♪ nijudy: good e. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, presre points. president trump asking georgia officials to find votes raisesou seriquestions andti condem from both sides of the political aisle. judy: then, a troubling delay -- the coronavirus vaccine rollout remains sluggish across the country as surges of infections and deaths continue. plus, on edge -- a year after an iranian general is killed by an american drone, some iraqi militias grow increasingly hostile to the u.s. balance of power -- control of the u.s. senate and much of the future of president- biden's agenda rest in the hands of voters in georgia's runoff.

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fo -- made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. thank you. juw: president trump faces cries of foul tonight, after his most blatant attempt yet to manufacture an election win -- for himself. his critics today called it everything from disgraceful toou ight illeg. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. yamiche: bombshell phone call. and a president trying everything and anything to stay in power. in just over two weeks, the term of president trump, who lost the e electios, but he is refusing to face that fact. instead, on saturday, he personally made this demand of georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger -- overturn the state's election results. pres. trump: all iant to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 tes, which is one more than we

have. because we won the state. so what are we going to do here, folks? i'll need 11,000 votes. fellas, i need 11,000 votes. give me a break. you know, we have that in spady. alre yamiche: raffensperger's officee recordedour-long call. the audio was first released sunday bythe washington post". president-elect joe biden won georgia by 11,779 votes, and the state has counted the ballots three times. but president trump repeatedly idsisted raffensperger ove that outcome. pres. trump: the people of plgeorgia are angry, the pof the country are angry. and there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you've recalculated. mr. raffensperger: well, mr. president, the challenge that d you have is, ta you have is wrong. have an accurate election.nt to you're a republican. mr. raffensperger: we believe that we do have an accurate election.

pres. trump: no, you don't. you don't. you don't have. not even close. you'reff by hundreds of thousands of votes. so tell me, brad, what are we going to do? we won the election, and it's not fair to take it away from us like this. and it's gog to be very costly in many ways. mr. raffensperger: mr. president, you have people that submit information, and we have our people that submit information, and then it comes before the court and the court then has to make a determination. we have to stand by our numbers. we believe our numbers are right. yamiche: before the twmen spoke saturday, the white house had called the secretary of state's office 18 times trying to connect them. this afternoon in georgia, gabriel sterling, a top state elections official, refuted the president's allegations of fraud. >> this is all easily, provably false. yet t president persists. and by doing so, underminesit georgians in the election system. yamiche: on twitter today, president trump again reject

the election results without evidence. he wrote, "how can you certify an election when the numbers being certified are verifiably wrong?" the call sparked a new storm of outrage. biden campaign lawyer bob bauer said the call "captures theol wh disgraceful story about donald trump's assault on american democracy."eo with the gia u.s. senate runoff elections scheduled for tomorrow, both biden and trump went to the state today. at a rally in atlanta, biden attack president trump's response to the pandem. president-elect biden: the president spends more timean whinincomplaining than doing something about the problem. i don't know whye still wants the job. he doesn't want to do the work. yamiche: at the capital, congresswoman liz cheney of wyoming, the number republican in the house, spoke out. troubling."the fungal "deeply house democrats urged the f-b-i to open a criminal investigation into the president's actions.

democratic caucus chair hakeemri je of new york. the voters have spok, the electoral college has spoken, the courts have spoken. joe biden will be the next of america, notwiting thetates delusional fantasies of some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. yamiche: he was alluding toic repu senators who say they will object to the certification of the presidential results inng ss on wednesday. cruz of texas, spoke on "foxed news". o we together will object certification in order to force the appointment of an emergency electoral commission to perform an emergency audit of the election results to assesshese claims of fraud. yamiche: the effort is separate tofrom that of missouri se josh hawley, who will also object to certification. but a number of other republicans including trump alliessenator tom cotton of arkansas and senator lindsey

graham of south carolina , have rejected that stance. they join with moderate republicans including mitt romney of utah and lisa murkowski of alaska, among correctly - that tction is over. judy: just in the last few minutes, we have learned tt george senator kelly loeffler, up for reelection, announces he also will oppose the count from to talk through more of the fallout from this weekend's news, yamiche joins me along with congressional correspondent sa desjardins. just in the last few minutes, we have heard fallout from this call. but you have been talking to people of -- people around president trp, the biting people. action?e you learning in yamiche: president trump is standing by his stance on the fungal -- on the phone call,

saying he has done nothing wrong even though it is clear he is trying to have theio ele overturna in his favor. one call condemning the action from presidt biden -- from presidentlect biden. when you look at what president trump was doing today, he was ally lashing out at republicans, trying to get them to come on his se. he was calling some of them the surrender caucus. we have seen the president use the same language publicly. he has been tweeting it, aching vide about these false claims. we have heard in troubling terms about him trying to forceethe georgia sey of state to find votes for him. e georgia officials said they want to move on from this. they also said wyatt underscoreh

president trump to stay in office. they said they arecoocused on thnavirus pandemic. they also have a lot of work to do because they have not named and attorney geral. it is striking to see the president of the united states in a country like ours that supports democracy, to say here that he wants the election to be overturned. judy lisa, you have been reporting on the hl. what are you seeing and hearing in reaction from their? lisa: it is important to understand that everything republicans say right now depends onhether it affects the georgia senate race on either side. the georgia phone call.d about he ignored those questions. other republics have tried to tell me that they believe the president literally meant finding boxes of votes. democrats say, many of them say

they think this could be a criminal offense. one of them, house member, told ha he thinks it is impee. i also want to note that we have had a call for an fbi investigation. two house members, lieu and johnson, they are calling for a censure of the president. judy: meantime, there is also strong reaction from former outside of government.ders what are you hearing there? yamiche: thais right. today, we have heard a chorus of people say this action by the for the president hers toushing move forward. we saw the 10 living former secretaries of defense come out,

they served bothra dem and republicans in office including leon panet as well as dick eney. i want to read to you part of what this op-ed that they were -- that they wrote said. involve the armed forces would take us into dangerous, unlawful , and unconstitutional territory. they said that theyul s resist any attempt to try to get them not to do so. --me not to welhe new it ministration. we heard from many businessud leaders ing microsoft, pfizer, as well as the nba. they all said this is an election that is over. they said they want joe biden to turn tthe coronavirus pandemic because it haseen impacting businesses like their own. judy: this week, congress has cut and underway.

beit is going t very busy week. what should we know about that? >> apologies for that audio yesterday, in the house for speaker pelosi being reelected as speaker. narrow majority, she will be the democratic leader again. i think the real standout story was the covid concern. we know today t that one representatives in the chamber eryey, after she voted, after sheas there, several times during the day, tested positive. i want to also show you a picture of what the house chamber looked like during one of the swearing's in yesterday. you can see that there was a real lack of social distancing. most members were wearing mask other's proximity. in

there was very little socialng distan there is concern that perhaps the openg of the house session yesterday itself could have been a super sprinter event. of course, we have a major joint session about the electoral college just two days away. judy: which will involve a lot of people. we certainly hope that no one else tests positive but everyone is on the lookout. thank you both. >> i am stephanie with newshour west. we will return to the full show after the latest headlines. washinon, d.c., activated the tional guard ahead of expected protests against certifying president-elect biden's victory.

onoednesday, congress meets count the electoral votes, and president trump has called for mass demonstrations. today, d.c. mayor muriel bowser urged locals to stay away. mayor bowser: we will not allow people to incite violence, urintimidateesidents, or cause destruction in our city. so, agai we're asking dc residents and people who live in the region, to avoid confrontations with anybody who's looking for a fight. (trt >> some 340 national guard troops will be used for traffic will not be armed.roles, but one of the group's organizing protesters saw its group leader arrested today. he was taken into custody after arriving in waington. these is accused of burning a ack lives back -- black lives matter banner taken of a church last month.

he is also facing weapons charges. the fda release date statement tonight in response to calls by some medical officials to administer the first of two dosesf ccines to recipients. they said the u.t trials did include studies of peoplely who eceived one dose and that no change should be made to the full two-dose regimen. british officials imposed a new lockdown across england, as a new variant of the virus in the u.s., new york became at a case of that new strain.report iran says it has ramped up uranium enrichment again -- th to 20% purity. that is still far short of weapons grade. but today's announcement marks tehran's latest violation of a 2015 nuclear deal since president trump quit the pact in 2018.

so today, iran's revolutionary guard seized a south korean tanker ship and its crew. it happened near the entrance to hie persian gulf. iran claimed thehad -- the ship carrying chemicals had polluted the region's deters. the iranians havnded that south korea release $7 billiondo ars of assets frozen by u.s. sanctions. a british judge today refused to order wikileakfounder julian to face espionage charges. the judge said assange's mental health is so bad that he might kill himself. supporters erupted in cheers outside the couronce the ruling was announced. but assange's paner warned i's too soon to celebrate. e>> are extremely concerned that the u.s. government has decided to appeal this decision. it continues to want to punish julian and make him disappear

into the deepest, darkest whole of the u.s. prison system for the rest of his life. >> he is wanted in the u.s. for publhing thousands of leaked cilitary and diploma documents.still to come, the cos vaccine rollout remains sluggish across the country. trump pressures georgia's secretary of state to overturn his defeat. and much more. >> this is the pbs newshourrom weta studios in washington and from the west at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: the new yearfo has begun unately with a halting start in addressing the pandemic. a number of other countries are struggling with distribution of

vaccines, too. seral european nations said today that they are planning on delaying a second plan shot for the vaccine in order to reach more people with the first dose. all of this as a seemingly more contagious variant is spreading in the u.s. >> the line stretched for miles this morning. >> it has been a long journey for everybody. we are lucky that we are getting it today. >> countss americans are waiting for their first shot. hospitals at the frontline face increasing pressure to move quicker. >> hospitals that do not do a acgood job getting thene out will have their allocations transferred to hospitals that are doing a good job getting the vaccine out. >> only 15 million doses have been shipped nationwide.

thatru is far below the t administration's year end goal of vaccinating 20 million. but, year s d supplyt the only problem. acates are facing challenges ally getting them into people's arms. states like west virginia are moving quickly with more than 2000 per 100,000 already vaccinated. f in arizona and partse south, a stark difference. this slow and irregular pace means that the gap between delivery of vaccines and injections continues to grow in ohio, governor to wine asked hospitals to speed up the job and limit turnaround to 24 hours. today in new york, democratic governor andrew cuomo announced fines for hospitals that don't

e vaccines within a week of receiving them. >> i don't want the vaccine in a freezer. i want them in someone's arm. >>th skepticism is a problem dewine said about 60 percent of nursing home staff iinthe state de to get the vaccine. in all, only 4 and a half million americans have received the first of the two doses. these backlogsave led some ading public health voices to suggest delaying that second shot and using them instead to americans. dose to m but over the weekend, the top u.s. infectious disease expert, y fauci, warned against that. >> we don't know whether or not that's going to be good enough. we know wh the science tls us. let's do it the way the clinical trials have instructed us to d. >> the chief medical advisor foe operation warp, dr. moncef slaoui, suggested giving two half doses to stretch out the existing supply. >> injecting half the volume, i think that's a more r approach that would be based on facts and data.

>> dr. fauci also voiced optimism the pace of vaccination would soon pick up. >> in the last 72 hours they've gotten 1.5 mlion doses into people's arms which is an average of about 500,000 a day, which is much better than the beginning when it was much, much less than that. >> this hope comes amid fears of surging infection rates driven by holiday travel and gatherings for more on why this vaccine rollout is stuling and what se we might do to address it, i'm joined by dr. robert wachter. he's the head of the department of medicine at uc san francisco's medical school and he and dr. ashish jha wrote this ppll available vaccine immediately. grt to have you on the newshour. before we get to your idea, can u help us understand why from

your perspective, this i struggling? >> is a little bit surprising and a little bit odd. predicted this.f us could have but most thought bottleneck would be supply and it's been surprising how hard it's been to get vaccine into people's shoulders. it is complicated. we are ave big, e country. i think there has been relatively poor planning it has been under resourced. congress just passed a bill. the departments, hospitals that are reonsible for rolling out the vaccine.

i think we underestimated the complexity. william: you proposed this idea about delaying the second shots and using all of those shotsnd giving them to everyone as quickly possible. dr. wachter: the things that changed in my nd were the extent of the surge right now, which is devastating. the second thing, as we have discussed, the slowness of the rollout. th had been moving slowly since the end of december which is what w were told might happen. the third is this new variant we have heard about, which is real, clearly in the united states. more we look for it, the more will find it

and it is more infectious as the old covid there is a bit of a race to get more vaccinations into people's shoulders more quickly. what we know fthm trials, that were done using twohots 3-4 weeks apart. but they also looked at what happened to people after they got there first shot. it turned out ttht by the time got there second shot, that first shot was working awfully well. it was 85% to 90% effective. we don't argue that people shouldn't get the second shot. they should. the question is, if you have a vaccine in a syringe ready to go a few weeks from now, do you togive the people in their second dose to bump them from let's say 90% to 9 effective, or do you give a first dose andm get rom zero to 90% effective?

we did that math and thought we would save more lives. wiiam: let's say we did differ do you feel confident that protection from the first shot would last? dr. wachter: there have been tens of millions of people who have gotten covid in the world and the number of documented reinfection's we ve seen now over about a year you could count on a couple of hands. once you have immunity, it lasts for at least several months. are level of antibodiesed by the first shot in the trials were fairly high. t there is a little uncertainty and a possibility that some of the effectiveness would wane a bit but there are very few ppl who think it would wane so much that people would be massively vulnerable if they waited a few months. william: what about the possible concern that if you suddenly

changed the scheduling or dosing, you would wrap up skepticism already there about the vaccine? i think that is risk. i wish there was a riskless solution. tpeople have said t we've --pr thlem is, if you stuck with the plan as it is now,a tt carriege risk. the risk is that we are not going to be vaccinatin people for many months. as we drive down the highway, if i see a truck driving towards me in another lane, i veer out of the way. at this point, the ris of delay in getting particularly high-risk people vaccinated outweighs the risk of our plan i think one of the risks that has to be factored in is people

are seeing this asno yeter curveball. you told me i had to clean the mail, i now you tell on't. that is very real. there are social scientists who i think should be looking very hard at this. my o feeling is that the vaccine is remarkably effective. the safety record is remarkably impressive. at the end of the day, some people may want to wait and see. the amount of people dying from covid, i think at the end of the day, most people will want to get their shots. william: thank you very much. judy: we return to president trump's controversial hour-long phone call w secretary of state this weekend.

it raised a number of legal questions. for some answers, we turn to again to rick hasen. he's an election law professor at the university of california irvine, and author of the book "election meltdown." professor, welcome back to the newshour. as somebody who studies election law, what was your reaction? judy: my first reaction was, i can't believe it we january and re still talking about the election we held in november. i think that statements of the president were outrageous. he was clearly trying to pressure the geoia secretary of state to manufacture votes, to flip the results of the election. it really was the kind of election fraud he has been railing about for years. now we have the whole thing on tape.

judy: very sad, and you said clearly trying to pressure thta secretary of. where there legal questions? did he cckss the line? i think there is a good argument to be made that he violated federal law, which prevents one pson from trying get another to procure fraudulent vot, as well as georgia law, which mak ballot box stuffing a crime. in both of these cases, i think youave good circumstantial evidence from the call itself that the president was asking for there to be ballot box stuffing. the other question is one of intent. it was an hour-long long call, kind of meandering. the other question, does he believe the kind of wild conspiracy theories he has been spewing? argue that he does not have the

intent? for a jury.s would be a question to deprive the people of georgia to have a fair election it is a question that prosecutors on both the federal level and in georgia on the state level should be looking at. judy:t e the most concerning aspects of the call? he said, i need 11,000 votes i want you to fi. exactly the number over the difference between him and president-elect biden. what else did you hear him say that is mostg concern rick: saying that he wasway? potentially doing thither states. we are going to have a counting of thess votes in cong on

wednesday. the president's calls for wild protests in the country's capital on wednesday, all of it seems to be geared toward maximum chaos, towardakg what by all indications under legal rules appears to be a done deal that biden is the nexten pres, still up for grabs. it does suggest that he is still not accepting the election results. and we don't know, the next two weeks promise to be a dangerous meor american democracy if he continues to resist what courts and election officials go rough. judy: just quickly, back on the language the president used on this call, when he said to secretary of stateafnsperger

in georgia, he said you are taking a big risk with what you're doing. it had a threatening tone to it. rick: right. it sounds like almost a kind of extortion. the alcohol was kind of alternating between trying to flatter the secretary of state and trying threaten him to get what he wants, which is the manufacturing of votes. and that really is as bad as it gets when it comes to contestg elections, trying to stuff the ballot box. judy:er he said, is nothing wrong with saying you have recalculated. is the suggestion that the president is saying, find something that did not happen? rick: this election was recounted by hand. hif the been any problems with the voting machines, they woulhave been found with the

hand recount. there have been investigations by georgia, there have been court cases. there have been no findings of fraud anywhere in thent c votes.ould suggest finding new this is a political ploy to try and steal the election. judy: we heard georgia election officials say pretty much that in the news conferce this afternoon, saying that what the presidentd s was completely fabricated. professoick hasen, thank you ♪ery much. judy: now,lk let's bout what happened this week. lawmakers returned to shgton this week, control of

the u.s. senate still hangs in the balance. it is all coming down to two senate runoff electimorrow in georgia. our lisa desjardins is back with this report on the final push. lisa: four weeks, a platoon of the powerful has been flying one by one into georgia, including the current president and the one about to come president. .this is a ground w >> we have knocked on millionsrs of dalready made millions of phone calls. >> one of the field agents said he may like 1500 calls. that's amazing to me. [candidate vid] lisa: it is a politic doubles contest with the highest stakes. republican senators david perdue and kelly loeffler defending their seats against democrats jon ossoff and raphael warnock. if both democrats win, the party takes over the senate.

>> we are the last line of defense. lisa: republicans faced late campaign challenge when perdue had a covid exposure and entered quarantine last week. e,meanwh dozens of groups have deployed. everything from national parties to the georgia voter project. >> we have broughtn our most seasoned field directors from across the country into the state of georgia. we have people from california, virginia, and new york want to help. >> out of all of my years of doing this work, i havnever experienced what i am experiencing on the ground. lisa: la tosha brown co-founded the black voters matter fu four years ago to foster more ack turnout and registration. nearly a third of georgians are black, only mississippi has a higher propoion. asian-americanand hispanics,

together about 14 percent of the georgia population, are also key this election. but the black vote effort is particularly large with 60ni different ortions involved. the groups are creative, as seen in facebook videos: voter drives in parking lots and with new year's collard greens, as well as showing up in courthouses tot t proposed cuts from voter lists. in early voting, many of the counties with the biggest turnout have large blackon popula that may be out more than the senate. some 4 millioneorgians filed for unemployment in the pandemic. brn says the black communi was hit hard by the economic and health crises. >> we e seeing black voters literally disturbed with what they are seeing and committed to get out and vote. lisa: 72,000 voters including those who just turned 18, reo have registo vote since november.bu republicans say they match

all of that. the trump victory campaign and republican national committee have teamed up for a mammoth operation, a vote effort with $20 million thousands of people involved. >> as soon as they vote, we'll stop knocking on their door and calling their phones. lisa: in case voters aren't getting enough attention, there are also the ads. >> i am trying to keep how he acts under act -- under wrap for a long time and today he crossed the line. lisa: they have taken an ugly sometimes personal tur recently. ad spending in the race is near half a billion dollare than the trump campaign spent for its entire 2020 ad budget, according to the governmen transparency website "open voter pat miller of milton, georgia and her family are ready for it to stop. t >>nk we are l really bued out regdless of which side weus are f on.

these candidates could have doav themselves a and saved a lot of money by cutting dowison their adveg. people decided on this one a long time a which way they re going to vote. lisa:vi the president lasted the state in december. like them, his visit tonight is less o about winnir minds than getting on his voters. but some republicans fear the idprt's comes with confusion. against the votinem which has led some conservatives to say they are boycotting the senateaces. buzz brockway is a republican and former state house representative. >> that small percentage of people who have just decided to throw up their hands and say, forget the whole thing, is that a small number or a larger number? lisa: more than three million people have voted so fary mail or in-person. that is a record

for a run-off. >> i just want people outside of the state to know that we are taking it seriously, whether you agree with us or de't, w are all taking this very seriously. i think the turnout so far is evidence of that. judy: listening to lisa's report , we know that it is the first week of the year andlr a number of critical president stories from president trump's markable phone call with the georgia secretary of state to the electoral college count in congress here to analyze it all, our regular politics monday team. amy walter of the cook political report and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter." thd tamara keith of npr. she also co-host "npr politics podcast." let's start with georg where

lisa left off. so much about president trump's phone call. what does that senate runoff look like? both runoffs? amy: both sides feel like they are unclear what it will look like. democrats seem to feel better than they did in the normal general election in november, in the early vote within thent ab and people who showed up to vote early and in person. people are counting on -- a ayrong turnout on election which they were successful in and many of these states, like texas and florida. the turnout was unprecedented and in many ways unexpected. it is really important for

republicans to have bi energy turnout. forra dem to be able to meet at least some of that on electionay rather than just hoping that their early vote is enough. and whether or not this call will impact anything, i am sort of skeptical about that, in part because as the voter pointed out , people have made up their minds a long time ago. what is happening in washingtona or the president is doing or not doing i think has more impact on the race than at another time. i alsohink that the bigger challenge for so many is a question abouts motivation t is where republicans are little bit nervous. i think they wonder if, by saying that this process is rigged, questioning, that they

may not, to vote. i think that trump has been successful in turning that into a rallying cry. don't let them steal our votes. biden today did not mention the phone callt all. the barely mentioned donald trump. instead, he said the steaks were really about being able to get more money into the state to handle the pandemic, a into people's hands the $2000 stimulus checks. judy: yet there has been so much static around the atesident and e has been saying. there is a question about whether wh he has done will suppress turnout, raise turnout. again, you heard this top elections official today, heard him say repeatedly, please, vote. at the same time, he was criticizing what the president

said yesterday. tamara: all of this fighting between republicans in thee. st the president threatening to go after the repubcan governor, encouraging a primary challenge to him this back-and-forth is so much noise and so muc static. i see this as a test of coattails, both for the incoming and outgoing president. president trump believes and has at times been ab to drag people across the finish line. can he do that again? n he do that in this runoff, whichli i a test two. it is isolated, getting so much attention and focus. for joe biden, heris someone who won the presidency buts lot se the house and did not

do as well in the senate as democrats looked to do. can he help ese candidates? amy is right that his message was not about president trump. the way he handled trump was simply to say that he did not expect tm to be loyal to the voters and the criticism he had ofte the republican in georgia was that they were loyal to president trump. dy: it is hard to remember two senate runoffs in the same state at the same time, but to remember something where so much is hanging as we said, balance of power in thsenate. let's turn to what is happening on wednesday and that is the challenge that we now know, 13 republican senators are going te

aking to the electoral vote count. what do we make of it? what do ucsd calculus on the part of the senators? and how long-lasting a splits this in the republican ranks? amy: the split betweeneorgia republicans and the president, this split between those who want to challenge the electoral college counting, still allegations of voter fraud that should be investigated, and republicanin the senate who say, no, we are --

immediate gratification. that is the dividing line right now. itas always been there. under trump, it has gotten even more extreme. do wonder, when trump is no longer in the white house, does this sort of fate because the focus goes back onto governing and quite frankly goes back onto the new president, which is. joe biden. judy: the questiontis, how long-l is this split going to be? it is such an interesting divide

to see conservative republicans divided over this. tamara: i am not convinced that this rift over the future of the republican party or what it stands for, i am not this gets resolved before there is a 2024 nomin, especially with president trump at least on some level o danglin the idea that he could be a candidate. you have all the senators and governors, people who would be candidates in 2024, some are on different sides about what to do to this policy thing. justo be clear, there is no way this ends with donald trump being the next president of the united states. nthere ispath for this to succeed. which is why mitch mcconnell for instance did n want to go through the exercise.

which is why someone like mitt romney is saying it is bad for democracy to have this public show r to continue se doubts. so, you had potential candidates fo 2024 on different sides of the debate and t ink you will see these people lining up on different sides o various debates. judy: frozen in a number of ways. amy, the senators who are standing up t theirh leaders, miconnell, had pleaded objections on wednesday. >> many of them are looking beyond their terms. when you think about how long where we come back to georgia.

who is in charge of the senate, with -- it will be interesting toee, if democrats control the senate in 2021, ifse tisks continue, can joe biden reach out and pick off some republicans like mitt romney, lisa murkowski, susan collins, to show that there is bipartisan advantage, or do those factions go together when it is all aboui prot the republican majority in a midterm election? judy: so much hanging on these next two days. georgia vote tomorrow in the senate and the house looking at the electoral college on wednesday. thank you both.

in a worldhese days of xoom and facetime, cversation might be more critical than ever to find connection. here is arief but stick -- but spectacular take from renowned designer fred dust on how we can all talk better together. i am talking to you from my kitchen. i think the first thnology that stole it away from us was the moment that we gave our dinner over television, which we did an about the 1950's, we started to lose conversation in america and in the world. myr motppened to be a phenomenal listener. she had one of those faces. however, my mother had a stroke i was 24 and was not able to

listen well ever again. when you lose someone or she is kind of on in some capacity, you reize that your life needs to be really full. rilized my life needed to be full by meeting as many people and having as many conversations as i could. i was a gay kid raised in a private school by my father who was ate headm who wanted a perfect son. so i had to play soccer and date eerleaders. i was lost in a persona that was not a. at the same time, aids had hit, so we were basical seeing the genocide of gay men. i was afraid at that point to come out. when i finally did, it was act up, an activist organization. conversatis at their best are conversations wherepl p feel like they are safe. there is a lot that you can design into a conversation that

ge that. i had somebody hunting our property. i size truck which had a bunch of stickers of a candidate i was not voting for. i justd walwn and introduced myself. i said, just fyi, if you are hunting, we have dog, kids running around, just be careful. sa, also, we love venison. drawn by some venison. we did not even have a conversation about politics. we just had a conversatioabout him, his son. that is the beginning of a conversation we could have for a long time. o have a counterintuitiv idea for conversation. enou can't talk to somebody, just make something with them. i had a you woman lately who said her father is teaching her how to play golf because she does not want to talk about litics. i think everythi in the world is designed.

the role of designti or crty is to think very carefully about the things you make. one of the most important things we make is conversation. conversations fuel change every time we have a conversation. my name is fre dust and this is my bri yet spectacular take on making conversation. judy: you can find all of our brf but spectacular segments on our website. gos.org/newshour//brief. we will be bringing you that iran and iraq reportedly told you about tomorrow night. for all of us at the pbs newshour test, thank you. -- at the pbs newshour, thank you. please stay safe. >> major funding has been provided by -- >> architect, beekeeper, mentor.

a raymond james financi' advisor tay's advice to help you li your life. life well planned. >> consumer cellular. >> johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. the candida fund,tt commi to investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at candidafund.org. ♪ >> the alfred p. sloane foundation. driven by the promise of greatea >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to a more just, verdant, and peaceful world and, with the ongoing

support of these institutions. this program w made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting in contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. this is pbs newshour west, from w eta studios in washingtonnd from our bureau at the walter aonkite school of journalism arizona state university. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -welcome to "america's test kitchen at home." to'm making a foolproof recipe for chile verde con cerdo. jack's gonna tell us all about the world of chili products, and elle is going to make refreshing cóctel de camarón.