captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: election aftermath. joe biden calls for the transition of power to begin, as the president still refuses to concede defeat. then, the future of health care. the supreme court hears arguments about the affordable care act in a case that could decide the law's fate amid a worsening pandemic. and, bridging our social divides. the author of "bowling alone" on how we can all come together. >> yeah, if you think we're not all in this together, it's every man for himself. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president-elect joe biden is counseling calm about the transition tonight, even if president trump never concedes he lost. mr. biden already has 290 electoral votes in an associated press tally, with three states

not yet called, and a lead of almost five million popular votes, pushing him over the 50% mark. today, he held his first news conference since election day. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. >> alcindor: an "embarrassment." that's the way president-elect joe biden described president trump's refusal to concede the election. and mr. biden insisted it will have no effect on the hand-over of power. >> we are already beginning the transition. we're well underway. and the ility for the administration in any way by failure to recognize our win does not change the dynamic at all and what we're able to do. >> alcindor: for his part, president trump had no public events again today. but, he did take to twitter. he repeated unfounded claims of widespread fraud, saying, "watch for massive ballot counting abuse and, just like the early vaccine, remember i told you so!" and overnight, his justice department provoked new rancor.

democrats at a senate judiciary committee hearing blasted attorney general william barr for telling federal prosecutors to investigate any "substantial" allegations of voter fraud. >> is there anyone on or off >> they have no evidence whatsoever of election fraud. if they did, they would certainly bring it forward. >> alcindor: last night, in response to barr's action, the head of the justice department's election crimes branch resigned in protest. today, there was still no indication that the general services administration will formally acknowledge the biden victory and free up funding for transition work. at the state department, secretary mike pompeo was questioned about whether he is ready to engage with the biden transition team. >> there will be a smooth transition to a second trump administration. we're ready. the world is watching what's taking place. we're going to count all the votes. >> alcindor: on another front, democratic committee chairs in the house released a statement today directing the white house and more than 50 other federal agencies to preserve documents related to congressional

subpoenas and investigations. meanwhile, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell dismissed concerns that most g.o.p. lawmakers are refusing to publicly acknowledge joe biden as president-elect. >> at some point here, we'll find out, finally, who was certified in each of these states, and the electoral college will determine the winner, and that person will be sworn in on january 20. no reason for alarm. >> alcindor: on the senate floor, the democratic leader, chuck schumer, denounced the g.o.p. for refusing to take a stand. >> the extent to which the republican party is legitimizing the president's assault on our democracy is infuriating, and deeply, deeply wrong. the president is not merely bringing forward well-founded legal challenges; >> alcindor: and, democratic senator chris coons, from biden's home state of delaware, id republicans have been calling him to privately congratulate the president- elect. >> my job here, i think, is to continue to urge them privately to do the right thing and to

help the president accept reality and to help their caucus stand up publicly. >> alcindor: all the while, time is ticking. another factor is the timeline of the electoral college. electors from all 50 states and d.c. will meet to vote on december 14, 2020. the vote count is then finalized on january 6, 2021, leading up to the presidential inauguration on january 20. but between now and then, the president's false claims are echoing with many of his supporters. >> biden has not won the election. all of the legal ballots have not been counted. and there's been multiple cases of voter fraud happening throughout the entire state of michigan. >> alcindor: there has been no evidence of widespread voting irregularities. trump supporters are now planning what they call a" million maga march" in washington, on saturday. >> woodruff: and yamiche is at the white house, while lisa desjardins joins us from wilmington, delaware. >> lisa, to you first. you were in the room when the president-elect spoke to reporters today. his team is proceeding work on the transition. tell us what we know about

that. >> lisa: you know, you don't see a lot of this, of course, in public, not only because it is transition, but because of the coronavirus. a lot of reporting, judy, today, the president-elect announced his agency's transition teams, review teams. this is 540 people, volunteers, who are tasked with getting togher with the agencies running government and to form plans and get ready for the handover of government. essentially what is going on here, the biden campaign has been running a parallel system since june to get ready for transition, to begin thinking about hiring of the 4,000 positions that any new president has to fill. and the biden transition team is full-steam ahead in operating and moving towards getting governments to operate. when you think about the former vice president now president-elect today, when i looked at him in that room, i saw a man who was comfortable in his stance, hand in his pocket, did not seem in a hurry, but spoke about the

issues, which is what he says is leading his plan for transition. the first issue he talked about today, along with vice president-elect harris, was health care. >> beginning on january 20th, vice president-elect harris and i will do everything in our power to ease the burden of health care on you and your families. i promise you that. as i said, i will protect your health care like i protect my own family. we've been, unfortunately, significant costumer consumers f health. with the dramatic expansion of health care coverage, and bold steps to lower health care costs. my transition team will soon be starting its work to flush out the details so that we can hit the ground running come january. we're going to work quickly in congress to dramatically ramp up health care protectioning, get americans universal coverage, lower health care costs, as soon as humanly possible. that's the promise i make to you.

>> we just had an election in america. an election where health care was very much on the ballot. our country had a clear choice in this election. each and every vote for joe biden was a statement. and joe biden won the election decisively, with more votes than have ever been cast in ameran history. it amounts to 75 million voices, and counting, calling on the supreme court to see this case for what it is. a blatent attempt to overturn the will of te people. and the president-elect and i cannot let that happen. >> i've had the opportunity to speak with now six world leaders, and the response as been very

folsum, energetic. i know with my discussions with foreign leaders thus far that they are hopeful that the united states democratic institutions are viewed once again as being strong and enduring. but i think at the end of the day, it is all going to come to fruition on january 20th, and between now and then, my hope and expectation is that the american people do know and do understand that there has been a transition. even among republicans, who are people who voted for the president. i understand the sense of loss. i get that. but i think the majority of the people who voted for the president -- a lot voted for him -- a significtly smaller number, but a lot voted for him, i tnk they understand we have to come together. i think they're ready to unite, and i believe we can pull the country out of this bitter politics that we've seen for the

last five, six, seven years. >> woodruff: and, lisa, staying with you, we know the president-elect has yet to hear from a large majority, from most of the republicans in the congress, with whom he will have to work as president. a number of them, he knows from having served in the senate. how is this going to affect his agenda? >> lisa: president-elect bide said he has not heard from mitch mcconnell, but he says he expects to soon. there are two issues here, judy. one, republicanstill not saying that president-elect biden ha won. i had many conversations with republican senate sources, who said, lisa, the election has not been called. i was in the unusual position of saying back to them, the election has been called. in their mind, they think until the process is completed to president trump's satisfaction, it ey also point out whenever it is completed,

as they believe it will be, as you heard mich mitch mcconnell say, it will not change a closely divided n senate and a republicanly senate that has been running against any kind of democratic agenda, including his. and they were asked, when do they think, we're going to wait until january 20th before republicans will say that president-elect biden is actually our leader? they all say know, perhaps in the next week and a half, but they don't know. it rests with president trump. >> woodruff: in the meantime, yamiche, the president and the people around him are not cooperating with the transition. they're continuing to push these lawsuits. what is you sense from them? what is the attitude that you see there? and what is their strategy? >> yamiche: well, president trump is indignant. he is getting angrier and angrier as he watches joe

biden transition from campaigning to president mode. he is running a public and private operation to try to pressure g.o.p. lawmakers and elected officials across the country to back him, holding the line. the vice president went to the senate republican lunch today on capitol hill with one clear message: keep on fighting. they are absolutely focused on this idea that the president has to be defended, that his ways and his false claims have to be continued to be echoed by republicans all across the country. when it comes to the legal strategy, they're continuing to file lawsuit after lawsuit, ahead of the legal strategy for the trump campaign remains fighting the coronavirus, but i'm told he is doing well and working remotely. what we're seeing is cases being tossed out again and again in pennsylvania, in georgia, michigan and nevada. the biden campaign says their legal strategy is to continue to push back and show that the president does not have any evidence for his legal claims. they are also quoting

several judges, saying things like the -- the biden campaign was saying that the trump campaign has no evidence and they were essentially presenting evidence that was utterly unsupported and fiction. i pushed the biden campaign saying, are you looking for evidence? they said their evidence is the 75 million votes that president-elect joe biden got, and all of the things they're seeing in the trump campaign, the lawsuits, the press conferences, they said it is all noise, and this is theatrics, not really lawsuits. what we're seeing from the biden campaign is the strategy of the message to defend themselves, while the trump campaign is continuing to file lawsuits. at some point it might all end up in the supreme court, but both sides think they might win that, but the biden campaign and the trump campaign both feel indignant and solid on their sides and the trump campaign continues

to be angry. >> woodruff: certainly not your traditional transition. lisa and yamiche, thank you both. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, senate republicans held on to a seat in north carolina. incumbent thom tillis clinched re-election when his democratic opponent conceded. the g.o.p. now has 49 seats, and expects to hold a seat in alaska. but, both republican senators in georgia face runoffs in january. there is stark new evidence of the growing wave of covid-19 infections. the u.s. today passed one million new cases in just the first ten days of november. in addition, tulsa, oklahoma ran out of intensive care beds last night. minnesota imposed restrictions on bars, restaurants and social gatherings. and, maryland rolled back indoor

dining to 50% capacity today. meanwhile, limited distribution of a new antibody drug by eli lilly begins tomorrow, for patients with mild or moderate symptoms. a vatican investigation has found that sexual abuse by ex-cardinal theodore mccarrick was whitewashed by roman catholic church leaders for years. a report released today found that pope john paul ii and other high officials turned a blind eye to mccarrick's behavior. >> we publish the report with sorrow for the wounds that the matter has caused to the victims, their families, the church in united states and the universal church. the trust of many faithful people in the church has been damaged. >> woodruff: mccarrick is now 90 years old. he was defrocked last year.

we will discuss the report in detail, later in the program. the vatican's former ambassador to france, archbishop luigi ventura, went on trial in paris today on five counts of sexual assault. he declined to attend, saying that it was too dangerous for him to travel from rome to paris amid the covid pandemic. his alleged victims accuse ventura of groping and inappropriate touching. russian peacekeepers began deploying to nagorno-karabakh today, after azerbaijan and armenia agreed to a cease-fire brokered by moscow. azerbaijani forces had made significant gains in the disputed territory, largely inhabited by ethnic armenians. protesters in armenia's capital responded by storming into government buildings overnight, smashing furniture and condemning the cease-fire. >> ( translated ): we do not agree with the decision. we will not give them away. we will fight. and we don't want this-- we don't want this government in our city and in our motherland.

>> woodruff: armenia's prime minister said his army urged an end to the fighting that began in september. azerbaijan's president called the cease-fire a glorious victory. back in this country, tropical storm eta has drifted away from south florida, leaving a swath of the region under water. the storm was stalled today just off western cuba. it could move north later in the week, and possibly hit t u.s. gulf coast. the european union filed anti- trust charges against amazon today. regulators accused the e-commerce giant of using data from third-party sellers to gain an unfair advantage and stifle competition. amazon denies the claims. it faces a potential fine of up to 10% of its annual worldwide revenue. and on wall street, for a second day, optimism about a covid vaccine helped the broader market, but hurt tech stocks that thrived during the

pandemic. the dow jones industrial average gained almost 263 points to close near 29,421. the nasdaq fell 160 points, and the s&p 500 slipped about five points. still to come on the newshour: the supreme court hears arguments that could decide the fate of the affordable care act. the united states remains starkly divided, following a contentious presidential election. the vatican admits that pope john paul ii promoted a former cardinal, despite being warned of his history of sexual abuse. and, much more. >> woodruff: health care policy was a big topic in the presidential election.

as john yang reports, the affordable care act was back at the supreme court today, with insurance coverage for tens of millions of americans at stake. and then, william brangham looks at what faces president- elect biden. >> yang: nichole stull is at high risk for breast cancer because of her genetic profile and family history. but, the mother of five and small business owner wasn't able to afford regular m.r.i.s until january. that's when she qualified for medicaid for the first time, under a provision of the affordable care act, or" obamacare." the screenings have turned up spots, but not cancer-- so far. >> the fact that i'm able to go back in every six months right now and get... get some peace of mind, and also just make sure that it doesn't turn, before i'm able to get my preventative surgeries-- that obviously is a huge weight lifted. >> yang: that relief is under threat. today, supporters of the a.c.a.

rallied outside the supreme court, as 18 republican-led states and the trump administration asked the justices, in a conference call oral argument, to overturn the entire law. that would threaten insurance coverage for more than 20 million americans in the midst of a pandemic. the opponents say that in 2017, when congress eliminated the penalty for not buying health insurance, it made what's called the "individual mandate" an unconstitutional command, because it says americans "shall" buy qualifying policies. liberal justice stephen breyer challenged that argument by evoking family dynamics, with trump administration acting solicitor general jeffrey wall. >> have i ever said, or ve you ever said to someone in your family, "you shall do it!" but that is an entreaty, an entreaty or a supplication, rather than threatening a punishment. >> no, justice breyer. in my family, when i tell my kids that they "shall" do

things, that's a command backed by penalty. >> yang: the law's defenders say that without the penalty, the mandate is meaningless-- and therefore, is not unconstitutional. new justice amy coney barrett questioned california solicitor general michael mongan. >> you're asking us to treat it like it's functionally been repealed, but that's not what congress did. does that matter? >> your honor, i think congress understood how this court had construed 5000a as a choice, and it understood that it would make the provision effectively inoperative to zero out the tax. >> yang: the opponents say that if that provision falls, so should the entire law, because when congress passed it in 2010, lawmakers said the mandate was key to making it work. but, former solicitor general donald verrilli, defending the a.c.a., said experience has shown otherwise. >> there were generous subsidies to draw people into the market, and it was easy to enroll because of the exchanges. but there was also a stick: the tax payment, if you didn't enroll. and i don't think there's any

doubt that the 2010 congress thought that stick was important. but, it's turned out that the carrots work without the stick. >> yang: even some court conservatives, like chief justice john roberts and justice brett kavanaugh, sounded skeptical of the opponents' argument. >> i think it's hard for you to argue that congress intended the entire act to fall if the mandate was struck down, when the same congress that lowered the penalty to zero did not even try to repeal the rest of the act. i think, frankly, that they wanted the court to do that. but that's not our job. >> looking at our severability precedence, it does seem fairly clear that the proper remedy would be to sever the mandate provision and leave the rest of the act in place. >> yang: marcia coyle is chief washington correspondent for the "national law journal." >> if you have the chief justice and justice kavanaugh believing that there is a way to save the act, even if a majority of the

court were to find that what congress did in 2017 resulted in an unconstitutional mandate to buy health insurance, that they, joined with perhaps the court's three liberal colleagues who also seem to think similarly, would be able to sever or cut out that mandate from the rest of the act. >> yang: the affordable care act was president barack obama's signature domestic achievement. among its most popular provisions? prohibiting insurance companies from refusing to cover pre- existing medical conditions, like julia raye's diabetes. >> diabetes is actually a killer. people die from diabetes, uncontrolled diabetes. there are points in time when i was a 600. two weeks ago, i was at 28. either of those continue into diabetic coma. >> yang: we first met julia and her son charles in 2015, when another supreme court challenge threatened the subsidized

insurance she purchased on an a.c.a. marketplace. two years later, congressional republicans nearly succeeded in repealing the law. raye, an auditor, now gets insurance through her job, but she credits her previous a.c.a. coverage with stabilizing her health and her career. >> cutting out pre-existing conditions and shutting off these types of aid... this may curtail a person who is working their way into a viable position that will enable or help the economy. i don't know why this keeps coming up. i don't. it's almost like we don't care about our people. >> yang: the court's ruling is expected by next summer. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> brangham: the affordable care act is deeply woven into the fabric of american life, more than many people realize. it allows young adults to stay on their parents' insurance plans for several years.

it prohibits insurance companies from refusing to cover preexisting conditions. and, as john showed in his piece, millions of americans get medicaid through it-- roughly 12 million people, in fact. during the campaign, president- elect biden laid out a number of proposals to expand coverage. but, it's no longer clear if he will have enough votes in congress to do so. so, what could t biden agenda on healthcare look like? and how tied is it to the fate of the affordable care act? paige winfield cunningham covers health care policy for the "washington post," and joins me now. and she joins me now of the affordable care act, as many people looked at this case as it was heard today, may survive this legal fight. could you please remd us what would happen if the a.c.a. were cut totally? >> right, as you noted earlier, there would be,

indeed, a huge affect, not only on the people who got coverage through the market places and medicaid expansion, but those who are protected with a pre-existing condition. the law is huge and sweeping, and it is hard to imagine and overstate the impact if the law were to be struck down. i would like to say, though, if that should happen next spring, there is recourse for congress. congress could actually pass a bill which would render the lawsuit moot, essentially, by making that it is absolutely clear once and for all it is fine for the law to remain on the books even without the mandate. this would be a real sweet spot for president-elect joe biden, who is skilled at negotiating with the other de. it would be interesting to see how all of this would play out, whether he would be able to persuade congress to pass a law, making sure that the a.c.a. was preserved.

>> president-elect biden gave a speech about the affordable care act, increased access, lowering costs, increasing coverage, but you have been reporting even if the democrats were to win these two senate runoff seats in georgia, that the biden administration might still face real head winds trying to pass substantive health care improvements. why is that? >> well, right. so when we look at even the best case scenario for democrats in the senate at this point if they win those two seats in georgia, they're at 50/50 with vice president kamala harris being high breaker. in that scenario, take biden's core health proposal to pass a public government option, adding that to the market places as a cheaper option for people, and the republicans are not board on that. they couldn't afford to lose a single vote. when you look at some of

the more conservative senators, joe manchin in west victoria, it is entirely unlikely he would and on board with that. so we're looking at smaller things, and probably most of the ways the biden administration can put its mark on the affordable care act is things it can do through executive action and rule-making, a big thing we're looking on, early on, is restoring advertising for the market places and probably opening up a special enrollment period, really trying to spread the word about the law and sort of reverse a downward trend in enrollment in the market places and get enrollmentack up. >> another thing biden has said he wants to do is try to get the federal government to have the ability to negotiate drug prices. he argues why not let the federal government negotiate with the companies. does that have any prospects for passing? >> you know, i really put that in the same basket as the public option. this is something that, you know, the negotiating

was included in a bill house democrats passed a year ago. and then it got stuck. we've even seen a smaller core of bills that would not go nearly as far. even those really struggled to gain a loft traction last year. i could see some smaller things happening, depending on how negotiations go between biden and mitch mcconnell, if indeed he remains the majority leader. but i would be really, really doubtful if you would see something as progressive as allowing for direct negotiations. >> assuming this current political storm passes, biden will be assuming office in january, the middle of winter, unless we reverse course on how we've been dealing with this pandemic, cases are likely to be up, hospitalizations and deaths. plus this economic agony of this pandemic. do you think that any of that has a force that would help push for health care reform? >> yeah.

i know in talking to people, they have sort of brought up the idea of being able to get different initiatives into some kd of covid relief bill, and it certainly seems there will be steam behind passing that. when we're talking about, too, the effort to have health insurance and lower health care prices, i think because of the environment, the pandemic environment, that has got to be the number one focus for the new administration. so you probably will see a bit of a longer timeline in terms of trying to accomplish any other health care priorities. it's rlly hard to say at this point how a covid relief bill will shake out, but we definity know from biden's comments today, he wants to keep health insurance and health costs front and center in his new administration. >> page winfield cunningham of the "washington post," thank you very, very much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: with president trump's refusal to accept the results of the election, tensions continue throughout the country, as his supporters double down on his message. those calling for mr. trump to concede point to the long history of presidential concessions that have helped maintain peaceful transfers of power. i'm joined now by david priess. he is the chief operating officer at the lawfare institute, and a former intelligence officer at the central intelligence agency. he is also author of "how to get rid of a president," a history of the many ways presidents leave office or are pushed toward the exit. >> woodruff: david priess, thank you so much for joining us. first of all, how much do concessions matter? >> they don't legally matter, dy, because the duly elected president will be inaugurated in january no matter what, whether the outgoing president acknowledges the defeat or not.

but they do matter for a couple of other reasons. actually, there is a third one, which is more personal than political, which is most politicians don't like being seen as a sore loser, and if they ever want to run again, being seen as graceful and dignified is to their advantage. but the two practical reasons for it: first, to help ensure a smooth and affective transition. it may seem like 70 days from now sa lon is a long time, but when you're trying to get the full mechanics of the executive branch turned over to a new team, getting security clearances passed, getting people in place, getting up to speed on all of the policies, that takes a long time. and a concession speech can help that process move along quickly, and help the new administration come in with, in a sense, a stamp of approval for carrying that mission forward.

the second reason is to dampen down the tensions that came up during the campaign. we've had several compaigns in u.s. history that were very, very negative, and in some cases supporters of the losing candidates screamed for blood in the streets because their candidate lost. the losing candidate publicly saying, i accept the results of this election, and all of you should support the new president helps bring society back together after the election campaign has divided it. >> woodruff: tell us, throughout history, we've had 45 presidents in this country. are there examples of losers in those contests who have not conceded, or who delayed conceding? >> not so much. every president ultimately seems to depart and not fight the result. now, early on in history, presidents didn't formally concede. but starting in the late 19th century, and ever since then, whether by telegram or by phone call

graduatcongratulating the winne, or often with a public statement on the radio or tv, presidents have been saying i accept the results of the election. and usually they offer something like, i wish my successor well. i will support them as they move forward, the kinds of words that help heal the nation. >> woodruff: this kind of goes back to your first answer, david priess, but are there serious consequences if a president seeking re-election doesn't concede that you don't have his cooperation for the transition? >> yeah. ultimately, you could have a constitutional crisis if some parts of the executive branch believe that one person is president, and other parts don't. that is hard to imagine, but it is at least theoretically possible that two people can claim the presidency at the same time, and then you'd have to sort that out. more practically, there is a problem if the transition is delayed. as you've heard, the

general services administration now has the task, by legislation, to designate when there is a president-elect and the transition can formally begin. that unlocks a whole bunch of different things, from office space to security clearance, expedition, to actually getting teams into the agencies and departments to start preparing to take the reins on january 20th. why does that matter? well, if there is, for example, a foreign policy crisis in january, right as the new president is taking office, and the teams aren't in place to deal with it or they don't have the preparation to even know the background to the crisis, that could harm the national security of the united states. >> woodruff: and that's what i want to ask you about, because as we've been reporting, most republican members of congress are not conceding that joe biden has won. the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is saying we need to give the president more time. he deserves all of the time that he needs to challenge the results.

we heard him say today that at some point the electors will meet, but that is not until many weeks from now. if it comes down to that, is that a problem? >> it is. and it is very unusual for that to happen. the closest parallel we have in modern history is the 2000 election, when al gore, the vice president, and george w. bush were trying to sort out who actually won florida. and that was a matter of a few hundred votes. and ultimately bush kept to those votes and did win the presidency. but even then, the outgoing administration, the clinton administration, decided, before the supreme court made its ruling that affectively ended it, we need to get george w. bush into the transition system. and they started letting him see the president's daily brief, the highest level intelligence document, even before that supreme court decision. but what was important then is you did not have a

lot of voices on al gore's side of the campaign saying this cannot stand, we will continue to fight this. we don't care what the supreme court says. we're going to keep filing lawsuits over and over again. this time it feels a little different. you do have a significant number of senior officials seemingly saying we are going to keep fighting this as long as humanly possible. and that does no bring the benefits that a graceful concession typically does. >> woodruff: and we have the president continuing to say he will win, and the secretary of state saying transition to a second trump term. david priess, we thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: even with all that's been known about the catholic church's sexual abuse scandals, today's revelations about the historical role of

pope john paul ii in the elevation of a former archbishop accused of sexual abuse was stunning. a report from the vatican found that two popes either ignored, overlooked, or downplayed allegations when it came to taking tough action against theodore mccarrick over two decades. amna nawaz has the story. >> nawaz: judy, the 449-page report found that before john paul ii elevated theodore mccarrick to archbishop of washington, he already was aware of multiple allegations against mccarrick. that included reports of sexual misconduct with another priest, sharing beds with seminarians, and anonymous letters accusing him of pedophilia with his nephews. but mccarrick denied those allegations, and he rose to become one of the most powerful and well known catholic leaders in the u.s. the investigation also found that pope benedict delayed an investigation into mccarrick's behavior, and that pope francis also did not act on allegations

about mccarrick until 2017, believing that pope john paul ii had already reviewed them. mccarrick was removed as archbishop in 2006, but was not defrocked-- that is, removed from the church-- until 2019. elizabeth bruenig is an opinion writer for the "new york times" who writes about faith and religion. she has long covered the mccarrick story, including speaking with survivors. survivors, and she joins us now. elizabeth, welcome to the "newshour." we should say as we've learned more and more about the dep m depth of this abuse scandal, the questions have been who knew and when did they know. this report seems to say everyone knew. the men at the highest level knew and new nor years. is that accurate? >> that's accurate. at least as early as the 1990s, there was widespread awareness that these allegations were made and were continued to

be made over time. >> as we just noted three different popes knew about the allegations, one believed mccarrick's denial, and the others chose not to look into it. is there a common thread in that behavior? >> mccarrick was very charismatic, and he was screaming winning and a very gifted fundraiser who made lots of monetary gifts to other members of the church hierarchy, and the common thread in all of the authorities who failed to accurately investigate or adequately look into the allegations against mccarrick is that they trusted him, they believed him, and they saw no reason to deal with what they assumed to be conduct that only involved other adults, and in many cases conduct they presumed to be long in the past. >> you've reported on some of the survivors before. have you spoken with them today, and what has been their reaction to the report? >> i have, yes. one of the survivors that i spoke to who was abused

by mccarrick has a child, has a minor, and is exhausted by this episode. the mccarrick saga has stretched on now since 2017. so if you can imagine three years of media inquiry and church inquiries of different stripes as to what happened to this individual. so he is completely exhausted at this point. >> what kind of impact does this have in the catholic community. the idea that church leaders knew for years and didn't do anything -- what kind of an impact can a report like this have? >> it has seriously damaged the credibility of the roman catholic church. the fact that the sex abuse investigation is still ongoing, and we first learned about it in 2002, which is a serious, serious problem, which compromises the church's ability to speak out on moral matters.

i think it will put a shrowd over the papcy of pope francis. >> what do you mean? >> pope francis commissioned this report, and i think it was an effort to provide some credibility, by making a real effort towards transparency. and it is a real effort towards transparency. an investigation has not been conducted by a lay person. this was conducted by a lay person. pope francis presumed his predecessors haddealt with mccarrick, and he wasn't going to look at it again until it came forward from the archdiocese of new york. the fact that he didn't take action before then is disturbing. >> elizabeth, a lot of people are asking what now? the american bishops are going to hold their annual meeting in a couple of weeks, and everyone says they welcome this level of

transparency. do you believe the steps are being taken in the church to make sure this doesn't happen any longer? >> with so little transparency as it is, it is hard to place a lot of faith in those kinds of steps and pronouncements that things are much better nowment i think now. i think this report is a landmark. i hope it is a turning point. there are several things the church could do to ensure this doesn't happen again. there needs to be more oversight from lay people, and a way to report bishops for accountability, not just priests. and until those kinds of monumental changes happen, it is hard to see how these kinds of event will have really been forefended. >> that is ee elizabeth bruening, opinion writer for the "new york times" tonight. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: this morning in jerusalem, senior palestinian official saeb erekat died, after a month-long battle with covid-19. long a fixture of palestinian politics, erekat led peace talks with the israelis for nearly three decades. nick schifrin has this look at his life. >> schifrin: for decades, saeb erakat embodied palestinian diplomacy, and palestinian hopes. >> the only way to have peace in this region is to solve the palestinian question, is to solve the israeli-palestinian conflict, is to end the israeli occupation. >> schifrin: his career was defined by the negotiations he helped lead. in the 1990s, for the oslo accords that removed israeli soldiers from parts of the west bank. >> once they leave our towns and refugee camps in the first stage, there is no way back. >> schifrin: in 2000, next to former p.l.o. chairman yasser arafat at camp david. and, in 2014, during the last rounof peace talks. in 2007, he spoke to gwen ifill. >> what needs to be restored in the minds of palestinians and israelis today, is the hope.

>> he played the role that he was given, believed in it deeply, and thought about peace and the possibility of a better future as more than just a thought experiment. it was something he devoted his life to. >> schifrin: aaron david miller worked on middle east peace across six administrations. he says erakat was constrained by arafat, and more recently by palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas. but erakat always believed in a negotiated solution. >> he never surrendered to the forces of history, which, of course, if they could speak to us, would basically say "there'll never be a solution to the israeli-palestinian conflict." he deeply believed, i think, in the forces of diplomacy. >> schifrin: erekat was a longtime-proponent of two states, and a longtime critic of israeli occupation. >> his name has been synonymous with negotiations and all that comes with it. the trials and tribulations, the failings, the achievements, the frustrations.

>> schifrin: nour odeh is a political analyst in ramallah. she praises erekat, but says young palestinians question the diplomacy he was committed to. >> after a certain point, there was an obsession with the process, rather than the end results of what that process should have delivered. and the sentiment is that, that process ended up being a cover for everything that was happening on the ground, which was literally undoing the possibility of two states. >> schifrin: most recently, erekat executed abbas' decision to cut off negotiations with the trump administration after the u.s. moved its embassy to jerusalem, and he rejected the administration's peace plan, unveiled last year. >> this is not a plan of peace. this is a scandal, and the fraud of the century. >> schifrin: erakat never backed down from advocating what palestinians believed they deserved. some israelis found him obstructionist. many respected his intelligence. he never stopped working with, and befriending, israelis he negotiated against, including

longtime negotiator, yossi beilin. >> he proved to all of us, and i believe that also to the world, that the myth that we don't have partners is totally, totally wrong. >> this was something that everybody remembers, i tnk, about saeb-- his ability to always engage and show civility, show kindness to everybody. >> schifrin: erakat contracted covid last month, and died this morning in this jerusalem hospital. his diplomacy, and his dreams, unfulfilled. saeb erekat was 65 years old. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: in this increasingly divided time, a new book looks to history to he find a path to unity and to look for new ways to move toward equality. paul solman is our guide, for his regular series, "making sense." >> reporter: harvard social scientist robert putnam, famous for his best-seller, 20 years ago, about increasing disconnectedness in america,

"bowling alone." >> bowling is big in america, you know. but bowling in leagues, bowling in teams, is off by about 40%. so the fact that we're bowling alone represents one more missing occasion for connections. >> reporter: but this fall, putnam is in semi-seclusion, with wife rosemary, in resplendent rural new hampshire, and he appreciates the irony. >> i've taken a ton of criticism and teasing from my family for 25 years for writing about how important it is that people connect to one another. but in order to do that, i come up here in total isolation. of course, it's different now with the coronavirus. mostly because we're trying to escape from the risks down in-- down in the city. >> reporter: putnam's refuge is especially ironic in light of his new book, "the upswing," the culmination of his work about social capital-- that is, social connectedness-- and how to rebuild it in an ever-more on-your-own america, as polarized as it was in the late 19th century. >> this is the first gilded age. we were very polarized. we were very unequal.

and the next 70 years, basically, everything rises. we get more and more connected. we get less and less polarized. we get more and more equal. >> reporter: and thus the upswing to a more egalitarian society. from untouchable gilded age fortunes of the 1890s-- summer "cottages" of newport, rhode island, for example, with rooms of marble and gold-- to a national income tax, almost only on the rich, in 1913. the new deal of the 1930s... >> i pledge myself to a new deal for the american people. >> the great society rests on abundance and liberty for all. >> reporter: ..the great society of the 1960s. rotary clubs, bowling leagues, ever more economic equality. but what swung up, sure swung down. >> when the boomers came of age, they inherited a society that was moving in the right direction.

>> reporter: yes. >> and very, very affluent. and they blew it. >> reporter: but we thought we were doing the right thing and bringing america to the right place. >> i know you did. >> reporter: so, "rock and roll," "never trust anybody over 30, "down with authority," non-conformity, self-expression, th began the downswing? >> yes. >> reporter: which then expressed itself economically. >> yeah. if you think we're not all in this together, it's every man for himself. >> reporter: okay, boomers, check out these meticulous, data-driven charts, which putnam shows how, starting in the '60s, america became less economically equal, less politically tolerant, less socially engaged, less altruistic. the era of "me, myself and i." and many of you, too. >> my job was really to come in and figure out a way to tell this story, so that it was more than just numbers and curves and data. >> reporter: putnam's partner

on this latest project is his former student, shaylyn romney garrett-- a cousin of mitt, though her politics aren't related. >> i'll never forget the moment wh we're sitting at the dinner table with bob and rosemary and he starts telling me about these obscure data sets that he's been tinkering with on google, called n-gram data. >> the n-gram program can tell you how often a given word has appeared in any book published in any year. >> reporter: so putnam typed in the words "i" and "we." >> it was exactly the same curve as all these other curves we'd been studying. >> reporter: and the data punchline is that in the late 19th century, it was "i, i, i." it then became more "we, we, we, we," up until the 1960s. and then, in all the literature that's assembled, it becomes more and more "i, i, i" again? >> yeah. not over-night, of course, paul. it's a gradual trend. >> you see a real shift, not just, you know, away from using the first-person pronoun to the "we" pronoun, but-- but in

asking americans to rethink what this natn is really about in terms of our core values. and we saw a shift away from the social darwinism, that sort of dog-eat-dog mindset of the time, into what historians call the "social gospel," which was a movement that tried to get us to think more about what we owe to each other, what responsibilities do we have to each other in a society, rather than simply thidea that a society is one giant competition. >> reporter: which is where we are today. >> we're even more polarized now-- i'm talking about the data-- even more polarized now than during the civil war. >> reporter: the purpose of putnam and romney's book? to de-polarize. spur a new "upswing" to bring us back together. >> sometimes we look at the political polarization today and say, "oh, well, that was nice that they did that back then. but we can never do that today, because nobody can agree on anything." well, the lesson of this book is "we have been in that exact same place before, and this group of determined reformers managed to pull us up out of it." by immigrant activism, by worker activism, by muckrakers.

one of the most, you know, under-recognized of whom is ida b. wells, a black american engaging in a moral outcry against lynching. >> reporter: joining the activists back then? those atop the polarized society who began to think twice. >> chastened elites. people who had this realization that america was going off the rails, and that they had played a part in shaping the underlying values that had created that deeply unappealing situation that they found themselves in. >> reporter: people much like bob putnam himself. being up here, the "we should all get together guy," who bemoans the fact that we're bowling alone, do you feel guilty that you're sequestered and protected? >> well, i do, of course, because of the implications for inequality. the average income of people here along the pond is probably $300,000 or $400,000 a year. the average income of the people 400 or 500 yards back is probably $25,000 or $30,000 a year?

forget about the virus-- the degree of inequality embedded in my life-- this is just not fair. i mean, at some level, that fairness is the core here. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, this is paul solman. >> woodruff: a lot to think about. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular. johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway. >> financial services firm

raymond james. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org -sonora, a vast open territory in northern mexico

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