captioning snsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening, i'm amna nawaz. judy woouff is away. on the newshour tonight, a widespre surge-- coronavirus cases spike nationwide as new infection records are set and some officials call for rereturn to morrictions. then, abuse in the ranks-- inrvivors of sexual assaul the military speak out followine the hara and murder of soldier vanessa guillen. plus, friends in high aces-- the president commutes roger s stone's prisonentence despite his conviction in conn and it's monday, tamara keith. and amy walter break down the latest politics news from the ongoing pandemic response to the campaign for the white house. all th and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individual >> this program was made possible bthe cobloration for broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers likyou. thank yo n az: the roll-back of reopenings is growing tonight, as the coronavirus explosion. gains new ener but the man leading the public target himself.ncreasingly a white house correspoent yamiche alcindor begins our coverage.

>> alcindor: at hospitals nationwide, the focus is on the wave of new covid infections. at the white house, the focuste has shd to attacking dr. anthony fauci, the governmens top infectious disease expert. p today,resident trump retweeted critical posts about fauci. that came after the doctor publicly and repeatedly corrected the president' deputy chief of staff dan scavino even posted a cartoon of fauci as a water faucet that tieded to be turned off, and branding the sci as" cowardly". >> i have a very good relationship with dr. futurey. i have from the beginning. i find him to be a v.y nice person i i don't always agree withhi >> reporter: the president has often mad misleading >> alcindor: the president himself has often made misleading statements about the. vi he has wrongly said 99% of the cases are harmless and repeatedly claimed the virus will simply disappear. but white house aides insis at it is fauci who has often been wrong about the pandemic. fauci did initially discderage the broapublic from wearing

masks. he has since said officials took that stance in the beginning cause they knew shortages were so bad that medical professionals couldn't get enough. early on, fauci also said historically respiratory-borne viruses are rarely tnsmitted through asymptomatic people. since then, as more he and others have learned about covid- 19, he has said asympt is more prevalent than other viruses., for his part. fauci has said that the science around the virus is constantly evolving. the increase in nationwideabout cases. we did not shut down entirely, and that's the reason why we went up, started to come down and plateaued at a level that was really quite high, about 20,000 infections a day. >> alcindor: all of this, comesh as flori set a national single-day record for new cases and intensive care units across the state fill to the brim. >> we can't get swept away in

fear. we have towns what's going on. we have towns we have a long road ahead. >> alcindor: still, disney world in orlando began its phased re- ening this weekend, as mask- clad visitors flocked to the park. >> it also called for shopping malls, barber shops and places of worship to ose in half of the state. texas has also been hard hit and officials in houston are now callin for the state to halt its reopening efforts and reimpose a lock dob. houston's democraticmayor sylvester housn's democratic mayor sylvester turner: let's look at the numbers, look at the data, see where things forward again. tally move >> alcindoay, the state supreme court upheld houston's refusal to host the state c republicvention, as an in- person event. mayor turner said the city could not do so safely. republican leaders said ey will consider their next steps. meanwhile, hospitals are buckling under surging admissions .

and, on sunday, white house coronavirus testing czar, admiral brett giroir, pushed thm >> it's really essential to wear masks. and for this to work, we have to have like 90% of people wearing areas. in puic in the hot spot if we don't have that, we will not get control of the virus. >> alcindor: that came just a day after president trump visited a military hospital in maryland. there, he wore a mask in public for the very first time. at the same time, education secretary betsy devos on sunday continued the president's push to reopen schools in the fall. >> there's nothing in the ta school is in any wgerous.eing in wrestling with the sameons are questions, and the same surge in infections. and, in mexico, officials say more than 35,000 people have died from the virus, now the fourth higst tally in the world. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. n>> nawaz: even as educat secretary betsy devos, some political leaders, and many rents, are pushing for a wider reopening of schools, some

officis are worried about the risks. today, california's two largest school disicts, the los angeles and san diego unified instruction remotes fall.nly do between the two districts, that affects roughly 825,000 students. in florida, where infections remain very high, the state's education commissioner wants schools physically open five days a week. some districts are loong at hybrid models instead. we get reaction to all this from the president of the teachers union there. fedrick ingram is with the florida education association and he joins me now. mr. ingram, welcome to the so your union rents thousands of teachers. you yourself are a teacher. what's your awe assessment?oo will the s be ready for students next month? at well, thank you for having me, and i apprebeing here. we represent 150,000 educators and school employees across thi, state rankly, i believe our governor and our enmmissioner of education have irresponsible. they put out a plan last week to say that we must have a brick

d mortar option for five days a week, and i think being in the epicenter of this virus, with cases steadily rising every day -- in fact, in the next couple of days, our state will eclipse over 300,000 positive cases -- i think it's irresponsisce to think our ols, teachers, educational support professionals and first and most importantlyur r students ady to go back to school in the brick and mortar option. >> nawaz: in thent me, you have dozens of school districts in florida each with their ownth plan all seem to be in different stages. some have been relieved,some scoo boards are voting on them, some still very much in the works. wh think about how students could physically return to school, do any of the plans catch your attention? do any of them look like a good plan to you right now? >> listen, kudos to our superintendents, scool boards, local teachers yiew teachers unl trying to puplans together to

be as a advantageous as they possibly can udre the ts but they can't do it without guidance and regulations and funding. it's going to cost us more to educate than less. haveo deal with ventilation of school buildings, social distancing, meaning smaller classes, and we'll have to deal with masks in terms of t congregation, ms of the buses, lunch rooms, assemblies, cosmetology classes, we have no tridelines on how to do that. the dts are frantically trying to create the plans and have been working hard this b summer under the guise of our governor and commissioner of education, they have given us a slogan, we must open with brick and mortar, they have not given us a comprehensive plan. >> nawaz: what are tchers worried about now and do they see specific steps they want to see put in place as mitigation efforts before they walk back s intoools? >> teachers are scared. teklhers, fr have angst i've never seen before.

some teachers are making thesi des to retire early simply because they cannot go back into a school either because they are over age 60or may have an underlying issue, or a teacher may be healthy and taking care of an elderly parent, or they may be taking care of their own sick child with a bronchial issue, who has juvenile diabetes, but they don't want to be the cause of bringing that home from an asympmatic child. so we're putting these things in place. our state has said ounothing reasonable accommodations for our teachers, and that's what they're looking for. if they get sick, what happen if there's a breakout, a pandemic, a virus episode at a school or a particu feeder pattern, what's going to happen? do we invite a substitute teacher to come in and teach a class, given the circumstances of a teacngr or a child b in that class that's sick? there is no guidance here in thf statlorida, and we have to do better because our kids are depending on us. m >> nawaz: lask you about the kids, then, because there are a lot of concerns about the effects the lockdown has already

had, the concern being based on the gaps will be widened after kids go back to the school. if they didn't have internet access in, he spriey won't have it in the fall. longer schools stay closed, kids tll fall further and further behind in the way cat make up. >> sure. i'm a parent first. i have a 15-year-old going to high school this yea i wan her high school to be as safe as it possibly can be, knowing there will be some academic regression, knowing she has been out of school five tural months. from march till may, our vacuum that is -- that has very little to do with teaching. so i feel our teachers still will do the magic they always do. whenever we get the kids back, be it online, hybrid, brick and mortar, our teachers will dohe whatneed to. do right now, our parents need to concentrate on exactly the same thing, our teachers and cafeteria workers our bus drivers andarsecrs are saying, this is life or death.

because people will die of this virus and, in florida, we do not have this underro co and we need to concentrate on that to protect our communities and families. our teachers wilstill be there and our schools will be there as strong as they have ever been because i have every confence in our public schools. >> nawaz: based on what you've en so far in the steps being taken, do you see any olway sccould be open next month safely? >> yes, i do see a way, if our state shows they trend like the c.d.c. regulations told us of 14 days of a decline in getting the virus under controo we have tothat because our schools will become a out in the community. going on we know the kids will either be asymptomatic or they will get sick or be hospitalized d/or willffect other people. and, so, we have to see a 14-day decline, which we have not seen over the last six weeks here in florida. so until we get to that point, i

don't think that we should even be in the discussions of opening schools one way or another. we should be talking about delaying over maybe a two-week period of time so that we can see if 're going to get control of this. if not, then we need to talk about the fallndtself moving and shifting to distance learning and doing the very best we can given the ciawumstances. >>: a lot of uncertainty ahead for sure. that is fedrick fedrick of the florida education associaiton joining us tonight. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> nawaz: in the day's other news, the united nations warned the coronavirus pandemic could push 130 million more people worldwide into chronic hunger this yr. last yr, the annual u.n. report estimated 690 million that's nearly 9% ooverall global population, and an

increase of 10 million frothe year before. more than 200 universiti i have come osupport of a lawsuit against pandemic curbs on international students. the trump administration is denying visas to those not taking at least one in-person class this fall. the schools filed briefs today, backing the suit by harvard and m.i.t. a ition, 17 states and the district of columbia filed a separate suit against the pocy. the white house is defending pr clemency to roger stone. commuted his long-lly'st 40-month prison sentence for witness tampering and lying to congress. today, the white house press secretary dismissed criticism of the decision. t >> it is n case that only those who are politically connected get a pard. this president is the president of criminal justice rederm. this pre did the first step act. this president has fought for those who are given unduly harsh sentences more than any democrat whtd like to talk about it

never actually did it. >> nawaz: the presiding federal judge in the case demanded toon know today if will still have two years of supervised release. e justice department said the clemency order wipes out that requirement as well. we'll have more on this, later in the program. tensions between the united stat and china are escalatin again in the south china sea. the trump administration todayea rejectedy all of beijing's territorial claims in the region. in recent years, china has built military bases to back up those claims, and u.s. warships have sailed through the region to contest them. separately, china announced sanctions against two u.s. rinators: ted cruz of texas and marco rubio of f. both have criticized human rights abuses against muslims it n china. the u.s. ambassador for religious freedom, sam brownback, was also included. the sanctions could ban all three from entering china. in poland, conservative president andrzej duda has narrowly won a second term after he defeated warsaw's l mayor in sunday's vote.

duda apologized today for a campaign that stoked anti- semitism and homophobia. but gaactivists warned of what >> (ltranslated it looks like we live in a country where hatred wins over love, it looks ke we live in a country fear wins over the openness towards others, in a country where lies win over honesty i am saying all of this as an ordinary person who is rodisappointed with peopled, disappointed with my neighbors, disappointed with my fellow cotrymen. >> nawaz: duda has reduced poverty in poland, butlso raised fears that he is and independence of the courts. back in this country, moreoyhan 1,000 ems of the centers for disease control and prevention are demanding that the agency address internal racism. npr obtained a letter from the group, addressed to director robert redfield. it speaks of a "toxic culture of racial aggressions" against black employees. the c.d.c. confirms that redfield received the letter,

but says nothing of his response.wa ington, d.c.'s n.f.l. franchise announced today it will change its name, long criticized as a racial slur the team also retired its indian head logo. the move comes after years of protests, and just days after the franchise launched a formalu name revieer pressure from corporate sponsors. there's no word yet on wt the new team name will be. the u.s. budget deficit hit an all-time high of $864 billion in june. that came amid increased spending to counter the pandemic's economic toll, and a massive decline in tax revenue. meanwhile, trading was rocky on wall street today. the dow jones industal average gained 10 points to close at 26,086. the nasdaq plunged 226 points, and the s&p 500 shed 30. and, two passings of note: actor kelly preston has died of breast cancer, according to herb d john travolta. her movie highlights included

"jerry maguire" in 1996.rs and, naya rivera's body was found today in a southern california lake. officials say she drowned. rivera starred in the former tv series "glee". she was 33 years old. still to come on the newshour:e yor of alexandria virginia discusses the balance between reopeninand public safety amid the pandemic. survivors of sexual assault in the military speak out following the harassment and murder of soldier vanessa guillen. the president commutes roger stone's prison sentence despite his conviction in connection with the russia investigation. plus much more. >> nawaz: we talk often aboutim

thications of covid-19 on the decisions that directly of local governments.we want to tad focus on how those decisions are made. a few days a, i spent time with the mayor of my own home town, alexania, virginia, for a closer look. friday afternoon in olde townex dria, and mayor justin wilson is walking the city's main drag.hi >>allowed more space for social distancing. >> nawaz: this is what phasegi three of vira's reopening looks like. siat's it like for you to come out now and see sses open and people outside dining? >> it is definitely good to see. and i think what's good here is, you see, i mean, these are distanced, tables are serated. fohts are mostly doing the r thing. but it comes with, of course, some trepidation, right. you know, because you don't want a situation where we're back where we were. >> nawaz: alexandria's a small city: about 160,000 residents, many whom cross the river into washington, d.c. every day as federal workers.

the economy here depends o small businesses like these-- restaurants, independent retailers, mom and pop stores-- all of them, hit hard in the pandemic. >> this wi be a three years recovery. >> nawaz: "mayor" is a part time gig here. wilson also works for amtrak. but trying to stabilize his city's economy has now become an enormous job. million budget thaost $9200 million out of, which is an enormous hit for us. and so we want to get our economy back going.>> awaz: the financial impact for alexandria is immense. in april of last year, dining out yielded 2.2 million dollars in tax revenue. this year? just 570,000. from hotel stays, april 2019 brought in 1.3 million. this year? d that wn to just 96,000. already, pay freezes are in place for city hall staff, layoffs are a possibility.is >> if s a prolonged,

multi-year thing, this is going to be dramatic for us. it's going to be very, very significant for us >> nawaz: and the blow t city budget means badly-needed infrastructure work won't get done. you mentioned a $90 million hit to your budget. what does that mean for a city like alexandria? >> i think the biggest question is whether it's going to, is how sustainable is it going to be. is tt a $92 million, one time hit? we deferred a whole bunch of capital projects we drew down on some of our reserves. r so our plan uild a high school is going to be delayed for a couple of years. waterfront flood mitigation wors oing to be delayed for several years. >> nawaz: there is pushback against wilson's push to reopeni northern va had previously coordinated plans with neighboring d.c. and maryland, which have been more restrictive in their openings. this month, that changed. and mayor wilson pressed ahead with the rest of virginia to relax restrictions. alexandria's had nearly 2,500 covid cases, and almost 60 fatalities.critics worry the res fueled further spread of theru vis.

>> we understand that the prerequisite of any economic activity is public health. even some of the states thatru shed reopening learn that you can open everything, but people ssen't going to show up un they feel safe. a lot of businesses are trying at least to get adap some new normal. so the last thing you wa to see is to have to go backwards. >> nawaz: like much of the country, black and b residents have been hardest hit. wilson says resistance from thee ral government to help undocumented workers and others who need it most, remains a problem. what specific steps would you want to see from the federal community? that would help your >> what i have said every single time i have talked to both of our senators and our congressmee is t money. i mean, i hate to say it s simply, but send money, send money to our residents and money to our businesses. so how many people sit inside? >> nawaz: for his part, the mayor is trying to lead by example. masking up in public. nawaz: safely interacti

with neighbors. >> nawaz: and running a one-man social media p.r. machine for local restaurants, fear ring new outdning or curbside pickup options. but like local leaders across the country, his optimism is tempered by the uncertainty ahead... are you worried that there could be another spike in cases? m >> if you fisomeone who is confident about anything in this environment, they're lying to you because this is right.edented. you know, we're all making decisions that have no rulebook. there is no, there's no other jurisdiction you can conlt. there are no scholarly journals you can look at. concerned.'m absolutely >> nawaz: the disappearance ands murder of arcialist vanessa guillen has sparked an outpouring of stories from mainly-female servicmembers with one common thread. like guillen, they experienced sexual harassment and abuse in military's reporting systeme

wasn't built to help them. in a moment, nick schifrin speaks with two experts about what needs to change. but first, he has some background on guillen, and the stories of women, in their own words, who are part of hashtag "i am vanessa guillen" movement. >> schifrin: vanessa guillen was 20 years old when she died. guillen told them she was being harassed by a higher ranking soldier, but that a culture of fear inside the army and on fort hood, meant she was too scared to report it. she went missing on april 22. her body was found more than two months later. she'd been struck by a hammer, burned, and partially dismembered. the police zeroed in on the man the family says was her harasser, aaron robinson. week, he died by sde.him last outside fort hood, there's a memorial for guillen. and in houston last weekend, all march g for justice, and accusing the military of failing

to defend its female service members. on thursday secretary of def ese maer admitted the military could do better. es we've made a lot of pro over 10 years, but nowhere where we need to be. need to get zero tolerance of sexual harassment, and sexual assault, and we need to make sure everyone inwhur ranks knows e they can get help, where they can find help. >> schifrin: congress has a major piece of legislation called the military justice improvement act that would remove the chain ocommand from e decision to prosecute sexual harassment and abuse claims. but this moment is different. the viciousness of therime, and a social media campaign, #ivanessaguillen, has highlighted what countless female veterans say: that guillen's story is not unique. we spoke to half a dozen veterans, victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault, who say they were silenced initially, and thanks to guillen, are silenced no more. >> my name is joanna sweatt and

i am a united states marine corps vetera >> my name is tiffany summa. i was and i am an army veteran. >> my name is rene yessman. ey my name is stephanie flores. >>y name is asartinez. >> my name is jorgina butler >> two months into my duty assignment, i was raped by another soldier. >> i was sexually asd by someone i knew. >> in october of 2016, i was at a party off base with somef my friends and then i just remember waking up on my front yard. >> i was wearing brown sweats pad a tan army t-shirt and my hair was braided over my shoulder and, and then next evening, i woke up and i was not wearing that. and i had blood on me and i was covered in vomit. >> i personally experienced sexual harassment from my direct supervisor, right, and it was a lot of sexist comments, a lot of towards me. and comments

>> i didt even know about the assault, the act or anythi. that's how blacked out i was t y madee actually call the male that they found his d.n.a. it took me an hour to build up the courage to even pick up the phone. i was scared. i was crying. >> they had all the evidence of him saying, "yes, i... yes, i do remember that night. yes, i did do that," and they still, they still, for some reason said that there was not enough evidence. and i chose, like vanessa, not to report it right away, because, you know, you see these things happening and nothing lyhappens. the ifference between me and her story is that i walked away alive. >> with vanessa guillen's story, i think i saw myself in her. i was a young hispanic enlisted soldier. i was alsooo scared to tell my >> i went to my chain of command and i told them what happened and i was immediately told to bury this. >> they made me feel like i v wasn'ttim, that it was me that initiated it.

by going ta party. and they kick me out for having p.t.s.d. d he stayed in. the first thing that they told me was like, well, you are new to the military. no one is gonna believe you or nothing >> the first questions they asked were, were you drinkin how much were you drinking? and what were you wearing? >> i ended up dropping the case becausdn't feel comfortable prosecuting my faith in the systei didn't have >> my two friends thought that it was appropriate to go speak to one of our school instructors who happened to be on duty that day. he had a very candid conversation with me about how that wouldegatively affect my life if i were to report such a crime. re i would like the "what you wearing" to stop. "what did you do?" because in reality, there's no..there's no way to protec yourself against somebody who has this in their mind to do it. >> i really started to experience debilitating migraines.

i would have a migraine every single day. i couldn't do my job. eventually, i was medically discharged because i was unable to perform my daily duties. i still live with the trauma every day. >> i still go to therapy every week.i' on a lot of medications to sleep, to i have no nightmares, to function normally. i ha a service animal. >> i went to the e.r. and that's when i started to just like unreal reveal a lot of the things that was happening to mee like a suittempt with alcohol and pills. ed>> i know that we all sip for, and we have to really accept the reality that we may die fighting for this country ovseas. but we did not sign up for to be sexually harassed and sexually abused by our own fellow soldiers who we are supposed to fight alongside. >> i would really like to see some more accountability. that vanessa was m forpossible over a month in an institution where supervisors are supposed to have accountability of their soldiers at all times of day >> you can't investigate yourself and that's what fort hood does. they sent the cases back down to the unit, to investigate emselves.

>> what a lot of the survivors and i have discussed is wanting a separate civilian entity that only deals with military sexual trauma. i shared under the hashtag. and hundreds of people have been in my inbox for facebook and twitter wanting to share their stories with me. and for a lot of them, it's the first time they'ver ver shared thory. you can't kick me out of anything anymore. so me using my voice might protect somebody else. >> schifrin: so why is sexual harassment and assault such awi spread problem? and what can be done about it? for that, we got two views. first, retired lieuten colonel geoffr corn was a former army lawyer who nowim teaches al law and national security at south texas college of law.fo aner captain melissa bryant served nine years in the army as an intelligence officerd ing in iraq. she's now a veterans advocate and a legislative and policy consultant.ou welcome tooth to the newshour. secretary esper was quoted

earlier saying that th had made some progress. and i want to list some of the things the military has done over the last few years. d.o.d. is now required to release sexual assault data every year. there's now mandatory training for all service members in what is sexual assault, how to prevent it. legal ficers known as special victims advocates are assignedor to people to rwho report sexual assault. and the chain of command at the colonel or navy captain level have to be notified of sexual assault cases. melissa bryant, have those changes made the difference? absolutely necessary for improved justice. it's been gradually implemented by d.o.d., but it still doesn't take away influence out of the nds of commanders and put it into those special prosecutors that you just mentioned. stated to her family that she feared retaliation means that it has not been enough. and we need to take that unlawful command influence outof he military justice system when, we're talking about sex crimes like this. >> schifrin: jeffrey corn, do

you think those anges have made a difference? >> i mean, they absolutely have made a difference. been the increased number ofas reports of sexual misconduct in the military, which is a double edged swd because the military ss criticized because of increased sexuallt numbers. but those numbers reflect an increase in reporting. i don't think they reflect an inease in the propensity o these offenses to occur. look, nobody in uniform deserves to suffer the way these women suffered. and there are male victims as well. but there is no evidence that there is a substantial amount of command influence that's implicating the willingness of these conveninauthorities to send cases to trial when they're presented to them. e chlenge has been getting them notified of these incidents, which is why, as you noted, d.o.d. imposed a requirement that all incidents rt sexual misconduct be re up to the colonel or captain level. that's to ensure that junior

level commanders don't sweep them under the rug. >> but when you're looking at the fact and you're looking atmi the overwh anecdotal evidence that unfortunately does not get captured by the rerting, then that's when recognize that there is a very real feaof retaliation that still exists. there is a very real command influence that exists over said commanders. and so, yes, while that may be elevated, that convening authority decision to, two and three stareneral officer, flag officer rank. it still does not improve the issue of bias. that bias is still there. we need to be able to ensure that any form of bias been removed from the chain of command and removed from the from anywhere within the procedures for any pending trial. >> schifrin: geoffrey corn, you mentiod increased numbers just to put a number on that protect our defeers say sexual assaults jumped 38% from 2016 to 2018. and also there are surveys that

also grown.eported assaults have so is that not an indication that the problem is, ifa, getting wo >> it is actually a manifestation that the efforts to enhance the probability of reporting have been improved. and i think there's a point of consensus between me melissa. i can tell you as a private, the idea that i would go make a report against my sergeant or my captain or my lieutenant was inconceivable. the institution, by ry nature, makes reports by t subordinatsuperiors extremely difficult,pa icularly when they perceive there's misconduct. so there is a lot of work that continues and needs to continue to give soldiers, airmen, marines and sailorat every level the absolute confidence that are-- if they're candid and honest about an accusation of misconduct, they will not besu ect to retribution. >> listen, i was a 20 year old c wad was at fort hood. i can understand what the

essure that a specialist like vanessa guillen could feel.th reason why you need this is because we live and work among one another. and that's why you need to remove that bias. we need to be able to that that survivor is able to come forward and not face any one necessarily from their unit who may have undue influence over the outcomes of justice. >> schifrin: melissa bryant, geoffrey corn, we'll have to leave it there. thanks very much to you both. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you very much for having me. >> nawaz: as we reported earlier, precident trump's on to commute the prison sentence of his long-time ally roger stone is raising questions. our lisa desjardins has this report. >> desjardins: roger stone, political strategifr, lobbyist annd and adviser to president trump, friday night, celebrated becoming a free man, after mister trump commuted his

upcoming three-year prison sentence. >> i had a very gracious call from the president of united states who told me that he had decided to use his extraordinare of clemency to commute my sentce at what he called a full commutationf my sentence. >> desjardins: stone was convted by a federal jury of seven felonies, five counts of lying to congress, and one each of witness tampering and obstructing a congressional investigation, all part of the vestigation into how he the trump campaign got a hold of damaging emails about hillary found were part ofsianators attempt to sway the election. >> roger stone was brought into eis witch hunt, this whol political witch hunt and the mueller scam. >> desjardins: president trump maintains the probe by special counsel robert mueller was a "politically-motivated "ax" and defended his commutation of stone's sentence. >> i d end up getting rave reviews for what i did for roger

stone. >> desjardins: stone said he felt "confident" his conviction would be overturned on appeal anyway. >> the president has said on a number of other occasions that he thinks i have a good chance of exoneration. >> desjardins: the president's extraordinary action brought robert mueller to break his year-long public silence, writing in the "washington post," "stone was prosecuted anc cod because he committed federal crimes. he remains a convicted felon, and rightly so."r muelote his team," identified numerous links between the russian government and trump campaign personnel, stone among them. while the president charges that he and stone are victims of political bias, his attorney general, bill barr, last week department's case against stone. >> i think the prosecution was righteous. >> desjardins: abc's pierre thomas asked at the time if barr would recommend president trump pardon or commute ste's sentence >> well, i think it's the president's prerogative. it's anique power that the president has, and it's certainly something that isto

committeis judgment. but as i say, i felt it was a appropriate prosecution and i thought the sentence was fair.rd >> dess: senator lindsey graham, a staunch ally of the president, supported the commutation, noting s offenses were non-violent, but some other republicans warned of political fallout, including maryland governor larry hogan. >> it's certainly going to hurt politically. >> desjardins: meanwhile, speaker of the house nancy pelosi called the president's decision "aplling." >> nawaz: roger stone is just the latest high-profe recipient of a pardon or commutation during the trump presidency. here to help put this move into some historical context is our own lisa desjardins. lisa, it's good to see ywi. let's star the context just of this president. when you look at this decision to commute roger stone's sentence, how unusual is it? >> well, i spent the day talking to experts, some of whom workede in this of previously, and this is a highly unusual number for two reasons. there are two things unusual about what the president has done re. first, while the number of

commutations is relatively low, it a small number, it's actually high for this point in any modern presidency. this is the highest number of commutations any president has had at tins pot in 30 years.g thother th that's unusual, amna, of course, is who's. getting th let's look at the graphic to explain. so far the president has commuted ten senten of those, at least three are people who are personally or politically connected to the president. it does depend on how you count it. that number could be depending on your deaf of those. roger stone, rod blagojevich, and the hammond brothers who set fire to public lan in oregon and that became a cause for conservatives. it's important towns that commutation here's are actually of a higher order than paons. commutations, that ends or short answer prison sentence currently underway or about to start. a pardon, a technical definition, is a forgiveness for

a felon who's already finished their sentence. for those in the justice department, commutations, to some degree, are more serious. i will say that the president has also issued a largnumber of pardons, and when you look at where those have gone, roughly about a third, just like th commutations, have gone to people who are personally or politically connected to this president. >> nawaz: so let's look at the broader american context. if you go ck into history, have other presidents granted this kind of clemszy to political allies and has there been the kind of politicalfa out you heard in youreport maryland governor hogan say there could >>? t is so hard to compare anything these days to past history. 're in very unprecedented days. but president trump is nothe first president to commute or parton the sentence the ally or personal friend.ical gerald ford, many of our viewers will recognize, pardoned richard nixon. he was not convicted of anything t ahead ofny possible

conviction. that was very controversial. after that george h.w. bush pardoned six of the co-conspirators in iran contra. bill clinton may be the closest example, though not a perct analogy to president trump, he pardoned 140 people on the day he leftffice. what is the political consequences of that? well, for clinton and for george h.w. bush, they did it on the way out the door, but gerald rd did it while he was still hoping to have a future career. some people arguablysay that's what helped end his career. n az: so we heard attorney general barr also mention this is all, of course, perfectly legal, it's beenhe president's powers. there have been a lot of debate around presidential powers recently. of all the experts you talk to, where does this fit in to those theories of presidential power? >> founding fathers put this power in the constitution, alexander hamilton, particularly, because they wanted to make sure the justice system wasn't overly harsh.

they also wanted to have a place for potential political there were is not in either ofth ose contexts. let's look ats how hardit to get a commutation or pardon. look at how many of these requests are pending. over 13,000. those are procesbid a small office of the pardon attorney. just under 2 dozen people work there processing those claims, but the white house can intercede, and as we've seen, in most of the pardons under th president, the white house has interceded rather than going throh thtraditional process. >> nawaz: that is lisa desjardins with important context for us tonight. thank you souch, lisa. good to see you. >> you're welcome. >> nawaz: over the weekend, president trump'crits seized on the stone commutation. the lincoln project, a group working to elect joe biden inre

novemberased an ad calling the trump administration a iminal enterprise, and listing the members of the trump team who have been convicted of feloniesdo here to brea the political implications of this and more, our politics monday team.at amy walter of the cook political report and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter." d tamara keith of npr. politics podcast. the npr welcome to you both. and let's just start off with that ad. it's worth mentioning, tam, it was on friday that esident trump commuted the sentence of roger stone. on turday, the lincoln project had that ready to go. an ad like that leveraging stone's commutation. what is the messaging there and who is the messaging going towards? >> the lincn project has been a rapid response unit coming out with ads quickly whenever president trump does anhing they think deserv an ad. some of their ads are very

trolley, seemed to be aimed at audience of one who might be wahing "fox & friends" that morning -- the president of the united states. in terms of who they're trying to reach, arguably, they're trying to ach republicans who the last time around in 2016 may have had mediscomfort for president trump but couldn't bring themselves to vote for hillary clinton, and n there is a push, and it's broader than the lincoln project, certainly, plat's just one ex now there's a push to try to win over people who do feel uncomfortable with president trump and his norms-busting or his handling of avirus. it's not clear to me, though, that the stone commutation is gointo be the thing that puts people over the edge. i mean, president trump, as lisa reported, has ne a lot of these things and, you know, look to how he sort of has rewarded people, like lieutenant colonel vindman and others who testified in the impeachment trial.

>> nawaz: ta amy, what do you du make of this? >> i agree. if there's anything hurting the president it's the coronavirus. the crisis we're in right now, his approval rating -- (indiscernible). the majority of americans believe that on the issues, the president is not doing a good job on that. that's what's weighing this prident down, omuch more s than what is either happening with theommutations or the continuing back and forth with the president and (indiscernible) as his political emies and the tweet storm. >> nawaz: so, tam remarks let me ask you about the president's pandemic response. we've seen an administration struggling to messagon it consistently and coherently, and

this new development that yamiche alcindor reported on earlier of attacking the same persons working with the white house task force to help themre ond to the pandemic, specifically dr. anthony fauci. what do you make of that messaging? and, also, about the fact that the preside was seen for the very first time wearing a mask this weekendea >> the president was seen for theery first time wearing a mask this weekend. it's been months since the recommendation was put out, and he actively avoided wearing a mask. he it, and then his campaign was sort of shouting from herooftop, spiking footballs, whatever you want to call it, on twitter saying how manly and amazing he looked and now he's going to win the race. it was sort of an over the top response fromam hisign to what is, you know, a fairly standard thing that mosteople are doing, politicians or not. so the white house, in its

response and its inabout to sort of land on a message, this effort to separate from fauci or to have dr. uci be less of a public face, you know, part of that is when fauci goes out and does these interviews, he often is asked questions that lead to him revealingt that there is space between his view d the ite house view, and white utuse officials i've spoken to are frustrated a that. and they keep saying, you know, well, he's just one to have the experts, and, yet, fauci has been held up as "the" pe. he's on socks, he's on donuts and prayer candles, he's everywhere, and the white house is sort of frustrated by that. but the bigger question is what is their plan, what is their response? and that is mu less clear. it's sort of a going-forward strategy on how they're going to deal with the coronavirus. i mean, the president is doing

his best not to really talk about it, and when h does talk about it, he's often downplaying it or downplaying the deaths. >> nawaz: amy, some people are looking at the way the whe house has been messaging recently srecifically with rd to dr. fauci saying he's trying to undermine dr. fauci. when you look at how people are viewing those two messengers, what do we know about how people are taki in those two sources of information? >> in the recent polling dr. fauci has much high positivity rating than the president. the president loves to muddy the waters, the russia investigation is a perfect example of that. there is enough stuff out there that people start questioning and doubt what they're seeing if tthrow their hands up and say, i don't know, it all seems ke a mess, that's sort of a win for the president. the problem witt mud i did think the water in a public health crisis is it puts

people's lives in danger and there's no way that t president will get back the economy he would like to lkhave, g about how great the economy was before covid, how important it was to get schools back in session this fall, none of thatcan happen unless covid is under control and unless people in this count feel safe doing their everyday activities. so this is, again, the president goes back to his tritional strategy of just make it somebody else's fault, make it clear so that i don't get the blame. but in this case,hen you're president of the united states in a major crisis, the buck definitely stops wi you. >> nawaz: let me ask you tab how we're seeing some indication way the presidentiction. in some when you look at new poll numbers out from cbs news and you look at three key sun belt states, all states that have been hit very hard by the pandemic, are seeing surges. in florida, joe biden is now

leading president trump by six points, they are virtually tied in arizona, and biden is now competitive in texas. and how close they are, where they are today, what do they s to you? >> well, one thing about those three states is that they are demographically shifting, and that they are states that are growg more diverse, and that would matter, but what mattersre now, also, is that president trump is doing really poorly with older voters. they have been a critical part his base, and it's possanle heet them back, but right now, biden is performing wequite with older voters who are certainly a presence in tho states and are a significant part of why president trump was did in 2016 in those states.e and the issue with older voters is the coronavirus is affecting their lives in a very realay. i was talking to a republican pollster who also does a lot ofu

groups with women who said grandmhers are mad, grandmothers are lived. it's not justabout, you know, having to shelter in place or, you know, feeling at risk from coronavirus, they can't see their grandkids, and that affects them in a very visceral way. >> amy, let me ask you about some related orossibly relat senate races, too. if you look at thend battlegr states athand see president trump could be vulnerable there, what about other incumbent senators in red states? should the be similar concerned? >> they should be concerned and will very concerned. amna, going into 2020, democrats overall playing field. on the theye not playing as much defense as, say, 2018, but they didn't have a lot of obvious target. as the president's numbers sink, that means republicans numbers are sinking even in places that

theoretically, at least earlier this year, looked safe for them, like iowa, or we put up arizona, which is a purple state, but we are starting to see states likec montane online. so what this means now is, if you're a republican incumbent in competitive, you be very nervous and in par because the president is not just ltle bit of a drag, but he's like an anchor right now around the ankles of these incumbent republican senators. if he doesen see his numbers go up as we get closer to theon elecit's going to be very hard for some of these senators, and arizona is a great example of that for the incumbent republican senators to be ableto et enough oxygen to win these races. the other thing i would note about arizona and texas, we had a preview in 2018 of w those states are more competitive, and, as tam pointedut they're

very suburban. arizona, more than 60% of the votes comes from phoenix and the suburb. as the suburbs are changing and places like dallas and houston, san antonio suburbs, the austin burbs become more democratic leaning, it gets tougher and tougher for republicans to pullt oue kind of margins that states. used to seeing in those >> nawaz: there is a lot to track in the weeks and months aheaal that is amyr and tamera keith breaking it all down for us again in "politics monday." thanks to you both. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> nawaz: and on the newshour online, the supreme court recently made itfirst major decision on abortion since president trump took office, ant as broadly seen as a win for

the reproductive rights movement. but somecholars and activists caution that the narrow ruling does not necessarily signalor on rights will be protected by the high court in ture cases. we take a look at the implications of the june 29 decision, and what it means for abortion access in the u.s. going forward. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbsur newsthank you, please stay safe, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> since our beginning, our business has been people, and their financial well that mission gives us purpose, and a way forward. today, and always.

>> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transfoanative leaderideas. more at kendedafund.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. just, verdant and peaceful world. more iormation at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made n possible by the corporatr public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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om hello, everyone, and we to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. >> it doesn't hurt people. it's been out on the market for 60 or 65 years for malaria, lupus her things. >> in a pandemic, bad information nce mean the diffe between life and death. can facebook's new oversight board help stach the flow? i ask its co-chair, then...horning-schmidt. >> in august 1619, a ship appeared on this horizon, near point comfo, virginia. it carried more than 20 enslaved africans who were sold to the colonies. slavery, it is america's s origin and the impact is still being felt in the coronavirus pandemic. 1619 project creator nikole hannah-jones follows the thread. and later, foreign polic richard haass

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