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tv   PBS News Hour  PBS  June 18, 2020 3:00pm-4:01pm PDT

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captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: balance of powers. the supreme court rejects the trump administration's attempt to end protections for undocumented immigrants who arrived as children. then, remarkable revelations. former trump national security adviser john bolton accuses the president of multiple misdeeds, including asking a foreign leader to help his re-election. and, the cost of covid. as the pandemic persists and hospitalizations in some regions increase, officials weigh the impact of implementing another lockdown.
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>> we can't be over-confident until we have some measure of being able to say it's in the past, because if we let our guard down, we're not going to fight this. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fidelity investments. >> consumer cellular. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> johnson & johnson.
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>> the kendeda fund. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the supreme court handed president trump a big
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legal defeat today on a major focus of his domestic agenda. it overturned his decision to end protections for immigrants who arrived illegally as children. john yang reports that chief justice john roberts was the swing vote. >> say it loud, say it clear: immigrants are welcome here! >> yang: jubilant daca recipients and their supporters began gathering outside the supreme court shortly after the 5-4 decision was announced. >> i am very thrilled that the supreme court today made the right decision for me and for the other hundreds of thousands of dacas that are out here. >> home is here! home is here! >> yang: chief justice john roberts provided the decisive vote, siding with his four consistently-liberal colleagues and writing the majority opinion. he stressed that the court was not making a judgement on the policy itself, which he said, "is none of our concern. we address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation
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for its action." roberts acknowledged that the department of homeland security had the legal ability to end deferred action for childhood arrivals, or "daca," when it acted in 2017. but, he concluded, the agency was "arbitrary and capricious" in the way it did it-- especially for failing to consider the effect it would have on daca recipients. in dissent, justice clarence thomas, joined by samuel alito and neil gorsuch, called the decision "an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision." president trump expressed his displeasure with this ruling, and others, in a series of tweets: "these horrible and politically-charged decisions coming out of the supreme court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves republicans or conservatives. we need more justices or we will lose our 2nd amendment and everything else." former vice president joe biden, the president's presumptive opponent in the fall, hailed the
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decision, and said, "as president, i will immediately work to make it permanent, by sending a bill to congress on day one of my administration." today's ruling may be only a temporary reprieve for the nearly 650,000 young undocumented immigrants protected by daca. theresa cardinal brown is the bipartisan policy center's director of immigration policy. >> they just simply said that the department of homeland security and their memoranda did not sufficiently justify the termination the way that the law required them to do so. so, the actual order remanded it back to the department of homeland security to try again, essentially. >> yang: and they could do that? try again? >> they could they could do that tomorrow. >> yang: today was the second time this week roberts was in the majority with the liberal justices to reject an administration position. the first was monday's landmark ruling that granted gay and transgender workers employment
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protection. marcia coyle is chief washington correspondent for the national law journal. >> he has shown that he is a stickler for rules, and the trump administration, he found, had not followed the rules for when you want to make a change or make new regulations in government. what is sort of emblematic of john roberts is that when he can, he strives to find consensus. and sometimes that consensus requires a narrow opinion. john roberts cares very much about how the court is perceived by the public, the institution's reputation and credibility. and that's all part of how i think he-- he weighs, you know, trying to get consensus and trying to get a cross ideological balance on the court whenever he can. >> yang: president obama created daca eight years ago this week
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by executive order. it protects young immigrants, brought to the country without proper documentation as children, from being deported, and allows them to work legally. since then, daca recipients, known as dreamers, have jumped into the workforce. today, an estimated 27,000 are health care workers on the frontlines in the fight against the coronavirus. jose aguiluz is a baltimore surgical nurse who has been volunteering at a field hospital testing patients for covid-19. >> my patients really don't care about my immigration status. they just care that i'm a competent health care provider that is providing care in their time of need. >> yang: medical student denisse rojas has been volunteering at a clinic in east harlem. >> i came to this country in 1990, so it's been 30 years since i've been in the united states now. and it's been my home. and it's truly the only place that i can remember. >> yang: but daca is not a permanent solution.
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>> frankly, a majority of congress has, at one time or another, voted for something that would give them legal status. it just hasn't been sufficient to get it enacted. so, they have another opportunity to try again and to get it right this time, and to give these people to the permanent security and status that they want and desire. >> yang: and that is up to the lawmakers in the u.s. capitol. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, president trump and his top aides accused john bolton of telling lies to sell books. in a new memoir, the former national security adviser alleges, among other things, that mr. trump tried to get china to aid his re-election. we will explore the allegations, after the news summary.
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a top state department official is resigning tonight over president trump's handling over racial tensions. mary elizabeth taylor has been in the administration since its first days. the "the washington post" quotes her resignation letter as saying that the president's recent comments and actions on racial stice go against her core values. large numbers of police large numbers of police in atlanta called in sick today, in a protest. it came a day after a former police officer was charged with murdering rayshard brooks. garrett rolfe is accused of shooting brooks in the back after trying to arrest him last friday. at the u.s. capitol today, crews took down portraits of four former speakers of the u.s. house of representatives. all of the men had served in the confederacy. the current speaker, nancy pelosi, said they embodied "violent bigotry and grotesque racism." the nation's former pandemic epicenter is moving to phase 2 of its reopening. new york city mayor bill de
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blasio says everything from offices to hair salons will open next monday, sending up to 300,000 people back to work. he acknowledd that infections and deaths are rising elsewhere. >> we're always going to be watching for any variations, any new data. that's all so crucial, to always keep an eye on the data. but we've seen consistent progress, and it's time to say to everyone getting ready for phase 2, get on your mark, get set, because here we go on monday. >> woodruff: meanwhile, officials in california have ordered people to wear masks in most indoor settings, and outdoors when needed. and in china, a new outbreak in beijing now appears to be slowing, amid ramped-up testing, strict quarantine measures and a partial travel ban. the u.s. economy is still shedding jobs because of the pandemic. 1.5 million workers filed for
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unemployment benefits last week. many still face long delays in getting the benefits. hundreds lined up in frankfurt, kentucky again today, to follow up on claims filed back in march. facebook has removed trump campaign ads that displayed an inverted red triangle. the nazis had once used the symbol to designate political prisoners. the trump campaign argues that it is now used by anti-fascist groups, known as antifa. it says the campaign ad targeted those groups. on wall street, stocks mostly marked time. the dow jones industrial average lost 39 points to close at 26,080. the nasdaq rose 32 points, and the s&p 500 added about two points. and, president john f. kennedy's last surviving sibling, jean kennedy smith, has died, at her home in manhattan. for much of her life, she avoided the spotlight. but, she founded a program to
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make the arts available to people with disabilities, and in the 1990s, she served as ambassador to ireland and helped bring peace in northern ireland. jean kennedy smith was 92 years old. still to come on the newshour: former national security adviser john bolton accuses the president of multiple misdeeds. stacey abrams, on how to counter racism and reform law enforcement. as the pandemic persists, officials weigh the impact of implementing another lockdown. plus, much more. >> woodruff: the fallout continues from the book by president trump's former national security advisor, john bolton. in a moment, foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin gets
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reaction from two former diplomats on the damage done to american credibility and standing around the world. but first, white house correspondent yamiche alcindor reports on what's in the book. >> alcindor: a 500-page bombshell denouncing a president who is now playing defense. in his forthcoming memoir, former national security advisor john bolton paints a portrait of a corrupt and self- interested commander in chief. in "the room where it happened," bolton writes that president trump is ignorant of global affairs and is a reckless decision-maker. the most explosive allegation? that the president pleaded with chinese leader xi jinping to buy more u.s. farm products from states sympathetic to the president to help him win the 2020 election. today, that brought quick denials. white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany. >> that is absolutely untrue. and no one, no president, has been tougher on china than president trump. >> alcindor: bolton further claims that president trump endorsed china's internment of
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more than a million uighur muslims in detention camps. and, again and again, he points to the president's inexperience in the international arena. for instance, in an abc news interview, he highlights president trump's relationship with russian president vladimir putin. >> i think putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle. when you're dealing with someone like putin, who has made his life understanding russia's strategic position in the world, against donald trump, who doesn't enjoy reading about these issues or learning about them, it's a very difficult position for america to be in. >> alcindor: but many of bolton's statements about the president go beyond him being naive, and suggest willful deception. bolton alleges the president defeed saudi crown prince mohammad bin salman in the wake of the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi to distract attention away from a story about first daughter ivanka's private email use. the administration is pushing two counter-narratives to bolton's claims: one, that the book is untrue, and two, that it reveals classified informationand
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cannot legally be published. the department of justice has requested that a federal judge issue an emergency order to block the release of the book next tuesday, saying, "the publication and release of 'the room where it happened' would cause irreparable harm because the disclosure of instances of classified information in the manuscript." bolton asserts he fully complied with a government review of classified information. but, in a phone interview last night with fox news, the president attacked his former adviser. >> he broke the law. very simple. i mean, as much as it's going to be broken. this is highly classified-- it's highly classified information, and he did not have approval. >> alcindor: for senate minority leader chuck schumer and other democrats, the allegations harken back to the impeachment trial earlier this year. >> while i would have preferred mr. bolton to have told these stories under oath at the impeachment trial, they're quite illuminating nonetheless. >> alcindor: that trial focused on charges that the president withheld critical military aid to ukraine to pressure kiev into
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investigating presidential challenger joe biden's son, hunter. bolton's book accuses the democrats of "impeachment malpractice." he says they should have gone further in their charges against president trump, even though bolton refused to testify before the house during the inquiry. at the time, he said he would only testify to the senate trial if subpoenaed. he never was. speaker of the house nancy pelosi says bolton put profit over patriotism. >> this is called a con, and we are very proud of what we have done. it's really a sad thing, because he knew the president should be removed from office. >> alcindor: as the legal battle for publication continues, the book's publisher, simon & schuster, called the government's efforts to stop the book "frivolous and politically motivated." it said hundreds of thousands of copies of "the room where it happened" have already been shipd to stores around the world. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> schifrin: so what impact do
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the revelations in john bolton's book have on u.s. foreign policy and the standing of the united states in the world? for that, we get two views. ambassador gerard araud was france's ambassador to the united states from 2014 to 2019. and, ambassador john negroponte was ambassador to the u.n. and iraq, as well as the first director of national intelligencender george w. bush. welcome to the fors to you both. let me start with you armaments neambassador. what do joh is john bolton's imn the u.s. standing and the world. >> i think we've known for a long time from the outset of the trump administration that the president relies too much on his own intuition and on improvisation, and sometimes one wonders if it isn't even intuition but just sort of random thoughts he puts out there. i think john bolton's book
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brings to light this serious weakness in our foreign policy, the lack of system, and i think that that has caused us problems in our relationships around the world, particularly in the matter of trust between our allies and ourselves. >> reporter: ambassador araud, of course france is the united states' oldest ally. how does it view the book? >> when i was ambassador of washington, we were obliged to see how different is this administration, different from the previous ones in the sense that everything we were used to in terms of inter-agency process, in terms of consultations simply didn't work anymore, didn't exist anymore, that the decision was taken only by one person, the president. very often, when i was making
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high-level officials, i was obliged to conclude that i didn't know what the president was going to say the day after and they didn't know what meant what he has said the day before. >> reporter: ambassador negroponte, there long have been critics of the president and this administration's process, but they say the lack of process, but when i talked to the president's allies, they point out the policy. so, for example, president trump apparently told xi jinping, the president of china, that muslim uighurs could be interned in these camps during a private meeting, but the policy is that the trump administration has sanctioned and put export controls on 33 companies for building those very camps, and that dichotomy holds true, especially when it comes to china policy. so does the president's closed-door flat rimatter when the administration's policy is confrontational? >> well, i think, first of all,
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you've got to allow for the popp possibility that if the president says that privately, it encourages president xi jinping to take even stoerner measures against the uighur population. so there's that point. and secondly, perhaps he could have helped avoid some pain being inflicted on the uighurs if he had taken more of an bigger position on the niewrgts china rather than flattering or accommodating president xi jinping has he planned to do. so i think it's important to be consistent in your private and public statements. i don't think there's much advantage in saying almost the opposite thing in one setting as opposed to another. >> reporter: ambassador araud, similar question to you. there's a dichotomy between what the president says about russia publicly, privately, but the
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administration says that it's been confrontational against russia inside of europe. does that dichotomy matter to you? >> well, you know, i have been in se meetings with president trump, especially when i was with president macron, and it's a very unusual experience. you don't have in front of you the usual politician which is sticking to the official line and it can lead to quite unusual remarks. so -- and from time to time, you are led to ask questions about the consistency of what the president is saying compared to the u.s. policy, which is a bit strange. so, yes, there is a problem in this administration and it has been from the very beginning. >> reporter: the president's allies also say something else to me which is it's important the president maintain a good
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relationship can xi jinping, certainly to a certain extent vladimir putin and kim jong un, even as the administration continues that adversarial approach, does that make sense in. >> well, i think that argument has merit. i think it is important for the president to maintain good relations with the top leaders of the world, but there are ways of doing that in diplomacy, in a consistent manner with your policy. you don'have to do it in a way that contradicts your policy. i remember very well, for example, how george w. bush maintained a very good relationship with chinese leaders, all the while pressing them very hard on issues concerning human rights. even to the point of meeting with the dalai lama, holding hands with him in public at a congressional medal of honor ceremony up on capitol hill. so this can be done, but you have to thread that needle of
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raising these difficult issues, but, at the same time, maintain ago good dim -- maintaining a good, diplomatic relationship, and it can be done and has been done. >> reporter: in the short time we have left, threading the needle, that thin line ambassador negroponte just said, the u.s. is not really threading that needle. what is the impact of that, short and long term, on the u.s.-europe relation. >> for europe i'm convinced the election of november 3 may be the most important election since 1932, because it's very clear that president trump will go to the end of his policy, and president trump doesn't care about alliances, doesn't care about the west, doesn't care about the transatlantic league. so it's very, very clear that if he is elected it will be a
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moment when they will have to take a position about their policy, what are they going to do without actually a real alliance with the united states. >> reporter: ambassador awe rod, ambassador negroponte, thank you very much to you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: as election day in georgia ticked by last tuesday, a week ago, problems with absentee ballots, new voting machines and long lines made for an even longer night. it was the latest test of the readiness of election systems before november. it was also a familiar feeling for stacey abrams. she was the democratic nominee for georgia's governor in 2018 and then she founded fair fight action, an organization working
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to protect voting rights. her newest book, "our time is now," just made the new york times bestseller list. and, she joins us from atlanta. stacey abrams, thank you so much for joining us. you write in the book, the country is undergoing massive cultural change, and you say it has the ability to affect permanent change after historically fumbling the pursuit of social equality. what did you mean by that? >> well, at the time i wrote it in 2019, i was speaking to the massive upheaval we've seen not only in the rights of voters to access the democracy we have been guaranteed, but the challenges we were facing on environmental issues, reproductive choice healthcare. i think in this current moment, there's nothing that shows this inflection point more than the multi-generational, multiracial, multi-ethnic protests we've seen in this country for the last three weeks. these conversations about
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systemic racism and systemic injustice, the conversations about who has a right to be treated as human in america, those are only moments that can be resolved through accessing our democracy and the right to vote. >> woodruff: and that's what i want to pursue with you. did i interrupt? i'm sorry. >> no. >> woodruff: i want to pursue that with you because, clearly, you know the high-profile shooting that took place in your home state, in atlanta just in the last number of days has gotten enormous attention, rayshard brooks gunned down by a police officer in a wendy's parking lot, the mayor responded immediately with police reforms, the local district attorney filed eleven charges against the police officer, including felony murder. were these the right moves, sufficient moves after what happened? >> i want to put this into a broader context. it's not just what happened in
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atlanta last week, it's what happened in brunswick, georgia, almost four months ago when ahmaud arbery was murder in the streets and the the vigilantes were allowed to go home. it's what happened to george floyd, breonna taylor, mcdade. it's important we see meet response, but we need to see systemic response. we need to see laws change, not just moments of action, which are good and important, but we need to see a wholesale change in the systems of justice that allow the extra additional killing of citizens or permit justice to be delayed because we have laws on the books that protect murderers. so while i do think that there are good initial steps taken, i think that we will not see and know that true systemic change has happened until we see legitimate, permanent legislative opportunities offered and we see that legislation is not only adopted but purr -- pursued and
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maintained. >> vice president biden has spoken out, deplored this shooting and others. he says he is not for defunding the police, but he's spoken up for reforming police departments, for retraining. however, now we see dozens of liberal activist groups saying vice president biden is not doing enough. they are calling on him to scale back police forces, cut funding even more, reduce incarcerations. where do you come down on all that? >> first and foremost as someone who's an archivist myself, i understand the power of a rallying cry, but i also recognize the responsibility of policy-makers is to take the vision espoused, the anguish that is expressed and turn it into real policies that cannot only be implemented but sustained. i think what we have to approach this with is reformation and transformation.
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reformation, fixing the behaviors and practices that actually govern how law enforcement operates, that means uh eliminating qualified immunity, banning chokeholds and other forms of murder, making sure that the use of lethal force is done with respect, and that we have humanization of those who face these charges. it's also about addressing the issues of no-knock warrants and of citizens' arrest and, on the transformation, what people are talking about is redistributive allocation of dollars so that we are not simply investing in public safety but we're building a safer public through education, through healthcare, through food security, through affordable housing and that we nosy these things as being in conflict, but they have to be a part of a holistic vision of what america should look like, what law enforcement and society should look like in the 21s 21st century. >> let me quickly follow up on that because these groups wrote him a letter this week, wrote vice president biden and said as a senator, you not only
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supported but in many cases authored and championed laws that expanded mass incarceration, increased police powers, exacerbated racial disparities in sentencing and surveillance, are they right? and if they are, how does this reconcile with what joe biden is saying today? >> well, what i hope the activists are seeing, what i believe joe biden has expressed in his very thoughtful and intentional response over the last month is that mistakes were made based on bad information, bad decision-making, that there were poor decisions made by a number opeople across the country and it came to a head in 1994, as someone who's had a brother in and out of the incarceration system, as someone who fought for criminal justice reform and co-authored legislation on police accountable, i know people are capable of change because the folks who helped me co-sponsor and move that legislation
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through republican-dominated legislature and republican governor were people who ten years before that never would have supported it. so what i would ask from i've ey person asking for change is to create grace and space for that change to occur. look what joe biden is saying today, look at the ways he is trying to meet us in this moment and give him the benefit of the doubt because the contrast and the reel choice that we have is a man who currently occupies the white house, whose tepid response was the creation of a data base as opposed to any meaningful attempt to actually meet this moment and understand that black lives do indeed matter. >> woodruff: quickly, stacey abrams, we know joe biden is considering you among others to be his vice presidential running mate. why are you the most qualified? you haven't served in the congress and the senate, you haven't run a state. what is your answer to that? >> my answer is that joe biden knows who is most qualified person for him to be his partner will be. i have never espoused i am more qualified than anyone else.
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he has a list of good opportunities and fantastic, smart, capable women. i have said when i'm in that number, i would say yes. i have legislative experience, i have deep legislative experience and success on a number of these issues. criminal justice reform, vice presidential issues, reproductive health, healthcare, economics, but also am a small business owner that understands the economy that we have to reform and recover. i am someone who's worked in foreign policy, and i understand the moment that we're in because i was once an activist who pushed for change, and i use that to propel me to help deliver that change once i was in office. and i think as he looks to select a partner, i think he has no shortage of good choices and i'm proud to be among the names that he's considering. >> woodruff: stacey abrams joining us tonight from atlanta, we thank you thank you very much. >> thank you so much, ms. woodruff.
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>> woodruff: the latest jobless claims underscore just how many people are struggling. in fact, this video went viral, showing hundreds of kentucky residents waiting for up to eight hours yesterday seeking unemployment benefits. that kind of financial pressure is at the heart of why some states are re-opening faster than others. but some experts are worried about the spike in covid cases in a number of those states. paul solman has the story for our series, "making sense." ( cheers ) >> reporter: after three months of lockdown and the official onset of recession, the country is opening up. but case numbers are rising; officials, alarmed. >> we have 22 states where the virus is increasing. >> this week, the covid-19 general hospital population in harris county was the highest it
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has ever been. >> reporter: texas judge lina hidalgo warns that houston may need to turn a stadium into a hospital. >> we may be approaching the precipice of a disaster. >> reporter: so, should states lock down again, when so many healthcare workers still feel helpless and overwhelmed? ( ambulance siren ) >> the volume is so much less, but the people that are left are so sick. >> i'm sick of this disease. the people on the floor are dying, and there's nothing we can do. >> the question comes back to, how much is a human life worth? >> reporter: new york governor andrew cuomo. >> a human life is priceless, period. >> reporter: there is, however, an argument on the other side: how much is it worth to save the economy? >> this has been the biggest test i've ever had in my business. >> reporter: judi townsend, whom i first interviewed seven years ago, runs a mannequin business in oakland, california, selling models to small retailers.
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she's seen it all. >> i started my business after 9/11 happened, and also i lasted through the whole breakdown we had of the economy in 2008. this is like all of that combined into one. they say that you form a diamond under pressure. by the time this is over, i'm going to be the hope diamond, because there has been so much pressure in every aspect of my life. >> reporter: how many judi townsends can afford another lockdown? how many millions of unemployed? >> locking everything down probably has done more harm than good. >> reporter: just consider, says preventive medicine specialist dr. david katz, the health costs of blanket lockdowns. >> for segments of the population, shutting down the economy increases the risk of depression and desperation and addiction. >> reporter: and you can measure the heth costs, says economist nick bloom. >> there's an average of one year shorter life expectancy for a 40-year-old man, if he gets laid off. so imagine you applied that to the 40 million jobs that have been lost over the last two months.
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you're looking at something like 40 million life years we have lost from the recession. >> i am very sympathetic... >> reporter: okay, but there's a rebuttal. as dr. ashish jha told the newshour last week... >> we know there's a huge health and psychological cost of the economic shutdown. the point here is, if we hadn't done that, we would have had 60 million more infections, probably a half-a-million more deaths. >> reporter: dr. katz's response? >> there's no question, if you lock everyone in place away from one other and the virus, nobody gets sick. it works as long as you keep doing it. the minute you release the clamps, you're in hot water. >> reporter: meanwhile, says katz, not everyone is equally vulnerable. >> overwhelmingly, hospitalizations, i.c.u. use, ventilator use, and death concentrated among people who were both old and with a significant burden of chronic disease. in my home state of connecticut, about 60% of the total covid mortality is just among nursing home residents. >> reporter: economist daron
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acemoglu has studied the data. >> if you look at the mortality rate of over-65-year-olds, it's about 60 times as high as the mortality rates of those between 20 and 50. those over 75 have 100 times the rates of those in the younger age groups. >> reporter: so instead of blanket lockdowns, acemoglu proposes targeted lockdowns for seniors, like 75-year-old me. so the idea, then, is, lock me up. ( laughs ) >> protect you. protect you, we would prefer to say. >> reporter: fair enough. protect me by quarantining me. >> right. >> reporter: and let people like you and people younger than you go about their business. >> well, gradually. >> hi. i'm max brooks. i'm 47 years old... >> reporter: like this video max made, about protecting his dad, mel. >> hi, dad. he's 93. if i get the coronavirus, i'll probably be okay, but if i give it to him, he could give it to carl reiner, who could give it to dick van dyke, and before i
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know it, i've wiped out a whole generation of comedic legends. >> reporte acemoglu's answer would be: keep mel, carl and dick behind glass. >> go home! >> i'm going, i'm going. >> go! >> love you! >> reporter: i actually posed this idea to a rotary club in venice beach, florida. should we as a country have quarantined people like us, and let the rest of the country go about itbusiness, so that the economy could function? >> to me, it's a no-brainer. i think the answer is yes. >> reporter: jim patterson and fellow seniors joined us on zoom. >> we would have been better off letting the economy go. i think we're going to be seeing the effects of this at least for a decade. >> reporter: yes, says dave lusty, but... >> how many lives are you willing to trade off to keep the economy going? >> reporter: alanna kirt agrees. >> look what's happening already in florida since in the last
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week-- we've gone way back up. i mean, that is a part of the fact that everybody was done social distancing. >> reporter: and it's not just seniors who need protection, says mallory lasorso. >> i know a 40-year-old teacher who's had trouble breathing for months, and she is healthy. >> reporter: yes, says her 67-year-old father john kearney, but he had to keep his moving and storage business open. >> i've got guys that need the work. i need the work. i couldn't shut down. i would lose my business. >> we have family and generational businesses that have failed. stress, anxiety, drug, alcohol abuse, it all went through the roof. >> reporter: garrett soldano is an open-up-now activist. and he also has a reason besides economics for opposing lockdowns. >> i don't feel that any governor should ever take away anybody's constitutional rights. >> reporter: that's lockdown- enforcing governor gretchen whitmer, vilified by don't- tread-on-me armed protestors with whom soldano's group sympathizes.
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>> her tyrannical hammer being brought down on us was to do what, initially? flatten the curve. but as the weeks went on, that was being accomplished. so why did you continue to put down the hammer on your citizens? >> reporter: because the gradual reopening plan is working, says governor whitmer. >> this map shows that only michigan and new york are currently on track to contain covid-19. >> reporter: and thus, in the end, a curious mix of lockdown skepticism-- from economic liberty to economic tradeoffs. >> to shut down countries and stop all economic activity, to lay millions of people off, to totally disrupt life as we knew it. the remedy does not match the threat. >> reporter: to which nurse margaret cusumano would simply reply: >> we can't be over-confident until we have some measure of being able to say it's in the past. because if we let our guard down, we're not going to fight this. we're not going to be able to be
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successful. >> reporter: this is paul solman, under targeted lockdown... self-imposed. >> woodruff: there are issues governors are investigate confront all at once, the balancing act between the economy as we just heard and the spread of covid 19 and the outcry to address racism and police misconduct. ohio's governor mike dewine joins us now. governor dewine, thank you very much for joining us again. i watched your news conference today with you spoke about the spike in covid cases in the southwestern part of the state around dayton and around cincinnati. you said you think it's due to community spread, hard to pinpoint. what do you know about what's going on there? >> well, as we open up the economy, of course the concern
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is, as people are getting out more, great weather, you know, people trying to get back to normal, so there's a lot more activity, and if you look at the driving statistics, i showed that today, and, you know, people driving more today than they were when the economy was shut down. so, you know, some of this is to be expected. the way we can combat that is for ohioans to continue to distance, wear masks when they're out in public, you know, do the basic things and, also, we're increasing the testing in ohio. ohio has been low in testing, and we've said that. we've said we've got to get the testing up. we hit a new high today in testing, and we're going to continue to push that. when we looked at dayton in the cincinnati area, i talked to both mayors today, and what we're going to do is help their local health departments, help them or bring in the national
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guard to do testing, we're going to go right into the zip codes that have the biggest problem, where we're seeing the biggest spike. that's how we can be on the offense. it is the testing, and then you go out and the health department does the tracing and you try to isolate that. in a sense, it's not rocket science, it's basic, but you've got to execute every are day, and that's what we were talking about today is how we go about doing that. >> woodruff: and i heard you say you were urging everybody in several zip codes to go get tested. you said "everybody" because it's enough of a concern. are you having second thoughts about reopening? because it's been several weeks since businesses have gone back, restaurants, you're even opening up amusement parks tomorrow. any rethinking of that? >> well, it's always a balance. as your last piece clearly said, it is a balance, and there is a
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real price to pay when the economy is down, and, you know, you see mental health problems go up, you see all kinds of other problems that do, in fact, occur. so you're trying to achieve a balance. i've explained to ohioans what i believe, and what i believe is that, for our economy to move forward, we have to stay safe, and we have to keep the coronavirus from really spiking up again because, when it spikes up, it won't matter what mike dewine says or what my health director says, if people are scared, they're not going to go out and they're not going to go do things. so if people are concerned about the economy, i said, look, you know, we've got to stay healthy, we've got to wear masks, we've got to keep the distance, we've got to do the testing, we've got to do all these things that matter. >> woodruff: well, speaking of your economy, the unemployment rate in the state of ohio was at 6.8% in april. we learned that the ohio
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compensation fund has run out of money, the state has now had to borrow from the federal government. are you going to be able to pay all the workers who are entitled to unemployment benefits? i know the legislature, i guess, has gone home, state legislature, without a full-time fix for this. what are you going to do? >> well, we've had a structural problem with unemployment for a long time that, frankly, needs to be fixed, but over and above that, then you come in with the coronavirus and the crash in the economy. we've had well over 1 million people apply for unemployment compensation. so the borrowing of money is pretty expected. i think texas and several other states have done that. the federal government is doing this with no interest for a while, so we'll not have trouble paying this back, we certainly will pay it back. >> woodruff: governor, i want to ask you about police-related
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incidents -- police incidents involving black men. i know you, this week, announced a number of steps aimed at curbing and overseeing law enforcement. i'm just name ago few. you said you're prepared to see chokeholds banned except where life ist at risk, requiring more officer training, a data base, more transparency. my question is, ohio, like other states, has had a number of these incidents, why not do this before now? >> well, it's been tried before, but i think that, you know, this is the opportunity, this is the time. if we cannot get these things done now, i don't know when we'll ever get them done. i'm convinced we can do it. i think there is the public sentiment to do it, and we need to strike right now. you know, so we came forward with proposals that i think will make a difference, if there's a
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police officer involved shooting, have an sergeantsy, not that department, investigate it, have prosecutors not from that area do the prosecution. psychological testing. there are some police officers -- the vast majority of police officers do a great job. i started as a county prosecuting attorney. i love the police, they do a great job. but everybody knows -- everybody knows -- who are close to law enforcement, there are some people who simply should not be police officers, and they should be weeded out very early, they should be wded out before they even have the opportunity to go through the testing and to go through the courses. we can do that. the other thing that we see a lot, or at least we see, and i don't know if it's a lot, but we see police officers who get in trouble in one department, and they move to another department. we have over 800 police departments in the state of io. we need a central control agency, and, so, what we have proposed is to licenseolice officers and have a regulatory body just like we do for doctors, just like we do for
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nurses. we also have proposed that there should be an affirmative obligation to report. today, if a doctor sees another doctor doing something that is bad, they have to report it to the state medical board. it should be the same way with police officers. one police officer sees another officer doing something they should not be doing, that needs to be reported and there should be an affirmative obligation to do that. >> woodruff: governor mike dewine, hope to continue this conversation at a future time. thank you very much. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> woodruff: as italy emerges from the horrors of covid-19, there are investigations into whether the failure to lock down two northern towns early enough led to thousands of deaths. from bergamo in northern italy, special correspondent malcolm
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brabant reports. >> reporter: the bereaved converged onhe prosecutor's office in bergamo to demand a criminal investigation. they believe two towns in this key industrial region should have been locked down in the last ten days of february when covid-19 first erupted. but, they weren't fully quarantined until march 8, along with the rest of italy. the mpaigners accuse officials of prioritizing the italian economy, and allege that the two-week delay fuelled the fatal contagion. >> we want to achieve truth and justice. first we want to achieve the truth. we want to know exactly what happened here. why the virus spread all over the world, but only here in bergamo and brescia did such a huge massacre. >> reporter: stefano fusco is helping orchestrate the "we will denounce" movement. his grandfather antonio was one of the victims. >> if the magistrate will find that there is someone in the chain of power, at the high
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level of authority, who had some responsibility, and he did something wrong, we want him to respond to his action in front of a judge. >> reporter: this city, bergamo, was the hardest hit in the whole of italy. according to official statistics, there were 6,000 people who died in the area administered by bergamo. but campaigners here believe the real figure is even higher, possibly 10,000, the numbers swollen by thoseeople who died without being tested, and those who died alone at home. this is one of the defining images of northern italy's covid nightmare, a convoy of army trucks bearing the coffins of bergamo's dead at the height of the crisis in march. the death rate in bergamo province was 6.5 times that of new york state. across italy as a whole nearly 35,000 have been killed by covid. but this is no longer the most deadly country in europe. in terms of deaths per million, belgium is. lawyer consuelo locati is
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haunted by the losses, bergamo, especially that of her father, vincenzo. she says the case against the authorities is strengthened by the italian constitution. >> ( translated ): article 32 stipulates that those in power have a duty to protect the health and well-being of the population. and in reality, we believe this has been violated. >> reporter: the bergamo prosecutor is treating this case with the utmost gravity. within days of the first complaints being filed, she went to rome to interview the italian prime minister guiseppe conte for three hours. "i'm not at all worried," he said, "and that's not out of arrogance or complacency." in codogno, 60 miles south of bergamo, fresh death notices are a magnet for passersby. this town of 16,000 was the first in italy to be sealed off, on the 21st of february, because this is where the first case was idntified. luciano piovani was among more
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than 260 citizens to succumb. the only consolation was that unlike those before him, he was able to have a proper funeral. social distancing rules were ignored, and there were only cursory health precautions. >> ( translated ): i have reflected a lot. it was as if god was testing us, so we should understand what is essential in life. >> reporter: father iginio passerini has been overwhelmed by the number of lonely funerals he's conducted in a few short weeks. >> ( translated ): let's hope that the virus is not going to come back, because it's really terrible. the people who've been directly affected by the virus have been deeply scarred, and it's going to take a long time to heal. >> reporter: among the mourners was 80-year-old francesco zucchi, who, against the odds, survived covid-19.
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>> ( translated ): i've lost relatives-- a nephew and brother-in-law. many friends of my age, like me, 80 years old. they've all gone. and i knew them all. 20, 30, friends, acquaintances, all. if you go to the cemetery in codogno, you can see them all in the highest spots. i don't know how i've made it through. i'm like a cat-- this was my sxth life; the seventh will be the end of me. >> reporter: cododgno is taking its first tentative steps back to normality with its traditional market. everyone is supposed to wear a mask. among those trying to generate income lost during lockdown were some chinese traders. they declined to talk. reviving the local economy and restoring public confidence is the priority of francesco passerini. the italian government has pledged more than $50 billion in emergency aid for the whole country, but the money has yet to filter down. >> ( translated ): we are waiting for resources that have been promised but haven't
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arrived yet. let's hope that everyone plays their part, because otherwise we could be in trouble. if the european union exists, this is the time to prove it. >> people are still worried and hurt. and i think it's going to take a long time for us to recover. i don't see a very lively summer ahead of us. >> reporter: french canadian manon beland and her italian husband own what was a successful american-themed restaurant in codogno before disaster struck, but now, they're considering selling because of the town's stigma. >> we've been crushed by a recession. we still have that message, "it may return, be careful, be careful." if you've been told codogno, codogno, codnogno is the first town, the first case, people are going to-- they think about it. >> reporter: outside a private laboratory doing tests for the virus, that nervousness was tangible. and with some justification. in lombardy, italy's economic
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engine, which includes the key city of milan, after dipping for a while, the infection and death rates have started to pick up again. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in codogno. >> woodruff: so many sadnesses. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular. >> johnson & johnson. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change
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worldwide. >> fidelity investments. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.
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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. >> covid's new latin america epicenter. infections are surging. onfamily's harrowing escape from the virus in lima, peru. and the former mexican health secretary on the impact across the continent. plus -- >> where are jobs being lost? in what particular businesses or what income grps? >> breaking down the virus-induced economic disaster. harvard professor raj chetty talks to us. and later, are sports leagues paying more than lip service to the anti-racism