PBS NewsHour full episode February 5, 2018

JOHN YANG: Good evening.
I'm John Yang.
Judy Woodruff is away.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: Wall Street takes another plunge.
A volatile day leaves the stock market down more than 1,100 points, the largest one-day
point drop ever.
Then: Republicans are split on what the Nunes memo means for the Russia investigation, while
we take a look at how Russia's cyber-tactics played into the calls for its release.
Plus: Five months after Hurricane Harvey slammed into Houston, city officials face the task
of rebuilding the city to withstand the next storm.
ED EMMETT, Harris County, Texas, Executive: We need to turn this area into much more green
space.
Sometimes, you have to look at Mother Nature and say Mother Nature wins.
JOHN YANG: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour"
(BREAK)
JOHN YANG: What a long, strange day it was on Wall Street.
The sell-off that began Friday whipsawed the market again.
In one furious 15-minute stretch, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped and then
recouped 700 points.
It ended with a loss of 1,175, to finish at 24,345.
That's a drop of more than 4.5 percent, the biggest percentage drop since 2011.
The Nasdaq fell 273 points, and the S&P 500 gave up 113.
We try to sort some of this out now with Gillian Tett, the U.S. managing editor at The Financial
Times, where she is also a markets and finance columnist, and Diane Swonk, chief economist
for Grant Thornton in Chicago.
Thank you both for joining us.
Diane, let me begin with you.
What happened today?
DIANE SWONK, Grant Thornton: What we're starting to see is reality finally hit into the fact
the markets were priced to perfection, and the economy is not perfect.
In fact, we sort of saw a sort of euphoria almost like 1999 out there with this roaring
stock market, but we have got a 21st century economy, an economy that's doing well, but
it also has a price to that stronger growth, and that's higher interest rates.
That's something the markets hadn't counted on, is that not only are we going to see some
inflation going forward, but with the warming trend in wages, we will also see higher long-term
interest rates, and that's just a cost of a better economy.
JOHN YANG: Gillian Tett, reality setting in?
GILLIAN TETT, The Financial Times: Absolutely.
I was in the World Economic Forum just a few days ago in Davos talking to CEOs and hedge
fund traders.
And the comment that almost everyone made is, this cannot last, it's too good to be
true to have the equity markets rallying day after day and to have the volatility, the
amount the markets swing each day, so incredibly low.
And what sparked this latest sell-off really was a realization on Friday that we're just
starting to see the first signs of inflationary pressures creeping into the U.S. economy,
and that left many traders thinking, well, actually, these extraordinary conditions that
have been supported by cheap money from central banks, that can't go on forever.
JOHN YANG: Diane, but we have seen this, employment numbers getting better, wages getting a little
better and last month the big tax bill being passed.
We knew that there was going to be a lot of borrowing ahead.
Why did it suddenly come into focus now?
DIANE SWONK: Well, I think there's a lot of things.
One is that employment report on Friday, today's report on the service sector doing as well
as it has since 2005.
Those things altogether suggest that the economy is finally experiencing a warming trend, that
the sort of Goldilocks scenario that the world would be forever with low interest rates and
low wages for Wall Street, now we're shifting the baton to Main Street a bit, although I
think the wages are still a hope.
We still need sustained wage gains out there, but that reality set in
Also, this is a global phenomena.
I think that is very important is that other economies are also picking up, and you're
seeing other central banks not only lift their foot off the accelerator, but talk about hitting
the break.
This is a very big shift from what we have seen for the last sort of eight to nine years.
JOHN YANG: And, Gillian, you talk about that volatility.
The selling really increased in the afternoon.
It slacked off a little bit, but then increased again at the close.
Is this an indication of program trading?
GILLIAN TETT: Absolutely.
One of the really important things to understand is that, right now, people reckon that about
almost half of all the money in U.S. equity funds are in passive funds.
That means there's not a human involved in actively managing them.
It's computers.
And on any given day, you can get sometimes two-thirds of the market driven by computerized
trading.
And a lot of these computerized programs are essentially set up to sell when conditions
get very choppy.
Everyone talks about self-driving cars.
What we're kind of seeing is self-driving markets where a lot of computer programs are
jumping in.
And in addition to this, there is a particular trade that's been incredibly unpopular for
the last few months called trading on volatility, basically placing bets that volatility is
going to be carrying on being very, very low in the markets.
What happened in the few hours at the end of stock market trading today and it's continuing
even now is a lot of those bets went really badly wrong.
And there is a type of fund which is borrowed heavily to place these bets which is really
suffering now.
Just as in previous market crashes and swings, we have seen some hedge funds and funds being
knocked out by these peculiar movements.
That's what is going on right now, and that's making the trading doubly peculiar.
JOHN YANG: And, Diane, the stock market,the U.S. markets have been very high for a while
now.
Has the market -- the market seemed to be looking for a bottom today.
Has it found it or do you think we're going to see selling pressure continue?
DIANE SWONK: Boy, it's hard to say because we are still dealing with this reality.
What is kind of interesting is the reality is that now the markets really believe the
Fed is going to raise the interest rates, that interest rates are going higher.
We also have a lot of debt.
Treasury announced last week that it was going to have to issue more debt because of the
tax cuts to finance those tax cuts.
I think all of that coming together is really important.
And so it does set the stage for more volatility going forward.
I agree that the volatility comments that we heard out there that Gillian pointed out
are very important.
I think what's also really important is that we saw no one hedging their downside.
As you said, many people were on the wrong side of the bets.
People were like driving without a seat belt in this market, they were so confident it
was only going to go up.
And I think that is a really critical point as well.
Does that mean we're done with the correction?
I don't know.
If I knew that, I would own my own island in a place that doesn't have hurricanes, but
the reality is that the economy is solid.
We're talking about an economy that sort of handing the baton to Main Street finally.
And as we gain traction in wages, that will be very good for the economy.
We do see some self-feeding momentum out there.
That's something we welcome.
JOHN YANG: Diane, I should out that late today the White House put out a statement echoing
that, saying that the fundamentals, the long-term fundamentals of the economy remain strong.
Diane Swonk and Gillian Tett, thanks so much for joining us.
GILLIAN TETT: Thank you.
JOHN YANG: In the day's other news: A new bipartisan immigration bill was floated, but
President Trump quickly shot it down.
Republican John McCain and Democrat Chris Coons called for a pathway to citizenship
for immigrants illegally brought here as children.
They also included better border security, but not funding for a border wall.
The president said any deal that doesn't include a wall is "a total waste of time."
Former sports doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced today, for a third and final time.
He was ordered to serve from 40 to 125 years in prison for molesting girls and young women
at a training club.
Nassar appeared in court in Lansing, Michigan, after listening to dozens of victims speak
last week.
Before the judge handed down the sentence to him, Nassar read an apology.
LARRY NASSAR, Convicted Felon: The words expressed by everyone that has spoken, including the
parents, have impacted me to my innermost core.
With that being said, I understand and acknowledge that it pales in comparison to the pain, trauma,
and emotions that you all are feeling.
It's impossible to convey the depth and breadth of how sorry I am to each and every one involved.
JOHN YANG: Nassar is 54 years old.
He's already been sentenced to up to 175 years in another sexual abuse case, and a separate
60-year term for child pornography.
Pope Francis faces new questions about his insistence that no victims of a pedophile
priest in Chile ever came forward to denounce an alleged cover-up.
The Associated Press reports the pontiff received a letter in 2015 detailing sexual and psychological
abuse by the priest and accusing a bishop of hiding it.
Juan Carlos Cruz says he was a victim of the abuse, and the author of the letter.
JUAN CARLOS CRUZ, Abuse Survivor: To hear him say that nobody had ever approached him
or let him know about this is pretty incredible.
I was saddened, and, at the same time, I couldn't believe that someone so high up like the pope
himself could lie about this.
JOHN YANG: Last week, Pope Francis sent the Catholic Church's top sexual abuse investigator
to Chile to look into claims about the bishop.
The Vatican said new information had emerged.
In Iraq, U.S. troops are beginning to withdraw, now that Baghdad has declared victory over
the Islamic State.
An Iraqi government spokesman and Western contractors say American soldiers are being
shifted to Afghanistan.
As of late September, some 9,000 U.S. troops were in Iraq.
A senior Iraqi official says about 4,000 will be to left to train Iraq's military.
Back in this country, Jerome Powell was sworn in today as the 16th chairman of the Federal
Reserve.
The former investment banker and Fed board member succeeds Janet Yellen.
She served one term, but President Trump declined to offer her a second.
And the Philadelphia Eagles returned home from Minnesota today with their first Super
Bowl trophy ever.
They beat the favored New England Patriots last night 41-33 to claim the National Football
League championship.
We will have a full report, later in the program.
Still on the "PBS NewsHour": how did Russia use social media to influence the debate around
the controversial House Intelligence Committee memo; five months after Hurricane Harvey,
is Houston prepared for the next big flood; And much more.
The political fight over the Russia investigation rages on.
Democrats pushed today for the House Intelligence Committee to release their response to a Republican
memo.
And the president traded jabs with the panel's top Democrat.
White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor begins our coverage.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: President Trump was supposed to be focused on tax cuts.
Instead, he started his day by going after a leading critic on the Russia investigation.
His target?
California Democrat Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
In early morning tweets, the president said: "Little Adam Schiff is one of the biggest
liars and leakers in Washington."
He also accused Schiff of illegally leaking confidential information.
Schiff fired back, saying: "Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate
it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected dreamers or
really anything else."
The president made no further mention of Schiff or the Russia probe during his visit later
to blue ash, Ohio.
The day's dust-up followed Friday's release of the Nunes memo, written by Republicans
on the House Intelligence Committee.
It alleges that the FBI and Justice Department omitted vital information to obtain a special
surveillance warrant for then-Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Today, the House intelligence chairman, Devin Nunes, defended his handling of the issue.
REP.
DEVIN NUNES (R), California: We enjoy the criticism, because when you're being criticized
like this by all the major networks, and being attacked by the left, we know that we're getting
closer to the truth.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Over the weekend, Mr. Trump claimed the memo vindicated him in special
counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
But on Sunday, several Republican lawmakers, including Chris Stewart of Utah and Trey Gowdy
of South Carolina, disagreed.
REP.
TREY GOWDY (R), South Carolina: I actually don't think it has any impact on the Russia
probe,
REP.
CHRIS STEWART (R), Utah: This memo has, frankly, nothing at all to do with the special counsel.
It would be a mistake for anyone to suggest that the special counsel shouldn't complete
his work.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Democrats readily agreed.
California Senator Kamala Harris:
SEN.
KAMALA HARRIS (D), California: The significance, really the gravitas and the significance of
the memo is the disintegration, frankly, of our process.
People are playing politics with our process, and when it comes to classified information,
we have to understand that we shouldn't be weaponizing it.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Late this afternoon, the Intelligence panel met to decide whether to
release the Democratic rebuttal of the Nunes memo.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Yamiche Alcindor.
JOHN YANG: And the House Intelligence Committee has now voted to release that Democratic response.
All the attention on the Nunes memo goes back two weeks, even more.
And there are questions about whether some of that attention, at least on social media,
has been coming from real users, or whether it's being ginned up artificially.
William Brangham has more.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the days leading up to the release of that controversial Nunes memo,
there was a hashtag on Twitter called #releasethememo that became hugely popular on Twitter.
It was used by conservatives and allies of the president who hoped the memo's release
would undercut special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
But a series of recent reports indicate that some of those Twitter accounts promoting #releasethememo
were fake, and that some of them were linked to Russian interests.
Thomas Rid is at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, and he's
been examining how Twitter and other online platforms can be used by these so-called fake
bots to spread information online.
Welcome back to the "NewsHour."
THOMAS RID, Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies: Hi.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, as I was describing, this hashtag on Twitter called #releasethememo
became popular.
Lots of people, real live human beings, were using the hashtag because they wanted the
memo to come out, but allegedly some of these hashtag were being promoted by these bots.
Can you explain what we know about these bots and what they have -- how they might have
been connected to Russia?
THOMAS RID: So, a bot is an automated Twitter account that doesn't have a real human being
behind it, but just a program.
And, indeed, it seems that some automated accounts and some fake real human beings that
aren't actually who they pretend to be use the #releasethememo hashtag -- a hashtag is
a way to make a Twitter -- a tweet circulate more -- used that hashtag to give it some
lift.
Really, it's very difficult to distinguish between these real conservative activists
and politicians.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Real people.
THOMAS RID: Real people -- and fake personas that may be linked to Russian interests.
And that is a problem in itself.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, explain how this would actually work.
For those who don't use Twitter or understand the mechanics of it, basically, I choose who
I want to follow, some 50,000, 100,000 different voices, and I get messages from those people
directly in their Twitter as they tweet out messages.
If I don't follow these bots, why do I care what they are or are not saying?
THOMAS RID: So, indeed, a lot of users on Twitter think they don't follow any bots -- and
they may actually not follow any artificial accounts that are not human -- and therefore
think that doesn't concern me, this problem.
But that's not how this works.
For example, imagine you see a tweet, a post on Twitter, and that has been retweeted or
liked thousands, tens of thousands of times.
You never check whether these retweets, which make something appear very important and viral,
whether they actually are real or not.
So it's possible to give actual messages, like a hashtag, to give it more lift and more
weight through automation and through automated abuse.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Now, it's like fake applause for a comedian.
He plants people in there to clap or laugh extra hard, and it makes him seem funnier,
at least to the audience, than he really might be.
THOMAS RID: Absolutely, except it's not just the specific line that the comedian talks
about that can be amped up and amplified.
It can be other messages that sort of filter up very slowly out of the vastness of all
the Twitter posts and Twitter messages.
So, Twitter, in fact, is a huge part of this problem here.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Now, Kellyanne Conway and the White House have said this wasn't about
a hashtag on Twitter.
This was a vote in the House Intelligence Committee.
They're the ones who released this memo.
What is the evidence that exists, if any, that this was some coordinated campaign by
non-American actors?
THOMAS RID: So, Russia -- and in the Cold War, it was Soviet, of course, including East
German and others -- information operations, active measures was the term of art -- always
exploit existing conflicts, they exploit existing cracks in our political system, and then exacerbate
these cracks and drive wedges into them.
They don't create new conflict, which is a really important insight.
It's not a distinction between fake and real, because they take a real conflict and make
it worse.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, I understand there was also some question as to whether or not the
Black Lives Matter, the Confederate rallies, that those also were objects of attack by
these Russian bots.
THOMAS RID: Very much so, but not just bots, just intelligence operators or sometimes contractors.
And, again, there's a long history.
We know from the Cold War that Soviet operators had a long history of exacerbating racial
tensions.
They would sometimes pose as the Ku Klux Klan, at other times pose as African-American activists.
There's a long history of this.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I know you have been very critical of Twitter and other social media
platforms, arguing that they could do more to stem this kind of fake messaging.
What would you like them to do?
THOMAS RID: For example, Twitter gives the same level of privacy protection to use and
possibly your children that it gives to Russian bots and fake accounts.
That is just not OK.
So, Twitter refuses to make the distinction and refuses to point out abuse, the fake bot
accounts to its own users.
It's impossible to, for example, opt out of bot traffic, to opt out of messages from bots
and retweets from bots.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And that's something you argue that Twitter could easily do that to
identify the fake from the real.
THOMAS RID: Absolutely.
Technically, that is not a big problem.
Indeed, Twitter claims that they can recognize bots automatically.
But at the same time, the bots make Twitter appear larger and more engaging than it actually
is.
Twitter has never made money, and that's a way for them to appear bigger than they actually
are.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Thomas Rid, thank you very much.
JOHN YANG: Next: the long road back from Hurricane Harvey.
When the powerful storm hit the Texas coast last August, it dropped more than 50 inches
of rain across Houston, the most ever recorded from a single storm.
Harvey was responsible for at least 68 deaths and an estimated $125 billion in damage, making
it the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history after Katrina.
Five months later, people are still trying to get their lives back to normal.
For the next story in our series After the Storms, Hari Sreenivasan breaks down the problems
exposed by Harvey's rising waters.
HARI SREENIVASAN: What's it like to see your house like this?
KATHLEEN PACINI, Hurricane Victim: It is disturbing.
I guess I have gotten used to it.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Kathleen and Matt Pacini lived here, in the Meyerland area of Houston
on the city's southwest side.
But on a Saturday night in late August, the rain began to fall, and didn't stop until
it had dropped more than four feet of water on the city.
KATHLEEN PACINI: I went and looked out the front door, and the water was about this far
from the top of the porch.
I came to the back door and it was rushing up the driveway like a wave.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Within minutes, the water was inside their house.
A neighbor called them and told them to get out.
They rushed three houses down to Jenna and Chad Arnold's home.
The Arnolds had recently raised 18 inches above ground, and it became an island in the
river that was now their neighborhood.
JENNA ARNOLD, Hurricane Victim: Honestly, we just thought we were going to you know
get a little rain.
Didn't realize it would be 50-some-odd inches, but we really -- we didn't feel like we needed
to evacuate.
We decided we were elevated.
We felt safe.
We decided to stay.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The Arnolds used a sailboat and kayaks to travel back and forth between
houses to rescue other neighbors, then gather up what belongings they had left.
At one point, 19 people were huddled in their home.
KATHLEEN PACINI: I was shivering, and I really think it was shock.
And a feeling of helplessness.
There was nothing -- we were stuck there, there was nothing I could do.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The Pacinis had flood insurance.
Living in a federally designated floodplain, they were required to.
Here's how it works: The Federal Emergency Management Agency draws flood maps across
the country.
A 100-year floodplain, seen here in blue, means that each year there is a one in 100
chance your home will be flooded.
A 500-year floodplain, the area in green, means one in 500, or 0.2 percent chance for
the area to be flooded in any year.
If you live within these zones, you must purchase flood insurance, though it's at a government-subsidized
rate.
And yet, just outside the 500-year floodplain, in the city's northeast, live Jackie and Michael
White.
They weren't required to have flood insurance, and yet, like tens of thousands of others,
they flooded, too.
ED EMMETT, Harris County, Texas, Executive: If something went wrong, the maps were wrong.
If you have three 500-year events in two years, that must mean your 500-year definition is
wrong.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Ed Emmett is the Harris County executive.
They're called judges in Texas.
He's in charge of the more than 1,700 square miles that 4.6 million people call home.
He says the FEMA maps were clearly wrong.
And, in fact, as many as half of the flood insurance claims after Harvey came from properties
outside of the floodplain.
Emmett says the maps need updating because extreme weather is also becoming more common.
ED EMMETT: I hate to use the phrase, but we have a new normal.
We now have to assume that these kind of flood events can occur.
HARI SREENIVASAN: He points out that while Harvey made national headlines as the worst
flooding in U.S. history, it was by no means the first to hit this region in recent years.
In 2015, 12 inches fell in 10 hours over Memorial Day.
In April 2016, 15 inches fell in 24 hours, in what became known as the Tax Day Flood.
For each of these, the federal government distributed hundreds of millions of dollars
in emergency relief and aid.
ED EMMETT: I'm not denying climate change.
I mean, all you have do is look at the satellite photos of the Arctic or look at Glacier National
Park.
I mean, clearly something is going on.
SAM BRODY, Texas A&M: This area that we are right now is one of the most chronically flooded
areas in the city.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Sam Brody studies flooding and flood risk reduction at Texas A&M.
We're walking along the Brays Bayou, where during Harvey the water level was well above
our heads and into the surrounding streets.
He says in addition to outdated flood maps and changing weather patterns, the problem
of flooding here has been made much worse by development.
SAM BRODY: The normal of 10 years ago and certainly 50 years ago is not the normal moving
forward, not just because climate is changing, precip patterns are changing, sea level is
rising, but the way we're building and redefining these landscapes and fragmenting natural drainage
structures is an even bigger problem.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Houston is the fourth largest U.S. city in terms of population, and at 627
square miles, it's larger than New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Reporting for this series, we drove through seemingly endless miles of highways, office
parks, strip malls and neighborhoods.
And it keeps growing farther and farther out.
ED EMMETT: This is a fast growing area, and so more and more land is being taken up by
development, and it's no secret.
Any time you put down concrete or you put down rooftops somewhere, then you have to
offset that.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The Pacinis lived in Meyerland, blocks from Brays Bayou and in a floodplain,
and yet they were surprised when water entered their home.
KATHLEEN PACINI: Our house had never flooded.
I had no reason to expect that it would flood.
SAM BRODY: Now, in you're in Katy, and you're moving water out as quickly as possible, that
water has to go somewhere.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Harvey's rains were historic.
But Sam Brody says what's happening way out in Katy, Texas, 20 miles west, where prairie
lands are being turned into subdivisions full of roads, rooftops and sidewalks, has an effect
down in Houston.
Unlike the prairies, those surfaces don't soak water.
They just push it downstream.
SAM BRODY: I don't want to suggest that there would have been no flooding in Harvey if we
had developed differently.
There was a tremendous amount of water.
We're in a low-lying coastal area, bayou system with poorly drained, naturally poorly drained
soils.
But the impact could have been less if we had made different decisions upstream, for
example.
ED EMMETT: We need to turn this area into much more green space.
Sometimes, you have to look at Mother Nature and say Mother Nature wins.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And yet, in a city famous for its lack of zoning, with individual counties
acting in their own self-interest, and in a state known for championing individual rights,
that won't be easy.
The R-word isn't very popular here, regulations.
TORY GATTIS, Center for Opportunity Urbanism: No, it is not.
No, Houston has always been a very free market city.
It's been one of our great strengths.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Tory Gattis works at the Center for Opportunity Urbanism, a think tank
that focuses on how cities can encourage economic growth.
He agrees that changes are needed, including stricter building codes and better flood-risk
disclosure.
But he's also afraid of throwing the development baby out with the hurricane bathwater.
TORY GATTIS: Rather than saying, look, here are the requirements for development, if we
just start banning development in large swathes of the region, I think that could be very
problematic for Houston's long-term future, because it will affect housing supply, which
will affect housing prices and affordability, and really hit the middle class, and they
won't be able to afford a home.
SAM BRODY: There is not one simple solution.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Sam Brody says many decisions by individual homeowners, developers, officials
at the local, state and federal levels, made over the course of decades have added up to
an overall increased risk of flooding for the greater Houston area.
Getting out of this mess will similarly require great coordination and resolve.
SAM BRODY: Hurricane Harvey's devastation was a surprise to a lot of people, but we
have been talking about it for decades as a problem.
And one of my bigger worries is what happens when a Harvey-like storm hits in 20 years
from now.
It's going to be that much worse because we continue to put more people in harm's way
and not think about the ramifications over the long term.
HARI SREENIVASAN: In our final story, we will explore some of the solutions Brody and others
are proposing, and who should pay for them.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Hari Sreenivasan reporting from Houston, Texas.
JOHN YANG: Tomorrow, on Facebook at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, we will host a live discussion with
the nonprofit news organization The Texas Tribune, and answer your questions about Hurricane
Harvey recovery efforts.
Stay with us.
Coming up on the "NewsHour": an effort to showcase more female playwrights; and the
Philadelphia Eagles finally celebrate a Super Bowl victory.
But first: As the stock market dropped sharply this afternoon, President Trump was in Ohio
to make his case for the Republican tax plan.
To talk about the political fallout of the current economic landscape, it's our Politics
Monday team, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and Tamara Keith of NPR.
Tam, let me start with you.
You recently, before the State of the Union, dissected Donald Trump's speeches.
He likes to talk about the stock market when it was going up, but today he had the very
awkward situation of being live in Cincinnati, giving a speech, with the box in the corner
on cable television showing the Dow dropping, dropping, dropping.
Is he at risk here?
TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Yes, until the cable networks cut away entirely
from his speech and just went to coverage of the Dow.
The interesting thing is that, up until Thursday of last week, President Trump was very regularly
in his speeches talking about the amazing wealth growth that has happened as a result
of the markets since his election.
After Thursday, no more mentions of the stock market.
And that's the thing.
Talking about the stock market was never a great idea for a politician, because stocks
are volatile, markets are volatile, and they aren't the economy.
To be clear, the stock market is not the economy.
Today, the White House put out a statement essentially saying just that, that the stock
market is not the economy, the fundamentals remain strong, which is true, that job growth
has been strong, and wages even grew quite significantly in the last month.
JOHN YANG: Political peril talking about the markets??
AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Well, I think that Tam summed it up pretty well.
That's always the danger.
It's why every economist and every political person tells you never to put your -- don't
put a lot of stock in the stock market in terms of a talking point.
Right?
(LAUGHTER) JOHN YANG: I see what you did there.
I see what you did there.
AMY WALTER: See what I did there?
But the issue really now for 2018 is the state of the economy.
How do people feel about the economy, and do they feel as if these tax cuts that Republicans
say has been part of the reason for the recovery of the economy, as well as the deregulatory
efforts, do voters give them credit for those, do they give the president credit for the
improving economy?
Right now, the country, not surprisingly, is pretty divided on this.
You still have more voters than not saying they believe that it's Barack Obama's economy,
right?
He should get more credit than Trump, although that has been narrowing.
And on the issue of taxes and whether that is playing a role, the country, again, is
not quite as convinced, that that is part of the debate.
They are still split on whether the tax cuts are a good or a bad thing.
They do believe the economy is doing better, much better, but, again, very polarized.
You ask Democrats how the economy is doing, they are not as optimistic as Republicans
about the economy.
So your views on the economy, different depending on your partisan standing, and they also are
different from your view of the president and of Republicans.
JOHN YANG: Let's talk about the tax plan.
There was a Monmouth University poll.
We have some numbers.
In December, the disapproval was 47 percent, approve 26.
January, last month, split, 44 percent approve, disapprove.
The president is out there selling the tax plan again today.
Over the weekend, House Speaker Paul Ryan got a little blowback on Twitter for touting
-- someone had -- a school secretary, I think it was -- touting a $1.50 a week benefit from
this tax cut.
Is this going to help them or hurt in the midterms, Tam?
TAMARA KEITH: That tweet wasn't a great anecdote.
That tweet is not how they want to be selling this tax plan.
However, the president -- I mean, today is not a great example, because he went very
far off-script while out trying to sell the tax plan.
But Republicans believe that their path in 2018 is a strong economy, that their ability
to sort of overcome the typical thing that happens in a midterm year, which is that they
would just get wiped out, their path to overcoming that is selling this tax proposal, selling
this tax plan, having people believe that it's working for them, and selling it in a
way that Democrats in 2009 didn't really sell the stimulus.
You know, by the end of 2009, most people believed that their taxes had gone up, even
though they had a tax cut in the stimulus, and Republicans do not want to make that same
mistake.
JOHN YANG: Is this a big message for them?
Obviously, they're out there pushing it still.
Is this key to them, to the Republicans for the midterms?
AMY WALTER: Absolutely.
They are counting on the optimism that Americans have now about the country to translate into
support for Republicans, right?
The Republicans are here, the economy is doing well, don't rock the boat, don't take us off
course.
The challenge, though, is one person who is supposed to do the selling and has certainly
promoted himself as one of the best salesman of all time is not particularly a disciplined
salesperson, number one.
And, number two, views of the tax plan do line up pretty directly with your views on
President Trump.
The reason that you saw those numbers climb in that poll that you showed from Monmouth
is, you also should show that the president's approval rating rose from December until this
month.
And so, if you like the presidents, right now, you will like the tax plan.
If you don't like the president, you don't like the tax plan or you're undecided on the
tax plan.
And that's the group of voters right now that both sides are fighting over.
In fact, Democrats, too, are a little bit concerned now.
A lot of Democrats were convinced when this vote was happening that they were going to
be able to cast this as a corporate-only plan that was going to hurt the middle class.
Now that you have the economy doing well, bonuses are going out to people, and whether
it's $1.50 or $200 coming back, that's a very good message for Republicans to sell.
I'm hearing now from some Democrats who worry that we need to do what Republicans did in
2009 and 2010 to Obamacare, which is to continue to put it in a negative light and make our
messaging stick.
JOHN YANG: Tam, late today, the House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously to release the
Democratic response to the Nunes memo.
It now goes to President Trump, who has to decide whether or not he wants to declassify
that.
Is there pressure on him, having said he's doing this in terms of transparency, to release,
declassify the Democrats' memo as well?
TAMARA KEITH: There is absolutely a pressure on him, and he has a five-day deadline, just
like he did with the Republican memo.
The president has said that the Republican memo vindicated him.
He has been just talking up this memo, loving this memo, and really taking hits at the Democrats
on the committee.
So it's going to be tough for him to want to declassify it.
But the White House insists that it will be reviewed through the same process.
The question really is, the Republican memo was fully declassified, no redactions.
What will the Democratic memo look like in five days, if they agree to let it be released?
JOHN YANG: Less than 30 seconds.
AMY WALTER: I think, fundamentally, we're going to find out -- maybe not now -- maybe
it's going to be in a couple of weeks -- whether this is just another party skirmish, which
there have been plenty of, within this committee, or whether we're having a real substantive
move here and a real break between thee Republicans and the president on this issue.
JOHN YANG: Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, thanks for being here.
AMY WALTER: You're welcome.
TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.
JOHN YANG: Turning from the political theater of Washington to the dramatic stage.
Almost two dozen theaters around D.C. are producing the second Women's Voices Theater
Festival.
Jeffrey Brown sat down with three of the playwrights to discuss why this effort is meaningful,
particularly now.
JEFFREY BROWN: A play about a young American moving with her family to Nigeria in the 1960s
by Caleen Sinnette Jennings.
CALEEN SINNETTE JENNINGS, Playwright: As progressive as theater is in many ways in the United States,
there's still something around the edges that says women's stories are maybe more precious,
less edgy, less intellectually challenging.
There's a sort ugly cloud that hangs over it, and I think this is a way to dispel all
of those notions.
JEFFREY BROWN: A 17th century comedy becomes a story of rich and poor in America today
in the hands of playwright Theresa Rebeck.
THERESA REBECK, Playwright: The fact is, women do tell stories in a different way.
And there are mighty stories out there waiting to be told.
And I don't believe that playwriting is a gene on a Y chromosome.
None of us believe that, right?
JEFFREY BROWN: A personal history that's also an unsettling piece of American and Cherokee
tribal history by Mary Kathryn Nagle.
ACTRESS: Today, Native women face rates of domestic violence and sexual assault higher
than any other population in the United States.
MARY KATHRYN NAGLE, Playwright: Part of dehumanizing a people is silencing them.
And I think the more women's stories are told on stage, the more our culture will start
to shift.
It's not a coincidence that we face such high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault,
and at the same time our voices have not been presented equally.
JEFFREY BROWN: These are just three of the plays and playwrights of the Women's Voices
Theater Festival, a month-long, 24-theater project now under way in Washington, D.C.,
with all new plays, including 13 world premieres.
It's the second such festival here, the first held in 2015, and the largest of its kind
in the country, taking direct aim at a fact of life in American theater: the paucity of
productions by female writers, around a quarter of plays across the country, according to
several studies.
At Arena Stage, one of the originating companies heading the festival, I talked with three
women whose work is on display.
Caleen Sinnette Jennings, a professor of theater at American University, took part in the first
festival.
She's back with a sequel to her earlier play, both based on her own life.
The new one is titled "Queens Girl in Africa."
CALEEN SINNETTE JENNINGS: It's semibiographical, so nobody else could tell the story.
But what's important is the fact that the story is worth telling, and the story is worth
seeing.
I think, particularly women of my generation wrestled with that thought.
And it's good to see younger women coming along saying, why was this even a question?
Of course your story is worth telling.
JEFFREY BROWN: Are you surprised, though, that it's still a thing that there would be
a need for a festival of women's voices?
CALEEN SINNETTE JENNINGS: No, because racism is still here, sexism is still here, everything
is still here, just wearing different clothes.
So, it's all here.
JEFFREY BROWN: Pulitzer Prize-nominee Theresa Rebeck, a veteran of television and film,
as well as the stage, decided to redo an English Restoration era comedy, "The Way of the World,"
written by William Congreve.
THERESA REBECK: It's not like I looked that play and said, I want to do a feminist retelling
of the Congreve play.
But there is no mistaking that a woman wrote it, that I inhabit the female characters in
a completely different way than what Congreve did.
Point of view is one of the tools you have as a writer, and this is the point of view
of a woman.
It's not an agenda.
It's the truth.
If our agenda is always to tell the truth, the truth out of a woman's mouth is going
to sound different than the truth out of a man's.
JEFFREY BROWN: Mary Kathryn Nagle, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, also works
full-time on behalf of tribal rights as a lawyer.
Her play "Sovereignty" presents another window into that world, and is set in the past -- Andrew
Jackson is one of the characters -- and in the present-day Supreme Court.
MARY KATHRYN NAGLE: When anyone tells me that some plays are political and some are not,
I think it's all political.
We can say it's just art, but I think we're political beings.
We're humans, right?
And I don't see any art in this world as apolitical.
And, as a woman, the political is deeply personal.
It affects our lives in such profound ways.
And getting to see that on stage is exciting.
JEFFREY BROWN: Do you think of yourself as a woman playwright?
MARY KATHRYN NAGLE: I do, yes.
Yes.
I also think of myself as a Cherokee playwright.
And I think that combination is terribly exciting and new.
THERESA REBECK: Can I answer that as well?
I have to say, when I was just starting out as a playwright, I had a mentor who said very
clear to me, you have got to be careful not to let them categorize you as a woman playwright.
It was sort of said as a kind -- as kindly meant advice.
And I -- in my youth, I was like, well, I am a woman and I am a playwright, so it's
unclear to me, like, why that would be something I needed to be careful about.
JEFFREY BROWN: During the recent women's marches, close to 100 theaters in more than 30 states
hosted readings of new works by women.
The Washington, D.C., festival was planned well before the explosion of the MeToo movement.
I asked the playwrights if they were surprised by recent events.
CALEEN SINNETTE JENNINGS: We are in an extraordinary time in our history.
Something major happened in our last inauguration.
And I think this groundswell comes from that.
So I think theater has often challenged the norms and sort of -- and the artists have
stepped up and led the wave of change.
But it's not surprising to me that this is happening now.
MARY KATHRYN NAGLE: No, all these women coming forward with stories, it doesn't surprise
me that the stories exist.
I knew they existed.
I have done work...
THERESA REBECK: Yes, we all knew.
MARY KATHRYN NAGLE: Right?
We all knew.
THERESA REBECK: And we're stunned that people are saying, we didn't know.
I'm like, oh, come on.
MARY KATHRYN NAGLE: Right.
That's shocking.
The people who claim they didn't know, that's shocking to me.
And, in fact, thankfully, I think a lot of men are now coming forward to say, well, I
knew, but, you know, how could I take down this man in power, because my career was dependent
upon him accepting me?
THERESA REBECK: I had a moment where I thought, I wish this felt better.
I don't understand why it doesn't feel better, you know?
And I think that must be because I don't believe that real change is coming.
My heart doesn't believe it, somehow.
JEFFREY BROWN: On this issue of how hard it is just to make it as a playwright, how hard
is it?
THERESA REBECK: It's really hard.
I have been through so many ups and downs that they finally.
The Dramatists Guild, they do a little magazine, and they put me on the cover of the issue
about survival.
(LAUGHTER)
THERESA REBECK: Right?
I was like, I am the poster child for survival.
That's what you know me for.
JEFFREY BROWN: Caleen, what do you hope comes out of this?
CALEEN SINNETTE JENNINGS: Much harder to say, well, I just know any women playwrights.
Much harder to say.
And I hope -- I hope this model will be replicated all over the country.
Theater is also a very important place, because, yes, we are all the same.
Yes, we're incredibly different.
But that difference need not frighten you.
That difference need not be a mystery.
That difference should be something you walk towards in order to build that empathy.
JEFFREY BROWN: The Women's Voices Theater Festival runs through February 15.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Washington, D.C.
JOHN YANG: Finally tonight: Super Bowl LII is now in the books, and the Philadelphia
Eagles have their first NFL championship since 1960.
That was before the Super Bowl was even created.
They beat the New England Patriots.
ANNOUNCER: For the Philadelphia Eagles, the long drought is over.
JOHN YANG: It was a victory decades in the making.
The underdog Eagles jumped in front of the reigning champion Patriots right from the
start.
Just before halftime, they added to their lead with a trick play, a touchdown pass to
quarterback Nick Foles.
Foles also threw for three scores, making him the first player in NFL history to throw
and catch a Super Bowl touchdown.
Then, with two minutes to go and the Eagles up 38-33, Tom Brady was sacked and fumbled,
shredding the Patriots' hopes for a late comeback and a record-tying sixth Super Bowl championship.
The Eagles added a field goal for a final score of 41-33.
It was an improbable victory after starting quarterback Carson Wentz was sidelined by
a knee injury in December.
In the end, Foles from backup to Super Bowl MVP.
NICK FOLES, Philadelphia Eagles: To be a part of the Philadelphia Eagles' first championship,
it's been a long time coming.
And I know there's going to be a lot of celebrating tonight.
JOHN YANG: Even as Foles spoke in Minnesota, the celebration began in Philadelphia, as
thousands flooded Broad Street.
Gravity was no match for determined fans, who climbed light poles, even though police
had slathered them in grease.
Some tried to live out the team's fight song, "Fly, Eagles, Fly," diving off awnings.
A victory parade is set for Thursday.
We are now joined by Bob Ford, an award-winning sports columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer,
The Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com.
He's in Minneapolis, where the game was played last night.
Bob, thanks for joining us.
What does this mean for Philadelphia?
This is a city with a storied tradition in football, but not a lot of trophies.
BOB FORD, The Philadelphia Inquirer: Yes, they have wide aspirations and narrow trophy
cases in Philadelphia.
And, as you suggested, their last previous championship for the Eagles was in the final
month of the Eisenhower administration.
That's six years before the Super Bowl era even began.
And here they are in the 52nd Super Bowl finally breaking through.
So it's fair to say that a certain amount of civic impatience had taken root over that
time.
And, as I said, to finally break through with the Super Bowl championship means an awful
lot, and the city is very happy today.
JOHN YANG: Talk about -- tell us the story.
A lot of people may not realize the story of Nick Foles, the quarterback who played
-- started the game last night, led the Eagles to this victory.
He's been a backup for a long time and actually contemplated retiring not too long ago.
BOB FORD: Yes, he was originally drafted in 2012 by the Eagles.
Not a high draft pick.
He was taken in the third round, 88th overall, but I can guarantee you that none of those
87 ahead of him were MVP of the Super Bowl last night.
And he had sort of a bounce little bit of a career at the very start with the Eagles.
He got a little bit of a chance to be the number one guy, did very well for one season.
Chip Kelly, then the coach, thought he wanted to go in another direction.
He wanted a very mobile quarterback.
Nick is not necessarily that.
He was traded to the Saint Louis Rams, didn't do very well there, was brought in as a starter,
lost the job, became a backup, bounced to the Kansas City Chiefs the next year also
as a backup, and did contemplate retirement.
He said, I just might hang it up.
This isn't any fun.
This is not why I got into football.
But he was lured back to the Philadelphia Eagles by Doug Pederson, who is a friend of
his, who had coached before when he was with the Eagles.
And he said, you know what?
I'm going to give it one more chance.
And I think this is a place where I could at least enjoy the game, enjoy the people.
There was certainly no idea that he was going to become a starting quarterback again.
The Eagles have a very, very fine young quarterback, second-year player, Carson Wentz.
But then, December 10, he tore his ACL, and suddenly Nick Foles was in the spotlight again,
John.
JOHN YANG: And I remember a lot of the headlines were that the Eagles Super Bowl hopes or their
playoff hopes had died when Carson Wentz went out.
BOB FORD: Well, that was certainly the assumption, because Carson Wentz was an enormous part
of just getting the Eagles in position to have a postseason run.
He had a wonderful season, perhaps maybe a most valuable player-quality season.
And Nick, as we know, had a very, very spotty history.
And no one thought that he was going to be the kind of guy who would be able to pick
up the team and keep carrying them in the way that Carson Wentz had.
But I guess we were all in for a little bit of a surprise.
JOHN YANG: And now you have got this quarterback who led his team to the Super Bowl championship,
and is very likely not going to be the starting quarterback next year.
BOB FORD: It's an odd circumstance that a guy who is the MVP of the Super Bowl doesn't
necessarily have a starting job for the following season.
You're correct.
But Carson Wentz, who is the starter, is going to come back from that ACL knee surgery.
And it's expected that he's going to be back by the start of the season.
And Nick Foles will be back on the sideline wearing a baseball cap and applauding.
He's under contract to the Eagles.
So, if they want to keep him around, they can.
He doesn't really have a whole lot of choice there.
But it is a really, really odd circumstance for someone who did what he did last night
in the Super Bowl.
JOHN YANG: And, Bob, I guess this victory last night was fitting, because they were
not favored.
They were going up against a team that had won the Super Bowl a number of times.
But does it fit with sort of the underdog mentality of Philadelphia sports?
BOB FORD: Yes.
And it fits also with the city's perceived persona as that sort of Rocky character, punching
up against, you know, the bigger foe.
And, certainly, when you look at the New England Patriots and Tom Brady and Bill Belichick,
they had become a monolith in the NFL.
They have won five Super Bowls in 17 years.
This is a team you don't beat lightly.
So, yes, I think that people like that sort of thing.
And it does fit in with the way the city feels about itself.
It's stuck between the glitz of New York and the power of Washington and sort of the snootiness
of Boston.
And where does Philadelphia fit into that scheme?
They have to be the blue-collar underdog.
So this was a pretty good outcome for them.
And they wear that coat pretty well.
JOHN YANG: Big night for Philadelphia.
Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, thanks
for being with us.
BOB FORD: My pleasure, John.
JOHN YANG: A news update before we go.
Actor John Mahoney has died.
He was best known for his role as the father on the TV show "Frasier."
Mahoney was also in films like "Moonstruck" and "Say Anything," among others.
He was 77 years old.
On the "NewsHour" online: The 2018 Winter Games open Friday in PyeongChang, but you
can test your Olympic knowledge right now by taking a quiz on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm John Yang.
Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thanks, and see you soon.
The political peril of taking credit for a booming stock market VICE Special Report: A World in Disarray Shields and Brooks on the Nunes memo aftermath, Trump’s State of the Union bump Nightly Business Report - February 5, 2018 Shields and Brooks on Russia revelations, Trump-Bannon rift "Obama out:" President Barack Obama's hilarious final White House correspondents' dinner speech News Wrap: Trump rejects new bipartisan immigration plan ‘Underdog’ Philadelphia savors first-ever Super Bowl triumph How decades of Houston development add up to rising flood risk PBS NewsHour full episode February 1, 2018

PBS NewsHour full episode February 5, 2018

Latest Posts