PBS NewsHour full episode Sept. 26, 2017

JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: begging for help.
As millions of Puerto Ricans suffer without basic needs and dwindling supplies, the island
reaches a state of crisis after Hurricane Maria.
Then: The war of words takes on new meaning -- how the public battle between President
Trump and North Korea's leader raises new concerns about the risk of military action.
And the emotional debate over vaccines reaches the classroom, as states tighten requirements
for immunization in elementary schools.
®MD-BO¯CHRISTINE FINLEY, Vermont Department of Health: When children are in school, they're
in a setting where they are interacting broadly with one another.
If you don't have a large percentage of the children vaccinated, then, basically, your
shield isn't going to work.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK) JUDY WOODRUFF: Puerto Rico, prostrate.
The U.S. territory's cries for help grew louder today, and echoed all the way to the White
House.
P.J. Tobia begins our coverage.
P.J. TOBIA: The desperate plea of an island in distress painted on a rooftop.
Nearly a week after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, most people don't have enough
food or drinking water, and few have electricity.
Today, under pressure to do more, President Trump defended the federal recovery effort
so far.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We have shipped massive amounts of food and
water and supplies to Puerto Rico, and we are continuing to do it on an hourly basis.
But that island was hit as hard as you can hit.
P.J. TOBIA: The president announced he's expanding the aid, and will visit the territory next
week.
DONALD TRUMP: I grew up in New York, so I know many people from Puerto Rico.
I know many Puerto Ricans.
And these are great people, and we have to help them.
P.J. TOBIA: The hard part, how to get the help there.
The White House sent out Brock Long, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
this afternoon.
BROCK LONG, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency: We don't just drive trucks
and resources on to an island.
So, with the damage, you had extensive damage to the air traffic control systems, which
meant sequencing life safety flights into the area, into the one airport that we could
get open, San Juan, initially, is incredibly difficult.
You can't mobilize ships and just send them in, because there has to be port space, the
port has to be safe.
There's all types of things that we have to bring in.
P.J. TOBIA: But six days into the recovery, more than three million people are struggling
from one day to the next.
Grocery stores that have managed to open are rationing supplies, with no way of knowing
when they might be restocked.
DAVID GUZMAN, Puerto Rico (through translator): We hope to receive more merchandise soon so
we can provide to all our clients.
We are restricting so we can give something to everyone, to extend what we have left.
P.J. TOBIA: In this battered town in southwest Puerto Rico, volunteers have been handing
out food to hard-pressed police.
Medical care is also spotty.
At this San Juan hospital, emergency tents are set up outside to handle the influx of
people seeking help.
DR.
JUAN NAZARIO, Puerto Rico (through translator): There has been a growing number of patients
coming to our emergency room, because other services aren't available to the public, as
people take to the streets to perform recovery efforts and suffer accidents or other incidents.
P.J. TOBIA: The hospital's resources are being stretched to the brink.
And badly needed medical procedures are delayed.
ESMERELDA RIVERA, Puerto Rico (through translator): My brother had an accident two days before
Maria hit, and he is waiting for surgery.
He injured his back and his spinal cord, though he is waiting.
Because of electricity issues and other systems, they are slower.
P.J. TOBIA: Satellite images show the extent of the electricity issues, above, before the
storm hit, in July, and below, an island plunged into darkness.
Many who can leave are doing just that.
Planes carrying passengers from Puerto Rico arrived in New York, and family members who
had waited days for any news tearfully embraced them.
They left behind a mammoth job of recovery, compounded by a long-running financial crisis.
The president tweeted about the problem last night, saying the island's huge debt will
slow efforts to rebuild.
That drew fire from some Democrats.
REP.
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ (D), New York: If you don't take this crisis seriously, this is going
to be your Katrina.
The people of Puerto Rico deserve better from our government.
P.J. TOBIA: After Mr. Trump's remarks today, Puerto Rico's governor said he believes the
president does care about the island.
For now, FEMA the federal emergency management agency says it's coordinating a response by
some 10,000 government workers across the Caribbean.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm P.J. Tobia.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The speed and adequacy of the federal response was indeed under more scrutiny
today.
As you just heard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is coordinating much of it.
And for more on that, I spoke with Daniel Kaniewski, FEMA's deputy administrator for
protection and national preparedness, a short time ago.
I started by asking about reports that FEMA is not doing enough.
DANIEL KANIEWSKI, Deputy FEMA Administrator: Well, this is a disaster response, and we're
very focused on the current needs of the population there, which for right now it still very much
is an active response for lifesaving and life-sustaining missions.
JUDY WOODRUFF: They say -- what we're hearing, Mr. Kaniewski, is that it's not just matter
of getting around the island, getting to the island.
It's just that there's not enough help there.
DANIEL KANIEWSKI: We have nearly 10,000 federal responders on the ground there, and millions
of meals and other types of commodities that are there for this lifesaving mission.
We have active rescues under way right now.
We're providing commodities to those people in areas that might not be easily accessible.
It's taken several days to get to some of these outlying areas.
And to the extent we still can't access them, today, we have helicopters overhead dropping
in supplies, including food and medicine, to make sure that these people who are in
need are getting the help that they deserve.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Was there a delay getting ships and supplies to the island in the first place?
DANIEL KANIEWSKI: I wouldn't say there was any more delay than a situation involving
a location over 1,000 miles away from the U.S. mainland.
Before the disaster, before the hurricane came in, we pre-staged those types of assets,
whether it be equipment, commodities and personnel, in the area, so that there would be a fast
response.
Obviously, that response needed to grow over time, and demands are not shrinking.
They're increasing.
So, today, we have taken very decisive action with our federal partners, including the Department
of Defense, to make sure that we have a robust sustainment effort under way, that we know
we're going to be here for the long haul, providing these -- this assistance that frankly
here in the continental U.S. might only be for a couple of days.
It's going to be for weeks, given the location of this disaster on the island.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we're hearing and seeing reporting on so many different aspects of
this crisis, not just the leftover damage from the flooding, people not having homes,
but we're hearing hospitals, what is it, only 11 of 69 hospitals on the island are open.
How long is it going to take to get them reopened, and what about the patients?
DANIEL KANIEWSKI: Yes, again, right now we're focused on that lifesaving, life-sustaining
mission.
We have disaster medical assistance teams that have been deployed there by the Department
of Health and Human Services that are providing medical services whether or not the hospital
is open.
These medical teams are using to working in austere environments.
And they're providing that medical care to those in need.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And part of that story, and I'm sure you're aware of it, are patients
who rely on dialysis machines...
DANIEL KANIEWSKI: Correct.
JUDY WOODRUFF: ... for -- frankly, to save their lives.
Some of them are in places where the generators have run out of diesel fuel.
How are you addressing that?
DANIEL KANIEWSKI: Well, we're using a combination of approaches.
One is evacuation.
We have already evacuated a number of dialysis patients and other critical-needs patients
that our medical experts on the ground felt it was in their best interests to be moved
out.
For those patients, we can't move or don't have the ability to move because they might
be in remote areas, or it's in their best interests to stay there.
So, some critical patients, you don't want the move, you want the keep there, but they
need proper support.
They need obviously electricity and medicine and proper medical care.
We're doing everything we can to make sure that those in need are getting that care.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What is your main focus right now?
You were saying this could take weeks, even longer, and, frankly, some people are saying
months before this island is even close to getting back to a place where people are safe.
What is the greatest need?
DANIEL KANIEWSKI: So, right now, our priorities are, one, people, making sure we're getting
emergency responders on the ground.
Again, we have 8,000 on the ground right now, closer to 10,000 now.
We also need equipment.
We have to have generators.
We need fuel.
We need commodities like food and water.
All of those are there.
In fact, as far as food goes, we have over four million meals, and water, over 6,000
liters.
But just because it's there doesn't mean it's in people's hands.
And I think that's an important distinction.
We have pushed as many commodities and as much support as we possibly can.
Now we need to work with the local officials and our responders on the ground to get that
distributed to those in need.
And in some cases, they can only be reached by helicopter, and it might involve us airdropping
that in.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Deputy FEMA Administrator Daniel Kaniewski on the dire situation in Puerto
Rico, thank you very much.
DANIEL KANIEWSKI: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Let's hear now from one of those very concerned about the federal response.
She is Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat from New York state.
She traveled to Puerto Rico after the hurricane.
And she joins us now from the U.S. Capitol.
Congresswoman Velazquez, thank you so much for talking with us.
You were quoted today as saying the response in Puerto Rico has been totally inefficient.
What did you mean?
REP.
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ (D), New York: Well, it has been six days since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto
Rico.
And I was there on Friday with the governor of the state of New York.
And what we saw was pure devastation and destruction, the entire island without electricity, without
water.
Diesel is running out.
Gasoline is running out.
Food is running out.
And so they are in a very dire situation.
And we didn't know until now that there have been 16 deaths.
Up to this weekend, there were up to 10.
And there is no way for the government, the local government, to reach remote areas.
So we don't know the type of devastation that has taken place in those areas, because there
is no communication, there is no transportation.
People can't just drive through those roads to reach those devastated areas.
So the kind of response that has taken place from the federal government is people, the
FEMA employees are there.
But what I found is that we have not been able to understand the severity of the situation
right now.
And so we need a top-notch three- or four-star general to oversee the interagency response.
Otherwise, what we're going to be facing is a humanitarian crisis.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What did you see of FEMA, of U.S. government assistance on the island when
you were there?
REP.
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ: Well, the assistance, basically, they were assessing the area.
They were assessing the devastation.
But they didn't have enough people to go to remote areas in Puerto Rico.
And they were, yes, distributing some water, but the situation is such that it requires
the full presence of the military.
One of the most basic needs that people, that the island has right now is the restoration
of the power grid.
The entire island is basically without electricity and without water.
The hospitals do not have electricity.
So we have to bring the Army, with all the tools and all the equipment that it requires
to be able to restore electricity in Puerto Rico and to be able to distribute water.
People are going to some of the streams to get the water that they need, so the situation
is really very critical.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I was just going to say, what we just heard from FEMA's deputy administrator
is that they now have more than 8,000 FEMA people on the ground.
He said it took them longer because of a distance of, he said, 1,000 miles from the mainland
U.S., but he said we now have people there.
We know the crisis.
We are taking it very seriously.
He said, we're aware of the hospital crisis, the fuel crisis.
So is it your sense that in the days since you left, that the federal government is now
taking this more seriously?
REP.
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ: Well, I think so, because of the media coverage.
But let me just say, we need the presence of an aircraft carrier in Puerto Rico, stationed
in Puerto Rico, like we did right after Irma with Miami.
We need to have helicopters.
We need to have small planes.
Those are the type of things that we need that Puerto Rico doesn't have right now.
Yes, the presence of 8,000 people from FEMA is great, but they don't have the capability
to reach the most remote areas.
They don't have the capability and expertise to restore the power grids in Puerto Rico.
And this is why we need -- when disasters strike in other foreign countries, we send
the military, we send the experts from the Department of Defense.
That's the kind of help that we need.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And I assume you have told the Trump administration this.
What's the answer been?
REP.
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ: Well, I'm sending a letter.
I requested for a matching fund requirement to be waived.
And the president announced today that that is going to happen for 180 days.
I'm asking for a whole year.
And today, we are sending -- I am sending a letter with 100 colleagues of mine, Democrats,
asking the president to appoint a senior military official to oversee the whole operation in
Puerto Rico.
We have been asking for an extension, a waiver for the Jones Act, so that we could get help
from other foreign countries.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez of New York, thank you very much.
REP.
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: President Trump called for the world to act in concert
to rein in North Korea.
And he said again that military action is still an option.
Meanwhile, the top U.S. military officer said there's no sign that North Korea is gearing
up for war.
But at a Senate hearing, Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chair of the Joint Chiefs, said
the North's missile threat is real.
GEN.
JOSEPH DUNFORD, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman: There are some technical elements of the program
that haven't been fully tested, from a reentry vehicle to some of the ability to stabilize
a missile in flight, but I view all those as engineering solutions that will be developed
over time.
And, frankly, I think we should assume today that North Korea has that capability and has
the will to use that capability.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We will return to the war of words between North Korea and the U.S. right
after the news summary.
Senate Republican leaders threw in the towel today on the latest Obamacare repeal effort.
The Graham-Cassidy bill was pulled in the face of certain defeat.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate is moving on, but Republicans are not abandoning
the idea of repeal.
SEN.
MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), Majority Leader: We haven't given up on changing the American
health care system.
And we are not going to be able to do that this week, but it still lies ahead of us,
and we haven't given up on that.
We do think it's time to turn to our twin priority, reforming the tax code.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The tax reform effort formally kicks off tomorrow, when President Trump unveil
proposals for a major overhaul.
Republicans in Alabama voted today in a primary runoff for a U.S. Senate seat.
Interim Senator Luther Strange campaigned with strong support from President Trump against
challenger and former Alabama State Chief Justice Roy Moore.
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee announced today that he will not
run for reelection next year, making him the first sitting senator to do so.
He's been at times openly critical of President Trump.
There's word that the acting head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Chuck Rosenberg,
is stepping down.
The Washington Post reports that he will leave on October 1.
Rosenberg was a holdover from the Obama administration.
He'd been at odds with President Trump over treatment of criminal suspects and on other
issues.
In Iraq, the president of the Kurdish region claimed victory for supporters of independence
in Monday's referendum.
Kurds had celebrated through the night after early returns showed overwhelming approval
of breaking away from Iraq.
Both Iraq and Turkey opposed the vote.
And, today, Turkish's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to block Kurdish oil shipments.
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, Turkish President (through translator): When we start imposing our sanctions,
they will be left in the lurch.
It will be over when we close the oil taps.
All revenues will vanish, and they will not be able to find food when our trucks stop
going to Northern Iraq.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Erdogan's government fears that this vote will embolden Turkish Kurds
in their desire for autonomy.
A Palestinian man shot and killed an Israeli policeman and two private guards near a West
Bank settlement today.
Police said the gunman opened fire with a handgun at close range, before he was killed.
In addition to the dead, a fourth guard was wounded.
In Saudi Arabia, state-run TV has announced the end of a longstanding government ban on
women driving cars.
The conservative Muslim kingdom was the only country in the world with such a policy.
The new rule will not take effect until next June.
Back in this country, health officials report a new record for three sexually transmitted
diseases.
The Centers for Disease Control said that there were more than two million new cases
of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis last year.
All three are treatable with antibiotics, but the number of cases has been rising for
several years.
And a quiet day on Wall Street today.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 11 points to close at 22284.
The Nasdaq rose nine, and the S&P 500 added a fraction.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": is the verbal war between North Korea and President Trump
reaching a breaking point?; at least six White House staffers for President Trump are discovered
to have been using private e-mails; and much more.
The rhetoric between North Korea and the United States has long been bellicose and acrimonious.
But over the past few weeks, the back-and-forth has escalated even further, and grown arguably
more ominous.
Nick Schifrin has the story.
NICK SCHIFRIN: For decades, North Korea has rallied its population with propaganda, calling
U.S. an existential threat.
This weekend, more than 100,000 North Koreans, scripted, staged and suited, pledged allegiance
to leader Kim Jong-un.
The banner reads: "If the U.S. attacks us, wipe them out forever."
The propaganda machine goes even further.
Videos show North Korea targeting the White House and destroying the Capitol.
Up until recently, the U.S. has tried not to match bombastic threats with threats.
But, today, name-calling brinkmanship is mutual.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Rocket Man should have been handled a long
time ago.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
NICK SCHIFRIN: And a Kim Jong-un statement read by a North Korean TV presenter:
WOMAN (through translator): "I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged
U.S. dotard with fire."
NICK SCHIFRIN: The war of words has been escalating all year.
On January 2, President Trump tweeted: "North Korea just stated that it is in the final
stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S.
It won't happen."
By July, the North Koreans did test an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United
States.
The next month, the president laid down a new red line.
DONALD TRUMP: North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States.
They will be met with fire and fury, like the world has never seen.
NICK SCHIFRIN: North Korea crossed that line some 24 hours later, threatening to envelop
U.S. territory Guam.
MAN (through translator): Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy, bereft of reason,
who is going senile.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The tit-for-tat continued at the United Nations General Assembly:
DONALD TRUMP: Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.
RI YONG-HO, North Korean Foreign Minister (through translator): It's an absurd reality
a person like Trump, a mentally deranged person full of megalomania and complacency, holds
the nuclear button.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Over the weekend, President Trump tweeted that if North Korean officials
repeated specific threats, they won't be around much longer.
And the North Korean foreign minister responded:
RI YONG-HO, (through translator): Since the United States declared war on our country,
we have every right to take countermeasures, including shooting down the United States'
strategic bombers.
The question of who will be around much longer will be answered then.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, President Trump repeated his threats and said Kim Jong-un started it.
DONALD TRUMP: He's saying things that should, never ever be said, and we're replying to
those things, but it's a reply.
It's not an original statement.
It's a reply.
NICK SCHIFRIN: To talk about whether the president's rhetoric really is a reply, and whether the
war of words increases the chances of war, we get two views.
Kathleen Stephens was a career diplomat and served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea and
undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.
She joins us from Stanford University, where she is a fellow.
And Balbina Hwang was a special adviser to the assistant secretary of state for East
Asia and Pacific affairs, and is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University.
And thank you to you both.
Ambassador Stephens, let me start with you.
Do you believe that President Trump might actually be reducing U.S. options, perhaps
bringing us either closer to war or proving U.S. threats meaningless?
KATHLEEN STEPHENS, Former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea: Well, I am really baffled
and very concerned about this engagement by, for the first time, I think, by an American
president in this kind of tit-for-tat rhetoric, I think you called it brinksmanship, with
the North Korean leader.
I think this is beneath us.
I subscribe to Teddy Roosevelt's speak softly and carry a big stick if you're a great power
like the United States.
There's a lot of things about the Trump administration's policies toward North Korea which I think
have been very sound and being pursued by Secretary Mattis and Secretary Tillerson.
And this war of words is undermining those efforts.
It's going to make diplomacy more difficult.
It's confused our allies.
It's strengthened, I think, Kim Jong-un's assertion to his own people that he was right.
In fact, this is what he said in reply to President Trump's U.N. statement about totally
destroying North Korea: He was right to pursue nuclear weapons, and he's not going to stop.
So, I think this is complicating the administration's own efforts, ironically, and, even more immediately,
making it very, very difficult to manage that situation on the Korean Peninsula.
This has always been about managing escalation and preventing escalation and preventing misunderstanding.
We have been close to war many times on the Korean Peninsula in the past years, and we
have had to work very quietly, I think, to manage that.
This kind of war of words between two leaders makes it much more difficult.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Professor Hwang, are the threats ineffective, or could they actually be effective?
BALBINA HWANG, Senior Policy Analyst, Heritage Foundation: Well, I actually think, rather
oddly, that, in fact, they will -- they are being effective.
We have to remember, it's not so much that I disagree with Ambassador Stephens, but I
do think that President Obama, for example, for eight years, did take the high road.
But I do think that President Obama, for example, for eight years, did take the high road.
And I think he was being very firm.
And he did try negotiations, but essentially had a policy of being tough where he needed
to be.
But actually carrying the soft sick didn't work, in the sense that it didn't deter North
Korea.
It didn't bring North Korea to the negotiating table.
And so, of course, going down to sort of schoolyard level in this kind of matching rhetoric may
not necessarily help, but, on the other hand, it does set very clear what U.S. intentions
are and what this president is not willing to tolerate.
That's not the worst thing as far as North Korea is concerned.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But what about that, Professor Stephens?
Perhaps these threats are effective deterrents.
KATHLEEN STEPHENS: You know, I'm not for a soft stick.
I'm for a hard stick.
And I think that -- and I do support the steps both the previous administration has taken
and that President Trump has taken to strengthen deterrents, to strengthen defense, to demonstrate
a determination to defend our allies, as well as our homeland.
But we're a big country.
We're a great power.
And I think we need to -- and our words matter.
One thing that strikes me, from my many years in Asia, is that the words that an American
president says, the words that any American official says are pored over and analyzed,
whether it's in Seoul or Tokyo or Pyongyang.
And I have heard that there are units of bright young diplomats in analysts in both Pyongyang
and Seoul whose sole task is to read everything that President Trump tweets and says, particularly
with relation to the region, and try to figure out what it is he's saying.
And it seems so completely at odds with things that are said sometimes by himself the day
before and the day after, and certainly by Secretary Mattis, Secretary Tillerson, who
have outlined a strategy of, as they put it, maximum pressure, maximum engagement.
What President Trump is doing, in this very ad hominem tit-for-tat with someone who is
way beneath us is demeaning, I think, his own position, the position of the United States,
and the efforts of his own diplomats and military leaders.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Professor Hwang, are these threats undermining some of the other members
of the administration?
BALBINA HWANG: Well, there does seem to be some confusion about that.
On the other hand, again, yes, a president's words matter, but taken in the context of
what this president says and does in terms of tweeting, I think, again, even our foreign
audience does understand that every single statement that comes out of the president
may not necessarily need to be taken so seriously.
And, in fact, the confusion might also convince the North Korean leaders that they need to
act with more caution.
I think the more important point is what is behind the actions.
What actions are we taking and what actions are North Korea taking?
And right now, there are no actual military actions that indicate that either is on the
brink of waging war with the other.
That's actually more important.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And, Ambassador, to that point, could these threats be effective, where, frankly,
a lot of the diplomacy in the past was not?
KATHLEEN STEPHENS: I don't think the threats are effective.
And I think, as the discussion before we started this talk demonstrated, the problem with threats
is -- and certainly red lines is, if you draw red lines -- and it's not just the Trump administration
that's seen this, but others -- and then the North Koreans cross it, what happens?
It's a problem of credibility.
It's a problem.
And I think there is a big problem if the words of our president are not taken seriously.
It really, really reduces our ability to influence and shape events.
That said, I do agree with Balbina that my own assessment -- and this -- there may be
some hopeful thinking in this -- is that neither side wants a war.
I'm worried about the inadvertent miscalculation that can happen in what is a highly militarized
environment, one in which President Trump, for the first time -- and even putting aside
the kind of childish ad hominem attacks on each other -- but where he has strayed -- well,
he has demonstrated no awareness of the kind of traditional kind of clarity of deterrents,
how we deter each other, how we signal intentions.
I don't think that uncertainty is a good thing.
No one, perhaps the president himself, knows, is he really talking -- when he talks about
a response the world has never seen before, is he talking about a nuclear response or
not?
We don't know.
Yes, I think that gives Pyongyang pause, but that doesn't give me any comfort, because
I think it also, as I mentioned, says to Kim Jong-un, he says, well, I was right to try
to develop my own nuclear deterrent.
I think the challenge now is to find a way to go forward and deter each other.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Quickly, Professor Hwang, giving Kim Jong-un pause, isn't that part of the
point?
BALBINA HWANG: That's exactly right.
And, in fact, uncertainty, while it does make us anxious, uncertainty is what drives North
Korea's insecurity.
And I think, in this case, insecurity is what is going to push North Korea back to the negotiating
table, if anything does.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Professor Hwang, thank you very much, and Ambassador Stephens.
Thanks to you both.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Private e-mails are back in the news this week, after multiple news reports
disclosed that at least six advisers to President Trump have used them to discuss government
business.
Of course, Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server was one of the most frequent
points of attack for the Trump campaign in the 2016 election.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: People have been -- their lives have been
destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you have done, and it's a disgrace.
And, honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
This is bigger than Watergate.
This is bigger than Watergate, in my opinion.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
MIKE PENCE, Vice President of the United States: It's a serious mater, and we commend the FBI
for reopening the case and following the facts, because, in America, no one is above the law.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Joining me now discuss these latest revelations is Richard Painter.
He served as the chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush.
Richard Painter, welcome back to the program.
We should say that an investigation by the Justice Department was closed with regard
to Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server.
But now, with regard to this new information, what does the law say about the ability of
people working in the White House to use their own private e-mail accounts?
RICHARD PAINTER, Former Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush: Well, they are
not supposed to.
And that's a violation of White House policy going back to the Clinton administration in
their White House staff manual.
And in our staff manual, we made it clear, I made it clear, the Bush White House, that
you're not supposed to do it.
But people did.
A number of political people were using Republican National Committee e-mail, and we got in trouble
for that, got a lot of grief from the House Oversight Committee over that.
And there was a big flap.
None of it was criminal.
No one brought in the FBI.
And then Hillary Clinton made the same mistake, had her own personal e-mail server.
And I think that was a stupid mistake.
It wasn't criminal.
That was blown way out of proportion, the Clinton situation.
Some people sent some classified stuff to her, and that's one of the risks you take
when you use a personal e-mail, but, once again, no precedent for prosecuting somebody.
And that was foolishness to blow that that far out of proportion.
I don't know why the FBI took so long with it.
And now, of course, we see what's happening in the Trump administration.
It's the same thing.
It's a foolish thing to do.
This is not something that calls for criminal investigation, but it really is atrocious
that we went through a whole election season trying to make a high crime or something out
of what Hillary Clinton had done with her e-mail, which everybody else in the administration
is well aware of, because they were receiving e-mails from her on a personal server.
It's a very bad idea.
They shouldn't be doing it, but we shouldn't be accusing people of crimes and say, well,
lock her up, and these political rallies where they're screaming and yelling, as if they're
in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1933 or something.
It really is embarrassing for our country, how far this thing has been taken.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Richard Painter, remind us why these rules are in place saying to government
officials, White House officials that they shouldn't use their private account.
RICHARD PAINTER: Well, there are two problems.
One is, you could lose the records.
And the Presidential Records Act require the records to be retained.
Now, since 2014, Congress has amended the statute, and it's now required that if you
do use another account, you must copy an official United States government account, so the record
is retained.
And that was after the Clinton episode.
That's one problem.
The second problem is that someone might send you something that is classified.
It's very foolish to send somebody something that's classified.
It never crossed my mind that that would have happened in the case of Karl Rove's e-mail
or any of the e-mail situations we had at the Bush White House, where personal or Republican
National Committee e-mail was used.
But that's a big risk that you take if you are doing official business on a personal
e-mail server.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The point you're making, among others, is that this is not a criminal act.
It's not a legal problem.
So, given that, how serious are these disclosures, do you think?
RICHARD PAINTER: I think it shows the continuing disregard for standards of good judgment in
this administration.
There are -- there is evidence of some serious crimes in this administration, obstruction
of justice and lying about contacts with the Russians, that I'm a lot more worried about
than Jared Kushner's e-mail.
But, once again, I think that the attack on Clinton, particularly after the election,
and what happened at that rally in Huntsville, Alabama, last week, that's a fundamental threat
to our democracy, and we ought to be thinking about that and the totalitarian rhetoric,
rather than worrying about the e-mail.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, and you're referring, of course, to the investigation into acts,
alleged acts, that are under investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.
It looks, Richard Painter, as if this new information has come out because Mr. Mueller
and his team are asking the White House to turn over all communications, all the documents
they have that could in any way be connected the this Russia investigation.
If it weren't for that, do you think it's possible this could have stayed secret for
a long time?
RICHARD PAINTER: Oh, it could have.
I mean, as I say, we have had people use their personal e-mail in prior administrations.
No matter how many times the ethics lawyers tell them not to do it, they go ahead and
do it, and despite all of these risks.
But I have to say, once again, on the scale of things, this is not the big deal in terms
of potential criminal activity in this administration.
I think the sheer hypocrisy of it is important to note.
But, once again, I don't think hypocrisy is anything new in politics, and certainly not
for this administration.
But the Mueller investigation is, I think, going to uncover a lot.
They have consistently lied about collaboration with the Russians, and it's clear they were
collaborating with the Russians.
We just need to find out whether that was legal or illegal.
Now, if they're using personal e-mail, by the way, to cover up their illegal activity,
that's a whole 'nother ball game.
But we don't know at this point that that's what they were doing.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, again, all that is under investigation.
But, just finally, do you think this should be covered by a law, that it should be against
the law to use private e-mail communications once someone works in government at any level?
RICHARD PAINTER: I think we should probably tighten up the law even further.
In 2014, after the Clinton episode, they did require you to copy the government e-mails.
So, that is the law.
It's not a criminal law, once again, but it is the law.
And that's what they are supposed to do.
I hope that these six people did that, copied the United States government e-mail at the
time they sent the e-mail.
But we perhaps ought to tighten up the law even further, although I continue to emphasize
that the whole e-mail thing for the past couple of years has been turn into a lot bigger deal
than it really ought to be.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, Richard Painter, thank you for joining us once again.
RICHARD PAINTER: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: For some parents in the U.S., it's a question in the fall: Should they vaccinate
their children to send them to school?
The American Academy of Pediatrics believes so and says that a measles outbreak that started
at Disneyland a few years ago shows how fast childhood diseases can resurface if not enough
children are protected.
California and several states have since tightened their immunization requirements.
But some parents are still pushing back.
PBS special correspondent Lisa Stark of our partner Education Week reports from Vermont
about the vaccine fight there.
It's part of our weekly series Making the Grade.
LISA STARK: Seven-year-old Merin Blake is a second grader at Champlain Elementary in
Burlington, Vermont, a school her parents picked for her back in kindergarten, not because
of class size or test scores, but based on how many students had all their vaccines.
MIA HOCKETT, Mother: When I took a look at the immunization rates for schools in Burlington,
and also, though, at the kind of private schools in the area, I was really aghast about how
low they were.
And that made me really, really anxious.
LISA STARK: Mom Mia Hockett was anxious because Merin was in the midst of treatment for childhood
leukemia, diagnosed just before her 4th birthday.
The intensive chemotherapy compromised her immune system, making her vulnerable to diseases.
School nurse Nancy Pruitt worked to keep Merin safe.
NANCY PRUITT, School Nurse: In her classroom, we made sure that the kids were vaccinated.
We don't have the -- we can't always do that, but we made sure that she had a classroom
with kids that had been vaccinated.
LISA STARK: Vaccinated against preventable illnesses, such as mumps, measles, whooping
cough, chicken pox, and polio, which would have been especially dangerous for Merin.
MIA HOCKETT: I know that kind of a lot of people think that we don't really have these
diseases, so we don't need to be afraid of them.
But in that situation, when we're kind of thinking about, you know, our child...
LISA STARK: Hockett isn't just a mom.
She's also a doctor.
And she wanted a school with vaccination rates of at least 90 to 95 percent, which public
health officials say is required to protect those who are vulnerable or can't be vaccinated.
Christine Finley runs the immunization program for the state of Vermont.
®MD-BO¯CHRISTINE FINLEY, Vermont Department of Health: When children are in school, they're
in a setting where they are interacting broadly with one another.
If you don't have a large percentage of the children vaccinated, then, basically, your
shield isn't going to work, because you have got places where a disease can begin to spread
within a school.
LISA STARK: Finley says, by 2014, vaccine rates had dropped to alarming levels, at some
public schools, as many as 20 percent of students without all the required shots, and at a dozen
private school, 50 percent not fully vaccinated.
Vermont, like every state, requires vaccines to attend school, but, like all states, allows
exemptions.
In every state, children can get waivers for medical reasons.
Forty-seven states permit families to skip vaccines for religious beliefs; 18 also allow
for personal or philosophical exemptions.
Some states are moving to tighten their laws, chief among them California, which, in 2015,
did away with all waivers, except for medical exemptions.
Kindergarten vaccination rates have jumped to the highest levels in more than 15 years,
nearly 96 percent.
DANIEL SALMON, Johns Hopkins University: The problem is, in many states, it's easier to
get an exemption than it is to vaccinate your child.
LISA STARK: Easier, says Daniel Salmon with the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns
Hopkins University, because parents simply sign a waiver request, much less effort than
getting children vaccinated.
WOMAN: So, this one is for you, and this one is for the school.
DANIEL SALMON: While, nationally, most people vaccinate their children, and that's clearly
the norm, we're starting to see communities where more and more parents are refusing vaccines.
LISA STARK: Low vaccine rates in some communities are blamed for three large measles outbreaks
in the past four years, one in Ohio, one that began in Disneyland and spread to seven states,
and another this year in Minnesota.
Are your children vaccinated?
ARIEL BREWER LOUIS, Mother: No, they are not.
LISA STARK: Ariel Brewer Louis is a Vermont mom of three.
We caught up with her during an event for those who question the safety and efficacy
of vaccines.
She told her story on board a bus that's traveling the nation to promote an anti-vaccine documentary
and record vaccine testimonials.
ARIEL BREWER LOUIS: I have three girls.
LISA STARK: Brewer Louis recalled that decades ago her brother may have had a serious reaction
to a vaccine, according to their mother.
ARIEL BREWER LOUIS: It must have planted a seed, because when my first was born, I just
said no.
I just opted out.
LISA STARK: Parents say they forgo some or all vaccines for their children for a variety
of reasons.
They're worried about the number of doses, the crowded vaccine schedule, and past claims
of a link to autism, which have been discredited.
Jennifer Stella runs the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice.
Are you anti-vaccine?
JENNIFER STELLA, Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice: I think I have been called anti-vaccine
a lot, haven't I?
You know, I'm pro-choice.
I think that everybody should have a choice.
LISA STARK: Stella says her two children reacted badly after receiving several immunizations.
Her son cried incessantly, stopped nursing and seized in her arms, and her daughter had
head-to-toe rashes.
JENNIFER STELLA: I don't think that vaccines are safe enough for my children.
LISA STARK: Pediatrician Jill Rinehart says vaccines are extremely safe and effective.
DR.
JILL RINEHART, Pediatrician: I mean, there's not much that I do every day for children
that saves lives.
Immunizations are something that I do every day that I know makes a huge difference.
LISA STARK: Rinehart and other doctors helped push the state to tighten Vermont's vaccine
laws.
So did Hockett, with Mia in tow.
In 2015, lawmakers eliminated the state's philosophical exemption.
Parents can still opt out for religious or medical reasons.
Partly because of the change in law, Brewer Louis is homeschooling her 8-year-old.
But she is relying on the religious exemption to send another daughter to preschool.
What is your religious objections to vaccines?
ARIEL BREWER LOUIS: I don't have a religious objection to vaccines, but that's my only
option.
And the way I see it, I have done my research, and there's no way I am going to vaccinate
my children to send them to school.
LISA STARK: What do you say to people who say to you, I should have the right not to
vaccinate my child?
MIA HOCKETT: I absolutely agree with that, but none of this legislation actually forces
someone to get immunized.
What is says is that, if you're opting out of your right and responsibility to vaccine,
then you also have to bear the burden of opting out of the benefits of organized education.
LISA STARK: Here in Vermont, parents have at most six months from the start of school
to either make sure their child has all the required vaccinations or to claim an exemption.
If they don't, that child is no longer welcome at school.
School nurse Pruitt says no student has been excluded from her school yet, but some have
come close.
She believes the new law has had an impact.
NANCY PRUITT: So we had a 2.3 percent increase on our student body being fully vaccinated.
LISA STARK: And do you think that's because of the change in the law?
NANCY PRUITT: I do.
LISA STARK: As for Hockett, she's focused on a return to normalcy.
Merin is considered cured of leukemia, and, in August, was deemed healthy enough to resume
her vaccines.
So, this school year, Merin's parents hope she can count on her own immunity, not just
others, to stay healthy.
For the "PBS NewsHour" and Education Week, I'm Lisa Stark in Burlington, Vermont.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight, yet another scandal has rocked the world of college basketball,
and this time it's caught up some of the sport's biggest names.
Jeffrey Brown has that.
JEFFREY BROWN: Big money in college sports, that's no surprise.
But today's charges expose a large web of allegedly illicit connections.
A total of 10 people, assistant coaches, agents, financial advisers, and a top executive at
sportswear giant Adidas were charged with bribery involving hundreds of thousands of
dollars to influence student-athletes.
One of the accused is Chuck Person, an assistant coach at Auburn and former NBA player.
The school suspended him without pay.
Charges were also brought against assistants at three other big basketball schools, Oklahoma
State, the University of Arizona and the University of Southern California.
At a press conference this afternoon, acting U.S. attorney Joon Kim said the case lays
out -- quote -- "the dark underbelly of college basketball."
JOON KIM, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York: Month after month, the
defendants exploited the hoop dreams of student-athletes around the country, allegedly treating them
as little more than opportunities to enrich themselves through bribery and fraud schemes.
Fraud, abuse, and corruption of the type alleged in the charges brought today contaminates
all that is good and pure around it.
And it has no place in college sports.
JEFFREY BROWN: And I'm joined now from Detroit by Dan Wetzel.
He's a national correspondent -- columnist for Yahoo Sports.
Dan, first, fill in the picture a little bit about some of these accusations of bribes.
What kind of actions are we talking about?
DAN WETZEL, Yahoo Sports: Well, the system is basically this.
You have a shoe company, a sports agent, a financial planner, and they are paying money
to high school recruits and their families to attend a certain school, in this case ones
that are associated mostly with Adidas.
Then, when those players get there and when they're at that school, the same group was
paying bribes to assistant basketball coaches so that, when the student-athletes turned
pro and went to the NBA, the assistant coaches who had earned their trust would steer them
to Adidas and this particular sports agency and this financial planner.
So, they were basically trying to put seed money out there to get potentially lucrative
clients in the future who would be big-money NBA players.
JEFFREY BROWN: And these are -- that's the web I was talking about.
These are big schools, right?
These are big names in the world of sports, and, of course, a big company in Adidas.
DAN WETZEL: Absolutely.
You had -- four universities had assistant coaches arrested today.
In the grander scope, too, is you have NCAA violations, which may not be criminal, but
the NCAA can come in and punish.
And you had the University of South Carolina and the University of Louisville, among others
that we will find out, are already mentioned in that.
So, the scandal can be a sports scandal, as well as a legal one.
JEFFREY BROWN: How big is it?
Because, as I said, it's not that big a surprise to people who follow sports that there is
a lot of money involved.
But these are kind of blockbuster, detailed charges.
DAN WETZEL: The situation is significant, because college basketball has operated for
generations with sort of a wink and a nod, understanding that this stuff goes on.
But it's very hard to prove it.
And the NCAA doesn't have subpoena power, can only do so much investigation.
The fact that you have the FBI, undercover agents, wiretaps, financial data analysts
and the Department of Justice coming in and saying, this is an ongoing investigation,
this is just the first series of arrests, and they can now lean on these people involved
to try to get more dirt.
It can extend out to dozens of universities.
The Adidas executive alone, if he's willing to flip, in an effort to get some kind of
leniency or he's willing to tell the truth or everything he knows, would have stories
and implications at least at the NCAA level, if not federal law, on dozens of universities.
This could be certainly the biggest scandal in the history of college basketball in terms
of the sheer number of schools in trouble.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, one wonders about the assistant coaches, of course, does that lead
to the head coaches, better-known people?
Some names, I know, were withheld in the indictments today.
But I know that sports -- knowledgeable sports people are sort of putting together two and
two to figure out what other universities, what other names might be implicated.
DAN WETZEL: Well, the University of Louisville is the biggest one implicated today.
And they have acknowledged that they are in the investigation.
And they are linked to a $100,000 payout to a potential -- to a recruit that was signed
by Louisville.
That's obviously significant.
Rick Pitino is a Hall of Fame basketball coach.
They have won numerous national championships at Louisville.
And they're currently already on NCAA probation.
So, again, these allegations are extremely serious, not just legally with the feds, but
with the NCAA, and that's why this could be a very, very big story.
JEFFREY BROWN: And just very briefly, what kind of responses have come from the universities?
DAN WETZEL: Some have already launched internal investigations.
Southern California hired Louis Freeh, the former FBI director's law firm to investigate
it.
There is no question, all over college sports, there is considerable nervousness and an intensity
to find out what's going on, because this is no longer an NCAA case.
It's a whole 'nother level when the FBI comes knocking on your door.
JEFFREY BROWN: Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, thank you very much.
DAN WETZEL: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: On the "NewsHour" online right now: On its way to an asteroid, NASA's OSIRIS-REx
probe took some photos of Earth as it flew by.
You can take a closer look and read up on the latest space mission on our Web site,
PBS.org/NewsHour.
And tune in later tonight on "Charlie Rose": actor Harrison Ford on the return of Rick
Deckard in "Blade Runner 2049" on PBS.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, and good night.
PBS NewsHour full episode, September 26, 2017 Small island of Dominica hit hardest by Hurricane Maria Thousands in Puerto Rico rush for higher ground as large dam begins to fail Desperation grows in Puerto Rico after Maria Hurricane Maria's Massive Destruction In Puerto Rico Hurricane Maria: Failing Dam Puts Many Residents In Puerto Rico At Risk | NBC Nightly News Raw: Puerto Rico Devastated by Hurricane Maria Scary first videos Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico - hurricane Maria footage - Hurricane maria aftermath President Trump to visit Puerto Rico in wake of hurricane Mass. Residents With Relatives In Puerto Rico Fear The Worst

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