♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, at the extreme. the western u.s. battles both widespread wildfir and an escalating drought. we visited some of the nation's most fertile farmland where tap s narendra. >> in a drought like the one we're in right now, farmers have to dig hundreds of feet down into the ground to find anothe water. judy: the road ahead. infrastructure negotiations reach a critical moment in congress. budget chair senator bernie we speak tobudget chair senator bernie sanders, about what happens next. and the opposition leading , a belarusian democracy advocate describes her people's ongoing struggle to have their

voices heard. all that and more on tonight pbs newshour. >> major funding further pbs "newshour" has been provided by -- >> cfo, caregiver, eclipse chaser. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well-planned. >> for 25 years consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of neuro-contract plans, and our u.s.-based team can help find one that fits you. to learn more visit consumercellular.tv. >> johnson and johnson. bnsf railway. ♪

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new covid-19 infections in the u.s. are still building, up to hundred percent in two weeks. and federal health officials said today that the delta variant accounts for 83% of those cas. white hoe press secretary jen psaki confirmed that a vaccinated staffer there is now infected, and that other vaccinated aides previously tested positive. >> the white house is prepared for breakthrough cases with regular testing. this is another reminder of the efficacy of the covid-19 vaccines against severe illness or hospitalizations. stephanie: a vaccinated aid nancy pelosi, speaker of the u.s. house, is also infected. rand paul and anthony fauci had another heated exchange over covid-19. at a hearing today paul accused , fauci of lying about u.s. funding for a lab in wuhan china . there have been questions about whether the virus might have

escaped from that lab. >> wait a minute. >> all the evidence is warning that it came from the lab, and there will be responsibility for those who founded the lab, including yourself. >> you are implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individuals, i totally resent that. if anybody is lying here, senator, it is you. stephanie: separately, senate republican leader mitch mcconnell appealed for americans to get vaccinated. a federal judge blocked an arkansas law banning nearly all abortions from taking effect this month. it would have prevented who were pregnant from getting raped or insight from getting abortions. new research shows excess deaths during the pandemic in india could be as high as 4.7 million. . a former indian government advisor and other searchers issued the new estimate today. an international spyware scandal is roiling world capitals.

france reported today that president emmanuel macron may have been a target of surveillance. itself on number appeared on elite database from benesova group, and israeli company -- from nso group. 13 heads of state were in the database. there is a team to investigate and manage the fallout of the revelations. nso denies president macron was a target of their software. china has rejected accusations that it was behind the hack of the microsoft exchange email system. in beijing today, the foreign ministry said the u.s. is the real cyber culprit. >> the u.s. going going dapper with its allies and launched an unweighted accusation against china on cybersecurity, this is made out of thin air and confused right and wrong. it is purely smear and suppression out of political

motives. the u.s. itself is the largest source of cyberattacks in the world. stephanie: beijing demanded the u.s. dropped charges against four chinese citizens accused of stealing trade secrets. central china has been hit by heavy flooding after extreme rainfall. whole neighborhoods around the city of zhengzhou were inundated. subway cars attract passengers inside, and more than 10,000 people were moved to shelters. at least 12 people are reported dead. state when the media reports authorities raised the nationwide flood control emergency response to its second-highest level. in this country, the man who chaired the 2017 trump inaugural committee, tom barrick, is accused of acting as an unregistered foreign lobbyist he , arrested today on federal charges issued in new york. prosecutors say he tried to influence mr. trump's policies on behalf of the united arab emirates. former movie producer harvey

weinstein was booked into a los angeles jail. he was extradited from new york to california to face charges of sexually assaulting five women. he is already serving a 23 year sentence for raping an actress in new york. the nation's three largest drug distributors will pay more than a billion dollars to new york state over the opioid epidemic. the deal announced today involves amerisourcebergen, cardinal health, and mckesson. jeff bezos and his reusable rocket launched om texas on a sub-orbital trip and then returned upright. the passenger capsule flew 66 miles high and floated back down after 11 minutes. >> big things start small. but you can tell. you can tell when you are onto something. and this is important. we are going to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build the future.

we need to do that. we need to do that to solve the problems here on earth. stephanie: the four passengers included aviation pioneer wally funk, who is 82 and now the oldest person ever in space. still to come on the "newshour" senator bernie sanders on infrastructure negotiations in congress. the belarusian opposition leader describes her people's struggles during democracy. and the two journalists on a new book on the chaotic last year of the trump white house. ♪ >> this is the pbs "newshour" from wtd studios in washington, and from the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: the wildfire season in the u.s. west and dish columbia is worsening making it evermore

difficult for over 20,000 firefighters to do their jobs. windy weather, lightning strikes, and triple digit temperatures in states like montana are fueling the fires even further. human-cause climate change and a long-standing drought created earlier and more intense season. william brangham has the latest. william: judy, more than fires 80 are currently burning across 13 states right now. affecting over one million acres. one of the worst blazes a megafire in southern oregon , a bootleg fire. it has been burning for two weeks and is growing by several miles each day. it has already burned an area one third the size of rhode island. carrie bilbao is with the national interagency wildfire center, which tracks all of this, and she joins me from boise, idaho. thank you for being here. i know you are very busy. this may seem self-evident to you, but can you explain how the heat this ongoing drought makes

it harder to do your job both in terms of what the fires do but also in terms of the firefighters themselves? carrie: sure. this year we experienced this ongoing drought, and the extensive heat conditions which drives the fuel, and we are seeing extreme fire behavior that the higher elevations a lot sooner than we would normally see it. so we are looking at being about one month ahead of where we would normally be. if you look at last year, we were at preparedness level in august, when the whole northwest went on historical fires there. we are seeing it again now where we are just one month earlier with the large fire activity. so that makes it extremely difficult, just with the firefighters as well, making sure that they are not getting two overextended, making sure that they have what they needed

to keep them going. william: you mentioned extreme fire behavior happening earlier. for a layperson, what is extreme fire behavior? carrie: our predictive services, meteorologists this morning had mentioned on the bootleg fire, for instance, and the dixie fire, they were seeing pyro-cumulus clouds actually making their own weather with lightning. william: the fire is burning so hot that it creates its own weather pattern on t fire itself? carrie: it is not the heat, it is a vegetation it is consuming. so it is drawing that moisture out and creating large clouds and lightning. we saw i guess pyro tornadoes, like they were talking aut last year, it just creates these intense conditions and winds. and with thunderstorms generally, we see erratic winds

and they could push the fire in all directions. william: you touched on the bootleg fire. we have seen that this fire has been growing by miles each day. do you have any sense as to whether or not that could be contained and when that might happen? carrie: at this poin we don't. we look at weather that determines kind of hellfire season is going and also determes when fire season is going to end. everything we are seeing in the outlook does not look good for the next couple of months. looks like here in this for the long haul. william: you mentioned the importance of the weather. rain would be, a deal but i understand the western forecast is for dry lightning, which has got to make everyone in the center incredibly nervous given the conditions o out there? carrie: we are on high alert with fire management, and looking at where we can

reposition resources and have them ready. there may be extended hours for initial attack. windows fires occur, we want to get them out quickly, because we are dealing with these other large fires. william: i know there is often international support from bordering countries. you getting that this year as well? carrie: we have looked into it, and the one concern is with canada, they are at preparedness level as well, you have probably heard reports of fires there starting early as well. so we do have partners in mexico, australia, and new zealand generally help us out, but it doesn't look like they are going to be able to supply resources this year. so then we look at potentially turning to the military. william: wow. carrie bilbao of the national interagency fire center, thank you for being here and good luck out there.

carrie: thank you. stay safe. william: as we have been hearing, severe drought across the west is causing many problems. my colleagues and i recently went to the san joaquin valley in california where this drought is threatening the drinking supply for thousands of rural residents,, as well as the lilihoods for the farmers who grow a significant source of this country's food supply. on a dusty road in madeira, california, temperatures will climb over 100 degrees today. mr. rivera's well has run dry. >> it hasn't worked for three weeks. and it hasn't word for the last two years. william: across this parched state, many people in rural areas cannot connect to their local municipal water systems. they are too far away or they cannot afford it. so they rely on private wells for water. but now in this house that rivera and his wife have been for 20 years, one they share with their daughters and

grandkids, nothing comes out of the tap. >> even though the house is fine, water is the thing you need most. it is indispensable for everything. william: getting water is now a daily chore. they filled barrels and old iced tea bottles at their jobs or their friends' places. all the things that most americans take for granted -- flushing the toilet, drinking, showering, doing the dishes, requires this new routine. >> we do all this so we don't use too much water. this is the way that we are living. william: amid this historic drought, the rivera's have turned to a nonprofit for help. >> they are panicking. they need to provide water for their family. william: she works for self-help enterprises. they set up a hotline for residents whose wells have run dry, and their wells phones have

been ringi off the hook. >> imagine when you wake up and you have to brush your teeth and there's no water, what do you do? you just have to conserve your water and brush your teeth with a cup. it is like camping in your own home. william: but this drought is not just drying up small, private wells, this area in the san joaquin valley is one of the most important cultural regions in america. farmers produce a bounty of food here, miles and miles of nut and fruit trees across the valley, and millions of beef and dairy cows. agriculture is an over $50 billion industry in california, and it is a thirsty one, using nearly half of the state's water supply. >> so all of that is afcted by drought. william: ellen hannock leads the policy center institute of california. >> this region has evolved with

water scarcity. so growers have moved more and more into crops that generate more dollars per gallon water used. and that means in that region, more tree crops like almonds especially, but also vines and fruits, but it puts them in between a rock and a bad place when you get into a really bad drought. william: in a good yea all the snow that falls in the sierra nevada's and rains in this area would end up in canals like this , there are thousands all over the valley, and farmers use that water to irrigate their crops . but in a drought like the one we're in right now, farmers have to dig hundreds of feet down into the ground to find other water. as more and more wells tap down into those underground aquifers and pull more and more water out of the ground, this resource is threatened. for most of the state's history wells could draw an unlimited , supply of water but in 2014 , the state passed a law to manage, and, in some cases, restrict groundwater use.

it hasn't gone fully into effect, but farmers in the region are worried. some estimates say the log and put a million acres of farmland out of production. john got three's family has been farming and ranching in this area for 150 years. he has never seen rainfall levels this low. given the drought and the looming water restrictions, he says some farmers are getting out. >> it is sad. they don't think they have enough water to form what they have right now. it is a really tumultuous time has that feeng ever crossed your mind. >> i don't think i would ever act on it. mother nature is our partner. adversity is part of your deal. we have been through a lot of previous challenges and this just feels like another one of those. william: you think you're going to whether this one? >> we will, absolutely. william: guthrie, nicoletta farmers here, thinks the solution lies in doing a better

job of capturing excess water in wet years. >>. >> there will be get out of this and the way our forefathers intended it to be was surface water, storage, dams. william: more dams along the rivers from north to south? >> yes. reason dams, build new dams, fix the infrastructure. the people in the state for i should say, the politicians, need to decide where they need their food to come from. william: but for now, with climate change exacerbating the drought ellen says farmers and residents alike still have to draw from those same underground water resources, that competition leaves some people dry. >> in places that have a lot of agriculture and also have a lot of small and rural communities, you get this situation wherever groundwater is really being taxed, groundwater levels are falling, and the first wells to go dry are the shower and

drinking water wls. william: cristobal chavez's house is surrounded by agriculture. is well went dry in 2014. he paid $10,000 to get deeper, but then he discovered another problem that is prevalent here, contamination. is well had four times the safe limit of nitrates, a potentially harmful chemical found in fertilizers and manure. but you had been drinking that water for years. >> that is the problem, nobody tells you. we were drinking the water for 11 years without noticing that the water is contaminated. william: so you find out that your water is not safe to drink, what do you do? the very next day, what do you do? >> we start buying it from the store. william: but that is expensive. >> yeah, it is expensive, but it is more expensive if you get sick, you know? william: right. >> it's kind of hard, but we don't got another place to go.

william: some studies have linked nitrates in ink and water to an increased risk of cancer. last year, cristobal's wife, nora, was diagnosed with stomach cancer. but what caused it is unclear. and there is no fix for that water in the well. the aquifer that you're well goes into his full of nitrates and there is nothing they can do about that. >> nothing. william: back in madeira, jamie rivera has a solution, albeit a temporary one. self-help enterprises help him get this huge tank. for the next year it will be filled weakly with water. for nearly four hours, crews worked to connect the tank's pipes to the house and fill it with a couple thousand gallons of water. so finally, after a long, dry spell. >> now, yes, the water is here. [laughs] william: the first step for rivera -- called his wife. >> we have water now!

fresh came out of the faucet! >> wow! that's great. thank you. now you have to do the dishes. [laughter] >> we will see if you cook tomorrow. [laughter] william: rivera hopes one day to eventually dig his well deeper, but as this drought continues to worsen, it is not clear even that solution will be enough. for the "pbs newshour," i am william brangham in california's san joaqn valley. ♪ judy: this week on capitol hill could make-or-break the bipartisan infrastructure plan president biden celebrated one month ago. the fate of the $1 trillion investment in roads, bridges, clean water and more, is still

uncertain as it is much larger $3.5 trillion broader spending package for jobs, families, and climate change. lisa desjardins turns me now to bring us up to speed. hello, lisa. you have been reporting on this for days. does it look like there will be a deal on infrastructure tonight? lisa: inward, no, even though we are on the eve of some important deadlines here. right now white house officials have come to the hill to try to work with that group of bipartisan senators to try and forge a final framework viewers . viewers might be confused -- wait a second, i thought they already agreed on the deal? well, they did not agree on how to pay for it. there are also questions about specific spending issues and public transit. until that is written dowin legislative text, i don't mean to be too irreverent here, but it is a almost like a proposal for marriage that was accepted, but there is no ring. we need that legislative text,

and until there is one, this infrastructure deal doesn't quite yet exist. judy: a good way to describe it. we know that the senate majority leader chuck schumer has gone ahead and that for tomorrow -- set in motion the wheels to begin to look for this bill. explain what is going on. lisa: right. tomorrow, majority chuck schumer said the senate will vote to begin debate on the deal. it needs 60 votes. this is plan a for the democrats. they hope they will get those 60 votes and have a bipartisan infrastructure deal written by thursday. but now those votes are not there. let's talk about what plan b is if this vote feels tomorrow. leader schumer could then just move the deadline. some republicans tonight are asking him to move it to monday, saying they will vote no tomorrow but perhaps they will be ready on monday.

what if even then, the infrastructure deal doesn't come together? that is a possibility. . now we are talking about plan c. then there woulde no infrastructure deal, that many democrats now, including chairman senator sanders of vermont says the infrastructure deal could go into a large reconciliation bill. that is my reporting tonight is that many democrats expect that would be the fallback plan, if all this infrastructure talk, if it all falls apart. but the timing is very important here. judy: tell us why that matters. lisa: it is july, but the truth is that the senate operates on a very tight timeline this time of year, because right now, the senate is scheduled to recess in just three weeks, and we expect the infrastructure deal alone would take two weeks. democrats really want to get to that budget resolution that would open up $3.5 trillion

deal. those two are connected. right now the big budget reconciliation deal cannot move forward until it is clear what is happening with infrastructure. judy: that is a lot to follow. we know there is additional news on capitol hill today, and that is new cases of the coronavirus are being reported. bring us up to speed on that. lisa: i will say, things have changed quickly on the hill. even just today when i walked in. we have confirmation from the attending physician of the u.s. capitol that there had been cases of the coronavirus, the delta variant, here in the capitol that have been detected. they had been detected among previously vaccinated staffers and one member of congress, vern buchanan of florida, a republican. these are breakthrough cases. i would say there is one concern here, we are in an era where almost everyone in the capitol has not been wearing masks, because vaccination rates here are generally high. we do know among, especially

house republicans, it is expected that they were lower than average. there is no masking here, there has been relatively little testing, and here comes the news that we have a variant spreading around. we know that the democrat texas state lawmakers who came here that tested positive, they isolated with some staffers here at the capitol. we don't know if that is the reason for the breakthrough. i went to show you this line for testing at the capitol. it is the longest i have seen during the entire pandemic. what you see at the capitol is something i think you are seeing across the nation. of course, this is the crossroads of the nation, people from all over the country here. people are re-masking here at the capitol. judy: that is adding to all the tension. lisa desjardins, thank you. now i am joined by the person tasked with overseeing a multitrillion dollar budget proposal lisa was just discussing, bernie sanders,

independent senator from vermont and chairman of the senate committee. senator sanders, welcome back to the newshour. where do things stand tomorrow on the infrastructure piece, this so-called bipartisan plan that there had been agreement on. is their agreement now? wh do you think? sen. sanders: judy, i have not been involved in the bipartisan plan, i have been involved very much in the partisan plan, which is something i think the american people desperately want. the truth of the matter is, there are a lot of working-class people in our country who are losing faith in the ability of government to address their need, and what we are doing is just that. we are going to take on income and wealth inequality. we will ask the wealthiest people, the largest corporations, to start paying their fair share of taxes. we will take on the pharmaceutical industry and have medicare negotiate prices. we will finally deal with

childcare and pre-k. imagine in this country we have free pre-k for every working family in america? we will have to end the disgrace of the united states being the only country on earth not to have paid family and medical leave. we will expand medicare to cover dental. we are talking, in my view, the most consequential piece of legislation for working families in the modern history of america. judy: my question has to do with how this may be tired or not, to what is going on with regard to infrastructure. we just heard lisa desjardins say you don't know what will happen with that vote. if that goes down, will there be an attempt to fold those infrastructure elements into this bigger bill? sen. sanders: of course. if you are dealing with an infrastructure bill, it might be a good idea to have infrastructure in it. that is what the traditional infrastructure, of roads and ridges and water and wished water and broadband, and, by the

way, i should point out, we are going to deal in a big way with climate. including the creation of a climate, of a civilian climate corps, putting hundreds of thousands of young people to work transforming our energy system. so if for whatever reason the bipartisan bill does not succeed. i would expect we incorporate all the traditional infrastructure proposals into the larger reconciliation bill. judy: i hear you saying that this is a quote, "partisan bill." you are not counting on republican votes. you would like to get it passed with all 50 democrats and the vice president breaking the tie. you have republicans calling this "tax-and-spend." they are using words like reckless. senator barrasso saying this seems to be "bernie's effort at socialism, the ultimate liberal wish list." what do you say to them? sen. sanders: every single

proposal has widespread support from the american people. i would ask him to go to the folks in wyoming and ask the weather it is a good idea that they should be paying a third of their income on childcare. ask elderly people who don't have teeth whether they should be able to get dentures through medicare. ask thscientific community whether the time is now, in a big way, to deal with climate. ask the ordinary american consumer whether we should take on the greed of the pharmaceutical indtry, which charges as high prices for prescription drugs. what makes the republicans very nervous -- and they are -- is they know that this is an extremely popular set of proposals long overdue. and by demanding that the wealthy and large corporations start ping their fair share of taxes, we will pay for it in a progressive way. judy: you do need the 50 democrats. there are democrats, including senator joe manchin of virginia,

who are concerned about some of the efforts to move toward renewable energy. are you confident you have all 50 democrats on board right now, and do you think you have the votes to get this past? sen. sanders: short answer, yes. there are 50 democrats. each and everyone, including myself, thinks that we should do something a little bit differently. but when you look at the reality, that the very richest people in this country are becoming phenomenally richer -- in fact, one of them has been out of space today, i guess that is what he does with his billions, while ordinary americans are struggling to put food on the table and send their kids to college. every member of the democratic caucus understand that now is a time to address the needs of working families, to address the climate crisis that is besetting our country in the world. i am not going to tell you there are not differences of opinions. they will be worked out. we are going to pass this thing.

judy: another issue we are hearing is that there may be efforts to include immigration reform. if you are doing that, first of all, are you doing it? second of all, what would it look like? what are you trying to cover there? sen. sanders: we are trained to cover people who have been at the forefront, among other things, of protecting our economy -- critical care workers, d.r.e.a.m.e.r.s. and others. i have believed for a long time, as i think almost all the members the democratic caucus, and some republicans, that the time is long overdue to pass comprehensive immigration reform and a path for citizenship. we can't do it completely the way i would like to do it, in a reconciliation bill. there are constraints in terms of policy which we are going to do the best that we can. judy: but at this point, that is in the bill? sen. sanders: yes. judy: finally, senator, the news we are hearing on capitol hill today that there are new cases of covid-19, including the delta variant, are you, members of

your staff, other senators you know, going to be taking in new steps now to be safe? how is this going to change things for you? sen. sanders: i will tell you one clear way we were just talking about it a few minutes ago, my staff and i we had hoped to open our doors here in capitol hill to visitors. every day we have folks from vermont and around the country coming in. we are going to have to delay that, precisely because of the growing threat of the variant. i suspect you will see more mask-wearing. all of us were so excited not to be having to wear masks all the time. in closed-door rooms, you will probably be seeing more masks being worn. judy: in other words, going back to where we were. sen. sanders: i don't know how far back we are going to have to go, that depends upon what happens, and obviously, one of the things thais so disconcerting is that we have too many republican leaders, if

i may say so, and too many americans who are not listening to science. that is the understanding that right now, 99%, 99.5% of people in hospitals who are dying from the variant, are people who are not vaccinated. i know the president is trying as hard as he can to vaccinate as any people as possible, and that is what we have got to do. judy: senator bernie sanders, chair of the senate budget committee thank you so much. sen. sanders: thank you, judy. ♪ judy: it's been nearly a year since the man known as europe's last dictator, belarusian president alexander lukashenko, was declared the victor in an election widely denounced as a fraud. the woman leading the opposition to him is in washington this

week meeting with top officials . in a moment, we will have an interview done this morning with svetlana tikhanovskaya. but first, here is the reporter with some background. reporter: in august of last year, antigovernment protests erupted across belarus following what many belarusians and the international community college call a stolen election. president alexander lukashenko's government quickly cracked down on protesters, journalists, and anyone else who spoke out. that included belarusian opposition leader and presidential candidate, svetlana tic tikhanovskaya, who was forced to flee to lithuania shortly after the election. >> i thought this campaign toughened me a lot and gave me so much strength that i can endure anything. reporter: she had previously been a teacher and then a full-time parent with no political experience. she picked up the mantle left behind by her husband, and opposition blogger. he was arrested a few months

before the election and remains in prison to this day. widespread protests slowed during the winter, but lukashenko's crackdown remains in full effect. nearly two months ago, the belarusian government forced the landing of a commercial plane to arrest a 26-year-old belarusian activist, roman protasevich. pratasevich was filmed shortly after his arrest recanting his comments. >> hello. my name is roman protasevich. police officers treat me properly and according to the law. also, i now continue to cooperate with the investigation and give a confession on the fact of orgazing mass protests in minsk. reporter: it is widely thought that he made the remarks in under duress. reports of torture by belarussian authorities are widespread. last week lukashenko criticized his opposition well meeting with a key ally, russian president vladimir putin. >> they turned individual terror against those people who spoke

frankly and who stood for the state. they tried to threaten. i think it is a question of time and we will identify and find them all, and we will take them to justice. [shouting] reporter: at least 32 belarussian journalists remain in custody. over the weekend, ti ticket svetlana to kamenskaya arrived in washington where she addressed a crowd in front of the u.s. capitol. >> it is a great achievement to be here and to receive support from the united states. but i ask you to remember that our path toward freedom is long and challenging. report: tikhanovskaya has met with many top officials all in an attempt to ramp up pressure against lukashenko's regime. this morning i sat down with tikhanovskaya at the atlantic council, a washington think

tank, and began by asking her if she ever thought a yeaago she would be where she is today. >> of course not. i have never been involved in politics. i almost never believed that something would be done. but last year, step-by-step, many actions proceeded in the weakening of the -- awakening the belarusian people. new faces started to appear, like my husband, he started to go around in the country and asking people how to lead. what would you like to change? than covid came, and people understood that they could do without this government. at the time when our doctors and medics wanted help from the government, it did not help them. people united to supply our doctors with masks and special

equipment for breathing. people understood that this is solidarity. we can survive without this dictator. people saw an alternative. i brought my documents to the election commission only to support my husband. i was sure they would deny to accept my documents, because they understood that i am his wife. but they wanted to make, laugh at me, just look, who will vote for a woman? for a housewife? but they lost this connection with people in belarus. understanding that people do t want to live under a dictatorship. >> where is the movement today on the ground? we remember last year, hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets, the brutal state crackdown in response. it is fair to say that the protests have become muted since then.

has enthusiasm gone? mrs. tikhanovskaya: pictures disappeared. not protests. because with the help of violence and guns, the regime succeeded to suppress people on the streets. of course, people went to fight underground. people are continuing to fight, although we cannot go out, so basically, as it happened after the elections. so they are trying to do very small steps. but we are 9 million, and this already will be 9 million steps. don't think that if you don't see those huge demonstrations, that people lost attention for change. of course not. processes are goi on. they are not evident. >> yesrday you met with secretary of state anthony

blinken. you came out of the meeting and said you understand there will be "strong actions" taken very soon. did request additional sanctions? mrs. tikhanovskaya: we are talking about sanctions. we understand that only sanctions and fighting inside the country and sanctions outside the country, could influence the regime and make them stop repression, release political prisoners, and start dialogue. we talked about sectoral sanctions because they are the most powerful. they would hit the enterprises that lukashenko's cronies. >> i have to ask you about the strength of the regime right now. it is fair to say that he still has the support ofhe security services. a few months ago he forced down a commercial plane to take down a blogger he did not like and detain him. he has now crackdown brutally on independent media and

journalists. doesn't all that say to you that he actually still enjoys a lot of support on the ground? misses tikhanovskaya: he can influence the people through fear, blackmailing people. i think the majority of people in the regime are hooked by him, and a lot people in the regime, especially in the kgb, their hands are in blood already. and he is money parading these people -- he is manipulating these people. it is one system. but the usual workers in the regime in the ministries, they want changes. you know how many times people told us when they were jailed , that the policemen say, i am supporting where you, i am with you, but i have to do my

job. people who are inside the regime, sometimes they are even more slaves of this regime than usual, and they are more scared svetlana tikhanovskaya, thank you so much for being here. mrs. tikhanovskaya: thank you. ♪ judy: president trump's year in office was book ended by an impeachment trial and in between, marked by other historic events -- a deadly pandemic, economic collapse, racial unrest across the country, and a violent insurrection at the u.s. capitol. in their new book "i alone can fix it," washington post reporters carol lennon and her partner reveal new details about chaos inside the trump white

house, and the alarm that rippled across the government at that time. carol and phil's book is out today. very good to have you with us. congratulations are in a book that is getting a lot of attention. you already do remarkable reporting in your day job, and that comes through in this book. carol, let me start by asking you, what was president trump's bottom line in his final year in office? what mattered more to him than anything? >> his public image and getting reelected. maintaining his grip on power was numero uno and everything they did. one of the takeaways, when we did that deeper excavation, the big take away was how disturbe and unsettled insiders in the trump administration were about the degree to which the president was willing to put american lives and democracy in danger, again, for his primary goal, stay president.

judy: and these were people, ph who were closei to the president and workingl for the president. one of the early examples that struck me was at the beginning of the covid crisis when the were discussing whether to bring americans home from china. the president said no. why not? phil: these, by the way, were not only americans, they were american workers, doing their jobs overseas in china. the president did not want them brought home because they could be infected and it would increase the number of infections in the united states. he told his advisors it was his number. my number will go up. he said, no, we can't bring them back here. he thought about purring -- quarantining them somewhere offsite. it took interventions on behalf of senior officials in the cabinet to make that happen. judy: and it was that kind of thinking that you document

persistently throughout the covid period. ilya: exactly right, for trump, it wasn't about his numbers, and his chances for reelection on november 3, that was paramount for him even as the u.s. faced this deadly pandemic and a genuine crisis. judy: so many things to sql about i wish we had longer -- to ask you all about i wish we had longer. last summer and fall you had three senior figures in the trump administration -- the attorney general, the secretary of defense, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, spending a lot of energy, and i am quoting you tt's keeping trump from deploying active-duty troops to american cities in reaction to riots after the death of george floyd, and also how they were worried he could use troops to perpetuate his power by somehow intervening in the election. carol: that's right.

the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff leave this was a reichstag moment. essentially compare president trump's moves to hitler's efforts to consolidate power. they believed he was trying to create chaos and disturbance and fear basically to hold onto power and he was worried about this coup. the three people you mentioned were banded together to stop that to keep a waco from happening in an american city. they did not want u.s. troops deployed on people exercising their first amendment rights to protest the death of george floyd, to protest systemic racism. and they would meet together privately before going into the oval just to basically compare notes and figure out a plan to stop donald trump in his track judy: of course, none of this was public. of course there were rumors, but none of it was publiat the time. and phil, fast forwarding

to the days after the election, the president was seriously thinking at that point, about firing his secretary of defense, and about firing the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general milley. but you write about how the joint chiefs came up with a plan to make sure the country held together? phil: chairman millie, but not just him, the chairmans of the navy, air force, all branches of the military, were across the river at the pentagon, in fear of what the president might do in those few months. they saw him talking about how the election was stolen even that tre was no evidence to support that. they thought he might launch a war with iran. they were worried about it cool attempt. they banded together and said,

if the president were to give us an order as commander-in-chief to do something that we thought was illegal or unethical, that they would rign one by one to try and delay taking that action and basically form a guardrail against the president's dangerous impulses. judy: how eager were they to talk about this, carol? carol: we are pretty rigorous reporters, and we interviewed more than 140 people that were insiders, front-nine. there were many people when we were reporting for the washington post who would not talk to us. they were afraid of donald trump, and some of them were afraid of coming forward for fear that they be replaced by even a worse yes-man or yes-woman. we found when we went back to interview for that they were more, willing to educate the public and their fear had fallen off. they were also worried -- these are not just history in the rear

view this is current events. this is a donald trump who is intimating he will run in 2024 -- we will see if that is true -- black people wanted it to be known what he actually did behind-the-scenes -- but people wanted it to be known what he actually did behind-the-scenes. judy: on january 6 when this mob was overrunning the capitol. what was he doing? and how hard were people trying to reach him? phil: judy, it is chilling. the u.s. capitol was under siege, there were violent rioters at the capitol calling for the vice president's head , chasing after lawmakers, and president trump, according to our reporting, was in a private dining room off the oval office watching television. he was awol. he was not communicating to leaders at the pentagon. he was not involved in orchestrating any sort of law enforcement or military risk and to protect the capitol. he was watching it on

television. advisors outside were trying to call him to get through to him -- chris christie was one of them -- to try to tell him he needs to tell his supporters to stand down, to go home and stay peaceful. he would not take the calls. . we hired in our reporting that ivanka trump his daughter who had been in her office upstairs on the second floor had to come into that dining room multiple times, one time after another, to get her father to finally put out a statement to his supporters, which he did in that video. but it took two hours, and lives were lost. judy: and he was resisting? carol: multiple times. for hours they were working on this without success. judy: if you think about this, people think, yes, all this happened, and yet there are still 74 million people who voted for him and a lot of them still supporting him. carol and phil, you cover the city for long time. how do you explain the fact that after all the this that have been reported about what donald trump did, -- many politicians

would just go hide under iraq and never want to be seen in public again. carol: donald trump struck a chord. in our book "a very stable genius," we talk about the one thing that donald trump was truly a genius at, and that was his mastery of the megaphone. his ability to tap io people who feel elite elitist have dismissed them. pele who feel disenfranchised, who feel the economic winds are blowing against them and that they are looked down upon. this group, including some white supremacists and nationalists, they really love donald trump. now you have a band of republicans who want that donald trump border desperately so they can stay in office, so they continue to repeat the lies donald trump promulgated. judy: just quickly, you had people who wanted to talk to you, wanted to get the story out but there were many others who were sticking with him? phil: there were many others sticking with him.

donald trump also wanted to get his story out. we sat with him at mar-a-lago for an interview for this book. and people are sticking with him. tens of millions of americans support him to this day and believe the lies that he said about the election, which is one of the reasons why the threat to democracy is not yet extinguished. this is very real and continuing. judy: very real. phil rucker, carol leonnig, we thank you both. it is quite a book. i alone can fix it -- donald j. trump's catastrophic year. thank you both. tonight on the news online, how one california town dealt with losing well water for five weeks as the state experiences extreme heat and drought. our community reporter reports from the san joaquin valley about why residents are worried, and how officials are responding. you can read more on our website, pbs.org/newshour.

that is the newshour for tonight. i am judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the "pbs newshour," thank you. please stay safe. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> consumer cellular. johnson & johnson. financial services firm raymond james. bnsf railway. carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security, at carnegie.org. the target foundation, committed to advancing racial equity and creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate equitable economic opportunity. 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. ♪ ♪ >> this is "pbs newshour west" from weta studios in washington , and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪

>> pati narrates: sinaloa, mexico. a state with such exceptional abundance from both land and sea. even for a state so rich with ingredients and recipes, there are a few that manage to stand out. i'm visiting two of those today. first, the legendary cuchupetas which has some of the most famous seafood in all of sinaloa. woah! i don't know what to eat next. then i'm meeting with some legends in the making. (laughs) a family behind one of sinaloa's most famous breads, pan de mujer. mmm! irresistible. in my kitchen i'm using two sinaloan staples to create recipes that are bound to become favorites in your own home. inspired by all that shrimp from cuchupetas,