captioning sponsored by wshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruf on the newshour tonight, the surge continues-- the s. faces a major spike in covidct inns following the thanksgiving holiday as restrictions are increasingly re-imposed nationwide. then, the team takes shape-- the transition of power continues as president-elect biden names the advisers who wilinherit the virus-ravaged economy. plus, uneasy peace-- armenia hands over control of two regions of war-torn nagorno-ka rabakh as part of an armistice with azerbaijan. >> for the azerbaijani military that's stationed here, ever since they were children they t weold nagorno karabakh was

part of azerbaijanr but they'd netually seen it with their own eyes. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. bs major funding for the pee newshour has bprovided by: >> before we talk about your investments-- what's new? >> twins!'s expecting... >> grandparents. >> we want to put money aside for them, so, change in plans. >> all right, let's see what we can adjust. >> we'd be closer to tns. >> change in plans. >> okay.ar >> momyou painting again? you could sell these. >> let me guess, change in plans? >> at fidelity, changing plans is always part of the plan.

>> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better rld. w .hewlett.org. go >> and with the g support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by thcorporation for blic broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: a second major company is pushing tonight for approval of a covid-19 vaccine. moderna says it's applying for emergency use permission in europe and the u.s. that news comes amid warnings of even more inctions from thanksgiving gatherings. in new york today, governor andrew cuomo ordered measures to help hospitals, including, calling in retired doctors and nurses. >> we are now worried about overwhelming the hospital system, and if those numbers contin to increase, which we expect they will. you will see serious stress on the hospital system. >> woodruff: and, in southern california, los angeles county began enforcing a strict stay-at-home order today. we'll return to the pandemic,

e ter the news summary. president-elect den formally announced top economic advisers today. he'll nominate janet yellen, former chair of the federal resee, to be treasury secretary. and in a first, women of color keare slotted for two othe positions: neera tanden to run the office omanagement and budget, and, cecilia rouse to chair the council of economic adsers. the biden team gets a closer look, later in the program. meanwhile, the elections chief in georgia announced probes of alleged efforts to register ineligible or dead voters for two u.s. senate runoffs. but secretary of state brad raffensberger again rejected claims that president trump lost the state because of fraud. exploiting the emoof manye trump supporters with fantastic claims, half-truths, misinformation and, frankly,

they're misleading the president as well, apparently. >> woodruff: georgia has biden won the state by aboutct 12,700 votes. today, arizona certified a biden win by a little over,0 votes. and, wisconsin finished a partial recount, confirming another biden victory. in iran, funeral services were held for the founder of the country's mitary nuclear program. he died last week in ash that iran blames on israel. state tv showed mourners paying their respects to mohsen official said the is usedty remote-controlled weapons in the attack. israel has not commented. the rebel leader in ethiopia's tigray region insisting that fighting goes on, even after losing his capital. ethiopia's army seized the city of mekelle over the weekend, after nearly a month ofighting

that killed and displaced thousands. today, the nation's prime minister denied rebel claimsf atrocities by the army. >> ( translated ): the defense forces never killed a single person in a single town. we have disciplined heroic soldiers. there was a lot of campaigning saying that we would demolish mekelle. mekelle is ours, built with our resources.ho can we destroy it? no one got in harm's way in the operation. >> woodruff: u.s. secretary of prime minister today and callede for a total cease-fire. and, back in this country, wall street took profits after a bigo h. the dow jones industrial average lost 271 points to close at 29,638. the nasdaq fell seven points, and, the s&p 500 slipped 16. overall, the dow and the nasdaq gained nearly 12% in nember. the s&p rose almost 11%.

still come on the newshour: the u.s. braces for a major spike in covid infections following ththanksgiving holiday. president-elect biden names the advisers who will inthe virus-ravaged economy. the trump administration's attempt exclude undocumented immigrants from the census reaches the supreme court. and much more. >> woodruff: even as hopes grow about the distribution of vaccines in the coming months, covid-19's impact continues toe ripple across s. with enormous consequences. more than 138,000 new casesed repover the past day, and over 800 deaths.iz

hospitions remain very high, more than 90,000 in all.26 antates set records for covid-related hospitalizations during thanksgiving week. william brangham has abo conversation a the latest. >> brangham: judy, over the warn that with lariday officials gatherings, infections could ngrow significantly betwe and christmas time. the surge in cases and mespitalizations and deaths come as new questionse about the three new vaccines that are on the horizon. dr. celine gounder is an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at bellevue hospital and the new york university grossman of medicine. she's also a member of presidenl t biden's covid advisory team. dr. gounder, very good to have you on the newshour. cases are accelerating across the country over this past month. can you just give us a snapshot, as you see it, of how things are

goinright now? >> well, the nation was already experiencing a surgen cases, essentially our third wave of cases before the thanksgiving holiday. and the problem with the thanksgiving or really any other such holiday is you're bringing together people and families, friends from all over the country. you're bringing together people rent generations. and what we were seeing in the of the transmission was beingh propagated by younger people. so teens, 20, 30-somethings.th and noe folks were being brought into contact with older people risk for severe disease. of spread rippling out from thed younger people, the older people, thanksgiving really put that on fast forward. and so we're very concerned about seeing a much, mgger surge on top of what we already were facing in the weeks ahead. >> brangham: and do you think of

that as an equivalenor greater risk than the sort of ongoing things that we know of as high ntrisk behaviors: crowding bars and gyms and stores and other, in-person indoor gatherings? >> well, we know themall indoor gatherings with family and friends arvery high risk. the way i think about coronaviruses, it's a virus that hitches a ride on our love and our trust for other people. and it'srecisely the people we're closest to that we are least likely to take measures to protect ourselves. we're less likely to mask around them. we're least likely to avoid contact with these people. and so we're at we're at much higher risk of infecting them unbeknownst to us or of them accidentally infecting us. mentioned, seeing in the as i death toll. incredible strides in caring for people who develop reallyse ous covid-19 infections, why are we seeing that death toll also rising? is it just because there are so

many cases out there? >> yeah, this is exactly the conversation we were having earlier this year about flattening the curve. the challenge is that when health systems are overrun, when doctors and nurses are so short staffed, having to each care fo so many patien's very difficult to deliver the sameof leveare to monitor patients as closely. and it's precisely in those situations that the se fatality rate, the risk of dying shoots up. and so we're already sing hospitals overrun. right now, we're heading into a holiday season when were usually operating on skeleton crews so that doctors and nurses can themselves spend some time with family and friends over the holidays. and it's in that against that backdrop that we are now in danger of having an even bigger spike. >> brangham: obviously, the one bit of bright news we've been seeing is this news about the vaccines. i mean, if you think about 2020 -- at the beginning of this year, we identified this novel virus, and now at the end of the

same year, we've got three possible candidate vaccines to target that virus. i mean, that is unadulterated good news. the question, of course, with limited amount of doses available initially, how those get rolled out, who gets them. from your perspective, how should we prioritize? who gets those first precious shots? >> right, well, you know, the idea here is to prioritize forto impacteally protect those at highest risk.do so obviouslyors and nurses, especially those caring are going to be at extremely high risk, particularly given that in some parts of th country, we're still facing shortages of personal protective youipment. so your masks an facials and your gowns and your gloves and so on. first line health care providers are certainly among those first in line, other first reonders like e.m.t.s, probably law enforcement, firefighters, those kinds of folks. and then beyond that, people who

are at extremely high risk of severe complications that would include the elderly people living in nursing hos, as well as communities of color thatsp have been hit portionately hard during this pandemic, where we've seen some of the highest rates of cases as well as deaths. >> brangham: all right, dr. celine gounder, thank you very, very much for being here. >> my pleasure. >> woodruff: as we reportedre earlier,dent biden announced his economic team today. features four women in top roles, including former federal reserve chair janet yellen as his choice for treasurycr ary. economic writer jim tankersley o the "new york times" has been following these developments s osely. he covers economr the paper and is also author of the recent book, "the riches of this land."

>> woodruff: jim much for being wityou so again. what do these choices, as a group, tell you about joe biden's priorities, what he may do once he takes office? >> thanks so much for having me, judy. this is a roup that is really focused on workers and on labor. it may be one of thst union-friendly groups of top economicis advs we've seen in the white house in a long time. icy,articular for pol right out of the gate, it is a group that is going to be very committed on the idea of trng to get the economy up and running as fast as it can, as quickly as possible, in order to boost workers' wages. it will be not at all shy about pushing additional deficit spending by the federal government in order to gethere. >> woodruff: and specifically with regard to covid relief, covid economic relief, can you tell anything from looking at this group what might happen? >> yeah. theye been very clear, a

number of them, from net yellen, and neera tanden on down, about the sorts of things that need to be done to help people and businesses and state and local governments survive this pandemic. and that includes more direct aid to indidls, it includes more help for small businesses, and a particular aid to states and local governments that have big budget hole but also things like passing pandemic-para leave, a pr to give families leave to workers who are on the frontlines of covid in particular. i think you'll see all of these policies pushed early on by the biden team. >> woodruff: so t's talk specifics. janet yellen at treasury, the first woman o hol that job, as we were saying, what do we know, based on her record, of what to expect from her? >> well, janet yellen is a labor onomist by training and someone who really pushed the federal reserve when she ws the

chairman of the federal reserve, to keep interest rates low for aong time in order to stoke growth. i think we'll see more of that or. of he more of a focus on inequality and on workers. another thing she has focused on a lot in theou laste of years is on tearing down the barriers of discrimination in the economy to help women, in particular, succeed. and i think you'll see her focus on that as wel it has been a big deal for her in the economibu professionit is something she has talked a lot about having enormo consequences for the broader economy. >> woodruff: and the cilia rouse, who president-elect biden has said he wants to head as council of economic advisors, not as well a known name as the others. about her?ould we know >> well, she -- if she ishe confirmed,l be the first black economist to head the council of she was onhe council under president barack obama, and she is also a labor economist, a real expert in a variety of

things having do with labor and education. just like janet yellen, she has focused a lot ofac emic work on the effects of discrimination. there are some common >> woodruff: and thente there is, to head the office of management and budget, neera tanden, who has been around. she is someone shoo i who i thik is familiar to many who watch what is going on in washington. what do we lookor her? >> neera tanden runs ain liberal tank, and she has been an advisor for hillary clinton. she s been around washington for a long time. she is the one who has really pushed on a variety of sort of liberal policy agenda items, and is more of a political player than the other two. but i think with neera s tanden, you wie a focus in the l.n.b. if she is confirmed, on things mate change, health care, on sort of not shying away, again

from running budget deficits to stoke growth, ich is a real, i think, departure from what many progressives thought they might be getting if biden had appointed someone who is more a moderate, longer term deficit hawk democrat to that position. >> woodruff: jim, what about with regard to sena confirmation? these three positions all require senate confir etion. what ipected for each one of them, for yellen, for rouse, an for tanden? >> i think janet yellen appears likely to be confirmebased on the comments we have seen in the last 24 hours from republican senators. she is someone who has been confirmed by the senate before, as cecilia rouse, who i think also, unless republicans find some things in her academic work that therey ly object to. neera tanden, again, as a moreolitical player and someone who's twitter feed

has really-fundeded a lot of republican senators, may face more oppositio and that was signaled by the republican senators in the last day, they don't like she has taken after republicans in public comments. a lot will depend if senate, or republicans do, after the runoff elections in geoia inanuary. >> woodruff: if people look to see the differences between this team and the trump economic team, pretty significant difference? >> for sure. there is a big difference in how they approach the economy. the trump team came in with a focus on how can they spur more business i e economy. by taking away regulations, by cutting taxes, to mke businesses happier and get them to spend more money on investments. focused on workers, how do they support workers? how do they change regulations, or even bolster th to make it easier for people to work and to make that work pay off with higheres wag

so it is a completely different angle looking at ryeconomy and ve different policies that will result. >> woodruff: jim tankersley with the york times," we thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. oo >>uff: president trump's immigration policies and the census were back at the supreme court today. as john yang rorts, the case has the potential of shaping congress and presidential politics for years to come. >> yang: every ten years, workers fan out across the country to count the nation's >> counting everyone in your home helps support your neighborhood for the next ten years, by funding things like schools, hospitals and busses. yang: the constitution requires a count of "the whole number of persons in each stat"t tomine how many representatives in congress, and how many electoral votes each

state will have until the next census, a process called apportionment.>> it can help usn lincoln's words, ¡to better judge what to do and how to do it.' >> yang: in july, president trump ordered that undocumented immigrants be excluded from that process for the first n history.ud he said ing them would reward "states adopting policies that encourage" illegal immigration "with greater representation in cores" >> theoretically, it would shift seats away, house seats aw from states with a higher share of unauthorized immigrts and shift them toward states with a lower share of unauthorized immigrants. >> yang: npr correspondent hansi lo wang covers the census. >> a justice department attorney during a court hearing was asked, ¡is this memo referring to a state like california?' and the justice department attorney said, ¡yes,' this memo is referring to, as an example, california to shift away house seats from california to another state. >> yang: today, acting solicitor

geral jeffrey wall got tou questions about the president's policy from mr. trump's latestpi supreme cour, justice amy >> if an undocumented person has been in the country for say 20 years, even if illegally, as you say, why would such a person not have settled residence here? >> i'm not disputing at all that illegal aliens form ties to the community in the sense you're talking about. but they're not the sort of tieh are sufficient to qualify you within the apportionment base.ti >> yang: j samuel alito pressed new york solicitor general barbara underwood, who argued against the policy, on who should be counted. >> a tourist who is here on a valid sa? >> no. >> a tourist who overstays her visa and is therefore here illegally? >> well, that person is now outse the realm of, we expec them to leave and so that person is a resident like any other undocumented person. >> yang:ustice stephen breyer suggested the president's order uld also affect the distribution of about $1.5

trillion in yearly federal spending on programs like medicare, head start and school lunches. >> i think, are there not many statutes which divide funds among thstatesn the basis of population and then they say something like, "as shown by the most recent decennial census." >> yang: even if the justices rule that president trump may exclude undocumented immigrants, it's not clearow he would do that. lst year, the high court blocked his attempt to add a citizenship question to the census. today, questioned by justice alito, the government's attorney acknowledged the challenge. >> to exclude the 10.5 million seems, to me, a monumental task toat without sampling. to take 300 million plus names and determine individually for each of those people, whether they are lawfully in the united states and i would think you would be able to telhether

that remains a realistic ssibility at this point. >> i think it is very unlikely identify all or substantiallyto all illegal aliens present in the country. >> yang: anoer complication: the calendar. the pandemic has already put the e.nsus months behind sched >> it's not clear if president trump will have control of these numbers from the census bureau that he could try to alter. right now, their target date is january 26, after inauguration day. this is a process right now that's on track to take place during the biden administration. >> yang: given the uncertainties, several justices asether it would be better to wait. chief justice john roberts: >> right now, with the question that's shown, we don't know what going to d we don't know how many aliens would be excluded, we don't know what the effect of that would be on apportionment.e resolved if we wait until the apportionment takes place. so why aren't we better advised to do that?

practical as well of a substantive concern here. >> yang: marcia coyle is chief washington corresponnt for he national law journal." >> everyourt has to decide whether it's got a case or controversy, somebody has been injured and how to pro relief for that injury. and so if they don't know all the facts they need to know to determine that, then the case could be what some would say, not ripe for decision. >> yang: nonetheless, ste trump admition is asking the supreme court for a speedy ruling. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: in late september, war again broke out between armenia and azerbaijan, over the coveted enclavof nagorno- karabakh. last wk, as part of an armistice, ethnic-armenian

forces handed over territory to azerbaijani control. it was part of a russian- brokered deal that ended an ugly six-week war, and re-established moscow's footprint in all of its southern, former republics. with the support of the pulitzer center, special correspondent simon ostrovsky traveled there again for the newshour. >> reporter: so this is what victory looks like. walls, spray painted with namesa ofrbaijani soldiers and the cities that they hail from in an ethnic-armenian town in nagorno karabakh. the streets are empty of anyone hto lived here. they fled as figg reached this area back in october. their belongings now strewn throughout the strents and the co of their homes upturned.

the only people maining are azerbaijani forces, reveling in their hard-won conquest, enjoying the spoils war. for e azerbaijani military that's stationed here right now, it's probably difficult to imagine what it feels like to be in this area. because, ever since they were children, they were told nagorno karabakh was part of azerbaijan, but they'd never actually seen it with their own eyes, and now they're here. >> ( translated ): thank yr to esident. he gave the order and we attacked. we fought. unfortunately people were martyred. with the blood othe martyrs we reclaimed these lands. >> reporter: these lands have been contested since just befo the breakup of the soviet union when their armenian residents clamored to join neighboringt arnia; thasparked anti- armenian pogroms and then all out war. when it was all over by 1994

they'd carved out a self- declared republic that encompassed lands far beyond the karabakh region's soviet-era borders which wereurged of their azerbaijani residents.'s armeniere also forced to flee areas that remained under azerbaijan's control. all of that changed in the six week war that ended on november from an advancing azerbaijani army. newshour wasnly allowed to visit this area with a police escort. for armenians, seeing ages of the azerbaijani military in their towns as they display the flag of their age old enemy turkey, a brutal and dficult new reality to come to terms th. on a hill above thcity of hadrut within the karabakh heartland, stands a small armenian church, its cemeteryiz vandal. the soldiers say they hope the armenians never come back. >> ( translated ): no, they can't come back.

they cannot come back. god willing the president will create good conditions here. our lands have been returned,bo now it's the future and good places will be but. >> reporter: while azerbaijanis celebrate their territorial gains, there is another countr whose maneuvering has renewed its influence in the region after a long absence. russia has for years armed both azerbaijan and armenia, and when war between the two erupted on september 27th. it stepped in as a mediator,su essfully ending the bloodshed. under the deal it brokeredus nearly 2,000an peacekeepers will patrol the areas of nagorno k rabakh that haained under ethnic- armenian control, as a guarantee ainst further azerbaijan hostilities. mosc now has troops stations in various roles, from occupier to peacekeer in all three south caucasus republics of georgia, armeniand azerbaijan for the first time since it ruled them in the soviet era.

azerbaijan has in turn invited military observers from its ally turkey, but it's unclear how many will arrive and whether they'll have a mandate to carry weapons. this too is what victory can look like. it's towns like this one with landscapes reminiscent of hiroshima, that are at the heart of azerbaijan's grievances towards ethnic-armenians. when the first karabakh war ended in 1994, following the armenian forces took control now just of theienclave, but seven surrounding districts that had previously been populated by azerbaijanis. continued for decades afterwards but armenians ner allowed the azerbaijani residents to return. instead they leveled theseci es picking them apart for raw materials and turned thein surroulands into a vast minefield between themselves and the rest of azerbaijan.

aghdam is one of two districts armenian forces have handed back azerbaijani control so far under the russia-brokered the only buiing left intact here is the central mosque. all of these soldiers here for the most part are from aghdam, nois very region that we're standing in righ most of them have never seen this area before because it's been held by ethnic armenian forces until just a couple of days ago. >> ( translated ): my fath said that as soon as this places ebuilt we will move here. >> ( translated ): they killed our mothers and sisters on this land. how can we forget that. i'm ready to drink their blood. >> reporter: oneore point for many in azerbaijan as they reclaim their territories is the state of their cultural heritage sites. this former museum for example, was used for livestock, these are animal pens. azerbaijanis were also angered

by pictures they saw of armean residents destroying propertyof aheahe handover. after loading vehicles with their belongings, many set their houses on fire to make it more difficult for azerbaijani refugees to return. sevil gambarova is a carpetro weaveraghdam which she fled 30 years ago. today she lives in one of the housing complexes built for some 750,000 internally displaced people from the first war. she's making a souvenir rug with the image of the central mosque of her hometown. >> ( translated gs): they kept n our sques. they burned our houses. they lt no stone upon another. god won't forgive this. they lived, ate and drank in our homes for 30 years, and now they are leaving them in bad condition. god is great. justice has been restod. our victorious army won. >> repter: a few weeks ago, this town, hadrut, was populated by ethnic armenians. azerbaijan took it in fier

fighting that lasted weeks, the ethnic armenian population had to flee. the question now is, will those residents ever come back, an even bigger question is, does azerbaijan want them to. azerbaijan's president has signaled he would be willing to create conditions for armenians to live under le. >> ( translated ): we sees karabakhprosperous, safe, secure area of azerbaijan where dignity, where azeni and armenian communities live side by side. need more than verbal assurances if they are to feel that they can live safely in the territories he now controls.th perhapbest documented alleged war crime of the conflict took place here in the center of hadrut. two armenians, a soldier and anl rly man appear have been draped in armenian flags and executed on this spot in

october. i asked one of presidentid aliyev's top if incidents like this one would be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. >> ( translated ): absolutely, and we do regret that such kinds of incidents happeneat the soldier level, at the individual soldier level. in no way it can be justifd, yesterday azerbaijan's general prosecutor office made a stronger statement tt all of these videos, they are going to be investigated and who are guilty of course will be brought to justice. >> reporter: whether azerbaijan follows through on these promises and takes other ste towards reconciliation with armenians will determine whether the peace here is lasting orf it's just a matter of time before blood is spilt on these mountains again. for the pbs newshour, i'm simon ostrovsky in nagorno-karabakh.

>> woodruff: over the holiday weekend, we learned more about ose who will surround president-elect biden in the white house, even as the current president ramps up his claims od election f here to analyze it all, our colitics monday team. amy walter of th political report and host of public radio's "politics with walter." and tamara keith of npr. she al co-hosts the "npr politics podcast." >> woodruff: hello to both of you. we hope you had a great thanksgiving. let's talk first about what joe biden has done over the last week or so, amy, puting the teams together. we saw the nat tnal securim today. today we learned more names from t economics team. we've seen some who are going to be in the white house. give us a sensof the political forces at play on him at this point. yeah. well, judy, when i look at

the team around him, there is the difference between the team that neds to be senate confirmed and the team that doesn't. when you look at the n group, rigw there are six of them who need senate confirmation. of those six, only one of them is a white male. or persons of coor. female some are both female and a person of color. we also know, though, that this is the first time, certainly in recent memory, that a democratic president has come into office without having a democratic senate. so getting those fol confirmed is going to be a very different story than it was, say, for the last democratic president. barack obama came into office in 2009 with about 57, 59 seats,d when his confirmation hearings took place, so it is going toy be reamportant for biden's picks to be able to pick off som republicans. some republicans are going to have to come along.

we're already seeing tere is one person in particular who has been gettinsome puhback, at least on twitter, as well as it seems from at least one republican senator, and that's neera tandeo his pickthe office of management and budget. also notably, judy, in 16, the o.m.b. c., which went to mic mulvaney, was also one of the most contentious, andulvaney only barely won, thanks to the fact that, well, republicans had 52 seats in the senate that year.uf >> woo a good reminder about that. and, tam, whaetever republicans do, what about on the democratic side? are we seeing -- how are the fishers, if you will, in the democratic party, opening or closing, as bihn makes tese announcements? been massive amounts of

pushback on biden's picks. many of these people are widely respected. they may not be asre prive as progressives would want, but they're also not as moderate as some of the people that biden could p haked. and certainly they are people who are knoti quan. to go back to what amy was talking about with neera tanden, president-elect biden's pick for o.m.b. director, for budget director, she is the on who is generating the most heat, both on the left and on the right. about what she stnds for, because she currently leads the center for american progress. she certainly has progressive bonafidas, but she also very openly feuded with people who supported senator bernie sanders in 2016. she wasy strongly, and is in an outspoken way

behind hillary clinton. so she tangled with people on twitter. right now republican senators have returneto capitol hill, and they are starting to talk to ryreporters, and what ev one i've gotten tape of has said is, well, she has kebeen very outson twitter, or something like that. but as amy said, senator john cornyn from texas said she is a nominee who would radioactive. people i know who support her, who back her, syhe has a compelling life story. and if she is given a hearing, and that may well depend on senate control, but if she is given a hearing, they believe sh will perform well, and it would be difficult for republicans to, as a whole, tank a nominee that has a compelng li story and has experience in multiple administrations and much competency. >> woodruff: well, one thing we are seeing, amy,su

foe is joe biden talked in his campaign abt wanting an administration that looks like america. diverse cabinet group.tty and you made the point earlier about cabinet versus the white house. but there is -- i mean, we are the first woman of color toead the council of economic advisors and so on. >> right. and the first woman who would be the secretary of treasury. we have a communications team that is all fema as well. one other thing to point out, again, we don't know control of the see right now, so it could still be that democrats d t control of the senate, it would be narrowly 50/50. but if it is not, that is the challenge for what would be then president biden to one over some publicans. i think, quite frankly, judy, we'll be spending a lot ok time log at folks like lisa murkowski from alaska, and susan collins from maine. they have bucked the

president. they have bucked their party. even on donald trump's nominees, when he first came into office in 2017. >> woodruff: well, speaking of president trump, tam, the presint is still insisting on a regular basis that he won the election, that it's only by fraud that joe biden is able to rack up these states, even as one state after anther certifies the results, certifies that joe biden won enough states, with enough votes to climb over the necessary 270 electoral votes. my questio though, is what is this saying to america, the people wo supported president trump? they're citizens under the joe biden prdeey. what is that going to mean for joe biden as he triesu to pull the cntry together, which is what he says he wants to do? >> that is certainly goingto e something that joe biden is going to have to

work on, and something that he has beg working on. if you go back to his thanksgiving remarks, andso of his other public comments, trying to make clea sthat heees himself as a president for all americans. essentially, rhat is what on as well. the remarkable thing with what is happening with president trump is there is a reality -- there is reality, and then tere is what president trump is doing. and the professional lawys who worked onis campaign aren't putting their names on any of these efforts right now to claim fraud or to overturn the election results. it's not th well-known professional lawyers who have worked on compaigns before who ar doing tis. and senators are returning from the thanksgiving break, and essentially the republican senators aren't calling joe biden president-elect, but there is a transition and a process and they're

moving on.and that the electoral college will vote and this will all be over soon. and so there is -- i am detecting more of a sense from republicans they have moved on, that they biden presidency.joe now voters, that's a fferent story. >> woodruff: just quickly, amy, these senatorsay be moving on, but they're still confirming president trump's nomineesor fferent jobs, including judgeships? >> that's right. we live in a time, judy, where, you know, although this has been true for que some time -- don't ever waste political power when you have it, and given how much just in the last 20 yes and how quickly power has changed hands, whether control of the congress or control of the white house, being able to have power and use it when you've got it, knowing it may beone any minute, is where we are. there is very little

thinking about the long-tm institutional ccess. >> woodruff: we're told. the first president in a hantury on his way out the door to beving this kind of benefit from the senate. we're watching it all. amy walter, tamara keith, thank you both. >> you're welcome. thierks thank you. than>> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us to online business.ho transformed but first, take a moment to hear it's a chance to oer youron. support, which helps keep programs like ours on the r. >> woodruff: as colleges continue classes online, in- person and offer hybrid sessions, a familiar question is being asked again: is college worth it? are there jobs on the other end? a four-year college in charleston, south carolina, is

making its mission to teach traditional skills to carry students through life. this encore presentation filmed before the pandemic is part of our arts and culture series, fnvas. >> brown: iron ae: not your typical college materials. but all part of the daily life of the american college of the ilding arts. >> this is a stude built staircase. >> brown: retired lieutenant general colby broadwater is its president. >> this school exists to fill a void that is lacking in the united states. we have no one that's teaching these skills and crafts to young men and women who want sato become an educated ar >> brown: the school, housed in a restored 1897 trolley barn, is small, under 100 students. this is a place where the president's dog is named palladio, after the great italian renaissance aritect. it's even been the focus of the popular pbries, "this old house."

part trade school, part traditional liberal arts college, it awards a bachelor of applied sciences degree. everyone is required to take a variety of science and humanities courses. students choose from seven areas of concentration, stone, plaster and brick masonry, timber framing and architectural carpentry. the tuition?$1 unde0,000 a semester, with 85% of students getting some kind of financial aid.l, but most of t's hands-on work, taught by master craftsmen like blacksmith jack brubaker. >> most often i find myself ing asked, how do i do say: do this', it's like, well, try this way, or this way, or this way.

and so they get a broader experience and yet choose their path. >> brown: another requirement: aritectural preservation, study the methods and regulation of restoration. professor christina rae butler. >> trades, i know because i went to trade school, are physically and mentally difficult, but... >> brown: you went to trade school? >> i did, yeah, for carpentry and new construction. and then i got a degree in preservation, because this school didn't exist. i would have come here, because it marries two fields that have been separated. >> brown: and the setting in charleston, butler says, is crucial. >> it is the largest historic district in the united states. so it's a great laboratory for studen because we have so much protected, built environment right in the heart of this city> brown: in fact, one pan'icular part of charlesto history led to this school's existence. after hurricane hugo battered the city in 1989, local officials and residents found u.s. who knew how to rebuild to

proper standards. a small training program grew to a school and, by 2004, into the college. today, it lures a mix of students: there are fresh-out- of-high schoolers like 18-year- old iris howe, who's learning to carve stone. what did her friends back home in frericksburg, virginia say when they heard her choice of college? >> they were like, 'iwhat? you'retone carving? like, how they did it lofo ago they figured out how to do other stuff?' i'm like: 'yeah, exactly that.' >> brown: this is still a largely male populatio but h irisopes more young women will get as excited as she did when she first visited. >> i just saw peop working with their hands and kind of creating things that would outlivthem. i thought that was really cool. >> brown: there are also older students like 31-year-old keno mccummings, rved eight years in the marine corp. a junior with a concentration in timber framing, he has two small children at home and wants to

put his artistry to work for a living. >> that's the beauty about the school. you dip your toes into every aspect of it, the way the craftsmen used to be. the main drive for me, was understanding every aspect of this industry. i can go into design work. i can be a laborer that cuts elegant joinery for a structure. i can also be the guy that'slv in in every step of the process, working with the homeowner in order to complete c major pr so i can go anywhere.y >> brown: cleais isn't for everyone: you have to like getting dusty and sw >> when we started this side right here was about 11 inches sunken down... >> brownven working in graveyards. studts routinely hone their craft in the community, and senior peter thuronyi was part of a team that restored box tombs in the historic circular congregational church, dating to 1681.he gone to a traditional college and decided it wasn't unr him.

>> i think with r people, i think we have a desire for, as things become more and more digital and electronic and, you know, up in the cloud, we crave things we can touch and see. and the most amazing tng about this kind of thing is once you're done with what you do, you can look at it and say, that's what i did. >> brown: the question is whether this school is a model for others. the good news here, much touted, is that every graduate comes out with a job. as a student joe whisonant helped restore this gate at a h private histore. he now works for a local iron design company. having won a prestigious fellowship at a famed french workshop, he saw how artisanship and craft are valuedthere. >> i feel like the work over ere is more based around monetary value in getting the money and making it fast instead yo making something that's know, unique and truly great.

>> brown: do you think that's changing at all? >> i think it is. i mean, i feel like the school is aestament to that, that mindset of making things by hand and craftsmanship is starting to take ameri by storm. >> brown: as we close the gate on this story: that's quite a hope. fr the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in charleston, south carolina. >> woodruff: tony hsieh, the retired c.e.o. of the online oe store zappos, died o friday from injuries suffered in a fire. throughout the tech industry who revolutionizede visionary commerce. he was 46. last year, steve goldbloom from our 'that moment when team' spoke to hsieh about his career

about his career and the importance of shared values at his company. >> after grallating from e >> after graduating from college in '95, i went to work for oracle in the bay area, my college roommate, decided to start our own business, and at jthe time, the internet wt getting started and we started a web design and marketing business. during lunch hours, i would go and make sal calls and then in the evenings at home, we would create websites. then we realized that all itese webses we were creating. they didn't really have a way to market themselves. so that's what led us to just as a weekend experiment, start a service called link exchange. we started hiring friends and that whole strategy ing friends and friends of friends worked really well until we got to about 20 people. friends. we basically ran out of we had to start hiring people through resumes and interviewing and we also didn't know any better to pay attention to company culture. not everyone we hired was good for the culture.

and not everyone so by the time we got to 100 people, i myself dreaded getting out of bed ino the morning to my own company. that's really what led us to sell the company to microsoft, >> we sold link exchange in 1998 for $265 million. i started making a list of allha the thingsi wanted to buy and i realized that i didn't actually have that much on the list. i was really more interested in helping build stuff. when i got involved with zappos, i wanted to make sure that i didn't make the same miske beginnings, zappos has alwaysir paid a lot attention to companyu ure. >> zappos was founded in 1999 ir sacisco, and in 2004 we ended up moving the entire company to las vegas. we decided we wanted to build the zappos brand to be about tom very best cu service and customer experience,ack up we literally take thousands and day, we view as actually our best relatiohip building opportunity, everyone's being indated with thousands of

marketing messages every day. when you have a phone call with someone, you actually get to connect with them one on one. one of our core values at zappos is to create fun and a little weirdness, we really recognize and celebrateach person's individuality and we want their true personalities to shine in the workple. most people there are a different person at home, on weekends hanging out with their friends than they are in the office with coworkers, ideally you're the same person. your coworkers aren't just coworkers, but they're are actual friends, not because we're forcing you to be friends, but because that's what you want becausyou have the same values. that the values still include enough room for diversity. i'm by default pretty introverted and quiet and shy, as a result, i'vgotten feedback that sometimes, because i'm not talking as much, they think i secretly hate them or whereas i'm just shy, i guess.

>> woodruff: inspiring story from tony shea, who died on friday. and that's the "newhour" for to tght. and that 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 see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meangful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org.

>> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing suppt 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

[dramatic music] - hello everyone and welcome to amanpour & co. here's what's coming up. - i'm running as a proud democrat, n but i will gov an american president. - [cfor a nationiden's starkly diffdivided under trump. i ask evan osnos about his new biden biography and whether it's third time lucky for thisemndratic candidate, - we are taliong about a very sus offline threat in terms of the number of women who have been killed by these men. - [christiane] not just everyday sexism, but radicalized misogy. i talk to activist and writer, laura bates, - we're at the precipice of one of the mostn- important elections of our time. no one knows how this race is gonna go. - [christiane] our walter isaacson speaks