judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, ukraine braces as russia widens its attacks to the east, and the united states announces american diplomats will return to kyiv. then, elon musk buys twitter for $44 billion. what this means for the social media giant and free speech. and the future of france. president emmanuel macron wins re-election but his challenger demonstrates the rising popularity of the french far right. >> i fear tonight that the five-year mandate that starts will not break the disdainful and brutal practises of the previous leadership, and that emmanuel macron will not do anything to repair the fractures that divide our country. and make our fellow citizens

suffer. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by --

>> the william and flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and 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. judy: there are two major stories we are following tonight. elon musk's takeover of twitter, which we will get to in a moment. but first in ukraine, russian forces struck targets across the country with missiles, while moscow's main focus remained on the donbas region of eastern ukraine. ukrainian troops are resisting -- are defending a wide battlefront a day after the american secretaries of state and defense met with ukraine's president in kyiv. the u.s. said it would speed weaponry to ukraine. special correspondent willem marx reports. reporter: across ukraine, its people are digging deep. this however not a grave, but a defensive trench. zaporizhzhia is the last major city in the country posh posh -- country's southeast that remains under full ukrainian control. that means these machines and these men must prepare for a potential russian advance. >> it is necessary to make

fortifications because the enemy is insidious. we do not know what the enemy will do next so we must prepare the city for defense. reporter: further west, excavation of a different kind with workers in odessa clearing rubble after a weekend of rockets. ukraine's interior minister said russian forces fired at least six cruise missiles here saturday. one struck a residential address . a day later, america's top diplomat and defense secretary met ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy in the capital kyiv. the strongest show of in-person support since this conflict kicked off, promising more military aid. afterwards at a warehouse inside poland, secretary of state antony blinken said the conflict continues to confound the kremlin. >> in terms of russia's war aims, russia has already failed and ukraine has already succeeded. reporter: defense secretary lloyd austin suggested a newly aggressive stance. >> we want to see russia weakened to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading ukraine.

reporter: the latest u.s. support will include $322 million of military financing for ukraine, a further $165 million in ammunition and $391 million for more than a dozen other allies. u.s. diplomats will soon return to the country to be led by a new ambassador, bridget brink, the first appointed to ukraine since 2019. in the eastern donbas region, british intelligence says russia has made minor gains since iftssh iusngoc ilin t mwhariu, pol, moscow's fs still fail to seize control of the azovstal steel plant with its 2,000 ukrainian defenders. from the civilians trapped there, another desperate plea. >> on behalf of all the residents of mariupol, i appeal to the world. please help us. we want to live. we are tired of these bombardments, these constant airstrikes on our land. how long will this last? reporter: the besieged plant now

a prison and without swift intervention, potentially a tomb. one woman showed where they sleep. children without fresh diapers, walls covered in mold. onceth matore rtooudatey oruum the facility would be safe. once again ukrainians refused to to trust -- refused to trust moscow's guarantees. above ground, putin's forces focused on safe passage for their own troops. elsewhere, no respite from russian strikes. overnight, missiles hit nearly 60 targets supporting ukraine's war effort, including five railway sites. in the west, in lviv, this train station torched. meanwhile in russia, a much larger fire burned for hours at an oil depot in bryansk, near e border with ukraine. no word yet what caused the conflagration, but last week russian officials said kyiv's forces attacked the same region. here in the city of dnipro, some

six hours southeast of the capital, in the country's industrial heartland, homes and shelters are fast filling up with refugees who have fled here from the fighting for the east. and judy, we have seen firsthand how the health care system, hospitals included, is under heavy strain from the high number of incoming casualties - civilians and soldiers alike. judy: that was villem marx. thank you. and a note, the newshour's coverage of the war in ukraine is supported in partnership with the pulitzer center. the first country to provide ukraine with soviet-era tanks was the czech republic. it's also provided artillery and infantry fighting vehicles. due to their historical ties to the soviet union, both countries field similar weapons systems, allowing the ukrainians to use czech armaments effectively, and with little training. for more on his nation's aid to ukraine, i'm joined by jan lipavasky, the czech republic's minister of foreign affairs.

thank you very much for joining us. at this point, do you believe your country is doing all it can to support ukraine? jan: hello. we are doing as much as we can. and we are doing it for ukraine, we're are doing it for all of europe, and we are doing it for the world order since putin is waging war against the whole world and the international order. judy: today, word came from u.s. officials that the soviet era tanks, that the czech republic and poland have supplied to ukraine, that a number of them have created problems. they have not been in the condition they should have been in. is your country doing all it could be doing to make sure all of this material is in work -- is in good working order? jan: it depends on what -- if there is a well, there is a way. we are also helping with

repairing work. i hope this will be figured out soon. judy: so you are confirming there have been issues with the tanks, is that right? jan: no, no, no. i'm just saying that we are usg the old weapons, so there may be issues. but i don't want to be specific on any of that. judy: more broadly speaking, is it your sense that the entire -- that all of nato is doing for ukraine what it could be doing? jan: i would rather be speaking about specific states, like the united kingdom or poland. it have major contributions on these activities on delivering weapons to ukraine. there are other states like france which are providing weapons. in the european union agreed on multiple, quite significant packages of money.

so there always can be done more. but we also need to be thinking that this has to be done in a sustainable way, so it is not just an outburst of activities, and then they will be decreasing. we need to do it in a sustainable way. judy: i want to ask you about what we heard in the report. and that is the comments much earlier today from the u.s. defense secretary, lloyd austin. when he said he wants to make sure that the russians would not be able to do the kinds of things that it has done in the invasion. in other words, the u.s. is saying they don't want russia to be able to do another invasion. is that realistic, do you think? does the west have the ability to stop the russians from doing that? minister lipavsky: yes. yes. we have to stop russia now. putin has the mind of imperialistic big russia.

he would not stop in ukraine, he would continue with other countries, may be with baltics. we have to stop russia with this aggression now. it is necessary to put sanctions on russia and help ukraine with military and humanitarian aid. judy: you are saying it is realistic, given the level of assistance that the west, that nato is giving ukraine right now. do yelrussia? do you believe ukraine can prevail? minister lipavsky: definitely yes. and i believe that ukraine will win this war. judy: what gives you that confidence? minister lipavsky: i understand, and i see the will of ukraine for freedom, open society, for democracy, for freed of speech. zelenskyy was democratically elected. that's the difference. judyi hear you saying that and yet the russians are firing missiles across the ukrainian

countryside. they are hitting the west of ukraine. what is to stop them from continuing to wage this kind of war? minister lipavsky: the sanctions will stop flow of money and these technologies. russia, sooner or later, will not be able to produce any of those modern rockets. and if the west provides ukraine's with the goods for our systems, they will be able to shoot this rocket down. so that is what we have to do. judy: you mentioned the sanctions. of course, the czech republic is a member of the european union. but the eu has failed so far to agree on stopping purchasing oil and gas from russia. can russia be stopped as long as that kind of business, that kind of trade continues with russia and the rest of europe? minister lipavsky: this is part

of the problem, and i'm sure that the eu, sooner or later, will be able to solve this issue. we are now in the process of making the sixth package of sanctions, which will be announced pretty soon. but it is hard to predict. europe is partially dependent on russia gas. to cut it off from the supplies, we need to do some measures, we need to do some intermediate solutions, so it is not so easy. but we are working on it quite effectively. judy: this germany the main holdup? -- is germany the main holdup? minister lipavsky: we need to find different sources. we need to find a way on how to cut demand in some areas. that is something which takes time. but there is a will to cut off russian gas. judy: we are going to leave it there. the foreign minister of ukraine, jan lipavsky, thank you very much. minister lipavsky: thank you. goodbye.

judy: now to our other lead story. business entrepreneur elon musk and twitter announced a $44 billion deal today for musk to buy the company and take it over. the deal reportedly is the largest to take a public company private in at least two decades. it's also led to major concerns about how musk, who is one of the world's richest men, will handle questions of extremist content and free speech. as stephanie sy tells us, musk says he has plans to change twitter's approach and how it operates. stephanie: duty, when -- judy, when elon musk first made his bid about two weeks ago, many were not sure how seriously to treat his offer. but after a surprising weekend

of negotiations, twitters board accepted the offer today. musk has made it clear repeatedly he does not agree with all of twitter's previous bans on users for posting content that might be considered hateful or used to incite violence. in announcing the deal, musk wrote today, "free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated." for a look at some important questions, i am joined by the washington post silicon valley correspondent elizabeth dwoskin. thank you for joining the newshour. elon musk has put a good chunk of his net worth into this bid for twitter but he has made it clear this was never about business. what is it about? elizabeth: yes, he said it is not about money, repeatedly. i think you have to take him at his word. in the last year, he has become fairly obsessed with talking about ideas about free speech. and the digital town square and the power of platforms like twitter. and he wants to control that.

and i will also put in that he is probably in the set -- he is probably this happiest marketer in the world. this is also buying his own marketing machine. stephanie: but ownership, as you know, is not the same thing as control. on the free-speech issue, today, elon musk tweeted "i hope that even my worst critics remain on twitter, because that is what free-speech means." is it fair to assume that elon musk is going to try to shed all constraints on legal free-speech on twitter? stephanie: i mean -- elizabeth: i mean, he said that. he said twitter should follow the letter of the law and free speech in the u.s., which we all know is the first amendment, which basically allows huge latitude for free speech, short of direct calls for violence. he has said that, and i just got

off listening in on a townlwi hr hin twitter, employees, talking about it right now at twitter. and what the employees themselves are extremely worried that he is going to strip the company of the safeguards and protections against misinformation and hate speech that the company has worked to build over the last five or so years. people working there are really worried about that, and some are tweeting crying emojis right now. stephanie: he is not only going to have to be accountable to his employees, now that he is the owner of twitter. won't he also have to go through the same tight wire act of not losing users and advertisers? isn't that, to some degree, accountability? elizabeth: i think so. one of the questions asked at the town hall, is it seems when he takes the company private, there might not be a board of

directors. people were asking, what kind of -- what kind of accountability will there be on musk if he wants to reinstate trump's account, for example, or allow images of isis beheadings? there has been terrible things online where tech companies have her -- have worked hard to get rid of. there has been reporting today that advertisers themselves, think about it, if you are a big advertiser of toothpaste, do you want your ads, or pepsi, do you want your ad showing up next to a child being raped? for an isis beheading? these are horrible things these companies work hard to get rid of and have rules about. yes, they make tons of mistakes, but stripping them of the rules would be hard, would be very hard for advertisers. musk has expressed skepticism of the advertising business model, and actually there is no clear answer on whether he would keep that on twitter once it goes private. stephanie: as you know, twitter

under jack dorsey made the decision to ban president trump after the january 6 capital assault and others, like marjorie taylor greene have been banned as well for spreading false information. mr. trump said he is not planning to go back on twitter. has musk indicated he will restore accounts of people who have been deplatformed, is what they say in the twitterverse? elizabeth: he said the deplatforming had gone too far. he even said that after january 6, during the insurrection. i thought that was interesting at the time. here is a moment in america society when the whole tech industry is saying, we are going to blanket ban not just trump, but many of his followers as well that were promoting the insurrection, and elon musk is going the other way saying, tech companies are going to regret the decisions they made around content moderation. that is one of the things that

gives twitter employees pause, and a lot of observers pause as well about what he might do. he certainly has not come out and said, i am going to restore trump. but people are reading between the tea leaves and interestingly enough, that question was not answered in today's town hall. stephanie: twitter has struggled with issues like trolls and bots and bad actors gaming and manipulating the platform. one thing musk said today he will do to build trust in the platform is "authenticate all humans." i think something only elon musk would say. are you hearing any positive reaction to his ability to potentially solve some of twitter's real problems with his design acumen? elizabeth: overall, the response i have heard is negative. but i always say the caveat of, i don't have a crystal ball into every twitter employee's minds. i may be hearing from the people who are more upset. got to hold that as a

possibility. i do think that some people -- look, elon musk is seen, for all of his wildness and firebrand ways, he is a visionary leader and brilliant. lots of people in the tech world and outside of him -- outside of it think of him that way. that is what the twitter's leadership has tried to emphasize. here is a person who can bring value to twitter. one of the things the ceo said to the employees today, is he said we all think of twitter as this place, this platform that has this unrealized potential. because it is used by power influencers but never gained the widespread social acceptance of a tiktok or a facebook or youtube. i'm sorry, the widespread use, the level of users or profits. i think he was meaning exactly that to employees. look at what elon musk could bring. but i don't know if people will be assured by that. i think they have a lot to lose. stephanie: yeah.

elizabeth, who reports in silicon valley for the washington post, thank you. elizabeth: thanks for having me. ♪ judy: in the days of the news the top republican in the u.s. house of representatives, kevin mccarthy, again denied asking president trump to resign over the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol. the house minority leader toured part of the texas border today. then, he made his first on-camera comments about statements reported in a new book. >> the reporter came to me the night before he released the book and my undetanding was he was saying, did i ask president trump to resign. no, i never did. and that's what i was answering. if you're asking now, did i tell my members that we're going to ask, ask them if i told them that i said to president trump. the answer is no. judy: mccarthy had initially denied saying that he would

recommend mr. trump step down. but, audio of a conversation recorded shortly after january 6th, shows him saying exactly that. today, he dismissed those commts as "a conversation about scenarios going forward." former president trump in contempt of court today for failing to turn over business records to state investigators. the judge fined him $10,000 a day until he complies. new york's democratic attorney general letitia james says the trump organization has deliberately mis-stated its properties' worth. mr. trump says the probe is purely political. in china, officials announced mass covid testing today for most of beijing's 21 million residents. it's the latest example of the government's strict zero-tolerance policy. there were long lines today at grocery stores, and panic buying of food and toilet paper. many people said they're worried

about a full-scale lockdown, but trying to stay calm. >> there is definitely a certain degree of worry because it will affect jobs and the overall efficiency. but i don't think it will develop as it has in shanghai. from my point of view, it can be controlled. judy: china's largest city, shanghai, has been mostly locked down for more than 2 weeks. officials are now putting up metal barriers around residential buildings to let people come outside without leaving the premises. tribal clashes in sudan's darfur region reached the regional capital today killing at least 10 people in a new eruption of bloodshed. weekend fighting between arabs and non-arabs in "west darfur" state was the worst in 2 years leaving more than 160 people dead. sudan's military coup last october has destabilized the country and fed the rising violence. recent clashes between israel

and the palestinians have now spread to southern lebanon. israeli tanks fired at targets north of the border today to answer rocket fire into northern israel. lebanese villagers witnessed the exchange. >> there were two rockets launched from down south. at around 2:00 a.m. or a little before that, israel responded to the area where the launch took place. there were around 10 to 15 shells. judy: the border exchange follows palestinian attacks inside israel, lethal raids by israeli forces in the west bank and confrontations at jerusalem's al-aqsa mosque complex. back in this country, a state appeals court in texas has stayed a high-profile execution. melissa lucio was convicted of beating her two-year-old daughter to death in 2007. but she claims new evidence would exonerate her and she has won growing support. we'll examine the case later in the program. increased humidity and calmer

winds gave firefighters a chance today against wildlfires in the -- wildfires in the plains and southwest. in nebraska, crews cleared lines around a fire that's covered nely 80 square miles and killed one person. meanwhile, two fires in new mexico have merged into the largest in the state. it's less than 20% contained. and on wall street, a tech rally helped stocks rebound late in the day. the dow jones industrial average gained 238 points to close at 34,049. the nasdaq rose 165 points, that was 1%. the s&p 500 added 24. still to come on the newshour, a last-minute reprieve for a texas woman fighting execution in the death of her two-year-old daughter. the supreme court hears a coach's argument to be able to pray on the football field. amy walter and tamara keith share their insight on the upcoming primary elections and trump's influence over the gop.

plus much more. >> this is pbs newshour from weta studios. judy: france's president emmanuel macron has promised to unite his divided country after nning re-election for a second five year term. macron defeated the extreme right wing candidate marine le pen by a substantial margin, although nearly 30% of the electorate did not vote. but le pen still managed to secure almost 42%. and as special correspondent malcolm brabant reports from paris, macron needs to address the concerns of huge numbers of disaffected voters. reporter: down with macron, the banner reads, the robin hood of the wealthy. this demonstration may have been relatively small, comprising young left-wing protestors.

but it was an illustration of just how fractured france is in the wake of macron's victory. the divide stretches across the political spectrum from hard left to extreme right. >> there is a lot of figures that show that emmanuel macron does not have a very strong mandate despite his victory yesterday, but i would say though that we should not miss the big picture. and the big picture is that emmanuel macron has managed to win his re-election something which nobody has done for the past twenty years. reporter: martin quencez, deputy director of the german marshall fund think tank, believes mccrone's leadership style, derided as haughty and arrogant, will change in this second term. >> he clearly has a problem as a personal individual. there is an issue with macron as a president, and he is clearly aware of this because he wants to show the frenchy people that -- french people that his way of being a leader will be less brutal than it was in the first mandate. reporter: at his victory rally beneath the eiffel tower, macron addressed those on the left who

held him in such disdain that they refused to support him against the extreme right. >> i also think of all our compatriots who abstained from voting. their silence signified a refusal to choose, to which we must also respond. reporter: macron also acknowledged that he must tackle the concerns of the 42% who voted for le pen. that means trying to reduce the cost of living and perhaps getting tougher on immigration. >> their anger a disagreements which led them to te for this project must also find a response, and at will be my responsibility and that of those around me. reporter: marine le pen regarded her percentage of the vote as a victory. the extreme right has never fared so well. her concession speech was made through gritted teeth. >> i fear tonight that the five-year mandate that starts will not break the disdainful and brutal practises of the previous leadership, and that emmanuel macron will not do anything to repair the fractures that divide our country and make our fellow citizens suffer.

reporter: while much of france was relieved le pen was defeated, bartender wilfried sandjo who migrated from cameroon worries that her extremism will fester. >> i almost wish marine was elected because at least, that way it would have been out of the system. because it is still in france. there are lot in france who are still out there who believe in her ideas. we might as well get it out of our system so that we are free of this. you know what i mean, so everybody like gay people like immigrants, i'm an immigrant, we are going to live under our hoods because she is still out there. reporter: in republic square, there were hopes that in his second term, macron, a former banker, can tackle rising prices. >> i'm concerned. people by and large are worried and are suffering and we hope that mr macron will pay attention. >> i hope he has understood that it is -- that it is essential he

now thinks about others, not just the rich but he also has to think abt the poor. reporter: there's relief in most european capitals and washington that macron was re-elected. a le pen victory would have disrupted nato and caused even more turbulence for the european union, much to the glee of the kremlin. macron does have the ability to talk to vladimir putin about ukraine. although his diplomacy has not worked yet, there may come a time when that connection pays dividends. following the retirement of germany's angela merkel, mccrone's -- macron's re-election makes him the most senior figure in the european union. but much will depend on whether he can govern his own country over the next five years. he now has to put his words into action. for the pbs newshour, this is malcolm brabant in paris. judy: as we reported earlier,

today the texas court of criminal appeals granted a stay of executionor 52-year-old melissa lucio, who who had been set to be the first hispanic woman put to death by the state in modern history. it was a big win for advocates who argued lucio was wrongly convicted, and that her case represents larger problems with the iminal justice system. amna nawaz reports. reporter: in 2007, melissa lucio s the mother of 12 children, pregnant with twins and struggling to provide for them. while moving from one home to another, who trip -- her two-year-old daughter died. she says that two days before, mariah fell down a steep flight of stairs at their house. authorities suspected abuse and began interrogating her after her dollars deh. >> you need to tell us right now what happened. this is your chance. right now, it looks like you are a cold-blooded killer. are you a cold-blooded killer or

were you a frustrated mother who took it out on her for whatever reason? >> no. >> it has got to be one. reporter: she denied wrongdoing over 100 times. after five hours of aggressive questioning, eventually told police "i guess i did it." that was used as a confession at her trial along with testimony that mariah's intake -- injuries indicated abuse. she was convicted of murder in 2008 and sentenced to death. since her conviction, many have raised questions about her confession being coerced, her trauma as a survivor of sexual and domestic abuse and how that may have played into the confession and the use of junk science and misleading evidence at her trial. investigators found heatrauma in mariah consistent with the kind of fall from the stairs lucio described. lucio's adult children said she never abused them and have been pleading for clemency. a group of more than 100 texas lawmakers asked for her execution to be stopped along

with five of her original journals. in the 14 years in conviction, lucio has maintained her nocence. just this afternoon, texas' court of criminal of appeals granted lucio a stay two days before she was set to die by lethal injection. joining me now to discuss melissa lucio's case isanessa potkin, director of special litigation at the innocence project, which is representing lucio. welcome to the newshour. i want to begin with the news this afternoon, when you heard that stay had been granted, halting the execution for the time being. wh was your reaction? vanessa: that news was the best we could have expected. because emency would have turned melissa sentence into essentially a life sentence. but what the state did today was put a halt on her execution so that we could go back to the trial court, and the new evidence of her innocence could be litigated. no court has ever considered the new evidence, the new

scientific, the new medical evidence supporting her innocence claim. this really opens the door to her conviction being vacated to a new trial. we are very confident that given the compelling evidence of her innocence, if this case was tried today, she would be acquitted. amna: give us a sense of what happens next. it goes back to the district court, some of the new evidence will be considered. how quickly could that move? vanessa: the process will probably take several months. it is hard to completely anticipate. there are some issues that ed to be resolved. the district attorney's office has a conflict of interest. the judge considering the case likely has to be recused. so wnee ed but, we will be going back to the trial court to have a hearing. the court of criminal appeals directed that melissa lucio's claims be heard.

the states use of false testimony, the new scientific evidence of her innocence, and the fact that favorable evidence was withheld by the prosecution at her original trial. amna: we did see a statement from melissa lucio today. she said "i'm grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence. mariah is in my heart today and always. i'm deeply grateful to everyone who has prayed for me and spoke out on my behalf." i want to ask you about how you came to be involved in this case. i wonder, early on when you heard about it, what specifically jumped out to you? what told you something might be wrong that was worth your attention? vanessa: the innocence project became involved in melissa's case 100 days ago. relatily recently. after her execution date was set. we had heard of melissa's case from another one of our clients, who is on death row with melissa. if you think about god, there

were six women on texas's death row, two the innocence project is representing. we heard about melissa's case, we started to look into it, and melissa's case has two of the leading causes of wrongful convictions at its core. a false incriminating statement that came from coerce interrogation, one out of three people proven innocent by dna testing falsely confessed during custodial interrogation to crimes they were completely innocent of, an false and misleading scientific evidence is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. about half of wrongful convictions that have been overturned with dna evidence have involved some type of faulty forensics. amna: what about her own history of debt -- of domestic and sexual abuse? how does that factor in? vanessa: it is really egregious that not only was she the victim of childhood sexual abuse and trauma, and she had to endure

that and she is a survivor of those experiences, but those experiences were used against her. she was judged by paramedics and police who responded to the scene who did not think she was acting like a stereotypical mother should because she was detached, because some of the mechanisms that helped her survive her abuse kicked in and reflected her demeanor. that was used against her. it really was a disadvantage in the interrogation. we now know that trauma and a history of abuse is a vulnerability for false confession when these type of coercive interrogation techniques are used. amna: you became involved in the case recently. in the minute we have left, it has been 14 years since her conviction. why did it take so long for so many of these details to come out and get the attention they are getting? vanessa: unfortunately, this is the way our criminal justice system works. once you are convicted, it is extraordinarily difficult to

overturn a wrongful conviction. and a lot of times, there is triaging going on. you are trying to stop an execution, and the evidence of her innocence, some of it has been there all along. some of the evidence could have been presented if her defense atrneys reached out to the right medical experts, but they did not do it. the fact is that we are to two days away from sending a woman to an execution based on a crime that never even occurred. amna: that is vanessa popkin, director of special litigation at the innocence project speaking with us tonight. thank you so much for your time. vanessa: thank you for telling melissa story. -- melissa's story. judy: today, the supreme court once again tackled a question that's lingered since our country's founding, where exactly to draw the line between church and state.

correspondent john yang breaks down the arguments in this case, as they played out on the football field and before the nation's highest court. john: joe kennedy was a football coach at bremerton washington high school for eight years. what put him in the spotlight was what he did after the final whistle. >> just really brief slow -- brief silent prayer by myself, thanking god for what the kids just did on the field, and me being part of it. john: school administrators said they were unaware of this postgame ritual for years, even as some of his own players and opposing teams jined him, voluntarily, kennedy says. then in 2015, a coach from one of those opposing teams praised the school district for allowing kennedy to pray so publicly. school administrators decided that kennedy was out of bounds. worried that a coach publicly praying in this way could be

seen as the school endorsing religion. the two sides tried to find a compromise but kennedy, backed by a national religious liberties group eventually resumed his dfield postgame prayer. the school suspended him with pay, and kennedy did not seek to renew his year-to-year contract. >> i am a high school football coach i don't know anything about the law. i defend the constitution i'm not an expert on it. but i knew my rights as an american. reporter: in addition to religious liberties group, he is backed by proactively like quarterbacks kirk cousins and nick foals. bremerton, a tightknit community that sits across the puget sound from seattle, is divided by the case. >> what he really wanted was to do his prayer on the field, to grandstand his prayer under the stadium lights. it was to bring attention to himself and his christian prayer in a facility that is paid for by the taxpayers durg a school sponsored event. reporter: at the time, jennifer

chamberlain who works for the school district, now on the city council, went to gains as a band mom. kennedy's prayers brought back memori of feeling ostracized when she spoke out against pregame prayers at her own tennessee high school. it' later, she is speaking out again -- and decades later, she is speaking out again. >> i was concerned about students, whether on the football team or students speaking out, students at the high school, who do not identify as christian being harassed because of my previous experience and not having any adult support. reporter: in today's oral arguments, justices pressed both sides on where to draw the line between school official and private citizen. conservative justice brent cavanagh questioning attorney richard caskey of americans united for separation of church and state, which is representing the school district. >> how far does that go? a coach does a sign of the cross before the game, could a school fire the coach for the sign of

the cross before the game? >> if the coach is doing it while not making himself the center of attention, it is perfectly fine. reporter: i don't know how we could write an opinion that would draw a line based on not making yourself the center of attention as the head coach of a-game. reporter: liberal justice elena kagan seemed skeptical -- seemed skeptical of paul clement. >> there is overt discrimination on the basis of religion as his evidence in the record here, by school districts who were not able. it is just they are doing it out of misguided endorsement concerns. >> there must be countless times when a coach in the post gain talk or -- gain talk or a teacher in math class, where people would totally believe them if they said i'm doing this as just me. that seems to me t be coercive of 16-year-olds regardless if they know it is him and not the school district. > this case involved a lot of hypotheticals. reporter: marcia coyle is chief

washington correspondent for the national lodger. >> there is a serious dispute over the facts in this case, over what exactly the coach was doing while he was at the 50 yard line. how private, personal the prayer was. where do you draw the line as to how much religion may be too much in terms of the school district's ability to manage its schools works, its games, its athletic games. and yet, still be respectful of an individual's religion. there is a lot here for the justices to mole over and a lot of different ways that they could go to reach whatever result they want to reach. my sense was that conservative majority was leaning more in favor of the coach.

this is still a court that is very protective of religious rights. reporter: the justices are expected to decide the case and three others that deal with religious liberty by early summer. for the pbs newshour, i am john yang. ♪ judy: as midterm election season kicks into high gear, gop candidates have increasingly tied their fates to the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. while in washington, more communications sent by republican officials on and around january 6 are coming to light. it's a good time to check inamyk political report with amy walter and tamara keith, of npr. very good to see both of you on

this monday evening. hello, politics monday. amy, i will start with you. if we needed any more proof that president trump looms large in this year's midterm elections, we saw it in last night's georgia first republican primary debate, gubernatorial candidates, david perdue-brian kemp. perdue began the debate by saying that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, that president trump actually won reelection. then it became a theme throughout much of the rest of the debate. here is a short excerpt. >> he said it was a clean election. >> i never said that. i have never said that. ever. >> do you deny it was a clean election? you are putting words in my mind. >> excuse me, i am not done yet. the difference between you and me is the fact that you think that jon ossoff and john biden, or biden, won fair and square. that's the the difference

between the two of us. you are telling the people in georgia that's what the truth is, and you want us to swallow that and move on. >> well let me remind you, i can speak for myself, and thata™s not what i've said. i've always said there is fraud in every election. judy: you have both of these candidates talking about fraud. what does it say about where republicans are right now? amy: only one of them has been endorsed by donald trump, and that is david perdue who also lost his bid for reelection in the runoff election in january of this year. many report -- republicans would like to move on from the 2020 election. donald trump does not want to move on from the 2020 election. he wants to keep relitigating it. he is making sure that those who did not support him in overturning the election or not certifying the election in their state will suffer the consequences. however, voters, at least what we see in polling in georgia, are not interested in relitigating it either. . they agree with perdue, the

former senator, that the election was fraudulent. a donald trump really won the election. they like donald trump a lot. but they also like the governor. accusations about- that david ie governor did not stand up enouge pe to protect the election, kind of fall flawhen it is, as kemp noted often in this debate. that it was the reason democrats had the majority in the senate right now which is because david perdue lost that race. a good reon why david perdue lost thatace, as to the other republican in the runoff, is because then president trump went around during the runoff saying how terrible the election was and how it was stolen and a bunch of republicans did not show up to vote. judy: if it is an argument that did not work in 2020, why do republicans think it will work this time? tamara: right now, they are in the primary. in the primary, all that matters

is how close can you hug donald j. trump? candidates up and down the ballot in states, but especially states like georgia and pennsylvania, states where the former has not given, like a dog with a bone he has not given up on relitigating the election. he put out a statement saying he would support an effort to overturn the election in wisconsin, and said any real republican needs to support that effort. it's 2022. and he is still doing that. and showing that you can at least nod to fraud, or at least say that you have concerns with the election, or somehow if you are not going to go full board and say it was completely fraudulent and rigged, if you are a republican, you have to at least acknowledge, before you can talk about anything else. it is a litmus test in the republican primary to say that

you are cool with trump. >> the governor signed into law earlier this last year voting legislation that would do things like restricting the number of drop boxes and there is tighter voter id now on absentee ballots, things like that. obviously, it had an impact in terms of actions, reactions from the governor, and he most recently signed legislation about having a handgun and you don't need a permit to do so. getting on the right side of conservatives by doing those things, and it makes the argument that he has not done enough to protect trump harder to make that some. judy: clearly this is not the only state where those arguments are taking place. let's turn to something else, where president trump is very much present in these stories that have come out of the last few days. house repuican leader kevin mccarthy in this new book, he is

on a recording telling a fellow reblican that he plans to tell president trump he needs to resign. we just played some of theogra he is denying that. he is saying that is whatever, it is not anything i said. but now, you see more reporting today, texts from house members who, on the day of january 6, were saying, to mark meadows, the chief of staff, please tell the president to calm people. this is not the way to solve anything. this is congressman timmons, the president needs to stop this. congressman loudermill of georgia, it is really data on the hill, they have breached the capitol. they are on the record,s the text are there, this is material turned over to the january 6 committee. but where is it going?

everyone of these members is saying that this -- it was not something they really meant. amy: in some ways, it all makes sense in that these were text messages sent when they were under attack. . they were literally under attack. people died that day. their place of employment had people charging, looking for members of congress, and shouting about hanging. it was utterly frightening. . they were evacuating and they were texting because they thought the president of the united states could do something to tell his supporters to go he did a mediocre job of telling them to go home, at best. but very quickly, republicans started shifting away from that. if you look at other text messages, marjorie taylor greene said, we think it was antifa, a false flag. immediately, even before the dust was settled, before the glass was cleaned up, republicans were, and allies of

the president, were shifting. trying to find ways to explain this away. kevin mccarthy publicly gave a speech on the floor of the house, very critical of the former president. within weeks of trump leaving office, he was down at mar-a-lago kissing his ring, going to get trump's support for the midterms. in these days, partisan politics, winning is everything. the calculus was that trump remained a huge force in the party. judy: is this like cotton candy? it just disappears if you look at it long enough? amy: for those republicans, it does. at the moment, we were talking to plenty of people who thought all right, this is it, this is the end. there were many things the president did or is involved in that we thought were going to mark the end of his candidacy or his tenure. did not come to pass. but surely, something like this was going to be -- was going to stick. and you literally watched our after our, and you could see it,

you are right, in these texts. it was not just saying maybe it is antifa, but continuing to press meadows on these accusations of fraud, that they are going to find these machines that have been rankednd algorithms. all of those conspiracy theories starting around that same time. judy: it means all the more attention to what the january 6 committee has to say when they hold their hearings, which we believe will be -- which will be in the month of june. we will be watching. politics monday, amy walter, tamra keith, thank you both. amy: you're welcome. tamara: you're welcome. judy: on the newshour online, after two-year break due to the pandemic, brazil's carnival celebration was back over the weekend. we have some of the images from the vibrant event on our instagram.

with that, that is the newshour for tonight. i am judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe and we'll see you soon. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more attic candidafund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.

and with the ongoing support o these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public oadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

hello, everyone, to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. the environmental minister in chile's new climate-friendly government joins me with perspective from a nation on the front lines of climate change. then. >> well what we now know about some of these