> this whe continent is designed to burn, and 80% of our flora needs and benefitsrom fire to re-germinate, the seeds, crack the seed pods or regenerate. >> reporter: his ancestors ud that insight to their advantage by setting low intensity fires, prescribed burns, carefully considered and controlled. >> when you ink for 100,000 years, aboriginal people have more than kept this in such

perfect environment by managing it correctly by the use of fire, by burning it when it needs to, and knowing when animals live where, you'll never interfere with the breeding cycle >> reporter: as australia burns this horrible, historic summer, there is much debate about land management, or mis-management. noel butler is among those who wonder if a return to the aboriginal practices might have deprived the megafires of fuel, reducing their intensity. perhaps. >> it's not the panacea peoplee ping for. the trees all around you have been planted. >> reporter: mike clarke is a fire ecologist at latrobelb universityn rne. he says large scale fore ininning and controlled bu is widely recognized as a good idea, but it is neither cheap or easy to implement. >>o, it's not. australia has changed profoundly. we've added anher 20 million people to the landscape. we've got infrastructure allov

the countryside of bridges and powerlines and reservoirs. we can't simply have large scaled burning that may have been possible when indigenous folk were in charge. >> reporter: the media here is dominated by rupert murdoch'sor newsration. it usually omits or discredits the impact of climate change. >> this is not chasing facts ano applying rl scrutiny; this is an sult to our intelligence. >> reporter: instead, it focuses arson statistics and falsely alleges environmentalists are to blame for blocking controlled burning. >> they're not being constrained by some mythical powerful green movement. they've been constrained by climate change and the weather. the window in which you can do safe controlled burning has got shorter and shorter. it's either too dry and it's dangerous to light a controlled burning, or it's too wet you can't get the darned thing to ignite. and the window in which you can safely do it is down tfuls of days in spring and autumn. >> look, australia has been described as the country that is

likely to suffer the worst impacts of clite change over any developed country. >> reporter: david karoly is a climate scientist withhe commonwealth scientific and industrial research orgazation, australis national science agency. >> 2019 wathe hottest year in recorded history in australia, hotter than any other year and it was also record low rnfall. it didn't start the fires, it didn't light the fires, but it provided the background environment for extreme fire danger. >> reporter: concern that facts like those are not getting enough public attention prompted sociologist david holmes to find an alternative means of communication: tv weathercasters. >> and why they are important is because not only are they trusted, but they also a skilled communicators and they have access to a very big audience. you see them everyday on your television screens. u get to know them and they

are skilled with talking about climate change. they are the most impo people to communicate the science. >> reporter: hols and his team from the monash climate change r communicatioearch hub are developing presentations linking weather events to climate change for 14 australian weatheres ters, reaching a third of the nation so far. >> o average daytime mperature for september was 24.9 degrees.re this is an ie on the long term average which is quite substantial when you look at our top temperature history trend, dated back to 1995. >> reporter: weathercasters liko paul higgithe australian broadcasting corporation say the data alone speaks volumes. >> we just basically provide evidence-based scientific facts, peer-reviewed scientific facts, and present th the audience without saying, "hey, this is climate change. look what's happening." we just simply show what has happened over the last, say, 50 years, and people can then make up their own minds.

>> reporter: it's an important message and they are convinced this is moving the needle on public opinion. and in this hot, dry austral summer filled with inferno after infeo people are looking for answers, while looking for the strength to start over. >> it certainly is really daunting and i have had moments where it's not that i don't want to live on this land again here, on our property.ha it's just,whole daunting feeling of, "how long it's going to take at that stage in our life." but i'm pretty sure that we can bring it back. i don't want to be negative about it. ink, that you know, we're positive and-- >> --we'll build it together. >> --because we're still here. >> reporter: this is a country on the front lines of the climate emergency. at's happening this summ could be a crystal ball to a. future wor for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in southeastern australia.

>> woodruff: and a passing to note before we go tonight,e actingnd kirk douglas died today. his son actor michael douglas confirmed it to "people" magazine. a star of hollywood's golden age, douglas appeared in some 7 movies from classics like spartacus to th critly acclaimed champion. kirk douglas was 103 years old. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at theanbs newshour, you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular offers no-contract wireless planshat are designed to help you do more of the thiets you enjoy. r you're a talker, texter, browser, photographer, or a bit learn more, go tos you.tod consumercellular.tv d

>> the fundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

. hello, everyone, welcome to "amanpour and company". here's what's coming up. i feel sorry f pete buttigieg, but how about the o peop iowa, help out the public? >> we talk to did axelrod former senio adviser to 28 breakout star barack obama. could this caucus night debacle hake voters' confidence in th system? and the nominees are -- lacking diversity with oscars just parnd the corner we discussed with america's "entertainment tonight" co-host and a patricia lawyer andy divers activist. plus. >> the city was 56% black in 18 nation, today it's 18%. sohey just turned the black

majority city