captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: democracy in crisis. as president biden kicks off a summit to combat declining freedoms around the world, others warn of the threat to democracy here in the u.s. then, one on one. the top united states general in the middle east discusses the potential flash-points in the region's uncertain future. and, a polluted legacy. the air force and others contend with the community impact of pfas-- chemicals linked to widespread health issues. >> we've seen, you know, somewhere between 98% and 99% of individuals have detectable levels of these chemicals in their blood. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.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 availability of covid-19 booster shots is expanding to 16- and 17-year- olds. the f.d.a. and the c.d.c. cleared them today to receive

third doses of pfizer's vaccine, at least six months after thr second shot. meanwhile, the world health organization warned wealthy countries against hoarding vaccines for booster shots, as they fight the new omicron variant. the white house braced today for more bad news on inflation. november's numbers are expected to show another spike. in a statement, president biden pointed to a drop in gas prices and said, "the information being released tomorrow on energy does not reflect today's reality." aides also cited a drop in initial claims for jobless benefits, to the lowest since 1969. the president also spoke today with ukraine's president, assuring him of support in the face of a russian troop buildup. earlier this week, mr. biden offered u.s. diplomatic efforts to address russia's security concerns. but, the u.s. state department said today, that that does not

mean bargaining away ukrainian territory. >> there have been absolutely no deals cut, there have been no concessions made, no such elements even discussed. what this is not, is an effort to discuss borders, to discuss ukraine without ukraine. we are not going to do anything with ukraine, without ukraine, our partner. >> woodruff: moscow said today that the time for negotiations is nearly over, and it compared the situation to the cuban missile crisis. a federal appeals court has rejected former president trump's effort to withhold records related to the u.s. capitol assault. a three-judge panel ruled today that congressional investigators need the presidential diaries, notes, and other material. mr. trump is expected to appeal to the u.s. supreme court. there is word that new york state's attorney general wants

to question former president trump in a civil investigation. the focus is on whether the trump organization illegally manipulated the valuations of its properties. reports today say attorney general letitia james wants also today, attorney general james suspended her campaign for governor of new york. the first-term democrat cited ongoing investigations, and said that she would seek re-election as attorney general instead. the u.s. senate has moved closer to raising the debt ceiling and averting a national default. a bipartisan bill, allowing for passage by a simple majority, passed a key procedural vote today. it would let democrats raise the debt limit-- without republican support-- in the evenly-divided senate. former senate majority leader and presidential candidate bob dole lay in state today at the u.s. capitol. his casket arrived in a somber ceremony as lawmakers, friends, and family gathered to pay tribute. president biden praised dole as

"a giant of our history," and urged americans to follow his example. >> america has lost one of our greatest patriots. we may follow his wisdom, i hope, and his timeless truth, that the truth of the matter is, as divided as we are, the only way forward for democracy is unity, consensus. the only way. >> woodruff: dole's funeral is tomorrow at the national cathedral in washington. he died on sunday at the age of 98. the first lawsuits have been filed in the michigan school shootings that left four students dead. the parents of a wounded girl brought two federal suits against school officials, seeking $100 million each. they argue that the killings could have been prevented. a 15-year-old sophomore faces murder charges in the deaths. for the first time, workers at a u.s. starbucks outlet have voted

to unionize. results from a store in buffalo, new york were announced today. a second buffalo store rejected a union. the coffee giant has actively opposed unionization for decades. and, wall street's rally paused today as investors took profits. the dow jones industrial average stood still, losing a fraction of a point to close at 35,754. the nasdaq fell 269 points-- 1.7%. the s&p 500 dropped 33 points. still to come on the newshour: the top u.s. general in the middle east discusses the flash-points in the region. despite a high vaccination rate, vermont's health system struggles with a rise in covid cases. a new book argues the focus on anti-racism has had a negative effect on the black community. plus, much more.

>> woodruff: foreign policy, a trip to capitol hill, and a briefing on covid response. those were just some of the big items on president biden's agenda today, nearly a year into his first term. he kicked off the day speaking to leaders around the world about the importance of global democracy. >> democracy needs champions. i wanted to host this summit because here in the united states, we know as well as anyone, that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort. >> woodruff: our white house correspondent yamiche alcindor joins me to talk about the biden agenda. yamiche, hello so we know at this summit for democracy, the president certainly in the background as

having to deal with an array of foreign policy challenges. remind us what those are. >> alcindor: well, as you said, judy, this was day that really was a microcosm of the challenges that president biden faces. his scheduled today really laid out the biggest challenge to the presidency, whether it was democracy summit, whether it was covid, and his meet with the task force, or whether it was him going over to capitol hill and paying his respects to the late senator bob dole. now, when it comes to foreign policy, at the democratic summit where we brought together more than 100 countries, the president said democracy is a fragile thing that needs to be protected. he also, though, had a feeling of humility, saying if the united states understands, just as other countries, how much democracy needs to be protected-- i talk to a senior administration official who told me the president essentially approached that because of january 6 and our own democracy. with the mix of determination to improve american democracy and a mix of confidence that he could stibl a leader because the united states officials here see it as a beacon of hope still. then when you add, of course,

the other foreign policy challenges, there's russia and china-- two countries not invited to the summit. both were critical of the summit. the chinese foreign ministry released a statement and the stinging report on the state of american democracy saying in part this is really a country ruled by money. when you look at russia, of course, following the meeting and the-- the call, i should say, rather-- with president putin and president biden, they criticized the summit. and the president said he issued a pretty singing statement, a pretty straightforward statement to president putin, if russia inveiledded university of california there would be strong economic sanctions. along with of course the continuing issues with the consequences of the afghanistan withdrawal that the president is facing. >> woodruff: and then, of course, yamiche, there is his domestic agenda. we know the "build back better" piece of legislation, still working its way through congress. but how is the rest of his-- where does the rest of the agenda stand? and how is all that affecting his standing among american

voters? >> alcindor: well, this is really at the heart of the domestic issues that the president is facing. he was able to get through some big policy issues, but there is really this approval rating issue, as well as a perception that may be the biden administration isn't getting a lot of stuff done, even when democratic lawmakers are saying we have a lot to celebrate as democrats. of course it's what they're saying. i want to point out, that joe manchin is carrying around a card, the critical senator from west virginia, carrying around a card listing some of the accomplishments democrats have made. in march, $1.9 trillion passed as part of the american rescue plan. that was focused on covid relief. in may, a covid-19 hate crimes act, focusing on making sure people weren't targeted because of their ethnicity. in november, $1 trillion infrastructure investment. that,sh, was the bipartisan infrastructure plan. here's where things get interesting. the president's infrastructure ratings an npr-maris poll found 42% approve of the

infrastructure plan, but 51% disapprove of it. now, when you look at the president-- when you look at the president's approval rate, they approve of him 42%, 51%. when you compare that to infrastructure, 56% to 31%. so what that really shows is that the president's approval ratings are lower than what people see his infrastructure plan and his agenda. and that is the issue that the president's really trying to bridge and the issue that is really in some ways dominating the conversations at the white house here. >> woodruff: quickly, yamiche, we know covid is also a continuing challenge for the president. >> alcindor: that's right. i mean, the covid-- the pandemic is something that's top of mind. the omicron variant, the president just sat down with the covid response team here in the white house. i was in the room. the president was not taking questions, but i shouted a question about rapid tests because that is something that has not been available to americans as in other countrys. that is still the number one priority getting the pandemic under control. and tbs the thing dominating all the other sectors, all the other things we have been talking

about tonight. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor, reporting from the white house, thank you, yamiche. >> thanks so much. >> woodruff: as president biden and international leaders discuss the decline of democracy around the world, some political watchers are increasingly concerned that the survival of american democracy is also at risk. the newest cover story of "the atlantic" magazine, entitled“ january 6 was just practice,” argues that the threat to the u.s. is coming from within, as republicans aligned with former president trump work to upend a core of our democracy: that the president is chosen by will of the voters. staff writer barton gellman wrote the piece, and he joins me now. barton gellman, welcome back to the newshour. we appreciate you being here. i have to say this article is full of eye-popping information. but the title alone catches us up short. what do you mean by "trump's

next coup"? >> i mean that january 6 was not an isolated event, that it was part of a coherent plan and conspiracy to overthrow the results of the last election, that went on for considerable time before and after january 6. and that republican operatives working on trump's behalf are now methodically looking around at all the places where trump's first plot failed and looking to reinforce them, looking to remove obstacles that prevented trump from succeeding last time. >> woodruff: and what are some examples of that that you go through in this piece? >> well, one example is that they're seeking out all of the public officials, some of them elected officials, some of them nonpartisan administrators, who said no to the coup last time, who said no we won't change the

vote count. we won't flip the outcome. joe biden n in our state. they are taking those people and they are either hounding them out of office or they are making them irrelevant by passing new laws that take the power away from that office. >> woodruff: i mean, you pull this together, bart gellman, and it is alarming. you write, "the prospect that the actual winner of the next election, there is a prospect that that person will be declared the loser and that the loser will be certified as the president-elect." what makes you believe at this point that these efforts by people who support, who are allies of president trump could actually pull this off? >> the whole currency of presidential election is electors. each state has its own share of electors. and trump's strategy last time and the strategy that is being laid out now for the next time

is to ask state legislatures, controlled by republicans, in states that biden won, to change the elector system. to simply say we're not going to count the electors that were chosen by the voters. we are going to put forward electors for trump, because we, the republican legislature, say so. >> woodruff: and we saw and you mention and we know that states like wisconsin, georgia, and maybe even michigan were in a position to make these kind of challenges. i want to specifically zero in on what's happened in georgia since the election, and there you have the authority for overseeing the election taken away from local officials in fult only county, which surrounds atlanta, and turned over to the state legislature. how does that play into the point you're making here? >> well, let's go through the list of everything that's happened in georgia with respect to elections.

you had a republican governor and a republican secretary of state, both of whom certified that biden had won the election. that was their job faithfully to reflect the actual count of votes in georgia. for this crime against trump, the former president has declared war on the georgia governor, has recruited a candidate to try to replace him. the georgia legislature has removed the secretary of state's power over elections so that next time it comes along, he won't be the one capable of certifying or decertifying an election. they have changed the rules so that a board appointed by the republicans in the legislature can fire the election officials in counties like fulton county, where atlanta is and where most of the democratic votes are. and so they've gone systemically through all the things that

prevented trump from stealing the georgia election after losing the vote, and they have changed them. >> woodruff: you also, bart gellman, i mean, there's so much to ask you about here, but you spent a lot of time trying to understand who the people are who believe that the former president trump won reelection, who don't believe that joe biden was lawfully elected. and you point out that these are not loan wolves. these are people who are part of ordinary communities around the country. >> that's right. there was a typical profile for politically violent people in the past has been yong and male and unemployed and low education, among other things. look at what happened on the january 6 insurgency. look at the defendants in those cases. there are lots of women. the mean age is 42 years old. so these are middle-aged people, well off, white-collar jobs, own

their own businesses. they are not small cells of violent predators, and they're not lone wolves. what they are is part of a mass movement that believes that trump was robbed of victory, and believe that violence is justified to restore him to power. >> woodruff: and how many people do you believe fit into that category? >> well, the best research on this i know of is done out of the university of chicago, and they have found that there are about 21 million americans who agree with two propositions. one is that biden is an illegitimate president, and the other is that violence is justified to put trump back in power. that's 21 million adult americans, and that is a very sad number for our political enterprise. >> woodruff: it is. and what is-- what is your

sense, bart gellman, of how deeply held these beliefs are, how possible it would be to change minds among these people? >> you know, i have often wondered that, and i decided to-- to dig deep and just find one angry trump supporter who believes that the election was stolen and believes that january 6 was a nonviolent, peaceful protest against a stolen election, and to see what are the sources of this belief, and whether i could affect his beliefs by giving him empirical facts. there was a firefighter from new york, and so, he told me, for example, that it wasn't the patriots on january 6 who committed acts of violence.

it was special frces units descriezed as antifa who conducted the violence. and i asked, "how do you know that?" and he said, "well, i heard it from this general on rumble," the right-wing video site. so i called up the general, and i asked him a few questions. and discovered that he had no information at all. he was-- he was basically making it up and surmising it. and i went through the whole conversation with the the firefighter, explained that the pentagon had put out statements saying that there was no such special forces, and so on. and he just didn't believe me. i could bring him the facts on a platter, but he wasn't buying them. >> woodruff: and so what does that mean for our country, in terms of what the white house can do, what-- people who are in

a position of authority, the news media. what do you see is possible to address this alarming picture that you're painting? >> i don't have a great answer for that. i think we have a-- you know, you could almost call it an epistemological crisis here that we don't seem to share as a country any common foundation of basic facts, of ba basic truths- black is black and white is white. and you can be a-- you can be closely following the news, as this firefighter is, and be fluent in all the talking points of your political team, and have no idea whether what you're hearing is true, because you're not watching pbs, and you're not reading "the atlantic." >> woodruff: and the result for the country is-- we'll see

what happens. between now and the next elections. enemy barton gellman, writer for "the atlantic." we appreciate it. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: the united states has left afghanistan, but it is just part of one region that marine corps general frank mckenzie counts as his responsibility. he oversees the middle east and southwest asia as the top general at u.s. central command. not only did he oversee the evacuation of afghanistan, but he commands troops throughout the region, especially in syria and iraq, and must keep his eyes on iran. it is a full docket, and he sat down with nick schifrin this morning. >> schifrin: general frank mckenzie, commander of centcom. thank you very much.

>> i'm glad to be here today. thanks for having me, nick. >> schifrin: what is the threat, as you see it, from iran, and how is centcom postured to confront it? >> so, i think iran is, first, the most serious threat we face in the region today. and i think the threat manifests itself in several dimensions. first is their expanded ballistic missile force, which they have developed carefully over the last few years. and just over the past couple of three years, we've seen the addition of land attack, cruise missiles, and u.a.s.'s. >> schifrin: u.a.s. is drones, >> unmanned aerial systems. can be drones, typically of different sizes, that they could choose to employ. the other thing that is very concerning is their proxy forces. principally in the region, but also has the capability to manifest itself globally, now, the iranian nuclear program is also another-- another area of concern. the diplomats are working very hard to find a way to reenter an agreement with them. and we-- you know, at centcom, we try to do everything we can to support our diplomats as they pursue that goal. >> schifrin: so nuclear program, proxies, and missiles. if tens of thousands of u.s. troops that you command in the

region, dozens of bases, can't deter iran from advancing on all three of those aspects, what can? >> well, so actually, what we've done is, we have deterred iran from state-on-state conflict over the last couple of years. and i think that's-- that's a-- that's a-- that's a testament to the posture we've had in the theater. >> schifrin: but the three problems that the u.s. has long had with iran, as you just identified, have actually advanced, right? >> they have advanced, and they're going to continue to advance. and i don't think any posturing or any other force elements we put in the theater are going to affect that, because they reflect, you know, national decisions made by iran. but what we can do and what we should strive to do is affect iranian behavior toward their neighbors: >> schifrin: the diplomatic engagement in iran, of course, is ongoing today. iran has increased its enrichment of uranium to 60%. is there a military plan if iran increases that enrichment to 90%, which would be weapons grade? >> we have all kinds of plans for iran, which i'm not going to be able to discuss with you, as you will appreciate. i think the best course of action with iran remains the diplomatic track.

>> schifrin: there have been u.s. assets deployed to israel, deployed off the coast of israel, to help with israel's air defenses. what would centcom's role be in any kind of military conflict between israel and iran? would the u.s. essentially be dragged in? >> well, i think, you know, we'll help israel defend themselves, should that become a necessity. >> schifrin: does that mean that the u.s. military would participate in any kind of military action between israel and iran? >> as you will appreciate, that is uniquely a political decision, not a military decision. so i'll leave that one alone. >> schifrin: there have been attacks, including an assassination attempt, against the iraqi prime minister, that iran says it didn't authorize. but, what is the threat of militias in iraq that are more given that those groups are a little less centrally controlled than before? >> so, they are less centric-- centrally controlled, and i think we would agree with that assertion. however, they're all armed, ultimately, by iran, so iran has a profound moral responsibility for the actions those groups take. really, the iraqis have got to take this action against the--

against the shia paramilitary forces that that actually, as you noted, are a little bit out of control. and i think the-- and i think that that risk is probably going to rise over time. >> schifrin: why are you confident that the training you're doing for iraqi forces won't end up as it has in the past? iraqi military folded in the past, as you know, and we just saw the afghan military, whom we trained for 20 years, fold. why won't it be the same story there? >> in both cases, the iraqis folded, and the afghans folded, because we left. we're not leaving. we're going to keep a small platform there that's going to be able to do advise and assist. and that's the key difference in both those situations. and it's important to note that. >> schifrin: let's move to-- let's move to syria. i want to start with civilian casualties there. centcom recently said a december third drone strike in syria might have killed civilians. and we actually saw a video posted by a member of the family that says they were the victims. what happened? >> we're investigating it right now, and i can't share any more infoation-- i would tell you this. we take it very seriously. we'll investigate it very quickly, and we'll have something out here very soon on that.

>> schifrin: tre was another case of civilian casualties back in march 2019. at the end of the war against isis in a town called baghuz. your initial investigation found the airstrikes killed four civilians and the strikes were in legitimate self-defense. but you also admitted in that investigation, you couldn't conclusively characterize the status of more than 60 casualties. this is also under investigation by the department of defense right now. the "new york times" reported there were more than 70 fatalities. do you believe your initial investigation got it wrong? >> i really can't tell you anything about it. we have an ongoing investigation, so i'm sort of-- the best thing i can do right now is just be silent. >> schifrin: people who are involved in the initial pentagon inspector general report told the "new york times," centcom slow-walked information and even removed an initial legal opinion that said a violation of the law of armed conflict may have taken place. do you believe that's what happened? >> i don't believe that's what happened, but what i believe actually doesn't matter here

because it's going to be investigated and we'll all know. >> schifrin: can i zoom out and ask you, do you believe there's any problem with the command climate, or any problem with special operators and how they call in airstrikes, that lead to these kinds of incidents? >> i think we had a very long, tough fight in iraq and syria, and in 2018 and 2019 we called in about 6,000 strikes. that's a lot of strikes. we've gone to elaborate lengths to prevent civilian casualties. i cannot tell you in every case that we have been able to achieve that goal. i can tell you that when we know about it, when we have an opportunity to learn that civilian casualties may have occurred-- may have occurred, we do investigate it. >> schifrin: let's zoom out. in syria-- main objective, of course, is to prevent the return of the caliphate. but we've seen isis cells in eastern syria expand. we've also seen isis cells in southern syria attack inside northern iraq. do you believe the mission is working? >> i believe the mission is working, and here's why. we never have predicted a bloodless future with isis. we've always thought that isis is an ideology of the mind. so it's going to recur.

what you want to be able to do, though, is keep it local and you want local forces to be able to deal with it. and increasingly, that's what we're seeing, certainly in the case of iraq. >> schifrin: let's talk about afghanistan. since the u.s. withdrawal. have you identified any targets? and have you proposed any airstrikes inside afghanistan? >> so those are all operational details. i would tell you that we continue to look in afghanistan for, particularly, isis-k targets and al qaeda targets. and that process continues. >> schifrin: are you able to see those targets? >> it's a difficult thing. you know, we keep-- we are able to bring platforms in overhead to take a look. we're able to-- in the long term, perhaps we can reestablish some relationships on the ground. >> schifrin: i wanted to go to lebanon. how worried are you about government collapse in lebanon, and what would its impact be? >> i believe this is a very dangerous time for the government of lebanon, and they need to-- they need to do some actions to get their own house in order, if they're going to be able to go to the various international agencies that can

provide them some relief to restructure their debt. >> schifrin: the lebanese military, of course, has been the one institution that's widely trusted, or at least has legitimacy among many lebanese, but it's on the verge of bankruptcy. you recently met with the commander of the lebanese armed forces. what more is the u.s. willing to do in order to make sure the lebanese armed forces stay loyal? >> i agree with you that the lebanese armed forces are probably the-- the best example of an institution in the country that has relative trust by everyone. we need to take action to ensure that the l.a.f. survive. >> schifrin: do you believe that they might not survive? >> i think this is the most dangerous period they've been in for quite a while. they have an extraordinarily capable and good commander. i think he's doing everything he can with the resources that he has. they're going to continue to need help. >> schifrin: 30,000 feet on the region and china. do you feel pressure by policymakers who are more focused on china when it comes to the capacities that you have in the middle east? >> we need to be oriented on china as the pacing threat for us, and with that in mind, we need to allocate resources conscious of that, of that, of that threat.

however, china is a global problem, not just a western pacific problem. china has increasing interest in the region, and we're going to see increasing chinese activities in the region as a result of that, principally economic now, in the long term, it could be military. hard to know. >> schifrin: china has, exactly, as you just said, militarily tried to increase its presence even through the united arab emirates. what's the impact of chinese military actions on u.s. partners? >> so i think-- i think u.s. partners are looking for u.s. assurance. they want to know that we're going to stay around. the department of defense has given them that message of assurance. look, the partner of choice is the united states. no one partners with china by choice. because first of all, the capability of their weapons is-- is-- is significantly limited. also, the debt trap diplomacy that comes with china coming into a country-- many of the countries in the region have seen the practice of that in the pacific, so they're very concerned about that. >> schifrin: but as you know, from jordan, israel, even saudi arabia and the u.a.e., they do question u.s. commitment to the

region. they've seen multiple presidents now talk about wanting less of a footprint in the middle east. >> and we do have less of a footprint in the middle east, but we're still here and we're still-- still able, if necessary, to decisively alter events in the theater. >> schifrin: general frank mckenzie, thank you very much. >> thank you, nick. >> woodruff: as the country braces for the unknowns of the new omicron variant, the delta variant is still overwhelming parts of the united states. some states in the northeast and midwest have seen sustained, record-breaking case numbers. william brangham has this look on how it's hitting vermont. >> brangham: vermont, with its widespread and early adoption of vaccines and other mitigation measures, was held up as a model for how to handle the pandemic. but this last month, the state blew past its record case and

hospitalization numbers. the surge that hit much of the south earlier this year has arrived in new england. dr. rick hildebrant is the chief medical information officer and medical director of hospital medicine at rutland regional medical center in vermont. >> sure. we're seeing a lot of cases of covid. we did not see the number of cases, as you mentioned, earlier in the year, and now we're 're seeing it in the emergency partment. 're seeing it in the intensive care units. >> is it your understanding the bulk of these people are vaccinated or unvaccinated? >> the majority of the cases we're seeing are unvaccinated individuals. there are, of course, individuals who have been vaccinated who are kreacted covid, but the majority of cases requiring hospital-level of care, whether the emergency department or in-patient unit are unvaccinated. >> help us understand this.

vermont has, i believe it's the highest vaccination rate, 75 or something% in the country. we were led to believe if we get to three-quarters will of a population we wouldn't see what you're seeing. how is that happening? >> there are a couple of things that have come into consideration with this. first of all, when those assumptions were made that was based on the native virus, not the delta variant of the virus the delta variant is just far more contagious, and that 75% number is not nearly enough to have herd immunity for a community. it's way higher than that, 90-plus percent. we did have a very robust adoption of the vaccine, but that was almost a year ago. a year ago, people were rushing to get vaccinated. that immunity has waned, and after 10 months, the immunity is waned to the point at which people can contract covid. now the people who are getting covid who have been vaccinated are generally not that sick. they're having mild illness. but they're acting as vectors.

they're spreading the illness to other individuals who are unvaccinated and are getting very sick and are landing in the emergency department. so it's a couple of different things that are playing into that. >> reporter: how is the booster campaign going where you are? >> unfortunately, not nearly as well as the initial vccination efforts went. the booster uptake in vermont has not been very good, and that has contributed significantly to the spike that we're seeing right now. >> what we have seen elsewhere with these other recent surges, like in the south, cases went up and cases went down. are you seeing any trend line that looks good to you, or do things seem to be progressing in the wrong direction? >> unfortunately, we're not. we definitely saw a big peak a few weeks after the halloween holiday, and we're seeing another peak now on the coattails that, related likely to thanksgiving and small, indoor group gatherings. we have seen nothing, however,

other than increased number of cases for the last several weeks, and, unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. >> verpt is an incredibly rural state, and people live far apart from each other. there are not that many hospital systems to begin with. and i've been hearing a lot of interviews with different medical staff around the state, and they're describing a sense upon burnout that this has been going on a really long time and they're feeling taxed. what are you hearing from staff in your facility? >> there's definitely a level of exhaustion amongst staff. i think we are better poised than other places in that we have had relatively good staffing through most of this. the last several months have been really challenging with both nursing staff and physician staff. there is definitely a feeling of fatigue. the numbers have been high for a while, even before we were seeing this most recent covid surge, the amount of delayed care that has required in-patient hospitalization was very high.

and add a covid surge on top of that, we have seen volumes at our hospital that we've really never seen before, both in the acute care and surgical medical but the i.c.u. that can be challenged when the i.c.u. beds are filled in a hospital such as ours. unfortunately, it's not just our hospitals. it's also the hospitals around us. it's our tertiary partners that are also taxed by this, and our ability to transfer patients has been limited. it has been very hard on staff for sure. we have a very positive attitude in this hospital. it's an upbeat, can-do attitude, but it has been very taxing on many people. >> given the trends that you're describing, i know it's cold and getting colder. the holidays are coming. omicron are its unknowns are coming. how concerned are you about what's down the road? >> if we did not have a robust surge plan in place, i would be very concerned. it's all about having the appropriate plans in place. so we have been working fair very long time. we know in the south that

hospital systems were overwhelmed, and we never wanted to find ourselves in that type of scenario. so we developed a very robust surge plan that includes the ability to care for a large number of patients. this has been more challenging for sure in this time, and the critical care capacity, not only here but in the rest of the state, has really made it challenging. however, i'm reassured in that we have a good surge plan in place to deal with those types of volumes. >> all right, dr. rick hildebrant of rutland regional medical center, thank you very much, and becht of luck to you up there. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the infrastructure legislation signed by president biden last month contains $10 billion for cleaning up drinking water that has been contaminated by a specific group of manmade chemicals. but, problems with these so-called "forever chemicals" go back decades, and are located

in many places around the u.s. miles o'brien looks at the impact they've had in one community in new hampshire, and how the air force is now dealing with its past use of them. >> reporter: not far from her home in rye, new hampshire, mindi messmer and i are standing on a bridge over some troubled waters. and what's in here? >> so, high levels of perfluorinated chemicals, which are the components of the a.f.f.f. foams. >> reporter: "a.-triple-f.," aqueous film-forming foam, is an unsurpassed way to stop a raging petroleum fire. for about 20 years, firefighters used it in training exercises, and to douse at least one big fire, up the creek, at nearby pease air force base, closed in 1991. the foam is water- and oil- repellent, thanks to perfluorinated chemicals,

more commonly known as pfas, now linked to a host of serious human health issues, and possibly cancer. would you eat a fish caught out of this creek? >> i would not, no. the levels of pfas are too high. we know that the pfas and some of the pfas compounds absorb into the fish bodies, in particular. >> reporter: before the pandemic, she prepared a sample for me to bring to biogeochemist elsie sunderland at harvard university. in her lab in cambridge, they are focused on pfas-- how it moves through the environment, and how it can harm human health. >> there have been some reports of cancer at very high levels of exposure. then there is also a whole suite of other impacts-- obesity, risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease-- a whole suite of health outcomes that we're quite concerned about are associated with exposures to these compounds. >> reporter: invented in the

1940s, pfas became popular in an era when chemicals were widely celebrated as modern marvels. this was the entertainment in the dupont exhibit at the 1964 world's fair. ♪ better living through chemistry ♪ that's the promise of dupont ♪ >> reporter: to say pfas chemicals are ubiquitous today seems an understatement. besides a.f.f.f., they are in teflon, scotchgard, plates, parkas, ski wax, boots and shoes. the list goes on and on. >> we've seen somewhere between 98% and 99% of individuals have detectable levels of these chemicals in their blood. >> reporter: a big part of the problem is, the same stout chemical bonds that make pfas so impervious, also make them practically indestructible. they stubbornly persist in the environment, and in our bodies, so much so, they are called“

forever chemicals.” dr. sunderland is working hard to figure out who is most at risk. >> for most people in the general population, although the levels are detectable, they're very low. it's a very different situation than in these contaminated communities, where you do see individuals with orders-of- magnitude-higher levels of exposure. >> reporter: the water i brought her team from that stream was off the charts. there were three pfas chemicals in it that far exceeded new hampshire limits on the chemicals in drinking water, between 12 and 18 parts per trillion. and, drinking water is the issue that triggered mindi messmer into action. she is an environmental scientist, and was a contractor for the department of defense in 2014 when she became concerned about a suspected pediatric cancer cluster in her town. >> i reported it to the state in 2014. i was asking them, can you sample the water, can you sample

the soil, is there something in common these kids have? >> reporter: soon, the prime suspect came to light. as part of a nationwide testing campaign, the air force discovered high levels of pfas at three wells on its legacy property that provide drinking water to the portsmouth region. it is one site among hundreds nationwide. the environmental working group has documented 679 military sites with known or suspected discharges of pfas. >> yeah, we are standing at the spot of the original fire training activities. >> reporter: when i met him at pease, roger walton was the environmental coordinator for the base realignment and closure division of the air force. he took me to the place where firefighters sprayed all that pfas-tainted foam for all those years. unaware of the danger, they sprayed the foam very close to a two-century-old well that can generate a million gallons of water per day. businesses inside the footprint

of the old be rely on it, including two daycare centers. >> and when it was detected there, in may of 2014, the well was immediately shut off, and that set all of these gears in motion for the pfas treatment. >> reporter: the air force built an elaborate system of pumps, pipes, and tanks to remove pfas from the groundwater. the water is filtered twice, through granular activated carbon and beads of ion exchange resin. by august of 2021, they had removed enough pfas from groundwater to reopen that well. but, some nagging questions linger. there are more than nine thousand distinct formulations of perfluorinated chemicals, but they are regulated individually. so, in this case, they are looking for only four types of pfas-- those that have limits set by the state. >> there's a lot we don't know, about whether or not those other things are slipping through the

treatment systems or whether they're being treated. we don't even know what the other chemicals could be in those samples as they come out of the treatment system. >> repter: in 2009, the chemical industry introduced yet another new pfas formulation, called gen-x, claiming it is more inert. is that true or false? >> well, i think the answer is, we don't know. we simply haven't had the time to study gen-x, to say conclusively what the health outcomes are associated with exposures for human populations. we're not proactively regulating the chemicals yet. but none of them look to be particularly “safe.” >> reporter: in october, the biden environmental protection agency announced a roadmap toward federal drinking water limits for pfas. the revelations and the response here in new hampshire over the years offer a preview of what lies ahead. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in portsmouth, new hampshire.

>> woodruff: now, we turn to our "newshour bookshelf." jeffrey brown recently visited columbia university to talk to one professor whose new book pushes back on ideas that have gained popularity in recent years amid the ongoing national debate over race and racism. >> brown: the recent election results in virginia, in which independent voters like these suburban women broke heavily for the republican candidate. to john mcwhorter, it was part of a growing backlash against one trend in american culture. >> i don't see it as evidence of racism rearing its ugly head, as usual. it's not a backlash against the racial reckoning. it's a backlash against a certain kind of racial reckoning that alarms people, with good reason. >> brown: mcwhorter, a professor

of linguistics at columbia university and contributer for the "new york times," is one of today's sharpest critics of anti-racism theory, rhetoric and practice. >> i think that a real extreme point was hit in the summer of 2020, and this point, everybody is rubbing their eyes and realizing that something went too far. not that there's something wrong with a racial reckoning, in general, but that something went beyond what most, even good people would consider sensible or fair. >> brown: his new book, “woke racism,” pushes back against what he calls a "new religion" on the american left. >> i wanted to write a book explaining that this new version of what's being called anti-racism is actually very harmful, and sometimes even contemptuous of black people. because, one, if i say it as a black person, it's harder-- not impossible, but harder-- to call me a racist or a white supremacist. and i also felt that i wanted to get my version of it out, the way i'd been thinking about it, because i got the strong feeling

that a great many people, including black ones, agree with me. >> brown: you're not denying that racism exists. >> not at all. >> brown: you're not denying that a kind of structure is in place, that does harm people, that has historical roots that impact individuals up to today. >> i don't deny those things at all. there is personal racism, and then there's structural racism, although i wish people wouldn't call it that. i like to think of it as there are "racial inequities." some of them are due to racism; sometimes the racism is in the past rather than the present. but i think calling it "structural racism" encourages a kind of oversimplification that discourages coming up with solutions that actually work. ( protests ) >> brown: the murder of george floyd in 2020 led to protests in the streets and demands for a "reckoning" throughout american institutions. to mcwhorter, the results have been largely "performative" on the part of many whites, and often harmful to blacks, of whom

society expects less, he contends. your sense is that anti-racism, as practiced, is itself a form of racism-- that seems to be the strongest charge in the book. >> when you treat people with pity, when you tell people that they don't have to try as hard-- >> brown: what does that mean? let me stop you-- "pity," "try as hard." >> sure. when your idea is that because of a people's history, they are not subject to the same standards as everyone else. and so, if you say, "it is racist to subject black people to standardized tests, because history makes it so that they're not as good at them," and therefore black people don't get good at standardized tests, and run into them later-- and in the meantime, when you say "black people shouldn't have to take standardized tests," there's a short step from that to implying that black people en't as bright. and then somebody says, "it looks like black aren't as intelligent," and you say that they are racist, and everybody knows that there's a kind of double-talk going. i think black people deserve better than at kind of societal dialog.

>> brown: he points to the influence of books such as ibram x. kendi's “how to be an anti-racist” and robin diangelo's “white fragility”-- both have been featured on the newshour-- which he believes over-emphasize racial opposition and power hierarchies. a philosophy, he writes, seeping into american schools. i wondered if you're subject to the charge of "over-alarmist" yourself. i mean, you write, "these people are coming after your kids." very strong language. >> everybody thinks i meant that as some kind of rhetoric. no, i meant it. >> brown: you meant it, as in-- >> oh, yeah, because this is trickling into our educational curriculum. now we have this whole debate over whether critical race theory is being taught in the schools. those obscure legal papers are not being taught in the schools, but something derived from that philosophy has become a major underpinning of what people are taught in schools of education. you teach white kids that they're potential oppressors; you teach black kids that

they are potentially oppressed people, that black people and white people live in a kind of opposition. and that engagement with the world should be focused on battling power differentials, rather than power differentials and about eight or nine other things. >> brown: there is in this country what's called a reckoning, a rethinking. doesn't this country need a reckoning, a rethinking around social justice issues? >> you know what? no. and it's not because i don't think a racial reckoning was necessary, but i think that this country's intellectual and moral culture had become much more mature about the nature of racism, including systemic racism, especially in the 2000-teens. i think a lot of this began with social media and the heightened awareness of the relationship between cops and young black men. all of those things were happening. >> brown: what kind of reckoning would you like to see? >> i would like to see the reckoning we were having before. i guess th makes me a conservative-- i'm talking about 2019. it used to be that being called a racist really didn't bother that many people. we tend to forget how much that

changed, by roughly about 1980. now, you are called a racist, and it almost feels as bad as being called something like a pedophile. and that's good! it means that we've had a heightened awareness. that's part of a racial reckoning over decades. that a white person feels that to be a racist is one of the worst things on earth. >> brown: now, he argues, things have gone too far, and he cites cases in which language has been proscribed or someone has lost a job or been publicly shamed for perceived racist remarks or behavior. >> what i'm talking about is a national trend that anybody who's awake can see. and it's not just cherry-picked examples, and one way that we know is that there's so much interest in this on the part of people who are left of center. it's not just fox news. >> brown: you anticipated another response, a critical response to your book, which is: "the real danger is on the right. the real danger is a threat to democracy, and a threat to voting rights.

it's banning books in schools." do you see those as real dangers? >> they sure are. and also the ones that i'm bringing up. i think that the things going on on the left are real, just as the things going on on the right are real. i am saying what i think most enlightened people think, but they're worried about saying, because if you say it, you get called a white supremacist on twitter. i don't care if somebody calls me a white supremacist on twitter. and i'm going to keep writing. >> brown: all right, the book “" woke racism.” john mcwhorter, thank you very much. >> thank you, jeffrey. >> woodruff: and some late breaking news. a jury in chicago this evening convicted actor jussie smollett of faking a hate crime attack on himself. the panel deliberated about nine hours over two days. smollett said that he was the subject of a racist, homophobic attack by white men, in 2019.

prosecutors said that he paid two black men to stage a mock attack, in a bid for publicity. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. you can join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> fidelity wealth management.

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♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company," here's what's coming up. the united states out of step with most democratic allies on abortion as a mississippi lawsuit gets the country closer to overturning roe versus wade. frank discussion with feminist author katie roiphe of new york university and charles fried, president ronald reagan's solicitor general. and a new report declares china the world's biggest captor of journalists. i speak to a columnist turned activist from "the apple daily," the hong kong newspaper that was forced to close. then after 16 years germany's first female chancellor anga merkel passes the