JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight:
JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. Attorney General: I will not accept, and reject, accusations that I
have ever lied.
JUDY WOODRUFF: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions faces questions from members of Congress,
and defends his statements about Russian contacts with the Trump campaign.
Then: chain of command.
A retired Air Force general testifies that an order by the president to launch nuclear
weapons can be refused, if determined to be illegal.
Plus: how after-school programs are getting kids excited about math and science and on
the path to a career.
PEDRO RAPOSO, Former ®MD-BO¯SMILE Participant: The SMILE program tried to hit on a lot of
different subjects, so I was able to kind of like have a little taste of all these different
fields.
And then I think that's when I figured that I wanted to be an engineer.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: Top Republicans ratcheted up pressure again today on Alabama Senate candidate
Roy Moore.
The former judge denied multiple allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse against teenage
girls, and he is refusing to drop out of a December special election.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated today that Moore is not fit to serve, but
he said replacing him is complicated.
SEN.
MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), Majority Leader: It's up to the people of Alabama to make this decision.
I think they have a lot of information now, in making a decision.
Obviously, from a Republican point of view, we would hope to save the seat.
And that might require a write-in, and all of those things are under discussion.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The December election is to fill out the term of former Senator Jeff Sessions,
who is now the U.S. attorney general.
Sessions said today that he has -- quote -- "no reason to doubt Moore's accusers."
He spoke at a wide-ranging hearing, and we will hear more on that right after the news
summary.
Senate Republicans will try again to repeal the individual health insurance mandate under
Obamacare.
This time, they are including it in their tax reform package.
Lisa Desjardins is at the Capitol.
Hello, Lisa.
What are the Republicans doing?
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.
Senate Republicans tell us that tonight they're adding to that sweeping tax reform bill nothing
less than the full and immediate repeal of the individual mandate in Obamacare.
What is more, Judy, they tell us they that have majority support from their Republican
Congress to do it.
Of course, this is one step in a long process on tax reform, but it's a big one, because
this is a cornerstone bill for Senate Republicans.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Is it known how this is going to affect the prospects for tax reform?
LISA DESJARDINS: It gets even more complicated.
I have just talked to the House Republican who says now they will try to add the individual
mandate, a conservative, to their version on the House side.
It is something that they think might win over some conservative votes.
Of course, Democrats already say they think it's a terrible idea.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Lisa, prospects beyond that, I mean, as you get to the other chamber?
LISA DESJARDINS: Yes, that's right.
This is sort of four-dimensional chess now.
We're expecting a House vote on Thursday now.
There may be some changes to their bill then.
And then the Senate's turn comes up in about three weeks.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All right.
Lisa Desjardins at the Capitol, thank you.
In Iran today, rescuers kept digging, as the earthquake death toll rose to at least 530.
More than 7,800 were injured in Sunday night's tremor that struck near the border between
Iran and Iraq.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani surveyed the damage today, and vowed to investigate why
so much government housing collapsed.
It was built during the administration of his hard-line predecessor.
Rescue workers in Syria are still looking for victims after airstrikes on Monday on
a northern town held by rebels.
Activists say that at least 61 people were killed when three strikes hit a busy market.
Nearly all of the dead were civilians.
It is not clear whether Russian or Syrian planes were involved.
President Trump headed back to Washington today, after a 10-day tour of Asia.
Before leaving the Philippines, he hailed the trip as tremendously successful.
On board Air Force One, he said other countries are getting his message.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Over a period of years, they will be treating
us much differently than they have in the past.
People were taking advantage, countries were taking advantage of the United States, more
than just this region, but the world.
And those days are over.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The president also promised what he called a major statement about the
trip later this week.
At least five people are dead in a series of shootings in rural Northern California.
A gunman killed four today, and wounded several more, including three children, before being
shot dead by police.
It happened around the city of Red Bluff.
Authorities say it started with a domestic violence incident, and then the shooter went
to a school, another location, apparently at random.
A trial opened in Las Vegas today for a rancher accused of leading a standoff with federal
agents.
Cliven Bundy, two sons and a co-defendant face 15 felony charges each.
Prosecutors say they tried to spark a range war in 2014 over attempts to stop their cattle
grazing on public land.
In economic news, a study by Credit Suisse finds millennials are struggling to make as
much money as their baby boomer parents.
The Swiss bank also says that they face greater wealth inequality than previous generations.
It cites higher home prices and student debt burdens.
And on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 30 points to close at 23409.
The Nasdaq fell 19, and the S&P 500 slipped nearly six.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": a busy day on Capitol Hill -- lawmakers press Attorney
General Jeff Sessions on Russia; senators question the president's ability to launch
nuclear warheads; representatives address claims of sexual harassment; and much more.
Now the Sessions hearing.
The nation's top law enforcement official faced a battery of questions today about his
shifting statements on contacts with the Russians during the Trump campaign.
He spoke to the House Judiciary Committee.
And Lisa Desjardins is back with that story..
JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. Attorney General: I will not accept, and reject, accusations that I
have ever lied.
That is a lie.
LISA DESJARDINS: Attorney General Jeff Sessions insisted from the start today that he's never
deliberately misled Congress.
He returned to that refrain in his opening statement, and in questioning here by Democrat
Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
REP.
HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D), New York: Your story has never changed, correct?
JEFF SESSIONS: I believe that's fair to say.
We might -- we have added -- added things that I didn't recall at the time.
REP.
HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Right.
JEFF SESSIONS: So, my statement at the time was my best recollection.
LISA DESJARDINS: At his January confirmation hearing, Sessions told Democratic Senator
Al Franken that he'd had no communications with Russians during the 2016 campaign.
But he's been dogged by disclosures that contradict that statement and about his knowledge of
other Trump campaign officials.
JEFF SESSIONS: I do now recall the March 2016 meeting at Trump hotel that Mr. Papadopoulos
attended.
LISA DESJARDINS: That's George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide on the foreign
policy team Sessions chaired.
He told prosecutors that he talked about connecting with Russia in a meeting with both Trump and
Sessions.
Sessions initially denied any such meeting, now says he remembers it.
JEFF SESSIONS: To the best of my recollection, I believe that I wanted to make clear to him
that he wasn't authorized to represent the campaign with the Russian government, or any
other foreign government, for that matter.
LISA DESJARDINS: Papadopoulos has now pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russians
and the campaign.
Sessions has already had to amend his original answers at other Senate hearings.
Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee pressed the point again today.
REP.
SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D), Texas: Do you want to admit under oath that you didn't tell the
truth?
JEFF SESSIONS: I will just say this.
I stand by my testimony at the Intelligence Committee.
I never had met with or had any conversation with any Russians.
LISA DESJARDINS: Today's hearing also came the day after Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged
that he communicated with WikiLeaks in the last year-and-a-half, that after WikiLeaks
released some 50,000 documents last year from the private e-mails of Hillary Clinton and
her campaign manager and of Democratic Party officials.
Yesterday, Donald Trump Jr. released the private Twitter messages he sent to WikiLeaks.
REP.
ERIC SWALWELL (D), California: Candidate Trump said throughout the campaign, "I love WikiLeaks."
Do you love WikiLeaks, Mr. Attorney General?
JEFF SESSIONS: I'm not a fan of WikiLeaks.
REP.
ERIC SWALWELL: Do you think it was appropriate that Trump Jr. communicated with WikiLeaks
during the course of the campaign?
JEFF SESSIONS: I'm not able to make a judgment about that.
LISA DESJARDINS: Sessions drew fire from both parties over whether he should appoint a special
counsel for a new Clinton investigation.
That could include the 2010 sale of Uranium One, a mining operation in the U.S. that then-Secretary
of State Clinton allegedly approved in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation, and
the FBI's investigation into Clinton's handling of classified information.
Democrats decried the idea of a new probe, pointing to tweets from President Trump pushing
Sessions to do it.
REP.
JOHN CONYERS (D), Michigan: Is it common for the leader of the country to order the criminal
justice system to retaliate against his political opponents?
JEFF SESSIONS: The Department of Justice can never be used to retaliate politically against
opponents, and that would be wrong.
LISA DESJARDINS: Republicans, who want a new Clinton probe, also asked Sessions to look
into the so-called Russian dossier of opposition research about Mr. Trump, but Sessions pushed
back.
REP.
JIM JORDAN (R), Ohio: All that, not to mention the dossier stuff.
What's it going to take to actually get a special counsel?
JEFF SESSIONS: Sometimes, we have to study what the facts are and to evaluate whether
it meets a standard required for a special counsel.
LISA DESJARDINS: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins on Capitol Hill.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We take a closer look now at today's testimony with NPR's justice correspondent,
Carrie Johnson.
Carrie, welcome back to the program.
CARRIE JOHNSON, NPR: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: This was practically an all-day affair for the attorney general, wasn't it?
CARRIE JOHNSON: More than five hours of testimony back and forth, Republicans centering on issues
other than Russia, Democrats almost exclusively asking him a version of the same question:
What did you know and why did your story change?
JUDY WOODRUFF: And the fact is, he has had to change what he said about his knowledge
of and any participation in communications with the Russians in the campaign.
CARRIE JOHNSON: This was his fourth testimony under oath on Capitol Hill this year, Judy.
Jeff Sessions vehemently denied any notion that he had intentionally tried to deceive
members of Congress or lie under oath.
Instead, he said today he had a memory lapse.
He didn't remember meeting -- that meeting in March 2016, where George Papadopoulos had
suggested a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, but he said,
Jeff Sessions said recent news accounts had jogged his memory and he remembered objecting
to the idea of Papadopoulos speaking on behalf of the campaign or engaging in foreign policy
business on behalf of the campaign.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Including setting up a meeting between candidate Trump and the Russian leader,
Vladimir Putin?
CARRIE JOHNSON: Absolutely.
And Sessions also mentioned that he did recall interacting with Carter Page, another foreign
policy aide on the campaign.
He said, what was I supposed to do, stop Carter Page from traveling?
I had just made clear simply, Sessions said, that he wasn't going to be speaking on behalf
of the campaign.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Just quickly, Carrie, on the question of this WikiLeaks-Donald Trump Jr.,
exchange, he was asked about that, but it seems he didn't have anything, any knowledge
to offer.
CARRIE JOHNSON: Remember, Jeff Sessions is recused from the special counsel investigation
into Russia.
Sessions was asked a basic and blunt question about his take on Donald Trump Jr.'s communications
with WikiLeaks.
That may come under the special counsel's purview.
I think Jeff Sessions was careful in not wanting to go there under oath.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Another feature, of course, today, as we heard, is the Republicans on
the committee, as well as President Trump, really want him to look into some of these
allegations around Hillary Clinton.
They want him to appoint a special counsel.
CARRIE JOHNSON: They do.
And, in fact, on the eve of this hearing, the Justice Department sent a letter to Republicans
on Capitol Hill saying the attorney general and his deputy had directed senior federal
prosecutors to look into these allegations with respect to the Clinton Foundation, this
uranium deal when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, and some other allegations with
respect to Hillary Clinton in her e-mail.
There was no commitment to name a special counsel, though, and Jeff Sessions got into
a back-and-forth with Republicans about the need for a factual basis in order to launch
such an investigation.
Things just looking bad, Jeff Sessions said, aren't enough to launch an investigation.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Setting a higher bar.
And, finally, Carrie, again, I was struck.
They were asking him about his -- Democrats were -- about just how far would his loyalty
to President Trump go.
CARRIE JOHNSON: This is an open question and a sore spot for Democrats, because Donald
Trump, more than any president since Richard Nixon, has openly talked about wanting to
interfere with the business of the Justice Department and the FBI.
Jeff Sessions said today he wouldn't permit any interference, but he also refused to answer
questions about whether the White House had contacted the Justice Department with respect
to a merger involving AT&T and Time Warner.
Time Warner's asset, CNN, is a very big foe of the president, at least according to President
Trump.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Some very, very sensitive areas.
Carrie Johnson, NPR, thank you again.
CARRIE JOHNSON: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: On the other side of the Capitol: Senators focused on President Trump's power
to launch a nuclear war.
Nick Schifrin reports on this critical chain of command.
NICK SCHIFRIN: In a world full of threats, Senate Democrats today asked whether the biggest
threat is in the White House.
SEN.
EDWARD MARKEY (D), Massachusetts: Donald Trump can launch nuclear codes just as easily as
he can use his Twitter account.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The United States' nuclear command structure was born out of the Cold
War.
NARRATOR: The Soviets continue to develop and deploy strategic offensive nuclear forces.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Pentagon videos described the Soviet threat as imminent.
The president needed to be able to launch nuclear weapons quickly, in case the U.S.
was being attacked.
Tennessee Republican Bob Corker:
SEN.
BOB CORKER (R), Tennessee: This process means the president has the sole authority to give
that order.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, the threat comes North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles.
U.S. intelligence predicts they could soon carry a nuclear warhead.
President Trump has threatened preventive war.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: They will be met with fire and fury, like
the world has never seen.
Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.
SEN.
EDWARD MARKEY: Many Americans share my fear that the president's bombastic words could
turn into nuclear reality.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The president has the sole authority to launch nuclear weapons.
But that doesn't mean he can launch a weapon for no reason, whenever he wants, said Duke
Professor Peter Feaver, who has studied nuclear command for 30 years.
PETER FEAVER, Duke University: Where the military wakes up the president and warns him that
there is about to be an attack, or that we're experiencing an attack, he alone would have
the authority to make the decision.
But in the other context, where the president is waking up the military, maybe in an extreme
funk, saying, I'm angry and I want something done, in that setting, he requires the cooperation
of a lot of people.
NICK SCHIFRIN: That cooperation wouldn't be forthcoming if his order were illegal, said
retired General Robert Kehler, the former head of U.S. Strategic Command.
GEN.
ROBERT KEHLER (RET.), Former Commander, U.S. Strategic Command: The United States military
doesn't blindly follow orders.
A presidential order to employ U.S. nuclear weapons must be legal.
The basic legal principles of military necessity, distinction, and proportionality apply to
nuclear weapons, just as they do to every other weapon.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin:
SEN.
BEN CARDIN (D), Maryland: Do you believe that under -- because of legalities, you retain
that decision to disobey the commander in chief?
GEN.
ROBERT KEHLER: Yes.
If there is an illegal order presented to the military, the military is obligated to
refuse to follow it.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Today's hearing was called by Senate Republicans, but many of them urged
extreme caution.
They said the U.S.' adversaries needed to understand the president is still the sole
person able, and is still willing, to use nuclear weapons.
SEN.
MARCO RUBIO (R), Florida: We cannot have a bunch of bunker lawyers that basically -- or
activists, up and down the chain, who decide that they're going to disobey any order that
they disagree with.
SEN.
JAMES RISCH (R), Idaho: Pyongyang needs to understand that they are dealing with a person
who is commander in chief right now who is very focused on defending this country, and
he will do what is necessary to defend this country.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Democrats have introduced legislation that would limit the president's nuclear authority.
Some today questioned whether sound legal advice would prevail in a nuclear weapons
discussion.
Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey questioned whether presidential advisers, current and
former generals, could constrain the president.
SEN.
EDWARD MARKEY: I don't think we should be relying upon a group of individuals to be
resisting an illegal order, when they have all pretty much been hired by the president.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Since President Harry Truman became the only person ever to have ordered
a nuclear strike, U.S. law said only a president should carry the nuclear responsibility.
But, today, that singular authority is being questioned.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.
JUDY WOODRUFF: There was a third congressional hearing of note today.
House members confronted the seriousness of the sexual harassment within Capitol Hill
itself, this on the same day that Speaker Paul Ryan put out word that the House of Representatives
will require anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training for all members and staff.
During this morning's hearing, two congresswomen, Virginia Republican Barbara Comstock and California
Democrat Jackie Speier, shared their perspectives on just how pervasive the issue is.
They also suggested, without naming names, that a few current members of Congress are
part of the problem.
REP.
BARBARA COMSTOCK (R), Virginia: And I wanted to close with a statement, something that
I just had somebody tell me recently.
This is about a member who is here now.
I don't know who it is, but somebody who I trust told me the situation.
This member asked a staffer to bring them over some materials to their residence.
And the young staffer -- it's a young woman -- went there, and was greeted with a member
in a towel, who was a male, who then invited her in.
At that point, he decided to expose himself.
She left, and then she quit her job.
She left.
She found another job.
But that kind of situation, what do -- what are we doing here for women right now who
are dealing with somebody like that?
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER (D), California: Since I shared my own story on #MeTooCongress, I have had
numerous meetings and phone calls with staff members, both present and former, women and
men, who have been subjected to this inexcusable and oftentimes illegal behavior.
In fact, there are two members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, right now who serve
who have been subject to review, or not have been subject to review, but have engaged in
sexual harassment.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And with us now is Representative Jackie Speier of California.
Congresswoman Speier, thank you for being here.
You come to this topic with your own background.
You have talked about it recently, and that had to do with your being assaulted as a young
congressional aide by a senior staff member at the Capitol.
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER: That's right, Judy.
When I was a young aide in 1973, the chief of staff in the office I worked, when we were
in a room alone, came up to me, put his hands on my face, kissed me, and stuck his tongue
in my mouth.
And I recoiled and was panicked, and I just made a point of never being alone with him
ever again.
So, I told my story mostly to encourage women on the Hill to come forward and know that
they have an ear that will listen to them.
I have been working on this issue for many years.
I attempted an amendment for mandatory sexual harassment training back in 2014, and it never
even got hearing.
We came a long way today by having a hearing.
And now we have the speaker, who is mandating sexual harassment prevention training for
all members of the staff.
But we have to go on beyond that, because the Office of Compliance is fraught with problems
for victims, and has been created really to protect the harasser, and not to provide any
protection whatsoever for the victim.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How pervasive do you think sexual harassment and worse is today on the
Hill?
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER: Well, you know, it's hard to measure, because victims are afraid to come
forward.
I mean, most victims, three-quarters of those who are sexually harassed never come forward
because they're in job environments where they need the job.
They're afraid that, if they come forward, they will lose their job or they will be a
pariah.
And so the result is, is that we really don't know.
We do know that, over the last 10 or 15 years, there have been $50 million that we as taxpayer
have paid out for conduct by either staff or members who sexually harass other staff
in the building.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, you have -- as you just said, the process that it takes to process
a complaint right now in the Congress is unusually onerous.
What is it going to take to change that?
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER: Well, I'm introducing a bill tomorrow that hopefully will have all of the
elements to fix that.
No longer will a victim be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
They will not be forced into mediation.
They are going to be represented by their own counsel.
Those who are interns and fellows who have nowhere to go now will be able to access this
process as well.
So, we're going to change it, so that it is more victim-centric.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you have sponsors, co-sponsors from both parties?
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER: I do have co-authors from both parties.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What do you think the prospects are?
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER: Well, doing mandatory sexual harassment prevention training does nothing
if we don't have a system that's going to protect the victim.
So, it would be a Pyrrhic victory, frankly, if we all we do is mandatory training.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I noticed that you said today, Congresswoman Speier, that it's women and
men who have this to fear, that it's not just women, but men who experience sexual -- people
coming on to them in unwelcome ways, and worse, as well.
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER: That's right.
And, sometimes, you know, men are subject to hostile work environments.
I had one young man who was disabled who spoke to me last week and was working in a very
hostile work environment, and he attributed to his disability.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you think -- let me put it this way.
Why do you think this persists in this environment?
Members of Congress are well-educated.
They come to this city to do the business for the American people.
Why is this still happening?
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER: You know, I think it's because they become intoxicated with power that it
continues to happen.
It also continues to happen because they have been able to get away with it.
They have never been named.
They're not outed.
They don't have to pay for the settlements.
And so there really is no downside to conducting themselves in a manner that allows them to
assert their power.
You know, sometimes, this place has been called Hollywood for ugly people.
(LAUGHTER)
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER: And I think, sometimes, it's the sense that somehow persons who have never
been seen as attractive all of a sudden are because they have power, and they find ways
to abuse it.
But it's a cultural problem.
It's a cultural problem throughout this country, and one that has plagued many workplaces and
many professions, and one that I think we're finally at a tipping point that we're going
to be able to fix, and that's good news for women and men in this country.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I noticed that the House majority leader, Nancy Pelosi, at one point recently
was quoted as saying she had never experienced this herself, wasn't aware of it.
Is it possible that some people just don't come across this?
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER: I think it's possible that people have not been subject to sexual harassment.
But I think the likelihood of being subject to sexual harassment is greater here than
in many other locations, because it is a predominantly male environment.
And we have had a system that has protected harassers.
So they had the freedom to operate in that manner.
I can't tell you the number of staffers who have come up to me in the last several weeks
and said: We're so grateful you're doing something about this.
We have 1,500 former staffers on Capitol Hill who signed a letter to the membership of the
House Admin Committee seeking to have this issue finally dealt with.
And they have served from the '70s through the 2000s.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Remarkable.
Remarkable.
So many people.
Representative Jackie Speier, thank you very much.
REP.
JACKIE SPEIER: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The growing rift over allegations facing Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
This evening, the "NewsHour" is confirming word that the Republican National Committee
is severing all ties with the Moore campaign.
This exposes a growing divide between the so-called GOP establishment and a key player
in President Trump's success, Steve Bannon.
John Yang has the story.
ROY MOORE (R), Alabama Senatorial Candidate: I have not been guilty of sexual misconduct
with anyone.
JOHN YANG: That might be the defense for Roy Moore, the Republican running in Alabama's
special Senate election, but while top establishment Republicans distance themselves from the candidate...
MAN: I think it would be best if Roy would just step aside.
MAN: I don't believe there'd be any place for him in the U.S. Senate.
SEN.
MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), Majority Leader: I think he should step aside.
JOHN YANG: ... the insurgent outsider who's his champion is doubling down on his support.
STEVE BANNON, Former White House Chief Strategist: Until I see additional evidence on Judge Moore,
I'm standing with him.
JOHN YANG: Steve Bannon, the ousted White House adviser who's looking to send shockwaves
through the Republican Party in 2018 and beyond.
Bannon is a divisive figure, a political lightning rod as Mr. Trump's campaign CEO, then a top
White House adviser, whose seemingly outsized influence on the president made him a household
name.
ALEC BALDWIN, Actor: Send in Steve Bannon.
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
ACTOR: Hello, Donald.
I have arrived.
JOHN YANG: Bannon left the White House in August amid Oval Office tensions and reports
he was responsible for the president's tepid response in denouncing deadly racial violence
in Charlottesville, Virginia.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I think there is blame on both sides, and
I have no doubt about it, and you don't have any doubt about it either.
JOHN YANG: Bannon returned to his old job as executive chairman of Breitbart News, a
conservative Web site he once dubbed a platform for the alt-right.
Now he is chief antagonist for Mr. Trump and his brand of ideology, taking aim at the heart
of the Senate GOP and party establishment.
Bannon has threatened to identify and support primary challengers against almost every Republican
running for reelection next year, except Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and some Democrats.
His goal?
To load the Senate with insurgents who are loyal to Mr. Trump's populist ideas and want
to buck Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
STEVE BANNON: There is a time and season for everything.
And right now, it is a season of war against the GOP establishment.
MICHAEL STEEL, Former Jeb Bush Campaign Adviser: It's an incredibly stupid and a counterproductive
idea.
JOHN YANG: Michael Steel is a longtime Republican consultant, and a former aide to House Speaker
John Boehner and to Jeb Bush's presidential campaign.
MICHAEL STEEL: This isn't a matter of ideology.
This is a matter of math.
If you have a 52-seat majority in the Senate, where most things in order to move forward
requires 60 votes, you need more Republicans, not more pure Republicans.
JOHN YANG: Just a year from the 2018 midterms, and Bannon has already claimed credit for
upending at least three incumbents, in September, when Moore won the primary against incumbent
Senator Luther Strange.
STEVE BANNON: Every person in this country should get down every night and thank God
Donald Trump is president of the United States.
JOHN YANG: That same day, Bannon cheered when a moderate Republican from Tennessee announced
he wouldn't run.
STEVE BANNON: Senator Corker stepped down today.
He's not going to run for reelection.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) JOHN YANG: Then a new height.
SEN.
JEFF FLAKE (R), Arizona: I am announcing today that my service in the Senate will conclude
at the end of my term.
JOHN YANG: As incumbent senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said he wouldn't seek reelection
either.
Bannon's Web site, Breitbart News, quickly took credit, with a headline flashing: "Winning:
Flake out."
In Arizona, Bannon has endorsed Kelli Ward, a former state legislator.
KELLI WARD (R), Arizona Senatorial Candidate: I think of myself as an Americanist, and I
think that's what resonates so much with the people in Arizona, and I think that's what
resonated with President Trump across the country.
That's why he's in the White House, and that's why I will be in the Senate.
JOHN YANG: Ward unsuccessfully ran against Senator John McCain last year.
Now she's casting herself as an America-first conservative insurgent.
KELLI WARD: We want a secure border.
We want to stop illegal immigration.
We want Obamacare out of here.
We want the tax code fixed.
We want the military to be strong.
We want all of those things, and the people who are in Washington, D.C., right now are
not delivering.
JOHN YANG: At her kickoff party in Scottsdale, Arizona, Bannon made clear it's him and candidates
like Ward vs. the establishment.
STEVE BANNON: It's an open revolt, and it should be.
These people hold you in total contempt.
When they attack a Donald Trump and a Dr. Kelli Ward, it's not Donald Trump and Kelli
Ward they're trying to shut up.
It's you they're trying to shut up.
JOHN YANG: His message resonated with the crowd.
WOMAN: I am very unhappy with McConnell.
I am very unhappy with the Senate.
MAN: I think they go back to Washington, and they just think they're set for life there.
And they don't care what the hell the people think about them.
MAN: Steve Bannon is carrying on with that clear agenda that was promised to us during
the Donald Trump campaign.
JOHN YANG: For his part, McConnell is already firing back.
His super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, launched ads linking Ward to a conspiracy
theory that the government uses airplanes to spread mind control chemicals.
NARRATOR: Chemtrail Kelly's got her head in the clouds with crazy ideas.
JOHN YANG: He wouldn't be the first to try and clean House within his own party, says
presidential historian Michael Beschloss.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, Presidential Historian: Franklin Roosevelt tried that in 1938 with
some senators, especially from the South, who were blocking his programs.
And he would actually go into the home state of the senator and give speeches against him.
It didn't work.
He didn't get one of them elected.
If you're trying to change the party, that always happens in history over the course
of a number of elections.
It just doesn't happen overnight with one election night.
And so, when you hear a David Plouffe or a Karl Rove say, I'm not just trying to change
the party for this moment, I'm trying to change it for the next generation, that's very much
within the tradition of American history.
JOHN YANG: Bannon also says he's looking for a long-term change.
And his first test will be in 2018.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm John Yang.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: new efforts to inspire kids to learn math and science by engaging
in after-school programs.
Special correspondent Lisa Stark of Education Week reports for our weekly series Making
the Grade.
WOMAN: Your timer, your tape.
LISA STARK: These fourth and fifth graders at Ella Risk Elementary in Central Falls,
Rhode Island, are about to embark on an engineering adventure.
STUDENT: Yes, let's move out this thing.
STUDENT: Someone, tape this, so the marble won't fall off.
LISA STARK: Their job is to construct a track, then let loose a marble.
Here's the tricky part.
ARTURO LUGO, Student: So, we put the marble, and we have to make it into the goal in exactly
one minute.
LISA STARK: How hard is that?
ARTURO LUGO: Very hard.
WOMAN: You guys are pretty good.
LISA STARK: Teacher Sheryl Wilson says this feels like a fun game, but it's really much
more.
SHERYL WILSON, Teacher: The lesson scientifically was about friction, potential, kinetic energy,
slope, how are you going to make it last 60 seconds?
So, it's a continuation of redesign, redesign, redesign, and what works and what doesn't.
STUDENT: Oh, it's too high.
STUDENT: The tape is too slippery.
LISA STARK: The students are here because they want to be.
They can sign up for this free STEM club that meets weekly after school.
After-school programs like this allow students to learn in a low-stakes environment.
There are no tests.
There is time for exploration, and failure is celebrated.
You make a mistake, you figure out what you did wrong, you try a different approach.
This program, called SMILE, is one of hundreds of different after-school science, technology,
engineering and math, STEM, programs around the country.
Here, the idea isn't to mirror the school curriculum, but to complement it.
ELIZABETH ABREU, Student: I knew that SMILE was science, so I wanted more time with science.
LISA STARK: Why did you want more time with science?
ELIZABETH ABREU: Because I don't get that much science in my class, and because I like
science.
LISA STARK: Nationwide, only about half of fourth graders get hands-on science activities
at least once a week.
By eighth grade, the vast majority of students have access to science labs, but only about
40 percent have sufficient lab supplies.
It's why after-school opportunities have taken on added importance.
ANGLEYN TORRES, Student: It's fun.
We got to do a lot of building.
LISA STARK: STEM advocates say classes like this one, that encourage teamwork and analytical
thinking, are critical in our increasingly technological world.
Claus von Zastrow runs a business-backed nonprofit that works to expand and improve STEM education.
CLAUS VON ZASTROW, CEO, Change the Equation: When we see the rate at which stem skills
are increasing in importance in jobs across the country, we would like to see the same
increase in student performance in STEM in our schools.
And we're not seeing that yet, and that's very concerning.
LISA STARK: Only a third of eighth graders are proficient in math and science, and, in
12th grade, about a quarter are.
And measured against other countries, U.S. students lag behind; 14-year-olds in the U.S.
rank 10th in math worldwide and 11th in science.
CLAUS VON ZASTROW: It took us a long time to get to the point where we actually have
really strong standards, for example, and curriculum in STEM, and one could argue, in
many states, that curriculum hasn't even been fully developed yet.
LISA STARK: Von Zastrow says STEM skills are needed in a broad range of jobs, from computer
programming to health care to manufacturing, and that there are not enough qualified workers
to fill them.
There is a debate about the size of this job skills gap, or whether it truly exists in
most STEM fields.
But government studies show STEM jobs are growing faster than other jobs, and do tend
to offer higher salaries.
WOMAN: We do seat belt ourselves in, so think about how you might be able to mimic that.
LISA STARK: Exposing students to STEM early has benefits, building interest and confidence
in math and science.
DANIEL MONTOYA, Student: Science, I'm pretty interested in it.
But math, man, I'm not good at math.
We're going to learn about math, and I feel like now I'm going to start getting math more
and like enjoying it.
CAROL ENGLANDER, Director, The Smile Program: The research shows, the earlier we interest
kids in science and technology, the more likely they will follow through with it.
LISA STARK: After-school STEM programs tend to be local.
Carol Englander started SMILE in Rhode Island based on a program she saw in Oregon.
Funded by corporate and foundation grants, it now serves over 500 students in the state,
from fourth to 12th grade.
WOMAN: Everybody, show me your two sets of wheels, your two axles.
LISA STARK: The lesson for these middle schoolers in Pawtucket design a car, taking into account
mass and momentum, and ensure it will protect the passenger, in this case a hard-boiled
egg.
WOMAN: What do we see as one immediate concern?
LISA STARK: It's not hard to get kids enthusiastic about hands-on science and engineering.
JA-SEAN PENATE, Student: I want to be an engineer when I grow up.
LISA STARK: What do you want to do?
JA-SEAN PENATE: I want to create things.
LISA STARK: But it is difficult to sustain that interest, especially as classes get more
difficult.
CAROL ENGLANDER: We work very hard at promoting a cohesive peer group where everyone knows
it's cool to be smart.
They identify with science.
They identify with STEM.
And that carries them into high school to take the harder science and math courses.
PEDRO RAPOSO, Former SMILE Participant: After, like, the first couple of sessions, I kind
of just got hooked.
LISA STARK: Pedro Raposo said his STEM group became like a family, all there on their own
time, all eager to learn.
He participated through high school.
PEDRO RAPOSO: The SMILE program tried to hit on a lot of different subjects, so I was able
to kind of like have a little taste of all these different fields.
And then I think that's when I kind of figured that I wanted to be an engineer.
LISA STARK: Raposo has just graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a degree
in engineering, and is on the job hunt, the first in his immediate family to attend college.
Low-income students, minorities and women are less likely to take STEM classes or pursue
those jobs.
Many after-school STEM programs aim to change that.
Teacher Janelle Haire:
JANELLE HAIRE, Teacher: Right now, science is dominated by white men, and I don't know
if you noticed in our club, it's not all white men, right?
So, it's really to show them too that you can be an engineer, regardless of your race
or your gender or your age or your education or where you're from.
LISA STARK: To reinforce that message, STEM programs often get outside the classroom.
SMILE goes to science competitions and the University of Rhode Island.
PEDRO RAPOSO: Seeing all the students walk around, the students with their backpacks
just going from building to building, I was really able to imagine myself there in four
more years.
WOMAN: Mass has to do with weight.
LISA STARK: Exposing students to STEM jobs and opportunities and surrounding them with
equally enthusiastic students can boost interest in STEM.
It takes a concerted effort, both in school and out.
For Education Week and the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Stark in Central Falls, Rhode Island.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: the long-lasting and powerful influence childhood has had on one writer.
Jeffrey Brown has this latest addition to the "NewsHour" Bookshelf.
JEFFREY BROWN: Imagination and memory, tools Amy Tan has mined since her hugely successful
debut in 1989 with the novel, "The Joy Luck Club," followed by five other novels, two
children's books and more.
In her fiction, she's written of mothers and daughters and the Chinese-American experience.
Now she explores just where the writing comes from in a new book titled "Where the Past
Begins: A Writer's Memoir."
And welcome to you.
AMY TAN, Author, "Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir": Good to be here.
JEFFREY BROWN: You actually call this an unintended memoir.
When did you realize that's what you were actually doing?
AMY TAN: I was going to write a book about writing, you know, how does the mind work,
how does my writer's mind work, creativity, imagination?
And it wasn't until I started writing things spontaneously and seeing that they kept reverting
to what had happened to me in childhood, that it became more of a memoir.
JEFFREY BROWN: One of the things that comes through in the book, as you're pulling out
those documents and looking at photographs, each one is clearly a story, connecting to
you as a storyteller, right?
AMY TAN: It was finding out that my father and mother were illegal, and that's why my
parents had lied on a form.
Or it was finding out that I wasn't my father's favorite, things that were traumatic in a
way, to discover at this age that you were lied to.
And then I went into the reasons why and who I became.
And that became part of the memoir.
But it also had to do with my sensibility as a writer.
JEFFREY BROWN: But your mother, of course, stands out as the most, I guess, vivid person
in your life, and she was always looking, sort of living in the past, in a way.
AMY TAN: She hid that past, but it always kind of snuck up in different warnings that
she gave me, like, don't let a man kiss you, or don't let a boy kiss you, and then you
will end up pregnant, and you will kill the baby, and then -- I mean, not knowing where
that came from, and realizing later she was married to a sociopath, not my father, but
somebody else.
JEFFREY BROWN: In her life in China.
AMY TAN: Yes, and then -- the past then was always present in our lives.
I found, in unearthing all these things, one of the -- I found poignant things about our
relationship, the letters she wrote to me and the letters I wrote to her.
I had always thought that we were apart.
And what I realized in writing this, that we were almost dangerously, like, symbiotic
twins, that there was almost a pathological need to be within each other's feelings and
to understand each other, which then I realized became part of my skills as a writer.
You have to empathize with the characters.
You have to sympathy for them.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, I was almost wondering as I was reading.
Obviously, these are real people in your life.
But as you're going back and looking, to what extent are they characters?
Because you are a writer who writes characters.
AMY TAN: They were never characters.
JEFFREY BROWN: No?
AMY TAN: It was like going back into my past and being that kid again, and this is my mother
and my father, and I'm in that scene again, where my mother and brothers and I are in
a car.
My mother is in the front seat.
Something is going on between my mother and my father.
And I can -- I notice everything that's going on and I tell myself to be strong.
My mother is about to commit suicide, and I know she's going to do it, and then she
opens the door and her foot is out.
I was there again, reliving something that I had pushed out of my mind a long time ago.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
She didn't.
I mean...
AMY TAN: She didn't kill herself.
JEFFREY BROWN: No, no, but this was the threat.
AMY TAN: It was a constant, because she actually tried a number of times.
We couldn't ever dismiss it.
It always made us quake.
JEFFREY BROWN: I have seen your fiction referred to as semi-autobiographical.
Is that fair?
Is that true?
AMY TAN: Everybody's -- everybody's novel is semi-autobiographical.
I mean, you have questions, or the way you think of life, or the kind of people you think
are interesting -- or not interesting.
People who have impacted your life and made you who you are, that's who you put in your
story.
So they're all autobiographical.
People say it's autobiographical even if I have written about a ghost, you know?
JEFFREY BROWN: There are ghosts in your past, right, I mean, from the family.
They are much alive as some of the real people.
AMY TAN: They are always with me.
When I'm writing, what happens is -- are strange coincidences, and then I think, these are
the clues.
It's like a little thing I have to follow, and I keep following more coincidences.
I'm on the right track.
And then I find something that is shocking, that maybe my grandmother was a courtesan.
My mother had been in jail.
All of these things come together, and they make sense.
Fiction makes those things happen faster, because I let myself go, and I'm not as self-
conscious.
But all these things from the past, they somehow rise up when you let go and say it's fiction.
JEFFREY BROWN: You're used to praise and criticism for the fiction.
Does this feel different, putting this out into the world, this slice of your real self,
right?
AMY TAN: Yes, I wrote this thing so spontaneously, and I didn't get to edit it in the way that
I wanted.
And it feels very raw.
It feels too new.
So, it's not a criticism about the writing, so much as about privacy and misinterpretation
of who I am.
And it's almost as though I can't bear to hear people talking about me.
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN: But you're the one who put it out there...
AMY TAN: I know.
JEFFREY BROWN: ... yourself, right?
AMY TAN: It's a contradiction.
It's a contradiction I have in myself, to be very private, and then I write about privacy.
I'm uncensored in a way and contradictory as a writer.
So, I'm very ambivalent about this book.
It's out there.
I told my editor I hate it.
It's too early to be out there.
I'm still the kid.
I haven't grown up yet.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right, well, it's out there.
And it's called "Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir."
Amy Tan, thank you very much.
AMY TAN: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight: remembering someone who was an essential member of our
"NewsHour" family.
My former co-anchor and our beloved friend Gwen Ifill died one year ago today.
She was a leader both on air and off, sharing her wisdom, her passion for reporting and
her love of politics and people.
We set our journalistic compass with Gwen as the North Star.
We were devastated to lose her after her an almost-year-long battle with cancer.
But her values inspire us here every day.
Here now, a conversation she had in 2014 with her good friend, the journalist Michele Norris,
for the PBS series "History Makers."
MICHELE NORRIS, Journalist: When you went to television...
GWEN IFILL, "PBS NewsHour" Anchor: Yes.
MICHELE NORRIS: ... we heard from Pete Williams that you took to it almost immediately.
GWEN IFILL: That's so not true.
I was -- I love Pete.
And it's so sweet that he thought at.
But it was really hard making -- and you know this -- making the transition from print to
television.
You had to figure out how to write differently.
You had to figure out how present differently.
And you had to settle on the right shade of lipstick, which was huge.
(LAUGHTER)
GWEN IFILL: It turned out that everybody had something to say about you when you're in
front of a television.
But the other thing is, you get your phone calls returned.
People felt they knew you.
That accessibility quotient came to work.
And you reached a much broader audience.
So, when I left The Times, I remember going to the then publisher, Arthur Sulzberger,
at The Times and told him I was thinking of leaving to go to work for NBC.
And he said: "Why would you go to work in television?
I don't watch television."
(LAUGHTER)
GWEN IFILL: Well, that's changed.
But the point was, I wanted to make sure, another important lesson for the children,
which is, I didn't burn bridges.
I made sure, in case I failed in television, I could go back to print.
And I didn't fail for the same reasons why you don't fail.
You work hard.
It's not how you get in the door.
It's what you do once you are through the door.
And you make sure that you make friends and learn lessons from the people who are willing
to help and ignore the haters.
MICHELE NORRIS: But, you know, and one thing that I can say, having worked in television
also, is that everywhere I would go, I would find camera crews who loved them some Gwen
Ifill, that you remembered that it was a team that got you on the air.
GWEN IFILL: Well, I would flirt with the camera crews, too, I should say, to this day.
(LAUGHTER)
MICHELE NORRIS: You covered a lot of conventions.
GWEN IFILL: Yes.
MICHELE NORRIS: And you have said that covering the conventions is actually one of your favorite
parts of covering politics.
GWEN IFILL: Yes.
MICHELE NORRIS: What do you love so much about conventions?
GWEN IFILL: I'm one of the last holdouts who think conventions kind of matter.
I like a room full of people who are enthusiastic about the process.
I like -- I think it's important that we hear from the future leaders of our party.
I was standing on the podium -- the podium -- the dais in 2004 when the keynote speaker
finished speaking.
And when Barack Obama walked over to me with the -- you know, place was crazy, and the
confetti was flying and balloons.
MICHELE NORRIS: The balloons and all that.
GWEN IFILL: And there was this electricity, you will remember, that night.
And I asked him how he thought he did.
And he says, "Ah, I think I did OK."
(LAUGHTER)
GWEN IFILL: Now, I found out later that Michele had said to him in advance, "Just don't screw
up."
(LAUGHTER)
GWEN IFILL: So, you know what?
He didn't.
And it was great to be there in that moment at that time, and to talk to him about it,
and to capture that sparkle that came off him as he was bursting on to the scene.
MICHELE NORRIS: Your brother has said that you, as a kid, used to watch conventions.
GWEN IFILL: Yes, don't believe everything my brother says, but that's right.
MICHELE NORRIS: You did?
You did?
GWEN IFILL: We watched conventions kind of for recreation.
Once again, this was an extension of the fact that my parents thought that what happened
in American politics and government mattered.
So -- and, also, keep in mind that, when we were growing up and watching conventions,
we didn't know how they were going to end.
They were actually kind of dramatic.
And imagine watching a convention when Barbara Jordan gets up and speaks, and you're a little
black girl at home who sees nothing like this on television.
It blows your mind.
Where else was I going to see that voice, hear that voice?
And so, as a result, whenever I go through the Austin Airport, I stop and pat her a little
bit.
There's a wonderful bronze sculpture of her in baggage claim at the Austin Airport.
And I just greet her every time, because she was amazing.
And Shirley Chisholm -- I mean, there were women, black women who were out there speaking
their truth in an environment where it wasn't generally welcomed.
MICHELE NORRIS: As I listen to you talk about this, though, I'm imagining children watching
television now and seeing you.
GWEN IFILL: OK.
(LAUGHTER)
GWEN IFILL: She's going to make me a little verklempt here.
You know, when I was a little girl, there was a woman named Melba Tolliver who was on
the news.
And she had a big afro.
And I just was transfixed by this idea, not -- it didn't make me want to be in television,
as much as it made me want to tell the story.
And every now and then, I'm not particularly interested in -- you know, I just get caught
up in whatever the day's work is.
And, invariably, somebody will come up to me and tell me the story of their little girl.
And it always stops me in my tracks, because, as long as I remember that there is someone
on the other side of the piece of equipment, the camera, who is watching me with expectation,
and it can shape what they do next, I just take what I do seriously every single day.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And we remember her so clearly.
Her legacy was celebrated today when Gwen Ifill's alma mater, Simmons College in Boston,
announced a wonderful tribute to its alumna from the class of 1977.
The Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts and Humanities at Simmons will formally launch
in the fall of 2018.
We know that she would be so proud.
And we think Gwen would also be pleased to know that she has been one of the day's main
topics on Twitter.
And, as we go tonight, we leave you with just some of the tweets that caught our eye.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
For all of us at the "NewsHour," thank you.
And, Gwen, we so miss you.
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