November 2, 2024 - PBS News Weekend full episode

JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, as the candidates make their final pitches to voters, we check in on the state of the race in Wisconsin.

Then why anti transgender ads are dominating the airwaves this election.

WOMAN: The group of people that are watching these sporting events are young men.

And the Republican Party is trying to tap into what they hope is some level of fear that they can draw up from that group of people.

JOHN YANG: And as Haitian immigrants find themselves at the center of a political storm in America, a look at the turmoil in Haiti they're fleeing from.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are spending this final Saturday of the campaign in battleground states trying to energize their supporters to go to vote, if they haven't already, and persuade the undecided to go over to their side.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): In North Carolina, Donald Trump offered a litany of familiar promises.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. Republican Presidential Nominee: I will end inflation.

I will stop the invasion of massive numbers of criminals that have come into our country, and I will bring back the American dream.

This is all you need to know.

Kamala broke it.

She broke it.

We will fix it.

I will fix it.

It'll be fixed very fair.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): In Atlanta, Kamala Harris vowed to bring down the cost of living and make the economy a priority from day one.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. Democratic Presidential Nominee: I will give a middle class tax cut to over 100 million Americans.

I will enact the first ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries.

Economists have compared what he's talking about to what I'm talking about, and they have indicated my plan will strengthen America's economy.

His will weaken it.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): The vice presidential candidates were in the West.

TIM WALZ, U.S. Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee: We know when labor does well, America does well.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): In Nevada, Democrat Tim Walz went door to door and Republican J.D.

Vance slammed the White House's handling of the economy.

J.D.

VANCE, U.S. Republican Presidential Nominee: What the hell have you been doing the whole time?

JOHN YANG (voice-over): In Pennsylvania, the battleground with the most electoral votes, the Supreme Court sided with Democrats to allow voters to cast provisional ballots if their mail-in ballots are rejected.

JOHN YANG: The Israeli military says it's captured a senior Hezbollah commander in northern Lebanon who they say is responsible for attacks on Israel.

It came after a night of air raid sirens in central Israel as a barrage of missiles came from Lebanon.

The Israeli military says it intercepted most, but not all of them.

Nearly a dozen people were injured in Tira, which is an Arab city in central Israel.

Hours later, Iran's supreme leader said his country would dole out a crushing response to Israel and the United States for last week's Israeli attacks on Iranian military targets.

And in Gaza, health officials are scrambling to give children a second dose of the oral polio vaccine.

Israeli airstrikes have delayed the effort and limited it to Gaza City.

Spain is sending 10,000 more soldiers and police to the Valencia region in the aftermath of deadly floods there.

So far, more than 200 bodies have been recovered, and the search goes on for more.

An unknown number of people are missing.

Floodwaters that decimated the city this week have covered cars, buildings and homes in mud.

Thousands of volunteers have joined the effort to clean up and distribute food and supplies.

A former Louisville police detective could spend the rest of his life in prison for his role in the 2020 shooting death of Breonna Taylor, who worked as an emergency room technician.

A federal jury convicted Brett Hankison of violating Taylor's civil rights by using excessive force during a botched drug raid.

None of the 10 shots Hankinson fired hit Taylor, but prosecutors said he acted recklessly.

He's the only officer to be charged in connection with Taylor's death, is to be sentenced In March.

South Carolina carried out the nation's 21st execution of the year, killing 59-year-old Richard Moore by lethal injection.

Republican Governor Henry McMaster rejected pleas to reduce Moore's sentence to life in prison.

Among those who sought clemency were three of the jurors who convicted Moore of fatally shooting a convenience store clerk in 1999, the judge who presided over his trial, and a former prison director.

In a letter turning them down, McMaster said he'd reviewed the materials they'd submitted and spoken to the victim's family.

Still to come on PBS News, the role anti-transgender campaign ads are playing in the election and the crisis in Haiti that's driving many to seek refuge in this country.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: If you've watched TV this month, especially sports like football or baseball, you've likely seen campaign ads supporting Donald Trump by attacking Kamala Harris over transgender issues.

Laura Baron-Lopez looks at what's behind them.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Less than 1 percent of the U.S. population identifies as transgender.

But this election year, Republicans have spent a considerable amount of money on ads demonizing transgender people.

From October 7th to the 20th, Trump's campaign and pro Trump groups spent an estimated $95 million and more than 41 percent of those ads were anti-trans.

MAN: Kamala supports taxpayer funded sex changes for prisoners.

WOMAN: For prisoners.

KAMALA HARRIS: Surgery for prisoners.

Every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access.

MAN: Hell no, I don't want my taxpayer dollars going to that.

MAN: Kamala supports transgender sex changes in jail without money.

MAN: Kamala even supports letting biological men compete against our girls in their sports.

Kamala is for they, them.

President Trump is for you.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Erin Reed is an advocate and independent journalist covering LGBTQ issues and she tracks transgender legislation around the world.

Recently, Erin announced her decision to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in this year's presidential election.

Erin, thank you so much for being here.

ERIN REED, Independent Journalist and LGBTQ Plus Activist: Thank you so much for having me on.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Anti-trans rhetoric is a regular part of Donald Trump some speeches.

He regularly lies about kids going to school and receiving gender affirming surgeries before they return home.

But now, in the final stretch, Republicans have been putting out increasing amount of ads that are anti-trans, making it essentially their closing argument.

Help us understand the scope and the rhetoric in these ads.

ERIN REED: I have tracked around $100 million in ads.

We see Donald Trump spending more money on these ads than on housing, immigration, and the economy combined.

This is a major issue for him.

Meanwhile, you have groups like the Senate Leadership Fund dropping extreme amounts of money in Senate races in Ohio, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, and they're all focused on transgender people.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The top issues, according to most polls right now, is the economy, abortion, immigration.

So why do you think Trump and his allies are making this one of their main closing arguments?

ERIN REED: It's important to note that some of the biggest benefactors of the Republican Party, some of the most influential organizations in the party we're talking, groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, for instance, have made this their main issue.

If you're running a campaign in a place like Pennsylvania or Ohio or Michigan at any level, and you want money in your campaign, targeting trans people is a really good way to do that.

But as for Trump, I think that there's something different at play here.

I think that this is a classic fear campaign.

We've just got polling today showing that Harris is catching up on the economy and on other issues that Republicans tend to pull well in.

And so the purpose of a fear campaign is to distract you from issues that you normally care about by making you so afraid of a group of people, of somebody like me, for instance, that you're willing to throw everything else away because you're scared.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Who are these ads targeting?

They run during major sporting events.

They were just on during the World Series.

Who is he trying to reach here?

ERIN REED: The group of people that are watching these sporting events are young men.

And I think in a lot of cases, the Republican Party is trying to tap into what they hope is some level of fear that they can draw up from that group of people.

If you look at most polling and anecdotally, really, young people tend to understand trans people better than anybody else.

They're not as afraid of us.

And I think that might be part of why this messaging campaign might be falling short.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: These ads make pretty specific claims about surgery for transgender inmates and undocumented immigrants.

Let's take a listen.

MAN: Under liberal border czar Kamala Harris, illegal aliens are pouring into our country, including murderers, rapists, and even terrorists.

Instead of paying for their crimes and receiving justice, Kamala will give criminal illegal aliens to taxpayer funded transgender surgeries.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Walk us through the facts about what's actually happened with those populations.

ERIN REED: What the ad is actually talking about is medical care in the United States is a right by the 8th amendment.

You cannot deny medical care to prisoners.

And under the law, a law that was in place during the Trump administration, if a doctor determines that an inmate needs medical care, then they get it.

So these ads are actually focused on two instances where a transgender person received gender affirming care in prison, a surgery.

And the amount of money spent on these particular cases is far less than the amount of advertising dollars that Trump is pouring into this issue.

About 2 to 400 times more money is being used in political ads to make you afraid of two transgender inmates.

So afraid that you're not going to care about the economy anymore, you're not going to care about abortion anymore.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Erin, when you take a step back, what are the stakes in this election for transgender Americans?

ERIN REED: It's been an especially difficult year in the last two or three years for trans people.

Just two days ago in Odessa, Texas, they passed a $10,000 bounty on trans people found in the bathroom.

I've been tracking anti LGBTQ legislation for years now.

And it's not just the ads.

The legislatures themselves are spending more time on this issue than anything else.

This has been priority number one.

And the trans people that live in these states, they constantly have to hear their humanity debated in public.

They constantly have to worry about things that I think a lot of Americans take for granted, things like going to the bathroom, getting an updated driver's license, playing a school sport with your friends.

But trans people right now are under a relentless assault by the Republican Party.

These bills are passing in primarily Republican states.

Even if Trump doesn't win and we get a Kamala Harris presidency, we have to contend with a nation that has been primed to hate people like me.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Erin Reed, thank you for your time.

ERIN REED: Thank you so much for having me.

JOHN YANG: In Wisconsin last night, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump held dueling rallies just five miles apart.

The state's one of this fall's critical battlegrounds.

Trump won it eight years ago after it had gone for Democratic candidates for 28 years.

In 2020, President Biden narrowly won it back.

This year, it could help determine which party controls the White House, the House and the Senate.

Zac Schultz of PBS Wisconsin covers politics in the state.

Zac, in the last four of the last six elections, the margin of victory has been less than 1 percentage point.

Are there signs it could be that close again?

ZAC SCHULTZ: Absolutely.

All the signs point to that close of an election this time around.

Once again, frankly, unless Barack Obama is on the ticket, Wisconsin is going to be a very close election.

Barack Obama's been in the state campaigning for Kamala Harris, but all the polls show just within the margin of error consistently for quite a while now.

And when you go out in the field and you talk to people, they are evenly split.

And in communities across the state, people are really getting down to that nitty gritty of like, which candidate do I support?

Am I still a Republican?

Do I support the Democrats?

Where do I fall in this?

And they are getting inundated with ads and mailers and flyers and calls all the way up until Tuesday.

JOHN YANG: Given all that, what's each candidate's path to victory?

Where do they have to do well in order to win?

ZAC SCHULTZ: Well, the interesting thing about Wisconsin is when you're talking about a margin of 20,000 or 23,000 votes, which was in 2020 out of 3.3 million, every place matters.

There's not a single place that you can leave unturned at this point, which is why, I mean, I think J.D.

Vance is in La Crosse in western Wisconsin today.

You saw Trump and Harris in the Milwaukee area yet again, this week.

Trump was in Green Bay with former Packer hall of Famer Brett Favre, something for him.

They have been everywhere across the state.

So you can obviously most of the population is in southeast Wisconsin, so that really can swing it, depending on some of these turnout margins.

But Trump has always done well in northern and western Wisconsin and the more whiter rural.

So they are looking everywhere.

JOHN YANG: Zac, I want to play some sound from you from four Wisconsin early voters.

The first two people we hear from voted for Trump and the second two voted for Harris.

RAYMOND TATHROP, Trump Voter: I didn't vote for him to be the pastor of my church.

I voted for him to be the president of this country.

This country needs to be run like a business.

And he's a businessman.

GERALD BRUNS, Trump Voter: I love his policies on lowering taxes, taking care of our military.

That's first of all, taking care of the border.

MARIA RODRIGUEZ, Harris Voter: Women's health is pretty much a big reason why I'm voting for her.

GARY TORRES, Harris Voter: She's got a good head on her shoulders.

She's very intelligent and she knows the difference between right and wrong.

JOHN YANG: Zac, how does that compare to what you hear when you go out and talk to voters?

ZAC SCHULTZ: Well, the number one thing that I've heard is the economy.

It's inflation.

It's the cost of things.

Things being everything from eggs and bread and gas all the way up to the cost of a house or childcare.

And depending on whether you're Democrat or Republican, will depend on which one of those costs you emphasize.

Republicans are obviously talking about regular inflationary prices.

Well, as Democrats, when they talk about the economy, are talking about childcare and how the government needs to step in and help subsidize some of that so things are more affordable or people can afford to buy their first homes as one of Harris's key campaign promises.

So those are definitely there.

Democrats are campaigning on abortion.

That's still one of their number one issues.

And in Wisconsin, if you watch the ads, it's different from the tone you hear in some of the other things because a lot of the Republicans are campaigning on transgender issues.

They are really trying to hit Kamala Harris over her support for any type of transgender, non-binary people.

JOHN YANG: You know, we've also got a Senate race in Wisconsin.

Tammy Baldwin is one of the most vulnerable Democrats running for reelection.

She's running for a third term.

She's running against a businessman named -- a Republican businessman, Eric Hovde.

Tell us about that race.

ZAC SCHULTZ: Well, what's interesting about it is Tammy Baldwin has long roots.

She's been a Wisconsin politician for a long time and she's done really well in out state areas.

In 2018, a non-presidential year, when she won reelection to the U.S. Senate, she outran every other candidate on the ballot and did really well in typical Republican areas.

This time around, you're seeing the polls show that things are closer.

This is getting federalized, it's getting nationalized, and it's falling more in line with what you're seeing at the top of the ticket in the presidential race.

Her opponent, Eric Hovde, his name is on a lot of businesses in Madison, but he's getting hit by the Baldwin campaign because he owns a bank in California and actually moved out there for another.

So he's being hit as a carpetbagger.

So he's had to try and show his Wisconsin identity in this election and show that he is a Wisconsinite.

And that's the common theme is whether, you know, who has that support in outstate Wisconsin.

Can Tammy Baldwin run ahead of Harris or does she need Harris to win in order for her to win herself?

JOHN YANG: There's also a House race that's been tightening in western Minnesota.

Freshman Republican Derek Van Orden running against Democrat Rebecca Cook.

Tell us about that race.

ZAC SCHULTZ: So the third congressional is western Wisconsin, and that's outside of the main media areas of Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay.

So it's kind of an isolated part of the state.

There's a lot of people over there that just like to live their lives and kind of be away from the hubbub of everything else, which is why it's been insulated in a lot of ways.

And Derek Van Norden ran and lost in 2020.

Then the incumbent retired.

So he won in '22 in a very close race, closer than what people thought.

Since then, he's had a few run ins in terms of being yelling at, intern at the Capitol and having a run in with protesters at the RNC in Milwaukee this summer.

And Democrats think that he's vulnerable.

But there's also that sense of maybe that plays better in a western Wisconsin, more rural, white, working class environment.

Rebecca Cook is really largely unknown except to Democrats.

So the question is this is about Derek Van Orden in that race, but it could be the difference maker when you come to the national control of the House.

JOHN YANG: Zac Schultz of PBS Wisconsin, thank you very much.

ZAC SCHULTZ: Thank you.

JOHN YANG: Haitian immigrants find themselves at the center of presidential politics this fall as former President Trump and his supporters repeatedly make baseless claims about them.

Most of them came here to escape Haiti's humanitarian crisis brought on by wide scale gang violence.

Ali Rogan tells us how Haitian leaders are trying to restore the rule of law.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): Outside the small town of Pont-Sonde, residents try to flee violence in a country where it is becoming inescapable.

The Grand Griff gang last month used canoes to mount a surprise attack against the riverfront town.

At least 115 people, including young mothers, babies and the elderly, were massacred.

SILFISE, Displaced Haitian (through translator): I lost many relatives, nieces, cousins, aunts, uncles.

They're all dead.

They were buried without a funeral.

They dug holes and put them inside.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): The gang had warned that it planned to target the town, leaving survivors asking why nothing was done to stop them.

Haiti's interim Prime Minister Garry Conille, visited the wounded and urged locals to trust the police.

GARRY CONILLE, Interim Prime Minister, Haiti (through translator): I don't know how long it is going to take, one day or one month.

The police cannot do this work alone.

It needs to be done with the population, and the population needs to start to play its part.

We will be very strict with the gangs to bring them to justice.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): But that justice has proven elusive.

Haiti's roughly 12,000 police officers are outgunned.

More than 150 armed gangs are sprawled throughout the country, many wielding firearms trafficked from the United States.

The Pont-Sonde attack was the island nation's latest mass slaughter in a long chapter of violence.

Since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise by foreign mercenaries, bloodshed has escalated as gangs vie for control of the country.

Then prime minister Ariel Henry, who assumed power after Moise's killing, requested that international police intervene.

While he was traveling abroad in February to secure them, rival gangs joined forces.

They launched an assault across the capital, Port-au-Prince, in March, attacking the airport, police stations and port facilities.

They also freed over 4,600 inmates from Haiti's two largest prisons, several of them notorious gang leaders.

Diego Da Rin is a Haiti analyst for the International Crisis Group.

He says, right now, the gangs have the power.

DIEGO DA RIN, Haiti Analyst, International Crisis Group: It is estimated that they exert control or influence over some 80 percent of the capital.

And their strongholds are located in the most poor neighborhoods of the capital, in which the most important economic activities are also concentrated, for example, the ports and the most important industrial parks.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): Gang violence has spread beyond the capital to the neighboring Artibonite region, the site of the Pont-Sonde massacre.

This chaos spurred the international community to intervene.

This summer, forces from several countries began arriving on Haitian shores.

Today, there are about 430 mostly Kenyan security personnel on the ground to help patrol the streets and protect key Infrastructure.

And 600 more Kenyan police officers are expected to deploy later this month.

Prominent gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, widely known as Barbecue, commanded his men to fight back.

JIMMY CHERIZIER, Gang Leader (through translator): Our names will be remembered by history as young people who took up arms to free their country.

Our battle is a personal fight.

We are at war.

They're not Haitian, and they're on Haitian soil.

I consider them to be invaders.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): The U.N. says the mission is underfunded, under resourced, and has only deployed a fraction of the expected 2,500 troops.

DEIGO DA RIN: They have struggled to start launching offensive operations against the gangs in their strongholds because they don't have enough personnel and enough equipment yet to do so.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): Gang violence and natural disasters have only exacerbated a cascading humanitarian crisis.

Over 700,000 Haitians have been driven from their homes.

More than half are women and children.

JESULA SAINT JEAN, Displaced Haitian (through translator): Today we are on the street with nothing in our arms but our babies.

We do not know where to go.

I had to leave other children behind and I don't know if anyone's going to look after them.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): Gang control has also squeezed the flow of food, driving up prices and causing many to starve.

Rita Losandieu looks after her four and six year old granddaughters while her two sons send her money to live.

RITA LOSANDIEU, Grand Mother (through translator): Things are very expensive.

It's a problem to buy anything to eat.

You must have a lot of money in order to just buy enough for three meals.

It's very difficult.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): Violence has also led to the closure of over 900 schools, affecting more than 200,000 children.

Garry Pierre-Pierre is the founder of the English Language Haitian Times.

He says these conditions have created a pipeline to the gangs.

GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE, The Haitian Times: The lack of opportunities for young people to go to high school, to go to college or university is non-existent in Haiti.

You have young people attracted to the gangs because it gives them a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose, and so the ranks are growing.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): In the midst of the crisis, Haiti is trying to rebuild its government.

In April, the country formed an interim government which appointed a new prime minister.

And last month, they established an electoral council which is working to hold elections by 2026.

They would be the first general elections held in a decade.

But Haitian investigators recently accused three members of the interim government of bribery.

GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE: It's holding back the country in ways that it doesn't hurt other places because we need every dollar.

And I think part of the problem is that many of these people go into politics.

It's a business.

It's a way for them to make money.

It's not about the state.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): Meanwhile, gangs may be biding their time.

DEIGO DA RIN: There seems to be a tense calm in many places that had been attacked in previous months.

The gangs might exert a very important influence over the elections, controlling how people will vote in the areas that they control.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): A different kind of threat from a familiar foe.

For PBS News Weekend, I'm Ali Rogin.

JOHN YANG: And that is PBS News Weekend for this Saturday.

I'm John Yang, for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

See you tomorrow.