October 15, 2024 - PBS News Hour full episode

GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna Nawaz is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Kamala Harris courts young Black voters and tests out a new campaign tactic, playing clips of her opponent, Donald Trump, at her rally.

Israeli airstrikes increasingly threaten areas once considered safe havens for Lebanese civilians already displaced by violence.

And in his new book, Bob Woodward pulls back the curtain on the Biden and Trump presidencies and their starkly different relationships with controversial world leaders.

BOB WOODWARD, Author, "War": All of the moments are very, very tense, because the stakes couldn't be higher.

GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Three weeks to go until Election Day, and the race for president remains a dead heat.

Vice President Kamala Harris is in Detroit tonight meeting with business owners and hitting the radio waves to make her case, especially to Black male voters.

But we start tonight in Chicago, where Donald Trump talked tariffs and tax cuts at an economic event and defended reported conversations he's had with Vladimir Putin since leaving office.

Here's Stephanie Sy.

(APPLAUSE) DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Thank you very much.

STEPHANIE SY: Donald Trump faced a grilling at the Economic Press club of Chicago today and was evasive when asked directly about his recently reported phone calls with Russia's president.

JOHN MICKLETHWAIT, Editor in Chief, Bloomberg News: Can you say, yes or no, whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you stopped being president?

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Well, I don't comment on that, but I will tell you that, if I did, it's a smart thing.

If I'm friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that's a good thing, not a bad thing, in terms of a country.

He's got 2,000 nuclear weapons.

And so do we.

STEPHANIE SY: Bloomberg News editor John Micklethwait also questioned Trump's plan for broad tariffs.

JOHN MICKLETHWAIT: Yes, you're going to find some people who would gain from individual tariffs.

The overall effect could be massive in terms of the economy.

DONALD TRUMP: I agree.

I agree it's going to have a massive effect, positive effect.

It must be hard for you to spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you're totally wrong.

WOMAN: Donald John Trump.

STEPHANIE SY: The interview comes one day after a bizarre Trump town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania.

DONALD TRUMP: Hold it.

A doctor, please.

Doctor.

STEPHANIE SY: The event was twice interrupted by medical emergencies in the audience as medics responded.

DONALD TRUMP: Put on Pavarotti singing "Ave Maria," nice and loud.

STEPHANIE SY: Trump requested Italian opera from the deejay.

Then Trump turned the town hall into a half-hour listening party after the two ill attendees were carried away on stretchers.

DONALD TRUMP: Those two people that went down are patriots and we love them.

And because of them, we ended up with some good music, right?

(CHEERING) STEPHANIE SY: Meantime, Vice President Kamala Harris is in Detroit, Michigan, tonight, continuing to try and shore up support from black men.

She participated in a radio town hall with Charlamagne tha God, host of "The Breakfast Club."

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: Part of the challenge that I face is that they are trying to scare people away, because they know they otherwise have nothing to run on.

Ask Donald Trump what his plan is for black America.

Ask him.

What you -- I will tell you what it is.

Look at Project 2025.

Project 2025 tells you, the plan includes making police departments have stop-and-frisk policies.

STEPHANIE SY: It's the latest stop on her multiplatform media blitz aimed at younger black voters.

QUESTION: So, V.P., are you with me?

KAMALA HARRIS: I'm with you.

STEPHANIE SY: This interview aired yesterday with The Shade Room, another outlet with a massive black audience.

KAMALA HARRIS: We cap the cost of prescription medication at $2,000 a year for seniors and capped the cost of insulin at $35 for our seniors.

That's our grandparents, our parents.

Black folks are 60 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes.

His plan would eliminate that cap.

STEPHANIE SY: Harris is trying new tactics at her rallies too.

Please roll the clip.

STEPHANIE SY: In Erie, Pennsylvania, last night, she played out a highlight reel of Trump's recent comments, calling on the National Guard and possibly the military to handle -- quote -- "the enemy from within."

KAMALA HARRIS: Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged.

(CHEERING) KAMALA HARRIS: And he is out for unchecked power.

That's what he's looking for.

STEPHANIE SY: Harris' running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, was in Pennsylvania today to try and win over rural voters.

GOV.

TIM WALZ (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: Family farms, we share a proud tradition, history of feeding and fueling this country, rural neighbors foundational to America's success.

And I promise you this.

Vice President Harris and I, when we win this election, we will have rural Americans' back, just like they have had our back.

STEPHANIE SY: Walz will rally in Pittsburgh tonight as President Biden heads to Philadelphia.

And Trump's V.P.

pick, Ohio Senator J.D.

Vance, will hold a town hall in Lafayette Hill, a Philly suburb.

Both campaigns have their eyes locked on the Keystone State.

For the PBS "News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's turn now to a veteran Republican strategist to take a closer look at how the Trump and Harris teams are navigating the weeks that remain in this election.

Mike Murphy is a veteran GOP adviser and media consultant who served as a senior strategist on John McCain's presidential campaign and has also worked on campaigns for Mitt Romney and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Thanks so much for being with us.

MIKE MURPHY, Republican Strategist: Oh, thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Donald Trump sounded pretty comfortable today about his Election Day prospects, that his campaign is doing really well in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona.

Democrats acknowledge that they're going to have to fight for every vote.

Kamala Harris, in speaking with Charlamagne today, said that this will be a tight race, but she says, "I'm going to win."

What's your assessment of this race three weeks out from Election Day?

MIKE MURPHY: Well, I think it is an absolute 50-50 coin toss.

She's a little bit ahead in the national vote, but in our modern era, it's quite possible to win the national popular vote and lose the presidency because of the way the Electoral College works.

So when you look at those key states, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and potentially North Carolina, Trump's doing better there than he is nationally.

And I think in the last seven or eight days, he's gone from a tiny bit behind to a tiny bit ahead in many of those states.

Some, he's always been ahead.

So they're upshifting at the Harris campaign, and they need to.

I think they have kind of -- this is all within the margin, but they have run out of steam a little and they know it.

So you're seeing her doubling down, increasing aggression, doing all the things the smart campaign does in this situation to close the race.

And she needs to.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, the Harris campaign, in talking with some Democratic operatives, they believe that they need to drive up Donald Trump's negatives.

That's why they're trying to goad him into another debate.

They're criticizing him for backing out of that "60 Minutes" interview, because they believe that the more the public sees of Donald Trump, the more the public will be reminded of why he wasn't reelected back in 2020.

Do you agree with their theory of the case, or I guess, in this case, the theory of the race?

MIKE MURPHY: I partially agree.

I think it's a bit of a dangerous game because Trump's -- the perception that Trump is pretty dug in.

People don't like Trump.

They're trying to find out if she is an acceptable alternative.

The main dynamic of this race is people are unhappy with the incumbent party.

They think things were better off for them economically four years ago.

If a Republican without the baggage of Donald Trump, which is epic, were running, that Republican would be well ahead right now.

So Trump is holding down the Republican opportunity.

So, reminding people of all his problems and projecting them forward is good politics for them, but it's secondary.

The most important thing they have got to do is win the battle over defining Kamala Harris, who is far less known than Trump is.

Her numbers are more fragile.

And if Trump defines her better than she defines herself, if they see her as a Biden sidekick and as part of that incumbent structure they want to throw out based on inflation and economic pain, she's going to lose.

So it's very seductive to make the supporters you already have happy by banging on the villain they already don't like.

She has to move the needle on her.

Now, attacking Trump can do that comparatively.

It can show her in charge.

I like the new stepped-up things they're doing, but they got a close to deal on her, which means she has to do more, get out there more because the campaign had a pretty weak schedule for the last 10 days.

Now they're shifting forward.

That is a good thing, but they need more of it, particularly convincing people she represents change from Biden and a better economic future, she is not more of the same.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk about the ground game because the Harris campaign is running what I think is safe to call an expansive version of a traditional political field operation.

The Trump campaign seems to be banking on this idea that the people who already voted for him will vote for him again, the folks who voted for him in 2020 will come out again.

And then they're trying to reach sort of smaller groups of irregular voters.

Compare and contrast their get-out-the-vote operations.

MIKE MURPHY: Well, she has more of the traditional spend.

She has more money, more resources.

It's a more professional campaign in many ways, but the ugly little secret of field in a presidential race, where turnout is generically high, far higher than like midterms, which are about a third less, turnout is not as important, because you already get a large, large percentage of vote going.

So it can be a useful builder at the edge, but only if you have a good message.

If Kamala Harris can't close the deal in the next 10 days with early voting starting to skyrocket, all the turnout in the world won't save her.

On the other hand, Trump's turnout operation is much weaker.

But, again, he's a known quantity, and Trump is being propelled by a force he didn't create, the perception people have that things cost too much now, they were cheaper four years ago and we need a new economic manager.

As much as they don't like Trump, people think he did a better job running the economy than the Biden/Harris administration.

Now, she's closed that gap some, but that is still the mighty force propelling Trump.

And Trump may not need turnout to win, again, if she cannot convince people she's the right kind of change.

GEOFF BENNETT: So the Trump campaign strategy of trying to reach what some people call low-propensity voters, irregular voters, we can use the -- like groups of young men, for instance.

Trump has been doing a lot of podcasts aimed at young men.

Do you think that will produce dividends?

MIKE MURPHY: You know, I don't think any of this stuff -- it's all feathers against a bowling ball.

The big drivers here are, can Kamala Harris show us she's out there earning it and connect to people that she's the right kind of change, or can Donald Trump successfully prosecute the kind of generic case that these people, this administration, of which she is an integral part of, have done a terrible job in the economy, she is liberal and out of the mainstream, which is what a lot of his advertising beats her up on, and so you got to fire them and let me fix the economy?

That's the epic battle here.

All this other stuff is not unimportant, but it's sort of at the margins.

And, again, I think the biggest factor between now and Election Day is getting Kamala out of a little bit of this bubble they have had her on.

Let her campaign.

Create the music of the campaign that she is a happy warrior out there working hard dawn until dusk earning it.

That's been missing the last 10 days.

I think in the last two or three days they're doing it.

And I applaud that, because, without it, I don't think they're going to win.

GEOFF BENNETT: Mike Murphy, a real pleasure to speak with you.

Thanks for being with us.

We appreciate it.

MIKE MURPHY: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, tomorrow, we will speak with Democratic campaign strategist James Carville to get his take on the presidential race.

And we start today's other headlines in Georgia, where a judge has ruled that county election officials must certify the state's election results.

A Republican on Fulton County's election board had claimed that local election officials could refuse to certify.

But in his ruling, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said: "Concerns about fraud or systemic error are to be noted and shared with the appropriate authorities, but they are not a basis to decline to certify."

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger today highlighted the importance of this part of the democratic process.

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), Georgia Secretary of State: We have always believed that everyone should follow the law and follow the Constitution.

That's an American value.

And so I think that's very important that that is affirmed in the judicial system.

And we will make sure that we follow the law and follow the Constitution in everything we do.

GEOFF BENNETT: The ruling comes as early in-person voting started today in Georgia.

Election officials said that the state shattered its record for the first day of early voting.

China, Iran, and Russia are increasingly partnering with cyber criminals to target the U.S. and other nations.

That's according to a new report by Microsoft, which says its customers face more than 600 million cyber criminal and nation-state attacks every day.

The report cites one example where hackers with links to Iran infiltrated an Israeli dating site and then tried to sell or ransom the information it gathered.

Microsoft says the data show the ongoing impact of cyber operations in broader geopolitical conflicts.

Authorities in New Mexico say the number of migrant deaths in the state have increased tenfold in recent years.

New data shows that more than 100 bodies were found near the border in the first eight months of this year.

That's compared to nine bodies found back in 2020.

Many were discovered near the El Paso, Texas, border crossing.

It's unclear why more bodies are ending up there, though experts say that smugglers are increasingly steering migrants into dangerously hot areas of the state.

South Korean officials say that North Korea blew up roads and railways today that once connected the two countries.

The latest action comes after North Korea accused the South of using drones to drop propaganda leaflets over its capital, Pyongyang.

South Korean security cameras captured the explosions on the northern side of the heavily armed border between the two countries.

South Korean officials called the move highly abnormal and regressive.

KOO BYOUNG-SAM, South Korean Unification Ministry Spokesman (through translator): What North Korea has done today is a clear violation of the inter-Korean agreement.

We see it as a very abnormal act, and the South Korean government is strongly condemning it.

GEOFF BENNETT: The South Korean military responded to the explosions by firing warning shots near the southern part of the border and say they're on a heightened state of readiness for any aggression from the North.

Boeing laid out plans today to try to raise as much as $25 billion to help its troubled finances.

In back-to-back regulatory filings, the plane maker said it could raise the cash over the next three years by issuing new stock or debt.

Boeing also plans to enter into a new $10 billion credit agreement with banks.

The company has lost more than $25 billion since the start of 2019.

An ongoing strike by thousands of workers who build some of its most popular planes is only adding to Boeing's financial pressures.

On Wall Street today, stocks stepped back from recent records.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 300 points, falling below the 43000-point level.

The Nasdaq lost more than 180 points, or about 1 percent.

The S&P 500 also ended lower on the day.

And the pandas have landed.

Eleven months after the National Zoo's three panda residents made their way back to China, two new bears are here to take their place in Washington's National Zoo.

Bao Li and Qing Bao landed at Dulles Airport this morning as part of a 10-year agreement with Chinese authorities.

The zoo was closed today in anticipation of their arrival.

The animals will go through an extended quarantine and acclimation period before they're introduced to the public, so panda fans will have to wait, for now.

And still to come on the "News Hour": renowned journalist Bob Woodward on his new book about the wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and the U.S. presidential campaign; a behind-the-scenes look at how the Associated Press determines the winners of thousands of races in this year's election; and a documentary filmmaker uses LEGOs to tell the story of music legend Pharrell Williams.

The push and pull of the U.S.-Israel relationship was on full display today, as the U.S. warned Israel it could cut off arm shipments unless Israel allows more aid into Gaza.

And at the same time, Israel and the U.S. appear to be in sync on how Israel will strike Iran in response to its recent ballistic missile attack on Israel.

Nick Schifrin is here with reporting on all of this.

So, Nick, let's start with Gaza.

What did the Biden administration warn today?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Geoff, U.S. officials are increasingly worried about humanitarian conditions in Gaza since Israel launched a relatively new operation the last two weeks.

The U.N. says some 400,000 Gazans have been trapped by intense airstrikes and ground operations.

Only dozens of trucks have entered since October 1, and the U.S. says aid delivery overall has fallen 50 percent from its peak.

So, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter to their counterparts with a long list of demands, including enable 350 trucks per day into Gaza.

The number right now is a fraction of that.

Enact humanitarian pauses for the next four months, allowed the displaced who are currently sheltering on the beach in a designated humanitarian zone to move inland before the winter, and to publicly reaffirm there is no policy of forced evacuations from Northern Gaza.

U.S. officials say that this is not a threat, but they point out that U.S. law requires the administration to -- quote -- "prevent weapons sales" if the U.S. formally declares that Israel is arbitrarily blocking U.S. aid into Gaza.

Here's Secretary -- here's the State Department spokesman today, Matt Miller.

MATTHEW MILLER, State Department Spokesman: We know that it's possible to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

We know it can be done.

We know that the various logistical and bureaucratic obstacles can be surmounted, and so it is incumbent upon the government of Israel to surmount those challenges and get assistance in.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Back in April, USAID and a division of State, Geoff, argued that Israel was already arbitrarily blocking aid into Gaza.

And back then, Blinken used a snapshot in time, rather than months of arguments, to argue that Israel was not arbitrarily blocking the aid.

This time, the U.S. has given Israel 30 days to comply, despite the fact that nothing in U.S. law obligates a warning, which means that the deadline is after the U.S. election.

GEOFF BENNETT: On the other hand Israel and the U.S., as we said, seems more in sync with how Israel will respond to Iran's most recent attack.

Tell us more about that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, an official familiar with the issue tells me that Israel and the U.S. have agreed on the nature of Israel's response to Iran's unprecedented October the 1st ballistic missile attack, some 180 Iranian ballistic missiles, you see them there, hitting Israel, mostly near military and intelligence sites in Israel.

Publicly, President Biden and privately U.S. officials have told Israel that they would oppose strikes on Iranian energy or nuclear sites.

And, instead, they want Israel to essentially target parallel sites, military or intelligence sites in Iran.

The official familiar with this issue tells me that Israel's response will be -- quote -- "mainly military targets" -- quote -- "substantial," and while they won't preview the timing, this person says that it will happen before the U.S. election.

U.S. officials hope that the nature of Israel's strike will end this round, rather than inspire Iran to launch another round of ballistic strikes.

And the U.S. has made that hope clear to Iran.

GEOFF BENNETT: Have U.S. officials messaged Iran about the reported threats against Donald Trump?

NICK SCHIFRIN: They have, absolutely.

As we have reported here, U.S. intelligence briefed former President Trump and his campaign, in the campaign's words, of -- quote -- "real and specific threats from Iran" to assassinate him in response to the death of Qasem Soleimani that Trump ordered in Baghdad in early 2020.

And a U.S. official confirms to me -- quote -- "At the president's direction, we have sent messages to the highest levels of the Iranian government, strongly warning them to cease all plotting against Donald Trump and former U.S.

officials."

And the U.S., Geoff, would consider an attempt on Trump's life an act of war.

Biden has already told the Secret Service to provide former President Trump every level of protection they can.

The Trump campaign recently asked for more.

They asked for military aircraft including.And, for its part, Geoff, Iran denies any plotting against former President Trump.

GEOFF BENNETT: OK. Nick Schifrin, thank you for all that reporting.

We appreciate it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: I'm going to shift our focus now to Lebanon, where Israel and Iran's strongest proxy militia, Hezbollah, are fighting what looks more and more like its own war.

The U.S. today said it did not approve of Israel's bombing campaign in Beirut over the last several weeks that have led to major civilian casualties.

Far from Beirut, in Northern Lebanon, our Leila Molana-Allen reports now on the aftermath of a deadly Israeli airstrike that targeted one known Hezbollah member, but also killed nearly two dozen other people.

And a warning: Images in this story are disturbing.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Lebanon's war have now climbed its famed mountains, scattered across a rolling hill of olive groves as far as the eye can see, the charred aftermath of an enormous bomb.

For nearly 24 hours, paramedics and rescue workers dug through the ruins of this home hit by an Israeli airstrike yesterday in the northern Lebanese Maronite Catholic village of Aito.

First, they were looking for bodies.

Then, they searched for pieces of them.

Overturned cars surrounding the house burned as they tried to save who they could.

The weapons being used in these strikes are so powerful that they pulverize not just buildings, but the human bodies inside.

These paramedics are digging through the rubble, taking out human body parts.

We just saw a charred human foot taken out and placed alone into a body bag.

This is all their relatives have left to bury.

But there aren't many members of the family left; 23 of the 29 people who sought refuge here were killed.

The other six are in hospital in critical condition, nearly an entire family line wiped out in a moment.

They fled here after their Shia village in the south of Lebanon was relentlessly bombarded.

With many thousands of Lebanese now sleeping on the streets, they were lucky to have a friend in the north who would take them in.

But as more displaced Shia come under fire in areas they fled to, that welcome is turning to fear and threatening to open old sectarian wounds many here hoped had healed.

ELIE ALWAN, Owner of Destroyed House (through translator): I welcomed refugees from the south into my home.

I have been friends with this family for almost 15 years.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The Hijazi (ph) family felt safe here and began to set up a new, if temporary, home.

The signs of that life are littered everywhere in the rubble, blankets and slippers, kitchen utensils, Tupperwares of a leftover home-cooked meal.

ELIE ALWAN (through translator): Suddenly, a man I didn't know came to offer the family's help and money.

The situation was peaceful here until that man Israel targeted came, knowing that he was putting those people in danger.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: That man, reportedly a low-level Hezbollah member, was the target of the IDF's attack.

As happens every day here now, dozens of civilians died alongside him.

Two of them were less than a-year-old.

As the strikes here become more and more widespread in areas that didn't receive any kind of evacuation notice, people are increasingly afraid that anywhere could be next.

This is a very small, peaceful Christian village in the north of Lebanon surrounded by olive trees.

And what happened yesterday came out of the blue for everyone living here.

Neighbor Dany's restful mountain idyll has been shattered.

The force of the explosion was so great, three of the bodies were propelled through the air into his front garden.

DANY ALWAN, Lebanon Resident (through translator): There were dead bodies everywhere.A lot of people died.

Smoke was all over the place.

It was a terrible scene.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Through the night and on into today, rescue workers searched for survivors and then bodies.

One of the family's two babies was missing.

DANY ALWAN (through translator): The dead body they just pulled out of that car belongs to a baby.

He's only a few months old.

They couldn't find him until now.

They found him in the trunk.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Eventually, they found his small, lifeless body inside a mangled nearby car.

The blast had thrown him out of the house and into the wreckage.

Lebanese increasingly feel nowhere is safe here.

But as Israeli strikes move further into these once secure areas, locals who've opened their homes and their hearts to the more than 1.2 million displaced now fear they will bring the threat with them.

DANY ALWAN (through translator): Of course, after this, I'm more cautious of welcoming refugees from the south because we lost everything and that's a problem.

We are all paying the price all over Lebanon.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: In spite of the danger, Elie and Dany insist they will keep doing what they can to help their fellow Lebanese.

"We are one," they told me.

As the carnage here spreads and some attempt to tear open age-old divisions, Lebanese pray they can hold their community and their country together.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen in Zgharta, North Lebanon.

GEOFF BENNETT: Few journalists working today have covered as many presidents as the Washington post's Bob Woodward.

His latest book is out today.

And Nick Schifrin spoke with him a short time ago.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Woodward's new book is titled "War."

It's about war in Ukraine, war in the Middle East, but also a war for the American presidency.

And Bob Woodward is here.

Welcome back to the "News Hour."

BOB WOODWARD, Author, "War": Thank you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thanks a lot, Bob Woodward.

Let's start in the Middle East.

President Biden's policy when it comes to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was often referred to as the bear hug, as in, the closer Biden holds Bibi, hopefully, the more Bibi will be willing to moderate his behavior per U.S. interests.

That's the idea.

But in private, you quote Biden calling Netanyahu an SOB, one of the biggest effing A-holes in the world, a bad effing guy and an effing liar.

There comes an unprecedented moment in the Middle East.

Biden is trying to get Israel to listen to him when it comes to responding to the October 7 attacks.

Did the president feel like Netanyahu listened?

BOB WOODWARD: Well, there was listening, but Bibi's going to do what he wants.

And he says so to Biden.

Look, I'm going to have to do some of these things that maybe you're not going to like.

But what's so interesting, there can be an alliance of policy.

As somebody in the White House said, that Biden's policy is pro-Israel, but not necessarily pro-Netanyahu.

NICK SCHIFRIN: There was a similar gap between what the president said in public in terms of support for Netanyahu and how he described to him in private that you described with Vice President Harris.

You described this meeting that Vice President Harris had with Benjamin Netanyahu back in July.

And after the meeting, you quote the Israeli ambassador here saying that the meeting was cordial.

But, after, Harris comes out and says: "I will not stand silent as the people of Gaza suffer."

And Netanyahu, you say, was furious.

BOB WOODWARD: He was furious because, at the meeting, which was a kind of, hey, Israel, United States, everything is fine, and then when she comes out and makes that declaration, which tells you something about her.

She's separating herself from some of the Biden policy.

And Netanyahu is just burning, furious.

But this is just a couple of months ago.

And she's libel to be the next United States president, as we know, as he knows.

So there's a fury, but it seems to stay private.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Let's switch to Ukraine.

You report that, by September 2022, U.S. intelligence reports considered exquisite revealed that Putin was so desperate about battlefield losses, the chances that he might use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine had gone from 5 percent to 10 percent to 50 percent, or basically a coin flip, as you quote someone saying.

Why?

What were the indications that the chances were so high?

BOB WOODWARD: What the strain in all of this is U.S. intelligence has gotten better and better.

And they actually, at some points, know what's going on in the Kremlin.

At one point, they have a human source that's really telling them, so they have got that picture.

And they realize that Putin's the autocrat, he's desperate.

Any catastrophic -- under their doctrine, any catastrophic battlefield loss would mean, ah, we're going to use tactical nuclear weapons.

And he does it in private.

But, in public, it goes from 5 percent as you say, up to 50 percent.

And in the White House, they realize 50 percent is a coin flip.

And the deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, realizes what a momentous moment this is and reflects on how this is what it must have been like in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You describe an all-hands-on-deck order from the president, where everybody calls their Russian counterpart, including this conversation between Lloyd Austin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Austin says this -- quote -- "If you did this, all the restraints that we have been operating under in Ukraine would be reconsidered.

This would isolate Russia on the world stage to a degree you Russians cannot fully appreciate."

Shoigu replies: "I do not take kindly to being threatened."

Austin: "I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world.

I do not make threats."

And then, a couple days later, Shoigu calls back and says: "We have this intelligence that says the Ukrainians are thinking about using a dirty bomb," basically releasing radioactive material into Ukraine.

Austin replies: "This seems to us like you are trying to establish the predicate for using nuclear weapons.

Don't do it."

Shoigu replies: "I understand."

How tense was that phone call and that moment?

BOB WOODWARD: Well, the -- all of the moments are very, very tense because the stakes couldn't be higher.

The idea of Putin -- remember who he is, an autocrat.

I report that the intelligence agency's assessment of him is that he's not only a brutal leader; he's sadistic.

And that's pretty stark.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Let's switch to former President Donald Trump.

You report that, as president in 2020, Trump sent a bunch of Abbott point-of-care COVID test machines for Putin's personal use, when, of course, those were in short supply at the time, and that since Trump has left office, he and Putin have spoken as many as seven times.

Do you believe it is still a mystery, as you quote former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats saying, it's a mystery why Trump treats Putin this way?

BOB WOODWARD: Yes, or is it blackmail is what Coats asks the question about.

But now we see today that Trump is out saying -- not denying that he's talked to Putin and said, well, it would... NICK SCHIFRIN: Maybe it would be smart if I did.

BOB WOODWARD: Yes, it would -- and when Trump says something is smart, that means he's either done it or he's planning on doing it.

So the relationship between Putin and Trump is central to understanding Trump, because what the characteristics of Trump are, he really has no plan.

It's just what comes into his mind.

And he has no team, and he operates alone.

This is very different than the kind of relationship that others have had with Putin.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Finally, wondered if we could look forward.

Many of President Biden's aides I speak to say that they don't think that they're going to get the cease-fire in Gaza that they have been looking for.

They're not even calling for a cease-fire in Lebanon.

And when it comes to Ukraine, they are worried that the best Ukraine can do is hold the line over the next year.

And so while they're proud they haven't gotten into these wars with U.S. boots, as you write about, they are worried that their legacy is not ending the wars that started on their watch.

Do you hear that from them?

BOB WOODWARD: But very important is that he intentionally did not put U.S. troops.

And Joe Biden, age 81, is somebody who experienced, not in the military, but in politics, something called Vietnam.

And he looks at Vietnam as, ah, this is where we -- we sent half-a-million American troops to Vietnam to fight in a foreign war because of that giant danger of, allegedly, North Korea.

I mean, Biden had -- says that's when you step off the cliff, when you put American troops at risk.

And by not doing that, he has put the United States in a much better position.

And the overall conclusion I reach is, one of the things Biden did is he made the homeland safer by not getting involved with U.S. troops in the Middle East or in Asia or anyone -- anywhere.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Bob Woodward.

The book is "War."

Thank you so much.

BOB WOODWARD: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, candidates are campaigning, absentee ballots are being mailed out, early votes are being cast.

It's all leading to November 5 and one big question, who won?

But to find that out, votes actually have to be counted.

Our Lisa Desjardins takes a closer look at how the Associated Press keeps track of thousands of competitive races and makes the call.

LISA DESJARDINS: For decades, millions of viewers like you have turned to the "PBS News Hour" on election night... GWEN IFILL, Former "PBS News Hour" Anchor: Polls have just killed.

LISA DESJARDINS: ... to see history and to learn the future of the country.

JIM LEHRER, Co-Founder and Former Anchor, "PBS NewsHour": Now the Associated Press, we can report, has officially declared President Clinton.

LISA DESJARDINS: And for decades, PBS News and hundreds of other news outlets have relied on the Associated Press to count votes and call winners.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We're hitching our wagon to the AP.

LISA DESJARDINS: It is a monumental task.

This year on election night, the AP's team of journalists will track over 5,000 competitive races, president, Congress, mayors and many, many more.

DAVID SCOTT, Vice President of News Strategy and Operations, Associated Press: We like to call it the single biggest act of journalism there is.

LISA DESJARDINS: David Scott is the AP's vice president of news strategy and operations.

He oversees the election team.

DAVID SCOTT: Our number one most important goal on election night is to be 100 percent right in our race calls.

LISA DESJARDINS: One hundred percent.

DAVID SCOTT: That's our standard.

We do care about speed, but only as a secondary factor.

It's never compromise on the accuracy in an effort to be faster.

LISA DESJARDINS: The AP has been counting the vote for 175 years, including when vote totals from some places were sent back on horseback.

DAVID SCOTT: We are really, really proud of the role that we play in the democracy.

The founders didn't think through how we would get from poll close to Inauguration Day.

Who's going to count up the votes and who's going to say that there's a winner?

And so AP decided back in 1848 that we'd jump into that process.

MAN: And we got votes.

LISA DESJARDINS: We watched the process at the AP's Washington bureau on one of the final primary nights of this year.

MAN: There's usually a rhythm in it.

And it usually starts off slow.

LISA DESJARDINS: In a quiet corner of the mostly empty newsroom, the election team was keeping track of about three dozen races in just one state, deciding when to call a winner in each.

MAN: The check mark.

There it goes.

LISA DESJARDINS: But on general election night, this newsroom will be filled, handling a slate of races 150 times larger.

No matter the scale, the fundamentals remain the same.

MAN: We will get to a certain point where we will actually get a model recommendation.

LISA DESJARDINS: The AP calls races when it is certain that statistically only one person can win.

DAVID SCOTT: We're looking to know one thing.

Can the trailing candidates catch up?

And once we're certain that they can't, then that's when we call the race.

LISA DESJARDINS: That real-time call takes months of planning, years of experience and data, lots and lots of data.

I see it flashing green too.

Does that mean you're getting updated votes at that point?

MAN: Yes.

LISA DESJARDINS: OK.

Starting with the official vote count.

That's the actual tally in each race.

With tens of thousands of polling places across the country, yes, it is a big job.

DAVID SCOTT: We will have people in place at county election offices, so it's about 4,000 reporters out across the country.

And that's just one of the ways that we collect the vote.

We also take in data feeds.

We're scraping Web sites.

We're looking at Web sites and manually entering them.

We're always looking to get the vote count from as many sources as we can and never from just one source.

MAN: Some places would rather you get it off their Web site.

LISA DESJARDINS: But as the numbers come in, the AP also needs to figure out how many votes are left to be counted.

How close is this to a final result?

MAN: So there's less than 1 percent of those counted.

LISA DESJARDINS: To do that, the AP carefully estimates the total number of ballots expected to be cast in each state.

As voting methods have shifted, this has become trickier.

Thirty years ago, fewer than one in 10 voters cast their ballot before Election Day.

That number grew steadily until the pandemic upended the 2020 election, and nearly 70 percent of votes were cast early, either in person or by mail.

Polls suggest half of voters may do the same this year.

DAVID SCOTT: We're looking at how many people are registered.

We're looking at what was the turnout in the past comparable election.

We're looking at how many advance votes are already in the ballot box, information we get from a lot of states.

And we sort of plug that all into a model where we are trying to estimate how much vote has been cast.

LISA DESJARDINS: So, in real time, you can adjust... DAVID SCOTT: Absolutely.

LISA DESJARDINS: ... is this going to be a bigger election than we thought or smaller?

DAVID SCOTT: Right.

And then, once polls close and we actually start getting ballots in, those actual returns feed into the model as well and we make adjustments.

So you will see that estimate change over the course of the night.

That's not a problem.

That's us adjusting to the data.

LISA DESJARDINS: Further complicating the process, states count and release different types of votes in different order.

In battleground Arizona, they start counting mail votes as they're returned, but they don't start releasing results until an hour after polls close.

In Pennsylvania, early ballots are not processed at all until Election Day.

In New Hampshire, they aren't counted until after polls close.

DAVID SCOTT: You're looking for patterns on election night when we're calling races.

Are there a class of early ballots that have yet to be counted, and what do we expect those early ballots to say about the course of the election?

If we had to wait for 100 percent of all ballots to be counted, we wouldn't know what has taken place in the election for weeks after Election Day.

LISA DESJARDINS: If the presidential race is close, as many expect it to be, it may still take days to know the winner, just like it did in 2020.

It says it's a zero percent confidence score.

MAN: Yes.

LISA DESJARDINS: What does that mean?

MAN: That means that we're not ready to call it.

LISA DESJARDINS: As the AP decision desk works to call the race as quickly as possible, all the data flow into a computer model.

WOMAN: Starting to get a pretty good pattern.

LISA DESJARDINS: But it's still analyzed by real people.

And you see no way that the other candidates could win?

WOMAN: No, no.

LISA DESJARDINS: Those observers have added data from another unique way that AP gets election information, its VoteCast system.

That is voter surveys of more than 120,000 people across all 50 states.

The AP survey is an update and twist on traditional exit polls, where someone would stand outside of polling places and ask people who they voted for.

AP now accounts for people who vote early or by mail or who stay home entirely.

To do that, the VoteCast team conducts surveys online and on the phone all the way up to when polls close.

The data help explain who voted and why.

DAVID SCOTT: We're able to analyze smaller slices of the electorate with a margin of error that means we can act on it.

So we're able to look at Hispanic voters or African American voters or young voters, but then also combinations of those voters in a way that helps us potentially get to a race call sooner or understand the way that the electorate is shaping up in a level of detail that didn't exist before.

LISA DESJARDINS: All that, 4,000 reporters getting real-time results, months of estimating the likely turnout, and surveys of over 100,000 people, it all leads to the big moment and the actual race call.

DAVID SCOTT: They're doing it right now.

David and his team weigh in.

Then the major calls, including for president in close states, go to the desks of executive editor Julie Pace and Washington bureau chief Anna Johnson.

ANNA JOHNSON, Washington Bureau Chief, Associated Press: We will make sort of that final sign-off to say, yes, let's go with it, or often we have some questions and things we want to answer.

Have we considered this?

Have we looked at that?

But, ultimately, it's to say yea or nay, we're ready to go.

LISA DESJARDINS: What kind of pressure do you feel?

ANNA JOHNSON: There's ultimately a lot of pressure in it.

On the other hand, we know we're right.

We know that information is correct.

Our goal then is just to get it out to the world.

LISA DESJARDINS: In those moments, even on a busy general election night, the crowded newsroom can feel as small as it was for a single state's primary election.

ANNA JOHNSON: And most of those times it's fairly calm, and I think there's just a lot of focus in those moments.

LISA DESJARDINS: So it's quiet?

ANNA JOHNSON: It can be actually somewhat quieter, because people realize we're in a moment and everyone needs to focus and keep -- pay attention.

LISA DESJARDINS: Focus and attention the AP's biggest act of journalism, a responsibility grounded in a massive, careful, hands-on operation and a mission they take seriously, no matter which election they're watching or how long it takes to call the winner.

DAVID SCOTT: There's always a moment every general election where, for a very small amount of time, you're the first person to know who's going to be the next president.

You cherish that and then you get down to business calling that race.

LISA DESJARDINS: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins at the AP decision desk in Washington.

GEOFF BENNETT: Pharrell Williams is a hitmaker for himself and as music producer for a string of other artists from Jay-Z to Justin Timberlake.

Now his story is being told on film with LEGO bricks.

It's certainly not your usual approach to documentary filmmaking, but it's the latest from one of today's leading documentary filmmakers, Morgan Neville.

Senior arts correspondent at Jeffrey Brown spoke with Neville for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

PHARRELL WILLIAMS, Musician: And I love music, like everybody loves music, but I'm realizing I had a different kind of relationship with it.

JEFFREY BROWN: Early in the new film "Piece by Piece," Pharrell Williams looks back at his childhood and how music would utterly mesmerize him.

PHARRELL WILLIAMS: I didn't even know that I was mesmerized.

I just thought that's what all Black kids did.

I thought we all just stared into the speaker, like, whoa.

JEFFREY BROWN: Pharrell, as he is best known, heard and saw music as explosions of color and light, a sensory phenomenon known as synesthesia.

How to capture the excitement, strangeness, the journey Pharrell would take from housing project in Virginia Beach to pop culture fame, that was the job of filmmaker Morgan Neville.

And even he is not sure what he has made.

MORGAN NEVILLE, Director, "Piece by Piece": How do you explain what the film is?

That has been the challenge of this from the beginning.

It doesn't conveniently fit into any box we are used to.

JEFFREY BROWN: You have had time to figure it out.

MORGAN NEVILLE: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: How do you describe it?

MORGAN NEVILLE: You know, it is a docu-bio-musical in animation, whatever that is.

So, what would you be wearing in this interview then?

JEFFREY BROWN: One thing it is, a story told with LEGO pieces, traditional documentary-style interviews turn into animation, other scenes conceived and built as animation from the start, all to creatively capture the mind and works of a hard-to-categorize cultural figure, who, as performer, music producer, and beat maker working with many of today's megastars, including Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg, has helped transform the sound of today's music.

Telling the story in LEGOs was actually Pharrell's idea, a moment captured in the film, along with Neville's initial puzzlement.

PHARRELL WILLIAMS: You know what would be cool if is, like, we told my story with LEGO pieces.

MORGAN NEVILLE: Seriously?

PHARRELL WILLIAMS: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: But he came to embrace the challenge of a new way of documentary storytelling.

MORGAN NEVILLE: I actually think that the LEGO allowed me to get more inside his mind than I could have in a normal documentary.

JEFFREY BROWN: Really?

Because?

Because?

MORGAN NEVILLE: because I could see what he was seeing.

The fact that we can illustrate his synesthesia, which means he sees color when he hears sound and music, or that we can physically manifest the beats that he's making, is something you can't normally do.

So, in that way, I felt like the LEGO animation allowed me to be inside his imagination.

JEFFREY BROWN: Once you're playing with form, once you're playing with animation, with LEGO, once you're constructing scenes in a different way, once you're playing with all kinds of things, I would think, is it still a documentary?

MORGAN NEVILLE: I think it is.

People may disagree.

Call it creative nonfiction.

JEFFREY BROWN: Creative nonfiction?

MORGAN NEVILLE: Yes.

Documentary comes with a rule book, and this film is not about the rule book.

It's -- but, to me, it's a deeply truthful film about who Pharrell is based on documentary technique.

JEFFREY BROWN: Neville has built a filmmaking career creatively telling the stories of other creative people who've built their own unusually creative careers.

STEVE MARTIN, Actor: How many of you applauded because you thought I was dead?

JEFFREY BROWN: Major cultural figures like Steve Martin in "Steve!

: A Documentary in 2 Pieces."

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, "Parts Unknown": Hey, what's up, man?

JEFFREY BROWN: Anthony Bourdain in "Roadrunner" in 2021.

CHILD: Mister Rogers?

FRED ROGERS, Host: Yes?

CHILD: I'm going to tell you something.

FRED ROGERS: What would you like to tell me?

CHILD: I like you.

JEFFREY BROWN: And Mister Rogers in 2018's "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"

WOMAN: My life has been all about trying to make a success.

JEFFREY BROWN: His 2013 film "20 Feet from Stardom" about the backup singers whose voices help shape musical hits and memories, but never quite reach fame on their own, won an Oscar for best documentary.

Film after film, it's been a long-running look at how creativity itself works.

MORGAN NEVILLE: Creativity always feels a bit like magic to me, of trying to understand it.

It's never the same way -- done the same way twice.

It's idiosyncratic.

And when it happens, true originality, it's utterly unpredictable.

And the other thing is that I have made films about culture.

And culture, to me, is not just art and film and music.

Culture is how we define ourselves and how we define other people.

And I'm always interested in that, because these are the questions I ask of myself as a creative person.

So I want to know how other people navigate those things.

JEFFREY BROWN: One thing Neville has never done before "Piece by Piece," appear in one of his own films, and certainly not as a LEGO figure or minifig.

MORGAN NEVILLE: Being a minifig, a mini-figure in LEGO lingo, we worked on this film for more than five years.

And I designed my character four years ago?

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

MORGAN NEVILLE: It took so long.

JEFFREY BROWN: You were making your -- designing yourself.

MORGAN NEVILLE: Yes.

So working with them to say, what am I wearing and what do I look like?

It took so long that my hair went from salt and pepper to just salt.

(LAUGHTER) MORGAN NEVILLE: That's how long these animated movies take.

JEFFREY BROWN: As you make more and more films, are you looking for ever new creative ways to do it?

MORGAN NEVILLE: Absolutely.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.

MORGAN NEVILLE: I mean, there's -- this was the biggest swing I have ever done in filmmaking in my career, because that's what's interesting at this point.

And what you get to do as a documentarian is, you get license to investigate the most important things in people's lives.

They trust you with those things and then you get to share them with the world.

I mean, it's an incredible responsibility, an incredible power.

And it's something that I never take for granted.

JEFFREY BROWN: "Piece by Piece" is now in theaters around the country.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in New York.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

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