♪ judy: good evening... i'm judy woodruff. on "the newshourtonight... help wanted -- new data shows job growth is still strong even as hiring slows and employers struggle to fill positions. then... a blunt speech -- president biden calls out former president trump and extremist supporters of his for undermining the nation's democratic values. pres. biden: history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy. judy: and it's friday... david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on president biden's message and the rest of the week's news. all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour."

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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 stations from viewers like you. thank you. judy: the u.s. job market showed steady growth again in august -- but hiring slowed from a torrid pace. employers added 315,000 new jobs last month. it was the 20th straight month of job growth, and there are now 5.8 million more jobs than there were a year ago. the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.7 percent as more people tried to get back into the work force. but even so, many employers say they still need more workers. economics reporter paul solman has our report.

paul: for concrete pros in northern ohio, the work for their small crew never stops, rain or shine. getting business -- no problem, says lori joyce. they're backed up for months. lori: the work is there. we just need the workers. paul: how many employees could you have at this point if there were people willing to do the jobs? lori: we could get five or six more employees. paul: more than double the number of people you have now. lori: correct. paul: the job crunch is acute almost everywhere. a restaurant industry survey found fully two-thirds of its members short on workers. sava: everybody wants to dine in them, but nobody wants to work in them. paul: sava farah had to cut service at two of her three ann arbor, michigan establishments. sava: i was told today that my hosts are making about $38 an hour on average. paul: and you're having trouble filling those jobs? sava: absolutely. isn't that something? paul: now, today's solid jobs

report suggests more people are looking for work. and the unemployment rate ticked up in part as a result because they haven't yet found any. economist ann-elizabeth konkel of the job posting site, indeed.com -- ann-elizabeth: today's report shows that the labor market remains strong. we saw strong payroll gains, and while they weren't as strong as july's blockbuster numbers, it's clear that employer demand for workers is still going strong. paul: but employers are still struggling to fill those jobs. more than 11 million job openings during the height of summer. so why can't employers find enough workers? among the reasons you've presumably heard before, complacency. lori: i don't see a work ethic out there like there used to be. paul: that is lori joyce in ohio. in michigan, restaurant owner farah agrees. sava: i think hustle is very frowned upon with this younger generation. paul: and that might be amplified by the wave of recent and ongoing government benefits, says farah. even the recent student loan

reprieve? sava: i think it absolutely takes the pressure off of a lot of college students and people who would otherwise be looking for a weekend job. paul: of course, there's also still covid. fewer immigrants. and low pay in high-stress jobs, like the no benefits, $14 an hour jalen graham gets to clean planes for american airlines in charlotte, north carolina, having half the time he used to, pre-covid, because of understaffing. jalen: at $14, 15 dollars per hour, you are not really willing to deal with something like this. paul: so we've heard a bunch of reasons -- covid, lack of work ethic, fewer immigrants who will take the jobs, low pay, government benefits, is that the full list? ann-elizabeth: so in addition to that, there is the reality of some workers retiring. earlier in the pandemic, we saw workers 55 to 64 stepping out of the labor force. paul: again, economist ann-elizabeth konkel.

ann-elizabeth: there also is the additional reason of care challenges, of workers stepping out of the labor force so that they could deal with child care challenges or elder care challenges. paul: exacerbated by covid, which has stressed the entire workforce. like his fellow cabin cleaners, says jalen graham. jalen: we get new hires and then they'll come in for a week or two, kind of see how things go, realize how stressful it is and then they're already looking for another job. paul: and as they drop out, that puts more stress on you to clean up with fewer people? jalen: yes, sir. paul: so it's like a vicious circle. jalen: i'd say yeah. about as vicious as a hurricane really. paul: vicious as a hurricane. on the tarmac. at the table. sava: the restaurant industry has historically been a challenging place to work and it's become 10x more challenging. paul: ann arbor's sava farah.

sava: when you don't have the right resources, everybody gets burned. everybody gets hurt. people leave crying. people quit on shift. it's really kind of traumatic, to be honest with you, paul. paul: so as i'm listening to you, i am thinking this is like a labor supply chain crisis. this was the "a-ha moment" for me. after a demand freeze, ships dry-docked, planes grounded, restaurants shut -- a demand surge. whole industries overwhelmed. and their workers, for the various reasons mentioned, out of the workforce, making the jobs more stressful and thus less attractive than ever to take. for "the pbs newshour," paul solman. ♪ vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz in for stephanie sy with "newshour west." we'll return to the full ogram after the latest headlines.

president biden charged again that former president trump and his most extreme followers are threatening democracy. it followed his speech last night on the same theme. today, the president said he is not talking about all trump supporters, but those who advocate violence and reject election results. we'll get details, after the news summary. the u.s. justice department now says fbi agents found empty folders marked classified at the trump estate in florida. a detailed inventory of the material was released today. it said more than 100 documents were classified. but more than 40 folders labeled clasfied were empty. and others contained 10,000 government records with no classifications. the one-time trump white house counsel pat cipollone testified today before a federal grand jury investigating january 6th. he arrived this morning and spent several hours with the panel, before leaving later without comment. his deputy counsel also appeared. both men already spoke with the

congressional january 6th committee. in ukraine, un nuclear experts spent a full day at the russian-controlled zaporizhzhia plant after repeated shelling attacks there. they reported signs of damage to the plant but did not pinpoint blame. instead, their director said he expects to make a full report next week. dir. grossi: it is obvious that the plant and the physical integrity of the plant has been violated several times by chance, by deliberation. whatever you say, whatever you stand, whatever you think about this war, this is something that cannot happen. vanessa: separately, russia extended its shutdown of the pipeline supplying natural gas to europe. it cited the need for additional maintenance. a bombing at a crowded mosque in western afghanistan killed 18 people today, including a prominent pro-taliban cleric. the blast erupted in the city of herat during noon prayers

attended by scores of worshippers. in the aftermath, ambulances took the wounded to a nearby hospital. officials said at least 23 people were hurt. the death toll in pakistan's flood disaster rose above 1,200 today, amid warnings of more trouble. a new flood tide is moving down the indus river, toward southern provinces. many in the region are already in relief camps, where disease is spreading. and many say they're frustrated with a lack of aid. mundam: i am seven months pregnant. i have a lot of pain in my back and a whooping cough. i am here because my house collapsed in the rain. nobody takes care of the poor people, officials come here only for photographs. and doctors came, gave medication for one day, and went away. vanessa: pakistan's best-known charity estimates that around 90 percent of the affected population has yet to receive any aid. back in this country, the

federal government will provide abortion services for military veterans in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother's life. the veterans affairs department announced the move today. it comes as a number of states have imposed new abortion bans. tonight, the fast-moving mill fire in far-north california is threatening three communities and hundreds of homes. authorities ordered evacuations of as many 7,500 residents of siskiyou county. a cal fire official reported several people are injured and multiple homes were destroyed. several other large fires are burning across california, exacerbated by a massive heat wave gripping the state. and the independent operator of the state's electric power system is calling for voluntary electricity conservation statewide for the fourth day in row as temperatures hit triple digits. and, author and activist barbara ehrenreich has died in alexandria, virginia after a

recent stroke. she called herself a myth buster and challenged ideas about class, religion and the american dream in such books as "nickel and dimed" and "bait and switch." barbara ehrenreich was 81 years old. still to come on "the newshour"... dr. anthony fauci discusses newly approved booster shots that target covid subvariants... extreme heat in china threatens a major water source... how nasa's latest mission is setting the stage to send astronauts back to the moon... and much more. >> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: americans 12 and older should be able to start getting updated booster shots for covid within days. that's after the cdc and the fda

gave approval this week to new boosters from pfizer and moderna that will hopefully provide more protection against the latest variants this coming winter. for the latest questions around this, and more, i'm joined again by dr. anthony fauci, the president's chief medical adviser and the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. welcome back. with the news that these new boosters will be available, there is understandable confusion about who should get them and when. is there a clear, simple rule of thumb that people should follow? dr. fauci: well, if you look at the eligible, who is essentially approved by authorization and recommended by the cdc, it is just what he said. for the pfizer, it is 12 years of age and older, and moderna is 18 years of age and older.

the need for it varies considerably depending oone's risk. there would certainly be a greater benefit if you are an elderly person and a person with an underlying condition. if youre young person, the relative differential might be less but there would be a degree of benefit essentially for everyone. the need to get it would certainly be weighted heavily toward those who have underlying conditions and are elderly but that does not mean there is not some degree of advantage for anyone within the framework that the fda approved and that the cdc recommended. judy: what about the guideline in terms of how long to wait after one's most recent shot or booster, or someone has had covid? dr. fauci: as the fda had

mentioned and the cdc also, when you're talking about when your last shot was, you need to wait at least eight weeks or two months. fection, you should wait about three months, at least three months from the timehat you had a prior infection. i myself am in that category. that is exactly what i'm going to follow. i was vaccinated and doubly boosted but i got infected toward the middle and end of june. i am looking forward to getting the updated ba.5 variant vaccine. i will wait three months so that will put me somewhere around the late part of september. judy: we noticed that one of the members of the cdc panel that voted to approve these new vaccines said he voted against it because it has not been studied in humans. should that give anyone pause? dr. fauci: i don't think so at

all for the following reason. vaccines that were in the same general category as the ba.5 bivalent has pretty good information that we've got. the idea that there will be a special difference is so far-fetched. when you think about the experience of this platform, mainly vaccines that are mrna, we have aliens -- we have billions of doses that have been given to people. it is like the strain change for influenza, which is given without extensive testing. we feel pretty comfortable that

when you look at the totality of the data and experience, it is not something i'm concerned about. judy: i think it is fair to say that the success of these boosters will depend a lot on how widely they are accepted. how many people get them. at the same time, we are in a period when the country's vaccine delivery system has been scaled back. well back from what it was. there are now questions about why that is. the administration says they did not have congressional funding. which then raises the question, should the administration have done more to move funds around so that as long as this covid is the threat that it is that there is an easier ability for americans to get the vaccine. how do you see that? dr. fauci: i see that we need to do the best we can. that is the reason why you have heard several of us, as part of

the team, the white house and hhs team, saying we need to have the continuation of the resources and funding necessary for us to optimize our response. there is only a certain amount you can move around from other programs without significantly negatively impacting those programs. so the federal government is purchasing 171 million doses that we will make available for free to people and certainly we want to make sure that we make it an equitable manner. so the distribution is clear and anyone has equal opportunity to judy: your point is that the administration has done everything it can to move money around to get a vaccine available? dr. fauci: yes, as a matter of fact. obviously you can look and see if you can take it from here or there.

there is always the danger of negatively impacting the programs from which you take that money. that is the reason why we need to have continued support. the congress has been very generous up to this point with us. so there is no complaint about that. but looking ahead to the challenges we have, we need continued support with more resources. judy: dr. anthony fauci, we thank you very much. dr. fauci: thank you. good to be with you. ♪ judy: china's record-breaking heat wave, which lasted more than two months, has finally begun to ease. but the power shortages that came with the searing temperatures have raised questions about the region's heavy reliance on hydropower and china's ambitions to end its use of fossil fuels. special correspondent patrick

fawk reports from the city of chong ching. patrick: a cool breeze returns to the city of chongqing, and so too have fishermen to the banks of the yangtze river. chongqing native, cai, is just one of the many that have come to soak up the calmer conditions. cai: now that it's rained and the temperature has come down, i decided to come outside. it's been suffocating at home. patrick: many people here took cover indoors over the past two months. chongqing was one of the regions hardest hit by china's recent heatwave, with mercury levels topping 40 degrees celsius, that's 104 fahrenheit, everyday for two straight weeks. the searing temperatures brought intense drought, killing crops and causing wildfires that ripped through chongqing's outlying mountainous districts. it also sucked dry parts of the yangtze and its offshoots, hard-baked, cracked earth was all that was left in some parts.

asia's longest river is a water source for about 600 million people. its flow fuels much of china's extensive hydropower infrastructure, including the world's largest energy plant the three gorges dam. but the country's worst drought in 60 years recently caused a 50% reduction in daily hydro power generation. jinghan wu is a climate and energy activist for greenpeace, based in beijing. jinghan: i think what it's revealed is problems on two fronts. the first, around the different ways that electricity is generated, and the second onhe usage. patrick: southwestern china is particularly reliant on hydropower. sichuan province, for instance, gets 80% of its energy from it. scorching temperatures drove demand to run air conditioners piling pressure on a system , already starved of its natural power source. as part of efforts to ration electricity uses, major plants like tesla and toyota, with plants in southwestern china,

had to suspend operations. authorities also restricted mall operating hours in chongqing, only allowing them to open for five hours everyday. zhuoyue: it was pretty inconvenient. before, if you went and got groceries and had to carry large bags, it was quite hot. and if you were going upstairs, you could take the escalator but if you wanted to go down, you had to walk, which was annoying sometimes. a lot of elderly people were worried about falling. patrick: still, chongqing student zhang zhuoyue, says many people and businesses are pitching into trying help conserve even now as the heatwave has begun to ease. she's come to study here at a fast food restaurant to avoid using the ac at home. the section she's sat in has lights switched off when it's less busy. recent unpredictable weather is keeping people in chongqing on alert. zhuoyue: it's still not as it is normally. right now it should be wet season, but the water levels are still quite low, so i'm still a bit worried. patrick: authorities aren't taking chances either. you can see there are lots of efforts going into trying to save energy and to address this

power crunch. here on underground trains air-con temperatures are being dialed up and lights are being dimmed, so every other light here is switched off right now, but these really are just stop gap measures to help alleviate the problem in the short term. in the long term, southwestern china may need to rethink its reliance on hydro power. extreme weather events have become a threat to this clean energy resource. jinghan: the power cuts revealed the problems around coordinating the use of different sources of power generation and the need for more long-term, systemic planning and improvements in the entire energy grid. this is more important than looking at any one energy source alone. patrick: but many environmentalists fear policymakers may resort to burning more fossil fuels like coal to meet the country's energy demands, and to reduce the risk of ener crunches brought on by extreme conditions. thermal plants in southwest

china fired on all cylinders to generate as much power as possible in response to the recent shortages. jinghan: there are indeed discussions needed around how to balance short and long term problems. in addition to the construction of new energy projects, i think energy regulators also need to look at how to adjust the overall consumption of power. because it's consumption that will directly impact carbon emissions. if you make plans around peaking emissions or other concrete development goals based on consumption, you'll have a much clearer direction. patrick: still, unpredictable, weather related events blamed on climate change cast uncertainty over the country's energy infrastructure. china has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2060. but it says emissions won't peak until 2030, a target many environmentalists think isn't aggressive enough to meet its long-term green goals. any shift in the balance back to relying more on coal could make it even harder to achieve them. for the pbs newshour, i am

patrick fawk in china. ♪ judy: the 2022 midterm election season is in full swing and president biden says existential dangers are looming large. in a speech last night, mr. biden rais the alarm about extremist forces within the republican party and the escalating threat they pose to democracy. laura barone lopez has more. president biden: as i stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault. laura: on the same day former president donald trump floated full pardons for jan 6 insurrectionists if elected again, president joe biden warned that america's republic is in peril. president biden: too much of what's happening in our country today is not normal. laura: during a prime-time address in philadelphia, biden

sounded the alarm about the gop being controlled by extremists that promote violence and election lies. president biden: donald trump and the maga republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic. democracy cannot survive when one side believes there are only two outcomes to an election: either they win or they were cheated. laura: it's a new and aggressive shift from the president -- who in the past refrained from naming his predecessor. president biden's speech is part of a larger effort by democrats to confront a movement they warn has abandoned typical partisan politics. president biden: [20:11:53]history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy. maga forces are determined to take this country backwards. they promote authoritarian leaders and they fanned the flames of political violence that are a threat to our

personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law. laura: president biden also invoked the f-word at a recent fundraiser in maryland likening , the 'make america great agai'' philosophy to semi-fascism. diagnosing the trump wing of the republican party as having fascist and authoritarian underpinnings is new for president biden. he recently spoke to historians about ongoing threats to democracy. michael beschloss was one of them. michael: he said, does this moment in america remind you of anything in american history? i said this reminded me of 1860, when we were on the precipice of civil war, 1940, when americans were choosing whether or not to stand up to hitler. i believe this is a year that may have a lot to do with whether america is a democracy in two years. great presidents in history, if they feel that we're at a major turning point, such as whether we're going to be a democracy or not, the president makes that clear. laura: beschloss said biden's

new language has a specific historical lineage among past presidents. michael: joe biden is primed to educate people that much of what they're seeing politically is not just a feature of 2022, but something that goes back in history, especially to the 1930's, when father charles coughlin, the radio priest and othe said america can do without elections. there should be big regimentation, there should be little separation between church and state, and the official religion should be christianity. he is willing to draw the line between democracy and what he sees as the opponents of democracy. laura: biden's shift comes 65 days out from the midterm elections. it's welcomed by many scholars who have long identified modern republicanism as a movement embracing more violence, autocrats and candidates willing to overturn election results. republicans appeared universally silent in the hours after trump renewed calls to pardon those

who violently stormed the capitol. but they quickly cricized the president's speech, accusing biden of doom and gloom theatrics. >> he came across as a sad angry kind of bitter old man here kind of look like that. the lighting and all sorts of like darth vader. laura: meanwhile trump's , continued lies about the 2020 election outcome have convinced the majority of republican voters that the presidency was stolen. this week, trump repeatedly posted on his social media site, truth social, demanding he be declared the winner of the 2020 election. and in response to a search of his mar-a-lago homfor highly classified documents, trump has stoked anger and distrust of the fbi. a number of republicans rallied to his side. senator graham: if there is a prosecution of donald trump for mishandling classified information, there will be riots in the street good laura: biden rebuked republicans who've normalized talk of political violence, identifying them as the commanding force of the party. and today, he repeated his warning but also tried to reach those he described as mainstream republicans.

president biden: i don't consider any trump supporter a threat to the country, i do think anyone who calls for the use of violence fails to condemn violence when it is used refuse to acknowledged when an election has been won, insists on changing the rules, that is a threat to democracy. laura: threats of violence and election denialism among the right are two reasons why some democrats agree with biden's new diagnosis. like senator from hawaii brian schatz who spoke to newshour. senator schatz: it took president biden a long time to get to the speech that he gave last night. and i think it's because of his long term reticence to characterize the republican party in these terms. some people dispute the use of the word fascist. some people think authoritarian is more accurate. there may be new word to describe this kind of right wing, anti- small d democratic

tendency. but the truth is that there's an international authoritarian movement with which trump is aligned. laura: schatz said ultimately races across the country will come down to one question. senator schatz: you may disagree with us about this or that tax policy or even social policy, but the most important foundational belief when it comes to casting your ballot is, is the person that you're voting for in favor of american style democracy or not. laura: the white house is hoping this bold approach convinces voters to cast a ballot for democrats and democracy in november. for the pbs newshour, i am laura barron lopez. ♪ judy: as we just heard, president biden is calling 'maga republicans' a direct threat to democracy. court filings reveal more details about the justice department's investigation into former president trump's handling of top secret documents.

and and upset in alaska shakes up midterm forecast. it is analysis -- it is fodder for the analysis of brooks and capehart. it is good to have you both back together again in person in the studio. welcome. back together. welcome to both of you. let's pick up where we left off with laura's report. the president's speech last night. he says this is an inflection point. he went hard after what he calls maga republicans. what did you make of it? jonathan: this is an inflection point and i agree with your characterization that he went hard at republicans. but the theme of his speech and what he was saying is something he has been saying since he launched his campaign for president in 2019. that campaign video where he spoke to the nation about charlottesville and president trump's reaction to it.

and how the soul of the nation was at stake. that is why he was running for president. he came back to those themes again on january 6 of th year to mark the one-year anniversary of the insurrection. we have seen in other speeches. for instance, in atlanta when he gave a voting rights speech. talking about the fundamental need to protect the right to vote. what made last night's speech different was the toughness and the directness of his language. drawing a clear contrast between what he isoing as president and the maga wing of the republican party. the less point i will make is joe biden is never more animated, clear, focused and determined than when he is talking about the fight for the soul of the nation. judy: what did you make of it? there is a lot of criticism. as we heard. david: i have a little, actually. i think he is right that this is

a special time in american history. this is not normal, the threat to democracy are real. the president should be speaking about the real threats to the country. i have no problem with him giving the speech. when i read the text, i was a little disappointed. one, he should have mentioned his own party spent $44 million supporting maga wing in primaries. two, 30% of trump voters have shown some openness to not voting for donald trump again. those are the key people in this election. they need to peel away. i thought it was too much of a democrat/republican speech. finally, when he talked about the soul of the country in i 2020, thought it was a beautiful phrase. it captured not just politics, it captured charlottesville, it

captured the depths of despair, the declining life expectancy in this country, the social, relational and i would see spiritual crisis at the heart of a lot of our problems. maga comes out of that crisis. to reduce its only to politics i think rob's that phrase, the soul of america, of its key power, which is to capture the depth of the problem, which is not just politics but deep down in our relationships and the fabric of this country. jonathan: i take your point. i think the president, when he was talking about the accomplishments and things he is doing to push the nation forward but also to bring the nation together, he shod have talked about how a lot of the legislation that was passed was passed with republicans. some of them were bipartisan deals. that being said we are at a , point in this country, and the president talked about this, and it might be considered partisan,

a woman's right to choose or being able to choose who you marry, that those rights have either been taken away or are under threat. there are people who are republicans who are lgbtq or women who might have to seek reproductive health care and can't because they live in states where it is outlawed. i quibble with you a little bit. i think he did not say it in the way you wanted him to say it but i do think he touched on some of those issues. david: i don't fault him for having a democratic campaign rally. [laughter] if you wants to defend abortion rights and all of that other stuff, god bless you. but this i think was an occasion, a primetime presidential address to not have , a campaign rally. to say democracy is something we believe in and it is under

extraordinary threat by a small nuer of americans. this is something we can all rally around. i would've preferred a tone that was less partisan. it drifted, it started less partisan and then drifted into a campaign rally. jonathan: that is a little harsh, but that gives me an opportunity to talk about a speech that happened 90 minutes before the president spoke. house minority leader kevin mccarthy gave his own speech in pennsylvania. i immediately dubbed it american carnage 2.0. it was dark and dystopian. everything was biden and the democrats's fault, and if you don't put republicans in charge, all hell is going to break loose. it was an exercise in projection. a lot of the things he was saying in that speech as a prebuttal to what the president was going to say are things we've been talking about around this table for months now. i think also when talking about

the president's speech, we have to pay attention to what the republicans are saying on the other side. anhouse minority leader kevin mccarthy fully expects to be the next speaker of the house. if you have not read or watched the speech, do so, and then get back to me about your concerns about what the president said. [laughter] david: it is not a race. judy: you don't want to talk about that. the other thing i want to raise is the justice department putting out these filings. as much as they can show of what they found at mar-a-lago. there were's -- there was clearly some classified materials. looking at the picture released, you are looking at documents. today we learned there were empty folders labeled classified. what do you take away from this? david: i object to the carpeting. [laughter] the empty folders is new.

as each memo or indictment comes down, it gets worse and worse for donald trump. we learn new things. those empty folders -- do we really believe he took out into folders that said classified without documents inside? that seems hard to believe. so where are those documents? and then how much affect has this had on our sources around the world? how much damage has he done? there is an escalating peril for donald trump the more we learn. taking classified documents that were apparently mixed in with boxes of newspaper clippings. it just seems like not just sloppiness, but sloppiness to a lethal degree. judy: is this likely -- how damaging is it for a former president? we have seen a lot. add this in. how damaging is it? jonathan: it should be damaging. it should be very damaging. but we are talking about donald

trump. who takes every damaging piece of information that damages him in the court of law and takes it to the court of public opinion, where it is to his benefit in the short term. we know he is all about the short-term term. not about the long-term. to add onto what david was talking about in terms of how bad this is getting, one of the pieces of information among many in that filing that leapt out at me was the fact that you have federal investigators who are part of this investigation who had to get additional security clearances in order to look at some of the papers to review some of them. i mean -- what did he have? how damaging is it not only to the country but to our national security? he should be in trouble. judy: among his explanations is

that he had already personally declassified some of these documents. we are waiting to see. david: there is actually a process for that. [laughter] judy: the other thing is midterm elections. we had some more interesting data this week. in alaska of all places, the state that has been represented by republican congress for 50 years almost, choosing a democrat. a special election and she beat out sarah palin. this and some other reassessments, realignments at folks who have looked closely at these elections, in the democrats's favor, what do you think? david: in alaska, that race was conducted by ranked choice voting, which i'm a fan of. the idea is it makes the parties less powerful and gives people a chance to crossover. that is exactly what happened. the publicans who lost -- the

republican who lost under sarah palin, a lot of his voters said i don't want sarah palin. that is why she got that victory. it is a victory for ranked choice voting. it gives you a lane for people in the middle. as for the larger climate, it has been pretty cle for a month or two now, we have had a couple of special elections that democrats have won. they are outperforming in this race, alaska 50 more points than the median -- 15 more points republican than the median american. that is a pretty big sweep. it's not to say it cannot sweep back but abortion is a real issue. democrats are moving out and people are happier with biden than they were. there has been a summer tide on the democrat side. judy: she stressed with me that alaska voters do not like partisanship. they are looking for politicians who talk about the issues. jonathan: and clearly that is

the case because she won. i think we will find out in november whether that is the case across the country. there are a couple of hurdles in the way of democrats repeating nationwide. i mean, gerrymandering is going to make it super tough. then there is also history. it will take a lot for the miracle in alaska and the new york congressional district 19 to make it possible for democrats to hold onto that house. but i guarantee you, if you were to talk to a democratic operative today, they like their prospects much better w than they did in rch. judy: and feeling better about the senate. still thinking the house is a real reach. maybe not a reach. but the senate, you are hearing more optimism. david: those who know what ty

are talking about, have moved it from less than a 30 house seat for republicans to more like 10. you don't want to be that party. judy: the two of you know what you are talking about, right? at's why we have you here. david brooks and jonathan capehart, thank you both. david: thanks, judy. ♪ judy: if all goes as planned, nasa will launch a rocket tomorrow afternoon that is the start of a longer mission to get back to the moon. the first phase of the artemis moon mission will send an unmanned capsule to lunar orbit and back. but nasa wants humans to land again on the moon in 2024 or 2025 and has far grander designs for destinations after that.

our science correspondent miles o'brien tells us it has taken a long time and a lot of money to get the artemis mission off the ground. miles: a countdown to yet another delay. years late and billions over budget, nasa's most powerful rocket ever is still on the pad in florida after bad weather and a host of technical issues scuttled a lunch attempt monday. the space launch system will be carrying an orion spacecraft on an un-crewed test flight to orbit the moon. it is the artemis i mission, the first foray to an encore campaign to send humans back to the lunar surface. this time the agency is promising more than flags and footprints. why is nasa going back to the moon? >> because we do not have the capability of going to mars. miles: that is former shuttle

payload specialist, former florida senator and current nasa administrator bill nelson. bill: what we're going to learn living and working on the moon is going to help us. miles: i met nelson at the kennedy space center a month before launch. still inside the cavernous vehicle a sim lee building enveloped in a cocoon of was the rocket enveloped in a cocoon of scaffolding. the technicians coulwork through their checklists. what goes through your mind when you see all of this stacked up in here? bill: the enormity, the amount of energy that is contained in there. miles: it has 50% more thrust than the saturn five rocket which launched 12 men to the , surface of the moon between 1969 and 1972. the sls returns nasa to the apollo design philosophy. a capsule on top of a rocket. >> the final liftoff of atlantis. miles: unlike the space shuttle

orbiter, attached dn stream in and on the side harm's way of , falling debris, which caused the democrats -- which cause the demise of the columbia crew. >> this is where the crew would enter orion. miles: the manager took me to the top of the 32 story rocket. she showed me the lockheed martin orion. attached above, rockets designed to whisk the crew away if something goes terribly wrong. >> it has the capability to do and launch abort, if the rocket has taken off and we need the crew to get off the vehicle. miles: that is a significant safety improvement over shuttle? >> absolutely. miles: but there is still a lot of space shuttle dna in the design. the four main engines are modified shuttle leftovers. so too are the twin solid rocket boosters. and the fuel tank design also has a strong shuttle lineage. >> sls does not push technology.

that was never part of its fails -- it's sales pitch. it was the opposite. because we are reusing shuttle parts, we are going to be able to do this sooner and for less money. miles: lori garber was nasa's deputy administrator from 2009 2013. in her newly released book, escaping gravity, she says boeing executives promised to deliver a moon rocket in five years for $6 billion. that was in 2010. lori: i don't believe these people thought it would be true but they knew they could sell that congress. miles: who was buying what boeing was selling? none other than bill nelson, then chairman of the sene committee that oversees nasa. when we heard pieces of the show -- of the shuttle would be kind of be put together and this would be faster, this was not true at all. bill: it was a seducing

argument. because there were certain technologies that we were comfortable with. miles: but lori garber and others in the obama administration were not comfortable with the old way of building rockets. cost-plus contracts which guarantee companies' healthy profits even if they were late and over budget. >> liftoff of the falcon 9. miles: wanted to double down on instead garber wanted to double down on fixed pricing units with the likes of spacex. but the old space industrial complex exuded its political influence. senator nelson led the charge to make sls the law of the land in 2010. a lot of people over the years have called this the senate launch system, or mr. nelson's rocket. it really does have your imprint on it. bill: you are very kind to want to give me all of this credit. the fact is we were at a crossroads.

in nasa, the program before was not going to make it. to go back to the moon. >> liftoff of aries 1, testing concepts for new rocket design. miles: the bush administration proposed that program, called constellation, in 2004. using that milestone, it has taken nasa 18 years to finally be poised to launch an unmanned rocket and capsule toward the moon. why has it taken so long? bill: it was not a repeat of the stack, the space transportation system. in other words, the shuttle. the orion capsule had to have all kinds of new sophistication. not the old apollo stuff. so this is a brand-new rocket. when you design a brand-new rocket and build it, it is going to take time. and it did. miles: meanwhile, brand-new,

much cheaper rockets keep emerging and launching from spacex at a much faster rate. the company has its own moon and mars ambitions with its heavy lift rocket called starship. it has slated an orbital test flight in september. the stainless steel, buck rogers type vehicle will be fully reusable. except for the orion capsule, nasa's new rocket is a completely expendable single use system. nasa's inspector general esmates the artemis campaign will cost $93 billion between 2012 and 2025. $4.1 million for a single launch. elon musk claims the price tag for a starship launch will be less than $10 million. >> this is not nasa's best foot forward. we are better than this. miles: what does sls prove if anything?

>> i think sls will prove that we should not be doing things in this way anymore. miles: it is already happening. nasa has contracted with spacex to build the landing craft, a modified starcraft, to take astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon on the third artemis mission. you have to wonder if this is the beginning of an era at some level, or the end of anra, of a way of buiing rocket ships to space? bill: it is the beginning of a new era of both commercial and the government joining up in a partnership. it will evolve. miles: of course, evolution implies a natural selection. nasa's big, goldplated rocket may be aiming for the moon, but it also may be headed the way of the dinosaur. for the pbs newshour, i am miles o'brien at the kennedy space center in florida. judy: fingers crossed all things go well with the mission.

before we go, remember to join you michelle center on washington week for analysis on president biden's speech and the latest on the lel issues for print -- for former president donald trump. and tune in to pbs news weekend to see geoff bennett's interview with singer michael buble, and hear a sample of the voice that made him an international sensation. geoff: the contemporary stuff sounds completely different from when using theld classics. how do you do it? michael: you have a fast fiber auto, and -- fast vibratto, and elvis and dean martin almost sound the same. if dean had done that, he would've done a weird turn -- ♪

only fools rush in ♪. it sounds effortless. sinatra sings on the vowels. ♪ but i can't help falling in love ♪ --he does the weird e's. they're all of these tiny changes. geoff: nuances. judy: watch that coming up on sunday on pbs news weekend. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs wshour thank you, please stay , safe and we'll see you soon. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪

>> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. the william and flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and institutions to support a better world. at hewlett.org. ♪

and friends of the newshour. ♪ this program was made possible by the corration for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studs in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

♪♪ ♪♪ [ indistinct conversations ] -boy #1: do not spill it! -boy #2: make room. [ indistinct conversations ] -boy #3: aah! -girl #1: hey, we're lighting a fire! -boy #4: hey! -boy #5: speech! -girl #2: speech! -boy #5: our town might've burnt down so it seems fitting that we burn all the [bleep] they gave us down, too. [ cheering ]