captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on t newshour tonight, covid and the campaign-- the president's dismissal of the coronaviruoutbreak at the white house highlights a sharp political divide, as mike pence and kamala harris prepare for tonight's vice presintial debate. then, feeling the pain--ixed messages from the president complicate already strained negotiations to provide economic relief to those americans in need. plus, separating families-- new details emerge of the trump administration's picies to take children away from their rents, to deter those crossing the border. and, ving challenges-- how native americans face barriers to casting ballots nationwide.

>> we do see third world conditions on native american reservations. these are systemic isss that are compounded when the costs of voting are incredibly high. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. un >> major fng for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the enginehat connects us.

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>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. ank you. >> woodruff: it's debate night for the democratic and republican vice esidential nominees. and, it comes as the trump white house has morphed into covid- 19 hotspot, an issue sure to be a prime topic tonight. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. >> alcindor: tonight's face-off in salt lake city is the first and only time that vicepr ident pence and his democratic challenger, california senator kamala harris, will debate before the election. but the stage itself will feature a stark visual reminder of this historic, pandemic year- - plexiglass panels. the dividers are meant to create a protective barrier between the two. the trump campaign, which has often ignored c.d.c. social distancing guidelines, initially pushed back on the plexiglass. b but, ten campaign

succeeded in getting them added. in fact, just 27 days until the test results continue to plague the white house, with more than two dozen cases, including at least three journalists who work mark meadows insise administration is responding appropriately. >> we've actually also done somo additional pls in terms of working groups.ifferent >> alcindor: he white house includes more than tent'f the presidfamily and close associates, with white house senior advisor stephen miller teing positive last night. today, the white house doctor sent an updateoting that president trump is symptom-free, and that he says he is "feeling great." the president was likely still contagious with the rnronavirus re to the oval office. he held meetings and briefing with aides, but house seaker nancy pelosi sharply criticizedh the but, house speaker nancy pelosi sharply criticized the white house's refusal to adhere to its own guidance.

>> i wouldn't go anywhere near the white house, it's one of the most dangerouslaces in the couny, both in terms of the assault it makes on truth as well as health. there's something wrong with the disconnect between what the president's responsibities are and what's happening. >> alcindor: for its part, the democratic ticket has taken increased campaign precautions. and, team biden says it's the white house's responsibility to make others feel safe along the campaign trail, including at biden's upcoming debate with president trump in miami. >> there will be real people, there'll be citizens there asking questions, so the obligation is on donald trump ov that he is not contagious. we have every expectation that he'll do that, and when he doelo we'ring forward to being there to debate. >> alcindor: so even as the vice presidential candidates stay at least 12 feeapart tonight, the campaigns' pandec responses remain seemingly worlds apart. ns woodruff: and yamiche j me now, along with our capitol hill correspondent, lisa desjardins, who is also covering

the biden-harris campaign. so, yamiche, to you first, with this backtracking byhe t president, the white house now isolated bills.n to smaller what do we know about why the president reversed himself and what looks possible? >> reporter: well, the president is eager, nowat he's really gotten a lot of backlash for calling offio negoti on this covid 19 relief bill, to try to say yes m nterested in doing something. just a few moments ago the president released a video frm the white house saying he feels like the coronavirus was really a blessing in disguise f him because now he has ideas on what kind of treatments americans can get. he said at one point that he feels like he had a cure for the virus. that, of course, we don't have any idence for a cure for the virus, and the f.d.a. hasn't approved any final treatment foo thnavirus. but the president essentially is eager to say i am still at work for the american people. last night, when he sent that surpring tweet, essentially unilaterally saying i'm going to

call off these negotiations until after i win the election, there are a lot f people including republicans who said why are we the ones taking blame for thi the president is now saying that he wants to do some sort ofpie e mofpiecemeal deals. he's looking at a bill for the i airlinustry as well as stimulus collection for americans. but what's complicating this is house speaker nancy pelosi at one poinwas saying why no do an airline bill and house republicans were pushing back. so now the white house is essentially ying, after the president said i don't want to do a deal, he's now saying let's do a small de but it's not clear whether democrats will play ball, es icially as the presides continuing to release videos as he's sick, really wanting to talk about the fact that this president is at work. >> woodruff: so,yo lisa, tu, do we know how close the two sides had en to reaching an agreement and is some sort of smaller isolated bills, that doable? >> reporter: the two sidesr

were much cloan they had been in may, but, judy, they still had a long way to go. i want to look at graphics about where things stood on the coronavirus talks. first, here's areas where them president and rats overlap, too, as yamiche mentioned. the $1,200 stimulus payments, that's something that the houede pan its versions of coronavirus relief, and then, also, 25 to0 $3 billion for airlines. judy, the issue, is though, that the house democrats feel that there is so much else that needs to be done now. let's look at that list of where the disagreemee s are, whe president and democrats do not agree. first, relief for the unemployed. house democrats feel that must be much more robust. schools, food aid is anoth one, states and cities, and then there's another dozen or so on that list. so there was a large gap, and to say that they were right on the edge of an agreement is not accurate. wever, they were continuing to

talk. now i think that it is -- speaker pelosi has offered that airline deal. r, it's up to the whi house to accept her terms for that. the way she wants that to work. she now is waiting to see if the white house will get back to her that. everything else, judy, democrats really don't have a loof motivation for reengaging with this president who keeps shif>>ng positions. druff: so let's turn to ate.ght's deb yamiche, we are just a few hours away from the only fvice presidential debate this election. tell us what is known aboutsi vice pnt pence's strategy here. >> reporter: well, vice president pence is taking a more traditional look at debate prep. he was doing mock debat. he had someone playing senator harris. and his number one issue is going to be defending te president's response to the coronaviruf he's coming,urse, as the vice president, but he's also coming as the head of the conavirus task force. so he's reallyoing to be trying to make the case that they did all they possibly can.a

he's going to guests i the mueller, a younman killed by i.s.i.s. he's also going to be making the case that rrorism an foreign policy should also be on the minds of americans in the middle of this andemic. >> woodruff: and to lisa, frm the democrats' side, biden andrr , what have you learned about what harris' strategy is tonight? >> reporter: rit. harris will have to do a few heings, obviously defenown record, in addition to that tal abce president biden and his record. but we do expect her to be firm and aggressive, perhaps, in talking about the coronavirus ta force that vice president pence has chaired. i also think what the biden campaign is hoping, perhaps more than anything, is harris can break thugh kind of the weariness at lot of voters feel with voters on a personal level.

we saw her ability to do that in the primary bates, so i think we can expect her to talk about personal experiences. >> woodruff: an finally, a different subject, yet another subject, yamiche, and that is there was news today out of the centers for disease control. tell us about that. >> reporter: that's right, a former director of the c.d.c. wrote a letter toe th current director of the c.d.c. essentially telling him that he should orchestrate his on firing to caution to what he -- to cell attention to what sees as undue pressure coming out to have the white house and on to the c.d.c. william gagy wrote in partthe president should be called out for pushing the c.d.c. to do things that are not right when it comes to science. william is seen as a public health expert, someone who worked on smallpox and other aisues. part of what heis it's a slaughter, not just a political kispute. he's t about the the coronavirus pandemic, essentially saying too many americans have died and thi

administration has really not done what it needed to do for the virus. so, as a result, he's saying the c.d.c. really needs to be calling out the president and that the director should be the one speaking up. woodruff: so important to hear that. yamiche alcindor for us reporting on the white house, lisa desjardins reporting on thn capitothe biden campaign. thank yoboth. and as yamiche and lisa just laid >> woodruff: as yamiche and lisa laid out, negotiators appear to be a long way from a comprehensive deal. while parts of the american economy have recovered better and more quickly than expected, there are signs that millions of people may be wiout a job for six months or longer. that prospect, along with thed some benefits and aid to businesses, has some people worried about where all is is headin count neel kashkari them. he is the president of the federal reserve bank of minneapolis. and he joins me now.

neel kashki, welcome back to the "newo our". i wantypt what we heard yesterday from fed chair jay powell. he warned of tragic sults for the economy if there nd robust aid package coming out of congress in the wake of the pandemic. today, you used the term "enormous cosequences" if there isn't a significant aid package. what do you mean by that? >> well, jy, good to see you. there are roughly 11 million americans who are still out of work today, who have still lost their jobs, and they haven't come back, and tt is roughly equal to the worst part of the job market grring theeat financial crisis. so we are a long way from recovering to where tconomy was in january or february. if you have 11 million americans who don't have money to pay their bills, to pay their credit card bills, car payments, rent, that will ripple throughout the economy. so if somebody doesn't pay their rent, their landlord can't pay 's or her mortgage and the

bankis facing losses. provided, it will ripple through the economy, and it will hurt the families and it ll hurt the entire u.s. economy and make the recovery much more sluggish. >> woodruff: in the middle of all this, yesterday, as you know, president trump abruptly announced that he wanted to put an end to thelks, trying to reach some sort of agreement on what does that say to you about the president's role in all of this? t>> well, i think it's al that the white house and the congress, both parties come together. you know, one of the pieces of good news throughout this pandemic is howggressively the fiscal policy-makers came together in the spring to support the american people and to support small businesses. they did exactly the right thing in the spring, and i think all of us arecouraging them to continue that bipartisanship to do more. the federal reserve we're playing our part, but there are limits to what we can do. we absolutely need the fiscal policy-makers to cotinue to

support workers and businesses. >> woodruff: so your message to them is what? because as you mentioned, they did come to an agrment in the spring, but for months, now, they he not been able to come to an agreement.th for mon republicans, the white house, leader mcconnell have said they've already spent a lot money, don't want to spend anymore, they're worried about the debt, whereas democrats rgued we ned a robust package in order to help people. >> we neet d a robpackage. back in the spring, i think we were all maybe naively optimistic this would be a short nuration of economic crisis and get the pademic behind us. that obviously hasn't happened. it will likely be wih six, nine months, a year or more to t get a vaccit's widely available. thousands of businesses have already shuttered.if we allow tt will show down economic recovery and diminish the economic potential. >> woodruff: if you could speak to speaker pelosi, to leadne mcc, to the president, is that what you

would say to them?ou >> i say that we are only halfway through this pandemic, the congress is uniquely empowered, th to prde what the businesses need. if the federal reserve updoes quantitative easing, thatn' dohelp the person who can't put food on the table or the small business that is shuttering. we can provide support for the general economy but we do not have abilitto provide support to workers and small businesses that have been affected. only the wte house and congress c do it and we would encourage them to come together to do that. >> woodruff: yet at the risk of repeating myself, it's been months and they haven't beo n ableme to an agreement. why not? you know washington, you've rked in washington, you know the way things work here. what's not gtting through? >> well, you know, i don't know. i think there's a lot of uncertainty about where the virus is going, how long this i think many people were hopeful

that back in march, hey, mayber this will be o june and we can go back to normal. that's not the case. the virus is still raging throughout much to have country and climbing in many places including here in minnesota. so i think we need to accept that reality that we're still in the middle of this pandemic and we still need mosistance for workers and bids to get to the other side. >> woodruff:nd secifically, i'm thinking of leader mcconnell's arguments that we've already spent a lot of money, his argument that there's mon'sy theen sitting on the sidelines, hasn't truly gone where it's supposed to go. he was making that argument ao few months a and also saying we have to worry about thebt. >> you know, this is like a natural disaster that's hit thee en.s. economy all at once. imagine a hurricane hitting the wholu.s. economy. the u.s. government has the financial resources to support the amecan economy and people to get through this. this is the time to use those financial resourceitto get throug we all agree, i think, long term

we absolutely have to get our fiscal house in order andvee o make tough choices. but when you're in the middle of the pandemic and the hurricane, i believe the right thing to do pl to support the economy and the american pe >> woodruff: quickly, if these early reports of smaller, isolated forms of aid is what they agree to, is that going to be enough, whether to the airlines and t other specific sectors of the economy? >> to me, i think putting money in the hands of the 11 million people who have lost their jobs is of paramount gorns. helping small businesses. we have thousands that have failed and thousan more will fail, and also supporting state and local government. lot of essential workers like school teachers and making sure th d are able to continue their jobs, to support all of us, our kids, to support our allnomic futures, those ar important. >> woodruff: but i hear you, neel kashkari, coming back throughout thilto say it al hinges on covid and when that is

behind us. >> it would be great if this was a widely-viable vaccine we all had confidence in, then that would be great. we could ge vaccinated and go ck to normal. but the experts said it will be late next year before such a we have to prepare for that. i hope it comes sooner but we haveeo be realistic and prep for the fact we're probably about the midway point of this pandemic. >> woodruff: sobberring words of the president of te minneapolis federal reserve, neel kashkari, we thank yonk. >> tou, judy. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, the texas state supremeoc court d officials in houston from sending mail-in ballot applications to two

million voters.ic the all-repu court ruled it's the latest inies of it. high-profile court battles over .election rules, nationwi we'll take a cser look, after the news summary. the red police officer charg with murdering george floyd has been released fromliail in minnea derek chauvin posted a $1illion bond today. floyd died last may, after chauvin held him down, with a knee ohis neck, for several minutes. three other former officers fa lesser charges in floyd's death. hurricane "delta" is back over the gulf of mexico tonight,cr aftesing the yucatan peninsula. the storm weakened before making landfall near cancun, and there were no deaths or injuries. afterward, debris littered the shoreline, boats were capsized, and efforts began to clear streets of toppled trees. officials said it was scary, even though it could have been worse.

>> ( translated ): the winds have been intense, strong and those who had not lived through a hurricane before, obviously were frightened by its noise, winds and gusts. >> woodruff: late today, the hurricane had top winds of 100 miles an hour, but it could stngngthen again before stri western louisiana on friday.mi in pannews, boston is the latest american city to pausein school re-op. person classes forhoolers and kindergartners by another week, to october 22nd. oldestudents will follow. meanwhile, wisconsin's democratic governor tony evers ordered a 530-bed field hospital opened outside milwaukee to deal with an outbreak.s butepublican governor gregg abbott said he will let some baropen for the first time since june. for the first time, two wome s wire a nobel science prize.em

nuelle charpentier of france and american jennifer doudna won the chemistry prize today. it's for breakthrough work in developing the gene editing method known as "crispr." doudna said their selection marks an advance for women in general. >> it really speaks to the fact that i think for many women there's a feeling that no matter what they their work will never be recognized the way it would be if they were a man and this recognition today i think just you know refutes that. laureates' work on crispr opened the way for cutting away bits of genes to prevent diseases andim ove crops. president trump has lost anothen rounis fight to keep a new york state prosecutor fromax seeing hisecords. a federal appeals court today reject prosecutor's subena is politically motivated. the issue will likely go back to

the u.s. supreme court. it already rejected the president's clm that he cannot be investigated while in office. the highourt today heard a landmark copyright dispute between google and oracle. it centers on google's android operating system, used on mostar hones worldwide. oracle says google plagiarized thousands of lines of software code, and it is suing for more than $8 billion. google says it followed common practices. and, on wall street, major indexes gained nearly 2% after president trump appeared to tacktrack on calling off economic stimulus with democrats. the dow jones industrial average gained 530oints to close at 28,303. the nasdaq rose 210 points, and, the s&p 500 added 58. still to come on the newshour: an update on the legal challenges over access to votina acrorica ahead of election a new report illustrates the justice department's directives

to separate migrant families. two british members of isis will be extradited to the.s. to ce charges of torture and murder. plus, much more. >> woodruff: election day is less thafour weeks away and llions of americans have already st ballots. but as john yang reporul, the voting in many states are still the subject of court cases. >> yang: judy, most of the disputes are over mail-in ballots-- who gets them, what voters have to do to verify their identity and how and when they're turned in. in general, democrats are trying to make them easier to use

because of the pandemic and republicans don't want the rules laxed. tammy patrick is senior advisor for democracy fund, a non- partisan foundation who's stated aim is to improve the democratic process. tammy patrick, thank you so much for joining us. i want to walk through the to turning in yoallot andration talk about what's being fought over in the courts at each ofth e steps and the significance of them. let me begin with voter registration. in arizona, which you know ll, u were an election official in maricopa county which includes phoenix, the judge just on monday extended the vot registration deadline from monday by abo three weeks. early voting actually began today. what's the significance of that fight over when voting registration ended? >> so it's true that many states allow for voters to register to vote up to and even including on

election day, but having those policies and procedures in place well in advance of the eltution ly starting allows for the election administrators to put in all the policies necsary to make sure that the voters are being well served. when these pol licies changke a deadline for voter registration, it really can cascade throughout the rest of the elecon administration. so you mention that early voting is starting, as well as bal already coming back in the mail from voters. officials will also be registering voters still, they'lhave a complicated process of all of these factors and all of these things curring at the same time. >> reporter: now the question of who gets a mail-in ballot. some states like california because to have the pandemic have moved to sending all registered voters a mail-in ballot. today, ttee texas staupreme court said that harris county, texas, whichncludes houston, cannot do that. what's at stake there? i

harris county, they wanted send out an application to all of their registered voterr em to be able to knowt that they could, in fact, request a ballot be mailed to them, that they could vote in the midst of this global pandemic. hwe have five states thve decided they're going to mail out the actual ballots toll registered voters, and that also has been in the courts as a question and a challenge as to whether or not the states should be able to do that. but it's iportant for the viewers to know that, all across this country, we've had tens of millions of voters in many states voting in all-mail elections for literally decades. we have been voting by mail in this country since theivil war when lincoln implemented it. >> woodruff: once the voter gets a ballot, there are some requirements about getting witnesses, some may havque ed a notary. earlier this week, the u.s. supreme court essenally reinstated a rule in south carolina that said it had to be witssed, even though

some bloc had already been returned without a wnet. >> when these questions of policy come in to the courtrooms so close to an election, it does confuse things for voters. already cast their ballot in south carolina without a witness and now you have the reinstatement of the witness requirement, and, so, ballotsy being received local election officials moving forward will aed to have a witness. we know there arerican voters who are quarantined in their homes who don't have access to other individuals to be able to witness their ballots for them, and it's going to be f challengr some americans. >> woodruff: >> reporter: i should note that toe supremert said ballots previously mailed in without witness signatures and those received within several days after the court's edecision will still be valid and still be counted. you mentioned drop boxes. texas governor said that he's restricting drop boxes to one per county. there are other cases or

lawsuits in big states like pennsylvania,isconsin, about when the deadline for receiving absentee ballots. >> and this is yet another area where there's a lot of contention and a lot of it is, as you mentioned ealier, it's incredibly partisan. so instead of recognizing that here we are in a global pandemic and voters need to have options to be able to decide what is safest for themselves and their famies to still be able to participate in this very election officials on both sides of the aisles have been trying to expand options for vots and have been stopped in the courtrooms and in the sta. capito so when it comes to how voters can return their ballots, whether or not they're able to drop them in a drop box, a secure location that has chain of custody prolltocols and a sorts of security measures in place by their local electir officials,ether or not they can return it through the united states postal service, and if a postmark counts or notl

nearthe sorts of questions that have been called into play in thielection, and i think c we're going ntinue to hear about it after election day. >> reporter: for voters who may bet confused abat the rules are because of all these changes, all these challenges, what advice do you have for them? >> my advice in this moment is to act early. so don't wait. don't wait to make sure that you've checked your voter registration we've already moved past some of the registration deadlines in some states. don't wait to request your baot until the deadline if you want to vote by mail. t the request in and return the ballot as early as possible and know yorur options whether not you can drop it in a drop box or take it to the elections office or lls in some cases, whether it's an early voting location or a location on election day. it's impornt for individuals to know that, many many states, the majority of states, vote mail or absentee ballots returned prior to election day cabegin cessing and start

counting on election day. so on electn night, when the holograms hit the television screens, many of those re are, in fact, vote by mail myllots. >> reporter: tatrick of the democracy project, thank you very muco >> thanku. >> woodruff: it remains one of thmost serious controversi of the trump presidency so far: administtion policies that led to the separation of many undocumented families at the southern borr. a report published overnight sheds new light onho was involved in that effort. amna nawaz has that. >> nawaz: the "new york times" story is based off an exclusive look at a draft report that's still in the works by the justice department's internal watchdog. it's part of an ongoing reviewt'

of the departmrole in the trump administration's disastrous "zero tolerance"li that separated kids from parents at the u.s. southern border. the review is based on internal emails, documents, and interviews with more than 45 ficials. katie benner is one of the "new york times" reporters who broke the story, and she joins me now. katie, welcome to the "newshour". if you think back to this family separation policy, so much of the focus, much of the criticism has been on aen differt agey, on d.h.s., on homeland security, and on thenth head o agency certessen nielsen. the draft report yosaw, wh does it shows about the justice department's role in that policy? >> this draft was put together by theustice department's inspector general micz hael horwnd he found justice department officials were "a drivg force" in this policy. as you point out, d.h.s. has really shouldered mo the blame. what mr. horwitz found was former attorney genera sessions, former deputy attorney general rod rosensteie and

others wt only a driving force but they encouraged prosecutors to do things like when thinking tha separatingn them by saying age was not a factor alo that could be used to decline prosecutions. you know, they ally encourage prosecutors to take children away. they knew that ere was number -- pushback. but they also felt it was a that could be used to deter, illegal immigration. this is something that's been very little understood and i think we see a lot of ne revelations from this report in terms of how much moral authority the justice artment chose not to have. they wanted to hide behind d.h.e,, but, at the same ti how much control they had over the program. >> reporter:e should remind folks that were testing that program, it's been reported before we reported here, as early as 2013 as a pilot program. some of the justice prosecutors were alarmed when they sta seeing the separations happened

and flagged their bosses. one wrote to his superiors saying we now heard taing breast feeding dependent moms away from their nts. i did not believe this till i what does the report say about how mr. sessions andst rosn, how they were considering the well being of children, the tential impact of the separation on kids? >> i think what we see from the of all, that they soals, first adamant that this would be a deterrent that was useful to the justice department and the trumt administratit the welfare of the children came not only second, but third, fourth, fth, sixth on the list. and we've also seen, forpl ex in former attorney general rod rosenstein's defense of hisve actions he gao the inspector children that the welfare of the children was not our equit he said the justice department is concerned with the adults involved, once to be charged wit misdemeanor crimes, buo the children their welfare was up to the department of homeland security to take care that.

really trying to abdicate any responsibility, any moral authority in that situation. it was a really sort ofd fascinating a interesting defense and one i think people are calling into question. you ow, is it right for department justice officials to say we were just folwing orders? >> and we know they rolled out that program across the entire border announced by then in april 2018. jeff sessions it was so chaotic, so disastrou the presidd to walk it back, and after he did so jeff sessions gave an inttaerview ing about the policy, this was in the summer of 2018. here's what he that did to sa back then. >> it hasn't been good and the american people don't like the idea that re separating families. we never really intended to d that.what we intended to do waso make sure that adults who bring children into the country are charged with the crime they have committed. >> reporter: katie, did the draft report you saw fnd mr. sessions did not intend to separate families?

>> the draft report not only found mr. sessions intended to separate families, but that he knew that his actions, the zero tolerance policy would necessarily mean the separation of families. now, the information was -- that given to him by people at the department of justice including former deputy atrney general rod rosenstein. he tells the inspector general that mr. sessions was certainly cognizant of this. keep inf mind, jssions did not take part in the inspector general'inquiry, declined to be interviewed by michael horwitz and declined to comment for the story run by the "new york times" yesterday. >> reporter: when do we expect the final draft of this report? >> there are people who respected the report to be out, of pushback from the department of justice on this report, and, so, it has been dlaitd delayed while the inspector general als with criticisms coming from the department officials. >> reporter: when we lk back on this time, it is already looked at as one of the darkern

chapters modern u.s. history, thousands of children force blia sed by the government. it took a court to step in to reunite the kds. still children who might not be united. the report can't change anything that happened. butt what can be the potential impact of the report when it is finalized and released? >> this report and likely repors that cafter it is going to give the country deacailed unts into not only the decision-making that went into creating this program but howve ment officials across the administration all wand to abdica moral responsibility for the fate of the children, none of them wanted to be blamed for it, and it's gog to be a really sort of searing look into what became aolicy that resulted in what many people have described as a hum rights crisis, as a crime against humanity, some have even said, and i think when we also look back in the history books, what

the significance about the trump administration, this iegoing to be oo have the most significant chapters. >> reporter: that is an exclusive and important story from katie benner to have theor "newtimes" joining us tonight's. thank you so much, katie. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: today in a virginia federal courtroom, two of the most notorious isis militants were chargem with crimes ng from the kidnappings and killing of four americans in syri it's the beginning of a pursuit for justice that began with unspeakable rrors. nick schifrin has the story. >> schifrin: for a group that symbolized barbarism and brutality, four british-born men were ang isis' most brutal terrorists, and committed the group's most notorious crimes.

the u.s. says the so-called" beatles" helped capture, guard,a tortur execute, journalists and aid workers on camera. their ringleader, known as jihadi john,illed in a 2015 u.s. airstrike, and two others were captured in 2018 by u.s.-backed kurdish fighters who liberated northeast syria. today those two-- el shafee elsheikh and alexanda amon kotey, landed in the u.s. and appeared in federal court, charged with four coach of hostage taking resultingn death, cspiracy to murder u.s. citizens outside the u.s., and conspiracy to provide mateal support for terrorists. sentence of life in prison. zach terwilliger is the u.s. district of virginia.ern >> ensuring that truth andst e find their way out of this tragic story, would mean that the islamic state wou never have the last word. >> schifrin: among their allegea victims: amehumanitarian workers peter kassig, and kayla mueller britons david haines and

alan henning, japanese citizens kenji goto and hanura yukawa, and american journalists steven sotloff and jaley. >> i'm so grateful because i feel this is a very imrtant ep towards a bit of accountability. if there's no accountability, nick, terror reign >> schifrin: diane foley is jim's mother. >> part of jim's legacy is ohaving the moral courage pursue the truth, pursue justice, for all of us. and to have the moral courage to pursue that no matter how long it takes. >> schifrin: in 2019, u.s. special operations forces killed isis leader abu bakr al- baghdadi, who allegedly personally raped and tortured kayla mueller. today's announcement was years in the making. the u.s. needed a british court to release british intelligence on the men, which it received only after attorney general william barr sent this letter to on, promising the u.s. would not pursue the death penalty.

this smer in an interview broadcast on nbc news, the two men reversed previous and admitted they helped imprison,an abuse prisoners: >> i've hit most of the prisoners. >> schifrin:hey've maintained they can't get a fair trial, as in this 2018 interview in kurdish custody with the associated press. >> no fair trial when i'm the beatle in the media.no fair tri. whoever is going to come to a decision has already been influenced, it's too late. >> these two men have been held now almost 20 months, as long as jim was. but the difference is that they have been housed and fed, have legal counl, and now we'll have a fair tria in contrast to what our citizens went through when they wereortured, raped, starved, and killed without any voice. >> schifrin: for more about this case, we turn to asstant attorney general for national security john demers.

john demers, welcome back to the "newshour". former attorney general jeff sessions and others have wantedt the two mied in gaunt guantanamo. why e they being triedn alexandria virginia in a civil court? n>> thanks for having me here. this is one of the most significant counterterrorism prosecutions we've done in the past several years here at the department, and in looking at the evidence, in discussing this with ouagr inneency partners, it was clear to us that, in this case, the best option for justice for the families, for the victims and for all americans was to try these two fendants here in the u.s. in federal court, as we've triedhu reds of defendants in federal court over the years very successfully. >> reporter: how strong would you describe the goverent's evidence, and do you anticipate a long trial? >> well, you know,e beieve our case is quite strong or we wouldn't have brought it,er and getting the evidence r -- fra

the u.- k. hasom the u.k. has helped strengthen the case and helps us to tell a very full story, and we think we can put that on together with the h evidence that e, and obtain con.victio >> reporter: you were talking about the the evidence that you have. evidence and thet sses you that may have? do you have anything that proves what these men did firsthand? >> i'm not going to go through all the evidence in a lot detail, nick. obviously,e have to respect the process at this point, but if you look through the indictment, you can see weake very specific allegations about these individuals, radicalization in the u.k., these individuals travel to syria, these individuals jini this i.s.i.s. cell, and then their participation in theta hostagng and ultimately the murders of these americans -- british, japanese individuals in syria.we so, yes,will have evidence

of all of that and be able to put that full story on in co tut e time of trial. >> as you know, they have beenvi giving ints for years, they did admit t knowing these prisoners and even abusing som of them. they have maintained, though, they can't get a fair tri because essentially they are too notorious. can they get a fair trial?n. >> sure, they that's the way our system works, and i trust the courts tour ens they will get a fair trial. i trust their prosecutors to ensure that as well. we have conducted fair trials of many terrorists. many of them notorious here in the united states. and i think we'll do so again here. >> reporter: when i was talking to diane foley ealier, she said she hoped ths trial would produce more evdenc this would produce perhaps the ability to capture other

terrorists. do you think that's possible? >> well, this investigation is still open and it will continue, so it's possible that we will discover, you know, additional evidence and other individuals who will cme forward. today we called on other countries that may have evidence also to come forward, and, so, we're hopeful that someone will hope that mrs. foley is right. do you anticipate them pleading guilty? >> that i don't know. i don't know. >> if you can try these two members of i.s.i.s. who were born in britain in a civilian court, can you try other high-profile terrorists in civilian courts, perhaps even including those who are currently in gua canamo? >> so and we have tried other high-profile terrorists here in civilian court, including in the same court in alexandria that these two individualwill be tried. whether we can dot that in any given case depends on the facts of tse, the nature of the

evidence that we have. so it's always a very case-specific analysis to make that decision, and, in this , we were able to conclude that, yes, we could try these two individuals here in alexandria in federal civilia court andhat that was the best option of pursuing justice for the failies and their victims. >> reporter: finally, john demers, about the 45 seconds or so i have left, for those o us living in the middle east at the time of these murders, for t who have been following i.s.i.s., we all know how traordinarily impactful these murders were. how important is it a day lie today when it comes to thinking about how influential i.s.i.s. once was? well, this is a ver important day, and we can never forget the terror, the horro of these murders and the way they used these murders and the videotapes of these murders that they showed as well as other grizzly executions and deeds in order to terrorize the

population there and to try to europeans and the americans that were there in theater. the bottom line of today's prosecution is they failed, that, ultimately, the i.s.i.s. state iso more, that we wer able to capture these individuals even many years ter and bring them here to justice. >> reportern assistant at general for national security john demers, thank you very much. >> thanks very much, nick. >> woodruff: with some 6.8 million american indian and native alaskans in the u.s., the native vote could play a key role in the upcoming election, especially in some key swing states in the westlike nevada and arizona.

but as stephanie sy reports, there are unique obstacles that make the population less likely to vote and some are trying to change that. >> sy: judy, even though native americans represent one of the fastest growing populations in the united states, voting rights advocates worry they are being forgotten and the pandemic has created even greater barriers to voting access. to discuss this, i'm joined by d jacquelileon, a staff attorney with the native americanheights fund. group held field sessions across indian country about voting the findings were compiled in a paper called obstacles at every turn. jacqueline joins me from denver, colorado. jacqueline, thank you so much i want tstart wis. there's been a big push for mail in voting in many states, but in dian country, for a lot of native americans, simply mailing in a ballot is not even an option. >> that's right. even receiving the ballot is really difficult.

and that's because on many native american reservations, native americans just don't have a residential home, mail delivery or pickup. and so when it's time to cast elur ballot, they're not receiving them sin their mailbox. instead, they have to travel to really distant post fices that are open for really limited hours. use the p.o. box that shared between 10 to 15 people and then pick up and then make that whole trek again to drop off the ballot. right now native america understandably are being very conservative with their communities.e theyutting down their communities to outsiders and a lot of ways. and so the registration efforts are difficult. additi face barriers when registering because they don't havead trional addresses. and so it's just difficult for them to fill out the form. but there are solutions and there should be in-person registration available in locations that are near where people live.

>> sy: and so in person voting is the preferable method, i understand, in a lot of places where nativeesmericans live, cially irural areas, and yet there are other obstacles to that. transportation being one of them. >> that's right. so what we found at the field hearin is that the in-person voting options on native reservations are often just unreasonably far away. they're often located in the nearby border town. but that border town, in fact, is not nearby. it can be 40 miles away. could be 20 miles away. it can be, you know, significant distances on a dirt road in november that a person wouldn have to travel were's very limited transportation. b >> s a lot of the other impediments that you talk about in this comprehensive paper, obstacles at every turn, are systemic issues that need to be addressed over the long term as well. >> right. unfortunately, what we see are compounding injustices.

so it's not necessarily a fair that native americans lack addresses on their homes, right. it's not either fair that the transportation options are limited due to poverty. there's no publi transportation. people's vehicles are in poor working shape. and over 90% of reservations lack access to broadband.an so we do see third world conditions on native american reservatio. these are systemic issues that are compounded when the costs of voting are incredibly high, whh is what we're seeing. >> sy: access to voting and access t in the national census, which is currently underway, are similar issues. are you concerned about another undercount of nativemericans and alaskan natives in this census? >> absolutely. unfortunately, what we're seeing is arastic undercount of indian country, which is going to mean billions of dollars of lost funding. and the reason is, is at the enumerators that were expected

to be on reservations were not able to go. and we're seeing a lack of know thers not been a recepve audience to the idea of expanding deadlines or creating solutions that would allow native americans to be fairly counted. >> sy: we ould also mention that native american populations, including here in arizona, where they make up six percent of the voting age population, could in fact be a powerful voting bloc in some key swing states. what is your organization and other voting advocacy groups doing from now until the november election to make sure that native americans are cluded in this election? >> absolutely. so native americans make populations that could decide the election in wisconsin, michigan, minnesota, nevada, arizona, monta, to name a few. d so native americans have swung elections in those states fore.

and so we are coordinating with tribes, trying to get them to liintain their in-person p options, pushing back against counties that would have only mail in voting options andyi to make a national plea and a state plea to please maintain in-person on reservation polling locations. >> sy: jacqueline de leon, this is such an importantssue with the native american rights fund. thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: and later tonight on the pbs newshour online, tune in for voices of the voters. amna nawaz talks live with a panel of voters from across the country. learn what they thought of the vice presidential debate and their expectations for the final few weeks of the presidential campaign. you can find that conversation after the debate at pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for now. i'm judy woodruff. r

join us onliht now for full coverage of the debate, plus a pre-show that starts inom just at. and again here on pbs at 9:00 s p.m. eastern fcial live, uninterruptecoverage of vice esident pence and senator harris taking the stage for th e only time thction. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and see u shortly. >> major funding for the pbs newsho has been provided by: >> you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor candilor adviceecommendations to yourife. that's fidelity wealth management.

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. the behavior modeling we need, i get a reality check on covid and presidentialolitics with global health expert, and democratic congresswoman, former health secr ary, donnashalala.in then ght into the struggle to hold president tru accountable. i talk to andrew weissmann, a lead prosecutor in the mueller investigation. plus -- >> i never se a confederate flag or nazi flag in real life until i was stationed in georgia. >> we talk tormy vetkristofer goldsmith about how white supremacists target soldiers. >> "amanpour & co." is made