captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, california burning-- millions of acres remain on fire as tens of thousandof people lose power and new evacuations are ordered. then, the futu of health care. with the cost of medical tretment remaining prohibit for millions of americans, we examine possibilities for expansion of coverage. and, speaking out: the f.b.i. agent who helped launch the russia investigation explains how he still sees thpresident as a counter-intelligence risk.r >> hationship with russia, the way that he has exposed himself to being compromised,

that is too importanan issue for the american public not to understand how we thought about that in the f.b.i. in 2016 up to and through today. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> newshour has been provided by: our no-contract plans give you as much-- or as little-- talk, text and data as you want, and our u.s.-based customer service team is on hand to help. to learn more, go to nsumercellular.tv

>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.ut and by contrns to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: record wildfires are ill marching across vast swaths of california tonight. the flames have destroyed scores

thfires have also destroyed scores of homes and other buildings, and of homes and other buildings, and left hundreds offoeople waitinrescue. stephanie sy has our report. >> sy: thelow of destructive flam is consuming many parts of t golden state.re a recording two million plus acres have burned and theba fire season ily underway. >> i quite literally havno patience for climate change deniers, it simply follows completely inconsistent that point of view with the realy on the ground. >> reporter: the wildfires are sparing no corner of california with >> sy: the wildfires are sparing no corner of california, with some 20 fire conglomerat blazing. several of those are almost completely uncontained. in fresno county, the creek fire exploded over the weekend in the sierra nevada mountains, destroying many homes andtrpiped scenon ta the labor day weekend. peopleere rescued in tough conditions by helicopters

dispatched by the navy and california national guard. officials monitoring the massive bobcat fire near los angeles are warning of possible evacuations, and urging non-residenstay away. >> we ask the public, if you don't live in the area, pleaseth stay out oarea. if you live along the foothills, in the potentially affected areas, you have time now pleasee reparation for what you have to evacuate. you if you do >> sy: most of the fires are ath buel dorado fire system is believed to have sparked when a family used pyrotechnics for a baby's gender reveal party.nd linda corchraner husband, who were forced to flee in their motorhome, are angered by the negligence. >> i am upset thateople are stupid. i am ang but not surprised. >>roy: for rescuers on the fnt lines there, the fights tang a toll. >> i got three hours of sleep yesterday,t was-- it was a good fight last night, it was a good fight. g sy: to prevent more fire

ignitions, pacif and electric, the state's largest power provider, said it had to cut electricity to tens of thousands of customers in 22 counties. the record breaking fires, under record breaking temperatures are adding stress to communities coping with the pandemic. >> i get it, i wear the mask obviously r the covid, but then it does help out with the fact that there are ashesyw evre, see? there's ash all over my car. you just gotta deawith it. >> sy: multiple crises colliding in calornia, the most populous state in the country. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, technology stocks fell of wall street wit.ok the rest

the dow jones industrial average lost 632 points to close at 27,500. the nasdaq fell 465 points.it off 10% since it peaked last wednesday, officially, a market "correction." and, the s&p 500 gave points. a police shakeup in rochester new york. the chief and deafty chief announced their retirements toda police caught prude running naked last march. they used a hood to stop him from spim ing and held hidown for two minutes. he died later. video did not emetil last week. willing to spend wn money he's on president trump says he is willing to spend his own money on his re-election bid, amid reports that his campaign faces a cash crunch. "the new york times" reports the campaign has spent more than $800 million out of $1.1 billion it raised through july.

mr. trump defended the spending, and dismissed the news accountsf before flying rida and north carolina. >> the press was fake and we have to spend a lot of money. no, if we did need, we don't because we have much more money than we had last time going intt the la months. i think double and triple. ibut if we need it any mo would put it up personally like i did in the primaries last time. >> woodruff: later, in florida, the president signed anor executivr to expand an offshore drilling ban to flora's atlantic coast and t coasts of georgia and south carolina. there's push-back from the pentagon against new criticism om president trump. he said monday that military leers want wars, in order keep arms makers happy. today, general james mcconville, the army chief of staff, said commanders recommend fighting only when "it is required in national security and in the

last resort." he did not mention mr. trump directly. democrats inhe u.s. house of representatives are launching a probe of postmaster general louis dejoy. the ashington post" reports his former company pressured employees for political contributions, and then, illegally reimbursed tth bonuses. dejoy has denied wrongdoing, bu top democry he should be suspended or fired. the senate returned to work today, and majority reblicans released their covidconomic relief bill. it offers nearly $600 billion for schools, businesses and the unemployed, and offsets about half that cost. but, it has little chance ofte passing, desajority leader mitch mcconnell's appeal tomo ats. >> we want to agree wherean bipartgreement is possible, get more help out the doornd then keep arguing ove the rest later.

that's how you legislate. that's how you make law. dismissed the repu bill.leaders they want a $2 trillion measure. in belarus, a leading opposition activist, maria kolesnikova, is being held at the rder with ukraine, after refusing to leave. security footage allegedly shows the car that drove her andwo other members of an opposition council to the border. authorities tried to deport her. it's part of a crackdown on protests against the athoritarian president. and, china and indiaccused each other today of firing warning shots across their disputed bder on monday. it happened in a himalayan region, where the two countries have bn in a standoff since may. beijing says the shooting wasth first between the two nuclear powers since 1975. still to come on the newshou

we talk with doctor anthonyth fauci aboustate of pandemic response and a possible vaccine. rewith the cost of health prohibitive for many americans, we examine possibilities for expansion of coverage. what lessons can be learned from sweden's stay opend-esponse to co. plus much more. >> woodruff: the fall season began and millions of children b wek to school virtually today. at the same time, some colleges and universities are juggling the consequenc of reopening their campuses. meanwhile, chief executives of nine drug companies pledged not to seek approval of a vaccine

before safety and efficacy had been clearly established in clinical trials. this all came in response to concerns over the public trust. this afternoon, i spoke with dr. anthony fauci of the national institutes of health about this. it was for a special forum for the group, research america. here's some of our conversation. we began with concerns around schooling. . futurey, as you know, this is on the mind of so many families, students returning to school. people are worried abtheir children, and i want to start by asking you about colleges because there has been a lot of focus on those. you advised last week schls t send students back home if they test positive. what are yoconrned about with colleges? why did you make that recommendation >> well, judy, i made that recommenhetion because if, you bring in college or university students in, if they get infecd, you really should try as best you can to have a

capability, a facility to sequester them from the rest of the student body so they don't infect other students, but you shouldn't said them home i mean, just the nature of universities and colleges, you're getting kids from al over the country. if you send them back t their community, you will, in essence, be reseeding with individuals capable of transmitting infection. so it's much better to put them in a place where they comfortably could recover, hopefully a floor of a dorm orar some collegedoing an entire dorm that's dedicated to people who you want to seg from the rest of the student body. >> woodruff: the idea that we're going to have a vaccine by november 3rd, how realistic? w l, i think that's unlikely. i mean, the only way you can see that scenario come true is if

that there are so manye infections in linical trial thtes that you get an efficacy answer soonean you would have projected. like i said, it's not impossible, judy, bu's definitive answer at that time. more likely by the end of the year. >> woouff: we know with regard to the public's confidence in the vaccine, dr. fauci, polls are showing perhaps a third of americans are not confident enough and they are saying theye not going tota the vaccine at first. that's a pretty high pernte. at what point does this become a problem? >> well, think it already is a looming problem, and one of the ways thate can mitigate y,ainst that, juds by being very transparent in our outreach to the community about what the data are, what they show and what criteria that we using

in order to make a decision abt a vaccine being safe and effective and making it available. we've got to regain the trust of the community about en we say something is safe and effective, they can be confident that it is safe and effective, and that's the reason why we have to be very transparent with the data as well as t is that goes into the decision-making process about approving a vaccine. >> woodruff: you mentioned the f.d.a., but it was the f.d that rolled out original information about the so-called convalescent plasma where they itme back later and sai had been overstated. so when you have something like that happen, isn't it natural that people may be skeptical? >> oh, you're right, judy, i don't want to do deny tha that's reality. they likely will be skeptical. what we're trying too that is correct that and get them towns

there will be multiple layers of checkpoints before this type of decision is made.an there are a lot of people looking at this, judy, a lot of people in the scientific community, myself included, who are looking at this to make sure this gets done in a way that's scientifically sound. >> woodruff: and not just the and forth, if yo will, at theack c.d.c. where there has been idance and it's been pulled back and questions raised. i have to ask the qstion again, how can the american people be sure they're getting straight science from tese government agencies? >> you know, again, it's not going to be easy, given what'se. gone on bef we just have to keep being quite transparent. u know, i have been, right from the beguining, always importance of the integrity of the science and the integrity oh decisionmaking process, and i and many of my scientific colleagues will continue to be

very vigilant about that. >> woodruff: very fauci, thank you so much. >> thank you, judy. good to be with you as always. >> woodruff: meantime,ug thut this past week, >> woodruff: throughout the past week, william branghameen looking at how other countries built toward universal healthcare coverage and the trade-offs they've made. those questions have been a rt of our presidential campaign season, too. that includes sharply divided views about the affordable care act, which expanded covera for 20 million americans, but is still noaffordable enough for some citizens. william is going to have a convertion about all of this in a moment. but first let's hear about where re candidates stand with correspondents, lisa desjardins and yamiche alcindor. >> desjardins: it was the signature legislation of the obama administration: the affordable care act, better known as obamacare. when it was signed into law 10 years ago, then vice president biden celebrated passage, memorably putting it like this:

>> this is a big ( bleep ) deal. both incredibly powith has been some and controversial with others. among core aspects: it protects ericans with pre-existin conditions, allows parents to age 26 and eliminates out ofl pocket expenses for many preventative services. since passage of obamacare, the democr shifted left on health care, led in large part by senator bernied sanders'is signature" medicare for all" proposal. despite that pressure, biden largely held center during his primary camp cgn. his heale plan focuses on a public option, where anyone licould buy into a medicar plan. he would automatically enrinl some peopltates that didn't expand medicaid. he'd also increase tax crets to help lower costs for low- income people. biden's focus remains building onto the a.c.a. >> alcindo meanwhile, one of the core tets of president trump's 2016 campaign and his first term was to repeal

amacare. in 2017 trump came one vote short of passing an obamacare repeal through the u.s. senate. the question has often been: what exactly is the g.o.p. plan in their "repeal and replace" pledge? in the past, his administration has taken steps to roll back the a.c.a. he ended the penalty for the individual mandate, one of themo law's unpopular requirements. that change once again puts thea of the entire law before the supreme court. in recent months, trump has repeatedly said he would unveil a health care proposal "in weeks." but those self-imposed timelines have come and gone. some smaller actions. recently, trump sign an executive order to expand telehealth for medicare recipients. president trump has criticized biden's plan as moving too far toward ¡medicare for all.' trump sees that as radical and the government taking too great of a role in health cares: >> desjardiden responds that trump's attempts to repeal obamacare would leave millions

of americans without insurance, and his limits on itt ave already cess to care; something he says is especiay dangerous in the pandemic. >> brangham: two very differt visions to address, in part, the roughly 30 million people in this country with no health insurance. the pandemic's toll on our economy is only making that worse. involved with the political dynamics around health care reform. dr. ezekiel emanuel is the chair of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the university of pennsylvania. he's the author of book looking at health care systems around the world. he was a special advisor to president obama and now advises joe biden's coronavirus task force. and lanhee chen is a fellow at the hoover institution and teaches public policy at he's an informal health policy advisor to congressional republicans, and to the trump administration. gentlemen, welcome to you both. could i just lay out the ground

terms here? just for the sake of this conversation, i know you both which is expanding coverage so that more americans have accs so the healthca is not sosts apensive for individuals and not so expensi a system overall. so starting with that premise, lanhee chen, let's start with is issue of cost. you've consulted with the g.o.p. and the trumm adinistration. let's say president trump wins a second term, how do you freesee him trying to bring down the cost of healthcare in this country? >> in a few ways. first of all, i do think you're going to see him continue to push forward in crating more choices on the healthcare marketplace, that's something that's been a fos onis first term in office, trying, for example, to expand access to plans that may suit peoe better where their needs are. i think you're also going to see m push forward on price and quality transparency which, ini myd, is a significant goal

we as americans should share. can we get a hemlthcare sys where we understand more about what we're paying and get for our dollars. finally, i think he'll address specifics around prescription drugs and pricengbil the high cost of prescription drugs contues to be abissue, and i think there can be bipartisan agreement on dressing the price of prescription drugs or in getting rid of some of e challenges created bye surprlling practices. >> reporter: so ezekieea emanuel, you the menu of things that's hopeful in a trump administration. do you think those would be inenough to manage cost meaningful way or are there other things you would add to that or tweak that in some way? >> first of all, lanhee is talking as if the president hasn't been theredent. he's had four years to lower drug prices and hast succeeded at all. he's had four years to have more

price transpency and hasn't done very much on it. certainly, the obama administration did more on pricp trency than he did. so, you know, it's an important question as to whahe's actually going to do since he's had four years an done almost nothing on that. so on prices, one of the things we have argued and i think isnt very impors we need to change how we actually pay for hethcare to doctors and hospitals, we need to move off the fee for service system, and we need to get to more value-based payments, so doctors don't get pai for everything they do, they get paid for managing your health problems and keeping you healthy. that's called value-based payment. we also need to change physicia behavior, so they refer you to places that are lower cost, hospitals that charge less, lab facilities that charge less. those are going to b really important. we also, i do think, need to ce control.s drug pri

companies set prces instead ofug linking prices to how much of a health impact those drugs actually make. in many other ntues, you know, you release a new drug that has a comparable existig drug on the market, you can't increase that price, but in the united states, we have a lot of cases where drugs just the same as some other dug on the market and that price goes up 200 to $400 for no health benefit, no he'll advantage testimony paired to w wt's already there, e definitely need to change how we're paying for drug prces, and i think the democrats have been serious about this but the publicans haven't wanted to come to the table. >> reporter: lanhee chen, what out that? ezekiel emanuel points out the president has been the president for a long time and has had substantial support in the congss and senate. hope he would do e secondyou term been done in the first

term? well, i think he's me progress on a few things via executive action which is wha he's sort of had to resort to because negotiations have broken down with democrats over isss like drug pricing, surprised billing, et cetera. on the first order, i would say i think uing executive action have been a ban dade approach. r i wouldncommend it in the longer run. i think in the longer run democrats and republicans will have to come together, for example, to address the prescription drug prici issues. and i do think there have been situations wre the president and the administration have come forward with reasonable proposals that previously at least democrats have supported like, for example, tying drugh prices more to drug prices are in other countries that might be comparable. that preposal, seems to m, has traction with some republicans and a heck of a lot of fmocrats, but, unortunately, because to have the bricks of this, democrats haven't always wanted to work witeh th trump administration to, quote, give president trump a win. so i do think t the politics here is not as simple as zeke suggests, it actually cuts both

ways. >> reporter: ezekiel emanuel, let's turn to this issue of panding coverage. you were there at the conception of the affordable care act. w itknow and have seen ho was been chipped away at and taken to court by the trum administration. if biden were to win and become the president, he's talked a lon about shening the aca and expanding its protections f how do you see a biden administration trying to deal with getting more people more healthcare? >> well, i think the first thing you would do is to try to expand what we have, increase the subsidies on the ,xchang increase choice with a public option so that more people could afford insurance through the exchantos. we're goinave to do something on medicaid because we have these 12 intransient state, d.p.a., north carolina -- thatp aren't eding medicaid, and we cannot get to universal coverage without that expansion of medicaid, and i think that's

going roar some serious action. no incentives sm to be willing to make those states move, and the people whore being excluded typically are people who are working, but their salaries are too low to actually get private insurance or even get good insurance on t exchanges, and yet those states don't seem to want to gi them health coverage. i think if covid's made ything clear to all americans, it's we all need health coverage so we can actually get the care we need. >> reporter: lanhee chen, what about this issue of the affordable care act? the president has been vehemently opposed to it, keeps telling us there we a new proposed plan to replace it, but he's currently in court anyi to chip away at it very aggressively. do you thi there will be a substantive plan eventually if the president wins a second term? >> well, i think there should be. republicans need to be absolutely clear. this includes the president as gressionaln

republicans about what they intend to do on health policy. i think the a.m. c.a., the affordable care act, is an important part of that. i think the fac it's ben around 11 years now suggests that, at this point, the changes that are going to be me are changes that are more incremental in natu. now, as much as i would like t agree with zeke, i simply cannot on this because there are actually areas were the a.c.a. could be improved by focusing on people who need assistance e eblzeke talks about expanding subsidies to tho make $200,000 or $300,000 a year. why not determine who really needs help and empowering states, for example, to asist those people? beyond that, i would say biden's plan to put putt in place a public option rais serious concerns with me about the way in which he road access to physicians and hospitals and care that people need and create a costly government entitlement. reasons though whyorts

vice president biden's plans are teogressive, they may alter the healthcare sys >> the republicans have had eleven years to come up with the replacement to the affordable care act and you've nev seen them produce a replacement toar the affordableact that will get to expanded coverage. they simply don't have a plan, and they've never had a plan. secondly, i'v -- every year, unr president trump, including this covid year, the uninsured raid has gone up and upd up. he has not introduced one policy to enhance coverage. ery single policy cut back on coverage. get rid of the mandate, cut back on coverage. create pseudoprograms that aren't health insurance and call them choice, cuts back on the number of people who have insurance. they haven't expanderage one iota, and they don't have a plan to expand coverage, and i notice he began his coverage,

they should have a plan. well, theye had1 years to develop it, where is the plan? >> reporter: ezekiel emanuel, lanhee cen, thank you both very much for being here. >> thank you. >> woodruff: while the presidential candidates disagree on many key issues, their ability to make sure voters know about those disagreements comes down to one thing: dollars. amna nawaz is following the >> nawaz: by all as, theail. 2020 election will be the most expensive in history. raising and spending money byre the millions, despite the

recession.ndemic and economic it's part of a trend that sees each election more costly than the last. torack this, i'm joined by: campaign legal center.tisan he previously worked as a lawyer at the federal election. commissi welcome and thanks for being here. i want to ask you about the numbers. the president built up an impressive war chest, arly a billion dollars, which is why reports he was in a cah crunch are striking, but he's so far spent more than.$800 mill it's such a massive number. now does that happen? where is that ey going? >> at lot of it in any campaign, not just presidential but onany level, goes to funvedraising and ising. the amounts that the trump campaign has been spending on those, they have been certainly high, but, you know, every election cycle gets more expensive, this fundraising cycle has been particularly

difficult. soit's not hugy surprising the campaign is spending more in 2020 than 2016. >> reporter: you say fundraising has been difficult. on the democratic side, they're breaking recds. when you look at the august fundraising numbers for the biden campaign, in gust alone, they raised $365 million, that is dore thauble what hillary clinton raised in august of 2016, and broke the previousous one-monthn fudraising record set by barack obama in 2008 of 193 million. we should point out biden hasn't spent nearly what the trump somewhere around $414 million through july. differential? explain that are they spending money differently or on different thin? the campaigns are spending money differently though not necessarily different thngs. both campaigns, again like most campaigns including ohat aren't at the presidential level, you know, spend most

their money on fundraising and advertising. each campaign makes its own strategic decisions about d en ere to engage in that spending. you know,e part of th trump campaign's difficulty appears to be that it is not hosting in-person fundraisers due to ferchg, and that's whe the big money comes in. that's where the wealthy donors who can give tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to the presidential campaigns and the parties, that's where they like to give, and, so, the absence of those fundraisers appears to be hurting the president's recollection reelection campaign. >> reporter: let me t ask you about total ad spendinla year, there was a study that forecasted in 2020 total politil ad spending would hit $9.9 billion in 2020, this is a forecast from a mulnati-nat communications, an advertising firm. that would be up, from the total

8.7 billion, up from the previous year 3.2 billion, makel the tof 1.1 billion look like jump change, but how and y is that amot between each presidential cycle accelerating so quckly? >> well, in the current era, much of the increase is due to the rise of outside groups, like supercs. those groups did not exist before the supreme court ruledts initizens united decision that corporate spending directly on campaigns was legal. so most of that rise in the last ten years has been driven, or a big part of it, by outside spending and the need to compete with outside spending. and that not only causes campaigns and parties to need to fundise more, but also allows the sellers of advertising to jack up their rates and, therefore, you know, creates a cycle where the caigns need to raise even more. >> reporter: got about at. minute to le i need to ask you about news

that bloomberg reported at president trumbrconsidering ging in his own money, lending himself about $100 million to his reelection campaign. the president said he doesn't need to do it bu h will spend whatever it takes. is that unpcedented for an incumbent president to take that kind of move with that amount of money and what does that meantu for campaigns? >> well, certainly on presints s who had th means took great care not to co-ming that i recall candidacies with their personal fun. so it is unprecedented for the president to do that. going back to the 2016 campaign of then candidate trump sayingoi he was to spend a lot of money in support of hisampaig and the reality didn't always match that. buthe trend of generally very wealthy candidates sinking larg amounts oney into campaigns is very troubling.

it heightens distinction of elected office holders wh ar increasingly wealthy and the people they represent. as more and more office holders are in office because wealthy donors fund their campaigns or funded them out of their pockets, creates a divide between constituents and their representatives. >> reporter: still several weeks to go for th spend even more money. adav noti, senior director from the campaign legal center joining us today. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: few people havent been as freq target the president's ire as peter strzok. the former f.b.i. official with decades working in counter- intelligce, focusing on

threats to u.s. national security from russia and other counies, is often at the center of a twitter firestorm. the attacks are professional, given his kerole in the investigation of hillary clinton's emails and the trump caaign's connections with russia. and they are psonal, centering on his then extra-marital affair with co-worker lisa page and t text messages they exchanged disparaging mr. trump. strzok was fired in 2018 after an inspector general exposed their coespondence. he discusses all of this and more in his new book,is "compr: counter- intelligence and the threat of donald j. trump." and he joins us now. peter strzok, welcome to the "newshour".you have been the tae president's -- the target of the president's ire, as we said, for many months, now. he's called you everything in the book, accusing you of treason. he's talked about your personal life. my question ishy not slip

quietly away? why write a boo rwhicheraises these questions all over again? >> because the president's relationship to russia is o important to ignore. i think, when you look at what he has with his relationship with russia, the way he has exposed himself to being compromised and is compromised in his opinion, in my opinion, that is too iportant anissue for the american public to not understand how we thought abut that in the f.b.i. in 2016 up to d through today. >> reporter: >> woodruff: in the book you write about whayou call the president's lies and his business deassngs with the ns. how did that compromise him? >> i think it's ptty stang forward and i'll give you an example. if you look at the campaign trail in 2016, in oe speech, president trump makes a comment to the crowd that i have noin financial de with russia, no relationship whatsoever in any financial way.

at theexact same moment, his personal attorney, michael cohen, is making a deal or trying to make a deal for trump tower moscow, which continued throughout the camign, and at least later into the summer. the issue with that is, when he says that, it's a lie. lie.imir putin knows that it's a cey president trump knew i havit was a lie and, at the tim, the f.b.i. you it was a lie. maintain that lie, those peters have to be complicit in it. moso president trump, thent he says that, kno that russia can out that lienytime they want, and that gives them leverage over them and the ability to influence his behavior. >> woodruff: so when the president and allies come ter you relentlessly for these text messages you excnged where you were criticizing the president, bias against the president.l at one point, you wrote, we wil stop it, whethe question of

whether the president could be elected or not back in 2016, why shouldn't someone lookt at this and say this is som weoo can't be trusted, who had a personal view, a pesonal bias going in to this invurtigation? >> so here's the bottom line truth. throhout 2016, i knew things about trump and his campaign that absolutely would have killed his electoral chances. knew things that had we gone to media, gone to congress, it would have destroyed, potentially irreparably, his campaign forresident. we stand now, going into 2020, i and others still know material that would be damaging, but the fact of the matter is none of us havie ever dsclosed that. so the idea that somehow we wanted to do that lies in the face of common sense. furthermore, there have been exhaustive investigations, two

inspector general vestigations, looks by attorneys general and house and senate and all universally found there was investigative action taken based on improper political conoderations. >>ruff: peter strzok, you write in the book about you say the russianare coming at the with a vengeance.tions in 2020 based on what you know, what are the russians up to now?at >> a lot of s certainly classified and remains classified and i can't talk about. what i can tell you is we know 2016, everything from expiting schisms n american society on social media to ntrying to ad successfully in some cases infiltrate state electoral boards and voting systems, ill all the traditional things intelligence services do to recruit people. i think it is safe to say and what i was able to say in the book is we thought russians would do some things in 2016 that they didlit. my b is they returned some

of those techniques back to their quiver d spent the last four years honing those sources of attacks and technues th they're using now and that are only going to pick up steam as t ey approach the election and continue well pe election as we sort out what occurs at the beginning of nvember. >> woodruff: wel can you be any more specific, and let me ask, the trump intelligence community, folks at the top, are saying china and iran are every bit as big a threat to the020 elections as are the russians. how do you react to that? >> my experience over two decades is that's absolutely false. when you look at the nature and the depth of what russia is doing, they are engaging in the american electoral process in a fundamentally greater and more complex and more intrusive way than any other nation on the face of the earth. russia is getnginto our domestic politics and schisms,

they are fomenting intentions in american society the way the chinese and others aren't doing and for the administration to say that is deeply inaccurate.dr >> wf: something you write about is the investigation into former secretary of state hillary clinton's e-mails, and you went on in that connection to write that former f.b.i. director james comey made decisions around that investigation that you say ultimately hurt hillary clinton's chances in that, electilped president trump, and yo said, as much as it pains me to admit it, the 'tssians werhe only ones who pushed the needle toward trump, the bureau did, too. >> it is.ite an acnowledgment. i think there's been a lot of introspection by all of us who were in that executive decision make team. hindsight is 2020 and it's an

unfair perspective to look back, but when you said the number of swing voters between wisconsin and pennsylvania could fit in a football stadium is wrong. in retrospect, when we were forcing and director comey announced the reopening of then investigat october, that was all set into motion by the destoition make the speech in july, and lookinback, i and i know others have said -- had similar thoughts, in retrosuspect, i would have advocated more fcefully not to have made the speech in july. >> woodruff: you've had a two successful decade career at the f.b.i. it ended in a way that embarrassed you, left you humiliated. do you acknowledge, though, that your own actions, in their way, frankly, add up to the american

people having less cfidence in the f.b.i. because of what they saw here? >> yeah, look, i deeply regret the way my actions were used to harm the f.b.i., were certainly used to attack and harm my family and all the things i love the most in the world.e but i willll you the american people should understand all of my work was done in an that is exaly the way way, and everybody else in the f.b.i. did their work. those are the standards we hold ourselves to. every agent has a political opinion, i have a personal opinion, and each and every one of us, when i was working at the f.b.i., when you walk in the doorsyou set thate and do your job objectively. and the work of partans t partan partisans toermine thousand the f.b.i. works has been damaging. i regret the entire experience and how its unfolded and the way people used that to attack the

bureau. >> woodruff: peter strzok, the book is "compromiste: cointelligence and the thread of donald j. trump." thank you very much for talking with us. >> thank you for having me. ok>> woodruff: we are all g for answers in this pandemic. sweden took a different track, not shutting down, trusting citizens to follow sociang distann their own. and putting a priority on "herdy immu the idea is to expose as many as possible to the virus. the results were mixed. special correspondent malcolm

abant reports on how the gamble played out. forinter: sweden was widely vindication. around the world economies are struggling to stay afloat, the butozone's shrunk by 12% sweden's hit is less than nine percent. as for cov, sweden has gone from being one of the most infectious european nations, to one of the safest. >> right now we seem to be in fairly good position. we see a steady decline in the number of critically ill patients and deaths since mid april. >> reporter: infecous diseases specialist anna mia ekstrom thinks sweden was right to trust people to socially distance. >> hard lockdowns are unsustainable over any extded period of time in a free society. so unless you find an acceptable level of restrictions and recommendations that people can understand and support, i don't think you can sustain a lockdown. g april,ter: dur sweden suffered more than 100 deaths a day.

in all, ere have been more than 5,900 swedish fatalities. sweden ranks 11th in the world, one place behind the u.s., in terms of deaths per hundred. thousa anders tegnell has run the swedish operation. his aim has been to createni extensive im. he calculated that law abiding swedes would follow health guidelines and as a result there would only ba soft spread of the virus. >> ( translated ): the most important development right nown is that thctions rates have come down and are continuing to go down. a pa of the explanation for that is in my view that quite a large part of the population has immunity. >> reporter: along with other countries, sweden med to ease pressure on its hospitals. >> swedish healthcare is one of te bestit >>eporter: this local government promotional video paints an idealized portrait of swedish retirement. but the covid reality was carnage. 90% of sweden's fatalities we aged over 70, half were in

nursing homes. oxygen wasn't provided. instead, seniors were given morphine to ease the pain of respiratory failure. >> i really do mourn the loss of thousands of people in sweden whdied, who might not have done had we had a more aggressive strategy towards19 covi >> reporter: professor paul southern sweden.demiologist in >> death from covid 19 is a miserable way to go out. there's no last touch of the skin or quiet words in the ear. >> reporter: another professor, yngve gustaffson told a newspaper that nursie aths amounted to active euthanasia.ne l practitioner jon tallinger resigned from the swedish health service in protest.i >> whaw in my inner eye, so to speak, was thousands of people suffocating to death, with these instructions that ca right from the very top th reporter: for tallinger video was the smoking gun. it issued instructions toca

swedis staff. there was no suggestion of sending patients to hospital. instead it prescribemorphine and a sedative used in end of life palliative care. >> the swedish health care system wasn't overwhelmed to the hospital.n't send anyone they died in their homes and the care homes. r orter: what do you make of these claims that swedish authorities basically sacrificed people in nursinhomes? >> in march, nobody knew what was happenin right? the world was in disarray. even the best experts didn't know what was happening so people were at the very best making educated guesses how to proceed. and sweden made its educated guesses. >> reporter: across the bridge, denmark imposed a total lockdown eay in the pandemic. thus far, its death rate per f 100,000 isth of sweden's. but in the past few days, its infection rate has risen above sweden's, possibly bausew denmark has sted a third of its 5.6 million population.

in a significant rever people in the cities of copenhagen and odense are being ur work he. pretty clear that e been's going through the first wave in a better sort ofmpublic sense ed to sweden but the jury's still out here. >> reporter: professor jens lugren is an infectious diseases specialist, and leading a trial of a drug formulated to fight covid. he hasympathy for sweden. danish care homes also suffered. >> you coulde infectious without having symptoms, therefore the personnel that comes to nursing homes, they are the potential source of infection and essentially brings the infection into the nursing home. and we hadn't thought about thau and it's nowantly clear that it can happen. and as a consequence you want to test the pernnel before they come in. i think we're in a much better >> reporter: in denmark, state figures show that 50% of all infections occurred amongst ethnic minorities who comprise

vejust nine percent of thell population. prime minister mette frederiksen. de ( translated ): when we look at the numbers iark in a sober manner, there are definitely too many people with a non westckground who are infected. of course we must address this in a decent way but the numbers have to come out so we can combat the virus. >> reporter: but social worker uzma ahmed, a racial equality activist, is worried that ethnic minorities are beingig tized. b people who drive the busses, are actually beimed for bringing in corona instead ofhe saying, hey, the people who are acally working while safe.s are keeping themselves we have very turned around logic, i would say, that serves the purpose of finding scapegoats. >> reporter: the ahorities say prayer sessions like this,ba breachin on mass gatherings, led to a crackdown in denmark's second city,

aarhus. "jyllands posten" newspaper also showed a number of crowded muslim funerals where social distancing was ignored. but aren't there some communities which just aren't abiding by social distancing rules? >> aarhus is not the only place where it has happened and where the same restricons are applied. but we don't talk about the restrictions in the other areas as personalized and as something that has got to do with culture. >> reporter: scandinavia's summer is nearly over. some experts fear the cold may reinvigorate the virus. yet both sweden and denmark are relatively upbeat. second wave.ll doesn't expect a >> we will have this rather local but rather big outbreaks. and not the complete wave over ute country like what we're seeing right nowather this localized smaller or bigger outbreaks in different places.>> t's safe to say that with the ongoing research efforts inr six months tim now, thingsoo

may actually what can i say potentially even better. >> reporter: at the start ofmahe pandemic d sealed its border with sweden because of the perceived risk, but in covid's volatile new world, the threat has been ree rsed. for thpbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant. >> woodruff: on the newsur online right now, there are mant cost often comes to the forefront in the debate aboutic the am health care system. how does the u.s. stack up to other countries? yourself.quiz to see for that's on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. tomorrow evening.d again here for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: at the "pbs newshour" we have a lon r tradition ofporting events, issues and stories at define our times. new times and a new crisis havde new ways to do what we do best, reporting the day's news and prviding you with he context to understand the world d make informed decisions. from those leading the respone to the crisis tohose suffering through it, and our unsung heros. we bring you tin sights you need to hear to make sense of it all. now, more th ever, how different do you think life is going to be? we seek abs tohe tough

questi >> the united states is still not testing per capita. >> woodruff: and get you information you can trust. you should expect nothing less. we are -- >> wee ar. the "pbs newshour." >> woodruff: we nights on pbs. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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