Im pretty sure that i fit almost every demographic thats going to be ruined by this administration, that i feel like i have to speak out. Woodruff and, its friday. Mark shields and david brooks give their take on the president s thursday News Conference and the rest of the weeks news. Sreenivasan all that and more, on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Xq institute. The ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff fresh off his white house News Conference, the president is out, touting his first four weeks in office. He flew to florida today for the holiday weekend, with a campaignlike stop on the way there. Lisa desjardins has our report. Reporter for President Trump with grandchildren in tow a chance to leave washington behind. I love south carolina, i love it. Reporter after a roller coaster week, he found a friendly audience at boeings North Charleston plant. Were here today to celebrate American Engineering and american manufacturing. Were also here today to celebrate jobs. Jobs. Reporter underscoring the point, mr. Trump touted the rollout of boeings 78710 dreamliner plane. I campaigned on the promise that i will do everything in my power to bring those jobs back into america. We wanted to make much easier it has to be much easier to manufacture in our country and much harder to leave. Reporter the president also pushed back at boeing, telling reporters the price for the new air force one and that of lockheeds f35 fighter are still too high, and hes negotiating. All of this, one day after defending his record at a freewheeling white house News Conference. This administration is running like a finetuned machine. Reporter today, another top republican, Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell, held his own News Conference, praising the trump agenda but criticizing distractions. Ive been pretty candid with him, and with all of you, that im not a great fan of daily tweets, but what i am a fan of is what hes been actually doing. I have not been a fan of the extra discussion that he likes to engage in. But were going to soldier on. We like his positions and were going to pursue them as vigorously as we can. Reporter meanwhile, the president is back at the drawing boards on finding a National Security adviser, after Michael Flynn was forced out. The president tweeted this morning that general keith kellogg, who i have known for a long time, is very much in play for n. S. A. , as are three others. Whoever it is, will be choice number two, after retired vice admiral Robert Harward turned down the job, calling it a purely personal issue. He did not address reports that he balked at being denied his choice of staffers. White house Officials Say the president may interview candidates for the post this weekend, at his maralago resort in florida. Tomorrow, hell hold what the white house calls a campaign event, in melbourne, florida. Woodruff and lisa joins me now. So campaign event, we thought it just ended. No, its just building up. In fact, the president himself announced that rally in florida will be happening as a rally, and sean spicer said last week thats going to be a campaign event. Woodruff you and i were talking a little while ago and you were saying some of the people around the president are creating fundraising vehicles . Tell us about that. Thats right. These are things like super pacs. Weve seen the president have a super pac before, the Great America pac, for example. In the last weeks his Main Campaign alums formed one called the America First 501c4. They say theyre supporting judge gorsuch, obamacare, all of that. Whats so unprecedented about the president s campaign, he actually filed his Campaign Paperwork on january 20th. President obama, for example, he waited two years before officially inaugurating his reelection campaign. This is unprecedented territory. Woodruff really interesting. I know reporters will continue to ask him about it. Lisa desjardins, thank you. Sreenivasan in the days other news, the u. S. Senate confirmed President Trumps pick to lead the Environmental Protection agency, 5246. Scott pruitt was oklahomas attorney general, and in that role, hes repeatedly sued the e. P. A. To rein in regulations. Democrats tried, and failed, to delay todays confirmation vote until pruitt releases thousands of emails with oil and gas executives. Its not the worst thing in the world to take a few extra days to properly vet someone who will have immense power over our nations streams, skies, even the lead level in our homes and water supply. Those emails could contain Material Information about his confirmation. Government agencies like the e. P. A. , and one after another, need their leadership in place, and they need it in place now. What they dont need, what the American People dont need is more political theater from the senate democrats. Sreenivasan pruitt was strongly opposed by environmental groups, who warn he will roll back enforcement efforts. He was sworn in this afternoon. Well take a closer look, right after the news summary. Woodruff in pakistan, the military says it killed more than 100 people they call terrorists in sweeping anti terror raids. They came a day after a suicide bombing, claimed by the Islamic State, killed at least 88 people. Protesters took to the streets today to denounce weak security. Pakistan has been hit by a spate of deadly attacks in recent days. Another Islamic State bombing killed 59 people in iraq yesterday. Sreenivasan the World Meteorological organization reports the sea ice pack in the arctic and antarctic was the smallest ever for the month of january. The u. N. Agency also says concentrations of heattrapping Carbon Dioxide hit a record. Meanwhile, nasa satellites captured part of the ice loss. This was the pine Island Glacier in antarctic, earlier in january. A separate image showed an iceberg the size of manhattan that broke away on january 31. Woodruff a powerful new storm barreled into california today, with what could be the heaviest rain in years. The rain and high winds lashed the Southern California coastline, threatening flooding and mudslides, and forcing smallscale evacuations. The storm is expected to skirt Northern California, but officials kept watch on the Lake Oroville dam and its damaged spillways. We have a very close communication our monitoring teams between our incident commanders to make sure that we have all eyes on this and were ready to take action with our mitigation plan. I dont see that thats a risk at this time. But having said that, were ready. Woodruff another storm system is expected to hit Northern California late sunday night and could bring 30 hours of precipitation. Sreenivasan wall street headed into the president s day weekend with a lackluster session. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained four points to close at 20,624. The nasdaq rose 23 points, and the s p 500 added almost four. For the week, all three indexes gained 1. 5 or better. Woodruff and a passing of note a longtime former minority leader of the house of representatives, bob michel, has died. The Illinois Republican served 19 terms, but retired just before the g. O. P. Won back the majority in the house in 1994. He is credited with helping president reagan and the first president bush push their agendas, by negotiating with democrats. Bob michel was 93 years old. Still to come on the newshour two texas cities a microcosm of the nations deep political divide; mark shields and david brooks analyze the weeks news; an actor caught up in the oscars so white controversy stars in a new film about controversial love, and much more. Sreenivasan now that scott pruitt is in charge of the e. P. A. , we take a look at what to expect from the agency under his leadership, with myron ebell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian advocacy group. He oversaw President Trumps e. P. A. Transition team and has been vocal opponent of many of the agencys policies; and Jeremy Symons of the enviromental defense fund, a group strongly opposed to pruitts confirmation. All right, myron, you think Climate Science is somewhat alarmist. Were not here to debate that. We have you on because you likely vin sight as to why scott pruitt is head of the e. P. A. Today. Is someone who shared your views on Climate Science, was that one of the prerequisites to get this job and you helping the perp getting the head of the e. P. A. . I wasnt involved in the personnel decisions of the Trump Administration. What i think President Trump was looking for is someone who would be an able advocate and implementer of the president s agenda for the e. P. A. , and i think scott pruitt is a great choice. Sreenivasan this is is first time in the eds history that youveposed the nomination. Why . Because scott pruitt is extreme. This fight isnt over. When you look at his record of suing the e. P. A. , 14 times to undermine clean air and clean water protections, doesnt bode well for what he will try to do when he gets in. Myron ebell this is about public health. We have someone who wants to take taghtsy backward and not forward. Its not good for childrens health, protecting the elderly or anyone vulnerable to toxins. Sreenivasan the president on campaign trail even on the debate stage said he would like to cut the e. P. A. Significantly. Why does scott pruitt help the president advance that agenda . Scott pruitt has been a very strong advocate for devolving more of the work of the e. P. A. To the states, and, in fact, the e. P. A. Already has the state sue ago lot of its work, but it still has a very large bureaucracy nonetheless. I think scott pruitt understands that the e. P. A. Can be a lot smaller than it is and well still have the same levels of Environmental Protection for clean air and clean water because the states are already doing the work. Sreenivasan the eb a has shrunk even under president bushs term. Can it be smaller . Weve worked for e. P. A. Across democratic and republican president s, and its not an issue of where we go from here has to be maintaining e. P. A. s capability and capacity to get the job done. Scott pruitt, when he took over as attorney general in oklahoma, he got rid of the Environmental Enforcement division. If he does that for the e. P. A. That means trouble anywhere in the country from florida to ohio. We have to make sure that we remain vigilant and hold the senators that voted for him by the narrowest of margins and scott pruitt accountable for what he does. Sreenivasan Jeremy Symons, what are the most immediate things youre concerned about . Scott pruitt is one individual, its a large agency, the rules take time to change. Myron and the transitions recommended cut epia. P. By halve, talking gutting core capacities like enforcement, science, the Health Studies that need to happen to make sure pollution is in control. Were worried about enforcement like in oklahoma and interfering with science. Trying to roll back mercury standards, arguing mercury isnt a threat to tun born because it is and science says it is and quite clearly across many studies. If you add all of those lawsuits up, if you took away the rules he was attacking, we would see 850,000 more asthma attacks every year. That is unacceptable. So were going to be keeping score in terms of are we moving forward or back. The pruitt we saw in front of the senate said he cared about e. P. A. s mission and would move us forward but his record says otherwise. Were waiting to see which pruitt shows up. Sreenivasan one of the concerns has been mr. Pruitts record. The Competitive Enterprise Institute is in some ways funded by the fossil fuel industry, but scott pruitt was a friend to the fossil fuel industry, to put it mildly, in oklahoma. There is a famous incident of him basically copypasting an email or concern directly from the e. P. A. At the hearings he said he understands it is an incredibly important job especially when it comes to the rule in regulating co2. Jeremy mentioned the 14 lawsuits. Im proud my organization is a coplayoff with attorney general scott pruitt in several of these lawsuits. These are meant to shrink e. P. A. s overreach, its illegal regulatory overreach. I think, when you look at oklahoma, oklahoma is a big oil and gas producer. Theyre proud of it. They produce the energy we use. Of course, scott pruitt supports that industry. Its oklahomas major industry, and it helps the entire nation. So i think, if you look back at what President Trump said in the campaign, he said, i want to get rid of the regulatory rampage that is killing investment and jobs in our resource and Manufacturing Industries, and i want to make america the Worlds Energy superpower. So i think scott pruitt will have a vital role in shrinking that regulatory rampage. Rampage. Sreenivasan does his thinking change when its just not oklahoma and a specific industry hes protecting as states attorney general, but a country which has many different sources of energy and a much larger constituency . Yes, but the Trump Campaign wasnt just about oklahoma and the oil and gas industry. It was about rebuilding our resourcing Manufacturing Industries across the heartland of america, and that is going to require putting e. P. A. Regulations back in their place so theyre concerned with air and Water Pollution and not destroying jobs. Sreenivasan myron ebell, Jeremy Symons, thank you both. Thank you. Woodruff on january 27, the president s executive order banning travel from seven muslimmajority nations went into effect, throwing plans to travel to the u. S. Into chaos for many people in the middle east. Right afterward, we introduced you to one iraqi man who had long worked for the american military, whose plans to emigrate here with his family were suddenly canceled. Tonight, from Southern California, special correspondent marcia biggs, brings us this update. Reporter this is the day Abdul Hamid Al ghani and his family have waited years for theyre driving towards the airport in erbil, northern iraq. I feel great, actually. I feel like a big burden is off my shoulder and i can take my family to a place where i can feel safe, and i can take care reporter abdul hamid and his family are finally coming to the u. S. , on special immigrant visas, issued to iraqis who worked for the u. S. Military. He spent nine years as an interpreter for the u. S. Army, at great personal risk, even finding himself on a kill list back in 2006. Yet he still proudly wears the American Flag on his hat. Did you like working with the americans . Oh i loved it, i loved it. The brotherhood they have, this type of mentality, like we are one team and one fight, they never gave me this impression like you are not one of us, or you are just an interpreter and youre going to do your job and theyre going to leave me behind. Reporter three weeks ago, with bags packed and having sold everything he owned, he got the news that President Trumps executive order on immigration meant that the visa he had waited almost six years to get would be cancelled. I was shocked, like someone just popped me in the head. Like, its over, all the dreams that i had. Everything that i planned has just vanished from my life. Even my little kids, like my eldest son, he kept asking me, daddy, why is trump stopping us from going to the states . And i had no answer for him. Reporter because you believed in this brotherhood that you had been a part of for so long . Exactly. Ive had this feeling like someone is going to stand for me, and the American Society is the america that i know is totally different from the decisions that have been made lately by those executive orders. And i was like, this is not america. Reporter someone did stand up for him. Protests erupted all over the country. And just under a week later, the pentagon recommended that the ban be amended to allow visa holders who worked for the u. S. Military to immigrate. So once again, the family prepared to travel. And half a world away, another family is preparing. Sitar khidir, one of abdul hamids best friends, has been living here in san diego for the last 5. 5 years. As a former u. S. Air force contractor, he immigrated on the same type of visa. Abdul hamid helped him and many others fill out their visa applications to get out. Reporter and he did all of this jus