cacaptioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, outrage-- violence in the streets of minneapolis and protests in many cities, as a police officer is charged with murder in the death of george floyd. then, one on one: presumptive democratic presidential nominee joe biden joins me to discuss the events in minneapolis and what they mean for all americans plus it's friday, mark shields and david brooks on minneapolis, the pandemic and leadership in a time of multiple crises. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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at the hands of police. president trump threatened to send in the national guard if necessary to bring minneapolis under control. the white police officer who knelt on floyd's neck as he gasped for breath was arrested today, and charged with murder and manslaughter. yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. >> alcindor: a night full of nationwide protests, amid a pandemic. from new york city.... to columbus, ohio. and los angele for the third straig day, throngs of people took to the streets, outraged by the death of george floyd. on monday, minneapolis police arrested floyd, who was black. while detaining him, a white officer kept his knee on floyd's neck. floyd could be heard saying "i can't breathe." >> i can't breathe! >> alcindor: floyd was later taken to the hospital and died.

the four officers have been fired. e officer who had his knee on floyd's neck, derek chauvin,as today taken into police custody. the county attorney mike freeman spoke this afternoon. >> he has been charged with third degree murder. we are in the process of continuing to review the evidence, there may be subsequent charges later. we entrust our police officers to use certain amounts of force to do their job, to protect us. they commit a criminal act if they use this force unreasonably. >> alcindo floyd's family issued a statement calling for even broader action: they said: "we want a first- degree murder charge. and we want to see the other officers arrested. we call on authorities to revise the charges to reflect the true culpability of this officer." >> i can't breathe! i can't breathe!

>> alcinr: last night, on the streets of minneapol, there were chants of floyd's dying words. fury turned to scenes of chaos. national guard troops were deployed to confront hundreds of protesters who flooded the streets. some of the demonstrations turned violent, as looters smashed windows and rifled through stores. a police station was even torched after officers abandoned it during the chaos. flames could be seen rising above the building, as a mass of people gathered in the street. watching from washington, president trump took to twitter calling the protesters "thugs". he threatened military intervention, writing, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." twitter hid the tweet, saying it violated its rules and then added a warning saying it glorified violence. the president blasted the social media company, and the white house's official twitt account re-posted president's trump's itial words. this afternoon, president trump weighed in again from the rose garden. >> i've asked that the department of justice expedite

the federal investigation into his death and do it immediately, do it as quickly as absolutely possible. it's a local situation, but we're also making it into a federal situation, and it's -- it's a terrible thing. we all saw what we saw. >> alcindor: in minneapolis, upheaval continued into the morning, when minnesota state patrol arrested a cnn reporter on the scene. >> do you mind telling me why i'm under arrest, sir? >> alcindor: omar jimenez was put in handcuffs after he identified himself as a journalist. he was later released. buildings set afire last night still smoldered today and daylight revealed the wrkage. minnesota governor tim walz acknowledged the protesters' frustration, but called for peace. >> and now generations of pain is now manifesting itself in front of the world. and the world is watching. we have to restore order to our society before we can start addressing the issues.

>> no justice, no peace! >> alcindor: meanwhile, in louisville, kentucky, hundreds gathered in front of city hall last night to protest a separate killing of a black person by police. in march, officers shot and killed emergency room technician breonna taylor in her home. some of the demonstrations turned violent, and at least seven people were shot. many say scenes like these gripping the country come from a deep pain borne by the african american community. sherrilyn ifill is the president of the n.a.a.c.p. legal defense fund. >> for us, you know, the covid- 19 pandemic, and what our community has suffered, and you see that number 100,000 dead and homany of them are african americans. and, when you see the years and years and decades of police violence against unarmed african americans and the ways in which the justice system has failed us and the ways in which our lives have been diminished in this country, yes it is powerful and heavy. >> alcindor: today, former president barack obama also weighed in. in a statement, he said: "it

falls on all of us... to work together to create a 'new normal' in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts." back in minnesota, the unrest shows no signs of stopping. tonight, more protests are expected there and around the country. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> woodruff: let's go to the >> woodruff: the chair of the senate judiciary committee republican lindsey graham announced his committee will hold a hearing as soon as possible on police use of force in the wake of floyd's death. let's go back to the twit twin cities now and to our special correspondent there, fred de sam lazaro. fred has lived in that area four decades and has been out in the midway neighborhood, alace where there were protests, civil disobedience and looting last night. i spoke with him a short time ago. hello, fred de sam lazaro.

so tell us about this midway neighborhood of st. pauly you have been reporting today. tell us what you're seeing there. >> at the moment, we're seeing a lull and a lot of cleanup, judy. this is a neighborhood that's just east of the minimum naps line and, in the community, a larger community that has really fretted the inequality between its white and non-white citizens, this is supposed to be a shining example of urban revitalization. there's a brand-new soccer stadium in front, major department stores and grocery store chain stores here, all considered a vote of confidence in the vitality of this neighborhood. bumore than anything else, there are hundreds of small businesses, most of them minority and immigrant-owned, and at least 200 of them, by the latest tally, in st. paul alone were damaged or total sses from last night's carnage. we visited this morning with chun park, an immigrant from

korea, who owns a hip-hop clothing store. as he surveyed the damage this morning, we caught him shooing away a looter who was rummaging through it and here's what he had to say. >> 20 plus years ago, i think over 13 years ago. i will do it again. the customers are so nice. so the hip-hop store, i will reopen. >> woodruff: you could see how affected he was, fred. and you were telling us the business owners, many of them expressed anger and fruration that their businesses were not protected last night. >> reporter: indeed. another criticism of police, in general, is where they were present, they were protecting the assets of large companies

like target, and that certainly happened here. police had a cordon around it and it sustained no damage from yesterday. 200 businesses, including the one right behind me, a sporting goods store, were total losses. >> woodruff: fred, as some of these people were cleaning up, they told you they actually thought some of the looting was necessary. explain that. >> reporter: well, i don't know if they said it was necessary, but rather understandable. there's a great deal of sympathy that one hears for the pent-up frustration that's built especially in minority communities especially about relations with police. so there's a reconciliation this had to happen. though not everybody likes the way it turned out, they insist this is not representative of the larger protest that has happened in this community. i talked to peter, a basketball coach and school counselor this morning as he was volunteering. >> i was around here yesterday,

and a friend of mine owns a shop around the corner. so i was seeing all the devastation and i just felt this is the best way i could help. i mean, it'snfortunate seeing everything like this, i feel it's something that had to happen. in a sense, ople are frustrated, they feel voiceless, and i think, initily, the protests, there's about # 5% that are doing it for the right reason, and there's 5% that took the opportunity and, you know, looters and stores. >> so, fred, overall, how would you say people there are processing what's happened? the arrest today of one of the police officers and the heightened police presence? >> there is a real hope, a palpable hope that will help deescalate tension. we'll see how this all turns out, starting 8:00 p.m. tonight. >> woodruff: fred de sam lazaro reporting from st. paul,

minnesota, fred, thank you so much. >> reporter: my pleasure, judy. >> woodruff: we want to thank our colleagues at minnesota public radio for their help in our reporting today. >> woodruff: the images we've seen this week of unrest in cities like minneapolis resemble demonstrations that took place during the obama administration, when protestors took to the streets demanding law enforcement officers face justice for their treatment of black americans. joe biden served as president barack obama's vice president and he's currently the presumptive democratic presidential nominee. he joins us now from wilmington, delaware. vice president biden, thank you very much for talking with us. now that this police officer has been arrested, he's been arrested, charged with murder,

third-degree murder, and with manslaughter. what happens now? >> well, what happens now is we find ow what happens to the other police officers and whether or not the justice department decides to do a civil rights investigation as well. but what happens is we have to -- i think, judy, this is one of those moments -- at least i hope it is -- that is so vivid, so crass, so cruel that so many people have seen that it awakens them in a way to say, you know, enough is enough. our children saw this. think of the millions of children who are sitting by the television watching that cop smash the head of george against the curb and hold his knee there for nine minutes. so i hope it awakens a sense of outrage on the part of the american people to hold police departments and all others

accountable for their behaviors. >> woodruff: and yet, as we know, vice president biden, these incidents are not new during the time you were in office. president obama was in office. we saw treyvon martin. we saw a number of incidents with black men in an encounter with police or with others, and i think americans come away saying, we thought things were going to change. president obama certainly spoke often and with passion, as you did. but here we are, it's 2020, it's still happening. what are people to believe now? >> well, things still -- terrible things still happen, but the frequency with which they happen and the entire generation that's coming along, the young millennials down to jerngz z, they're the least prejudice, least judgmental, the people most open to change, and i just think that what's

happened is that, coupled with the pandemic and watching how the institutional impediments that exist both in racism and the way in which we deal with health care and the whole range of thing, i think we're ready to do more in terms of police departments in terms of training, i think you will see many more people held accountable. look how rapidly the police department aced here and the chief and the mayor in firing all three and a murder charge being brought. so i think that there is -- we have to change, and it's going to take time and it's going to -- you have to have a president like barack was who speaks out about it. you've got to be able to talk about it, and if i'm electedup, this is going to be something that i'mt not going to pretend is not happening. i think it matters what presidents say, how they say it and what they do. >> woodruff: with all due respect, again, vice president biden, you had words similar to what you're saying today then.

certainly, president obama did. what is going to be different? want to ask you, is speaking out enough? what actions? there's been retraining in police departments, but still we see incidents like the one this week. >> they have to just keep on it. we have to keep going back at it. look at the training programs, make them stronger, move on them. look, i remember it's a little bit like, you know, when i was a kid, i came back from law school, my city had been burned down, 20% burned to the ground, occupied by the national guard and told we were never going to be able to get any better, things were just never going to change. well, they've changed considerably. the city, african-americans and all others are integrated together now. not tolly, but there's a totally different circumstance than it was. so things have gotten, on a macro sense -- but, still, if

you're a black man or woman or child, you're going to worry when you walk out of the house whether or not you're going to be the victim of what george was, you know, that because you're black, it's still a grave concern. but the idea it's not any better, i think -- look, the other thing the -- i will just be very blunt with you -- i think this president has stoked racism from the time he made a moral equivalence between those folks coming out of fields in charlottesville carrying torches and their veins bulging and carrying nazi flags accompanied by white supremacists and a young girl gets killed and he says they're moral equivalents, good people on both sides. it matters what presidents say. >> woodruff: so, finally, we see president obama -- i'm sorrt night speaking about looting leads to shooting. today e white house is saying

he didn't mean -- he wasn't trying to threaten violence. what could you have done in the last day or so as president to prevent the kind of frustration and anger that's spilled over in cities across the country? >> i'm not sure i could prevent it, but i would not have heated it up. he said they begin to loot, we shoot. that's what he said, okay, and that's not a phrase that any president i would -- that i would think would make sense for a president to make, number one. number two, i would have been on the air -- i'm notaying it would have stopped it, but what i am saying is i would have spoken to it, immediately, immediately. i did speak to it. i'm not president, but i did speak to it. we've got to make it clear that you're going to get to the bottom of this, that justice will be done, we're going follow this to the end, the civil rights department, the justice department are going to intervene and determine what

action can and should be taken, if it's not taken by the state. the difference between this and what happened in missouri when were there, the police chief and the mayor immediately fired the police officers and brought charges. so, you kno bad things are going to happen, and it's really frightening. now, this is no time for incendiary tweets, no time to encourage violence. this is a national crisis and we need real leadership and we need leadership to bring everyone to the table so we can root out these systematic racist activities that go on. and i'm not saying i guarantee we'll get it done, but you have to speak to it. you have to constantly be on it. you can't let up on it. >> woodruff: vice president joe biden, we thank you very much. >> thank you, judy.

>> woodruff: now amna nawaz continues our conversation about some of the larger underlying issues surrounding all of this. it's part of our ongoing series race matters. >> nawaz: it's been four days since george floyd died in police custody. since then, there have been peaceful protests, violent clashes, and persistent calls for justice. but those four days are about much more thanust this moment in time. joining me to talk about that is eddie glaude, jr., chair of the department of african-american studies at princeton university, and the author of the book "begin again: james baldwin's america and its urgent lessons for our own." welcome. eddie glaude, welcome to the "newshour". let's start with the news of today. it's been four days, as i mentioned. it took video documenting a man's death and days of protest,

but the officer was arrested today. what's your reaction to that? >> it's a great first step. it doesn't dispel the deep distrust. we have seen, before, officers arrested or individual citizens arrested, and the process of -- the judicial process taking place, and many of those same folks have been acquitted. so this is just the beginning. it could have been an easy step, given what we saw on the video, but we don't want to over-- overreach. you know, we always want to congratulate ourselves in these sorts of moments. we just need to understand this as the first, perhaps, obvious step that should have been made four days ago. >> reporter: we've also seen night after night of growing tensions, people's frustrations coming out into the streets. the other piece today is the mayor announce ago curfew and the state of emergency. is that the right move right now? >> well, you kn, i'm not a mayor of a major city in the united states. i don't want to presume, but i

do want to say this, though, that if anger is -- the anger that was expressed over the last few days and especially last night reflects, i think, aind of accumulated grievance, you know. and in the way in which we tell the story of african-american politics, we always want to kind of bracket anger. we're not allowed to be angry in public. and in some ways, anger, going back to the ancients, all the way back to aristotle, announced something just happened here. it puts folk on notice that something must change, and it's not just simply a spontaneous ac, it is the consequence of, shall we say, as i said earlier, accumulated grievous. so there is a curfew. folks will, perhaps, calm down, but we need to understand that anger, in this instance, lightly expressed is the pre-condition

for a general and, i think, appropriate correction of the underlying problems that define the life of black folk in minneapolis and in some ways across the country. >> reporter: and, of course, none of this is happening in a vacuum. you saw many of the protesters out there wearing masks. you can't forget all of this is unfomedding on top to have the health crisis, a pandemic disproportionately killing black americans. i want to read a short quote from you today, you said how does one live in such a time, for african-americans who lost loved ones and their jobs who find themselves in long lines at food banks who have to deal with the on going stress of a virus that can strike at any moment, how do you manage the trauma and terror of seeing another black person killed by policeand you use the word "another" because we've seen video after video. what's the cumulative toll of those videos?

>> oh, my god i mean, for those of us who have to watch it and then we have to worry about our children and our brothers and sisters and our uncles and aunts and friends, all right, it increases the levels of stress and worry and concern. you know, when we think about every ajor urban uprising in this country, bracketing 168 after the murder and the assassination of dr. king, every last one of them have been rooted, since '64, going back into the 1940s, in sommer form of encounter with police, some form of police brutality or some act in which the police have in some ways harmed or even murdered a black person. so here we are in the moment in which we're dealing with a global pandemic, trying to figure out how to live under these conditions, and we still have to deal with the fact that our children, that our family members, that our friends could be murdered by the police. it makes living hard. it makes it difficult, in a

moment that'already difficult and hard. >> reporter: we come back again and again to this question of when will it change, how will it change. i spoke to a police chief who is himself a black man and he said i don't know what else we can ask peop to have color to do. i don't know what else we can ask black men to say or do that hasn't already been said or done, until the people who aren't affected are as outraged as the people who are, nothing will change. do you agree with that? >> i understand it. i don't think we can wait on those who are invested in the idea of whiteness to change. if we do that, we're going to lose another generation. those who are invested in th idea of america as a white nation in the vein of old europe clinging to those commitments and, in -- and in the interim, we keep losing people. those have us who have learned

the lessons of our history, who want to imagine america differently, we have to start building a world where those kinds of beliefs have no corner to breathe. vice president biden needed to say, what we need to do is hold police accountable, what we need to do is decriminalize, right, a whole host of actions that force these encounters. we need to change the way police see brac black men and women, r. we need to address the fundamental underlying conditions of resource-deprived communities where people don't have a living wage, where they don't have decent education, where they don't have decent housing. all of this is rooted in this belief that america is a white nation. if we have to wait on those folk who arcommitted to that, america will continue to be this ugly place. so i believe, in my heart of hearts, that you and i and those of us who are committed to a

more just america, a new america, we have to get about the business of building it. now, covid has changed everything. has changed everything. we can't go back to what was. we can't allow peoe to double down on their ugly commitments. we have to finally muster the courage to build a new america or this thing will go to hell. that's a bit melodramatic but i thik you get the point. >> reporter: i do, indeed, and it was very well said and i apologize, we only have a few seconds left, but i have to ask you because you said when you watched the video of george floyd that you we want, and you dig into the dark chapters of american history and spend your time making that truth very clear to the rest of the country and the world. what was it about this video and this moment that brought you to that moment? >> he cried out for his mother. she's been dead for two years. she's been dead -- he basically

told someone to tell my kids that i love them because i'm going to die. and that man, that moral monster kept his knee on his neck. i couldn't process it. it broke me. >> eddie glaude weighing in attend of a very difficult week for not just the family and friends of george floyd, people of minneapolis and the rest of the country. thank you very much for being with us today. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, president trump announced the u.s. is "terminating" its relationship with the world health organization. mr. trump has accused the group of covering up china's role in the covid-19 pandemic.

the u.s. is the largest contributor to the w.h.o., giving about $450 million. meanwhile, the number of confirmed u.s. coronavirus deaths topped 102,000 today. and, the district of columbia, and parts of maryland and virginia lifted their shelter- in-place orders as officials said the region was ready to begin re-opening. >> it's not a day of celebration, it's a day of being able to do something slowly and on a limited basis that we haven't been able to do for 10 weeks. but it's not a party. and we shouldn't treat it like a party or else we'll be back in square one. >> woodruff: there have been nearly six million confirmed coronavirus cases around the world. russia reported its highest daily rise in covid-19 deaths, 232. meanwhile, india recorded nearly 7500 new infections in the last 24 hours.

it's now surpassed china in the number of confirmed cases and deaths. even so, restrictions there are being lifted, and some businesses can now re-open. >> ( translated ): we are wearing protective gears: including masks, hand gloves and eyewear. we are taking all precautions. we are using sanitizer and giving only one towel to each customer, and washing them after every use. >> woodruff: in france, officials announced the iconic louvre art museum in paris will re-open on july 6th. visitors will be required to wear masks and maintain social stancing. the trump administration says it is ending its special treatment for hong kong. that's in response to china's new security legislation in the territory, and beijing's handling of the covid-19 outbreak. pro-democracy advocates said china's crackdown tightens the country's grip on the semi- autonomous city. the president denounced the new

legislation this afternoon in the white house rose garden. >> china has replaced its promised formula of one country two systems, with a one country one system. my announcement today will affect the full range of agreements we have with hong kong, from our extradition treaty to our export controls, on dual use technologies and more, with few exceptions. >> woodruff: for more on the president's announcement, i'm joined by nick schifrin. so, nick, tell us the significance of what the white house is announcing. >> reporter: judy, i talked to experts on china on both sides of the aisle and they acknowledge that the president's rhetoric was aggressive but not as aggressive as it could have beenand not with as many specifics as there could have been to respond to beijing's fundamentally altering hong kong's freedoms. let's go through what the president announced. the first of four announcements

was revoking hong kong special status. what does that mean? visa free lavl, tariff-free trade, controls on exporting technology to hong kong. number two, sanctioned senior communist party officials. three, blocking chinese post-graduate students and researchers who have any connection to the chinese military from entering the u.s., and possibly evicting post-grads who are already here with that same connection. number four, warning travelers to hong kong that they can basically be surveilled electronically by beijing. as you said, in addition, the president withdraw from the world health organization and redirected the hundreds of millions dollars that the u.s. sends to world health organization to other organitions and countries. he says the world health organization is controlled by beijing and didn't do enough to sound the alarm about the coronavirus. the critics say this is terrible timing during this pandemic to do this. senator lamar alexander, republican of tennessee and chair of the senate health committee saying tonight, i

disagree. also the american medical association saying, this announcement, quote, makes finding a way out of this public health crisis dramatically more challenging. >> woodruff: and, nick, with regard to china, what's been happening there, how far does all this go toward actually changing the status of hong kong? >> reporter: that is the key question tonight, judy. as i said, according to the china experts i'm talking to, the rhetoric was aggressive, but questions what are the actions. if the administration follows through, restricts travel, imposes tariffs, that would be a fundamental shift in the status of hong kong, it would also accelerate a trend that's already begun to happen. basically hongong becomes another chinese city, and american businesses would have to make a decision of whether to stay and live under the communist party rules or leave the city. but the president didn't provide a time frame for that, nor did he provide a lot of specifics, only that he would start that process. and he also didn't do other options that some people wanted

him to do. he could have pulled out of the trade deal, he could have evicted more chinese students who are in the u.s., he could have sanctioned chinese financial institutions. the experts i talk to say it's a tough balancing act between saving china, saving hong kong's special status but also punishing beijing, and they say this isn't enough to get beijing to, for example, pull out of the trade deal, but it's also not going to top beijing from continuing to erode hong kong's freedoms, judy. >> woodruff: nick schifrin following this very complex story. nick, we thank you. and back in missouri's only abortion clinic will be allowed to remain open. a state arbiter ruled the health department was wrong to deny a license renewal to the planned parenthood facility in st. louis. had it closed, missouri would have become the first state in the nation without an abortion clinic since 1974. in economic news, u.s. consumer spending fell a record 13.6% in april, as the covid-19 pandemic

forced businesses to close and lay off millions of workers. and, stocks were mixed on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average fell 17 points to close at 25,383. the nasdaq rose 121 points, and the s&p 500 added 14. still to come on the newshour: mark shields and david brooks break down america at a crossroads. plus, we take a moment to remember some of the remarkable lives lost to covid-19. >> woodruff: now we turn to the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks.

hello to both of you. david, let's start with what vice president biden had to say this evening on the "newshour" in response to what's happened in minneapolis. how do you read his message? >> i was disappointed in it, to be honest. you know, i think collectively we've had one of the worst weeks of our lives. 100,000 dead, an economy still inree fall, weird conspiracy theories in the beginning, joe scarborough, racist incident in central park, murder in minneapolis. i want to see outrage. i want to see a president who's grown more contemptible by the day including his tweets in minneapolis. i want to see a more aggressive democratic challenger who's really got broad arguments for collective change, structural

change. i want to see a candidates who is as angry as he ought to be, to be honest, and i understand he's trying to be moderate and not whip up flames and that's all to the good, he wants to win over swing voters, but this has been an exhausting and a terrible week, and i want to see a leader who can reflect what we have been living through. >> woodruff: mark, what are you hearing? someone too moderate? >> i agree with david, it's been a terrible, horrible week, but, judy, this is a presidential year. it's a political decision. american voters have a rather strange quirk, which repeats itself, and that is when a president disappoints them, they go looking, quite franklyfor what was missing in that president in his successor. and i think it's fair to say the only president in history who's never obtained positive job rating from the his fellow

citizens, that donald trump has disappointed a lot of people, and i think what they're looking for is maturity. i think they're looking for restraint. i think they're lookingor somebody who's a uniter and not a vider, and i think that's what the job description that joe biden haso fill in 2020. what he had to s on the "newshour" tonight was thoughtful, was restrained, was mature. it was not stirring, as david was looking for, but i really think that the american people, the american voters are looking for that maturity and that judgment in 2020. >> david, what about that? it's a fair point. we want maturity, we don't want somebody who's going to go off crazy, but you can err on the other side, and i do think what this pandemic has done has exposed, as everyone kps saying, the structural ravines

in our society, and i do think there is a hunger for change and change of some significant nature. i'm sure of it. i'm not for revolution, but i am for a comprehensive agenda so that, when the george floyds of the world grow up in ward three of houston where he had been living for so many years ago and they're going to church every week and serving in their communities, spreading their faith, and then they go off to minneapolis, they're not going off to a world of danger and they're not living in ward three houston in a world of danger, and i just think, you know, changing the structure of those neighborhoods has to be on the agenda here, not just police training. and i'm sure biden believes this, but i just think that it's got to be articulated. >> woodruff: it's a tall order, to put it mildly, to change so many of the things that we're talking about.

mark, how does a presidential candidate -- i mean, there's a lot of understandable frustration, even anger on the part -- not just in the african-american community, on the part of many americans watching what happened, what's the right way to express that? >> well, and, judy, i mean, there is a legitimate, authentic outrage, and there should be. i mean, mr. floyd joined the ranks of errol garner and freddie gray, of unarmed black men who died in police custody, and the fact that blacks die at a rate twice as high as whites on a per capita basis under police violence in this country is unacceptable. the irony is and remains that in the poorest of communities, which are often crime-ridden,

there's a greater dependency on the police for safety, and the relations betwn the police and the black community in this country are important, and this, obviously, sabotages and undermines it. but i don't think there's any question that we're looking for healg rather than dividing. but remember this, judy, we had the first black president in the history of the country elected twice, elected and reelected, and he was succeeded by the public address system of birther-ism, a man who deals in theories that are so unacceptable and irrational, charging his republican opponent ted cruz's father, who fled castro's cuba, was involved in the assassination of president kennedy. i mean, so this is the political

landscape in which we're dealing, and, you know, i think that's the harsh reality of 2020. >> woodruff: and not only that, david, coming back to what i think you said in your first comment about president trump, this week, not just in the comments last night about looting and shooting, but in other comments this week, that -- i mean, twitter instituted a new policy where they flagged some of the president's tweets, including one that had to do with minneapolis. are we sliding down a slippery slope here? can we come back from a place where we are now where pretty much anything goes, not just in social media, but in public discourse? >> we're at the bottom of some big mountain in the alps. what trump said about looting and shooting, he didn't make that up. he got that from a 1968 miami

police chief who was a law and order "let's get the thugs," and that's not an innocent phrase. that is a phrase that has a long history of brutality behind it. so he went to that phrase, pullingy knowing what it was going to lead to. and it follows a week -- you know, i happened to be on morning joe tuesday when a dignified letter was written out from the i don't think woman who died in scarborough's office 199 years ago, and it was a man just trying to defend the dignity of his family against ruger mongering from the president, and i felt that was going to be the bottom of the week, and that was only the beginning of the week. so what twitter did to the tweets to mark it but not eliminate it is the right thing. i think people need to see what donald tru is doing and i remain resolved this country can be united against racism t

marking it because we should have standards. an internet platform has the ability to regulate what's on the platform, and without having liability for it, and that's what the law says. so twitter basicly adopted the right policy and the assault on twitter which the trump administration seems to be trying to do is an attempt to deny every platform's right to have standards of decency. >> and, mark, this happens to be the platform that president trump, i guess he had something like 80-some million followers, this is the platform he uses to communicate with his foufollowers. when it was suggested he delete the account, his answer was, no, this is the way i talk to the american people, to the world. >> well, not simply to communicate with his own followers, judy, it's where the president announces appointments, firings, changes of policy, addresses the world. donald trump criticizing twitter

is like a whale criticizing the oceano. i mean, that's where he lives, that's where he thrives, and i don't think there's anybody can dispute that. i think the encouraging sign is the criticism of him, especially on the smearing of joe scarborough and the allegation of somehow he's involved in the death of a woman who died when he was 800 miles away, one month after he had announced his retirement from the house of representatives, i think the encouraging sign is when the washington examiner and the "wall street journal" and even the new york post tell the president this is unacceptable, this is wrong. and even politically, i think you oklahoma see liz cheney, number three republican in the house, now twice criticized the president, first for his attack on marie yovanovitch, the u.s. ambassador to you can, in his tweets, and now in his tweets on

joe scarborough and saying this is wrong. ican see that there is a political advantage seen by some republicans, anyway, to distance themselves from donald trump and, for that, i am encouraged. >> woodruff: last thing i want to ask both of you, and that is, david, this is the week we marked 100,000 american lives lost in this pandemic just in a matter of just a few weeks. i don't even know how to ask the question, but what is there to say at a moment like this? >> well, you know, we've had presidents whoave led us through moments of national mourning, and they step out of politics, and they uncloak themselves and just become sufferers among a sea of sufferers, and that's what barack obama did after sandy hook, that's what abraham lincoln did after gettysburg, george bush after 9/11, reagan

after challenger. barack obama sang amazing grace. they pick the things that unit us and broadcast it back to us and it allows us to have the presence of a comforter, of a leader. the fact that donald trump didn't even have an oval office address to me is mind boggling. so we're a country who has to walk through this hail storm of twitter at a time when we feel vulnerable because of what's happening around us. it's an awful moment. i hate to be such a downer on a friday evening, but this has been a bad, bad week. i'm sorry. >> woodruff: and i hate to be bringing it up at the end of this week, but, mark, in about 20 seconds, how do you pull it together? >> well, judy, i mean, this is a unique experience for america because those who are dying are dying alone without the comfort of their family. their families are depved of

the comforts of the rituals of wakes and funerals and memorial services and the company of fries and survivors who come to comfort them, and, you know, at a time when we really do need the voice of that leader who can speak to all of us and for all of us, that is missing, sadly missing. david mentioned robert kennedy in indianapolis, 1968 -- full disclosure, i was working for him in that presidential campaign -- and he said to those who are black, the assassination of martin luther king. to those of you who seek violence and understandably, i had a member of my family for the first time spoke in public about the assassination of his brother who was killed b a white man. america needs compassion and love and please go home and say a prayer for martin luther king's family and the con and

that's what we need -- and t country and that's what we need right now. >> woodruff: mark shields, david brooks, we thank you both. >> woodruff: as another grim week comes to a close, we want to take this moment to honor some of the more than one hundred thousand americans who have died of the coronavirus. here are their stories. ann sullivan brought cartoons to life as a painter for animation studios, including disney and hanna-barbera. among the characrs she helped create were the smurfs. the north dakota native loved to paint landscapes of the california coast and portraits of her children and grandchildren. her daughter says ann exuded positivity, and that when she laughed, she did so with her whole body.

ann was 91 years old. dosha joi was "colorful," his friends say. he had a smile and energy that could brighten a dark room. after aging out of foster care, dosha, or "d-jay," fought to better the system, particularly for foster kids in the l.g.b.t.q. community. it was a mission that took him from his home state of wisconsin to advocate on capitol hill. d-jay was also a certified nursing assistant studying to become a registered nurse. he was 28 years old. corliss henry was a trailblazer. she studied at new york's harlem hospital as part of the federal government's cadet nursing program in the 1940's and went on to work at the hospital. in 1957, she became the first black nurse on staff at muhlenberg hospital in plainfield, new jersey. corliss was also a teacher's union representative and mother

to steve and bruce. her sons say she was tough as nails, but incredibly loving. she was 95. beverly reep knew in sixth grade that she wanted to be a school teacher. for 39 years in her arkansas classroom, she taught history to nearly 5,000 students. beverly especially loved the american revolution, and led annual field trips to virginia and washington, d.c. the -year-old also loved to travel with her husband and son, rob, who says she was his best friend. in 1939, 14-year old david toren fled germany in one of the last evacuations of children from the country. he arrived in sweden just one week before the second world war broke out. he moved to new york in 1955, started a family and became a successful patent lawyer. his son describes him as caring and bright.

75 years after evang the holocaust, he recovered a family painting stolen by the nazis: max liebermann's "two riders on the beach." david was 94. >> woodruff: finally, our "now read this" book club pick for may was "the street," a novel written in the 1940s by ann petry, telling of a life of hardship for a young black woman in harlem. jeffrey brown spoke about it with contemporary novelist tayari jones and you can find their full conversation on our website and on our "now read this" facebook page. here's a short excerpt, in which jones explains why the novel continues to resonate today, in a time of pandemic. >> well, i think this virus is really showing us all the fault lines in society.

someone told me that this virus is like luminol. do youatch do you watch like kind of crime shows? and they come into like a hotel room and it looks normal and they spray this chemical. and when you turn out the lights, you can see where there's been blood and they turn out the lights in the whole room starts to glow. and someone says, oh, my god, it's a massacre. i think that this virus is like we have sprayed luminol on america and we're saying, oh, my goodness, it's a massacre. this is where we are now. and the street is the kind of novel that also shows us where the blood is in our society. and she's just-- i feel that these characters are so alive and they touch our hearts. even the bad guys, i feel like she's asking us in our better selves to stop the tide. we have to take care of the poor. >> woodruff: the novel is "the street" by ann petry. and for june we've selected a new thriller, "american spy" by lauren wilkinson.

you can find much more on that on our facebook page for "now read this," our book club partnership with the "new york times." we say goodbye at the end of the week when we mark 100,000 deaths from the pandemic, we remember each one of the lives taken from us, each one of the families in mourning. i'm judy woodruff, thank you, please stay safe, and goodnight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, please stay safe, and good night. >> life isn't a straight line, and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected, th financial planning and advice for today, and tomorrow.

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more than 40 million americans are out of work. we will hear from a former presidential candidate. the pandemic has hit the navajo nation hard. we will connect with a doctor about the bay area team working to save lives in arizona. it is week 11 of shelter-in- place in northern california. as of this week the united states has had 100,000 related deaths. that is the population of boulder colorado or closer to