PBS NewsHour full episode Oct. 4, 2017

JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening. I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: Police search for a motive in the Las Vegas shooting that left
59 people dead, looking for answers from the gunman's girlfriend, while President Trump
visits the survivors and first-responders.
Also ahead: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, accused of being a dictator of a failing
state, responds to President Trump's threats of military intervention.
Then: Can pain be managed without a prescription? We continue our America Addicted series with
a look at the new ways doctors are approaching pain.
DR. DAVID TAUBEN, U.W. Medicine: Virtual reality is a way of moving someone to a different
place, a safe place, a place they don't have pain.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: A presidential visit, an FBI interrogation, a mystery yet to be solved
-- the day's headlines in the Las Vegas massacre.
Cat Wise begins our coverage.
CAT WISE: The investigation proceeded today, from the Las Vegas Strip, to the main FBI
building in Los Angeles. The Las Vegas gunman's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, was being questioned
there.
She flew back last night from the Philippines, where she had been when Stephen Paddock opened
fire on concert-goers Sunday night. Danley's sisters spoke, with faces obscured, to Australia's
Channel 7, and insisted she knew nothing of Paddock's plot.
WOMAN: She didn't even know that she was going to the Philippines until Steve said, "Oh,
Marilou, I found you a cheap ticket to the Philippines."
WOMAN: He sent her away, so that he can plan what he is planning without interruptions.
CAT WISE: Meanwhile, President and Mrs. Trump arrived in Las Vegas this morning. They were
greeted by local and state officials, and went first to private meetings with survivors
and their doctors.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: It makes you very proud to be an American,
when you see the job that they have done, and people that wouldn't be around today are
up there, and they will be leaving the hospital in a week, or two weeks, or five weeks, and
in some cases even a few days. It's amazing.
CAT WISE: Mr. Trump met later with police and emergency crews who answered the call
Sunday night.
DONALD TRUMP: We struggle for the words to explain to our children on how such evil can
exist, how there can be such cruelty and such suffering. But we cannot be defined by the
evil that threaten us or the violence that incites such terror. We are defined by our
love, our caring, and our courage.
CAT WISE: Here, at the crime scene, the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino looms over the site that
became a killing ground. Investigators are methodically gathering evidence from the gunman's
hotel room and the grounds where a country music festival erupted in bloodshed.
Stephen Paddock aimed a torrent of gunfire at the concert-goers for a good nine minutes,
before he killed himself.
MAN: Get out of here! There's gunshots coming from over there! Go that way!
CAT WISE: Police body camera footage shows officers trying to get concert-goers out of
harm's way.
MAN: Go that way, go that way, go that way! Everybody, stay down! Everybody, stay down!
Stay down!
CAT WISE: And among the concert-goers, more stories of sacrifice and heroism, even after
being hit by bullets.
JUSTIN BURTON, Survivor: I just felt it hit me once. And that's when I said we have got
to get going, and then I ended up lining -- trying to line everyone up. I just kept on telling
everybody, get in front of me, get in front of me. And then I got hit a second time, just
a couple inches apart.
CAT WISE: Investigators now know Paddock stockpiled at least 23 guns and hundreds of rounds of
ammunition in his hotel room. FBI Special Agent Jill Snyder says he'd been collecting
guns for many years, and especially in the last 12 months.
JILL SNYDER, FBI: From October 2016 to September 28, 2017, he purchased 33 firearms, majority
of them rifles.
QUESTION: Why is there no notification if someone is buying multiple rifles?
JILL SNYDER: There is no federal law requiring that.
CAT WISE: Twelve of the rifles found in the hotel suite were outfitted with a bump-stock,
allowing a gun to function like a fully automatic rifle.
In Washington today, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California introduced legislation
to outlaw the device.
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), California: Mr. and Mrs. America, you have to stand up. You
have to say, enough is enough. You have to say that there is no reason to make a semiautomatic
assault weapon into a fully automatic battlefield weapon.
CAT WISE: Some Republicans, including Texas Senator John Cornyn, agreed today it's worth
examining the issue of bump-stocks.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Cat Wise in Las Vegas.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We will look at the debate over bump-stocks and remember more of the
victims in Las Vegas later in the program.
In the day's other news: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson denied that he almost resigned
over the summer. And Vice President Pence denied that he talked him into staying. NBC
News reported earlier today that Tillerson was close to quitting after President Trump's
politicized speech to the Boy Scouts, where Tillerson once served as a national leader.
The secretary insisted that he never considered leaving. He stopped short of denying another
part of the report, that he called the president a moron.
REX TILLERSON, U.S. Secretary of State: I'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that.
I mean, this is what I don't understand about Washington. Again, I'm not from this place.
But the places I come from, we don't deal with that kind of petty nonsense. And it is
intended to do nothing but divide people. And I'm just not going to be part of this
effort to divide this administration.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Later, the State Department spokeswoman did deny that Tillerson called
the president a moron. Mr. Trump said that the entire report was made up, and that he
has -- quote -- "total confidence" in Tillerson. NBC News says that it stands by its story.
Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee say the question of whether the Trump campaign
colluded with Russia's government is still open. They spoke today about their nine-month-old
investigation. Republican Richard Burr and Democrat Mark Warner said there is no doubt
that Russian hackers tried to influence the 2016 election, and that they will do it again.
SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), North Carolina: You can't walk away from this and believe that
Russia is not currently active in trying to create chaos in our election process. I assume
that the same tactics that we saw in Montenegro, in France, in Belgium, and in the United States
will continue to be tested.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The senators said that social media companies didn't take Russian infiltration
seriously enough at first, but are cooperating now. Facebook has turned over more than 3,000
advertisements tied to Russian interests, but the committee is not releasing the content.
The White House budget chief says that there will not be a federal bailout for hard-hit
Puerto Rico. President Trump suggested yesterday that the island's huge debt will have to be
wiped out. But the budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, says that's not happening.
Instead, the White House today requested $29 billion from Congress for disaster relief
for Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. We will hear from the mayor of San Juan right after
the news summary.
This year's Nobel Prize in chemistry goes to scientists from the U.S., Britain and Switzerland
for creating finely detailed images of bio-molecules. The honorees are Jacques Dubochet of the University
of Lausanne, Richard Henderson of Cambridge, and Joachim Frank of Columbia University,
who got the early morning call at home.
JOACHIM FRANK, Nobel Prize Winner; I was very nervous, because we have this dog now, and
we are anxious about being woken up at around that time by the dog. So there was a competition
between the Nobel Committee and the dog. And all I kept saying, that this is wonderful
news. I repeated myself, and, you know, I wasn't very sophisticated in my response.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Starting in the 1970s, the researchers made breakthroughs in freezing
organic molecules, so that they could be studied by electron microscopes. The technique is
being used now to develop drugs against the Zika virus.
Online retailer giant Amazon has been ordered to pay nearly $295 million in back taxes to
Luxembourg. The European Union ruled today that the tiny nation gave Amazon illegal tax
benefits over an eight-year period. It said the effect was to shield almost three-quarters
of Amazon's profits from taxes. It's the latest move in the E.U.'s crackdown to close tax
loopholes.
And on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average gained about 20 points to close at
22661. The Nasdaq rose three, and the S&P 500 also added three.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on President Trump's
visit; Las Vegas reignites the gun debate; one on one with Venezuela's president, whose
country faces an economic meltdown; and much more.
Let's turn now to Puerto Rico.
The federal response continues to draw criticism from locals. They were only amplified yesterday
after President Trump's visit to the hurricane-ravaged island.
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz has been especially outspoken, and she's personally
called out by Mr. Trump.
Our special correspondent Monica Villamizar caught up with the mayor this afternoon. And
she began by asking about Mr. Trump's comments about what constitutes a catastrophe.
CARMEN YULIN CRUZ, Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico: To Mr. Trump, I have nothing to say.
I think a word -- a picture speaks louder than 1,000 words. And the photographs that
you guys have taken, the stories that you have heard, the sorrow that you have witnessed
speaks for itself.
And yesterday was an interesting day. The meeting that we had, the second part of the
meeting with White House staff, I think, finally put into perspective the disconnect between
what they're hearing and what is actually happening, what they think should happen and
what is actually taking place.
And this was an important gap to be filled. So I hope that, as the coverage continues,
as the internal people to continue to -- just report -- that they see, we have towns, for
example, where the mayors have not been heard of. Why? Because there's not -- no communication.
But I keep asking people. The totals yesterday, 100,000 people have registered with FEMA,
100,000 people out of 3.5 million. Let's presume half of the population has been affected -- 100,000
people? We still have, what, 1.2 million more to go.
Why? Because we don't have interconnectivity. So, it's of the utmost important to bring
up all the communications. And I can't believe that there's logistical problems. You go to
Timbuktu, you're in the middle of the desert, you sit down a solar panel or whatever, and
there's communication.
So I think that the world needs to pay more attention to what they see and less attention
to what he says.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: But do you think there is a lack of will to help the island and that's
why the communications haven't been established?
You said it yourself. The military can establish communications in the middle of Mali and Timbuktu.
®MD+IT¯®MD-IT¯CARMEN YULIN CRUZ: From the American people, there's not a lack of
will. They're here.
I think that what has to happen is that standard operating procedures are being put in place,
taking into consideration the real variables. And when you're in the habit of just listening
to those that tell you that things are OK, then you are in trouble.
My staff tells me when I screw up every day, with no qualms about it. And I am not perfect.
I do some things that are right. I do some things that I could have done better. I do
some things that are wrong.
Everything legal, everything within the confines of -- ethical and moral, but, sometimes, you
have to admit it. So, I think General Buchanan was very strong when he was just -- forward
and said, look, I don't have everything I need, and this is the worst devastation I
have ever seen.
And the Pentagon also put out a paper this Sunday saying, look, I don't know why the
president keeps saying things are getting better.
Let me tell you one thing that's going to get bad really soon. The water levels are
depleting, so we may be running into further problems.
But, really, this is about saving lives. This isn't about politics. Some people make it
about politics, because they want to change the dialogue, because looking at the injustice
and the suffering and the face will have to make them admit their failures.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: We're still in a lifesaving moment right now, you think?
CARMEN YULIN CRUZ: Yes, we are still -- no, no, I know we're in a lifesaving moment.
And the further you go from San Juan, the worse it gets. So, I'm sorry. Throwing paper
towels at people just doesn't cut it.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Why do you think that was done? You were there. What did you feel personally
too?
CARMEN YULIN CRUZ: Well, I wasn't there. I wasn't there.
I was at the first briefing that lasted for about 17 minutes, when the president proceeded
to say that Katrina really was a real disaster and went on congratulating us because there
were only 16 deaths.
We have got to stop calculating lives as if they were chips in a little -- it just doesn't
work that way. And when you don't know, and when you haven't gotten everywhere, you just
can't say what the total death toll is.
Then he talked about the debt. Then he talked of that we were ingrates. So, we have no time
for that. We have no time for small politics. We have no time for the kind of discourse
that's trying to change the focus from where it should be.
No, we don't have all that we need. Yes, there is a moral imperative to help us, to come
to our aid. And, yes, this is a humanitarian crisis. The world can see it. Our brothers
and sisters from unions see it. Our brothers and sisters from New York, from California,
from Miami Beach, from Boston, from Chicago see it.
So, we're going to work with those that see it.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Do you think President Trump should have flown around the island
at least, like General Buchanan did, to see the scope of the devastation, for instance,
at least to get close...
(CROSSTALK)
CARMEN YULIN CRUZ: If your heart isn't open, it doesn't matter where you go.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: You don't think his heart is open?
CARMEN YULIN CRUZ: Throwing paper towels at people? That doesn't show a lot of sensitivity.
So, you know, he can attack me all he wants. Bring it on. I'm here. As long as it gets
the message out that we are thirsty, that we are hungry, that we need supplies.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We return to the debate over guns in the United States, a conversation
taking place across the country this week, sparked by the tragedy in Las Vegas.
Last night, we spoke with Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut.
And, tonight, I'm joined by Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma. He serves on the
Senate Homeland Security Committee, among others.
Senator, welcome back to the program.
I know you're hearing the conversation about what the shooter used to increase the capacity
of these weapons that he used to kill so many people, the so-called bump-stocks. Some Republican
leaders in the Senate are saying they want to take a look at that. What is your view?
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R), Oklahoma: Yes, we're trying to look at the whole situation, obviously.
It's incredibly tragic. It's what we always say in this situation. There's so many violations
of so many laws for this individual that they did, from bringing guns into a casino, to
shooting people, obviously breaking -- so he violated so many laws.
Just trying to examine, is there another law in place that would have fixed all of this?
As I say that, we also have to address the issue of bump-stocks. These were approved
in 2010 under President Obama's time in the ATF. We want to go through the paperwork,
which I have already pulled, to be able to take a look at how the approval was done.
So, those are reasonable questions to be able to ask, why it was approved, why has it been
allowed since then, what it actually accomplishes, and how that fits into our total life of where
we are as a nation that honors the Second Amendment as well.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, based on what you know right now, do you think it's possible you
could support banning these so-called bump-stocks?
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD: You know what? I don't know enough on it, to tell you the truth,
to be able to answer that question or to be able to know how it would have affected this
environment.
What I can say right now is decades ago, the United States resolved that we don't allow
the private possession of automatic weapons, except for a very small number of people.
And while the individuals that sell the bump-stocks would say this doesn't turn a weapon into
an automatic weapon, it certainly turns them into a weapon that features and acts like
an automatic weapon in its own firing mechanism.
So, those are questions that have to be resolved.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What would be the use of a bump-stock? What would be the rational reason
to need that for a gun, for a semiautomatic?
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD: It's not necessarily a need that for a gun. It is a -- a lot in
our own culture and in Oklahoma and in multiple other states, people just enjoy shooting sports.
They enjoy going to the range and being able to fire different types of weapons of different
calibers. It's a sport as much as it is anything. So there is always the question of, why do
you need that for hunting? Not everything is actually done for hunting.
Just like everyone who has golf clubs doesn't necessarily play golf all the time, sometimes,
they just putt around in the yard. And that's what they enjoy doing.
In Oklahoma, we have almost four million people. I can assure you, we have more than eight
million guns in the state. So, individuals like to be able to do shooting sports and
some hunting as well.
So, that is a reasonable question to be able to ask, what is limiting a Second Amendment
right, or what is something that is a resolved issue for us about automatic weapons that
we have already resolved as a country?
JUDY WOODRUFF: Is there anything else, Senator, about this shooting in Las Vegas that makes
you rethink your support for gun laws as they exist today?
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD: Well, one of the things that Senator Cornyn and I examined years ago
that we actually proposed the bill on was dealing with individuals that are on the terror
watch list.
How do we allow those individuals not to be able to purchase weapons and still have due
process? So there are unresolved issues still that I think should be addressed.
We have to be able to know the rest of the facts in this situation to be able to determine
what could have actually been an impact to be able to get us to actually address that
would have made a difference.
Again, for someone who is intent on breaking the law in so many ways that this murderer
broke the law in the process, we have to figure out, was there one more that would make a
difference? And, if so, what is that, and let's try to address it.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator, as you know, there is a lot of conversation about how powerful
the National Rifle Association and other organizations that support gun rights are in this country
and in the city of Washington. How much power do they have? Because it's
been said that, not just Republicans, even Democrats are afraid to go up against the
gun lobby, for fear that they will run somebody against them, will oppose them, that it is
just a -- that the power they have is way beyond what it should be.
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD: So, I would only say that people lose track of the fact that the
NRA is not some random group that sits out there with a great power, that there are millions
upon millions of Americans that agree with the perspective of the NRA. They're members
of the NRA. They love shooting sports.
They love recreationally shooting. And they know the NRA represents their opinion. So,
the power is not in an organization. It's in millions of Oklahomans and from people
all over the country, that that's where they are.
Now, it's still the same question. They're going to speak out to the NRA if their perspective
for anything. The NRA will then respond to their own members. I'm not accountable to
the NRA. I'm accountable to almost four million Oklahomans.
That's my accountability. And that's going to continue to be where I'm going to listen
first.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator, another subject I want to ask you about tonight, in the little
bit of time we have left, you're also on the Senate Intelligence Committee. There was a
news conference today by the co-chairs, the chair and the vice-chair, of the committee
about the progress that you have made in the Russia investigation, looking at the impact
they had on the American elections last year.
How close would you say your committee is to getting to the bottom of this?
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD: Well, we're very close in some areas, and we're undone in some others.
It's what the chairman and vice chairman tried to articulate today. There are some areas
that are nearly closed for us. Closed doesn't mean settled. Closed means we have gone through
all the interviews, found all the facts that we think we're going to be able to find. Open
means there are still some additional interviews we're going to do.
We have done 100 interviews. We have gone up to 100,000 pages of total research. We
have got 4,000 pages of transcripts. There's a lot of work that has already been done.
But we still have some open areas that, when you interview one person, they will mention
two or three other names in that interview.
That means we're going to interview those two or three other people to be able to get
the rest of the story. So, that part, we still continue.
We're -- but, as I mentioned, it's hard to be able to tell whether we're halfway, all
the way. I think we're well past halfway, personally, but you never know until you finish
all the interviews and chase all the leads down.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How disturbed are you, finally, Senator, by what you have learned so far?
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD: I'm disturbed to be able to know that the Russians, who have tried
to interfere in so many European elections, in so many elections around Russia, have now
used those same tactics on the United States, and they still continue to be able to press.
They find areas where there's dispute and try to destabilize democracies by trying to
raise the volume of conflict. We as Americans argue about a lot of things. That's the nature
of being an American, and entirely appropriate for us to be able to work out our differences.
When a foreign power tries to reach in and amp up the volume of our conflict, that's
a very different story. And when they try to influence an election, that's a very, very
different story.
So, that's disheartening and that's frustrating. It's that's also a wakeup call to every state
election board that the Russian government is coming after them, and they're very attentive
to try to find some way to be able to alter their election rolls or to be able to find
some way to be able to alter the way that elections are done there.
So, they should pay very close attention. They were not successful in doing that last
year, but they were certainly probing to try to find a way to be able to do it. It's a
wakeup call for them to make sure they pay attention to next year.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, we thank you.
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And we continue our look now at the 59 people who died in the Las Vegas
attack.
As more stories of heroism emerge, so do clearer pictures of the victims' lives.
Here are 14 more.
Twenty-year-old Quinton Robbins was loved by everyone, his uncle said. When the shooting
started, the Nevada native got on his knees, looking for a place to hide with his girlfriend.
He was hit in the chest.
Yesterday, she posted: "You got hurt trying to protect me, and I have no words. I tried
so hard to help you, and I'm so, so sorry I couldn't do more."
Michelle Vo worked at an insurance group in Pasadena and, at 32, was the youngest of four
siblings. "She was such an inspiration to so many of us," a co-worker said. "Any time
I had a question, she would always be there."
Fifty-five-year-old Kurt von Tillow was at the concert with several family members. "I
will always remember him for his big belly laughs and smiles," one friend wrote. "From
now on, every time I see a Bud Light, how can I not think of Kurt?"
Andrea Castilla was celebrating her 28th birthday. She was holding hands with her sister, watching
the band when they heard "Duck" and the sound of gunfire. Castilla's aunt said others in
her group tried to rush her to the hospital, but she died upon admittance.
Jack Beaton was a 54-year-old construction worker. He was at the festival with his wife,
celebrating their 23rd anniversary. He shielded her with his body. "I knew every day that
he would protect me and take care of me and love me unconditionally," she said. "What
he did is no surprise to me."
Twenty-two-year-old Christiana Duarte had just taken her first job, working in marketing
for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team. "She was a bright, beautiful young woman, full
of life and energy," a family friend commented.
Adrian Murfitt was a commercial fisherman in Anchorage, Alaska. The 35-year-old used
his earnings from a successful fishing season for a trip to Las Vegas. "He was more than
happy give himself away to his friends, a buddy remarked. Always wearing the smile only
a friend wears."
Fifty-two--year-old Dana Gardner, who was at the concert with her daughter, had worked
for San Bernardino County, California, for over two decades. Her colleague said she was
known for her can-do attitude and vibrant energy.
Forty-two-year-old Rhonda LeRocque worked at a design firm in Massachusetts. She went
to the festival with her husband, young daughter and father-in-law. "She set the bar really
high," her mom said. "She was perfect in every sense of the word."
Jenny Parks taught kindergarten at a school outside Los Angeles. Her husband, Bobby, was
shot in the arm and hand, but was expected to survive. The couple were high school sweethearts
and had two children.
Steven Berger, a financial adviser from Minnesota, was in Las Vegas for his 44th birthday. A
childhood classmate said, "He was one of the sweetest, happiest guys, who got along with
pretty much everyone."
Fifty--four-year-old Thomas Day Jr. was a big country music fan and went to the concert
with his family. Day's dad remembered his son as just "a fun-loving boy, a great family
man." Twenty-eight-year-old Kelsey Meadows taught
at her alma mater, a high school in California. "She was smart, compassionate and kind," noted
the school's principal. "She had a sweet spirit and a love for children."
And Austin Davis, who was 29, was a pipe fitter from Riverside, California. His mother shared
the last text message she received from her son: "I kind of want to come home. I love
home." JUDY WOODRUFF: Stay with us.
Coming up on the "NewsHour": views on President Trump's response to Las Vegas and Puerto Rico
from both sides of the aisle; and can pain be treated without opioids? -- our America
Addicted series continues.
But first: The years-long economic crisis in Venezuela has the country in a steep downward
spiral. Violence rocked the nation earlier this year, as President Nicolas Maduro pushed
through controversial political changes.
Maduro has come in for tough criticism from President Trump and some Latin American leaders.
Through it all, rates of hunger and crime have skyrocketed.
In a rare interview, Maduro sat down with "NewsHour" special correspondent Ryan Chilcote
at an energy summit today in Moscow.
RYAN CHILCOTE: President Trump has upped his criticism of you and your administration since
the creation of the Constituent Assembly.
And I want to read you a quote from President Trump that he made, a statement that he made
at the General Assembly. He said: "The Venezuelan people are starving and their country is collapsing.
Their democratic institutions are being destroyed. The situation is completely unacceptable,
and we cannot stand by and watch."
As far as I know, Mr. President, you haven't spoken with President Trump. If you do, what
will you say to him, and what would you say now to the American people?
NICOLAS MADURO, Venezuelan President (through translator): I would say to the U.S. people
the truth, that we have always done so.
Venezuela wants only one thing, respect. The time of U.S. interference in the social and
political life of Latin America and the Caribbean should be left behind. Venezuela is the object
of desire of ruling circles in Washington for two reasons, our riches, the riches of
our country.
We have the largest proven reserves of oil in the world. We have growing reserves of
natural gas. We are number eight in terms of gas reserves in the world. And these reserves
are growing, because, on top of oil, we are also exploring some gas deposits.
Now Venezuela raised the flag of a new model of waking up the peoples on our continent.
But they want to suppress this idea, this example.
It's not just about Trump, because Trump is reading his notes. He doesn't even know where
Venezuela is on the map. He doesn't even know where Puerto Rico is. He didn't know that.
He went the Puerto Rico, and he came there during the tragedy and insulted them. These
are our brothers.
If you say to him Simon Bolivar, he thinks that's a rocker, a singer. He doesn't know
what that is. He repeats what the Pentagon writes for him. My voice will never shut up,
and my voice will be loud always, with or without Trump. Trump is rude. He's telling
me he is going to deal with us and end us.
But, even with Trump, Venezuela will keep moving forward and we will fight for this
destiny.
(APPLAUSE)
RYAN CHILCOTE: I would like to ask you about that. President Trump has not ruled out military
action in Venezuela. Do you take that threat seriously?
NICOLAS MADURO (through translator): This is a forum on energy.
(LAUGHTER)
NICOLAS MADURO (through translator): Of course we can discuss other types of energy, spiritual
energy.
Let's take a look at this. The president of the largest, the most powerful military power
in the world has no right to joke or not be serious. The people of Venezuela are rebellious
people. We fight for our freedom. And, of course, we have certain threats. Venezuela
has no weapons of mass destruction. We have no nuclear weapons, no strategic weapons.
We have no significant armed forces and military places abroad. We are a modest country in
this sense. And all of a sudden, Trump threatens to attack Venezuela by military force. Of
course all Latin American and Caribbean countries oppose that.
And I think the U.S., despite anything, they will have some minimum common sense.
RYAN CHILCOTE: Venezuela has one of the largest collections of Russian arms in the region.
Amidst this threat of intervention, you're here in Moscow. Will you be or are you asking
President Putin for military assistance and more weapons?
NICOLAS MADURO (through translator): As for this Russian assistance, yes, we do have.
Russia supports us. Thank goodness there is such a leader in the world, a true leader,
with a fast-growing economy like Vladimir Putin. He holds high the flag of peace, dignity.
RYAN CHILCOTE: You are asking for military assistance, in a word?
NICOLAS MADURO (through translator): We have enough. What we have is enough. But, at the
same time, there are new arrangements that are coming up, even if we don't ask for them.
We are going to be given even more support to defend our sovereignty and our defense
capabilities.
RYAN CHILCOTE: According to some statistics, in 2016, around three-quarters of Venezuelans
lost an average of 19 pounds because there's not enough food. What are you going to do
to solve that problem?
NICOLAS MADURO (through translator): Venezuela is still at an important position, in spite
of the crisis, in spite of the drop in the oil price, in spite of the domestic trade
and economic war that some entrepreneurs fight against us.
Venezuela is investing more than 60 percent of its available resources in quality-based
education and health care; 65 percent of students in the country receive free and good-quality
public education.
RYAN CHILCOTE: Are you saying that there is no food crisis in Venezuela?
NICOLAS MADURO (through translator): I never heard this. Who is saying this?
Venezuela is facing a global mass media campaign against it. They have been saying Venezuela
has so many problems, that he probably deserves an intervention. And people said Saddam Hussein
had weapons of mass destruction.
Well, let's do an intervention to get rid of this WMD. Let's get the bad guy, the Caribbean
Stalin, as probably some people think. Let's get Mr. Maduro, and that would be the end
of problems.
This is a global campaign.
RYAN CHILCOTE: As you know, there are concerns about the treatment of journalists. Journalists
have been attacked. They have been kicked out of the country. They have been allowed
not -- they have been barred from coming in the country.
And there are concerns, as you know, about political violence in Venezuela and the question
of whether there are going to be elections, presidential elections in 2018.
Can you give us a guarantee that journalists will be given access to Venezuela, that there
will be presidential elections in 2018, and that demonstrations and protesters will be
treated with dignity and without violence?
NICOLAS MADURO (through translator): In April, May, June, and July of this year, we had attacks
from the ultra-right movements. No government in the world, I think, would be tolerant of
this type-situation and risky situation.
So we had to live through very difficult times. This also coincided with the coming to power
of the Trump administration and the right-wing powers in the U.S. And there were some spots
of violence in Venezuela across the country, and those spots of violence were fueled by
journalists and global mass media.
The opposition of Venezuela was claiming that we need intervention to stop this violence.
Now, if we ever had even one case of a reporter who wasn't allowed to come and get accreditation
in the country, maybe this would have been seen as a violation of our national legislature,
but this is probably because of the libel and distortions that were spread by such mass
media.
Now, from April to July, if we never had any reports in the major newspapers of the world
about violence, maybe we wouldn't have had such violence.
RYAN CHILCOTE: Mr. President, I suspect we could go on all day. This has been a very
interesting conversation, but I think we're going to need to wrap it up there.
I would like to thank you.
And please thank the president of Venezuela for joining us today.
I thank you, and thank you on behalf of "PBS NewsHour." It's been interesting speaking
with you, sir.
(APPLAUSE)
NICOLAS MADURO: Gracias. Thank you very much.
JUDY WOODRUFF: National tragedies and natural disasters test a president.
From Las Vegas to Puerto Rico, the Trump administration has faced some of the worst in modern American
history.
We turn once again to Karine Jean-Pierre, senior adviser to MoveOn.org, contributing
editor to the online women's magazine "Bustle" and a veteran of the Obama administration,
and Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and a White House political
director for President George W. Bush.
Welcome to both of you.
So, presidents are in the spotlight at a time like this, Matt, hurricanes, whether it's
Maria or the others, and now this terrible event in Las Vegas. The president was there
today.
What do we make of how he's handling this particular event?
MATT SCHLAPP, Former White House Director of Political Affairs: Well, first of all,
thank you for covering the stories of the victims. I think that's really important for
everybody. It's important for the nation to heal.
I woke up this morning and was sent a photo of Kurt von Tillow from a friend of mine.
He happened to have very conservative politics. There are people with all kinds of politics
who were...
JUDY WOODRUFF: One of the victims.
MATT SCHLAPP: Yes, one of the victims. And thank you for mentioning him. It's a sad story.
The -- look, I think these are moments where a president, including a president who talks
in such a raw fashion like Donald Trump, has a chance to connect on the personal level
with Americans and with victims.
And that's really the test. There is a role. It's not constitutional, but there is a role
for the president to be comforter-in-chief. And I thought his remarks and the way he handled
things in Nevada were great.
And I think the way he's handled the hurricanes has been great as well. And I think there
are political-free zones, and I just think, when people try to make politics out of these
moments, I think it's a mistake.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What about Las Vegas first, the president's handling of that, Karine?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, Democratic Strategist: Well, it was a short moment in time. He was
-- it was scripted. He was given words that were very beautiful, very well-delivered.
But the thing is, what happens when he's off-script? And that's the problem that we see with Donald
Trump. On his way to Vegas, he was attacking the media, the same media that's covering
all the suffering in Puerto Rico, in Texas, in Florida, and now in Vegas.
And so that is the problem with Donald Trump. When it's a moment to bring people together,
it's almost as if he can't. He is incredibly divisive.
Just 24 hours ago, he was in Puerto Rico, and he made some divisive comments. So, I
just don't think he has the DNA or the gene to actually do what a president is needed
to be done -- needs to be done at this time.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What about that, Matt?
His comment in Puerto Rico yesterday, among others things, he said that this wasn't a
real catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina.
MATT SCHLAPP: Right.
Now, look, these are unscripted moments. And there is no question that, when a president
speaks off the cuff, you know, it doesn't always go as exactly as planned.
But I actually think, when you talk to people on the ground, the people who are affected,
they appreciate the respect when a president shows up when there is this type of suffering.
I think one of the reasons why there is a dissatisfaction with many people in the media
with Americans is because they feel like they prey on these moments, instead of covering
the full story. And the full story each of these stops that the president made is that
he talked to victims, he talked to people who were suffering. He connected to them.
If you look at the social media, and not so much the media coverage, there's a lot of
positive tweets and photos and Facebook posts from people who got to meet their president,
and he was there to talk to them.
When it comes to Puerto Rico, let's all face it. For too many decades, Puerto Rico has
spent itself into a terrible financial situation, where they owe something like $72 billion.
It's a catastrophe. Unfortunately, much of that money wasn't spent
on a better infrastructure. It was spent in ways where, when they get a disaster like
this, they're in deep. They're in a deep, deep, deep, deep hole. It's hard to see how
we find the money to take care of everything that needs to be done on the island.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And now...
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Just really quickly, there were also signs down in Puerto Rico while
he was there saying that Donald Trump was a bad hombre. So, there were some negative
stuff out there too.
Look, we have 3.4 million Americans who are suffering; 3 percent of the people on the
island have electricity. Where is the Army Corps of Engineers? Why can't they get the
electricity up? Why aren't we using the billion-dollar military more? We're just not.
Why is the Norwegian cruise line the ones evacuating people? Why aren't we doing that?
So, there's a lot that's...
(CROSSTALK)
MATT SCHLAPP: There are answers to all of this.
But the big question, when you have a catastrophe -- and we saw this with Katrina, as opposed
to the hurricanes that hit Florida, with the steady hand of Jeb Bush and the steady hand
of Governor Abbott recently in Texas, is that it depends a lot on the local leadership.
And I think the problem that we're seeing in Puerto Rico is that too many elected leaders
tried to make this about politics. And I think there were a lot of mayors who are more responsible
and realize, we have got to look inward as well, with the fact that they weren't necessarily
prepared with their own infrastructure to weather something like this.
Look, we need to help them. And we need to be there for them. And we're going to have
to all dig in as taxpayers and help them, but Puerto Rico has got to start making more
responsible financial decisions.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: But it starts with the president. He spent the first two weekends
attacking, what, the NFL. He spent one weekend attacking them.
MATT SCHLAPP: I'm OK with that. I'm for it.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: He was vacationing on his golf resort. He didn't even talk about
Puerto Rico those first two weekends, when they needed it the most.
MATT SCHLAPP: I disagree.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: But he didn't. He didn't.
We know that Twitter is a major way for him to communicate.
MATT SCHLAPP: Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I want to ask you about something else, and that is, Matt, the dispute that
flared out into the open today between the secretary of state and the president.
MATT SCHLAPP: Right.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The president was chastising, or I guess putting down Rex Tillerson this
weekend, saying, don't waste your energy on trying to talk to North Korea.
Then we get these reports from NBC News earlier today that Tillerson had to be talked out
of quitting this summer.
MATT SCHLAPP: Yes. Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Where are we on this? What do we make of this relationship?
MATT SCHLAPP: Well, this is the problem when you have reports, these gossipy reports about
the rapport of the president and his team.
So you had the president come out and knock this story down. You had the vice president
come out today and knock this story down.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But there have been other reports out there...
MATT SCHLAPP: Lots.
JUDY WOODRUFF: ... about difficult relationships between the White House and...
(CROSSTALK)
MATT SCHLAPP: Lots.
Look, I know a lot of these people. I prefer to focus on what we do know. I think that
there are some policy concerns that Tillerson might have with the president that are legitimate,
and they're going to -- which always happens with Cabinet secretaries, especially secretaries
of state.
I think they're working that out. The idea that somehow he was ready to quit, and Vice
President Pence intervened, Vice President Pence said that that report is simply untrue.
I know NBC stands by it. But I think when I saw the president's tweets on Secretary
Tillerson, what I saw is Tillerson's trying to be the diplomat with North Korea, whereas
the president is clearly the hammer, and that could all be intentional.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We have only got 40 seconds.
MATT SCHLAPP: I'm sorry.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But in a word.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: No, it's OK.
(LAUGHTER)
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Look, I don't think we have seen a presidency this dysfunctional
in a long time.
You have a sitting Cabinet secretary basically questioning the competency of his boss, of
a president. And I think that...
MATT SCHLAPP: But he denies that.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes, but, still, we have heard Tillerson talk about the president before.
After Charlottesville, he said the president speaks for himself.
So, it's not the first time. We have heard reports about how he felt about the president's
comments about the Boy Scouts.
So, it's is not the same -- this is not the only time. And now Tillerson is having a Dear
Leader press conference.
This is all insane.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Comes right after the resignation -- or stepping down of another...
(CROSSTALK) KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes, exactly.
MATT SCHLAPP: Judy, can I just say one thing? Let's not forget the Virgin Islands.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: That's right. I agree with you there. Let's not forget the Virgin
Islands.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We do continue to report on that.
Karine Jean-Pierre, Matt Schlapp, thank you both.
MATT SCHLAPP: Thank you, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now let's turn to our series on the opioid crisis, its enormous toll in
American life, and efforts to get a handle on it.
We have spent the past couple of days showing some of the devastation it has wreaked, as
more and more people have become hooked.
Tonight, as part of our weekly Leading Edge science segment, Miles O'Brien explores the
mechanics of pain, and some possible alternatives for coping with it.
It's part of our ongoing focus, America Addicted.
MILES O'BRIEN: Kevin Walsh is intimately familiar with pain, excruciating pain.
KEVIN WALSH, Patient: When it very first happened, it was just so intense that I would literally
-- my whole body just kind of froze for a minute.
MILES O'BRIEN: He is talking about the day he got burned by hot grease in the commercial
kitchen where he worked.
KEVIN WALSH: They have a pain scale of one to 10. It was like a 15.
MILES O'BRIEN: The treatment protocol for burn victims is almost as painful as the injury
itself. Nurses repeatedly remove dressings and scrub the wounds. It's called debridement.
KEVIN WALSH: Sometimes, they really get in there, and they will scrub pretty hard. And
it gets -- yes, it gets very, very painful.
MILES O'BRIEN: To endure it, he takes opioids, the most effective pain treatment medicine
offers. But he also does something else. While the nurses do their work, he enters SnowWorld,
a virtual reality video game that is simple and yet engrossing.
KEVIN WALSH: I could tell that they were peeling off a bandage, and I remember actually thinking
in my head, you know, this should hurt a bit more. But I was focused on the game, because
I was trying to shoot a penguin, and not really worrying so much about them taking my dressing
off.
MILES O'BRIEN: Kevin Walsh was a patient at Seattle's Harborview Hospital, run by U.W.
Medicine, a pioneer in the treatment of pain.
DR. DAVID TAUBEN, U.W. Medicine: Virtual reality is a way of moving someone to a different
place, a safe place, a place they don't have pain.
MILES O'BRIEN: David Tauben heads the Division of Pain Medicine.
DR. DAVID TAUBEN: We underestimate the power of our brains and our minds to shape and regulate
our own experiences.
MILES O'BRIEN: This is a place that was built on wrestling with pain in novel ways.
One of its founding doctors, the late John Bonica, had a previous career as professional
wrestler. He earned fame, fortune and a long litany of injuries. Hobbled by arthritis,
the man knew pain inside and out.
JOHN BONICA, Founder, U.W. Medical: For some 45 years, I have had to wrestle the medical
profession, the public, the health agencies, in order to make them aware that pain is a
very important subject for studying and for education training.
MILES O'BRIEN: It was the first place to treat pain as the problem, not just a symptom of
something else. The approach is multidisciplinary.
DR. DAVID TAUBEN: It includes psychologists, physical therapists, and a lot of non-drug
providers, was based on eliminating the opioids and the sedatives that so many patients were
put on.
MILES O'BRIEN: Opioids are similar to naturally produced chemicals that attach to nerve cells
called receptors in our brains and central nervous systems.
Opioids affect our limbic brain, which manages emotions, giving us feelings of pleasure,
relaxation and contentment, our brain stem, which controls unconscious activity, like
breathing, coughing and pain. And they attach to receptors in the spinal cord, blocking
pain messages sent back to the brain.
During the Civil War, doctors used opioids widely on soldiers to treat pain, but many
started showing symptoms of addiction. This led doctors to a century of conservatism in
prescribing opioids.
But then, in 1980, a letter to the editor of "The New England Journal of Medicine" turned
that thinking on its head. The authors looked at 40,000 hospitalized patients. Although
12,000 of them received opioids, only four of them became addicted. Their conclusion?
The development of addiction among medical patients is rare in cases where there is no
history of addiction.
It was a survey of existing databases, not a rigorous peer-reviewed study, and yet it
had great influence. The pendulum swung. Opioid drug prescriptions increased dramatically.
DR. DAVID TAUBEN: The pharmaceutical manufacturers were quite happy to promote these agents.
They had a big incentive to minimize the associated risks.
MILES O'BRIEN: The opioid push also made it harder for patients to get reimbursement for
alternatives, such as biofeedback and hypnosis, even though studies show half to three-quarters
of those who undergo hypnosis have improvement in their pain.
DAVID PATTERSON, U.W. Medicine: How's your pain been doing?
TIM CLARK, Patient: A little better.
DAVID PATTERSON: yes.
TIM CLARK: I have cut back on some of the opioids.
MILES O'BRIEN: Tim Clark is debilitated with intense, chronic neuropathic pain, the lasting
result of contracting the Guillain-Barre virus five years ago.
DAVID PATTERSON: Describe what the neuropathic pain is like for you.
TIM CLARK: It's usually like an electrical shock. It's a sharp, shooting pain.
MILES O'BRIEN: He regularly sees psychologist David Patterson for hypnosis sessions like
this.
DAVID PATTERSON: Now let that breath go and let your eyelids close.
Hypnosis is really a special learning state, and, again, what happens is the part of the
brain, that sensory, the part of your brain that's saying, you can't do this, it's not
possible, turns off, and so you're really able to get people to a different place.
Maybe you have a thought that, oh, I'm getting worse, I'm never going to get better. And
what you're going to find is that, first of all, these thoughts are ridiculous.
It's not this type of hands-off, bring you back to the present. It's bringing people
to a similar state as when they're meditating, but being very directive with the suggestions
that you give.
MILES O'BRIEN: Tim was once extremely active, a competitive sailor with a rewarding career.
His horrible pain ended all of that, and while opioids seemed like the solution for a while,
they soon made matters much worse.
TIM CLARK: And so why wouldn't I be depressed? But the opioids make it worse, and I get in
a real funk. If I can cut back on them even a little bit, I seem to have a more positive
attitude.
MILES O'BRIEN: He used to take three to four Dilaudid pills a day. Now it's more like three
to four a week.
This has surprised David Patterson, who once thought hypnosis helped only patients with
acute pain.
DAVID PATTERSON: Now we're finding that if you train people in hypnosis over weeks, they
start changing the neurostructure of their brain. So it is actually useful for chronic
pain too, but we're just beginning to understand that better.
MILES O'BRIEN: Pain is essential for survival. It is nature's alarm bell, a way of protecting
us from further harm. But no one really knows why pain persists long after the body has
healed.
DR. DAVID TAUBEN: Acute pain is a nice warning that you need to make a change in what you're
doing. It feels like it's wrong. You respond as if it's wrong, but that signal continues.
And that becomes overwhelming for many people.
Chronic pain is a stuck alarm.
MILES O'BRIEN: I know this all too well. I deal with chronic pain that seems to emanate
from a place that doesn't exist: my amputated left arm. It's called phantom Pain.
HUNTER HOFFMAN, U.W. Medicine: So, the brain is expecting there to be a hand, and it's
filling in the blanks.
MILES O'BRIEN: Hunter Hoffman is director of the Virtual Reality Research Center and
the creator of SnowWorld. He says phantom pain is called top-down, meaning it's in the
head.
HUNTER HOFFMAN: Your phantom limb is an excellent example of your brain's expectations and predictions,
even in the absence of a physical limb there.
MILES O'BRIEN: Chronic pain is usually top-down.
Hoffman designed SnowWorld with bottom up, acute pain sufferers like Kevin Walsh in mind.
To demonstrate it, he inflicted some pain on me.
HUNTER HOFFMAN: There are people that actually make pain inducers.
MILES O'BRIEN: With a thermal stimulator, an adjustable heater.
HUNTER HOFFMAN: One more, or you want to go up a half-a-degree? You can go up a half-degree
if you don't want to go...
MILES O'BRIEN: Let's do a full degree and see how that feels.
HUNTER HOFFMAN: Is that comfortable? I can adjust it.
MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, yes, it's pretty good.
HUNTER HOFFMAN: All right. And here, we will put on your earphones.
MILES O'BRIEN: While I was intent on hurling snowballs at penguins, I didn't feel the heat
at all. And, on top of that, I didn't feel any phantom pain. It apparently addresses
pain both coming and going from the brain. This got Hunter's attention.
HUNTER HOFFMAN: Well, what we showed was, it helped reduce your chronic pain.
MILES O'BRIEN: Right.
HUNTER HOFFMAN: That was actually, I think, the first demonstration of that.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes?
HUNTER HOFFMAN: That was the first...
MILES O'BRIEN: Really? HUNTER HOFFMAN: ... first demonstration.
MILES O'BRIEN: We just did bleeding-edge science, huh?
HUNTER HOFFMAN: Exactly.
MILES O'BRIEN: Pain needs an audience, and the better we get at focusing on other things,
the more we can manage it, without turning to narcotic drugs.
In Seattle, I'm Miles O'Brien for the "PBS NewsHour."
JUDY WOODRUFF: Tomorrow, our series continues with a look at how the opioid crisis has hurt
the nation's work force.
And online: Leaving old unused pain medication in the bathroom cupboard increases the likelihood
of it being ingested by children or pets. How do you safely get rid of them?
Find a doctor's advice, and more stories from our series, at PBS.org/NewsHour.
Stay with PBS. Later tonight on "Frontline": an inside look at the Hermit Kingdom. "North
Korea's Deadly Dictator" follows the rise of Kim Jong-un and his hold on power, and
focuses on the mysterious assassination of his half-brother Kim Jong-nam earlier this
year in a Malaysian airport.
And a news update before we go: The girlfriend of the man suspected of killing 59 people
in Monday's Las Vegas massacre has issued her first public statement.
Marilou Danley says that Stephen Paddock bought her airplane ticket to the Philippines a little
more than two weeks before the shooting. He wired her money once she was there.
Her lawyer read her statement this evening.
MATT LOMBARD, Attorney for Marilou Danley: "I was grateful but, honestly, was worried
at first the unexpected trip home and then the money was a way of breaking up with me.
It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone."
JUDY WOODRUFF: Statement from the girlfriend of the Las Vegas shooter.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight. I'm Judy Woodruff.
Join us online and again right here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour,"
thank you, and good night.
PBS NewsHour full episode, October 4, 2017 WATCH: Girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter releases statement through lawyer PBS NewsHour full episode Oct. 3, 2017 San Juan mayor: Trump can attack me as long as it gets out the message that Puerto Ricans are hungry PBS NewsHour full episode Sept. 26, 2017 Catastrophes test Trump’s ability to be consoler-in-chief PBS NewsHour full episode Sept. 14, 2017 PBS NewsHour full episode Sept. 11, 2017 Stories of heroism and sacrifice emerge as investigators pore over Las Vegas evidence PBS NewsHour full episode Sept. 29, 2017

PBS NewsHour full episode Oct. 4, 2017

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