October 28, 2024 - PBS News Hour full episode

AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "News Hour" tonight: Donald Trump faces criticism for his hours-long rally at Madison Square Garden that was rife with racist and sexist rhetoric.

AMNA NAWAZ: The head of the nation's cybersecurity agency warns of efforts to sow doubt and chaos before and after Election Day.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha processes the current war in Gaza through his latest poetry collection.

MOSAB ABU TOHA, Poet, "Forest of Noise": What I have been seeing and what I have been living is more than I can explain to people.

I tend to escape to poetry in order to try and express myself.

GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

We are now in the final full week before Election Day and there's no clear indication of who has the edge in the race for the White House.

AMNA NAWAZ: Former President Trump, Vice President Harris and their running mates each campaigned at full throttle in swing states today.

Much of their focus was on controversial remarks made by speakers at a Trump rally last night.

Laura Barron-Lopez starts our coverage.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: On her way to campaign in battleground Michigan today, Vice President Kamala Harris denounced recent rhetoric from former President Donald Trump and his allies.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country.

And it is not in any way something that will strengthen the American family, the American worker.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: She was referring to a massive Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in New York yesterday, where a racist remark about Puerto Rico made headlines.

TONY HINCHCLIFFE, Comedian: There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.

Yes.

I think it's called Puerto Rico.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: That comment made by comedian and Trump supporter Tony Hinchcliffe sparked major backlash from politicians and celebrities alike, including Puerto Rican mega stars Bad Bunny and Jennifer Lopez.

Trump's team tried to distance itself from the comment, His senior campaign adviser telling the "News Hour" in a statement: "This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign."

But the campaign did not distance itself from other remarks made by multiple Trump allies who hurled racist and sexist attacks at Vice President Harris.

GRANT CARDONE, Businessman: She's a fake, a fraud.

She's a pretender.

Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.

DAVID REM, Childhood Friend of Donald Trump: She is the devil, whoever screamed that out.

She is the antichrist.

TUCKER CARLSON, Former FOX News Anchor: She's just so impressive as the first Samoan Malaysian low-I.Q.

former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In a speech build as his closing message, the former president himself again labeled fellow American citizens as enemies.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: They're smart and they're vicious.

And we have to defeat them.

And when I say the enemy from within, the other side goes crazy, becomes a sound -- oh, how can he say -- no, they have done very bad things to this country.

They are indeed the enemy from within.

But this is who we're fighting.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: At one point, Trump appeared to suggest that he and House Speaker Mike Johnson have a secret that will help Republicans keep their House majority.

DONALD TRUMP: I think, with our little secret, we're going to do really well with the House, right?

Our little secret is having a big impact.

He and I have a secret.

We will tell you what it is when the race is over.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Though most of Trump's remarks were light on policy, the former president announced support for a tax credit for people taking care of sick family members, providing little detail.

After casting his early vote ballot in Delaware, President Joe Biden called the Trump event simply embarrassing.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: It's beneath any president, but that's what we're getting used to.

That's why this election is so important.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Trump defended his Madison Square Garden rally while campaigning in Atlanta today.

DONALD TRUMP: Last night, we had a great rally at Madison Square Garden.

(CHEERING) DONALD TRUMP: And, sometimes, I will use a little bit, not hard, not hard foul, but soft foul.

We call it soft foul, but to emphasize something about somebody's capabilities or whatever I might be talking about.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Senator J.D.

Vance dismissed the backlash to the comedian's racist joke about Puerto Ricans before heading to a rally tonight in Racine, Wisconsin.

SEN. J.D.

VANCE (R-OH), Vice Presidential Candidate: I haven't seen the joke.

I -- maybe -- maybe it's a stupid racist joke, as you said.

Maybe it's not.

I haven't seen it.

I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the joke, but I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America.

I'm just -- I'm so over it.

(CHEERING) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Meanwhile, at stops in Michigan today, Harris visited a semiconductor plant and touted some 1,300 new manufacturing jobs coming to the town of Saginaw.

It's the latest in a string of swing state events focused on her economic proposals.

KAMALA HARRIS: I'm going to create basically an opportunity economy task force for Puerto Rico.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz addressed manufacturing workers this morning in Manitowoc.

GOV.

TIM WALZ (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: Kamala Harris and I have a plan to build the American industrial strength powered by American workers.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: An ABC News/Ipsos poll released this weekend shows Harris with a slight edge nationally, indicating she's the preferred candidate among 51 percent of likely voters, compared to 47 percent for Trump.

Polling averages continue to show an extremely tight race as we close in on Election Day.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.

AMNA NAWAZ: The racist, sexist and vulgar remarks at Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden rally from the former president himself and his slate of speakers has drawn significant criticism the day after.

For more on the rhetoric and its impact, we're joined by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history at New York University.

Ruth, welcome back to the "News Hour."

RUTH BEN-GHIAT, NYU History Professional: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: So we are just days from Election Day.

This was probably one of the ugliest collection of remarks from selected speakers that we have seen at a Trump rally.

You study this kind of rhetoric.

So what stood out to you about this type of language this close to Election Day?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: So this place in Madison Square Garden, and it was one of many occasions that the Trump campaign has chosen to allow comparisons to be made to the Nazis.

So that was Madison Square Garden, which was the site of a rally by American Nazis in 1939, talking about polluting the blood, speaking of Americans as an enemy within.

This is all straight from fascism.

In fact, fascism -- the core of fascism in Italy and Germany were combatants who followed their leader to bring the war home and turned their force against their own people.

And when Donald Trump was talking about America as an occupied country and he was going to liberate it and also in the past talking about using the military on Americans, this comes out of fascism and also the tradition of military dictatorships like Pinochet in Chile.

So it's a purely authoritarian spectacle that we saw.

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to underscore that parallel you're drawing there, because this is what many are talking about today, both the remarks from Trump about America being an occupied country, but also last night we heard from Trump loyalist Stephen Miller, who said America is for Americans and Americans only.

That, of course, was also another parallel drawn to that 1939 Nazi rally at the old Madison Square Garden, which back then promised to -- quote - - "restore America to the true Americans."

Ruth, we have to point out, again, this is closing arguments time for the candidates.

So why do you think this kind of rhetoric resonates with millions of people right now?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: I think Trump has been conditioning Americans since 2015 to see violence as something justified in certain cases and even patriotic.

He's been conditioning them to see other Americans as enemies, as diseased, as dirty.

And what we have to remember is that authoritarians might initially target one group, and he's been talking mostly about immigrants.

But he's also calling the enemy within the political opposition.

And when the Nazis built Dachau in 1933 because they were running out of space in prisons -- they built this camp Dachau.

And they didn't put Jews in it at first.

It was for the political opposition, liberals, leftists.

Then it had Jehovah's Witnesses, then LGBTQ people.

All kinds of other people went in there, and then Jews were targeted as well by the regime.

So when they're talking about deporting so many people in America, this is a massive amount of people, and thus you need an infrastructure of repression.

You need camps.

And the whole thing is a dystopia.

And this is not what America is.

But Donald Trump has been conditioning Americans to think that this is the way.

AMNA NAWAZ: We have seen, obviously, these remarks strongly condemned by Vice President Harris and Democrats.

But among Republicans, the response has sort of been a mixed bag.

There's been some, like Senator Rick Scott, who's in a tight reelection race in Florida, who said in response to the comedian's racist remarks there about Puerto Ricans -- quote -- "This joke bombed for a reason."

And then we saw Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, who also spoke at the rally, who said this on CNBC this morning.

REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): This is the problem with most media today.

They're too busy trying to fearmonger everything, instead of actually talking about the facts and the substance.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Ruth, members of the Republican Party now also criticize Vice President Harris for calling former President Trump a fascist, saying that that is the dangerous rhetoric.

Are those kind of remarks on the same level to you?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: Not at all.

And this is part of an authoritarian projection mechanism.

I call it the upside-down world of authoritarianism, where, ever since Mussolini, he was the first to call democrats the real tyrants and fascism was going to be freedom.

Fascism was going to make Italy great again.

That was a slogan, as was drain the swamp.

Trump took that from Mussolini as well.

So this is pure projection to -- and it's all -- the endgame is to justify -- to justify whatever they would like to do for retribution, locking up the political opposition by saying that they're the ones who are the tyrants, they're the ones who are repressive.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ruth, if members of his own party did condemn this kind of speech from Donald Trump, would it make a difference?

What has history shown us?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: You know, there's this concept of authoritarian bargains, where a party or elites, they could be religious elites, business elites, they sign on to protect the leader, and their job becomes to protect and support the leader.

And it's very rare once they sign on that they renege on this.

And so you don't see much criticism.

It's easier to blame the press or blame the political opposition.

And so once they sign on, they find themselves having to be the party of more and more violence and more and more repression.

And many of them realize only too late what they have gotten themselves into.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history at New York University.

Ruth, thank you for your time.

Appreciate it.

GEOFF BENNETT: We start today's other headlines with the move by Israel's Parliament that threatens the work of the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza.

Lawmakers approved a pair of laws that will bar the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA from conducting any activity in Israel.

They also cut the aid group's diplomatic ties with Israel and designated it a terror organization.

Israel accuses UNRWA of allowing suspected Hamas militants to infiltrate its staff, including during the October 7 terror attack.

It comes as Palestinian officials say the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 43,000.

Meantime, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting today to discuss the fallout from Israel's retaliatory strikes on Iran Friday night, while, at the State Department, U.S. officials pushed against any further attacks.

MATTHEW MILLER, State Department Spokesman: Israel had a right to respond to that attack.

We supported their right to do so.

They responded on Friday night.

We believe this should be the end of that -- of the matter.

If Iran does respond in any way, we will continue to defend Israel.

GEOFF BENNETT: Israel's strike targeted Iran's military facilities, but avoided the country's nuclear and energy sites.

It comes after Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this month in response to the assassinations of several officials of Iran and its allied militant groups.

U.S. defense officials say that North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to Russia to help Moscow's war effort in Ukraine.

The Pentagon says they're expected to start fighting in Ukraine within the next several weeks.

President Biden today called the development very dangerous.

Meantime, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters today that some North Koreans have already been sent to aid Russian forces in the Kursk region, where Ukraine fighters are holding Russian territory.

MARK RUTTE, NATO Secretary-General: The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security.

It undermines peace on the Korean Peninsula and fuels the Russian war against Ukraine.

GEOFF BENNETT: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is due to discuss the deployment of North Korean troops to Ukraine when he meets with his South Korean counterpart later this week at the Pentagon.

In the country of Georgia, protests erupted in the capital, Tbilisi, today amid ongoing anger over the weekend's disputed parliamentary elections.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied outside Parliament after opposition parties refused to recognize the results of Saturday's election, saying the vote was rigged.

The ruling Georgian Dream Party, which has ties to neighboring Russia, has declared victory.

Georgia's pro-opposition president says Russia influenced the vote and called on Western allies to stand behind the Georgian people.

SALOME ZOURABICHVILI, President of Georgia (through translator): We have to create the full picture of how this unique, unprecedented theft happened, which was conducted en masse and systemically, which was a preplanned, huge operation that stole our votes, that stole the Parliament from us and stole the Constitution.

GEOFF BENNETT: Adding to the mix today was a surprise visit to Georgia by Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Hungary currently holds the rotating E.U.

presidency, and Orban has served as Russia's President Vladimir Putin's closest partner within the group.

Police say that a pair of ballot box fires in Oregon and Washington state are connected and that they have identified a suspect vehicle.

In Portland, Oregon, three ballots were ruined after a fire suppression system did its job after a blaze started there.

But, in nearby Vancouver, Washington, a fire burned hundreds of ballots after that box's system failed.

Vancouver is in Washington's Third Congressional District, which is expected to be one of the closest house races in the country.

Police say any such attacks are a threat to the election process.

AMANDA MCMILLAN, Portland, Oregon, Assistant Police Chief: Acts like this are targeted and they're intentional, and we're concerned about that intentional act trying to affect the election process.

We're dedicated to stopping that kind of behavior.

GEOFF BENNETT: Officials say, in both cases, that people who had their ballots damaged can obtain a new one.

Virginia Republican officials have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the commonwealth to move forward with removing roughly 1,600 alleged noncitizens from its voter rolls.

Today's appeal comes after a federal appellate court upheld a judge's order restoring the registrations.

Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin had ordered the launch of a voter removal program in August.

The Justice Department sued, saying it violated a 90-day so-called quiet period that prevents such actions so close to an election.

Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in nationwide elections.

Quarter Pounders will be back on the menu at some 900 McDonald's locations this week after health officials ruled out beef patties as the source of a recent E. coli outbreak.

One person died and at least 75 others were sickened across 13 states.

The FDA believes that slivered onions, all from a single facility, were the likely source of the contamination.

McDonald's says they have cut ties with that supplier indefinitely.

For now, the burgers will be served without onions at the affected restaurants.

On Wall Street today, stocks ended higher to start the week.

The Dow Jones industrial average added more than 270 points on the day.

The Nasdaq gained nearly 50 points, so about a quarter-of-1-percent.

And the S&P 500 also ended in positive territory.

Still to come on the "News Hour": election officials in the swing state of North Carolina work to counter misinformation that's undermining trust in U.S. elections; our Politics Monday team on what to watch in the final full week before Election Day; and poetry created from pain, a Palestinian writer on escaping Gaza and his hope for the future.

AMNA NAWAZ: Today a U.S. official accused Russia and China of spreading disinformation about the U.S. government's response to hurricanes Helene and Milton.

GEOFF BENNETT: It's just the latest example of foreign disinformation ahead of the election.

Nick Schifrin speaks to the official in charge of U.S. cybersecurity and critical infrastructure about efforts to secure the vote.

NICK SCHIFRIN: From disinformation to hacking and leaking, America's adversaries have never been this busy before an election, the latest example today.

This fake image posted by a Russian news agency purports to show Disney World flooded.

A U.S. official said today this was probably generated by artificial intelligence and then shared by pro-Kremlin English language accounts.

U.S. intelligence officials have detailed Russian disinformation, Iranian hacking and leaking efforts, and a Chinese focus on congressional candidates critical of Beijing.

Joining us to talk about all of this is Jen Easterly, the director of CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Jen Easterly, thank you very much.

Welcome back to the "News Hour."

JEN EASTERLY, Director, U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency: Great to be here.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Let's start with Russian disinformation.

In addition to the image that I just showed, on Friday, you and the FBI called out this fake video that purports to show ballots for former President Trump being ripped up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Microsoft says this was done by a Russian actor known as Storm-1516.

Can you confirm that?

And how were you able to determine so quickly that this was Russian disinformation?

JEN EASTERLY: We have really tried to refine the process where the intelligence community, the FBI and their team that does forensic analysis, we all work together when information is identified from our foreign adversaries that's specifically focused on undermining confidence in the integrity of our elections.

And we were very intent on getting that out as rapidly as possible.

I will note that the Bucks County election officials actually were the first to identify that as likely a fake video.

And one of the things -- given this information environment that we are all experiencing, one of the things that Americans should know is that trusted source is your state or local county election officials.

They're the best folks to go to get the accurate information about voting.

NICK SCHIFRIN: More examples that we have seen called out by the federal government includes a fake video accusing Vice President Harris of poaching a rare rhino in Zambia.

Microsoft says that was believed to be created by Storm-1516 as well.

Last month, the Department of Justice called out a Russian group known as Doppelganger for creating fake Web sites you see there with divisive narratives.

Another group known as Rybar or Volga Flood called out by the State Department for amplifying false information about the border.

In 2016, there was little of this naming and shaming.

What do you accomplish by outing these, again, relatively quickly?

JEN EASTERLY: It's important to talk about 2016 because that was a wake-up call.

And, so, much has changed over the past eight years, to include the federal government, the intelligence community, the FBI and CISA coming together to be much more proactive in terms of ensuring that the American people are empowered with information about what our foreign adversaries are doing.

And I think it's important that we actually look at that, because Russia, Iran, China, they all do slightly different tactics.

They use generative A.I.

to develop fake personas and fake Web sites, but they're both -- all three are focused on two main goals, to undermine American confidence in the integrity of our elections and to stoke partisan discord, to pit Americans against each other.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Is Russia planning for stoking violence either on Election Day or after?

JEN EASTERLY: The intelligence community assesses that there could very likely be efforts to foment violence, particularly in the days following November 5, because we know the election is not over when the polls close.

And it may be very close in some of the battleground states, so it may take a couple days to work through the recounts or the audits.

And into that space of uncertainty and ambiguity, our foreign adversaries are going to try to undermine American confidence in the legitimacy of our election.

We cannot allow that to happen, Nick.

NICK SCHIFRIN: I want to move to China.

And one of your missions, of course, is to help critical infrastructure, as you describe it, and that includes telecommunications companies.

A U.S. official confirms to me there has been a -- quote -- "broad compromise" of numerous telecom by Chinese hackers known as Salt Typhoon.

How broad is it?

Can you describe it?

And how could it happen?

JEN EASTERLY: It's early days.

When we found out about it, we worked with the FBI to notify victims, and we are working with them to remediate and to help us understand the scope and scale of this campaign.

We know that the Chinese are investing a lot of their resources into not just espionage and counterintelligence, but burrowing deep into our critical infrastructure for disruption and destruction.

So nobody should be terribly surprised about this.

We have also talked about Chinese malign influence operations with respect to downballot candidates.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Can you confirm, though, when it comes to Salt Typhoon, the Chinese hackers that we're talking about in terms of telecommunications, that that hack is related to what the Trump campaign announced last week, that former President Trump and his running mate, J.D.

Vance, were targeted, as well as Harris campaign being targeted as well?

Is that related?

Can you confirm that?

JEN EASTERLY: Yes, I would defer to the FBI that is involved in that investigation.

I do want to make a really important point, Nick, because we have been talking about how active our foreign adversaries are in this space.

And at the end of the day, I want Americans to know that there has been so much work done over the past eight years by election officials who, at the end of the day, are on the front lines of our elections.

And election infrastructure has never been more secure.

So, yes, our foreign adversaries are going to try to influence our elections to make us think that there are issues with them.

But elections are secure.

And no matter who you vote for, you should have confidence in your vote.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Were Chinese hackers targeting the intelligence community's requests to courts to authorize wiretaps?

JEN EASTERLY: Yes, the investigation is ongoing on that.

It really is early days.

NICK SCHIFRIN: On Iran, I referenced hacking and leaking efforts.

Iran gained access to the Trump campaign and tried to leak stolen information to the mainstream media.

Most of those media outlets rejected or declined to publish this hacked information.

But you can find that hacked information online if you go certain places.

Have we learned the lessons of 2016?

JEN EASTERLY: Well, I think it's a very different world from 2016.

I do think we should realize that these foreign actors are more active, more sophisticated.

Generative A.I.

makes a real difference here.

And so what we have seen with Iran, we put out a statement on it.

There was obviously the Department of Justice did an indictment around it.

But there will be more of this.

We should expect there to be more of this.

And we should expect our foreign adversaries to be very active in the days after the election, probably going to January 6, when the election will be certified by the Congress.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And how are you so confident sitting here and making that point that this election is the securest in history, despite everything we have been talking about?

JEN EASTERLY: First, got to remember, election infrastructure, the voting systems where Americans cast their ballots, not connected to the Internet, so very difficult for somebody to hack into those voting machines.

Secondly, over 97 percent paper ballots that voters can look at and verify themselves.

Third, multiple layers of safeguards that election officials have put in place.

And then, finally, you got to remember every state runs things differently.

This is a great strength.

The diverse and decentralized nature of our election infrastructure means that a bad actor can't tamper with or manipulate our infrastructure in a way that could have an impact on the outcome at scale, certainly not without being detected.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Jen Easterly, thank you very much.

JEN EASTERLY: Thanks, Nick.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, let's zoom into one of the states where election officials are working to secure the vote this year.

AMNA NAWAZ: North Carolina will be one of the closest watch swing states on election night.

More than 2.5 million people have already voted early in the state as officials expand options for displaced voters in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

GEOFF BENNETT: Still, Donald Trump and his allies continue to lie about the security of voting in battlegrounds like North Carolina, laying the groundwork to contest the 2024 election results.

Laura Barron-Lopez is back with this report.

MARY BETH TIPTON, Director, Yancey County, North Carolina, Board of Elections: After we get up here, it lays completely different than what it used to.

It don't even run the same way.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In parts of Yancey County, along North Carolina's border with Tennessee, the devastation from Hurricane Helene is catastrophic.

MARY BETH TIPTON: Part of me wants to see it.

That way, I can accept it as real, but then a part of me don't.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Mary Beth Tipton has lived here her whole life.

And for 12 years, she's been the county's elections director.

Tipton's staff prepared for all sorts of Election Day scenarios, but not for this.

MARY BETH TIPTON: I think we were all in shock there for a couple of days.

And then, as things start to settle down just a little bit, reality kicks in, and it's like, I have got a job to do.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: On the day we met, she was headed to the tiny town of Pensacola to check whether a precinct at the local fire station would be usable.

It became a hub for aid distribution after Helene.

Earlier this month, the state passed changes to help hard-hit areas vote, including giving counties the power to adjust polling places and offering residents more options for receiving and turning in absentee ballots.

On top of the challenges brought by Helene, election officials in North Carolina have confronted a yearslong swirl of disinformation, conspiracies, and threats to workers.

MARY BETH TIPTON: The atmosphere has changed since 2020.

Nobody trusts us.

Everybody thinks that we're out to get them, we're not going to count their ballots, we don't want them to vote.

And that's been a big one.

That's been a tough one.

That's been a hard one to swallow.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Much of the distrust stems from former President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and ongoing lies about widespread voter fraud in America.

Karen Brinson Bell is the executive director of North Carolina's State Board of Elections.

KAREN BRINSON BELL, Executive Director, North Carolina State Board of Elections: We have to focus on how to conduct an election.

And we keep our eye on that ball.

We're not going to play Whac-A-Mole with the various conspiracy theories and accusations and falsehoods that are being put out there.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Among the most common lies this cycle, that Helene and the government's response to it were designed to disenfranchise Republicans in the election and that noncitizens, with the help of Democrats, are trying to vote in significant numbers.

It's a felony for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

Trump combined all those falsehoods at a recent campaign stop in Western North Carolina.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: FEMA has done a very poor job.

They were not supposed to be spending the money on taking in illegal migrants, maybe so they could vote in the election.

KAREN BRINSON BELL: There is no grand conspiracy.

We are nonpartisan in the work that we do.

We are election officials committed by oath to conduct the elections for all North Carolinians.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Still, the prospect of challenges to the election results in North Carolina looms large.

Jim Womack leads the Republican Party in Lee County, just south of Raleigh.

He's also head of the so-called North Carolina Election Integrity Team, which is part of a Republican-led network to train poll observers in swing states.

Do you think North Carolina will have a legitimate, fair election?

JIM WOMACK, President, North Carolina Election Integrity Team: I think that our election integrity organization and the thousands of trained volunteers will do everything they can to identify any form of election fraud, and that we will dutifully report that and provide the evidence to challenge those voters.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Womack's team created a -- quote -- "suspicious voters list" using the states voter rolls.

He says those rolls are riddled with duplications, dead people, and felons, a claim Karen Brinson Bell rejects.

She says officials regularly update the lists.

She also notes: KAREN BRINSON BELL: That just because someone is ineligible potentially on our voter registration rolls does not mean that we have voter fraud.

There's checks and balances in place for all of this.

People need to quit putting fear in the minds of voters.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Even so, Jim Womack says his observers have their antennas up.

Among those they're looking for, noncitizens.

ILIANA SANTILLAN, Executive Director, El Pueblo: The messaging that folks have been hearing about noncitizens voting has created a lot of turmoil and general confusion with our folks.

We've had people who are citizens, they just became citizens this year, asking if they can vote.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Iliana Santillan is the director of El Pueblo, an immigrant rights nonprofit in North Carolina.

Santillan, a naturalized citizen herself, says Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric this cycle amounts to voter intimidation.

ILIANA SANTILLAN: One of the concerns we have is, depending on who wins this election, they might be targeting our community members and say that whoever wins might have won because undocumented people voted.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Santillan points to yard signs in Spanish that warn noncitizens they could be deported if they vote, signs that were paid for by Jim Womack's group.

And according to a video obtained by CBS News, Womack told trainees that newly-registered voters who have -- quote -- "missing information" and "Hispanic-sounding last names" may be suspicious.

Womack told the "News Hour" he was answering a question that used that language.

And he insists he isn't trying to intimidate voters.

But, after 2020, Womack claims, he wants to rebuild trust, even as Trump continues to spread the lie that the only way hell lose in November is if Democrats cheat.

Doesn't that undermine trust in the U.S. elections?

JIM WOMACK: It probably does.

But you must ask yourself the question, is the First Amendment limited?

Can they designate when you can say when you can say what's on your mind or what you believe versus what you cant?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I understand the right to free speech, but the election officials are genuinely afraid sometimes for their lives.

They have put panic buttons in Surry County here in North Carolina.

Are you not worried for their safety when they face threats like that?

JIM WOMACK: We hear these claims that people are afraid for their lives.

But, again, they can say whatever they want to say.

I think a lot of that is hype.

They say that because they want special protections or they want to draw attention to the fact that they're being watched.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But Karen Brinson Bell says it's not hype.

Since 2020, they have added protections like thumbprint entry at offices and door security.

Given what happened in 2020, Donald Trump put a focus on states like Georgia, on states like Arizona, specifically on election workers.

Are you, is North Carolina prepared this year to potentially become Georgia?

KAREN BRINSON BELL: We know that we may be subjected to that.

If we do our job that is already well-defined and outlined, then the facts will speak for themselves.

The documentation will be there to counter any accusation.

In some ways, ask us.

Point the finger at us, so that we can prove that these results are accurate and secure.

And we are going to certify, just like we always do.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Back in Yancey County, Mary Beth Tipton asked the state for tents to replace some of her precincts.

At least two were entirely wiped out.

But she found out that the precinct at Pensacola's fire station will be ready to use on Election Day.

MARY BETH TIPTON: It's a sigh of relief.

I know a lot of people, they -- who wants to think about an election at a time like this?

But then we have the voters that call the office that's in these areas that can't get out.

And they want to vote.

That's something I can give them.

And it's a part of who I am.

It's -- I want to see to it that they have -- they have lost everything.

This is one thing they're not going to lose, is their voice to cast their ballot.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez in Western North Carolina.

GEOFF BENNETT: For analysis of the presidential race and the candidates' closing messages, it's time for Politics Monday with Tamara Keith of NPR and Jasmine Wright of NOTUS.

That's a new publication from the nonprofit nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute.

Amy Walter is away.

Good evening to you both.

JASMINE WRIGHT, NOTUS: Good evening.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, as we have reported and discussed on this program, former President Donald Trump held a rally at New York's Madison Square Garden where allies made racist and vulgar comments about Latinos and Puerto Rico, in particular.

And his campaign, Tam, is doubling down on his promise for a massive deportation to reverse what he calls an immigrant invasion.

This is a closing argument tailored to reach whom exactly?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: To reach people who they need to motivate to get out to vote.

At this point, it's not about persuasion.

At this point in the campaign, it is literally about getting people to go and cast a ballot.

And the theory of the case of the Trump campaign is that there are voters who are out there who aren't yet voters, who are people who have not voted in the past, who felt disengaged, who feel like there's nobody speaking to them, and that Trump is going to be the one who gets them off the couch and gets them to vote.

And so this sort of language, I mean, I don't know if it's going to work to persuade the 500,000 Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania, but the idea here is, this was a rally, this was a giant safe space for Trumpism, and for people who feel like they can't say stuff like that in their communities.

And this rally was an embodiment of Trumpism, and that is motivating for a lot of voters.

GEOFF BENNETT: What about that, Jasmine, this bet, this apparent bet by the Trump campaign that they will drive voters who don't normally cast ballots, but who agree with Trump on his hard-line politics and his nativism?

JASMINE WRIGHT: I mean, frankly, it's risky, right?

I think, in elections, staffers and aides and people who are putting together a strategy, they want to focus on high-propensity voters.

They don't want to have to rely on their wins for low-propensity voters, because it's just not clear what works with them.

It's not clear what is enough to motivate them to go to the ballot, to put those ballots in the mail, to really show up on Election Day.

I call this the base-plus election.

I think for a long time we thought it was the base election, Democrats would be talking to Democrats, Republicans would be talking to Republicans.

But I think that we have seen both campaigns, both the Harris campaign, go a little bit outside of that Democratic lane, go to right-leaning women, conservative women, Republican women, suburban women, to try to inoculate maybe some of the losses that they have seen with voters of color.

And then we're also seeing Trump go to that low-propensity, maybe not so educated, maybe not very clear about when they can vote or how they can vote or what they want to vote for, but they like his message, they like that draw, they like that real kind of grit that they believe that they're getting from Trump and people who are associated with Trump.

They believe that they're being seen when he says or when people who are supportive of him say quasi-racist things or things that are misogynist or calling people names or belittling because they can't feel -- as Tamara said, that they can't stand in their real life.

And so I think this is the base-plus.

They're reaching just a little bit outside the edges to try to get some of those voters to come over.

TAMARA KEITH: And I think that what you say about it being risky, it's also risky for Harris because her strategy bets on people who have identified as Republicans.

JASMINE WRIGHT: Who voted for Nikki Haley.

TAMARA KEITH: Who voted for Nikki Haley who maybe voted for Trump before, taking this thing that is probably core to their identity and saying, OK, this time I'm going to do something different when I go vote.

But they are high-propensity voters.

JASMINE WRIGHT: Yes.

TAMARA KEITH: So they're more likely to vote, but are they going to take that step?

That's the push that Harris is trying to get them to do.

GEOFF BENNETT: She's clearly trying to draw a contrast.

I mean, tomorrow night, she's going to speak from the Ellipse, the same place where Donald Trump spoke before his supporters launched that violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.

JASMINE WRIGHT: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: This is something -- this is the Biden argument, right, that Trump is an existential threat that Harris initially did not really lean into, but now she is.

Why?

JASMINE WRIGHT: Yes, we initially saw her leading into the freedom argument, really talking up reproductive rights.

And now we have seen her in some ways kind of regress back to that democracy as core.

And it's because it is attractive and it is motivating for base Democratic voters.

It is something that Democrats like to hear.

They like to talk about Project 2025.

They're scared of Project 2025.

It motivates them to get to the polls.

They like to talk about the fact that they believe Trump is unstable, that he's a mean person, and that he's going to do mean things in the government, and that he absolutely should not be back there.

And it's also kind of attractive with those suburban women who may feel that their rights are under threat or who may not like where the Republican Party has gone on reproductive rights or abortion.

And so it is an attractive thing for Democrats to put out there because they see that in some ways, at least, it motivates people to get to the ballots.

But, of course, we know that on these surveys, time after time after time what Americans are saying that they are most concerned about is the economy.

And so I think right now you're seeing the Harris campaign kind of walk a tightrope between whether they should be talking about the economy or whether they should be talking about democracy.

But, clearly, we're going to see democracy win out tomorrow.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we should say this election is already under way.

Election Day is really when voting ends.

And 40 million Americans have already voted early in person or by mail.

And Trump and his surrogates, as we said earlier in this broadcast, continue to spread lies about election fraud.

And there's a new CNN poll that shows more than two-thirds of Americans say Trump will not accept the results if he loses.

The question, will Trump accept results and concede if he loses?

Sixty-nine percent say no, 30 percent say yes.

When that same question is asked of Vice President Kamala Harris, 73 percent of respondents say yes, 26 percent say no.

Tam, help us understand how Trump and his allies are laying the groundwork to contest his potential election loss.

TAMARA KEITH: Just look at the way he talks.

And this is very similar to language that he used in 2020, when, of course, we know he did contest the results of the election.

He claimed victory before it was clear that he had lost.

And then he continued to this very day deny that he lost the election.

He is talking about, oh, this could be rigged.

He is -- in particular, a lot of the misinformation that he was spreading about the hurricane recovery also had tinges of -- as we saw in this previous report, had tinges of, well, and maybe those voters are being suppressed.

So the groundwork is there.

And what I will say is, the groundwork was also there in 2016, but he won.

So he didn't contest the results.

In 2020, he lost and he did contest the results in a lot of ways.

And he -- they have more lawyers.

They have a greater emphasis on lawyers.

When Trump took over the RNC, he was like, we need less on voter turnout and we need more lawyers.

(CROSSTALK) JASMINE WRIGHT: Yes.

TAMARA KEITH: We need more people working.

And there are active legal cases right now, as there are before every election or in this period.

And the Harris campaign certainly has many, many lawyers too.

I went and visited a campaign office in one of the swing states and getting a tour.

And there's our election protection team.

JASMINE WRIGHT: Yes.

Yes.

TAMARA KEITH: This is a part of modern campaigns.

Certainly, it was amplified after the 2000 election and amplified way more after 2020.

This is a part of the campaign.

It's the part that comes after the voting is done and a little bit before the voting starts.

JASMINE WRIGHT: And I would say just a difference between 2020, 2024 and 2016 is that, because he won in 2016, you didn't hear it for four years.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

JASMINE WRIGHT: You didn't hear about the election being rigged as much because he was actively governing.

But, instead, because he contested the election in 2020, you have heard or Republicans have heard, people just in the apparatus of the U.S. have heard for four years that the election has been rigged, that Democrats are not playing fair, that the Democrats most recently are the enemy within.

And so he has really laid the groundwork that shows up in that poll; 70 percent of people that are supportive of Trump don't believe that the election, if he loses, will be fair, according to that CNN poll.

I may have botched the words a bit, but, in genesis, that's what it says, right?

That is a huge amount of the American public that no longer feels really confident in our electoral system.

So whoever wins next week or whenever we figure out the results will have to address those amount of people because that is a huge amount of people.

And, of course, it is what led to, in some parts, that feeling January 6.

It's what led to the conversation around election and voting for the last four years.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we should say, to your point, we may not know who won election night.

JASMINE WRIGHT: Exactly.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that does not mean that there was evidence of fraud or anything inappropriate.

It's because some states are barred by their own laws from counting until Election Day, and that delay will exist most likely.

TAMARA KEITH: And it depends on which ballots are counted first.

GEOFF BENNETT: Right.

TAMARA KEITH: It will show - - depending on the county, it may show one candidate up who isn't actually up in the end.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tamara Keith and Jasmine Wright, thanks, as always.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: Appreciate it.

JASMINE WRIGHT: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Music Palestinian poet, teacher, and writer Mosab Abu Toha was born in Gaza, and that's where many of the poems in his new collection called "Forest of Noise" were written amidst the chaos and uncertainty of war.

We recently met at the Museum of the Palestinian People in Washington, D.C., just hours after more than a dozen of his family members were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

This weekend, he says another 22 were believed to be killed.

This story is part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

And a warning: Some of the images are disturbing.

I don't know if you can answer this question, but how are you?

How are you doing?

MOSAB ABU TOHA, Poet, "Forest of Noise": I don't know how to answer the question when every day I wake up and I go to sleep watching my people being killed.

And yesterday morning, I woke up to the news that the family of my aunt and her relatives were killed in an airstrike when Israel bombed the house.

One of the kids was killed.

Her name is Sama (ph).

She's 7 years old.

So I don't know how to answer this question, except to say that I'm alive.

That's the only word that I can say.

AMNA NAWAZ: At just 31, Mosab Abu Toha is a leading voice of a new generation of poets and one of Gaza's best known writers.

His first book, "Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear," won the American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry.

His new book of poetry, "Forest of Noise," completed over the last year of war, begins with these words.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: "Every child in Gaza is me.

Every mother and father is me.

Every house is my heart.

Every tree is my leg.

Every plant is my arm.

Every flower is my eye.

Every hole in the earth is my wound."

AMNA NAWAZ: So what led you to start writing these poems in the first place?

Where did you write them?

What kept you writing?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: As a human being, what I have been seeing and what I have been living is more than I can explain to people, more than my language can express.

So I tend to escape to poetry in order to try and express myself.

I try to -- sometimes, through poetry, I try to understand better what happened in an airstrike, what happened to the baby who died in the airstrike, not because of the shrapnel, but because of the suffocation after the bombing, because this child could be my child.

This father could be me.

That mother could be my mother or my wife.

AMNA NAWAZ: Along with his wife and three children, Abu Toha fled Gaza in December.

As they left, he was detained by Israeli forces, separated from his family, stripped, beaten and interrogated for days.

He was released only after an international outcry.

He documents his detention in a poem called "On Your Knees."

MOSAB ABU TOHA: That was the only word that I kept hearing from the Israeli soldiers.

Every time I tried to speak to them, even in English, they would say, "On your knees.

Don't move.

On your knees, on your knees, on your knees."

AMNA NAWAZ: Left behind in Gaza were friends, family and two branches of the library he founded, Gaza's only English libraries, named after the late Palestinian-American philosopher Edward Said.

Both libraries were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.

He writes about them in this collection.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: "My Library."

"My books remain on the shelves as I left them last year, but all the words have died.

I search for my favorite book out of place.

I find it lying lonely in a drawer, next to the photo album and my old Nokia phone.

The pen inside the book is still intact, but some ink drops have leaked.

Some words breathe its ink, the pen like a ventilator for a dozen patients."

You know, the loss of the library is not only about the loss of the books, but also the loss of the readers, many of whom were killed, I mean, children who lived in the refugee camps, in a shelter refugee camp, in Jabalia refugee camp, many of whom were either killed or they lost their family members.

The thing is that this world failed us, failed the children in Gaza.

So why would someone -- I mean, if I were a child, why would I come and read a work by an English writer or an American writer whose country has killed my family?

Why would I learn from them?

Who are they?

What morality do they have?

What lessons do they have to teach me and share with me?

AMNA NAWAZ: Were you able to save any part of your library when you left?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yes.

I mean, I was lucky because I brought with me when -- I left my house on October 12 last year, I was able to only pick this book with me, which is my debut poetry book.

This is the same copy that I had with me for about three years.

AMNA NAWAZ: This is the only book?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: This is the only book that survived with me.

AMNA NAWAZ: Abu Toha is now in the U.S., but he carries Gaza wherever he goes.

In a neighboring Middle Eastern bookstore, a piece of pottery reminds him of a friends artwork.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: She was asking me if I could share her work with others who would be interested in buying her work.

AMNA NAWAZ: A friend who was killed, along with her two children, in an Israeli airstrike.

Mosab, there is so much war and loss and pain in a lot of the poetry in the book, but there's also these moments of beauty and a Gaza that you love and miss and adore.

There's descriptions of fishermen out on the glittering sea and trees blossoming with apricots and oranges.

And I just wonder, when you close your eyes and you think of home, what is it that you see?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Yes, I see the beach.

I see the sunset.

I see the strawberry farms, the cornfields.

I see the trees in the streets.

I see my grandmother picking oranges from the orange tree or guava, or my father watering the plants or caring for the pigeons and the hens.

I see the children of the neighborhood playing marbles together, hide and seek.

So, I think about this life full of life in Gaza, but there is always the drones buzzing sound.

AMNA NAWAZ: Do you hope to go back one day?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Of course, 100 percent.

But I hope that I will have people to return to.

This is more important because, I mean, if Israel continues to bomb and kill people like this, no one will remain.

AMNA NAWAZ: Abu Toha's "Letters From Gaza" columns for "The New Yorker" were recently honored with an Overseas Press Club Award.

And his social feeds are an unyielding stream of devastation back in Gaza and calls to action, often dozens of posts a day to his more than 150,000 followers online.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: People in Gaza are not numbers.

I'm not posting numbers.

I'm posting stories of real people who not only were killed, but also were killed with their families.

So if I don't post about these people, no one will.

And because I have access to many news channels and I can translate these pieces of news, I have the duty to send the messages.

I have access to Internet, so I can post and I can share.

AMNA NAWAZ: Mosab, there are some who say that poetry in and of itself is an act of hope, that you take the time to wrestle with the thoughts and to put pen to paper and to try to craft words to convey what it is that you're feeling, so that others may understand that there is hope in that process.

Do you agree with that?

MOSAB ABU TOHA: I think hope is a very abstract word.

I mean, the only hope that I see in poetry is that I share the stories of people who are no longer with us.

I mean, my hope is that I'm making the survivors of the stories that I tell to people.

This is the only hope.

And the other hope would be moving people to act and to stop the poems from happening again and again, because poems for me are not only a piece of writing.

They are something that is happening.

I mean, maybe the people who sold that poetry is -- could bring hope are people who are not writing about genocides, especially when it never stops.

AMNA NAWAZ: The book is a collection of poetry called "Forest of Noise," and the author is Mosab Abu Toha.

Mosab, thank you for taking the time.

MOSAB ABU TOHA: Thank you, Amna.

Appreciate it.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

For all of us here at the "PBS News Hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us.