captioning sponsored by wnet >tisreenivasan: on this edion for sunday, june 21: president trump returns to the rame-electionign trail. covid-19 cases continue to surge across the country. a dnd, anti-asicrimination worries, as schools weigh reopening in the fall. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: rnard and irene schwartz sue anedgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckeerg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the mome, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we

believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most o today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> when it comes to wireless, consumer cellular gives its customers the choice. our no-contract plans give you as much or as little tal text and data as you want. and our u.s.-based customer ervice team is on-hand to help. to learn more, go www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. president donald trump restarted his on-the-road re-election campaign last night, to a l-fess-thl arena in tulsa, oklahoma. mr. trump gave a sprawling one hour and 41-minute speech at his first rally in more than three months. h re usedist term to describe the covid-19 virus, and repeated the false cim that

increased testing is responsible for the large number of covid-19 cases in the u.s. >> when you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people. you're goingo find more cases. so i said to my people, "slow the testing down, plevae." >> sreen: a white house official said today that the president was being "tongue in cheek" about testing being slowed. we'll have more on increases in covid-19 infections in many parts of the country, in our news summary. despite promises by the trump campaign of record crowds, by the time president trump took the stage last night at the 19,000 seat b.o.k. ara, thousands of seats were ety. ostutside, e set up for overflow attendees was dismantled before the president arrived in tulsa. before entering the arena, teams of trump supporters, but theres was no requirement that people wear masks, and many didn't. attendees also agreed to a waiver not to hold the campaign iable if they get sick >> no justice! no peace! >> sreenivasan: near the arena, largely peaceful protters blocked some streets.

during the evening, there were also small pro-trump protests. and in other parts of tulsa, black lives matter demonstrations had a festive tiel, as protesters continued while the president was traveling to oklahoma, geoffrey berman made it official t what as no longer the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. aonfter a daystandoff with attorney general william barr, the president fired berman, who then agreed to step down last nig named interim u.s. attorney. in an interview today, house judiciary chairman jerrold adler said berman had be invited to testify before his committee as he investigates preolitical interfee in the justice department. but, nadler also said that calls fchor the impnt of attorney general barr didn't make sense right now. > a> they are a waste of ti this point, because we have a the senate which will not in consider an impeachment, no mncatter what the eviand no matter what the facts. for more on the many issues, controversies, and what's ahead in national politics, newshour

eekend special correspondent jeff greenfield joins us now from santa barbara, californi jeff, let's start with what turned out to be a very strange match-up, which was attorney general barr versus u.s.a. berman. we had trouble following this yesterday on all the different contours that they were taking, but what's the impact here? >ju> well to review the bidding, friday night, late, attorney general barr says "u.s. attorney berman is going to step down, i'm going to r alace him with a guy who very loyal ally of trump." two hours later, berman says, "igi didn't r" so the next day, barr says "okay, i talked to the president, he says you're fired." then the president tells the press, "i had nothing to do w h and by the end of this bizarre down to be replaced by hisng da eputy, who is not litical ally of trump, just a prosetor. and the impact is, a lot of what the u.s. attorney's office in new york wa pleasing to the president.

either investigatinhis inaugural committee for the misuse of funds; deutsche bank, which was a big creditor of trump's; giuliani and his aw firm. shyo that's part ofhis got eyebrows raised. but then there's the part about john bolton. friday night, abc news released the transcript,n a clip of the interview with lton. the former national security advisor had written a very critical book of trump. he said the president told the president of turkey he was going to intervene the u.s. attorney's office to protect the state bank of turkey. that's why this has raised so many eyebrows over the last 48 hours. >k > sreenivasan: let's tout the rally in tulsa yesterday. there was a lot of concern that uring a pandemic, this wasn't the best id. the end result? > a> well, to put it technical, political science term, not good. daur., the public health officials in tulsa, were all

saying, the worst thing you can do is pack people into a crowded rwhooe they're making a lot of noise, because that will spread the particles. b what basically happened was that the trump campaign was telling us this was going to be a huge event. they had gotten a milliti requests foets. and when the time came for the rallyit turned out that nobody showed up for that overflow crowd. and the hl was perhaps half full. intriguing is thea group of people who particite on social media apps like tiktok, and k-pop, the korean music organized some kind of guerilla operation to ask for an enormous number of tickets, the point being to inflate the estimates and to delugehe trump campaign with useless data. the whole point about getting data.ies is to get voter and you have to remembethat this president particularly obsesses with the size of his crowds. you remember back in the inaugural, how angry he got when obama had more.

so the pictures of the half- empty hall and the stors of the sputtering event is exactly what you don't want to kick off the campaign. eizven though crowd don't tell you much about votes-- i mean, bernie sanders got huge crowds; joe biden couldn't fill a telephone booth. but it's really important for the-- as they say, the optics, because the press put so much ttention on it this was not the way you want to start a campaign. >> sreenivasan: and you watched the entire speech. wngas there any inklif a strategy of how this campaign is going to play out? > c> yes, it's vear, and it has been for a while, that the president is not pursuing any kilind of unity or recotion message. there was no mention of jeteenth, or black emancipation day. there was no mention of george floyd. it was all about how "the radicals and antifa are going to burn yr cities down. they're going to abolish the police. joe biden is a pawn of the radicals." syit's pretty clear that t are pursuing a base strategy to gin up his core supporters in

enough numbers that they can outdo the loss he has in places like the suburbs. k > sreenivasan: looking b the week, which seems so long arego now, there ome big supreme court decisions that were not in favor of the administration. but you point out that decisions are decisions, and they can go-- work against you in the future. >> yeah. there were two celebrations on the part of what we will broadly call liberals. one, the title vii, the civil rights law, protects not just sex but sexual orientation. yanou fire somebody because they're gay. and also, the deferred action on childhood arrivals. the court said that trump could not end it the way he did. b, if you're going to read title vii literally, the way jceusorsuch, the key vote, did, you can also see that he would be very skeptical about a affirmatiion. you can't hire somebody just because they're black, because yasou want to incnumbers. if he reads the statute that

literally, that's trouble. a, nd as far as daca goat the court said was "yeah, the president can abolish it by exettive order-- he just did do it the right way." so i think those who are celebrating these decisions may want to take a deep breath and what the long-term consequences might be. >> srnivasan: jeff greenfield, ts ha much for joining us. >> pleasure. n: >> sreenivaor more national and international news, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: new cases of the coronavirus are increasing in states across the south, west and midwest, with seven states hitting single-day record highs yesterday. nationwide, there were more than 0,000 new infections on both friday and saturday, the highest totals since may 1. southern states are seeing some of the highest spikes. fa, sou colina, lis, and mississippi are all in the top ten for the largest number of new cases per capita over the past two weeks. i overall viruselated deaths

re dropping, with the 14-day average down 42% as of yesterday. apkccording to johns s university, covid-19 has the united states, and nearlyn 120,000 people have died from tmhe virus. nesota legislators could not agree to police reform after a atweek of negons and intense hearings during a special session. george floyd's death last month while in minneapolis police custody and all the protests that followed compelled the lwegislature to address police accountability measures. but democrats lead the state's house and republicans the senate. house democrats charged that the republican senate reform proposal, which includes requiring police officers to seytep in if ee other officers using excessive force, did not go far enough. republicans argued that the house measures, such as pting the state's attorney general in killings, was too far.police a subsequent house countermeasure eliminated this requirement.

yesterday afternoon, governor tim walz, a democrat, said the legislature's failure to pass a bill was an "embarrassment" for the ate. a deadly shooting in minneapolis early this morning left one man dead and 11 people with non-life threatening injuries, accorng to police. the shooting took place in u aptown minneapoliommercial district with several restaurants and bars. the area is about three miles west of the location where george floyd, a black man, died while in police custody last month. officials said there was no connecon between recent anti-racism protests and last night's shooting. police said they believe there may have been more than one shooter. as of noon today, they were s stirching for the suspects who were described only as "individuals on foot." in the united kingdom, police are calling a stabbing rampage that killed three people and wounded three others yesterday a terrorist act. the victims were sitting in a park in reading, west of london, when they were attacked by a 25-year-old man who police believe acted alone. unarmed officers arrested the

cesuspect at the. britain's press association identified him as a libyan citizen seeking asylum who was living in reading. olice say they do not believe there is any further danger to the public, and btain's terrorism threat level has not been raised. china's topnment law-making committee announced today that it will meet againt the end of this month, raising concerns for hong kong's autonomy. beijing is considering enacting a law that would set up an office in hong kong to collect intelligence and handle criminal cases related to national security. today's annncement did not ention that the security law will be on the agenda, but the patossibility stoked fears beijing is planning to tighten its grip on the semi-autonomous territory. the timing cos right before a july 1 holiday that marks hong kong's return to china. >> sreenivasan: since the coronavirus pandemic hit, there

h iave bereasing reports of anti-asian discrimination, includingt n schools. lnth, the new york city commission on human rights launched a two-month campaign aucimed at ing the public on racism. but as schools weigh whether or not to open their doors in the fl, parents of asian-american children say they fear that st chool mit be a safe place when it reopens. newshour weekend special has our report.on ostrovsky >> reporter: for evy parent, their child's safety is the number one priority. avend mom and dad is asking what precautions are ing to be put in place when classes eventually reopen. but for parents of asian children, there's another worry on p of everything else. in the weeks and months that preceded school closures and stay-at-home orders, there s a spike of an epidemic of a dferent kind, in classroo around the country. >> the latest target, a young boy from the san fernando valley. >> the young person was bullied in his middle school, physically

attacked and accused of having the coronavirus, simply because he was asian-american. >> reporter: racially-motivated harassment against asian puls, ranging from teasing to physical attacks. their classmates blaming them for the spread of coronavirus, b appearance. on their >> reporter: now, asian-american parents are asking how their children casafely go back to ct lass nll. >> i'm not confident that the d t.o.e. is goicreate a safe environment for children of csiolor, particularly children, at this time. >> reporter: in april, the f.b.i. warned it was concerned about the potential for hate crimes around the country against minorities perceived to be "responsible for the spread of the virus." america's largest school district, new yk city, which carefully tracks instances of

increase in the weading upn to the lockdown, but deputy chancellor adrienne austin refused to divulge to newshour weekend the specific numbers of biased-based bullying incidents. >> we saw arend prior to going to remote learnin we were seeing a trend of biased-based instances against >> reporter: hai my huynh is a 16-ar-old high school student in the bronx, new york. she told newshour weekend, she struggled to get administrators to react after a fellow classmate lashed out at her with a virus-related insult when she refused to let the student copy her completed homework assignment. >> i just chose not to give it to him, because i worked really rd on it. and, so, he said, "oh, that's why you have corona." and then people just around me just start laughing. an i just felt really like... i don't know what to do. >> reporter: this incident might not snd terribly serious taken on its own, but for hai my, it came after weeks of overhearing

chohatter in the corridors about asians eating bats and rats, and being "dirty." >> so the incidents really vary depending on age level and severity. sometimes, it could be a child just repeating words that they've heard, you know. and then others may be more delerate, which could escalate to things that may be considered a hate crime. so, it has-- it runs the gamut. >> reporter: in new york as a whole, the humarightsde commission recd 145 complaints of anti-asian bias and harassment since february, period last year.11 for the same not all rose to the level of a hate crime, but among the 18 that did, a disturbing trend: >> what stood out to us was that of the perpetrators, more than one third, are teenagers. and so, that's why we rlly want to reach them.

>> reporter: with attacks against asians so widespread a ymong minors, nk's office of hate crime prevention urged the city's department of education to put together how- to guide for dealing with incidences of biasebullying bore school doors swung bk open. here's the office's expert on education, daria vaisman, describing the project to an asian-american advocacy group in a conference call in may. > t> early outbreak, we had first, in the office,tarted hearing stories of covid-related bias and hate crimes. we wanted to put something touogether, a list of res for educators, so they could use to speak to their students, to address and also to anticipate problems thinstng about when ents reenter the physical classroom. >> reporter: the guide, which is downloadable from the new york city hall websitend is available to educators everywhere, points teachers to resources like this article, describing how chinese doctor py ioneered an eadical mask, or practical advice on countering extremism online.

>> what we're seeing right now is definitely not utoew york city, although that being said, it's happening in cities in which there is a significant asian population. so, new york, san francisco bay area and los angeles would be the three, probably the mo prominent. >> reporter: experts and educators say social mediand comments overheard from parents help fuel narratives about who's to blame for the virus. they also say language used by the president ely on in the risis didn't help either. >> i talk about the chinese virus, and-- and i mean it, that's where it came from. >> reporter: so how concerned should parents be about schoolyard teasing that targets children's identities? > this is life or deat i mean, for students who internalize bullying, who internalize discrimination, we see an increase in the number of suicides amongst kids. and so, on the other hand, for kids hatred goes unaddressed and it festers, we see instances where adults takehe lives of other

people based on discrimination. >> reporter: one brutal incident thais being addressed is th march 28 attack on a 51-year-old asian wom on a bronx bus, in which several teenage girls acced her of spreading the virus. >> and they ended up tacking her, and she had to get stitches on her head. >> reporter: elizabeth ouyang, runs a program for new york youth that aims to resolve hate crimes through out-of-court mediation instead of relying on the criminal justice system alone. she told newshour weekend, the perpetrators of the bus attack would be able to avoid a criminal recordy participating in her ten-week anti-bias educational program. what do you say to people who say, this is just a slap on the wrist for violent perpetrators with a hateful mindset? >> if you bring a complaint, the first time, these youngo ffenders are not likely to get much of a punishment. the victim, who is a 51-year-old

woman, is so supportive of the youth participating in this proam. she wants assurance that they're not going to do this athgain they understand why it was wrong. aatnd that's think our project will definitely accomplish. >> reporter: parents like yuli hsu hope that whenever school doors open again, her children nd others will be entering a safe space. >> my first distinct experience was when i was five, in our suburban ohio neighborhood, and other children throwing verbal slurs, racial slurs at me, as welas rocks in my face. yeseah, so are definitely things i would hope my children never experience.

>> sreenivasan: in recent weeks, college and professionasports teams have started to declare election day a holiday for employees and players.s o far, the memphis grizzlies, the minnesota timberwolves and thlynxn.c.a.a. and others have jumped on board. to learn more about this movement, newshour weekend's megan thompson spoke to "urwall seet l" sports reporter louise radnofsky, who's een covering the story. >> reporter: so what motivated >> you know, i think what's been striking in the last couple of many of whom had previouslytes, braed themselves as apolitical or "just not that kind of outspoken athlete," who've come f aorwa stepped out and said that they support black lives matter. whi, you know, as a movement, was considered to be somewhat radical or controversial in soma s for athletes, until recently, at which point things have flipped around a little bit. a nd athletes who hanot said that they support the movement have come under criticism for tt.

so there's been thihuge change in athletes' approach to activism, particularly among, i think, striking, white, and ther non-black athletes. and you've seen organizations not only rush to embrace their athletes, but also rush to emace this movement. in some cases, reversing previous stances that they ha had on sending political messages or allowing their athletes to protest. so you're really seeing a-- sort of a repositioning of all of ese brands, the individu brands and the team brands, and at the same time, they're under pressure to deliver on what that actlly means, in practice. so i think what you're seeing in election day is the first tgible policy change coming from any ornization tha aligned itself with black lives m>atter. > reporter: it seems like it is a positive step for these teams to be doing this. but, like you mentioned, a lot of the teams and the players have been kind of wary of wing itho some of these issues i past. is this kind of an easy way to "check the box" right now, in terms of being able tsay that

they've done something? are there other things that teams are under pressure to do? >> it is certainly an easier y for a team to do something that is generally considered to be me politically palatable, right. everybody thinks that voting ggoenerally is thing, and increasing voter turnout is a good thing. so, it's a relatively non- controversial way of making a chae. of coursewhat you're hearing from black lives matter in some parts of the cotry is a far re demanding demand, if you will. ou're not hearing a lot of teams right now rushing to say that they have a posin whether to defund the police, for example. but saying where you stand on election day might be a first step to that. it might be the final step. gi think that's what we'ng to be watching really closely. >> reporter: so, this isn't a new ia, right? i mean, where else have we seen efforts like this in this country? >> it's not a n idea. you've seen 13 states already make election day a holiday, an

a 14th, virginia, joined them this year, although in some and congress has also been under pressure to consider this. it was supported by number of democrats. it was somewhat resisted by the republican-controlled senate. but congress's failure to take a fer position on this, for example, created an opening for teams to go in there and make policy themselves. and they're hoping that other cesompaight follow suit as well. >> reporter: when people are given the day off, election day, does it actually boost voter turnout? >> from a paper about ten years aeego, what we'veis that making election day a paid holiday doesn't, on its own, increase voter turnou i think what you're seeing with players in particular is almost an attempt to create a new experiment. what wod election day look like if you had a paid day off and you had aaid day off for ery high-profile figures seeking to go ahead and get out the vote themselves? >> reporter: all right, louise

radnofsky of the "wall street journal," thank you so much for talking to me. >> thank you so much. >> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates, visit www.p.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching, and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media cess group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii.

the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, at's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow ake the most of today. mutual of america financial t group, retiremrvices and investments. additional support has been provided by: an bpublic broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american pple. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

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