HARI SREENIVASAN: Good evening.
I'm Hari Sreenivasan.
Judy Woodruff is away.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: Police say the driver was planning the deadly New York attack
for weeks, as investigators piece together what led the suspect to extremism.
Then crime and punishment: We get the latest on the sentencing hearing of Army Sergeant
Bowe Bergdahl, who pleaded guilty to deserting his post in Afghanistan.
And five years after Superstorm Sandy devastated New York City, how new construction hopes
to prevent history from repeating, and the challenges still ahead.
DANIEL ZARRILLI, New York Senior Director of Climate Policy and Programs: The dollars
don't show up when the storm shows up.
And so, you know, it took three months for Congress to decide that they wanted to help
the New York region.
It took another two years to allocate the funds.
And now we're in the process of spending that money.
HARI SREENIVASAN: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
HARI SREENIVASAN: The federal government charged the suspect in the deadly New York attack,
Sayfullo Saipov, on two counts today: provision of material support and resources to a designated
foreign terrorist organization, and violence and destruction of motor vehicles.
According to the federal complaint, Saipov told authorities he started planning the attack
about a year ago, rented a truck about a week before the attack to practice turns, and chose
Halloween because he thought there would be more civilians nearby.
President Trump today called Saipov an enemy combatant, threatening to send him to Guantanamo.
The FBI says a second person is wanted for questioning, Mukhammadzoir Kadirov, a 32-year-old
native of Uzbekistan.
Marcia Biggs reports from Manhattan on the mood in the city and what we know now.
STUDENT: I was sitting in class right there.
And I was just nervous, because this is so close to where it happened over there, and
I was looking out the window just in case.
MARCIA BIGGS: New Yorkers returned to school and work today, as forensic investigators
and law enforcement officials piece together a clearer picture of what led to the deadly
truck attack on a New York City bike path yesterday.
Police today said the alleged truck driver, Sayfullo Saipov, had been planning the attack
for weeks.
Saipov immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan in 2010 on a visa through the U.S. immigration
lottery program.
He worked as a commercial truck driver, and later as an Uber driver.
Police found multiple knives, a pellet gun, and a paintball gun in the vehicle, and say
they found a handwritten at the scene indicating the attack was likely ISIS-inspired and that
Saipov was radicalized on U.S. soil.
JOHN MILLER, NYPD Deputy Commissioner: He appears to have followed almost exactly to
a T. the instructions that ISIS has put out in its social media channels before, with
instructions to their followers on how to carry out such an attack.
MARCIA BIGGS: The victims of yesterday's attack are two Americans, one Belgian and five Argentines
celebrating the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation with a trip to Boston
and New York.
At 2:06 p.m., Saipov rented the truck from a Home Depot in Passaic, New Jersey, and drove
east towards Manhattan, entering the city at 2:43 via the George Washington Bridge,
and continuing southbound on the West Side Highway.
At 3:04 p.m., the truck then entered the Hudson River bike path at the intersection of West
and Houston Streets.
It barreled down the path at a high speed for 16 blocks, hitting the eight victims before
colliding with a school bus.
Two adults and two children on board were injured.
Witnesses and police say Saipov exited the vehicle waving a gun and yelling.
Twenty-eight-year-old NYPD Officer Ryan Nash, one of three police officers to first on the
scene, then shot Saipov in the abdomen.
He was then taken into custody.
Ryan Stroker uses the path every day to take his daughter to school.
RYAN STROKER, Witness: Picked her up at 3:00.
And then, on the way back home, we were stopped at Pier 40, where we saw about six bikes that
were completely destroyed.
So, luckily, we just missed it.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We have to get much tougher, we have to get
much smarter and we have to get much less politically correct.
MARCIA BIGGS: Speaking before a White House Cabinet meeting today, Mr. Trump called for
the dissolution of the U.S. immigration lottery visa program, in favor of a move to a merit-based
system.
DONALD TRUMP: Diversity lottery sounds nice.
It's not nice.
It's not good.
It hasn't been good.
And we have been against it.
This man that came in, or whatever you want to call him, brought in with him other people.
And he was a point -- the point of contact, the primary point of contact for, and this
is preliminarily, 23 people.
MARCIA BIGGS: Fouziah (ph) and Riyadh Davids (ph) are visiting from South Africa.
Riyadh plans to run in the New York City Marathon this Sunday.
Did your heart sink at all when you heard that this was another Muslim that had...
MAN: Oh, absolutely.
WOMAN: Absolutely.
MAN: Absolutely.
He doesn't represent what we stand for.
MARCIA BIGGS: As Muslims, they say they were nervous at first to come here, but have felt
nothing but welcome since they arrived.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned against
politicizing the matter.
GOV.
ANDREW CUOMO (D), New York: You play into the hands of the terrorist to the extent you
disrupt and divide and frighten people in the society.
And the tone now should be the exact opposite.
MARCIA BIGGS: And John Miller, of the NYPD's Counterterrorism Unit, cautioned against blaming
an entire group of people for the attack.
JOHN MILLER: This is not about Islam.
It's not about what mosque he attends.
MARCIA BIGGS: Hari, as the victims' family begin to grapple with what happened yesterday,
and the city begins to get back to normal, it is important to remember that there are
nine people still in the hospital tonight, four with critical injuries, one with a double
amputation.
So people here still fighting for their lives tonight, Hari.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Marcia Biggs in New York, many thanks.
And moments ago, authorities said they located the second person of interest, Mr. Kadirov.
As law enforcement officials put the pieces of this attack together, I'm joined by Jeffrey
Ringel.
He worked at the FBI for more than two decades focusing on counterterror investigations at
the New York field office and abroad.
He is now at The Soufan Group.
Mr. Ringel, what stage of the investigation are we at?
What are they doing right now?
JEFFREY RINGEL, The Soufan Group: Right now, they're still trying to discover more about
the attacker, people he associated with, places he went, basically building the background,
building the story on him.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Now, there's this overwhelming sense of kind of despair in the idea that
the authorities have these people on the radar, but they cannot take any action against them.
Why is that?
JEFFREY RINGEL: Well, it's a little frustrating.
And I think people need to understand that law enforcement, the NYPD, the Joint Terrorism
Task Force are investigating thousands of individuals who have been brought to their
attention by people calling in suspicious activity or reporting something that they
didn't like.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force will do an investigation, and then determine if there
needs to be more investigation, if the accusations have been validated.
If not, the investigations are closed.
But there are so many of these allegations coming in, that basically the FBI is overwhelmed.
Joint Terrorism Task Force are overwhelmed.
HARI SREENIVASAN: We just learned from the most recent press conference that they found
hundreds of videos on his cell phone, images of ISIS videos, beheadings, and so forth.
It seems the radicalization was happening here, that he didn't have to go to a terror
training camp.
JEFFREY RINGEL: Absolutely.
And that is the problem that's going to face law enforcement and the intel community for
decades to come.
Social media has made it so easy for these hate-mongers overseas to press their message
to disillusioned individuals here in the United States and throughout the West, that one of
the trip wires we used to look for, the travel of subjects to terrorist areas, that no longer
needs to be done.
They're being radicalized over social media.
HARI SREENIVASAN: So how do you stop that?
Do you stop all videos that are coming in and are questionable?
YouTube seems paralyzed to try to figure out the answer to these things.
JEFFREY RINGEL: Well, now you're walking that fine line between constitutional rights, freedom
of expression, you know, freedom of religion and criminality.
And that's where -- and this is where I'm saying that the law enforcement, the Joint
Terrorism Task Force are overwhelmed, because they may be following people, or they know
about people who have these videos or have contact with suspicious e-mail addresses or
suspicious Web sites, but that in itself is not enough to arrest somebody.
That is a piece of the investigation.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force will try to do more investigation, put sources up against
the subject, try to get that person to do something where they can then be arrested.
But until some violation of law happens, law enforcement somewhat have their hands tied.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Now, this attack followed almost a textbook.
And I think there was an ISIS magazine that put this out, kind of a booklet on how to
do this, but we have seen this now in France, in Germany, in Spain, recently.
JEFFREY RINGEL: Yes, it's the weaponization of everyday items, cars, knives.
It is -- it's almost ingenious on the part of the ISIS propagandists to put the message
out that just stay where you are and create hate and discontent in your neighborhoods.
And some people take that message up.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And, finally, is declaring him an enemy combatant a smart move?
JEFFREY RINGEL: I don't think so.
I think that our law -- our legal system has done a tremendous job of trying people in
our legal system in the open, presenting the evidence against these individuals, and then
convicting them and basically incarcerating them for long periods of time.
Once you make them an enemy combatant and you create a different legal system, there's
always going to be -- it's not the way to go.
We have a legal system.
Let's use our legal system.
HARI SREENIVASAN: All right, Jeffrey Ringel of The Soufan Group, thanks so much.
JEFFREY RINGEL: Thank you.
HARI SREENIVASAN: House Republicans are scrambling to finalize a plan to cut taxes, after delaying
the release of the bill to buy an extra day of negotiations.
Members of the House Ways and Means Committee were cloistered behind closed doors today,
but President Trump spoke at a White House Cabinet meeting.
He said he would be standing beside Republicans when they debuted the tax plan tomorrow.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: The House Ways and Means Committee will unveil
a historic tax plan that will create new jobs, higher wages, which hasn't happened in many
years.
And now it's starting to happen, I'm happy to tell you.
But it'll lead to tremendous prosperity for American families, communities, and also for
our job-producing businesses.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The president also tweeted his support for using the tax bill to repeal
Obamacare's individual mandate.
A Navy investigation has found that two deadly ship collisions this year were caused by preventable
errors made by underprepared crews.
The report blamed no one individual, but instead found a broader problem of watch crews that
didn't adhere to protocol.
The USS Fitzgerald and USS John McCain crashes left a combined total of 17 sailors dead.
NPR's news chief, Michael Oreskes, has resigned following accusations of sexual harassment.
Two women accused Oreskes of abruptly kissing them while they were discussing job opportunities
when he worked for The New York Times nearly two decades ago.
In a statement, Oreskes apologized, saying -- quote -- My behavior was wrong and inexcusable,
and I accept full responsibility."
British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon also stepped down today in the wake of allegations
of inappropriate behavior toward a female broadcaster.
Earlier this week, a British newspaper reported Fallon repeatedly touched a woman's knee at
a 2002 event.
In a statement today, Fallon said his previous conduct had fallen below the high standards
of someone in his position.
A Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Yemen today killed at least 29 people, including some
children.
Dozens of people were also injured.
The bombs hit a market and a hotel in northern Saada province, where the Iranian-backed Houthi
rebels are concentrated.
The coalition has waged a punishing air campaign on the Houthis since 2015, after they ousted
the Yemeni government.
Some 100,000 civilians have died in the war.
Back in this country, President Trump's commission on the opioid crisis issued its final recommendations
today.
They include expanding drug courts to all federal districts, increasing access to rehabilitation
programs for substance abusers, and more training for doctors.
But the commission didn't request any additional funding.
The report comes nearly a week after the president called the opioid epidemic a -- quote -- "public
health emergency."
At the United Nations today, the U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an end to
its trade embargo on Cuba.
U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley's no-vote marks a course change from the Obama administration,
which sought closer ties with Havana.
The resolution passed 191-2, with only Israel joining the U.S. in opposition.
And stocks were mixed on Wall Street today, after the Federal Reserve left interest rates
unchanged.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained more than 57 points to close at 23435.
The Nasdaq fell 11 points, and the S&P 500 rose four.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": social media faces questions about Russia's influence in
2016 election; Bowe Bergdahl, the Marine who left his post in Afghanistan, in court; recovering
from Superstorm Sandy five years later; and much more.
What role did social media play in Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential
election?
We now know fake accounts created by Moscow reached more Americans than the total number
of U.S. citizens who voted.
For the record, the "NewsHour" has worked with both Facebook and Twitter.
The three tech giants were back on Capitol Hill today.
Appearing before two separate congressional Intelligence Committees, Facebook, Twitter
and Google lawyers faced tougher questions than yesterday.
First, at the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Democrat from California, Dianne Feinstein:
SEN.
DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), California: I must say, I don't think you get it, that what we're
talking about is a cataclysmic change.
What we're talking about is the beginning of cyber-warfare.
We are not going to go away, gentleman.
And this is a very big deal.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Yesterday, Facebook admitted that from June 2015 to August 2017, 120 fake
Russian accounts posted 80,000 times and reached as many as 126 million Americans.
That number was revised to nearly 150 million today, as 16 million more people were reached
by Russian Instagram posts.
All three companies admitted fault again.
Facebook's general counsel, Colin Stretch:
COLIN STRETCH, Facebook General Counsel: The fact that foreign actors were able to use
our platform to exploit that openness is a deeply painful lesson for us, and one we're
focused on learning from going forward.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The representatives vowed to invest more money, time and people to do
better.
At times, lawmakers used the hearing to draw partisan lines on Russia's impact on the election.
Republican from Florida Marco Rubio:
SEN.
MARCO RUBIO (R), Florida: These operations, they're much more widespread than one election.
And it's about our general political climate.
Is that correct?
COLIN STRETCH: I would certainly agree with that statement, Senator.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Democratic Senator from New Mexico Martin Heinrich:
SEN.
MARTIN HEINRICH (D), New Mexico: Last month, President Trump called Russian-purchased Facebook
ads a hoax.
Are they, in fact, a hoax?
COLIN STRETCH: No.
The existence of those ads were on Facebook, and wasn't a hoax.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The House Intelligence Committee released dozens of those ads, some exhibited
with blown-up versions.
Lawmakers chided Facebook for their existence.
All of the ads focused on hot-button, divisive issues, one for an event called -- quote -- "Down
With Hillary" by the group Being Patriotic, another mirroring the social movement Black
Lives Matter.
Back on the Senate side, Twitter was singled out multiple times.
The Republican Senator from Arkansas Tom Cotton questioned where Twitter's loyalties lie.
SEN.
TOM COTTON (R), Arkansas: Is it biased to side with America over our adversaries?
MAN: We are trying to be unbiased around the world.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Top Democrat on the Senate Committee Mark Warner expressed doubt over
Twitters' claim that it found only about 2,800 accounts linked to Russian operatives.
SEN.
MARK WARNER (D), Virginia: I'm concerned, sir, that Twitter seems to be vastly underestimating
the number of fake accounts and bots pushing disinformation.
Independent researchers, people who have testified before this committee, have estimated that
up to 15 percent of active Twitter accounts, or potentially 45 million-plus accounts, are
fake or automated.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Representatives from each company said none has yet to identify the
full scope of Russian interference on their platforms.
The sentencing phase of U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's court-martial neared its end
today at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The soldier pled guilty to severe charges, including desertion and misbehavior before
the enemy, which could carry heavy prison terms.
Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban in 2009 after he walked away from a military outpost
in Eastern Afghanistan.
He was held in captivity for five years.
The Obama administration engineered a controversial prisoner swap with the Taliban in 2014 for
his release.
For more on Bergdahl and the searing testimony at his sentencing hearing, we turn now to
New York Times reporter Richard Oppel at Fort Bragg.
So, the defense has made their case.
What was it?
RICHARD OPPEL JR., The New York Times: Well, that's right, Hari.
The case has a couple of problems for the defense.
One is that Bergdahl has already paid a huge price for what happened, five years of horrific
torture, being beaten by copper cables constantly, constant dysentery and diarrhea, locked in
a cage for four years.
They also are presenting mental health testimony that he's had a severe mental disorder for
some time, including, in their view, when he both was in -- briefly in the Coast Guard
at boot camp and then when he enlisted in the Army.
They have also put on testimony that, when he returned after the prisoner swap in 2014,
even though he didn't have any sort of promise of protection from prosecution, he was emphatically
helpful to intelligence analysts, to debriefers from the Pentagon, to anybody in the U.S.
government who wanted to talk to him about Taliban tactics, about his captors, and anything
of that nature.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The prosecution still has an opportunity to rebut.
But during their side of the case, they brought on some of the family members and some of
the members who were injured in the process of trying to rescue Bergdahl.
RICHARD OPPEL JR.: That's right.
They had powerful testimony, mainly about one rescue operation, or one mission where
a team of six men with some Afghan troops, six American men, were trying to gather information
from local villagers about where Bergdahl might be.
This was a little over a week-and-a-half -- I'm sorry, a little over a week after Bergdahl
had left his base.
And one of the men, a sergeant 1st class, was shot in the head.
He now is unable to speak, read, write, communicate in any way, or even take care of himself.
And two other men were wounded on that mission.
But the most profound injuries were of this one sergeant 1st class, a National Guardsman
from Georgia, named Mark Allen.
So there was a lot of testimony about his injuries, and also testimony from his wife,
Shannon, about how much, you know, everything changed enormously for their family, for their
two kids and for her.
HARI SREENIVASAN: What about Bergdahl's decision to plead guilty to this?
How did this change at all?
RICHARD OPPEL JR.: Well, to a lot of military law experts, a conviction was almost certain,
in large part due to the fact that Bergdahl had talked extensively to Army investigators
and really actually had answered every question put to him by Army investigators.
So the prosecution already had an enormous amount of evidence through Bergdahl's own
words to convict him on.
So, by pleading guilty, you know, what he was doing was basically, you know, in the
view of a lot of military law experts, that this was basically a gamble, that he's taking
absolute contrition and responsibility for what he did, again, in hopes of demonstrating
to the judge, who will decide his punishment, that he has absolutely taken responsibility
for what he's done.
HARI SREENIVASAN: You know, did the president's comments, both before and after he was elected,
factor into this?
RICHARD OPPEL JR.: Yes, so, the comments, the very inflammatory comments that the president
had as a candidate, the judge had ruled in February that, while they were disturbing
comments, he didn't think they had prejudiced the case, even though Trump had obviously
been elected, and, as commander in chief, was now in charge of everybody in the military
justice system.
But then, a couple of weeks ago, right after Bergdahl entered his pleas, Trump said words
to the effect of, look, I can't comment on the case, you know, it's about to go before
a sentencing hearing, but I think everyone, you know, knows what I have said in the past
about that.
And so the judge ruled that, you know, he was effectively trying to say to people, you
know, everyone -- you know, people know how I feel about this, and I haven't changed my
opinion.
So, on the one hand, the judge didn't find that the comments, however, had prejudiced
the case, because, A, he is a decision maker, and said he was uninfluenced by his comments,
and the judge pointed out that he is actually going to retire next year.
But he also felt that the public had not -- you know, their view of the military justice system
had not been really harmed, that perception had not been harmed by the comments.
However -- and this is the key thing -- the judge said he will take the comments -- he
will consider the comments as mitigation evidence when he decides the sentence.
It's not clear how much weight he will give those comments, maybe a little, maybe a lot,
but they will be one factor in sentencing that could help Bergdahl receive a lighter
sentence.
HARI SREENIVASAN: All right, Richard Oppel of The New York Times, joining us from North
Carolina, thanks so much.
RICHARD OPPEL JR.: Thank you, Hari.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Stay with us.
Coming up on the "NewsHour": Obamacare open enrollment begins under President Trump; opposing
views on the Russia investigation and the New York terror attack; and a remote Alaskan
community that gets 99 percent of its power from renewable sources.
But, first, let's go back to New York for a different story.
This week marks five years since Superstorm Sandy.
It flooded coastline communities and led to tens of billions of dollars of damage.
In New York, there are many plans on how to prepare for and withstand the worst of another
disaster, but turning those ideas into reality remains a huge challenge.
It's the focus of our Leading Edge segment tonight.
Miles O'Brien has our report, starting off in Queens.
MILES O'BRIEN: On 15th Road in Broad Channel, New York, they're working hard to keep their
heads above water five years after Superstorm Sandy barreled in.
DAN MUNDY, New York Firefighter: What they're doing is basically elevating homes and rebuilding
homes, all with the our idea to get above the 100-year floodplain.
MILES O'BRIEN: New York Firefighter Dan Mundy is the third generation of his family to live
on this spit of land in the middle of Jamaica Bay, not far from Kennedy Airport.
DAN MUNDY: We have a house that's completed here.
This was an elevation.
The rest of the house was original house, just lifted up 10 feet in the air up above
flood elevation.
MILES O'BRIEN: But it has taken a long time to get to this point.
The federal money and the myriad of government approvals to raise houses, raise the streets,
and build seawalls moved a whole lot slower than the storm.
DAN MUNDY: I think everybody thought out of the get-go we're just going to come in here
and do a simple construction project.
You are probably standing in the most complicated area in the city of New York to build residential
homes.
MILES O'BRIEN: Nothing here is simple or cheap.
Down Cross Bay Boulevard, at Rockaway Beach, I met the city's chief resilience officer,
Daniel Zarrilli, at the recently completed 5.5-mile, $340 million boardwalk minus the
boards.
DANIEL ZARRILLI, New York Senior Director of Climate Policy and Programs: It's been
built out of stronger material, so it's now no longer going to be that projectile that
can get thrown across the neighborhoods here.
But we have also integrated in with our coastal protections.
MILES O'BRIEN: This concrete rampart against a steadily rising, sometimes raging sea is
buttressed with sand dunes planted with seagrass.
But it is only 5.5 out the more than 500 miles of coastline in New York City alone.
It's a reminder of the scale of the problem and the challenge of responding to it in an
affordable, timely way.
DANIEL ZARRILLI: The dollars don't show up when the storm shows up.
And so, you know, it took three months for Congress to decide that they wanted to help
the New York region.
It took another two years to allocate the funds.
And now we're in the process of spending that money.
MILES O'BRIEN: They are pushing plans to build floodwalls and other hard barriers in Lower
Manhattan, East Harlem, at Hunts Point in the Bronx, in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn,
and in Staten Island.
Dunes and bulkheads have been upgraded, but no concrete has been poured for the more complex
projects.
Meanwhile, the utilities have done some work.
Verizon replaced its copper phone wires in Lower Manhattan with fiberoptic cables.
And the electric utility, Consolidated Edison, has fortified the Manhattan power plant that
flooded and failed in spectacular fashion, and has protected underground lines elsewhere,
spending $1 billion.
Bill de Blasio is New York City's mayor.
Is New York City better prepared for a superstorm than it was five years ago?
BILL DE BLASIO (D), Mayor of New York: Yes, and we take this very seriously.
Let's face it.
Sandy was the ultimate wakeup call for New York City, and it was the worst natural disaster
in our history, and we're still feeling the effects.
So, we had to change the way we did things.
We're a very different city today.
We still have major issues to address, but we're a very different city today.
MILES O'BRIEN: While private homeowners are now finally making improvements, many people
in public housing are still waiting for the work to begin.
CARMEN WILLIAMS, New York: A lot of the issues that are going on here in East River housing
are not being addressed.
MILES O'BRIEN: Carmen Williams is a longtime resident of the East River homes in Spanish
Harlem.
CARMEN WILLIAMS: The layout for what we saw, it looks good on paper, but that's not going
to help us.
MILES O'BRIEN: Right.
CARMEN WILLIAMS: We need the work to actually be done.
MILES O'BRIEN: The Federal Emergency Management Agency earmarked $3 billion for flood mitigation
improvements to New York City public housing.
The promised work here includes floodgates and moving the boilers higher.
Sandy filled the courtyard where we met with knee-deep water.
You guys are just as vulnerable as you were five years ago, you think?
CARMEN WILLIAMS: I think so right now, because it's not completed.
So, if it's not completed, and we don't know where we're at, yes, we feel just as vulnerable
as we did then.
MILES O'BRIEN: Community organizer Cecil Corbin-Mark is concerned about delays in the East Harlem
flood protection project.
CECIL CORBIN-MARK, Community Organizer: It was a physical infrastructure project that
was supposed to be completed by last year.
It still hasn't been done.
And I don't give the city good marks for that, because that means that, with the next event,
that East Harlem residents along 1st Avenue on the Harlem River Drive Corridor could be
seeing floodwaters at their doorsteps and beyond again, and that's not acceptable.
PROTESTERS: Climate change is not a hoax, hey-hey, ho-ho!
MILES O'BRIEN: That frustration welled up on Saturday, as hundreds of protesters staged
a rally at the Brooklyn Bridge, hoping to spur action on the threat posed by climate
change, which could spur another superstorm.
WOMAN: We're asking the mayor and the governor to get on it now.
We don't have time to waste.
MILES O'BRIEN: Since Sandy, engineers, environmentalists and politicians have spent a lot of time debating
the merits of building a massive harbor-wide storm surge barrier, modeled after the huge
project that protects Netherlands from the North Sea.
It would take decades and cost tens of billions of dollars.
BILL DE BLASIO: I'm very interested in it.
If there's a way to do it, it might be one of the better solutions, but I know I can't
wait for it.
So, I think we end up recognizing we have got to take all the actions we can here and
now.
MILES O'BRIEN: And here and now looks a lot more green than gray.
Dan Mundy knows a lot about this.
DAN MUNDY: We're in the middle of Jamaica Bay, and we're going out to the most recently
restored wetland island.
MILES O'BRIEN: In 2013, he led a community effort to rebuild some of the islands of Jamaica
Bay that he remembered from his younger days.
Discharges from sewage treatment plants had polluted the bay, killing the marsh grass.
The islands got swallowed up by the water.
DAN MUNDY: We were looking to restore these islands, and we used the old footprint of
where they were before they were degraded, and got together with partners like the National
Park Service.
MILES O'BRIEN: Mundy's two islands are now flourishing here.
He hopes to build more.
Scientists concluded the natural wetlands prevented $625 million in Sandy-related flood
damage from Maine to North Carolina.
It's nature's speed bump.
New York City faces its own hurdles, as it looks to build out the defenses it envisions.
Once it finishes its $20 billion plan, using city and federal money, there is no more resiliency
funding for New York in the pipeline from Washington.
BILL DE BLASIO: My fear is, in the absence of a federal policy, it ends up being a catch-as-catch-can
approach.
And the jurisdictions that are more focused will get more done, and the jurisdictions
that have proportionally more resources will get more done, and others will be left very,
very vulnerable.
MILES O'BRIEN: Those vulnerabilities have been highlighted again and again this hurricane
season, in Houston, Florida and Puerto Rico.
Many predicted superstorm Sandy would trigger us to harden our infrastructure, and perhaps,
in some cases, retreat from the water.
But the pull of this special place is strong for people like Dan Mundy.
You guys aren't retreating, are you?
DAN MUNDY: No.
There is a strong opinion about that down here.
These are generations of families that have lived down here.
They love the water.
We know we're at risk.
We will take the risk.
We're willing to take it.
MILES O'BRIEN: With the help of taxpayer-subsidized flood insurance, of course.
Five years after Superstorm Sandy, New Yorkers are determined to hold their ground against
a rising tide of water and ebbing interest in Washington to join the fight.
In New York, I'm Miles O'Brien for the "PBS NewsHour."
HARI SREENIVASAN: President Trump has made it clear he remains strongly opposed to the
Affordable Care Act, or what's been referred to as Obamacare.
And the president says he hopes to make another run at eventually repealing it.
But, for now, it remains the law.
And today is the opening of sign-up season for the insurance marketplaces.
Lisa Desjardins helps guide us through ways it is different this year.
LISA DESJARDINS: The president's feelings and beliefs about the Affordable Care Act
are more than just words.
There are significant changes in store for this enrollment period.
For one thing, there's a shorter amount of time to sign up for insurance through the
federal exchanges: Enrollment lasts six weeks, until December 15.
That is half of what it used to be.
While this marketplace accounts for only a fraction of overall health care coverage in
America, more than 10 million people signed up for their health care this way last year.
Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News is here to help fill in the picture.
Thank you for joining us.
MARY AGNES CAREY, Kaiser Health News: Thanks for having me.
LISA DESJARDINS: All right, let's start with, what changed?
MARY AGNES CAREY: Well, I think there's a lot of confusion this year, for the very fact
you mentioned.
Consumers have heard Obamacare is imploding, that it's exploding.
People are wondering, is it even here?
Is anyone participating?
Will I still get help on the exchanges?
And as we know, healthcare.gov is open for business as of today.
We have also seen some big drops in advertising.
The federal government is going to spend 90 percent this enrollment season on advertising.
They're spending about 40 percent less for these on-the-ground people who would help
you walk you through how to enroll in health insurance, the navigators and assisters.
We should still say that the insurance brokers and insurance agents are out there to help
you, but that reduction in the navigators and assisters is really causing some concern,
because they did a lot of community events all over the country.
LISA DESJARDINS: A lot of people watching to see if the number of insured Americans
drops because of this, but there are those who support the Affordable Care Act that are
trying to counteract this, including President Obama himself?
MARY AGNES CAREY: Right, exactly.
President Obama was on Facebook and Twitter today asking people to go to healthcare.gov
and see their options.
There's also a group called Get America Covered who are former Obama administration officials
who are out there trying to get the word out about enrollment.
And I think that, as we go into the enrollment period, a lot of advocates for the Affordable
Care Act are going to be doing the same thing.
LISA DESJARDINS: OK, let's talk about what the state of individual markets means for
individuals.
What we know from the Department of Health and Human Services is that they expect in
the next year the average monthly premium will go up 37 percent.
That's for the benchmark plan.
And they also believe that 29 percent of Americans, nearly a third, will have just one insurer
on the individual market in their county.
Now, tell me, exactly, Mary Agnes, who will be hardest hit, because we know individual
markets affect different people very differently.
MARY AGNES CAREY: Right.
The hardest people who will be hit are the people who buy insurance on the individual
market, but don't qualify for any financial assistance.
That's roughly about five million people.
So, when we hear about these premium jumps, they're getting it hit by 100 percent.
But one thing they can think of this year is to look for health care plans that are
not on the Affordable Care Act exchanges, because, for a variety of funding reasons,
formula funding reasons, those jumped up in price perhaps more than those not on the exchanges,
so that could be an alternative this year.
LISA DESJARDINS: Now, a reminder here.
The people who get subsidies for their health care are individuals who are making just about
$48,000 and for families of four $98,000.
So, it not just lower-income, but also middle-income folks.
And talk about how some of those people might actually see some benefits or some better
options this year?
MARY AGNES CAREY: Absolutely.
Due to some quirks in the marketplace, what might happen is the plan you had last year,
especially if it were a silver plan, might be more expensive than a gold plan.
You might be able to get a bronze plan for less money, perhaps even a zero premium.
So, that's why it's really important to go back, because your subsidy amount is likely
to rise this year, so you may be able to buy a better plan for that money.
LISA DESJARDINS: And this all has to do with the fact that we have a law in place that
the administration opposes, and those forces are leading to sort of situations that aren't
necessarily logical.
MARY AGNES CAREY: Well, there are also a lot of factors that added to the premium increases.
There were some concerns about perhaps people who got in who were really sick.
They were more costly.
The medical costs were higher in a certain area.
There was a particular subsidy that helped people with cost-sharing that went away, so
rates went up to accommodate for that.
But the bottom line is, what you had last year may not be what you -- is best for you
next year.
LISA DESJARDINS: That's the advice.
What do people need to do right now in this market?
MARY AGNES CAREY: Get help, if you can get it.
And remember to move early, because this year, as you noted, the open enrollment season is
done by December 15.
That's for about 39 states that use healthcare.gov.
If you're in California, for example, your state exchange may allow to you enroll all
the way -- will to January 31.
LISA DESJARDINS: So, in other words, people need to start looking now, they need to shop
around, and they need to realize they are not going to have as much time.
And one other thing, of course, the individual mandate is still the law of the land.
So, if people don't sign up for insurance, they could be risking a penalty.
MARY AGNES CAREY: That's absolutely right.
LISA DESJARDINS: All right, Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News, thank you so much.
MARY AGNES CAREY: Thank you.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The president responds to another terror attack on U.S. soil, while
Republicans on Capitol Hill continue to debate the path forward on tax reform, and Trump
campaign associate are handed indictments in a federal probe into 2016 election interference.
John Yang has that.
JOHN YANG: Thanks, Hari.
For two different perspectives on these stories, we're joined by Karine Jean-Pierre.
She's a senior adviser to MoveOn.org, a contributing editor to "Bustle," which is an online women's
magazine, and a veteran of the Obama administration.
Also, Chris Buskirk, editor of the conservative blog AmericanGreatness.org.
He's also a radio talk host out in Phoenix.
He joins us tonight from San Francisco.
Welcome to you both.
Chris, I would like to start with you.
Much is being made about the difference or the seeming difference between President Trump's
response to the shootings in Las Vegas and this attack yesterday in New York.
After Las Vegas, he said it's not the time to have a policy debate, it's time to focus
on the victims.
This time, he seemed to jump right into a policy debate about the diversity visa lottery
program, and he identified a culprit, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader in the
senate.
What do you make of this, Chris?
CHRIS BUSKIRK, AmericanGreatness.org: It's because we know a key fact that is different
in these two incidents, and I think that key fact kind of drives where the debate goes.
You know, in Las Vegas, we had -- we had the sort of lone gunman who was not acting on
ideology that was -- at least one that was discernible.
In New York, we had somebody who was acting on a very definable and knowable ideology,
an ideology that we have unfortunately seen come back and kill thousands of Americans
time -- well, over time, has killed thousands of Americans, has killed thousands of people
throughout the West.
And so we can sort of get past that part and say, well, what drove this person to do it?
We know that.
We know that already with the New York attacker.
It was Islamic supremacism.
He said so.
We know that.
And so we get on to the part and say, well, what do we do about it?
Is there a way to make Americans safer?
And what the president was reacting to is, he was looking and saying, we played the so-called
diversity lottery on immigration, and we lost.
So, let's try and change policy again in a way that can make Americans safer, more protected.
JOHN YANG: Karine?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, Democratic Strategist: Look, first, I want to say my thoughts and
prayers go out to the families in New York City that were affected by this horrific event.
I'm from New York.
I grew up there.
New York is incredibly resilient, and I know that they will bounce back.
Look, terrorism shouldn't be politicized.
And it is troubling and pretty shameful that that's the first place that this president
went to in the aftermath of this horrific event.
And, look, there is a stark difference.
Let's be very clear.
In Las Vegas, you had a white man who killed 58 Americans and injured more than 600 people.
The White House was silent on his motive.
They were silent about him.
And they took a page out of a playbook of NRA, and didn't want to talk about how to
move forward with policy, how to prevent these types of mass shootings.
And last night, with the eight people dead and 11 people injured, it was -- he couldn't
wait.
He ran to Twitter and started tweeting about immigration policy.
And then, after that, he went and attacked a New York senator who was busy trying to
figure out how he's going to help out his constituents and help out the responders in
New York City, and that's what he decided to do.
And there is also this type of -- kind of thing that he continues to do, which is, like
he did with the San Juan mayor, which is attack local officials who are trying to do the best
that they can with what's happening in -- with their constituency in their city and their
state.
JOHN YANG: Chris, I want to pick up on that point about going after Chuck Schumer.
Yes, he did introduce the legislation when he was in the House that led to the diversity
visa -- diversity visa lottery.
But he also tried to get rid of it in the Gang of Eight, the immigration overhaul.
That died -- it passed the Senate, but died in the House, the Republican House.
Is that -- I think a lot of people were taken by that, by immediately making -- trying to
make Schumer the culprit in this.
CHRIS BUSKIRK: Yes, well, look, I say this, and I say this for both sides of the aisle.
Let's let politics be political.
And when we have something that requires a policy response, I say, fine, let's have at
it.
And let's have that debate, because Americans' lives on the line.
When it comes to Chuck Schumer specifically in this case, I think the good news for Senator
Schumer is, he's going to get another bite at the apple.
If he really wants to repeal the diversity lottery program that he was in part responsible
for -- he sponsored it in the House -- he's going to get another chance to do that.
And he should sponsor a clean bill, just an up-or-down bill, nothing attached to it, that
repeals that, if that's what he's serious about.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: The problem is not Senator Chuck Schumer.
The problem is the president of the United States, when, at times like these, past presidents,
both Democrats and both Republicans, have unified this country and brought people together
in these times.
And he just refuses to do that.
He refuses to grow into the office of the presidency.
He wants to divide and just continue to govern for a very small part of this country.
JOHN YANG: Chris, another big event this week, of course, the first charges by the -- in
the Mueller investigation on Monday.
We're now seeing reports that the president is being advised by some advisers to get a
little tougher in this, to be a little more combative, taking on Mueller, maybe even talk
about trying to cut off the funding for the investigation.
Do you think that would be a good idea?
CHRIS BUSKIRK: Yes, I don't know if it would be a good idea to cut off the funding for
the investigation.
That's a -- that's a purely political question.
It's a complicated one.
What I will say is that I think a lot of attention needs to be paid to Robert Mueller and to
Rod Rosenstein, for that matter, too.
These are two people who I think, the more we dig into their records, particularly when
you look at something like Uranium One, they're deeply compromised.
And I think it bears keeping the spotlight on them as well.
I mean, these indictments over the weekend, after all the ink that's been spilled, all
the hyperventilating about Russian collusion, the only thing that Robert Mueller can come
up with is an almost-15-year-old tax fraud case?
It just -- it beggars belief that this is what he's doing, and you wonder -- you have
to wonder why.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: I think this is just the beginning of Robert Mueller's investigation.
We have a long ways to go.
Look, I think Donald Trump has made this really clear as to what he thinks about this investigation.
He thinks it's a hoax.
This is what he's told the American people.
And we should really listen to him and believe him when he says that, because, as we saw
with FBI -- former FBI Director Comey, he's not afraid to obstruct.
He's not afraid to fire -- to fire people.
So I think we have to be really mindful.
We can't -- I think Congress needs to really make sure that they protect Mueller, they
protect his budget, they protect the investigation, because if Donald Trump does indeed fire Mueller,
we will be in a constitutional crisis.
JOHN YANG: You know, Chris, I always sort of turn to you for -- you have got a very
good feel for the president's base.
He called The New York Times this afternoon to tell them that he's really not angry over
this, over this Russia investigation, over the indictments.
Does his base want him to be angrier about this and to fight back on this?
CHRIS BUSKIRK: I think -- I don't know about angry.
I think that's the wrong word.
I think that the base looks at the Mueller investigation and says, this is not about
-- this is not about Donald Trump, per se.
He is, of course, talked about a lot with regard to the Mueller investigation.
This is basically about what we found out is a Clinton campaign/DNC dirty trick cooked
up last week, right?
They paid for the Fusion GPS dossier.
And this is something that has now been turned into a cooked-up scandal.
It's a Beltway scandal that is trying to overturn the results of the election.
And so do people who support the president want him to be angry?
No, but maybe indignant is a better word, is to say, why are we allowing this to go
on?
We had the election.
We know that this is really something that was cooked up during the campaign to try and
win the election.
That didn't work.
And so now it's being used as a way to try and undermine the president and to prevent
him from governing after the election.
People don't like that.
And I do think people want that story to be told.
JOHN YANG: Quickly.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
Well, there's a larger part of the population that wants to know exactly what happened.
We have a foreign government that compromised -- potentially compromised our election, and
that's the cornerstone of our democracy.
JOHN YANG: Karine, that has got to be the last word.
Karine Jean-Pierre, Chris Buskirk, thanks so much for joining us.
CHRIS BUSKIRK: Thanks, John.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Kodiak, Alaska, is not only home to brown bears and abundant fishing grounds,
but also one of the most innovative power grids in the country.
From Alaska Public Media, Rachel Waldholz reports.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: Kodiak, Alaska is all about fish.
From commercial fishermen, to the island's four-legged residents, everyone depends on
seafood.
James Turner manages the Ocean Beauty seafood plant in Kodiak.
The town's half-dozen processors serve the second busiest fishing port in the nation.
JAMES TURNER, Ocean Beauty: This is a 24-hour plant, so we run round the clock.
This plant will run anywhere from 40 million to 91 million pounds a year.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: Processing all that fish takes a lot of power.
And, in Kodiak, all that power comes from renewable sources right here on the island.
Kodiak decided to aim for nearly 100 percent renewable energy back in 2007.
JENNIFER RICHCREEK, Kodiak Electric Association: There was risk.
There was engineering risk.
There was construction risk.
It was -- it was taking a leap.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: Jennifer Richcreek works for the Kodiak Electric Association, the local
co-op that runs the community's power grid.
A decade ago, the co-op had a problem: the cost of diesel.
Back in the '90s, Kodiak got just about all of its electricity from a hydro dam.
But as demand increased, they had to use diesel generators more often, and diesel costs were
going through the roof.
JENNIFER RICHCREEK: We were burning millions of gallons of diesel oil.
It was a very vulnerable position.
Diesel is very expensive.
Its price is very volatile.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: So the co-op decided to harness something Kodiak has a lot of: wind.
But wind isn't always easy to work with.
JENNIFER RICHCREEK: Wind is a wild child.
You don't know when the wind is going to blow.
You don't know how long it's going to blow.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: It's that variability that communities across the country, large and
small, are struggling with as they try to add more renewable energy to their grids.
The way you deal with that is energy storage.
JENNIFER RICHCREEK: Energy storage is the hot topic in renewable energy, because of
the variable nature of solar and wind, to be able to stabilize that.
Energy storage is huge.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: Kodiak's first solution was a bank of batteries.
Wind can drop away in a moment, but it takes minutes for the hydropower to ramp up behind
it.
The batteries bridge that gap.
They absorb excess power when the wind is blowing hard, then release that energy back
into the grid as the wind drops.
But just as engineers figured out how to balance wind and water, a new challenge was brewing
over at the port.
RICK KNIAZIOWSKI, Matson: Our old crane was diesel-powered.
It was fairly small, and it started breaking down quite a bit and made us very nervous
that our ability to operate was in jeopardy.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: Rick Kniaziowski manages the Kodiak shipping terminal for the company
Matson.
RICK KNIAZIOWSKI: So, we will go up to the elevator and then head up to the third floor.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: The company wanted to install a new larger electric crane.
That was a big ask.
JENNIFER RICHCREEK: How do we supply that much power that fast, while maintaining all
of the other power quality factors throughout the grid to keep it stable?
So, took some time to think about it, modeled it out, and came to the decision that flywheel
can do the job.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: Just like the batteries, it's a kind of energy storage.
JENNIFER RICHCREEK: A flywheel is a massive piece of steel spinning in a frictionless
vacuum chamber hovered by magnets.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: In practice, it works a bit like the braking system on an electric car.
As the crane lifts a shipping crate, it draws a bunch of power from the grid, pulling energy
from that spinning flywheel.
But when that container is lowered back to the ground, the crane's braking system generates
electricity.
The flywheel stores nearly all the energy required to power the next lift.
RICK KNIAZIOWSKI: There are no grids this small that operate an electric crane.
So this was kind of a leading edge.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: The result is a grid like nowhere else on the planet.
And they have managed to do that while keeping electricity costs slightly lower than they
were a decade ago.
For Kodiak, that means a local source of power that isn't vulnerable to swings in the price
of oil.
Jennifer Richcreek believes the lessons learned here could help communities around the globe.
JENNIFER RICHCREEK: As renewables continue to grow and expand and displace fossil fuels,
it will require a shift in infrastructure design.
And so we're collecting the data, we're modeling it, we're sharing it.
RACHEL WALDHOLZ: Which might help other communities follow Kodiak to more than 99 percent renewable
power.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Rachel Waldholz in Kodiak, Alaska.
HARI SREENIVASAN: On the "NewsHour" online right now: A momentous U.S. Supreme Court
term is under way, and a legal tsunami is heading toward the justices.
That's according to Marcia Coyle, "NewsHour" regular and correspondent for "The National
Law Journal."
She shares a guide to watching the big cases this term, which is on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.
Tune in later tonight.
On PBS, "Frontline" presents part two of its documentary "Putin's Revenge."
With representatives from Facebook, Twitter and Google testifying on Capitol Hill this
week, the timely film looks at what motivated Vladimir Putin to target American democracy
through the 2016 election and how the U.S. struggled to confront the Russian leader.
"Frontline" airs tonight on most PBS stations.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
On Thursday, we will speak to the Texas Republican congressman behind the tax overhaul.
I'm Hari Sreenivasan.
Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you.
See you soon.