judy: good evening. tonight, a worsening crisis. india struggles to handle a massive surge in covid cases and deaths as many questioned the prime minister's leadership. then the immigration agenda. we discussed policy changes aimed at reuniting formerly separated families with homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. and the battle for yemen. a report from the front lines as houthi rebel forces converged on the government's last stronghold. war for control of the country intensifies. >> overthrew those trees, --

over through those trees, soldiers are fighting back at them. judy: all that and more tonight on "pbs newshour." ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. >> before we talk about your investments. >> what is new? >> audrey is expecting. >> we want to put money aside, so change of plans. >> let's see what we can adjust. >> changing plans. >> are you painting again? you could sell these. >> change in plans? >> at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. >> consumer cellular. johnson & johnson.

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possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. >> i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. we will return to the rest of the program after these headlines. fresh optimism in the u.s. pandemic recovery. multiple media outlets are reporting the food and drug administration is expected to authorize pfizer's covid-19 vaccine for young adults age 12 and older i next week. the associated press reported the fda may approve the vaccine for even younger children in the fall. in march pfizer released preliminary results from a study of more than 2000 adolescence that showed the vaccine had similar efficacy and side effects to adults. moderna has begun testing its vaccine on children. meanwhile, the daily average of new cases is below 50,000 for the first time since october and

airline traffic is the highest since the pandemic began. but in india, the human disaster only worsens. makeshift medical camps have sprung up and official numbers show new infections at or near 400,000 a day. we will focus on india after the news summary. people across mississippi spent today cleaning up after multiple tornadoes struck on sunday. intense storms swept through communities in and around tupelo, tearing up trees and destroying homes. some were in disbelief after seeing the damage. >> i have never seen nothing like this before that happened to me, you know. it just hurts. >> there were no reports of deaths or injuries, but as the storm front moved east, a tornado was blamed for one death in atlanta. president biden says the u.s. will admit up to 62,500 refugees

through september when the federal fiscal year ends. today's announcement came after he was criticized for keeping the trump administration cap of 15,000. also today, the administration said it has begun reuniting families separated at the southern border during the trump era. we will talk with the secretary of homeland security, alejandro mayorkas later. three people are dead off the coast of california in a suspected human smuggling operation. 29 others were injured and one remained critical today. the boat broke apart sunday in strong surf along a rocky shoreline. there was no word on the nationalities of the victims and survivors. in elizabeth city north carolina, today's funeral for andrew brown, jr. lead to fresh calls for police accountability. brown was shot and killed by sheriff's deputies last month. a judge has blocked release of the body camera footage to the public for now.

as mourners filled a local church today, speakers including family attorney bakari sellers demanded immediate release of the video. >> we are going to stand up for what we believe to be right. we are going to stand for justice. we are going to stand up for andrew brown. we are going to stand up for his memory because we want to be free. >> the nation's top general mark milley says he would consider allowing independent prosecutors to pursue sexual assault cases in the military. gunmen killed at least 30 villagers in burkina faso today according to the government. officials said jihadists surrounded a village near the border with niger and set homes on fire. the attack comes one week after two journalists and a conservationist were killed in the same area.

a federal trial began today in california on whether apple's app store is an illegal monopoly. epic games, maker of fortnite, alleges apple charges exssive fees to force-out smaller developers. apple denies it. microsoft cofounder bill gates and his wife melinda announced they are divorcing. theyaid they will still work at their charitable foundation, but can no longer grow as a couple. the gates have been married 27 years and have three children. bob abernathy, a longtime member of the pbs family, has died. he was founder and host of religion and ethics newsweekly and for more than 40 years, an nbc news correspondent. he covered the cold war and the soviet union's collapse. bob abernathy was 93 years old. still to come on the newshour, alejandro mayorkas discusses reuniting families who were separated at the border.

we report from the frontlines of the intensifying war for control of yemen. the biden administration announces new restrictions on climate pollutants and much more. ♪ >> this is "the pbs newshour" from w eta studios and the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: the covid crisis in india is relentless and appears to be only worsening. death tolls and infections skyrocket. prime minister narendra modi is under increasing political pressure. reporter: this horrible site is repeated across new delhi today. crematorium is running out of space for victims of this virus. many grieving families are told to just wait in line.

>> people have to wait at least five to seven hours before getting a chance to cremate the bodies. although as you can see the bodies are being cremated rapidly, there is still a long queue of ambulances carrying bodies outside the crematorium. reporter: india reported 3400 official covid deaths yesterday and nearly 370,000 infections. it was 400,000 last friday. experts believe these numbers are a vast underestimate of the true severity of this crisis. widespread shortages of tests and the numbers of cremated bodies have added to the discrepancies. the impact the coronavirus is having has created a horrific reality for many. several hospitals still lack enough oxygen to treat patients, leaving families to look after the sick on their own. >> we came twice but they said home isolation is enough and sent us back.

he was fine, recovered 75%. if oxygen was available, he would have survived. without oxygen, he died. reporter: now makeshift solutions are required to treat the growing numbers of the suffering. ambulances line up outside a hospital waiting for precious beds to open. old train cars are transformed into isolation rooms for the infected. amid the crisis, though, there are glimmers of hope. shipments of relief supplies, from oxygen to protective gear, arrived from italy, the u.k., and germany today. vaccination efforts are starting to ramp up. schools are being turned into makeshift vaccination centers. today, just 2% of adults have been vaccinated in this country of 1.3 billioneople. >> across delhi we have started a mass vaccination drive. it is the first day today. we will take it further.

our target is to have at least 10 at every school and we will increase it to 300 schools. reporter: prime minister narendra modi and his political party suffered a major blow yesterday after losing regional elections in west bengal, a clear sign modi's reputation is being tested. over the years, he has deployed hindu-nationalist rhetoric and policies that have raised his popularity and transformed india's politics. but his version of nationalism has bitterly divided hindus from other ethnic groups in india. his refusal to stop holding large campaign rallies and to allow a huge hindu religious festival are believed to be major contributors to this spike. and now as a new highly contagious variant has emerged in the country, modi has resisted calls for any further lockdowns. i am joined by someone who has been covering india's pandemic from the very beginning.

market. is a journalist based in new delhi. her work appears in many cases -- places including the washington post. thank you for talking with us. i should say, you lost your fatherast week to this virus, and i am terribly sorry about your loss. i'm especially grateful for you taking the time to talk with us. can you give us a sense of the latest of what you have been seeing on the ground? >> in some ways it has been a surreal week. 15 weeks of my journalistic life have been spent reporting this pandemic. when the news came that i lost my data, in some ways i became every desolate family i have reported on outside of hospital doors or cremation grounds that have run out of spaces. that being said, i want to underline even in this moment of deep personal loss, i am aware i am luckier than most of my countrymen and women. however, when i look at the

streets of my country, the major cities, most indians are not able to get a bed and not able to get a doctor. if they do get a hospital bed, they are dying in the hospital because of the disruption is an oxygen supply to our health facilities. what we are seeing is in the words of one doctor, health care workers have been sent to fight a nuclear war with a stick. it has been a monumental betrayal. it has been a monumental failure of policy. it has been a monumental illustration of misjudgment and a monumental absence of preparing for the second wave. reporter: you mentioned how prime minister modi has seen his reputation badly dented because of this. as we reported, he took a bad beating in the state elections in west bengal. is it your sense that that election and people's discontent is a real reflection on him and his failures here?

>> just because i am a hardened journalist i don't draw quick political conclusions. a lot of people have wanted to see that result, some kind of comeuppance for the policy figures that have brought our country to this pass. i don't know because this was a state election. the national election is still years away. public memory is short. what i can confirm is the pain and helplessness among people is starting to reach. any number of people i meet on the streets see. i think people are asking the following questions. why did we gift away or export vaccines before we had enough for our own people? why did india not order more vaccines? why did the government hold mammoth political rallies? this carnage has been unleashed on our people.

it is too late and experts are telling me there are not enough vaccines to take india out of the second wave. we have no choice but to live through the carnage. >> i know the indian supreme court ruled the government not to reimpose -- ought to reimpose strict lockdowns which we know because economic pain the first time around at the beginning of the year. do you think the government will take that step to try to put this fire out? >> i think although the government was against a national lockdown, and i can see the logic of that because we are such a big, diverse country, that may be a one-size-fits-all that does not work, we are now at such a cataclysmic inflection point that even those critical of lockdowns are probably going to say you have no option. they locked down if it is not accompanied by vaccines is

meaningless. no matter what city i travel to come is sometimes the gap between the official data and what i am physically counting myself is four times. reporter: if the numbers are being miscounted, is that administrative failure or something moreover? that they are trying -- something more overt? reporter: there is a clumsy attempt to maintain -- to avoid panic by keeping numbers down. one of the doctors who does pcr testing told me the moment laboratories start returning high percentages of positives, he gets calls from powerful people asking him to slow it down. this was on record in an interview. when it comes to fatalities, not everybody is going to get a

death certificate. not everyone is getting a covid test once somebody has died. i have met poor people who cannot find an ambulance to ferry the dead to crematorium s. it is fair to say we are not counting all of our dead. an undertaker in delhi told me in the first wave he was cremated and 30 bodies at his site, d now over 100 every night through this past week. where delhi's overall years report an -- figures report an impossible 400 for the entire city. reporter: even if you had enough vaccine for everyone, those would take a good deal of time to be distributed and get into people as well as take weeks to start taking effect. there is still, it sounds like, worse to come for you all. >> speaking about my own father,

my father had one jab. i keep thinking if the vaccine program had rolled out earlier, maybe if he had a second job, something would have worked out differently. our vaccination rates are the lowest they have been this week at a point when we need them to be the highest. there is no easy way to say this. vaccines are over as a way out. vaccine manufacturers have told us shortages will continue through july. the only thing that can save some lives is a steady supply of high flow oxygen. for reasons the government cannot explain, we are not receiving that at our hospitals. this is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis unfolding. reporter: thank you very much for being here and i am deeply sorry about the loss of your father. >> thank you, and thank you for having me.

judy: the biden administration announced it would reunite four families that u.s. officials separated at the u.s.-mexico border during president trump's time in office. more than 5005 hundred children were taken from their parents to deter illegal immigration. those separations started in july 2017, nearly a year before the trump ministrations's zero-tolerance immigration policy became official. the policy was officially ended. the biden administration says 1000 families remain separated. the secretary of homeland security alejandro mayorkas called today's announcement just the beginning of an ongoing effort to reverse those separations. he joins me now. we appreciate your joining us.

four families out of about 1000. every family matters, but tell us how you decided on those four. how were they chosen and what was the process like getting this done? >> thank you for having me. it is correct, this is just the beginning. president biden directed us from the very first day, do everything you can to reunite these families, to bring stability and resources to them, to help them in their healing. we are privileged to be part of the effort. these families were not chosen for any particular reason. other than the fact that these four families are the first to benefit from our acts of conscience to really restore humanity in the wake and the shadow of the cruelty of the

prior administration. these are the first of many we will reunite. judy: if it is taking this long to do just four families, help us understand why it is so hard. what are the obstacles. sec. mayorkas: the obstacles are many. unfortunately we inherited records that were incomplete. what we are doing is building a foundation for a program. the american public will see families reunited at a quicker pace now that we have overce some of the obstacles. we have a tremendous workforce across the federal government working in partnership with community-based organizations to deliver a unification to these families. these are sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers. we are privileged to be part of this effort. the pace is going to increase as

the obstacles have been overcome. judy: i would like to read you a comment from the aclu. which you know is behind several lawsuits filed to locate deported parents. he said, quote, reunification is not enough. the families, especially the toddlers and babies who were deliberately abused by our government made permanent legal status in the united states thomas social services and compensation for the harm they suffered. he went on, there are hundreds of families who have not been located. as i said, more than 1000 still separated. how long is it going to take to to get these families reunited? sec. mayorkas: let me first say what a formidable advocate lee is and his aclu team in terms of indicating the rights of these

families and fighting for the reunification. we are proud to fight alongside the aclu team. however long it is going to take, we are going to achieve our mission of reuniting all the families. we are working day and night to do so as quickly as possible. that is our commitment and quite frankly our obligation. judy: i saw president biden said last week, i am quoting, we don't know yet where those kids are. we are trying like hell to figure out what happened. is it the case you don't know where these children are? sec. mayorkas: we know where some are and we don't know where others are. not only that, when we know where they are and where the parents are, remember, we as a government because of what we have inherited, because of the cruelty that precedes us, we have to convince those parents on some occasions to actually have the courage to come forward given the mistrust the prior administration has sown.

we are bringing conscience back to the government. it will take time. we have wonderful partners to work alongside. we are committed to the effort. judy: will these families be allowed to stay in the united states, going back to the aclu point, will they receive social services? will they receive permanent legal status? sec. mayorkas: we are working towards that. he is correct that the families need stability, they need resources to really have the healing process work. this reunification we are achieving, these four families, will be reunified, this is just the beginning of the healing process. we intend to do more and we are looking very carefully at what we can do. judy: can you say whether they will be allowed to stay in the united states? sec. mayorkas: that is a legal

question. what we have done is brought them into the united states under a program called humanitarian parole to allow them to stay in the united states for a certain period of time and we are exploring what other avenues we can utilize to have them stay here with the stability they need. that is uppermost in our minds. judy: as we reported him of these are families trying to enter the united states during the trump administration. what about families who tried to enter during this administration? what percentage of them have been allowed to come into the country, what percentage have been turned away? judy: those are -- sec. mayorkas: those are different things if i may say. one is the practice of intentionally separating children from their parents to deter migration. the other is what we are doing with respect to families who

arrive at the border between the ports of entry who seek to enter unlawfully during a time of the covid-19 pandemic. and we because of the public health imperative under the authorities of the cdc, to protect not only the american public, but the migrants themselves, are exercising the cdc authority and not allowing families to enter the united states. judy: president biden is announcing this afternoon that he is raising the caps on the number of refugees, this is a different issue, but on refugees who would enter the united states from other countries for reasons of safety, persecution, wherever their home countries are. can you help us understand why this number was arrived at? sec. mayorkas: this number of

62,500 represents the number of refugees that we as a nation will accept, to which we will aspire, in this calendar year. or i should say in this fiscal year for the united states government. this reflect president biden's unwavering commitment to our refugee program, to our proudest heritage of leading the world in refugee admissions. this number was a balance between our highest aspirations and the reality -- the realities. the fact we will have to rebuild the refugee system because of dismantlement during the prior administration. we are balancing hopes and aspirations for people around the world who seek a legal pathway to humanitarian relief and the fact that we have inherited a system that was torn apart.

judy: we will leave it there. sec. ella hendry mayorkas, thank you for joining us -- sec. a la han jerome mayorkas -- ale jandro mayorkas, thank you for joining us. judy: it has been months since president biden ended involvement in thear in yemen. the u.s. was providing aid to the saudi-led coalition providing aid to houthi rebels. former president trump designated the houthis a terrorist organization. president biden reverse the move when humanitarian organization said it would make getting aid to people harder. shortly after mr. biden's move,

the houthis launched an offensive east toward the city of mara. the last stronghold of saudi-backed yemeni government forces. reporter: this is what six years of war in yemen has come to. an ultimate battle for the future of this country. a small trench manned by government fighters with little more than ak-47s fighting iran-l.a. rebels called houthis. men are trying to hold the line. it is a vague, dusty mark in the desert. just beyond this, overthrew those trees -- over through those trees, the soldiers are in the trees fighting back at them. >> a new offensive to take marib began just days after president biden said he would cancel a designation of the houthis as a

terrorist group. these men believe that emboldened their enemy. >> the biden administration took the houthis off the list, they became more aggressive. they took them off the list because of the humanitarian situation. if they want to save people, the best thing is to put them on the list of terrorists. reporter: the designation would also have made it harder to get commercially traded food to civilians in rebel-held areas, accelerating a looming famine. the only armored vehicle for miles ming use of the top guns take pressure off. with quick return fire, the hout fighters remind us of their presence. even in this vast expanse, the fighting is so close it occupies just a thin strip of this landscape. the houthis are right behind us about 50 meters away. they are exchanging fire with them. this frontline moves as the

houthis push toward marib. the rebels constantly test the government fighters' defenses. it is crude close combat. despite being backed by a saudi-led coalition, conditions are tough for yemeni government troops. we traveled across yemen's northeast desert, where this war has reached a climax. we heard no saudi warplanes providing air support and the only heavy weaponry was this multiple rocket launch system. the medevac system is a shack where a few boxes of medicine. the only way to a hospital is the same way we came, in the back of a truck. it is two hours from here over the desert in trucks for injured soldiers coming from the front. there is not one helicopters and the entire frontline. after years, yemen's war is reaching a defining point. the iran-allied houthi rebels

seize control of the capital and have been battling the government of yemen and its troops ever since. back in nearby marib city, those fighting and those fleeing share streets. once amall desert town, this is the center of a final government stand against advancing houthi rebels. soldiers with the internationally recognized yemeni government rest between spasms of fighting. those wounded at the front who make it back here continue to fight for their lives at the hospital. marib owns the country's main oil and gas resources. if the rebels take the city, it will not only push the government from his last major stronghold. it will provide a vital financial lifeline to the houthi s. the defense minister of yemen knows this is a fight his men cannot afford to lose. >> the battle for marib is one

of defending our nation and our freedom. we are in a battle for the future of yemen. reporter: rebuilding the many armies and marib after revolution, mutiny, and more, focused on professionalizing tribal fighters, recruiting those pushed from their homes by the houthis, and those desperate to check the city from a rebel takeover. >> in the beginning of the war, it was resistance fighters and they fought the houthi. tribesmen fought. they have good experience. reporter: the saudi's main partners on the ground, the uae, pulled most of its forces out in 2019. riyadh is under increasing pressure to wind this down. reporter: what will happen to the m&a military at the saudi's leave? -- yemeni military if the saudi's leave?

>> we thank them for everything, but i believe the houthis will never leave saudi arabia alone or the gf countries. god forbid the houthis ever control this area. reporter: the biden administration has ended military support for the saudi-led coalition and appointed a new u.s. envoy for peace. this disastrous war has become synonymo with human suffering, creating the worst humanitarian disaster in the world and pushing millions to the brink of starvation. potential peace talks and a cease-fire seem a long way off. persuading the houthis to come to the table before the marib takeover will be difficult. getting the out is to make a realistic offer of cease fire equally so reporter:. we also interviewed a senior leader of the group. it has been over two years since we last spoke. is it the intention to take marib or would you ever stop for talks?

>> liberating all of yemen from the mercenaries and invaders is a duty for all yemeni people. who leads the fighters in marib? it is american or saudi or emma roddy -- emirati soldiers. when we receive a serious approach to peace, we will talk. until then, nothing. whether or not we advance on marib depends on their practical steps. reporter: while arguments role on, families fleeing their homes are on the move. rockets inching closer every day. gunfire and explosions crashing into makeshift camps just behind the front lines. tens of thousands of men, women, and children wait for the war to end. just beyond the hills,t ranges. those who cannot afford to live in the city set up camp in the dusty, unrelenting heat of the

desert. she says just today 1000 families. they have just scattered. they have had to scatter out further, pushing back from the front line. this woman did not want to give her name but said she is here with her five children. i asked if she was afraid. we never sleep, she tells me. we are afraid for our safety. we are afraid for our children. we left our houses. we left everything behind. they are chasing our husbands. they throw our children in jail. we came here and they followed us. where should we go? we thought the only thing we have is god and marib. now they want to take marib from us. other women gather around to tell us of the fighting. they have bullets and shrapnel

from the dirt around their tents landing just short of their children sleeping under thin canvas. we met one man in a camp nearby. it is dangerous, but he can graze his goats. >> the houthis will never negotiate. they just want death. reporter: i asked if he thinks the houthis will continue to try to take the city. >> i hope they do not enter marib. i asked god, where should the refugees go? to the desert to die? i don't think god will let it happen. every time the war reaches us, we flee. reporter: and still they move when they have to. families packing and unpacking belongings is a ritual of survival here. the exhausted, dreary transits from one dusty patch to another in search of safety, of the promise of hope. hope for an end to this war.

if efforts for a cease fire do not succeed, these families willfully again. -- will flee again. they are running out of places to go. for the pbs newshour, i'm jean ferguson. -- jane ferguson. judy: president biden's plan to combat the growth of greenhouse gases has many facets and would affect many segments of our lives. power, transportation, housing, and more. the epa announced a new rule that targets a greenhouse gas that is important but less familiar to many americans. hydrofluorocarbons. reporter: hydrofluorocarbons are powerful greenhouse gases that are widely used in residential

and commercial refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pumps. today's epa proposal would cut u.s. production and import of hydrofluorocarbons by 85% over the next 15 years. the agency estimates that would prevent almost a full degree fahrenheit of warming by the end of the century. a senior climate and energy advisor at the institute for governance and sustainable development, which works to strengthen environmental laws, worked previously in both of epa and the energy department in the george w. bush and barack obama administrations. thank you for joining us. in layman's terms, can you help us understand why hfcs are so potent? >> certainly. we have all heard about carbon dioxide and we know it is responsible for much of the world's warming. however, there are other classes of climate pollutants called

short-lived climate pollutants of which hfcs are one of the most potent. if you emit a pound of co2, that creates a certain amount of warming. if you emit a pound of hfc's, it is thousands of times as potent as co2 at warming the globe. that is why it is important to be facing -- phasing these chemicals out. reporter: often times when we see the epa or the government move to limit the production or the output of greenhouse gases, we see environmentalists on one side and industry on the other. but that is not the case in this instance, is that right? >> this has been a remarkably bipartisan common sense climate action. the american innovation and manufacturing act which was signed into law by trump continues a legacy of bipartisan support for hfc mitigation efforts. hfc mitigation was initially

imposed under the bush administration, continued and strengthened under the obama administration, signed into law by the trump administration, and now the biden team is taking it for the win. to establish the u.s. as a leader. reporter: today's proposal does not eliminate hfc's. it just sort of phases them down, but not to zero. also it does not limit their use in and use products -- end use products. why? >> we know scientists have told us we have 10 years to take fast action on climate change. mitigation of hfc's is one of the most important initial actions we can take. what epa is doing is really starting strong out of the gate and allocating to different sectors of the economy an amount of hfc is based on the allocation schedule that congress passed.

this is a first step. we may and we hope to see epa continue by setting common sense requirements for certain end use applications. today what epa is doing is sending a strong signal that the u.s. is ready to start phasing hfc's down. not out, down. reporter: are there readily available or substitutes for hfc's in refrigerators and air conditioners and the like? >> if you bought a refrigerator recently you might already have a climate from the alternative. many ftors in the united states and internationally have been transitioning to alternatives for many years. if you go buy a new car, chances are your car is using a refrigerant that is much better for the climate. the rest of the u.s. manufacturing sector is soon to follow. reporter: viewers may be

wondering, will they have to replace their refrigerators and air conditioners? will this add to the cost of those products? >> in a word, no. this will not add to the cost and we know because of history. we have already been throughout transitions and refrigerants before. refrigerators used to use ozone depleting substances, incredibly potent greenhouse gases as well. when the industry transitioned from cfcs, it had a climate benefit. we also saw consumer prices for refrigerators and other products come down. we have no reason to expect that trend will change. reporter: researchers have found a big source of hfc's, the release of hfc's, is from refrigeration systems in grocery stores. leaks in those systems. how will this address that?

>> this is true. unlike domestic refrigeration, which tends not to leak, grocery stores use very large systems. this is a different technology. they have many pipes and fittings. that does create a larger opportunity for leaks. it has been found that in the grocery sector, it is not uncommon to see leakage rates exceeding 20% for year. what this step will do is send a signal to the u.s. grocery industry that it is time to start a transition if you have not started already and hopefully encourage them to start accounting for and better managing those refrigerant leaks. doing so as not only common sense for the environment. it can also be common sense for business. leading organizations are finding that by managing these grocery store refrigerants emissions, they have fewer instances where they are losing food because there is a lot of

product loss associated wi refrigerant loss. reporter: thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ judy: now it is time for our regular politics monday do a. lisa iin charge. lisa: president biden traveled to virginia to pitches american families plan i'll his other plan -- all while his other plans negotiations continue. it will be another great politics monday and let's start with you. president biden is pitching large concepts like reworking childcare in america by raising taxes on the wealthy. what are the political risks and rewards for him and for democrats?

>> he is pitching not just big government, but a big idea. the idea that government can work for people. that in a democracy, government should function and should work for the people, and he is putting out what are generally in isolationuite popular ideas. the risk is there are disagreements about how big it should be, what it should be, how it should be paid for. whether it should be paid for at all. the issue is there is talk about bipartisanship, but part of this is going to have to be democrats going alone. he's going to have to keep democrats together and the way to do that -- it is challenging, but he needs them. particularly because there are moderate democrats who are going to face difficult reelections in 2022.

lisa: let's talk about republicans and the tensions within their own party today after former president trump issued a statement again saying the 2020 election was fraudulent. we saw fellow republican house congresswoman from -- liz cheney issue her own statement. she said the 2020 presidential election was not stolen. anyone who claims was is spreading the big lie. there's talk of whether liz cheney can again survive as the number three leader in the house republicans congre -- caucus. this is the same time we saw similar reaction at the utah republican state convention when senator and former republican nominee for the presidency mitt romney took the stage. here is what happened. >> i was not a fan of our last president's character issues. [booing]

lisa: those are boos. where are we in the battle for the republican party? amy: the battle is over and donald trump won. there are stragglers who have continued to speak out against the president. he pointed to congresswoman cheney. they are a rare commodity right now. many are facing primary challenges. there are not many, but the ones who are there could lose their primaries or get redrawn out of their districts in redistricting. there was a special election this weekend in texas to fill a republican seat. not an overwhelmingly republican seat, but republican leading district outside dallas. donald trump's endorsement did take the most votes. the candidate who was campaigning as the never trumper who had gotten support from congressman adam kinzinger who

voted for impeachment, has been outspoken about the republican moving beyond donald trump, that candidate got 3%. it is pretty clear that this is a party now that has decided to lineup a hind -- a behind president trump. the question is what happens in 2022 in battleground districts where trump may endorse a candidate and you may see democrats using that endorsement against them in a general election. it may work as an a primary to have the endorsement of donald trump, but it may not be a great badge to wear in a state that is leaning more blue. >> the former president really thrives on these feuds. you saw him put up multiple statements today going after all the people who amy just mentioned. part of this is he is trying to maintain relevance.

he's trying to maintain control over the party. it is clear the never trumper's don't control the party. it is not clear trump will ultimately be the standardbearer or if they will find someone else to leave the path forward. today he put out this statement where he said the big lie shall now forever be known as the election fraud. making a false accusation about the election being stolen from him. he is trying to rebrand the concept of the big lie just like he tried to rebrand and successfully rebranded fake news in 2017. lisa: the census brought good news for republicans. they may pick up seats because of population changes. we saw a key democrat say she is not going to run again. she is a rural democrat, that is who they need. what do you make of that?

amy: you are right, she is a handful -- one of a handful of representatives in a district to donald trump carried. when it comes to redrawing these lines, republicans have more opportunities to draw themselves good lines or on the flipside to draw out democrats. we are hearing a lot of names of members right now, especially in places like florida, they know if you are a democrat that the line drawers are coming for you. we are likely to hear folks announced their retirements, potentially running for other statewide offices. that is the real issue for democrats coming into 2022. they have history working against them. traditionally it is almost impossible for the parties and the majority -- the party in the

majority to pick up seats. they don't have the control over redistricting in many of these big states. the retirements are a reality check. many democrats know their districts are going to be on friendlier -- unfriendlier in the next election. lisa: i want to talk about vaccines. you have been reporting on a focus group talking to people who are vaccine hesitant but ended up getting to get -- ended up getting the vaccine. i want to play with those people said about why they changed their minds. >> i shifted focus for myself to other people. to herd immunity, a bigger picture outside of this bubble. that was when i decided to get the vaccine. >> people are going to want to do things they are not going to be able to do without the vaccine.

lisa: what is the message politicians should get about how they encourage people to vaccinate? >> these are truly personal decisions, and for lauren there, and i watched a previous focus group she was part of where she was very hesitant, it came down to things she wanted to do in her life including going to yankees games. for some people it is about what opportunities vaccination opens up. for other people it is about overcoming fear. what i have heard is that doctors, your personal doctor was important for many of these hesitant folks to come over and get vaccinated. the biden administration is well aware of this. i talked to a top official who says they are working hard to get vaccines into doctors offices. that continues to be a logistical challenge. lisa: thank you for both of you.

>> you are welcome. judy: tonight on the "pbs newshour" online, 16 states and washington, d.c. have legalized recreational marijuana over the past several years. what happens to people with lingering drug convictions? we talk with experts and people with criminal records about the rriers these convictions create and some of the new proposals on the table to help them expunge their records. you can read more now at pbs.org/newshour. that is the newshour r tonight. join us tomorrow evening. thank you, stay safe, and we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. >> cfo. caregiver. eclipse chaser.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -welcome to "america's test kitchen" at home. today, i'm making grilled pork tenderloin with a pineapple salsa. adam's got all the tools you need when heading out to the grill, and dan's making grilled cauliflower. we've got a lot in store today, so stick around.