October 25, 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: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump take a detour from the swing states and head to Texas, laying out their starkly different views for the nation.

AMNA NAWAZ: Israeli forces lay siege to Northern Gaza, including one of the few remaining hospitals, in the latest escalation of the war.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we travel to North Carolina to speak with young voters, who could be the deciding factor in whether the state votes for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 2008.

CHANTEL CHESTNUTT, Harris Supporter: I feel like the outcome of this election will not only shape the next four years, but really shape the next decade, two decades, and a lot of my life.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

With just 11 days to go, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump veered away from battleground territory and into the deep red state of Texas.

AMNA NAWAZ: A lineup of presidents and pop stars joins Harris on the trail, but we begin tonight with Trump, who recently escalated his rhetoric even in this final stretch of the race.

Laura Barron-Lopez begins our coverage.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Donald Trump's tour through the Lone Star State ended in Austin, the former president continuing his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. Presidential Candidate: We're like a dumping ground.

What Kamala Harris has done on our border is cruel, it's vile, and it's absolutely heartless.

We're like a garbage can for the rest of the world to dump the people that they don't want.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In nearby Houston... KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: Well, it's good to be in Texas.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Kamala Harris responded.

KAMALA HARRIS: He really belittles our country.

This is someone who is a former president of the United States, who has a bully pulpit.

And this is how he uses it, to tell the rest of the world that somehow the United States of America is trash?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: After his remarks, Trump sat down with podcaster Joe Rogan.

Their conversation will be uploaded to streaming services later tonight.

It all comes on the heels of a resurfaced sexual assault allegation, one of more than a dozen made against Trump.

This week, Stacey Williams, a former "Sports Illustrated" model, told her account on camera for the first time that Trump groped her in the early 1990s.

Williams said it happened inside Trump Tower while Jeffrey Epstein looked on.

She explained her decision to come forward on CNN last night.

STACEY WILLIAMS, Trump Accuser: I felt a wave of shame and I just couldn't think about it, face it, talk about it for a very long time.

I put it in a little box inside of me, turned the key, locked it.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The Trump campaign denied the allegations, calling them fake.

Meanwhile, Trump's V.P.

pick, Senator J.D.

Vance, campaigned several states away in North Carolina.

SAMUEL L. JACKSON, Actor: We are not going back.

You're damn right.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Last night in Clarkston, Georgia, the stars were out for Kamala Harris.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, warmed up the crowd before the vice president took the stage hand in hand with former President Barack Obama.

Harris again drew contrasts between herself and Trump.

KAMALA HARRIS: Just imagine the Oval Office in three months.

Picture it in your mind.

It's either Donald Trump in there, stewing, stewing over his enemies list, or me working for you, checking off my to-do list.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Outside the rally, Georgia voters agreed.

Decency is on the ballot.

MARCUS BLANDING, Georgia Resident: She stands for morals.

I just can't see myself voting for someone who does not -- is not a good representation of morality for my children.

JER-LYN BENJAMIN, Georgia Resident: The only thing that he knows is to lash out and deflect and call her names, because he has no policy.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Harris' running mate, Governor Tim Walz, spent his day appealing to voters in a critical swing state, Pennsylvania.

Harris and Walz are riding the momentum of the campaign's latest fund-raising haul.

In the first half of October, Harris raked in $97 million, compared to Trump's $16 million.

In that same period, Harris outspent Trump by some $67 million, a big gap in campaign funds, but, in the polls, the numbers couldn't be closer.

The final national poll by The New York Times and Siena College has Harris and Trump in a dead heat for the popular vote, 48 percent to 48 percent.

Tonight, Trump heads to battleground Michigan for a rally in Traverse City, and Harris stays in Houston, where she will highlight her policies on reproductive rights, and join forces with perhaps the most famous Texan of all time, Beyonce.

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

GEOFF BENNETT: And there is late word tonight that Chinese hackers targeted the cell phones of former President Trump and his running mate, J.D.

Vance, as well as the Harris campaign, officials familiar tell the "PBS News Hour."

But these sources say they do not believe the hack is exclusively election-related and is instead part of a broad Chinese campaign targeting America's telecommunications firms.

It's not clear what data may have been taken.

For its part, the Chinese Embassy called this disinformation and malicious speculation.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines, more people have been reported sick from the E. coli outbreak tied to fast-food giant McDonald's Quarter Pounders.

The CDC says there are at least 75 reported illnesses in 13 states as far West as Washington state and as far east as Michigan.

The number of hospitalizations has risen to 22 and one person has died.

No source of the outbreak has been confirmed, but Taylor Farms, a California-based supplier of yellow onions to McDonald's and other fast-food chains, has voluntarily recalled its produce from a facility in Colorado.

The Biden administration is proposing a new path for student loan forgiveness, this time for Americans facing imminent financial hardship.

If finalized, the Education Department could proactively cancel loans for borrowers with an 80 percent risk of imminent default within two years.

It's estimated some eight million people would qualify, including those facing unexpected medical bills, high childcare costs, or damage from natural disasters.

This is President Biden's third attempt at student loan forgiveness, and the proposal is expected to face legal challenges, just as the first two attempts have.

Hezbollah militants and the Israeli army traded fire across the Lebanese border today.

Two people in Northern Israel were killed by shrapnel from a Hezbollah rocket attack, while, in Southeast Lebanon, an Israeli airstrike killed three journalists overnight.

Many other media are staying in the same area, which has been largely spared from attacks so far.

The Committee to Protect Journalists called for an independent investigation.

And we will have more on the war in Gaza later in the broadcast.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that North Korean troops could join Russian forces on the battlefield as soon as this weekend.

That would be the first time a third country puts boots on the ground in the war, bringing far-reaching geopolitical consequences.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented on the troop presence, which the U.S. confirmed earlier this week.

But Putin said any decision would be one that both Russia and North Korea would decide together when the time comes.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (through translator): We are in contact with our North Korean friends, and when we have to decide something, we will undoubtedly decide.

Our friends from North Korea have the same point of view.

But I want to say that it is our sovereign decision.

AMNA NAWAZ: And there's new friction caused by this handshake yesterday between Putin and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at an economic summit in Russia.

It caused an outcry in Ukraine and prompted President Zelenskyy to cancel a planned visit by Guterres to Kyiv.

Forecasters warn that a deadly tropical storm in the Philippines that's already killed 82 people may turn back around and return to the area next week.

Rescuers and police dug through some 10 feet of mud, rocks and debris to search for missing villagers as landslides buried homes and cars.

Over two dozen people remain unaccounted for in the northwestern Batangas Province and elsewhere.

Nearly 240,000 people have been forced into shelters, many with nothing left.

VILMA BRIYUSO, Philippines Resident (through translator): We have nothing left.

We have no more house to go home to.

All I'm thinking about is, where do we go next?

We have no more home.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tropical Storm Trami is the 11th storm and so far the deadliest to hit the Philippines this year.

The country typically sees an annual average of 20 tropical storms.

And stocks closed mostly lower on Wall Street today, snapping a streak of six consecutive weeks of gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 250 points, easing back from its record high late last week.

The Nasdaq posted the only major gain on the day of more than 100 points.

The S&P ended virtually unchanged.

And Phil Lesh has died.

A musician who began as a classically trained violinist and jazz trumpeter became the pioneering bassist for and a founding member of the Grateful Dead.

Alongside the late lead guitarist Jerry Garcia's soaring solos, Lesh' bass provided the Dead's trademark rolling thunder sound from the acid rock days of the late 1960s until Garcia's death in 1995.

But that was nowhere near the end for Lesh.

He was performing until just recently.

Here he is from his birthday celebration this past March.

An official statement on Lesh's social media said that he passed peacefully this morning.

He was 84 years old.

And from his many fans here at the "News Hour," fare you well, Phil.

Still to come on the "News Hour": President Biden issues a formal apology for the treatment of indigenous boarding school students; The Washington Post declines a presidential endorsement for the first time since the 1980s; and David Brooks and L.Z.

Granderson weigh in on the week's political headlines.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today, more chaos and carnage in Southern Gaza, as Israeli airstrikes near dawn killed at least 38 Palestinians, including 13 children in Khan Yunis.

In Northern Gaza, the U.N. said Israeli soldiers today raided the final working hospital there.

The Kamal Adwan Hospital is in the middle of an area where Israeli forces had been operating for the last three weeks, saying Hamas had regrouped there.

Today's raid and what the U.S. and U.N. call extremely limited humanitarian aid have created a medical crisis.

Nick Schifrin's report begins inside the hospital.

And a warning: Some of the images in this story are disturbing.

NICK SCHIFRIN: It is supposed to be the home of healing, but its director warns it's becoming a mass grave.

A mother lies with her son, who died in the Kamal Adwan Hospital because its staff didn't have enough supplies to save him.

Many of the patients have wounds too graphic to show.

Many of the wounded in this war waged by adults are children, who are being treated without anesthesia.

Kamal Adwan is supposed to be a small hospital with a capacity for about 50.

These days, it is overwhelmed by 150 to 200 patients.

One of the wounded dies every hour, the sounds of pain interrupted only by the echoes of war right outside the walls.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is the hospital's director and sent this audio via the NGO MedGlobal.

DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA, Director, Kamal Adwan Hospital: As you see now, there is one being near our hospital.

We are suffering from a lack of medications and medical supply and medical stuff.

One day before one, one -- our team doctor was killed.

He has been trying to alert the world, posting online, appealing for blood and supplies in conditions he describes as catastrophic.

DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: We appeal to the world to intervene to preserve our hospitals, and we want international protections for our medical staff, because we are working under stress and under fear and under bombardment.

So we need the help.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The dead long ago lost their dignity.

Few ambulances can reach here, so bodies arrive by donkey cart.

Outside the hospital, the scene is apocalyptic.

This was filmed by Georgios Petropoulos of the U.N.'s coordination agency.

GEORGIOS PETROPOULOS, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: There's fires everywhere.

There were schools on fire.

The hospital was not at capacity, but beyond capacity, not only of the beds, but of the patients' ability to be seen by adequate medical staff.

There simply weren't enough medical staff.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Earlier this week, he was part of a mission that evacuated 14 critically ill patients, including stopping at Israeli checkpoints.

GEORGIOS PETROPOULOS: The ambulances that were parked about 50 meters away from the Israeli soldiers are opened, and the paramedics bring one by one the patients to the soldiers and put them on the ground.

This meant that there were people with amputated legs, children with colostomy bags, open wounds.

They're on the ground.

There's APCs and tanks passing by.

There's dust everywhere.

It is, I think, one of the least dignified and humane things that I have ever seen in my life.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Petropoulos leads the coordination between the U.N. and the Israel Defense Forces to be sure these convoys stay safe.

Is the coordination working?

GEORGIOS PETROPOULOS: The coordination is working in the sense that there's communication.

What there isn't is continuous and sustainable respect for international humanitarian law and the fundamental principle that surrounds it, which simply says that a party to the conflict has to enable aid workers to get to people in need.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Kamal Adwan is in the middle of a three-week-old Israeli operation in Northern Gaza that's focused on Jabalia, Gaza's largest refugee camp.

The Israeli military says Hamas has regrouped here, storing weapons and explosives in local schools and in the waiting rooms of U.N. medical clinics.

Jabalia still has terrorist infrastructure, and Hamas' leaders that must be targeted, says Israel's top general, Herzi Halevi.

LT. GEN. HERZI HALEVI, Chief of Staff, Israeli Defense Forces (through translator): Jabalia is falling.

This is another psychological collapse.

And if we take out the Northern Gaza brigade commander, it's another collapse.

This pressure brings us closer to more achievements.

NICK SCHIFRIN: To do that, Israel has tried to evacuate 400,000 residents who have to wait for permission to pass and begin a long journey by foot, looking for safety this war zone has so far denied.

The violence has been intense.

Israel says Hamas has tried to keep residents here, but Israeli restrictions have left the residents without basic needs.

GEORGIOS PETROPOULOS: There is no water anymore in Jabalia.

We haven't been able to take food there in weeks.

The primary indicator of what's happening is that people are dying under the rubble.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Under U.S. pressure, Israel has recently allowed hundreds of aid trucks to reach Northern Gaza.

But the U.S. says it's not enough and that Israel must reject a plan proposed by retired generals to starve North Gaza, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: We reject any effort to create a siege, to starve people, to hive off Northern Gaza from the rest of Gaza.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Israel insists that is not their policy.

But, today, North Gaza residents are once again displaced, dying and suffering wounds of war.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

GEOFF BENNETT: In an historic first, President Biden today delivered an apology for a U.S. policy that forcibly separated generations of indigenous children from their families for more than 150 years, sending them to federally backed boarding schools for forced assimilation into white society.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did.

JOE BIDEN: I formally apologize.

I have a solemn responsibility to be the first president to formally apologize to the Native peoples, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Native Alaskans, and federal Indian boarding schools.

It's a long, long, long overdue.

Quite frankly, there's no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.

The federal Indian boarding school policy, the pain it has caused, will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history.

GEOFF BENNETT: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched an investigation into the boarding school system shortly after she became the first Native American to lead the department.

The investigation uncovered generations of abuse and trauma and the deaths of at least 973 Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children who attended the boarding schools.

The Washington Post's Dana Hedgpeth has been covering the story, and she attended the ceremony today in Arizona.

She joins us now.

Thanks for being with us.

This is a part of U.S. history that far too many Americans know about.

Help us understand the systemic forced assimilation of Native American children.

Remind us what this investigation foundation found.

DANA HEDGPETH, The Washington Post: Geoff, thank you so much for having me.

It has been a historic day here in Phoenix, just outside of Phoenix, on the Gila River School.

The investigation started with Secretary Deb Haaland, who should be noted for being the first Native American Cabinet secretary, which that alone tells you something.

Deb Haaland, this issue is still personal for her.

Her grandparents, her great-grandfather went to Indian boarding schools.

She took this as a major initiative during her time under the Biden administration, launched a three-year, $21 million investigation looking into boarding schools.

What makes that remarkable is that she was the first person, she was the first interior secretary.

She's investigating the very department that ran these 400-plus boarding schools across the country.

No one had looked at this history in 150 years, a very troubled history of wrongdoings, mistreatment, physical, sexual, emotional, mental abuse; 973 of those children did not make it home.

They died at the schools, Geoff.

This was -- her investigation alone was quite remarkable and historic in and of itself and found, as you mentioned, the children who died there, some in marked, some in unmarked graves, sadly.

Those that did make it home were very traumatized.

They were abused, mistreated.

They did not receive the fullest of education.

They did manual labor, which President Biden noted too today.

They learned the very basics of academics.

Secretary Haaland today mentioned that when people -- many people think of boarding schools, they think of an elite education.

I was so refreshed to hear her bring this up, because this was so far from being an elite education.

This was not at all elite.

So, Haaland revealed all that in her investigation.

And this was the culmination of that work.

She asked for an apology, a presidential-level apology.

And that's what she got today from President Biden, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes, the first time a U.S. president has apologized for the atrocities suffered by tens of thousands of Native children.

How was it received?

DANA HEDGPETH: As you could hear from the clip you played of President Biden, I sort of smiled and got a slight chill.

There was cheers.

There were survivors, some of whom I have talked to, who are just -- they're heroes.

They're special people.

There were tears.

Many folks said -- I have talked to Haaland's Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland, his own relatives, he has experience of this, at boarding schools.

He was her point person her investigation and said: "I have so many mixed emotions today."

Those mixed emotions being sense of sadness for those who did not make it home, a sense of gratefulness, as he said, that this time has finally finally come.

Those who did not make it home and those who survived are getting the acknowledgment.

And that means so much to Native people, to be acknowledged on this dark and forgotten chapter of American history.

GEOFF BENNETT: Understanding the importance of the acknowledgement, a question, though.

What, if any action, follows this apology?

DANA HEDGPETH: Well, we will have to see.

There was a lot of reaction afterwards of people saying sort of, what next?

The Washington Post, I was part of a team this summer that published a very extensive report where we looked at the sexual abuse specifically at many of these schools that were run by not just the U.S. government, but by religious groups and churches.

In our investigation, The Washington Post found that 122 priest, brothers and nuns at 22 schools across the United States sexually abused Native American children.

The Catholic Church, the pope has yet to apologize for the atrocities here in the U.S.

He did do an apology several years ago in Canada.

And that was seen and heard.

And many Native American survivors here in the U.S. would like to see him -- that's the next step -- do that same apology here in the U.S.

Many Native Americans -- also, this was brought up today in reaction -- is that an apology is the first step of healing.

We heard this over and over again from many folks who were present and those who are advocates in this arena.

An apology is that first step in healing, Geoff, acknowledging a dark history, forgotten chapter of the U.S. history.

It's not just Native American history.

This is all of our history.

Deb Parker of the Native -- NABS, the healing coalition that has been working on this issue, would like to see, I know, more money spent for language, cultural revitalization.

These very things that were stripped from generations of people has left a gap in the knowledge and the passing to younger generations.

It was very powerful today to see people, not just Native elders, but also young people, teenagers.

Those folks, there's a gap in knowledge, and that needs to be closed, and the only way to do that is with funding for cultural revitalization programs and language programs.

There's many folks who've never talked about this history, and I really think Biden's stepping forward, speaking of it, we cannot underestimate how powerful that is to be acknowledged.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dana Hedgpeth of The Washington Post, thanks so much for being with us.

We appreciate it.

DANA HEDGPETH: Thank you for having me, Geoff.

Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Recent polls show Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump by double digits among voters under the age of 30.

But underneath that data lies important signals about the gender divide and the issues that matter to young Americans.

Laura Barron-Lopez has this report from the swing state of North Carolina.

WOMAN: Vote, baby.

WOMAN: Let's vote!

WOMAN: Let's do it.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Fresh off a tour of 30 college campuses, 26-year-old Democrat Anderson Clayton has been working toward this moment.

ANDERSON CLAYTON, Chair, North Carolina Democratic Party: This was the first time we ever got in The New York Times.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The nation's youngest state party chair decided on a strategy early.

ANDERSON CLAYTON: The misconception is that somebody like me could not do a job like this.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: To build a coalition of young voters, like Barack Obama did in 2008.

BARACK OBAMA, Former President of the United States: There are those who are saying that North Carolina would be a game changer.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The last time a Democratic presidential candidate won North Carolina.

ANDERSON CLAYTON: We put an emphasis on young voters because that is where I think the party had lacked the emphasis.

We know that North Carolina youth vote is going to change this election cycle for us.

And that meant that we needed young people to get out there and organize young people.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: As for former President Donald Trump's recent inroads with Gen Z men, Clayton pointed to Democrats' edge with women.

ANDERSON CLAYTON: We're doing everything we can to combat that.

But I also think that our demographics and where we need to push on doesn't just rely on young men.

It relies on getting out and targeting women, marginalized communities, people that our party actually speaks for.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Nationally, polls show a significant gender gap among young voters, ages 18 to 29.

That's driven in part by a Harris lead of 30 points or more among young women.

ANDERSON CLAYTON: One of these young women is Chantel Chestnutt, who is excited to cast her very first presidential ballot for Harris this year.

CHANTEL CHESTNUTT, Harris Supporter: It just feels good, especially her being an HBCU graduate.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Like most of the students we talked to at the historically Black College of North Carolina Central University, one of Chantel's biggest issues is abortion and women's rights.

CHANTEL CHESTNUTT: There's a lot of things at stake here.

And I feel like the outcome of this election will not only shape the next four years, but really shape the next maybe decade, two decades, and a lot of my life.

So I feel like this election is very important for me to vote, make my voice heard.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: About 40 million Gen Z voters are eligible to vote this year.

Those young voters could be the deciding factor here in North Carolina, a state that Donald Trump won by roughly 75,000 votes in 2020.

EMILY STACK, Chair, North Carolina Federation of Young Republicans: Right now, I think they care most about the economy.

They're coming out of college and they're wondering, hey, where am I going to find a job?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thirty-year-old Emily Stack, the head of North Carolina's Federation of Young Republicans, is trying to change her party's typical difficulty with reaching younger Americans.

EMILY STACK: In general, the Republican Party always needs to be better at just talking to the younger voter, because, a lot of times, as you know, even in politics in general, we have an older population that runs government.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Stack says the state's network of College Republicans will be key to turnout.

ZANDER PITRUS, President, Duke College Republicans: On campus, free speech is nearly nonexistent.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Zander Pitrus, a junior at Duke, restarted the school's chapter of College Republicans this month, in the hopes of providing an outlet for conservative students.

ZANDER PITRUS: There will be a growing number once Republicans are less fearful on campus, experience less censorship and even self-censorship on campus, where they're willing to come out of the woodwork.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In a statement to "News Hour," Duke University said: "We believe in fostering a diversity of perspectives on campus, and we supported the group's return to ensure that a wide range of viewpoints is represented at Duke."

At the first ever meeting of this revitalized club, 12 students were in attendance.

But at least one wasn't voting for Trump.

MATTHEW KLINGER, Harris Supporter: We have to go beyond talking points.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Twenty-one-year-old Matthew Klinger, a registered Republican, doesn't agree with most of Harris' policies, but is putting that aside to vote for her.

MATTHEW KLINGER: I'm pro-life.

I think that a limited government is what's best for the economy and what's best for the people.

But I also believe in truth and I believe in empathy.

And I do not think that Donald Trump represents those values.

I look at his attack of the Capitol on January 6, his consistent belittling of immigrants and made-up stories about people eating cats and dogs in Ohio, for example.

All these things, I do not think represent a man that should be in charge of our country.

WOMAN: There's no more party of small government.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Also apparent at the gathering, the gender gap, with only one woman student showing up.

TREVOR DARR, Trump Supporter: Identity politics has improved culture and society in some ways.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Eighteen-year-old Trevor Darr understands why most women may not vote for Trump.

But he says young men don't feel welcome in the Democratic Party.

TREVOR DARR: I think the Democratic Party, as of late, has put place a lot of societal vilification the shoulders of young men and saying that we're the source of a lot of social ills in America.

And Donald Trump has repudiated that message in a lot of ways.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Trevor's support of Trump is based mainly on foreign policy.

But he added that, overall, Trump does more to engage his generation in their social media spaces.

TREVOR DARR: I think he knows how to use cultural vehicles to be able to reach my demographic.

I think pointing at the Adin Ross podcast is a really good example of how the Trump campaign has been willing to use atypical campaigning measures, using avenues that are dominated by that young male demographic to then reach them.

MAN: I know President Trump is a fighter.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Trump's appeal to young men is not subtle, said Richard Reeves.

RICHARD REEVES, American Institute For Boys and Men: You know, it's UFC, it's podcasts, it's Hulk Hogan tearing off his shirt.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But he added, it's also superficial.

RICHARD REEVES: There's no policy behind that.

There's no substance behind that.

But there is a sense of welcome.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Reeves, a scholar on the challenges facing boys and men, said the irony is, Democrats have more concrete proposals benefiting young men, like Medicaid expansion and jobs created by the infrastructure bill.

But they don't sell it as good for men or pro-male.

RICHARD REEVES: It's a bit more of a head-scratcher as to what's happening with those young men.

My view is that it's because the left and the Democrats have just not contested enough.

They have ceded too much ground on this issue.

I'm quite convinced that that's part of the problem here, is that young men today don't see an obvious scripted place for themselves in society and in community and in the family in the way that their fathers did.

What ends up being the choice for a lot of men is feeling like a left that's turned its back on them and a right that thinks the solution is to turn back the clock on women.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Back at North Carolina Central University, 21-year-old Amari Glover said some of his friends have told him they might back Trump.

AMARI GLOVER, Harris Supporter: I have noticed this, especially because he hangs out with a lot of the rappers that my generation is cool with.

So I feel like that's a way for him to influence us, because we will see that and say, oh, Trump is cool, or he gets us, he understands, when, really, I just feel like it's a tactic to get his way inside.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But he was on his way to vote for Harris.

AMARI GLOVER: When I'm thinking about representation, honestly.

I feel like Kamala is a great representation of what America should be and what it can be in the next four years.

ANDERSON CLAYTON: Even before the world and the country believed it, she believed that North Carolina was a swing state.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For Anderson Clayton, there's no denying that Harris expanded the map for Democrats.

ANDERSON CLAYTON: I do think that she has made a world of difference being at the top of the ticket this year.

And folks knew that North Carolina was going to be a marginal state, and it's a state where, like, that energy level could be that margin, right?

It could push people over the top to get out and vote.

And I think that there is a huge impact and a wave of opportunity here that Joe Biden would not have had, honestly.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: If Clayton is right, it would be only the second time since the 1970s that North Carolina has gone blue.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez in Durham, North Carolina.

AMNA NAWAZ: For the first time in 36 years, The Washington Post will not endorse a presidential candidate this election.

Publisher and CEO Will Lewis explained the decision, saying -- quote -- "We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as an abdication of responsibility.

We don't see it that way.

We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for, a statement in support of our readers' ability to make up their own minds."

That comes after The Los Angeles Times' publisher blocked a planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Both papers are owned by billionaires, and their potential role in all of this is now being questioned.

For a closer look, I'm joined now by Sewell Chan, executive editor of Columbia Journalism Review.

Sewell, it's good to see you.

We should note, too, that you have worked at The Washington Post and the l.A. Times.

You have led The Texas Tribune.

So you have some insight into how these kinds of decisions are made, but what do we know about what went down behind the scenes at The Washington Post, how this decision was made?

SEWELL CHAN, Columbia Journalism Review: Well, Amna, we know that it was made rather suddenly.

The editorial writers -- and we -- I reported who they are -- had begun drafting this editorial and had gone through the normal process that a very important editorial or endorsement like this would have gone through, several drafts, edits, critiques, feedback.

And up until a week ago -- there had been some nervousness that it wasn't moving forward.

But a week ago, I have been told that the editorial page editor reassured the staff that things were moving forward.

And then, suddenly, very suddenly, they learned that the piece had been pulled.

And, today, you have an explanation from the publisher.

But you have an explanation from the publisher as to why not to endorse, but not really why now.

And I think what's unusual for both of these cases is that the staff had already gone ahead, drafted these endorsements.

So why were they suddenly pulled so quickly and so soon before the election?

AMNA NAWAZ: So, in the case of The Washington Post, the former executive editor, Marty Baron, today called that decision cowardice.

He also claimed that former President Trump will see this as what he called an invitation to further intimidate owner Jeff Bezos.

Is there truth to this idea, Sewell, that Bezos is somehow hedging his bets against a potential Trump presidency and doesn't want to see his business interests harmed?

What do we know about that?

SEWELL CHAN: We know that Bezos was behind this decision.

The Post itself confirmed that that's the case.

We don't know precisely why.

Now, of course, Jeff Bezos is one of the wealthiest people on Earth.

Amazon is facing an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Biden administration, actually.

Bezos is involved in space exploration efforts.

There are many area -- A.I.

So there are many areas of his interests that would touch upon areas of federal regulation.

So I can't speak to his motivations, but I can say that this does not look great for The Post, particularly since, when Marty Baron was editor, The Post had framed itself as countering autocracy.

Democracy dies in darkness was the slogan Bezos had coined and decided to use as The Washington Post slogan.

So now some people are seeing Bezos as kind of caving to political pressure.

AMNA NAWAZ: What have we seen in the way of reaction at The Washington Post from editors and reporters and staff?

SEWELL CHAN: Well, the staff I have talked to are very demoralized and very upset.

Several of them have said to me, and I kind of agree with this, that maybe it's time to rethink whether presidential endorsements are useful.

But you could have done that a year ago and said, we're going to set a new policy.

We're only going to endorse in local and state races.

We're not going to endorse in presidential.

Most people have made up their minds anyway.

I think actually that would have been a very reasonable decision.

But that's not what happened here.

It was instead the opposite at both The Post and The L.A. Times, the expectation of an endorsement, an endorsement written, drafted, backing Vice President Harris, and then pulled pretty much at the last minute by the owner in both cases.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Sewell, we now have two major publications here, The L.A. Times and The Washington Post, both owned by billionaires, Bezos in the case of The Post and in the case of The L.A. Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, breaking with years of practice, not endorsing a presidential candidate.

Is this a concerning trend of some kind?

What does it say to you?

SEWELL CHAN: Well the trend -- I want to be -- it's a great question.

I think that endorsements, we have to think of their utility and usefulness.

When -- I believe that at the state and local level, when newspapers help people decide, for example local judgeships, ballot questions, of which there are so many in states like California, things where there's not a lot of news and publicity, that editorials can actually add great insight, because these editorial board members, who are reporters, they're journalists, they're interviewing the people on pros and cons of issues.

So you can make an argument that, at the presidential level, it's less useful because there is so much attention.

People are getting information from so many places.

And if The New York Times or Chicago Tribune says, vote this way or that way, it may not carry weight the way it once did.

So I think that that's a legitimate discussion to have.

What I think is very disturbing right now to a lot of people in the journalism community and in these two newsrooms is doing it so suddenly and without a lot of transparency.

I mean, Will Lewis said in his editorial today - - op-ed today, we don't see it as an abdication of our responsibility.

We just want to let people make up their minds.

The challenge is, though, that both The Post and The L.A. Times endorsed Biden in 2020, they have run editorials about raising concerns about Trump's policies over many years now, and so a lot of people are left asking, well, what has changed?

Why now this sudden shift in direction?

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Sewell Chan, executive editor of The Columbia Journalism Review.

Sewell Chan, thank you.

Good to see you.

SEWELL CHAN: Thank you, Amna.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, the presidential race is deadlocked with just over a week left of voting.

For more on the race for the White House, we turn tonight to the analysis of Brooks and Granderson.

That's New York Times columnist David Brooks and Los Angeles Times opinion columnist L.Z.

Granderson.

Jonathan Capehart is away this evening.

It's good to see you both.

So, the race for the White House, as we mentioned, rests on a razor's edge.

The New York Times and Siena College released their final poll before votes are counted.

It finds that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are tied at 48 percent.

We should mention there's also a final nationwide CNN poll out today that finds them tied, but at 47 percent.

David, there is still no clear leader.

That has been a feature of this shortened race between Trump and Harris.

What's your take on where things stand some 11 days after?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I guess my vibe is that Harris obviously had a great first act.

She's sort of plateaued in act two and act three.

And so she began coming back to earth, I'd say two or three weeks ago.

And so she's now tied with Trump, whereas before she had a slight lead on the nationals.

It's very tied in the swing states.

But if you look at the models, the people who write models about all this kind of stuff, The Economist model has Trump with a 54 percent chance of winning.

I think some of the others have up to 59 percent.

So you would have to say in the last several weeks, Trump has had a good period.

And if anybody has momentum, he has slight momentum.

And I should emphasize the word slight.

But -- and that's reflected in where they're campaigning.

Trump is really trying to expand the base.

Harris is still doing some work trying to shore up what should be her base.

And that's not a great sign if you're in the final couple of weeks of a campaign.

GEOFF BENNETT: L.Z., Democrats had hoped that the more Donald Trump became Trump on the trail, that Harris would be able to capitalize on that and build a strong national lead.

That hasn't happened.

Why not?

L.Z.

GRANDERSON, The Los Angeles Times: Well, one, I don't know if we know what the national lead is going to be.

I think sometimes we conflate the conversation about the results with the Electoral College and the popular vote.

We know when it comes to the popular vote, Democrats have won pretty easily over the last 15 to 20 years.

And in case of both President Biden, as well as Secretary Clinton, even though Secretary Clinton lost, she won by millions of votes.

And so on the one hand based on the fact that she's a Democrat, you can expect the vice president to defeat Donald Trump by millions of votes.

This is a conversation about the Electoral College.

And that's the reason why it's close.

And we need to look at the history of Electoral College and what it's designed to do.

I don't think the fact that it's a close election from the Electoral College in 2024 really reflects where the nation is.

Most people have voted Democrat over the last 20 years.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, this past week, shifting our focus a bit, John Kelly, Donald Trump's longest-serving White House chief of staff, told The New York Times that he believed Donald Trump met the definition of a fascist, that he would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of the rule of law.

And "The Atlantic" reported this past week that Trump told Kelly he wanted the kind of generals that Hitler had.

Donald Trump denies all of this.

David, how does all of this strike you, the comments and the way in which Donald Trump's allies are rushing to defend him and discredit John Kelly?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, what General Kelly says is what most senior military people I talk to believe, General Mark Milley.

You look at Stan McChrystal, the former general, they really think Donald Trump would be a threat to the kind of military they dream of, which is a military that does its job of protecting America, but does not get involved in politics.

And so I think they're truly alarmed.

And what General Kelly said, I think comes out of a place of sincerity and strength.

Having said that -- and he knows.

He would know better than anybody else.

He was Donald Trump's chief of staff.

Having said that, as a political maneuver, I don't think the argument on fascism has been swaying voters.

And when I travel around the country talking to people about what they want to hear about, they don't take the fascism claim seriously, for -- rightly or wrongly, because they think, well, Donald Trump is already president, we didn't have a fascist government then.

And so, to me, the focus should not be on fascism for the Democrats.

It should be on the economy and on immigration.

It's the economy and inflation are the number one things that is moving people away from her.

And, to me, if she focuses on fascism, it will rile up -- it'll please a lot of people who are Democrats who really think the fascist threat is real.

And maybe they're right.

I just -- we're trying to get at the undecided voters, at the low-interest voters.

And I don't believe the fascism argument is a good way to close the campaign.

GEOFF BENNETT: What about that, L.Z.?

Because the vice president is set to deliver closing arguments next week at the Ellipse near the National Mall, the same place where Donald Trump spoke before that mob went and violently attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Is that a good use of her time?

Will it have the intended effect of crystallizing for voters the stakes, as Democrats see them?

L.Z.

GRANDERSON: I'm sure, for some people, it would crystallize it.

But I definitely agree with David, in the sense that the vernacular, the vocabulary that's being used, I don't think, is beneficiary.

It reminds me of when I covered 2016 and the word xenophobia was used to describe former President Trump.

And at that time, I was writing about and talking to other voters.

And it was like, well, what is this xenophobia?

What is it supposed to mean?

And how does this help me at the house with kitchen table issues?

And so I think, similarly, when you look at the word fascism, I think a lot of people don't know what it means.

And that takes up time to communicate your message.

To David's point, I think it'd be much more prudent of her, of the campaign, anyway, to focus in on the economy, as well as trying to show up votes around reproductive rights.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, David, I want to draw you out on a column that you wrote this past week where you more or less captured the moment.

And you said this election is happening too soon.

It's happening before cultural and civic preconditions are in place that might turbocharge political and legislative reform.

Say more.

What do you mean?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, well, you asked earlier, why hasn't Kamala Harris built a big lead?

I just think that's not the way history has worked.

Politics doesn't lead society.

If you look at the big moments of social change, they happen with a formula.

The cultural change happens first, civic change happens next, and then political change.

So if you look at the 1890s, we used to have a very individualistic ethos called Social Darwinism.

It was replaced in the 1880s and 1890s with something called the Social Gospel movement, which is about community, which is about taking care of the poor.

And out of that philosophy grew a whole series of social movements, the settlement house movement, the environmental movement, the NAACP, the union movement.

And so you had all these social movements in the 1890s.

And then right about 1900, 1905, 1910, you get the political movement, which was the progressive movement, cleaning up government, then creating the Federal Reserve system, regulating food safety and things like that.

So it goes culture change, social movements, political change.

And Harris has not had the benefit of a cultural shift or the social movement explosion.

And so it's asking a lot of politics to lead the social change, unless you have the preconditions.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the time that remains, I want to discuss the news about the news, namely the landscape around the newspaper editorial board presidential endorsements, in this case, the nonendorsements.

L.Z., what is all of this signal to you, the moves by the owners of The L.A. Times and The Washington Post to not endorse in this race?

L.Z.

GRANDERSON: Well, as you noted, I'm an op-ed columnist of Los Angeles times.

And so I need to be careful with my verbiage here, so I don't find myself on the unemployment line.

But I will say this, I am extremely disappointed.

I have been covering national politics for 20 years, starting with Bush v. Gore.

Every newspaper I have worked at had endorsed.

And so, given what I have been reporting and writing over the years, certainly over the last couple of years, and what I have been reading in our own newspaper, I did not think that an endorsement was going to be something that was going to be controversial.

I don't know the background of the decisions of both The Times, as well as The Washington Post.

I would just say, as a journalist and as a professor of journalism, this is extremely frustrating and disappointing and does not meet the moment that the nation is at right now.

GEOFF BENNETT: David, how do you see it?

DAVID BROOKS: Pretty much the same way.

Most journalists will probably see the same thing.

We used to have yellow journalism in this country, where we had the owners really running the papers as personal ideological fiefdoms.

We crawled away from that over decades and decades, and that was hard-earned independence for journalists, that there's a Chinese wall between the business side of the paper and the editorial side of the paper.

And I think that Chinese wall is valuable to the integrity of our publications.

And when it seems like the owner is interfering with editorial decisions, then you have smashed the wall, you have hurt the integrity of the paper, and you may be trying to avoid retribution from Donald Trump, but at the cost of some level of integrity for your publication.

GEOFF BENNETT: David, in your view, are presidential endorsements by newspapers or newspaper editorial boards, are they necessary or effective these days?

DAVID BROOKS: No, but it's the principle of creating the -- creating this idea of editorial independence.

I think Sewell Chan said it earlier in the program, that I think state and local and judgeship, those kind of editorial endorsements are tremendously powerful.

I know I follow, frankly, The Washington Post editorial choices on a lot of local races, because I basically trust their judgment.

But on a presidential race, everybody has their own opinion already.

And, frankly, it's not a mystery which candidate The Washington Post actually supports.

GEOFF BENNETT: David Brooks... L.Z.

GRANDERSON: It's very frustrating to me.

If I just may... it's very frustrating as a journalist to work for a publication that won't endorse someone, when one of the candidates wants to arrest you for doing your job.

It's frustrating.

GEOFF BENNETT: L.Z.

Granderson and David Brooks, thank you both.

GEOFF BENNETT: Be sure to tune into "Washington Week With The Atlantic" tonight right here on PBS.

The program's moderator, Jeffrey Goldberg, has a preview.

JEFFREY GOLDBERG, Moderator, "Washington Week With The Atlantic": Thanks, Geoff.

I will be joined tonight by some of Washington's best political reporters.

We will discuss why Kamala Harris is calling Donald Trump a fascist.

And we will take a close look at Pennsylvania, which will likely decide who wins the White House.

That's tonight on "Washington Week" here on PBS.

AMNA NAWAZ: And on "PBS News Weekend": the successes and challenges of tackling youth obesity with weight loss drugs.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: I'm Geoff Bennett.

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

Have a great weekend.