author, jesmyn ward.eaturing the 8g band with gregg bissonette. ♪ [ cheers and applause ] ladies and gentlemen, seth meyers. >> seth: good evening, i'm seth meyers. this is "late night." how is everybody doing tonight? [ cheers and applause ] fantastic to hear. in that case, let's get to the news. white house press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders today said there isn't anything to clarify about trump's position on nfl players kneeling during the national anthem, because the issue is, quote, "pretty black and white." [ laughter ] and then she winked so hard, her podium fell over. [ laughter and applause ] health and human services secretary, tom price, apologized this afternoon for flying on taxpayer-funded private jets. though there was probably a more cost-efficient way to apologize. [ laughter and applause ] democrats are reportedly hopeful that controversial judge roy moore's republican primary victory in alabama, may boost their chances for competitive senate race in the state. in a related story, w

author jesmyn ward explores love, class and race in her new novel., a view from someone who likens her family's life in north korea to being held hostage. but first, the u.s. census is generally considered more technical than controversial, but in recent months, the once-a-decade population count has been the subject of political debate. there has been no move to replace director john thompson since his surprise resignation last spring. commerce secretary wilbur ross recently asked congress for additional funding to keep the agency from collapsing. hari sreenivasan spoke with former census director kenneth prewitt, to discuss what a crippled census in 2020 could mean for our democracy. but he begins with a quick look at how the census affects us all. >> sreenivasan: here's a bit of civics 101. the u.s. census is an attempt by the government to count every person living in the united states. every ten years, the census bureau gathers information like gender, age, race and income. >> we did it. we did it, hey! >> what did you do? >> we helped mommy fil

. >> woodruff: also ahead, jeffrey brown goes to mississippi to talk with award-winning author jesmynard about how her home and family influence her fiction. >> i was very conscious that my mom cleaned houses like this for a living. and that historically, i knew people like me didn't i

author, jesmyn ward.larify about trump's position on nfl players kneeling during the national anthem, because the issue is, quote, "

on friday, national book award winner jesmyn ward looks at love, class and race in her new novel "singried sing". i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> collette. >> 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. >> you don't think senate ma joort leader mcconnell will have to resort to the so called nuclear option. >> last year you seemed to be relick tenant to get involved, or to intervene in syria directly s that one thing that has changed after yesterday? >> you are saying this really does have a major impact on the species that live captioning sponsor