JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: As the U.S. and Iran trade accusations over damaged oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, a look at what Iran's strategy may be in this tense moment.

Then: It's Friday.

Mark Shields and David Brooks are here to analyze President Trump's controversial comments about receiving foreign intelligence on political opponents and preview the upcoming Democratic presidential debates.

Plus: a second life for a Southern juke joint - - how Clarksdale, Mississippi, became a boomtown by embracing its legacy of blues music.

ROGER STOLLE, Co-Founder, Juke Joint Festival: It was just really winding down.

You could almost just see it winding down.

So it's kind of like, well, you make it reliable, I can bring you tourists, blues fans.

But they're not going to spend the night in Clarksdale if I can't promise them you have got music tonight.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."

(BREAK) JUDY WOODRUFF: Tensions are still running high in the Persian Gulf region's troubled waters, a day after two tankers were attacked.

The U.S. military has released video that purportedly shows Iran's Revolutionary Guard removing an unexploded mine from one ship.

U.S. officials said it is clear that the Iranians were trying to remove evidence, but Iran denied any involvement.

We will explore all of this after the news summary.

President Trump today walked back, a bit, from saying he might not tell the FBI if a foreign government offered -- quote -- "dirt" on a political opponent.

He had made the original statement in an ABC News interview.

He was asked about it again today in a FOX News interview.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I don't think anybody would present me with anything bad, because they know how much I love this country.

Nobody is going to present me with anything bad.

Number two, if I was -- and of course you have to look at it, because if you don't look at it, you're not going to know if it's bad.

How are you going to know if it's bad?

But of course you would give it to the FBI or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Democrats had condemned the president's initial statement as inviting foreign interference in U.S. elections.

President Trump also says that he will not fire adviser Kellyanne Conway, despite a government watchdog agency's recommendation.

The agency says that her criticism of Democratic presidential candidates has violated the Hatch Act.

That law bars government employees from engaging in political activities.

The president rejected the finding, saying that Conway has the right to free speech.

On another staffing issue, Mr. Trump said he plans to name Tom Homan as his new border czar.

Homan was acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement from January 2017 until retiring last June.

He has since been contributor to FOX News.

In Hong Kong, building to scrap a bill setting up extradition with mainland China.

The bill has sparked mass protests, and police are bracing for more this weekend.

But, today, several former senior Hong Kong officials sided with the protesters.

ANSON CHAN, Former Chief Secretary of Hong Kong: What the people are attempting to tell this government is that we are very worried about the consequences of passing the extradition bill, because no one will feel safe, even in their own beds, after passage of this bill.

It places everybody's individual freedom and safety at risk.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Some members of Hong Kong's governing cabinet also called today for delaying action on the legislation.

South Sudan is warning that a record number of people face hunger and potentially starvation.

In a new report, the South Sudanese government and the United Nations say nearly seven million people are at risk.

That is more than 60 percent of the population.

The report blames delayed rainfall and economic crisis and the effects of a five-year civil war.

Women across Switzerland went on strike today to demand equal treatment.

They walked off jobs and blocked traffic, carrying signs and chanting slogans calling for fair pay and an end to sexual harassment.

It was the first such protest in Switzerland in 28 years.

ALINE FAVRAT, Protester (through translator): It's a historic day because women, whether they protest normally or not, need to be heard.

Things need to change.

We are the majority of this country's population, but we are still not listened to enough, not present enough in decision-making jobs.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Women in Switzerland make an average of 12 percent less than their male counterparts.

For the first time, a woman will lead the U.S. Navy's War College.

Rear Admiral Shoshana Chatfield was named today as the school's new president.

She has led a U.S. military command in Guam since 2017.

Rear Admiral Jeffrey Harley was removed as the War College's president on Monday, amid allegations of excessive spending and abuse of hiring authority.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched and celebrated in Tel Aviv, Israel, today in one of the world's largest LGBT pride parades.

Participants waved rainbow flags, walked with colorful balloons and danced on floats.

Some called for Israel to drop curbs on same-sex marriage and parental rights.

On Wall Street, stocks failed to make any headway on this Friday.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 17 points to close at 26089.

The Nasdaq fell 40 points, and the S&P 500 slipped four.

And the Toronto Raptors are professional basketball champions for the first time.

They clinched the NBA title last night, beating the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors in game six of the finals 114-110.

Fans in Toronto, including rap star Drake, celebrated into the night.

It is the Raptors' first title in their 24-year history.

Congratulations.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": what will Iran do next as tension grows in the Persian Gulf?

; an inside look at the training school districts undergo to prepare for mass shootings; the three million lives at risk as Syria's President Bashar al-Assad steps up his bombing campaign; and much more.

The suspected attacks yesterday on two oil tankers near the strategically vital Straits of Hormuz ratcheted already high tensions between the U.S. and Iran to a new level.

And global reaction has varied in markedly different ways.

The United Nations secretary-general called for an independent investigation.

President Trump says the U.S. knows Iran was responsible.

Nonetheless, today, he expressed interest in talks with Tehran.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the attacks, one of which hit a Japanese-operated tanker while Abe was in Tehran.

And Iran's President Hassan Rouhani accused the U.S. of radicalizing the situation in the region and pursuing an aggressive policy against the Islamic Republic.

At the Pentagon today, Acting Defense Secretary Shanahan had this to say: PATRICK SHANAHAN, Acting U.S. Defense Secretary: We have an international situation there in the Middle East.

It's not a U.S. situation.

And the focus for myself and Ambassador Bolton and Secretary Pompeo is to build international consensus to this international problem.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We take a closer look at what is at stake and how Iran might respond with Reuel Marc Gerecht.

He was a CIA operations officer in the Middle East in the 1980s and '90s.

He is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

And Vali Nasr, he is a Middle East scholar who served in the Obama administration's State Department.

He is now the dean of the School of Advanced and International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, although soon he will step down from that job in order to advise Democratic presidential candidates.

And we welcome both of you back to the "NewsHour."

So, my first question to both of you is, do you accept the Trump administration insistence that this was Iran that was behind these attacks?

Vali Nasr?

VALI NASR, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University: I think, more than likely, yes, although we have the see the final proof, and the administration will do well to provide the irrefutable proof.

But I think, more than likely, Iran did it.

It happened in a way that provides them with plausible deniability.

And now there actually is a very interesting situation, where the debate is about whether they did it, rather than about what are the ramifications and what signal they were trying to send.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you believe the administration is correct in saying it was Iran?

REUEL MARC GERECHT, Senior Fellow, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies: Yes, I don't think there is any plausible candidate besides Iran.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' naval units have a long history of training and using mines in the Persian Gulf, so I think it's pretty conclusive.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, why are they doing this?

Why did they do it?

REUEL MARC GERECHT: Well, I think there are a few reasons.

I think, most importantly, they're trying to spook the Europeans, the Japanese and others.

They're trying to send a signal to put pressure on the Americans to sort of back off.

I think they also enjoy it.

I mean, I think there's a certain fillip of revolutionary pride here.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Enjoy it?

REUEL MARC GERECHT: Yes.

I think they have they have been under tremendous sanctions pressure.

And they wanted a means to strike back.

They can't strike back directly against the Americans, because they know that would be, I think, suicidal.

So they go after others.

They go after peripheral targets.

And I think it gives them considerable satisfaction, as well as, they hope, achieving a strategic goal of getting everybody worried that chaos might break out, war might break out, and the Americans will be put in a tight spot.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Vali Nasr, what do you see as the motive here?

VALI NASR: Well, I think Iran is -- wants to show that it's defiant, that the maximum pressure strategy of President Trump has not worked, and that they are also capable of resisting the United States and also escalating costs.

And, in particular, if this president doesn't want to go to war, Iran acting rashly, threatening escalation could essentially turn the tables on the president.

But I also think that Iran cannot go to the table with the United States looking like it's surrendering, like it's capitulating.

So given that Prime Minister Abe was in Tehran, everybody was expecting that he had carried messages from President Trump and may bring messages back.

I think the Iranians wanted to send the message both to domestic audience and international audience, that, regardless of what Abe brought to them, they nevertheless are going to be defiant, that this is not going to be easy for the United States.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Reuel Gerecht, does this bring Iran closer to what they want?

Do these attacks do that?

REUEL MARC GERECHT: Well, it depends.

I think it depends in part on whether -- how the United States responds.

I think it's -- eventually, the United States is going to have to prohibit them from using mining operations in the Persian Gulf.

I think the U.S. Navy is going to get quite cranky about this.

If you recall, it was a mining attack -- a mine attack in 1988 that led President Reagan to authorize the U.S. Navy to essentially destroy much of the Iranian navy.

So I think the U.S. Navy is inclined to become much more aggressive, if the president authorizes it, to prevent this type of action.

I agree with Vali.

I think there is also a predicate being laid for possible negotiations, possible diplomacy.

I think the regime is in a very tight spot, and they will perhaps try to find an out with the Trump administration.

They may not wait until 2020 to see if the Democrats win.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, where do you see that going, Vali Nasr?

Because, on the one hand, the administration has had this maximum pressure -- the Trump administration -- maximum pressure.

But, on the other hand, you hear them saying, we would -- the president saying, we would consider talking to them.

How do you see that coming about, or not?

VALI NASR: Well, I think, at one level, the purpose of maximum pressure is not clear.

So there are elements in the administration who would want either regime change or for Iran to completely capitulate.

And then the president in Tokyo said Iran can prosper under the existing regime, and what I really want is to talk to Iran.

So I think the United States would do well if it had a clear strategy, and it would signal it properly.

But I agree with Reuel that Iran is in a tight spot.

They don't have an option of going to war with the United States.

That would be the end of the Islamic Republic.

They cannot suffer under these sanctions as is.

And they ultimately may have to come to the table, but it's going a very delicate dance of how they get themselves to the table.

And we saw some of this with Kim Jong-un on and North Korea, that beating their chests, being threatening essentially might be a sort of way to come to the table.

And we shouldn't forget that the prime minister of Japan didn't go to Iran without at least having some indication that the Iranians would like to hear proposals from the United States.

And it's quite possible that he's carrying back at least certain conditionalities and proposals from Iran.

So the public messaging between the two sides may -- as Reuel says, may be providing a sort of an umbrella or a cover for some kind of an engagement that might be forthcoming.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, it's counterintuitive, but are we saying that the maximum pressure campaign, which may have caused Iran or pushed them into a corner, that made them want to do this, Reuel Gerecht, then may in turn lead to talks?

Is that what we're -- is that... (CROSSTALK) REUEL MARC GERECHT: Well, it's entirely possible.

I mean, again, I think it depends what the Iranians do.

They're creatures of habit.

So since we haven't responded yet to their provocations -- and I think, in retrospect, it was probably a mistake that we didn't respond to the attacks off the coast of Fujairah, where there were four ships damaged.

If we'd been more bold then and said... JUDY WOODRUFF: This is what happened a few weeks ago.

REUEL MARC GERECHT: Right.

If we'd been more bold and said, you do that again, we're going to unleash helicopter gunships on the Revolutionary Guard Corps navy, this might not have happened.

So it depends whether they return to these tactics.

I suspect they might, in which case the -- I think the U.S. Navy will have to become more forceful.

That could derail or delay the process for the regime, if it really is trying to find an avenue to have negotiations with President Trump.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, very quickly, right now, we're still waiting to see a clear response from the Trump administration.

Is that right?

VALI NASR: Absolutely.

And, also, we don't know exactly what Prime Minister Abe brought back and what he has relayed to the president.

And I think Reuel is correct.

I think both sides need to show a -- show decisiveness, as they are perhaps trying to go to talks and gain leverage.

But this is exactly why it's dangerous.

It can get out of hand, and then one signal or one escalation may essentially lead to somewhere where neither country, I think, would want to go.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, in the meantime, you had the acting defense secretary, Shanahan, saying - - talking today about an international reaction.

So, we will wait to see whether that comes together in some way.

Reuel Marc Gerecht, Vali Nasr, we thank you.

REUEL MARC GERECHT: Thank you very much.

JUDY WOODRUFF: With an increasing number of school shootings across the country, school boards and administrators are struggling with how to prepare for the worst-case scenarios.

As John Ferrugia from Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver reports, Colorado has become a center for developing school safety protocols that have been adopted in many districts throughout the U.S. JOHN FERRUGIA: Walking the halls of Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado is always bittersweet for John-Michael Keyes.

It is here he lost his daughter.

In 2006, a lone gunman, a stranger, got into the school and took students hostage in a classroom.

All got out but one, Emily Keyes.

And she sent this last text message to her parents.

JOHN-MICHAEL KEYES, I Love U Guys Foundation: You know, Emily gave us a voice, and she also told us what to say.

"I love you guys."

JOHN FERRUGIA: It is from here that an idea emerged, a plan to save the lives of others.

JOHN-MICHAEL KEYES: I realized that there wasn't a common language and common expectations of what to do in a crisis around the country with our schools.

And we found a handful of districts in the country that were using some very specific language in their crisis response, and we packaged it and relabeled it and called it the Standard Response Protocol.

JOHN FERRUGIA: The I Love U Guys Foundation, started by John Michael and Ellen Keyes, trains hundreds of teachers, administrators, organizations and agencies every year to expand the reach and scope of the program.

JOHN MICHAEL KEYES: We took lock out, lock down, evacuate, and we added shelter.

And those are the four actions of the Standard Response Protocol.

JOHN MCDONALD, Executive Director of Safety and Security, Jefferson County Schools: We found the Standard Response Protocol in 2009.

It changed our lives.

And... JOHN FERRUGIA: That was John Michael Keyes.

JOHN MCDONALD: That was John Michael Keyes, the I Love U Guys Foundation.

JOHN FERRUGIA: John McDonald heads security at the Jefferson County School District.

This is the district of Columbine High School, where, in 1999, two students killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before killing themselves.

McDonald and his team, working closely with local law enforcement, are focused on keeping kids safe in schools.

He oversees the Frank DeAngelis Center, which was once an elementary school.

It is named for the former Columbine High School principal, Frank DeAngelis, who now speaks across the country about the lessons learned from Columbine.

At this training center, school districts and law enforcement agencies from across the country can train for the worst.

JOHN MCDONALD: In the past year, we have had over 60 agencies, more than 6,000 police officers, sheriff's deputies, state and federal agents training in here, preparing for that given day.

JOHN FERRUGIA: The goal is making sure a responding officer, even if working alone, understands the tactics that can help stop a shooter who gets into a school.

This is a state-of-the-art, computer-controlled, virtual reality shooter training.

Officers can be run through hundreds of scenarios involving a gunman in one room or in several rooms.

JOHN MCDONALD: It really provides our professionals the ability to go into an environment and train just like they would have to respond, using multiple rooms, noise.

JOHN FERRUGIA: But this is just one part of the school safety equation.

Another component is how schools immediately respond before law enforcement arrives.

That brought John Michael Keyes, with program in hand, to Jefferson County.

JOHN MCDONALD: He came to me, sat down in our office here.

And I said, how much?

He said, I'm not going to charge you anything.

I just want you to try it.

I call him back the next day.

I said, I don't believe in testing it.

We're going to implement it.

We started training on the Standard Response Protocol in all of our schools, and it was battle-tested that year.

In February of 2010, three weeks before our Deer Creek Middle School shooting, we first went into that school and trained and talked to the teachers and the administrators about what they would see, what it would feel like, what they needed to think about.

JOHN FERRUGIA: On that day, a mentally ill man shot and wounded two students outside Deer Creek Middle School, before being tackled by a teacher and subdued.

JOHN MCDONALD: I support this program.

I have for many years.

JOHN FERRUGIA: And that is why John McDonald is often right alongside Keyes, helping to train the Standard Response Protocol.

JOHN MCDONALD: I believe it to be the fundamental program that we base all school safety on here in this district and so many districts across the state of Colorado, and now across the country and Canada.

JOHN FERRUGIA: The I Love U Guys Foundation has mapped where school districts are now using the Standard Response Protocol, and the list continues to grow.

But despite their efforts, John McDonald says there are still huge gaps in school safety training across the country.

JOHN MCDONALD: There are no national standards.

There's no state standards.

There's not local standards other than what we decide and determine.

And that's a struggle.

Frankly, that worries me a lot.

JOHN FERRUGIA: For Jefferson County and many other school districts, student and staff training and law enforcement response are just two components of a comprehensive safety plan.

Columbine also changed school access and school surveillance.

JOHN MCDONALD: And you have to be on video or intercom to get into a school today.

JOHN FERRUGIA: McDonald is committed to making sure they never let a gunman near or in a school.

JOHN MCDONALD: Video camera, robust surveillance systems that track people's movement, panic alarms inside schools that automatically connect with our emergency dispatch center here, and we are on the same radio system that all of our first-responders are.

JOHN FERRUGIA: And while he wouldn't reveal the capabilities of the high-tech, high-definition surveillance system, he did demonstrate the lower-resolution optics.

JOHN MCDONALD: If there's a critical incident in a school and we're locked down, our dispatchers can open the door the moment they see law enforcement pull up on scene.

JOHN FERRUGIA: Remotely, from here?

JOHN MCDONALD: Remotely.

And that's a big deal.

JOHN FERRUGIA: And he says these are safety measures for all district schools.

But for Columbine High School, there are even more unique security elements that can't be discussed.

JOHN MCDONALD: For so many, it is a place of hope and inspiration.

A lot of victims come here.

But so too do a lot of people who are inspired by the killers.

And that's been the biggest challenge for us.

JOHN FERRUGIA: How many people have tried to get into the school?

JOHN MCDONALD: We're averaging about 198 a month.

JOHN FERRUGIA: A month?

JOHN MCDONALD: A month?

JOHN FERRUGIA: One hundred and ninety-eight people a month are trying to get into the school?

JOHN MCDONALD: Yes.

JOHN FERRUGIA: And what do you do when you have people there, obviously, all the time?

JOHN MCDONALD: Oh, we stop them.

We engage outside the building, not inside.

I'm not giving them the opportunity to get in.

JOHN FERRUGIA: And McDonald says, unlike in 1999, when there were unheeded warnings about the killers being violent in their writings and conversations, today, if there are threats, whether spoken, written or on social media, his team will react quickly.

JOHN MCDONALD: Look, if you say you're going to kill us, you say you're going to blow us up, I believe you.

And we're going to send law enforcement to your house, and we're going to try to get consent to search your room from your parents.

And we're going and bring your parents in on this and make them a partner with us, because we're not going to allow this to happen.

We're going to make sure that, in our environment, you and everyone else around you is safe and secure.

JOHN FERRUGIA: That is the message from a school district that has experienced mass murder.

And it is a message officials here hope other districts across the country will take to heart to prevent yet another school shooting.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm John Ferrugia in Denver.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Stay with us.

Coming up on the "NewsHour": Mark Shields and David Brooks break down President Trump's controversial comments about receiving foreign help in campaigns; plus, how embracing the legacy of blues music is reviving a struggling Southern city.

But first: In Syria, there is a tale of two territories.

The final stronghold of those opposed to the Assad regime is the target of relentless attacks and the source of constant tension between Syria and neighboring Turkey.

And then there is the area liberated by the U.S. and its allies.

As Nick Schifrin reports, each area faces unique and immense challenges.

NICK SCHIFRIN: With the war in Syria now grinding into the ninth year, Bashar al-Assad has all but won the war and kept power with the help of Iran and Russia and much of the country.

But the killing and suffering continues, especially in Northwest Syria in Idlib province.

Millions of civilians and tens of thousands of militants are under constant bombardment.

Meanwhile, in Northeast Syria, the Syrian Kurds, with U.S. and European backing, destroyed ISIS' stronghold nearly three months ago.

The Kurds control a vast area, but many of its major cities are destroyed, and they live with the threat of a promised U.S. withdrawal.

To update us on both regions, we welcome two people with deep experience covering the war.

Hassan Hassan was born and grew up in Eastern Syria.

He is now a director at the Center For Global Policy, a foreign policy think tank.

And journalist and author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, she's an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and just returned from her sixth trip to Northeast Syria, and is working on a new book about the Kurds.

Welcome to you both.

Thank you very much.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Hassan Hassan, let's start with you in Idlib.

We have covered this story before.

How bad is the onslaught by the Syrian regime and the Russian air force against this last location where rebels are living?

HASSAN HASSAN, Center For Global Policy: This is as bad as it gets.

We were anticipating that the regime and the Russians will attack Idlib.

We have been anticipating this for about a year now.

So the offensive has been relentless.

The Russians have been bombarding the areas nonstop for about six weeks now, but with very little military progress on the ground.

NICK SCHIFRIN: So what is their hope?

Are they trying to bomb these people into submission?

These people don't have very many places to go, other than across the border in Turkey.

Or is it more of a limited goal?

HASSAN HASSAN: The campaign has been very limited.

There are signs that the Russians have wanted it to be geographically limited.

Iran has not been involved in the fight on the ground.

And this is one of the major reasons why Russia has not managed to make any progress, meaningful progress, against the Syrian rebels in Idlib and in Northern Hama.

These are the two areas where the offensive has focused.

It was probably they managed to take 1 percent, and they lost around 1 percent as well.

NICK SCHIFRIN: These horrific scenes that we're seeing in Idlib are not the same as we see in Northern Syria and Northeast Syria.

Raqqa was ISIS' stronghold, a place where there were executions in the middle of the square.

The SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces, mostly Kurds, with U.S. help, have taken over that city.

Is it a real city today?

Does it have real problems?

GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON, Council on Foreign Relations: It is.

It's a real city with real problems led by a nonstate actor with real state issues, right?

And so what you see now is a real fragile stability.

One shopkeeper we visited, I was really worried her business was going to be closed, after it was very slow and December.

And we walked in this time, and not only does she have a great business that's going and a sewing machine that's up, but she had a 14-year-old girl from her family who's helping her and clerking also.

And so you see this real fragile stability taking hold amid enormous challenge, and a real threat of ISIS reemergence.

So what they're looking for is any opening that they possibly can use.

And it's interesting.

One mother we met said, what we really love is that women are in all kinds of new roles all around Raqqa.

What we're really worried about is the city falling back into chaos.

And that's what you hear a lot.

NICK SCHIFRIN: One of the big challenges also in that part of the country is what to do with the people who were either held by ISIS or were members of ISIS, especially the so-called ISIS wives.

These are women who traveled with their husbands to join ISIS.

How do they feel about ISIS today?

And how are they raising their children?

GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON: So it depends on who you talk to.

The women that we spoke with -- and I think that you should call them both ISIS wives and followers, right, because they were very much adherents to what was happening.

And so you talk to them, and you hear this mix of real disappointment and disillusionment with Baghdadi, who is the head of the Islamic State, because they are deeply bitter about the fact that children of these women who were part of ISIS died of starvation in Baghouz, in the last ISIS holdout, while leadership had access, as one mother told me, to potato chips and juice and Pepsi, while our children died in our arms.

And you really do hear that.

Now, at the same time, you have this united nations of ISIS that is in this whole camp with people from Seychelles and Germany and Amsterdam and all kinds of countries, right?

And you walk in and you hear a real rainbow of languages being spoken as people talk about it.

And you see how far-reaching this project was.

And you wonder.

There is this camp in Hol was -- had 9,000 people in a school running before Baghouz.

It was prepared for 30,000 to 40,000.

It now has 73,000 people, at least 60 percent of them children.

And they're trying to figure out what to do with this, including all of the foreigners, who absolutely no one wants to take back.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Because the Kurds don't have the capacity really to do much with them.

GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON: But just think.

Until a few months ago, right, i mean, they were fighting the people.

And now we have asked them to please not only house them, feed them, shelter them, make sure that viruses don't spread, that the health care is taken care of, but also, help us hold people that their own home countries don't want.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Let's quickly look toward the future.

Hassan Hassan, what do you see in Idlib?

Do you think this onslaught will continue?

And are we going to see it spread past Idlib?

HASSAN HASSAN: Well, I think both Russia and the regime will eventually want to take all of Idlib, because this is the last stronghold held by the Syrian rebel forces.

In my opinion, the preference by the Syrian regime is to demolish the hauler.

The reason why that is, is because they know that, even after they expel the Syrian rebel forces from these areas, that will be -- that will turn into an endless underground campaign, insurgency by these forces.

So they don't want to take chances, essentially, of having some remnants of the rebels in that very critical area.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, what do you see, quickly, in the north, North and Northeastern Syria, these threats to stability?

Do the Kurds have the capacity to prevent instability?

And is the U.S. focused enough on it?

GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON: So, the U.S. is the Oz-like presence that you don't see, but everybody knows.

And, so far, they have been able to keep out the regime, Iran -- Turkey.

And they have been able to keep ISIS more or less at bay with a partner force that is doing its job every single day.

So the challenge is, what comes next?

And that has always been the question.

You hear -- talk to SDF leadership, to folks who are part of this partner force, and they are focused on trying to work with the Americans to get to a deal with Turkey.

And they're very quick to talk to you about it.

Whether that deal can be achieved is a whole other question.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Gayle Tzemach Lemmon with Council on Foreign Relations, Hassan Hassan, Center For Global Policy, thanks to you both.

GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON: Thank you.

HASSAN HASSAN: Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Back in the U.S., the stages are set for the first Democratic primary debates, and President Trump weighs in on accepting information from foreign governments about political opponents, which brings us to the analysis of Shields and Brooks.

That is syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Hello to both of you.

So let's start with the story that has pretty much dominated the week, David, and that is President Trump saying in that interview with ABC that if he were offered information from a foreign government about a political opponent, he wouldn't have any trouble taking it, and he -- why would he report it to the FBI?

Now, he's walked it back a little.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But how serious is this?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, it's a great moment in moral philosophy when you're asked if you're going to cheat, and you say, of course, everyone cheats.

(LAUGHTER) DAVID BROOKS: I salute him for not pretending to be better than he really is.

He's pretty candid about it.

But I do think that's a bit of his mind-set, that the rules -- everybody breaks the rules.

And maybe he conducted his business life that way, and he certainly wants to do that.

It's just his natural reaction is, of course.

Everybody breaks the rules.

What's disturbing to me is not so much him.

We sort of know him already -- is how many Republicans are now walking themselves up to the position, well, we're in a death match, and so we need a leader like that.

And I think, in order to justify their support for President Trump, they have talked themselves - - or many people have -- into the position that this is a life-or-death struggle, the left is out to destroy us, and so breaking the rules is what you got to do.

And so that, to me, is almost a scarier prospect than the heart and soul of Donald Trump.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, some of them, some Republicans have said that he made a mistake.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But you're right.

DAVID BROOKS: Mitt Romney and others.

But some of the others, the people who are supporting him, it's the ends justify the means argument.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Mark?

MARK SHIELDS: Yes, I agree with David.

It just -- it strikes me that the president remains unchanged in a changing world.

Being president has not changed him in the least.

Even Warren Harding, not a particularly thoughtful or self-reflective man, said, the White House is an alchemist.

It finds what your strengths are, in his case, finds what your weaknesses are.

Donald Trump said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos: I have heard a lot of things in my life.

I have never gone to the FBI.

I mean, he was talking as a New York real estate guy.

He's never made the transition to, I'm thinking, is it good for the United States of America, is it good for the working families, is it good for world peace or whatever, that a president is supposed to think through that prism.

It comes right down to, is it good for me?

And, to David's point, hey, hey, get a little advantage over my opponent, yes, you better believe I will do it.

What am I, a sissy, a snitch that's going to go to the FBI?

And it's a -- it really is sort of a sad moral judgment.

The other thing I would just point out is ABC -- it was ABC's story.

And ABC today broke the -- they revealed the Trump state polls at this point.

And I don't know if you saw that, but he is now trailing Joe Biden by 16 points in Pennsylvania, by 10 points in Wisconsin, by seven points in Florida.

So, I mean, we're looking at the cusp right now, given those kind of numbers, of a campaign that literally would do anything.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Which the president, when he was asked about those polls the other day, said that that's not correct.

MARK SHIELDS: That's right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: That his polls show that he's ahead in every state.

MARK SHIELDS: And these are his polls that they revealed today.

(LAUGHTER) JUDY WOODRUFF: But, David, to your point about Republicans being on board, I mean, the fact is, you have mainly Republicans holding up efforts in the Congress right now to tighten election security.

So, this is -- this is having some consequences here.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

And this is Mitch McConnell.

And, frankly, I don't -- the federal government has already authorized $380 million for the states.

One of the bills would give them another billion.

And so I don't really know what -- the right spending level for this.

But you would think, given what we have been through and the seriousness of what we have been through, that you would want to err on the side of preventing the corruption of our electoral system, which has happened, which we know is going to happen again, from multiple sources, maybe, the Russians doing something different than they did last time.

And so you think you would -- if we're going to spend whatever hundreds and hundreds of billions on defense, on our military defense, a billion on -- to defend our electoral system doesn't seem to me an outrageous expense.

And so it seems like something they should be doing.

And you get the impression Mitch McConnell doesn't want to do anything that will annoy Donald Trump.

MARK SHIELDS: Yes, Mitch McConnell has been constant on this.

He's no Johnny-come-lately.

He was the one voice, you will recall, in the leadership in 2016, when the leadership of the Congress unanimously agreed with the Obama administration to go public on the revelation that Russia was already deeply involved in the systematic undermining of our electoral process, he resisted it, and, as a consequence, stopped it.

He is now stopping the reforms.

I mean, even Roy Blunt, the chairman of the Rules Committee, has been quite candid about this.

I mean, the fact is that, in a secular democracy, the closest thing to a public sacrament is a national election.

And when you're starting to tamper with that and trifle with that -- I mean, we went through it in 2016.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In '16.

MARK SHIELDS: We saw what happened when there was strife and disunity nurtured on the Democratic side between Sanders and Clinton campaigns by those e-mails.

A party chair was forced out.

And Donald Trump himself 140 times mentioned WikiLeaks approvingly during the campaign.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

MARK SHIELDS: I mean, so, there was a play.

And the Mueller report -- committee -- investigation confirmed it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, at this point, not -- nothing is really moving that would change -- that would protect... MARK SHIELDS: No, thanks to Mitch.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... that would protect what we have -- gone on.

Mark, you mentioned the polls.

The Democrats, it probably brought a little spring to their step.

But we know these polls are temporary.

Today, David, the Democratic National Committee announced that they have got their first debates coming up next week.

And they're divided into two nights because there are so many candidates.

The Democrats -- the party said, OK, the most we're going to allow on the stage on any one night is 10.

So they have got 10 one night and 10 the next.

Today, they drew names.

And we can show you the lineup now.

On the first night, June the 26, there are going to be these 10.

And I'm not going to name every single one of them.

MARK SHIELDS: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But I can tell you that this is -- Elizabeth Warren is included here, Beto O'Rourke, and then the others, Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar and a number of others.

The second night, you have, frankly, several of the front-runners, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, and others.

Does this -- is this a lineup, David, that tells you something about what we can look for, or what?

I mean, the party was clearly trying not to have an adult night and a kids night.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

Right.

No.

And it's 10.

It's a minion.

So it's an honor.

It's a tradition that you get the minion of Democrats.

(LAUGHTER) DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I think the short answer - - I don't know -- the first thing is, it's bad for Elizabeth Warren, because the better night is the second night.

You have got Biden, Buttigieg.

You have got Sanders.

You have got three of the top tier, and then some of the wild cards who we -- as well as Kamala Harris.

So, if people are going to watch one night, I suspect they're going to watch night two.

But, of course, we will all be watching both nights.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Both nights, yes.

DAVID BROOKS: And, so, that.

The second thing is, in hearing from the campaigns, is, you usually go into a debate with some strategy, like who you're going to say what to.

But with so many, there's no strategy.

It's just -- there's no -- you can't pick a strategy, because you don't know where -- what's going to happen.

There will be 10 of the people on the stage.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Two hours each night.

DAVID BROOKS: And then it'll be another 10 the next night, or some other time.

And so it'll be a little more parallel play, I think, with the candidates not trying to react so much to each other, but just trying to shine their own solipsistic self.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All right, match solipsistic... (CROSSTALK) MARK SHIELDS: Their own -- oh, wow.

Boy, that's a PBS word.

(LAUGHTER) JUDY WOODRUFF: Yes.

But, Mark, I mean, does this lineup foretell something special about this?

MARK SHIELDS: It does.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Or it's just there are so many.... MARK SHIELDS: It does, Judy.

And I will tell you what it says.

If you're going in it, you're 2, 3 percent, this is your night.

I mean, you have got to say something that's memorable.

That's what it is.

Now, that is maybe good news for a candidate, maybe bad news for the party.

Going to make the boldest assertion.

I'm going to take a position that's far to the left and challenge everybody else to do it.

But I have to do something that's memorable.

I want to bell the cat.

I want to go after Joe Biden or one of the front-runners or Elizabeth Warren in the first night.

I would say Elizabeth Warren's probably got the best position, because she has the first night.

And out of curiosity, a lot of people will tune in.

But, no, I think that's the risk.

And, plus, it's the reward, I mean, that you do something that's memorable.

I remember, 1988, the Democrats, the seven dwarfs, or nine dwarfs, or whatever they were then, when Bruce Babbitt, who was a dark horse, the governor of Arizona, stood up and said, we're going to have to raise taxes.

We know that after Ronald Reagan.

And I know we're going to.

And I will do it as president.

And I will stand up.

And I challenge the rest of you to.

And they all -- all the others sat down.

And, of course, he was right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: He was the only one.

MARK SHIELDS: He was the only one who did it.

DAVID BROOKS: Did he get the nomination?

I'm trying to remember.

(LAUGHTER) MARK SHIELDS: No, he didn't get the nomination.

But you have to do something to roll the dice to get the... (CROSSTALK) MARK SHIELDS: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Go ahead.

DAVID BROOKS: The good news for the Democrats - - I left out a syllable from solipsistic, by the way.

MARK SHIELDS: Yes.

(CROSSTALK) (LAUGHTER) JUDY WOODRUFF: Mark and I noticed that.

MARK SHIELDS: We didn't want to say anything.

(LAUGHTER) DAVID BROOKS: The good news for the Democrats is, all these people qualified, because they all -- you had to get, what it was, 65,000.

(CROSSTALK) MARK SHIELDS: That's right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And be at least at X-percent in the polls.

DAVID BROOKS: And so you have all these people, some of them not so well-known.

They all did it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

DAVID BROOKS: And that's a sign that Democratic interest is super high, and then we could be seeing exponentially record turnout, either through primaries or maybe through the whole year.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I'm expecting we're going to have a huge viewership of both -- on both nights.

MARK SHIELDS: Are you really?

OK. JUDY WOODRUFF: But, Mark, you mentioned the candidates having a chance to stand out.

There are a few of them who are now beginning to take shots or mini-shots, I guess we can say, at the front-runner, Joe Biden.

Last night, I interviewed Beto O'Rourke here, and he took what I think you can say is a gentle swipe at the former vice president.

Let's listen.

BETO O'ROURKE (D), Presidential Candidate: I think some of the appeal of the vice president's candidacy is a return to an earlier era.

And while we are grateful for that era, and certainly for the service of President Obama, I think we need to be focused on the future, because, even before Donald Trump, we had challenges in this country.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Even before Donald Trump, we had challenges.

MARK SHIELDS: Yes, that's true.

I don't think anyone's going to argue with that.

(LAUGHTER) MARK SHIELDS: Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

That's the Beto O'Rourke bumper sticker.

I mean, I can understand that.

I think, more than anything else, it was a subtle, non-venomous way of raising the age issue, that Joe, Joe Biden, is yesterday.

I'm tomorrow.

Tomorrow basically wins in American politics.

I think today might be an exception, when yesterday looks pretty darn good to most Americans.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Is that effective for him to be doing that?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And he's not the only one.

DAVID BROOKS: Well, I think, substantively, there is an argument whether the Democrats want to continue on the Obama-Biden trajectory or they want a totally different trajectory.

And Sanders, Warren and maybe Beto are sort of on a different trajectory.

I personally don't think it's effective to do it right now.

MARK SHIELDS: Yes.

DAVID BROOKS: I think that the Democrats, even with all these good poll numbers, are terrified of blowing this.

And they do not want to sully each other too much.

I think there's going to be low market, especially early in the campaign, to sully the other candidates.

Second, people like Joe Biden.

And so there's some expectation from some of the other campaigns that he's just going to fade on his own, or they hope he will.

But, anyway, to go out so early and to be negative, even if it was pretty gentle... MARK SHIELDS: It was a pretty gentle.... (CROSSTALK) DAVID BROOKS: It was pretty gentle.

But I would make just the larger point that I think going after each other as heavily and as hard as Sanders and Clinton did, or as Obama and Clinton did, I think that's probably the wrong formula this year.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And that's my question, Mark.

I mean, is that the kind of thing that we're going to look at, look for in these debates next week?

How hard are they going to go?

Are they going to be prepared... MARK SHIELDS: We will say we're looking for substance and new ideas, but we will look for elbows and knees in the groin, and all sorts of rabbit punches and that, and whether, in fact, they're rewarded for it.

I mean, I think -- I mean, I think the urgency, the sense of urgency that you have got to break through in one of those appearances is just -- is so strong and so compelling, overwhelming.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, this week, we saw -- David, we saw Bernie Sanders talk about Democratic socialism.

He's clearly feeling some heat from -- maybe not so much from Democrats, although they have expressed their differences, but also from Republicans.

Is that something he needs to do right now?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

I have certainly heard it from Democrats that, we're not all socialists.

We don't want to be the socialist party.

I don't think he helped himself at all.

I mean, he didn't describe what kind of socialist he is.

Is he just a socialist who wants to do the New Deal?

I wouldn't call that socialism.

The key issue is, what do you think of capitalism?

And how much would you interfere in the market?

Elizabeth Warren makes very clear she's got some pretty progressive policies, but she wants to reform capitalism, not do away with it.

And Sanders is never able to define the left where he won't go, whether it's Venezuela, or whether it's the Nicaraguan regime, the Sandinistas.

He will never say, those people are not me.

And so, without drawing that boundary, Trump can say, look, he's as socialist as you want to be.

So I don't think he did a very good job of defining what he means by socialism.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, he will have a chance to do that next Thursday night on the debate stage.

Mark Shields, David Brooks, we will be talking about that next Friday.

Thank you.

MARK SHIELDS: Thank you, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And now: a music festival attempting to keep the blues alive in the Mississippi Delta and revive a struggling town.

Jeffrey Brown reports.

It's part two of our -- or part, I should say, of our arts and culture series, Canvas, and our look at American creators.

JEFFREY BROWN: A rainy Saturday night in Clarksdale, in the heart of the rural Mississippi Delta.

At the new seed and supply company, Anthony "Big A" Sherrod is holding court.

It was just one act in a town-like celebration of the blues that, for 16 years, has been bring thousands of fans here, rain or shine, each spring.

ANTHONY "BIG A" SHERROD, Musician: It's wonderful, man.

It's lovely, lovely.

They love the blues, just like I do.

JEFFREY BROWN: They came from all around the country and all over the world, including this contingent from Australia.

This year, the festival featured more than 100 performances.

For the kids, there were racing pigs and a monkey riding a dog herding goats.

The festival takes its name from juke joints, informal bars and music venues once scattered throughout the African-American South as an answer, in part, to whites-only clubs, a rich history now in danger of being lost.

Red's Lounge is said to be one of the last true juke joints in Clarksdale and on a Friday night was packed, as Frank Rimmer dazzled on guitar.

RED PADEN, Owner, Red's Lounge: See, I was keeping it a secret.

I don't know.

Somehow, it got out.

JEFFREY BROWN: Red Paden has been running this place for more than 40 years.

So why do you think people are coming here from all over the world?

They keep coming.

RED PADEN: They heard I was a mean son of a bitch.

That's what that is.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: No, really, why are they coming to Clarksdale?

Why are they coming to Red's?

RED PADEN: Well, it tells a story, man.

And a lot of them have gone through certain things, you know, but didn't know how to express themselves.

So, in that music, they have learned how to express themselves.

JEFFREY BROWN: Clarksdale sits at a very famous crossroads of blues history, where Route 61, which runs from New Orleans to Memphis, St. Louis and beyond, meets Route 49, which runs across Mississippi.

And it's where, according to lore, blues legend Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to learn the guitar.

It's home to the Riverside Hotel, on the south side of town, where singer Bessie Smith died after a car accident.

And it was once home to legends like Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, Ike Turner, and many more.

Juke Joint Festival co-founder Roger Stolle grew up in Ohio as a fan of the music, and moved here in 2002 to open Cat Head, a record store.

He says the downtown was dead, and live music was struggling to be heard.

ROGER STOLLE, Co-Founder, Juke Joint Festival: It was just really winding down.

You could almost just see it winding down.

So it's kind of like, well, you make it reliable, I can bring you tourists, blues fans.

But they're not going to spend the night in Clarksdale if I can't promise them you have got music tonight.

JEFFREY BROWN: Today, there are new cafes, restaurants, hotels and live music across town, including at many new venues like Ground Zero Blues Club, co-owned by actor Morgan Freeman.

Economic challenges remain, but cultural tourism has been a major factor in the growth.

JOHN HENSHALL, Economist: You could fire a cannon down the street and not hit anyone.

JEFFREY BROWN: John Henshall is an economist based in Melbourne, Australia.

He first came here in 2001 by accident, and has since returned 22 times.

Now he's written a book about its downtown redevelopment, and lessons for other small cities.

JOHN HENSHALL: Well, to have something you can authentically promote, in this case, it's the blues.

JEFFREY BROWN: Something real.

JOHN HENSHALL: Something real.

And it's not just the music, but certainly the blues.

That's one of the lessons.

You got to promote it.

You have got to get people engaged.

And increasingly the Clarksdalians themselves are now recognizing what they have here.

JEFFREY BROWN: You mean they didn't before?

JOHN HENSHALL: They grew up with it.

They didn't realize that it's something could be so appealing to people beyond the city limits.

JEFFREY BROWN: In a majority-black area, those visitors are overwhelmingly white, as are many of the new businesses.

And the challenge here is to make sure the benefits are spread evenly.

ARCHIE BUFORD, Owner, Our Grandma's House of Pancakes: A lot of people depend on the festival, you know, in Clarksdale, because of the economy.

JEFFREY BROWN: Archie Buford is owner of Our Grandma's House of Pancakes, one of a number of new downtown establishments, but one of the few black-owned.

ARCHIE BUFORD: What we got to work on is making sure what we do inside the fence gets outside to better the community.

The better the community, the better the city.

JEFFREY BROWN: Festival co-founder Roger Stolle.

ROGER STOLLE: You know what it is?

It's the first puzzle piece on that empty table.

And it was absolutely an empty table.

And the thing about puzzle pieces is, you can build off of that.

So now you look at it, there's the obvious things, like, OK, well, we have got live blues 365 nights a year, which we do.

We have a dozen festivals a year, which we do.

And it just -- it reverberates.

It may not save the town, obviously, on its own, but it's sort of the foundation of what we're doing, at least for downtown revitalization.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's a hope for the music, and for the economic benefits it can bring.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tonight, PBS' "American Masters" presents "Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life," a documentary on one of the nation's leading playwrights and writer of the Broadway musical "The Full Monty."

PATRICK WILSON, Actor: I was in a prep school, and my first play that I did was "Next" by Terrence McNally.

And I remember, by the end of the play, I was in tears, I couldn't even finish the play, and the lights went down.

And I just felt very raw, and I felt like, wow, I guess that's what acting is.

TERRENCE MCNALLY, Playwright: I went by the theater one night, and I saw Patrick Wilson on a Gershwin review.

And I thought, this guy's really great, and we're casting "Full Monty."

The characters in "Full Monty" to me represent everybody who's got some gumption and wants to better themselves.

PATRICK WILSON: This show was as much about life and love and not taking anybody for granted as any show that I have ever been a part of.

JUDY WOODRUFF: That's "American Masters" tonight on PBS.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

On Monday, we will talk with Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro.

And earlier with Shields and Brooks, I said the Democratic debates are next week.

They are actually in two weeks.

I was in too big a hurry.

We will be here to analyze it all.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

Have a great weekend.

Thank you, and good night.

END