the white house has interceded rather than going throh thtraditional process. >> nawaz: that is lisa desjardins with important context for us tonight. thank you souch, lisa. good to see you. >> you're welcome. >> nawaz: over the weekend, president trump'crits seized on the stone commutation. the lincoln project, a group working to elect joe biden inre novemberased an ad calling the trump administration a iminal enterprise, and listing the members of the trump team who have been convicted of feloniesdo here to brea the political implications of this and more, our politics monday team.at amy walter of the cook political report and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter." d tamara keith of npr. politics podcast. the npr welcome to you both. and let's just start off with that ad. it's worth mentioning, tam, it was on friday that esident trump commuted the sentence of roger stone. on turday, the lincoln project had that ready to go. an ad like that leveraging stone's commutation. what is the messaging there and who is the messaging going towards? >> the lincn project has been a rapid respo

lisa desjardins covering it all for us. thank you, lisa. >> lisa: you're welcome. >> woodruff: protestors and police again clashed in number of u.s. cities over the weekend. in portland, the trump administration is reportedly sending more federal agents to ttohe citeal with nightly confrontations there, according to the "washington post." as anma nawaz reports, some of the crow initially protested the killing of georgeo floyd are now onfronting intense federal force. >> nawaz: in the pre-dawn hours on the streets of portland, clashes intensified between protestors and federal agents. those agents used tear gas tod try ansperse crowds from a federal courthouse. the building has become a llying point for protest against police violence. >> i just came here to try to hold the people who are supposed to be keing us safe accountable for their atrocious actions that they've been committing on the city for over >> black lives tter! >> nawaz: since the killing of george floyd, portland's seen regular demonstrations overwhelmingly pe

lisa desjardins reports on the day's developments.ter: in florida, the deadliest day yet from the coronavirus, with 132 deaths, a 10% increase from its previous record. republican governor rons has defeoded reopening but he sounded a somber note. >> people are apprehensive, people are hurting. this virus has affected every floridian's life in one way oro r. reporter: florida is part of a trio of high-population hot spots, along with california d texas. those three states reported 30,000 new virus cases yesterday along. this as local leaders across the country arnk retg their moves to reopen. officials outside houston in fort bend county, texase h decided scoop this fall will opennl withe learning only. >> the virus will teach us what is save -- safe and pursue dents to do. reporter: in california, the same dision with even more many. officials in los angeles and san diego announced classrooms will stay closed. online learning only when school starts. that affects more than 800,000 students. los angeles their erik garcetti. we've never

capitol hill correspondent lisa desjardins has our report. >> please rise. ll begin by swearing you in. lisa: at the capitol a socially distance confrontation over justice itself, with democrats sharply charging that attorney p.neral william barr is a puppet for president tr >> in your time at the department, you have aided and abetted the worst failings of this president. lisa and with barr insisting any decisions were his alone, not mr. trump's. >> he told me from the star that he expects me to exercise my independent judgment to make whatever call i think is right, and that is precisely what i have done. li: the hearing covered well-known flathpoints, among the case of president trump's friend and advisor roger stone, convicted of obstruction and lybag to congress. overruled prosecutors in the case to recommend a lower sentence than they h barr told democrats it was the only time he's done that in this administration, but that it was because the original recommendation was way out of line with norm >> the judge agreed with me. >> i am not asking you that.

the white house has interceded rather than goingtr through thitional process. >> nawaz: that is lisa desjardins with impofoant context us tonight. good to see you.h, lisa. >> you're welcome. president trump's s seized, on the stone commutation. the lincoln project, a group working to elect joe biden in november, released an ad calling the trump administration criminal enterprise, and listing the members of the trump team ho have been convicted o felonies. here to break down the political implications of this and more, our politics monday team. that's amy walter of the cook polical report and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter." and tamara keith of npr. she alsoo-hosts the npr politics podcast. welcome to you both. and let's just start off with th m ad. it's wortioning, tam, it was on friday that sentence of roger stone. the on saturday, the lincoln project had that rea to go. an ad like that leveraging stone's commutation. what is the messaging there and who is the messaging goi towards? a rapid response uming out been with ads quickly whenever president trump doesnything they thi

lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> reporter: every day this week-- in just about every state-- case loads have been rising. the nation as a whole has logged record numbers in six of the last ten days. texas is one of the hardest hit states, with over 10,000 new cases of the virus yesterday, and the death toll surging past 100 per day. in florida, patients are pouring into hospitals that once thought they had turned a page. >> we felt good for a while, we were able to close down the covid i.c.u., we had all the covid patients in one floor, we felt like we had our handle on it, and then we had to open up a second floor and the tloor and now we're into a fourth and fifth floor, and we don't see it getting any better. today,orter: in orland governor ron desantis again defended hisecision to re-start the economy in may. >> there was really no justification to not movefo ard because of the l, and that continued through may,a earl of june. and now we're seeing more cases in transmission at tct time that the rest of the sunbelt is. >> reporter: but now, more states are pivoting back to old

lisa desjardins reports on the day's developments. >> reporter: in florida, the deadliest day yet from the coronavirus, with 132 deaths, a 10% increase from its previous record. republican governor ron desantis has defended reopening, but today, he sounded a somber note. >> people are apprehensive. people are hurting. this virus has affected every flidian's life. >> reporter: florida is part ofo a f high-population hot spots, along with california and texas. those three states reported 30,000 new virus cases yesterday alone. leaders there have been forced to re-think their moves to re- open. officials outside houston in fort bend county, texas, have decided school this ll will open with online learning only. >> we cannot tell this vir what we will and will not do. the virus will teach us what is safe and what is prudent to do. >> reporter: in california, the same decision with even more impact. officials in los angeles and sag announced classrooms will stay closed-- online learning only-- when school start that affects more than 800,000 students. los angeles mayor eric garcetti. >> we'

for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> nawaz: georgia governor brian kemp's order has put the issue of masks front and center in that state. with me now is kelly girtz.s hedemocrat and the mayor of athens, clarke county, georgia, which moved to requiret peopwear masks in public earlier this month. mayor girtz, welcome to the "newshour" and thanks for making the time. i want to ask yte about some ews we've just gotten about governor brian kemp and the state attorney general suing the atlanta mayor keisha bottoms and the security council for their requirement for public mask wearing.ou what is reaction to that? >> amna, this has alleen so deeply frustrating. platform for health and safety for the local population. i have been in constant contact with mayor bottoms and other mayors throughout the state and, in lieu of action, on a stveewide basis, as ween in other republican-led states like alabama and w arkansa need to act as local boots on the ground who are keeping people in our community safe. we are going to continue with ou order in athens-clarke county as mayor bottoms dic

lisa desjardins breaks down the races to watch.ardins: republicans the new year as the favorites to hold the senate in november. just take a look at the cook political report's senate predicons from january, showing an uphill battle for democrats. a number of lind safe seats for republicans in red. just three toss-up seats in yellow, but now, a very different picture. the updated map, published llsterday, shows an increasing number of those toss-up seats. every ratings change-- with the exception of alabama-- favors democrats. here to explain what happened is jessica taylor. she's the sena editor at the cook political report. jessica, so excited to talk about this wild year in the senate. tell us what's happing. >> what we have seen is the past w months everything has changed because f the pandemic, we have seen the political ground shift under republicans and move towards democrats because of thatas well. so, even we were beginning to sort of see some politica shifts happening in march, but seen is a map that is now drastically fa

but as lisa desjardins reports, the biggest question remains, who will share the spotlight with joe biden? >> what started as a debate stage in march. >> i would pick a woman to be my vice president. >> reporter: have put a new twist on time honored campaign parlor game. whanh democratic w will joe biden pick as his presidential around a dozen candidates have been on his rumored short list, elizabeth warren, tammy duckworth. former national security advis advisor, susan rice. atlanta mayor, congresswom val demings. governor michelle grisham and several onhers. >> i'med to be back in north carolina, at least virual virtually. >> reporter: many of the potential picks have already hit e virtual campaign til. >> i think it's important to have people in leadership likebi joden. >> biden moved own to the final round of inte s intersa toe make his choice public soon. >> i'm going to have a choice the first week in august. >> reporter: it is after all just two weeks until democrs hold their next convention, a scaled back event with biden speaki in milwaukee. and august marks exactly 100 years sin

lisa desjardins has behi digging intonew data, and she joins meow. >> so, lisa, you have been through all of this material. there's a lot of it. what did you learn about who got money and how much ey got? >> reporter: judy, this was an incredible troll for data. for someone like us and persons with like me, it was incredibly informative.k let's just lat the big numbers involved here. weearned that 4.9 million loans were given out in thisra prsince april. that, of course, is historic and unprecedented. those loans are connected to 51 million jobs at businesses ross this country. now, jude judy, some of those companies said they didn't save any jobs necessarily. those could have been sole proprietors or could have been companies that didn't use the money for payroll. now, more than 3,000 of those loans were large, over $1 million. as i said, judy, this is extraordinary data. weere particularly able to get very detailed information about the largest groups of loans -- loans over $150,000. now, that's not most of the loans. most of the loans weremaller than that but they were still 600,00

lisa desjardins exploreshat it means. >> desjardins: the 2020 ceus is a once-in-a-decade feat, a oncountthe u.s. popula that will affect policy and power for years. issues, from the pandemic, tod political debate over things like the president's memo about .how it should be conduct to help us understand this, i'm joined by npr's hansi g. thank you so much, and let me start off with the president's move. help us understand it. can the president, in fact, block the census from counting undocumented snirgts. >> well, i think the thing to take look at is the constitution. let's take a look at the actual text of the constitution. constitution, the actual text says "representatives shall be apportioned among the several states accordingo their spective numbers, counting the whole number of perso in each state." and it's the whole number of persons because the 14th amendment was enacted after the civil war, t afterding of the counting slave persons. more than 200 years, the con has included both citizens and noncitizens regardless of immigration status in the population counts that determine ho

. >> woodruff: speaking of a nor narrow basis our lisa desjardins reported like 20 members of your republican caucus have problemwith the proposal, the larger republican proposal that you outlined theay other, given that, are you seriously looking at some st of slim down short term deal here?>> e're looking at all options of course the secretary munchin and chief of staff mark meadows are doing -- negotiating withat the demo. you're right about 20 of my members think we've already done enough. they a deeply concerned. it's understandable about the size of our nation debt now which is ago big as our economy for of the first time srlce war ii. i do have reasonable number of ughters who don't think we to do another package. that is not my view. it's t not majority of our conference view nor is it the view of the president. nment so divided gov we have to sit down with the democrats and work out something hopefully t we'll dot before the end of the week. >> woodruff: what is going to make a difference? todanone other than the chairman of the federal reserve is again saying, theconomy needs the ki

stone's commuted prison sentence, the russia investigati., and much mo capitol hill correspondent lisa desjardins our report. >> desjardins: at the capitol, a socially-distanc confrontation over justice itself, with hamocrats sharply charging attorney general william barr is a puppet forresident trump... >> in your time at the department, you have aided and abetted the worst failings of this president. >> desjardins: ...and with barre insisting ansions were his alone, not mr. trump's. >> he has told me from the start that he expects me to exercise my independent judgment, to make whatever call i think is right. and that is precisely what i have done. >> desjardins: the hearingwn covered well-klashpoints. among them, the case of president trump's friend and adviser, roger stone, convicted of obstructi and lying to congress. barr overruled prosecutors in the case to recommend a lower sentence than they had. barr told democrats it was the only time he's done that in this administration, but that it was because the original recommendati was way out of line with norms. >> the judge agreed wi the judge

. >> woodruff: a lot of people watching this very, very osely closely, lisa desjardins we thank you. >> woodruff: we'll speak to a leading republican lawmaker in just a moment. but first, let's hear from some of t people who stand to be directly impacted by the legislation at hand. two of the major sticking points lisa just mentioned-- extending unemplment benefits past the vid of the month, and protecting businesses from related lawsuits-- are at the top of many people's minds. >> so, i own a small taproom focused brewery just outside o atlanta in evandale estates, georgia. d we've been open just a year now. so it's quite an interesting year going through aandemic. we have not been able to hire people to come and work in the kitchen because they are making more money now with the ditional $600 that's coming from the federal government than they were making previously. so they don't have an incentive to come to work d they are happy to stay at home while they're able to collect thislo paycheck versuing for employment. >> i currently live in louisville, kentucky. i actually had a full

we just heards reporting from or lisa desjardins about di disagreements still among senat, about what to do. speaker pelos senator schumer say republicans ar in disarray. are you in disarray? >> i listened most of that, i lovely saw, but that was a gross misrepresentation of happened in that room today.at go back and look at first cares act, different components that we've had. $.9 trillion, by the way, only about two trillion has beenfu fully allocat.we we have a trillion dollars yetto to flow into the economy. there are several key points, w w see how that is receiveded and impacted the business world. also ou hospitals and schools. we proced seven million new jobs between last halff mayan and month of june.th the economy is beginning to open up again. we need to foll the protocol and what we're talking about right now are priorities to support not only the opening ofu our businesses, but also the r reopening of our schools, more hospitals, what we don't want to do turn this into a binary conversation between liability protection and bailing out our st financially troubled states.ng