judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight. massacre in buffalo -- local residents grapple with grief and trauma after the mass shooting that police say was motivated by racism. >> our community is devastated. as much as we try not to struggle with the spirit of fear, people are scared. judy: then. expanding nato -- the ambassadors of finland and sweden discuss the future of security in europe --and russia's warnings -- following their requests to join the alliance. and.d ye three -- as the number of deaths from the virus hits 1 million in the u.s., a highly transmissable subvariant threatens to prolong the pandemic even further. althat and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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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: federal authorities are investigating the weekend massacre in buffalo as a potential hate crime. law enforcement officials also reported today that the accused gunman had planned to continue his shooting spree at another location if he had escaped. that news came as communities in

buffalo mourned the losses from an attack that claimed 10 lives. all were black. special correspondent cat wise has our report. >> today, as the community of buffalo, new york learned more about a gunman's racist shooting rampage at a supermarket over the weekend, the reality was setting in. eddie colbert has lived in the area for 50 years. he's suddenly fearful of his usual routines and visits to local stores. >> just thinking about the fact that it could be me or anybody else going in or coming out of that store, you know? so this is something that's going to be scary for anybody now, you know, becau we don't know if there's any other haters that's out there that's going to copy this, you know? >> tops market sees heavy foot traffic from residents nearby -- as one of the only grocery stores in the predominantly black neighborhood. keyshantatkinson was working as a cashier when the gunman

entered. she hid in a conference room and is still reeling from the experience. >> during the incident, i was scared because i didn't know if -- didn't know if he was gonna find us and just shoot all of and i didn't know nothing. i just. but now, i mean, i'm still a little bit scared because this was supposed to be a safe, safe environment. >> the attack happened on saturday afternoon here at the tops supermarket on buffalo's east side. the accused gunman drove about 200 miles from his hometown to the parking lot behind me, armed with an assault rifle. today, law enforcement officials remained at the crime scene pouring over the evidence. the 18-year-old gunman live streamed the shooting from a helmet camera to a small audience on the platform twitch. he shot 13 people -- killing 10 of them. of his victims, 11 were black. the buffalo police commissioner made clear he was targeting them.

>> the evidence that we have uncovered so far makes no mistake that this is an absolute racist hate crime. >> payton gendron -- who ultimately surrendered to police after pointing a weapon to his neck -- pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. gramaglia told cnn today that the gunman had planned to continue his rampage, possibly at another supermarket. the buffalo masacre is reminiscent of other racist attacks, including a 2015 mass shooting at a black church in charleston and another in 2019 at a walmart in a predominantly hispanic area of el paso, texas. and it has left families like ruth whitfield's in agonizing grief. whitfield -- one of the victims -- was shopping after visiting her husband in a nursing home. going to tops was a daily ritual for her. she was 86 years old. >> we have no answers. what do we tell our father? we don't even know. he doesn't know. what do we tell him? how do we tell him the love of his life? his primary caretaker. >> another victim -- kat massey

-- was an advocate for civil rights and education. she wrote to local news outlets last year, calling for federal regulation of firearms. she was 72 years old. reverend denise walden-glenn has been providing comfort to her community. she works for voices buffalo -- an interfaith, racial justice and equity organization. >> our community is hurting. our community is devastated. as much as we try not to struggle with thspirit of fear, people are scared. people are scared. people are scared to leave their homes. people are scared to go into public spaces. children are afraid to return to school. they're afraid for their parents to go to work or their caregivers to go to work. people are afraid. >> officials say the gunman subscribed to a racist ideology -- known as the great replacement theory -- that's made its way from the fringes of the internet into mainstream discourse on the right. it's a belief in the false theory that there's a plot by

non-white people to replace the power and influence of white people. civil rights attorney ben crump blames the gunman and those who influenced him to commit the act. >> all these people who are talking about this race replacement theory, radicalizing these young impressionable minds to go out and do irrational acts because they know they have an irrational audience. >> police were called to his high school last june after he made teatening remarks. but after a mental health evaluation, he was free to go. the impacts of that release are now reverberating throughout this city and the country. >> this is our mother. this is our lives. we need help. we're asking you to help you change. this can't keep happening. >> the president and first lady will make a trip to buffalo tomorrow to meet with families

and see the grieving community firsthand. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in buffalo, new york. judy: this attack -- like too many before it -- is leading to a renewed conversation and for some, self-examination on questions of race, white supremacy, and extremist ideology. we're going to focus on some of those questions ourselves with eric ward. he has long studied all of this and the proliferation ofates crimes, and is now at the southern poverty law center. and jelani cobb, writer, journalist and historian. he's also the next dean of the columbia journalism school our conversation is part of our ongoing coverage of race matters. welcome to you both. jelani cobb let me start with you, we heard that man at the beginning of t piece say we don't know if there are any other haters out there -- what is your answer to him?

>> we could answer that in the affirmative. i don't think unfortunately there is any question, when we look at the connections between what happened in charleston, south carolina in 2015, what happened in el paso, what happened at the tree of life in pittsburgh, what has happened in buffalo, what has happened in other places that i'm not mentioning now. having covered and written about this issue. we can be fairly certain there are more people of a like mind out there and the bigger question is what we as a society are prared to do in order to prevent these kinds of atrocities from happening again and again. judy: i want to ask you eric ward because you have spent decades looking at this issue, is this incident that we see in buffalo just another incident of anti-black hate? is there something that stands out to you about this particular moment?

>> yes, it is a moment where we are beginning to watch the unfolding of mission oriented hate crimes. these are not merely reactionary hate crimes that we have witnessed with the old targeting of minority communities. this is an ideology fueling this violence. this violence is not an aberration of the great replacement theory, it is a feature. it is a feature grounded in anti-semitism. let's be clear, this killer believed that by targeting and killing african-americans, that he was engaging in a war against what he believed to be a jewish conspiracy. so we are beginning to understand that this underlying jewish conspiracy called the great replacement theory is threatening not just jews, but all of us. what is most frightening is that elected officials are beginning to mainstream and promote this message in the halls of

congress. judy: which leads us to the question, why does it keep happening? the incidents that you named and so many more in this country, what is it that has gotten into the psyche of americans that these terrible things keep happening? >> i think this is a much bigger conversation. we see mass violence happening across an array of factors. but most fundamentally, we don't do anything after it happens. we don't enact meaningful legislation. we don't have any significant changes in policy. we make dramatic public displays of grief, at least our elected officials do, and then effectively go back to what they were doing before. i have covered so many of the stories that i really hate to sound cynical, but there is a

particular script that we can expect things follow and the trajectory in the next days and weeks. we will mourn, we will grieve, and we will receive back into the same habitual behaviors that have facilitated this in the first place. judy: do you think we will fall back into the same pattern this time? >> regretfully, we will. as long as we continue to tolerate the rhetoric that creates this theory that jews are somehow secretly trying to take over the world, we have to push back against this anti-semitism. we have to make real our opposition to this white nationalist terror taking place around the country. we need government to step in. we need business leaders to step up. and we need community organizations to be trained and prepared for how to deal with and manage the violence. this is not ending, this is not an aberration, this is a beginning of the targeting of minorities in order to overthrow

american democracy. we have to be serious about this. judy: what more specifically do you think needs to be done to get people's attention? we talk about these incidents, we cover them in the news media for a period of time, but then as you just pointed out, they happen again and again. what different needs to happen? >> one of the things that is really important in this is that if we want to talk about what is different -- there is a long tradition of white nationalist terrorism and white nationalist violence in this country -- if we want to talk about the differentiating factor of the current moment, one is the access to this information on the internet and social media. we have to come up with some sort of meaningful reform. of course, in some instances it seems that social media is going in the opposite direction of responsibility.we have to come m e of mechanisms, whether that be through kind of private acts

or pressure from private groups or some combination of government relationships and oversight, but the fact is that it is indisputable at this point. we have data that points t people being radicalized and indoctrinated via social media. that is one avenue people can take meaningful steps to address, at least as a beginning to do something. judy: you are speaking about the responsibility that the big tech companies have, essentially. >> certainly. judy: and the lack of regulation. eric ward, is that something that realistically can happen? i keep coming back to hearts and minds. do we think it is a matter of changing what is racist in rt is it a matter of stopping tha racism from becoming these

terrible acts of violence? where do you see the stopping that needs to happen? >> i think there are three things we could do immediately that begin to send a message that we are serious about responding to white nationalist violence and its threat. the first is we can be responsive to the community of buffalo, particularly the families and friends of those who are survivors, a friends and families they have lost. a community where we can make race equity real and a model for the nation and we should take on that challenge. the second is that local communities need relief from federal government. many local communities and counties have been struggling under the weight white nationalist violence and they need help, they need resources to respond. the third is we have to have the public will. the truth is this, if we were able to revamp the world economy

in three weeks to come to the support of ukraine by the invasion of russia, we can build the political will here if we choose to be responsive to this white nationalist assault. judy: do you think that political will ishere and i have to ask you both -- will let me ask you that first, is the political will there? >> certainly not on the right in this country. we have seen what were once french politics become more and more parts of the mainstream in the republican party. at least in terms of the rhetoric we have seen among conservatives. that is something that people will havee tooak s oadutdr mess. it does not seem to be high on the list of priorities, or address in meaningful ways. that doesn't seem to be happening. i think at some point it is possible that these actions will become so volatile and dangerous

that it will create a pressure for people to distance themselves, but at this point we have seen so much of this violence, i can't predict the scale of the catastrophe that would be required to make people begin to think twice or to think about this differently. judy: a very quick final question to you both. we heard people in buffalo expressing outright fear after this. what would you say to them? in this moment. >> i think that it is right to be concerned, but i think the object of these sorts of behaviors is to instill fear in people and the only way to proceed is to be vigilant, to be aware of your surrounding, but not to succumb to fear because fear is the ultimate objective. judy: eric ward? >> judy, this is our opportunity to show the community of buffalo

that they are not alone, not today, not this week, or for the years to come. this is an opportunity to speak to the white nationalist move by investing in the best opportunities in energy to ally ourselves with those who have faced horror in buffalo, new york. judy: we thank you. stephanie: igr'afm testepthhaenw latest headlines. police in southern california say a chinese migrant acted out of hate for taiwan in a sunday shooting at a church. john cheng, a doctor and father, was killed. 5 were wounded. the gunman opened fire at a luncheon for the largely taiwanese immigrant congregation, and cheng attempted to disarm him. the local sheriff said the suspect had lived in taiwan, which mainland china considers a breakaway province.

>> based on priminary information in the investigation, it is believed the suspect volved was upset about political tension between china and taiwan. stephanie: the suspect -- 68-year-old david choh of las vegas -- is charged with murder and attempted murder. in an effort to address a national shortage of baby formula, abbott laboratories announced a consent decree today with the u.s. food and drug administration to reopen an formula plant in michigan. it's the nation's largest, but it's been closed since february due to contamination. in ukraine, the ravaged city of mariupol appears on the verge of falling to russian forces. wounded fighters were evacuated today from a steel complex to russian-controlled areas. ukraine's military pledged to try to rescue the last holdouts. also today. sweden joined finland in announcing it will apply to join nato -- and russia's president vladimir putin offered a somewhat toned-down sponse. he spoke at a summit in moscow.

>> as far as nato's expansion -- new members finland and sweden included, russia has no problem with those states. therefore, the addition of those countries poses no direct threat for us. but the expansion of military infrastructure into this territory will obviously call for our response. stephanie: both sweden and finland have ruled out accepting nato troops or hardware on their territory. we'll return to this, after the news summary. mcdonald's has announced it's leaving russia -- after more than 30 years of doing business there. the company says it's selling most of its 850 russian restaurants. it will continue paying some 62,000 employees until the sale closes. the biden administration is reversing some trump-era policies regarding cuba. it is permitting flights to cities other than havana and allowing group travel for educational or professional purposes. it is also re-establishing a family re-unification program and eliminating caps on remittances. in a statement this evening, the

cuban government said it is a "limited step in the right direction." president biden is re-deploying u.s. troops to somalia. he signed the order today amid concerns about al-shabab rebels who have links to al qaeda. then-president trump had withdrawn nearly all of the 700 u.s. special operations forces stationed in somalia. the cdc today confirmed 1 million covid-19 deaths in the u.s. to date. that's more than american deaths in the civil war and world war ii, combined. and, with infections rising in new york, city health officials urged people to mask up again in indoor public settings. meanwhile, north korea reported 56 deaths and some 1.5 million infections from an unspecified fever. leader kim jong-un visited pharmacies and criticized the slow pace of medicine deliveries. he mobilized north korea's army to help. the u.s. supreme court has sided with texas republican senator ted cruz over letting political

candidates lend money to their own campaigns and then get repaid. a 2002 law capped how campaign money can be used for that purpose, but cruz challenged the provision. by 6 to 3 today, the court ruled the restriction violates freedom of expression. a los angeles judge today struck down california's law requiring there be women on corporate boards. the 2018 statute required publicly held companies based in california to have a minimum number of women on their boards. the judge ruled it violated the state constitution by mandating a gender-based quota. still to come on the newshour. why the fight against covid appears to have stalled in the u.s. tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. yog playwrights use the theater to confront the ongoing trauma of gun violence. and much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and

in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: as we reported, sweden's prime minister magdalena andersson today announced that her country would join nato, the north atlantic treaty organization, ending more than 200 years of military nonalignment. the announcement follows a similar one this weekend from neighboring finland. nick schrifin has more. nick: it is a historic, generaonal shift by the governments of sweden and finland, and their populations. after the cold war ended, sweden and fiand joined the european union, but refused to join nato, pursuing instead a policy of armed neutrality. finland shares an 830-mile border with russia, and as recently as february, the government said it had no plans to join nato. but the invasion of ukraine has changed everything. in 20 17, 22% of finns and 32 percent of swedes supported joining nato. today, that number is 76 percent in finland, and

53 percent in sweden. for more on all of this we turn to sweden's ambassador to the united states and finland's ambassador to the united states. welcome both of you. why are you applying for nato today? >> well, we have seen a dramatic shift in the region. when russia attacked the ukraine , that was a dramatic shift. an unprovoked attack on a democracy, another european state. nick: you train and share intelligence with nato, your membership in the eu includes a treaty to assist any member country attacked. why is that no longer good enough? >> i think we now have a clear plan to execute our long tending -- standing foreign policy position that we have said that

if the situation chang, we might apply for nato membership and that is what we're are doing right now. we think the eu common solidarity continues to be important and relevant, but we think that nato as a defensive ally is desperately needed in the situation with its military capabilities. nick: you need all 30 countries in nato to agree and today turkish president erdogan called sweden an incubation center for the pkk, the kurdish group deemed a terrorist group by the eu and the u.s. will you extradite the kurds living in sweden that turkey is asking for? >> that is something we have not discussed. we are seeking contact with turkey to --

>> that remains to be seen. we have received some inconsisnt messages from president erdogan saying they would support the application. now we have our hearing. we will have to find out what we are talking about and what does that mean. i think we have a really good relationship with turkey and we believe we can have a good discussion of those items and find a solution. nick: vladimir putin made comments that some people find interesting. he changed his rhetoric and said he had no problems with sweden or finland joining nato, but that creating new nato infrastructure would trigger a response. do you believe that is a real threat and do you have any plans to expand nato infrastructure in sweden?

>> sorry. >> sorry. nick: ambassador? >> are joining nato as a full member of course with everything that that implies, so those are discussions we will have with nato as we go forward in our acceptance process. we are happy that the russians don't see it as a threat that we are joining nato. we have heard differently before and given the unpredictability and what we have seen in the ukraine, we have to take every precaution we can to strengthen our own security, so we have decided to go up to 2% on our defense budget. we are ramping up our missile defense and air force, our marine, navy, building some earnings, etc. we are taking our security very seriously. that was quite a good message coming out of the kremlin today. nick: ambassador, were you

surprised by putin's language? >> not really. i think it is basically consistent with what he has said before many years ago, but of course given the dramatic shift in february in ukraine, i think you have to take seriously all kinds of scenarios that might take place. we take all the precautions. this message is welcome and as i said, it is consistent with what they have said before. nick: there will be a time between sweden's requesting to join nato and actually being inside of nato and today the prime minister said that that would be a vulnerable position. the united kingdom has publicly said that it has a mutual security agreement during that time, but do you feel you have enough security guarantees from the u.s. or other nato countries during that gap? >> of course, we are fully aware

we can't get full security guarantees until we are a full member of the alliance, but our friends, the norwegians and the danes and the germans and the britt send others have stated that they are willing to do whatever it takes to help keeping a safe in this period. we are taking our own security very seriously. we have ramped up the threshold for any aggression. together with our friends and allies and partners, we think that we can make it tougher to threaten us in the meantime. that is a discussion we are having now one of the details of that in the word coming up. -- the period coming up. nick: i want to move the conversation over to ukraine, you are the former ambassador to moscow and kyiv. ukrainian officials i spoke to said they use the word victory. do you fear that russia would

escalate before it seemed to lose? >> i think certainly it is a possibility that we have to take into account. i do believe that we have a long conflict on our hands and i think the russians are not yet suddenly ready to give up on anything and i think they have their own war goals still on their minds. i think it is very hard to predict what is going to happen next, but obviously there is not going to be a fast solution to this war. nick: ambassador, i noticed friday that ukraine's top aide said that while he was happy for both finland and sweden to join nato, it was "a double standard" of nato to fast-track your admission. why should ukraine now wait f 14 years and knock it into nato when you're countries are expected to join nato for months? >> that is of course a question for the alliance to take. nick: ambassador? >> i think it is the same, that

the alliance has set certain standards and i think it is up to the alliance to decide which countries meet those standards and how fast and with which results they should proceed. we are trying to do our best together with sweden, long-standing democracies, also countries with basically nonexistent corruption and heavy defense spending in our case, so i think it is up to the allies to decide. nick: ambassador, i have about 45 seconds left. the u.s. has a pro-nato president today, but president trump was questioned nato while he was president and of course the next president could question nato. do you believe you have in the u.s. a reliable partner inside nato? >> yes, i do. we have been a long-standing partner and have had a great

partnership for many years. i think the alliance will persist and there are many members in the nato alliance, 30 of them, not only the united states, but t united states is of course one of the most important ones. i trust the united states will stay in nato. nick: ambassador's, thank you so much to you both. >> thank you. >> thanks a lot. ♪ ju: we knew the day was coming, and now it's arrived -- the united states has recorded more than one million covid deaths. it is the highest reported death toll of any country, and this terrible, largely preventable milestone comes as casesre once again on the rise. william brangham has more. william: duty, the country's morning these deaths right as a new even more highly transmissible omicron variant's

emerge. as a result, cases have climbed 60% in two weeks and hospitalizations are up 24%. for a deeper look at all of this, i'm joined by dr. eric topol. the founder and director of the scripps research translational institute. great to have you back. the country is trying to find way to reckon with this one million deas and yet these new variants are showing up. it is clear that this virus is not done with us yet. when you look at the pandemic today, what is it that most concerns you? >> good to be with you. the problem we have is this illusion or deception thathe pandemic is over when in fact, these variants that we're seeing are coming at a much faster clip. there's an accelerated evolution of the virus, and these are more troubling variants. they are not more mild. in fact, there have a more

immune escape. so they're transmitting at levels that is really inconceivable and starting to approach the level of measles one of the most spreadable , pathogens we've ever encountered. so we have trouble right now. as you mentioned, we are seeing at least 600,000, 700,000 cases a day and likely it is going to continue to increase in this country as we confnt this variant, one of the several of the omicron family. william: you've mentioned immune escape. you are talking about the ability of these newly mutated, newly evolving strains to punch past our protections, to evade our vaccination. is that right? >> exactly. so william, this is basically our immune system doesn't see them. it doesn't see the virus is this all previous versions of the virus because there's so much distance or the protein is basically looks different to our

body. and that's why people had omicron, which is about 40% to 50% of americans back in january d february, that variant, the new one is rising to levels of dominance in this country, already in the new england region but also, of course, will be throughout the country. we can have reinfections because they are so different. those who have been infected with the ba.1 don't see this new problematic version in the omicron family. william: one of the things we have always been consoled with is that if you have been vaccinated and boosted and even if you have a ba.1 infection, you are very protected, but you would not end up in the hospital or dying. do those new strains change that calculus? >> we've counted on vaccines to

give us 95 percent protection from hospitalizations and deaths, but that is slipping now. we are in a denial state that it is now down to 85%, 80%. that is a big drop because instead of 5%, we are talking about fourfold more people who might go on and get severe disease, even being vaccinated with one or two boosters. this is a real problem we are not confronting right now. william: help me understand something. there seems to be a real disconnect. all of the things that you are reporting would be alarming to most people who have been paying attention to this epidemic. you look at the cdc's map, it shows the country with a few hotspots, orange in new york, yellow in minnesota and michigan, but the rest of the country looks green as if there isn't a problem with this virus. what is the disconnect? >> i call it a capitulation.

the cdc is frankly, it is a deception that the level of the virus is low, when the transmission is incredibly high. it is starting to approach that of what we saw with the omicron wave and it is rising quickly. so this is really irresponsible of the cdc to give us this impression that things are copacetic when they could not be further from the truth. william: let's just say that this continues to worsen and public officials start to say we need to reintroduce precautions as we saw in new york city recommending masks indoors again , do you think broadly speaking that the country will listen? everywhere i travel it seems like people are done with this, they don't want to think about it anymore, they are ready for this to be in the rearview mirror. if public health officials say

it is time to tighten down precautions again, will people listen? >> that is the problem. it is very hard to go backward. our thinking is going backward, but our actions -- we are not doing the things that we could do. the innovations that we need to get ahead of the virus. not just the masks in the physical distancing sort of thing that you are alluding to, but the things like having nasal vaccines and much better medication beyond what we have today. those things are imperative and part of this capitulation is that we have basically a handwaving we are done, we don't want to put any further investments or funds or support, and this is a crucial time right now. it is not going to get better. it is that a very serious spot right now and we have too many pads for trouble in the times ahead as well. william: as we have seen,

congress is deadlocked on this whole issue of covid funding. always good to see you, thank you. >> thank you. i wish i had a brighter message to convey. thank you. ♪ judy: days after the massacre in buffalo, the response from political leaders has turned not to the usual conversation of guns but to the power of the racist ideology that fuels attacks like this. lisa desjardins is here with more. >> judy, for the political response to this tragedy as well primary races tomorrow, i'm joined by our always thoughtful political monday's team, that is amy walter of the cook political report witamy walter. and tamera keith of npr. politics mondays here.

let's start off with another unspeakable shooting and people in washington are looking at the words of some republicans, including this from the re--- republican house leadership. it warns of a permanent election insurrection and defines that as the arrival of undocumented immigrants. she has disavowed the buffalo shooting, she represents a district in new york, but some to see that ad as a reference to this what we hear about the white replacement theory, which the suspect in the buffalo shooting wrote about. amy, what do you think is going on underneath here? why are some republicans feeding or maybe not actively trying to address white anger? >> i think as this piece, as the lead and alluded to, lots of times when these things hpen, these horrible tragedies involving guns, we talk about the second amendment.

in this case, we're talking about the first amendment. what is free speech exactly? what you can and cannot say, what is inciting violence, what is simply ok to be able to talk about. that is a debate we have been having most recently about what gets posd on the internet and who is responsible. it is also in the political dialogue as well, which as we know that the rhetoric just keeps getting ramped up and ramped up and ramped up and this idea that there are -- this is -- that it won't seep into the broader society is not true. the more that leaders, people in leadership positions are willing to either excuse it or find ways to sort of switch the topic, the harder it becomes for leaders to stand up and say,ctually we can draw a line. there is a first amendment, but

this is just not acceptable and we need to hold ourselves, even if internet companies or the broader world won't hold us to those standards, we need to do it. >> there was a tweet from another republican liz cheney, who tweeted that the gop leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism. these are kinds of ideas, white replacement area, that used to be way on the fringe. how are they now in the political mainstream? >> white replacement theory was kkk, neo-nazi staff and then it started seeping in in a in theory more palatable form. it is political replacement theory, that ad was the idea that democrats are somebody was to bring in lots of illegal immigrants who could

then become legal and american citizens and vote and replace native born american voters. that is the theory behind this. you, conservative voters. that is how it went from the fringes to the main stream. you had in charlottesville those people marching chanting with tiki torches saying jews will not replace us, you will not replace us, that was replacement theory in an unpalatable way. >> but at least it was clear what they were saying. >> in the years since then, it has become discussed in politics as this is something that is going to happen and that somebody wants this to happen. it is not in the exact same terms as white replacement theory and that is what the spokesperson pushed back on, she

doesn't have racist ideas, she simply saying there shouldn't be amnesty. it all mixes together. >> that is the whole thing about what is free speech and what is hateful rhetoric that incites people to do terrible things. >> and what is there to do? the new white house press secretary on her first day was asked if the white house should push back more, call out people by name like tucker carlsen, and we py a role in the media. my question for you is do voters hear these ideas challenged enough? if not, how does that happen? >> part of the problem is we have media bubbles. there is not cross-pollination, so there are people paying very close attention to this and are very outraged and there are other folks who probably will not hear much about this at all. >> yeah. [laughter] what she said. we are in bubbles. the american population is

vulnerable to receiving conspiracy theories and accepting them as reality and there is no defined truth and that sort of social isolation allows people to go into the dark recesses of the internet and find things that confirm their belief. >> it is front of mind for those of us in the media. how did we get that truth out there? another topic that does overlap, primaries! we have some tomorrow. north carolina, pennsylvania, and others. i just got back from the keystone state, fantastic few days there. republicans in the senate race ve three very conservative candidates, including kathy barnett. democrats have an unconventional senate candidate, john federman, the lieutenant governor. is the idea of who can win changing? there used to be a formula. these are not formulaic candidates. >> someone like a dave mccormick, he is a veteran, he

had success in business, if you went back 10 years to republican candidate central casting, you would find him. but then trump got elected and the idea of what is delectable has changed somewhat. someone like john federman is not traditionally considered even remotely electable. he does not share. he shows up in a hoodie and gym shorts for a meeting with the president and yet he is appealing to rural voters, he is appealing to working-class voters the democrats have been struggling with. some like barnett grabs attention, makes people have passion. i don't know if they will win their primaries, but i think that they are an example of candidates that are redefining what it means. >> if we kind of flip the script, in 2018 and 2020, the one thing that unify democrats was getting rid of donald trump. that meant electing in primaries the most electable candidate,

which usually meant the most moderate to centrist. on the democratic side here, you have john ferman, who not only does not look the part with the sweatshirt and the shorts, but he comes from the bernie sanders wing of the party, which again in the 2018,020 version they would say, maybe that is a little too dangerous in a state as conservative as pennsylvania and we should elect a more moderate. in this case, what democrats are lookg for is somebody who will be a fighter because they are frustrated they are not seeing that from the party right now and he is giving them that. >> great discussion. thank you both. ♪ judy: this weekend's mass shooting in buffalo once again highlighted the devastating impact of gun violence in this country. it is a problem all too familiar to many americans and

specifically young people. in 2020, guns became the leading cause of death for children, surpassing fatalities from car accidents. activists across the country are working to shed light on that issue through a series of plays written and performed by young adults, many of whom have had direct experience with gun violence. jeffrey brown has the story for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> you know, i usually would let you go, but there was a shooting down know where i know you all be hanging and i don't want nothing to happen to you. >> in new york city's lincoln center the reading of a play , about a woman who lost her husband to gun violence and now fears the worst for her son. it was written by 18 year old taylor lafayette. >> i really hope that my play, amongst others that were written, bring that change forth, that this cannot keep happening.

>> you've got three seconds. >> or i'm taking it out of your pockets. in tempe, arizona, a performance about a boy who witnesses his older brother' murder and weighs whether to take revenge. one of the student act there's -- >> it is a part of life you never want to face, but it is one that you can't act as if it is not there. ignorance isn't bliss when you're talking about this subject. information, knowledge, that's the power. >> the performances were part of #enough: plays to end gun violence, a project written and acted by young people expressing their anger, frustration and fear. earlier this spring, on april 20th, the anniversary of the 1999 columbine shooting, eight plays were performed in 29 states across the country. including pittsburgh. >> please. >> and suitland, maryland. >> don't kill us.

>> it's not me. i don't have a choice. >> scenes evoked the aftermath of a mass shooting. the trauma that endures when a loved one is lost. >> mom cries every day now. staring at the spot in the street where her baby boy's body lay. >> #enough is the brainchild of michael cotey, a director and producer based in chicago. in 2018, he was in a professional theater rehearsal when the parkland, florida shooting left 17 dead. >> it just took over the entire vibe of the rehearsal. and then my memory of it is that 10 minutes later, we got back to work wking on plays. and that really left an unsettling feeling for me. >> what was the feeling? >> frustrated that these things kept happening or feel like they keep happening? what am i doing in the theater or like more specifically, like what could we be doing with the theater to address this directly? >>'s idea -- let young people be

the storytellers. >> they're able to put a story behind these awful, enormous numbers that should just drive us insane to do something about it, but somehow don't. and i think that's what theater provides -- this cathartic sense of where some people can go to express their grief and their anger and their trauma, but do that within their community. >> a space that small, a weapon like that, it doesn't take more than a few minutes. we were hirsute maybe 20 times friday. >> in 18 year old willa colleary's play, rehearsal, a group of students and a teacher become obsessed with rehearsing a school shooting simulation. >> it's had such an effect on, you know, the psyche of people like me, american teenagers, anyone who has to go to school. it's very rare that you get the opportunity to write about something that is so important on such a like national, if not global scale. >> like many teens colleary, who lives in los angeles, has grown up in an america where school

shooting drills are a part of everyday life. >> i go to school and all these very normal sort of banal things are happening. i'm doing schoolwork, i'm thinking about lunch. and then on like beneath that, there's this weird undercurrent of anxiety about gun violence. and, you know, looking around a room, like where would i hide? or there's a door that slams really hard somewhere and you know, immediately that it's not, you know what you think it is, but i think there's always this feeling of worry around it >> in tempe, arizona, byron acted in a presentation and found the experience cathartic. >> a creative workspace is the best workspace, in my opinion. and when you're around people that make difficult things, easy to talk about, it definitely helps a lot. a freshman at arizona state university, roberson has lost both family and friends to gun vlence. >> i feel that the underlining thing is to understand, acknowledge what people do and to have that conversation about

people. and this is one ofhose ways to have that conversation. >> it is a conversation all-too-familiar for arizona state representative jennifer longdon, who was shot and paralyzed 18 years ago. she was in the audience in arizona and joined a post-performance discussion. >> i found it really very intense, very true to life. i found myself holding my breath several points along the way. i think that it provides an outlet for the creators and the performers. and i think it's educational to the audience. >> for her part, taylor lafayette traveled to new york from her home in missiippi. she's been writing since childhood, she told us, but this play was her most personal, a way to cope after losing her younger brother to gun violence.

>> he was 16, so very young. not even getting a chance to graduate high school senior year. and the fact that i do, i just i like to use that as motivation to keep going. >> why does art become the way to help you do that? >> #enough definitely drove me to see that i can use my voice as something more than just a way to release my own emotions. i can use it to cause change, i don't want to keep my writing to myself. i want it to be in the world because i feel that's where it needs to be. >> for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. >> enough! judy: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us, 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 the wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans and our serce team can find one that fits you.

>> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice investme n trd ansformative leaders and ideas. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at mac found.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contbutions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> this is the pbs newshour from

weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ >>

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," dan makes bridget sautéed tilapia with chive lon miso butter, adam reveals his top pick for food processors, jack shares his knowledge of italian pastas, and becky makes julia pesce all'acqua pazza. it's all coming up right here on america's test kitchen.