wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. ♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is away. kamala harris test out a new campaign tactic playing clips of her opponent donald trump at her rally. israeli air strikes increasingly threaten areas once considered safe havens for lebanese civilians displaced by violence.

and bob woodward pulls back the curtain on the trump and biden presidencies. >> all of the moments are very, very tense because the stakes couldn't be higher. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> the ongoing sport of these individuals and institutions and friends of the "newshour" including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. >> the charles f. kettering foundation working to advance exclusive democracies. learn more at kettering.org. >> it really matters when you is an opportunity to give back.

>> being part of something that's bigger than myself that's what brings me happiness. being able to integrate my professional career with some of these other things that are important to you. it's kid critical to be happy. >> are >> we want to participate and get back to it. >> people want to make an impact packet and a difference. -- impact and a difference. >> the john s and james l. night foundation -- knight foundation. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

>> the program was made possible by by corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs news station from viewers like you. thank you. jeff: welcome to the "newshour." three weeks to go until election day and the race for president remains a dead heat. vice president kamala harris is in detroit tonight meeting with business owners and hitting t radio waves to make her case especially to black male voters. but we start tonight in chicago where donald trump talked tariffs and tax cuts at an economic event and defended recorded conversations he's had with vladimir putin since leaving office. here's stephanie sy. stephanie: donald trump faced a grilling and was evasive when asked directly after his recently record phone calls with russia's president. >> can you say yes or no whether

you have talked to vladimir putin since you stopped being president. >> well, i don't comment on that. if i did, it's a smart thing. if i'm friendly with people, if i have a relationship with people, that's a good thing not a bad thing in terms of a country. he's got 2,000 nuclear weapons and so do we. stephanie: bloomberg's director also questioned him for broad tariffs. >> yes, you're going to find people who will gain from individual tariffs. the overall effect will be massive. >> i agree it's going to have a massive, positive effect. it must be hard for you talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you're totally wrong. >> donald john trump! >> the interview comes after a bizarre trump town hall in pennsylvania. >> the event was twice interrupted by medical emergencies in the audience as medics responded. >> put on pavarotti singing

"ave maria." >> trump requested italian opera from the d.j. >> then, trump turned the town hall into a half hour listening party as the two ill-attendees were carried away on stretchers. >> those two people who went down are patriots and because of them we ended up with some good music, right? >> meanwhile kamala harris is in detroit, michigan continuing to try to shore up support from black men. she participated in a radio ton hall with charlamagne the god. >> part of the message that i face is that they are trying to scare people away because they know they otherwise have nothing to run on. ask donald trump what his plan is for black america. ask him. i'll tell you what it is. look at project 2025. project 2025 tells you.

the plan includes making police departments have stop and frisk policies. >> it's the latest stop on her multi-platform media blitz aimed at black voters. >> this interview aired yesterday with the shade room another outlet with a massive black audience. >> we cap the cost of prescription medication at $2,000 for seniors and cap the cost of insulin at $35 for our seniors. that's our grandparents, our parents. black folks are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes. >> she's trying new tactics at her rallies. in pennsylvania, she played out a highlight reel of trump's recent comments calling on the national guard and possible the military to handle the enemy from within. >> donald trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged.

[applause] and he is out for unchecked power. that's what he's looking for. >> harris's running mate, tim walz was in pennsylvania today to try to win over rural voters. >> family farms, we shared proud tradition, a history of feeding and fueling this country. rural neighbors, foundational to america's success. vice president harris and i -- when we win this election we will have rural america's back just like they will have our back. >> president biden heads to philadelphia. and trump's v.p. big, ohio senator j.d. vance will hold a town hall in lafayette hill, a philly suburb. both campaigns have their eyes locked on the keystone state. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. geoff: let's take a look how they're navigating the weeks that remain in this election.

mike murphy is a media consul at that particular time who served as a senior strategist on john mccain's presidential campaign and has worked for mitt romney and arnold schwarzenegger. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. geoff: donald trump sound pretty comfort that his campaign is doing really well in michigan, pennsylvania, michigan, arizona. democrats said they're going to have to fight for every vote. kamala harris says this is going to be a tight race but i'm going to win. what's your assessment three weeks from election day? >> i think it's an absolute 50-50 coin toss. she's a little bit ahead in the national vote. but in our modern era, it's quite possible to win the national popular vote and lose the presidency because of the way the electoral college works. so when you look at those key states, georgia, arizona, nevada, michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, potentially north carolina, trump's doing better

there than he is nationally. and i think in the last seven or eight days, he's gone from a tiny bit behind to a tiny bit ahead in many of those states. some he's always been ahead. so they're upshifting at the harris campaign and they need to. i think they -- they've kind of, you know, this is all within the margin. but they've run out of steam a little and they know her so you're seeing her doubling down, increasing aggression. doing all the smart things a campaign does to close the race. and she needs to. >> the harris campaign believe they need to drive up donald trump's negatives. that's why they're trying to goad him into another debate because they believe the more the public sees of donald trump, the more the public will be reminded of why he wasn't elected in 2020. do you agree with the theory of the race? >> you know, i partially agree it's a bit of a dangerous game because trump -- the perception

of trump is pretty dug in. people don't like trump. they're trying to find out if she is an acceptable alternative. the main dynamic of this race is people are unhappy with the incumbent party. they think things were better off for them economically four years ago. if a republican without the baggage of a donald trump which is epic were running, that republican would be well ahead right now. so trump is holding down the republican opportunity. so reminding people of all his problems and projecting them forward is good politics for them. but it's secondary. the most important thing they've got to do is win the battle over defining kamala harris who is far less known than trump is. her numbers are more fragile. and if trump defines her better than she defines herself -- if they see her as a biden sidekick and is part of that incumbent structure they want to throw out based on inflation and economic pain, she's going to lose.

so i -- it's very seductive to make the supporters not happy by bang on the villain they don't like. she has to move the needle on her. but an attacking trump can do that. they have to close the deal on her, which means she has to do more. get out there more because the campaign had a pretty weak schedule for the last 10 days. now they're shifting forward. that is a good thing. but they need more of it particularly convincing people she represents change from biden and a better economic future. she's not more of the same. geoff: let's talk about the ground game because the harris campaign is running what i think is safe to call an expansive version of a traditional field operation. the trump campaign seems to be banking on this glad the people who already voted for him will vote for him again, the vox who voted for him in 2020 will come out again. then they're trying to reach sort of smaller groups of

irregular voters. compare and contrast their get out the vote operations. >> she has more of the traditional -- she has more money, more resources. it's a more professional campaign in many waysle but the ugly little secret of a field in a presidential race where turnout is generically high, higher than midterms which are about 1/3 less, turn out is not as important because you get a large percentage of the vote going. it can be a useful message but only if you have it. if kamala harris can't do that, all the turnout in the world can't safe her. trump's turnout is weaker. he's a known quanty he's being propelled by a fce he didn't create, the perception that people have that things cost too much. they were cheaper four years ago and we need a new economic manager.

as much as people don't like trump, people thought he did a good job running the economy than the biden-harris administration. she's closed that gap some. but that's the mighty force propelling trump. he might not need turnout if she cannot convince people she's the right kind of change. >> so the trump campaign strategy of trying to reach what some people call low propensity voters, irregular voters. we can use the groups of young men. trump has been doing a lot of podcasts, do you think that will produce dividends? >> it's all feathers against bowling ball. the big drivers here is can kamala harris show what she's earning in connected people that she's the right kind of change or can donald trump successfully prosecute the kind of generic case that these people, this administration of which she's been an integral part, has done a terrible part in the economy, and she's liberal on the

mainstream, and you have to fire them and let me fix the economy? that's the epic battle here. all this other stuff is not unimportant, but it's sort of at the margins. again, i think the biggest factor between the now and election day is getting kamala out of a little bit of this bubble they've had her on, let her campaign, create the music of the campaign that she's a happy warrior out there working hard, dawn until dusk, earning it. that's been missing the last 10 days in the last two to three days they've been doing that and i applaud that. without that they're not going to win. geoff: mike murphy, we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> geoff: tomorrow we will speak with james carville to get his take on the presidential race. ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with

"newshour" west. heiress are the headlines. in georgia, county election officials must certified the election royals results. a republican on fulton county's election board had claimed that local officials could refuse to certify. but in his ruling, superior court judge robert mcbernie said concerns about fraud or systemic error are to be noted and shared the appropriate authorities but they are not a basis to decline to certify. brad afternessburger highlighte- raffensburger said this -- >> i think that's very important that's affirmed in the judicial system. and we make sure that we follow the law and follow the constitution in everything we do. stephanie: the ruling comes as early in-person voting began today in georgia. election officials said that the turnout shattered records.

more than 800 veterans who were kicked out of the u.s. military under the don't ask, don't tell policy are receiving upgrades to their service records. the pentagon announced today they will have their status changed to a honorable discharge making them eligible for benefits. it was repealed by congress in 2011. north carolina republican candidate for governor mark robinson has sued cnn over its recent report about racist and sexually lewd comments he made on a porn sight more than a decade ago. that report said that he posted on the message board in 2010 referring to himself as a black nazi who wanted to bring back slavery and enjoyed watching trans gender porn. robinson called the cnn report false, reckless and defamatory.

authorities in new mexico said the number of migrant deaths have increased 10-fold. new data show that is more than 100 bodies were found near the border. that's compared nine bodies found in 2020. many were discovered near the el paso, texas border. it's unclear why more bodies are there. sosouth korea said that north korea of bombing. south korean security cameras captured the explosion on the northside of the heavily armed border. seoul called the move highly abnormal and regressive. >> what north korea has done today is a clear violation of the interkorean agreement.

we see it as a very abnormal act and the south korean government is strongly condemning i. >> the south korean military responded by the explosions by firing warning shots near the southern border. political upheaval in the navajo nation reached ahead today with the tribe's president removing his vice president. president boone nigren made the announcement on social media michelle mon toya accused the administration of sexual harassment and intimidation. an investigation into those allegations is ongoing. and the giant pandas have landed. 11 months after the national zoo's three panda residents made their way back to china, two new bears are here to take their place in washington's national zoo. they landed at dulles airport as part oh a 10-year agreement with chinese authorities. the zoo was closed today in

anticipation of their arrival. the animals will go through an extended quarantine and acclimation period before they're introduced to the public. still to come on the "newshour," renowned journalist bob woodward on his new book about foreign wars and the u.s. presidential campaign. a behind-the-scenes look on how the associated press determines the winners of thousands of races in this year's election. and a documentary filmmaker uses lego to tell the story of music legend ferrell williams. >> this is the pbs newshour from the david m. rubinstein studio from weta and from the walter cronkite school of journalism from the arizona state university. >> the push and pull of the u.s.-israel relationship was on full display today as the u.s. warned israel it could cut off arm shipments unless israel allows more aid into gaza.

israel and the u.s. appear to be in sync on how israel will respond to iran after the missile attack. >> u.s. officials are increasingly worried about human -- humanitia. >> 400,000 gaza. -- gagsans have been helped. the u.s. said aid delivery has fallen 50% from its peek. antony blinken and lloyd austin sent a letter to their counterpart with a long list of demands including enable 350 trucks per day into gaza. the number is a fraction of that. humanitarian pauses for the next few months. allow the displaced on the beach

to move inland before the winter. and to reaffirm there's no policy of forced evacuation from northern gaza. they point out that u.s. law requires the administration to quote prevent weapon sales if they think that they are blocking u.s. aid into gaza. here's matt miller. matt: we know that it's possible to get humanitarian assistance into gaza. we know it can be done. we know that the various logistical and obstacles can be surmounted. it is incumbent upon them to get assistance in. >> the u.s. aid argued that israel was already arbitrarily blocking aid into gaza.

and blinken use add snapshot in time rather than months of arguments to argue that israel was not blocking the aid. this time, u.s. has given israel 30 days to comply despite the fact that nothing obligates a warning which means the deadline is after the u.s. election. >> on the other hand, israel and the u.s. as we said seems more in sync with how israel will respond to their most recent attack. tell us about that. >> an official familiar with the issue tell me that israel and the u.s. have greed on the nature of israel's response to iran's unprecedented october 1st ballistic missile attack 180 ba risk smells you see them there hitting israel mostly near military and intelligent sites in israel. president biden and privately u.s. officials have told israel that they would oppose strikes on iranian energy or nuclear sights. and instead, they want israel to target parallel sights, military

or intelligence sights in iran. an official telson that israel's response will be mainly military targets substantial and while they won't preview the timing, this person says that lit happen before the u.s. election. u.s. officials hope that the nature of israel's strike will end this round rather than inspire iran to launch another round of ballistic strikes and the u.s. has made that clear to iran. geoff: and u.s. officials message iran about the threats against donald trump? >> the u.s. brief former president trump and his campaign and the campaign's words of "real and specific threats from iran to assassinate him in response to soleimani that he ordered in baghdad in 2020". a u.s. officials confirms to me "at the president's direction we have sent messages to the iranian government strongly warning them to cease all

plotting against donald trump and former u.s. officials and it's would consider annie tempt on trump's life an act of war. bind has already told the secret service to provide former president trump every level of protection they can. trump campaign recently asked for more. they asked for military aircraft including and for its part geoff, iran denies any plotting against donald trump. geoff: nick shiffrin thank you. >> thank you. geoff: we shift to israel and iran's hezbollah looks like it's looking like its own war. the u.s. said that it did not approve of israel's bombing of beirut over the last couple of weeks that have led to major civilian casualties far from beirut in northern lebanon our report errors on the aftermath of a deadly israeli air strike that targeted one known hezbollah member but killed two dozen other people. and a warning, images in this story are disturbing.

>> lebanon's war has now climbed the famed mountains scattered around the rolling hills of groves as far as the eyes can see, the charred aftermath of an enormous bomb. paramedic and recue workers went through this home hit by an israeli air strikes the northern lebanon village. first, they were looking for bodies. then they searched for pieces of them. overturned car surrounding the house burned as they tried to save who they could. >> the weapons being used are so powerful that they pulverize not just buildings but the human bbody -- bodies inside. they were taking out human body parts. we just saw a child takingen -- taken out into a body bag. >> there aren't many members of the family left. 23 of the 29 people who sought

refuge here were killed. the other six were in critical condition. nearly an entire family line wiped out in a moment. they fled here after their shiah village in the south of lebanon was relentlessly bombard with many sleeping on the streets. they were luck toy have a friend in the north to take them in. but as more displaced shiah in an area they fled to, that welcome is turning to fear and threatening to open old sectarian wounds many here hoped had hield. >> i welcomed refugees from the south into my home. i've been friends with this family for almost 15 years >> the family felt safe here and began to set up a new if temporary home. the signs of that life are littered everywhere in the rubble. blankets and slippers, kitchen utensil, tupperware of a leftover meal. >> a man dime offer the family's help and money. the situation was peaceful until that man israel targeted came knowing that he was putting

those people in danger. >> that man reportedly a low-level hezbollah member was the target of the i.d.f.'s attack. as happens every day now dozens of civilians died alongside them. two of them were less than a year old. >> as the strikes here become more and more widespread in area that is didn't receive any kind of evacuation notice, people were afraid that anywhere could be next. this is a very small peaceful christian village in the north of lebanon surrounded by olive trees and what happened yesterday came out of the blue for everyone living here. >> neighbor danny's restful mountain has been shattered. the force of the explosion was so great, three of the bodies were propelled through the air into his front garden. >> there were dead bodies everywhere. a lot of people died. smoke was all over the place. it was a terrible scene. >> through the night and on into today, rescue workers searched for survivors and then bodies.

one of the families' two babies were missing. the dead body they pulled out of that car was a baby. he's on a few months old. they couldn't find him until now. they found him in the trunk. >> eventually, they found his small lifeless body inside a managed -- mangled nearby car. lebanese feel nowhere is safe here. but as israeli strikes move further into these once secured area, locals who have opened their homes and their hearts to the more than 1.2 million displaced now fear they'll bring the threat with him. >> of course, after this, a more cautious and welcoming refugees from the south because we lost everything. and that's a problem. we are all paying the price, all over lebanon. >> in spite of the danger, elly and danny insist they will do whatever they can to help their fellow lebanese.

we are one, they told me attempts to tear open age old division, lebanese pray they can hold their community and their country together. for the pbs newshour i'm layla milana allen, in north lebanon. ♪ geoff: few journalists working today have covered as many presidents as "the washington post"'s bob woodward. his latest book is out today. and nick shiffrin spoke with him today. nick: it's about war in the middle east and also a war for the american presidency bob woodward is here. welcome back. bob: thank you. nick: president biden's policy is often referred to as the bear hug as in the closer biden holds bibi, hopefully the more he will

be willing to moderate his behavior per u.s. interests. but in private you quote biden calling netanyahu one of the biggest ef f-ing a-hole in the word and an f-ing liar. >> there comes an unprecedented moment in the middle east. biden is trying to get israel to listen to him when it comes to responding the october 7th attacks. did the president feel like netanyahu listened? >> well, there was listening that bi by, is going to do do what he wants and he says so to biden. look, i'm going to have to do some of these things that maybe you're not going to like. but -- but what's so interesting there can be an alliance of policy as somebody in the white house said that biden's policy is pro-israel but not

necessarily pro-netanyahu. nick: there was a similar gap between what the president said in public and how he described him in private that you describe with vice president harris. you describe this meeting that vice president harris had with netanyahu. and you -- they said that the meeting was cordial. but harris said i will not stay silent. and netanyahu was furious. why? >> it was a meeting that israel-united states. everything is fine. and then when she comes out and makes that declaration which tells you something about her. she's separating herself from some of the biden policy. and netanyahu who is just burning furious -- but this is just a couple of months ago.

and she's liabled could be the next united states president as we know, as he knows. so there's a fury, but it seems to stay private. nick: let's switch to ukraine. you said by september 2023, u.s. intelligence reports revealed that putin was so desperate about battlefield loss the chance that is he might using thity cal nuclear weapons in ukraine had gone from 5% to, 10% to 50%. basically a coin flip. why? why what were the indications that the chances were so high? bob: the strain in all of this is u.s. intelligence has gotten better and better. and they actually at some point know what's going on in the kremlin. at one point, they had a human source that's really telling them. so they've got the picture and they realize that putin the

autocrat is desperate. and he catastrophic battlefield loss would mean we're going to use tactical nuclear weapons. he does it in private. but in public, it goes from 5% as you say up to 50%. and in the white house, they realize 50% is a coin flip. and the deputy national security add vise or john finer realizes what a momentous moment this is and reflects on -- this is what it must have been like in 1962 during the cuban missile crisis. nick: you describe and all hands on deck order from the president where everybody calls their russian counterpart including this conversation between lloyd austin and sergei shoygu.

biden says if you do this, all the operations would be reconsidered. this would isolate russia. you russians can not fully appreciate. he replies, i do not take kindly to beat being trent. austin, i'm the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. i do not make threats. then a couple of days later, shoygu calls back and says we have the intelligence that says the ukrainians are thinking about using a dirty bomb basically releasing radio active material into ukraine. austin replies this seems to us like you are trying to establish the predicate for nuclear weapons. don't do it. shoygu replies, i understand. how tense was that phone call in that moment in bob: all of the moments are very, very tense because the stakes couldn't be

higher. the idea of putin, remember who's, an autocrat. i report the intelligence agencies assessment of him is that he's not only a brutal leader, he's sadistic. and that's pretty stark. nick: let's shift to former president donald trump. you reported as president in 2020, trump sent a bunch of avid point of care test machines for putin's personal use when those were in shore supply at the time. and since trump has left office, he and putin have spoken as many as seven times. do you believe it is still a mystery as you quote former director of national intelligence dan coates said it's a mystery why trump treats putin like this. >> is it blackmail is what coates asks the question about? but now we see today that trump

is now saying -- not denying that he's talked to putin and said, well -- >> maybe it would be smart if i talk to him? >> yeah, and trump says when something is smart, that means he's either done it or planning on doing it. so the relationship between putin and trump is central to understanding trump because what -- the characteristics of trump are, he really has no plan. it's just what comes into his mind. he has no team. and he operates alone. this is very different than the kind of relationship that othes have had with putin. nick: finally, many of president biden's aids i speak to say that they don't think they're going to get the cease-fire in gaza

that they've been looking for. they're not even calling for a cease-fire in lebanon. when it comes to ukraine, they are worried that the best ukraine can do is hold the line over the next year. and so while they're proud they haven't gotten into these wars with u.s. boots as you write about, they are worried that their legacy is not ending the wars that started on their watch. do you hear that? bob: very important is that he intentionally did not put u.s. troops in -- and joe biden age 81 is somebody who experienced not in the military, but in politics something called vietnam. and he looks at vietnam as, ah, it is where we sent half a million american troops to vietnam to fight in a foreign war because of that giant danger of allegedly north korea.

i mean, -- biden says that's when you step off the cliff when you put american troops at risk and by not doing that, he's put the united states in a much better position, and the overall conclusion i reach is one of the things biden did is he made the homeland safer by not getting involved with u.s. troops in the -- in the middle east or in asia or anyone -- anywhere. nick: bob woodward, the book is "war." thank you. -- so much. bob: thank you. geoff: so candidates are campaigning. absentee ballots are being mailed out. early votes are being cast. leading to november 5th.

and one big question, who won? votes actually have to be counted. our lisa desjardins takes a closer look at how the associated press keeps track of thousands of competitive races and makes the call. lisa: for decades millions of viewers have turned to the pbs newshour on election night to see history and to learn the future of the country. >> now the associated press has officially declared president clinton -- lisa: and for decades, pbs news and hundreds of other news outlets have relied on the associated press to count votes and call winners. >> we're hitching our wagon to the a.p. >> lists are completed. lisa: it is a monumental task. this year on election night, the a.p. team of journalists will track 5,000 competitive race. president, congress, mayors, and many, many more. >> we like to call it the single biggest act of journalism.

>> vice president of new strategy and operations. he oversees the election team. >> our number one most important goal on election night is to be 100% right in our race calls. >> 100%. that's our standard. >> we care about speed but only as a secondary factor. never compromise on the accuracy and i prefer to be faster. >> the a.p. has been counting the vote for 175 years including when votto talls from some places were sent back on horse back. >> we are really, really proud of the role that we play in the democracy. the fonders didn't think through how we would get from poll closed to inauguration day. who's going to count-up the votes and who's going to say who's the winner? so a.p. decided in 1848245 we would jump -- 1848, that we would jump into that process. lisa: we watched the process on one of the final primary nights of this year.

>> there's usually a rhythm. and it usually starts off slow. lisa: in a quiet corner of the mostly empty newsroom, the election team was keeping track of about three dozen races in one state deciding when to call a winner in each. >> the check mark, there it goes. >> but on general election night, this newsroom will be filled. handling a slate of races 150 times larger. no matter the scale, the fundamentals remain the same. >> we'll get to a point where wel get a model reck minute mendacious. >> the a.p. calls races when statistically only one person can win. >> we're looking to know one thing, can the trailing candidates catch up? and once we're certain that they can't then that's when we call the race. >> that real-time call takes months of planning, years of experience, and data. lots and lots of data. >> i see it flashing green too. does that mean you're getting updated votes at that point? >> yeah.

>> starting the official vote count. that's the official tally in each race, with tens of thousands of polling places across the country, yeah, sit a big job. >> we will have people in place at county election offices. so about 4,000 reporters out across the country. that's just one of the way that is we collect the vote. we also take in data feeds. we're scraping websites. we're looking at websites and manually entering them. we're looking to get the vote count from as many sources as we can. and never from one source. >> some rather get it out of their website. >> the a.p. also needs to figure out how many votes are left to be counted. how close is this to a final result? >> less than 1% of the vote counted. >> the a.p. estimate that is the total number of ballots expected to be cast in each state. as voting methods have shifted, this has become trickier. fewer than 1-10 voters cast

their ballot before election day. that number grew steadily until the pandemic upended the 2020 election and nearly 70% of votes were cast early either in person or by mail. polls suggest half may do the same this year. >> we're looking at how many people are registered. we're looking what was the turnout in the past comparable election. we're looking at how many advanced boats are in the ballot box. and we sort of plug that all in to a model where we are trying to estimate how much vote has been cast. >> so in real-time you can adjust -- is this going to be a bigger election than we thought or smaller? >> right. and once polls close and we start getting ballots in, those actual returns feed into the model and we'll make adjustment. so you'll see that estimate change over the course of the night. that's not a problem, that's us adjusting to the data. >> further complicating the process states count and release

different types of votes in different order. in battleground arizona they start count mail votes as they're returned but they don't start releasing results until an hour after polls closed. in pennsylvania, early ballots are not processed at all until election day. in new hampshire, they aren't counted until after polls close. >> you're looking for patterns. are there a class of early ballots that have yet to be count? and what do we expect those early ballots to say? if we would wait 100% of all ballots to be counted, we wouldn't know what's taking place for weeks after election day. >> if the presidential race is as close as many expect it to be, it may take days to know the winner just like i did in 2020. >> they say it's a zero% corp tent score. what does that mean? >> that means we're not ready to call it. >> as they work to call the race as quickly as possible, all the data flow into a computer model.

>> but it's still analyzed by real people. and you see no way that the other candidates could win? >> no. no. >> those obers have add observers have added another vote cast system is voter suffer surveys from 120,000 people. someone would stand outside of polling place and ask people who they voted for. a.p. noway accounts for people who vote early or by mail or who stay home entirely. to do that, the vote cast team conducts survey online and on the phone all the way up to when polls closed. the data help explain who voted and why. >> we're able to analyze smaller slices of the electorate. we're able to look at hispanic

voters or african-american voters or young voters but also combinations of those voters in a way that helps us potentially get to a race called sooner or understand the way that the electorate is shaping up in a level of detail that didn't exist before. >> all that, 4,000 reporters getting real-time results, months of estimating the monthly turnout and survey of 1,000 peoples. it all leads to the big moment and the actual race call. >> they're doing it right now. >> david and his team weigh in. then the major calls including for president in close states go to the desk of executive editor julie pace and ana johnson. >> we'll make that final sign-off to say, yes, let's go with it. or you know, we have some questions. some things that we have to answer. have we third or looked at that? but ultimately to say yay or -- aye or nya. >> how much pressure do you have? >> there's a lot of pressure.

our goal is to get it out to the world. >> in those moments even on a busy general election night, the crowded newsroom can feel as small as it was for a single state's primary election. >> most of those times it's f fairly competent. there's a lot of focus. >> so it's quiet. it can be quieter because people realize we're in a moment and everyone needs to pay attention. >> focus an attention on the a.p.'s biggest act of journalism, a responsibility grounded in a massive, hands-on operation and a mission they take seriously no matter what election they're watching or how long it takes to call the winner. >> there's always a moment every general election from for a very small amount of time you're the first person who is going to be the next president. you cherish that and get down to business and call the ranks lisa: i'm lisa desjardins at the a.p. decision desk in washington. ♪

geoff: ferrell williams is a hit-maker for himself and a music producer for a string from other artists from jay-z to justin timberlake. now his story is being told with lego brix. it's not your usual approach tole documentary film make. but it's the latest from film makers will neville. jeffery brown spoke with neville for our arts and culture series "canvas." >> and i love music. like everybody loves music. but i'm realizing i have a different kind of relationship with it. >> early in the new film, pharrell williams reveals how music mess >> mizeed. >> i just thought that's what all black kids did. we just stare into the speaker like whoa

>> ferrell as best heard heard explosion of color and light, a sensory phenomenal as synesthesia. how to capture the excitement, the strangeness he would take from a housing project from virginia beach to pop culture fame, that was the job of filmmaker morgan neville and even he's not sure what he's made. >> how you do explain what this film is? that's been the challenge from the beginning. it doesn't conveniently fit from any box we're used to. >> you've had time to figure it out. >> how do you describe it? >> you know, it's -- docu-bio musical in animation. whatever that is. >> so what would you be wearing in this interview then? >> one thing it is a story told with lego pieces. traditional documentary style interviews turned into animation. other scenes conceived and built from animal from the start.

♪ bring me down can't none bring me down ♪ >> it's to categorize a culture figure. ♪ >> who as performer, music producer and beat maker working with today's megastars including jay-z and snoop dogg has helped transform the sound of today's music. >> ♪ >> telling the stories in lego was pharrell's idea along with neville's initial puzzlement. >> you know it would be cool if we told our story with lego pieces. [laughter] >> seriously? >> yes. >> but he came to embrace the challenge of a new way of documentary storytelling. >> i actually think that the lego allowed me to get more inside his mind than i could have in a normal documentary because i could see what he was seeing, you know, the fact that

we can illtrate him which means he cease color when he hears sound or music or that we can physically manifest the beats that he's make. it's something you can't formerly do. so in that way, i felt like the lego animation led me to be inside his imagination. >> once you're playing with form, once you're playing with animation with lego, once you're constructing scenes in a different way, once you're playing with all kinds of things, i would think, sit still a documentary -- is it still a documentary? >> i think it is people may disagree call it creative nonfiction. a documentary comes with a rule book, you know, and this film is not about the rule book. but to me, it's a deeply truthful film about who he is based on this documentary.

>> he creatively told the stories of other creative people who bill their own untially creative career. >> how many of you applauded because you thought i was dead? >> cultural figures like steve martin. >> hey, what's up, man? >> anthony bourdain in "road runner" in 2021. >> mr. rogers? >> yes. >> i would like to tell you something. >> i like you. >> and mr. rogers in 2018's won't you be my neighbor. >> hi life has been all about trying to make a success. his 20134 film 20 feet from stardom about the backup singers who help shape but never quite reach fame in their own. it's been a long running look about how creativity itself works r. creativity always feels a bit like image tick me of trying to understand it. it's never the same way -- done

the same way time. it's id yo sin cattic and when it happens -- idiosyncratic and when it happens, it's unpredictable. >> i made films about culture. and culture to me is not just art and film and music. culture is how we define ourselves and how we define other people. and i'm always interested in that because these are the questions i ask myself as a person. i want to know how other people navigate those things. >> one thing neville has never done before piece by piece appear in one of his own films and certainly not as a lego figure or mini fig. >> being a mini fig, we worked on this film for more than five years. and i design more character four years ago. [laughter] it took so long. >> you were making your -- designing yourself. >> yes.

yes. working with them saying what am i wearing? what do i look like? you know, it took so long that my -- my hair went from salt and pepper to just salt. that's how long these animated movies take. >> as you make more and more films are you looking for creative ways to do it? >> absolutely. this was the biggest swing i've ever done in filmmaking in my career because that's what's interesting at this point. and what you get to do as a documentarian is you get licensed to investigate the most important things in people's lives. they trust you with those things and then you get to share them with the world. i mean, it's an incredible responsibility, an incredible power. and it's something that, i never take for granted. ♪ it might seem crazy what i'm about to say ♪ >> piece by piece is now in theaters around the country. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffery brown in new york. ♪

geoff: and that is the "newshour" for tonight i'm geoff bennett for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> the "newshour" has been provided by -- >> how may i help you? >> thought i let you know with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. >> have a nice day. ♪

>> moving our economy for 160 years, bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy and peace. more information 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. ♪ >> this is pbs newshour west from the david m. rubinstein studio at weta in washington and from our bureau at the walter

cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024]

wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. pati, voice-over: chihuahua was a crucial state inhe mexican revolution, serving as the heart of pancho villa's battles that shaped the course of mexican history. one of those battles made this hacienda the official white house of mexico for a single day. and it's been such a journey. pati, voice-over: now it's where diana acosta and her family continue making foods from the time of the revolution. [speaking spanish] we're gonna get going. pati, voice-over: to my kitchen for stacked chile verde enchiladas with eggs