♪ judy: good evening... i'm judy woodruff. on "the newshour" tonight... a surprising report -- the u.s. economy adds far more jobs than expected despite the crunch from inflation and interest rate hikes. then... rising tensions -- china holds another day of massive military drills following house speaker pelosi's visit to taiwan. we speak with a taiwanese diplomat about the threats in thregion. >> we don't want war, we want peace, we will do anything we can to deescalate, but we will not surrender our freedom. judy: and it's friday... david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on a breakthrough for the democrats' climate bill and on the results of critical primary elections. all that and more on tonight's

"pbs 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 u live your life. life, well planned. >> the john s and james l knight foundation, fostering engaged communities. more at kf.org. ♪ >> 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. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. we'll return to the full program after the latest headlines. the u.s. has now regained all the jobs it lost during the covid-19 pandemic. employers added 528,000 jobs last month -- more than doub what economists had predicted. meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent -- the lowest since the pandemic started. at the white house, president biden touted those achievements. pres. biden: there are more people working in america than at any point in american history. you know, what we're also seeing

is something that just a few years ago many experts said was literally impossible -- the revitalization of american manufacturing. stephanie: we'll have more on this after the news summary. senate democrats are one step closer to passing a sweeping tax, climate, and health care bill after the last democratic holdout voiced her support. arizona senator kyrsten sinema agreed to vote for the package after party leaders altered some of its tax proposals. that gives democrats enough votes to pass it. the senate plans to vote to move forward on the bill tomorrow. palestinian officials said israeli airstrikes pounded gaza today, killing at least 10 people, including a militant commander. at least 55 people were wounded. the strikes followed days of tensions after israel arrested another top militant from the same group in the occupied west bank. palestinian militants retaliated with their own barrage of rocket fire into israel. there was no immediate word of any casualties.

other forms of retaliation continue in the wake of u.s. house speaker nancy pelosi's visit to taiwan. china announced it's imposing sanctions on pelosi, and halting dialogue with the u.s. on climate change, military relations, and anti-drug efforts. beijing also reported more than 100 warplanes and 10 warships were part of live-fire military drills over taiwan in the last two days, which the u.s. condemned. sec. blinken: these provocative actions are a significant escalation. we've seen how beijing has attempted to change the status quo on taiwan for some time. the speaker's visit was peaceful. there is no justification for this extreme, disproportionate and escalatory military response. stephanie: this evening, australia, japan and the united states jointly called on china to immediately cease their military exercises. we'll get more perspective from a taiwanese diplomat later in

the program. russian foreign minister sergey lavrov said today that moscow is open to discussing a possible prisoner exchange involving american basketball star brittany griner. a judge convicted griner of drug possession and smuggling yesterday, and sentenced her to nine years in prison. she's been detained since february for having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. back in this country, a deadly house fire in northeastern pennsylvania killed seven adults and three children. a volunteer firefighter responding to the call told a local paper that the victims were members of his own family, including his young son and daughter. flash floods hit death valley national park in california today, stranding over 1,000 people. officials closed all roads in and out of the park. at least 1.7 inches of rain fell in the furnace creek area. that's almost as much rain as the park it's in one year.

no injuries to staff or visitors were reported. a jury in texas has ordered conspiracy theorist alex jones to pay over $45 million in punitive damages to the parents of a boy killed in the sandy hook school shooting. that's on top of the $4.1 million in compensatory damages the jury awarded on thursday. jones repeatedly claimed that the massacre that killed 20 children and six educators in newtown, connecticut was a hoax. more results rolled in from this week's state primaries. former tv news anchor kari lake won the republican primary for arizona governor. lake was endorsed by former president trump and campaigned on false claims of election fraud. meanwhile in tennessee, jason martin won the democratic nomination for governo and far-right candidate andy ogles won the republican primary for an open congressional seat in nashville. still to come on "the newshour"... congress considers legislation that could lower the price of insulin.

how a new national emergency declaration could slow the spread of monkeypox. a conservative conference's embrace of hungary's autocratic leader raises questions about democracy. >> 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: once again, the labor market demonstrated last month that it is far more robust than many thought. some economic indicators are showing signs of slowdowns, and yet a hiring boom remains at the strongest levels in many years, while the unemployment rate is at a five decade low. john yang gets some analysis of what's happening. john: judy, the jobs report showed good news across the private sector, building on three months of steady employment gains. but the u.s. economy shrank in

the first half of the year and new home sales have fallen, and that is sparking fears of recession. so what is going on with the economy? special correspondent catherine rampell is here to try to help us through that. she's a washington post columnist. thank you for joining us. let's focus first on today's jobs report and the jobs market. why is this jobs creation so robust right now? catherine: well, it looks like businesses are still in great demand for workers. in fact, the pace of job growth accelerated in july, contrary to a lot of economists' expectations. but, look, the last few months we have seen about twice as many vacancies as there were unemployed workers available. and it looks like that demand for hiring is not letting up. as long as consumers keep spending, businesses still need workers. so, they're scooping up as many as they can.

john: is there anything underneath those sort of top line numbers in this report? are there any signs of concern or that should be creating some concern? catherine: in general, it was a very strong report. again, this was faster paced, a faster pace of hiring than we expected. and in fact, we have now recovered all of the jobs lost at the very beginning of the pandemic. but there were some numbers that were a little bit concerning. for example, the numbers showed that the labor force participation rate declined. that means the share of people who were either working or looking for work went down. and that's a bit of a puzzle, given that the economy is very strong. as i said, there's huge demand for workers, much more demand than there is the number of workers available. normally, that would be drawing more people to the labor force, and instead, we're seeing the reverse. and another thing that might be somewhat worrying that's a little bit counterintuitive is that this jobs report was so robust, it shows that the

economy is so hot, that it might encourage the federal reserve to actually, if not necessarily accelerate the pace of rate hikes, which it might at least keep its foot firmly on the brake, meaning that if they're worried about the economy overheating, and this report continues to show that the job market is strong, the job market is hot, that they might decide that they need to cool it down a little bit. and as a result, you might see those rate hikes which will be painful. so, it's kind of a good news, bad news story. you almost want a goldilocks type of report where job growth is not so strong that it looks like we're overheating, not so weak that it looks like we are in recession. it's a steady pace and we're more than a steady pace at this point. john: help us with the bigger picture. on the one hand, we did have the economy as measured by gross domestic product shrink in the first half of this year. on the other hand, you do have these robust job creation

numbers. so, is the bigger concern a recession, as evidenced by the gdp numbers, or as you just mentioned, an overheated economy? catherine: it's a really confusing picture right now. the economy is sending out a lot of mixed signals. some numbers look great. the jobs numbers look great. gdp, as you pointed out, not so great. gdp shrank the first half of this year. the housing market not doing so well. consumer spending doing very well. so, it's very hard to tell a coherent story about this economy right now. the best economists in the world are puzzling through the data and trying to make sense of this sort of cacophony of numbers, many of which contradict each other. and if you're the federal reserve, i think you're in a really challenging position right now to figure out, is the economy overheating, or is it weakening? because if it's overheating, that suggests one course of action. that suggests higher rate hikes, faster rate hikes. if in fact it has a lot of

underlying weakness, as some of those other numbers show, that suggests that maybe they shouldn't act so aggressively to tighten financial conditions. it's very puzzling right now. and it's hard to make sense of the data. i mean, one thing that may happen is that a few months down the line, we'll see some revisions. there are always lots of revisions to these numbers, probably especially more tay, given what a weird economy we're in. and that may eventually tell us a more coherent story. john: another puzzle, you mentioned the fact that there are more job openings than there are people looking for jobs. and yet, you also have this job hopping, part of the great resignation. explain what's going on there. catherine: well, there are a lot of opportunities right now for workers, some of which offer better pay, better benefits that -- better hours, etc. so as long as the market is good, i think you'll see a lot of workers deciding to trade up, if they can. john: special correspondent and

washington post columnist catherine rampell. thank you very much. catherine: thank you. ♪ judy: as we reported, democrats have reached a deal on their climate, health care, and tax package, a key plank of the party's agenda heading into the midterms. our lisa desjardins has the latest developments. hello again, lisa. so, what happened here? how did they get senator kyrsten sinema on board? is this a different bill? lisa: it is a dferent bill. in large part, this is the same bill we have been talking about. climate provisions, health care provisions. but there were some things that she did not like. the carried interest provision that she did not like that would help hedge fund managers is out of the bill.

those hedge fund managers, they will be seeing their taxes smaller next year. something kyrsten nema was able to get was money for drought relief. as i know many viewers are aware, we talk about the drought in the western part of the country that has been severe. that includes the grand canyon state. billions, i am told, kyrsten sinema was able to get for that provision. she got on board late last night, and we believe there are 50 votes for this bill, although we have not seen the full text. judy: given that it is not a done deal yet, what needs to happen now? lisa: there is a lot to talk about. many of my sources and staffers and senators in the u.s. senate are anxiously awaiting word from the senate parliamentarian. this weekend will be critical for this bill. first of all, the votes on this bill, we expect the first one tomorrow, the motion to proceed, to begin debate. we don't know what time. sometime tomorrow. but meanwhile, the parliamentarian has to weigh in because this bill is going to

the budget reconciliation process. in that process, and order to have this 50 vote margin, no filibusters allowed, everything in this bill must have a primary budgetary effect. the parliamentarian decides if it does or not. what is happening now is each piece of the bill is being reviewed by the parliamentarian. long meetings today. and i am told most people involved expect her to rule tonight. there are major climate and health provisions that are in question that she will decide if they remain in this bill or not, if they can pass muster. one of those is something that means a lot to many americans, the price of insulin. in this bill currently is a proposal to cap insulin at $35 for a monthly supply. we don't know if that will pass muster. we are watching tonight, but also watching are many diabetics. we spent some time with them around the country. i want to introduce a story we did, looking at how they see the impact of this bill in their lives and what it means.

kimberly cavanaugh takes pains to eat healthily, carefully planning, prepping, and cooking three meals a day. the key -- keeping her blood sugar in check. that starts with a dose of calculation and a shot of insulin. kimberly: i can always tell when my blood sugar is low or high without even testing it. my eyesight gets a little blurry or i'm sweating. what i usually use is everything up here. lisa: the viinia resident is alive and stays alive because of insulin. in her early 20's, kimberly slipped just briefly in monitoring her blood sugar and missed that it was spiking. kimberly: i definitely could have died from it. your blood sugar gets so high that theugar turns into acid in your blood, and it can be fatal. so i actually was in a diabetic coma for three days. it was very scary. and that was just from not taking insulin for maybe two days. lisa: in the past, she's rationed her doses because she couldn't afford a full supply.

the result -- kidney and vision issues. kimberly: i've had a lot of laser surgeries. lisa: a 2018 survey found that a quarter of diabetics in america rationed their insulin. meantime, black markets and insulin exchanges have become commonplace in some areas and online. kimberly is well covered now, but even so, the costs are daunting. kimberly: even with insurance, it's still costing me about $120 a month just for the insulin. that's not needles or test strips. going to the doctor, i go every three months. it's a lot of maintenance, but it's prolonging my life, so it's necessary. lisa: more than 37 million americans live with diabetes. that includes an astounding one in three seniors. some seven million americans depend on insulin. untreated, diabetes a monster disease, causing nerve damage, heart disease, stroke, loss of limbs, and it is a leading cause of death in america.

despite such need and 100 years of existence, insulin list prices soared last decade. the idea of capping insulin costs is popular with voters, but it has taken years to get this far, now on the table as part of senate democrats' proposed climate and health care bill. why is it so hard to get what seems on the surface to be very popular healthcare policies passed through congress? andrew: the complexity of all of these systems. and it is really, truly complex how there are different stakeholders. i do this for a living and i'm confused all the time. lisa: andrew mulcahy is a health care economist with the rand corporation. andrew: there's really a lot of variation and a lot of unknowns in our u.s. health care system, and that makes it hard for anyone considering a policy alternative to know how it's going to play out in real time. lisa: just look at the insulin system. pharmaceutical companies set one price, a list price.

that doubled between 2012 and 2017, according to the health care cost institute. it has decreased slightly in the past two years. next, an unusual industry, pharmaceutical benefit managers, go-betweens who negotiate a different and lower price for health insurers. how much exactly is often secret. as is their cut, which critics say is now a big part of the problem. l of this leads to a host of prices at the pharmacy, and it depends on how and if you are insured. overall, in the u.s. what patients pay for insulin is -- andrew: seven times plus higher than those in other countries. that's an enormous difference. lisa: senate democrats' plan would add incentives to boost competition, and a $35 cap on out-of-pocket costs for a 30-day supply. cutting costs for about a quarter of patients with insurance, but giving no help to those without. kimberly: insulin for me is like

air to anyone else. i use insulin around six to seven times a day, just depending on the day. lisa: 32-year-old mila clarke turned her diabetic coping mechanism into a business. mila: this looks great. lisa: as the hangry woman, her videos spoon out recipes and pinches of get-real advice for tasty, healthy food, and navigating the medical system. mila: through all of my videos, i try and answer questions that i know that i've had about diabetes management, but that i also know that people struggle with. so we've got a bunch of good stuff here. lisa: she fears there's an element too few understand -- disparity in the system for the uninsured and people like her. mila: i think in general, patients of color, and specifically black patients and black women, we kind of see in the stories about how hard it is to get listened to in the health care system. it took me four years to really convince doctors that i was doing the things that they told me to do and that it just wasn't working.

lisa: black and hispanic adults are 60% to 70% more likely to have diabetes than their white peers, and even more likely to suffer consequences. dr. joshua joseph is an endocrinologist at ohio state university wexner medical center. dr. joseph: when we think about the impact of diabetes and the higher prevalence of diabetes in minoritized populations here in the united states, you have to think upstream. it is really due to the structural inequities that we see in the united states and comes down to the social determinants of health. lisa: for diabetics, health and life depend on stability. so, to kimberly cavanaugh, a price cap on insulin is a start. kimberly: we're talking about $35, period, end of sentence, like, i could not be more grateful for that. but if it's just for someone who's insured, i don't think that's good enough. lisa: there are more people like kimberly and mila diagnosed with diabetes everyday. grateful for any action, they also say washington needs to

prep many more ingredients to tackle not just the cost of insulin, but the crisis underneath. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. ♪ judy: today for the first time since speaker nancy pelosi visited taiwan, beijing retaliated against the united states, cutting off dialogue on multiple topics. nick schifrin has that story, and sits down with taiwan's most senior official in the u.s. nick: beijing is forcing taiwan to pay the heaviest cost for pelosi's visit. but today, china targeted washington and announced it would suspend dialogue on climate change, what a senior u.s. official characterized as punishing the whole world. militarily, it is cancelling talks between regional commanders and defense policy officials, as well as meetings

to discuss operations, which a u.s. official warned could lead to misperceptions and miscalculations. and today, beijing sanctioned pelosi and her family. as for taiwan, china has launched the largest military exercises around the island in 25 years. the chinese are firing missiles into blocks that surround the island, some within taiwan's territorial waters. and to discuss this, we are joined by the top taiwanese official in the united states, representative bi-khim hsiao. thank you very much. welcome to the newshour. you pushed for this visit. given today what we have seen, chinese missiles flying over taipei, chinese missiles landing inside taiwanese territorial waters, and now up to 1000 taiwanese products banned by beijing, do you think it was worth it? rep. hsiao: i have to say that

the people of taiwan cherish our friends in the international community. we have a very unique perspective on friends visiting us. for too long, taiwan has been bullied and marginalized and isolated from the world, banned from international organizations. we don't take our democracy for granted and we don't take our friends for granted. nick: what about the long-term consequences of this visit? it seems like china is trying to create a new military status quo, launching these missiles, disrupting or sailing around the island, taking into account taiwanese territorial waters. can you or the u.s. do anything to prevent that? rep. hsiao: what is alarming is obously china has been preparing for such militar buildup for a long time, way before speaker pelosi decided to visit taiwan. the scope and the range of the current exercises do demonstrate this has long been coming. china's escalation is unreasonable and unnecessary. we think it is important that

they understand such engagements between the people of taiwan and the people around the world are consistent with decades of practice, and there is no reason for them to escalate. are we worried and concerned? yes, and that is why we are also committed to investing in our own self defenses, in fortifying our asymmetric capabilities, in reforming our reserves, in better integrating civilian support in our homeland defenses. but i have to make clear that we don't want war. we want peace. we will do anything we can to de-escale. but we will not surrender our freedom. nick: those are the very steps you listed that the u.s. has been pushing taipei to take in terms of how to defend itself militarily. are you concerned these exercises via beijing are a way to practice a blockade as beijing has suggested? rep. hsiao: we cannot control

what beijing does, although we continue to urge them to work with us to resolve our differences in a peaceful way. the status quo, which we are committed to, has served the interest of all parties involved for decades. and we call on the people's republic of china and the communist party of china to exercise restraint and be asonable. nick: are you seeing any restraint or reasonableness, given that beijing says they will operate this weekend inside your territorial waters? rep. hsiao: they as we speak are conducting live fire drills around taiwan. again, we urge them to act with reason. again, we remind them that it is up to beijing to decide if china's growth and rejuvenation is done with international respect or with international condemnation. nick: rejuvenation is the word

xi jinping uses. president biden said the military does not want pelosi to go. privately, administration officials tried to convince pelosi not to go to taiwan. do you disagree with some of those administration steps? rep. hsiao: i won't talk about their private conversations. but what i can say is the views and perspectives from taiwan, and that is we have welcomed congressional delegations to taiwan for decades, including former speakers, to taiwan. nick: it does not sound like the white house necessarily feels the same way. rep. hsiao: i think ultimately, our friends in the united states understand democracy. they also understand the sentiments of the people in taiwan who seek greater international support and also gestures of support. nick: let me ask you about u.s. policy moving forward. congressional officials have said publicly that the administration has concerns with the taiwan policy act, which

would require $4.5 billion in military aid to taiwan and designate taiwan as a major non-nato ally. do you support the legislation, and do you disagree with any efforts by the administration against that legislation? rep. hsiao: there are a number of legislative initiives. we respect the legislative process here in the uned states. we have not talked about any specific aspects of this bill, but we are exploring some very meaningful ways in strengthening taiwan's self-defense. that includes, for example, continuing foreign military sales. that is not unprecedented. it has been ongoing over the years. nick: yesterday, the white house made a rare announcement about troop deployments and that the uss ronald reagan, an aircraft carrier, and its associated ships would remain in the area st of taiwan, and would also conduct "standard transits” through the taiwan strait in the

next few weeks. how important are those transit and how important is it those go off without any hitch? rep. hsiao: i think it is important to assert that the taiwan straits are high seas and the freedom of navigation is a very important part of global commerce. it has worked for all of us, including for china's economic development. nick: beijing has been a bit ambiguous as to whether the taiwan strait is international waters. do you fear beijing could try to disrupt american freedom of navigation? p. hsiao: beijing is doing a lot, and i will not speak on their intentions or what ty plan to do. but i ink it is in everyone's interest in the world to make sure we have a rules-based international order and the stakeholders in the region should also abide by a rules-based international order. peace and stability has served

everyone's interests. and again, we call on the leadership in china to exercise reason and restraint, and recognize the importance of peace and stability in the region. nick: representative bi-khim hsiao, thank you very much. rep. hsiao: thank you. ♪ judy: with more than 7000 cases already reported in the u.s., the biden administration has declared monkeypox a public health emergency. william brangham looks at the implications and whether it'll help contain the virus. william: judy, the declaration announced yesterday by secretary of health and human services xavier becerra comes after the administration endured weeks of criticism r its response to this outbreak. and it's also been dinged at times for its public health messaging about who is most at risk. to provide some perspective on

what this means, i'm joined by dr. jay varma. he's professor of population health sciences, and the director of the cornell center for pandemic prevention and respse at weill cornell medicine. dr. varma, thank you so much for ing here. the administration has declared a public health emergency. practically speaking, what does that mean? dr. varma: the first and most important thing it does is allow the federal government to tap into emergency funding that is only available when a declaration like this is made. the second thing it does is allows that money to get to states or community organizations faster. you are allowed to bypass normal competitive procurement processes and get money to people faster. the third thing it does, it allows the federal government to waive certain regulations and speed up processes, like getting drugs or vaccines or tests approved faster. the fourth thing, which may be in the long run the most

important factor, it raises the political awareness. when every part of the government is notified this is a public health emergency, people take this problem much more seriously. william: is it your sense that all of those elements you just described will have a tangible effect on this outbreak? dr. varma: i am. i am quite convinced this will make a difference. will it make a difference tomorrow? no, and that gets to the main issue. the main issue is that these types of actions, whether you have declared an emergency, whether you acted like an emergency, it should have happened in the middle of may and it has taken some time to get to this point. absolutely this is the right thing to do now. many of us felt it could have been done earlr. william: is that the bulk of the criticism of the administratio that it was slow getting off the mark, slow with tests, slow with getting the word out? dr. varma: yeah, back in early may, many european cities were reporting these explosive outbreaks among gay, bi, and men

who have sex with men. that should have been the trigger for the u.s., at a minimum, to make testing widely available, but it took many weeks to do that. the challenge with that is when you do not do enough testing, as we have seen with covid, you don't know how big of a problem it is and all other aspects of the response get slowed down. what needs to happen is you need to play catch up now, and that is the biggest challenge with any disease. people learned that during covid and they are seeing that now. when you get caught because there has been a month or more of transmission without you knowing it, it takes more money and effort to catch up than it would otherwise. william: you said how essential it was to do much more testing early on. were those tests available? we saw with covid that the initial cdc rollout of tests was a bungled affair. where those tests available and could have been deployed back in spring? dr. varma: yeah, and i think that is what is most frustrating to me and many others. if you are going to name a

disease out there to test the u.s. pandemic preparedness, give it a stress test, this was the perfect test case. unlike covid, which is a brand-new disease, so everyone had to invent everything from scratch, this was a disease where there were test kits available in over 70 public laboratories in the country. there was a stockpile of a drug to treat this. u.s. taxpayers paid to stockpile it. there was even a vaccine available. yet, even though the government was basically almost given the answers to the test, it had trouble passing it in the beginning. that is the challenge a lot of us are facing. but i want to emphasize the actions the administration are taking now are the right ones and i am hopeful that will help avert some of the problems we have seen the past two or three months. william: i want to ask you about this issue of public messaging. as you indicated, we know this virus is principally spreading amongst gay and bisexual men. anyone seems able to get it, but

that is where it is concentrated heavily. and it seems like in an attempt to not stigmatize that population, certain messages were not issued appropriately. do you think that was a feeling -- a failing as well? dr. varma: i think the bigger failing from the u.s. government was not sounding the alarm about the size of the problem and the risk it faced. i think the targeting of messaging has been one of the bright spots. if you look specifically at what the cdc is saying. i think where the problem has gotten is there are a lot of voices out there, a lot of people because of covid have risen to prominence and they think they are doing people a favor by saying, we are all at risk, when the reality is thos of us who have worked infectiousisease, particularly sexually-transmitted infections, we know you need to name the problem and help the people who are most at risk address the problem. there will always be a problem of stigma and bad actors using that information.

you will end up giving them ammunition. but the reality is they will get the ammunition anyway. we need to target it to the people at highest risk, especially because our vaccines are in such short supply. william: that is dr. jay varma. thank you so much for being here. dr. varma: thank you very much for having me. ♪ judy: hungarian prime minister viktor orban's nationalist rhetoric and embrace of culture wars has long since soured his standing among other leaders in europe. but what isolates him among his european colleagues has endeared him to the american right. laura barron-lopez has more. >> ladies and gentlemen, this is texas. laura: republicans are doubling down on their love affair with viktor orban.

long known for his anti-immigration policies, in a recent xenophobic speech, orban likened migrants to a flood being forced upon hungary, and decried a mixed-race society. still, orban was welcomed with open arms by republican leaders. as seen here in video produced by his staff, orban trekked to bedminster, new jersey, where he met face-to-face with former president donald trump. >> we love hungary. >> ladies and gentlemen -- laura: and in dallas, texas, at the conservative political action conference, known as cpac -- >> viktor orban. laura: -- orban received keynote treatment. >> now the west is at war with itself. laura: he painted hungary and white christian americans as allies in the struggle against a progressive global order. >> i am here to tell you that our values, the nation, christian roots, and family can be successful in the political battlefield.

we made these values successful and mainstream in hungary. don't worry. a christian politician cannot be racist. laura: and went on to provide counsel on how best to achieve that vision of america. >> in order to win, it is not enough to know what you are fighting for. you also have to know how you should fight. my answer is, play by your own rules. laura: but this week's reunion was not the beginning of the right's fascination with orban. before republicans launched today's culture war in the u.s., orban did it first, and has been lauded by conservative media figures like fox news host tucker carlson. >> he believes countries need borders. for saying these things out loud, orban has been vilified. laura: and as kim lane scheppele, a constitutional scholar at princeton, explains, the bond between republicans and orban goes back years. kim: orban's election campaigns

in 2010 and 2014 were run by american republican party electoral consultants. laura: orban's white nationalist ideology has isolated him from other european union leaders and he has incurred sanctions from the european union. he's adopted anti-immigration policies and has campaigned against the lgbtq community. >> we decided we don't need more genders. we need more rangers. [laughter] less drag queens, and more chuck norris. [laughter] laura: over the last 12 years, orban successfully transformed hungary's democracy into an autocracy. experts in autocratic governments warn that orban is giving republicans a blueprint to replicate. scheppele describes orban as a legalistic autocrat, someone who dismantles the law to achieve their constitutional aims. kim: when you see that orban wins these overwhelming election majorities, it turns out that actually only about a third of that is enthusiastic support for

him. and the rest of it are various smoke and mirrors tricks that he's put in place. pliant parliaments, gerrymandering, and pack courts was a big piece of why orban was able to rig the rules and win every election since. and now, we see those tactics coming here. laura: trump's multi-onged attempt to overturn the 2020 election results failed. but scheppele said a case being considered by the supreme court on what's known as the independent state legislature theory could provide the pathway for trump or republicans to copy orban's consolidation of power. if embraced by justices, the theory would allow state legislatures, not states as a whole, to shape the rules for federal elections. kim: if the republicans could just get out of the way, the local governors and the local courts, they would really have a shot at designing the rules for the federal elections and therefore winning. so the independent state legislature theory would be the

constitutional confirmation that that particular plan has succeeded. laura: as of this year, republicans controlled 30 state legislatures to democrats 18. this midtermlection cycle, many republican candidates have spread lies that trump won in 2020 and that american elections are rigged. and they're running for offices that directly oversee election laws. kim: it's very easy to sort of say, well, this is just a political disagreement. but actually, it's democracy dying right in front of us. it is through free and fair elections that bring to power a leader with autocratic tendencies, who then uses the power of the state and the power of lawmaking to undermine democratic institutions. laura: last year, a global watchdog listed the united states as a backsliding democracy for the first time. this fall will be the first test of whether orban's vision starts to become american reality. for the pbs newshour, i'm laura barron-lopez.

♪ judy: it is time now for the analysis of brooks and capehart. that's new york times columnist david brooks and jonathan capehart, associate editor for washington post. hello to both of you. it is friday night again. the days are flashing by this summer. let's start out by talking about the deal, david, that looks like the democrats have pulled off. they have kyrsten sinema onboard. it looks like the hedge fund folks and the private equity folks might be happy about this. buit appears they are going to have a deal. we don't have a final vote yet, but what do you make of it? david: there is carried interest that never dies. economists hate this thing, but it never dies, and kyrsten sinema has kept it alive. to explain it, we will call paul solman and not talk about it

here. it is an achievement. it is a big bill and it is center out gernment. it is what joe biden promised us. he would start in the center and move more left, but if we had a normal republican party, we would get a bunch of republican votes for this thing, and it will be a major achievement. it is an achievement in investing. it is investing in american clean energy. it is not trying to tell people what energy to choose, it is just creating resources so there can be cheaper clean energy. it is creating new technologies. it is an impressive achievement. as i mentioned before, it comes on the heels of a series of impressive achievements. the gun legislation and the chips bill. things are actually getting done in washington. people might be cynical, but things seem to be happening. judy: jonathan, david says it is an impressive achievement. what are you thinking? jonathan: i agree with david. it is an impressive achievement. it is not as impressive as build back better, the $2 trillion bill the president wanted to get

done a year ago. but in a washington where nothing seems to be able to get done on these "big picture items," to have the inflation reduction act being this close to passage in the senate is a huge achievement. there will be amendments that will be voted on next week. one of them is being lobbied strongly by senator warnock of georgia and other senators. it is a provision to close the medicaidoverage gap, which would really help low income americans, especially in those states where obamacare has not been adopted, to allow them to get health care. that would be a huge boon to those citizens, but also to the economy because you would have folks who can have health care and not be in a position where they are putting their health at risk in order to maintain a job or protect their families.

judy: you are right, there are amendments that will be debated. we will see what comes. david, as you pointed out, this is not the only good thing to happen the white house. david, as you have pointed out, this is not the only good thing that's happened to the white house, to the democrats. they've had a number of boats last tuesday night, and the one they were watching so closely was kansas. voters came out, and 59, almost 60% of them, did not want more restrictions on abortion. big shocker, i think, too many people watching. this is a red state what does it say about abortion this fall? >> it's is a couple things.one, americans are pretty moderate on abortion. if you can have a low which will allow people to have abortions in two weeks, or somewhere around there, you can support that. they don't like the idea of getting jerked around, which i

feel has happened. so, what was striking to me about the results in kansas, wasn't only blue parts that came out and were super active. if you go to the red parts of kansas, which are pretty red, the pro-left community underperformed everywhere, absolutely everywhere. and so, to me, it's a vindication of voters. one of the problems with roe v. wade's we took the hands out of the voters. you look at what happened in kansas, and you think, pretty schedulable and sensible. if you can settle this to get people actual choices, as opposed to extremes and state legislatures, most of the states, the vast majority of the states are going to come out at the place where the polls suggest most americans are., which is a middle ground where it is not banning abortion, but somewhere in the middle there. to me, it's a vindication of democracy. covid-19, this should have been the last few decades. >> i think , where'd you come down on with the voters in kansas? >> it was starting with the

voters sent in kansas. it was a left issue, why right issue for abortion, but a democratic or republican issues. but when a conservative state, a state that voted for donald trump in 2020 by 15 points, when that kind of state overwhelmingly rejects an effort to ban abortion, i now look at this issue -- or at least looking at the voters in kansas -- looking at this issue as a social policy question. they didn't go with the republican or democratic ones. they went in, thinking, wait a minute, do i want government this involved in what should be -- and is -- a very personal decision. what happened in kansas should energize democrats around the country, but what i'm curious to see is whether that fire and energy we saw in kansas will be replicated. will abortion and the access to reproductive care be something that is galvanizing for voters

around the country come november . >> certainly raises questions about what we're going to see in the months to come. we know it's going to be on the ballot, and in the months to come and beyond, on tuesday, david, there were also results where we had a number of other states where the winners, time after time, in so many of these cases, or candidate who were either endorsed by former president trump, or they are out and out election deniers, people who say, 2020 was stolen. >> yeah. there's another good thing that happened for joe biden and the democrats, which is the republicans did a phenomenally excellent job of self sabotaging. republicans, with herschel walker, a guy i used to love when he played football. he's just not a good candidate. and so, that georgia senate seat looks more like a democratic, because that's just not a good candidate. and you look at the candidates that the arizona republican party threw out, and these are not right-wing states.

arizona is generally purple state. michigan is generally a swing state. there's a reason arizona has two democratic senators. seems highly unlikely that they're going to go for some of the people running for major offices. the final thing i would say, we should ban primaries in august, because most people have something better to do in august then go to the primary. do it in september, when people are home, paying attention, but when you have it in august, you get the small cohort of people who can really throw things out of whack. >> yeah, you get low turnout. even though those don't love politics, august primaries. jonathan, they may not be at the top of the chart. but what do you make of the outcome in these states this week? >> look, i hope david is right, in that the republicans have done a pretty good job at self sabotage. i hope he's right.but what i fear is what happens in the general election. will people come out and vote?

will people vote on the issues? will people vote to save democracy? will people be apathetic and stay home, and their boy, allow these -- you can't even call them friends anymore -- these super far, far right candidates to glide into office. i think we are one or two elections away from democracy -- not just on the precipice -- but on the slide down. you know, there's some things that have been done by democrats trying to boost up these fringe, far right candidates, in the hopes of helping the democratic nominee in the general election. but i think that's too dangerous a game to play when our democracy is on the brink. >> david, you called it self- destruction on the part of republicans. then, another reminder this week of just how divided the republican party is. you have viktor orban, and we will talk about that in a

second. the report a moment ago for laura. but cheney, former vice president, came out this week with -- here's just a portion of an ad he has thrown out for his daughter, liz, running for reelection to congress in wyoming. >> our nation has 246-years of history, and there's never been an individual a greater threat to our public then donald trump and he tried to steal the last election using lies and violence, keeping himself in power after voters rejected him. he is a coward. a real man wouldn't lie to his supporters. >> they don't come much more conservative than cheney. >> no. it's a very effective ad. the book say, they haven't seen it, it's all over the internet. liz cheney is a hero. she did what so many of her colleagues failed to do, which was stand up and tell the truth about what happened in the election. my concern is if the polls are anywhere remotely close to what reality is, she's about to get

clobbered. in where the polls, she was down by 22%. unemployment house number is not down 22% to a republican primary challenger. so, she's probably going to lose big time. and so, to me, the key -- and when you read the papers, one of the beefs against her is not defense of donald trump. it's that she isn't paying attention to us, in wyoming, and she has gone washington. and so, one of the challenges for publicans who want to take on donald trump, say, in the primaries, in a couple years, is to be anti-trump, but in a way that seems populist, and a way that doesn't say, you have gone native, and you are a bunch of washington native chompers. that is on the left, with economics, and is really down home culturally, where conservative americans are, and there has to be a way to challenge donald trump that is not politically suicidal. as much as i admire liz cheney, she hasn't yet found that way too how much of a fine line are they walking, jonathan? >> i don't think liz cheney is

walking any kind of fine line. she has made it clear that, going after -- speaking truth to power, not cowering in the face of donald trump, even putting her political career on the line, that that is what she's going to do, because she has decided that saving american democracy, standing up for the rule of law and the constitution in the face of the grave threat is much more important than holding elective office in wyoming. you know, and look, i keep thinking about the scene in "star wars, episode iv," when darth vader and obi-wan kenobi are battling it out on the death star, and obi-wan says to darth vader, i will come back more powerful than you can imagine if you strike me down. and to me, liz cheney is obi- wan kenobi. if she loses, which she very well might, the close primary on august 16th, she could very well come back more powerful

than donald trump has imagined. and if her goal is to ensure that he comes -- never comes within any manner of feet of the oval office, if she can succeed in doing that, she will have done a major service to the american -- to the american experiment. >> we're going to have a quiz on "star wars." >> a good cause. >> that was a great note to end on. jonathan cooper, david brooks, thank you both. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> and with that, that is the newshour for tonight. don't forget to tune into washington week this evening and the pbs news weekend tomorrow. i'm judy woodrow.for all of us at the pbs news hour, thank you. please stay safe. we'll see you soon. >> major funding for "the pbs news hour," provided by -- >> mo0

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i've been in labor and delivery for three and half years. it's a birthday everyday. >> happy birthday. >> you can see families that are at their most liable times in their lives, whether it's a normal pregnancy, or just higher risk, being able to be there for someone to put their trust in you is great. another one i watched was getting to know the patient, and just being present, being human, making a connection. there was one patient, in particular, who was a very stressful, long day. at the end of the day, she told the doctor, sean actually cared. he actually followed through with what he said. i'm alive because of it. i think that was the day that really hit home. i think i'm where i'm supposed to be is what i thought. >> ucsf health.

a fresh conversation about what's new in the golden state from sacramento to silicon valley and beyond. >> when we explore, i think there's an innate human drive to understand and to gain knowledge. >> i'm priya david clemens. join me on "kqed newsday ." i think americans have a hard time deciding what kind of country they want to have. we all tend to think of the united states as this country with the statue of liberty poem, give me your tired, give me your poor, but in fact, exclusion of people and shutting them out has been as american as apple pie.

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support. to bernard osher foundation, improving the quality of life for bay area residents through the support of higher educatio and the arts. tonight, on "kqed newsroom," this emphasis go bay area with people and businesses aiming answers of better opportunities elsewhere. we look at changes in the bay area's demographics and workforce. plus, we look at late nba legend bill russell's legacy, on and off the court in this week's something beautiful. coming to you from kqed headquarters in san francisco, this friday, august 5th, 2022. hello, welcome to "kqed