captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: the state of the race-- what the results in new hampshire mean for democratic candidates moving forward. and, i sit down wi pete buttigieg. then, crime and punishment. after federal prosecutors resign from the roger stone case, president trump unleashesat cks on them while defending plus, watching concrete dry-- ultra-high-performance concrete, that is.th breakthrough building material that engineers hope will save our aging infrastructure.ni >> it's verye, to the point that we've had visitors come from around the world to look at it. druff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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the public fight within the department of justice over the sentencing of roger ston a confidant of president trump, and a convicted felon. but first, the race for the white house. this evening, the head of the iowa democratic party resigned, following the confusion over that state's caucus. and last night's new hampshire democratic primary results are offering some clarity to theid prtial field. senator bernie sanders finishing first with 25.7% of thvote, former south bend mayor pete buttigieg just 1.3 percentage points behind, with 24.4%, and senator amy klobuchar with 19.8% of the vote. but as amna nawaz reports, the battle for the nomination is far fromver. >> tnk you new hampshire!aw >>: with a strong finish in iowa and a narrow win in vermont senator bernieanbelt, tasays he's ju ged. >> we're g

gointo south carolin and thosete be pbu another big night, coming in a ose second. >> a campaign that some said shouldn't be here at all, s shown that we are here to stay. >> nawaz: and minnesota senato amy klobuchar in a surprise third. >> we have beaten the odds every step of the way. >> nawaz: the democratic field further winnowed, losing entrepreneur andrew yang and colorado senator michael bennet and this morning, former massachusetts governor deval patrick announced he too would suspend his campaign, something he hinted at last night. >> we needed the winds from we needed this win to carry us forward. >> nawaz: but the road to the democratic convention is long, and eight candidatestill vying for the nomination. massachusetts senator elizabeth night, put the early state

results in perspective for her supporters.e' >> two states in, with 55 states and territories to go. >> nawaz: coming up on the-- primary calendigger, more diverse states that could radically reshape the race in the weeks ahead. caucuses in nevadaary 22, the carolina primary.he south and on march 3, 14 states hit where a whopping 33% of all total delegates are up for grabs. former vice president joe biden, after weak finishes in iowa and new hampshire, is baing on strong support from african american voters in those upcoming states. biden left the grate state before pollsven closed, and he to ters o friendlier ground. >> 99.9%. icat's the percentage of a american voters who have not yee had a cho vote in america. >> nawaz: other candidates are also hoping a more diverse electorate will offer them a boost.

>> it so good to be in nevada. >> nawaz: billionaire tom steyer echoed biden, speaking last night in reno, nevada. >> we have a gloriously diverse country, and a gloriously diverse party. and we need to make sure that every part of that country and that party is part of that coalition and shows up in november. >>awaz: and new york city mayor miael bloomberg has already poured morthan $300 million of his own moneyup into tuesday and beyond, even as he faces renewed questions for his support ofis raciallyiminatory policing tactics known as "stop and frisk." those, after a years-old audio clip of him discussing the practice went viral on social media. >> 95% of your murders and murderers anmurder victims fit one m.o. you can juri take the deion, xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. they are male, minorities, 16 to 25. >> nawaz: in chaanooga,

tennessee today, a reporter ked bloomberg if he was concerned the recording would hurt his support from african american voters. >> i do not think so. i think people look at it and they say that those words don't reflect michael bloomberg's--e y he governed new york city, the way he runs his company, the way his philanthropy works. i think we are going to do very well in the african american community.fo >> nawaz: the rmer mayor could be the newest face on the n.c. stage next week, when e candidates gather in las vegas for the ninth democratic debate. for the pbs newshour, i'm amna n >> woodruff: early this morning, i sat down with one of the success stories out of new ffmpshire, former mayor pete buttigieg, freshis very- close second-place finish. i began by asking him to explain what happened in the granite state. l, what happened is that after a year of campaigning, we were able to show, not just tell, that we could put together an extnary coalition of voters-- younger and older,

urban, rural and suburban, coming together, believing that we need to turn the page. that, in order to govern in the tofuture, but also in orde beat donald trump, the time has come to set aside the politics of the past, look to the future and deliveon bold changes that americans can get behind. i see an opportunity right now to take some of the biggest steps forwd that america has in a half-century, and crucially, do it in a walythat can actunify, not divide, the american people. it's clear that despitall of the odds and predictions, that vision was powerful enough t propel us to top two finishes in the first two states. now the challenge is to go oto nevada, south carolina and beyond and continue growing that coalition. >> woodruff: these are different states, a lot more diversity. nevada has a latino population,x fople. they make up, i think, 20% of the democratic primary. how do you appeal? >> i'm very much looking forward to further reaching out and engaging with latino voters and

african american voters in both nevada anduth carolina. that's part of our outreach strategy. part of our media and we've made sure throughout that we're offering policies that are going to make a difference in the everyday lives of diverse voters. this is an opportunity for us to demonstrate how, on everything from economic empowerment tori deli healtcare, to combating discrimination, reforming immigration and dismantling systemic racism, we can pull tother and get big things done. >> woodruff: so are you saying your message doesn't change? >> well, the values change. we're not going to, you know, havene face forward to one s ofoters and a different se face forward in a different place. but it'sertainly the case that different concerns are being raised. for example, in nevadawe're hearing a lot more about concerns rated to immigration and hearing a lot fromnion workers, including hotel and service workers, with hard won, hard fought battles to get their

heth care plans, who are n interested in senator sanders' vision of eliminating their private health car we're also getting a lot of questions from black voters about a vision and aagenda for black americans, at a time when we have seen all of th in which systemic racism has persisted and led to a different american experience for so many black americans, on everything from how you experience the economy, to the health care system, to the criminal legal system, to our democracy itself. >> woodruff: you, of course, bring up south carolina. african american voters could as much as 60% of the primary there right now. right now, you are polery low-- 2%, 3%, 4%. that is a big leap for you, isn't it?el >> that's exactly what we need to do. and what i've heard from a lotck of boters is that our plans are appreciated. the frederick douglass plan is e most comprehensive plan offered by a presidential candidate to tackle systemic racism. but before anybody carr what's in yans, they want to know if you're a serious contender. and i think up until we ha dthe results here in iowa and

new hampshire, it was difficult fous to prove it. now, the process of proving it is underway. anfor voters who are laser focused on ensuring that we win, who do n have the luxury of pursuing ideological purity over an inclusive coalition for victory, they are going to be, i think, very pragmatic and very demanding about demonstrating that the campaigns have a pl to defeat donald trump. >> woodruff: as you know, therer there are parts of your record as mayor of south bend with the african americanties leadership in your community. why shouldn't you expect your opponents to come after you? for there to be really tough questions now about how you deal with not just african american voters, but the african american power structure in the democratic party? >> well, i'm not just bringing receipts, i'm bringing allies. the majority of black leaders from my community who have gotten involved in this race are supporting me. and i'll invite them on the trail with me to explain why, to tell our story. when you are a mayor, you don't

get to just opine on these issues, or talk about what should happen. you're on the ground trying to get things done. and in the results that we've livered, cuts to the black unemployment and black poverty rate faster than what happenedou around thery, national recognition for our work, real reform. and in the areas where wgghave major sts and we're, we're continuing to push, we can talk about everything that went wellw and why and whlearned when things did not. some people have pt labelpurity. on bernie sanders, but the moderates in the democratic party who are searching, you've t a lot of competition. and amy klobuchar. it's virtually everybody else in the campaign. how do you distinguish yourself? >> well, i think the way that we have advanced to the front of that group is by offering a vision that's not just cle in terms of policy, but belonging in our campaign that reflects the belonging we want to build in the country as a whole. and let's be clear, the ideas that i'm putting forward are bold ideas. they would make me the most

progressive president we've had in a half-century. but i'm also building them in a way that is inclusive. this, this is not the time for s polif "my way or the highway." if your only choices are between a revolution and the status quo, that's a vision that leaves most americans out. and i think challenging that vision with a more inclusive one is how we have been able to get the results that we had, both in iowa and new hampshire, across different age groups, different kinds of communities.we noake that message forward. >> woodruff: money. h your opponene come after you for spending a lot of time talking to millionaires andir billio, raising money for your campaign. you're not a wealthy person. you've gone to others who ar wealthy. there's every reason to believe they're going to continue toar make thament. is there some other message you can give to the american people about how you are not dependent on the wealthiest to keep your campaign going? >> look, the vast majority of my time is spent engaging voters and the vast majority support for my campaign has come

from the grassroots. we have hundreds of thousands of donors to this campaign. over two million donationsand i think the average is less than 40 buc. we're following the fundraising practices and holding ourselves to theame standards that democrats and democratic order to make surewe buildve, in a powerful campaign organization that will be prepared to go up against donald trump in the fight of our lives. i'm not defining my campaign by whose help we reject or who we turn away. in order to compete against a president and his allies who have raised astonishing sums o money in order to keep their grip on por, we need to go in this fight with everything >> woodruff: final question. washington, i'm sure you know, in the last day, a huge the justice department in thet he was found guilty of lying, obstruction, sentenced to six to nine years.

the attorney general apparently himself stepped in, reducing the sentence it's not clear why this has happened, but four of the prosecutors in the case have now rehegned. should be a special prosecutor? what should happen at thisin how serious a development? >> it's very serious. what kind of country is this if because the president ore thesidential appointee put squeeze internally on the process of delivering juice? this is not america. this is no w to run things. although, we're also, i think, not that surprisedhat a trump administration, emboldened by e result after impeachment, thinks it can get away with this sort of thing. ultimately, while i certainly believe there ought to be an investigation into how this happened, ultimately, i think the most likely remedy is the one that we're in the middle of pursuing right now. as i often remind voters, you know, last week,he senate was the jury, but now the verdicis up to us. the final verdict on thishave

president, and an awful lot of the senators who protected this president. let's make the absolute most of this moment and put together the majority that will win so big that not only is trump a one- smrm president, but trum goes into the histy books and even republican senators are ceunited with their consci >> woodruff: so, just quickly, no special prosecutor. >> i think that would be appropriate. ti would be astonished if happens. but the bottom line is that ere needs to be wholesal change. and in order to deliver that, we need a new presidnd we need an awful lot of new congressional leaders. >> woodruff: thank you very much. >> good to be with you, judy, thank you. oc woodruff: we will look at the state of the demratic race going forward a little later in the program. >> woodruff:n the day's other news, the world health organization is voicing hope that the coronavirus obreak in china may be slowing. as of tonight, china has

reported 44,600 cases and some 1.100 deaths. but, new infections are declining, as beijing enforces sweeping public health measuresn who officials say the situation elsewhere is more promising. >> it is vy hard to predict, but we definitely see the behavior of the virus outside wuhan and hubei and the rest of china and outside china, it doesn't at this point appear toa aggressive or as accelerated, and that's a good sign. >> woodruff: meanwhile, inese president xi jinping promised tax cuts and other measures today, to limit damage to the chinese economy. in northeastern syria,po government sers attacked u.s. troops today, and the troops, in turn, shot and killet one of syrians. state tv showed people throwing through a checkpoint.d then, some of the men fired automatic riices at the ams.

the u.s. military said the troops returned fire in self- defense. an investigation is underweg. the latestiations on peace in afghanistan may have reache a crucial point. taliban officials say they have offered to curtail attacks for one week, but they threaten to walk away if the u.s. does not respond. the ultimatum comes u.s. officials have signaled an agreement to end the 18-yearar may be close. meanwhile, the u.s. military says limits on money and manpower have curbed its fight against terror groups across west africa. a report by three inspectors general finds the focus in the sahel region has moved from attacking insurgents to containing their spread. at the same time, the report says extremist violence in the region has spiked. pope francis refused today to ordain married men, in order to address a shortage of priests in south america's amazon region.op

bifrom that area had proposed the move. it would have been a dramaticif in the roman catholic church's centuries-old policies. a top cardinal at the vatican said that the pope favors other ideas, instead. >> he looks toheishops, for example, to send more missionaries. he would like every diocesveto good proportion of their priests spending at least someth time iamazon. within this range of possibilities, there will be many ways of responding to the needs for the eucharist and the sacraments throughout the amazon. >> woodruff: pope francis also diissed a recommendation t let catholic women serve as deacons in the amazon. britain has announced that it will give government regulators the po sanction social media companies for harmful material on their platforms. it could mean fines for failing to take down content sucas child abuse, cyber bullying and terrorist propaganda. facebook and youtubeaid that

they support the proposed regulations. on wall street today, solid r earninorts pushed stocks higher. the dow jones industrial average gained 275 points to close at 29,551. the nasdaq rose 87 points to a record close, and the s&p 500 pod 21, also a new high. and, a standard odle named siba is this yeas top dog at show, the nation'sest. club the three-year-old poodle tookbe -in-show last night in new york, beating out fan-favorites daniel, a golden retriever, and conrad, the shetland sheepdog. rd's the first time a stan poodle has won at westminster since 1991. congratulations. still to come on the newshour: crisis at the department of justice, as president trump tries to take the law into his own hands. the shape of the race for 2020 after bernie sanders claims

victory in new hpshire. and, much more. >> woodruff: ultimately, it' for a judge to decide. but the wrangling in the u.s. justice department over how much jail time a convicted trump confidante should receive has led to a second straight day of turmoil. yamiche alcindor begins there. >> alcindor: today, outrage on capitol hill over the justice department's new sentencing reccomendation for roger stone. >> what is more swampy? what is more fetid, what is more stinky than the most powerful person in the country lirally changing the rules to benefit a croney guilty of breaking the law? >> alcindor: congressional democrats aren't alone. yesterday, four career prosecutors withdrew from the

case seemingly in protest. the probm? the d.o.j. decided to reject their recommendation of a seven to nine year prison sentence fon the president sounded off from the oval office today during a meeting with the president of ecuador. >> he was treated very badly. nine years recommended by four mueller pe, i dont know whoere they we, prosecutors. it's a disgrace and,r fankly, they ought to apologize to a lot of the people whose lives they've ruined. >> alcindo stone, a longtime friend and ally of president trump, was found guilty last november on seven charges, including witness tag and lying to congress. the charges all relate to russian meddling in th2016 presidential election. critics of president trump say he unfairly interfered in the case to help friend. this morning, white house deputy press secretary hogan gidley denied any interfence. he also defended the president's right to voice his opinions on the case. >> the president didn't have a conversation with the attorney

general at all, but he has the right to do it. just because someone happens to be wrapped up in a 2.5-year investigation that has spent tax payer dollars, doesn't mea the president doesn't have a right to comment on it, whether he knows them or not. >> alcindor: senate minority leader chuck schumer called on the judiciary committee today to conduct an emergency hearing on the case. a judge today rejected a requess frne for a new trial. his sentencing hearing is scheduled for next week.us now, are thece department's moves here justified, or is the agency crossing a line?rv mary mccord for nearly 20 years in the office that prosecuted the case against roger stone. she later became the department's top national curity official, and is now a litigator at georgetown waiversity. and, james trustpreviously a federal prosecutor in maryland before becoming chief of the judice department's "organi crime" section. he is now in private practice. thanks to both of you for being here. mary mccord, i'm going to start with you. what do you make of what's happeng surrounding the

sentencing of roger stone and what do you think it mighto toib the crity of the justice department? >> i think this causes really credibility and reputation of the justice department. the prosecutors here signed a sentencing memorandum with a recommendation in it, and te judiciary is entitled to rely on those representations as the voice of of justice in this criminal case. and under department policy, i any hgh profile case, decisions such as sentencing go all they the flag pole. so this would have been discussed with the deputy attorneyeneral's office, the attorney general's office before any recommendation was made, so to have thaat then pulledck and unermined and a new filing come the next day is very unprecedented anplhard to n other than it being in response to the president's tweets and the president's spleasure and dissatisfaction with the recommended sentence.

and, so, that fact in and of credibility of the justice department in the eyes of the court and also the eyes of the american people. >> reporter: james, she's saying this could harm taghtsy's credibility. is thd.o.j. immune to politicalization? >> you want a system where it's an apolitical entity, but you have to keep in mind the president and the attorney general cabe chumy. you had one president who picked his brother to beathrney general. the question is whether that relationship and any conversation they have trickles downo in sme untoward way, whether that somehow jeopardizes the notion of pursuing small "j" justice they're all supposed to have. when yis're looking at tcase it's playing out openly which creates a circumstances and all sorts of political aspects of that. but the narrow issue is what's fair in the case of this guy named stone. a lot of people would look the calculations that started this off and say they're going

hard to come up with a 7, 8, 9 year range instead of 2 or 3 or 4. there's a nadirrow factuaspute underneath it which drives the guidelines which drives the recommendation. >> reporter: speaking of you, esident trump called thse prosecutors mueller people, former special prosecutor. that being said, four prosecutors seeminglygned in protest. how unusual is this? >> that's very unusual.lo , n no tter what the merits are attend of the day, fourlt prosecutors trongly. one left the department of justice, one headed or balt where he had been working so it wasn't quite the same level of sacrific but there's clearly a communication break here and problems in terms to have the line atorneys, the supervisors and maybe crossing over to, d.o.in justice. >> reporter: i want to go to you for a hypothetical which some people think happened which is what rifesident trump did call attorney general barr and

say my friend is being possibly sentenced, can you please lower that sentencing recommendation? and thethe department of justice, possibly again an attorney general, says, yes, because the esident's friend is facing this, we're going to lower our sentencing. is, first, the president's call illegal and is the department of justice responding to the president illegal? >> it's not. as jim said, you know, the attorney general and the present can be as chummy a they want. in fact, the attorney general is an executive branch official who reports directly to the president, but historically andg for veod reason, both the department of justice and the white house have had strict policies that bar, in most circumstances, communications between the white house and the department of justice about individual decisions in individual cases. and the reason for that is to maintain the independence of the department of justiceto assice the am people that the department is not just the arm of thehipresident, fom to

wield whatever he wants for his political purpos, in particular we're talking about criminal pros cues that come out of the department of justice, lit to est we maintain this type of independence, and when that's broken down, whether through actual dire phone calls or conversations or through publicly making statements as the president has done, likely excoriating the recommendaon and, you know,on callindodge leadership to do something about it, and then, of course, thanking them for doing something about it, either way, that sort of violates these internal guidances that are there for good reasons. if i may, i would quarrel little bit with jim saying the issue here is the sentence. i think that's -- reasonable minds can difer about whether a sentence in the guideline range of seven to nine years is too harsh for this conduct, and i'm sure reasonable minds in the consultations did differ about that. to me, what is so dramatic and outrageous about this case is the fact that the department

appeared to have responded to ai ct -- either direct or indirect request for the president to change a recommendation so that he could do a favor to one of his personaloriends and someone w had gone out in the 2016ai ca and really welcomed for an interference in our election. that's to me the real story. >> part of wat mary mccord was talking about is the president's public statements. i want to point out to one. he's been going off judge apply berman jackson.h a tweesent out, he tweeted is this the judge that pu paul manafort in sol dare confinement, somethingot n al capone had to endure, how did e treat crooked hillary clinton? just asking. paul manafort was a member to have the president's 2016 campaign and is in prison r unrelated crimes that have to dn with fces. should a president go after a judge? the american bar tssociation

saat's not a thing for the public officials to be doing. >> i have been a prosecutor fo three and many years in public practice. it's not comfortable to see crit we alhave tough trials and say we got the wrong call and you go home in the backyard and mutt around drink a beer and get over it. so it's very different platform, obviously, when a personally criticize theseity to judges. he's got a lot of legitimate frustration in terms of the last few years but calling out jud by name is not particular helpful for the criminajustice system or respect the other people will have for the system which is what weorry about. >> reporter: this isot the rst time president trump has gone after a judge. but thank you so much to both you have for being here mary mccord and jam trusty,i really appreciate it. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: stay with us. comi up on t newshour: engineers develotia concrete so for the nation's crumbling infrastructure. and, the latest pick from the "newshour bookshelf:" isabel allende's "a long petal of the sea." but first, we'llheck in on the state of the democratic presidential primary, and what to expect as candidates set eir sights now on nend south carolina. to give us a sense of how things are shaping up: lauren chooljian of new hampshire public radio, a joining in from manchester. thelisha eaddy of soutlina public radio, joining us from columbia. and jon ralston of the nevada "independent," joining us from las vegas, where he will be moderating next wednesday's democratic debate. welcome to you all.e welc all of you and lauren chooljian, i'm going to start with you. here we are the day after new hampshire, you've had a chance to look at it.

out turnout and about, in kn general, what were voters saying about these candidates? >> the turnout numbers ae still getting finalized, judy, but what we can say for sure is the turnout di exceed 2008 numbers in the democratic primary. republican numbers were also quite high. the question, though, is how the numbers of eligible voterser change and whehat indicates that there was actually, like, a big percentagt nout or not. but what we do know is that bernie sanders did what he was hoping to do whichis really turning out voters in student towns like durham, plymouth, keen, where there are big schools here and that's what he was hoping to do and that's what he did. but pete buttigieg and amy klobuchar are fighting it out for the modete voters. we've talked about the progressive versus moderate split. going forward, they'rg to be trying to beat each other out for the moderate voters in the next coming states. >> woodruff: jon ralston, next state up is nevada on the 22nd .

so tell us how -- you're talkinr to these vot you're talking to folks in the democratic party all the time, how do they read these results in new hampshire? >> i don't think they surprised them that much, judy, af wtt happened in iowa. the real issue here is that joe den has been ahead in the polls since any polls started to be taken here. thrfns been any in a while, but suspect that joe biden only getting 9% here is a -- in new hampshire is a real problema for hismpaign here. bernie sanders has a great organization here, now 250 staffers on the ground, and you knowehat a small state are, judy, so that's a huge number. mayor pete is next with abut 100. so i think bernie sanders, who almost won here in 2016, has an even better organization here this time, has been doing pretty well in follows, is the clear favorite here now. >> woodruff: and thelisha eaddy, south carolina, let's

talk about joe biden. he was said to have a big advantage over frearp voters in otuth carolina -- over african-americans in south carolina. is that going to hold? >> yeah, we think so, at leasti the voteralked to think so. joe biden and his wife dr. joe biden were actually here in columbia yesterdayt what they were calling a lodge party and rit off the bat he had high energy, the people there had high energy, but right off thet e told supporters there the fight to end donald trump's presidency was just beginni, that they only heard from two have nod heard frat hethat we called the party's most committed voters and that, of voters here in south carolina, they make up about over 60% of the party here. so a lot of people are still very exced about what joe biden can do here in south carolina because of the really deep connections and deep roots that he has here in the palmetto state. >> woodruff: lauren chooljian, i want to come back to you on

new hampshire and look at one of the really interesting bits of information about these voters. there is so much to pore over. looking at age, the demographic, 18 to 29, look how bernie sanders cleaned up with almost 50% othose voters, quickly 30 to 44. he still was in the led with voters 35 to 64. he's sharing it wit buttigieg, amy klobuchar and of course the oldest voters split among klobuchar, sanders and pete buttigieg. what does th tell us about these candidates. >> we saw the trend older votero wereng for buttigieg early in the campaig as klobuchar surged late in the game, she started to pick up o sothe voters as well. they did well in highly educated towns in new hampshire, some of the more affluent communities. i thhek what it means is wn bernie sanders goes nevada and south carolina, he's gog to have to expand beyond the

youth turnout and see if he can pull in new voters other than just foc on what he is going to do as wel >> woodruff: what about his message, jon ralston? you said he seems to be in strong shape but he's going to him, pete buttigieg, neither one of these candidates is going to sit back and let bernie sanders have it. >> what's happening afttw the firsstates, you see bernie sanders not being given the mant of frontrunner which is something else considering h he won the first two states and real story being who is going to be seen as the alternative to bernie sanders, who can appeal to more moderateoters and communities of color, and amy klobuchar making the good showing in the debate and then in new hampshire, butgot hav much of an organization here at all, has suddenly boughta bunch of television. mayor pete has had a robust organization here hoping to take advantage of exactly the

scenario that is playing out, judy, is how elizabeth warren, who was a few months ago being talked about all over the placeg as the sur candidate, has dropped out of the conversationa and, soren has a big organition here as well was the first on the ground.e this islly a last stand, i think, for warren and biden in nevada going into south carolina because whatever strength biden has in south carolina is not going to be the same, if he loses e first three states and also ran in the first threest es. >> woodruff: so interesting to look at that and contrast where the candidates are. thelisha eaddy, you talked about joe biden and at this poi snt you'ing looks like he's strong in the african-american community. of new hampshire, strong.ng t bernie sanders, amy, pete buttigieg. amy klobuchar. what kind of organization do they have in sou carolina? at does it look like for them right now?

>> when it comes to bernie sanders, you know, he's done are ly good job of laying out a good grassros effort in south carolina. upcoming up this weekend, his campaign will eyve what the calling a 900 volunteer switch this weekend, knonockina lot of doors. he will actually be back in this saturday he will be in the greenville area. so we're seeing that what he has laid out when it t com communities peppered all across the strait, really working in or. fa also, when it comes to mayor pete, pete buttigieg, he is geing a lot of big-name recognition by association, ifwi yol. he hasn't done well in the polls here in south carolina, but he has a lot of people with great roots here in south carolina working for him. so on some of the campaign ads that are running on television stations here, we're seeing his association with congressman sliebern, congressman clyburn's

grandson is working with him.en an ngs ns who is pivotal and busing children to schools back in the day and traveling across the state and registering aftcan-american voters to e. south been very interesting to watch those two campaigns legal really try to dig in and gainfr morean-american voters here. >> woodruff: and the other candidate i want to bring up is mike bloomberg. he inot competing in these four states, jon, but he ise looming out , spending a ton of money in the 14 states that are coming up right after south carolina. are you seeing any evidee of him in nevada? >> no. he is invisible here, judy. but as you wellnknow, noe has ever tried to do what michael bloomberg is trying to do whichh is to skifirst four states and then hope that he can make a splash on super tuesday, as you mentioned. of course, nobo has spent

billions of dollars trying to do that either. so it's an outlier, but,, al there is that construct that we had known in the democratic party, is bernie sanders going to have all this momentum aftrs the four states, and then who is the anti-bernie candidate? on to that mantel? able to can joe biden resurrect himself? or does the democratic party turn its lonely eyes to michael bloomberg as the aldefer t alteo sanders. to use theegas lingo, it's a real gamble. >> woodruf thelisha eaddy, you get the last word here. y sign of mikbloomberg in south carolina? >> i actually agree with what he just said. not that much. at noncandidate events that i go to where we have a mixture of

people, don't hear a lot of people talking about mike bloomberg. when people tell me they're still undecided or they're leaning towards a cadidate, but they still want to consider is not one t comes up. bloomberg of course, he has the support of the capital city maoryteve benjamin, first african-american mayor of the city, bute evn with that really popular mayor behind him, i'm not seeing at lot of people talk about him here. >> woodruff: and i can't leave without asking jon ralston about the way demra will be choosing their favorite democrat when nada votes on the 22n 22nd and that isaucuses. they had trouble with them in iowa. what does itik look in nevada? >> well, i was a low bar to get over, right, in nvada, and, so, they are trying to do that and they are obviously worried,us judy, beof the optics of what happened in iowa, the fact that they were going to use essentially the same technology which they now discarded, ey're trying to simplify everything, and the state party

here may be the best inhe country. they're that talented. but it's a caucus. things are going to go wrong, and yothrow in the ply that they're doing early voting this time, judy, that starts saturday re, for four days, and those votes have to be properly placed in the right precincts so they get the right viability numbers on caucu day, there are a lot of crossed fingers down at mocratic party headquarters. >> woodruff: it sounds really simple to me. i'm sre it going to be -- i'm sure it will all go down smoothly. we shall see.ra jon ston, thelisha eaddy, lauren chooljian, so good to have all of you. thank you. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: every day, millions os americans cross one of the 47,000 bridges in the cound y in urgent n repair. many are made of concrete, one

of the most in-demd materials on earth, second only to water. special correspondent cat wise looks at a new type ofete that some have called a "game changer" when it comes to upkeep. her report is part of our breakthrough series, and the latest in our look at "the leadingdge" of science, technology and health. >> reporter: this quiet stretch of farmland in northeast iowa doesn't get a lot of visitors. but several times a year, chanan county engineer brian keierleber drives down a gravel road here and pulls over above a small crk. from the top, the bridge he's come to inspect looks pretty typical, but after a short trek down below, keierleber pointed this bridge.very different about >> that's completely out of the norm, to be using a four-inch-. thick de most decks are seven to eight inches, even with beams underneath them. and if you're not using beams, 18, 20, 22 inch on your slabs. >> reporter: in other words,uc

it's mthinner than normal. that's because it's made with a new type of concrete called" ultra-high-performance concrete," also known as u.h.p.c., that steel fibers.h it's about five to ten timeser strohan standard concrete. >> it's very unique, to the point that we've had visitors come from around the wld to look at it. bridge projects using this a materialund iowa, which was the first in the country to waild a u.h.p.c. bridge in 2006. keierleber says as an early adopter because there's a big need for infrastructure innovation. the state has the largest number of structurally-deficient bridges in the country. >> the bridges are deteriorating a lot faster, because we put a lot of salt on t roads in the wintertime. the chlorides will eat up the pavement, but it really eats up the bridges, too, and the so, we're shortening the life when we ne to be lengthening it. >> reporter: u.h.p.c., which was first developed agveral decades just stronger thanraditional

concrete.ch it's also muore durable and less brittle, and the material is nearly impenetrable to water and chemicals like deicer. u.h.p.c. has now been used in bridge projects in 28 other states and the district of columbia, but mostly on a small ale. one of the main reasons? cost. traditional concrete is roughly $100 per cubic yard. commercially available u.h.p.c. costs about $2,000 to $3,000.cu thent price tag of u.h.p.c. makes it unaffordable for most gover infrastructure projects, but researchers around the country and here in iowa are working to bring the costs down. >> so give me an update as to where we are with the sands. >> reporter: brent phares is an associsearch professor at iowa state university, which has been at the forefront of u.h.p.c. research. >> there's no doubt that ultra- high-performance concrete has properties that are far and above anything else that exists. >> reporter: phares anolhis team, inboration with

several other universities andtm the u.s. dept of transportation, are developing non-proprietary blends they hope will be about half of the current cost of u.h.p.c. determineal is how the mateal can be used of aging bridges.extend the life >> what we're doing here is taking these beams, damaging them to simulate some deterioration, and then using ultra-high-performance concrete to patch them. >> reporter: and what have you seen so far? >> the research is showing that alrgeted use of this relatively expensive materian be a way to be effective at repairing our existing infrastructure. no one has the dollars to completely replace, so we know hiwe've got to repair, andis one way to do that. >> reporter: during our visit, engineering grad stuuin rogers conducted a comparison compression test. under an increasing amount of pressure, a cylinder of traditional concrete, seen on minutes at 6,000 pper two square inch, or p.s.i. the u.h.p.c. sample, on thet, riook more than eight minutes to crack, at nearly

25,000 p.s.i. >> as you can see, in the regular concrete, it just burst performance concrete, we're holding those fibers, we're holding the material in. and that's what gives it it's strength. it is really exciting to see the different applications it can be used in, especially theex retrofitting oting structures. >> reporter: u.h.p.c. is now being studied and used in the u.s. and abroad, for a variety of other applications, including building features. another research team at iowatu state ising its use in wind turbine towers. while scientists continue their work in the lab,thers are looking forward to the day when bridges are fer and more reliable like randy francs, a hog farmer in buchanan county. >> we really rely on our rural infrastructure here in northeast iowa on a daily basis. >> reporter: he saysocal bridge closures in recent years operation's bottom line.g >> i think going into the future, we'rgoing to need better technology in our bridges, to counteract the demands that they're going to have from the farmers, and the larger equipment, and the more stress that we're going to be putting onto those bridges.

>> reporter: iowa is planning ct14 new u.h.p.c. bridge ps for the comi year, and iowa state engineers hope to have thr less expensive u.h.p.c mix ready in the next year or two. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in am, iowa. >> woodruff: finally tonight, jeffrey brown has a conversation with chilean wrindr isabel al whose new novel, "a long petal of the sea," draws upon historicaevents spanning from the spanish civil war to the 1973 coup in her native chile as inspiration. ie's part of our ongoing s on arts and culture, "canvas." >> brown: in 1939, the chilean poet pablo neruda, then serving as a diplomat, 2,000 spanish war refugees make their way to chile. that and other historical episod and figures over the

next 50 years formed the "a long petal of the sea." author isabel allende experienced some of that history herself. an internationally renowned writer, her books have sold more than 70 million copies. in 2014, she received the presidential medal of freedom from barack obama. and she joins me now. nice to talk to you again. >> nice to talk to you. >> brown: writing a big,, sweepilti-character story. you have done this before. that's not new. but this one is grounded in a very particular history, right? >> in one event, yeah. and th is the journey of a ship called "winnipeg," a cargo ship tt transported 2,200 refugees from the civilch war in spain te. >> brown: and what drew you to this story? >> when i heard this story, when i was a young kid-- i was born in 1942, and this happened in 1939. but some of those people wereie s of my family. so i knew vaguely about it.

but i really heard the story from one of the passengers when i was living in venezuela. >> brown: and so there were real people involved. >> real people, yes. >> brown: and then you created the characters? >> i created the fiction. but the historical facts are so perfect for a novel that i didn't have to invent anything. it was a book, easy to write. everything was there. it wrote itself. >> bwn: that's how it felt. you typed? >> i just typed, yeah. >> brown: so tell usbout the two main characters, though, victor and rosa, right? so the two main characters arege re from the civil war. franco takes over. they're forced to leave to make their way to chile, rit? >> yes. >> brown: tell me a little bit about what happens to them.ey >> well, when ross the border into france as refugees, they end up us as prisoners practically, in a coation camp.y

the at franco attacked barcelona and that was the last bastion of the republic, a half a million people walked to the border of france in a terrible winter day. and what would france h half a million refugees at the border? eventually, they let them in,ey and ut them in concentration camps. it seems like a familiar story. >> brown: it does seem like one. and one can't read this without thinking about echoes even to today. >> the narrative against thets immigrs now the same as it was 80 years ago. and then they come to chile, where they have a life. and then in 1970, we had a government, a democratically- elected government, center left, with a socialist president, salvador allende. three years later, the right wing, helped by the c.i.a., topple the government. and many people went again into exile as refugees, and among em, some of the ones that had come in the ship many years so life goes in a , you know. and from a historical pot of view, it's fascinating.

>> brown: how much did you rely on research, and how much of this is your imagination? >> i have written several historical novels, and i researched the facts very much. so i want to be absolutely sure that that part is true, because that's the foundation. if i have a solid foundation, i can create the fictional story on top of it and it is beevable. my first respoibility as a fiction writer is for you, as a reader, to bieve my story. so that's wherfacts come in. and they are real facts, not alternative facts. >> brown: and so you were book almost wrote itself, right? >> yes, because it already stands for itself. >> brown: but did in a sense, are the characters writing themselves or are you, are you creating the characters? >> i think they write themselves, and they are pushed by their events. they need to get on the ship. so i need to marry them. h and those thinpen in the process.

that the events around theirmo lives, tha of them are out of their control, decide what they doing anyway. and i feel that that's my life. in my life, all the crossroads, all the moments when everything has changed aseing completely out of my control and my only choice has been to how i feel about it. for me, it's easy to understand the feelings of all of displacement, of leaving everythingehind, of starting from scratch or always looking back, thinking that you will go back someday. >> brown: there is a another real character in this book. anthat's the poet pablo neruda, right? a very socially engaged and committed writer. you use lines from his poetry at the beginning of each chapter, and it made wonder how you feel-- or do you feel-- a kind of responsibility as a writer, as an artist, to lk at our

times and address it? >> it comes naturally. i don't want to deliver message. i'm not a sociologist or a politician. i just want to tell a story. busometimes, the stories are in the air. we hear so much about refugees and migrants and displaced, peopat my three last books deal with that in one way or another, because it's there.ll it's in the tive consciousness right now. >> brown: all right. the novel is "a long petal ofth sea." isabel allende, thank you very much. >> thank you, jeff. >> woodruff: so interesting. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again right here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:or >> bwe talk about your investments-- what's new? >> well, audrey's expecting...ns >> t >> we'd be closer to the twins. >> change in plans.

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hello, everyone, ando welcome t "amanpour red company". what's coming up. >> my vision presents a win-n opportunity for both sides. >> trums deal of the century for the middle east, rejected by the palestinians as thenited nations i'll speak to their ambassador and the former israeli prime minister ehud olmertho also rejects this plan. then. >> i think we're scaredf ange and adding more people to the table. >> will millennial's decide the democratic nominee and transform america. plus. >> we've lost confidence in the institutions that structu our common life. >> so how to stem this tide? author a