PBS News Hour full episode, May 1, 2026

[0:03] good evening i'm jeff bennett and i'm amna nawaz on the news hour tonight [0:07] president trump rejects iran's latest proposal to end the war prosecutors [0:13] released new videos showing the suspect at the white house correspondence dinner [0:17] breaching the security perimeter and palestinian and israeli authors of a [0:21] new book about peace discuss their work to bridge divides we are together we are [0:27] not against each other it's not israelis versus palestinians it's those of us who [0:31] believe in justice and equality and peace versus those who don't yet major funding for the pbs [0:49] news hour has been provided by the william and flora hewlett foundation for more than 50 years [0:56] advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.org [1:03] friends of the news hour including jim and nancy bildner and the robert and virginia schiller [1:09] foundation the judy and peter bloom kovler foundation upholding freedom by strengthening [1:16] democracies at home and abroad certified financial planner professionals are proud [1:21] to support pbs news hour cfp professionals are committed to acting in their clients best [1:26] interest more information at let's make a plan dot org and with the ongoing support of these [1:36] individuals and institutions and friends of the news hour this program was made possible by the [1:59] contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you thank you welcome to the news hour iran today [2:11] submitted a new proposal to the u.s aimed at breaking a diplomat diplomatic deadlock but president [2:17] trump rejected it and said he's reviewing new military options to relaunch the war it's been 60 [2:22] days since the war began which means today is a legal deadline for the administration to seek [2:28] congressional authorization but the white house informed congress it didn't need to get its approval [2:33] because the war had been quote terminated during the current ceasefire nick schifrin's here he's [2:38] been following all of this so nick tell us more about what the president said today the president [2:42] not only rejected iran's new proposal he expressed a deep skepticism that iran could ever submit a [2:49] proposal that would satisfy him so they want to make a deal but i don't i'm not satisfied with it so [2:56] we'll see what happens they've made strides but i'm not sure if they ever get there there's tremendous [3:05] discord there's tremendous they're having a tremendous problem getting along with each other [3:10] in iran so on the one hand no deal and little prospect for a deal but the president also acknowledged [3:16] yesterday receiving a briefing from his top middle east commander admiral brad cooper what president [3:21] trump told fox news's peter ducey were two main options do we want to go and just blast the hell out [3:29] of him and finish him forever or do we want to try and make a deal and those are the options do you want [3:34] to go black the hell out of him i prefer not on a human basis i prefer not but that's the option do [3:41] we want to go in there heavy and just blast them away or do we want to do something they're a very [3:48] disjointed leadership as you can understand peter very disjointed i mean they uh they're not getting [3:55] along with each other and it puts us in a bad position one group wants to make a certain deal the [4:01] other group wants to make a certain deal including the hardliners so all that said a u.s official tells [4:07] me on it tonight the options are actually not as black and white as the president proposes this [4:12] official says there is on the one hand little uh appetite by the administration to restart the war [4:18] in full but at the same time there is an impatience with what this official called iran dragging its feet [4:24] so as always there are multiple military options including what the official said was one that would try [4:30] to accelerate a deal without blowing up the possibility of a deal and without restarting [4:36] the war in full and what that could be is trying to reopen the strait trying to reduce iran's ability [4:41] to launch drones launch cruise missiles at ships at ports in the strait and while the economic [4:47] pressure while the diplomatic efforts would continue and remember the president and the military have [4:52] many options because there are still many u.s military assets in and around the persian gulf and [4:57] there's still a u.s blockade that the president and u.s other officials uh really believe are really [5:02] choking iran's economy so iran's proposal that the president rejected what do we know about what was in [5:06] that proposal we don't know exactly but for the president it's clearly not enough of a change from [5:11] the proposal that iran submitted just last weekend that i reported according to a regional and iranian [5:16] official uh was that if that iran would reopen the strait if the u.s lifts its blockade unfreezes iranian [5:24] assets and crucially pauses any negotiation of iran's nuclear program president said today [5:30] iran is asking for things that i can agree to but didn't provide any specifics so as you mentioned [5:34] today is that 60-day deadline required by the war powers act for the white house to get congressional [5:39] authorization to continue that war they say they don't need that authorization why not well the [5:44] president argued today the war powers act is unconstitutional which is an argument that every [5:48] president as you know since richard nixon since 1973 has made but the president's lawyers are taking [5:54] it seriously apparently because the white house released this letter that it sent to congress [6:00] uh and it said this quote there has been no exchange of fire between united states forces and iran [6:06] since april 7 2026 the hostilities that began on february 20 28 2026 have terminated terminated even [6:14] though of course i mean we just talked about how the president said himself that he could [6:18] restart the war uh at any time we spoke to harold ko professor uh of yale law school and president [6:23] obama's former top state department lawyer and he said it's as if the president is trying to rewrite [6:29] the war powers resolution and add a pause button it's misunderstanding the text of the war powers [6:37] resolution which says that 60 days after u.s armed forces are introduced which is 60 days after february 28th [6:45] the president shall terminate any use of the u.s armed forces that were made at that time in other [6:51] words pull all the troops that have been sent in out he's not doing that this is uh not a shot clock [6:57] in basketball it's the game clock it's ticking down from 60 days and those 60 days are up now all of [7:04] this said amna as of now republicans in congress have not been willing to enforce the war powers resolution [7:10] there have been six votes so far that would have required the administration to withdraw all u.s [7:14] military forces from war in iran unless congress authorized the use of military force in iran [7:20] all six votes have failed but our colleague lisa de jardin has been reporting that there is private [7:25] concern private concern among republicans that could become public votes against the administration [7:31] if the president were to relaunch full combat operations and harold ko argues the point here the [7:36] bottom line point here is that even if congress isn't willing today to enforce the war powers act [7:41] it maintains the threat to do so the decision points will mount um what this is like is when you've [7:49] parked in a parking space and time is up you may not get a ticket for a while but you're certainly [7:55] under pressure to figure out some kind of solution to legalize it or to get out and that's what he's [8:01] feeling meanwhile nick some news late today about u.s troops in germany what's the latest yeah the uh [8:07] spokesperson for pete hexes secretary of defense uh has confirmed this afternoon to me and other [8:12] reporters that the u.s will withdraw 5 000 troops from germany there are about 36 000 or so troops in [8:19] germany right now so 70 000 troops in europe uh so a portion uh of what the u.s has in europe of course [8:25] coming after a bit of a war of words between president trump uh and chancellor uh of germany frederick [8:31] mertz mertz criticizing the president for not having an exit plan president criticizing those comments [8:36] and here you go 5 000 troops withdraw over the next six to 12 months nick shepard beginning our [8:41] coverage tonight nick thank you thank you the justice department released high resolution video [8:58] showing the moment an armed man stormed past security at the white house correspondence dinner [9:04] the incident is raising serious questions about the security posture surrounding the president at [9:09] high-profile public events we're joined now by juliet kayyam of the homeland security project at harvard's [9:15] kennedy school she previously served as assistant dhs secretary in the obama administration juliette [9:21] it's great to see you so look there are lots of questions as you know about the shot that struck the [9:26] u.s secret service agent the u.s attorney for the district of columbia janine piero says there's no [9:32] evidence of friendly fire but the video this single video is not definitive what does this footage [9:40] show us and what does it not show us so it shows us it shows the suspect going through uh you know a [9:47] security metal detector essentially it also it shows him speeding up it shows him trying to reach a gun [9:55] and then the frame by frame shows some dust uh sort of a dust up literally up above which would suggest [10:02] that there had been a gun fired because afterwards you then see the secret service uh pick up their guns [10:08] so the prosecutors will say this shows that he had deadly intent uh and and that the secret service [10:14] were responding i but i will be honest with you the frame by frame is not dispositive in any way the [10:21] what the government released was was you know it was on different speeds it sort of slowed down and sped [10:28] up so a good defense attorney is gonna you know wonder why that is happening what you also don't see is you [10:34] don't see any movement like a sort of a muzzle from from his gun go off so it's a long way of saying [10:41] lawyers are going to debate this in court it's certainly not definitive the more important thing [10:46] is why is i don't quite understand why the government is sort of going for broke on this issue friendly [10:53] fire is known to happen it's it's not like a moral outrage it happens when bad people come with guns to [11:01] areas with with uh police presence and so i don't i don't quite know why the administration is so stuck [11:08] on this issue even if there were friendly fire they're still intent to kill the president by the [11:14] assassin well on that point the secret service director sean curran in defending his agents says [11:20] the site was set up perfectly the video this is about a half hour into the dinner the video shows the [11:26] agents some of them removing the magnetometers and the suspect appears to exploit that exact [11:32] moment he's got that running start as he sort of barrels through is that what a perfect setup looks [11:37] like i would never say perfect um ever and i would certainly not say it after there was an attempted [11:45] assassination attack only because the truth is is the director curran you know if you said to him [11:50] you have to do this again next year he wouldn't in no way do it the same way we all know that there [11:55] were vulnerabilities so in the secret services defense in other words where do i look for the [12:01] highlights of this planning they had a secure zone that secure zone was never breached and the president [12:08] was truly not under any direct threat they got him out of there in time so if you look at from the [12:13] perspective of the security zone nothing bad ever happened of course the fear the you know the the [12:19] the shooting and all the badness outside the secure zone of course impacts everyone and so i think [12:25] the question for director curran is sort of you know both this or what we call the the mixed environment [12:30] the public and private at a hotel like this do you really want to have those for a president uh for [12:35] president trump or any president and also you know at some stage the the secure zone may need to be [12:41] extended further because of the nature of gun violence and and political violence in this country [12:47] we'll say more about that because this is now the third attempted attack on president trump so from [12:52] a protection standpoint does that fundamentally change the model it probably does in one way which is [12:59] you're just going to be more conscious and do a lot more planning for the president's non-home [13:07] uh uh uh sort of when he gets out of the house out of the white house and the reason why i say that [13:11] is because i look at these three assassination attempts one happens in a open air political rally [13:18] the second happens at a private golf course and the third in the basement of a hotel so anytime he's [13:24] going to get out there's going to be vulnerabilities now the white house has been saying that means [13:29] you know he needs more protection or a ballroom at the white house that's not how it works in [13:34] between a white house that no one's invited to and the fact we have a democracy where you want your [13:39] president to engage with people um and not just the people around him but you want presidents to engage [13:46] the public there's a lot more that we can do security wise in particular uh uh maybe extending [13:53] that security zone but almost every planner i've talked to since last weekend you know said like [13:59] just don't have it in the hotel go to the convention center in dc secure the area around the convention [14:04] center you won't have residents and you won't have a public it's it's not it's not rocket science [14:10] actually you mentioned the president talking up his ballroom his desired ballroom do you think the [14:15] administration is treating this primarily as a security failure to fix or as a political moment [14:21] to message around i mean i was thinking about the past week i i take presidential assassinations [14:28] seriously as we all should and i sort of think about the the the line of the story since last saturday [14:35] which is you know it's it's very scary for a democracy to have people and people with whatever [14:40] motives but in this case you know you know left-wing motives to go after a president so you have a [14:46] discussion of a ballroom you have going after comey the fbi director um and then you have going after [14:52] a late night host for what he said about the president none of those are related to the [14:56] president's safety and security and i think i think the white house might make all of us take [15:02] uh security more seriously if if if they did not politicize it within hours of of an assassination [15:09] attempt against the president of the united states juliette kayyam juliet thanks as always thank you [15:27] in the day's other headlines president trump says he's raising tariffs next week to 25 percent [15:33] on cars and trucks from the european union accusing the eu of not complying with their trade deal [15:39] the new levies come at a time when the global economy is already reeling from the iran war [15:44] speaking to reporters at the white house mr trump didn't elaborate on how he'd hike the tariffs [15:50] or why he chose to do so now we raised the tariffs because they were not as usual they were not [15:57] adhering to the agreement that we have we have a trade deal with the european union they were not [16:02] adhering to it mr trump was referring to a deal reached with the eu last summer that set levies on [16:08] most european goods at 15 percent the supreme court then ruled in february that much of his tariff agenda [16:15] was illegal the pentagon says it's made deals with seven major tech companies to use their ai tools [16:22] within the department's classified networks they include spacex open ai google microsoft and nvidia [16:30] some of which already had deals with the defense department officials say the companies will allow [16:35] the pentagon to employ their technology for any quote lawful use that standard lies at the heart of a [16:41] legal dispute involving anthropic which was not listed in today's announcement the ai startup has [16:47] objected to its technology being used for fully autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance in florida [16:54] a former miami congressman with ties to secretary of state marco rubio was convicted today of secretly [17:01] lobbying for venezuela a jury found david rivera guilty on all counts including failure to register as [17:07] a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit money laundering the case centered on a 50 million dollar [17:13] lobbying campaign to convince the first trump administration to ease sanctions on then [17:18] president nicolas maduro's government rubio himself testified though he's not been accused of any [17:24] wrongdoing rivera was taken into custody and faces around 10 years in prison in texas an investigation [17:32] is underway into what caused a small plane to crash in the state's hill country killing all five [17:37] people on board the cessna aircraft went down shortly before midnight last night in wimberley texas nearly [17:44] 40 miles southwest of austin an air traffic controller observed the plane moving erratically and a nearby [17:50] pilot says the plane emitted a distress signal before the crash the names of those on board have not yet [17:56] been released but a local pickleball club says they were members who were flying to a tournament [18:02] in washington state police arrested a high school student suspected of wounding [18:07] five people in a stabbing rampage the attack happened yesterday at foss high school in tacoma [18:13] just south of seattle a police spokesperson says first responders were called after reports of a [18:18] fight among students the campus briefly went into lockdown and classes were canceled for today [18:24] authorities say all the victims are now in stable condition as well as the suspect who was [18:28] hospitalized with minor injuries around the world events have been taking place to mark mayday also known [18:35] as international workers day which honors the efforts of the global labor movement [18:44] in madrid activists chanted long live the working class and marched for collective bargaining in [18:50] seoul in istanbul's taxum square demonstrations turned violent turkish police detained hundreds of [19:02] protesters amid the clashes in many cases rallies highlighted the ripple effects of the iran war [19:08] like rising energy costs and commodity prices as laid out by this protester in the philippines [19:16] at first you might think there's no connection but as we saw when the war in the middle east broke out [19:21] crude oil and gasoline prices shot up there's a domino effect prices increase across the board [19:28] here in the u.s mayday is not a public holiday like it is in many other parts of the world but cities [19:34] including new york and chicago saw marches and boycotts where opposition to the policies of [19:40] president trump was a common theme on wall street today stocks ended mixed following some strong [19:45] corporate earnings the dow jones industrial average slipped about 150 points the nasdaq rose more than [19:51] 200 points or nearly one percent the s p 500 ended the week at a new all-time high and it's a case of [19:59] lost and found with a hollywood ending lufthansa apologized to a russian director today for briefly [20:06] losing his academy award on a transatlantic flight pavel talonkin and his co-director david [20:12] borenstein won the oscar for their documentary mr nobody against putin borenstein posted on social [20:19] media yesterday that tsa agents in new york told talonkin he couldn't bring his oscar on board [20:25] because it could be considered a weapon they sent it under the plane in a box instead after an [20:31] international outcry the airline said the statuette has been found and is being returned to its rightful [20:37] owner still to come on the news hour the battle for the senate comes into sharper focus with the exit of [20:44] a prominent contender in maine david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the week's political [20:49] headlines and a new pbs series showcases the often overlooked history of muslims in the united states [21:00] this is the pbs news hour from the david m rubenstein studio at weta in washington [21:06] headquarters of pbs news much of the focus this midterm season has been on the fight for the u.s [21:16] house with redistricting battles dominating the headlines but this week also brought new [21:21] developments in the race for the u.s senate our congressional correspondent lisa desjardins has more [21:27] the upper chamber with direct power over supreme court and other nominations is increasingly in the [21:33] 2026 conversation a total of 35 senate seats will be on the ballot but just 11 are rated as [21:40] remotely competitive by the cook political report with amy walter republicans in red are on defense [21:46] in more of those seats than democrats but democrats need a long shot sweep a net gain of four seats to [21:52] take control of the chamber for a closer look we're joined by jessica taylor senate and governor's [21:57] editor at the cook political report thank you for joining us jessica great to be here lisa let's [22:01] start with maine we had some news there this week when the democrat candidate of choice governor janet [22:06] mills dropped out it now looks like progressive upstart candidate graham plattner who is an oyster [22:12] farmer and a retired marine will be the one to face off with susan collins republican in the fall [22:19] he has brought a lot of passionate supporters to the table but he also has controversy past comments [22:26] blaming sexual assault survivors and also a tattoo that was also a past nazi simple he's apologized [22:32] for those things this is all a long build up to a question you had rated this race in maine as a [22:38] toss-up is it still a toss-up it is still a toss-up and i think that's because of the national [22:43] environment susan collins the seat she's the only republican defending a seat that harris carried [22:49] in fact republicans have not won maine at the presidential level since 1988 so it's been a [22:56] while and she's managed to win the seat she's the only person you know she's democrats white whale [23:01] really that she's been able to hold this seat even at times when trump carried her seat in in 2020 but [23:08] you know plattner is a risky choice as you said he brings a lot of energy he's they talk about sort [23:14] of this movement that he's created there in maine and ousting the sitting governor is not easy but [23:20] it's not just those comments that you know mills did not have the money to prosecute the case against [23:25] him republicans will they've already reserved millions of dollars in advertising so if this [23:30] backfires against democrats that's a real problem for them as they need to get these four seats let's [23:36] talk about that as we've said there's four seats that need to switch net for democrats and if we look [23:42] at the map here again there's roughly 11 seats that you say are in play but you know really there's [23:47] only three toss-ups at this point how realistic is it for democrats to try and take over the chamber [23:54] to net for and where do they need to look democrats have to pitch a perfect game it is now within the [24:01] realm of possibility which i could not say at this time a year ago and that's because they've recruited [24:06] successful candidates in states that i think could only put their seats into play now someone like the [24:12] former governor roy cooper in north carolina that's a race we actually recently moved from toss-up to [24:16] lean democrats so that gets them one pick up if that race if he continues to have a lead in that contest [24:22] um ohio former ohio senator sherrod brown we've recently moved that race from lean republican to toss-up [24:28] he lost last cycle but this is a much better political environment for him and then they were able [24:34] to get someone like former congresswoman mary peltola in alaska we rate that race as lean republican so that [24:40] race needs to move a little bit more onto the map for them to get to four but again that it means that [24:45] they keep that they are able to flip maine and then democrats also they're playing defense in places [24:51] some upstate like georgia we moved that one to lean democrat as well recently so that's the state that [24:56] they're looking better in but a state like michigan where they have a very messy primary that's not going [25:01] to be over until august so there's minefields for democrats um on this map still as well let's talk about [25:07] texas i know it is the perennial question for democrats almost a siren call for them that they [25:13] hope to win a senate seat in texas but we have a vicious primary there does that help democrats is [25:19] this the year i hesitate to ask where democrats have a chance in the senate i feel like for as long as [25:25] i've been doing this which is almost two decades democrats have been talking about turning texas blue [25:30] but if paxton defeats cornyn in that primary the sitting senator john cornyn right the attorney general [25:35] ken paxton yeah then that makes it that much easier because we're talking about you know [25:40] graham platter's baggage in maine ken paxton has a ton of baggage he was impeached there's questions [25:46] his wife he's a very evangelical has an evangelical base in the state his wife left him for biblical [25:53] reasons which were interpreted as he had multiple affairs and so james tallarico has had a lot of money [26:00] the democratic nominee but he's going to need it because texas is such an expensive state [26:06] what's a state that's a little bit off the grid that you're watching that people might not be [26:09] talking about iowa is my canary in the coal mine there is a really interesting governor's race there [26:15] where actually republicans polling even has the democrat rob sand who's the state auditor up there [26:22] and that is an open senate seat as well joni ernst is retiring iowa is a state that's been hit hard by [26:27] tariffs hit hard by soybeans that they haven't been able to trade to china so even though it's a very [26:34] republican state could there be enough things that could go right there national democrats would [26:40] feel a lot better if it's josh torik who's a four-time paralympian two-time gold medal winner [26:47] he's in his wheelchair from spina bifida that that he contracted because of his father's service [26:53] in in vietnam and agent orange he he's one he's a state representative who's won in red areas they feel [26:59] much better about that matchup against ashley henson who's the republican congresswoman so that's a [27:04] state i you know that could be more on the map she's a strong campaigner but i think republicans too [27:10] they can't take anything for granted and that's a place where i think they're looking as well exactly [27:13] it's the national environment this all comes down to trump it really does and where his approval [27:17] windings are where gas prices are what's happening with iran in a couple of months as we get closer to [27:22] voters going to the polls jessica taylor as we get closer we'll be hoping to talk to you more and more [27:27] excellent thank you lisa fallout from the third alleged assassination attempt of president trump [27:42] another indictment of a former fbi director and a consequential supreme court ruling made it a busy [27:48] week in politics to discuss that all we turn now to the analysis of brooks and capehart that is the [27:53] atlantic's david brooks and jonathan capehart of ms now great to see you both let's start with the [27:58] white house correspondence dinner because we know a lot more now than we did a week ago when it first [28:03] happened we know about the suspect his alleged plans we've seen the video examined from multiple [28:07] angles we've also seen conspiracy theories abound that it was a staged event to distract from president [28:13] trump's low approval ratings or help him to fuel this argument to build a ballroom but david almost [28:18] a week after the event how are you looking back on it and what it meant and what it changed if anything [28:23] i look at it as part of a climate of rising violence uh both against obviously against donald trump but [28:28] against all of us against uh the climate of of verbal violence that seems omnipresent there are [28:35] certain moments in history when you get these rising climates of violence i'm thinking of the [28:41] period around the return of revolution i'm thinking of reconstruction i'm thinking the 1970s of older [28:46] viewers if we have any uh may remember that uh the beider meinhoff gang the red guards when i was a little [28:52] kid in grace church school in new york i overheard the underground the weathermen accidentally blow [28:57] themselves up in the townhouse that was a period you get these moments when there's low sense of [29:02] legitimacy for ruling institutions and a great sense that we don't have any shared values and then [29:08] people just resort to violence and we're clearly in one of those periods and i look at the 2028 [29:13] election with a great sense of foreboding and if you look at who thinks violence is justified [29:19] it tends to be younger people by a lot most progressives and most conservatives are opposed [29:25] violence but you get two and a half times as many progressives say it's justified than not [29:29] but what strikes me about this guy about the guy who shot in butler about the guy who shot charlie [29:34] cook kirk they haven't seen the thought about it that much like it's not like they've said they're [29:40] radicals who have a big manifesto and an ideology it seems almost flippant the way they go into these [29:46] things almost like half thought through and jokey uh and i can't quite make sense of what that kind of [29:52] light-hearted nihilism uh that drives people to on a whim almost do something that is horrific and [29:59] life-changing donathan how do you look at it well excuse me i'm not going to um just let the comment [30:07] that you know progressives you know more than folks in the far right are you know think that violence is [30:13] justified it is something that the american people feel they're a little more comfortable with it than they [30:21] were say five or ten years ago um that you and i were in that room we walked through the magnetometers [30:27] together we stood in that spot um the thing now a week out that i've been thinking about and i keep [30:35] coming back to it is that when i heard the five bangs i remember hearing five very loud bangs my immediate [30:43] action was so instinctive drop to the floor under the table and be quiet i've never been in a situation [30:51] like that but as an american and certainly as a journalist having to cover all of these things [30:58] and to listen to the the recordings and the films you sort of learn through osmosis what to do and to me [31:07] the bigger issue here is gun violence that why was i not surprised that this had happened and i've been [31:15] to that dinner at least a dozen times since 2000 um and so yeah there's a there's an issue of of you [31:25] know people feeling that political violence is the way to go and that we are in a highly charged uh [31:32] atmosphere but what's been sort of a specter over all of us for even longer is the scourge of gun violence [31:39] which has not been interestingly part of the conversation post that event lots more to talk about that in the [31:44] weeks ahead but i want to ask you about the other big headline this week which was of course [31:48] former fbi director jim comey being indicted for a second time for this post from a year ago [31:54] seashells on a beach the prosecutors allege threatened the president with this 86 47 message [32:00] and also a parallel headline the common thread here is i'll show in a moment but the fcc going after abc [32:06] for its licenses that was a day after the first lady and the president publicly said that abc should [32:12] dump jimmy kimmel after he made a joke about melania trump being widowed and david president [32:17] trump has repeatedly said abc needs to dump jimmy kimmel he's repeatedly said the doj needs to go [32:22] after comey so is this just government agencies doing the president's bidding now uh yeah more or [32:27] less uh you know i thought the comey photograph was tasteless i thought the kimmel joke was extremely [32:33] tasteless uh but there should be social sanction when people do that there should be social norms say [32:38] somebody at whatever network jimmy kimmel is at should say hey we have standards here we don't [32:42] we don't tell jokes about the president dying and his wife becoming a widow uh so we just don't do [32:47] that but there's a big difference between that this sort of social enforcement that should exist [32:52] than the president using force of law to prosecute people for this sort of behavior which is clearly [32:58] not illegal it's not terrorism it's not anything like that and so this is the president once again uh [33:04] uh neglecting to understand that his job should come with some sense of limits and being president [33:09] doesn't give you permission to use the federal government to do whatever the hell you want [33:14] and he has never really recognized that and he's using that and i i'm you see signs of some resistance [33:19] within the department of justice but they've seen what's happened to others and if they want to keep [33:24] their jobs they probably can't resist too hard another example uh when it comes to kimmel of the [33:30] president being thin-skinned can't take a joke um or doesn't want to be the butt of a joke and yet [33:38] just what a few months ago we were talking about him posting pictures of the obamas as apes so um [33:46] you know just i'll just leave that there but when it comes to the the process the indictment of comey [33:52] i mean yes this is the president has all been all about retribution he campaigned on it he's been [33:58] governing that way but there's another dynamic here that is even more troubling and that is [34:04] acting attorney general todd blanche appears to be actively campaigning for the job and what we know [34:12] about the president is um he's when you know he's paying attention to you you do everything you can to [34:19] please him everything anyone who's testified before congress or in the case of acting attorney general todd [34:27] blanche trying to get the nod for the top job it is all about what can i do to make him happy [34:35] and so going after james comey who the president has has loathed since his first term in the white [34:41] house that's a to my mind that is a surefire way for todd blanche to um get a notch a point in his [34:48] favor in the president's mind for the big job you know i'm going to ask you about another big story [34:52] this week that deserves way more attention and time that we can give it right now but the supreme [34:56] court decision that prompted headlines like this usa today saying the supreme court sides against [35:02] black voters and a blow to the landmark civil rights law politico said the voting rights act [35:07] is now a dead letter reuter said the u.s supreme court under roberts takes a wrecking ball to the [35:12] voting rights act david as you know this is a 6-3 decision along partisan lines it's about a louisiana map [35:17] right that created a second black majority black congressional district and there's now been a series of [35:23] rulings that have weakened the vra over time what does all this mean i wasn't a fan of the original [35:28] gerrymandering rules that were set up mostly in the early 90s and they did the noble thing of [35:33] increasing black representation house but they did it by cramming all the democrats into one little [35:38] district so there would be more republicans and so what happened you saw a rise of black members but [35:42] you also see republican majorities and that was the deal they cut with each other and i thought it was a [35:48] it was not a deal that was good for democracy because it created fewer and fewer swing districts [35:53] that era looks like the pinnacle of periclean democracy compared to where we are today now we've [35:59] all seen what's happened in texas and california and places like that but this will will turn that [36:04] over the next several years into super drive and so we're looking at like 2030 when the census comes [36:09] around again we will have marginally uh barely any swing districts in america and that will mean voters [36:16] have barely any opportunity to throw one party out or another for bad behavior it also means we will [36:22] be stuck for the foreseeable future with an evenly divided house and all those things are terrible for [36:29] democracy and it's going to be up to some post trump president to say this is a national problem we're [36:34] going to solve it all at once you with the coalition obviously the states and we're going to redraw these [36:39] maps um the voting rights act of 1965 is what killed jim crow the vra [36:49] is only 61 years old when it was passed and became law it was the first time america truly [36:58] was a democracy meaning that the words on in the constitution equally applied to all of its citizens [37:05] including african americans by giving them the right to vote 61 years i am 58 years old my mother [37:14] is 84 so my mother is older than true american democracy and so for those justices in the majority [37:24] to say that oh well you know racism's over and voting and we don't need this anymore i keep thinking [37:31] about um what justice ginsburg said um in her dissent in the shelby v holder case which um invalidated [37:39] section five the pre-clearance um portion and she wrote throwing out free clearance when it has worked [37:45] and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a [37:51] rainstorm because you are not getting wet and so for justice alito to focus on the elections of 2008 [37:58] and 2012 when there was a black man on the ballot um to say that racial disparities are no longer [38:05] a problem and then ignoring that shelby in 2013 led to just a rush of changes in and in voting laws in the [38:14] states is to ignore ignore reality and to ignore history and to and to drag us back to a time when [38:22] america was not america as i say it deserves a lot more time than we can give it here but i [38:27] thank you both jonathan capehart david brooks always good to talk to you thanks the october 7th [38:42] terrorist attack in israel and the war in gaza that followed have left countless families grappling [38:47] with profound loss for many others the grief stretches back even further tied to years of [38:53] violence that predate this latest chapter for two men one israeli the other palestinian the killing of [38:59] loved ones by those seen as enemies could have deepened the divide instead it set them on an [39:05] unexpected path toward understanding and reconciliation they tell that story in their new book the future [39:11] is peace our ali rogan recently spoke with them aziz abusada maozinon thank you so much for being here with [39:19] me this book documents your literal and figurative journey together how did you start down this path [39:28] the joint journey started only a few days after october 7th on october 7th i lost both my parents [39:36] they lived quarter a mile from the border in gaza and they were among the first victims of the [39:41] hamas attack and on that day i lost many of my childhood friends people i knew my entire life [39:48] and three days after aziz reached out to me offering his condolences and it was literally [39:54] like a hand reaching out saving me from drowning into the ocean of sorrow and pain and in the [40:01] last two and a half years we've been walking together quartering the future is peace and now [40:06] i can say it very proudly and i'm privileged that i'm able to say it few times a day that yes [40:11] i lost my parents and i lost so many but i won aziz i won aziz as a brother aziz you also like maoz [40:24] lost loved ones at the hands of those who you had been conditioned throughout your life to to fear [40:33] to hate yeah how do you constantly not let the anger win because you both made a conscious decision [40:40] at one point or another not to pursue revenge it's very hard when you lose a family member my brother [40:49] tasir was arrested by israeli soldiers from home an allegation of throwing rocks he was 18 at the [40:56] time i was nine years old he refused to confess to the charges so he was tortured in prison which [41:02] resulted in untreated internal injuries and by the time he was released he was pretty much on the [41:08] deathbed and soon after he died when he was 19 years old and i was 10 years old people want to hurt [41:15] those who hurt them and especially when you're 10. and that's what i did for the next eight years that's [41:20] what filled me the desire and the feeling of making those who killed my brother pay it stopped only when [41:27] i went to study hebrew in an ulpan and met israelis for the first time who treated me like a human being [41:34] like an equal that's why i reached out to maoz because i understand my life changed because of [41:40] somebody who reached out to me and i felt it's important for me to also reach out to those [41:45] who have a terrible reality after maoz's parents were killed we are together we are not against [41:51] each other it's not israelis versus palestinians it's those of us who believe in justice and equality [41:56] and peace versus those who don't yet why was it so important for you to to take this journey of [42:03] healing together yeah so the way we wrote that future is peace is as a journey because both of us [42:09] come from tourism background and the book follows that journey israeli palestinian meet together [42:16] and guide the readers and you through this journey of eight days and this journey we visit maoz's [42:23] hometown where he grew up meet with people inside gaza and and tell us their stories we go through [42:29] jerusalem and jaffa and nazareth and galilee the west bank we interview people who lost family members [42:35] in the kibbutzim and in gaza for example and then we talk about the future and i think that's what [42:41] make the futures piece very unique because it's important to talk about the current reality and [42:47] analyze and political things very important but that's not enough if you don't have a vision to where [42:54] we're going we will fail and we will never get out of the hell we live in today there is anger within [43:01] us but we've decided and it's a choice we are offering it to everyone to channel the bitterness [43:08] the the the sorrow the pain the trauma to create a different future not to let those feelings [43:15] and destroy us only two days after losing our parents we were sitting together three sisters [43:21] my young my young brother and myself early morning and my young brother [43:25] uh asked us to take a family decision advising us to reject revenge and telling us that we should [43:33] not avenge the the death of our parents because avenging their death will only escalate the cycle of [43:38] bloodshed terror and trauma that we both palestinian israelis have been trapped within for a century [43:46] but i was still there was still a lot of bitterness within me and a lot of anger and i wanted to punish [43:52] the israeli government because i hold the israeli government accountable for the safety and security [43:58] of my parents and and so many of my childhood friends because again and again the israeli [44:03] government promised us that wars will bring security and bombs will bring quiet but it totally failed on [44:10] october 7th and we are modeling and manifesting the future by the brotherhood that we have forged [44:19] together even though we were destined to be on on opposite sides but we choose to be on the same [44:26] side the same side of humanity the same side of equality of dignity justice and peace in the book you [44:32] ask many difficult questions you have difficult conversations and you talk about the importance of [44:37] that why is it so important to have difficult conversations and what types of breakthroughs have [44:43] you experienced in asking those tough questions and one of the stories we share is my dad [44:49] coming to a peace meeting and asking if the holocaust really happened and he keeps going on did it [44:56] happen is it just because israel want to use it to justify the occupation and he keeps digging more [45:03] and more and eventually when he finishes it was silence because people are not used i have to say even [45:11] within the peace movement i used to those kind of questions we sometimes do walk over eggshells and [45:17] ramil hanan whose daughter was killed by a palestinian suicide bomber stood up and he said you know what [45:25] i don't expect you to believe in something you never learned about so why don't you let my dad his [45:30] father was in auschwitz before take you to the holocaust museum and tell you his story and 70 other [45:37] palestinians all of them had lost family members in the conflict stood up and said actually we also [45:42] had the same question but we didn't want to ask it and they went and it was very hard people cried people [45:48] were upset at times people there were comparisons made that made people upset there's a photo in the [45:53] holocaust museum of people standing at checkpoint and the palestinians passing by saying this is like [45:59] us in the morning going through the checkpoints and for the israelis for the people who were experienced [46:05] holocaust they're like no no it's not the same by the end though everyone was hugging everyone was in [46:11] tears everyone understood so much and then the israelis came and said we want to learn about the [46:17] palestinian history after can you take us to a palestinian village that was destroyed in 1948 [46:23] again there were many questions hard questions israelis asked things like why did you run away [46:27] you could have stayed and the palestinians going like no we didn't choose we were bombed what what [46:32] what do you want us to do and but they're going back and forth and asking those questions was important [46:38] to build relationships without it i think the relationships be fake relationships the spark [46:44] that lit this this fire that has become this book and this journey for you [46:49] was really your shared grief over the loss of your loved ones um they're not with us [46:55] anymore on this earth but i wonder how do you think they would feel about the work that you're [46:59] doing now in a moment like this one that we are sharing now i feel them i feel the series here [47:05] i feel my parents are here and they are very proud of us i wish they were here so we could ask them [47:12] but if they were here this is what i hope they would say and it's a poem by samih al qasem a [47:17] palestinian druze poet who says the damn killed my killer rifling through my pockets will find travel [47:23] tickets one to peace one to the fields and the rain and one to the conscience of humankind so i beg you [47:32] my dear killer do not ignore them do not waste such a thing i beg you to use these tickets and go traveling [47:40] and that's what we believe our family members are saying and what we hope everyone who's listening [47:48] watching reading the future's peace is going to do is to travel with us on this journey we will fail [47:55] on our own the only way we can succeed is if people join us the book is the future is peace aziz [48:02] abusara mawals inon thank you so much starting this weekend a new series on pbs dives into the early [48:25] history of muslims in the u.s looking at notable figures communities and spanning more than 200 [48:30] years uncovering stories that few people have heard there's never been an america without muslims [48:37] three journalists following the trail each of us exploring a defining moment in american history [48:49] tracing a legacy that's coming back into view that's jefferson's initial there was one of the [48:55] founding fathers imagining muslim americans a completely new nation that included more than just [49:01] christians it's a six-part documentary called american muslims a history revealed it launches this [49:07] weekend on pbs stations across the country and on the pbs app asma khalid of the bbc is one of three [49:13] hosts exploring all of this and joins us now great to see you great to see you thanks for having me so [49:18] what's the story that you're aiming to tell with this documentary series and why does it matter right now [49:24] so jeff i've been a long time political reporter i covered a lot of campaigns and i will say that there's [49:29] long been uh an active debate in our country about who gets to be an american and i think that those [49:35] conversations and that debate has become even more ripe now as we're inching closer to our nation's [49:40] 250th birthday uh debates over who is an american what it means to be an american and whose story is [49:47] told and i think what's really interesting about this series and what attracted me to being a part of [49:52] it is ultimately that the story is a lot more complex it's a lot more nuanced and uh i think [49:59] that that's what people will find when they would see the series is that um there's a there's a really [50:03] diverse part of america that we're not always told about you know not just sort of on the margins but [50:08] central uh stories around slavery around the founding of this nation um you know muslim who was involved [50:13] in the civil war and i just love the idea that we're really engaging with that as our country let's [50:18] talk more about that because there's one episode where you focus on a man who had been enslaved to [50:22] ultimately becomes a property owner in georgetown let's take a look we know that some african muslims [50:29] left their names they show up in plantation records and runaway slave ads others left their writings [50:37] many of them in arabic a few left their image among them was mamadou yarrow also known as yarrow mahmoud [50:46] he was painted not once but twice it's one of the things that makes him stand out he gives us [50:54] a story of what it was like to gain freedom and then live after that and practice as a free person [51:02] i don't think we have any other story like that what did you learn about his life that really stayed [51:09] with you so uh i would say what stayed with me the most is that i didn't know this story i didn't really [51:14] know the details of it all yet and jeff i admit i i'm embarrassed to say that because mamadou yarrow [51:19] was a slave in montgomery county maryland where i live as you say he he bought a house he lived [51:24] in georgetown the streets that i have walked so many times and i just wasn't intimately familiar [51:29] with his story um we you know used primary sources in a lot of of these documentaries relying on on [51:35] letters archive material portraits as you say i mean mamadou yarrow's portrait hangs now in the [51:40] philadelphia art museum and to me that was just so important to know that you know here i am walking [51:44] these same streets and there's a part of american history uh that resonates back with muslims being [51:49] here also for generations and generations that i had not really known this series also traces [51:55] muslim communities coming to the u.s from south asia what's the what's the through line there yeah i [52:00] mean there's a lot of stories that we looked at that i think are grappling with some of the [52:04] the key debates that we're grappling with now as a nation right around issues of of religious freedom [52:09] around issues of immigration and the the episode that you mentioned there around south asian [52:14] migration dates back to the early let's say 20th century we had people coming from what is now india [52:20] and pakistan which was then the british empire coming settling in in sort of california arizona [52:26] often uh intermarrying with with mexican women because of the racial laws at that time period [52:31] and long story short there's a lot in those conversations and those stories that deal with [52:36] immigration and questions of exclusion and inclusion that we are to this day dealing with around our [52:41] immigration system when viewers finish this series what do you want them to walk away with or to [52:47] understand differently that they might not have known before i'd love for people to get a sense that [52:55] the american story is a lot more complex than perhaps we all initially thought right and that [53:01] muslims are a part of that story um you know i think often candidly as a muslim i think people [53:08] sometimes might see you as being foreign or other or a secondary person who moved here later and i i [53:13] loved what the stories stories showed because they showed that muslims were a part of shaping our [53:18] american story and that's been really meaningful for me as well to report on asma khalid one of the [53:23] hosts of american muslims a history revealed airing this weekend on pbs great to see you great to see you [53:40] remember there's always a lot more online including how communities are organizing [53:45] against the construction of large-scale data centers that is on our youtube page be sure to [53:50] tune into washington week with the atlantic tonight here on pbs moderator jeffrey goldberg and his panel [53:56] discuss the fallout from president trump's alleged assassination attempt and on horizons this weekend [54:01] william brangham talks to khan academy founder sao khan about the rise of ai in education and on compass [54:08] points moderator nick schifrin sits down for a rare interview with the cia station chief in pakistan [54:14] during the successful bin laden raid which happened 15 years ago this weekend you can check your local [54:20] listings for all of that well that is the news hour for tonight and this week i'm jeff bennett and i'm [54:25] amna nawaz on behalf of the entire news hour team thank you for joining us and have a great weekend major [54:32] funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and [54:38] institutions and friends of the news hour including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith [54:46] the walton family foundation working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and [54:54] nature can thrive together certified financial planner 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