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tv   PBS News Hour  PBS  November 20, 2020 3:00pm-4:01pm PST

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captioningponsored by ll newshour productions, >> woodruff: gooevening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, president-elect biden moves ahead with the transition as prident trump's moves to reverse the election results take a potentially dangerous turn. then, a surging crisis-- wh covid cases spiking across the country and hospitals reaching pacity, we talk with the governor of new mexico about grappling with the pandemic. and it's friday-- mark shields and david brooksnalyze the president's firing of a top security official, legal challenges to the ection results and refusal to concede defeat. plus, the light of a clear blue morning-- dolly parton talks with us about her new book, a christmas special and of wrs her timeledom.
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>> some good things about getting older is that you can look back on your life and seeco what you've lished and see what you can do to help other people on their journey, which is what i'm doing right now. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that nnects us.
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>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed aun engaged commies. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing sunsort of thesetutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for nsblic broadcasting. and by contributo your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.
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>> woodruff: president-elect joe biden is nearing 80 million votes tonight, nearly six million more than president trump. but mr. trump still shows no sign of nceding. instead, he is pressing lower- level republicans to try to overturn the results. lisa desjardins reports. desjardins: in wilmington, delaware, a show of unity and talk of governing, as president- elect joe biden spent part ofir his 78thday meeting with house speaker nancy pelosi and schumer.ic senate leader chuck among their topics, coronavirus relief. >> in my oval office, mi casa is your casa. hoping we'll spend a lot of time together.>> esjardins: at the white house today, president trump was in policy mode too, with his first public remarks in a week, this time at an event about drug election.n which pivoted to the
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>> big pharma llions of dollars of negative ads against won by the way but you know,h i we'll find that out. after a sih day hand tally of ballots, the state of georgia certified fter a six day hand-tally ballots, the state of georgia certified its election results-- that president-elect biden won the peach state and its 16 electoral college votes. georgia' of state defended the vote count last night. >> as secretary of state i that wethat the numbe have presented today are correct. ae numbers reflect the verdict of the people, necision by the secretary of state's office or of courts or by tir campaigns. >>esjardins: this as republicans in michigan aresi being ngled out by the whitee, hond by protesters. michigan state senate leader
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mike shirkey passed a handful of demonstrators at the airport, after president trump personally asked him to come to the white house. the state is scheduled certify monday, and the trump campaign has openly raised the idea of subvting popular vote results it disputes by getting g.o.p. legislatures, like michigan's, to overturn them. white house press secretary kailey mcenany also didn't dismiss the idea of the president asking individual electors to break with tir state and vote for him. >> the president, again, is pursuing ongoing litigation, taking it day by day and we'll wait for that litigation to play out. there is an entire constitutional pcess of electors casting their ballots and i will leave that to the hiesident. >> desjardins: mn congresswoman debbie dingell condemned the move. he>> clearly an attempt by president to change the results of the elections. let me be very clear: this goes beyond partisan politics and it's an attempt to subvert our
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democracy, and underminehe will of michigan voters. if they do not certi the results of the election on monday, they are breaking the law. >> desjardins: outrage is coming from a few members of the utah senator mitt romneyoo. tweeted: "it is difficult toin ima worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting american president." in a statement, nebraska senator ben sasse wrote, "trump campaign lawyers have stood before courts under oath, they have repeatedly refused to actually allege grand fraud, because there are legal consequences for lying to judges." now nearly two weeks from biden being declared the winner, it is still unclear when any formal white house transition will begin. >> woodruff: and lisa joins me now, along with yache alcindor. so, yamiche, to you, first, as we just heard in lisa'report, the president is meeting with these michigan state officials todaon the same day georgia certifies its results for joe
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biden. tell us what the president's strategy is here. >> we end is weekuch like we began with theup insisting that he won the 2020 election without any evidence to prove that and joe biden is the not ac president-elect. he is doing that and becomingmo brazen and bold and as his people in his inn circle get sicker and sicker. adds to a long list of people including the white house chief of staff, the press secretarye a esident and a number of the others who have had the virus. critics of thye president s what we're witnessing with president trump is someone who's tryingo subvert american democracy, someone who's trying america.the very foundation of tonight the president had two top michigan officials at the white hous t i'm toy were here this afternoon, they left a short time ago it's not clear what was said but we know the president has been
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openly saying michigan and other officials should be trying to overturn the results and these states sould in fact beiven to him as a winner. joe biden won the state michigan by 150,000 votes and when the white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany was questioned about the meeting that took place she said, quote, this is not an advocacy meeting and there are no campaign officials in that meeting. we know e candidate was in the meeting, president trump, so he was advocating fohimself, of course. who president came to the podium to talk about lowering prescription drug prices but slid in there, i won the ection. so that's the president doublin down. all eyee conti be on the gsa, emily murphy, who is supposed to be signing off on the transition officially. that process remains frozen and we're continuing to watch to see if anything changes. >> woodruff: circle jeff,s
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administration. yamiche, thank you for that. lisa, how conrned is the biden team? >> two fronts, let's talk ab the idea of governing. the biden transitionok person jen sakeé today told reporters that patience is starng to run out. this is the week where biden transition team, some of theme are moving their e-mails from the campaign to the transition, and the 500 people on agency review teams that the biden staff has set up, they were hoping to reach out to their agency counterparts. that not happening. the legal front, is is whe we heard sharp wordand pushback from the biden team today. bob bower speaking for them, their attorney, said no stat legislature in the country's history has done what president trump seems to be stking the michigae legislators to do, which ise overturn t certified results that were expected to be certified monday of a popular election.
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the biden campaign ising this is not legal and it doesn't have any historical precedent. they say they're not concerned tiout the el being overturned nor have they ever been, and they also sy it's dangerous. they point out one other thing. they say the trumpcampaign has shown a discriminatory pattern, that they're partiglarly go after challenges in african-american areas, cities that they think shows a very serious bias problem and say they will continueo raise it in court to every trump filing. >> woodruff: these are heavily democratic cities. lisa desjardins, yamiche alcindor reporting on today'sar extraordevents. thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: and we continue ou'slook at the preside actions >> woodruff: we continue our look at the president's actions and state of the republican party,ith former arizona senator jeff flake. senator flake, thank you so much for being with us. refusing to concede, insisting that he won, in constant motion to try to overturn the results
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today, meeting witstate officials from michigan. what do you make of all this? >> well, frankly, it's just awfu it's awful for the country and for republicans. it's terrible as well. so i don't understand i'm grateful some republicans are finally starting to speak up. i wish more of them would. this is unpcedented and it just does not speak well, obviously, for the president or for the party. >> woodruff: we heerard are some who are saying this is literally dangerous for our democracy. do you share that view? >> i'm sorry. we're cutting up here. >> woodruff: i think we're having a h connection ving a connection issue. let me try one more time. speaking with former senator jeff flake of arizona.na r, do you believe this is dangerous for our democracy what
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the president s still trying to do? >> sorry -i'm sorry. didn't hear the question. we cut out for a second. go ahead. >> woodruff: apologies. let me try it one more time, with that technology. is this dangerous foremocracy? >> it is. it is. when you have the rest of the wod looking at us and watching us closely, fraly, and when we, you know, try to be an example for the rest of the world, if other countries were doing what the president is doing, if other leaders were doing what the president is doing, we would be very critical. we have been in the past, and,is so, oesn't speak well for us. it's a very difficult time. i hope we cant ge it solved quickly and i'm confident we will by inauguration. >> woodruff: senator flake, we heard rudy giuliani making false
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claims about conspiracy theories, about venezuela, about the clintons, and on ann. is any of that -- does any of it have any conection to anything that's real? >> i'm sorry, iy probaly heard part of the question there, but, yes, these claims are demonstrably false. they're so far out that i don't know how anybody, frankly, can believrthem, but the pesident knows that some republicans will, and it's similar to the birther-ism thethy. i don'k the president ever believed that barack obama wast citizen, but he knew that a lot of republicans would, and he used it, and he's doing the same thing now. >> woouff: seator jeff flake, would love to talk to you a little bit more, but i think we are having technical problems. thank you so much for talking with us. f:
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>> woodrn the day's other news, drug maker pfizer appliedy for an emergse authorization for its covid-19 if the so-called eis approved, vaccinations could begin next month, on a limited basis. in dueling tv interviews today, the trump administration touted its vaccine plan, while argued it's not geaccurateam numbers or information. >> we have about 40 million eses of vaccine give or t exactly when the e.u.a. comes is we're going to execute fair and equitable distribution based on the population of the jurisdictions, jurisdictions identified as the 50 states, eight territories and six metropolitan cities. >> there was a plan for 300 million doses to be available at
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the end of the year. what they're reporting now is 20 to 30 million doses available. why? where are the bottlenecks? what are the shortages? how are they addressing them, and what are the gaps that the xt administration needs fill? that alone means delays that coulcost lives. >> woodruff: the nation is a day from covid, with300 deaths a record of nearly 188,000 new cases on thursday. treasury secretary stevenn mnuc rejecting criticism after he ended some pandemic emergency lending at the federal reserve. in a rare rebuke, the fed said thursday that it needs every tool to shore up the economy. mnuchin shot back today, "that's not their job." he also denied trying to limitid prt-elect biden's economic options. the u.n. refugee agency warned today that fighting in northern ethiopia could create 200,000
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refugees in the next six months. ethiopia's military is battling rebel forces in the tigray region, and hundreds of people have been killed. 3 at lea000 refugees have already fled to sudan. erican jonathan pollard, who sold u.s. secrets to israel in the 1980's, completed his parole today. f thes him to go to israel, which has long lobbied for his cause. he was released from a u.s. prison in 2015, after 30 years. some of the material stolen by pollard ended up in the soviet union, including information on u.s. informants. the trump administration has costs for seniors.o cut dr medicare would pay the same as the lowestrice in other advanced countries. and, drug makers wou rebates to medicare enrollees, instead of to insurers. fight the changes in court.
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and, wall street retreated today amid worries about rising covid infections. the dow jones industrial average lost 219 points to close at 29,263. the nasdaq rose 49 points, and, the s&p 500 slid 24. still to come on the newshour: ble governor of new mexico discusses the trg surge in covid cases. mark shields and davidwnrooks break he president's continued refusal to concede defeat. dolly parton on how even in dark times we can see the light of the clear blue morning. and more. >> woodruff: as coronavirus
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cases across the country continue to rise, only three states currently have a stay-at- home or curfew order in place. amna nawazakes to one state under lockdown. >> nawaz: it took nearly 100 days for new mexico to reach its first 10,000 coronavirus cases.u the state went from 60,000 to 70,000 in just seven days. c todaid numbers there are increasing exponentially and hospitals are at0 to 100% capacity. governor michelle sujan grisham stay-at-home orders earlier this week and she has called thetate legislature to special session to deal with the virus's spread and the economic fallout. she jorns us now. go, welcome back to the "newshour", and thank you for making the time. we should mention the total number of covid cases in new mexico topped 70,000 deaths. you've had to call in traveling nurses, brought in mortuary trailers. you need the shutdown to work w. previously you said enforcement is part of the problem.
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how about now, are you ain enforce the shutdown? >> so it depends on personal compliance really incredibly hard to attain in any state. this one's no differt. we've hada andatory mask mandate since may.s getting our esses to support us more productk ely, i th's been a bit of a challenge, but i have to say, today they get it, and we have been incredibly firm about if you've got four different rapid responses positive case, we come in, closefor 24 hou and get everybody tested. if you get four in two-week period, you're closed for two weeks. sore really coming to e table with solutions. i'm feeling better about enforcement and compliance. but we need a reset in our state and we' going to get it. >> reporter: what about on the individual level especially with the thanksgiving holiday.vi ths spread is largely due to small family gaerings.
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you ask them to limit it to five. >> there's no way in the contry we'll be able to say you brought another household together, there was ten of you having thanksgiving dinner, but we are hopeful people will really take heed. you know, we lost our irst child in new mexico. we have more in the hospita this deadly virus doesn't care how old you, are doesn't careyo whare, where you live, your political affiliation, and we are very nervous abut what thanksgiving could produce a month ler, and we have been doing as much productive messaging, and while we preciate that dr. fauci is doing that, this is really what the federal government did by telling people you d't have to listen to your governors, you don't have to care about public health issues or the public health order, and this virus is a hoax, and it j gives people
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an opportunity to say, we don't have to worry about it, and thta is the most dangerous set of circumstances moving forward until we get a vaccine. so we're nervous, but we're doing all the rigsa mesng, and that's part of the reset, right, if you limit where peo ae er they have been exposed, then i can limit the spread of the virus.ki so we're call of that into consideration -- all of that into consideration. >> reporter: new mexico is seeing the same trwiends natir which is disproportionately black and brown communies have bee hit. the navajo nation has had the highest per capita rates in the how are you helping this community? what additional steps are you taking in coordination with your neighbors, surging help to these communities? there?pecifically are you doing >> i would say new mexico has been very effective and led, i'd like to say without diminishing the very difficult challenges
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and decisions the governors in states that neighbor us utah and arizona where the navajo nation is embedded in all three states, we have not been as effective in coordinating. again, the indian health service which is the federal effort here is also not coordinating and are not very supportive. we have sa verytrong relationship with the navajo nation, so they have a very strict sort of containment issues, and we are engaged in that. we provide traffic support, food, water, personal supplies, educational support, testing, contact tracing, we're doing that, and we've crushed this virus in indian country and in were lucky not to have it get into every single trimml ity. i don't think we're going to be that lucky this time. given the rhtoric right up until the election, it just created that perfect storm. what happens around the country n d what happense other states will find its way right backre.
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so, basically, all of those tribal nations ar containing themselves. we're providing all they necesspport so that they can do that effectively. but it's been really tough, and i give them great credit for their leadership and courageous actions which, no question, are saving lives in new mexico. >> reporter: governor, w should mention you are now part of the bind harris team. you dissed the pandemic response.e without fficial transition ic place and without the coordination, paarly when your state and so many others are facing this dire situation with the pandemic response, do you think that the transition should bdoing more to force cooperation? they mentioned legal options being on the table. do you want to see them force those kind of options pandemic cooperation?mes to >> you know, i have to say i think the biden-harris team is
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doing this right, and i know we're all frustrated and the current occupant in the white house is behaving in this way which will rest in more deaths from the pandemic and more economic harm, which means it will take us longer to address all of that, and that's before we talk about the complications r vaccine distribution in each of the states. i think what bidend harris are trying to do, and i agree with them, is build support from the ground-up at the state level. we're making all the decisions, we're dol the execution of forts because we're not getting any help from the federal government, and i think and i agree that th see that as the quickest way to get congress to act, it's the quicst way to get information, the national governor's data about our hospitals, plans, efforts, infection rates, cases per hundred thousand, all the kinds of outbreak strategies the get you ahad because here's what happened, we don't want any of these false choices. iwant a strong economy and
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want to save lives. but if you don't have people who believe the virus is real, ten you end up teeter-tottering between those two parameters, and weon't want to do that. what i need is a prelisident who es that public health efforts can and will work, who ll model that behavior nationwide, who will work with each of the govbernors tster their responses, who will create regional systems that keep me, right, not having to f apart when something goes on in arizona and xas and vice versa so that arona and texas gets the support they need. they are cl we have to have robust testing and contactot tracing r year all the way through vaccine distribution. i felt very opanimisti every governor weighed in ability need ago stimulus package, and this is an administration that ish dedicated tot priority immediately. i think that's the real focus, that's going to make a huge difference in trust, credibility
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and getting the pandemic under control. >> woodruff: governor, we're wishing you and everyone in new mexico a safanksgiving holiday, and thank you very much for your time. that's new mexico's governor michelle lujan grisham. >> thank you. >> woodruff: it has been a week like no other in u.s. politics. to help sift through the perils and the promise, the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. hello to both of you on this friday evening. david, it's been almost two weeks since joe biden wasde ared the winnerouner of this election. president trump said he won by a landslidand he'sdoing
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everything to change the result and get himself reelected. what is goin on? >> yeah, the trump administration is a bit like the covid pandemic, you can see the but the last r is just thennel worst. this has been the most unsuccessful, the most just horrible in every way transitern of pn american history surpassing rutherforayes in 1870 by a country mile. he's throwing everything at it. i dohink there's really much chance he will be successful in many ways for a million reasons i can get into. but a friend of mine says it's li a firese of false information strategies that disinformation campaignsave used against the united states and that's where you fill the air with lies. it's not necessarily that people believe your lies, it's people don't believe anything. so the long-term effect on american society, american politics and american cultu is a country that's even more cynical, even more disabused and, where you have a mjority of republicans now who think
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trump won, and what does that mean for the next four years? should not be underestimated. >> woodruff: mark, how do you make sense of all this or d you? >> first of all, i'd like to associate myself wit the previous gentleman's remarks. i think david makes great sese. joe biden, who has been the model of restraint, said that the president's actions were irresponsible. they are irer responsible, but they're also rep the president shows absolutely no concern for thet- presidect and his group's efforts to prepare, govern, to lead the country, just go through the riad of problems facing the country. he has refused to support a running out just afterbenefits christmas. he has no interest in that.
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the president has had no interest in swing the new incoming adtministration best way of providing the vaccine to the millions of americans who so december pray will need it. -- desperately will need it. n theose who wish us ill world can take advantage across the board. and what david said, i mean, he's -- sowing -- he's sowing doubt and mistrust. americans have historically given the benefit to have the doubt to the new esident, it's a wonderful quality of ours, we even swallow partisanship. what donald trump is doing is twitter follos to reachon for him and said don't trust
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your government, don't trust your nation, and it's reprehensibl it's beyond irresponsible. >> woodruff: david, but it's not just that they're saying that torre was a problem her a problem there, they are alleging massive faud, rudy giuliani yestspeaking about a venezuela being behind a giant conspiracy, the clintons and on and on and o, fairy tail-like information. i mean, wonder, is this something that you believe the american people are wise enough, smart enough to reject?t >> i wo say yes, but, you know, this is really what i wonder about. holding up documents and claiming you have evidence when you have no evidence is j literally wh mccarthy did. and now we're seeing a repicture of it. we've always had in this country paranoid style.
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richard hofstetter wrote a book about 50, 60 years ago, theid paratyle of american politics, alleging the mafia killed john f. kennedy, that's always been here and is not new. the question i ha is to wat extent is that spreading, to what extent is q anon just become like a large religion out there and has all the distrust built up over the decades now created a paranoid ring that's just bigger than er before? i just don't know the answer to that. i know every time we have an election, we ratchet down our quality of politics. you know, people claim that barack obama was a legitimate president, hillary cinton and jimmy carter said donald trump was anegllimate president, but that's nothing compared to what's happening now. there's some evidence we're seeing a biatgger ali, paranoid wing of our country who may believe in this or just
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nobody. it's pure nihilism. >>woodruff: what makes it more, in my mind, a question, markis that most elected republican officials are backing doing.esident in what he's they're saying he has every right to challenge. very few of theare sayingt that what he is doing is wrong. >> judy, they have takvow of silence, apparently. the most amazing moment of week to me politically was to find out that meet the pressy last sunlled every single republican senator and inved him her to be on the show that sunday, and every one of them turned to "meet the press" now. that is oheato be invited to an important forum like tha senators jump at that oppollunity, histori what you're back to is dante's great quote that the hottest
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places in he areim those at te of moral crisis remain new central. at's what they've done. they've taken this vow of silence with conspicuous nsumptions, they are eabling him, and they are undoingan democracthey're doing enormous damage. they're saying, well, humor him along a little while. e 're facing the greatest public health crisis wed in 100 years. we're facing an econoc crisis of dramatic and historicop tions and dimensions. people's lives are really at risk, and what they dos putzou on this and pretend we're not going to tell the emperor that he has no trousers on o no shirt on, there's no attempt to win here, nobodyelieves that donald trump won the election. it's just to sow doubt and mistrust and distrust, and what a terribly, dihonorable
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objective. >> woodruff: well, it appears that he believes it, and a number of people who are backing him may believe it. it not clear. but, david, as you look at how joe biden has respond to this, the comments he's made, he' a been askout it day after day, is there anything -- i mean, what do you make of that?s is that a response that is likely to win opinion, win hearts and minds? what do you see? >> first, i want to acknowledge the republicans actually have stood up. mittomney, first and foremost, jeff flake early, but even this week lamar xander and ben sasse, senators from tennessee and nebraska, really have put out statements so i think they get cre as for joe biden, i think he's handled it reasonably well, not business, focusing on covid,o that strikes me as very annsible. his tion put out an email
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today raising money. so we've got a country, we're living in a country where the president-elect has to raise money to pay for the transition because he ca'tnet public funds. it's like we're not a first-world country anymore. >> woodruff: david you mentioned republicans, butil think it's sthe case, mitch elected republins are still not challenging the president. >> yeah, i would say there are four lels. there's a very small levels of heros like romney, there are the 80%ers who are moving way, the 90% are completely silence including cory gyrdner, the who just got defeated in a senate race who has nothing left to lose politically, even he'ssi stilent, and then the hard-core giulianis. you're right, there's a core group of republicans whore disgraceful in their silence. >> woo wdruff: marat about joe biden and how he is dealing with this? what's your assessment?
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>> i think joe biden has handl. it we i mean, you can feel his mounting frustration, a greater sense of urgency as time goes by, and the enormous task confronting him and his eadministration, they'reng robbed of the chance just to consult, judy, just to consulte with theple who have been there, who are there, who are working. i mean, you know, the republicans mantra during impeachment, you recall, isil let's wait the election, let's let the voters dee,c let's let them cast their ballots. well, they've done that, and it's time to accept it. i acknowledge senator romney' leadership. lamar alexander, after three terms in hiretirement d make a statement today, and s bse has, in fact, shown some independence. but that's thr.
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that's three. and, you know, i'm still waiting for the leadership to move on it and stop pretending. i mean, this is antasy land we're living in and a dangerous one. we're playing with people's lives. 250,000 americans are dead because of this pandemic, and the president seems -- he jut seems consumed with his own -- his own ego, his own vanity. think about this, judy, if he were really even shrewd, he would be lard ge-spirid magnanimous right now and do everything he could and take credit and earned credit for his administration to produce a vaccine in eight months, nine months. it's an amazing achievement, potentially save millions of lives. but he hasn't even -- that isn't anywhere near his interest. he's not concerned about that at
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all. i mean, it would be in his interest to go out as aim magns and large historic figure and serve his purposes,e whatever they the future. but, instead, he's going out as a small, mean, vindicti and self-absorbed man. >> woodruff: i guess he did make a statement one day this week about the vaccine, the prress made on the vaccine. but, david, i do want to come back to something else the president has done and that has announced pulling the u.s. troops out of the middle east l here in thet weeks, months of his presidency, making moves that raise -- i think raise some questions about wherehis administration wants to leave u.s. power, and what he wants to leave for the next administration. >> yeah, there's no quethstion america wants to get out of afghanistan. and when you measure that, there's always a conflict between the political forces and the military, and sometimes the
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military probably wants to stay probably a little more confident in their abilities to turn things around than they should be, but i'm really struck about how the military lears, especially the former military, the retierdz have reacted with apoplexy to the way we're drawing. r all the young men and women whserved in afghanistan over stay in a couple more months and leave a last lasting legacy they could be proud of, that's worth it. what you see from trump is pure politicso he ca brag. >> woodruff: mark, just 30 seconds, thoughts about theth president an military. >> well, judy, 25 people people in iraq and afghanistan are too few to fight and too many to die. so t a strategic decision. but the reality is that we hav
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never had, in this country, any exit strategy in iraq of afghanistan, the two longest wars in amerin history we don't know how to measure what victory or success would be, and that is a failure, it's been a failure for a administrationd the fact strategy, with no end in sightd is a terrie indictment, andr it's the only nce the mexican-american war longer that three that america has fought without a draft and with tax cuts insad of tax raises. and both republican presidents during this war, their principal domestic policy has been to c taxes. spent 5 ther $5 trillion, thousf lives nsd disrupted millf lives, and i ask for what? >> wootuff: a week t's raised a lot of questions. mark shieldsdavid brooks, we thank you both.
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another heartbreaklestonesed this week, with more than d-250,000 lives lost to co. we remember ve of them now. 64-year-old isabel papadimitriou of dallas, texas had a warmness abo her that drew people in, said her daughter. isabelle's calling was to help people. she worked as spiratory therapist for nearly 30 years, and had a way of making her patients feel seen, heard and loved.nt family mverything to isabelle. she always showed up for her
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children, nephews and nieces, giving them her love and mpassion. after two years with the army, jim herber spent more than three decades as a postal worker in his hometown of sheboygan, wisconsin. it was a career perfectly suited to his lively personality and commitment to public service. even in retirement, the 74-year- old sought to help others as a hospice volunteer and loved maki new friends as a bartender. in his free time, jim was an avid outdoorsman. c he visitntless national parks and even motorcycled to alaska. he passed down that love of nature to his four children and eight grandchildren.om emergency octor juan fitz practiced medicine for 34 years. he cared for his patients at his hospital in lubbock, texas like they we family, said his daughter. a gregarious jokester, his
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daughter said her dad's laughter would fill a room and that he was the type of person who would give you the shirt of his back. despite his hectic schedule, juan, a father and grandfather, always managed to make time for his family, from softball games to ski trips. juan was 67 years old. 70 year old james mcintyre was a bus operator in pensacola, florida for 39 years.s gular passengers knew him for his warmth and kindness. a man of faith, james hoped to e day preach before his own. congregati he often talked about god with his frequent riders, offering it was on his bus where he first set eyes on his wife. the two were together for 36 year 17-year-old elivia ramirez, orie "rose" to s, had big plans for life after high school.
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among them: college, an engagement to her longtime boyfriend, and a t disneyland with her younger siblings. curious and creative, rose loved learning about her family's native american history and culture in north dakota, and spent lots of her free tim awing. she also had a silly side, on full display oher social media, where she enlisted her brothers, sisters and friends in dances and lip syncs. we thank family members who share these stories with us. our hearts go out to you as the do to all who've lost loved ones during this pandemic. >>
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oodruff: we end this week focusing on a force in american life: dolly parton. her million dollar contribution to vanderbilt university's coronavirus research helped in the development of the prosing moderna vaccine. she has 44 career top 10 countrd albums, a reor any artist, and more than 100 chart-topping singles over the past 40 years. now with a new book and christmas musical, she told me this week, she is more productive than ster before. thy is part of our ongoing arts and culture series, canva ♪ ♪ she's here. here. and here. and, here. everything is coming up-- dolly! all part of the dolly empire.
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you are writing songs, you're singing, you're acting, you are doing philanthropic work. you're running your business, you're producing musicals. what's going on? how do you do this? >> well, i have a lot of passion. i have a lot of spiritual energy and a lot of creative energy. and that's a pretty big force, actuallyo i havey that i'm a lot busier now than i was when i first started because i was just trying to get things going and i did get things going. i just love being creative and getting to do things for other a peop especially working during a time like this and when everybody feels kind of shut down from their normal life. >> woodruff: that energy mayve have been more evident than it is right now, with the release of a 19-set dvd collection of her music."ch a holly dollstmas," her first holiday release in 30
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years, a musical out next wee"" christmas on the square" on netflix. and a book out this week, "song teller: my life in lyrics." m is thee of you that's the singer. more of you that's the writer? are they equal parts of who you are? k i have to honestly say that i thd take myself more serious as a songwriter than anything else. there are many writers greater than me, but that's just been the thing that i've seemed to enjoy the most because it's my therapy,t's my pleasure, my job is my joy. >> woodruff: dolly parton grew up the fourth of 12 children in a one-room cabin on the banks of little pigeon river in the tiny east tennessee town of pittman center. she began singing as a child on local radio and tv. by 13, she was recording herfi t records and appeared at
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the grand ole opry where johnny cash encouraged her to follow her talent. she lis in nashville. tennessee has always been homese nd she's kept family and her own life experiences central to her work. >> there's also threads of me in everything that i write, almost like little secret, ttle secret pieces of me that even i myself don't really realize. but, i have the gift of rhyme and i love to write songs and i can write other peop's sorrows, other people's happiness. >> woodruff: she's composed an extraordinary 3,000 sos, including: "coat of many colors," "9 to 5" and "i will always love you." ♪ i will always love you
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dolly became the first country artist to chart a top 20 billboaracross seveniv consecute decades beginning in the '60s. another parton passion is literacy: her "ation library," now in its 25th year, will donate 0 millionth book to children around the world next month, all the ain, of part responding to something close to home: >> well, i am proud of the imagination library, as i ever will be, anything i ever do for the rest of my life, and i have told the story many times of how it came to be because my own father, who couldn't read w d write, g in a big family in the mountains. and so when i saw how crippled that had made my dad
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emotionally, i wanted to do something to help him. and he just loved being part of at. and he took such pride in it. and that gave me such pride in myself that i could do that for my daddy. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> woodruff: in this song, "when life is good agai" released inay may, parton,she, was addressing the pandemic and the crushing effect it's had across the country: >> it's affected me in many ways. it's affected my businesses, everything that i stand for, my this whole year has taken a major toll on everybody. this is craziest year i've ever seen in my whole life. i didn't want to be crippled with fear about it and that ido had the freem and the ability and thequipment to do something about it. >> woodruff: i sawin your write in the music video you released in the spring. you did saat the end, wear a mask.
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>> so if wearing a mask is going to keep some germs off of you od or somelse, why not? even if, you know, some people say it's crazy, is crazy, not >> woodruff: well, we also know this year, dolly parton, we've seen a gaping political divide in this country, it's come we've you live in a very red state, tennessee.ho tell myou see it there. >> i've seen what a great divide it is caused even within my own family and among my own friends. i don't know what to make of how people acting these days, how we have to take even our political views to such degree to work, just destroying our whole families and our whole lifestyle. we need to pay a little more attention to being human beings rather than getting so caught up in so much other stuff. >> woodruff: she defines herself as non-partisan, but parton does speak out on some important causes, like black lives matter:
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>> when someone blatantly asks you, do you think black livesof matter? well, ourse, black lives matter. we all have a place in this world. need to be loved and respected. >> woodruff: in the 1980 feature film "9-to-5," parton championed the rights of working women. she told me about her own approach to overcoming barriers in making music and running hera estimate a billion dollars-plus empire, including the dollywood theme park. through my songs.y own way i actually am able to speak for womeand for myself. and i had it easier than moste becajust-- i was confident in myself and i didn't think about it in any other at i had a talent that i thought could make-- make us all a bunch of money. and that's what i go into business meetings with men. but of course, i've been hit on all my life and especially inys those early but i knew how to manage that myself. i never sold out. i never did anything that was going to take away from who i was as a human being.
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i don't care if you'ke i say, black or white or whatever. i don't care if you're gay or lesbian or transgender. everybody should have an equal chance. >> woodruff: you have said a couple of times you've been quoted as saying anyway that you didn't want to look old, which of course you do not. but is there anything good about getting older, do you think? things about getting older is that you can look back on your life and see what you've accomplished and see what heu can do t other people on their journey, which is what i'm doing right now. i want to live young. i want to think young. i want to do young. b i want to be useful.ant. and as i've often said, i would rust out.er wearut than to rarified group of entertainersiv to have re nominations for grammy, tony, emmy and academy awards, and has projects backed
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up for the future, "rusting out" seems highly unlikely. ♪ and it's gonna beood again >> woodruff: she is a force of nature. one powerful woman. thank you dolly parton. online, we look at the pledge joe bidend line, we look at the pledge joe biden and his team have taken to achieve gender parity in the male-dominated world of national security and the groups that have been helping the team achie it. itnd that story on our web pbs.org/newshour.he and that'sewshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, please stayafe, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs wshour has been provided by: n >> we world gets complicated, a l goes through your mind. with fidelity wealthanagement, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelity wealth
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management. h>> the william and floraewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, ing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. m
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>> this progs made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station om viewers like you. thank you. ca inewshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbhgb accessorg
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hello, every one and welcome to "amanpour andompany." high pressu he is what's coming up. >>hey kill my future and my hope. >> we talk to khashoggi's wife. it's called the dissend and the trekt tor will be with us. mike pompeo on farewl visit t israel. we break down the foreign policy agenda of this trip. then. >> i don't think it's fair to blame us. to ink it's a distraction blame black lives matter for the democratic losses. >> politics and protests. black lives matter founder tells