good evening I'm Anna Nas and I'm Jeff Bennett on the NewsHour tonight kamla Harris Donald Trump and their running mates all storm critical swing states with only a few days until voting ends we examine the trends from early voting data and what they signal about this year's election and the growing political divide over whether to trust election results despite no evidence that the vote has been compromised we know that it's not easy because we know that unfortunately people have been fed lies about our election system now for literally 4 years major funding for the PBS NewsHour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and Friends of the newsour including Jim and Nancy buner and the Robert and Virginia Schiller Foundation the Judy and Peter Bloom kovler Foundation upholding Freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad it really matters when you have an opportunity to give back being part of something that's bigger than myself that's what brings me happiness being able to integrate your professional career with some of these other things that are important to you it's critical to be happy at the end of the day you know this is our community too and we want to participate and get back to it people want those opportunities to make an impact and a difference the John S and James Elight Foundation fostering informed and engaged communities more at kf.
org and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and Friends of the NewsHour this program was made possible by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you thanks you welcome to the newsour with 4 days to go until election day vice president kamla Harris and former president Donald Trump have dueling rallies planned in Battleground Wisconsin tonight mere miles away from each other but the home stretch is not without bumps in the road today foreign threats of election interference sprang up in another swing state of Georgia but we begin tonight in Michigan with Trump's latest stop on the campaign Trail Laura Lopez begins our coverage Donald Trump rounding the final lap of his third presidential campaign today sticking with his anti-immigrant closing message all those people that illegally come across the border with their open border policy are taking the africanamerican jobs away the former president rallied in Warren Michigan this afternoon after stopping at a cafe in Dearborn where he doubled down on comments he made last night in Glendale Arizona he sat down with a controversial Ally former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson at the center of their conversation one of Trump's most outspoken Republican critics is it weird for you to see Liz Cheney that'd be Dick Cheney's repulsive little daughter running against you with Kam Harris Liz Cheney the former Wyoming representative crossed party lines to endorse and campaign for kamla Harris Trump talked about Cheney in violent and threatening terms the reason she couldn't say me is that she always wanted to go to war with people his daughter is a very dumb individual very dumb she's a radical war hawk let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine Barrel shooting at her okay let's see how she feels about it you know when the guns are trained on her face this must be disqualifying today Harris told reporters Trump's rhetoric is dangerous representative Cheney is a true patriot who has shown extraordinary courage in putting country above party Trump is increasingly however someone who considers his political opponents the enemy is permanently out for revenge and is increasingly unstable and unhinged in a post on X Cheney gave a cautionary response writing quote this is how dictators destroy free Nations Arizona's top Pro utor is reportedly investigating whether or not the remark crosses into a death threat under state law that kind of rhetoric from Trump in addition to his racist Madison Square Garden rally has Battleground voters who only recently made up their minds breaking for Harris by double digits that's according to a Harris campaign official's accounting of internal data Harris is also in the midwest today making a final push with multiple stops in Wisconsin her first in Jamesville we have just four days left four days left in one of the most consequential elections of our life time and we have a lot of work still to do but I know who's here we like hard work hard work is good work hard work is joyful work and we will win meantime both vice presidential candidates were in nearby Michigan today Harris's running mate Governor Tim Walls in Detroit folks I get it you're tired you're stressed you're ready for this thing to be over there's one antidote to this and it's the best one go out and vote for kamla Harris to be president that's it to vote for kamla Harris is to vote for more of the same and Trump's partner on the ticket Senator JD Vance in Portage before jetting off to North Carolina it is a vote for more of the same incompetent and failed leadership and I think the state of Michigan we're going to vote for a change in the final days Trump's campaign has steadily ramped up lies about election fraud it all comes as foreign adversaries are interfering this video that circulated on X reports to show Haitian immigrants illegally voting for Harris in several counties in Georgia us intelligence officials said today the video was manufactured by Russian influence actors to quote raise unfounded questions about the Integrity of the US election and Stoke divisions among Americans Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad raffensberger called the video of Haitian voting quote obviously fake and urged Elon Musk and other social media leaders to take down such disinformation on the campaign Trail It's Full Speed Ahead before the polls close on Tuesday both candidates will end their nights in the Milwaukee area the heart of the badger state where polls say it's a complete tossup for the PBS NewsHour I'm Laura Baron Lopez tens of millions of Americans across the country have already cast their ballots by absentee or early in-person voting so what does this early turnout tell us let's turn to Lisa dejaran for a look at the data So Lisa break it down for us where are we when it comes to early voting we're in a really extraordinary moment when it comes to early voting this nation has shifted over the last 20 years to today this election 47 states have early voting there's only three New Hampshire Alabama and Mississippi which do not have early voting let's look at the numbers what we know right now more than 55 million Americans have already cast their ballots at this point in the election how's that compare to this point in 2020 well it is less but it was a pandemic and many people were essentially forced for health reasons to vote so this is actually history making record number of early votes outside of a National Health crisis and Lisa what can we tell so far based on who has voted what stands out there's a gender gap in these early voting returns right now we see by far more women than men are voting in fact by 10 points that's something that the Harris campaign likes we see in polls including our poll in October uh that Harris really dominates with women they believe the more women vote the higher this proportion is the better it is for her I will note this is the same proportion as we saw in 2020 in that election Joe Biden of course won in part because of the gender gap in this election now these are just early votes we don't know if these women are necessarily Democrats or Republicans and I will say there is reason to believe that there are more conservative women voting this year and I'll show you why uh at least early in 2020 if you look at the data for rural and urban voters it was about the same proportion of early votes but look this year look what we have a gap rural voters making up a much larger proportion of the early vote than they did in 2020 and I can testify from being in Georgia Virginia this definitely has to do with Trump and his fir his his campaign pushing to try and get out their red voters especially in rural areas they are definitely showing up now the question is are these new voters or are these voters who would have voted anyway they're just doing it earlier so Lisa you got at this a little bit the big question is where are those early votes going to which candidate what do we know about turnout by party so far which party yeah not every state actually tells us the party identification of their early voters but those that do um the University of Florida election lab compiled this and it is close right now 39% of the early vote that we know about from Democrats 36% of it from Republicans now Democrats had an advantage before in early vote Republicans have clearly cut into that with their new strategy uh this campaign this is the national vote we all know that swing states are the ones that are going to decide this election so let's look at the biggest one let's look at Pennsylvania we actually have two counties there still early voting early voting was supposed to end Tuesday but because of various problems uh Lehigh County got extended One Day Bucks County still voting today what I want to tell you about Pennsylvania is that here Democrats had a 3 to one early vote Advantage last election now that's cut down just to two to one Republicans feel good about that but some experts including Target smart I talked about earlier say those are not new voters these Republicans who are showing up early in Pennsylvania that they are those who would have shown up anyway but we'll see on Election Day and Lisa a question about Nevada because there are Democrats who are concerned about the early vote in Nevada because Republicans are voting in greater numbers voting early in greater numbers as compared to 2020 yeah that's right Nevada we have some data on their early vote right now it is overall for the state we've got 34% of the early vote for democrats for Republicans 39 and one reason is because here the state's largest County Clark County with Las Vegas it's about even on early votes Republicans are really happy about that they think that that bodess good signs for them in the state but as you know Jeff and omna something you to pay attention to in Nevada is actually those who have no party registration which is the largest group of Voters in this state many of them automatically registered and Democrats believe some of them many of them might be young voters who just don't fall into these D versus our categories Lisa de jardan thanks so much you're welcome top United Nations officials today called the situation in Northern Gaza apocalyptic an unusually Stark warning is Israel enters the second month of an operation targeting the area where Hamas has regrouped Nick schiffren joins us now so Nick what did this warning say un and US officials are incredibly alarmed by conditions in jabalia and the northernmost part of Gaza where Israel launched a new operation one month ago where thousands perhaps tens of thousands of people have little food access to f food water or medicine and so today leaders of 15 un and humanitarian organizations including Oxfam the High Commissioner of refugees the American heads of Unicef and the world food program and the World Health Organization said quote the situation unfolding in North Gaza is apocalyptic the entire Palestinian population North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease famine and violence the blatant disregard for basic humanity and for the laws of war must stop Jeff the statement also called for an arms embargo the US has been pushing Israel to allow more Aid into Northern Gaza and warrants that if later this month the US determines that Israel is quote arbitrarily blocking Aid indeed some arms could be blocked and what has Israel said in response to this Israeli officials tell told me that jabalia is full of Hamas Fighters many of whom participated in the October 7 terrorist attacks uh and the fighting there is absolutely intense one official told me Israeli soldiers have killed or detained more than a thousand Hamas Fighters and it's simply too dangerous to allow humanitarian workers into the area Israeli officials also point out that most of javal's civilians have evacuated you can see Israeli Drone footage right there of civilians fleeing the area they also say criminal gangs are attacking the aid trucks but Jeff us officials insist that again Israel must make Provisions to allow more Aid into Northern Gaza and they say that the risk of starvation right now is quote very significant Nick schiffren our thanks to you as always thank you and we start today's other headlines with the state of the US Labor Market the nation saw much slower job growth last month than the final such report before next week's election the labor Department's monthly tally shows that the US economy added just 12 ,000 jobs in October that's down sharply from the 223,000 new jobs we saw a month earlier economists say the impact of recent hurricanes and corporate strikes are at least partly to blame the unemployment rate meantime remained unchanged at 4.1% speaking in Philadelphia this afternoon President Biden told union workers the economy remains strong thanks in part to them I'm proud to be listed as the pro most pro-union president American Min the middle class is gr the middle class is growing they're the best economy in the world right now because you looking forward the US Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates for a second time next week as inflation has cooled dramatically since its recent peak in 2022 that comes even as consumers and voters remain frustrated by the nation's high prices in Spain the death toll from this week's flooding has spiked to at least 200 five with many more still missing it's one of Europe's worst disasters in decades and the deadliest in living memory in Spain in parts of Valencia in the country's East more than a Year's worth of rain fell in less than 8 hours on Tuesday the floodwaters that followed piled up cars and smashed infrastructure volunteers are working to help those affected but for residents the impact of the flooding will be lasting there are a lot of dead people and what do you want me to say no matter how much help we get it is not enough we need much more help and no matter how much help Comes This is not going to be fixed in a month or two we need a lot because it has done a lot of harm and the harm is going to be fixed but the people who have left won't come back authorities have rescued more than 4500 people trapped by the flood so far more rain is expected in the coming days India Capital was shrouded by a thick layer of toxic smog today new delhi's air quality index plummeted to a reading of severe as smoke from firecrackers used to celebrate devali polluted the air in many areas levels of deadly particulate matter were seven times the wh's safety limit Dali is the Hindu festival of lights and one of India's most popular holidays authorities have banned the use and sale of traditional firecrackers in New Deli since 2017 but people often ignore the rule a US District Judge has rejected Elon musk's bid to move a Pennsylvania lawsuit over his million-dollar election giveaways to a federal court the decision comes a day after a Philadelphia judge put the State Challenge on hold City prosecutors sued the billionaire and his prot Trump Super PAC earlier this week saying the sweeps Stakes May violate election law musk's superc launched the prizes in October to qualify voters must be registered in one of seven swing States and they must sign a petition supporting free speech and gun rights it's unclear whether today's ruling will stop the giveaways before Tuesday's election on Wall Street today stocks ended higher as investors shook off the news of that weak unemployment data the Dow Jones Industrial Average added nearly 300 points on the day the NASDAQ gained more than 140 points after steep losses earlier in the week the S&P 500 also ended in positive territory still to come on the NewsHour the unusual way Nebraska allots its Electoral College votes could be the deciding factor on Election Day David Brooks and Jonathan capart weigh in on the final days of the presidential race and universities transform their art museums into spaces for voting and political discourse this is the PBS NewsHour from the David M Rubenstein Studio at WEA in Washington and in the West from the Walter kronite School of Journalism at Arizona State University returning now to our top story the race for the presidency once the final votes of the 2024 campaign are cast and tallied the final chapter of this election season May hinge on a blue dot Far From Any swing state Battleground Lisa de jardan is back now with this report Omaha Democrats in deep red Nebraska embody the symbol of their movement a Blue Dot on the state's political landscape Nebraska law gives each congressional district its own electoral vote and the dot unpredictably has come to represent how the area around Omaha could go to and be critical for kamla Harris there's a focus on our district and it's you feel like you matter we love the light shining on us this this round we're not being ignored we're not a flyover state it started almost accidentally after kamla Harris became the presump Democratic nominee Jason Brown spray painted a blue dot on an old sign to represent Democratic leaning Omaha I'm like oh a blue dot uh I got I love it it was artistic I'm like stick it in the front yard I love it then the neighbors wanted one and then the neighborhood and dot dot dot I look like I was trying out for the Blue Man Group or an extra on a Smurf movie or something they have now printed and handed out nearly 15,000 thousand of the signs and everyone sees them including Republicans I have a blue dot across the street from me one house down um it's fine I I really do think that we need to be more accepting of the other side there's one sign that's a big red dot eating the little blue dots if you've seen that one um they they're fun you know it's another way to express yourself Mary Harper is a grandmother retiree and volunteer neighborhood Champion with red State Nebraska devoting countless hours of her free time supporting GOP candidates up and down the ballot well both sides say this is the most consequential race in the history of of the country um we do hear that every four years every single electoral vote is going to matter but here's why Nebraska could be the decider there is a plausible scenario where Pennsylvania Michigan and wiconsin all go for Harris and the remaining swing States all go for Trump that leads to a scenario where Nebraska's one electoral vote we Mark that down here could be the deciding factor so if it goes for Trump it's a 269 269 tie that would likely lead to his win in the House of Representatives but if it goes for Harris it gives her the presidency Democratic VP candidate Tim Walls was born in Nebraska and he was in Omaha last month underscoring the importance to their campaign hello again neighbors it's good to be home a recent New York Times Sienna poll found Trump up 5540 Statewide but Harris winning 5442 in the blue dot District if she won Omaha she'd repeat Joe Biden's 2020 victory in the district and be just the third Democrat to win it in the past 30 years I am a probably not that unique of a voter in Nebraska um I am splitting my ticket k k has mixed political feelings this year she supported Nikki Haley but left the Republican party after Trump won the Primary she'll vote for Harris for president and for congress the incumbent Republican Don Bacon she's still weighing her options in the surprisingly tight US Senate race I really think the future direction of our country is at stake this year in the Gateway to the West a theme they feel they are also the gateway to the next presidency the stakes um seem frightening we're at a critical path right now we have such different approaches for how we think this country should go and how it should be run um it's huge this year in Nebraska's Blue Dot many Visions for the country and one potentially decisive electoral vote for the PBS NewsHour I'm Lisa de jardan a recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that more than 40% of trump supporters don't believe next week's election will be runwell despite efforts by lawmakers and election officials to address their concerns since 20120 Judy Woodruff explores what the Gap in election trust May mean part of her series America at a Crossroads As Americans line up to vote early in person drop off their ballots or make plans for election day many officials are bracing for an onslaught of conspiracy theories protests legal challenges and even violence my concerns are not with the administration of the process I'm very confident in in that process but I am concerned and hopeful that our country will accept whatever the outcome of this election is but we know that it's not easy because we know that unfortunately people have been fed lies about our election system now for literally four years there have always been a few doubters there have always been uh conspiracy theorists who worried about whether someone was rigging the count Barton Gelman is a senior adviser at the Brennan Center for justice a nonpartisan think tank at New York University where he's been studying how to protect Democratic norms and institutions those were never very large numbers in part because their political leaders did not validate uh those false concerns that's changed and it's had corrosive effects on confidence in the electorate Gilman is a former Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who in the November 2020 issue of the Atlantic magazine warned that then president Trump could attempt to subvert the election results to hold on to power this is a fraud on Election night in 2020 Trump claimed Victory well before counting it ended we were getting ready to win this election frankly we did win this election in the days and weeks after his supporters protested the results through stop the steel rallies and dozens of Court challenges virtually all of them rejected on the merits or on questions of standing ultimately Trump attempted to stop the vote certification on January 6th we will never give up we will never concede it doesn't happen you don't concede when there's theft involved more than a thousand people have been prosecuted and found guilty for their action that day in late 2022 Congress passed and President Biden signed the Electoral count Reform Act strengthening counting procedures and clarifying roles between federal and state actors in a recent cover story for Time Magazine Gilman examined that law and other updates to our electoral system speaking with officials across the country including in key Battleground States about whether our voting system will hold up against baseless challenges this time around I ask election officials in all those States how confident they are that the ballots would be counted as cast that when they were uh canvased and audited that the council would hold up and that whoever won the most votes in their states would get that State's electoral votes uh when it went to Congress and all of them said 100% uh they really were completely confident I found that uh the system has worked very hard to address the worries that people had about the last election it's worked very hard to address the false rumors that were spread uh or the or the false accusations that were made about the 2020 election according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center most Americans do trust that the election will be run well but like many things that trust Now tracks partisan lines while nine and 10 Harris supporters told Pew they believe the election will be run smoothly just over half of trump supporters agreed this is a marked change since 2018 when Pew's data showed high confidence among supporters of both parties candidates that the midterm elections would be run well as things stand right now there is a 0% chance of a free and fair election in the United States of America earlier this year the Heritage Foundation and the Texas public policy Institute two conservative think tanks held an event marking the release of their 2024 transition Integrity project a report summarizing exercises they conducted with participants from varied backgrounds to consider scenarios they say could threaten the legitimacy of the election the report asserted that the lawlessness of the Biden Administration makes clear that the current president and his administration not only possesses the means but perhaps also the intent to circumvent constitutional limits and disregard the will of the voters should they demand a new president the main findings are that we have seen um an acceleration of lawfare and the weaponization of government institutions that in name should be neutral but have cast their lot more or less with the Democratic Party I spoke this week with the report's principal author Adam El Wanger a professor of English at the University of Houston downtown who was a fellow at the Claremont Institute another conservative think tank I think that uh the American people may be tempted when we hear uh kamla Harris saying that uh Trump is a fascist that this is literal Hitler I think normal Americans are tempted to think oh this is exagger ation I think that we need to take them at their word and if you believe that a l literal Hitler is poised to take over the government of the United States of America you will not honor that result for the record Harris has said she believes Trump is a fascist but did not call him Hitler the report did not mention the events of the last presidential election or president Trump's refusal to say he would accept the election results in 2016 2020 or in the runup to this current election were he to lose in each of the two scenarios they considered Trump won the project did contemplate some unusual hypotheticals like Barbara stran being kidnapped by Hamas militants and the FBI arresting Trump at maral Lago two days after winning the election well I think that that especially the last uh 10 years of American Life um in politics has been defined by uh scenarios that we could not have anticipated um in real life if we said that we would see a presidential Administration doing an armed raid of a former president's residence I think we would have said that's preposterous that will never happen in America and so for these reasons we decided that we needed to really test the system by uh running scenarios with um events that would be highly unanticipated El Wanger also questioned whether Harris in her role as vice president will certify the election results in the Senate should president Trump win the electoral account Reform Act clarified that this is a ceremonial Duty will KLA Harris uh um do a transfer of power when she oversees a joint session of Congress nobody's asked her so we don't know vice president Harris has been asked if she would respect the results of the election whatever they are and and she said yes so she has been asked those questions and she has said that she would respect the results uh whatever happens as you know former president Trump so far he has not said he would accept the results of the election is there a question in there I'm I'm a I'm saying I'm pointing out you just said that she hasn't been asked and I'm or she hasn't said this and in fact she has said if you'd like a response to that I would say she said lots of things and then changed her mind after the fact on virtually every issue he also warned that if results aren't known on Election Day they should be questioned a Critic would say this report looks like a pretext in case former president Trump loses the election for people who support him to say um there was something wrong and this is and this and this lays out what's going to happen it is it a pretext in so many words I don't think it's a pretext um I do think that uh many of the the Fantastical uh situations that we imagined have already occurred um I invite your viewers to read the report things that only three months ago people were saying well that won't happen has already happened as an example he pointed to ongoing conservative efforts in a number of states to prevent noncitizens from voting including through purging names from voter roles whom they suspect don't have citizenship which the Department of Justice has sued to block as a violation of law this week the Supreme Court ruled that Virginia's Purge of 1,600 names could go forward despite the fact that officials there haven't proven any of the names actually lack citizenship and some US citizens said they had been removed stepping back it is illegal for nonen to vote in federal elections and Studies have found almost no cases of it happening despite the Heritage Foundation and other groups continuing to assert that it's an issue Judy I I mean this in all respect uh all due respect but you keep citing that uh these institutions has said there's no evidence of this or that right the problem here is is that they've said this so many times where there is evidence of this or that that's later proven or where they've said that there is evidence of this or that say Russian collusion or a lab Leak with Co right where we later found out when they said that there was no evidence that there was we simply feel like we can't trust these institutions anymore what heritage is doing uh with that exercise is to amplify what Donald Trump himself is doing which is to try to convince the public uh that our election is going to be corrupt that you cannot count on the institutions of democracy uh to run a fair election returning to his own reporting Bart Gelman says Americans should feel confident that official results will accurately reflect the outcome but that getting to the result will also require patience what's going to happen is that the votes will be counted you'll get unofficial results early then over a period of days and and in some cases over a week you'll get a a canvased uh audited verified official result and uh that's when litigation will be you know coming into play if Trump loses he's going to try to overturn the election and the system I am confident will block him and the public should have confidence that when the system says who won the election that that tally is accurate and secure words of confidence and Trust in a country where those are becoming rarer and more partisan Notions for the PBS NewsHour I'm Judy Woodruff in New York for what to watch for in these final days of voting let's turn now to the analysis of Brooks and C Kart that is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Kart associate editor for the Washington Post great to see you both I am all right so uh the race for the White House is as tight as ever there's nothing markedly different in this latest Maris poll I'm about to show you but I'm going to show you anyway because it gives us a sense of where we are still in Pennsylvania in Michigan and in Wisconsin in these key Battleground States Vice President Harris has a two to three-point lead it's all within the margin of error in each of those States but guys I just want to I want to step back for just a moment away from the polls and the details because we are in the final days of a truly unprecedented presidential and election cycle who these candidates are how they got to the top of each of their tickets so when you step back Jonathan from the day-to-day headlines how are you looking at this race how would you describe it and this moment in American political history the first thing I say is Praise Jesus we are four days out and that this is almost over um but in all seriousness I would say of all the presidential campaigns that I have watched and I have covered this is one where the contrast between the two candidates could not be more Stark could not be more plainly evident um I think that what we're about to see in this election lots of polls and the polls are all over the place the polls are all all tied but come election night we're finally going to hear what the American people have to say and the fact that I feel optimistic but not overly you know like yes you know so and so is going to win Le gives me some trepidation if anything I'm more worried about what happens when a winner is declared and the reaction um from the American people who didn't win David what about you yeah I S sort of two big historical plot lines since 1970 American policy like a policy around the world has been geared toward moving our economy and our country toward a post-industrial society and every policy including immigration policy education policy trade policy social policy has been directed toward and benefited those of us who are college educated and are doing well in the information age economy a lot of folks not only in our country but around the world are saying that was wrong those people have benefited we've been left behind and we need somebody who's going to write the wrong for those of us less educated to me the most interesting polling data of this week was that if you contrast college educated women and high school educated men there's a 43% gap between these two populations and who they're going to vote for the educated women going Democrat High School educated men so that's one massive storyline the second is the more obvious one which Lisa has just been talking about or Judy's just been talking about which is we've had Norms institutions and structures in our society based on the idea of liberal democracy that politics is a competition between partial truths that if we lose this time we'll win next time and therefore it's all within bounds yeah and that is being eroded by Donald Trump and not only that is being eroded the basic Norms of our democracy but the Norms of the Western Alliance you know I worry that NATO won't be around in three years if Donald Trump wins so those are one two big storylines one of them which I think is supportive of trump and makes understand why he's here the other one makes you want to run for the hills well there's Norms also just around our discourse how we talk about things the things that are said and acceptable garbage was one of the most frequently used words in our headlines this week we saw that Madison Square Garden rally uh a former president Trump had speakers that called vice president Harris the Antichrist they called her a prostitute they called her low IQ and you have both covered a lot of Elections Jonathan is this is this a new low we're at when it comes to the discourse yeah I mean how far Beneath the Sea can you go and whatever that number is that's where we are and that's where we have been um I think what Donald Trump has been doing in the closing days of this campaign is um shameful I mean last night in addition to saying what he said about congresswoman Liz Cheney he called kamla Harris a quote SAS bag that's the language he has been using not just yesterday not just at that Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday but throughout his campaign and that gets to why I'm really looking forward to election day because the American people will will choose what not just what kind of country they want but what kind of person they want to lead them someone who embodies or tries to embody the aspirations of the American people or someone who plucks at Grievances and threatens retribution and uses language that um belittles that disrespects and makes it possible for him to do a whole manner of things that even 10 years ago were would not have been imaginable David you mentioned it's Donald Trump who's upended a lot of these Norms does it change if he loses I don't know you know I was at a a church in Tennessee I decided it be interesting to go to a Christian nationalist church and so I went to this and I have to say the congregation was sincere in his faith I sometimes you think Christian nationalism is all about politics these people were clearly moved by their faith but you know the pastor up there in the public is calling kamah Harris satanic uh there's crudity uh it's just like I I was at that church I think Donald Trump fit into something and it wasn't only at professional wrestling it was in churches it was pre-existing in the churches and the neighborhoods and it was just this culture of the narcissistic cult leader and I saw it at the church and I think Trump is a version of that so I don't know if we go look if Trump exits the scene I'm not sure we go back there there we've got the professional rization of American society that's out there but in terms of what that means for real world implications I mean Jonathan mentioned the Liz Cheney comments for anyone who missed it he last night said you in calling Liz Cheney a Warhawk also suggested that she should have guns trained on her face this is a man whose supporters did listen to him and March on the capital and fight as they saw it for an election they believed what was stolen what happens if his supporters listen to him again well then were in for dark times I think he um his his vocabulary is an attempt to offend us and his supporters uh Thrive off our offense and so it's sort of assembling all the populist leaders all around the world are doing the same sort of stuff but it means that you can't have politics you can't have friendship amid political difference I just read a long political story on Two Brothers uh who have are on either side and could no longer speak to each other and that of course has been the story we've all felt and witnessed over the last number of years when it becomes when your one side is trying to offend and the other side is naturally offended then it's hard to have relationships across political difference Jonathan how do you look at it I don't know this this whole campaign and what we've had to witness particularly from Donald Trump has been painful because as an American I think I've said this many times before uh on this show I grew up under two terms of Reagan under a term of HW Bush two terms I was an adult two terms under W bush I thought I knew what Republicans stood for I thought what I thought I knew what Republican leaders stood for what they where their boundaries were what their lines were and they were completely obliterated in one one presidential term of Donald Trump and over these last four years we've seen not just the lines obliterated but just completely gone um to the point where Republican leaders of conscience and Goodwill are cowed to not say anything to not do anything to try to turn the tide take their party back from this man to bring back decency to our political discourse sometimes I people ask me what what would it take and I said I say it would take a Republican party that on mass would come forward and say that's not that's not right that's not what that's not what we do as a party that's not who we are as a country and you must stop and hold the person accountable they didn't do it with they didn't do it with Trump they haven't done it with Trump in the 9 years he's been in our faces and I don't expect them to do it again which means come Tuesday night we will be in a different America David we've got four days until the last day of voting does it feel to you like either candidate has momentum right now and do you care to make a prediction yeah I thought obviously when Cameo replaced Joe Biden on the ticket she clearly had the momentum and that was noticeable in the polls then she clearly plateaued and it looked like Trump had the momentum for uh probably two or three weeks I don't hear a thing right now no I think there I believe in the wiggle at the end of the term I think there's always a wiggle and the wiggle shifts people and but I don't know where that wiggle is or what's causing the wiggle I don't want to say the word wiggle too many times I think that I three or four times but so I have I I've never in my life been so confused about what's going to happen I I have no clue Jonathan equally confused I don't know if I would say confused I to answer your question I do think that the vice president has has momentum but I'm not making any predictions because we we just don't know and the thing that again I'm looking forward to on Election night is finally hearing from the American people because if there's one thing we all in our profession need to have at this time is a sense of humility we do not know no matter what those polls say and we will find out Tuesday into Wednesday we will indeed Jonathan capart David Brooks always great to see you both thank you thanks thank you and of course Jonathan and David will both be with us next Tuesday when we'll have live election night coverage join us for in-depth analysis as the votes are counted our live stream online begins at noon Eastern then special coverage right here on your PBS station starts at 700 p.m. ah head of election day a project at several universities is fostering a different type of Civic space to encourage young people to discuss issues engage with each other and vote senior Arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown went to the University of Michigan to see how this works as part of our series Art In Action exploring the intersection of Art and democracy and part of our canvas arts and culture coverage last Saturday in an arbor at the University of Michigan a campus alive with energy amid the crisp beauty of fall a big football game that evening against Michigan State and something else the first day of early voting with a long line of students in an unexpected place at the University's art museum museum director Christina Olen because we are in a state that is hyperpolarized because there has been a kind of more recent history here of violence um and extreme rhetoric around elections around politics generally I think that art museums are fantastically great places in which people can especially students especially young people can begin their careers as voters in an ugly time in American politics can Beauty play a role even a small one in serving democracy that's the goal in a large scale scale nonpartisan project of Art and Civic engagement involving University museums from across the Big 10 many in Midwest Battleground States like here in Michigan where principles of design are being applied to voting itself one of the early things that we realized was that on our campus there was a big gap between registration rates and voter participation rates some of the barriers for students are logistical in terms of clarifying information and some of them are the psychological barrier so where can design play a role where can Art and Design play a role Stephanie Rowden and Hana smrd professors at the School of Art and Design had the creative campus voting project which partnered with the Ann Arbor city clerk's office to turn a museum space into a voting Hub where students can ask questions register and vote in a space designed down to the smallest details to make it a welcoming and even pleasant experience it's actually a really interesting creative problem it has so many different dimensions to it so we get to think about color and form and space and we are able to also think about the kind of social relational element that's happening here after all this is both voting is an individual experience but it's also a collective experience senior Matthew con never imagined he'd cast his first presidential vote in a museum I think now in our political climate more than ever it does feel a little bit scary to vote it feels scary to kind of have conversations with friends and peers about who you're voting for what party you align with and I think any effort made to kind of familiarize the vote whether that's putting it in a museum or spreading education about the ballot as a whole is always going to be a positive thing several other university museums in this project including the University of Wisconsin Madison University of Nebraska Lincoln and Rutter are also serving As registration or voting centers others have special exhibition focused on issues of democracy and Civic engagement among them Penn State's Palmer Museum of Art offers politics and daily life with a range of imagery around patriotism Injustice and protest Michigan State's broad art museum is presenting a poster project on gender representation and at the University of Oregon a focus on what's happened in Latin American countries when the rule of law breaks down back in an arbor there's Al an exhibition with colorful walls and a colorful and provocative title hey we need to talk if we can't speak to each other I don't know how we have a democracy and so Philip ofam Hughes created a space within the museum commissioning wallpaper art with the flowers of all 50 states choosing works from the Museum's collection and making talk happen by bringing together people from different political points of view for dinner a kind of artwork she says that requires an action from its participants the first action is to have a conversation and for me it seems I mean it sounds simple and kind of obvious except that having a conversation in this day and age feels like a radical thing to do Hughes calls it a social sculpture I've created this space for a dialogue uh relationship to happen but that artwork is incomplete until the dialog actually takes place so once people come and sit at that dining table the artwork becomes complete Chloe Nichols and Sebastian roas Garcia who are both voting for kamla Harris have taken part in past dinners Nichols saids she was surprised by the tone and topics I was expecting some type of political conversation and then we had a very serious conversation about the way that the current generation is thinking just having all of this access to technology and then being through so many life-changing events in their lifetime and how we're treating this current election and how we're looking at the phases of our future um Garcia the conversation replicated the pointed but respectful debates he has within his own more conservative family often you feel that like people feel as if choosing one side is just so divisive that they don't even want to talk about it just because it'll end up in some sort of argument um but at least when my family is arguing individuals just want what's best for the country and I'd rather have the argument than not have it so does Kyle Brown a junior voting for Donald Trump who took part on the evening of our visit I guess if you told me if there's going to be a nonpartisan talk I wouldn't expect the art museum but I I think it's a cool thing I mean I'm not the most artistically inclined person but I like seeing the different artworks and how they connect to one another with the we need to talk theme I thought was really interesting so I will say I'm a little surprised but hey it's pra provide a good opportunity changing Minds that's not the intent but changing Civic engagement and tone that's a definite goal of this entire project and an important one for public universities says Museum director Christina Olen it means something to be a public institution it means something to go into a to be have public goods like museums and libraries they're not a given they do really important really critically important work for the for the Civil Society and the democracy even if it's often kind of invisible to people and I think that I think it's worth naming so that you can really protect it for the PBS NewsHour I'm Jeffrey Brown at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and our weekly digital show this week looks at the the promises Donald Trump and kamla Harris have made along the campaign Trail on climate change health care and foreign policy you can find PBS news weekly on our YouTube page and don't forget to watch Washington Week with the Atlantic tonight here on PBS as the 2024 presidential campaign comes to a close moderator Jeffrey Goldberg and his panel discussed the closest race in memory how we got here and where the country is headed under a new president and on PBS news weekend tomorrow we check in on wh wiconsin Politics as the control of Congress and the White House hangs in the balance and that is the newsour for tonight I'm Anna Nas I'm Jeff Bennett for all of us here at the PBS NewsHour thanks for spending part of your evening with us have a great weekend major funding for the PBS newsour has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and Friends of the NewsHour including Kathy and Paul Anderson and Camila and George Smith the Walton Family Foundation working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can Thrive together the William and Flora hulet foundation for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at h.org and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and Friends of the NewsHour this program was made possible by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you thank you the final night of an extraordinary Campaign Will voters send Donald Trump back to the White House we stand on the verge of the four greatest years or Will kamla Harris make history are you ready to make your voices heard a PBS news special election 2024 Tuesday November 5th at 7:00 p.m. Eastern 6 Central you're watching PBS
