captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight... "incitement to insurrection"-- the u.s. house of representatives votes to impeach president trump for fomenting the violent mob that attacked congress. then, questions remain: the delayed response by the pentagon and national guard to the riot at the capitol raises concerns about security ahead of the inauguration. and, covid's long shadow-- doctors scramble to solve the mystery of why many survivors of coronavirus infections experience severe symptoms far beyond their initial sickness. >> my experience has been intense, acute illness, followed

by continued acute illness for months on end. so it's been about six months now that i've been sick. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

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and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: it is just seven days since the nation watched a mob storm the united states capitol. today, americans watched again, as the house of representatives impeached president trump on a charge of instigating the assault. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins reports on how this historic day unfolded. >> desjardins: the u.s. capitol, still a recovering crime scene, today saw more extraordinary history, as the democratic-led house moved with unprecedented speed to impeach a president and, for an unprecedented second time. >> he st go. he is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love. >> it's always been about getting the president, no matter what.

it's an obsession, an obsession that is now broadening. >> desjardins: all of this directly connected to the riot that engulfed the capitol one week ago, killing five people, injuring dozens. president trump had encouraged supporters to march to the capitol, those calling for impeachment say these words incited violence. >> we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. >> desjardins: but the president's supporters point to these words as evidence otherwise. >> i know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. >> desjardins: that is the impeachment charge and question: did the president “willfully incite violence against the government of the united states”? passionate democrats insisted today he must be held accountable. >> the president of the u.s. instigated an attempted coup in this country. people died. everybody should be outraged, whether you're a democrat or republican. if this is not an impeachable

offense, i don't know what the hell is. this president is not fit to remain in office! >> the president not only incited an insurrection against our government, but has in word and deed, led a rebellion. for us to be able to survive as a functioning democracy, there has to be accountability. we must impeach and remove this president from the office immediately, so that he cannot be a threat to our democracy. >> desjardins: today's efforts came after vice president mike pence sent a letter to house speaker nancy pelosi last night announcing he would not invoke the 25th amendment and strip the president of his duties, saying it would “set a terrible precedent.” in the chamber, the president's supporters rejected impeachment. >> if we impeached every politician who gave a fiery speech to a crowd of partisans,

this capitol would be deserted. that's what the president did. that is all he did. he specifically told the crowd to protest peacefully and patriotically and a vast majority of themid. but every movement has a lunatic fringe. >>his country is hurting. the people are hurting. our colleagues are hurting. this is reckless impeachment. this will only bring up the hate and fire more than ever before. have a conscience. put the people before politics. unify this country. >> desjardins: but in a rare rebuke of any president, even some of his own party leaders and closest allies said he was responsible for what happened. house republican leader kevin mccarthy: >> some say the riots were caused by antifa. there is absolutely no evidence of that.

the president bears responsibility for wednesday's attack on congress by mob rioters. he should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. >> desjardins: mccarthy stopped short of impeachment. but other republicans like washington's jaime herrera beutler voted to impeach. >> my vote to impeach our sitting president is not a fear- based decision, i'm not choosing a side, i am choosing truth. it's the only way to defeat fear. >> desjardins: in all, 10 republicans threw their support behind impeachment. the final vote was 232 to 197. it was one of the shortest presidential impeachment debates in american history, but it was incredibly passionate, with fear and blame woven together. >> just one week ago, almost to the hour i laid right there on the floor of the gallery above us, i heard gunshots in the speaker's lobby. i heard a mob pounding on the door. and what they were trying to do, they were all an angry mob

incited by the president trying to stop certification of a legitimate election. it's clear the president learned nothing in the last year. >> rather than actually helping the american people, in this time, we start impeachments that further divide our country. i call bull crap when i hear the democrats demanding unity. sadly they are only unified in hate. >> desjardins: as the debate went forward, physical reminders of what sparked it were clearly in evidence. national guard troops lined up in front of the capitol, and sleeping inside, camping out on the marble floors of the capitol, finding nks next to statues, as they rotate on and off duty. laakers themselves faced new unprecedented security, now required to pass through metal detectors when entering the house chamber, and face masks are now mandatory, under penalty of a $50fine for violations. for his part, the president todasent out a statement urging calm.

he wrote, “i urge there must be no violence, no lawbreaking, no vandalism of any kind. that is not what i stand for.” meanwhile, there were more arrests in the investigation into last week's capitol siege. robert keith packer, who was pictured wearing a “camp auschwitz” sweatshirt when he stormed the capitol, was taken into custody this morning in virginia. officials now are looking toward the inauguration, and d.c. mayor muriel bowser said today the security operation has intensified amid fears of renewed violence. >> clearly, we are in uncharted waters and it is very important that we work with all of our partners to secure these events and secure these parts of our city. certainly this time last year we didn't expect to be in this situation. >> desjardins: city officials said upwards of 20,000 national guard troops will patrol the district. that's four times the total number of u.s. troops in

afghanistan and iraq. >> woodruff: and lisa joins me now from the capitol. so, lisa, you've been telling us that this was not an easy decision for many republicans. tell you us a little bit more about the 10 who voted to impeach and why. >> that's right. the vast majority of republicans, nearly 200 of them, voted not to impeach. but let's talk about those 10 who voted to impeach. let's look at who they were. here is the list of those 10 house republicans who voted to impeach the president. now, these districts range from dick cheney's in wyoming, which voted by 46 points for president trump in 2016 to john katko in new york, which voted for hilary clinton, conservatives to mod rats. what these folks have in common, judy, from their statements today is they feel the president did in fact directly call for these attacks on the capitol, that he is directly sponsible and it is an impeachable offense. these members also know it is a great political risk for many of them facing possible primary challenges from the right because of this in two years, but also potential personal

threat to them as well. we have seen some increases in those threats here at the capitol. >> woodruff: and, lisa, i want to ask you about that, because, again, during the day, you were reporting on the mood there at the capitol, this sense of tension, worry about threats that have been thrown around in connection with all this. >> reporter: judy, there has been unease at the capitol for a long time, but in the last week, that has grown into straight-out alarm. while people havgotten threats throughout the trump presidency, both sides, we have seen the number of threats, especially against republicans, rise i want to play a soundbite from republican dusty johnson from south dakota, and he talked about the threat he himself is receiving just in the last 24 hours. >> just today, just this moirng, one of my offices received a threat against my life. i have received other threats against my safety-- my address, a picture of my home where my family lives was posted on kind

of an anti-dusty facebook page. >> reporter: ...the impeachment vote, and they really did believe that a vote for impeachment was something that could put themselves and their family at personal risk. at the same time, they all took it seriously, as well, on a philosophical level. this was a political and personal very difficult decision for many of them. it has been a difficult mood here today at the capitol-- sad, also some fear. but i do want to point out one bright spot. just a few minutes ago, house speaker nancy pelosi signed the article of impeachment to get it ready for the senate. that's not the bright spot, necessarily. but she signed it on-- she used the podium that had been stolen from her from the house, from her chamber, by the rioters. that was brought back, and she used it as, clearly, a statement that the house is back in full operation. >> woodruff: really interesting and good to see that that was received-- that it was returned to the capitol. and, lisa, finally, what about

the senate? i mean, this does now go snet. what do we know about what happens there? >> reporter: so much to say, many fascinating developments there, judy. today, senate republican leader mitch mcconnell said he is open to impeachment, but he has not decided for it yet. he also let it be known that he does not-- he will not sign on to a fast trial, meaning the soonest the trial could happen in the senate is after the senate reconvenes. that next date is january 19, the day before inauguration. mcconnell and his staff, those around him, are making it clear that he does not think it is all-- at all conducive to governing to have impeachment go on before inauguration, that he wants to try and have a stable transition of power, and that an impeachment before president-elect biden takes office would not be helpful to that. so it's now clear that the senate will move forward with the trial after president-elect biden takes office, and we know several senate republicans are

undecided, moon them pat toomey of pennsylvania and another question to be resolved: can you-- there will be a debate-- can you impeach a president after he has left office? there is some precedent, but there will be debate. >> woodruff: seems like a lot is unclear about where this goes from here on. but, lisa desjardins, reporting on it all. thank you, lisa. >> reporter: you're welcome. >> woodruff: and now we go to our yamiche alcindor. so, yamiche, president trump becomes the first president in american history to be impeached twice. what do we know about how he is reacting to this? >> reporter: president trump is furious at the idea that his marred legacy became even more tarnished today as he became the first britain to be impeached twice. the president spent most of the day watching tv, watching the impeachment vote and debate play out on tv. the president in some ways was really lashing out at people because what he saw were republicans saying that he betrayed his oath of office.

of course, along with democrats saying that he is a walking impeachment offense. the president also just, in the last few seconds, released a five-minute video where he says that no supporter of his would be involved in any sort of violence or any sort of attack on law enforcement. he also said, though, that he's very worried about this free speech issue, saying there are attempts to cancel people and to try to unfairly target people for free speech. there were some defenders of the president who were talking about free speech. i have to tell you, he is talking about a small group of people defending him, because the number of people i talked to today, say even if this is about free speech, they still believe the president should not have said what he said. >> woodruff: and, yamiche, picking up on that, what do we know about how the president would deal with a senate trial? as lisa just reported, it's not clear there will be one, if it happens after he leaves office. but what are they thinking? what are they planning? >> reporter: i spoke to a number of legal experts today,

including a lawyer for president trump, and it's clear that he's going to have some real problems recruiting lawyers. alan dershowitz, who was one of the lead attorneys during the first impeachment, told me president trump had the right to say what he said but it was not right for him to say what he said. there are a number of other attorneys who are not going to be part of this defense, including jay sekulow, the white house council. pat cipolloney. the only person we think of right now who is going to be part of that defense for sure is rudy giuliani, the president's personal attorney, who has at times spread false information. we have to see where this goes. the defense, though, will be about free speech. they will also be arguing this this is a political hatch job and witch hunt against the president which is what he said today in the video he referenced and released today. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor, reporting on the reaction at the white house. yamiche, thanks so much.

>> woodruff: we will now hear from members of congress about how they voted in the second impeachment trial of president trump. joining me first is republican congressman adam kinzinger of illinois. he is among a handful of republicans who broke from their party to vote in favor of impeaching the president. >> congressman kinzinger, thank you very much for join us. explain to us why you decided to vote for impeaching president trump. >> well, look, this is-- this is a heavy day for america, but it's been a really heavy for america prior to the election, but more importantly, after the election when the president began using the four years of having developed this argument and began executing on this idea that democracy doesn't work, the election was stolen. of course i predicted violence for weeks leading up to the 6th, but the 6th was the

culminatn-- hopefully the culmination of that violence coming to here. and, look, when you have the president of the united states, the article 2 part of the constitution incite and send and ignite a mob to attack the article 1 branch, that is nothing short of an insurrection. i think most people can look at that and know that the president has both built the foundation and executed the command to do it. and if that is not impeachable, i don't know what is. politics is important to a lot of people, but this is a moment that transcends politics and will be written and etched in history and in the arc of the future of the this country. >> woodruff: was this a hard decision for you, congressman? i'm asking, because as you know, the majority of your republican colleagues were saying, yes, they don't like, necessarily, what he said, but they don't think he's to blame for the entire mob taking over the capitol. and in any event, he shouldn't be impeached over it?

>> truthfully, it was not a hard decision. i mean, it was hard to go through with it because, bottom line is, you're impeaching a president a second time. it's never something that should be easily done. but i think the evidence was not something we had to go discover. it was brought right to us on the 6th. and i've been calling out conspiracy theories, particularly for the last year. and i've seen this foundation be developed. i've seen people not push back and bring light to darkness. and this was the culmination of it. it was not a difficult decision for me. i know the ramifications will be big. but that's not why i took this job, just to get reelected. i took it to make a difference, and this was absolutely important for the oath that i signed, that i swore upon, not just as a member of congress but as a military member. >> woodruff: what do you think the ramifications will be for you? >> well, i think it remains to be seen. i think there's going to be a real reckoning in the republican

party. you know, what brought us to this point and what's our future look like? i don't know who's going to win that, but i know i'm going to fight like hell to restore our conservative principles again and return respect to politics. so i think we'll find out. it could be an okay future, and it could be a future that, you know, i'm rejected because it's not the party i want to belong to anyway. >> woodruff: congressman kinzinger, i'm told we have an excerpt from president trump's video that he has released, i guess within the hour. i'm going to play just a little bit of it and come back to you on the other side. let's listen. >> no true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence. no true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great american flag. no true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow americans. if you do any of these things, you are not supporting our

movement. you're attacking it, and you are attacking our country. >> woodruff: congressman adam kinzinger, what do you make of what the president just said? >> well, it's certainly a speech they wish would have come out during this, on the day. but i don't think this exxon rats the president. all you have to do is look at the base that was built, the lies that the election was stolen, despite the evidence, the misinformation that was sent to people, many of which are close to us that have been brainwashed to believe that this place is being run by a satan pedophile ring like q. pushes. i'm glad the president said what he said given the potential for future violence, but the bottom line is, he needed to be saying this a long time and the election wasn't stolen. >> woodruff: what about the argument that a number of your colleagues made today that why go through with this when the president couldn't be removed from office?

the senate, we now know, is not going to take this up, at least leader mcconnell is saying won't take it up until the day before the inauguration, at the soonest, at the earliest. so is it worth it, i guess is the question, if president trump lives out, you know, sees out the rest of his time in office? >> well, i initially called for the vice president to invoke the 25th amendment, because it was immediate. i also didn't think it was necessarily wise to bring up impeachment, but the second i knew it was going to be in front of me, i had no doubt which way i'd vote. but i do think this is sending a very strong message. everything out here is a precedent. if we allowed anything like what happened, which is unthinkable, to go without the congress making a statement and preventing "a," donald trump from running again, but also coming on the record very forcefully that we respect our institutions. we respect the separation of powers. we could face this again. and every one of my colleagues out here would have lost their

moral authority to ever be outraged again. so i think it was the right thing to do. and, you know, yeah, there will be politics. there will be some more heat. but i think in the long run, this is important for our country to heal and move on. >> woodruff: but you still have the vast majority of your republican colleagues saying they still think there was a lot of fraud committed in this election, that it's just-- that there are still questions about the legitimacy of joe biden's win. >> so, it's one thing to be concerned about voter issues. it's another thing to say what is being said by these folks, and some of them. look, every video that's put out as evidence is, in its full context, debunked. all these conspiracy theories have been debunked. and i think it's imperative and essential for the fufort republic and the republican party that we tell the truth, that we take the towth position. we don't avoid the temporary pain of telling people what they don't want to hear, and instead

we can avoid the long-term pain of sings like insurrection. yes, does the impeachment feel rushed? sure. the president has seven days left. but all the evidence was there in front of us, and the bottom line is this was the right move. i wish more had joined me. i think for every day that goes by, there are going to be more that wish they had, too. >> woodruff: congressman adam kinzinger of illinois who cast a very big vote today. congressman, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank >> woodruff: i'm now joined by democratic congressman from texas, joaquin castro. he is one of the managers of this impeachment trial. congressman castro, welcome back to the newshour. we appreciate your joining us. you voted yes, along with every other democrat in the house. what message do you believe your

vote and the votes to impeach is sending? >> donald trump incited a deadly insurrection against the united states government at the u.s. capitol last week, and there have to be consequences for a president for doing that. and that's why i voted to impeach donald trump, and also hope that the senate will convict him. >> woodruff: you heard your republican colleagues, other members of the house today argue time after time that this was rushed, that it didn't give the president due process. he didn't have a chance to make his own case, that the house skipped the committee and went straight to the floor and did this in just a matter of a few hours. do you have concern that history will look back on this as a rushed impeachment? >> i actually do not. i think the evidence comes from the president's own words

repeatedly telling a big lie about want election being stolen from him, when this was, by the government's own account, the most secure election that we've ever had in american history. and the president repeatedly told those lies. he incited his supporters to believe them, asked them to come march to the capitol last week, and then some of them took action and committed an insurrection. and so i think the president's own words have doomed him. >> woodruff: your colleagues who, again, on the floor today-- we're a week away from the auguration-- still saying that-- a number of them still saying that thablg there are questions about the election, e legitimacy of joe biden's win. how do you see the house going forward with that-- with the

giant shadow that the president's allegations have cast over the beginning of the biden presidency? it looks like we may have a technical issue with our skype connection with congressman castro. we're going to try to get that back. let's see if we can get it back. i was talking with congressman joaquin castro, who voted, along with every other democrat in the house of representatives today and 10 republicans to impeach president trump for inciting an insurrection, in effect, being the principal cause behind the mob that overran the capitol one week ago today. we have been talking with congressman castro from his office, and we just lost the signal. it sometimes happens in this squirrelly technological time that we live in. so we're waiting right now to

see if we can get it back, and if we can't, we're going to have to move on, but i hope we can. let's see. all right. it looks like we're not able >> woodruff: as congress and law enforcement officials beef up security today and in preparation for the inauguration of joe biden in exactly one week, we thought we would look at the security arrangements that were in place the day the capital was assaulted last week. what did officials expect and why was the national guard not in a position to respond. nick schifrin looks at what happened on january 6, minute by minute. >> schifrin: january 6 dawned with a fateful decision already made. d.c. national guardsmen deployed to intersections and metro stops. but the city and military agreed there would only be 340, all

unarmed. federal authorities including the capitol police declined guard help. the assumption was, they wouldn't be needed. >> today is the day that american patriots start taking down names and kicking ass! (screams) >> schifrin: at 9:13 a.m., president trump's supporters began to speak, and fill the ellipse, in the shadow of the white house. >> now it is up to congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. >> schifrin: 12:15 p.m., president trump departs from his teleprompter, and urges the crowd to fight. >> we're going walk down to the capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you'll never take back our country with weakness. >> schifrin: 38 minutes laterdhn

and a mile and a half away, as president trump continued speaking, his supporters arrived at the edge of the capitol, and fought with capitol police. 30 second later, they were through. thousands approached the capitol's base, and more capitol police. the two sides faced off. by 1:15, they clashed on the capitol steps. that's almost exactly when president trump concluded his speech, once again urging supporters to the capitol. >> so let's walk down pennsylvania avenue, i want to thank you all, god bless you, and god bless america. >> schifrin: president trump drove back to the white house as his supporters streamed by the thousands, east to the capitol. that's when, at 1:30 p.m., d.c. mayor muriel bowser called army secretary ryan mccarthy and requested an additional few hundred guardsmen, who had already been put on 12-hour recall. mccarthy agreed.

but by then it was too late. 2:00 p.m., rioters violently broke into the capitol itself. 2:20 p.m., capitol police struggled to hold their ground. at that exact moment capitol police chief steven sund called dc national guard commander gen. williawalker and army secretary ryan mccarthy. sund pleaded for as many national guardsmen as possible-- the same guardsmen he says he had been blocked from requesting days before. the army says mccarthy “ran” to acting defense secretary chris miller for approval. it was granted at 3:00 p.m. but the d.c. national guard needed to call in the rest of its guardsmen. and the guard who'd already deployed, needed to go back to the d.c. armory to pick up riot shields, and get briefed on a new, more confrontational mission. there was no cavalry on instant standby. meanwhile, the capitol descended into violence. members of congress sheltered. insurrectionists fought police. as lawmakers hid, rioters sat in their seats. the capitol had been overrun. still, other states wanted to help.

at 3:46 p.m., national guard bureau commander general daniel hokanson spoke with the head of the virginia national guard. at 4:40 p.m., mccarthy spoke with maryland governor larry hogan. the pentagon says none of the virginia or maryland national guard could arrive until the next day. but hogan said the approval process took too long. >> so we had multiple times, the general was, we would run it up the flagpole, we're ready. don't have authorization. don't have authorization. i can't tell you what was going on on the other end on the decision-making process. >> schifrin: the d.c. national guard falls under multiple jurisdictions, and military officials acknowledge its deployment is bureaucratic. >> thank you mayor bowser. >> schifrin: at 4:50 p.m., after most of the damage was already done, army secretary ryan mccarthy acknowledged deploying the d.c. guard wasn't easy. >> there was additional request that came forward from the capitol police, and for us to truly understand the specifics behind the request, and how we would support the operations, a lot of questions were asked, a little bit of confusion, but as >> schifrin: military officials believe local and federal

authorities underestimated the potential for violence, and should have asked for more help. but they also acknowledge they were stung by their association to june's violent clearing of black lives matter protests. so before and after the election, they took pains to ensure t military had no role. and when law enforcement authorities didn't request national guard at a rally protesting the election results, the military was eager to comply. by 6:45 p.m., buses full of national guard arrived outside the capitol, and some already there will be as many as 20,000 of them in d.c. for next week's inauguration, when military and local officials say they are eager, instead of hesitant, for a show of force. and that show of force will include guardsmen who are armed. you can see that already today, guardsmen with long rifles, helmets, and body armor that's an acknowledgement of what the d.c. police chief calls a "major security threat."

d.c. is asking people not to come to the city, and is trying to cancel all public protest permits. it includes scheduled protests for this weekend as well as next week's inauguration. those security fears extend to all 50 state capitols, where the f.b.i. says protests will take place as well. and to discuss that part of the story, i'm joined by michigan's attorney general dana nessel. thank you very much. welcome back to the newshour. what happened last week here at the capitol in washington, d.c., sadly, must have felt all too familiar to you. back in april, of course, in lansing, armed protesters entered the building. they demanded to access a legislative chamber. do you think federal authorities should have done more to recognize that that event in april was almost a prelude to what happened here last week? >> i absolutely do. i think that michigan in many ways was ground zero and was,

you know, a dry run, if you will, to see what could happen in the event that people tried to take over a state capitol. you know, they were successful in the event of what happened in lansing in april. they chose not to do anything, but we know from those who plotted to kidnap and execute the governor that one of their alternative plans was actually to take over the state capitol, either blow it up or to begin executing people inside of it. so i do think that those who decided to take over the nation's capitol saw what happened in lansing, were encouraged by it, and decided to do the same thing in washington, d.c. and in fact, many of the people that were at the michigan capitol in april were also at the capitol last week. >> schifrin: let's look forward now. yesterday, you teeted that the michigan capitol building is "not safe." what are you concerned about?

>> i'm concerned about firearms in the building. at long last, we still don't have metal detectors. they're not going to be wanding people. essentially, people could bring in virtually anything that they want and they're not prohibited from doing so. so, of course, i am gravely concerned that people will bring firearms into the building or perhaps some sort of device, which, you know, could be an explosive device of some sort. and that is not a safe set of circumstances when you is have thousands and thousands of threats against lawmakers in our state, and against lawmakers all across the country. it's a recipe for disaster. >> schifrin: thousands of threats against lawmakers in your state, but also a specific threat this weekend, the f.b.i. saying there will be armed protests in state capitols over the weekend. and they specifically warned that supporters of the so-called boogaloo movement are planning to commit violence in michigan

and minnesota. oare state, are federal authorities doing enough to prepare for this weekend's events? >> well, i know that there's going to be coordination between federal authorities and state authorities, and, also, local and municipal authorities. and, of course, those at the capitol buildings well since i imagine everything will be geared towards that. of course, on sunday, the capitol building is closed. they're building a fence around it. the national guard, i'm told is coming in. and there's going to be a very heavy police presence. but next week, our legislature is scheduled to be in session. and when they are in session, according to the open meetings act that we have in our state, it has to be open to the public as well. so those meetings have to be accessible. so my concern is what then? if you're going to allow people to come in and you are not going to ensure that they do what they do in every single courthouse in the state of michigan, which is just to make sure that people

are not carrying firearms or explosive devices, how can you ensure that you are keeping the members of the public who are there, our lawmakers, and the staff at the capitol building safe? >> schifrin: you mentioned the national guard. governor whitmer, as i understand, had not yet said that in fact the national guard would be deployed on sunday, even though lansing's mayor has asked for it. will the national guard be deployed? >> my understanding is that, yes, they will be. >> schifrin: parler and other social media organizations where these right wing extremists have been coordinating are being taken down, and there are reports that they are using encrypted apps. does that present a concern to you that you might not be able to know what's coming? >> well, i think it means that we have to be more vigilant than ever. and those who are in law enforcement who are charged with monitoring those types of spaces are going to have to really step up their game and make sure that they're on top of it and make sure they understand exactly who

is communicating with who and what if any plans are being made? i will say, i think it's going to be more difficult for the average person who wants to participate. they're really going to have to be deep down in the weeds for them to know exactly what if any plans are being made if they're not going to be able to use the other types of social media platforms that people have become more accustomed to and that are easier to access. >> schifrin: and finally, it seems to me since 9/11, this country's national security has been so focused and we have fought wars over the threat of international terrorism. do you believe it's time to shift some of that focus? >> absolutely. we know that domestic terrorism is the biggest threat to our nation right now. anwe need to become more focused on it. unfortunately, i think what we've seen for a very long time is that as long as you had people who really were domestic terrorists but at the same time were supportive of the federal administration-- and by that i

mean specifically president trump-- you had a federal government that was really unwilling to take the proper and appropriate steps to combat it. >> schifrin: michigan attorney general dana nessel, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, pandemic deaths in the u.s. hit another high-- more than 4,300 on tuesday. that word came as officials pushed to accelerate vaccinations. today, the national association of chain drug stores offered to help. the trade group saidembers can easily meet president-elect biden's goal of 100-million vaccinations in his first 100 days, if they get the doses. the president-elect today picked

samantha power to lead the u.s. agency for international development. the position will now become a member of the national security council. power served as ambassador to the united nations under president obama. new york city is terminating all contracts with the trump organization, ter the assault on the u.s. capitol. mayor bill de blasio accused the president today of fomenting the attack. >> we will no longer being doing any business at all. by the contract language, we have the right to terminate contracts, obviously, if a crime has been committed and a criminal act has been committed. so, goodbye to the trump organization. >> woodruff: the trump organization said it will fight the move meanwhile, youtube suspended president trump's account on its platform for a week, the latest social media company to curb his online presence. israel carried out a wave of air-strikes in eastern syria

today, targeting iranian-backed fighters and weapons stockpiles. syrian state media says the raids hit towns near the iraqi border. a war monitor group said at least 57 fighters were killed. in north korea, the ruling party's congress came to a close with kim jong un calling for a beefed-up nuclear arsenal. state tv showed thousands party members applauding the northan g in pyongyang. he vowed to oppose what he called "hostile forces." >> ( translated ): by accelerating the push to make our military more elite and stronger, we need to have them thoroughly prepared to play their role against any form of threats or unexpected situations. >> woodruff: north korea faces the toughest challenges of kim's nine-year rule, from u.s. sanctions to the pandemic to disastrous crop failures. the united states today imposed the toughest measures yet

against china's repression of uighur muslims. u.s. officials will block all imports of cotton and tomatoes from the xinjiang region that is home to the uighurs. more than one million uighurs and others are said to be in concentration camps, subject to forced labor and other abuses. in this country, a woman on federal death row has been executed, for the first time in nearly 70 years. lisa montgomery of kansas was put to death by lethal injection early today after the u.s. supreme court cleared the way. she had killed a pregnant woman and cut the baby from the womb, in 2004. the federal budg deficit shattered records at the end of 2020, fueled by pandemic relief spending. the u.s. treasury said today that the red ink topped $573 billion from october through december. that's 60% higher than a year earlier. and, on wall street, the dow

jones industrial average lost eight points to close at 31,060. the nasdaq rose 56 points, and, the s&p 500 added eight points. >> woodruff: their symptoms run the gamut: from shortness of breath to heart palpitations to extreme fatigue. they've become known as long haulers-- people who've been infected with covid-19 but can't seem to rid their bodies of its effects months later. as the number of cases keeps climbing in surges around the country, it means more and me people will be struggling with similar problems. this medical mystery has the medical community scrambling. stephanie sy has this report.

>> sy: this is greg rosen trying to go for a short run a few weeks ago. >> i had to stop because i couldn't this was greg rosen before covid, sprinting to finish lines in marathons, road races and relays across the country. >> even the other day the act of folding towels left me breathless. >> covid has left me with some nasty migraines. >> sy: baltimore middle school teacher chimére smith has spent the better part of the last nine months in bed. >> it felt like a ghost or a monster had started to inhabit my body. >> sy: and new jersey father of three and guidance counselor dane tabano has terrible brain fog. >> when it's when it gets bad, i get like this buzzing and ringing in my ears and my short term memory is really poor. >> sy: and he's also struggled with tachycardia, elevated heart rate, since july. that makes it tough for the former university of michigan wrestler to run his wrestling school. >> if i actually stood in front of an athlete now and try to

work out with them in a wrestling practice. i don't think i could sustain more than five to ten minutes at this point. but back when i was in the worst of it, i probably wouldn't even do two or three minutes. >> sy: these three previously healthy individuals are in their 20s, 30s and 40s and are now suffering long haul covid. >> my experience has been intense, acute illness, followed by continued acute illness for months on end. so it's been about six months now that i've been sick. >> sy: are you somebody that got sick a lot before? >> no, i have no underlying health conditions. >> i had no idea that in the course of nine months that i wod lose my vision or sometimes lose my ability to move my left arm and left leg. >> sy: by best estimates, more than 21 million americans are known to have had covid-19. and of those, more than 350,000 have died. it's unknown how many of those 20 million others may suffer long-haul effects down the road. >> there were many members of

our group who were a couple of months into covid and were not recovering and in fact were sort of spiraling down and getting worse. >> sy: we first met diana berrent last spring after she founded survivor corps, an online community for covid survivors like herself that's now grown to over 125,000 members. back then she didn't think she'd be calling herself a long hauler. >> i had a good six, eight weeks where i felt like i was really much better. and then over the summer, i had a complete symptomatic relapse. i was having tremendous gastrointestinal problems for i lost so much weight i could not put it back on no matter what i did. i was diagnosed with covid onset glaucoma at the beginning of september. >> sy: and she certainly didn't think her 12-year-old son, spencer, who had a mild case of covid in march was at risk. >> he was sitting on the couch watching television and one of

his teeth, his front adult teeth, spontaneously fell out with no blood loss. corps and said, has this happened to anybody? and the answers started flooding in of so many people experiencing tooth loss with to spontaneous loss, with no blood loss, cracked teeth, all kinds of dental issues. >> there are tens of millions of people who are covid survivors who may be carrying this vascular damage in their bodies with them going forward. and we can't leave those people behind. >> sy: doctor william li is a vascular biologist, studying the 60,000 mile network of blood vessels in each of us that connects every organ in every cell in our bodies, supplying them with nutrients. >> we think this long hauler syndrome has a vascular component, which i study, a autoimmune component, inflammation, and also a neurological component. so this seems to be the three legs of the stool. >> sy: in march, he started studying lung tissue from people

who died of covid. >> that that beautiful lace like architecture has been completely destroyed. >> sy: more recently, he's been looking at what covid can do to the heart. >> on the right hand side, you can see what happens in a covid patient. when the virus infects the blood vessels the heart, it completely destroys that normal architecture. this is sort of like a you know, i call this a kind of scared straight image. >> sy: it's like it reminds me of the image you see in the back of a cigarette box. >> exactly, exactly. >> sy: doctor li has also been able to use special imaging software to see more than a c.t. scan can capture. >> acute small blood vessels are really wiped out. this is living patients long term covid better, but not fully recovered. and by the way, this patient's c.t. scan of their chest was read by the radiologists completely normal. not completely normal. and this particular patient went to get a scan because she was still short of breath.

>> sy: so how is it the average person who says goes and gets a c.t. scan and doesn't have you, dr. li, supposed to know whether they have this long term damage? >> this is what i'm working on. i mean, literally, this is like a new page of the textbook of medicine. we need to get the word out that this is the kind of research that is being done to give people an answer. that that what they're feeling is, in fact real. this is a phenomenon that is really quite real anextensive. >> sy: at a two-day virtual conference in early december run by the national institutes of health one thing was clear: doctors have more questions than answers about this medical mystery. >> there's definitely a lot that's still unknown. >> we are flying a little bit blind here. we're not exactly sure what we're looking for. >> wondering how much more of this i'll have to go through. >> sy: chimere smith has been through a barrage of tests like this e.e.g., and often been told it's all in her head. >> for the better part of nine

months, i spent time fighting for my life by myself and trying to get doctors to believe me. and it's been a harrowing journey. i do not want another black woman to go into a hospital with these symptoms that go on and on and on and things. so never ending. and to be told that she's too smart to know about her body or that she's too aggressive to take action on what happens to her health, i don't want that for anybody. >> sy: for greg rosen, months of debilitating symptoms without a clear diagnosis, prognosis, or even an idea of what lasting damage there is has been traumatizing. >> i feel like i'm fighting a battle against my body, but i'm also fighting a battle against the world right now. i think this is one of those things that even if i physically get well enough to feel more like myself, i think t emotional toll this experience has left on me will be something i never forget. >> this is a situation where

doctors need to listen to patients who are bringing their symptoms to teach us as a medical community what's actually happening. it's the exact opposite of what normally happens, where doctors are telling the patients what's going on now, the patients are telling the doctors. >> sy: chimere smith's persistence to find answers is paying off: a new diet and medication regimen is making her feel a little better. >> on my darkest days in the dark, no light in my room at all when i couldn't even really see anything, i could not imagine a future for myself. and now i actually can. and i'm happy about that. >> sy: this is a cliche, too, but it sounds like it made you stronger. >> girl, yes, i would say don't have me crying over here. yes, absolutely. >> sy: for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. >> woodruff: such important reporting. thank you, stephanie. and i know we're going to continue to follow this. what a story. and before we go tonight, we return to our lead tonight, and that is to our yamiche, who has more on what president trump had

to say late this evening after he was impeached for the second time. yaiche. >> reporter: that's right. just after president trump was impeached again, he released a video condemning violence, but also pushing back on what he says is unfair censorship. here's what he had to say: >> every american deserves to have their voice heard in a respectful and peaceful way. that is your first amendment right. but i cannot emphasize that there must be no violence, no lawbreaking, and no vandalism of any kind. everyone must follow our laws and obey the instructions of law enforcement. >> reporter: now, this is the president saying things that people, including democrats and republicans, wanted him to say months ago. he doesn't mention president-elect joe biden becoming the next president. he also doesn't mention impeachment. people that i have talked to say this is really too little, too

late. one person i talked to, a former trump campaign adviser, said that he was harassed at an airport for telling someone that vice president pence did the right thing by not pulling back on the election count. that person said that this is really too little, too late, because there are millions of americans whose minds are poisoned by the idea, the false idea, that the election was stolen, judy. >> sreenivasan: and no acknowledgment of any role in what happened, yamiche. is that right? >> reporter: no. no acknowledgment. he doesn't take any responsibility or express any sort of regret or saying that he is sorry to the american people, despite all that we have experienced. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor, thank you very much. and... on the newshour online right now, a hand full of on the newshour online right now, a handful of republicans voted tompeach the president, and we've collected their statements about why. find that on our website, pbs.org/newshour.

and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon. >> major funding forhe pbs newshour has been provided by: we offer a variety of no- contract wireless plans for people who use their phone a little, a lot, or anything in between. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide.

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hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour and company. here's what's coming up. america on high alert. the fbi warns of a potential rising if president trump were to be removed from office. national security expert juliette on preventing another deadly siege. and. >> a few months ago there would be times where we'd sit a couple hours waiting for a call in our area. now we're lucky if we sit half an hour. >> as the virus morphs into something more infectious, we talk about optimizing the covid vaccine rollout. after nearly 35 years in power and a bloody crackdown on the opposition, uganda's president insists that he should win another five-year term in this week's election.

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