i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, high stakes. congress enters its final push to approve controversial legislation ahead of the midterm elections. then, after the storm. puerto rico's inability to quickly restore power after hurricane fiona exposes the fragility of the island's energy grid despite large-scale investments. and, fighting disease. global leaders pledge billions more dollars to combat hiv, tuberculosis and malaria after the covid pandemic caused major setbacks. >> for the first time in the

history of the global fund, we saw reversals of hard won gains across all three diseases. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> fidelity dedicated advisors are here to help you create a wealth plan, a plan with tax sensitive investing strategies, planning focused on tomorrow while you focus on today. that's the planning effect from fidelity. ♪ >> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. carnegie corporation of new york.

supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz, inverse stephanie sy. we will return to the full program after the latest headlines. at the united nations security

council, the war in ukraine took center stage. leading players on opposite sides of the conflict came face-to-face for the first time since russia's invasion last february. they waged verbal battle as the war claimed more casualties. nick schifrin has our report. nick: in a war that russia says only targets the military, today the target was a ukrainian hotel, and residents of and residents of zaporizhzhia have lost hope. >> for me, it doesn't matter anymore. it doesn't matter if it kills me. i have nobody to bury me. nick: at the same time in new york, the security council held an unusually senior-level meeting about a war secretary of state antony blinken called

existential. >> if ukraine stops fighting, ukraine ends. nick: the diplomats discussed russian horrors, including a mass burial site of more than 400 ukrainians. among the exhumed, a soldier wearing a bracelet of ukraine's colors. ukrainian foreign minister dmytro kuleba -- >> i do wear one too. just want to show it to you, many of us do. russia should know one thing, it will never be able to kill all of us. nick: russian foreign minister sergei lavrov walked in 20 minutes after blinken finished, and said moscow considered the war necessary. >> the decision to conduct the special military operation was inevitable. ukraine prepared to play the role of anti-russia, a staging ground to create a threat to russian security. and i assure you that we will never accept this. >> and russia is now escalating the war. politically, printing ballots

for what nato today called "sham referenda," asking residents of four occupied regions of ukraine whether they want to join russia. and militarily, doubling the number of troops already in ukraine. online videos show siberian recruits heading to the front, part of a mobilization of 300,000 reservis that many appear to be trying to flee. multiple border crossings are backed up, including this one to russia's neighbor georgia. >> it looks like a lot of people want to leave, so it has all become a bit of a mess. lots of cars. nick: but today both sides celebrated a prisoner swap. british, american, and more than 100 ukrainian soldiers, as well as pregnant ukrainian women, freed from russian captivity, in exchange for a well-known politician close to putin and russian soldiers. but both sides said even the war's largest prisoner exchange will not stop the fighting. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. vanessa: protests in iran continued after a young woman died in the custody of islamic morality police.

she'd been accused of wearing her headscarf too loosely. crowds torched vehicles and police stations overnight. the associated press reported at least nine people have died in the unrest since the weekend. iran's president called the the protests today "acts of chaos." the u.s. announced sanctions on the morality police. most of puerto rico still has no power four days after fiona made landfall. we will return to this later in the program. republicans in the u.s. senate today blocked action requiring advocacy groups to disclose big-money donors. democrats wanted to identify those who give $10,000 or more in so-called dark money, which they say subverts democracy. republicans say the bill would think approach on free speech rights. meanwhile, the house of representatives approved four

bills on public safety and policing. they include more funding for local police departments, as well as mental health services for officers. democrats and republicans were largely divided on the measures. >> democrats actually have solutions in these four bills. real ideas that have been publicly available for months to make our streets safer and reduce crime. republicans are the ones talking about defunding and abolishing the fbi. >> democrats, who are in full control of this body, have had two years to show their support for law enforcement. only now, only now, when faced with an impending election, are democrats beginning to feign support for our men and women in the blue. vanessa: prospects for the bills are unclear in the senate. fraud in handling pandemic jobless payments may be three times worse than an estimate last year. the u.s. labor department's inspector general reported today that scammers may have stolen $45 billion in emergency unemployment benefits. aviation giant boeing will pay

$200 million to settle charges that it misled investors about the safety of its 737 max jets. today's settlement is in response to two jet crashes that together killed 346 people. federal regulators said the company knew the 737's automated flight system posed a safety risk but made public promises it was safe. still to come on the "newshour", melinda french gates discusses her foundation's ongoing push for global gender equity. a new book by two veteran journalists takes a look behind the scenes of donald trump's presidency. and a palestinian comic stars in a new tv series based on his life as a refugee living in houston. >> this is the pbs newshour. from weta studios in washington and from the west from walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: less than 50 days out from

the closely-fought midterm elections, the u.s. house of representatives has passed a bill to make it harder to overthrow an election. meanwhile, yet another government shutdown deadline looms. lisa desjardins has been following it all. what are we, more than a year and a half since the attack on the capital on january 6, and congress is now moving on bills that would essentially shore up the strength of the presidential election process. bring us up-to-date. lisa: we just saw the first votes made trying to reform the antiquated electoral count act that is vague and left this opening for former president trump to make the argument that perhaps the election could be overturned inside congress. let's talk about what exactly the house passed yesterday. in this bill, it would clarify the vice president has no substantive rule -- role at all

in certifying the final electoral count. it would be a third of the numbers of each chamber, versus right now it is just one number of each chamber, and it would sharply limit the grounds on which any member of either chamber could object. the objections we saw in 2020 and in years past for democrats would no longer be able to stand muster if you go with this bill. what is interesting, these ideas do not reflect any kind of political candidate, party. they are not about former president trump or president biden, but we did see a partisan divide. only nine republicans voted in favor of this bill. those are the nine. all nine of them are not returning to the capitol. they have either retired or they have lost primary races. former president trump has made this a test of loyalty.

what is going to happen next, the senate has a bipartisan version of this idea. it is a little different, but it is close enough. after the midterm elections, we will see a final version of this reform move forward in congress. judy: interesting that it is taking so long. government funding runs out september 30, and here we are again. they have not come to an agreement. there is an issue standing in the way. it has to do with energy projects. explain. lisa: clots to cover quickly. this is about the future of energy and the future of the environment, including climate change. it also has to do with senator joe manchin, whoad an agreement that his permitting reform idea would make it to the end of your funding bill coming up. his bill would have a two year limit on environmental review. sometimes echoes on for many years right now. it would allow some projects to

be approved for national interest. it would clear the way for a pipeline he is trying to get through for a long time -- he has been trying to get through for a long time. environmentalists say this would help the fossil fuel industry and also extend electric lines, which is gd for renewable fuel. there is a debate here. we wanted to talk to an activist in west virginia and listen to the debate, senator manchin's version of why this was needed, and that activist from west virginia on why it goes too far. sen. manchin: no matter what you want to build, whether it is pipelines, hydropower dams, more often than not it takes too long, drives up cost. you can double your cost in any 6, 7 year period from what the original cost would be. >> for an environmental review to be done thoroughly and adequately, you need to allow time for the scientists to get in the field and assess what is happening on the ground. they need to be able to collect baseline data to ensure that

there are no impacts to water resources. so you really can't fast track that eironmental review process. lisa: the activist has said there are already environmental problems with this pipeline in parts of the state. but what this is about is how the federal government handles energy and how it handles the land and environment in this country. judy: so we've got just over a week, barely, to get government funding figured out. what is going to happen? lisa: senator manchin said this must be in the bill. he does not have the votes. republicans say they are not on board, that it does not meet their standards. mike krantz say it is too conservative. as it stands -- democrats say it is too conservative. as it stands, this portion of the bill will likely be removed. if that does come out, then it clears the way potentially for a funding bill. it may pertain to ukraine, other

issues, dollar amounts. but it looks like senator manchin does not have the votes he needs. judy: we are just days away. lisa desjardins, thank you. judy:judy: days after hurricane fiona swept across puerto rico, americans are dealing with a difficult history that has left the territory short on electrical power and crucial needs. william brangham has our coverage. william: they spent hours lining up for gas and waiting for drinking water, all while an intense heat wave is bearing down on the island. four days after hurricane fiona pummeled puerto rico, over 60% of the island is still without power. gas used to fire up people's generators is one of the most urgent needs.

>> first, i went to a bigger gas station, but we had bad luck and the moment i finally arrived, psor place and spent even more time since this morning. william: without those generators, those without electricity will have little relief from the heat. depending where you are on the main island, residents are facing heat index warnings between 107 and 112 degrees fahrenheit. heat is believed to be a leading cause of climate-related deaths globally. one key prevention strategy is drinking lots of water. but thanks to the storm, more than half a million people are still without water on the island. volunteers and government workers are delivering potable water in flat bed trucks, and handing out food to those who need it. >> we lost all our clothes, groceries, and everything in the wooden part of the house. william: earlier this week, the head of the federal emergency management agency, deanne creswell, toured the island. fema is pledging to do better

this time after being widely criticized for its slow response to hurricane maria five years ago, and that outrage has continued. president biden said today he too realizes the federal response must be different. pres. biden: we are with you. we are not going to walk away. we mean it. william: but puerto rico's governor says it will take days for power to be fully restored to the island. these outages are driving renewed frustration and criticism of the private company, luma, that took over running the electrical grid in 2021. earlier this year, protests erupted in the streets of san juan over the constant blackouts people were experiencing. puerto rico's public power authority, known as prepa, owns the grid, but it went bankrupt. this mixture of public and private control has left luma and prepa blaming each other for the outages, which are tied not just to the storms, but to years

of underinvestment and slow rebuilding. this, while residents of the island continue to pay the price. for more on how puerto rico is trying to recover from this storm, i'm joined by yarimar bonilla. she's the director of the center for puerto rican studies at hunter college in new york. yarimar, thank you so much for being here on the newshour. can you just give us a sense -- i know you're in touch with a lot of people on the island. how are people doing right now? yarimar: well, you know, you call pueo ricans after a storm and ask them how they're doing and they'll tell you estamos bien, we're okay. but that just means we're not injured. nothing fell on top of us. that could mean they don't have running water. they're bathing with a bucket, they don't have electricity, and they're frustrated and they're tired. william: it seems too that there's this sort of connected crises going on. there's just the damage from the storm, but that, as we reported, knocks out the power and the water, and then you get this

incredible heat wave on top of that. yarimar: in some ways, we've become the masters of resilience, but we're also really exhausted by that. and so, i think folks always in puerto rico, we will always tr to be neighborly and have good cheer and have the best spirit. but people are worn down. there has also been increased austerity on the island, and with no real improvements to infrastructure. so this comes at a moment where puerto ricans were already tired of dealing with blackouts, and to some extent, already had all their emergency plans. but i think it's really grinding on people, and it's not as it was what happened with hurricane maria. there was a certain kind of novelty and everyone was very understanding of the historic nature of the storm. but i think that for a lot of folks, that kind of unrstanding has run out. william: help me explain something here, that after maria, which did such damage and took so many lives, there was

this promise, an allocation of billions of dollars to try to help the island build back better, so to speak. and yet, we saw fiona come in as a relatively weaker storm and still do so much damage. how do you explain that? yarimar: well, that's the existential question. and i think that's what a lot of folks are asking. we had five years to prepare for this. that was a category one storm. why did we not do that? i think part of this has to do with the logic of recovery and of emergency management that hasn't adapted to the era of climate change. so it used to be that a historic storm wouldn't be surpassed for many years, but now the storms are coming faster. and so we need to adapt our recovery processes, which remain very much bound up in red tape. and so, there's still a lot of folks who just haven't even tten through the bureaucracy of getting what they needed to recover from maria.

and the other problem is that at times these recovery logics, what they focus on is temporary solutions. so perhaps we need to be rethinking stopgap solutions and band-aids and really invest in the kind of transformative recovery that puerto rico, and honestly the rest of the caribbean, needs. and since they're at the forefront of climate change and the storms are going to keep coming. william: specifically about the power grid, there was again an enormous amount of money and attention after maria to try to build the grid that would stand up better, and yet we still saw, even before fiona came, blackouts, protests, real dissatisfaction with that system. why has that been such a sticking point? yarimar: well, we were promised that the grid was going to be privatized and that that was going to bring improvements, but it has not. it has brought increased prices.

constant price increases. and it has also brought more and longer blackouts. so a lot of puerto ricans are frustrated because they're paying more, and puerto ricans have a higher energy burden than anywhere else in the united states. they spend 8% of their income on utilities, and they can't rely on those utilities. william: how much of this do you think is tied up in puerto rico's sort of unusual relationship with the united states? it's a u.s. territory and puerto ricans are all americans, as we all know, but yet it doesn't have the same authority and autonomy that, say, a state would. how muchf that is complicit in all of this? yarimar: it's hard to say where that begins and ends because it always feels present in every moment of interaction with the federal government. so when puerto rico gets the resources that it needs, a big

show is made of the fact that they're getting the basic resources or assistance that they're just entitled to as u.s. citizens, but they don't always get those resources, right? and so the u.s. civil rights commission recently released a report documenting how aid was distributed differently in puerto rico after maria than it was in texas and florida after harvey. so these differences have been documented. anwe can only hope that the amount of scrutiny that was brought after maria will help for things to run differently this time around. william: yarimar bonilla of the center for puerto rican studies at hunter college. thank you so much for taking the time. yarimar: you're welcome. thank you. judy: back in 2015, the united nations made public 17 global goals to end poverty and hunger, increase economic opportunity, and promote gender equity by

2030. those goals were extremely ambitious. and to help world leaders get there, the bill and melinda gates foundation created and funded a so-called goalkeepers project. this week, it pledged another $1.2 billion toward that. but the foundation also reported that the world has fallen far short in its commitments. i spoke this week with melinda french gates. for the record, the foundation is a funder of the newshour. melinda french gates, thank you very much for joining us. this report that you've issued this year, when you look at it, i have to say it's pretty discouraging. the foundation acknowledging that seven years into setting these goals with regard to poverty, malnutrition, health care, that the world -- and i'm reading it -- is on track to achieve almost none of them. what happened? melinda: well, we were making huge progress as a world pre-covid. so progress on poverty, malaria, childhood deaths. but then covid happened and it

really set the world back both from the health shocks and the economic scarring that's there because of what happened to the world economy. judy: is that the whole explanation? melinda: well, it's not the whole explanation, particularly on the one related to gender, as i write about in the report on gender. the disease doesn't care about its biology. it doesn't really care about what gender you are. however, we had so much inequality going on beforehand that it just exacerbated those problems. like for instance, childcare was right heren our face during the pandemic. women couldn't work. the ones who could work online, some could, but many couldn't because of childcare. and it was really, really tough. judy: in the report, youiscuss some new approaches that you argue need to be taken. i mean, can you explain in a nutshell what that woulde? because you all are deeply into these issues. melinda: we always learn, and you learn what can work better. i think what we've learned on gender is the world has been talking for a long time about empowerment of women. no, we need to really make sure

women are in seats of power. we need to stop working on the symptoms and work on the root causes. the root causes have a lot to do with norms in society, but if and when we get women to the very tops of corporations, the tops of parliaments, they make different policies, they set different agendas than men set. and so, we've got to work on those types of issues. dy: what kinds of different policies would you say women woulmove on? melinda: for instance, in rwanda, 60% of the parliament is women. they are a low income country. they passed paid family medical leave. in the united states, we still have no paid family medical leave. that's a tragedy when most dual-income families will tell you that both are working, and if they have children, it is very hard right now to find affordable childcare, much less a woman who lives in a remote rural setting. if she wants to go run her vegetable stall, she's still trying to find, where do i put my children?

it's difficult. judy: so how do you make that happen? this is something we've been talking about, it seems to me, for years and years. how do you make it happen? melinda: you get enough people in the house and enough people in the senate who believe in this, and you pass the right policy. and it can be done in the united states. it has been done in almost every other high-income country in the world, and many middle income and several low income countries. it's just time something like that passes. judy: that's something we've talked about for a long time. 1992 was supposed to be the year of the woman in american politics. here we are. it's 2022. women are, what, 28% of the house and senate? people are looking for solutions. what's the solution? melinda: the solution is to fund more women's political campaigns and to help deal with the harassment that happens when a woman goes through political election. that is in the u.s. i would say that's one of many things we can do. but if you talk about around the

world, we also need to look at not just putting cash in the hands of women, which was done during the pandemic. thank god cash was put out into societies, low, middle, and high income. but we have to get it into the hands of women and into a digital bank account, because when you do that, she has full decision-making authority over the money. she can decide when it's spent, how it's spent, whether it's saved. she can build credit. so we need to help women get along much faster on this curve to actually have the true power in their households and in society. judy: in many of these developing countries especiall do you not still have cultural or religious tradition that requires that the husband, the man of the family, be on board before a woman does something like that? melinda: but women will also tell you that once they get a bank account and once they start to have a little bit of money, things change in the household with their husband because the husband is very interested in having that income for the family.

so his vieof her changes. her view of herself changes. if it is in india, her view of her mother-in-law changes. so there are absolutely different cultural norms, tricky ones in different countries. but i will also say, you know, we have cultural norms in the united states. we still have bias in the united states about having women in positions of power. so we have to look at those cultural issues around the wld and work in very place-based ways to make and create change, and we can. judy: and in terms of the united states and electing more women to congress, we looked at this. money is part of it, but it's also many women reluctant to step into this very contentious line of work, and especially now when our politics can be, frankly, just so raw and ugly. melinda: it's true. it's difficult time but i also know that women are stepping up. and women can also decide they're going to vote, and we are seeing record numbers of women signing up to vote in this upcoming midterm election. i don't think that's any surprise.

so there are lots of ways you can stand up in our society and use your voice and use your power and your decision making authority to change things. judy: last question about the gates foundation. $53 billion, i think is right, in assets. you have an enormous potential ability there to make a difference. when the foundation was started, it was you, it was bill gates. the two of you were married, you are no longer married. how is that working? will you be able to continue to do the kind of works you've done in the past? melinda: well, we've had the institution now for over 22 years. my values are baked into that institution. we've been doing this work for a long time. i would say you know, the good news is even during the difficult times behind the scenes, we showed up and did our best, and i know that i have this goal of showing up and doing my best every single day and i still given that we could am.

even when times were difficult, and we've been working well together even during the pandemic in the last year, i don't expect anything to change about that. judy: melinda french gates, we thank you very much. melinda: thanks, judy. ♪ judy: alongside the united nations general assembly meeting this week, there is a push to increase funding for the global fight against infectious diseases, including aids, tuberculosis, and malaria. most countries, led by the u.s., have signed on. but the united kingdom is a holdout. as special correspondent dr. alokatel reports, with government budgets tightening, there is concern that lifesaving programs might be scaled back. this story was produced in a partnership with the global health reporting center. >> this is a story full of big numbers. around the world, more than 600,000 people are infected with malaria every year. nearly 40 million are living with hiv.

and nearly 2 billion people are infected with tuberculis, nearly one in four people on earth. this is not to make you feel hopeless, but to understand the scale of the challenge. >> we work across around 120 different countries. >> peter sands is the executive director of the global fund, in new york for a final fundraising push. >> we work with governments, we work with civil society. we work with the private sector. most crucially, perhaps, is we work with the people and communities who are most directly affected. >> the fund emerged from the special u.n. session on aids in 2001. major backers, including the gates foundation and the u.s., british, and french governments, saw themselves as filing a crucial, unmet need. since its founding, the fund has poured more than $55 billion into programs that pay for medicines, training health workers, and preventive measures

like mosquito nets. >> since the global fund was created, we have saved 50 million lives. 20 years ago, fewer than 1% of africans with hiv were being treated with antiviral medication. by last year, that number was up to near 75%. driven by international aid, including more than $100 billion from the united states. money that came through the global fund, and later through pepfar, the u.s. program to fight hiv in africa, which eric goosby led from 2009 to 2013. >> it wasn't until 2002 that there was a first response that took money that wasn't right there in the country and made it available to put it toward a response. >> south africa is just one country that relies heavilon the global fund for programs

like hiv prevention. >> people don't want to be seen at the clinic because everybody knows that if you go to this door, you are hiv positive. >> until just recently, zanyiwe mavubengwana worked as a community engagement counselor at a clinic in masi, south africa. she herself tested positive more than a decade ago, a diagnosis that ended her dream of becoming a doctor. >> i'm into helping people and making a difference in their lives. that was my goal. and i almost had a scholarship. but then, life happened. life happened. >> but for two decades, zanyiwe has been able to raise a family, and keep working, thanks to life-saving antiviral medication. >> first and foremost, antiretrovirals are miraculous. >> linda gail bekker is one of the world's top hiv experts. >> those individuals, young people, would be dead today if they hadn't been able to access antiretrovirals and stay on

those antivirals. >> and yet, dr. bekker says this success is now in jeopardy, a casualty of shrinking budgets and fallout from the covid-19 pandemic. >> we took our eye off the ball and we are paying the price for that. >> the global fund put more than $4 billion into fighting covid. but it also put a major strain on resources that has yet to be made up. hiv cases have continued to decline during the pandemic, but more slowly. and in sub-saharan africa, fewer people have been able to access treatment. tb and malaria suffered even bigger setbacks. >> for the first time in the history of the global fund, we saw reversals of hard-won gains across all three diseases. >> we have to recognize that there are 29 million people accessing antivirals today. if their antiviral therapy

stops, their disease comes back, and it comes back in full force. >> a halt to these programs could lead to drug resistae and renewed spread of disease. >> we see the impact of tb, hiv, and malaria coming back in full force. not having a global fund at this point would be beyond devastating. >> in the region, tb, malaria, and hiv are all among the top 10 killers. it is home to more than half of the 38 million people around the world who are living with hiv. women make up nearly two-thirds of new cases. >> because also power differentials mean that they're not able to request safer sex measures. >> despite all zanyiwe's efforts, her daughter, tiny, was diagnosed with hiv just last year. >> i was quite disappointed, i st say. i felt like a failure.

it's like i did not do as much as i would have done. >> and now, tiny is seriously ill with tb. her partner just died of it. anzanyiwe, pregnant herself, is caring for their babywho also has tb. >> i think the hardest part about it, it's that women are not empowered. >> kele motshabi is hiv negative and signed up for an hiv vaccine clinical trial because she's afraid, and says she can't rely on her boyfriend to practice safe sex. >> we are made to think that we cannot say what we want, we cannot express our feelings, we cannot get what we want, because we are women. it's like we are strengthless, we are powerless, we don't have anything to say. we cannot say anything. it pisses me off. it pisses me off. >> to help these women and billions of people around the rld, peter sands says a revitalized global fund is critical. >> the global fund is 2/3 of global funding for malaria.

we're over three quarters of global funding for tb, and we're a quarter of global funding for hiv. so if we want to beat these diseases, if we want to save those lives, then we have to hit this target. >> still, a focus on individual diseases is not enough, says eric goosby. do you think it's still the right approach to focus on three diseases? or do you think it is beneficial to focus on health care systems as a whole? >> well, i've been a disease specific person my whole career, but i have seen enough and i believe know enough to say that it really is about a health system and your ability to strengthen that system so it can deal with any disease. and we need to do it more and more, again and again, not just for three diseases, but really for all diseases. >> the future for kele, zanyiwe, and others like them may depend on how much world leaders take that message to heart.

for the pbs newshour, i'm alok patel. ♪ judy: investigations of the january 6 capitol attack are still underway. but as husband and wife reporting team, peter baker of "the new york times" and susan glasser of "the new yorker," explain in their latest book, to understand what happened on january 6, 2021, it is necessary to understand what happened on january 20, 2017, the day president donald trump took office, and all the days in between. and that is the focus of their book, "the divider," which is out this week. welcome you to the newshour. this is an eye-popping book literally from the first page,

when you lay out the premise that the attack was the inexorable culmination of a sustained four-year war on the institutions and traditions of american democracy. peter, that is a stunning statement about the president of the united states. >> it really is, but that is the case here. january 6 was not an outlier. it was predictable. if you pay attention to everything he was doing up until that point, he tried to turn the institutions of american government into his own personal political instruments, the justice department, the military, and all these efforts basically lead up to this moment where he is refusing to accept the democratic election in which he lost. to understand that, we have to understand what he was doing for four years. nobody has gone back to take that look. judy: there is so much to ask you all, but a lot of the book is about the division between the people who were around trump, the people who were in essence trying to protect the country and worried about the

country, and others who were enabling him. what is a good example of one of those who was worried more about the country than they were about president trump? >> you are right, and the complication is in that faction red and, the enablers sometimes were also the resistors. also, the enablers were people who facilitated trump. without them, donald trump would have been some angry old dude shouting at the television in between golf games. but there was a group in particular of national security officials who defined their roles as protecting the nonpartisan traditions of national security. and this is a through-line that goes through to the beginning of the trump administration. he called people like jim mattis and john kelly "my generals." he had clashes with them. he extraordinarily told john kelly, his second white house chief of staff, why aren't you like the bleeping nazi generals in world war ii? kelly said, what are you talking

about? he said they were totally loyal to hitler. kelly said, no, they were not. they tried to kill hitler three times. but donald trump defined service to the country as service to him personally. you go forward to 2020 and his clash with the chairman of the joint chiefs, mark milley. for me as a reporter, getting a hold of milley's unsent resignation letter, in which he called theresident of the united states a threat to national security, he said, you're doing great and irreparable harm to the country, it is still mind blowing. judy: was there one point when you felt the country came closest to coming off the rail? we are clearly focused on january 6, but there were other moments as well. >> that is exactly right. all of 2020, in many ways, was a catastrophic year for this country. the manipulation of a public

health crisis, a once-in-a-century pandemic, to exacerbate the divisions within american society, to turn something like a piece of cloth worn over the face as a public health measure into a badge of and partisan affiliation. this is a terrible tragedy for the american people, no matter where they live. i think the testing of institutions that we wrote about that existed, donald trump seriously considered, in a five-hour meeting in the white house after he lost reelection, imposing martial law. he did not throw people out of the oval office and say, what are you talking about? in december 2021, he spent hours contemplating unprecedented steps. we faced a situation that has never before happened in american history, in which a president of the united states refused to accept his defeat and sought to overturn the election. that has never happened before. no democrat, no republican, no president, period. judy: did you come away thinking

that if some of these individuals around the president had been -- had more courage in standing up to him that things could have been different? or that no matter what donald trump was going to do what he did? >> that is a great question. one of the through-lines we found, we did all this research after he was in office, but we interviewed 300 people and they felt freer to talk after he left. the through-line was the struggle many of them felt, this moral conundrum, do i stay or do i go? those who were not true believers. they told themselves the same thing over and over. if i leave, it will be worse because someone who comes and takes my job will be more willing to do whatever extreme thing he wants us to do that i am trying to stop. you can see the difference in january 6. think about john kelly. everybody in some ways is flawed. somebo told us in that white house, there were no heroes. but if john kelly had been chief

of staff at the end, he would have thrown himself in the doorway of the oval office rather than let some of the come -- let somebody come in and talk about martial law, whereas mark meadows was called by one of the former republicans the matador because he kept encouraging this effort. i think people do matter and people around him mattered, even if they were not going to change his fundamental nature. judy: you do come away from so much of this looking at if donald trump runs for reelection. what is the country facing? did you come to a conclusion? >> this book is not just a book of history. it is in fact partly a prologue, it could be, if he won again. in some ways, it is a roadmap for where he would go. we interviewed a national security official who spent time with him in the oval office. this person compared him to the velociraptor in the movie "drastic park," which is to say he learns. not about policy, but he learns how to make government work for him after four years in office. this person compared him to the

velociraptor who learns how to open the kitchen dr where the kids are hiding. he is learning to do it. the point is, in a second term, a lot of things that constrained him in the first term would not be there. he would not hire a john kelly. he would only hire a mark meadows. he would not be captive to the people who are slow walking him or resisting him. he would be much more aggressive and certain of his own ability. and he would not have a reelection to worry about. he could do what he thought was the right thing, or the thing he wanted to do most without being constrained. judy: finally, did you come away with a sense of what you think he will do about 2024? >> peter and i visited and interviewed trump twice in mar-a-lago for this book. initially, i think we would say we were somewhat skeptical that he would, that he seemed sort of like a very unwilling retiree but a retiree to florida nonetheless. but i think in particular, as we have seen these metastasizing

investigations of donald trump continue and escalate in the last few months, not only the classified documents investigation, the january 6 congressional investigation and also the grand jury investigation, the new york state investigations, it seems that trump has a sense that actually being a candidate for president might protect him in some way. i also think that nald trump, as we all know by now, cannot relinquish the stage. i think the mere concept that the trumpists, the mini-mes, people like ron desantis, the idea that trump will fade away gracefully and let them take over seems very unlikely to me, knowing what we know of donald trump's personality. judy: there is so much to read, to reflect on, in this book, "the divider." it is full of information that

americans should know. peter baker, susan glasser, thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, judy. judy: a new series on netflix gaining acclaim for its portrayal of arab-american life rarely presented in popular culture. and for the comedian who wrote and stars in the show and stars in the show co-produced with ramy youssef. jeffrey brown talks to mo am'er, who bases this story on his own. it's part of our arts and culture series, "canvas." >> i went in there for some legal advice. >> did you hear the one about the muslim immigrant of palestinian dissent, his mexican born girlfriend, and his nigerian american best friend? welcome to the world of mo. >> i don't beeve in therapy. it is a scam.

>> how is it a scam? >> because you pay some phd $200 an hour when you could talk to god for free. >> i have never seen you get out a prayer mat. >> i don't walk around with a prayer rug all the time. what am i, aladdin? this is not disney. >> the houston centered life of mo and the character he plays in the series is an american mashup of cultural collision, comedy, and crisis. >> don't do that. >> some ings are sacred, like the olive oil he carries in a small bottle at all times, reminding him of his homeland. and don't think of trying to sell him chocolate hummus. >> nobody knows where it comes from. nobody even knows what hummus means. hummus means chickpeas. people walk up to me and say, here is some red bean hummus. this is not hummus, this is red bean mash. there is so much comedy to unearth. it is like this constant irritant that happens. >> there you go, it is comedy,

but an irritant. it's like pain and pleasure at the same time for you? >> that is where the best comedy comes from. if i am not attached to it emotionally, i don't think it resonates comedically. >> we made, we made it. >> two netflix specials first raised his profile naturally. he riffs on the pandemic and more. >> that was the second time i ever thought my career might potentially be over. the first time -- [laughter] -- was right after 9/11. [laughter] someone named mohammed, i am like, it is not looking good for me out here. [laughter] >> now "mo" the series goes further, pushing am'er into acting. in a sensitive, funny, and often painful portrayal of a family much like his own, parents who left palestine and immigrated to kuwait, where mo himself was

born, and in the gulf war fled again, this time for the houston area, entering the u.s. as refugees. >> i pinch myself daily. >> on a visit to new york recently, he spoke of recent success, early professional pressure to steer clear of his personal story. >> there was times when my friends, my really good friends in stand up and comedy would be like, my god. they would come in and i would do shows in houston. in a couple cases, just change your name. you are so talented, just change your name. it would be so much easier. you are so good. they would just tell me this. it would hurt my heart. what do you mean? do you want me to pretend to be something else? that is the essence of standup. you are talking about acting at that point. you want me to act in my real life? how long do i hold onto this chade? that is definitely not it.

>> "mo" the series takes it on directly. there is plenty of humor, but mo and his family are barely scraping by financially. he finds work on an olive tree form. as in real life, his father, a telecom engineer, died young of a heart attack, and mo learns he had been tortured earlier in his life. 20 years income of the family is still iting for citizenship papers, a painful bureaucratic process. it is a portrait of a fragile, in-between existence. >> it took me 20 years to get my citizenship. you felt like you were american -- i felt like i was -- and then somebody would tell you, you weren't born here? then they would feel different. how can you pay taxes and still not have your papers? it is complicated, and that has been my whole life. >> when you think about what story you wanted to tell in this series, how important is that palestinian identity, that heritage? >> it is important to me because

it is who i am. i am palestinian. where i come from, these people do exist. it was important to me to highlight that. but it wasn't the main point. it just happens to be the vehicle to deliver all these messages of belonging. if you ever worked paycheck-to-paycheck trying to take care of your family and unable to do it, and you don't have to be an immigrant to relate to the story. you ju have to be connecting with a palestinian family when you are doing so. >> was it always obvious to you you could use comedy as a way to look at very serious issues that this series takes on? >> that is a great question. it is so deeplpersonal to me. i don't know if i can share that. that is a lot. how do you share that on camera? are you comfortable with this? imagine doing that and it is on netflix. it will go out to every country on planet earth that has a subscription. that is a very hard thing to do and challenging emotionally. however, it is really important to settle into that, to sit in

it, breathe in it. >> a serious moment, his mother pushing back against his despair. >> why are you raising your voice on us? what do you want us to do, sit and cry? do you think me and your dad sat out there feeling sorry for ourselves because saddam took everything we had? >> only players and coaches allowed on the fld. >> for fun, mo goes to the pitcher's mound to extort his young nephew who has given up a homerun. he lives up to his arabic name, osama, or lion. it is all part of a deeply human story. >> you imagine all the things that had to happen for me to come here and do a series, to end up with a series. my mom fled palestinian and ended up in kuwait. from kuwait, you were born, and then you had to flee war as a nine-year-old kid and end up in

houston, texas. he goes to a rodeo, sees stand up for the first time. that is what i was supposed to do. four years later, my dad passes away. i am doing standup in english class, my my teacher's way of not getting me to skipnymore. i think it feels like destiny. >> how surprised are you to be able to get a comedy show? >> i am not going to lie, i look around sometimes like, is it real? this is great. it is really being received so well. i think it is clear that the appetite is really big for some real stories that connect with people in a big way. i am just so grateful. hard work really pays off. really does payoff. >> mo am'er is waiting to hear if the series will be renewed for a second season. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. judy: it looks like that hard work is paying off. thank you, jeffrey, and mo.

and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodrf. to join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you. please stay safe and we will see you soon. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no contract wireless plans to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> the ford undation, working with visionaries on the frontline of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including -- and with the ongoing support of these institutions.

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