♪[music] >> good evening. i'm judy woodruff on the newshour tonight. negotiations continue. congress struggl to find common ground on a new coronavirus relief package, after emeency measures have expired. then covid and the vote. despite the pandemic, the trump administration intensifies efforts tondermine mail-in ting. and the postal service, ahead of november'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 areorking in the middle of a pandemic. and in some cases, when summer camps are held in areas where case loads are going w up,are

ceainly going to see that in the population of childn w attend camp. >> all that and more on tonight's pbs nshour. ♪[music] >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by..e >> wthe world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicateddvisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fideliy wealth management. onsumer cellular. johnson & johnson. financial services firm, raymond james. women's suffrage centennial commission. the zuckerberg initiative. working to build a more healthy,

just and inclusive future for everyone. the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting instutions to promote a better world. and with t ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contbutions to your pbs station from viewers like you. y thankou! >> the covid-19 death toll

across the united states haspu ed past 155,000 tonight. that comes a health experts say the resurgence is improving in parts of the sunbelt but still spreading elsewhere and children in p otsf georgia and several other southern states began returning to sool today, leaving many nervous parents behin >> we only go to parks if no one else is there. we don't te them to the grocery store. and now they're going to be in a classroom with however manyids for an entire day. with the teacher. and masks are allowed but they're note mandatory, so w really have to rely on other people. continued between the white economic relief bill.er a new both sides reported progress. but president tru warned that he might try to act on his own to restore federal jobless benefits and protections against

evictions. >> a lot of people are going to be evicted. but i'm gonna stop it, because i'll do it myself if i have to. i have a lot of powers with respect to executive orders. and we're looking at that very seriously right now. >> for the lest on negotiations around the next coronavirus relief bill, i'm joined now by our congressional correspondent, lisa. so hello, lisa. i know things started to pick ue over thend. what are you learning today about what's happening. >> as you sd, jud the word was progress. negotiators from the democratic leaders and white house negotiators met for two hours today at the capitol. walk out, saying they felt they had made progress. what they did tay, judy, amazingly for the first time, they put their numbers o paper, looked at the different proposals and whatld they w mean. there isn't a deal yet but treasury secretary mnuchin told reporters that he thinks the white house is now open to a larger deal. as for the president doing action on his own,either

republicans nor democrats in congress are taking that so could there be deal this week? there could be but we have to watch. >> interesting. so remind us, what are the main points still of differences beheeen the republicans and democrats? >> ok. buckle up. i'm smiling because we're gonna get into a lot of facts and numbers right now. here we go. let's start with some of bigger divides. unemployment, that $600 addedfi be democrats would like to keep that through december. republicans for now are offering just a-term extension. but judy, they're indicating today that maybe they'll move a little bit. direct payments. the two sides actually agree on sending out more $1200 check schools, democrats in their heroes act in may offer $90 billion as what they wanted to fund schools. republicans, $105 billion. republicans wantore funding for schools. also, there's the -- if you look

at state and l funding, this is the major difference. democrats, nearly $1 trillion for state and localbl reans, nothing. they would give state more flexibility forhe money they've already got. testing and tracing, democrats, again with me money than republicans. when you look at food aid and snap the food stamps, again democrats would fund a lot more. republicans,one. and election help, democrats want $3.6 billion. that's mostly to help with stamps and ballots from mail-in llots. republicans right now, no money for that. >> and finally quickly, go bac what you were saying about local governments. for state and what's behind that? >> right. this is a philosophical difference as much as anything that republicans really believe that the federal government shldn't be propping up states. however, democrats argue that many states have to balance thei. budge they're seeing revenue decreases that are unprecedented.ce the differ of course, is in

the amount of money.ic repus say we'll fund schools, help local governments that way. mmocrats say muche needs to be done. judy, these are just the biggest issues. i wanoo to l really quickly at this list of everything else that needs to be negotiated as well. child care, the postal service, evicons, census, small businesses, underserved communities. this isn't even a complete list. this should give everyone an idea of the challenge ahead form ers, who really have only begun negotiating in earnest in the last 24 hours. but they are hoping to reach a dealhis week. >> interesting. it's all coming to a head now, after these unemployment itbenefits, anal unemployment benefits expired. lacy, i know you're -- lisa, i know you'll keep eye on it. thank you. >> you're welcome. ♪[music]

>> i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. and the rest of the program after the latest headlines. the atlantic coast along the carolinas braced for the storm named isaias to striked. inl this evening, the storm's winds regained strengtho hurricane foe. rshgbeoee skies grew cloudy and sea choppy. north carolina governor roy challenge for his state.ther >> i know that north carolinians have had to dig deep in recent months to tap into our strength and resilience durin the pandemic. that hasn't been easy. but with this storm on the w, we have to dig a little dper. let's keep each otherafe from the wind and water as well as from the virus. >> states all the way north to maine are also under storm warnings and watches. ni southern calif thousands of people spent another day under evacuation orde as a wildfire burned in the mountains east of

los angeles. it began friday and exploded in size over the weekend to more ethan 41 squ miles. crews have been battling the ble in triple digit heat. in eastern afghanistan, government forces haveta rn a prison after a day-long fight with islamic state group attackers. at least 39 people were killed. fighters stormed the prison in jalalabad, trying to free hundreds of isis prisoners. a provincial official said later that nearly 400 isis prisoners were freed in the attack. meanwhile, the taliban said its chief negotiator and u.s. secretary of state pompeo held a video call tonight. back in this country, a prosecutor in new york now say president trump's tax returns may hold evidence of illal activity by the trump organization. in a court fing, manhatt district attorney cyrus vance jr. cites public reports of, quote, extensive and protected criminal conduct.ay vance also the

investigation goes beyond hush money to womemp president taid tonight that he would sue nevada over a new law that would allow all voters in the silver state to se ballots in by mai tonight governor steve sisolak sinted the bill law after the state legislature approved it over the weekend nevada would become the eighth state to automatically send mail-in ballots to voters for the november 3 election. we'll have moreer on this l in the program. a federal judge spoke out today for the first time since a gunman killed her son and wounded her husband at her new jersey home last month. esther salas called for protecting the privacy of those on the bench, since their rulings can make them targets. >> that comes with the territory. and we accept that. but what we cnot accept is when we are forced t live in fear for our lives because personal information like our obtained by anyon seeking to do

us or our families harm. >> the attacker, who later killed himself, was a lawyer and a self-described anti-feminist. in economic news, the nation's oldest retailer, lord and taylor, is the latest big department store to file for federal bankruptcy proction in the face of pandemic losses. other new casualties include the company that owns jos. a. bank and men's wearhouse. a second major leagu baseball team has cancelled games due to 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 t virus. the miami marlins also had an outbreak but they're due to resume play tomorrow. and workers in paris have begun restoring thhuge pipe organ in fire-damaged notre dame

cathedral.the process involves dismantling, cleaning and reassembling the instrument and its 18th century organ. the -- the 18th century organ survived last year's devastating fire buts now coated in toxic lead dust. still to come o the newshour, the trump administration intensifies efforts to undermi the postal service ahead of the election. the white houseft and micro work to avoid a ban of the popular tiktok app in the u.s. parents nationwide struggle to fill in the gaps left by the closure of summer c and much more. ♪[music] >> therthis is the pbs newshourd in the west from thete walter cronchool of journalism at arizona state university. >> with just three months to goo the election and many parts of the country locked in the grip oforonavirus

outbreaks, the call for more americans to voteyail has been growing. but as william brigham reports, that prospect has raised concerns, since the postal service itself is caught in t cross-hairs of political battles >> there are new reportsems. suggesting the u.s. postal service is significant delays and warning signs that could impact november's election. last month, the new post master general, who is a major donor to president trump and appointed back i may, issued new guidance that effective 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 longtime policy. wthose parcelld be delivered the following day. she says these are cost-cutting measures. usps lost $3.9 billion in 2018.

but critics say this is att deliberatept to hurt the postal service ahead of an election, where because of the pandemic, more voters are expected to cast their ballots by mail rather than voting in person. former president obama, durin his eulogy for congressman john lewis last week, sairedent trump was attacking voting rights in america. >> but even as we sitere, there are those in power are doing their who darnedest to discourage people from voting, even undermininghe postal service in the run-up to an election that's gonna be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don't get sick! >> it comes as president trump has ramped up his attacks on the postal service, which he called a joke, and more specifically on mail-in ballots. falsely claiming thathey are different than absentee ballots and that they're rife with fraud. >> we all agree that absentee voting is good. mail-in ballots will lead to the

greatest fraud. >> meanwhile, there is already some evidence that the president's rhetoric is influencing o is asking for those mail-in ballots. according to the florida division of elections, more than 1.3 million democrats in the state have requested mail-in ballots for this month's primary. that's compared to 924,000 reblicans requesting the same. and elections officials have already received morn t democrats vs. nearly 399,000om from republicans. th three months to go until election day, democrats are pushing for more money for mail-in ballots in negotiations over the next coronavirus relief bill. haey say money could provide some relief for the postal service. handful of states, including some battleground states, will ben sending out mail-in ballots to voters later this month. so we wanted toe talk to sf the people who will be

delivering those ballots to voters n joining me is the president of the aricanostal workers union. thanks very much for being here on the newshour. before we get to t election, can we talk a little bit about these delays? we've seen these reports about mail serviel havings and packages and envelopes backing up. are your workers seeing that? are tho delays real? and what's causing them? >> first, thanks for having me on. all the reports we're getting from the people we represent, who are workinghe mail, sorting the mail, the letter carriers out in the streets, is these delays are real. it runs counter to everything that dedicated postal workers stand for. we treat the mail as if it's our own. believe in our motto and the law. prompt, reliable and efficient services and prompt meanssp dy. so postal workers are not happy about it. the union vehently oppos

anything that delays the mail. what's causing it ishe new postmaster general who came in about seeks ago from the outside, from the business sideo not very muchedge about the inner workings of this service. and i'd like to emphasize, it's not the united states postal business. it's the united states postal service and that's therefore the reason. but he's instituted some policies in a very arbitrary way, in our view, that's cutting the hours of the workers, which means that the se worker there and you cut hours and the work can't get done. changing transportation of mail and changing some of the i directiv whether people can wait to go out on a delivery site to get to your home, your business, to get all the mail into the system. he says, no, if you gotta get out there a 8:30,ou gotta be out there at 8:30, not 8:40. alle he reportse getting from both the postal workers and from customers is that in the last few weeks, mail service has

been degraded. and that's wrong for the postal service. it'soing torive revenue andss a. and it's really wrong for thesi people country.s >> now, this new postmaster general, he argues that this is necessary cost cutting. that this is a pandemic, there's a slowdown. everything will get the o eventual time but this is just what happens when -- that thereas to be some belt tightening. >> well, again, this is a service, not a business. there's no question that the economic impact of the pandemic is real on theostal service. that's why congress needs to act. they have a chance in march with the care stimulus package. they took care of the private side and private corporations to the tune of $500 billion but refused to take care of the public sector and the public postal service. opportunity to do this. the house of representatives has passed $25 billi of

covid-related relief. this is an emergency. >> as you also know, we've been porting that there's this concern about the election, that with the pandemic, that there's going to be a tie dal wave of -- tida wave ofeople mailing in ballots. do you worry that these slowdowns could legitimately affect the ability of the postal service to deliver those ballots in time? >> sure, it could have an impact. on the states who run the elec the postal service doesn't, mht have to adapt and get ballots out a few days sooner. people may have to be me cognizant of making sure to get their votes in. if it's a postmark, ahenlong as it's postmarked, then it should be counted. but we want the post office to correct the problem long before we get to the election.ul mail s not be delayed. mail should not be showed down.e co should act. and it's ironic and in a way shameful and sadt t as postal

workers are on the front lines in this pandemic, binding the country together -- that's our mission -- connecting people in these challenging times, tha somehow this wonderful institution that belongs to all of us is not goi to have the support from congress and ttis administ that it should. contrary to what the president of the united states says, the postal service is n a joke. that's an insult to every hardworking postal worker. it's an insult to every cusmer in this country. >> all right. president of the american postal workers union, thank you very much for your time.s >> tha much for having me. is in charge of running anho election. utah has had a longxperience with mail-in voting and officials there say it's helpedr drive v turnout. spencer cox is utah's lieutenant governor and he's in charge of overseeing elections in the state. he's a republican who is also running for governor this fall. lieutenant governor, thank you

very much for being here. as i mentioned, you have had a good deal of experience with mail-in voting. make the case. why does it work? >> well, we've tremendous success here in the state of utah and the reason we like i think, are some of the reasons that you just mentioned. first and i foremost, has really increased turnout here in our state. to give you just a quick example f youre com the 2016 election, which was --any counties were by mail then. we did a slow roll-out. but not every county adopted it right away. versus the primary election that we jus went through. we actually doubled voter turnout in in that primary election versus 2016. the people in the state of utah really le it, because it leads to a more informed voter. so often we hear stories of people that get in the ballotan boot they went there to vote for maybe the governor and there are all the down ballot races or there may be an initiative on the ballot and

they knew nothingbout that. in this case, they get their ballot two to three weeks before the election. they have an opportunity to actually do some research, to t informed, contact the candidates, visit their website. make that decision and then mail it back.it's been a very populag here in the of utah. >> one of the fiveha states does universal mail-in voting. president trump has repeatedly cast doubt about the process. he says it's r'sam tpahreateitned to sue soe states, to block them. are the president's allegations true? is there widespread fraud? is there widespread fraud in your system in utah? >> well, i can't speak for other states but ierinly can speak authoritatively here in utah. we work very hard to put in plac checks and different organizational structures to make sure there isn't fraud. we're very careful about that.

we actually review everye. signat we have people that that's all they do is compare signatures to the signatures that we have on file. we routinely audit those processeso make sure there is no voter fraud. we are constantly updatingur voter list, removing people who have passed away, changinger s for people that have moved -- changing addresses for people who have moved. we work very closely with the s postalvice to make sure that we're in contact, and they let us know when there's a change of address foreople. so we've done a tremendous job of puttingn place those checks to make sure that there isn't rampant fraud. what we do find,here's very little fraud and it's almost always unintentional, parents whose children have gone away to college, you know, they'll call and s, hey, i'll fill out your ballot for you or apouse who filling it out for their husband or wife. we can tell when the snatures

don't match and we let them know that is a felon and that vote doesn't count. we take painstaking pro to make sure there is no fraud. and we have not seen rampant voter fraud. i will say -- and this is important -- that every type of ection, it doesn't matter, any way you do it, there is the opportunity for fraud. we've had fraud in our country sincest we were f a country. but vote by mail, the ntopportunities are diffe but we don't see them as any greater. >> given that record of succeat ou're describing, do you worry that the president's rhetoric is gng to put a stain on this election, that it will encourage people note,o v that some people might go andtr risk cting the virus by going to vote in person or that they might not trust the results? do you worry about h psoning the atmosphere around this election? >> well, one of the things u thatque about our form of government here is that elections reall are done at the state level and really at the

localou level,y level. even in a presidential election, we're having thousands of county elections that are run by county clerks. and my hope is that people have a trust in their local governments to run these elections correctly. they've been doing it for years. we take great pride as elections officials in making sure we do it t right way. i certainly have a concern with the last piece of a that. that ithing thatould call into doubt after an election happens, the validity of that election. this is the foundatio of our nation, of our constitutional republic, thisemocratic republic, that for 240 years we've been doing this. so i.o wor and i think it's incumbent on all of us that run elections to make sure that we are transparent in the way that we do things so that people have full tru in the election and in the results of that election. >> all right. lieutenant governor cox of utah, thank you very much for your

time. >> thank you. ♪[music] >> now, a look at how the popular video streaming app, tiktok, became the subject of intense political scrutiny and why microsoft hopes to land the u.s. part of the business as its own. here's the story. ♪[music] reporter: coconut crusher. ♪[singing] reporter: a donut dancer. a teenage lip-sync diva. tiktok's viral sensations have combined access to music. >> some see this glass half full. reporter: and editing tricks made easy. >> but i see it as a piece of cake. reporter: to create a social media monster. tiktok has nearly a billion users and videos of viral sensations and their mini mes

are watched hundreds ofim. >> tiktok has become a phenomenon. it's the users, the graphic, th. interf they basically have a magic formula that's really had a magnetic attraction. reporter: daniel ives is the d managiect of web bush securities. he says one of the youngest tech companies is the perfect target for one of the oldest, microsoft. >> they're the ones, $136 billion in cash. they're uethered from a regulatory perspective. and neither haver a consu strategy that's been really on the treadmill for the last 20ye s. it's really your grandpa's microsoft. microsoftthis weekend released a stament confirming it would pursue discussions wite nce over the next two weeks. the trump administration says tiktok's slaight of hand -- sleight of hand isn't this american magician.

but the chinese parent company, bytedance, and wha the trump administration calls a national security threat for users' data. >> we've seen the chineseth acquire through theft or through attempted acquisitions, large quantities of sensitive personal data. >> do you have any evidence thas tiktok passed information of american or other users to the chinese intelligenceat app? >> we know that any chinese company is subject to its national security laws whi requires it to share data with the chinese government to. reporter: senior administration officials tell pbs newshour that by friday, they were prepared to ban tiktok from the u.s. president trumpade that threat public friday night. it's not clear whether the threat was empty but it worked. over the weekend, bytedance reportedly sweetened its offer. the c.e.o. promised to sellis stake and divest bytedance from the u.s. tiktok completely.

over the weekend, president trump gave i his blessing in a phone conversation. >> i don't mind, whether it's microsoft or somebody else, a big comny, secure company, very american company, buy it. reporter: for more on ttok and the security concerns surrounding it, we turn to sam saks, a cyber security fellow at new america, a washington-based nink tank. welcome to theshour hour. you just heard john talk about how data in a chinese company can end up with the chinese government. we also watched how most of the videos on tiktok are pretty silly. how valid is the adminiyration's secur concerns? >> let's look at the concerns one by one. the first one is that data collected on the ptform could end up in the hands of the chinese government. most likely through the parent company,ytedance,ince according to tiktok's transparency report, it has never respondedo a lawful data request.

so that's risk number one. thsecond question is around censorship. could the chinese governmenter essentially a an extra territorial version of its great firewall and influence the kind of content that was being seen by users outside of china? the third threat, i think, actually is probably the most likely and maybe has less to do with these specific issues and isore the idea that the trump government as an existential standpoint and tiktok is a very large, veryigh-profile company that has managed to make it outside of china. those are really the three risks we're talking about he. >> othat first point, what aey'll point out is in 2017 china passed national security law that forces its companies, whether it wants to or share with the government if the government or intelligence

agency asksor it. >> the national intelligence law is very vague. it essentially says that chinese organizationorganizations have t withnal security investigations. what does that mean in practice? could it mean thatis the my of state security or the public security bureau could compel a company to turn over dat in theory, yes. is that necessarily how it works in practice? not necessarily. and i would arg that, you know, particularly when it comes to companies that are operating outside of china l tiktok, the chinese government may not have incentiveha to force data to be turned over. this raises the question, what is the strategic intelligence value of data on lip syncing ann da here i think it's important to look at the kindf data we're talking about. location data. preferences. you know, is t chinese government collecting a dossierc on americaizens 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 ane tiation. and i'd say that the percentage of the time in which t government is focused on high value, high-impact national security targets is probably quitse small. in t cases, companies probably cannot push back. but the vast majority of thoses data accequests do not meet that high threshold. it's much more of a negotiation in practice. >> we've only got about 30co s left. is the solution to these concerns that you and the gornment are raising to a certain extent to have tiktok owned by anmerican company? >> i think that there are ways to get atec theity issue without banning the company,

without essentially forcing a divestiture. put in place robust rules for how much data companies, regardless of national origin, can collect. have, put i place stronghat they restrictions on their ability to retain that data backed up by strong audits. this way you can avoid ank b ban or a sell-off. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪[music] >> millions of american children, summer usually means imming,earning crafts and playing at summer camp. but with sops many c closed by the pandemic, we look at what it means for children and their parents. reporter: for e past two years, essence has sent her

10-year-old daughter elle to wildwood outdoor educati center outside kansas city for a week-long sleep away camp. it's a highlight of summer for elle. >> i get to meet new people. i get to -- i got to go swimming in the lake. and i had -- andd the f was great! reporter: it's a family essencettended wildwood when she was a young girl. >> social interaction diversity, it highlighted that for me. and that's why -- that's sothing that's very important, before i send her into the world, that she's had experiences with a lotenf diff people. reporter: so news that wildwood, like many camps around the untry, would be closed this year was a blow. >> i was upset, because i really wanted to meet new friends and i

wanted to -- i wanted to learn new things there. lonely, struggle, not being noced. and at camp, i don't feel like that. i have lots of fends who care about me. ireporter: for many, cam ast aple of summer. according to the american camp association, more than 26 million kid attend camp every year. but this year, the group estimates that about 40% of days caren't offering regular overnightnd 82% of camps are closed. camps provide more than just fun. many serve low-income families, a group hurt especially hard during the pandemic, and children with special needs. for families already dealing with school closures and social dancing, is another unexpected change. >> my son hasn't seen another child since march.

reporter: ava's son hebral palsy and vision impairment. he relies on dayamps for key developmental skills. >> when you have a chi wit a disability like his, especially constantly growing, as much as you want them to stop, and they're getting bigger and heavier, and their bodies need to catch up. the summer camps would afford four to eight works o just rking on his body, working on those physical skills. basically keeping him at baseline so he wouldn't los his mobility throughout the year. o allows himmp a grow socially and emotionally. >> he gets stronger, he gets more confident. i mean he's little boy. little boys want to go! they want t move. they want to explore their environment. and so once he starts gaining that strength and that confidence in these camps that hey've alwaysg -- been amazing -- it's just he comes alive. >> even as a kt even as an

adult, i still have a countdown for camp. i still haven app on my phone that tells me, 36 days till cams st. it was heartbreaking. you know, you wait the whole year to be at one place and you wait the whole year to justave these experiences with these kids, like, you know, just camp fires, fishing, kayaking, i whatevis. you wait literally your entire year for it. and then just to have the news that it wasn't going to be this yearit's just -- can't even -- i cried on the phone to i was so upset about it! reporter: for her, there's ande financial burden. >> that's how i pay for school and that's how i get by really. so thinking financially, it's been really kind of devastating. bu just thinking about moreot camp and n having to see the kids is even more devastating.

reporter: the am cicanp association estimates more than 900,000 jobs and 16 billionll ars in revenue has bee lost. camps have opened. some with serious consequences. the cters for disease control and prevention investigation of a june outbreak at a ymca overnight camp in w georgia,ch did not require masks for campers, found that at least 44% of 597 campers and staff tested positive for covid-19. >> what we have seen withhese outbreaks was not unexpected. reporter: mercedes is vice chair of preveive medicine at feinberg school of medicine. we are working in the middle of a pandemic and in some cases, when summer camps are held inea where case loads are going up, we are certainly going to see that mirrored in the

population of children who attend camp. reporter: at the se time, she says there are lessons public health officials andarts can learn from these cases, especially about whether to schools. >> i don't see this as markedly whether to go b to school,ut which should be largely driven by the background rates of disease and, again, community. it emphasizes the flexibility that we're going to need toave with plans. to refine the process in order to hopefully make it as safe possible. again, emphasizing that there is no no-risk situation. reporter: parents are finding hopeful signs in ts frustrating summer, like the way young steven coleman has handled the constant uncertainty. his mother, ava. >> like all oer kids, they learn to adapt and they learn to find their own center as they

try to absorb theirts par angst and changes in routine and being cut off from his friends and his teachers. and i feel as though he's done that in a way that, you know, i'm just really proud of him for. porter: and in kansas city, elle says she's looking forward to when the coronavirus isn't a problem. >> i would like to go really, really, really bad, because i want to meet new friends. i wann learn how to make new friendship braceletsend want to able to go into the -- >> that's the highlight, is getting into the deep end of that pool. ha ha! she taught herself how towaread r so she's ready. reporter: ready, she hopes, for next summer.for the pbs newshoun yang. ♪[music]

>> a few key states will be holding primary elections this t week whi search for joe biden's running mate picks up steam. to look into this and more, i'm join by amy walter, the national editor of the cook tlitical report and the h of the podcast politics with amy and tamara keith of npr. she also cohosts the npr politics podcast. hello to both of you. so we heard william few minutes ago speak about the requests that are going out for absentee ballots in a number of states for these august primroies. amy, tom primaries in arizona, michigan, washington state, missouri, kansas, and then thursday in tennessee. you've been focused particularly on the kans senate republican primary. tell usoo what you'reng at. >> right. well, judy,'t kansas i normally considered a

battleground state. a democratn hasn't won the senate race since the 1930's. a lot are worried that streak could end, because of what these a very cusnton particular, and that is the former secretary of state chris kobach. kobach was the gubernatorial nominee for republicans in 2018. he was endorsed by donald trump. he's also an immigration hard liner like donald trump. and the fac that he lost to a of republicaho say we can'ta lot take that kind of risk now. i still think kansas i t agh place for democrats to win even in what'so shaping up t be a cotter year perhaps across the trun ig democrats.bucans have about republicans are completely on defense, in places that they didn't think they were going to

have to be onefense. not just kansas but states like and so, you know, to have to go in theoretically, spend money and effort to win a state that should be, in normal times, slam dunk, that has to be frustrating for them.>> t has to behe apertur for us from the senate to the presidential race. speaking about being on the fensive, the trump administration last wk took down its ad. said they were goingark and they were going to retool. they're out with a somewhat new message. what are they saying? at was this change a about? >> so their new message is not that different from their old message, though the ads have a slightlyifferent loo what they're alleging is that joe biden is an empty vessel or a trojan horse or any number of other things for radical, leftist democrats. and people who, you know, at the

president's rally in tulsa, he he delivered some attack lines on joe biden. they didn't really get the crowd that excited. and then the president talked about the squadel or nancyi and the crowd was much more animated. so i some way the trump administration strategy is the same strategy it was months ago, which is to try to tie joe biden, who has been known as a moderate, to more liberal, democratic party.now, they had l their ads, as you say. now ty're back up. and this speaks to the map that kiy was t about. they are back up, running ads in arizona, florida, north carolina and georgia. they bought aboutil6on in ads for this week. those are states that president trump won t laste. and like relatively easily.

about this, but i've got to ask you about what's going on in the biden camp.a lot of focus righte vice presidential pick. at one point they had said we're going to hear this week. now they're saying it's goingexo be week. what are you hearing? what do you make of the fact that there's still a number of women -- he saidt's going to be a woman -- out there, a lot of speculation about whi one. >> you know, judy, in sort of the last, i don't know,0 10, years, it's been pretty common for thege chall candidate or for candidates who aren't the incumbents who announce their vice presidential week basically the weekend before the convention. that wouldn't be really out of step for joe biden to do the same thing. we'veot about twoeeefore the democrats can bench in. but joe biden diday a number of times that he thought he would have his decisios by t moment in time. i don't know that it does him

do gmu w tailng rool a little while longer. i know there's some concerns among democrats that, you know, there's a lot ofin elb going on between the camps of some of the women who are named -- who have been named as potential vice presidential candidates but i don't really think that breaks through to mt voter i do think what is important for joe biden, he says, people around him say somebody he has chemistry with. somebody that he can really meld with in the way he says he was able to join with president obama. and that was very important to him. it was very important to his relationship with the president. at the same time, i think for vote, what they are probably most concerned about is whether the person that joe biden picks is qualified to step in if joe biden is not able to complete s term. thiss the oldest perso we would elect president of the

united states. having somebody in the two slot who voters can look at and say, you know what? i can see that person, you know, taking that president's job ifed e. that's going to be the more important thing when we're thinking about it politically. f focus on this, a lotf guessing, of course, going on. how much is really riding, though, on who h chooses? >> yeah. judy, this is the season of speculation. it is the seasonf speculation that comes around every four years. you know,tang out driveways and backyards. then in the end, you find out who the vice presidential pick is. and not much changes. because while a vice presidential pick can sometimes do har it rarely does all that much good. you know, the vice president is the vice president. as amy says, there is aan

signif in this case or in many other cases. you might think o john mccain, for instance, was an older candidate as well, where the vice presidential p was important being seen as qualified was important. and that became an factor in that race. and so there are potential negatives. but the positives aren't that positive. >> wow. that will not stop us from doing a whole lot of guessing and talking about ts between now and when we know the name. tamara keith, amy walter, thank you both. >> you're welcome.>> ou're welcome. ♪[music] >> august 2 would have been literary icon james bal bdwin's

96th birthday. the resurgence of "black lives matter" in the world has created new interest in his bk. it explores baldwin's ideas for these times. anna recently spoke to author and princeton professor eddie glow jr. this is part of our arts and ercultures. >> my own december spare, my -- despair, my own rage, grappling with the fact that the country seeminbly was dg down on its darkness, on its ugly commitments and trying to figure out, how could iuster the energy to push the rock back up the hill, andin wat it take root in my own son. it m seemed toe that i needed to find a way to get it on the page.n and i've b reading jim baldwin -- i call him jimmy because he's likeso a pl friend for all these years. i've been reading him for about 30 years, grappling with his

ideas. finally i turned to himel to me think about this current moment. so this is a book written with him about the darkness of our times. >> we should poiut this wasn't an academic exercise. it was a physical one. you made a pilgrimage of sorts to differeites that were important to baldwin. where did you go and why? >> i took a quick flighto niese in order -- nice in order to visit his home. it's beennd destroyed turned into expensive condos. even baldwin'slace of respite couldn't survive capitalism. so i make a pilgrimage to his home. 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 frame of how to talk about baldwi now in a moment where even his place of quiet

has now been turned into a place of greed and opulence as it were. there's been an undenial surge in interest in popular culture across the board in his work. there was the 2016 documentary. there was this epic debate on race against william buckley that even 55 years later is seen online. >> on the country which is your birth place has not evolved any place for you. >> why do you think that is? why do you think so many people, especially in recent years, are turning to james baldwin? >> you know, i think he's the premier, probably the best democracy and rac we've ever produced. he seems to me -- i think he's the inherent of ralph waldo emerson. he takes emerson off the tracks and introduces him to the blues, as it wthe.

k he queers american politics, queers black preitics. ou have this fragile, queer black man who spokeoldly and truthfully to the times, to the circumstances ofk black f and circumstances of all americans actually, and you have a group of people -- you know, black lives matter, it's motto of leadershi was very different. it was queer. as resisted the kind of pulpit focus. e ah all over in -- all over you w quotes from jimmytod, baldwin everywhere.ra ige allied with power is the most procedures enemy of justice. innocence is the crime. all of this is all over the place. i think it has something tdo with baldwin's prescience and the fact that he models a work, it seems t me.ng this >> you write about how baldwin struggled with his own grief, his own trauma, his own, as you say, profoundon disillunt with the moral state of our country. we are talking here as thoands

are marching for black lives across the country, as we as a country areeckoning with our own history and who deserves to stand in monument in our city squares. what do you thin those you urget lessons, as you put it, urgentm lessons are f baldwin that we can apply today and right now? >> we have t o tell the truthf what we've done and how what we've done has made us monstrous, because we've denied it. right? we have to really understand at this idea that some people, because of the color of their skin, thateo whitee ought to be valued more than others, how that has destroyed and disfigured and distorted our character. right? and how it has, in some ways, shall we say,mi undd democracy, in all of its forms. so by telling the truth, confront ig it honestly, opens us up to being different, to being oerwise. so baldwin wants us to confront

the scaffolding of lies and ilsions that provide us comfort and safety. >> the book again is "begin again, james baldwin's america and itsns urgent les for our own." eddie, thanks so much for being with us. ways good to talk with you. >> take care a thank you. >> and that issh the nr for tonight. i'm ju woodruff. please stay safe. thank you! and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by... ♪[music] >> since our beginning, our business has been people. and their financialin well- that mission gives us purpose and a way forward. dtoday lways. consumer cellular.te

commto advancing restorative juice and meaningf work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at gandidafund.org women's ♪[music] centennial commission. foundation.ed p. sloane driven by the promise of great ideas. >> support by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful and with the ongoing supportf these institutions. this program was made possible orby theration for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you!

>> this is pbs newshour west from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪[music]

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♪ ♪ ♪ -todt on "america's tkitchen"... lan shows julia the secrets to making smoky pulled pork on a gas grill... adam reveals his favorite salad spinner... and dan makes bridget classic braised collard gree with bacon and onion. it's all coming up on "america's test kitchen."