JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight:
SEN.
MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), Majority Leader: I believe the women, yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calls for Alabama Republican Senate
candidate Roy Moore to step aside in the wake of sexual misconduct accusations from multiple
women.
Then: President Trump meets with controversial President Duterte in the Philippines, where
a brutal drug war has raised serious human rights concerns.
And Yemen in crisis -- famine, war and disease leave a nation in ruin and a haven for extremism.
Plus, Jeffrey Brown meets up with former Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant, who talks
about his new album and a new musical perspective.
ROBERT PLANT, Musician: It's bridled.
It's contained more.
It's a good place to go and it's a bit of a surprise.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour"
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: Alabama's Republican nominee to the U.S. Senate, Roy Moore, faces new pressure
tonight to quit the race, and new allegations of sexual contact decades ago with teenage
girls.
Lisa Desjardins begins our coverage.
LISA DESJARDINS: Now 55 years old, Beverly Young Nelson alleges that Senate candidate
Roy Moore violently assaulted her when she was 16 after offering her a ride home.
BEVERLY YOUNG NELSON, Roy Moore Accuser: Mr. Moore reached over and began groping me, him
putting his hands on my breasts.
I tried fighting him off while yelling at him to stop, but instead of stopping, he began
squeezing my neck, attempting to force my head on to his crotch.
LISA DESJARDINS: Sitting with her high-profile attorney, Gloria Allred, Nelson gave details,
including showing that Moore, then district attorney, signed her yearbook a few days before
the alleged attack.
She says she came forward publicly now after hearing the charges of other women.
BEVERLY YOUNG NELSON: I want Mr. Moore to know that he no longer has any power over
me and I no longer live in fear of him.
LISA DESJARDINS: Her story sparked a new round of reaction.
Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, who oversees GOP Senate elections, said the Senate should
expel Moore if he win his Senate seat.
Hours earlier, the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said Moore should drop out
of the race.
SEN.
MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), Majority Leader: I think he should step aside.
LISA DESJARDINS: McConnell added that he believes the accusations from four women in the original
The Washington Post story that ran last week.
SEN.
MITCH MCCONNELL: I believe the women, yes.
LISA DESJARDINS: Moore fired back at McConnell on Twitter, saying the Senate leader is the
one who should step aside.
Repeatedly, including in Birmingham over the weekend, the former state chief justice has
insisted he is innocent.
ROY MOORE (R), Alabama Senatorial Candidate: These attacks involve a minor and they are
completely false and untrue.
To think that grown women would wait 40 years to come before, right before an election,
to bring charges is absolutely unbelievable.
LISA DESJARDINS: Moore said he will sue The Washington Post over the original story.
Those who may decide Moore's fate, Alabama voters, were mixed following those first accusations,
some critical of him.
MAN: Nothing that he says holds any water with me.
LISA DESJARDINS: But others taking Moore's word over his accusers.
MAN: Yes, right now, I believe him.
I surely do.
MAN: If it was me, if somebody had done me wrong, I would go ahead when the event took
place, I would say something then.
Why would I wait 30 years?
LISA DESJARDINS: For now, Moore is set to take on Democrat Doug Jones on December 12.
His new accuser says she wants a Senate hearing on her charges within two weeks.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Late today, two more U.S. senators withdrew their support of Moore: John Cornyn
of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
We will explore the Roy Moore story in greater detail a little later in the program.
In the day's other news: President Trump called for major changes to Republican tax reform
plans.
In a tweet from Asia, he advocated for -- quote -- "ending the unfair and highly unpopular
individual mandate under Obamacare."
He also urged cutting the top rate to 35 percent, with -- quote -- "all the rest going to middle-income
cuts."
Republican bills in the House and Senate do not include either proposal.
In Iran, rescuers dug with their bare hands today, after a powerful earthquake killed
at least 445 people and injured 7,300 more.
It struck last night near the border with Iraq and sent tremors as far as the Mediterranean
coast.
Geraint Vincent of Independent Television News reports.
GERAINT VINCENT: On ruined streets in the towns of Western Iran, people gather around
holes in the rubble in the search of signs of life.
The earthquake struck only 24 hours ago, so the chances of finding survivors are still
strong.
But when hopes are dashed and they have to recover the bodies of the dead, their work
is accompanied by the wailing of the grief-stricken.
The earthquake reached across the border between Iran and Iraq, where people ran for their
lives from supermarkets which emptied as the stock was shaken off the shelves.
And in this glass-fronted cafe, even as they were escaping, the doors shattered.
And on the security camera screens in the control room of a dam near the epicenter,
the pictures show that it's not always safer outside.
Huge rocks were thrown down the hillside, and across the car park.
On the Iranian side of the border last night, hospitals suddenly found themselves overwhelmed,
corridors full of the injured and traumatized survivors.
The quake shook remote regions, where thousands were made homeless in a few moments, and now
face cold nights with no shelter.
Where the rockfall happened, near the epicenter, the boulders have come to a halt.
But there are big cracks in the structure of the dam, and fears that it could burst.
JUDY WOODRUFF: That from Geraint Vincent of Independent Television News.
A Saudi Arabian coalition is lifting a blockade of air and sea ports controlled by the government
in Yemen.
That's after aid organizations warned that it would trigger a humanitarian disaster.
The coalition had said it needed to cut off the flow of weapons to rebels in Yemen.
A North Korean soldier was shot and wounded by his own side today as he bolted across
the border to South Korea.
It happened at the Truce Village at Panmunjom.
The defector is now in a South Korean hospital, with wounds to his shoulder and elbow.
Global carbon pollution is up for the first time in three years.
An international team of scientists reported the findings today in Bonn, Germany.
It came after carbon dioxide emissions had leveled off in 2014.
CORINNE LE QUERE, Climate Change Science and Policy Specialist: The plateau and now the
renewed rise this year are all driven primarily by what is happening in China, with the renewed
use of coal this year anticipated as a result of stimulus probably from the government,
pushing industrial production up again this year.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. and Europe have actually declined
slightly this year, but by less than in previous years.
Back in this country, the president has nominated former drug company executive Alex Azar to
be secretary of health and human services.
Azar worked for Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company, for most of the last decade.
Before that, he held senior posts at HHS in the George W. Bush administration.
If confirmed, he'd succeed Tom Price, who resigned over his use of private charter jets
at government expense.
Another woman is accusing former President George H.W. Bush of groping her.
She says it happened as they posed for a photo in 2003, when she was 16 and he was in his
late '70s.
At least five other women have made similar allegations.
A spokesman for Mr. Bush said today that he regrets offending anyone.
And on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 17 points to close at 23439.
The Nasdaq rose six points, and the S&P 500 added two.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": what's come from President Trump's trip to Asia?; the
political fallout from new accusations against Senate candidate Roy Moore; the U.S. role
in Yemen, a country faced with war, disease and starvation; and much more.
President Trump is winding down his 12-day, five-nation trip to Asia by, among other things,
meeting with a controversial leader accused of abusing human rights.
On the surface, at least, it was all pleasantries between Mr. Trump and his host, Philippines
President Rodrigo Duterte.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We have had a great relationship.
This has been very successful.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Up for discussion, trade and fighting terrorism.
In public at least, President Trump didn't mention Duterte's bloody crackdown on drug
suspects.
Philippines officials estimate more than 3,000 people have died.
Human rights groups say it's three times that many.
Duterte has even boasted of killing men with his own hands when he was younger.
After today's meeting, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: "Human rights briefly
came up in the context of the Philippines' fight against illegal drugs."
A spokesman for Duterte denied that Mr. Trump ever raised the issue.
HARRY ROQUE, Spokesman for Rodrigo Duterte: Well, there was no mention of human rights,
there was no mention of extralegal killings.
There was only a rather lengthy discussion about the Philippines' war on drugs with
JUDY WOODRUFF: The leaders ignored reporters' questions.
Duterte called them spies, drawing laughter from President Trump.
Reactions were sharply different in the streets.
Hundreds of people protested the Trump visit, and police beat them back with shields and
water cannons.
Duterte, though, seemed unfazed.
Last night, he even broke into song for his guest of honor.
RODRIGO DUTERTE, Philippine President: Ladies and gentlemen, I sang, uninvited, a duet with
Ms. Pilita Corrales, upon the orders of the commander in chief of the United States.
(LAUGHTER)
JUDY WOODRUFF: Still, there are differences.
Today, Mr. Trump addressed leaders of ASEAN, a bloc of Southeast Asian nations, hoping
they will help counter China's influence.
President Duterte is seeking closer ties with China.
At a forum yesterday, he called it the number one economic power.
RODRIGO DUTERTE: The South China Sea is better left untouched.
Nobody can afford to go to war.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Over the weekend, President Trump drew fire for his embrace of another
strongman, Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
They spoke during a summit of Asian-Pacific leaders in Vietnam.
Afterward, the president was asked if he pressed Putin on Russia's meddling in the 2016 election.
He answered that: "Every time he sees me he says, 'I didn't do that,' and I really believe
that when he tells me that."
Mr. Trump also said U.S. intelligence agency leaders who'd confirmed Russian meddling were
-- quote -- "political hacks."
But, on Sunday, he said he was talking about previous agency heads.
DONALD TRUMP: I'm with our agencies, especially as currently constituted with their leadership.
I believe in our intel agencies.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Tomorrow, the president attends an East Asia summit meeting in Manila, concluding
his Asia tour.
We take a closer look at the trip and what message Mr. Trump is sending to the region
with Richard Haass.
He served in Republican administrations on the National Security Council staff and in
the State Department.
He is now the president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
His latest book is "A World in Disarray."
And Michael Pillsbury is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he directs the
Center for Chinese Strategy.
He was also an adviser to the Trump transition.
And welcome to both of you.
Welcome back to the program.
Michael Pillsbury, to you first.
What is the main thing the president has accomplished on this trip?
MICHAEL PILLSBURY, Former U.S. Assistant Undersecretary of Defense: I think there's two or three things.
The main thing is to lay the foundation for his next trip, next year.
He has laid the foundation in each of these five countries.
He's taken very seriously the three multilateral organizations that he met with.
He's also integrated trade and security in a very unique way that has not been done for
a long time.
If you look at his team at some of these meetings, not only has Secretary of State Tillerson
-- he's also got Bob Lighthizer from USTR.
So it is a unique combination of trade and security put together.
It comes out also in some of the bilateral agreements with the five governments.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Richard Haass, how do you see the accomplishments of the trip so far?
RICHARD HAASS, President, Council on Foreign Relations: Well, the principal accomplishment,
in the spirit of Woody Allen, was showing up, the fact that the president of the United
States went to five countries, spent nearly two weeks, showed up at all these meetings.
I think that says that Asia is important to us.
This was, however in part undone by his own lack of discipline.
You mentioned some of the things in your introduction, the kind treatment of the illiberal, to say
the least, president of the Philippines, the statements about Mr. Putin, the trashing of
former American intelligence officials.
All this detracted from the trip.
And where I disagree with Michael Pillsbury fundamentally is the president, rather than
integrating security and trade, if anything, divorced the two.
And historians will say, I will predict, the principal decision of the trip was to further
distance the United States from the dynamism in the region, to keep the United States outside
the multilateral trade mechanism, and the principal beneficiary of that is China, as
our allies and friends are essentially left to their own devices.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, let's take those one at a time, Michael Pillsbury.
MICHAEL PILLSBURY: Sure.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What about his first, Richard Haass's first point, that the president, with
all these comments flattering the strongmen, cozying up to people who have not been seen
as friendly to the U.S., that that really hurt the overall effort to get something done?
MICHAEL PILLSBURY: Human rights was mentioned in the bilateral statement between the Philippines
and the United States.
So it is a little bit unfair for Richard to say -- you know, be as harsh as he is.
This is a first time out.
And I completely agree with invoking Woody Allen that 90 percent of life just showing
up.
But it's more than that.
He got some agreements.
When I mentioned trade and economics being integrated, I'm talking about the businessmen
who showed up in Beijing with a promised $250 billion in deals.
Businessmen were part of each of the stops.
So it cannot be denied that Trump is trying to integrate trade and investment with security
issues.
I think also it's important that he laid out an exit ramp for the leader of North Korea.
This is new.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, let me stop you there.
I want to come back to Richard on that point about trade and security, and then we will
come back to North Korea.
Richard, what about that?
RICHARD HAASS: Deals are not the answer.
A lot of these deals in part represented previous agreements that then may take five, 10, 15
years to really come to fruition.
That is going to then make the size of them quite insignificant.
The real economic opportunity was to integrate the United States in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
It would have set very high standards for the region.
China is not a part of it.
And it would have forced China to make a decision, stay outside the region economically or join
it, but join it on term terms that we want, that they have to open up to investment and
trade, that they can't demand certain types of technology transfer, they can't steal technology.
So, we had this mechanism which we helped negotiate, and then Mr. Trump has walked away
from it.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, did the U.S. lose ground with regard to China in Asia?
MICHAEL PILLSBURY: No, I don't think so.
I understand Richard Haass' criticism of walking away from TPP.
I think what the president has in mind is replacing it in two ways.
One is some sort of benefit from TPP.
It's not entirely dropped.
Some aspects of it can be incorporated in the new framework, which is bilateral agreements
with each of these major trading nations.
The other thing I need to remind Richard Haass of is an excellent book he once wrote called
"Reluctant Sheriff."
It has the concept in that book of a ripeness or ripening, when an issue is ready to be
settled.
It is a very important thing in geopolitics to know when it is time to do something.
Right now, it's time to move toward more bilateral trade agreements that are fairer to us.
It's also time to talk about North Korea, which he did at every stop, but in a much
more measured way than some of the military threats that had been used earlier.
In fact, there was very little discussion of sort of an attack on North Korea during
the trip.
I think that is a good thing.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Richard Haass, what about the North Korea point and then about the trade,
whether the timing is right?
MICHAEL PILLSBURY: And about this great book "The Reluctant Sheriff."
(LAUGHTER)
RICHARD HAASS: It's impossible to criticize someone who says nice things about something
you have written.
(LAUGHTER) RICHARD HAASS: But let me come to North Korea.
That's obviously the most urgent national security threat, not just in the region, but
the world.
The president, I think, erred by some of his public tweeting and so forth, but, privately,
the real question is, over time, did he line up Japan, South Korea and, most important,
China to work with us more on putting pressure on North Korea?
And even more, I think the question will be, Judy, is the United States now prepared to
introduce an element of diplomacy.
The choices are essentially living with North Korea with a large missile and nuclear inventory.
That is not desirable.
Going to war with North Korea, also not desirable.
So why not introduce a serious diplomatic dimension?
It won't eliminate the problem, but it could cap and stabilize it and create a baseline.
I don't see that yet.
I'm hoping.
And, again, this is one trip, I realize.
It's not an entire foreign policy.
We will have to look back on it one day.
I'm hoping that that ultimately gets introduced.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we are going to have an opportunity in the future to look back
at this.
(LAUGHTER)
JUDY WOODRUFF: We want to thank both you, both the promoter of the book and the author
himself.
(LAUGHTER)
JUDY WOODRUFF: Richard Haass, Michael Pillsbury, thank you both.
MICHAEL PILLSBURY: Richard is being too harsh on President Trump.
That is my final view.
(LAUGHTER)
MICHAEL PILLSBURY: Thank you, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Thank you.
Now back to the accusations of sexual misconduct against the Republican Party's Senate candidate
in Alabama, Roy Moore.
We turn first to Don Dailey.
He covers politics for Alabama Public Television, and he joins us now from Birmingham.
Don Dailey, welcome back to the program.
So, we now have a fifth woman making serious accusations against Judge Moore.
What is the reaction there?
DON DAILEY, Alabama Public TV: Well, we heard today from the head of the Alabama Republican
Party in her first public statements since last week's accusations broke.
And she said that it is her interpretation that support for Roy Moore, at least among
the party loyal and among his loyal base, seems to be surging.
Terry Lathan, who is the chair of the Alabama Republican Party, said today that there are
no plans now to seek an alternate candidate or to endorse a write-in candidate in this
race.
She says anything is possible, but so far the state Republican Party steering committee,
which guides her in making decisions, has not decided to meet and discuss this issue.
And, again, she is saying, the state Republican Party chair, that Roy Moore's support seems
to be surging.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Don Dailey, are people there saying they believe these women are
simply making all this up?
DON DAILEY: There are some within the Republican Party, especially those who are very loyal
to Roy Moore, his base, who have said they don't believe these allegations, that they
believe he is the victim of a political attack.
And they question the timing, obviously, of the allegations released, coming only a month
before the election.
There are others in Alabama who have said they believe these accusations and that they
believe Moore should step aside from the Senate race.
They are largely either Democrats or independents or moderates.
But Roy Moore's base, which is fervent and solid here in Alabama -- and they have come
out twice supported him in both the primary and run-off elections -- by and large seem
to be sticking by him so far.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And what about the growing number of Republican senators in Washington
or from around the country who are saying that he either needs to step aside or they
are at the very least withdrawing their endorsement?
DON DAILEY: I think that is reason for concern among some here in Alabama, even some Republicans
here in Alabama.
But Roy Moore himself in the last few days has at least wondered aloud in public whether
or not establishment Republicans in Washington may have been behind the release of these
allegations, Republicans who might be worried about him being a maverick and not necessarily
toeing the Republican line.
That's been an open question of debate in this story as it unfolds here in Alabama.
But Republicans, by and large, here in Alabama, at least publicly, are saying that they are
standing behind Judge Moore for now.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And what about the Democrats, Don?
What are they saying?
DON DAILEY: Democrats by and large are expressing a lot of concern about these accusations.
They're saying that they believe these women who have come forward and they believe that
the accusations alone are grounds for Roy Moore to step aside.
Interestingly, Roy Moore's Democratic opponent in next month's general U.S. Senate election
here, Doug Jones, has said very little publicly.
He has acknowledged the scandal.
He has publicly called on Roy Moore to answer these serious charges, as he put it.
But his campaign narrative, as has continued out on the campaign trail in recent days,
has been focused more on his core message, things like health care and jobs and the economy,
rather than focusing on the allegations against Roy Moore.
He seems to be at least sitting back and letting the story unfold on its own.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And just quickly, Don, going back to what you said at the very beginning
of our conversation, that the head of the Republican Party in Alabama says support for
Roy Moore is surging today, are they basing that on polls or anecdotally?
DON DAILEY: I think it's probably more anecdotally.
You may be aware that a couple of polls have been conducted in Alabama since these allegations
broke.
And they have been back and forth on who is the leader of this race.
These public polls have suggested that Roy Moore was still ahead.
There are others that have suggested that he was tied with Doug Jones.
And new reports -- or new polls, rather, today went back to suggesting that he is leading
by as much as 10 percentage points.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All right, Don Dailey with Alabama Public Television, watching it all
very closely, we thank you.
DON DAILEY: Thank you, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And back here in Washington, we're joined by our politics Monday team,
Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and Tamara Keith of NPR.
Welcome to you both.
So, Tamara, we just heard from Alabama, what people are saying down there.
What are you hearing here in Washington about this, this new accuser, a woman who came forward
today in New York, is from Alabama, but also the senators?
TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Yes, so this was -- this was different.
You know, the past allegations came in a newspaper article.
This is live on television video of an accuser who is deeply emotionally distraught and offering
very specific details about this event that happened 40 years ago.
And, almost immediately, the reaction from senators was prompt.
And you have Cory Gardner, who is the head of the NRSC, who is responsible for getting
Republicans elected in 2018, saying that Roy Moore should step aside, and, if he doesn't,
expulsion is the direction they would go, trying to expel him from the Senate.
And that seems to be the way it's going.
There are a lot of different scenarios that have been gamed out in Washington in recent
days.
But it seems like Republican senators are starting to consolidate behind that idea.
And just moments ago, reporting from the hallways of Capitol Hill, I'm seeing that Luther Strange
is now giving interviews.
He's the current Republican senator from Alabama, temporarily, saying that he thinks a write-in
candidacy is unlikely at this time.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And that is what we were hearing, Amy, from Don Dailey in Birmingham, saying
that was what the word is there.
It sounds like senators, the Senate Republicans in Washington, now expect that Roy Moore could
very well win this race.
AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Absolutely.
Republicans have almost a no-win situation here with Roy Moore.
If he wins, they have then the reality in front of them, as Tam pointed out, that many
of these senators now calling for his expulsion, or at least one of the most prominent senators
there, Senator Cory Gardner, saying, we will expel him from the United States Senate.
If he loses, then, of course, they are now down to an only one-seat majority.
They're trying to pass tax reform, which then would be the barest margin, if they don't
pass it by the middle of December.
And so this would put so many things into jeopardy.
But, as I said, regardless, whether he wins or loses, Republicans are in a very, very
difficult place.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What kind of territory are we in, Tam, when we are talking about expelling
a senator who has just been elected?
Do we know yet how that works?
TAMARA KEITH: Yes, potentially reversing the will of the voters.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Exactly.
TAMARA KEITH: There is a process for it.
And the reason that these Republican senators are even contemplating this is because this
isn't just about Alabama.
This isn't just about 2017.
This is about 2018 and 2020.
And if they were to have a fellow senator who is accused of these very serious things
serving side by side with them, it would become a campaign issue in every single campaign.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, it may be -- it may be that he flies, is acceptable in Alabama, Amy,
but their concern is about what this looks like for the rest of the country.
AMY WALTER: Absolutely.
And I think you are already going to see that Democrats are going to try to attach Republican
candidates and Republican incumbents to Roy Moore.
They're already asking incumbents and candidates to come out publicly and say what their opinion
is of Roy Moore.
And so he will become in many ways sort of a poster child for the Republican Party, that
is -- if you are Republicans, you are worried that you are going to see this person and
what he has done in campaign ads all through 2018, even if you have come out and said,
I would like to see him gone.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Talk about a split Republican Party.
AMY WALTER: Yes.
And this is a bigger challenge, I think, if you just sort of step back for a minute, which
is what -- the difference between what we are hearing from Alabama in the report you
just had before us and what you are hearing in Washington.
This has been sort of a constant under the Trump era of the divide in the Republican
Party between the so-called establishment here in Washington and Republicans on the
ground.
The other person that is helping on the ground, of course, is Steve Bannon and Breitbart News,
who are encouraging Roy Moore to stay in this race, that are discrediting the women, are
trying to find ways...
JUDY WOODRUFF: Far-right extremist news site.
AMY WALTER: Yes.
Trying to find ways to discredit the women, discredit The Washington Post.
There was a time, Judy, when if a national news organization came in and uncovered serious
crimes about a candidate, that would be taken very, very seriously.
Now, because it came from The Washington Post, it is discredited.
Same with Washington itself.
There was a time when a United States senator saying it's time for to you step down would
mean they would step down.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Would be the kiss of death.
AMY WALTER: Absolutely.
That matters zero.
And so it's more than just this race, Judy.
It goes to show that, whether he comes here or not, there is a new world order that is
coming to the way that we do politics.
And it is going to reverberate far beyond this race.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, while all this has been going on, Tam, this has sucked a lot of oxygen
out of the room, but there is this tax reform plan the Republicans are trying to get done.
There is a House version.
There's a Senate version.
What does it look like right now?
TAMARA KEITH: And just to talk about briefly how much oxygen has been sucked out, Mitch
McConnell was in Kentucky doing an event about tax reform, when he got asked about Roy Moore
and ended up making news about Roy Moore, and no one is talking about taxes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Nobody even knows what he said.
Well...
TAMARA KEITH: Well, somebody must know.
But that didn't make the news tonight.
So , the House is expected this week to pass their tax bill, and -- with Republican votes
alone, obviously -- and the Senate is working its way through it.
They're marking it up.
It is in committee.
They -- at the moment the House and Senate are on schedule with this very aggressive
schedule.
But there are a lot of things to work out between now and actually having something
that could get to the president's desk.
JUDY WOODRUFF: A lot of things to work out, Amy, but a lot of pressure on Republicans
to get this done.
AMY WALTER: A lot of pressure.
When I talk to Republicans, they say, look, this bill may not be the greatest thing in
the world, but if we don't pass it, we are doomed, because we will have completed an
entire term with a Republican House and Senate and White House and have absolutely nothing
to show for it.
It would be a disaster.
So, they're willing to take the risk on a bill that right now, at best, Judy, is polling
in the mediocre territory.
Voters are pretty ambivalent about it.
They would rather take the chance with that than take a chance of not having anything
to talk about in 2018.
It's a very difficult place that they're sitting in right now.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And we're looking at that as we get ready for Thanksgiving.
And we will talk about that next week.
AMY WALTER: Next week, exactly.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, Politics Monday, thank you.
TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.
AMY WALTER: You're welcome.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Stay with us.
Coming up on the "NewsHour": austerity measures lead Greeks to have fewer children and sometimes
leave the country altogether; and Jeffrey Brown sits down with Led Zeppelin lead singer
Robert Plant.
But first: As we reported earlier, the Saudi-led, U.S.- backed coalition has begun to lift its
blockade of Yemen.
However, humanitarian groups on the ground say that famine is still a possibility for
millions, while a cholera epidemic rages on.
The "NewsHour"'s P.J. Tobia has the latest on the crisis and the U.S. role in the conflict.
P.J. TOBIA: A brutal civil war, that's led to pestilence, and perhaps soon, says the
United Nations, famine.
Millions are in danger, either from manmade food shortages or an exploding outbreak of
cholera, a waterborne diarrheal disease that could sicken one million people by year's
end.
The three-year civil war has drawn in regional and global powers, global powers spilling
local blood.
Last week, the Saudis enforced a blockade, shutting down ports and border crossings,
preventing critical aid from getting to Yemen.
The Saudis said the move was needed to prevent the flow of arms from Iran.
Today, the blockade was lifted in some areas.
Justin Armstrong is Yemen country director for Doctors Without Borders in Sanaa.
We spoke via Skype.
JUSTIN ARMSTRONG, Doctors Without Borders: If we can't get people in, if we can't supplies
in, that strangles our ability to run medical programs, and has a similar effect on humanitarian
activities across the country.
P.J. TOBIA: On one side of the conflict, Houthi rebels who deposed a Saudi-allied government.
The Houthis are said to be allied with Iran, though how much is in dispute.
On the other, a Saudi-led coalition backed by U.S. weapons and logistics.
Nine days ago, the Houthis launched a missile at the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
It was their furthest strike into Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials say the missile was supplied by Iran, and enforced the blockade as retaliation.
On Friday, a U.S. Air Force official in the region said remains of the rocket bore Iranian
markings.
Iran has long denied supplying rockets to the Houthis.
As the war grinds on, Yemen endures what the United Nations calls the fastest growing cholera
epidemic in history.
Nearly 900,000 people have the illness, half of them children.
More than 2,000 Yemenis have died in the epidemic.
The U.N. predicts one million cholera cases by January.
JUSTIN ARMSTRONG: It affected the vast majority of the country, with patients reported from
every corner of Yemen.
And it's compounded by the fact that the health system has already collapsed in many respects.
Health workers have not been paid, and over half the health facilities in the country
have ceased functioning.
Other ones struggle with even the most basic needs.
P.J. TOBIA: But the war continues.
Al-Qaida, ISIS, tribal and militia groups are also active.
The U.S. conducts airstrikes against the terrorists.
In January, a Navy SEAL was killed in a raid in Central Yemen.
Abdulwahab Alkebsi was born in Yemen.
He's now the deputy director for programs at the Center for International Private Enterprise.
ABDULWAHAB ALKEBSI, Center for International Private Enterprise: The conflict in Yemen,
unfortunately, right now has reached a level of equilibrium.
So, nobody is gaining ground, nobody is losing ground.
Most of the belligerents right now are benefiting from the status quo.
So, they would benefit from continuing the war, while they would also lose from a peace
process.
So we have reached a level where it seems like there's no solution in sight.
P.J. TOBIA: A United Nations report in September says that both sides of the conflict have
committed war crimes.
The Houthis are accused of recruiting child soldiers.
But the U.N. says coalition bombings are the leading cause of civilian deaths.
Some of those bombs were sold to the Saudis by U.S. defense contractors.
A single October 2016 Saudi airstrike killed 140 people, wounded hundreds more at a funeral
in Sanaa.
KATE KIZER, Yemen Peace Project: Basically U.S. tanker jets are flying missions to refuel
Saudi and UAE jets in air, so that they can continue the high tempo of airstrikes over
the country.
P.J. TOBIA: Kate Kizer is the director of policy and advocacy at the Yemen Peace Project.
KATE KIZER: The U.S. also has been sharing intelligence with the coalition for targeting
purposes, and there are also U.S. personnel in the joint command center that the coalition
runs.
But it's pretty unclear still what the role of those U.S. personnel is, as there's never
been really transparency either from the Obama administration or the Trump administration.
P.J. TOBIA: A Pentagon spokesman would only tell "NewsHour" that the U.S. gives the Saudi
air force information on enemy capabilities and networks.
They wouldn't specify how much fuel U.S. tankers were pumping into Saudi and Emirati jets bombing
Yemen.
They'd only share figures for all operations in the Horn of Africa region.
After the funeral bombing, the Obama administration launched a review of U.S. support for the
coalition.
Ultimately, Obama halted the sale of nearly 20,000 bombs to the Saudis, many manufactured
by U.S.-based Raytheon.
Last summer, the Trump administration notified Congress that it would permit the sale.
Trump later announced the possibility of billions of dollars in new arms sales to the Saudis.
The president says the deals are a way to create U.S. jobs.
KATE KIZER: Providing military support that is then used in potential war crimes opens
the U.S. into complicity for those war crimes.
And so I think it's really important to recognize that, just because they're our allies, we
shouldn't just blindly support them.
P.J. TOBIA: Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill agree.
Senator Chris Murphy introduced bipartisan legislation last spring that would have limited
U.S. bombing support.
It was narrowly defeated.
"NewsHour"'s Judy Woodruff asked Murphy about the issue last week.
SEN.
CHRIS MURPHY (D), Connecticut: The U.S. Saudi war in Yemen is a national security disaster
for the United States.
First of all, it's setting off one of the world's worst humanitarian crises inside Yemen.
It's radicalizing the population against the United States.
The U.S. is getting absolutely nothing out of this war inside Yemen.
P.J. TOBIA: The national security stakes for the U.S. are high.
ABDULWAHAB ALKEBSI: A failed state in Yemen will create a vacuum, will create the perfect
breeding ground for terrorist organizations, whether it's the al-Qaida flavor or it is
the ISIS flavor.
And that's a very, very destabilizing thing for Yemen, for Saudi Arabia, for the region
and for the rest of the world.
P.J. TOBIA: More than one plot against the West has emanated from Yemen, including a
2010 plan to bomb cargo planes bound for the U.S.
And continued instability is fertile ground for bad actors.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm P.J. Tobia.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We turn our focus now to Greece, where the ripple effects of the financial
crisis there are still felt seven years later.
The damage might last generations, given economics have forced many young Greeks to forgo having
children or leave the country entirely.
Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports on this growing brain drain.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Dusk in Northern Greece, time for the marriage of administrator Christina
Theofilidou and Sotiris Manitsaris, a researcher in artificial intelligence.
SOTIRIS MANITSARIS, Researcher: It's a unique moment.
It's the first time in my life I have had this kind of moment, so it's between stress
and happiness, let's say.
CHRISTINA THEOFILIDOU, Administrator: Right now, a bit of a panic.
But I will be fine soon.
I will be fine in a second.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Summer's end used to be prime wedding season.
But as Greece languishes in its great depression, statistics show an increasing number of young
people can't afford to marry.
CHRISTINA THEOFILIDOU: Basically, I think, it was kind of love at first sight.
SOTIRIS MANITSARIS: When I found Christina, I said, this girl is for me.
She's beautiful.
She has an excellent character.
She's very clever, and she also left Greece for me.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Besides love, being on a typical monthly wage of $750 convinced Christina
to join the brain drain and move to France.
CHRISTINA THEOFILIDOU: As a human being, you need to have dreams.
You need to be able to dream of a future, of having a family.
But due to the crisis, all these dreams were shattered, because you cannot live with 625
euros, my salary.
I have a master's degree.
I have work experience.
That's my salary.
Another 625 euros, if you put that together, I mean, you really cannot live with that kind
of money.
This is not a big fat Greek wedding, not at all.
MALCOLM BRABANT: There was no honeymoon.
They were heading straight back to Paris, so Christina could start a new job.
CHRISTINA THEOFILIDOU: I feel we were very lucky to be able to do this.
I know that there are many families in Greece at this moment in time, they cannot have this
kind of celebration.
SOTIRIS MANITSARIS: To be honest, I worry more about the country than about the young
people, because I think that young Greeks know very well how to survive.
MALCOLM BRABANT: But, according to research emanating from the island of Lesbos, that
confidence is misplaced.
With its rapidly aging population, Greece is not only facing a demographic time bomb.
Its young generation is in the firing line of what a sociologist calls "geneocide" or
annihilation.
SOTIRIS XTOURIS, University of the Aegean: If a country is losing a creative young generation,
they have not have the means to reproduce itself.
This will be a vicious cycle of degradation, of decline of the society.
It's not just a problem.
It's the most difficult problem that is Greece facing today.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Sotiris Xtouris is a professor of sociology at the University of the Aegean.
SOTIRIS XTOURIS: I call this the annihilation of a generation.
They have no jobs.
They will not have a generation of creative entrepreneurs in Greece.
It can be that Greeks and the Greek society will decline totally, as a failed state, as
a failed society.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Forty-two-year-old Yannis Sarakatsanis is determined to ensure that
his society survives the seemingly never ending trial of austerity.
Despite being a well-known comic actor and satirist, he struggles.
YANNIS SARAKATSANIS, Actor: Whatever you want to do, the reward has to come quick, because
we don't trust that we're going to have a stable system in three months.
Getting paid is a more difficult process now.
So me, as an actor, let's say I do a commercial.
The production company will pay me actually six months after the work I have done.
In the meantime, I have to pay my taxes.
I have to wait, and I have to call them again and again and again, because, if I don't call
them, they're not going to bother with me, because that's actually a bonus for them.
If I don't call them, and if I don't bother them, they're going to keep my money and pay
someone else who is actually bothering them.
SOSO HATZIMANOLI, Actress: When I wake up in the morning, I have this knot in my neck
because I feel like it's a new day that I have to pull through.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Soso Hatzimanoli is a 34-year-old actress.
Like so many of her generation, the financial crisis has taken away her sense of independence.
SOSO HATZIMANOLI: I feel sad and angry that I have had to move back with my parents, because
the first thing that came to my mind when I did it, it was like, OK, you are taking
a step back in your life.
And I couldn't understand why, because I was working all day, all night, every day since
I was 21 years old.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Financial insecurity across Greece has made couples too scared to have
children.
To maintain the level of population, the fertility rate should be two children per family.
In Greece, it's down to about 1.3.
The population decline in Greece is one of the most severe in the world.
And it's being exacerbated by austerity.
In 2010, when the financial meltdown began, 115,000 children were born.
Five years later, that number had dropped to 92,000.
So, how do you counter that birth rate reduction of 20 percent, together with the silencing
of wedding bells?
Sociologist Sotiris Xtouris says the government must prioritize investing in the lost generation.
One way, he says, would be to unlock the giant portfolio of unused state property and turn
it into cheap housing.
SOTIRIS XTOURIS: The most important thing for the Greek society today is to concentrate
all its efforts to reproduce this generation, to give to these young people the possibility
to be creative, to stay in Greece, and to have the ability to form the society again.
MALCOLM BRABANT: But the actors are skeptical about Greece emerging from the abyss.
SOSO HATZIMANOLI: We should work twice as hard as our parents to get through our lives.
So, it's a little bit unfair, but it's what we have to do right now.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Alexandra Ousta is another household name.
She and Yannis married last year.
ALEXANDRA OUSTA, Actress: I believe that my generation is passive.
They -- we -- we don't do as many things as we have to do to make it better.
We have to have a voice.
And nobody screams.
YANNIS SARAKATSANIS: Because the austerity becomes harder, we continue to lose faith
in the state.
And because it becomes a matter of survival, we don't pay taxes, and we don't cut our receipts,
and we don't show our income, because we won't survive.
MALCOLM BRABANT: The day after their marriage, newlyweds Sotiris and Christina were having
coffee and cakes with their friends, before setting off for their new life together in
France.
CHRISTINA THEOFILIDOU: We would want to come back at some point in the future, but we want
to know that there are the conditions, at least like some basic conditions, we can find
a job, we can have a decent salary, we can maintain our family.
We need the basics.
YANNIS SARAKATSANIS: I feel that I have an obligation to my country to make the country
better.
You either go away to another country, or you stay here and help.
So, I think I'm deciding to stay here and help.
MALCOLM BRABANT: If Greece were to follow the sociologist's advice and invest in the
lost generation, it would require more sacrifices from everyone else.
For most people, after years of austerity, the tank is empty.
They're just flying on the fumes.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Greece.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: a rock music legend who's grown into a successful solo career.
Jeffrey Brown has the latest from the singer Robert Plant.
JEFFREY BROWN: He was the quintessential hard rock front man in what was for a time the
biggest hard rock band on the planet, Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin, long hair,
bare chest, tight pants, howling his way through albums and arenas with guitarist Jimmy Page,
who put the band together in 1968, bass player John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham.
ROBERT PLANT, Musician: Those bands in those days, you know, barely out of my teens, and
the guys I was playing with were the most amazing players.
And it was all about energy, all about expression, garish sometimes.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
Yes.
ROBERT PLANT: In that environment then, everything was so exaggerated, but it lasted just as
long as it lasted.
And then it -- for me, it just dissolved.
JEFFREY BROWN: So, if it was all about energy, then what is it about now?
ROBERT PLANT: Same thing, but it's bridled.
It's contained more.
It's a good place to go, and it's a bit of a surprise.
JEFFREY BROWN: At 69, meeting us recently at Nonesuch Records in New York, Plant is
a rock icon who's content with how things have turned out, other than being scored on
in foosball.
ROBERT PLANT: Beaten at soccer by an American, that can't be right.
JEFFREY BROWN: Zeppelin disbanded in 1980, and Plant had a first solo hit three years
later with "Big Log."
But while some rock stars keep playing the same old songs in the same old ways, Plant
slowly built a much-admired solo career by experimenting with different sounds and different
musicians, most notably his 2007 collaboration with bluegrass country star Alison Krauss.
"Raising Sand," an unlikely meld of styles and voices, was a surprise hit, winning five
Grammys, including album of the year.
ROBERT PLANT: The songs were really delicate, but intense, and the whole idea of a room
all heading to one point to make -- get the most out of a song, to get the most out of
every lyric, so that a syllable can hang in midair for a while, and that was a particularly
sensual collection of songs and performance.
JEFFREY BROWN: His 11th solo effort, "Carry Fire," is a new album of original songs, back
his band of recent years, the Sensational Space Shifter.
When you put out an album nowadays, what compels it?
What does there have to be for you to say, I have got something new?
ROBERT PLANT: Well, there's a lot of preparation and there's a lot, I guess you would probably
call it soul-searching to make sure, with time being so precious, that it's not a wasted
journey.
JEFFREY BROWN: But what constitutes an unwasted journey for you nowadays?
ROBERT PLANT: Weaving -- the musical weave in the beginning, the groove and the kind
of -- the essence of the music that surrounds the songs, but just being able to get to a
place where the music is paramount, it's discrete, slightly exotic.
JEFFREY BROWN: With the Space Shifters, here on the PBS program "Austin City Limits" last
year, Plant has incorporated Zeppelin hits like "Black Dog" in new forms.
And he continues and expands the Zeppelin blend of blues, English ballads and world
music, including on the title track of the new album, which features the Middle Eastern
instrument the oud.
I asked about the sounds and influences.
ROBERT PLANT: They just come from a fortunate life traveling and keeping good very company.
I was always gathering more and more fuel.
I was buying cassettes in the marketplaces and listening to variations on themes, and
just such an amazing encyclopedia of music I developed slowly.
JEFFREY BROWN: The question Plant is asked most often is the one he seems least interested
in: When will Led Zeppelin get together again?
The three surviving members last performed together in 2007.
But no encores are planned.
I asked Plant about the key to the band's enduring success.
ROBERT PLANT: I don't know.
We didn't know.
It's -- you may think it's naive, because now so much of entertainment is pretty structured.
You know, the game is the game.
Here we are.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
ROBERT PLANT: We didn't know what on earth we were doing.
We were just doing gigs, and the gigs got bigger, and the crowds got bigger, and we
had more fun.
To be the guy up at the sharp end, what I call it, as a singer, was a bit of a labor,
was a bit of a toil.
JEFFREY BROWN: But was it a performance, or was that you?
ROBERT PLANT: I think it was me responding to music, just like it is right now.
I don't wear a girl's blouse anymore, but I'm still desperately switched on to the music
that surrounds me.
So, with Zeppelin, I think I was just playing it out.
Interesting to see now.
I just wonder how he felt at the end of the night, that guy, when I look at him.
JEFFREY BROWN: That guy who was you?
ROBERT PLANT: Yes.
JEFFREY BROWN: Really?
You don't know how he felt?
ROBERT PLANT: I can't imagine.
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN: The difference now, Plant says, perspective and the freedom to go wherever
his musical passions lead.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in New York.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I think it's all about being good and staying good.
And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
Join us online and again right here tomorrow evening.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, and we'll see you soon.
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