>> tonight on pbs news weekend, president biden dismisses concerns over his age and performance as calls grow for him to drop out of the presidential race. then, iran elects its first

reformist candidate in two decades. what his victory means for the islamic republic's future. and former astronaut katie coleman on overcoming obstacles during more than two decades with nassau. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and instutions. and friends of the newshour.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> good evening. i am lisa desjardins. john yang is away. resident biden is facing more calls for him to jump out of the 2024 race following a disappointing debate performance last week. today moderate democratic congresswoman angie greg publicly declared biden should step aside, citing the debate and his words since, stating she does not believe he can win against donald trump. pbs news has spoken with major democratic donors and members of congress today who are privately signalling the same call. this despite biden sitting down yesterday for a television interview to address concerns. the president told abc's george stephanapolous he thinks he can win and does not plan on dropping out. domenico montanaro is npr's senior political editor and correspondent, and is a local

reporter for semafor. my good colleagues who know politics so well. i want to talk about it democratic congresswoman and major donors who have said it is time for plan b, even after biden went to such lengths to try to explain what happened in his debate. pres. biden: i was having a bad night. i realized even when i was answering questions and turned his mic off, he was still shouting, and i let it distract me. i am not blaming it on that, but i realized i just wasn't in control. lisa: it drives voters -- viewers crazy when we use anonymous sources. what is your reporting on how much the momentum may be moving the other way? >> it is delicate. i think the problem biden is facing is members of congress who were contemplating whether

they would ask him to step down from running were not convinced after that last interview. some of my sources say they were not surprised angie greg came out, and they expect the floodgates to open when members of congress return last week. i think we will hear more members say the same thing. >> i think it does depend on what they hear from their constituents. it has been a week of this. joe biden is in control of his own destiny. if he wants to run, he is going to run. we heard that clip, if the lord almighty told me, joe, you shouldn't run, then i wouldn't run. the others who are more in control of this process are the democratic leaders in congress who joe biden trusts, people like nancy pelosi, hakeem jeffries, jim clyburn, who helped joe biden win the south carolina primary and propelled him to denomination. all of them so far are supportive of joe biden.

if they are not going to push to have him out, he is not going to get out of the race, and at a certain point it will feel like overkill and the democratic party has to figure out how they are going to coalesce back together to be donald trump. lisa: we know democrats, house democrats, have a call together tomorrow night. whatever we are hearing publicly , it is different privately. one thing i want to get to, it's not just about biden's ability right now, but what will his ability you like to come in three years from now. here is how stephanopoulos brought that up. >> do you have the mental and physical capacity to do it for another four years? pres. biden: i wouldn't be running if i didn't. every day i have a confidence test. every day i have a test, everything i do. not only am i campaigning, i am running the world. lisa: but he is not agreeing to submit to some kind of specific cognitive test.

a key fact about biden is that he is stubborn. >> clearly. joe biden has had obstacles throughout his life and lots of naysayers. people telling him he is not supposed to run, people telling him he is not the best candidate, to defer to others. this happened in 2015 when former president obama got him to step aside to allow hillary clinton to run. the biden folks look at that and say, you were wrong then, you are wrong now. they feel the biden name can still win. this is conversation the democratic party should have had two years ago as opposed to four months until election day. lisa: i hear that so much. you have some reporting about donors. i also hear donors not just hesitant moving away. how significant is the donor message to the biden campaign right now? >> it is pretty in peril. donors look at this more black-and-white than lawmakers.

they are not looking at constituents, they are tnking this is an investment i made to a candidate who i thought would be the best democratic candidate and would probably win against donald trump. that is not happening, withholding, with the botched -- with the polling, with the botched debate, and recently with this interview. what i thought was more stunning on the phone call -- lisa: you were on a phone call with the biden donors and the biden campaign. >> yes. well, more advocates for political strategists. donors are ready to move on at this point. it wasn't a matter of hemming and hawing. it was, he isn't going to win, how can we convince the biden campaign that we need someone else at the top of the ticket? to me that was incredible, this close to an election, to hear that. lisa: i talked to one of the donors on that call who said they were sort of offended

because the advocates were saying, we don't really think you have a just cause. the white house -- other democrats say the white house isn't listening. can the white house turn this around now? >> there is clearly huge antipathy for donald trump in this country. probably more than half the country doesn't want donald trump to be president. we have seen repeatedly his unfavorable ratings above 50%. he didn't get above 47% in either of the last two elections and if you were a betting person, you would say he is not going to this time either. there are third parties. certainly there is the appetite to not have trump as president. we are spending this time talking about biden -- lisa: that's what is driving this too,here is a fear from democrats that they can't be trump. >> absolutely, because they want to win. when you look on paper at what donald trump has said and done, it spells out the difference between the democratic and republican parties for why we

are seeing this cry for joe biden to potentially step aside. we are not talking about joe biden's conduct or character, we are talking about age, as opposed to donald trump where people have serious problems with his conduct. lisa: is this week make or break? congress comes back on monday. >> i don't know if anything will change joe biden's mind, but i do think a flurry of democrats will come out asking him to step down, even if it is for the benefit of their own constituents and something they need to prove in swing districts where trump won. >> surprised they didn't do more to promote, harris in that interview. lisa: thank you so much. iran has a new president-elect, after a runoff between a reformist candidate and a well-known hardliner. the reform-minded masoud

pezeshkian won bnearly ten percentage points in an election that saw record low turnout during the first round of voting. although his win has brought hope to some iranians, others remain skeptical of the president-elect's ability to change underlying problems. >> our life is getting worse every day. it is true that salaries increase a bit, but living expenses have increased. lisa: among his promises, pezeshkian vowed to reach out to the west and ease restrictions on the country's headscarf mandate for women. we'll discuss what the election means for iran's future later in the program. in northern ukraine, russian drone attacks hit a vital energy facility overnight, cutting off thousands of homes from power and water. crews are working to repair the damage and restore power, according to ukrainian officials. the drone attacks are part of russia's strategy to target key infrastructure. some new hope for a possible ceasefire in gaza. the associated press reports that hamas has initially signed

off on a u.s.-backed cease-fire and has dropped its demand that israel pledge to end the war that's been a key sticking point in negotiations. the announcement comes as the gaza health ministry announced an airstrike killed 16 people and wounded dozens more at a refugee camp. israel says it found terrorists in the area and tried to avoid civilians. after a springtime lull, coronavirus cases in the u.s. are taking up. data from the centers for disease control show covid is on the rise, especially in the west. nationwide, there's been a 23% jump in er visits. the cdc says it is able to predict spikes in cases due to wastewater testing. still to come on pbs news weekend, a look at iran's future as they elect their next president. and former astronaut cady coleman on the joys and challenges of life in space.

>> this is pbs news weekend from weta studios in washington, home of the pbs news hour, weeknights on pbs. lisa: reformist masoud pezeshkian will ascend to the iranian presidency in a delicate moment for the islamic republic both on the world stage and within its borders. he faces a government still largely controlled by hardline clerics, tension with the west over iran's nuclear program and domestic frustrations with the regime. ali rogin has more. ali: to discuss what this means for iran, the u.s., and other stakeholders, i'm joined by suzanne maloney. she's the vice president and director of the foreign policy program at the brookings institution. thank you for being here. tell us more about the new president. what did he campaign on? >> he is a 70-year-old longtime member of the parliament who served also as the health minister during the second administration of iran's first

reformist president. he has kept a relatively low profile. up until this campaign. he did register in previous rounds of iranian elections in 2013 and again 2021 when he was prohibited from running by the guardians council, which vets all the candidates. this time it was a surprise he made it through, in part because he was not terribly well known. all of the elements about this election were very improvisational because it came in the wake of the unexpected death of president ebrahim raisi. lisa: pezeshkian fashioned himself a reformer. what sort of campaign did he run? what sort of message was he putting out there? >> he has a longtime member of the reformist party that had largely fallen out of favor due to the fact that its standard bearer were unable to effect meaningful change for the iranian people.

yet it has remained part of the iranian clinical system, and pezeshkian entitled his campaign for iran. it was meant to talk about the theme of pezeshkian's campaign, one of being pro-iran, very much nondisruptive, very much in favor of the current clerical led system, but one in which, he wanted to see iran more engaged with the world and less confrontational and hostile to the world. ali: iranian officials have long pointed to relatively high turnout levels in iranian elections as a sign of letimacy behind the regime, but this time around, there were two rounds of voting, and both of them had relatively low turnout numbers compared to previous years. what does this year's turnout say about the feelings among the iranian voting public? >> i think it's been clear for many years that much of the population is incredibly disenchanted with the islamic republic and the clerical,

theocratic regime that runs iran. but they haven't really had a way to demonstrate that dissatisfaction, the fact that only 40% turned out in the first round of this election was really a startling number. in past elections, it's run as high as 70% and 80% of the voting population that has, in fact, voted in part because there are requirements for individuals to vote. and so so many risks, that requirement to stay at home was a real concern for the regime. and i think it was part of the reason why the election went to a runoff and in fact, why the clerical establishment is quite happy to have someone like pezeshkian in this position now. ali: where does this deep frustration with iran's ruling class come from and how might the presidency of pezeshkian impact that? >> well, iran has an incredibly young population. most of the population has been born not just since the revolution, but since the end of the iran-iraq war in 1988. and they have seen varied attempts to try to normalize the

regime, varied efforts to try to promote some liberalization of both politics and society, as well as some expansion of iran's ties with the world. but none have really succeeded, in part because of the very hardline stance of iran's ultimate authority, supreme leader ali khamenei. and so they've become very disgruntled, very, very much disillusioned with even the modest efforts of the system to try to give them some kind of political participation. they've also been very dissatisfied with the state of the economy, which has been subject to both very heavy american sanctions, but also to considerable mismanagement by the clerical system. it's really unclear that pezeshkian's presidency will make a meaningful difference. he is someone who's quite loyal to the system itself, but he will bring about a kinder, gentler islamic republic to some extent, and that at a time of considerable tensions on the regional scene, and considerable dissatisfaction at home might just be a benefit for both the

population and for the leadership. ali: there is, of course, the iranian nuclear program, which is the source of so much tension between iran and the west and, of course, rising tensions with israel that we've seen play out since the october 7 attack. how do you think this election may affect iran's approach to all of those issues? >> i expect that pezeshkian's election will have very little impact on iran's foreign or regional policies. he will have limited bandwidth or engagement with the nuclear file. the same is true for iran's relationships with its proxies across the region. it is possible, though, that pezeshkian can inject a note of caution, a note of prudence, which seems to have been both his style and his message on the campaign trail. ali: suzanne maloney with the brookings institution, thank you so much for joining us. thank you. >> thank you. ♪ lisa: fewer than 300 human

beings have visited the international space station. even fewer than that have spent more than 150 days living there. and as nasa plans to de-orbit the space station in 2030, the chance to see earth from the iss cupola is getting slimmer. john yang recently spoke with one of those few astronauts about the joys and challenges of life in space. john: cady coleman is one of only about 670 people on earth who've spent time not on earth. she's a former nasa astronaut, a veteran of two space shuttle missions and of a six month mission on the international space station. she writes about all of this and how she succeeded in a system not designed with women in mind. in a new book, sharing space and -- sharing space: an astronaut's guide to mission, wonder, and making change. thanks so much for being with us today. a select group have been in space, but even a more select group who spent six months in space in a zero-g environment. what's that like?

>> i loved it. people feel bad for us. they're like, oh, six months? that must have been awful. and i literally didn't want to come home. there's a lot of work and stressful, but the fact that, like, we think about floating there, but it's about flying, like if you want to go somewhere, you just give yourself a lite tiny push and you will fly across the whole station. so it's a whole new way of life, and i like what my colleague don pettit said. he said if i could bring my family with me, there's just no reason to come home. john: many astronauts like to be tethered to the wall in their sleeping bag in their sleeping chamber, not you. you wanted to float free as you slept. talk about that. >> i think you experience zero gravity during the day, and you're working and you're going and you're doing. but we get to live there. it's there all the time. and i just wanted to, like, have it be part of sleeping, too. now, i'm not floating around e whole space station, we each have like a cabin. and often i would kind of wake up, you know, upside down or you kind of wonder where i am, where you are. but i literally would wake up

just thinking, wow, i'm still here. john: did spending time in space changeour view or vision of of life on earth and our relationship with earth? >> i'm somebody that's always ought that if we could just connect with each other a little bit better or a little bit more people together, we'd be better off. we'd have more solutions and to handle situations better. and yet, you know, seeing the earth from 250 miles above, i still felt at home and i looked down and i just was like, oh, if only people could realize that we're all from the same place. and i think that when we go to mars, you know, nobody's gog to be having bumper stickers that say their country, that it's all going to be e for earth. john: you write about it in the book, about spending so much time away from your family. talk a little bit about that. >> it is really hard. we made a big decision that i would go on this space station mission, which meant a couple of years of training around the world, as well as that six months up on the space station. it is a long time to be away

and there is this element of that it's dangerous, and i think the going up, the launching and the coming home are the times that you just can't ignore that. but actually up in space, i think that, you know, they just felt like mom was working someplace else. john: being in a system that wasn't designed f women. the spacesuits, for instance, not designed for women. some of the work space is not designed for people with shorter arms. talk a little bit about how you navigated that. >> everybody's going to do it differently. and, you know, you can come up with a situation where they're sort of like, you know, i don't know if we need people like you here. and you can say, but, you know, you picked me, or you can be on the end , which is really where i tend to work, which is how can i explain to these people who don't see that i belong here, not because they don't like me, but because they just don't have that vision yet. there was a time in the mid-1990's when they decided for

the space station, which would start in the 2000s, they would not have the smaller spacesuits. and if you could not qualify in that spacesuit, for us in a medium space suit, which is actually quite large for us, then you could not live and work on the space station. i did qualify in the medium, but if i hadn't, i would actually still be waiting, since 2010 when i launched, to be able to go. and there's so many implications, you know, in terms of management and experience and being somebody who's, you know, can really go out there and bring what they want to the mission. and i think that because it's a physical thing, it helps people understand that sometimes there are less tangible things where you walk in a room and people are surprised to see you, or they're surprised by your lifestyle or by the way you communicate. and in those situations, there's lots of people that can see, people who aren't quite seen and also relate well to management and bring them together and

literally introduce them. hey, you want cady as a capcom because she talks. john: among your many other achievements, you play the flute and you had what i believe is probably the first and maybe only and maybe only extraterrestrial flute duet with ian anderson of jethro tull, no less. hodid that come about? >> so a friend of mine is a dj in houston, dana steele, and she -- i'm like, dana, you must have -- know how to get hold of jethro tull. and so she got hold of him. wrote him a nice letter, and i was able to bring the flute up to space. we couldn't figure out what to do until i looked at our calendars. and on april 11th of 2011, ian anderson was playing a concert in russia in the city of perm, and i was living on the international space station. and it's a special day because that is the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight, the first person to leave the planet. it's not about a rtain country, it's about a person left our planet. and so for us to do a duet

between earth and space seemed quite appropriate and very scary for me. john: the challenges you faced in the astronaut corps aren't limited to the astronaut corps. there are a lot of people, going through the same things in their careers. who were you hoping would be motivated by this book? would read this book and say, oh, this is how i can do this? >> i think this book will appeal to people who know they have something inside of them that the world needs, and you can't always be the most confident about that. i mean, i am not, but this book is designed so they can read that some of these things happened to me in the space program. and if it could happen in the space program, it can happen anywhere. and it does. and just realize that, you know, you're in a group, you're part of a group, get that group to help you. and it may not seem fair, but you have to speak up about who you are and what you bring. john: a lot of the lessons you

learned were big. talk about how to leverage insecurity into performance. some of them were small, talk about wiggling your toes so you don't tense up. what were the biggest lessons you learned and want to impart? >> the biggest, most important lessons for, i think for all of us, are the teamwork ones. because, you know, there's stories about the magic of space, of all the things, the possibilities that we have, but we're not going to have those possibilities on this planet if we don't solve some of our challenges. and, you know, sports coaches like to say that, you know, it's all about the team and not the individual. and that's true in terms of the bigger mission, but the individual and what they bring is really paramount. but just as paramount is that you on the team either understand what people bring or realize when they can't bring it themselves, and u need to help them. john: thank you very much.

>> thank you for having me. lisa: that's our program for tonight. i'm lisa desjardins. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. we will see you tomorrow. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, this is sam, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular , you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by

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