>> good evening. i'm geoff bennett. on the newshour tonight, the urgent effort by the u.s. and european allies to arm ukraine have an -- ahead of and expect russian offensive. antiabortion activists march in washington, d.c. celebrating the overturning of roe. wade while setting their sights on further restrictions. >> our movemen is ending the violence of abortion. >> the republican leaving one of the most influential and congressional committees discusses his plans to investige biden white house. >> major funding for the pbs has

been provided by. >> pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. of raymondjames financial advisor. taylor's advice to help you live your life. life well planned. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour including kathy and paul anderson. >> the landscape has changed and not for the last time. embracing innovation. looking not only at current opportunities and ahead to future ones. resilience is the ability to pivot again and again for whatever happens next. >> people who know no bdo.

>> the james all night foundation fostering engaged and informed communities. >> and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and for contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> good evening. it's good to be with you. ukraine tonight is still battling through the winter of war and still appealing for tanks to help turn the tide against the russians. the u.s. and dozens of other

countries wrestled with that question for more than five hours today at a meeting in germany. in the end there was no agreement oproviding tanks. they did agree to send hundreds of other armored vehicles but ukraine's leader said they will keep pressing for the tanks. in peru the capital city braced for more protests today after thousands of demonsttors clashed with police overnight. crowds demanded the ouster of the country's new president and appealed for new elections. police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters. the church of england has formally apologized for its treatment of lgbtq people and what it calls a hostile and homophobic response. at the same time anglican bishops set a ban on same-sex weddings and churches will stay in force. the announcement followed five years of internal debate and came at a news conference in london.

>> it's all very well saying sorry, the church still isn't giving us what we want. i want to say i get that, but it doesn't mean the sorry isn't still heartfelt. >> the bishops are proposing that the church allow services for same-sex couples that include blessings after they've had a civil wedding. the wave of job cuts sweeping the tech industry have now hit google. the company said today it's laying off 12,000 workers as the pandemic era boom fades. tech firms including microsoft amazon and others have cut 50,000 jobs. evidence of a slump in the u.s. housing industry. sales of existing homes dropped 18% last year. 2022 was the slowest year for the u.s. housing market in

nearly a decade. interest rates more than doubled during the year. elon musk began testifying in san francisco today the federal class-action suit over tweets about tesla. the billionaire claimed in 2018 he had the financing to take his electric auto company private but the deal never happened. investors say they suffered losses because muska deceived them about the funding. on the stand, he defended his tweets but acknowledged they could not provide full information by their very nature. wall street stocks ended the week with a rally led by tech shares. the dow industrial average gained 1%. the nasdaq jumped 288 points and the s&p 500 was up almost 2%. still to come on the newshour, covid casts a shadow over the chinese new year as billions of people travel to celebrate with

family. david brooks and jonathan k partway in on theatest political headlines. >> this is the pbs newshour. >> ukraine will soon receive an unprecedented amount of new weapons systems thanks to a deal made by a group of some 50 nations today. the weapons do not include the one item that ukraine calls its priority, western tanks. >> for ukraine's western military support, todayas the best of times and the worst of times. for the first time the u.s. will send stryker armored personnel carriers in addition to hundreds more bradley fighting vehicles and european armored vehicles

designed to help ukraine with fundamental building blocks for help modern armies fight. it's a major upgrade to ukraine's mostly soviet era armor to help kyiv try and seize occupied territory. >> this is a very capable package and if employed properly it will enable them to be successful. >> if you did not get the item that says it needs, western tanks. germany today resisted calls to send its own tanks or allow other countries to re-export their own tanks to ukraine. >> i can thank you hundreds of times and it will be absolutely just in fear given all that we have already done.

>> poland's prime minister. >> the germans are defending themselves against ts like a devil protects himself against holy water. >> the u.s. and europe upgrading soviet era tanks at the u.s. has refused to send its own m1 abrams tanks. its jet engine and jet fuel make it unsustainable. germany's government says they will only approve tanks as part of a transatlantic lockstep decision. >> we have a responsibility for our population and we have to balance all the pros and cons. >> the tank can absorb hits from almost anything. >> the gun it has, it's unsurpassed. whether it's an abrams or a

leopard, that kind of capability would be needed as part of the spearhead. >> when the u.s. army fights, it used combined arms, infantry but also tanks that the u.s. cells all over the world. >> u.s. officials say that abrams tanks are too difficult ukraine to maintain. the u.s. has a jet engine and requires jet fuel. what is your resnse to that? >> these are series of statements that are not terribly inaccurate, but it is sorof a condescending attitude. let the ukrainians figured out. they can figure out how to do the fuel. we do it, egyptians do it, saudi's do it. >> at will and able to be successful. >> the long-term goal is to give ukraine the strongest possible position at the negotiating table. >> the secretary never says what

success is. this has been the missing thing all along. instead of saying we want to help ukraine win, we talk around that a little bit. this war will go on longer than it should. >> for more on all this, return to the undersecretary for policy. welce back to the newshour. as we heard from the secretary of defense, the goal of the weapons packages that the u.s. and allies have announced in the last day or to conduct what the u.s. calls combined arms in order for ukraine to liberate occupied territory and yet the key component of combined arms is the tanks. are you trying one of ukraine's

arms behind its back by not providing western tanks? >> the main message which was this meeting of more than four dozen countries was one of unity and solidarity in support of ukraine. we announced a package in the last 24 hours of $2.5 billion of additional assistant's. allies and partners have provided in the farmer for several mechanized brigades so we do believe that we are providing ukraine the capabilities in combination with the training to allow them to change the dynamic on the battlefield and really move away from the kind of trench style warfare that we are seeing to being better able to combine fire and maneuver. >> brigades an average of 3500

troops. didn't we see at the beginning of the war what happens when you don't conduct combined arms? the russians didt piecemeal and the ukrainians pick them apart. is there still the ability for ukraine to conduct what the u.s. calls combined arms without these western tanks it once? >> i have no date the ukrainians can engage in combined arms warfare. -- no doubt the ukrainians can engage in combined arms warfare. and i will just say on the tanks issue, we saw from the german defense minister today that they are still engaged in ongoing deliberations on the leopards. we know there are more than a dozen countries that have the tanks.

>> you heard that hodges called the argument that the abrams is too difficult to maintain because of its jet engine and jet fuel condescending and the ukrainians can figure out how to keep the abrams going. why do you think they can't? >> i don't think the argument is that they can't. the question is can you deliver the capability on a relevant time frame on the level that is sustainable over time. the challenge with the abrams is it's expensive, difficult to train on and sustain, it has a ge complicated turbine engine that requires jet fuel and frankly if we are looking at delivering the ukrainians a capability that can use in the next couple months to try to change the dynamic on the battlefield, our assessment is that the abrams is not the right capability at this time. >> russia has occupied crimea since 2014.

is it a u.s. goal to enable ukraine to threaten russians hold on crimea? >> crimea legally and in the eyes of most of the world is ukraine. so it is occupied ukraine and if the ukrainians decide to conduct operations in crimea, that is their decision. >> the british foreign secretary was in d.c. this past week and he said if we want to bring this to a successful conclusion, we should look to do it quickly. the conclusion has to be ukrainian victory. that is not a word the united states used. why not? >> it's not our word to choose. the iranians will be the one who defined with the parameters of success are in their campaign. it has been our strategic objective to enable the ukrainians to achieve success as they define and and also to ensure that the conflict is a strategic failure for vladimir putin and russia.

and the board to date has been a huge failure for russia. ukraine indoors on an independent sovereign democratic country. russia wanted to end that. nato is stronger. it's not weaker. the world is more united, not more divided, and russia is not stronger. he has failed and i expect he will continue to do so. >> does not mean you are trying to give ukraine enough weapons to make sure russia doesn't one but not enough for russia to achieve victory? >> we are providing ukraine the capability they need to seize the territory that russia occupied. were vice president biden's national security advisor in january 17.

what were the practices when it comes to handling classified documents and going forward will you cooperate with any kind of special counsel or congressional request for investigation? >> i know there's a lot of interest in this topic, i can't really comment. like the rest of the administration, i stand ready to cooperate and other senior officials have made that clear. we will do everything we need to cooperate with the department of justice. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> antiabortion activists gathered on the national mall for the annual march for life, the first time the march has been held since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion. kaiser health news correspondent

spoke with those gathered in washington about what this moment means forhem. >> antiabortion activists celebrated an achievement decades in the making. >> this year is different. we have overturned roe v. wade. >> movement leaders and grassroots activists gathered here say there is still work left to do. christine miller is from texas. >> we've got to take this fight more to people and the people's hearts. it's letting people understand that we love each baby and each woman and we want to help them just show them that through all the difficulties of life we are here to help them. >> would you like to see a federal ban on abortion? >> absolutely, yes. >> lawyer nelly great held the

first march. >> babies are being killed in our hospitals and clinics. i can't tolerate it. >> church groups and conservative christian organizations have fueled the movement. for many, religious beliefs inspired them to get involved. trinity is a senior at louisiana state university in baton rouge. she's part of a group of students who traveled here from louisiana where women are not allowed to terminate a pregnancy even in cases of rape or incest. she has spent the week and washington, d.c. gearing up for today's march. the newshour caught up with her yesterday on the national mall. help us understand why you are invested in this movement. >> i believe that god is the creator of life and no human should be able to dictate whether someone should or should not live or have a chance at living. >> and a movement that is largely white, she says she wants to reach other black women.

>> just let them know that it's not the right way, it's not the right decision and once we informed them more about that i think the movement can go a long way. >> this year it will pass by the u.s. capitol signaling a shift in the movements focus to lawmakers. >> we are not yet done. >> march for life organized today's event. where do you want to take the movement next? >> it's a moment to celebrate for the pro-life movement. just to stop and take a step back and think of all the things that led to this movement. it's very important for today. >> at least 13 states have banned abortions in all or nearly all cases and a number of other states restrict abortion care.

abortion supporters across the country are challenging abortion fans in state courts. there is active litigation in 14 states. six months later the effect on those seeking abortion continues to make headlines. women having miscarriages turned away from emergency rooms. clinics are overwhelmed with cases from other states. 62% of americans think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. >> the fight is not over. the is still crisis, unplanned pregnancies. >> our movement is about doing one thing, it ending the violence of abortion. >> is the goal to establish fetal rights nationally?

>> absolutely. the movement has always been clear that philosophically there is no difference between the fetus, the embryo, the zygote, whatever you want to call the child in the womb to the person you are today and both have an equal right to life. >> abortion pills, an fda approved regimen that safely induces a miscarriage are used in over half of pendency terminations in the u.s. and hawkins wants officials to crackdown. >> a like temp -- texas would somehow prevent pills from coming into the state? >> absolutely. we have been talking about how state officials can hold these companies accountable to stop distribution of these dangerous drugs in their states.

>> today marks a turning point for a movement that has had a singular focus for decades. that focus is fracturing into competing priorities as the practical implications of criminalizing abortion take hold. >> the house oversight committee under new republican leadership has announced its first hearing set for next month on mismanagement of pandemic relief funding. the committee's new chairman james comer since his passion is tackling waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars in the federal government. other priorities include investigating the biden administration's immigration policies. u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan and the business dealings of biden family members. i spoke with the congressman earlier today starting with the issue currently in the oversight committee's crosshairs. the discovery of classified

documents from president biden's time as vice president. welcome to the newshour. >> thanks for having me. >> your committee is zeroing in on classified documents discovered at president biden's private residence and office. what questions do you want answered? >> we would like tonow who had access to those documents, how they ended up in multiple locations and who was responsible for notifying the national archives that these documents were in the possession of joe biden and why did it take so long for us to learn that these documents had been recovered? we don't believe we would ever know where it not for investigating reporting by cbs. we would like to know what type of documents were in possession of president biden. >> the president initially said he was surprised to learn about

the discovery of these documents. do you believe him? >> yes. that should be of more concern to the american people that he didn't know he had. it's hard for me to believe that they said we are going to take one set of documents in the garage at the president's house in delaware. yo would believe somebody at some point moved the documents from one location to another. that's why we need to know who was in the proximity of the classified documents and who first -- discovered the documents and what that process was and why didn't the white house immediately tell the american people they had made a mistake and improperly stored classified documen considering

the fact that the president made a very big deal out of it when president trump did the same thing. >> you have said that your biggestoncern isn't the classified documents and how there is such a discrepancy and how former president trump was treated. how can the american people view your investigation is credible when you openly admit that you are not as concerned about the underlying issue? >> the underlying issue is we are conducting a very thorough and substantive investigation of the biden family for influence peddling. there is no question the bidens have received millions of dollars from our adversaries in china as russia as well as from some shady characters in ukraine. why are they sending so much money to the bidens? they want to return on their investment.

when people like hunter biden and the president brothers had access to those documents, that's a concern because we wonder whether or not this administration's compromised because of the millions of dollars the biden family has received from our adversaries around the world. >> you are connecting a lot of dots there. what evidence do you have to backup those assertions? >> it's not hard to connect the dots that there has been a lot of money wired into various biden interests from our adversaries around the world and we are concerned that they are doing this not out of charity but because they want to get something in return. when we find out there are documents that have been mishandled at the biden residence where the residence brothers and son spend a lot of time, then we are concerned. >> will you subpoena white house officials or the president himself is part of this investigation?

>> it's very complicated to subpoena a sitting president of the united states. the odds of that happening are slim to none. we will have questions before we issue a report to give him an opportunity to challenge anyf the assumptions from our final investigation because we want to be fair and balanced here. the president will have an opportunity to defend himself. i don't think it will be under subpoena or under oath. >> have congressional subpoenas been undermined by the fact that house speaker kevin mccarthynd other members have defied to subpoenas from the january 6 committee? >> the subpoenas have been undermined by the fact that the democrats issued to many. the democrats were sending subpoenas out to officials like junk mail and the more you issue

, the less value they have. the whole credibility of congressional oversight has been undermined because of people like adam schiff and because of high-profile investigations from both parties in the past but never really amounted to anything so i recognize the fact that congressional investigations don't have the credibility that they should and it's going to be my job to try to have a credible investigation based on fact that is fair and balanced and in the end hopefully there will be things accomplished. >> your committee includes a number of republican hardliners who have denied the election results of 2020, who have openly flirted conspiracy theories. at least two of them have associated with white supremacists. why should any member of congress have a role on your committee that has the

responsibility of ensuring accountability across the entire federal government? >> both sides of the i'll have what you would call firebrands. remember they have the majority of the squad over there. you have to leave who has said anti-semitic statements. you have ocasio-cortez. and presley and bush who have said that i would consider anti-american. so both sides of the aisle have members of congress that aren't in the mainstream so to speak. i'm confident people in my committee are there for the right reasons. they wanted to be on the oversight committee. they fought hard to get on the oversight committee. this was in more demand than any committee on the house of representatives. i will say this, anything that ends up on oversight committee stationary is going to be factual.

i'm sure there's going to be things that people in both sides of the aisle say that may or may not be 100% in line with reality sometimes. but at the end of the day when we publish a report and when our work is done with respect to certain investigation, i think you are going to see that 100% of what's going to be in that report is going to be factual and verifiable. >> james comer, thanks for your time. since the abrupt dismantling of the chinese governments zero covid policy, many people have been anxious about china opening up to the rest of the world and the wave of infections that have swept through the country. as special correspondent richard kimber reports, most are brushing risks and fears aside

to celebrate the most important festival on the chinese calendar, the lunar new year. >> it's just days to go before the start of the spring festival. in beijing, the holiday rush has already begun. this is the first time mass travel without covid restrictions has been allowed in nearly three years. for many of the capitals migran workers. -- hasn't been back in five years. >> finally i'm going back home. in the past few years i couldn't go back because of the epidemic. >> china's ministry of tnsport says it expects travel to double to more than 2 billion trips over the holiday perio it would mark a recovery to pre-pandemic levels. it seems that the railway

station are in stark contrast with how it looked before china abandoned its strict zero covid approach. gone are the security personnel dressed in hazmat suits that patrolled transport hubs and qr health code check it's where people had to verify their health status before entering our network to be seen either. >> of course it's more convenient. it's easy coming in and out. i can go wherever i want. >> now the virus has been let loose, some aren't taking chances. one mindset even though he's returning home, he won't be visiting friends or relatives. >> the epidemic hasn't ended. i wear this to protect myself as well as others. >> london-based health analytics firm forecasts that china could see as many as 36,000 deaths a day over the spring festival holidays. over the past o months, covid-19 has ripped through the

country, crowding out hospitals and filling crematorium's like this one. about 60,000 people have died officially of covid-19 since early december according to china's national health commission. medical experts say the true figure could be 10 times that. it's hard to say exactly where the death toll stands. the world health organization has accused china of underestimating the severity of its out break. earlier this month it also said a lack of data from the country was making it difficult to help manage the risks. mike ryan is executive director of the w.h.o.. >> we are working ever closer with their colleagues in china to try and understand better the transmission dynamics. we still do not have adequate information to make a full comprehensive risk assessment and therefore we will continue to try to encourage access to

that data. >> medical experts have also warned that the rapid spread of the virus now might make the emergence of mutations more likely. several countries including the u.s. have imposed travel restrictions on arrivals from china. many other places are welcomi the return of chinese tourists. among them hong kong. it's a special administrative region of china. even it had been largely cut off from the mainland until borders fully reopened this month. >> the high-speed rail line behind me has been closed throughout the pandemic. now it's expected to see a surge in the number of chinese tourists coming across the border. before the covid-19 pandemic, more than two thirds of the 56 million arrivals into hong kong from overseas came from across the border. >> since the pandemic began, the city has fallen into a deep

recession. many people are praying a rebound in tourism will help lift the economy. economists remain pessimistic and say a meaningful recovery could take much longer. it's fate is tied closely to the mainland's uncertain outlook. china's surveyed unemployment rate likely stood above the targeted ceiling of 5.5%. >> with this kind of high unemployment rate, people's expectation for future growth prospect is quite low. and that means even if we see some of the rebound for the tourist side and big cities, the general recovery will not really be there. we have to wait until 2024 before we art to see the recovery. >> is the country marks its first spring festival free from covid restrictions, many people are simply celebrating the moment and opened to put the

past few tough years behind them. >> the drive for free public busing is speeding up in some places. >> there are a number of cities that seem to be moving towards offering 100% free service on public buses. that's expected to start here in washington, d.c. later this year. one of our digital video producers has been looking into that and filed this report for our website. >> taking the bus in washington, d.c. is about to get a lot more affordable. dozens of cities in america offer free bus rides in some capacity. a new mov could make it the largest city in america to offer free bus rides affecting

hundreds of thousands of riders. >> i think it's great thing especially for graduate students like me. >> he studies at georgetown university and says taking public transit is a must. >> we don't have a lot of money. transportation is always a big problem. it's a whole burden that is lifted in a way. >> the d.c. city council voted unanimously to offer free bus rides for anyone getting on buses in the district and to extend a dozen popular bus routes to include overnight service. a majority of d.c. residents who ride the bus make less than $50,000 a year according to the city council. >> it's going to be like $200 that everyone is going to save around every month. so it's good. >> the change will cost the city and expected $42 million the first year and the move comes as

part of a growing push to make public transportation free across the country. other cities have already made their bus rides free. the goal is to create a more equitable public transportation that will benefit the people who don't have any other option. isabel agrees. >> i heard when they were in talks about that it was proposed but i thought there was no way it was going to go through and then i saw that it was passed, i was very excited. i think it's going to make it more accessible to everyone and especially it will benefit those who need it most. >> the boston mayor has also fought for free transit. the state of massachusetts tried out for your regional bus fares during the holiday season only and the city has made fares for you on several widely used boston city routes. pushing back against critics who say the lost revenue does not make up for the gain in ridership. the d.c. proposal is now sitting on the mayor's desk.

if it moves forward, free bus fares would begin in july. >> there are still a number of questions for cities w are considering doing something similar. to get a wider view of what's happening, we are joined by you in the free market who studies this field for the urban institute. as we heard, washington, d.c. is making this move. can you give us a sense -- why is it that cities want to do this? what's the rationale for this? >> a few key reasons. during the pandemic we saw a lot of cities want to improve service for their customers in a way that reduced contact with drivers. they said board at the back of the past, do't pay a fair. a lot of cities got the idea and knowledge that it was possible to make buses free without too much of an inconvenience. a lot of cities around the

country are trying to increase equity of service and make sure the public transportation is something that's useful for everyone. >> a lot of d.c. bus riders are people who don't make a lot of money so this could be a real savings for them. she also reported that this is going to cost do you see something like $42 million. are there other benefits the city could get for that cost? >> the biggest benefit is going to go directly into the pocketbooks and wallets of people riding the bus and that's mostly going to be people who live in the city of washington but also some people from the suburbs. that doesn't necessarily mean the city is going to benefit in terms of increased revenues but it could benefit in terms of higher quality of life for the residents who live here. >> are there examples of cities who tried this where the goals were met? >> most of the research tells us

that when cities make public transportation free, ridership two up and we have seen that to be the case in richmond virginia where ridership on their transit system has increased substantially since the buses were made free. that said, there's not much evidence that making buses free is going to get people out of their cars. those people are likely to remain in their cars even if buses are free. >> if ridership goes up, is it your sense that public transit systems around the country that might be considering this can handle increased ridership? is there infrastructure have the capacity to take our bodies? -- more bodies? >> because of the pandemic, we have seen a reduction in overall in the amount of ridership on transit systems around the country and as a result transit systems have a lot of space for more riders. they will be able to absorb the increase in passengers for

making buses and trains free if the numbers went up dramatically and yes, we would absolutely need more invtment in improving public transportation services. >> one of the criticismss that public transit has been underfunded for a very long time and now you are taking another revenue stream out of it. does that make the systems more sustainable in the long run? >> from a financial perspective we have not provided sustainable funding for public transportation perhaps ever in the history of this country. if you look at countries in europe and asia, there is a lot more commitment to making sure everyone has access to good bus and rail service every where they live and that's just not the case in the united states because we haven't spent the money at the federal, state or local levels. we might have an even bigger financial problem if we get rid of fair revenue. most of the cities that have talked about making buses or trains free have backed it up

with some other new revenue source. so for the meantime i don't think we are going to expect a significant drop in revenues for transit systems. >> thank you. this week the u.s. had its credit limit with lawmakers still divided over the nation's spending. president biden has been waving off handwringing over misplaced classified documents. that brings us to the analysis of new york times columnist and associate editor for the washington post. just yesterday the u.s. hit its debt ceiling. the treasury says it's going to take extraordinary measures to keep the u.s. government paying its bills. this could be the riskiest showdown yet given that kevin

mccarthy offered those guarantees to those republican hard-liners in exchange for votes to make him house speaker that there would be no raising of the debt ceiling without significant spending cuts. >> it makes me nostalgic for the debt ceiling crisis of 2011. it seemed more or less like normal people were in control and now you've got people who have the speaker in their hands. i do think it is a pretty serious crisis. how did the democrats react? some people say we should take unilateral action. very unusual ways that democrats could act alone. the 14th amendment says the government has to pay off its debt and they could invoke that and hope the supreme crt backs them up. my favorite one, print a trillion dollar coin. somehow that's legal. my favorite one is go to the senate, go with a plan and throw

it on the house and hope you can take some of the 18 house republicans in biden districts, hopefully public opinion by that point will be so much against going off the cliff that some of them will break and they can work with the democrats and get it passed. that's a very tough road actually. >> the white house says they are not budging. one official said the debt limit was raised without strings attached a number of times in recent years when president trump was in the white house and republicans controlled congress. >> the white house is absolutely right to say emphatically and repeatedly we are not negotiating over the debt ceiling. every time we have this conversation i am going to remind people that the debt ceiling is not about new spending, it is about spending that has already happened. we have bought the car. we bought the ring. we took the vacation. we ate and digested the meal. we have put it on the credit card. we have to pay the bill.

so the conversation about raising the debt limit and the conversation about spending cuts on getting our fiscal house in order which always seems to come up on a democrat is in the white housis always forgotten when a republican is in the white house. those would be separate conversations. once they raise the debt ceiling , everybody get together and let's have a serious conversation about how to get the nation's spending under control. let's say that a zero out the budget. cut everything next year. the bills for the car and the ring and the meal will still be showing up. that's why they must be separate. >> to your point about the halcyon days of 2011, it can't be assumed that every republican isn't trying to avoid a fiscal armageddon. how do you see this resolving within the conference? >> i think they should have in

there pocket a plan that offers the republicans something. the problem with the republicans and especially the more hard-core ones is they are doing what they always do. they are going into a battle for no plan on how to get out of it and i don't think they even know what they are asking for an exchange and there's all sorts of dissension over that and there's just this nihilistic wing who think that stopping the system is what they are here to do and that's not exactly governance and you've just got to deal with the fact that they've got leverage right now and that's why i think the democrats should have a back pocket plan. >> is there a political pocket for democrats? >> it sort of pains me to discuss this through a political lens but welcome to washington. there is a political benefit because the republicans will look even crazier as we go down this road.

they are more reasonable by the day. and we start watching the markets reaction to the craziness. in 2011 we watched the nation's credit rating get downgraded by one of the rating agencies for the first time in our history. markets are used to this and they might start reacting long before potentially june and start issuing warnings. if you don't take action here's what we are going to do and the cost of the american people might not be seen immediately, but it will be felt down the road. >> antiabortion advocates from across the country gathered in washington today for the annual march for life, the first time since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade. abortion opponents have really met their primary goal of guarding real -- cutting row. where does the movement go from here?

>> so far it gets decentralized. they used to have these big national organizations and they had a clear focus. now it is state-by-state and what you are seeing is a lot of national organizations being sidelined by state organizatn and the action is in the state legislatures and there's wide difference in what the activities should be. a lot of the catholic groups want to put the emphas on the pregnancy crisis centers to help women rough this process and support them in the way they need to support them. others just want to work on the law and get to a basically zero abortion laws on the state level. i'm curious is about how this evolves. public opinion is shifting and tional republicans walking away from hard-core pro-life positions because it is so unpopular. the big questions for me, some states look like it will be complete abortion freedom in some states with none. will popular opinion ever evolved to the point where it's

20 weeks or 15 weeks or whatever some midpoint will be, that's where a lot of the country is. >> it is still a key issue in legislative elections. there was a special election in virginia that was a proxy vote about abortion access. a democrat won that race. >> we were having discussions about what kind of impact with the dog's decision have on the election. now we know and thanks to justice clarence thomas and his concurring opinion, he made it clear tt it wasn't just roe v. wade. we should also look at griswold which had to do with contraception and i think while the movement may decentralize to the states, we still have senator lindsey graham who in the last congress introduced a national abortion ban. that is something that i think will be of great interest to the movement but also who is to say

that contraception, someone might not introduce a national contraception ban. we are in crazy times and we have to keep our imagination open. just because the movement has won on roe v. wade doesn't mean the vement will stop at the national level. >> this time last week we were talking about president biden's handling of the classified documents and how the white house was handling that issue. the president spoke on the record about it. he first chided reporters suggesting there were more important things to talk about, and then he said this. >> we found a handful of documents that were filed in the wrong place. we immediately turned them over to the archives of the justice department. we are fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly. i think you're going to find there is nothing there, i have no regrets, i'm following with the lawyers have told me to do.

>> so the substance of the case is what it is. on the messaging it appears the white house hasettled on something of a mitigation strategy. he's out here talking about it. >> he's going to have to talk about it. with the proviso that it's not like trump, the story is a little worse for the white house this week than it was last week. we have learned that they were hoping to deep six it so it would never come out so they didn't report it for all those times because they thought they could make the justice department happy and it would never see the light of day. that just doesn't happen often in washington. i think the effort to try to deep six it was not the right thing to do and it's backfiring on them. we learned that the story of revealing everything has been mostly right but there have been hiccups. they said we completed our search and then they find new documents later so it gets a little messier. i still think it's medium to

medium small sized issue. but i think the administration as a general has a tendency to hoard information. this is may be a warning shot that they should rethink some of those habits. >> what's your take? >> thanks to the great reporting at my newspaper, i disagree that the white house was trying to deep six according to our reporting yesterday, they were taking the lead and giving deference to the justice department which was already investigating and what we have here i think is aolitical pr response versus the legal response and we have seen all sorts of instances where those interests are completely difference and they are in conflict and we are seeing it in high relief in this case. >> always a pleasure to speak with you both. that is the newshour for tonight. there's much more online including a look at a law that is meant to make medical billing more transparent.

be sure to join the panel on washington week later tonight right here on pbs and watch pbs news week and tomorrow for a look at the antigovernment protests in peru that are becoming increasingly deadly. i'm geoff bennett. inks for spending part of your evening with us and have a great weekend. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. >> moving our economy for 160 years. the engine that connects us.

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hello, everyone and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> i think he feels he has unfinished business. so he's running, i think. >> predicting president biden's next moves with an inside look at his first two years as president. author chris whipple joins me with his revealing look at the fight of his life. then -- ♪ the celebrated 87-year-old concert pianist who fled putin's russia. an intimate conversation with mikhail voskresensky and composer alan fletcher, who helped bring him to the united states. plus political commentator charlie sykes talks to michel martin about a divided congress and whether