captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, negotiations continue-- congress struggles to find common ground on a new coronavirus relief package after emergency measures have expired. then, covid and the vote-- despite the pandemic, the trump administration intensifies effos to undermine mail-in voting and the postal smbervice ahead of nove's election. and, camp in the time of coronavirus-- parents nationwide struggle to fill in the gaps left by the closure of summer camps. >> we are working in the middle

of a pandemic and in some cases where summer camps are held in goareas where caseloads arg up, we are certainly going to see that mirrored in the polation of children who attend camps. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: w n the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealtha anagement, dicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelity wealth management.

>> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote better world. at www.hewlett.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 tonyour pbs statrom viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: the covid-19 death toll across the united states has pushed past 155,000 tonight. all the while, the resurgence keeps spreing. but, children in parts georgia and several other southern states began returning to school today, leaving many nervous parents behind. >> we only go to parks if no one else ithere. we don't take them to the grocery store and now they're going to be in the classroom th however many ds for an entire day with a teacher and masks are allowed but they're not mandatory. so, we really have to rely on other people. >> woodruff: meanwhile, negotionationsnued between the white house and congress on a new economic relief bill. both sides reported progress.

but president warned he might try to act on his own to restore federal jobless benefits and protections against evictions. >> a lot of pele are going to e evicted but i'm going to stop it, because i'll do it myself if i have to. i have a lot of wers with respect to executive orders and we're looking at that very seriously right now. >> woodruff: for the latest on negotiations around the next coronavirus relief bill, i'm correspondent lisardins.nal >> woodruff: hello, lisa. i know things started to pick up ovethe weekend. what are you learning today about what is happening? >> reporter: as you said, judy, the word was progress. negotiators from democratic leaders and white house negotiators tomet for two houry at the capitol, walked out thought th made progress. what they did today for the first time, they put their nbers on paper, looked at the different proposals and what they would mean. there isn't a deal yet, by

secretary treasur man mnchin says they're open for a deal. so could there be a deal this week? there could be, but we have to watch. >> woodruff: teresting. mind us, what are the main points still of differences between the republicans and the democrats. reporter: okay, buckle up. i'm smiling because we're going to get into a lot of facts of numbers right now. here we go. let's start with some of t bigger divides. unemployment, the $600d ad benefit, democrats would like to keep it through december, and republicans are offering a short-term extension. ndey're iating today maybe they'll move a little. direct payments, the two sides agree on sending out more $1200 checks. and mocrats in their heros act wanted $90

mifor schools, and republicans want more funding for schools. more. let'get into more data on this. if you look at state and local funding, this is major difference. $1 trillion for stand local. republicans, nothing. they would give states more flexibility for the money that they've already got. testing and tracing, democrats, aga with more money than republicans. when you lok at food aid stamps, again, democrats would fund a lot more, and republnone. and election help, democrats want $3.6 billio and that's mostly to help with stamps and ballots for mail-in voting. republicans right now, no money for that. >> woodruff: and just finally, quickly, lisa, go back to what you re saying about the big gap on aid for state and local governments. what is behind that? reporter: right, right. this is a philosophical difference. the federal governmenth

shouldn't be propping up states. but democrats argue thatta manys have to balance their budget. they are seeing revenue decreas, of course, that are unresidente the difference, course is republicans say they'll fund schools, and democrats say much more needs to be done. judy, these are just t biggest issues. i want to look really quickly at this list of everything else that needs to be negotiated as well.lo at this, child care, the postal service, evictions, census, small businesses, underserved communities. this isn't even a complete list. this should give everyone an idea of the challenge ahead r lawmakers who really have only begun negotiating inarnest in the last 24 hours, that they're hoping to reach a deal this week. >> woodruff: interesting. it is all coming to a head now after these unemployment benefits, additional unemployment benefits, expired. lisa desjardins, i know you'll keep an eye on it. thank you. lc reporter: you're e.

>> woodruff: in the day's other news, the atlantic coast along the carolinas braced for the storm named "isaias" to strike inland this evening as a minimal hurricane. beachgoers made a last visit to the surf, skies grew cloudy and the sea, choppy. north carolina governor roy cooper said it's yet a challenge for his state. >> i know north carolinians have had to dig deep in recenntmonths to tapour strength and silience during pandemic and that hasn't been easy, but witth this storm oway, we have to dig a little deeper. letseep each other safe from the wind and water as well as from the virus. >> woodruff: states all the way north to maine arelso under ouorm warnings and watches. inern california, thousands of people spent

another day under acuation orders as a wildfire burned in mountains east of los angeles. it began friday and exploded in size over the weekend, to more than 41 square miles. crews have been battling in triple-digit heat to contain a small part of the fire. in eastern afghanistan, government forces have retaken a prison after a day-long fight with islamic state group attackers. at leastople were killed. fighters stormed the prison in frjalalabad trying t hundreds of isis prisoners. aowitnesses described the >> ( translated ): i saw the attackers who walked out of the corolla cars, and shot tgu ds of the prison, then the windows of the nearby buildings exploded over us. i started running awayrom the area, and then gunfire began. >> woodruff: a provincial official said later that nearly 400 isis prisoners were freed . the atta meanwhil chief negotiator and u.s. secretary of state pompeo held a

video call tonight. he gave no details. back in this country, a prosecutor in new york now says president trump's tax returns may ld evidence of illegal activity by the trump organization. in a court filing, manhattan district attorney cyrus vance junior cites public ports of "extensive and protracted criminal conduct." vance also says the investigion goes beyond hush money payments to women. a federal judge spoke out today for the first time since a gunman killed her son and wounded her husband at her new in a video statement, judge esther salas calecd for prng the privacy of those on the bench, since their rulings inevitably a.er some peop >> that comes with the territory, and we accept that. but what we cannot accept is

when we are forced to live in fear foour lives because personal information like our homes addressed can easily be obtained by anyone seeking to do us or our families harm. >> woodruff: the attacker, who later killed himself, was a lawyer and a self-described "anti-feminist." authorities say he had information on about a dozen other female judges as well. in economic news, the nation's oldest retailer, "lord and taylor," is the latest big depament store to file for federal bankruptcy protection in the face of pandemic losses. other new casualties include the company that owns joseph a. bank and men's wearhouse. in all, dozens of retailers have filed for chapter 11 protection this year, more than all of last year. despite this, on wall street, upbeat reports on manufacturing in the u.s. and europe pushed 26,6.s hhejodothinnew s

the nasdaq rose 157 points, and, the s&p 500 was up 23. ae covid-19. the st. louis cardinals' four-game series with the detroit tigers was put off today. seven cardinals players and six staff members have tested positive for the virus. the miami marlins also had an outbreak, but are due to resume play tomorrow. and, workers in paris have begun the four-year job of restoring the huge pipe organ in fire- damaged notre dame cathedral. the proce involves dismantling, cleaning and t reassemblihe instrument and its 8,000 pipes. the 18th-c organ survived last year's devastating fire, c but is nted in toxic lead dust. still to come on the newshour:

the trump admition intensifies efforts to undermine the postal service ahead othe election. the whe house and microsoft work to avoid a ban of the popular titok app in the u.s. parents nationwide struggle to fill in the ps left by the closure of summer camps. and much more. >> woodruff: with just about three months to go before the election and many parts of the country still locked in the grip of the coronavirus outbreak, the call for more americans to vote by mail has been growing. but as william brangham reports, the prospect has also raised some concerns.

rt brangham: there are new resuggesting the u.s. postal service is experiencing significant delays, and warning signs that could impact noveer's election. last month, the new postraster gelouis dejoy, who was a majodonor to president trump and appointed in may, issued neu ance that effectively slowed down the postal service. >> postal workers are now instructed to leave mail behind if delivery would force them to work overtime. that's a reversal of a longtime policy. ivthose parcels would be ded the following day. >> brangham: doy says these are cost-cutting measures to help the agency's perpeal budget shortfall. u.s.p.s. lost $3.9 billion in 2018. but, critics say this is a heliberate attempt to hurt postal service ahead of an election where, because the pandemic, more vers are expected to cast their ballots by mail, rather that voting in- person former president obama, during his eulogy for congressman john

lewis last week, sd the president was attacking voting rights in america: >> even as we sit here, there are people doing the darndest to discourage people from voting. even underning the posta service in the run-up to an election that is going to be dependent on mailed-in ballots >> brangham: it comes as the president has ramped up his attacks on the postal service,as which he halled "a joke" and more specificall on mail-in ballots, falsely claiming that they are different than absentee ballots, and rife with fraud. >> we all agree that absentee voting is good. maballots will lead to the greatest fraud. >> brangham: meanwhile, there is acelready some ev that the president's rhetoric is influencing who is asking for those mail-in ballots. according to the florida division of elections, more than 1.3 million democrats in the

ballots for this sed mail-in primary. that compared to 924,000 qurepublicans ting the same. and, elections officials hav already received more than 513,000 completed ballots from democrats, versunearly 399,000 from republicans. with three months to go until election day, democrats are pushing for more mon for mail- in ballots in negotiations over the next coronavirus relief bill. they say that money could provide relief for the postal service. we should note that a handful of g severalnclud battleground states, will begin sending out mail-in ballots next month. we want to hear from the people who actually will deliver those ballots, so joining me now is mark dimondstein. he's the president of the american postal workers union. >>ark dimondstein, thanks very much for being here o on the "news hour." before we get to election, can we talk a

little about the delays? we seen reports about mail services having delays and packagesvend opes backing up. are your workers seeing that? are delays real, and what is causing them? >> first, thanks for s ving me on. all of the repo're tting from the people we represent, who are working the mail, sorting the mail, working in retail units, hoping to get letter carers out in the street, is these delays are real. it runs counter to everything thatostal work for. we treat the mail is if it is our own. w ie believen our model and the law,promp, and reliable serves. postal workers are not happy about it. the union vehemently opposes anything that delays the mail. what is causing it is the new postmaster general, who cameut in abosix weeks ago, from the outside, from the busine side, with no much knowledge about the innwoer

ings of this service. it is not the united states postal business, it is the united states postal service, and that is there for a reon but he has instituted some policies in a very arbitrary way, in our orew, that is cutting the hours of thers. if the same workers are there and you cut hours, the work can't get down. changing transportation of mail, and changing some of the directives and whether ople can wait to go out on a delivery site, to get to your home and your business. to get all of thil into the system. he says, no, you've got to get out there at 8:30, and you have to be out there at 8:30 and not 8:40. so all of the reports rs're getting from both postal worknd costumers, is that in the last few weeks, mail service been degraded, and that is wrong for the postal service. it is going to drie revenue and business away. and it is really wrong for the people of this country. >> now, this new postmaster general that you mentioned, he argues

that this is necessary cost-cutting, these measures he has put in place. this is the pandemic, there is a slowdown. everything will eventually ge there on time, but there has to be some belt >> well, again, this is a service, not a business.er is no question that the economic impact of the pandemic is al on the postal service. that's why congress needs to act. theyad a chance in march, with the cares stimulus package. they took care of prite corporations to the tune of $500 billion, but refused to take care of the public sector and the public postal service. they now have another opportunity to do this. the house of representativehas passed $25 billion of covid-19-related relief. this is an emergenc >> and we've been reporting there is this concern about the election, with the pandemic, there is going to be a tidalwave of

people mailing in ballots. sending those ballots back in. do you worry these slowdowns could hegitimately affect the ability of te postal service to deliver those ballots in time? >> sure, it could have an impact. the states will run the elections, the po service doesn't. we might have to adapt and get ballots out a few days sooner. people will have to be more cog sander t cognizant to t their votes in. if there is a post mark, as long as it is postmarked, it should be counted. but we want the pos office to correct the problem long before we get to the election. il should not be delayed. mail should not be slowed down. congress should act. and it is ironic, and in a way shmeful and sad that the postal workers are on nde front line in this ic, binding people, connecting people, in these challenging times, th somehow this wonderful institution that belongs to all of us is

not going to have the pport from congress and this administration that it should. contrary to what the president of the united states says, the postal service is not a joke. that's an insult to every hard-working postal rvice, an insult to every customer in this country. >> all right. mark dimondstein, president of the american postal workers union, thank you very much for your time. >> thanks so much for having m >> brangham: we now turn to someone who's in charge of running an election. utah has had a great deal of experience with mail-in voting and officials there say it has helped with voter turnout. spencer cox is utah's lieutenant governor and is in charge of eoverseeing elections in state. he's a republican who is also runninfor governor thifall. you so much for ing you have had a good deal of experience with mail-in voting. make the case, why ds it work? why do you like it? >> we've had tremendous

success here in the state of utah, n and the reawe like it are some of the reasons you just mentioned. first a foremost, it has really increased turnout here in our state. to give you jua quick example, if you compare the 2016 election, and many counties were mail-in, and we did a slow rollout, but not every countyadopted it right away, versus the primary election, we actually doubled voter turnout in th primary election versus 2016. the people of the state of utah really liked it when we talked to them because it leads to a more informed voter. so often we hear stories of people who get in the ballot booth, and ntthey here to vote for the governor, and there are all of these other races, or an initiative on the ballot and they knew nothg about that. in this case, they get their ballot two or three weeks before the election, and they can do some research to get informed,

visit the candidates' websites, and make their decision and mail i back. it has been a very popular thing here in the state of utah. >> you a one of five states, i believe, that es universal mail-in voting. president trp has repeatedly cast doubt about the process. he says it is rampant with fraud, and he has threatened to sue some states to block them, doing what you do in utah. are the president's allegations true, is there widespread fraud in your >> i can't speak for other states, but i can speak authoritative here in the state of utah. we worked very hard to put in place checks and different organizationizational structures. we actually review every signature. we have people, that that is all they did, review signatures, compare signatures to the signatures we have on file. we routinely audithose processes to make sure there is no voter fraud.

we're constantly updating our voter list, removing people who have passed away, changing addresses for people who have moved. we work very closely with the postal system, with the united states postalic se to make sure that we're in contact, and they let know when there is a change of address for people. so we've done doa trem job of putting in place those checks to make sure there isn't rampant fraud. there is very little fraud, and it is almost always unintentional. parents whose children have gone away to college, and they say, they'll fill out of ballot orthem, or a spouse who fills out for a husbanor wife, and we can tell when the signatures don't mah, and we let them know it is felony and we can't count them. and we have not seen

rampant voter fraud. i will say, and this is election, any way you do it, there is an opportunity for fraud here. we've had fraud r country since we were first a country. but vote by mail, the opportunits are different, but we don't see them as any greater. >> given that record of success that you're describing, do you worry that the president's rhetoric is going to put a stain on this election, that it will encourage peop not to vote? that some people might go and riskviontacting the s by going to vote in person, or they might not trust the results? do you worry about him poisoning the atmosphere around this electionn? >> wellof the things that is unique about our rm of government here is that elections really are done at the state level, and really at the local level, at the counl. le so even in a presidential election, we're having thousands of unty elections that are run by county clerks. and my hope is that ople have a trust in their

local government to run these elections correctly. they've been doing it for year. we take pride as election we do he right way. sure i have a concern with the last piece of that, and that is anything that would call into doubt after election happens, the validity of that election. this is the foundation our nation, of our constitutiona republic, the democratic republic that has for 240 years we've been doing this. so i do worry. and i think it is incuents on all of us that run elections to make sure we're transparent in the way we do things so people have full trust in the elections and in the resus of that election. >> lieutenant-governor spencer cox of utah, thank you ve much for your time. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, a look at how pular video streaming app, tik tok, became the subject of

intel nse politirutiny and why microsoft hopes to land the u.s. part of the business as its own. nick schifrin has the story. ♪ ♪ c >> schifrin:oconut crusher... ♪ ♪ a donut dancer... >> ♪ when they say i'm not hot, all these lies need to stop >> schifrin: a teenage lip-sync diva. tik tok's viral sensations have combined access to music... >> i see it as a piece of cake. >> schifrin: ...and editin tricks made easy, to create a social media monster. tiktok has nearly a billion ers, and videos of viral sensations and their mini me's, are watched hundreds of millions of times. >> tiktok's really become a henomenon. it's the users, the graphics, it's the interface. and they basically have a magic formula that's really had a magnetic attraction. >> schifrin: daniel ives is the managing director of the venture

capital firm wedbush securities. he says one of the youngest tech companies is the perfect target for one of the oldest tech companies, microsoft.>> hey're the ones that, 136 billion in cash. they're untethered from a regulatory perspective because they, of course, have no socia media platform. and they've had a consumer strategy that's been really on a treadmill for the last 10 years. microsoft.your grandpa's >> schifrin: this weekend, nfcrosoft released a statement ming it would pursue discussions with tiktok's exinese parent company bytedance over thefew weeks, and vowed tiktok's american users' and remain in the u.s.ed to the trump administration says corner tri, and tiktok's eight of hand isn't this american magician-- >> how are you doing that? >> schifrin: ...but the app's chinese parent company byncte and what the trump administration calls a national security threat to users' data. as deputy ey general john demers told me on friday: >> there's a lot of data that's beinected on us persons that we're concerned about, because we've seen the chinese acquire either through theft or

through attempted acquisitions large quantities of sensitive, personal data. schifrin: do you have any evidence that tiktok has passed information on users to the chinese government? >> we know that any chinese company is subject to its national security laws, that require it to share data with the chinese government. >> schifrin: senior administration officials tell pbs newshour that by friday, w there prepared to ban tiktok from the u.s. president trump made that threat public on friday night. it's not clear whether the threat was empty, but it worked. over the weekend, bytedance reportedly sweetened its offer. c.e.o. zhang yiming promised to sell his stake and divest bytedance from the u.s. tiktok, completely. and president trump gave his blessing in a phone conversati th microsoft c.e.o. satya nadella over the weekend. >> i don't mind ifther it's microsoft or somebody else. a big company. a secure company. fvery an company buy it. >> schifri more on tiktok and the security concerns

surrounding it we turn to samm secks. she is a cybercurity policy and china digital economy fellow at neamerica, a washington based think tank. >> welcome to the "news hour." you just heard john talk about how data in a chinese company can end up with the chinese government. anwe watched how most of these videos opti on tiktok are pretty silly. how valid are e administration's concerns? >> let's like at the concerns one by one. the first one is data collected on the platform could hand up in the chinese government. it has never responded to a lawfl data request. so that's risk number one. the second question is around censorship. could the chinese government assert an extra

territorial version of its great firewall and influence the kind of context by users outside of chi the third threat, i think probably is the most likely and less to wido these specific issues and is more the idea that the trump administration vie the government ofiping as a threat om a national security standpoint, and tiktok has managed to make it outside of china. so those are really the three risks we're talking about here. >> onthat first point, what john and others will int out, in 2017, china passed a national security law that forces its copies, whether wants to or not, to share with the government if the government are the intelligence agency asks for it? >> the national intelligence law is very vague. it essentially says that chinese organizations have to comply with national security investigations. what does that mean in practice?

could it mean that the ministe of stcould compel a company to turn data? in theory, yes. is that necessarily how it works in practice? not necessarily. i would argue that particularly when it comes to companies that are operating, kind of like tiktok, the chinese gornment may not have incentive to force thadt a to be turned ov. over. this raises the question: what is the strategic intelligence on data liof synching and dancing. here it is important to look at the kind of datang we're tal about, location data, preferences. is the chinese government collecting a dossie american citizens that could be used in a nefarious way? to date, there is no specific intelligence, other than citing this very vague law, which could be read either way, and in practice oftentimes

turning data over to the chinese government is much more of a negotiation. i would say that the percentage of the time in whicthe government is focused on high-value,ti high-impact nal security targets, it is probably quite small. in those cases, companies probably cannot push back. those data access requests do not meet that high threshold, and it is much more a negotiation in practice. >> we've only got about 30 seconds left, samm sacks.so is thetion to these concerns that you and the government are raising to a certain extent have tiktok owned by an american company or even toan tiktok? >> i think there are ways to get at the security issue without banningthe company, without essentiay forcing a divestiture. put in place rules for how much data companies can collect. if it is sensitive they have, put in place strong

restrictions on their ability to retain that data, backed up by strong audits. this way you can avoid a blanket ban or selloff. >> samm sacks of new america, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woouff: for millions of kids, summer usually means swimming, learning crafts and playing atummer camp. but with so many camps closed by the pandemic, john yang looks at what it mer children and their parents. >> yang: for the po years, essence tunley has sent her 10- year-old daughter elle to wildwood outdoor education centside kansas city for a week-long sleep-away camp. it's a hhlight of summer for elle. >> i get to meet new people, i get to... i got to go swimming

in the lake. and i had... and the fo was great. >> yang: it's a family tradition: essence tunley attended wildwood when she was a young girl. >> social interaction, diversity. it highlighted that for me. and that's what... that's something that's very importanth before i send her into the world, that she's had periences with a lot of different people >> yang: so news that wildwood, like many camps across the country, would be closed this year was a blow. >> i felt upset because i really wanted to make friends. and want to try nengs there. gnormally struggle not be noticed. and at camp, i don't feel like that. i have lots of fabends who care t me.

>> yang: for many, camp is a staple of summer. according to the american ca association, over 26 million kids attend camp every year. but this year, the group estimates that about 40% of day camps are not offering regular services, and 82% of overnight camps are closed. camps pride more than just fun. many serve l-income families, a group hurt especially hard during the pandemic, and children with special needs. for families, already dealing with school closures and social distancing, it's another unexpected change. >> my son hasn't seen another child since rch. old son stephen has cerebral palsy and vision impairment. he relies on day camps for key developmental skills. >> when you have a child with a disability liksteven's, especially motor disability, you as much as you wan stop. growing and they're getting bigger and heavier and their bodies need to

catch up. and so the sumr camps could afford four to eight weeks sometimes. working on the physical skills, so that we basically keep him at a baseline that wouldn't lose his mobility throughout the year. >> yang: camp also allows him to grow socially and emotionally. >> he gets stronger. he gets more confident. hey.. i mean, he's a little little boys want to go. move.want to... they want to they want to explore their environment. and so once he starts gaining that strength and that confidence in these cps, that are so amazing, they've always been amazing, it's just-- he comes alive. >> i mean, even as a kid, but even as countdown for camp.e a i still have an app on my phone that tellme i'm like, okay. 36 days till camp starts. >> yang: emma nockels attended the y.m.c.a.'s camp duncan outside chicago for four years as a camper and has worked there e last eight.

>> it was heartbreaking.yo know, if you wait the whole year to be at one place and you ceit the whole year to just have these experiwith these kids, like, you know, just campfires, fishing, kayaking, whatever it is, you wait literally your entire year for it. and then just to have the news that it wasn't going to be this year. it's just i can't even i can. i cried on the phone to my boss. i was so upset about it. >> yang: for her, there's an aaldded finanurden. >> it's how i pay for school and that's how get by, really. so, yoknow, thinking financially, it's been really kind of devastating. ort just thinking about ite camp and having to see this kids is even more devastating. >> yang: the american camp association estimates more than 900,000 jobs and $16 billion in revenue have bn lost. camps have opened, some with serious consequences.

ers for disease control and prevention investigation of a june outbreak at a y.m.c.a. overnight camp in georgia, which did not require masks for campers, found that at least 44% of the more than 600 campers and staff tested positive for covid- 19. >> what we've seen with these outbreaks was not unexpected. >> yang: mercedes carnethon is vice chair of preventive medicine at northwestern university's feinberg school of >> we have to acknowledge that we are working in the middle of a pandemic andme cases whinere summer camps are hel areas where caseloads are going up, were certainly going to see that mirrored in the population of children who amps.d >> yang: at the same time, public health offiandare lessons parents can learn from these cases, especially about whether to reopen schools. >> and so i don't see this as markedly changing our decisions

about whether to go back to school, which should be largely dteriven by the background of disease and again, community. it emphasizes the flexibility that we're going to need to have with plans i see this as more information to refine the pross in order to hopefully make as safe as possible. agn, empsizing that there is no no-risk situation. >> yg: parents are finding hopeful signs in this frustrating summer, like the way handled the constantn has uncertainty. his mother, eva joseph. >> like all other kids, they learn to adapt and then they learn to find their own center as they try to absorb their anrents' angst and changes in routinbeing cut off from his friends and his teachers. and i feel as though he's done tthat in a way that i'm j really proud of him for.

>> yang: a in kansas city, le tunley says she's looking forward to when the coronavirus isn't a problem. >> how much that i would like to go is really, really, really bad because i want to meet new s, i want to learn how to make new friendship bracelets, and i want to be able to go into the deep end again. >> yeah, that's the highlight, is getting to the deep end of that pool.er she taughtlf how to tread water, so she's ready. >> yang: ready, she hopes, for next summer. r the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> odruff: a few key states will be holding primary elections this weewhile the search for joe biden's running mate picks up steam. elp us dive deeper, i'm joined by our politics monday

team: amy walter, the national editor of the "cook political report" and host of the podcast "politics withmy walter." and tamara keith of npr. she also co-hosts the "npr politics podcast." >> woodruff: hello to both of you. we heard william brangham a few minutes ago speak about the requests are going out for absentee ballots in a number of statessfor these aut primaries. amy, tomorrow primaries in arizona, michigan, washington state, missouri, kansas, an then on thursdayin tennessee. you've been focused particularly on the kansas senate republican primary. tell us what you're looking at. >> right. judy, kansas isn't normally considered a battleground state at the presidential or senate a democrat hasn't won since the 1930s, but a lot publicans are worried that that streak tsuld end and democ

could find themselves on top of what they see is a very contentious primary, and that is the former secretary of state, chris cobak. atoria the gubern nominee for republicans in 2018. he was endorsed by donald trump. e is also an immigration hardliner like donald and the fact that he lost to a democrat in kansas spooked a lot of t publicans who say we cake that kind of risk now. i still think kansas is a tough place for democrat to win even in what is year for democrats across the country.ub that rcans have about kansas really speaks to is the reality of the senate playing field gegetting bigger and br and bigger, and not in a good way for publicans, in a better way for democrats? republicans are completely on defense in places that they did were going to have to be on defense. not just kansas, t

states like iowa and georgia. so to have to go in, theoretically spend money and effort to win a ste at should be, in normal times, a slam-dunk, that has to be frustrating for them. >> woodruff: it has to be frustrating. kim, widen it for us from the senate to prthe idential race. speaking about being on the defensive, the trump campaign last week took down its ad, said they were going dark, and they were going to retool with a somewhat new message. what were they saying and e at is this chal about? >> their new message is not that different from their old message, although the ads have a slightly different look. what they're alleging atis oe biden is an empty vessel or a trojan horse or any mber of other things for radical leftist democrats. and people who, at the president's rally in tulsa, he talked about joe

biden, and delivered some attack lines on joe biden, and they didn't really gethe crowd that excited. and then the president talked about the squad, or nancy pelosi, and the atowd was much more an. so in some ways, the trump caaign's strategy is the same strategy it wasag month, to try to tie joe biden, who has been known as a mother, moderate, to more liberalaggressive sides of the democratic party. they pulled out all of their s, d now they're back up. and this speaks to the map that amy was talking about. they are back up, running ads in arizona, florida, north carolina, d georgia. they bought about $6 million in ads for this week. those are states that prident trump won last time, and relatively easily. >> woodruff: and i want to talk some more about this, but i've got to ask you both about what is going on the biden

camp. amy, a lot of focus right now on the vice presidential pick. oint they said we're going to hear this week. now they're saying it is going to be next week. what areou hring? what do you make of the fact that there are still a number of women -- he said it is going to be a woman -- out there, and a lot of speculation about which one? >> judy, for the last 10 or 20 years, it henas be pretty common to the challenger candidateor candidates who are not the incumbents, to announce their vice presidential pick the weekend before the convention. so that wouldn't really be out of step for joe biden to do the same thing. we have about two weeks before the democrats' convention. but joe biden did say a number of times he thought he would have his decision by this moment in time. i don'know that it does him much good to roll this out right now, as opposed to waiting a little whileer

lo there are some concerns about democrats there is a lot of elbowing going on between the camps of some of the women who are named, whohave been named as potential vice presidential candidates, but i don't think that reallyreaks through to most voters. impofor joe biden, he says people around him if somebody he has chemistry with, somebody that he can really melt with in the way he says he was able into joith president obama, and that was very important to him, and it is very important to hisrelationship with the president. at the same time, i think for voters, what they are prably most concerned about is whether the person that joe biden picks is qualified to step te if joe biden is not able to comphis term. this is the oldest person w ewould elect president of the united states. having somebody in thet number two sho voters

can look at and say, you know what, i can see that person slip -- you know, taking that president's job if need be, is going to be the more important thing when we'rein think about it politically. >> woodruff: so, m, there is aays a lot of focus on this, a lot of guesgong, of course, g on. how much is really riding, though, on who he choos? >> yeah, judy, this is the season of speculation. speculation that comes around every four years, staking out driveways and thbackyards. an in the end, you find out who the vice presidential pick iand not much changes because while a viceresidential pick can sometimes do harm, it rarely does all that much good. you know, the vicees ent is the vice president. as amy says, there is a significance in this case, or in many other cases, you might think of john

mccain, for instance, was an older candidate as well, where the vice presidential picwas important, being seen as qualified was important, and that became a ct in that race. and so thertee are ial negatives, but the positives aren't that positi >> woodruff: wow! well, that will not stop us from doing a whole lot ng guessing and tal about this between now anden wh we know the name. tamara keith, amy walter, thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> you're welc e. >> woodruff: august 2 would have been literary icon james baldwin's 96th birthday. the resurgence of blk lives matter protests across the world has created renewed interest in his work. a new book "begin again: james baldwin's america and its urge

lessons for our own" explores tibaldwin's ideas for thess. amna nawaz recently spoke to author and princeton professor eddie glaude, jr. about his work. this is part of our ongoing arts and culture series, canvas. >> grappling with the fact that the country semingly was doubling down on its darkness, on its meugly comms, and trying to figure out how could i muster the energy to push the rock back up the hill. and watching it take root in my own sun. it seemeto me i needed to find a way to get it on the page. i've been reading and i've been reading jimmy baldwin, where i call him jimmy, because he's like a personal friend. after all of these years, i've been rding him for abopl 30 years grg with his ideas. and then finally i turned to him to help me think about this current moment.

so this is a book written with him about bob, about darkness of our times. >> nawaz: we should point out this wasn't rc academic ee. it was a physical. and you made a pilgrimage of sorts to different ses that were important through baldwin's life. >> so i took a quick flight to n.e. in order to go visit voldwin's home in st. paul, and, you know, it's being turned into it's being destroyeand turned into expensive condos, even baldwin's place of rest, but couldn't survive capitalism. and i make a pilgrimage to his home. and it looked like an archeological site. it was beautiful at once and tragic in another sense. and it kind of gave me a sense of the fme of how to talk about baldwin. now in a moment where even his place of quiet has now been turned into a place of greed and opulence, as it were.

>> nawaz: well, there's been an undeniable surge in interest in popular culture acro the board you think back a few years. there was a 2016 documentary by rebel pac that was his epic debate on race against william buckley that even 55 years later, has resonance online. there's still millions of views. >> evolves any place for you. >> w do you think that is? why do you thk so many why? why do you think that why do you think so many people, especially in recent years, are turning to james baldwin? >> well, i think, you know, i think he's the premier, probably democracy on race everf american produced. he seems to me i thiri he's the inr, ralph waldo emerson, who takes emerson across thedu tracks and ints him to the blues, as it were. but i also think, you kn, baldwin queers, american politics, queers, black politics. here you have this fragileueer black man who spoke boldly and

truthfully to two, to the times, to the circumstances of black folk and circumstances of all americans, actually. and you have a group of people, you know, black lives matter. it's model of leadership was very different. it was queer. it resisted the kind of pulpit focus. and so you saw all over 2014 and then even up to today, you saw quotes of jimmy from jimmy baldwin everywhere. ignorance allied with power is the most ferocious enemy of justice. innocence is the crime. all of this is all over the place. and i think it has something to dtho aldwin's precedence and the fact that he models a different way of doing this work, it seems to me. >> nawaz: you write about how baldwin struggled with his own grief, his own trauma, his own, disillusionment with the moral state of our country. we are talking here as thousandc of people are ng for black lives across the country, as we as a countryre reckoning with

our own history and who deserves to stand and monument in our city sques. what do you think those urgent lessons, as you put it? >> we have to tellathe truth of e've done. and then what and how what we've done has made us monstrous bewe have denied it right. we have to. we have to really understand what this idea that some people, because of the color of their skin, that white people ought to be valued more than others. how that has destroyed and disfigurednd distorted our character, right? and how it has in some ways, shall we say, undermine democracy in all of its form. and so by telling the truth, confronting it honestly, it opens us up to being different to being otherwi and so baldwin wants us to confront the scaffolding of lies and illusions that provide us

comfort and safety. >> nawaz: the book, again, is a "begin: james baldwin's america and its urgent lessons for our own." the author is eddie junior. eddie, thanks so much for being with us. always good to talk to you. yo>> always good to talk t thank you. >> woodruff: andhohat's the ne for tonight. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and e you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newsho has been provided by: >> since oinning, our business has been people, and their financial wellbeing. that mission gives us purpose, and a way forward. today, and always. >>endeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. re at kendedafund.org.

>> the alfred p. sloan foundation. driven by the promise of great ideas. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, veant and peaceful rld. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. anbsby contributions to your station fm viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, c captioned by media acc

to "amanpour & co.e, and welcome here's what's coming up. >> the american people need more help. >> the senate struggles over a senate bill as the country focuses on a catastrophe. >> attorney general william barr sees himself as more of president trump's interest than he does as the attorney general of america. >> he'll tell us why h cs soured on tef attorney of ic am >> what the pandemic has made so real is the consequences of neglect.

>> president emeritus of miami-dade college tells our walter isaacson that top