AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Judy Woodruff is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: turmoil at the top -- how multiple resignations at the country's top intelligence office raise questions about political influence and the future of the intelligence community.

Then: Five years after the police killing of Michael Brown, we return to Ferguson, Missouri, to look at the emotional toll left behind.

LESLEY MCSPADDEN, Mother of Michael Brown: When I wake up in the morning, my emotions are all over the place, and I really don't know if I want to go forwards, backwards, because every day is a fight for me since August 9, 2014.

AMNA NAWAZ: And it's Friday, so David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart are here to break down the political response to mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, as well as the latest from the 2020 campaign trail.

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

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: President Trump expressed hope today that he will be able to persuade Republicans to back stronger background check legislation for firearms.

He said he's spoken with congressional leaders and officials from the National Rifle Association after last weekend's mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

Before leaving the White House this morning, the president told reporters there is -- quote - - "tremendous support" for background check legislation.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Frankly, we need intelligent background checks, OK?

This isn't a question of NRA, Republican, or Democrat.

I will tell you, I spoke to Mitch McConnell yesterday.

He's totally on board.

He said, I've been waiting for your call.

He is totally on board.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, McConnell has not endorsed any type of gun safety legislation.

Yesterday, he told a Kentucky radio show the Senate will discuss background checks and so-called red flag laws when it returns in September.

Five years after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, his father called for a new investigation of his death.

The 2014 killing sparked nationwide protests demanding greater police accountability.

A grand jury declined to indict Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed the unarmed black teenager.

Today, Brown's father said justice had not yet been served.

MICHAEL BROWN SR., Father of Michael Brown: As a father, I vowed to protect my children.

Well, on August 9, 2014, that wasn't the case.

I could not protect him that day, and it breaks my heart.

His family is still standing, and we're not stopping until we get some type of justice.

AMNA NAWAZ: Saint Louis County's new prosecuting attorney, Wesley Bell, has not yet said if he will reopen the case.

In Hong Kong, demonstrators descended on the international airport today for the first of three days of planned anti-government protests.

Hundreds of activists filled the airport's terminal and chanted demands for democratic reforms in the region.

Protesters said they want to send a message to visitors in Hong Kong.

CHENG, Protester (through translator): Every foreigner who came to Hong Kong could see how united we are.

This shows that Hong Kong youngsters are 100 percent peaceful and not violent.

AMNA NAWAZ: While today's protests remained peaceful, some recent demonstrations have led to violent clashes between police and protesters.

Today, the territory's chief executive, Carrie Lam, who has faced calls to step down, urged lawmakers not to give in after months of chaos.

CARRIE LAM, Hong Kong Chief Executive: I don't think we should just sort of make concessions in order to silence the violent protesters.

We should do what is right for Hong Kong.

And, at this moment, what is right for Hong Kong, as we have heard all of our 33 business representatives told us, is to stop the violence and to say no to the chaotic situation that Hong Kong has experienced in the last few weeks.

AMNA NAWAZ: The protests started in opposition to a now-tabled extradition bill that could have moved Hong Kong residents to mainland China to face criminal charges.

Police have arrested nearly 600 people in the demonstrations since June.

There is word tonight that North Korea has fired two projectiles into the sea off its eastern coast.

It comes as the country has ramped up their missile tests in recent weeks amid a stalemate in nuclear talks with the U.S. Today, President Trump told reporters he received a three-page letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but he declined to share what it said.

China, meanwhile, is on red alert, as a powerful typhoon made landfall on its east coast.

It touched down in Zhejiang province around 1:00 a.m. Local time on Saturday.

Heavy rains and strong winds had already impacted parts of northeastern Taiwan, canceling flights and suspending schools.

The typhon -- typhoon, rather, is expected to weaken as it moves farther inland.

The Indian government today temporarily eased a strict curfew in the disputed territory of Kashmir for Friday prayers.

That came during an unprecedented five-day lockdown in the Muslim-majority state by India's Hindu nationalist government.

Today, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, hundreds demonstrated against that crackdown.

UMAR AFTEB KIYANI, Student Leader (through translator): We are on the streets, and we have just one demand, that we should be given the right of determination as soon as possible and that a solution should be found for the Kashmir issue.

We appeal to the United Nations to find a peaceful solution and grant us self-determination.

AMNA NAWAZ: The Indian government implemented that lockdown after it unilaterally revoked Kashmir's autonomy, leading to mass protests and escalating tensions with Pakistan.

The remains of a Detroit man who died in Baghdad after being deported from the U.S. will be returned to his home state of Michigan for burial.

Jimmy Aldaoud, who was born in Greece to Iraqi refugees, had lived in the U.S. legally since he was an infant.

The 41-year old struggled with mental health issues and was deported in June as part of an ICE crackdown on immigrants with criminal convictions.

He died in Iraq, a country he'd never before set foot in, after being unable to obtain insulin to treat his diabetes.

And there are new signs that uncertainty about Brexit is taking a toll on the British economy.

It unexpectedly shrank in the second quarter for the first time since 2012, as Britain prepares to the leave the European Union in October with or without a deal.

Back in this country, Wall Street ended the week with another decline.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 90 points to close at 26,287, the Nasdaq fell 80 points, and the S&P 500 slipped 19.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": multiple high-profile resignations raise questions about the future of U.S. intelligence-gathering; five years later, we examine the lasting impact of the police killing of Michael Brown on the Ferguson, Missouri, community; Democratic presidential hopefuls gather in Iowa to make their case to voters at the all-important state fair; and much more.

The top two officials at the Office of Director of National Intelligence will leave service next week.

Just last night, the deputy director, a near-30-year intel veteran named Sue Gordon, tendered her resignation.

This follows the resignation of the director, Dan Coats, 10 days ago.

The DNI is charged with coordinating the 17 agencies of the sprawling U.S. intelligence community, or I.C.

Now, Mr. Trump has often harshly criticized the intel community since he took office.

Gordon, who was widely respected, sent the president a curt resignation note, telling Mr. Trump that he should -- quote -- "have his team."

The National Counterterrorism Center director, retired Admiral Joseph Maguire, was named by Mr. Trump last night as acting DNI.

To walk us through all this and why it matters, our Nick Schifrin is here.

Hi, Nick.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Hey, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's a lot happening.

NICK SCHIFRIN: There is a lot happening, yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Joe Maguire, Joseph Maguire, what do we know about him?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, Vice Admiral Joe Maguire spent 30 years as a Navy special warfare officer.

Think Navy SEALs.

Most recently, he was the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, or NCTC, that advises on policy and operations across the intelligence community.

I have talked to a lot of people on the Hill, in the intelligence community, former senior intelligence who worked for him.

The people who defend him call him a first-class human being, a great leader, a man with integrity and a warrior -- quote -- "If I ever needed someone killed, he would be the guy I called," according to one person I talked to.

And that's the kind of endorsement that President Trump gave him today.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Admiral Maguire is a very talented man.

He's a great leader.

As an admiral, was always a great leader.

He is a man who is respected by everybody, and he's going to be there for a period of time.

Who knows?

Maybe he gets the job.

But he'll be there for a period of time -- maybe a longer period of time than we think.

We'll see.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But even the friends of Maguire I talked to admit that he has some shortcomings.

He's not an analyst, they say.

He's not a strategic thinker.

He's not going to solve the challenges that face the intelligence community.

He is not necessarily going to be the best at explaining a complex problem.

And that's where some of the criticism of him comes in.

I talked to one senior -- former senior official, a congressional aide, who said that Joe Maguire is going to follow the president's orders, rather than speak truth to power, rather than tell him the intelligence that he needs to hear, even if he doesn't want to hear it.

And they just worry that he's not up to the task, that he's going to take orders like a loyal soldier, rather than giving the president the truth.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes, Nick, we have heard this criticism today, the president has been politicizing the intelligence community.

We have heard that before.

Where does that concern stem from?

NICK SCHIFRIN: From the very beginning.

Remember that President Trump went to the CIA and talked about how big his inauguration crowd was in the first few weeks of his presidency.

The president defenders have called the intelligence community the deep state, and he has targeted even his own senior members of the intelligence community.

Think about Dan Coats, the former director of intelligence, or soon to be former director of national intelligence, criticized the president's comments on North Korea and ISIS, or at least didn't agree with the president's comments.

Just last week, the president called Coats a little confused and said that the intelligence community had -- quote -- "run amok."

And so that's what the people who are worried about Maguire tell me, that when the president pushes back against Maguire, Maguire is going to say, OK, sir.

These people want Maguire to say, no, sir, that's not correct.

And they're worried that he's just not up to the task.

His defenders say he's going to stick with his integrity, he will always be truthful, will always back up his analysts, and that will back up the community as a whole.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, a lot of this is just as much about the people who didn't get the job, right?

Sue Gordon, we mentioned.

But there was also a name floated by the president, John Ratcliffe, the Republican Texas congressman.

What do we know about why they didn't get the job?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Well, Ratcliffe did not get the job because he misled on his resume, simply enough.

And people were worried that he was going to be a yes-man.

Remember, Ratcliffe criticized the Russia investigation.

He questioned whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

That is something that the entire intelligence community has been behind.

And so there was big questions about him.

That left Sue Gordon, who you mentioned in the introduction, the deputy director of national intelligence, the woman who would have gotten the job.

And I have talked to a lot of people today, and they universally say that she was a consummate staff officer, beloved on both sides of the Hill, very capable and tough as nails.

And here's what Representative Adam Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House Intelligence community (sic), said about this: "Gordon brought decades of experience and encyclopedic knowledge of the agencies to bear.

And her absence will leave a great void."

But the president did not see it that way.

The president saw her as part of the deep state.

And we saw that in one of the tweets by his son Donald Trump Jr., who tweeted just last week, "If Adam Schiff wants her in there, the rumors about her being besties with former CIA Director John Brennan and the rest of the clown cadre must be 100 percent true."

And, obviously, that distrust is why she did not get the job, even though she was so beloved and so backed by the intelligence community and Capitol Hill.

AMNA NAWAZ: She didn't get the note.

And then she wrote that note that we referenced - - the job, rather.

Then she wrote the note we got before.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Right, exactly.

Sue Gordon, make no mistake, was pushed out.

And she said as much in her letter.

She wrote last night in this letter: "I offer this letter as an act of respect and patriotism, not preference.

You should have your team," and then finished: "Know that our people," meaning the intelligence community, "are your strength, and they will never fail you or the nation" -- a clear statement that the people of the intelligence community will always do their job, whether or not the president wants to listen to them or not.

AMNA NAWAZ: Nick, this is a big job, the DNI, right, overseeing all of the civilian and military intelligence.

Why does all of this turmoil matter right now?

NICK SCHIFRIN: The U.S. intelligence agency is sprawling.

It has lots of agencies that are good at specific things, but the DNI was created to connect the dots.

That's what didn't happen during 9/11.

And that's what the DNI was created to do, to make sure that the intelligence agencies are working together, make sure their priorities in terms of their budgets are right, and, crucially, to make sure that any dissent is being heard.

That's why the DNI is such an important role.

AMNA NAWAZ: A lot of turmoil there.

Nick Schifrin keeping track of it all, thanks, Nick.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, we return to Ferguson, Missouri, where, five years after the killing of Michael Brown, a community is still healing.

Our own Yamiche Alcindor went to Ferguson and reports that, while some progress has been made, many who lived through that day and the protests and the unrest that followed said their lives have been changed forever.

LESLEY MCSPADDEN, Mother of Michael Brown: When I wake up in the morning, my emotions are all over the place, and I really don't know if I want to go forwards, backwards, because every day is a fight for me since August 9, 2014.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That was the day Lesley McSpadden's son, Michael Brown Jr., was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

The shooting sparked massive protests and unrest in the city.

Ultimately, officer Darren Wilson wasn't indicted for killing the 18-year-old.

It's now been five years since Ferguson became a national symbol and inspired activists across the world.

For those who intimately experienced what happened here, the trauma of that time runs deep.

And for McSpadden, the hurt is about what never was.

LESLEY MCSPADDEN: I was left with absolutely nothing as far as a remnant of Michael.

You know, he didn't have any children.

He had never worked a job.

As a mother, it makes you question yourself, even though you know it's not your fault.

But that's what I have been dealing with for the last five years.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Since then, she's started a foundation in her son's name.

It offers youth services and a support network for mothers dealing with similar losses.

Much of her focus, though, is on her family.

LESLEY MCSPADDEN: My baby son is now about to be 15.

People talk.

They ask questions.

So, now he has questions for me.

How do I answer those questions?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: It sounds like you're not any more confident five years later that your son, who's now 15, would be safe from what happened to Michael Brown.

LESLEY MCSPADDEN: No, I'm not.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: In the hours, days and months after Brown was killed, thousands of protesters came to Ferguson to voice outrage over the shooting.

Kayla Reed was one of those protesters.

KAYLA REED, Action St. Louis: I think it really touched to the fabric of something in this country for a generation that hadn't been touched.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The sights and sounds of those days and months have left many, including Reed, scarred.

KAYLA REED: It is really hard is really hard for me to go to Ferguson.

When I see that box that they pour cement over where his body laid, and I see his memorial, it is really hard to reckon with the reality that all of this came because someone had to die.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: She is now co-director of the advocacy group Action St. Louis.

The group campaigns to elect progressive politicians.

It also hosts a fellowship for young black activists.

Reed says, despite what she and others like her have accomplished, there remains a heavy weight.

KAYLA REED: There's a lot of pressure to kind of achieve this line of justice that was undeclared four years ago.

I felt like I was up against a clock, that, if I didn't do enough, somebody else's child was going to get killed.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Physical reminders of what happened five years ago also remain.

There are remnants of buildings that were damaged and stores boarded up in the wake of the protests.

For some, they are triggers that have led to nightmares.

WILLIAM MCCARTY, Ferguson Resident: Well, some nights, I will be pummeling her in the back.

You know, I would like -- the other night, I was trying to push somebody out of the house, you know, thinking that somebody had come in.

And she said: "Your hands are moving.

You have got to wake up."

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: For decades, William McCarty and his wife, Judy, have lived here.

Their home is just a few blocks from the epicenter of the protests and unrest.

JUDY MCCARTY, Ferguson Resident: I thought, every night, when I took a shower, I was afraid that a gunshot was going to come through the window and kill me.

That's how close it was.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Judy McCarty, whose brother was once a Ferguson police officer, is still shaken by her experience.

JUDY MCCARTY: One night, they came just to check on us to see how we were doing.

And when they left, they asked us to pray for them.

The police wanted prayer.

They were scared.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: For Joshua Williams, who was a prominent protester, the consequences are even more stark.

JOSHUA WILLIAMS, Protester: I saw Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland.

I saw all those people.

And, most importantly, I saw myself, because I could have been one of those people on the ground under the sheet.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Williams, then 19, was arrested after he tried to set fire to a gas station.

There was little damage to the building, and no one was injured.

Williams pled guilty to arson, burglary, and stealing.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Williams says he regrets what he did, but adds he did it for a purpose.

JOSHUA WILLIAMS: I was so angry that I didn't really care what came out of it.

I just did it.

In my mind, that would set off the government to pay attention to us, to see our pain, to see our tears, and to see our blood in the streets.

KAYLA REED: I feel a lot of pain and some guilt around Josh, because I really wish that it wasn't his experience.

I really wish that he wasn't so young.

And I wish that he didn't have to suffer this, like, by himself, you know?

I wish we could all do a day for him, so that he could come home faster or something.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: For many, five years feels like just a snapshot in time.

Residents and activists say it will take much longer to address longstanding issues and the new ones emerging.

When Lesley McSpadden reflects on the next five years, she again turns to her family.

LESLEY MCSPADDEN: In four years, my son will graduate from high school.

In two years, my daughter will graduate from college.

I just want to be here to see it all, through it all, just continue to be their mother, endure what comes my way, and pray about better days for Ferguson.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Yamiche Alcindor in Ferguson, Missouri.

AMNA NAWAZ: And a note about last night's story on the changes taking place in Ferguson.

We misidentified the political affiliation of former Saint Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch.

He is a Democrat.

We also stated Saint Louis County jail population has declined by 20 percent since new prosecutor Wesley Bell took office.

That number should be 16 percent.

We have posted a corrected version online, where you can watch the entire series at PBS.org/NewsHour.

Stay with us.

Coming up on the "NewsHour": David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart break down the week's political news; young musicians in Poland revive the country's golden age of music cut short by the Nazi invasion; and we take a moment to remember the lives of those killed in the mass shootings last weekend.

Just about all of the Democratic presidential hopefuls are paying a visit to the Iowa State Fair, six months ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

Amid the festivities and all the fried food, the candidates made their pitches to Iowa voters.

Now, some are choosing this occasion to go further than they have previously on the president's language around race.

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), Presidential Candidate: Everybody knows who Donald Trump is.

Even his supporters know who he is.

We have got to let him know who we are.

We choose unity over division.

We choose science over fiction.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, during a visit to an Iowa farm, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren called the president himself a white supremacist.

At the state fair, Julian Castro told "NewsHour"'s Lisa Desjardins that he agrees.

JULIAN CASTRO (D), Presidential Candidate: He's actively fostering division and hate in our country.

LISA DESJARDINS: You think he's a white supremacist and a racist?

JULIAN CASTRO: Yes, I think that's the kind of -- yes, I think he's a racist.

I think that he believes -- it seems like he believes that white people are better than or superior to other people, unfortunately.

AMNA NAWAZ: And Lisa joins me now from the Iowa State Fair.

Lisa, I want to ask you about Mr. Castro's comments in a moment.

But let's start with the Iowa State Fair.

It's kind of a starting bell for the presidential primary race.

What are all the candidates doing right now to win voters?

LISA DESJARDINS: That's exactly right.

Sort of think of this as almost a political free-for-all, barely organized political free-for-all, but with your favorite bad-for-you foods involved.

I would just say, Amna, that we have seen something new here, which is a real crush of reporters which is especially around Vice President Biden.

He doesn't give as many appearances as some other candidates.

So there was a lot of interest in the vice president -- former vice president yesterday, and especially around that topic of the idea of whether the president is a white supremacist.

Vice President Biden did agree in the end with Elizabeth Warren.

And as much as these candidates -- and we will get to it -- really want to talk about other issues, this idea of race and divide in this country seems to be dominating the conversation on the left.

I also asked the same question about, how do you label the president, should you label the president this way to John Delaney and Andrew Yang today.

Andrew Yang agreed he's a white supremacist.

John Delaney and Tulsi Gabbard, they said: We don't think it's useful to go there.

It's a difficult issue for these Democrats.

And it's important not just in terms of those who want to talk about who the president is and what he represents, but, politically, it's very important because Iowa voters here, when you talk to them, they're not comfortable, most of them, even some Democrats, with labeling the president as a racist.

Here in Iowa, many people I talk to you believe that to label someone racist or white supremacist, you have to know their intent.

Obviously, that's a big debate.

Many Democrats disagree with that.

It's their actions that matter.

But it's a politically very difficult subject.

Some Democrats are moving farther faster than others.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, tell me about what you're hearing from the Democratic voters in the crowd there.

Does this kind of thing matter to them?

How are they assessing the candidate field right now?

LISA DESJARDINS: Amna, this has been eye-opening and fascinating.

And, for me, the best part of the fair is just talking to the voters here in Iowa.

And I have to tell you, Elizabeth Warren, I keep hearing her name.

She's clearly on the rise in this state.

And it's not just her name recognition and her appeal.

Her organization has been on the ground longest, and they seem to be really that muscle that they have been flexing in numbers of people knocking on doors is starting to pay off very quickly.

Also, you're hearing a few other names.

Like, I think we need to keep an eye still on Pete Buttigieg.

Kamala Harris, of course, gets a lot of mention.

And I think dark horses, I'm still hearing some mentions of Tulsi Gabbard.

I think, though, Amna, the bigger story here - - it's still six months out, of course, but Democrats here in Iowa are very undecided.

It doesn't seem like they passionately feel strongly about any one candidate, perhaps with the exception of the Elizabeth Warren supporters.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, there's obviously potential Republican voters at the state fair too.

You have been talking to a lot of them.

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: What are they telling you about how they're viewing what's going on right now?

LISA DESJARDINS: This is the other fascinating thing.

President Trump is very strong here in Iowa.

And even some Democrats who said -- who told me that they were Democrats said they think the president is doing a good job, some of them farmers who say they think the president's trade policy, while it may be hurting some of them right now, is something that they believe in long-term.

They also think that Democrats may be going too far when it comes to, say, immigration.

And they really -- I just can't stress enough the strength of President Trump here in this state.

Remember, he won Iowa by nine points.

Democrats really need to win in states like Iowa in order to regain the White House.

And here at the Iowa State Fair, he's very popular.

I think, most of all, those who support the president believe that he represents a kind of pride in America that they don't see from the Democrats.

Democrats totally disagree.

But that's a message that they're not getting across to these Republican Trump fans who are certainly out here at the fair.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, you mentioned trade.

You mentioned immigration.

Are those some of the top issues to Iowans right now?

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

Quickly, I think also health care.

I spoke to several mothers, families, one mom working three jobs, another with three children, who say that they are depending on Obamacare.

This is something that the Democrats are going to have to rely on to do well in a state like this.

And it's something that could help Joe Biden.

One Biden voter, a mom who's raising her 3-year-old, said she needs that kind of health care.

And she really appreciates Joe Biden and Obamacare.

That is a winning issue right now for Democrats in this state.

AMNA NAWAZ: Our Lisa Desjardins on the ground for us at the Iowa State Fair, good to talk to you, Lisa.

LISA DESJARDINS: You too.

AMNA NAWAZ: We're now nearly a week on from the two tragedies in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

But the grave questions that have been raised in the aftermath remain, and likely will remain for some time.

How, if at all, will American politics and American society respond?

That brings us to Brooks and Capehart.

That's New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart.

Mark Shields is away this week.

Welcome to you both.

Thanks for being here.

Let's jump into the big topic for this week.

Obviously, gun violence was a big topic of conversation.

I want to go right to a poll.

We heard President Trump mention earlier today that Leader McConnell is totally on board with background checks.

That would bring him in line with the rest of the country.

This is broken down by party support for universal background checks.

The floor there, David Brooks, is 84 percent for Republicans.

Do you see this as the moment that this legislation passes?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, of course, logically, you want to say yes, but we have been here so many times since Newtown and all -- Parkland and all the shootings, that we haven't quite got there.

And so how can something with that kind of support even among Republicans not pass?

First, the NRA has a zero compromise policy, that we won't accept any compromise at all.

We're just holding the line.

And so far, for 20 or 30 years, that has sort of been working for them.

Second, it's low salient issue.

People care about guns on the week after something like this happens.

And then you ask them, rank the issues you care about, guns start dropping down.

And then the third, it's turned into a culture war, where, for a lot of people, it's not about guns at all.

It's about my culture vs. your culture.

And if you want to control my guns, which are part of my gun clubs, part of my community, you're just a bunch of coastal elites coming after me.

And so I hope this is a week when that changes, but we have a right to be a little skeptical.

And the one opportunity -- and this is a perverse way to put it -- is that we might not have - - we might have the same gun debate over and over again, but what's become new this week is, it's a terrorism issue as well, in that the people, especially in El Paso, but in a lot of these other shootings, they are killing on behalf of an ideology that is a little like the ISIS ideology in some ways.

And we could -- if we had a discussion, what do we do to combat domestic terrorism, that, we might be able to have a different kind of conversation and pass some of the things we couldn't pass any other way.

AMNA NAWAZ: The threat might be different there, you think.

DAVID BROOKS: You might rearrange the political alliances, because the gun issue, people are pretty baked in.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, what do you think?

I mean, we do have this conversation again and again.

It's usually right after one of these mass public events.

You remember, back in 2012, after kindergartners were murdered... JONATHAN CAPEHART: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... we thought, OK, this is the moment.

And then it wasn't.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Right.

If the slaughter of 20 children in their elementary school wasn't enough to move the Senate, to move the U.S. Congress to pass even just background checks -- it failed by six votes -- then nothing will move them.

To David's point about, a week we will be talking about, we will move on, but I think the momentum in this case will dissipate greatly because the president just left for vacation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is already on vacation.

He's already said the Senate's not coming back.

And so by the time they come back in September, God forbid we're not talking about another mass shooting, but it might not be until another mass shooting that you get the kind of energy and momentum that's needed to push such a heavy rock up the hill.

AMNA NAWAZ: Do you think if they face -- members of Congress are in their home districts.

If they're getting questions about it, that could help add to some momentum?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I mean, look, again, going back to Newtown, the national outrage over what happened wasn't enough to blunt the power of the NRA.

So I don't know how much a town hall is going to -- or successive town halls will be to change the momentum.

DAVID BROOKS: The cultural issue cannot be underestimated.

I have always loved Mayor Bloomberg, but it wasn't good for the gun issue that the guy spending all the money around the country and becoming a spokesperson for the movement was the mayor of New York City.

This has to be led by a group of red state people who are rock-ribbed Republicans who say, I'm very Republican, I love to shoot, guns are part of my culture, but we got to change.

And until you can get red state leaders doing that, it's going to be a tougher issue.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let me ask you about something else.

The president did, obviously, make a visit to those affected communities.

And his team put out what's basically a highly produced edited video of his visit on the ground in El Paso.

You're watching a clip of it right there.

There was a contrast there between some of the reports we heard on the ground from journalists and then another video.

It was cell phone video that emerged after the visit.

It showed the president on the ground in El Paso talking about his crowd size at a rally back in February and comparing it to Beto O'Rourke's.

Take a quick listen to what he said.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: That was some crowd.

WOMAN: Thank you.

DONALD TRUMP: And we had twice the number outside.

And then you had this crazy Beto.

Beto had like 400 people in a parking lot.

They said his crowd was wonderful.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, there is kind of a tale of two narratives there.

In the moment, you don't really know which one to pay attention to.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, the narrative here is consistent.

President Trump is at the center of that narrative, whether it's that highly produced campaign-style-like video of his visits to El Paso Dayton, or it's that cell phone video where he's talking about one of the things that is part of his greatest hits, crowd size.

He has talked about crowd size since the day of his inauguration.

And, for him, that is a marker of popularity.

But, in that moment, what I would expect the people of El Paso and Dayton, the people in Ohio, the American people who are grieving - - and also Texas -- people who are grieving, what they want to see from a president is comfort.

They want to see someone consoling them.

I was in New York on 9/11.

And President George W. Bush was president of the United States, and I had lots of disagreements with the policies of President George W. Bush.

But when he stood on that rubble at ground zero and talked to those workers, and talked to the city, and talked to the nation, that's exactly what we needed to hear then.

When President Obama went to Charleston and impromptu sang "Amazing Grace" at the eulogy for Clementa Pinckney, a state senator who was murdered with eight other people in Mother Emanuel Church, in that moment, he channeled the grief of a church, of a city, of a community, and of a nation.

We didn't get that with President Trump.

AMNA NAWAZ: David, how do you look at this, really?

He's such a divisive figure anyway.

There is the standard of the consoler in chief.

He hasn't done it yet.

It's not who he is.

Right?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

Well, there's a photo, a still from that visit where he's with the orphan baby and two family members, with his wife.

And Melania is holding the child.

And he's got this grin and the thumb up.

And when I looked at that photo, I thought, the Democrats are having a debate: Is he a racist?

Is he a white supremacist?

And I look at that photo, I think, well, he's a sociopath.

He's incapable of experiencing or showing empathy.

And, politically, it's helpful for him to target that lack of empathy and fellow feeling toward people of color.

But how much have we seen him show empathy for anybody?

And so I look at that as someone who is unloved and made himself unlovable and whose subject is himself, is his own competitive greatness.

And so he doesn't do the consoler in chief just because he doesn't do that emotional range.

And that's a burden and a cost for any of us.

AMNA NAWAZ: You mentioned the white supremacy line there.

We have obviously been talking about that a lot in 2019 now.

And Lisa Desjardins was reporting earlier too on the ground in Iowa there.

Candidates are being asked about that: Do you think this president is a white supremacist?

Is that sort of a litmus test now for candidates moving forward?

DAVID BROOKS: It's an easy emotional inflation, it seems to me.

I thought Biden's answer and Kamala Harris' was pretty good, which is, I don't know, but he's certainly enabling them.

And he's certainly speaking the language.

He uses the language of invasion when talking about immigration.

Now, I read a lot of the manifestos this week and those who have actually killed in Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso.

They start with invasion.

They go many more steps.

They believe that racial mixing really is a cancer.

And they have this deep separatism.

I don't know if Trump has that.

But he has certainly set an atmosphere where it's easier to talk about human beings as an invasion.

AMNA NAWAZ: What do you make of all this right now, Jonathan?

It's a big topic.

This is nothing new in America.

And yet it's new in terms of how prevalent it is.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Right, because -- and it pains me to say this, but we're talking about it because the president of the United States is a racist with a white supremacist policy agenda.

He began his political career questioning the legitimacy of the first African-American president.

He started his campaign within the first two minutes saying that Mexicans were -- quote - - "rapists."

He called for a complete and total ban on Muslims entering the United States after the San Bernardino attack during the campaign in December 2016.

He's used words on the campaign trail from the midterm elections and continued, invasion, caravans, infestation, animals, to what David was talking about.

In policy and in rhetoric, he is feeding into this environment, this atmosphere, where people such as the shooter in El Paso who has -- we have seen the affidavit.

He's confessed in doing what he's done, and confessed to targeting -- quote -- "Mexicans."

That -- these things don't happen in a vacuum.

Did the president order this person to do this?

No.

But that person heard in that rhetoric -- and we have seen it from New Zealand, around the world, but particularly here, where we are dealing with a domestic terrorism problem, where the primary people committing these terrorist acts are white supremacists.

We're dealing with a situation here where the president of the United States is feeding into it with the rhetoric that's coming out of his mouth, whether it's from a podium at the White House or from a podium at a campaign rally somewhere in the country.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

I hear you talking, and I think I basically agree with it.

Then I -- my next question is, well, how do we then do democracy for the next 16 months?

Like, there is a presumption that we're all Americans together.

There's a presumption of goodwill, that we can have a conversation.

And maybe Donald Trump -- but how do we address ourselves to Donald Trump supporters, many of whom are very realistic and are supporters of him for good reasons having to do with their own lives and the dissolution of their own communities.

It's going to be hard to have a conversation once the president has been declared sort of really beneath contempt.

And I'm not saying I disagree with you.

I'm just saying this is a problem we have to deal with as we try to have a national conversation over this election.

AMNA NAWAZ: Is there a way -- and we just have a couple minutes left.

It's a big question.

But, Jonathan, try, if you can.

Is there a way to take politics out of this to explain why these kinds of ideas are so dangerous?

Obviously, they're not new.

They have been around for a while.

They have just been mainstreamed to some degree because they're being spoken from the highest office in the land.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: You know, gosh, we have got a minute or so left?

Thanks.

Thanks for the question.

(LAUGHTER) JONATHAN CAPEHART: I think what -- there's no way to separate politics from this.

I think Vice President Biden and Senator Cory Booker in speeches on the same day told the story of America from two different perspectives.

Vice President Biden talked about -- talked about the country and the problems that it has, about America as an idea.

And Cory Booker -- or Senator Booker talked about the same thing, but coming at it from the perspective of, America is an idea, but we have deep-seated issues that go right back to white supremacy being woven into our founding documents.

And we have to -- we have to talk about that, we have to address it, we have to acknowledge it.

And, once we do that, then we can take the steps to reconciliation.

DAVID BROOKS: And I would say I'm a pluralist.

We're probably all pluralists, who we see good people around like ourselves, cool, like, let's eat different food, let's meet different people, let's have wide experience.

And a lot of us are conservatives, whether you're on the left or on the right.

But there are a lot of people who are anti-pluralists.

When you present them with something different, they clam up, they shrink in, they become more fearful.

Just -- Conor Friedersdorf had a piece in "The Atlantic" today.

And it was about people being interviewed by an African-American interviewer.

And some people, they stopped talking, because it's different and they're afraid.

And those people don't see it as an adventure.

They see it as a threat.

And so we have to have a defense of pluralism and a critique of anti-pluralism, and, frankly, get a lot of anti-pluralists involved with a lot of people unlike themselves, so they can see it's not that scary.

But that's the big cosmic debate I think I see here.

AMNA NAWAZ: Just the big cosmic debate we all have to engage in.

(LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, big questions.

I'm grateful to you both for being here today.

Thank you.

DAVID BROOKS: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Young musicians in Poland are reviving what they are calling the country's golden era, which was cut short by the Nazi invasion and Second World War.

1930s dances such as the fox-trot and tango are making a comeback, as people of all ages flock to listen to a number of ensembles playing songs that died, along with many of those who used to perform them.

Once known as the Paris of the East, the Polish capital, Warsaw, is pulsating again, as special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

MALCOLM BRABANT: In the courtyard of a trendy Warsaw bar, the small dance orchestra is starting to swing, as is its leader, Noam Zylberberg.

NOAM ZYLBERBERG, Leader, Small Dance Orchestra: It's an interesting time.

It's the beginning of pop music.

It's influenced by early jazz.

But, at the same time, all the musicians who were working at the time were classically trained musicians.

So, it's a very classical sound on the one hand.

On the other hand, it's this sound looking for itself, looking for its identity.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Family identity is at the core of this revival.

Zylberberg moved to Warsaw four years ago after studying conducting in Israel.

His grandparents were Polish, but left before the Germans invaded.

After their deaths, Zylberberg became curious about their past, and this led to a fascination with the pre-war music scene in Warsaw.

NOAM ZYLBERBERG: We don't play so much concerts.

We play for dancing, because we care about also preserving the original meaning of this music.

This was music for dancing.

When we play, people enjoy, and this is the reaction that we get.

And so we enjoy.

It's just a lot of fun.

We're honoring the musicians, the composers, the arrangers, band leaders, all of those people who were involved in creating this very unique scene in Warsaw in the 1930s.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Many of the musicians who made Warsaw such a vibrant place in the 1930s were Jews.

Some of them escaped the Holocaust.

But others perished inside the Warsaw ghetto or in the death camps, and their music died with them.

The scars of war are plain to see in Warsaw.

The Germans flattened the city before retreating from the Soviet Red Army.

Arches containing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are all that remain of a fabulous palace.

The Polish capital was stunning before the war, but the Germans systematically destroyed it in revenge for the Warsaw uprising in 1944.

This area, Warsaw Old Town, is anything but.

It was meticulously reconstructed after the war.

There's nothing left of the old Jewish quarter, just a pastiche of a neighborhood street and the museum of the history of Polish Jews, and an original recording of a song called "Abdul Bey."

And this is jazz band Mlynarski-Masecki version of "Abdul Bey," a crazy Polish-Jewish-Palestinian fox-trot about a chieftain with four wives and a camel.

Marcin Masecki started learning the piano when he was 3 years old.

He's a multitalented classical and avant-garde pianist.

Jan Emil Mlynarski trained as a drummer, but he also plays the banjo mandolin and sings.

MARCIN MASECKI, Pianist: For us, there's a feeling, definite feeling of something that was developing, brutally cut, you know?

The American jazz standards is like a classic - - classical music in the States.

For us, it was cut by the war and then covered by 50 years of communism.

So, we never had a chance to build a relationship with that epoch.

And it seems to me that we're doing this now.

JAN EMIL MLYNARSKI, Singer: My family comes from Warsaw.

I heard stories about the old days.

The Warsaw scene was huge.

It's a beautiful, very complex music.

I always wanted to be one of these guys from the, you know, black-and-white photograph.

This is a very important part of my life.

Of course, I'm a traditionalist.

I love to wear a tuxedo and just be in that time.

MARCIN MASECKI: Just how important is history?

History creates your identity.

So, for me, it's a way of discovering our national identity.

I'm not trying to sound nationalist.

It's not any better than any other, but it's just something that we have been denied for quite some time as a nation.

So, it's kind of fascinating that we had this huge thing going on that is kind of forgotten.

We love this kind of music, and we love music from the '20s and '30s from every country, actually.

But, for us, it has added value of developing our classical reference, you know, our golden era.

So, it's kind of a building some kind of legend almost.

ANNA WYPIJEWSKA, Poland: It's very enjoyable, very powerful, sensual.

I really, really enjoy dancing with my friends.

And I like the atmosphere and music and everything around.

BOGDAN POPESCU, Poland: It's beautiful.

It's the best thing I could do on a Saturday evening, basically.

They're all young, and they're basically playing music from the '40s, from the '30s.

So, that's a really nice approach to it, basically.

I mean, no one would expect a young orchestra to play such music.

So, it's ideal.

I love it.

It's really nice.

MALCOLM BRABANT: This band is well-versed in American swing, but they had to unlearn that style to give this music its unique Polish accent, which heavily features the tango.

NOAM ZYLBERBERG: The Polish tango is based on the Argentinean tango.

It is a sexy dance.

It is a passionate dance, but in a more Central Eastern European manner.

This means it's more polite.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Despite trying to faithfully reproduce the sound of the '30s, Zylberberg says he's not turning back the clock.

NOAM ZYLBERBERG: It's similar in the sense that people come to enjoy this music and dance together with this music.

On the other hand, we live in a different world.

It's not going to be the same, and we don't want it to be the same.

We just want to keep this music alive, you know?

Just keep it alive.

MALCOLM BRABANT: For the moment, they're certainly succeeding.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Warsaw.

AMNA NAWAZ: This week, the nation's attention once again turned to gun violence and what can be done to stop it.

In the last 72 hours alone, at least 69 people have been killed and 167 injured by guns in 32 states.

And that excludes suicide, the largest factor for gun deaths.

It was the mass murders in El Paso and Dayton that set off this latest national moment of reflection.

So we close tonight with a remembrance of the 31 people who lost their lives there.

David Johnson saved the lives of his wife and granddaughter in El Paso.

The 63-year-old pushed them to the floor below a checkout counter before he was shot and killed.

Angie Englisbee raised seven children on her own.

The 86-year-old widow worked multiple jobs to feed her family and attended mass regularly.

Fifty-seven-year-old Elsa Mendoza Marquez was an elementary school teacher from Juarez, Mexico.

Her husband posted on Facebook, calling Marquez - - quote -- "the most wonderful of women."

Jordan Anchondo died while protecting her 2-month-old son.

She and her husband, Andre, had dropped off their 5-year-old daughter at cheerleading practice.

They were shopping for school supplies.

Fifteen-year-old Javier Rodriguez was starting his sophomore year in high school.

He was the youngest person to die in El Paso.

An avid soccer player, Javier is remembered as a fun-loving teen and a good teammate.

Raul and Maria Flores had been married for 60 years.

Raul was scheduled to have heart surgery just a few days later.

The couple was at Walmart buying airbeds for relatives coming in to stay with them during the procedure.

Forty-six-year-old Ivan Manzano had a 5-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son.

Manzano's wife told their children only that their father died in -- quote -- "an accident."

Arturo Benavides was a U.S. Army veteran who retired as a bus driver in 2013.

He loved watching football and was like a second father to his nieces.

Sixty-three-year-old Margie Reckard was -- quote - - "an angel" to her husband of 22 years.

He told KFOX-TV -- quote -- "We were going to live together and die together.

That was our plan."

Adolfo Hernandez and Sara Regalado were from Mexico.

Their daughter posted on Facebook -- quote - - "I don't know how long it will take for my heart to heal.

Their passing has left us with a great void."

Leo and Maribel Campos had been together for about 20 years.

Leo's brother said the couple was -- quote - - "just really welcoming and friendly.

Everybody says that, as soon as you meet them, it's like you have known them forever."

Seventy-seven-year-old Juan Velazquez, originally from Mexico, came to El Paso because he thought it was peaceful.

He died after throwing himself in front of his wife.

Gloria Marquez moved to the U.S. from Mexico more than two decades ago.

She was a health care assistant for elderly patients.

Her longtime partner tried to reach her for hours after the shooting.

Ninety-year-old Luis Juarez had been married for almost 70 years.

His family told KTSM he was an amazing human being, loving, calm, and big-hearted.

Jorge Garcia went to Walmart to visit his granddaughter, who was raising money for her soccer team.

According to KFOX-TV, when the gunman opened fire, Garcia shielded the young girls.

Maria Eugenia Legarreta Rothe was in El Paso to pick up her daughter from the airport, according to a Juarez news outlet.

The 58-year-old had planned to just stop in at Walmart before meeting her daughter.

Eighty-two-year-old Teresa Sanchez was a U.S. citizen who lived with her sister, according to KTSM.

She was at the Walmart with two family members.

Alexander Hoffmann Roth was born into postwar Germany.

The 66-year-old often talked about the importance of studying history and warned about the danger of hate.

Megan Betts was the sister of the gunman in the Dayton massacre.

A classmate remembered her as artistic and polite -- quote -- "She always had a smile on her face."

Fifty-seven-year-old Derrick Fudge was in the Oregon District with his son for a birthday party.

He was shot as his group left a club.

Fudge volunteered as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army.

Thomas McNichols, who went by the nickname T.J., was a 25-year-old father of 4 ranging in age from 2 to 8.

His aunt said -- quote -- "Everybody loved him.

He was like a big kid."

Thirty-six-year-old Beatrice Warren-Curtis and 39-year-old Monica Brickhouse were dear friends and co-workers at Anthem insurance company.

The two were described as selfless and very positive.

A native of Eritrea, Saeed Saleh moved to the U.S. a few years ago.

A family spokesman remembered the 38-year-old father of three as -- quote -- "a humble and quiet person."

Nicholas Cumer was in the master's program for cancer care at Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania.

The school's president said he was -- quote - - "dedicated to caring for others."

Logan Turner had just celebrated his 30th birthday.

He earned an engineering degree from the University of Toledo and recently started working as a machinist.

According to his mother -- quote -- "Everyone loved Logan."

Twenty-seven-year-old Lois Oglesby was in nursing school and the mother of two, including a newborn.

A friend told The Dayton Daily News she was - - quote -- "a wonderful mother, a wonderful person.

I have cried so much, I can't cry anymore."

AMNA NAWAZ: Thirty-one stories for the 31 lives lost this week.

That is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Have a great weekend to you all out there.

Thank you, and good night.