captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the election approaches-- the starki de in visions for america's o future afull display as the candidates continue their final sprint in critical swg states.at then, the infon war-- the heads of google, facebook, and r twitter testify about thle in american politics as the election.abounds ahead of plus, battle for t senate-- the tight race in montana between a siing senator and a former governor has more ads running than any other contest. and, in protest-- a trump appointee resigns from hison posin opposition ton executive order targeting federal workers.

>> career civil servants take an oath to the cotitution and the rule of law. they should be able to speak truth to power without fearing for their jobs. >> woodruff: all that td more ight's pbs newshour. aj >> mor funding for the pbs newshour h been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most prsing problems-- ollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improh ng lives throvention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and cathine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> thiprogram was made possible by the corporation for

public broadcasting. and by contributns to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: as u.s. financial markets took took a dive, dellions more americans h to follows to vote early. the intensity of the campaign heated up, and the candidates hit the hustings hardgain trying to win over any who have yet to lisa desjardins reports. >> desjardins: it's getting close now-- less than a week left, and today the presidential campaign trails intersected in battleground arizona. presidt trump hosting rallies near phoenix and in the north, bullhead city. with your vote you can send lle wealthy liberal hypocrites a message that theever forget, under biden's cruel and senseless lockdowns, countless americans will die.

the biden plan will crsh you, will crush your family. we will crush the virus and you will have an economy the likes of which we've never had before. >> desjardins: meanwhile, democratic vice presidential candidate senator kamala harris phoenix and spent rningrs in with latina business owners in the southern corner of the state, tucson. >> we've seen how women and small businesses have suffered in the midst of the covid virus, but joe and i are committed in hem and ging them more resources >> desjardins: president trump carried arizona in 2 by polls show it may be evenand tighter this time. for democratic nom joe bidenay and his wife jill, who cast early ballots in wilmington. that's also where biden held a briefi and gave remarks on his biggest argument against mr. trump: his response to theco navirus epidemic.

>> we will start on day one doing the right things. we'll let science drive r decisions, we will deal honestly with the american people. and we will never ever, ever quit. the american people deserve so much better than this. just look at what happened last night in omaha after trump, after the trump rally ended. >>kiesjardins: biden was talng about this-- president trump's event yesterday with thousands me campaign said it asked the audience to wearks, but many did not. the issue making headlines for what happe as shuttle buses to parking areas got stuck traffic and didn't arrive, leaving hundreds in freezing temperatures for hours. today in the midwest, vice president pence spent thday running defense in michigan and and the president woney states narrowly four years ago. >>ust six days away from a

state of wisconsin and all across america, when we re-elect president donald trump for four more years. >> desjardins: as candidates scramble, millions of voters stand still in lines that keeprl setting eavoting records, and in some places are raising questions about access. and tests of patience. like in indiana, where rain or shine, early voters are waiting in up to seven hour lines to cast their ballot. >> in the rain, in the cold, wife complaining. >> desjardins: legal battles over voter suppression have piled up across the couny as states grapple with voting changes amid the coronavirus pandemic. in texas, the state suprem court yesterday upheld republican governor greg abbott's order liting counties to one drop-off site for absentee ballots.

it is shaping up as a national left.urner and six more days are for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa >> woodruff: in a related development, miles taylor announced he was "anonymous"-- the offi to be part of an internal resistance to president trump. the former homeland security chief of staff s mr. trump's failings have cost american lives. the white house, in turn, branded taylor a liar a coward. >> woodruff: in the day's other newssstocks and oil pri plunged on fears that a tide of covid-19 infections and new lockdowns will engulf the econom. major indexes lost some 3.5% or more. the dow jones industrial average lost 943 points, the most since ju close below 26,520.

the nasdaq fell 42points, and, the s&p 500 slid 119. moved to re-imposeowns, europe after a record surge of two million covid-19 infections, worldwide, in the last week. merkel announced a partialela closure of bars, theaters and restaurants. in france, president emmanuel macron announced a new, nationwide lockdown, but some exceptions. >> ( translated ): wherever possible, working from home should again be the norm. but, economic activity will continue with more intensity. public services will sen, factories and construction work will continue. the economy should not stop. >> woodruff: the united states reported more than 50000 cases over the past week, with increase in 48 states. today, a member of the white house coronavirus task force,

admiral brett giroir, said it is not just due to more testing, as president trump has claimed. >> we do believe and the data show that cases are going up. it's not just a function of yes, we're gettingcases identified, but the cases are actually going up.an we know that, too, because atspitalizations are gng up. >> woodruff: sepy, america's leading infectious disease expert, dr. anthony fauci, saicovid vaccines will not be available in the u.s. until january, at the earliest. hurricane "zeta" has crashed ashore in southeastern louisiana tonight with winds of 110 miles an hour. the storm intensified to almost "category 3" before landing near new orleans. but it was also moving at high eed, which could limit the damage. storm warnings extended to atlantph the city oadelphia has imposed an overnight curfew after two nights of protests and

violence over the police killina lack man on monday. about 500 people marched in west iladelphia last night, and some clashed with police. on the city's other side, looters broke into businesses. this morning, stores lay in ruins, leaving some people irate. i makes me feel mad. it makes me feel upset because why tear up your nghborhood? this is your community. you know, this is the people's community. >> woodruff: the family of the slain man, walter wallace, h appealed for calm. in poland, demonsttors massed for a seventh straig day against a court ruling that banned abortions of fetuses with even severe abnormal crowds turned out in warsaw and other major cities. the nationwide strike is a rare show of opposition in a country that's long been influenced by the roman catholic church. back in this country, the u.s.

supreme court refused to rulect before the en on counting absentee ballots in pennsylvania. republicans had challe state court ruli that ballots received witn three days of election day must be counted. new justice amconey barrett did not take part in today's vote. winds were calmer today in southern california, ging firefighters a chance to gain ground. two big wind-blown wildfires had left nearly 100,000 people under evacuation orders this week, some of the orders have now been lifted. the trump administration has formally announced plans to lift restrictions on logginand road-building across the tongass national forest in alaska. it affects more than nine million acres that have been protected since 20. alaskan elected officials have pushed for the change. conservation groups vow to fight

it. rsand, the los angeles dodre world champions again, their first title in 32 years. they clinched the world sesie last night, beating tampa bay in game 6. it was played in a sequestered bubble in arlington, texas after a season truncated by covid. still to come on the newshour: tech giant heads testify as disinformation abounds ahead of the election. political ads flood the airwaves in the tight race for senate in montana. a trump appointee resigns in protest of an ecutive order targeting federal workers. plus much more.

>> woodruff: one of the ways this election is diffent from 2016 is the level of regular atntion and scrutiny aroun social media platforms and how they can be manipulated to spread misformation. but greater attention and new measures haven't stopped those practis entirely either. and the battles over censorship and content moderati are increasingly partisan. as john yang reports, that was the subject and tone of a highly charged hearing on capit hill today >> yang: social media plays a g role in shaping modern political discourse. toda senate commerce committee republicans pressed their case that big platforms are biased, against th they questioned the c.e.o.s of facebook, twitter and google. senator john thune of south dakota. >> are the democrats correct that you all are the legitimate referees over our political speech? mr. zuckerberg, are you the ref?

>> senator, i certainly think not and i do not want us to have that role. >> yang: republicans' complained about twitter's treatment of founded tweets from president trump. senator cory gardner ofs colorado, wh a tough re- election race, questioned twitter c.e.o. jack dorsey. >> mr. dorsey, do you believe the holocaust really happened? yes or no? >> yes. >> so you would agree at someone who says didn't happen is spreading misinformation? s or no? >> yes. >> it's strange to t that you flet from president, but haven't flagged ayatollah's tweet on holocaust denial or wiping israel off that map. ge>> yang: there was also r over twitter and facebook's initial restrictions on a "new york post" article. it made unproven allegations about democratic presidential nominee joe biden and his son, hunter, which the biden campaign has denied. senator ted cruz of texas. >> your position is that you can

sit in silicon valley and demand of the media that you can tell what stories they publish and you can tell the american peopwe reporting they can hear, is that right? >> no. th was-- every person, eve account, every organization that signs up to twitter agrees to a terms of service. >> yang: democrats said the hearing, less than a week before the lastay of voting in the election, was all politics. wisconsin senator tammy baldwin called on the platforms to be more aggressive in policing content. >> the tech companies here today need to take more action, not less to combat misinformation, including misinformation on th election, misinformation on thee covid-19 pc, and misinformation and posts meant to incite violence. >> yang: looming over social media: calls to limit or repeal the law called section 320, ich gives online companies broad lel immunity for user-

generated content and wide latitude to decide what does anr doesn't apn their platforms. facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg: >> the reality is that people have very different id views about where the lines should be. democrats often say we don't remove enough content, republicans say we remove too much. some say that ending 230 would solve all the internet's problems. others say it would en internet as we know it. >> yang: issues that will continue to be topics of debate long after the election is resolved. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: let's dive deeper into concerns around spreading misinformation, its consequences, and securing our votes. some of the most pointed attacks during today's senate hearingcl ed examples of how the leading social media platforms have been used to spread misinformation.an william am explores just how that misinformation can be transmitted easily by america

voters and influence thinking. afterwards, has an interview with one of the top officials from the department of homeland security. >> brangham: have you heard that u.s?is rampant in the well, it isn't. or that bill gates is going to microchip americans using the covid-19 vaccine? that's also false. or that president trdn't really have the coronavirus? wrong. he did. none of these are true, but they've been read and spread by millions, and they represent just drops in a vast ocean of misinformation. >> good morning, everybody. >> brangham: it's become such a pervasive problem that a small industry of ct checkers, like the people here at "politifact"" is working overtime to debunk them. >> amy has a good fact check on whether biden is a socialist or supports sociast policies. >> brangham: all the major social media platforms are trying to flag false orea ming claims posted on

their sites. there are online courses teaching citizens how distinguish truth from fiction. >> try to think what your inherent biases or lenses might ee that are causing you to se news in a certain way. e brangham: we sat in on for senior citizens, run by a group called "senior planet." >> it really impacts everyone when people disseminate fakene . >> the people who are susceptible to misinformation includes anyone who has a preexisting opinion about anything. so anyone. >> brangham: dannagal young of the university of delaware studies misinformation, she says the pandemic has only made it worse. >> when you think about this in te evolutionary psychology, we are hardwired for survivalespecially when we are under conditions that mimic fear and threat. so, you know if you are encountering a tiger in the jungle or something, you're not going to do a slow pro/con list of the different courses of action that you might take.

instead, you're actually just going to make a desion quickly based on emotions and inition. and the person who writes the pro/con list will be eaten by the tiger. >> brangham: on the issue of thm pa, retired veteran kell questions about whthehas real official coronavirus death toll is accurate. i eel strongly that there's a lot political motivation behind a lot of these kind of numbers being pushed out there. nd brangham: bales is an ordained pastor, supporter of president trump. in his media ecosystem, which is largely conservative voices, anything but a trump win would be evidence of foul play.re >> if biden o win, the presidency seems to be clear, etty clear evidee of fraud. we're all skewed, right? i my particular facebook feed is blown up with conservative, with like-minded individuals. we're all going to do thto. we're goinurround ourselves with circles of like- believers, like-thinkers. >> i don't listen to any regular

tv news because it's not telling everything out there. >> brangham: arlene lehew lives in the villages, in orida.ge it's a letirement community. she's a grandmother and enjoys riding motorcycles. >> i read the paper. i go online to newsmax. parler, i follow dan bongino. >> brangham: so thosall fairly... what people would argue are conservative news sites, or from "right" perspective., >> ydon't agree with that, i just feel it's truthful. i don't, i don't know if it's conservative or not. i think people that are on the democratic side, i used to be a democrat, so people that are on the democratic side don't ally want to hear the truth sometimes. >> brangham: misinformation is nothing new. abe lincoln back there, like every other president, wedas taith all kinds of lies and untruths. the difference is, back then,on misinformaould only travel as fast as the railroads could carry it now, allt takes is a

few seconds and this and it's evywhere. kell bales shares posts to his facebook page, like this videomp of president talsely alleging that there's widespread fraud with mail-in ballots. >> this election will be the most rigged election in history. organizations that say that there might be incredibly rare instances of people casting votes illegally, but it's it's .0000-something percent of votes cast. that doesn't give you any comfort? >> if that's truly the number out there, i'll have to, again do my own research. i mean, i'm sure there are independent organizatis out there doing the research, and that's great. applaud them for it. but ultimately, against that, my personal gut check. >> they found a lot of ballotske hat's in the ocean and trunks and garbage cans. dead people e getting ballots. animals are getting ballots. my friend got one from a dogwn

he street. his dog's name is charlie. he got a ballot. >> brangham: the dogailed a ballot? >> yes. well, his name's charlie the dog. so is charlie, whatever their last name is, and he got a ballot. >> brangham: it may sound preposterous, and of course pets can't vote, but often misinformation starts with a kernel of truth: and one voting group did mistakenly mail a registration form to a deceased c in atlanta. but dannagal young says fact- checking alone isn't likely to address thiscean of misinformation. >> if you can connect on the ry needs and desires that are driving people to hold these beliefs in the first place. create those conne. that's where we create an inroad. ard because, you know, we're asking you to have empathy r individuals who might be holding beliefs that could o undermine yo freedom or undermine certain aspects of social justice.

but this if e goal is to correct misperceptions and then those relationships have to come first. >> brangham: and with just days to go beforehe presidential election, u.s. security americans will be exposed tos of even more misinformation online. christopher krebs is one of them. he is the director of the cybeecurity and infrastructu security agency at d.h.s. and he joins us now. chris krebs, great to have you back on the "newshour". we'll get to misinformation in a talkn't our voting systems. millions of people have already voted, millions more will vote next week. how confident are you that our myriad voting systems all ovetrr the coun are ready for next week? >> i'm glad you started with this because this is what we have been focusing on working with state local election officials now for going on three and a half years. really trying to get to the bottom of where the jialt

vulnerabilities might be in the election system and the nologies that support t vote progress sees across the country. we've just made remarkable progress. the evidence supports tt, the security of these systems has improved, but mostnt impor the resilience of the system has dramatically improved and what that ally means is paper. paper is nor prevalent in the voting process than recent history. 2016, 82% of the votes cast had a paper ballot associated with the vote, now we're on track fo somewhere near 95%. what that paper does, and you know, it's analog, it's the keep it simple approach, but it allows us to conduct audits a make sure that the count is accurate and that the the level of confidence i have is based on the paper, based on the security of the's systems improved that your vote, the american voters vote s isure, the count is secure and the certification process is secure. >> rutorter: you put o statement the other day noting

tens of millions of americans have already voted with no interference. but i'm curious how do we know i mean, you and the.b.i. and the director of national telligence alerted us last week to this iranian and russian interference, some of which targeted voter registration. if we know about those attacks, do you worry about all that there might be infiltration that we are awaref? >> so it's certainly possible, but, look, a this point, there's about 70-some-odd million vehicles have voted, but when we think about whaewe'v accomplished in terms of improving security, we've also improved the ability to detect compromises or anomaus activity, and that's through the systems -- the cyber securityst s we've deployed, the improve cyber security of state and lol systems as well as the reporting relationships both from law enforcement and the intelligence community and state and local partners. so even if there were something out there, we would be able to get on top of it as soon as we

detected it, mitigate it. one point i'd like to high light is the fact that so many people have vot early, think 73 million at this point, that really stretchesin out thew of opportunity for bad guys to get in the way, and that's good thing because that means we an ethe ticket it earlier, get on top of it, mitigate it, so we're not all ped up on november 3rd and overwhelmed. >>nt reporter: as i ned, a lot of your work is also targeting misinformation. in some ways you' trying to teach americans how to be immune to this type ofin mrmation and falsehoods. so as next week loomslarge, what are the kinds of key things you want voters to be thinking about? >> well, first of we have been thinking through a number of different scenarios. again, focusing on the cyb oer securi these systems but also gaining out how might cyber security issues and incidents and disinformation one thing we came up with is you

might see various actors, foreign powers claim that th were able to accomish something, they were able to hack a data base or the vote count. it's just sply not true. behere's going t lot of noise in the next week and a half or so, and what we have done through right here, rumor control, is try to idetify some of these possible issues and then give the american people the facts on what foreigctors might try to do andnd so that if they're presented with these sensimational unverified c they can think, you know what, i was expecting this and it's just not true and i need cto kem and vote on, as we're saying. >> reporter: as we reported earlier the c.e.o.s of ree major tech companies were on capitol hill being questioned eabout theirorts of putting a lid on false information and criticism on both sides.u' in partnership with those tech companies themselves to try to stamp out misinformatioe about election.

do you think they're doing the right thing? enough?y taking this seriously ell, what i always try to do is, you know, compare and contrast, how were we operating in 2016? i think it'snquestionable that everybody was caught by surprise whether in the government or in ee social media spaceven the american people, and that's what kind of made r the 2016sian interference so -- made it resonate, really made it so scary. but now we've had is four-year intervening period where evened's improved, the government'sd, impro the intelligence community, my team, the law enforcement, but nothers uestion that the social media platforms have improved their ability to detect foreign interference activities happening across their platform. look, we're makingdvancements, improvements as we go along, and there will be lessons learned coming out of the 2020 is that 2022 we're better, 2024 we're betterer this is a gional struggle as i see it.

>> reporter: lastly and quickly, you recently warned voters, i'm going to read this here, to be prepared for efforts to call into questionhe legitimacy of the election. i certainly understand that, especially if the vote count is protracted. but the one person who gurly does cast doubt on the legitimacy of this election i the president. i mean, am i wrong that his rhetoric seems 100% opposite your mission? >> look, he's on the ballot, right, he wants to win the thing, hwants to know as quickly as possible, ideally next tuesday, who's going to n, but that might not happen that night. it may take time. the unofficial process that's set -- or rather the official process that's set in state law dictates that it takes a little bit longer and, again, we're justopsking to have a little patience. t may take a little bit longer due to expanded absentee ballots and it may take longer to process and t certification and really more than anything that earlier count is a media

projection anyway. what we're askingmerican voters to do is have a little patience and we'll get to the isd of this one soon enough. >> reporter: chrtopher krebs, thank you so much for being here. >> okay, thank you smuch. si >> woodruff: pnt trump has promised to dismantle the federal government's administrative state but his efforts haven't gone that far. just this week, though, one of his politicaappointees resigned in protest because of one of the president's latest executive orders. nawaz has more. >> nawaz: ron sanders is a life- long republican who served under both democratic and republican presidents during his nearly 40c year career asil servant. he was appointed by president trumto lead the federal sala council in 2017. but he recently resigned fromte that post in p, over the

president's executive order that could strip some protections from federal workers. ron sanders joins me now.co mr. sanders, w to the "newshour", and thanks for making the time. that executive order from president trump woul essentially or could essentially reclassify thousands of career civil emoyee essentially turn them into political appointees and strip away se protections. you said that for you was a red line. why? what worriou about that? >> well, you used the right word, it could. this i more about potential than reality, but this is a very pharp stick, and that shar stick is essentially what drew that red line for me. this could be used onanne by an administration to burrow political appointees into the civil service. that's a common practice usually done in small numbers. the executive order could enable that on a grand scale. then the flip side of that is just as problematic, maybe even more so, and that is that it takes a lot of career civil

servantsro who arected so they can speak truth to power without fear of their jobs and turn them into at-will employees, essentially like political appointees, so that if a political boss wants them gone, they sply say be gone without any notice or due process or anything like that. it was particurly that latter possibility that frankly drove me over that red lin we talked about. >> reporter:io wrote in your resignation leer the executive order is nothing more than a smoke screen for what's clearly an attempt to require the political loyalty of those whoes advice the ent or failing with little if any due process. the pushba from the whte house is this is an executive order that can increase a accountabili efficiency within washington and shouldn't the president be allowed to have people work wor him he wants? what do you say of that? >> it depends on your definition ofciccountability. l servants should be held

accountable to high performance standards. in that case i'm all for it. in this case, accountability is defined as political loyalty and will tell you while the president has the right to polilitical los around him or her up to this point you also need a career civil service, an apolitical, nly competent civil service that can provide advice and assistance, technical expertise and, most iortantly, speak truth to power without fear of their jobs. the political appointee doesn't need to accept that advice, but they shouldn't tn their back on it, they shouldn't try to quash it or chill it placing these kinds of restrictions on career civil servants. >> can i ask you about theec timingse we are nowadays away from an election. if c this behavicerns you, or you find it alarming in somen way, it a little late to

be raising red flags about that? >> the timing of the whole thing is odd. the timing of the executive o order , et cetera. look, i think what may explain my own personal action is that this was a matter of conscience. i saidhat in the letter. look, i had no intention ofn mathis a caus to liberate, i had no intention to have the letter even going to public. this was intended to be a letter personnel officeg, enough, i can't serve this anymore.ation it wasn't intended to garner a whole lot of attention. >> reporter: briefly if i can, mr. sanders, the president's been known to vocally and publicly criticize people wh. criticize h are you worried about any backlash? >> well, no, look, i'm at the point in my life as you can tell by looking at me, i have been around the block severl times. i don't depend on the federal salary council for an income, so it was easy for me, frankly, to dr the red li, not easy as a matter of conscience but certainly my economic livelihood

was not at stake. for others whose livelihood may be at stake, that's much more oblematic and, again, th goes to the heart of why i'm so concerned about this executive order. you don't want people who are giving advice to the president, whether that president likes hear it or not, you don't want people to fear for their jobs and, again, i don't care whether they're speaking to a republican depresident or cratic president, it's all the same. career civil servants take an oath to the constitution and the rule of law, they should be able to speak truth to power without fearinfor their jobs. that's just my personal view. >> reporter: that sais ron ers, the now former head of the federal salary council. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the battle to control the u.s. sat one of the most hotly contested races pits an incumbent republican

against a two-term democratic governor. anna rau of montana pbs reportsc on how big sry has become the center of big spending and even bigger stakes. >> reporter: 2,0e miles from s. capitol. it's one of the least densely packed states in the country. but this election year, montana haw distinction: it's one of the top senate races in the country for political advertising. in a recent two-week period, nearly 32,000 ads flooded the airwaves, according to the wesleyan media project, which tracks political ads. it's also become the most expensive campaign in state history. candidates and outside grops have spent more than $140 millio that's more than $13per resident, the highest per capita spending of any senate race in thcountry. on the ballot: >> the airwaves are flooded. their mailboxes are full. reporter: ...first-term

republican senator steve daines. >> i don't think many montanans are real impressed with that. >> reporter: he's facing two- term democratic governor steve buock. >> i hope, just like my family, that most montanans see through it and say, we know this guy. >> reporter: it's a state that hasn't voted for a dt for president in more than 20 years. but montanans are known for their independence and their ticket-splitting when donald trump won the state by 20 points in 2016, bullock was running on the same ballot d he won his race by four points. it's something bullock made a the 2020 democratic presidential nomination before dropping out and launchinhis senate campaign. that's one reason daines says montanans shouldn't trust bullock. >> he said over and over again, looking straight into the eyes of the american people and straight in the eyes of montanans and said, i'm not runninfor u.s. senate. i have no interest in the job over and over unequivocally. .cut that door. >> i don't thinkworks very well. i really think it's become apl

e that's so hyperpartisan and they've replaced talking about an issue with doing something. so i have had, did have some reluctance. >> repter: the candidates have sharp disagreements on issues key for moana voters from public lands... >> senator daines has cared about public lands for five months before an election. >> they call me the conservative conservationist. >> reporter: to guns... >> you look at his track recordt it's defy been a threat to the second amendment. >> as governor, i've expanded gun rights in montana. >> reporter: recent polling shows the race is a dead heat, with most polls putting the race with the margin of error. despite the heated campaign, the two mehave found common ground during the covid-19 pandemic. >> i reached out and called steve shortly after the pandemic hit, just picked up the phone, called him directly on his cell phone. and just told him, this is a

tough time and you'vsome tough decisions to make. i just called and talked abouhot s and so forth. and just, you know, two steve's having a conversation>>. e gave me a call one day andt he didve to do that, actually said some really nice things. and it was aonversation with just two of us. and i appreciated that. >> reporter: with rly voting underway, the conversation exnds to the voters, who are set to decide which ste they'll send to the senate for the pbs newshour, i'm anna rau in missoula, montana. >> woodruff: next, three more perspectives on how this high- stakes 2020 election season is playing out in some battleground states, with less than a week until thend of voting. tonight, we have tom hudson of wlrn public radio and television in florida.al samuels of the "texas tribune." and zoe clk of npr member station michigan radio. it. so good to see all of y

i should say battlround states all of which president trump n in 2016. so, tom hudson -- i'm sorry, alex samuels, i'm going to come to you first. are we really talking about texas beingompetitive right now? what does it look like in the lone star state? >> yeah, so there's definitely chatter of texas being competive right now. i think there's a lot of thusiasm on both sides of the aisle when we look at early voting numbers and to cast their ballot early and then poll after po shows a close race at the top of the ticket with either joe biden ahea or president donald trump winning eether by sin digits or the margin of error. so i think there's a lot ofve excitement we t seen in years prior at the top of the ticket and hopefully democrats will flip and move the state to a tossup. that has everyone's interest for fuse. druff: remarkable for state that'sbeen red for so

many past presidential elections. michigan, zoe clark, what does it look like there?p president tr won it closely,da both cans competing hard for this state. >> absolutely, which similarly detects is is where michigan sort of was in 2016, sort o shockwaves that after six presidential election cycles the state went redand, so, now, really sort of the heart of michigan, righ, and folks saying is this a blue state still or is it a little more purple, and we are seeing candidates criss-crossing. we had the presiden in michigan yesterday, the vice present is he today, joe biden willbe in michigan saturday, and just announced hours ago president, former president barack obam will be joining biden in michigan, apparently their first joint pearance here in michigan on drturday. >> wf: yeah, that got a lot of attention that they chose michigan as the place to "newshou up together in these

very last hours befor the election. so, tom hudson, what about florida? florida, florid florida, florida. both campaigns would love to have it. fair to say president trump needs it. >> absolutely, presidemp needs it. the road back to the white house through his adopted home state here in florida. it's veryul difffor president trump to see his way to an electoral college victory without the 29 electoral college votes that florida has to offer. now, former vice president joe biden has multiple routes therey that may or not include florida. that's something worth watching, november 3rd we move into the way florida tips, if to trump, that becomes certainly a more certain route for him. if not, it becomes much morer difficult he president to win reelection and, lten, judy, florida is a 1% state in the best ofees. thiyear these polls less than

1% when you consider the margin of error right now. >> woodruff: interesting how much money has been poured in by omke brg among others and of course former president obamn campaithere for joe biden in the last few days. alex samuels, i'm going to come back to yoin texas. if the democrats really have aot tell us what is driving the vote. what are the factors that voters to show up and cast theirm ballot? >> yeah, so on the democratic side especially at thtop of the ticket there's really just president trump ouffice, that's a lot of the enthusiasm an.>> fore republicans, th thiewm enthuasm, republica are excited to relect president trump. what makes texas more interesting besides the presidential race is even if there's a close race between joe

biden and president trump, if it is close enough that could help downballot. democra right now democrats are looking at thesticks state house which they are close to flipping. if the race is closer than 2016 when trump won by 9 percentage points, if heta wins the by four or five that could help down ballot democts and coud flip the state hou, too. >> woodruff: and thetate house is so important in terms of redistricting, reapportionment down the roadhe which affectsook of future -- ff congress, the congressional districts. zoe clark, in michigan, t pandemic has been surging in a number of states in your part of the country. how much is that a facr? what are voters say is driving them t vote? >> the pandemic is a huge factor, and thether factor, of course, is our governor, gretchen whitmer,ho has very much been sort of the focus both

of the pandemic countrywide. she has become sort of a national face of democratic governors who are taking on donald trump, and the president has taken her on. you will remember on twitter that woman from michigan. deso the pic is absolutely something that is top of mind and very much here in michigan exactly like alex said as well, is this idea that it's really af vote or against trump. that is where the enthusiasm is, either enthusiasm fe president or against, and he's at the top of the tict d same down ballot here in uschigan is going to have a lot of caand effect. >> woodruff: and tom hudson, down to florida, what do you sense is driving voters? is it donald trump and that's it? or what else? t t's it, judy, it's the top of the ticket and the only part of the ticket. there is no statewide politicaln office the ballot in florida here in 2020. no governor's race, no u.s.

senator race. there's a couple statewide for floridians, but it is thei race for president that is consuming almostll of the oxygen and the sunshine here in florida. it is all about the top the ticket, and issues matter. certainly heahcare, jobs, but it also is all about ideology, and you hear this in the president characterizing formere vicedent biden as socialist or communist. we've seen the formernt vice presind now really democrats and others come out overthe past couple of weeks and begin to very intentionally engage on that mischaracterization and push back very har unlike ways that campaign.t see earlier in this >> in the little bit of time we have left, i want to ask each one of you about early voting. i was just looking at the pictures of long lines there in florida. alex samuels, what about texas? what are you looking at?

i see the numbers are huge. >> yeah, so, as of today, roughly 48% of the state's registered population has alre ady cast theirballot either by mail or in person. so texas, i believe, has already surpassed the total early voting turnout from any other presidential election and that's with three days left of early voting to go the state. >> and zoe clark, what about in michi n? well, we can begin to see how many absentee ballots have been turned in. this is the first presidential race in michiganhere a no-reason absentee ballot is allowed. we have seen record numbers vote in terms of requests of ballots already returned. we are likely looking foror hi turnout here in michigan in election 2020. >> woodruff: and in just a few seconds, tom hudson, what does that look like i floria? >> much the same, judy. 45% of registered voters alry have cast ballots in early

in-person voting an voting by mail. early in-person voting has already set a record that' expected to continue through sunday and then, of course, on election day on november 3rd. ar woodruff: just a rble election in so many case, and these -- ways and these three states, so much inrest in what's going to happen in your states. in florida, tom hudson, in michigan zoe clark, and in texas alex samuels, ank you all. >> thank you so muc, judy. . >> woodruff: the protests in philadelphia against police violence are the latest in a year of nationwide demonstrations against racism amna nawaz is back with more on how the protest movement of today takes a page from history

>> reporter: to help us put this moment into context i'm joined by peniel joseph, founding director for the center of race and democracy at the university of texas at austin, also the author of the sword and the shield, the revolutionary lives of malmalcolm x and martin luther king, jr. a lot of people are turning to history to understand what we're seeing at this moment in history, when you compare the protests as you see them today and the protests in the civil rights movement, do you seeore similarities or more dierences? >> yeah, thank you for having me b. i seeh. in the context of the 1960s, we did have massive upheavals for racial justice. much of at was peaceful but at the same time, both during the kennedy and johnson and nixon administrations, we did see urban rebel yuns in los angeles, in droit, in new york, new jersey and harlem that did spill over into violencnke. when we tbout the

oes participating, amna,umbers is unprecedented.3, in 1or example, there's a ten-week period in the spring of 1963 wherehave over 700 raal justice demonstrations, we have almost 15,000 people ar ysted. in thir alone, we've had over 7,000 separate anti-racist social justice demonstrations in over 2,400 different locations. anywhere upwards people have hit the streets to mobilize, organizing both at thr grts level and in terms of corporate america higher educatio labor unions, n.b.a. players, both black and white, and inen bet so this is unprecedented. we've never seen this kind of white involvement in any social justice movement in american history let alone racial justice. so we're in a whole new ballpark. >> reporter: there was decades ago a tension between those calling for peaceful civil

disobedience and those pushing forore aggressive kind of efforts. as we talk about the "black lidas matter" marches we say they are largely peaceful because they are but thbe haven'n entirely without violence, so when you look attention between what'sg happenw and what happened then, how do you view that? >> well, i think there's always been a tension betwe those who might be affects self-defense and those advocating peaful demonstrations and nonviolence and at times we saw the tensionn betw malcolm x and mathin king, jr. at the time, violence in the soci justice movements isay, way overblown. of course you will have some fringe activists andom folks who are going to say violence will be used strategically as a weapon of change, but by and hugely nonviolent.are hugely the biggest violen that we've seen, quite frankly, over this spring and summer is law enforcementnd state-sanctioned violence, whether that's law

enforcement coming from homeland securian in por oregon, whether it's cops in buffalo who fractured the skull of an elderly person, and at t simes we'vn white vigilante violence in ken no sha, wisconsin. grassroots organizerknow e way you get social change in the united states isvi nently through pressuring different institutions to transform public policies. >> reporter: let me ask you about public support for these protes. there has been a shift to no. if you loo at wisconsin where jacob blake was shot in june you saw 61% approval for e thotests and 47% in september. in 1963, 27% of peoe said the thought the protest would help racialr equality, a y later that dropped to 16%. professor joseph, how do you view the role of public opinion

when it comes to these protests? te well, public opinion absolutely m in a democracy like ours, but, at the same time, historically and we've seen it with the numbers you've just shown, a nam, historically, public opinion has lagged behindocial justice so the public opinion on gay marriage or women having the right to vot or anti-racism has ways lagged behind some kind of national consensus, so those numbers aren't that bad. we always have that the these watershed moments like th spring where you're going to have a lot of support for something and those numbers are of course going to tick down. what's important in those numbers is that about half of americans really support the b.l.m. movent and that is much, much bigger and broader support than we saw fracial justice in 1963, 1964. so if anything this is a new national consensus about black dignity and black citizenship.

when theverberates to all groups, all corners of this country and around the world in a really positive way. really do have this generational opportunity to end systemic cism, to defeat white country in a different way for time.rst >> reporter: profejoor peniel ph from the university of texas at austin, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: so helpful to have that historical perspective. awat's the. >>: for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. please stay safe and we'll see youoon. thank you, please stay safon and seyou . >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided we offer a variety of no- contract wiress plans for ople who use their phone little, a lot, or anything in to learn more, go consumercellular.tv

>> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can ta ror advice aommendations to your life. that's fidelity wealth management. >> the ford foundation. working with visionariesesn the frontlf social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for

publ broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh accessgbh.org

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. covid-19, the second wave. epidemiologist dr. syra madad tells us why eope and the united states can is nnotno cth on deadly disease. and a british soccer star's fight to feed poor children. louis casey joins us with her take on the dickensian calamity facing parts of this > country. us -- >> being lonely and being isolated is very bad for your physical health and yr mental health. >> the doctor will see you icno. cl psychologist richard friedman talks to our michel martin about how this pandemic has impacted