captioning sponsored by hour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshouontonight: he stage. we lay out what to watch for in the first presidential debate.e then, llion lost. we mark this global covid milestone and what it means for the pandemic going forward. plus, back to school. how virtual education is a challenge to parents and studen t. >> positivvirtual learning are, i can get my work done a lot faster.i could be more creat comes to doing my work. >> woodruff: all that and more,n onight's pbs newshour. newshour has been ed by: pbs

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>> and with the ongoing support of these instutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possib by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: it is debate night. donald trump and former vice president joe biden will shortly be face-to-face for the first time in this election season. to help guide us on what to watch for, our own yamiche alcindor and lisa desjardins. w t do we know about the format tonight and what we should expect.

>> we should expect a pretty feisty and personal debate between vice esident joe biden, former vice president biden and president bump. both wilmaking the case that the other person is dangerous to our very democracy. and they'll be talking about six particular topics chosen by the moderater, the first is how they did on trade and possibly the environment. how they approached those topics.e the next is thpreme court. this is a big topic, increase, after the death of justice ruth bar ginsburg, and trump's notion of judge amy coney barrett to th court. and covid will be on 200,000 americans have died. and the economy is an important topic with millions out of work. and race and violence in vast majority of protests have been peaceful association we have to watch out for that. and lastly, the integrity of the election.

another crucial issue because president trump has been saying that il-in voting is filled providing any evidence. and he wants to commits to a peaceful transfer of power. we'll see no hand headaches and no masks, because they will be socially distanced and we shoupect for president trump to go after joe biden on really, really ugly terms. that's the only way to put it because theresident has already been suggesting that joe biden should take a drug testat before this dand he might be hiding some sort of listening device in his ear. he is saying that joe bin should have been searched for electronic devicesdevices andthe biden campaign says that is not going to happen. >> woodruff: yamiche, two of ti ngs she mentioned, the sreme court ancovid. give us a sense of how it is unfolding as the debate is taking place. >> as the debate is happening, the leaders in

congress, speaker pelosi and mnuchin, e trying to figure out a coronavirus deal. they spoke on the phone toda andhey'll speak tomorrow. it is not clear if they can get there. judy, congress and the president have not passed any coronavirus reliefrc since and the unemployment added benefits are running out. small businesses are becoming worried. this is certainly something you'll hear about in this debate. also, judy, the supreme court nomination, and i'm going to show you some video, look what happened also today up on capitol hill. amy coney barrett meeting with republican senators mi wh mcconnell, sheas escorted there by vice-president pence, and that all is unfolding asig well t. you can expect for both men to be questioned about the process and the policy of the supreme court nominee. >> woodruff: so, lisa, you've been talking about the biden people. sting with you, hoare they preparing -- how is he preparing for tonight?

>> lisa: it is interesting, judy,hey are not dulging many specific details, other than to say that vicebi esidenn is preparing. we know when he ran with president obama, he didoc somedebates, so that is a possibility. but they're talking about his approach. they're saying, fo one, that biden is ready to defend his record and to point out the fac when challenged about his record. but the word "fact" is an important one. the biden campaign has hane out of its way to tell reportersthe former vice president is not planning to be the fact-checker of presiden they believe that's the job of journalists and the moderater, but chris wallace says he does not believe it is his job. so there could be some interesting back and forth, and see howpr vice ident biden handles that. on twitter, they will he a handle called@truth, at

ich they will question and put out what they believe are the facts that they believe presidentum tris getting wrong during this debate. >> aarti >> woodruff: really, really intesting yamiche, what is known about how the president is preparing? and what are his people saying about how much affect they think this debate can have on this race? >> well, the president h said he does not want to do any traditional debates. the president has been meeting th close advisors like rudy giuliani and chris christy, but he is not having a mass debate. he is not having one person play jobiden. this is an unconventional president, he was an unconventional candidate in 2016, thus his debate is also unconventional. and the president thinks he has been pparing for

this debate because, one, he has been running the cotry, so they feel e has a pretty good grip of all of the issues before him. and he has been taking a iot of que from journalists, so he is able feet and do all oen his things that need to be happening in a debate. traditionay, experts have told me incumbent presidents sometimes falter in the first thbate. an trump campaign is saying in 2016, president trump had to prove himself, pve he was a conservative, he had to beat out 16 other republicans. third quarter time around, they feel this is an important debate because they want to get to some uncided voters and mak the case that president trump should be re-elected. there will be a bunch ofk they think he should be going out holding events,an having events in different battlegd und

states, at is more important. but they're participating in this debate, so that tells you president trump says this is an important place to be on this fir election debate. >> woodruff: so much to be watching for tonight, yamiche alcindor, lisa desjardins, you'll both be on it. thank you. we don know how much the debate will affect americans' estes, but it's safe to assume that both candidant to do well. to talk about how much is at stake for each one, how they may be thinking about tonight, two guests join us. brett o'donnell is a republican strategist who has worked on debate preperation for five presidential cindidates inclgeorge w. bush, john mccain and mitt romney. and jenniferalmieri is a democratic strategist who served as communications director for hillary clinton's 2016 campaign as well as in the obama white house. >> woodruff: and we welcome both of youhoo the "new." i want to start by asking you both, what do you think eh candidates' goal should be tonight?

jennifer palmieri, to yo first, about joe biden. what do you think he needs to do? i >> ths a big opportunity for him. i think that, you know, what i found in the 201 w campaign, s really hard to get control of the public narserative bec trump takes up so much oxygen in the media. for biden, this is an opportunity for him to have an enormous audience. in 2016, 84 million people watched the first debate. h we're likely ve those kinds of numbers again. and people don't hear from him that muc probably because of covid and ntrtly because trump does get so much attn. there is about 5% of voters undecided, and he has an oppounity to make a case for them on covid, on the economy, and where he would take the country. he should be much more focused on making his own argument rather than responding to aniny trump throws his way. >> woodruff: brett o'donnell, what do you

think the goals should be tonight fojoe biden? >> joe biden's goal is to keep hislection abou nald trump. tonald trump's goal is make this a choice election. he wants to make this about the race between him and joe biden, rather than just a referendum on his presidency. i think both of them need to remain on offense if they're to be sul.ccess you know, the trap of incumbent presidents happened in ronald reagan and george w. bush and barack obama in 2012 you have a record of four years, and so you fall on to defense aed opp to playing offense, like a candidate who has not beenid prt before. and so, you know, really that's the pitfalls that donald trump faces. but his goal should be to be focused on biden and to make it a choice election. >> woodruff: jennifer palmieri, what would you add to that? how do you see wha the

president's goal should be tonight? >> ithink brett is probably right. voters know what they know about trump. i don't think they're about him in orde make their decision. so from his perspective -- d it might not be great to watch, but for him to attack biden, that's his time on stage.use of he has started already former vice president'she capabilities. he wanted him to have a drug test. he is claiming there is so kind of device in biden's ear to give him answers. if that's what -- if that's the setup forgoing that's what biden canink expect. doing that, though, he is setting expectations very low for joe ben's performance. biden is kind of a gamer. he has been on the debate

stages before, and he is pretty good at it. so i don't think you're going to see him falter. hif he has a really strong performance tonight and is able to win over some of the people that are undecided, that could put trump in a really precarious place with 30 plus days to go. druff: brett o'donnell, for the president, smart for him to just keep up that very aggressive approach that we know hime soll for? >> absolutely. i mean,oart f the advantage for the president is no one hayes really successfully figured out how to debate donald trump. he is a very unconventional candidate.to candidates tha him on in the primary debates back in 20 an'16 had trouble with him, whether it was they debated him as a conventional candidate, they didn't do so well. or when they tried to be rubio, and debate on his level, that also didn't go

very well for him.so f the president recaptures that spirit, that same debater that he was i 2016, that will serve him very well tonight. if he falls into the trap playing defse and worrying about defending every minutiae of his record, that's what got prr incumbent presidents into trouble. >> woodruff: jenir lmieri, we heard a yamiche a little bit about how they're preparing. i ow you just talked about their goal, but what kinds of things can you do to get ready for a night like this? >> for biden, i know a little about how bidenwo s, when we prepped hillary clinton, she would o the b, fat briefing books, as well ck debates, have somebody play trump, go through that a few times.ot it is ow biden works.

biden likes to defer talks through -- he likes to talk through what his answers are going to be and what his best arguments are. trite, but these aeund humans, and it is so important that they feel prepared. atever they need to do to feel confident when they walk on the stage. there are threfensive points they want to hit. they know how they're going to approach attacks s from the othe. i don't think joe biden should go down rabt holes or to back-check trump. trump says some things about bidoren's recthat aren't true that are important to correct in realtime, otherwise he should play his game. when you're preparing him, igis is such a audience they're going to be speaking to, you havepr thctive points you want to make ready to go. you dohet walk on stage without having done that. >> woodruff: brett o'donnell, we heard timeot and again the conventional candidate,

not the conventional debater. can you imagine how he is getting ready for this?ni >> jfer is actually rit. it is about doiwhngat your candidate thinks is best to get them mentally tready for t particular debate. and so, you know, i'verk with several presidential candidates. each one of them wanted to prepare in ayligh different way. some want to just study their material. some wanto do more on your feet practice. so candidates like to table and talk throughe questions and work out answers that way. the job of a good political debate coach is to make sure you adapt your preparation method to what will have you out on that stage.alk it is all about message and moments. it is about having them ready to drive a messagec that the pubill remember and create moments which will reinforce that message and capture the press narrative so that you can

write the headline for the debate. >> woodruff: and just seconds, a few from each of you on how many people out there do you think are really open-minded, ready to be persuaded one way or another? jennifer palmieri? 5%>> i think it is abou of voters, which sounds like not very much, but those are the people ha who will decide the election. >> and bre o'donnell? >> i agree. these will be the d most-watchates in debate history, in my prediction. >> woodruff: en bigger than the 80 something million? >> i think so. we've been deprived of a normal campaign to this point, and so i think people are hungry to watch these two on the stage. >> woodruff: you are probably right. brett o'donnell and jennifer palmieri, thank you so much. >> thank you. you're welcome.

>> woodruff: in the day's other news, ndemic's human cost came into stark new focus, with one million people deade. worldw that includes 205,000 deaths in the united states. and the head of the world health organization warned, there is no enin sight. we will talk to a top w.h.o. official after the news summary. there is also fresh evidence of covid's economicost. the walt disney company says it is laying off 28,000 workers at its theme parks in california and florida. the florida sites have reopened, but with restricted attendance. the california parks remain clos. hundreds of thousands of students went back to elementarc ol in new york city today. their return had twice been delayed. in brooklyn, children wore face masks and had their temperature taken at drop-off. but, mayor bill de blasio also announced that the dailyate ofsi pove covid tests rose above f 3%or the first time in months. >> obviously, everyone isab

concernet that. that is something we all have to work on together to address, we have to be on high alert to make sure we fight back this challenge. >> woodruff: also today, the american academy of pediatrics reported infections in children 10% of all u.s. cases, sincep schools began reopening. most cases in childr are mild. the national football leag is facing its first covid-19 outbreak. three tennessee titans players and five staffers have tested positive. thatitans played the minnes vikings last sunday, and now both teams have called off practice through friday. it inot clear if either team will play this weekend. in pro hockey, the tampa bay lighing celebrated theirsecond d in a league-wide quarantine. they beat the dallas stars last

night to clinch thtitle, and then showed off the cup before an canada. part of northern california is after wildfires killed three people and burned nearly 100 buildings. the wind-blown fires spread across napa and sonoma counties, and farther north in shasta county. 70,000 people are underrd haacuations, but windswey crews are hopingwill help quell the fires. >> it's been a long season. most of them have been since the middle of july without ree,, from fire to fire to f here in the northern part of the state. so we'reoing the best we can with the resources we have on the incident. >> woodruff: cifornia is having an historically bad fire season, with more than 8,100 fires, 29 people killed and 7,000 buildings burned. computer outages acre

on sunday night, more than 250n. hospitals and other facilitiesru by universal health services lost computer access. employees y hackers demanded ransom to unlock the system. and, last night, several stes lost emergency 911 services. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average lt 131 points to close at 27,452. the nasdaq fell 32 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 16. the late supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg was buried today at arlington national cemetery. the ceremony was private, and ginsburg was laid to rest beside her husband. t she 14th justice to be interred at arlington. and, the ruler of kuwait, sheik sa-ahmad al-sabah, has. died at he had presided over the cmall, oil-rintry since 2006. hours after his death, his d lf-brother, the kuwaiti crown

prince, was nameir. still to come on the newsour: we mark one million covid deaths across the globe. how the pandemic is changing education across the.s. an inside accot from robert rtspecial counsel fell sho plus, much more. >> woodruff: the global death toll from the covid-19 pandemic is now ave one million people, and there have been 33 million cases worldwide. staggering to comprehend.o but william brangham is here tonight with some perspective and a conversation about all of this. >> brangham: judy, the death toll is now four times the

2004 tsunami in indonesia. the t thankfully, so far at least, the loss is much smaller than19 th pandemic, when the influenza virus killed an50 estimateillion worldwide. far too many lives in roughly ten months. more than 5,000 people die on average each day. ten countries account for 70% of the deaths, led by the united states, which has more than 20% pbre united kingdom round off the top five. the elderly still make up the largest percentage of those whol di, gl. and the epicenter has also shifted from china and southeast asia to europe, then to the south america.to india and

for more on all this, i'm joined iz dr. maria van kerkhove of the world health orgion. dr. van kerckhove, very good to have you on the newshour. obviously, this is a terribly sad day to have lost, now, a million people at least to this coronavirus. why do you think we are still having such a hard time gettingu arms around this pandemic? >> well, thanks r having me on the show. and indeed, this is a completely tragic miltone that we reached at least a million deaths due to this virus.ov the sars virus that causes covid-19, a virus we didn't know about, you know, ten months ago. and i think we do meed to take a and pause and reflect on how tragic thiesactually is. are one million people who these are mothers thersis virus. and children and sons and daughts and friends. and we were thinking about this today, and i was trying to wrap eomy head around a millione. and if you think about sporting events at all, people go to-- you think about football and the

u.s. and baseball stadiums. between 50 and a thousand people in each one of those stadiums, that's ten football stadiums asworth of people who haved away. and that is really tragic. and, you know, we as w.h.o., we are working wi all countries, with everyone everywhere to do everything that we can to prevent as many infections as we can and prevent as many deaths as we can, because there is so much that we can do to turn this around. >> brangham: so help us understand, though, how we have gotten to this. we know the difficulties that eachation have had, but why is it that this we have hit this mark? >> well, it's a new virus, you know, and it's a virus that we're continuing to learn about and tire world is susceptible to infection. and this virus spreads. it's a respiratory pathogen, and so it could spread easily between people. and we have a globally- interconnected world, and itsp ad around the world. and i think what we are seeing with many countries-- and many countries that have had experience with other similar pathogens, liksars, like mers,

ke polio, like highly- nythogenic avian influenza, like ebola-- f those countries knew immediately the seriousnese of this and ately knew the threat. and what they did is they activated a public health system that's been inlace for decades. that is based on the fundamentals of acg,ve case- findontact tracing, testing, isolation of cases, quarantine of contacts, really readying their system. and in many respects, you know, immediately seeing that this was not just a health issue-- this was something that needed an all of society approach working across many different sects. >> brangham: so these are nations, you're saying, that have been burned before and knew to be afraid of the flame when it came around the next time what about the nations, like we've seen, like india or brazil, that have seemingly swerved somewhat wildly in their how would you characterize their reaction? >> what we like to do is, i mean, it's important that we ok at a national level and we look at these national numbers and surveillance numbers of

cases and hospitalizations, i.c.u. what's most important, as we look at the sub-national level, this virus doesn't-- doesn't spread uniformly acrl the population. it operates in clusters. especially in large countries, brazil, india, the u.s., we need to break it down into the smallest level possible and the smallest administrative level possible is important. how strong national cle national plans about what the goal is. and our goal for tsss is to suppransmission, save lives and save livelihoods. but the actions need to be targed and implemented at the most local level. we're in a very, very differ tt positin we were in five months ago, six months ago. we know so much more about this viruor we know what. we know what works in terminof breaking cof transmission, in terms of controlling transmission. and we know what works in terms of saving lives.w, right t's about having the will to do that and having the systems in place and activating happens.make sure that it >> brangham: certainly here in the u.s., we have seen a disproportionate share of infections and deaths have fallen on po, minority

communities here. is that true globally? are we seeing a similar pattern in action elsewhere around the world? >> it is, yes. we know that there are tre are many vulnerable populations in every country of the world, and vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected by this virus. you know, it's a double injustice that we are seeing with this virus and with the inequities that we are seeing across the globe. in many populations, populations that have lesser access to health care, have lesser access to insurance, have higher rates of underlying conditions, and we know that people who have underlying conditions of any age and people who are over the age of 60 are at a higher risk ofre seisease and death. and we're seeing that across all countries. the beginning, there's so much that people can do to protect themselves, their loved ones.protect this is at an individual level and it's the basics. basics. the public health this is about hand hygiene.ut it's aearing a mask. it's about practicing

respiratory etiquette. it's about avoiding enclosed, crowded spaces with poor ventilation. it's abo improving ventilation when you have to go indoors. it's about staying healthy, keeping yourself mentally healthy as well. with this pandemic of information that is just bombarding us all the time, making sure that you well- informed about what we are advising. that was a risk-based approach for everyone to take in terms of their daily life. do i-- can i work from home if possible? do i need to do this barbecue with my friends? do i want to? yes, i do. but do i need to right now? and what are the small sacrifices that each of us can make towards this common goal of ending this pandemic? >> brangham: all right, dr. maria van kerkhove of the world health organization, thank you very much for joining us on this really awful day. >> thank you for having me.

>> woodruff: roughly 300,000 students in new york city public schools are returning to small and socially distanced in-school classes this week. but, like nearly two-thirds oft the larghool districts, many still will be doing distance learning. amna nawaz looks at how thehi experiences te and learning this year have varied greatly. but first, let's hear from rsrents, students, teachers and school board membout what the first month or so has been like for them. >> my me is devin evans, i'm a literary history itor at an school in the far south side. we are hard working on the weeken, nighttime, mornings, and it takes a lot more time to prepare an eaging lesson for remote instruction. >> hi, my name is brianna gonzales, and i'm a 7ter. school is a lot harder this year with remote learning because it feels like we have a lot of it's really not that much, but

it feels like a lot because you have to keep track of everything by yourself. >> my name is amanda prieto and i live in miami-dade county. i have two children in the miami-dade county public schoolt . the first day school started with the students logging into the same platform, and what happened was they all experienced a whole bunch of errors, they were not able to communicate with their teachers or their classmates. >> my name is trishia bermudez and i live in rockaway, queens. matthew is a seven-year-old boy th a rare chromosomal deletion he goes through the summer. he's in district 75, which is a specialized program in new york city f disabilities.h severe >> my name is gabrielle void. i'm 14 years old andend frederick douglass high school. some positives to virtual done a lot faster.n get my work i could be more creative when it comes to doing my work.

>> my name ijennifer valek. i live in charleston, south carolina, and i havesehildren in thnd grade and sixth grade. a month before school started, they called a special board meeting and took the five-day face-to-face option away and said kids would go in cohorts. so half the students would go two days a week. >> my name is rob barron. i'm born and raised in des moines, iowa. i'm a father, and i'm currently serving my second term on the s des moinool board. the governor has said that unless we reopen our buildings, we face a handful of sanctions, possible repetition of school days at the end of the year, accreditation for our district, sanction on our administrators licenses. >> i am starting to master a platform called nearpod, where you make interactive powerpoints. now, i'm not 100% efficient with , but i was able to begin last week the tutorials, and i madeup

of slides that kids can begin to mark, so, once id figut how to get that one part done, i was so happy. school and see eve again, to even though we'll be wearing a mask on.nu >> because orous difficulties during week two, we meeting and they uuslyool board voted to change the system. mid-semester. so now we've transitioned to other district-approved tools like zoom and microsoft teams, and so teachers are transitioning to tse tools right now. >> we had a summer school teacher and she had a strict i timeline and weractive with the students. at one point, they told me i could leave. i appreciate, you know, all his angels, because they are-- that have helped him throughout this. >> virtual learning has been a very interesting experience, to say the least.

but i do hope in a couple of months we do get to go back into the classroom. >> our superintendent, when we originally were told that we were going hybrid, that april 8, we were to be face-to-face.no she has backtracked to that date. we've got to push our board to go five days face-to-face. it's exhausting. >> we're looking at their success in the virtual model and in trying to ascertain who needb back in those buildings. this is all on a path to entually having students back in buildings, but figuring outwh and how is no small feat in a dist>>ct like mine. awaz: let's look at some of these tough questions educators and families are facing now, ano decisions are made to re-open schools. daniel domenh is executive director of the school superintendents association, and he joins me now.

>> all in person, how most districts doing that, and how are we seeing that unfold over these first few weeks ofchool? >> you know, it changes almost on a daily basis.ge at this stf the game, the majority of schools are actually doing remote learning. second to that are schools that are doing hybrid, and the smallest nber are doing in-person learning. but we see thichs anging constantly. a school that ingdoi in-person tomorrow. doing or a school that is doing in-person today may haveto o remote tomorrow because there is an infection in te student population or staff. i suspect that this is ing to be pretty much e course for the bter part for this semester, if not the entire school >> so this hybrid model was supposed to be the best of both wor it allows students some

kind of in-person instruction, but doesn't have them in school all of the time and therefore increase the risk of infection, goes the argument. in the places that you've seen i ud, how has it been working? are the pro outweighing the cons? >> the pros are outweighing the cons able to get the kids in school. but the problem is they're only schooled perhaps two days a week, and the rest of the timey' the doing remote learning. this does not satisfy e need of parents who are working, who need to have their children in school all of the time.th but it ibest of the possible alternatives at this point in time. >> you mentioned very briefly that the minority of schools are doing full in-person learning. where,y and large, ar we seeing that happening and why is it allowed to happen there? >> it is happening motly in remote areas. placese new hampshire, maine, montana, where you have remote areas where they really don't have the

infection rate that we have in other parts of the country. the population is smaller. the number otudents in school is smaller, so the not there.cing issue is they can wear their face masks. so that's wheret i happening, and it is working in those areas primarily because they're b remote acause they have not been as affected by the pandemic as urban areas are. that's why you see most large urban school systems e,e doing rem and probab will be doing remote for a while. >> we should mention you're in florida right now, and that's where we're talking to you, and florida was heavily iticized for pushing schools on mass to reopen in person. a lot of people worried that would lead to huge opike in cases, and far, one recent analysis found, they haven't really seen that hu of a spike. how is that informing howth aggressively schools are planning to reopen? >> well, the problem here in florida, and i am here at this particular point in tims at the same time schools are being pushed to reopen in

person, the governor is also removing t edicts on restaurants and beaches, in terms of large groupings. it is almost business as usual, and that almost guarantees we'll see a spike again. and a lot of the schools opening in person may have to shut down as we see an increase in number of cases in terms of students and staff. this has been the play in other places. 've seen it happen. unfortunately, it probably will happen in florida as well. >> we should note the kids who alrey struggled to learn, kids who don't have full-time parents overseeing their education, who don't have internet access at home, kids who have special needs and require more attention, there falling further behinds they're in hybrid or remote learning. to see distance arningoing for a while. what does that mean? through the fall? through the sprg? >> well, probably for the better part of this first semester. a lot of it in terms of

what happens after january will be dependent on if is there a vaccine, is there enough herd immunity? all of these factors will come into play. we heard the diector of the c.d.c. say, for example,hat en with a vaccine, a mask and spacing will still be thein best practicerms of avoiding getting the disease. >> and know a lot of families out there are wanting to get back to school but safely, to do it safely. that is daniel domenech, execive director of the school superintendents association. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you foraving me. ♪ >> woodruff: one topic that is likely to come up in tonight's debate china. how the u.s. deals with beijing over the next decade will have major consequences for the world. here's nick schifrin withs americp diplomat in china, as he prepares to leave his

post. >> schifrin: judy, one of the trump administration's signatu calls "confronting china" over trade technology in the south china sea and in hong kong. and from the beginning, thest admition's man in beijing has been terry branstad. he's the former six-term republican governor of iowa. he campaigned for candidate trump in 2016 d was one of the esident's first ambassador choices. he's now stepping down to return an the u.s. and, ambassador ad now joins me from beijing. ambassador, welcome to the newshour. t when presidemp chose you to become ambassador, beijing flled you an "old friend" the chinese people. as the nationalist tabloid "global times" says, as you leave, you are, "having had an barrassing tenure." what do you think changed? >> well, first of all, obviously, that's communist propaganda. i've represented the united states of america, and some of the leaders here have not been

happy with our policies. but i'm proud of therogress we've made. we've achieved the phase one trade agreement get us more fairness and reciprocity and address issues like protecting intellectual property rights and preventing the involuntary taking of technology. we've also addressed the fentanyl issue, in which china has made all of that and all its derivatives controlled substances. and i believe that is saving lives in america and we're seeing more cooperation in that area. that china was going to change and become more democric. it's not happened nsequently, we want to make sure that the ambassadorsdi and thomats here in china, and our media, are treated the same way that the chinese arin america. >> schifrin: beijing and

washington cutting back on cultural academic exchanges, restricting access for diplomats, targeting each other's meditlets. we see large scale military exercises near each other. do you fear that the actual chance of conflict has increased? >> i know they want to be a rich and powerful country, but they want to be respected. and the only way that china is going to be respected is that they play by the rules. and one of the big disappointments in the world is the cover-up of the virus that was started in wuhan, and the fact that the rest of the world was not warned about this, and the consequence were it became a worldwide endemic against cost a lot of lives. and it's really had a big imct the economies of countries throughout the world. >> schifrin: you rightly point out that some doctors and hospital staff in wuhan in the december, were silenced by

authorities both in the hospital, local authorities, from both wuhan and beijing to share infoation early days. but by january 20, xi jinping said pubcly that the information should be shared and that this disease was human-to- human transmission. and yet it took mont president trump to acknowledge some of those same facts. so why do you blame china for all of covid and what has happened since january? >> well, it started in china. and had they really acknowledged the reality rly on in december and january, somhing could have been done. of course, what happened is a lot of the virus was spread from people that went to a big event in wuhan for the chise new year, and then went to europe and other parts of the world and spread the virus.>> chifrin: let's talk about trade. you said that the phase one trade deal is what you are most proud of during your tenure as

ambassador. but has beijing lived up to it's there are crics, ocourse, of that trade deal, including those within the administration who believe that president trumps too beholden to the trade deal and therefore not aggr enough against chi. and they say that there's no enforceability on the intellectual property, and point out the department of justice continuously unveils new cases of chinese espionage, a sign that china has not changed its behavior at all. >> well, first of all, there are to abides for failin by the trade agreement, and i'm-- i'm complimentary of the work of the justice department for going after the chinese. i think for too long we were naive about some of the espionage that was going on in research at our universities in differcot places. anequently, this administration has taken that very seriously and is going after enforcing it. so i think that's-- that's a good thing. i don't agree with those that want to decouple with this is a huge market and

american products are very well- liked by the chinese consumers. and we need to rede the trade deficit and increase our exports, not just of agricultural products, but of y nufactured goods and ene well. >> schifrin: your son, eric, is an adviser to the trump campaign. you said that you're willing to campaign for president trump, but former vicpresident joe biden has vowed to remain tough on china. do you believe that a president biden would stop the policies toward china that you've been saying have been a success? >> well, if you look at his track record on foreign policy, it's a disaster. biden has been on basically the wrong side of most of these things throughout the long i want to go back and share with the people in iowa and throughout the united states why the changes, insisting on fairness and reciprocity that president trump has put in

place.ro and so i'm to go back and support my friends, many of whom i helped recruit, that are outel fotion or reelection this year. >> schrin: ambassador terry branstad, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: robert mueller. his name is tied to many key moments in recent u.s. history, and as the special counsel, ataj the heart of a investigation into russia and president trump. today, the typically-silent mueller is speaking out about a new book. its author, a senior member of whm: was his investigative t i spoke with weissmann earlier today about "where law ends: inside the mueller investigation." >> woodruff: andrew weissmann, thank you very much f talking with us.

just as we werpreparing to do this interview, there was a statement issued by the forme special counsel robert mueller, in a rare public statement about your book. and i want to ask you about that. because in the book you ite that as much as you respected him going into this investigation, you end up critical of him r, quote, "understepping his role." you wrote failing to fulfill his mandate to offer a recommdation on obstruction of justice. you say you were flumoxed by his thinking, why? >> this was a very difficult book to write because i have enormousr respect irector mueller. i have worked with him in various jobs. it would have been easy to write a book that just said look how we were undercut by the president and by attorney-general barr. but in writing the book, i decided it was really important to be as candid as i could be about the

challenges that we faced and what we me head-on, and, frankly, what i disagreed with, understanding that special counsel mueller was the boss, and ultimately they are his calls. t i thought that the public was owed a duty of candor. and my frank and candid assessment of wher thought we met the challenges well and where i would have done thinff ently. >> woodruff: he says in this statement today, he to hear criticismurnting team based on incomplete information. he stands by his decision, the decisions he made. what do you think he means by "incomplete." what did u not have access to? >> so i don't know what that is a reference to. and obviously i think the world would bge wait to hear him spebout the report and his what i trieto do in my

book is really outline where i had disagreements. and those are principally three things: i tought that ultimately we needed to do a more complete financial investigation. i thought that after making a sorts of accommodations to the white house, i thoeht that we neded to subpoena the president. i was concerned about the precedent we set by not doing so. and the third is, i thought that we should ve given a recommendation to the attorney-general with respect tohether we believe the president had obstructed justice. i derstand on all three of those things that the special counsel is the ultimate arbiter, but that is his job, and my job in writing this book was to be as candid as possible about the internal deliberations and the process and cons that led to those decisions. >> woodruff: you sai that, as you just said, you believe there should have been a recommendation or a fnding that the president committed

obstruction of justice. what should have hap in your mind, to the president? because the justice department had a ruling that a sitting president this president, couldn't be prosecuted. so what did you have inmi with that? >> the special counsel ruled that we operated under required us to give a private report andat prrecommendation to the attorney-general. and so it was incumbent on us to give our recommendation. that's what the rules require. instead, the special counsel, special cnsel mueller, for very noble reasons, knowing that theld report wecome public, didn't think that it was fair to the president to make a conclusion with respect to whether he had obstructed justice if he couldn't then be indicted and have this day in court. and my argument was that we weren't makg a decision whether to make this public or not. that was a decision made by the attorney-general.

under the rules, we were just making a recommendation to the attorney-general as to wh happened. going forward, i actually think that the speal counsel rules should say that our rort should be made public and that we should make a finding, very much like the 9/11 commission report. because i think most people in the public, and journalists, thought that were going to be making that kind of assessment. >> woodruff: so just quickly to clarify, ou are saying you believe the president should be held accountable once he leave office? i just want to understand that? >> well, i think that's actually a very complicated issue. you don't want to set a precedent where we're see politicized that we start going after our political opponents. on the other hand, you also don't want to set a precedent ere people commit crimes that are serious, particularly if before someone became president, and they know that if they're elected, they'll never be held to

account. so that is going to be ais complicatee. >> woodruff: another thing i want to ask you about is: you describe the lengths the white house, the president's lawyers, the president himself, went to to avoid cooperating with the special counsel, to intimidate, to threaten, to fire the special was there anything more that you think the special counsel himself, or your investigation, could have done to get more cooperation from the president? than you did. >> well,he ky thing that we didn't ultimately do is we didn't issue a subpoena to the president. the special counsel, i think, admirably bent ove ckwards to try to accommodate the presidency, to see ife thre ways that he would sit for an but ultimately, iite of the public pronouncements of the president that he wanted to meet with us an give

an interview, he ultimately said no. and we ultimately had the power to issue subpoena that would have required and the reason i think it was important to do that is, as i i explain the book, i think we really had hamlet without hamlet. called to give his was not testimony about what happened. and i'm really coed about the precedent it set for the next time we have a special counsel or independent counsel, for the executive to be abay to, see, you don't need it, and here is an example of the special w counsel whoent forward without that critical piece of evidence. >> woodruff: andrew weissmann, thank you very much. the book is "where law ends: inside the mueller investigation." we appreciate it. >> thank you vy much.

♪ >> woodruff: and on the newshour online, ahead of the first presidential debate of 2020, you can now watch all of thgpresidential debates dat back to 1960. you can find that and more onne www.pbs.orhour. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.jo us at 9:00 p.m. eastern for special live coverage of the first presidential debate. for all of us at thes wshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> when the world gets complicated, aot goes through ur mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to that's fidelity we management >> consumer cellular. >> collette.

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everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. >> thanks. i'm heading down now.>> 'm not a real businessman, i just play one on tv. does president trump fit that famous madison avenue ? the "new york times" tells the staggering story of his massive tax avoidance and chroni business failure. i asked his former national security adviser, h.r. mcmaster, whether foreigns powght exploit this. plus -- >> we're in the business of changing the world. we're in the business of conserving the planet. >> world leaders pledge to save our wildlife. they tell why their journey is your business, too. then global health professor