judy: we turn now to our lisa desjardins covering president biden's response. ow you were looking, listening as the president made those remarks today. it was a determined speech. what stood out to you? lisa: this was not a political speech. this was different than candidate biden. he was clear in saying this is my defense of what i've done, i admit that this happened more quickly than i thought. there was no messaging here. this was joe biden, someone who is a student of history. there was not however a really clear addressing of the major questions thatou heard just now from jane. why was there not a better plan for how the u.s. would pull back? and what is the u.s. culpability here? he can say that afghan forces collapsed, but the u.s. was supporting those forces. when the u.s. pulled out, was there really a plan for how they could get their own aircraft in the air? those things he did not answer. judy: you cover capitol hill 24/7. number of lawmakers are pushing back hard at the president. what are you hearing? lisa: this is an interesting moment. some democ

lisa desjardins begins our coverage. ide the kabul airport, throngs still desperately try to get past the razor wire barriers. many stand and wait in an open sewer. the biden administration has faced heavy pressure to answer exactly how remaining americans and afghan allies will be brought out. out front today answering questions, secretary of state antony blinken. >> i take responsibility. i know the president has said he takes responsibility. and i know all of my colleagues across government feel the same way. lisa: he seemed to try and quell the panic in kabul by saying he expects the taliban will let peop leave even after the u.s. is gone. >> we will use every diplomatic, economic, assistance tool at our dispos, working hand-in-hand with the international community first and foremost to ensu that those who want to leave afghanistan after the 31'st are able to do so. lisa: but trusting the taliban in the past was a life-and death risk. u.s. officials have acknowledged that evacuation flights will slow down in the comin

lisa: for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins.ck shortly th ballet dancer misty copeland and choreographer kyle abraham on communicating through dance. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chan judy: renowned ballet dancer misty copeland and choreographer kyle abraham share a deep connection that shines brightly through in their creative collaborations. tonight, they offer their brief but spectacular take on communicating through movement, as part of our arts and culture series, canvas. kyle: there's so much that goes into making a new work, especially in this capacity where i get to collaborate with misty. there's so much more to dance thanust phrase making or the steps. what are you seeing and what are you feeling? it's really important when you're having a relationship with a choreographer and dancer to really talk about what the movement feels like. i'm not the one doing it. misty: that's what's so beautiful about what we do. it's about our interpretation and how we make people feel. growing upn

. >> woodruff: and we turn now to our own lisa desjardins who is covering president biden's response.lisa, i know you were looking, you were listening as the president made those remarks today. it was a determined speech. what stood out to you. >> a number of things. first of all, this is not a political speech. this is durch than candidate biden. he was very clear in saying this is my defense of what i have do. i will admit one thing, this happened more quickly than i thought. and there was no message in here. this was joe biden, someone who is himself a student of history. now there was not in this speech, however, a really kreer addressing of the major questions you heard just now from jane. why was there not a better plan for how the u.s. would pull back and what is the u.s. cul ability. you can say afghan forces collapsed but the u.s. was supporting those forces, and when the u.s. pulled out was there really a plan for how they could get their own aircraft in the air. those things he did not answer. >> woodruff: and lisa, you cover capitol hill 24/7. a number of lawmakers are you

thankfully, lisa desjardins is here to help us understand what's next. lisa, so good to see you. this is the time for the democrats to go full force on this. they want to use this process known as reconciliation. my definition in the dictionary is reconciliation conjures people trying to get over their acrimony and work out their differences, maybe not so on capitol hill, right? >> that's how normal people would define that term. no, on capitol hill, the term reconciliation is a very specific budget process, you're reconciling figures and dollars together and, when you do that, you can use a loophole in the process that allows you to get past something with just 50 votes and not 60. so think of reconciliation in the senate as fast track and a way around the filibuster. that's why democrats want to use it. it has to have budgetary effects, though, so the numbers are going to be important and the next month will be critical because chuck schumer says he wants his democrats to come up with an outline for this mega bill by september 15th. they're not here until septembe. so zoom meet

amna: and our lisa desjardins joins me now to talk about the president's remarks. u have covered him from years. what did you make of this? lisa: i think this was real insight into his thinking, something a lot of us have wanted to see for days. this was the senator joe biden who was the chairman of the foreign relations committee. this is an area he has a great amount of depth on. however, he was very blunt about where his thinking is coming from. a lot of people are wondering where this is coming from. he said his military commanders were unanimous. should they have stayed longer? no. should we trend more troops -- send more troops? no. he also stressed it is this strange dance with the taliban that is underway rht now that is part of this thinking, that he wants to leave by august 31 because he taliban, that coordination has allowed people to flow out of the airport in a certain way. it is also notably have that joe biden who was reaching out as the mourner in chief and it felt palpable to me what he was saying about the loss of a dozen american servicemembers. a

lisa desjardins joins me now to take us through it. isa, a little light reading for you over the last less than 24 hours. tell us after all these weeks of working on this, give us a sense of what is in this piece of legislation. >> you're right, judy, we are still digesting this 2700 page historically large infrastructure bill. but i want to go through some highlights of what we know is in it. first of all, how large is it we don't have a final number but we're talking about $1 frl, that includes new funding that's been added and also expected fnding that was already probably going to be in the pipeline for infrastructure anyway. let's talk about specifics. $65 billion for broadband. $66 billion for railways,hat is a huge investment, particularly in amtrak as well as freight, but one of the biggest jumps is 343 billion dollars, that is all the money new and expected for roads and bridges. and there's a reason for that. look at our roads and bridges in this country, for roads the american society of civil engineers say 43 percent of our

lisa desjardins has been talking to lawmakers, n.g.o. , refugees and others about those shortcomings, and she joins me now. lisa, as we said, you've been talking to all of these folks. you've been talking to people around the country. were you shared your notes with us in the middle of the night, in fact, last night. tell us what is happening at this point with all these efforts to get these afghans to safety. >> i spent days working on this, and i have to say it would be an improvement to call this a bureaucratic nightmare. it is not even clear what the bureaucratic path is for isn't of these afghans. essentially what you have right now is an army, an undesignated army of n.g.o.s, and thousands of individual americans who have some close, and sometimes not very close relationships with an afghan family, that is pleading for help to try to navigate the path that jane was reporting for. how do you get that application to the gate of the kabul airport? and what is that worth? right now we have a situation where even congressional offices, w

lisa desjardins explains. >> desjardins: dozens of homes reduced to ashes. burned out cars.irefighters sorting through the rubble. this is the devastation left after the "cache" fire tore through a mobile home park in clearlake, california yesterday. >> your house? >> it's gone. all gone. up here, it's ash. i don't even recognize it. >> desjardins: the historic drought and high winds are fueling more than 100 large wildfires across the american west. they have burned across some 2.5 million acres so far. in california, more than a dozen large fires are threatening tens of thousands of homes. in the north, the dixie and caldor fires are continuing to burn through forests and small, rural towns. >> nearly every acre of california has the potential to burn these days. >> desjardins: daniel berlant from california's state fire agency says firefighrs are devoted but stretched. >> but many of them haven't seen their family in weeks. and so that takes an emotional toll on our firefighters. and the fact tt we're having this nonstop activity in july and august is going to be a major

. >> nawaz: and >> nawaz: our lisa desjardins joins me now, following the president's remarks. you make of what the president had to say? >> reporter: this was a real insight into his thinking, something we've wanted to see for days. this was the senator joe biden, who was the chairman of the foreign relationships committee. this is an area he has a great amount of depth on. however, one thing i noticed, he was very blunt about where his thinking was coming from. people were thinking where was his thinking come from. he said they were unanimous to do this. should they have stayed long? it was unanims no. and he stressed it is this sort of strange dance with the taliban that is under way right now that is part of his thinking, that, in fact, he wants to leave by august 31st because the taliban, in his words, that coordination has alwed people to flow to thairport in a pertinent way. i also think it was notable that you have that joe biden who was reaching out as te mourner-in-chief. it felt palpable to me what he was saying about the loss of a doen american service members. but

lisa desjardins explains. it's called qualified immunity, a legal principle which can protect officers from lawsuits when they harm people while on the job. police reform advocates have long wanted it to end while others think it's an important protection for law enforcement. and dropping it from police reform talks makes it easier for conservatives, but possibly harder for progressives to get on board. to help us understand the different sides of the debate, i'm joined by joanna schwartz, professor of law at ucla and a leading expert on police misconduct litigation. and lenny kesten, a lawyer in boston who has represented hundreds of police officers in civil rights cases. to both of you, qualified immunity for police has been a major flashpoint in this discussion, but you both agree it is not granted by courts that often. joanna, what is the biggest issue with it? why is it important? joanna: qualified immunity protects law enforcement officers and other government officials even when they have violated the co

our lisa desjardins has that. lisa: and for that, we get two views.li jalali was afghanistan's minister of the interior from 2003 to 2005 and afghanistan's ambassador to germany from 2016 to 2018. he was a military officer in the afghan national army when the soviets invaded and was a military planner in the resistance against the soviets. he's now a distinguished professor at the national defense university in washington, d.c. and torek farhadi was an advisor to the governor of the central bank of afghanistan, and a senior economic advisor to former afghan president hamid karzai. he is now an independent analyst. i want to start off with something jane ferguson reported. the taliban is clearly fighting on the field of public relations, using buzzwords, thgs like inclusive. torek, what do you think this means, and is it having an effect? torek:, the messaging is right -- look, the messaging is right. the afghan people are tired of war. and we arrived in some ways at the best of all solutions available. if we had put all the options next to each other,

lisa desjardins has more on the difference it could make. lisa: the bill would be the largest investment in clean water in american history and it tackles enormous issues. as many as 22 million americans get their drinking water from systems with lead pipes, known as potentially toxic, and twice as many americans rely on systems in violation of safe standards. the senate infrastructure bill would spend about $50 billion to overhaul those systems. i'm joined by erik olsonsenior strategic director for health anfood at the natural resources defense council. erik, let's start with the big picture here. how seris are the issues with clean water in this country right now? and how is this bill trying to tackle them? erik: unfortunately, the whole issue of water infrastructure has been out of sight, out of mind. we've got water systems all over the country that are falling apart, that are aging. many of them 50 to 100 years old. so it's a huge problem nationwide in all 50 states and it's not just the lead pipes but it's also things like sewer, combin

congressional correspondent lisa desjardins is here to walk us through it. hi. >> nawaz: clearly a contentious day with these two big bills. walk us through what happened. >> take a deep breath. i'll try to keep this simple. but it was a very dramatic day of action on two of the biggest bills in the democratic agenda and two of the biggest bills in u.s. history. first, there is that infrastructure bill. if you look at that, the infrastructure bill is something that we know has the votes to pass. it is a bipartisan bill. it all right passed the senate. the other bill we're talking about is that $3.5 trillion bill, somewhere around there, biden bill called "build back better." it is not clear what it is quite yet. speaker pelosi trying to get both of these bills passed, tied the one that has the votes to the one that doesn't, the build back better vote. this was her plan. she said only when the large biden bill passes will i give that bipartisan one a chance. today that changed. that is because of the 10 democrats you reported on, the moderates, who said no, we

but, as lisa desjardins reports, it also includes some unexpected provisions on climate change. is an infrastructure bill. it's not a climate bill. but given the little amount of action on the issue so far, what is in this bill would make it the most significant climate legislation to come out of congress yet. it would include $150 billion for clean energy and to protect from climate change. tens of billions are to fight drought and respond to wildfire, flooding, and erosion. and there's a host of smaller programs -- low-emission buses, cleaner ports, streets with less run-off, even more trees. to help us understand what this means, i'm joined by rebecca leber, who covers climate change for vox. rebecca, tell us, what do you think are the most significant things in this bill for clime change? rebecca: i think this addresses two important sectors that contribute to climate change. one is our transportation sector. so, the bill makes a lot of investments in electric vehicles and also public transit, which are both critical to bringing down our pollution and the biggest contributor

one key portion expands broadband internet access for millions of americans lisa desjardins explains.among the larger single pieces in this bill is $65 billion set aside for high- speed broadband, long seen as an area with some big gaps and disparities. some 30 million people in the u.s. either have no internet or get it at speeds too slow to access the modern web. another 100 million have some access but don't subscribe to broadband, many because they can't afford it. this deal addresses both, with large amounts to put broadband in new communities and 14 billion to help with affordability. we turn now to nicol turner lee, senior fellow of governance studies and director of the center for technology and innovation at the brookings institution. nicol, tell us, who are we talking about in terms of americans who don't have high speed internet and what does it actually mean in their lives? >> the pandemic has definitely demonstrated that being connected mattered, right, whether you were a school-age child that needed to be online to get access to learning, whether you are remotely working

as senators work to pass the plan in their chamber, our lisa desjardins takes another detailed look at the bill. >> desjardins: at the heart of this billion-dollar-plus bill, by far the largest piece is classic transportation-- things that help us move. there is more than $453 billion total is for roads, bridges and surface transportation. another $66 billion is for railways, and there are billions for ferries. there is need. an estimated one in five roads in this country is in poor condition, and tens of thousands of bridges need repair. anyone who has gone near an american city knows that traffic is getting worse. joining us to unpack this major part of this bill is tom smith from the american society of civil engineers. ed tom, i've got to say, all these numbers this week, sometimes it feels like funny money. can you help us understand what nearly $500 billion means, and how much of our road and bridge problem will that solve? >> this is a problem that we've had and failing to invest our infrastructure for many, many decades. we do a report card on america's infrastructure and for t

. >> brangham: as always, lisa desjardins, thanks for helping us get through all of this. >> you're welcome. >> brangham: across the country, school mask mandates are dividing communities. this was the scene following a school board meeting in williamson county, tennessee last night when medical professionals were threatened and heckled for recommending masks in schools. in mississippi, a state also hard hit by this coronavirus surge, the oxford school district originally ruled masks were optional for students and staff. but the school superintendent overruled them, mandating face coverings, regardless of vaccination status. this move has drawn criticism from many parents and the board. that superintendent, bradley roberson, joins me now. superintendent, great to have you on the "newshour". help me understand what happened here. the school board said we're going to leave it up to the parents and teachers and staff to decide whether they wear masks inside schools. but you overruled them. why? >> well, we were gathering data from across the state. there are a couple of school districts that s