captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening, i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away on the newshour tonight, covid surge-- what you need to know about rising infection rates, and a spike in hospitalizations among children. and, a jury finds ghislaine maxwell guilty on five of the six counts she faced helping lure teenageirls into having sex with jeffrey epstein. then, remembering harry reid. looking back at the life and political legacy of the former senate majority leader from nevada. and, tightening welfare rules-- 25 years after major changes, we examine how eligibility restrictions have failed americans in need. >> all the paperwork you have to fill out for the programs, you have to go to parenting classes,

drug testing, all to get $100 or $200. it's not really a safety net for these families. >> nawaz: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> fidelity investments. >> consumer cellular.

>> johnson & johnson. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> 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. >> nawaz: the world health organization is warning tonight of a global tsunami of covid cases, as the omicron surge builds on the delta wave. here at home, new infections have hit a pandemic high, and, today, the effects were increasingly evident. long lines at testing centers nationwide, as covid continues to swiftly spread across the country and at least another 850 flights grounded globally today, as airlines still grapple with staffing shortages. new infections in the u.s. topped 267,000 yesterday, the highest recorded since the pandemic began. cases rose 60% er last week, with delta and omicron driving the surge. the c.d.c. previously estimated omicron accounted for 73% of new cases in the u.s. since december 18, but yesterday revised that

down to 23%. that percentage, officials warn, will rise substantially. and though hospitalizations and deaths remain low the risk of illness, and system overloads, remains. >> all indications point to a lesser severity of omicron vs. delta. we should not become complacent, since our hospital systems could still be stressed in certain areas of the country. >> nawaz: today's news of record infections came just as the c.d.c. issued new, shorter quarantines and masking rules this week for covid positives and exposures. rules met with mixed reviews from americans. >> i'm feeling good about the new guidelines. it makes a lot of sense for the people who have taken those measures to protect themselves with multiple vaccinations and then a booster. >> i don't feel comfortable with that at all. people can say they don't have symptoms and it's like, that's very variable. >> nawaz: c.d.c. director rochelle walensky today defended the new rules. >> let me make clear that we are standing on the shoulders of two

years of science, two years of understanding transmissibility and more that we continue to learn every single day about omicron. at officials' urging, roughly one million americans are now getting a booster shot every day. but the world health organization's director general said today those bsters in rich countries continue to hurt poorer nations. >> this virus will continue to evolve and threaten our health system if we don't improve the collective response. this is the time to rise above short-term nationalism and protect populations and economies against future variants by ending global vaccine inequity. >> nawaz: failure to do so, he warned, will only prolong the pandemic. and the c.d.c. is rerting a significant surge in pediatric hospital admissions in the last week, particularly in illinois, ohio, florida, new jerseand new york. new york city alone reports 68

children hospitalized last week. dr. ethan wiener is chief of the pediatric emergency department and director of the division of pediatric medicine at hassenfeld children's hospital at n.y.u. langone health. and dr. wiener welcome to the newshour, thank you for the time, so you have seen a big jump in new york in those pediatric admissions, i know you have spent time in that emergency department recently, so just tell us about what you are seeing there, what that surge looks like. >> sure, well any more, we are seeing a tremendous increase in volume in the emergency department specifically amongst pediatric patients. as we just heard on the last segment there were over 250,000 new cases yesterday. it is really all about the really tremendous increase community prevalence of disease increase, a community burden leading to a greater number of patients with medical conditions and presenting to the emergency

department. >> and dr. wiener, tell me about the people that you have been admitting, are they younger, older, unvaccinated, vaccinated, what is the sort of demographic profile? >> sure, well, most of the serious conditions continue to revolve around respiratory conditions and complications, so that means that people are having difficulty breathing or shortness of breathe and require oxygen and other support. this is really true of kros multiple age groups within pediatrics which is-- which is actually really different than wh we had been seeing in prior parts of the pandemic. and it's really having to do more than anything else with community burden rather than with some severity of the strain itself. it's really across age groups we're seeing very young children who obviously are too young to be vaccinated. but amongst the age groups that are eligible for vaccines, there's absolutely no question,

and everybody is reporting this across every setting, is the patients who are getting seriously ill are unvaccinated. and it is extraordinarily rare for us to admit a patient at any age or for any reason related to covid specifically, who is vaccinated. >> let. >> nawaz: let me ask you about something dr. anthony fauci said in a breeching, he said many children are hospital eyed because of covid, it it is an important distinction, does that track with what you are seeing and does that also tell you that omicron is not as severe as delta was among children? >> well, for the first part there is no question that, again, just based on the prevalence of the community or the burden, if you will, in the community with disease, we are seeing, patients have a variety of conditions that also concurrently happen to be covid

positive. so are certainly being hospitalized for conditions unrelated to covid but happen to have covid at the same time. so there is no question that that is the case. again i also don't believe that, nor does the evidence demonstrate that omicron is more dangerous or what we would call more virulent than other strains, this really just has to do with pure numbers, and with the vast, you know, vastly greater numbers of pediatric patients that are contracting disease, we are seeing more patients who are then becoming ill from that disease. i will say also that all the measures that we discuss now for many months to prevent exposures and to prevent serious illness remain the same. not only vaccination but masks work. we know that, you know, and

whether it is in a school setting or otherwise, if you are indoors around other people, and of course kids aren't in school this week but we're seeing the effects of prior weeks and all the gathering together with people over the holidays, you know, the masks are really what makes the difference in terms of reducing community spread. >> nawaz: i have to put to you something we hear often. we know vaccination rates for younger kids in particular 5 to 11 are very low. a lot of parents who hear what doesn't seem like omicron is that severe, if my kid gets it, they won't get that sick. why should i get them vaccinated. why should i get them vaccinated. >> well again, we're seeing a tremendous increase in the number of kids getng sick who are requiring hospitalization. with more patients who comedown with covid there are going to be more patient was get sick. we've had to talk about other conditions like myo carditis, a

condition of the heart, fortunately a small minority does get that, but it shows to the notion it is not inquengsal and we need to focus on preventive measures. >> nawaz: that is dr. ethan wiener of the hassenfeld children's hospital at nyu langone health, thank you so much for your time. >> thanks for having me. >> nawaz: in theay's other news, british socialite ghislane maxwell was convicted of luring teenage girls into sexual abuse, by the late jeffrey epstein. a federal jury in new york found her guilty on five of 6 counts, after deliberating for 5 full days. maxwell showed little reaction as the verdict was read. we'll have much more on this, later in the program. the u.s. and russia announced that presidents biden and putin plan to speak by phone again

tomorrow. that comes amid high tensions over the russian troop buildup on ukraine's border. moscow is also demanding security guarantees in eastern europe. in a call earlier this month, mr. biden warned of strong economic penalties if russia invades ukraine. russian authorities have shut down a second major human rights group in as many days. a moscow city court today ordered the "memorial human rights center" to close. but group leaders rejected the charge that they acted as "foreign agents." >> ( translated ): we've been saying from the start that the "foreign agent" law, and i'm doing the air quotes, is not lawful, because it was designed with the aim of strangling civil society. today, we received more proof of that. the court essentially validated our efforts. >> nawaz: just yesterday, the russian supreme courcited the same law in closing a sister organization, "memorial international."

in the middle east, meanwhile shooting broke out today between israeli forces and palestinian militants along the gaza border, for the first time in months. it followed an overnight meeting between israeli defense minister benny gantz and palestinian president mahmoud abbas, who governs the west bank. hamas, which runs gaza, condemned the meeting. it marked the first time abbas has met with an israeli official, inside israel, since 2010. afterward, gantz approved several measures aimed at easing tensions. back in this country, the pacific northwest faced another arctic blast, ahead of a coming warm-up by the weekend. forecasters warned northwestern oregon and western washington could get three more inches of snow. meanwhile, nevada's governor moved to declare an emergency as heavy snow and storm conditions snarled travel around the lake tahoe area. a federal bankruptcy court has blocked opioid lawsuits from proceeding against purdue pharma and its owners, the sackler family, at least, until february 1st. that's to give the various parties time to negotiate a new settlement.

earlier this month, a separate federal judge rejected the initial settlement of thousands of lawsuits. she found that it improperly shielded the sacklers from legal action. and, on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 90 points to close at 36,488. the nasdaq fell 15 points. the s&p 500 added six, reaching a record close. still to come on the newshour: china's continuing crackdown on press freedom in hong kong. why the republican party is paying former president trump's legal bills. looking back at the life and legacy of hall of fame coach john madden. and much more.

in the case of the late jeffrey epstein, his former girlfriend and companion ghislaine maxwell was convict on five of six counts including sex trafficking of teenage girls. maxwell was accused of luring girls for epstein and participating in some of the abuse-- abuse between epstein died by suicide more than two years ago before he could be tried. moira penza is a former assistant u.s. attorney who led the prosecution that resulted in the 2019 sex trafficking conviction of nxivm cult leader keith raniere. she's now a partner at the firm wilkinson stekloff. she joins us now, moira penza, welcome to the newshour, thanks for being here, so maxwell found guilty on five of those six counts that jurors jus were considering, what does this tell us about how those jurors saw her role in the things

jeffrey epstein perpetrated. >> thank you so much for having me. i think this is really a complete reckoningk what we really saw is that jurors understood the government's argument that maxwell was the enabler in chief for epstein. that these crimes were facilitated by him and the jury was persuaded by these victims who came forward and testified. >> nawaz: what about this one koint in which she was acquitted, enticing a minor to travel tone gage in illegal sex acting, what should we understand about that. >> really the two most serious charges in this case were the sex trafficking counts, the counts five and six, those carry the most significant penalties. those were the the ones where we really heard about the direct involvement of maxwell in actual secretaries i'mized massages with the victim. so all those other counts, those are also very serious but what we saw is that the jury was just

taking its job very seriously. and the government had to prove a number-of-elements for each of those crimes which incorporate state law. and they are very technical and we saw that ever o the course of many days, the jury was really grappling with that one count. but at the end of the day it likely won't have a significant difference in terms of how ghislaine maxwell is sentenced ultimately. >> nawaz: the trial went on for about a month t features the testimony of four pim who described their abuse as teenagers in the 19 90s and the early 2000s. tell us a little more about what we heard from those woman and what roll you think the testimony played in the trial and the verdict? >> their roll was really the most significant in the trial by far. that was really the kruks crux of the government's case was the testimony of those four victims ile being could rab rated by other witness testimony and other evidence. and what we saw was witness after witness, victim after wick victim explaining how maxwell

recruited them when they were underaged and how she participated in e normalizing of the sexual misconduct of this abuse. and ultimately participated in the commercial sex aspect of it. so actually facilitating the payment for, in exchange for the sexual abuse. and so we saw that throughout and we really saw focus on what maxwell's specific role was in the recruitment and then even in the actual sex acts. massaging one of the underaged minors, massaging her breasts, actually participating in the sex act. >> with what about maxwell's attorney. for anyone not following along with the trial, what was at the heart of thei defense? >> she had very-- maxwell had a very sophisticated defense. and what we saw was they took a multifact erredded approach to defending this case. they were really trying to attack the credibility of the witnesses. they brought an expert on false

memories. they tried to show that these victims were biased because epstein had died and because they were looking at maxwell really now that they could not get justice, against epstein but ultimately i think we have seen in case after case this strategy of really attacking the victims back firing. and so while there were some victims were the defense tried to soften that a bit, tried to make it nor about memory lapses, wh you have those attacks on sexual abuse victims, especially once-- we see. >> finally what is ahead for ghislaine maxwell, what kind of penalty could she face being found guilty on foof of those six counts. >> she's facing decades in prison. i think that the most that will be up to judge nathan, i think there is a strong likelihood that she would get sentenced it in the range of 20 or so years in prison. at least until given her age there really is a possibility she could spend the rest of her

life in prison. >> that is moira penza former assistant u.s. attorney now with. moira thanks so much for your time. >> thank you for having >> nawaz: today one of the largest remaining independent media outlets in hong kong shut itself down. that came after police raided its offices, arrested editors and board members, and accused them of "sedition." and as nick schifrin reports the there is another significant step in china's hong kong crackdown. >> in downtown hong kong senior editors were arrested. boxes of computers, materials confiscated. with police, one step closer to being silenced. two hundred officers raided

strand news' offices, seen here back in june, one of hong kong's few surviving independent media outlets. their crime: “inciting dissatisfaction and contempt” for hong kong's government, said the head of the police's national security department, steve li. >> ( translated ): don't be biased. don't be biased. you know well how to report, how to be a responsible reporter, how to make a non-biased report to your readers. >> schifrin: deputy editor ronson chan visited his offices after the raid, and stood by stand's journalism. >> ( translated ): stand news has been doing professional reporting, there's no doubt about it, the whole world sees it. >> schifrin: but the world has also seen hong kong target that professional reporting. the largest independent media outlet apple daily shut itself down this august, after a plainclothes police raid last august, and media tycoon jimmy lai, was frog marched out of his own newsroom. this week, authorities added a "seditious publications" accusation to lai's already

lengthy charge sheet. also arrested today, stand news board members former democratic legislator margaret ng, and denise ho, who became a pro- democracy activist as part of the 2014 and 2019 protest movements, even though she was one of hong kong's biggest pop stars. we interviewed her in 2019. how does the singer become an activist? >> when they are these youngsters going onto the streets safeguarding the city and giving up their futures for it. >> schifrin: back then, ho was in washington, d.c. with nathan law, the youngest ever hong kong pro-democracy legislator, disqualified by beijing. he was forced into exile to the u.k., where we spoke by skype today. >> for those people who are not listening to state media, government propagand stand news is their most credible source of information. but for now, it's all gone. >> schifrin: is it the last credible source of information that existed in hong kong? >> our freedom movement, our democracy movement, a large part

of it relies on for us, we have access to truth. we have access to different narrative compared to the one the government is providing to us. and it's really difficult for us to find a really credible and, well-read news media outlet for now. >> schifrin: every part of their movement is being dismantled. this month hong kong held elections with new rules to ensure only pro-beijing "patriots" could compete. and over the last 18 months, thousands of pro-democracy activists and officials have been arrested, many without any notice, including today. >> i think many of us are unable to imagine the life of, worrying that on every single morning, 6:00 a.m. there would be a group of police knocking on your door and you will be taken away, possibly you are not granted bail and you stay in prison for years before you can come back to your home. the legal system of hong kong is

just being manipulated, being weaponized and it's just serving for the government, not for the people. >> schifrin: what beijing would say, what hong kong authorities would say is that the steps they've taken under the national security law has brought peace to hong kong has reduced the amount of violence especially associated with the protests from 2019 and 2020. what's your response to that? >> most of t violence were coming from the police itself, and none of these police are being held accountable. and the fact that hong kong people are not as vocal as before, not because they are satisfied, but because their rights are being deprived. >> schifrin: if i ask you this next question and you were in hong kong and you answered, you'd be breaking the law, but because you're in the u.k., you can answer it. what do you think the west should be dog right now? >> the west has to step up. the 2019 protest movement really awakened the whole world. we have a growing awareness of

the genocide behavior in xinjiang, the human rights violation in hong kong and the military intimidation to taiwan. we are moving towards a much more assertive policy towards the growing aggression. >> schifrin: but at least publicly, that assertive policy has not produced any results, does not actually change chinese behavior. >> what we're lacking is a much more coordinated pushback and also democratic countries using multilateral and different mechanism to work together. and i think this is how we can general what they hold china accountable for human rights violation. and i pe that we are stepping towards that direction. >> schifrin: nathan law, thank you very much. >> thank you so much, nick. >> nawaz: former democratic senator harry reid of nevada

died yesterday, at the age of 82, after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer. reid went from humble, small- town beginnings to become one of the longest-serving senate majority leaders in american history. lisa desjardins has more on his story. >> desjardins: from poverty to a titan of the u.s. senate, harry reid's story is marked by the extraordinary odds he surpassed to lead the highest chamber in american politics. >> i didn't make it because of my good looks, i didn't make it because i'm a genius. i made it because i worked hard. >> desjardins: harry mason reid was born in 1939 in the battered mining town of searchlight, nevada, where prostitution was a major industry. his home had no indoor plumbing and the town, no stoplight or high school; reid traveled more than 40 miles to henderson to graduate. there he channeled his competitive, at times combative, energy into xing, a passion and approach he carried through life.

>> everyone knows how much admire people who get into the ring, whether it's a boxing ring or a political ring. >> desjardins: his resume was unusual-- reid's first hill job was as a u.s. capitol police officer, work that put him through law school. he rose to become a city attorney, a lieutenant governor, and then nevada's gaming commissioner. in the reagan era, reid won as a democr running for congress and then the senate. known as a no-nonsense negotiator with rough edges and a soft touch, reid became th top senate democrat in 2005, and railed against then president george w. bush. >> we are the difference between the president getting everything he wants and getting what we think is important to the american people. >> desjardins: bush felt the blows, and in 2006, reid oversaw a seismic shift, hard-ught wins in places like montana and virginia gave democrats the majority.

his impact was just starting. >> change has come to america! >> desjardins: reid personally urged then-junior senator barack obama to run for president, and was among the first to endorse him. but even with the white house and congress in hand, democrats still could not overcome a filibuster in the u.s. senate. until reid helped convince pennsylvania republican arlen specter to switch parties and give democrats 60 senate votes. >> the ayes are 60, the nays are 39. >> desjardins: exactly what they needed for the sweeping affordable care act a few months later. >> the american people want healthcare reform and we're going to do healthcare reform. >> desjardins: all this as a new republican leader had risen, kentucky senator mitch mcconnell. reid spoke to "newshour" about their battles in 2013. >> we've never been enemies, hated each other it's just been a little difficult to work together, and i think things will get better. >> desrdins: the two leaders

wielded senate rules like sabres and in 2013, reid pulled the trigger on the so-called“ nuclear option,” removing the filibuster for most nominees, a move that cut sharp divides but which reid defended as important for governance. >> it's time to change the senate before this institution becomes obsolete. >> desjardins: in 2015, reid suffered severe injuries while exercising. he retired in 2017, closing the book on one of the longest leadership tenures in senate history. >> the joy i've gotten with the work that i've done for the people of the state of nevada has been just as fulfilling as if i had played centerfield at yankee stadium. >> desjardins: the democratic firebrand settled in henderson for his final years with his high school sweetheart and wife of 62 years, landra. reid battled pancreatic caer for years. he was 82 years old. for more on the life andegacy of harry reid, we're joined by his friend guy cecil, a democratic strategist and chairman of the political action committee priorities usa.

he worked with reid during his time as executive director of the democratic senatorial campaign committee. guy, one thing i know about harry reid is he was a viewer of this program. so i want to send my con doll ans to his family but also to you for the loss of your friend, and i will ask right off the top about his legacy. former president obama revealed what he wrotearry reid in his last letter to him today, and he wrote quote i wouldn't have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support. what is reid's political legacy? >> well, you know, i think senator reid had a chance to work with two history-making leaders. e first black president of the united states. and the first woman speaker of the house. and a lot of times his legacy gets overshadowed. the reality is that senator reid as president obama directly stated helped pass wall street reform and the stimulus bill and the affordable care act.

he was the reason why the repeal of don't ask don't tell wasn't delayed-and-was, in fact, overturned. and a lot of it is of course wrapped up in legislation but for those of us that knew senator reid, a lot of his legacy is in the people that he workedded with and that workedded for him. and that feel spelled every day to live up to a standard that he set for us which was to take the work seriously but not always to take ourselves so seriously. and so for a lot of us it's not just a loss for the country, but the loss ever a really good friend and mentor. >> nawaz: part of that when a leader might not take themselves so seriously and i know this is true of reid as he didn't mince words. he didn't always have a nil ter. i know he referred to president-elect trump, for example, as a sexual predator, who lostthe popular vote. a lot of democrats liked him saying that. but sometimes his words worked against him, for example, when

he was praising pliltically is the candidate barack obama as someone with light skinned, didn't have a negro accent. what do you see as the stngths d weaknesses that reid had and his style as a leader? >> well, i think it is the the same thing that then candidate obama recognized, which was that despite misspeaking, he knew the heart of harry reid. the best thing about harry reid was sometimes the thing that drove the people that worked for him a little bit crazy. he was the staim behind the podium of a debate as he was in the oval office of the white house white house, as he was in private meetings or with his family. he was authentically himself and he wore his shortcomings on his sleeve in the the same way that many politicians only want to present sort of one dimension of themselves. and i think that is why des pielt a misspeak or two or

simply just saying what exactly was on his mindk people lovedded harry reid when they knew him and when they worked for him and when they represented him as the people of nevada re-elected him several times. and so i think like most of us the thing that sometimes present challenges are the things that make us uniquely us. and it's why so enema of us loved working for him. >> he's such a fascinating character, i think in our political history. mormon, progun rights, sometimes prolife in some ways, also could be on the liberal side of some issues. but i like how you described him as authentically himself. who was that? what was he like personally? >> well, senator reid and i des pielt one of us coming from a small mining town in nevada and the other from miami florida, had a lot in common. our faith was both very important us to. senator reid was someone with who took his faith seriously but didn't wear it on his sleeve. for lots of people to see.

we both dealt with suicides in our family. and despite the fact that he is correctly and occasionally identified as being tough and a fighter and butsk, he also was-- brusk, he also was someone that cared about people. i had the fortune of having him give a toast at my wedding. and for those that know senator reid they know he didn't attend a lot of events, political or social. he did his work in d.c. and en he went home to his wife. he was just an innately decent person that cared about the people that he worked with. and that wanted the very best for him. and it is someone that i'm going to miss a lot. >> guy cecil, thank you so much for remembering harry reid with us. >> thanks for giving me the chance.

>> nawaz: this year marks the 25th anniversary of a federal program that provides direct cash assistance to the poor, known as tanf. as stephanie sy reports, an investigation by propublica looks at just how much the program has actually helped families in need. >> sy: in 1996, president bill clinton created tanf as part of welfare reform. the federal government provides grants to states that have discretion for how to use and distribute the funds. for the past six months, propublica has been speaking with dozens of women, mostly single mothers in the southwest, who turned to their state governments for financial assistance and found the process extremely onerous. advocates have been arguing that today's version of tanf hasn't kept up with demand. propublica's eli hager has been investigating the state of investigating the state of tanf and joins us now. eli, thank you so much for being

on the newshour. why did you focus on the southwest and what were sort of the major takeaways in your reporting? >> we focused on the southwest for a few reasons. one is that it's the most rapidly changing part of the country right now the cost of living has just been skyrocketing across the region. and so a lot of single mothers with children have been struggling to make ends meet in terms of paying increasing rent and affording the things they need to raise a child. and so therefore the state of the cash assistance program here was something that we really waed to focus on. >> sy: so basically you have 50 different processes for people applying for public assistance? >> right, when welfare reform is passed, a number of folks in congress pointed out that it was essentially a massive experiment on poor people in this country. because it was allowing each state to operate its anti- poverty program however it wanted. here in arizona, nearly two thirds of the money goes not to directly helping single mothers with children, but rather toward child protective services, which often investigates those very same mothers for conditions

arising from poverty. the money can be used, really however, states want as long as it's broadly defined, you know, helping people in poverty. and that's why we look to state by state, from new mexico to utah to arizona. >> sy: well, let's talk about new mexico, because one of your reportfocused on single mothers in new mexico and onof tanf's requirements, which is a federal requirement that these mothers give information about their children's father when they're applying for funds. you report how this is especially a problem for women who are in sort of fragile, even abusive relationships with their children's dads. when it comes to this question about asking about the biological father of one's children, why is that a problem? >> it's often embarrassing and humiliating to answer these questions. in some cases, they might not be in touch with the father or they have a fragile, you ow, co- parenting relationship with the father that they don't want to ruin, and they think that would be not in the child's best interests. >> sy: but there is also a

financial rationale, which is that states want to recoup anything they can from a biological father. is it effective at going after fathers who are not paying child support? >> no, it does not. a lot of that. one important point is that a lot of these fathers are very poor themselves. they don't have a lot of money to provide in child support. they pay back very little to the government. >> sy: another of your reports, eli, looked at an interesting dynamic in the state of utah, where the church of jesus christ of latter day saints plays an outsiz role in filling that gap left between government assistance and people in need. what does a religious organization, the l.d.s. church, have to do with tanf, which is a federal public assistance program? >> so the way that it works is the state of utah actually takes credit for the charitable work of the l.d.s. church, and the l.d.s. church does a lot of

charitable work. it counts it as the state's welfare spending, and that has allowed the state of utah to get out of spending the $75 million that it would have otherwise been required to under federal law. >> sy: but does that mean that people that apply for tanf state assistance funds are actually going through the church's own requirements and are those religious requirements that can discriminate based on religion? >> right, so yes, it does sometimes mean that, but it can be explicit or implicit. i talked to a lot of people who said that they were explicitly suggested or instructed by the state of utah. then they were denied welfare, and then they were told, why don't you try going to the l.d.s. church instead? they have a better welfare program than we do, or it can happen implicitly, which is just that welfare has become so hard to get. but then when they do it, there's a term in utah called bishop roulette, which means depending on the bishop you ask for welfare, the outcome could be very different. so if you're if you've had a if you're a single mother who's had sex out of wedlock, you might be judged by a bishop for that.

or if you're in the l.g.b.t.q. community, you might not receive welfare for that reason. >> sy: have there been any legal challenges? and has the l.d.s. church reonded in any way to your reporting? >> to my knowledge, there have been no legal challenges, and to your other question, yes, the church has responded. they point out that millions of people across the state that the country and the world have benefited om the l.d.s. church, its charitable efforts, first of all and that secondly, the church shouldn't be confused with a government agency. >> sy: after all reporting on these experiences, what are th main takeaways and lessons of tanf and how are they relevant to the conversations happening in washington today? >> right? well, i think the big question now is has tanf failed? a lot of single mothers just choose not to apply anymore because all of the paperwork that you have to fill out all of the programs you have to go to, you have to go to parenting

classes, drug testing, all to get $100 or $200 dollars. it's not really a safety net for these families. and so the question now before congress is whether there needs to be a new kind of safety net for, you know, for this century. >> sy: the series of reports is available on propublica's website. eli hager with propublica's new southwest bureau. welcome to phoenix and thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> nawaz: a year out of office, former president trump faces a series of investigations looking into his role in the january 6 riots, potential fraud in his family businesses, and sexual assault allegations. those probes could come to a head in the new year and impact his political future. despite that, and no longer holding office, trump remains a key figure in the republican party. joining us to discuss trump's legal battles and his influence on the g.o.p. is david

farenthold, who covers the trump family and their businesses for the "washington post." thank you for coming to th newshour, david. let's start in new york with those two parallel probes, the civil one and a criminal one looking into the trump businesses. the civil probe is by the new york attorney general, the criminal one by james and the manhattan district attorney. your reporting has found that mr. trump's legal bills up to the tune of 1.6 million dollars are being paid for by the republican party. is there precedent for that? and what did they tell you about why they are doing that? >> there is no precedent for this. this is sort of step back and explain why there is no precedent. former president trump is not a republican candidate, not a republican office holder. and the investigation he is facing has nothing to do with his time in office. they all predate, they focus on this business in the year's before he ran for president. so there is no connection to the republican party or republican

office holders involved here but the republican party still is paying this money. nd obviously trump has a pot ofmoney in his packet. he has money in his business, he can afford it but they are paying his bills anyway. what they say, what the republican party said is well we see this as a political attack on trump, a famous republican. this is democrats out to get him in new york. so we're happy to pay his bills. what i think is really going on here is that trump although he is out of office and is not running is a linchpin in republican fundraising efforts. he is the key to the rnc's fundraising future and if he were to turn on them, to leave, to talk bad about them, they can be devastating, they may be paying it to keep-- keep themselves in his good graces. >> let's talk about a couple of these investigations for anyone who hasn't been following along, that civil probe say fraud investigation basically, right, that looking into whetherr not he overvalued his company's assets to get loans and then undervalued them to pay fewer

taxes. and he has been called to testify in that, in early january. is there any chance that happened, david? >> there is a chance it happens. i don't think it will happen in a few days on january 6th. because trump is fighting it on the grounds that as he said there is two investigations here. he whats been called to testify in the cil one, where what is at stake is a potential lawsuit. but he is also being investigated on basically the same issues for a criminal investigation that could end in criminal charges. and what he is saying is that while look, i've been called to testify about the civil probe, that but if i say anything that helps prosecutors will be used against me in the criminal probe. so my fight against self-incrimination should protect them from this. i think it will take a little while and won't happen january 6th. >> what about that criminal probe, what do we know about where that stands? >> people that have been following this might remember last year the manhattan dvment amount of indicted trump's long time chief financial officer and

two trump corporate entities basically for charges of payroll tax fraud, charges they were hiding some of the trump organization's payments to executives from the ir, is. trump wasn't charged in that personally. that period of investigation seems to be over. instead they empanelled a new grand jury a few weeks ago which has maybe five more months to go if they want it focused on the property valuations we were talking about a momenago. did he break new york state law by giving wildly different valuations of the same property at the same time to tax officials and to lenders. you know, that there is some give, some leeway that everybody owns, real estate kus, but will trump's examples so out yaijous-- outrageous, were the differences so big that it a awments to fraud under new york law. >> nawaz: he has hinted at a 2024 run, could any of these investigations or probes impact his political future? >> certainly, i mean i don't think anybody believes even if he were convicted of a low level

felony in new york, that that would mean he would never run or people would never vote for him, obviously he has overcome things that have ended the careers of politicians and he has a strong basic support. there may be things that would come out of his investigations or a potential lawsuit or trial that would change the way people view him. he also has other investigations focused on his conduct as president, both related to january 6th and the effect to overturn the election. those could also damage his political reputation but i think we have watched trump's career long enough to know it is really hard to predict how damaging information about trump even true revelations about what he d would affect how people consider him and vote for him. >> david far inhold-- fahrenthold, also the must reads in the washingtons post. thank you so much for being with us tonight. >> thank you.

>> nawaz: now, remembering an nfl legend, john madden. he died yesterday at the age of 85. jeffrey brown looks at what he meant to the game, particularly after he stopped coaching. >> brown: january 9, 1977, pasadena, california... >> the oakland raiders hoist head coach john madden onto their shoulders, celebrating the team's first super bowl championship. >> brown: ten years later, madden told the "newshour" of his straightforward philosophy of dealing with players. >> if they show up when i told them to, and if when we talked and taught if they paid attention, and then if they went out and played like heck, what else is there? what other rules do you need? i don't care if they had beards orideburns or bell bottom pants or tied their shoes or not. >> brown: but a decade of coaching at aall of fame level was just the start for john madden. in a three-decade career as an

exuberant, everyman broadcaster, he would go on to change the way the game was watched and understood, becoming a preeminent face and voice of football. he started at cbs alongside the late pat summerall. they quickly became the network's top announcing duo. from 1979 to 2009, madden won 16 emmy awards and covered 11 super bowls for four networks. he broke down complicated plays using his telestrator video chalkboard, and entertained millions with his signature sound effects. he told the newshour how he saw his job in the booth. >> what i try and do is not show the obvious. i know if joe morris runs the ball around the right end and has a big play everyone's going to see that anyway. what i try and do is look ahead to find how it happened or why it happened.

>> brown: and there was more, that continu to this day, with“ madden nfl football,” one of the most successful video game empires of all time. today, nfl commissioner roger goodell said in a statement th“" nobody loved football more tha¡' coach'. he was football.” one of his great partnerships, at both abc and nbc, was th al michaels, who told me earlier today why he thinks madden was“ as important as anybody in the history of football.” well, there have been a number of really great coaches, so john gets into that cat gore-- category because he d the highest win percentae of any coach in history who won a hundred or more games, so on one level you have him on the pantheon of koamps, and then he created a new level in broadcasting and became maybe the most iconic broadcaster of his time, so you have that, and then went out and created a

video game, and he was immersed in the production and the development of that game. he didn't just lend his name to it. and that made millions and millions and millions of young fans for the foot football league, so when you combine all of those three, that is why i say, when you look at the whole body of work, there was no more important man in the history of the national football league. >> he is often credited so much with changing sports broadcasting, bringing in that every man aspect, the presentation for each game. were you there with him, what was the most important lesson or thing you saw in him? >> i think what made johnson among other things was his genuineness. and he worked very hard in preparation. he already knew a ton going in and then he would immerse himself to the nth degree and get into the forensics of everything. and i think one of the things with john is he would take things that were seemingly

complicated, and make them simple and relevant and accessible to the audience. so when you hear a broadcaster talk about a three technique, only a football coach or player or immersed in the game would know what that is. john would never use phrases like that. he would explain what that was. and then he had a lot of fun doing it. and with the telestraighter and buckets of gatorade dumped on coaches and whattook place right there. john was the whole package. >> he is one of those people where we feel like we know him personally. you really did. what was he like personally? was the person we saw on tv, was that really him? >> exactly. jeffrey, that was him, and to me one of the most wonderful things about having been his partner for seven years is the meals that we would have, away from the work environment, obviously

in the game, in the booth and preparing for it, that is one thing but just to go it to dinner or lunch or breakfast with john and talk about anything and everything, john was a very well-read man. john was a man who understood everything that was going on in the world. john was a very curious man. and he traveled across the country on that bus and he got to see what we cll those of us who live on either coast, fly over country, we fly over it, john drove through it, back and forth and back and forth hundreds of times and got to know the people and what made people tick. >> you spend so much time with him, you talk about in the booth, on the bus i guess, and restaurants, hotels, give me an anecdote. >> we are having dinner one night in green bay and french onion soup, i don't want the onions, i hate the onions but i love the broth and cheese, so we where at dinner and i ordered french onion soup without the onions in green baivment and he said what? what are you doing? i said john, i just love the other parts of it.

so he had the chef come out and john was laughing hysterical -- hysterically and had the chef come out and say how you make french onion soup without the onions, so that was john. he was just, he was a riot in so many ways. >> that is a great story. app about french onion soup too. >> xs and os. >> you name it he got it twns it is interesting to think the younger generations, he is et abouter known for the video games than for the broadcasting that he did with you and so many others. >> with john, even though i might not remember him as a coach and maybe you caught him toward the end of his broadcasting career, but he has made millions of fans with that game. people, everybody, every kid i knew through the years and even too this day, they play madden. they learned football through the madden game. and that's made the nfl millions and millions more fans. >> all right, al michaels on the life and legacy of the great

john madden. thank you very much. >> thank you, jefrey. >> nawaz: a man who clearly loved the game and made us love it too. our thoughts are with his friends and family. meanwhile on the newsthowr online, the tight but they're back on this year even as covid cases are spiking nationwide. read more on why this gathering is so significant to the hmong community, on our website, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. 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. >> fidelity investments. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions

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

lidia: buongiorno! i'm lidia bastianich and teaching you about italian food has always been my passion. it has always been about cooking together and ultimately building your confidence in the kitchen. so what does that mean? you get to cook it yourself. for me, food is about delicious flavors... che belleza! ...comforting memories, and most of all family. tutti a tavola a mangiare! ♪♪ announcer: funding provided by... announcer: at cento fine foods, we're dedicated to preserving the culinary heritage of authentic italian foods by offering over 100 specialty italian products for the american kitchen. cento -- trust your family with our family. a taste of italy for brunch with family and friends. amarena fabbri, the original wild cherries and syru