captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, january 17: state capitals on high alert in preparation for potential protests ahead of this weeks inauguration. >> sreenivasan: and analysis of the presidential transition, the impeachment trial and the biden agenda. next on “pbs newshour weekend.” >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise shwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg.

the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. in less than 72 hours, the nation's 46th president will take the oath of office on the steps of the u.s. capitol where

just 11 days ago a mob of supporters of the current president carried out a deadly rampag as of this afternoon, the nation's capitol was quiet. more than 20,000 national guard troops helped patrol the streets near the capitol where many areas will remain closed through the inauguration of president- elect joe biden on wednesday. president trump remained in the white house again today with no public statements or appearances. mr. biden also had no public events today, but his chief of staff, ron klain, said the president-elect will emphasize unity in his inaugural address. >> i think the events of the past few weeks have proven out how damaged the soul of america has been, and how important it is to restore it. that work starts on wednesday. >> sreenivasan: klain also warned that deaths from covid-19 are likely to exceed 500,000 by the end of february and said the biden administration will be able to ramp up vaccinations. >> we believe there will be adequate supply to get second shots. we believe there will continued

supply to hit that target of 100 million doses in 100 days. >> sreenivasan: many presidential inaugural events were already planned to take place virtually because of the pandemic but the attack on the capitol has also changed traditional activities. today, small groups of protesters did turn out in some state capitals. arrests of people who rioted at the capitol on january 6 continue, and the f.b.i. is asking for help finding many others across the country. the threat warnings for all 50 states and washington, d.c., that were issued for this weekend extend through the coming week. with more than a third of the states calling out the national guard to help secure their state capitals, we checked in with reporters at some of our partner public media stations across the country. we began with our own christopher booker, who is in harrisburg, pennsylvania, at the state house. chris, what are you seeing in harrisburg? >> reporter: well, it's cloudy, cold and quiet. the capitol police, the state

police and the national guard are here and they've closed off the entrances to the capitol building, as well as many of the streets that surround it. but, by and large, there's not much happening. the grounds are open, but they're largely being populated by press. we've seen a handful of people come and go, but no semblance of a demonstration or protest. >> sreenivasan: give us the landscape if you can. what do you see around you in what proportions? >> reporter: yeah, i mean, downtown harrisburg is a beautiful old downtown. the businesses have all closed. there was a coffee shop that we went to that was only open for a few hours. but as it stands now in downtown, you see police on horseback and press. that's it. there's a few people that will come by, maybe a jogger or just someone walking their dog. but it's all press and all police. >> sreenivasan: have you had a chance to speak to kind of any of the locals around there? i mean, how do they feel about what's happening and what the threat is to them? >> reporter: we have spoken to a number of locals, a gentleman who is jt here just before we started to talk, kind of shook his head and said, i've never

seen downtown harrisburg this quiet. and you have seen people kind of come out of churches and look at basically all the press in the capitol and the police show of force. and everyone seems to be kind of just shaking their heads, shrugging and walking away. >> sreenivasan: and what are the capitol police or anybody concerned about? is it just today or is it a days coming up? >> reporter: well, i think it's largely today and the days to come. there are police on horseback. we've seen a number of drones fly overhead. thgovernor has asked his employees to work from home tuesday and wednesday, and they have also not issued any permits for demonstrations or protests. but by and large, no one really knows what's going to happen. the information we have is what everyone else has. the f.b.i. indicated that they were seeing chatter that there might be demonstrations at state capitols across the country. but here as it is right now, there's nothing happening. >> sreenivasan: so you said there are a few people showing up, but who are they? >> reporter: it's really

difficult to say, but we did see three counter protesters, if that's what we want to call them, they had constructed a life sized donald trump and knocked it over, essentially symbolizing the end of his presidency. and we have heard one gentleman was talking through the bullhorn, through a bullhorn, talking about the steal, but he left. and it's really quiet now and there's not much happening at all. >> sreenivasan: christopher booker joining us from pennsylvania's capitol in harrisburg. thanks so much, chris. >> reporter: thank you. >> sreenivasan: i'm dave boucher, are the detroit free press here in lansing, michigan, outside of the state capitol. there w.ere intermit ent groups of people who came by, you know, a dozen or so at a time, who were openly carrying fire armsksome were self-described bug a loo boys, one said he was here to protest the protest ares. and let people know that not all trump supporters are like those that the nation stormed the u.s.

capitol recently. again there were threats of violence here and across the country. advice of law enforcement citing credible threats, they cancelled all of the meetings for tuesday, wednesday and thursday. those would be routine normal days with lawmakers typically here. we will see, that might mean other people will come out for inauguration day, other days but law enforcement says they are ready, they intend to have an increased presence here through february. state police plan to be here with them. as of right now, it will not be business as normal at the capitol for some time. >> overall today it has been very quiet, a massive law enforcement presence, state police officers, local police officers and national guard troops, some of the troops have closed off the block around here, the capitol. you can see obviou military humvee looking vehicles around. people are walking around in camo, very quiet scene, cold and snowy scene. not really a protesting,

honestly. >> i'm karen cassler at the state house in columbus. there are several dozen protestors here. so far no incidents, no fights, a lot of yelling. there are a lot of people who are armed here. a lot of people saying that they don't necessarily represent one side or the other, though there are some trump supporters here. and also a few biden supporters as well. the security around here has been stepped up. we have ohio national guard, about 580 that were activated for all around the state of ohio and this building is protected by ohio state troopers as well. the ohio state house is shut down today and through inauguration day. there was a protest on january 6th that turned violent in front of the state house with several people beaten. this is loud but mostly nonviolent. and i think there is a real-- so again security is pretty strong here. z. >> i'm ricky bevington with

georgia public broadcasting in atlanta. where things are quiet and tense, i would say downtown. there is an air of tense anticipation. the georgia state capitol is heavily guarded today. dump trucks are blocking major roads that lead to the capitol. there are armed soldiers with full fatigues and weapons with big humvees all around the perimeter of the capitol. one of the most powerful images is a bronze statue of dr. martin luther king, jr. outside of georgia's state capitol. and it's kind of gazing toward two soldiers that are standing on top of a large military vehicle. and we can only imagine what doctor martin luther king, jr. would be thinking on a day like today. the question is, and it is the question on everyone's mind, will we see protestors at all? will we see protestors who are peaceful or will we see potentially domestic american

terrorists trying to wreck half okay on a house of government. that is what atlanta is waiting for today. after the black lives matter protests in the spring and summer of 2020, the states decided to build a massive eig foot fence around the perimeter of the georgia state capitol. construction isn't expected to be finished until may. so that fence is not up and fortifying the capitol at this time. >> sreenivasan: in oregon >> sreenivasan: in oregon, the state house in salem is boarded up this weekend, and the governor has called up national guard troops. newshour weekend's mori rothman spoke with oregon public broadcasting reporter sergio olmos about far right extremist groups there. >> reporter: so, you've been reporting on far right extremist groups for a while now, take us through how you've seen the actions of these groups escalate over the past couple of years. >> you know, since the election of donald trump, these groups have gotten more kinetic. so they're out in the streets and a lot of their rallies have ended in violence, either brawls or, you know, uh, isolated

events outside of a hotel or something with paintballs, things like that. um, if you go toe last year, august 22, there was a huge rally with right wing groups standing outside of the multnomah county justice center. it's like a jail for processing, uh, inmates. and they fought with left wing activists for hours out there, and some of those people in the crowd would go on to, you know, storm the oregon state house. you saw right wing protesters, you know, draped in american flags and donald trump flags, bear macing oregon state troopers and, you know, many of the people who went inside that state house faced no consequences. and, you know, you draw a direct line from then to two weeks later when you can see on video some of those same people standing outside nancy pelosi's office. >> reporter: so, there's a >> well, you know, organ is 87%

white, and it was, it started, you know, built as a kind of white utopia. there were black exclusionary laws built into the constitution. um, you know the language in the constitution, some of it, you know, said black people couldn't own land. that language wasn't removed until 2002. and even then, 31% of people voted against removing that language. um, so there's a, there's a, you know, a racist history to oregon, but there's, you know, there's racist histories to every state. there's reasons why people would join these far right extremist groups that apply kind of everywhere in united states, you know, some of them being that people are looking for identity, meaning and purpose, and, um, if, if you're living online and you have you no, no, uh, nobody, no community, no tribe, no group that will, you know, kind of vouch for you, hang out with you, sacrifice for you, these groups will invite you to come hang out with them. so, i think there's, there's structural reasons that, you know, push people towards extremism. and that's something that we can all look at. >> reporter: what kind of preparations are being made in oregon for potential violence, and does it look like people are being deterred by the greater

police presence? >> the oregon state police has requested the oregon national guard to at their disposal this weekend. so, the oregon national guard is in oregon, they're in salem at the statehouse, and together they will, you know, protect the statehouse against planned right wing protests. as far as, you know, whether there's gonna be crowds are gonna be deterred from coming to protest, you know, the disruption of the social media platforms like parler and things like that, they've really made it hard to gauge larger trends. so, you know, a lot of these far right, uh, groups, have moved to telegram, where it's smaller chat rooms, where they're split up and their fractured, and it's really difficult to gauge what is a common, agreed upon idea. >> reporter: yeah, and looking forward, what's the discussion around what these groups are thinking after this week? >> a lot of these people are no longer on social media platforms. they're not on facebook, they're not on twitter, and so you're not gonna be seeing this kind of

stuff anymore. and you might be lulled into thining that it's gone, that the problem has been fixed, but, you know, when you cover these groups, you realize something very quickly: this is not just an idea, you know, it's a lifestyle. these people have changed the way they live. this is their friends group. this is-- they buy gear, they, you know, watch youtube videos. they spend a lot of time investing in this, and it's inconceivable to think that they're just gonna walk away after this weekend. >> reporter: sergio olmos from oregon public broadcasting. thanks so much. >> sreenivan: for more on this week's inauguration events and the latest national and international news visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: president donald trump spent his final weekend in office in the white house. reports are that he plans to leave washington, d.c., on wednesday morning-- just hours before president-elect joe biden takes office. for more on the president's plans, i spoke with newshour white house correspondent yamiche alcondor earlier this afternoon.

what do we know about what the president is doing this weekend? >> there really isn't that much incite into what the president is doing. we know the president's mood is one of of anger, one of frustration. he is really looking at a legacy that was already marred, being even more tarnished by the fact that he was impeached twice, he is going out as the president who does not want to go to inauguration day. there is a lot of reporting about how he plans to have a big sendoff party for him is of. the other thing the president is doing and the people around the president are doing is trying to look for ways in the government, i'm told, to install trump loyalists, possible le at the national security council, possibly at other agencies. i will say i have talked to some experts who say president's often try to have some influence by making people who have thei views career officials. but the fear is that president trump, because he had really had this continuo false claim that the election was stolen from him, that he might be installing people who are not only part of

the people who believe some of his views, but really people who might be conspiracy theorists who might mean harm for the biden administration and america overall. >> sreenivasan: and you till have the-- he still has the power to pardon and grant clemency. he has heard there is a lot of jockeying, because there is only a couple of days left in which he can use that power. >> that's right. the big question here when it comes to pardons is not only who is he going to pardon, but will he pardon himself. will he pardon him family members. there is real concern that the president because e feels as though he might have some legal liability when it comes to the seige on capitol hill, that he might take steps to pardon people who he thinks are going to be unnecessarily or fairly targeted. of course as we know, he has already been impeached for inciting insurrection but there are some possible pardons. another thing is these federal executions, we have seen more federal executions in the last few weeks and months than we have in decades, so there is also this feeling that the trump

administration is trying to make sure that they try to get all of these executions done. there are people who really see that as bar baric and are criticizing the president for not being more patient and not taking a more cautious stance on executions, we have seen a number of people killed by the government in recent days. >> sreenivasan: and what about last minute pieces of either legislation or rule-making or executive actions. when president trump came into power he spent quite a bit of time trying to undue things that president obama had signed in. >> from my understanding, there might be some feeling that there are rules and regulations that are being changed but the chief feeling that i am hearing both from biden and administration officials and experts on transition, is that they are still in some ways, feel like the trump administration don't want to be really forth coming with some of the things that have already happened. so you look at the department of homeland security, and all of the different regulations and changes to our immigration system. they are saying that that is in some ways going to be a-- to the

bied enadministration when they come in because they haven't been forthcoming. same at the defend-- defense department well. heard from president-elect biden say they are not getting the cooperation they need at the defense department. so not only maybe it are there things being channed at the last minute but there could be things in some ways hien in bureaucracy in the last few days in the trump administration. >> sreenivasan: one of the things that we have heard is that when joe biden comes into office, he wants to have a series of executive actions to try to jump start the process on how to tackle the pandemic, how to roll back some of the rules that president trump has put into place. >> that's right, president-elect biden when he becomes president biden is going to be moving very quickly to sign a number of executive orders to try to reverse some of the trump administration things that have passed in the last few years. there was an extensive list released by his chief of staff. some of them include reversing the muslim ban, issuing a mask mandate, rejoining the paris

climate accord and extending the federal student loans, that will be on day one. there will be others on january 21s and into february, focused mainly on cabinet officials, cabinet agencies, trying to tackle the key vid 19 pandemic which is going to be the priority of the bied enadministration when they think of this pandemic and all of the americans being killed. >> sreenivasan: yamiche alcindor, joining us from washington, thanks so ch. >> thanks so much. >> sreenivasan: for a look at what to make of the week ahead with president-elect joe biden's inauguration, and potential impeachment trial and more, i spoke with special correspondent jeff greenfield from santa barbara, california so, jeff, let's start with impeachment, even some strong critics of the president are saying basically, what's the point? he will be gone before any trial even begins. and then there's the sort of

separate question, can he be impeacd once he is out of office? >> the short answer to the question ofan he be impeached is yes, and the theory is, if you didn't have that power, the most wrongdoing miscreant could evade any of the consequences by just resigning and keep benefits and not lose what he would lose or she would lose if that person were convicted. the more serious reason is that if there were 17 republicans who would vote to convict trump this time, the senate would then move to a different question: should this person be barred from holding any office for the rest of his or her life? and that would require a simple majority. and finally, there's the whole notion of accountability, given what happened on january 6, where some people feel even if it has no real impact, the president has to be held accountable and impeachment is one way to do it. >> sreenivasan: you have members of congress, mostly republican,

singing from a very similar songbook that says here is president elect biden coming in. his entire campaign was about unifying the country. is an impeachment really the right way to start this? >> well, the cynic in me says that's like the boy who kills his parents and pleads for mercy because he's an orphan. for weeks and weeks, we've had virtually most of the republican party, most of the members of the house, key senators, the president of the united states, spreading this false story that the entire election was a fraud. and if they say, "well, gee, look at how divided the country is," well, gee, how did that happen? maybe if they had acknowledged, you know, biden won this weeks ago, we wouldn't have spared this. and i think what biden's response might well be is, okay, if you're serious about unifying the country, let's take a look at what we do about this rampaging pandemic and this catastrophe that it's a product of that. >> sreenivasan: $1.9 trillion. that is what we now know

president elect biden's plan is to try to jumpstart the economy, fix thproblems with the pandemic and so on. direct access payments, $1,400 checks to people. they have an incredibly slim majority in the senate. there are several republicans who are not likely to signn for this kind of spending again, where do we go? >> first of all, i think that two of the biggest challenges biden faces, the pandemic and the atmosphere after that january 6 assault might actually help him. the pandemic is unlike any economic crisis we've ever been in before, because unless it's fixed, you can't really restart the economy. and so, you're finding thathe argument biden is making, in effect, look, we're in a wartime situation and you're finding some conservative voices like the u.s. chamber of commerce looking with more favor on this raer enormous suggestion. and the second thing, is it possible, although i'm not

confident about this, that the impact of that assault and the feeling among some republicans that they are at fault here could conceivably persuade them to demonstrate their sense of unity. so, you see what i'm saying, that the two of the most difficult things biden has to face, the poisonous political atmosphere and the pandemic could conceivably work to his political favor. >> sreenivasan: and it starts on inauguration day unless there is the sudden disappearance of violent threats of insurrection or a global pandemic. this inauguration is going to be very different, to put it mildly. >> the idea of an inaugural with an empty national mall and 25,000 troops in the streets and no parade. it's very despairing and in a kind of odd way. and it's awful to say this, hari, the bad guys have won this round. in that sense, they've taken all of the celebration and pride and

ewal awantys h pas. and they basically said, "no, not this time." i'm remembering, by the way, jimmy carter and rosalynn carter getting out of their car in 1977 to walk the inaugural, which i believe every subsequent president has done. that's not going to happen. and one last thing: every president since carter has thanked his predecessor, even if he was an opponent for your service, for the transition. i think i can predict joe biden will not be thanking donald j. trump on january 20. >> sreenivasan: jeff greenfield, thanks so much. >> okay. >> sreenivasan: newshour will have live coverage of wednesday's inauguration of president joe biden and vice president kamala harris beginning at 10:30 a.m. eastern time. you can watch online or on your local pbs station. that's all for this edition of“ pbs newshour weekend.” for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan.

thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg.

the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

announcer: this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: on january sixth, thousands came to washington dc to protest the results of november's election. the day started peacefully, but quickly descended into mayhem. after an angry, provocative speech from the president... trump: our country has had enough. we will not take it anymore. judy: a mob of trump supporters stormed the united states capitol building, shattering windows, fighting police, ultimately forcing their way onto the floor of the house of representatives and the senate, where members were in session. for hours, chaos and uncertainty. members of congress, journalists and staff