captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, february 7: with the impeachment trial looming, president biden focuses on his agenda. in our signature segment: a look at america's longest war in afghanistan. and stephen malkmus on his music, pre- and post-pandemic. next on “pbs newshour weekend.” >> 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. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of arica, 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's goal has been to 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.coumercellular.tv. 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. good evening and thank you for joining us. president biden and his administration are pushing hard

to keep the focus on their $1.9 trillion stimulus plan as the impeachment trial of former president trump is about to get underway. this morning, treasury secretary janet yellen said the recovery spending, if passed, could bring the nation back to full employment by next year. >> this package will do a huge amount to create jobs. the spending it will generate is going to lead to demand to workers, help put people back to work, especially when we can get vaccinations and the public health situation to the point where the economy can begin to open up again. >> sreenivasan: transportation secretary pete buttigieg said there could be dire results for the economy if the relief bill is not passed soon. >> you've got moody's saying that we could have four million fewer jobs if we don't act now. and we're operating in a time of historically low interest rates. this is a moment where the greatest risk we could take, as the president has said, is not the risk of doing too much, it's

the risk of doing too little. >> sreenivasan: the "washington post" reported that senior democrats are planning to introduce legislation as soon as tomorrow expanding direct cash benefits for children. in single parent households making $75,000 or less, or married couples making $150,000 or less, the proposed payments would be $3,600 each for children under six and $3,000 each for cldren six through 17. a group of republicans has proposed a much smaller overall stimulus spending plan. >> sreenivasan: this coming week, while e house considers the recovery legislation, the senate will halt all other business to conduct the second impeachment trial of now former president trump. for a look ahead to this week's upcoming impeachment trial and more, i'm joined by special correspondent jeff greenfield, who's in santa barbara. so, jeff, let's start with impeachment. last week, about 45 republicans said they don't think it's constitutional to impeach donald trump. how are the democrats going through this process?

i mean, on the one hand, it looks like obviously they want to make a point. on the other hand, it seems theatrical if they can't get republican support. >> yeah, it's 99 percent sure, you know, barring some twist that they're not going to get a conviction in the senate. what they're looking for is a conviction in the cour public opinion. they are going to be using this impeachment trial to make the point that the president set the stage for what happened in the capitol. and so i think you can expect to see a lot of video of all of trump's comments of the election was a fraud even before election day. i think you're going to see some republican senators embarrassed by the fact that there'll be video of them saying the election was a fraud and urging a fight. i think you're going to see pictures of what happened on january 6. and the idea is to draw a line between everything trump said and did, those white house meetings, the attempts of lawyers to overturn the vote to what happened on january 6. and i almost guarantee you

you're going to hear many, many times the remarks of representative liz cheney, number three in the house leadership, saying that trump lit the fuse, this was the greatest breach of trust of any president ever. and if they can gefive or six or seven republican senators to go along with him, i think for the democrats, that will be a victory, even though conviction seems almost impossible. >> sreenivasan: speaking of liz cheney, she survived a challenge to her position in the party in the house. does this indicate anything more than just an individual case? i mean, is the republican party trying to distance itself from the president? >> i think the key to your question is that the vote to keep liz cheney in the leadership was in secret, which meant that the republican members of the house did not want their voters to know how they voted. and the reason for that, i believe, is that back in the grass roots, the support for trump is incredibly strong in places you might not expect.

i mean, pennsylvania had all of its house members but one vote to block the electors. that's a state that traditionally put out liberal and moderate republicans like john hines, tom ridge. the oregon republican party has said they think the january 6 riot was a false flag organized by leftists. that's the state where mark hatfield and bob packwood came from. the michigan republican party elected firm trumper people in leadership and the wyoming republican party has said officially they are not only censoring liz cheney, they want to run a primary opponent against her. so the idea that the republican party is split may be true if you just look at mitch mcconnell and some of the senators who've been critical of trump. but back home, i don't think there's much evidence at all for anything other than trump has a very firm grip on the base of the republican party. >> sreenivasan: let's talk a little bit about the current present. he had a meeting with senators this week who came back with a counterproposal to his stimulus plan or the pandemic relief

plan. that was about a third of what he's asking for. you know, this is that sort of conundrum. do you, when you have the power, make the change that you want or do you try to appeal for some semblance of bipartisanship here, especially when it comes down to something like checks that people need right now? >> it's a really fascinating example now that we're back to a kind of normal presidential congressional relationship, the biden administration is committed to not doing what they thought was a grave mistake back in the obama years. in '09, when the stimulus was too small, it was a weak recovery and a political disaster in the midterms. the advantage biden has is that the public seems to be supporting a big expenditure, not just for covid relief, but for those $1,400 checks. the problem he has is he has 50 democrats. so it's not just what the

republicans are going to do, but any one of those democrats like, say, joe manchin of west virginia, relative conservative, may say, "well, you're going too far." and if biden bends, he seems to be suggesting maybe we will have an income cutoff or who gets those checks. you've got on the other side, the new chair of the budget committee, a guy named bernie sanders, is saying you're going to be less generous than trump. so i do think you're going to see an effort to somehow fold parts of what the republicans are arguing for in that final package. but it's pretty clear that biden is committed to going t route of saying, "if i have to do this through this parliamentary device called reconciliation, where i only need 50 votes plus the vice president, that's what i'm going to do." and he has to hold his breath and make sure that his democratic caucus has no defectors. gorng shulings died yesterday. he svinged in three

administrations and held four different cabinet posts. as secretary of state from 199, he played a key roll in ending the cold war with the former soviet union. also chairman of the president's economic policy board, in the reagan administration. and in the nixon administration, he was secretary of labor, then becme the first director of the newly formed office of management and budget. and from 1972 to '74 he was treasury secretary. george schultz was 100 years old . for the latest on the impeachment trial, visit this year marks 20 years since the start of the war in afghanistan, and the biden administration finds itself weighing the promises of the previous administration to withdraw all u.s. troops from the country by may while maintaining dipmatic relations with a key ally in the region. this week, "pbs newshour" special correspondenjane ferguson and producer emily

kassie have a series of reports from afghanistan. we begin that series with her interview with afghanistan's vice president amrullah saleh. >> the afghan people, of which i am one of them, they are tired of war. but they are not ready to sell their soul. >> reporter: when president trump's administration signed an agreement with the taliban to withdraw all u.s. troops from the country, he fully intended to oversee that process in his second term. instead, it's president biden who inherits america's longest war and that deal. popular as leaving the war behind might be in the u.s., it would be a disaster for the government in kabul. >> when the united states bypassed us and reached out to the taliban directly, it was both a surprise for us and also a dream for the taliban. what is this? i think that was a mistake.

>> reporter: with less than 100 days before american troopare scheduled to leave for good, afghanistan's vice president amrullah saleh sat down with the "newshour" to discuss the agreement, america's legacy here, and what he sees as major mistakes by the trump white hous one criticism his government had of the u.s. talks with the taliban was how they were conducted. the group were welcomed in five- star hotels in qatar, greeted for photo ops and mullah abdul ghani baradar, one of their top leaders, was even given a direct line to trump. >> they brought president trump over the phone to speak for 45 minutes with who? i couldn't imagine that. i could not imagine. >> reporter: did you get a heads up about that? >> i'm glad i didn't. i don't thk bringing the united states president to the

level of a non-entity insurgent group was a good idea. >> reporter: the february 2020 deal with the taliban resulted in an unofficial cease fire, with the group agreeing to not attack u.s. forces. since that point there have been no u.s. casualties, but deadly assaults on afghan troops escalated. >> some time back i read a statement by secretary of state mr. pompeo saying that no american was killed in afghanistan. we are glad that no american was killed, but he forgot how many afghans were killed. the way he put that statement, that's not how you treat your allies. >> reporter: relations between the whithouse and the kabul government worsened as the trump administration pushed on, determined to exit this war no matter what. >> they were trying to simplify and say, "oh, it's war between afghans." and i would say "stop it, it's

not war between afghans, we fight the same enemy as in 2002. if they were your enemy then, they are your enemy now." >> reporter: do you feel abandoned by the united states? >> i would say there were moments. there have been moments over the past few years. the u.s. diplomacy hurt the u.s. more than afghanistan. >> reporter: part of the deal with the taliban was that the kabul government would release 5,000 of their prisoners before the group began peace negotiations with them. this put the government at a major disadvantage for those talks, argues saleh. by the time the afghan negotiating team sat down with the taliban in doha last november, the group had been bolstered by their discussions with the u.s. >> they think they are superpower on this end of the world, and they are talking to another superpower. de-elevating them, bringing them down requires a lot of effort. and we have told the united

states that you should use your political and diplomatic might to make them understand that they are a group at best. they are not a state, they are not even a dominating group. >> reporter: it's unclear how seriously his government is taking these talks. a peace settlement would likely require the formation of a new administration, as the taliban still refuse to recognize president ashf ghani's legitimacy. do you in principle support thestalks? >> i support any effort to lead to a peaceful political settlement but not political surrender. >> reporter: every u.s. troop out of here by the 1st of may. too soon? >> it depends what did they come here for. is that achieved? no. because the taliban committed to separate themselves from al qaeda.

ny, many months after they committed to doing this, we, together with thc.i.a., we conducted two operations, one in ghazni, another in helmand, we killed two al qaeda leaders inside the taliban command compound. >> reporter: carrying out joint attacks like that could be impossible if the u.s. pulls all troops out of the country. under the current deal, it's not clear if the afghan national security forces could survive. >> this is the only military in this region, in the entire region, which is your honest, affordable, straightforward ally. >> reporter: comments from the white house, pentagon and state department over the last two weeks have hinted at a possible delay in fulfilling the deal. >> we're reviewing what has been negotiating, including that agreement. >> reporter: arguing the taliban has broken the terms by

continuing to host al qaeda and ramping up attacks on fellow afghans. if biden does try to stall on the u.s. draw down, the taliban could walk out on all negotiations completely and escalate violence. to the kabul government, what biden decides to do will determine their fate. >> my hopes for president elect joe biden is define the american interest. define the interest of the trans-atlantic alliance, define the interests of the global institutions which have been created primarily with the united states leadership, championship and resources. because if united states backs off from some of its responsibilities, it will be a political earthquake for the whole world. >> reporter: the recent messaging coming from the white house could simply be threats meant to pressure the taliban into conceding more to the kabul

government. if the group calls biden's bluff, then he will have to make a decision fast-- end america's involvement in the war at the cost of abandoning its allies or let the nation's longest war continue. the former option could throw the country into a devastating civil war, one vice president saleh views as preferable to surrender. and even if surrender to a terror ideology prolongs your life, but it shatters your soul. >> sreenivasan: for more than 30 years, musician stephen malkmus has been celebrated and respected. his output-- in bands and as a solo artist-- has left a sizeable footprintn the independent music world, but as "newshour weekend's" christopher booker learned, the new world that we now find ourselves in

is presenting an entirely new set of challenges for an artist known for his lyrical abilities. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: at this point, it's foolish to try to play the superlative game with the music and career of stephen malkmus. his over 30-year output starting withavement in 1989, moving later to stephen malkmus and the jicks, and throughout the occasional solo offering has long been celebrated. praised for his effortless approach to his guitar and revered for his lyrical wordplay, there's little evidence that all of the heady descriptions and steady stream of reverence has, at any time, mattered to malkmus. >> well, i like music, dude. (laughter) and it's fun to go on those journeys and see what's going to happen. >> reporter: we sat down with him just before the release of his most recent solo album, traditional techniques, his third in as many years and also before the world changed. >> i'm always making songs if i don't know how many music

interviews and people you interview in music, but most of us are like always got something that we're working on if we're not releasing it. >> reporter: and there have been a lot of songs from the california native. starting with pavement, the band's off kilter, do-it-yourself art-punk was front and center during the musical revolution of the early 1990s. >> sometimes culture can seem like it is set in stone and the moment it's at and so if you were watching mtv or, you know, you were seeing hair metal bands and you thought it was always going to be this kind of music, and then as we know, there was like nirvana and all these other things and our group pavement fit in that. >> reporter: nirvana may have blown open the door, but pavement showed the wor that there were many other rooms. the band's first three albums are listed among rolling stone magazine's top 500 of all time, something malkmus will acknowledge, but not embellish.

>> i wouldn't like try to overplay our hand, but there's... is a place for our style of music in the guitar pantheon that was validated by other things that became popular later. >> reporter: there was a new york times interview from 2011 with you and beck when he produced the jicks record and he said pavement was the band that 40 other bands were trying to sound like. do you still hear "pavementisms" in music that comes now? >> i read about them, and it's not like i have it on my google alerts or anything, but like i know exists. >> reporter: "young band says pavement major influence." (laughter) >> reporter: there was also this narrative that surrounded pavement that you were a band that didn't take it that seriously. was that a fair description? >> i mean, yeah, i think we took it seriously. it's just how we... how we played our cards was... was different. i mean, i don't know how you signal ambition.

i mean, we did... we didn't sign to a big label, i guess, when there were some opportunities. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: while still outwardly projecting that irreverence, as the years have passed and his output has continued, his music and lyrics have sharpened, whether writing about political motivations... >> ♪ the toxin's american-made weapons-class gray sludge for ♪ migrants ♪ >> reporter: or gentrification anpolice violence. >> ♪ another beautiful bike lane >> reporter: but what about now after a pandemic and a reckoning over racial injustice? malkmus, like the rest of us, is largely on hold. the spring 2021 tour announced last summer has been canceled. the shows booked for the summer are still a big maybe. we caught up with him just last week from his home and it turns out the front man known for his ability to turn a phrase is still looking for a way to write about what's happened in the past year. >> it feels a little like forced

retirement or something just because of my specific age group. >> reporter: have you been finding yourself wanting to write more? >> i've got a lot of stuff in the tank. lyrics h been... it's been really hard. music's just flowing as a kind of pure thing, but what to sing about, really? a lot of people are going to be really self-aware about their position in all of this and it's a good thing that we're... you know, we're all like taking stock and like where we... where we stand in society, not the pandemic, maybe more economically or something. so, know, i'm relatively well off and that kind of just "i'm ok" voice is... how, how do you sing about that in a way that other everyone is going to care about? ♪ ♪

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> sreenivasan: in iran today, the country's supreme leader said he will not stop the country's nuclear enrichment program without u.s sanctions being lifted. in a speech before a roomful of generals, ayatollah ali khamenei said the u.s. must drop all sanctions in order for iran to abide by the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by former president donald trump in 2018. >> sreenivasan: in an pre- recorded interview broadcas today, president biden said he will not lift sanctions on iran until it stops nuclear enrichment. >> sreenivasan: on this super bowl sunday, u.s. health officials continue to warn people not to gather fearing coronavirus superspreader events. u.s. confirmed cases, deaths, and hospitalization rates are all declining according to the "new york times" database. globally new confirmed cases are down 24 percent from the average daily rate two weeks ago. deaths worldwide are also declining but the toll as of

this morning is more than 2,300,000 lives lost since the pandemic began last year. internet users in myanmar say data access was suddenly restored today after an apparent information blackout by the military junta responsible for a coup last week. authorities had cracked down on twitter and instagram use and cut internet access across the country after calls for protests spread rapidly online. that did not stop people from marching to denounce the military rule, and demanding the release of toppled elected leader, aung san suu kyi, who won by a landslide in the november 8 elections and is currently detained. twelve security agents were killed by a roadside bomb in somalia today. the bomb was planted just outside the central somalia town of dhusamab, where political leaders and security officials were meeting to resolve a conflict over the prential selection process that was due to be held tomorrow. the al-qaeda-linked islamist militant group al-shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. analysts say they are attempting to exploit the political deck over somalia's presidential election.

newshour will have complete coverage of the impeachment trial of former president donald trump this week online and on the air. check your local listings for your pbs station's coverage plans. that's for this edition of“ pbs newshour weekend.” for the latest updates, visit pbs.org newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for wing. 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.

the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. 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.

buongiorno. i'm rick steves. today, we're heading off on a very special adventure, traveling to some of my favorite corners of italy. this special is called the heart of italy, and you're about to see y. i'll be with you during each break, sharing special tips on traveling smartly as together we celebrate the value of public broadcasting in our communities. as you enjoy these travels, think of the value of public television to bring us the wonders of our world. now, let's enjoy some dolce vita in the heart of italy. [ ♪♪♪ ]