PBS NewsHour full episode January 25, 2018

JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: President Trump lands in Davos for the World Economic Forum,
bringing his message of American success to global elites.
Then: In the wake of scandal, I sit down with seven-time Olympic medalist Shannon Miller
to talk about the changes needed in U.S. gymnastics to keep young athletes safe.
And the slow rebuilding of Puerto Rico -- why so many are still without power over four
months after a devastating hurricane destroyed the island's infrastructure.
Also ahead: innovating in the Land of Enchantment -- why New Mexico is trying to climb out of
an economic slump by embracing its entrepreneurial spirit.
GARY OPPEDAHL, Former Albuquerque Economic Development Director: Big skies, big ideas.
People think big.
That's why such great things as the nuclear weapons whole industry, to Microsoft, who
was formed here, to Goddard, to the first computer ever.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: New details just out of the White House tonight on President Trump's immigration
proposal.
There's word that it offers a path to citizenship for 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants.
Our White House correspondent, Yamiche Alcindor, joins me now with details.
So, Yamiche, what are we learning?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, the White House essentially released this early -- they were supposed
to release it on Monday.
And now they are releasing it now.
And it goes into several different things.
They want $25 billion for the border wall, and that's the border on the wall across from
Mexico.
And they want to hire more law enforcement officials, which means that there could be
more deportation.
They want a 10- to 12-year path to citizenship for DACA recipients, as well as a larger group
of undocumented people.
Usually, that has been 800,000 undocumented people.
Now they are growing it to 1.8 million.
And they also want to restrict immigration.
They want to eliminate the visa lottery program and limit family-based immigration, so-called
chain migration.
And that term of course is essentially saying that you can bring over your kids or your
spouse, but you cannot bring over your grandmother.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, everybody has been waiting for this plan, as you said.
They had said they were going to put it out on Monday.
They have moved it up by several days.
And you are already getting reaction to it.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Yes, so I spoke to a White House official today.
And he told me that they wanted to release it early because lawmakers on the Hill were
getting antsy.
They had been talking to different groups about it, so lawmakers wanted it in their
hands.
And the reaction has been mixed.
On the right side, conservatives have been at one point happy about it.
Paul Ryan's spokesperson tells me that he is -- that he see this as a balanced solution,
but then you have Breitbart calling Donald Trump Amnesty Don because they are very angry
at the fact that it's a 10- to 12-year path toward citizenship.
On the left, there are some groups are saying this is a good negotiating tactic.
This is kind of a good open place because it includes citizenship.
But there are also people that are very angry at the family issue, because so many immigrants
come to this country and bring over their family members.
And the idea that you would have to leave your grandmother behind and only take your
spouse is really heartbreaking for a lot of people.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We know, Yamiche, this is the start of an extended negotiating period.
It is going to be hard-fought, but it looks like the White House wanted to get their ideas
on the table now.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Yes.
That official, the White House official I spoke to said that the president wanted to
people to understand what he wanted.
He wanted to lay this kind of line in the sand and help people understand that this
is the framework that he wants to deal with.
And conservatives are really going to have to look at that number, $25 billion, and say,
is this what we want to put on our border wall?
The interesting thing here is that this is not just talk about a concrete wall, but it's
talking about technology, it's talking about creating more types of security.
So in some ways, it expands the idea of the wall.
But I think the big thing for people back home is that 1.8 billion people that they
are offering citizenship to is a big number that they had not been talking about before.
Yesterday, when Donald Trump talked about extending citizenship, he was only talking
about 800,000 people.
So, that is a big thing for immigrant activists to hear him say that he wants to extend it.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, now that it is out, at least this, as much as you have screened,
is a lot for both sides to chew on.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Yamiche Alcindor, thanks so much.
This came as the president was overseas in Davos, Switzerland, where he's attending the
World Economic Forum.
He spent the day hunting investments, defending his foreign policy, and making news on the
value of the dollar and trade pacts.
Special correspondent Ryan Chilcote reports from Davos.
RYAN CHILCOTE: President Trump said he had brought a message of peace and prosperity.
He also sought to project the image of a serious global leader, dismissing talk of troubled
relations with British Prime Minister Theresa May.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: The prime minister and myself have a really
great relationship, although some people don't necessarily believe that.
RYAN CHILCOTE: Less than two months ago, the British prime minister publicly rebuked Mr.
Trump for retweeting anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right group called Britain First.
Today, the prime minister emphasized the countries' historic ties.
THERESA MAY, British Prime Minister: We continue to have that really special relationship between
the U.K. and the United States, standing shoulder to shoulder.
RYAN CHILCOTE: The British also announced the president will visit the U.K. later this
year.
That visit is a controversial issue in the U.K., and has been repeatedly postponed.
DONALD TRUMP: We have developed a great relationship, both as countries, where I think it's never
been stronger.
RYAN CHILCOTE: The president also exchanged warm words today with the Israeli prime minister,
Benjamin Netanyahu, and issued what appeared to be an ultimatum to the Palestinians.
DONALD TRUMP: And we give them hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and support.
That money's on the table and that money's not going to them unless they sit down and
negotiate peace.
RYAN CHILCOTE: President Trump also defended his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's
capital and move the U.S. Embassy there.
That decision enraged Palestinians.
President Trump said it will advance the peace process.
DONALD TRUMP: There were never any deals that came close because Jerusalem, you could never
get past Jerusalem.
So when people said, oh, I set it back, I didn't set it back.
I helped it, because by taking it off the table, that was the toughest issue.
RYAN CHILCOTE: In Jericho on the West Bank, a top Palestinian official, Saeb Erekat, responded.
SAEB EREKAT, Chief Palestinian Negotiator: President Trump saying that Jerusalem is off
the negotiating table translates into that peace is off the negotiating table.
RYAN CHILCOTE: Back in Davos, Mr. Trump told CNBC in an interview that he would consider
reentering the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal he withdrew from last year, with a condition.
DONALD TRUMP: If we did a substantially better deal, I would be open to TPP.
RYAN CHILCOTE: And he said he was in favor of a strong U.S. dollar.
That seemed to contradict a statement from his treasury secretary yesterday who said
a weaker dollar would benefit U.S. trade.
Later, at a cocktail reception, Mr. Trump pushed his economic agenda.
DONALD TRUMP: We want great prosperity and we want great peace.
And I think that really is the message.
It' been going really well.
RYAN CHILCOTE: Tomorrow, the president's set to address the forum, showcasing the U.S.
economy, and stressing the need for fair trade.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Ryan Chilcote in Davos.
JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: The United States pressed Turkey to call off its
assault on Kurdish forces in Southwest Syria.
The Turks are targeting Kurds around the city of Afrin, saying they're allied with rebels
inside Turkey.
The U.S. supports the Syrian Kurds, and at the Davos forum today, White House Homeland
Security Adviser Tom Bossert urged restraint.
TOM BOSSERT, White House Homeland Security Adviser: I think that President Erdogan will
make decisions to de-escalate violence in Afrin and to normalize and stabilize pre-Afrin
actions in that region, and I think that he will make that decision here with the full
support of the United States.
President Erdogan, we understand your legitimate security concerns on your southern border,
and we are going to work with you very closely to get through those concerns.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The Turks shelled Afrin again today, and they warned that some 2,000 U.S.
troops in the region could become targets.
Turkey also complained that the White House gave a false account of yesterday's phone
call between Presidents Trump and Erdogan.
China promised today to work with the U.S. on cutting the flow of illegal opioids to
American dealers.
That's after U.S. Senate investigators found Chinese sellers are largely able to circumvent
package checks by the U.S. Postal Service.
The influx of opioids has fueled a wave of overdose deaths in the U.S.
The nation's emergency alert system came under scrutiny today, after Hawaii's false warning
about a missile launch.
The incident touched off panic earlier this month.
At a Senate hearing today, Democrat Brian Schatz of Hawaii suggested the responsibility
for such alerts shouldn't be left to the states.
SEN.
BRIAN SCHATZ (D), Hawaii: We have lively debates about federalism, about the role of local
vs. federal government.
But a missile attack is federal.
A missile attack is not a local responsibility.
Confirmation and notification of something like a missile attack should reside with the
agency that knows first and knows for sure.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Hawaiian officials have blamed human error for the false alert.
But the Federal Communications Commission said today the person in question is refusing
to cooperate with investigators.
And on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 140 points to close at 26392,
another record.
The Nasdaq fell about four points, and the S&P 500 added a point.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": women's gymnastics moving forward after disclosures of sexual
abuse; the classified document that is causing a stir on Capitol Hill; Puerto Rico still
without power months after Hurricane Maria; and much more.
After days of powerful testimony, former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to life
in prison yesterday.
But, as the hearing ended, the judge and a number of women who testified said it is crucial
now to focus on what needs to change moving forward.
We're going to focus on that tonight with a renowned gymnast, Shannon Miller.
She won more Olympic medals than any other U.S. gymnast, and led the team that was dubbed
the Magnificent Seven to gold during the 1996 Olympics.
Miller wasn't assaulted by Nassar.
But she is a leading voice working to reform the sport.
I spoke with her earlier today, and we started with her reaction to the testimonies she heard
during the sentencing hearing.
SHANNON MILLER, Olympic Gold Medalist: I have just been in a state of shock and sadness,
outrage.
And to listen to the victim-impact statements, as a mother, as an athlete, as a woman, it
is -- it is absolutely heartbreaking.
And I take those voices with me each day as I continue to relentlessly focus on agenda-based
change.
Change has to happen.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You have been talking and writing about that.
Before we talk about changing the system, though, I want to ask you if you think others
besides Larry Nassar should be held accountable, the U.S. Olympic Committee, Michigan State,
other institutions?
SHANNON MILLER: I think there is a lot of accountability to go around.
That is for sure.
I think this is something that happens by one man, but I think oftentimes it's not allowing
the voices to be heard, creating an atmosphere where athletes can not speak up, or, if they
do, they are not heard.
Things are not followed through on.
So, I there's a great amount of accountability that needs to take place.
And I think certainly within USA Gymnastics one of the things that is of utmost importance
is not just the new CEO that has come in and the change in leadership, but really a change
throughout the organization from the board of directors to certain personnel.
I think there is a lot of people in the gymnastics community -- in fact, I would say a majority
of the gymnastics community, they want to see change.
They want to do better.
And it starts with holding people accountable.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, last night, we interviewed sports training specialist Robert Andrews
from Houston.
And I'm quoting here.
He said: "There are quite a few gyms out there with horribly abusive coaches running the
shows."
And he said, on the women's side, "There is a tremendous amount of psychological abuse,
shaming, humiliation."
Is that the system that needs fixing?
SHANNON MILLER: It's incredibly difficult to watch this unfold, because this is not
the gymnastics I knew.
This is not the gymnastics experience that I faced.
I had my personal coaches.
I lived at home.
I went to public school.
I trained.
And I got to go out and represent my city and my state and my country.
That is the gymnastics I know and I love.
It's about flipping and tumbling.
It is not about whether or not your child is safe on any level when they go into the
gym, other than maybe an injury or two.
And we have to have comprehensive abuse-prevention education.
It needs to be mandatory for every member of USA Gymnastics.
And it needs available for children, all athletes, parents, coaches, administration.
It can be age-appropriate and that's great, but it covers all types of abuse, including
bullying and body shaming and cyber-bullying.
These are all issues that athletes face.
And so we have to make sure that they are protected and that they are also armed with
that knowledge and education, so they know when they can speak up.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So how confident are you that that reeducation can take place, when this
other system has been in place for so long?
SHANNON MILLER: You know, the interesting thing is, I am more confident than ever that
change can take place.
And sometimes you have to burn the field to plant anew.
And that's the thing that we're focused on here.
These victims -- not victims, survivors, that have been through this ordeal, and they have
had the courage to speak up and speak out.
So let's use that.
And, again, I think there are so many -- there are so many gyms across the country, there
are so many athletes, there are parents, there are people that want to see that change.
And they want to help with that change.
They want this to be a safer and more empowering sport.
So if we unite and we get together, we can power through the difficult conversations
and the processes and the best practices.
All of those things can happen.
They are out there.
A lot of the things I talk about are common sense.
You don't have a trainer in the same room with a female athlete alone.
So there is hundreds, if not thousands of these small things that are absolute commonsense
that you can put into place.
And I think now is the time for change.
And it's already begun.
I would like it to go faster, and that's why I am continuing to push and push hard moving
forward.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You mentioned the parents.
There have to be parents out there watching all of this, wondering if they should let
their children, especially their daughters, go into gymnastics, given what is going on.
How do you give them confidence?
What is the parents' role here?
SHANNON MILLER: Yes, I think the parents' role -- and I'm a parent of two small children,
who were both will go into the gym this Saturday.
But I think it is all role to worry, and to be a part of it, and to be concerned and to
be educated.
But it's hard.
And I think it's important that there is an understanding that it's not just about one
person or one segment.
It's about making sure that the coaches are educated and the athletes as well, the parents
as well.
But we all know, as parents, we cannot be with our children 24/7, whether it's at school
or any other sport or gymnastics or a field trip.
We cannot be in control of them 24/7, as much as we would like.
So we have to make sure that we are creating places that are as safe as possible.
And I think part of that is making sure that this education is mandatory and that there
are very specific guide lines that these gyms, if you want to be a USA Gymnastics member
club, then there are very strict guidelines on what you have to follow in order to have
that designation.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Shannon Miller, we thank you so much for talking with us.
SHANNON MILLER: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to the political firestorm over the independence of special counsel Robert
Mueller's probe.
John Yang has the story behind a secret memo, lost-and-found text messages, and more.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX News: Any time there's big breaking news about this massive government
abuse of power.
JOHN YANG: To hear some news outlets tell it, there is widespread outrage.
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX News: So if it turns out that this whole investigation is a politically
motivated sham.
JOHN YANG: Casting doubts on special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation of
possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
President Trump told reporters Wednesday he was looking forward to answering Mueller's
questions and said he would do it under oath.
QUESTION: Do you have a date set, Mr. President?
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I don't know.
No, I think -- I guess they're talking about two or three weeks.
But I would love to do it.
Again, I have to say, subject to my lawyers and all of that.
But I would love to do it.
JOHN YANG: Congressional Republicans are also fanning doubts about the probe.
This week, without offering direct evidence, Senator Ron Johnson spoke of corruption and
a secret society within the FBI
SEN.
RON JOHNSON (R), Wisconsin: I have heard that there were managers, high-level officials
at the FBI, that were meeting together off-site.
JOHN YANG: He claimed such a society was mentioned in texts between FBI lawyer Lisa Page and
FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was removed from Mueller's team.
Today, reporters pursuing Johnson on Capitol Hill asked if the reference could have been
a joke.
SEN.
RON JOHNSON: It's a real possibility.
JOHN YANG: Republicans also raised warning flags when the FBI said it could not find
about five months' worth of those texts, but in a letter to Congress today, the Justice
Department's internal watchdog said his office had recovered them.
There is also the matter of what's being called the Nunes memo.
Drafted by aides to House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes, it reportedly alleges that
the FBI abused its powers to surveil the Trump campaign.
The specifics of the four-page document aren't clear because it's classified and only available
to members of Congress, despite calls from the right and the left to release it to the
public.
Republican Congressman Mark Meadows calls its contents shocking.
REP.
MARK MEADOWS (R), North Carolina: Part of me wishes that I didn't read it, because I
don't want to believe that those kinds of things could happening in this country that
I call home and love so much.
JOHN YANG: The Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Adam Schiff, says it is pure politics.
REP.
ADAM SCHIFF (D), California: They wanted to make a political statement.
They wanted to feed the beast on FOX News.
They wanted to do what they could to derail the Mueller investigation.
JOHN YANG: Schiff said committee Democrats would write a memo of their own, a sign that
temperatures are still rising on Capitol Hill over an investigation that continues to intensify.
To talk more about this, I'm joined now by Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican
from Pennsylvania.
He has a unique perspective on these issues, because, before he was elected to Congress
in 2016, he was an FBI agent for 14 years and also served as a special assistant U.S.
attorney.
Mr. Fitzpatrick, thanks for joining us.
I take it you have seen this so-called Nunes memo.
I know you can't talk about it in detail because it's classified, but from what you have read,
does it suggest any wrongdoing or missteps on the part of the FBI or the Justice Department?
REP.
BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R), Pennsylvania: The memo answers some questions, but I think it raises
more questions than it answers.
So any time we are dealt with a situation like this, there is a continuum of the need
for transparency and also the need for confidentiality, particularly in covert investigations.
And it's really a case-a-case basis when we have a situation like this.
And one of the reasons why I err on the side of releasing this, after scrubbing it and
after declassifying it, is, given all of the -- given all the controversy surrounding this,
because with any FBI investigation, this one included, public confidence and the integrity
of the investigation is very, very important, and given all the reporting surrounding this,
I think that if the declassification is done in the right way, it's probably to the benefit
of the country to disclose some of the contents.
JOHN YANG: Do those contents raise questions about the integrity of the FBI?
REP.
BRIAN FITZPATRICK: Well, I think it raises the questions of the judgment.
And before we say integrity, we have to know whether this was intention or negligent content.
That's the most important thing.
But there are certain people that are mentioned by name, most of whom have already been reported
in the media.
So, from their standpoint, it is very disturbing, some of the facts that came out in that memo.
Once it's he declassified, the nation will see that.
But, like I said, it also raises a lot more questions than it answers with regard to the
chain of command and who knew what.
And it's not our place to prejudge.
It's our place to investigate.
So, I know the Intelligence Committee is doing their work.
The special counsel is doing his work.
I'm on the Homeland Security Committee.
We have a role to play as well.
But the most important thing, John, is that we stick to the facts and we maintain our
credibility.
We don't sensationalize the memo to indicate that things are included that are not included,
but also not to be dismissive of some of the very troubling things that are in the memo.
JOHN YANG: Senator Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has
talked about what he calls -- quote -- "an unbelievable level of bias at the top of the
FBI."
On the other hand, Congressman Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence
Committee, said that the memo is a -- quote -- "distorted view of the FBI."
Where do you fall on that continuum?
I know you can't speak to the details.
REP.
BRIAN FITZPATRICK: Yes.
JOHN YANG: I take it you are somewhere in between, but are you closer to one side or
the other on that?
REP.
BRIAN FITZPATRICK: No, I mean, I don't want to compare either one of those two or their
characterization.
All can I tell you is my reaction to it.
I think it is important that the entities that are doing their work finish their work,
and then we judge based on the facts, because our job in an oversight role is similar to
that of an FBI investigator, when I did that job.
It is to follow the facts wherever they lead, and to report those facts with unimpeachable
integrity.
JOHN YANG: Yesterday, the president was asked if he trusted the FBI.
And he said -- quote -- "I'm very disturbed, as is everybody else that is intelligent."
As a member of Congress, as a 14-year veteran of the FBI, how do you react or what is your
reaction to the president of the United States saying that about the FBI?
REP.
BRIAN FITZPATRICK: I don't think that we should judge an entire institution because of a few
bad actors.
I think the solution is to expose those bad actors, identify them by name, make public
their bad conduct, and deal with them appropriately.
I think that is the proper way to be viewing this.
And, again, for the unanswered questions, we need answers to those.
And that could lead to other things, just like when I was an investigator, a lot of
times we would go up on a wiretap for a money laundering case, and we ended up learning
about a drug conspiracy, and it takes you down a totally different path.
JOHN YANG: You served under Robert Mueller when he was director of the FBI.
You were an agent at that time.
Do you have any concerns about the integrity of the investigation?
REP.
BRIAN FITZPATRICK: We haven't have been briefed on his investigation.
I can tell you that, when Robert Mueller was director of the FBI, he was a man of integrity.
Again, I can't speak to what is going on now, because we haven't been briefed on it.
I am not on the Intelligence Committee.
I'm on the Homeland Security Committee.
Our committee has not been briefed on this investigation.
But I do believe that investigators and prosecutors should be given the leeway to do their work.
JOHN YANG: And do you think Mr. Mueller is being treated fairly?
REP.
BRIAN FITZPATRICK: By who?
I think to say whether he is being treated fairly or not is going to depend on his investigative
results and what context he provides to that.
So I think -- and I will say that Mr. Mueller should be allowed to do his work.
I supported the call for a special counsel.
I called for that, actually, because I thought that the investigation should be taken out
of the political realm and put into the hands of law enforcement, the women and men that
I had the privilege to work side by side with for so long.
I supported the call for a special counsel.
I supported the decision to hire Mr. Mueller.
I think he, you know, was the right pick.
And how he goes about conducting that investigation, well, let him do his work and then report
back, and then we can all be the judge of that.
JOHN YANG: Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, thanks so much for joining us.
REP.
BRIAN FITZPATRICK: Thank you, sir.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Stay with us.
Coming up on the "NewsHour": kick-starting a sluggish local economy through start-ups;
the last Republicans -- insights into the Bush dynasty and today's GOP; and a Brief
But Spectacular take from a Holocaust survivor.
It's hard to fully comprehend, but more than four months since hurricanes swept through
the Caribbean, about half of Puerto Ricans remain without electricity.
This week, Governor Ricardo Rossello announced the island's public energy monopoly would
be sold off to private companies following a series of scandals.
In the first of two reports from Puerto Rico, special correspondent Monica Villamizar looks
at what's behind the delay in restoring power and how people are coping.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: When Hurricane Maria struck in September, fires broke out and victims
had to run to the station to inform firefighter Ronald Vega and his colleagues.
There was no way to dial 911.
This fire station in the eastern town of Naguabo is now functioning normally.
But at Ronald Vega's home nearby, there is no electricity.
He uses a generator at night and relies on emergency food aid.
The signs of water damage still loom above his head.
RONALD VEGA, Firefighter (through translator): It's not easy.
It's such a tough situation.
I'm paying at least $15 a day for the fuel of my generator during the week.
That's every day.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: As a firefighter, Vega makes less than $20,000 a year.
Before the storm he was already supplementing his income with part-time work at Walgreens.
Four months after the storm, about 450,000 of the 1.5 million electricity customers are
without service.
Blackouts occur regularly our hours at a time, even in San Juan.
Outside the capital, destruction remains.
In Salinas, home to the island's largest power plant, Barber Julio Ortiz set up shop at a
ruined gas station.
It took him three months to find an inverter to connect his razors to the car battery.
MAN (through translator) People have to survive one way or another.
I have to make it happen somehow because, you know, money doesn't grow on trees.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: The response here remains an emergency.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers coordinates repairs by private contractors using dollars
from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
WOMAN: We're standing at the lay-down yard where all of our large items come into.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: The Army Corps oversees materials distributed across the island, but
under the federal Stafford Act, FEMA is only allowed to restore infrastructure exactly
as it was before a disaster.
In some cases, materials in Puerto Rico were so outdated that the Corps had to get them
made especially for the island, furthering delays.
COL.
JOHN LLOYD, Army Corps of Engineers: It really doesn't allow us to do more resilient or hardening
work that made that Puerto Rico's grid definitely needs.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Colonel John Lloyd directs the Army Corps' operation from the headquarters
of the electricity utility.
What's the point of restoring it to something old and essentially in bad shape?
COL.
JOHN LLOYD: The work that we are doing does -- it brings it up to code, and in many cases
the grid wasn't to current code.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: And when do you think everybody will have power again?
COL.
JOHN LLOYD: We will slowly get more customers online.
I think by the middle of March, end of March, we're going to see the majority of customers
with power.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Many people have accused Puerto Rico's only electric utility company,
PREPA, of being corrupt and wasteful.
Before the storm, PREPA was bankrupt, and it saved money by cutting down on important
maintenance.
After the storm, PREPA contracted Whitefish, a small, Montana-based firm, for repairs it
could not complete.
The contract was canceled, but PREPA still has to pay Whitefish more than $100 million
for work done.
And then this week, the Puerto Rican governor announced that PREPA will be privatized over
the next 18 months.
GOV.
RICARDO ROSSELLO, Puerto Rico (through translator): The process will begin for PREPA assets to
be sold to companies who will transform the generation system into a modern, efficient,
and less expensive one for the people.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: The privatization is not expected to affect the repair schedule.
About 80 percent of electrical infrastructure was destroyed.
PREPA told us that restoring power everyone on the island, not just the majority, is expected
to take at least until May, eight months after Hurricane Maria.
Houses across the countryside are lined with blue tarp on their roofs.
But not everyone is waiting for outside help to move forward with repairs.
ARTURO MASSOL DEYA, Casa Pueblo: We don't depend upon the grid to supply the needs of
Casa Pueblo.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Arturo Massol Deya is the head of Casa Pueblo, an environmental organization
in Adjuntas.
This local community center has been running on solar energy since 1999.
The sun powers everything, from industrial coffee grinders to medicine refrigerators,
as well as radio station.
ARTURO MASSOL DEYA: Lighting was a critical thing.
And it was a way to teach people how inexpensive, easy it is to embrace renewable energy sources
like the sun, in which you are less vulnerable, because the capture of the energy and the
utilization of the energy is at the point of consumption.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: Casa Pueblo is technically still connected to the grid.
But it creates so much power that it can send it back into the system.
The Puerto Rican government still hasn't approved regulations for people to provide power to
the grid with solar.
In addition to the costs of infrastructure, that's one more barrier to making alternative
energy widespread.
The government does plan to increase renewable power from only a small amount to 30 percent
of the island's energy, so it can be more prepared for the next hurricane.
This place became a very important power source for the entire community after the hurricane.
People were coming here to charge their phones and get solar lamps and refrigerators.
And the radio station never stopped broadcasting, because it runs on solar power.
It's a community station where people call in to request their favorite salsa songs and
make dedications to friends and family.
In the hills around his town, Arturo has installed solar power systems to connect vulnerable
people isolated from the power network.
Jonathan is disabled, living with his grandmother, Luz Leida Plaza.
With solar, they have lights and power for their phones and a tiny fridge for medicine.
The same system powers a neighbor's dialysis machine.
LUZ LEIDA PLAZA, Adjuntas (through translator): Before they had a solar system, my neighbor
told me he had to connect his mother's machine to a car battery all night.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: It's a familiar story to Ronald Vega.
RONALD VEGA (through translator): In some places, they are fighting, fighting to get
electricity.
People in many villages say they feel that they have simply been forgotten.
And that's because, in many places, they are still without power and lights, and it's been
more than 116 days.
MONICA VILLAMIZAR: And like Casa Pueblo, his fire station is now prepared.
Thanks to a solar power system brought to the island by Las Vegas firefighters, they
are strong enough to weather the next hurricane.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Monica Villamizar in Puerto Rico.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And in the coming days, we will continue our series After the Storms
with additional reports from Puerto Rico and from Texas.
The stock market is up, unemployment is down, and much of the U.S. economy is on the rebound,
but not for New Mexico.
It's a place that's still down in the dumps a decade after the recession began.
Its jobless rate is 6 percent, compared to just 4.1 percent nationally.
Economics correspondent Paul Solman traveled to the Land of Enchantment, where local officials
are betting on innovation to spark the turnaround.
It's part of his weekly series, Making Sense.
PAUL SOLMAN: Now, here's a kind of weird question: Can a hot new photography fad, smoke bomb
Web sites, help reignite one of the country's worst performing economies?
KYLE GUIN, College Student: There is no good supplier for these smoke bombs.
PAUL SOLMAN: University of New Mexico Jr. Kyle Guin hopes to build a smoke bomb supply
business right here in New Mexico.
KYLE GUIN: I found a great manufacturer and distributor.
And I'm currently working with Amazon fulfillment centers to be one of the only sellers in the
U.S. that can have these to your door in two days with Prime shipping.
You will hear from the out-of-the-box entrepreneur who showed off a homegrown snowboard to Richard
Berry, when we interviewed him just finishing eight years as mayor of Albuquerque.
And hey, says Berry, these days, the mantra everywhere is young entrepreneurs or bust.
RICHARD BERRY, Former Mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico: Every mayor in the country is
worried about why people, young people are moving.
Shame on us as a state for 40 years to rely on just government and oil and gas, but now
we have this third leg of the economy that's starting to take off.
PAUL SOLMAN: Starting to take off, he hopes, in the Albuquerque metro area, which houses
half the state's two million people.
It sure would help New Mexico, whose economy is now ranked a moribund 47th in the nation,
with an unemployment topped only by Alaska's.
A cause and effect of the malaise, New Mexico's young brains draining away to more promising
and populous markets.
But there's plenty to like about the Land of Enchantment, says the outgoing mayor.
RICHARD BERRY: Obviously, great weather.
Mountains.
You can ski in the morning, golf in the afternoon, the weather, the landscape, the special size
of the places there.
PAUL SOLMAN: But if you're a would-be entrepreneur, you can also work here on the cheap, a low
burn rate, as they say in start-up world.
And that's for someone like the snowboard guy, who it's still not quite time to hear
from.
RICHARD BERRY: You can come here to start businesses, fail, fail fast, fail forward
much, much less expensively than you can other places.
PAUL SOLMAN: Ideal location for a start-up, says economic development pro Gary Oppedahl.
GARY OPPEDAHL, Former Albuquerque Economic Development Director: Big skies, big ideas.
People think big.
That's why such great things as the nuclear weapons whole industry, to Microsoft was formed
here, to Goddard, to the first computer ever, to Smokey the Bear and breakfast burritos.
PAUL SOLMAN: The latest big idea is a largely government-bankrolled, seven-acre, $150 million
innovation complex downtown, anchored by the Rainforest, an ecosystem of business folk
and college types.
Kyle Guin is an enterprising young brain the state wants to keep.
So the university provides an apartment upstairs from his classes and space to work on his
start-ups: smoke bomb supplier, an app called Pencil-In that scans documents with dates
and zips them into your digital calendar.
KYLE GUIN: This was from one of my math classes last semester.
So you just take our app, you photograph it.
Once you photograph it, you just go to your calendar.
PAUL SOLMAN: Done, saved successfully.
Good.
KYLE GUIN: Now go check the calendar.
PAUL SOLMAN: And there it is.
Oh, my God.
KYLE GUIN: So, on February 3, you have vector functions.
PAUL SOLMAN: Last day to drop without a grade.
Just across the parking lot is a makerspace operated by the local community college.
The building, recently a soup kitchen, hosts would-be entrepreneurs, a 3-D printed guitar
maker, and at last our custom snowboard maker, Marty Bonacci.
MARTY BONACCI, Custom Snowboard Maker: One of the benefits of being in this makerspace
was that I didn't have to pay huge overhead, buy all this equipment up front, or lease
it and incur all the overhead costs associated with building out the space.
That's a big investment and a big risk.
RICHARD BERRY: What if you're a young entrepreneur?
Why would you come here?
PAUL SOLMAN: Yes.
Why...
RICHARD BERRY: The burn rate's less.
We have a billion-dollar arts economy.
You match the arts with the sciences, and you have a place that accepts you.
All of a sudden now, you can have these human collisions with a varied and diverse group
of people that can add value to your proposition.
PAUL SOLMAN: As they have to the movie and TV business, says the former mayor.
BRYAN CRANSTON, Actor: You and I could partner up.
PAUL SOLMAN: Those are the stars of the hit cable series "Breaking Bad," which itself
partnered up with an eager New Mexico, where the show was made, boasts development booster
Gary Oppedahl.
GARY OPPEDAHL: "Breaking Bad" was a blockbuster, right?
The film office here is one of the best in the world, not says us, says Hollywood.
PAUL SOLMAN: The state has been making a special effort to court TV and movie companies, says
Mayor Berry.
RICHARD BERRY: Captain America, the Iron Man films, the Terminator films, a lot of those
were filmed right here.
We have the largest film studio in North America five miles south of here.
That happened because we were intentional about attracting it.
PAUL SOLMAN: OK, you get the pitch, big skies, low overhead, big mountains, big hopes, but
for the state's economy to clamber up from 47, it also needs to hoist its Native American
population, one in 10 new Mexicans.
The state's 22 tribes don't all measure unemployment, but to take just one example, the Navajo Nation's
rate is north of 20 percent.
First baby step, the indigenous Comic-Con, brainchild of the guy in the hat texting,
Lee Francis, from the Laguna Pueblo 47 miles west of Albuquerque.
The event draws Native vendors and all sorts of visitors from far and wide.
The big idea is the same here: entrepreneurship as problem-solver.
Native visitors were asked to post their problems, their villains on a board, coal mining, alcoholism,
drugs, domestic violence.
LEE FRANCIS, Laguna Pueblo: Domestic violence is a huge one, but around the drugs and alcohol,
it's like, oh, well this is how it is.
This is how Natives are.
PAUL SOLMAN: An exaggerated stereotype, says Francis, but part of the Native self-image.
So the larger goal here is to spur Natives to reframe the narrative.
Cartoonist Ricardo Cate does it by reframing history.
RICARDO CATE, Cartoonist: We're not focusing on your alcoholism.
We're not focusing on the drug.
We're not focusing on the unemployment.
We're saying, hey, there's some really cool stuff.
Let's let the imagination fly.
PAUL SOLMAN: And why the images of pop culture superheroes?
RICARDO CATE: If we can get to it in front of our young people and begin to spark that
they can be superheroes, that they can be the heroes of their communities, then they
begin to think outside of what they have been locked into.
And that's where entrepreneurship begins.
PAUL SOLMAN: Rod Velarde, for example, who applies his Jicarilla Apache grandfather's
traditional designs to Star Wars characters to inspire enterprising young Natives to prosper
and return.
ROD VELARDE, Artist: We had a family song.
It's called, "Go My Son."
"Go My Son" says -- talks about an aging chief talking to his kids.
He says, go, my son.
Go get an education.
Go out there and see the world, but come back and teach your own people.
PAUL SOLMAN: Put them in the driver's seat, so to speak, and hope that they will find
their way back home.
Our last new businessman, Zeke Pena, who works with students to produce and publish a low-budget
zine aimed at keeping teens in school, first by focusing on themselves.
ZEKE PENA, Artist: My experience growing up wasn't having my story represented in schools,
so I was fortunate to stay connected and graduate, right?
But a lot of people drop out, and drop out because they disengage and they are not really
connected to what they're learning about, right?
PAUL SOLMAN: Pena also teaches students digital skills they can trade on anywhere.
If you have become very successful in digital media, do you go to, you know, bigger and
bigger places?
ALONSO ESTRADA, Student: We're like the next generation.
We're going to be the ones that get New Mexico to the top.
So, if I do become a professional, I'm not going to leave, because I'm going to stay
here and I'm going to help New Mexico grow up and become more successful.
PAUL SOLMAN: Back at the University of New Mexico, smoke bomb entrepreneur Kyle Guin
knows the bigger places question well.
KYLE GUIN: There's probably more's resources.
There's probably more money.
But there's also 10,000 of me.
Here in Albuquerque, there's only one of me.
PAUL SOLMAN: So, you're a big fish in a small pond.
KYLE GUIN: I'm a big fish in a small pond.
PAUL SOLMAN: A pond that his state is desperately trying to grow.
For the "PBS NewsHour," this is economics correspondent Paul Solman, reporting from
New Mexico.
JUDY WOODRUFF: As President Trump continues to dominate the news cycle, not everyone in
the president's club is giving him high marks.
In a new book, former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush weigh in on Mr. Trump's
handling of the highest office in the land.
Lisa Desjardins recently sat down with historian and author Mark Updegrove.
LISA DESJARDINS: They are a living political dynasty, father-son presidents who rarely
speak at length about the politics of today.
But a new book offers insights and rare interviews with the pair, talking their relationship,
values and how they see the man in the Oval Office now.
The book is called "The Last Republicans: Inside the Extraordinary Relationship Between
George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush."
And its author, historian Mark Updegrove, joins me now.
Thank you for joining us.
MARK UPDEGROVE, Author, "The Last Republicans": Thanks for having me.
LISA DESJARDINS: So, let's start about these two fascinating men, and their relationship.
Who are they and how have they influenced each other?
MARK UPDEGROVE: Well, they are very different people of different generations.
You have George H.W. Bush, who is this patrician from the Northeast who decides to strike out
on his own in the oil business.
And in Texas, he's kind of a hybrid between those two places, the old-style patrician
Northeast and rough-and-tumble Texas.
And you have his son, who is a product of Midland, Texas, primarily, George W. Bush,
a baby boomer, not part of the Greatest Generation, like his father.
They are very different in many ways, but they are bound together by the ethos that
is part of the Bush family.
LISA DESJARDINS: Let's talk about that ethos, and in particular a quote.
MARK UPDEGROVE: Sure.
LISA DESJARDINS: You have a fascinating letter that George H.W. Bush wrote to his sons in
1973, as the Watergate scandal was happening.
Can you introduce that letter and read a quote from it?
MARK UPDEGROVE: Of course.
This letter was written when George H.W. Bush was the chairman of the Republican National
Committee.
And it was just two weeks before Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency in 1974.
And he used that as a teachable moment, if you will.
And he writes his son a letter, which in part includes this passage: "In judging your president,
give him credit for enormous achievements.
But understand, too, the power accompanied by arrogance is very dangerous.
It is particularly dangerous when men with no real experience have it, for they can abuse
our great institutions."
And it is that last, the last part of it that is so fascinating.
LISA DESJARDINS: Especially now.
It's a very timely quote.
MARK UPDEGROVE: It's a very timely quote.
LISA DESJARDINS: And I'm wondering, given that this is how you see the Bush ethos, what
do the Bushes, the Presidents Bush, who have this value, how do they see the Republican
Party now?
Are they the last Republicans, the title of your book?
MARK UPDEGROVE: Power accompanied by arrogance is a way of describing Richard Nixon.
But when George H.W. Bush talks about it being particularly dangerous when men with no real
experience have it, that is not Nixon.
Nixon was a congressman.
He was a senator.
He was vice president.
He went to be elected to the presidency twice.
So he is not talking about Richard Nixon.
It is a hypothetical, but it allows, obviously, to Donald Trump.
And I think that the Bushes likely see him as endangering the institution that they revere
most in the world, and that is that of the presidency.
LISA DESJARDINS: Take us through their interactions with Donald Trump, some of them rejected -- potential
interactions that they chose not to have, and what exactly they told you about their
thoughts on our president.
MARK UPDEGROVE: George Herbert Walker Bush, when he was former president in the 1990s,
was waiting for his private aircraft to be -- to get some maintenance.
And he was told by his chief of staff, who was told by an attendant at the airport, that
Donald Trump was about to land.
And would the former president like to meet Donald Trump?
And when presented with this idea, George Bush had a newspaper in his hand.
And he lowered it and he said, "God no."
And then he lifted it up again and pulled it down and he said: "Wait, he's coming here?"
And she said, "I don't know."
And so he put up his newspaper in front of his face to shield his face, in the event
that Donald Trump came by.
So, that gives you a pretty good indication of what George Bush thought of Donald Trump
prior to this.
And, actually, his campaign manager in 1988 presented the notion of Donald Trump as running
mate, which Donald -- which George Bush quickly rejected.
LISA DESJARDINS: And neither President Bush voted for Donald Trump.
MARK UPDEGROVE: Neither of them did.
As you alluded to, I don't know if they see themselves as the last Republicans.
I think they see that there is still a vibrant Republican Party that can be had, if it goes
back to the principles that they upheld as the standard-bearers of the Republican Party.
But it strayed decidedly and discernibly from those principles.
And I think that concerns both of the Bushes.
LISA DESJARDINS: President George Herbert Walker Bush was in the news, I think, in a
way he didn't want to be with allegations that he inappropriately touched women on their
bottoms.
Did you speak to the Bush family about this?
What is their take on those charges and sort of this environment right now?
MARK UPDEGROVE: I think this is a great moment in the history of our country, that women
are finally coming out and able to talk about injustices as it relates to the misbehavior
like this.
But I think it's dangerous to paint all this behavior with the same brush.
What George Herbert Walker Bush is alleged to have done was in a rope line, when he was
much older, his hands are in awkward places when he is sitting in a wheelchair.
I think we probably have to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I think, at worse, this is a very inappropriate gesture, a bad joke.
And he was contrite.
He immediately came out and apologized to those he may have offended.
But it is very uncharacteristic for this man to have behaved in that way.
LISA DESJARDINS: My final question, I think throughout your book you see this concept
between the decency that the Bushes want to stand for and worries that they have about
what they see day to day in the current White House.
How does the Bush family decide now when to speak out?
Because I know that their code is, generally, don't interview with any current lawmakers.
MARK UPDEGROVE: I think, without question, they want to see our president, Republican
or Democrat, succeed.
Both of the Bushes were succeeded by Democrats.
And they left notes to each of their successors saying that, hey, listen, I'm here for you.
I want you to succeed.
Donald Trump, I think, is a concern to not only the Bushes, but to other establishment
Republicans, and certainly to Democrats as well.
I think the clearest statement they made was in the wake of the Charlottesville incident,
in which the Bushes for the first and only time issued a joint tweet.
It was a statement of sorts, condemning roundly the bigotry and anti-Semitism that we saw
from Charlottesville.
And I think it was -- the reason for that joint statement is because we weren't seeing
any clear, unambiguous statement from our president.
It was a betrayal of American values.
And the Bushes stepped up to fill, I think, what they might have seen as a leadership
void.
LISA DESJARDINS: Mark Updegrove, historian, author of "The Last Republicans," thank you.
MARK UPDEGROVE: Thank you, Lisa.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Next, we turn to another installment of our weekly Brief But Spectacular series.
Tonight, in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we hear from 84-year-old
Reva Kibort of Minneapolis.
Originally from Poland, Kibort spent two years imprisoned at the Demblin concentration camp.
She survived the war, while many of her family, including her parents and sister, didn't.
REVA KIBORT, Holocaust Survivor: I was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1933.
I remember when the Germans came in, and, actually, the soldiers, they weren't so bad.
We lined up in lines to get food.
They gave us soup and bread.
And that was my first memory of the German soldiers.
They were not that bad.
But we learned later on what it was going to be like.
The Warsaw ghetto, toward the end, looked like people walking around like zombies, dead
bodies, people who had starved from hunger.
It was the most devastating place to live in.
They took away everybody's dignity, you know?
I was very, very hungry, and I told my mother that I was hungry.
And she said to me -- she said: "Reva, I have nothing to give you.
There's nothing to eat.
What you should do is take this big rubber ball and go out and play, and you will forget
that you're hungry."
We were put on trains and taken to a camp called Demblin.
There were 11 children in the camp.
I was the oldest among the 11.
And then there was this German who said to me, "Throw the child away," because I was
holding a six-month-old little baby.
I ran into the dirty clothing that the women had taken off, a pile of dirty clothes, and
I could see that the same German took a machine gun and killed all 11 children right in front
of me while I was watching them.
I ran into the women's barrack, and the women sort of attacked me, saying: "Where are all
the kids?
What happened to the children?"
And I said, "I don't know."
I believe they probably knew.
I didn't have to tell them.
I was one of the youngest in my camp.
I survived when I was 12.
And I feel, if I'm not going to speak out now, it will be up to my children, and my
grandchildren, and maybe great-grandchildren to tell the story of the Holocaust.
So, we have to speak up.
Whenever you see injustices at all, you have to speak up.
It bothers me a great deal when I see somebody who is hungry.
It bothers me if I see a homeless person.
It bothers me when I see people standing in line for food, because all these things come
back to me all the time.
QUESTION: Are you angry?
REVA KIBORT: Am I angry?
I'm angry.
I will tell you why I'm angry.
I'm angry mostly because I was an orphan.
They deprived me of my mother and father.
They deprived me of grandparents, of cousins.
They deprived me of a childhood that I never had.
Yes, I'm angry.
But, at the same time, I'm also very happy that I'm here in America, and for the opportunities
that I had and what America had given to me.
I'm very happy about that.
My name is Reva Kibort, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on being a survivor.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Reva, thank you.
And that's why it is so important that we remember.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
Join us online and again right here tomorrow evening, with Mark Shields and David Brooks
analyzing the week's news.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, and we will see you soon.
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