duaptioning sponsored by newshour proctions, ll >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the republicans' turn-- thep. g.icks off its version of a socially distanced convention and makes its case to american voters. then, severe weather louisiana braces for the impact of two major storms as lifornia faces unprecedented wildfires across the state. plus, outrage in a wisconsin city-- protests are met with unarmed black man in the back. and, mailingit in-- the postmaster general faces more tough questions in cgress over mail-in voting in the upcoming election. all that and more on tonigur's pbs newsho. f

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and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public.roadcasti and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: republicans have opened their convention, and they've already re-nominated president trump. it came on day one of the downsized party gathering in charlotte, north carolina, and incled a surprise appearance by the nominee. amna nawaz begins our coverage. >> nawaz: a scaled back convention, with a major 2020 mile marker.

>> four more years!th >> nawazrenomination of donald trump and mike pence to serve four more years in the white house. >> joe biden was going to have their convention in milwauk and they didn't go there at all. they didn't do this. >> nawaz: the president appeared in person to address delegates. >> we said let's havbig deal, the roll call, let's have it right here, and let's do it, and i'm going to show up. >> nawaz: this mid-pandemic delegates sociallynced in336 charlotte. >> you're re-hired. >> nawaz: a straightforward roll call, simpler than democrats' virtual tour last week. >> i am a catholic, donald trump >> nawaz: and an invocation that blessed the incumbent, and seemed to swipe at his democratic rival joe biden, who is catholic. >> let us not be deceived by those that were ce close to you, but have turned away inci favor of embng politit l ideology, aiming catholic beliefs and words, while their

>> nawaz: this convention gets a bruising few days for president trump. late last week, his former top aide steve bannon was arrested on fraud charges connected to a campaign. crowdfunding a federal judge la week ruled the present must release his tax returns, as part of a hush money probe by the manhattan district attorney. and today new york'sttoey general ramped up pressure in an ongoing investigation into the trump organization. and over the weekend, the washington post published audio of the president's sister, retired federal judge maryanne trump barry, disparaging her brother. >> i'm talking too freely, but you know. the change of stories. the lack of preparation. the lying. the holy ( bleep )! but he's appealing to se. >> nawaz: just last night, president trump announced thef. a.'s emergency approval of a plasma-based coronavirus therapy. >> this is what i've been this is a great thing.ng time. >> nawaz: but that was accompanied by reports tt top health officialsincluding dr. anthony fauci, doubted if the

data backed that move. >> i've been pleading wi the president: you need a plan. nominated joe biden/kamalaewly harris ticket launched their post-convention sault on the president, sitting down for their first joint interview with abc news.>> don't blame him for the covid crisis. i blame him for walking away and not dealing with the solutions. >> there is souch about what comes out of donald trump's mouth that d is desig distract the american people from what he is doing every day, negligence and harhet, american people. >> nawaz: when republicans tonight, they'll feature a mix of both party leaders, from the house and senate, and evyday americans offering testimonials for the president and his leadership. like the democratic convention last week, republicanst programming,ast tonight, will also include both taped and live speeces. all delivering remarks under the theme, "land of promise."

for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: our white house correspondent yamiche alcindor was watching the convention today and will be covering it all week.ch yajoins me now. yamiche, you've beking to people who have been organizing this, how do they want to distinguish what they are doing from what the democrats did last week? >> well, republicans are eager to make the case that they are more optimistic, moosreive than democrats. they say the theme of this entire convention is going to be honoring the great american story. tonight's theme in particular is and what they sy is that they really want to talk about all the greatness of america, they want to talk the history of america as being one that is amazing, as one that is positive. they say democrats focused too much on the flaws of america. we are likely going to see president trump, i'mer told, day of the convention. though he might not speak every day. another thing, there will be a host of topics on thisn conventenda including jobs, immigration, of course tve

coros will be huge talking point. the main message though is going the best person to be lead the nation through the pandemic. d that if he is re-elected the vaccine will be produced atd te 2020 and things will go back to normal 2021. >> woodruff: so ytmich, the president spoke at length, showed up at the convention in arlotte, spoke i think for longer than people expected. he didring up the coronavirus. what does that tell us and what you have learned about what he may say at the end of the week when h macks his acceptance speech? >> well, the president'sho statements the tension between what the campaign and officials say that ey want to do which is have this optimistic often does, which is really talk about fear, and the dark parts of america and what uld happen if joe biden is elected. so today he spoke for over an hour at the convention. what he was tlking about in particular, he said democrats are trying to u tse covid-19o

steal the election. that say big, big thing from the ent to say. and he said that he believes that if he loses, the eleion was rigged. now election watchers, say thait s dangerous lan gaining but the present says he is doubling down on this idea that his the person that can protect americans and that joe biden has really failed. and he also made the case today and will be makg the case all week that if democrats are elected, that this will become a socialist country and that it will be sort of venezuela, democrats again take reaissue r that and say that is a completely false thing to say. but the president is reallys looking at td saying the democrats who want are pushing ma-in voting and pushing people going to the ballots, that they are people without the't really understan democracy in america. and that they want to do nefarious things. >> woodruff: finallyamiche, tonight prime time, what are we oking for from the convention tonight?ig >> t we will have a host of speakers, there is a lot of people whose last name is trumpn uding donald trump, jr. we will also hear from tim

scott, the only black republican in the senate, from nikki haley who at one point was actually talked about as possibly preplacing vice president pence. and what we are going to hear is really a theme of people saying that president trumpook care of peaker, that he was someone who you were ared in greage economic chnd that he was someone who again can lead america through having me jobs and really someone who will help america recover frothe coronavirus. the other thing to note is as we hearome of the thin that we where hearing republicans will be pushing for an emotional a feel, talkinut every day americans who were involved in gun shootings or involved in crimes that were committed by undocumented immigrants. the democrats are making an emotional appeal, the republicans will try to do that too but by trying to attack the democrats and really saying they are wrong for the john. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor e,from the white ho and all week long, thank you yamiche. >> thanks so much.

>> woodruff: the gulf cast is facing a very rough week. tropical storm laura is gaining strength and could be a category three hurricane by the time it makes landfall later this week. 's expected to hit along the coast of louisiana and texas,th potentially 00-plus-per- mile hour winds. and even as we speak, the coast is feeling the effects of tropical storm marco.t it's weakened ill bringing rain. ken graham is the director ofri the national hne center and he joins me now from miami. ken graham, give us a sense of what the storms look like right now. >> right now looking at the satellite he marcis very close to making landfall right here at the mouth of the mississippi river but what is interesting is most of the rain was sheered mff. t of the heavy rain is the southeast u.s. in the florida nhandle all the way up too

alabama, georgia and carolinas. so heavy rainfall but we're looking at laura as well. just a large circulation just south of the island of cuba. and we expect it to ma its way into the gulf of mexico and strengthen into hurr>>ane. oodruff: and ken graham, how usual or not is it for two storms to be coming so close together like this? >> yeah, it's very unusual. and it is a situation that it is usual from a meet ro logic perspective but also unusual and difficult from a preparednesss standpointll because you start getting the impact in andain locations from marco two days later you start getting be much stronger hurricane when it comes to laura making its way to the gulf coast. >> so how does the first orm which as you say marco is weakening but still bringing a lot of rain, how does that affect, complica or lay the ground work for the storm that follows it? >> yeah, an interesting

situation because that storm was so small, there masn'tuch influence on the temperatures in the gulf. there wasn't much influencely rehaping how laura reacts as well. so this is what is going to happen. with time we get into the gulf. there is not a lot of sheer. the warm wers of e gulf, the warm water pattern is coming together, expect the hurricane expect landfal however aiana, larger storm than marco so some impacts can stretch well away from the . could you see storm surge as far away as the mississippi coast, maybe even into alabama with that landfall even that far west.d >> woodruff: o you fell at this point ken graham the word is getting out sufficiently to people who c--ouould be affected by this? >> yeah, we're doing every interyou have we can to get the information out. we're doing briefings. i'm out here iations right now. the hurricane specialists are briefings, everything we can to get the word out. utt we really need to because wh you think at, the

arrival of the impact occur before the center. so even you start looking at a nter still in the gulf, that storm surge, the rain, the wind is well out ahead. so you have today, you have tomorrow, and then all of a suddenednesday some of these pacts will be felt. >> and that is what i wanted to ask you. what day are we looking at for maximum impact. you're lookingt wednesday. >> yeah, lacks like wednesday. you e the landfall. t i want show this here. you start looking at the arrival. this is the aalrrf the tropical storm force winds. that is a good indicator when you have to wrap stuff up because it is too dangerouto be outside. so wednesday 8 a.m. you start seeing winds reach tt southeas louisiana coastline and during the day wednesday, spread northward. ou wednesday ytart seeing a lot of impacts along the gulf coast.>> en graham, director of the national hurricane center. thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: there is a deadly wave of unprecedented fires burning across califright now. we turn to stephanie sy from newshour west for the test. >> sy: jud the fires raging now, particularly in northern california have claimed at least seven lives, damaged 120 structures and led to a quarter millioevacuations. initially small fires, sparked by lightning, have merged into monstrositie scorched, multiple fatalities, and for swaths of northern california, the smoke shows no sign of clearing. >> we have experienced 615 fires across the state of cafornia turned into major nts.n have with that, the second and third

largest fires in california history are burning around us at the moment. t >> sy: tho historic s.c.u. lightning complexes-- are actually multiple fires that have comned in massive blazes burning 700,000 acres. some firefighters are working 24 hour shifts. >> we gotta get you outta here man, it's right there! >> sy: in marin county, footage captured the dramatic m this weekend when firemen rescued two of their o. they'd been traed by the fast-encroaching woodwarred but the flames' path can change at a moment's notice. in angwin, there were c skies but clogged roads, as residents tried to evaate. holly hanson had short notice to decide what valuables to take. >> one hour, i just wanted t grab personal items, like photographs, papers i left behind, get a little mordog food, and clothes so i can go to work, because i left with this. >> sy: an ho to get out, and an uncertain timeline forho returnin.

as we said, the situation isn especially badrthern california. to get in to more ofhis, i'm joined now by jeff lemelson. he's the sonoma county fire district battalion chief. his team has been battling that big l.n.u. lightning complex of fires, which includes th walbridge/ fire chief lemolin, thank you so much for being with us. before we get intocres,busy. which i know are growing so fast, i just want you to bring us to the ground, to the front lines, because i know you've been there, what your firefighters are facing righ now. >> yeah, so it's currently right now, the last two days, thankfully, we've had a little bit of reprieve in the weat the, le to catch our breath. the first three days we were on the fire line hours and we had limited resources. and this is just due to the magnitude of the fire and the number of fires that were started from this historic lightning that we had in this arean sonoma county, which has

you know, that's not a normal weather pattern for us to have is type of lightning. we have been in drought like conditions and in august is not usually fire season for us. usually we're waiting for the fall to get those offshore wind even. but here we are having just this extreme fire behavr early in the season for us. but this season, as we say now, yearlong. >> sy: and this has been three years running this type of fire season, but still earlier than usual and during a pandemic. how has that pandemic ed your resources and your manpower? >> yeah, so, you know, we do have we don't have some of the resources that we used to hav pre-covid. and so, you know, it's changed the way that we operwith each other, right. trying to practice social distancing is almost impossible on the firelinedo. so we can wash our hands wearing face masks, which we a lot of times are because e of te smyways. but it's just it's difficult and

it's challenging. it just adds another layer to a problem that's already taxing of us. >> sy: and wt about personnel? i know that one thing california has done for a while is utilize inmates to fight fires during the season.bu of course, coronavirus has meant that all of those inmates are locked down. has that affected your ability to fight these fires? controversy of that progm aside? >> yeah, we have limited resources that con crews werfue super heto get into these tight areas, cutting line. d so when you have crews kind of doing work that they'rentot normally mo do, you know, there's a lag in the efficiency of that, just like anything else, right, when you're outside and so it's definitely affecting us. e sy: there have already n several falities. and you posted a video on your own instagram page showing how dangers the condions are, gusty winds, smoke.

i mean, everything you would expect with e wildfires. and yet, is there more aggressive behavior you'rese ng with this complex of fires up tre? >> i would say there's more aggressive behavior than i've been seeing in the last eight years. so fires are burning, they're spotting farther ahead of themselves, sometimes up to two miles ahead of themselves.el the fu is bone dry. we're getting what's called area ignition, where everything is st catching. it wants to do the convective heat columns and it's ve trying times. and so we're doing everything we can to safely get into these areas, protect the homes. and when we come in and assesse' these homes, looking to make sure that we can survive there. but, you know, we're dng everything that we can to help stop this conflagration. >> sy: when you have a second to step back and do you just fee bewildered, that you're facing this right now in california. continuously high pandem numbers there. and coronavirus infections, as

well as these placech are coming way earlier in the season and are of a historic nature. are you just thinking what i going on? >> yeah, it's so i wear a couple of differentats. the hat that i'm wearing now is in a volunteer capacity. i'm also a full time firefighter in marin county. and this these fires have devastated my community. and it's grueling. it's just grueling. i've almost lost my house a couple times and just seeing what we're having to deal with as a community, it's taxing. it's emotionally draining. >> sy: chief, this is essential, andangerous work that you're doing with limited resources. and we thank you so much for ur time coming on the program. sonoma county fire district battalion chief jeff lemolin. thank you. >> thank you. >> sy: the world healthrg organization caution today

in treating covid-19 patients with plasma already had the virus. the u.s. food and drug administration, at president trump's urging, has authorized using those antibodies to lp patients recover. but top w.h.o. scientistsne cautthe treatment is still experimental. >> the results in some cases not been conclusi we'vebut have been tracking this and we do ongoing metanalyses and systematic reviews to see where pointing, and at the moment it's still very low quality evidence. >> sy: as of tod, confirmed u.s. infections topped 5.7mi ion, with 177,000 deaths. meanwhile, the universitof hong kong reports that, for the first time, they have confirmed that a patient who already had covid, now has it again, but is

symptom-free this time. researchers aren't sure how often reinfeion is occurring, but are looking at these cases to try and understand how our immune systems respond to covid 19. doctors in germany say tests indicate that russian dissident alexei navalny was poisoned. remains in a medically- induced coma, but they say his condition is not life- threatening. navalny was airlifted t of russia to berlin on saturday. russian doctors denied again today that he had poison in his system.th back i country, the governor of wisconsin has called out the national guard in kenosha, after police shot and wounded a black man, jacob blake, apparently in his back. violent protests erupted last night after video of the incident emerged. blake is hospitalized in serious condition. we'll return to is, later in the program. there's word that jerry lwell junior has resigned as president of liberty university, the evangelical school founded by his father.

a man linked to falwell and his years he had a sexualhat for relationship with the couple. falwell had claimethe man had an affair with his wife, then tried to blackmail the family. the new york state attorney asked a court today to make eric trump, the president's son, investigation.inancial fraud at issue is whether he and the trump organization improperly inflated the value of a n york estate, to secure a loan and tax benefits. and, on wall street, hopes for advances on covid-19 treatments and vaccines fueled a ras y. the dow jodustrial average gained 378 points to close at 28,308. the nasdaq rose nearly 68 points, and the s&p 500 added 34, reaching another newst high. l to come on the newshour: security forces brutalize demonstrators in belarus amid calls for the president's removal. protests in wisconsin are also met with force after police shoot an unarmed black man in

the backer. e postmaeneral faces renewed congressional scrutiny over mail-in voting. and much more. >> sy: the popular protests have not let up in belarus, two weeke after anion denounced as a fraud by the u.s., the europeane union, andpposition to authoritarian president alexander lukashenko. non, leaders of that opposit writer svetlana alch, haveing been summoned for questioning, as lukashenko himself strikes a militaristic posture. with the support of the pulitzl center, speccorrespondent simon ostrovsky reports. >> reporr: the protest movement in belarus has had one thread running through it: defiance.sl >> ( tred ): dear citizens, please sperse.

>> reporter: defiance of president alexander lukashenko's regime in the face of intimidation and threats meant to make his people too scared to come out into the street on televisiolukashenko has warned darkly of foreign powers that would occupy belarus if he's overthrown. his defense minister has warned the army is willing and able to crush protests. >> ( translated ): if order and calm is disturbed in thlle places, yobe dealing not with the police but the army! >> reporter: antsd on the str, g citizensellin they'll face the full force of the law for their insubordination afrre broadcast loudspeakers. president alexander lukashenko has used everyhing in his playbook to try to prevent people from coming into the streets. he's threatened arrest, he'sed threatiolence and hs

threatened to bring the military opin, but the belarusian , two weeks after the ection, still remain undeterred. just look at them down in the streets of minsk. on sunday over 100,000 peoplede descenon the capital to voice their anger over the augu 9th vote; lukashenko declared himself the winner, with an improbable 80%. his security forces violent crackdown on ptesters enraged the people further. >> ( translated ): i'm afraid. we've seen the pnews aboutaddy wagons parked in the courtyards, that they've brought the army . honestly, it's really scary. >> reporter:bearlier today, rus stepped up it's crackdown on protest leaders arrestg two members of the opposition coordination council, a body that has made its goal the transition of power from lukashenka to challenger sviatlana tsikhanouskaya, who met amers iccond highest rankindiplomat stephan biegun in lithuania today. >> we coolndemn the ion of human rights and the brutality

that we have seen play out in since the elections, we call upon the government of belarus to release all political prisonerhes that tare currently holding. >> reporte the authorities have tried various tactics to discourage demonstrations all week. one sinister policy has been to inform demonstrators they are breaking the law. then recording their faces for a potential criminal se. when the same message was played over loudspeakers on sunday demonstrators drowned it out with boos. and when they approached a line of riot police and soldiers it seemed as though the regime and the opposition had come to a precipice. thate sin is getting very tense because the crowds are moving closer to the military and the riot police who are stationed just across from them. certain people want to come out ahere's other members of the protest who are ying to calm things down and trying to keep the two sides apart.

the crowds push forward yway, but belarus' demonstrators have defied expectations time and again protesting peacefully throughout this crisis. >> ( translated ): who are you going to use these guns against? you'll all go to prison! >> ( translated ): sir, please stand here and don't provoke them. theyl start shooting, is that what you want? >> ( translated ): these are our children. i'm only angry at their commanders that have sent them against the people. e >> reporter: as otest begins to disperse around dusk presidential palace the demonstrators shd neared brang a rifle and wearing body armor. >> ( translated ): guys, thank you. joyou did a great b. >> reporter: it'a kind of political rally for one of his only remaining groups of supportersthe security forces. he has to rally as much support with them as possible. after l, now only they stand between him and losing power. for the pbs newshour, i'm simon

ostrovsky in minsk. >> sy: the governor of wisconsin called in the national guard today to keep potential violent protests at bay. utkenosha, a city of a00,000 that lies between chicago and milwaukee, has become the latest flashpoint in ongoing national k cial unrest after a blman was shot and wounded by police. john yang has the story. >> yang: protests in kenosha escalated overnight, with police using tear gas to dierse the growing crowds. rua cick was set on fire, buildings were vandalized, and there were standoffs with police. daylight revealed more of the ondamage -- row row of cars dewere torched at ership, most of them destroyed. it all followed an incident

caught on video which appeared to shopolice shooting 29-year old jacob blake multiple times in the back. police say they had responded to rba domestic disce. eyewitnesses said blake's inchildren werhe car. blake was taken to the hospital. state officials took charge of the investigation. today, wisconsin governotony evers called a special session of the wisconsin legislature. >> we must see the trauma fear exhaustion of being be.ck in our st family members, the duty to act rests on all of us, but most importantly on us as elected officials. >> yang: it comes amid a summer of nationwide protests over e police killings of george floyd and breona taylor among others. on saturday in lafayette, louisiana there were calls for

justice for another black man, trayford pellerin, was fatally shot by police responding to a sturbance. in a facebook post, blake's father said his son is in stable condition after surgery. t,and tonibout 125 members of the alwisconsin natiuard are in kenosha to assist local officials. zach rodriguez is a member of rdthe kenosha county bf supervisors. thanks for being with us, supervisor ready ri gez. as you've been out and about in ythe commun i'm sure are you out and about last night and again today, what are yo hearing? what are people telling you? what is the mood?er >> is a lot of moods going on. there is anr, resentment, sadness, and more than anything >> questions about whations happened? about why it happened, the way it did? >> correct. whatpe hned. why did it happen and why did it happen that which. >> what was your reactiw when you he video, what was your

reaction? >> my heartroppeinto my gut. i think that is the reaction of any descent person out there,-- decent rrson out therardless of who is firing the fire arm or the victim on the receiving end of that. it is troubling. >> theovernor evers called a special session of the legislature to deal withome transparency and accountability legislation for police statewide. how is that going to, do youk, thddress that anger and resentment that you say you feel this ?your community >> i have heard about the governor calling a special session bu read more into it yet. what i think is important is we need community members to be part oversight committee, where our community knoas a whole that our police are bereing en by a board that is made up of the community that so that if is taken outside of the police department and not just

handled in house whether sph promotions or discipline or gidd fo situation we find ourselves in today. >> what locally will be done as you move forward, the wisconsin justice department is now involved in this iestigation, they have a 30 daytime line to report back. what is going to be happeng in the county or city to move forward now? >> i think right now we're waiting. we're waiting to see when the iminal-- finish their investigation, i expect that to talk some time. we go interest in, we wait r the da, whether he file clargs essed on that evidence. we think it ist that-- i introduced legislation as a coonsor, that made a promise to buy body cameras for our sheriff's deputies with e upcoming budget. we declare pub dk-- racism a public health crisis, so there are proactive steps to try to prevent a situation like ts

from happening in kenosha county and tragically we found rselves in last time. >> are you sur priesed that it took the turn it did last night, setting a quar deal-- car dealership on fire, attempts to start fires in the courthouse, s donort of dame that wa last night? >> am i surprised, no. am i disheartened, yes. and i think our community as a whole is disheartened. i was on the scf where the shooting happening last night prior to being downtown. there were multiple people, you know, out there saying we are here to protestre here to create lasting change. , but that doesn't, you knll for jumping on police cars, lighting them on fire, breaking glass, looting. in destroying our community that we call home. >> zach rodriguez of the kenosha county board of supervier-- supervisors, thank you ry much. >> thank you.

>> sy: speaker nancy pelosi brought house members in over the weekend to work on legislation concerning the u.s. ich democratse, believe is being tampered with ahead of the november election. as william brangham reports, the new head of the seice again testified today on capitol hill, and rejected those accusations. >> brangham: back before congress again today, postmaster general louis dejoy repeated his vow that the postal service is ready to meet the ballot crush this november. >> this sacred duty number one priority between now and election day. >> brangham: it was his second visit to capitol hill, amid growing concerns thatoperationas tenure, from cutbacks to overtime to the removal of ndreds of mail-sorting machines across the country, are causing troubling delays nationwide, and could endanger the delivery of mail-in ballots this fall. dejoy told membersf the house oversight committee that he was

not responsible for those changes, which have nobeen paused until after the election. >> first, i did not direct the removal of blue collection boxes or the removal of mail processing equipment. any further assertions by the media or elected officials is furthering a false narrative to the american people. >> brangham: chairwoman calyn maloney challenged dejoy for downplaying the impact of his policies in hisenate testimony friday. she pointed to lked internal postal service documents showing widespread delays in delivery since he took the job. >> if any other c.e.o. had this kind of plummeting record in his first two months on the job, i can't imagine why he would be kept on. >> brangham: republicansook to his defense, calling the delay"" temporary growing pains" as dejoy works to reform the agency. >> i'm disappointed at the hysterical frenzy whipped up by colleagues on the left and the media. postmaster general

sabotaging thelection by removing blue postal boxes and sorting machines? no. >> brangham: the hearing turnest tewhen lawmakers demanded dejoy to clarify his policies moving forward on that front. >> will you put the maches back? >> the rest of your accusations are actually-- >> will you, will you put the high-sed machines back? >> no, i will not >> you will not? >> will not. >> you will not? well there you go. >> brangham: other conflict frntered around accusation democrats that dejoy, an ally of president trump and a major rublican donor, is trying to influence the 2020 election. president trump has repeatedly disparaged the use of mail-in voting tter today he again made the untrue claim it leads to fraud and would set thble for "a big mess." this followed a weekend eet seeming to discourage people voting by mail by claiming, again with no evidence, that in- person ballot drop boxes are n"" covid sanitized". dejoy said today these comments were "not helpful."

he was steadfast in denying any accusation of political intent, and framed the changes to the postvice as cost-cutting measures. all my actions have to do with improvement to the postal service. am i the only one in this room that understands that we have a $10 billion a year loss? >> brangham: on saturday, e house approved $25 billion in emergency funding for the agency and reversthose operational changes. more than two dozen republicans ed the measure, but thei colleagues in the senate are unlikely to te on it, and the white house has threatened to veto it. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham >> sy: that's it from here. let's go back to judy for more on tonight's kick off of the republicanonvention. >> woodruff: congressman steve scalise is theecond highest ranking republic in the house and he's just hours aw from speaking later this evening at the republican national convention. he also represents the 1stsi district of loa, where, as we reported earlier, locals are

bracing for not one but two tropical storms. representative scalise joins me now from new orleans. congressman scalise, so good to see you. thank you very much for talking with us. what doou think the main message should be from this ican convention? how much of it should be about donald trump and how much should be criticizing joe biden and the democrats? w l, judy, i think first of all through the week you are going to see a vision for what we need to do to get the country back on track, through covid-19. and everybody is deaith it all around the globe. but here in america there are a things that we are doing to number one help people safely reopen whether it is businesses or schoos. but also thigrush toward mak sure we can put all the energy of the fda and other ageuries to find aand a vaccine. and we're ery close to some remarkable breakthroughs there. so the president i think really his message needs to be what he dehas done to ver on the promises that he has made over

the last four years deliveringh fodworking families. we built the greatest economy our couny has ever se just over the last two years. and now we are at covid, obviously things are different. but who best to bring us b through that than the president who already did it. >> woodruff: president trump sa today at the republican nationvention, he said he and the republicans have always protected preexisting conditions. but he is now, his supreme court to throw out the affordable care act which protects preexisting conditions. >> well, the problem with the affordable ce ak is it is not affordable. you can look and see how premiums have gone up millions of people lost the good health care they had. that old promise if you like what you have, you can keep it probably thebroken promise in the history of politics. what president trump wants to do is focus on liting patients and doctors decide the best health care, not washington derar k and lowering premiums while ngotecting preexis conditions that is not happening right now. the premiums are too high, people with preexistinght

conditions row are paying in some cases 10,000 deductible and they can't then afford the free health care quote unquote that was sold to them. so he with need to focus on rebuilding and sthening our health-care system, giving people real options, buying acrossttate lines, proting people about preexisting conditions by lowering premiums for everody, not by raising them where everybody is paying too much. >> well, it is a much bigger subject protecting preexisting conditions but my point is if that has been a central feature of the affordable care act and that is something that the trump administraon is trying to dismantle. but i want to ask you about covid relief,s you know the house passed a democrat's version ofov relief at the end of may, three months ago. then the democrats offere to reduce the $3 trillion price tag to $2 trillion. the replicans still have not senate.legislation in the hat the two sides can get together and work this out. this is not the way things are smoased to work iton washing

is it? >> i would like to see everybody at the table and in facyou saw mark meadows, the president's chief of staff over at the capitol just the t few days trying to meet wi speaker pell osi and she was too busy. she would not meet with him. when y won't meet with the president's chief of staff, you are showing are you not serious. they brought us in saturday to do this vote on the post office wh post office themselve said they have enough money to get through the middle of next year. our small businesseneed help right now. families need help and relief. we've got, judy, over 500 billion of money that we sent out in the cares act and relief packages that is not spent yet, over $500 bill. i would say before we get into a negotiation of how many more trillion to states like new york, that were already having problems before hand, we can't be worriea abouing out states that had their own problems. we need to be worried aboutsa ng small bigs, helping schools safely reopen, making thre hospitals can get through this. is where the focus needs to

be. and fowhatever reason speaker pelosi won't sit down and have that conversation. in terms of he congress it is the house and the senate. and thsenatedas not pas legislation so there can't be a negotiation. >> right. >> and as you know, it takes 60 votes in theenate so unlike the house speaker pelosi can bring any bill she wants. she has brought man partisan bills that she knew wouldn't go anywhere that she passed. but in the senate even if every republican-- chuck schumer and democrats democrats can and have blocked a lot of those bills. it is kind-of-marred to bring a bill through theenate when the minority party wants block even a discussion about it let alone trying to get a solution. things i want to a you about, one is q aon,-- a non, you supported the opponent to marjorie taylor green running r a congressional seat in the state of georgia. she won that race. do you now support her and the others even though they made the statements in support of these

conspiracy theories around q a non. >> i had to see whathat was when she won the primary. in the end i am focused on relief packages, helping families get back. that is the caofs to my ce t is not on q arksz non,r theree realtor rest groups like antifa. i don't hear the other sid trying to be asked whether whether they endorse or oppose that. but at the e of day it is the voters of gorge that-- georgia that will decide that race. >> i understand that. and we do report on e activity of groups like antifa. are you saying you would welcome to the house a candidate who has spoken out, who clearly antiblack, anti-mus limb in te statement -- muslim in the statements they made in their campaign. >> have i been ve vocal, as as you you mentioned, i was not supporting her in thatrimary. at the end of the day it is the people in each district who decide who their representative t . it is e.

clearly i serve with a lot of people who have very different views today in the curren congress. whether they are republican or democrats. other on any given day but you work with people and you work to solve prs. and if somebody makes statements, ll it out.s, racist >> woodruff: finally congressman scalise, two prop kal storms headed to the gulf, potentially to the new orleans area. about these.concernight now and is louisiana prepared? >> yes, i have been in contact with our governor, about all of the parish presidents throughout southeast louisiana at i represent along gulf coast and mississippi, you work and prepare for the worst but pray r the best, that is what we are all doing. everybody i think is stepping up and getting people prepared. taking precautions, a lot of people have evacuated the lower lying areas. where i am in new orleans and this region we are ready to hunker down and hopefully get through it and not have real problems.

>> woodruff: congressman steve scalise, thank you very much. >> great being with you, judy. thank you. >> woodruff: here to analyze lasteek's democratic convention and preview what to expect from republicans tonight, our politics monday team. report and host of publiclitical radio's "politics with amy walter." she's here in the studio with me at a safe distance. and joining us via skype is tamara keith of npr. she also co-hosts the "npr politics podcast." you, it is now the republican's turn. but tam, before we move to the republicans we are now what, four days out. we have had tour days to let it sink in, settle in, what is lefn lingfrom the democrat's asin messageweek? >> well, we haven't seen a lot of polling yet to see whether therwas a convention bump.

i think one question that hangs out there, there was o lf focus on coronavirus and tackling that. and there was a little bit less focus on the economy. so that is one area where president trump has more strength and where former vice president joe biden tends to not poll quite as well. and so therere some questions remaining there. i will say that, and this is highly informal but in my neighborhood there is a sign, i think a lot of people have seen these signs that say any functioning adult 2020. and this we the sign was replaced with a biden campaign sign. and you know, i think part of what this convention was all about for biden, president trump has put outis there thdea that he wasn't a functioning adult. and biden went out there, gave a speech that looked like an oval office address, had the seriousness and sobriety of an

oval office address. and, and he proved at leasto that person in my neighborhood that he is a functioning adult. pr>> woodruff:k ximated up a voter. so amy what is your sense, hear we are, all these days out. >> all these days out. we haven't had any significant polling. we have had a couple of polls that came out and i think this he suggest thate biden did in some ways what he needed to daso whict necessarily to increase his lead overdone alt trump. i think that is very unexpected, he already h a pretty significant lead especially for a challenger. but that hemproved his image. this is an ibs/ipsos poll that came out the other day, he improved his yer all favorable rating by five points, not a ge bump but taking people that might have said i don't like joe-- donald tmp but this joe biden guy filled out his image they argued there want a lot of specifics about policy, this was

rellly anti-trump. biden had a receiptee short speech, he talked about, and touched a whole bunch of different issues. he didn't delve deeply intoho t. and quite frankly i don't think that is wh the convention is really about in sense of political and policy arguments as much as it is about giving hivoters a sense of who is person, how will they govern, what are their priorities.u >> woof: i think i remember you saying, amy, a week ago as we sat here at theam table that what joe biden needed to do was not hurt himself. he needed o hold on to that lead and i hear you saying he did not hurt himself. >> exactly. >> woodruff: so now tam, let's turn to the republicans. the question i ask everybody, so forgive me for asking you, but what is it that, i mean givene whnald trump is right now, in this campan, what does he need to say, what ds he need to do? >> so he has already given one

speech to this campaign in south carolina it was about an hour long t had no naative argue arc, it was a free-flowing campaign style speech. and hollering and had all the sort of back and forth feedba that president trump thrives on. i think that what a lot of people are looking for him to do is also preve-- present his case. and i think that in that speech today he gave us a preview in amongst it all. he said to the delegates think about y whereou were before the pandemic hit. and that is essentially the argument that president trump was mawking, what you heard steve scalise say, which was before the pandemic hit, how was your 401(k) doing, how was your life, and the president is arguing sort of discount the coronavirus pandemic, he argues he has done a good job.

the numbersate other things. but he says discount the pandemic, st think about howu america greatin again which is what vice president pence said at the close of his speech at the cion. >> so amy. >> that say hard sell, basically saying forget about everything that is happening right nanow how i handled all of it, but remember before when things were pretty good, so it is a very difficult challenge for the president or any president quite frankly to sell that at a time when we have 70 percent of american whats think the country is headed in the wrong direction to say well eventually we'll get to a better place if you just don't like how i'm handling current crisis. really for him because this is a president whose never been tuckly interested in broadening his base, he likes to speak to his base. is he has got to figure out a way to chip away at what biden did at his convention which is

improve his favorable rating, improve the image o himself that joe biden had built. and so the president needs to go after that image to really make people believe that joe biden is up to this challenge, not up to this job. and to motivate the people who right now may want to vote for donald trump, maybe didn't even vote in 2016 b nee to give them a reason to show up. fill out the picture of hum self even though people have been liening, i mean watching and listening. >> absolutely. st much more about taking down joe biden, yeah, because you're right, there is very little th people don't know about donald trump. we think the president isg t capable of doing, of taking down, or trying to take down joe biden. >> this is something president trumps elisheing. and something he has been trying to do with biden for months. so this is a much more

concentrated forum for that. and so we will see what they am kol up with, how they present it. you know, every night isf convention they are going to have people who have lived der socialist rule talking about how terrible it is. and then trying to connect those dots to j biden who is definitely not a specialist, but the idea, the pitch that they have been making is okay, you know, you may be okawith swroa biden. but, butuse is ja vessel for leftlitics. and so that is an argue they're going to try to make. >> woodruff: all right, i just have to i sarks i was listeningd to the prnt ted and at one point when the crowd was cheering four hemore years, as like whatbout 12 more years. >> make them angry, maybe we will hea message. >> amy walter. tamara keith, politicsonday, thank you both. >> and as >> woodruff: and as we've been talking about, the republicack convenion kis f tonight.

amna nawaz is here with what we'll be watcht for. >> nawaz: judy among the speakers on the first night of the republican national convention, meof congress known as allies of the president, including florida's matt gaetz, ohio's jdan, and louisiana's steve scalise. senator tim scott of south carolina will also address the convention, as will president trump's former ambassador to the united natioki haley. the president's son, donald trump junior will also deliver remarks, and judy, officials tell us we should expect to hear from president trump himself every night of the convention. >> woodruff: and you can follow all of our special ce of this week's republican national convention online. you'll find news updates and dispatches from our team covering the convention, and stay tuned for our preshow, which begins online in just a moment. that's on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonigh

we'll be back at 8:00 eastern with our special coverage of the first night of the republican national conventio we'll be joined by a panel of experts and speak with missouri senator ray blount and arkansas governor asa hutchinson. thating up right here at 8:00 eastern. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see n.u soo >> major funding for the pbs newsho been provided by: >> since our beginning, our business has been people, and 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 transformative leads and ideas.

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. to amanpour & company.nd here's what's comin up. >> i accept this nination for president of the united states of america. >> from joe biden all the way back to fdr. >> you have nominated me and i know it and i am here to thank you for the hono>> e put this week's democratic convention into context with the esteem presidential historian and -- my name is sheinelle miller and i'm an artist. >> know her name, sheinelle miller on how her lifelong passion drawing helps process the trauma of sexual assault. plus - >> when we know when we think someone is trying to persuade us, our defense go