captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: guilty. the jury convicts derek chauvin on all counts for the murder of george floyd. we get reaction from across the nation. then, greener skies-- efforts to create electric planes and cleaner jet fuel become more urgent as the climate emergency intensifies. >> today, ultimately we need liquid fuels. the good news is it doesn't ve to be fossil fuels. sustainable aviation fuel exists, it is well-proven, airlines have been flying on it for some time. >> woodruff: and, making history. former vice president al gore is here to remember walter mondale and how he helped transform the highest level of american government.

>> the model we established of executivizing the vice president, putting the vice president in there with the president, working with him all day long as i did has been the model since then. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: our u.s.-based customer service reps can help you choose a plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv

>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the verdict is in, in the case that riveted the nation-- the trial of derek chauvin. the former minneapolis police officer was found guilty today

of killing george floyd last may. the jury, six whites and six black or multi-racial, deliberated just 10 hours, and the judge announced the result. >> verdict count one, court file number 27cr2012646. we the jury in the above entitled matter as to count one unintentional second-degree murder while committing a felony find the defendant guilty. this verdict agreed to this 20th day of april 202 is at 1:41 p.m. signed jury foreperson juror number 19. we the jury in the above entitled matter as to count two third-degree murder perpetrating an imminently dangerous act find the defendant guilty this verdict agreed to this 20 20th day of april 2021 at 1:45 y foreperson juror number 19. same caption, verdict count three, we the jury in the above entitled matter as to count 3,

second-degree manslaughter culpable negligence creating an unreasonable risk find the dendant guilty. >> woodruff: an expectant crowd erupted in cheers and celebration outside the courthouse in minneapolis as those verdicts were read in a case that has rocked the nation. minnesota's attorney general keith ellison spoke minutes later. >> i would not call today's verdict justice, however, because justice implies true restoration, but it is accountability, which is the first step towards justice, and now the cause of justice is in your hands. and when i say your hands, i mean the hands to have the people to have the united states. george floyd mattered. he was loved by his family and his friends. his death shocked the conscience of our community, our country, the whole world. he was loved by his family and

friends. but th isn't why he mattered. he mattered because he was a human being, and there is no way we can turn away from that reality. >> woodruff: our special correspondent fred de sam lazaro has been covering the chauvin trial for us. he is now outside that minneapolis courtroom. fred, you have been there, you have been there throughout the trial. how would you describe -- we just saw pictures of people cheering, what are you seeing and what are people saying to you? >> reporter: well, judy, i am at a distance where i can hear you because otherwise i wouldn't be able to. the party continues just a short hop from where i'm standing right now. there's a great deal of jubilation that you referred to a little bit earlier. i suspect that's going to continue later into the evening into the wee hours of the morning here and in george floyd square about three miles south of here.

i suspect in the broader twin cities area, there are a lot of people heaving a sigh of relief, given that this is a city that's been boarded up in anticipation of the alternative, and a lot of people dreaded what that might have brought on to the streets. >> woodruff: fred, give us a sense of what the anticipation was like and what you expect to happen now, given these verdicts. >> reporter: i think a lot of people were very very optimistic and in fact there was a great deal of pent-up anticipation this afternoon because the verdict came relatively quickly, so there was some optimism but guarded because to have the history in these cases, which have seen very rarely a conviction of police officers. that said now, there is a great deal of business to be done. the sentencing phase of chauvin's trial will happen in the weeks ahead, that is a little bit complicated, then we have the trial of the three

officers that were with him, that will be held in august. and concurrent with all of this was the shooting of daunte wright in suburban brooklyn center, and that's still ricochetinaround in the community. there's a lot of things going on, a lot of what folks here would call unfinished business, even amid all the relief and jubilation. >> woodruff: fred de sam lazaro, who has been on the scene covering this, and i know, fred, you're going to continue to cover as we go forward. thank you, fred de sam lazaro. and amna nawaz now gets reaction from a community leader in minnesota. amna. >> reporter: that's right, judy. well, in the neighboring city of saint paul, we're going to take a closer look now at how the jury's decision the coming down. melvin carter is the mayor of saint paul which along with its neighboring minneapolis form the state's twin cities. he's also the first african-american to hold that office and he joins us now. mayor carter welcome back to the "newshour" and thank you for making the time. so derek derek has been found guilty on all three counts.

what was your immediate reaction when you heard the news. >> reporter: you know, thanks for having me on. i was one of the people outside the hennepin county courthouse today as the verdict was read, and i was speechless. the crowd out there was, of course, waiting on pins and needles to try to see what the verdict would be. someone shouted guilty, and a sigh of relief, it was as though oxygen was provided to the room, to everybody in that space for the first time in quite a long time. we know that we have much more work to do. we have another trial here. we'll see a trial ultimately for daunte wright, and we have a lot of work to do in our legislave session as well. but today, this is an important milestone. >> reporter: you know, mayor, you and i spoke the day after george floyd was killed, may 26 of 2020, and since then the entire world has come to know his name. they have watched that video. there have been protests in his name around the world.

in this trial, everyone has been watching and waiting for the verdict, to you, what was at stake in that courtroom? >> everything was at stake in that courtroom. first of all, i think the lady who shot the video we've all seen deserves a pulitzer prize for her work because that's one to have the most consequential works in the media we've seen in a generation. officer chauvin, his future was at stake, but far more, as the rest of the world looks at this atrocious act that any civilization throughout the course of history anywhere could look at that and say that's wrong, that's murder and we had to sit on pins and needle also for a full year to learn whether or not our legal system could hold someone responsible. it's not to be taken for granted. we heard eric garner who was choked to death and said i can't breathe eleven times and no one was held accountable for his

killing. we've asked ourselves time and time again, how bad, how brazen, how well-documented does it have to be for someone to be held accountable? we've established hopefully i think a baseline today. we have a lot of work to do to build on top of that baseline, but it gives us an opportunity to look up and move toward a brighter day in our country. >> as you mentioned, there are other trials ahead as well. you and i spoke last may and you mentioned there are other officers there and those three other officers on the scene will also face trials. we believe they're scheduled for august now. what do you believe this verdict holds for account inability those -- for accountability in those cases? >> i don't know. those officers have their day in court, they have their due process as well. what i shared with you then is what i continue to believe now is that, you know, the fact that, you know, every time something like this happens, somebody might want to say, well, this is a bad apple, this is one act of an individual person, but the fact that you had officer derek chauvin, who

the jury has now confirmed murdered george floyd and has been convicted of that murder and while he did it there were three others officers guarding the scene, holding people back, helping hold george floyd down, that speaks to a culture that we must address, that we must eradicate in our communities. this is about seeing justice in a courtroom, but as one of the young men who was speaking out at the rally today said justice was living in a world where george floyd was never murdered in the first place. so this is about seeing justice in a courtroom but also about seeing justice in our police practices, it's about seeing justice in our legislation, it's about seeing justice in our case law. we have an enormous amount of work to do from there, and i'll tell you certainly on my mind and in the minds to have the folks we saw outside of the rally, our minds are all on the enormous body of work ahead. >> reporter: mayor carter, as an elected official, when you

look back at the trauma the last year, people watching the video er and over, the stress and anxiety of waiting for the verdict, and now this one moment of accountability today, how do you lead your community forward out of this? >> you're right, it's been an enormous amount of trauma. in that moment when that voice shouted guilty and all around me some people were hap and started smiling, some people burst out in tears, some people dropped to their knees and started praying all at the same time, we have a lot to knit back together. we have a future to build, we've committed ourselves through the framework that we call the community public safety first framework which sees we see a public safety framework that's more proactive than we've seen in the last generation. i'm proud to serve a community that's been in on this work far before george floyd was murdered and we'll continue to push that body forward. >> reporter: mayor saint paul, minnesota, melvin carter joining

us, thank you for your tim mr. mayor. >> thankou. >> woodruff: we take a broader look at this moment now with chuck wexler, the executive direct to have the police executive research forum, it is a washington, d.c.-based think tank. and janai nelson, who is the associate director council of the naacp legal defense and education fund. ms. nelson, mr. wexler, thank you both for being here. i want to start with you, chuck wexler. someone who has studied the police, has seen time and again police found not guilty in cases like this, cases where someone died. how are you reacting right now? >> well, you know, this case was a defining moment for policing. this was so egregious, the use of force here was so clear and so clear-cut, that, for the last

11 months, first of all, you know, the condolences go to the floyd family, number one, but for every working cop that saw that video, over and over again, nine minutes, they thought to themselves, what was that cop thinking? and that's taken a toll on the country,eth taken a toll on the minneapolis community, and communities all across the country. i think there's not a police chief, a cop i know of that didn't want this police officer found guilty. i mean, it was so egregious and so bad in so many ways. but i think this is a turning point because i think what you saw in minneapolis in the trial is you saw the police chief, you saw the most senior homicide person, you saw all of the cops on the same side of justice, and i think that was the turning point. this is very different from the rodney king situation in which you had differences of opinion. today, i think the community and the cops are on the same side.

>> woodruff: janai nelson, who is someone who works for an organization, the naacp, that works for -- toward equality for all americans, how are you seeing this verdict? >> i'm seeing this verdict as air real inflection point. it is a floor. it is, sadly, something that we could not count on. this conviction was well-deserved. it's something that should have been beyond any doubt, and, yet, many of us were bracing ourselves for an alternative that could have been incdibly devastating not only for the family of george floyd, to whom i extend the legal defense funds most sincere condolences, but also for the greater community has working so hard to peacefully bring change and transition and transformation to the way that we conduct the

public safety apparatus in our country. right now, it is woefully broken, it is clear that, even with a conviction like the one we saw today, that is not a panacea, it's not a solve for the murders and killings and other forms of violence that continue to be visited on black and brown communities, as we saw in the daunte wright case, as we saw in adam toledo's case and the many others that proceeded it including briana taylor's from last year that drove people to the streets. >> woodruff: chuck wexler, will policing change after this? >> i think it's going to take a lot of work. i know people are modem e motivated to change. i mean, this is a defining moment. this entire year, all the cases that we've talked about. but we need to really be tough, and we need to be tough on

ourselves, we need to be prepared to look at these videos and say what you could we do differently. but you know what? i worry about who are going to want to be the cops of the future. this is a difficult job. you know, when you're in crisis, there's nothing better than a good cop and there's nothing worse than a bad cop, and we have our work cut out for us. but i do believe that today was a defining moment, justice prevailed, but i think we've got our work cut out for us in developing cops of the future. >> woodruff: janai nelson, from your perspective, how do you see the work that lies ahead? what are the next steps that need to come after this verdict? >> well, we need to work on two tracks. we need to continue to work on police accountability, because police are not going away tomorrow, they are with us for the near future, and we need to make sure that, while they are continuing to work in our communities, that they are treating everyone fairly, that they are not engaging in wanton violence, and that they are held

accountable. but we don't wantaccountability after the fact when there have been violent episodes and the loss of life. what we want is a new system of public safety that doesn't disproportionately deny dignity and humaty to black and brown communities. that is a radically different vision of the policing system that we have now and the system of public safety that we have submitted to. that must change. if we want tonsure that there are no more george floyds, that we want to ensure that young people are given the benefit of the doubt when they are engaged in an encounter with the police, and we want to ensure a future in this country where there can be a modicum of safety that every person can rely upon and constitutional civil and human rights that will be protected fundamentally, then we need to think of something very different from the current policing system and system of

public safety that we have, and we need to work on two tracks to do that. we can start by passing the george floyd justice and policing act, that would be another step on the road to justice for george floyd, to actually have legislation in his name that improves policing and public safety in this country. >> woodruff: piece of legislation that, of course, has passed the house of representatives and is now before the senate. chuck wexler, is the kind of policing that janai nelson is describing, is that feasible? is that possible in this country now? >> well, i think we have to work together. i think, right now, we have divided communities. i think we have to take responsibility. i mean, look at demonstrations. why do police own those demonstrations? they should be working with the community. we should be engaged with them. that's the future, you know. the future isn't necessarily just legislation, the future is thinking differently about the

police, the future is thinking how do we prevent what happened in minneapolis, how do we select the best and the brightest, how do we change training? training in this country hasn't changed in 25 years, but i'm optimistic. i mean, police want to do a good job. we need good police, but we do need to fundamentally change. it's hard. it's going to take work, but i'm optimistic if we recognize we can't lose this moment or move on to the next video and get preoccupied. i talk to police sheriffs all the time and they're devastated by this case. that's not who they are or want to be, but i think in terms of the future, we have to think differently, no question about it. >> woodruff: ad janai nelson, in just the short time we have left, do you -- is it your sense that this kind of working together can happen? >> i certainly think there are many opportunities that are immediate in which police

officers, law enforcement agencies can step up and stand up for better protection of communities and against those officers and those systems of policing that render communities of color the victims of police violence all too often. that does not, though, supplant the absolute need for a transformed system of public safety. the one that we have right now is so deeply infected with systemic racism, has historical roots in the subjugation of black people and continues to operate in a way that systematically terrorizes our communities, that is something that will be very difficult to reform. what we need is transformation, and i do think that this is a moment where we can all try to work collectively toward that transformation of public safety. >> woodruff: janai nelson who's with the naacp legal

defense fund, chuck wexler who is executive director of the police executive research forum, we thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: meantime, our yamiche alcindor has also been following this case closely. she is right now getting reaction on the streets outside the white house. yamiche. >> reporter: well, judy, here in black lives matter plaza, there is a sense of bittersweet relief. there's relief that the video of derek chauvin kneeling on the neck of george floyd for nine minutes and 29 seconds, that it is now -- the consequence of that is him being a convicted murderer. but people here tell me that justice would be george floyd still being alive. justice, they tell me, would be black americans in this country not being some three times more likely to be killed by the police than white americans. that is the reality that people face. while i hear from people that they are very pleads with this verdict, my understanding is people here say this has to be the beginning to have the

change, that this can't just be one case, that it needs to becies tink change. i tell you, i'm hearing other names like breonna taylor and tamir rice. people still feel to hurt by what this country just endured over the last year. remember people started gathering in black lives matter plaza because of the death of george floyd, now people are here celebrating a bit but still very much hurt, still very much traumatized. >> woodruff: yamiche, of course, your regular beat is the white house, where we s president biden earlier today essentially pronounce derek chauvin guilty before we even heard the jury's verdict. he said the verdict, in his mind, was very clear, and we understand that, shortly after the verdict was announced, he called the george floyd family. >> reporter: that is right. we are told that the president as well as the vice president watched this verdict happen in realti at the white house and that, soon after, president biden phoned the

brother of george floyd. earlier today, the president did say that he was praying for the right verdict. he also said it was overwhelming that this officer should essentially be convicted. the white house was trying to be a bit cautious after the president said that, but we can now report that the president feels relieved, that the president is calling this family, a family he says he's grown close to, a family he says understands him and understands a lot that he's endured as someone who's lost some of his children, the president reaching out to the george floyd family. we can expect to hear from the president later this afternoon. the white house officials say we'll hear from a president who is empathetic, who will say this is a sense of loss, that even though this verdict went right, there is a sense that somebody will be missing at that dinner table, that george floyd, the brother,, uncle, phat, that he will be missed and this country has to do better that there cannot be another george floyd after what we've endured. >> woodruff: yamiche, quickly,

how much effort, muscle, do you believe, from your reporting, the president is going to be putting behind the police reform legislation in the congress right now? snood from my understanding, police reform in this country is a top priority of president biden. the issue, of course, is that there is legislation moving through congress but that the senate is so closely tied that republicans can't get on board, they don't see a way to get legislation through. so i'm told that senator booker as well as senator tim scott, two african-american men serving in the senate, they are working on this legislation together and i am told president biden is going to be involved in those talks, going to be involved in trying to get the george floyd justice and policing act pushed through. at this moment where george floyd is top of mind, there is a sense that maybe some sort of of bipartisan legislation on policing can get through given this officer is now convicted. there is a sense now that there is a line that police crossed and that both sides of the aisle should be able to get on board in some way to say we can do better as a nation.

>> woodruff: yamiche alcindor, very close to the white house right now at black lives matter plaza just a block or so away from where the white house is. yamiche, thank you very much. >> reporter: thank you so much. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, democrats in the u.s. house of representatives blocked a vote on censuring congresswoman maxine waters for the california democrat had said that if derek chauvin was acquitted, then, "we've got to get more confrontational." republicans argued she was inciting violence. waters denied it. latino lawyers and community leaders in chicago called today for a federal investigation of the police shooting death of adam toledo. a chicago officer killed the 13-year-old last month after a

chase in a dark alley. the latino leaders also demanded an accelerated overhaul of policing. >> the killing of adam toledo at the hands of the police brings to the forefront the pressing needs to address the chicago police department enforcement policies and practices in the latino community. we cannot leave it up to the police department to investigate itself and expect meaningful reforms. >> woodruff: police bodycam video shows the teenager apparently dropping a gun and raising his hands, a moment before the officer fired. covid-19 infections set more records today. india had more than 200,000 new cases for the sixth day in a row, and 1,760 deaths, the most yet. meanwhile, european regulators recommended that johnson and johnson's vaccine carry a warning label about extremely rare blood clots. but they said the vaccine's benefits far outweigh the risks.

carbon dioxide emissions are surging again, as the world economy recovers from the pandemic. the international energy agency, an intergovernmental group, is forecasting a five percent increase this year, approaching the peak levels of 2014. the group says demand for coal is driving the increase. in russia, doctors for alexei navalny were barred from seeing him today at a prison hospital. the opposition leader is on hunger strike, protesting officials' refusal to let his doctors treat him for various problems. his personal physician says she and others waited for hours outside the prison hospital, about 100 miles east of moscow. >> ( translated ): we came and they said we would meet the head doctor at 2:00 p.m. i don't understand why we can't come in. the doctors have left alexei navalny, their patient, in grave condition in the intensive care unit. >> woodruff: navalny did post to

his instagram account today. he said he looks like a skeleton, but is heartened by expressions of support. rallies protesting his treatment are planned tomorrow across russia. the president of chad, idriss deby, has died after more than 30 years in power. the central african nation's military said he was wounded outside the capital, as he visited troops battling rebels. deby had just been declared the winner of a sixth term in office. a transitional council named his son interim president. back in this country, the biden administration is allowing an extra 22,000 seasonal workers to work in the u.s. this year. that's on top of the yearly limit of 66,000. the jobs are mainly in hotels and restaurants, among other sectors. and, on wall street, banks and tech stocks pulled the broader market lower. the dow jones industrial average lost 256 points to close at 33,821. the nasdaq fell 128 points, the

s&p 500 was down 28. still to come on the newshour: efforts to make a greener airplane take off amid climate crisis. and we remember the life and legacy of former vice president walter mondale. >> woodruff: air travel is picking up steadily as more americans get vaccinated. but while that may be good news for the industry, it's bad news for the creation of more emissions and climate change. miles o'brien looks at efforts to reduce those emissions and to help airlines fly greener skies. it's part of our ongoing coverage on the consequences of climate change and our reporting done in tandem with the

international journalism project called, "covering climate now." it's also a co-production with pbs nova. >> reporter: in the world of aviation a new era is taking shape. what began with kittyhawk, then moved into the jet age, is now going electric. >> in less than 12 months, we have went from zero to flying not one but two actual practical aircraft. >> reporter: roei ganzarski is c.e.o. of magnix, which makes high powered lightweight electric motors, ideally suited for flight. >> our goal as a company is to build a generational business that 40 years from now, people will be flying an electric aircraft propelled by magnix motors. >> reporter: in may of 2020, they flew this cessna caravan retrofitted with one of their motors.

it's a milestone but also a baby step. a caravan with a turbine engine can carry nine people 900 miles. the batteries on this plane limit the payload to four people, the range to 100 miles. so is it too soon to be practical? >> that's not the question. the right question is, does anyone need a caravan that can take todayour people 100 miles? the answer to that is, yes. >> reporter: pound for pound, liquid fuel contains 16 times more energy than the best batteries. so while short hops on smaller planes may be possible, the batteries needed to fly big airliners on long flights would make the plane way too heavy. karen thole heads the mechanical engineering department at pennsylvania state university. >> i think it's not really within our my lifetime that we're going to get to a fully

electric aircraft that is maybe a twin aisle, large aircraft that can fly across the ocean. >> reporter: globally, the aviation industry burns 90 billion gallons of jet fuel a year, contributing between two and 2.5% of human caused greenhouse gas emissions. >> we are at a crisis right now. we need to come up with new solutions. and those solutions are still going to take a long time to penetrate the entire fleet. >> reporter: many airlines are offsetting emissions by funding carbon reductions elsewhere, so called carbon credits. sara bogdan is head of sustainability at jetblue. >> today, ultimately, we need liquid fuels. the good news is it doesn't have to be fossil fuels. sustainable aviation fuel exists. it is well proven. airlines have been flying on it for some time, including jetblue. >> reporter: today airliners fueling up in california use four million gallons of sustainable fuel a year.

one supplier, neste, refines its green fuel from used cooking oils. it reduces carbon emissions by as much as 80% before it is blended with fossil fuel. >> our goal is to have over 100 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel in thearket by the end of 2025. so that's a big jump. but we still got to get to 90 billion. >> reporter: jennifer holmgren is c.e.o. of lanzatech, a chicago company focused on making fuel and all kinds of other products with recycled co2 captured from smokestacks at steel mills. >> so this is probably the largest dedicated gas fermentation laboratory in north america. >> reporter: biologist sean simpson co-founded the company in his home country new zealand 16 years ago. they are harnessing the power of an ancient microbe called clostridium autoethanogenum - first isolated in rabbit droppings. they began exposing it to the

gases that are belched from smoke stacks at steel mills. at first it was a finicky eater, but over time, the microbe started devouring the waste during a fermentation process, creating ethanol. >> it is like a brewery. it's as simple as that in that, you know, in a brewery, in traditional fermentation, we feed sugar in our case, our organisms don't eat sugar. they gases. we built the brewery of tomorrow. that hopefully we'll save our bacon. >> reporter: the technique can make all kinds of smokestacks and landfills a source of recycled carbon. >> the molecules that were being fermented, the gas that was being fermented, i knew was not available just in steel mills. it was available in refineries. it was going to be available in chemical plants. it was going to be available if we gasified solids. so all of a sudden, it was like. holy cow. this can have a really big impact. >> reporter: lanzatech has

worked hard to scale up the process. one commercial plant is operating in china and two others are under construction. there are two more being built in india and belgium. the pacific northwest national laboratory found a way to convert the ethanol into jet fuel. lanzatech spinoff lanzajet hopes to produce 10 million gallons a year at a plant in georgia by 2022. >> the idea that you can turn the co2 waste out of a steel mill into fuel is positively magical, isn't it? >> i found it completely magical and i still find it completely magical, and of course, they've proven it to be to work. >> reporter: virgin holdings founder and chairman richard branson became enamored with the idea a decade ago. in 2018, one of his virgin atlantic 747s flew from orlando to london with lanzatech fuel in its tanks, a one time proof of concept.

tell us about why you did that and what that proved. >> it was pioneering, but it was still, still in the sort of early, early days, but it was-- it was just trying to get the world to know that there was there was this wonderful company that was pushing the boundaries forward and that that hopefully one day governments would come in and support them enough to make it make it really, really hum. >> reporter: sustainable aviation fuel comes with a premium price. in some cases twice its fossil- fuel counterpart. in california, the business model works because the state has passed laws incentivizing fuel suppliers like neste to refine fuel with less carbon and sell it to jetblue and others. >> california has been an incredible proof point of how these fuels can grow and become lucrative and be available to the customers who are looking for them. we're supportive of additional states adding incentives and then also for a federal

perspective so that we can see it more broadly. >> reporter: so long as people choose flights based on the lowest fare, carbon neutral fuels will have a hard time taking flight, without some incentives. but it is a proven way to start picking some high hanging fruit in the climate change challenge. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in skokie, illinois. >> woodruff: nova's documentar“" the great electric airplane race,” premiers may 26th at 9:00 p.m. eastern time, 8:00 p.m. central, on pbs. >> woodruff: former vice president walter mondale passed away last night at his home in minneapolis. he was a lifelong public servant who widened the role of vice president and championed civil rights under jimmy carter, before losing his own run for

the presidency to ronald reagan. william brangham has this look at mondale's life and legacy. >> brangham: he stood as the standard-bearer for liberal values against a conservative republican icon. >> we didn't win, but we made history, and that fight has just begun. >> brangham: walter mondale lost that fight in 1984 tincumbent ronald reagan in a landslide of historic proportions. he'd risen to the top of the democratic party during what he called the "high tide" of liberalism, only to watch as the tide went out. 15 years after the bruising defeat, mondale reflected on his life in politics on the newshour. >> we had our chance, we adopted all kinds of legislation. politics is cyclical, people wanted to slow down a little bit and review and consolidate, that was the reagan era, they were having their high tide then. >> brangham: walter frederick "fritz" mondale was born in

ceylon, minnesota in 1928. he started early in politics, a 20 year old working on the senate campaign of fellow minnesotan hubert humphrey. after college, mondale spent two years in the army before heading to law school. and, by the age of 32, he was named attorney general of minnesota. he stepped on to the national stage when then-senator humphrey won the vice presidency in 1964. mondale was tapped to fill humphrey's senate seat, and then elected to a full term two years later. once in washington, he championed the fair housing and civil rights acts. >> while it was partisan, we had our debates and all that, there was an underlying sense of civility. >> brangham: then, in 1976, jimmy carter made the now- seasoned senator his running mate on the democratic presidential ticket. the outsider carter relied on mondale as his guide to washington's political workings, and mondale expanded the traditional role of vice president from figurehead to

partner. the two men looked back on the relationship, in a 2015 tribute. >> i wanted to be a trouble shooter, and take on chores around the country and around the world. >> as a georgia peanut farmer, i needed a lot of help. and i felt the vicpresident would be the best one to help. i'd never served in washington before. >> brangham: mondale traveled the world, promoting the carter administration's foreign policy, including trips to help broker a peace deal between israel and egypt. >> never have the prospects for peace been so favorable. never have the dangers of failure been so great. >> brangham: he also strongly disagreed with president carter at times: he argued vehemently against the president's 1979 "crisis of confidence" speech, and against a grain embargo on the soviet union. mondale talked about his trailblazing term with the newshour's judy woodruff in

2010. >> the model we established of executivizing the vice president, putting him in there with the president, working with him all day long as i did, has been the model since then. >> brangham: as oil prices skyrocketed, and the iran hostage crisis dragged on, the carter administration foundered. in 1980, ronald reagan took the white house from mr. carter after just one term. mondale returned to private life, but he geared up for his own presidential run. after a fierce primary battle with senator gary hart and civil rights activist jesse jackson, mondale won the democratic nomination in 1984. then, facing reagan, who was now a popular incumbent, mondale made a bold move: naming congresswoman geraldine ferraro as his running mate-- the first female vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket: >> i've had many people tell me it's the best national convention we've ever had. people were thrilled. crowds were building up outside

the hall. >> my name is geraldine ferraro. ( cheers and applause ) america is the land where dreams can come true for all of us. >> brangham: at the democratic convention, mondale also sought to persuade the country that the reagan-era prosperity was a bubble, and that a reckoning would come. >> mr. reagan will raise taxes, and so will i. he won't tell you. i just did. >> brangham: but the message failed to resonate during an economic boom, and the former vice president struggled to escape the policy failures of president carter. >> i'd rather be the underdog in a campaign about decency, than be ahead in a campaign only about self interest. >> brangham: as the cold war dragged on, mondale called for a nuclear freeze, which president

reagan then used to paint him as weak on national defense. on the debate stage, mondale's prospects brightened, briefly, when mr. reagan stbled through answers, raising questions about his age and mental fitness. but the president came back in the second debate with his now- famous retort: >> i will not make age an issue in this campaign. i will not exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience. >> brangham: even mondale joined in the laughter, but later said that was the moment he knew he'd lost the election. indeed, on election day, it was a crushing rou mondale lost every state but his home state of minnesota and the district of columbia. >> although i would have rather won, tonight we rejoice in our democracy, we rejoice in the freedom of a wonderful people, and we acceptheir verdict.

>> brangham: mondale returned again to private life, before president bill clinton named him as ambassador to japan in 1993. later, he served as an envoy to indonesia. and in 2002, he returned for a final campaign, when minnesota democratic senator paul wellstone died in a plane crash. mondale ran in wellstone's stead, 22 years after he'd last held elected office, but lost. >> i love this state, i love minnesotans, and at the end of what is obviously my last campaign, you always treated me decently, u always listened to me. i am so proud of this state, and >> brangham: mondale endured personal tragedies in those final years as well. his daughter, eleanor, died of brain cancer in 2011. and his wife, joan mondale, his partner of almost 60 years, passed away in 2014.

>> woodruff: waltemondale was 93 years old. the ways he revolutionized the role of vice president impacted many who came after him in that position, including al gore. and he joins us now from nashville. mr. vice president, thank you so much for joining us, and we invited you here to speak about walter mondale, but i do first want to ask your reaction to the verdict in the derek chauvin case, in the killing of george d. this evening? >> well, first of all, thank you for inviting me to honor walter mondale, and thank you for that question, judy. i found the verdict very emotional. it was very powerful. it was a sense of relief that, not because a man went to prison, although justice decreed that, but relief that the moral

arc of the universe bent ever so slightly more toward justice today, and it gave a sense of redemption for the rule of law, for the legal system, because, in so many cases similar to this with a white policeman and a black victim, the outcome often was one that caused consternation. this was a superb prosecution, and it brings some sense of closer to all -- closure to all of those who rose up in horror at the murder of george floyd, and, of course, as many have said, justice requires continuation of the efforts to fix the systemic injustices that were so evident in that murder. but it was a welcome relief to hear that verdict. >> woodruff: and just one other thing, and i'm going to ask you to maybe adjust your

microphone up a little bit. we're having a little bit of a hard time hearing you. but while you do, vice president gore, tell me if you think things will change, what we're hearing tonight in reaction to the verdict is that people hope our justice system may be, in some way, a justice system that is fairer, that is, frankly, one that is more respectful of all americans. how do you see that? >> yes, there was a sense of closure and a sense that the rule of law was redeemed, and there was a great relief. i tried to say earlier, i'm sorry for the mic, that the moral arc of the universe bent a little bit more ever so slightly toward justice. >> woodruff: i do want to turn now to walter mondale, who, of course, served as vice president

from 1977 to 1981, and in many ways the role he played did transform the office. how do you see the example that he, in that role, in his time, set for you and others in that position? >> well, i've said it before, and i'll say it again, you can take all of the vice presidents in american history, judy, and divide them into two groups -- before walter mondale and after walter mondale. before he assumed that position, he conducted a very careful study of the vice presidency and came up with a set of recommendations that former president jimmy carter, to his credit, accepted. he was the first to move into the west wing. he had a very substantive partnership role with president carter. he thought it through from soup to nuts, and every vice president since then has

had an opportunity to review the memo that walter mondale provided. his friend dick moe played a role in it and i certainly did. i heard joe biden say when he became vice president, he did the same thing. but fritz mondale really deserves the cdit for elevating the vice presidency into a position where he could be far more useful to the president and, therefore, to the country as a whole. >> woodruff: how do you see his legacy overall? we know we've just aired some excerpts from his speeches over time. of course, the speech at the convention in 1984 where he spoke about raising taxes, but how do you see how he will be seen in history? >> well, he was a fighting for civil rights and was known for that. he was an environmentalist. he passed the wild and scenic rivers act in 1968, before the

first earth day. he was a progressive on issue after issue. he was extremely intelligent, very focused, hard working. he was a great senator. he served with my father in the senate, and then he was a great ambassador during the clinton-gore years in japan. he was an absolutely excellent public servant in every way. >> woodruff: and choosing geraldine ferraro, the first woman to be nominated by a major party to be vice president, what's the significance of that? >> well, he said that he made history with that choice, and he certainly did, and he was -- he was correct that it was the beginning of things to come, absolutely. and we might not have a woman as vice president today except for fritz mondale's political courage. hard to think back that it

required such courage, but it did, and he broke new ground and paved the way for women to rise to their rightful position, whatever position they seek. >> woodruff: in today's very rough and tumble, highly polarized partisan political environment, vice president gore, how does what fritz mondale stood for, how he worked his way in the world of politics, how do you see that as a contrast? what does it look like to you? >> well, you know, when ronald reagan made that famous quip during their last debate, i always focus on fritz mondale just laughing up roarously at the line because it gives you a sense of the fact that he could rise above partisanship and

conflict, and he was that way in the united states senate, he was that way as vice president. it was a different era, of course, but he reveled in bipartisanship. he worked with his republican colleagues and, like many, i wish we could get back to that spirit. >> woodruff: and, certainly, we saw him graciously concede when he lost the race in 1984 for president. vice president al gore, thank you so much, very good to have you. >> thank you, judy. # >> woodruff: and we return to the verdict of derek chauvin. president biden said earl every today he prayed for the right verdict. the president spoke to the family and recalled what george floyd's daughter gianna once said. >> feeling better now. nothing is going to make it all

better, but at least now there's some justice. >> right. and, you know, i think gianna is coming, my dad is going to change the world, he's going to start to change it now. >> yes. >> woodruff: we close tonight. that was, of course, president biden on the phone with the floyd family. and we close tonight with the words of george floyd's family, and their attorney benjamin crump. they applauded the decision, but they also spoke of bigger challenges and said the larger fight for justice isn't over. >> this is a victory for those who champion humanity over inhumanity, those who champion justice over injustice, those who champion morals over immorality. america, let's lean in to this moment. >> it seems like this is a never-ending cycle -- >> yeah.

reverend l. always told me we've got to keep fighting. i'm going to put up a fight every day because i'm not just fighting for george anymore, i'm fighting for everybody around this world. >> yeah. i get calls, i get d.m.s, people from brazil, from ghana, from germany, everybody, london, italy, they're all saying the same thing -- we won't be able to breathe until you're able to breathe. >> that's right. >> woodruff: filo knees floyd, at the brother of george floyd and before him benjamin and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. newshour, thank you, please stay safe and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. the defendant is on trial not for being a police officer, it's not the state versus the police. he's not on trial for who he was. he's on trial for what he did. >> closing arguments in the trial of derek chauvin for the murder of george floyd. we ask the former minneapolis police chief janee harteau will there ever be real reform? then, how modern masculinity is driving men to take their own lives. i speak to a father who lost his son to suicide and to expert andrew reiner. also on the program >> what she taught me was to feel and be part of this place, not a visitor. hari sreenivasan talks to the