♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is on assignment. on the "newshour" tonight. israel prepares for a possible attack from iran in retaliation for israel's strike on iran's consulate in damascus. a preview of former president donald trump's criminal hush money trial ahead of its start on monday.

and robert macneil, longtime coanchor of the newshour, has died. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and, and friends of the newshour, including the robert and virginia schiller foundation. the judy and peter bloom cove learn foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad. >> on an american cruise line's journey, along the legendary mississippi river, travelers explore civil war battlefields and historic riverside towns. aboard our fleet of american riverboats, you can experience

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by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the newshour. we begin with some news of our own tonight. robert macneil, co-founder and longtime co-anchor of this program, passed away earlier today at the age of 93. macneil, known by friends and colleagues as robin, co-founded the macneil/lehrer report, the predecessor of the pbs newshour alongside the late jim lehrer in 1975. we will have a remembrance and conversation about his life and many contributions later in the program. but first, as we know robin would have insisted: the news. warning signs are flashing red throughout the middle east and beyond tonight, as israel and the u.s. await a possible iranian response to the attack on its consulate last week in damascus, syria. that israeli airstrike killed one of iran's senior military leaders. and the islamic republic has vowed vengeance. following it all is nick

schifr, who joins us now. how great is the concern and what are the u.s. and israel bracing for? nick: a senior administration official tells me the concern is "very high." u.s. and israeli officials are preparing for strikes by iran and iran's proxies inside israel. iran has never attacked israel with connecticut weapons before -- kinetic weapons before. one u.s. official tells me the attack is likely to be bigger than usual. another tells me the timing could be by the end of the weekend. i will say another official from a different branch of government is telling me the assessment is more that iranian proxies by themselves what attack israel or its assets in the region, so clearly they are ongoing assessments of what could happen. all the officials agree the most likely scenario is iranian missiles and drones attacking inside israel and/or attacks on

israel outside of israel proper. to show how seriously the u.s. is taking this, the u.s. embassy in israel yesterday announced that u.s. government employees and their families would be restricted from traveling outside of jerusalem, tel aviv, or the southern city. those are the places that israeli iron dome and missile defense are strongest. today president biden said an attack would be "sooner than later." pres. biden: we are devoted to the defense of israel. we will support israel. we will help defend israel. and iran will not succeed. geoff: the show of u.s. military support came most visibly today from the commander of the u.s. central command. you can see him on the left. he oversees all u.s. troops in the region. he met with the israeli defense minister and he said the two of

them discussed "readiness for an armenian attack against -- for an iranian attack against the state of israel." iran says it will respond to israel's attack on damascus. >> attacking our consulate is like attacking our soil. this is commonly agreed around the world. the malicious regime has made a wrong move in this case. it should be punished, and it will be punished. geoff: you can see the cheers. it all adds up to a tense moment in the region. does the u.s. expect an attack on u.s. assets in the region? nick: multiple u.s. officials tell me they do not expect an iranian attack on u.s. troops in the region. one expects a calibrated attack, not to draw the u.s. into war.

a defense official tells me tonight the u.s. is preparing defenses and has moved additional military assets in the region. they won't go into detail on what the u.s. has moved. the u.s. and its allies are emphasizing they are trying their best to use diplomacy in this moment. the u.s. has indirect channels with iran, mostly through the swiss embassy in tehran and the iranian mission at the united nations. they can pass messages that way. and british, german and french officials have all met with senior iranian leaders in the last few days. each of those country's officials are saying to reporters that they have sent messages of restraint. the bottom line is ever since the damascus strike, u.s. and israeli officials have said the iranian response is all but inevitable, they have to respond given that the targets officials believe israel killed were so senior in the iraan revolutionary guard corps.

it is just a question of how far iran goes and how israel responds to what iran does. geoff: we will wait and watch. thanks for your great reporting. nick: thank you. ♪ geoff: house lawmakers have approved the reauthorization of the foreign intelligence surveillance act, or fisa, for two years. today's vote comes after an earlier version of the bill that called for a five-year extension failed in the house. but the measure won't head to the senate for approval just yet. opponents scheduled a reconsideration vote next week. the surveillance program is scheduled to expire on april 19th. the biden administration announced a new wave of student loan cancellations today. they're forgiving $7.4 billion in debt for 277,000 more borrowers. the administration has now provided loan relief to 4.3

million people. totaling more than $150 billion in aid. last year, the supreme court blocked the president's broader debt cancellation plan, saying he lacked the authority to do so without congressional approval. officials in belgium are looking into whether russia is meddling in upcoming european parliament elections. authorities say that russian agents in brussels are promoting pro-moscow candidates to try to undermine the eu's support for ukraine. they've allegedly even tried to bribe some lawmakers. belgium's prime minister announced the probe today. >> belgian intelligence services have confirmed the existence of pro-russian interference networks with activities in several european countries and also here in belgium. the goal is very clear. a weakened european support for ukraine serves russia on the battlefield. geoff: russian authorities denied the accusations. the europe-wide elections are

slated for june. in russia, authorities in the city of orenburg ordered thousands more residents to evacuate today, as flood waters rise even higher. the deluge started last week when the ural river burst through a dam. the water level is more than six feet above what's deemed safe. 360 additional homes were flooded overnight. some residents have come back to survey the damage. >> this is how high the water level got over the last three days. we never expected it to rise so high. we lifted all furniture up the chairs. but as you can see, it's all floating now. everything we've worked for is gone. geoff: in total, more than 120,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes in russia's ural mountains, siberia and kazakhstan. the national weather service has issued flood warnings for parts of the northeast, as severe weather makes its way through the region. storms had already knocked out power for thousands in the virginias and southeastern new york. overnight, heavy rains brought flash floods to west virginia.

today, streets in washington county, pennsylvania were underwater. in texas, one person has died and 13 others are injured after a driver intentionally drove a semi-trailer truck into a public safety office. the 18-wheeler left a hole in the side of the building in brenham, texas, about 75 miles west of houston. the driver was taken into custody. authorities say the 42-year-old's renewal for a commerical driver's license had been rejected at the facility. on wall street today, stocks closed sharply lower to end the week amid ongoing inflation worries. the dow jones industrial average dropped 475 points to close below 38,000. the nasdaq lost 267 points. the s&p 500 gave back 75. still to come on the "newshour." david brooks and ruth marcus weigh in on this week's political headlines. and we remember our co-founder and longtime co-anchor robert macneil. ♪

>> this is the pbs from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: on monday, for the first time in american history, a former president will be tried in a court of law. it follows the judge in donald trump's new york hush money trial, again denying his request for a delay. mr. trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to prevent news of an alleged extramarital affair from becoming public. william brangham has a preview of this complicated and historic case. mr. trump we will make america great again. william: eight years ago, donald trump, the real estate mogul turned reality tv star turned presidential candidate, was about to deliver a titanic political upset. it was the fall of 2016, and despite trailing in the polls to former secretary of state hilary

clinton, the republican nominee was all confidence. mr. trump: when we win on november 8th we are going to washington, d.c. and we will drain the swamp. william: but a month before election day, his campaign was sent reeling when the washington post published this more than 10-year old videotape. mr. trump: i just start kissing them. it is like a magnet. i don't even wait. and when you're a star, they let you do it. you can do anything grab em by the p*****. you can do anything. >> the story the political world has been buzzing about all afternoon. >> making vulgar comments about women. william: in full damage-control mode, another lurking scandal suddenly seemed more ominous. for several months, stephanie clifford, an adult film actress who goes by the name "stormy daniels," had been trying -

unsuccessfully - to sell her story of a one-time, decade-old, sexual liaison with donald trump. but just a few weeks after the "access hollywood" tape came out, trump's lawyer and fixer, michael cohen, used a shell company to pay stormy daniels $130,000 of cohen's own money to stay quiet. then, when trump became president, he repaid michael cohen with a series of checks, that were categorized as "legal fees." the details of those transactions -- what their purpose was, who knew about them, and how all the checks and invoices and ledgers were recorded -- will be at the center of trump's trial. >> allegations that someone lied again and again to protect their interests and evade the laws to which we are all held accountable. william: manhattan district attorney alvin bragg, a democrat, has charged donald trump with 34 counts of

fabricating financial records to conceal "damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election." >> unfortunately, the way the media has presented it is, "it's a hush money case," but that's not really what it is. it's about falsifying business records. william: jerry goldfeder is a senior partner at cozen & o'connor, and an expert in campaign law. >> doing that, that is a crime, but it's only a misdemeanor. it's a felony when falsifying business records is done for the purpose of concealing or committing another crime. and that's what district attorney alvin bragg has charged, that trump falsified all these business records, because what he really wanted to do was to hide these facts to win the election. william: and so even though he's not being charged for that subsequent, that secondary crime, that's all it takes to move it from a misdemeanor to a felony? >> that's exactly right.

william: while bragg's indictment is full of examples of allegedly false "retainer agreements" and "invoices" and "legal expenses," bragg clearly wants this case seen as an attempt to subvert an election. but the law on that is complicated. >> if, in fact, these payments to daniels were in fact campaign related and they weren't disclosed willfully, that could be a crime. william: rick hasen is an election law scholar at ucla law school. rick: one big question here is whether these payments are campaign related as opposed to related to, say, trump's personal life. so, for example, if these payments were made solely so that he wouldn't face embarrassment with his family, then that wouldn't be campaign related. just like if a candidate, you know, made a payment, went in and bought a boat during the campaign. unrelated, you would not have to disclose that.

william: can those be one and the same? could trump have been trying to stop his wife getting upset about an alleged affair, ancould it also be a campaign violation because he was trying to stop voters from finding out? rick: sure. and i think that, you know, the question would be, kind of a causation question. would he still have made these payments if he were not a candidate? i think that's what we'll be asking. william: hasen points to the similar case of democrat john edwards, who was indicted for soliciting money to pay his mistress, rielle hunter, who had a child with him, while he was running for president in 2008. in court, edwards argued the money was gifts from friends, not campaign donations, because they were meant to hide the affair from his cancer-stricken wife, elizabeth, not from voters. rick: he was acquitted by a jury, with the finding that this was mostly about john edwards' personal life, as opposed to being primarily campaign related. these can be tricky questions.

william: another complication in this case is that the prosecution's key witness -- the one who will testify about the origin of those payments, how they were accounted for, and who knew what -- is michael cohen. jessica: michael cohen is a very problematic witness for the prosecution in this case. william: jessica roth teaches law at cardozo law school in new york city, with expertise in white-collar crime. jessica: first, he's pled guilty to crimes that involve deception and deceit, including tax fraud, bank fraud, and lying to congress. and those crimes go to his truthfulness, as a witness. secondly, he's been inconsistent in terms of what he has said about trump's involvement in this scheme. he previously, before he decided to turn against the former president, said that trump was uninvolved in the payments to stormy daniels. and then finally, he is a biased witness in the sense that it's quite clear - and he's been quite explicit about the fact - that he harbors significant animosity toward the former president.

they were once close, they are no longer. and so the defense, i think, will be able to point to that bias and suggest to the jury that it is coloring cohen's testimony. william: jury selection starts monday. potential jurors will be questioned about their political allegiances, knowledge of the case, and whether they're able to render fair judgment in this historic first-of-its kind trial. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. ♪ geoff: sadly tonight, we remember our co-founder and longtime co-anchor robert macneil. his partnership with his close friend jim lehrer, who died in 2020, led to the creation of this program you're watching today. macneil died early this morning at the age of 93. jeffrey brown looks back at his life and many contributions. >> what actions or deeds are you

prepared to make to improve relations between cuba and the united states? jeffrey: robert macneil had a knack for being where the action was -- he covered major stories around the world and titled his 1982 memoir, "the right place at the right time". >> i am a wordsmith. that is my trade, using words either writing them or speaking them. jeffrey: he was lifelong lover of language, literature and the arts, who called himself, in a later memoir, "wordstruck". and he was the visionary and driving force in the creation of the institution that, with jim lehrer, became the newshour. >> first, tell the story about how all this happened. jeffrey: in 2000 he described their approach this way. >> fundamental fairness and objectivity, and also the idea that the american public is smarter than they're often given credit for on television and

they don't all need things in bite-sized, candy-sized mcnuggets of news. how could we add a kind of respect for complexity to the news that was already there, and that's how really how our concept was born. jeffrey: robert macneil, known to his friends as robin, was born in montreal and raised in halifax, nova scotia. his canadian roots would remain important to him throughout his life. and he spent part of his summers at a home by the sea. that love of the sea came from his parents, his father robert, a lieutenant commander in the royal canadian navy during world war two and later a canadian foreign service officer. his mother, margaret, who also instilled in him his love of poetry and language. he set out first to be an actor. but after graduating from carleton university in ottawa, turned to journalism. he worked for reuters and nbc news, first in london. later based in washington.

he covered the assassination of john f. kennedy in dallas. even reporting live by phone from inside the texas school book depository, where he may have run into lee harvey oswald. robin: i heard that this guy called oswald had been arrested who worked at the book depository and i said, isn't that odd. that's the building i went into. god, he must have been coming out about the time i went in. jeffrey: for nbc and later the bbc he would cover a wide range of stories both abroad and at home. here in 1963 on "meet the press" talking with civil rights leaders martin luther king jr. and roger wilkins. robin's connection to pbs began in 1971 when he was hired to co-anchor 'npact', the national public affairs center for television. at the time, public broadcasting's unit in washington responsible for news-related programming. robin: butterfield revealed that all of president nixon's

conversations in his two white house offices have been tape recorded for the past two years. jeffrey: the breakthrough, for robin and the future of news on pbs, came with the 1973 gavel-to-gavel primetime coverage of the senate watergate hearings. robin: the ultimate question, how high do the scandals reach and was president nixon himself involved? jeffrey: it was here that macneil was first teamed up with jim lehrer. the two would also re-broadcast the hearings, with analysis, late into the night, some 250 hours in all. i spoke with robin and jim on the 40th anniversary of the hearings. robin: some of these things came out quite unexpectedly. in a very casual, almost off-hand manner. everything is underlined nowadays. everything has arrows pointing at it. this is going to be a great day today and we are likely to -- we didn't have any of that kind of buildup. the hearings spoke for themselves. jeffrey: the success of the coverage and the chemistry of

the team led to the creation in 1975 of the 'robert macneil report', with jim lehrer first as its washington correspondent, and soon a full partner in the "macneil-lehrer report'. in 2016, robin and jim looked back at their beginnings. robin: many people in public television had thought we should be doing sophisticated entertainment and education and culture and not journalism, not public affairs because that would cause controversy and everything, but our coverage of the senate watergate hearings which clearly were a turning point in this country in all kinds of ways got more and more people suddenly watching their public television stations and sending money to them. that turned people's heads around and public television and people began saying well you become a team, you should do a daily show. jeffrey: the transition to a full hour, the macneil / lehrer newshour, came in 1983. it was a bold move, but very

much in step with what robin and jim saw themselves doing from the beginning. robin: we ended up as an alternative. given the dozens of channels now that are doing something called news, this is the one that has stayed absolutely gimmick free, and therefore its uniqueness is more apparent now than when we started 30 years ago. jeffrey: the hour long program became noted for its civil tone and the depth of its coverage. robin: who are you afraid of in the region? jeffrey: through the years robin conducted interviews with numerous world leaders. at home, he explored a wide array of issues of the day. robin: we lead tonight with a look at teenagers and the aids epidemic. still to come on the newshour, what's ahead in bosnia and rethinking affirmative action" ♪ jeffrey: and robin insisted on the importance of including the

arts in the newshour's reporting. he regularly talked with writers and other artists in this country and abroad. the macneil-lehrer team gained honors, viewers, and the attention of cartoonists. a 1981 doonesbury cartoon had robin saying: "i'll be asking smooth, urbane questions from new york. jim lehrer will handle the earnest, plain-spoken questions from washington. jim?" and the new yorker poked fun at the way the two were occasionally mixed up by viewers. "i never knew who was who until the other one left". robin: a lot of people think there's a maclehrer out there! >> hi there, mr. mcnulty! robin: it's macneil. >> oh, sorry. jeffrey: the pair also enjoyed being part of the public television family -- including the gang on sesame street, which robin visited to interview a certain well-known grouch. robin: our cameras are on sesame street where oscar the grouch is

ready, willing and crazy to talk to us. i see that you are in the ice cream business. oscar: did you figure that out all by yourself or did lehrer help you? jeffrey: even while co-anchoring the nightly program, robin took on other projects, especially focused on his passion for language. his 1986 round-the-world 9-part series, "the story of english"-- broadcast pbs and the bbc -- explored the history and development of the language. robin: we are setting out on a journey to see what is happening to english. jeffrey: later came a sequel, on the richness of language in this country: "do you speak american?" he and i talked about it in 2005. robin: there is nothing more enjoyable than going around the country and just talking to people. i've always been fascinated by how differently people talk and the humor in that and the sense of personality that comes from that and the sense of local identity. so it was really fun. jeffrey: he was also pursuing

his own writing, non-fiction first. but in 1995 he decided to step away from daily journalism to focus on writing fiction and to work on other projects. his first novel, "burden of desire", followed the impact of the famous wwi explosion in halifax harbor on the lives of his fictional characters. other novels would follow. as robin made his last appearance in the anchor chair, his longtime partner and close friend had this to say. jim: he's leaving permanent tracks along the way he traveled and worked and created. they are tracks of courage to do what he knew to be right and to actually do it right and to do it with grace and class and with good humor. [whistling] >> hey robin. >> i guess that is it. >> good night. jeffrey: robin remained involved

with the newshour. he and jim headed 'macneil-lehrer productions' which owned the program until 2014. and in addition to writing, he pursued other projects. continuing his deep connection to the arts, he served as chairman of the macdowell artist colony in new hampshire for 17 years. he and i spoke there in 2007 during macdowell's centennial celebration. robin: the real importance of art is that it is the greatest expression of american ideal of freedom. artists are intellectually and creatively freer than anybody. >> and your sense is that understanding of the role of art is expressing american freedom, has been lost, diminished? robin: i don't know whether it is seen as acutely in the public consciousness. winston churchill said back in the late 40's, the empires of the future are going to be empires of mind. and so much of what this country, the face that this

country presents to the world, is the face that expresses its ideas and its ideals. jeffrey: he also continued to make documentaries, including the 2007 pbs series, "america at a crossroads" about the war on terror. and a 2011 series for the newshour titled "autism now", a very personal project that included the story of his grandson, nick. in 1997, robin became an american citizen. and wrote of the love he'd come to feel for his adopted land in the last of his three memoirs, "looking for my country." he spoke of it in 2003 on c-span. robin: all the years i was becoming embedded, so to speak, in this country, literally and figuratively, living through all the traumas of america, both

personally with alongside americans and covering them as a journalist. there was, in my being, a disconnect between the country i inhabited and the country that inhabited me. i was a man with a nationality, but without a psychic country, so to speak. jeffrey: he was a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences, and gained many honors over the years, including with jim, induction into the television academy hall of fame in 1999. robin: we demonstrated that we could do it in a different and more comprehensive and analytical way, and suddenly the argument had been won over whether there was a role for public broadcasting in this area. jeffrey: robert macneil is remembered by those of us who worked with him with respect, gratitude, and love. he was an extraordinary man who helped guide millions through extraordinary times with his intelligent, passionate, and humane journalism.

he had this to say when he signed off from the newshour in 1995. robin: i could be proud of when i went home every night. but that applies equally to our viewers. without you, no program. there are now some 5 million of you a night, and you express a loyalty to this program of a quality i've never experienced anywhere else. thank you for understanding what we do. you'll find all the same values there on monday night and in the years ahead. thanks and good night. geoff: robert macneil was married for 30 years to donna macneil, who died in 2015. he had four children, cathy, ian, alison and will. and five grandchildren. joining us is judy woodruff, jeffrey brown, and linda winslow, former executive producer of this program. they all worked with robin over many years. first, my sympathies to each of you on the loss of your dear friend. judy, i know robin for you was

not just a treasured colleague, he was an inspiration. in what ways? judy< h -- judy: he was, and i have to say i am heartbroken for those who knew robin. he was not only one of the most important mentors in my life, he was a dear friend. i talked to his son ian today who said right up until the end of his life, robin was following the news. he said he insisted on talking about what was in the news literally right up until the last day. that was the consummate news man. that is who robin was. he is the reason i joined the newshour. when he and jim expanded it, made it the newshour in 1983, they had this amazing chemistry. they were not only extraordinary journalists, they had this magic between the two of them. i can tell you it was so much so that when just a few months into the newshour -- and i was still getting my feet wet, jim had a

heart attack and i was asked to fill in for a few months, and i could not have done it without robin. robin gave me the confidence to sit at the desk and keep going. yes, he was a mentor, an inspiration for his entire life. geoff: how did robin influence you as a journalist and leave a real imprint on your work? jeffrey: profoundly. like judy and linda, i have been hearing from colleagues all day long who recall stories and the gratitude that we all feel. for me, it's simple but profound. he was the exemplar. he was the model. i met him when i was young. and as you often are when you are young, you are trying to figure out what you want to do them in this case will kind of journalist could i be and what kind of journalism could i do? there was robin.

i distinctly remember -- and this goes back more than 30 years -- sitting at the table with him for our editorial meeting and thinking to myself, where else would i want to be but listening to him talk about the news, think about what we would be doing that night? he had the most capacious mind. he was interested in everything. world affairs, literature, and he brought all of that to bear on the news and it had an incredible impact on all of us. you are lucky in life to know a few people that have that kind of effect. i can say without any question i would not be sitting here today without the influence of robin macneil. i dearly admired and loved him. geoff: does that resonate with you? linda: absolutely. we all knew the same man. he was a mentor and colleague

but also a great, fun human being to be around. i remember a trip we took, we were covering the reagan- gorbachev summit in moscow in '88. there was an awful lot of interviewing to be done about submarine launched ballistic missiles. he insisted at one point we would go out and interview the soviet russian poet, because that is the kind of guy he was. that is who he was most interested in talking to as long as he was in russia. he did a spectacular interview, but he also stuck to his guns on the other stuff. we had some fun with his former colleagues at nbc, who were up on the roof of our hotel, having a much more lavish meal then we were in our work. and robin managed to go up and catch some free caviar for all of us, which i will always be grateful to him for. [laughter] geoff: help us understand the working relationship and friendship he shared with jim

lehrer. linda: it was truly unique. that is one of the things that resonated with everyone i talked to today. because of the friendship, they created an atmosphere of respect for each other, and having each other's backs. there was never any concern about being knifed in the back by your colleague, or colleagues. as a result, we worked in an environment where we respected the audience, as he said in that piece, and respected each other and respected the staff as well as the news, and the newsmakers and guests on the program. everyone was treated equally. geoff: tell us more about the early days, what it was like working alongside jim and robin. jeffrey: the thing that really strikes me, i want to refer to that memoir that robin wrote called "wordstruck." robin was words struck. it was even his email address.

the man was besotted with words. he loved writing them. he loved speaking them. he loved the story of them. he loved the geography of them, and therefore those two wonderful documentaries he did about the story of english and american. and that showed up in the journalism. if you are a person who loves to go out into the world and you are interested in all kinds of things and want to tell stories, and you have this capacity to use words, to write them and tell those stories, and then you have this incredible voice -- i remember jim would always say that robin could read the phone book and make it sound like great literature, which was true. but he also had the ability to use words to practically turn journalism into a kind of literature. you ask about what it was like working with him, that is what it was like, because you saw

that interest in the world but also the ability to convey it. when i talk to people and think about the impact on my own life, and i hope my own work, that is what comes through, that love of telling stories, that love of using words and love of reaching out to talk to people that way. geoff: judy, amna is traveling on assignment today, but we traded messages earlier about how robin's influence, his sober approach to theews, the pursuit of truth above all else, how that is evident in the work we do. as we wrap up this conversation, i would like to invite you to way and on that. how does his legacy manifest in this program? judy: it is manifest in so many ways. i'm not at all surprised to hear that you and amna were trading messages about it as she is overseas. robin just exuded the kind of excellence in journalism, the

belief that journalism can make a difference, the belief frankly that journalists should not take ourselves too seriously. i can't tell you the number of times i would be talking to him and he reminded journalism is about the stories we are covering and not about the person doing the reporting. and that has been such an important part of the newshour you those -- the newshour ethos, that the newshour is about reporting on the most important things happening, and sharing that with the american people, with our audience. robin believed that to his very core. he had the kind of integrity that you have to imagine in many ways today. he set an example that just by his being there, doing his job, the rest of us knew that was the

gold standard. and he was supportivalways of the rest of us. i always knew robin had my back. the chemistry that he and jim had together, i call it a magic pixie dust that made the program what it is, and that will make sure this is a program that endures for a long, long time to come. geoff: judy woodruff, jeffrey brown, linda winslow, our thanks to each of you for sharing your memories and special connections to robin macneil. we reshape it. as we mourn his loss, we invite you to share your memories of robert macneil on our website, pbs.org/newshour. ♪ and we are going to shift our focus now to a busy week in politics as a major abortion decision out of arizona weighs on the minds of voters and republicans on capitol hill navigate their agenda with

influence from donald trump. for more, we're joined tonight by new york times columnist david brooks and ruth marcus, associate editor for the washington post. thank you both for being here. vice president harris is in arizona tonight highlighting reproductive rights just days after that state supreme court ruled that a near-total abortion ban from 1864 is enforceable. here is a bit of what she said. v.p. harris: overturning roe was just the opening act, just the opening act of a larger strategy to take women's rights and freedoms. part of a full on attack, state by state, on reproductive freedom. and we all must understand who is to blame. former president donald trump did this. geoff: what do you make of this aggressive strategy by the biden campaign to keep the abortion

issue in the spotlight and pin donald trump as the architect of abortion bans like the one in arizona? ruth: i think it is doubly smart. abortion is the gift, and this is an odd way to say it, it keeps on giving politically for democrats. obviously removing abortion rights from american women has affected many women's lives, and caused a lot of damage, but politically for democrats i think that has been beyond their wildest dreams. they keep getting help from states who do crazy things, in particular from conservative state supreme court's, like we saw in alabama with the ivf cas e, like we saw in florida where they cleared the way for a six week ban, and like we saw this week in arizona with a very draconian ban. i think it is clear that voters are not happy with things this extreme, and it is perfectly

fair to put a lot of this on donald trump's lap. if i were democrats, i would ask him questions like, if you are president of the will you enforce the comstock act and remove the abortion pill from being able to be marketed? those are hard questions for him to answer. geoff: even donald trump is implicitly acknowledging this is a problem because he said the arizonstate supreme court went too far and the law in his words needs to be straightened out. david: this was a phenomenal shift in the republican party this week. since ronald reagan it has been a pro-life party. based on the convention that from conception, it is a human life. and then you get donald trump. recently he has been floating we should have a 15 week ban or 20 week ban. he is for allowing a law that has some 90% of the abortions that would go forward and he is

allegedly pro-life. now he has backed off that position. he won't tell people how they should vote. he says follow your heart. this is the most pro-choice position of republican has taken since ronald reagan, going back to jerry ford maybe. you are seeing the party bend to the political winds. it is an astonishing turnaround. pro-life groups, they should be raising holy hell, but they are going along with it. it shows the power of trump over the party. let's protect donald trump even above some of the core convictions. will it shift the presidential election? i'm not so sure. i think it helped democrats in house races and every ballot initiative since dobbs. you look at arizona, what issues do they care about? immigration and inflation. they vastly prefer donald trump. abortion is down below. it will drive democratic turnout

but will it shift to trump? ruth: two words, suburban women. this is going to be a game of inches in the presidential election, and inches in particular states. so when you have young people who might not be that enthusiastic about getting out to vote for president biden, this could get them off their couches. i want to say one quick thing about the concept of the 15 or 16 week ban, this is a crock, because at least the way the antiabortion groups have peddled it, it would be a ceiling, you could not have abortion after that, but it would still leave arizona to rezone and south dakota -- to arizona and south dakota to have complete bans. that sounds a lot better than it is in practice. geoff: house speaker mike johnson, he is trying to save his job which is under threat from trump aligned members of

congress. he was at mar-a-lago today standing alongside the former president. the two are apparently teaming up to promote a bill that would keep noncitizens from voting in federal elections, although that is already illegal. what should we make of their appearance today? ruth: they kind of need each other, but johnson needs trump more than he needs johnson. he is in a very shaky situation. if donald trump were to cast a baleful eye on him and want him out, he would be gone in a nanosecond. you can see this in the impact on the fisa bill which limped across the finish line. you can see this with ukraine aid. you can see it on a day to day basis. this is a sort of silly dog and pony show, to first suggest there is some huge problem, there isn't, of people that are not authorized to vote. people just want to make it

harder to vote, who don't think voters are going to go in their direction. but this is a team that will last together as long as it is in donald trump's interest for it to last, and no longer. geoff: the former president seemed to not to speaker johnson -- seemed to nod to speaker johnson's political problems. mr. trump: we are getting along with the speaker. it is not an easy situation for any speaker. i think he's doing as good as you are going to do. i'm sure marjorie understands that. she is a very good friend of mine. i know she has a lot of respect for the speaker. geoff: when donald trump says marjorie, he's referring to marjorie taylor greene, the congresswoman who issued that motion to vacate. politico reported speaker johnson requested this appearance, it was not the trump team's idea. david: i think they understand you have to be nice to him so he

will be nice to you. their interests are fundamentally misaligned. trump benefits anytime something goes bad in washington. it is to his detriment anytime something goes nicely. johnson wants to pass stuff. i have to give johnson some credit. he's still hanging in on ukraine, the number one thing he needs to do. he's still working with the biden administration. i think they will get there. i give him credit for doing that against donald trump's interests. geoff: i was texting with some republican sources today who said that standing next donald trump gives him cover to bring ukraine to the floor and keep his job. do you buy that? ruth: maybe. marjorie i am sure has a lot of respect for him. [laughter] we will see how long that assertion lasts. i think there is one way in which they are aligned in the right way, which is if donald trump becomes president, he needs to have a republican

house. i understand -- i take your point about chaos in washington is good for donald trump, but too much chaos in the house is not so good for future president trump. geoff: there could be chaos in new york city on monday because that will be the start of donald trump's criminal trial. he faces 30 four felony charges for falsifying business records stemming from a $130,000 payment to adult film star stormy daniels. what will you be watching for as this case regresses? david: i guess donald trump's prefrontal cortex. [laughter] i want to know how much self-control he has. a lot of people he does not like will be testifying in front of him. he will become to storm out and scream. that will alienate the jury and the judge. i'm watching to see how he comports himself. geoff: we saw donald trump benefit politically from all of these legal troubles. will this change? will the residence and impact

change now that this is a criminal trial, the first of four getting underway? ruth: this is the case that makes me the most nervous, kind of for the reason that you say. it is the shaky is to case. it is a case about falsification of business records. it does not quite have the residence of interfering with an election or mishandling classified information. it involves some serious things. trump tried to keep salient information from voters at a time when he was in potential trouble because of the excess hollywood tape. -- the access hollywood tape. if we do see a criminal conviction, which is more likely than not, that that really good have an impact in a way trump has not been used to. the criminal charges against him, he will not look as much a victim if he is a felon. david: i wish this case were not

going first because the stronger cases are further down the line. polls show clearly people say if he is convicted, a significant junk say i will not vote -- chunk say i will not vote for him. we will see. geoff: appreciate you both. ♪ geoff: remember there is much more online, including a roundup of this week's political headlines on our weekly digital show. that's on our youtube. be sure to tune into washington week with the atlantic tonight for analysis of how abortion politics is dominating the 2024 election cycle and how republicans are navigating this week's arizona supreme court ruling. and on pbs news weekend, as the world's top golfers tee off at the masters, a look back at the first african american golfer to play on the pga tour. and that is the newshour for tonight.

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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made fortreaming. hello, everyone, welce to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. the mass kidnapping that shocked the world. we revisit nigeria's girls, ten years after their lives were changed forever. and -- >> having been run over by justice, i thought that was the end of my life. >> the