JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: The trial continues.

The second Senate judgment of former President Trump intensifies, as Democrats make their case over his incitement of the Capitol insurrection.

Then: COVID response.

We discuss the proposed changes to the vaccine campaign with a senior member of the White House pandemic team.

And the longest war.

Afghan warlords and militias fill the security vacuum left by a weak central government and the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

JANE FERGUSON: If a deal is done in Doha between the Afghan government and the Taliban, it'll be men like this who have been targeted by the Taliban for years who will get to decide whether or not they themselves are on board.

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

(BREAK) JUDY WOODRUFF: The preliminaries are over, and the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump is now under way in earnest.

The U.S. Senate heard evidence today, some of it never before shown, that he fomented the storming of the U.S. Capitol last month.

White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor begins our coverage.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: In the case against former President Trump, House Democratic impeachment managers wasted no time.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Members of the Senate, good day.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Leading the way, Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN: Ex-President Trump was no innocent bystander.

The evidence will show that he clearly incited the January 6 insurrection.

It will show that Donald Trump surrendered his role as commander in chief and became the inciter in chief of a dangerous insurrection.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: It was the beginning of their side's 16 hours of arguments.

Congressman Raskin insisted that former President Trump must be held accountable for the assault on the U.S. Capitol and Congress itself.

He stressed what happened was no accident.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN: To us, it may have felt like chaos and madness, but there was method in the madness that day.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Instead, the House team argues that, in the weeks before the Capitol siege, former President Trump built up momentum for trying to overthrow the election.

They said it was clear that extremists were responding.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN: There were countless social media posts, news stories, and, most importantly, credible reports from the FBI and Capitol Police that the thousands gathering for the president's Save America March were violent, organized with weapons, and were targeting the Capitol.

As they would later scream in these halls and as they posted on forums before the attack, they were sent here by the president.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Another impeachment manager, Congressman Joe Neguse of Colorado, argued the president's own words laid the crucial groundwork for the attack.

He played videos of President Trump's post-election rallies and specific remarks that Democrats say fueled his supporters' anger.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States: We will never surrender.

We will only win.

Now is not the time to retreat.

Now is the time to fight harder than ever before.

We have to go all the way, we're going to fight like hell, I will tell you right now.

REP. JOE NEGUSE (D-CO): The president had every reason to know that this would happen, because he assembled the mob, he summoned the mob, and he incited the mob.

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): Good afternoon, you all.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas pointed to the former president's frequent tweets and false claims that the election was rigged.

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO: Rather than calmly saying, let's count the votes, if he told his supporters he actually won the election and the whole thing was a fraud.

He said that on November 4, and he has never recounted that statement since.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: And California Congressman Eric Swalwell said the rhetoric escalated into -- quote -- combat terms."

PROTESTERS: Stop the steal!

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: He said that fueled real anger, including toward state election officials.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): He could have very easily told his supporters, stop threatening officials, stop going to their homes, stop it with the threats.

But, each time, he didn't.

Instead, in the face of escalating violence, he incited them further.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Representatives Madeleine Dean and Ted Lieu cited many instances in which Mr. Trump pressured state election officials, Senate and House lawmakers, and even his own vice president to keep him in power.

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): What you saw was a man so desperate to cling to power that he tried everything he could to keep it.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Another member of the prosecution team, Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, unveiled powerful new security camera footage showing how riders breached the Capitol, with only one police officer, Eugene Goodman, standing guard.

And, as they moved up the stairs they were in 100 feet of where Vice President Mike Pence was sheltering with his family.

Ultimately, this is all about trying to win the votes of 67 senators.

The means getting 17 Republicans to vote to convict President Trump.

Yesterday, only one Republican, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, switched sides in voting to find that the trial is constitutional.

In all, six Republicans joined Democrats in voting to proceed.

Republican Senator Mike Braun of Indiana and others said it's clear there's not enough support to convict President Trump in the end.

SEN. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN): When you have one senator that changed a point of view, I think that says a lot.

I think that pretty well fixes in place what you might see as the eventful outcome, even though all of us will listen through the rest of the proceedings.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That has left President Trump's lawyers feeling confident that he will be acquitted.

Tomorrow, the House impeachment managers wrap up their opening arguments.

Then President Trump's defense team will also get up to 16 hours to make their case.

That will come as some of the President Trump's Republican supporters on Tuesday criticized the Trump lawyers' opening presentation and called into question their legal strategy.

Many said it lacked focus and was a missed opportunity.

BRUCE CASTOR, Impeachment Attorney for Donald Trump: Members of the United States.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: They pointed especially to attorney Bruce Castor's meandering remarks.

Sources close to President Trump called them awful.

Meanwhile, once both teams wrap up their cases, the senators themselves will be allowed to question both sides for up to four hours.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And Yamiche joins me now, along with our Lisa Desjardins, both of them watching all of this throughout the afternoon.

Lisa, to you first.

You were in the chamber when two of the House managers, Delegate Plaskett and Congressman Swalwell, were making their presentations.

They were showing new video.

Tell us -- at that point.

Tell us what you saw and what you saw of the senators' reaction.

LISA DESJARDINS: Much of this was video that no one had seen, including senators themselves.

And it was video that was a dramatic depiction of how close members of Congress, including the senators watching it, came to encountering the mob, as the Democrats put it, bent on destruction of the chamber, and also of harming the senators themselves.

I have to say, Judy, I sat there watching senators observe their own lives essentially flash before their lives, as they saw silent video, because it was security-cam video, of protesters, as Yamiche described it, coming within 100 -- I should say rioters -- within 100 feet of the chamber.

The senators were almost completely still, and it was so silent in that chamber, Judy.

I had a felt tip pen.

I was above them.

The sound of my pen was noticeably loud.

Someone turned to me and heard my pen strokes.

It was that silent during this video.

I noticed senators having largest reactions to when depictions of staff being threatened, as Speaker Pelosi's staff barricaded as the rioters stormed around them.

I saw Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, conservative Republican, shake his head in dismay.

Later, as we saw video of the rioters coming up to that Senate chambers, and they showed video of the senators themselves watching themselves evacuate, including a very close call for Senator Mitt Romney, he shook his head.

He told reporters he had never seen that video before.

I saw Senator Bill Cassidy, an important Republican in this whole proceeding, still as a stone, except for his pen, which was moving in his fingers, as I think he perceived the threat that he actually faced on that day.

Now, I also have to say one other observation.

In the press area where I was, there was a single police officer who was there to protect us and to make sure that we were in our correct positions.

He was behind us.

I was the only one looking at him.

Judy, that police officer had tears in his eyes as he heard how his fellow police officers and perhaps he himself were brutalized that day.

I saw him look to the sky and hold his hands together.

It was a difficult amount of video to watch.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Capitol Police certainly heroes that day.

If we didn't know it before now, we certainly know it after seeing and hearing all this.

But, Lisa, just quickly, there's still more to go.

We haven't heard President Trump's defense yet.

But what's your sense right now on conviction, the vote?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

Does this emotion matter?

We're hearing from Senator Lisa Murkowski, who spoke to reporters a minute ago.

She said she's disturbed and angry, and the evidence is pretty damning.

However, on the other side of this, we're hearing from senators like Marco Rubio, who says: This was powerful material, but I don't think it convinced Because he still contends that you cannot convict an ex-president.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And quickly now to Yamiche.

Yamiche, you have been following this story for a very long time.

So much of what we heard today was about what the president has said over the past many months, what he's done.

What's your sense of how that is playing out?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, Democrats really put up a damning argument against President Trump.

And they were using his own words.

And they were also using never-before-seen video of his perceived opponents, his targeted opponents, running for their lives.

So, we heard from President Trump over and over again.

He, of course, is not going to be testifying in this trial.

Legal experts are saying that it's because he was scared that he was going to perjure himself.

But what we saw was President Trump at rallies and interviews over and over again saying that this was an election that was rigged, this was an election that was stolen from him.

We know now, Judy, that none of that was true.

What was also very interesting is that they were going back, the House impeachment managers, months and months and months, back all the way back to even July 19, 107 days before the election, to make this case.

Of course, there's also that video of so many of the president's targets running for their lives.

Let's remember that Mitt Romney was one of the few Republicans who stood up to the president, Vice President Pence, his last act of crossing the president, why the president was then tweeting at him on the day of January 6, angry at him, because he would not overturn the election for him.

And, as a result, we saw people dressed in the symbols of President Trump going after all these lawmakers trying to hurt them.

So, this was stunning video.

And it's also video that President Trump's lawyers are going to now have to contend with.

They are very confident that the president is going to be acquitted.

They don't think that this -- all this emotion is going to change any minds.

But it's still something that the president's going to have to contend with.

And Lisa Murkowski said she could not see how the president would ever get reelected, seeing this video and showing this video.

So, it also tells us a bit about whether or not the president being acquitted will matter for his actual political future.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We will see.

So much yet to unfold.

Yamiche Alcindor, Lisa Desjardins, thank you both.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thanks so much.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And joining me now are two women who have worked on Senate impeachment trials before.

They are Elizabeth Chryst.

She's a 26-year veteran of the Senate.

She served as the Republican Senate secretary during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

And Melody Barnes of the University of Virginia's Democracy Initiative, Miller Center and Law School, she was chief counsel to the late Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy when she helped broker the rules for President Clinton's impeachment trial.

It's very good to see both of you.

Thank you for joining me.

Elizabeth Chryst, I'm going to start with you.

The Democrats started the day saying -- calling President -- former President Trump the inciter in chief.

How strong a case are they making to prove that case, do you think?

ELIZABETH CHRYST, Former Republican Senate Secretary: Well, I think they're making a very strong case, because the video is very - - it's a disgrace.

It's horrible.

The loss of life is sad.

And I think everybody would agree the violent trespassing of our nation's Capitol should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and it should never happen again.

There is no doubt about that.

But to say that it all falls on the feet of Donald Trump, I'm not sure they're making that case really well.

And, again, I mentioned this earlier.

They're talking to politicians.

They're talking to men and women in the chamber that are -- seek reelection or seek election, and they understand that campaign rhetoric can be just that.

It can be fiery.

It can be a lot of things.

And if you have a supporter or a group that supports you, and their fringe or their -- they get off the rails in some way, doesn't necessarily mean that you support what they do.

So, I'm not sure they're making that connection very well.

But it was a horrific day.

As you said, I worked in the Capitol for 26 years.

I can cry over seeing many, many, many of these clips.

It was horrible, a sad, sad day.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Melody Barnes, how would you say they're doing at making the case that President Trump was not only involved, but he was the chief inciter of all this?

MELODY BARNES, Former White House Domestic Policy Adviser: Right, Judy.

And that's the case they have to make.

I believe that they are doing a very methodical job of doing that.

Again, they have gone back for many, many months, and they are connecting the dots between what happened prior to November, prior to the election, pulling it all the way through that period, the former president's work in the courts that was highly unsuccessful, his attempts to badger and to push other Republicans, like Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger.

When that failed, then he invited his supporters to Washington, D.C., And, as the House managers said, he knew that they were violent.

He knew that they were armed.

He knew that they were coming with the intention to do his bidding.

They called themselves the cavalry for the commander in chief.

And they connected all those dots to show that, even with that knowledge, that the former president whipped them into a frenzy at this - - the rally, and then pointed them towards the Capitol.

And using his words, using his tweets, using the video, they have built, I think, a very, very compelling case, and then also said to the United States Senate, what would you have done, asking them to compare their own actions, their convictions to what the former president of the United States did and the way that they had to be protected by Capitol Police and law enforcement and how close many of them came to a really ugly, ugly demise.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And coming back to you, Elizabeth Chryst, and your point about politicians, members of the Senate think of themselves and words that they have used.

But what we're talking about here is a series of actions, of statements, of pleadings, urgings by President Trump.

It wasn't just a comment here and comment there.

As Melody Barnes just said, they went back to a year ago, when the president started talking about the election being fraudulent.

But your point is that that still is likely not to be enough?

ELIZABETH CHRYST: Correct.

I don't believe it's enough.

And, again, going back to a year or a year-and-a-half of statements, this is the way the president -- our former president, that's the way he did his rallies.

He did whip up his supporters.

That's the nature of the rallies.

Some people say that's why they were so infectious to begin with.

But, again, I think it's very hard to go from there to him approving and being pleased at what happened in the United States Capitol.

I cannot see in any way.

And, again, it was such a disgrace, and we all, I'm sure, are confident that we hope it never, ever, ever happens again.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Melody Barnes, is there more that you know of that the managers could be doing to connect what President Trump did, former President Trump did, to the events of January 6?

MELODY BARNES: Well, I disagree with Elizabeth.

I think they are showing in every way what the former president did and what he intended, up to and including the fact that, even as this mob was overtaking the Capitol, even as members of the Senate and the House were literally running for their lives, and their staff was barricading themselves in their office, that the president didn't do anything.

In fact, he had encouraged this mob to go to the Capitol, because the vice president, his own partner, his running mate, wasn't doing what he wanted them to do.

And they were up there, and they were chanting horrible things about the vice president, threatening his life.

And, still, the president did nothing.

And one of the things that House managers pointed out was that this is a president who had every capability to say stop when he wanted to.

He was saying, stop the steal.

He could have said, stop the violence, stop the mob, stop the rioting.

And there were crickets.

And I think one of the questions for the Republicans - - and I think the House managers have done a good job in putting this on the table -- they pointed out that this is a former president who was coming for them, meaning coming for the GOP, a crowd chanting, defeat the GOP, we're attacking the GOP.

This is a Republican Party that has worked to brand itself as being pro-law enforcement, patriotic, very religious.

And what the House managers were showing were attacks on churches prior to this moment.

They were showing attacks on law enforcement officers that were just unimaginable, with blue lives matter flags, while they were draped in the American flag.

And so I think the House managers are saying to them, do you want to protect a president who has incited this kind of violence, who has undermined a constitutional act of counting Electoral College votes, when, in fact, this president is not with you?

I think it's a question that they have put in front of the GOP to be playing in the background as they look at this evidence and consider these actions.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we are going to continue to look at this, but we are going to have leave this conversation there.

We thank both of you, Melody Barnes, Elizabeth Chryst.

We appreciate it.

In the day's other news: The Democratic district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, in the Atlanta area, opened a criminal investigation into efforts to influence the state's presidential vote count.

The announcement did not mention any names.

but former President Trump phoned Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, as we reported, in early January, appealing for enough votes to overturn the Biden win in the state.

Raffensperger refused.

On the pandemic, the CDC now says that wearing two face masks or one tightly fitted mask is more effective in blocking COVID-19.

New research released today showed that exposure can be reduced by 95 percent, more than twice what a single mask achieves.

The CDC head, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, spoke at a virtual briefing.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC Director: The science is clear.

Everyone needs to be wearing a mask when they are in public, or when they are in their own home, but with people who do not live in their household.

This is especially true with our ongoing concern about new variants spreading in the United States.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The new advice came -- on masks came as the nationwide death toll from COVID-19 passed 470,000.

President Biden ordered sanctions today against military leaders in Myanmar for staging a coup and using violence against protesters.

He said the move would freeze $1 billion in the generals' U.S. assets.

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters turned out again in cities across Myanmar, despite the police crackdown and a ban on gatherings.

Saudi Arabia has released a leading women's activist from prison.

Loujain Alhathloul pushed to end the kingdom's ban on women driving.

She was sentenced under a counterterrorism law and served nearly three years.

Her release comes as President Biden has pledged to emphasize human rights in U.S.-Saudi relations.

The White House is warning that, for now, the U.S. will continue turning back most migrants who enter illegally from Mexico.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki said today that officials need time to implement changes from Trump era policies that kept most migrants out.

JEN PSAKI, White House Press Secretary: Due to the pandemic and the fact that we have not had the time as an administration to put in place a humane, comprehensive process for processing individuals who are coming to the border, now is not the time to come.

And the vast majority of people will be turned away.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Crossings at the southern border have been growing for months, and Border Patrol facilities are filling up.

Across Europe, a cold wave kept much of the continent in the deep freeze today.

In Paris, layers of snow covered much of the city, disrupting travel in subzero weather.

And off the Normandy coast, the famed tidal island Mont Saint-Michel was surrounded by snow and ice, a rarity.

Another new spacecraft has arrived at Mars, this one from China.

Chinese animation showed the unmanned vessel going into orbit today.

Its goal is to land a rover looking for underground water and signs of life from long ago.

An orbiter from the United Arab Emirates reached the Red Planet on Tuesday.

And an American rover arrives next week.

On Wall Street, stocks had a sluggish day.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 62 points, enough for a new record close at 31437.

But the Nasdaq fell 35 points, and the S&P 500 slipped just one.

And Larry Flynt, who founded "Hustler" magazine, has died.

Flint built a pornography empire partly on images of violence against women and fought several First Amendment battles.

During one case in 1978, he was shot by a gunman and left partially paralyzed.

In 1988, he won a U.S. Supreme Court fight with the Reverend Jerry Falwell, who had sued him over a parody.

Larry Flynt was 78 years old.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": we discuss the ongoing vaccine campaign with a senior member of the White House COVID-19 response team; Afghan warlords and militias fill the security vacuum left by the withdrawal of United States forces; new accountability for a major company and its role in the opioids crisis; plus, much more.

The White House said today that the U.S. is on track to meet President Biden's pledge of 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations in his first 100 days.

But, as Amna Nawaz reports, demand is greater than the federal supply, frustration is building, and questions about and the equity of vaccine distribution persist.

AMNA NAWAZ: That's right, Judy.

About 10 percent of the country has so far gotten at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, and about 1.5 million Americans are now getting a shot every day.

But the pace and the supply of vaccinations remain low.

Andy Slavitt has been at the center of the Biden administration's efforts to increase those numbers.

He's a White House senior adviser on the COVID-19 response.

And he joins me now.

Andy Slavitt, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

And thank you for making the time.

I want to begin by asking you about the registration process.

To sign up to get those vaccines is a bit of a Hunger Games situation going on.

Right?

If you can afford a smartphone and the time to sit and refresh your browser all the time, if you can afford to, you can get one of those slots.

Is there a federal fix to that process in the works, or is this just the way it is?

ANDY SLAVITT, Senior White House Adviser For COVID Response: Hi, Amna.

Thank you for having me on the show.

And you're right.

There's a couple of things we're concerned about right now.

One is that, for the next little while, we will be in an undersupply situation.

And it's -- that won't be the case forever, but that will be the case for the next at least few weeks, if not a couple of months.

And while that's happened, one of the things that we are very worried about is people with the savvy and the resources, whether it's their ability to smile and dial or use the Internet, or they have kids, they have transportation, but there are people who are clamoring for these vaccines, and we are worried that they will be able to get ahead of the people who are, quite frankly, at greater risk, the people in communities of color and low-income people, people who are essential workers.

So, we have a big effort, as you know and as you talked about, to make sure we do things to combat that.

One of those things is, we announced yesterday, is, we're going to be distributing vaccines in federally qualified health centers, community health centers, setting up mobile clinics.

And we have just announced today five more federally funded clinics in low-income neighborhoods and low-income communities.

And we're asking people also to reserve appointments for the people who live in these communities and not allow people to swoop in.

AMNA NAWAZ: I think that's probably, folks would agree, a lot to ask people, right?

Everyone is clamoring.

Everyone who's eligible is just trying to get a slot where they can.

But you mentioned getting the vaccine directly to those community health centers.

Those serve tens of millions of poor Americans, communities of color.

That will begin next week.

But when you look at where the vaccines are going so far, I just want to point out to people, there's limited data.

A CDC report has shown that the federal government has only gathered race and ethnicity center for 52 percent of the people vaccinated so far.

That's just over half.

And the limited data that exists show it has gone overwhelmingly to white Americans.

So, even if you put the vaccine into these community health centers, as you say, how do you make sure people from wealthy communities don't just come in and get those slots, especially if you're not tracking right now?

ANDY SLAVITT: Well, I will give you an example.

In North Carolina, there was an event at Panthers' stadium, and the people who put on the event, including Atrium Hospital, Honeywell, the state of North Carolina, they reserved appointments for people in communities of color early in the morning, and they were -- they located themselves on a bus line and made sure there was adequate transportation.

If people make the effort -- and those folks are writing up a playbook on how they did it, because they oversampled.

They had twice as much participation from communities of color than had been going on -- than was the state's population.

But the key here is, you have to make an effort, because you said it exactly right.

If you do nothing, then you can just assume and you need to just assume that you're going -- your distribution is going to be inequitable.

So, when I talked about reserving appointment times, it wasn't that I was asking individuals.

We have been talking to pharmacies.

We have been talking to hospitals.

We have been talking to others who have vaccine supply.

And what we're suggesting to them is that they have to make sure that, if they want to continue to get increase in doses, they're not only efficiently moving out vaccines, but also equitably.

And over time, the places that are going to get more and more doses are places that are both efficient and equitable.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, I hear you saying you are suggesting to states and pharmacies that they put those tracking mechanisms into place.

But let me ask you about the supply, because the Biden administration has been able to increase the supply that's going to states.

The state leaders we talk to say they welcome everything they can get, but they could be doing more.

When you look at the map across the country right now, every state right now, except for Kansas, has administered at least 60 percent of the allocated vaccine.

Ten states have already administered more than 75 percent of their vaccines.

And some folks say they could be doing or three or four or five-X times what they're doing now.

So, you talk to the pharma companies regularly.

When is that supply going to meet the capacity to deliver?

ANDY SLAVITT: Yes.

And they can.

And I think, for quite a while, we will be able to get the vaccines more and more efficiently to people, as we get -- as we increase that supply.

So far, we have been here three weeks.

And, as you said, we have increased the vaccinations going to states by 28 percent.

That doesn't count the additional vaccine that they're able to get out of the Pfizer tubes, now that we have enclosed the ability to get that sixth dose that people may have heard about out.

We have also just started this week the retail pharmacy program.

We're starting the federally qualified health center program and these community health clinics.

So, we are getting both more places, more vaccinators and more vaccines.

I think we will see over the next weeks us, we feel confident, be able to continue to take that up.

And we will get to take that up more and more.

And I think, at some point, we will be out of the situation where we have people chasing vaccines, and we will be into a situation - - it's hard to imagine today -- but where vaccines are chasing people, and we will be talking about people who are unsure if they want to take the vaccine.

AMNA NAWAZ: Andy Slavitt, if I can -- and I'm sorry -- I have a few seconds left.

When will that be?

When will we have more vaccine than we need?

ANDY SLAVITT: I think, over the spring, we will be -- I expect most states will be able to invite people from across the state to come in and get vaccines.

And I think, by the end of the summer, we believe we will have enough supply to get all Americans vaccinated.

And we're going to do everything we can to beat that, but we're not going to overpromise things that we haven't been able to do yet.

AMNA NAWAZ: Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House COVID-19 task force, thank you so much for being with us.

ANDY SLAVITT: Thanks for having me, Amna.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We return now to our series on the longest war in Afghanistan.

Afghan security forces are strained to the limit and unable to stop rampant violence, which is fracturing the country.

Warlords, a mainstay of power and force, are stepping into that breach again.

Special correspondent Jane Ferguson and producer/cinematographer Emily Kassie have our report.

JANE FERGUSON: These gunmen are the rule of law in this remote mountainous region in the center of Afghanistan.

Groups of fighters patrol and protect these communities, entirely independent of the Kabul government.

Instead, they serve under this man, Abdul Ghani Alipur, known as Commander Sword.

ABDUL GHANI ALIPUR, Militia Leader (through translator): Twenty years ago, there was a sense of hope in Afghanistan.

But, unfortunately, the situation is getting worse.

The government was not able to establish itself in the way people had expected.

The democracy that we were establishing never took much of a foothold.

JANE FERGUSON: And so, he says, the rise of militias and their leaders is inevitable, with security deteriorating across the country.

ABDUL GHANI ALIPUR (through translator): When a nation moves towards destruction, every group is forced to take their security into their own hands.

They cannot leave their people behind.

This is everyone's right.

JANE FERGUSON: These fighters' long-persecuted ethnic community, the Hazaras, have been the target of the Taliban for decades.

Alipur says the government doesn't protect them.

ABDUL GHANI ALIPUR (through translator): Hazaras have always been left behind.

We can never ensure our rights will be respected.

JANE FERGUSON: But that fear is felt by many across Afghanistan right now, from the various ethnic groups to civil society and women.

As the American military prepares to leave the country, fighting has intensified between government forces and the Taliban, despite both sides technically negotiating in Qatar.

And the Kabul authorities are less and less able to provide real security to civilian populations.

The state's security forces arrested Alipur in 2018, accusing him of leading a criminal gang of fighters, but violent protests in the capital forced his release.

Now he sticks to his own stronghold in the mountains.

Alipur won't let us come to where he normally hides out.

He is, after all, a wanted man by both the Taliban and the government.

So he has agreed to meet us here in this extraordinarily remote and very beautiful mountainous part of the very center of Afghanistan.

The intense security surrounding him is a reflection of this fracturing war.

As each group entrenches, men like him have many enemies.

His followers say they are providing a service to the community that the government simply doesn't.

Without security, people cannot live decent lives.

HAMMIDULAH ASSADI, Adviser (through translator): At one point, even schools had to close here, and people didn't have the ability to get on with daily life.

With Alipur's movement, our people now live in security, and they can return to school, boys and girls, men and women.

JANE FERGUSON: They were keen to show us those schools, Alipur himself giving us a tour.

Here, on this snowy mountaintop, a remarkable sight, boys and girls sitting side by side taking extra classes in calculus, as state schools close for winter break.

But the reality is, this is not the image of Afghanistan's future either the Afghan people or the international community pictured 20 years ago, local militias patrolling their own communities, fighting off other militant groups.

As America prepares to withdraw its troops under a February 2020 deal with the Taliban, talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have stalled.

If that peace process fails, there is a serious risk of the country's war splintering and smaller conflicts between fighting groups erupting for control of territory.

The Afghan civil war of the early '90s, after the Soviet retreat, was devastating, with gangs of fighters plundering the country.

That chaos was what eventually led to the Taliban's rise and popularity, as communities begged for order.

Hopes to avoid repeating history lie with current talks in Doha between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

But even if a deal happens, there is no guarantee that various ethnic and social groups in Afghanistan would support it.

The Hazara community is predominantly made up of Shia Muslims, making them a target for the Taliban's Sunni extremism.

If a deal is done in Doha between the Afghan government and the Taliban, it'll be men like this who have been targeted by the Taliban for years who will get to decide whether or not they themselves are on board.

Several hours away from Alipur's hideout, in rural Bamiyan province, people live in the shadow of a visceral symbol of the country's culture and its destructive war.

The famous 2,000-year-old giant Buddha statues carved from these cliffs and once a marker of the area's ancient Buddhist communities were blown up by the Taliban during their rule.

And they continue to hold these communities in fear.

Hussein Razayee makes a living as a taxi driver between Bamiyan and the capital, Kabul.

It's one of the few jobs going in this part of the country.

But to do it, he has to travel through areas controlled by the Taliban.

HUSSEIN RAZAYEE, Taxi Driver (through translator): If they decide they don't like something about me or with my passengers, if there is a government employee with documents, they might beat me.

If a passenger is taken from my vehicles and is arrested by the Taliban, the government will say, I am involved.

Both sides would accuse me, the Taliban and the government.

All I could do is beg the mullah to please release the passengers, but they wouldn't.

They don't respect us.

JANE FERGUSON: Now he says the immediate area is safer because of Alipur and his men.

HUSSEIN RAZAYEE (through translator): Alipur's presence is very good for the people who are using this road.

He is doing a good job.

Before he came, people were arrested by the Taliban who were from this area, because there was no one to protect them.

Even the government didn't care.

JANE FERGUSON: Despite the peace talks, the realities on the ground of entrenched fighting and a rapid U.S. withdrawal leave few here like him confident the next generation will inherit a nation at peace.

HUSSEIN RAZAYEE (through translator): I hope so, but I'm not optimistic.

We might have peace one day, but not soon.

If fighting breaks out, I won't participate.

For the last 35 years, I have never touched a weapon.

I'm not a violent person.

I just want to live as ordinary a life as I can.

I just want a simple life.

JANE FERGUSON: It's a sentiment echoed across this country by the millions who aren't armed who are exhausted from war, asking for only a peaceful, dignified life.

Yet, as fear sets in, that balance of power is being upended with a U.S. exit.

Strongmen many call warlords may inherit some of that power once again.

ABDUL GHANI ALIPUR (through translator): The government is weak.

They are not able to defend the people.

They cannot defend the country.

They cannot move the war forward.

When there is destruction and the system deteriorates, everyone ends up looking out for the themselves.

No one's intention is to start a civil war.

Everyone knows that civil war is an awful phenomenon.

But if people feel unsafe, then they are forced to defend themselves.

JANE FERGUSON: America's withdrawal from Afghanistan will be the ultimate test of its government's ability to rule the country and hold central power.

The fear for so many Afghans is that it will not and what divides the country could prevail over what unites it, leaving people with no choice but to look to their own for survival.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jane Ferguson in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The opioids crisis that has taken hundreds of thousands of American lives has gotten less attention during the pandemic, but it's no less dangerous.

In fact, the CDC says drug overdoses and deaths have grown substantially since the pandemic began.

Now one of the world's most powerful corporate consulting firms has agreed to a major settlement for its role and trying to -- quote -- "turbocharge" sales of painkillers.

Stephanie Sy has our update STEPHANIE SY: Good evening, Judy.

The settlement holds McKinsey & Company financially accountable for its extensive work with Purdue Pharma and other drugmakers to aggressively market highly addictive painkillers.

The agreement allocates $573 million to 47 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories to fund opioid treatment, recovery and prevention programs.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has been leading the legal battles against McKinsey and Purdue Pharma, and joins me now.

Madam Attorney General, it's a pleasure having you on the "NewsHour."

I want to dive right in.

The velocity, the breadth of the opioid epidemic and how many American lives it has devastated is astounding.

How much of that would you ascribe to McKinsey consultants' strategies to sell more OxyContin?

MAURA HEALEY, Massachusetts Attorney General: Well, Stephanie, what my office's investigation uncovered is that, in fact, McKinsey was right at the heart of things.

McKinsey, to be clear, what our investigation uncovered was consulting with the Sacklers and Purdue.

They were instructing them on how to boost OxyContin sales, how to get doctors to prescribe more and more to patients.

McKinsey consultants actually rode along with, went with Purdue sales reps to doctor's offices here in Massachusetts to critique them on how effective they were at selling OxyContin.

McKinsey advised Purdue how to avoid FDA and pharmacy restrictions.

They later advised Purdue on how to enter the market for opioid rescue and treatment medications, because McKinsey knew that people were overdosing and dying and getting sick from OxyContin.

So, McKinsey's fingers are all over this.

It's why we came together as states.

This is the first multistate resolution that will return, importantly, millions and millions of dollars to our states right away that we're going to use directly for treatment.

And, also importantly, Stephanie, we did something for the first time, set up an online document repository where, in months' time, everyone in the country, researchers, the press, the public, will be able to see McKinsey's e-mails, memos, and the individuals who were involved in this effort.

STEPHANIE SY: One of the more egregious tactics that the complaint alleges was proposed by McKinsey consultants was giving the idea to give rebates to pharmacies when their customers overdosed on OxyContin.

Now, there's no evidence that that was actually enacted, but, Madam Attorney General, what does that tell you about these entities' desire for profit at all costs?

MAURA HEALEY: It's exactly that, profit at all costs.

McKinsey consultants were about the business of advising their clients on how to make as much money as possible from this deadly epidemic.

It shows a callousness that really is beyond the pale.

And it's why McKinsey needs to be held accountable.

The fact that they knew -- I mean, they knew how dangerous these opioids were, that they went so far as to try to propose to Purdue how it could pay insurance companies rebates for every patient who O.D.ed on OxyContin is gross.

It's disturbing.

And, today, there is a reckoning and an accountability that our families, Stephanie, in Massachusetts and all across this country deserve.

Those who engaged in acts and perpetrated such wrong against so many families need to be held accountable.

And McKinsey was right there part of it.

STEPHANIE SY: And we should say that McKinsey issued a rare apology, saying: "We recognize that we did not adequately acknowledge the epidemic unfolding in our communities.

We want to be part of the solution."

However, they never explicitly acknowledged any wrongdoing or illegality.

So, I want to ask you, are you planning any further complaints, criminal complaints, against McKinsey individuals?

MAURA HEALEY: Well, Stephanie, our agreement does not release any criminal claims.

And I cannot speak to the status of any criminal investigations.

What I will say, though, is that this agreement - - remember, we filed a complaint in every state in this country.

We filed a consent judgment in the states.

And you will see in time, with the documents, it will be very clear to the public exactly what McKinsey did.

So, the apology is a little too late for the families who lost loved ones to this disease, to this epidemic, and to the families who are struggling every day.

Yes, we have COVID, and that is, understandably, taking the front pages, but this crisis, this opioid crisis, has not gone away.

It's gotten worse, in fact.

And so McKinsey needs to pay up.

They're paying up big time with this nearly $600 million consent judgment, where that money is going to go right into our states, so that we can use that money to help treat people, to help with the recovery effort.

But I hope it sends a message loud and clear to those entities out there who are willing, it seems, all too willing to put profits ahead of people.

There's a price for that.

And I'm proud of the work of state attorneys... STEPHANIE SY: Yes, and I know, Attorney General, that you are continuing to pursue a case against Purdue Pharma as well.

We will have to leave it there.

But, Maura Healey, the attorney general from the great state of Massachusetts, thank you so much for joining us.

MAURA HEALEY: Good to be with you, Stephanie.

Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And now to a marriage of science and art on stage and in real life from a leading playwright and pioneering researcher into the causes and effects of pandemics.

Jeffrey Brown has the story for our ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas.

WILLIAM DEMERITT, Actor: This is -- what is this?

JEFFREY BROWN: What is it?

A play in the time of pandemic about how pandemics happen.

WILLIAM DEMERITT: I try to predict pandemics, because, if you can predict pandemics, you just might be able to prevent them.

JEFFREY BROWN: A story of a scientist thrilled by discovery.

WILLIAM DEMERITT: Bacteria and viruses are the same thing.

Nope.

No, absolutely not.

They are vastly different.

JEFFREY BROWN: And pained by loss.

It's called "The Catastrophist."

Playwright Lauren Gunderson: LAUREN GUNDERSON, Playwright: It was a story that I knew I could tell.

But the question was, should you?

JEFFREY BROWN: The reason?

The subject is her husband, Nathan Wolfe.

LAUREN GUNDERSON: But it felt like now is an obvious time to go into the backstory, the passion behind scientists who study what Nathan studies in virology, pandemic experts.

JEFFREY BROWN: And how did the subject himself feel?

NATHAN WOLFE, Founder, Metabiota: The truth of the matter is, if you're married to one of the most prolific playwrights in the world, especially someone who focuses on science, you learn that the various characters in her plays, you shouldn't extrapolate or see yourself in those characters.

Now, of course, I had to change my viewpoint a little bit for this particular play.

JEFFREY BROWN: Wolfe, now 50, is a virologist known for his work tracing how viruses jump from animals to humans.

He worked in Africa for many years and was on "TIME" magazine's 2011 list of 100 most influential people.

That same year, he was featured on the "NewsHour" after his book "The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age" predicted the kind of event we're living through now; 39-year-old Lauren Gunderson is prolific and successful.

According to the trade magazine "American Theater," she's the most produced playwright in the country, with many works that explore science and scientists of the past.

She wrote "The Catastrophist" during the pandemic, commissioned by Marin Theatre in California, directed by its artistic director, Jasson Minadakis, and co-produced with Round House Theatre in Maryland.

WILLIAM DEMERITT: Prokaryote.

Actor William DeMeritt plays a character besotted with science and the search for the unknown.

LAUREN GUNDERSON: We made the decision that this is not an imitation of Nathan.

It's an artistic synthesis.

I also do have to say that it is absolutely true that Nathan is besotted with science.

(LAUGHTER) LAUREN GUNDERSON: I can confirm that that is true.

JEFFREY BROWN: Gunderson and Wolfe live in San Francisco and have two young sons.

The play delves deeply into Wolfe becoming a father, while losing his own, a man obsessed with mapping future catastrophes, while unable to foresee those in front of him.

WILLIAM DEMERITT: How does the futurist not see his own future?

How does the catastrophist not playing for his own catastrophe?

JEFFREY BROWN: It's a personal story.

But also, for Gunderson and her collaborators, about the power of art, especially now.

LAUREN GUNDERSON: We believe in theater.

We believe it never stops.

We believe it's necessary, especially in times of crisis.

We believe in science.

We believe that the stories of science and scientists lift up new heroes.

We believe in empathy and how that is a unifying force, and it happens to be one of theater's superpowers.

JEFFREY BROWN: Wolfe's focus these days is assessing the risks of pandemics.

His company creates models for government agencies and corporations to help mitigate potential damage.

Of course, as a recent cover story on him in "Wired" magazine suggests, we humans aren't very good at planning ahead.

I asked if anything about this pandemic has surprised him.

NATHAN WOLFE: In some ways, what is unexpected is the nuance, the small features that you won't model, you know, the impact of Twitter, the way that communication and miscommunication has played a role.

JEFFREY BROWN: Still, he says: NATHAN WOLFE: I tend to be an optimist.

And let's just say it this way.

I no longer have to spend the first 10 minutes when I'm talking to somebody, the CEO of a large corporation, explaining the potential impact of pandemics.

JEFFREY BROWN: In their own personal lives, Gunderson and Wolfe say their work as writer and scientist feeds the other.

And they see a deeper connection in the disciplines.

LAUREN GUNDERSON: I think that science and art a lot closer than they are often portrayed, because, at the heart, you are trying to innovate, you are trying to investigate, you are trying to create.

NATHAN WOLFE: And I think people don't -- they think of scientists in a particular way, laboring in a lab.

But, at its fundamental core, science is attempting to understand features of the universe.

And in order to sort of really make important strides in science, you have to see something and be willing to believe something which others don't.

And that's the part of science that I love.

LAUREN GUNDERSON: See, he makes a great character.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: Now you see a character you could use in a play?

LAUREN GUNDERSON: See, I love it.

This is what I write about.

No wonder.

I kept waking up next to a character, and it took me 10 years to write it.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: As the character in the play says: WILLIAM DEMERITT: It's a risk being married to a playwright.

They usually get the last word.

JEFFREY BROWN: "The Catastrophist" is streaming through February 28 by the Round House and Marin theater companies.

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

JUDY WOODRUFF: It's fascinating.

And a reminder that we are carrying gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Senate's second impeachment trial of former President Trump.

You can check your local PBS station and find it also online.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

Thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon.