News Wrap: Death toll rises to 16 in Surfside condo collapse

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• Judy Woodruff:

  In the day's other news: Search teams recovered four more bodies from a collapsed condominium tower in Surfside, Florida.

  With the search in its seventh day, the number of confirmed dead reached 16, with more than 140 still missing. But officials insisted they aren't giving up hope.

• Charles Burkett:

  There's been some talk by the families, they have asked me if the search is going to stop. Are we going to turn this from a rescue to a recovery?

  And I appreciated the governor's comments just a few minutes ago, where he basically said, we're not leaving anybody behind. This is going to go until we pull everybody out of there. This is our number one effort.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Officials said they're also watching a pair of potential tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean that could hit South Florida in the days ahead.

  An indigenous group in Canada reports finding another 182 sets of human remains near a former school in British Columbia. The school for Indian children near Cranbrook was operated by the Catholic Church until the early 1970s. Hundreds of other unmarked graves have been found at two similar sites in Canada.

  Back in this country, actor Bill Cosby was released from prison in Pennsylvania after the state Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction. He arrived home, in suburban Philadelphia, hours later, having served nearly three years of a three-to-10-year sentence.

  We will take a closer look later in the program.

  There's word tonight that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who championed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has died. His family says he passed away Tuesday in Taos, New Mexico.

  Nick Schifrin reports on his life and legacy.

• Nick Schifrin:

  A Navy veteran and Republican congressman from Illinois, Donald Rumsfeld was America's youngest defense secretary during the Cold War. He was also its oldest defense secretary and oversaw the wars post-9/11 and served amid deep and lasting controversy.

  On the morning of September 11, he was a stretcher-bearer, ferrying wounded from the Pentagon.

• Donald Rumsfeld:

  The fact is, in this battle against terrorism, there is no silver bullet.

• Nick Schifrin:

  He was an architect of both the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars under President George W. Bush. And he propagated the now-debunked argument that Saddam Hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction.

• Question:

  What do you make of the statement made by Iraqi government, statement by the Iraqi government yesterday that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction and is not developing them?

• Donald Rumsfeld:

  They are lying.

  Next?

• Nick Schifrin:

  Rumsfeld was also a key proponent of the U.S.' use of what he called enhanced interrogation. Others call it torture, including at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.

  The wars continued and casualties climbed, but Rumsfeld dismissed complaints from troops they were ill-prepared.

• Donald Rumsfeld:

  As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Shortly after the 2006 midterms, then-President Bush fired Rumsfeld.

  Today, Mr. Bush called Rumsfeld "a man of intelligence, integrity, and almost inexhaustible energy, who never paled before tough decisions and never flinched from responsibility."

  Donald Rumsfeld was 88 years old.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And on the pandemic, the head of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said today that mask guidelines will be left to local officials.

  That's after Los Angeles County urged a return to wearing masks at indoor public spaces, as the Delta variant spreads.

  Meanwhile, North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, blamed the country's senior officials for what he called a — quote — "great crisis." North Korea previously claimed to have no infections.

  The U.S. House of Representatives voted today to create a select committee to investigate the January assault on the U.S. Capitol. It will include 13 members, mostly Democrats. All but two Republicans opposed the action, and they traded jibes with Democrats over which side is being more partisan.

• Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn.:

  Most fundamental to any objective investigation is being free from political influence and partisan bias. Unfortunately, this resolution fails to meet that basic benchmark.

• Rep. Jum McGovern, D-Mass.:

  Come on. Give me a break. I mean, we had a bipartisan commission, equally divided, equal subpoena power. They voted against it. The minority leader of this House whipped against it, and fought against it, and convinced the Senate to try to kill it.

• Judy Woodruff:

  There is no deadline for when the select committee is to make its report.

  Former President Trump spent this day at the U.S.-Mexico border as he makes his return to public view. He toured a section of unfinished border wall outside Weslaco, Texas, and attacked President Biden for rescinding his policies on migrants.

  The appearance came as prosecutors in New York are expected tomorrow to charge the Trump Organization with tax-related crimes.

  In Myanmar, the military government began releasing some 2,300 prisoners. They include demonstrators who protested against the military coup last February and some journalists. The government says those released did not take part in any violence. There's no word on how many others might remain behind bars.

  And on Wall Street, stocks mostly edged higher in quiet trading. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 210 points to close at 34502. The Nasdaq fell 24 points. And the S&P 500 added five points for another record close.

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