captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: the campaign intensifies. leading republicans say there will be a peaceful transf of power, after the president refuses to say he would honor election results if he loses. then, in a night of largely peaceful protests, two officers are shot in louisville, following the decision by prosecutors not to charge police for killing breonna taylor. plus, securing the vote. we examine how americans vote by mail, the extensive verification systems, and why voter fraud is a vanishingly small problem in the u.s.

and, hitting the road. covid-19 complicates the lives of an increasing number of older americans traveling the country to find seasonal work. >> there's a huge population of us that are still in limbo, wondering if there is a next job to go to. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular. >> johon & johnson.

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possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the united states presidential race is focused tonight on a potentially critical question: will president trump accept the election results if he loses? he won't say. and that, in turn, has sparked criticism across the board. amna nawaz has the day's developments. >> what country are we in? >> nawaz: democrats, including former vice president joe biden, in disbelief... >> look, he says the most irrational things. i don't know what to say. >> nawaz: ...after president trump's latest remarks about the election, responding to this question in the briefing room yesterday: >> do you commit to making sure that-- that there's a peaceful transferal of power? >> we want to have-- get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very trans-- we'll have a very peaceful-- there won't be a transfer, frankly.

there'll be a continuation. the ballots are out of control. you know it. >> nawaz: following mr. trump's failure to commit to the constitutional standard for every american election since the country's founding, the senate passed a resolution committing to a peaceful transfer of power, and lawmakers, including house speaker nancy pelosi, weighed in. >> that a president of the united states would place in doubt the idea of peaceful transition of power is-- well, it's no surprise. >> nawaz: a number of republicans also spoke out, to quiet concerns. >> every single republican up here, i believe, is absolutely behind a peaceful transfer when-- when a sitting president loses. >> let me put it all to rest for all of you, it will be a smooth transition, no concern on the outcome. >> nawaz: other members of the president's party took to twitter to respond. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell insisted "there will be an orderly transition, just as there has been" since 1792.

florida senator marco rubio pledged to "peacefully swear in the president" in 2021. and utah senator mitt romney dismissed anything other than a peaceful transition as" unthkable and unacceptable." former wisconsin governor scott walker, however, backed the president, tweeting "smart candidates never concede anything before an election. they focus on what it takes to win." it's not the first time president trump s called into question whether he'd accept election results. during a 2016 presidential debate, candidate trump was asked this by fox news' chris wallace: >> do you make the same commitment that you will absolutely accept the result of this election? >> i'll look at it at the time. i'm not looking at anything now. i'll look at it at the time. >> nawaz: wallace asked him again this summer. >> can you give a direct answer? you will accept the election? >> i have to see. look, i have to see. i'm not going to just say yes, i'm not going to say-- and i didn't last time, either. >> nawazas he left the white house this afternoon, the president doubled down on that

message, returning to his unfounded doubt of mail-in ballots. >> we want to make sure that the election is honest. and i'm not sure that it can be. i don't know that it can be with this whole situation, unsolicited ballots. >> vote him out! vote him out! >> nawaz: earlier at the supreme court, the president drew strong public reaction while paying his respects to the late justice ruth bader ginsburg. the president has said he intends to announce his pick to replace ginsburg this weekend. for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, officials in louisville, kentucky appealed for calm over the breonna taylor killing. there were new protests overnight, and two officers

were shot and wounded, after the decision not to charge police with taylor's death. correspondent yamiche alcindor has our report. >> alcindor: last night in protesters' demands for justice for breonna taylor gained new urgency. they came soon after a grand jury brought charges against two officers who fatally shot taylor in her home. the officers were attempting to serve a drug warrant in march. a third officer, who has already been fired, was indicted for recklessly shooting into a nearby apartment. taylor, who was sleeping before officers shot her, had no criminal record, and no drugs were found in her apartment. angry and distraught, hundreds took to the streets for protests across the nation, from los angeles... ( protests ) ...to new york city... >> what happened today, it's definitely going to be in the history books, because if we do nothing, the police are going to continue to commit genocide on my brothers and sisters.

>> alcindor: ...and washington, d.c. >> this young, amazing woman, who was contributing to her community, gs shot down because they went to the wrong house looking for some ex- boyfriend? i mean, the whole thing is so infuriating. >> alcindor: demonstrations were largely peaceful... >> say her name! >> breonna taylor! >> alcindor: ...but in louisville, two police officers were shot. >> officer down, officer down. take cover. >> alcindor: both are expected to recover. one suspect has been charged. it's unclear if he was a protester. in washington, president trump commented on the violence as he left the white house. >> i also think it's so sad, what's happening, with everythingbout that case, including law enforcement. so many people suffering. so many people needlessly suffering. but with respect to breonna, we give our regards to the family. >> alcindor: today in

louisville, more protests geared up. mayor greg fischer, who announced police reforms and a $12 million settlement with taylor's family last week, said he undstood the disappointment. >> the question is, what do we do with this pain? we never had control over what an attorney general or grand jury would do. we don't have control over what the f.b.i. will do with its investigation. we do have control over what happens next in our city. >> alcindor: a curfew in louisville remains in effect for the next two nights. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> woodruff: another 870,000 americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. that was a slight increase from the previous week, but down from the peak of the pandemic. overall, unemployment remains at historically high levels. those jobless numbers came as treasury secretary steven mnuchin talked up the recovery today. at the same time, democrats pressed the trump administration to negotiate a new relief package. they spoke at a senate hearing. >> america is in the midst of the fastest economic recovery from any crisis in u.s. history. the august jobs report showed

that the economy had gained back about 10.6 million jobs, nearly 50% of the jobs lost due to the pandemic. >> i hope that you and the president don't dislocate your shoulders by patting yourself on the back, saying "good job." i know you think the economy is doing well, if you're talking to your wealthy friends on wall street, but things are pretty bad for most working americans, and are going to get worse unless you come up with a package. >> woodruff: house democrats now plan to offer a pared-down relief bill, in a bid to jump- start negotiations. president trump's niece, mary trump, is accusing him and two of his siblings of cheating her out of millions of dollars. she already published a tell-all book. now, her lawsuit, filed in new york, claims fraud and conspiracy. it alleges that she was deprived of her share of familreal estate holdings. state prosecutors in florida today dropped a misdemeanor sex charge against robert kraft, owner of the new england patriots.

that came after courts blocked the use of video that allegedly showed kraft paying for a sex act at a massage parlor. on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 52 points to close at 26,815. the nasdaq rose 39 points, and the s&p 500 added nine. and in australia, wildlife crews have rescued 88 pilot whales so far, after the largest mass stranding ever recorded there. crews in western tasmania are working to move surviving animals back out to sea. at least 380 whales have die and their carcasses will have to be disposed of. still to come on the newshour: we look at the ways americans vote by mail, and the extensive verification systems already in place.

the trump administrations' response to the pandemic raises questions about pre-existing conditions and the future of american healthcare. covid-19 complicates the lives of many older americans who hit the road in search of seasonal work. plus, much more. >> woodruff: the president's outright refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power ties directly to his criticism and false statements about mail-in voting. mail-in ballots are expected to hit a record level in this election. but, the president insists that they can't be trusted. many state officials say otherwise. we're going to discuss president trump's unprecedented statements shortly. but first, miles o'brien has a report on how mail-in voting really works, and what past experience shows. >> o'brien: it's august 14 in

ocala, florida, four days until a primary election, and most of the ballots have been cast. they roll in every day in bins from the post office, rit past the office of wesley wilcox, supervisor of elections for marion county. >> if you'd asked me ten years ago, if you'd asked me five years ago, or if you'd asked me five minutes ago, "am i a proponent of vote-by-mail?" i am. i like vote-by-mail. >> o'brien: and so do most floridians. the state that became infamous for antiquated, ambiguous punch-card voting during the disputed bush-versus-gore presidential contest 20 years ago has fully embraced early voting, and absentee ballots for anyone who asks, including palm beach resident donald trump, who votes by mail while repeatedly trashing the process, suggesting it is rigged and rife

with fraud. >> all these ballots come in. these mailed ballots come in. the mailed ballots are corrupt, in my opinion. and they collect them, and they get people to go in and sign them. and then they-- they're forgeries, in many cases. it's a horrible thing. >> o'brien: the rhetoric is not supported by reality. the conservative heritage foundation maintains an online database of documented election fraud cases in the united states. it lists 204 cases of absentee ballot fraud, with 143 criminal convictions over the past 20 years. on average, that's one case, per state, every seven years, representing about 0.00006% of total votes ca. >> a lot of the things that people talk about vote-by-mail is just not reality. you know, you can't run down to the wawa or the circle k and pick up a handful of vote-by- mail ballots. it's just not there. >> o'brien: amber mcreynolds is

c.e.o. of the national vote at home institute and coalition. >>he reason it's exceedingly rare is that there's multiple steps and checks in the system that prevent it, and would identify it if it were to occur. >> o'brien: mcreynolds was director of elections in denver when the state of colorado left traditional election day polling behind in 2013. in colorado, every active registered voter gets a ballot in the mail automatically. they can return ballots by mail, at drop boxes, and a few choose to vote in person. jocelyn bucaro is amber mcreynolds' successor. >> we only had about 1% of our voters in the state primary vote in-person. so, that tells us that-- and we hope will be repeated in november-- that voters will vote that ballot at home and use one of our secure methods to return it. >> o'brien: bucaro and her team showed me how they do it. ballot envelopes here are imprinted with an intelligent

mail barcode, a number unique to each voter, which allows tracking through the mail. the envelopes are run through a customized mail sorter that is connected to the registration database. drake rambke is a project coordinator here. >> so, anytime i run this machine, it's got the most up-to-date information. so, if somebody voted in person an hour ago, and then we get their mail ballot that comes through, it's going to be kicked out as void, because they voted in person already. >> o'brien: so it's real time. signatures are initially checked with software. about 20% are automatically accepted that way. the rest are verified, along with 2% of the machine choices, to double-check its performance. >> we do extensive training, both internally and then we bring in a handwriting expert that has worked with the f.b.i. prior to every election, to give more tips. >> o'brien: the envelopes are opened by machines, to maintain the secrecy of ballots. then they are fed into high- speed scanners to be tallied.

voters are instructed to carefully fill in the ovals. but on some ballots, 1.6% in the last election, they don't fill them in completely or use x's, checks or other markings. >> and in that case, the software will ask humans to take a look at that and say, "is this a mark or not?" and we have bipartisan teams of election judges who do that ballot adjudication, where they can look at the image and say, >> o'brien: colorado is among six states that vote almost entirely by mail. but the covid-19 pandemic has prompted others to consider ways fopeople to vote without spending a lot of time in line with strangers. >> i started getting a lot of calls, like, what would this look like? could we scale this nationally? >> o'brien: she says yes, but not without difficulty. the june 9 primary in georgia was a case in point. more than a million people voted by mail. the previous record was 35,000. this created chaos and confusion. many voters didn't get their

ballots in time, and were uncertain that their votes were received and counted. that prompted waunda hayes to try a belt-and-suspenders approach. i met her waiting in a long line to vote in person. did you try to vote absentee? >> i sure did. >> o'brien: what happened? >> i received my ballot and i sent it in, but i don't know if it was received or not. >> o'brien: you want to make sure? >> yes, right. >> o'brien: secretary of state brad raffensperger says 1,000 georgians double-voted in the june primary and august runoff. the announcement gave some traction to president trump's critique of mail-in voting, and his suggestion to supporters to try and vote twice. but, raffensperger warned the public that what the president is encouraging people to do is a crime. >> double-voting is a felony that is a minimum of one year in prison, up to ten years, up to a $100,000 fine. and we will prosecute. >> o'brien: back in florida, wesley wilcox's team is taking

this unprecedented election year in stride. they didn't break a sweat sorting, processing and scanning ballots in the august primary. by election day, they only needed to push a button to tally the votes. but elsewhere, things are not running so smoothly. in tennessee, the w prevents election workers from even opening envelopes containing ballots until election day. several other states, including michigan and pennsvania, have similar constraints. wilcox hears a lot from his counterparts in places where they are struggling to answer the mail. this is this is an extraordinary election. are they all kind of freaking out? >> short answer is probably yes. but there's the election administrator prayer, "lord, i don't care who wins as long, as they win big." that's a reality. >> o'brien: the reality is, election night will likely be more like election week, while we all wait for the envelopes, please.

for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in ocala, florida. >> woodruff: and now, to discuss the security of our election, and the president's failure to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, i'm jned by kathleen hall jamieson, director of the university of pennsylvania's annenberg public policy center. kathleen hall jamieson, welcome back to the "newshour". before we get to that, i do want to follow up on miles o'brien's reporting just now. by the way, president trump again denigrating mail-in balloting voting and called it a scam today. tell us in brief, what is your sense of the reality of mail-in voting? >> the amount of problematic voting is so extraordinarily small that barring an extraordinarily unusual circumstance, an election will not be so close any of that could make any difference.

>> woodruff: let's move on to talk about what president trump has been saying the last few days. casting doubt, raising questions about whether he would accept the results of the election if he loses. how would you sum up -- and he's been making these statements ju in the last day or so -- but how would you sum up what he said over the time of his entire presidency? >> the assumption that if the president were to lose it would mean that the election is rigged is an extremely problematic statement as was the statement in 2016 that suggested that he would wait to see whether or not he should concede. there's also another element that's problematic in this chain of statements across time, and that's the statement that says, in cases more political than it should be, and this is the outcome, it is important to have a ninth justice. that assumes we can't trust the independence of the judiciary, that the justices don't follow

the constitution and the law, that the four justices nominated by republicans would side with the republican and nose no, nominated by a democrat would side with joe biden and the ninth justice would automatically side with the president. that calls into question another of the fundamental assumptions we mate about our systems of government. it's checks and balances that are protected across time. it's the ingenuity of the founders that gave us the three branches and those are there to protect us from executive overreach. >> woodruff: have we ever before, kathleen hall jamieson, heard a president connect the number of justices on the court in connection with whether or not his own reelection may be accepted and may have to end up in court? have we ever seen this kind of connection drawn by a president? >> no, we have not. and because it was the supreme court that guided us through the 2000 outcome, which, as you

know, was an extraordinarily closeout come, we have in our history the ability to say to nations across the world, when it was extraordinarily close, our three branches of government worked. our constitutional checks and balances structure and our willingness to grant the independence of judiciary made it possible for the country to accept the outcome but never did anyone call into play the assumption, bring up the possibility that there would not be a peaceful transfer of power. al gore who actually called to congratulate then houston president-elect bush withdrew and once it was acknowledged by the superior courts he acknowledged in a concession speech and we had a transition. we can say to the world in that extremely close election edecided over a difficult period of time, our system worked. the nations across the world are looking to us now and i assume wondering if all these years when we've said free and fair elections, persons votes

actually counted, paceful transfer of power, if vladimir putin isn't just laughing saying this is a propaganda coup for russia: >> woodruff: finally, what is the harm done in the president himself is the one saying, well, i'm not sure i'm going to accept the results. we have to see what happens? why does that matter? >> we need to have confidence that the process of campaigning and the process then of voting as a result, observing the campaign and calling on your experiences, your partisan dispositions and cast ago vote is going to yield an outcome that is determined by we the people and by our electoral system including the electoral college structure. and to the extent that someone suggests there's something else at play, that is the ability of a president potentially to decide whether the election is free and fair, whether it's been

rigged or not, calls into question the suppositions of our system of government, that is deeply problematic. >> woodruff: and we should point out that a number of republicans, even those who typically are right there at the side of the president, were there today saying, as far as they're concerned, there will be a peaceful transfer. kathleen hall jamieson, thank you so much. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: with just 40 days until election day, health care is becoming a bigger issue in the campaign. that is due in part to the death of supreme court justice ginsburg, and the possibility that the fate of the federal healthcare law could be argued before the supreme court just one week after the election. today, president trump tried to broaden his appeal on his healthcare record. william brangham checks the rhetoric against the record.

>> brangham: judy, president trump today said he would issue two new executive orders. one pledges to limit surprise medical billing, which can leave patients with huge, unexpected debts. the second says the u.s. will make sure that insurers don't discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. but these orders don't change any laws, and require congress to do so. all of this comes as the president is trying to repeal the affordable care act, which already protects pre-existing conditions. for more, i'm joined by paige winfield cunningham. she covers health care for the "washington post." paige winfie cunningham, very good to have you here. so today's event was billed as the erica-first healthcare plan, but there wasn't really a plan per se, the long-promised plan from the president, this was the signing of two executive orders. as i mentioned, one deals with pre-existing conditions.

i think we have about a quarter of l americans have what would be considered a pre-existing condition. what is this order and does it help protect them? >> right. well, this is really clearly an effort by trump, six weeks before the election, to try to look like he is on sort of the winning side of this issue. but there's a lot of dispute over whether he can even legally use the executive authority, use an executive order to extend these protections and almost certainly this would be challenged in court. a lot of people are questioning this, already. and, of course, you know, the a.c.t. about the passed in 2010 pioneered this, was the legislation that extended these protections to americans and e administration has refused to defend that law, and the case will be heard by the supreme court, of course, on november 10th, and it's really been remarkable, i would say, last year and this year, especially, as you've seen president trump and republicans

try to completely rewrite the record on who has been in favor of these protections. it plays really really well with voters, and democrats have successfully leveraged it against republicans in the 2018 eltions. so there's a blaisent attempt by trump to make it look as he has been a champion of this all along, though behind the scenes he's done a lot of things to undermine those very protections. >> reporter: if the supreme court were to do awawith the a.c.t.atics and congress, as this executive order orders them to do to try to address this issue, if this does not happen, theoretically, a quarter of americans could face some kind of discrimination with regard to their coverage? >> right. so what would happen if we saw these protections fall -- and i should add, we aren't certain of that. there's a lot of different scenarios that could play out and there's a simple fix congress could do to all of this to make this lawsuit go away, but if they were toppled, this

would kind of go back to the lay of the land before the aclu was passed before 2010 to regulate this and you saw a variety of approaches. some of the more liberal states tended to be run by democrats would, you know, put restrictions on what insurers could discriminate based on. other states had very few restrictions. arizona was an example of essentially iurers could discriminate against essentially anything and, not only that, but they could refuse, if they knew that someone had had a particular condition in the past, they could refuse to cover treatment in the future that was in any way related to that condition that someone had had. so it was really the wh wild, wd west in the individual market for these folks. >> reporter: so let's turn quickly in the last half minute we have before we have to go, the second executive order

addresses surprise medical building. are there eat in this executive order and will this solve this serious problem? >> this is an extremely tricky legislative problem. congress struggled through the nitty gritty details of exactly how to do this. all of last year, we had different legislation in the house and the senate, different opinions about how to tackle this, it's very complex. the only thing this executive order does is it basically instructs congress to keep working on the issue, and then if they don'to produce legislation by january 1, then h.h.s. should then try to figure out how they can tackle this administratively. but, again, it is a very complex issue. this is why congress hasn't yet been able to unify around a single bill, and, so, trump just coming out today and claiming that he's solved surprised medical billing is extremely far from the truth and a very misleading thing to tell he american people. >> reporter: all right, paige winfield cunningham of "the washington post," thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> woodruff: the pandemic has spurred a surge in camping and r.v. travel, as social distancing has become the catchphrase of covid-19. but, it's not all fun and vacations. one group of americans has long since adopted a self-sufficient lifestyle, living full-time in motor homes and working seasonal jobs to support themselves. our economics correspondent paul solman has the story. it's part of our "making sense" series, "unfinished business." and a note-- some of this story was shot before the pandemic began. >> this is the couch that turns into a bed. >> reporter: to darla mclain, 64, and husband bill, also 64, former biker and hellraiser, this is home sweet home. >> our whole bedroom is done all in levi's. these are all my old pants.

>> reporter: the mclains have been living in an r.v. since 2010, after the great recession sank their l.a. motorcycle repair shop, and their home. >> we had a $700,000 house that we owed about $200,000 on. that sold for $131,000. >> on the auction block. >> reporter: broke, the mclains sold what was left and hit the road. >> it was that or rent an apartment and get jobs locally. but there were no jobs. >> reporter: so they drove to where the work was. >> our first job was amazon in coffeyville, kansas. >> reporter: a two-month stint in the warehouse, holiday rush. >> it was it was pretty rough. they expect certain numbers, and you have to hustle. >> reporter: bill over-hustled. >> he blew his knee out. >> i don't normally walk at 60 miles an hour, pushing a heavy cart, going around 90-degree turns. >> reporter: amazon was the first of some 20 seasonal gigs. when we first met them last fall, the mclains were parked across from a las vegas ikea to peddle pumpkins, and then

christmas trees. >> we have what we call "wheel estate." we just-- we just take the covers off, lift the levelers, and we go where the economy is good. >> reporter: tens of thousands of retirement age americans are migrant laborers, or workampers, driven by economic necessity and wanderlust. this is judy arnold's fourth year workamping. she's been tending a store in yellowstone national park since june. >> it wasn't very busy at first, but as time went on, it got busier and busier, until we have more people now than we have had in regular seasons. people were just tired of being cooped up at home and they thought, let's go to the parks. >> reporter: more sightseers drawn away from covid and back to nature means a lot more work for a workamper like arnold. >> i'm doing the work of three people right now. >> reporter: the pandemic has driven an awful lot of americans onto the road, but the number of mobile-living, gig-hopping workampers has been growing for years. every january, hordes convene in

quartzsite, arizona, the site of an annual r.v. show. that's where we met 66-year-old susan otteros. >> you end up in these really neat places, like yosemite. >> reporter: otteros works as a camp host. main tasks? checki in campers and, if you're up for it, "cleaning." >> i don't do the bathrooms, my boyfriend does the bathrooms. i collect the money. >> reporr: mitch craighead drafts camp hosts for "thousand trails" campsites. how many 75-year-olds do you recruit? >> more than you'd expect. the pool of woers that we're hiring for is growing dramatically. baby boomers are retiring. >> reporter: that was in january. the company declined to give us specifics, but mitchell says campgrounds are busier than these days. >> we've always looked at ourselves in the camping industry as the original social distancing. and a lot of our new customers are telling us just that. we've seen a significant spike in reservations for the remainder of the camping year this year. >> reporter: at the r.v. show, workamping veterans rick and

tammie womack moved into their motor home nine years ago, after their son died by suicide. >> we started out with what we call our "journey for joshua," which was to honor our son. but the reality after that three years was, it's expensive to live on the road. you need new tires, maintenance costs are high. >> reporter: and big campers get just seven miles a gallon. so for the past seven years, they've worked the nor dakota sugar beet harvest. >> i didn't even know what a sugar beet was. i thought sugar came from sugarcane, because where i come from, it does. but instead, 55% of our sugar comes from sugar beets instead of sugarcane in the country. >> reporter: muddy 12-hour shifts at $14 an hour, plus overtime, until the beets run out. some nomad gigs pay a lot more than that." ms. j" transports r.v.s from manufacturer to dealer, and sees the country.

>> i can pick my jobs. so if there's an r.v. that needs to go to florida-- which, i have done this, delivered in miami-- i went on over to key west. >> reporter: and how much do you get paid for that? >> i would say somewhere between 60 and 75. >> reporter: that's $60,000 to $75,000 a year, driving four days a week. these days, r.v.s are selling like hot cakes, but ms. j is sitting out the pandemic in a tiny house in georgia until next year. >> the cases are up, especially for, you know, certain communities, communities of color, the cases are up. and i know quite a few of people who have been affected by the pandemic, and so i just kind of choose to lay low until things kind of, you know, simmer down a little bit. >> reporter: can you afford to? >> i can. i've been doing this pattern over a number of years where i was able to finaially prepare myself for the what-ifs. and this is one of those what- ifs.

>> reporter: back in january, in the big tent, there were hawkers of tire pressure monitors, r.v. window-cleaners, orthotics. we reconnected with bill and darla mclain, who'd driven here from mexico, where they go f affordable health care. >> shrimp tacos are killer. ( laughs ) we have a great pharmacist down there. we get glasses, and our teeth worked on, and everything else. i don't know how they can charge so much for stuff here that you can go right down there and get the same thing for a fraction of the price. >> reporter: but the mclains were at the r.v. show for a gig: to sign up other workampers as oilfield gate guards. >> you have to man the gate 24 hours a day. they pay $150 a day for that. >> reporter: now look, workamping obviously isn't for everyone, even here. does this interest you? >> no, not at all. >> reporter: and why is that? >> because i retired for a reason. i don't want to go back to work. >> reporter: but bill and sandy collins liked what they heard. they workamp, in part, to fund their travel. >> we work adventureland, then we go to jcpenney's, and--

>> reporter: doing what? >> working in the warehouse at jcpenney's. >> reporter: even in bankruptcy, jcpenney's warehouse is still running. and, as at amazon, you have to step lively. >> on thursday i walked 23,355 steps. >> reporter: according to 72-year-old bill's smartphone, that is. >> and as long as i keep doing it, then i think my health is going to stay a lot better than i would if i sat down. >> reporter: that's one of the appeals of workamping to george stoutenburgh. >> i can't do nothing. what is nothing? you sit around and what? wait to die? that's not me. >> reporter: but he also needs the money. >> it's not like we're broke, but we're certainly not millionaires. we can't afford to just travel the world and do whatever we want to do. >> reporter: judy arnold's current yellowstone gig has kept her more than busy, but when it ends in october, she isn't sure what she'll do. >> there's a huge population of us that are still in limbo, wondering if there is a next job

to go to. and a lot of my coworkers, where they normally go, there aren't places aren't open. i'm definitely worried because i definitely need an income. >> reporter: as for bill and darla mclain, they've been parked outside their daughter's housin arkansas for several months, making repairs to the r.v. >> i think for the most part, we've been surviving and trying to get through this like most people are. it is a little weird for r.v.'ers. i know that for a fact. it's not the easiest tng in the world to find a ace. >> it's not really that we can't travel, it's just once you get where you're going... >> where do you stay? >> reporter: but this weekend, they're getting back on the road, headed to a new job, working, and hoping to find places to camp. for the pbs newshour, this is paul solman. >> woodruff: today in a house foreign affairs committee

hearing room, there was an empty chair for michael pack, the c.e. of the u.s. agency for global media. pack ignored a subpoena from lawmakers who today expressed bipartisan concern that he has politicized, and mismanaged, media outlets that helped the u.s. win the cold war, including voice of america. here's nick schifrin. >> schifrin: valdya baraputri's career at voice of america ended with a one-way ticket. ( crying ) she didn't want to leave the u.s., but she and fellow v.o.a. indonesia service journalist rafki hidayat had to take a plane home after v.o.a. wouldn't extend their visas. >> being thrown out of a country in the middle of a pandemic feels very cruel. >> if you heard what's coming out of the voice of america, it's disgusting. >> schifrin: president trump has

made it clear he's unhappy with what he calls voice of ameca bias, as has the new c.e.o. of v.o.a.'s parent company, the united states agency for global media, or u.s.a.g.m., michael pack. >> ronald reagan apparently said that, you know, if you let go of the wheel of the car, it veers left. and there's something to that. the media, undirected, goes left. it has a leftwing, leftward bias. >> schifrin: in audio interviews, pack also cites national security. he says the foreign journalists on u.s. visas weren't properly vetted, leaving the organization vulnerable to espionage. >> journalism-- to be a journalist is a great cover for a spy. it's just a great cover. and from the beginning, from the cold war and even earlier, they've been penetrated. >> these are the same slurs that are hurled at them by the kremlin. >> schifrin: jamie fly led radio free europe/radio liberty, which is funded by u.s.a.g.m., before heas fired by pack. >> it's incredibly dangerous for a u.s.a.g.m. head to start basically writing a press release that the kremlin can

then turn around and use next week against u.s.a.g.m. journalists. >> schifrin: pbs newshour spoke to a half-dozen of the more than 70 v.o.a. journalists whose visas weren't renewed. none would go on the record, but one provided this document-- confirmation they filled out a standard u.s. government background check used for many administration officials. it's more than 100 pages long. >> mr. pack is making it seem like national security is at risk here. >> schifrin: grant turner was the c.f.o. of u.s.a.g.m.-- until he was fired by pack. >> i think it's just pretext, and a good cover for taking some abhorrent actions. >> the "courier," a ship without guns, goes into battle with the greatest weapon of all: truth. >> schifrin: voice of america was created by the u.s. government to broadcast behind the iron curtain, to promote american ideas by presenting objective news, including about >> this is radio liberty, an >> schifrin: alongside v.o.a., u.s.a.g.m. provides grants to independent corporations that are supposed to be independent media outlets-- radio free

europe/radio liberty, radio free asia, the middle east broadcast network, and open technology fund, which funds tools that help evade government censorship and surveillance. pack fired their leaders and replaced their bipartisan boards with partisan ones. today, the witnesses said that degraded the media organizations' credibility. amanda bennett was fired by pack as v.o.a. president. >> the very fact that v.o.a. is provided outside any party in power is what gives v.o.a. its own power. ♪ ♪ >> schifrin: today, v.o.a. and the her agencies broadcasts in more than 60 languages, to an audience of more than 350 million. >> i will end the muslim ban on day one. >> schifrin: v.o.a.'s urdu service came under fire for broadcasting, without context, a campaign ad from joe biden. senior v.o.a. journalists later removed the video from its platforms. but if that shouldn't have aired, here's what aired more recently on v.o.a. spanish channels, before journalists called for its removal:

>> ( speaking spanish ) >> schifrin: that's trump campaign official mercedes schlapp telling viewers, the joe biden campaign "will destroy hispanic families." there has been past criticism of u.s.a.g.m. funding, morale, and structure. even some republicans criticize pack. top house foreign affairs republican mike mccaul... >> make no mistake, i believe there is some reform that needs to be done. but i don't think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. this undermines the very things we're trying to achieve. >> schifrin: connecticut democrat tom malinowski. >> if china, russia, north korea, or any of our adversaries had in fact infiltrated u.s.a.g.m., they could have not possibly done more harm to america's interests than mr. pack has in fact done on his own. >> schifrin: and with me now is jamie fly, the former president of radio free europe/radio liberty, who was fired by michael pack. he's a former top aide to republican senator marco rubio, and is now at the german marshall fund.

jamie fly, welcome to the "newshour". you are a republican. do you believe that what pack is doing is partisan? >> i'm not even sure it's parts partisan. we learned at the hearing there appears to be a lotted of gross mismanagement of the agency underway right now. there were democrats and republicans fired en masse and he's putting these nawrgt tools, these tools of american soft power at risk, and i'm not even sure it has a lot to do with politics. >> why does it matter that an organization like yours, rferl are not seen as perhaps independent dure michae under m. >> they've gained a following in closed societies such as russia, china, belarus, which sin credible as a bel bell russian

people. that's journalism is being threatened by mr. pack's actions, by the removal of the network heads, by some of his attempts to and the people who are working with him to influence the coverage of networks like voice of america. >> you mentioned ice of america, the federal news you service. usagm which is a federal entity. radio free europe/radio liberty is a diddle lmpt, known as the grand t because the federal agencies give money, grant money to your organizations, the organizations you used to lead, what are you worried about these supposedly independent organizations moving forward under michael ck? >> mr. pack has used his powers not just to remove network heads like myself but he also replaced the corporate boards. he made himself chairman of the corporate board, he appointed his chief of staff to the corporate board, and he's filled the rest of the board slots with

mostly trump administration officials. it is de facto federalizes these entities which, for decades in the case of radio free europe/radio liberty, have operated as governmental non-organizations and been able to be truly independent in their reporting that start to become threatened once you have federal officials sitting on their board. >> reporter: jamie fly, thank you very much. >> thanks, nick. >> woodruff: even with so much attention focused on the pandemic, the threat and toll of cancer remains enormously important. in the u.s., breast cancer remains the second deadliest cancer for women. estimates suggest that more than 42,000 people will die from it this year, and more than 275,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in

2020. but there are more than 3.5 million women in america who are survivors, meaning they have been treated or are still being treated. a new book focuses on those very issues, how to battle and live with breast cancer. it's written by our own ali rogin, a producer here at the newshour, about her own experience and tt of other women. it's called: "beat breast cancer like a boss: 30 powerful stories." i spoke with her earlier this week. ali, welcome. it's very good to have you with us. congratulations on the book. you've written this illuminating and-- and really personal book, personal story about what happened with you, and with so many other women. and it all started, in your case, with your getting the results back of genetic testing. and you were just a college senior. >> that's right, judy. i tested positive for the brochu-one genetic mutation,

which is now better known as the angelina jolie gene, following that actress becoming very public with it several years after my experience. this is a genetic mutation that increases a woman's risk of breast and ovarian cancer exponentially over the course of their lifetime. and at the time i was going through this, there weren't a whole lot of resources out there for me. it certainly wasn't as mainstream as it became once angelina jolie went public. so i had a hard time figuring out what to do. i stressed out a lot. i debated my options, and i ultimately decided to have a preventative double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery right before i graduated. and that was the right decision for me. i've never looked back. that was about ten years ago. and what i realized, though, when angelina went public with her story a few years later, is how-- how much of a sense of solidarity i felt, that she was using her platform to speak out publicly.

i felt a lot less alone than i did when i was going through my experience. and in retrospect, as i thought about how i could use my experience to help other people, i figured that if i lt that way following reading angelina's story, other people might feel that really great sense of comfort when they read the stories of other women who we all admire, who have gone through breast cancer or a related experience. >> woodruff: and you do write, ali rogan, about the importance of community, having people there with you. i want to ask you about that, because the first person you profile here is somebody many of us know. she was cokie roberts, abc, of courseand npr correspondent for many years, asomeone we all looked up to as a journalist. and she sat down wh you and talked about her own experience. >> that's exactly right. to me, the late, great cokie roberts is someone who really embodies the entire message of the book.

it's called "beat breast cancer like a boss." but i want to make very clear that beating breast cancer doesn't have to look one way or the other. i think we're all too limited by our definition of talking about beating breast cancer as becoming cancer-free and living cancer-free for the rest of your life. that is a far too limiting definition. cokie roberts, when i interviewed her, she had gone through a very public cancer battle earlier in her life, and she had talked quite a bit about it and had become a strong advocateor other women battling breast cancer. what i didn't know when i interviewed her was that she had recently found out that her cancer had returned, and it had come back worse. and the fact that she was so willing to speak to me about her earlier experience and talk about how she lived her life and the importance of being close to family, doing the things that make you happy, even as she was back in the fight actively, was

a lesson that i didn't really fully learn until she passed away, because she did not tell me that she was back actively in the fight. so i think when you talk about beating breast cancer, nobody embodied that more than cokie roberts, who i believe beat breast cancer every single day of her life. >> woodruff: and, ali, you went on to talk to several dozen other women about how they made decisions about their own treatment. some of them well-known women: sheryl crow, congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, but others we don't know as well. but your point all the way through, is that each one made her own decision about how to handle this terrible thing and that she was dealing with. >> absolutely. it's such a critical point, judy. there is no right way to deal with breast cancer. there is no single way to deal with breast cancer. every single person dealing with breast cancer or any other type of cancer deals with it in their own way, and they are entitled to deal with it in their own

way. lots of people, for example, like to have friends and family come visit them when they're getting treatment, although, of course, in the time of the coronavirus, that isn't always possible. but there are, of course, many people who say "i want chemotherapy or radiation or what-he-you to be my time. i don't want anybody there." and they use that time to have some moments to themselves. many people chose not to inform anybody but their closest caretaker or their spouse until after they were done with their treatment because they didn't want to have to deal with the emotional burden in many cases of having to deal with other people's reaction to your own diagnosis. that can be something that is just as draining is dealing with your own feelings about a diagnosis. >> woodruff: well, you have performed such a great service, ali rogin, in telling these stories and going and collecting these stories and sharing them with us, as i said, from women who names we recognize and other

women we don't. but every single story here is worth reading and worth sharing. ali rogin, it's "beat breast cancer like a boss: 30 powerful stories." thank you so much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: and coming up later tonight, a pbs newshour prime-time special on supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg. we will assess her impact on american society, and look at the issues at play in the battle to replace her. here's a first look. ruth marcus chged the law. >> she has compiled a truly historic record. >> woodruff: che changed the court. >> we are certainly here to stay. >> woodruff: she changed america. >> she was the moral beacon. >> woodruff: we look back at her life and ahead at the battle to replace her. >> fill that seat. this fight has just begun. >> woodruff: r.b.g., her

legacy and the court's future, a "pbs newshour" special thursday at 8:00, 7:00 central. we'll talk to supreme court justice stephen breyer among others. we hope you will join us. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. 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: >> consumer cellular. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change

worldwide. >> fidelity wealth management. >> the alfred p. sloan foundation. driven by the promise of great ideas. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. >> six months after the fatal shooting of breonna taylor by police, a grand jury in kentucky indicts one of three officers. we have reaction from reverend william barber. then more than 100 of her law clerks act as a guard for a lion of the supreme court, ruth bader ginsburg. how long will her law of fight for equality and her rule of law be shaped for the next appointment? how are the migration rules any different? i'll speak to someone from oxford university.