captioning sponsored b by newshour productions, llc oo woodruff: good evening, i'm judy wuff. 20 the newshour tonight, farewell, we look back at the toll of the pandemic and the still difficult road ahead. then, a deadly encounter-- minneapolis police fatally shoot n during a traffic stop after he allegedly fired first, prompting unrest and questionsen about transp. plus, amica abroad-- we examine the trump administration's foreign aolicy legaci the challenges facing president-elect biden's team >> you have a mixed bag, buthe biden administration is going to kind of have to come in and its actions will dictate whether the gains will be maintained or whether the lo of leadership is going to be just devastating. >> woodruff: all that and more

on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work throug investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org.

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in engagement, and thncement of international peace and security. at carnegiorg. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs ation from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the pandemic year of 2020 is winding down tonight, in somber fashion. as the new year arrives, covid- million lives worldwide. 1.8 the total includes almost

345,000 in this country. ffrey brown has our report. >> brown: it's a new year's eve like never before: how it feels, how it looks, and definitely hob the world is cting. in australia, fireworks lit up the sky above sydney harbor, buh this time wiout a crowd that in years past, reached one million people. fireworks in melbourne were canceled. ( ringing bells ) bells rang in the new year in tokyo, japanhere a small number of people were in attendance. gatherings were discouraged as the covid outbreak is expected to explode in the coming days. and beaches in rio de janeiro, brazil will close tonight. covid deaths in brazil are the second highest in the world, the first being the u.s. in europe, where covid cases are also rampant, a much quieterew years eve is expected, with most firework displays canceled.

trafalgar square in london has been closed off to the public. and, parts of england entered the strictest stage of lockdown today in an effort to curb the spread of virus. >> if that is what the government want to do then we have got to follow it. and to be honestloe have been in down for so long we are all used to it now. >> brown: in berlin, germany, police enforced a ban on celebrations and fireworks sales. angela merkel reflected on the pandemic in what was most likely her last new year's eve speech. >> ( translated ): what a year is behind us.vi ths made normal behavior risk and unusual protective behavior normal. the year of the pandemic, 2020, was a year of learning. >> brown: in france, some 100,000 police offic patrolled streets to enforce anw 8:00 p.m. cund prevent people from gathering. but some countries with few if any covid cases carried on as usual crowds gathered in

auckland, new zealand, to watch the annual new year's eve fireworks display. as well as in taiwan, where fireworks shot out from taipei's largest skyscraper. state tv in north korea also showed large crowds watching performances and fireworks. the tightly controlled country has given no indication of how widespread covid-19 is there. meanwhile, here at home, the iconic ball will drop in times square in new york, but for the first time in decades, the site will be closed off to the public. the countdown will be televised, but only the production crew ant selected fine workers and their families will be in attendance. firework displays in las vegas and safrancisco are also canceled this year. >> brown: for most, then, a new a year like no other., to end for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: president trump is spending new year's eve in

washington, after reing early from his mar-a-lago resort in florida. he arrived at the white house a questions and gaveason for coming back a day before he had planned. president-elect biden spent new year's eve privately, in rehoboth beach, delaware. nebraska senator ben sasse pushed back day against fellow republicans trying to delay counting the electoral votes for president. on facebook, sas called it a "dangerous ploy" driven by those he brand "institutional arsonists." missouri senator jh hawley and several house republicans plan to object when congress counts the votes wednesday. the house and senate are expected to dismiss the objections. there was no movement today in the senate stalemate over increasing covid relief checks0 from $ $2,000. republican majority leader mitch mcconnell again blocked a vote on the issue.

he argued too much aid would go to well-off families, and he called it "socialism for rich people >> our colleagues who purport to be the champions of vulnerables americw say what struggling people really need is for congress to stop focusing on targeted relief for them specifically, and instead send thousands of dollars to peoplewh don't need the help. >> woodruff: democrats and their allies rejected those claims. vermont senator bernie sanders noted that no one making more virtually nothis to thecheck. very, very rich. overwhelming majority of those funds go to the middle class, the working class, low incomehe people, who inidst of this pandemic are in desperate economic condition. >> woodruff: there now aleears to be lihance of senate action before the current congre ends on sunday. amid the senate debate, the u.s. labor departnt reported

another 787,000 americans filed for unemplment benefits last week. that was down 19,000 from the previous week, but it was still nearly four times higher than a year ago. wall street has closed out a year that saw deep losses, and then, spectacular gains. the dow jones industrial average rose 197 points today to another reco high: 30,606. the nasdaq was up 18 points, and, the s&p 500 added 24, also reaching a new high. for the year, the nasdaq shot up 43%. the s&p surged 16%, and the dow a'ded seven percent. chpresident is lauding his country's economic progress, despite the pandemic. xi jping said today that china was the first major economy to resume growing this year, and he touted efforts to fight ruralve y.

>> ( translated ): facing the sudden coronavirus epi we wrote the epic of our fight ainst the epidemic with concerted efforts and perseverance. after a year of hardwe can understand more than ever the significance of a community with ared future for mankind. >> woouff: the international monetary fund estimates china's economic growth at 1.9% this year, but, projects ithit eight rcent next year. back in this country, a major winter storm moved out of texas and oklahoma and headed east. forecasters warned it could dump 18 inches of snow in places, and spawn tornadoes as it collides with warmer air. another storm system dropped heavy snow across the upper midwest. for the first time, a woman will serve as chaplain of the u.s. house of representatives. retired rear admiral margaret kibben was named to the position today by speaker nancy pelosi. she is former chaplain of the

u.s. navy and marine corps. and, former u.s. attorney general and pennsylvania governor dick thornburgh died day. governor, he was praised for his handling of the three milear island nucccident in 1979. he also worked to pass the americans with disanilities act, advocated for those with disabilities, after his sonff ed severe brain damage in rg auto accident. dick thornbuh was 88 years d. still to come the newshour: minneapo a man during a traffic stop after he allegedly first. infections and deaths from covid-19 continue to increase as the world greets a new year. the critical runoff elections in georgia with controlf the u.s. senate at stake. and muchore.

>> woodruff: city officials in minneapolis are keeping an eye on local reaction tonight to the l shooting of a man by a police officer there. the man was killed during what police say was an exchange of gunfire after a traffic stop last night. g's the first police killing in the city sinrge floyd's death in may. special correspondent ed de sam lazaro has the story. and a warning: this report includes graphic images of the shooting. >> reporter: dozens of protesters gathered overnight at south minneapolis.hooting in the demonstrations were tense but mostly peaceful.me people built a fire in theth middle of street, as temperatures dropped into the ens. diately after wednesday night's shooting, details were sparse. minneapolis police chief medaria arradondo: >> m.p.d. officers were conducting a traffic stop

involving felony suspect. initial witness statements dicate that the subject involved in this felony stop fired firsat minneapolis police officers who then changed gunfe with the suspect. the subject of thetop was pronounced deceased at the scene by medical personnel. >> reporter: authorities didn't provide information on the suspect's race or the he allegedly committed. but family members and local news reports identified him as dolal idd, a somali man in his 20s. late this afternoon, police released one body camera video from the shooting showing multiple shots being fired. the shooting happened just a mile from where george floyd was killed after bein t reporter: the shooting happened just aba mile from where george floyd was killed after being restrained by officers in may. that incident touched offon nade unrest over police violence and racism in the u.s.s

intement late wednesday, minneapolis mayor jacob frey said: a"events of this past have marked some of the darkest days in our city. we kw a life has been cut short and that trust between communities of color and law enforcement is fragile. getting the facts,suingd to stice, and keeping the peace." for big changes ind to a push minneapolis police. earlier this month, the city council cut about $8 million dollars, about four percent, etom the department's budg meanwhile, the city has seen a dramatic increase in violence thisear, including an uptick in murders and a rash of carjackings. and an exodus of officers fr the police department forced the city to bring in help from other agencies. just a few minutes ago, the mayor and police chief ended a news conference with t poli chief saying that he believes the suspect was being pursued in a weapons investigation, that, in fact, the sject, in the

chief's opinion, shot first in that exchange, and that a weapon was reovered at the scene. that scene being investigated by the stte bureau of investigation of criminal investigation and not the police department. both men indicated that they had met with the family of the young thman before sharin video publicly, they shared it with the family first, and both men pleaded for calm in a city frwih ed nerves on this the final ngght of an exhausting, exhausear, in minneapolis. in st. paul, minnesota, i'm fred "newshour".ro for the pbs >> woouff: since the first reported case of covid a little more than a year ago, pandemic has taken a devastating in many other devefar worse than

countries. to fully comprehenmost too large more than 3,800 dehs recorded just yesterday, on one day. an average of 2,300 us deaths a day over the past week, and a cumulative death toll larger than the population of cities like pittsburgh, st. louis or lexington, kentucky. all while the country is averaging more than 183,000 new cases a day rece we close the year with some perspective from donalmcneil, who has been covering this mendemic for the "new york " back to the "newshour". we did want to speak with you because yohave been looking at this terrible pandemic for theye entire. as you look back on 2020, how does this pandemic come into focus for you? >> worst year of our national life in my lifetime. i mean, i'm not old enough to

remember 1918 spanisflu or the depression or world war ii, but other than that, i can't imagine have suffered all around the world all at the same time,and both the fear and death, as you would experience, in a war and economic crshing, as you experience in a recession. so it's been justawful. >> woodruff: donald mcneil, we keep asking this question, the united states has, what, 4% of the world's poulation and, yet, we have almost a quarter of all the cases in the world.w d it come to this? >> leadership failure is the short answer. you know, donald trump might have been the hero of this pandemicand we might have gotten out of it looking pretty great. edon't think we would haer had the kind of total lockdown and defeat of the pandemic that china managed because ameo cans are nery to go along with

those kinds of lockdowns, but had we -- we ha a few -- we had a few weeks, even more than europe we got dinged by the virus inja miuary in seattle but we didn't have a big outbreak in new york until the virus probably arrived in february multiple times. from italy, which saw thatns things were out of conol and locked down really tightly, had the president and everybody around him takyten evng very seriously and said, look, you know, get indoors the wathe italians learned to do, stop matravel, adopts as was done in europe and lerts be carefuld t's unleash america's industrial and pharmaceutical might and release a ccine, we would have done it, and we would have probably on the order of germany level ofaths, if wed had hathat kind of leadership and that kindf determination to take on the virus.

but we didn't. we lost it all in denial, we nths't have tests for two mo because we didn't know where the virus was, we could have avoided lockdowns outside of new york if we knew where the virus was, and we were a headless chicken in the early days and have been playing catch up and the denial is continued to this day. the president launched these great vaccines and hast taken onnd >> woodruff:ow that we have a vaccine that's beginning to be available, it's not availaase to many people as we thought it would be. we're going into t 2021 with fer people vaccinated than had been forecasted. how hard, how sez is it going to be to ramp that up we're not getting very clear explanations of what the problem is. at this time sounds likioe operwarp speed is moving the vaccine to the state depots, but then just sort of dropping it off and saying, okay,

governors, take it from here, which is the way the federal has t led a lot of things -- gur own p.p.e., find your owny ventilator, ger own vaccine out there and we're not giving you enough money to do it. phase.as supposed to be the easy giving vaccines in hospitals and nursing homes ought to be easy. you have tons of ple who know how to stick needle also in people. but e already struggling. i worry about what's going to happen when we have massive peopd outside of hospitals a nursing homes needing vaccines. we don't have a clearea, but we need to get to about aio mivaccines a day in order to reach the goal of vaccinating 80% of this country by, you know, mid to late next year, and we're nothing close to million a day. we're 100,000 or so right now. so it's a real problem. >> woodruff: a lot of peopleth wonder, different leadership in washington, which

there will be under president-elect biden starting in a few weeks, howfe difnt will things be? i mean, can decisio be mad ongarding the testing, with regard to deci made at the state, with regard to attitudes about taking the vir seriously? how much should americans expect that thinbe will different, starting on january 21st? >> i'm sure the attitude from the top wille very different. i'm sure there will be scientific giensz. when yve 200,000 new cases a day by the time joe biden ges into office, it will be very hard, king kanut can't stop is it waves, you can't stop coldd weather u can't stop the virus from spreading unless everybody changes what they do. you can't declare a federal mk mandate, those are state laws. so i'm not sure how much a change in attitude is going to

make a difference, and i'm not sure that he wilbe able to speak to the trump base, which is where the pandemic has ben hitting in this third wave very hard. the people who've denied wearing mas in the midwest and dakotas and places like that are being, hit hat the same people being hit in the first wave in the cities. so he has t find people who can speak to those groups andhe convincethey have to protect themselves and accept the vaccine then he has to roll out the vaccine. hopefully, we can take money from some bude'gets -- th always a bloated budget somewhere in the federal government -- and route that into getting the vaccine into people's arms. >> woodrf: i'm asking you this because i think some people leadership, we will begin to see some dramatic or at least noticeable changes. t it looks like with hospitals overflowing in california a other states,ore people than ever in i.c.u.s, we're still

in for rough times ahead, aren't we? >> absolutely. and unless people get scared -- there are some hintsyou can see looking at the maps today that cases are dropping inth places like dakotas and minnesota and around the upper mid wes. i think they goto scared abut what happened around thanksgiving and the hospita got filled. if the fear causes people to protect themsels better we'll do better. but got to see if that happens anhow mr. trump handles it when the e he's out of office.e' ifmockic the efforts, it may thwart the new administration's efforts to do better.no >> woodruff: iit's impossible t to boil it dowthn o ong, but if there's one thing people should be thinking about as we close t this year and go into the new one about this pandemic, what do you think it would be >> get the vaccine and protect

yourself until y do. my daughter who works at a hospital in los angeles got the it will be quite a while before i do, but i'm very happy for hor ane everybody else gets the same thing soon and thy prect themselves till then and let's hope next year is better than this one. >> woodruff: for sure in the meantime, as you say, everybody stay as safe as we possibly can. wear masks, keep socially distanced, don't gather tonight on new year's eve. donald mcneil with th"new york times," t wehank you very much. >> thank you for inviting me. >> woodruff: we wish you and all the best. thank you. >> happy new year. >> woodruff: we're now just days

away from the final elections of the 2020 campaign: two critical runoffs in georgia that will determine control of the u.s. senate. today is the final day of in- person early voting in the state and more than 2.8 million people have cast ballots so far. for an update on what's at stake, i'm joined by stephen fowler. georgia public broadcasting and host of the "battleground: ballot box" podcast. stephen fowler, welcome to the gu"newshour". s the news today is that quarantining after being exposed to covid. where dhas tleave this contest? >> for the last several weeks, really, all the candidates have been criss-crossing georgitr ng to squeeze out every vote that they can get, and david perdue announced today that he, one of s campaign staffers tested positive for covid 19. he and his wife both tested negative today but out of an abundance of caution will be

quarantining. the last day of early voting is toy and the next big day is tuesday january 5, but the night before, perdue and senator kelly loeffler are pposed to headline a big get out the vote rally in north georgia headlandedenby presdonald trump. it's unclear whether david perdue will be in attendance, but it's definitely something you don't want to happen days before the biggest election. >> woodruff: no question, mplicating factor, president trump, he has been critical of the governor of ed state thers who didn't want to challenge the victoryof e biden, in georgia. it's put the two senators, you a box.elling us, in very much thousand is that working? the president's been tweeting about georgia. how do you see the president's role right now in is race? >> president trump has put perdue and loefer between a rock and a hard place. on the one hand, you have president trump tacking

georgia's elections, attacking the republican governor, the republican secretary of state and claiming that thelection was rigged rigged and there was fraud and that people shouldn'th truse outcome. on the other hand, you have plenty of voters that are turned off by that kind of rhetoric and arsaying that they're going to stay home and that they're not going to participate in thisti el or they're going to vote for the democrats because the democrats aren't trying to undermine democracy. so perdue and loeffler have been trying to make shire theury caenough of georgia's republican base in this runoff by siding with the president and calling for our secretary of state state to resign, but, at the same time, they to try to remember that georgia is a very, very purple statig now, and they can't turn off thosmoderates bking false claims of election fraud. >> woodruff: and we have beeng readout concern among republicans about what the president's going to say when he is in georgia. but let's talk about the

democrats today, big turnout we've seen throughout the early voting period right up through what dat tell you in terms s today. of these long lines, stephen fowler, and where they are >> well, judy, there are thrco ketituencies to watch for in georgia, one is what you're atlanta.ight now in suburban those are the votedders that -- voters that voted for joe biden in the pridential race that may end up still voting for democrats jon ossof and raphael warnock in this election, and tro atlanta is turng outs in full force. southwest grgia, the blackwn in belt of georgia where there's a large african-amerimon atic population, they have been turning out in force as well, coming very close to the general election levels. in fact, some of the early e ng data that i've looked at suggests that the about 3% of the electote is higher -- there's about 3% more

rican-american percentage of voters in this election than in the general election, which is a good si for democrats, and the fina one is up in norta,hwest georhe republican base, where turnout is lagging behind, and republicans hope that a big elecon day surge can counteract this huge democratic early vote. >> wo: odrud that's a challenge without president trump on the ballot. >> that's right, without president trump on the ballot and with president trump sayingn don't trust abee by mail voting or georgia's election systemhin the voting macs which are, frankly, the only two ways to vote. >> wledruff: that co as you say, with the remarkable black voters are turning out in narge numbers is something everybody's watc but very quickly, stephen datesr, to what the candi are saying, we've seen the republican candidates going after the democrats, calling anthem radic liberals, we're ueeing the democrats push lack. let's just -- psh back.

lest listen to a short clip of each side. >> radical leral waffle waffle, radical liberal raphael warnock. radical liberal raphael warnock, from radical liberaralph ralph. >> hear's the bottom line, kelly loeffler has been campaigning with the klansmen. kelly loeffler has beenwi campaignin a klansmen, and, so, she is stuping to theoe vipersonal attacks to distract from the fact that she has been campaigning with a former member of the ku klux klan. >> woodruff: that comment yesterday from jon ossof who, os course running against david perdue, the kelly loeffler comments which we put together were from a debate a few weks ago, but it gives you a sense of the flavor of this contest. >> the key to trying to define the opposition from both democrats and republicans is the short and sweet phrases, you know.ne in theebate david perdue did conduct with jon ossof, he

kept calling him and his radca socialist tendencies over and over again. so the republicans are tryinto paint ossoff and warnock as these liberal, out of touch politicians that aren't good for georgia, and ossoff aarnock are trying to paint perdue and loeffler as crooks who on't have georgia's best interests at hearts and are out of touch with e ality. so the key messso that we're seeing there are really resonating on both sides with this turnout that we're seeing and wisa the closing mges of this campaign. >> woodruff: you were telling us stephe stephen fowler, this a state georgia has voted red, sent mostly republicans to washington. so, for the democrats to be holding their own at this point is somewhat remarkable in the state of georgia, isn't it>>? ell, to the outsiders, perhaps, but in georgia, for the last two yrs,it's been something building. the demographics of georgia hav chan the last c decade.

there have been a million or so voters who have come in in metro atlanta alone, 2 million in th state overall. in the 2020 governor's race where abrams lost o brian kemp, the democrats invested in parts to have the ste that didn't normally getf a lot otention and put grassroots campaigns and door knocking andin canvaand slowly started to eat into the margins there while ramping up operations in metro atlanta and that's only built up for the at least two years where you've got a competitive infrastructure and you've got democrats showing up in force and ultimately putting about 12,000 votes ahead to give joe biden the ectoral votes. >> woodruff: it is two races the nation is watching ve closely. stephen fowler is georgia public broadcasting, thank you so much and happy new yea >> thank you.

>> woodruff:his week the u.s. military began drawing down in somalia, as part of president trump's vow to rede overseas deployments. some 700 u.s. troops have been training somali forces. but now they will have to do that mission from elsewhere, and as nick schifrin reports, some somalis fear that will leave them vulnerable. >> schifrin: along afra's east coast somali forces are learning to lead the fight. their trainers are american, equipping them to defend their own country, from al shabab. since the early 2000s, aqaeda linked shabab, or "youth," has killed thousands across somalia, ansought to create an isla government. border in kenya, including killing two u.s. soldiers earlier this year on manda bay base, as seen in these propaganda photos. >> this morning we will recognize the soldiers of the

danab special forces.if >> sn: the somali troops trained by u.s. specials, operations forere somalia's own elite unit, the danab. >> the u.s., everybody knows their capabilitiry in the milind they bring really the best to train and advise o forces. has been very beneficia >> schifrin: 37-year-old col. ahmed abdullahi sheikh used to command the danab. he says he grew close tois u.s. officers through training, mentoring, and advising. >> you build a bond. so working together is, has been ry beneficial for the somali forces, especially the security >> schifrin: but u.s. special operations forces are now leaving. the u.s. military released photos of a carrier strike group and its 5500 sailors off the coast of somia, protecting some 700 u.s. troops as they withdraw to neighboring countries , and consolide onto u.s. bases. ending the train and equip program is self-defeating, abdullahi says. >> my biggest issue wi this, it's coming abrupt, coming very sudden and without any warning.

we saw from the after the attack in manda bay that al you know pledged that they will keep the pressure on the americans. this decision will embolden them. >> schifrin: and the decision could weaken the three-year-old u.s.-allied somali government, because it precedes upcoming elections, says hornf africa alyst omar mahmood. >> pulling out troops in such a way, especially such a rushed way, can create quite a vacuum. al-shabab very much also watches these developments, hem in their propaganda. th would very much present this as a victory or part, that they were able to drive out us rioops from somalia. >> schifrin: butcs of the somalia mission argue u.s. troops are not the sn to solving the civil war, and a new strategy was overdue. >> the troop withdrawal could represent the beginning of a new poli, a policy aimed at achieving some kind of political reconciliation and peace negotiations. >> schifrin: sih booker is the president of the center for international policy, an independt research center. he says some al shabab fights have local grievances such as government corruption.

others have regional islamist ctals, and that the conflias military solution. >> the military victory out of the reach of the federal government, it's out of the reach of the u.s. governme. but it's also unlikely that al- shabab can achieve a decisive military victory. and therefore, it's time to change the strategic goal to one of political reconciliation and peace negotiations. >> schifrin: booker argues the u.s. military's africa command, or africom, has for years overstated the al-shabab threat. >> there is not any clear indication tt al-shabab has attempted to organize any international terrorist activities targeting u.s. assets or the so-called u.s. homeland. so again, i would say at africom is engaged in threat coflation in order to justify their ntinuing focus on a misguided strategic goal of defeating al-shabaab militarily. >> schifrin: but theli.s. ry argues the

counterterror mission inside somalia is essential and will carry on. airstrikes in somarom to conduct neighboring djibouti. from 2007 to 2015, the bush and obama administrations acknowledged launching 21 airstrikes in somalia. in 2016 alone, the obama administration launched 19. e trump administtion accelerated that trend, launching in four years, nearly 200 airstrikes from drones. >> there's no eviden that this strategy has achieved the strategic objective and all the opposite, it's raised enormous questions about the legality of this kind of targeting through airstrikes, raised the question of civilian casualties. >> schifrin: many somalis argue the civilian death toll from u.s. airstrikes is underreported. back in 2017, halima mohamed afrah said the u.s. had the wrong targets.an >> ( ated ): the u.s.

forces killed my first born son in 1992, last friday they killed 10 innocent farmers. >> schifrin: the current mission began in 2017-- the first regular deployment to somalia in decades. hattle that became known as93 blac down. 18 u.s. soldiers died. toaby, abdullahi fears the d could be exploited by somali politicians to do their personal thbidding. anrelationships the u.s. lost. presence created, will be >> by having the u.s. forces based across somalia, they were really the faces you saw. and if somebody have a grievance, they could come to them to talk to them. and now that relationship will not exist anymore. >> schifrin: the withdrawal also comes at a fragile time regionally. in neighboring ethiopia, battles betwn the national governmen and a rebellious regional government, led to hundreds of thousands of refugees. >> the region is a tinderbox. it could easily go up into flamesurther than it already is.

so the united states should focus not so much on weapons and violence as its ability to project power to solve problems in the region, but on relationships between nations, between people this is a strength the united states hasthat it is simply not using. and that it needs to use. from somalia will concludedown before president elect biden takes office. but he will inherit the violent, regional challenges, and those aren't going away. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. g >> woodruff: dure early edys of the 2016 campaign trail, donald trump assis supporters he would pursue an "america first" fooaign policy ap. but what legacy does trump leave behind?

what are the main foreign policy challenges facing joe biden, and what is the impact of the ever changing u.s. foreign policy? y assess all of this i spoke to four foreign polperts last week. susan gordon served as principal deputy director of national intelligence until augt of last year. she spent most of her career before that at the c.i.a. charles kupchan was special assistant to the president on the national security council during the obama administration. he's now professor of international affairs at georgetown university and senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. his latest book is: "isolationism: a history of america's efforts to shield itself from the world." rebeccah heinrichs, senior fellow at the hudson institute. she also served on capitol hill on the house armed services committee staff. and sam vinograd haserved in the bush and obama administration in several national security roles,

including senior advisor to the national security advisor. she's now a senior advisor at biden institute.f delaware's and we welcome all of you back to the newshour. you very much for joinin us. sam vinograd, i'm going to start with you with a pretty simple question. what is the legacy of president trump and his foreigcy? >> jy, i think that president really defined by a historicy is level of systemic incoherence, hypocrisy, as ll as a unilateralism across the board. on the systemic incoherence front, we have seen a hif oric numberstances in which the foreign policy establishment edthin the administration pursued a bifurcoreign policy. we had the national security apparatus going one way anthen president trump going the other. that was consing to everyone abroad as well as here at home. second, we had the president and

his national security team inconsistently apply international room rules and u.s. values.es people that ent trump found to be politically expedient were treated one way and everyone else was treated another. in terms of the hypocrisy, we saw individuals like secretary of state pompeo and others ask foreign leaders to do things that president trump wasn' doing here at home. advancing democratic freedoms like free and fair elections, freedom of the press, and the freedom to peacefully protest overall that uermine u.s. credibility abroad and undermine the ability of the president's foreign policy team to execute the policies that they saw fit overseas. >> woodruff: a lot of points there to digest and to and toin about rebecca heinrich's, what would you say is the president's legacy? >> i think president trump's rhoric sometimes could hav

distracted from a lot of the policy, good sound polat came out of his administintion. and i a lot of what he did, this american america first really translated into correction of the liberal internationalism that was ongoing, not just the obama administration, but really before him in the bush administration as well. and what president trump's foreign policy did was to reestablish that the united states is not going to remain the world's preeminent power just by default. we have to fight for it. and then our primary rival isa, chnd that china, combined with russia, presents a very formidable challenge to the united states economically, militarily, and so that the united states has to fight for that. that became the that the thing that pushed american foreign policy a really established the united states on much sounder footing, cooperated with also countered iran very effectively and work with our llies, which is why you

see a lot of these great normalization agreements between israel and these arab states, because they were the trump conditions that were conducive to establishing this great these eat accomplishments. >> woodruff: charles kupchan, pick up on that. and we've heard the wo unilateralis you have written you've said ithat what we're seeing n president trump may not be so much an outlier wh you compare it to the sweep of america's foreign pocy since the founders. >> well, when heaid america first in his inaugural address, trump was really going back to 1940, the america firs committee that formed to keep the u.s. out of world war two. and although we've lived in an america that's been very engaged in the world from 1789 when we began li as a federation right up until pearl harbor, the u.s. tended to shy away from engagement. we were very much connected to

thtworld commercially, but strategically. that changes in '41, then it changes even more after the end of the cold war and after 9/11. and i would agree with what rebecca said that trump was trying to correct for what i see is overreach, overreach, strategically, overreachon ically. trade deals that didn't work for average americans overreach perhaps in immigration where many americans felt we didn'tha control of our borders. where i think trump went wrongva is hly overcorrected. instead of pulling back, instead w judiciously trying to correct, he tookcking ball to the world. america built the instns he pulled out of the middle east without any real strategy. so think his instincts politically were correct. the american people sa, hey, let's tap on the brakes, let's pull back from the world a little bit. but he went way too far in the implementation. >> woodruff: sue gordon, it's a lot to ask you to pull all thate

er. but from your perspective, someone who's woed so closely in the intelligence community for so long, how do you see it? >> so i think sam, rebecca and charles all made great points. one, i think history is going to ancide what his legacy is. president biden is going to have a lot to say about it. i put it his actions in three bins. i think there's some good clearly the national security work he did to highlight the threat that china posed is going to be one of his greatest legacy. i think you have to say that the middle east, despite the lack of orthodoxy, is a more peaceful place than it was when he took office. certainly the islamic caliphate has been tamped down.th and k north korea, even adough you could give it a neutral you do have to

inadmit that there has beehe last three years no nuclear tests of any weapons. so i think there's some good there. i also think there's some massive failures. i think his work on , russia is more brazen. the cyber attack shows it. nato, even though you' seeing more european contribution you've almost broken the spirit of it, whether it's ing to come along a long. alliances that are so necessary have been really broken, and i think you have a lot of viewers so i think you have a mixed bag, but the biden administration is ing to kind of have to come in and its actions will dictate whether the gains will be maintained or whethedethe loss of lhip is going to be just devastating. >> woodruff: and sam vd, i'm thinking back to what you said and what we're hearing from our other panelists is that there is a rationale for at least some of what president trump has been doing. a

whut that? and what about whether one can look at this as a as an attempt to pull ba from what had been an overreach? >> well, i think that president trump certainly felt that tre needed to be a review of the world.. commitments around li saw that with respect to ces like nato, germany and south korea, in which presidentr trumd to review the funding commitments that the united states made in light of what our partners were putting forward. we saw president trump review our commitment to key multilateral institutions, inuding the u.n. itself, a well as various entities within the united nations. it appeared to be that he was trying to cut overall u.s. funding to these entities. he was successful in some regards. nato allies have increased the contributions to the nato budget. but overall, president trump seemed to be pursuing policies that he viewed as benefiting him or benefiting the unittes and acting alone and tryinto

pull other countries in with him after the fact. i think that approach was dangerou our alliances are built around coordination, cooperion and discussion, and i don't think that our allies appreciated being told what they had to do. instinctual desiin to focus wiur borders. so we could see president-elect biden try to undoe sf what president trump did with respect to our commitments commitmes abroad. i would like to tuwhat theich's. challenges are that lie ahead yor president elect biden. based on whare all saying in your own ways, what should president biden's priorities be? where should his focus, his main focus be? >> i think president trump r administratilly laid bare

if it wasn't clear before that china is the number one geopolitical redal for the untates, it will be for our generation. we have to understand that china is contesting the united states militari in the western pacific, economically and diplomatically, and that t united states needs fight for american preeminence and with our allies and partners to det chinese aggression, certainly against taiwan, but then also be prepared to fight and win the military contest if deterrence fails. there are a variety of other ways and fronts in which the united states needs to shore up our sovereignty, our industrial base, our technology, our technological edge versus china. and i am afraid that mainly because some of the signaling coming out of the president especially john kerry's appointment to lead this clima change envoy, that climate change could be the driving force versus china and thathe

china thenfore might take a sort of a backseat on these other issues. that would be a grave mistake. the last point i would make is president trump got into a lots of he iticized heavily for a lot of the things that he said and did against our allies and some institutions. he pulled out of an arms control. he pulled out of many of those things were right, though, and long overdue. and made a lot of good poin about our allies and partners needing to invest in their militaries to help the free world defend against these autocratic reges. and so president elect biden, heen he becomes president, needs to make sure thaoesn't just go back andry to rejoin these bad deals and agreements that the russians, et cetera, were cheating on. >> woodruff: charlie kupchan dor you think s a chance that that's what joe biden is going to do? i know you've you have told us that you think one of the first thing that's going to happen is the unilateralism th such a feature of the trump presidency is going to go away quickly. >> yeah, i think the most deructive part of trump's foreign policy has been the

unilateralism, pulling out of pax, isolating the united states from its key allies, pulling out of the world health organization in the middle of the greatest pandemic since 1918. that just it didn't make any sense. so i think the u.s. on day one of the biden administration, will go back to being a team player. another big change is that democracy will be back. t joe biden will restore sense of liberal democracy, of republican values to the country.we till have a sitting president who has yet to admit that he just lost the election. moste world is staring att. us with amazem i think you'll see more continuity than change is hecontinued pull back from middle east because democrats and republicans alike agree it's time to end the forever wars, standing up tohina, as rebecca was saying, particularly on the trade front. and i also think you're going to

trying to make the case that american foreign policy works for average americans. that probably needs oney on things like cyber, on things like global health, on things like climate change, probably less on defense spending and also more investment in amica's middle class, maki sure that our trade agreements atrk not just for big corpns, but also for working americans. >> woodruff: and sue gordon, you touched on some of these things in your remarks a moment ago. but bring us finally back to this question of america's role in the world and to what extent does joe biden have a fixed idea in his own mind of what america's role is in 2021 and in coming years? >> so i thinthe first thing at i hope the president elect world.es is this is a changed there is no going back to before 2016.

if i were to say three things, it would be number one, there are few in the world that can offer the leadership in these troubled times. the united states can. so figuring out our leadership role, our value proposition, our support for democracies is one. the second is invest in trust and truth th goes all the way from tsted technologies to keeping your word. doere is so much untruth that is governing what w

there has toile room for reng the institutions that are actually responsible for effecting his policien that have be so distant from the from president trump's policies. ar, please stay safe, and seet t you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: arn mot-planned.vice to help consumercellular.tv ontlines of social change the worldwide. >> the alfred p. sloan

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from cows that graze on lush, green grass .mes the taste of kerrygo from our farmers' hands to yours, this is the true taste of kerrygold. astiach year passes, th beten christmases appears to shrink so here we are again. happily, i love christmas, especially the build up to it. i'd like to share ideas and recipes for christmas snacks, ideal for g at any time before, during or after the day itself. i'm going to stawith what r is a perennial favorite of mine, the granita. this year i'm using oranges and campari. the campari is optional but there are times during christmas ere just the tiniest addition of alcohol doesn't go amiss.