♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight... a slow response -- a top official admits law enforcement should have acted more quickly during the school shooting in uvalde, texas, questioning why children were barricaded and a classroom with the shooter for nearly an hour. then... the pandemic fallout -- a look at how covid and anti-asian sentiment have hurt businesses in chinatown neighborhoods in new york and across the country. >> sometimes i see people coming into our restaurant yelling slurs and giving us trouble, and i see my dad trying to be strong, and i worry about him. judy: and it is friday...

david brooks and jonathan capehart discuss the tragedy in uvalde and what georgia's primary election results say about former president trump's influence within the gop. all that and more on the "newshour." ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well planned. ♪ >>he john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support

of these institutions -- ♪ and friends of the "newshour." ♪ 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: today was suos to be the first day of summer break for students in uvalde, texas, but instead the community is still reeling from the shooting that left 19 children and two schoolteachers dead. days after the attack, there are more questions than answers, but we are learning new details about the law enforcement response and the terror inside classrooms at robb elementary school. amna nawaz is in uvalde tonight.

amna, what have you learned? amna: here in uvalde, the more we learn, the worse it gets. officials today laid out the most in-depth timeline to date of what exactly happened during tuesday's shooting, detailing the 78 minutes that passed before a authorities are finally confronted the gunman even as children trapped inside the classroom called 911 begging for help. three days after the deadly rampage that left 19 ouvalde's youngest dead, grief and anger commingle in this tightly knit community. dora: i will never have my baby again! and they need to do something about it! they need to not forget the babies, the kids! amna: javier cazares' daughter jacklyn was killed on tuesday. he was outside the school during the shooting, in disbelief over

the police response. javier: they were there without proper equipment, i saw. 15-20 minutes later came with their shields. like, that should have been in their cars, you know, going in, not waiting 30-45 minutes to get in. amna: vincent salazar's 11-year-old daughter layla was one of the victims. vincent: how fast can you act? i mean... i don't know. i don't know how much of a difference it would have made, you know, if, you know, maybe they could have acted faster. that remains to be seen. amna: today the director of the texas department of public safety, steven mccraw, offered the most detailed timeline to date. just before 113:0 a.m., the gunman crashed his truck near the school. a teacher calls 911 and the gunman begins then shooting inside school windows. at 11:33, the gunman enters the school through a door officials say was propped open by a teacher, and begins shooting into two classrooms. at 11:35, uvalde police officers enter via the same door and take

fire from the gunman. multiple rounds are fired for the next several minutes. more officers continue to arri, and by 12:03, there are 19 officers in the hallway outside the locked classrooms. beginning at 12:03, a student from inside the classroom begins calling 911. officials say she whispers as she talks, and makes several calls. she shares how many are dead, how many are alive, and that the gunman shot at the door. during one calmore than 30 minutes after her first, she begs, "please send the police now." >> they breaed the door using keys that they were able to get from the janitor because both doors were locked. both of the classrooms that he shot into were locked. when officers arrived, they killed the suspect. amna: it's still not clear if the 19 officers in the hallway knew at the time there were children alive inside the classroom. >> the on scene commander

considered it a barricaded suspect and that there were no children at risk. obviously there were children at risk and it was still an active shooter situation. from the benefit of hindsight, where i'm sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. it was the wrong decision, period. amna: the news here in downtown uvalde was met with frustration, anger, and confusion. pastor ynclan: people are asking what happened? an hour's worth of time that nobody went in? what happened? i don't know what happened but i know one thing. my husband is a retired firefighter. and when 9/11 happened -- firefighters were running in. they were going up. they weren't coming down. and they knew that when they were going up they wouldn'be coming back down. what happened? why did it take so long for them to get in? jackie: as a parent, i think i would have rushed in there without thinking twice. i don't care if they would have tased me or taken me down.

i think i would have done whatever ieeded to do to get my children out of that school. i'm still really confused about that, why they waited so long to get in there. amna: later this afternoon, texas governor greg abbott had this response -- gov. abbott: i was misled. i am livid about what happened. my expectation is the law enforcement leaders leading investigations, which includes the texas rangers and fbi, that they get to the bottom of every fact with absolute certainty. there are people who deserve answers most and those are the families whose lives destroyed. they need answers that are accurate and it is inexcusable that they may have been suffered --hey may have suffered from any inaccurate information. amna: uvalde's collective grief

has manifested here -- a makeshift memorial in the town square. hearts heavy, and arms full, their offerings now piled high at the foot of each cross. flowers at the base, and stuffed animals for these youngest victims. tess mata was 10 years old, a fourth grader at robb elementary school. some of her soccer teammates came together last evening to lay flowers, scribble notes, and just remember their friend. for days now as a community has mourned, the question looms, could more have been done? to possibly have save some of those lives of the 19 children and two children -- two teachers? with today's revelations and the massive failures, the answer is a heartbreaking yes. judy: it is impossible to imagine what these families, these parents of these children who were inside the school are thinking, feeling right now. i know you have been talking to several of them. what are they telling you? amna: the parents who lost

children are left to wonder what if? what if police had acted sooner or what if more had been done, would my children be alive today? we can also now share that an el paso funeral home more than seven hours away has offered to donate and truck in caskets or those children because uvalde will need so many more of those smaller caskets. i spoke with the mother of one student who survived the shooting. she survived in her classroom and mentioned to her mother after she got out that her teacher had been shot, her friends had been shot. her mother says she dipped her hands in their blood and smeared it on herself and laid still so the gunman would not know she was still alive. she was one of those that was calling 911 asking for help. she said she could hear the police officers outside her classroom and did not understand why they were not coming inside to help. her mother is very angry.

she does not know why the people who they tell their children to trust and ask for help were not there to help. she believes if the police had acted sooner, more children would be alive. judy: it is just impossible to comprehend this. as you talk to them, where does this frustration, this anger go? are they telling you now what they want to see happen? amna: certainly as we reported, there will be some level of accountability and there will be investigations into the police response at the state and possibly federal level. the parents know that nothing will bring back their children and now uvalde as many communities wracked by this kind of violence has been forever changed. it does raise many questions. how much more can be done to protect students? how much more can be done to harden schools? the gunman had two assault rifles and officials revealed today, over 1600 rounds of ammunition. the steps put in place here and

put in place at schools across the country, just did not work. there was no police officer on site. the door was not locked. and when the police arrived, they did not do what they were trained to do, they did not confront and eventually neutralize the gunman until many of the children were dead. we are left with this bigger question. this is what children are trained to do. it has been striking to see the last three days how much of the safety burden has been shifted to children. children all across america are going through lockdown drills. they know they have to hide in place and stay quiet. when you talk to the kids here, that is what they did. even though the adults did not do what they were trained to do, the kids did. i talked to a third grader yesterday who told me even though he was in the cafeteria during lunch when the shooting happened he knew he had to run , and hide. he did exactly that. even though he wasn't in his classroom. i asked him -- how did you know to do that?

today teacher or officer tell you? he said no one told me i just knew i had to. judy: the heartbreak, the anger, again, it is iomprehensible. thank you very much. amna: thanks, judy. judy: meantime, veterans of law enforcement are weighing in on the controversial actions taken by those police officers during the shooting. william has more on that. william: as we just heard, those officials are being harshly criticized for not acting sooner to confront the shooter and potentially save some of those children. actions they now admit were wrong. to help us better understand what police should and should not do in these awful circumstances, i am joined by fred fletcher, the retired police chief from chattanooga, tennessee, and he also spent many years as police commander in austin, texas.

thank you for being here. you heard the timeline investigators have laid out. 19 armed police officers are in the school, outside the room is where the shooter is locked in two rooms with young students , and there is this punishingly long wait before they go through that door and confront him. as a former police chief and someone who has trained a lot of officers, what is your reaction to this? fred: i feel a great deal of grief and my heart breaks for uvalde and when i think of those 29 minutes in particular that lapsed between the officers stacking up outside that door, shots being fired, and finally breaching the door, the grief is compounded by anger and shame that we as a community have

allowed this violence to continue on our children. william: the officials today said that the local commander on the scene felt this was a barricade situation where there -- where the shooter was simply holed up on his own and their re was not a threat to others rather than an active shooter situation where there was a threat. what do you make of that distinction they are making? fred: i agree with the director. it was the wrong decision and there is no excuse. i cannot say it better. an active shooter has demonstrated they have no intention other than taking lives, and we know certainly since columbine in the late 1990's that active shooter's are only going to stop when we intervene and stop them. as for first responders -- go ahead. william: please continue. fred: we have an obligation to

have a bias towards action. police officers regularly run toward gunfire, and we train in active shooting preparation to engage, engage, engage. to draw the aention, emotion, energy and fire from the shooter so we put ourselves between violence and those we are sworn to protect. we have to have a bias towards action and those decisions need to be left to the men and women on the scene who have the information and not to a commandewho is off the scene and receiving delayed information. william: one of the most haunting aspects of this, this horrendous circumstance, is that we know that while those officers are outside the room, there are children inside the room calling 911 saying we can hear the police out there, please tell them to come in. that seems to be a tremendous breakdown in communication that that was not related to the officers outside the room.

fred: clearly, there are many questions about communication and passing of information and that is why we neeto train, empower and trust the officers on the scene of the violence to make the decisions to protect our neighbors. they need to know they are empowered and supported in intervening and engaging and taking the bias towards action so they can engage a shooter, a violent perpetrator and keep them from harming our neighbors. william: you have said that should be the bias in all of police training. is that what officers are trained -- if you go through active shooter training, is this a nationally understood issue that in those cases, you do not wait for backup or the swat team, you have to act? is that what they are taught? fred: absolutely.

we are literally taught and we teach that whether there is one or 100 of you, you move toward the sound of gunfire and place yourself between violence and the innocent. that is our job. that is our fundamental obligation. it is a way we train and the way we deploy. william: and what if there are circumstances -- we understand there were a lot of wounded children in there, and we understand that police were trying to evacuate -- or at least that is what they were telling parents that were being restrained outside that there were evacuations going on as well. how are police supposed to prioritize those in the midst of these circumstances? fred: not an uncommon situation, william. again, the bias is towards engaging the threat. you st the threat because you have a perpetrator who has demonstrated a desire to kill as many people as possible. so the number one priority is always engaging the threat, intervening and eliminating the threat. often you are able to do

multiple things at once if you have enough resources. you can evacuate, stage and treat simultaneously. but in any active situation, a bias and intent and priority have to be given toward finding and engaging the active violent threat to neighbors. william: as you well know as a former police chief, we are a nation that is awash in high-powered, lightweight, very dangerous semiautomatic rifles. officers in the hallway had to know what they were up against. this is not to excuse their actions. do you think that concern that they may be up against weaponry that is perhaps more powerful than what they were carrying, do you think that factored into this at all? fred: i think that if police

officers are going to be deterred and intimidated by violent perpetrators carrying its weapons of war, then we as a community should commit ourselves to doing something so people cannot kill our children with these weapons of war. i am ashamed that we as a community, that our elected officials have sat on the sideline as children from sandy hook to today in uvalde are killed by weapons of war. we know there are commonsense reforms supported by a majority of americans that can have any impact on the availability of these weapons to kill our children. william: that is former police chief fred fletcher. thank you for being with us tonight. fred: thank you. ♪ it's -- nessa: i'm vanessa ruiz in for stephanie sy, with "newshour west," we'll return to the full program after the latest

headlines. a congressional panel asked 5 major gunmakers for data on assault-style weapons used in mass shootings. in a letter, democrat carolyn maloney, chair of the u.s. house oversight committee, said, "gun manufacturers continue to profit from the sale of weapons of war.” she called for information on manufacturing, marketing and sales. meanwhile, the national rifle association opened its national convention in houston today, in the shadow of the killings in uvalde and buffalo. former president trump headlined the event. he rejected criticism of the gun lobby and republicans, and called instead for a sweeping overhaul of school security and mental health policies. mr. trump: we need to drastically change our approach to mental health. there are always so many warning signs. almost all of these disfigured minds share the same profile. vanessa: severalundred protesters rallied outside the convention site. and several tes lawmakers

canceled plans to speak. republican governor greg abbott opted to send a recorded message. russia's assault on eastern ukraine slowly gained more ground today. pro-russian rebels said they've captured a railway hub in the donbas region. and two key cities faced round-the-clock bombardment. ukraine's foreign minister said his country is outgunned in a video he posted online. mr. kuleba: the only position where russia is better than us, it'the amount of heavy weapons they have. without artillery, without multiple-launch rocket systems we won't be able to push them back. vanessa: ukrainian officials say shipments of western arms have been delayed, and the russians are using the time to step up their offensive. president biden told u.s. naval academy graduates today that they will have to defend democracy against the likes of russia and china.

the president addressed the academy's commencement in annapolis, maryland, and warned that russia is trying erase ukraine's national identity. pres. biden: attacking schools, nurseries, hospitals, museums, with no other purpose than to eliminate a culture. a direct assault on the fundamental tenets of rules-based international order. that's what you're graduating into. vanessa: mr. biden also said the navy must defend freedom of navigation in the south china sea against china's increasingly aggressive claims in the region. new tensions are roiling the persian gulf after iran seized 2 greek tanker ships today. the iranian revolutionary guard commandeered the ships. the greek foreign ministry says helicopters landed on the vessels, and armed men took the crews captive. it followed the u.s. seizure of

oil from a iranian-flagged tanker off greece. back in this country, u.s. southern baptist leaders have released a previously secret list of pastors and church workers accused of sexual abuse. the database includes more than 700 entries spanning the past 2 decades. the list first came to light in a scathing independent report last sunday. it detailed how church leaders suppressed and mishandled abuse allegations. in oregon, democratic congressman kurt schrader -- who was backed by president biden -- has lost his primary bid. schrader is a centrist who's served 7 terms. he was ousted by jamie mcloud skinner, in a big win for the party's left flank. a ballot-printing issue had delayed the results for more than a week. and, the u.s. forest service acknowledged today it is responsible for the largest wildfire in new mexico history. one fire, a prescribed burn set last winter, had laid dormant

only to flare up again in april. the other fire began as a controlled burn in early april that flared out of control. both fires eventually merged and are still burning today. at least 330 homes have been destroyed. still to come on the "newshour"... how businesses in new york's chinatown are coping with covid and anti-asian harrasment. david brooks and jonathan capehart discuss this week's political news. and we remember the children and teachers who lost their lives during the elementary school shooting in uvalde, texas. >> 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: the pandemic threatened business districts across the country, but misguided fears and rhetoric about asian americans made things particularly hard

for chinatown neighborhoods. with this report during asian-american and pacific islander heritage month, john yang visited one of the nation's most well-known chinatowns new york city. it is part of our ongoing race matters series. john: the carts stacked with bamboo steamer baskets. bustling kitchens. board games in the park. these days manhattan's chinatown , looks a lot like its pre-pandemic self. a walk through the heart of the neighborhood with a cookbook author grace young and the scars of the pandemic are evident. grace: this was a family-owned supermarket and it closed during covid. it had been there for years and years and they just did not have the business. as we come along here, this was a bakery that was the place to go for custard tarts, and the ir moon cakes were out of this

world. john: what else is lost when a business like this goes out of business? grace: it is not just about food. it is about our memories. so many people talk about going to this bakery since they were a child. i believe when you lose a place like this, you lose a part of yourself. john: young, known as the stirfry guru grew up going to , san francisco's chinatown with her father. grace: i grew up loving that small town feeling about chinatown. that feeling of belonging and home. john: but in the four decades of living in new york, she says she had taken this neighborhood for granted. grace: because of my work, i would be in chinatown once or twice a week shopping for groceries or eating food but i never introduced myself. i came and went, doing my own thing. john: that all changed in early 2020 whether pandemic. grace: because of misinformation and xenophobia, people stopped going to chinatown. john: she started sharing the

ruggles of mom and dad businesses on instagram and facebook and created two initiatives. she launched a video project with a korean american videographer for the new york museum poster house telling the stories of chinatown shop and restaurant owners. >> business has dipped down even worse and i can say that i am at 50% to 70%. >> it is te to take more dramatic measures. john: hours after she conducted those interviews, mayor bill de blasio announced a citywide lockdown bringing business to a , virtual standstill. by 2021, a survey showed more than half of asian owned his gnosis in new york state reported their revenue had dropped more than 75%. >> this time it will take really

long, the serious damage for our business. john: dennis chung was born in what was then called saigon and 1995 has owned a vietnamese restaurant that is one of the many legacy chinatown businesses that is not chinese. the downtu in business during the pandemic has put tm behind on their rent and today, he is facing another challenge. dennis: it looks like the business is back to normal but don't forget one thing -- the prices of everything are going up right now. >> this was his american dream and covid turned it into a nightmare. john: his son tony is getting his masters degree in biomedical science this summer and has applied to med school. watching his dad struggle during the pandemic, he wanted to help , offering ideas about the do core -- decor and menu and applying for federal aid.

tony: a lot of these businesses are owned by people who do not speak a word of english except maybe they know how to say some food items on their menu. it is close to impossible for them to apply for these government grants. john: and on top of everything else, the family along with other residents and business owners have had to deal with increased anti-asian harassment. tony: sometimes i see people coming into our restaurant yelling slurs and giving us trouble, and i see my dad trying to be strong, but i worry about him deep down. john: the history of american chinatown's is rooted in racism , as chinese immigrants arrived in the mid-1900s to mine gold and build railroads. grace: the americans wanted cheap labor, but even as they wanted cheap labor, they did not want the chinese to live among americans, so the chinese were segregated to live in their own ghettos and that is how

chinatowns formed. john: just as some made asian americans scapegoats during the early days of covid in the , 1970's, they were unfairly blamed for smallpox outbreaks in some cities. gordon: the chinese became targeted as a population. not just an undesirable taste or preference, but as biologilly dangerous. and thus, should be eliminated and moved out of the city, and locke, stock and barrel moved out of the country entirely. john: in recent decades, historic chinatowns have faced new challenges like education and aging population. vic lee sees a new york city chinatown where she lives -- vic: the authenticity comes from the residents many of whom are , low income. for them to be this integral part of the community but be

unable to stay, this is what is at risk for the authenticity of chinatown and what it will look like. john: for her late grandmother who could not read or speak english, chinatown was her piece of america. vic: i have such fond memories of scooping rice into the rice bowls and carrying it to the dinner table. once she sat, we would eat and i have a tattoo, which stands for her apartment building. john: during the pandemic, lee cofounded a nonprofit "welcome to chinatown," which has given almost $600,000 to small businesses. vic: we are focused on lifting our community's entrepreneurs. john: are you optimistic about the future of chinatown? vic: cautiously optimistic. there is still a lot more that needs to be done in this community but where i am optimistic is seeing how much people care. i am really excited about that.

john: grace young, recently recognized for her work supporting chinatowns, is still worried by what she sees on the streets of chinatown. how do you feel when you see empty storefronts? grace: it completely terrifies me. and i feel we have to do everything in our power to save and protect chinatown. everyone has to do our part and history will thank us for that. john: for young, her part is raising awareness across the country on social media, but it is also doing what she can for businesses in her own chinatown. for the pbs newshour, i am john yang in new york. ♪ judy: any meaningful changes to

federal gun regulations appear unlikely even after the unspeakable tragedy in uvalde. as the mass shooting unfolded on tuesday, voters were casting their ballots in primary elecons in georgia and other states. to discuss what this means for the november midterm elections and for the country as a whole, we turn to the analysis of brooks and capehart. hello to both of you. welcome to the program after another tough week in this country we love. jonathan, the news we are hearing today about the slow police response is adding to the heartache of this awful event in texas. at this point, how are you processing all of this? jonathan: slowly. painfully. i have to say the overriding emotion is i am tired.

i am tired of watching grieving families pour out their hearts about losing their young children. i am tired of politicians who do not move to do anything to even pass something that will not stop every mass shooting but at least might prevent one or two or we do not know. it is almost 10 years since we saw 20 children slaughtered at newtown. something we had never seen before in this country. here we are 10 years later looking at yet another mass shooting in a school, 19 children killed. what is it going to take to get folks in washington, to get folks in state houses to protect our children? i am tired of politicians who go on and on about being pro-life for the unborn but have

seemingly no care for them once they are born. what is it going to take? judy: how are you dealing with this? david: some of the stories are unreadable for me, especially the kids from the school. i guess, aside from the sadness and frustration of it that jonathan just expressed, i wonder what it is like for all of us to experience the news these days. it has not been just this week. i would say since 2013 it has been pummeling to experience the news and be in the news business , and that cannot not have an effect on us all. the emotional blows. the moral blows. and then the haunting fear that these events are not isolated incidents but part of a rise in -- a rising tide of menace across the country and not just the mass shootings, racist

against children but a growing level of sense of people under threat. it could come from violent crime or even trivial things. i talked to a nice guy who owns a restaurant and he says he has to kick someone out each week for rude and brutal behavior. school board meetings. churches. co-op board meetings. a rising tide of menace. peg noonan, a columnist in the wall street journal, said that people are proud of their bitterness now. i worry about the whole moral atmosphere of this country in which these mass shootings are only the most cancerous effects. judy: and as we all know, the shooting and texas happened 10 days after we had a shooting in a grocery store in buffalo, new york. 10 people were mowed down. all black. this is following other mass shootings. there have been dozens. you talked about it -- what are

we going to do about it? what are we going to do about it? we look to washington and our leaders, what do we see? jonathan: we see inaction. we see them doing nothing. i interviewed senator chris murphy on my show the sunday after buffalo. two sundays ago. i asked him -- what can you do? you were there during newtown and nothing happened, not even a background check bill could get through. overwhelmingly popular with the american people. several gun safety measures ar overwhelmingly popular with the american people and yet congress cannot do anything about it. he said to me -- he always has to be hopeful, but he is skeptical, and that may be the only thing they can do is bring bills to the floor and have people vote and be on record. and i am adding this -- standing against the safety of children, grocery store shoppers, parishioners, movie theatergoers

. it is heartening that senator joe manchin, a part of that way back when, 10 years ago, when the background check bill did not go anywhere, but now says, i think out my grandchildren. and that is nice. good. think about your grandchildren. but you know what? i do not have children and my heart still -- i wish i were a member of congress. i wish i were in a position to cast a vote that would make it possible to do something about this. but, americans will have an opportunity in november if they are tired of seeing what is happening. they c do something by voting with their feet and voting -- going to the ballot box and putting people in office that will do something to protect us . because i agree with you, the is an atmosphere of menace in this country. i feel it as an lgbt person and as a black person. at a certain point, i will feel

under siege just as an american, period. judy: large swaths of the country believe that gun ownership is a right. former president trump said at the nra meeting in texas that we need to focus on mental health. no new gun law could have prevented what happened. david: their argument is it is a right guaranteed to them by the constitution, and they have a need those of we are going to take care of ourselves and provide our own safety. and, finally, it has become a culture war issue where the gun has become a mythic emblem of rural life and a lot of people who support rights say it is a bunch of coastal elites telling us how to live our lives. i think there may be some hope. i am a little more hopeful for two reasons. every time one of these events

does happen, it does change minds. if you look at the history even through all of these shootings, you see a spike in support for gun regulations which then drops over time but not all the way back. and so gradually, you see -- and then i think there is a possibility of changing the way we talk about this in order to get people that are winnle. that isot to phrase it as we are going to take away your guns, it is gun regulation like we have driving regulation. we have cars and we regulate the cars. there are all sorts of things you can do that are kind of like we do with cars. raise the age limit of buying a gun. this kid was 18. you could raise it to 21 and that would make a difference. background checks. the red flag laws. if you see someone in your orbit who is suicidal, you can go to law enforcement and make it impossible for them to get a gun. someone made the point, i think it was my colleague nick christoph, if i lose my phone

and you pick it up, it is useless to you because you don't have my code. why can't a gun be like that? there is a series of things that can be done that are normal, because we do them for cars. we have to somehow stop this from being a culture war issue because that is hopeless. judy: my sense is that even moderate republicans, many are resistant to doing even these modest steps. jonathan: right -- i am sorry, judy. judy: that was just outlined. jonathan: i have no explanation for it. i seriously don't understand. whatbout a 48 hour waiting period? or for someone that is 18 years old, parental consent? th are willing to put those restrictions on young women who are seeking reproductive care, why not do the same thing for anyone wanting to buy an assault rifle? an ar-15 a weapon of war. ,seriously, i don't understand

-- how many more babies are going to have to be slaughtered in classrooms before congress does something? before moderate republicans come out saying, this is not what we are for. nra members, we keep hearing the vast majority of them are nuanced and understand what is going on, and yet their leadership is doing something completely different. i would love it for someone at the nra convention happening right now as we are speaking , or to rise up and say this is not who we are. but that is not going to happen. judy: you think something could happen? [laughter] david: there are majorities and i do think public opinion is overwhelmingly in one direction. i just have to hope that something can be done. judy: we have to have hope. we have to have hope. we mentioned former president trump. in many ways -- he was not on the ballot but his choices were on the ballot. some more of these primary races this week.

we saw several of the people he endorsed not win. there are still some out there running who very much have the trump imprimatur, but does this say there is a weakening of his influence? jonathan: i think it depends on the state and the jurisdiction. david perdue got stomped by more than 50 points by brian kemp, someone who trump was desperate to knock out. didn't happen. brad raffensperger, another person who survived the challenge. you can look at j.d. vance, who trump swooped in at the last minute and put him over or mastriano in pennsylvania. to me, the bigger picture is how -- is not what person is endorsed by trump, it is how far is the person who was not endorsed by trump, policy wise, how far is that person away from trump?

to me, trumpism with or without trump is here. great, brad raffensperger beat out the trump-endorsed candidate but i don't think there is a lot of daylight between trump and brad raffensperger on anything beyond the big lie. that to me is the concerning issue. judy: is there much distance? david: no. [laughter] trump was trump. in 2016, the republican elite was over here and the voters were over here. trump somehow noticed this and said i will be over here. the republican elite is now over here. and this is what normally happens in american history. you get a third-party candidate or a new force and one of the parties co-ops that is sort of what has happened. i think that makes trump weaker because there are trumpists

everywhere. i also think it is a sign in georgia with all the republican leaders standing up against trump together showing if you combine together, you can beat him. it also shows that this was about generally six more than the other primaries, and it could be a sign that the big lie is not something republicans want to go to the mat for anymore. judy: it could be. a number of them may be changing their mind. but a number of them are saying i don't want to talk about it. but neither are they saying there were not any problem in 2020. jonathan: and that is an issue. as i have said before, i am hard-pressed to tell you what any of these republicans running for office are for beyond their position on the big lie. and when it comes to mastery on a, the gubernatorial candidate in pennsylvania, if he wins, the big lie will be front and center

in 2024, because he as governor appoints the secretary of state and we would have a major electoral state that could mess up a peaceful transfer of power. judy: no matter what, we will end on a hopeful note. we will do that no matter what. [laughter] david brooks and jonathan capehart, thank you to you both. ♪ as we have been reporting, 21 people died in uvalde in texas this week in the shooting at robb elementary. we want to take a moment to remember the 19 children and two teachers. the lives they led and the legacies they leave behind. ♪ 10-year-old xavier lopez was an honor roll student who never shied away from a camera.

his mother told reporters he could not wait to start middle school. that smile i will never forget, she said. it would always cheer anyone up. 48-year-old irma garcia was a fourth-grade teacher at robb elementary, where she taught for 23 years. she had previously won the school's teacher of the year award. her husband of 24 years, joe, died of a heart attack two days after the shooting. their nephew john told reporters, i am really in shock right now. nine-year-old eliana garcia was outgoing and loved to sing. her aunt syria, a middle school teacher in uvalde, spokebout her niece. >> she was very happy and outgoing and loved to dance, sing, and play sports. she was big into family and enjoyed being with the family.

judy: makenna lee elrod was a natural leader and loved tumbling. her aunt allison said words cannot express the pain my sister and my family are going through. i know in the coming weeks, my sister will be overcome with so much. she was 10 years old. anne-marie joe garza loved being a big sister and had just gotten a phone for her 10th birthday. her family said she was killed trying to call 911. her father wrote on facebook, i would do anything to have you back. visit me in my dreams anytime. cousins 10-year-old annabelle rodriguez and nine-year-old jaclyn cause arrays were in the same class at robb elementary. there aunt -- their aunt polly posted to facebook, my beautiful angels, at least you are

together. our hearts are broken in a million pieces. we love you. fourth-grade teacher evo morales, 44, had an expertise in special education. one parent said she will never forget how eva went above and beyond for her daughter gabby who has down syndrome. >> it was more than anyone else has ever poured into my child. i just have never seen anyone quite so dedicated. judy: the family of 10-year-old eliana cruz torres waited for hours for information about her whereabouts. she was to play her final softball game of the season the day she died. her aunt told reporters that she had mixed emotions about the day. she did not want softball to end. fourth-grader tess mata loved ariana grande and the houston astros. her big sister faith wrote on facebook, i am angry because a

coward took you from us. sissy, i miss you so much, i just want to hold you and tell you how pretty you are. tess was 10 years old. eight-year-old uziyah garcia liked playing football and video games. his grandfather told reporters, he was the sweetest little boy i had ever known and i am not just saying that because he was my grandkid. 11-year-old layla salazar was fast, winning first place in several races at the school's field day. her brother nicholas spoke to reporters about his sister. >> we are just glad we gave her the best life we could while she was here. there was never a dull day with her. judy: cousins, both 10, where the babies of their family and had just mourned the loss of their grandfather. their grandmother linda said she

told her daughter, juslook at it as your daddy taking your baby with him. hours before the shooting, alexandria rubio made the honor roll and her mother wrote on facebook that the 10-year-old also received the good citizen award. we told her we loved her and we would pick her up after school. we had no idea that this was goodbye. 10-year-old josé flores had also just received an award for making honor roll. his uncle christopher told reporters that jose loved going to school and he was very smart. alethea ramirez was a kind and caring soul. when a good friend was killed in a car accident, the 10-year-old continued to send artwork to his family. her friend's mother told reporters, that shows how pure and kind her heart was.

no veil bravo also 10 could put a smile on anyone's face according to her cousin. the family waited for hours to find out what happened to her. her cousin told reporters, we thought she was missing. it feels like a nightmare we cannot wake up from. mita rodriguez was 10 years old and her family said she dreamed of going to texas a&m to become a marine biologist. a family member wrote on facebook, her mom wants everyone to know her baby girl had a dream. rojillo taurus, 10, was known as a very smart and loving child. his mother remembered her son. >> he loved us. he was the one -- all my kids make me smile and happy but to think i lost him. judy: and friends anfamily of

11-year-old marhonda mavs remember her as fun and spunky. her older cousin wrote on facebook, my sweet baby cousin, we love you dearly. i'm so sorry. ♪ our hearts go out to the loved ones and the families of all of these innocent people. we are crying on the inside here. and for more on the horrific events in uvalde this week, join our moderator in her panel on a special edition of washington week tonight on pbs. an to -- tune into pbs news weekend tomorrow and sunday for the latest from texas. also tonight here on pbs, you can watch the latest episode of th season's beyond the canvas. the show features interviews and profiles with some of the brightest stars in music, art and more.

tonight's episode is called art innovates. here is a sneak preview. >> on beyond the campus, we speak artists who are true innovators in their field. >> i want to tell the past in order to project about the future. >> that is the point, bringing people together over delicious food. >> classical music, it is living in its own world. >> the legacy i want people to embrace is black man majesty. judy: the latest episode of beyond the cans premieres tonight on 10:30 p.m. on most pbs stations. check your local listings. and that is the "newshour" for tonight. i am judy woodruff. join us online and again monday evening. for all of us at the newshour, thank you, hug your loved ones, please stay safe and we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs "newshour" has been funded by --

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♪ and friends of the newshour. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> 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. ♪

a newsroom special focus on the power of mothers to change the world. >> i grew up knowing they are powerful, influential, their role is essential. >> we hear about the mothers that shaped their lives and the lives of some of our nation's most revolutionary leaders. and, we discussed the landmark book, diet for a small plant. >> what we eat is central to our health, but it's also really a